Something Random

mubs

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What is appalling is:
a) SCE sold those homes to the unsuspecting public. SCE acquired them originally precisely to avoid the problem described in the article. The CEO / bean counters probably did this to meet their earning targets.
b) Being a power utility, they don;t seem to know how to fix it. If it can't, see point a).

DD, how did the family make it worse? It appears that nobody even knew what was going on till they were told, and when they were, the SCE chaps kept saying it was safe. She was ready to sell if they were willing to buy it. A low level chap brought this up, bought the top brass overruled it.
 

ddrueding

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It seems from the article that she continued to use an electrified shower after she knew both that it was electrified and that she was suffering as a result? She didn't bring in her own professionals or even consult a physician for quite some time afterwards, despite SCE obviously giving her the runaround? She purchased a house right next to an electrical substation without doing any significant testing before purchase?

Of course, the electrical company is legally to blame, and their handling of the situation is downright slimy, but she did herself no favors. To me it almost seems like she was trying to maximize some future payout by SCE.
 

Howell

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Simplifying the tax code is my preferred method for decomplicating filing. Fix the problem at the source. I wouldn't be surprised if the 90k CAians would liked "Return-free filing" could have easily filed a 1040EZ.

"Government studies have split about whether a return-free system would save or cost the IRS money, according to a 2003 Treasury report. Unless the tax code was simplified, the report said, it would add work for employers and the IRS, which would have to process tax records sooner."
 

ddrueding

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Either would be better (and both best) compared to what we have now. Eliminating all deductions would be a great start. Simplifying the bracketing system would be a nice second.

If the system were simple enough, the employer could simply withhold the appropriate amount and only those with additional income (self-employed, consultants) would have to file at all.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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I take very few pictures. One of my friends has some of the blue hair-ing process but I don't have any.


Has anyone here had any experience with Radon remediation? Nits wanted me to ask.
 

CougTek

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Has anyone here had any experience with Radon remediation? Nits wanted me to ask.

The best advice I could give would be to contact a radon specialist at 1-800-55-radon or simply to e-mail them : Radon@ksu.edu. No one here will be as knowledgeable about radon than the folks answering to the National Radon Hotline. Except perhaps Adcadet, but AFAIK (not much), he's a lab rat and not the pill-dispenser variety you visit when you feel sick. So I don't think he'd be able to help her much more than a specialist in that field.
 
Last edited:

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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She's fine. Apparently she's run in to a problem in home-buying that the property she most wants to own fails a radon test. Apparently that is not uncommon for homes in the area where I live.

Nits, your lurker status is preserved. :p
 

Handruin

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I put together a new machine over the weekend and decided to go with the Fractal Design define R4 case. I have to say I'm rather impressed with it. The first thing is how quiet it is. With the fans set to low I honestly cannot hear the machine running unless I stick my ear physically onto the case. Fractal paid great attention to detail by putting noise-absorbing foam padding over the extra fan bays until you decide to put fans in those bays.

The interior is built really nicely and there is even room on the back of the motherboard mounting plate to fit two additional SSD drives. That is if you happen to fill all 8 of the regular drive bays. Fractal not only drilled holes for the 3.5" drives, they all made all the drive cages have mounting holes for SSD drives.

Overall I'm very impressed with this case and highly recommend considering it for your next PC builds if it fits your needs.
 

timwhit

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I put together a new machine over the weekend and decided to go with the Fractal Design define R4 case. I have to say I'm rather impressed with it. The first thing is how quiet it is. With the fans set to low I honestly cannot hear the machine running unless I stick my ear physically onto the case. Fractal paid great attention to detail by putting noise-absorbing foam padding over the extra fan bays until you decide to put fans in those bays.

The interior is built really nicely and there is even room on the back of the motherboard mounting plate to fit two additional SSD drives. That is if you happen to fill all 8 of the regular drive bays. Fractal not only drilled holes for the 3.5" drives, they all made all the drive cages have mounting holes for SSD drives.

Overall I'm very impressed with this case and highly recommend considering it for your next PC builds if it fits your needs.

It looks pretty nice. I'm not sure if I would get another case with a door on the front though. I pulled the door off of my Antec P180 shortly after I got it. I also don't bother putting the side on it either.
 

Handruin

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It looks pretty nice. I'm not sure if I would get another case with a door on the front though. I pulled the door off of my Antec P180 shortly after I got it. I also don't bother putting the side on it either.

I haven't had an issue with the doors on the two separate P180 and P183 cases I've owned. I can see where it may be a pain for some people. The door on the Fractal helps with reducing the noise from the front-mounted fan. Considering how infrequently I use the DVD drive, I barely open the door anyway.
 

LunarMist

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I'm not a fan of the Doors either. I remove them for access to the drive racks more than the optical drive.
 

snowhiker

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I put together a new machine over the weekend and decided to go with the Fractal Design define R4 case. I have to say I'm rather impressed with it. The first thing is how quiet it is. With the fans set to low I honestly cannot hear the machine running unless I stick my ear physically onto the case. Fractal paid great attention to detail by putting noise-absorbing foam padding over the extra fan bays until you decide to put fans in those bays.

The interior is built really nicely and there is even room on the back of the motherboard mounting plate to fit two additional SSD drives. That is if you happen to fill all 8 of the regular drive bays. Fractal not only drilled holes for the 3.5" drives, they all made all the drive cages have mounting holes for SSD drives.

Overall I'm very impressed with this case and highly recommend considering it for your next PC builds if it fits your needs.

I bought that very case for my Titan Super Rig (check sig). It is a very nice case, and fairly cheap as well. I got the pearl black/NO window for $120 plus shipping. Microcenter has them for $90 right now.

It comes with two, and I bought two additional 140mm fans (3 intake/1 exhaust). All fans plugged into motherboard and running about 1000'ish rpm. It sits on my desk about two feet from my ear and it is a very quiet hum that is not bothersome at all.

One bottom, two front, two top, one left side and one rear 120/140mm fan mounts covered with sound absorption material if not in use.

Like Handruin says, two SSDs can be mounted directly to the motherboard tray. Although I found out that supplying power to those SSDs requires a power plug with wires that run directly into the plug as there is almost no clearance with the SSD mounted on the tray. All of the power cables that came with my Seasonic PSU have power plugs where the wires enter the plug at right angles and you can not plug them in with the SSD mounted on the tray.

You can mount two SSDs, a MHD, and a optical drive (optical and MHD in the two upper 5.25" bays) without using ANY of the 3.5" drive cages. Both the upper five-bay and lower three-bay cages can be removed as well so nothing is in the way of your two front 140mm fans if you so choose.

Very nice case for sure.
 

snowhiker

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Foiled by five minute edit "feature" again. Anyways......here is a pic of the interior of my Fractal Design Refine R4 case.

R4.jpg

The upper five-bay HDD cage was removed. Also pic taken before the additional 140mm fans installed on the floor and in front above the white one.

I ended up just putting the SSD and MHD in the lower bay as I didn't want to wait another 3 days for the power adapter to arrive so I could mount the SSD to the motherboard tray.

I also considered the Corsair 550D and Antec P280. Then narrowed it down to just the 550D and the R4. I liked the 140mm fan location on the R4, and the comments and reviews pointed to the R4 being a bit more quiet than the 550D.
 

LunarMist

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Wow, that is the most clean and empty case I have seen in years. :) Does it hold 9 hard drives + 1 optical as well as the SSDs?
 

Bozo

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A clean, wireless case interior is the sign of a sick mind. :-D
Excelent workmanship!


I'm extreamly jealous.
 

Handruin

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Foiled by five minute edit "feature" again. Anyways......here is a pic of the interior of my Fractal Design Refine R4 case.

View attachment 580

The upper five-bay HDD cage was removed. Also pic taken before the additional 140mm fans installed on the floor and in front above the white one.

I ended up just putting the SSD and MHD in the lower bay as I didn't want to wait another 3 days for the power adapter to arrive so I could mount the SSD to the motherboard tray.

I also considered the Corsair 550D and Antec P280. Then narrowed it down to just the 550D and the R4. I liked the 140mm fan location on the R4, and the comments and reviews pointed to the R4 being a bit more quiet than the 550D.

Looks good. Mine isn't quite as clean as yours but the case certainly helped me to get something cleaner than I'm used to. I'm only use the stock fans right now. There is very minimal heat in the case until I add graphics cards down the road.

Fractal_R4_resized.jpg
 

snowhiker

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Wow, that is the most clean and empty case I have seen in years. :) Does it hold 9 hard drives + 1 optical as well as the SSDs?

Thanks. The R4 is the first case I've ever owned that had decent cable routing options. It's a complete rat nest behind the motherboard tray but you can't see it.

It can hold 8 MHD/SSD + 2 SSD + 2 optical.

This. I've noticed that putting a SSD within a MHD cage is a HUGE waste of space. Eventually we'll see SSD only drive cages that fit 5 SSDs in the space of 2 MHD slots.

A clean, wireless case interior is the sign of a sick mind. :-D
Excelent workmanship!

I'm extreamly jealous.

Thanks again. The fully modular PSU was a really big help. You can fold the cable into the exact shape you need and hide them away one at a time.

Looks good. Mine isn't quite as clean as yours but the case certainly helped me to get something cleaner than I'm used to. I'm only use the stock fans right now. There is very minimal heat in the case until I add graphics cards down the road.

Yeah. If you don't have a video card then the two included 140mm fans are more than enough. If you mounted your two SSDs to the motherboard tray and put your MHD in the second optical bay you could remove both drive cages and things would be and look cleaner.

I do wish I bought the UD5H instead of the UD4H like you did though. I thought I would need a PS/2 keyboard port but I ended up buying a new USB keyboard anyways. The only real issues I've had with my UD4H is that the two "intel USB 3.0" ports as so lose my keyboard won't stay plugged in. Also "wake on keyboard" doesn't work even if I use those ports.

The R4 is definitely an excellent case.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Completely safe for work but a teensy bit gory/violent seven minute short film that is totally worth all seven minutes:

[video=youtube;gryenlQKTbE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gryenlQKTbE[/video]
 

mubs

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This has to be the most awesome kitty ever. My daughter has it as her desktop wallpaper, and I can't take my eyes off it! Need to see it big size.

Awesome Kitty.jpg
 

Clocker

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Dolphin Browser has been giving me trouble on my tablet a lot lately, not loading up anything for some pages. Chrome seems to work better.
 

CougTek

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Android-based tablets and most Apple products have issues/incompatibilities with Flash. If the page uses Flash, it's not surprising those devices have trouble displaying it.
 
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