--ok, makes some more sense now, thanks! I guess the in flight services they are planning are built to take this into consideration, and work arounds devised.
...if it's all this bad, why don't planes fall out of the sky from all the existing thousands of cell phone towers all broadcasting, and tv and radio stations and other sorts of radio wave emitting places? Why not? Is it *really* that bad, or is this FUD? Seems like if it was really that bad we would have seen mass crashes and various huge numbers of fubars by now, yes?
--the solutions are there, just very few people want to be the first ones, and it has to come automagically installed out of the box. That's the bulk of the email users and receipients. They use what comes installed. They use mostly microsoft. Microsoft does not ship any email client that filters spam AFAIK. It doesn't ship an easy to use click here to generate a whitelist for receipients, that bounces everything else. There's your basic problem. Once again, those that made the most money by far ship the least common denominator product. When there was an opportunity to put the fear of bankruptcy into them, it failed. Their fine and punishment consisted of getting to advertise more, that was it basically. Spam (and mass viruses) will continue until a default microsoft OS installation is a lot more secure and has filtering qualities to it. That won't happen until they get tens of billions stripped from their corporate coffers, and a host of high level execs get some sort of jail terms, or at a minimum get banned from being "part" of microsoft. If the 800 lb gorilla can't do it, every single other machine on the planet could be filtered, firewalled, etc and it WON'T MATTER to the net in general. It is not all their problem, that's obviously true, but I'll say it's going to be have to be mostly their solution, catch 22 there, doing all that makes them no money, just costs them money, they won't spend it, profits are king.
I'd like to use email more, used to use it a lot. It's not useful enough to me any more to bother with it much. viruses and spam and drivel. 99% of the people I know use microsoft, they will NOT_not_send me html email, they consistently cc multiple recipients, they forward every lame joke and stupid rumor and scam, mostly I get drivel, maybe every 1 out of 20 is a legit email now. Spam and drivel, I give up. I glance at my email once a day, sometimes not even once in three days, it's just not useful any longer. I don'teven maintain any sort of address book. I am reluctant to register for any new forums, or to go back to being on email lists. I have almost completely stopped buying anything off the net. I don't WANT any more email addys.
Basically, just waiting for the mother of all viruses to knock out every microsoft machine on the net, then maybe things will get a tad better. I'm actually rooting for the microsoft killer virus to show up. Sooner the better, get it over with. It's a sucky attitude to have, but I have it now.
I've seen here on slashdot all these advanced schemes and techniques,they all look good,many are over my technological head,but none of them seem outstanding or easy though. The problem everyone at the top levels of these conferences, etc, tippy toes around, it's microsoft brand "stuff" just makes the internet insecure. SPAM is just part of it. It just *does* because of the sheer bulk and bugginess, it's designed just...wrong. Close but no cigar but man has it cost people.
Geeks and techs can make anything work well enough,even microsofts stuff, that ISN'T the problem,people on this forum can deal with it using their favorite methods, the problem is there WON'T be a solution until something is done with the dang borg way of "doing" things.
time is not static
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· Score: 2, Insightful
--the equipment has gotten much worse to work on, and cheaper to just replace and upgrade. There's not as much incentive. What used to require changing crystals and extensive modding is now just 100 dollars away at the store, already done for you. I'd also say that video games taking over as a hobby was more of a factor in declining interest than just "the internet" and computers. Extremely similar time frame if you think on it some. Another factor was cost of telephony changing, and cell phones becoming available, and actually *working* to some extent. Cell phones with free (more or less) long distance almost eliminated any need for long distance radio, at least for most people. On and on, I don't think any one particular reason lead to the decline, just a combination of factors all happening around the same time. It's also a hobby that requires a lot of study and actual skull sweat, whereas our society is now designed around short attention spans, rote learning and consumerism, programmed almost from birth and emphasized in the public schools. If it's not instant, it's not *real*.
--actually, I was advocating not advertising with them at all, to spend the advertising money in other venues and areas. I mentioned the other as a possible tactic, but no, I don't really advocate it, but, because we DO have laws setup that way, all is fair. Change the law, or use it, all of the above. I probably should have reversed the sequence in my post, but oh well, that's how it came out. The riaa have political power, money to buy what they want, they've taken the gloves off bigtime, and being convicted bad guy goons, no, I don't see fighting back using most any tactic as being ethically "wrong". They have such a little claim to be "white hats" as to be laughable. I consider them to be little different from any other abusive monopoly, and they have been like that for decades now.
Just as a general rule of thumb, I am of the "shunning" mindset when it comes to dealing with abusive industry and government. In this case, canned music,I personally don't buy their corporate music, nor do I download any, that's a different story, I just can see the generations long abuse the major records companies have gotten away with. Heh, I still call them records, no matter what format they are in. Anyway,they should have been broken up and fined into oblivion and executives gone to jail a long time ago. No matter how many times they have gotten busted, they are still there, muscleing and bribing their way into dominance. I personally boycott them, and have for a long time now. No tapes, cds or live concerts for any of those big name brand packaged bands, I quit roughly around the time cassettes became popular, and have been dissing them ever since. I buy a very few used ones like at yardsales, but the number is very low, I doubt I have more than 20 or so cassettes and cds of music total, and zero on any hard drives. They are all old. I made a decision to work a few venues for two big bands,as a steel climber on the stage crew, because I like climbing basically,but I wish I hadn't now, again, I saw how obsessive compulsive greed had taken over. If I had that time back I wouldn't have done it in hindsight. My mistake, back to dissing them.
I say, don't download their crap, don't buy it, don't share it,don't go to their concerts, have nothing to do with them as the best possible solution. If you use any of the P2P software, limit it to legit music that is authorised to share, that is what I advocate, along with taking riaa to court if they harass you.
I also advocate a complete overhaul of the copyright and patent and corporate charter "system" as it stands now, it's become an out of control disaster, IMO, along with the lobbying industry, which is really the legalised "bribery" industry that feeds the two party which is one party junta that has hijacked the nation's politics and government. It's all tied together near as I can see.
50% to the kids for their fines, 50% to fund a REALLY GOOD pro active defense in advance so next time they can kick butt in court. Let law students and interested paralegals take part, their pro bono is valuable. You need a cartel that can fight back against the RIAA. The music lovers and sharers cooperative or whatnot. Hey, "buy" all your music therough the co-op. Everyone is a member of the co-op. they own the music then?? Perhaps, I am not sure on that, but you can do it with say a company car or computer, correct??? A book, a company can buy a book, share it, different employees may read it?? Yes I know you can't copy it, but still, another angle to look at.
Total aside,I mean completely, I am just musing now a little, just taking advantage of being a neo geezer phart and reflecting on culture, wish this had happened back in the 60's,a lot more righteous indignation and booty kiking got done back then. Now it's too polite...ya, I know some examples where it's just as gnarly, it was beaucoups bigger then though from my recollections. Not sure if that is good or bad, but we did manage to do something about voting and the draft after a few suits got woken up better. And yes I know this isn't a life and death issue either. I just look at it in total, with all the other weird stuff going down lately, it's a package deal where the entire package just sucks....
best reply and analysis of the problems. Copyright (and sub section sister idea of "patents") started as a limited time period service. Back in the barely into press days it was considered long enough. Now with automation and various advanced technologies to take advantage of this granted copyright service, even 17 years is way too long to "make money" with your "IP" property. It should be about 3 years, max, then public domain. If you can't sell and make money by then, you probably won't.
They put the limit to stop monopolies and to allow the advancement of knowledge and culture,that ideas, concepts, evolutions in the arts and sciences would be "good for all", and it was balanced with the thought the inventor/artist needed a fair shake to garner some coin. Back then with how slow things went, they thought 17 years was more than adequate. so if anything, that number should be steadily dropping. Seemed like a reasonable and logical idea. Now it's just nuts with the extended copyrights.
Another point is unlimited time period corporations with no review as to public benefit. When first established under US civil law, they were more limited, and being of the public good and benefit was JUST as important as the corporation's "profits". That point is totally neglected now, forgotten about, only the "profits" angle is given any cred.
I used to video conference all the time with my brother, and this was years ago. On his end he had a pc with a video tv capture card and a cable connection and his regular plain vanilla video camera, on my end I had a cheap serial port web cam and a normal mac tower on dialup. Hmm, I think at the time his box was a 266 with 128 megs ram, I had a 180 with 64 megs. It worked great, he said on his side it was perfectly clear, on my side the frame rate was never high enough for full motion video but fun enough to use, like a series of fast stills. The audio was fine most of the time, and it had a text/chat you could use when it wasn't fine. My cam fried so I don't use it any more. My connection via modem then was dismal, I really think that was the bottleneck of most importance.
I imagine that tech has gotten a lot cheaper and better by now,computers are sure faster so that will help, and there are open source equivalents listed I see. Biggest deal is just the bandwith it seems, the camera/audio/video part is "just there",plug it in and stuff, any computer store has that jazz on the shelf now. I bet you could pull off a basic rig for 200 clams a station. Maybe, just guessing, but 5 years ago my cam was almost 300$, it has GOT to be cheaper and better by now.
Unless you want 50 inch hdtv in sensurround and smell-0-vision, no idea what that costs, but stare at a face on the screen in a window and talk, it's just there.
--make it a federal case, literally. Have a "minority" from the dsl service try to get the ad. If they refuse then, have the firm of dewey, cheatham and howe send them a letter. Most places will do anything to avoid getting a discrimination lawsuit. Don't emphasize the service you are trying to advertise,emphasize the person doing the asking if they refuse, then shop it to some law firms and local minority activism center. They love that stuff. Might even help if the local activism center was using this dsl service already-maybe, not sure on that one. It's a tightwire to walk though, going out of your way to FIND a lawsuit is quite risky. Weight the odds on it.
Point two, screw 'em! Why would you want to beneift a monopoly company? If they sell ads, they "make money" off the ads. I say don't go there. Give your advertising money to talk radio instead,(especially independent, mom and pop stations, not clearchannel if possible, etc) the local alternative press newspaper, webcasters, make up a buhzillion flyers and hire some young folks to spread em out.
Anyway, talk radio has a better cost/benefit ratio in most markets, especially target placement, study the shows, the hosts, the times. Obviously rush hour shows are usually the most expensive, but cover the widest range demographically..
--one idea I thought of was a total ban on career government "jobs" and zero pensions. Make it something like a grand total of ten years, any government job, mix and match, then you are out, can never have a government job again. NO PENSIONS. No "career" politicians or bureaucrats or civil servants. That goes for any military service as well. The reserve militia is quite adequate, and creating new ncos and officers. that's sort of a different subject as some sort of national SELF DEFENSE force is needed, but exterior wars should be very infrequent, rare, based on extremely verifiable reasons of import.
We had a somewhat good idea on that in the past, no large standing full time army, just citizen soldiers-the militia-and they were only used for like invasions or whatnot. The national guard now is just a clever way to have full time standing federal army "lite". And professional politicians? No way! Also make it illegal for any "corporation" to donate campaign money, or donate "gifts" or anything along those lines. And make it stick, for profit, non profit, whatever, no exceptions. Lobbying and the bribe and the hijacked two party junta "system" has been a failure. When you can have so called "national presidential debates" and only two parties are represented on the stage, that is an example of a junta.
Several other ideas but those are the bigees, that and eliminating the federal reserve. The idea that they can poof create money out of thin air then "loan it" to the government then somehow we owe them "interest" back is beyond loony. Along with fractional reserve banking. Being able to loan that which you do not possess is crazy. Those economic policies lead to monopolies, serious abuse, and nutso boom/bust cycles, instead of slow steady positive economic growth based on wealth that has actually been created and exists in reality.
--you'd have to lock up a boatload of US government employees then. Frankly, I wish "we the people" could. Al queda and the bin laden networks were trained and supported for years by the US government. All those caves and bunkers we are blowing up over there got built by the bin laden construction company, financed by combined joint US/saudi funds. The KLA went over night from being labeled a "narco terrorist" gang to "good allies in our fight against "whomever". They said it was milosevich, I say it was to consolidate some drug smuggling routes and grab some mines. Same with some bosnian muslims. Same with a lot of central american goons. And it's still going on, last week a very under-reported story, something like 57 top US companies all getting little joke toy fines for "trading with the enemy",iran, whomever, the "axis of todays badguys" list. None of those CEOs are locked up. I'm sure big fat campaign contributions and serious cash under the table has nothing to do with it. The elite try to not eat their own, they are content with being predators on the herd. Once in awhile they will sacrafice one of their own, that's about as far as it gets.
Naw, the government/corporate cartel is a big fat hypocrite. They can pick and choose and change their minds daily, anyone else is forced to be psychic. We were shipping cash-43 million or so- to the taliban when they were actually destroying poppy fields, whoops! That sure didn't set well with the CIA drug smuggling cartel. Now our "allies" in what used to be called "the northern alliance"-those were the "commies" before and the "bad guys", remember?-well, those guys now have a bumper crop of opium, with supposedly the US all over ashcanistan. Funny how that stuff works, yes? It never really dawned on those in the crooked shadow government, being the chronic serial liars they are, that someone else might actually not lie, and really do what they said they would do, that the taliban would actualy DESTROY the 100 to 200 billion a year opium poppy crop, they thought they would play act at it, like they do in south america with coca. Now that don't excuse any other heinous bogus stuff the taliban did, but destroy that poppy crop they almost completed.
Funny how all the top US administration guys from the twig on down all got long, well established close and complex business ties with the wahabists, isn't it? See any of those bozos getting arrested? Nope, because they are "the government" now and they can "change their minds" and you can't. They can "support" some nation or faction one day, the next day call them "terrorists" and if you as joe peon supported the same exact guys previously now YOU can be a terrorist while joe government just "changed it's mind".
Fat, foul, vulgar stinking hypocrites. Saddam Hussein, old time, long time serious CIA asset, they used him on contract as a hitman, that's how he got his start. He was supported fully for more than a decade, then he just got double crossed by bush 1. That's what really happened. Once saddam was no longer usefull to the goon faction, he got automagically turned into the "badguy". Sure, he was ALWAYS a badguy, so what does that make guys in our own government who worked with him and supplied him all those years, and why ain't they in jail? Oh ya, they can change their minds, they are the "elite", VIPs, *you can't* though.
Sorry, the US government and it's "law and intelligence" divisions are the biggest hypocrites and liars you'll ever meet, at least up into the upper management level I mean. The grunts just follow orders, same as any other regime on the planet. That's why they are using a lot of the same police saddam was using, the same police who dragged people into saddams prisons, who tortured people and killed them, now they are "good guys", on the US taxpayer payroll now. We did that after ww2, operation paper clip, bring over all the foul and disgusting german nazi scientists they could get their hands on, they become "good citizens" magically, got put on the payroll.
--I understand that point. Guess it's a matter of taste then, I don't care about it all that much. I also know should I choose to I can submit my own articles, with whatever little quips I want to insert. I like a zesty forum! Not flame wars and vulgar city, just *zesty*, lotta action. I think part of the deal is, you DO get to put your own little synopsis here with an article submission. If you couldn't, it would be basically a link and the article authors headline title, and that's it. Or it would be pretty dry and droll. who wants that? It's the little payoff, the "bonus", for being a contributor that the website-slashdot- gives to the voluntary article submitters , the only thing they get that makes it worthwhile for anyone to want to spend the time to find an interestinf article, write up the synopisis, submit it, and then maybe to share it. Else, no point, find article, read it to yourself. Wait for "the other guy" to submit an article. Wait for the editors to do it. Depending on "the other guy" to do stuff just doesn't always work. If they disallowed a "free" type of synopsis, I would wager article submissions would drop off considerably. That's just a guess and opinion, but bet I'm right on that one.
The really main *thing* I have noticed, running and moderating forums since 97, if a forum isn't zesty, it won't get used. You got to prime the pump all the time, or your forumites do it, or that forum goes bye bye. Sometimes it helps to drop something "controversial" just to get discussions going on them. Opinions usually work for that purpose. Having them included right off the bat in the lead synopsis isn't that bad, as long as they aren't completely misleading to the actual text of the article, IMO. I think we can all read around an opinion, it's just some words on a screen after all.
--that's exactly what I want, too. I'd love to be able to go to a website, use a checkbox form, check the apps I want, they burn it, ship it to me for a normal small fee like the clone distro companies charge. One disk, that's it. And the choices menu need to be written in english, with ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS devoted to explaining what the heck this app does, and why, what it's for, etc. The point in the article about acronym HELL is well put, from a noobs perspective. Forget getting to the point of library hell trying to install something, or version compiler hell, you can't get to that point. Everything is written in acronyms! Even when you choose "custom install" on a mainstream distro, there's still not enough info written there, you wind up installing crap you don't want and leaving out stuff you should have kept. Like libraries, they never tell you "dude, later on if you want to upgrade or app this class of apps you might want this stuff". and etc. give me SOMETHING TO READ. What, are they charging for words now? Is it really that hard for app makers to write some better docs that aren't acronym hell? Here's a thought- NO ACRONYMS in docs! What a concept, entire words! If you want to indicate an acronym in common usage, use a point for the A.P.P. N.A.M.E.; but still use the whole word.
I'd do it if I had the loot and the knowledge to set it up. Sorta hard to do when you don't have either!, heh. I don't even own a cd burner yet!
Another thing,an app I REALLY want, GUI versus CLI, it's rough learning it. --> insert rodney dangerfield voice "Rough, I tell ya, rough!" It would be GREAT if I could mash one button, and whatever was happening right there on the desktop in GUI land automagically showed up in a console, all the commands, etc, an exact mirror in real time. Then I could SEE what did what without worrying about messing up my install.
And package management- YEP! that's a good thing, wish there was a grand unified unixy conference to decide ONCE AND FOR ALL which one is *the* manager and format. That's a huge whopper biggee, I am spoiled, mac classic for years, download, double click install. Done. Something wrong with that idea??? I don't get it...
ya ya I know, distro A zealot sez "type this type that it will do it for you" ya right, it's not compatable with the other guys version of whatever nix, that's what's wrong with that concept. It sucketh the large one. So, that means they are ALL WRONG so far for this "the masses" guy. Great for the various distro zealots, bad for business and normal users..Bad, very, very bad.
GUI is here to stay, 99% of the people using computers want to use it, they could care less about the command line. It can be there,swell, but ignoring GUI and relegating it to the background is ignoring that market. Fighting over use this one, no use that one, again, bad for business. joe user DON'T CARE which desktop he's using, just pick ONE and make it extremely functional. Any other hobbiest or other guy can do what they want, joe user wants a "computer" he doesn't need to be asked which freaking desktop to use,that's just beyond nuts, he wants to use the desktop that shows up on his screen when it boots up! Again, such a simple concept.
It's at the point now, is linux a business,does someone REALLY want to make a go of this stuff as a business, or a hobby and geeks only and servers only? For the hobbiests, they already have everything they need,carry on and stuff,have fun, we all love ya, good for you, for a business and for the 99% of the rest of the people, it will have to be_a business_, that means GUI, GUI that works, and not 15 GUIs/desktop managers. I'm not saying outlaw them, just any company that is smart will release a "just works" distro that isn't "dumbed down" it's "smarted up" so that what is there works, is easy to use, be much cheaper and better than the competition, and it doesn't have to have every version and every desktop in the known universe. Just what there has to WORK. They make an executive decsion they wil
...they are always slow, and chock fulla spam. I gave them up, much as I used to like them.
I like your common sense approach to posting though, even having search terms~keywords being mandatory would help, but it ain't happening.
I think web forums are more useful now for tech stuff, they are faster to access, and if the correct software is used you can see the whole thread as it evolves, and customise it to your liking, and it's just as searchable. And half of newgroups news is the endlessly repeating news addy headers and sigs and repeats of the previous postings. 50 k of re: re re: re re re: re re re re: to get 2 more k of "news" on the thread.
why even have any sort of inter active website, with commentary being a main part of the whole construct?
That's the deal here, come up with an article, use your born with rights to drop an opinion, add more links to support your case, perhaps, and so on. Get the ball rolling. That's a valid point he made, it's a sarcastic comment to make a political point-what the government says and what it does is more often than not two different things. That is called "lying" what they do a lot, and there's so much evidence of it now that anything big brother inc says should be taken with several large handfuls of salt. ESPECIALLY when it comes to privacy concerns, actually following constitutional law, respecting people's BORN-WITH not government-granted "rights". They are big fat lying goons when it comes to that, the editor was being too kind if you ask me. And they think they own you, that they have all the power, and you don't, and they can throw you a bone at their leisure. Goons. I wouldn't buy a used skateboard from them, let alone believe them on anything really important. Putting poindexter in charge? That guy? Mr blatantly lie to congress? Mr. veracity himself? Ha!
I do believe, though, their entire purpose was summed up quite nicely with that first symbol they used for TIA, the all seeing cult control eye over the planet, and the word "total". Now that I believe, that is their true intentions, now it's spin control, just like they spin most everything.
Just like at waco when the tank was smashing it's way in and they kept broadcasting "THIS IS NOT AN ASSAULT!"
Puh-leeze. Slashdot is news for nerds, stuff that matters, then we discuss it, cuss it, opinionate on it, rant on and rave on. It's a nice formula,it's not perfect but it "works" and all in all it ain't that "broken". Ya we get some dupes, oh well, if you missed it before it's handy, if you saw it before easy enough to not click on it. Besides that I am just not seeing this website being "wrong", it's pretty good really. If all you want is raw data, try google news. really easy to use and navigate. Of course, all or most of those articles are spun as well, just the nature of the reporting/politics/business beast. It's almost impossible to find anything news-like written by a human that doesn't have an opinion angle included with it. The article submitters and editors are "human", it's just going to happen. It just is. Everyone here has a free shot at it, to submit their own story for discussion. There are more important things to be upset over.
--it didn't get much mainstream press, but a few weeks ago the government quietly admitted it was lying through it's teeth about twa 800. I mean, completely 100% out to big brother lunch lying. It was some sort of attack, using a missile, as all the eyewitnesses and all the evidence claimed and showed. Those poor reporters who got arrested and harassed for over 5 yearts are now vindicated. And those of us who were skeptical of the government spin doctors BS from the gitgo, and who got called "tin foil hat conspiracy theorists" are once again, proven correct. I mean, really, literally hundreds of eyewitnesses seeing a missile go up, then BOOM. It really was that simple, it really was occams razor, it really was once again government lying about political events and the sheeples sucking it up because "their government wouldn't do THAT!". What utter rubbish. Did you ever SEE the CIA dog and pony show cartoon about what they claimed happened? Talk about junk science!
I'll also say they are lying through their teeth about 9-11, but getting to institute a complete big brother NWO regime based on a reichstagg-styled event was just too good an opportunity to pass up for them. 9-11 was the mother of all government lies and scams, or right up there in the top 5 of the history of the planet.
..as my voltage drops in the storage batteries it makes the fluorescents not turn on or work as well, and yep, that flicker gets much worse then.
Tell you a problem I have had. Gone through several of the cheaper LCD digital readout multimeters to use inline with the circuit to maintain better control/monitoring over the system. They just stop working after awhile. I know they aren't designed particularly for that task, but I am wondering now why they just stop, seeing as how they are pure battery, and I am religious about changing them in a timely manner. The LCD screens just always go bad, and I mount them inside away from the battery compartment or any weather extremes. I'm chicken to burn any more out experimenting with different brands. The only variable I can see is the "always on" as opposed to normal VOM use. The auto parts store dc dashboard volt meters I have seen on the shelf don't give me that two decimal place readout I want.
I was looking after last Christmas for LED in christmas strings but never found them on the shelf local. I think that would be the way to go, either string them around the ceiling or pack them into a home brewed fixture.
... as soon as I either buy or make one. It's still cheaper to just purchase a finished product that trying to mod your own with those LEDs in a lot of cases. I've seen various strip 12 volt models but are still too expensive (60$ as opposed to under 10$ for similar). I figure whenever the first fluorescent burns out, that will be the time to look hard again and buy one LED replacement for trials. I have several backup of the fluorescents already, so that really isn't the problem. I tend to more use spot-directed than a general area light anyway. One is just for the keyboard at night, but now they got those cool lit up ones... hmmm, choices.... hmmm
I have a headlamp that uses LEDs or an incandescent in the same reflector. The choice is made by rocking the on/off button to the left or the right. A tap in the center is the full on/off. Girlfriend got it for me, came off the rack at walmart, around 20$. It is "cyclops" brand.
--well, off hand, coca in the andes- Incas-, matte in the amazon basin-Jivaros?, peyote in the american southwest _I dunno, hopis? anastasis?, reefer/hashish I don't know where it it native originaly..../me slaps head! I remember now, way over in munchieuchistan! I think the civilization there was called the bin cheteaus....
--seriously, there is a lot of correlation with humans and psychotropic substances and...well... extreme thought, some good, some not very good, but it always seems to result in a big change to whatever society decides to use whatever. A LOT of human culture revolves around drugs. I know it's quite the joke with spam and whatnot, but viagra is probably going to be listed by future historians as a major turning point in our culture.
ya, the flicker can be bad, and fluorescents really mess up radio reception and transmission if they are close to the antenna. Ditto for over the air TV, too. I use 12vdc ones I get from the auto parts store, they don't *seem* quite as bad as 120 vac fluorescents of similar wattage, but I can't really say that for a fact, as if there is a difference it's marginal. Definetly better mileage from the storage batteries though, went several years with the incandescents (and little TV, radios, etc), that meant re charging the storage batts every day, with the fluorescents switch over I can have twice as much light and the batts only really need topping off every few days. But now I have solar PV so they get topped off quietly anyway. Hate having to run the engine or genny if it's not necessary.
I think for most purposes LEDs are much better though. One place I really want bright incandecent is working at the bench, need that bright hot light, just no substitute for that fine detail work, soldering, etc.
.. please send 29.95$ for my new book, "Taking over small countries using only a swiss army knife, a magnifying glass, and a small RC airplane"
--I really am not fond of the multi tools, most of them anyway. Survival "kits" I don't have either, but I live a survivalist lifestyle, as opposed to a non-survivalist lifestyle. Ya, I could probably stock a small complete army/navy/camping/neat stuff store. heh. And then some.
Don't seem to have a nintendo or gameboy or X box though. Got a *few* radios though........
The politicaly correct non-scary to city folks term is "preparedness", or more slangish "prepper", (yechh) but seeing as how I've been into it since even before kurt saxon coined the term, I'll stick with "survivalist", it fits. Boy Scout motto on steroids basically, "be prepared" as opposed to "oh me oh my, someone please do something and save me from......" - fill in the blank.
And I don't live in a van down by the river, I live in a nice RV -old but nice and geeked out- on a mountaintop on a million buck estate. It ain't mine but seeing as how I can do most whatever I want to do and actually make my living off of it and don't have to punch a clock and all..it's OK I guess. The commute ain't bad. It's my way to try and stay semi retired. Semi. I never want to quit work, but I enjoy not pulling 60 hours a week for basically jerks doing something I don't like anymore.
We do have a pond here though. It's the sort of place people pay some nice cash to go spend a couple weeks vacation. Closest neighbor is a retired IBM mainframe guy, he's about 1/2 mile away, on another baby mountaintop. A traffic jam is when some local's cow gets out and stands in the middle of the road.
I know I'm getting trolled and razzed on this sub thread, but LED lighting I have some familiarity with, thought I'd throw in my 2 lumens worth. I think they are worth it, especially as how the price has dropped and they have the near white bulbs now.
Now what the HECK is that characters name on SNL? I remember the skits but forgot his name.
Slashdot Mirror
--ok, makes some more sense now, thanks! I guess the in flight services they are planning are built to take this into consideration, and work arounds devised.
...if it's all this bad, why don't planes fall out of the sky from all the existing thousands of cell phone towers all broadcasting, and tv and radio stations and other sorts of radio wave emitting places? Why not? Is it *really* that bad, or is this FUD? Seems like if it was really that bad we would have seen mass crashes and various huge numbers of fubars by now, yes?
I am skeptical, but readily admit I don't know.
--the solutions are there, just very few people want to be the first ones, and it has to come automagically installed out of the box. That's the bulk of the email users and receipients. They use what comes installed. They use mostly microsoft. Microsoft does not ship any email client that filters spam AFAIK. It doesn't ship an easy to use click here to generate a whitelist for receipients, that bounces everything else. There's your basic problem. Once again, those that made the most money by far ship the least common denominator product. When there was an opportunity to put the fear of bankruptcy into them, it failed. Their fine and punishment consisted of getting to advertise more, that was it basically. Spam (and mass viruses) will continue until a default microsoft OS installation is a lot more secure and has filtering qualities to it. That won't happen until they get tens of billions stripped from their corporate coffers, and a host of high level execs get some sort of jail terms, or at a minimum get banned from being "part" of microsoft. If the 800 lb gorilla can't do it, every single other machine on the planet could be filtered, firewalled, etc and it WON'T MATTER to the net in general. It is not all their problem, that's obviously true, but I'll say it's going to be have to be mostly their solution, catch 22 there, doing all that makes them no money, just costs them money, they won't spend it, profits are king.
I'd like to use email more, used to use it a lot. It's not useful enough to me any more to bother with it much. viruses and spam and drivel. 99% of the people I know use microsoft, they will NOT_not_send me html email, they consistently cc multiple recipients, they forward every lame joke and stupid rumor and scam, mostly I get drivel, maybe every 1 out of 20 is a legit email now. Spam and drivel, I give up. I glance at my email once a day, sometimes not even once in three days, it's just not useful any longer. I don'teven maintain any sort of address book. I am reluctant to register for any new forums, or to go back to being on email lists. I have almost completely stopped buying anything off the net. I don't WANT any more email addys.
Basically, just waiting for the mother of all viruses to knock out every microsoft machine on the net, then maybe things will get a tad better. I'm actually rooting for the microsoft killer virus to show up. Sooner the better, get it over with. It's a sucky attitude to have, but I have it now.
I've seen here on slashdot all these advanced schemes and techniques,they all look good,many are over my technological head,but none of them seem outstanding or easy though. The problem everyone at the top levels of these conferences, etc, tippy toes around, it's microsoft brand "stuff" just makes the internet insecure. SPAM is just part of it. It just *does* because of the sheer bulk and bugginess, it's designed just...wrong. Close but no cigar but man has it cost people.
Geeks and techs can make anything work well enough,even microsofts stuff, that ISN'T the problem,people on this forum can deal with it using their favorite methods, the problem is there WON'T be a solution until something is done with the dang borg way of "doing" things.
--the equipment has gotten much worse to work on, and cheaper to just replace and upgrade. There's not as much incentive. What used to require changing crystals and extensive modding is now just 100 dollars away at the store, already done for you. I'd also say that video games taking over as a hobby was more of a factor in declining interest than just "the internet" and computers. Extremely similar time frame if you think on it some. Another factor was cost of telephony changing, and cell phones becoming available, and actually *working* to some extent. Cell phones with free (more or less) long distance almost eliminated any need for long distance radio, at least for most people. On and on, I don't think any one particular reason lead to the decline, just a combination of factors all happening around the same time. It's also a hobby that requires a lot of study and actual skull sweat, whereas our society is now designed around short attention spans, rote learning and consumerism, programmed almost from birth and emphasized in the public schools. If it's not instant, it's not *real*.
--actually, I was advocating not advertising with them at all, to spend the advertising money in other venues and areas. I mentioned the other as a possible tactic, but no, I don't really advocate it, but, because we DO have laws setup that way, all is fair. Change the law, or use it, all of the above. I probably should have reversed the sequence in my post, but oh well, that's how it came out. The riaa have political power, money to buy what they want, they've taken the gloves off bigtime, and being convicted bad guy goons, no, I don't see fighting back using most any tactic as being ethically "wrong". They have such a little claim to be "white hats" as to be laughable. I consider them to be little different from any other abusive monopoly, and they have been like that for decades now.
Just as a general rule of thumb, I am of the "shunning" mindset when it comes to dealing with abusive industry and government. In this case, canned music,I personally don't buy their corporate music, nor do I download any, that's a different story, I just can see the generations long abuse the major records companies have gotten away with. Heh, I still call them records, no matter what format they are in. Anyway,they should have been broken up and fined into oblivion and executives gone to jail a long time ago. No matter how many times they have gotten busted, they are still there, muscleing and bribing their way into dominance. I personally boycott them, and have for a long time now. No tapes, cds or live concerts for any of those big name brand packaged bands, I quit roughly around the time cassettes became popular, and have been dissing them ever since. I buy a very few used ones like at yardsales, but the number is very low, I doubt I have more than 20 or so cassettes and cds of music total, and zero on any hard drives. They are all old. I made a decision to work a few venues for two big bands,as a steel climber on the stage crew, because I like climbing basically,but I wish I hadn't now, again, I saw how obsessive compulsive greed had taken over. If I had that time back I wouldn't have done it in hindsight. My mistake, back to dissing them.
I say, don't download their crap, don't buy it, don't share it,don't go to their concerts, have nothing to do with them as the best possible solution. If you use any of the P2P software, limit it to legit music that is authorised to share, that is what I advocate, along with taking riaa to court if they harass you.
I also advocate a complete overhaul of the copyright and patent and corporate charter "system" as it stands now, it's become an out of control disaster, IMO, along with the lobbying industry, which is really the legalised "bribery" industry that feeds the two party which is one party junta that has hijacked the nation's politics and government. It's all tied together near as I can see.
50% to the kids for their fines, 50% to fund a REALLY GOOD pro active defense in advance so next time they can kick butt in court. Let law students and interested paralegals take part, their pro bono is valuable. You need a cartel that can fight back against the RIAA. The music lovers and sharers cooperative or whatnot. Hey, "buy" all your music therough the co-op. Everyone is a member of the co-op. they own the music then?? Perhaps, I am not sure on that, but you can do it with say a company car or computer, correct??? A book, a company can buy a book, share it, different employees may read it?? Yes I know you can't copy it, but still, another angle to look at.
Total aside,I mean completely, I am just musing now a little, just taking advantage of being a neo geezer phart and reflecting on culture, wish this had happened back in the 60's,a lot more righteous indignation and booty kiking got done back then. Now it's too polite...ya, I know some examples where it's just as gnarly, it was beaucoups bigger then though from my recollections. Not sure if that is good or bad, but we did manage to do something about voting and the draft after a few suits got woken up better. And yes I know this isn't a life and death issue either. I just look at it in total, with all the other weird stuff going down lately, it's a package deal where the entire package just sucks....
best reply and analysis of the problems. Copyright (and sub section sister idea of "patents") started as a limited time period service. Back in the barely into press days it was considered long enough. Now with automation and various advanced technologies to take advantage of this granted copyright service, even 17 years is way too long to "make money" with your "IP" property. It should be about 3 years, max, then public domain. If you can't sell and make money by then, you probably won't.
They put the limit to stop monopolies and to allow the advancement of knowledge and culture,that ideas, concepts, evolutions in the arts and sciences would be "good for all", and it was balanced with the thought the inventor/artist needed a fair shake to garner some coin. Back then with how slow things went, they thought 17 years was more than adequate. so if anything, that number should be steadily dropping. Seemed like a reasonable and logical idea. Now it's just nuts with the extended copyrights.
Another point is unlimited time period corporations with no review as to public benefit. When first established under US civil law, they were more limited, and being of the public good and benefit was JUST as important as the corporation's "profits". That point is totally neglected now, forgotten about, only the "profits" angle is given any cred.
--I'll google for them and see if I can grab a string!
I used to video conference all the time with my brother, and this was years ago. On his end he had a pc with a video tv capture card and a cable connection and his regular plain vanilla video camera, on my end I had a cheap serial port web cam and a normal mac tower on dialup. Hmm, I think at the time his box was a 266 with 128 megs ram, I had a 180 with 64 megs. It worked great, he said on his side it was perfectly clear, on my side the frame rate was never high enough for full motion video but fun enough to use, like a series of fast stills. The audio was fine most of the time, and it had a text/chat you could use when it wasn't fine. My cam fried so I don't use it any more. My connection via modem then was dismal, I really think that was the bottleneck of most importance.
I imagine that tech has gotten a lot cheaper and better by now,computers are sure faster so that will help, and there are open source equivalents listed I see. Biggest deal is just the bandwith it seems, the camera/audio/video part is "just there",plug it in and stuff, any computer store has that jazz on the shelf now. I bet you could pull off a basic rig for 200 clams a station. Maybe, just guessing, but 5 years ago my cam was almost 300$, it has GOT to be cheaper and better by now.
Unless you want 50 inch hdtv in sensurround and smell-0-vision, no idea what that costs, but stare at a face on the screen in a window and talk, it's just there.
--make it a federal case, literally. Have a "minority" from the dsl service try to get the ad. If they refuse then, have the firm of dewey, cheatham and howe send them a letter. Most places will do anything to avoid getting a discrimination lawsuit. Don't emphasize the service you are trying to advertise,emphasize the person doing the asking if they refuse, then shop it to some law firms and local minority activism center. They love that stuff. Might even help if the local activism center was using this dsl service already-maybe, not sure on that one. It's a tightwire to walk though, going out of your way to FIND a lawsuit is quite risky. Weight the odds on it.
Point two, screw 'em! Why would you want to beneift a monopoly company? If they sell ads, they "make money" off the ads. I say don't go there. Give your advertising money to talk radio instead,(especially independent, mom and pop stations, not clearchannel if possible, etc) the local alternative press newspaper, webcasters, make up a buhzillion flyers and hire some young folks to spread em out.
Anyway, talk radio has a better cost/benefit ratio in most markets, especially target placement, study the shows, the hosts, the times. Obviously rush hour shows are usually the most expensive, but cover the widest range demographically..
--well, that sucks. I promise to not link over-for awhile anyway, not today for sure.
As a noob I've been looking at this or that way too really learn linux. Although I run it, I really don't know much about it.
Perhaps ya'all should use that new bitorrent file distribution technique?
--one idea I thought of was a total ban on career government "jobs" and zero pensions. Make it something like a grand total of ten years, any government job, mix and match, then you are out, can never have a government job again. NO PENSIONS. No "career" politicians or bureaucrats or civil servants. That goes for any military service as well. The reserve militia is quite adequate, and creating new ncos and officers. that's sort of a different subject as some sort of national SELF DEFENSE force is needed, but exterior wars should be very infrequent, rare, based on extremely verifiable reasons of import.
We had a somewhat good idea on that in the past, no large standing full time army, just citizen soldiers-the militia-and they were only used for like invasions or whatnot. The national guard now is just a clever way to have full time standing federal army "lite". And professional politicians? No way! Also make it illegal for any "corporation" to donate campaign money, or donate "gifts" or anything along those lines. And make it stick, for profit, non profit, whatever, no exceptions. Lobbying and the bribe and the hijacked two party junta "system" has been a failure. When you can have so called "national presidential debates" and only two parties are represented on the stage, that is an example of a junta.
Several other ideas but those are the bigees, that and eliminating the federal reserve. The idea that they can poof create money out of thin air then "loan it" to the government then somehow we owe them "interest" back is beyond loony. Along with fractional reserve banking. Being able to loan that which you do not possess is crazy. Those economic policies lead to monopolies, serious abuse, and nutso boom/bust cycles, instead of slow steady positive economic growth based on wealth that has actually been created and exists in reality.
--you'd have to lock up a boatload of US government employees then. Frankly, I wish "we the people" could. Al queda and the bin laden networks were trained and supported for years by the US government. All those caves and bunkers we are blowing up over there got built by the bin laden construction company, financed by combined joint US/saudi funds. The KLA went over night from being labeled a "narco terrorist" gang to "good allies in our fight against "whomever". They said it was milosevich, I say it was to consolidate some drug smuggling routes and grab some mines. Same with some bosnian muslims. Same with a lot of central american goons. And it's still going on, last week a very under-reported story, something like 57 top US companies all getting little joke toy fines for "trading with the enemy",iran, whomever, the "axis of todays badguys" list. None of those CEOs are locked up. I'm sure big fat campaign contributions and serious cash under the table has nothing to do with it. The elite try to not eat their own, they are content with being predators on the herd. Once in awhile they will sacrafice one of their own, that's about as far as it gets.
Naw, the government/corporate cartel is a big fat hypocrite. They can pick and choose and change their minds daily, anyone else is forced to be psychic. We were shipping cash-43 million or so- to the taliban when they were actually destroying poppy fields, whoops! That sure didn't set well with the CIA drug smuggling cartel. Now our "allies" in what used to be called "the northern alliance"-those were the "commies" before and the "bad guys", remember?-well, those guys now have a bumper crop of opium, with supposedly the US all over ashcanistan. Funny how that stuff works, yes? It never really dawned on those in the crooked shadow government, being the chronic serial liars they are, that someone else might actually not lie, and really do what they said they would do, that the taliban would actualy DESTROY the 100 to 200 billion a year opium poppy crop, they thought they would play act at it, like they do in south america with coca. Now that don't excuse any other heinous bogus stuff the taliban did, but destroy that poppy crop they almost completed.
Funny how all the top US administration guys from the twig on down all got long, well established close and complex business ties with the wahabists, isn't it? See any of those bozos getting arrested? Nope, because they are "the government" now and they can "change their minds" and you can't. They can "support" some nation or faction one day, the next day call them "terrorists" and if you as joe peon supported the same exact guys previously now YOU can be a terrorist while joe government just "changed it's mind".
Fat, foul, vulgar stinking hypocrites. Saddam Hussein, old time, long time serious CIA asset, they used him on contract as a hitman, that's how he got his start. He was supported fully for more than a decade, then he just got double crossed by bush 1. That's what really happened. Once saddam was no longer usefull to the goon faction, he got automagically turned into the "badguy". Sure, he was ALWAYS a badguy, so what does that make guys in our own government who worked with him and supplied him all those years, and why ain't they in jail? Oh ya, they can change their minds, they are the "elite", VIPs, *you can't* though.
Sorry, the US government and it's "law and intelligence" divisions are the biggest hypocrites and liars you'll ever meet, at least up into the upper management level I mean. The grunts just follow orders, same as any other regime on the planet. That's why they are using a lot of the same police saddam was using, the same police who dragged people into saddams prisons, who tortured people and killed them, now they are "good guys", on the US taxpayer payroll now. We did that after ww2, operation paper clip, bring over all the foul and disgusting german nazi scientists they could get their hands on, they become "good citizens" magically, got put on the payroll.
Hy
--I understand that point. Guess it's a matter of taste then, I don't care about it all that much. I also know should I choose to I can submit my own articles, with whatever little quips I want to insert. I like a zesty forum! Not flame wars and vulgar city, just *zesty*, lotta action. I think part of the deal is, you DO get to put your own little synopsis here with an article submission. If you couldn't, it would be basically a link and the article authors headline title, and that's it. Or it would be pretty dry and droll. who wants that? It's the little payoff, the "bonus", for being a contributor that the website-slashdot- gives to the voluntary article submitters , the only thing they get that makes it worthwhile for anyone to want to spend the time to find an interestinf article, write up the synopisis, submit it, and then maybe to share it. Else, no point, find article, read it to yourself. Wait for "the other guy" to submit an article. Wait for the editors to do it. Depending on "the other guy" to do stuff just doesn't always work. If they disallowed a "free" type of synopsis, I would wager article submissions would drop off considerably. That's just a guess and opinion, but bet I'm right on that one.
The really main *thing* I have noticed, running and moderating forums since 97, if a forum isn't zesty, it won't get used. You got to prime the pump all the time, or your forumites do it, or that forum goes bye bye. Sometimes it helps to drop something "controversial" just to get discussions going on them. Opinions usually work for that purpose. Having them included right off the bat in the lead synopsis isn't that bad, as long as they aren't completely misleading to the actual text of the article, IMO. I think we can all read around an opinion, it's just some words on a screen after all.
--that's exactly what I want, too. I'd love to be able to go to a website, use a checkbox form, check the apps I want, they burn it, ship it to me for a normal small fee like the clone distro companies charge. One disk, that's it. And the choices menu need to be written in english, with ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS devoted to explaining what the heck this app does, and why, what it's for, etc. The point in the article about acronym HELL is well put, from a noobs perspective. Forget getting to the point of library hell trying to install something, or version compiler hell, you can't get to that point. Everything is written in acronyms! Even when you choose "custom install" on a mainstream distro, there's still not enough info written there, you wind up installing crap you don't want and leaving out stuff you should have kept. Like libraries, they never tell you "dude, later on if you want to upgrade or app this class of apps you might want this stuff". and etc. give me SOMETHING TO READ. What, are they charging for words now? Is it really that hard for app makers to write some better docs that aren't acronym hell? Here's a thought- NO ACRONYMS in docs! What a concept, entire words! If you want to indicate an acronym in common usage, use a point for the A.P.P. N.A.M.E.; but still use the whole word.
I'd do it if I had the loot and the knowledge to set it up. Sorta hard to do when you don't have either!, heh. I don't even own a cd burner yet!
Another thing,an app I REALLY want, GUI versus CLI, it's rough learning it. --> insert rodney dangerfield voice "Rough, I tell ya, rough!" It would be GREAT if I could mash one button, and whatever was happening right there on the desktop in GUI land automagically showed up in a console, all the commands, etc, an exact mirror in real time. Then I could SEE what did what without worrying about messing up my install.
And package management- YEP! that's a good thing, wish there was a grand unified unixy conference to decide ONCE AND FOR ALL which one is *the* manager and format. That's a huge whopper biggee, I am spoiled, mac classic for years, download, double click install. Done. Something wrong with that idea??? I don't get it...
ya ya I know, distro A zealot sez "type this type that it will do it for you" ya right, it's not compatable with the other guys version of whatever nix, that's what's wrong with that concept. It sucketh the large one. So, that means they are ALL WRONG so far for this "the masses" guy. Great for the various distro zealots, bad for business and normal users..Bad, very, very bad.
GUI is here to stay, 99% of the people using computers want to use it, they could care less about the command line. It can be there,swell, but ignoring GUI and relegating it to the background is ignoring that market. Fighting over use this one, no use that one, again, bad for business. joe user DON'T CARE which desktop he's using, just pick ONE and make it extremely functional. Any other hobbiest or other guy can do what they want, joe user wants a "computer" he doesn't need to be asked which freaking desktop to use,that's just beyond nuts, he wants to use the desktop that shows up on his screen when it boots up! Again, such a simple concept.
It's at the point now, is linux a business,does someone REALLY want to make a go of this stuff as a business, or a hobby and geeks only and servers only? For the hobbiests, they already have everything they need,carry on and stuff,have fun, we all love ya, good for you, for a business and for the 99% of the rest of the people, it will have to be_a business_, that means GUI, GUI that works, and not 15 GUIs/desktop managers. I'm not saying outlaw them, just any company that is smart will release a "just works" distro that isn't "dumbed down" it's "smarted up" so that what is there works, is easy to use, be much cheaper and better than the competition, and it doesn't have to have every version and every desktop in the known universe. Just what there has to WORK. They make an executive decsion they wil
...they are always slow, and chock fulla spam. I gave them up, much as I used to like them.
I like your common sense approach to posting though, even having search terms~keywords being mandatory would help, but it ain't happening.
I think web forums are more useful now for tech stuff, they are faster to access, and if the correct software is used you can see the whole thread as it evolves, and customise it to your liking, and it's just as searchable. And half of newgroups news is the endlessly repeating news addy headers and sigs and repeats of the previous postings. 50 k of re: re re: re re re: re re re re: to get 2 more k of "news" on the thread.
why even have any sort of inter active website, with commentary being a main part of the whole construct?
That's the deal here, come up with an article, use your born with rights to drop an opinion, add more links to support your case, perhaps, and so on. Get the ball rolling. That's a valid point he made, it's a sarcastic comment to make a political point-what the government says and what it does is more often than not two different things. That is called "lying" what they do a lot, and there's so much evidence of it now that anything big brother inc says should be taken with several large handfuls of salt. ESPECIALLY when it comes to privacy concerns, actually following constitutional law, respecting people's BORN-WITH not government-granted "rights". They are big fat lying goons when it comes to that, the editor was being too kind if you ask me. And they think they own you, that they have all the power, and you don't, and they can throw you a bone at their leisure. Goons. I wouldn't buy a used skateboard from them, let alone believe them on anything really important. Putting poindexter in charge? That guy? Mr blatantly lie to congress? Mr. veracity himself? Ha!
I do believe, though, their entire purpose was summed up quite nicely with that first symbol they used for TIA, the all seeing cult control eye over the planet, and the word "total". Now that I believe, that is their true intentions, now it's spin control, just like they spin most everything.
Just like at waco when the tank was smashing it's way in and they kept broadcasting "THIS IS NOT AN ASSAULT!"
Puh-leeze. Slashdot is news for nerds, stuff that matters, then we discuss it, cuss it, opinionate on it, rant on and rave on. It's a nice formula,it's not perfect but it "works" and all in all it ain't that "broken". Ya we get some dupes, oh well, if you missed it before it's handy, if you saw it before easy enough to not click on it. Besides that I am just not seeing this website being "wrong", it's pretty good really. If all you want is raw data, try google news. really easy to use and navigate. Of course, all or most of those articles are spun as well, just the nature of the reporting/politics/business beast. It's almost impossible to find anything news-like written by a human that doesn't have an opinion angle included with it. The article submitters and editors are "human", it's just going to happen. It just is. Everyone here has a free shot at it, to submit their own story for discussion. There are more important things to be upset over.
my 2 coins, nothing personal at all
Feds admit lying about twa 800, US public kept in the dark about it for the most part
I'll also say they are lying through their teeth about 9-11, but getting to institute a complete big brother NWO regime based on a reichstagg-styled event was just too good an opportunity to pass up for them. 9-11 was the mother of all government lies and scams, or right up there in the top 5 of the history of the planet.
..as my voltage drops in the storage batteries it makes the fluorescents not turn on or work as well, and yep, that flicker gets much worse then.
Tell you a problem I have had. Gone through several of the cheaper LCD digital readout multimeters to use inline with the circuit to maintain better control/monitoring over the system. They just stop working after awhile. I know they aren't designed particularly for that task, but I am wondering now why they just stop, seeing as how they are pure battery, and I am religious about changing them in a timely manner. The LCD screens just always go bad, and I mount them inside away from the battery compartment or any weather extremes. I'm chicken to burn any more out experimenting with different brands. The only variable I can see is the "always on" as opposed to normal VOM use. The auto parts store dc dashboard volt meters I have seen on the shelf don't give me that two decimal place readout I want.
DEFINETLY a consideration!
I was looking after last Christmas for LED in christmas strings but never found them on the shelf local. I think that would be the way to go, either string them around the ceiling or pack them into a home brewed fixture.
... as soon as I either buy or make one. It's still cheaper to just purchase a finished product that trying to mod your own with those LEDs in a lot of cases. I've seen various strip 12 volt models but are still too expensive (60$ as opposed to under 10$ for similar). I figure whenever the first fluorescent burns out, that will be the time to look hard again and buy one LED replacement for trials. I have several backup of the fluorescents already, so that really isn't the problem. I tend to more use spot-directed than a general area light anyway. One is just for the keyboard at night, but now they got those cool lit up ones... hmmm, choices.... hmmm
I have a headlamp that uses LEDs or an incandescent in the same reflector. The choice is made by rocking the on/off button to the left or the right. A tap in the center is the full on/off. Girlfriend got it for me, came off the rack at walmart, around 20$. It is "cyclops" brand.
--well, off hand, coca in the andes- Incas-, matte in the amazon basin-Jivaros?, peyote in the american southwest _I dunno, hopis? anastasis?, reefer/hashish I don't know where it it native originaly.... /me slaps head! I remember now, way over in munchieuchistan! I think the civilization there was called the bin cheteaus....
--seriously, there is a lot of correlation with humans and psychotropic substances and...well... extreme thought, some good, some not very good, but it always seems to result in a big change to whatever society decides to use whatever. A LOT of human culture revolves around drugs. I know it's quite the joke with spam and whatnot, but viagra is probably going to be listed by future historians as a major turning point in our culture.
ya, the flicker can be bad, and fluorescents really mess up radio reception and transmission if they are close to the antenna. Ditto for over the air TV, too. I use 12vdc ones I get from the auto parts store, they don't *seem* quite as bad as 120 vac fluorescents of similar wattage, but I can't really say that for a fact, as if there is a difference it's marginal. Definetly better mileage from the storage batteries though, went several years with the incandescents (and little TV, radios, etc), that meant re charging the storage batts every day, with the fluorescents switch over I can have twice as much light and the batts only really need topping off every few days. But now I have solar PV so they get topped off quietly anyway. Hate having to run the engine or genny if it's not necessary.
I think for most purposes LEDs are much better though. One place I really want bright incandecent is working at the bench, need that bright hot light, just no substitute for that fine detail work, soldering, etc.
.. please send 29.95$ for my new book, "Taking over small countries using only a swiss army knife, a magnifying glass, and a small RC airplane"
--I really am not fond of the multi tools, most of them anyway. Survival "kits" I don't have either, but I live a survivalist lifestyle, as opposed to a non-survivalist lifestyle. Ya, I could probably stock a small complete army/navy/camping/neat stuff store. heh. And then some.
Don't seem to have a nintendo or gameboy or X box though. Got a *few* radios though........
The politicaly correct non-scary to city folks term is "preparedness", or more slangish "prepper", (yechh) but seeing as how I've been into it since even before kurt saxon coined the term, I'll stick with "survivalist", it fits. Boy Scout motto on steroids basically, "be prepared" as opposed to "oh me oh my, someone please do something and save me from......" - fill in the blank.
And I don't live in a van down by the river, I live in a nice RV -old but nice and geeked out- on a mountaintop on a million buck estate. It ain't mine but seeing as how I can do most whatever I want to do and actually make my living off of it and don't have to punch a clock and all..it's OK I guess. The commute ain't bad. It's my way to try and stay semi retired. Semi. I never want to quit work, but I enjoy not pulling 60 hours a week for basically jerks doing something I don't like anymore.
We do have a pond here though. It's the sort of place people pay some nice cash to go spend a couple weeks vacation. Closest neighbor is a retired IBM mainframe guy, he's about 1/2 mile away, on another baby mountaintop. A traffic jam is when some local's cow gets out and stands in the middle of the road.
I know I'm getting trolled and razzed on this sub thread, but LED lighting I have some familiarity with, thought I'd throw in my 2 lumens worth. I think they are worth it, especially as how the price has dropped and they have the near white bulbs now.
Now what the HECK is that characters name on SNL? I remember the skits but forgot his name.