Search results

I don't understand. Aren't you using nails?

Don't know how we missed this!

You have a romantic idea of why people live outside capital cities. ;) Most people would rather have the option of the facilities and social interaction of the cities, even though there are obviously advantages to semi-rural life. People who do mine-related work do it so they have a job. The...

Eating out for the next year, then?

Very much. We're talking dial-up if you're lucky. Not to mention a single TV channel or none at all (although satellite obviously alleviates that), poor access to movies, etc. The problem for this and other infrastructure like roads and power is that the population to distance ratio is too low...

Does that mean you're using a thumb button instead?

It's an anthropomorphic expression coined by an Australian historian 46 years ago. Try thinking like a pioneer rather than a suburbanite. ;) I can drive in a more or less straight line from here for 2600km (1625 miles) and still be in the same state. And this is nowhere near the biggest state...

Interestingly, wholesale access to this infrastructure is (supposedly) guaranteed to have the same rates across the whole country. This is a big thing in Australia with its huge distances between cities and extremely sparse rural population. Obviously, it costs far more to provide this service...

Pradeep, extra karma for 'little Johnny' from the independent I've dubbed center-left: Once a 'young liberal' (right-wing youth movement that was recently infamous for a member comparing President Obama to a monkey), he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian Army, worked for...

Do you think I was fair with the political compasses? I don't put much stock in wings myself, but they're something that people can at least get a handle on.

We had a federal election 17 days ago. It's taken 17 days to work out how to form a (minority) government. The most important factor mentioned by the two independents that ended up supporting the existing government was this, the NBN (National Broadband Network). Things are looking up. :)

Yes, it finally went to the Australian Labor Party, after 17 days without an official government (the Prime Minister role continues until terminated, not so sure about the other ministers). By one vote, i.e. 76 to 74. Would have been two except that the extra vote belongs to an independent who...

Super Talent already makes one as the SuperCrypt, only without the bulk of the 1.8/2.5" form factor. There's also a RAID 0 version.

The feed coming into your house must use massive wires. Are there separate Neutrals that are joined as Common in your panel? Otherwise that would be 400A on one wire ... :-o I take it the Common is connected to Ground at the panel? Even then, I'll bet you could measure a differential once some...

You don't need Shift for that, you can just draw a box around the items. Having said that, I'd be more likely to just use my remaining hand (I have two) to hold down a Shift key.

Ah, thanks, that all makes sense now. I can see why others thought your 100A supply a bit small, a 40A cooktop could in theory take 80% of your capacity! So I assume that a standard 110V circuit is rated at 15A? And that explains why Stereodude's bass amps are limited to 1200W output each...

Spoken like a true idealogue. Residential and light commercial property builders here always use subcontractors who are highly unlikely to be union members. However, you need an electrician's license to do any kind of electrical work (similar to Jtr's description). It's got nothing to do with...

A master isolation switch has been the norm here as far back as I can ascertain. Might be because electricity utilities were all government owned. A master breaker is now the norm, but apparently not an enforced requirement. Every property has a pole fuse - with underground supply there's a...

Excuse my ignorance, but is that for 110V or 220V? I thought you guys were mainly 220V now. If so, 200A is an awful lot. Current standard here is either 80A or 100A single phase 240V. Three-phase starts at 60A per phase, which is pretty close to 220V @ 200A. Loads that demand 3-phase include...

That's really quite interesting. I can't find much info on this concept, except that it's more likely to be an issue where your switchboard is in a basement, for example. The only references I did find were US based. A wall with the "goop" sprayed in between the studs will be neither waterproof...

Thanks Greg, but I explicitly asked about the VP range, which uses IPS panels like your beloved TV. Anyone else? I came across this useful website with images you can use to test or tune a monitor. Some of the tests are very revealing, I recommend people give them a try...

Que?

+1

Jeebus! You have some interesting building codes. You haven't thought this through enough. All switches should be on the inside, where anyone who wants to break into your house can't get at them first. In my opinion, you're quite mad. There's little benefit in your moderate climate and only...

Has anyone seen any of the Viewsonic VP (IPS) range? I've only just noticed the VP2365WB, available locally for <US$330.

To cut a long story short, we were lucky enough to find four different Lenovo series on display at a specialist business retailer: X, T, L and Edge. Models were X200, T410, T510, Edge 14, Edge 15.6 and L512. Without preconceptions, my daughter soon spurned the other brands and focused on the...

Threads seeking laptop recommendations usually end up focusing on Lenovo Thinkpads. So here's a general purpose thread to help anyone who is interested. I've tried to keep an open mind, with the idea that company stars wax and wane over time. Nevertheless, it's hard to ignore the evidence that...

I empathize with that a great deal. I shot my mouth off here saying i3 wasn't any better than Core 2. :oops: But that's why we make technical posts, to share our knowledge.

I was under the impression that Lenovo netbooks and MSI netbooks came from the same factory, or the same manufacturer anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if that applied to all Ideapads and MSI laptops, but that's just a guess. Greg, you can transfer a bootable ISO image to a flash drive and...

Yes, it's a new range. Despite what Lenovo says, it's clearly replacing the SL series. The price is in US$ without taxes and includes delivery; I was feeling pretty pleased with myself because traditionally we pay through the nose for that sort of thing.

Pulled the trigger on a Lenovo L512 for US$570. The cheapest non-netbook laptop available locally is US$410 (Compaq crap). That includes the 2MP low-light camera, a "High Capacity" 6-cell battery option (probably standard in the US) and Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. There's a list of compromises, none...

I guess you didn't read the other thread ... The new Pentium is an i3 with hyperthreading disabled, and obviously, a lower clock rate (-22%). US$160 represents about 25% of the cost of the laptop. She doesn't run benchmarks all day, so I can't see it being worth even half that. For US$160...

Fantastic! Thanks for that. Any other arguments for VT-x on a laptop?

How essential is VT-x? I would have said that every CPU should support it - just in case - but now I'm confronted with the bitter reality of Intel's bastardry. Specifically, my daughter has a limited budget for a laptop. She can save US$160 by getting a 1.86GHz Pentium rather than a 2.4GHz i3...

.

I stopped by our equivalent of Home Depot today and found Philips 20W dimmable spiral CFLs for < US$12. Efficacy of 57 lumens per watt, minimum of 5% (1W), which seems okay for most situations. As I said, lighting on this scale is something you absolutely should trial first.

We all know there's not a lot of difference between an i3 and most i5 CPUs - just clock speed and a (slightly) faster graphics core. I've just been looking at laptop CPUs and surely Intel deserves some sort of obfuscation award with their efforts over the years? What's the difference between a...

Have you considered an academic career? Seriously, you've already written a compiler, you're obviously a good researcher and you love minutiae. (Yes I know, the last two criteria would describe a lot of people here, but taken as a whole ...).

Sorry, it's the best I can come up with using affordable products that are available now. I suppose 40 dimmable lamps at about $20-30 each isn't that bad ... provided you can get them in 4000K. Not as elegant as LEDs, but probably a more realistic option in 2010.

The things is, that at 1-2 million hours MTBF, the SSD is possibly the least likely component in the box to fail. Power supplies are doing well to claim 100,000 hours and fans are usually less than that. This is at low temperatures, but SSDs are unfazed by higher operating temperatures. In...

Only those CFL specifically designed for dimmers can be dimmed. Some can't be dimmed beyond 20%, but the main problem is that they're hugely expensive -you're probably halfway to an LED lamp. Switching lights in banks is a good alternative solution that also keeps the price down.

This sort of thing is what I mean, eg: I strongly recommend trying one or two first.

Um, I just had a peek at Candle Power Forums. :o The admins are indulging in a colossal mindf*ck. I don't think I'll bother going back there ever again. So Stereodude, I'm really sorry that I implied that you had anything to do with those witless motherf*ckers.

That would be the moral if you were a card-carrying member of the Candle Power Forums elite. I've bought at least 15 Romisen flashlights, comprising nearly a dozen different models, and only one has failed. Ironically, one of the 'new improved' driver boards. :dunno: For a 'budget' brand, it's...

Erm, that wasn't as clear as it could have been. Of course it will out-perform halogen in overall light output - by miles in fact - but you're still talking broad beam dispersion unless you also use reflector bulbs, which takes you back to the limitations of GU10 solutions (light is lost within...

How do you achieve the second backup each day? Do you make sure everyone's out of their system around lunchtime? This is all good, by the way. Please keep it coming.

I can't point you to an exact product, but here's what I've found. GU10 CFL downlights (i.e. mains voltage halogen equivalent) are fairly inefficient. I'm okay with mine, but they only have to throw 1.5m onto a bench, and the reflector bulbs are augmented with multi-faceted conical reflectors...

You have terabyte-sized Access databases?!!! :eek4:

:owneddnce:

I'm thinking that with the advent of SSD, small servers or desktops don't always need real-time drive mirroring, i.e. RAID 1. Mercutio uses shadow copying in his desktops, and I feel that's an acceptable risk for small servers as well. I'm also unconvinced that striping to improve transfer...