But Gmail is superior to most desktop clients.

Most desktop e-mail clients are a steaming pile of unusability.

I use gmail + thunderbird mostly. I like the user agent extension, and the one that tells you where the sender's ISP is located. I also like ThreadVis, and MHeney, and a few others I can't be bothered to think of right now.

Plus I like the Send To feature in the Windows context menu and I don't know of a way to set that up for Gmail.


Come to think of it, is there a way to set up Gmail so that it can handle "mailto:" links?

Come to think of it, is there a way to set up Gmail so that it can handle "mailto:" links?
gmail notifier will do that for you

Gmail notifier is the best thing since sliced bread. Except for the bread I have at the moment, which is very tasty.

To be perfectly honest, when it comes to bread I prefer it unsliced.

Me too, but this stuff actually tastes nice. Though my family cannot cut bread straight which often leaves an oddly shaped wedge at the end.

That oddly shaped wedge is just an excuse to eat bread. I love it!

If you have Google Talk that'll also stay in your tray and notify you about mails.

I use Miranda. :p

That's no excuse really. (http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=3677) :p

How many accounts can you connect to at once with that?

I have multiple gmail accounts, all of which go into Outlook. Also it's not just the notification of email I like about Outlook. There's nowt wrong with it, is there?

Google Chrome handles mailto links very well. Opens up a new Google Mail sendy emaily tab.

There's nowt wrong with it, is there?

There is a bit... It uses the Word engine to render HTML. Now. The 2010 release does this. It's not on.

Google Chrome handles mailto links very well. Opens up a new Google Mail sendy emaily tab.
Some of us use faster/more feature-rich browsers (http://www.opera.com/browser/)

</browser war>

Yey I got a first for my first year! Now to repeat 3 times...

edit:

pff, I wouldn't use opera if you paid me. I might switch to chrome sometime though, it's slowly de-bugging itself.

There is a bit... It uses the Word engine to render HTML. Now. The 2010 release does this. It's not on.

A good point but not one that affects my experience significantly.

Oh, and I've never had any reason to switch from Firefox. It does what I need it to do. Plus I like the name. That's very important.

Opera is not faster than Google Chrome. I have used them all. Feature-rich I will allow you, but that is one of the reasons I choose to use Chrome.

Opera is not faster than Google Chrome.
I dunno what you do on the web, but for ordinary browsing (ie little or no JS), I find Opera much faster than anything else. And once Opera 10 comes out, with Opera Turbo it'll be even faster (I used to use Opera Turbo on Opera Mini, and let me tell you it is really really fast).

I think I'll give Opera a go out of curiosity but is there anything in particular I should pay attention to in terms of how good it is, in your opinion(s)?

I dunno what you do on the web, but for ordinary browsing (ie little or no JS), I find Opera much faster than anything else. And once Opera 10 comes out, with Opera Turbo it'll be even faster (I used to use Opera Turbo on Opera Mini, and let me tell you it is really really fast).

But when it comes to JS, chrome trumps opera.

I'm not talking about how fast it is at loading an HTML and CSS-only page. I'm talking about its overall speed, how quick it is to use.

How many accounts can you connect to at once with that?

I have multiple gmail accounts, all of which go into Outlook. Also it's not just the notification of email I like about Outlook. There's nowt wrong with it, is there?Well it's called the Gmail Multiple Notifier, so I assume infinite. :p

Some of us use faster/more feature-rich browsers (http://www.opera.com/browser/)

</browser war>You can change the mailto: links in Opera (and Firefox I assume) too, there's a guide somewhere, no need to war about it.

Well it's called the Gmail Multiple Notifier, so I assume infinite. :p

Oh, so it is. Well I use email other than gmail, anyway, so...

Since we're on the topic of browsers, I'll add my two currency-subunits with regards to my browsing choice, Opera:

First of all, I'm really used to some of the features in Opera, like the "rocking" mouse gestures and ad blocker, so Chrome isn't really an option. That leaves Firefox.

My main problem with Firefox was that it was slow. And I don't mean slow out-of-the-box, it's pretty usable there - but out-of-the-box, it's pretty much Internet Explorer with a cuter name. If you throw in all the extensions that come built-in with Opera, it bogs down your browsing to a crawl.

Now, features. Here is a certain old list of the top 150 Firefox extensions and their equivalents in Opera:
http://files.myopera.com/Rijk/blog/extensions.html
As you can see, Opera comes with all that stuff AND is sufficiently fast (like all modern browsers).

Even if Firefox 3.6 becomes much faster, there's still the problem of maintenance. I'm not sure I'd want to depend on a product whose functionality is maintained by hundreds of different parties, and when Mozilla changes something which breaks compatibility, I'd rather not be left hanging until those parties update their extensions. (Also I think that the extension update mechanism is very annoyingly done in Firefox, why can't it just update everything without asking and let me do my work?).

Oh and this is a purely bragging point, but Opera innovated a lot of ideas that eventually made their way into other browsers (http://operawiki.info/OperaInnovations). In fact I giggled when I noticed that the Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 tried to sell of "dragging tabs out and to other windows" as a feature. It's a shame Opera became freeware so late, it would have gotten much more of the browser market share if it had done that before Firefox's appearance.

It's a shame Opera became freeware so late, it would have gotten much more of the browser market share if it had done that before Firefox's appearance.Yeah it seems to have been outcast for life for being the one commercial browser. :( Oh well.

Opera 10's looking really good though.

But when it comes to JS, chrome trumps opera.
Actually, that's because Chrome temporarily freezes (at least, the current tab does) when executing JS (but it often executes so quickly you don't notice). Opera is designed so that user input is still accepted (albeit slowly if the JS is taking up a lot of CPU time), which can help if you get an infinite loop, you still have enough control to close the current tab. I know this isn't as much as a problem in Chrome, but it is still a problem if you have multiple tabs of the same site open.


I found a site once that demonstrated this, but I can't find it again :(. It worked by doing a really really long loop and adding lots of text to a textarea each time of the loop. Chrome, Fx and Konqueror all froze up whilst it was going on, but Chrome an Konqueror took a shorter time to complete. Opera allowed user input, albeit with a lowered reaction time, whilst it was going on, and I could close the current tab, but because of this Opera took longer. Fx froze up AND took the longest.

EDIT: Nice link, CyberShadow. That is quite old though; web developers now get the excellent Dragonfly, and there is a button + plugin floating around somewhere which is like IE tab (as opposed to just opening IE in the background). Of course, you get Opera Link, which will also synch notes.

All moved into the new place -- by which I mean all of my actual posessions are here and winged haphazardously into approximations of where I'll probably end up wanting them, but that means I'm done lugging everything around, and am thus free to die from it in peace. Seriously, man. Today sucked. It sucked all over town. But so worth it. I'll worry about arranging things into livable patterns tomorrow.

The living room I'm occupying at this moment is practically the size of the whole old apartment.

I managed to get the Master Server Patch for Aliens vs Predator 2 working today.
Very positive.

I managed to get the Master Server Patch for Aliens vs Predator 2 working today.
Very positive.
I'm a bit píssed that this workaround won't work for Primal Hunt, because of some different system. I've barely played it.

Also, the master server patch is incompatible with the one available widescreen fix, which is even more annyoing, IMO.

I'm a bit píssed that this workaround won't work for Primal Hunt, because of some different system. I've barely played it.

As far as I know, Primal Hunt's source code hasn't been released, so they can't do it.

Finally got my insurance through, and so I can drive now! Woo!

I decided to double check if everything worked, so I turned on the back windscreen wiper and it fell off! I guess my car isn't in quite as good condition as I thought :p

I got a 1st for my degree :D

MEng (Honours): 1st class in aeronautical engineering


Next stop: PhD!

Awesome !

I got a 1st for my degree :D

MEng (Honours): 1st class in aeronautical engineering


Next stop: PhD!

Man, I'm so envious.

I got a 1st for my degree :D

MEng (Honours): 1st class in aeronautical engineering


Next stop: PhD!

Congratulations.

Next stop: PhD!

You fool!

Home of the Underdogs is back! Well, the site never really went away but the archives are up and running! Wieee.

Old news?

My math teacher calls PhD "Permanent Head Damage". :)

I won a Wii console with Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Mario Striker, Mario Party and Family Skiing.
My addiction to Jacobs Icepresso coffee in cans has paid off. :D

Wii = super great.
Coffee in a can = anus juice.

Awesome !

Man, I'm so envious.

Congratulations.

Cheers :D

You fool!

I know, don't remind me :p

My math teacher calls PhD "Permanent Head Damage". :)

That sounds about right. Is a research PhD, so I'm not sure if that makes matters worse...

I got married in May.

And moved to Sweden?

So you have a hot Swedish wife?

Indeed.

Also, another positive event: 100mbit internet, baby!

Congratulations! :)

Oh and good work on getting hitched too ;)

Also, another positive event: 100mbit internet, baby!

sweeeeeeet jesus

also, how hot would you say this wife of yours is, on a sliding scale of 1 to 420

I got married in May.

Indeed.

Also, another positive event: 100mbit internet, baby!

Oh baby! :p

I got a job! I'll be back at my old workplace but I'll be doing a different job altogether. At reduced pay.

Wait, am I posting this in the right thread?

I GOT A MOTHER FRAKKIN' JOB

a dude in my city who has done a number of events before is planning a three hour electronic music event downtown. hopefully it goes well

I got a job! I'll be back at my old workplace but I'll be doing a different job altogether. At reduced pay.

Wait, am I posting this in the right thread?

I GOT A MOTHER FRAKKIN' JOB

Hey, congratulations!

I got married in May.
Also, another positive event: 100mbit internet, baby!
Coincidence? Does she work at a glass fibre ISP company?
And you were constantly cutting your line to have a reason to call that hot support lady again and again?

Congratulations! :D

"hello, this is tele2 support. how may we help you?"
"uhhhh yeah... what are you wearing"

"hello, this is tele2 support. how may we help you?"
"uhhhh yeah... what are you wearing"
There was some weird guy who would frequently call Sprint Customer Service asking what type of socks we were wearing.

There was also a crazy woman that went by the name of Lizzie, who would constantly call asking for rather explicit sexual favors. I landed a call from her at least once every day.
Considering that calls were routed randomly to whichever rep was available, and considering the amount of reps working there(at least several hundred combining all the centers), I'm guessing she must have spent her whole afternoons calling customer service... Talk about being lonely. :p

Sarge! Mc! Alex!

We missed you, all together as well as individually. Not just here on the forum either. Cough (irc://gamesurge.net/worms).

No more year-long absences. No more! :mad:

picked up 4 movies today for $20. :cool:

oh I had an entertaining one last night :D

had a guy walk up to me and my supervisor while we were sitting at the valet booth. he drives into the only lane not blocked off by cones (extremely busy night due to a $100,000 giveaway) in a truck with a pizza delivery sign on it. he walks inside and asks us where Kid's Quest is. me and my supervisor both point behind him and I say "just behind you, sir, but we'll need you to move your car as you're blocking the only open lane" well he looks at me with a nasty glare real quick and scoots towards my supervisor and says to him "I'm talking to you for help since you aren't so rude" and proceeds to ask him the exact same thing we'd just finished giving him the answer to. as he turns to leave he looks at me and says "thank you for being so rude." ...well naturally he's been a jack ass since he walked in the door, so I couldn't help myself so I just smiled and said "any time, sir". this apparently ****ed him the hell off. he starts fussin, saying he's not going to tolerate my sarcasm and that he's gonna have my job and all this other stuff. he goes to leave and I just smile at him and tell him to have a nice day... for SOME reason he flies back inside even MORE ****ed than before cussin and fussin about how rude I am and then he just storms off with me smiling sweetly behind him.

we watched him flag another employee down presumably to see if she was in charge at all. eventually he made his way to front desk and actually filed a formal complaint against me.

the whole ordeal is extremely amusing :) my other coworkers who were clocked on at the time but busy are rather upset they didn't get to see the entertainment of the ****y idiot.

I love people :cool:

I love people :cool:

I don't, they leave so much crap behind after camping at festivals and I have to pick it all up. On the plus side, I get paid and found some decent fold up chairs today. They also seem to leave a lot of alcohol and money, but I wasn't fast enough to find any :p

Festival itself was good though, but I don't think I want to see another melon for a very long time.

I really quite like my current job. I basically never have to deal with the sort of people I used to be keen not to deal with. It's lovely.

I now write. My writings will (if the plan holds together) be published into a PS3 game. This pleases me because despite being back at my old workplace I am actually creating content rather than coordinating testing on already existing content. It's lovely.

The only thing is, I don't know how much work I'll get out of it or how long it will last but for now, you know what? It's pretty darn lovely.

Over the last couple of weeks I:

have been seeing a nice girl (although I think that might be seriously on the wane now)
won a signed copy of... well, something by James Moran (who wrote Torchwood Day 3) anyway, which will have a character named after me
got a paid writing credit for a sketch on BBC radio

Good times, I reckon, all in all.

Nice one! :)

I listened to that episode of News Jack. Most of the sketches were a bit cack, or they were acted out cackly. Some of them were all right. I couldn't detect your style. I did like the main guy's indifferent voice.

This is broadly true, unfortunately.

Mine was the Big Brother sketch. I'm not surprised if it slipped under the radar; the version recorded was quite different to the version I sent them. Which makes sense, because they're faster and sillier than I am. So I've upped the gag-density a bit but that's all because I didn't know I had a detectable style and I hear they're important.

I remember that one. The concept was good, though it did drag on a little bit.

I graduated today :D

Totally shattered though, but an amazing day! Lots of strawberries and cream :p

I graduated today :D

Totally shattered though, but an amazing day! Lots of strawberries and cream :p
I had strawberries and cream at my graduation too a few weeks ago.

It must be a British thing. I thought it was a tennis thing.

Sounds a bit stupid.

Sounds a bit stupid.your FACE is stupid! :cool:

your FACE is stupid! :cool:
That's what SHE said. :cool:

...No, wait...

I had strawberries and cream at my graduation too a few weeks ago.

It must be a British thing. I thought it was a tennis thing.

Must be a British summer thing that happens to coincide with the strawberry season and Wimbledon :p I think over the four graduation days Loughborough probably consumes most of the strawberries grown in the East Midlands!

Sounds a bit stupid.

How come?

Sounds a bit stupid.your FACE is stupid! :cool:

Your face is closer to pi than fi!*

*fi as in fibonacci

You mean, phi?

You mean, phi?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number

so I guess he's saying that the face in question is closer to a circle than to a spiral? I think that's a compliment...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number

so I guess he's saying that the face in question is closer to a circle than to a spiral? I think that's a compliment...

No, he's saying (presumably, maybe crediting him with too much knowledge) that his face is more like a circle than a golden rectangle, said to be very beautiful, which is a rectangle in the golden ratio, which is to say the limit of the ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers. The symbol used to denote this value is phi. Phi is a greek letter and not a contraction of Fibonacci.

No, he's saying (presumably, maybe crediting him with too much knowledge) that his face is more like a circle than a golden rectangle, said to be very beautiful, which is a rectangle in the golden ratio, which is to say the limit of the ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers. The symbol used to denote this value is phi. Phi is a greek letter and not a contraction of Fibonacci. I wouldn't know. I just google'd it. you guys know entirely too much random crap for me :p

The Walking Dead #62 was never in my comic shop but #63 just came out on Thursday. I have bought #62 on eBay at a surprisingly low price (it's actually cheaper for me to buy an issue from eBay than it is to buy a bus ticket and an issue) so I'm looking forward to getting that soon and reading parts 1 and 2 of the "Fear the Hunters" story arcs.

I thought there had been a massive delay in #62 being published so this is a positive event. I'm hoping it arrives for my birthday on Monday to make it a double-positive event.

The golden ratio is 1.618.., and our bodies follow those proportions pretty well. So saying your facial proportions are closer to 3.14 is no compliment.

I'm almost totally sceptical about the whole golden ratio thing. I reckon people see it in far more places than it actually occurs.

How come?
Just some silly tradition that sounds far too pompous.

Just some silly tradition that sounds far too pompous.

Oh well, at least they get strawberries and cream out of it.

I'm almost totally sceptical about the whole golden ratio thing. I reckon people see it in far more places than it actually occurs.

It's a very popular rule of composition to place things according to the golden ratio. It's just something that generally looks very good.
If nature happens to follow it much, like with the proportions of the human body, then it makes sense to me that we find that ratio pleasing in art.

I'm almost totally sceptical about the whole golden ratio thing. I reckon people see it in far more places than it actually occurs.

In some diagrams I see supposedly showing it, it does seem a little arbitrary.

Others are fairly convincing, but it's still not overly impressive and naturally it is dwarfed by the sheer number of instances where it does not occur.

Just some silly tradition that sounds far too pompous.
I wouldn't call having strawberries & cream and cakes under the wing of an aircraft, as a post-graduation celebration/wind down pompous. We'd handed our gowns and hats back by then.

In some diagrams I see supposedly showing it, it does seem a little arbitrary.

Others are fairly convincing, but it's still not overly impressive and naturally it is dwarfed by the sheer number of instances where it does not occur.

Yeah -- there are plenty of places where it's close enough but whenever anyone seeks to demonstrate this they invariably include a bunch of seashells and shout 'look, a Fibonacci spiral' when no, that's just some regular spiral you've drawn a red line on.

Edit: I'm told if you count the number of seeds in the two opposite spirals on a flower or a pinecone or whatever then they're always Fibonacci numbers two apart. I believe there's some mathsy reason for this because of how they grow. That's always been the most elegant example of Fibonacci in nature, but it's not really a phi thing.

Yeah -- there are plenty of places where it's close enough but whenever anyone seeks to demonstrate this they invariably include a bunch of seashells and shout 'look, a Fibonacci spiral' when no, that's just some regular spiral you've drawn a red line on.

Edit: I'm told if you count the number of seeds in the two opposite spirals on a flower or a pinecone or whatever then they're always Fibonacci numbers two apart. I believe there's some mathsy reason for this because of how they grow. That's always been the most elegant example of Fibonacci in nature, but it's not really a phi thing.

Well just looking at wikipedia stuff, it seems approximate Logarithmic Spirals (r=ae^(bθ)) do occur a fair bit in nature, but with different growth rates to the Golden Spiral (the one with a rate linked to φ).

Well just looking at wikipedia stuff, it seems approximate Logarithmic Spirals (r=ae^(bθ)) do occur a fair bit in nature, but with different growth rates to the Golden Spiral (the one with a rate linked to φ).

Yeah, as you'd expect. All creatures on Earth can be pretty much encoded in a relatively small amount of DNA, and that's not all that systematic: it controls protein formation mainly. The different kinds of cell in the body and the different parts of the body all have that same DNA in them so it also has to encode ways of making sure the right ones are active in the right places. And this has to naturally build itself into a viable creature. With all that to handle, it's inevitable that relatively easily-built shapes like spirals and branching would recur all over the place. And because of the nature of self-assembly, they're inevitably mathematically describable with relatively few terms.

Due to lack of recent positiveness I think I shall announce I have finally got a digital camera. A diddy little Canon IXUS 100. Nearly as small as my phone and fits in my pocket nicely!

I had an IXUS when them Advantix films were all the rage. Nice little cameras, them.

Finally, iTunes store comes to Mexico. :cool:

after a week of being **** on constantly, something's gone right!

just got my financial aid acceptance letter from LATech! looks like I'll be able to actually go to college now! :D

http://kotaku.com/5336164/nintendo-releases-free-animation-app-to-dsi-owners

YAY. This thing makes me glad I got a DSi. I haven't tried it yet, but I will soon. :cool:

Downloaded it last night and it's awesome. Very simple to use. Me likes.

Here's my first and only test animation:
http://flipnote.hatena.com/5EB772001E2F35D0@DSi/movie/2F35D0_09085DB2F6082_000?in=user

No audio. I planned on recording a scream but I was working on it on the middle of the night and I would have woken up and scared someone for sure. :P

i'm having a dance party tonight! i hope it goes well!!

Positive A Level results.

4 As - Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

STEP and Physics AEA were not so positive and therefore do not belong here.

i'm having a dance party tonight! i hope it goes well!!
it went well! :) if you want to hear what i played you can get it here

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6E1NSSSM

it went well! :) if you want to hear what i played you can get it here

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6E1NSSSM

You might like this blog http://this.bigstereo.net/

Positive A Level results.

4 As - Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

STEP and Physics AEA were not so positive and therefore do not belong here.

Phoo, you beat my results. I got AAAB :P I shall hereby claim that they were dumbed down even more in the last year!

Did you get into uni?

Did you get into uni?

Yes, Warwick to do Maths and Physics.

Everyone loves Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry

Good luck at Warwick. Tell Ian Stewart that one of his fans says "hi" :).

In other positive news, England won the Ashes! 2-1, with wins at Lords and the Oval, a loss at Headingley and draws at Cardiff and Edgebaston (although we only just clung on to a draw at Cardiff)

I had my first haircut in five years today.

Also: http://www.drunkduck.com/Timeloss_Art/index.php?p=604314

I had my first haircut in five years today.

Take a before and after photo! Oh, wait...

Also: I love your style, dude. That's one awesome looking cat. *envious*

Take a before and after photo! Oh, wait...

Also: I love your style, dude. That's one awesome looking cat. *envious*

I took a before picture, but I've yet to do the after. It's not too exciting though, just lots of hair becominf not much hair.

Aslo: I didn't draw that! That's the second piece of monkeyshine fanart I've ever recieved. (the first was a scetch paul.power did ages ago and thinkingabout it I still owe him a sketch back.)

Yeyeyeyeyeyey! After several days of tinkering I have finally got an opamp to do what I want! And now I have the beginnings of a distortion pedal.

http://www.lukewallin.co.uk/images/electronics/distortion_prototype1_small.jpg

I'm far too excited about this.

Aslo: I didn't draw that! That's the second piece of monkeyshine fanart I've ever recieved. (the first was a scetch paul.power did ages ago and thinkingabout it I still owe him a sketch back.)

Yeah, I realised that after but couldn't be bothered to edit the post. Congrats on the fanart :)

Yeyeyeyeyeyey! After several days of tinkering I have finally got an opamp to do what I want! And now I have the beginnings of a distortion pedal.

I'm far too excited about this.

Mmmm... electronics. Want.

Yeyeyeyeyeyey! After several days of tinkering I have finally got an opamp to do what I want! And now I have the beginnings of a distortion pedal.

http://www.lukewallin.co.uk/images/electronics/distortion_prototype1_small.jpg

I'm far too excited about this.

I've been trying to program an overdrive patch in pure data if that's comparable at all.

Yeyeyeyeyeyey! After several days of tinkering I have finally got an opamp to do what I want! And now I have the beginnings of a distortion pedal.

http://www.lukewallin.co.uk/images/electronics/distortion_prototype1_small.jpg

I'm far too excited about this.

http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/4622/zoidberg.jpg

WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP!


That takes me back to the days of GCSE & A-level electronics... Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing :p

Nice breadboard. Looks like fun! Will you be making your own PCB?

Yeyeyeyeyeyey! After several days of tinkering I have finally got an opamp to do what I want! And now I have the beginnings of a distortion pedal.

http://www.lukewallin.co.uk/images/electronics/distortion_prototype1_small.jpg

I'm far too excited about this.

Nice! I wanna hear it! I've been thinking to build something based on the Bazzfuss myself. It's very simple, but the samples I've heard sound very promising. http://personal.inet.fi/koti/holmberg/images/bazz.jpg


That reminds me - I recently modded the AM only radio in my ol' car, and took out the tuner knob and replaced it with a phono plug and tapped that in right after the preamp so that I can listen to an mp3 player through my car radio. And to my great astonishment it actually worked great! (there was a second knob where now there's the wire plugged in)

And then I plugged my electric guitar into it, and it worked as a guitar amp! I now have a guitar amp in my car :D

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/5525/img4224.jpg

That's... extremely clever of you. Can you do that to mine? Nothing else works on it. :p

Actually, I do have a replacement floating around that I haven't gotten around to installing yet.

Nice breadboard. Looks like fun! Will you be making your own PCB?
Was planning to just use a stripboard, I don't think I need to particularly worry about making it really tiny.
Nice! I wanna hear it! I've been thinking to build something based on the Bazzfuss myself. It's very simple, but the samples I've heard sound very promising. http://personal.inet.fi/koti/holmberg/images/bazz.jpg

Ah, I've seen designs based on a single transistor (or two, fuzzface springs to mind), from what I know I imagine they'll work well enough (being not disimilar to an actual tube) but it might take a lot of tinkering with different transistors till you get one that sounds right. And since they're more non-linear than tubes it might actually distort it rather than just clip it. Worth trying though.

I did test it on a friend's guitar yesterday, and uh, while it works it amplifies rather more than I thought it did and seems to add a lot of noise even when the distortion is turned off. I tried turning down the amplification, which cuts the noise, but then the signal is too low for the diodes to distort it. I'm gonna tinker today and see if I can fix that. I might just need to buy some decent op-amps.

That reminds me - I recently modded the AM only radio in my ol' car, and took out the tuner knob and replaced it with a phono plug and tapped that in right after the preamp so that I can listen to an mp3 player through my car radio. And to my great astonishment it actually worked great! (there was a second knob where now there's the wire plugged in)

And then I plugged my electric guitar into it, and it worked as a guitar amp! I now have a guitar amp in my car :D

That's... a really clever idea. Might suggest that to a few friends who've got similarly limiting car audio systems.

That car radio looks like it's from TF2.

What I'd like to see is more car radios that can get long wave

(because Radio 4 long wave is where they put the cricket :p)

I now have a guitar amp in my car :D

Nothing can go wrong!

I'm in a fencing competition on the beach tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be nice.


That car radio looks like it's from TF2.

I thought that too.

ideal place mentioned in the NE&O thread? she apparently got her old tenant to leave for september. I can now move in with her for school.

WOOT!

That car radio looks like it's from TF2.Press B for infinite ammo.

Hurrah, I have a working kenwood chef, with liquidiser, two bowls, two fancy plastic spatulas and lots of swirly attachment thingies, for a total of about £35. I shall be making lots of cakes this coming year :)

Also finished the distortion pedal after tweaking it when I had the chance to test it with a friend's guitar. Didn't get time for any recordings though, and haven't made a little box for it yet.

the packing came out today :) i nearly passed out because the pressure on the nose was so sudden and painful, and then of course there was sitting still for a minute while a mixture of blood, snot and tears drained from my main facial orifices. now i've got to wait for this swelling to go down and STUFF

pics or it didn't happen.








But more seriously, just take it easy and I bet in a week's time you'll be glad it's done and dusted.

oh i'm sure i will. although i forgot to mention in previos posts that they had also cracked my septum in order to re-arrange it, so most of the pain is now just in my general nose area

moved into my new place yesterday night. my room is huge. I love it :D

the lady who I'm renting from is also extremely laid back and cool. looking like we'll get along just fine.

I'm also out in the middle of the woods just a few miles out of town. perfect location for me.

and tonight, conveniently, is the first meeting of Tech's anime club, so I get to go meet some fellow geeks and watch random anime rather than sit at home doing nothing.

looks like i finally might have a girlfriend

looks like i finally might have a girlfriendhey, hey! congrats!

looks like i finally might have a girlfriend
update: yep
hey, hey! congrats!
thanks

looks like i finally might have a girlfriend

Did you pull her because of all the snot, blood and gunk pouring out of your nose?

Did you pull her because of all the snot, blood and gunk pouring out of your nose?presumably she smells horribly and capitalized on his inability to notice this. :p

Did you pull her because of all the snot, blood and gunk pouring out of your nose?
hehe no fortunately she didn't have to see any of that

hehe no fortunately she didn't have to see any of that

Ah but has she seen the gunk pouring out of your... wait, this is a family forum.

Nice of Vader to come along and lower the tone :p

Nice of Vader to come along and lower the tone :p

Speak for yourself, Mr. Romantic.

Did you pull her because of all the snot, blood and gunk pouring out of your nose?

Ah but has she seen the gunk pouring out of your... wait, this is a family forum.
hehehe well you know

Maybe she always secretly liked you but was always a bit put off by the unsavoury contents of your sinuses. Now that's all cleared up, so to speak, true love can finally blossom.

Or something.

Maybe she always secretly liked you but was always a bit put off by the unsavoury contents of your sinuses. Now that's all cleared up, so to speak, true love can finally blossom.

Or something.either that or she has a rare fetish that she only gets off on guys who have only recently had their nasal cavities reworked.

Butterflies count as a positive event and/or occurence, right?

32654

The last few days have been nice and sunny, and that flower's meant to attract butterflies around this time of year, but even so we've had a remarkable number.

32655
Here's a Small Tortoiseshell

32656
And here we have a Red Admiral

I also saw a Peacock the next day, but didn't have my camera with me at the time.

I bought a 2L bottle each of cream soda, ginger beer and cloudy lemonade from Tesco for £1.20 in all, on special offer. Bargain! Also, we have done lots of money at work so far this week, and we finally have new glass display cabs up on the walls with decent halogen lighting and blue LED strip backlighting. It looks well sexy.

ALSO: I went to Wigan AMF Bowling with some friends on Monday and we played in their Quasar arena. It's fantastic! It was built by Steve, one of my friends, with some help.

AND: On Tuesday I went to my mate Charlie's house (I worked with him in Cheshire Oaks) and we recorded a cover of Tenacious D's **** Her Gently :-)

Over recent years I've seen tons and tons of pale yellow butterflies and pretty much no other species.

we actually get a rather decent variety here in louisiana. I rarely see the same color configuration twice. not that I see any at all overly often.

my city has a fairly large indoor gardens and there's an annual butterfly exhibit. cool stuff and i've seen some v. spiffy butterflies

Monarch butterflies pass trough here once a year on their migration to the south. At least they're supposed to, I've never really noticed it :p. People always make a fuss about it, promoting natural parks to go see them and stuff.

I would care more if I could take a flamethrower with me and burn a bunch of 'em, but I think that would be frowned upon by society. :(

yeah i really love my girlfriend. i mean how likely is it that i was going to find a smart girl who loved electronic music, video games, and me? this is just too much to handle

i really love my girlfriend.

Alright... gay.

Alright... gay.:cool::cool:

Alright... gay.
you have no idea

just finished up my first real (non-introductory) day of classes. I think I'm gunna enjoy this college thing.

just finished up my first real (non-introductory) day of classes. I think I'm gunna enjoy this college thing.You brave fool.

@FW: when you got your sinuses cleared did your voice change significantly? I'm wondering because I always sound like I'm sick and I was curious how bad you were. Maybe that's how you hooked her? ;)

I go back to college on saturday and I'm quite excited about it honestly. I really like the environment. True the coursework can be difficult, but I was sad when the last year ended and I'm glad to be going back so it must be worth it.

@FW: when you got your sinuses cleared did your voice change significantly? I'm wondering because I always sound like I'm sick and I was curious how bad you were. Maybe that's how you hooked her? ;)

no, i've always had a very clear and resonant voice (developed by theatre) and it has stayed that way

I finally got an awesome shelf to put my CDs on. Most of them had been in my suitcase since March. :cool:

Safety razor get!

I have a house! I also managed to accidently choose the smallest room which also has the water heater in the cupboard :P

But... our own house, yey :D

I have a house! I also managed to accidently choose the smallest room which also has the water heater in the cupboard :P

But... our own house, yey :D

Score! I'll soon be kicked out of this house which my mother and her two sisters own. "It's too big for me and I can't maintain the garden" Pfff! I like the jungle I have allowed to grow outside, and and nothing beats having three floors and four bedrooms all to yourself! It'll be back to my parents place for a few months until I find an apartment. Winter's gonna suck.

Score! I'll soon be kicked out of this house which my mother and her two sisters own. "It's too big for me and I can't maintain the garden" Pfff! I like the jungle I have allowed to grow outside, and and nothing beats having three floors and four bedrooms all to yourself! It'll be back to my parents place for a few months until I find an apartment. Winter's gonna suck.
I wouldn't mind having a house that size if I could afford to heat it.

I wouldn't mind having a house that size if I could afford to heat it.

Lots of lovely lady lodgers can keep you warm, Andy.

I am feeling good for flimsy reasons I choose not to question!

Those are always the best kind of reasons.

Edit: You guys are probably going to want to think I'm a hopeless idiot, but I should mention now that my relationship with the one formerly known as Avry has finally started going in a good direction and things have been pretty happy for us, as of a few months ago when she came to visit me for a week. Then I went to visit her a couple of weeks back. Her folks are pretty cool. Everything's been pretty much clicking.

All that from back then was a long time ago, and we were both different people. We're taking things pretty seriously now, to such a point that she's fairly strongly considering moving down into this area. 'sall good.

I finally got an awesome shelf to put my CDs on. Most of them had been in my suitcase since March. :cool:

Photo of aforementioned shelf:

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9965/cds2z.jpg

It's less than half full, plenty of room for more purchases.

A higher resolution picture will be needed in order for us to make fun of your listening habits.

Get on it, pronto!

We can get to work now mocking the complex system of sorting and categorisation he's obviously got going on there.

Negative-space monster eating your cd's!

Edit: You guys are probably going to want to think I'm a hopeless idiot, but I should mention now that my relationship with the one formerly known as Avry has finally started going in a good direction and things have been pretty happy for us, as of a few months ago when she came to visit me for a week. Then I went to visit her a couple of weeks back. Her folks are pretty cool. Everything's been pretty much clicking.

All that from back then was a long time ago, and we were both different people. We're taking things pretty seriously now, to such a point that she's fairly strongly considering moving down into this area. 'sall good.

oh god ****ing damnit

Negative-space monster eating your cd's!

Classic! Comedy genius!

It looks a bit like an abacus to me. Maybe his calculator broke?

Negative-space monster eating your cd's!
ZOMG Epic.

Negative-space monster eating your cd's!

It even has a discernible butt. Heroic!

A higher resolution picture will be needed in order for us to make fun of your listening habits.

Have at it. (http://www.last.fm/user/Bloopy)

Negative-space monster eating your cd's!

Haha, oh god, what have we created?

Haha, oh god, what have we created?

You made it! I just showed you it was there. Anyway you'll need to buy more CDs if you want to kill it. I fear simply rearranging them will create some other hideous monster.

Hats! Get!

FINALLY! :D

http://media.steampowered.com/steamcommunity/public/images/apps/440/98461ecf235c3bd142977a062ffd087d60d6c031.jpg
Kill a Soldier with a reflected critical rocket.

Now I just got two left for Pyro, but I don't expect I'll get them anytime soon.
(Pyromancer and Got A Light?)

FINALLY! :D

http://media.steampowered.com/steamcommunity/public/images/apps/440/98461ecf235c3bd142977a062ffd087d60d6c031.jpg
Kill a Soldier with a reflected critical rocket.

Now I just got two left for Pyro, but I don't expect I'll get them anytime soon.
(Pyromancer and Got A Light?)got pyromancer already. need Got a Light....really should go finish the ones to kill enemies while they're on fire with the shotgun and with the axe. I've done neither.

got pyromancer already. need Got a Light....really should go finish the ones to kill enemies while they're on fire with the shotgun and with the axe. I've done neither.You are a terrible pyro.

You are a terrible pyro.no, I just HATE the axe. it is the most useless thing ever. the Axtinguisher is something that represents all that is bad among pyro players. if I ever see someone using it, I instantly know they're a bad pyro player.

the shotgun was just replaced by the flare gun the instant I unlocked it, so I haven't bothered to break it out since.

and I meant to come back and edit. Xinos, you have an impressive amount of achievements if those are the only 2 you're missing. I'm missing something like 6 total and I've played pyro for 60 hours. good show, sir.

no, I just HATE the axe. it is the most useless thing ever. the Axtinguisher is something that represents all that is bad among pyro players. if I ever see someone using it, I instantly know they're a bad pyro player.

Puff of flame + airblast + Axtinguisher = one dead enemy. :cool:

Hell, you don't even always need the airblast part. The Axtinguisher is an excellent weapon that promotes the ambush style of the Pyro. There's pretty much no reason to go back to the regular axe once you have it, unless you're having a melee duel.

the shotgun was just replaced by the flare gun the instant I unlocked it, so I haven't bothered to break it out since.

Same here. Of course you can't really go wrong with the shotgun, but ultimately I just find the Flare Gun far more useful, especially ever since it started minicritting people on fire. It's great at scattering enemies, and it's just way more fun once you become good with it. Long range Scout snipes for the win. :p

no, I just HATE the axe. it is the most useless thing ever. the Axtinguisher is something that represents all that is bad among pyro players. if I ever see someone using it, I instantly know they're a bad pyro player.

the shotgun was just replaced by the flare gun the instant I unlocked it, so I haven't bothered to break it out since.

hahaha you are such a scrub

Puff of flame + airblast + Axtinguisher = one dead enemy. :cool:

Hell, you don't even always need the airblast part. The Axtinguisher is an excellent weapon that promotes the ambush style of the Pyro.that same formula with just using more flamethrower equals the same dead enemy dead that much sooner. the axe takes too long to pull out compared to the amount of damage you do with the flamethrower at that range. i've watched decent players use the axe and die where I would've lived easily. it's just a crap weapon.

no, I just HATE the axe. it is the most useless thing ever. the Axtinguisher is something that represents all that is bad among pyro players. if I ever see someone using it, I instantly know they're a bad pyro player.When you're dead, I'm sure.

I'll give you that the Axtinguisher is hard to master, but you can't honestly call an instakill the most useless thing that most good pyros master. The trick isn't to chase after your burning opponents with the axe, but airblasting them to force them to land on it.

the shotgun was just replaced by the flare gun the instant I unlocked it, so I haven't bothered to break it out since.If you're going for an all-fire setup, you risk becoming useless against other pyros (burn-strafing each other endlessly isn't the best approach) or underwater.

When you're dead, I'm sure.

I'll give you that the Axtinguisher is hard to master, but you can't honestly call an instakill the most useless thing that most good pyros master. The trick isn't to chase after your burning opponents with the axe, but airblasting them to force them to land on it.eh. perhaps. I've honestly never even tried the blasting them into the air thing for the axe. seems decent enough of a thing to master I guess, but it would still annoy me that the axe is so useless except in the one situation.

If you're going for an all-fire setup, you risk becoming useless against other pyros (burn-strafing each other endlessly isn't the best approach) or underwater.fair enough, I give you, but I'm almost never underwater and the flare gun does enough damage against pyros for me to be happy. and my ineffectiveness against other pyros is balanced by my increased effectiveness against every other class, so I'm ok with it. flare gun ftw, though I completely understand those who prefer the shotgun.

Why would using a particular weapon make you a bad player? Getting away with using the least effective weapons makes you a good player in my book. It all depends on how well you do..


and I meant to come back and edit. Xinos, you have an impressive amount of achievements if those are the only 2 you're missing. I'm missing something like 6 total and I've played pyro for 60 hours. good show, sir.

Thanks. I knew I'd get acknowledged one of these days :p

Well I need to have some kind of goal when I play other than to just enjoy the game, or it feels pointless for some reason. I've "only" played 18 hours as pyro which is why I haven't gotten Pyromancer yet. Any class will be less fun to play if I've gotten all achievements. I'll probably stop playing TF2 if I ever get everything, but I'm bound to be bored by it before then.

Pyro and Engineer tie for most time played, but I don't want to waste time playing engineer now until there are achievements to be earned. It's probably not good to be this obsessive.. though it's nothing compared to how obsessed WoW players get.

I actually like not having gotten Pyromancer yet since it tells me how much fire damage I do each round. I wish I could keep that info even after I get the achievement. I wonder if client-side interface mods are allowed, I'd love to have a damage counter in a corner at all times.

I actually like not having gotten Pyromancer yet since it tells me how much fire damage I do each round. I wish I could keep that info even after I get the achievement. I wonder if client-side interface mods are allowed, I'd love to have a damage counter in a corner at all times.TF2 only stores total fire damage for the achievement (even after reached), it doesn't store detailed info about it like other stats.

You can modify the interface, but I don't think you can get the achievement indicators to show up permanently since they're hardcoded, and I doubt you can mod the game and still have it work online with unmodded clients.

Why would using a particular weapon make you a bad player? Getting away with using the least effective weapons makes you a good player in my book. It all depends on how well you do..well with the exception of the strategy of blowing the player into the air, the axe gets you killed. people who run after an enemy, hit them with fire and then take the time to switch to the axe to crit them are complete idiots. as are those who stand around corners with axe in hand waiting to ambush. pretty much everyone I've ever watched use the axe has done so in such a way that using the flamethrower would've done the job faster or equally fast with less risk.

*finally has a real internet connection*

Just in time too, the public wireless node kicked us off yesterday for bandwidth overuse.

*finally has a real internet connection*

Just in time too, the public wireless node kicked us off yesterday for bandwidth overuse.well quit downloading so damn much porn. :cool:

So it looks like I'm being given a queen-size bed, whether I want one or not. :p

I'm not jumping at the chance to screw around with the placement of everything in my room only to end up with dramatically less floor space, but I'm sure it will be a worthy trade once it's all done with.

So it looks like I'm being given a queen-size bed, whether I want one or not. :p

I'm not jumping at the chance to screw around
It's funnier if you stop the post there.

So it looks like I'm being given a queen-size bed, whether I want one or not. :p

I'm not jumping at the chance to screwMight as well cut out the fluff if we're doing that. :p

So it looks like I'm being given a queen-size bed, whether I want one or not. :p

I'm not jumping on the bed

Ah the great dilemma of childlike enjoyment vs. broken springs

Or you could replace that with adult enjoyment...

Or you could replace that with adult enjoyment...can he? ;)

I was looking for a ti-89 emulator for my mac (found one but doesn't work :( ) and I happened to find an emulator(Audio Overload) that plays .spc files (SNES music tracks). Which I had been searching for about a month or so ago but had no luck finding. YAY.

Currently listening to the SMRPG soundtrack. Happy adventure, delightful adventure indeed. :cool:

can he? ;)Ziiinnnnngggg :p

Ziiinnnnngggg :p*bows* thank you! thank you! I'll be here all week!

Oh, speaking of which, got the bed today. I love it.

I was looking for a ti-89 emulator for my mac (found one but doesn't work :( ) and I happened to find an emulator(Audio Overload) that plays .spc files (SNES music tracks). Which I had been searching for about a month or so ago but had no luck finding. YAY.

Currently listening to the SMRPG soundtrack. Happy adventure, delightful adventure indeed. :cool:
audio overload is a cool app, yeah. really everything by richard bannister is superb (except i wish he'd update his damn gba emulator to be able to actually play games)

audio overload is a cool app, yeah. really everything by richard bannister is superb (except i wish he'd update his damn gba emulator to be able to actually play games)Aren't there plenty of working emulators already, or am I missing something?

Visual Boy Advance is a great emulator, can't you get it running on mac?

Visual Boy Advance is a great emulator, can't you get it running on mac?
vba is indeed great but development has ceased since like 2005 and there isn't a universal binary available for post-2006 intel macs. the old powerpc binary works, but it's hella slow

went for a job interview at a local Dollar General. I walked in and the manager was having tech issues with her registers. I waited around a bit and eventually ran and picked her up a new CAT 5 cable cause the old one was busted. when I got back I found out she'd decided to hire me. YAY JOB! YAY NO INTERVIEW! :)

went for a job interview at a local Dollar General. I walked in and the manager was having tech issues with her registers. I waited around a bit and eventually ran and picked her up a new CAT 5 cable cause the old one was busted. when I got back I found out she'd decided to hire me. YAY JOB! YAY NO INTERVIEW! :)

Maybe it was a secret test of character :p

Maybe it was a secret test of character :pI guess she COULD have staged the whole thing but it took place over an hour's time. I'm sure it was just my willingness to help out despite my complete lack of requirement to do so that won her over. so either way I'd say yes to test of character but no to secret :p

Dang, man. That was a power play.

I guess she COULD have staged the whole thing but it took place over an hour's time. I'm sure it was just my willingness to help out despite my complete lack of requirement to do so that won her over. so either way I'd say yes to test of character but no to secret :p

I think the word you meant to put weight on was "I guess SHE could have staged the whole thing..". I'm willing to bet there was a suspicious looking viking character wandering around in there just half an hour prior to your job interview. Suspicious indeed..

:p

lol, I really should find a viking helmet...

went for a job interview at a local Dollar General. I walked in and the manager was having tech issues with her registers. I waited around a bit and eventually ran and picked her up a new CAT 5 cable cause the old one was busted. when I got back I found out she'd decided to hire me. YAY JOB! YAY NO INTERVIEW! :)
Did she ask you to run and get the cable? That was the interview!

Did she ask you to run and get the cable? That was the interview!yeah, basically. she was working alone and needed some help. I offered. that was pretty much my interview right there, I realize, but it's still note-worthy :p

Safety razors get!

1970s Gillette Sportsman Razor
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/3958675730_bc4612842f.jpg

1930s Gillette NEW
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3491/4072434070_6825d262fb.jpg

NEW? Really?

yeah, basically. she was working alone and needed some help. I offered. that was pretty much my interview right there, I realize, but it's still note-worthy :p

I think that's probably more effective than a normal interview. Clearly you can do useful stuff. Got to be worth a try.

Shortest interview I ever had was for some temp work after I graduated. I was ludicrously overqualified, because it was the kind of moneygum temp work that anyone could do, but I'd never had a job. The interview more-or-less went "Have you got any experience in this kind of thing?" "No" "You're hired." I started four seconds later. It was a strange day. I almost didn't get it by being unable to find the place.

NEW is the, now somewhat inaccurate, model name.

NEW is the, now somewhat inaccurate, model name.
"NEW" as a model name is the most idiotic choice at any point in time.
At least when the next model of the series is released, the old name get utterly confusing.

"NEW" as a model name is the most idiotic choice at any point in time.
At least when the next model of the series is released, the old name get utterly confusing.but back in those days no one may have realized they'd continue producing new varieties of those things. may have thought "well, we've got the one kind. we need a safety version. after that what else is there?"

What I don't get is that there are all these adverts telling you to ditch the Mach 3 and get a Fusion, and yet the Mach 3 is still being sold.

Well, that and I don't like Gillette's rather callous disowning of the Mach 3.

"NEW" as a model name is the most idiotic choice at any point in time.

Well, that's modernism for you.

Come to think of it, why are novels still called novels?

I got some trousers! Hooray for Primark!

What I don't get is that there are all these adverts telling you to ditch the Mach 3 and get a Fusion, and yet the Mach 3 is still being sold.

Well, that and I don't like Gillette's rather callous disowning of the Mach 3.



Well, that's modernism for you.

Come to think of it, why are novels still called novels?
They want people to upgrade so they can make more profits on the replaceable heads.

They want people to upgrade so they can make more profits on the replaceable heads.

Well I dunno aren't they still making profits on the Mach 3 replaceable heads?

(don't mind me, I'm just a socialist at heart. :p)

I believe it was named the NEW because it used the new kind of razor blade (which is the same kind of blade as produced today for traditional safety razors).

And yes, naming something "NEW" as a model is dumb, but in Gillette's defence, it was the 30s and there hadn't been decade after decade of new product, telephones, television etc.

Naming places 'New' something seems just about as dumb to me. Newfoundland is just total lack of imagination.

What I don't get is that there are all these adverts telling you to ditch the Mach 3 and get a Fusion, and yet the Mach 3 is still being sold.

Well, that and I don't like Gillette's rather callous disowning of the Mach 3.

I find shaving with my old safety razor to be much more pleasant to do, much nicer on my skin, and it only takes a few minutes longer. It's also ridiculously cheap - I bought a year's supply of blades for about £6. Good luck doing that with a Mach 3.

It's one of the reasons I've swapped to safety razors - it's just so cheap.

(Also better for the environment - I can easily recycle the blades as they're solid metal).

Oh well, my beard trimmer's electric anyway.

I find shaving with my old safety razor to be much more pleasant to do, much nicer on my skin, and it only takes a few minutes longer. It's also ridiculously cheap - I bought a year's supply of blades for about £6. Good luck doing that with a Mach 3.

Actually I kept the same Mach 3 blade for about 2 years until I changed it (though I only used it every couple of weeks).

Using any razor blade for too long can seriously damage your skin, cause ingrown hairs (which are incredibly painful), or cause infection if you nick yourself (assuming you don't wash your razor blades in alcohol).

2 years at less than once a week isn't too extreme though, as long as you keep the blades clean - that's less than 100 shaves, which once a day is about 3 months, and I know some people that keep their blades that long. I have think hair growth and blunt blades in minutes, though.

I have no idea how long too use a razor, I just keep using the same one from the pack of super cheap razors until I feel like I ought to change it, which is probably 20 shaves or something like that. Alcohol? I just rinse them in water until there are no more hairs stuck on it :p

Also I just shave under my nose and the sides of my "beard". That's all the facial hair I am can grow anyway :cool:

I use an electric razor and hadn't changed the foil in over 2 years (the book says every 18 months) and so I bought a new one the other week because the old one was breaking, and it was like 80% the cost of the razor itself, but it was an amazing improvement. Blew my mind.

I really should buy a new electric shaver, the battery's knackered in my current one. It takes over 24 hours to charge up and then barely holds enough charge to shave the majority of my face.

So much easier just to grow a beard :P

I have a ?20.- hair trimmer with a (virtually everlasting) ceramic blade which I use for my head and facial hair.
I rarely do a clean shave, but for those cases I have a ?20.- shear foil electrical razor.
Only for the occasional body hair shaving I use a wet razor.
I have been using the same blade of an old Mach3 for years now for that purpose, until I recently bought a ?4.- pack of 6 Bic razors, which also had three single blades.
(A 4-pack of Mach3 blades would have cost ?8.-)

I never heard of a QuestionmarkTwentyDotDash before.

I have. It's what the Euro currency looks like when something goes wrong with character encoding.

why put the .- on the end at all

That (or similar) is how many countries have for decades marked a number as currency. In Sweden, you can write "20:-" to represent 20 Swedish Kronor. The countries may have swapped to the Euro, but not every country and language writes the same way. I've seen "€20", "20 €" and "€20:-" in Sweden alone.

That (or similar) is how many countries have for decades marked a number as currency. In Sweden, you can write "20:-" to represent 20 Swedish Kronor. The countries may have swapped to the Euro, but not every country and language writes the same way. I've seen "€20", "20 €" and "€20:-" in Sweden alone.

I wish we had that in the UK instead of 19.99:mad:

I thought the dash was just in place of 00, and sometimes the symbol is omitted for brevity/laziness? I'm sure I've seen £10.— before, but it won't help with 99s.

I should clarify that I said I'd seen some examples in Sweden with the €, but Sweden doesn't even _use_ the Euro. We use Swedish Kronor, and Swedes use :- for that, and just use it when writing in Euros too - that was my point, that even though the Euro is a multi-national currency, different cultures will write it down in various ways.

As for Andrew's comment, it might be in some places, but I've seen "xx,yy:-" loads here.

My new school is nice, it's been two weeks already. More game design and 3D graphics :)

We won't get into that just yet though, the old students have to leave first so we can take over their computers, which will be right after Christmas. But it's not that urgent as we have a board game project and illustration courses until then which is awesome. Anyhow, the school is situated in "Bergh's School of Communication" which is a advertisement school, and a famous one at that, which freaks me out a bit since I'm basically behind enemy lines now.

I also bought three marker pens today, Cool Gray 1, 3 and 5 as well as a pair of Koss Porta Pro headphones, all my 'plug' headphones have broken quickly, and these are probably better for my ears.

I bought my mom a new computer. HP Pavilion Slimline s5230la. Comes with a 23" screen. Dual Core 2 Duo E7500, 4GB RAM, 640GB HD, and Windows 7 64-Bit. Only downside is the crappy built-in Intel video card, but that's of no consequence to my mom I guess. :p
Cost me about $1250 USD that I don't have. Got my aunt to purchase it and I'll pay her in parts. :P

Probably too expensive for what I get but the upside is that I was able to get it to her on her birthday, which was yesterday.

This also means I'll be getting my iMac back(once I get all her files to her PC), which is now in a rather battered condition it seems. The other day it refused to power on for an hour or so. I'm gonna have a look and see if anything's actually wrong with it.

That said, I haven't undusted it since I got it, anybody know how I should go about undusting an iMac? Is undusting even a real word? Also thinking about adding more RAM (it's only got 1GB), what types of RAM are compatible with it?

www.crucial.com should solve the RAM issues. Not sure what you mean about "undusting" it. When it doesn't power up, does anything happen at all (can you hear the CD drive spin briefly) or is it just dead?

www.crucial.com should solve the RAM issues. Not sure what you mean about "undusting" it. When it doesn't power up, does anything happen at all (can you hear the CD drive spin briefly) or is it just dead?

By undusting I mean removing any dust that may have accumulated on the insides.
Clearly not a real word I guess, I didn't have safari at the time to tell me I was using a fake word. :p

When it doesn't turn on, I only get the spinning dots thing that tells me it's loading, and it stays like that.

By undusting I mean removing any dust that may have accumulated on the insides.
Clearly not a real word I guess, I didn't have safari at the time to tell me I was using a fake word. :p

Not easy with an iMac - they're not really designed to come apart.

When it doesn't turn on, I only get the spinning dots thing that tells me it's loading, and it stays like that.

So the display, etc, comes on and the hard drive starts up, it just never loads the OS? If you can find the grey restore discs, stick the first one in and boot the computer up while holding down the "C" key, then run Disk first aid and scan the HD. Could be the OS has got a bit corrupted.

Or, before you do that, if the computer's been unplugged for a while, hold down Alt or Option as you boot it up and see if it lets you select the hard drive to boot from. Failing that, try resetting the PRAM (google/apple's support site)

Quick way to clean the insides of the laptop: Find the vent. Buy some canned air. Spray canned air into vent. Watch dust fly everywhere. Spray air into every vent until you see no more dust. Your computer has been mostly cleared of dust. (the more vents you have the more effective this method is)

Could you seal up all but one vent and use a vacuum cleaner to suck everything out?

If you use a Dyson you'd be able to tell how much filth you've sucked.

Could you seal up all but one vent and use a vacuum cleaner to suck everything out?

If you use a Dyson you'd be able to tell how much filth you've sucked.
Doesn't really work with the current style iMacs as they've only got two huge vents - one along the top of the computer (running along the entire width) and one of similar size at the bottom :p

I guess if you had a load of gaffer tape it might work.

Could you seal up all but one vent and use a vacuum cleaner to suck everything out?

If you use a Dyson you'd be able to tell how much filth you've sucked.

If I remember rightly there's a danger of damage from static using a vacuum cleaner. Not sure if that's still applicable to modern hardware.

Not easy with an iMac - they're not really designed to come apart.



So the display, etc, comes on and the hard drive starts up, it just never loads the OS? If you can find the grey restore discs, stick the first one in and boot the computer up while holding down the "C" key, then run Disk first aid and scan the HD. Could be the OS has got a bit corrupted.

Or, before you do that, if the computer's been unplugged for a while, hold down Alt or Option as you boot it up and see if it lets you select the hard drive to boot from. Failing that, try resetting the PRAM (google/apple's support site)
I tried holding alt and it did give me the choice to start my mac partition or windows one. Windows would boot up fine, but choosing the mac partition would still result in it not loading. Right now it works fine, still I think I'll re-install the os and then do some tests see if everything is working right.

As for the dust I guess I'll stick to an air can trough one of the vents, see how much dust comes out the other side.

Doesn't really work with the current style iMacs as they've only got two huge vents - one along the top of the computer (running along the entire width) and one of similar size at the bottom :p

I guess if you had a load of gaffer tape it might work.

Gaffer tape will work for ANYTHING. So yes, it would work.

If I remember rightly there's a danger of damage from static using a vacuum cleaner. Not sure if that's still applicable to modern hardware.

Not if you use gaffer tape. Obviously.

Also, what?

The ends of most vacuum cleaners are plastic. That can't hold much of a charge, if any. The only other 'part of the vacuum cleaner' which would be contacting the laptop would be the air which is rushing through to the vacuum cleaner. Unless you're statically charging the air that's going into the laptop, how would that moving air be any different to the moving air coming out of a can of compressed air?

Never spray compressed air in to a vent because all that will do is spread the dust to more sensitive areas.

You can use a vaccuum cleaner as long as the PC is not switched on. Keep it off for fifteen minutes prior to turning it back on again.

If you must spray air in to a vent, do it in short bursts and have your vaccuum cleaner on and near the hole so that anything loosened is hopefully sucked out.

This reminds me of something interesting I learned in school about fuelling aircraft. Is it true, Tom, that when fuelling an aircraft it's possible, or used to be possible for static to be created due to the friction of the fuel and the intake pipe, which was a concern about explosions.

This reminds me of something interesting I learned in school about fuelling aircraft. Is it true, Tom, that when fuelling an aircraft it's possible, or used to be possible for static to be created due to the friction of the fuel and the intake pipe, which was a concern about explosions.
Doesn't that go for any refuelling system? I'm not an expert on those so I cannot really comment with authority.

However, the flash point of Jet-A1 is pretty high (compared to most other fuels), for obvious safety reasons so it takes quite a bit to make a tank of fuel explode. Apparently you can drop a lit match into jet fuel and it won't ignite. I personally haven't tested that theory. The main reason why jet fuel burns is when it touches the hot engine (500 - 1000C exhaust, cowling around the outlet a similar temperature).

Never spray compressed air in to a vent because all that will do is spread the dust to more sensitive areas.

You can use a vaccuum cleaner as long as the PC is not switched on. Keep it off for fifteen minutes prior to turning it back on again.

If you must spray air in to a vent, do it in short bursts and have your vaccuum cleaner on and near the hole so that anything loosened is hopefully sucked out.

This reminds me of something interesting I learned in school about fuelling aircraft. Is it true, Tom, that when fuelling an aircraft it's possible, or used to be possible for static to be created due to the friction of the fuel and the intake pipe, which was a concern about explosions.

My vent is right next to my CPU heatsink. After a while, I realize that there isn't much air leaving the vent. I look in with a flashlight - I see nothing but dust on the other side of the heatsink. On the other side. There's no way to get rid of that dust without blowing. The clumps are far too large to fit through the heatsink, so suction will do diddly squat. Are you saying I shouldn't use compressed air? When I blast it, I find tons of dust leaves all the random vents I've got around my laptop. After I'm done I alternate through all the other random vents until I see no more dust leaving, and then give the heatsink another go at the end. And even then, where can the dust end up that's worse than in my CPU heatsink? After I blow out the air, it increases the exhaust flow and lowers my CPU temperature. The first time I did it, I was around 90 C, and I brought it down to more like 60.

This is what my mobo looks like. The dust gets BETWEEN the fan and heatsink, on the side of the heatsink not facing the vent. Are you saying there's a better way to get the dust out than to blow it? It doesn't get stuck much IN the heatsink - it forms a thick mat on the other side which turns into a shag carpet if I don't do anything about it. No vacuum cleaner can suck that through the heatsink.
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba-Portege-M400/big/toshiba-portege-m400-23.jpg

The ends of most vacuum cleaners are plastic. That can't hold much of a charge, if any. The only other 'part of the vacuum cleaner' which would be contacting the laptop would be the air which is rushing through to the vacuum cleaner. Unless you're statically charging the air that's going into the laptop, how would that moving air be any different to the moving air coming out of a can of compressed air?

Air out of a compressed can is only for a moment or two, a vacuum cleaner can keep going for quite a long time - enough to build up quite a lot of static on something it's rushing past. Modern components do have fairly good static protection (whereas it used to be very easy to fry ICs), so it may or may not be a problem anymore but I remember reading warnings against it.

You also want to keep vacuum cleaners away from fans, I ruined the fan on my Radeon 9800 Pro that way. Made it spin in the wrong direction, which I'd heard before is bad for fans.

I have. It's what the Euro currency looks like when something goes wrong with character encoding.
Yep, I wrote that on my PDA.
Obviously it's the fault of my custom SIP, because I believe that didn't happen with the default one.
Could also be the fault of Opera Mobile though.
I thought the dash was just in place of 00, and sometimes the symbol is omitted for brevity/laziness?
Correct.
In financial practice, you should always add the decimal point followed by a dash (or 00), plus a dash (or the currency sign) in front of the amount, do prevent that it can be edited.

If you write '€20', some mischevious person could add some more zeros in the end.

A drawback in countries where the a . is used as the decimal indicator is, that it could easily be changed to a , and add some more digits with a decimal point later.
Here in Austria, we actually use those two the other way around so this is less likely.

If you're that worried, just write it like a cheque and have it written both numerically and written out fully.

A drawback in countries where the a . is used as the decimal indicator is, that it could easily be changed to a , and add some more digits with a decimal point later.AFAIK, only English-speaking countries use this approach.

My vent is right next to my CPU heatsink. Are you saying I shouldn't use compressed air?

You don't want a build up of dust occurring in other areas of the computer, it may cause a short circuit. You can use a combination of air blasts and quick vaccuum sucks to try and remove anything you loosen up rather than let it settle. The best solution all round would be to open your computer up.