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Comment Re: Chapel Hill/ Carrboro North Carolina (Score 1) 654

Written like someone who's old, bitter and crippled.

So what? The able-bodied people will fill those cars, because there will be fewer passengers in them at the start. And if it's really bad there is already priority seating for people with mobility problems, which is enforced by the train staff.
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Comment Re:Chapel Hill/ Carrboro North Carolina (Score 1) 654

It's not easy to add cars because you'd have to extend existing platforms to accommodate longer trains, which is usually expensive and time consuming.

It IS possible to move between cars once you're on the train, you know, and from my experience with taking the train to and from NYC, some people seem willing to walk the entire length of the train in search of a seat that doesn't have anyone sitting next to them.

There's even two stops on the line I take where the platform isn't long enough, and there's an announcement explaining that long in advance in addition to the warning being on the schedule itself. At one station the last two cars do not platform, at the other ONLY the last two cars platform.

Not to say there isn't an upper limit to the number of cars you can have, but you can easily have like six cars more than the platform can handle assuming there's another room otherwise. Walking three cars isn't terribly difficult and doesn't take a lot of time.
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Comment Simulations never work right (Score 1) 654

I've simulated this exact scenario for hours, and I've gotten the same results from this study; moderate increase in usage but not enough to really address inner-city congestion.

They probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their study, too - this only cost me $20 during the Steam Summer Sale. Stupid government!
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Comment Re:Cry More (Score 2) 139

You evidently didn't read the last line in TFS. FOIAs aren't free to file.

Your UserID is low enough to know that TFS is often dead wrong.

FOIA law does not specify any fees, but it allows each agency to establish its own fee structure for filling requests.

Generally speaking, if filling the request takes minimal effort, there's no fee. This has always been true (in my limited experience) for electronic copies of electronic records; if all someone has to do is copy a file or whatever, no problem.

If you're going to start requesting printed copies of records, they're likely to start charging you at some point. A few pages probably isn't too bad, but the idea is to prevent some jerk from tying up the system asking for 50,000 prints from microfiche archives and not having to invest anything in such a request. Usually the fee is in line with expected costs (e.g. 10-15 cents per page or whatever, plus hourly rate for a worker to do it.)

If your local government whatever is charging a fee simply for filing a request, let alone providing the data, you might have a case for a lawsuit.
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Comment Re:Bogus (Score 1) 59

But in the dirty air model, the dark veil over the plain soaked up much of the sun's warmth high in the atmosphere, while simultaneously cooling the streets and fields below. This altered thermal structure stabilized the daytime atmosphere and suppressed rainfall.

But as night fell, the moist air mass moved northward toward the Longmen Mountains, which tower some 2000 meters above the basin. The weather system that had been building energy over the plains for 12 hours was driven upward as it collided with the range's steep contours, triggering the postponed convection. A day's worth of rainfall from the plains was focused into a few hours over a handful of mountain valleys.

I know, I know... "Read the article" blah blah...
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Comment Re:it could... (Score 4, Interesting) 148

The [lack of] precision in the bearings is much more significant than angular precision.

You solve that with better manufacturing techniques.

Harmonic drives are already used industrially and commercially. This is essentially a double harmonic drive driven with a planetary gearset. Nothing some good precision manufacturing couldn't create something amazing with.
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Comment Re:This is shortsighted (Score 1) 35

In fact, having wheels is a feature, not a bug.

Until you encounter a steep set of stairs, then simple wheels might not be sufficient. You'll either have to develop special wheels or tracks - which might not be that great at other non-stair-like terrain - or try a more universal mode of locomotion.

Ever see those photos of mountain goats climbing the nearly sheer face of a dam? I'd love to see a wheeled robot do that without grappling lines!
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Comment Various whatsits (Score 5, Interesting) 266

I carry around a pipe caliper that I designed and 3D printed. A scissor-looking device that tells you the size of a pipe (up to 4") based on outside diameter. Useful on the job.

I designed and printed a custom flashlight holder for those cheap LED flashlights.

Custom replacement handle for a triangular file

Set of custom drawer knobs.

Custom hard drive mounting bracket.

Custom battery holder.

Custom shelf bracket.

~Three dozen clothespins.

3-axis tilt camera stand that mounts on top of a tripod. (replaces one that broke).

Custom 80:1 worm gear reduction for a machine I was working on, as well as a few spur gears and light-duty V-belt pulleys for same machine. Custom thrust bearing and ball bearing holders.

A full set of Meta-Chess pieces.

A custom tool for aligning V-belt pulleys using a 3V line laser module and magnetic base.

Currently in progress is a mostly 3D printed racing wheel controller for my PC, which uses the guts from a dual analog game controller. The controller is unusable because the silicone pads for the buttons cracked, but the electronics are still good and with 4x analog axes I can get steering and three pedals plus 16 digital buttons. My hangup is I can't get the "feel" of the buttons right...

If I ever get off my ass and finish building the electric furnace I've been working on, and manage to melt some aluminum with it, I fully intend to try lost-PLA casting some aluminum parts. That's be awesome...
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Comment Re:Still too expensive (Score 1) 249

By this logic, nobody would buy a gasoline gar that's over $10K either... yet there aren't many new cars you can buy for $10K.

It's almost like there's more than just sticker price that is of interest to buyers. Things like fit and finish, styling, performance, and maybe even brand.

This is what Tesla realized from the start: It's very hard to make an electric car that's cheap but attractive, and it's a lot easier to make a car more attractive than it is to make it less expensive. So, if you're going to make a $60K+ electric car, make sure it looks, feels and drives like a $60K+ car.
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Comment Re:Incineration (Score 1) 371

The data shows that growth has increased despite harvesting has increased or remained virtually the same over the past ~60 years. The overall volume of tree stocks has VERY CLEARLY been growing for both soft and hard woods.

And you still need to substantiate your claim that we'd need to sacrifice food production to grow enough paper.
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Comment Re:Not surprising... (Score 5, Informative) 181

The FCC has removed incentives for monopolistic ISPs to increase backbone network capacity since they are not allowed to derive any additional revenue to offset the cost of those investments...

They were NEVER going to do that, ever, until it became absolutely necessary and/or someone else paid for it.

For starters, ISPs do not have anything to do with the backbones - those are owned and operated by other companies that do not sell connections to the end user. The backbone is not the problem - the ISPs which control the "last mile" are.

And there's plenty of bandwidth for the most part. All evidence suggests that the plan was never to increase bandwidth and charge extra for better service - the plan was to throttle and charge extra for normal service.

This is self evident in the fact that the backbone is fine, but traffic is what's being artificially throttled. It's exactly what they were doing and the FCC regulations were put in place to stop it and preserve the internet how it was, not change it.

There's no such thing as a free market when there is a monopoly. Network Neutrality prevents monopolies from harming competition and actually *preserves* what little free market exists on the internet.
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