Right now the stations are broadcasting in both analog AND digital, meaning they are putting up the power for 2 signals instead of one.
Once you shutdown the analog signal, you can boost the power to just the Digital signal, giving a far better range. Or for those already at full power to digital already you save on overall electricity costs. a megawatt of electricity isn't cheap, especially at peak rates.
All but PBS comes in like crap on digital for me right now. Yet the analog signals come in static free. So go figure about what "quality" actually means with digital vs analog.
I've gotten into a ~6 month routine of doing this. I have a 40 GB HD that gets the main windows install. After that I have a 160GB drive I dump all my program installation files, pictures, music, ect. Finally a RAID setup that has my games installed into for faster load times, and an extrenal backup as well for ensuring my pictures and music don't get lost.
Every 6 months XP will lag uncontrollably, and I'll start the ritualistic reinstall of Windows and all the applications I love and need. The C drive gets wiped clean, and everything gets a fresh install. 30 mins to get Windows started, 30 mins to install all the hardware drivers, and another 30 mins to setup all the other visuals like background, screansaver, internet bookmarks, and various desktop shortcuts.
I know what you're thinking. That's a lot of effort, and what if I forget to save some of my important stuff in the reinstallation? Well the alternative is that you wait til Windows completely bugs out and you get BSODs on startup, requiring you to do this anyways. I've had that happen and it sucks. Everyone should know how to backup their important stuff anyhow. Because if you don't you're just waiting for trouble to hit.
As inconvenient as it is to spend a few hours reinstalling windows, I find it more annoying to sit at a computer that takes 2x longer to load everything, freezes up when you don't want it do, and potentially crashes and corrupts the files you thought you could save forever.
1. Every game you buy can be downloaded as a backup and saved wherever you like "permanently" (at least as long as your backup lasts).
2. You don't need to log in to play those games any time after they've been verified through Steam the first time you play it. They are all playable in "offline" mode.
3. If you don't like this, you can always buy hard copy games.
An AI computer construct centralized in an underground bunker.
It might also interest you to know that all the extra profits from their high priced glossy peripherals is funding their new weapon's division. They plan on riding out the recession by grabbing military contract money. Their major new project is dubbed the iMissle.
I just built an i7 system, splurged on a few nicer options and ended up at just about $1000 for the build. Had I been more fiscal: MB = $250 i7 920 = $300 3GB Ram = $100 PSU = $100 Case = $50 Total = $800
But if you already have an AM2 MB, a $250 upgrade puts you back in the ballpark of being on the cutting edge. If someone wants to save $650 on a full system upgrade, it makes a lot of sense to me.
If anyone has ever worn sunglasses while looking at an LCD monitor, you quickly discover that tilting your head causes the screen to go black in specific orientations.
Hasn't anyone tried to manufacture an LCD with alternating LCD polarity between adjacent lines of pixels? Mounting cheap polarized films on any frame is all you'd need to split the monitor image between left and right eye. No shutter frames needed, the video card merely splits an image into stripes for the left and right eye at normal refesh rates. Same idea as "progressive scanning" images on some HDTVs
Tom's is way better. If I want to upgrade my PC or video card, they actually do proper benchmarks and realistic budgets. I may never have triple SLI, but only because I don't feel like dropping another $500 on video cards for relatively minimal fps gains.
I dropped a grand on a new i7 system last week. Primarily because I was tied of my old Opteron 170 rig, but a good deal because I'd been influenced by the Tom's hardware midprice build. A grand is not "budget."
With the new expansion of World of Warcraft out, Starcraft 2 getting polished, and Diablo 3 on the board, I don't seem to think Blizzard is complaining.
Oh that's right. They don't make crappy games. So people look forward to buying the games new.
I love to hear about innovations like this. However it can be taken a step further.
Not only can we make crops resistant to salty conditions, we can breed them to fix the soil and remove that salt. Bioremediation works on all sorts of poisoned soils, removing all sorts of poisons.
Not sure how trade chat discussions end up on other realms, but the voting will inevitably be narrowed down between Murlocs and Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris would be the obvious best choice, however Murlocs would stay in the race and present a hard battle due to their sheer numbers and ability to throw spears through walls.
How in the hell did they leave Counter-Strike off the list?
Not only was it the most popular mod for Half-life, but also Half-life 2. In my opinion, this is THE definitive mod that has been recognized as a game of its own. There were actually mods of CS itself. And they forgot CS from this list?
But people don't decide to drive longer trips just because they have extra fuel in their tank after getting some where. Once you drive to work, you don't think to yourself "wow, I could drive another 5 more miles in this new car without paying any more in gas than with my old car. I think I'll loop around the block a few more times."
People drive to get to a set destination. Fuel savings are on miles driven, not miles able to be found on a tank of gas.
Think of a truck at 20 mpg, and a geo at 40 mpg. If both drive 100 miles a week: truck = 5 gallons geo = 2.5 gallons
If you increase each fuel efficiency by 5 mpg, the truck now gets 25 mpg, and the geo gets 45 mpg: truck = 4 gallons (saves 1 gallon) geo = 2.222 gallons (saves 0.278 gallons)
If you have an overall efficiency increase of 50%, the truck now gets 30mpg, and the geo gets 60 mpg truck = 3.333 gallons (saves 1.667 gallons) geo = 1.667 gallons (saves 0.833 gallons)
Any fuel saving measures you put on the bulky vehicles will have faster and more realistic returns than on already small and efficient cars. It makes more sense to turn an expedition or hummer into a hybrid than a honda civic.
Slashdot Mirror
Some people are driven to unlock a cure for cancer. Others, the origin of navel lint.
As it turns out, belly button lint is curable by shaving your treasure trail. Cancer, not so easy.
Right now the stations are broadcasting in both analog AND digital, meaning they are putting up the power for 2 signals instead of one.
Once you shutdown the analog signal, you can boost the power to just the Digital signal, giving a far better range. Or for those already at full power to digital already you save on overall electricity costs. a megawatt of electricity isn't cheap, especially at peak rates.
All but PBS comes in like crap on digital for me right now. Yet the analog signals come in static free. So go figure about what "quality" actually means with digital vs analog.
I've gotten into a ~6 month routine of doing this. I have a 40 GB HD that gets the main windows install. After that I have a 160GB drive I dump all my program installation files, pictures, music, ect. Finally a RAID setup that has my games installed into for faster load times, and an extrenal backup as well for ensuring my pictures and music don't get lost.
Every 6 months XP will lag uncontrollably, and I'll start the ritualistic reinstall of Windows and all the applications I love and need. The C drive gets wiped clean, and everything gets a fresh install. 30 mins to get Windows started, 30 mins to install all the hardware drivers, and another 30 mins to setup all the other visuals like background, screansaver, internet bookmarks, and various desktop shortcuts.
I know what you're thinking. That's a lot of effort, and what if I forget to save some of my important stuff in the reinstallation? Well the alternative is that you wait til Windows completely bugs out and you get BSODs on startup, requiring you to do this anyways. I've had that happen and it sucks. Everyone should know how to backup their important stuff anyhow. Because if you don't you're just waiting for trouble to hit.
As inconvenient as it is to spend a few hours reinstalling windows, I find it more annoying to sit at a computer that takes 2x longer to load everything, freezes up when you don't want it do, and potentially crashes and corrupts the files you thought you could save forever.
1. Every game you buy can be downloaded as a backup and saved wherever you like "permanently" (at least as long as your backup lasts).
2. You don't need to log in to play those games any time after they've been verified through Steam the first time you play it. They are all playable in "offline" mode.
3. If you don't like this, you can always buy hard copy games.
Seconded for Ein
An AI computer construct centralized in an underground bunker.
It might also interest you to know that all the extra profits from their high priced glossy peripherals is funding their new weapon's division. They plan on riding out the recession by grabbing military contract money. Their major new project is dubbed the iMissle.
I just built an i7 system, splurged on a few nicer options and ended up at just about $1000 for the build. Had I been more fiscal:
MB = $250
i7 920 = $300
3GB Ram = $100
PSU = $100
Case = $50
Total = $800
But if you already have an AM2 MB, a $250 upgrade puts you back in the ballpark of being on the cutting edge. If someone wants to save $650 on a full system upgrade, it makes a lot of sense to me.
If anyone has ever worn sunglasses while looking at an LCD monitor, you quickly discover that tilting your head causes the screen to go black in specific orientations.
Hasn't anyone tried to manufacture an LCD with alternating LCD polarity between adjacent lines of pixels? Mounting cheap polarized films on any frame is all you'd need to split the monitor image between left and right eye. No shutter frames needed, the video card merely splits an image into stripes for the left and right eye at normal refesh rates. Same idea as "progressive scanning" images on some HDTVs
Tom's is way better. If I want to upgrade my PC or video card, they actually do proper benchmarks and realistic budgets. I may never have triple SLI, but only because I don't feel like dropping another $500 on video cards for relatively minimal fps gains.
I dropped a grand on a new i7 system last week. Primarily because I was tied of my old Opteron 170 rig, but a good deal because I'd been influenced by the Tom's hardware midprice build. A grand is not "budget."
Sure, it's 9 years later. But there's no reason to count out Microsoft from being behind the curve.
Don't buy it and don't play video games if you don't want to waste time.
Yet you post on Slashdot?
It burns!
Send it back to the depths of Hell whence it came!
Wouldn't that be an a-C-ist?
"Well there's your problem!"
Thanks for letting us in on the details so quickly.[/sarcasm]
With the new expansion of World of Warcraft out, Starcraft 2 getting polished, and Diablo 3 on the board, I don't seem to think Blizzard is complaining.
Oh that's right. They don't make crappy games. So people look forward to buying the games new.
You've obviously never eaten Pringles then.
It's what plants crave
I love to hear about innovations like this. However it can be taken a step further.
Not only can we make crops resistant to salty conditions, we can breed them to fix the soil and remove that salt. Bioremediation works on all sorts of poisoned soils, removing all sorts of poisons.
Hell, we could have pre-salted potato chips!
Sort of throws out the "portability" marketing scheme
It's about time that the stolen UFO technology currently being used in silent black helicopters is finally trickling down to private enterprise.
Not sure how trade chat discussions end up on other realms, but the voting will inevitably be narrowed down between Murlocs and Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris would be the obvious best choice, however Murlocs would stay in the race and present a hard battle due to their sheer numbers and ability to throw spears through walls.
How in the hell did they leave Counter-Strike off the list?
Not only was it the most popular mod for Half-life, but also Half-life 2. In my opinion, this is THE definitive mod that has been recognized as a game of its own. There were actually mods of CS itself. And they forgot CS from this list?
But people don't decide to drive longer trips just because they have extra fuel in their tank after getting some where. Once you drive to work, you don't think to yourself "wow, I could drive another 5 more miles in this new car without paying any more in gas than with my old car. I think I'll loop around the block a few more times."
People drive to get to a set destination. Fuel savings are on miles driven, not miles able to be found on a tank of gas.
Think of a truck at 20 mpg, and a geo at 40 mpg. If both drive 100 miles a week:
truck = 5 gallons
geo = 2.5 gallons
If you increase each fuel efficiency by 5 mpg, the truck now gets 25 mpg, and the geo gets 45 mpg:
truck = 4 gallons (saves 1 gallon)
geo = 2.222 gallons (saves 0.278 gallons)
If you have an overall efficiency increase of 50%, the truck now gets 30mpg, and the geo gets 60 mpg
truck = 3.333 gallons (saves 1.667 gallons)
geo = 1.667 gallons (saves 0.833 gallons)
Any fuel saving measures you put on the bulky vehicles will have faster and more realistic returns than on already small and efficient cars. It makes more sense to turn an expedition or hummer into a hybrid than a honda civic.
First it was socks, now it's liquid helium cooled super conducting magnetic insulators. What's next?!