Random Thread #1

[optimus]

It certainly is, all fully legal as part of an SFX course incase anyone's wondering...

[Peret]

Ah, SFX, I thought it might be. Hollywood's version of what happens when a car containing the bad guys is struck by an improvised weapon McGuyver made out of a book of matches and a paperclip.

[TheEskimo]

So how are you guys dealing with these storms? We haven't had any of the tornadoes, but got a buttload of rain for the past week and a half.

Anyways, being the geniuses that my family is, we neglected to unplug the computer from the fried UPS, and consequently it went down with a lightning strike. So, we're currently in the market for a new PC, and I have some questions for you computer geeks out there...

1) How good is onboard sound nowadays? We're currently looking at the Gigabyte P67A-UD5 mobo; $260.

2) We're looking at a i5-2500K/6870 system. Newegg suggests at least a 469W PSU. I currently have a 750W in the cart, but I could save some moneys by getting a 650W. Is it OK/worth it to downgrade to a 650W PSU?

3) Do you guys like the Logitech Ultra-Thin Illuminated keyboard? Or would you guys have a suggestion for something else--moderate gaming, word processing, and website design

4) We will be upgrading to Win7 from XP. How well do files and programs carry over to a new HDD with Win7 on it from an XP external drive? Is there anything funky we would have to do to carry over files?

[Ralph]

So how are you guys dealing with these storms? We haven't had any of the tornadoes, but got a buttload of rain for the past week and a half.

Anyways, being the geniuses that my family is, we neglected to unplug the computer from the fried UPS, and consequently it went down with a lightning strike. So, we're currently in the market for a new PC, and I have some questions for you computer geeks out there...

1) How good is onboard sound nowadays? We're currently looking at the Gigabyte P67A-UD5 mobo; $260.

2) We're looking at a i5-2500K/6870 system. Newegg suggests at least a 469W PSU. I currently have a 750W in the cart, but I could save some moneys by getting a 650W. Is it OK/worth it to downgrade to a 650W PSU?

3) Do you guys like the Logitech Ultra-Thin Illuminated keyboard? Or would you guys have a suggestion for something else--moderate gaming, word processing, and website design

4) We will be upgrading to Win7 from XP. How well do files and programs carry over to a new HDD with Win7 on it from an XP external drive? Is there anything funky we would have to do to carry over files?

 

 

 

1) onboard sound is usually quite decent gigabyte isnt the best for it though its not the worst (i would go with Asus) most motherboards have the same sound chips that were popular couple years ago in sound cards

2) an ATI graphics card do you really want to wait 6 years till there are decent bug free drivers available for it ? if you plan on upgrading in the future definitely go with the 750 if your getting a good name brand 650 it should be fine

3) Ive never bothered with a fancy keaboard go into a computer store and find one that feals the right size for you and is in the right price range I personally have loved logitechs range of basic keyboards

4) files will transfer over with out any problems what so ever transfering program files often results in bugs even when using the same OS and changing the file names were appropriate

[50AE]

Nobody can convince me that onboard sound is good. If you install a separate sound card, like creative Audigy or even X-fi, you will not want to go back to onboard.

It also depends of what kind of person you are. I'm a sick music maniac and audiophile. But for the unpretentious and ignorant user, onboard will do most of the time.

[Ralph]

Nobody can convince me that onboard sound is good. If you install a separate sound card, like creative Audigy or even X-fi, you will not want to go back to onboard.

It also depends of what kind of person you are. I'm a sick music maniac and audiophile. But for the unpretentious and ignorant user, onboard will do most of the time.

 

doi you know how many Asus boards have an X-fi system thats been intergrated into the board rather than requiring a seperate card ?

[50AE]

I still won't accept it. A separate sound card permits much more space for very important components. I won't believe that the motherboard will have the place to keep all the caps, opamps and ICs in a Xfi.

+ A sound card is easier to be modded

But if one believes an onboard sound like this one will have him satisfied, I have nothing against it.

[TheEskimo]

Welp, thanks for the input. I went with the 650W PSU, but kept the 6870. I'm waiting for everything to arrive, to see if it's worth getting a soundcard.

And I am mighty sick of this weather. It's so humid, wet, and windy that I can't do anything.

[50AE]

Dug up an old photo.. It represents my souvenir shell version two:

Ignore the shit written on the cardboard

 

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/7927/shellgift.th.jpg

[NightHawkInLight]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIS5n9Oyzsc

[Peret]

LOL I know someone who would invest $5000 in the Entabulator. I think he still has money, even though he lost a pile on every previous free-energy scam that crossed his path.

[Ralph]

LOL I know someone who would invest $5000 in the Entabulator. I think he still has money, even though he lost a pile on every previous free-energy scam that crossed his path.

 

Hydrogen as a fuel ?

[Peret]

Hydrogen as a fuel ?

No, nothing so scientifically sound I'm afraid. More things like this, in which he invested (and lost) the price of a decent used car.

 

Note to readers: DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ ON THAT SITE. I thought I better say that clearly, since we have certain members who don't understand subtle.

[Ralph]

No, nothing so scientifically sound I'm afraid. More things like this, in which he invested (and lost) the price of a decent used car.

 

Note to readers: DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ ON THAT SITE. I thought I better say that clearly, since we have certain members who don't understand subtle.

 

 

 

 

no Im implying that hydrogen as an alternative energy should be lumpped in with those other hoaxes

[NightHawkInLight]

no Im implying that hydrogen as an alternative energy should be lumpped in with those other hoaxes

 

I wouldn't call hydrogen as a fuel source a hoax, more like a pipe dream that is nowhere near fruition. There are a bunch of major problems in trying to make a vehicle that can carry enough hydrogen to get between fill up stations and doesn't explode when a butterfly rear ends it, but there's no doubt that a vehicle can run on hydrogen. It's just a matter of practicality. When the first computers were invented a smartphone that fits in your pocket would have sounded pretty impossible, and it could be that is the same case here with hydrogen as a fuel. It could also turn out to be impractical forever. Who knows.

[Ralph]

I wouldn't call hydrogen as a fuel source a hoax, more like a pipe dream that is nowhere near fruition. There are a bunch of major problems in trying to make a vehicle that can carry enough hydrogen to get between fill up stations and doesn't explode when a butterfly rear ends it, but there's no doubt that a vehicle can run on hydrogen. It's just a matter of practicality. When the first computers were invented a smartphone that fits in your pocket would have sounded pretty impossible, and it could be that is the same case here with hydrogen as a fuel. It could also turn out to be impractical forever. Who knows.

 

its sold as a green alternative which is a flat out lie. it can only be feasibly environmentally friendly once 100% of our electrical energy needs are supplied by renewable sources fuel cell may be more efficient in theory than a combustion engine (mostly just because of the lower opertating temps) but creating the hydrogen is wasteful and even if the electricty used to create the hydrogen is derived from 100% renewable sources unless all of the local electricity is also derived from green sources than the hydrogen is taking away electricity that would otherwise be used inplace of the non renewable. Currently from memory

(of last time I had this argument) 10-15% of the energy from the fossil fuel used to make the electricity which eventually ends up powering the car assuming that your car is charged directly at a power station/ delivered through a supper conductor (no losses over the wires)and also that an electric motor is running at 100% efficiency this is compared to taking the fossil fuel and getting your 80% or so

 

 

if someone can give a cost effective efficent way of making hydrogen such as using small organisms or like I said 100% local renewable electricity thats when it is fair to say its environmentally freindly

[Mumbles]

Ralph, no one makes hydrogen via bulk electrolysis, so all of those efficiency values you're throwing around are total BS. Currently the most cost effective way to make it is via steam reforming or the water-gas shift reaction in which water and methane (or CO) are combined at high temp and pressure over catalysts to make hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

[Ralph]

Ralph, no one makes hydrogen via bulk electrolysis, so all of those efficiency values you're throwing around are total BS. Currently the most cost effective way to make it is via steam reforming or the water-gas shift reaction in which water and methane (or CO) are combined at high temp and pressure over catalysts to make hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

 

Nope I stand by my values as it is sold it is made clear that "hydrogen is good because there are no emissions and it will be made from nothing but water" as the "clean green hydrogen car is sold" that is what we are being told (weather it would be practical or not)

[NightHawkInLight]

Nope I stand by my values as it is sold it is made clear that "hydrogen is good because there are no emissions and it will be made from nothing but water" as the "clean green hydrogen car is sold" that is what we are being told (weather it would be practical or not)

 

That's not what I hear about hydrogen in the States. I think just about everyone realizes that it takes energy to make hydrogen, whether from fossil fuels, nuclear, hydro, whatever. The point is that a power plant generates energy from those fuels much more efficiently than gasoline in an engine, which could be used to create hydrogen which would then burn cleanly in the less efficient vehicle engines. Overall that would be a net decrease in pollution. That of course is the goal, not yet the reality.

[Ralph]

That's not what I hear about hydrogen in the States. I think just about everyone realizes that it takes energy to make hydrogen, whether from fossil fuels, nuclear, hydro, whatever. The point is that a power plant generates energy from those fuels much more efficiently than gasoline in an engine, which could be used to create hydrogen which would then burn cleanly in the less efficient vehicle engines. Overall that would be a net decrease in pollution. That of course is the goal, not yet the reality.

 

Australian media is much like FOX news (I think thats the one) accept few people here realise that the news is fabricated and rarely with any accuracy at all

[Givat]

Hi,

just want to show you my new press.

its 1" thick steel plates, 3/4" steel rods, a 5 TON jack and 2X8 m"m thick clear polycarbonate sheets.(as blast shild)

cost me 172$.

 

added photos:

Edited May 26, 2011 by Givat

[NightHawkInLight]

Hi,

just want to show you my new press.

its 1" thick steel plates, 3/4" steel rods, a 5 TON jack and 2X8 m"m thick clear polycarbonate sheets.(as blast shild)

cost me 172$.

 

added photos:

 

Looks great, nice and heavy. I think you'll get tired of that loose fitting piece of re bar as your jack handle pretty quick though.

[Ralph]

Ive recently come across some cheap PVC

 

and want a good cheap formula that uses it but also want a super nice blue

 

has anyone tried

 

Hardt Blue Star #2

Potassium chlorate65

Copper oxychloride16

Lactose10

PVC5

Dextrin4

 

or has a good formulla similar to it (Im happy to use either chlorate or perchlorate) copper source can be either oxide or oxychloride

Edited May 29, 2011 by Ralph

[50AE]

Lactose blues are cool burning and nice. You have checked my video of blue comps, my 1# is lactose based.

This Hardt 2 comp seems overoxidized though.

 

2,72g of KClO3 are needed per gram lactose

3,27g of KClO3 per 1g PVC

~3g of KClO3 per 1g dextrin

 

Let's take the oxychloride as neutral, though I assume it decomposes to CuO, giving extra oxygen. That's why I add a little more fuel to my blues.

 

10 lactose * 2,72 = 27,2

5 PVC * 3,25 = 16,35

4 dextrin * 3 = 12

 

Sum = 55,55 KClO3

And in the formula, it is 65

I also take the PVC as 3 instead of 3,25, because I believe it doesn't entirely burn.

 

My lactose formula is:

 

KClO3 66

Cu oxy 13

Lactose 14

PVC 7

Dextrin 4 (5)*

 

*A recent edit of all formulas - increasing the dextrin by a bit adds more fuel and removes the red flame edges. I think the extra oxygen comes from the decomposition of the oxychloride.

 

Keep in mind that lactose is a low melting point fuel and it makes quite friction sensitive chlorate comps. I don't know about your tolerance about chlorate comps, but just want to let you in touch. I'm mostly a chlorate guy, but many people freak out.

[Ralph]

Lactose blues are cool burning and nice. You have checked my video of blue comps, my 1# is lactose based.

This Hardt 2 comp seems overoxidized though.

 

2,72g of KClO3 are needed per gram lactose

3,27g of KClO3 per 1g PVC

~3g of KClO3 per 1g dextrin

 

Let's take the oxychloride as neutral, though I assume it decomposes to CuO, giving extra oxygen. That's why I add a little more fuel to my blues.

 

10 lactose * 2,72 = 27,2

5 PVC * 3,25 = 16,35

4 dextrin * 3 = 12

 

Sum = 55,55 KClO3

And in the formula, it is 65

I also take the PVC as 3 instead of 3,25, because I believe it doesn't entirely burn.

 

My lactose formula is:

 

KClO3 66

Cu oxy 13

Lactose 14

PVC 7

Dextrin 4 (5)*

 

*A recent edit of all formulas - increasing the dextrin by a bit adds more fuel and removes the red flame edges. I think the extra oxygen comes from the decomposition of the oxychloride.

 

Keep in mind that lactose is a low melting point fuel and it makes quite friction sensitive chlorate comps. I don't know about your tolerance about chlorate comps, but just want to let you in touch. I'm mostly a chlorate guy, but many people freak out.

 

not sure if it is just your video but that blue really doesn't do it for me, CuO can oxidise carbon and several other things (and in a formula you count on it giving up this oxygen and forming a chloride salt)

Ive played with chlorate blues with lactose as the fuel CuO and parlon (and gotten some intensely deep blues((the best of them not really suitable for stars though)) but am yet to sus out PVC