Random Electronics Talkfest

[llama_egg]

How much is the Hydra chip?

Well, as things stand the only way you'll get one in the future is if the motherboard supports it, but even saying that currently theirs no release date at all for the thing.

I personally love it from a technology and a user standpoint. Can't afford a $400 card? Fine, buy a $200 card and add it to your old $200 card. Do alot of FaH and your one card can't keep up? Buy whatever's on sale at the time.

In my personal opinion an extra 300w on a full system load isn't really that bad and I would much rather be able to utilize my old card upon upgrading instead of throwing it into my closet for a decade as a back up.

[llama_egg]

So once again we are plagued with the temptation of $599 video cards, the ATI 5970 is now on the market and is one hell of a beastly card. This thing will om nom nom every other card out there.

[Killer_Man_]

Fuck 360s, I just got a red ring of death while trying to play a DVD, I just bought all four Lethal Weapons(one disc) and three John Candy movies(All one disc), they are brand new but I washed them anyway and then ran a CD that has brushes on it to clean the laser eye on it. I use it on my computer all the time but then as soon as I turn it on and I get the RRoD.

FML and fuck 360s. This is going to be the third one yet.

[chefTENGU]

That's sad.

Have you tried filling out a service request online and see if you can get it repaired? I got a free 1-month subscription to XBL Gold out of the deal, and all I had to pay for was the box I sent it in.

[Killer_Man_]

No because I can return it to bestbuy for a new one.

[chefTENGU]

As you wish. Do you have a hard drive or do you just keep going through Arcade after Arcade and need to redo EVERYTHING every time you RRoD?

[Killer_Man_]

Well, the first arcade I had, came with a mem stick. I took it out and brought everything I need to run the thing. They said well, we're keeping the controller and the mem stick. Lo and behold it didn't have a mem stick and they said whatever it doesn't matter. So my arcade has an internal one and a mem stick. :P Plus I have an HD I bought seperately.

I took it back already and the guy who helped me said, "Again? What the hell is wrong with them."

Plus I found out my DVD of Lethal Weapon that has all four of them on it is defective and returned it to target for anther one.

[chefTENGU]

You know, I had an inkling that you bought that DVD at a Target. My store has an entire section of "let's lump all these movies together" DVDs. I told my roommate from college one day how I saw that we sell a 4 movie DVD featuring Jean Claude Van Damme flicks.

Apparently, he already owned separate copies of 3 of the 4.

[Killer_Man_]

Yeah, I usually buy my movies at Target cause of their price and them lumping everything into one or two DVDs.

[Seegtease]

Wal-Mart has double and triple features as well (lumpings).

[Detrevni]

Lol, Dvds are obsolete. Helloooo video streaming.

So, new topic: Smartphones.

I recently got a Motorola Droid and I'm loving the damn thing. I'd be on it right now but frankly that wouls seem ridiculous sitting right in front of me desktop.

Who has a smart phone and what do you think of it?

[Arainach]

I like owning, not renting my media. Also, Comcast would probably have something to say to me if I tried to stream all my media viewing in a month within their 250GB cap.

I don't have a Smartphone. I don't feel that I need the extra cost or that I need information at my fingertips everywhere. There's a certain thrill in discovering things or working them out yourself; I don't want to be a mindless consumer of information. Hell, it wasn't too long ago when most people didn't have cell phones, and society didn't magically collapse then.

[Killer_Man_]

Steaming sucks unless you have high end...

And I don't have a bandwith cap but still.

That and I like owning my stuff too.

[Bloodcinder]

I take back anything negative I ever said about the Office 2007 ribbon. Since I am laboriously instructing my students how to use Excel, it's a lot more convenient.

I originally disliked it because of the need to switch between tabs. Then I realized that by having stuff spread across multiple tabs you avoid the need for brevity-- teeny tiny icons helping you see a thousand options at once. The available of descriptive text is very good for seeing what options you have available without being overwhelmed by everything going on.

I've now switched from OpenOffice back to Microsoft Office for most of my own home use as well as my required course use.

[deathofcheese]

As a direct result of conversation in IRC with Smar, I think I want to make learning Python a project for myself this summer.

1) Is this a good idea?
2) Is there an IDE I can use?
3) Can someone recommend a book?
4) In lieu of a book, is there a decent web-based tutorial I can browse?

At the moment, I'm interested in writing toy programs to get the basics of syntax and functionality across, with no immediate major plans for development. However, that could change once I get comfortable with it and/or I find a use for programming in Python.

(For the curious, Smar ridiculed Gio for being in a class that used Java. Since the CS program here at USC Upstate is almost entirely Java-based, I was miffed by this, and so I called Smar out on his bullshitting. Smar pointed me to two articles here and here, which have convinced me that although that might be an extreme view on Java, it certainly can't hurt to learn Python and if that's one way tech companies are starting to lean, it actually would be a good idea to learn it now as I'm starting to look for a job after graduation.)

[Arainach]

In this particular case, Smar, is nuts - it doesn't really matter which high-level language you learn on because for learning they're all essentially the same. Java is just as useful as Python for these kind of things. That said, learning a new language is usually worthwhile. I wouldn't go so far as to say that that's a way "tech companies" are leaning, but it's a fun language.

[Bloodcinder]

Python is great to learn. As for resources, it's so easy to learn that I'd just use the tutorial on the official website. I use it for all of my hobby coding now.

[Killer_Man_]

So, if anyone can tell me before next Tuesday on why I shouldn't buy Windows 7, I think it's going to be a good idea to get out of XP. Any objections?

Mainboard : Asus M2N32-SLI DELUXE
Chipset : nVidia nForce 590 SLI
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ @ 2800 MHz
Physical Memory : 2048 MB (2 x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM )
Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
Hard Disk : WDC (250 GB)
Hard Disk : WDC (250 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : ASUS DVD-E616A3T
Monitor Type : Samsung SyncMaster - 23 inches
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.01.2600 Service Pack 3
DirectX : Version 9.0c (April 2009)

I don't think I'll have a problem at all upgrading and I do believe everything is direct X 10 compatiable. I'd have to look it over.


I take that back...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121034

My video card is direct X 10 compatiable and I don't think I'll have any hardware issues.

[deathofcheese]

You should probably consider getting more RAM. 7 and 64-bit 7 will run on 2 GB, but 4 and even 8 is so much nicer.

[Killer_Man_]

Originally Posted by deathofcheese

You should probably consider getting more RAM. 7 and 64-bit 7 will run on 2 GB, but 4 and even 8 is so much nicer.

I was thinking of that but 32 bit XP SP3 only supports 3. I was planning on getting more ram.... I have to look up to see if they still even sell my ram or get ram in 2 gig quanities.

Though what was funny is I was arguing with some idiot in my guild who says you don't need more than say 2 or 4 gigs of ram... I told him, as far as I remember more is always good. Regardless if the game calls for it or not, much like my video card is 640 MBs and he says it's over kill.

I told him, teh more you have, the more fluid things will run and the better everything will look when you tweak it up. As long as videos recognizes it of course.

[Arainach]

No* 32-bit application on Windows can access more than 2GB of memory, so strictly speaking increasing your memory above that isn't guaranteed to help with gaming performance, it just helps with overall system performance in terms of being able to keep more things in RAM as opposed to page file at once.



* - that's not entirely true, but it's true of most everything, including all games

[Killer_Man_]

Originally Posted by Arainach

No* 32-bit application on Windows can access more than 2GB of memory, so strictly speaking increasing your memory above that isn't guaranteed to help with gaming performance, it just helps with overall system performance in terms of being able to keep more things in RAM as opposed to page file at once.



* - that's not entirely true, but it's true of most everything, including all games

I was told that windows 32 bit could only access more like 3 gigs but since I run DDR memory, I should be running them in sets of 2s. Such as 2, 4, 6, 8. By twos, I meant sets of 2 sticks.

I thought RAM just helped access more resources for games to run with

[Arainach]

WINDOWS 32-bit can access up to approximately 4GB total mapping without PAE (but your video card's counted in that mapping as well as several other things, it's a messy bit of math but you wont' really get 4GB). No single application can access all of your system memory. Each application is normally limited to 2GB unless they request more in a special way and are coded to handle more.

[Killer_Man_]

I see. Thanks for the information.

[Gio Takahashi]

Originally Posted by Killer_Man_

So, if anyone can tell me before next Tuesday on why I shouldn't buy Windows 7, I think it's going to be a good idea to get out of XP. Any objections?

I don't think I'll have a problem at all upgrading and I do believe everything is direct X 10 compatiable. I'd have to look it over.


I take that back...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121034

My video card is direct X 10 compatiable and I don't think I'll have any hardware issues.

You have a very similar set up to mine when I first ran windows 7, while you definitely should get more memory (at least 4GB) I definitely say, go for windows 7. And yes, do get 64 bit. 32 bit and 64 bit should be priced the same, so you might as well just go with the 64 bit.