Tech Advice for all, and for all subjects

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:39 pm

BitterDan wrote:Hey Dork, would I be correct in the assumption that when a "switch" is pushed a series of lights would turn on or off depending on your program? Is pushing the switch a manual process (meaning that someone physically depresses a button)?

I was thinking of making a pond - there would be a series of pressure switches on the ground. When you step on one, it sends a ripple outwards. There could be many people stepping on various switches, so it would need to be able to handle multiple waves. There's more fancy stuff I could do beyond that, like having waves react to people standing in the way, having the brightness change as the wave gets further away, etc. I've seen things like this done with a video camera and projector, and on a smaller scale (didn't the lilly pads do something like it?) but nothing quite what I had in mind.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:11 pm

Wow, that sounds really cool. While I am not an electrical engineer I am relatively savvy at figuring out technical complexities. I will do a little research and see what I can come up with.

Post by **mdmf007** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:56 pm

I saw something similar to what your describing, utilizing a projector, and some kick ass software, as far as hardware went, all I could see was a video camera, and projector

It cycled through various scenes, like pond from above, and you could walk into the picture and push the water around, make the poking motion in the air and it would ripple from there, cast your hand across it and it would splash.

Another scene was a front view of gravel, or little balls falling from multiple streams. You could hold up your hands and the would flow around you or build up on your shoulders on your shadow until you moved or shook them off.

Best one was the butterfly scene where thousands of butterflys would land on your silhouette if you did not move, and would flush when you did and fly off.

I have been searching, but cant seem to find any pics online.

im looking

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:52 pm

HUH????

Your all way out of my league....

Box Burner · Post by **Box Burner** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 6:15 pm

DVD Burner wrote:

Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Cooli ... -Adhesive/

Damn. I was hoping it would be as simple as super glue. That stuff costs more that it would to replace this (older) card. Unfortunately I am not in a location where I ca readily pick one up.

BitterDan wrote:Hmm, are you sure the heat sink was "glued" on? Typically they are held in place by clips. If it is with clips then you will need to clean both the top of the processor and the bottom of the heat sink and reapply some thermal contact goop (you can get this at radio shack or any computer parts store) and then reclip the sink. If it is glued then I am not really sure because I have never glued one down. The glue would have to be able to withstand a lot of heat I would assume.

Additionally, you mentioned that the video had gone to crap already. If that's the case then the card is probably already fried. I've actually had a video card start smoking before and that was with a heat sink.

Yep. It was glued on, there are no clips. As mentioned above it is an older card. When the system is first turned on the video is fine. But once it warms up the video starts doing wierd shit. Let the system cool for about 15 minutes and it powers up fine again.

Hmmm.... Maybe I can improvise a clip. Now where did that bag of clothes pins go!

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:31 pm

Do you have a PCI-Express slot? If so I can send you my old card.

Box Burner · Post by **Box Burner** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:31 pm

The video card was in an agp slot, so I do not think that there is a pci express slot. It is running OK with the onboard video, it is just that the installed card had 3d graphics so some things seemed to run smoother. I needs to replace the Fdd in it in few days it so I will check it then. Thanks.

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:01 pm

Huh??

Plastic G'zus · Post by **Plastic G'zus** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:12 am

Does anybody know how to put the symbol for pi into text?

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:29 am

and the copyright symbol too ???
Anyone ?

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:17 am

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map

Find the character in the map, click select, then copy, then you can paste it into your document.

Pi is in the middle somewhere, copyright is just after the letters.

dr.placebo · Post by **dr.placebo** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:46 am

On a Mac, to get special characters you use the "option" (aka "alt") key in combination with normal characters. Here's what option does to the characters on the keyboard (normal chars to the left, option chars to the right):

`1234567890-= â‡’ Â¡â„¢Â£Â¢âˆžÂ§Â¶â€¢ÂªÂºâ€“â‰
`~!@#$%^&*()_+ â‡’ `â

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:59 am

Here are instructions and a list of ASCII

http://chexed.com/ComputerTips/asciicodes.php

Hold ALT and press 227 on the numberpad for Pi

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:19 pm

Also If you are in word and/or most document programs you can type a c and put parenthesis around the c and it will change to copyright.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:26 pm

while I'm at it, since "Tech Advice for all, and for all subjects" is the most recent and going to be the most used tech thread on eplaya, I just wanna put a link here to "Really got it going on" in this thread so it's easier for me to find. It's got a bunch of good stuff that's usefull.

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:11 pm

just a bunch of show offs.....

Plastic G'zus · Post by **Plastic G'zus** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:14 pm

â˜ºThanks. â˜¼ Great to know where that ASCII list is. Â¥ Now I can be a Ï€-rat. â™¥
â™‚â™€â˜¼â™‚â™€â˜¼

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:50 pm

Now look what you've done!

stargeezer · Post by **stargeezer** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:43 pm

You give them one symbol, and they take a whole new alphabet.

Plastic G'zus · Post by **Plastic G'zus** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:28 pm

Damn! Ï€ looks just like n.

Post by **mdmf007** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:27 pm

I have heard great things about Firefox - is it worth downloading and trying, and can I migrate all of my IE settings over

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:15 pm

Thanks Dork.......and all you other dorks

Post by **mdmf007** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:49 pm

Thatnks for the PM fixing my problems - Damn Settings Folks, Those damn settings.

Box Burner · Post by **Box Burner** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:10 pm

Firefox is definaatly worth downloading. I use it on both Linux and windows.

Box Burner · Post by **Box Burner** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:11 pm

I do wonder if there is a fix for fat fingers though.

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:33 pm

Box Burner wrote:I do wonder if there is a fix for fat fingers though.

Box, The fix is a axe......

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:37 pm

since there is talk about using a mozilla family browser( firefox), you may want to try the latest of the mozilla family "Seamonkey".

It's great no matter what platform you are on and that includes Mac.

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:50 pm

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:34 pm

Ok, I got a question.

A client of mine has a server running XP ( yes it's a server.) running Apache and Plone. what's a good open source email server app I can run on this machine that's compatible with Plone and Apache?

Kinetik V · Post by **Kinetik V** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:49 pm

I'll toss out a question. Can anyone recommend an relatively stable Draft 2.0 N wireless router that can be relied upon to at least stay operational without requiring a reboot once every 12 hours on a good day? And yes I updated the firmware, don't go there.

Anyone recommending Belkin products should not bother to post.