I saw a special on Chernobyl on The History Channel a while ago. I can't remember everything that happened, but I do remember some details that I haven't seen mentioned on any web pages. They were supposed to run a scheduled test of reactor #4. The test required bringing the power output to something like 20%. The two top guys at the plant were there for the test, but right before they were about to start it, someone higher up (can't remember who) demanded that they output more power (I can't remember why...maybe another plant had gone down, and they needed to compensate). By the time they were able to bring the output back down, it was on the night shift, and none of the top guys were there to supervise. They decided to run the test while they had the chance.
They started bringing the power output down, but it went down farther than it was supposed to. They didn't want it to drop too low, or the reactor would shut down completely, and would take a long time to get back online. They started pulling the control rods back out, but the power wasn't increasing (or the monitors weren't showing an increase at least). They pulled the rods all the way out, but still nothing. Then, the power output started rapidly increasing, and the reactor was overheating. When they tried to put the control rods back in, they wouldn't move. I think I remember them saying that they even tried to push them in by hand. In any case, they couldn't get the reactor cooled down, and eventually the top of the reactor was blown off. The fire department was called, and simply told that there was a "fire" at one of the reactors. Some of the firefighters lived in hospital beds for a couple days before they died. I don't know if any of them survived.
Anyone feel free to correct me. I'm sure I missed some of that.
Guys don't make up as large a percentage of the market as they think. Games are marketed towards guys because guys are marketing them. I'm not sure what the numbers are right now, but in 1999, 43% of PC gamers were women. 53% of those gamers play online. Only 43% of male gamers play online, which should make the ratio of males to females online almost 1:1.
Source
The main reason for building one is picture quality. With an HTPC, you can output your DVDs to the TV through DVI instead of composite, S-Video, or component. This will give you a much better picture quality. Also, as others said, you can use it for more than just DVDs - DivX, HD content in WM9 or Pixlet, games, web surfing, etc. I got 1TB of storage to store all of my DVDs on my HTPC, so I can just scroll through them on the TV, and play the one I want, instead of taking one from the DVD rack, and putting it in the DVD player, then waiting for it to read the DVD, etc.
There are a few DVD players coming out these days with DVI ports on them, but they are just about as expensive (or sometimes more expensive) than building an HTPC. They also don't give you all the extra benefits.
I learned after my second drive, that no matter what size I had, I would fill it up. My first computer, an Atari, had only a floppy drive. When I got my Macintosh IIcx in 1989, I was like "wow! 40 megabytes! MEGA BYTES!" I filled that within a few months. I also quintupled the RAM in it, from 1MB to 5MB. Then I started getting on BBSs, and getting some more software, so I bought a 170MB drive (external SCSI). I didn't think I could possibly fill it. Then I got...The Internet. The internet made space go away much faster than ever before. In 1994, when I got my PowerMac 6100, it not only had a huge 540MB internal drive, but I moved the 170MB external over, AND it had a 2X CD-ROM. It wasn't a slow 1X drive. It was a screaming fast 2X. 300KB a second. That was the last time I thought I would never fill up a drive.
That's a completely different scenario. The heat sink was made specifically for that type of processor, and probably had a range of speeds it was good for. Had someone tried to retro-fit a 486 heatsink on a Pentium 4, I seriously doubt Intel would replace that processor, if they knew that was what happened. If I tried to water cool my computer by sticking it in a bathtub full of ice water, I wouldn't expect the manufacturer to do anything other than laugh at me.
VersionTracker Plus is free to existing members. It's not given when you renew, or activate an account. The only options for when you renew are The Sims, EverQuest, or a $20 gift certificate. I was able to use both of my.Mac accounts to get VersionTracker Plus. One was 11 months old, and the other was 2.5 months old.
I was wondering what was up with that Titanium. I knew the left one was a new 15, and I knew the right one was an old 15, but the sizes just didn't match (the heights are the same though). He took the speakers off of the sides of the Titanium to make it smaller.
I realize that most computers out there run Windows, but if you work on any Macs, a bus powered firewire hard drive with OS X and OS 9 installed on it is very useful, especially if you have to format their drive, and they want data backed up. Some other useful tools for any computer are a telescoping screwdriver with magnetic tip, and swappable heads, torx drivers, hex drivers, a very small philips, a large flathead for prying, multimeter, etc.
The main problem with CompUSA plans, is that you can only get the computer fixed at CompUSA. CompUSA is no longer Apple Certified, and even when they were, they were not laptop certified, so they could not work on them in the store. They have to ship them out (unless they happen to have an Apple Laptop Certified technician, which is rare). With AppleCare, you can get the computer fixed anywhere that is certified, be it an Apple Retail Store, local Mac shop, etc. CompUSA also uses PreOwned for their parts, so their replacement parts are used. With AppleCare, the parts come from Apple, and are usually new.
The Apple/IBM alliance is over 10 years old. It's nothing new. Apple, IBM, and Motorola jointly produced the original PPC processor in 1993, and IBM has been making the processors used in Macs since then, along with Motorola. It wasn't until the G4 that Motorola took over all the PPC production for Apple. All the G3s still used in the iBook are made by IBM. I don't know why so many people are making such a big deal about the G5 being made by IBM.
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I saw a special on Chernobyl on The History Channel a while ago. I can't remember everything that happened, but I do remember some details that I haven't seen mentioned on any web pages. They were supposed to run a scheduled test of reactor #4. The test required bringing the power output to something like 20%. The two top guys at the plant were there for the test, but right before they were about to start it, someone higher up (can't remember who) demanded that they output more power (I can't remember why...maybe another plant had gone down, and they needed to compensate). By the time they were able to bring the output back down, it was on the night shift, and none of the top guys were there to supervise. They decided to run the test while they had the chance. They started bringing the power output down, but it went down farther than it was supposed to. They didn't want it to drop too low, or the reactor would shut down completely, and would take a long time to get back online. They started pulling the control rods back out, but the power wasn't increasing (or the monitors weren't showing an increase at least). They pulled the rods all the way out, but still nothing. Then, the power output started rapidly increasing, and the reactor was overheating. When they tried to put the control rods back in, they wouldn't move. I think I remember them saying that they even tried to push them in by hand. In any case, they couldn't get the reactor cooled down, and eventually the top of the reactor was blown off. The fire department was called, and simply told that there was a "fire" at one of the reactors. Some of the firefighters lived in hospital beds for a couple days before they died. I don't know if any of them survived. Anyone feel free to correct me. I'm sure I missed some of that.
Guys don't make up as large a percentage of the market as they think. Games are marketed towards guys because guys are marketing them. I'm not sure what the numbers are right now, but in 1999, 43% of PC gamers were women. 53% of those gamers play online. Only 43% of male gamers play online, which should make the ratio of males to females online almost 1:1. Source
The main reason for building one is picture quality. With an HTPC, you can output your DVDs to the TV through DVI instead of composite, S-Video, or component. This will give you a much better picture quality. Also, as others said, you can use it for more than just DVDs - DivX, HD content in WM9 or Pixlet, games, web surfing, etc. I got 1TB of storage to store all of my DVDs on my HTPC, so I can just scroll through them on the TV, and play the one I want, instead of taking one from the DVD rack, and putting it in the DVD player, then waiting for it to read the DVD, etc. There are a few DVD players coming out these days with DVI ports on them, but they are just about as expensive (or sometimes more expensive) than building an HTPC. They also don't give you all the extra benefits.
They do have one, but it's still not carrying people (except in tests)
Actually, the lego WTC was started two years before 9/11.
I learned after my second drive, that no matter what size I had, I would fill it up. My first computer, an Atari, had only a floppy drive. When I got my Macintosh IIcx in 1989, I was like "wow! 40 megabytes! MEGA BYTES!" I filled that within a few months. I also quintupled the RAM in it, from 1MB to 5MB. Then I started getting on BBSs, and getting some more software, so I bought a 170MB drive (external SCSI). I didn't think I could possibly fill it. Then I got...The Internet. The internet made space go away much faster than ever before. In 1994, when I got my PowerMac 6100, it not only had a huge 540MB internal drive, but I moved the 170MB external over, AND it had a 2X CD-ROM. It wasn't a slow 1X drive. It was a screaming fast 2X. 300KB a second. That was the last time I thought I would never fill up a drive.
That's a completely different scenario. The heat sink was made specifically for that type of processor, and probably had a range of speeds it was good for. Had someone tried to retro-fit a 486 heatsink on a Pentium 4, I seriously doubt Intel would replace that processor, if they knew that was what happened. If I tried to water cool my computer by sticking it in a bathtub full of ice water, I wouldn't expect the manufacturer to do anything other than laugh at me.
VersionTracker Plus is free to existing members. It's not given when you renew, or activate an account. The only options for when you renew are The Sims, EverQuest, or a $20 gift certificate. I was able to use both of my .Mac accounts to get VersionTracker Plus. One was 11 months old, and the other was 2.5 months old.
I was wondering what was up with that Titanium. I knew the left one was a new 15, and I knew the right one was an old 15, but the sizes just didn't match (the heights are the same though). He took the speakers off of the sides of the Titanium to make it smaller.
I thought this would have been one of the fads. Maybe it wasn't as big as the others. I LIEK MILK!!!!!!!
Wouldn't this risk getting metal filings on the motherboard? What do you do to prevent that?
I realize that most computers out there run Windows, but if you work on any Macs, a bus powered firewire hard drive with OS X and OS 9 installed on it is very useful, especially if you have to format their drive, and they want data backed up. Some other useful tools for any computer are a telescoping screwdriver with magnetic tip, and swappable heads, torx drivers, hex drivers, a very small philips, a large flathead for prying, multimeter, etc.
The main problem with CompUSA plans, is that you can only get the computer fixed at CompUSA. CompUSA is no longer Apple Certified, and even when they were, they were not laptop certified, so they could not work on them in the store. They have to ship them out (unless they happen to have an Apple Laptop Certified technician, which is rare). With AppleCare, you can get the computer fixed anywhere that is certified, be it an Apple Retail Store, local Mac shop, etc. CompUSA also uses PreOwned for their parts, so their replacement parts are used. With AppleCare, the parts come from Apple, and are usually new.
The Apple/IBM alliance is over 10 years old. It's nothing new. Apple, IBM, and Motorola jointly produced the original PPC processor in 1993, and IBM has been making the processors used in Macs since then, along with Motorola. It wasn't until the G4 that Motorola took over all the PPC production for Apple. All the G3s still used in the iBook are made by IBM. I don't know why so many people are making such a big deal about the G5 being made by IBM.