Comment Will any of these ablate copper? (Score 1) 45
Will any of these ablate copper? IE can you use it to make a PCB?
Comment Some appliances run fine on DC (Score 1) 597
Many appliances run just fine on 120v DC power. Of course it's hard to tell which ones without either taking it apart and examining it or trying it and risking the magic smoke coming out.
Nothing high-current will ever switch to low voltage DC, I hope. I'm already annoyed at my 120v electric lawn mower; stupid extension cord is way heavier than my in-laws 240v electric lawn mower in Europe. Considering the cost of copper we should be switching to higher voltages, not lower.
Seems like the batteries could be redesigned to be higher voltage to reduce inverter losses. Just add more cells.
True sine wave IGBT converters are pretty efficient.
Comment Re:Internet access (Score 1) 276
Until your building burns down. Hopefully you had the foresight to do off-site backups.
Comment Re:Solution (Score 1) 634
Gave both dolls and cars to both my daughter and son... The boy likes cars and the girl likes dolls. It's genetic.
Video IT Consultant Talks About 'Negotiating for Nerds' (Video) 61
Today, Matt is with us again. This video is about 'Negotiating for Nerds.' Matt talks about negotiating a pay raise or consulting fee increase, starting with learning who has the actual power to negotiate with you. This is essential knowledge if you are employed (or self-employed) in IT and want to make sure you're getting all you are worth.
Comment Remote control hacks (Score 1) 629
In 8th grade this one guy used pc anywhere or whatever was around back then to remote into a computer being used by a much younger student and started typed YOU WILL DIE.
There was a flap, but it didn't involve police.
Comment FCC (Score 1) 278
The FCC could possibly regulate this.
Comment Re:IBM is famous for this (Score 1) 279
That's not how things are done in Essex Jct VT.
Comment IBM is famous for this (Score 1) 279
IBM is famous for this. The moment you give notice your security badge is revoked and you are marched out of the building to enjoy your paid vacation for however long your notice was.
Comment I lived in a FEMA trailer and it wasn't that bad (Score 3, Informative) 79
I had the priviledge of living in a government surplus FEMA trailer on a Navy base for about four weeks. It really wasn't that bad. They're just cheap trailers built by some cheap trailer company like the millions of other cheap trailers that people live in all over the US. There's nothing FEMA-ey about them. I don't know what everybody is complaining about. Bunch of whine-ass cry-babies. "Oh the FREE trailer I got from the government ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH". Or maybe this whole thing was concocted by the media. When FEMA got rid of them, this base got about a dozen, for free, and they've been lived in ever since, including by me, and they are perfectly livable.
Comment Slashdot interviews getting better? (Score 1) 20
There are those in oceanography who would tell you that Bob's submersibles are pressurized by his own overinflated ego. But I guess haters gonna hate. FWIW my grandpa met him once and speaks highly of him, and he answered a letter one of my cousin's wrote to him. And the JASON system is fucking rad.
Comment Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid (Score 1) 460
Or it could be Nazi Germany and you could be a certain famous Jewish patent clerk turned physicist.
Comment So? (Score 1) 175
If you haven't broken a hundred screwdrivers you haven't done any real work.
Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 175
Your victrola is probably an exceptional outlyer. It's remarkable because it's so old and still works. Nevermind the million other busted victrolas in the landfill. I've gone through plenty of old stuff that was busted and not worth fixing for any practical reason. Old does not necessarily equal good. Sure manufacturing quality of consumer goods is hit or miss but that's nothing new either. You think nobody sold junk 100 years ago? Yeah right.
Comment All that's old is new again (Score 1) 175
It wasn't very long ago that; guess what? NOBODY owned their telephone! That's right, you RENTED it from the phone company! In fact it was ILLEGAL to third party phone. In fact some people STILL RENT their phone. Their ROTARY land line phone.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-09-14-phone_x.htm
Funny how quickly people forget. As they say in china, there's nothing new under the sun.
