Perhaps this is a new corporate version of an exit clause for the "golden parachute" so many execs have :-)

I can imagine the secrets -- power button and volume rocker location: left, right, or top of the case.....

If you own something with those, any extended warranty is worth it :(

Ok, until the current generation of "bud earphone users" have gone deaf before age 40 (or at least significantly damaged hearing), there's a HUGE difference in lossless formats over ANY compression. And being able to reconstitute a duplicate of the original medium is a nice side bonus and makes for an easy to use backup solution for a large "legacy" collection of those smallish shiny discs, particularly if you've copied a damaged original with a temporary scratch filler (i.e. furniture polish, lemon fresh even!)

I was lucky enough to hunt down a [JVC] car audio head unit that reads (there's no real "decode" other than deflate and D-to-A) FLAC and everyone is amazed at the difference. Side by side, no comparison, even with my own self ripped high bit rate titles.

"Disable Wireless" and "Police Department" are two of my favorites. "404 not found" is another fun SSID.

Sony's decline began with purchase of a movie studio. The company that once was Betamax and Walkman (and championed fair use for the consumer!) is nomore. Since that time, has anyone purchased a solid sony consumer product that isn't laden with burdensome DRM?

Burdensome in that your own mother simply cannot find a way to fairly enjoy a paid for piece of entertainment on a product meant to display or play entertainment from Sony? "my mom isn't a criminal, so stop treating her and all your other potential customers like one"

Discussions and business relationships with regard to peering arrangements are nearly always "NDA" material. All networks engage in such arrangements, and it both lowers costs and delivers stuff that consumers use (peering & engineering of such connections are always done in conjunction with "bulk" usage data/transit amounts between any two networks). I'd say this is much ado about nothing, but a normal activity that goes on all the time between networks (content, eyeballs, mixed networks) and isn't something sneaky to go behind anyone's back.

The info on traffic/transit amounts is only the business of the two parties involved. Given the amount of traffic google and verizon have, they likely have ongoing discussions about how to make things work well in a cost effective manner just about all the time. Most of the US based networks have private interconnects at many locations so I'd call this pretty much a "no-op" in terms of the net neutrality discussions happening these days.

Hi Evilviper,

couple items to consider:
flash point of R134a is lower than most propane mixes, in other words, more flammable. Both R134a and propane (tried to light a BBQ grill with the mix not quite right?) are difficult to ignite.

There's another 10-20 gallons of hydrocarbons in the gas tank. Again, order of magnitude more worrisome. You can actually toss a match into an open container and the usual result is the match is extinguished.

lesson is, unless the mix of oxygen and either refrigerant is just right, ignition is highly unlikely.

http://www.refrigerants.com/msds/r134a.pdf however does cause testicular "bumps" ;-)

As required by EPA regulations (in the US at least) proper labeling is a definite must.

All that said, I've personally seen far more house and car fires caused by electrical problems than hydrocarbon issues. (there's a great mythbuster's episode on the subject too).

Cheers,
andy

Actually, under the EPA rules (I hold an EPA HVAC license here in the US) there wasn't much to consider design wise.

I utilized all standard R-22 AC components, but instead of utilizing R-22, I purchased a "mix" (http://www.es-refrigerants.com/ ; no affiliation, just a customer for more than a few years) and installed according to directions. This was done after an electrical brownout burned up my old system in late 2008.

Replacement system was identical in size and efficiency rating, but I'm seeing lower electric bills as a result.

The "best bet" (not advertised) is to do the math correctly for charge amount, and to have a TXV (thermal expansion valve) on the system (standard on many newer systems) to regulate flow into the evaporator (cool side coils). My system charge was less than 4lbs of coolant.

I always get the safety question, but there's a natural gas line going into the furnace already with a lot more supply than the charge in the AC system!

http://www.refrigerantsnaturally.com/home.htm is a good location for info, and members include mcdonald's, cocacola, the UN environment program, etc.

I use a combo of propane(phase change coolant), butane(lowers pressure), and isobutane(carries oil through system) in my home central air (standard compressor/condensor & evaporator type found in US homes). It's roughly 25% more efficient overall than the toxic HCFC's (R22/R410a) due to much lower head pressure. Environmentalists should love it as propane has about 99% less GWP in the case of a system leak. and no patents to bother with!

If you're thinking of the very old style absorption coolers (boiler, condenser, evaporator and absorber), which requires continuous burning of propane, that method isn't very efficient by comparison. The primary usefulness as you mention is typically due to a lack of electricity in remote areas. absorption chillers cost more to operate than electric chillers. They also cost about twice as much to purchase. Back in the 1920's/1930's ammonia was used in these systems, and leaks were quite toxic to the residents.

If you have an industrial "waste heat" source, absorption coolers may be useful (no need to burn additional fuel).

reiserfs while good only runs in a chroot'ed jailed file system ;-)

you can get much better performance out of VZ's network if you change your connection settings. it defaults to 256kbps (little bps). up that to the max and it works better, but resets itself each time you disconnect.

if you're a windows user, create a dialup icon and use the modem directly. You'll be accessing the modem at 4x the speed (serial port) that the VZ software defaults to. And you'll have a more stable connection. Nothing wrong with VZ's software, it simply looks to protect the network and provide moderate speed to many people.

or just use ppp in linux, and all is good
dial #777
username: 10digitphonenumber@vzw3g.com

.....such as the 10 connection TCP limit. A pitiful bandaid to slow cousin Joe's infested zombie/spambot. Perhaps SP2 would be interesting if it included real fixes, or IE7 (or better yet, firefox ;-) ).