[OT] "How Green Is Your House" and TV watching

[Bungee]

"Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

Huge wrote:

There is also considerable doubt whether switching computers off and
on all the time is a good idea, either. If it shortens the life of the
computer and it needs replacing, you've way exceeded any saving you
may have made.


Then you should leave your car or truck idling all the time,
Everyone knows that most of the wear and tear is done while the engine
is warming up. On the other hand, electrolytic capacitors have a
limited life and are slowly destroyed by heat. I see a lot of dead PCs
with defective electrolytics. I put in about $7 US in new caps and they
are ready for a new home.

Conversely, electrolytics will also degrade if left for long periods unused. As
the oxide layer thins the voltage capability drops, and the capacitance
increases!

--
Bungee

 

[Simon Cooper]

"Alex Butcher" <alex.butcher.news0505@assursys.co.uk> wrote in message
newsan.2005.10.10.18.57.05.365496@assursys.co.uk...

I have far more important things to do with my time (and that
includes tipping a beer or two). I don't waste a couple of hours (vs.
$19) on a Saturday changing the oil in my car either. I have other
"cleaner" things to do, like staining woodwork (this weekend's task,
since
it was a wash-out).

Yeah, I pay someone else to do oil changes, too. That's "not fun" in my
book.

When I bought my car, the previous owner gave me a stack of new oil filters
and washers for the drain pug, which left me feeling obliged to do my own...

After my own personal "Exxon Valdez" incidents, I think I may skip doing
them in future...

 

Even though I have the expertice necessary, I wouldn't waste my time on a
$40 VCR. I have far more important things to do with my time (and that
includes tipping a beer or two).

There are not many VCRs anymore for $40, and the few to be found, are
total junk. (USA, Utah)

In the second, more important place, I am weary of buying new VCRs, with
different remote control interfaces, different on screen features, and
other stuff that you just get real used to. I would fix it first if I
could, even tho I don't drink.......

Mark

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Bungee wrote:

Conversely, electrolytics will also degrade if left for long periods unused. As
the oxide layer thins the voltage capability drops, and the capacitance
increases!

--
Bungee

So, how many decades are you going to go between using your
computer? I have electrolytics that are over 50 years old that still
measure the right capacitance, and have a very good ESR.

Very poorly made caps will degrade without being used, but they are
the same ones that have a short life due to poor design and materials
used in their manufacture.

--
?

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Chris Jones]

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Bungee wrote:

Conversely, electrolytics will also degrade if left for long periods
unused. As the oxide layer thins the voltage capability drops, and the
capacitance increases!

--
Bungee


So, how many decades are you going to go between using your
computer? I have electrolytics that are over 50 years old that still
measure the right capacitance, and have a very good ESR.

Very poorly made caps will degrade without being used, but they are
the same ones that have a short life due to poor design and materials
used in their manufacture.

I switch on my old test equipment for an hour or so every few months, to
remind the capacitors not to go leaky. Apart from that, I switch a device
off if it will be unused for an hour or more.

Chris

 

Bungee wrote:

Alex Butcher <alex.butcher.news0505@assursys.co.uk> wrote:

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 16:05:05 +0000, **THE-RFI-EMI-GUY** wrote:

A ton of money could be saved by manufacturing items which utilize quality
materials and can be serviced readily. Too much money and resources are
spent filling landfills with appliances and goods which wear out
prematurely and cannot be repaired.

As long as purchase prices are low, repair knowledge amongst the general
public is low, and expert labour is expensive, many repairable items
probably won't be repaired anyway. A lot of people take a failure as an
excuse to go out and treat themselves to something newer and shinier. :-/

Personally, I've repaired a broken PSU in a VCR (cost me about 3.50GBP and
an hour of my time) and got my parents' TV working again (required a new
internal fuse - 10 for 1.98GBP in Maplin, and about 20mins of my time).

Best Regards,
Alex.

It isn't just the apparent relative costs. We live in a culture where enquiry
into how things work is actively discouraged along with their repair. This
operates at many levels. Peer pressure on frowns on kids that have had things
fixed by their dads (can't the mean ol' skinflint buy you a new one then).
Schools no longer teach proper engineering skills.

Unfortunately our kids are educated by advertising companies, who
bullsht them as far as they can, and schools dont seem to tackle it at
all. They then become adults that are so misinformed about money as to
be bordering on deluded, trained to give all their money away for junk
at any opportunity they can find.

The government piles on
steadily more restrictions on what non-tradespeople are allowed to do.

even when its known to increase the rate of deaths, accidents and
costs.

The basic problem is we live in an ignorant society. At least computers
are helping quite a bit with this.


NT

 

[keith]

On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:24:11 +0000, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Paul Hyett wrote:

In uk.media.tv.misc on Sun, 9 Oct 2005, Michael A. Terrell wrote :

It's not a big deal anyway - it's not like we're still using 800 bit
modems, or 50mb HD's.

800 bit modem?

Well, I don't know what speed early modems operated at - I wasn't on-
line then!
--
Paul 'US Sitcom Fan' Hyett

First of all, the speed is specified in Bits Per Second, not bits.

Correct, but baud <> bps.

The width of the data is specified in Bits. 800 bits would make for a
very odd data buss.
^^^^

s/buss/bus/. Buss is something you did with a pretty young girl in the
back seat of a car, many moons ago. ;-)

Some of the more common speeds are:

75 baud
110 baud

You forgot 134.5 ;-)

300 baud
1200 baud
2400 baud
4800 baud
9600 baud
14400 baud
28800 baud
33600 baud
57600 baud

No, those are bps numbers. Baud is signal transitions per second. Bits
per second is then the baud times the symbol size. 1200bps modems were
300baud, for example, with 4bit symbols. Older 9600bps modems were
commonly 1200baud with 8bit symbols.

Even lower baud rates were used by current loop teletype machines.

I've never seen anything slower than 75 or 110 baud. The A/KSR33s were
110baud (10 cps).

BTW, my first hard drive was a full height 5.25" 5 MB that sounded
like a vacuum cleaner when it was first powered up.

Sucked, eh?

--
Keith

 

[Jon D]

On Fri 07 Oct 2005 18:11:54, Funfly3 wrote:
<news:u%x1f.2631$Vl6.23@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>

adding OT to the beginning of a post does not make it ok to post
in the wrong group ?????

Fucking twat

 

In article <1130477903.943ab120f5d3544fc0c459771a33d0fb@bubbanews>,
jon_d@nomail.com says...

On Fri 07 Oct 2005 18:11:54, Funfly3 wrote:
news:u%x1f.2631$Vl6.23@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net

adding OT to the beginning of a post does not make it ok to post
in the wrong group ?????

Fucking twat

Now that you've introduced yourself, what was the point you were trying

to make?

 

[JRW]

On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 08:57:18 +0100 <spam-spam-spam@ntlworld.com> wrote in
Message id: <MPG.1dcbea2c343e0bf0989b44@news.individual.net>:

In article <1130477903.943ab120f5d3544fc0c459771a33d0fb@bubbanews>,
jon_d@nomail.com says...
On Fri 07 Oct 2005 18:11:54, Funfly3 wrote:
news:u%x1f.2631$Vl6.23@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net

adding OT to the beginning of a post does not make it ok to post
in the wrong group ?????

Fucking twat

Now that you've introduced yourself, what was the point you were trying
to make?

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