Recent Posts
The last activity of Skrommel is on 5 July 2011. Is Skrommel still among us?Probably like me, don't really have enough time to read the forums. I may go away like the dinosaurs before too long....-Giampy (November 27, 2012, 07:30 AM)
There are a lot of things with more acidity than that, like some soaps. You can take a drink of vinegar without any side effects other than perhaps a little indigestion. Some people take a shot of vinegar three times a day to help them lose weight.About using vinegar and baking soda for a drain cleaner. That old formula is pretty much an old wives tale. The only thing those two together do is make a bunch of fizz. It don't create any kind of acid to eat away the crap found in drains.-Tinman57 (November 26, 2012, 08:20 PM)
You know vinegarw is 5% acidity, right? (at least from the store, in the USA)-Deozaan (November 26, 2012, 08:42 PM)
Baking soda is good for loosening soap buildup and many forms of grease and oil. Warm water and baking soda works especially well for cleaning hair brushes and combs. Alkalies generally have it in for soaps. And are far better than most "safe to use" acids at removing it.
The only risk in using it in a drain is if there's a huge soap scum or crud buildup on the walls of a pipe or sink trap. Sometimes baking soda will loosen it enough that it all comes off the pipe in one big clump and clogs the up works. Enough hot water and additional baking soda will loosen it eventually. But that can take a few days. And if there's a big wad of hair (freed from the soap scum) making up part of the blockage, all the baking soda in the world won't budge it.
I skip the vinegar and just use a half cup of baking soda and a quart or so of very hot water in my drains from time to time. Dump it in, let it sit for about ten minutes, and then flush it with clean water from the hot water tap for about a minute or two. It seems to help. But it's more a preventative maintenance thing than a real drain cleaner AFAIC.
YMMV.-40hz (November 26, 2012, 08:51 PM)
-Renegade (November 23, 2012, 08:44 PM)
Here's an easier mystery:
Who said, "I've never been frustrated. I just have real low expectations when I go to Washington."-Renegade (November 20, 2012, 08:42 AM)
Without even reading the article, I can give you the icing on the cake.
I make $12 per hour. More than minimum wage
How can it be possible that I am currently homeless in the cheapest motel I could find when I work 40 hours a week just to get me food, gas, and internet access? The cheapest housing in town only barely fits in my budget at all, and that's even in the worst neighborhoods for apartments barely fit to live in.
Even better, is it even possible for a single person on minimum wage to actually earn an honest living?
Something has got to give soon. And I am sure I am not alone out there anymore, everywhere I turn people who you wouldn't expect are ending up in the same situation I am because the cost for everything has far exceeded their ability to pay their bills.
America is fast becoming a third world country.-SeraphimLabs (November 19, 2012, 08:43 PM)
But...but....but, we have freedom in the U.S.!!! Don't ya know we're #1? We're #1 in freedom of speech, #1 in crooked politicians, #1 in crooked cops, #1 in greedy corporations, etc etc etc. Of course I'm probably labeled as a dissenter by the FBI now and have a dossier on file....
I'm sure I'm on the list. Name me one "freedom" that I've gained from all the wars, banksters, politicians, etc., in my lifetime. However, I have seen all but the 2nd Amendment (guns) be whittled down to the TSA-like "We have the right to feel your privates in public at the airport."
_______________________________________
Oh wait, I have the "freedom" to wear pink for a month twice a year when Susan Komen's corrupt organization comes around wanting to stuff 90% of their donations into their own pockets before a dime ever goes to "research." Oy.-zridling (November 20, 2012, 01:42 AM)
Quote from Tinman57: I read an article on the internet that pretty much said the same thing. These companies are releasing technology a little at a time, only giving you the older technology. Once they've made their money on that, they'll release the next big thing that's been sitting on the shelf for years....Can you find that article? I'd be interested...
Yeah right? It sure feels that way. And 40hz mentioned how the european and asian countries had more advanced tech than we do long before we get it, which kind of shocked me. To me, that confirms that we are becoming less and less intelligent as a nation because it means that a)we buy into hype and are unable to think for ourselves critically b)other countries are working harder than we are.
Gee, that was an article I read on either PCWorld or ZDNet more than 3 years back. I don't even know if they archive their stuff for public access....
They also said what you were thinking. Europe is the testing ground for the newer technologies. If they go well over there, then they start marketing it in the U.S. All part of the same article. lol-superboyac (November 19, 2012, 08:47 PM)
Activate before Nov. 28thSo what happens after the 28th, you can't activate it with the license code they gave you? So what happens if your system gets trashed after the 28th and you have to re-install Windows and WinX DVD Ripper?-tomos (November 20, 2012, 07:24 AM)
Seems to me like the devices are going from more complex to more simple, with the cloud and the big boys taking care of most geek stuff behind the scenes. That's certainly what's happened to the computer. From what I can tell, the whole personal computer thing peaked somewhere during 1995-2005. There was DOS, Windows, internet, lots of great software.
Now it feels like the innovations are largely minor, but super-hyped. Feels like the big boys are trying to squeeze as much money out of the whole industry as possible while keeping the actual real productive innovations as minor as possible. OO...bigger phone screens, whoop dee do. A lot of tinker-friendly features have been removed and continue to be removed. Curious people and ideamen are made more and more to feel like illegal hackers unless they are working for one of the big boys.
But really...I think I'm just growing up or something.-superboyac (November 19, 2012, 08:12 PM)
On a more serious note, for the people in the US: it's about time to grab your torches, pitchforks and semi-automatics and overthrowyour governmentthe corporations.-f0dder (November 18, 2012, 08:22 AM)
Hmm... IIRC it's now illegal, under US law, for us to post a statement like that online...
Aren't you glad you live in Denmark?
P.S. A raptor-class UCAV has since been dispatched to your address. Thanks for providing a map with your profile!
-40hz (November 18, 2012, 09:36 AM)
It's a very good interview, lots of interesting aspects to it.
On a very practical note:
DCJ: We pay four times what the French do for a triple play package of cable, Internet and telephone — and they get worldwide TV, not just domestic; their Internet is ten times faster and instead of two country calling, they get long-distance to 70 countries at no extra charge. All that for $38 compared to the U.S. average of $160 including taxes. By one measure we pay 38 times as much as the Japanese per bit of information on the Internet. In states where the electric utilities were broken up so power generation could be a competitive business prices did not fall. Instead since 1999 they rose 48% more than inflation, compared to just 8 percent in states that retained traditional regulation. Everywhere there is a lack of competition, or only the appearance of competition, we pay way too much.
SP: In your book, you single out telephone carriers — is it really in their interests to hold back universal broadband services? Can you quantify the impact?
DCJ: Remarkably we have created a system in which the AT&T - Verizon duopoly makes bigger profits by holding back the Internet. Verizon will make fiber optic service, the Information Superhighway, available to just 16 million households, not all of whom will buy. AT&T provides fiber to the street, then old-fashioned coaxial cable to your home or business. And if you live in a rural area or even cities like Rochester, where I live in Western New York, your region is never scheduled to get fiber optic service. Building the universal fiber optic service out economic competitors are all building or have built would encourage the invention of new services and products in America, but instead those will be developed in other countries. After all, if there is no way to use a service why would it be invented?
...
One study, and it is only one study, says that a universal Information Superhighway at the fastest speeds in the world (we average about 5 percent of the top speeds) would increase economic output by two-thirds.-tomos (November 18, 2012, 10:18 AM)
I have Norton Internet Security. Recently purchase Spyware Doctor. It's hogging my Windows 8 Pro. Just uninstalled it. Now want a good anti-spyware. Commercial ones will do as well. Which one to choose?SpybotS&D is free and highly rated. It also has a background app called Teatimer that gives you real-time protection on the net, but I don't run it because it eats up about 80mb of RAM.-BCHOWDHURY (November 14, 2012, 11:23 PM)
Maybe this whole saga is somehow related with rare-earth elements shortage looming on the horizon. Right now China is virtually the sole provider of rare-earth elements, so US government may be trying in a convoluted way to make more "rational" use of the stocks at hand. This may be a means to circumvent WTO rules.
I realize this one is as good as conspiracy theories come, so don't assume that I have proof or something.-eleman (November 14, 2012, 12:25 AM)
