on a similar note I'm going to be at the Glastonbury festival in England in June, and I'll need some decent taller rubber boots in case it turns into a giant mudpit (which is not unheard of). I have three basic needs other than waterproof/mudproof 1: Size 14. I have big feet 2: Set up in a way that wont give me violent blisters 3: Be able to put them on and remove them while drunk. Any tips would be great.
Sorry, I should've gone into a little more detail. I'll need a boat suitable for work in 8-18ft. water that will have decent deck space for trays/cages and can accomodate either a hydraulic lift or a hand davit that'll be lifting about 350-400lbs. I was looking for lobster or clam boats, but couldn't come up with anything.
Random decision at a random time, but I want to buy a sharpened sword, preferably a Japanese sword right now. Anyone have a good link for getting a decent, but not overly priced sword? I plan on treating it like shit (hacking at watermelons etc.) so I'm not looking top of the line, but I'm not looking for the walmart version either
We have some folks from a solar energy company coming over to look at our house and give us their thoughts, an estimate, etc. What I know about solar energy could fit into a thimble, so if anyone has any ideas on questions I should ask or what I should know beforehand I'd appreciate it.
This may only be relevant to Australia, so make of it what you will. And I'm in no way qualified on these things, but we used to have an interest in a company that supplied and fitted solar products. Most of what I'm passing on here is what our engineer told me (but completely unverified). 1. When you factor in what it takes to make most solar panels and their working life, they're not very "green". This is due mostly to the manufacturing process. So check what disclosure information they have about the particular panels they stock. Of course, if this isn't a worry then don't bother. 2. They will likely give you a spiel about how much power the system will generate and how much power the sun delivers per square foot per hour (or similar). Current commercial technology can't capture more than a fraction of that. 15% springs to mind, but I'm probably wrong there. Either way, it's not fantastic. What's more important is to ask on what basis they've made their projections. Location, direction, angle, and hours and quality of available sunlight all make a difference. Unless they have come and inspected already to make calculations, anything they tell you is going to be based on a guess or on a situation that is not yours. So take it with a grain of salt. 3. Are you looking at a back into grid or battery bank? Unless you have a ton of panels, direct flow isn't going to do much but power one of those little weather station things. You either have to trickle charge batteries, or (as they have here) hook the panels up to the electricity grid and get a rebate on your bills. If you're going the battery route, check the expense of them, storage, maintenance and safety. If it's the back into grid system, be very aware of what this may do to your tariffs. I've heard of people being overall worse on their bills because they were swapped to a separate single tariff that ended up costing more than the switch between on peak and off peak. 4. Obviously check warranty, construction, parts and repairs, installation and so on. A good system improperly installed is worthless - especially if it shorts out. Ask if there will be any sort of meter on it so you can check flow (and therefore, problems). And then there's the issue of what potential damage can be done to where it is installed. Most systems go on the roof.k Hopefully some of this helps.
This is true for photovoltaic panels. However, there are other systems which don't require the same level of high-tech pollution to manufacture. One method is "shiny curved metal focused on not-shiny pipe, which has a fluid capable of transferring lots of heat within it (usually water; for commercial stuff, molten salt is sometimes used). This probably depends on whether you've got proper electrical engineers/nerds involved, or douchey businessmen. The "power the system will generate" number will likely not be fudged, as if it's written down and not delivered on, then they open themselves up to legal hassles. The "sun delivers X amount of power to earth every second!" is something used by pitchmen and college students. It doesn't tell you how efficient your system will be. Oh, photovoltaic systems get crappier as they age. Keep that in mind if you choose to get them.
If I see a Flash Point listed on a MSDS as "degrees F TCC" - what does the TCC stand for? Edit: Got it via PM. Thanks! This place is awesome.
Can anyone point me to a torrent of the documentary "Wisdom" by Andrew Zuckerman? I will also post in the Tech help...
I guess this is the proper thread for this question; I don't think it's necessarily a "Tech help" issue, so much as a mathematics one. This is just a shot in the dark, but here goes... I'm in the long and arduous process of designing a couple video games, one of which will be a first-person shooter with a strong emphasis on multi-player capabilities and thus, I'm trying to come up with the most reliable formula for computing a single, all-encompassing statistic with which players can measure their abilities to one another. This idea came about because K/D (total kills/total deaths), the primary statistic with which Call of Duty players compare themselves, is VERY misleading and not worth putting much stock in. So I set out to create an FPS statistic that's more reliable. I've turned to sports statistics, namedly some of the sabermetrics stuff, to model my own formula around. John Hollinger's Player Efficiency Rating (PER) resembles what I'm going for more closely than anything else I've found. Other formulas I've looked at and thought of incorporating to some degree into what I'm doing include: Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) Runs Created Win Shares Elo Rating System None of them translate over very easily, though, because some of the independent variables used (e.g. team possessions, rebounds, slugging %) don't have much relevance to what I'm doing. I don't want to make something overly-complicated or elaborate, just a formula that'll spit out a number within a certain range (0-10, 0-100, 100-2500, etc.) which is reasonably indicative of a player's skill level, relative to everyone else. My math background hasn't yet extended beyond Pre-Calculus, but I don't think I'll need any Calc for this. Statistics wasn't one of my stronger subjects, so I'm not quite sure how to properly construct this formula. If anyone has some input on the best way to go about this sort of thing, I'm all ears.
About 3 years ago, when I was younger and dumber, I got a holiday personal loan from my university's credit union for $500 for Christmas presents. I paid the monthly payment for the first two months before a series of events that ended with me moving and taking a leave of absence from school before eventually dropping out. In all the turmoil I forgot about the loan. I assume they tried to contact me about it but I had to change my phone number (unrelated) and had moved and they didn't have my new address. I checked my credit report just now and it was honestly the first time I had thought about the loan in the last three years. I'm looking at the Experian credit report right now and under the section Potentially Negative Items it lists the loan and under status it says "Status: Account charged off. $427 written off." So uh what do I do about this? Obviously, it's too late to avoid it affecting my credit rating. Is it worth it to pay off the loan? Can I even pay it off after all this time? It says the debt has been written off. How badly is this going to affect me? I don't have a very extensive credit history. Is this gonna fuck me over for the rest of my life? I've heard black marks on credit disappear after like five years or seven years or something. I know I fucked up, I don't need to be told that. I just need advice and help for moving past this. Thank you in advance and please excuse my ignorance in regards to credit.
Just because it is listed as written off does not mean that you don't owe the money or that you will not still be come after for the loan. It just means the company that owns the loan right now does not expect to get paid for it. Your loan can still be sold to another collection agency which could try to come after you for the money. My advice is to pay it. It is still not going to look good on your credit report as it will probably be listed as written off/paid. But that is still better than what you have now. Blemishes last on your credit report for 7 years (Bankruptcy 10). The only option you have is to pay it.
How do I go about paying it? I don't have any of the information that came with it when I first applied for and received the loan. Do I just call the bank and tell them I have an outstanding loan from three years ago that I would like to pay?
If you checked your credit report it should tell you who owns your loan. That is the first thing to do, find out who owns it. Your bank might have sold it to a debt collection agency. If you can't find out, then call your bank (to ask who owns the loan).
Don't just pay it. Explain the situation, tell them you didn't realize it was still outstanding, and you'd happily pay it off if they'll remove it from your credit report. They may not, but it doesn't hurt because most places don't care about damaging your credit history, they just want their money. Also, if a loan is marked as written off, I'm pretty sure it means nobody is coming after it. Selling it to a collection agency isn't a write-off.
Written off means they don't think they are going to get paid for it, they can still try to collect or they are allowed to sell that loan and the new owners can still try to collect.
I've got a question regarding private party vehicle sales and deposits. I haven't been able to find much information on the laws regarding deposits. Anyhow, I'm in NJ, I looked at a vehicle I liked, and agreed upon a purchase price with the seller. It had some problems, but I thought they were relatively minor. I placed a $500 deposit, but when I went home I did some research on these "minor" problems, and found they would likely cost a significant amount of money to fix (up to $1k). I won't get into details, but I felt the seller misrepresented the car, and may have been lying about a lot of other work he said he had done (I basically felt he was dishonest). So, I decided to not go through with the sale. I called him 24 hours after meeting him and told him I no longer wanted it, and I asked for at least some of my deposit back, just as a common decency. Anyhow, he got kind of nasty with me after this, but whatever. Here's the only written contract we had, basically said "car, sold as is, acknowledge deposit of $500, balance to be paid by 5/10", we both signed and dated. Just curious, do I have any rights here? It doesn't state the deposit was non-refundable, but I don't want to pursue this if he could countersue me for the full price. Just curious here, might just chalk it up to a lesson about buying used cars, but I'd ideally like to get some of my money back. Thanks
If I come off like a douche, I'm sorry, but this is exactly why you should never put down a deposit on a used car...ever--doesn't matter if you're buying from a dealer or private seller. Your chances of getting the money back, short of strong-arming the guy or taking him to small claims court, are nearly zero. Since you did sign and date something regarding the deposit, it will make it even harder. You can keep trying to wear the guy down and see if he'll give some back, but this might be one of those shitty lessons learned from experience. Sorry, man.