Posts by Roland 28 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Sep 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31M0j96uYPs
And the termites already learned to drive a car! Can you imagine how much knowledge these flies would be able to cram into their brain? Insectoid overlords, indeed!
* Maybe it's just a big marketing ploy, to sell more insecticide...
Last weekend i bought the Epson Workforce 600; wireless printing and scanning(!) both under XP and OS X 10.5.x; Fax and Automatic Document Feeder (missing in the Kodak). As for the price: $149... printers are dirt cheap.
Apart from that, specs seem kinda the same. Not sure about the cost per print for the Epson (which is where the printer companies will probably recoup their loss on the price of the printer itself...)
Printer is noisy as well, however that also depends on the quality of the print. When printing on economy / draft, the thing is really fast, but also really loud :-)
Well, I can imagine how that screeching would hurt your hearing. Having traveled on the BART in San Francisco daily for a couple of weeks, it definitely helped wearing earplugs for parts of the trip. Man, what a noise...
I know that in Amsterdam they experimented with setting up irrigation systems next to the tracks, to keep the tracks wet. Less screeching that way. Not sure if that was a permanent solution, though.
still having the intermittent wifi connection.
What happens on my mac is that the signal strength (you can monitor that kinda by keeping 'option' pressed, then clicking on airport icon in task bar..) goes up and down, up and down... Only after a while (switching on and off the airport card) the connection is stable enough for normal operations.
To move towards a paper trail, but still managing to cut costs, print some sort of receipt on heat sensitive paper after you punch a button on the machine :-P
Nice compromise, don't you think?
After Living in the Midwest for a couple of years now, I'm still amazed of how ingrained certain ways of thinking are. If some public figure says 'everything is all right, don't worry', people tend to no longer worry about things.
Chrysler is selling cars here in the US, promising that when you buy a new one, you'll get three years x 12,000 miles gas for only $3 per gallon (US, that is). So what was the problem again about raising fuel prices? Just buy a new car, and you're good for another three years, right?
So when talking about 'evoting is good' or 'evoting is bad', it feels to me that people tend to just listen to their favorite 'news channel', and just regurgitate the commentary made by the anchors in public. It's scary.
People vote with their pocketbook. 'Does it affect my bottom line?' If so, i will vote in whatever sounds the best in my current situation, not the one that might help out in the future. So if evoting is cheaper than getting the people to count the votes manually, that's what it's going to be.
<quote>
Ok ... so Sony sell the PS3 at a loss .. right? So what would happen if EVERYONE bought a PS3 did this with it and didn't buy any games?
/me dreams
</quote>
We could write some software for this problem and run it on this cluster?
;-)
Nah, don't need a coat, got my portable patio heater with me.
Now that everybody agrees on the fact that Flash should not be used in this way, I think we can also start actions against:
* the car (should only be used to transport people, not to drive fast in it!)
* paint (should only be used to paint real landscapes, not that rubbish Picasso, Bosch, or Munch).
And, while we're at it, let's ban patio heaters as well!
Now that was a cool camera... http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/FD91/FD91A.HTM
Nice optical zoom (14x!), nothing of that digital zoom stuff.
Still using it sometimes, to just see 'what's going on over there'. Always makes me smile, the ka-chunk of the floppy drive :-)
So in a way, Sony comes full circle, it seems...
One of the ways of dealing with extreme heat here in the US is to have the elderly stay indoors in malls and supermarkets if the heat is too much. Warnings are sent out on radio and TV every day.
So can't imagine the backlash when people still die in their houses because of the utilities companies dialing up the heat, or even make it impossible to have the AC kick in...
If only they would do away with the houses built of sticks and straw, and build more durable (and better insulated!) ones. Houses are nothing more than a slab of concrete, some 2x4's or 2x8's, particle board, siding and some roofing. Oh yeah, sometimes they include some insulation as well. What's the return on investment when you want triple-glazed windows, then everything around it is nothing more that sticks?
But again, just like with how people use cars, there's a difference between energy use in Europe and the US. Tell me, why do you think the fridges are so huge compared to the European 'post boxes'? I think it's because there's not that many convenient stores in the neighbourhood, so instead of popping into the store every time you need something, you will get loads a stuff in one go. But you need place to store and keep it frozen of course, right? So there's the need for the coffin-like freezers for the basement. And most of these don't run that efficiently either.
Well, tis funny, I asked that myself. I think it's because the landscape is not as varied as in Europe. Also in Europe the scale of things is probably hidden because of the changes in scenery, different languages.
I miss Europe... and French wine, and Spanish ham, and German pear schnapps, and Dutch coffee... *sniff*
Last summer did a road trip from Chicago to Yellowstone Natl. Park. (yup, around 3500 miles) Remember the movie 'Dances with wolves'? That's the kind of scenery you'll see for one whole day of driving (roughly 800 miles. American ones, on land ;-)
Funny thing about going green vs. more power: a comparison between the new Toyota Camry vs the Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid / flexfuel... Both had the same city MPG... Here's a link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/chi-mxa1216matejadec16,0,7572566.column?track=rss
So that's another trick the car designers are playing on people over here is that 'automatic switch-off of 2 - 4 cylinders'. Guess what? This happens only when you stay below 55 mph on the highway. And of course no one drives 55mph on the highways.
Ah, still trying to get used to the gallons, fahrenheit, ounces and all that... So now I find out that the US gallon is different from the UK gallon, too! Argh!
Anyways, it's probably all about options that are offered:
- would like to drive a diesel car over here in the US. Diesel is about 40 - 60 dollar cents more expensive compared to the sludge they call 'regular' here.
- it's impossible to have only one car here in the US. Coming from Europe, trust me, we've tried for one year. Outside of the main / big cities, there's absolutely no useful public transportation infrastructure. All that they have (around Chicago) is going to be downsized, because of growing costs.
- This morning it was around -3 fahrenheit (so would be roughly -20 celcius). Haven't done any research on how the batteries take this kind of temperatures. Does anyone know?. Of course, the solution would be a heated garage, but that kinda defeats the purpose ;-)
- about the road conditions: i don't know if it's comparable. All i know is that the roads are being cut open by the snow plows, salt, high temperatures during the summer. And i'm also talking about the highways / interstates. Traveled a lot around Europe, but never have seen so many problems as I have here in Illinois. so yes, you will look for a more sturdy (looking?) car, which means a bigger car
Slightly off-topic, but to call the V70 a 7 seater... Maybe with the small kids way in the back ;-)
Which opens up a whole other topic: load / weight limits on cars. Funny, couple of months ago I read an article about how the 'standard' American has grown in size (no, only in circumference and weight, not in length ;-), and that when you load up a car with four 'standard' Americans, the car would be above its legal load limit. People started panicking about what this would do for their insurance, in case they would get in an accident.
Which in turn will start another thread about how 'safe' small cars are in the US... Sounds like a good idea for a new TV show. Let's call it Ultimate Car Fights</sarcasm>
And then my last remark: please start designing cars for people that are 6ft4 and taller. I'm 6-6, and having a hard time finding a car that can fit me properly!
Yeah right... Maybe in taking a trip you drove for 50 miles, and you used a couple of gallons of fuel, but a Volvo doing 50mpg? Check the calculations please.
Last time I checked, a volvo XC90 or equivalent does about 21 mpg on the highway...
You know what's scary? We own a '05 Dodge Grand Caravan, which can do up to 25mpg on road trips. I haven't found any other car that gives me the same or better mileage while being able to drive 5 people + some luggage around.
I live in Illinois, and with the winter weather and all it's simply not an option to drive around in a small car all the time. Ground clearance, greater distances between point A and B compared to Europe. Please do not try to compare the driving situation of the Netherlands or England (or anywhere in Europe) to driving in the US. Please take a look at a map, and see what the difference in scale is between these countries.
also think about the state of the roads themselves. Around here it's pothole heaven. A friend of ours drives a nice sporty European car, using these low profile tires... and therefore is on his third set of tires this year because of flat tires.
So the cars built in the US are probably meant for a slightly different market and usage profile. Potholes == car built for comfort, squishy suspension. Car will be heavier and bigger. Car is therefore not so suitable for European markets, where everything is built so close together, any car larger than a compact will look out of place.
we're (my family) trying to be green, but it's difficult in a land this big, with all these county, state and federal laws... You know what? It's almost like getting laws approved for the European Union... There's still a lot of 'my country first' thinking around there. Only here in the US it will be 'my state first'... Until that has been fixed, I think we're stuck with gas guzzlers, and will be tinkering with electric cars.
Cool phone. Got it here in the US a couple of days ago, branded here as the AT&T Tilt. Although when looking at the screenshots, the little camera on the front of the phone is missing on the Tilt.
Two really annoying things:
- when using the keyboard it's sometimes easy to push one of the two select buttons near the bottom of the tilting screen. That opens the menus on the screen, and if you keep typing you will activate some of these menu options. Not so nice :-/
- Deleting items from your contact list, using the pointer. Somehow, after selecting one of the items from your list, the list resets itself to the top of the screen. At the same moment the phone will delete the currently selected item... which is now the item at the top of your list :-/
Other than that, i like it. For a long time I stayed away from all these smart phones and all ('Smart phones? Bah! Humbug!'), but i really like this one.
Recently moved from Europe to the US, still trying to get my head around the entertainment they call 'news' over here...
One of the best (or saddest) moments yesterday was when a CNN lady started a discussion about how they found the murderer. Apparently he'd used a towel to wipe off the blood from the scene. The towel had his name written on it with a marker.
So the 'news' anchor asks the public: 'first of all, how stupid can you be when you murder someone, to use a towel with your name written on it to wipe off the blood'... I thought that was a well thought-out question to ask... Show moral outrage over how stupid a murderer can be. "He should have been smarter than that!!!"
Is how people are thinking / can justify their behavior when they're talking to people while checking (and reading?) their emails, which are supposedly much more important. Will they have a clear recollection of what a. was said during that conversation and b. what the content of the email is?
Personally I think it's almost insulting when a colleague is sitting in a meeting, no matter how short (or long ;-) and starts answering emails or sending out SMS messages.
So yes, I would agree that it _could_ increase productivity, if somehow can be managed that all emails are work-related / important enough to be answered immediately. Maybe we should introduce the tagging of emails, maybe like The Register suggested a couple of years ago?
http://www.theregister.com/2005/07/13/the_return_of_the_irony_tag/
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