>BMW specifically recommend NOT warming the car up for long periods before driving off; it's no longer necessary due to today's >technology, nicosil-plated cylinders etc...
Right, and I think the idea is, idling while waiting for it to warm up leads to running it at below-optimal temperature for a relatively long time, while starting up and driving straight away puts a load on the engine which warms it up very rapidly. The amount of extra wear on the rings and bearings during those first few seconds is greatly exaggerated.
This isn't just true with modern engines, it's also true with, say, a 1960s aircooled Porsche.
Condensation a couple of millimeters thick, that freezes in seconds, covering every glass surface of your vehicle including your mirrors. Drive like that, I dare you!
The Prius does use an electric compressor, and I can attest to the fact that it worked well even on the hottest day in Phoenix AZ in anyone's living memory. Prius A/C systems have been retrofit by some pro/street racers... comfort at the track without giving up horsepower for it;-)
In really cold climates, and particularly on diesel engines, it is quite common to have an auxiliary heater with its own fuel supply. This kind of system is very popular in air-cooled vehicles and in motor homes.
Air conditioning is the elephant in the room for electric cars. Seems to not be a problem for hybrids though. At least, the people I know in Arizona who drive Priuses (Pria?) are satisfied.
Getting a pilot's license is not all that hard (almost every one of my co-workers has a VFR license and most of them own a single-engine ship.)
The hard part is getting and *keeping* an IFR ticket, where you have to put in so many flight hours that it's really tough to do if you're not a full-time commercial pilot. Let's not even talk about the costs of owning, leasing, or even just fueling and maintaining even a low-end private jet.
It's fantastically liberating to be able to fly your own plane, but it also tends to be quite limiting. Consider the range on your, let's say, Cessna 182, for the 7-8 hours max you'd want to be in the left seat. Also consider what happens when you're grounded or diverted by VFR.
Most private pilots still go via commercial carriers when they travel. Flying yourself from Los Angeles to Maine can be fun, but it's no less greuling (and often not much faster) than the equivalent road trip.
The "use it or lose it" factor of IFR currency (FAR 61.57) in reality pretty much requires you to fly continuously, and without IFR you're stuck with mainly recreational flying in a relatively limited geographical area, only in clear skies. It doesn't suck, but it is not in reality the substitute you hold it out to be, nor do the costs end at the price of school.
I handled a lot of 17th century manuscripts in grad school for music. I had to routinely temper myself from the shock of the realization that these were not only the original manuscripts, but were often the *only* existing form of some works. People who work in special collections become numb to this, but it's scary to me how much of our culture exists in a single paper copy.
In 2010 and as far in the future as I'd care to predict right now, I'm back to tape.
Until I find something that's more effective than LTO-4 over SAS, I'm stuck with it (not that it's at all bad). My main daily job is about 3.2 terabytes and growing. Tape works find, and gets this job done in about 15 hours.
Most of the automobile companies got to the point where they could produce passenger cars by first being successful in the healthy and highly competitive market for stationary engines. The auto makers didn't start from tabula rasa.
>I always thought they should start making window AC units with solar panels that you put in the roof. Again, without voltage conversion. They work off >whatever the solar panel is producing.
Who are "they" and why are you waiting for "them?" Why aren't YOU doing it?
I make a deliberate point of shopping in the same places as some of those lower income Americans. I definitely see the problem as one of horrible choices, but absolutely not because there is a lack of better options.
I see a few issues at work here, and one of them is that at certain levels of society, and across cultural backgrounds, obesity isn't regarded as a health problem, or even as undesirable.
Another problem is not at the lowest economic bracket, but above it where eating in restaurants becomes an option. It's shocking to me that there are people who eat restaurant food for nearly every meal.
>I subscribed to Byte "back in the day" and was disgusted with its slide into irrelevance.
Byte had some responsibility for its own fate. It insisted on remaining "the small systems journal" while largely neglecting the whole personal computing thing that was going on. I noticed this around 78-79. "Small" systems tended to be things outside the world where we hobbyists lived, with our 8080/S-100 systems, TRS-80s, Apple II's, and OSIs.
I don't know (or care) about the Titanium limited edition, but I could much more easily afford a regular M9 than I could a Leica M4 when it was contemporary (or even now!) Those Summicron lenses always were, and are still, very $$$.
I often use the same password on sites where I just don't care, and by that I mean I really just don't care. That is, I don't care if my "account" is "breached". I don't care if someone gets my login from one stupid web site that I don't care about and uses it in another stupid web site I don't care about. Nothing about it will get you into any site where I *do* care.
...Or about whether you or one of your siblings gets the higher position in the family business... In some of those families, not going to the legacy college will make you a black sheep, while in others you'd have to be gay or marry a catholic or something.
"Emphatically saying yes" really should involve all the other MSEE's working *for* your MIT friend, not merely him being their peer. $10K really isn't that huge of a break, or at least I hope it isn't.
Actually, Article 125 is often the central subject whenever cooler heads (e.g., former JAGs) discuss DADT.
People with a realistic frame of reference remember that the military has adjusted to things like racial integration (at least twice) and to a significant degree gender integration -- and these were possibly *more* controversial at the time -- so they understand that the military will adjust to this as well. Of immediate concern is the awareness that there will be serious issue like harassment and assaults, and that there will be leadership problems as some of these are punished and others are not. There is also already work being done to update the already-mandatory training (EO, CO2, and POSH) for this. I expect there will be more Article 133/134 action as a result of DADT repeal than Art 125.
Article 125 carries a sentence of life without parole in cases where there is no consent, or five years with consent. Also, it counts as a felony conviction in civilian life, a dishonorable discharge and Total Forfeiture is a huge consideration for any career military.
On the other hand, if the President wanted to, he could use his authority as Commander in Chief and simply make a direct order that would take Article 125 off the books. It really is that simple. In that venue alone, the President's word carries total authority. In fact, if a President wanted to make an issue out of something like DADT, he wouldn't need an act of Congress either way. He could simply make the order under the aegis of his position of command. If a majority of Congress was willing to go to the mat saying that was beyond the President's authority, they could move to impeach, but that is *all* they could do about it. Personally I think it would be very interesting to watch as Congress challenges for the first time in history a sitting President's authority to command the military.
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>BMW specifically recommend NOT warming the car up for long periods before driving off; it's no longer necessary due to today's
>technology, nicosil-plated cylinders etc...
Right, and I think the idea is, idling while waiting for it to warm up leads to running it at below-optimal temperature for a relatively long time, while starting up and driving straight away puts a load on the engine which warms it up very rapidly. The amount of extra wear on the rings and bearings during those first few seconds is greatly exaggerated.
This isn't just true with modern engines, it's also true with, say, a 1960s aircooled Porsche.
Condensation a couple of millimeters thick, that freezes in seconds, covering every glass surface of your vehicle including your mirrors. Drive like that, I dare you!
The Prius does use an electric compressor, and I can attest to the fact that it worked well even on the hottest day in Phoenix AZ in anyone's living memory. Prius A/C systems have been retrofit by some pro/street racers... comfort at the track without giving up horsepower for it ;-)
In really cold climates, and particularly on diesel engines, it is quite common to have an auxiliary heater with its own fuel supply. This kind of system is very popular in air-cooled vehicles and in motor homes.
Air conditioning is the elephant in the room for electric cars. Seems to not be a problem for hybrids though. At least, the people I know in Arizona who drive Priuses (Pria?) are satisfied.
Getting a pilot's license is not all that hard (almost every one of my co-workers has a VFR license and most of them own a single-engine ship.)
The hard part is getting and *keeping* an IFR ticket, where you have to put in so many flight hours that it's really tough to do if you're not a full-time commercial pilot. Let's not even talk about the costs of owning, leasing, or even just fueling and maintaining even a low-end private jet.
It's fantastically liberating to be able to fly your own plane, but it also tends to be quite limiting. Consider the range on your, let's say, Cessna 182, for the 7-8 hours max you'd want to be in the left seat. Also consider what happens when you're grounded or diverted by VFR.
Most private pilots still go via commercial carriers when they travel. Flying yourself from Los Angeles to Maine can be fun, but it's no less greuling (and often not much faster) than the equivalent road trip.
The "use it or lose it" factor of IFR currency (FAR 61.57) in reality pretty much requires you to fly continuously, and without IFR you're stuck with mainly recreational flying in a relatively limited geographical area, only in clear skies. It doesn't suck, but it is not in reality the substitute you hold it out to be, nor do the costs end at the price of school.
TELEX networks had trolls and whackjobs decades before ARPANET had its first message.
I know a house where 9 people live, all named "Swami Dev."
I handled a lot of 17th century manuscripts in grad school for music. I had to routinely temper myself from the shock of the realization that these were not only the original manuscripts, but were often the *only* existing form of some works. People who work in special collections become numb to this, but it's scary to me how much of our culture exists in a single paper copy.
In 2010 and as far in the future as I'd care to predict right now, I'm back to tape.
Until I find something that's more effective than LTO-4 over SAS, I'm stuck with it (not that it's at all bad).
My main daily job is about 3.2 terabytes and growing. Tape works find, and gets this job done in about 15 hours.
>Running the drive through a fine grinding machine or melting it down completely, are two very secure
>methods.
That's what we do. The shredder is very low-tech and frighteningly specific. It's wasteful but this is a defense plant.
Most of the automobile companies got to the point where they could produce passenger cars by first being successful in the healthy and highly competitive market for stationary engines. The auto makers didn't start from tabula rasa.
>I always thought they should start making window AC units with solar panels that you put in the roof. Again, without voltage conversion. They work off
>whatever the solar panel is producing.
Who are "they" and why are you waiting for "them?" Why aren't YOU doing it?
Why do you have to replace it with anything? Just stop using it. When did the recipe for Ketchup start needing sugar at all?
>It's the reason why corn prices have skyrocketed, since farmers will sell their corn to ethanol producers, instead of for human consumption
If corn is so prohibitively expensive, why is it used in just about every consumer food product?
By volume, does the USA consume more gasoline or more corn syrup in a year?
I make a deliberate point of shopping in the same places as some of those lower income Americans. I definitely see the problem as one of horrible choices, but absolutely not because there is a lack of better options.
I see a few issues at work here, and one of them is that at certain levels of society, and across cultural backgrounds, obesity isn't regarded as a health problem, or even as undesirable.
Another problem is not at the lowest economic bracket, but above it where eating in restaurants becomes an option. It's shocking to me that there are people who eat restaurant food for nearly every meal.
>So the ability to lay out logic, proper code structure, or beautiful code, as fast as possible is the epitome of programming?
Quality and completeness of documentation might be.
Persuasive and grammatically correct writing might also be part of getting your software project accepted and paid for.
>I subscribed to Byte "back in the day" and was disgusted with its slide into irrelevance.
Byte had some responsibility for its own fate. It insisted on remaining "the small systems journal" while largely neglecting the whole personal computing thing that was going on. I noticed this around 78-79. "Small" systems tended to be things outside the world where we hobbyists lived, with our 8080/S-100 systems, TRS-80s, Apple II's, and OSIs.
I don't know (or care) about the Titanium limited edition, but I could much more easily afford a regular M9 than I could a Leica M4 when it was contemporary (or even now!) Those Summicron lenses always were, and are still, very $$$.
I often use the same password on sites where I just don't care, and by that I mean I really just don't care.
That is, I don't care if my "account" is "breached". I don't care if someone gets my login from one stupid web site that I don't care about and uses it in another stupid web site I don't care about. Nothing about it will get you into any site where I *do* care.
...Or about whether you or one of your siblings gets the higher position in the family business... In some of those families, not going to the legacy college will make you a black sheep, while in others you'd have to be gay or marry a catholic or something.
"Emphatically saying yes" really should involve all the other MSEE's working *for* your MIT friend, not merely him being their peer. $10K really isn't that huge of a break, or at least I hope it isn't.
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/12/19/003253/Senate-Repeals-Dont-Ask-Dont-Tell#>there's no talk about changing the UCMJ to allow homosexuality.
Actually, Article 125 is often the central subject whenever cooler heads (e.g., former JAGs) discuss DADT.
People with a realistic frame of reference remember that the military has adjusted to things like racial integration (at least twice) and to a significant degree gender integration -- and these were possibly *more* controversial at the time -- so they understand that the military will adjust to this as well. Of immediate concern is the awareness that there will be serious issue like harassment and assaults, and that there will be leadership problems as some of these are punished and others are not. There is also already work being done to update the already-mandatory training (EO, CO2, and POSH) for this. I expect there will be more Article 133/134 action as a result of DADT repeal than Art 125.
Article 125 carries a sentence of life without parole in cases where there is no consent, or five years with consent. Also, it counts as a felony conviction in civilian life, a dishonorable discharge and Total Forfeiture is a huge consideration for any career military.
On the other hand, if the President wanted to, he could use his authority as Commander in Chief and simply make a direct order that would take Article 125 off the books. It really is that simple. In that venue alone, the President's word carries total authority. In fact, if a President wanted to make an issue out of something like DADT, he wouldn't need an act of Congress either way. He could simply make the order under the aegis of his position of command. If a majority of Congress was willing to go to the mat saying that was beyond the President's authority, they could move to impeach, but that is *all* they could do about it. Personally I think it would be very interesting to watch as Congress challenges for the first time in history a sitting President's authority to command the military.
>Have you, or anyone you know, ever bought a device with components made by Samsung?
I think a better question might be, "did you live before there was such a thing as Samsung, and how did you get by?"