Nevermind. I googled it and found out it's a holiday flavor that was sold exclusively at Walmart. Bah...humbug! I hardly go to Walmart anymore, so I never saw it. :(

Yeah, I only fell across the pic on the interwebs.

What better reason than chocolate to go to WallyWorld?

:yum:

To be fair, you may not have known they existed because they didn't. At least not this style/configuration, although there have been other attempts at it.

They must be safe, they only do 12 mph(19.3 kph). Ever walk in to a door, wall, or other stationary object? Of course you have, everybody has, and it hurt, didn't it. Now how fast do you think you were moving?

Wiki says, Yeah yeah, Usain Bolt did 44.7 km/h (14.4m/s, 27.78 mph), but if he'd run into a telephone pole, fugetaboutit. Even if you manage to avoid stationary objects, and god forbid, moving objects :eek:, there's also the pavement crack/pothole/stick trip-up. Calculating the skin loss vs speed would take a super computer because of all the variables. :idea: Maybe NASA would do it since tw told me they aren't doing science anymore.

http://cellar.org/2015/skates.jpg

I figure that $700 price tag breaks down to the inventor(patent holder) gets $10, and the manufacturer gets $10. Figure another $10 for the various transportation ships and trucks. The importer/wholesaler gets $20, and $50 to the retailer, because in this case it's a high end outfit. that leaves $599.95 for liability lawyers and Insurance salesmen.

OK, but what is the learning curve on those things ? Flat, on your ...

I used to work in a warehouse, and we used these little carts called a Taylor-Dunn.

Here's one:

Attachment 50441

We used them for hauling orders, and pulling little 4x8 foot trailers for larger orders. Anyway, ours were governed to 7.5 mph, top speed. I was on one whose brakes decided to go away, and I stepped off the thing into a low riding shelf, at 7.5 mph.

Wasn't a disaster, but, it wasn't the most fun I ever had.

Pass on the 12 mph skates.

It must have been a real hoot to watch happen, though.

:lol2:

I get from the text, you lower the toe end of your foot to go and the heel to stop. This is accomplished through a pivot plate, probably under your arch. The effect would be using the pivot of your ankle to go and stop while your body is balancing from the ankle pivot up. It doesn't look like it could have a very long throttle throw so sensitive to small movement. I'm sure a coordinated person with exceptional balance could master smooth operation in mere years. But on the feet of a ballet dancer habitually standing in one of the five positions, aggressive throttles would be dangerous.:unsure:

"Filament" LED light bulb are the future, but here today. The price just needs to come down a little bit. These things are freaking awesome!

I bought one of these LED filament bulbs to try it out. Not cheap. $15.50, but free shipping.

It came in a plain unmarked box in a padded envelope. The bulb was in a protective plastic clam shell. No brand name that I can see.

Attachment 50537

Comparing the LED filament bulb side by side with an incandescent bulb.
Attachment 50538


And here it is in the fixture, with the dimmer at 100%. On the left is a 40 watt incandescent. In the middle is a 4 watt Filament LED, and on the right is a 60 watt incandescent. To my eye, in person, it looks as bright as the 60 watt bulb.
Attachment 50539


Here's a very underexposed close up of the LED light. You can sort of see in individual LEDs under the filament's coating.
Attachment 50540


And I noticed with the lamp shades on that the LED's 4 filaments effectively eliminate the shadows caused by the lampshade wire clamps that grab the bulb. Those shadows are visible on the incandescent lamp shade.



And finally, I took a video of the dimming.



The LED bulb is listed as 2600K, but it seems just a little bit whiter than the incandescent bulbs at 100% power. And as you dim the lights, the incandescents go yellow, but the LED keeps its color.

I like this bulb. It's expensive, but I ordered 4 more. It will take the Dining Room light from 220 total watts (with a mixture of 40 and 60 watt bulbs) and reduce it to 20 total watts. I don't know how long it will take for these to pay for themselves. I suppose I should have calculated that before ordering 4 more, but that would have involved tracking down a power bill and doing the calculations.

I was not aware these products existed, and I have just been all over Home Depot recently trying to work out which curliecues to buy.

Good documentin' g-dogg

Excellent report. I think the price will have to come down more than a little bit, but It apparently doesn't need a special dimmer like some LED bulbs, which is a big plus. You didn't say where you found it.

there are several of these on Amazon.
I got this one
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LD9SN2O/...I3QLPCDV1FPCR0

It appears the name brand companies don't have the patent situation figured out yet, so it's small Chinese outfits selling them.

I'm really impressed with this bulb. A technology I hadn't seen before. They come in all sizes, but I was only interested in the chandelier kind.

so if your saving 200 watts, that's 5 hours of use = 1 KWh.

A quick google says the national average in 2011 was 12c per KWh, it was 13.0 in Michigan i don't think it has gone up that much since then.

So to save $60 at 12c for each 5 hours = 2500 hours of use.

To recoup the cost in one year they would have to be on nearly 7 hours a day 365 days a year, so it depnds where they are.
We have plenty of lights, kitchen hallway, landing that get at least 5 hours even in the summer
That's just to recoup in 1 year, at 2011 electricity prices, LED's are supoosed to last 10+ years so plenty of time.

One my issues with LED's currently is that they only commnly availble to 60 watt equivalent, with some 75's. We like bright lighting, I want 100 watters. One thing I like about compact flourescent is you can out a 100 watt equivalent in a fitting that says '60W max'.

The 100 watt bulbs are coming. They exist already, but the cheap ones have poor reliability because they put out so much heat, they cook themselves, and the expensive ones are good but are $20-$25 each.

But check Amazon for 100 watt LEDs. They are out there. Philips has a new one with good reviews.

:lol2:

Attachment 50543

We started phasing in LED bulbs at our house about 3 years ago, including the standard shape, little appliance bulbs, and the big round bathroom globes. We haven't had to replace one yet.

you might not...

I've installed a number of them, but the one I like the best was a three light fixture at the peak of the roof overlooking the driveway, a major PITA to install, since I had to basically create the mounting surface for the fixture. BUT, I don't expect to have to deal with it again. It will probably give good service to the next owner of the house. It puts out a great deal of light, usefully bright even two stories below and given the high installation point, the "cone" of light is quite broad extending over half the driveway. I'm very pleased with it.

On the other hand, a couple years ago I bought two of these for a lot of money. Neither lasted more than 9 hours and collecting on the warranty from the internet was a nightmare. :mad:

I'll have to look for those. That's another high wattage fixture we have. 5x60 watts adds up fast. But you need that much light when you shave.

That's been my experience with changing out the incandescents.

Ever since they made incandescent bulbs illegal, I've been struggling with lighting in my house. As I age, my sight is getting awful.
I guess I could try replacing my $3 incandescent bulbs with some $45 LED's. :eek:

Dude, where are you shopping? They're trying to screw you. They should be $13, $17 at the most.

umm x3 = $45

Oh sorry, I thought you were saying one incandescent that cost $3. (And that's probably not even what they cost, but I haven't bought one in forever...)

This is a joke, right?

Because they can have my incandescent bulbs when they pry them from my 2nd degree burned, dead fingers.

Not a joke.

They are banning simple gas water heaters next month too. Next time you buy a water heater it will be about 4 times the price and require a special chimney liner and condensate drain pipe near the heater. And wiring. Whee!

This is just an industry using government regulations to get around
the costs of advertising and the need for good customer service...

Our house is >100 yrs old, and we've lived here for 35 years
Today I learned that if a house is not connected to a community sewer system,
Oregon has a state-wide regulation requiring an permit for for septic system
--- with an inspection every 3 years by a "certified inspector".

The "inspector" is required to submit the report to the State,
whether or not any problems are found in the state.
If there is a problem, you're likely to get a visit from a State employee...

So, it's like "asbestos" and "lead paint" and "radon" when it comes
to buying or selling a house, and a "home inspection" is part of the Sales Agreement.

It's a great shovel-ready-job-creation and $-making program for "certified inspectors"
... the guys that drive the septic tank pumping trucks, because one of the first
requirements of a "certified" inspection is that "...the septic tank must be pumped...".

Really? Reeeeaaalllly?

I fucking hate everything.

I almost researched this, but, I was too afraid it was real:

Attachment 50604

I've seen that sort of thing before
... people in Montana say they are popular in South Dakota.

.

:smack:

It's real.


ETA:

Attachment 50612

I can only imagine what the Nasal Ranger itself costs...

...Nasal Ranger...

:lol2:

Something to do with resistance?

IDK, call an exorcist?

That's gotta be it, but I don't get it. Maybe I can open up the box containing the dimmer switch and connect a resistor in the box with it. I should try a night light bulb and see if that small of an incandescent will also make it work. I think I have some of those kicking around.

Or maybe just buy a different dimmer. BUt I don't want this to get too expensive. It's the principle of the thing. These LEDs have to pay for themselves, otherwise the whole thing is just stupid and wasteful.

Maybe not so much with resistance and more because the circuit will draw much more current even with just one incandescent lamp - therefore overcoming the usual dimmer-switch issues?

Rhianne! Good to see you girl.

Well, it's the dimmer switch. I swapped out the dimmer for a regular switch, and they work fine without an incandescent bulb in the mix.

These bulbs flicker a little bit. Apparently the larger filament LED bulbs have capacitors on the tiny circuit board in the base to smooth out the flickering, but these candelabra bulbs are so small, there isn't room in the base for capacitors. It doesn't bother me, but Mrs. Glatt has commented on it a few times. So these LED bulbs may be short lived in this house. We'll see how it plays out. But I won't be buying a new dimmer until I know the LEDs are here to stay.

We've had problems with replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs in cars. Had to add resisters. Of course a byproduct of resisters is heat which has to be dealt with safely.

I wonder if we'll get a widely-used DC light socket standard, so the AC/DC converter can be in the light fixture, rather than in every single bulb. All of the problems with LED bulbs are because every bulb needs a wall wart.

I doubt it, by the time LEDS are that common the industry will says we've already designed and produced working bulbs. So anything else would be non-standard and cut into profits... I mean confuse the public.

However I suppose once the market is saturated except for a few hippies in the mountains, that could be the next big thing. We have seen the future and bought our congressman now. :haha:

Hello!

I hope you are well, and everyone else too.

I'm still here - just a lurker now though.

This is fairly cool:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Shoot me now! /head twitch/

I hardly notice what with the room spinning and me trying to hang on to the floor.

Carpaltunnelnomore!!!!!

Attachment 51172

I broke down and bought an oscilloscope. Not a real one, but a cheap PC based one. And I'll be damned if it doesn't do a spectacular job. At least on this.

I hvae a solar panel I've been storing for a rainy day (*snicker*) and I hooked it up to the scope last night.

Measured various light sources and the voltage they generated in the solar panel.

An incandescent bulb is a nice steady light source. This was the refrigerator light, the only old fashioned incandescent bulb I could easily find without dragging my laptop and USB wires and probes and stuff all over the house.
Look how steady that light output is! (You are looking at the blue horizontal flat wave line in comparison to the red zero horizontal line.
Attachment 51179

And below is the traditional four foot long fluorescent light on our kitchen ceiling. It cycles 120 times a second, but it doesn't lose much of a glow in between each cycle, so it's a pretty smooth light source.
Attachment 51180
The under cabinet LEDs shown below are connected to a fairly complex power supply and special dimmer that cycles them over 600 times a second, so they don't appear to flicker. And they never dip too low either so they go Bright/Not so bright 600/sec and look fine.
Attachment 51181
And that brings us to the dining room LED lights shown below. They flicker 120 times per second, just like the kitchen fluorescent, but they turn almost completely off in between each cycle. It's visible.

Just look at these!
Attachment 51182



I

kool

Yeah, that's doing it wrong, alright.

;)

No, it doesn't come w/safety glasses...

Attachment 51213


...but, at least you'll know how long you've been waiting in the ER.

Attachment 51214

I want both of those things.

I like the watch.

heh. so you can have a picture of shooting them in the back?? "fleeing criminals" "worked by gun's trigger".

heh.

Hope the perp is running backwards. :rolleyes:

It may not exist as a product yet, because it appears to be in development, but I give you the Selfie-Arm.
Attachment 51315
Attachment 51316

WHO TOOK SECOND PICTURE

The amputee that lost his camera, too.