I look at this issue from a different direction. Why is it that employers are currently expected to cover the cost of our health care? The reason health care costs are so high is that it is transparent to a significant portion of the population who burden the system every time they have a minor prob...

Wow, that was weird.

I posted a reply in one thread, poured myself a drink, and found myself in a totally different thread.

Good booze!!

I think I will have another!!

Wonder where I will show up next!!

There is another thread regarding this store, with all their trials and tribulations of the past year. It would appear that someone must have a personal ax to grind and don't care who they hurt. For those of you that are open minded, I would suggest that you stop and give the new people a chance. Do...

Be careful how you dust it out. Air moving across non conductive materials causes static electricity. A vacuum hose builds up a charge real bad. Cleaning is a good thing, but please be careful.

I can't help on the strength question, but on the size, you can make your dome 23' 10 1/2" with a minimum of scrap. As for needing a ladder, it would be very difficult without one unless you can build from the top down and lift the dome as you go. I would suggest building this at home so you know th...

AntiM wrote:I didn't say ANYTHING about rules.

But life is no fun without rules!!

Seriously, think about it!

You have the most fun when you are breaking at least one rule. If there were no rules, there would by no rules to break, and life would be boring.

Now we are off of page one.

Expect serious snark anytime now.

AntiM, I think you are doing a great job. I agree that it can be frustrating when one tries to provide useful information and is immediately buried in snark. I think it would be great if the first page of a thread were to be useful, and if it has enough interest to make it to page two, let the fun b...

ygmir wrote:I just ordered 2 1Gb Ram "sticks" from Tigerdirect.........that's what Crucial said was my max, but, tiger was 20 bucks cheaper and not tax or shipping.........

I think you will be surprised how much faster your computer will run without all the memory swaps.

Enjoy

Are there better places to buy RAM? Is Staples, etc, good, or, should I go online? Brand? The reason I mentioned Crucial is that I am kind of remote and so having it shipped is a big plus. As far as brand, I believe Crucial is owned by Micron which is one of the big guys. If you do purchase elsewhe...

Here is an explanation of the numbers. You have 256M of DRAM, this is the memory the computer programs operate in. When the computer needs more memory, it uses virtual memory which means it frees up some of the DRAM and stores that data to the hard drive. Then when it needs the original memory back,...

ok i did the crucail memory scan, but, find no info pertaining to dram.......... it says my system has 256K ram, and, suggests different upgrade chips, to add to the second, unused port. Sorry about the confusion about RAM and DRAM, the terms are used pretty interchanged today, mainly because all l...

With Windows, there is a nice little tool that helps for situations like this. In the blue task bar, if you right click, a little window will open and then left click on task manager. This will show how much memory you have, along with how much virtual memory has been allocated. I am just guessing t...

Pinemom: In addition to eagles, we have to worry about cougars and wolves and so far we have been lucky. All of our animals have come from the outdoors and chosen to live with us, but that does not mean they don't enjoy the outdoors. I have become a firm believer in quality of life versus quantity. ...

LCN: I am so sorry. Loosing a pet which has become a member of the family is always so hard. Every time we loose one, for whatever reason, my wife and I say no more, and a stray always finds us and makes their intension to stay very clear. We now have two dogs and a cat, that sleep together on our b...

For a 15' diameter dome, you should have used 40 sticks for a 3/8 dome and 55 sticks for a 5/8, each making 3 struts. To minimize waste, you could have gone to 15' 7 5/8", but that is the limit with 3 struts per stick. Going to 2 struts per stick, the maximum dome size is 23' 10 1/2". Where it gets ...

@ stargeezer Sorry, I fail to grasp your point here. A *24 thousand watt* array is a huge gift to BRC, and SKS's approach to its funding is entirely appropriate. \\osc My point is this is not a gift, he is going out as a business and selling services to nearby camps. There was an individual that wa...

My numbers were really screwed up. Most people have been more interested in 3v domes, and I have a spreadsheet to minimize scrap, and I had checked that out very well. I also modified it for higher frequencies, but I must have forgotten to double check my entries. My apologies for any confusion. I w...

My Error.

For some reason I had too many "F" struts in the spreadsheet, there should only be 30, not 90!!!

Sorry for the confusion.

30 "A" struts
30 "B"
60 "C"
60 "D"
70 "E"
90 "F"

340 Total

If planned properly you will get 2 struts per stick

340/2 = 170

If you don't plan ahead, some sticks will give you only one strut, and your stick count goes up.

I just did some checking from my spreadsheets on domes, and with the 140 sticks you have, you will still need to go back to the store. It will take 170 sticks and you will need to reduce your dome size slightly below the 32' you specified. As far as the bolt size, the EMT is the weak link, that same...

Nothing personal, I just find it hilarious how many people ignore the whole Burning Man concept and justify their buying or selling of services by claiming they enhance the experience for others. For those who are selling services, I can understand, for them BM stands for Business Model and they are...

Together with the racking, batteries and battery rentals, inverters, and wire/cables we bring, the cost/value of our solar stuff is probably in the neighborhood of $100k, but since the labor is free and most of the equipment is simply borrowed, our budget is closer to $12k (mostly recovered by supp...

If you have a circular saw, they make a fiber blade for metal. It cuts through rebar like butter, but wear goggles as it does throw sparks. Also watch where the sparks go, flammable objects can light off. I aim towards a concrete driveway or a nice green lawn. If you wear glasses, do not trust them ...

In addition to the concerns stated above, I will add another that has not been mentioned. That 150W inverter that you are using is probably not that efficient, and I would expect it to be a modified sine output. Transformers and motors work great on a clean sine wave, but generate a lot of waste hea...

A thermosiphon is actually very easy to set up. First off, your heat collection must be located lower than your heat storage. Then you must make sure that you are never trying to work against gravity. If you are wanting to make a hot tub, take the drain of the tub, always going down hill, to the bot...

The approach I would take is put a copy routine in the background that always copies the new contents of one folder into another that is hidden off deep in some other directory. This would allow you to compare folders and see if anything is erased, and thus deal with the problem maker. Hiding a big ...

It would be a little out of your way, but the area up around Mt. Lassen is also great. Go north on I5 to Chico and then head east to Lassen and continue east through Chester and Susanville into Reno.

Whose belly button??

I see this possibility as one of those good news / bad news scenarios depending on the source!!!

If you are starting with full length sticks of conduit, 17 feet in diameter is a very inefficient size to build, you will have a lot of waste. If you would like some help to minimize waste, PM me with a size and frequency range that you would like, and I will do the calculations to waste as little o...