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I’ve received so many comments from people about how to beat a speeding ticket in New Jersey in my first post and my followup post that I opened up this third post for comments. Note that everything you need to know is in my first post on the subject. You don’t really need to read this third post.

That said, feel free to add your own comments. Do not ask a question like the following, those issues have already been covered many times. Read the post!

I got a speeding ticket in xxx. I was going xx in a xx zone. I shouldn’t have gotten the ticket because xxx and xxx and xxx. How do I get out of the ticket? What should I do?

If this information saves you $500, I would appreciate a $5 donation. Don’t send me anything until AFTER you have been to the courthouse and saved money! Here is a Paypal donation link:

Last week I went in to Cole Hardware looking for discounted compact fluorescent light bulbs. You see, PG&E has this CFL subsidy program where you can get a CFL for $1 instead of the market value of $6-15. They were out and the guy said, “Hmm, we had them for a long while but I think PG&E stopped doing it.”

(update, I just checked the PG&E website and I see a lot of retailers are in the program, and some of the large chains (Lowes, OSH, Home Depot) have LED bulbs in the program too. Cool)

This got me thinking…

My initial thoughts are that it’s kind of OK that this program is winding down. Now everyone is familiar with CFL bulbs, the price of CFL bulbs has come down (they used to be $20+),  and just as importantly, CFL bulbs now have real competition on store shelves from the new LED bulbs.

This got me thinking…

LED lighting has really taken off. Last month I noticed that Sausalito’s streetlamps are all LED (if you squint when looking at the fixtures, you can see that it’s like 50 tiny LED bulbs instead of one big sodium bulb. I saw that a good portion of the Westfield Mall in San Francisco is lit with LEDs. At the same time, the LED lighting industry is a bit like the wild west. For instance, when I was chatting with the guy at Cole Hardware, he walked me over to a cabinet that was lit in LEDs. They had all gotten very dim just two years after installation (update: I think it’s the power supply and not the LEDs, the LEDs wouldn’t have all dimmed so evenly together). Big companies like GE are touting their LED lighting systems.

It’s interesting to compare the lighting side-by-side

type          lumens per watt
Incandescent    14
Halogen         18
CFL             60
LED             70
Hi pres sodium  90
T5 fluorescent  100

CFL vs LED… that’s a surprisingly meh-worthy difference. And regular fluorescent tubes are more efficient than LEDs! LEDs are getting better… they have 200 lumen per watt LED bulbs in the laboratory.

But right now it’s kind of a wash.

I did not expect to see that!

Read the whole thing (and watch the video!) on TheVerge.com

We asked Pauline how he managed to get an invite, and he gave us the following response:

“Easy, my mother in law was in Congress for 20 years and I passed the background check due to my spotless record!”

(Previously)

If you own your own home, read about this important maintenance tip!

This week, the water heater in Megan’s house burst after 12 years of service. This reminded me of something I had mentioned a few years ago: periodically changing the anode in the hot water heater.

This is an important, inexpensive, a DIY project (if you’re into small home projects) that can save you a thousand bucks by dramatically extending the life of your water heater, and any plumber that’s never heard of it is either dumb or has a hidden agenda (IE: making more money when your system fails).

A new anode costs about $30 so having someone come in and replace it should cost less than $150. It’s way cheaper than replacing the hot water tank… or worse, the giant mess a burst tank can cause.

Watch this video from This Old House where they inspect and change two different anodes. In one case, the anode was covered in calcium deposits from hard water (do you have hard water??). In the other, the anode was completely eaten away… and the tank had burst!

While I’m sad my old laptop was stolen (go on dirtbag, I dare you to boot it up, I’ll track you down!) my new laptop is sweet.

It’s a Lenovo T530, 15.6″ widescreen custom ordered from Lenovo.com. Here’s what I like:

Keyboard: feels great, solid, slightly clicky, backlit keys and a “thinklight” that shines on the keyboard. I like the backlit keys more than the thinklight but I’m sure they will both come in handy.

Responsiveness: frickin fast! 180 gig SSD drive, i5 processor, 4 gig RAM. All the Lenovo quick boot technologies seem to work great, for example: it takes only 4 seconds to go from sleep to the password prompt!! Internet powers up nearly instantly. Just 15 seconds to wake up from hibernate mode, but I might stop using it because the sleep mode uses so little juice.

Audio: sounds great, loud, stereo, crisp.

Screen: nice, bright, good color, good off-angle viewing. I’m thinking maybe just maybe I should have gotten the 1920xwhatever screen instead of the 1366×768, but that might have made the text a little tiny for my eyes.

Trackpad: They nailed it. Excellent feel, performance. It also has a trackpoint nipple thing that I might start using.

Extra Buttons: There’s a mute speaker, volume buttons and mute microphone in easy reach. They work great.

Battery control: There are Lenovo battery settings that allow me to specify that the battery should only charge so much and then stop (it’s said that leaving a lithium battery fully charged makes it die quicker)

5 hour battery life. Plenty of battery.

It’s a tiny bit heavy at 5 lbs 6oz, but I paid $880 all inclusive. A lighter one might cost twice as much and I’m a poor student! (and I’ve got a great backpack to carry it in). It took 2 weeks longer to arrive than they originally promised which was a bother, but that’s forgotten.

It’s kinda weird to say this but the Lenovo extras and the operating system seem to be configured very well. I’m used to battling crapware at every turn but I’m not with this computer.

I got PDAnet working on it (it was a snap!) so I have data wherever I have 3G service on my phone. And darn if I can’t surf just as fast on 3G as on wifi!! Really!

Full specs:
Processor: Intel Core i5-3210M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Display Type: 15.6″ HD (1366 x 768) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
System Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Total Memory: 4 GB DDR3 – 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
Keyboard: Keyboard Backlit – US English
Pointing Device: UltraNav without Fingerprint Reader
Camera: 720p HD Camera with Microphone
Hard Drive: 180GB Solid State Drive, SATA3
Optical Device: DVD Recordable
System Expansion Slots: Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader & Bezel
Battery: 6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
Power Cord: 90W AC Adapter – US (2pin)
Integrated WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters: ThinkPad 1×1 b/g/n

“Witness the birth of the largest LED light sculpture in existence”

Let’s go see the Bay Lights Grand Opening tonight. I won’t make it til 8:30 or 9:30 depending on when my class gets out. I’ll be near the Ferry Building.

More info

Megan and I are going up to Calistoga for a weekend getaway. It got me thinking again about the ridiculous earthquake field I’ve seen on the USGS Earthquake Map.

The earth is perpetually rumbling in this place! There were some 1,300 tiny earthquakes in this area in the last 30 days, 9 that were greater than 2.5. If you’re laying quietly, you’d have no trouble feeling those bigger ones.

So I checked it out online…

Apparently there is a giant bulb of magma about 4 miles underground and maybe 8 miles across. It’s a huge geothermal field. People keep pouring water on it to turn it into steam and run electric plants.

The area called The Geysers in The Clear Lake Volcanic Field is the largest geothermal power producer in America. It provides more than 60% of the electricity between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oregon state line!

Calpine is a company that runs many of the geothermal plants and has a website about the Geysers.

Steam levels started decreasing in the late 1980s because they weren’t putting water back into the ground. So now they pump 20 million gallons of treated waste water per day back into the ground from all the surrounding towns… notably Santa Rosa, more than 40 miles to the south. Yes, they pour huge quantities of grey water into the ground, to have it come out as superheated steam!

A good portion of the earthquake activity is because pouring water on magma.

If you’re really fascinated by this stuff, check out this Northern California Geological Society tour of the Clear Lake Volcanic area and the videos on Calpine’s Geysers website.

I got this unsolicited comment from the flame effects class I taught I few weeks ago with excellent help from Peter and Michael!

Once again, thank you so very much for teaching this class. I cannot tell you just how much it has opened up my artwork to new ideas and options. I was telling my wife that I got more creative input and inspiration over the duration of the two days that I spent in your class than I have in the entire 9 years that I have lived where I am currently living.

The quote speaks for itself.

I am overjoyed!

My cousin Joe Weston posted this photo of a Weston family reunion 1950 at the Pioneer Club in Jessup, PA. My mom and her side of the family are in it.

(the relationship references are from Joe Weston’s angle)
back row left to right:
Mary Anne Weston (grandma), Shelly Peters Sakulich, Eleanor Weston (aunt), Albert Weston (uncle), Ernest Ferranti (uncle), Ida Ferranti (aunt), Alice Weston Berettini (aunt), Ernest Weston (grandfather), Nona Rose Weston, Louis Weston (uncle), Anna Weston Lepri (aunt), Joe Lepri, Dinah Weston (aunt), Louise Weston Giombetti, Robert Weston, Rose Weston, Joseph Lepri.

seated left to right:
Ernie Weston, Marie Weston Paciotti, Joe Weston, Joseph Weston Sr, Ernestine McCarren, Jeanie Berrentini Peters, Marlene Ferranti Sonko, Dorothy Ferranti Howard, Frank Cavagnaro, Louise Weston Stasium (aunt), Charles Stasium (uncle), Gloria Lepri, Bernie Lepri, (the two children on the far right are the sons of Joe and Rose Lepri, grandsons of Uncle Joe and Aunt Annie Lepri)

Megan and I first kissed by the light of this video at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) March 10, 2012!

local archive:

This wonderful art is by Mai Yamashita and Naoto Kobayashi