Quote from STROBE :

Yeah. I mean, what does pretty much the entire hi-fi industry know about using connectors? :rolleyes:

The hi-fi industry also came up with the jack connector, which is the worst connector ever made.

There are two major flaws. One is that it connects the positive side first. The second one is that it's possible to touch the positive connector on the other side of the cable when it's plugged in, causing a loud humm. This could potentially destroy an amplifier.

The jack is the antichrist of all connectors. It actually causes shorts when you plug it in. Mono jacks in stereo connectors are the worst, they permanently short one of the channels to ground.

Quote from Zachary Zoomy :

could be a service/diagnostic tool output.

Any engineer that uses rca connectors as a diagnostic output should be shot in the back (to be honest, anyone who uses rca connectors for anything should be shot, since they are the second worst kind of connectors known to man).


This is how a diagnostics port (OBD) looks like.

Quote from Dajmin :

Yes, solar panels are a big initial spend. But does nobody bother to take into account the long-term savings that they'll bring? Add a couple of panels per financial year and you'll cover the cost in no time. Where are the accountants who should be saying "yes, this will save us hundreds in bills over the next few year and thousands in the long term when oil prices are sky high or the supply just runs out."?

That's the big problem. Solar panels degrade over time, they don't last long enough for a long-term saving.

If you really want to use the sun, use it to heat a boiler and generate steam to drive a turbine. Proven concept, no advanced electronics needed, no toxic waste. There's enough desert to build a massive power plant.
The downside is that it needs world peace (one bomb in the right place would disrupt the energy supply to a full continent). Since people are too retarded for that, i don't see it happening. There is one test facility in Spain, but the best location would be somewhere on the equator (where most unstable countries seem to be situated...).

Found some heart CDs, so guess what i'm listening to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... 4dnT4&feature=related

Is it that bad? Most trashed beemers over here are 316 models, because they can't afford a better one

How about a BMW 8 series For 10k you should be able to find an older one (+/- 1990) in a decent state. It's not exactly an MR2 in terms of handling though

Something totally different, how about a Volvo 360 :P
+ Dirt cheap
+ 2 liter petrol engine
+ RWD
+ not too heavy

- old as a dinosaur
- looks like shit

If it has the 700cc turbocharged engine, be sure to order some spares with it. It isn't a bad engine, but any form of abuse will cause it to fail badly.
The 600cc engine is even worse, most of them didn't even reach 40000 km

Quote from Scatter :

Hehe we've got something like that over here. Some new type of train over here is called SLeT, Sprinter Light Electric Train. You can probably guess what slet means in dutch (hint: replace one letter)

Diesel is for tractors. Petrol is for cars. Period.

Here's another one, the p-p-p-powerbook!

I've seen those wannabe xenon lights. In fact, those pieces of crap are 100+W halogen bulbs. If you leave them on for a while you can smell your headlight units (and wiring harness if you're lucky) melting
Don't bother with real xenon if you don't have a proper headlight unit. You need a clear lens an a good quality reflector. Most normal halogen units will just cause a huge glare, blinding everyone (the chav look).
Get some Philips Nightguide bulbs if you want some good halogen bulbs that are affordable.

YO DAWG PUT A RADIO ON TOP OF YOUR RADIO SO YOU CAN LISTEN TO MUSIC WHILE LISTENING TO MUSIC


sorry, don't have an image editor here :P

Quote from wheel4hummer :

I disagree. Linux plays games just fine. (I am talking about games that were designed for a Linux system, not running windows games in Wine or Cedega)

Ah yes, that massive list of games designed to run on linux.

Fedora and Ubuntu both use Gnome for their desktop enviroment, so they will look roughly the same.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

That looks really good.

But, this is where Linux really starts to p*ss me off. If you follow the Linux link from that site then you're presented with this http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?p=185738 And as a self confessed computer illiterate, that page might as well be written in Ancient Hebrew for all the sense it makes to me. Clicking on the links in that page only adds to the confusion of what the hell am i supposed to be doing ? On one of the links it tells you to follow a path in Linux to a particular application so you can set things up to add a new suppository or something . But the Linux version i'm using doesn't have anything remotely like that quoted path, or even the quoted application.

Why on earth it has to be soooo complicated to download and install a new programme into arguably the best OS out there really really frustrates us non PC geeks. Still, i can live with these frustrations if it means i don't have to go anywhere near anything made by..(shudder).. that other company

/end of rant, thank you, carry on...

How about reading the page instead of just looking at it and think "wtf this is bullshit crap too long blah blah".
Now let's see what you should do.

Quote :

Hello,

I am proud to let you discover the new XBMC PPA management for the XBMC project.

Great! Some guys made some software and they want you to try it.

Quote :

PPA stands for Personal Packages Archive. The system permits to developers on Launchpad to have an Ubuntu repository to share and to prepare packages for the users.

Even better! With this repository system, you'll always have the latest and greatest version, without looking for it yourself.

Quote :

We, Team-XBMC, have created 3 PPAs to distribute XBMC to the Users, one by supported ubuntu series (GUTSY and HARDY) and one that should be considered as instable and bleeding edge. This last will be used for testing packages and might host svn packages from time to time.

Ok. There's a repository for GUTSY, HARDY and a bleeding edge version. Now what version of Ubuntu do you have? Probably HARDY if you always kept it up to date.

Quote :

Use the steps described in the Ubuntu documentation with the following repositories .

Ok, let's take a look at that.

Quote :

It is possible to add extra repositories, such as those provided by third parties or those for older version of Ubuntu.

Exactly what we need. we have some third party software that we want to install.

Quote :

Open System → Administration → Software Sources and press Third-Party Software.

Press Add to add a new repository.

No rocket science here, let's do that.

Quote :

Enter the APT line for the extra repository. This should be available from the website of the repository or similar, and should look similar to the following:

Ah, now i need to set back to the XBMC page. Let's see...

Quote :

HARDY PPA :

Code:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main

Ah, the repository for HARDY. Just what i need. And i remember some quote above...

Quote :

You might not need to add the deb-src one

So let's not use that one for now.

Now let's copy that first line

Quote :

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main

And paste it in that dialog box we just opened.

Quote :

Press Add Source and then click Close to save your changes.

OK, done.

Quote :

Most software repositories use a GPG key to digitally sign the files they provide, which makes it easy to check that the files have not been tampered with since their creation. In order for apt to be able to check this, you need the public key that corresponds to the signatures. The key should be available for download on the repository's website.

Once you have downloaded the GPG key, import the key by selecting the Authenticate tab, and clicking on Import Key File..., and then selecting the GPG key to be imported.

WTF IS THIS!!!211one
Well, i didn't see a GPG key, so they probably don't have one.

Quote :

Click Reload in the package manager to update the list of available packages.

Well, ok.

And now? HELP! I'm stuck!!!

Granted, they leave you in the dark now. But in fact, you can now install it like any other Ubuntu software. You can add and remove software using Synaptic.
Search for XBMC and you should find it. There are some bonus packages as well, including extra skins and some other tools. You can install those too if you want them.

You see, it isn't hard, it's just a bit different. And you'll love it in the end.


* I don't use XBMC myself though, but this should work. And yes, i've got too much time.

maybe he wants to do this: click

I've used my pc to control some electronic experiments.
this home made led dash
this led board
this mini coilgun that fired M3 bolts

I might rebuild that mini coilgun, i've got some new stuff to make it better (the one on the picture went up in flames)

Quote from U4IK ST8 :

@ kingfag - Some nice footage there, I hadn't seen that. How long were the fires burning, just out of curiosity? And in the first video it does seem to destroy the floors below, but I'm not sure how far down or how much damage there is. Is there more about this anywhere? And since I get this given to me I'll say it to you. It isn't really to the scale:height:mass of the towers so technically it can't be compared to the towers.

It burned for about 7 hours and collapsed all the way to the ground, as this video shows.
I work nearby, so I've seen it going up in flames, from the alarm bells to the collapse. The firecrew abandoned the building after about an hour, they didn't trust the structure of the building anymore. Nobody was injured.

It's far from the same scale as the WTC buildings, but at least it's a building (albeit a reinforced concrete one instead of a metal girder skeleton) and not a tin can or plastic tray. And it shows that concrete pulverizes when it collapses and generates a massive dust plume. And that a building actually can collapse due to fire damage.

I love this thread Come on seriously, demonstrating a collapse with plastic trays
Anyway, for the desktop researchers over here, here's another video of a building that partially collapsed due to fire. I work nearby, so I saw it from the beginning to the very end.
And this is what happened when they took it down.

That failed demolition video btw is the Zip Feed Mill. It was intended to blow up only the base, but the timing was off. One side should have gone first, causing a tilting momentum and the second load should have snapped the base off, allowing it to fall on it's side and crush on it's own weight. They went both at the same time, causing the building to sink through it's own basement And keep in mind this was an industrial building, not a civil building. It wouldn't surprise me if it was heavily overdesigned to house heavy equipment. Civil buildings are designed to support around 500KG/m2, that's nothing.

Powerpoint rule #1:
Use a light background with high contrast letters

Powerpoint rule #2:
Don't even think about using sounds

Powerpoint rule #3:
Don't even think about using Comic Sans MS

Powerpoint rule #4:
Don't even think about slide transitions

Powerpoint rule #5:
Don't even think about letter effects (i.e. typewriter)

Every rule is equally important.

Everytime you break one of these rules, you'll grant the audience permission to smack you in the face for every violated rule, for every slide in your presentation.
So if you break one rule on four slides, you'll receive 4 smacks in the face.

The background of the skin image is almost white instead of gray / black, which makes it pretty hard to see the outline of the car.

There's a BF1 kit here: http://www.lfs-gear.com/kitz.html but i don't have Photoshop so i can't see if it's better.

Quote from G!NhO :

So they only turn left?

Even better, half the grid goes clockwise and the other half goes anti-clockwise, and then they'll let them run into each other for massive carnage

Quote from G!NhO :

WTH please someone explain what this thing is???

Basically a crash test facility for subatomic particles. Like a crt monitor, but for protons instead of electrons and it's slightly more powerful.

Well, according to the news they had some minor problems firing it up. Oh well, it was probably well within acceptable bounds.

Guess we don't need to prepare for unforeseen consequences.

Last edited by kingfag, Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:31.