Trading MP3s is a good way to "preview" an album/artist. I ROUTINELY buy CDs after having listened to a few MP3s.
I see this argument occassionally, yet I've never actually met anyone who's done it. I know I've never done it. The only CDs I buy nowadays are CDs I would buy anyway, even without having heard their songs on the radio. That is to say, I like the band, and I know I'll like their new album, even before I hear it. But everyone I know who downloads music has virtually stopped buying CDs.
Odds are a majority of the time you'd be right. But I am that guy. Back in, ohhh, I think it was 98 or 99 I download some NOFX songs. That was my introduction to the Punk genre, a genre which get's very little radio play. Now it's 4 or 5 years later and I own every NOFX CD, as well as some records and I've seen them in concert twice.
So my cd purchases have actually increased. A lot. I find a few songs I like from an artist I've never heard from before, buy the CD, rip it to a higher quality bitrate and store the CD away.
Especially with Genre's that aren't main stream anymore in a lot of places. REAL Heavy Metal, Punk, Ska, House, Trance, Electronic; a lot of that doesn't get much, if any, air time. There's no videos to speak of. So where else would I find out about it? Go into the music store and pick a CD at random to purchase? While this may be a viable alternative, I'm going to end up owning a lot of CDs that I would never in my life listen to again.
We used a combo of Proximity/Smart cards and some biometric stuff. All the workstations for the operations department used smart cards that also acted as proximity cards. You'd plug in your card to the PC, enter a password, and you have access. It also doubled as the proximity card, which we used for all the datacenters we had in the building, as well as for some of the cabinets. For the critical NASDAQ stuff we had a seperate room with a mantrap, proximity card and hand scan. Once again all those cabinets in the room also used proximity cards.
This way, while most of us had access to the datacenters, we could only access the cabinets that we were supposed to. Network guys could only access cabinets that where needed by them, etc etc.
Worked pretty well, especially the combo smart card/proximity card. This way, you had to grab the card and take it with you when you went anywhere, which locked the workstation and prevented an inhouse people from tampering with anything.
it's not necessarily the best Stephenson book but its probably the most filmable (and, as the most -obvious- the most likely to do well commercially.
I agree with you on that. I'd really love to see Cryptomnicon as a movie, but it's not really Sci-Fi, so I didn't include it. And the Diamond Age, I think, would make a real good movie as well. Especially with the RActor's, and Nell's primer and all. Personally I feel that The Diamond Age is more well rounded book of his, and end up re-reading it more often then the others.
Thanks for the link btw, I had no idea. Though now that I look at it, it doesn't seem quite as interesting or as true as to my take on it as I had thought.
That would be a great one to see. I'd love to see if the directors vision of Hiro and the Aleut racing their motorcycles at the speed of light in the metaverse would match my own.
Or how about "The Diamond Age"? Cities made entirely of Diamond where glass used to be, that'd be pretty slick.
Ohhh, hey, I think seeing Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" would be sweet as well. The battleroom on the big screen!
Man, the list is almost endless now that I think about it. But I think I'd have to rate "Snow Crash" up at the top of the "wish I could see it" list.
I know you don't really want to use an acrylic case, but it might be a good idea. AFAIK, Stained glass isn't the hardiest substance around, and PCs can weight upwards of 30 pounds or more, so I would think using a clear case, which is sturdy and will hold the weight, as a base then putting the stained glass on top of it might be a better idea. I'm not 100% sure, but it makes sense that most of the strength of a stained glass window would come from the frame, right? Well, if that's the case, you'd need a real heavy and stiff frame to support all the weight of the pc parts, keep it true (Don't want to pick up a case and have it fold in on you like a stepladder) and any other unforeseen events. Can stained glass handle being opened up and closed a bunch of times? Being knocked over? Your dealing with something in 3 Dimensions here, not the mostly 2 Dimensions you use with a window, so you'll have to adjust your thoughts accordingly.
But, if your deadset on building one from scratch, most metal workers will build the frame you need, and fairly cheap as well. It's almost trivial to them. Then you can go online and get parts you'll need to finish it up. Hope it helps!
Currently, I work part-time in a damn BOWLOING ALLEY, because it's the only thing I could find right now. Anyway, I make about 400$/month after taxes. My wife makes about 1000$/month after taxes. Yep, we only net 1400$/month.
Anyway, the bills.
Rent: (2 bedroom apartment) 400$ Car: 275$ Car+Renter Insur.: 50$ Phone: Free (She works for the phone company) 1.5MBit SDSL: 9$ (See above) Cable: 50$ Gas: 50$ Electricity: 75$ Food: 300$ Car2: 0$ (Repoed) Credit Cards: 0$ (Closed due to nonpayment) Misc: Everything that's left, about 200$.
Back in 2001, when I was last gainfully employed in my chosen field (IT) I was living it up. I made real good money, and spent it as fast as I got it. I had gotten used to an excessive lifestyle, got stupid. Digital cable + Satellite TV. Cable Modem AND DSL. A lot of money went out that I should of saved. When the door closed on me, and I got laid off (I built an application and system monitoring system for 7500 servers, and when that was done, I was useless) it was a major shock to me. I had never thought that "it" would happen to me. That'd I'd be one of those unemployed people. At first I turned my nose up at any job that paid less then 65k a year, now I'm in line for a possible tech support job that pays 15$/hr, and I'm willing, nay, HAPPY, if I actually get it.
Hell, I even decided to *gasp* go to college and get a degree or two and work on some certs. I jumped on that Dot.Com wave and rode it like there was no tomorrow and no end. Chicago, Dallas, LA, Philly, I went where the money went.
Boy, do I ever regret it. I regret not going to college in the first place, and now here I am. Basically unemployed, preparing to file bankruptcy, 26, with a wealth of knowledge but no paper to prove it.
You live and learn though, I suppose. And I'm waiting for the help desk job with bated breath. heh.
Yes, I leave it on all the time. I used to use an air cleaner much like this one. With it on, it sounded something like a box fan set at a medium speed.
It used about 200watts of electricity, and I ended up changing the filter every month or so, at a cost of 30-45$ to me. It worked great, but it was somewhat expensive in the maint. department.
I kept seeing ads on TV about the SharperImage Ionic Breeze. I get their catalog, and in one was a testimonial from a user who had one running when the attack on the World Trade Center happened. He said that when he came back, he had the EPA guys come in and check the air in his apartment (about a block from the WTC) and it was a lot cleaner then the surrounding air in the city, almost pure! So I said, hell, I'll give it a shot and plunked down the 350$ for it - and love it. It cleans just as well as my old one (maybe even better) and instead of a filter to change and a prefilter to wash every month or so, I simple pull out a 'collection grate' and wipe it off. Wait for it to dry, plug it back in, and I'm good to go - 5 minutes or so, and at the cost of around 0.05 cents in water. Plus, it only uses 15watts of power and is silent. SO I keep the big one in the living room on low and leave the ionic breeze in the office.
As for dust, I've had very little accumalation now. Used to need to clean the TV every month or so with a pretty thick layer of dust; now I can wait 6 months and there isn't much dust at all on anything, so I would safely assume it cuts down on that as well hehe.
I smoke. My wife USED to smoke, and we have a plethora of cats.
Several PCs in the house, and you can imagine the ickyness that gets in there.
Tried fan filters, there fine and well for a single PC, or a couple, but at times I've had a half dozen + machines running in here, and cleaning all those filters is almost as bad as blowing out the case without filters.
I went out and bought a high quality HEPA Air Cleaner and haven't had a problem since. My bitchbox, a lowly celeron 366 which I use to test new cards and such I build has been running for 6 months straight with the cover on. I just opened it up, very little dust inside - not even enough to worry about.
I use a cleaner similar to the link up there, it's made for multi-room use, so I calculated it cleans the air in my 15x15 office about 38 times an hour. I breathe better, the air just smells cleaner, and I have 1 filter to worry about, not 2 dozen.
Ah, you mean this chapter. And indeed, it's almost true now:
"Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."
I love Hot Peppers, and have been growing them on and off for a few years. They are hardy, cheap to buy and startout with, and if you love hot foods, you can learn that there's more then just Tabasco sauce and Habaneros out there. Check out a few links to see if it's for you Pepper Joe's Seed Catalog (I buy all my seeds from him, they always give you FREE seeds with your order, great way to test and see if you like the flavor of a pepper you've never heard of before) Pepper Joe's Gardening Tips EXCELLENT hot pepper growing tips
Just remember the Top 10 things to do when starting pepper seeds: 1.) Never ever, ever, ever use peat pellets, peat pots, or potting soil that is mostly peat. 2.) Always give 80-85F daytime soil temp., and room temp. at night. Do not refrigerate! 3.) Always use a soil thermometer. 4.) Never use a non-organic fertilizer (i.e. Miracle-grow®, etc.) on seedlings. 5.) Never plant seeds more than 1/8 inch deep. 6.) Always let the soil surface dry slightly before re-watering. 7.) Always use the saltpetre solution on slower-germinating kinds, like the Tepin. 8.) Never use table salt. 9.) Never use bleach. 10.) Don't give up!--a lot of hot peppers take almost a month to germinate
Lego Mindstorms and it's RCX language. Fairly intuitive, robust, and you can get it to do cool real-world stuff. While I think a child might be ok with making some little PC games, I think they would love it even more if they could build a dinosaur and make it walk like they want it to.
Actually, the PC case acts as a giant speaker, amplifying the sound of the fans in the PSU (And any other case fans as well). A small, normally un-noticeable imbalance on one of the fan blades would make a little noise. Screw it in tightly to your PC and it starts to make your PC shake as well. I think a smarter solution then an external PSU would be a Quiet PSU like the Vantec VAN-520a Stealth and mount it using rubber gaskets where the screws go. If you wanted to take it a step further you could build a rubber gasket around the entire PSU itself to reduce any vibrations even more.
My PC is very quiet because of this method. I have 4 case fans + 3 PSU fans and I can't hear any of them for the most part.
Check out this article over at TechTV from The Screen Savers on how to make a Quiet PC
Check out this link at The ScreenSavers. They had this guy come in talking all about the equipment, software, etc that he used to make 360 degree Panoramic views.
A pop-up gaming coffee table. You've probably seen the pop-up coffee tables in furniture stores and what not, that's where I got my idea.
Plan is to build a 3 x 6 foot coffee table, with another box inside of it. Inside there will fit all my gaming consoles as well as a video and sound switcher - leaving only 3-4 cables to be seen. 1 for the sound, 1 for video, 1 for ethernet and 1 for power.
I examined the way the pop-up tables work in stores, and it seems reasonably easy to build. I may even go for an electronic actuator with spring assist to raise the console section.
So, when I want to play a game I push a hidden button on the side of the coffee table. Center section slides up with all my gaming consoles sitting there. Pick the console, via the video/audio switch, plugin the game, and hit power. Then I can either lower the center section, or leave it up - either way it'll work fine. In the end, it will look like this POP-UP TV stand, only in a coffee table form.
Side Note: My actual design plans to take this a tad further, I plan on installing a Mini-itx system inside as well as my DVD, VCR, and CD players. Then using an RF blaster I can send commands to the respective player while the main section is closed. It'll give me this "hidden" technology look that I'm attempting to go for.
My first foray into the IT field was a tech support job at GE's sister corp, National TechTeam. My 'project' was COMPUTER SUPPORT PLUS, basically Circuit CIty's extended warranty support.
Because we don't like replacing 5 year old technology (mainly because that 300MB hdd that came with your HP doesn't exist anymore, so we would have to upgrade you to the smallest thing we could find (at the time 4GB) when you called us it wasn't as much of a tech call as it was an "insurance claim".
Just as the insurance adjustors pour over your house looking for signs you set the fire yourself, we'd pour through your system looking for the easiest out so we didn't have to fix your PC. Since this was a hardware support place, if you upgraded your PC to a new OS, we couldnt help[ you. Put in a new modem? Sorry, youll have to put the old one in. Threw it out? Oh well, no support for you! If your hard drive wa son the verge of failing, but hasn't actually failed yet, we couldnt help. Every call we tried to weasel out of as a software issue. EVERY SINGLE ONE.
It took (on the average) of over 30 days to actually get something done, and replacements were almost always inferior.
I'd stay away from em for the most part. Think of it this way:
If you paid 200$ for an extended warranty on your PC and 3 yearts later your HDD dies, you'd get a replacement close to the size of your old hdd. Now, if you saved that 200$ and used it to buy a drive 3 years down the road when yours fails, you'd be able to purchase over 10 times the capacity of your old drive!
Where I used to work we looked into this solution for our servers too. Problem is, we had over 4000. That's 4000 more network drops and 4000 more circuits we would need. Though I bet for only a 100 or so servers it worked quite nicely. SHame though, as I really liked those insight boards too.
Slashdot Mirror
Trading MP3s is a good way to "preview" an album/artist. I ROUTINELY buy CDs after having listened to a few MP3s.
I see this argument occassionally, yet I've never actually met anyone who's done it. I know I've never done it. The only CDs I buy nowadays are CDs I would buy anyway, even without having heard their songs on the radio. That is to say, I like the band, and I know I'll like their new album, even before I hear it. But everyone I know who downloads music has virtually stopped buying CDs.
Odds are a majority of the time you'd be right. But I am that guy.
Back in, ohhh, I think it was 98 or 99 I download some NOFX songs.
That was my introduction to the Punk genre, a genre which get's very little radio play.
Now it's 4 or 5 years later and I own every NOFX CD, as well as some records and I've seen them in concert twice.
So my cd purchases have actually increased. A lot.
I find a few songs I like from an artist I've never heard from before, buy the CD, rip it to a higher quality bitrate and store the CD away.
Especially with Genre's that aren't main stream anymore in a lot of places. REAL Heavy Metal, Punk, Ska, House, Trance, Electronic; a lot of that doesn't get much, if any, air time. There's no videos to speak of. So where else would I find out about it? Go into the music store and pick a CD at random to purchase? While this may be a viable alternative, I'm going to end up owning a lot of CDs that I would never in my life listen to again.
We used a combo of Proximity/Smart cards and some biometric stuff.
All the workstations for the operations department used smart cards that also acted as proximity cards.
You'd plug in your card to the PC, enter a password, and you have access.
It also doubled as the proximity card, which we used for all the datacenters we had in the building, as well as for some of the cabinets.
For the critical NASDAQ stuff we had a seperate room with a mantrap, proximity card and hand scan. Once again all those cabinets in the room also used proximity cards.
This way, while most of us had access to the datacenters, we could only access the cabinets that we were supposed to. Network guys could only access cabinets that where needed by them, etc etc.
Worked pretty well, especially the combo smart card/proximity card. This way, you had to grab the card and take it with you when you went anywhere, which locked the workstation and prevented an inhouse people from tampering with anything.
So instead of talking shit about it, how about you all go read a story that I submitted to Slashdot about 4 times, but of course, got rejected.
/. really, really hates Unix, seeing as they posted a dupe to this story so soon. ;)
Opera is Spyware?! - Check it out, made me think. But apparently
it's not necessarily the best Stephenson book but its probably the most filmable (and, as the most -obvious- the most likely to do well commercially.
I agree with you on that. I'd really love to see Cryptomnicon as a movie, but it's not really Sci-Fi, so I didn't include it. And the Diamond Age, I think, would make a real good movie as well.
Especially with the RActor's, and Nell's primer and all. Personally I feel that The Diamond Age is more well rounded book of his, and end up re-reading it more often then the others.
Thanks for the link btw, I had no idea. Though now that I look at it, it doesn't seem quite as interesting or as true as to my take on it as I had thought.
That would be a great one to see. I'd love to see if the directors vision of Hiro and the Aleut racing their motorcycles at the speed of light in the metaverse would match my own.
Or how about "The Diamond Age"? Cities made entirely of Diamond where glass used to be, that'd be pretty slick.
Ohhh, hey, I think seeing Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" would be sweet as well. The battleroom on the big screen!
Man, the list is almost endless now that I think about it. But I think I'd have to rate "Snow Crash" up at the top of the "wish I could see it" list.
Next Review: Apples vs Oranges, Which has more of an Orange taste?
I know you don't really want to use an acrylic case, but it might be a good idea. AFAIK, Stained glass isn't the hardiest substance around, and PCs can weight upwards of 30 pounds or more, so I would think using a clear case, which is sturdy and will hold the weight, as a base then putting the stained glass on top of it might be a better idea.
I'm not 100% sure, but it makes sense that most of the strength of a stained glass window would come from the frame, right? Well, if that's the case, you'd need a real heavy and stiff frame to support all the weight of the pc parts, keep it true (Don't want to pick up a case and have it fold in on you like a stepladder) and any other unforeseen events.
Can stained glass handle being opened up and closed a bunch of times? Being knocked over?
Your dealing with something in 3 Dimensions here, not the mostly 2 Dimensions you use with a window, so you'll have to adjust your thoughts accordingly.
But, if your deadset on building one from scratch, most metal workers will build the frame you need, and fairly cheap as well. It's almost trivial to them. Then you can go online and get parts you'll need to finish it up. Hope it helps!
Well now. Let's see here.
Currently, I work part-time in a damn BOWLOING ALLEY, because it's the only thing I could find right now. Anyway, I make about 400$/month after taxes. My wife makes about 1000$/month after taxes. Yep, we only net 1400$/month.
Anyway, the bills.
Rent: (2 bedroom apartment) 400$
Car: 275$
Car+Renter Insur.: 50$
Phone: Free (She works for the phone company)
1.5MBit SDSL: 9$ (See above)
Cable: 50$
Gas: 50$
Electricity: 75$
Food: 300$
Car2: 0$ (Repoed)
Credit Cards: 0$ (Closed due to nonpayment)
Misc: Everything that's left, about 200$.
Back in 2001, when I was last gainfully employed in my chosen field (IT) I was living it up. I made real good money, and spent it as fast as I got it. I had gotten used to an excessive lifestyle, got stupid. Digital cable + Satellite TV. Cable Modem AND DSL. A lot of money went out that I should of saved.
When the door closed on me, and I got laid off (I built an application and system monitoring system for 7500 servers, and when that was done, I was useless) it was a major shock to me. I had never thought that "it" would happen to me. That'd I'd be one of those unemployed people.
At first I turned my nose up at any job that paid less then 65k a year, now I'm in line for a possible tech support job that pays 15$/hr, and I'm willing, nay, HAPPY, if I actually get it.
Hell, I even decided to *gasp* go to college and get a degree or two and work on some certs.
I jumped on that Dot.Com wave and rode it like there was no tomorrow and no end. Chicago, Dallas, LA, Philly, I went where the money went.
Boy, do I ever regret it. I regret not going to college in the first place, and now here I am. Basically unemployed, preparing to file bankruptcy, 26, with a wealth of knowledge but no paper to prove it.
You live and learn though, I suppose.
And I'm waiting for the help desk job with bated breath. heh.
Yes, I leave it on all the time. I used to use an air cleaner much like this one. With it on, it sounded something like a box fan set at a medium speed.
It used about 200watts of electricity, and I ended up changing the filter every month or so, at a cost of 30-45$ to me. It worked great, but it was somewhat expensive in the maint. department.
I kept seeing ads on TV about the SharperImage Ionic Breeze. I get their catalog, and in one was a testimonial from a user who had one running when the attack on the World Trade Center happened.
He said that when he came back, he had the EPA guys come in and check the air in his apartment (about a block from the WTC) and it was a lot cleaner then the surrounding air in the city, almost pure!
So I said, hell, I'll give it a shot and plunked down the 350$ for it - and love it.
It cleans just as well as my old one (maybe even better) and instead of a filter to change and a prefilter to wash every month or so, I simple pull out a 'collection grate' and wipe it off. Wait for it to dry, plug it back in, and I'm good to go - 5 minutes or so, and at the cost of around 0.05 cents in water. Plus, it only uses 15watts of power and is silent. SO I keep the big one in the living room on low and leave the ionic breeze in the office.
As for dust, I've had very little accumalation now. Used to need to clean the TV every month or so with a pretty thick layer of dust; now I can wait 6 months and there isn't much dust at all on anything, so I would safely assume it cuts down on that as well hehe.
I smoke. My wife USED to smoke, and we have a plethora of cats.
Several PCs in the house, and you can imagine the ickyness that gets in there.
Tried fan filters, there fine and well for a single PC, or a couple, but at times I've had a half dozen + machines running in here, and cleaning all those filters is almost as bad as blowing out the case without filters.
I went out and bought a high quality HEPA Air Cleaner and haven't had a problem since. My bitchbox, a lowly celeron 366 which I use to test new cards and such I build has been running for 6 months straight with the cover on. I just opened it up, very little dust inside - not even enough to worry about.
I use a cleaner similar to the link up there, it's made for multi-room use, so I calculated it cleans the air in my 15x15 office about 38 times an hour. I breathe better, the air just smells cleaner, and I have 1 filter to worry about, not 2 dozen.
Ah, you mean this chapter. And indeed, it's almost true now:
"Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away
about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The
telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston
made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover,
so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque
commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of
knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on
what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was
guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But
at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to
live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every
sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement
scrutinized."
I love Hot Peppers, and have been growing them on and off for a few years. They are hardy, cheap to buy and startout with, and if you love hot foods, you can learn that there's more then just Tabasco sauce and Habaneros out there. Check out a few links to see if it's for you
Pepper Joe's Seed Catalog (I buy all my seeds from him, they always give you FREE seeds with your order, great way to test and see if you like the flavor of a pepper you've never heard of before)
Pepper Joe's Gardening Tips
EXCELLENT hot pepper growing tips
Just remember the Top 10 things to do when starting pepper seeds:
1.) Never ever, ever, ever use peat pellets, peat pots, or potting soil that is mostly peat.
2.) Always give 80-85F daytime soil temp., and room temp. at night. Do not refrigerate!
3.) Always use a soil thermometer.
4.) Never use a non-organic fertilizer (i.e. Miracle-grow®, etc.) on seedlings.
5.) Never plant seeds more than 1/8 inch deep.
6.) Always let the soil surface dry slightly before re-watering.
7.) Always use the saltpetre solution on slower-germinating kinds, like the Tepin.
8.) Never use table salt.
9.) Never use bleach.
10.) Don't give up!--a lot of hot peppers take almost a month to germinate
I think Taco is trying to tell us something, but for the love of me I don't know what it is.
The 933 they are listing isnt anywhere up to the task of DVD playback.
They should of gone with the 933mhz M9000 or the 1Ghz M10000.
Not only do they use faster PC2100 ram, they also have USB2.0.
They really should of either A. Waited a month or two before releasing this or B. Used something other then the Mini-ITX formfactor.
Tom's has an article comparing these diffrent boards right here.
Lego Mindstorms and it's RCX language. Fairly intuitive, robust, and you can get it to do cool real-world stuff.
While I think a child might be ok with making some little PC games, I think they would love it even more if they could build a dinosaur and make it walk like they want it to.
Actually, the PC case acts as a giant speaker, amplifying the sound of the fans in the PSU (And any other case fans as well). A small, normally un-noticeable imbalance on one of the fan blades would make a little noise. Screw it in tightly to your PC and it starts to make your PC shake as well.
I think a smarter solution then an external PSU would be a Quiet PSU like the Vantec VAN-520a Stealth and mount it using rubber gaskets where the screws go. If you wanted to take it a step further you could build a rubber gasket around the entire PSU itself to reduce any vibrations even more.
My PC is very quiet because of this method. I have 4 case fans + 3 PSU fans and I can't hear any of them for the most part.
Check out this article over at TechTV from The Screen Savers on how to make a Quiet PC
Check out this link at The ScreenSavers. They had this guy come in talking all about the equipment, software, etc that he used to make 360 degree Panoramic views.
HTH
A pop-up gaming coffee table.
You've probably seen the pop-up coffee tables in furniture stores and what not, that's where I got my idea.
Plan is to build a 3 x 6 foot coffee table, with another box inside of it. Inside there will fit all my gaming consoles as well as a video and sound switcher - leaving only 3-4 cables to be seen. 1 for the sound, 1 for video, 1 for ethernet and 1 for power.
I examined the way the pop-up tables work in stores, and it seems reasonably easy to build. I may even go for an electronic actuator with spring assist to raise the console section.
So, when I want to play a game I push a hidden button on the side of the coffee table. Center section slides up with all my gaming consoles sitting there. Pick the console, via the video/audio switch, plugin the game, and hit power. Then I can either lower the center section, or leave it up - either way it'll work fine.
In the end, it will look like this POP-UP TV stand, only in a coffee table form.
Side Note:
My actual design plans to take this a tad further, I plan on installing a Mini-itx system inside as well as my DVD, VCR, and CD players. Then using an RF blaster I can send commands to the respective player while the main section is closed. It'll give me this "hidden" technology look that I'm attempting to go for.
My first foray into the IT field was a tech support job at GE's sister corp, National TechTeam. My 'project' was COMPUTER SUPPORT PLUS, basically Circuit CIty's extended warranty support.
Because we don't like replacing 5 year old technology (mainly because that 300MB hdd that came with your HP doesn't exist anymore, so we would have to upgrade you to the smallest thing we could find (at the time 4GB) when you called us it wasn't as much of a tech call as it was an "insurance claim".
Just as the insurance adjustors pour over your house looking for signs you set the fire yourself, we'd pour through your system looking for the easiest out so we didn't have to fix your PC. Since this was a hardware support place, if you upgraded your PC to a new OS, we couldnt help[ you. Put in a new modem? Sorry, youll have to put the old one in. Threw it out? Oh well, no support for you!
If your hard drive wa son the verge of failing, but hasn't actually failed yet, we couldnt help.
Every call we tried to weasel out of as a software issue. EVERY SINGLE ONE.
It took (on the average) of over 30 days to actually get something done, and replacements were almost always inferior.
I'd stay away from em for the most part.
Think of it this way:
If you paid 200$ for an extended warranty on your PC and 3 yearts later your HDD dies, you'd get a replacement close to the size of your old hdd.
Now, if you saved that 200$ and used it to buy a drive 3 years down the road when yours fails, you'd be able to purchase over 10 times the capacity of your old drive!
"Here's a bunch of links to some sites that are really really unresponsive now because of the war. Everyone please go check them out"
There's a joke in there somewhere, for sure.
Luckily Benetton clothes went out style in the 80s, or we might actually have to worry about something. heh
ah, thanks Android. The laws are quite confusing. Then again, if they where written in plain english, we wouldn't need lawyers.
You should of let him know you where on a cell phone. It's ILLEGAL for telemarketers to call your cell phone afaik, as it costs YOU money.
Where I used to work we looked into this solution for our servers too. Problem is, we had over 4000. That's 4000 more network drops and 4000 more circuits we would need. Though I bet for only a 100 or so servers it worked quite nicely. SHame though, as I really liked those insight boards too.
Well, not me, but my mother. About 3-4 years ago she drove her Explorer over her (i think) Satellite.
:)
It looked horrible, all cracked and what not, LCD and keyboard destroyed.
But for grins I hooked it up to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse and she booted right up.
And I've been using Toshiba lappies ever since