Hm. I do have an enermax power supply; however, the machine has been running an average of 7 hours/day for about 3 weeks, and though the smell decreased from its initial strength, it's been at about the same level for at least a week now.
It's a somewhat metallic smell. The supposition that it's epoxy or something from the motherboard gassing off due to the heat produced by the chips seems pretty likely. Anyway, it's not really the odor that's the problem: the real issue is that while it only slightly annoys me, my girlfriend has a pretty strong reaction to whatever it's gassing off, to the extent that it actually makes her feel sick, get a sore throat, and have trouble breathing, which Just Ain't Okay.
Someone mentioned getting the motherboard replaced: well, it's a dual athlon, and to my knowledge there's only one motherboard available with the appropriate chipset (the Asus board I have). Or is this something that actually might be different on two of the 'same' motherboard?
Thanks, -Dan
Official SysAdmin Day Greeting
on
Sysadmin Day. Yay.
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Programmer: "Server's down!" Sysadmin: "Thanks, server's down to you too!"
This PDF is a paper by Rodney Brooks, a brilliant (if somewhat obsessed) man who runs the AI lab at MIT, and was featured in Errol Morris' "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control", the title of which was taken from this piece. The robots described herein are, IMO, the really exciting development... no real internal representation of the outside world was involved; rather, the robots have some set goals, and some set abilities, and essentially fend for themselves without any direct "instructions" other than "Achieve the goal". There has been a lot of work done in this area in recent years - building robots modelled on biology and evolution rather than mechanical representations of the world - and the results are consistently fascinating. A favorite story involving such robots was of an "ant" that was built, whose sole goal was to seek light; it learned to walk on its own, and then somehow (don't recall if the researchers did this intentionally or not), it busted a 'leg'. Soon, after fumbling around a bit, it re-learned how to walk with a busted leg. Amazing stuff. Quite a fascinating read, this.
I was getting rather worried that this site had degraded into just another News For Tech People site... honestly, there's something wrong with the world when i can open up the front page of/. and not see a single article that I'd be embarrassed to admit I was reading.
I can feel my emotional pocket protector growing strong once again.
Take the International Space Station (ISS) for example - why countries like Brazil and Japan are allowed to take part, while China isn't even part of it?
Wonder why the article concern so much abot China's plan for moonbase ? Of course, the only concern for the author is that China must NOT be allowed to go into space.
All these while the Japs are encouraged to take part in space programs.
Don't you think it's kinda double standards?
Double standards? Well, for cryin' out loud, I HOPE SO! There are reasons that our government is friendlier with Japan than China. Neither Japan nor Brazil has the truly horrendous human rights record that China boasts. Might as well cry "Double Standard!" when we give preferential treatment to people who choose not to club baby seals.
-d
Gnome Panel and descriptions
on
KDE 3.0 is Out
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· Score: 2, Informative
Gnome's panel *does* display a description rather than a name, and has for quite some time. When you click 'properties...' on a launcher, there's a field called "Comment". That's what shoes up when you mouse over the description.
Oh, c'mon! You've GOT to at least recognize that there's a sizeable difference between Enya and Celine Dion. The former is a very talented, complex songwriter with a hell of a voice. The latter writes little or none of "her" music, has a hell of a vocal range but no affectation whatsoever. Just because the two share a common base of drab adult-contemporary listeners doesn't mean you can really equate the two.
Plugins, Flash specifically, causes MAJOR slowdown
on
Mozilla 0.9.9 Released
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· Score: 1
I have found that in 3/4 of cases, running either galeon or mozilla, when I load a page that has a flash movie embedded, my browser freezes up for a good solid 2-4 minutes. Then, usually, it eventually works. Don't understand it. Is this an issue for others? (I'm running debian, btw)
Anyone wondering about who kadinsky was... you'll likely become rather frustrated looking it up. Wassily Kandinsky is the artist's name. Very nifty stuff, his.
I agree that technology is the root of all this, but I think that to focus on technology in this context at this time is somewhat pointless. The technology that has allowed mass media to have such a dramatic effect on public opinion has been here for decades. Before we had the Internet (and only 50% of "us" do) it was TV. Before there was TV, everyone tuned in to the radio. Of course you have a completely valid point, but the technology is no longer the issue. If anything, I'd say, the growth of the Internet will/does help FIGHT the current forms of mass media at least as much as it helps things along. The reason for this? Television/Radio/Newspapers each have their own spin to a given story such as the JFK Jr. tragedy (in most cases, of course, the spin is no more than a slightly rehashed version of the same spin every other newspaper and tv show is presenting... it's rare that you ever get a different view from a major mass medium, just different wording). The internet, on the other hand, leaves room for people like you and I who don't need ratings to leave our comments, share our feelings, etc... and if truly intelligent people write comments that people are willing to read, the readers will hopefully gain a clearer perspective on things.
Anyway, back to my original point.
It has long been my opinion that the "American Public" -- and no doubt the majority of the global population -- is a bit on the lazy side when it comes to the world around them. People like to hear about other people, they like tragedy, they like drama... in short, they like to be entertained, and don't give a hoot about actually learning anything unless they've already developed a strong interest in the subject. So, the mass media play off of that, and rarely spend more than a few minutes on a story that doesn't involve tragedy or celebrity or high drama. And since information through non-mass-media channels is difficult to come by, people get used to hearing the same stories from the same viewpoints with different central characters, and the laziness is encouraged. It is THIS phenomenon that is the issue today. The technology that allows this to happen on such a huge scale has been here for a long time now. Let's try to concentrate on the real issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Nah, I don't imagine it's the case, as the smell only shows up when the machine is turned on and has been running for at least a minute or two.
-d
Hm. I do have an enermax power supply; however, the machine has been running an average of 7 hours/day for about 3 weeks, and though the smell decreased from its initial strength, it's been at about the same level for at least a week now.
Dipping?
Like, actually dip the boards in alcohol?
And by "Boards" do you mean everything? the MB, the Graphics board, all that?
I must say, the idea of dipping my hardware in anything rather disturbs me.
-D
It's a somewhat metallic smell. The supposition that it's epoxy or something from the motherboard gassing off due to the heat produced by the chips seems pretty likely. Anyway, it's not really the odor that's the problem: the real issue is that while it only slightly annoys me, my girlfriend has a pretty strong reaction to whatever it's gassing off, to the extent that it actually makes her feel sick, get a sore throat, and have trouble breathing, which Just Ain't Okay.
Someone mentioned getting the motherboard replaced: well, it's a dual athlon, and to my knowledge there's only one motherboard available with the appropriate chipset (the Asus board I have). Or is this something that actually might be different on two of the 'same' motherboard?
Thanks,
-Dan
Programmer: "Server's down!"
Sysadmin: "Thanks, server's down to you too!"
This PDF is a paper by Rodney Brooks, a brilliant (if somewhat obsessed) man who runs the AI lab at MIT, and was featured in Errol Morris' "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control", the title of which was taken from this piece. The robots described herein are, IMO, the really exciting development... no real internal representation of the outside world was involved; rather, the robots have some set goals, and some set abilities, and essentially fend for themselves without any direct "instructions" other than "Achieve the goal". There has been a lot of work done in this area in recent years - building robots modelled on biology and evolution rather than mechanical representations of the world - and the results are consistently fascinating. A favorite story involving such robots was of an "ant" that was built, whose sole goal was to seek light; it learned to walk on its own, and then somehow (don't recall if the researchers did this intentionally or not), it busted a 'leg'. Soon, after fumbling around a bit, it re-learned how to walk with a busted leg. Amazing stuff. Quite a fascinating read, this.
-d
I was getting rather worried that this site had degraded into just another News For Tech People site... honestly, there's something wrong with the world when i can open up the front page of /. and not see a single article that I'd be embarrassed to admit I was reading.
I can feel my emotional pocket protector growing strong once again.
-d
Double standards? Well, for cryin' out loud, I HOPE SO! There are reasons that our government is friendlier with Japan than China. Neither Japan nor Brazil has the truly horrendous human rights record that China boasts. Might as well cry "Double Standard!" when we give preferential treatment to people who choose not to club baby seals.
-d
Gnome's panel *does* display a description rather than a name, and has for quite some time. When you click 'properties...' on a launcher, there's a field called "Comment". That's what shoes up when you mouse over the description.
-d
...which, in most scenes, appeared to be about 15 feet ending in a disarmingly fake painted desert backdrop.
-d
Oh, c'mon! You've GOT to at least recognize that there's a sizeable difference between Enya and Celine Dion. The former is a very talented, complex songwriter with a hell of a voice. The latter writes little or none of "her" music, has a hell of a vocal range but no affectation whatsoever. Just because the two share a common base of drab adult-contemporary listeners doesn't mean you can really equate the two.
I have found that in 3/4 of cases, running either galeon or mozilla, when I load a page that has a flash movie embedded, my browser freezes up for a good solid 2-4 minutes. Then, usually, it eventually works. Don't understand it. Is this an issue for others? (I'm running debian, btw)
How many guys YOU know can claim both of the following:
1) An extensive knowledge of the FreeBSD VM.
2) A filmed threesome with Neve Campbell and Denise Richards.
Heh.
Anyone wondering about who kadinsky was... you'll likely become rather frustrated looking it up. Wassily Kandinsky is the artist's name. Very nifty stuff, his.
I agree that technology is the root of all this, but I think that to focus on technology in this context at this time is somewhat pointless. The technology that has allowed mass media to have such a dramatic effect on public opinion has been here for decades. Before we had the Internet (and only 50% of "us" do) it was TV. Before there was TV, everyone tuned in to the radio. Of course you have a completely valid point, but the technology is no longer the issue. If anything, I'd say, the growth of the Internet will/does help FIGHT the current forms of mass media at least as much as it helps things along. The reason for this? Television/Radio/Newspapers each have their own spin to a given story such as the JFK Jr. tragedy (in most cases, of course, the spin is no more than a slightly rehashed version of the same spin every other newspaper and tv show is presenting... it's rare that you ever get a different view from a major mass medium, just different wording). The internet, on the other hand, leaves room for people like you and I who don't need ratings to leave our comments, share our feelings, etc... and if truly intelligent people write comments that people are willing to read, the readers will hopefully gain a clearer perspective on things.
Anyway, back to my original point.
It has long been my opinion that the "American Public" -- and no doubt the majority of the global population -- is a bit on the lazy side when it comes to the world around them. People like to hear about other people, they like tragedy, they like drama... in short, they like to be entertained, and don't give a hoot about actually learning anything unless they've already developed a strong interest in the subject. So, the mass media play off of that, and rarely spend more than a few minutes on a story that doesn't involve tragedy or celebrity or high drama. And since information through non-mass-media channels is difficult to come by, people get used to hearing the same stories from the same viewpoints with different central characters, and the laziness is encouraged. It is THIS phenomenon that is the issue today. The technology that allows this to happen on such a huge scale has been here for a long time now. Let's try to concentrate on the real issue.
-dm