Solar Panel installation review

Solar Panel installation review

Comments 0 Comment

Local user brrent reviews putting solar panels on his house and gets a good discussion going on the process, pros and cons.

Summary:

  1. There are a lot of crummy installers out there with slimy salesman. Out of 6, only 2 even passed the sniff test
  2. Total out of pocket cost was $30,925 – but about $20k after rebates.
  3. Seriously consider doing this when you need to get a new roof. You don’t want to install and then find you need to rip it up to put down a new roof in 5 years. A roof lasts 30 years and panels last 30 years, so it’s good to have them in sync.
  4. Don’t go with any installer that doesn’t use Enphase micro inverters. A micro inverter makes each panel operate independently from the array. Without them, if one panel is shaded, the whole array is impacted.
  5. A lot of companies will assume crazy electricity price hikes, I’m assuming 4-5% annual increases, and the companies that felt the most honest also used those figures for their payback period. On that assumption, payback is ~10 years.
Jumping cars

Jumping cars

Comments 0 Comment

The Chinese auto company BYD demonstrates the Yangwang U9 model, an electric supercar with four motors, fast charging, a top speed of 243 mph, and individual wheel drive system. It also doesn’t need a driver. Yangwang U9 also has the ability to leap. Watch carefully, and you’ll see the wheels retract into the body like a low rider, and then suddenly extend while at speed to leap over obstacles or holes in the road.

Perhaps they’re trying to duplicate Mercedez-Benz Maybach bounce that has been turning heads.

Real Lighthouse living

Real Lighthouse living

Comments 0 Comment

A wonderful 1973 documentary about keepers on the Bishop Rock lighthouse. What was real lighthouse work like? Lots of long hours away from home, cramped quarters, and discipline.

Keepers needed to ride a rappel rope up/down and haul in supplies until 1976 when a helipad was added. The 3 keepers work 2 months straight on the lighthouse away from family doing 24 hour rotating shifts. They got 1 month off and back they go. This means each person works 56 hours a week – for 2 straight months.

In 1992, the tower was fully automated with only service crews coming in to make repairs and check on the systems. Watching this old footage really gives you a feel for the rough life being a lighthouse keeper on a barren rock was like.

A brief encounter with Hyperbowl

A brief encounter with Hyperbowl

Comments 0 Comment

LGR had a recent video about the PC game Hyperbowl. They brought up the fact it started life as an arcade game at Sony’s Metreon Entertainment Center in downtown San Francisco.

The game came in several forms, but the one I remember is the one above. There was a giant bowling ball mounted as a trackball style controller that let you steer the ball down the course. There was a mock ball return and a set of bowling alley style seats while waiting your turn.

What’s more interesting is I met the developers of this game around 1999 and visited their studio in California – which I believe included Terence Bordelon. I remember seeing physical mockups of the arcade system setting around the studio – which was really just a big room with black painted walls, black curtains to hide different parts, and no windows. Secrecy was definitely a thing. There were various full-size mockups of what would become the official arcade machines sitting around. The trackball bowling ball controller was on a stand, There was the ball return mock in 2 pieces, and one of the stand-up arcade verisons. What I do remember is that the stand-up arcade version had a standard Windows mini-tower PC bolted into the arcade cabinet. I believe when they booted it I saw the logo for a 3DFX card in it.

This was the late 1990’s, and it was that awkward time where arcade games stopped using custom hardware and started using off the shelf PC hardware. It was much cheaper, much faster to develop on, and meant you already had your game ported to a PC platform – which opened selling the game on two fronts. Now games are written on engines that let you ship on 4 and even more platforms simultaneously. Video games were always about 5 years ahead of other software development when it came to maximizing sales.

LGR’s video reminded me of this wonderful bit of history. It’s amazing how far the industry has developed in 25 years…

Links:

What did you do in this story?

What did you do in this story?

Comments 0 Comment

What did you do when you saw/heard this story in the news about the CEO and the head of HR at Astronomy?

Now ask yourself: Who would that have made you in the crowd during Jesus’ time?

8 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 

5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 

6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 

9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. 10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

John 8:1-11