++ ATOT official NEF thread part IV ++

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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,761
13,863
126
www.anyf.ca
There is a solar farm in Thunder Bay area, that's even more north than me (I'm actually not that north in the grand scheme of things when you look at the map, about equal to Germany which has lot of solar) There's one in Ramore too, which is closer to me. I don't imagine the output is that great in winter though, but it's probably super good in summer. For a few months, our days are super long. You could run A/C straight off solar and have enough capacity to keep charging batteries if the A/C is in a decent on/off cycle and not just full pin non stop. The problem is an inverter that can run an A/C is going to cost more than the A/C unit itself lol. I was looking at the 8kw Outback Radian ones they are very interesting units. If I did my whole house, I'd probably go with two of those, for redundancy. That would run the central A/C + other loads. You can set it to start to use hydro if battery voltage gets too low.

My most realistic approach if I go solar is to just do the server room, then have 2 inverters, a 2kw one for the main server rack PDU, then a 4ish kw inverter for the secondary PDU + misc outlets throughout the house. Maybe lighting circuits too. The batteries are the biggest cost, the Trojan and Surrette batteries look decent. I think the Surrette ones are actually made in Canada.

I get all gigitty looking at all this solar/power stuff, but I realisticly can't afford any of it any time soon. I do need to start saving up though. Hydro is only going to keep costing more, once I pay and install this system I will just continue to save money over my life time once it's paid off.

One big issue though is freezing rain. Get that once, and you're screwed for the rest of that year. We used to only get that maybe once a year mid/near end of winter. Now we seem to get it more often. That stuff blows. Especially when it snows right after, creates an impenetrable crust of ice/snow.
 

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,466
3,067
121
i just got one of those newer full size gaming mousepads that goes under your keyboard and mouse today, it smells really weird, hope it goes away

ni

Probably will, I've just been a trackball fan a couple decades myself.

The only pads I have are on the Ergo keyboard, have been using those decades also. I probably need to buy one of those again someday, the letters are mostly worn off over the years on this one.

Sitting down to a computer with a mouse is no problem, but was used to trackballs even back in the day when they were YUUUUUUGE and doing CNC programming.

Was funny watching the wife use the trackball on the first one when I bought it, she was tryig to slide it on the desk out of habit.

ni
 
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eldorado99

Lifer
Feb 16, 2004
36,324
3,163
126
Probably will, I've just been a trackball fan a couple decades myself.

The only pads I have are on the Ergo keyboard, have been using those decades also. I probably need to buy one of those again someday, the letters are mostly worn off over the years on this one.

Sitting down to a computer with a mouse is no problem, but was used to trackballs even back in the day when they were YUUUUUUGE and doing CNC programming.

Was funny watching the wife use the trackball on the first one when I bought it, she was tryig to slide it on the desk out of habit.

ni
lol it is certainly something you have to get used to. The odd time I sit down at a desk with one of those things I can't figure out how they work.

ni
 

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,466
3,067
121
You were playing missile defence, not cnc :awe:

Nah, was 3 Wire EDM machines at the time, and was doing a lot of the design without a degree.

:p

Real Missile Defense came about a decade later when I was working on THAADS, SLAMMER, TALON, Missiles and Interceptors, SASSO, and PII.

Some of those acronyms are long gone and not public knowledge anyway, so there is nothing to look up online.

Ni
 
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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,761
13,863
126
www.anyf.ca
I remember the Unisys Icons in school, big keyboard with the huge track ball on the side. Those things were fun! I did not know much about computers back then, but I can almost still visualize it, and I would guess it ran some kind of X11 Unixy type system. There was always one computer at the end of the lab that nobody was allowed to touch, it was the "server". It was usually an Icon 3. The Icon 1's were standard, if you got lucky and got on an Icon 2 you could play certain games that did not work on the 1's. I don't recall if the 3's were widely usable by students.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,761
13,863
126
www.anyf.ca
Potential OT tomorrow, scheduled off but there's a project going on that they might need for, a large customer switching their phone system to VOIP, have to program and change all the phones.