SASQ

[vampirebunbun]

OR Small Answers to Small Questions

I got this idea of a thread in WGARS. I'd like this to be a thread where you can come and ask a question that you expect to be answered in only a couple posts. Obviously, this thread not being in WGARS, I'd like to keep the questions to actual honest ones. Just things that you may be wondering about, but either don't have the time, or are too lazy to research on your own.

As for the answers, try to keep it simple, with links to reliable sites being nice; and if there is already a post answering, don't put a new one up, unless you have information that is vital to the answer.

So, no questions designed to start huge debates, and try to keep the posts to a minimum.

To my shame, I do not have a question at this time to start off this thread, so I will let other, more inquisitive minds have that honor.

[Wireball]

My mind is all over the place, and most of the questions I have are unsuitable for this format (perhaps I should start a new thread occasionally :) but finally I hit upon a question that perhaps can be answered briefly. Oh, and hooray for new topics to remedy the post-Christmas New Year's posting slump!

How do they standardize the volume level in the telephone system? You can pick up a phone and talk to almost anyone, and the majority of the time count on the volume being at a comfortable conversational level. A bit of fluctuation here and there, but certainly nothing like computer voice communications, which, with their adjustable volume controls and inadequate mic preamps, are all over the place.

Alternative question - where can I find surge protectors utilizing Silicon Avalanche Diodes (SADs) instead of MOVs? Since MOVs burn out after an indeterminate number of surges, whereas SADs last many many years, and I'd rather not have to be replacing my surge protectors or resoldering the MOVs every year. I've looked, but every surge protector (consumer-oriented, at least) I've come across seems to use the cheaper MOVs, instead of SADs.

Edit Sun 8-Jan: Great suggestions! I particularly like buying equipment surplus or used, so I'll make a point of watching out for companies doing that. Thanks :)

[Novae D'Arx]

Don't know much about telephony, but I'll take a crack at that one. Basically, the voltage in telephone lines is highly regulated - if 1mV = 1dB (not, by any means, a real figure), they you'd damn well better make sure that surges are corrected for. Otherwise, you'd blow out somebody's handset every time there was an electrical storm.

For more detailed info, check out a phreaking site or two.

As for getting an industrial-strength surge protector: Do what my roommate and I used to do. Wait for a tech company or ISP to go out of business (more often than you'd think), then buy up some of their surge protectors. Just about guaranteed they'll have 'em, and that they'll be selling them far, far below list price. Hell, we got a 10/100 16-port hub and router for like $20 each in 1999. Serious LAN parties at my place after that. Also a good way to get computers on the cheap - even if you don't want a full setup, you can cannibalize them for parts for redundancy or build your own.

[Merin Sun]

Does cutting split ends on hair really make your hair grow a bit faster?

[Surgoshan]

Nope. Hair grows at the root. The stuff you see is dead, and has been for quite some time. Cutting a split end just eliminates the split end.

In a similar vein, shaving does NOT cause the shaved hair to grow in thicker.

[Silly Green Monkey]

I've been wondering about that, and knowing that the body responds to stress by strengthening the part under stress, it doesn't make sense that constantly yanking on hair would have no effect on it whatsoever.

I'm thinking that stress response is secondary to other internal factors. During puberty, the hairs are already getting longer and thicker, so maybe adding stress will increase the change in the hairs. Conversely, shaving during a time of hairs becoming fine and short might only hasten their disappearance.

[NgauNgau]

Why are fried chicken, grape soda and watermelons stereotypically African-American foods? Where did this stereotype come from?

I started coming across all these jokes about the stereotypes, and I took them for granted for a long time. But the watermelon one baffled me, as the first time I heard about it was in this comic.

[Malice]

The fried chicken and watermelon sound like they come from slavery days. Those're country foods, southern foods, the kind of thing that would be heaped on every plate at a home-cooked luncheon.

The grape soda sounds more like an inner-city blacks thing.

[Kea]

This one's probably a long shot, but.
Why won't InDesign recognize Chinese fonts that have Chinese names, when Microsoft Word does? (I've enabled Asian languages support on Windows XP.) I downloaded these fonts that work fine in MS Word, but InDesign doesn't seem to know they exist.

[Hagadorn]

Possible answer to the above question:

Cause microsoft actually DO try and provide a stable and adaptive (if somewhat moody) program. Not saying the other guys don't, but microsoft has alot of resources, contacts and worldwide employee base to pull on.

Short question:

Why hasn't america moved with the times and fully adopted the metric system? Why cling to the outdated and different imperial systems (yes, its a different Imperial system to the one the british used to use). WHY!?

[Malice]

Short question:

Why hasn't america moved with the times and fully adopted the metric system? Why cling to the outdated and different imperial systems (yes, its a different Imperial system to the one the british used to use). WHY!?

Because most Americans think in "standard". From our sense of distance to our sporting arenas, everything is measured out in standard. The latter would be a real bitch to change (can you imagine changing the nice, rounded length of football fields to 91.44 meters?), and the former would take generations. Probably 3 of them before most everybody got used to the new system. And for what? The metric system is a little easier to learn, because it's base 10; and it is what most other people use. But conversion seems to work fine in US/world trade, doesn't it? I don't really see the need for such a huge project that won't really come out with any benefits--besides making America a little less unique.

If you can't tell, that's not supposed to really be a benefit.

[Surgoshan]

We do it because we're used to it.

And it wouldn't take generations. I'm pretty sure Australia managed to switch over in about one.

[Hagadorn]

Generations is fine, teach it alongside the imperial, its an easy system. we teach it in the 2nd year of school over here. Unqiue? America already is unique. You got bush , thats plenty unqiue (SPACE TERRORISTS!! cookie for reference)

SQ: What is lint?

[Ale]

Generations is fine, teach it alongside the imperial, its an easy system. we teach it in the 2nd year of school over here. Unqiue? America already is unique. You got bush , thats plenty unqiue (SPACE TERRORISTS!! cookie for reference)

But I liiiiiike the feet system. Memorising(sp?) and playing with our american system improved my memory and intrested me in base # besides base 10. Metric just bored me as I learned it in 2 days and then went back to making my own counting system in base 42.

Small question: How do you spell memorising?
Small question 2: Is there a reason memorisng's so close mesmerising(sp?)
Small question 3: How do you spell mesmerising?
Small question 4: How many species of Cockroaches are there really? I'm not sure if I believe the back of my bug spray.
Rhetorical question: Why can't I spell today?

[AxelFendersson]

Small question: How do you spell memorising?

Depending on dialect, personal preference and/or house style (if you're writing for publication), either memorising or memorizing. I spell it memorising.

Small question 2: Is there a reason memorising's so close mesmerising(sp?)

Well, memory and mesmerism aren't related. Memory comes, via Norman French, from the latin memoria, while Mesmerism comes from the name of an 18th Century Austrian physician, Friedrich Anton Mesmer.

But they both end in -ising (or -izing) because that's the standard way of forming a verb from a noun in English.

Small question 3: How do you spell mesmerising?

Depending on dialect, personal preference and/or house style (if you're writing for publication), either mesmerising or mesmerizing. I spell it mesmerising.

Small question 4: How many species of Cockroaches are there really? I'm not sure if I believe the back of my bug spray.

Wikipedia says about 3,500.

Oh, and Imperial units are archaic, outdated, and unsuitable for any serious application. The American refusal to fully adopt the SI system is due partly to xenophobia, and mostly to bloody-mindedness.