I,ve just got to say that I am very fond of GoDaddy, I've had multiple (50+) domains registered with them over several years (after being VERY disappointed with other registars). Many times I've checked a Domain name availability and checked with a client before registering, this has never happened to me, I suspect some other form of snooping.
In Addition, I have never seen a registrar with their web interface so well defined and easy to use, total DNS control Rocks, the features included for the base registration fee are IMHO remarkable.
This isn't about supplying free bandwidth to a competitor, it's about charging totally outrageous charges for bandwidth and screwing your customers, They pay for bandwidth only to their peers so deciding to remove OO from the local free cache (which includes most other frequent downloads for popular software) is obviously an attempt to force customers to use the web biased product which isn't even a direct competitor to OO, and more importantly it saves them nothing in bandwidth costs!
I have a dedicated server at a data center in the US, 4MB of unmetered bandwidth, 5 static IPs, this only cost's me about USD $79 per Month, Their cost per GB for bandwidth shows that they are obviously taking extreme advantage of their customers , just like the $3000 (or was it ($8000)) per gallon cost of ink jet ink shows that the printer manufactures are taking unconscionable advantage of a enforced monopoly.
The printer manufactures continue to make new printers with cartridges that hold less and less ink, what does this tell you?
This ISP without effective competition appears able to continue to squeeze their customers more and exploit their effective monopoly even to the extent of trying to force a incompatible web biased application along with the privacy issues involved on their own customers.
FYI: The difference in price per page for printing color (or BW) documents on a laser printer is at least 20 to 1, so you can essentially recoup the cost of a laser printer in just a few months if you print much.
With best regards to those who must deal with Big Pond, I hope your government deals with this injustice soon.
As to the science, I'd suggest teaching the science of light, color, and the related computer sciences, what is color space, models, rbg, cmyk. Teach the bits and file formats, what does a 8 bit or 24 bit per pixel color depth mean, what are the implications of opening a compressed.jpg file and saving it again as a.jpg, why the quality degrades, what is lossy compression, ie: the science and computer science that relates to what they are learning in graphic design.
As far as what software to use goes, I know this is potential flame bait, but just use MS Paint, or the Gimp, or whatever you have that the kids also have access to at home (a must as another reader pointed out).
Don't undervalue the point that this is a design class, not a class in how to use Photo Shop, CS3, The Gimp, or any other software package.
Just because you are asking this question on/., I'll include a few links to videos on YouTube that show what a skilled person can do with MS Paint. For more, just search "MS Paint" on YouTube, you'll be very surprised by the results that can be achieved with only MS Paint if you haven't seen any of these.
And a final thought, "The tools don't make the artist, the artist commands the tools"
Many software packages have the ability to achieve needed results for your class, you should focus on the principles which can be applied in various software packages, not the specific software used.
Focus your efforts on the unique aspects of your site, use the best wheel already invented, and Drupal is among the top few, your choice might vary, but if php works for you Drupal Rocks! Use the extra resources you now have available because you didn't spend sooo much time reinventing the wheel to address any needed features not already available if you find any; For Drupal, write a module; contribute your module, and still you will have saved a lot of effort, as a side benefit, your site will be much more secure because the code is peer reviewed, your custom in house from scratch code is likely to contain multiple vulnerabilities unless you also do a comprehensive security audit.
Go with an appropriate CMS and you will not be disappointed;)
Check out This site Open Source CMS at http://www.opensourcecms.com/ there you can demo both as user and admin dozens of open source content management systems in a sand box type environment, Each demo system is auto-magically reloaded every two hours.
to quote: OpenSourceCMS "was created with one goal in mind. To give you the opportunity to "try out" some of the best php/mysql based free and open source software systems in the world. You are welcome to be the administrator of any CMS system here, allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs. You should also visit CMS Training Videos for more in depth video tutorials for many of these systems."
It's sometimes the case that a lock is only good to keep honest people honest, it your child is basically good and wants your approval, and appreciates you are trying to keep them safe then.
1) Explain to them that online porn is responsible for 90% of compromised windows machines, and this is why you won't allow it, not because you think their natural curiosity is bad. Purchase some National Geographic or other magazines you would be comfortable having in your home if you don't already have some.
2) Put a password on your user account. (yes I know that with XP home it's especially useless, but it is a sign of your authority and a mild obstacle, also if it is changed, you will know it.)
3) Restrict their user account so they can't accidentally allow something to be installed (or uninstall the BeSafe application).
4) Install BeSafe, it's not perfect but it's the best windows approach I've found to suggest.
5) Set the boot device priority to Hard Drive only, if you can't do this, get a technically minded friend to do it for you.
6) Set a BIOS password, periodically check that it is still active.
7) I really love the suggestion to put the PC in an open family area, I know this doesn't always help especially if the kids have much time alone but I've seen in practice that in homes where the parent's are there, it helps. It doesn't have to be in the living room, a den off to the side with open doors works well and allows for game playing.
Nothing will stop anyone from viewing online porn if they are so inclined a visit to a friends, the library, or coffee shop is all it takes.
This will however present a respectable obstacle from the windows boot perspective and possibly keep your home machine safer.
1) Parents provide kiddies with unfettered internet access and allow them to be online unsupervised without even the basics of common smarts training.
2) Kids get in trouble.
3) Parents don't want to face the fact that it is there responsibility to train and supervise their offspring and want someone to blame for what happened.
4) Sue MySpace like it's somehow their fault.
Hell, There probably were predators on Compuserve when it was dial up at 1200 BAUD, I know I had someone invite me to chat and when I accepted launch a trojan script that mimicked Compuserve's text based login and requested login credentials, not being too gullible even then, I just terminated the connection and dialed back in.
Yes, I loved my TS1000/Sinclair I built from a kit, with the 64K Pak, what a interesting thing, My next purchase was a KayPro 10, a few k$ if I remember correctly for a system with a 10 Meg Hard Drive but it paid off, moving a accounting task that took a week to a process that took about 45 minutes + print time!
Not strictly true, the license gives you rights to use the software according to the terms of the license agreement., I've bought "license packs" from MS that were just a few sheets of paper with some stuff printed on them, it was assumed that I already had the install media.
Tech Data and other vendors sell "install media only" MS disks for everything from XP to Exchange Server that don't include the license (or install key) for use.
I've also bought licenses from MS for a new product and used them to legitimize the install of older versions of the same product from older media, this was expressly allowed by the license terms.
Have you ever really read one?
Generally IMHO the OEM License anly allows use of the product on the original hardware, this is partly the justification for the OEM version being cheeper then the full version which allows for moving to different hardware,
Dude! You will be really lucky if these oem upgrades will even install on anything other then a pretty close hardware match, same brand, TCM included on the system board, etc. Seems likely the XP installs that were intended to be vista upgradeable thru the mfr offer were seeded with something that the Vista install will check for:(
1) Download Vista thru online purchase.
2) Reboot after install completes.
3) Cry like a baby when it bluescreens and you don't have anything to boot from.
Seriously now folks, you don't really think you will be able to download a dvd iso and actually see the key do you. If Anything, even now you are lucky if as a home consumer you have a bootable install cd.
With the trusted computing chip that many system's currently have the MS can send the key straight to the chip, the download mechanism will patch the install on the fly to lock it to your motherboard serial or hardware hash + the key in stored in the chip and MS know longer has to worry about their license being "violated" cause you wanted to move to a newer system!
So, when the tech comes to help you recover your system, the copy they bring won't work for more then a few days unless you buy a new "activation", Bill Gates laugh's all the way to the bank!.
Seriously I've seen it sooo many times, the customer has a valid license, "sticker on machine", or pre those days a Brand Name system with a "Made for Windows 98/2000 sticker, customer has the Book with the License Key sticker", but they had to buy another one because they (or you the hapless tech) can't find the right "flavor" install media.
Simply totally ridiculous MS has created their own little hell that pops up and bites you in the ass just when you think you are done, this is the last reboot and you'll have a happy customer.
Hi, I just had to respond to your post.
I've used debian for a few years now and use it also for quite a few servers I support.
If you have found the gui package managers like synaptic and kpackage, installing PHP or Apache or PostFIX, MySql, etc is not a problem, Bind is another matter as yes you have to understand what you want to do and how to configure your dns files. apache2 is even easier then apache. The installs all install everything needed and also do a good job on the initial configuration.
And for the poster that doesn't have hours and hours to keep his install up to date, updating is as easy as 'apt-get update' followed by 'apt-get dist-upgrade'
Even without using the gui's installing apache2 is as easy as typing 'apt-get install apache2' at the command line.
I'll finish with the conclusion that the benefits of being able to find out exactly what is going on when something goes wrong far far out weigh the dificulties of installing anything.
I've been supporting both windows and *nix platforms as a consultant for many years both on the desktop and as servers.
I'll take *nix anytime, the hours and hours I've spent cleaning up damaged windows workstations (and sometimes servers) from spyware, malware, viruses( and yes we scan at the gateway, scan on the workstations, firewall,..., etc leave me with the only thought that if I could possably get Windows out of my life totally, I would in a heartbeat!
The strange thing is with Windows, it's what our clients want and it's job security although a type I could do without:)
Best, Ziskus
BTW man could/. use a spell check button:)
Funny, I bought that exact same phone from verizon after looking at the specs on the motorola web site, I returned it after a couple of weeks and bitched enough they gave me full credit, blue tooth obex was disabled so I couldn't sync contacts, move files, or any of the other neet stuff I had thought it would do. Funny!, my Verizon contract is up and they have lost me as a customer, they are ripoffs, outragious rates for overages, no roll over , disabled phones, OH and they also removed the Java and replaced it with BREW, so I couldn't even install an app that wasn't digitally signed by them for that specific cell phone, what a dissapointment. Z
Just a few thoughts from someone who has worked on a lot of this stuff.
First off, I've worked on literally hundreds(thousands maybe) of power supplies for all kinds of electronics, the +-12 volts max in a computer system isn't going to harm you, aspecially if you work ONE handed so that you don't potentially get zapped across your chest, be especially cognizant that you don't want to get zapped with a path ACROSS your chest, and yes I have been popped more then a few times working on stuff live.
Also, all large caps in a computer power supply are electrolytic, and are very leaky, you can just meter them with a volt meter after a few minutes and tell if there is any voltage present, almost any good design has bleeders (as a poster pointed out) and if in doubt, solder a couple of leads to a hundred watt light bulb and use it to drain them.
I agree with a poster that said look at the solder joints on the wave soldered board, the heaver components like the large caps, transformers and such sink a lot of heat, frequently leading to a cold solder joint which deteroriates (sp) with time and heat, I can't even guess at the hundreds of power supply sections(and others) in various consumer equipment that I've repaired simply by resoldering those spots, generally there easy to spot by the discolored ring between the lead and the board
Once doing warranty work for a mfr, I commented to a field rep that over 50% of the work was caused by poor wave soldering around the large components that didn't get enough heat.
voltage feedback lnes are used where there is a long run between the PS and the load, on a pc with short leads, you'r not going to get much difference between the PS and the load on 12" of correctly gauged wire, I've seen many PSs with provisions for senseing simply shorted at the PS when the length to the load was small.
if you have a o-scope available, you can easially make a component tester, here http://octopus.freeyellow.com/octopus.html is a link, a little googleing should get you up to speed, you'd be supprised at what you can do with this simple device to check components in circuit, I've made one out of a ac wall wort and a few resistors
Anyway, it's worth a shot, you'd be supprised at what you can do with a VOM in diode mode, check across the diods and semi's, you should see a voltage drop across them, zero volts is bad, you can frequently wick the solder off of one lead and check them semi out of circuit,perhaps htey are across a xfmr, causing it to show zero volts, just remember to solder them back down after testing.
Also look at the tops of the caps, bulging is bad, most of the time indicating a cap that is going bad, frequently the mfr's use caps that are marginally able to handle the voltage on them, not accounting for the peaks, when replacing them double the voltage, technology frequently allows you to replace a cap with the same MF but double the voltage in a smaller size package with a newer cap.
Last try googling the part numbers on the PS , often there is info available about the parts that frequently cause problems:)
Also be aware that isolation transformers only prevent you from getting shocked from source to ground, always try to be SAFE!, one of the best ways to do this is to only work with one hand, keep the other one behind your back or somewhere NOT grounded and wear shoes with plastic or rubber soles, use clip leads instead of working with both hands and remember it is the amperage more then the voltage that can KILL although the voltage will break down your skin resistance, a car battery can kill you if you are zapped by it wrong, ie, leaning on a car frame, and get the plus side where your skin resistance is low from a cut or something. That's why tasers don't kill (often anyway) even at 50,000 volts,
Just a thought, the article says " Basically, if you do not need all the available power, the PSU will reduce the voltages. ", well I don't know about you but I don't want my 5 volt stuff running on 4 volts:), obviously this reviewer wouldn't know a ripple if they saw one!
For really good power supplies, try PcPowerAndCooling.com really well made quality stuff.
"I don't know, I couldn't say, at least not today!"
Having worked in telecommunications as well as consumer electronics and computing, I've played a lot:)
One of the more interesting things for fun was to poke around with a induction amplifier, you know, the "hound" in the fox and hound tone generator/ handheld probe that the phone guys use for tracing copper thru a building.
It is pretty sensitive and I've found many fun sounds by waving it around in various analog and digital equipment, it kinda gives a unique viewpoint. Used in different locations in a PC it picks up various interesting sounds that are very different according to what the system is doing, and where you are probing, memory, chipset, io/chips, cpu etc. Never found it very good for troubleshooting PC's, but lots of fun!
Also, I think the sounds you can hear around running electronics is partly caused by sympathetic viberation induced in the air molecules by high frequency energy changes happening, especially on the buses where there are long runs exposed, as well as perhaps by the caps, (?), could it be the aluminum in the caps is reacting to the energy field?, most of the round tall caps you see on a board are used on low frequency mainly power filtering applications.
Switched to Debian, also running MegaRaid on Penguin servers, found this for debian install supporting megaraid,
www.beekum.nl/pe26xx.iso (minimal/network install), it was made for Dell servers but worked fine on the penquins, only had to run first installing base from CD to get kernel with megaraid support, them switch to new console (alt-f2) and modprobe 'my-nic' to load support for the nic, ifup, restart networking and complete stable install from the net. Also of interest, the 2. drivers on LSI include the source code for the driver. This only took a couple of day's trying to use alternate methods to load debian to figure out! so enjoy, also if you want to run testing, the testing install CD's support megaraid.
I was unemployed and looking for a job, and had posted on the job boards to no avail.
My sister happened to bring a copy of the chamber of commerce business directory which had listings of all the businesses thet are members along with phone and fax #'s.
I wrote a simple generic cover letter simply stating that I was new in the area and if that I was aware that most businesses only advertised as a last resort, asking that they contact me if interested in anyone with my skills or pass my info along if they knew anyone who might be.
Then I entered the fax #'s for the IT related companies, solution co's, isp's, web co's,... and also for the employment agency's. In all I faxed to about 170 #'s
Intrestingly enough not one of the employment agency's bothered to call back and I only got one call(the next day!), but that call led to good work of a varied nature for a company that truly values my skill set.
Slashdot Mirror
I,ve just got to say that I am very fond of GoDaddy, I've had multiple (50+) domains registered with them over several years (after being VERY disappointed with other registars). Many times I've checked a Domain name availability and checked with a client before registering, this has never happened to me, I suspect some other form of snooping.
In Addition, I have never seen a registrar with their web interface so well defined and easy to use, total DNS control Rocks, the features included for the base registration fee are IMHO remarkable.
yada yada yada, but kudos to GoDaddy !
Z
How informed,
This isn't about supplying free bandwidth to a competitor, it's about charging totally outrageous charges for bandwidth and screwing your customers, They pay for bandwidth only to their peers so deciding to remove OO from the local free cache (which includes most other frequent downloads for popular software) is obviously an attempt to force customers to use the web biased product which isn't even a direct competitor to OO, and more importantly it saves them nothing in bandwidth costs!
I have a dedicated server at a data center in the US, 4MB of unmetered bandwidth, 5 static IPs, this only cost's me about USD $79 per Month, Their cost per GB for bandwidth shows that they are obviously taking extreme advantage of their customers , just like the $3000 (or was it ($8000)) per gallon cost of ink jet ink shows that the printer manufactures are taking unconscionable advantage of a enforced monopoly.
The printer manufactures continue to make new printers with cartridges that hold less and less ink, what does this tell you?
This ISP without effective competition appears able to continue to squeeze their customers more and exploit their effective monopoly even to the extent of trying to force a incompatible web biased application along with the privacy issues involved on their own customers.
FYI: The difference in price per page for printing color (or BW) documents on a laser printer is at least 20 to 1, so you can essentially recoup the cost of a laser printer in just a few months if you print much.
With best regards to those who must deal with Big Pond, I hope your government deals with this injustice soon.
Bill
Hi, here are a few (I hope) relevant comments.
.jpg file and saving it again as a .jpg, why the quality degrades, what is lossy compression, ie: the science and computer science that relates to what they are learning in graphic design.
/., I'll include a few links to videos on YouTube that show what a skilled person can do with MS Paint. For more, just search "MS Paint" on YouTube, you'll be very surprised by the results that can be achieved with only MS Paint if you haven't seen any of these.
As to the science, I'd suggest teaching the science of light, color, and the related computer sciences, what is color space, models, rbg, cmyk. Teach the bits and file formats, what does a 8 bit or 24 bit per pixel color depth mean, what are the implications of opening a compressed
As far as what software to use goes, I know this is potential flame bait, but just use MS Paint, or the Gimp, or whatever you have that the kids also have access to at home (a must as another reader pointed out).
Don't undervalue the point that this is a design class, not a class in how to use Photo Shop, CS3, The Gimp, or any other software package.
Just because you are asking this question on
MS paint- apple ipod
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ksvaig8Fr5E
How to paint the MONA LISA with MS PAINT
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU
MS Paint Car - Pixelgod II
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vUWqRhReaZk
And a final thought, "The tools don't make the artist, the artist commands the tools"
Many software packages have the ability to achieve needed results for your class, you should focus on the principles which can be applied in various software packages, not the specific software used.
Hope this helps!
Z
I don't use Gnome, This guy is known to do this kinda stuff.
;)
No news here, move along to the next post
Absolutely Agree.
;)
Focus your efforts on the unique aspects of your site, use the best wheel already invented, and Drupal is among the top few, your choice might vary, but if php works for you Drupal Rocks! Use the extra resources you now have available because you didn't spend sooo much time reinventing the wheel to address any needed features not already available if you find any; For Drupal, write a module; contribute your module, and still you will have saved a lot of effort, as a side benefit, your site will be much more secure because the code is peer reviewed, your custom in house from scratch code is likely to contain multiple vulnerabilities unless you also do a comprehensive security audit.
Go with an appropriate CMS and you will not be disappointed
Check out This site Open Source CMS at http://www.opensourcecms.com/ there you can demo both as user and admin dozens of open source content management systems in a sand box type environment, Each demo system is auto-magically reloaded every two hours.
to quote: OpenSourceCMS "was created with one goal in mind. To give you the opportunity to "try out" some of the best php/mysql based free and open source software systems in the world. You are welcome to be the administrator of any CMS system here, allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs. You should also visit CMS Training Videos for more in depth video tutorials for many of these systems."
Enjoy !
It's sometimes the case that a lock is only good to keep honest people honest, it your child is basically good and wants your approval, and appreciates you are trying to keep them safe then.
1) Explain to them that online porn is responsible for 90% of compromised windows machines, and this is why you won't allow it, not because you think their natural curiosity is bad. Purchase some National Geographic or other magazines you would be comfortable having in your home if you don't already have some.
2) Put a password on your user account. (yes I know that with XP home it's especially useless, but it is a sign of your authority and a mild obstacle, also if it is changed, you will know it.)
3) Restrict their user account so they can't accidentally allow something to be installed (or uninstall the BeSafe application).
4) Install BeSafe, it's not perfect but it's the best windows approach I've found to suggest.
http://www.bsafehome.com/
5) Set the boot device priority to Hard Drive only, if you can't do this, get a technically minded friend to do it for you.
6) Set a BIOS password, periodically check that it is still active.
7) I really love the suggestion to put the PC in an open family area, I know this doesn't always help especially if the kids have much time alone but I've seen in practice that in homes where the parent's are there, it helps. It doesn't have to be in the living room, a den off to the side with open doors works well and allows for game playing.
Nothing will stop anyone from viewing online porn if they are so inclined a visit to a friends, the library, or coffee shop is all it takes.
This will however present a respectable obstacle from the windows boot perspective and possibly keep your home machine safer.
1) Parents provide kiddies with unfettered internet access and allow them to be online unsupervised without even the basics of common smarts training.
2) Kids get in trouble.
3) Parents don't want to face the fact that it is there responsibility to train and supervise their offspring and want someone to blame for what happened.
4) Sue MySpace like it's somehow their fault.
Hell, There probably were predators on Compuserve when it was dial up at 1200 BAUD, I know I had someone invite me to chat and when I accepted launch a trojan script that mimicked Compuserve's text based login and requested login credentials, not being too gullible even then, I just terminated the connection and dialed back in.
Yes, I loved my TS1000/Sinclair I built from a kit, with the 64K Pak, what a interesting thing, My next purchase was a KayPro 10, a few k$ if I remember correctly for a system with a 10 Meg Hard Drive but it paid off, moving a accounting task that took a week to a process that took about 45 minutes + print time!
Not strictly true, the license gives you rights to use the software according to the terms of the license agreement., I've bought "license packs" from MS that were just a few sheets of paper with some stuff printed on them, it was assumed that I already had the install media.
Tech Data and other vendors sell "install media only" MS disks for everything from XP to Exchange Server that don't include the license (or install key) for use.
I've also bought licenses from MS for a new product and used them to legitimize the install of older versions of the same product from older media, this was expressly allowed by the license terms.
Have you ever really read one?
Generally IMHO the OEM License anly allows use of the product on the original hardware, this is partly the justification for the OEM version being cheeper then the full version which allows for moving to different hardware,
Dude! You will be really lucky if these oem upgrades will even install on anything other then a pretty close hardware match, same brand, TCM included on the system board, etc. Seems likely the XP installs that were intended to be vista upgradeable thru the mfr offer were seeded with something that the Vista install will check for :(
1) Download Vista thru online purchase. 2) Reboot after install completes. 3) Cry like a baby when it bluescreens and you don't have anything to boot from.
Seriously now folks, you don't really think you will be able to download a dvd iso and actually see the key do you. If Anything, even now you are lucky if as a home consumer you have a bootable install cd.
With the trusted computing chip that many system's currently have the MS can send the key straight to the chip, the download mechanism will patch the install on the fly to lock it to your motherboard serial or hardware hash + the key in stored in the chip and MS know longer has to worry about their license being "violated" cause you wanted to move to a newer system!
So, when the tech comes to help you recover your system, the copy they bring won't work for more then a few days unless you buy a new "activation", Bill Gates laugh's all the way to the bank!.
Seriously I've seen it sooo many times, the customer has a valid license, "sticker on machine", or pre those days a Brand Name system with a "Made for Windows 98/2000 sticker, customer has the Book with the License Key sticker", but they had to buy another one because they (or you the hapless tech) can't find the right "flavor" install media.
Simply totally ridiculous MS has created their own little hell that pops up and bites you in the ass just when you think you are done, this is the last reboot and you'll have a happy customer.
Hi, I just had to respond to your post. I've used debian for a few years now and use it also for quite a few servers I support. If you have found the gui package managers like synaptic and kpackage, installing PHP or Apache or PostFIX, MySql, etc is not a problem, Bind is another matter as yes you have to understand what you want to do and how to configure your dns files. apache2 is even easier then apache. The installs all install everything needed and also do a good job on the initial configuration. And for the poster that doesn't have hours and hours to keep his install up to date, updating is as easy as 'apt-get update' followed by 'apt-get dist-upgrade' Even without using the gui's installing apache2 is as easy as typing 'apt-get install apache2' at the command line. I'll finish with the conclusion that the benefits of being able to find out exactly what is going on when something goes wrong far far out weigh the dificulties of installing anything. I've been supporting both windows and *nix platforms as a consultant for many years both on the desktop and as servers. I'll take *nix anytime, the hours and hours I've spent cleaning up damaged windows workstations (and sometimes servers) from spyware, malware, viruses( and yes we scan at the gateway, scan on the workstations, firewall, ..., etc leave me with the only thought that if I could possably get Windows out of my life totally, I would in a heartbeat!
The strange thing is with Windows, it's what our clients want and it's job security although a type I could do without:)
Best, Ziskus
BTW man could /. use a spell check button :)
Funny, I bought that exact same phone from verizon after looking at the specs on the motorola web site,
I returned it after a couple of weeks and bitched enough they gave me full credit, blue tooth obex was disabled so I couldn't sync contacts, move files, or any of the other neet stuff I had thought it would do.
Funny!, my Verizon contract is up and they have lost me as a customer, they are ripoffs, outragious rates for overages, no roll over , disabled phones, OH and they also removed the Java and replaced it with BREW, so I couldn't even install an app that wasn't digitally signed by them for that specific cell phone, what a dissapointment.
Z
Just a few thoughts from someone who has worked on a lot of this stuff.
First off, I've worked on literally hundreds(thousands maybe) of power supplies for all kinds of electronics, the +-12 volts max in a computer system isn't going to harm you, aspecially if you work ONE handed so that you don't potentially get zapped across your chest, be especially cognizant that you don't want to get zapped with a path ACROSS your chest, and yes I have been popped more then a few times working on stuff live.
Also, all large caps in a computer power supply are electrolytic, and are very leaky, you can just meter them with a volt meter after a few minutes and tell if there is any voltage present, almost any good design has bleeders (as a poster pointed out) and if in doubt, solder a couple of leads to a hundred watt light bulb and use it to drain them.
I agree with a poster that said look at the solder joints on the wave soldered board, the heaver components like the large caps, transformers and such sink a lot of heat, frequently leading to a cold solder joint which deteroriates (sp) with time and heat, I can't even guess at the hundreds of power supply sections(and others) in various consumer equipment that I've repaired simply by resoldering those spots, generally there easy to spot by the discolored ring between the lead and the board
Once doing warranty work for a mfr, I commented to a field rep that over 50% of the work was caused by poor wave soldering around the large components that didn't get enough heat.
voltage feedback lnes are used where there is a long run between the PS and the load, on a pc with short leads, you'r not going to get much difference between the PS and the load on 12" of correctly gauged wire, I've seen many PSs with provisions for senseing simply shorted at the PS when the length to the load was small.
if you have a o-scope available, you can easially make a component tester, here http://octopus.freeyellow.com/octopus.html is a link, a little googleing should get you up to speed, you'd be supprised at what you can do with this simple device to check components in circuit, I've made one out of a ac wall wort and a few resistors
Anyway, it's worth a shot, you'd be supprised at what you can do with a VOM in diode mode, check across the diods and semi's, you should see a voltage drop across them, zero volts is bad, you can frequently wick the solder off of one lead and check them semi out of circuit,perhaps htey are across a xfmr, causing it to show zero volts, just remember to solder them back down after testing.
Also look at the tops of the caps, bulging is bad, most of the time indicating a cap that is going bad, frequently the mfr's use caps that are marginally able to handle the voltage on them, not accounting for the peaks, when replacing them double the voltage, technology frequently allows you to replace a cap with the same MF but double the voltage in a smaller size package with a newer cap.
Last try googling the part numbers on the PS , often there is info available about the parts that frequently cause problems :)
Also be aware that isolation transformers only prevent you from getting shocked from source to ground, always try to be SAFE!, one of the best ways to do this is to only work with one hand, keep the other one behind your back or somewhere NOT grounded and wear shoes with plastic or rubber soles, use clip leads instead of working with both hands and remember it is the amperage more then the voltage that can KILL although the voltage will break down your skin resistance, a car battery can kill you if you are zapped by it wrong, ie, leaning on a car frame, and get the plus side where your skin resistance is low from a cut or something. That's why tasers don't kill (often anyway) even at 50,000 volts,
Just a thought, the article says " Basically, if you do not need all the available power, the PSU will reduce the voltages. ", well I don't know about you but I don't want my 5 volt stuff running on 4 volts :), obviously this reviewer wouldn't know a ripple if they saw one!
For really good power supplies, try PcPowerAndCooling.com really well made quality stuff.
"I don't know, I couldn't say, at least not today!"
Having worked in telecommunications as well as consumer electronics and computing, I've played a lot :)
One of the more interesting things for fun was to poke around with a induction amplifier, you know, the "hound" in the fox and hound tone generator/ handheld probe that the phone guys use for tracing copper thru a building.
It is pretty sensitive and I've found many fun sounds by waving it around in various analog and digital equipment, it kinda gives a unique viewpoint. Used in different locations in a PC it picks up various interesting sounds that are very different according to what the system is doing, and where you are probing, memory, chipset, io/chips, cpu etc. Never found it very good for troubleshooting PC's, but lots of fun!
Also, I think the sounds you can hear around running electronics is partly caused by sympathetic viberation induced in the air molecules by high frequency energy changes happening, especially on the buses where there are long runs exposed, as well as perhaps by the caps, (?), could it be the aluminum in the caps is reacting to the energy field?, most of the round tall caps you see on a board are used on low frequency mainly power filtering applications.
Switched to Debian, also running MegaRaid on Penguin servers, found this for debian install supporting megaraid, www.beekum.nl/pe26xx.iso (minimal/network install), it was made for Dell servers but worked fine on the penquins, only had to run first installing base from CD to get kernel with megaraid support, them switch to new console (alt-f2) and modprobe 'my-nic' to load support for the nic, ifup, restart networking and complete stable install from the net. Also of interest, the 2. drivers on LSI include the source code for the driver. This only took a couple of day's trying to use alternate methods to load debian to figure out! so enjoy, also if you want to run testing, the testing install CD's support megaraid.
I was unemployed and looking for a job, and had posted on the job boards to no avail.
My sister happened to bring a copy of the chamber of commerce business directory which had listings of all the businesses thet are members along with phone and fax #'s.
I wrote a simple generic cover letter simply stating that I was new in the area and if that I was aware that most businesses only advertised as a last resort, asking that they contact me if interested in anyone with my skills or pass my info along if they knew anyone who might be.
Then I entered the fax #'s for the IT related companies, solution co's, isp's, web co's,... and also for the employment agency's. In all I faxed to about 170 #'s
Intrestingly enough not one of the employment agency's bothered to call back and I only got one call(the next day!), but that call led to good work of a varied nature for a company that truly values my skill set.