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James Newton | 1 Dec 01:06

RE: [OT] Car purchase


-----Original Message-----
Apptech Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 22:17

> The Stirling engine will save us all :-).
> 
> But it may be a while before they get it sorted.
> 
> AFAIR Philips estimated that full development to sort out 
> all the bugs would cost about ?10 billion? dollars.  And 
> have a payback period of about 4 months after that ;-)
> 
> James will now say, ...
> 

Groan? Sigh? *shakes head while walking away*?

--
James.

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Harold Hallikainen | 1 Dec 01:16

Re: [EE] Networking with engineers (was Re: Schematic databases?)


> I seldom buy things online as it is
> much easier to have a close look to buy things.

Once you have decided the manufacturer and the model of what you want to
buy, about all that separates the sellers is price and honesty. Many
"brick and mortar" retailers have complained that they have become
showrooms for the online stores. The customers decide what to buy "getting
a close look" in the local retail store, then shop for the lowest price on
line. Local retailers can provide "free shipping" (they don't charge you
to carry it out of the store) and immediate delivery, which online stores
cannot do. Online retail is growing very quickly, but I think it is still
a very small fraction of total retail.

Online advertising is an interesting issue. For "content based
advertising" where ads are put up based on the content of the page, even
though you are not interested in buying anything, seem like they'd be as
effective as other mass market advertising, or perhaps a bit more, since
you can respond immediately by clicking the ad. How much attention do you
pay to all the ads in print and broadcast? Do you pay more or less
attention to web content ads?

Online SEARCH advertising, however, is, I believe, MUCH more effective. A
fair amount of search is because someone is actually interested in buying
something. Of course everyone would like to turn up as number one in the
search results, but not everyone can. An advertiser can, however, show us
as the number one ad result (like AdWords on the right side of Google
results) by bidding higher than others. Since the user is actually looking
for what is being advertised, this seems like it would be far more
effective than content based advertising. Back when I handled the
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James Newton | 1 Dec 01:20

RE: [OT] Car purchase

VW's have a reputation of wiring and electrical failures that cast doubt on
the 200,000 mile life. Also, depending on the year and model, there are
serious brakeing system and transmission issues.
http://www.automotive.com/used-cars/recalls/01/volkswagen/index.html

VW's do NOT have a good reliability rating compared to other brands (e.g.
Honda / Toyota) 
http://www.truedelta.com/results0907.php

IMHO the life of the car is more important than the mileage.

--
James

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces <at> mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces <at> mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Nate Duehr
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 19:57
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [OT] Car purchase

On Nov 28, 2007, at 11:31 AM, Martin wrote:

> I call shenanigans on your Passat TDI getting the same mileage as a
> Prius. Maybe on the highway. Not a chance in the city. Battery  
> disposal
> is a non-issue in the Prius. They get recycled.

Call shenanigans all you like:  My wife's Jetta TDI gets a consistent  
34 MPG in city and pushes 40 MPG on highway trips, no problem at all.
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Harold Hallikainen | 1 Dec 01:21

Re: [OT] Car purchase


>>
> Actually at "highway speeds" you only use about 10KW or so assuming your
> vehicle is somewhat slippery. IE ditch the SUV. My missus has a 250cc
> motor bike that will put out about 4x that without trying too hard. A
> single cylinder turbo diesel would probably do the job and be very fuel
> efficient to boot.

10kW is pretty good! We just got a Honda Fit. I'll do some mileage tests
on it next month when we drive half way across the US and back. 10kW is
only 13.4HP. Can we really make a car go 65MPH with 13.4HP?

Harold

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Neil Cherry | 1 Dec 01:25
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Re: [EE] Networking with engineers (was Re: Schematic databases?)

Xiaofan Chen wrote:

> Back when I first used Internet, I was very eager to learn (to use
> Pine, to write HTML in Notepad, to use FreeTel and SeeUSeeMe,
> to set up my homepage in Geocities and other website).
> But laterly I am reluctant to join networks like linkedin and
> others. I do not use Skype (phone card is easier). I do not have
> a personal website now. I just started to use Blog. I do not
> know why FaceBook is worth that much. In fact, I do not understand
> why Google earns so much money as I consider online advertising
> to be almost useless to me. I seldom buy things online as it is
> much easier to have a close look to buy things.

Just about the same thing here (but Unix/Linux and emacs ;-). I
still have my web site and it's popular enough for me. I am careful
about what I say though as foot-in-mouth disease gets amplified on
the internet. Though I'll be honest it's the same as not burning
bridges with employers or former employers. That just seems like
common sense (yes I know, a very uncommon thing). Also it helps
that Dr. Neil Cherry is the first thing when searching for my
name (though he has passed away)-; .

FaceBook has me stumped, I see nothing but problems with it (already
well discussed).

A lot more shopping is being done over the internet. You can get
opinions and pricing though you do have to be careful that those
opinions are not the seller's! It's just another tool in being a
smart buyer and yes, I prefer local shops also.
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William "Chops" Westfield | 1 Dec 01:27
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Re: [OT] Rescuing dumped computers with DOS?


On Nov 30, 2007, at 11:02 AM, Dario Greggio wrote:

> But, if internet had never existed...
>     :
> Of course, in that case we won't be chatting on this list!

Sure we would.  Any number of mailing lists and newsgroups
existed and passed much traffic long before "The Internet as
we now know it" existed.  Arguably, the non-web-based file
sharing would have led to similar problems with malware,
especially with such obvious targets as Simtel20...

http://tinyurl.com/2njw72

BillW
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Harold Hallikainen | 1 Dec 01:30

Re: [OT] Car purchase

This transportation discussion reminds me of something my wife just heard
from her sister. As mentioned in a previous post, we just bought a Honda
Fit. We did have a car (actually two) before that, but did, and still do,
ride the bus to work for our 30 mile commute. My wife's sister's husband
(I can never figure out what various relations are called) had apparently
thought we did not have a car, since we ride the bus to work. When he
found out we DID have a car, he asked, "Then why do they ride the bus?" It
did not make sense to him for us to ride the bus when we had a car. It
DOES actually work out very well and is inexpensive ($30 per month for
each of us for a monthly pass). It does take about 15 minutes longer than
driving, but we don't have to hassle with traffic, parking, etc. We just
have this rather large limo (that holds 50) show up and give us a ride
home. During the ride, we have time to catch up on reading, visiting with
friends, etc.

Works well for us...

Harold

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Robert Rolf | 1 Dec 01:49
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Re: [OT]: Which way is up? (Was:Total Lunar Eclipse)

piclist <at> mmendes.com wrote:

> Cool!  I'm familiar with libration, but I did not know that you could
> exploit to create a stereo picture of the moon.  I'll have to try that
> sometime.

You mean  like this:
http://home.comcast.net/~jlballou/LunarStereo/index.html
or from google's cache
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:bw4GbFLkGK4J:home.comcast.net/~jlballou/LunarStereo/index.html&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=ca

Or these?

http://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Astronomy/Moon_Stereo/Moon_Stereo.html

The not so gory math
http://www.stereoscopy.com/library/waack-ch-7.html

Somewhere on the web is a GIF movie made up of shots taken at
full moon over many many months, as it librated. Fascinating to watch.
I  don't think this is it, (I can't get it to play, but maybe others
can).

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/moon_phases

This is a  RENDERING to give you some idea of what libration looks like.
http://www.nightskyobserver.com/LunarPhaseCD/LibrationMovies.htm
http://www.nightskyobserver.com/LunarPhaseCD/LibrationMovie2.mpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration
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James Newton | 1 Dec 02:20

RE: [OT] Car purchase

Hey Mike, 

Yes, you do know what I'll say, but I wanted to chime in on a couple of
related points:

First, I'm really impressed with the way everyone has responded to this
thread. It's one of the better discussions we have had. The use of
references to back up statements of fact is just totally cool.

One thing that sort of surprises me is that no one presented total cost of
ownership and operation figures. In almost every case, sustainability =
frugality. If it costs less, it does less damage. There are exceptions, but
that is a very good rule of thumb.

Just to let you know, I just purchased a "new" car a bit ago after the head
gasket blew on my 91 Honda Civic. The engine is probably reparable in the
old car and I've put it "up on blocks" while I save my pennies for the
repair. I paid $4k for it with 139k miles and it now has 230k on it so that
is around 4 cents a mile. It got about 32mpg gas with gas at between $2 and
$3 per gallon during it's life, it cost me about 8 cents a mile to operate
gas wise... Add another few cents a mile for repairs and so on and the total
cost of ownership and operation is around 14 cents a mile. It's now worth
about $0 but with a rebuilt engine (cost $1k) it should be worth around
$1.5k or $2k. I won't bother to take that off the cost; $14 cents a mile is
darn good.

In the mean time my wife and I did a LOT of looking around and researching
cars and eventually settled on a 2001 Toyota Camery. It only gets about
27mpg, and it is sort of a boat. But with 90k miles on the odometer, I
expect to be driving it for a long time.  If it lives as well as the Civic,
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Funny NYPD | 1 Dec 02:21
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Re: [PIC]: BOD Issue, was Re: [PIC] a/d sample acquisition during sleep

This probably is another story Microchip never fully tested their layout before release to the end user.
This creates lots of issue for end customer and potential harms. 

As the end user, we don't really care how quick Microchip can release new products full of errata, we do care
to get stable and fully tested controllers.

Funny N.
New Bedford, MA
http://www.AuElectronics.selfip.com

----- Original Message ----
From: Bob Axtell <engineer <at> cotse.net>
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. <piclist <at> mit.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 6:55:20 AM
Subject: [PIC]: BOD Issue, was Re: [PIC] a/d sample acquisition during sleep

Bob Axtell wrote:
>
> Yes, BOD uses some power, but certainly is worth it to ensure proper 
> startup. I have
> been burned a few times without it, especially remote sensors whose 
> powerup schemes
> are suspected to be poor at times.
>
> --Bob A
>  
I might add that I have been unable to use the PIC10F series on remote 
sensors because of
unreliable startup due to the lack of an internal BOD. I compared a 
PIC12F629 with BOD
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Gmane