There's a Sucker Converted Every Minute 395
Ponca City, We love you writes "Once the US converts from analog to digital broadcasting next February, those who receive their signals over the air will need a converter box for older, non-digital models. Government-approved converter boxes sell for $60 or less and a government-issued $40 rebate coupon is available for the asking but that hasn't stopped companies like the Ohio-based Universal TechTronics from offering supposedly free converter boxes. The gimmick: the box is free, as long as you pay $88 for a five-year warranty, plus $9.30 shipping. Universal TechTronics seems to specialize in 'high-tech' products of questionable value, marketing the Cool Surge portable air cooler, 'a work of engineering genius from the China coast so advanced that no windows, vents, or freon are needed' that uses the same energy as a 60-watt light bulb. It works by blowing a stream of air over two ice packs that you have previously frozen in your freezer. What's the best tech scam you've heard of lately?"
Kinoki Foot Pads (Score:5, Informative)
I've seem some scams recently, but the most amazing has to be Kinoki Foot Pads [youtube.com]. Let's ignore the fact that my understanding is the word "kinoki" is meaningless and the characters they use in the ad don't even read "kinoki".
I'm used to all sorts of pseudo science in TV ads, but this one is downright amazing. Did you know tree roots are used to dispose of chemicals, and that my feet are actually tree roots? I'm so glad someone told me. I especially love the list of conditions that these things can cure. Even if they weren't fake and actually would detoxify you, I seriously doubt it would even touch many of those conditions. I seem to remember reading someone wrapped carrots with the pads just to prove that anything will make them blacken from "toxins".
The ad id just amazing. I was dumbfounded the first time I saw it. Diet pill ads look like something out of the Mayo Clinic in comparison.
Another scam (Score:3, Informative)
The 'coupon' you can get that covers 40 bucks of the price expires. Sometimes before people can actally find a converter box.
Re:Carbon credits (Score:5, Informative)
Best Tech Scam (Score:5, Informative)
Well, the cell phone antenna booster "stickers" were probably the single best tech scam. It combined laughably ineffective "technology" with the always successful price-so-low-it-doesn't-matter-if-they-don't-work.
More recently, I'm still astounded by the number of "BOOST YOUR MPG!" schemes that involve additives or random crap shoved in your air intake. I especially love the accusations from promoters that the auto manufacturers are in it with the oil companies. GM and Ford are both facing a very real possibility of chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the word is that Cerberus is quietly readying a giant hammer of doom over at Chrysler. If all it took was a $2 piece of metal to get 9 more mpg out of a Malibu, don't you think they'd have done it by now? See the cell phone boosters for the basic premise: if you only charge $40 for one of these things, people won't be too pissed when they find out that it doesn't work.
There are many MLM schemes that differentiate themselves from the regular Amway crowd by pitching websites that MAKE YOU MONEY. I was actually approached by two different classmates about five years ago regarding the scheme, and it was so comically bad to anyone with any kind of tech knowledge that you couldn't help but laugh. Picture MLM combined with an Amazon-style referral bonus for online purchases. Now charge someone $400 to participate, and charge extra for adding basic things to their company website. Now make sure the websites resemble GeoCities circa 1997. Now we're talking!
My other favorite is the speaker scam, which someone tried to pull on me about two weeks ago (I hadn't heard of these for years). It's not really a tech scam, just your basic grift that happens to involve technology: an "installer" got an extra set of speakers/surround sound system/plasma TV accidentally loaded in his van for a big install job. Last time this happened, his boss reamed him a new one for not noticing in the first place, then sold them and kept the cash himself. Installer figures he'd "cut out the middleman" and you look like the kind of guy who knows good equipment. Usually they're selling actual speakers or receiver (the plasma scams generally involved an oven door in a box with a window), and they often have some custom-made audio magazine with their brand of speaker on the cover and a great review inside. You end up buying $20 worth of garbage for $200. Dogg Digital and Kirsch were the big names in the white van speaker scam years ago. Google them for an entertaining and depressing look at human nature.
Re:Why I wish I knew more science (Score:5, Informative)
The freezer removes heat from the icepack and dumps it into the room (plus extra, because of the work done). Then you take the icepack out of the freezer, put it in the "room cooling" device, where it takes heat from the room and puts it back into the icepack. Net result, your room is hotter than it was before. In order to get a net cooling effect, you have to dump the heat into a separate system that you don't care about (like outside). That's why air conditioners have vents to the outside.
Re:Another scam (Score:2, Informative)
Space punk is speaking out of his ass.
The coupons last for 90 days
You can get another one if you let it expire and only got 1 the first time around (you can get 2 per household)
The coupon lists several places locally where you can get a converter box. My listed 8, 4 Radio Shacks, 2 Wal-Marts, Camping World and a local shop (and a partridge in a pear tree).
I know for a fact Radio Shack and Wal-Mart have and have had them for awhile now.
https://www.dtv2009.gov/FAQ.aspx
Radio Shack [radioshack.com] also has a friendly page with info. They also have several models [radioshack.com] in stock online right now and did 4 months ago when I got my coupon.
Re:Kinoki Foot Pads (Score:5, Informative)
The cooler is not a scam (Score:3, Informative)
That type of cooler is called an evaporative or swamp cooloer [wikipedia.org]. It's no air conditioner, but it can be effective in some cases and is definitely not a tech scam.
Re:Kinoki Foot Pads (Score:4, Informative)
I think they are going for "ki no ki" (the first "ki" being "tree" and the second "spirit"; US Slashdot doesn't do Kanji, sorry) as in "spirit of trees" or some such. The word on the screen reads "kijoueki" which is "tree sap" (a bit redundant).
Car runs on water (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why I wish I knew more science (Score:5, Informative)
Be carefull about moving the radiator portion of the fidge outside. A heat pump has to work harder the more against the gradient the tempature differential you are tring to create is. The compressor system in your fridge is designed to run lots of short cycles, where as the AC unit on your house is designed for few longer cycles.
If you fridge can't pump much heat because its trying to exhaust the heat into an 90F+ world and its going to be running constantly. It might not last long in that configuration.
Re:Careful with the word "scam" (Score:4, Informative)
(It could be argued that warranties aren't worth the paper they're written on. If a warranty is not workable, that's the part you can call a scam, not the gimmicky pricing.)
I bought a pair of Zenith DTT901 converters with my government coupons after researching the experiences of other users on AVSForums. The Zenith DTT901 only comes with a 90 day warranty. Considering the out of pocket cost of $10 to $20 with the government coupon ($49 - $59 retail), and the reputation of the manufacturer, does the warranty really matter?
A 5 year warranty doesn't mean anything if the product is a piece of crap. Universal Techtronics brand isn't even on the CECB approved list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CECB [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CECB_units [wikipedia.org]
Re:Extended warranties suck except where they dont (Score:4, Informative)
I've learned my lesson, and now buy extended warranties on laptops. The extended warranty on my Macbook has more than paid for itself already, and in the end got me an upgrade to a model released a year and a half after I bought mine. Hopefully I don't need to use the warranty again, but it's very nice knowing I don't have to worry about it. Plus, while it might be cheaper to repair some things on your own, you really need to value your time on getting something fixed. How long does it take to find the parts, a place to fix it etc. How long will your item be out of commission. It's quite convenient to call one number and get a box to return the item in the next day.
Phil
Re:Why I wish I knew more science (Score:3, Informative)
Yes.
Yes it does take more energy.
The ice-pack AC would take more electricity, not less. You need to add in the electrical usage of the fans on the "super advanced product".
It's not greener. Not even close.
Your freezer just exchanges heat. From what I remember about thermodynamics, heat "moves to where it isn't". Basically, what that means is that you if put in one of those billion degree Hot Pockets straight out the microwave into the freezer and wait long enough all the heat energy in the Hot Pocket distributes itself throughout the rest of the freezer. The Hot Pocket reaches equilibrium with the rest of the items in the freezer. Now maybe there is more to it than that, such as specific heats and what not, but like I said these are the basics that I am remembering.
After you put the Hot Pocket into the freezer, the whole freezer might raise a couple degrees over time. Once it raises to a certain temperature, the freezer starts up and starts blowing air around inside of it and starts to "pump" the heat from inside the freezer to the outside. That is why if you feel the back of your refrigerator/freezer at some points it is hot.
In order to "pump" the heat it has to use something like freon, a compressor, electricity, etc. The amount of electricity used depends on how efficient the whole unit is. Guess what the difference is between your house A/C and a refrigerator? There is no difference. Your freezer works exactly the same way your A/C works on your house.
The amount of energy used to "pump" all the heat out of two large ice packs is more than likely where they are trying to get the 60-watt bulb analogy. That is not good at all, considering that we should all be buying the eco-friendly 13-watt equivalents now.
Basically, that "environmentally friendly super advanced tech" is just outsourcing the cooling job to your freezer and then those ice packs are "pulling" the heat out of the air thereby lowering the surrounding temperature for a short period of time. Depending on how good the insulation is for your house, the heat from the outside of your house will work it's way in and raise the temperature back up. What is even more absurd is that your freezer is in your house. So when you put the ice packs back in the freezer, that heat will be "pumped" out of the ice packs back into your kitchen.
Your house A/C actually acts like a relay for your kitchen refrigerator. Your refrigerator has a LOT better insulation on it and will keep heat from getting inside. It also pumps any existing heat (from the items) to the outside of the refrigerator raising the temperature of your house. Your house A/C then pumps that heat outside of your house.
So in this particular instance, that super product is actually passing the heat to your fridge which is then passing the heat to your house A/C. How on earth is that more efficient? It's not.
That was just a very good Marketing/Con job.
Re:Why I wish I knew more science (Score:4, Informative)
There's an old unit of measurement for heat transfer called 'tons'. You don't see it around much anymore, due to the switch to units like btu.hr or kWh. But it would be really useful to bring it back for things such as this.
"1 ton" is the amount of heat needed to melt 1 ton of ice in a 24 hour period,or about 3.5kWh.
Your typical car air-conditioner, or big-ish room A/C, has a cooling capacity of about 2.5 tons.
The reason a ton is useful is that people know how fast ice melts. They know (roughly) that a ton is a heckuva lot of ice. When you tell them your A/C is a "2 ton unit" they can then get an idea of how much energy is used - a lot more than just mentioning a figure in kW.
Sooooooo....How much ice is in those cooling blocks? A kilo or two?The only possible real effect is that it might temporarily de-humidify the air in your room a little due to condensation on the ice blocks, giving the impression that it is "somewhat" cooler.
Heat pumps work both ways. (Score:3, Informative)
Heat pumps can move far more heat than the energy they consume doing it. So much so, that people are now using them to warm their homes, as well as cool them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_source_heat_pump [wikipedia.org]
AC is expensive because people design houses and offices with giant windows which both let the sunshine in and keep the heat from getting out. And then build them in Texas.
Re:Why I wish I knew more science (Score:4, Informative)
Specifically, swamp coolers work because of the energy (heat) absorbed in the phase change from liquid water to vapour. Changing a litre of liquid water to vapour, with no temperature change, requires that siginificant energy must be added to the system.
Another way to look at it, is that a given quantity of liquid water has the same specific heat as a much cooler quantity of vapour.
Re:Why I wish I knew more science (Score:1, Informative)
The enthalpy of fusion of ice is 334J/g, or 334MJ per metric ton. 1Ws is 1J, so 1kWh is 3.6MJ. Melting a metric ton of ice (1000kg) takes 334J/g * 1000000g = 334MJ. That's 334/3.6 kWh = 93kWh, not including energy for warming the water and sublimation. A kilo of ice takes 0.09kWh to melt. That's 90Wh, minus 60Wh for the fan, leaves 30Wh. Melting about 3 kilos of ice this way every hour compensates the heat given off by one resting adult (and you get the air moving, which is probably more important).
Re:Another irrational MS Hater (Score:4, Informative)
You seem to be misreading my point, coward -- I use Windows every day, at work and home (where it runs under Parallels on my Macbook.) Lots of great software runs under it, the benefits are tangible and positive.
Vista, however, was marketed as a speedy, pretty *new* O/S. I'd expected a redesigned kernel to do better than it actually does.
I've been programming and using computers since teletype days (jr. high anyways.) That O/Sen require so much horsepower bothers me so. The Vista upgrade at work ran too slow on my core2duo Dell laptop, so I downgraded to XP, sadly. Yes, even OS X runs slower than I'd like. There's always Linux for compute-intensive jobs, however.
Re:Tech Scam (Score:3, Informative)
not for DVDs, but: http://dansdata.com/gz083.htm [dansdata.com]
Re:Why I wish I knew more science (Score:3, Informative)
As I understand it a swamp cooler does not pump any heat outside. When a liquid evaporates it cools itself and the surrounding substances. Thus a swamp cooler pumps dry outside air through wet surfaces. The moist air that comes out is cooler than the dry air that comes in. This cool air is then sent into the house.
Re:I like Vista (Score:5, Informative)
I used it for about 4 hours
Stop.
Back in the fricking' BETA, Vista would run fairly sluggishly for the first day or so, as it indexed every file you've got. Then, it ran more or less at a constant speed.
If you want to give Vista a test, give it at LEAST a week.
Now, it runs great, and uses about 2/3 the ram that was being consumed by Vista
Wait... you know enough to check the RAM, but not enough to do a google search for Vista using too much ram? [google.com].
(Hint: Vista is your memory manager. Why should it waste cycles loading and un-loading files so you can have "free" ram when it can just, you know, keep some in memory until a program actually asks for the space?)
Re:Careful with the word "scam" (Score:5, Informative)
The fun thing is they ship the crap stuff to the US and good stuff to EU because we require higher warranties. Here in Denmark for instance they are by law required to show that anything failing within the first 6 months is misuse by the customer. On top of that we get another 1 and a half year where any defects are still considered under warranty, but its up to the user to show that its a faulty product - however, in practice electronic shops grant a full 2 year warranty, with pretty much no questions asked due to the competition.
So any company selling hardware in Denmark has to take care the stuff works or they will end up having to replace it 2 years down the road, that means the good runs end up here. (A good example is the Samsung F8 series, any model destined for Scandinavia is labeled BDX and comes with on site service per default and are pretty much guaranteed to work for 5+ years)
Clarins Expertise 3P Spray (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What's the best tech scam you've heard of latel (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Carbon credits (Score:3, Informative)
It seems to violate the law of thermodynamics in that CO2 molecules are destroyed somehow, and proves itself to be very unscientific.
I suspect you of trolling, as I'm not sure anybody could really be that retarded. But just in case:
Most carbon credits come from emitting less. Say you've got an industrial plant with a big furnace, one that emits X CO2 per year. Then you improve energy efficiency, so you're now emitting X/2 CO2. You can just be happy with your contribution to terraforming earth. Or you can sell your emissions reduction to somebody else who has a harder time reducing their CO2 emissions. They will have bought a carbon credit.
Another approach is sequestration, where you take the CO2 and get rid of it. Some of this does involve destroying CO2 molecules, which is perfectly scientific. Destroying mass is pretty hard, and destroying atoms isn't easy, either. But destroying molecules is so easy that I'm doing it right now. For sequestration, one might destroy CO2 while creating calcium carbonate.
If you want to be less publicly idiotic in the future, try Wikipedia before posting:
Re:Bathtub Curve (Score:3, Informative)
Not so fast (Score:4, Informative)
I have NO IDEA on how fast ice melt, and I am a physicist (*). I bet whatever you want the average joe on the street won't have an idea either. As for knowing a ton is huge... Well no shit sherlock. Does that help your average A/C unit buyer ? Not at all. On the other hand, 3.5 kwh means I know how much I will pay on my next electricity bill (which are not counted in tons). And that tell 95% of the world how much energy will the A/C unit consume. And I bet your average US consumer would be more happier knowing one A/C consume 3.5 kwh than 2 tons for the same aforementioned reason. Combine that with a clearly defined efficiency and you are all set.
(*) but I can talk to your hours long about boring forbidden transition n-sigma*