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About the only major developments in the last few years have been increasing areal density and SATA. Lately even areal density hasn't gone up by much. Seek times, power consumption, and spindle speeds have remained more or less the same. Any real speed improvements are a result of increasing...

Actually Coug, that was 630 meters for the initial wave height, or over 2000 feet. :o We're roughly 8 miles from water here so hopefully we should be OK but my brother just bought a house on the Rockaway Peninsula and he's about 70 feet off Jamaica Bay. At least about 1 mile of island is...

Since my brother moved back with us in June his cat made the adjustment very well. Within a month she acted like she owned the place. I think frequent moving is a bad thing for cats, but moving every few years or less often shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Ok, that changes things a lot if he has the problems you mentioned. Parenting can only do so much in a situation like that. My post was referring to children without such issues. Sorry about the lecture. :mrgrn: What brought it on is that I'm more than a little annoyed when I read about...

There was exactly one good thing about 2004. I got roaring drunk to celebrate it's end. Let's hope 2005 brings better things.

Agreed. In fact, this is the only way a child can grow into a normal, healthy, thinking adult. The current climate of parents spying on their children in all sorts of ways is a disgusting trend. If a parent does a good enough job instilling some sort of inherent sense of right and wrong, they...

The death toll started out at 3000 when I first learned of this. Now it's up to 7100. :cry: It's humbling that for all our technology and science we still can't always predict things like this.

Heat might help. I sleep on my side most of the time like mubs, and if I face my back towards an electric heater set on low I find it helps if I'm starting to get any aches. Also, you might try elevating your feet. This seems to help me relax more, and when I'm more relaxed I'm less likely to...

I personally don't know what the bandwidth limit is for a cable ISP like RR but the modem they gave me is good up to 30 Mb/sec. I wonder when/if we'll ever see standard speeds that high? About the only difference I'm noticing at this point going from 3 to 5 Mb/sec is that downloads are much...

I've never had back pain to the point that it's very painful, but when I notice it starting I'll sleep in my workroom either on the table (wood composite) or on the floor (ceramic tile over concrete) for one night. Usually the table works but if it doesn't the floor certainly will. In both...

I'm as happy as all hell for you, Merc. Given everything that's happened to you, it's nice to finally see your luck changing. It couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

Yep. Plain old 21-speed road bike. The funny part with the 65 mph run was that I could have gone even faster but my gearing limited my top speed. Figure that with a 53 tooth gear on the crank and a 12-24 cluster in back, plus a 27" tire, when I reach 180 RPM (about the fastest I can do) this...

Maybe I'm the only one here who thinks in exactly the same way. I stayed in NYC after college despite a smaller variety of job choices for the very reasons you mention. I simply don't wish to be a slave to a car so that means living in an area that offers comprehensive public transportation...

Thanks, Pradeep. That did the trick-4725 mbs down! :thumbright: Still 384 kbs up but I guess you can't have everything. We'll see if everything feels faster.

When I read your post I was ready to say I hadn't noticed any difference but then I decided to try one of the download speed tests to see if the service really was upgraded. I did and I got the same 2814 kbs which I've gotten since I hooked up with RoadRunner. Apparently the speed increase...

And the bitter irony is that if one was mass produced, it would actually cost less than a gas-engined car. It's a chicken and egg sort of thing where I feel the government may need to step up to the plate and jump start the EV industry. BTW, I don't know what sort of physical condition your...

Doug, it's the burning oil for power part which concerns me more than anything else. The other methods of using oil you mentioned put far less junk in the air than using it for fuel. In fact, all the more reason to conserve oil since it's a finite resource and very useful for something besides...

It's dumb in that vehicles like that shouldn't even be made unless there is a real need for it. You don't see me complaining that an 18-wheeler gets maybe 4 mpg because that's the best you can do given the requirements. If someone really needs to tow 10,000 pounds, drive on a glacier, or drive...

I was just laughing reading this line in that article Howell linked to: We shouldn't even be using internal combustion engines in 2020, but to say we'll only have 5% to 15% of vehicles hybrids (with the rest presumably regular internal combustion engines) by 2020 is laughable. This is...

I'm glad he's doing what he's doing but nobody will listen until oil gets expensive and/or there's massive climate change. Sadly, it's human nature to do nothing about a problem until it comes up and bites you in the behind. The fact is that fossil fuel use kills over 600,000 per year in the...

Was this the company you're referring to? Fiber optics isn't really something that this project calls for since we have plenty of room to put the LEDs in the sign. I do wish I had some 80 or 90 lm/W LEDs though.

Bumping this thread a few days ago turned out to be very serendipitous indeed. It looks like it's time for another update Quite a number of highlights here. Cree has their XT-24 blue chip in production with the XT-27 available in sample quantities. The XT-24 outputs 24 mW and the XT-27...

I did encounter some information about growing plants in the course of my research. Here is a page comparing the effectiveness of different types of fluorescent tubes for plant growing in gory detail. NASA's studies using red and blue LEDs to grow plants are another interesting read. Here's...

The used monitor idea sounds interesting. I'm not sure where I would look, though. There's not too many mom and pop computer stores around here. On eBay the shipping would be prohibitive. As I'm sure you've guessed, I have budget constraints. I've been wanting a 19" flat CRT for quite some...

Best Buy has the MAG 972PF-S for $99 after rebate. I've been in need of a better monitor than what I'm using for a long time. In case anyone is curious, my original 15" monitor got too dim to be useable about a year ago. Ever since I've been using a 15" I found by the curb. The color isn't...

Having lived at the same address for the last 26 years and 4 months I think I might hold the record around here. How about everyone else?

I thought maybe you were talking about Charlie Chestnut but that was a squirrel.

I thought it was rather humerous that the smallest capacity was 200 GB. I'm also surprised that they didn't make a 1 platter 133 GB version. This would be perfect to upgrade older machines as it would be allow nearly the full 28-bit LBA capacity on a drive with a single platter. And we creep...

You're right, Bill. I can't conclusively prove God doesn't exist. However, Occam's Razor makes it highly unlikely that he/she/it does exist given that the probability of a simpler solution is more likely. Therefore, it is more rational to not believe in a God than it is to believe in one...

And I'm sure all the believers here will think I'm going straight to hell for my last post. :diablo: No matter. It's probably infinitely more interesting than the other place anyway.

A belief in God requires faith. Faith is something that only exists in the minds of man, and not in the material world. Therefore, God does not exist. QED.

Very eloquent Gilbo. I'm just curious though why a rational (by your definition) person like Martin Luther would even believe in God, heaven, or hell? I've yet to find any convincing reasons to believe the Bible is anything other than an elaborately written history book. If God existed at...

I'm wondering how long it will be before the traumatized Kerry supporters file a lawsuit against the Bush campaign for causing them their trauma by winning the election. Don't laugh. It could conceivably happen, and there are juries stupid enough to actually award money in cases like this...

I base my moral decisions on what is good for the majority of people. Sometimes this makes you unpopular, sometimes not. I don't purposely go out of my way to please people, but rather hope that by acting in such a way as to benefit the majority I'll be more popular than unpopular, and hence...

Sure I do. I was merely trying to point out that morals can take you to the same places that lack of morals can, albeit for very different reasons. In general, morals and ethics serve as an attempt to balance an unbalanced equation. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't. And there is...

I have to say that on average I've found that most people, religious or otherwise, are too lazy to think anything other than what they're told by whatever leader they happen to hold in esteem. By extension, this means that most religious people are inherently incapable of exercising moral...

RW, in Merc's defense he is a bit hypersensitive on both homosexual and abortion rights. The other members here know that and don't push those buttons too often. NVidia and Sony are other topics where Merc has, shall we say, very strong feelings (he's anti both). Just a friendy word of...

Merc, I do agree that the three things on your list are good things to socialize because the small amount paid in taxes for them is repaid many times over in commerce. And you know how I feel about rail transport. We do in fact have a great freight rail system here, but I wish we had a decent...

Merc, I don't know about your current financial state but for the majority of people taxes hurt badly. Unless you're millionaire every dollar taken out in taxes affects you in some way or another. Even if you have enough left to buy what you need, the taxes you pay mean that you can't put away...

I've thought along those lines myself. The whole move to suburbia in the 1950s and 1960s was in effect was an encrouchment on these animals' territory. We should have stayed in the cities and fixed the problems there. It's more cost efficient to live in high-density settlements anyway. As...

Why not let the employees buy into the same group insurance that is used to cover them if they want to cover their spouses and children? It would still be cheaper than buying it on thier own. My point here is that a single person working for an employer (municipal or otherwise) who provides...

I can agree with you here to a point, the point being that civil unions which protect inheritence, visitation, and other rights are OK, those which provide benefits, medical or otherwise, at taxpayer expense to domestic partners are not. I don't care what someone does in the privacy of their...

Anyone ever think it's all an act with GWB? I nearly always act a lot less intelligent than I am for the simple reason that it catches people off guard. He may be doing the same. Granted, GWB may really be as stupid as he appears, but on the other hand it may all be a brilliant ploy. After...

With Ohio projected to go to Bush by two networks at best Kerry can manage a tie. In all likelihood it looks like four more years of Bush. I can't say I have any feelings about this, good or bad. I'd rather neither of them got elected. If you were a little closer Mercutio I would send you a...

I'm writing in Rudy Guiliani. Or maybe even Mickey Mouse. I can't stand Kerry and I'm not that fond of Bush. This election is a joke. If you want to talk disenfranchisment then I've long felt that neither party represents me. Both parties are all about keeping the status quo. The Democrats...

Putting aside the narrowmindedness for a moment, regimentation is what the military is all about. Either you don't mind it, or you do. Most intelligent people do not like to have every minute of every day planned the way the military does. I might be able to deal with the physical rigors of...

The word UP brought to mind a true story. About ten years ago my "know-it-all" cousin was visiting us. He always was prone to telling tall tales or acting like he heard of everything so unbeknownst to me my brother decided to try to catch him in the act. He told my cousin that Federal Express...

Living with my parents perhaps? :frusty: That's mostly what fuels my occasional indulgences. It's a good thing I'm not obessive-compulsive or I would probably be an alcoholic living around here. Anyway, I split an 18 can box of beer with my mom. That was about five weeks ago. I still have...

Yep, that's who it was. She couldn't sing her way out of a paper bag. All those American idol singers strain to hit their notes. Besides that, it looked like she was lip singing and her mouth wasn't even synchronized with the words. I'm sure glad they didn't bring her back today. She...

Seeing what others picked up in bars, the results of surveys, hearsay, etc. I remember the crowds I used to like to hang around with, and none of them went to bars. I remember groups of people I didn't particularly like who said they did. Most who go to bars tend to have some "issues" of some...