I don't have time now to RTA but if one was to use say a non conductive, non corrosive refrigerant one could make use of the lower vapor point to more efficantly remove the heat AND even better lower the operating temperature considerably. A split cascaded system would be my choice as you could achieve very low temps with the possibility of modularizing the components so the point of use (the chips) is a relatively small inexpensive unit that is supported by layers of larger systems. Visualize the module as cube with a pair of hoses that connect to larger refrigeration systems, just another connector service like power, data or control. Within the range of the temps allowed by the refrigerant one could very easily throttle the temps depending on need.

Hey we run hundreds of hp high voltage motors immersed in refrigerant every day in industrial settings.
Cascaded freezer systems are common in labs and liquefied gases production uses similar systems on a massive scale.

Just using the benefits of the more efficient heat transfer from immersion and lower vapor point should make for reduced operating costs. Initial costs for todays common hardware is chump change compared the energy costs so there is hope if something can be produced cheap enough.

I personally like the idea of the extremely low operating temps that could be used to enhance performance.

matthew

However only for brief volumes, after a paragraph or two it degrades. Somewhat because of the physical strain it places on my 52 year old hands and wrists. I noticed before I became old and decrepit, it also tends to slip in consistent quality when my mental focus outruns the recording movements of my hand.

I create instructive documents, troubleshooting guides, emergency procedures and such. Mostly I type this for obvious reasons like spell checking :). Some of my draft material and my field notes would be considered horrible penmanship but since they are by preference for my eyes only this actually works pretty well. I also produce quite a bit of testing documentation of conditional or corrective action reports. In this case handwritten is almost always given weight over typed material and thus usually preferred or even required. In this case I use what I have learned as "engineering script". It is in all caps consistent in style,form, weight and size. It is very readable and comparatively easy on the body. It is my preferred method of writing.

matthew

I remember seeing a bluetooth device a young asian girl was holding that consisted of a speaker and mic connected by a flexible cable with shape memory ability. She had the speaker end wrapped around her thumb and the mic end wrapped around her index finger. Maybe not necessarily ergonomic for extended use, but for damn sure cute.

wabi-sabi
matthew

"True. But for those who still have machines running '98, there is a little known generic mass storage driver for '98 that allows use of newer drives that do not come with '98 support."

I concurr, this driver works well for me as well. I installed it on a WIN98 (not a SE box either) box hosting a Metasys FMS isolated network a couple years ago desperate for a free method to back the system up, don't ask why. Since then I have installed a Iomega CD burner with its own driver for backups. Still this generic USB driver served me well then and now and reads every flash drive I have thrown at it 100%, never failed so far, though I am very very very cautious about what is on the flash media and where it has been, remember the box is on an isolated dedicated network for a reason.

I work in the health care industry too and while I guess it is natural for the crowd here to fixate on the sales WOMEN that Pharma uses to push their products, and yes they are almost exclusively dolls though not always that young. However the sales MEN that often show up with them seem to be almost exclusively ex basket ball players or Esquire models, for the lady doc's I guess or as noted maybe for the gay ones. Same formula seems to apply for implant and surgical materials. I wouldn't know about the goodies and junkets since I am a lowly alarm and controls technician, lucky to get the occasional day old dough nut or el cheapo LED flashlight from some old hairy dude or girly girl wantabe with a twitch. Damn that was mean of me, I'm gonna burn in hell.

wabi-sabi
matthew

"but this is a [STAFF WORKING DRAFT]"

Whose STAFF please?

Oh lets see TFA indicates "Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)". At least it is "a non partisan effort", sorry, correction: "a TYPICAL non partisan effort".

I could MAYBE understand a need for the emergency isolation or shutdown of SOME backbones or SOME critical nodes, but the inclusion of unaccountability and warrant-less snooping of data tastes as bad as it did the last time around.

wabi-sabi
matthew

DUCK Brett!!!

"War is horrible but once there is a war the MOST unethical thing anyone can do is to prolong the war. It should be ended as quickly as possible and this is usually accomplished by using the most overwhelming force possible."

This is from what I can recall almost a quote of William Tecumseh Sherman in his "War is Hell" statement concerning his march to the sea. He used the idea as the justification of a "total war" type of strategy and tactics in his argument with a reluctant Lincoln. In "total war" there is much less differentiation between combatants and non-combatants as the civilians are seen as non innocents due to their being a supply and support structure for the military. Yea you are right it was also part of the argument for the fire bombing of cities like Dresden and Tokyo as well as the nuking of Japan in WWII. Something had to stop the rancid practices of the Germans and Japanese during WWII that surpassed even "Total War" in terrors worse than simple death and destruction. Not a new idea though the first written record of the argument was by the Greeks. The effect did not work out so good for the Greeks as it was so severely practiced by all the city states that it pretty much destroyed the Greek civilization.

wabi-sabi
matthew

I had a 400gb Seagate PATA start to act up recently. I choose the option of paying Seagate a $20 charge on my credit card to send me a replacement drive with the proper shipping materials and prepaid return shipping labels to return the bad drive within 30 days. Not a bad option and it worked out ok in the end run. However the new drive was supposed to shipped to me via a 2 day expedited method, it took nearly a week to get it. I had quite a bit of trouble recovering some of the data from the failing drive and some emergency's at work that kept me at bay as well. About ten days after I received the drive and the day after I had shipped it out I got an email informing me that my 20 day time limit to return the bad drive was about to expire and my credit card was subject to a $80+tax if the drive arrived later than that date, which was only 3 or 4 days away at this point. Thankfully someone named Taylor on the email support staff intervened and prevented me from being charged.

  My only complaint besides the obvious lack of communication inside Seagate's warranty and billing was that they only use UPS which entails a 10 mile out of my way trip to ship out and UPS has the tendency to be irresponsible in the way they deliver to me, I have found more than one item in the driveway. I usually have much better luck with the USPS than UPS or FedEx.

This was BTW the first new purchased Seagate drive I have had fail, and I did manage to retrieve my data, most had already been backed up anyway. I have had some older used Seagate SCSI SCA drives die but that is kinda asking for problems, but then they were only swap/tmp/scratch drives used for video editing and such.

wabi-sabi
matthew

"Most of the people that I work with (and these are college-educated people, mind you), don't know what a browser is (they refer to Internet Explorer as "the internet"). And no, I'm not joking (I wish I was)."

Reminds me of my experience with the install of my Hughesnet SAT internet service. The technician who preformed the install seemed like a generally technically knowledgeable fellow as we conversed about my old C-Band dish in the back yard. However when it came time to initialize the system he insisted I had to have "the internet available" and my install of Suse 9.0 was just not going to work at all. While he conversed with his helper on placement of cable ties I started a full screen VMWare session of Windows 98 hoping the elder version of IE and ActiveX was not going to be an issue with the "installer". When he came back in and saw the screen he grinned and pronounced "ah there's the internet" as he clicked on the IE icon. We setup my user/site info and initial password and he took my check and left happy. He did suggest I upgrade to XP as it had much a better internet.

As he was picking up I slipped the VM session, entered in the SAT modem address into Firefox to checkout the details and I was also grinning and happy as I setup my new email addy in T-Bird, all before he got out of my driveway. I don't know maybe there was an ActiveX utility involved on the Hughes account initialization page of "the internet".

wabi-sabi
matthew

"What are AT&T and Verizon going to do with their blocks? I don't care. Not because it's not important, but because it's not relevant to this discussion. They aren't the ones who are impeding the switch. They aren't the ones who drug their feet at every step in this conversion and who are now doing their best to whip up a grass roots scare campaign in a last minute effort to kill the project off."

I am not arguing your point as I tend to think the level of hand holding on this is a bit much.

However the thought of the telecoms, especially AT&T, having their plans stymied and dragged through the briar patch like this by mostly a bunch of old coots in the middle of nowhere nearly leaves me rolling on the floor. That it is being done in mostly out of ignorance via disagreeable methods the telecoms themselves evolved into an art form makes it almost too much entertainment. Damn there may be a smidgen of karmatic justice in this old universe after all.

wabi-sabi
matthew

I read enough of the comments here to see a disturbing number of "make up a male-male cord set" and "TURN OFF YOUR MAIN BREAKER" postings regarding the connection of generator sets to house wiring.

#1 Never connect a generator to your house wiring via any method that does not physically provide for an OPEN path of sufficient resistance for ALL connections to the utility service INCLUDING ALL load side neutral bonding and grounding paths. A malfunction of equipment as cheap as an standard outlet, a bad neutral or ground connection can cause the death of someone trying to restore your power EVEN IF your main breaker is turned off.

#2 If you really need the ability to use your house circuitry with a generator set, hire a licensed and bonded electrician to install a Manual or Automatic Transfer Switch designed for such a purpose. Be sure the work is inspected and approved by the appropriate regulatory/utility agency and your homeowners insurance carrier - it would be a good idea to check with them first for their requirements.

#3 If you insist on designing and/or fabricating such hardware and/or preforming this type of work yourself, be DAMN sure you understand and address all the electrical issues and accept the liability issues of such efforts. The idea of design and fabrication is a choice I do not recommend even for an electrical engineer, the liability is just too great. If you have the knowledge and skill set to install approved equipment, be DAMN sure it is inspected and approved by the appropriate regulatory/utility agency. Have a chat with you homeowners insurance agent if you don't believe me.

And yes I am a licensed Master Electrician with over 30 years experience.

wabi-sabi
Matthew

Any random pigeon fart knocks out AT&T in these parts. And Cingular USED to be a great service. The root of todays corporate mergers : #1 Use every legal, barely legal and sometimes maybe legal trick to trash the value of your prey. #2 Once your grubby paws have the prize, employ ruthless slash and burn techniques to staff, equipment and services then sell off everything else possible, preferably at bargain basement prices to an offshore shell company under your discreet control. #3 PROFIT!!! Economies of scale my ass, defined accurately it means not much more than an enhanced ability to run over or strong arm competitors, customers, suppliers and employees, and in some rare cases even the creditors. No wonder the world economy has been trashed, yet again.

wabi-sabi
matthew

Bugs Bunny? Bugs Bunny? Me, myself and I were mostly responsible for the popularization of ACME products here on earth. Believe me I have the scars to prove it! All those episodes starring moi and featuring ACME products, ending with wwhheeeeeezzooo splat and you somehow manage to related ACME with that frackin ADD riddled smart assed yappy wabbit! Let's see where did I put that ACME combination rocket launcher / geek transmutation device. Hope ya like tits as much as you think you do :)

WileC. --super genius, if a bit of a hungry one.