Questions & Answers

[BonitoDeMadrid]

(Didn't see a thread like this anywhere, so I thought it'll be ok. And this is not related to the PWeb FAQ, because, well, the questions there relate only to PWeb)

People with questions (general questions)- post them here, and people with answers reply! (Please). Any question you want to post that isn't related to other threads.

So, I'll begin: If I buy a laptop or an IPod Touch in the United States, intended for use outside of the States - it's still going to function properly, right? (please say yes)

[Wil]

Of course it will. You'll just have to buy an electrical power plug converter to charge it since many countries have different power plug designs and run on a different frequency and higher voltage than US power plugs. The iPod touch, however, will plug in to and charge on any USB port in the world as they all have the same 5v output.

[Jebus]

I confirm this, being a person who purchased an iPod Touch in the U.S. and uses it outside the U.S.

Wil has not lied to you... this time.

[Oliver Dale]

Except when you flush it, it will swirl the other way in the toilet.

[KennEnder]

Com'on Ollie, that's only if you go SOUTH of the equator. Everyone knows that! (Geesh!)

[Jayelle]

Okay, I have a question:

When you see those guys on the street where one is holding up a big ruler and one has a tripod thingy with what looks like an old-timey video camera on it - and they're both dressed like construction workers- what are they doing?
I know it has something to do with surveying or engineering or something, but I honestly have no clue what or why.




and.....go!

ETA: an image for reference.

[Wil]

Going just by that picture, from what it looks like, since I've used one before, and what little I know of it:

They are measuring, with that device, the elevation between two points. The tripod is simply a lens, like a scope on a gun, with obvious cross hairs on it. Below it, it sits on an adjustable swivel mount with two to four levels (the tubes with liquid and a bubble in them, so that when the bubble is between the two lines on the tube, it is "level" with the ground) on it so that you can level the lensing portion of the device. Another person stands some distance away with a pole marked with lines in some form of measurement (feet, meters, perhaps something smaller for more accuracy). When you look through the scope at the pole, the pole is "0" exactly at the height of the lense. So, if you look through the scope and you are at the "1" line, above the zero, you have a one foot rise in elevation, assuming the pole is marked in feet.

Or so it looks like.

[Oliver Dale]

Wil's got it. They are indeed surveyors. The wiki article on this is pretty satisfactory, I find: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying

[locke]

do any fonts have a proper capital I or do they all have I's that just look like lowercase l's?

answer apparently the pweb default font does.

which I think is verdana.

[Bean_wannabe]

Should be any serif font will have proper 'I's, whereas any sans-serif font won't

[Rei]

Mind you, this font is sans serif and it does this capital I.

[Bean_wannabe]

Well, there goes my theory