Brain Drain

[quote=“mgosdin” post=176543]

$8 paywall? I’m not sure I understand that.

Something obnoxious must be between celestial and his local Microcenter. Maybe yet another toll road.

Most of my PC parts buying, when I buy, is split between Tiger Direct local and NewEgg online.

I’ve always been a bargain hunter / bottom feeder when it comes to most electronics. I spent too much time in the industry and have a real good idea just what that stuff really costs.

That thrifty habit has served me well.

Mark Gosdin[/quote]

Yep, due to a geographic quirk the only way to get to the closest Microcenter is to cross a $4 each way toll bridge. Due to a political quirk, there’s no reduced fare plan for that bridge yet either.

I used to use TigerDirect exclusively as they offered better reward points than the Egg but they stopped doing that so I split my business. Both are hawking cheap SSDs, and I could always use more, but there’s so much controversy with SSDs-and the controversial SSDs are often liquidated-that by the time I find out if the deal is good, they’re gone. Oh well, I don’t like spending $ anyhow lol.

I still have an ancient b&w tv, one so old that it doesn’t have a coaxial jack, just 2 screws for those old “horseshoe” connectors. Since it is ostensibly a “portable” TV it has a flat edge-to-edge glass pane over its curved screen, meaning that it was doing edge-to-edge glass before Apple made it cool; hipster TV set :wink:

By chance, is your MicroCenter in Michigan? All the facts I have tells me that may be the case. 6% sales tax, toll bridge.

There really aren’t any places around me that sell computer parts. The closest place that even sells anything like that is Best Buy, and what they sell isn’t exactly great. Mostly graphics cards and memory. All the computers I’ve built have been from parts bought online. Usually from Newegg.

The only reason that I know of the Microcenter near me is because one of my friends only believes in online shopping as a last resort for buying anything that isn’t sold on RightStuf lol. I was somewhat surprised that it seems to do decent business.

It is kinda cool to see 3d printers and 4K + curved displays in person.

Unfortunately no, I’m not located in America’s Mitten.

So celestial’s whereabouts will remain a mystery. :evil:

Pity, Michigan is a nice place, specially in the early fall, not so much the winter though.

Mark Gosdin

[quote=“The Coffee God” post=176479]
UGH!

So this is what my weekend is forecast at currently.


[/quote]


So, it’s only 12pm currently and it’s already 102.

Man, I hope it doesn’t turn out like it did back in Sept. 2010, where it hit 113.

Welcome to Hell? Population, Earth.

proves we only have one season in this country anymore, swinter. (part summer, part winter)

I’m dreading the fall season. I can already see my cedar trees getting ready to shed some of their growth like they do. They really are, BY FAR, messier than leaved trees. They also take longer to shed. It wipes out my whole yard each year.

We’ve even had a few cut down, which I always hate to do, but with it costing nearly a grand per tree… you can only do so much really. So, until we move from this place… I’m stuck with cleanup duty. Cheers to the next 3 months being a pain… ugh.
:dry:

[hr]

In other news, I just love when my ISP does a forced reset. I even had some posts that I thought about making earlier. Since it was Sunday, I was composing my ol’ weekly VOD report too. I was lazy and didn’t back it up. So I lost it. I’ll just do it later.

Cheers to you, Wave! They have been doing that recently during mid day randomly. It didn’t help with the fiber optic cables getting cut and ripped off like I stated in the past. Glad I wasn’t streaming something at the time that was important.
:angry::pinch:

NOTHING is messier than Pin Oaks. :pinch: Leaves are small so no problem, but here have limbs and branches all over the place for no reason!

[quote=“The Coffee God” post=176590]

UGH!

So this is what my weekend is forecast at currently.



So, it’s only 12pm currently and it’s already 102.

Man, I hope it doesn’t turn out like it did back in Sept. 2010, where it hit 113.[/quote]

At least the humidity is low, a perk that the other side of the country doesn’t often get alongside its high heat.

Is your cooling solution as described earlier up to the task?
[hr]

Well, it’s not a mystery to me…I think; wasn’t it Lagrange-5 in the show? :wink:

I’ve enjoyed what time I’ve spent in what I guess is now the Snyder State, though I haven’t done much around “Day-twah” as Robocop hasn’t yet been created :slight_smile:

[quote=“celestial_being” post=176607]
At least the humidity is low, a perk that the other side of the country doesn’t often get alongside its high heat.

Is your cooling solution as described earlier up to the task? [/quote]

:frowning:
It’s days like this when I say “screw the $215 electric bill I just received the other day” and turn off almost everything and kick on the A/C.

It ended up being 105 at the hottest part of today.

We had a cold summer here in Michigan this year

And speaking of Detroit, they’re building this M-1 Rail, and it’s causing me nightmares getting home from work now (along with the start of classes, so the surfaces streets have a lot of traffic)

$215 electric bill?! For an apartment?!

Time to roll out some new power plants, or maybe to fire up the ancient nuclear plants that were shut down out there; electricity prices are just too darn high everywhere :frowning:

[quote=“celestial_being” post=176629]$215 electric bill?! For an apartment?!

Time to roll out some new power plants, or maybe to fire up the ancient nuclear plants that were shut down out there; electricity prices are just too darn high everywhere :([/quote]

:frowning:
It really sucks.
This is part of the “peak period” months, so it cost more perkWh.

But what really boggles my brain, is I only used 14 more kWh than last bill, yet it had a $30 increase from last bill with 3 days less on the billing cycle.
They check our meters every 58-65 days so we only get a bill every other month, but still, a $30 increase is just insane.

14 kWh increase = 30 dollar increase truly is mind boggling. Does your electric company charge you for the “transportation” of the electricity in addition to the consumption? Tragically mine does.

They still have you on hand-checked meters out there? We’re on those “smart meters” here (widgets that wirelessly report usage to the power company). I’m not sure how prevalent they are nationwide.

I found myself discussing the merits of kickstarter for anime with some fellow fans and the Anime Sols project came up. The first title that came up with that was Creamy Mami and that only came up because everyone, even those who are in the know, thought that it sounds like a hentai title.

Talk about being memorable for the wrong reasons. :wink:

prices of things arent surprising at all when you consider than most of the 1st word necessities are ran by corporations built on greed. We are just lucky most places have municipal water that keeps the cost down,a nd nobody has found a way to charge for air yet. Food and shelter, the 3rd and 4th required things for human life, carry some of the highest prices because people can get away with charging them.

Welcome to 'Murica, Land of the Greed, and the home of the slave.

With electricity, isn’t it more about power plants being shuttered with not enough new ones being built and the high cost of coal/natural gas/oil used to generate electricity?

Where I am, our local power company was a regulated utility (ie:sanctioned monopoly) but regulation was ended and without any real competition (other energy providers still use the local company’s equipment) they’ve been free to shaft us with no repercussion. Crony capitalism = :frowning:

Hydro, Tidal, Wind and Solar all fail to meet our needs but they’re the only ones that seem to be built nowadays. All 4 of them are rather “anti-green” so I wonder how whirling death blades that grind up birds and fish but don’t really provide power are OK but a plant that just puffs out steam and pumps out power isn’t.

[quote=“celestial_being” post=176666]
Hydro, Tidal, Wind and Solar all fail to meet our needs but they’re the only ones that seem to be built nowadays.[/quote]

Do you science much?

[quote=“OneWayDevil” post=176670]

[quote=“celestial_being” post=176666]
Hydro, Tidal, Wind and Solar all fail to meet our needs but they’re the only ones that seem to be built nowadays.[/quote]

Do you science much?[/quote]

Yes. That’s why I’d much rather see more nuclear/gas/coal plants exciting some electrons than what IBM calls “underwater fans that are powered by the Moon”. B)