California schools $120M solar project

Because car batteries are a mature technology that hasn't changed much in the last half century. Digital electronics is a fast changing technology with huge demand to drive development. Photovoltaics is a changing technology with a relatively small but growing demand - many companies are working on improving the manufacturing technology which is why we see vacuum sputtered thin film, string ribbon and even roll to roll printing being developed as manufacturing processes.

Who the hell ever told you that?

New technology is usually where we FIND large economies of scale. Manufacturers invest in new technologies that promise new efficiencies and lower unit costs, which gives them a temporary advantage in the marketplace until their competition catches up by either adopting, improving, or taking the next jump to yet another new technology. For a wonderful example, look at the memory market over the last 40 years.

Boy do you have THAT right! That seems to be especially true in the PV world. Two or three times a year we hear of some new technology that is going to take PV prices through the floor. So far, the changes we have seen have been more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Vaughn

I have the stapler there, and I've been quite happy with it -- no problems yet with jamming.

I probably *should* get a dust collector one of these days -- as-is sometimes a lot of the garage gets covered in sawdust... :-)

I installed tiny toggle switches in the chargers on my first battery power soldering irons. Turn them on when I opened the shop, and off at the end of the day. The next shop had ceiling mounted outlets for the lights, so I just dropped a cord to the workbench for battery powered tools.

My table saws all have wheels to roll them out of the garage. The big radial arm saw is under a metal roof behind the garage.

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We hadn't been in that part of the state yet. Dothan isn't *that* bad. SWMBO liked the antique stores (I needed some cheap brownie points ;). Eufaula is rather nice driving through. The mansions along the main drag are something. I thought I might like a house on the lake (big lake), but then found out it's full of 'gators. Maybe not.

It's about 85mi South of here.

They have two models. One is a combination brad nailer and stapler. This is just the 1/2" crown stapler. I have a PC 1/4" crown stapler but it was pulling through the Kraft paper on some insulation. I tried an Arrow cordless electric stapler - useless. We'll see about this one.

I have a 2HP Penn State dust collector for my table saw and planer but it's in the garage. I'm working on my (eventual) shop in the attic, so needed something to catch the crap coming out of the (Harbor Freight ;) SCMS. The shop vac wasn't cutting it. For $70, I thought I'd give the little portable HF collector a try. If it works I'll mount it to a cart with the Dust Deputy and use it for little jobs.

Mine's on wheels too, but it only gets moved to sweep around it. I haven't fired up the radial arm saw since I moved from NY ('93).

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Good. You don't want to hang around an Army base. Even if there was a nice highway to Dothan. I remember ch 4? from Dothan while I was building that TV station in Destin. They still started their broadcast day with a farm report, and their weather forcast used '50s props. That was in the early '90s.

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The one bay is 10' * 20' and the blacktop outside is about 35' *

I have at least two. One is disassembled, and the other is too far from an outlet at the moment. I need to build a new base for that one. It looks like the old one was built from part of a mobile home gas furnace. The old man who owned it didn't add wheels, and it's quite rusted out. It was last used around 2001, because of that. Both are Craftsman saws, and so are two of the three table saws. Now that they have settled into their new home my dad is thinking about getting rid of most of his tools, so I may end up with more woodworking tools.

You could've offered to upgrade them to Commodore 64s, Michael -- I remember several small (very little funding) TV stations that used'em for graphics or the electronic program guide. :-)

I bought the canvas bag that snaps to the frame and collects everything that falls from under the table saw.

I was across the state line. I was using my Commodore SX-64 for a character generator to test the transmitter as I rebuilt it.

Anyway, I think their TelePrompTer was the original hand cranked model. The one that used what looked like old piano rolls. There was nothing high tech about that station. It may have still been all B&W when I was stationed at Ft. Rucker in the early '70s.

BTW, that was when I saw my first character generator for NTSC. The local cable company bought it. It used diode arrays to generate the characters.

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There's also Ft. Bennington, in Columbus. The new Infantry Museum is really nice. Some of the exhibits are still unfinished but it's a beautiful place.

All the highways around here are nice (no frost heaves). US451 is 4-lane, except for a couple of miles North of Eufaula.

It's not uncommon for Midwest stations to start their news with the farm report. Radio stations used to do them from 12:00 to 1:00, when the farmers were in for lunch.

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Ah, I see Ft. Rucker now. It's over by Enterprise. I was looking at a job over there (radar development). They kept dragging their feet, then were surprised when I told them I'd taken another job.

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My RAS is a Craftsman. The table saw is a Delta Unisaw, I bought last year. I was going to buy one a few years ago but knew we were going to try to get out of Vermont. I didn't see the point in moving a 600lb saw into our basement and then hauling it back out in a year or two. So I waited until we moved and bought another house. It's living in the garage now so I could wheel it into the driveway. The door open is good enough. It'll move upstairs when I get the room finished (probably another year).

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A table saw "diaper". Mine is a cabinet saw, so no diaper. ;-)

..because the makers have lead in their pants?

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Amigas were all over TV stations in the 80's.