cessna7686

Thanks for the help! So it sounds like server RAM isn't really necessary since I will be using the computer as a media center and I'm willing to sacrifice some reliability for a lower cost. I'll just make sure to get the right speed and pin configuration.

Hey, I just got an old server from my mom's work that I would like to turn into a media center. Right now it only has 512 MB RAM, so I would like to add more. On sites like newegg I see that they sell "server RAM" as opposed to just normal RAM. Is there something about it that makes it special, or could I use any RAM that has the right pin configuration. I've done some searches and can't find what the difference is. Thanks

I would recommend going to each school's admissions website, they should have all the info your looking for listed there. MIT:http://www.mitadmissions.org/ Look at #5 and #6 menus Cal Tech: http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/applying Stanford: http://soe.stanford.edu/admissions/

Thought I'd give my two cents, since I had to go through the same decision process a few years ago. I also was looking in schools in NYC and Boston (Columbia, Boston University, and Northeastern). I didn't like Columbia because of how they set up their course structure and ended up not even applying there. I liked BU and they have a very good engineering program (I am mechanical engineering) but I really liked Northeastern University. NU was actually the weakest academic school I applied to however they have a very good co-op program which allows you to alternate between classes and internships. In addition to getting good real life work experience you are also payed during the internships (at least for engineering) which can help lower the cost of school/housing. I actually ended up going to Drexel University which has a stronger engineering program than Northeastern and competes with them for the top co-op program in the country. If you are really concerned about the cities I would recommend taking a hard look at your financial situation since New York City is WAY more expensive than Boston but Boston was a really fun city (I think it has the most college students per capita than any other country in the US, but I might be wrong.) Hope that helps a little, I'm happy to help with any other questions you might have.

The periodic table actually does say how many, it just says it in a round about way. The atomic number of any element is also the number of protons that the element has. To determine the number of nuetrons you need to know the number of protons and the atomic mass of the element. A proton and a nuetron both have an atomic mass of 1 atomic mass unit (AMU) while an electron's mass is considered negligible. Therefore the weight of all the protons and nuetrons in the element must equal it's atomic mass, so if you know how many protons you have (24) and how much they weigh (24 AMU) and you know Cr's atomic mass (52 AMU), all you have to do is some simple arithmetic to find out how many nuetrons it has. Hope that helps.

IMO eliminating the paint on aircraft wouldn't be feasible for two reasons. The first is that I'm pretty sure the carriers would not want to lose the name recognition all their planes have right now. A lot of companies are very proud of their liverys and would be pretty upset to lose them. The other reason is that though I am not an air traffic controller I think that unpainted aircraft would be a lot harder to keep track of on the ground than unpainted aircraft. Imagine trying to keep track of all the planes at a major airport (LAX, JFK...) when they all look the same, pretty tough if you ask me. In terms of making the aircraft lighter, I think they're already heading in the right direction. I believe Boeing is working with a lot of composite materials to reduce the weight of the aircraft and I think GE is also using composites to reduce the weight of the engine.

This is an interesting idea, but realistically I don't think it could ever work out. My first thought is that the public's reaction to flying on a plane that has no landing gear would be pretty negative. Even if it was proven safe there are already so many people who are scared of flying that I think the public wouldn't accept it. People have mentioned emergency landings on here and how it might be better to not have a landing gear when landing in a field, but what about the times when aircraft can perform an emergency landing on an open stretch of highway. This probably wouldn't happen with a plane like the A380 but it has happened for smaller aircraft. In that case it would defenitely be safer and more cost effective to land with the gears down. One benefit I could see is that it has the potential to reduce turn around time at the gate since it would eliminate the break cooling requirements for the airlines, but that would probably only effect smaller aircraft which have less passengers to load.

[bUBBLE=note that you'll have to leave the USB drive in at all times. i don't think you can hot-(un)plug your swap drive][/bUBBLE] Do you mean that if I were to take it out and turn the computer on that it would be looking for hardware that isn't there and an error would occur, or do you just mean that while i'm using the computer I can't unplug the flash drive? **edit** After reading the how to article it seems like it won't make as big of a difference as I thought. Though if you wouldn't mind still answering my question Dak I would appreciate it Thanks!

Thanks for the advice guys. Sounds like I got some bad info originally and that there isn't much point in using the extra flash drive as a swap device. Thanks!

I was told RAM, but I don't know what swap is. What is it and what would be the benefit of converting the flash memory into it? Thanks

Hi, I have been trying to find information on how to use a flash drive as RAM in windows XP. I've heard that it is possible but I haven't been able to find any info on how to do it after doing some google searches. Does anyone know if a) it's possible and b) whether there are instructions on the web about how to do it. I have a PNY Attache 256M drive. I know 256 isn't a lot but I only have 512 in my comp so I figure it should make some difference. Thanks

Sounds like pc games are out of the picture on the 360...does anyone happen to know if they plan to release Flight Simulator X for the 360? I've done a fair share of searching and can't find anything though my work does block a lot of gaming sites (it's been a slow day).

Hey, I'm trying to decide on whether or not to buy a xbox 360/PS3 or perhaps a better gaming computer. Does anyone know whether or not you can play pc games on the 360 if you have the premium version (the one with the hard drive). I know it runs on windows, or at least some version of windows, but I don't know whether it would allow you to install games on it. I really want to play flight simulator X but I'm not sure what to do. Thanks

If you can find a good used hockey store the price shouldn't be that bad. I play goalie, but I have a general sense of how much the other equipment costs. Pretty good used stick: $20 Good used skates: ~$50 Shin guards: ~$20 (You can get good new stuff for around $30) Elbow pads: $10-$15 Pants: $40 Shoulder Pads: $40 Helmet: $40 Great Hockey for Years: Priceless (Sorry, couldn't resist) *If you want to play goalie it's going to get a lot more expensive I hope my estimates are correct, I saw that your from NY state-same as me, you shouldn't have a problem finding a used hockey store. If you guys aren't going to play contact hockey you might be able to get pants and shoulder pads that aren't as heavily padded (cheaper) since you only need protection from the ice. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Just out of curiosity, what part of NY are you from?

I go to university in the US but I looked at Canadian schools (I am American). The quality if the education all depends on the school you choose. I looked at McGill and University of Toronto, both of which are very good schools. I also know that U of Waterloo is a very good school. As a candian citizen it will be much cheaper for you to go to school in Canada. I go to Drexel University which is a private university and it's tuition is around $25,000 a year. Even going to a state school as a non-resident will be expensive, anywhere from 10 to $20,000 a year. There are opportunities to get scholarships, I'm not sure whether they will be easier to get at a private or state school since you aren't a resident. Bottom line, the quality of education depends completely on the school, but it will be cheaper for you to go to school in Canada.

I go to Drexel for engineering and I like it. I know that Drexel has a very good engineering program but I don't know much about our other majors. Overall we are a big science based school, so I would defenitely look into coming here. There's also Temple in Philly and Carnegie Mellon and U Pittsburgh, both of which are in Pittsburgh. I would recommend looking through some of those college ratings books, a lot of them sort schools by state. You should also think about what type of social atmosphere you would like, Drexel and Penn State are very different in that aspect, just to compare two.

I'm not a turbine expert but I think you have to be a bit more specific. There are a lot of different factors that would affect the performance of the turbine: turbine surface area, size of the generator the turbine is connected to, and the gear ratios you are using (if you are using gears). The more information you can provide the better an answer you will get.

Most schools allow you to enroll as "unspecified engineering" and then choose your major after a year or two. I can't say this is true for every school, but I believe that at most schools all the engineering majors take the same courses for the first one or two years. At my school all freshmen take the same courses and you only take two major specific courses your sophomore year. Even if you do have to declare a specific major going in, you can always switch. You'll learn more about the different disciplines once you are there.

I use Adobe Audition to modify my mp3s. It's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of the interface. It also allows you to export the music in a lot of different formats.

Hey, I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop. The black plastic tab in one of my USB ports broke exposing the wire prongs which then proceeded to get bent. I was able to straighten out the prongs, but the port is no longer working. Originally it gave me a power surge message, now it just doesn't respond. What would it entail to replace a USB port on my computer? If it's pretty complicated, do you guys have any other suggestions as to how to fix this problem? Thanks

I'm a sophomore in college right now and I'm studying mechanical engineering with a concentration in aerospace. I don't have any scholarly sources to back up my claims, but I think this is the best root to take if you are interested in aerospace. While touring colleges I talked to different professors and they recommended the path I am taking. They said that majoring in aerospace was too concentrated and would not be as useful in the job market as mech E would be. Since mechanical is very general you gain knowledge that will help you in many different fields but the concentration in aerospace will help you in the aerospace industry. They also mentioned that many universities are phasing out their aerospace majors and combining them with mechanical. I would recommend asking professors and professional engineers for their opinions when touring schools.

I gotcha, you're saying there is no longer a need to be well versed in creating a blueprint by hand, as opposed to using CAD to create one, but would you agree that it's important to know how to read them. I've seen some pretty simple blueprints, but as you know Pratt has some pretty complicated ones as well.

I am in my second year in university right now but I was in the same situation as you. I went to school not knowing a single person there, but it really wasn't a big deal. You meet a lot of people and you'll find people you like. Since you call it "uni" I am assuming you are not from the U.S (edit: just looked at unibuddies.com, I have to assume you're from the UK). I don't know how university works there but here they do a lot of orientation activites to help people get to know each other. A lot of them seem lame at first but some are pretty fun and a real good way to meet people. Don't be worried, just go in with an open mind and don't be shy. You may meet people who you don't seem to click with at first but they could eventually become your best friends.

Science Olympiad is a pretty big competition. The only midwest state it isn't offered in is Arkansas. I have never competed in it but my roommate competed in high school and really liked it. He even goes back to his H.S. to help their current team. http://www.soinc.org/contact/links.htm That's the website to look at your states Science Olympiad.

Blueprints aren't a thing of the past in aerospace. I work at Pratt and Whitney and though I'm sure all the parts we make are done in CAD, we still have blue prints for every turbine blade we produce. I'm sure that overall more companies use CAD and only CAD, but I'm just saying it's good to know how to read blueprints.