Inner Space

Quote from Gekkibi :

It is, if you are searching for "ultimate realism".

Yeah - but it that case, your joystick hardly approaches anything close to realism. Unless it actually has massively increasing resistance...

Quote from joshdifabio :

If you've copied the question exactly as it should be, then the probability is 0 because, as DWB already said there's a '.' in there which is not available to the monkey!

If it's not a trick question, your answer of (1/27)^39 is correct.

Well, if you read the question, it says the first 39 characters... which is JUUUST shy of the period But yeah, it was the right answer.

I'm starting to think that (1/27)^39 is right and the program didn't like the way she entered it. God knows how much trouble I've had with my online chem/physics homework getting it to accept an answer in the correct format.

EDIT: RESOLVED! Talked to her this morning. It was right, the program needed everything divided out and stuff and entered a certain way. Stupid.

Last edited by Stang70Fastback, Tue 22 Apr 2008, 15:22.

Quote from Dajmin :

There's no change in the odds of him hitting a key each time and there's no limit to the keys he's allowed to hit, therefor surely the odds each of those 39 times is still 27:1 (or 1/27 if you prefer)?

And are you to take the size of the space bar into account?

Lol no. Anyway, the odds of each successive key hit is, as you say, still a 1 in 27 chance of being correct. I know that much. So I guess my question is, am I doing the math the right way when it comes to summing up all the possibilities? Someone here has GOT to know the answer.
As far as I can tell, it IS combinatory. I just don't know how to combine it - since the way I did it is supposedly wrong.

EDIT: Damn you Dajmin. I'll leave what you wrote anyway since it makes sense.

Quote from tristancliffe :

How do you know you're wrong? What is the answer supposedly?

Your working looks fine to me, but I'm no statistician.

I don't know for SURE that it's wrong. I was trying to help a friend with this problem over IM last night. She said that it told her the answer was wrong when she typed it in, and then she ran out of attempts. I almost want to say that the program probably didn't like the way she entered it -they're very picky. However, it didn't say what the correct answer was... that's why I'm so curious.

Ok, so if someone wants to explain to me what the REAL answer is, I'd be grateful:

Suppose that a monkey is seated at a computer keyboard and randomly strikes the 26 letter keys and the space bar. Find the probability that its first 39 characters (including spaces) will be "to be or not to be that is the question." (Enter your answer in exponential form.)

I just assumed the answer would be (1/27)^39, but, as usual, I'm wrong, and I have no idea why. It seems like a fairly straightforward problem.

Last edited by Stang70Fastback, Tue 22 Apr 2008, 15:22.

What are the odds that the only time EVER I noticed a "Today's Birthdays" section, it's actually a moderator's?

Happy Birthday!

I just use the left steering wheel button. It's not the end of the world!

I think the biggest problem with LFS atm is that there is not a SINGLE track that has any amount of narrow road. I realize that the kinds of tracks LFS simulates aren't like that, but if we had one good two-lane width road to race on, I promise you people would go nuts. It adds a much greater sense of speed, and requires much more skill to navigate those kinds of roads. And they're... FUN!

I hate the fact that most of the current tracks have a margin for error larger than anything. What we need is a road where the margin of error is 100 feet below you, if you know what I mean...

That's a pretty interesting read. I wonder if LFS's drafting models are realistic enough to actually take into account that suction effect on a lone car 100+ meters behind a pack of drafting cars...

All the hot chicks are always zooming past everyone on the highway in their tiny sports cars with their big sunglasses... maybe they do have a racing disposition

Quote from TheChad :

1)The wing produces lift “because” it is flying at an angle of attack.
2)The wing produces lift “because” of circulation.
3)The wing produces lift “because” of Bernoulli’s principle.
4)The wing produces lift “because” of Newton’s law of action and reaction.

We now examine the relationship between these physical principles. Do we get a little bit of lift because of Bernoulli, and a little bit more because of Newton? No, the laws of physics are not cumulative in this way.

There is only one lift-producing process. Each of the explanations itemized above concentrates on a different aspect of this one process. The wing produces circulation in proportion to its angle of attack (and its airspeed). This circulation means the air above the wing is moving faster. This in turn produces low pressure in accordance with Bernoulli’s principle. The low pressure pulls up on the wing and pulls down on the air in accordance with all of Newton’s laws.

Just remember, we're talking about an automotive wing, not an aircraft wing, so pretty much everywhere where you said "lift" you meant "downforce."

Quote from Kristjan.J :

Live For Speed works fine, SWAT4 works fine, Battlefield 2/2142, they all work fine, later I talked with some GTA guys, well, they thought my .txt and .dff files are screwed up, installed some mods on again, thought maybe it'll repair it, nope, also an V1.0 runs better than 2.0, 1.0 runs longer before reboot, game runs fine, and then it might start to freeze for a sec maybe, like my PC is thinking really hard, and then BOING, reboot...

The strange thing is that what you are describing SOUNDS as if it's a result of your computer overheating. However, because you say that other games work fine, I guess it's something else. In that case, all I can recommend is that you try a fresh install. It also wouldn't hurt to open up your case, though, and clean out any dust that may have settled on the CPU heatsink or other places.

Maybe the game has a memory leak somewhere and it just eats up your ram until it freezes? I don't know. It's most likely a software issue with the actual game.

Quote from Kristjan.J :

Well, it's not really related to LFS, but I am having problem with GTA San Andreas, playing it sometimes, so the problem is, everytime I start it, my computer just restarts itself aftre about 1-2 minutes the game is working, I've tried re-installing it, deleted mods I had there, nothing seems to work... Other games are just fine, only GTA SA is not working, anyone got any ideas?

What other games are you playing that work fine?

My friend asked me if I remembered to reset the ram voltage from 1.8 to 2.1 when I updated the BIOS. I FORGOT!!! I was so excited as I thought that was the issue and it did actually get a TINY bit farther into the boot (I was able to click my name in the login screen) but then I got the blue screen. Back to square 1.

Damn.

EDIT: MORE DEVELOPMENTS: Upon friend's suggestion, I set the timings of the ram from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-18 and brought the voltage back down to 1.8V. Now it booted AND memtest has been running for two minutes now with no errors (as opposed to a bajillion errors within .0005 seconds of starting.)

Power supply issue? That seems to be the only logical explanation at this point. More opinions? I've been running this setup for a WHILE without issue and I'm fairly certain this computer does not draw 520 Watts...

OK - ANOTHER UPDATE: Seems that when I set the voltage to 2.1 in the BIOS and reboot, the BIOS hardware monitor still shows the RAM as getting 1.88V. So something isn't working right. Either way it gets 1.8V? I don't know what that could be. I'd think if the PSU was faulty - other voltages would be off, or the whole thing would be screwy. Everything else is fine (+5V rail is a bit low @ 4.78V) just the ram only gets 1.88V no matter what I set it to. Should I be adjusting the DDR2 Termination Voltage setting as well? I left that on auto...

It seems the new question is this: Why does my ram stay at 1.88V regardless of whether it's set to 1.8 or 2.1V? Do I need to change more than just the basic RAM voltage in the BIOS for the voltage to actually increase (like termination voltage maybe?)

Last edited by Stang70Fastback, Sat 19 Apr 2008, 22:53.

Well, I don't think I really need to use a probe. If I feel the heat pipes at the very base near the processor, they are only just warm. They definitely don't feel anywhere close to 60 - which I believe is hot enough to burn you.

60 degrees under 50% load!

I applied a "grain of rice" sized amount and spread it evenly across the cpu with some plastic stretched around my finger. It's a layer just thick enough to not be able to see the metal underneath. I've done it three times following online manuals and I'm convinced it's not me. It's AS5 btw.

Replaced the 2 120mm and two 80mm with high-velocity fans. Did not budge temperatures. Even added another 120mm fan where three 5.25" bays would be to no avail. But I think it's just a faulty mobo sensor at this point.

Yeah. I updated the BIOS about a week ago. Had to manually set the timings to 4-4-4-12. Strangely enough, I've always had a warning in Asus Probe for some sort of voltage... but it does run at 2.1V. Either way, it's been like that since the stone age, so I doubt that is the problem. I think that alarm is due to the fact that it runs at 2.1 and not 1.8... I'll have a friend test all 4 sticks when I get a chance.

Quote from der butz :

Alright, that's why I said before that hormons rule the world... You want to have a better car with a louder radio to impress female humans, mate with them and secure the spreading of your dna..... That's why we fight against each other in EVERY way possible, period. (don't take this too seriously, but after all why are we here?!)

Well, maybe that's why YOU would do it. Some people do it because it's FUN to work on a car and upgrade it. Others do it because it's FUN to drive a fast car.

Quote :

No, fun is something different (and I'm serious now!). We do things for adrenaline, but that can be achieved with less effort! Try bungee jumping, ist about 100% cheaper than building a billion $ car and racing it for 3 minutes before the vehicle goes into some museum forever.

Yes, adrenaline can be a part of it, but a lot of people also do it because it's enjoyable. I put speakers my car because it's FUN to work on it and figure out how to wires stuff. It's also fun to use them to make silly noises or to call out friends in the school parking lot. I don't play LFS for the adrenaline rush, I play it because it's fun!

Yeah. I am still not sure what the problem is. When I took that one stick of ram out it at least booted, but then it was still having errors. I'm having a hard time believing that two sticks of ram went bad simultaneously - especially two sticks that I've had for almost 5 months or even two years if it's the older two. I'll be looking for someone else to test the RAM but everyone's out partying today.

Luckily I have 4 sticks so if it IS the RAM, I'm sure I can find ONE of them that works, lol.

This really sucks. Only two weeks left of college, but this computer provides us with ALL the entertainment (movies, games, TV) in our dorm room. If I RMA the mobo - since it SEEMS to be the source of the problem - then I have to ship it to THEM first and then it takes them TWO WEEKS to return it. UGHHH....

Quote from Shotglass :

i fully understand that its a pointless attempt at getting into the history books while advancing the worlds collective engineering knowledge by precisely bugger all

Wow. That's definitely a very narrow-minded opinion. But hey, everyone's entitled... I guess. Not everything people do has to be to "benefit mankind."

When someone spends a few grand on their STi to make it go faster, they are not "advancing the worlds collective engineering knowledge".
When I spend a few hundred to put PA speakers on my car, I am not "advancing the worlds collective engineering knowledge".
When you spend a thousand an an LFS-capable computer, you are not "advancing the worlds collective engineering knowledge".

You are having FUN though... aren't you? And isn't that all that really matters?

Booted up computer, got to login screen where it says, "Windows is starting up..." and then I got a blue screen. Ok, I thought - reboot. This time it got to the same point and spontaneously restarted. Spooky. Tried a few more times and either way either it would restart, or give me a blue screen. Each blue screen is different. Ive gotten, "IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL" or something about NTFS.sys, or win32k.sys or USBPORT.sys or "BAD_POOL_HEADER" or another .sys that has to do with my wireless card. In other words, NONE of the blue screens/errors are related.

My friend told me that usually that is the sign of a stick of RAM gone bad. So I tested 1 then 2 then 3 and the 4th one seemed to cause the probems. I swapped it with another one in another slot (to make sure it wasn't the socket) and got the same error, but when I took it out it stopped. So, ok, I thought - it was a stick of RAM.

Booted up the computer, everything running fine. Then my sound card utility "caused an illegal operation" or whatever it is that you have to press 'end task.' So I did. A minute later, Zone Alarm did the same thing... then something else, then something else. So I ran memtest and immediately got one error after another CONTINUOUSLY.

SO WTF GUYS!!! Is it the motherboard? I cannot imagine two sticks of ram going bad at the same time. The first time this happened, I had unplugged my whole computer, and taken out the sound card to read the serial number of my motherboard to Asus as I was actualy going to RMA it anyway because of it reading the wrong temperatures on the CPU. What are the odds that this happens at the same time?!? I have no idea what it could be. Any thoughts?