ozofprev

Walter, I think that Katen "trick" is excellent. The best mnemonics are the fun ones!

Hi Chris, Your question doesn't match your frustration. You can Bonnie-ize, Walter-ize and Katen-ize your writing so it is understood by an intelligent English speaking person. No amount of work on your part will help non-English or barely-English clients understand yours or anyone else's English. Best you can do in that case is ensure that a lawyer will understand your report clearly.

After the plumbing inspections we have all done, I thought you might get a kick out of the way quite a few people are cooling their PCs. Take a look: Image Insert: 250.06 KB The contraption on the back is the radiator. Some things just seem wrong.

Bob, the price advantage is seen when you try to find a Dell, Gateway, or HP with the same specifications. They run around $3000, my parts were $1300. And every component in mine is high quality. Walter, best of luck if you decide to do it - you certainly have the smarts! Les, you're starting to know me a little too well!!! You cracked me up. When I was making a (meager) living flying freight, I could go hundreds of miles in weather that kept me from seeing the wingtips. I would break out of the clouds just in time to see the runway approach lights. Once on the ground, however, I hated navigating the damn taxiways - so a trip to Best Buy does scare me.

Not long ago, several people expressed an interest in building their own computer. I am sharing my latest build with you so you will have a better understanding of what's involved. Depending on your Internet connection, you can pick the best download for you (content is the same):id="maroon"> Ok resolution, smaller file (~1Meg)id="green"> -->PC Build Better resolution, bigger file (~4Meg)id="green"> -->PC Build (large) (The smaller version was submitted to the TIJ library.)

Very true - Vista on 1G can't be good. I'm building my new machine. I'm putting 64-bit Vista Ultimate on it. At least I'll be able to use a full 4G memy. That last gig, of course, is just wasted on 4G 32-bit Vista machines. The other HDD will have Linux.

So, Dominic - did you get Vista or XP???

While at Auburn Univ. I received a BS in building science and a BS in computer science and a major in math. I wanted to work in construction, but as a young whipped lad, the wife wanted to live in NY, but all of my construction offers were in the south ('81 was a tough time in construction due to interest rates.) So I went to work at McDonnell Douglas working on F18 flight simulators. Then, to make the wife really happy, we moved to NY where I was a systems programmer for IBM. After the divorce,[:-party] I followed my kids to Rochester, where I worked for Kodak (artificial intelligence - LISP; and later CPP and OOP). When Microsoft began to take over, I grew tired of software being dictated by a corporation instead of good engineering. To escape that, I began programming embedded systems. As SW engineering director of a small company, I designed and implemented a family of wastewater monitoring instrumentation. The small company was sold to a large corporation (Danaher) and I retired. Like you said, I'm not that old. Home inspection interested me, so I started an HI biz. I met the best in the industry through this forum and ASHI. I soon discovered many of the leaders do a fair amount of expert witness work. The potential of some unfair legal action, combined with my retirement account, scared me out of the biz. Still, I like the people on this forum. So now I golf, read, and participate here. I am still consulting and programming for fun (yes, it can be fun). You are wise to be working with a small group. Some fatherly advice - always make sure your financial benefits are commensurate with your contribution in the event that the company goes public or is sold.

Cool, I used to bop around the country teaching C++ on Unix. I gave a presentation on C++/OOP at the '91 Int'l Unix Developers' Conference in Hollywood, CA. I learned C++ from Bjarne Stroustrup and Andy Koenig back in '88. (I'm so old.)[:-weepn]id="blue">

To know vi is to love vi! Any Unix hack knows that. Since it's free, why don't you use Gnome or K? id="maroon"> Yeah, poooor ms.[:-yuck] At least ms passed the OpenAjax interop tests[] id="maroon"> It will be interesting to see how that plays out in the colleges where ms basically gives away their software - thinking the students will want to continue using it in their business lives. id="maroon">

I don't think you'll get much argument over that.

Randy, Let it go, Bro - you're ok! Sure marketing is sleazy, but we all need to confer a level of confidence to potential clients - so humility blushes for a moment. I find warranties to be particularly opportunistic - they feed on ignorance. They lead clients to believe x, y, and z are 'covered'. First, it's covered for a very short period, and the complaint must be submitted within that time. Then, the fine print shows coverage is limited to $abc. The fine print shows that y is not covered if it is over ten years old. The fine print says no water damage is covered. The fine print says it all. It's really pathetic, but caveat emptor, I guess. Have a good weekend. Some people just don't play well with others.

Richard, They were just testing to see if you would leave the necklace. Honesty is the best policy.

Don't worry about giving up XP, Chicago - that's about all it supports at this time (They're working on Vista). If all the PC's you visit are operating XP, then you're set. Have you read much Dilbert? It's a comic strip (Gilbert Funnies) that has lasted many years because it nails the reality of the corporate cubicle life. Part of that life includes a long history of distrust between engineering and marketing. I guarantee the engineers at Seagate are laughing at marketing's "Glorious gigabytes" line. In this case, "PC" means Windows XP/2000. Brian G touched on the limiting use of the term, "PC" on another thread. It's not supposed to be a limiting term, but "good" marketing frowns on exposing limitations.

Dominic, Which version - Windows, Linux, ...? (If Linux, which one - Kubuntu, Red Hat...?) So long as you're techy enough to get it all going, there is no reason an HI biz needs more than free software.

Chad, You are correct (of course!) and I am saying the same thing you are, but I need a picture to explain what I mean. It doesn't matter that C & F, or psi & kPa are shown - those are four ways to say the same thing. No, what I'm saying is that many of these tridicators have no right to call themselves such. Go here to see a REAL tridicator: http://www.cpigauges.com/part_numbers/t ... -gauge.htm Look at the lower (round) tridicator. A close look at the top scale, right side, shows units "H2O Feet". This tridicator gives temp, pressure, head. Got it friend????

Terry, That's good info. You're right, head is a common term used in pumping. Head is used whenever pressure needs to be measured in height. There is a head (pressure) present at an orifice with 12 feet (vertical) of water above it. This is true for a pump emptying a basement, or for a full pipe extending to a second floor radiator. Head is simply pressure created by gravity. All head is pressure, but not all pressure is head.

Hi John, That's a good question. I guess it's safe to assume that the reporting software you are using does not have its own database to do this for you. If you aren't interested in keeping things in a database, then a directory hierarchy will do fine. You will choose whatever organization makes you comfortable, but I suggest a root node (directory) titled something like HIClientDocs. Since you aren't using a database, you now need to decide how you want to find each document. Each document needs a uniquely named directory path. People's names aren't always unique, so you might want to title directories by date. Start with a folder named 2007. Below that, you can decide whether you want directories JAN, FEB, MAR... or perhaps Q1, Q2, Q3... Within these directories, you can store the actual files. 27A might be the name of today's first inspection report. That means today's first report is at C:\HIClientDocs\2007\SEP\27A. Of course, C:\HIClientDocs\2007\Q3\0927A would also work. Customize the path to suit your needs and your reports. Since you do not want to lose any information, it is important that you keep backups. Everyone knows this, but many don't do it! I recommend burning a CD periodically. (Make sure you are burning quality CDs and not coasters!) Depending on the volume of business, you may want to do this daily, weekly, or monthly. I also kept a hardcopy of my reports. There are also websites that let you store things securely. You're the boss, so choose what lets you sleep well.

I wasn't just funnin' everyone with my reply. 1 Temperature (yeah, F and C) The pressure scale sometimes offers two things: 2 Pressure in psi 3 Head in feet-H2O That's three things. Unfortunately, most gauges now seem to forego the Head scale in favor of offering kPa instead. So you have to calculate head. Anyway, that's my splanation.

I've heard it pronounced both ways, but I believe Try-duh-cator is correct since it gives you three measurements. It gives you pressure. It gives you temperature. It gives you head.[:-censore

Are the pots IC rated??

So long as there are people like Katen, Kurt, Les, Chad, Mike and several other trulyid="maroon"> elite inspectors, there is hope (glass half full).[:-thumbu]

Russia is considering installing Linux on the computers of every Russian school - they will call it RussianOS. They do not like relying on a US corporation - MS - for technology. Seriously - http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/09/14/266177

Thanks Walter - that makes sense. I wouldn't hesitate to try DevWave software - you might get the best of everything without leaving Word. Take a trip without leaving the farm, so to speak. Of course Publisher does offer that really cool Paper Folding option. Lawyers would like that I'll bet. And just to touch on a couple of earlier posts here... - OpenOffice.org (and yes, the dot org is part of the name) allows you to open, edit and save Word documents. So, using OpenOffice.org does not require leaving the Word-based world. - Microsoft's pdf converter is a free download.

I used Publisher for making my brochures, but I'm interested in what makes it a tempting tool for EW work. ????