Thanks! I don't have anything in particular I need to keep running but am considering adding still more hardware to my collection. I've got the itch to put together a more capable ESXi machine I think and while Craigslist has some tempting offerings I'm also looking to wholesalers such as the one you work for to find deals. :-)

I think if you look at what some of the wholesalers are selling in the way of retired datacenter equipment you might be VERY surprised what can be built at home. It might not be quite bleeding edge but it will get you experience bigtime. Cisco switches, fiber, 4U SAN chassis, all sorts of stuff. Plenty to learn without completely breaking the bank on new hardware if you shop around, hell Craigslist in my area has a shit ton of hardware!

If you guys resell at retail level post up a link - I like to find retired hardware deals :)

I most certainly do things at home that benefit my job. Playing with Linux and XBMC etc., setting up an ESX server and learning tricks with it, and all sorts of other hardware related things are all things that I'm interested in. All of that benefits my work too! I've done a ton of work tuning cars plus all sorts of mechanical work and a great deal of just Internet sponging of knowledge as well. ALL of it has benefited me at work at one time or another and I'm fine with that. Nothing I buy for my home is bought just for learning stuff for work however, if I'm not already interested then I won't pursue it on my own time or invest cash.

That said, I work a cool job with interesting people, and I get to play with technology and exercise my brain pretty often - and I ENJOY it. Thus, I love my job! I have known one programmer who flay out stated they "hated computers" and didn't own one. When they went home they didn't touch a computer! They also wrote shitty code and pretty much sucked at their job.

I don't mind researching things for the office and tinkering if I'm already interested but I don't see myself ever not billing if the office directs it and I don't ever work for free. I invest in myself but I don't subject myself to anything boring if I can help it...

I have four curly CFL on my porch right now, it's below freezing outside and has been for a week or two. They're working fine but when they die, like the others before them, I'll swap in a set of LED. If the beam pattern is right that's what will go out there. I'd keep using the curlys on the porch if they would last but they're mounted horizontally and burn out after awhile, the LED won't care.

In my experience LED work fine in col weather - I have 4 LED floods to prove it. The previous old style floods worked just fine but they ran a good bit and were consuming a good bit of power so LED that draw maybe 20watts apiece vs the 100+ apiece of the others made sense. When one finally blew I slapped in some LED to test, was satisfied, replaced all of the others. Cold, wind, rain, snow, some sleet - nothing has effected them so far.

No no that's not possible! Everyone else here gets 3-5 years from their old bulbs that cost them a nickle - just ask them!

My experience mirrors your's. I replaced the old bulbs often enough that I had to keep a decent selection in the closet just waiting for something to pop. Not so much anymore. as the old ones blew or I found deals on the new LED I replaced them with the better bulbs. Over the course of about 2-3 years I've managed to replace nearly every bulb in my home. So far I've had not a single LED bulb fail other than a defect and some funky Chinese made decorative ones with small bases. Some of my bulbs burn 24X7, some are motion sensed outdoors in the cold\rain\heat, some are just used a few times a day. The LED bulbs simply work better, the CFL not so much depending upon the application. I'm waiting for the curly CFL on my porch to die again so I can try some of the new Cree LED in the fixtures to see if they look better than the last set I tried. I'll be happy to be rid of the curly CFL that's for sure!

Compared to the previous $50 apiece price of LED yeah it IS cheap. The price will continue to come down too. LED bulbs don't pop when you drop them and just keep going and going.not caring if they're being turned on a dozen times a day. I had no such luck with incandescent and went through a ton of those last year trying to provide light for plants that couldn't stay outside during the Winter. Now I'm using LED and not burned out a single one, the fixture doesn't burn my hand when I touch it either. I think the spectrum is questionable but the plants are doing fine

Want cheaper? Get the bulbs Costco is selling. Something like $15 for a 3pack. They work okay but I've had a defective one already that started flaring after a week or two. Still not cheap enough? Then maybe stop using so many lights?

Considering some of the first LED bulbs I bought, which had shit light dispersion, were $50 yeah $12 IS dirt cheap! Those $12 bulbs have damn good light patterns too. Cree is a well known LED manufacturer, I expect these bulbs to last as long as I am willing to leave them in their fixtures. that's something I cannot say for the incandescent I used before. Nothing like flipping on a switch in the dark to be greeted by a flashbulb pop and more darkness. For steady state they were fine if inefficient but I've yet to have an LED pop on me.

Wonderful! I wonder how much they cost to run vs an LED?

There are finally a few 100w replacement LED that seem to do okay. The 60watt Cree I recently bought were actually too bright for me! buy some of the cheap Cree bulbs to check out and look at the Phillips bulbs too. I've got exactly one fixture that can take a 100watt bulb and needs it that I've not switched - and not turned on in months either. When it pops that thing will get LED too - it just makes sense form a power standpoint.

I've been an early adopter of LED bulbs and paid as much as $50 for some of the first ones. I still have them in use 3 years or more after buying them. The curly bulbs installed base up fried because of heat, I've not had that issue with LED. Cree LED have hit the market in the $12 range here and work really really well with good light output. Considering the lifespan These are a pretty good deal. switching over has been painful for the manufacturers but at least the Govt. worked with them on the phase out to figure out which bulbs to go first and to come up with specs that would allow them to adapt like the new halogen filled incandescent bulbs. I'm even seeing some new interesting artsy incandescent bulbs on the shelf I've never seen before.

Overall this switch is a good thing and the bulb life makes the cost palatable to me. I've not had one of the new bulbs ever burn out except these weird decorator bulbs with a mini base that really seemed crappy even when I bought them. Oh and one defective Chinese bulb from Costco that flares occasionally, the rest in that multipack have been fine.

Cree has finally got their bulbs out and they're dirt cheap - $12 apiece for 60watt equivalent bulbs at the big box store. I actually had to go back for some 40watt ones as they 60s proved too bright in a few applications. The light distribution was also decent unlike many of the early LED. Phillips also makes a good bulb and they even use phosphor so help even out the light. Earlier ones looked like bug lights when turned off but provided great lighting. Strip LED work wonderful under cabinets and use far less than halogen spots. I've even replaced my outdoor floods with LED and am saving a pile of juice over the 60+ watt units I had.

That said, after swapping out nearly all of my incandescent bulbs I'm not seeing a ton of change on the electric bill. Juice is cheap here and I'm pretty good about turning out lights but these bulbs will last and last so it's all good. I have only a sparse few curly bulbs left and maybe two incandescent in places that make sense and aren't used often. It's a great time to switch and I see no reason not to.

Now, if I could just find some cheap LED and fixtures for my fish tank I'd be all set!

Okay, I tried it based on your post. In Chrome it brought up no quotes at all, I saw Ghostery block some Google analytics. I fired up the dreaded IE and after entering my zip and hitting enter I had a series of potential quotes in seconds.

Yup, this is WAY better than it was before when I couldn't get past the front page. I'll be pinging a few of my friends who need this to check it out too.

What cars are you talking about being blocked from import that are so clean but cannot be here simply due to catalytic converters? I'm skeptical. Catalytics DO work, try testing a car with and without one sometime and you'll see the differences. I keep up with automotive stuff and I've not seen or heard of anything very clean without external things making it clean - most of the world's regulations aren't nearly as tight as ours and thus they end up with far WORSE emissioned cars.

There's a pretty decent tax credit they could get for upgrading I believe. When I replaced my old one and did some other work I got a flat $10K credit which made a huge difference - some utilities will also give you kickbacks to help you do it. I too saved a pile upgrading my stuff and am thankful I did it.