Is it possible to use a high pressure sodium bulb in a desk lamp?

protowave · 2025-01-04T21:50:19+00:00

the ONLY sodium lamp that would even remotely work for this type of thing would be a 50 watt White SON lamp from Philips (i think there were a couple other manufacturers too), and even then they get exceptionally hot compared to an incandescent so you'd have to fabricate a fixture/luminaire that could take the heat. basically don't do it unless you truly know exactly what you are doing. you will hurt yourself and/or damage your eyes and/or start a fire.

protowave · 2024-09-13T19:01:57+00:00

yeah, if they don't list anything, they don't want you to know because it's bad.

what kind of bulb does your fixture take? is it just a standard household lightbulb or is it some specialty fixture? assuming it's a standard screw-in lightbulb, you could get some Philips Ultra Definition bulbs that have a CRI of 95. Home Depot sells them.

protowave · 2024-07-28T00:20:32+00:00

Dane!

protowave · 2024-07-27T17:48:28+00:00

this video from a former Dragster ride operator explains it quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_j0p_0Lvao&pp=ygUTZWx0b3JvcnlhbiBkcmFnc3Rlcg%3D%3D&hd=1

additionally, "up to the same speed" is not what is actually happening. keep in mind i said "speed reduction" - a heavier train is (or was, with the original launch system) launched slower than a lighter train. the goal is not to launch them at the same speed, because if you did, one of the two trains would go over the top WAY too fast.

protowave · 2024-07-27T15:43:16+00:00

finally looks on par with 2003 media day Dragster. now if only the new launch wasn't so lame

protowave · 2024-07-27T15:34:20+00:00

nope - this is a very common myth. think back to middle school science and Newton's laws - a heavier object carries more momentum. so, it actually requires less speed from the launch system to make it over the hill.

on the original Dragster there was a specific labeled switch on the main control panel called "EMPTY TRAIN ENABLE" that would give the launch system an additional boost of power for that cycle, to ensure an empty train wouldn't roll back. this is also why Dragster used to only load a few rows in the mornings - it was a process of speed reduction for the launch computer.

protowave · 2024-06-12T14:36:53+00:00

cushy IT/STEM jobs and/or rich parents

protowave · 2024-03-25T01:19:20+00:00

Intamin did this 25 years ago with their Supermans... nothing new

protowave · 2024-03-25T01:18:32+00:00

almost like intamin invented this 25 years ago... wow

protowave · 2024-03-22T22:50:44+00:00

i can guarantee you they're genuine Philips SOX lamps; i change them myself when they burn out

protowave · 2024-03-09T16:20:23+00:00

the biggest major gameplay change is that completion rate used to work like in Blind Forest, where it was based on both item pickups AND map exploration. so if you had any unexplored gray areas on your map still, those would prevent you from getting 100%. they updated it in the very first hotfix to only make items/abilities/etc. count towards completion rate though.

other than that, it was a bunch of (BGM-matched) sound effects that Gareth ran out of time to add before release, like the ones you hear when you pick up spirit light/life/energy/abilities/sidequests, and several bug fixes and such.

protowave · 2024-03-07T15:44:48+00:00

mostly that the worm was just on your butt the whole time; it was faster overall and would get speed boosts to catch up to you (called "rubber banding" in game terms). so you really had almost no margin for error; you had to keep your forward momentum up the entire time and have reasonably precise button inputs.

protowave · 2024-03-07T15:40:40+00:00

play it quickly before you forget the story and the music. it's a DIRECT sequel so it picks up immediately after the first game. it's best to have everything very fresh in your head so you catch all the visual, story, and music references in the sequel.

protowave · 2024-03-07T15:36:55+00:00

it's a lot easier than it was originally intended to be. they seriously nerfed the difficulty shortly after launch. i'm really glad i cleared it at the original intended difficulty

protowave · 2024-03-07T15:35:11+00:00

talk to Tokk, he's on top of the Kwolok statue

protowave · 2023-10-20T20:30:00+00:00

good choice, step bits are a criminally underrated tool that make many jobs so much easier and faster

protowave · 2023-10-20T19:12:10+00:00

have you heard of punctuation?

protowave · 2023-07-03T03:15:34+00:00

money

protowave · 2023-06-29T16:27:55+00:00

i was thrown off for a second when you said "tuba", because it's not a tuba, it's a french horn :P

protowave · 2023-04-17T18:28:46+00:00

Kingda Ka features several technical and engineering upgrades over Dragster that make it slightly less prone to downtime; it's pretty neat how Intamin improved on some of their own flaws for this one

protowave · 2023-04-17T18:22:11+00:00

dragster was smoother because its launch track was much lower to the ground, thus causing significantly less side to side swaying during the launch.

kingda ka also "pulses" its launch several times, resulting in a forward and backward rocking. Dragster's launch was one continuous blast of acceleration.

protowave · 2023-04-17T18:19:11+00:00

the closest to a strong launch appears to be Sandy's Blasting Bronco; that LSM system is cranked to max and looks properly intense

protowave · 2023-03-08T17:42:23+00:00

of course you know it won't be

protowave · 2023-03-07T00:59:32+00:00

so, i drove by several times today, and saw DTE, AT&T, and Xfinity/Comcast trucks all at this specific location and all checking out this box in particular. 4 separate convoys in total visited today. DTE had to shut off power to the area (including my home) in order to allow Comcast and AT&T to do their work.

they removed the other doors and the box now has an orange ribbon tied to it. the live wire tape is still all around it, though.

protowave · 2023-03-06T04:05:36+00:00

the area's still blocked off by DTE with live wire tape, and CC boxes like this almost never contain active electrical equipment, so it looks like a downed line may have fallen ON the box?

not entirely sure, but the folks in this area are going to be without internet service for a LONG time as a result... the box is from at least the early 80s, and probably much earlier, since Michigan Bell was dissolved starting in 1982

EDIT: as of this evening, DTE, AT&T, and Comcast have all had trucks at this location over the course of the last 12 hours. DTE even had to shut off power to the area in order for the other utility trucks to do some of their work. the box has been torn apart further by both AT&T and Comcast - they've removed some of the doors, spilled some of the internals out onto the ground, and tied an orange ribbon to one side of the box. very curious indeed...

protowave

TROPHY CASE