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Read this thread and weep. I knew the level of technical expertise (and common sense) on SR was sinking, but this takes the cake. This guy spent $700 upgrading a Pentium Pro system, including $410 on RAM. :clown: :rofl: :clown: If this isn't the dumbest thing I've yet seen someone do, then I...

This should get you started. By assuming the mass per mole of hydrogen gas (i.e. 2 atoms per molecule) is 2.01594 grams, I end up with a lifting power of 506.39 grams (1.1164 lbs) per cubic meter at STP. Naturally, you need to subtract the weight of the balloon holding the hydrogen to get the...

I doubt it would make that much difference-maybe a degree or two. This isn't that important for a microprocessor. However, in the case of thermoelectrics where 2 degrees cooler on the hot side means about 1.4 degrees cooler on the cold side, it is worth it (at least to me). I'll go with 600...

Funny, I felt it all the way here in New York. :-? Wait a minute-that was just my father walking to the bathroom. :bounce:

Baked beans or fries go nice with hot dogs. Cole slaw is OK on the franks, although onions or sauerkraut go better. I think baked potatoes would kind of clash. And dark mustard is the best. 8)

Dumb ass. For things this uneven there are thermal pastes with silver which are ten times better than the normal silicon oxide pastes. Besides that, you're only dealing with a few watts on a fairly large surface area. The clue here is that there is no metal slug on top of the IC package like...

Amazing. I wonder how long before you see these things performing some of the simpler manual labor chores of society. Also, I see applications for artificial legs that enable paralyzed people to walk normally with this technology.

I've looked at a lot of CFL comparisons, and 82 seems to be the CRI of almost all of the recent ones. Based on comparing my desklight CFL to the tubes, I would say that 82 is a fair guess. Reds rendered very slightly better under the 4-foot tubes than under the CFLs, but other than that I...

I'm having that glare problem right now as I mentioned previously, although a polarizer or glare shield should solve it (and would in most brightly lit offices). I didn't have glare prior to the fixture change even though that was still fluorescent lighting. A fixture with a dimming ballast...

1)We're all 130 or over and the test possibly can't measure over 140, so we all end up in a tight 10-point range. 2)Anyone who took it and scored under 130 was too embarrassed to post their score, and anyone who would have scored over 140 either saw no point in taking it (read some of...

The bad news is that they don't but the good news is that the shoplight I mentioned can run T-12s. In fact, it even says on the ballast that it can run T-12s. Home Depot has Philips Alto T-12 Daylight tubes rated at 2325 lumens and a CRI of 84 in a two-pack for $5.99. Very nice tubes. I was...

People around here getting married may or may not be a newsworthy event depending upon the person. JoJo's marriage didn't surprise me, although I'm still curious as to why he chose Thailand to get married. Pradeep's was a little more shocking in that he never mentioned a girlfriend. For...

You're quite welcome, e_dawg, and I'm glad the time I spent studying lighting for my own purposes this past year came in handy to help others with similar problems. One thing you may wish to consider if you're in a position to change out fixtures is an upgrade to electronic-ballasted T-8...

I had to vote for Flagreen's record on the IQ Test. Note that although he scored 147 on the Super IQ test I don't think this is remotely the same as the usual IQ test on which he scored 131. Nevertheless, I was still a bit shocked by it even though we all know Bill's no dummy.

Higher CCT light sources seem brighter for a given luminance level. I noticed this comparing a bike headlight modified with white LEDs to a stock one with a halogen bulb. As best as I could calculate, driving the LEDs at 1.7W produced the same lumens as the halogen bulb at 2.4W (yes, the LEDs...

I seem to remember a similar thread about this time last year but I'm too lazy to do a search. For what it's worth, there are songs just as bad as those on your list which they play in stores all year round. On some level it bothers me that crap like this was even written, let alone played ad...

Generally, you'll still hear the odd ambulance, police car, or helicoptor at 3AM, but it does get pretty quiet around here late at night. Besides, the double pane windows seal out sounds pretty good. My biggest complaint is the noise from the damned airliners. Speaking of HIDs, anyone ever...

Agreed, although I honesty believe Bush thought that there were. And even if Saddam had nuclear weapons, he most certainly would not have used them against the United States. That would be virtual suicide. Therefore, exactly what threat did Saddam pose to the United States? His army was in...

This is being addressed in the newer metal halide streetlight designs which are designed to eliminate light pollution while putting more light on the street where it belongs. This is one of my complaints as well because on most nights in NYC you can only see a few hundred stars. Sodium vapor...

I never thought of it that way but you may be right. Those sodium vapor streetlights take some getting adjusted to, so I can see how HID headlights can throw everything off again. I noticed the other day going across the Whitestone Bridge that the lights were changed to metal halide (they used...

True on point 1 if they aren't aimed properly. Regarding point 2, I've found that with white LEDs on my bike headlight (similar in color temp to HIDs) it actually works better with my night vision. Peak night vision sensitivity is in the blue-green area, so higher color temp lights will work...

Those are similar to GE's Reveal bulbs. Both have a blue neodymium coating to bring the color temperature up a bit (this absorbs some light and brings efficiency down a bit). We have some Reveal bulbs in the dining and living room chandeliers. It is a big improvement over regular incandescent...

I think the daylight tubes are meant to simulate the combination of sunlight and skylight which averages to a color temperature of 6500K. You're right about them not looking exactly like daylight. Daylight is a combination of a ~5500K point source(the sun) and the bluer sky(not sure of the...

Probably if you're reading a magazine or anything else with a lot of colors. You'll be able to see subtle differences in color better. If it's mostly text, the daylights are fine, and they still have pretty decent color rendering for photos. Both are much better than incandescent. Greens and...

You're quite welcome. :D I'm glad you enjoyed that thread. It's come to be one of my favorites around here. Regarding the CRI rating, most CFLs tend to be at least in the high 70s or low 80s, so you will get pretty decent color rendering. Do reds look red or do they look a little washed out...

I neglected to mention even though it's typical American fare sometimes a few hot dogs, fries, and a beer hits the spot. I have no idea why, especially those times I have an unfathomable craving for hot dogs. I guess I'll equate it to what smokers go through-you know it's bad for you but deep...

I haven't tasted Thai cuisine so I can't comment on that. I'd say Chinese(both food and females) are my favorites. Italian(my ancestoral cuisine) is a very close second. Mexican probably comes next, although I've never tried Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, or Japanese so that might not hold...

I can't argue with that. Frequently getting promoted to management means you actually earn less per hour thanks to more hours combined with no overtime. Bettering oneself in my book means earning more per hour, possibly combined with working fewer hours. Unfortunately, I gave up trying to...

Doesn't improvement work it's way into all aspects of your life, including whatever you do to earn a living? In some cultures a person is defined by what they do. I'm still not sure if that way or the American way is better. Maybe you guys are happy with most aspects of your careers, your...

And to an extent I agree with this. In my opinion if our government is failing, it is because it is failing to educate many of our citiizens. Education is the path towards reducing income differences between the classes. I neglected to mention one big reason companies here pay low salaries to...

Cougtek, A big problem with paying more for low-skilled jobs is that is causes the wages for all other jobs to go up as well. If you suddenly pay a cashier in a grocery store a living wage(which is about $40K in New York City), then how can you justify paying an engineer out of college the...

Honestly, it probably wouldn't impact me at all. I can only think of one possible person on these boards I might use it for, and even there it isn't clear cut(yet). Of course, a few more nonsensical posts could tip the scales. :x I don't believe I would be on anybody's "ignore" list(at...

While it is tempting to say this would be a good thing to have, especially with at least one member here prone to saying the same thing in thread after thread, I also think everyone deserves the chance to be heard. Once in a while, the member I was refering to makes on-topic posts that actually...

If you re-read your initial post on this it gives the impression that you would pay everyone except managers and owners minimum wage only(hence the reason Coug wasn't too thrilled with the idea): You didn't mention about the employees sharing profits as well. I happen to think is a good idea...

The mere mention of Paris Hilton makes me cringe. This spoiled, stupid, tacky, and I might add ugly bimbo has regularly been on the front pages of the NY Daily News for the last few weeks. Prior to her, it was Jessica Simpson, and Britney before her, etc. In any case, Paris is pretty near the...

It's good to know I'm just not imagining that. If it weren't for a few dozen regulars(and I'm noticing some are posting less and less) there would be nothing there worth reading these days. I think it's mostly the RAID0 and "what's the fastest drive" threads that bother me, but it seems the...

The general idea here is that certain jobs don't require much skill and therefore there should be no point in having high wages or benefits which encourage people to remain there for years. Granted, these menial tasks are important, and I don't look down on the workers doing them. However...

That should be savings to checking account, not the other way around. :oops:

I don't know about CityK, but what I do each month is transfer money at Chase online for my bills from my checking to savings account. After that I pay my CC bill online at the same site(and same session). They debit my checking account immediately but there is a delay before the amount gets...

Thanks for mentioning another of my pet peeves-those asinine blank checks. I called and had them stopped ages ago. I recently started getting them occasionally with my CC statement rather than in a separate envelope. I can't believe people actually use those things. You pay a fee up front...

Chase Mastercard and Chase Visa. The Mastercard gave me problems but I'm sure the Visa would have as well(except I never use it). Chase sucks but sadly there aren't many alternatives. Citibank is even worse.

This sounds almost identical to what happened to me, including the BS about waiving the fee being a "one-time courtesy". If nothing else, the bank should have provided some warning that online payments would take longer than usual after whatever changes they made. I wouldn't be surprised if...

Not in so many words, but there was a vague mention that I should stick to talking about storage rather than "things that don't concern me". The mention of the word storage immediately made me realize what the phone call was about. Also, it wasn't a death threat in so many words, but rather I...

My brother pays by mail, I pay online. For the longest time I would pay a few days before the due date, and my account was generally credited the next business day after I paid. Last year, I ran into problems. For a few months in a row, the payment wasn't credited until a week to ten days...

It seems economists have found a new form of inflation-stealth inflation. Basically, what this amounts to is all sorts of new fees and charges being added to bills but not counted in the CPI. In addition to the charges mentioned, you also have credit card companies not crediting payments...

If it was anyone on SR(which I highly doubt) I haven't a clue how they could get my phone number. Truth is based on the person's tone of voice I didn't think it was some prankster. I took it seriously enough to gracefully end the topic. Maybe one day when I have more proof to back up my...

For what it's worth we all have irrational beliefs. The moon landing hoax theory is not quite as out there as some of the other ones some people believe in, and it's no more illogical than the Kennedy conspiracy theories. I still believe the US government was involved in 9/11. A while back I...

I tend to think the company getting rid of the job should pay for the retraining. After all, it is one step in the direction of making employers treat employees better, and they will save a ton of money eventually by replacing their $15/hour worker with a few $100/month ones. Only fair they...

I don't know about everyone else here, but I recommended moving those people to a higher skilled job where they are really worth paying $15/hour, and retraining them to do so. I also recommend growing the economy with R&D to create new industries which will employ these displaced workers in...

I think the problem here isn't capitalism so much as it is unregulated capitalism. Left to its own devices, capitalism will create a very few wealthy along with huge numbers of poor. Just witness the working conditions that existed at the turn of the century for proof. Few employers will...