Pete_C

Windows Experts
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Everything posted by Pete_C

  1. I do , an interesting approach lowering the internal temperature of the combustion chamber by injecting water which flashes to steam (after the gas has detonated) so you do not waste as much energy heating the engine block and radiator. And water expands a whole lot when it flashes to steam thus increasing pressure and efficiency. But if I remember there were always problems with corrosion and with it leaking past the seals and contaminating the lubrication oil. I always thought that a proper steam engine made more sense. What was it the sterling cycle ?
  2. I like the "innocent bystander" explanation. It makes clear to me how one of the new projects to cure type I diabetes actually works. Peanut allergy is probably similar; the immune system is in a heightened state and you ingest peanuts and one of the proteins manages to get through the digestive system into the blood unbroken and the result is an immune response to it. This also explains why many people seem to grow out of it if they avoid the peanuts long enough ; most immune responses (as those to vaccinations) fade over the years. But the one generated against islet cells in type I diabet
  3. Thanks for the link and heads up. I guess it is time I started to learn the next os. Well, I do not seem to be spending much time playing with Fedora linux any more so I signed up. If / when they offer the download I guess I will wipe that drive (dual boot with win98) and install it there; or maybe I'll put another drive in this machine. I got a 120 and 160GB lying around which have never been used.
  4. I would advise against using it in the meantime. It sounds like a cheap one which used a single transformer and multiple bypass filters to split off voltages. When they start doing what yours is they can fail catastrophically and send 12V over the lower 5v and 3.3V rails and fry everything.
  5. What surprised me was that he also designed some of the finest tanks. The Porsche Super Panzer, King Tiger and Tiger II for example. (Well not completely and not all of his design features were adopted due to material constraints)
  6. Yeah, I heard that. Most hybrid car manufacturers say their battery packs will last for the life of the car; but what do they mean by this? The warrantied life? 3years 36000 miles up to 8 years 80000 there is a big spread. And the cost looks to be about $5000 for the pack. If they are lead acid, this poses a recycling issue and I have rarely seen a lead acid last the full life expectency especially if they run down even once. What if the batteries are low and you park it for a week or two ? But the worst thing is hot climates which not only seriously shorten battery life; but more importan
  7. If it really were that cheap to make ethanol, all I can say is that cheap vodka would be less than the $9 for 1.75 litres ( WHat is that over $20 per gallon) that it goes for. The only reason that there are ethanol from corn for gas additives plants is because the government pays to subsidize corn growing, high fructose corn syrup production, and finally the ethanol plants as well as mandating that it be used. Otherwise, since it currently takes more energy to grow the corn, refine the high fructose corn syrup, brew the ethanol and distill it than the ethanol provides it would not be commerc
  8. THAT can't be right ... wax is flammable, isn't it? Or at least acts as a fuel? Even the fumes can ignite under certain circumstances. Precisely my feeling. This one the wax is so heavy that scrubbing alone did not remove it. When heated on a burner it smokes . So , my solution is to take a liquid which dissolves wax and take it outside and set it in the middle of my concrete basketball court and scrub with the grill brush till it seems clean. Go in and wash up so I do not have any flamable liquid residue on myself and go throw a long wooden match (lit) into the pot and let it all burn off.
  9. Forgot about 'seasoning,' thanks. Here they give you a citation if the grass is over 8" tall (a foot seems generous to me). I guess it's just a warning. But at some point they will send a crew out to mow it and they'll bill you. I have some fairly steep hills on my property that, if you obey safety rules, are too steep to mow. But if I don't mow them, I get a citation. Catch-22 right there. (Yeah, landscaping/ groundcover, I know, just can't afford it though.) Supposed to get up to the 80's today! Yes, you have to season cast iron properly. I just got a new cast iron 16Quart Dutch o
  10. I use a Lodge Cast Iron Grill pan As well as the two burner griddle Once seasoned they do not require oiling and for cleanup you just scrub them with a stainless steel scrubbie (if camping out, sand and some pine needles or straw). Just heat it up until it feels hot as coals and put on the veggies or meat. (Cant hold you hand three inches away for over three seconds). I love cast iron cookware. Here, in Dallas, if your lawn reaches a foot tall they fine you and put it on your water bill so that you have no choice but to pay. Same thing if you put out grass clippings without buying clippin
  11. Not much, but it is a beginning http://community.discovery.com/groupee/for...rm/f/4171991318
  12. http://pages.google.com/?pli=1
  13. Well, I mowed the lawn yesterday and I can't say it smelled much. Early in the spring, fresh cut grass has a great smell here in Texas; but it has been so hot and dry not much to enjoy and it just stirs up the dust and pollen and drives my allergies crazy. So by the time I finished; no grass smell, just itchy eyes and a clogged nose Memorable quotes from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rain and big boomers on the horizon, just a few sprinkles so far today, but enough to give that pre rain smell. That I enjoy. Tom Thumb grocery ( a division of SafeWay) had whole bottom rounds on for 99 cent
  14. Pete_C

    Texas Heat

    Just so I could say Gigawatts again; Texas has a generating capacity of 77Gigawatts , but only 60Gigawatts were online Monday since the rest was down for spring maintenance to prepare for the expected summer load. Cold front headed this way, next few days expected to have highs in upper seventies, low eighties. Marty, we use Farenheit for the most part. Down here the soil is so poor (either black clay or limestone caliche from the old permian seabed) that I prefer to mulch the leaves and lawn clippings and never bag or burn anything. If the build up seems to be heavy (thatch?) I mix some o
  15. Pete_C

    Texas Heat

    Last week I did some roofing and in a couple hours around noon, I got a sunburn on my back and old bald head. It might be spring officially, but it sure seems like summer in Texas.
  16. Pete_C

    Texas Heat

    As others mentioned it has been in the nineties recently here in Texas. In fact yesterday it was 96 for Easter. Today it is 101 out and when it was 98 the heat index was 105. The real bad thing is the electric grid underestimated the demand. There is a 1000Megawatt (1Gigawatt) shortfall between capacity and demand so they have begun rolling blackouts throughout the metroplex. I just got a call from a friend that all the lights on the main road a block over have gone out. That is the big news, that traffic is backed up everywhere in the Dallas, Tarrant, Colin county areas because of it.
  17. Pete_C

    First Cookout

    Yeah. just pups. I mentioned that Kim was her age and wore it well and here response was "And I Don't??? My hair still isn't grey. People still usually think we are in our late thirties, early forties at the oldest." Had to unruffle her feathers and explain that that was not what I was saying at all. In the low nineties now and for the weekend. Looking forward to the party. The OL wants me to get some wine for adults and we are having a ham and a pork loin; beans (probably pork and pintos or baked beans ) potato salad , deviled eggs, cornbread . Still have to figure out some veggies, pro
  18. Pete_C

    Bird Flue

    Well, actually it is the moon that keeps the earth balanced and limits the "wobble" of the axis ; comparatively the icecaps have negligeable influence. Look at the last ice age; virtually all the glaciation was in the northern hemisphere, no significant difference between now and then in antarctica. Prophets have the advantage that they can be very vague and believers will find perfect matches eventually. With 20/20 hindsight we can pretty much find a match somewhere in history for any prediction; and the blatantly wrong predictions just get ignored. I find it as hard to believe in fortelling
  19. Pete_C

    First Cookout

    Correctamundo. I prefer the vernacular OL, since we are common law married (it has been 22 years); although she introduces me to everyone as her husband Pete. And Marty is correct; she rarely goes online. She once went to school to study to be a computer tech, wound up getting a MOUS (Microsoft Office User Specialist? ) certification and never using it . She has a short temper when it comes to computers and when it does something she does not like or fails to do what she wants she threatens to throw it out the window. Besides which we are "Old" now (Well she is Kim Basinger's age; and Kim d
  20. Pete_C

    Storms

    Haha, im not sure if that violates child labor laws, or slave laws Back in our day $5 for a partial day's work was a lot of money for us kids. I used to earn $35 a week working on a muck when I was 14 during the summer. Yeah, I remember bean picking or hay bale loading (and other similar farm labor jobs) which paid 25cents an hour plus peice rate or $1 an hour if you could meet the minimum standard harvesting speed. Not much money and a lot of work. But as a kid it seemed like a lot at the time (Well, gas was 25 cents a gallon, and an ice cream cone single scoop was too.) No storms here r
  21. Pete_C

    First Cookout

    Actually, with the OLs diabetes we pretty much stick to the Diet; which fortunately here in Texas is now sweetened with Splenda. Two cases of Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, one of regular Diet. The two liters were mainly for the kids (Root beer, Grape, Black Cherry etc) . To get the cane sugar one you either have to order online or drive the 150 miles to Dublin Texas http://www.dublindrpepper.com Rather pricey if you want the fancy little bottles , but the cans are the same price as normal sweetened. As noted, big "Birthday Bash" there in a couple months (June 10th) Time to start planning
  22. Pete_C

    Bird Flue

    Well, every year hereabouts they whine about West Nile virus, and make a big hoopla about a couple people dying of it. Then they get a big appropriation for testing mosquitoes and dead birds and finally spray "hotspots" only later does the media bring up that only one in 10,000 people exposed to it even gets a headache from it and that it is close to a million to one against getting "West Nile Virus Encephalitis" and dying from it. I suspect the same with bird flu ; that it is a media darling used by politicians to draw off attention from something else they are up to. (Kind of like Bush ap
  23. Pete_C

    First Cookout

    I grill year around here in minnesota. All winter the grilling is done in the garage. Just yesterday I pulled the grill outside and did it right. I think I have a new favorite fish. I did mahi mahi on the grill. It is great. I too like Mahi Mahi ; but the OL thinks any fish you cannot batter and fry is not edible.
  24. My "rule of thumb" is to first remember that you do not need enough battery power to run everything for a half hour or whatever. All you need is enough to be able to shut things down. That covered; you also should know that if your total draw on the"battery backed up" outlets is close to the amount they are rated for you will keep discharging and the batteries and they will either be dead when needed; or if you constantly exceed the draw they run the risk of overheating and failing entirely. (There was a recall on some APC a year ago where this could cause a fire; fortunately they fixed this
  25. Pete_C

    First Cookout

    Save??? It is all gone gone. We had two burgers, two drumsticks and a thigh left from the cookout . Everything else was history by 6PM. As for the roast, still some cabbage and a little (very little ) roast left, but the taters and carrots are gone. Yeah, I at first visualized cooking once and eating all week (beef stew , cold chicken, burger steaks) but it soon was obvious that it was going to be devoured. Spring it cookout weather here; since in summer it gets to blazing hot to be outside cooking during the afternoons .