Donut.Hole

Thanks for all the responses Cap'n, Insane Alien, Pangloss, and Bascule. (sorry I didn't reply). And thanks to you too, antimatter, for explaining the problem. The problem hasn't persisted since the temperatures have gone below 80F. If I just use the laptop in lower temperatures, there's no problem. But there's one thing I've noticed. The problem happens when I run games from a disk. Anyone got any theories?

My new notebook has been in use for a couple of days, and I'm already seeing a few heat problems. It's a Dell XPS m1530, so the slim chassis and the higher-end parts don't sit too well. My first question is if heat really is so bad. What effects does it have on parts, and will it decrease performance? (I hope I didn't ruin it already.) Secondly, when running anything intensive, the notebook occasionally shuts itself off for no apparent reason, even when charged. I'm thinking that this is to protect itself from heat, but surface temperatures are always relatively cool. So does anyone have any good reasons? Thanks.

Well, it appears that by "immune system" you mean defenses against viruses, diseases, etc. Everything living has this type of defense built into their cells - the cell membrane is basic protection and filters out harmful products. But this isn't great protection, because viruses are almost always able to get through the tiny pores. So if you mean an advanced adaptive immune system, like the specialized white blood cells that lock down viruses with antigens, macrophages to dispose of them, and B-Cells to memorize the viruses in order to create new antigens, it'd really only be animals that would have this type of defense. Compared to other organisms, the complexity makes it necessary. However, all animals and plants also have an "innate immune system." I don't know too much about it, but this basically means that the organism responds to any disease in the same way (this occurs when an adaptive immune system meets something new. Then it adapts.) This response is primitive, but works well enough. So yes, everything that is alive has its own immune system. Now I'm surprised that you actually read all that.

There's a bit of speculation that Homo Erectus discovered it around 800,000 years ago by roasting their food. No evidence of how they actually figured it out. Fire was being used around then. My guess is that because it played such a vital role as protection and heat, it was probably an accident from some clueless Erectus dropping food in fire and finding it better. Cooking was mostly for meat because it was tough to chew.

IQ probably isn't going up, it's just that people's minds are better tuned for IQ-style thinking, if you please. The recent need for literacy has boosted education and has made this possible. I hope I'm not one of those dumb people at your school, antimatter.

My last post asks for suggestions. It'd be best if complaints could come with suggestions too. Perhaps for only the most intense experiences in each field, there should be an over-rate feature. Sex games shoud have an over-rate scale of 54 extra points. Coupled with a rater's 17 General Attitude, AO is achieved. Games like FEAR should have an over-rate for violence. Now, the only problem is, can anyone think of the conditions under which an over-rate is granted?

Hmm, I actually got only an E10. D'you think that I'm rating too lightly?

It's meant to be general. This is basically a place where you can boost a game's rating if you feel that the system doesn't work right. If the game is like FEAR in which there is a ton of violence but nearly nothing else, are you syaing that the game should be rated E just because it scored no points in anything else? Reasons for getting high points in this is if the score is over 20 or if the game deserves and M when the points indicate a T. Kind of like an overall. Raters should, for instance, ask "Would I let a 10 year old play this?" But remember, it has limited influence.

Like I explained, a game that scored full points in sex and violence and has tons of it everywhere you look could still be rated T without the General Attitude. But I'd still look at that game and see M. General Attitude allows a place for raters to decide whether a game may deserve a higher rating because it places emphasis on a few areas instead of spreading the points out. It's just a little thing to balance power. But it's still fair - remember, it's not a vote but a group choice, so no one can sabotage this area alone. And 38 points of Halo: CE? Did you take into account General Attitude? Because it can't be E10, at least T

Using my previous rating criteria, scores should be out of 88 points. Violence/Blood- I suppose no explanation is needed. 25pts Drug Reference — Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs. 10pts Language — Profanity. 8pts Gambling — Player can gamble. 8pts Sexual Themes — Sexual references and/or depictions. 20pts General Attitude Toward the Game (Must be decided as a single score for the rating group, not a vote/average) - 17 pts This is my rating scale. A rating means the maximum number of points or under. For instance, Rated E would be between 37 and 25 3 points: Very young children 25 points: E 38points: E10+ 44points: T 57 points: M 70+points: Adult Only Before, I didn't have a section for general attitude towards the game. This would mean that a teen game could have full points in violence, sex and drugs but only rated teen. Therefore, the "General Attitude" fixes this; it's enough to get a game from T to M if it has such content. And to prevent individual raters from sabotaging the rating, the General Attitude must be discussed and decided on as a group; there is no voting. This is my rating for Half-Life 2: Violence/Blood: 25 points Drug Reference: 0 points Language: 3 points Gambling: 0 points Sexual Themes: 0 points General Attitude Towards the Game: 20 points 48 points...Mid-Range M. But it isn't a very heavy M game, except for maybe Ravenholm. Most of the violence isn't stylized. There should also be a meter on games that reads 48 points between 44 and 56 points in the M range. I haven't actually played Halo: CE. Anyone want to rate that?

Yeah, raters should be between 18 and 25. They have to have played a wide variety of games spanning many ratings. And there should be specialized raters, like those for fps and others for rts and such.

To Ecoli: Off topic, but I just had to mention it. Your avatar of Calvin in his onion suit for the play totally pwns.

I'd like to think that way too antimatter, but ESRB would be facing pressure from the authorities if it wasn't parent apperoved. Kinda funny that parents and adults rate videogames when they haven't played them and aren't the ones that are going to.

Yeah, I agree, but the ESRB has to make all the adults happy, Without all the other categories, parents would swamp the ESRB with criticism.

Anyone like Linux? It uses less RAM I've heard, but I've never used it. Is it as good as XP?

Okay, looks like you want an all-around PC then. OS: Windows XP - Best all-around OS CPU:Looks like you'd be happy with an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked at 1.2GHz. Best bang for the buck. Some people say AMD is better...well Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme have trounced anything AMD has cooked up. RAM: 1.5GB is reasonable, but you can get by with 1 GB. Graphics Card: If you have a PCI slot, get this cheap, powerful card for $20: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102737. Just make sure to get the 1.5 RAM if yyou buy this one, cuz it sucks up RAM. If you're not custom building, 256MB with a fan is good enough, maybe 512MB if you play games at full settings. HD: Slack off on this if you've been doing heavy spending. 40GB should be enough, you don't need a fast storage one either. Monitor: These things are expensive, so get an LCD equal or less than 17." The smaller the size, the better the performance (and the price!). If you do visual things like gaming and graphics-intensive programs, go for a sharper screen, but a basic LCD should be cheap and adequate. Software: All you really need to start of with are Firefox, Microsoft Office 2004, and Norton Anti-Virus. No biggie. Hope this helps, and it helps more if you're custom building. This should make a good PC at a reasonable price, especially if you buy from Newegg.com.

A rodent may be smarter with a chip, but raw brain power is important. The chip adapted to a more advanced brain could lead to better results. It's better to have a subject that could analyze the hundreds, maybe thousands of variables for themselves. And a cat's brain can function better independently should the chip have any problems.