Wayne Chirnside wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:



RJT> That was another thing I used to tell people,  we'd get a big rush each
RJT> spring,  which was the busy season,  not winter as most people 
RJT> thought.  They'd come in at different times for bike,  mower,  and 
RJT> marine batteries and thought that taking it out and "putting it 
RJT> someplace warm" was a good thing.  I told 'em over and over to put 
RJT> a small charger on it once a month or so,  and that'd make a big 
RJT> difference.

WC> A motorcycle battery won't last more than a couple of months that 
WC> way and in my experience needs a steady low trickle charge.

Topping it off once a month or so should be okay too.

WC> Sulfuric acid creeps and putting the battery on concrete a common 
WC> enough mistake causes discharge.

I don't believe that,  it's "urban legend" or somesuch.

WC> I always wiped my batteries down and put them on plastic.

Cleaning them helps.  But batteries don't tend to get too messy on the
outside unless fluid levels are too high,  another real common mistake. 
People over-fill them.  I have not had a problem at all in the car,  and
had a problem in the truck only once,  where the cause was a bad regulator
that caused the battery to see a charging voltage of up around 16-18v, 
making it boil pretty good.  I corrected the situation and cleaned it up, 
put the fluid to the proper levels,  and haven't had any problems since. 
This is also a battery that I bought for a car that I had before the truck
was even started,  bought back in 1998 or thereabouts.  Still starts it up
just fine,  too...

WC> RE:Nic-Cads

RJT> I have the bad ones around here someplace,  and will probably get 
RJT> around to trying that out eventually.  Used to use them all the 
RJT> time, with a walkman and a small flashlight,  but I haven't used 
RJT> either of them in ages.

WC> I want one of those ten white LED flashlights that can go for weeks
WC> on alkalines. 

I haven't seen those yet.  Got a 2-D-cell Maglite here,  and that's it.

WC> High winds and lightning puts the power out here too often. OTOH 
WC> it's getting close to turning on the AC with the ceiling fan going 
WC> on in the next few days.

Hah!  Still way too cold,  here,  with temps for the coming week looking to
be in the 20s-30s range for the most part,  maybe breaking 40 one day.  And
they just announced a big jump in the price of natural gas,  which is what
we're currently heating with.

RJT> transfers even easier,  once you get things set up...

WC> I can move the machine next to the 98 box too and slaving the drive 
WC> is no big deal as I've two spare dual IDE cables.  NEC tower annoys 
WC> though as with 5 bays, one for floppy, only the two that currently 
WC> have a hard drive or CD-Rom in them fit standard mounting hardware.
WC> They went out of their way to make the 2 open bays not have a
WC> suitable place to affix a drive.  What's the sense in that?

RJT> Proprietary crap!  That sort of thing drives me crazy,  too.  The
RJT> Compaq I've mentioned in here from time to time has its main drive just
RJT> sorta sitting there in the bottom of the case -- it's a 5.25" bay,  and
RJT> I had no mounting kit handy,  so...

WC> I've the mounting kit it's just that NEC punched out the chassis 
WC> where it would be attached so I can't even drill the holes.

This reminds me of an install I did way back when that had a somewhat
proprietary machine,  a C= pc of some sort,  as I recall.  The drive in
question was one of those early Seagate MFM drives,  and I mounted it in
there with some of that double-stick tape.  That stuff *will* deteriorate
over time, particularly when there's a source of heat there,  but I'm sure
it at least outlasted the machine.    Two strips of it along the
bottom of the drive were strong enough that I could grab the top of the
drive and pick the machine up...    :-)

WC> The drive in the bottom fits the 3.5 hard drive screwed from the
WC> bottom and the CD drive has the proper attachment points but the
WC> two bays below it though empty have no such points of attachment,
WC> in fact the metal there has been punched out.

WC> Gotta love this dog can't think of anything you coud possibly 
WC> improve upon except maybe him giving himself a bath ;-)

RJT> Heh.  :-)

WC> Well as it is he walks into the tub without so much as a command 
WC> but he has so far refused to remove his own collar,  soap or dry 
WC> himself off!

Better than that Husky my brother has,  who runs and hides when she thinks
you want her to go into the bathroom,  that dog has a real problem with
water for some reason.

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