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Comment Heatsink/Fan Combo (Score 1) 715

IBM T60 heatsink/fan combo failed. The computer was overheating and freezing or rebooting at least once a day. I had a room fan pointed at the keyboard (it sits in a docking station) to keep it cool enough to use.

Finally got sick of it and ordered a new heatsink/fan combo and did the replacement. Was far easier than I expected and the computer runs perfectly again.

Comment Re:Non-european diesel awd? (Score 1) 1141

Subaru has a turbo diesel Legacy (AWD of course) that they have been selling in Europe for a couple of years. Last I heard they planned to bring it to the US sometime this year. Claimed economy is 50mpg on the highway, I guess that means somewhere just over 40 in real life. Pretty good though!

I have a Japanese market gasoline Legacy B4 spec.b that gets about 12mpg in the city. I don't think my lead foot has anything to do with that. ;)

Image

Man Wants to Donate His Heart Before He Dies Screenshot-sm 456

Gary Phebus wants to donate his heart, lungs, and liver. The problem is he wants to donate them before he dies. Gary was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in 2008. Phebus says he'd like to be able to donate his organs before they deteriorate, and doesn't consider his request suicide because he's "dead anyway."

Comment Re:So.. factories are *moving* within china (Score 1) 476

Anyway, I know it's great to have people employed, but if it can be automated, why wasn't it before now? The more tedious jobs we can do with machines, the more people are freed up for other things.

Why wasn't the work automated? Cost. It's cheaper to pay $130/month for a human to do the work than it is to invest millions in factory automation.

This can be true even in developed countries. I worked for a German company for several years. This company produced very small items that needed to be packed in boxes of between 50 and 500 pieces. It was possible to automate the work but even considering German wages it was cheaper to pay humans than to buy machines.

Mars

New Evidence Presented For Ancient Fossils In Mars Rocks 91

azoblue passes along a story in the Washington Post, which begins: "NASA's Mars Meteorite Research Team reopened a 14-year-old controversy on extraterrestrial life last week, reaffirming and offering support for its widely challenged assertion that a 4-billion-year-old meteorite that landed thousands of years ago on Antarctica shows evidence of microscopic life on Mars. In addition to presenting research that they said disproved some of their critics, the scientists reported that additional Martian meteorites appear to house distinct and identifiable microbial fossils that point even more strongly to the existence of life. 'We feel more confident than ever that Mars probably once was, and maybe still is, home to life,' team leader David McKay said at a NASA-sponsored conference on astrobiology."

Comment Waiting on Intel... (Score 1) 408

Waiting for Intel to release their next generation of quad core mobile chips, probably in Q2 next year.

Once those come out and Lenovo and HP bring out models with the new chips I will replace my aging Core Duo ThinkPad T60 with something much faster and with a LOT more memory. 3GB is not cutting it well anymore and that's the most I can stuff into this machine.

Comment Re:Tax law? - Enforce it not reform it. (Score 1) 913

You are right that I missed the "closing" in your post.

That said, closing loopholes would require great reform of the tax laws as the loopholes are often written in purposely to encourage certain types of actions by businesses or individuals.

It is my opinion that tax law shouldn't be used this way. It should be reformed and simplified, and then enforced.

Comment Obligatory Joke... (Score 5, Funny) 480

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss.

The brain said, "I should be boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions."

The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go."

The hands said, "We should be the boss because we do all the work and earn all the money."

And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs, and the eyes until finally the a**hole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the a**hole being the Boss. So the a**hole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work.

Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the a**hole should be the boss, so the motion was passed. All the other parts did all the work while the boss just sat around and passed out the sh*t!

Moral of the story: You don't need brains to be a boss - any a**hole will do.

Comment LED signals in Osaka for 5+ years (pics) (Score 2, Interesting) 303

We've had LED signals here in Osaka for 5+ years how and they work very well. Here are some links (in Japanese) with photos showing what they look like:

Red Light, Green Arrow

Pedestrian Crossing

Green, Amber, Red (the amber is actually brighter than it seems in this photo)

I haven't experienced any problems with them and I drive daily here. There is no noticeable flicker and they are a lot brighter than the traditional signals they replaced.

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