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When will people wake up and finally realize we can't legislate our way to a safe, healthy society nor should we try? In the end everything that the ruling class feels is unhealthy or inappropriate will be banned. Nobody will be able to make decisions for themselves. Kind of reminds me of...

:o I thought I had my work cut out for me. Digitally fixing those is what's going to be the real time killer. The negatives I did just required a bit of contrast and light level adjustment. It was cool seeing what some of them looked like for the first time since a few were pictures that the...

As I discovered already since I have scans of various important papers, tax forms, receipts, rebate forms, etc. Just giving images a sensible name rather than something like IMG_4013.JPG and keeping them in descriptive folders helps a great deal. As for the rest of your post, I like the...

I'm seriously entertaining that thought, especially if I can't get this scanner to work properly. I'd like Splash's input on this as well. Although the quality seems decent enough, scanning negatives with this thing is like watching paint dry. I'm currently debating whether to scan prints...

Merc, Between slides, negatives, and pictures(including many old B&W ones dating back up to 100+ years) I would estimate we have at least 10,000 pictures, if not more. I'm not sure Walgreen's would be a viable solution cost-wise. I'm also not sure if I can trust the typical employees in...

My mom recently purchased a Microtek 4850 scanner from WorstBuy(special sale $99.99). Her reason for choosing that particular model was that it came with a slide and negative adaptor, and also that it is capable of 2400 dpi native resolution. Unfortunately, since it's USB and her Pentium...

That wouldn't work at all. You would need a huge rheostat capable of dissipating a few hundred watts(which incidentally would counteract the effect of the AC unless you put it outside). Besides that, as you reduce voltage the compressor's torque goes down, and at some point it will just stall...

Spring means summer's not far behind, and I hate summer with a passion. Summer for me basically means being confined to an air-conditioned room for 3 months since I lost my ability to cope with heat(not that I had that great an ability before) after I helped my neighbor with his kiddie...

I have to agree with everyone here that some form of exercise will do wonders for your well-being. I attribute my recovery in large part to my avid cycling. When I was at the low point I somehow managed to ride 150 to 200 miles per week. This kept me from slipping deeper into a depression...

Merc, Regardless of how you currently feel, you should think about your health. You may be borderline suicidal now(and I've been there myself) but should things turn around in your life later on you will ending up suffering all kinds of obesity related illnesses, especially as you get older...

I think you just want to look more muscular rather than gain weight(there is a difference), although in the process of adding muscle mass you may end up gaining weight without looking any different. Case in point is myself. In early high school I was about 160 pounds and 5'9". Not skinny, but...

Most of the WTC foundation is below the water table(since it's on former landfill the water table begins only a few feet down). It's nothing that a little engineering genius can't solve if it makes economic sense to do so. Apparently it doesn't, or we would already have buildings fifty stories...

My neighbor's house was broken into last night. :o Luckily they didn't have anything of value, but it still sucks that people feel it's OK to just break in and take what they want. The police are still there now fingerprinting but I doubt they'll ever catch the perps.

I think the SUV craze is partly to blame on the automakers. Through their ads they can promote certain types of vehicles as more desirable. From what I understand, because SUVs are classified as trucks, and hence exempt from CAFE standards, there is more of a profit margin on them. Therefore...

This is one of the most disgusting things I've read in a long time, but it certainly comes as no surprise with vehicles getting more and more ridiculous in terms of size and horsepower. It seems the only way auto makers will ever improve fuel economy or go to zero emissions vehicles is if it's...

Interestingly, I'm getting similar temps(<40°C) with my Tualatin upgrade as well even though I have the 1.4 GHz version and it's overclocked to 1.568 GHz. I haven't bothered yet trying to turn down the fan speed, but based on my experience playing around with heat sinks, fans, and...

This is definitely the way to go in my opinion. The only problem is it's really only useful for single family home situations. In a city like New York it is possible in theory to put a 50-story apartment building underground but the costs would be enormous compared to the energy savings. In...

While it's quite normal to feel resentment after break-in robberies, and I have myself, in the end all that's missing are material things which can be replaced. What really harbors resentement in me are those who accost people in order to rob or rape them. My mom was pushed to the ground by...

I had 2 bicycles stolen from the garage about 20 years ago. Most of the houses around us had multiple break-ins from the late 1970s through the early 1990s(this was before Guiliani cleaned up the city). About the only thing that saved us from more robberies is the fact that somebody is usually...

I came across this article when researching white LED efficiency. By a stroke of luck, some scientists studying the properties of indium nitride as a light emitter found that it had properties that could make it an effective light to electricity converter. Current solar cells have efficiencies...

Not yet but I'll keep an eye out for it on cable. The site you linked to was down when I tried it but I'll take your word that it's worth watching. BTW, it's nice that someone heard of another one of my fairly obscure titles. Quite refreshing actually that people here don't just stick to the...

I don't doubt the greenhouse effect is for real either Tea. We've had crazy weather here the last 10 or 15 years. Mostly, it's been hotter, but also erratic as well. When I was young it was rare to have a day over 90° F in summer. Most summers in the last decade have strings of days over 90...

I wasn't aware they put it on DVD. Any differences or additions that make it worthwhile to buy? BTW, I'm glad somebody besides myself actually knows this film exists. It's definitely worth watching as it shows the sheer insanity of how we live nowadays without a single word of dialogue. A...

Honestly, I'm not sure which since I read about the problem on SR but didn't experience it firsthand. I remember somebody(I think it was Gary H) saying that they had a whole bucket full of dead 6.4 GB WD drives of a certain model number at work. Regardless, a pattern like that is enough to...

Pros: 1)Finds a productive use for waste(hopefully garbage dumps can eventually be reclaimed) 2)Eliminates dependence on foreign oil(no more money flowing to sponsors of terrorism) 3)Municipalities can produce their own oil rather than being at the whims of oil companies 4)If universally adopted...

They've been on my shit list since that 6.4 GB fiasco. Despite their much improved reliability record, it takes a really long time to win back my trust after something like that. IBM's also on my shit list for obvious reasons. That leaves Maxtor, Seagate, and Samsung. No experience...

CougTek, I have three more reasons for you to hate us Americans: 1. 128MB SmartMedia card for $23 at NewEgg(purchased for a digital camera) 2. 80GB, 8 MB cache DM9 purchased for $69.99 after rebates($99.99-30 mail-in rebate) at CompUSA. BTW, I went 5 days after the sale started, and I got the...

Here's my short list in no particular order: 2001:A Space Odyssey The Andromeda Strain Blade Runner(I agree with Mercutio-best science fiction film ever) Silent Running 1984 Total Recall The Hunt For Red October Saving Private Ryan Heaven and Earth Predator The Terminator T2:Judgement Day...

I don't know what's scarier-the people that think up things like this, or the morons who actually believe this crap. Evidently enough people fall for gibberish like this or it wouldn't be so widely used. WTF is a "Grander Penergiser"? Is that something that energizes your penis perhaps? Or...

Yes e_dawg, I know the feeling. Cycling is great 95% of the time but on those miserable days like you described, forget about it. I remember one ride I took with my brother to the Green Acres Mall about 18 or 19 years ago. It's about a 40 mile round trip from where I am. Going there with a...

You might be right about this. Truthfully I've never noticed, but then I usually don't ride right on the limits of adhesion. As for braking, as you're aware the rear wheel locks up quite easily, so maybe I'll do some tests with different tires just for kicks. Sliding isn't a problem with the...

On a few occasions. I had my learner's permit shortly after I graduated college but nobody I knew had the time to take me out to practice so it expired before I could take the driver's test. After seeing people's sloppy driving habits, traffic congestion, and high insurance costs, I concluded...

It depends on the rubber compound. The low rolling resistance(at least for bike tires) is due to a higher inflation pressure. Car tires might also use rubber that flexes less. I wouldn't worry about it too much since even crappy tires have an adhesion coefficent of something like 0.7. This...

What makes you think a car like I proposed is more expensive? Look how cheaply something like a hard drive has been made through mass production. Electric motors are cheaper than a complex mechanical transmission. Add in a larger battery for energy storage and a few large capacitors for the...

It seems clear that more than a few people here could use some lessons on exactly what affects fuel economy. For starters, engine displacement certainly has some effect due to the reasons Clocker mentioned, and also the fact that you're lugging around more weight. However, it does not have as...

To add one to the list my brother's 84-year old landlady flew to California a few weeks ago to stay with her niece. She suffered a stroke several months ago, had just gotten out of rehab, and plans to stay with her niece for probably the remainder of her life. In any case, she was born in the...

The fact that entrepreneurs are seriously studying the idea evidently means that it's economically and technically feasible. The concept really isn't that much different than today's floating oil drilling platforms which are anchored to the sea bed. BTW, you won't be "taking your chances" if...

We'll have something better in time. Boeing dropped it's supersonic transport project. I don't believe hypersonic transports will see the light of day, either, especially in light of 9/11. A fully fueled HST has the explosive power of a small atomic bomb, and there is no way that it would be...

No kidding. $5 each would be more like it being that you can buy new drives for less than $1/GB, and a drive that old might not have much usable life left. I'm amazed there's that many people willing to pay those kinds of prices. I used to like eBay but lately it's been mostly a collection of...

This behavoir comes as no surprise to me at all. Of course cats will try to interpose their bodies between your eyes and whatever you're looking at. It is simply beyond their comprehension why you would want to look at anything else when you can have the privilege of looking at something as...

It was a privilege to be able to give thanks to you for all the effort you put into SF. Three cheers for Doug! :thumbleft: :beer: :jumpin: :beer: :thumbright:

I've noticed all of CompUSA's specials lately are 7200 RPM. I'm sure they still have 5400 RPM in stock, but at this point I don't see them advertised. I'm hoping they have a nice clearance sale soon on 5400 RPM. I'll stock up on some bulk storage. :)

Interesting. Don't forgot, though, that this is on a road classified as "steep", which is even worse than "mountain". The places where such steep gradients exist are likely curvy mountain roads where speeds of more than 30 or 40 mph would be unsafe anyway(since you could drive off a cliff on a...

To put things in perspective, the access times are less than a factor of two improvement over even run-of-the-mill 5400 RPM drives. Even an X15 is only about 3 times faster than 5400 RPM. Unless it's about the same price per GB, just as cool, and just as quiet, I simply couldn't justify it...

It doesn't need to. A 35HP engine has enough reserve power to do that on it's own provided the car is designed with a low drag coefficient(~0.2) and fairly low rolling resistance tires. I'm doing the example with a 4% gradient as 6% gradients simply don't exist on any Interstate highways...

If you think what I wrote is scary then it's a good thing one of my cousins doesn't post on this board. This is a person who considers Hitler one of his personal heroes, and he's far from the only one. A person my brother works with has feelings to the same effect. The point here is that if...

Tannin, you probably would have come to that realization by the time you were about six if you lived in New York. For many reasons, the Jews have been a thorn in my side ever since I could remember, and current events have only increased my feelings in this matter. Yes, Israel is unreasonable...

I remember reading about this in Popular Science in the 1980s. Ultimately, I think what killed the idea was a combination of cheap gas prices coupled with advances in electronic components like GTOs and capacitors. It was possible to contain the flywheel if it failed(they even showed some...

While we're on the subject, does anybody know if it is possible to unlock the multipliers on either the Pentium II or the Tualatin Celeron? I've never seen any references to this, although there are plenty of sites showing how to unlock AMD processors. My M/B has 112 MHz and 133 MHz FSB...

It may not answer your question, but I suggested another, in my opinion more feasible, approach to accomplish essentially the same thing: