Humor Random Comments Thread

[dgatsoulis]

Over here, the majority of homes have solar water-heaters.
I installed mine 5 years ago, one year after I bought this apartment. Cost 850€ (with the installation) for a 120 lt tank with a 2m² panel.
I noticed a drop of ~25-30€ on my electricity bill. (The bill is bi-monthly). So it is about to have paid for itself sometime within his year. The warranty is for 10 years, but the main advantage other than the economy is the zero waiting time to have hot water (with the previous electric, I had to turn it on and wait ~15-20 mins). Also, I have never run out of hot water or needed to switch on the power to heat the water on overcast days.
Now I am thinking to get a bigger tank and panels and connect it to the heating. The radiators already work with hot water, but it comes from the building's central gas-boiler (small apartment building with 4 apartments).

 

[C3PO]

Hydro-electric.
In the end, most rivers flow because it rains.

We have got the rain, but we don't have enough land area to collect it.

I think he means heatpumps - my friend is selling them (with government subsidies to customer). IMO not worth it yet. It pays off after 15-20 years

No. They actually tried electric heating elements in a tank. :lol: And to make it even worse..... To make it possible to measure the "efficiency" they put the heating elements in a separate tank. The pump required to circulate the energy into the central heating system used more than the collected solar energy. The EV-cells were experimental high-efficiency panels, but the system was so badly designed that it never had a chance.

A quick look in the meteo logs shows that so far we've had a total of 28 hours of sun this year. But we've only had 229 mm of rain in the same period.

 

[kamaz]

 

[Ghostrider]

We have got the rain, but we don't have enough land area to collect it.

Dam the clouds.

 

[jedidia]

No. They actually tried electric heating elements in a tank.

Oh dear, that's what I was afraid of. Photovoltaics coupled with heatpumps can be quite efficient, especially if the heat pump is connected to depth probes. But using electricity just to heat something up is a mortal sin in my opinion. I mean, the stuff turns to heat anyways, so you might as well make it do something useful in the meantime...
The fact that it's an engineering school that commits such a capital crime against efficiency is a bit disturbing...

my friend is selling them (with government subsidies to customer). IMO not worth it yet. It pays off after 15-20 years

Yeah, that sounds about right. What I don't quite understand is how you can consider a heating system that completely pays for itself within 20 years (and earns you money afterwards) "not worth it yet". It sure beats the hole without a bottom that is oil heating.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah, that sounds about right. What I don't quite understand is how you can consider a heating system that completely pays for itself within 20 years (and earns you money afterwards) "not worth it yet". It sure beats the hole without a bottom that is oil heating.

if you plan to live in a house for 20 years. Which many of today can only dream of.

 

[n122vu]

A small question for all you sysadmins out there: why would sleep and hibernate be disabled on a work laptop given to an employee (i.e. my Dad)?

Well, if it has a Solid State Drive, I could understand disabling hibernate to minimize the writes to the drive. And disabling sleep, I could understand in case someone chose this instead, since it uses the battery, which is only good for so many discharge cycles.

 

[C3PO]

The fact that it's an engineering school that commits such a capital crime against efficiency is a bit disturbing...

The drive to "lift" the education to university level has resulted in a serious decline in practical application skill.

When I attended the school the practical part was in the driver seat, while the theory part was one of the tools in the box. The school started as a maritime engineering college that required pupils to have some practical experience (electrician, machinist, auto mechanic or a similar 4-year trade education) . Now you can get in with a 2 week course in drilling/welding.

It looks like academia is winning at the moment, but the balance will swing back eventually. Let's just hope that all of the experience in maritime engineering hasn't emigrated by then.

 

[MattBaker]

"Rough day. Either I solve this by drinking or...well maybe a couple of hours of Mass Effect, that could work too. Next mission? Virmire, oh boy.

Might be considered spoilers: you. you seriously BioWare. I never asked for a Koboyashi Maru and you just do it. And it felt so casual. "Can still talk, probably not so much trouble, close to the ship. Meh, other option." AND THEN THIS!
Boy, I have the whole trilogy lying around here and I'm not even sure if I want to finish the first one. That mission never happened, everyone is happy.:uhh:

 

[Scav]

Well, if it has a Solid State Drive, I could understand disabling hibernate to minimize the writes to the drive. And disabling sleep, I could understand in case someone chose this instead, since it uses the battery, which is only good for so many discharge cycles.

Additionally, the device may be connected to a synergy or labtech type of environment -- in which case the sysadmin (or sysadmin group) would want to be able to push updates and hotfixes to said devices during off-peak (i.e. when the device isn't being used) hours via scripting or other implementation means. This would be difficult, if not impossible if said device was sleeping in.

 

[jedidia]

if you plan to live in a house for 20 years. Which many of today can only dream of.

I don't know the trends in Germany, but in Switzerland, you don't buy a house unless you plan to stick with it (doesn't always happen, of course, but it's the general idea).

Might be considered spoilers: you. you seriously BioWare. I never asked for a Koboyashi Maru and you just do it. And it felt so casual. "Can still talk, probably not so much trouble, close to the ship. Meh, other option." AND THEN THIS!

It's pretty clear from the dialog that one of them's not ging to make it. If you had any illusions about getting them both out, you're clearly not genre savy enough

 

[MattBaker]

It's pretty clear from the dialog that one of them's not ging to make it. If you had any illusions about getting them both out, you're clearly not genre savy enough

Last time I had contact with it the most sophisticated ship of all humanity was less than a hundred meters from Person X. I assumed it would be reasonable to assume there's still a chance for a quick sprint over there. Possibly. Person Y on the other hand had apparently no other chance of survival. Seems I have overestimated the plot twist, choices and outcomes you could make in that situation.

 

[Ghostrider]

Why would anyone want to live in the same house for 20 years? Boring.

 

[jangofett287]

"Rough day. Either I solve this by drinking or...well maybe a couple of hours of Mass Effect, that could work too. Next mission? Virmire, oh boy.

Might be considered spoilers: you. you seriously BioWare. I never asked for a Koboyashi Maru and you just do it. And it felt so casual. "Can still talk, probably not so much trouble, close to the ship. Meh, other option." AND THEN THIS!
Boy, I have the whole trilogy lying around here and I'm not even sure if I want to finish the first one. That mission never happened, everyone is happy.:uhh:

The worst part for me was I saw it coming by about a minute. You go down the trench and up the elevator, "This is a strange area, there's nothing here, its just a walkwa-", Then you start hearing the com chatter, and your like "No, I can see whats about to happen here, Your going to make me choose between them. I Don't want to!".

Of course if I had been making that I would have put a time limit on the choice. :stirpot:

 

[MattBaker]

Of course if I had been making that I would have put a time limit on the choice. :stirpot:

To be honest that would be awesome. They had time limits in other passages. Give you five minutes and go. An unskilled player, someone who makes mistakes etc. might lose both. Someone with real determination and skill might save both very closely. Of course you'd have to fix the whole *quicksave* *try* Dammit! *reload* issue you have in a lot of modern RPG.

For example Skyrim, going through a dungeon, quicksaving every five seconds, oops that was wrong, F9.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Why would anyone want to live in the same house for 20 years? Boring.

In order to not spend $200k+ and save for retirement instead? Or go on vacations to the Caribbean (a lot).

 

[Linguofreak]

"Rough day. Either I solve this by drinking or...well maybe a couple of hours of Mass Effect, that could work too. Next mission? Virmire, oh boy.

Might be considered spoilers: you. you seriously BioWare. I never asked for a Koboyashi Maru and you just do it. And it felt so casual. "Can still talk, probably not so much trouble, close to the ship. Meh, other option." AND THEN THIS!
Boy, I have the whole trilogy lying around here and I'm not even sure if I want to finish the first one. That mission never happened, everyone is happy.:uhh:

I was never all that bothered by Virmire. My biggest problem with the Mass Effect series (I've played 1 and 2 and know the general story of ME3) is that the games themselves are really, really good, but then you get to the endgame and it the ending seems bolted on and of much lower storyline quality than the rest of the game (and of course the same thing applies to what I've heard of the ME3 ending both with respect to the game and the series as a whole). The whole uhzna erncre (<--Spoiler, encoded with [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rot13"]ROT13[/ame]) thing in ME2 really ticked me off and entirely killed all suspension of disbelief, and while the game as a whole has replay value, I have to drag myself through the endgame every time I replay it.

 

[Fabri91]

So apparently the best time to invade Switzerland is off working hours: Italian and French fighters shadowed hi-jacked Ethiopian airliner headed to Geneva.

 

[MattBaker]

I'm reminded of this clip way to often:

Relevant section this time is at 0:50.

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm reminded of this clip way to often:
Yes Prime Minister - Bernard Woolley on defence capabilities - YouTube

Relevant section this time is at 0:50.

Too true if you remember that the Belgrano was sunk by a WW2 torpedo only a few years earlier. :lol: