Reg versus Premium Fuel experiament in 09 PT Cruiser

You mean "especially" from Microsoft, don't you?

Yes, but that's a different thing. That's what you get when the marketing department designs software. The end result is something that looks really nice, but has major compromises underneath to make it look nice. Actually making an operating system that has normal operating system features is not a priority... look how long it took for Microsoft to come up with pre-emptive multitasking, as used by real operating systems since the early seventies.

Businesses look on computer systems as expenses, they don't think so much about what they are getting for their money. Consequently you see a lot of this kind of thing, but let me say it is MUCH worse when businesses which are not technology-driven contract out for custom software. Sometimes, if they have one smart person in charge of the contract, it works out really well. Most of the time it does not.

I had a very bad support experience with Microsoft in 1978 and have not used any products of theirs since. I'm not a big Linux fan, and my number one complaint with Linux is the same as my number one complaint with Microsoft: poor documentation of internals. At least with Linux you can read the source code if you have to, but you shouldn't have to.

--scott

Just ask your doctor about cholesterol-lowering drugs. Microsoft isn't the only outfit pushing inadequate and untested products on the market.

--scott

Sorry, I guess I forgot a smiley. I've got exactly two applications that force me to run Windows in a virtual machine environment: a schematic diagram drawing program and PCB layout program needed to submit work to expresspcb.com, an extremely inexpensive source for small numbers of custom PC boards. Anybody got a comparable source that will take a gerber file?

Filled it up today. The pencil and paper answer is that I got about 1 mpg less on the premium. The electronic info center readout says it was about 2 mpg less. Not a huge difference obviously. Certainly it would indicate that there is no point to using premium since it's at best a wash and the performance was no better by seat of the pants. Nothing surprising.

There are a bunch of them out there. Start with the ads in the back of AudioXPress magazine. Most of them do the same thing expresspcb.com does, and batch up hundreds of boards together in one run. Some of them send them to China, though, so you have a week or two turnaround, but you usually save bigtime in the process.

Thing is, I like the expresspcb.com layout program a lot. It's nowhere near as cumbersome as Eagle... but Eagle will run on Unix boxes...

--scott

I think the rule of thumb is still in effect, that if your car doesnt need the octane rating of the premium fuels then it is money wasted.

I've been looking (mostly in the back of Circuit Cellar), but haven't come across one really comparable: send off the layout and my credit card number, 2 days (IIRC) and ~$75 later (including shipping) I've got three circuit boards on my doorstep. All the others I've come across seem to want to go through a "request a quote" step, or have a setup charge, or something...

Their schematic program, their layout program, and especially the linking between the two, is really nice.

I also have been using expresspcb.com. Great for low quantity boards as you said. That reminds me - I have a defective board to talk to them about. First one I've had, so I don't know how they're going to handle it. Too much set up to make just one board, so I suspect they will just refund the incremental cost that I paid for the one board.

I remember that ;-) Didn't someone actually make up a few stickers? Its certainly true that Y2K had no affect whatsoever on my Carter AVS carburetors....

Glad I don't know any of those people....

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a feral Microsoft hater. Some of their products have surprised me (a properly configured version of Windows Embedded, for example, that will boot in

But, much as the designers of the 1957 BelAir and 1968 Roadrunner didn't expect those vehicles to remain hugely popular in 2009 and didn't design them for that kind of lifespan and maintainability, software developers in 1988 didn't REALLY expect their code snippets (or hell, whole programs!) to still be running in 1999/2000.

Actually I don't find that to be a problem with current generation CFLs anymore. What I still don't like is the fact that initial light output is VERY low until the tube heats up. I'm even more impressed with the LED replacement fixtures I've seen- in terms of color rendering AND in terms of light output as well as being truly instant-on. What doesn't impress me (at least not positively...) is the $50 cost of a PAR-30 LED flood in 50-watt equivalent light output. Gads. Even I'm smart enough to know that it won't really last the 10+ years it would need to break even... I'll lose the darn thing or replace the lamp it fits before then! I do believe the cost will drop, though. The big problem I see for LEDs is getting them to work in a non-flood configuration (ie, radiate light uniformly like a regular round bulb does.)

and too late to re-tool and re-legislate for

Google a bit, extreme environuts are ALREADY whining about CFLs, although it amuses me how conflicted and angsty they seem to be over it.

Damn. I didn't know GE had bailed on that... too bad.

I think Phillips is still working on theirs, though,

Actually I've seen a few Philips products already on the market. ie., their 45W PAR20 that matches 55W conventional incandescent PAR20 in lumen output.

OK, I'm a little beyond my depth of knowledge here, but AFAIK *ALL* flat-tappet cams have to be hardened (usually nitrided or some other surface process) after the cam lobes are ground on the blank. Too much material has to be removed when the lobes are ground to shape to use a pre-grind hardening process- all the hardening would be removed except on the very tip of the lobe and it would get undercut very quickly. I'm sure that the quality and thickness of the hardening can vary, though.

In addition GM (Chevrolet division engines in particular) up through the end of factory flat-tappet cams had comparatively high cam wear because they used a smaller diameter lifter than Ford, Chrysler, AMC, and (I think) some of the other GM divisions like Oldsmobile and Cadillac.

Strange.. that would be only 12 years, and the millenium change would have been rather obvious, I think, especially in light of all the importance that was given to it at the last moment.

Yes - of course the nitriding was done after grinding - the treatment is only microns thick.

I'm just telling you what the word on the street was - I have to think it would have trickled down from someone with engineering level understanding - the typical guy on the street back then wouldn't have thought up the nitriding explanation on his own.

Perhaps that long ago, it was a new process that has been greatly improved over the years. If other manufacturers were nitriding at the time, perhaps GM's process or their vendor's process was inferior. But I know it was a consistent rumor for years. Whether the stated cause was wrong, it was universally accepted that GM cams had such a problem that other manufacturer's vehicles didn't - maybe for the reason you state in your next paragraph...

I know I heard a news report within the last month about class action suits being filed or threatened regarding overstated and fraudulent claims of equivalent light output. I caught the report on the fly - wish I had caught more details about who was the sue-ee and who was the sue-er.

After a little Googling, perhaps it was this story that I heard a version of - sounds vaguely familiar, but not what I was thinking it was:

But in my Googling, I did come across lots of comments about CFL's not living up to its promises of life and light output.

For what it is worth

Bill Putney wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

I haven`t had a dam cfl last more than a year yet. KB