diy solar

diy solar

Best Invention in the last 100 years that you use a lot

Modern phones with Internet connectivity.

Remember that scene in The Matrix where Neo downloaded martial arts skills into his brain? Watching YouTube a YouTube video about how to set something up, or to learn a skill is the same thing. We've gotten to the point where you can literally "download" skills off of the internet.

A few days ago I was at a job in the middle of nowhere, and I used my phone to look up a wiring diagram. Pretty common stuff nowadays. But think about that, really. 20 years ago I would have had to drive to a phone, and call someone. Now, I can access the "hive mind" from anywhere, and get information that was otherwise inaccessible to me, immediately.

When I was a kid, I remember having discussions at the dinner table about things that would be easily verified on online now. Are hyenas a type of dog? Without an encyclopedia, you'd never know. But anyone with a phone could tell you that, the taxonomical names, and the habitat they live in without doing anything more than moving a finger.

The internet lets you tap into the entire collective of human intelligence, and a mobile phone allows you to do that remotely, from pretty much anywhere.
 
I knew this answer with my earliest memories, copper wire. It carries energy. A lot of energy. Especially when placed between two terminals of a wall outlet!
 
So spoiled! At least I can still zero my gauge set with a screwdriver. ?
I carry 9 different refrigerants in my van… analog manifolds only have 3 charts on them, so I’d need to carry all the glide and dew charts without the sman4…
 
In your hand on every phone.
Yes sir now but started off in the car first. It used to always freak me out driving in a large city with printed directions and a map. Now I just listen for instructions.
 
started off in the car first

Hey, in my days we used to drive boats using compasses and sextants * :·)
When GPS became available, navigation (at sea) became a breeze. Even though the first units just gave you Lat/Long and you had to plot those on paper charts, and they weren't all that accurate (the US purposefully degraded GPS for non-military uses), it was like a godsend.

[EDIT] * And airport VORs, Loran-C (never worked) neighbouring boats' ladies' bikinis... well, those weren't much good for navigation, but if you got caught using the binoculars too much, you could say you were checking compass deviation against landmark alignments ;·) ... all sorts of stuff.
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Yes sir now but started off in the car first. It used to always freak me out driving in a large city with printed directions and a map. Now I just listen for instructions.
Heh, in he early 90’s there was a cdrom that had streets of the USA on it, I carried an inverter, and a laptop, and used that, then later added the gps dongle on the dashboard. Had a section where you could show the Satelite data very cool, I miss that, but love the convenience of the phone gps…
 
Heh, in he early 90’s there was a cdrom that had streets of the USA on it, I carried an inverter, and a laptop, and used that, then later added the gps dongle on the dashboard. Had a section where you could show the Satelite data very cool, I miss that, but love the convenience of the phone gps…
I grew up in the MapQuest era. Printing off a small map and directions before new drives. Of course I always had a map and compass in the car as well. I remember when you could text yourself the directions from MapQuest to an old Nokia, and I thought that was so neat.

I still think basic orienteering courses should be taught in school.
 
Hey Alexa, play some good ole rock & roll???
And turn off the lights ?
Siri take the night off. ?
 
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Internet
Microwave oven
Battery powered tools
Electric Shaver / Hair cutter
Mig Welder
Plasma Cutter
Electric Golf Cart
Chainsaw
Log Splitter
Tractor PTO
 
Not really... the toilet, hot and cold water in the home is a fairly recent convention.
Sure, Roman's had the aqueduct and bath houses... but individual living quarters didn't have anywhere close to what is the norm for us in the 21st century.
Yeah the Romans did have indoor private toilets and hot and cold water baths indoors 2000 years ago.
Only the very wealthy had it but they have unearthed them in houses from that period.
Not very different from 20th century progress, it started with only the very wealthy having it and worked it's way down to being affordable for just about everyone. The only difference in Rome was that they never got the trickle down.
 
Microwave
Jet Air Craft
Internet
Cell Phones
AC
TV

The most important Invention but it does not fit into the category of "I use a lot"
Penicillin / Antibiotics. (Probably the main reason most of us are still alive.)
 
Yeah the Romans did have indoor private toilets and hot and cold water baths indoors 2000 years ago.
Only the very wealthy had it but they have unearthed them in houses from that period.
Not very different from 20th century progress, it started with only the very wealthy having it and worked it's way down to being affordable for just about everyone. The only difference in Rome was that they never got the trickle down.
The history of plumbing as a whole dates all the way back to Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt is known for its many achievements, particularly in the field of construction, and plumbing is no exception. As early as 2500 B.C., the Egyptians developed copper pipes through which they built advanced bathrooms with irrigation and sewage inside the pyramids. Plumbing was so important to their culture that archaeologists have even discovered bathrooms in some tombs, which makes sense seeing as they viewed death as the passing of life from one stage to another. Even those in the afterlife need to use the toilet every now and then.

However… the masses didn’t have proper indoor Plumbing until around 1904… water towers, pressurized hot and cold on demand water, and flushing toilets… on every floor of every home… heck, the White House didn’t have plumbing above the first floor until Pierce took office in 1855.

Cesspools would be the closest thing to modern indoor plumbing… which had to be emptied regurly.

The invention of the septic tank is credited to a Frenchman named Jean-Louis Mouras around 1860. He was determined to invent a system of waste disposal that prevented you from having to go outside. In essence, he ran clay pipes from his home to a concrete tank outside. When the sewage overflowed, it was emptied into a cesspool, which was emptied by the city. After 10 years, he dug up his tank and discovered that it was mostly liquid waste inside. He began to perfect his design after this discovery, and in 1881, he was issued a patent, and this septic tank made its way to the United States in 1883.
Americans took the septic system idea and perfected it. Made of concrete or steel, these septic tanks were emptied into drainage fields where Mother Nature finished the cleansing process. Eventually, concrete and steel tanks were failing due to rust and cracks. Plus, with urban areas in the United States growing faster than wastewater treatment plants could be built, it was imperative to fix the issues with septic tanks. With concerns over contaminated groundwater, septic tanks were further improved.

The first continuous use of chlorine in the United States for disinfection took place in 1908 at Boonton Reservoir (on the Rockaway River), which served as the supply for Jersey City, New Jersey.[118] Chlorination was achieved by controlled additions of dilute solutions of chloride of lime (calcium hypochlorite) at doses of 0.2 to 0.35 ppm. The treatment process was conceived by Dr. John L. Leal and the chlorination plant was designed by George Warren Fuller.[119] Over the next few years, chlorine disinfection using chloride of lime were rapidly installed in drinking water systems around the world

So…

Like it or not, modern indoor plumbing to everybody remotely close to what we use today… is an invention of the 20th century. Maybe mid to late 19th century…
 
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