Pleiades

Most ram (even in pre-built computers) will have a sticker on it telling you size and speed, or at least a model number you can Google for more info. If all else fails, you can at least count up the pins. Generally, you can run fast ram in old computers, it will just be limited by the computer. A 32 bit operating system can only address 4 gigabytes of ram, but some of the address space is used for other things, so you can’t really use much more than 3 gigabytes. You might also be limited by the number of slots on the motherboard, though I think you can get 2GB modules these days.

I can’t find it now, but I used a ping program that could ping an address repeatedly and log the result, I had it set to ping my ISP’s DNS server.

I had the coolest thing happen to me the other day: I had a 1.5 litre plastic bottle of iced tea in the freezer to cool down quickly, and I took it out just before it froze. There were no ice crystals until I opened the top and broke the seal, then crystals started to form at the top and then spread to the bottom of the bottle in maybe 40 seconds leaving the whole bottle a super fine slush (it was delicious too). It was really neat to see to see a crystallization ‘front’. The bottle was firm, but un-carbonated. Is this related to supercooling?

I was going to make a new topic, but I searched first and found this highly relevant thread, so I’m dusting it off. Why is a mixture of salt and vinegar often recommended as a cleaner? How is it any better than plain vinegar? (I’m trying to clean some really tarnished brass)

I have several screw in CFLs that are a nice warm yellow, 2700K is what the label claims. They seem to be hard to find though, it’s as if the manufacturers think we -want- cold white bulbs, just because they look like daylight.

I’m not considering it that seriously, it’s just an idea I've toyed with.

If you want to make biodiesel, then yes, you have to crack the oil, but it is still possible to run a diesel engine on straight vegetable oil, you just need a few modifications. For one, the engine wont start on cold oil, so you need to switch over to diesel before you turn off the engine to run diesel through the injector pump, then when you go to start it, its full of diesel, and then you can switch back to oil. A fuel preheater also helps. Biodiesel doesn’t require any modifications to be made to the engine. I've considered running the generator on oil or biodiesel, but it depends on how much time I have to spend on a weekly basis going around to restaurants collecting oil.

The generator isn’t for constant use, it’s mainly because we have a lot of overhead power lines where I live and a fair number of hurricanes pass by each year, so power outages are a regular event. Since I already have the engine, I’d rather spend money on a 10kW generator head than a 3kW air cooled gas generator set that will break in 3 or 4 years. Besides, I have fun doing this kind of stuff.

Thanks, that’s really helpful. That’s exactly the kind of thing I was looking for when I started looking around for governors, I must have been searching for the wrong thing or something. I was starting to think I was the only one who ever though of doing something like this project.

Unfortunately the vehicle doesn’t have cruise control. All of the dials are analogue. I got a quote on the digital speed governor I want and the whole system (governor, actuator, and speed sensor) are going to cost me about $1200 USD, which is still less than a 10 kW genset, but its still a lot of money to risk on a project that might not succeed. The generator head is another couple thousand as well. I've been busy with work and my other project this summer (a crucible furnace), but I might get some time this winter to call up the governor people and the generator head people and pick their brains on the topic.

lol, people still use fuses? Most homes are built with circuit breakers these days.

Oh, ok, that makes sense.

The speed of the flash device is very important. Most flash memory is pretty slow; a hard drive is almost always faster. I’m really not sure what Microsoft is trying to pull here.

Summer is coming and although I'll be working, but I might get some time to work on this project, so I’m dusting off this thread. Now that we have a projects subforum, maybe this thread should be moved (or maybe not, since its not really a ‘science’ project, I don’t know). Oh, and does anyone know of a good forum that specializes in engines? Car forums won’t know much about generators, and generator forums won’t know much about automotive engines. So I’m hoping to find a forum about engines in general. Although, the end in mind is to put together a generator, so maybe a generator forum would be good. Anyway, Google wasn’t much help, maybe I used the wrong search terms, so if anyone knows of a good forum, let me know. I’d like to get as much input on this project as I can (not that you guys haven’t helped me already). Let’s be generous and say I use 48kWh/day. That works out to an average load of 2kW. If I have a 10kW generator, then most of the time it will be running at only 20% capacity, leaving an 80% spinning reserve, which should be way more than enough. And let’s face it, pretty much anything is better than the 3600RPM, 5kW, air cooled gasoline genset that I have now.

I seem to recall someone mentioning the brown colour was from organic contaminants that were ‘burnt’ by the acid. My guess is that the drain cleaner acid is just the lowest grade, maybe 90% pure. If you can measure it’s density, that should give you a rough idea of the purity.

Haha, I’d love to send them a picture with a complicated background, like a fractal or something.

Don’t forget that in addition to copying all the files on the drive, you also need to copy the Master Boot Record (and probably some other stuff too), have a look on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record And in case you didn’t know you can change drive letters all you want by going to: control panel, administrative tools, computer management, storage, disk management, then right click on the drive and select “change drive letter and paths”

That’s not what I meant; I never suggested there was a cheaper way to run folding. I don’t run folding on my computer. What I mean is that there are 3 things my computer can do while I’m not using it: it can sit there and do nothing, it can go into a power saving mode, or it can run folding at near 100% CPU usage. I personally prefer it to save power and stop stressing components. That is why I don’t run folding. Pretty much every major OS except Windows has some sort of CPU level power saving that it does during idle time.

I use a program called CpuIdle. It takes the extra CPU cycles and executes the HLT command which puts the CPU into a power saving more for that cycle. (http://www.cpuidle.de/works.php) I've done tests with my computer and I’ve noticed that the idle core temperature drops about 10C when I have CpuIdle running. My UPS tells me how many watts the computer is using and although I don’t remember the exact number of Watts saved when CpuIdle was running, it was fairly significant. I ran folding for a while until I realized it was keeping my CPU at high temperatures (thus decreasing its lifespan, not that it really matters) and was consuming more electricity.

I think it’s possible, but we are a long way off. The hardware will come first (if it isn’t already available) but the software I think will take much longer. Of particular interest to me is the field of artificial evolution. I imagine that rather than building an intelligence from the ground up, you instead start with something simple and encourage it evolve into a more complex intelligence.

Meh, it was a false alarm anyway.

I can’t believe no one has mentioned lucid dreaming yet. Lucid dreaming is basically when you realize you are dreaming and can then control things. There are several ways of inducing a lucid dream on purpose, but I've only ever had them by accident. This one time, I had a normal dream that I was trying to turn off an alarm system, but every time I’d fix it and walk away, it would start up again. I later woke up to find that the fire alarm in my building had been ringing, then going quiet for a minute or so, then ringing again. I have a bad habit of sleeping through fire alarms.

I would say yes, the mixing of the two signals takes place in the air between the speaker and your eardrum; the actual energy reaching your eardrum is reduced compared to the energy that would reach your ears if you had no headphones on. Of course, it doesn’t matter if you crank up the music. If you get a frequency generator program and some mixing software, you can make a sine wave come out of the left channel and make its inverse come out of the right channel. If you put one speaker to each ear, if will sound normal, but if you face the speakers at each other, the sound you hear is reduced the closer the speakers get to each other. You will still hear some sound however, because some of it leaks out and isn’t cancelled.

I personally don't usually feel the urge to urinate after a drink, unless I already had a full bladder at the time. Possibly, but I prefer to give the OP the benefit of the doubt.

When you drink water (or any water based drinks) the water has to go somewhere, it can’t stay in your intestines or else you’d get diarrhoea. The water you drink goes first into your bloodstream and from there to the rest of your body. If you are dehydrated, the cells in your body will absorb the water they need form your blood, but if you already have enough water, the extra water in your blood is filtered out by your kidneys, which empty into your bladder. The concentration of water in your body has to be kept fairly constant to keep you alive. 3 or 4 days without water and you’ll die