Dave

No, argon is usually used inside a bulb to stop the filament from oxidizing (I think?)

I can see designer babies becoming a reality within 10 years; probably about 50 for a fully functional fusion plant

(moved to General Science because it's a better home for the thread)

Whilst it's true that QBasic is similar to the original style of BASIC programming, the language is pretty much outdated now. You're definately better off using Visual Basic.

If you want to create a new operating system from scratch, it's rather a hard process. If you already have an existing version of the os, then it's pretty easy just to update your source code using the compiler tools/etc that you've already got.

A: It means your computer has given the internet a virus and it's about to crash. Q: Why has this thread gone on for so damn long?

A: Not a clue. Q: VHS or DVD?

Also in regards to transformers, when they transmit the power down the power cables, the voltage is stepped up to a rather high value (around about 100kV) so that you get a very small current, and hence you lose less heat in the wiring. If you sent power down at 240V, you'd lose a lot of heat

I guess they'd use C to code most parts of the OS, at a guess. It seems like a fairly logical choice to me.

You can pop down your local computer shop and pick up a large syringe of thermal paste for a couple quid, it's not all that expensive. Arctic Silver is the stuff the most serious overclockers use, it's extremely efficient for what it is, although it's a bit more expensive than the normal stuff.

*sigh* How could you think that this thread is actually serious?

As far as I'm aware, the two main uses for VBScript are: 1) To add functionality to webpages (in the same kind of way as JavaScript) 2) To add functionality to programs in general, if the programmer so desires. I can't tell you any more than that, sorry

There's no one specific scripting language inherant to Windows. VBScript is one of them though, yes. I've already explained how VBScript is used though.

No, only selected languages (e.g. JavaScript). Other languages such as IRC clients use scripting languages so that people can add functionality to the program easily.

Got any linkage?

No, that's a scripting language for things like HTML pages, and there's a few programs I know of that use it.

I'm still reckoning that cars powered by electricity are the way to go. I can also invision that when the fossil fuels run out, there's gonna be some serious fallout in the Middle East where most of the oil comes from.

There's a dos emulator, but dos doesn't exist in XP. So no, there is no command line OS in XP.

Yes, but it's not the full version of VB. That smaller version allows you to create small applications that you can embed into Word and help to alter the document. I've not seen it used a lot tbh. The full version of VB allows you to interact a lot more with various bits and pieces and build full applications.

A unix shell is basically an interpreter - it does the executing part. You type commands into this shell and it executes them - basically you tell the shell what to do. If you're referring to UNIX applications, then these are (for the most part) compiled programs that, as I said before, are put into a specific format (ELF mostly) for a very fast interpreter built into the kernel.

Not every operating system has to have a text-only interface. Before Mac OS X (which was based from the BSD kernel and hence has the text interface), there was no terminal interface for the OS. XP provides a DOS emulation mode as Aegir said, but there's no "real" text interface for xp.

Windows doesn't include VB by default. You have to buy it from Microsoft, either seperately or as part of one of their Visual Studio packages. VB is used because it's an easy way to make programs with a graphical interface - doing the same thing in C/C++ is quite a bit harder.

I believe they have them on the Jaguar E-Type, but they cheat and mount the logo on an axle seperate to the wheel in the centre, if that makes any sense at all. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to do it at all speeds (apart from if you have your logo as a circle), but for some speeds it should be possible, it's just a matter of finding the right shape.

Is it the same kind of thing as thermal paste used for effective heat exchange between CPUs and the heatsink?