St. escribió:
>     Yeah, the same as my old Rover 820, dinged slightly on the nearside 
> passenger door, (grrr) but at 14 years old and with only 48,000 *original* 
> miles on the clock, I simply laugh at the broken down newbies on the 
> motorway. They don't make 'em like they used to!  :)

We recently changed our car (well, bought a new one, didn't get rid of 
the old one yet). Old car is one year younger than me (16) and has 65000 
KM. Not miles, kilometers.

My dad considered hacking the clock to *increase* it, otherwise people 
won't believe it's true and would think we hacked it to *decrease* it :)

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Stephen wrote:
>> Heh, I probably wouldn't use an Alienware laptop if one were given to me 
>> (well, I might use it, but I probably wouldn't enjoy it).  Last 
>> Alienware laptop I used got so hot it hurt my legs and its battery life 
>> was so horrid that they should have just left the battery out of the design.
> 
> We must read different books but I do remember that laptop :)

Ohhhh yes, it was a monster.

I got to take my friend's apart once.  He was having serious issues with 
heat dissipation (as in, it wasn't happening at all and his processor 
was hitting temperatures of well over 70C in minutes) so we ripped it 
open, cleaned the dust out of the heatpipe system, cleaned the vents, 
put on some Arctic Silver 5, and threw it back together.  I found out 
that they have an actual socket 478 motherboard in them, at least in the 
earlier designs (they might have switched to a mobile socket type by 
now, who knows).  That thing had a full hyperthreaded Northwood Pentium 
4 3.2GHz in it...completely ridiculous.

The thing completely died a few months after we did that, only lasting 
two years.  I sincerely hope that the newer ones are better than that.

>> My laptop is rather large (hurray, 17" screen!), but it doesn't have a 
>> full-sized keyboard and all.  That would just be excessive. :P
> 
> I don't know about that. It makes a big difference to me.

Oh yeah, no doubt.

I rather like the previous keyboard the Dell used.  My favorite part 
about it is that it puts ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn in the same 
arrangement as they are on a standard PS/2-style keyboard, using 
half-height keys, above the backspace key.  They also have larger arrows 
than most laptops -- almost full-sized but not quite.  All three of the 
Dells that I use regularly -- my personal machine, my work machine, and 
my mother's machine -- all use that keyboard.

Unfortunately, Dell wound up switching to a different keyboard for their 
newer notebooks (at least the newer Inspirons).  Ah well...

>> Also, pics please.  I'd like to see your little goliath.
> 
> Sorry, no can do. It is a K8T800 motherboard if that helps?

K8T800 is the chipset on the board, actually; it's probably used in both 
mobile and desktop applications.

It does tell me that it's you're using a 64-bit AMD processor, though, 
probably a single-core Athlon 64. :)

> Thanks for that. I think I lost track when they went to 16 bit :)

No problem. :)

I love talking about geeky stuff.

> And the lens don't forget the lens.

That was included with my camera.  $550 paid for a kit containing the 
camera, a lens, some software, USB->mini-USB cable, a battery, a battery 
charger, and the manual.

All I had to buy was the SD card and a bag.

>> Ah well, I'm still going to be in Tampa for about a month and a week, so 
>> it's all good.
> 
> It sounds so exotic :)

The appeal wore off already. :)

Tampa reminds me a lot of Boardman, OH, in a lot of ways.  Even so, I'm 
not about to complain about the weather down here.

Let's just say, my parents are dealing with this:
http://tinyurl.com/yq9alg

I'm "suffering" through this:
http://tinyurl.com/23espb

(both TinyURLs point to accuweather.com)

> That is a long course it must cover a lot?

Yeah, we go over quite a bit.  They also drill a lot of stuff into our 
heads.  Lots of hands-on stuff, soldering to TVs, VCRs, and such, making 
sure our equipment isn't too obvious, doing a little bit of quick 
paperwork...it's kinda fun, really.

We're also covering two different systems, hence the eight week training 
time.

I've only shocked myself twice so far (low voltage, low amperage...no 
worries). ;]

> Is it a campus and do you get out at night? :)

Yessir, and oh yes.

I'm in the campus in Oldsmar, FL.  Here's a night shot of it:

http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek04/tw1119/1119aiafl_6nielsen_b.jpg

The part that's sort of rough is that my class hours are 5pm-2am.  Very eww.

Ah well, I have but five weeks left. =)

-- 
-Ian

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> 
> povray.off-topic.fan.haskell.bork.bork.bork
> povray.off-topic.haskel-vs-c++.flame.flame.flame

Aaaahh, with Seamonkey checking the groups to subscribe ain't enough -
you'll also have to refresh them manually. That's why I didn't find them
earlier :p.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
   http://www.zbxt.net
      aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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On Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:08:53 -0500, Ian Burgmyer <spe### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

 
>> We must read different books but I do remember that laptop :)
>
>Ohhhh yes, it was a monster.

There is a generation gap here :) I thought Alienware was a super duper OS from
"elsewhere" :)

>I got to take my friend's apart once.  

When I get a new one I intend to strip down my laptop and clean it till it dies
:)

>
>> And the lens don't forget the lens.
>
>That was included with my camera.  $550 paid for a kit containing the 
>camera, a lens, some software, USB->mini-USB cable, a battery, a battery 
>charger, and the manual.
>
>All I had to buy was the SD card and a bag.

I meant that the production costs of the camera should have a large proportion
allocated to the lens.

>>> Ah well, I'm still going to be in Tampa for about a month and a week, so 
>>> it's all good.
>> 
>> It sounds so exotic :)
>
>The appeal wore off already. :)
>

LOL

>Tampa reminds me a lot of Boardman, OH, in a lot of ways.  Even so, I'm 
>not about to complain about the weather down here.
>
>Let's just say, my parents are dealing with this:
>http://tinyurl.com/yq9alg
>
>I'm "suffering" through this:
>http://tinyurl.com/23espb
>
>(both TinyURLs point to accuweather.com)
>

I'm sure that you can cope :)

>> That is a long course it must cover a lot?
>
>Yeah, we go over quite a bit.  They also drill a lot of stuff into our 
>heads.  Lots of hands-on stuff, soldering to TVs, VCRs, and such, making 
>sure our equipment isn't too obvious, doing a little bit of quick 
>paperwork...it's kinda fun, really.
>
>We're also covering two different systems, hence the eight week training 
>time.
>
>I've only shocked myself twice so far (low voltage, low amperage...no 
>worries). ;]

Respect! :)
Who cares about the voltage? It only hurts. :-)
It certainly wakens you up, though.
"Here and now".

"Here and now".
:)


>> Is it a campus and do you get out at night? :)
>
>Yessir, and oh yes.

:-)

>I'm in the campus in Oldsmar, FL.  Here's a night shot of it:
>
>http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek04/tw1119/1119aiafl_6nielsen_b.jpg
>
>The part that's sort of rough is that my class hours are 5pm-2am.  Very eww.
>

They seem strange hours for a college, to me. I can't believe that studding at
those times would be conducive to understanding. 
I would need to go into "Nightshift" mode. How do you cope with that?

>Ah well, I have but five weeks left. =)

A day less now :)

Regards
	Stephen

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Stephen wrote:
>>> We must read different books but I do remember that laptop :)
>> Ohhhh yes, it was a monster.
> 
> There is a generation gap here :) I thought Alienware was a super duper OS from
> "elsewhere" :)

It kinda sounds like it could be, but no.  They're just really beefy 
computers. :)

>> I got to take my friend's apart once.  
> 
> When I get a new one I intend to strip down my laptop and clean it till it dies
> :)

It's always good to strip them down and blow the dust out of them from 
time to time.  They don't like dust.

Oh yeah, if you do take it apart, I can almost guarantee that you'll 
wind up with stray screws when you put it back together.  I swear, 
laptops have dynamic screw holes; they reposition themselves at will 
just to mess with your head.

> I meant that the production costs of the camera should have a large proportion
> allocated to the lens.

Oh, right.

Now that you mention it, I did end up pricing lenses and...yeah.  Quite 
expensive.

>> I've only shocked myself twice so far (low voltage, low amperage...no 
>> worries). ;]
> 
> Respect! :)
> Who cares about the voltage? It only hurts. :-)
> It certainly wakens you up, though.

Haha, yes.

Thankfully, not a whole lot of amperage in the area that I was working 
on.  Had I touched the power supply while the thing was plugged in, 
well, I might be in trouble.

What's kind of funny about low voltage sources is that they don't even 
hurt, really.  About all you feel are your muscles spasming.  Depending 
on the voltage and all that, you might feel cramps later on (that 
happened all up my arm on my first time, only in my hand for a brief 
time on my second).

>> The part that's sort of rough is that my class hours are 5pm-2am.  Very eww.
> 
> They seem strange hours for a college, to me. I can't believe that studding at
> those times would be conducive to understanding. 

It's not really a college, it's job training.  This is basically my job 
right now.  I can't complain, I get paid to come here. :)

> I would need to go into "Nightshift" mode. How do you cope with that?

It took about a week for my body to adjust, I'd say.  I just started 
going to bed later and later until I'd gotten myself on a 4am-12pm sleep 
schedule (or something along those lines).

It actually took longer for my stomach to adapt.  When I first started I 
suddenly started getting a voracious appetite  Thankfully, it's curbed 
itself back down to normal now. :)

-- 
-Ian

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On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:15:10 -0500, Ian Burgmyer <spe### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

>
>It's always good to strip them down and blow the dust out of them from 
>time to time.  They don't like dust.

Oh! Yes they do :)

>Oh yeah, if you do take it apart, I can almost guarantee that you'll 
>wind up with stray screws when you put it back together.  I swear, 
>laptops have dynamic screw holes; they reposition themselves at will 
>just to mess with your head.

There is a secret to that you know?
I've worked with a few ex-forces types and you can imagine what a couple of lest
over nuts and bolts mean on a war plane :)


>>> I've only shocked myself twice so far (low voltage, low amperage...no 
>>> worries). ;]
>> 
>> Respect! :)
>> Who cares about the voltage? It only hurts. :-)
>> It certainly wakens you up, though.
>
>Haha, yes.
>
>Thankfully, not a whole lot of amperage in the area that I was working 
>on.  Had I touched the power supply while the thing was plugged in, 
>well, I might be in trouble.
>
>What's kind of funny about low voltage sources is that they don't even 
>hurt, really.  About all you feel are your muscles spasming.  Depending 
>on the voltage and all that, you might feel cramps later on (that 
>happened all up my arm on my first time, only in my hand for a brief 
>time on my second).

Try 500 Volt 3 phase F'n Ouch :)

>>> The part that's sort of rough is that my class hours are 5pm-2am.  Very eww.
>> 
>> They seem strange hours for a college, to me. I can't believe that studding at
>> those times would be conducive to understanding. 
>
>It's not really a college, it's job training.  This is basically my job 
>right now.  I can't complain, I get paid to come here. :)

No you can't but is it usual to train during those hours? I've worked
continental shifts (3 shifts per 24 hrs) and day/night shift. I've never heard
of training from 17:00 to 02:00.

>> I would need to go into "Nightshift" mode. How do you cope with that?
>
>It took about a week for my body to adjust, I'd say.  I just started 
>going to bed later and later until I'd gotten myself on a 4am-12pm sleep 
>schedule (or something along those lines).
>
>It actually took longer for my stomach to adapt.  When I first started I 
>suddenly started getting a voracious appetite  Thankfully, it's curbed 
>itself back down to normal now. :)

My stomach comes with me. I eat breakfast when I get up and dinner after work.
Quite a few people I worked with left their stomachs on dayshift. Dinner when
they woke up and breakfast before going to bed. (I'm talking about when I worked
offshore. It is a closed community and you know what everyone is doing.)


Regards
	Stephen

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Stephen wrote:
>> It's always good to strip them down and blow the dust out of them from 
>> time to time.  They don't like dust.
> 
> Oh! Yes they do :)

Well yes, they love sucking it in, they just don't know that it's bad 
for them. :P

>> Oh yeah, if you do take it apart, I can almost guarantee that you'll 
>> wind up with stray screws when you put it back together.  I swear, 
>> laptops have dynamic screw holes; they reposition themselves at will 
>> just to mess with your head.
> 
> There is a secret to that you know?

I'm still discovering the Zen of Dismantling Laptops, so no.

I don't have a problem with Dells so much, mainly because they have 
service manuals on their site, free for public consumption.

The only thing I've ever done was remove the keyboard on mine to blow 
out the gunk between the keys and I've gotta say, it's a lot easier to 
do that on Dells than most of the other laptops I've taken apart.  I've 
taken the keyboard off on a Latitude D610 and my own Inspiron 9300 and 
it's just a matter of taking off the bezel above the keyboard, 
unscrewing a couple of screws, and lifting up the keyboard.  I like it! :)

> I've worked with a few ex-forces types and you can imagine what a couple of lest
> over nuts and bolts mean on a war plane :)

Yes yes, you definitely don't want to be sitting in a cockpit and have 
your plane disassemble itself while you're flying faster than the speed 
of sound. :)

> Try 500 Volt 3 phase F'n Ouch :)

I'll take your word for it, k? ;)

>> It's not really a college, it's job training.  This is basically my job 
>> right now.  I can't complain, I get paid to come here. :)
> 
> No you can't but is it usual to train during those hours? I've worked
> continental shifts (3 shifts per 24 hrs) and day/night shift. I've never heard
> of training from 17:00 to 02:00.

I'm not really sure; this is my only time doing any sort of job training 
like this.

If the class schedules are as packed as they are now, I'm sure it's 
almost a requirement for them.  There are only three or four classrooms 
available, large enough for up to ten students each.  They also recently 
went on a recruiting campaign, so that probably brought forty or fifty 
people down here.

The graduation rate definitely isn't 100%, either; one of the people in 
my class ended up failing tonight.  It was kind of strange how quick it 
was -- we went out for break and when we came back he wasn't there.

>>> I would need to go into "Nightshift" mode. How do you cope with that?
>> It took about a week for my body to adjust, I'd say.  I just started 
>> going to bed later and later until I'd gotten myself on a 4am-12pm sleep 
>> schedule (or something along those lines).
>>
>> It actually took longer for my stomach to adapt.  When I first started I 
>> suddenly started getting a voracious appetite  Thankfully, it's curbed 
>> itself back down to normal now. :)
> 
> My stomach comes with me. I eat breakfast when I get up and dinner after work.
> Quite a few people I worked with left their stomachs on dayshift. Dinner when
> they woke up and breakfast before going to bed. (I'm talking about when I worked
> offshore. It is a closed community and you know what everyone is doing.)

Yeah, it's kind of weird for some people when they change schedules.

The problem that I had was when to eat.  Do I eat before work?  During 
my lunch break?  After work?

Eating two meals seems to work for me.  I eat once before I go in and 
once during my lunch break.  After I get back to the hotel, I act as 
though I'm in my final stretch before bedtime, not eating unless I'm 
really hungry.  It seems to work all right for me.

-- 
-Ian

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On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:33:01 -0500, Ian Burgmyer <spe### [at] gmailcom> wrote:


>I'm still discovering the Zen of Dismantling Laptops, so no.

There is you're problem, it is not Zen. As you take the screws out you place
them in several containers sorted by where you took them from and the order you
dismantled them. That way when you put them back in reverse order you can see if
you have forgotten some and not move on to the next part. Well that's my method
and if I don't have something like an empty component box. I will use a sheet of
white paper and circle and mark the groups. Season to taste :)


>
>> Try 500 Volt 3 phase F'n Ouch :)
>
>I'll take your word for it, k? ;)

Smart :)


>If the class schedules are as packed as they are now, I'm sure it's 
>almost a requirement for them.  There are only three or four classrooms 
>available, large enough for up to ten students each.  

>They also recently 
>went on a recruiting campaign, so that probably brought forty or fifty 
>people down here.

That explains it.


>Yeah, it's kind of weird for some people when they change schedules.
>
>The problem that I had was when to eat.  Do I eat before work?  During 
>my lunch break?  After work?
>
>Eating two meals seems to work for me.  I eat once before I go in and 
>once during my lunch break.  After I get back to the hotel, I act as 
>though I'm in my final stretch before bedtime, not eating unless I'm 
>really hungry.  It seems to work all right for me.

You've found what works for you. Good.

Regards
	Stephen

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Stephen wrote:
>> I'm still discovering the Zen of Dismantling Laptops, so no.
> 
> There is you're problem, it is not Zen. As you take the screws out you place
> them in several containers sorted by where you took them from and the order you
> dismantled them. That way when you put them back in reverse order you can see if
> you have forgotten some and not move on to the next part. Well that's my method
> and if I don't have something like an empty component box. I will use a sheet of
> white paper and circle and mark the groups. Season to taste :)

See, I actually tried doing that once and somehow I still ended up with 
screws left over.  I think IBMs and Compaqs just like to mess with my 
poor head. :(

Oh well, as long as they work properly and don't feel like they're going 
to break in half, I guess it'll be okay, heh. :)

-- 
-Ian

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