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Comment Re:more like (Score 1) 329

I bought a Roku to see what it was all about. Returned it after I found out that I would have to set up another fscking server on my network running Plex to host files that are already on a MythTV box. WTF? Roku wouldn't play with MythTV at all. Fortunately the Panasonic Blu-Ray player I bought (for $4 more than the Roku) had a Netflix button on the remote, and it plays my MythTV files just fine. Bye bye Roku. Some people just don't want to mess around with yet another box/system to overcome a limitation of a device.

Comment Re:Ting (Score 1) 91

I signed up for Ting last month. Brought my Galaxy S2 from Sprint (Epic 4G Touch). I was moved within 8 hours of signing up. Happy so far. My bill should drop from $87/mo to around $40. Same exact (crappy) coverage as Sprint, same exact performance as I've had the last 2 years with my phone, but half the price, no contract, same nice phone.

Comment Re:Ting (Score 1) 207

I'd forgotten about this... I have been on Sprint for 12 or so years. The coverage sucks. The price sucks. My buddy with a Verizon phone will sit there at 16 megabits download, while I have no data at all. But, I don't want to switch to an expensive phone plan, nor do I want to ditch my Sprint Galaxy S2... So I just switched to Ting. I used your code, but I'm not sure it went through properly. Hopefully you'll see the credit. I started the process this morning.... 8 hours ago I was on Sprint. Now I'm officially on Ting. My bill should drop from $87/mo to under $50.

Comment Re:Better than Boxee Box? (Score 1) 80

I bought a Roku 2 of some sort (cost about $90 from Amazon). I guess I gave it too much credit, it didn't work nearly as well as I'd hoped, nor interface with media streaming devices on my network as well as I'd hoped either. Neflix was OK I guess, but I decided to return it because $90 for a Netflix device is no good. My Panasonic Blu-Ray player DOES interface with my network devices, and it plays Netflix, and was only $2 more. Oh yeah, it plays Blu-Rays & DVDs too.

Comment Re:SteamOS (Score 2) 313

My son plays a lot on Steam (TF2 mostly). If there were a Steam-centric distro available right now to run on a live disc, I'd download it *tonight* and run it. I don't feel like futzing with an Ubuntu live disc right now, or stomping all over his Windows install right now. Drop in a disc and run, though, with the Steam client already installed? Sign us up.

Comment Re:The TL;DR (Score 5, Interesting) 210

Circuit breaker was not "miscalibrated". The protective relay (which is separate from a breaker) possibly had a setting in it that was too low. Protective relay settings are based on time curves (which are plotted on logarithmic paper). For, say, 300 amps, it trips after 10s or 100s of seconds of continuous operation past the setting. For 10,000 amps, it may after .03 seconds (or you may have an instantaneous setting, or a definite time delay based on cycles). That kind of curve. If the load was drawing so much current, for so long of time, then yes, it will send a command for the circuit breaker to trip. Anyhow, it's easy to screw up a protective relay setting - and yes, I've done it. That's why relay settings are always checked by a second engineer as well, just to make sure you didn't miss something. IAAPE (I am a protection engineer, and a P.E.), though we don't use S&C relays (Schweitzer here).

Comment Re:Agree 10000% (Score 1) 177

I'm in online grad school right now, registered with in-state tuition (at a state school, of course). After the technology fees (online fee of $50 per credit hour), it's about $1000-$1100 per 3 hour class total. For out of state, I'd expect it's probably $1500-ish per course. So while their price isn't totally out of line, once you reach for-pay education, your competition heats up significantly.

Comment Blame Natural Gas also (Score 1) 346

Back in 2008, natural gas prices had spiked, and it "appeared" (at least temporarily) that they might stay rather expensive. Texas is very dependent upon natural gas for electricity, so "wind power" was almost economical.

Now, in 2010, with more sources of natural gas seeming to 'pop up' due to the additional drilling in Texas over the last couple years, NG is cheap again. Wind generated electricity costs twice as much as natural gas generated electricity right now. So unless a business is just wanting to "appear green", there's no economic incentive to buy wind power right now. Would you pay twice the price for electricity just to "say" you're buying wind power?

Pickens is above all else a business man. If it won't make money, there's no point in doing it.

Comment I tried to like it. I really did. (Score 4, Insightful) 602

But like the summary says, it turned in to a boring show where they tried character development, but it just fell on its face. It was just about at the level of a plain drama with a little peppering of sci-fi.

Now SyFy shows wrestling on Friday nights. I won't say that's better than Caprica, but it must be paying the bills...

Instead of relaxing like I've done for the last 10+ years - watching SciFi channel on Friday nights (where did GvsE, Lexx, Brimstone, Dresden Files, Farscape, etc go?), I'm now doing other things with my Fridays... I'm not going to watch wrestling. Talk about fiction!

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