"As to your thing that batteries can blow up after having been in a crash, I don't know where that comes from. Unless the integrity of the pack is compromised, this won't happen. They don't turn into bombs merely by being shaken. If they did, you'd have exploding cell phones everywhere."
If the cell dents, there is a possibility that the Anode can short to the Cathode through the thin insulative seperator. This will cause a short that the pack/device has no control over and you get fireworks.
Or, the guts of the cell can shift and press into the bottom and short.
Or (much less likely) if there is some impurity in the mix, it can cause it to shift and puncture the thin seperator.
The cells are actually designed to permanently disconnect inside under certain circumstances to prevent (or at least minimize) crashing airplanes and killing children.
I agree with you 100%. I used to work for a Lithium Ion Manufacturer for 4 years, and have seen first hand cells sponaneously combust. The R&D department is under so much pressure to increase the capacity of the cells, that they sometimes create an unstable product. Our biggest problem (2 years ago) was trying to get the components to not short against eachother when you cram them all into the can. Sure, each cell was x-rayed and inspected twice, but when you get an underpaid operator looking at pictures on a computer screen at the end of their 12 hour shift...
I have 2 children (3, and 1.5 years old) and although I love them, and like spending time with them, a long road trip can be quite horrible. Children have a VERY short attention span, and the interior of a car is not the easiest place to entertain them. I know I know, they don't need to be entertained 100% of the time, but when you are on a long road trip and they are bored, trust me, electronic entertainment would ROCK.
Just last weekend we drove 5 hours to see my in-laws, and it was TORTURE (the trip, not the visit... ok, the visit was too a little bit). Part of the problem though was my choice of highway. Instead of the high elevation new highway with the $10 toll, I opted for the road with no toll that winds through arid, desert country. Bad choice! It was 38 for a lot of the way, and I don't have air conditioning!!! I was already planning that when we buy a new(er) minivan, I want some sort of electronic entertainment for the kids to go along with the AC.
iv. You are not permitted to copy or cut from any page or its HTML source code to the Windows(TM) clipboard (or equivalent on other platforms) onto any other website.
I was going to copy/paste a line from their website, strictly forbidding copy/paste, but it would have resulted in a copyright violation... so... I borked the text, then copy/pasted.
What is the copyright law on that?
if. Yuoo ere-a nut permeetted tu cupy oor coot frum uny pege-a oor its HTML suoorce-a cude-a tu zee Veendoos(TM) cleepboerd (oor iqooeefelent oon oozeer pletffurms) oontu uny oozeer vebseete-a
No, no, no. Headphones are WAY too dangerous to use while surfing Slashdot. Slacking requires the focused use of all your senses to make sure you don't get busted. Unless your cubicle is arranged in such a way that peripheral vision is sufficient to give you adequate warning, headphones can get you in trouble.
Headphones should only be used when you are doing legit work. The more complicated and confusing the wiring diagram on your screen is, the more likely your boss will be impressed when he sneaks up on you.
I also never answer it when I'm talking face-to-face with someone else; I'll just tell them I'm not going to answer it
I like that. If you have call display, and voicemail, under most circumstances there is no reason you can't call back when the conversation is over. Just shows respect. The president of our company does that when talking to me (lowly tech) sometimes. Makes you feel important.
If I was out with the wife, had a sitter for the kids, and saw my home number phoning... that would be different. Going someplace that would block any incoming calls would be totally unacceptable. Broadcasting a flag to put my phone on vibrate... sounds like a good idea. "Smart" phone thinking my wife's purse under the seat of my car is the inside of a movie theatre... not so cool.
From the link: "The water the discus comes from looks like a well brewed cup of tea from the large amount of wood and leaves releasing tanins into the water."
Throw in a discus while it is small, then take good care of it until it is large. You then can do what Bob and Doug did with their mouse in the beer bottle and see if you can get a case of wiskey because you found a fish in the bottle.
Your main problem would be figuring out how to filter the water to maintain quality. Assuming you had a big enough bottle, your discus might be quite happy in there.
*goes to tell wife he needs a big bottle of wiskey and $30 for a discus*
Not sure if this one would fit, Protech-ipc.com but it works good for me. We boot DSLinux off a CF card. Great thing about Via though, is that just as we hammered down the details of the system, they announced that it will be discontinued and we get till June to put in our last order.
One of the engineers at work (Our supervisor actually) had a good penalty he prescribed for a supplier that made a pretty majour mistake on a piece of equipment they sent us.
"We'll nail his bag to a stump, then push him over backwards"
I was in Rotterdam a few months ago, and I paid... I mean, my company paid $128 Canadian for a week of internet access in my (fairly nice) Hotel.
A few months before that, I was in Alaska and had free internet access in the Best Western. I was on a business trip both times, and so had to have net access.
Got any info to back this up? I have been accused of being an idiot sometimes (I don't understand how this is necessary) and have a very nice PWM temperature controlled soldering on my desk, but still don't understand how I can use this to block GPS.
Am I supposed to try to knock down a satellite with my soldering iron?
I was in Italy last month installing some equipment on a commercial vessel. The guy I was working with has been in the marine communication industry for over 30 years (he is 74 years old, and still enjoying his job?!?). Anyhow, he was telling me that some time last year, he was getting hundreds of phone calls from angry customers saying that the navigation systems he installed were not working. All the systems had an error factor of 20KM because the US government decided that it would be best for US citizens. He was telling me that Europe does not trust US to control technology that Eurpeans rely on, and I don't blame them. It isn't about the accuracy, it is about Bush having his finger on the "off" button.
I don't know any specifics (but neither did your post, so we are even) but I build computer controlled devices that need to work in a fairly high vibration environment. Our current product runs off Win2K, and boots relatively quickly off a 2GB solid state Laptop size HDD.
We are building a new product that will be running Linux off a 256MB CF card. We are not quite done development, but it seems to run OK. It isn't working that hard though, just polling a USB control panel and outputting control commands based on what the user wants to do with a small amount of very simple graphics.
(disclaimer: I know very little about OS's and software. I am mostly solder jockey, circuit design, system installer, and a little bit of sales. I have been struggling to get my MythTV box working for over a year now:-)
Yeah really, I know a guy who had to cut a hole in his wheel well just to get at one of his sparkplugs without lifting the engine.
Now that I know how to take apart my dash, it would prolly take me 15 minutes to get at the cigarette lighter, but in order to figure out the dash assembly, I ripped everything off. To top it off, it was pouring rain so I had to do it with my doors closed. Also, I have reached that point where investment in the audio system passes the investment in the entire vehicle.
I don't know, the last place I worked at had a LASER welder that used De-ionized water flowing over the flash lamp (~400 volts) to keep the bulb at a set temperature. We would buy distilled water from the grocery store and change the water about once every 3 months. What probably made the difference though was that there was de-ionizing resin in a chamber that the water would flow through on its way to the Flash Lamp. It was really expensive if I remember correctly. I don't know much about it, but it consisted of really tiny plastic like beads about.5mm in diameter that also had to be changed at the same time as the water.
I just finished installing my new Satellite Radio in my car, and figured out something really cool. The $100 MP3 player I bought from Tiger Direct has an FM receiver, and will even stream it to MP3. This means that every day to and from work (40 minutes each way) I can record some music for when I go for a run in the evening. Seeing as how I can't run for more then 20 minutes (yet) this works out quite well.
On an unrelated note, it took me 5 minutes to install the radio, and 2 hours to rip apart my dash to fix my cigarette lighter. You just don't get much of a car for $200 these days!
We rented a mobile home on the corner of a cattle ranch outside of Bowden. I paid significantly less then I do for a basement suite in Vancouver, and the landlords left the corner we lived on covered in dense forest for privacy.
Traffic was non-existant. If there were too many cars on the road you were taking, you could just head a couple miles west and find a different road.
I remember waking up one night thinking I was hearing sirens, but it was just a coyote fight in the back yard. I much prefer coyotes to the sort of noise I hear in the city.
I have only been to a few places in USA, and honestly, I like some USA places more then I like some Canadian places. I guess it all depends on where you are. I have recently been to Europe on business several times, and am always happy to get back home.
You wouldn't happen to know of any job opportunities in the Marine Electronics industry in Alberta would you?;-)
Slashdot Mirror
"As to your thing that batteries can blow up after having been in a crash, I don't know where that comes from. Unless the integrity of the pack is compromised, this won't happen. They don't turn into bombs merely by being shaken. If they did, you'd have exploding cell phones everywhere."
If the cell dents, there is a possibility that the Anode can short to the Cathode through the thin insulative seperator. This will cause a short that the pack/device has no control over and you get fireworks.
Or, the guts of the cell can shift and press into the bottom and short.
Or (much less likely) if there is some impurity in the mix, it can cause it to shift and puncture the thin seperator.
The cells are actually designed to permanently disconnect inside under certain circumstances to prevent (or at least minimize) crashing airplanes and killing children.
I agree with you 100%. I used to work for a Lithium Ion Manufacturer for 4 years, and have seen first hand cells sponaneously combust. The R&D department is under so much pressure to increase the capacity of the cells, that they sometimes create an unstable product. Our biggest problem (2 years ago) was trying to get the components to not short against eachother when you cram them all into the can. Sure, each cell was x-rayed and inspected twice, but when you get an underpaid operator looking at pictures on a computer screen at the end of their 12 hour shift...
Almost right.
Think DRM.
Consider the "media sentry" as hardware version of their rootkit!
Just curious, do you have kids?
I have 2 children (3, and 1.5 years old) and although I love them, and like spending time with them, a long road trip can be quite horrible. Children have a VERY short attention span, and the interior of a car is not the easiest place to entertain them. I know I know, they don't need to be entertained 100% of the time, but when you are on a long road trip and they are bored, trust me, electronic entertainment would ROCK.
Just last weekend we drove 5 hours to see my in-laws, and it was TORTURE (the trip, not the visit... ok, the visit was too a little bit). Part of the problem though was my choice of highway. Instead of the high elevation new highway with the $10 toll, I opted for the road with no toll that winds through arid, desert country. Bad choice! It was 38 for a lot of the way, and I don't have air conditioning!!! I was already planning that when we buy a new(er) minivan, I want some sort of electronic entertainment for the kids to go along with the AC.
"People who drink beers != drinking to excess or becomeng unihibited."
Tell that to my Mother-in-law!
I hope you manually typed that...
iv. You are not permitted to copy or cut from any page or its HTML source code to the Windows(TM) clipboard (or equivalent on other platforms) onto any other website.
Um... Doh...
I was going to copy/paste a line from their website, strictly forbidding copy/paste, but it would have resulted in a copyright violation... so... I borked the text, then copy/pasted.
What is the copyright law on that?
if. Yuoo ere-a nut permeetted tu cupy oor coot frum uny pege-a oor its HTML suoorce-a cude-a tu zee Veendoos(TM) cleepboerd (oor iqooeefelent oon oozeer pletffurms) oontu uny oozeer vebseete-a
Put me down for about 70 or 80 "hack attempts"
Gotta love the center click "open in new tab" features of Firefox!
Now I gotta go close all those dang tabs...
No, no, no. Headphones are WAY too dangerous to use while surfing Slashdot. Slacking requires the focused use of all your senses to make sure you don't get busted. Unless your cubicle is arranged in such a way that peripheral vision is sufficient to give you adequate warning, headphones can get you in trouble.
Headphones should only be used when you are doing legit work. The more complicated and confusing the wiring diagram on your screen is, the more likely your boss will be impressed when he sneaks up on you.
Doh, gotta go...
... that it's in audio. Gonna have to wait till my lunch break to listen to it.
You make me want to eat a habanero.
I also never answer it when I'm talking face-to-face with someone else; I'll just tell them I'm not going to answer it
I like that. If you have call display, and voicemail, under most circumstances there is no reason you can't call back when the conversation is over. Just shows respect. The president of our company does that when talking to me (lowly tech) sometimes. Makes you feel important.
If I was out with the wife, had a sitter for the kids, and saw my home number phoning... that would be different. Going someplace that would block any incoming calls would be totally unacceptable. Broadcasting a flag to put my phone on vibrate... sounds like a good idea. "Smart" phone thinking my wife's purse under the seat of my car is the inside of a movie theatre... not so cool.
Makes me wonder if a fish would survive in whiskey-colored cold tea, to add to the effect :)
Check out http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_discus.php
From the link: "The water the discus comes from looks like a well brewed cup of tea from the large amount of wood and leaves releasing tanins into the water."
Throw in a discus while it is small, then take good care of it until it is large. You then can do what Bob and Doug did with their mouse in the beer bottle and see if you can get a case of wiskey because you found a fish in the bottle.
Your main problem would be figuring out how to filter the water to maintain quality. Assuming you had a big enough bottle, your discus might be quite happy in there.
*goes to tell wife he needs a big bottle of wiskey and $30 for a discus*
Not sure if this one would fit, Protech-ipc.com but it works good for me. We boot DSLinux off a CF card. Great thing about Via though, is that just as we hammered down the details of the system, they announced that it will be discontinued and we get till June to put in our last order.
One of the engineers at work (Our supervisor actually) had a good penalty he prescribed for a supplier that made a pretty majour mistake on a piece of equipment they sent us.
"We'll nail his bag to a stump, then push him over backwards"
I have been laughing about that for 3 days now!
Absolutely!
I was in Rotterdam a few months ago, and I paid... I mean, my company paid $128 Canadian for a week of internet access in my (fairly nice) Hotel.
A few months before that, I was in Alaska and had free internet access in the Best Western. I was on a business trip both times, and so had to have net access.
3rd paragraph
"The giant Pacific octopus weighs about 45 kilograms, powerful enough to damage Mike Wood's remote-controlled submarine."
Got any info to back this up? I have been accused of being an idiot sometimes (I don't understand how this is necessary) and have a very nice PWM temperature controlled soldering on my desk, but still don't understand how I can use this to block GPS.
Am I supposed to try to knock down a satellite with my soldering iron?
I was in Italy last month installing some equipment on a commercial vessel. The guy I was working with has been in the marine communication industry for over 30 years (he is 74 years old, and still enjoying his job?!?). Anyhow, he was telling me that some time last year, he was getting hundreds of phone calls from angry customers saying that the navigation systems he installed were not working. All the systems had an error factor of 20KM because the US government decided that it would be best for US citizens. He was telling me that Europe does not trust US to control technology that Eurpeans rely on, and I don't blame them. It isn't about the accuracy, it is about Bush having his finger on the "off" button.
Ummm.... prolly not.
:-)
I don't know any specifics (but neither did your post, so we are even) but I build computer controlled devices that need to work in a fairly high vibration environment. Our current product runs off Win2K, and boots relatively quickly off a 2GB solid state Laptop size HDD.
We are building a new product that will be running Linux off a 256MB CF card. We are not quite done development, but it seems to run OK. It isn't working that hard though, just polling a USB control panel and outputting control commands based on what the user wants to do with a small amount of very simple graphics.
(disclaimer: I know very little about OS's and software. I am mostly solder jockey, circuit design, system installer, and a little bit of sales. I have been struggling to get my MythTV box working for over a year now
Yeah really, I know a guy who had to cut a hole in his wheel well just to get at one of his sparkplugs without lifting the engine. Now that I know how to take apart my dash, it would prolly take me 15 minutes to get at the cigarette lighter, but in order to figure out the dash assembly, I ripped everything off. To top it off, it was pouring rain so I had to do it with my doors closed. Also, I have reached that point where investment in the audio system passes the investment in the entire vehicle.
I don't know, the last place I worked at had a LASER welder that used De-ionized water flowing over the flash lamp (~400 volts) to keep the bulb at a set temperature. We would buy distilled water from the grocery store and change the water about once every 3 months. What probably made the difference though was that there was de-ionizing resin in a chamber that the water would flow through on its way to the Flash Lamp. It was really expensive if I remember correctly. I don't know much about it, but it consisted of really tiny plastic like beads about .5mm in diameter that also had to be changed at the same time as the water.
I just finished installing my new Satellite Radio in my car, and figured out something really cool. The $100 MP3 player I bought from Tiger Direct has an FM receiver, and will even stream it to MP3. This means that every day to and from work (40 minutes each way) I can record some music for when I go for a run in the evening. Seeing as how I can't run for more then 20 minutes (yet) this works out quite well.
On an unrelated note, it took me 5 minutes to install the radio, and 2 hours to rip apart my dash to fix my cigarette lighter. You just don't get much of a car for $200 these days!
Dude, you make me wanna move back to Alberta!
;-)
We rented a mobile home on the corner of a cattle ranch outside of Bowden. I paid significantly less then I do for a basement suite in Vancouver, and the landlords left the corner we lived on covered in dense forest for privacy.
Traffic was non-existant. If there were too many cars on the road you were taking, you could just head a couple miles west and find a different road.
I remember waking up one night thinking I was hearing sirens, but it was just a coyote fight in the back yard. I much prefer coyotes to the sort of noise I hear in the city.
I have only been to a few places in USA, and honestly, I like some USA places more then I like some Canadian places. I guess it all depends on where you are. I have recently been to Europe on business several times, and am always happy to get back home.
You wouldn't happen to know of any job opportunities in the Marine Electronics industry in Alberta would you?
On the other hand, the more it is overused, the funnier it gets. It has ceased to be funny a long time ago. Now it is just downright hilarious.
I for one welcome our "I for one" overlord jokes.