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Verizon Sued After Tech Punches Customer In Face 493

suraj.sun writes "A Verizon customer filed a lawsuit after the tech the company sent out got a little punchy. Instead of fixing the customer's problem, the tech allegedly hit him in the face. The New York Post says the tech attacked the customer after he asked to see some ID before allowing access to the apartment. From the article, '"You want to know my name? Here's my name," Benjamin snarled, slapping his ID card into Isakson's face, according to Isakson's account of the December 2008 confrontation. "The guy essentially snapped. He cold-cocked me, hit me two or three solid shots to the head while my hands were down," said Isakson, a limo driver. He said the pounding bloodied his face and broke his glasses. But things got uglier, Isakson said, when Benjamin squeezed him around the neck and pressed him up against the wall. "He's prepared to kill me," Isakson said. "That's all I could think of." The customer broke free and ran away. The Verizon tech then chased the customer until he was subdued by a neighbor who was an off-duty cop.'"

Comment Re:Cool (Score 1) 141

Efficiency does go up at higher light intensity, but the fact that the device must track means that there must be more horizontal space between the collectors to avoid shading. The assertion that less land will be needed would require a dramatic improvement in efficiency to overcome the handicap of increased inter-collector spacing. Variation in light intensity usually causes problems in photovoltaic array conversion efficiency. Thus, issues such as inter-collector shading and non-uniform concentration lead to reduced overall efficiency, often by far more than the affected area. It would be nice if non-imaging concentrators could be used as they could be placed closer together in still configuration rather farther apart as the moving trackers have to be placed. However, the severe variation of intensity generated by non-imaging concentrators usually makes them impractical for photovoltaic applications. So, saving on photovoltaic material does not also mean saving on land.

Comment Re:yaaawwwwnnn.... (Score 5, Interesting) 299

While I agree that these types of announcements are overblown (they are talking about high-concentration PV here, which is not a good idea to put on roofs at all for structural reasons, and it only responds to about 80% of the available irradiance anyway due to being limited to beam radiation), the ROI is highly dependent on the economic conditions of the owner. Solar can payback fast if you are a large electricity user in the upper tiers of pricing even without incentives, and with incentives the banks are loving it today in many locations. If you are off-grid in a sensitive environment, you may have little alternative... what is the ROI on that? If you are living in a tiny home in a mild climate with no air conditioning, your ROI could indeed be prohibitive... but blanket statements about ROI are NOT "insightful", moderators.

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