How have I accumulated at least 10 phone cords? Where do they all come from, and why haven’t I thrown them away? I have a wireless phone and no land service.
Well I know where they come from. They practically give them away with anything remotely related to phones or modems. I guess it’s nice that they give you all you need to be set up. Except I now have a bunch of items that I don’t really want and will probably never use (any suggestions on creative uses?). I was quite surprised when I recently received my USB hard drive to find that the contents actually included USB and firewire cables. Now I have a firewire cable that I’ll never use.
I only bring this up because I was compelled to dig through my wire box last night. I recently moved my laptop from my living room to my bedroom and I wanted to keep it wired into my main stereo (in the living room). Of course the best combination of wires left me at least 3 feet to short. Practically, however, I need about 30 more feet. I don’t think having a wire crossing a room at neck height potentially clotheslining people is such a good idea. Best Buy here I come.
And now another example of how this engineer’s mind works. I have realized that I don’t like to pay for air conditioning. I also realized that I get unlimited water usage at a flat rate. You guys in engineering probably see where I’m going with this. I should build a cold water heat exchanger. Fortunately I haven’t actually run through the numbers on this because I know it won’t work out financially, but I still think it would be cool. I wonder how much piping/finning would be needed. Plus, would forced convection be a good idea?
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Here’s an idea that popped into my head while on the road last weekend. Most highways nowadays have those handy rumble strips on either side of the roadway to help wake up drivers who have dozed off. (Although I found this weekend that if you are actully forced to drive over these things, they can cause sensors to activate alarms improperly… sensors such as the “hey dumbass, you’re about to lock your keys in your car” ding. To fix this problem, turn off your turn signal.) But I digress. This system is great as long as you drift toward the nearest set of rumble strips. But if you’re in the right lane and drift left, you could feasibly get a pretty angle going toward the guard rail. In addition you will have crossed several lanes of traffic which will presumably upset other motorists. So I propose less severe strips that exist in between the lanes. This may also be good for those who are too intent on their phone conversation to pay attention to the road.
I’m not sure how this should actually be implemented. I will suggest using a lot more reflectors. I say this because in severe conditions the more reflectors the better.
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And in other news, I’m going to order up some tickets to see a Henry Rollins spoken show on Saturday, October 15th. It’s in Alexandria, VA. If you’re interested in coming with, let me know soon. But since none of you, my readership, live anyfuckingwhere near me, I’m working on the assumption that you will not be in attendance.
Oh, you had to go into the HVAC stuff didn’t you. Right as I was headed to bed you break this on me. OK, your options pretty much suck so don’t do but here is what would probably happen if you did. Option 1) Leave the cold water running in your shower: REsult, a cool bathroom but little to no circulation. Fans won’t do a whole lot to get the cool air throughout said apartment before it warms. Option2) Rig your sink to some form of waterfall. Most people don’t realize it but the fountains you see outside a lot of large buildings are helping by acting as heat exchangers for chilled water HVAC systems. Why do you think they cut the reflection pond off in Dec through about March or April. Drawbacks to waterfall. You are introducing lots of mousture to the air. Humidity creats mold and all kinds of crap, plus when the air warms, more water will be picked up and you will effectively create a sauna. Especially considering the best you can hope for on water temp from a facet is in the 60 some degree range when you really need something in the 40’s or 50’s. Also, you will have lots of water splashing around.
Option 3) Build a heat exchanger…yeah right. HAve fun cutting your slef all to hell building the thing. If you think you can pull it off though, go with a 2-6 row coil, desirec width and height to wahtever fan you have to blow air over this thing. 1/2 copper tubing and copper or aluminum fins (minimum 8 fins per inch or width) but more like 10 or 12. Pray your fan has enough static to blow air through the coil rows, your house water pressure can get the water through the coil loop at a GPM quick enough that the water isn’t warm after one pass, The enterein water temp is relatively low, and that you havea drain pan and condensate line for teh humidity you will be hypothetically pulling out of the air. Have at it chief…your bill will be $1000 when I get my PE stamp in a few years.
When I was a student at Clemson (1960-1964!!) I lived in married student housing
In the PRE-FABS at 29 “A” Street (just about where the Brass Tiger is
at LittleJohn Colliseum) Anyway, In the summer heat those prefabs were unbearably
HOT so we used to run a hose up on the roof (flat roofs) and let it run
to cool the whole place down. We also had free water (those rpefabs cost us
a whole $29/month!! Water included). Worked pretty good–the only problem was periodically,
the college would drive by looking for hoses on the roofs and they would stop
and tell us to turn the water off and sometimes even take the hoses down!)
Then, after they had left we would place the hoses back on the roof and
turn them on again!!)
My wife and I still joke about the FUN?!?!?! we had in the prefabs!!
GO TIGERS!!
BEAT T A&M!!!