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| 11/22 |
| 2011/2/11-19 [Science/Electric, Computer/SW/Security, Science/Physics] UID:54035 Activity:nil |
2/11 http://www.tinyurl.com/6zxsqfr Tardis at UCB \_ yeah there are 'tards at ucb alright |
| 11/22 |
| 2010/12/15-2011/2/19 [Science/Electric, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:53983 Activity:nil |
12/15 I'm planning on traveling to Europe and I was wondering if there's
any reason I shouldn't be able to use a US power tap/strip (no surge
suppression) with just a plug adaptor (i.e., no voltage conversion).
This would be for use with electronics that accept 100V-240V. While
the power strip is intended for use at 120V, it's just wires, right?
(Also, this power strip has no power LED or similar.) If anything,
my understanding is since US voltage is lower, the wires generally
need to be heavier gauge, so Europe shouldn't be a problem.
Am I missing something? If so, what do you guys do when traveling
to countries that use ~230V power? Thanks.
\_ if that power strip has any form of surge protector in it, that
will blow the first time you plug it into 240V. Other than that
you'll have to deal with different outlet format. |
| 2010/4/26-5/10 [Science/Electric] UID:53803 Activity:nil |
4/26 Many thanks to the current generation of CSUA membership for throwing
the alumni barbeque this weekend. The current generation seems like
a smart enterprising bunch. Good to know that the CSUA is in good
hands. -dans
\_ ...unlike when dans was involved.
\_ You're right it was so much better when it was run by curmudgeons
and anonymous trolls. -dans
\_ like paolo? -tom
\_ Your familiar, albeit mostly recycled, trolling is vaguely
comforting. Good to know that some things about the CSUA
will never change. -dans
\_ wow awesome gratuitous insult there. dans i didnt see you there,
did you not stay very long?
\_ I was there a little before the barbeque, but had to leave
around 2:30 to go to a flame effects meeting for the art project
I posted about above. -dans |
| 2009/9/8-15 [Science/Space, Science/Electric] UID:53341 Activity:nil |
9/8 Dear religious freaks on Soda, here's a good CD for your kids:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/08/they-might-be-giants-1.html |
| 2009/8/18-21 [Science/Electric, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:53278 Activity:high |
8/17 http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/the-best-and-worst-cities-to-look-for-a-job San Jose and San Francisco... not a surprise. Northern Cal is still the best place to live. \_ What are you talking about? San Jose was 6th (above SF) and SF was 15th. If you rate "best place to live" as "best place to find a job" (which I don't) neither of these qualify and the answer is Washington, D.C. \_ it's a shitload better than Los Angeles, which is full of lame IT and support jobs. There are no real tech jobs that require real education. LA only needs people who have bullshit degrees from Cal Poly/Cal State. -troll who lives in LA and degrees from Cal Poly/Cal State. -putz who lives in LA and wasted his education in Berkeley \_ You sound like a putz. |
| 2009/7/21-24 [Transportation/Car, Science/Electric] UID:53169 Activity:high |
7/21 Quasi Science Question:
Is running a high ethanol mix going to mess up my 4 banger?
Also, why do people hate on the eth? At $2.11/gal it's kinda
nice, i didn't notice any pings. - Des Moines CSUAer.
\_ 2.11 is what you pay for it (maybe) but it isn't what WE pay
for it. What's the subsidy per gallon? What's the cost
per mile? Also, I think the majority of hating is reserved
for corn ethanol.
\_ from Iowa, i would have to assume that's corn ethanol
why the hate on corn? is it just the subsidy?
\_ Corn is a very inefficient producer of ethanol. -tom
\_ assuming that's pure ethanol that works out to about $4.00
per gasoline gallon equivalent (again not counting subsidies)
\_ EtOH doesn't have as much energy per unit volume, so you are
not getting as good a deal as you might think.
\_ Ethanol also burns hotter than regular gas, just check your
oil over time, you will experience some decay faster than normal.
Also, unrelated issue but I will assume you might have a boat:
http://www.factsaboutethanol.org/2007/11/19/ethanol-and-boat-motors-dont-mix
(or more likely don't consume an entire tank of gas in 3 days). |
| 2009/5/19-25 [Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:53011 Activity:nil |
5/18 Does the new federal vehicle fuel-efficiency requirement specify how
efficiencies of plug-in hybrids will be calculated? Some plug-in
hybrids claims to have ridiculously high efficiency like 100mpg because
they're not counting the energy input from the electric grid. That's
not a good indiction of their actual energy efficiency. |
| 2009/4/9-20 [Science/Electric, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:52834 Activity:nil |
4/9 "Ex-official: Spies have hacked electric grid"
http://www.csua.org/u/nyg (http://www.sfgate.com |
| 2009/4/3-12 [Science/Electric, Finance/Investment] UID:52796 Activity:nil |
4/3 My friend keeps trying to get me to buy Silver as it's $13/oz while
gold is around $900/oz which is a huge disparage considering the
comparative rarety of silver and it's industrial uses. He thinks that
the current price is artificially kept low. Anyone know anything about
these claims? Most of the places he points me to sell silver and gold..
\_ Precious metals are a hedge against inflation. There's really no
difference between silver and gold except the price/oz and that gold
doesn't tarnish.
\_ The belief is that silver will be worth closer to gold. And it's
the copper in sterling that tarnishes, fine silver or argentinium
hardly tarnishes at all.
\_ Could be. Could also mean gold prices will fall. Why didn't
he buy silver when it was $4/ounce not that long ago?
$13/ounce is not all that cheap.
\- your friend's reasoning is stupid. i would avoid discussing
finances with him.
\_ Second what this guy says. The valuation on both gold and
silver is more psychological than it is driven by industrial
use. Can you predict when the herd will abandon gold/silver
like when the herd abandoned the stock market? If so, then
you can make money on ANYTHING. If not, avoid bubblicious
investments. |
| 2009/2/15-18 [Science/GlobalWarming, Computer/HW/Drives, Science/Electric] UID:52576 Activity:nil |
2/15 How many watts does a typical desktop (not counting monitor)
use when it is completely idling (top shows at most 1-2% CPU),
assuming normal SATA HD, video card, 2-4G RAM?
\_ Google did a published study where they determined that the
largest consumer of energy in a computer is the power supply
itself. Figure that if you have a 400W power supply you are
using at least half that if not more even when idle.
\_ that totally blows. Laptop #1!!!
\_ Power supply manufacturers need an incentive to make more
efficient power supplies. It's probably not hard to do.
Google was talking about pushing manufacturers on that
issue, but one company is probably not enough. |
| 2008/12/30 [Science/Electric, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA] UID:52305 Activity:nil |
12/30 Where are the current descriptions of the "CSUA" and the "Announce"
mailing lists? Some old mail from a year ago said they were at:
http://CSUA.Berkeley.EDU/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/csua
http://CSUA.Berkeley.EDU/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/announce
But these links don't work anymore. Thanks. |
| 2008/11/1-2 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Japan, Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:51773 Activity:nil |
11/1 Gundam Academy:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5058011.ece |
| 2008/9/22-24 [Science/Electric, Computer/Companies/Google, Computer/SW/Editors/Vi] UID:51263 Activity:kinda low |
9/22 Gmail's "conversation feature" drives me nuts! Is there a way to
disable that and make Gmail act like every other e-mail client on the
planet? WTF thought this was a nice thing to have on by default?
\_ Umm, why don't you just use another email service then...
\_ Umm, I do, which is how I have something to compare to. I get
mail in at least 4 places only one of which is Gmail. I
rarely use my Gmail account, but I decided to try it again
today just to see how it was running and what features it
has added. I like to stay current with this stuff for the
same reason that people have accounts on flickr, snapfish,
photobucket, and shutterfly. This "feature" of Gmail annoys
the crap out of me.
\_ Well, it is kind of central to their design of the product.
So if you don't like it and can't deal with it, use something
else. This need to "stay current" with different email
services is also somewhat mystifying. Do you like to
"stay current" with different word processors too? I mean,
there is some benefit to being familiar with whatever, but
it seems like there are many more worthwhile things to spend
your time learning.
\_ That's nice. I run Windows, Mac, and Linux but I guess
some people just learn Windows, are happy with it, and
that's that. So, yes, I do use different Word
Processors (OpenOffice and Word), mail clients (Mail.app,
Thunderbird, kmail, and Outlook), etc. You might find
you like to watch TV, golf, or whatever your hobby is
that I find a waste of time. If you learn C++ does
that mean you shouldn't spend time learning Java or ruby
or python or whatever even if it turns out you think the
language sucks once you invested time in it?
\_ So a mail program is like a language? "Keeping
current" with gmail means figuring out all the cool
things they do with javascript. It doesn't mean knowing
how to read your email.
\_ I think you are wrong here. There are features
that can make you more productive if you know
about them. If you know "vi" then why learn
"emacs"? You already know a text editor, right?
\_ If you need to "stay current" with mail readers
you aren't smart enough to stay current. It's
a flipping mail reader. It reads mail. A
moron can figure it out within 10 minutes.
\_ Spoken like someone who doesn't know very much.
"It's a friggin text editor. It edits text. A
moron can figure it out within 10 minutes."
Point here is that you don't know what
features are available until you spend
that 10 (or whatever) minutes trying it out!
\_ You keep that "gmail power user" on your
resume. Let us know how it works for you.
\_ Keep reading your e-mail using PINE and
let me know how it works out for you.
\- what is weird are the people under say 30
who learned vi rather than emacs.
\_ Options -> sign out of chat.
\_ There doesn't seem to be any way to turn it off. It drove
me crazy at first, but now I love it.
\_ Same here. At first I hated it, now using my yahoo account
feels like going back to elm. |
| 2008/7/30-8/5 [Science/Electric, Computer/SW/Security] UID:50729 Activity:nil 78%like:50725 |
7/29 Pepperspray vs. taser, round #1:
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/self-defense-personalsecurity.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5sjfz5 [infowars.com]
http://videos.caught-on-video.com/Player.aspx?fileid=513DC6A2-FF6A-40F9-9893-589AC926FCCE&p=0 (taser takes down a BULL) |
| 2008/7/29-30 [Science/Electric, Computer/SW/Security] UID:50725 Activity:nil 78%like:50729 |
7/29 Pepperspray vs. taser, round #1:
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/self-defense-personalsecurity.html
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/tasers_vs_pepper_spray_evaluation_of_police_weapons.htm
http://videos.caught-on-video.com/Player.aspx?fileid=513DC6A2-FF6A-40F9-9893-589AC926FCCE&p=0 (taser takes down a BULL) |
| 2008/7/17-23 [Science/Electric, Industry/Jobs] UID:50607 Activity:nil |
7/17 CS degrees no longer paying off:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121623686919059307.html
\_ thanks for the url. but what i got was that she was an expensive
db admin from a telco and her advice for job security was to have
m4d c0d1NG sk1ll5
\_ CS has always been a field where you have to agressivly stay
current and you have to save for those lean years where jobs
are tough. Staying current has never been easier and frankly
if you don't have a good project that you could waste a year
or two on you aren't a good CS person. -mid 30s/no kids/no mortgage
\_ Staying current is not easy for someone like me with two kids,
timewise. -- late 30s, wife & two kids, mortgage
\_ Completely true, but it's part of the job. Actually, it's a
part of most well-paid jobs.
\_ Just switch to management. -- early 40s phb, w & k, mortgage
\_ "And in information technology, a portfolio of hands-on
experience with programming is a really good thing to have."
\_ Except if you're in Google, experience is a LIABILITY.
They hate people with experience. They want young,
energetic, optimistic, hard working (e.g. willing to work
70 hours a week min). They hate old farts and they even
start old farts at the SAME LEVEL as newbies for a year
so that they can prove themselves. However, promotion is
based on co-worker kissing each other's ass, so it's an
environment that is very old fart unfriendly. -G
\_ Do you ever shut up?
\_ No and FUCK YOU. Larry larry larry larry larry!!! |
| 2008/7/9-11 [Science/Electric] UID:50523 Activity:nil |
7/9 Electronic Voting Problems in France:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5pdakp [ars] |
| 2008/7/6-10 [Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:50478 Activity:nil |
7/5 Just saw Wall-E. Beautiful movie. Environmental message was vague
enough to appeal to anyone. "Stay the course" was a bit heavy-handed.
Overall, thumbs up.
\_ I totally agree, it was very nicely done. If the stupid right-
wingers who are up in arms about how bad it is maybe they should
open their eyes and take a look at how much garbage our society
produces in a day. -mrauser
\_ I've got to admit, it takes serious balls for Disney to put
out a movie attacking our consumerist culture.
\_ I find it pretty amusing how Steve Jobs' company's vision of
the beautiful robot was basically an ipod.
\_ not disagreeing with you, but it was Ives who designed Eve.
must add integrated plasma rifle to next iPhone.
\_ I think that's a metaphor about what happens if you
cross Apple.
\_ http://preview.tinyurl.com/3jl38z
"I wanted Eve to be high-end technology - no expense
spared - and I wanted it to be seamless and for the
technology to be sort of hidden and subcutaneous,"
Andrew Stanton, Wall-E's director, told Fortune. "The
more I started describing it, the more I realized I was
pretty much describing the Apple playbook for design."
\_ I thought a lot of designs looked to have at least some
inspiration/influence from Portal, not to mention the short
film before the feature film. |
| 2008/6/30-7/14 [Science/Electric, Science] UID:50419 Activity:nil |
6/30 Does the average tech worker in SV really make $144k/yr???
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5atgq6 (Business Week)
\_ Average is meaningless. Median is the statistic that you should
care about.
\_ The smaller headline reads "And with the number of tech grads
falling, demand will only rise". The author never took Econ 1.
\_ The comments to the article don't seem to agree with the article.
\_ Is this because all the tech workers who made less were sufficiently
replaceable that their jobs were outsourced out of SV? |
| 2008/6/22-27 [Science/Electric] UID:50331 Activity:nil |
6/22 I got a bunch of AA batteries that are about 0.8 - 0.9V. They're
not strong enough to power the devices I need. What are some creative
ways to get the most out of your batteries besides recycling?
\_ Look up "Joule thief"
\_ Seconded
\_ Wow, that's cool. I have all the parts except the transistor.
Anyone know where I can find a transistor really cheap/free?
\_ Here's an improved circuit that includes a capacitor:
http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/LEDTorchCircuits/LEDTorchCircuits-P1.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2llkrq [talkingelectronics]
\- http://www.slate.com/id/2193827 |
| 2008/4/24-5/2 [Science/Electric, Recreation/Media] UID:49819 Activity:nil |
4/24 Lonely sodalites, technology has come to your rescue! (NSFW)
http://www.csua.org/u/lc5 (wired.com)
\_ Check out picture #16. That looks just like the one in the 1992
ancient-China movie "Sex and Zen", albeit smaller and electric.
\_ never saw the movie, but are we talking about the same thing?
It looks like a catepillar.
\_ Yeah that's the one. The one in the movie looked more like
a wheel, is bigger, and is manual power (of course).
\_ Yes that's the pic. The one in the movie looks more like a
wheel and is bigger. -- PP
(5/2) Found the screenshot from the movie!
http://www.erotic4u.co.uk/Unknown+Girls-129790.htm
It's the second screenshot in the top row. -- PP
\_ "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the era of mechanized
masturbation," he told the expo. |
| 2008/3/18-21 [Science/Electric, Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD, Computer/Theory] UID:49488 Activity:low |
3/18 Walking robot video, really cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
\_ From MIT. All the good stuff's from MIT & Furd. Where's
cool stuff from Cal?
\_ BSD? Atomic Bomb?
\_ Actually RHex, which was a philosophical precursor to BigDog,
came out of motion work done by Bob Full at Cal. -tom
\_ Wow, that *is* impressive, especially the recovery after getting
kicked. And recovering on ice! Walking across loose stones!
Jumping!
\_ That is utterly cool! Thank you for posting that!
\_ Mount a machine gun on top... John Conner would be proud!
\_ They showed that on discovery channel or something months ago.
Where are the sexless tv watchers when you need them?
\_ obIWelcomeOurNewRobotOverlords |
| 2008/3/11-13 [Science/Electric, Finance/Investment] UID:49425 Activity:moderate |
3/11 Interest rate going below 0%? Is that silly or what?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23547244/page/2
\_ yeah its silly. Other stuff can happen that they dont mention
in that article, especially since the circumstances look distrubingly
like current environment. See, for example
in that article, especially since the circumstances look
distrubingly like current environment. See, for example
disturbingly like current environment. See, for example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidity_trap |
| 2008/3/6-7 [Science/Space, Science/Electric] UID:49355 Activity:nil |
3/6 Electric cars could threaten water resources:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3y66at (newscientist.com)
\_ Quote from the article:
"...... agrees that water scarcity will become an increasing
problem for utilities, but he doesn't think electric vehicle usage
will have much of an impact."
\_ The authors of the study referenced in the first part of the
article think there will be an impact unless there are some
changes to car design and/or the sources of power (wind, solar).
\_ We're going to be getting more and more of our oil from the Alberta
tar sands (production of which consumes a large amount of water)
and like the article says its the design of electric power plants
that's the problem, not electric cars themselves. |
| 2008/2/22-26 [Science/Electric] UID:49218 Activity:nil |
2/22 Cringley suggests that the switch from lead solder may not have
been a good idea:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080221_004346.html
\_ key word: may |
| 2007/12/30-2008/1/4 [Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:48866 Activity:kinda low |
12/30 Did the guy with the $150 electric bill from this thread
http://csua.com/?entry=45823 every figure out why it was so high?
I'm curious. -jrleek
\_ $150 a month is high? I wish my bill were that low over winter.
\_ Do you have an electric heater or something?
\_ Yup.
\_ Never did, but the bill is a lot lower now after unplugging my
second refrigerator so I am betting on that. |
| 2007/12/13-20 [Science/Electric, Consumer/PDA] UID:48797 Activity:nil |
12/12 Anyone reccomend a good site to buy a handheld electronic mahjong game?
All the standard (amazon,buy,toyrus) dont have them. Thanks
\_ Do you mean real mahjong or that mahjong solitaire nonsense?
\_ Real Mahjong with the tiles. My wife plays it online alot
and i want to get a hand-held electronic version of it
\_ there are a few on the NDS |
| 2007/11/9-12 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science/Electric] UID:48594 Activity:nil |
11/9 this new fujitsu technology of monitors on standby
that consumes no power is awesome! go nippon!
\_ I invented that technology long time ago. Go finger power!
\_ huh are you sure? I suspect that modern monitors consume
power even when off, due to the big capacitors in the
voltage transformer. this is true of a lot of consumer
electronic devices. i am a big hippy and keep those on a
power strip that i shut off manually.
\_ By not living in suburban Southern Cal in my entire
life, I've saved enough power that'll last me
a lifetime of 10 24" LCDs, powered on.
\_ SoCal's energy grid is damaged? Have you reported this? |
| 2007/10/2-5 [Science/Electric] UID:48220 Activity:nil |
10/2 Now *THAT's* a model rocket
http://www.polecataerospace.com/X-Wing.htm |
| 2007/9/3 [Science/Electric] UID:47876 Activity:high |
9/3 I was in wash dc last year with my friend the Senate staffer
and she said there was one senator who was waaaaay in the closet
and everyone knew it but the Senate is an old boy's club
with years of tradition so no one was going to out him.
Too bad he couldn't stay out of airport bathrooms.
\_ Are you sure she meant Craig? I think that guy was outed
by the DC Blade about two years ago. Maybe she meant someone else. |
| 2007/8/31-9/5 [Science/Electric] UID:47868 Activity:nil |
8/31 I want to make a little DIY electronic counter, where I press
a button and a LED screen displays the number of times I pressed
that button. Anyone have any ideas on how to build something
like this? Would one of those PIC microcontrollers be useful?
when I told her (a few weeks before she was getting
married) that marriage required giving up some of that
'me, me, me' to make room for 'us, us, us'. She's
still married 3 years later but they're both miserable.
\_ Wow, your wife's friend sounds like a gem. Sorry to
hear it. Hm, can we lay the blame at Dr. Phil's feet?
\_ In this case, no, just pure selfishness learned
long before Dr. Phil came on the air.
\_ Self sacrifice = tolerance for bullshit
\_ Sigh.... Please don't take a second wife, you'll just
be ruining her for someone else who might have been
happy. Unless she's as selfish as you in which case
you deserve each other.
\_ You must have a different definition of
self-sacrifice. Mine involves doing things you
don't want to do for the sake of the marriage.
That always makes people happy! I think most
people on the MOTD are idealists who never
encountered real marital problems but, more
likely, just delude themselves into thinking
those problems don't exist.
\_ Self-sacrifice != surrendering your entire self.
In a marriage, it means working out what's truly
important and what's merely petty-ante power
politics and eschewing the latter.
\_ Not for the sake of the marriage, per se. And
not thing you don't want to do. But you do things
because it makes your wife happy and she does the
same for you. A trivial example: my wife does
99% of the house work. Sometimes she's tired or
just doesn't feel like it so I offer to do it.
I don't *like* doing housework but it isn't that
big a deal and it makes her happy that I'd do it
sometimes without being asked (much less nagged).
Was that a sacrifice on my part? Sure, sort of,
but not really in the long run. What sort of
sacrifices did you have in mind? (And please note
that I did say this was a trivial example).
\_ You wife does 99% of the housework? Does she
have a job, too?
\_ She does not have a job outside the house
recently. When she did we had a maid
service and split the rest of what the maids
didn't do. I hauled trash, we split the
dishes, she did most of the laundry, etc.
\_ I was wondering where you found someone
who thought doing 99% of the housework
was equitable. Now I understand. My wife
works, but we share housework.
\_ If you mentioned LED instead, it would be a typical CS150 assignment
around my time (Fall '90).
\_ It only exists for people with a high tolerance for bullshit.
\_ Depending on how much of the circuit you wanted to build you can
do all of it with a microcontroller, or you can use flip-flops
and a multiplexer to hold the current state (count) for each digit
required (four flip-flops per decade/digit). Then you could
use a FND357 (7 segment LED display) and a 9368 (7 segment decoder
driver chip) to display each digit. -scottyg |
| 2007/8/29-31 [Politics/Domestic/California, Science/Electric] UID:47800 Activity:nil |
8/29 Time stopping next month:
\_ of day over the phone
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus29aug29,0,2466396,full.column?coll=la-home-center
\_ Gee. I was using this service to prove to our IT guy that it's
our server whose time is wrong, not my machine, and so please stop
sync'ing my machine's time to the server's.
\_ http://nist.time.gov |
| 2007/7/24-26 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science/Electric, Science/Battery] UID:47414 Activity:nil |
7/24 Power outage in downtown SF. Lots of websites down.
\_ Unable to surf, SF's civilization is down! CODE RED!!! Terrorism!
\_ They got LJ, and now a million emo kids have nowhere to slit
their wrists.
\_ http://valleywag.com/tech/breakdowns/a-drunk-employee-kills-all-of-the-websites-you-care-about-282021.php
\_ My old roommate drinks a lot and works there... hmmmmmm and is not online
\_ FWIW I think the drunk employee story is a sham, but who knows.
Just seems too much of a coincidence - drunk employee and major
city power outage on same day?
\_ D you know if affected Yahoo's webmail/addressbook/calendar services? |
| 2007/7/15-17 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Korea, Science/GlobalWarming, Science/Electric] UID:47297 Activity:nil |
7/14 Korean Researchers Develop Plastic Solar Cells:
http://urltea.com/zd8 (chosun.com) |
| 2007/7/13-16 [Science/Electric, Finance/Investment] UID:47286 Activity:nil |
7/13 Okay, someone mentioned this a week ago, so I have to ask.
How many of you are millionaires?
Bill Gates:
millionaire: ..
not a millionaire, but on my way: .
\_ if I pass the july bar :-)
f**k you:
Gentlemen do not discuss money or sex: .
\_ Defined how?
\_ I think it's current value of all your assets. This includes
current market value of your house minus remaining principle in
your mortgage, current dollar amount in your 401(k), current
market value of your stocks, money in your saving account, plus
current market value of your car, TV, stereo, porn magazine
collection, etc. The fact that you'll have to pay tax if you
sell your house, cash out your 401(k), etc. is irrelevant.
-- !OP
\_ Does it count if you+spouse > $1M, or do you only count
half of the house?
\_ I would count my spouse, but it is up to you... |
| 2007/5/27-30 [Science/Electric] UID:46772 Activity:nil |
5/27 Nice electric hybrid bicycles:
http://www.electric-bikes.com/bikes/bikes.html#Charger%20Bicycles
At 30MPH, eGO is my favorite out there.
\_ At 30mpg, driver's license should be required.
\_ Isn't a powered bicycles sort of not the point?
\_ if it has a motor, it's not a bicycle. |
| 2007/5/27-30 [Science/Electric] UID:46770 Activity:nil |
5/27 Finally, an electric scooter that can go above 60MPH and over
60 miles:
http://www.vectrixusa.com/default.aspx?portal=1&page=1 |
| 2007/5/8-9 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science/Electric] UID:46552 Activity:high |
5/7 A typical house is responsible for the emission of more than three tons
of carbon annually, compared with about 1.5 tons for the typical car,
according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18472719
\_ So, if you and your family spend 2/3 of the time at home
and 1/3 of the time in your car, both are about the same,
eh? What a stupid comparison. Still, I do believe homes
in CA are horribly inefficient.
\_ New homes in CA tend to be very energy efficient. Where'd you
get the idea otherwise?
\_ Not only that, but since the climate is so mild in CA, homes here
probably use far less energy for air conditioning and heating
than avg.
\_ While new homes tend to be more energy efficient they also
tend to be bigger. It's also pretty easy to take an older
home and make it efficient (double pane windows, better
insulation, these things aren't that expensive). Plus
newer homes are more likely to have AC even in climates
like the Bay Area where really you don't need AC.
\_ I've lived in some old houses and no, slapping on double
panes and some fiber glass isn't going to help compared
to how modern houses are built. You're just putting lip
stick on a pig. It's still a pig. I don't know which
part of the Bay Area you're in, but the parts I've lived
in have hit 100+ more than a few times over summers and
temps 85-100 are common enough. It hits 85 and I'm
turning on the AC.
\_ You turn on the AC at 85? Generally I find that just
getting cool air into the house at night will keep
the house cool enough during the day up to 95.
\_ Not if it is 80+ at night.
\_ I live in California and don't even have air
conditioning. The ocean a few blocks away is my
air conditioning.
\_ Not everyone lives 'a few blocks away' from the
ocean.
\_ But what's the typical car-to-house ratio?
\_ Thank god I don't live in the typical house.
\_ I line-dry my laundary and I use my gas drier maybe 5 times a
year. -- !OP
\_ Carbon Dioxide is plant food. Stop obsessing about it.
\_ They call it pollution... we call it life.
\_ cut your carbon release. stop breathing. |
| 2007/5/1-4 [Science/Electric] UID:46498 Activity:nil |
5/1 Marvel v. DC:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ItsJustSomeRandomGuy |
| 2007/4/30-5/4 [Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:46480 Activity:nil |
4/30 "Solar rises over Fog City - Solar panels are now so efficient that
fog no longer mandates remaining on the grid"
http://www.csua.org/u/il0 (SFGate.com)
\_ I very much want to put these on top of my apartment, but it's still
not cheap enough. Cool advances, though. |
| 2007/4/15-18 [Science/Electric] UID:46303 Activity:nil |
4/15 Popular Mechanics tests Compact Fluorescent Lights Bulbs
http://urltea.com/5np (popularmechanics.com)
http://urltea.com/5nq (popularmechanics.com - PDF)
\_ Interesting, but oddly doesn't rate the most potentially annoying
things about CFL bulbs. I use CFL bulbs throughout my house, a
couple of different brands, and they vary in the following annoying
issues.
1. Take longer to turn on than an incandesant bulb
2. They approch fully brightness slowly.
2. They approch full brightness slowly.
3. One brand actually produces a soft hum.
All these issues should have been rated. -jrleek |
| 2007/3/20-22 [Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:46024 Activity:nil |
3/20 You can surely drive your SO wild if you can do this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/theworldsmostexplosivetongue |
| 2007/3/19-22 [Science/Electric, Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus] UID:46013 Activity:nil |
3/19 "Linked List Patented in 2006"
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/03/19/112247.shtml
Was this a joke?
\_ not a joke apparently: http://tinyurl.com/3bnwwv |
| 2007/3/15-20 [Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:45973 Activity:low |
3/15 According to ABC, 90% of the energy used by incandescent bulb is
wasted in heat. That mean only 10% of the enery it takes in
outputs useful light. In addition compact flourescent light takes
about 1/4 of the same energy for the same output. So let's suppose
I have a 25W compact flourescent bulb and outputs as much as a
100W incandescent bulb (or 10W of useful light). Can I safely
assume the compact flourescent bulb also outputs 10W of useful
light and 15W wasted in heat, or 10/25 (40%) efficiency?
\_ I'm sure that will make a major diff. in 'saving the planet'
Of course it won't. The only real way is population control.
\_ 36 years old and no kids yet. Can I have a tax break?
\_ of course in winter, the 'heat' isn't wasted.
\_ Yeah. But in summer, not only is the heat wasted, it makes your
AC work harder which takes even more energy.
\_ not entirely -- except when you consider the energey used to
generate that electricity in the first place. Usually generated
by some form of heat engine, again usually burning fossill fuels.
So that 90W of electrically-created heat required the waste of
another ~200W of heat at the power plant. Compare this to
burning gas locally to generate heat, where virtually all the
heat in the gas goes to heating.
\_ totally agree. But neither heat nor power generation is
factored into light bulb efficiency anyways -pp
\_ Yeah. But household furnace usually burns natural gas.
Burning gas to generate heat is more efficient than burning gas
to generate electricity and then using electricity to generate
heat, which in turn is cleaner than burning coal to generate
electricity and then using electricity to generate heat. Also,
in summer, not only is the heat wasted, it also makes your AC
work harder which uses even more electricity. That's the same
reason why, if you leave your PC and monitor idling at, say, 20W
in an air-conditioned room, you're actually wasting more than
20W.
in an air-conditioned room, you're actually using more than 20W. |
| 11/22 |