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Messages - Wedge

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 389
16
Off Topic / Re: The Computer Megathread V2 - Looking for a budget monitor? Crossover 27Q!
« on: March 26, 2013, 10:45:08 PM »
Quote from: Momentum on March 23, 2013, 07:55:13 PM
would i have to solder resistors onto a molex 4pin cable to make a fan run slower?

Don't know if anyone else has answered this one yet but I'll go ahead and tackle it.

That's definitely one way of doing it. People actually sell cables with resistors already attached for you if you don't feel like soldering. It's a trivial thing to do and if you have resistors lying around you can basically do it for free* yourself if you've got the tools already.

You need to use tiny resistors though. If you throw a standard 330 ohm or 1k in there you'll basically an unusable slow fan. If you look at the cable I posted earlier, you can see they're using a Yellow-Blue-Black resistor (46 ohm) resistor.

A better way of doing it might be using a variable resistor, that way you can go in and change the value when you want without having to desolder anything. If I were going to do this I would go with the POT1KA potentiometer off of this webpage: http://www.futurlec.com/PotRot.shtml . They're logarithmic potentiometers so they will give you fine control over the low values, and it's a 1K pot so you can get get the fan going really slow or basically turn it off. It's also a 1/2W pot so it should have no trouble dealing with a bit of current. The knob is easy enough to adjust by hand so you won't have to use a screwdriver every time you want to adjust them. The down side is that it's got quite a bit of metal on it so you need to make sure to insulate all the metal parts so they don't short anything on your motherboard, secure it well, or do all of them. Also they're 55 cents each, when you can get plain old resistors for less than a cent each.

I just went ahead and bought a fan control panel for my desktop. I've got 5 120mm fans and this controller looks okay and gives me good control over the fans. This is the model I'm using: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C31G30/ Unfortunately it will stick yet another LED on your desktop, which might be a problem for some people.

* Resistors are so cheap they're practically free, and you can always rip them out of old electronics.

17
Off Topic / Re: "Should Barack Obama be impeached?"
« on: March 26, 2013, 10:05:50 PM »
This website looks like a phishing site and also has some kind of referral or tracking code in the URL. Fortunately, according to their privacy policy and the survey page, they're just going to email you annoying news alerts if you sign the "survey" and supposedly not sell your email address to any advertisers. It's still pretty sleazy to disguise a news letter signup as a poll.

I wouldn't expect anything less from WND though so I guess I should congratulate them on meeting all of my expectations.

18
Off Topic / Re: Generate a partlist for an unreasonably expensive computer build.
« on: March 21, 2013, 11:20:37 PM »
Some other ways to make your computer stupidly expensive:


That's also an E-ATX board, so you're going to either need to buy a huge full-height tower or a rackmount case.

19
Off Topic / Re: Generate a partlist for an unreasonably expensive computer build.
« on: March 21, 2013, 10:33:54 PM »
Here is a $112,721.17 Intel server for you. It's a comma delimited data file, you can just import it straight into your favorite spreadsheet program.
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=227738.0;attach=199226

EDIT: I could have tacked another $100,000 on there using a HD 3D projector and retractable 200" projector screen for the display along with a gaming keyboard and 3d modelling ball mouse, but seriously, why bother with a 3D projector if you're just going to display a vmware control panel in glorious 800x600 resolution.

EDIT2: If you cheat and use USB devices, by daisy-chaining 8 port USB hubs and Agilent Technologies N5232A PNA-L Microwave Network brown townyzers you can add over $10 million to the cost of any computer in USB devices only. Also multi-monitor setups using a $40,000 video projector for each monitor works as well.

20
Off Topic / Re: Texas GOP: Planned Parenthood encourages teen pregnancy just to abort fetuses
« on: March 07, 2013, 11:18:04 PM »
Quote from: Kearn on March 07, 2013, 09:13:11 PM
also i guess george washington and john adams were handicapped since they were christians
They weren't handicapped for being Christians but seriously, black people only count as 3/5 of a person? Indians don't count as people? Women can't vote? The framers created a great thing and then crippled it. People were still whining about integration in the 70s. They forgeted up this country and 200 years later we still haven't quite fixed it.

21
Forum Games / Re: LET'S PLAY: OREGON TRAIL (starts on page 2)
« on: February 09, 2013, 02:00:07 PM »
I'm having weird issues with USB floppy drives dismounting in Virtual Box in the middle of installation so I'm going to have to image all the disks and use them to install.

22
Forum Games / Re: LET'S PLAY: OREGON TRAIL (starts on page 2)
« on: February 07, 2013, 01:00:47 AM »
I don't know. I hope they'd frame it, pass it around the office, or send a post card back or something but I suspect they'd just throw it out. Unfortunately, I don't have the registration card, these are just backup disks someone had.

Installing 3.1 from floppies now. It's a legitimate copy of Windows 3.1 from original floppies, not that it matters since every Microsoft OS before 95 had no copy protection. They're old though so I'll image them soon. If they ever die I can just rewrite the image to them a few times and the disk will remagnetize and be good as new.

I'm at about 39%. I've found a guide for getting networking working, so I may be able to get an internet browser going.

EDIT: Here's what a 3.1 installation screen looks like if you're curious.



Looks identical to DOS 6.22 and surprisingly similar to XP.

23
Forum Games / Re: LET'S PLAY: OREGON TRAIL (starts on page 2)
« on: February 06, 2013, 11:53:43 PM »
Sorry about the delay guys, I had to borrow some 6.22 floppies from someone and just got them today.




24
Off Topic / Re: Do you support the second amendment?
« on: January 30, 2013, 09:15:32 PM »
I am fine with the idea of having a second amendment since it is logical to have an amendment between one and three but I am not okay with the wording that was written 200 years ago and made sense then but not now. If people want to have guns then they should write an amendment that says "we should have guns" instead of "a Militia is important for the Security of a State."

For example, we could ban guns entirely and only allow people to have swords and technically fulfill the requirements of the law since it doesn't say "the people have the right to bear ALL and ANY arms." While a gun is a type of arm, we don't allow people to have cruise missiles just lying around, which are also a type of arm, so clearly there is a legal precedent for allowing some arms and not others. Furthermore, we could argue that "the people" was referring to "the people of the Militia," and then define the "militia" as anything we want, such as "just the military and police," "people with a certain surname," or "nobody."

Finally, the amendment itself is logically unsound. Here is the text, for reference:
Quote
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The premise of the argument is that a well regulated [citizen] militia is necessary for the security of the state, and therefore we should have a citizen militia. However, it is obviously false that the having a well regulated militia is necessary for the security of the state, since it is clearly evident that there are countries that have made guns illegal or strictly controlled for citizens but are also clearly secure states.

Having read through the amendments, the second amendment appears to be the only one written as a persuasive argument. I have no idea why it was written like this. It's hardly relevant if the amendment is logically sound or not, since the logical soundness of an amendment has no impact on it's legality (it is the law regardless). It is interesting fact though, and it's also a pretty silly thing for the Constitution of the United States to do.

It could easily be resolved by dropping the argumentative nature of the amendment, which would have no legal impact whatsoever on the ability of people to own guns and would also clear up one of the previous ambiguities regarding militias.

25
General Discussion / Re: Blocklands Wikipedia page. Issues
« on: January 30, 2013, 08:01:23 PM »
The wikipedia article has always been low quality and I've rewritten it twice and I've given up on it because even when its not being vandalized it turns out our own community writes in a style that reads like a fourth grader's "what I did this summer" paper and also puts dumb things in like popular mods and servers and never source anything.

The other problem is that people try and write it as a sales pitch.

Good luck with the article though. I write and contribute stuff to wikipedia occasionally (non-gaming related stuff) so I can probably help if you have a question about formatting or some other technical question.

Quote from: Altiris on January 30, 2013, 03:49:09 PM
It wasn't just the pictures, but on top that someone changed four other things to something incredibly stupid and misleading. If anything it should be a good thing that I get "go crazy" over these things because it shows that I am a dedicated fan/player.
Fan of the year right here folks.

26
Off Topic / Re: The Computer Megathread V2 - Page 58 Contest! Best CPU cooler of 2013?
« on: January 28, 2013, 05:51:52 PM »
Quote from: Flush535 on January 28, 2013, 11:10:09 AM
Is 40C a bad temp for gaming?

There is no ideal temperature for any particular task, whether you're gaming, browsing the web, or doing calculations.

The only bad temperature is a temperature that's out of spec. It depends on your particular processor but the manufacturer should tell you what it is in the datasheet.

For example, we'll take an Intel Core 2 Duo E8600, which is a pretty common processor. It has a minimum operating temperature of 5C and a maximum of "case temperature" of about 74C if you are running it at 65W.

Case temperature basically means "this is the maximum temperature the processor can hit and the stock cooler can move enough heat way from the processor in order to safely operate the processor in standard conditions." In Intel's datasheet for the Core Duo processors, case temperature (Tc) is measured from the surface of the processor at the geometric center. You should probably use the onboard thermometer though and not try to measure it yourself.

If you hit the max you have a couple of options. Cool the case better with more fans, removing the side panel, buying a better case, etc, cool the processor with a better fan, heatsink, or water cooler, or underclock the processor since the amount of heat given off the chip is proportional to the power put into it. The Intel E8600 will do this automatically using two different mechanisms, one cycles clocks on and off and has a small hit to performance, while the other undervolts and underclocks the processor and would have a noticeable impact on performance.

You can find typically find the datasheet for your processor by just googling "<processor> datasheet." For example, here's the Intel E8000 series documentation: http://www.intel.com/design/core2duo/documentation.htm

Here's some thermal characteristics for common AMD processors:
http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_TechDocs/43375.pdf

They're called different things for different processors. Intel and AMD use case temperature, some microcontrollers or other simple processors might call it "temperature under bias," which is simply the temperature it works at when powered. You need to read the thermal documentation carefully and entirely, including footnotes, to figure out the maximum operating temperature, since it's not always obvious which one is the right temperature ("tease temp" is not the right one). Sometimes they'll just give you a formula.

As a rule of thumb, looking through various documentation, 60~70C seemed to be a common temperature. However, it will depend on your processor. I think my laptop runs at 60 something.

If you're running stock parts (no overclocking, no custom coolers), and you have it in a normal room at room temperature (not an unventilated closet, under a stack of papers, or god forbid in a desk drawer in a third floor lecture hall with closed windows in summer) then you don't need to worry about it.

27
Forum Games / Re: LET'S PLAY: OREGON TRAIL (starts on page 2)
« on: January 28, 2013, 05:10:05 PM »
Sorry about not updating guys. I've been busy with classwork. I'm also in the process of migrating DOS over to a proper VM with save states, etc, instead of running it straight in dosbox. Expect an update this weekend at the latest.

Now to reply to some random comments...

Quote from: pecon98 on January 21, 2013, 04:58:12 PM
>ERASE C:\*

You actually cannot format C while running Windows normally. In order to format a disk you need to unmount the disk, and you can unmount C because it's in use and the only way to free it is to close Windows and therefore be unable to format it. You can format it using the repair tools on the Windows DVD.

This was also the case for DOS. In order to format C, assuming you had a local hard drive installation of DOS (assuming you even had a hard drive), you would need to boot to a floppy with DOS, a partition editor, or some other formatting utility, and erase it from there.

Quote from: swollow on January 27, 2013, 06:40:19 PM
whats in that info.txt
Start "Notepad" Notepad.exe "C:\Info.txt"
Start "Info" "C:\Info.txt"

MS DOS 5 or Windows running it? whichever one

Mentioned it earlier, but info.txt is in fact the documentation to a floppy disk formatting utility I had installed.

Quote from: Wedge on January 20, 2013, 02:35:07 AM

C:\>TYPE INFO.TXT


Suddenly a torrent of text dumps down your screen, the green letters flashing before your eyes. You catch bits and phrases in both English and German. It's the documentation to FMT.EXE, and explains to you how to use FMT command to format 5.25 and 3.5 in floppies in high and low density formats.

You can now format floppies. Just state that you'd like to make a floppy and what size, and you'll automatically do it.

Notably, TYPE actually dumps the full text of a document out on your screen without any kind of breaks or scrolling. On old systems you could watch the document scroll by because of the slow speed of the processor, and if you factor in ghosting on old phosphor screens, it just looked like a blur of green/amber/white letters flashing by. On modern computers, it runs so fast that the document gets printed almost instantly, filling up the buffer so you only catch the last 40 or so lines.

A better way of viewing documents was to get a version of less for DOS and add it to PATH, then pipe everything into less. Alternatively, you could use the EDIT command to open the document in the DOS equivalent of notepad, at least in MS-DOS. I can't speak for other versions of DOS, I've only worked with MS-DOS (3.0, 5.0, 6.22).

28
Off Topic / Re: The Computer Megathread V2 - Micron announces 1TB SSD for under $600!
« on: January 21, 2013, 02:01:09 AM »
Quote from: lcyGamma on January 21, 2013, 01:24:41 AM
Well obviously phasing out old standards isn't an overnight job.

Most businesses still cling onto Windows 98.

I don't know what experience you have in the industry but I can tell you nobody is running Windows 98 anymore, most businesses now are partway through migrations from XP to 7. It depends on the organization, smaller ones probably switch faster.

About half our systems are running XP and we are constantly replacing them with 7 as they come in for repairs. Las time I checked, we maintain about 1000 computers.

Even our new monitors come with VGA connectors. Most of our computers have workstation cards with DMS-59 connectors. One of these drives up to two monitors using a cable that splits into wither VGA or DVI.

VGA has no problem with HD video, you can run well over 1920x1080 on it. It's got some advantages too. Circuitry for it is pretty simple, although that's probably not so important anymore, you can probably handle any standard on a single chip now. But it's a standard on KVM switches, servers, industrial equipment, etc, and it's compatible with EGA, CGA, and text modes. It's used on everything  from camcorders to cellphones, game boys, TVs and medical equipment. It's not just a connector, it's a standard, and long after VGA connectors stop being used the standard will still be used, possibly forever.

Elecro hit it spot on.

EDIT: Maybe I can provide a little more insight. There is a type of ribbon cable called a flat flexible cable (FFC). It's pretty much just a piece of tape with conductors in it. It's used internally in laptops, cell phones, and hundreds of other electronics that need a small cable running into the screen. These are exclusively VGA, because there is really no advantage to using any other standard.

29
Off Topic / Re: The Computer Megathread V2 - Micron announces 1TB SSD for under $600!
« on: January 21, 2013, 01:20:03 AM »
VGA is being put on modern projectors and laptops today and will probably be maintained far into the future for backwards compatibility.

At my work we use far more VGA cables than DVI, HDMI, and display port combined.

30
Forum Games / Re: LET'S PLAY: MS-DOS 5.0
« on: January 20, 2013, 07:42:57 PM »
The votes are in!


Shell: As the head of this family I think we should go in July.


Marcem: Bret is right, the weather in July is nice.


Port: I think we should go in May.


Shell: What the forget. You're a baby, who asked you?


Cybertails: Dad, July is a terrible time to go, we'll die in the winter in the Rockies. We should go in May.


Marcem: Okay, we're two for two. Joey?


Shell: Alright Joey, it's up to you.


Watcher: ...


Shell: God loving damnit. You are the most useless son ever.


Port: Let's split it halfway and just go in June.


Shell: Okay, we'll go with the baby's idea.

It's now time to spend your heard earned money and outfit your caravan!




Matt: Hello, I'm Matt! So you're going to Oregon! I can fix you up with what you need: a team of oxen to pull your wagon and clothing for both summer and winter. Press space to continue.


Port: ...


Matt: You'll need plenty of food for the trip, ammunition for your rifles, and spare parts for your wagon. Press space to continue.



Just post what you guys want. Here's the maximum of each item you can buy and the prices.



Number              Item               Price 

 20           Oxen                           $20.00     
 50           Sets of Clothing               $10.00     
 99           Boxes of Bullets (20 per Box)  $2.00       
 3            Spare Wagon Wheels             $10.00     
 3            Spare Wagon Axles              $10.00     
 3            Spare Wagon Tongues            $10.00     
 2000         Pounds of Food                 $0.20       


I'll take the average. Also I'm not very good at the hunting minigame.

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