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User: gboss

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Comments · 29

  1. Re:A lot of confusion. on One In Eight Chance of a Financially Catastrophic Solar Storm By 2020 · · Score: 1

    Actually, they are usually MOVs.

  2. Re:This reminds me of the 1980s... on Web Usage-Based Billing On Its Way · · Score: 1

    Well, almost.

    Consumer-grade stand alone burners, which virtually no one uses anymore and not many people ever did, require a "music" cdr and won't burn to a "computer" disc. Before bit perfect digital audio inputs were cheap, it was an economical way of getting your DATs/band demo/whatever onto your computer, even with the disc surcharge.

    Likewise, virtually everyone I know in the DAT world used data grade DDS tapes instead of actual DATs. 60m (120min) tapes are identical and 90m (180min) tapes, while the actual tape is thinner, are well-tolerated on a large number of decks. Even consumer level decks had no way of knowing if you were using a DDS or a DAT.

  3. Re:Power monitoring on Are Data Centers Finally Ready For DC Power? · · Score: 1

    You make a large connection with a known (low) resistance (i.e. known copper cross section) and then measure the voltage drop across it.

  4. What would their reaction be if... on EPIC Files Lawsuit To Suspend Airport Body Scanner Use · · Score: 1

    You just dropped trou before the pat down. As long as you still have underwear on, it's not indecent. It would, however, serve to show how ridiculous the whole operation is.

  5. Their problem was that on Cook's Magazine Claims Web Is Public Domain · · Score: 1

    They did not first invent the universe.

  6. Re:More to lose than to gain on Hacking Automotive Systems · · Score: 1

    Hearing all of this makes me absolutely love and appreciate the work that Uwe Ross does over at Ross Tech for making VAG ECUs so accessible to the hobbyist/independent shop for a reasonable amount of money.

  7. Re:Hybrid car on $529M Gov't Loan To Develop $89,000 Hybrid Sports Car · · Score: 1

    Perhaps every Chevy sold in the USA has ABS, but certainly not every Chevy sold worldwide has ABS...

  8. Re:interesting stuff is in links from the second l on New Motorcycle World Speed Record, 367.382 mph · · Score: 1

    A properly designed sand casting is defect free with proper quality control. Most of the sand that is washed ends up in the gates and sprue. Most of the surfaces (somewhat rough in a sand casting) are going to be shot peened and machined smooth anyway...

    A foundry that produces sand inclusions in their castings without any quality control will not stay in business very long at all.

  9. Re:More importantly on A History of Wiretapping · · Score: 1

    You are legally required to present a valid drivers license when asked by an officer of the law while operating a motor vehicle. Period.

  10. Re:5% blend of algae fuel only... on First Algae Car Attempts To Cross the US On 25 Gallons of Fuel · · Score: 1

    Diesel engines were originally designed to be run on plant (peanut) oil, not BD.

    Old diesel engines can be modified to run on SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) or WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) but the high injection pressures and tolerances of the pumps and injectors of modern diesel engines do not respond well to the much higher viscosity of SVO or WVO, even after pre heating. The glycerides (which are removed in the transesterfication process to convert to biodiesel) left over after burning will gunk things up badly.

    Modern diesel engines: Biodiesel=yes, SVO and WVO= no, if you care about the life of your engine and injection system.

  11. Re:random noise generator? on Stealing Data Via Electrical Outlet · · Score: 1

    or you could just use an isolation transformer.

  12. Re:Won't Someone Think of the ... Men on Reliable Male Contraceptive In the Works · · Score: 1

    The fact of the matter is, it takes two to get pregnant, but it only takes one to decide to keep it (hint: not the male). That's just unfair. It's about time we empower men.

    And how exactly could this be different? Forced abortions? Be serious.

  13. Re:What's new? on New Material For Fast-Change Sunglasses, Data Storage · · Score: 1

    Yes, because it's not like there's a government agency designed to test and enforce workplace safety. And companies surely love to expose themselves to huge amounts of liability, especially companies that manufacture safety equipment. I'm sure no one has ever studied the effectiveness of auto-darkening welding lenses. Now let me go extensively test my certified safety glasses and hard hat before I go back to work.

  14. Re:LOL on New Law Will Require Camera Phones To "Click" · · Score: 1

    Pedantic-Man(tm) approves! It should also be noted that Pedantic-Man's VW TDI (diesel) has no 'gas' pedal. :)

    It also has no throttle!

  15. Re:Check out the patent on EEStor Issued a Patent For Its Supercapacitor · · Score: 1

    Iron takes about 450-500kWh/ton to melt to 2775F. A 1MW supply could easily melt 2 tons of iron an hour. Or charge 20 cars.

  16. Re:Charging an electric car on Chinese Automaker Unveils First Electric Car · · Score: 1

    It is only dangerous if your conductors are not sized correctly for it...

  17. Electrical Joint Compound on Photos of the Damage To the Large Hadron Collider · · Score: 1

    Hey, remember the EJC at the connection this time!

  18. Re:So they want GOV spyware? on UK Cops Want "Breathalyzers" For PCs · · Score: 1

    (pure)Water does not conduct electricity either.

  19. Re:The projected costs are worthless. on The Facts & Fiction of Bandwidth Caps · · Score: 1

    "Oh, I can't run my array of arc welders constantly anymore with these oppressive 4GW/month electricity caps!" "NOW how is my Tesla coil going to work all day and all night? I need that protection!"

    4GWh/Month, you mean?

  20. Re:Some civ has to be the first... on Apollo 14 Moonwalker Claims Aliens Exist · · Score: 1

    - the guy is right and they are already here and among us (maybe they are criminals hiding on a primitive planet)

    What if we are all the descendants of telephone sanitizers sent to Earth and that we are extra terrestrial beings ourselves?

  21. Re:S/PDIF Interfaces can save your music on Yahoo! Music Going Dark, Taking Keys With It · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yahoo music -> decoder -> S/PDIF (uncompressed PCM).

    As long as you record the S/PDIF losslessly, for instance on a CD or using FLAC, you will have the same quality as listening from the yahoo music original.

    If you encode it back to mp3/aac/ogg, etc., then it will have another lossy compression generation and the quality will degrade.

    This is not as bad a reduction in quality as using the "analog hole":

    Yahoo Music -> decoder -> D/A -> A/D -> encoder

  22. Passvation layers? on Fingerprints Recoverable From Cleaned Metal · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What about metals with passivation layers, such as aluminum, titanium, and stainless steel? TFA does not address this at all... Sure, brass may be the main metal that they are going to need for shell casings, but a lot of guns are made with stainless steel.

  23. Re:comment from a contrarian on City-Provided Wi-Fi Rejected Over "Health Concerns" · · Score: 1

    Thalidomide was never approved for sale in the USA.

  24. Re:The Counterfeit Bolt Problem on Counterfeit Chips Raise New Terror, Hacking Fears · · Score: 1

    The fact that he was killed has nothing to do with the failed bolt. If he was at a height where he was able to fall to his death (above 6ft, I believe is the OSHA standard), he should have been wearing fall protection. He was performing his job unsafely and it cost him his life. It had nothing to do with the (possibly counterfeit) bolt.

  25. Re:How about diesel? on X Prize For a 100-MPG Car · · Score: 1

    Diesels emit more NOx than gasoline cars because there is always an excess of air in the combustion chamber (i.e. they are always running "lean") as opposed to gasoline cars which need to run close to the stoichiometric ratio of 14.7/1 air/fuel ratio, which means that theoretically all the oxygen is used for combustion.