Spring Time

[timwhit]

I'll pass on the compliments, he will be pleased to hear them. His yard is like an obsession, he thinks he has finally gotten it the way he wants it...and now my mom wants to move.

He actually won the Homewood Garden award a few years ago, but that only takes into account the front yard. The yard has also have been on a couple garden walks in the past few years.

I mow the grass...that's why it looks so good.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

If anyone wants to see pictures of a garden...I threw up some pictures of my dad's garden, he spends every spare minute out there.

http://www.timwhit.com/garden

These are from the backyard and they are a few weeks old, things look a bit fuller now.

Hey, tim... who are all those dudes at your domain?

(sorry to be looking- I'm thinking to buy some host space and register a domain for myself and I'm taking ideas...)

 

[timwhit]

Those are my friends and me at a party from a couple of weeks ago. I put them up so people could go and look at them.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

Cool. Really funny stuff you've uploaded there. You mush have a bunch of fun with that camera...

Tell me something. Is Tim Whit your real name?

I was thinking to register my last name as a domain, and not a nick or something. I know it's not a big deal, but since it would be personal it might sound more right, don't you think?

Everyone toss your opinions here...
Better www.mihailidis.gr (my surname) or www.profwizard.gr (my nick)?

I think: nick changes... last names not. Moreover, a Greek surname sounds like a hitman, not? 8)

 

[timwhit]

My full name is Tim Whitney. I would have registered my last name if I could have. But, Whitney is a fairly common last name and it was taken with every extension.

I wouldn't even know how to pronounce your last name Prof. Anyways, it's the Italians that are the hitmen not the Greeks. Don't you watch movies Prof?

The camera isn't mine it's my friends. I just used it for a few nights, he wasn't in the right state of mind to be operating expensive toys...not that I was either...but I thought that I was. If anyone cares it is a Canon S330, all the pictures were originally taken at 1600x1200 and then scaled down to 640x480 for the web.

 

[Groltz]

Picture taken on the evening of April 27, 2003 from my back door step. (430 Kilobytes)

--Steve K

 

[Howell]

Wow Steve, That's gorgeous.

 

[Mercutio]

I've decided that I supremely dislike spring.
Spring is when my allergies kick in. Spring brings thunderstorms and lightning and the annual "You're going to bill me for flipping the switch on that surge protector" complaints.
Spring is when other people open their windows, and when their lives intrude on mine.
Spring brings back insects and unpleasant smells.
Spring is the ugliness of new life - having not the lushness of summer nor the color that comes in withering. Spring is bald patches in trees.

 

[mubs]

Beautiful! Thanks!

 

[Buck]

That is a breath-taking picture Steve, thanks for sharing that with us.

 

[Groltz]

Thanks for comments guys.

Here are a couple more taken around the same time as the first. These aren't reduced, though.

Pics.zip (4.2Megs)

 

[jtr1962]

Spring means summer's not far behind, and I hate summer with a passion. Summer for me basically means being confined to an air-conditioned room for 3 months since I lost my ability to cope with heat(not that I had that great an ability before) after I helped my neighbor with his kiddie entertainment business for a few summers. I few days of working in the middle of the street when it's 105°F in the shade will do that to you. Besides the heat you also have all sorts of insects, the smell of rotting garbage, fat people in skimpy clothes letting it all hang out, and last but not least good old New York smog. You can keep summer(and late spring for that matter). Air conditioning is a half-assed solution to the heat as well since you alternate between periods of freezing and sweating as it cycles on and off to maintain the room at a supposed constant temperature. Why can't air conditioners just throttle down the compressor and fan as the temperature approaches the set point? My thermoelectric freezer does that. The engineering is almost trivial.

 

[The JoJo]

WOW!

Nice view you've got there Steve. Thanks for the pic.

 

[blakerwry]

Spring means summer's not far behind, and I hate summer with a passion. Summer for me basically means being confined to an air-conditioned room for 3 months since I lost my ability to cope with heat(not that I had that great an ability before) after I helped my neighbor with his kiddie entertainment business for a few summers. I few days of working in the middle of the street when it's 105°F in the shade will do that to you. Besides the heat you also have all sorts of insects, the smell of rotting garbage, fat people in skimpy clothes letting it all hang out, and last but not least good old New York smog. You can keep summer(and late spring for that matter). Air conditioning is a half-assed solution to the heat as well since you alternate between periods of freezing and sweating as it cycles on and off to maintain the room at a supposed constant temperature. Why can't air conditioners just throttle down the compressor and fan as the temperature approaches the set point? My thermoelectric freezer does that. The engineering is almost trivial.

could you just hook the compressor up to a rheostat?

 

[jtr1962]

could you just hook the compressor up to a rheostat?

That wouldn't work at all. You would need a huge rheostat capable of dissipating a few hundred watts(which incidentally would counteract the effect of the AC unless you put it outside). Besides that, as you reduce voltage the compressor's torque goes down, and at some point it will just stall. The best and probably only way to throttle down a compressor is the reduce the duty cycle(i.e. percentage of on time) of the voltage so that when the voltage pulses on it is at full voltage(and hence full compressor torque) but since the duty cycle is less than 100% the speed(and therefore cooling power) is reduced. This works better with a DC rather than AC motor, although it can be done with an AC motor with increased complexity in the electronics. I've already made power packs to drive HO trains which pulse the motor. You can get full torque and very low(minutes to go one inch) speeds. With a simple rheostat or even pure regulated DC the motor just stalls at some point.

My thermoelectric freezer works on the same principle I just described except that I use an LC filter to convert my duty-cycle modulated square wave back to pure DC, which is what the thermoelectrics require(pulsed current shortens their lifespan). Unlike the compressor there is no worry about stalling, so in theory a large rheostat would work as well except that it wouldn't be amenable to automatic comtrol, and would waste power besides, whereas my power supply is up to about 97% efficient.

 

[Bartender]

Since it is Spring in the Northern Hemisphere again, I took a few new pictures for this season. They can be found here. There are only four pictures to enjoy, hopefully I'll be able to take a few more later on in the season.

I also took a nice picture of Jake the Dog, that can be found here.

 

[Buck]

Also, great work with your WD history: a valuable resource in the making. I'll make a link to it from the redhill site shortly.

That has been updated too. It finally reflects WD's ATA history through 2002.

 

[Handruin]

Very nice Bartender. I love the colors in this picture:

The picture of Jake the Dog, is fantastic! :mrgrn:

 

[Dozer]

The best part about spring for me--spring rain = running rivers. This is me "side-surfing" at the Hiwassee River: