I decided to try my hand at making my own skin. This is my very first attempt - pulled together during boring college lectures over the past week. It's a tribute to the 32 Virginia Tech shooting victims. Let me know what you think guys!

Quote from JTbo :

Broken leg is around 8k but without cash in pocket or insurance they won't fix it and you are send to public hospital where some drunk doctor does crappy job and you end up having twisted leg that can't be used for walking for rest of your life?

That I how I think it is, could be wrong of course

Well, over here - if you don't have insurance you are sent to a public hospital and... o wait - even PUBLIC hospitals require insurance. That's the difference here. There is no such thing as free healthcare - either you are insured, or you are dead.

Oh My God! They've Gone Plad!

No problem, and good luck!

Quote from JTbo :

Funny, same story just opposite

Healthcare is something we pay in our taxes, I pay 23% of taxes + few % of social costs from every paycheck, over 60% tax from fuel, whatever I buy I need to pay 22% of tax, of course who makes product will pay tax from making product and selling it and so on.

Houses are so expensive that my life is not enough to pay one and I'm not earning so bad, above average actually.

Living with parents as teenager I don't think gas in US is relatively more expensive than here, more likely lot cheaper and still teenagers here afford to get it, drive all night and some go even to track days too.

You should watch the movie Sicko.

As for the gas - I guess I worded it badly - I mean that the cheap cost of gas over here does not make up for the other expenses we have to pay in our daily lives.

Seriously - though - watch Sicko to understand the issue with our healthcare system.

Quote from JTbo :

Expensive? EXPENSIVE?

$8.31/gallon it is here, how can you say it is expensive ?

Many people go to work in US from here because living there is cheap and income big, so can't really understand any comments why it would not be same thing

Living here is not cheap. It's a lot more expensive than you think. No free health care, for example, and houses cost a fortune. Sure gas is cheap, but that does not make up for the rest of the expenses. I can likewise say there are many of people here who move to Europe to save money. My dad says were we living in Europe right now, we'd be living in a mansion, with 17 different cars (13 of them being rare exotics) and basically bathing in our own filthy richness...

...well not really, but (and I guess it depends what area of the US you compare with what area of the UK, it is not cheaper to live stateside.

Quote from Blas89 :

+1!

+1... until this kid comes into school with a gun, shoots her for betraying him, goes on a rampage and then shoots himself.

Maybe it'd be best to just leave it alone, and if he DOES slash your tires, you'll know who it was, and have enough evidence to prove he did it.

Quote from Niels Heusinkveld :

yeah it works, sort off, but its hardly spectacular. Good cheap tool.

Well, that's not entirely true... but you're trying to make a point, so I won't argue

I'm so very confused...

Fill your tires with high-pressure, super-corrosive gas, and hope he tries to slash them before the rubber disintegrates...

Well, if it's not getting enough power, that could be the issue, but a laptop doesn't draw that much power to begin with, so I doubt that's what it is. Besides, the temperature thing is a lot more likely. LFS will pin your CPU constantly, and on a laptop - having good airflow during 100% CPU utilization for extended periods is extremely important.

Quote from gremwood :

Maybe a huge 18wheeler's engine crammed into a mini cooper . We'll also put in the gears of a uh. uh. what's insanely long?

Well, we could put a train's transmission in - which is just one gear - so that'd probably be fastest, since there's no time wasted shifting!

Next time you run LFS, start this program first and run it in the background. It'll create a text log of your CPU temperatures in whatever folder it's placed in (it's a small .exe file.) Just put it on your desktop. The next time your computer shuts down while playing, you'll have a log of the temperatures on your desktop as a .txt file, and you'll easily be able to see if it's an overheating issue - and that really sounds like what it is.

Quote from St4Lk3R :

hehe, you're talking about pretty much all modern fighters here. I think even the russians have already built something purposely unstable. Good thing is: these things do not run Windows

Exactly. I was thinking about the Eurofighter Typhoon, but pretty much all modern military aircraft are the same way at this point.

The sad thing is he's probably gonna crash his brand new Impreza, and I'll still be stuck with my old car

All I know is I'm glad that the Giants won. That almost-sack leading to the helmet catch was just incredible.

Yeah - here's a perfect example:

My GAMING RIG (2.8 Ghz AMD FX-62): 31.468 seconds
My TABLET PC (2.0 Ghz Intel Core2D): 26.015 seconds

The AMD is, spec-wise, 40% faster and yet, performance-wise, it's 20% slower.

The FX series was originally cheap and faster than anything when I got it. Since then, Intel has completely trumped them. I just don't plan on upgrading anytime soon because a) I'd need a new motherboard and b) this processor is still plenty fast enough that I can wait for Intel prices to come down, or for AMD to do something spectacular (yeah, right.)

I was just pissed because I kept getting the same FWD cars by chance every time, lol.

Well, that was officially a lot of fun. What a great idea. This is LFS at it's best.

Quote from J.B. :

Thx for info, didn't know that. Even a bit surprising considering the über paranoid security you get at bigger airports.

Yeah, my neighbor tells me small airports are still pretty cool. When you land somewhere else (small airport) they sometimes have loaner cars there for people who fly in. All you do is park the plane and you can have the car - no fee or anything. They make so much money off aircraft fuel at small airports that they can afford to do stuff like that. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Quote from JTbo :

It could be there is perhaps need to check tensioner or adjust that, when belt and pulleys are ok and belt is tighten properly you should not need any other stuff to lubricate, silicone is something I don't put even near my cars

Hmmm... I wonder then. The silicone spray works wonders on stuff like the rubber gaskets between doors. It lubricates the rubber. It's great stuff to spray on rubber hoses under the hook to keep them from drying up and cracking. I dunno whether theres anything bad about it, but it's always worked well for me on the belt. I guess if I ever bring the car in again I'll ask them to take a peek. There's no uneven wear as far as I can see, but I'll take a closer look tomorrow (as best as I can - most of the belt is pretty well obscured in my engine.)

Lol - I was just saying what they'd charge. I'm not that clueless. Anyway - I thought you were talking about a belt for the power steering pump - not the overall belt on the front of the car. I'll check it out, but the belt was replaced 20,000 miles ago so it should be okay.

Actually, it has been squeaking lately. I tried spraying Prestone belt conditioner on it, but that make it screech like a banshee. A couple drops of silicone spray solves the problem - but only for a few days. I know there are no cracks in it at least, because I did look for that when it started squealing.

Well if that's the case I don't have a life either. For the past two physics lectures here, I've been so bored, I modeled a 3D version of the little interactive vote clickers that every student has. I like to do silly stuff like that all the time. Here's my initials in a block of wood!

Quote from JTbo :

So it does come only when you turn steering wheel with revving or is revving alone enough to make it?

Timing belt tensioner can do noises if just revving does it (ie without steering), also any of belts really.

One thing you could check is how tight powersteering pump belt is and is there any glazing that could slip and that could be source of sound.
New belt is not too expensive, I guess, but I don't know how possible it is to replace it as engine sits quite low and there is lot of stupid nonsense stuff on way, pun intended

I guess 70 is for one hour work, typical minimum here too (well 55-60 euros but we live in tax hell), surely we can find way to save that, if it does not require new parts and if you are willing to get your hands dirty that is

No, revving alone is not it. It makes the noise ONLY when revving WHEN I turn the wheel. To be honest, I don't even know where I'd look, and I'm not at all knowledgeable enough about the mechanics to start taking things apart. As for the $65 charge, I'd understand it if it was for even 15 minutes of work, but they will charge you just to plug into the ECU and read an engine code - which is what, 30 seconds? Ridiculous.

I'll just keep an ear out for it and see if it crops up again.

Quote from atlantian :

and i can get past ice patches okey, just a month ago i raced someone in the snow, uphill AND downhill sections...

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can say now, after that statement, that will make me believe you are even mildly intelligent. I have an AWD Subaru, and even I don't dare race on public roads in the winter. That's just... stupid.