I once used a friend's meter and returned it to him on the "A" setting. (It was a cheap meter, and switching from "V" to "A" involved moving one of the probe leads into a different socket) He didn't notice, and later stuck it across the mains in a terminal to see if the fuse had blown. Apparently it was very (albeit briefly) pretty, and I owed him a new set of probes. :-/

...did they buy up all the Kindle copies too?

I'm particularly impressed to note that they left his hands free to reach for the "vomit bag"... :-)

Many NASA missions were "non-profit".

This "2 a day" figure is what the campaigning website said in their own press release. But then they were on the same live radio show as him and didn't refute his totals, which were significantly larger. Like I say, I half-remember it as being "up to 200 a day", but I could be wrong. He definitely claimed a *lot* more than 2, and they didn't argue. They just tried to push their "if he doesn't like our system he doesn't like people communicating with him" line. I think it is *they* who are out for a bit of free press coverage.

(This is my third attempt to post this... Last twice it posted with no name or subject and vanished when I refreshed the page... I've cleared my cookies now. :-/)

First point. He hasn't just taken the address "off the Parliamentary website", he's actually had to disable the address.

He's asking the people running the campaigning website to take his address out of a drop-down list in a form on their site. They are refusing to. The page on the site lets anyone with too much time on their hands pick a subject from one drop-down, an MP from another, enter their name and postcode and hit "Send" to automatically generate a long and verbose email. It's the campaigning equivalent of SPAM marketing. He claims that for every "real" email he gets from someone with a grievance or issue he has to plough through something like 200 generated by this website. (Ballpark figure, I wasn't listening that closely)

Live on "PM" (UK news show) last night he told the folk running the campaigning site that he had no problem with them publishing his address on their site so that people who felt strongly about something could contact him, but he wouldn't re-enable it until they took him off the "automated mailing" page.

(This is my second attempt to post this... Last time it posted with no name or subject and vanished when I refreshed the page... :-/)

First point. He hasn't just taken the address "off the Parliamentary website", he's actually had to disable the address.

He's asking the people running the campaigning website to take his address out of a drop-down list in a form on their site. They are refusing to. The page on the site lets anyone with too much time on their hands pick a subject from one drop-down, an MP from another, enter their name and postcode and hit "Send" to automatically generate a long and verbose email. It's the campaigning equivalent of SPAM marketing. He claims that for every "real" email he gets from someone with a grievance or issue he has to plough through something like 200 generated by this website. (Ballpark figure, I wasn't listening that closely)

Live on "PM" (UK news show) last night he told the folk running the campaigning site that he had no problem with them publishing his address on their site so that people who felt strongly about something could contact him, but he wouldn't re-enable it until they took him off the "automated mailing" page.

First point, he hasn't "removed his address from the Parliamentary website", he's actually had to disable the address.

He says he'll re-enable it when the website he's complaining about remove it from a drop-down list they have on a form - people with too much time on their hands pick an issue from one drop-down, pick an MP from another, type in their name and postcode and hit "send", which means that for every "real" email he gets from someone who is capable of writing down their own complaint or issue he has to plough through 200-odd auto-generated from this site. (Figures are ballpark - I wasn't listening *that* closely...)

It's the "campaigning" equivalent of SPAM marketing, just as annoying and with a law of diminishing returns. He told the guy running the site on PM (UK news show) yesterday that he had no problem with them publishing his address on their site and asking people to get in touch if they had a problem, he just objects to the automated system that encourages bored people to nag an MP about "something".

Another group that may be larger than you think are "collectors", i.e. people who pirated the game but will only ever play it once if at all. They just like checking it off a list. It's one more category of person who's downloading the game who would never dream of actually paying for it.

I know, it sounds weird. But I had a friend with one wall covered in shelves of CDs (and later, DVDs) of pirated software. He hardly ever touched any of it - he just liked, when someone mentioned a game or a piece of software, to be able to say "got that".

Lots of old drives that are too small to be useful?

Try screwing a drive into every second bay. Make sure you use at least four screws per drive, preferably six...

The extra mass and rigidity of the drives will damp vibrations and make your computer sound *much* quieter. You don't need to actually wire the drives to anything.

You're welcome.

...and we still missed the "money shot".

...get to keep all the oil they collect?

Good point. I posted in haste without thinking it through.

Unfortunately, the conducting diodes in a bridge rectifier knock 0.7v off the available voltage (assuming Silicon diodes) which makes using them for individual 1.2v cells (assuming NiMH rechargeables) a bit problematic.

Is that Jerry Pournelle?