Lee also says:
You solve problems all day. Even if it’s a relatively simple solution
(script, house repair tip, way to get better gas mileage,) write about it
anyways. Those looking to solve that same problem in the future will thank
you.
OK, here I go:
script
My PowerShell prompt:
function prompt{
Write-Host ("PS " + $(get-location) +">") -nonewline -foregroundcolor Magenta
return " "
}
house repair tip
If you decide to run new low-voltage wiring (like ethernet), go ahead and pull way, way more than you think you need. The work to pull the first wire is huge. The additional cost to pull a bundle is small. I recently pulled:
- Cat-5e (ethernet)
- Cat-5e (phone)
- Cat-5e (spare)
- RG-6 (video)
Now I think I should have pulled another RG-6, which people seem to like for satellite.
I'm wondering if I can use the spare Cat-5e to run line-level audio for whole-house music.
(Great thanks to my brother for doing the messy under-house work.)
way to get better gas mileage
Don't drive. Walk, bike, bus, or don't go in the first place. This is so much more effective than anything else I can offer.
When I do drive, I've picked up the following highly annoying habit: I go really slowly up hills. Specifically, I try to take it easy on the gas up a hill, even if that means I gradually lose speed. With an automatic transmission, I try to keep as much throttle on as I can without it downshifting. This does seem to annoy other drivers, so I try to do it when there's no one right behind me.
When I approach a red light, I get off the gas way, way early, which saves some gas. I'll even brake a little, from far away, in order to still have some momentum when the light goes green and other traffic starts to move. This doesn't make me any later, but somehow it still pisses off the other drivers, who then drive harder to get past me. So it may be a net loss.
3 comments:
You might get audio down a Cat 5 cable, but the thin conductors mean higher power losses over long distances. You might find that it's hard to get good volume on the far end. If you notice that, try tripling the wires, putting all three solid wires on the red terminal and all three stripes on the black terminal. That's still pretty wimpy speaker wire, though.
An audiophile will tell you that you'll also get uneven attenuation at different frequencies, meaning that the sound might come out tinny or boomy. But you probably wouldn't notice the difference in a typical whole-house installation.
Also, both those driving things you described are not normal driving behavior. I, for one, will go out of my way to get ahead of or away from people who drive unpredictably. If I feel I can't trust them to do the regular thing, I have to watch them more closely, and that means I have less attention to devote to the other things going on around me.
I also try to keep momentum when approaching a red light. I think it comes from my days of learning to drive a manual transmission. I always hated being in first!
We should also have run speaker to all the drops as well. But seriously, how awesome would it be to have run serial cables in the bundle? amirite?
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