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Comment Purpose? (Score 1) 341

Rather than Google "whole house surge protection" and read through many advertisements masquerading as facts, can someone just tell me the true purpose of whole house surge protection? If you still need local surge protectors, what is the whole house unit doing? Taking more of the blow from large spikes like lightning? Do they help keep a house from exploding? (I'm asking because I don't know. While my post won't help subby, I'm hoping good responses to this question may help lots of people.)

Comment Re:What is the matter with car companies (Score 1) 218

Right, and if you drive 20+ miles gas-free each day, then you're getting more than 375 miles per tank. People forget that 375 is the total of one non-stop drive from fully topped off to fully emptied.

If you get on the freeway and keep the car going 80+ mph for 20 miles then you will get something less than the EPA estimated 35 miles per charge.

If you're driving 80 MPH and you drive 80 miles, how long will it take you? (Sorry, had to!)

Comment Volt, w/ smaller engine, bigger battery? (Score 1) 218

I'm not sure if this is what you're describing, but what would happen if you did such a thing to the Volt: put in a tiny little gas/diesel engine instead of its comparatively larger one... and make the battery pack bigger? Have the engine kick in when batteries hit 50%. I'm guessing that if you go too small with the gas engine, your driving would outpace the recoup from the gas engine. But... would that be a big deal? So what, you'd have gas left in your tank and you can't drive... ultimately you'd get less than 375 miles per single road trip... but you'd get a heck of a lot more distance than 35 miles, right? (Anyone good at math able to figure out a sweet spot?)

Comment Possible Limits (Score 1) 64

At least initially, I feel like that won't work unless you already know what the lack-of-object-around-corner returns are. In other words, if you haven't already taken a "picture" of this corner without someone or something in it, it won't do you any good. You won't be able to take a device with you to an unknown location and expect to see what's around the corner. And if you have time to set this up before something goes wrong, why not just put a camera around the corner? :)

Comment Question Re: 4G (Score 1) 281

Without reading TFA, can someone simply tell me whether battery life is poor exclusively because 4G service is spotty, or if "full signal" 4G is still more power hungry than 3G. If it's both (as it probably is), can someone tell me which is the primary reason for 4G battery suckage? One more question... if 4G is actually a bigger drain regardless of coverage, is there anything that can be done with the technology (4G revision 2 phones, a software update, etc.), or will we need to wait for improved battery capacity or 5G before we see the problem resolved?

Comment Re:Choice of beer (Score 1) 229

Having recently gone on an Anheuser-Busch tour, here's the scoop: Anheuser-Busch manufactures and distributes Budweiser. Stella is distributed by InBev. InBev recently bought Anheuser-Busch and operates Anheuser-Busch as a subsidiary. But, true, no matter how you dice it, they're both similar beers on par with each other. I happen to like simple beers, though.

Comment Re:Self-Destructing Key (Score 1) 887

I agree, that would be cool. Funny, though, that when I mentioned USB key or disk, I was referring to the authentication "key" and not the drive itself. In other words, the drive can forever be in tact (but still encrypted), but the decrypt key can have only xx shelf life (similar to the iron key). I wonder if this already exists...

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