The $%*! frustration thread

[MsBlack]

'Tis free, and much more versatile and cooler looking.

Wait a—
~
My frustration is the slow adoption of wireless technology and the hypocritical and hindering approach to technology in our society.

Imagine each house having a central wireless energy transmitter connected up to the grid, eliminating the need for power outlets and power cables. Imagine wireless global internet provision. Imagine no longer having wires all over the place for bloody monitors and mice and keyboards and speakers and televisions to transfer data between each other. That'd halve my blood pressure and List of Grievances right off the bat. The basic underlying technology's been around for over a hundred years. This could start happening now if people really willed it, but alas!

[Sajainta]

I just got back from a dentist's appointment and half of my mouth is numb.  To make matters worse, my mother is cooking one of my favourite dishes (chicken adobo) and the smell is intoxicating.  But I can't eat until I get the feeling back in my mouth, because I certainly don't want to accidentally chew half my cheek off.  -____-

[V_Translanka]

I stopped using notepad in place of the Scratch Pad gadget for my Google Desktop sidebar thingy...Though I've been collapsing the sidebar recently because I put too many news feeds in the Web Clips gadget and I get too distracted by it (it's all pr0n)...>_>

[Sajainta]

Self-absorbed, ignorant, banal, selfish, narcissistic people.  All of those things are irritating, but when all of those traits are found within a single person it is infuriating.  I don't understand how they can live in a world of ignorance and self-obsession.

[Radical_Dreamer]

Imagine each house having a central wireless energy transmitter connected up to the grid, eliminating the need for power outlets and power cables. Imagine wireless global internet provision. Imagine no longer having wires all over the place for bloody monitors and mice and keyboards and speakers and televisions to transfer data between each other. That'd halve my blood pressure and List of Grievances right off the bat. The basic underlying technology's been around for over a hundred years. This could start happening now if people really willed it, but alas!

What sort of range is there on wireless energy for powering devices? I'm aware of induction pads, but those require contact (to my knowledge).

[Arakial]

What sort of range is there on wireless energy for powering devices? I'm aware of induction pads, but those require contact (to my knowledge).

It really depends on the technology, but it is well explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer

[Nexus]

I'm frustrated at myself for becoming addicted to the PC game, Spore. There I was dreaming up creatures, at 2 in the morning, when I realized that I still have no sound and the game would be nothing without it.
But man, Spore is awesome, and that's just on the lowest graphics. I can't wait until I get a computer that can run it at all the highest settings.

I'm pretty much at that point to. Well the one being I need to get a new computer not being currently addicted to Spore. For which I was for several months.

[MsBlack]

What sort of range is there on wireless energy for powering devices?

The practical range is quite small due to the low efficiency and that the technology is in its infancy. Admittedly my knowledge of it all is relatively small and there are practical reasons slowing the technology's progress, but I reckon that the obstacles that currently stand in the way would've been surmounted or that significant immediate headway could be made if industry and society in general were more forward-thinking. (Edit: It looks like (i.e., according to Wikipedia) microwave power transmission might be the way of the future: 95% efficiency, apparently no health issues, tens of kilowatts.)

Ah! Two more frustrations. First is that my desire to go into town is much higher in snow, but that that same snow largely cuts off the transport options that would allow me to do so. The second, which also serves as a disproof of God, is that the freshness of bread is inversely correlated with how well it takes spreads.

[Lord J Esq]

I read last year about at least two different companies that are on the verge of offering a wireless power distribution system for home use. I tried to pull up the articles, to no avail. If those announcements were not wishful thinking on the part of PR flacks, we'll be hearing more about both technologies this year.

[MsBlack]

Excellent! Although we all know those goons in the copper industry will ensure several more decades of dilly-dallying about before our computers and televisions and Nintendus are 'wireless-ready'.

[Shee]

Drove across town after work for an open mic and the place was closed.  No announcement.  This holds things off for another week.  Rabble rabble rabble rabble...had a lot of brand new material and was going to record it.  Wouldn't have been so rough if it wasn't for the distance/traffic thing.

[Lord J Esq]

You're in L.A., right? That is a drive! People who haven't been may not be able to appreciate that this ain't no Anytown we're talking about. Was your cross-town drive north-south or east-west?

[rushingwind]

Oh wow. I had the opportunity to visit LA for the first time this past June, and good lord, I thought the traffic was going to kill me. I can drive in Atlanta, GA. I can drive in Orlando, FL. I can even drive in Dallas (these are all pretty stressful places during rush hour). However, I have no desire to actually drive through LA again.

I'm pretty unflappable when it comes to traffic, but Los Angeles... no. Just no. San Juan Capistrano is about as far north from San Diego as I'll venture, and I'd rather go way, waaaay around LA at that. So I have a lot of respect for anyone who can brave LA traffic.

[Lord J Esq]

I have a soft spot for Los Angeles freeways. I was born in L.A. and took a fast liking to the freeways. My mom would drive me around on them when I was little. I loved the bridges, the lanes, the stripes, the flow, the curves, the orderly ballet of vehicular Russian roulette. We moved out of town when I was three, but whenever we drove back into L.A. we of course would take freeways all the way down, across town, coming from the 15 and usually ending up in Santa Monica via the 10. (In Los Angeles, we don't use the word "Interstate"; we just call them by their numbers.) I loved it.

There's an interchange which is my absolute favorite. It is a marvel of civil engineering and turns out to have its own Wikipedia entry. If you're heading west on the 10 from the San Bernardino stretch to the Santa Monica stretch, you have to get onto the 5 briefly. The ramps for it are incredible. You're in this cozy, hilly little place west of the 710, then you swoop out into the open, flanking the 5, and suddenly you're way above the ground and crossing the Los Angeles River. The westbound trip is the best, from an aesthetic point of view, but to do it the most justice I think I would describe it in terms of going the other direction, eastbound: Going that way is like crossing into the Fangorn Forest. The satellite images don't do it justice; you have to drive it.

For me, the bane of driving in Los Angeles is not the freeways, because, even though the people there are homicidal misanthropes, it's something I've had plenty of time to get accustomed to. No...the bane for me is merging. Whether on surface streets or on the freeway, I hate changing lanes--especially when I've got to do it in dense, fast-moving traffic in a short distance. Driving in L.A. is about one million times nicer when I can just pick a lane and stay there.

Here in Seattle, we have one major freeway, one major bypass loop, two connector highways between them, and a handful of minor freeways that run for short distances. More than anything else, that's why Seattle feels so small to me.

I hear the real fun driving is in the Northeast...

[ZeaLitY]

All right, LAers, which bridge is this? It's...

Oh, found it. In fact, someone has a great page for all the filming locations of To Live and Die in LA: http://www.seeing-stars.com/locations/ToLiveAndDie1.shtml