mmrmnhrm

Here, have a rep cookie

Kinda reminds me of the first Toyota Previas to cross the Pacific.

How fast do you need it? There are three functional HP Deskjet 600-series jobs up at my parents' in Cleveland that I'm sure they'd love to ditch. Parallel port only, will need new ink carts.

The first season was watchable, the second was utter crap.

Totally different effects/science, but that vid is still freakin' sweet. BBC +1

I think you already answered your own question, and at this point, you're looking for agreement amongst the tribe.

Think I'm going to dig out the radio reset code and swing by Billingsley tomorrow evening so they can pull and deep-cycle test... the gist I'm getting is that what Honda did was, at best, checking surface charge, and with the hybrid module possibly dumping power from the 158V pack to the 12V, taking the 12V out is the only sure way to know I'm getting a good reading So assuming they say it's marginal or fails (it's entirely possible to start this car with a crap 12V), what's a good deep-cycle battery these days? NTB house brand? Interstate? Optima? Reason I spec deep-cycle rather than fast-discharge is that, again, all 12V power in the car derives from the hybrid system instead of an alternator, so the 12V doesn't get hit unless there's something seriously wrong and it's gotta last, or it's frosted runny nose cold.

No worries Just trying to make sure folks understand that it isn't the camera's fault those pics don't look studio-quality, it was the twit behind it that didn't plan ahead. 35mm DSLR's can knock the socks off what Paul's offering, but at 10x the cost

The graininess is result of the film speed. Traditional film will always pick up that grain when the shutter is held open for as long as I had to High speed films are really meant for two situations: Lots of light with big-ass lenses (like auto races and sports arenas), or high contrast night-time work (fireworks, Hawaiian flame dances). I was trying to make the best of a crummy situation, and it shows. Digital cameras will get that too, though not always as noticeable. Some of the really good photo people here could certainly tell you more about it.

Ramsey, could you elaborate on the frown? I pulled out the negatives and prints... are you not happy with the Kodak scanning (which is kinda crappy, to be honest), the high film-speed fuzziness (rolls 1-2 are ASA400, 3-4 are ASA800), or something else? Keep in mind that I'm not exactly a photo professional here, and none of the pictures really had what could be considered "decent" lighting... they're all in shadows, back-lighting, that sort of crap.

Depends on where you take it. CVS offers this if you have them send it out to Kodak for developing, instead of using the in-store machine. Actual results taken with my AE-1 at my 10-year class reunion a couple of years ago live here. I'd have to dig out the negatives, but I think rolls 1-3 were ASA400, and roll 4 was ASA800. I was a dork, forgot my flash, and had to pull some pretty crummy adjustments to get enough light on the film

Chris, at least in the 2nd gen Civic hybrid, there is a regular (albeit rather small) 12V battery to handle "legacy" type equipment... headlights, turn signals, Garmins, etc. It pulls energy from the 158V hybrid battery pack, which in turn is charged while braking or "forced regen" when the car sucks energy from the gasoline portion of the crankshaft to dump energy into the NiMH pack. At least in this design (dunno about Toyota's HSD), there is actually no alternator at all. The reason a dying/dead 12V battery would fsck up my mpg numbers is that it would constantly be calling for juice out of the hybrid battery, which in turn would be sucking it from the hybrid motor coupled to the crankshaft. Unfortunately, while my dash would light up like a Christmas tree the moment someone wrong was detected within the hybrid battery/electronics, there isn't jack to say whether or not the 12V is operating normally, since it'll always read 13.8V (or whatever Honda set the float voltage to) courtesy of the hybrid battery. Dave, I went to Autozone yesterday for a check, and they couldn't find any specs on the thing. Apparently since the 12V battery doesn't start the engine the way a regular Civic does unless there's something really wrong (or it's frostbitten nipples cold), the necessary info was never loaded into their system

A friendly bump to say I have one of these, and for a 35mm film camera, it's one of the most "user friendly" out there... fully manual control (great for folks taking photography classes), automatic modes, lots of lenses/accessories, and with the popularity it enjoyed when it came out, should you ever need it, repair documentation is pretty easy to find, and the parts probably aren't too difficult, either.

Wondering what the "correct" way to test a 12V battery for charge-holding ability is. My car's dropped over 10% on the mpg numbers this summer, and at 3 years old, I'm guessing Honda's tiny 12V battery is biting it, but the dealership claims it's still way above spec (388CCA actual, 290CCA spec). All they did was hook some sort of meter to it without disconnecting it from anything else. Is this normal, or (as I suspect) was my hybrid battery pack, which charges the 12V battery, "boosting" the reading?

http://www.buran-energia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/AN225_8.jpg An-225

Yes, the Dazzle's free. I'll be back in CBus (and free) Monday night.

Books free to a good home: FE/EIT AM Exam review book AutoCAD 2000LT w/ CD trainer Teach yourself C++ in 21 days, 4ed Absolute OpenBSD Budge's Egyptian hieroglyphics primer Computer stuff free to a good home: - Dazzle* Digital Video Creator, USB. Everything in here, went for $250 new, but honestly, it was a bit of pain to use when I futzed with it back in college. Windows 98/Me/2000 known supported out of the box, XP should work, dunno about Vista or 7. - Samsung 'Yepp' MP3 player. 32MB built in, 32MB expansion (forget what this card type is called, don't see them much anymore). Nice little MP3 player, state of the art maybe 8 years ago. Good for kids who aren't quite ready for an iPod yet. No idea what the OS compatibility is like, except that 98SE worked fine. CueCAT barcode scanner. RadioShack seemed to think these would be all the rage. Own a piece of dot-bomb marketing history! I never even opened the stupid thing, so I have no idea what's required to make it work, or even if I still have all the pieces. One copy each of OpenBSD 4.0 through 4.3 (stickers included!) Netgear MA521 wireless "B" adapter for laptops $2/ea... - A pair of four-port USB hubs - A pair of 1GB SD flash chips (point-n-shoot cameras usually take these) - 1GB USB flash drive $40/ea... - Single Western Digital 320G SATA drive, model WD3200AAKS. SATA cable included. (Member has Paypal'd me the money for the second) Edit to add, no dibs, saves, etc... the last couple of sales have had people send one or two PM's saying "I"m interested," and they never follow through. The first to show up at my door, wins.

VCR + TV Tuner + DVD-RW drive = Win

Ehhh... I'll disagree with you on that one. The P&S I was using (Vivitar 8400) before I bought Mike's friend's XTi turned out some real crap if the light was anything other than bright and sunny. Indoor shots had terrible white-balance no matter what settings I used (and sometimes, the same shot two seconds apart had totally different color hues), fast "shutter" speeds were still blurred senseless, and battery life pretty much sucked. Getting that Canon counts pretty high on the "best money ever spent" list.

+1

I gotta Honda, but unless someone hooks me up with 1.21 jiggawatts, I ain't goin' nowhere fast. But I will be flipping the bird to Dick Cheney and his oil sucking butt buddies the entire time I'm breathing your exhaust

Unlikely. It's meant for freeways where cars have been 65, but trucks 55.

Trucks = 65... Cool Wipers = Lights... My driver's ed teacher acted as if this were already a law. It's really simple. If the wiper is moving due to precipitation, you turn on the lights. That simple. And no, windshield washer fluid doesn't count. Fair question, though, is whether cars equipped with DRL's have to switch to low beams. Tow trucks... This is just freakin' common sense.

Be excellent to each other.

Simply awesome to hear how well you're healing