Where is MTS at? It's slow around here.

 

I think he took a voluntary leave of absence. I thought I remembered seeing a "farewell" post by him, but now I can't find it. His last posts were on February 5. He hasn't logged in since February 6.

 

Edit: It's in his personal text; "Hasta Luego A brotha needs a break from UrbanOhio"

I had to do that too, man.. Take some time away from my phone and pc. You know, experience reality.

I chose, instead, to let UO become my reality. :-)

I didn't see his farewell post, but I saw his tagline for for his profile is something like, "Sometimes a brotha just needs a break from UO".

 

Most of the time that I am on here I am in the office and I will take the UO reality anyday over the asinine conversations that circulate around here. Earbuds in, ipod on or a podcast on,blocking reality.

I get on here at work too. I highly recommend logging on with your phone since you don't have to worry aboit remote access or ppl hovering over you finding out you're BSing online. The forum is actually really functional from a phone. Though it makes for a lot of spelling errors if you're not careful.

I tried to get on on my new droid but it gave me some kind of error type message and said I needed to have something special or other to view the site.

 

Edited to add: I tried again today and found out what it was. A $2.99 app. I love UO but I am not paying for any apps so I'll just only browse when I am at a real computer.

At home I use my ipod to check the forum, it was ok. The Tap-A-Talk app works pretty good but it took some time to get used to how it works, specifically quoting and replying to a post.

I can't seem to view it without using tap a talk. It keeps directing me to download it when I try to see the forum. May be different on a droid or may be user error. I am still a novice here.

Wait? You got a droid? I thought that you were sticking with a flip-phone for as long as possible? I might be imagining things though....

I can't seem to view it without using tap a talk. It keeps directing me to download it when I try to see the forum. May be different on a droid or may be user error. I am still a novice here.

 

While we were on vBulletin, I got asked to download tapatalk when I accessed from my iPad. Never on SMF. Have you tried it since the site migrated back?

I tried it about 2 hours ago! :)

 

I just tried it again, and it didn't ask me to download it! I swear to you I tried it less than 2 hours ago when in a dept meeting.

I get on here at work too. I highly recommend logging on with your phone since you don't have to worry aboit remote access or ppl hovering over you finding out you're BSing online. The forum is actually really functional from a phone. Though it makes for a lot of spelling errors if you're not careful.

 

Hovering over you?  A firm elbow to the midsection should take care of that.

They hover electronically here, but generally unless you're doing something really bad (pron) or unless someone specifically asks for a witch hunt, they don't have the time to monitor everyone's usage all day.

They hover electronically here, but generally unless you're doing something really bad (pron) or unless someone specifically asks for a witch hunt, they don't have the time to monitor everyone's usage all day.

 

Same here.  If they cared about UO I'd have been fired years ago, haha.

UrbanOhio.com

 

It just sounds so...you know geeky, is it really worth causing a ruckus over. :)

Heck, I can make the case that I need this site for work, as a means of tracking project development! They may not buy it, but I can make it.

Not so much UO, but I HAVE to get on skyscraperpage.com occasionally for project research sometimes at work.....which is actually kind of annoying trudging back through 100s of pages of a thread to find good examples for case studies.

As silly as it sounds, I can't wait till the Water Tower Chic-fil-A opens in Chicago.  I pass by it everyday on my commute to work and they are nearing completion.  It actually looks kind of fancy on the inside.  Maybe the extra effort because it's first in the city, and near the Mag mile.

I have this habit of flirting with foreign women despite the fact that I always seem to cause it to go horribly wrong by bringing up stereotypes. I was next to this beautiful Asian woman at this coffee shop slash bar slash bistro kind of place. I'm all like, "Sumimasen, anata wa Nihon-jin desu-ka? (I asked her if she was Japanese). She goes, "I'm Korean." I said, "Really?! I have a bunch of Japanese in my family!" She goes, "I hate the Japanese, blah blah blah and gave me this big song and dance about Koreans vs Japanese. That was my first strike against me but at that point I didn't even care, I was getting heated. I said, "You're talking about my family!...and it doesn't even make sense because Japanese migrated from Korea...similar culture, language etc. That was strike 2. Then I was like, "So you're Korean. What do you do? Nails?" (Trying to get back at her). She goes, "Yes, I can do nails. I can also design aircraft engines...." Then she walked away :( Stttrrrrike 3!

^LOL, when's the wedding?

 

That was a great walk-away line she gave you. There's not much you can say as a comeback to that.

 

'yeah....well....I bet they have faulty intake manifolds..........Call me!"

Haha. Right? I wish I would have thought of faulty intake manifolds but I was too busy watching my jaw drop to the floor.

David, if you were to write an autobiography and flesh out the narratives of your various exploits and failed attempts at conquests, most likely someone would want to option it for a film. Who would you pick to play you?

David, if you were to write an autobiography and flesh out the narratives of your various exploits and failed attempts at conquests, most likely someone would want to option it for a film. Who would you pick to play you?

 

Hmm..who would I pick... Maybe Ewan McGregor since a lot of people think I look like him. His American accent isn't very believable though.

Speaking of Hollywood.... My coworker Andrea, she's the kind of person you can talk about anything with. She's had a pretty crazy life. It was funny, somehow we were talking about Neil Patrick Harris because she really likes that show, "How I met your mother". I told her I'm going to write a show called, " How I met your girlfriend's daughter" Lol!

My new PC is up and running, and compared to my old one (which was no slouch) it's blazing fast. I didn't go all out, but did the best that I could cost-justify; Intel Core i7 950 w/12GB 1600Mhz DDR3 and SATA 6Gbps drives. For the first time ever, I don't have to wait for anything in Photoshop; I can work as fast as I want and it stays ahead of me. I'm still learning my way around Windows 7, and although the performance is good, I'd be just as happy with less cutsie stuff and more plain-jane functionality. WTF is all this crap about "fun?" I don't boot up my computer to have fun. It's not a freaking toy. I sit down to do work. Eventually I'll learn my way around all the clever little doo-dads, but for now a lot of the interface is just annoying. I wonder if there's a way to make the desktop look like XP while getting the full performance out of the hardware.

 

Edit: Next day, with a decent night's sleep and some studying-up, I'm beginning to figure my way around Windows 7 and gradually beginning to hate it less. :|

My "scooby" is slowly turning into a "beater."  :-(  It's an 05 and it still really good (minus some clutch slipping), but the interior is starting to rattle, and I'm hearing creaks from the suspension. I'm pretty sure most of the noises are a result from driving on the deplorable Madison Rd. in Oakley. The bumpers are also scratched and beat to hell (years of street parking).  I have a crack that some idiot put in my bumper when I naively parked my car in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

 

I kind of want to get a new car, but I hate car payments and I need to save money since I will probably be making a move back east once I graduate. Argh! I hate cars sometimes. I haven't had any problems with it yet, but I just have a feeling that something is about to give on it, plus it has 160K miles on it.

My "scooby" is slowly turning into a "beater."  :-(  It's an 05 and it still really good (minus some clutch slipping), but the interior is starting to rattle, and I'm hearing creaks from the suspension. I'm pretty sure most of the noises are a result from driving on the deplorable Madison Rd. in Oakley. The bumpers are also scratched and beat to hell (years of street parking).  I have a crack that some idiot put in my bumper when I naively parked my car in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

 

I kind of want to get a new car, but I hate car payments and I need to save money since I will probably be making a move back east once I graduate. Argh! I hate cars sometimes. I haven't had any problems with it yet, but I just have a feeling that something is about to give on it, plus it has 160K miles on it.

 

Does your engine have a timing belt? If so, did you have it changed at 100K miles, like most manufacturers recommend? Neglecting that item can mean an abrupt end to the life of some engines, without any warning signs. You can be cruising blissfully down the highway when you hear a noise and your engine stops, never to run again. At least, not without a couple thousand in repairs.

^Yeah, it has a timing belt. I had it replaced at around 105K along with the tensioner and pulley. Since my car has a boxer engine, it was an "arm and a leg" (almost $1,000) to have that done. Subarus are very reliable cars, but they're not cheap to fix when something goes wrong, or even just doing routine maintenance. I can't imagine driving anything else though.

http://life.notcot.com/wow-leica-lenses-cut-in-half

My new PC is up and running, and compared to my old one (which was no slouch) it's blazing fast. I didn't go all out, but did the best that I could cost-justify; Intel Core i7 950 w/12GB 1600Mhz DDR3 and SATA 6Gbps drives. For the first time ever, I don't have to wait for anything in Photoshop; I can work as fast as I want and it stays ahead of me. I'm still learning my way around Windows 7, and although the performance is good, I'd be just as happy with less cutsie stuff and more plain-jane functionality. WTF is all this crap about "fun?" I don't boot up my computer to have fun. It's not a freaking toy. I sit down to do work. Eventually I'll learn my way around all the clever little doo-dads, but for now a lot of the interface is just annoying. I wonder if there's a way to make the desktop look like XP while getting the full performance out of the hardware.

 

Edit: Next day, with a decent night's sleep and some studying-up, I'm beginning to figure my way around Windows 7 and gradually beginning to hate it less. :|

 

You didn't go all out? Maybe that wasn't your intent but your computer is an effing beast!

Agreed, that may not bet all out but it sure is a beast....

It's funny, the increasing disparity between computers these days. It's basically become a 3-tier hierarchy. You have smart phones/iPads/netbooks and the like that are mostly concerned with transmitting data wirelessly through the internet. Laptops have always been a happy compromise between performance and portability but now, desktops, relative to most mid level laptops, look like super-computers. I still see laptops in the store that are single and dual core. For their price points, they haven't seemed to improve much at all over the past like four years unless you buy the top of the line. I think laptops and maybe lower grade desktops hit a plateau. Most people use their computer for some really basic stuff, like internet and listening to music. You only need so much memory and processing power. God help you once you start fooling around with CS5 though! Lol.

Processor clock speed sure has leveled off. The desktop I bought 10 years ago was 1.8Ghz.

Yeah, it's becoming less relevant with a new desktop now. It's all about how many cores you have.

I tried to strike a good balance between performance and cost; I never use it for gaming, so I couldn't justify highest-priced components that could have run the tab up three or four times. Performance is important to me, though, for productivity. I spend a lot of time in Photoshop, sometimes working with large files, and the new system has cut down markedly on time spent waiting for images to load and save. Temporarily my data drives are in external enclosures, and when I install them in the case I'm sure I'll see even more performance.

 

I bought an inexpensive case for the build, so that I wouldn't have to disrupt my original system while I was doing the work. After I get everything set up to my satisfaction, I'll migrate it to my much-nicer original case. When I was shopping for components I couldn't find anything that I liked better than the Thermaltake Tsunami that I bought in 2006. It's big and roomy with well-constructed steel chassis and lots of drive bays with resilient mounts. It has two 120mm fans and an 80mm fan mounted opposite the CPU. The design is sleek, with a clear panel on the left side and fit and finish like a luxury car. And it's quiet! I've been documenting the build with my camera, and I'll post the photos one of these days.

 

I love to build things, and it's most satisfying when they're pretty.

Did you get a good motherboard? Those are a worthwhile investment if you want to really capitalize on the performance of your other great components.

 

Yeah, I think high-end video cards probably don't do much unless you're a serious gamer.

I just bought a cheapie HP laptop for work. It's basically the same setup I have at home on my old 2008-ish desktop. Athalon X2 64 bit and 4 gigs of RAM. The N wireless is nice though. $399 out the door at Micro Center

 

 

 

Does Micro Center still sell those "Bawls" energy drinks? They had like a whole truckload by the register last time I was in there. People were snatching them up by the case like it were liquid cocaine.

Did you get a good motherboard? Those are a worthwhile investment if you want to really capitalize on the performance of your other great components.

 

Yeah, I think high-end video cards probably don't do much unless you're a serious gamer.

Oh, yes.

 

Motherboard

 

Display adapter

Wow. If that is a $100 video card, I am way out of the loop.....

 

Yeah, it's becoming less relevant with a new desktop now. It's all about how many cores you have.

 

My thoughts:

 

Laptops still seem most practical for college students.  They load them up with a bunch of software and take them to classes and coffee shops.

 

Upon graduation, "residential" laptop usage seems less practical.  The majority of time spent on a computing device outside the home is done on a smartphone or tablet.  The laptop is basically overkill

 

Commercial laptop usage is still popular.  Obviously they are convenient during business travel.  But guess what?  I'm seeing way more clients and sales people walk in with iPads.  They just hook them up to our smart board and show their power points.  If you are writing long reports and stuff or in the design industry, then a laptop would be more convenient, but most of the business world does everything on blackberries.

 

I'd say mid-2000's desktops definitely saw a drop in popularity, but I think they will rebound.  I don't have any facts to back this up, but I think users are spread on far ends of the spectrum.  There's the gamers, 3d modelers, web developers, graphic designers who want powerhouse machines.  On the other end are people who just use the computer for internet and to look at photos.  There doesn't seem to be much of the in-between group anymore.  But I'm one of those people.  I bought the iMac.  I just wanted a really big screen, and since all the stuff is inside the screen I get the benefits of the simplicity of a laptop but the huge screen along with it.  And the new iMac pack enough power to do computer renderings and graphic design stuff.

But I'd feel lost without my almost seven-foot desk full of technical-looking machines all hooked up with wires!  :-D

But I'd feel lost without my almost seven-foot desk full of technical-looking machines all hooked up with wires!  :-D

 

Well even with the iMac my desk gets like that anyway lol

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/05/18/us.unabomber.auction/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/cnn_topstories+(RSS:+Top+Stories)

 

Feds to auction Unabomber items online

By Ashley Hayes, CNN

May 18, 2011 7:45 a.m. EDT

 

Atlanta (CNN) -- An online auction of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski's personal items was set to begin Wednesday, with proceeds to compensate some of his victims.

 

The online auction will run through June 2, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement last week. Among about 60 items up for sale are personal documents such as driver's licenses, birth certificates and checks; academic transcripts; typewriters, and "more than 20,000 pages of written documents, including the original handwritten and typewritten versions" of Kaczynski's manifesto, authorities said.

 

...

 

So, Ted Kaczynski's "manifesto" typewriter is going to be up for online government auction later today.  Personally, there's no question in my mind that I'd bid for it; although, not nearly enough to likely win it.  My main problem would be convincing one of my Atlanta friends to go pick it up for me if they wouldn't ship it.  My interest is completely conversation piece oriented and may be influenced by my being a fan of the show Warehouse13.

 

So, would you bid?

I never understood the iMac.  It's like those TV-DVD combos.  If the monitor starts to go, the computer's no good.  And if the computer goes, you can't reuse the monitor.  It's like getting the disadvantages of a laptop without getting the portability.

I never understood the iMac.  It's like those TV-DVD combos.  If the monitor starts to go, the computer's no good.  And if the computer goes, you can't reuse the monitor.  It's like getting the disadvantages of a laptop without getting the portability.

 

That's more of an incremental replacement vs full replacement.  I guess I'm not into constantly upgrading a desktop tower with new parts.  And displays are always improving as well.  Regardless of when you replace one or the other, you still are buying new every so many years for whatever system you choose.  As my backup, I got the 4 year Apple Care.  Before it runs out, I'll donate my imac and purchase a new computer.  Otherwise, if I have an issues, the most inconvenient part will be boxing this computer up, getting a taxi, and going to the store.

 

There's times where I'd like to have a souped up desktop computer and just use a TV as the screen, but as imacs improved, they achieved a pretty good balance.  I guess I'm also into the design.  I like the fact that's it's just a big screen, and that's it.

I never understood the iMac.  It's like those TV-DVD combos.  If the monitor starts to go, the computer's no good.  And if the computer goes, you can't reuse the monitor.  It's like getting the disadvantages of a laptop without getting the portability.

 

That's more of an incremental replacement vs full replacement.  I guess I'm not into constantly upgrading a desktop tower with new parts.  And displays are always improving as well.

 

I'm not even talking about upgrading the desktop's internals, just the monitor vs. the computer as a whole (excluding the monitor).  If one technology moves faster than the other you can just buy a new monitor (or vice versa, buy a new computer and keep the monitor if you still like it).  But all the iMac does is tie the two together and force people to upgrade everything, even if they don't need to.

 

I can understand people that don't want to crack the computer open and swap in new parts, but the monitor (IMO) should be as independent from the rest of the computer as the printer or keyboard.  Would you want to have to buy a whole new computer because one of your keys stopped working?

 

The only advantage I see to marrying the two together is portability.  But the thing's a desktop, you're not going to carry it around.

^ Don't try to understand the logic of Apple users.

I never understood the iMac.  It's like those TV-DVD combos.  If the monitor starts to go, the computer's no good.  And if the computer goes, you can't reuse the monitor.  It's like getting the disadvantages of a laptop without getting the portability.

 

That's more of an incremental replacement vs full replacement.  I guess I'm not into constantly upgrading a desktop tower with new parts.  And displays are always improving as well.

 

I'm not even talking about upgrading the desktop's internals, just the monitor vs. the computer as a whole (excluding the monitor).  If one technology moves faster than the other you can just buy a new monitor (or vice versa, buy a new computer and keep the monitor if you still like it).  But all the iMac does is tie the two together and force people to upgrade everything, even if they don't need to.

 

I can understand people that don't want to crack the computer open and swap in new parts, but the monitor (IMO) should be as independent from the rest of the computer as the printer or keyboard.  Would you want to have to buy a whole new computer because one of your keys stopped working?

 

The only advantage I see to marrying the two together is portability.  But the thing's a desktop, you're not going to carry it around.

 

Most people were buying laptops (and still are) during the mid 2000's and obviously plenty of people have encountered a key breaking or disk drive getting stuck, or a spot on their monitor.  That's why most of these laptops came with service plans and warranties.  Really, the bulk of those issues were the result of abuse from moving them around.  The possibility of broken parts has never been considered a drawback of the imac, rather the fact that you mentioned, it's immobile.  But if you want the power of a desktop without all the wires hanging out, then an imac is a good computer.  It's simplicity is what makes it marketable.

 

I don't need to be lumped with the "macs are the best group."  Actually, I see no quality difference between Macs and PC's, and I use both every day.  The real problem is Windows, which is an absolutely horrible operating system, and it will have the same problems on both machines.

Before I retired in 2000 I did tech support for PC users at a financial services/insurance company, and I loathed laptops. The problems weren't so much inherent in the machines, as they were caused by the users, mostly agents. There was physical damage from rough handling - open the car door and fling it across to the passenger seat, knock it off the desk, drop it down a flight of stairs, etc., and corruption because they'd take them home and let their kids mess with them. We'd go and check it out and find out that the kids had installed games, screen savers carrying viruses, etc., or even hacked around on them. One agent's kid had tried to install linux.

 

Desktops weren't immune from employees' kids, though. One morning we had a rash of calls from one department where many PCs were booting up slowly, failing to load applications, spontaneously rebooting while in use, etc. Our first thought was that someone had brought in a cute screen saver with a virus and shared it with their co-workers - that happened more than once. What we found was that the PCs were missing memory modules. It turned out that one employee's teenager had been hanging around after hours waiting for his mom to get off work. He had a buddy with him, and they obviously had planned ahead because they had tools with them. They had stolen memory modules from as many PCs as they had time for. The kids were students at an expensive private Christian school.