A year ago a branch touched a power line across the street from me after a wind storm and knocked my power out for half an hour. I went outside after I heard a loud af zap and there was a branch laying in the street smoldering
[QUOTE=wingless;51126959]The 1080 ti scares me a little. 1080's are already $1100-1200AUD ($850-900USD) here. That was about the price of the 980 ti at the time, if I recall correctly. So the ti is probably gonna be like $1500+.[/QUOTE]
Is this going to be another photoshop situation where it's cheaper to fly over here, buy it, and fly back, than to buy it in Australia?
[QUOTE=Del91;51130556]A year ago a branch touched a power line across the street from me after a wind storm and knocked my power out for half an hour. I went outside after I heard a loud af zap and there was a branch laying in the street smoldering[/QUOTE]
This was earlier in the year right on the lines coming into work. Branch fell and burned like that for a good 20 minutes before the weight snapped the line.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/LQ2eNp9.jpg[/t]
[QUOTE=pentium;51130542]Likely something fell on a line and dragged the local grid down to the point where the UPS was detecting a brownout until one of the fuses up on the pole blew open and the short dropped.
I still get once a year a bird that completes the circuit up on the pole and blows itself up. Last time it happened the cops came around because someone reported a gunshot.[/QUOTE]
Someone near my aunt had half of a cooked squirrel rocket through their living room window a few years back. Sat on the transformer on the pole right outside their house, and wound up electrifying the evening.
Yeah but then you have transformers sitting on the ground. They get love tapped by a car, and then when someone walks their dog, it takes a piss on it, and has it's balls fried off.
[QUOTE=Teddybeer;51130675]Crazy Americans with your above ground power lines. Get it below ground like us normal people.[/QUOTE]
Back when I lived out east my suburb had its power lines underground and the transformers were in pits under the sidewalk. Like clockwork every time you got a good rainfall the power would go out.
As far as I know the transformers (if there even are any on the streets, as I never looked into that) are in small maintenance buildings. Some of those are larger with ACs installed, and some not.
We have insulated above ground lines now, but back when they weren't insulated it was fun playing football on the street and seeing a streetful of blue sparks due to a ball touching the lines and causing a short.
I remember a good reason to have a laptop: so you can keep doing something while the power is out.. or get a UPS for your desktop.
[QUOTE=Teddybeer;51130675]Crazy Americans with your above ground power lines. Get it below ground like us normal people.[/QUOTE]
I'll be nice and not even include Alaska
[img]http://i.imgur.com/4R380az.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/YVuVjkm.png[/img]
It's not really feasible to just say "Bury all the lines! So simple!"
[QUOTE=Merijnwitje;51130775]As far as I know the transformers (if there even are any on the streets, as I never looked into that) are in small maintenance buildings. Some of those are larger with ACs installed, and some not.[/QUOTE]
[img]https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/electric_power/images/ug_distribution_transformer.jpg[/img]
These are a cheap alternative, and they work fine in areas that don't get massive flooding. You do need some bollards to stop random traffic incidents though.
Above ground is just so much cheaper for rural areas that it's generally the standard, and a decently set up above ground grid is 'good enough' that it's not worth replacing until major renovations occur. Many states are starting to mandate that all new property developments have underground power.
One of the big things to keep in mind when talking about the US isn't just population per square mile, it's also how that population is distributed. America has tons of places in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, and they aren't clumped at all. In the midwest farm country, it's very common for there to be a couple of houses every mile, and that will stretch out for 20 miles in all directions. Europe is far more likely to cluster communities together into little villages. That's cheap to service since you can just have a high voltage line run to a town, and then the low voltage stuff is all short hops. America just isn't structured like that, so the length between nodes is even larger than the low population density would indicate because you have to run shit out to far more locations that aren't near anything else.
[QUOTE=Teddybeer;51131176]If a company would look beyond hoarding short term profits it would. The biggest problem is not how large the place is but that you would be dealing with places where putting it into the ground just costs a fucking lot.[/QUOTE]
It's 100% a scale problem, not only does burying all the cable cost a lot to begin with, it costs a lot x200 the area of the Netherlands (interestingly, not including alaska, there are 40 US states larger than you country :v:)
Some napkin math with quick googled figures says to put just 50% of the local transmission lines in the ground would cost over $8 trillion, and would surely be a multi-generational project
For reference, the entire US interstate highway system (one of the largest federally funded public works projects) is estimated to have cost about $500 billion in total over 60 years
[QUOTE=TrafficMan;51131301]
For reference, the entire US interstate highway system (one of the largest federally funded public works projects) is estimated to have cost about $500 billion in total over 60 years[/QUOTE]
I can't help but remember this video about USA highways
[video=youtube;odF4GSX1y3c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odF4GSX1y3c[/video]
The US could just start with putting power lines under the ground on future projects, that wouldn't cost too much?
[QUOTE=Cyberuben;51131452]The US could just start with putting power lines under the ground on future projects, that wouldn't cost too much?[/QUOTE]
I believe that is what's happening
Underground power lines suck, at least the way our city does it. Bell has been running fiber all over the city for the past few years, though you can't get fiber in areas with underground cabling, probably because the city cheaped out and didn't put large enough conduit in and Bell doesn't want to spend the money to put new conduit in.
[QUOTE=benjgvps;51131797]Underground power lines suck, at least the way our city does it. Bell has been running fiber all over the city for the past few years, though you can't get fiber in areas with underground cabling, probably because the city cheaped out and didn't put large enough conduit in and Bell doesn't want to spend the money to put new conduit in.[/QUOTE]
I bet there's space, but they need both approval from the power companies (or the municipal responsible for it) AND technicians certified for dealing with high voltage to lay down the fiber, and thus the ISP'd decided "lol too expensive"
[QUOTE=Cyberuben;51131452]The US could just start with putting power lines under the ground on future projects, that wouldn't cost too much?[/QUOTE]
Haha, "future projects", sure thing buddy. America hasn't invested in infrastructure since 1968, everyone knows that.
[QUOTE=gman003-main;51131861]Haha, "future projects", sure thing buddy. America hasn't invested in infrastructure since 1968, everyone knows that.[/QUOTE]
Seems like a sound way to fuck over the economy.
[QUOTE=gman003-main;51131861]Haha, "future projects", sure thing buddy. America hasn't invested in infrastructure since 1968, everyone knows that.[/QUOTE]
New neighbourhoods and such can start with cables under the ground? There's a difference in "investing in infrastructure" and building new areas for more housing.
Most new developments are completely underground, but nobody's going changeover existing ones. Because that requires burying new cable, fiber and power and redoing how it enters the building.
Fuck that noise.
Pretty good deal: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178781[/url]
$109 after code.
I got one and I really like it. 2yr warranty too. It's one of those 15mm thick drives.
Crap, my 8 month old laptop is getting reallocated sectors on the hard drive. If I had the money, I would swap that thing so I can have 2 SSDs instead. I just hope it doesn't kick the bucket soon.
[QUOTE=Brt5470;51133003]Pretty good deal: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178781[/url]
$109 after code.
I got one and I really like it. 2yr warranty too. It's one of those 15mm thick drives.[/QUOTE]
Is it worth it compared to the drive in there + a case?
[QUOTE=SEKCobra;51133048]Is it worth it compared to the drive in there + a case?[/QUOTE]
You mean buying the internal variant with an enclosure? Absolutely. The internal drive is often 50% more. Lots of people shuck these and put them in 2.5" docks.
[QUOTE=Brt5470;51133553]You mean buying the internal variant with an enclosure? Absolutely. The internal drive is often 50% more. Lots of people shuck these and put them in 2.5" docks.[/QUOTE]
waitwaitwait, it's a 4TB 2,5" drive, that's twice as thick as standard laptop hdd's?
Well it turns out the printer that I bought off Amazon is now on sale for $99. Time to go buy it. According to Amazon price trackers, the next time it will go any lower is during Black Friday and Christmas.
[QUOTE=Van-man;51133690]waitwaitwait, it's a 4TB 2,5" drive, that's twice as thick as standard laptop hdd's?[/QUOTE]
Yep. well not entirely double. Most laptop drives are 9mm, this is 15m. And yes it's 4TB in 2.5" and it's PMR not SMR so peformance is perfectly fine.
[QUOTE=Brt5470;51133776]Yep. well not entirely double. Most laptop drives are 9mm, this is 15m. And yes it's 4TB in 2.5" and it's PMR not SMR so peformance is perfectly fine.[/QUOTE]
Those review on newegg ain't promising though :wavey:
[QUOTE=Van-man;51133844]Those review on newegg ain't promising though :wavey:[/QUOTE]
ehh, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've had mine for about half a year. Again, it's a backup. It's another copy, as long as you don't keep your only copies, you can always use the warranty. Personally I would be willing to buy more if I had need to. Runs on a single USB plug, quiet, get like 100-120MB/s, runs cool.
I use it as a dedicated mirror of my work machine and edit video off of it daily.
That's just my anecdotal evidence though.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.