A friend of mine who lives in a country area in Australia has a device from Telstra which talks 3G to the phone network and wifi locally. It also has a normal telephone socket so you can use it to make voice calls. Taken as a package (broadband plus voice) it is actually a very competitive service, considering his location.
We might have had a space program sooner. Development of nuclear bombs might have been accelerated by a decade or so. Perhaps somebody might have tried to fly an orion pulse rocket in the 1950s. Sounds like a great Heinlein revival story. I had better call John Varley...
Proximity to transit was a conscious prerequisite when we bought our house.
This is the thing. All these people saying that they live an hours drive from the train then two hours on the train to work have chosen where to live. They picked the site because it was close to a highway so they could drive to work, and in so doing locked themselves into that mode of travel.
I have generally lived in places where I can walk and cycle, but not by direct design. Its just that those places feel better to me, and I adapt to the environment.
I ride a bicycle to work but I wonder if it would be possible to build a hybrid electric/pedal motorbike. The idea would be to build something which could be driven on highways at the speed limit but require effort and exercise to keep moving. Maybe not. Sounds deadly.
It was in the paper, pre internet. A lot of content from before the mid 1990's never made it on line. I think it is a bit of a self defeating idea. Once built we might as well move into the new mountain and forget the newly fertile outside world.
Hard to say what the difference is there. I lubricate my chain every 100km or so and every day after riding in the rain. I wipe the chain down after lubricating it. I disassemble the driveline, and clean it every 1000 or 2000 km. I don't have the time for more attention than that.
Its a bit like driving a four wheel drive in the city. Its over engineered but better in some ways for the occupant. I like the hydraulic disc brakes. They are extremely powerful and easy to maintain. The all terrain capabilities make it easy to exploit off road commuting routes. I use 26 inch road tyres at 70 psi.
I have secure bike storage at work so security isn't a problem for me. But having said that I am always on the lookout for a better way to operate. Maybe I will build my next commuting bike from scratch.
I don't know what you mean by a worse view then a standard European city bike.
I got a lot more distance out of parts on my seven speed bikes. Now, with nine speed components I seem to wear them out a lot faster. Additionally I am riding in conditions which a very "punchy". This puts a lot of stress on driveline, brakes and legs.
Back when I was a teenage geek I had a bench for electronic stuff in the family garage. The roof was loaded with spiders and they always creeped me out. One day I found one right where I worked so I fled to the house and returned with a can of fly spray. I made a mound of the stuff over the spider but it crept out and died several hours later. They are horrible, horrible creatures. Glad I don't live in QLD.
Yeah I am deliberately upping the cost of the bike because I think it is better for me in the long term. The male line in my family typically dies of heard disease before 60. So when I turned 40 I bought a really good bike and started to ride to work every day, as hard as possible. The age limit on the bike is a reason to go out and buy a better one, and ride it more. The hardware is high spec so I can ride it in all conditions and sometimes in challenging traffic. I am not trying to keep the cost down on the bike. If anything I am pushing it up by building my own lighting gear and spending time doing maintenance on the weekends. If it helps me avoid a heart attack 17 years from now it was worth it.
I live 6.5km from work, and bike it both ways as soon as the snow is melted
I've got these cross country skiis...
Yeah I know you are unlikely to have snow all the way from home to work. Frankly I am impressed you can do without a car in a place where it snows.
True but then I bought my 1994 Townace van in 1995. It has done 110000km over the years. It cost me $20000 AUD and has been pretty much depreciated. It costs me $500 per year for rego and insurance and will easily last another 10 or 20 years at the current rate. If I drove it to work it would start to become unreliable and require more maintenance. I would very soon need to buy a new car. So by not driving that car to work I save the cost of buying a new one and I can still go bush in the van or use it to lug stuff around on the weekend.
Are you commuting on a high end racing bike? Kee-rist those estimates are high.
Its a high end mountain bike. I deliberately went for good hardware because I don't believe the cheap stuff is safe in traffic. I am commuting every day regardless of the weather. I think it is strange that a person who is willing to pay $20000 for a car won't pay $2000 for a bike. And yeah this bike gets thrashed which is partly why I go through so many consumables.
On the train, I feel safer knowing an accident probably won't happen and that if it does, it probably won't kill me
I think a lot of people in my city (Melbourne, Australia) drive because they don't feel safe on public transport. Its very safe at peak times but if you have to go home late you are surrounded by drunks, a few of whom are violent. The push to get drunks off the road means that more take public transport. In my years travelling by train I have seen a few nasty incidents. Its enough that if I had an 18 year old daughter I would consider buying her a car rather than have her take the train.
20 km round trip by bicycle for me. Thats 12.5 miles according to my slipstick. Costs:
$80 for tyres every 5000km.
$60 for brake pads every 3000km
$40 for a new chain every 2000km
$40 for a new cluster every 4000km
$1500 up front cost for the vehicle. Expected life 20000km
Thats about 3000 bucks over the 20000km. I ride 4800km/year so the yearly cost is about 750 per year. Australian dollars, though an AU dollar is worth about the same to me as a US dollar to a resident of the US. I could believe 1000 dollars per year once stuff like clothing, batteries and lubricants are added to the calculation.
Years ago I read about a plan to build a huge wall (for want of a better name) in central Australia. The wall would be thousands of metres high with a triangular cross section. In effect, an artificial north-south mountain range. The idea is that a lot of water vapour crosses Australia without precipitating because it never gets pushed to high enough altitudes to cool and condense. The article also suggested that the interior of the mountain could be used to store grains. I suppose these days we would put Afghan refugees in there as well.
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A friend of mine who lives in a country area in Australia has a device from Telstra which talks 3G to the phone network and wifi locally. It also has a normal telephone socket so you can use it to make voice calls. Taken as a package (broadband plus voice) it is actually a very competitive service, considering his location.
We might have had a space program sooner. Development of nuclear bombs might have been accelerated by a decade or so. Perhaps somebody might have tried to fly an orion pulse rocket in the 1950s. Sounds like a great Heinlein revival story. I had better call John Varley...
How about using smaller blocks?
Proximity to transit was a conscious prerequisite when we bought our house.
This is the thing. All these people saying that they live an hours drive from the train then two hours on the train to work have chosen where to live. They picked the site because it was close to a highway so they could drive to work, and in so doing locked themselves into that mode of travel.
I have generally lived in places where I can walk and cycle, but not by direct design. Its just that those places feel better to me, and I adapt to the environment.
I ride a bicycle to work but I wonder if it would be possible to build a hybrid electric/pedal motorbike. The idea would be to build something which could be driven on highways at the speed limit but require effort and exercise to keep moving. Maybe not. Sounds deadly.
It was in the paper, pre internet. A lot of content from before the mid 1990's never made it on line. I think it is a bit of a self defeating idea. Once built we might as well move into the new mountain and forget the newly fertile outside world.
Hard to say what the difference is there. I lubricate my chain every 100km or so and every day after riding in the rain. I wipe the chain down after lubricating it. I disassemble the driveline, and clean it every 1000 or 2000 km. I don't have the time for more attention than that.
Its a bit like driving a four wheel drive in the city. Its over engineered but better in some ways for the occupant. I like the hydraulic disc brakes. They are extremely powerful and easy to maintain. The all terrain capabilities make it easy to exploit off road commuting routes. I use 26 inch road tyres at 70 psi.
I have secure bike storage at work so security isn't a problem for me. But having said that I am always on the lookout for a better way to operate. Maybe I will build my next commuting bike from scratch.
I don't know what you mean by a worse view then a standard European city bike.
I got a lot more distance out of parts on my seven speed bikes. Now, with nine speed components I seem to wear them out a lot faster. Additionally I am riding in conditions which a very "punchy". This puts a lot of stress on driveline, brakes and legs.
Welcome back to Slashdot. ;)
Glad to see somebody was quick on the "universal fixit button".
The second country in the world to adopt the metric system was the United States. Strange but true....
Do you mean after France?
Don't tell them about hoopsnakes. We won't get any tourists at all if you do that.
Back when I was a teenage geek I had a bench for electronic stuff in the family garage. The roof was loaded with spiders and they always creeped me out. One day I found one right where I worked so I fled to the house and returned with a can of fly spray. I made a mound of the stuff over the spider but it crept out and died several hours later. They are horrible, horrible creatures. Glad I don't live in QLD.
Yeah I am deliberately upping the cost of the bike because I think it is better for me in the long term. The male line in my family typically dies of heard disease before 60. So when I turned 40 I bought a really good bike and started to ride to work every day, as hard as possible. The age limit on the bike is a reason to go out and buy a better one, and ride it more. The hardware is high spec so I can ride it in all conditions and sometimes in challenging traffic. I am not trying to keep the cost down on the bike. If anything I am pushing it up by building my own lighting gear and spending time doing maintenance on the weekends. If it helps me avoid a heart attack 17 years from now it was worth it.
I live 6.5km from work, and bike it both ways as soon as the snow is melted
I've got these cross country skiis...
Yeah I know you are unlikely to have snow all the way from home to work. Frankly I am impressed you can do without a car in a place where it snows.
When I took the train to work car parking was free but I had to pay for a bike locker.
True but then I bought my 1994 Townace van in 1995. It has done 110000km over the years. It cost me $20000 AUD and has been pretty much depreciated. It costs me $500 per year for rego and insurance and will easily last another 10 or 20 years at the current rate. If I drove it to work it would start to become unreliable and require more maintenance. I would very soon need to buy a new car. So by not driving that car to work I save the cost of buying a new one and I can still go bush in the van or use it to lug stuff around on the weekend.
Are you commuting on a high end racing bike? Kee-rist those estimates are high.
Its a high end mountain bike. I deliberately went for good hardware because I don't believe the cheap stuff is safe in traffic. I am commuting every day regardless of the weather. I think it is strange that a person who is willing to pay $20000 for a car won't pay $2000 for a bike. And yeah this bike gets thrashed which is partly why I go through so many consumables.
On the train, I feel safer knowing an accident probably won't happen and that if it does, it probably won't kill me
I think a lot of people in my city (Melbourne, Australia) drive because they don't feel safe on public transport. Its very safe at peak times but if you have to go home late you are surrounded by drunks, a few of whom are violent. The push to get drunks off the road means that more take public transport. In my years travelling by train I have seen a few nasty incidents. Its enough that if I had an 18 year old daughter I would consider buying her a car rather than have her take the train.
Thats about 3000 bucks over the 20000km. I ride 4800km/year so the yearly cost is about 750 per year. Australian dollars, though an AU dollar is worth about the same to me as a US dollar to a resident of the US. I could believe 1000 dollars per year once stuff like clothing, batteries and lubricants are added to the calculation.
Years ago I read about a plan to build a huge wall (for want of a better name) in central Australia. The wall would be thousands of metres high with a triangular cross section. In effect, an artificial north-south mountain range. The idea is that a lot of water vapour crosses Australia without precipitating because it never gets pushed to high enough altitudes to cool and condense. The article also suggested that the interior of the mountain could be used to store grains. I suppose these days we would put Afghan refugees in there as well.
It sounds like our world really lost a lot at the K-T impact event.
I thought it was because of the Deccan Traps this week.
Well do you live in Ireland? Doesn't sound like it.
Okay I get that you don't like the guy. But do you need to post anon? Its not like he has a rocket launcher or anything.
But where is the male morning after pill?
Fire and forget.
Do you still use the ubuntu ntp server?