I know, a full battery reads 12.8 open circuit but ...

When amp meters disagree with a hydrometer, they get rapped across the knuckles and get reset to 0

Not about to mollycoddle a nickle and dime battery with an amp hour counter.

I do download bank info on occasion, load into a spreadsheet and check the banks math.

My apologies to the OP - please come back to continue contributing to the forum and learning from it! What you see happening here occurs often and is called a segway or non sequitur in the conversation. Your original post was an appropriate and excellent issue to discuss. :)

mena661 wrote:
It doesn't work like that PN. If the bank has no record of your account because of a solar flare, there will be no records at all or there will be partial records or there will be no working servers with good records or there will be partially working servers with partial records or access to those records could be slow because of panicky people. I could go on. The "Internet" is a repository of information. It's also an avenue of communication. When I say everything uses the internet, I'm not exaggerating. There is an infrastructure to the internet and that infrastructure is used by everything from Amazon to email to phone calls to bank transactions. Probably the only thing that doesn't use the internet is TV (if you're using standard TV service and not streaming). I'm on wireless internet also. It's only wireless to the ISP then it connects to the internet backbone (infrastructure) which is a hardline. There is no wireless portion of the internet backbone.

I'm well aware of the Internet and how it works. I started out on the Internet with a PC Junior that I modified and haven't looked back. I worked in the electronics industry for over 32 years (analog chips for everything and digital chips for flat screen displays).

My beef with the Internet is philosophical and based on knowledge of the failure modes in the electronics world and on the social downsides to a world order becoming too devoid of personal experiences by substituting them with Internet experiences.

I stand by my position that the Internet is a tool that needs to be continued, expanded, and depended upon with discretion - which may not be happening. I hope that myself, my children, and my grandkids aren't around for the Internet downside(s) that may (will?) eventually come to be ... indeed, we all are probably caught up in some Internet negatives as we speak (or write!). :(

P.S. Mex ... please post in detail how and when amp hour meters are to be perodically calibrated so current and prospective users aren't lead astray about how magical these meters can seem to be.

Sounds like we got some Coast to Coast AM listeners here. If a solar flare shuts down the internet, I doubt anything will be good except gold and possibly cash.

Got newwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwws for y'all. Important data, including bank data is vaulted. Massive computers linked by fiber optics and protected by Faraday cages. The modus operendi is unknown to me, maybe updated 199 times a minute.

Vulnerable are Delta T transactions. ATM machines, POS machines, smaller business data storage and retrieval including financial.

System goes down, go to store "Will you take m VISA?

No!

Cash?

YES

Check?

YES

Come to a place where plastic is volatile. Here. You can not realize how screwed up your life gets when "La Red" the net, is down. You have money, oh yes, but you are destitute. Out of gas, out of food, no hotel, it's under a bridge time...

It's worse than relying on a volt meter for state of charge.

But then like a panhandler versus a financially comfortable individual

If the system should go down

Who suffers more?

I cannot afford to destroy my batteries. I love it when I see folks who can walk into a gambling casino, dump a few thousand, then turn around and complain about battery failures, and the cost of an amp hour meter. Fart Smellers they.

pnichols wrote:

However, when the bank says they have no record of my portfolio because of a solar flare or other excuse eliminating any record of my 1's and 0's on their servers ... then my lawyer and myself will say whooooaaaa, wait just a minute ... surprise/surprise ... I have this paper-trail of hardcopy affidavit statements you've (the bank) sent me over the years showing exactly what your (the bank's) blown servers used to have on them regarding my portfolio ... so pay up.

The Internet is just like any other tool ... it has a specific set of uses ... otherwise other tools are what should be used. Personally, I prefer satellite communications because the Internet is WAY too reliant on hardwiring (includes fiber optics) everywhere. FWIW, we even get the Internet into our residence via radio waves instead of wires (but not from satellites, yet, because of response latency).

It doesn't work like that PN. If the bank has no record of your account because of a solar flare, there will be no records at all or there will be partial records or there will be no working servers with good records or there will be partially working servers with partial records or access to those records could be slow because of panicky people. I could go on. The "Internet" is a repository of information. It's also an avenue of communication. When I say everything uses the internet, I'm not exaggerating. There is an infrastructure to the internet and that infrastructure is used by everything from Amazon to email to phone calls to bank transactions. Probably the only thing that doesn't use the internet is TV (if you're using standard TV service and not streaming). I'm on wireless internet also. It's only wireless to the ISP then it connects to the internet backbone (infrastructure) which is a hardline. There is no wireless portion of the internet backbone.

pnichols wrote:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/01/technology/security/car-hack/index.html

Whoever wrote that article is an idiot. Hack does not automatically mean total control via remote access.

Hmmmm ....?

It's really not quite that bad - only two pages if you're logged in. :B :B

Whoo boy, from voltage measurement to zombie hordes in just four pages, lol. :B

Way, way, off topic, but here goes -

mena661 wrote:
Pnich, if a solar flare keeps you from looking at your e-statement or paying a bill via credit/debit, other systems are not going to be available to process your payment either. Soooo the checks and the paper statements aren't really needed. Word of advice, EVERYTHING uses the "internet" AND it's been like that for about 25-30 years now.

Hmmmm .... if all/other systems aren't going to be available for me to pay my bills then I probably won't pay them.

However, when the bank says they have no record of my portfolio because of a solar flare or other excuse eliminating any record of my 1's and 0's on their servers ... then my lawyer and myself will say whooooaaaa, wait just a minute ... surprise/surprise ... I have this paper-trail of hardcopy affidavit statements you've (the bank) sent me over the years showing exactly what your (the bank's) blown servers used to have on them regarding my portfolio ... so pay up.

The Internet is just like any other tool ... it has a specific set of uses ... otherwise other tools are what should be used. Personally, I prefer satellite communications because the Internet is WAY too reliant on hardwiring (includes fiber optics) everywhere. FWIW, we even get the Internet into our residence via radio waves instead of wires (but not from satellites, yet, because of response latency).

You're kindof right about EVERYTHING using the Internet ... someday we all may be victims of a solar flare when we can't even get out of town in our RVs to escape the resulting zombie hordes because of this:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/01/technology/security/car-hack/index.html

And I thought I was neurotic! LOL! Some stuff is paper, some is electronic. Wife likes paper cause it reminds her to pay, I don't see me forgetting to pay a bill (when does one NOT have a bill to pay?) so no paper for me. Pnich, if a solar flare keeps you from looking at your e-statement or paying a bill via credit/debit, other systems are not going to be available to process your payment either. Soooo the checks and the paper statements aren't really needed. Word of advice, EVERYTHING uses the "internet" AND it's been like that for about 25-30 years now.