I had a former co-worker a few years back that was looking for a new job. I found the perfect job for him and sent it to him via facebook.

      Facebook gave me the ability to find his contact information via the town he was living in, his name, his profile picture, and some mutual friends. I was then able to start a conversation with him and have a few messages back and forth. Neither of us wanted the relationship to move beyond a few polite messages, and I probably would not have gone to the inconvenience of paying a dollar through facebook just to give him a job link that he may not have been interested in.

      Facebook provides a convenient way for me to communicate with friends, family, and strangers spread across North America. As soon as this service becomes less convenient due to fees or advertising, I imagine that we will all migrate over to the next big thing. I had hoped that G+ was it, but apparently isn't.

To make the maths easier, lets assume you can improve your efficiency by 25% (that's huge) and assume you're loading it to 400 watts, (also huge) and assume you run it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with 2 weeks off a year (running at full capacity).

That's 100 watts of savings, 2000 hours a year... 0.1kw X 2000 = 200kWh per year.

I pay about $0.10/kWh

You could save up to $20/year.

Reality? You'd probably see a lot less savings then that.

Myself, I'm a newb radio technician, so I know where you're coming from.

What you want is a "Yagi" antenna. Very directional and therefore, longer range.

Search for "Cantenna"

Also try: http://www.skyscan.ca/Antennas.htm

I had previously found a website that had a good modeling program to show you the lobe of radiated power, but don't have time this morning to find it again.

I'm also not sure what frequency you want to build it for. Some sites say 700mhz, some 1800mhz.

Hopefully someone with more radio know-how can add to the discussion. If you're near south-east BC, bring it by and we'll test the antenna on my (absurdly expensive) service monitor. I'm wanting to build a long range wifi net connecting to several buddies in town, so I'll be watching and hoping for some insightful help on this thread.

Poor union workers are a sign of a manager without the balls to do his job properly!

My union contract (IBEW) has a lot of room to get yourself fired. Right now the big item is personal cell phone use. If I am caught using my personal cell phone at work, I can be fired. Simple as that. The union has even told us flat out that it cannot defend us if we break the corporate policy.

Useless middle managers who won't do their job are the problem. If a manager won't make the workers under him do their job, how is it the fault of the union?

And that is why instead of Google Drive, I'm looking for an alternative that encrypts my family photo's rather than analyzes them.

I don't THINK I have anything illegal in my photo drive, but you never know what may be spotted by a robot looking through my thousands of photos.

Gimme a break. Unions are the only thing that defends the middle class from the rich shareholders that demand ever increasing dividends.

Should have called it "Sauronsaur".

Yeah so... I'm never going to buy anything that has a digital lock as now I can pirate for my personal use and not be worried about a ridiculous fine.

Worst case Ontario they come after me for (up to) $5000, I go to court and represent myself wasting as much of their time as I can asking dumb questions and I have sell my truck to pay for the fine.

It's worth the risk... but I'm not a lawyer so this should be a good laugh...

The railway industry agrees.

Don't get me started on trains and time zones!

I'm employed by a railway, and have to accommodate 2 time zones every day. The town is located in the mountain time zone and so uses MT. The trains however come from the west in Pacific Time, head north to the main line, then go back west to the coast. In order to keep it simple, they just run Pacific Time.

I leave for work using the clock on the stove. I leave at about 6:50 AM and arrive for work at 6:00 AM. At the end of the day, I leave work at 3:00 PM and get home at about 4:10 PM.

Just today we had a safety meeting that was scheduled in a conference room at a local hotel. Invites were sent out using "Town Time", but this wasn't stated in the email. Everyone in my department showed up an hour late. One of the old guys was vocal... that was awesome.

Since I have had this job, I have become a time change HATER. I like the DST right now because the sun is just coming up when I am starting my day of work, but I hate the change. It just makes my life more complicated than it needs to be.

It's time to stop buying these game consoles that cannot be hacked and these DVD's they don't want us to watch.

I have resisted setting up the DVD player since we moved (4 months ago) because the restrictions placed on me (Macrovision!) by the manufacturer inconveniences me. If I could buy a DVD without previews that I could have playing within 10 seconds of loading into the drive, I might be interested in spending money, but it just annoys me and I would rather not support an industry that treats their customers this way.

I just paid $80 to change a rim on my truck because it was rusty and leaking. ($40 for the rim from a junk yard, $40 to mount and balance). 35 years old, 25% failure rate. Not too bad.

My truck is old-school. New, problematic, overly complicated technology is unwelcome. This new technology sounds new, overly complicated, and problematic.

I just wish there was an AM station to listen to on the way to work...

That's funny because... my new commute is 2.4 km (yay!) and I do live in the Rockies (Cranbrook, BC).

Even though I have the option to bring a company vehicle home, I choose to either drive my own truck, or ride my bicycle. I've been pretty good at taking the bike to and from work. It's a fairly gentle ride home, but my biggest complaint is that my ride is directly south and every day last week there has been a strong wind blowing north while I'm riding home.

I can't think that I'll be riding much once the snow starts flying though.

Thanks! Up... er... Downgraded.

Yeah, I live in a mountain climate, so it aint likely happening. There's just too much snow to even bother. People that live in this region park their bikes for half the year. It's really nice driving a truck when there's a good 10cm of slushy muck for weeks on end, then it freezes and just gets silly.