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The circuit breaker box was already a 100 amp/240VAC or 200 amp/120VAC service when we moved in. Even with all the ACs running we don't come close to that. The main concern was getting heavy loads by themselves so we didn't have breakers tripping if we were making coffee and using a microwave...

My brother asked me what I needed for my birthday. I told him a TV card would be a good idea. I'm basically looking for something to enable me to transfer VHS tapes and/or record programs to DVDs. I'd prefer a component connection to my cable TV box for best signal quality. If possible, I...

Much easier if you start from scratch, especially the electrical work. This is doubly true in NYC since we have to use armored cable and metal boxes. I'm using 12-2 (cable jacket is ground) BX cable which is a real pain to get around turns, or to cut. All told I added or rewired 20 outlets, 3...

I'm in the process of building my mom a new PC. I'm using a Lian-Li PC60 case and Seasonic power supply just like I used for the PC I built myself early in the year. The motherboard must have the following: 1) Slots for at least 3 GB DDR memory. Slots for DDR2 are OK also but it must have...

Thanks all for the condolences. While I've gotten over my initial grieving a while ago it's still strange not having my father around. I only wish my father had taken his health more seriously. I thought a wakeup call would have been when his younger brother (my uncle) was diagnosed with...

Many here have speculated on my reasons for being absent from these forums for over 8 months. A few people who have contacted me privately already know the reason. Since this is a close knit group I thought it time to let everyone know the reason, and it should be obvious from the thread...

Mostly catnaps where I sleep for a few hours, if that. So long as I go into REM sleep for a few minutes in some manner, I'm OK. My problem is that I just get so caught up in whatever I'm doing that I don't want to sleep. What usually happens is I'll keep working until I literally just drop...

It looks black on my monitor but it's probably dark purple.

My reason for leaving my PC on 24/7 is that I seldom don't use it in any given 3 or 4 hour stretch, so turning it off every time I leave it would mean about 20 power cycles a day. This wouldn't concern me if not for the hard drives. I'm uncomfortable cycling hard drives that often. Therefore...

Wow, I haven't been here for a few days and now this terrible news. :( Be strong for her sake. More than that, see what's available with alternative treatments if this does indeed turn out to be cancer. For what it's worth, my mom has several friends who have had breast cancer and gotten...

Thanks Merc for keeping an amazingly high signal to noise ratio even with such a huge number of posts (more than all mine totaled on all the boards I post to). Here's to 8000 more! :beer:

Guess I'm rich then and I didn't even know it since I tend to save >50% of my albeit meager earnings. :wink: Truth is the poor aren't always poor because they can't manage money. You need a certain amount of income coming in to even consider saving. Nowadays many people make so little that...

Actually, with unregulated capitalism the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We're seeing a lot of this right now with fewer and fewer regulations on capitalism. This is because the rich can set things up so that most of the wealth stays in their hands, and only pay workers enough to...

I share many of David's views although my problem isn't so much that I'm against the idea of the government helping those less fortunate but rather against the very high taxes that always seem to come with a multitude of government programs. I don't feel anybody, including the very rich, should...

Congratulations, Coug! If it's any consolation, I haven't yet had any job working for others that I enjoy. That's the same situation I'm in. Seems despite my Ivy League college degree the only kinds of jobs people hire me for are low-paying, boring, manual labor or technician type jobs...

Mass distribution also enters the equation (lower center of gravity is better) but your observation simply shows the many conflicting requirements between making a vehicle which can cope with real-world driving conditions versus one which can attain maximum possible efficiency. Ultra-low...

Me too. 27 is way too young to die. :(

The now defunct GM Precept had a Cd of 0.16. Looks perfectly driveable to me. I'm guessing it could be even a bit better with fairings over the front well wheels. Here's one with a Cd of 0.10 (the Pac-Car II): http://www.paccar.ethz.ch/pac_car_nogaro/image It really the combination of Cd...

Actually the opposite is true. Cold air is denser, which in turn means more air drag. However, the drag coefficient, which is just the ratio of the drag of the vehicle compared to a flat plate, is the same regardless of temperature. 0.27/0.28 isn't bad, but it's a shame we have stylists...

Thanks for clearing that up. With lossless compression that is quite good for a 12 megapixel file. I think my mom's digicam can save in uncompressed TIFFs, but I honestly didn't see much difference compared to the jpegs and the file size was ~20 times larger.

I can, too. I was just wondering what LM uses that he requires 16 MB per frame. Even your 16.7 megapixel camera should be able to get a frame in about 5 MB. BTW, I read somewhere that 8 megapixels is about equal to 35 mm film. Interesting that even commodity digicams are approaching that.

I'm just saying that my internal case temps generally stay less than 10°C above ambient without a case fan. A case fan might lower them a few degrees, but if your CPU is that close to the edge of stability that a few degrees make a difference then there are other issues. I consider cases fans...

I get 300+ frames of 1600x1200 on the 128 MB card in my mom's digicam. With 8 GB that would be more like ~20000 frames ( or maybe 10,000 plus with today's 5 or so megapixel digicams). 500 frames on 8 GB is a whopping 16 MB per frame. I think that NASA earth picture I downloaded once was...

I've found that case fans don't do squat. In fact, I disconnect them in my machines as a matter of course since all they do is make noise and blow dust into the case. Want to know what really helps? Get a Seasonic or other power supply with a 120 mm fan. They move a ton of air with very...

I feel exactly the same way. The Academy Awards is just an annual stupidity where all the stars with already massively inflated egos massage each other's ego's yet more with BS awards. I wish the whole thing would disappear along with the Grammys, Emmys, and all the other pointless celebrity...

Up?! :o Are the traffic engineers/road designers brain dead? If anything entrances should have a healthy downgrade and exits an equivalent upgrade. Geez, I though New Jersey's roads were bad but what you described borders on the insane. How on Earth do trucks/buses merge when they probably...

They go 75 mph even in the slow (right) lane? This seems a bit strange to me because I vividly remember design parameters for Interstate highways taking into account the time for the slowest vehicles to get up to speed. Not disputing you, but this sounds more like a design problem. I'd be...

No, I'm not, and especially for city driving it's plenty adequate. I frequently pull away from stoplights on my bicycle and cars don't catch me for a few blocks, and then only because my poor aerodynamics means I can't maintain much over 25 mph for any length of time, not because I'm not...

The only I really find lacking in the 20 HP version is top speed. 0 to 60 in 20 seconds is certainly adequate for everyday driving although 99 mph isn't really enough if you drive on rural Interstates (although it's plenty for the city). Regardless, great aerodynamics to be able to go 99 mph...

I'm also looking, and in the same price range. Because of space constraints anything larger than 37" is out, and it needs bottom mounted speakers (maximum size with side mounted speakers would be 32"). I'm probably going to wait a bit until 37" LCDs hit $1000. As for relative...

My sister recently installed the latest version of Tubo Tax on her system. She did her federal return, and went to download the state information. She said she got an "error 29". She also got "error 29" when she tried to find any updates. Turbo Tax tech support said it was caused by...

And I'll point out it's the last step of the whole women's emancipation movement. First women wanted equal rights. Once that once achieved the (unstated) goal became to make men subservient, and perhaps eventually to make them useless altogether. If you think about it, nowadays a women...

My type (at least the type I would consider for dating/girlfriend/wife) is Asian (Chinese is actually what I like best), height in the 4'8" to 4'10" area, body in proportion to their height and on the thin side, flat (as if you didn't already know that ;) ), long straight hair, very delicate...

Honestly, she's just not my type irrespective of IQ or lack of it. I've always been really particular about what turns me on, and tall blonds with big boobs just don't cut it with me. Maybe that's from overexposure to that type thanks to Hollywood, and maybe just from what I'm used to looking...

It's quick and dirty though for someone who doesn't have much experience working with electronics. Also, since 3 white LEDs take 10 of the 12 volts, it's actually about 83% efficient under the circumstance I mentioned, which isn't horrible. If I were to drive a bunch of power LEDs off 12 volts...

Actually, they both make me want to vomit. Jessica Simpson is so stupid it's mind boggling. Her IQ is less than her breast size for sure. In fact, the combined IQs of her, Ashlee, and Brittany Spears are less than that of any of the regulars here.

:diablo: Actually, they need a constant current source because even a small change in voltage can result in a huge change in current. Not only that, but LEDs differ greatly in their forward voltage at nominal current, even among the same bin. Anyway, the best way to drive LEDs off your power...

I recently did a "cool" experiment with an LED. I thought the results might be of interest.

I wonder how the Fibonacci sequence relates to breast size? :mrgrn: While that's certainly true there are some (non-gay) guys who just don't like them. Besides that, there are two other drawbacks to breasts. They tend to sag as the person ages, and I've noticed that those with larger...

That's as good an analysis as any regarding the current situation. Funny that I read somewhere about Tom Cruise having to stand on a platform in a lot of his movies owing to the trend you're talking about. That really hits home because Tom Cruise is my height-5'9". Now I certainly don't...

Nice pic of you two, and happy belated first anniversary! BTW, me and Groltz thought the same thing because some people are funny about pictures of them being posted online. To date I haven't posted a picture of myself anywhere, much less one of someone I know. Maybe one of these days when I...

Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing but maybe SD asked his wife if it was OK. My sister for sure would put her husband in the hospital if he tried a stunt like that without her approval.

Well, compared to Pamela Anderson or by Hollywood standards in general they are. ;) Point taken, though. I guess she falls into that other 10%. BTW, when did you get married? My point here is that what you see in movies is totally out of proportion to the people you encounter in everyday...

More from the B-list actually, but the majority of A-list actresses look bigger today than they did 5 years ago. OK, they didn't get huge implants, but nevertheless it's obvious something was done. As for the masculine part, I'm just comparing them to some of the opposite sex I've known...

My CRT cost me $0. I found it by the curb. The only CRT I did buy (also 15") cost me $180 in early 1999. I almost bought a 19" CRT which was $99 last year but decided to hold off until LCDs dropped in price some more. I really don't want another bulky CRT. Right now my price point is ~$200...

Speaking of native resolution, I've been looking into purchasing a 19" LCD monitor but they all seem to be 1280x1024. I'd like 1600x1200 but that resolution only seems available for the much more expensive 21" and up displays. BTW, I'm currently using 1024x768 on a second-hand 15" monitor.

I'm guessing then that probably 90% of Asian females remind you of guys, especially with short hair. I'm not big on short hair myself, but I can still tell the sexes apart easily even without huge headlights which scream "I'm a female!", or long hair. Merc hit it on the head. To add to his...

It would be better if Hollywood just got over their juvenile obsession with breasts and stopped padding their actresses altogether. Believe it or not, some people actually like females with small or even flat chests. The balloons which pass for breasts these days are freakish to say the least.

Let's put this way-FDR's New Deal was the start of the big government welfare state which exists today. Passing Social Security was the biggest deception ever done to the American people. The initial tax rate was only 1% so as to make the program politically palatable. In reality, that...

Given a choice between getting on an aeroplane and getting on that thing, I'd choose the blimp in a heartbeat. At least if the engines fail it still has some inherent bouyancy. That being said, if there is that big of a market for 18-hour cross country trips instead of 6 to 7 hours via regular...