Something Random

[Mercutio]

:erm: PBS would instead intermingle the Olympics with their pledging drives and then show it letterboxes and pillarboxed on a heavily degraded HD feed that shares ~19Mbit/sec with their half dozen other subchannels. No thanks.

In Chicago, the PBS station does four weeks of pledge drives a year, but only during a limited number of hours each day. I suspect only about 5% of the station's broadcast time falls in a pledge period.

We're talking about sports. I'm not seeing a huge need for high definition to begin with. One human or ball-shaped blob crosses a line before other human or ball shaped blobs.

There is a real advantage to HD for arts programming; the quality of the experience really is enhanced for being able to see an actor's facial expressions or the textures of the material on a period costume; can you say that your viewing experience is enhanced because you're able to tell that the fifth-place finisher in men's 500m downhill fall got sweat in his eyes at the 400m mark? If PBS has less capable HD equipment, I certainly don't think it would matter for sports programming.

 

[Handruin]

Ice skating routines and floor routines could be considered art and worthy of HD. People get to showcase their fantastic abilities to use their body and coordination which is a result of their dedication and hard work. I see it similar to someone who shows their art, plays their classical instrument, or even uses their voice to sing (or even dancing, etc). You don't have to like sports (I certainly don't) but there is a human achievement story in there. A lot of these people do it because they want to, not because they're getting a multi-million dollar contract to play a sport.

 

[ddrueding]

I think you're missing an appreciation for physical capabilities, Merc. I don't have a favorite team or athlete, but I do enjoy watching the best at something push the limits of what is possible. Whether that is strength, dexterity, speed, accuracy, or engineering capability, is a pretty strong geek trait.

 

[ddrueding]

My argument for HD would be that, at the top levels of competition, that level of detail may be necessary to differentiate two competitors.

 

[Stereodude]

In Chicago, the PBS station does four weeks of pledge drives a year, but only during a limited number of hours each day.

I think the Detroit station has ~4 months of pledging. I never watch it. The picture quality is abysmal.

 

[Stereodude]

My argument for HD would be that, at the top levels of competition, that level of detail may be necessary to differentiate two competitors.

It's 2010. You don't need an argument for HD. All TV should be HD. It's not the late 90's anymore.

 

[Mercutio]

I think you're missing an appreciation for physical capabilities, Merc.

You're right. I don't have any appreciation for it.

 

[LunarMist]

I am frankly disgusted with the lack of live coverage in the US, for Olympics that are occurring in Pacific Standard Time. Show it live, and then show it again in prime time, tape delayed.

NBC - continuing to bring s### to the Olympics.

From what I heard there is less live coverage than in 1984. I stopped watching the olympians permanently in 1996.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't understand why anyone cares about the olympics to begin with. There are a whole bunch of sports no one cares about at any point during the four years leading up to the games, and then there are the games, where people are supposed to care, and then we go right back to not giving a crap for another four years.

Granted that I don't understand the appeal of sports to begin with, but the olympics strike me as particularly inconsistent.

A man with a like mind.

 

[LunarMist]

It's 2010. You don't need an argument for HD. All TV should be HD. It's not the late 90's anymore.

Sure, all TV should be HD. However, the programming is only partially in HD and it costs more to watch the same crap. Maybe I will get HD when everything is eventually 100% HD and the cost is the same.

 

[Handruin]

I know a buddy who works at a local news station and he said that many of the field cameras still aren't HD for several reasons even know they'll broadcast at the correct resolution. The field equipment is too expensive to upgrade everything because it's not just the cameras that need to be updated but also the remote satellite connections, etc.

 

[ddrueding]

I like motorsports, with rallying being my favorite. Pike's peak is awesome on many levels, but this is the best video I have seen on it to date. It is also the highest quality 1080P I've seen on youtube.

 

[Pradeep]

If you like rallying DiscoveryHD Theater has had the coverage of the WRC this year. However with many of these events the camera guys don't have HD cameras.

Personally the only thing I watch in SD nowadays is the local news (they still haven't upgraded). Everything else (including free OTA that costs $0 per month) is in HD, you'd have to be half blind not to be able to see the difference between SD and HD on all material.

 

[Stereodude]

FWIW, the local news in our area are all in HD now.

 

[Bozo]

I like motorsports, with rallying being my favorite. Pike's peak is awesome on many levels, but this is the best video I have seen on it to date. It is also the highest quality 1080P I've seen on youtube.

Awesome!!! :thumbleft:
Didn't I read some where that someone is going to run a car up Pikes Peak using remote control???

 

[Howell]

+1

 

[ddrueding]

Didn't I read some where that someone is going to run a car up Pikes Peak using remote control???

Almost. The same folks at Stanford (still supported by Audi) that won the DARPA challenges will be running an Audi TT up Pikes Peak at full racing speed, but without a pilot of any kind. The car will pilot itself based solely on GPS data and other inertial sensors.

Video Link

 

[Handruin]

Whenever I watch the Gemenos Castellana video, it makes the drive on Pike's Peek look average. :-D The video isn't in HD unfortunately, but it's a hell of a ride.

 

[Pradeep]

http://www.clearedgepower.com/categories/home-owner/pages/faq

Interesting. A 5KW fuel cell stack that runs off your domestic natural gas supply. Looks like it's only available in Cali right now, price unknown. It's designed to run 24*7 and cover base load in addition to co-gen heat production. Interesting applications in terms of whole house UPS etc (you can specify certain circuits to shed).

 

[ddrueding]

5kW of fuel cell? Don't those run at like 1000C? My guess is, retail, $50k. It would be interesting as a baseline power source to back up 15-20kW of solar.

 

[Handruin]

I've been showing that link to people at work. I like the idea, but initial cost would be a concern. Even at $50K, that's way too much for me to even consider. The ROI would be just as long if not longer than solar. However, 5KWh should be more than enough for my entire needs.

Does it really run at 1000C? That's getting close to the melting point of steel (~1350).

 

[timwhit]

Sounds similar to the Bloom Box.

 

[ddrueding]

Looks like I have a month to close escrow on a house...let the stress begin!

 

[time]

I take it this is your way of announcing that you've bought a house?

I'll offer you a premature congratulation.

 

[Handruin]

Got a new part...time to install. Thermalright MUX-120. Hopefully this will bring down the temps a bit from the stock cooler.

 

[Handruin]

I take it this is your way of announcing that you've bought a house?

I'll offer you a premature congratulation.

Congrats on your new house assuming that's your announcement also.

 

[LunarMist]

Got a new part...time to install. Thermalright MUX-120. Hopefully this will bring down the temps a bit from the stock cooler.

I need a cooler like that, but my CPU is too old.

 

[ddrueding]

I take it this is your way of announcing that you've bought a house?

I'll offer you a premature congratulation.

I don't have the keys yet; I haven't even signed over the money, so it isn't mine. But fingers crossed, should be within a month.

And thanks

 

[LunarMist]

Damned Dell notebook is kaput. Now it will take forever to have it repaired wherever they send it. It was easier before the IT help was outsourced.

 

[ddrueding]

Damned Dell notebook is kaput. Now it will take forever to have it repaired wherever they send it. It was easier before the IT help was outsourced.

I might just be lucky, but it is getting much easier to convince people to fork over the cash for NBD onsite service for laptops. Of course, Dell spells out that their "NBD Onsite" plan may involve spending several hours on the phone with you troubleshooting it first, then sending the parts to you and talking you through the service yourself. Ugh.

 

[LunarMist]

I might just be lucky, but it is getting much easier to convince people to fork over the cash for NBD onsite service for laptops. Of course, Dell spells out that their "NBD Onsite" plan may involve spending several hours on the phone with you troubleshooting it first, then sending the parts to you and talking you through the service yourself. Ugh.

Every year I hear more of the same stories. You have to call someone in IT and it is routed to some other state or a foreign country. After you talk to that person hopelessly for ten minutes, finally they send one of the few beleaguered support staff in the local site to help. If there is no quick fix, off goes your computer to the hinterlands.

 

[Handruin]

I need a cooler like that, but my CPU is too old.

It's installed now. A few things I've noticed.

1.) There is limited to zero audible sound over and above the low speed case fans inside my system. it really is quiet with the 1200 RPM fan.
2.) Idle temperatures with the stock Intel cooler were around 35-40 degrees Celsius. Idle temperatures with the Thermalright are around 15-20 degrees Celsius.
3.) Sustained 100% load temperatures with the stock Intel were 80-82 degrees C using prime 95. Sustained 100% load temperatures with the Thermalright are about 50-53 degrees Celsius.

I'd say that was worth the $40. The install required me to take the motherboard out of the case to fit the steel back plate behind the CPU mount. Overall it was very easy to put in and everything feels like quality parts. The sound output is very quiet...if not the quietest thing in the case.

 

[LunarMist]

How does the idle temperature reach 15-20 °C? Does it employ some active heat transfer system?

 

[Handruin]

I'm not sure what that is, but this is a simple heat pipe and 120mm fan solution with artcic silver grease. The CPU also drops down the multiplier considerably when there is no load. An idle load multiplier would be 9x and the full load as illustrated in my picture is a 22x multiplier for 4 cores. This CPU would be 26x multiplier with 1-2 cores at 100%.

you can see in this screen capture that I shut down Prime95 for about 3 minutes and the temperatures went down from 53C to about 20C in just that time.

 

[LunarMist]

So the ambient temperature gets down to 15°C. It must be cold in your house.

 

[Handruin]

The 15C might have been because the heat sink wasn't warmed up to room temperatures. it was sitting outside all day after fedex delivered it to my doorstep. It's about 68 F (20C) in my house right now and that about matches the lower temperature of the CPU readings. That's pretty good!

 

[Handruin]

Here are some size comparison images. I'm just having fun with this now.

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting, I always positioned my tower-style heatsinks directing the airflow upwards, towards the top fan in the P18x. It seemed to do a better job of pulling air from the GPU area, which drew it's air from the front then made better use of any convection to get out of the chassis.

I haven't (yet) gotten a plexi side so I can do airflow tests with incense sticks

 

[Mercutio]

Interesting, I always positioned my tower-style heatsinks directing the airflow upwards, towards the top fan in the P18x.

On my systems that used Scythe Ninjas, I actually wound up with two Noctua 800rpm fans, one on the top and one on the bottom of the tower, both oriented to blow air upwards. I wound up pulling the "roof" fan on both my P180s because those fans seemed to have a shorter lifespan than the others in that case. That may have been a cat-related issue, however.

I'm using the Scythe Zapang on both my home i7s, which is a 140mm fan on top of a monstrous heatsink that is parallel rather than perpendicular to the motherboard. I'm using Antec 300 cases for them, mostly because cabling a 300 is less clusterfuck-y than a P180 when you fill one with drives and high end video cards and all the other crap that goes in my play computers.

I have plans to make my "old" Q6600s into VMware ESX setups but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

And I am jonesing for a Thinkpad 410. I just got a couple in that are going to customers and they give me happy pants feelings. $1300 for an i7 notebook with a six hour battery and 4GB RAM and a way, way brighter screen than my T61s have? Sob.

Tannin would probably be amused to know that Lenovo still doesn't put a DVI port on their flagship notebook, though.

 

[Handruin]

The Antec P183 was loads easier to build in than my original P180. Cables fit in the back panel, etc. I don't know how it compares to the Antec 300, but you might want to take a look if your original impression was with the P180. My top fan is still running in my original P180, so it might be your cat causing premature failure of the fan.

I also saw the T500s have core i7's in them and I also wanted one. I can't justify it since my current system isn't very old. I was annoyed to see the price was less than what I paid for mine with it having more power...and I got my T500 with a decent deal.

The thinkpad doesn't have a DVI, but it at least has a DisplayPort. I've used it many times and it works fine.