#291102 - 04/12/2006 19:24
Question Thread III
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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So I've been keeping questions written down for another question thread. As usual, these are sort of minor questions that I can't find answer for through my own research, and I hate to load up the Off Topic forum with these questions. So without further ado:
1) My parent's home has, nearly since our family first moved in over 22 years ago, been excellent at killing small electronics. We have killed hair dryers, toasters, at least seven dust busters of various quality, etc. One day we'll just pick up the device and it won't work. What would do that?
2) My fiancee's father bought an outdoor fireplace last year to put on his deck and make it possible to sit outside in the winter. The only problem? Smoke! It's too smoky to sit close to it, and if you sit far enough away to avoid that, you're sitting in the cold. Doesn't some wood produce less smoke than others? What kinds?
3) I'm a Redskins fan. For a team that thrives on merchandising, they have some of the ugliest hats ever made. Here's what I want: a maroon cap, fitted (size 18), deep (most baseball caps look like beanies on me), with nothing other than the classic Redskins logo on it. Does anyone know of any services that will build a hat for you?
4) Does anyone have preferred software for encoding in H.264 on Windows? I'm thinking of encoding home movies in that format, so that in the future I can set up my parents with the iTV (I'm going to back up the uncompressed videos to spare hard drives that I'll store somewhere).
5) Does anyone here use a start/home page service? I've been using Protopage for months now, and they recently "upgraded" it to version 3. It's worse. There are bugs that I'm sure will get ironed out, but they've moved their RSS reading features in a direction that I'm not happy with at all. I'm testing out Netvibes right now, and it's okay, but not great, plus it oddly has no way of adding links to your page, which makes no sense to me as a start page. So can anyone suggest a completely customizeable start/home/portal site?
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Matt
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#291103 - 04/12/2006 19:37
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/08/2000
Posts: 3826
Loc: SLC, UT, USA
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Quote:
5) Does anyone here use a start/home page service? I've been using Protopage for months now, and they recently "upgraded" it to version 3. It's worse. There are bugs that I'm sure will get ironed out, but they've moved their RSS reading features in a direction that I'm not happy with at all. I'm testing out Netvibes right now, and it's okay, but not great, plus it oddly has no way of adding links to your page, which makes no sense to me as a start page. So can anyone suggest a completely customizeable start/home/portal site?
You can put links in the webnote box.
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#291104 - 04/12/2006 19:39
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
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Quote:
Does anyone here use a start/home page service?
I'm still using my.yahoo.com, even though it hasn't really changed all that much from when they introduced it ten (!) years ago. It's got RSS, it's got news. It's got comics. It works for me.
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#291105 - 04/12/2006 19:56
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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The Redskins have to license their logo to companies to make merchandise, and it appears that they have not licensed the Indian Head logo to anyone who makes fitted caps. My suggestion would be to find something that had a removable patch on it and then remove it and reattach it to a maroon cap. Kinda hacky, though.
All wood is going to produce smoke. Think about it: charcoal is wood that has had virtually everything but the carbon removed and it still produces a lot of smoke. The only way around that is to get a stove that produces less smoke. They exist; I think they use some sort of catalytic converter to burn the smoke off. Another option is to get an infrared heater, which uses propane and (again) a catalyst to radiate heat to people instead of heating the air.
My first thought on your electrical problem is that you have "dirty" power, meaning that your voltage isn't constant. You might be able to get the power company to check it for you. I have no idea if anyone will actually do anything about it, though.
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Bitt Faulk
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#291106 - 04/12/2006 20:22
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: loren]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Thanks for the replies so far. Quote:
You can put links in the webnote box.
How? The only way I see is to type actual addresses, and they stay written as complete addresses. That's not very useful, IMO. I wish there were a module that just let you write HTML so I could also add search boxes (I'm not sure why their "Web Search" module doesn't let you add or subtract search engines).
Quote:
I'm still using my.yahoo.com
I don't know why, but I've disliked Yahoo since its inception. Every time I take another look at it, it still doesn't appeal to me. I'll take another look, though.
Quote:
The Redskins have to license their logo...
Makes sense. I thought that would be a problem. That patch idea might work, but as you say it might look a little odd.
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All wood is going to produce smoke
You're right. For some reason I just thought that some produced more than others. It seems to me that this stove he got should have been designed a little better so that the smoke would vent somewhere instead of blowing out at everyone around it.
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You might be able to get the power company to check it for you.
We've thought about getting an electrician out. We might have had one look at it in the past and he didn't find anything. I was hoping I might get an idea of what the problem could be and then ask them to look at it. We might just go ahead with the call, though.
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Matt
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#291107 - 04/12/2006 20:26
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31572
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
One day we'll just pick up the device and it won't work. What would do that?
Can't know without diagnosing the cause of each of those failures and seeing if there's a commonality. Although if there are toddlers or infants in the household, you might not have to look far for a cause.
Once, a friend of mine gave another friend a VCR that had mysteriously stopped working. Said if he could fix it he could have it. The mystery was solved when he opened the vcr and found a bunch of small objects had been put into the front-loading casette slot. Their toddler had been trying to "play" ballpoint pen caps and other non-VHS formats for quite some time.
Quote:
The only problem? Smoke! It's too smoky to sit close to it, and if you sit far enough away to avoid that, you're sitting in the cold. Doesn't some wood produce less smoke than others?
I think the solution is more likely to be extending the length and exit location of the chimney.
Quote:
Here's what I want: a maroon cap, (..) with nothing other than the classic Redskins logo on it.
I would have said Cafe Press, but now that I think about it, they will not allow you to print up trademarked/copyrighted materials. In fact, no self respecting company will let you print up copyrighted or trademarked materials. In theory, you should only be able to purchase things with a redskins logo from authorized resellers.
Did you think of this? Get your favorite kind of blank maroon cap, and buy a redskins iron-on from an authorized reseller.
Quote:
Does anyone have preferred software for encoding in H.264 on Windows?
Quicktime, with a Pro serial number. Slow, but works.
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Does anyone here use a start/home page service?
Yes. It's called "edit your own HTML file with whatever you want, store it on your hard disk, and tell the browser to use that as your home page."
Mine has some fancy tricks, like storing my last UPS/Fedex numbers in a local cookie so that I can check details on shipment status of my latest orders with a single keystroke.
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#291108 - 04/12/2006 20:56
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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Quote:
I think the solution is more likely to be extending the length and exit location of the chimney.
While the following link applies to brick, there may be some good information for sizing of the chimney's flue.
http://www.gobrick.com/BIA/technotes/t19a.htm
Another option would be to use a gas insert instead of wood. I don't think it's as nice, but it is less work and isn't smokey at all. Does the outside fireplace have a chimney at all, or is it an open-pit type?
-Zeke
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WWFSMD?
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#291109 - 04/12/2006 21:21
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Ezekiel]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/08/2000
Posts: 3826
Loc: SLC, UT, USA
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I've always understood that wet or "young" wood produces more smoke, where as dryer and more cured wood produces less.
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#291111 - 05/12/2006 01:05
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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Quote:
Quote:
I'm still using my.yahoo.com
I don't know why, but I've disliked Yahoo since its inception. Every time I take another look at it, it still doesn't appeal to me. I'll take another look, though.
You aren't alone in this. For me it was that I thought the search terms should have each been treated as mutually required items. I just wasn't willing to type in repeated ands just to get the search to filter down.
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Glenn
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#291112 - 05/12/2006 02:57
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 20/01/2002
Posts: 2085
Loc: New Orleans, LA
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1) Current under or over voltages can both cause this behavior. Stick a meter in the outlet and see what you get, you should be reading about 118V. Undervoltaging causes increased amperage, which causes heat that can burn out electronics over time. Overvoltaging can damage the components directly. This really applies to micro-electronics only, as the heating elements of things like toasters are immune to these effects, but the timer bits are still relatively sensitive.
2) I agree on the wet or young wood. New wood (wet on the inside still) burns with much more smoke than very dry wood. The downside of using very dry wood is that it burns MUCH quicker. I have some wood I've been burning recently that I cut pre-Katrina. It's been sitting in my garage for almost 2 years. Burns VERY hot and VERY fast. So fast that 4-5 normal sized logs are completely gone in 10 minutes. On the upside, they require no kindling other than used newspaper. Downside is I have to keep adding logs every 10 minutes to keep a fire going.
Increasing the chimney length will do 2 things. First, it will get the smoke above you, where it isn't a nuisance. Second, it will cause the fire to burn faster and therefore hotter. Closing off some of the entrance to the chiminea will also produce a blast-oven effect, forcing more air on a localized part of the fire, making it burn quicker.
I once blew the door off my fathers fireplace by closing the glass doors almost all the way to get it started and leaving it that way too long. It got so hot, so fast, that one of the tempered glass doors shattered. It sounded like a gunshot in the house. That'll get your attention, I assure you. I oftern do this to get a fire going quickly, I just have to remember to open them after the fire gets big enough to self-sustain.
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#291113 - 05/12/2006 07:11
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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Quote:
I don't know why, but I've disliked Yahoo since its inception. Every time I take another look at it, it still doesn't appeal to me. I'll take another look, though.
I use the personalised google page - it gives me a quick summary of my RSS feeds from security pages, news, weather, strongbad, my current IP address and a translator.
It works really well and is very customisable, as you would imagine from google.
_________________________
Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#291114 - 05/12/2006 12:19
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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Chimney and air flow and green/seasoned issues aside; yes some woods burn cleaner than others. This has been my experience with a wood burning stove. They also burn at different rates and temperatures. Typically softwoods such as pine will burn faster and with a greater amount of smoke, while hardwoods such as maple, oak, ash tend to burn cleaner. It's a matter of the sap and wood fiber - these vary across species. Locust wood actually makes for very good firewood - lots of heat, burns long, but is useful for little else except fence posts. Now, doing some research on this, it seems that there are some contradictory studies to my personal opinions when open pit or hearths are considered (instead of enclosed/controlled wood stoves - which do best on seasoned hardwood). That's the word from this chimneysweep.This link doesn't address smoke issues, it does list firewoods by BTU value/cord for different species. -Zeke
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WWFSMD?
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#291115 - 07/12/2006 16:44
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Thanks for all of the suggestions and responses, everyone, they are greatly appreciated.
I hate to do this, but I have to add one more question to the thread:
6) Can the Mac Mini handle a 30" display? I may be considering one and there's not a chance I'll give up my monitor for an Apple computer, but I also don't want to spend too much...
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Matt
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#291116 - 07/12/2006 17:21
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
6) Can the Mac Mini handle a 30" display? I may be considering one and there's not a chance I'll give up my monitor for an Apple computer, but I also don't want to spend too much...
From the tech specs:
DVI video output to support digital resolutions up to 1920 by 1200 pixels; supports 20-inch Apple Cinema Display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports noncoherent digital displays up to 135MHz.
The iMac and Macbook supports similar specs. Looks like only the Mac Pro and MacBook Pro will drive a 30 inch display.
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#291117 - 07/12/2006 17:40
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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old hand
Registered: 17/01/2003
Posts: 998
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Quote:
2) My fiancee's father bought an outdoor fireplace last year to put on his deck and make it possible to sit outside in the winter. The only problem? Smoke! It's too smoky to sit close to it, and if you sit far enough away to avoid that, you're sitting in the cold. Doesn't some wood produce less smoke than others? What kinds?
A taller chimney and keep the top out of the wind, if possible. Some wood does smoke more than others. All green wood smokes more than seasoned. Use seasoned wood for several reasons.
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#291118 - 07/12/2006 17:43
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Redrum]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3583
Loc: Columbus, OH
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Quote:
Use seasoned wood for several reasons.
I find that paprika works best.
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~ John
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#291120 - 13/12/2006 00:50
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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In case anyone was curious, in regards to #4 (encoding H.264 files), I eventually bit the bullet and upgraded to Quicktime Pro (which kills me, given how much I dislike Quicktime). Anyway, the result is that, unsurprisingly, Quicktime appears to be the only real low-cost solution for encoding H.264. It definitely takes forever (particularly with multi-pass encoding), but the results are great. I'm really only using it so I can encode home videos for viewing in iTunes on my parents' computer. Later on I'm assuming that the iTV will be able to play these files with little effort (am I crazy to think that?).
The one thing that's annoying me? iTunes. When I import an H.264 MOV file, iTunes automatically takes a frame out of the first five seconds and makes it the file's artwork. That's fine as a placeholder, but for some reason it appears to be completely impossible to change the artwork to something else! It's driving me nuts! I did what you would assume you'd do, I went to "Get Info", Artwork tab, and then looked for a way to change it. But the "Add" and "Delete buttons were grayed out, and the only right-click option I have is Copy. Can anyone help?
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Matt
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#291121 - 13/12/2006 03:22
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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addict
Registered: 10/11/2000
Posts: 497
Loc: Utah, USA
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-Aaron
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#291122 - 13/12/2006 12:09
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: adavidw]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Thanks! That works! Although I must say this is sort of a poor design. I'm not sure why I can't assign any image I want to audio files, but video files can only be assigned images from the videos themselves.
Anyway, I've got it working now. Thanks for the help!
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Matt
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#291123 - 13/12/2006 15:06
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Since it is somewhat related, I recently found VisualHub handy for the Mac for encoding multiple files. If you have multiple Macs on the network running 10.3.9 or 10.4, they can all help on the video encoding by simply turning on the XGrid option in the sharing system preferences panel. VisualHub will then use that to distribute tasks out, with no extra software install necessary on the other machines. The downside to it is that it only does single threaded encoding, so if you only have one file to encode, only one CPU will be used.
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#291124 - 13/12/2006 19:02
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31572
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Darn. Wish VisualHub worked cross-platform, I've got one Mac and one PC, and I'd love to make use of that to tagteam my encodes.
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#291125 - 13/12/2006 20:14
Re: Question Thread III
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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Quote:
Darn. Wish VisualHub worked cross-platform
You didn't ask, but I'll mention it anyways. This is the kind of thing where Apple does things amazingly well from a developer standpoint. Xgrid is built into the OS, and it's a simple checkbox to turn it on. I've never tried it, but I suspect the programming to make your app Xgrid aware is amazingly simple.
The same thing could be done on windows or linux, but it'd take ten times the development effort because Apple wouldn't have done 90% of the hard work for you.
Matthew
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