LazerFazer

Hi all, I was just wondering if using a dynamo on a bike wheel, for example, would make it more difficult for the biker to move a certain distance. Basically my thoughts are that you are using chemical energy in your body, converting that into mechanical energy to make the bike move, and then the dynamo is converting some of that mechanical energy into electrical energy. So would that mean that the biker has to do more work to move the same amount of distance with a dynamo attached as opposed to without one? Thanks, LF

Hmmm... The using a seperate psu might be a bit of a problem. I don't have any spare psu's available here, the only one i do have is for my brother's computer. Since mine is a prescot, i doubt his will work in mine...not enough juice, so to speak.

Hi all, I've recently been having some major issues with my computer. At (mostly) random times, the blasted machine just hangs. Unfortunately i haven't been able to pinpoint what exactly is the cause. I've narrowed it down to overheating, power supply issues, or just general hardware failure. The thing is, it happens at random intervals, and also at random stages of use. One time it'll hang during the POST, the next time after half an hour of gaming, another time while booting windows, and yet another time while just doing casual work (non intensive, like web design or something like that). Thing is, i recently had to downgrade my graphics card due to hardware failure, and now i'm using a passively cooled GeForce 2 mx. That was about 4 months ago, and the hanging issue only started about 2 weeks ago. As i look it it, my 3.3v line is pumping between 3.07 and 3.15 volts, the 5v line pumping 5.05v, and the +12v line pumping around 12.32v. This all according to msi CoreCenter. Any help in pinpointing the problem would be appreciated. Thanks.

Cheers for that. What program do you recommend for me to use? Here's another bit of info. When i have the drivers installed, the monitor looses signal when windows boots normally. Without drivers, i can start windows normally, but i can only set the resolution to 800x600 @4-bit colour. Also, it makes no difference whether i connect extra power to the card or not. Cheers lazerfazer

Hello all. Here's the issue. Recently i moved to south africa and took my computer with me. When i opened it up, i found the motherboard and graphic card were at the bottom of the case. So i rebuilt the system and when i started it up lo and behold, the monitor turned off. So, i restarted into safe mode. Now the monitor remained on, but only displays 4 bit colour. Any solutions? Cheers lazerfazer

Thanks again insane_alien. So I guess GPRS is the way to go (at least for me). Now that I have that settled, is there a phone that I can buy that supports GPRS and will last at least 2 years, preferably 4? Also, my budget is around US$200, so thats a rather limiting factor, I would assume. LF

Thanks for the info, insane_alien. I'm a bit new to this whole "internet from phone" thing. Is there any other way to access the internet on a mobile phone? From what I understand, with WAP, you need specially coded webpages. Is that true? And if so, is there any way to view 'normal' sites from a mobile phone? The reason I'm going through the trouble of getting internet on my mobile phone is because landline internet prices are so damn high, that it actually works out more affordable for me to get it on my mobile. Thanks, LF

Hi all, I've always had a crappy phone, but lately I've decided that I need one with a bit more than simple calling and SMS features. I tried looking around on google and what not, but I have no idea what to search for at all. I would appreciate any help on the issue. Basically, I'm looking for a phone with basic calling, SMS, and internet access. The reason is, I'm not going to have much land-line based internet access over the next few years, and so I need a phone that can at least allow me to check my email and send out emails as well. Again, Thanks in advance for the help LazerFazer

Cheers for the info everyone. I'll be checking out the site that was mentioned as well as some other things. LazerFazer

Hi everyone, I'm not sure where to post this, so I'll just put it hear because its related to university. Anyways, I was wondering what I should study in university if I want to end up working at some chip-making company, like Intel, AMD, etc. Preferably on the R&D team, but basically any type of science-based work at one of those companies. Thanks for your input, LazerFazer

hmm... again, strange. My friends were talking about it at a LAN we had two days ago, but I didn't believe them because, as I said, it's always worked perfectly fine for me. I don't even have a floppy drive, so having the drivers on there is out of the question, and my boot drive is my SATA drive. Hence, I couldn't have installed the drivers post-OS install. Could it be that they put the drivers into service pack 2? I use a slipstreamed SP2 install disk when I install windows... which is like every 2 months . Any other ideas as to how this works?

Alright, so assuming that the only horizontal force on the lower block is the friction from the upper block, how would YOU go about determining the friction FORCE between the two blocks?

No SATA drivers? Really? Interesting.... but then wouldn't that mean that my SATA drives wouldn't work? Or would they work, but just not at top performance, but rather at the performance of parallel ATA drives? Because my drives all work in XP and Vista BETA, and I've never had a problem with either. Also, does this relate to SATA drives by themselves, or only when they are in a RAID setup, because I've never had a RAID setup, so I can't comment on those. Cheers, LF

Well, theres something to start out a conversation then. Reflect on the past 4 years, how great it's been, some memorable incidences, that kind of stuff. And before you know it, you'll be talking with her for hours. It's really not that difficult, since you already know her, and hopefully you know her well enough to at least have a feeling about how she's gonna react to something, and what each type of reaction 'really' means. And when I say something is easy concerning girls, it's got to be. As for her 'forgetting' about you being a guy... is that really bad? It seems like she can relate to you on some deeper level, somewhat like how she can 'relate' to herself. And since she's used to thinking of herself as a girl, she just goes into that 'mode' of thinking, if you wish, when thinking of you Anyways, good luck and hope everything turns out OK. Keep us posted. Cheers, LF

For the record, the Vista BETA is rather stable. Granted, I haven't gamed or anything on it at all, but my 'casual' use is usually torture for a system. I tried to screw it up for about an hour, and failed :'( . So at least it holds up to my 'torture'. On a different note, I've never had any troubles with SATA drivers in XP. I boot from it, and I use my SATA hdd as my primary hdd all the time, and not once has it given me problems. The only thing I had to do was configure my BIOS to enable the SATA channels, but that was it, and it wasn't even OS related. Could anyone explain the problems that they're having with SATA on XP, since I seem incapable of reproducing them on my system, and it's begging to be screwed up soon . Cheers, LF

Herme3, Herme3, Herme3. I seem to have detected a hint of a problem here. Firstly, I'll admit that I haven't read this entire thread (heck, it's 16 pages. I don't have 3 hrs to read it... despite the fact that I'm almost done with school), so if something came up between like, page 3 and 15 that contradicts what I've concluded, let me know. Anyways, at the beginning of this thread, you said you were against dating, and that you would only consider dating someone if she was a good friend and had a good personality. Now, you say you like this girl, possibly want to go on a date with her, but she's only your friend for your intelligence. You see the problem? Someone can't have a good personality and at the same time only be with you for your help at school. Unless of course youre definition of a good personality is someone who uses others for their own gain. so either a) You don't really care about the personality of your prospective date, but just use it as an excuse for you not getting dates or b) your perception of what she thinks of you is slightly (extremely) skewed. Now, from what I can see, it seems like option b is the more accurate description of reality. You stated that you're no good for anything but your intelligence. Do you really think that? Do you really think people are only your friends because they want help on their homework? I don't think so. I'm sure people would gladly be your friend, even if you didn't have the whole super-intelligence thing going on. Perhaps at the beginning that was the case. But now, once people have had a chance to know you, to hang out a bit with you, I'm sure the situations changed. So how about you throw those self-degrading thoughts out of your head, and believe that people like you for who you are, not ONLY what you know. You know, your situation is similar to mine a few years ago. So, to better understand where I'm coming from, we shall embark on a journey into my past. When I just started my new school (about 5 yrs ago), I was a nobody, and a social outcast. I made no attempts to rectify my situation, and remained that way until people slowly began realizing that I had something going on in my head... something they could harness, if you wish. Anyways, what began as friendships of need soon turned into friendships of, well, friendship . No better way to put it really. Now, although school has technically ended, I still have those friendships, and hopefully I can keep hold of it. Though, admitedly, it's not going to be easy. Soon we all split up to go our seperate ways to different universities, etc. Since I'm at an international school, chances are I'll never see any of the people I call friends again, since we'll all be in different countries, all spread across the globe. But, this is not about me, it's about you. You said that after the weekend will be your last day seeing her. But you also said a while ago that the two of you are going to the same university, but that one of you have morning sessions, the other afternoon or evening or something. Well, if you really like her, and really want to keep in touch with her, you'll make the effort to see her even though your schedules don't coincide. Don't let this opportunity go away from you. Some people (like me) do really have no choice when it comes to saying goodbye to good friends. You can see that I'm speaking somewhat from experience, and also from expectations of what the future will hold. I've got just about 2 weeks until the goodbyes begin for me, and in 5 weeks it'll be all over. You, on the other hand, have the opportunity to turn this 'goodbye' into a new beginning. You've got two paths ahead of you. You could either just bid her farewell in 3 days, never to think about her again except with a feeling of regret and loss, or you can embrace this opportunity and make the effort to keep in touch, even if it means a slight inconvenience to you. So remember, you are worth much more than you give yourself credit for, and you and only you have the ability to take control of your life and turn it into something you are proud of. Just start off by giving her your email address, at least, and asking her to keep in touch and to inform you whenever she changes her address. Good luck, LF P.S. If my comments don't make sense, or seem disjointed, keep in mind I'm typing this after 5 hours of doing our house inventory.

Ya, definately recommend building your own. I did that a year ago, and my PC is working fine, except for the occasional self-induced software issues. But that's just coz I mess around with it too much for my own good. Many companies have a 'customize' option for their popular lines. If you use this feature, you can custom build your PC, without having to worry about compatibility, since the company takes care of that automatically. But again, you'll be 'paying for the name' and possibly an extra charge for them having to custom build your PC. The best bet would be to use something like this as long as you don't mind sifting your way through German. Or, you could always use google translate to get an understanding of what the site says, tho most of it is pretty self explanitory. LF

Since FrictionForce=NormalForce*Mew, and both of those are constant, as long as you overcome the static friction (which is greater than the kinetic friction), you would have a constant friction force. Of course, this is assuming the force applied is directly parallel to the direction of motion, and to the surface. Is this true, or am I getting confused somewhere?

Well, since the coefficient of kinetic friction is the same (for all the trials), and thus the frictional force is also the same, wouldn't you get a linear graph, only not centered at the origin? Also, I'm pretty sure you can neglect air resistance, since only a small force and thus a small acceleration and consequently velocity will be used.

Well, you could make use of F=ma. Measure the force required for a certain acceleration. Do this for multiple accelerations, and plot this on a Force vs Acceleration graph. The slope is then the mass. That should work. If i'm wrong, please correct me. Cheers, LazerFazer

Yup, D's the only one that makes sense. And physics isn't really required, as [Tycho?] stated already.

Well, your prom problems seem to have been much bigger than mine. Luckily ours wasn't required, but I decided to go anyway (well, more like was convinced to go... wasn't planning on going at all until about a week before). Ya, it was pretty boring and was a total waste of time. But, I guess, I learned something that night... never give in to peer pressure, especially for something as dumb as prom. So Herme3, worry yourself not. Their will be other chances to go to prom-like events, but even so, I personally don't recommend you go. The ball is in your court now, make your move. LF

Oh ya. Was a school sponsored event, and they're pretty anal about alcohol and stuff. Led to quite a bit of controversy this year in school.

LOL. ya, was a total waste of 6 hours of my life. And it wasn't like I didn't have something better to do... But oh well. It was an experience, probably one I won't repeat again.

Depends what you want the PC for. If it's for gaming, I would suggest Asus or Dell, they both have pretty good gaming lines. Also, if you can, wait until at least mid-2007 to buy a new PC. That way, the hardware will be Vista compatible, and future-proof, with all the new technologies that Vista is gonna 'support' (in other words, require for complete enjoyment of the OS). And, both major CPU manufacturers are realeasing new architectures within the next year, so if you buy now, you're machine will be ancient history sooner than usual. Cheers, LF