Housepets!

Dissension wrote:Yeah, but that's not exactly saying much. *giggles*

One of the interesting parts of my job is that, after a while, you begin to notice patterns. People in my line of work may be among the best-informed technology consumers. Unfortunately, I cannot share this knowledge because I have signed about a billion confidentiality agreements with every electronics company ever to have existed.

Confidentiality is a pain in the butt, even more so in the medical field...

So to anyone who might care on the matter, I eneded up getting the HP laptop.

Now, to suffer it out until December 25th.

Yeah, waiting sucks, I have to wait until January before I can order my new screen -.-

My new laptop came yesterday. Hence why I wasn't online one time last night.

Dad actually let me have it instead of waiting a month and a half. I didn't beg or anything stupid like that, he just let me have it.

It's pretty awesome. Only complaint really is the touchpad, but I'm sure I can find some way to adjust the sensitivity.

Heh, does anyone know what to do for an iPod Classic? I was deleting pictures off my iPod, since I use it as an external harddrive, and accidentally permanently deleted the "Photos" folder. That's the one that helps you store photos to the iPod. Help? Please? If I make a new photo folder, will it automatically recognize it or am I gonna have to 'format' the new folder?

(At school right now, be back at 4 PM or later....)

So long as you name the folder exactly the same I don't seew why it wouldn't work. Unless of course there was some special file that your ipod needed for pictures. You should give it a shot, worst case scenario it doesn't work and you just format it anyways.

I was thinking about getting a new casing for Gateway desktop. I'm just going to take out all the stuff in there and move it over ect.

Anyways, I was looking at casings and I've gathered a few choices

Raidmax Tornado ATX Computer Case with 420w PSU Includes Keyboard and Mouse:
http://www.frys.com/product/6186149?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

NZXT Phantom Full Tower Chassis ATX Case White:
http://www.frys.com/product/6335951?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

NZXT LEXA S Steel Mid Tower ATX Computer Case:
http://www.frys.com/product/6080918?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

Thermaltake Armor A90 Gaming Mid Tower VL90001W2Z ATX Computer Case:
http://www.frys.com/product/6256810?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

Okay well maybe more than a few :3. I'm thinking I should get get the 4th one because it supposedly can stay nice and cool. But the 3rd one is just so cool looking x3. The 1st one might not be as fancy-looking, but it comes with a keyboard and mouse and a power supply 20 Watts higher than my current.

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

@Uexul- I simply made a new folder and it synced correctly at 2 AM last night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I found out that my new computer doesn't have a modem for dial-up service. >____<;;;; Now I'm spending my day off trying to find a USB external modem, because the only one they sell from HP is a piece of junk.

I know virtually nothing about these things, so anyone want to help me out? What do I really need to be looking at, what matters and what doesn't?

I've found 2 modems so far that I >think< they're what I'm looking for. Any recommendations or brands to go for/avoid?

I have about a $47 limit, any more and I'll probably have to start shelling out my own money.

Oh, I have AOL's dial-up service and Windows 7, if that's needed to know.

http://www.macmall.com/p/Lenovo-Modems- ... dp.eechjcf

http://www.macmall.com/p/Aluratek-Modem ... dp.fgjcaji

Uexul wrote:I was thinking about getting a new casing for Gateway desktop. I'm just going to take out all the stuff in there and move it over ect.

Anyways, I was looking at casings and I've gathered a few choices

Raidmax Tornado ATX Computer Case with 420w PSU Includes Keyboard and Mouse:
http://www.frys.com/product/6186149?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

NZXT Phantom Full Tower Chassis ATX Case White:
http://www.frys.com/product/6335951?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

NZXT LEXA S Steel Mid Tower ATX Computer Case:
http://www.frys.com/product/6080918?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

Thermaltake Armor A90 Gaming Mid Tower VL90001W2Z ATX Computer Case:
http://www.frys.com/product/6256810?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

Okay well maybe more than a few :3. I'm thinking I should get get the 4th one because it supposedly can stay nice and cool. But the 3rd one is just so cool looking x3. The 1st one might not be as fancy-looking, but it comes with a keyboard and mouse and a power supply 20 Watts higher than my current.

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

Be careful, some proprietary computers have custom motherboards or other parts so that you can't put them in standard cases. For example the screws will be in a different spot. I had a Dell that needed a new power supply. I had to break part of the case (by prying metal out of it) to fit a standard power supply in it. It was not fun.

zeekgenateer wrote: Be careful, some proprietary computers have custom motherboards or other parts so that you can't put them in standard cases. For example the screws will be in a different spot. I had a Dell that needed a new power supply. I had to break part of the case (by prying metal out of it) to fit a standard power supply in it. It was not fun.

Yeah, I was thinking something like that could happen. I'm just going to try my luck and see if it works. My computer has proven to be quite good at customization so far. I never had a problem getting my new power supply in and everything else I put in it just seemed to 'snap-in' like it was made for it. So I'm confident it can be moved from one casing to another.

Okay, I got this ExFM extension for Chrome. How does it work?

For anyone that's fairly good with iPods, can you help me?

I own an iPod Classic, 120 GB.
EDIT: Blah, blah, technical stuff...

I found out that my hard drive is almost completely shot, horray! >_<
Anyways, seeing as how I don't have ~$250 for an iPod Touch (or a warranty on my iPod Classic anymore), I was thinking of trying this:

http://alan.lamielle.net/2010/01/22/ipo ... sh-upgrade

and seeing if I could get more life out of my iPod. Has anyone here ever tried this? I'm wondering how it went, any sort of problems that happened, how it works now, etc.

I'm sorry, I'm no good at most parts of tech, so I really can't answer any questions prior.

Does anybody know how to transfer digital tape (I think...) to my computer? Honestly, I'm really, really desperate to find out how.

By digital tape would you mean this? Cause you would need specific hardware to do anything with that. If you're talking about an audio cassette, you still need the specific hardware, but I think it's at least available, whereas digital tape would almost definitely need a professional to transfer it to a modern medium (or really do anything with it).

If this is that thing for your school you were talking about, you might ask them if they still have the device that was originally use to record the tape. If it has a plug for audio out you can probably find a cable for it and an adapter for a computer, but again, hardware required.

thanks for the advice, and it's basically the same tape that I assume is used in all video cameras. I can only assume it's digital tape, although I honestly have no idea. Either way, thank you for your help.

44R0NM10 wrote:thanks for the advice, and it's basically the same tape that I assume is used in all video cameras. I can only assume it's digital tape, although I honestly have no idea. Either way, thank you for your help.

Aaron, are you using a regular digital video camera? (i.e. something like this: http://rannals.files.wordpress.com/2010 ... camera.jpg )

If so, you can find the cable (USB) that came with your camera/camcorder. Plug one end into the computer, and the other into the camera. Turn the camera on. Then go to start -> my computer -> and your camera should be listed under your "Devices with removable storage" Double-click on it, some folders or files should pop up. Then just go through and find your video. Then you can copy & paste your file(s) into "My Documents".

Similarly, if you can't find your USB, but you have a memory card in your digital video camcorder, you can buy a card reader. I personally use this: http://s.shld.net/is/image/Sears/020W814041110001 , but any card reader will do.
Just make sure you don't have one of those SUPER tiny memory cards (by tiny I mean smaller than the tip of your finger).

^For example, look at this picture: http://www.razzil.com/images/memory-car ... -Cards.jpg
You probably have the one that looks like the top-left card. That's usually the standard one for cameras. The middle card on the farthest right is the super-tiny one.

If you have a card reader, just put your memory card into one end, and then stick the USB part of it into your computer. And Start-> My computer -> "Devices with removable storage" Double-click on it, some folders or files should pop up. Then just go through and find your video. Then you can copy & paste your file(s) into "My Documents".

Either way, both the USB or a card reader can be bought pretty cheaply at an electronics store or maybe even at your European Wal-Mart.

And you know where to find me if you still need help.

Now about really important tech, not those shinies we don't really need, but are too cool not to like them:

Stirling engine: (Robert Stirling, 1816)
Up to 81% efficiency, (When helium is used in it. Note that it's a closed system, no gas leaves or enters the engine.) while conventional engines struggle to reach 25% efficiency! Silent, simple, operated only by heat (The heat difference between it's cylinders.). In industry it's mainly used as a compressor for producing liquid gasses very effectively.

Tesla turbine: (Nikola Tesla, 1913)
Well, look it up.

Nanopipes:
Good for almost everything. They will replace silicone chips, under certain circumstances it's a superconductive, extremely strong. Nanopipe batteries can have amazingly high capacity, soon electric cars will be able to go thousands of kilometers with one charge!!! Using nanopipe, plastics, rubber (especially car tyres), and several other materials can be improved. One single nanopipe can replace several parts in a radio, etc. the list of Possible uses is very, very long.

Metallic glasses:
They can be as flexible as some plastics, while harder than the same metals with crystallic structures.

Aerogel:
The best insulator, and the lightest solid material. (lighter than CO2)

Bourke engine: (Russel Bourke, 192*)
I'll build one to see if it works as specified by it's inventor. (Probably it won't.) It's supposed to be a very strong and light (two-stroke) engine producing less NOx and HC than the best conventional engines, and it has got only two moving parts.

Heat pumps:
Everybody met them, these are used in your fridge. By transferring heat instead of producing it, they work with about 300% efficiency(at least!).Using a stirling engine as compressor (they are in production) it goes up to 400% minimum. They don't produce more energy than they consume, it's just takes less energy to transfer heat than to produce it. Heat pumps can be used to produce energy from the heat of their environment (In Hawaii, there's a geothermic power plant using heat pumps. This is the most efficient way, and maybe the only one to use them effectively for producing electric energy.)


Warning! Theory! It's a joke! ...ish thing.:
A heat pump operating by 400% efficiency, (maybe up to 800%, read text above) in theory could supply a stirling engine (80%efficiency, leaving lets say, at least 300% of the input) generating electicity,(leaves about 200% minimum) could operate the heat pump and generate 100% of the would be consumed energy, using only the heat in the air around it. It would work under 0°C until it gets too cold.
Now we have a very complicated, expensive and impractical solar power plant. Yay! Let's fit it in a large vehicle (like a bus)
and we have got a very clumsy vehicle that uses no fossil fuel, and can't carry anything except itself, or is just too heavy to move.
Isn't it great? Maybe you can have infinite mpg mileage.

I think I read before in an Intel paper that they think SiC CPUs could go up to 10GHz stable. In 2000 they said we'd have 10GHz this year

What would be a good microphone for vocals? Is there anything worth buying in the sub-100USD range?

Anthroguy101 wrote:What would be a good microphone for vocals? Is there anything worth buying in the sub-100USD range?

I use a Logitech Mic. Works great and cuts down on background noise, but you have to tell your computer to turn up the volume on incoming audio for it, otherwise it is WAY too soft.

Spargo wrote:I think I read before in an Intel paper that they think SiC CPUs could go up to 10GHz stable. In 2000 they said we'd have 10GHz this year

Well frequency alone means nothing. o_o I'm sure a Pentium 1 running at 10Ghz(that would generate more heat than the sun though ) would have worse performance in comparison to a Core i7 990x running at it's stock frequency (~3.4ghz) Architecture has improved greatly over time, probably thousands of times better than before.

ReCreate wrote:

Spargo wrote:I think I read before in an Intel paper that they think SiC CPUs could go up to 10GHz stable. In 2000 they said we'd have 10GHz this year

Well frequency alone means nothing. o_o I'm sure a Pentium 1 running at 10Ghz(that would generate more heat than the sun though ) would have worse performance in comparison to a Core i7 990x running at it's stock frequency (~3.4ghz) Architecture has improved greatly over time, probably thousands of times better than before.

Kind of missing the point there...

Point of what? O_o No point is missed there. The reason we don't have CPU's at such frequencies is simply because it's pointless and probably inefficient. CPU's have indeed improved in performance by a vast amount, without needing to increase the frequencies as vastly.

Spargo wrote:In 2000 they said we'd have 10GHz this year

If I remember correctly the first to say it wasn't just the clock speed that mattered was AMD and Intel denied it.

Wikipedia wrote:After 2000, Intel's competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, started using model numbers instead of clock rates to market its CPUs because of the lower CPU clocks when compared to Intel. Continuing this trend it attempted to dispel the "megahertz myth" which it claimed did not tell the whole story of the power of its CPUs.

I also have a wide knowledge on PC hardware, spanning multiple years.

Well, yes. I guess on older CPU's, frequency did tell a lot. But that changed as the CPU's got more complex.. Intel couldn't have actually said that frequency means everything for all CPU's, because anybody with the slightest understanding on how processors and computers work would know that it doesn't. Though still.. how is that of any relevance to the original post?

I was curious if any of you guys built your own computer!

In Febuary of this year, I decided it was time to upgrade, I had an old Gateway from way back, 2004 to be exact! It was old, tired and needed a replacement.

I shopped around for awhile, rediculous price after rediculous price for a decent computer with just average specs, I decided to build my own new computer. I had just gotten my tax return back, and I wanted to get the best bang for my buck. My old computer lasted seven years because my family went all out and put all of the latest technology in it from back in 2004. I got it for christmas from the whole family, and it served me very well. Its still in use by my family in the living room!

I was looking to spend at most $1,500 (Im not rich trust me, I just learned that you get what you pay for, and I didn't want to go cheap on my computer). I wanted to make an above average computer for extreme gaming, and also wanted capabilities for video and photo editing. It is a lot cheaper to build one than it is compaired to what I can buy a pre made computer for. I went with as much ASUS components as I possibly could in my build, because I have never had a problem with them in the past. Three months later, Its still running strong!

Here is what I bought and used to make my baby!

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor BX80605I7870
ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power supply
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (for OS,) Im saving up for a solid state drive by the way
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (for storage and backup)
ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BR-04B2T RT
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
2 APEVIA CF12SL-UBL 120mm Blue LED Case Fans
A couple OKGEAR 18" SATA 6 Gbps Cable, Straight to Right Angle UV blue
ASUS VE205T 20" WideScreen LCD Monitor
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Link Depot 25 FT HDMI TO HDMI A/V Cable (to hook up computer to my TV so I can watch videos from Youtube and stuff as well as Blu Ray discs on my TV)
I had Logitch X530 5.1 surround sound speakers from my previous computer, as well as a wireless keyboard and a mouse by Microsoft that I donated from my old computer to be used on my new computer so save me some money!

The grand total with a warrentee on the major components for two years came out to be $1,400! Not bad!

This computer is AMAZING. Everyone that uses it says its the fastest computer they ever used. Windows 7 rated everything as a 7.5 in the performance rating thing, though my hard drive is rated at 6, due to it only being 7,200 RPM with a slower transfer rate. Thus, I am saving up for a solid state hard drive, to make the score an official 7.5, or at least better than 6. I dont want to have a RAID setup for those wondering why I didn't do that in the first place...

Im very proud of myself for my first build! Here is a picutre of it! Im disapointed by the quality of the picture, my phone doesnt take the best pictures indoors...

I blacked out the Windows 7 code thing, so that is what that bar is on the top right.

Thats not a bad laptop! I hear great things about HP. I bet tha Intelt i3 is a huge upgrade from that Celeron you had in your previous laptop!

Shho13 wrote:Thats not a bad laptop! I hear great things about HP. I bet tha Intelt i3 is a huge upgrade from that Celeron you had in your previous laptop!

Yeah, no kidding. I love my dual-core. Also HP is consistently ranked as one of the most responsible corporations and is one of the original Silicon Valley tech companies.

I've noticed that they added some tools to try and make computing easier that may come in useful later on.

The i3 dual cores are great. Intel makes great products. HP also, my Aunt only buys HP stuff! Dual cores are super macho for photo editing as well as other heavy demand programs that you would need to run. The stuff that they install from the factory is kinda useless for people with decent computer useage know-how. I notice that that kind of stuff is more useful for the beginner, like for instance, grandparents, who arent so computer-savy. Though, those programs could teach even the more advanced user some tricks on how to do things easier!

About new computers. If things go well, I'll be able to replace my somewhat oldish tablet with a newer one. :3 I currently have the Lenovo ThinkPad x41 Tablet. I want to get the x200 tablet.. or if it's still too expensive the x61 tablet. Which (IIRC) have an Intel Core 2 Duo([email protected]) and up to 8GB of ram...which is tons better than my current config.(Pentium M and 2GB max)

Meh, I dont think tablets are all the rage any more, If I were you, Id get a nice new laptop, or desktop and get a drawing tablet. My brother is an aspiring artist, and he loves his... I think he has the "Bamboo".

Shho13 wrote:Meh, I dont think tablets are all the rage any more, If I were you, Id get a nice new laptop, or desktop and get a drawing tablet. My brother is an aspiring artist, and he loves his... I think he has the "Bamboo".

No, tablets are still pretty raging, although not as much as smartphones.

Beagle wrote:For anyone that's fairly good with iPods, can you help me?

I own an iPod Classic, 120 GB.
EDIT: Blah, blah, technical stuff...

I found out that my hard drive is almost completely shot, horray! >_<
Anyways, seeing as how I don't have ~$250 for an iPod Touch (or a warranty on my iPod Classic anymore), I was thinking of trying this:

http://alan.lamielle.net/2010/01/22/ipo ... sh-upgrade

and seeing if I could get more life out of my iPod. Has anyone here ever tried this? I'm wondering how it went, any sort of problems that happened, how it works now, etc.

I can try to help. You could try putting in the flash upgrade, but I would recommend contacting Apple. Even though your ipod doesn't have the warranty anymore, they would probably still have it fixed for you, even though you'd have to pay. I personally have never done anything like that before, so I can't tell you if it's a good thing to do or not.

Hope this helped some, Beagle.

My only problem is, I have had to have a hard drive replaced before. It would have been ~$100, but my warranty was still contact when it happened. And now I don't feel like spending that kind of money when they're still just going to give me a hard drive with moving parts that will easily break again. I would just prefer to spend ~$60 (about the amount of money it will take if I invest in a good compact flash card) and do a little technical work of my own rather than keep shelling out huge amounts of cash every few months or so.

Well a solid state drive might be helpful because it won't break if it shakes a little.

It all depends on the manufacturer, if you choose a poor manufacturer, such as seagate, or another generec company, then the hard drives are really poorly made. I have never had any problems with Western Digital. I've had three computers, all of which I made sure had WD hard drives.

My uncle's laptop came with a seagate hard drive, and he had it replaced under warrentee with another seagate after failure of the drive after a year. The warrentee replaced hard drive failed again last year. I put in a WD hard drive. No problems since!

The only problem with solid state drives is that they are SO expensive. I would have used them in my computer build, but I decided not.to when I.saw that an 80 gigabyte SSHD would cost me 250 dollars! The non-solid platter style hard drive will work great, for 80 dollars with 500 gigs.

Edit: I then re-read your question, and find that its actually about an i-pod hard drive failure. Wow, I should learn to read better. Haha... ill leave this up for good information though.

Obbl wrote:

Anthroguy101 wrote:What would be a good microphone for vocals? Is there anything worth buying in the sub-100USD range?

I use a Logitech Mic. Works great and cuts down on background noise, but you have to tell your computer to turn up the volume on incoming audio for it, otherwise it is WAY too soft.

Does anyone else have advice? I'm not going to base a purchasing decision on one suggestion alone.

yehoshua wrote:Well a solid state drive might be helpful because it won't break if it shakes a little.

I know that; a SSD in my iPod would be especially useful seeing as how I drop it constantly. A converter and a compact flash card can turn it into a makeshift (and fairly cheap) SSD.

@Shho13- That's perfectly okay! Your post was pretty interesting too. :3 Thank you for your time!

@Anthroguy- Just to clarify, are you using it to record people singing or is this just a headset for like talking to people online via Skype or computer games? I honestly don't know much of anything about good vocal microphones (but I have a few friends in the music department that I can probably ask), but for just a simple headset used for talking I bought a used Xbox headset at Gamestop and then a cheap little adapter at RadioShack and that's been working perfectly for me.