'Dear Diary, Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy.' 'Today, we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever.'

Jayne ,'Safe'


Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?  

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


sumi - Jan 01, 2007 9:14:32 am PST #9972 of 10003
Art Crawl!!!

Thanks! That is what I want to do -- I will save as a .wav (once I get the proper converter) and burn and delete.


Ginger - Jan 01, 2007 1:05:39 pm PST #9973 of 10003
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

I need electricity advice. I'm wiring in a new ceiling fixture. The fixture has a green ground wire, and the existing box and support has a green ground wire wired to a green grounding screw. I cannot, to save my life, make the fixture's grounding wire stay under the damn green screw. This is mostly due to the laughable statement, "attach grounding wire to grounding screw while holding the fixture in your other hand." Can I just put the two green wires together with a wire nut?


DXMachina - Jan 01, 2007 1:56:08 pm PST #9974 of 10003
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.

Can I just put the two green wires together with a wire nut?

Yes. As long as the ground eventually connects to the box, you'll be shock free.


tommyrot - Jan 01, 2007 4:08:12 pm PST #9975 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Also, be sure to cut the red wi-- no, the green one!!

Sorry....


Ginger - Jan 01, 2007 4:23:07 pm PST #9976 of 10003
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

I think that every time I wire something.

I'm going to work under the assumption that the green wire is grounded to something, because it's called "grounding wire." I realize that logic is a way of going wrong with confidence.


tommyrot - Jan 01, 2007 4:24:49 pm PST #9977 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Do you know what "sheets" are on a sailing ship?

Nope, not the sails. The ropes.

(punctuation oopsie)


Ginger - Jan 01, 2007 4:29:27 pm PST #9978 of 10003
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

Since wiring isn't leaning so much on hundreds of years of tradition and barrels of rum, I'm hoping it's a bit more literal. I'm sure there's some rum involved, but I generally associate drinking with roofers.


DXMachina - Jan 01, 2007 4:52:56 pm PST #9979 of 10003
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.

Nope, not the sails. The ropes.

Some of the ropes, the ones that actually control the sails.


tommyrot - Jan 01, 2007 4:57:38 pm PST #9980 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Some of the ropes, the ones that actually control the sails.

I had a feeling I wasn't being precise enough.

Also, this is where the expression "three sheets to the wind" comes from. But I forget what exactly that means.

IONonComputerN, The Most Powerful Diesel Engine in the World!

The cylinder bore is just under 38" and the stroke is just over 98". Each cylinder displaces 111,143 cubic inches (1820 liters) and produces 7780 horsepower. Total displacement comes out to 1,556,002 cubic inches (25,480 liters) for the fourteen cylinder version.

Damn.

To me, this is the most amazing part:

At maximum economy the engine exceeds 50% thermal efficiency. That is, more than 50% of the energy in the fuel in converted to motion.

For comparison, most automotive and small aircraft engines have BSFC figures in the 0.40-0.60 lbs/hp/hr range and 25-30% thermal efficiency range.

So it's about twice as efficient as a car engine. I'm guessing most all this efficiency comes from its size (as well as it being a two-stroke diesel).


DXMachina - Jan 01, 2007 5:12:54 pm PST #9981 of 10003
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.

Also, this is where the expression "three sheets to the wind" comes from. But I forget what exactly that means.

Square rigged sails are held by four sheets, one at each corner. If you untie three of them, the sail just flops around in all directions.