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Comment Re:Cooling (Score 2) 422

You have solvents, grease, lubricant, metal bits etc in that shop air.

You have that stuff on the people too. Make sure you have some sort of buffer between the plant floor and the server room to clean yourself off. Like a mud room, but not as OCD as a full cleanroom. You don't want to bring metal shavings in with you if possible. It may be something as simple as making sure you have to pass through an office before you get to the server room.

Also, a lot of people are mentioning HVAC. It might be a good idea to have a slightly higher (1psi) air pressure in the server room than the rest of the plant. This way contaminants will tend to flow away from the server room, instead of towards it.

Comment Re:Labelling (Score 1) 1080

Is there yet a way to tell at time of purchase whether a CFL bulb is going to warm up in an acceptable time?

This is why I subscribe to Consumer Reports. They do all of this testing for me so I don't have to do it myself.

I've had excellent results with EcoSmart soft white bulbs (sold only at Home Depot). If you time it right you can get them for $1 for 4 bulbs in my area. That's cheaper than the old fashioned incandescent bulbs! Honestly, as long as I don't have them on a dimmer, I can't tell the difference.

Comment My Requirements (Score 1) 490

My requirements for an electric car are simple. I must be able to drive it at highway speeds for 4 hours before I need to recharge it. At that point I should be able to recharge the vehicle in under an hour.

I choose these requirements because these are the same requirements of a typical human. We typically eat around every 4 hours, and while many of us scarf down our food in 20 minutes, a leisurely meal takes about an hour. This would require a slower pace of travel than we are used to these days, but it would enable the return of road side diners, which disappeared in an era of fast food.

If I were in a position of power at Denny's corporation, I would look into installing 1 hour fast chargers at all of my restaurants. When electric cars do meet these requirements, (hint: one already comes close) I'd want to be the first to capture that market.

Comment Re:If you cuaght your mother stealing... (Score 1) 245

"Honesty tests" are always one of my favorite topics on Slashdot. I took a psychology class on hiring practices in college. The professor mentioned that he had a group of Catholic monks take one of those tests and they all failed. Why? There was a question that asked, "do you know anyone that has used illegal drugs recently?" The monks ran a drug rehabilitation center, so they all answered "yes" to that question.

There are some "gotcha" questions on those tests. The one that comes to mind is, "what do you do if you find a quarter on the street?" There are some answers like, "take it to the police station," etc., but the correct answer is to keep it.

As the article mentions, hiring practices can open a company up to some lawsuits. However, all a company has to do is show data that correlates hiring methods to employee performance. The study has to be double blind, this requires hiring employees that both pass or fail the criteria, and reviewing their work performance later. There is no requirement to show causation, etc., only a correlation is necessary. Most "honesty tests" don't meet that requirement.

Comment You're not going to like this... (Score 1) 340

but if you are sailing around the world, electricity is going to be hard to come by. Sure, you can start your engine and run the generator, but how much fuel can you carry? How much money is that going to cost? You will probably want to go old school. Things I would buy are:

Wind Vane self steering - If you are traveling solo, who is going to steer the boat while you are in the head?

Diesel Heater - It gets cold out at sea, you don't want to be lugging around propane and diesel, just get a heater that burns diesel and worry about one fuel. For that mater, get a diesel stove too!

Solar cells/wind turbine - As a geek, I doubt you will be able to go without all of your toys, so make sure you can have some power without burning precious fuel.

However, your most difficult problem is fresh food. Refrigerators use A LOT of power! Lack of fresh fruits and vegetables can cause diseases like scurvy. You may want to consider gas absorption refrigeration units, or some method of food preservation.

Comment Once again... (Score 4, Interesting) 771

correlation is not causation.

This "study" is heavily polluted by republican propaganda. Did these test subjects come to these conclusions under their own accord, or were they influenced by right leaning media (Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc.).

People feel the need to identify with social groups, and therefore may be influenced by others in their social group. In my opinion, it's why people align along party lines. In other words, I suspect the cause is social, not neurological, as implied above.

Comment Re:Comparisons (Score 1) 208

Sorry, but elastic modulus usually isn't a big consideration, unless the structure has to be extremely rigid for some reason. Otherwise, you might as well let them flap in the breeze like airplane wings.

The best way to compare materials is a plot of density vs. tensile strength.(Java warning!) In this plot, the materials in the upper left corner are ideal. TFA states the material's density as 1.6g/cc (or 1600kg/m^3) and the tensile strength of 7.5GPa (or 7500 MPa) which would make it the best material on the graph.

Comment Re:Efficiency (Score 1) 87

Also direct connect isn't completely direct connect either. Inside that wall-wart is a step-down transformer which is basically a small inductive power transfer (wireless power), which has its own power efficiency issues.

The "more or less" I put in parenthesis was referring to this wall wart issue you mention. However, many people, including the U.S. Government, have identified these devices as a potential way to increase energy efficiency. It just seems to me that wireless power technology would negate all of this hard work.
Thanks for your reply!

Comment Re:This story comes up every now and then.. (Score 1) 398

..so when are they going to do it, like, for real?

Judging by the picture in the article, it's going to be a while. Notice the vehicle in the article doesn't resemble a car as we know it. A car has a certain form factor for a variety of reasons. Until they get their heads out of the clouds and put this thing into a practical chassis, this thing is going nowhere.

Comment Let's see (Score 1) 789

1. You need liquid money. Go to the bank and get some cash. $20 bills are preferable as they are most common. An ATM would be simple, but they usually only allow you to take out $500 per day for security reasons. So, you may want to go to the counter.

You have more assets than just what's in the bank. Jewelry, TV, Computer, etc. Pawn it. Yes, they will likely want ID, but you haven't lost your tail yet.

2. Lose your tail. Buy some airline tickets on a credit card. Drive to the airport and park in long term parking. Walk into the airport and through a crowd. However, you probably don't want to go through security. Leave the airport. I used to say, get on a train and catch as many transfers as possible. Most cities don't check your ticket at each station or when you leave the system, so you become very difficult to locate. However, cities such as Washington D.C. aren't like that, be careful. Also note that light rail surveillance systems have become much more complex in the last decade and they may have facial recognition that will ruin this plan.

I personally like the Borne Identity approach of finding a shitty old car, and giving the owner a wad of cash for it. Yeah, the car may break down, but no one knows it's yours, and it most likely won't be reported stolen. It'll be very hard to track.

3. Keep on the move, and keep a low profile. Try to travel in a direction other than the one you bought airline tickets for. You've bought yourself some time to come up with a plan from here. Weather permits, you can sleep in the car/camp. Truck stops have showers, etc. to keep you civilized. If it's cold, you may need to hide out in homeless shelters. Traveling on foot in the wilderness has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is you won't cover enough ground. It'll give the people after you a very small area to search. If you decide to ditch the car and travel on foot, be sure to hide the car well. Once your car is found abandoned, they will figure you are near by.

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