Daniel

Hey guys Need some help, I have a PCB built and it doesn't quite operate as I expect it to. I have a PIC microcontroller and a couple of LEDs which should be on when it is operating. The ground and power planes are providing power to the PIC, the MCLR pin is set high and the rest of hte circuit seems to work. However, the PIC just doesn't work. It seems to burn out after awhile. Another phenomena which happened was the LEDs turned on when I brought my hand over the board, but turned off when I pulled it away. The circuit died soon after. And funnily enough, the PIC seems to be fine. I just reprogram it and put it back in, and it operates (until it dies out again). Any ideas ?

This is some cool stuff. I like the idea. Simple but seems pretty effective.

There is a guy from Toronto uni here on exchange doing my course. Cool guy, accent is so thick though. He's leaving there within the next week I think. A friend of mine is going to McGill university in Montreal for a year on exchange.

Damn your uni seems to set you up. Our bachelor course is 4 years, and I think a masters is another two if you do by coursework. My exams didn't go too well either, but everyone else found them difficult too so lets hope the scaling works in my favour

Apparantly cold fusion isn't possible. Last I heard, the guy who claimed it was mathematically possible had made a mistake.

Yea, the guy is a freak. He pissed one of my lecturers off because in some class, the lecturer was going over a hard proof and instead he goes "couldn't you do this, this and this and it would be a lot easier ?". Lecturer glares at him and replies "yes.........yes you could". My friend has a few funny stories about his big brother who did electrical engineering and computer science. His brother did the Control subject I was talking about earlier, got kicked out of lectures in the second lecture, and was told not to come back (ever). The exam was really hard, out of 10 questions his brother maybe gets equivalent of 3 and a half correct. He gets an email from the lecturer telling him that he topped the class, and that the lecturer couldn't remember him, and wanted to know if he was interested in studying under his guidance. Didn't take the offer up, went overseas or something.

You have 6 subjects Wolverine ? For me the usual load is 4 subjects a semester. People who do well can opt to overload and do 5, and there is a guy I know who was regularly doing 6 subjects a semester. Freakish people, he is slightly older than I am and doing a PhD (21 I think). One of the subjects I am doing now (Control system design), he got a perfect score of 100. I don't know how people do that. Anyway, my exams are on next week too. Good luck with yours.

Thanks for the summarisation. I read through the thread, but some things stuck out more to me than others. I can't disagree with the standpoint. I think the US shouldn't have been there in the first place. But now that they are, they need to finish the job. Or someone needs to finish the job, ideally the United Nations would send a peacekeeping force in while a new government was set up. People die in war, whether they are innocent or not. I think what matters is the intention of it. If you have troops going into villages, raping and murdering people wilfully, then that should be condemned. If a bomb is dropped and some people die due to mistakes, it is regrettable and deserves condemnation, but I don't put it in the same category. That is why I cannot agree with people who say that Nick Berg's killers are in the same league as an American pilot who drops bombs on a wedding (with the assumption that it was a mistake)

"he was decapitated after the images of appalling conditions for Iraqis in an American-run jail, and allegations of similar abuse carried out by British troops. Which incidentally came after our forces invading their country, deposing their leaders, and killing civilians. And regardless of whether he volunteered or not, he was a combatant. And - by virtue of the USA declaring it's war to be "on terror" - so were they." "No, I'm not making an attempt to reconcile or justify those abhorrent actions in any way. What I'm saying is that it's not like they just ran up to someone at random and chopped his head off for a laugh." "When the US or the UK kills such people working for the other side, we call them combatants." Do you really consider Nick Berg a combatant ? Did you know that he did aid work in Ghana and gave nearly everything he had to help those people before he left ? A combatant.................he sounds like the type of guy Iraq needed to be there. And these crazies killed him because he was American and Jewish. I don't know what you are trying to say, you say that such an act was "abhorrent", and yet you call him a combatant and make it out like he deserved what he got. "Do you love your country when it makes war on an entire people to strike the crazies?" If America wanted to make war on all the Iraqi people, there would be many many more dead. Civilians always die in war, that is a fact. No one here is celebrating that, but it is going to happen. If the idea was to invade Iraq to kill Iraqis, then the bodycount would be multiple times more than it is already. If you are condemning the US for killing civilians, then I would agree with you, although I would add that it happens in any war. If you are condemning the US because you think it has the intention to go and make life hell for the average Iraqi citizen, then I would disagree. "I think atm was more referring to the fact that if a civilian defends their home/property/town etc from US or UK troops, they are treated as combatants." What do you expect ? The moment someone takes up arms against you, you have to defend yourself. I don't think that our troops are just shooting people for the sake of it. If these Iraqi citizens do as they are told, then they don't have to worry right ? Nick Berg cannot be compared to Iraqi citizens who take up arms because he was not armed. "Neither the USA or the UK has the right to tell people in Iraq when or where they can be - it's their country, not ours." Not yet. The new government hasn't been set up yet. A war just happened, and is still being fought. How the hell can you expect everything to be back to normal already ?

"I find your implication that we should be pro-American to be racist" You should be pro american ? Well firstly I didn't say that, and secondly, I think your definition of "racism" is a little stuffed up. Saddam doesn't need removing, but what do you suggest the Americans do ? Jump in there, get rid of him, and have to end up taking out one of his sons in a couple more years ? Leave a huge power vacuum there so that each ethnic group can start fighting for power ? "if we weren't there now - and we shouldn't be - they would have no opportunity to act" Again what do you think should be done ? Why shouldn't the Americans be there to fix up their own mess ? Maybe they did do wrong putting Saddam there in the first place all those years ago, but now that they have decided to take him out (which I do not think can be seen as a bad thing), then they will have to fix the country up. To clear things up, if you think that resistance groups in Iraq are justified in kidnapping non military US citizens and chopping their head off, then you are certainly siding with savages. I don't believe this is a justifiable act, no matter how bad the prisoner abuse was.

Moral/ethical standpoint ? It is good to get rid of people like Saddam. Is that morally wrong ? I am not American either. There will be individual soldiers who wish to abuse the Iraqi people, but these should not be a reflection of American intentions in Iraq.

"Not only do I find that comment to be racist" Did I say that all Iraqis were "savages and animals" ? I was referring to those who fight the Americans in such ways as the Berg killing. Maybe your quick jump to conclusion is indicative of your own views. My point about the Russians is that if America was really there to treat the citizens like shit, then it would be a lot worse. They have to rebuild Iraq now, they know that.

This debate is getting silly. I think it is only a good thing that the killers are gotten rid of. Would you like to live alongside them ? The American army could be a lot worse in treating the civilians. Do you know how the Russians treat the Chechens in that particular war ? They regularly take civilians off the street into a basement, and that civilian is never seen again. You and I cannot possibly imagine how some of them are killed. I don't support America being in Iraq, but a lot of people here are siding with savages and animals, due to them being blinded by their anti americanism.

Wow this is an interesting thread. I am learning about both microwaves and ants reaction to the microwave radiation.

"But was it? The population has increased quite a bit so it depends what you mean by 'commonplace' - gross numbers, or 'poor per capita'?" The majority of the population back then were not educated. People nowadays get educated, or at least finish school. Those who don't want to go to school can drop out, but that is their choice. School is pretty much a given when it comes to success. Sure there are the highschool dropouts who end up making millions, but those are freak cases. "if anything the barriers against people trying to get out of poverty have multiplied." Maybe, handouts don't encourage people to strive for a better lifestyle. There is a safety net that people end up relying on instead of working their way to the top. That is one of the reasons. "it relates because most of the poor people remain poor because of circumstances, their entire cultural outlook often promotes this crap way of life." Hmm..............I think the argument goes that man should be able to change his environment and culture. Culture comes from people. I don't deny that it also has the ability to shape the way a person is. "does bad luck include the culture you are born in? you have a number of nested statements there which I disagree with and it will take time to go over them." Which culture promotes poverty ? Why do some white people rise to the top, yet other whites stay at the bottom of society ? Already the culture is not that different. If you talk about class cultures, then why would the poor wish to remain poor ? From my mother's experience...............her family was quite poor. No handouts either. But now all of her brothers and sister are working, and some are pretty filthy rich. They wanted to get out of the poverty cycle, and realised that it required sacrifice. Family heirlooms were sold off and money was borrowed to send her and her siblings to higher education. It paid off in the end. I am grateful for the sacrifices my grandparents made.