Sure the government has spend $400 on a hammer. You would too, if you needed to use a hammer in a room filled with an explosive mixture, which was the case. There are some alloys that do not spark, your dirt cheap $20 hardware store hammer is not one, and is not something that anyone in their right mind would allow near someplace where explosive mixtures are common.
If you are going to use a hammer regularly though, the $20 Home Depot hammer is a wate of money, and you will harm your joints by using it. Get a real hammer, and your joints will thank you (or at least not complain as much) years latter. I spent $70 on my hammer (titanimun), and regret not getting the $100 one. I used it every day for a while though. It took me less than a month before I couldn't deal with the poor balance and vibration of the Home Depot hammer, the Craftsman replacement was much better, but still not up to the one I replaced it with.
No, because easy Cd creater 1.0 doesn't infringe on this patent. They didn't patent CD writing, they patented something that is useful for filesystems on some types of CD media. As I understand it, without reading the patent [1] they basicly patented a way of marking which areas on a disk were currently free on write once media. (That is where anything you mark free now might be used latter, but you can't change your previous marks) You could do this for RW media, but it doesn't make sense. OSTA adopted this scheme (perhaps developed independantly?) so that UDF could be used on CD-R media. Until the latest versions of UDF, became supported (much latter than 1995) nobody infringed on this patent.
[1] I'm advised not to read this or any patent by lawyers. What I don't know can't come back to haunt me. Or something like that.
I drive a stick shift. I already use my other foot for the clutch. When I brake I need to have my other foot ready to push the clutch at the right time. (which isn't the moment I start braking as the engine helps to slow the car for a time)
Doesn't apply to tailgaters I know, but it isn't a good idea to get into bad habbits.
It goes like this: On my way to work today I saw a man reading while he was driving. I was so shocked I droped my razor into my cereal.
I don't advocate any of that. People are not designed to drive cars, and do not have the proper ability to do it safely without distractions. Ad in distraction and it is hopeless. (we only get by because of various rules that allow us to assume a lot of real dangers won't happen)
It isn't the buisness model, it is the management. People on top who watch over things with the correct balence between micro-management and complete hands-off, to let things work when they will but stop disasters before they happen.
Think Dell is great because of the buisness model? Then when is Northgate out of buisness (they were a big name before Dell). Why has Gateway had troubled times?
Think Wal-Mart is big? A&P (Is that the name? big power store before I was born) used to be bigger. I've never set foot in a Wards store in my life, and they used to be Hugh. Sears is having big problems and has been for years, yet J.C.Pennys does just fine despite being similear on the surface.
Admire Amazon.com? Look at the balance sheet and tell me with a straight face you really belive they can pay off that dept. They might, but if hard times come (the last recession was not very hard in comparition to others) they will be one of the first gone, while stronger companies will survive.
All failures can be traced to management. If the engineers were incompitent, management hired them; didn't recignize their failings, and fire them. If the company runs out of money, management wasn't paying enough attention to the accountants to make sure there was money. If the product fails in the market, management didn't pay enough attention to marketing (or hired incompitent marketers) to determin how much the market would bare. (both price and quanity)
There is a market for even the most flawed buisness model, so long as management understands the flaws and deals with them in the plan. Of course often the profit isn't worth it, but there again management should recignise that, perhaps by selling the assests and distributing to the investers.
Do a side by side comparition then, with a GOOD monitor. Matrox cards look excellent. In theory a 3D card can look just as good, but in practice then tend to skimp on the final stages.
A bad monitor will not show these differences. I have no idea who digital interfaces (LCDs) compare. A high quality CRT will show a difference.
Juice. Real 100% fruit juice. Not the sugar water that a lot of what is sold next to juice is. I find Nantucket Nectars brand is worth the extra cast because the are not from concentrate. (but hard to find) McDonald's used to have Apple Juice that was very good too (not from concentrate), but I haven't been there in years so I don't know.
Water is also good. I have a RO filter in my house, and find that water is most of what I drink. (I know a few people who live where tap water is good, but what I get from my taps isn't) It takes getting used to, but you can.
Gotta watch resteraunts. You are expected to order soda, coffee, or alchahol. Don't fall for it. Some have excellent Lemonade, but others just have a lemon flavored soda. Unfortunatly to get my free Sub at Subway I have to order a soda, no matter what I really want. (No surprize, to a resteraunt the ice is the most expensive part of a glass of pop)
Unfortunatly once you quit the easy addictions like sugar water and caffine your tastes improve. I've become a food snob. I read the labels looking for sugar, caffine, and find I'm more concerned with 100% natural ingreatiants... I buy Greek Olives from the Deli and love them. (other olives are not touchable) I've expirimented with Organic foods, and in many cases find that they are btter (though not all, and I don't blindly belive in organic like some). I make my own pizza and bread from scratch (sourdough). I'm not a good cook, but everyone thinks I am because my worst meals are still homemade and have flavor (compared to what they buy).
That isn't to say I don't sometimes have junk food, but I try to control it.
What good is basic infrastructure if 10 mintues after you achive it your enimies in [Pakatain or China] invade in destroy it all?
There needs to be a balance. Without basic infrastructure you cannot create defense, without defense you cannot hold your infrastructure.
Unless you would argue that China and Pakistan are not willing to invade India. I would disagree there. (though I wouldn't be entirely surprized if India attacked first)
every nation on earth claims to be a net exporter of food. Statitcs are easy to lie with, and everyone wants you to think they have no problem feeding their people.
That said, what most people know about India is wrong.
Sure they are. Remember, once they have the ability to make a safe plane that can make the NY to Sydney trip in 3 hours they can sell it to those who want that ability. I'd personally like to visit Austrialla, but spending 20+ hours in a tin can doesn't appeal to me. Airlines know this, and will run the numbers, if they can make money on the plane they will buy it.
I'm sure India wants some of those planes they sell to make the NY to Delhi trip, but they make money either way.
Not much I agree, but remember Nasa has sent people into space and returned them to earth every year that I can remember. (Might be an exception for 1986 and 2003, since I don't follow shuttle launches, I don't know for sure they had a successful launch in those troubled years though I belive they did) That is at least 1982, and I know there were plenty of launches in the 1970s, they even managed to get men on the moon and back home before I was born!
Then there are various Mars and Venus missions I hear about from time to time some of which lanuched since Reagan. Not to mention ground support for Voyager other other satalites that were launched years ago and still are sending data that needs to be examined.
What did India do? Built a few rockets, but never managed to support people in Space on their own. They don't have any satalites 10 light minutes away (at closest point in the Earth's orbit) to watch and attempt to extract useful data from. Sure their rocket is more advanced, but they don't have all those other distractions to deal with at the same time they build their rockets.
Sure, China has 1 billion people. However they also have a one child per family policy, so their population is old. For every 4 grand parents you have at most 1 child. Soon it will be for every 8 great grandparents you have 1 child. (The policy hasn't been in place long enough for this to be completely true - yet). So when comparing populations you need to look a head. In 40 years expect the population of China to be.5 billion (all it takes is the current crop of old people to start dieing), while the population of the US should be only slightly less.
India isn't quite as big as china today, but they soon will be bigger. However India is working hard at becoming a first world, western style country. Remember, they were ruled by the British (I'm confused on the differences between Britton, Great Britton, and U.K, but I'm assured they are subtilly different) and have those influences. I'd say in the years to come they will become just anouther western country, like Japan is today.
Japan is good for the US, they have a bunch of smart people designing and making a lot of different neat things, for both our and their use and we both benifit from it. If a cure for cancer was found in Japan it would greatly benifit life in the US. If the cure was found in China I'm not sure they would share that with the US.
Western nation is more than a geographical position. When on western nation advances, all western nations advance.
I'm more interested in "whats the point" projects than most of what passes for news these days. AT least it is interesting. Lately I've taken to pretending I'm a/. moderator whenever I hear news on the radio. Once you put that additude on it is very rare not to be saying "flamebait" for most stories, with most of the rest as troll. Once in a while, but I've never rated anything as informative or insightful.
Air Hockey plans for those who are willing to attempt it. Anyone who would attempt though though, shouldn't need plans too much, it is exactly what you would think: drill lots of little holes in exactly the right spot, then a fan to blow air through them.
Agreed. A company will never say anything bad about someone they are not prepared to back up in court. Backing something up in court requires that they send witnesses and lawyers, at their expense, so they do not want to do this. Thus in many companies HR will only say "yes, so and so worked here from date to date as a blank, we have nothing more to say about him." Everyone in the company not in HR is required to refer the caller to HR without any other comment.
In short, if anyone says something bad about you, sue. The truely bad people you are competeing against will not have bad references, so you better not either. The best people you are competeing against (who may be better than you) have exactly the same reference.
My 8M Matrox Millenimun is more than just fine, it is GREAT. Even compared to todays most expensive cards, everything is sharper. Text is clearer. In all it is a much better card than the expensive ones you can buy today and well worth the price I paid for it years ago over a cheap card.
Sure, it doesn't do 3d at all. However I don't do 3d myself so that doesn't matter to me. I do spend my time looking at text, so sharp clear text matters. Once in a while I play a 2d games so clear pictures matter, and I get that from my current card.
It is all a matter of what you want. I knew when I built this system that I had no use for 3d, but I wanted good 2d, so I got the best 2d card money could buy. I know others who care about 3d games, so they spend money on those expensive cards, and upgrade often to get better. A matter of choice, I still haven't found a better upgrade for my needs.
Okay, it is a generalization, so you can find exceptions. However that should be your guide. There is no reason and old eBay laser printer can't work for years to come with only toner replacements. Slow, but only compared to modern lasers, what is your hurry at home?
Inkjets are generally disposable. For as little as I print, a inkjet would have to be replaced every time I wanted to printer. My laser (which I got used for almost nothing) should last for years. Unfortunatly you never know, I said the same thing about my last laser printer and it no longer works. However used they are cheap enough that you can afford a lemon, and breaks are rare enough that you are unlikely to get two lemons.
Inkjets are still good for color. If you demand the best color, I've seen cheap inkjets that come out on top when compared to $50,000 color printers (when compared to a pantone standard after an expert adjusted the expensive printer for that color sample!). Most of us do not need that level of abilities in color, and if you do there is probably a reason to get the epensive color printer anyway. Still something to consider if you need color.
Postscript is in theory better than PCL, but Ghostscript does an excellent job in the real world, and not all printers have postscript that is up to standards. (but in most cases it it either real postscript, or an older version of ghoscript, so you can't really go wrong) Don't worry too much about it, but if all else is equal prefer postscript.
One warning, laser printers do need a lot of power, prefer one with an automatic power saving mode, otherwise you will want to turn it off after each use.
Sure the ARM uses less power, but that isn't a factor. x86 CPUS designed for low power use exist (Transmetta on the extreem low power, but Intel, Via and AMD all have low power CPUs). Maybe not close to the ARM, but close enough compared to their full power brotheren. Unfortunatly the CPU isn't a particularrly big power consumer. LCDs take more, especcially if the backlight is on (and you can rarely work with it off). harddrives take a bit, and even more when starting so you should plan your disk accesses to all happen at once. Cd/DVD drives aren't particually good either.
Nice idea, but extention cords don't normally have insulation rated for high voltages. Standard house wire is 600 volts max. You always want some margin of safety though, and no knowing what is built into that rating by the manufactures I'd go with 300 volts. So you need to come up with a better plan than 50,000 volts, nice as it looks on paper.
However, 300 is very close to 240 volts, which you can get from most any service in the US. (there is still some 110 only houses left, but the power company will change them out if they find out about it, and it is rare) Most comptuer power supplies will run just fine on 240 volts (since in Europe they have 240 in all outlets and it is easier to not have to supply different power supplies). So plug your extention cord into a 240 volt outlet, and hope your power supply can deal with the voltage drop.
You can turn wood into electrisity. I know of two ways: first is burn the wood in a boiler, and use steam to turn an engine/turbine, in turn running a generator. Very dangerious and not recomeneded, but essentially that is what a highly efficant coal power plant does. (except with coal not wood)
The second way is to heat the wood, without oxygen, and collect the gasses that are given off. Purify them a little and run them through a modified small engine that runs a generator. You also end up with a byproduct of charcoal (much better quality that store bought) which you can find uses for if you think a little. Much safer than using steam, but there are a lot of problems with this that you should research first.
Unfortunatly while both work, neither is good for small scale use, but if you have no better alternatives they might be worth considering.
I've used generators all day long, they burn gas, even at idle. Read that again, a generator needs to burn gas to keep running, even when you are drawing no power. It likely works out to 3 gallons per day (this is a 6000 watt dewat). When running nothing but a radio all day long that jumps up to 5 gallons. Adding random saws into the the mix (which we do at constructing sites all the time) might add one more gallon per day.
Unfortunatly I don't know how to translate those numbers into something useful for this guy (too much random load). Some conclusions can be drawn however: Generators should always be used at full capacity or off. (beware there is full capacity and peak capacity, you need the former if you don't want a short generator life) That said, when you want a luxery once in a while, or the sun just won't cooperate, generators are worth having, just beware of the costs.
My lcol utility CO-OP claimed (about 10 years ago, I haven't heard anything and I assume newer technology is better. My memory might also be wrong, but this should be close) that underground lines last about 17 years and have something like 3 outages in that time. Overhead lines last 25 years and have something like 4 outages in that time.
Phone wires are different I'm sure. UV from the sun would be a problem, so I don't know how that compares to rots from the ground contact.
Overhead wires, for all they are exposed to storms, are more reliable than underground wires. The insulation isn't in the wet ground rotting away, or being chewed away by moles. In the case of electric there is no insulation except at the poles where UV and weatherproof (except for hail but that is rare) ceramic insulators do the work. Unfortunatly that is for electric wires, I don't know how it plays out for communications.
I did that in fact, and discovered that no amount of money will buy me more memory for my otherwise just fine computer. (ECC DIMMs or some such are required) They don't make it any more.
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Sure the government has spend $400 on a hammer. You would too, if you needed to use a hammer in a room filled with an explosive mixture, which was the case. There are some alloys that do not spark, your dirt cheap $20 hardware store hammer is not one, and is not something that anyone in their right mind would allow near someplace where explosive mixtures are common.
If you are going to use a hammer regularly though, the $20 Home Depot hammer is a wate of money, and you will harm your joints by using it. Get a real hammer, and your joints will thank you (or at least not complain as much) years latter. I spent $70 on my hammer (titanimun), and regret not getting the $100 one. I used it every day for a while though. It took me less than a month before I couldn't deal with the poor balance and vibration of the Home Depot hammer, the Craftsman replacement was much better, but still not up to the one I replaced it with.
No, because easy Cd creater 1.0 doesn't infringe on this patent. They didn't patent CD writing, they patented something that is useful for filesystems on some types of CD media. As I understand it, without reading the patent [1] they basicly patented a way of marking which areas on a disk were currently free on write once media. (That is where anything you mark free now might be used latter, but you can't change your previous marks) You could do this for RW media, but it doesn't make sense. OSTA adopted this scheme (perhaps developed independantly?) so that UDF could be used on CD-R media. Until the latest versions of UDF, became supported (much latter than 1995) nobody infringed on this patent.
[1] I'm advised not to read this or any patent by lawyers. What I don't know can't come back to haunt me. Or something like that.
I drive a stick shift. I already use my other foot for the clutch. When I brake I need to have my other foot ready to push the clutch at the right time. (which isn't the moment I start braking as the engine helps to slow the car for a time)
Doesn't apply to tailgaters I know, but it isn't a good idea to get into bad habbits.
It goes like this:
On my way to work today I saw a man reading while he was driving. I was so shocked I droped my razor into my cereal.
I don't advocate any of that. People are not designed to drive cars, and do not have the proper ability to do it safely without distractions. Ad in distraction and it is hopeless. (we only get by because of various rules that allow us to assume a lot of real dangers won't happen)
Look up the definition of ironic. This is not such a case.
Ironic is when someone claims a position that is opposite of his actions. Or something along those lines, I'm no english expert.
It isn't the buisness model, it is the management. People on top who watch over things with the correct balence between micro-management and complete hands-off, to let things work when they will but stop disasters before they happen.
Think Dell is great because of the buisness model? Then when is Northgate out of buisness (they were a big name before Dell). Why has Gateway had troubled times?
Think Wal-Mart is big? A&P (Is that the name? big power store before I was born) used to be bigger. I've never set foot in a Wards store in my life, and they used to be Hugh. Sears is having big problems and has been for years, yet J.C.Pennys does just fine despite being similear on the surface.
Admire Amazon.com? Look at the balance sheet and tell me with a straight face you really belive they can pay off that dept. They might, but if hard times come (the last recession was not very hard in comparition to others) they will be one of the first gone, while stronger companies will survive.
All failures can be traced to management. If the engineers were incompitent, management hired them; didn't recignize their failings, and fire them. If the company runs out of money, management wasn't paying enough attention to the accountants to make sure there was money. If the product fails in the market, management didn't pay enough attention to marketing (or hired incompitent marketers) to determin how much the market would bare. (both price and quanity)
There is a market for even the most flawed buisness model, so long as management understands the flaws and deals with them in the plan. Of course often the profit isn't worth it, but there again management should recignise that, perhaps by selling the assests and distributing to the investers.
Do a side by side comparition then, with a GOOD monitor. Matrox cards look excellent. In theory a 3D card can look just as good, but in practice then tend to skimp on the final stages.
A bad monitor will not show these differences. I have no idea who digital interfaces (LCDs) compare. A high quality CRT will show a difference.
Juice. Real 100% fruit juice. Not the sugar water that a lot of what is sold next to juice is. I find Nantucket Nectars brand is worth the extra cast because the are not from concentrate. (but hard to find) McDonald's used to have Apple Juice that was very good too (not from concentrate), but I haven't been there in years so I don't know.
Water is also good. I have a RO filter in my house, and find that water is most of what I drink. (I know a few people who live where tap water is good, but what I get from my taps isn't) It takes getting used to, but you can.
Gotta watch resteraunts. You are expected to order soda, coffee, or alchahol. Don't fall for it. Some have excellent Lemonade, but others just have a lemon flavored soda. Unfortunatly to get my free Sub at Subway I have to order a soda, no matter what I really want. (No surprize, to a resteraunt the ice is the most expensive part of a glass of pop)
Unfortunatly once you quit the easy addictions like sugar water and caffine your tastes improve. I've become a food snob. I read the labels looking for sugar, caffine, and find I'm more concerned with 100% natural ingreatiants... I buy Greek Olives from the Deli and love them. (other olives are not touchable) I've expirimented with Organic foods, and in many cases find that they are btter (though not all, and I don't blindly belive in organic like some). I make my own pizza and bread from scratch (sourdough). I'm not a good cook, but everyone thinks I am because my worst meals are still homemade and have flavor (compared to what they buy).
That isn't to say I don't sometimes have junk food, but I try to control it.
What good is basic infrastructure if 10 mintues after you achive it your enimies in [Pakatain or China] invade in destroy it all?
There needs to be a balance. Without basic infrastructure you cannot create defense, without defense you cannot hold your infrastructure.
Unless you would argue that China and Pakistan are not willing to invade India. I would disagree there. (though I wouldn't be entirely surprized if India attacked first)
every nation on earth claims to be a net exporter of food. Statitcs are easy to lie with, and everyone wants you to think they have no problem feeding their people.
That said, what most people know about India is wrong.
Sure they are. Remember, once they have the ability to make a safe plane that can make the NY to Sydney trip in 3 hours they can sell it to those who want that ability. I'd personally like to visit Austrialla, but spending 20+ hours in a tin can doesn't appeal to me. Airlines know this, and will run the numbers, if they can make money on the plane they will buy it.
I'm sure India wants some of those planes they sell to make the NY to Delhi trip, but they make money either way.
Not much I agree, but remember Nasa has sent people into space and returned them to earth every year that I can remember. (Might be an exception for 1986 and 2003, since I don't follow shuttle launches, I don't know for sure they had a successful launch in those troubled years though I belive they did) That is at least 1982, and I know there were plenty of launches in the 1970s, they even managed to get men on the moon and back home before I was born!
Then there are various Mars and Venus missions I hear about from time to time some of which lanuched since Reagan. Not to mention ground support for Voyager other other satalites that were launched years ago and still are sending data that needs to be examined.
What did India do? Built a few rockets, but never managed to support people in Space on their own. They don't have any satalites 10 light minutes away (at closest point in the Earth's orbit) to watch and attempt to extract useful data from. Sure their rocket is more advanced, but they don't have all those other distractions to deal with at the same time they build their rockets.
Mind you Nasa should have done a lot better.
Sure, China has 1 billion people. However they also have a one child per family policy, so their population is old. For every 4 grand parents you have at most 1 child. Soon it will be for every 8 great grandparents you have 1 child. (The policy hasn't been in place long enough for this to be completely true - yet). So when comparing populations you need to look a head. In 40 years expect the population of China to be .5 billion (all it takes is the current crop of old people to start dieing), while the population of the US should be only slightly less.
India isn't quite as big as china today, but they soon will be bigger. However India is working hard at becoming a first world, western style country. Remember, they were ruled by the British (I'm confused on the differences between Britton, Great Britton, and U.K, but I'm assured they are subtilly different) and have those influences. I'd say in the years to come they will become just anouther western country, like Japan is today.
Japan is good for the US, they have a bunch of smart people designing and making a lot of different neat things, for both our and their use and we both benifit from it. If a cure for cancer was found in Japan it would greatly benifit life in the US. If the cure was found in China I'm not sure they would share that with the US.
Western nation is more than a geographical position. When on western nation advances, all western nations advance.
I'm more interested in "whats the point" projects than most of what passes for news these days. AT least it is interesting. Lately I've taken to pretending I'm a /. moderator whenever I hear news on the radio. Once you put that additude on it is very rare not to be saying "flamebait" for most stories, with most of the rest as troll. Once in a while, but I've never rated anything as informative or insightful.
Air Hockey plans for those who are willing to attempt it. Anyone who would attempt though though, shouldn't need plans too much, it is exactly what you would think: drill lots of little holes in exactly the right spot, then a fan to blow air through them.
Agreed. A company will never say anything bad about someone they are not prepared to back up in court. Backing something up in court requires that they send witnesses and lawyers, at their expense, so they do not want to do this. Thus in many companies HR will only say "yes, so and so worked here from date to date as a blank, we have nothing more to say about him." Everyone in the company not in HR is required to refer the caller to HR without any other comment.
In short, if anyone says something bad about you, sue. The truely bad people you are competeing against will not have bad references, so you better not either. The best people you are competeing against (who may be better than you) have exactly the same reference.
My 8M Matrox Millenimun is more than just fine, it is GREAT. Even compared to todays most expensive cards, everything is sharper. Text is clearer. In all it is a much better card than the expensive ones you can buy today and well worth the price I paid for it years ago over a cheap card.
Sure, it doesn't do 3d at all. However I don't do 3d myself so that doesn't matter to me. I do spend my time looking at text, so sharp clear text matters. Once in a while I play a 2d games so clear pictures matter, and I get that from my current card.
It is all a matter of what you want. I knew when I built this system that I had no use for 3d, but I wanted good 2d, so I got the best 2d card money could buy. I know others who care about 3d games, so they spend money on those expensive cards, and upgrade often to get better. A matter of choice, I still haven't found a better upgrade for my needs.
See subject.
Okay, it is a generalization, so you can find exceptions. However that should be your guide. There is no reason and old eBay laser printer can't work for years to come with only toner replacements. Slow, but only compared to modern lasers, what is your hurry at home?
Inkjets are generally disposable. For as little as I print, a inkjet would have to be replaced every time I wanted to printer. My laser (which I got used for almost nothing) should last for years. Unfortunatly you never know, I said the same thing about my last laser printer and it no longer works. However used they are cheap enough that you can afford a lemon, and breaks are rare enough that you are unlikely to get two lemons.
Inkjets are still good for color. If you demand the best color, I've seen cheap inkjets that come out on top when compared to $50,000 color printers (when compared to a pantone standard after an expert adjusted the expensive printer for that color sample!). Most of us do not need that level of abilities in color, and if you do there is probably a reason to get the epensive color printer anyway. Still something to consider if you need color.
Postscript is in theory better than PCL, but Ghostscript does an excellent job in the real world, and not all printers have postscript that is up to standards. (but in most cases it it either real postscript, or an older version of ghoscript, so you can't really go wrong) Don't worry too much about it, but if all else is equal prefer postscript.
One warning, laser printers do need a lot of power, prefer one with an automatic power saving mode, otherwise you will want to turn it off after each use.
Sure the ARM uses less power, but that isn't a factor. x86 CPUS designed for low power use exist (Transmetta on the extreem low power, but Intel, Via and AMD all have low power CPUs). Maybe not close to the ARM, but close enough compared to their full power brotheren. Unfortunatly the CPU isn't a particularrly big power consumer. LCDs take more, especcially if the backlight is on (and you can rarely work with it off). harddrives take a bit, and even more when starting so you should plan your disk accesses to all happen at once. Cd/DVD drives aren't particually good either.
Nice idea, but extention cords don't normally have insulation rated for high voltages. Standard house wire is 600 volts max. You always want some margin of safety though, and no knowing what is built into that rating by the manufactures I'd go with 300 volts. So you need to come up with a better plan than 50,000 volts, nice as it looks on paper.
However, 300 is very close to 240 volts, which you can get from most any service in the US. (there is still some 110 only houses left, but the power company will change them out if they find out about it, and it is rare) Most comptuer power supplies will run just fine on 240 volts (since in Europe they have 240 in all outlets and it is easier to not have to supply different power supplies). So plug your extention cord into a 240 volt outlet, and hope your power supply can deal with the voltage drop.
Mind you I don't recomend this plan.
You can turn wood into electrisity. I know of two ways: first is burn the wood in a boiler, and use steam to turn an engine/turbine, in turn running a generator. Very dangerious and not recomeneded, but essentially that is what a highly efficant coal power plant does. (except with coal not wood)
The second way is to heat the wood, without oxygen, and collect the gasses that are given off. Purify them a little and run them through a modified small engine that runs a generator. You also end up with a byproduct of charcoal (much better quality that store bought) which you can find uses for if you think a little. Much safer than using steam, but there are a lot of problems with this that you should research first.
Unfortunatly while both work, neither is good for small scale use, but if you have no better alternatives they might be worth considering.
I've used generators all day long, they burn gas, even at idle. Read that again, a generator needs to burn gas to keep running, even when you are drawing no power. It likely works out to 3 gallons per day (this is a 6000 watt dewat). When running nothing but a radio all day long that jumps up to 5 gallons. Adding random saws into the the mix (which we do at constructing sites all the time) might add one more gallon per day.
Unfortunatly I don't know how to translate those numbers into something useful for this guy (too much random load). Some conclusions can be drawn however: Generators should always be used at full capacity or off. (beware there is full capacity and peak capacity, you need the former if you don't want a short generator life) That said, when you want a luxery once in a while, or the sun just won't cooperate, generators are worth having, just beware of the costs.
My lcol utility CO-OP claimed (about 10 years ago, I haven't heard anything and I assume newer technology is better. My memory might also be wrong, but this should be close) that underground lines last about 17 years and have something like 3 outages in that time. Overhead lines last 25 years and have something like 4 outages in that time.
Phone wires are different I'm sure. UV from the sun would be a problem, so I don't know how that compares to rots from the ground contact.
Overhead wires, for all they are exposed to storms, are more reliable than underground wires. The insulation isn't in the wet ground rotting away, or being chewed away by moles. In the case of electric there is no insulation except at the poles where UV and weatherproof (except for hail but that is rare) ceramic insulators do the work. Unfortunatly that is for electric wires, I don't know how it plays out for communications.
I did that in fact, and discovered that no amount of money will buy me more memory for my otherwise just fine computer. (ECC DIMMs or some such are required) They don't make it any more.