TelfordDorr

Maybe, but they gotta do something about the quality. It's really sorry. I'd say 1/3 or more of the green led traffic lights around here have large dead sections in them (sometimes the patterns get interesting, but no letters formed yet....) And this is in a relatively cool area. I'd hate to see the failure rate inland from here where it's hotter...

My understanding is that a 'listed' component is usable by itself, while a 'recognized' component is only usable within a larger 'listed' device. Put another way, a 'listed' device is built from 'recognized' components. FWIW

I always use a 'spam bucket' email address for all trade shows. Many ISPs give you multiple email address capability with your account. I use an easy-to-remember address which contains one or more digits in it. When spam gets to be too much, I just change the address by incrementing the digit.

Just because it becomes 'out of state' doesn't mean that you can't 'import' it. Besides, after Sacramento gets gone screwing up their part of the state, wine outta get cheap - the winemakers will be desperate for income (as nobody up there can afford it anymore, or local sales are 'regulated' too heavily) - the old price/volume curve.

Not if it would slow down / inhibit the split. Keep the central valley (food), south (industry, shipping ports, oil) and Sierra (water). Screw the rest of it. TD

You've heard of "pawnshop green"? Pawnshops would put a single or double 4 ft fluorescent fixture right in the middle of the store ceiling and load it up with F40G green fluorescents - most light for the buck! TD

This goes to show that rules should not be made by the ignorant. Having been involved in the HVAC business years ago (designing the control systems), it was common design practice to use the building lights as heating in the cool season. When this becomes politically incorrect, they will have to switch over to resistance heat or gas heat, and run the air handlers to move it around the building. Either that, or let the building go cold overnight then be forced to consume high energy at high rate in the morning to warm it back up. Hey, just like Mao did in China! So when are we gonna force this state to be divided into two, and shed the insanity and indebtedness from up north? TD

Try http://www.gasbuddy.com

Well duh! What's the customer supposed to do, get out his really tall ladder, scale the wall with his tape measure in hand? Might require them to provide the production drawings as well! Now if your boss can just get the customer to go ahead and build it himself, then the only remaining job is to collect the check. This is the difference between a 'full service' [e.g. real] sign company and one that isn't. I congratulate your desire to try and make this place work, but personally I would keep an eye open for greener pastures...

It depends on what her normal job is. I gathered from her remarks that she wasn't general office staff - general office work is more independent of company type than other positions, thus there wouldn't likely be a 'sign way' to it. I also assumed (and thus could be wrong about this) that her position wasn't in sales, as 'cold calls' are a normal part of that job description. Thus, that would leave her as a designer, bender, fabricator, assembler, painter, installer, or some other type of 'shop' technical position. Having such a non-sales person doing 'cold calls' is mostly pointless, unless your goal is to alienate possible future customers. IMHO, sales is not something that just anybody can do well, and a completely inexperienced-in-sales person should not be required to do so. New-to-sales sales people should always work with an experienced person to develop the required skills. They are, after all, your company's representatives to the outside world. Requiring any (especially non-sales) person to go out and lie to the competition to gather pricing data is poor management at best. If you're gonna do that, either do it yourself or go hire a good expendable, scruple-less lier to do the dirty work. As for the last point, any smart business owner knows that intelligent experienced employees are a godsend and should be cultivated as the valuable resource that they are (and offhand, she didn't sound like a Bozo, to me.) If you're trying to start up a business that you have little to no direct experience in, one would think that having such employees would be worth their weight in gold, so to speak. For him to not recognize that would certainly cause me to question his smarts. Now, that said, after accepting their input, as an owner you have every right to choose to do things contrary to the employees suggestions. Once that is explained to them, then the discussion is over. At that point, they either comply or move on. Just my personal opinion, as a business owner / co-owner for the last 25 years or so.

It's the dilemma of being put in a position of having to do stuff the wrong way or an illegal way or a just plain stupid way that has her upset. Just because it's your party doesn't mean that you (not you personally) should be such a blockheaded know-it-all that accepting any input from employees is inconceivable. Continually pissing off all your employees is not conducive to employee loyalty and respect. You should know what having employees who don't give a rat's red rear about your company's welfare will bring. Just a word of advice.

Now You know why 'Dilbert' cartoons are so popular...

While one would initially tend to blame the design, fabrication, or usage of the crane, more likely the cause is counterfeit bolts. This has been an ongoing problem for years, even in the grade 8 bolts. Without being tested, lot by lot, it's extremely difficult to tell good from phony. Even in aviation hardware. A sign of the times, I guess. Know your supplier. TD

Let me know when you're ready and I'll bring a wattmeter... TD

Maybe mg(Hg) / lumen?

For those of you who that subscribe to "bigger is better", this might be for you: a flashlight so bright that you can set things on fire with it. http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/28/the-tor...can-incinerate/ TD

Agree with all the above - it's all just hype & publicity. On a side note, Home Depot does sell CFL's in three colors. The middle one (red labels) is 3500K white, which I like much better than the 2800K and 6500K (at least for use in the house.) Naturally, if I like them, then they're doomed to be discontinued... Anybody have a easy source for dimmable CFL reflector floods? TD

I was one of those privileged to be able to call Al Sklar a friend. Some of my happiest memories are those of sitting in his office, discussing the state of the industry, and generally shooting the bull. He was truely the Energizer Bunny - always working on something new, or improving something already existing. He created a machine to automatically cut multiple lengths of small diameter tubing into short nibs suitable for making crackle tubes. He also developed a modified oven for processing them. You all probably know of /use borosilicate glass 'G-cups', used for making bulletproof outdoor neon connections to electrodes (here in San Diego, salt spray contamination is a problem.) They were his invention. The list goes on. I offer my condolences to Barb and his family. He will be missed. With great respect, Telford Dorr

I was one of those privileged to be able to call Al Sklar a friend. Some of my happiest memories are those of sitting in his office, discussing the state of the industry, and generally shooting the bull. He was truely the Energizer Bunny - always working on something new, or improving something already existing. He created a machine to automatically cut multiple lengths of small diameter tubing into short nibs suitable for making crackle tubes. He also developed a modified oven for processing them. You all probably know of /use borosilicate glass 'G-cups', used for making bulletproof outdoor neon connections to electrodes (here in San Diego, salt spray contamination is a problem.) They were his invention. The list goes on. I offer my condolences to Barb and his family. He will be missed. With great respect, Telford Dorr

If these are the units I saw at Home Depot, then I should point out that they come in not two, but three color temperatures. Along with the ubiquitos 2800 K incandescent-emulation white and less-common 4100K cool white, they also come in 3500 K white, which I find more pleasing around the house (I did my entire kitchen remodel in 3500 K compact fluorescent cans [down light] and 3500 K 'cold cathode' indirect fill lighting). I should point out that I have not used any of these particular units, so I can't comment on the 'low mercury' propaganda. I am familiar with the green-endcapped 'low mercury' Philips regular fluorescents they sell there, and (in my personal opinion), compared to Sylvania or GE, they stink (at least when run on regular magnetic ballasts...)

Look again - at the upper "after retrofit" picture. You can still see HPS lighting at the left rear of the picture. It's _definitely_ much brighter! It's a flat, even flood lighting - as opposed to the bright down-pointing spotlight effect from the LED fixtures. Notice the dark areas between the LED fixtures. The "before" picture is intentionally under-exposed. Anybody who has ever been in any parking garage lit by HPS would recognize that in an instant. And those are lousy / cheap HPS fixtures (see pg. 43). Update those to something less shrouded by sheetmetal, and the HPS would be even more of a clear winner.

Yeah, well, that aside, as far as I can tell, SBI has become little more than a shill for the LED industry. Don't get me wrong (I'm a neon guy) - there are good apps for LEDs. But the "City of LED light" article in the same issue is pure crap! This is the kind of "Big Lie" propaganda wich will ultimately ruin the reputation of LED vendors faster than anything I can think of. Sure, you can do a LED retrofit and consume less power - but at a significantly greater reduction in light output. There is no way in hell that a LED lightsource is going to be as efficient (that's lumens per watt) as a high pressure sodium fixture. No way. White LEDs can't beat white neon, and, efficiency-wise, HPS blows neon away. Granted, the color of regular HPS isn't great, but we're talking a parking garage here! If you really want white, you could probably retrofit with fluorescents and get great color at only a small loss in efficiency. Good thing the mag's free - shows the truism: "you don't get what you don't pay for"

This is what happens when you have a state run by people who generally couldn't find their butt with both hands given divine guidance and a road map. Laugh if you want - this insanity will eventually reach you too... There's some guy around the corner from me who installed one of those motion triggered dual r-30 bulb type fixtures over his garage, only he did the 'California thing' and fitted it with compact fluorescent floods. Every time I walk by his place in the evening, this thing snaps on weakly for 30 seconds, then goes off again. I have to laugh every time I see it... TD

Uh, probably not... Reminds me of the neighbor I had as a kid who used to run his (homemade) arc welder by clipping the line cord to the buss bars in the breaker box with uninsulated battery jumper clips. This is before master disconnect breakers came into vogue. Nothing between those buss bars and the pole trannie but the meter and wire... Somehow never managed to kill himself or take the whole neighborhood down in a blinding flash...

Impressive indeed. Bet the guy who did this has background in industrial electrical (substitute emt / rigid for romex, and you get the idea...) TD