That's exactly my point. We take CAD courses, we take design courses but we don't have any "tolerance common sense" courses. The only thing I remember is one teacher gave us the cost breakdown, but this was in some HS course NOT in any college engineering course.
It went something like this: "If you were to ask the shop up the road to make you a cube with the following dimensions, this is what it'd cost: 1 inch = $10 1.0 inch = $50 1.00 inch = $200 1.000 inch = $500 1.0000 inch = $1000 1.00000 inch = $5000"
I'd say 85% of my graduating ME class from a school that's considered a 'good' engineering college wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between the $50 and the $5000 option. "Well the numbers are all zero so they don't matter".
Then they wonder why they get yelled at by production when some print they came up with asks for 1.0000 mm between 2 holes that are.2500 mm in diameter. Because in class the teacher just had them select the X.0000 tolerance in the dimensioning block. Then you have the people on the other side of the spectrum asking for the 0.25 mm holes 1 mm apart and they wonder why stuff doesn't fit together.
1 shop class could have easily helped this concept, even back in HS. Let people put their hands on the metal and maybe the next time they're designing something they can remember back to that HS course.
No, instead lets make them declare a major and keep them away from those dirty shop classes with all the potential dropouts.
My HS shop had an *expensive* dark room. Complete with rotating door to keep out light... In me and my siblings 9 years there, no one had once used it for anything more than storage. And now I'm having to back pedal trying to figure out what the heck all these settings are on my fancy new SLR.
I wish that my school would have at least let others try other career paths.
I went the AP/engineering/college bound path. My small rural highschool had a Vocational program for auto repair and an Ag path.
I took AP Calculus my junior year. I had literally run out of classes to take, but I wasn't allowed to take any of those 'other' classes. I'm not a Mechanical Engineer that has no clue how to weld. Even my college guidance counselor told me that welding was 'a waste of time.' We have a huge disconnect between engineering and manufacturing and there's a pretty clear reason why. Force everyone to take 1 shop and 1 welding class then ask the engineer why his 1.00000000 mm tolerance is a bit strict.
It's taken me 6+ years and lots of trial and error to learn how to fix my car. I started with oil changes and my biggest job to date was replacing the head on my car.
It's problem enough that we pigeon hole kids in college. I'm an engineer. It's my 'only' marketable skill. C/C++, Matlab, VB, Simulink, Free body diagrams are great for bringing home money now. But they're not going to help me redo my kitchen or paint my house or fix my car. If I had to do college over again. I'd tell my counselor to shove it and take 5-6 years for a BS degree. I'd take one of those classes most engineers looked down on, like how to wire a house, how to run plumbing, etc.
If only I went to a place where I could have learned all of this, at an early age, for free. Wait. I did.
"Ball Star" sneakers look pretty cool. Heck, given the opportunity I'd probably buy some of those just because they looks funny. I'd be a walking Engrish sign.
Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan". Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan. Doc: Unbelievable.
Maybe a better measure would be miles / $. Diesel and gasoline cost relatively the same but one gallon of diesel fuel will get me much farther than one gallon of gasoline. If someone came out with a fuel that had the density of 1000 gallons of diesel, but cost the same would you complain that it was an 'unfair comparison'?
Second, diesel engines create almost no CO or CO2 at idle. They burn lean almost all of the time. That's the "problem" with them actually. They burn so lean that they create NOx. Gasoline engines must constantly be at 14:1 air:fuel (or what ever it is.) Diesel engines can get by on 1000:1 or crank it down to 1:1 (not a real number) for accelerating. I always get into the CO2 argument with the Tree hugger SUV owners. Yes. 1 gallon of diesel may create more CO2 in a chemically balanced equation, but if that 1 gallon gets me 2-4 times farther than 1 gallon of gasoline, which is worse per mile?
Lastly. So even if my numbers are off. How is it that a vehicle that carries 6 people and has a gross weight of 8500 lbs can 'only' get 6 MPG better than a vehicle that could literally carry 10 of said vehicles across the country?
"Caught off guard?", you should read up on the hybrid that VW put together back in the 80s. (For the life of me I can't find the link on it.) One of the first ones ever made. It wasn't worth the extra expense of batteries, controllers. It was a diminishing return on fuel economy. The first $1000 (for the diesel engine) got you an extra 30 MPG. The next $2000 (for the hybrid) got you another 5 MPG. It just wasn't worth it.
The only benefit a Hybrid has to a diesel is in regenerative braking. Diesels are already extremely efficient at idle because they don't have to keep a air:fuel ratio. Hybrid vs Diesel is going to depend on duty cycle more than anything. If you're out on the highway or even just rural driving (which most of the US is) a diesel engine connected directly to the wheels is as efficient as you can get. You can't any better thanks to Mr. Thermodynamics. Any minor returns you may get in those situations will certainly be offset by 1000 lbs of batteries.
Now if you are in a situation where you are stop and go, then yes, hybrids do have an advantage. How many people live in a situation where they are stop and go for 100% of the vehicles lifetime where other means of transportation do not exist (subway, busses, etc).
The real winner of diesel-hybrid is gonig to be vehicles that do live their life in those situations. Garbage Trucks, Busses, etc. I've read of some applications double or trippling their fuel economy from a hybrid drive train. Garbage trucks dump a ton of fuel into the engine to move it 10 feet. Then they do it again. 100% Throttle, 100% Brake, Repeat. Even if it was a hydraulic hybrid where a diesel engine ran a pump at maximum effiency and then used accumulators to move the vehicle, you'd probably still see great gains.
Secondly, an Audi TT engine isn't just going to "bolt" into a 1979 Rabbit. Today's Rabbit follows a very similar layout to a '79 Rabbit and a TT is essentially a Golf/Rabbit with different body panels. I'll grant you that, but internally the cars are quite different. Nevermind that the chassis has been revised numerous times to meet exceedingly strict safety standards. There are changing emissions regulations which have necessitated the addition of various components and movement of others. Then there's the modernization of a multitude of other components, like the braking system and it's anti-lock brakes. Then there's the ECU and all the electrical wiring the old Rabbit didn't have. And then on the simplest level there's the fact that the '79 engine block and transmission are considerably different from what's used today.
And that's why I left it at "bolt into". I didn't say run in tip top condition. The 4 speed manual transmission was finally obsoleted in 2005 or 2006 when VW redesigned it. The 5 speeds have been more or less a bolt on, you can clearly see it when working on the 5 speeds.
Second, I could be mistaken, but I believe that there is only one engine mount that needs to be fabricated. Other than that, yes it is a bolt up. Bellhousing is common so are engine mounts, etc. Again, I never said anything about runinng the ECM, however I will dispute the engine block and transmission. They WERE essentially the same (this goes for the Audi TT 1, not the newer redesigned one). The 4 cylinder engine that VW developed way back when is essentially unchanged all the way through 2004. Sure they added a turbo and some more sensors and increased displacement, but if you were to look at shortblocks, to an untrained eye you'd have a hard time telling the difference.
You think Americans were "good" Germans have the standardization of things down pat.
It's why HPA motorports was able to create a 500 Hp Beetle using nothing more than common VW Parts.
With minor work for engine bay space and engine mounts, you can bolt up a brand new Audi TT engine to a '79 Rabbit. I can't even begin to name all the parts that are common between my '98 Jetta and my '86 Jetta. Heck, 10 minutes with the engine blocks and you'll start to see similarities between the 1.8L Gasser and my 1.9 TDI.
Furthermore, every single part in my VW has a part number. Every one. I'm doing some custom wiring for rear fogs, even a wire has a VW part number. I walked into the dealer and told him I wanted XXX-YYY-ZZZZ and he told me it'd be a few days and $3. If anyone gets a chance to look in ETKA, there is an option to "see what all vehicles this part number fits". It's absolutely mind boggling.
Both of my examples were showing how I would communicate via IM with a co-worker whom I had been working with closely.
There's a time and a place for everything, I wouldn't talk to my boss like I talked to my girlfriend like I talked to my parents like I talked to my rugby mates. Why do people have to assume because something is typewritten you talk the same to all?
"Work place full of sexual innuendo and crude jokes*!!!"
*When talking to people of same sex same pay scale.
I sit here, with a smirk on my face. The matlab simulation has finally started, days worth of effort into the analysis script has finally kicked off. I lean back in my chair watching the CPU load steadily increase. Suddenly, an error in red: "Index out of bounds". Another. *Shit* I think to myself. The smirk slowly melts as I begin chewing on my thumbnail. Try and catch have made it so that it passed through the first gauntlet of the simulation, but what awaited ahead? "Error: Simulation failed. Line: 334". My own debug words haunted me. I slammed my fist to the table in disgust. It would be at least another day before I could try again.
Is much easier and faster to write than:
Hurray, simulation started:) Damn, index out of bounds, I screwed something up. I'll try again later:(.
This is how authors' conveyed everything before our time. They had the liberty of being verbose, they set the scene.
I use Sametime (Lotus Notes IM client) all the time at work. I don't have to worry if someone is at their desk, they'll get back to me when they can. But it's quicker than a full e-mail. Friends have always given me a hard time because even in AIM I'll typically capitalize and punctuate, but I'm the generation that was going to college JUST as IM became popular, so I learned to write first (well for an Engineer). I agree, I keep it out of e-mails, but those I don't convey any emotion in, only information.
The RIAA letters aren't sent in the mail. This isn't a USPS filtering.
The RIAA contacts the university saying IPs X.X.X.X and Y.Y.Y.Y have been sharing songs. Please give the users this letter. Other universities have done the look up and found which users were those IP addresses belonged to and forwarded the letters on to the students. Kansas has effectively told the RIAA to fuck off.
They have a free market on phones. We have a free market on technologies.
Everyone of the shortcomings of GSM is realized all across Europe. Where as if I can't tolerate GSM's shortcomings (what ever they may be), I can switch to TDMA.
The cost of hybrids and Diesel vehicles is a perfect example of this. I have a TDI and I'm an active member at Fred's TDI Club
People are buying TDIs on ebay for $3-4k more than a comparative gasser. It's absolutely ridiculous. All they see is "45-50 MPG" and that's all they can think about.
I bought my 1998 Jetta in 2003 with 60k on the clock for $5500. I could sell my car (now with 150k) for $7-8k on eBay. What car appreciates that much in 4 years?
But if you do the math, 60 miles a day, you're saving maybe $4 / week (assuming the 2.0L 1998 Jetta gets 30 MPG). This means that your break even point is in the 1,000 week range.
Case and Point: 1990 Jetta Diesel. 290k miles. 17 years old. A comparative gasser may fetch $1000-$2000. It's just plain stupid.
Capitalism. Verizon doesn't have a "SIM" card. There are 3 different competing technologies in the US. Europe (and presumably Japan) mandated GSM. It's easier to come out with cool stuff if you don't have to design around 3 different carriers. I love my SIM card and the fact that I can switch phones in a second with AT&T. It took my parents almost a day to switch phones on Verizon. Apparently this isn't an important enough feature for people to swing behind one standard as with VHS vs Beta. Once that format war was settled all the 'cool' stuff started coming out. It's going to be the same with Blu-Ray vs HD. Companies are being conservative, you'd be in trouble if you put all your best engineers behind Blu-Ray and HD won. So companies are playing it safe.
Not to mention. We don't even use the same GSM frequencies. I don't know if that's because what the FCC decided to open up, but you can't even bring over a phone from the Europe because it won't work on our frequencies.
Slashdot is almost always up in arms when the US government mandates what technology. What if tomorrow 3 new bills were introduced into House & Senate: Blu-Ray is the next generation DVD format, Digital 8 shall be the only digital tape format sold in the US and AAC was the only format that could be sold in the US?
Do you want capitalism or do you want to push technology forward?
We got our first computer in the house when I was in 5th grade. In 7th and 9th grade where we had to take a "mandatory" keyboarding class in school I was routinely one of the fastest typers.
Then senior year my mom asked me to find a key board program for my brother who was going to be 12. I found one that included this weird thing called the "Dvorak" layout. I did some research and it just made logical sense, so I decided before I was to go off to college I would learn Dvorak. IRC and AIM helped quite a bit but for the first week I was struggling.
I printed up a keyboard and hung it above my computer and forced myself to touch type, it took me 2 weeks to get back to my 'old' speed for most things and within a month I surpassed it. I've been typing that way ever since. (6+ years).
Not only was my brain not young, I had already a pretty good proficiency on a Qwerty keyboard. I have been tempted to learn Left Hand Dvorak so that I can have one hand on the mouse and one hand on the keyboard.
After my Siemens C56 died I went looking for "Just a phone." I saw this at Target. I couldn't find adequate unlocking instructions so I just bought an unlocked version on eBay dropped in my sim card and it's been great for the last 2 years.
It's just a good basic phone. B&W display. Buttons are easy enough to press. It's survived numerous drunk evenings.
It's the phone I recommend to anyone looking for "just a phone"
Limited profile. Back when I used Facebook (before it was full of these wonderful "features"). I used my limited profile extensively. People that added me as their friend that I really didn't know too well got my limited profile. No pictures, no address, no wall. They just assumed I didn't facebook much. Every so often I'd either promote or demote people. I haven't seen or talked to you in 2 months. You're not a friend. We started hanging out and you're cool. Full profile.
The area where internet explorer gets it wrong is that (at least in version 6) when you start typing it just uses the first letter. For example: If I'm asked to enter my state I start typing "Indiana" in a drop down and internet explorer will go to Idaho, Nebraska, Delaware, etc. Firefox at least gets that right.
Other "full keyboard" usability IE errors that bug me: I can't control-a in the URL bar and select the whole thing and delete it. The same goes with most of the rest of Windows. If I miss type a password often it's faster for me to delete all than to figure out which key I hit wrong. Why can't I select all in Windows fields?
If I wanted 100% keyboard control to launch a text file from OS X I could do: Control-Space (QuickSilver). Termi open ~/path/to/file.xls and OS X will open it in the correct program.
Slashdot Mirror
That's exactly my point. We take CAD courses, we take design courses but we don't have any "tolerance common sense" courses. The only thing I remember is one teacher gave us the cost breakdown, but this was in some HS course NOT in any college engineering course.
.2500 mm in diameter. Because in class the teacher just had them select the X.0000 tolerance in the dimensioning block. Then you have the people on the other side of the spectrum asking for the 0.25 mm holes 1 mm apart and they wonder why stuff doesn't fit together.
It went something like this:
"If you were to ask the shop up the road to make you a cube with the following dimensions, this is what it'd cost:
1 inch = $10
1.0 inch = $50
1.00 inch = $200
1.000 inch = $500
1.0000 inch = $1000
1.00000 inch = $5000"
I'd say 85% of my graduating ME class from a school that's considered a 'good' engineering college wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between the $50 and the $5000 option. "Well the numbers are all zero so they don't matter".
Then they wonder why they get yelled at by production when some print they came up with asks for 1.0000 mm between 2 holes that are
1 shop class could have easily helped this concept, even back in HS. Let people put their hands on the metal and maybe the next time they're designing something they can remember back to that HS course.
No, instead lets make them declare a major and keep them away from those dirty shop classes with all the potential dropouts.
My HS shop had an *expensive* dark room. Complete with rotating door to keep out light... In me and my siblings 9 years there, no one had once used it for anything more than storage. And now I'm having to back pedal trying to figure out what the heck all these settings are on my fancy new SLR.
I'm now a Mechanical Engineer that has no clue how to weld.
I wish that my school would have at least let others try other career paths.
I went the AP/engineering/college bound path. My small rural highschool had a Vocational program for auto repair and an Ag path.
I took AP Calculus my junior year. I had literally run out of classes to take, but I wasn't allowed to take any of those 'other' classes. I'm not a Mechanical Engineer that has no clue how to weld. Even my college guidance counselor told me that welding was 'a waste of time.' We have a huge disconnect between engineering and manufacturing and there's a pretty clear reason why. Force everyone to take 1 shop and 1 welding class then ask the engineer why his 1.00000000 mm tolerance is a bit strict.
It's taken me 6+ years and lots of trial and error to learn how to fix my car. I started with oil changes and my biggest job to date was replacing the head on my car.
It's problem enough that we pigeon hole kids in college. I'm an engineer. It's my 'only' marketable skill. C/C++, Matlab, VB, Simulink, Free body diagrams are great for bringing home money now. But they're not going to help me redo my kitchen or paint my house or fix my car. If I had to do college over again. I'd tell my counselor to shove it and take 5-6 years for a BS degree. I'd take one of those classes most engineers looked down on, like how to wire a house, how to run plumbing, etc.
If only I went to a place where I could have learned all of this, at an early age, for free. Wait. I did.
"Ball Star" sneakers look pretty cool. Heck, given the opportunity I'd probably buy some of those just because they looks funny. I'd be a walking Engrish sign.
Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
Doc: Unbelievable.
mod parent splendid discernment.
Thanks for that link. I needed a good laugh in the morning.
Maybe a better measure would be miles / $. Diesel and gasoline cost relatively the same but one gallon of diesel fuel will get me much farther than one gallon of gasoline. If someone came out with a fuel that had the density of 1000 gallons of diesel, but cost the same would you complain that it was an 'unfair comparison'?
Second, diesel engines create almost no CO or CO2 at idle. They burn lean almost all of the time. That's the "problem" with them actually. They burn so lean that they create NOx. Gasoline engines must constantly be at 14:1 air:fuel (or what ever it is.) Diesel engines can get by on 1000:1 or crank it down to 1:1 (not a real number) for accelerating. I always get into the CO2 argument with the Tree hugger SUV owners. Yes. 1 gallon of diesel may create more CO2 in a chemically balanced equation, but if that 1 gallon gets me 2-4 times farther than 1 gallon of gasoline, which is worse per mile?
Lastly. So even if my numbers are off. How is it that a vehicle that carries 6 people and has a gross weight of 8500 lbs can 'only' get 6 MPG better than a vehicle that could literally carry 10 of said vehicles across the country?
"Caught off guard?", you should read up on the hybrid that VW put together back in the 80s. (For the life of me I can't find the link on it.) One of the first ones ever made. It wasn't worth the extra expense of batteries, controllers. It was a diminishing return on fuel economy. The first $1000 (for the diesel engine) got you an extra 30 MPG. The next $2000 (for the hybrid) got you another 5 MPG. It just wasn't worth it.
The only benefit a Hybrid has to a diesel is in regenerative braking. Diesels are already extremely efficient at idle because they don't have to keep a air:fuel ratio. Hybrid vs Diesel is going to depend on duty cycle more than anything. If you're out on the highway or even just rural driving (which most of the US is) a diesel engine connected directly to the wheels is as efficient as you can get. You can't any better thanks to Mr. Thermodynamics. Any minor returns you may get in those situations will certainly be offset by 1000 lbs of batteries.
Now if you are in a situation where you are stop and go, then yes, hybrids do have an advantage. How many people live in a situation where they are stop and go for 100% of the vehicles lifetime where other means of transportation do not exist (subway, busses, etc).
The real winner of diesel-hybrid is gonig to be vehicles that do live their life in those situations. Garbage Trucks, Busses, etc. I've read of some applications double or trippling their fuel economy from a hybrid drive train. Garbage trucks dump a ton of fuel into the engine to move it 10 feet. Then they do it again. 100% Throttle, 100% Brake, Repeat. Even if it was a hydraulic hybrid where a diesel engine ran a pump at maximum effiency and then used accumulators to move the vehicle, you'd probably still see great gains.
VW's Toureg can already get up to 25 MPG, real world. Semi trucks can see 7-8 MPG, as good as a Hummer and they're actually pulling a load.
Diesel is going to make a bigger impact that hybrids in the coming years.
Second, I could be mistaken, but I believe that there is only one engine mount that needs to be fabricated. Other than that, yes it is a bolt up. Bellhousing is common so are engine mounts, etc. Again, I never said anything about runinng the ECM, however I will dispute the engine block and transmission. They WERE essentially the same (this goes for the Audi TT 1, not the newer redesigned one). The 4 cylinder engine that VW developed way back when is essentially unchanged all the way through 2004. Sure they added a turbo and some more sensors and increased displacement, but if you were to look at shortblocks, to an untrained eye you'd have a hard time telling the difference.
You think Americans were "good" Germans have the standardization of things down pat.
It's why HPA motorports was able to create a 500 Hp Beetle using nothing more than common VW Parts.
With minor work for engine bay space and engine mounts, you can bolt up a brand new Audi TT engine to a '79 Rabbit. I can't even begin to name all the parts that are common between my '98 Jetta and my '86 Jetta. Heck, 10 minutes with the engine blocks and you'll start to see similarities between the 1.8L Gasser and my 1.9 TDI.
Furthermore, every single part in my VW has a part number. Every one. I'm doing some custom wiring for rear fogs, even a wire has a VW part number. I walked into the dealer and told him I wanted XXX-YYY-ZZZZ and he told me it'd be a few days and $3. If anyone gets a chance to look in ETKA, there is an option to "see what all vehicles this part number fits". It's absolutely mind boggling.
True, if I was talking to a superior via e-mail.
Both of my examples were showing how I would communicate via IM with a co-worker whom I had been working with closely.
There's a time and a place for everything, I wouldn't talk to my boss like I talked to my girlfriend like I talked to my parents like I talked to my rugby mates. Why do people have to assume because something is typewritten you talk the same to all?
"Work place full of sexual innuendo and crude jokes*!!!"
*When talking to people of same sex same pay scale.
I sit here, with a smirk on my face. The matlab simulation has finally started, days worth of effort into the analysis script has finally kicked off. I lean back in my chair watching the CPU load steadily increase. Suddenly, an error in red: "Index out of bounds". Another. *Shit* I think to myself. The smirk slowly melts as I begin chewing on my thumbnail. Try and catch have made it so that it passed through the first gauntlet of the simulation, but what awaited ahead? "Error: Simulation failed. Line: 334". My own debug words haunted me. I slammed my fist to the table in disgust. It would be at least another day before I could try again.
:) :(.
Is much easier and faster to write than:
Hurray, simulation started
Damn, index out of bounds, I screwed something up. I'll try again later
This is how authors' conveyed everything before our time. They had the liberty of being verbose, they set the scene.
I use Sametime (Lotus Notes IM client) all the time at work. I don't have to worry if someone is at their desk, they'll get back to me when they can. But it's quicker than a full e-mail. Friends have always given me a hard time because even in AIM I'll typically capitalize and punctuate, but I'm the generation that was going to college JUST as IM became popular, so I learned to write first (well for an Engineer). I agree, I keep it out of e-mails, but those I don't convey any emotion in, only information.
The RIAA letters aren't sent in the mail. This isn't a USPS filtering.
The RIAA contacts the university saying IPs X.X.X.X and Y.Y.Y.Y have been sharing songs. Please give the users this letter. Other universities have done the look up and found which users were those IP addresses belonged to and forwarded the letters on to the students. Kansas has effectively told the RIAA to fuck off.
Bittorrent or... EZTV. It's all the same to me as long as the commercials aren't even in the file.
They have a free market on phones.
We have a free market on technologies.
Everyone of the shortcomings of GSM is realized all across Europe. Where as if I can't tolerate GSM's shortcomings (what ever they may be), I can switch to TDMA.
Which one is better?
The cost of hybrids and Diesel vehicles is a perfect example of this. I have a TDI and I'm an active member at Fred's TDI Club
People are buying TDIs on ebay for $3-4k more than a comparative gasser. It's absolutely ridiculous. All they see is "45-50 MPG" and that's all they can think about.
I bought my 1998 Jetta in 2003 with 60k on the clock for $5500. I could sell my car (now with 150k) for $7-8k on eBay. What car appreciates that much in 4 years?
But if you do the math, 60 miles a day, you're saving maybe $4 / week (assuming the 2.0L 1998 Jetta gets 30 MPG). This means that your break even point is in the 1,000 week range.
Case and Point: 1990 Jetta Diesel. 290k miles. 17 years old. A comparative gasser may fetch $1000-$2000. It's just plain stupid.
Capitalism. Verizon doesn't have a "SIM" card. There are 3 different competing technologies in the US. Europe (and presumably Japan) mandated GSM. It's easier to come out with cool stuff if you don't have to design around 3 different carriers. I love my SIM card and the fact that I can switch phones in a second with AT&T. It took my parents almost a day to switch phones on Verizon. Apparently this isn't an important enough feature for people to swing behind one standard as with VHS vs Beta. Once that format war was settled all the 'cool' stuff started coming out. It's going to be the same with Blu-Ray vs HD. Companies are being conservative, you'd be in trouble if you put all your best engineers behind Blu-Ray and HD won. So companies are playing it safe.
Not to mention. We don't even use the same GSM frequencies. I don't know if that's because what the FCC decided to open up, but you can't even bring over a phone from the Europe because it won't work on our frequencies.
Slashdot is almost always up in arms when the US government mandates what technology. What if tomorrow 3 new bills were introduced into House & Senate: Blu-Ray is the next generation DVD format, Digital 8 shall be the only digital tape format sold in the US and AAC was the only format that could be sold in the US?
Do you want capitalism or do you want to push technology forward?
I disagree. I switched to Dvorak at 18.
We got our first computer in the house when I was in 5th grade. In 7th and 9th grade where we had to take a "mandatory" keyboarding class in school I was routinely one of the fastest typers.
Then senior year my mom asked me to find a key board program for my brother who was going to be 12. I found one that included this weird thing called the "Dvorak" layout. I did some research and it just made logical sense, so I decided before I was to go off to college I would learn Dvorak. IRC and AIM helped quite a bit but for the first week I was struggling.
I printed up a keyboard and hung it above my computer and forced myself to touch type, it took me 2 weeks to get back to my 'old' speed for most things and within a month I surpassed it. I've been typing that way ever since. (6+ years).
Not only was my brain not young, I had already a pretty good proficiency on a Qwerty keyboard. I have been tempted to learn Left Hand Dvorak so that I can have one hand on the mouse and one hand on the keyboard.
MOD PARENT UP.
After my Siemens C56 died I went looking for "Just a phone." I saw this at Target. I couldn't find adequate unlocking instructions so I just bought an unlocked version on eBay dropped in my sim card and it's been great for the last 2 years.
It's just a good basic phone. B&W display. Buttons are easy enough to press. It's survived numerous drunk evenings.
It's the phone I recommend to anyone looking for "just a phone"
Limited profile. Back when I used Facebook (before it was full of these wonderful "features"). I used my limited profile extensively. People that added me as their friend that I really didn't know too well got my limited profile. No pictures, no address, no wall. They just assumed I didn't facebook much. Every so often I'd either promote or demote people. I haven't seen or talked to you in 2 months. You're not a friend. We started hanging out and you're cool. Full profile.
Let your 'friend' know that animal fats work best for cast iron. Most vegetable oils tend to get gummy. A good hunk of lard does wonders
Check out CoRD (http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/22770/cord)
Ever seen the back of a 60 year old draftsman?
The area where internet explorer gets it wrong is that (at least in version 6) when you start typing it just uses the first letter. For example: If I'm asked to enter my state I start typing "Indiana" in a drop down and internet explorer will go to Idaho, Nebraska, Delaware, etc. Firefox at least gets that right.
Other "full keyboard" usability IE errors that bug me: I can't control-a in the URL bar and select the whole thing and delete it. The same goes with most of the rest of Windows. If I miss type a password often it's faster for me to delete all than to figure out which key I hit wrong. Why can't I select all in Windows fields?
If I wanted 100% keyboard control to launch a text file from OS X I could do: Control-Space (QuickSilver). Termi open ~/path/to/file.xls and OS X will open it in the correct program.