I've had a DI-704P that I've used for years that started becoming flaky, which also turned out to be the AC adapter running toO hot and beginning to fail. I fixed this for good by chopping the cord off, and soldering it to the power output of an old power supply I harvested from a Mac LC475. The power supply has enough capacity to run two routers, and the metal case is barely a degree or two warmer than ambient despite not having any kind of cooling fan.
I'm sure the wireless companies do it sell more phones. I got so pissed off one time trying to deal with my local wireless company's braindead menu, I ended up throwing my phone across the room. Well, it ain't working too well now...
As this is a Canadian article, it's worth pointing out at least one artist who has already worked this out. You can download Sarah McLachlan's albums from her website in non-DRM lossless (FLACC I believe) format. Indeed you should, because her CDs are crippled with nasty DRM shit.
I have a rather sizeable collection of Sarah McLachlan CDs, and none of them have any DRM on them. It seems that US copies of her recent Bloom Remixed album were contaminated by the Sony rootkit software, but the Canadian versions were not. This was also confirmed by inquiries I made directly to Nettwerk about this issue.
All they have to do is embed a 10 - 12 foot long receiver antenna into the pavement. As the vehicle passes over the antenna array, the wheel will eventually rotate to a point that the RFID chip is only a fraction of an inch away from the surface of the road. Let's say the array is buried an 1 1/2" into the pavement, do you think an RFID reader can read a chip that's 2 inches away?
As for linking it to a person, all that needs to be done is have video footage of the car's license plate to be stored along with the RFID reading. Anytime that unique combination of four tires passes through a border crossing, there would be a record of you crossing it.
...Additionally, intake manifolds are naturally cooled by the cool air coming in...
Actually intake manifolds tend to act as heatsinks for the cylinder head. With your engine at operating temperature, you'd likely burn your hand if you held it against the intake manifold for too long.
In my own vehicle I made a plastic insulator gasket that fits between the intake manifold and the cylinder head. The end result is my intake manifold actually remains cold when the engine is at operating temperature.
Re:Full credit for trying something different...
on
Barenaked USB Drive
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Nettwerk, the label that manages BNL has a long history of embracing new technology. They used to operate a FirstClass dialup BBS a decade ago (any music released by them from that era would of had the dialup number on the back of the CD). The BBS had message forums, downloads of Quicktime snippets of various songs, pictures, Macromedia Director "Interactive Press Kits" and other stuff. Nettwerk also broke ground by being the first label to release an Enhanced CD. This being Sarah McLachlan's The Freedom Sessions (with their BBS offering tech support as well!). They also had a very early internet presence. I'm betting Nettwerk came up with this USB album idea or at least endorsed it.
I use an old school HP Scanjet 4C that I scrounged out of a dumpster. The lid was missing, the remaining hinges broken,and there's a small scratch in the bottom of the window (only a problem if I should ever scan legal sized documents). I'm pretty impressed with the scans this thing makes, sharp definition, and no color banding. It uses a lens system and a CCD sensor as opposed to the CIS sensors found on those cheap, shitty USB mini-sized scanners (I've used these too, terrible image quality, slow, but the small form factor is nice). The only downsides of this scanner, is the damn thing is huge! It take the full depth of my desk, and stands about 4" high. Also the vent holes on the side allow dust inside, so it does occasionally need to be taken apart and cleaned (because of it's imaging quality, dust is very noticable on scanned images). I'm happpy with this scanner, it's connected by SCSI to an older Powerbook. I haven't had a problem yet, but if I ever do, it's going back in the dumpster.;-)
...Maybe someone will come up with MP3s for auto fuel and upset the way things are done...
People are already being charged with evading road tax in the UK if they're caught powering their diesel cars with vegetable oil or homebrew biodiesel.
While hybrids are a step in the right direction, there is something that every owner of a gasoline powered vehicle can do to reduce their fuel costs, and reduce the emissions their car produces.
Convert your vehicle to propane. Propane is currently half the cost of gasoline, and when combusted, produces dramatically few emissions than gasoline or diesel. People may argue that propane has slightly less energy than gasoline, while this is true, the higher octane rating of propane (110) allows you to compensate for this by advancing your engine's timing, increasing it's compression ratio, or upping the boost (if turbocharged). Because propane is clean burning, your oil stays cleaner longer, and your engine will have a longer lifespan as well. Most conversion are dual-fuel, which switch back to gasoline, should the propane run out. Propane conversion is becoming popular in Europe, and there are a number of modern propane systems on the market that work with today's fuel injected engines.
Propane is a byproduct of the refining of methane and natural gas. In many parts of the petroleum industry, propane is regarded as a nuisance to be flared rather than harvested. Currently more propane is generated that there is demand for it, causing it's price to be proportionally lower than other fuels. As much of the methane and natural gas refining is done in North America, consumption of propane over gasoline keeps more money out of the hands of foreign oil producers that are known for sponsoring terrorism.
Although propane is still a fossil fuel, and won't end our dependancy on oil, propane is widely available commercially (unlike pie-in-the-sky fuelcell or hydrogen schemes), and nearly all gasoline engines can be converted to run on it right now. Most people recover the cost of conversion with the first few monts of use. Also most propane vehicles fetch a higher price when sold on the used market.
Since I live in Vancouver BC, I've had the benefit of seeing how the electric bus system here operates. The system works well for buses, but may be problematic for cars:
the buses here have no energy storage, if they lose their connection with the overhead wires, the bus goes dead, forcing the driver to reattach the conductors
the two fibreglass poles that make conncetion with the overhead wires come loose a little too often. The driver needs to keep a rhythm an not wander too far outside his lane to maintain a connection.
you can't pass other another electric bus without tangling conductor poles
the conductor poles have to mounted pretty high so they don't hit over vehicles or pedestrians, this tends to restrict installation on anything smaller than a city bus
travel is restricted to wherever the lines are laid.
maintenance, operating costs and billing for the electricity is paid by the transit company (TransLink)
I don't disagree with the spirit of your idea, but I think line powered electric passenger cars are bit unfeasable. I think a better implementation would be to have some kind of ground based, inductive charging system to extend the range of battery powered electric vehicles. This could be implemented a few ways:
start with chargers located at parking meters. The driver could pay a small premium to use the charger during the time the car is parked
retrofit parking lots and parkades to offer optional charging
have several rows of inductive chargers at a number of intersections, giving electric cars an opportunity to charge for a few minutes while they wait at a red light.
construct HOV lanes to feature inductive charging.
The Smart cars are already turbocharged. The engine is a common-rail, direct injected, 3 cylinder turbo diesel. I don't think the Smart cars are anywhere near as unsafe at high speeds as you suggest. Here's an article about someone that swapped a GSXR1000 engine into one, tweaked it to 180 hp, and got it to run 12s in the 1/4 mile:
I used to have a 1988 Chevy Sprint (carbed 1.0L, 3 cylinder with automatic transmission). The car was dangerously underpowered (~50 hp), but if you gave it about a minute or two you could reach it's maximum speed of about 135 kph (83 mph). Obviously better accelleration could be had with a 5 speed, weight reduction and some engine tuning. Using something like a 30 shot of nitrous might not be a bad idea for easing merges onto freeways as well.
In the US the '87? - '88 (MK1 series) of the Chevy Sprint and Suzuki Forsa were briefly available with a fuel injected, turbocharged, 1.0L 3 cylinder engine. These vehicles stock, put out a much healthier 80 hp. These little cars can be frighteningly quick with some engine mods and the boost turned up.
History would disagree with you. Montana had a 4 year period in the late '90s with no numerical speed limit. The results of which, was a record breaking decrease in the number of fatal accidents. Read about it yourself: http://www.motorists.com/pressreleases/montana.htm l
RFID license plates, as part of a a distance based insurance scheme, was investigated by ICBC here in British Columbia. The plates would have been supplied by the Vancouver based company EVI Managment Group (more info here). ICBC eventually decided not to pursue distance based insurance.
Anyone ever notice how hard the ceramic-like material that makes up a 1st generation pentium is? That's stuff's hard to drill through.
Find a water jet cutting shop. Water jet cutters have no problem cutting through even several inches of hard or abrasive material.
BTW, never hang ceramic processor chips from your car's rear view mirror. They look really cool, but they loving chipping the windshield and sometimes even the mirror itself, when they start swinging around.
Build a shelf in front of your window to mount your AC unit on, then make some side panels that conform to the angular shape of your cranked open window.
Even if aren't the least bit mechanically inclined you can get any hardware store to custom cut a piece of plywood for the AC shelf, and fill in the gaps with some cardboard.
I know you Yankees like slipping and slicing when you drive screws, but some smaller markets are more enlightened: I refuse to buy a multitool until I can get one with a built in Robertson #2 driver, because that's what all the screws are up here.
... or you can look at it another way: having a Phillips head available available should that accursed fastener happen to show up for some reason. As much as I applaud the adoption of Robertson screws (in Canada anyways), I still have way more Phillips screwdrivers in my toolbox than I do Robertsons.
I have a feeling that the thousands of ignorant users that don't run a firewall or even bother with security updates aren't going to be considered "protected computers". *Sigh*
You don't need a lot of money to get started in motorsports. Start with a $500 shitbox hatchback, and take it autocrossing. You'd be surprised how competive a car like a Geo Metro can be against so called "sports cars" in the right environment. Once you're hooked on the cars, you'll find it more rewarding to invest in your car than your computer. I still use a P3, because I prefer to throw my money under the hood of my car. Upgrading your car doesn't have to cost much money either. Ignore all the "sport compact"/"tuner" crap. You can go to a junkyard and grab parts from higher end models. You can make a cold air intake from dry ducting from Home Depot. There are people that have assembled entire turbo kits all from junkyard and self-fabricated parts, all at little cost.
As much as love driving, I can't really get into racing/driving simulators, so much of the driving experience is missing when it gets delivered as a simulation. A computer will never replicate the cold sweat when you're thrown sideways as your car is cornering on the edge of traction, nor give the same rush as you're pushed against your seat during accelleration.
I'm surprised that the PSU and all the cables (like speaker/CAT5) work at all, I feel so uneducated...
Although already mentioned elsewhere in the comments here that oil is frequently used for transformer cooling and submersion of other electic devices, some care needs to be taken in choosing the type of oil you use. Oil as an insulator will try to impede the conduction of switches, relays and possibly connectors and plugs if can't be displaced from the contact surface. I know about this from personal experience. My car had an interesting property where the speedo-cable would syphon gear oil from the transmission, and dump it out back of the instrument cluster. Some oil ended up inside the cluster, however a LOT of oil ended up all over the wiring harness to eventually pool on the floor pan (yes it's as messy and discusting as it sounds, gear oil also has a unique stench to it as well). One day I notice my brake lights don't work. The leaking gear oil filled the cavity of the brake light switch and proceded to insulate the switch contacts enough so that the 15 - 20 Amps of current going through it overheated it and caused it to burn out.
On another topic, I don't relish the idea of having to hose down computer parts with engine degreaser everytime I want to fix a computer.
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I've had a DI-704P that I've used for years that started becoming flaky, which also turned out to be the AC adapter running toO hot and beginning to fail. I fixed this for good by chopping the cord off, and soldering it to the power output of an old power supply I harvested from a Mac LC475. The power supply has enough capacity to run two routers, and the metal case is barely a degree or two warmer than ambient despite not having any kind of cooling fan.
I'm sure the wireless companies do it sell more phones. I got so pissed off one time trying to deal with my local wireless company's braindead menu, I ended up throwing my phone across the room. Well, it ain't working too well now...
As this is a Canadian article, it's worth pointing out at least one artist who has already worked this out. You can download Sarah McLachlan's albums from her website in non-DRM lossless (FLACC I believe) format. Indeed you should, because her CDs are crippled with nasty DRM shit.
I have a rather sizeable collection of Sarah McLachlan CDs, and none of them have any DRM on them. It seems that US copies of her recent Bloom Remixed album were contaminated by the Sony rootkit software, but the Canadian versions were not. This was also confirmed by inquiries I made directly to Nettwerk about this issue.
...I'll try submitting this story again tomorrow. Third time's the charm.
All they have to do is embed a 10 - 12 foot long receiver antenna into the pavement. As the vehicle passes over the antenna array, the wheel will eventually rotate to a point that the RFID chip is only a fraction of an inch away from the surface of the road. Let's say the array is buried an 1 1/2" into the pavement, do you think an RFID reader can read a chip that's 2 inches away?
As for linking it to a person, all that needs to be done is have video footage of the car's license plate to be stored along with the RFID reading. Anytime that unique combination of four tires passes through a border crossing, there would be a record of you crossing it.
This is called thermochromic paint, and it's been available on the market for a while now.
Here's a company that sells thermochromic paint, their website has pictures and even videos of the color changing in effect:
http://www.trippininc.com
...Additionally, intake manifolds are naturally cooled by the cool air coming in...
Actually intake manifolds tend to act as heatsinks for the cylinder head. With your engine at operating temperature, you'd likely burn your hand if you held it against the intake manifold for too long.
In my own vehicle I made a plastic insulator gasket that fits between the intake manifold and the cylinder head. The end result is my intake manifold actually remains cold when the engine is at operating temperature.
Nettwerk, the label that manages BNL has a long history of embracing new technology. They used to operate a FirstClass dialup BBS a decade ago (any music released by them from that era would of had the dialup number on the back of the CD). The BBS had message forums, downloads of Quicktime snippets of various songs, pictures, Macromedia Director "Interactive Press Kits" and other stuff. Nettwerk also broke ground by being the first label to release an Enhanced CD. This being Sarah McLachlan's The Freedom Sessions (with their BBS offering tech support as well!). They also had a very early internet presence. I'm betting Nettwerk came up with this USB album idea or at least endorsed it.
I use an old school HP Scanjet 4C that I scrounged out of a dumpster. The lid was missing, the remaining hinges broken,and there's a small scratch in the bottom of the window (only a problem if I should ever scan legal sized documents). I'm pretty impressed with the scans this thing makes, sharp definition, and no color banding. It uses a lens system and a CCD sensor as opposed to the CIS sensors found on those cheap, shitty USB mini-sized scanners (I've used these too, terrible image quality, slow, but the small form factor is nice). The only downsides of this scanner, is the damn thing is huge! It take the full depth of my desk, and stands about 4" high. Also the vent holes on the side allow dust inside, so it does occasionally need to be taken apart and cleaned (because of it's imaging quality, dust is very noticable on scanned images). I'm happpy with this scanner, it's connected by SCSI to an older Powerbook. I haven't had a problem yet, but if I ever do, it's going back in the dumpster. ;-)
...Maybe someone will come up with MP3s for auto fuel and upset the way things are done...
People are already being charged with evading road tax in the UK if they're caught powering their diesel cars with vegetable oil or homebrew biodiesel.
While hybrids are a step in the right direction, there is something that every owner of a gasoline powered vehicle can do to reduce their fuel costs, and reduce the emissions their car produces.
Convert your vehicle to propane. Propane is currently half the cost of gasoline, and when combusted, produces dramatically few emissions than gasoline or diesel. People may argue that propane has slightly less energy than gasoline, while this is true, the higher octane rating of propane (110) allows you to compensate for this by advancing your engine's timing, increasing it's compression ratio, or upping the boost (if turbocharged). Because propane is clean burning, your oil stays cleaner longer, and your engine will have a longer lifespan as well. Most conversion are dual-fuel, which switch back to gasoline, should the propane run out. Propane conversion is becoming popular in Europe, and there are a number of modern propane systems on the market that work with today's fuel injected engines.
Propane is a byproduct of the refining of methane and natural gas. In many parts of the petroleum industry, propane is regarded as a nuisance to be flared rather than harvested. Currently more propane is generated that there is demand for it, causing it's price to be proportionally lower than other fuels. As much of the methane and natural gas refining is done in North America, consumption of propane over gasoline keeps more money out of the hands of foreign oil producers that are known for sponsoring terrorism.
Although propane is still a fossil fuel, and won't end our dependancy on oil, propane is widely available commercially (unlike pie-in-the-sky fuelcell or hydrogen schemes), and nearly all gasoline engines can be converted to run on it right now. Most people recover the cost of conversion with the first few monts of use. Also most propane vehicles fetch a higher price when sold on the used market.
I don't disagree with the spirit of your idea, but I think line powered electric passenger cars are bit unfeasable. I think a better implementation would be to have some kind of ground based, inductive charging system to extend the range of battery powered electric vehicles. This could be implemented a few ways:
The Smart cars are already turbocharged. The engine is a common-rail, direct injected, 3 cylinder turbo diesel. I don't think the Smart cars are anywhere near as unsafe at high speeds as you suggest. Here's an article about someone that swapped a GSXR1000 engine into one, tweaked it to 180 hp, and got it to run 12s in the 1/4 mile:
t -car-plus-gsxr-equals-smartuki-a-very-smart-car/#m ore-344
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/06/08/smar
Most modern automatics switch to a 'fixed' (don't remember the term) gear (no slippage) on highways.
The word you're looking for is lock-up torque converter.
I used to have a 1988 Chevy Sprint (carbed 1.0L, 3 cylinder with automatic transmission). The car was dangerously underpowered (~50 hp), but if you gave it about a minute or two you could reach it's maximum speed of about 135 kph (83 mph). Obviously better accelleration could be had with a 5 speed, weight reduction and some engine tuning. Using something like a 30 shot of nitrous might not be a bad idea for easing merges onto freeways as well.
In the US the '87? - '88 (MK1 series) of the Chevy Sprint and Suzuki Forsa were briefly available with a fuel injected, turbocharged, 1.0L 3 cylinder engine. These vehicles stock, put out a much healthier 80 hp. These little cars can be frighteningly quick with some engine mods and the boost turned up.
History would disagree with you. Montana had a 4 year period in the late '90s with no numerical speed limit. The results of which, was a record breaking decrease in the number of fatal accidents. Read about it yourself: http://www.motorists.com/pressreleases/montana.htm l
If you read this, it would appear to go much further than just inventory tracking.
RFID license plates, as part of a a distance based insurance scheme, was investigated by ICBC here in British Columbia. The plates would have been supplied by the Vancouver based company EVI Managment Group (more info here). ICBC eventually decided not to pursue distance based insurance.
Parent comments are inflammatory flamebait
Anyone ever notice how hard the ceramic-like material that makes up a 1st generation pentium is? That's stuff's hard to drill through.
Find a water jet cutting shop. Water jet cutters have no problem cutting through even several inches of hard or abrasive material.
BTW, never hang ceramic processor chips from your car's rear view mirror. They look really cool, but they loving chipping the windshield and sometimes even the mirror itself, when they start swinging around.
Build a shelf in front of your window to mount your AC unit on, then make some side panels that conform to the angular shape of your cranked open window.
Even if aren't the least bit mechanically inclined you can get any hardware store to custom cut a piece of plywood for the AC shelf, and fill in the gaps with some cardboard.
I know you Yankees like slipping and slicing when you drive screws, but some smaller markets are more enlightened: I refuse to buy a multitool until I can get one with a built in Robertson #2 driver, because that's what all the screws are up here.
... or you can look at it another way: having a Phillips head available available should that accursed fastener happen to show up for some reason. As much as I applaud the adoption of Robertson screws (in Canada anyways), I still have way more Phillips screwdrivers in my toolbox than I do Robertsons.
I have a feeling that the thousands of ignorant users that don't run a firewall or even bother with security updates aren't going to be considered "protected computers". *Sigh*
You don't need a lot of money to get started in motorsports. Start with a $500 shitbox hatchback, and take it autocrossing. You'd be surprised how competive a car like a Geo Metro can be against so called "sports cars" in the right environment. Once you're hooked on the cars, you'll find it more rewarding to invest in your car than your computer. I still use a P3, because I prefer to throw my money under the hood of my car. Upgrading your car doesn't have to cost much money either. Ignore all the "sport compact"/"tuner" crap. You can go to a junkyard and grab parts from higher end models. You can make a cold air intake from dry ducting from Home Depot. There are people that have assembled entire turbo kits all from junkyard and self-fabricated parts, all at little cost.
As much as love driving, I can't really get into racing/driving simulators, so much of the driving experience is missing when it gets delivered as a simulation. A computer will never replicate the cold sweat when you're thrown sideways as your car is cornering on the edge of traction, nor give the same rush as you're pushed against your seat during accelleration.
I'm surprised that the PSU and all the cables (like speaker/CAT5) work at all, I feel so uneducated...
Although already mentioned elsewhere in the comments here that oil is frequently used for transformer cooling and submersion of other electic devices, some care needs to be taken in choosing the type of oil you use. Oil as an insulator will try to impede the conduction of switches, relays and possibly connectors and plugs if can't be displaced from the contact surface. I know about this from personal experience. My car had an interesting property where the speedo-cable would syphon gear oil from the transmission, and dump it out back of the instrument cluster. Some oil ended up inside the cluster, however a LOT of oil ended up all over the wiring harness to eventually pool on the floor pan (yes it's as messy and discusting as it sounds, gear oil also has a unique stench to it as well). One day I notice my brake lights don't work. The leaking gear oil filled the cavity of the brake light switch and proceded to insulate the switch contacts enough so that the 15 - 20 Amps of current going through it overheated it and caused it to burn out.
On another topic, I don't relish the idea of having to hose down computer parts with engine degreaser everytime I want to fix a computer.