December 31st, 2009 Random | No Comments »
- compact florescent bulbs
You’ve seen them all over the place lately,. You might even have bought one or a few. These little guys are great. They promise all the light you’re used to but at about 1/4 of the electricity you’ve been burning. I suppose that over a year it can add up to make it worth paying extra. The best part is the new bulbs don’t take an extra few moments to light up any more so overall the process to switch out your old school incandescent bulbs can be pretty non-invase into your life. but there is always a catch to the free lunch.
I’m not going to go on about how there is mercury in them or that the extra energy to manufacture them is taking an additional toll on the environment or carbon footprint. that’s not what my blog is about. nor me for that matter. I’m a practical guy and when I see a way to lower my overal costs for energy I’m willing to take a shot.
So don’t be like me and
ignore the notice on the box that mentions dimmer switches.
Don’t do it.
WHY?
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ.. “do you smell something?” Buzz BUZZ BUZZ
oh yeah I need to keep this on full power. I’ll turn it up…
POP!!!!
Now the box says that this thing should have lasted for 7-10-Years! buuuuut now it’s a acrid smelling bulb that no longer lights up. No the glass didn’t shatter. But some electric component inside the base part that screws in to the fixture let g0. So now that I destroyed one I did some research for everyone and when you have a dimmer controlled light set up you need to buy dimmer ready CFLS ( they do make them and they sell for a premium example: case of 6 bulbs regular- under $10 bucks in costco — the dimmer ready ones are over $10 bucks each) so you pay more but considering this thing blew up on me after about 20 minutes at a low setting you can see that it can be even more expensive to keep blowing them up.
so hope this helps you out and have a safe and happy New Years Eve
Welcome 2010
December 22nd, 2009 Uncategorized | No Comments »
So now it’s been declared that a medium size dog has the same carbon footprint as a 4×4 SUV per year. WHAT?
here is the link
Sometime I think this stuff is made up. In fact I’m going to continue to resist what I’m being TOLD by a Consensus. This whole thing is still only an Idea. I’m all for getting off Fossil Fuels. It has been drummed into my head since I can remember that Coal is Bad (although the word on the street is that plug-in hybrids are not. Wait- isn’t 70% of that electricity made from coal. Oh wait never mind there is a consensus that it’s better to drive a hybrid ) I wish I could make my own car run on coal, I think it might be funny. Just think how much more efficient it would be since I don’t have all that wiring to send the electricity through. it’s actually insane the idea that electric cars are a good idea. So bad in fact that now I actually hate both sides of this issue. The resisting types for just wanting to do nothing at all and the Zealous Profiteering holier-than-thou types who have made global Warming such a Religious issue. Yeah climate change is no longer science as I myself define science. It’s become a Religion. I feel this when I attempt to become better informed ”Either you believe or you are not worthy” is how all the comments seem to come across when reading. I feel like I’m opposing the angry Mob from a South Park Episode with all their pitchforks and Torches. (although this crowd is gonna need to update that to blinking solar powered lights so as to be Climate protective)
Hey there is a new idea Solar-Powered torches with Patented ” Simulated Fire” for those earth Sensitive angry Mobs.
Both sides are acting like babies and well I am not too happy with the prospect that energy costs are going to potentially increase by 50% or more. But then again maybe some eyes will be opened to the fact that a consensus is just the loudest voice being agreed to. After a time though and there are far too many human conflicts that will verify this in our nature we have long forgotten the cause of the conflict but the fight remains.
Let’s hope that someone somewhere has the ability to Yell Loudest of all and get the Zealots and the non-believers to listen to a reasonable batch of solutions on this Global Warming Idea. Otherwise a new class of Deca-Billionaires will be created in the name of saving Mother Earth and the new slavery will have been cemented into human history.
December 18th, 2009 Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
So it’s the holidays and thanks I get it that I’m late to the party but with the PS3 at $300 now it’s a no-brainer to tell everyone to get one.
I love mine. But not just for game play. in fact Sony will be happy to know that I think I might still be costing them money as I have yet to buy a NEW game and all I’ve gotten this thing for is the Blu-Ray Player. I had just bought a new 46 Sharp LCD last Spring and had an old Dvd player but once it was announced that Blu-Ray won it was time to decide what Blu-ray player to get. of course had I waited till Christmas time last year I would have bought 2 $100 Blu-ray players at Target but alas I am an impatient type so I had to get one in October.
So I paid the $400 for it, took it home plugged in the three wires, HDMI Power, Ethernet for internet – I had the network cable run already so I set it up with 1/Gb ethernet it also does wireless if you’re not a total wire junk like I am. I added a fiber optic into my surround sound system and was blown away by how easy it is to hook stuff these days (HDMI makes this stuff really easy) not to mention the picture quality. Movies look amazing in blue Ray but also the Games way more detail than I was used to and better then my tired old Graphics card in my PC. Get this according to this article here the new 3D standard has been announced and if Sony is smart my PS3 will just need a Software update to recognize the new format and I suppose some kind of glasses. The only crappy part is the possibility that I will need a new LCD Set. (unless they can figure out something at 60Hz – after all Blue Ray at 24Hz looks awesome at 1080p. ) but “compatible 3d display” is the lingo at the moment I suppose we will have to wait and see.
Sony is still loosing money on each console (still $40 on the new Slim model) according to this article I would imagine that for them it’s going to make far more economic sense to work out a firmware update then force a ton of folks to buy new consoles. But then again I could be wrong. In any case not only does my PS 3 play games, I can also buy and download content using the Playstation store both free game demos and a couple of HD movies which are priced the same as VOD on cable here It does take time to download which is why I did this one time out of curiosity to see how it worked. You do get a bit of leeway in that you have 14 days to start the video but then once started you have 24hours to watch. So the verdict is out on this as to whether or not it catches on as a revenue generator for Sony.
I also have been able to paly my music from my PC through my surround system and some video clips as well using the media server connection that is built in to the PS3 so overall it’s a fun device has been quite reilable and I’m happy with it. if you have a good library of video,audio and photos on your PC and want to see them in your living room through a console awsome picture quality with Blu-Ray discs and being ready for the next generation of what sony comes up with you will probably enjoy a PS3 Like I do.
December 18th, 2009 health and fitness | 2 Comments »
It’s a common new years resolution, one that I myself have repeatedly made and, broken many times. However this time I’m not going to fail and the reason is this time I have a fresh approach that I have never had before. Read on and I will share it with you.
Being a fan of Tim Ferriss and reading his blog I have become a fan of the 80/20 approach to things. In his blog he writes about a fitness plan that takes 30 minutes 2 times a week to get all the exercise you need to both build muscle and loose fat. Really? I mean all the years of hearing from well meaning doctors and Muscle magazines I was under the impression that I needed to spend at least 5 hours a week exercising. More than that even in some plans. not to mention the fact that the magazines never mention if you attempt to use their “Add 1inch to your biceps in 24 hours Workout routine” that you will have sore arms for the next 5-7 days (It happend to me!) this workout will possible lead to soreness if you don’t follow the cooldown at the end or if you’ve not been exercising but at least there is some downtime to recover from the last one. it’s 2 times a week. not the every single day workouts that will cause you to break down your body and in my case leave me with a cold that just never goes away. seriously I would get a cold every other week when working out everyday. I’m not sure if I was picking up viruses off the equipment at the gym but that was solved by Linus Pauling recommended quantities of Vitamin C (not a big fan of taking this much vitamin C as it left my GI tract doing some serious contractions and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
so his original post is here I’m going to start this following new years and see what good comes of it. just felt like sharing in case you are also looking for a way to get in shape that does not take a ton of time that it seems nobody has available any longer.
Good luck and I want comments about this !!!!
November 20th, 2009 Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
So the Droid came out this Week and since AT&T correctly lost in the legal action to pull Verizon Wireless’ Factual Ads about 3G networks. But that’s not what this article is about, what has been talked about since shortly after the Chome browser was released last year.
Google has finally given a preview of what will likely be the new model for computing in the future. I’m not a Google Fanboy but I do enjoy all the tools they provide for free. hmmm Wonder where else I saw this business model before…. OH yeah “The Wire” Now I’m not really being that harsh, finding data and getting kids hooked on an addictive substance are ..oh wait …nevermind……. some History though
Google was a company who started out as a tool to organize information on the web. The web is publicly accessible information and Google’s task was to organize and make this massive hodge-podge os files and data useful with their search algorithm, Which I don’t think many people will disagree with. Google has been a great help in my life personally and I know my life got easer for researching and I’m sure that folks who wrote informative articles that were now indexed and able to be found by a much larger audience now. This was a good time for Google who was growing stronger and had a loyal following with their uncluttered and unassuming appearance. It’s like the guy who gets into trouble and when the news people interview his neighbors they all say the same thing, ” he was a quiet guy unassuming” now
I’m not accusing Google of wrongdoing just reminding my readers that they are trusting a company with all of your personal information.
It’s more about informed consent than anything else. sure I’m going to use Chrome OS as soon as I can and will I know for a fact that my data is encrypted and thus inaccessable to google enginers or researchers? well unless I work for google in every position I couldn’t 100% say that. But I do know this much Google is one of the most Valuable corporate Brands on the planet and they simply Can not afford to loose the trust of their users by even a Perceived breech of trust.
So What does it mean for everyone out there. I don’t know. If you just have to believe in conspiracy theories don’t use Chrome OS.
If you like me feel that there is simply no good reason for Google to damage the trust and value of hundreds of Billions of dollars over a few more pieces of data then I’ll see you in the Cloud.
Don’t forget that if you are travelling this Holiday season Google is providing free WiFi in a bunch of US Airports. and Virgin American flights. Look out Microsoft.
