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Questions and Answers - Part 3

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jentacular dreams

13:34 / 08.01.08

Your computer has a battery.

When it runs out, the universe dies.

13:44 / 08.01.08

They have batteries - like fat watch batteries - attached to the motherboard.

It's actually a "common"* cause of mysterious problems on Macs - the batteries do eventually die, they're simple to replace but make you think all sorts of terrible things have just happened to your beautiful machine.

*quotes because it's not actually that common, just much-written-about on support forums.

14:08 / 08.01.08

Your computer has a battery.

When it runs out, the universe dies.

There was me wasting time building doomsday weapons.

Anyone got the UN's number?

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:44 / 08.01.08

The cool part is that Windows systems reset to 1900 when their BIOS clock loses power, whereas UNIX systems reset to 1970.

Also, more recent Mac laptops have no powered clock - it runs off the battery - there is enough power in a battery that hasn't got enough power to run a laptop to keep the clock right for a long, long time. The assumption is, I think, that one will be online, and thus able to sync with Internet time very soon after turning it on, even if it has lost _all_ power, so why add the complexity?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

22:02 / 08.01.08

If someone did a painting of a nice robot, and they weren't good at painting but it was a very nice robot, would people buy the painting?

22:04 / 08.01.08

People will buy *anything*. Do you have an image of the image of the nice robot?

22:07 / 08.01.08

that robot sounds really nice. i'll take one.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

22:10 / 08.01.08

No, it is in my head and I can't take pictures of in my head. But it is nice.

22:35 / 08.01.08

I want to see your doodle!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

23:34 / 08.01.08

*!*

All Acting Regiment

15:04 / 09.01.08

If someone had an overdraught limit of £X, and they'd reached it and couldn't draw any more money out, surely if they added £Y to the account, that ought to mean they can now draw out up to £Y?

16:36 / 09.01.08

AAR - yes, Unless the overdraft is being reduced by the bank, but it's more than likely you'd know if this were the case. What's happened?

16:42 / 09.01.08

@AAR
That sounds reasonable. But there might be a problem, if someone else has debited an amount in the meantime (rent, bank fees, interest, credit card, etc.).

All Acting Regiment

17:12 / 09.01.08

Cheers guys. Neither of those things should have happened in the case I'm talking about. Very peculiar. It's not as if there's less money in there than there should be, though, just that it ain't coming out.

22:27 / 09.01.08

Is there a lag time from when you make a deposit and when it clears? I don't know about there, but around here there is a period of time where your account registers the deposit— for example if you check at an atm or online— but the deposit is not actually available to draw on until the check deposited clears. This does not happen if you deposit cash, however. Could that be what you are talking about?

All Acting Regiment

13:49 / 10.01.08

It seems the hypothetical bank customer was hypothetically using the wrong account. Ahem.

All Acting Regiment

15:48 / 10.01.08

I've got another question though, if I've not made myself too, too much the day's fool.

You see the logo for Woebot?

It's made out of sign language. Is there a place where you can download those images of the hand-signs?

17:19 / 10.01.08

Look for "ASL" or "sign language" on a few free fonts sites. I think those come from some wingding font.

17:23 / 10.01.08

Ah - especially since, though they're not fingerspell characters, the same one appears where the os would be in "Woebot."

*

18:28 / 10.01.08

Is that maybe a different finger-spelling alphabet? I'm only familiar with ASL finger-spelling, and that sketchily.

20:02 / 10.01.08

Can electricity meters be wrong?

We've just had our electricity bill and it seems pretty steep - for a 1 bedroom flat shared between 2 people, the total is at 1,501 kWh. This is a reading for two months.

It breaks down to 889 kWhs daytime usage and 612 kWhs night time rate.

We have an electric oven, a washing machine, an electric shower and an electric boiler. We also have 2 storage heaters that we've had to have on pretty high as the place hasn't got great insulation.

We use computers a lot with one desktop being on pretty much 24/7. We have a tv, a laptop um... the usual really...

Just, that seems like a lot of usage that we can't account for - we'd put it down to the storage heaters, but they're only on for a few hours at night. We're out of the house for most of the daytimes, so it seems a little strange that this is the peak usage.

Does this sound a reasonable amount of electricity?

What do we do if it isn't? Who's responsibility is it to make sure the meter is working properly and not being 'tapped'?

Mon Oncle Ignatius

20:21 / 10.01.08

Looks like British Sign Language (BSL) fingerspelling, rendered as graphics; there's a font available to download on this website which is a little similar to the one on Woebot's blog (which by the way is going offline).

21:08 / 10.01.08

What do we do if it isn't? Who's responsibility is it to make sure the meter is working properly and not being 'tapped'?

I think you know the answer to that.

12:41 / 11.01.08

From my own experience with electricity bills, you should check your meter every time you get a bill. The way it works here, if there is an error in the reading taken by the electric company, it will not be corrected until you report it, and the error will be compounded every billing cycle, making your bill creep higher and higher.
Having said that, you do sound like you have a lot of electrical equipment for a small household - the electric boiler will eat up a lot of energy, especially if the place is poorly insulated. I would suspect the storage heaters are the main culprit - those things are brutal for energy consumption. If it's cold, I would suggest getting plastic sealing kits for the windows and weather-stripping for any doors leading outside or into common corridors - in my experience, the majority of heat loss in homes is around windows and doors. It could save you a lot on the electricity bill.
But before you do that, go check your meter. I doubt that your line has been tapped by someone else - your consumption would probably be a lot higher than 1501 kWh if someone was stealing.

Phex: Dorset Doom

20:19 / 12.01.08

So, I have a wireless network set up at home and, for various reasons, I haven't set up the security on it yet so it's available to just about everybody on my street. Is there any way in Windows Vista for me to see if other people are using my network?

22:27 / 12.01.08

You can check on your wireless router if anyone is one your network.

19:28 / 13.01.08

There's an interesting discussion about that over yonder.

Essential Dazzler

09:49 / 14.01.08

Where is my electric razor?

09:54 / 14.01.08

In the last place you look.

18:17 / 14.01.08

Where is my electric razor?

Check the suitcase you took with you on your last trip.

12:27 / 17.01.08

I want to repaint wooden game pieces to give them different colors--specifically Settlers of Catan, so when needed we can merge two sets of the game and play with many people (this currently is an option for people who own both the first and second editions of the game; all later copies have the same red, white, orange and blue tokens). What is the easiest way to do this that also won't look awful? Several of the pieces are roughly 1/8"x1/8"x1", so sanding may be problematic.

Closed for Business Time

13:09 / 17.01.08

Are Barbelith usernames exclusive?

13:45 / 17.01.08

Are Barbelith usernames exclusive?

I'm not sure quite what you're asking here. I'm pretty sure that board software requires each login name to be unique, if that's what you mean.

As for display names, I'm not so sure. I know, for instance, that He Who Shall Not Be Named briefly used "Jack Fear" as a display name, during one of my long absences from the board; but I don't recall offhand whether I was using that display name at the time, or one of my variants.

I *do* know that it's a very bad idea to impersonate someone else, whether it's technically possible or not, and if it's done with clear intent to deceive, it's a good way to get yourself smacked with the banhammer.

Is that what you're driving at?

jentacular dreams

14:13 / 17.01.08

Paralis

I'm presuming from your suggestion of sanding that the pieces are wooden? Paint remover followed by a (much lighter) sanding might be the way forward (do not use on plastics though as some will dissolve)?

Or if you're talking about the pieces which are quite uniform shapes (oblongs, squares etc) then masking tape covered with a couple of coats of your choosing plus varnish might be just as good.

Closed for Business Time

14:40 / 17.01.08

Jack - yes, I meant usernames. Thanks for the info, and no, I'm not gonna impersonate anyone. Just curious is all.

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