However, it also puts a load on the battery so if the battery is weak you may have problems starting the car again. And in my country, the conditions to overheat with a properly maintained engine (enough coolant, working pump) are very rare. I guess you can modify the car either way (add or remove that relay), but I think turning off the fan when the ignition is off should be the default.

For some reason Mercedes-Benz though that having a mechanical fan (the speed of which depend on the RPM of the engine) is good enough.

That is a stupid design just for saving a single relay (that would disconnect the fan if the ignition was off). After all, the engine is off, it will cool down on its own.

At least the fan in my car is mechanically driven by the engine, so when the engine is off the fan does not spin.

Fun and untraceability. While I do not remember anyone dropping caltrops on the road, quite few people drop heavy objects from bridges on the highway below. Also, placing caltrops means somebody might see you, doing it with radio waves makes it much harder to trace (as long as you stop broadcasting after a while.

There are also criminal organizations and causing a crash with radio waves is easier and less traceable than planting a bomb.

And in Lithuania I pay 23.17EUR/month for 300/300mbps advertised. I reality the speed drops to about 60mbps during peak time (but not every day), but the connection is very reliable and the ISP does not complain that I upload ~30TB/month.

Most XP users use it because their current PC is good enough for what they do and they do not want to reinstall Windows or buy a new PC. If not for DX11-only games, I would still use XP (built a new PC in November) on my old PC. The 3GB RAM was a bit limiting, but not enough to 1) spend a lot of money on new hardware and 2) the pain of reinstalling Windows.

As for why Metro is bad while Android UI is good: Metro UI is good UI ... on a phone or tablet, but not on a desktop. Just like I would not use Android UI on my desktop, I will not use Metro UI too.

A tablet has a relatively small screen and is operated by touch. You need big buttons so that it is easier to touch them. A desktop has a large screen and is operated by keyboard/mouse. Metro UI places 5cm x 5cm or larger buttons, while I can easily click 1cm x 1cm icons, so it wastes screen space and makes me move the cursor further.

A tablet is usually used for one task at a time. I use my desktop with many windows open, most of them overlapping. If I had to use one full screen window at a time, I would be much much slower. I full-screen only two types of software - video players and games, everything else runs in windows that are usually considerably smaller than the screen.

The start menu takes up a small portion of the screen, but allows me to choose from many items. The start screen takes up the whole screen (there goes my context) and allows me to choose from a smaller list of items. Oh, and desktop programs are not on it by the way (at least for RTM Win8, don't know about Win8.1).

Another gripe just with Windows 8 UI - it gives no indication that some text can actually be clicked to do something.

Different interface for different devices (that have different uses). After all, I would not want to use this

But the light will be at too high color temperature and since it will be produces by multiple LEDs, there won't be clear shadown (lie using a regular lightbulb with frosted glass). And LEDs are not as dimmable (I sometimes dim the lightbulb so that the filament barely glows).

A diode in series would dissipate less power, but it would most likely mess up the dimmer (not that I have tested).

Also, the lighbulb I use is 60W long life (equivalent to ~40W regular) and the resistor would dissipate ~6W, if I used a 10W resistor I most likely would not need a heatsink or fan to cool it down.

Yes. Also, when they manage to completely ban incandescent bulbs in the EU (or they just stop making them, even the inefficient long life ones) I am buying a few boxes or them and connecting a resistor in series to drop the voltage to make the bulb last longer. With 1.7kW base load (computers and bitcoin miners, another ~600W for AC in the summer) I won't notice the difference in used electricity.

But why does the government have to force me to use a different device?

If I want to use an incandescent bulb it means I am prepared to pay more for electricity (or have less light). Just like using a vacuum tube amp or a CRT monitor/TV (or a plasma TV) - if I am using it instead of a device that is more efficient, it means I have a reason and I am prepared to pay for the energy.

I live in the EU where alot of incandescent bulbs were banned (rough service and long life bulbs are available and they are even less efficient than the regular ones and I thinksome of the regular ones are also available - though I buy the long life ones), I have bought about a 100 before they were banned and amsaving them for when the bulbs are completely banned (I am now using the long life bulbs that have energy rating of G, while the regular ones have the rating of E or F).

I especially like it when AV software flag a keygen for being a keygen. No, not because the keygen also has a trojan or whatever, but that it is a keygen. The explanation usually states "keygens may contain malware" - so, tell me whether it actually contains malware or not - maybe that's why I scanned it with the AV software...

For the low frequencies.

Currently the front speakers are 10cm and rear speakers are 15cm. The frequency response starts at around 70Hz. Anything lower and the level (without distortion) gets really low. Songs with lots of bass still sound quite good when I am not gong anywhere (engine stopped), but when I am driving at 100km/h or more with the fan blowing I need to set the volume higher. It results in distortion, so I have to cut the low frequencies and then it does not sound as good.

I guess I could really soundproof the car so I do not hear the engine, but there is still the wind noise and in some cases the road noise. That is rather difficult, it would be easier to just install a subwoofer if there was any space for it.

I have a 1982 Mercedes W123 (gasoline). I like it, and one of the reasons I like it is that the engine is simple - no computers, no closed-source software. Which means that if something fails, I can most likely fix it myself (unless it requires special tools etc).

The one downside is that there is no space for big speakers. I have a relatively good amp (Installed under the passenger seat) and a relatively good tape deck (have more cassettes than CDs or flash memory), but the speakers are a bit of a letdown because of their size (and not really any place to put a subwoofer either).

But, if I wanted, I could replace the tape deck with any standard sized unit I liked (even one that could play mp3).

It is like that in my country. If you have one job and do not do anything that would require you to pay more or less taxes than normal, then you do not even have to fill a form.

If you have to fill it (I do, as I have two jobs and normally I pay too much tax, so I have to fill it to get my money back), then it comes pre-filled with the values that the government knows about (I only have to read it, see that everything is OK and then click a button to submit it).

Unless participating in terrorism resulted in higher profits.

Windows gives me a slightly better score with this drive (Seagate 15K.7) than with a 1TB 7200RPM drive (6.1 vs 5.9).
Also, wouldn't short-stroking restrict the heads to the outer tracks instead of the inner tracks? Though yes, a 15kRP drive uses smaller platters, so the linear read speed may not be as fast (I get about 200MB/s at the first half of the drive, though maybe it is a limitation of the interface (I have only connected one port of this dual port drive)).

SSDs are faster, but a lot of them can fail in case of power failure etc. The ones that don't are very expensive (not as expensive as the real enterprise grade drives with short retention) so I bought this HDD as a middle point between a slower HDD and a SSD.

Currently there are laws against a private company killing someone. If such laws didn't exist, you would see private companies killing people more often than the USSR government under Stalin did.

Hell, there are illegitimate private companies that could be hired to dispatch someone...