Recent content by Torment

Patents are effectively stifling innovation at all but the largest tech companies, who are the only ones that can afford a team of patent lawyers (and trust me, they are expensive). Not only do companies have to fear a bad patent being granted and all the legal and/or licensing fees that will...

As someone who uses these sites a *lot*, I can (along with most of you, I would guess) attest to the fact that they are predominately used for the sharing of copyrighted material. That is their raison d'etre.

bountyUsed to have a cut power cord to a radio, I'd hold one end, a chain of other people would hold the other and we'd take turns poking (or grabing and holding on to) each other to complete the circuit. 110 AC isn't that bad, feels kinda buzzy. :> Again, stick your left index finger in the...

blarneypeteYou still obviously don't have kids. I would be much less worried about electrocution and cuts. The socket is low-frequency AC, and that type of shock to people rarely does any real damage. Cuts heal. Metallic mercury can stay in your body for a very long time, from months to...

GreenSpoonYou obviously don't have kids. I do not let them play with lamps, but accidents happen. I'd be more worried about them getting shocked or cut than them coming into contact with miniscule amounts of mercury once in a blue moon. If they're regularly breaking bulbs and playing in the...

GreenSpoonYou are right. Having a fluorescent bulb in the ceiling of my kitchen, where it just sits there, does not get jarred or anything is like a fluorescent sitting on my coffee table where my kids can get to it. Thank you so much for enlightening me. If you let your kids play with lamps...

chuenlA while ago I bought a 1157 automative 36-LED tail light bulb from ebay and it didn't last more than 6 months. My conclusion is that the failure rate of no name brand LEDs is as high as no name brand CFLs. So, only buy quality brand. Please. People have been using fluorescent bulbs...

GreenSpoonYes, but a CFL is in my home. A coal power plant is not. Where do you think that mercury from the coal plant goes?

D_Kuhn I'd worry about the same problem with these high power led's... will they be sensitive to power surges and sags (I think that's what killed a couple of CF's at my house earlier this year)? I wouldn't be surprised if that was my problem. We have frequent power quality issues here. Since...

I've yet to have a CFL last anywhere near 10k hours. I'm lucky if they last a year (which amounts to about 3k hours) before the ballast fails.

I worked with a guy who did graphics optimizations for Sony on the PS3 early on. Even within Sony, they were very territorial about who got what information. As a result, his group had to figure a lot out for themselves. I can only imagine how bad it's been for 3rd party developers.

curnel_d, you are obnoxiously stupid. Jesus christ, the fundies will be the end of us all.