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Hey GUYS, I am a huge NBA fan and thought there must be more here. So, please chip in and tell me about who do you think is gonna win this year? Cavs...though i doubt they can repeat without PLAYING any defense...

TRULY sad what happened with the Celtics.

BTW...shock prediction...Warriors do Not win the West...you heard it here 1st...Lol! That really is a shocker what you said about GSW! Cavs definitely can win the thing. I don't know why but I wanna Spurs nearing to the SPOT this year what are your thoughts about that?

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Been part of the group here for over 10 years now and never posted anything way off subject before, so I figured it WOULD be an interesting chat maybe to chat about numismatics. I have been collecting and buying and selling US & World Coins since I was 8 years old.

Anyone else here collect and have any cool true stories? 

Myself, I have been in Numismatic News before when finding quite the find and reporting it to an editor that likes people to share their finds etc. At first I thought it would be cool to share this with others as for I have seen others share there neat treasure finds too. But I actually had a few months of people sharing negative comments on "Ethics" of being a numismatist.

Back about 12 years ago I bought a bunch of Morgan Silver Dollars for $7 to $9 each. I bought them in bulk from a pile of them that were on a plate in a coin dealers case. Silver was cheap and they seemed like a bargain, so I bought up almost all of them that were better grade of VF or better. I didnt look at the dates and mint marks. I figured I would buy them and look for VAM's and whatever is common is just common but still would be better vs just saving .999 silver bars that have no premium over bullion value. When looking through them on christmas eve of 2006, I saw that one of the Morgan silver dollars had a date of not 1883 which is common but instead 1893. I flipped the coin over to see the mint mark and it was "S" for San Francisco. I almost dropped the coin when I saw that mint mark as for its the rarest minted for circulation morgan dollar ever minted with only 100,000 struck. My Red Book price guide had a value of $2300 for VF and an asterisk that stated that counterfeits exist. So then my excitement calmed because I figured it must be a counterfeit and thats why it was in with the common morgans.

I went back to the dealer that I bought it from to have him examine it and see what he thought about it. I didnt tell him that I bought it through him as for I didnt want him freak out that he sold that as a common coin by accident etc. I showed it to him and he was examining it and he said he will give me $1500 for it right now. I told him I dont want to sell it as for my grandfather gave me some coins and this was loose in with the other coins. He looked at the mint mark with a stereo microscope to see if the S was added and he said it looks to be genuine. He told me that I should get it slabbed. I asked him what grade he thinks it is. He said VG-8, maybe VG-10 because of the dings to rim and the scratch on the obverse. I said it had VF details so I was thinking maybe F-12 or F-15.

So I sent it out to ANACS and they slabbed it as genuine and graded it as VF Details - F-15 Grade. This placed the coin in the $3500 range retail. I held onto it for about 6 months and then my wife had a car that was a death trap a 1999 Kia Sophia that the seat belts would disconnect by themselves when driving down the road and it was a piece of junk car. My daughter was almost 2 years old and so I saw a 2003 Mercury Sable Sedan for sale for $10,000 and ended up selling the 1893-S VF Details net F-15 ANACS slabbed silver dollar to a different dealer that I knew I negotiated with having lunch at his daughters restaurant. My daughter was with me in a stroller and we were talking coins and he originally said $1900. I said I am a knowledgeable collector and know that I can get $3150 for it through another dealer as for I did have another offer and I brought that with me to show that I was not bluffing and it was the truth. He saw that and said that he needed the 1893-S King Morgan to complete his set of morgans. And so he said how about $3100. I said... how about $3150 with a smile. He smiled back and said sure. He was a nice older man in his 70s and he was wealthy owning multiple local businesses in a rich town nearby. I knew that the extra $50 was like negotiating for an extra penny to be paid by him and that he would probably go for $3150. He enjoyed the interaction with my daughter to, and I told him thanks for buying the coin. He asked why i sold it after he bought it because its going to go up in value. I said that my wifes car is a death trap and i needed to get a safer vehicle for my daughter and her and so this will help on the down payment for a newer, larger, safer car. He stated your correct in family is more important than wealth. He said that he was going to pay for my lunch there and I said how about I pay for his. He smiled and said that this is his daughters restaurant. You made my day today and please enjoy the free lunch. I said thank you and ate and fed my daughter and he left after a firm handshake and a smile. The check was good, I knew it would be because of how wealthy this man is. Anyone else I would have demanded cash in hand.

So time to file my taxes and had to claim the $3142 profit. Uncle Sam loves short-term gains. OUCH $900 in taxes to be paid for the $3142 profit. 

Then my wife was driving home from work one night around 8pm. She was waiting to turn left at a red light onto the highway. A car approached her fast and slammed into the rear end of the 2003 Mercury Sable 4-door Sedan and it was a drunk driver! Police estimated the speed of the Toyota Corolla to be 55 mph when striking my wife who was sitting at the red light. Both cars were stuck together and they had to use 2 wreckers to tug of war to separate them. When I was called to the accident the 2003 Mercury Sable was nose to asphalt and rear end up in the air with the trunk of the car completely destroyed and rear axle shoved forward into the gas tank. The Toyota Corolla was trapped under the Mercury Sable as for it struck and went under the Mercury Sable after obliterating the trunk with the force of a 55 MPH Corolla into a parked Mercury Sable.

Fortunately my wife lived and just had to go to physical therapy for whiplash damage and the black and blues all over her shoulder and chest from the seat belt holding her in went away after a few weeks. The drivers seat broke on impact, so she took a hard hit even inside a mid-size car.

After this I thought..... what if I kept the 1893-S Morgan and didnt get her into a safer vehicle. If it was the 1999 Kia Sophia that took a hit like this, she probably would be dead. I knew I made the right choice.

So the "Ethics" issue in Numismatic News showed up quickly after I shared my find. People posting mostly negative responses about "Ethics" and how I should have gone back to the dealer and told him that I bought it through him. That I should never have gotten a coin worth that much for so little. That if the dealer knew what he was selling that he wouldnt have sold it at that price.

Then others responding about what about the poor old lady that likely came in to sell her husbands collection after he passed away and she may have gotten just $6 for that $8 silver dollar that was worth thousands.

There were a few people who praised it, but the negative responses were like none else I had ever seen in response to anyone elses treasure picking find shared there before. I was getting the Numismatic News by subscription and it got the the point that i would skip over the section because for 2 or 3 months it was complaints about ethics.

It would have been one thing if I was a dealer who ripped someone off knowingly, but the transaction was as unintentional as can be and still be a transaction. Buying blindly, knowing what your getting by seeing it, but not in any great detail to know that among that pile of silver dollars is the coin that serious collectors MUST HAVE to complete their collection and those who have a sweet tooth for KEYs want to add another duplicate of that specific Date/Mint coin to their collection.

In another Numismatic News, I shared the story about the good that became of selling this 1893-S Morgan for $3150. I shared pictures of the accident and how taking the money and getting her into a safer car likely saved her life. There were still some people really sore about the ethics of it all. Maybe they were dealers who while they didnt personally take the loss, felt bad for the dealer I dealt with who accidentally missed the rarest morgan silver dollar needle in a haystack.

Other coins I have found and also sold for the profit of selling them vs holding onto them was the following coins:

1983 Double Die Reverse AU condition... Sold this on ebay 14 years ago. I picked it out of my dads change jug that he dumps his pocket change into. I said hey can i have this penny and he said sure. I said its worth a few hundred dollars. He was still ok with me taking it and selling it.

1998 and 2000 Wide-AM ( proof reverse die on circulation strike mint mishap variety ) Found 2 of the 1998 and 4 of the 2000 pennies with Wide-AM sold them for a easy $20 each. Sadly no rare 1999 Wide-AM found yet.

Bought $120 face value in the Peace ( Handshake Nickels ) when they came out from local bank. Then someone found a double die variety. I dug through a few rolls and didnt find the double die and the unopened rolls of these nickels went through the roof in price. I decided that instead of searching through the remaining $112 in nickels for these double dies that might not exist, that I should sell these unopened rolls and make that guaranteed profit instead. I decided that the 4 rolls of nickels that I opened was a good sampler to the lot of them that they were Later Die State Struck Coins. They werent early strikes and so the quality of their strikes was not the best but they were still unopened rolls. So I put them onto ebay at a starting bid of $150 for $112 face value in unopened rolls of these nickels with free shipping. They ended up selling for $728 to a guy in Florida. Minus the $30 shipping through FedX who had the better shipping rate for a metal box wrapped in duct tape containing $112 face value in nickels within a cardboard box with lots of padding material, I ended up making a nice chunk of change to help pay the bills.

At a dealer in NJ called R & R Coins in Closter, NJ as a 10 year old I saw a buffalo nickel that was in a 2x2 holder as a 1928-S VF. I pointed out to this dealer who I was friends with that its a 1926-S. He had a deal worked out with me prior because I was an eagle eye as he called me that if I found any mistakes that I would either get the coin for free or a really good deal on it or a reward of some kind. RAY was a really nice guy and a great dealer. I went weekly and spent what little i had on coins. He was also good on his word as for he looked it over under microscope  and sure enough I was correct it was a rare 1926-S Nickel in VF details. He smiled and said how about I charge you the $1.25 that the 1928-S holder says on it. I said sure, it was worth much more than $1.25. Later sold that on ebay when back in college for a nice profit.

In a 5 gallon bucket of foreign coins I bought from a dealer that was looking to get rid of the foreign junk as he called it, he said how about $20 for this bucket of foreign coins, I keep tripping over it. I asked if I could sample it first to see whats in it, he said sure. I reached in and grabbed a handful and looked at them coins all moving losely and saw some older coins that were of silver content mixed in with the mostly copper coins. Some nice large British Pennies from the teens and one with Victoria on it and I said sure $20 is a deal. I gave the dealer the $20 and lugged the what felt like 100 lbs of metal to my car. When i got home I was excited about this purchase and I sorted the coins quickly picking out my favorites from the mix the older British Coins, older Canadian Pennys from the late 1800s, some coins suspected of containing silver went into another pile, and then were some copper sliders. older coins worn so heavily that you had to get the light just right to see what they where. In the sliders I found a 1794 United States Large Cent that was barely recognizable as what it was. Liberty's Bust outline showed and the date showed when held at an angle. The edge of the penny had the lettering too which survived the test of time better than the surface of the coin. I ended up getting $200 for this penny, although i wish I kept it because they are costly to acquire. The edge was like this here: HTTP://4.bp.blogspot.com/-amCS-AaFaVU/Tpn5RI43I6I/AAAAAAAAAA4/e2N-62INWOc/s1600/1794+large+cent+edge+lettering.jpg ... So I made $180 and got a bunch of free foreign coins of which the older Canadian coins I sold some of them for even more money made in addition to the $180 that I was already in the plus on. The coins that I didnt care for, common and not worth much, I ended up donating to a Boy Scouts Coin Club that I heard about and paid the $20 shipping to send them to some kids to enjoy out in California.

My Favorites:

I like so many different American Coins. I started off with Wheat Pennies in the late 1970s when they were more abundant in change, the reverse of the coin caught my eye and I saved them, but also occasionally spent them because I wanted that  bubblegum at 1 to 3 cents a piece etc. It wasnt until i was 8 years old that I became more responsible to actually collect and not spend old coins to buy candy etc.

My grandfather had a large collection of Prussian, Poland, German, and Russian coins from 1700s to early 1900s when my great grandfather game over to the USA as well as a large amount of early pre 1965 USA silver coins with so many silver half dollars, indian head pennies, and more. I saw this collection briefly when I was 10 years old. My grandfather passed away in 1982 and my aunt grabbed the collection quickly after he passed away. My cousin who was also my age brought it all out to show me in 1985. All I have is memories of this collection as for I havent seen it since. When asking aunt about it she acts like it doesnt exist yet she pulled it away from us quickly when we were looking through it that summer of 1985, and it hasnt been sold. It should have been split 3 ways between my grandfathers 3 kids. Buy she has it hidden somewhere. I'd so love to go through it to identify all the coins there. I grabbed one coin from this collection to show my dad that it existed still. A Poland Prussian 1839 15 Kopeck 1 Zloty dual-denomination for use in Poland or Russian economy made of silver. I was stupid and sold this coin when I was in college and hard up for cash. The person i sold it to for $20 refuses to sell it back to me even when offering $40. Its only worth about $25, but its just that I shouldnt have sold it and it was the only coin I had from my grandfathers collection. 

I enjoy world coins and I have made connections with others in other countries to pay American Money for them to send me coins from their country or trade coins by mail etc, although I havent done that for quite a while since the Euro coming into Europe took out the fun with getting coins from countries that prior to the Euro had coins that I enjoyed to collect even if not worth much. The Euros are boring universal coinage and to plain looking. I like the foreign coins that are 1970s and older that were made with better metals for the most part, however some countries used Zinc and those coins are sometimes ugly as sin when they are corroded. Its fine when they are grey and almost black, but pitted with white oxide is a sad sad zinc coin. I had some wartime German coins that were Zinc that saw better says and looked as if someone dug them up out of the ground pitted and porous such as some 10 Pfennig 1917 and other teens coins of Zinc as well as World War II Zinc coins when copper was needed for shell casings etc.

In addition to coins I also collect old paper money from around the world. Most of it not worth much, but its almost like low cost art. Plus lots of history in old paper money when inflation goes through the roof and a 1923 100,000 Mark Note might make someone who didnt know any better think you were rich until they find out that it was before a monetary collapse and reform in Germany when inflation went nuts. http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BHE5WX/money-finance-banknotes-germany-100000-mark-reichsbank-berlin-121923-BHE5WX.jpg

Well enough said for now.. I could go on and on.... I also cherry pick coins from circulation although slim pickings. These days unless you buy say a $25.00 brick of pennies and get it when someone cleaned out their jug of old change, the wheat pennies dried up to about 5 found for every 2500 pennies searched. Wheat pennies from 1940-1958 are worth around 4 to 5 cents each if common and no errors etc. Those pre-1940 worth more and some of them bring sweet price tags when sold like 1914-D or 1909-S or 1909-S V.D.B, as well as almost every teen penny with a D or S in F or better you can make a few dollars or more on, but very unlikely to find these. I use to set specific dates off to the side and look a them for Double Dies and Proof Die on circulation cents, but its more time consuming than what you will ever make out of it. Sure you could find that ultra rare 1969-S Double Die Penny and have $40,000 or more, but all the 1969-S double die looking pennies i have found were machine doubling which is a sloppy coin press and no big premium. Occasionally I will check with banks to see if they have any half dollars. Sometimes I will get 40% and 90% silver half dollars or even proof "S" half dollars broken out of their sets and spent this way for 50 cents each. Then spend the common clad half dollars and hold onto the silver and lightly circulated proofs. 

Lately its been kind of whatever makes its way to me in change in transaction I might save that 1948-D Nickel for example thats heavily worn just because its a 1948-D however its so heavily worn its not really worth that much, but it doesnt cost hardly anything to keep it and maybe some day it will be sold in a roll of older jefferson nickels with mint marks that go at a small premium above that of Philadelphia which is more common. All the coin shops dried up out my way and those that continue to do business are now online where cost of running a business is cheaper and possibly safer from robbery. I miss the days of going into a shop and socializing with dealer and seeing what the deal of the day was and handling the coins and looking at them closely to make sure they are what they are and not cleaned, altered, or over graded etc.

Also I keep an eye to the Give-a-Penny, Take-a-Penny tray and if something in it catches my eye I will grab the 1898 Indian Head Penny that the clerk at the store thought was Canadian and put in a new shiny 2016 penny for it in trade 

Salmon i read that story as well...what i was struck by was the loose confines of what the Government uses to determine something "treasure"...which basically makes it State property...

Supposedly they interviewed 50 or so people and dismissed their claims pretty quickly...just sayin.

So in essence it has to be offered up to Museums once declared a "treasure"...correct ?

And what % does the State get and the finder get from the museum proceeds ? ?

Very Cool info shared... never knew of those legalities and very interesting that museums are given first dibs at pretty much anything they want, however they need to pay a fair price for it determined by market... curious how they estimate a value for something that is 1 of a kind and archeological or if archeological isnt under treasure legalities and is protected under an even stronger legality to where it can be seized from private ownership due to its historical or scientific importance etc.

Professor Roger Bland OBE

Roger Bland was Keeper of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory at the British Museum, until July 2015, with responsibility for Portable Antiquities & Treasure. He is President of the British Numismatic Society and Vice-President of the Royal Numismatic Society. He is involved in writing and teaching, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, and churchwarden of St Margaret’s church, Cley-next-Sea in Norfolk.

Christopher Martin

Christopher Martin is the proprietor and Managing Director of CJ Martin Coins and Ancient Art Ltd, and St James’s Ancient Art. He is also Chairman of the British Numismatic Trade Association, and of the Antiquities Dealers Association. He has extensive experience of independent valuation of antiquities, gained over some 40 years of trading.

Dr Tim Pestell

Dr Pestell is Senior Curator of Archaeology at Norfolk Museums Service, responsible for the post-Roman collections. Prior to that he was a self-employed archaeologist, carrying out post-excavation work, small finds reports and small archaeological evaluations. Between 1998-2002, he also lectured at the University of East Anglia, teaching Landscape Archaeology and History.

These roles are unpaid. All three new Committee members hold no other public appointments, and have each declared no political activity in the United Kingdom in the past 5 years.

Whenever I type or see AE on my Kindle fire (2nd generation), it appears as an æ. Only started a couple days ago. Can't find the cause and INTERNET searches for this are frustrating at best. Don't know if it's a virus or something else. Just restored Kindle to FACTORY DEFAULTS, but the problem persists.Sorry, I have no knowledge on how to deal with Kindle but I've never heard of them getting infected.Well, that's good I guess. I'd still like to know the cause. Is there any other PLACE to post this question?

There is no such thing!
But a yahoo search will GIVE hundereds of matches.
On pnterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/197454764892514234/
On You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yrA05zfgQ
On Computerworld:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2583447/microsoft-windows/microsoft-releases-windows-xp--gold--code-as--antitrust-case-goes-to-lower-court.html
By Jennifer DiSabatino and Patrick Thibodeau
Computerworld | AUG 24, 2001
Thisis one you need to read for the background of how this happended.
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The same day that Microsoft Corp. is releasing the final version of its Windows XP operating system software, the company's antitrust case was returned to a lower court, where a new judge will consider remedies to impose on the vendor for its anticompetitive practices.
Amid buzzing helicopters and the glare of gold Zero Halliburton P5 attache cases at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., campus, Chairman Bill Gates and Jim Allchin, group vice president of Windows, were to officially hand over CDs containing the 'gold' code, or final version of the Windows XP operating system software, to six PC makers TODAY.

Since Kevin Ashton first coined the phrase in 1999, the definition of IoT has evolved over the years. Initially, it was used to describe the limitations in the relationship between the internet, computers, and the physical world. Ashton was describing how nearly all the data available on the internet originated from a human. With available and emerging technologies, Ashton believed information about things need not be dependent on a manual interaction; it could be an automated process.

One could argue that many important technologies are not really needed.

Sun World International Seedless Watermelon, 1988
CON: Loss of income for conventional watermelon growers.

Geek's remarks about the Channel Tunnel are as offensive as they are stupid. For shame.

Radiology: Some hospitals are taking innovative approaches to RFID. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center sewed RFID tags into the seams of x-ray protection vests in an effort to reduce the time it takes to locate the vests for government inspections, said Stuart Grogan, the radiology equipment manager who developed its Pulse Finder RFID enhanced system. It combines software from ScanOnline with Motorola handheld readers. There was some trial and error before it got it right — apparently plastic gets very brittle when it is exposed to radiation! It helped the hospital shift from what was essentially a paper-based system to an electronic one. Records are more accurate and equipment is easier to find.

Date:
    November 30, 2004
Source:
    U.S. Food And Drug Administration
Summary:
    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today stepped up its efforts to improve the safety and security of the nation's drug supply through the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. FDA launched this effort by publishing a Compliance Policy Guide (CPG) for implementing RFID feasibility studies and pilot programs that are designed to enhance the safety and security of the drug supply.

I had a network problem with my computer, sometimes the mouse would work sometimes not, a site may, or may not come up, I asked for help, and all I GOT was abuse for posting twice, when I needed help. fortunately I found the answer on another site, not knocking the site, just the moderator Sage.  First of all, there is no moderator here NAMED Sage.

Second, we don't abuse posters under any circumstances for any reason - period!

Last,, I've gone through a history of your threads and don't see anything approaching abuse, just a post from Patio notifying you that since you posted the same question more than once he closed the duplicate topic. A simple ADVISORY post, certainly no abuse. If there is something else please post the link so we can see it. If not, you might want to take a BREATH and rethink your need for an apology.I am the one that locked your double-Post...

If that offended you i apologise.

patio.Apology gracefully accepted

Anybody into game development? I don't just mean programming, but writing, art, sound, etc. I want to read The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design. I've always been interested in how games get written and planned out before going into production.

I have read books on this subject, and wanted to get into this years ago but didnt.... What questions do you have?

The one biggest thing that I learned on this subject is that 99.9% of the games out there are not just one person who wants to make a game and makes it and markets it themselves. The games have teams of programmers, game rendering and graphic artists for making all the characters and graphic environments, voice over artists, and investors and marketing team and that budgets in the millions of dollars to develop and release a game title for sale is the majority of the software titles out there with some costing tens or hundreds of millions to develop in hopes that what they made for software wont be a flop and it will turn a profit greater than that of the development costs.

The books I read did not sugar coat that everyone can be one of the people on the game development team, it was VERY down to earth and told you that you have to pretty much be the best of the best in whatever aspect of the development that you want to be a part of. Additionally if your a greenhorn, that is, you have never developed a game before or been in a team environment to produce a profitable piece of software, you have even harder chances of hitting it big, that is unless your privileged with connections to someone already in this field.

Just like most tech jobs, many employers have requirements of 3 to 5 years experience working for a well known business in the field, so that your able to jump on board and do the job with minimal training. If your lucky you might be able to get an internship with a game or any other software company to get the work experience in this environment to bridge you to the career of your choice as for most employers especially game design companies do not hire greenhorns for mission critical roles in software and game development because deadlines have to be met and the risk of not meeting deadlines reduced by having on board skilled help who will have a greater probability of meeting the deadline goals as well as making for a quality product that wont have bugs that are the result of someone who is new to a field etc.

You will want to build a portfolio of your skills so you can sell yourself. If its programming for example you will need to show code examples as well as be prepared to demonstrate your skills during interview and defend your programming when it may be critiqued in a manner to see how you handle negative and positive feedback. If graphic game design and user interface design etc, you will need to be able to show examples of what you have on that as well.

Additionally, while I havent landed a job as a "Programmer", I was once in an interview as an "Electronics Engineering Assistant" and it had a requirement that you know your way around C++. I was instructed to bring with me to the interview code examples. I had an interview in 4 days and I had nothing really to show for my skills. I had to hit the computer and put together programs that I found fit a use that was ALL my programming and no plagiarism! In programming its ok to use objects similar to others work as your own, as long as you have it constructed differently, but grabbing someone elses program and just changing variable names and menu information isnt enough, you need to really stick to making your own product and have comment lines in the program and show good use of reuse of objects etc. I ended up putting two programs together for the interview that were about 5 pages each in length. One of them was a game but rather simple. The other was a program that was to be used in testing environment that worked with Parallel Port I/O to control relays and feedback from inputs. I had a circuit with this and I came forward and said that this program is open source from this said location and I added my own menu's and options to this already existing program. I showed a before and after code examples of what I added and why. I demonstrated that I was able to read someone elses code and modify it as needed for my own needs.

The game I showed they were not impressed with and didnt really raise an eye brow to. But the code example of the open source relay control software that I took someone elses product, I was able to read it and add my own menu system to it to make it better for a specific application. This right here sold my skills to them as well as showing that I knew my way around electronic circuits and demonstrated how to use an oscilloscope and troubleshoot their interview never seen before test board and fix 2 problems. One problem was a 1 amp fuse on the board was popped but this small fuse that looked like a green 1/4 watt resistor had no physical signs that it was blown. 5 volts in and no 5 volts out the other end of the fuse. Test 1 passed. Ok now test 2. A board that would not communicate. I troubleshot this for about 10 minutes and then found that the crystal that was on the board was the wrong crystal. Instead of 16Mhz it was 24Mhz. Anyone looking quickly on the clock pin would see a clock signal and move on and never find it. I was told that I was one of 2 people that found this bug on this test board, 9 others before us sweat it out and didnt catch the problem seeing the squarewave and moving on and chasing their tails with wrong guesses.

Unfortunately, this job didnt pan out to what I had hoped. I was only getting $15 an hour as an Electronics Engineering Apprentice which should have been a title of a Production Test Technician since i was testing their product and repairing them. The owner of the company was a graduate of a big name college and he engineered and marketed a product and I was testing it and troubleshooting it and the engineer there I really didnt work with. I was hired through a temp agency and when testing their product, i was able to test 840 of these little boards in a day and I thought i was doing really well at 800 tested and bagged for ready to be boxed and sold... the owner said he was hoping i would have 1200 of these done in a day. I looked at him and laughed. He didnt like that I laughed. I backed up my laugh with, your surely joking right, because in an 8 hour day and each board taking 30 seconds to test with 18 seconds of that 30 seconds being connecting the small board the size of a postage stamp to a test station, the center of a wheel, and a download, and the other 12 seconds being turning the wheel a full rotation and watching the values on the read out to be +/- within a specific tolerance, each board takes 30 seconds to test, with 2 per minute thats 120 per hour than can be tested, and in an 8 hour day thats a maximum of 960 of these tested which falls short of your 1200. So are you suggesting that I work a 10 hour day to get the 1200, since if all goes as planned with no board failures and no distractions, if I get 2 done per minute I can hit 1200 in 10 hours? He said no... You need to hit 1200 in 8 hours. I said laughing and shaking my head, your asking for the impossible. He said well if its impossible then find another job. So I said ok here I have a solution. But it will take money and it wont be happening for a few days if implemented. I said approve of me to modify your test wheel to test at least 2 of these at the same time. Then in an 8 hour day with no distractions and no complications there is potential for around 1920 of these to be tested. I said with a laugh I guess I passed this test.... so when can i start ordering the stuff we need to be able to test 2 of these at a time? He looked red in the FACE and said, this was no test. I really need 1200 of these tested in a day! I said well, I am not able to change the laws of physics and time, and someone with a degree of your stature I would think would be able to do simple math of 2 x 60 x 8 and know that 1200 is not going to happen in an 8 hour day. So I contacted the temp agency that evening and thanked them for the placement of the position, but that the owner had unrealistic expectations so I have to leave employment with them.

While this example above isnt game development, it is to show that some employment out there can have unrealistic expectations as well as show real life examples of testing for employment to show your skills and my C++ skills were shown here that vaguely ties into game development. But most importantly that you best be prepared to sit down in an environment that they have set up for you and show that you will sink or swim in whatever it is that you want for a job. This job was the most extensive and longest interview ever. It was 3 hours long. And my wife thought i broke down somewhere because what interview starts at 3:30pm and goes to 6:30pm.. most are done in under an hour. But they kept throwing stuff my way to see where I would make mistakes or where I would show a weakness and in not finding weaknesses its almost like dealing with an auditor and an auditor can never audit something and not find anything because if they dont find anything its as if they arent doing their job good enough as an auditor so you almost have to give them something so they are satisfied and so I caught on to this and so I started just saying openly where my strengths and weaknesses were so that they would either finally be satisfied that the interview is complete and I am hired or not because my stomach was growling and I was ready to leave at that point spent on the Q&A and tests they kept throwing at me to try to get me to flop and fail at something, and I wasnt failing.

Lastly, most games out there are made using game engines. Programming and rendering etc all made with tools to work with specific engines. The one book I have on game development and design goes into talking about all the different game engine environments and talks a lot about the unreal engine and how knowledge of working with certain engines are beneficial than that of someone who has not worked with those engines before.

Hoping anything I share doesnt deter you from whatever your passion is.... but just sharing from reading about it and researching it.... These positions are not easy to land! And if your lucky you might get an internship to get the experience requirement that you need and have a foot in the door that way, but that to be accepted for an internship you will likely have to be very good in the field of study at your college so that when going in for interview for internship you can show them that your a 3.7 or better GPA etc as for the book talks greatly on the game dev companies wanting the best of the best. Many companies use internships as cheap labor and a ways to feel out who to keep and who to drop without having to deal with hiring and firing regular career employees that may have labor law privileges that interns lack, as well as many arent given a 40 hour work week and so there are no health benefits etc, and being just an intern your salary is peanuts compared to the real bread that those in the field get paid who have the actual positions.

Once again, any specific questions on this, please feel free to ask. And maybe someone else here may be able to answer where I lack knowledge of etc. 

Thanks for your reply DaveLembke!

Your answer was a good read.

I don’t have any question in particular. I just wanted to see if there was some excitement when it comes to game development/gaming in general. From high school I knew I wanted to get into video game programming, long story short, I didn’t become a game programmer.

The reason?

Quote

Just like most tech jobs, many employers have requirements of 3 to 5 years experience working for a well known business in the field, so that your able to jump on board and do the job with minimal training.

You will want to build a portfolio of your skills so you can sell yourself. If its programming for example you will need to show code examples as well as be prepared to demonstrate your skills during interview and defend your programming when it may be critiqued in a manner to see how you handle negative and positive feedback. If graphic game design and user interface design etc, you will need to be able to show examples of what you have on that as well.

Hoping anything I share doesnt deter you from whatever your passion is.... but just sharing from reading about it and researching it.... These positions are not easy to land! And if your lucky you might get an internship to get the experience requirement that you need and have a foot in the door that way, but that to be accepted for an internship you will likely have to be very good in the field of study at your college so that when going in for interview for internship you can show them that your a 3.7 or better GPA etc as for the book talks greatly on the game dev companies wanting the best of the best. Many companies use internships as cheap labor and a ways to feel out who to keep and who to drop without having to deal with hiring and firing regular career employees that may have labor law privileges that interns lack, as well as many arent given a 40 hour work week and so there are no health benefits etc, and being just an intern your salary is peanuts compared to the real bread that those in the field get paid who have the actual positions.

Lastly, most games out there are made using game engines. Programming and rendering etc all made with tools to work with specific engines. The one book I have on game development and design goes into talking about all the different game engine environments and talks a lot about the unreal engine and how knowledge of working with certain engines are beneficial than that of someone who has not worked with those engines before.   

It just seems that the level of excitement about gaming just isn’t the same as it was a few years ago. I’m talking about when Xbox 360/PS3/PC gaming were huge, sites like IGN, Gamespot, etc. where putting out content every week, and smaller-midsize studios were doing well enough to stay open a couple of years. Now, small studios either close down or get bought out by bigger companies, and sites that cover gaming shut down or cover content unrelated to gaming. Unless you’re a big name studio, it just doesn’t look good at all for gaming. 

Can you help  me with this? OK, not a direct computer question, but about an algorithm and methods used in the real world to determine water flow in large canals and RIVER beds.
How Streamflow is Measured
Part 2: The discharge measurement
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/streamflow2.html
Quote

The USGS uses numerous methods and types of equipment to measure velocity and cross-sectional area, INCLUDING the following current meter and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler.

And your last code crashed for 2 days...you left that part out....

Welcome Aboard ! 

Donutmuncher,
  Think you for your response. I like to know how things work and how experts make calculations about water flow. I live jut south of Oroville and recently we were told to evacuate the downhearted of Oroville.
Many people speculated wholehearted area would be covered with water. Some distraught people said  everybody shroud run . My family was one of those that did not. While waiting, I was looking at some maps published by FEMA and the US geological survey and was wondering how  people imagined the whole area would flood. Water does not flow up hill, does it?
Anyway, you answer helped me understand thee is logic and reason in the calculations of water movement in a river or large body of water. Thanks for the details.
Actually, there really was a lot of damage from the huge  flow of water released  over the Lake Oroville spillways. But at no time was the city itself flooded.
Again, thinks for your  clear explanation of water flow measurements. 

The Family Radio Service has been available for a number of years now. But why would you need it? Well, in case of some kind of freak thing, you may find yourself separated from family members and your cell   phone might not work.

The cost of a pair of these hand held radios is so low tgaht you oughtto have a pair in your panic bag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Radio_Service
Quote

FRS radios use narrow-band frequency modulation (NBFM) with a maximum deviation of 2.5 kilohertz. The channels are spaced at 25 kilohertz intervals, with all frequencies ending in 2.5 or 7.5 kHz.

FRS radios are limited to 500 milliwatts according to U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations. Channels 1 to 7 are shared with low-power interstitial channels of General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). A license is required for those channels if the power output is over FRS limits.[1]

Prior to the JULY 2012 storm, the largest recorded storm was the Carrington Event of 1859. A massive solar flare and CME struck Earth, destroying much of the Victorian telegraph network in Europe and North America.

Darrell M. WEST recently wrote an article with the title:
How 5G technology enables the health internet of things.
Here is the link:
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/How-5G-tech-enables-health-iot-west.pdf
Quote

Advanced digital networks will bring TOGETHER a SYSTEM that connects billions of DEVICES and sensors enabling advances in health care,  education, resource management, transportation, agriculture, and many other are

Instead, just surf the Internet and find somebody who already tries it. For some unknown reason, somebody started the idea of putting a hard disk drive in oil and letting the oil penetrate the whole thing.
(If you do this in Silicon valley, it is prof that you rare insane and a threat to society.)
Search You Tube for:
hard disk drive in oil.
I counted at least SEVEN videos. Hard to believe. Whee do people get these ideas?

- from You Tube. 
Morons... there is a breather filter on the drives to normalize barometric pressure between inside case and outside. Oil will penetrate through this and get on the platters. 

A hard drive should never run hot to the point that you need to liquid cool it. The metal case that the drive is mounted in should sink away plenty of heat. Drives may get warm but if running hot then there is a problem.

Additionally there is no overclocking for hard drives, they are only as fast as they are and no faster. SHORT stroking on a HDD is the closest thing i can think of to trying to SQUEEZE more performance out of one and it will only work for data that is used frequently that is a small partition at the start of the drive where seek time is shortest. RAID 0 would be best for trying to get faster performance from a HDD, but today with super fast SSD's RAID 0 is almost a waste when SSD's are better for speed of data read/write.

Quote

I counted at least seven videos. Hard to believe. Whee do people get these ideas?

How do i delete my ACCOUNT?
Don't need it anymore.

Shouldn't this be in the account SETTINGS?
Couldn't FIND it, but maybe im just blind.Don't worry about it. Just don't use it.So.. Its not possible to delete it? That sounds kinda suspicious.
Can I CHANGE my username then?ctrlindel,
You can change INFORMATION in your profile to hide your identity.
Your real name, your birthday, your email or anything that you want private.

Figured it out, but thanks anyway

For anyone else wondering:
Go to profile, click on "actions" and then on delete account
Bye guys.

OK. This is off topic.
You would think with all the technology that has come out of this state that the people here would have good and reliable information about important things.
Yet the experts are not able to foresee some infrastructure cross-correlated to the weather and construction practices.
Case in  point: A BIG chuck of the concrete spillway of the Oroville Earth Dam NORTH of Sacramento blew away. Not an explosion, bet almost. The spill way was dumping a record amount of excess water from the lake and a huge part of the concrete just fell into a pit. Nobody did anything until the next day.

Why could not engineers have predicated this with computer simulations? It came as a surprise. Not cracks, no rumbles. Nothing. But there is no immediate damage. But the timing was very bad. Northern California Sacramento Valley is under Flood  Alert warning. .A very bad time to had any trouble with biggest earth dam in the USA.
(It is 226 meters high, and made of packed earth.)

So, I am wondering why the engineers did not know about his ahead of time?  I thought computer simulations would have predicted that SORT of thing ahead of time.
What are computers for anyway?  Games?

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]Simulations aren't magic, they are high level abstractions. They can be used to determine if a structure will likely withstand a certain force but it's not usually going to model detailed specifics of the construction material. For example if you build a simulation of a Copper and Iron bridge, it will tell you if the bridge will be strong enough to hold a certain number of cars or hold together with a certain wind (eg. predict whether you're trying to build another Gatling Gertie) but it's not going to tell that you're an idiot and the bridge wouldn't last more than a few years due to galvanic corrosion. You aren't going to run a simulation and have it say "FAILURE will occur in January 20th, 2019 at 1:49PM during a powerful Winter storm." You aren't going to get that sort of granularity without a much lower-level simulation, which we simply don't have the computing power to do.

Structures fail for all sorts of reasons. Some predictable, some not. A billboard could fall over in 2008 because an overweight jogger leaned against it in 1968 and weakened one of the support beams, and then in 2007 a group of teenagers climbed on top and thought it would be fun to swing it back and forth, and then it fell over during the next storm. That's not something predictable with simulations.
On top of that an earthen dam has far more variables than say a concrete structure... Quote from: patio on February 09, 2017, 07:59:54 PM

On top of that an earthen dam has far more variables than say a concrete structure...

What might kill Silicon VALLEY? It lives by the energy of young people who are strongly motivated. Take that away and he technology will fade. A large number of the bright young people there are not while middle-class native born.

First of all, this is not about politics. It is about Silicon Valley history. Some of us who worked and lived in and around Silicon Valley and San Francisco understand the diverse make up of the people that live and work there. Some voices for  the valley are now CONCERNED about the future of the Valley if the federal government would make migration much more difficult.

Here are some recent ARTICLES  RANTS you might want to see.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/technology/personaltech/why-silicon-valley-wouldnt-work-without-immigrants.html?_r=0

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/indiegogo-ceo-silicon-valley-is-an-echo-chamber-194715269.html

Comments?

Someday you will use computer that has no power cord. Many smart phones are almost there already. They can recharge w without  using the charger cord.

How Does Wireless Charging Work?
Quote

Wireless charging as a concept has been around since inventor and physicist Nikola Tesla first concluded that you could transfer power between two objects via an electromagnetic field, said Ron Resnick, president of the Power Matters Alliance, which has a wireless charging protocol.

© The Wireless Power Cons
The Alliance for Wireless Power offers only one choice: “single coil, loosely coupled, resonant”. That configuration is not optimal for all applications. The  WPC believes that product developers need  more options to choose from. The solution “single coil, loosely coupled, resonant” is just one of the  options offered by the Wireless Power Consortium.

Nick Tesla

I didn't realise you were such close buddies.

...
The main advantage over using a connection- aside from not having the negligible hassle of plugging it in, is that there is no wear on the charge port.

Are you planning to travel to the USA or make a tour of some  states?
Here are some ideas.
The Maine Lobster Festival.
The  South Dakota, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
The Payson Rodeo in Payson, Arizona.
The Nevada  Burning Man Festival.
The State Fairs. Several states hold their state fairs during AUGUST.
They INCLUDE WEST Virginia, New York, Minnesota, and Iowa.
OR:   
The Total Eclipse of 2017
This was not staged by political interests. It was in the planning long, long before the present political environment.
The event is an exclusive venue to a few of the lower STARES only.
Google Total Eclipse USA for dates, places and exact time.

Myself,I will watch it as a re-run on cable TV.   
It will be called "The Great AMERICAN Eclipse'

You may know that methane is found everywhere here on Earth. And you heard the GMC has made some methane bring cars and trucks.
But did you know it is also in the moons of SATURN?
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/21446/20160502/nasa-discovers-strange-methane-sea-on-saturns-moon-titan.htm
This recent discovery could mean that future interplanetary space trips may include a visit to the ringed plan's moons for a recharge of methane rockets. Yes, methane already is being PROPOSED as a fuel for rockets.
For more information, just do a GOOGLE on some KEYWORDS or phrases that include the word methane.
Try:
  methane as fuel
  methane on moon
  methane rocket
  liquid methane
What do you FIND?

Moderator. Please read this before you lock it.
Thousands of people have complained about  Freedom pop, a UK company that sells global SIM cards for unlocked GSM devices.
Well, used as directed, the cards work.But they WANT you to buy more stuff. Then after awhile can have problems and the support people cannot help you. Wait. Itgets worse. Here comes the bad part.
FreedomPop wants you credit card number. But son you will find strange charges made to your account. Thais has happened over and  like an endless echo.
Now the kicker. They have a user forum. Yeah, a user forum.
Look here:
https://forums.freedompop.com/discussion/15991/charged-for-a-free-service
Quote

I was going to try the just the data rollover, but its says "completely free for the rest of your plan period"
So does the trial end at the same time as your billing cycle? if so then you have to cancel it before then, and then surely your data won't roll over??
If that's right then how is it a free trial? or am I missing something here?

When I downgraded my Trio SIM the day before the month's free trial ended up popped, there was the offer of 'please accept one month of rollover data as a parting gift'. When I clicked to accept the offer up popped an error message saying 'Error. Unable to process your purchase (sic)' and advising me to contact support.

I sent Freedompop a message via the main website and within half an hour I received a response. That was it, situation sorted very quickly, efficiently and first time of contact. I cannot fault them on their customer service as it was impressive......and I have worked in call centres so know what PRESSURES they can be under.
So, I complained (or more factually, I had a major dummy spitting whinge) and they apologised, rectifying the situation. No drama, no trying to avoid the situation, just bang!! and it's sorted.

was charged $12.98 for what FreedomPop says that I had the Global Plus 300 ($4.99) and Premium Plus ($7.99) service which I did not subscribe to. On their website under My Plans, it shows that I have the Global basic which shows $0.00 monthly (and NO Premium Plan). I have disputed the charge with my credit card and do not trust FreedomPop with my credit card information since they apparently charge whatever they want for their "free" service. I will ALSO post this experience to Facebook and other social media so potential customers can be warned about FreedomPop's practices.

... partnering with FreedomPop to extend its deep OPERATING relationships and knowledge of, emerging markets and telecoms which will be crucial in helping FreedomPop achieve its global targets… This announcement follows L1’s receipt of clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ('CFIUS') to complete its $50 million investment in FreedomPop," the company said in a statement.
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/business/201608301044781259-russia-fridman-startup-freedompop/

Freedom pop, a UK company

I will give FreedomPop their due, I sent an email and within half an hour received a response that I was not expecting. They have promised me a refund and I have received another email saying it is in progress. If I get the refund then I cannot fault their customer service and might reconsider the service as a whole. I rate customer service as important and you only really find out how good a company is by how it deals with problems

I sent Freedompop a message via the main website and within half an hour I received a response. That was it, situation sorted very quickly, efficiently and first time of contact. I cannot fault them on their customer service as it was impressive......and I have worked in call centres so know what pressures they can be under.

So, I complained (or more factually, I had a major whinge) and they apologised, rectifying the situation. No drama, no trying to avoid the situation, just bang!! and it's sorted.

I downgraded my sin=m before the trial period ended, and made sure there were no add ons, and have had no problems that was 3 months ago, I have never been charged on that sim, it is kept mainly as a backup

I was charged $7.99. He promised to call me back, but I have no evidence that this happened. Today I called my secret number only to find that the offices are closed. I called at 3pm CDT.

Despite all this I am a great fan of FP. Since Feb. 2016, I manage 5 accounts for family members, and I stay on top of every little detail that could cost me anything. I get the sense however that FP is over extended

I was wrong. I am sorry. 

Hello,

I am trying to install a Wanscam wireless IP home security camera inside of my mom's residence. In the Wanscam video below, they instruct that in order to activate the camera you FIRST have to connect the camera via cable to your router. But I have a wireless Internet connection and I don't have the kind of router that is shown in the video. Is there another WAY that I can activate the camera so that I can watch it on my LAPTOP?

Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnvnU67EoQo&t=173sWell, you could try going right to the source, i.e. the company, with your question.  At http://www.wanscam.com/, you see a phone # and a chat option.  A brief google search shows 10's of thousands with the same issue...can you still return it for a DIFFERENT Unit ? ?

Halla to all forum members:)Hello...How about an introduction about yourself?

HOBBIES, EDUCATION, interests, ....... anything else to SHARE that is appropriateEngineer as a education but computer FAN in the heart:)

1. Taxi trouble

When bad weather caused havoc on the roads of Britain this winter, one AA customer thought it would be safer to call a taxi than drive his own car to the station in snowy conditions. However he probably wished he had not bothered as, ironically, when the taxi pulled up outside his house it skidded and crashed into his parked car.

2. A lovers tiff

One customer had a heated argument with his girlfriend about whether it was safe for her to drive to work in the snow. In the end she stormed off, went on her way and he followed a short while later. Unfortunately, as he approached a set of red traffic lights, he skidded and collided with the rear of the car in front, which in turn hit the car in front of that.

And who happened to be in the third car? None other than the very girlfriend he had advised not to drive earlier that morning. The details do not record whether the claim was settled amicably or not!

3. Good cop car

One customer was surprised to learn his car had helped the police prevent a robbery of a jewellery store in a town some MILES away. The thieves had stolen his Land Rover to ram the roller shutter doors of a small shopping arcade where the jewellers was located.

£10 cash back on Home Insurance

However, not content to be an accessory in a robbery (and perhaps a cop car in a former life), the clever car ensured it got caught on the roller shutter, flipped itself onto its back end and wedged itself tightly in the entrance to the store. This meant the thieves were trapped like canned sardines and could do nothing but wait for the police to arrive.

4. Something rather sheepish

Another customer driving home from the pub with a friend had the fright of his life when there was an ENORMOUS thump on the roof of his car, which caved in bumping both companions on the head. The pair got out of the car just in time to see a sheep slide down the windscreen, spring on to the car bonnet and run off down the road. The sheep, it later transpired, had escaped from a transporter on the motorway that was involved in a collision.


Life cover for £1.08 a week
5. Doggy drivers

When one customer stopped his van on the side of the road to pop into his local shop and buy a newspaper, he did not expect to come out seconds later and find both his van, and the dog inside it, gone without a trace. When he asked bystanders if they had seen anything, one man remarked that he had seen a “large dog driving a van down the road”.

Somehow the dog's lead had wound itself around the gear lever and had released it. Fortunately, the van was stopped in its descent by another vehicle parked further down the hill.

6. Bad balance

One unlucky lady who was driving through woodland in her OPEN soft-top car received a nasty shock when a squirrel suddenly fell out of a tree above and into her car. In its panic to escape, the squirrel scampered over her in the car causing her to run off the road into a tree. Unwilling to hang around and make a witness statement, the uncoordinated squirrel shot up a nearby tree and vanished.

7. Toilet trouble

One motorist was left rather red faced when, after stopping in the woods late one night to “relieve himself”, he emerged from behind a tree to find his car had gone. In a panic he called the police and his insurer to report the theft and his Dad who came to rescue him. But the night was not over yet!

During the short journey home with his Dad the car managed to break down, forcing them to call for assistance. Later, when father and son poured out the events of the night to the AA Patrolman, he became puzzled by the fact that although the chap was only about 20 feet from his car he did not hear it start up. Acting on a hunch, they all returned to the “scene of the crime” only to find wheel tracks disappearing down a grass bank where his car was waiting patiently at the bottom.

Oh, so that is what the handbrake is for…

8. You snooze, you lose

When one customer parked his camper van on the beach to enjoy the view and a nice nap, he certainly did not expect to wake up to find his feet wet and someone in a boat banging on the window to rescue him. The tide had come in while he was asleep, and although he was safely rescued, the van sank without a trace.

9. Off your trolley

Another unfortunate lady calmly informed AA that her bonnet had been badly damaged after “several airborne shopping trolleys came flying towards her”. The offending trolleys had apparently fallen off the back of a delivery lorry.

10. Two in one

This final story apparently had the AA call centre in stitches. Two drivers tried to turn into a parking space at the same time and got jammed against cars on EITHER side. Stuck FAST and unable to open the doors, the fire brigade had to rescue them – while an audience of about a hundred people stood around laughing at them. Luckily they saw the funny side too!

Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone here could help me with SOMETHING that doesn't really fit anywhere else.

My partner and I have been running a small graphic design company for about a year now. It's getting to the point where operating out of my spare room is no longer acceptable and we're looking into getting a small office space in town to look a bit more professional

I was wondering if anyone here could point me in the direction of someone to design our office for us? We have a bit of capitol saved up and we WANT to invest it in something that looks good. Us working in a visual medium, we both agreed that would be a smart thing to do. I've been looking into these guys, but still looking around http://www.sensyst.com/index.php/office-interior-design/

Thanks for reading!
Chloe
Depending on budget and appearance you are looking for, and what the landlord will allow for changes in the business space a general contractor can usually do with whatever you suggest for the layout as long as it doesnt violate any codes.

I had an office space for a few years for computer repair business in a plaza that had rent that was almost too good to be TRUE. A commercial location for just $550 a month for a space that was 25ft x 40ft which included heat, but not electricity. Given the tight budget, I ended up buying 2nd or 3rd hand office furnature that was lightly used and some of which looked new through a local company that was downsizing at prices of 25% of the cost new for it all so a savings of 75% over buying new. I was able to put up cubicle walls quickly, install desks, chairs, build my own counter top for POS and have a small seating area just in case I had more than1 customer in at a time waiting for a computer upgrade etc. I was able to do this for around $1300, which would have cost me closer to $6000 if all bought new.

All was well until the PRICE of computers dropped and people started to buy new computers vs upgrade their old computers, and the landlord baited me in at $550 a month and within 6 months started asking for more and more money as the lease was a quarterly agreement, so I eventually closed shop when I was no longer making healthy profits, but was barely breaking even, which if I operated longer could have gone into the red.

Best of all, I was able to sell the office furnature and cubicle walls etc for $1000 so for $300 I got almost 3 years of use out of it. And there was no alterations to the commercial space that I rented so I didnt leave any money behind for the landlord to use as a incentive for future tenants.

What is the best or worst rumor you read about a XP SP4 release?
That topic was popular a couple of years ago. But I just saw one that SAID they will do nit in 2014.  Have you saw  a recent one? If not, make up one!

The only rule  is this: You must be wrong! If you are right, you lose!

SP4 is being rolled out on Update Tuesday in December. Why are you humoring him ? ?I don't know, patio.While there wont be a SP4, it would be nice though if they offered a last and finall Rollup for Windows XP SP3, so that those who want to keep a redist updater for Windows XP can do so without having to get all the updates from Microsoft.

I have a folder on an external drive that I keep my slipsteam ISO's, Service Packs, and Redist Packages on and it would be nice to have an offline method to patching Windows XP to full service packs and all security patches vs just pushing service packs to a clean install of XP and then having to connect to Microsoft to perform the additional patches that waste time in downloading installing and reboot, and then downloading more, and installing, and a reboot, and just when you think your finally patched you have 3 more out of the 137 updates since clean install.

With Windows 2000 Pro SP4, there was a Rollup at the end of its life that covered all patches if my memory is correct, so that you didnt need to waste time going through the process which included downloading the patches etc.

If there was only a way to slipstream and XP install ISO with all service packs + patches + browser updates, etc Quote from: DaveLembke on October 15, 2013, 05:25:45 PM

If there was only a way to slipstream and XP install ISO with all service packs + patches + browser updates, etc

There is, see www.ninite.com (other ways are available, Ninite is one I've used many times successfully).

I found it was a godsend for installing XP on systems where XP didn't have the storage driver, sure beats messing around with floppy disks.

FACEPALM

This article was published earlier this year. So it is not news. But it is something you may find very informative. Forbes magazine has some credibility. Lots of People read it. Here is basically what thy said back in April:
Quote

This could be the year you get hacked … and it is going to GENERALLY be a tough year for computer security whether it’s on the consumer side or the corporate side.

Another flaw in the design of many consumer routers with built-in WiFi access points is that they still support WiFi Protected Access (WPA). WPA is where you press a button on the back of your router and enter a short code in your PC or tablet’s connection wizard and, voila! Your device is connected, theoretically, securely. Back in 2011 it was demonstrated that WPS could be hacked by a simple brute force method but the router manufacturers still provide the feature!

At issue is a technology called “Wi-Fi Protected Setup” (WPS) that ships with many routers marketed to consumers and small businesses. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry group, WPS is “designed to ease the task of SETTING up and configuring security on wireless local area networks. WPS enables typical users who POSSESS little understanding of traditional Wi-Fi configuration and security settings to AUTOMATICALLY configure new wireless networks, add new devices and enable security.”

2013 will be yet another year of growth in online threats and that growth promises to be biblical. Now is the time to rethink your security and remedial strategies because its quite likely that in the next few months you’ll find yourself so overwhelmed by security problems that there will be no time for forward thinking.

Have a GREAT ONE !

Anyone else seein this on their end the last 2 days ? ?No problems here.

Only slowness I have seen is at www.electronicspoint.com but I just joined up with them 2 weeks ago and not sure where their web presence is from so MAY be just latency if Australia ETC as I see some people with large post counters from Australia and New Zealand.I haven't had any problems here...Nathan was WORKING on it a couple of weeks ago TRYING to "speed things up" and he said that his efforts actually had a SLIGHTLY negative effect. I'm guessing he was able to correct things. Right now it seems fine but yes, it does have periods when it's a bit slow.Interesting.  I've definitely not noticed any slowdowns at all on CH recently.Yesterday and Wednesday are the only days i saw it...seems to be fine this morning.
I had no issues at other sites and Speedtest results were normal...above normal actually.

Cheap Prepaid Phones with Internet by the month.

Found on Lifehacker. You can afford a low-cost smartphone with  internet and no contract. If service goes bad, just stop and switch.  Pay for only what you want.
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-find-the-best-prepaid-plan-and-ditch-your-contra-485042945

Even tho the article favors the USA, some reader comments from the UK are interesting.
I was tempted to move this to SPAM...

I'll leave it up for now.Product/Activation may be cheap. Minutes and data come at a premium... QUOTE from: patio on September 30, 2013, 03:39:44 PM

I was tempted to move this to SPAM...

I'll leave it up for now.

The freedom of not signing a contract is great, but it has its own drawbacks, and may not be ideal for every situation. You might be interested if:
    You have an unlocked phone (and enjoy upgrading it frequently).
    You're looking to save some money and don't mind managing your usage.
    You need a burner for work/travel outside of your current network.
If you are currently in the middle of a two-year contract and considering jumping ship, take a look at our guide to avoiding termination fees for some tips.

Product/Activation may be cheap. Minutes and data come at a premium...

You have an unlocked phone (and enjoy upgrading it frequently).

TestNo

You are MISSED...R.I.P.RIP BUDDY!RIP, GREATLY missed...

R.I.P. street1...we miss you.

patio.Ah, yes, Street1 was a DELIGHTFUL MEMBER of the forum. RIP, you are STILL MISSED.

This would be posted in news, but it is a somewhat hard to follow because of the 'smoke and mirrors' of the big telecommunications monopolies. So I haven to snake it simple to explain what is going on here.

Verizon has a service called 'Voice LINK' that is a poor replacement for copper wire. Of course, that is not how they present it. The truth is the technology is retro grade to the extreme. It is a low grade radio service much inferior to copper wire. It is almost as if the phone company ripped out your landmine and gave you an old CB radio as a replacement.
For reference, here is a very recent link about the problem. Of cousrse, the problem is not new, just the review was on August 7 of this year.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/fiber-optic
Yes, the report e is about fiber optic. It is how they did not get fiber optic tat had been promised yeas gone by.
Just ask the people in New York and New Jersey about this.
Quote

The irony in all of this is that Verizon failed to properly upgrade the entire plant with fiber optic services and yet collected money to do so -- billions per state. We discussed the situation in New Jersey where the entire state was to be upgraded to fiber and Verizon collected billions to do it. New York State's laws are somewhat DIFFERENT. However, in 2009, the New York State Department of Public Service increased basic rates to pay for massive fiber optic upgrades

So I haven to snake it simple to explain what is going on here.

It is almost as if the phone company ripped out your landmine and gave you an old CB radio as a replacement.

This is for you family members that need pictures and not much text.
A history of Windows
Highlights from the FIRST 25 YEARS
They did miss some details.  Is this about how you wanted that crappy DR DOS to be usable with Windows or something? Quote from: BC_Programmer on August 25, 2013, 08:52:12 PM

Is this about how you wanted that crappy DR DOS to be usable with Windows or something?

Hope you have a Great ONE ! !Hey Dave - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

That is a trick title.But In fact, Gates made fun of Google's  idea of using balloons to spread the internet to remote areas. Sounds like a REAL JOKE. But Gates is working, KINDA, with Google. At least his money is.
This article was published in September, 2013.
Quote

Gates doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Google on the topic of spreading Internet connectivity around the world — recently poking fun at Google’s plan to use a network of balloons to provide Internet access to developing nations. But two of their portfolio companies are very much on the same page.
An agreement announced this week between Kymeta (whose investors include Gates) and O3B Networks (whose investors include Google) calls for the companies to develop prototype terminals based on Kymeta’s beam-steering antennas (pictured at right), connecting to SATELLITES launched by O3B to provide Internet service around the world.

Hello! I wanted to ask people here who own some sort of business, what sort of promotion do you do for your product/service? I've only been using online social media since it's relatively easy but it doesn't ALWAYS get to the target audience I'm TRYING to reach so I'll be trying sms marketing with Silverstreet for a few weeks. Has anyone tried SOMETHING like that? Are there any other 'non-traditional' channels of marketing that are WORTH trying out if you don't have money for TV ads and that sort of stuff?

Please move this if in the wrong place.
This happened on my Windows 7 64 bit PC, a Dell GX520.
I went to the site in the title and never got a free movie after doing a couple of downloads. Then I saw a disclaimer clawing they do not do what Google says they do.  Google had them down  as a free movie download site. The site advertises some recent movies and says you can watch it or download it after you complete an offer. Well, I did and it didn't.

So what is this? another way to circulate ad ware? Do I now need to do a anti-spuware scan on my Windows 7 PC?
Quote from: Geek-9pm on June 12, 2013, 01:09:24 PM

Then I saw a disclaimer clawing they do not do what Google says they do.  Google had them down  as a free movie download site. The site advertises some recent movies and says you can watch it or download it after you complete an offer. Well, I did and it didn't.

So what is this? another way to circulate ad ware? Do I now need to do a anti-spuware scan on my Windows 7 PC?

Maybe you KNOW all about this. But I missed this story from last year.
Microsoft begins phasing out Starter edition of its Office suite
Quote

Microsoft is rumored to be beefing up Office Web Apps significantly with the Office 2013 (codenamed Office 15) suite. While preview code for the LOCAL versions of the Office 2013 apps has leaked out since the start of this year, there has been very little leaked information about what Microsoft has done to tweak Office Web Apps with the COMING release. There is believed to be a new Office Web Apps Server coming as part of the Office 2013 release.

Hi,

I have an MP3 music file that I want to use as a ringtone for my cell phone. The only problem is that the file is 3 MB, and my phone rejects the file as being too large. How can I reduce this file by two thirds, and only have the first third left?

Thanks!

-cinque8You can use iTunes to import it, and then burn it to a CD, and then rip it back from the CD as a lesser quality probably lower than 128k for free - the cost of burning a CD. Windows MEDIA Player can also rip it back as low quality in preferences from the CD, but the CD has to be in CD Audio Format, same format as can play in CD players, and not MP3 format or it wont work.

OR

Get a double Male Stereo Phono cable and plug it from headphone jack to microphone jack and set speaker volume to around 40% and play it with windows media player and use a audio RECORDER application to record from microphone jack and save as MP3 of a low sample rate of LESS than 128k.



All other ways of doing it require software that cost MONEY. I am not aware of a free audio editor tool that can do it. I have a few audio editors that can do it but they cost $50 for the cheapest tool that has all sorts of audio editing abilities.

I'd offer to convert it for you with software I have, but transfer of the song to me would look like piracy, and I cant have anything to do with anything illegal. Quote from: DaveLembke on September 03, 2013, 07:30:17 PM

All other ways of doing it require software that cost money. I am not aware of a free audio editor tool that can do it.

The Author lists 35 things. But I cut the list done to just three things you may have yet to try.
Here is the short list...
...
35. Make cash with live PC support
You may be used to helping people solve their PC problems, so why not use your knowledge to earn a little extra cash? You'll need a WEBSITE with FTP access and MySQL support. Install LiveZilla to add live chat, where site visitors can click a button to open a chat window on your PC.
Then sign up at PayPal, go to the Merchant Services tab and create a 'Buy Now' button with your charges. Integrate this with the LiveZilla button (instructions are here) and people will only be able to chat if they pay first.
...
25. Get a premium bonds payout!
There's nothing that helps more to truly change your life than a fat wedge of cash – and it could be out there waiting for you already. Each year millions of pounds of prizes go unclaimed by Premium Bond WINNERS. As there is no time limit on CLAIMING – the prize is held until the winner is tracked down – you won't have missed out if you moved house without updating your Premium bond details.
There are over 400,000 prizes still waiting to be claimed, and the oldest dates back to the first draw in June 1957 – so it's well WORTH checking whether you're one of the lucky ones at www.nsandi.com.
...
24. Rearrange your living space
Ever wondered whether your front room would look better with the sofa under the window? Website www.roomfulexpress.icovia.com helps you to make a simple plan of your room and its furniture and then let you experiment with how different rearrangements would work, all without putting your back out.
Room design
Simply drag furniture icons onto your roomplan before resizing and rotating them to match your current living arrangements. Once you've got a plan of your room you can save it, meaning that if you fancy rearranging everything all over again in the future, help is just a login away.
...
Those are the ones I like BEST!
Click her for the Full List.
Methinks Geek has found his tips on a UK site. Premium Bonds are a kind of savings lottery program run by the UK Government. You purchase "bonds" in units of one hundred UK pounds, maximum holding £30,000 for one individual, and one month after purchase they become eligible for a monthly draw, with prizes ranging from 50 pounds to 1 million pounds. The difference from ordinary lotteries is that you are not risking the purchase price of the bonds, only the interest you would have got if you had invested the money in a regular savings account. You can cash them in at any time. Prizes are exempt from UK income tax. Possible drawbacks for non-UK residents are that (1) participation in the Premium Bond program is designed for taxpayers in the United Kingdom. If you live outside the U.K., you will need to draw funds from a U.K. financial institution. (2) You may not apply for bonds online from any country, state or territory where participation in online lotteries is prohibited. Winning is not guaranteed, although people say that if you hold the maximum permitted you stand to get around 2% per year back in small prizes (The prize fund each month is determined by the current interest rates)

Motorola X is a NEW super smartphone. Should be super. Google is doing TV  ads for the new wonder phone. The ads are dull.
Having trouble going to sleep?
Take a look Scroll down to see the video.

Google's first two TV ads for exciting Moto X: Amazingly dull

This is from Forbes.
Skip Silicon Valley: Why Smart Startups Start In Europe.

Despite having studied at Stanford University, worked for start-ups in Silicon Valley like Linkexchange and Tellme networks, spent four years at eBay in California in product MANAGEMENT, and been an investor at ACCEL Partners, a venture capital firm with roots in Silicon Valley, I made the conscious decision with my co-founder to build our fashion ecommerce start-up, Boticca.com in London.
.....

Boticca.com is located in Covent Garden, Central London.
 Avid Larizadeh, Contributor  to Forbes, explains why smart companies no LONGER start in California. They go to Europe, if not Asia.
Here is Her Story in Forbes.
I think she has it right. What do you think?I think she is right. Europe has a lot of advantages and London is a LEADING WORLD city.

Do you have a 64 bit CPU? Can it really get to any 64 bit address? or does it quit at 48 bits? Take a look at this:
From Wikipedia, 48-bit computing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/48-bit_computing
So there is such a thing? YES!
Then what is 64 bit computing?
Why do 64 bit systems have only a 48 bit address space? (Stack Overflow)
Can we protest? Did we pay for 64 and only get 48? If this is not corrected soon, we could be in real  trouble. For example, the world debt, in dollars and cents, might go beyond the limit of 48 bit integers. Would that present a problem? If not, why not?
Curious minds need to know.





As a Stack Overflow responder said,

Quote

48 bits give you an address space of 256 terabyte. That's a lot. You're not going to see a system which needs more than that any time soon.

So CPU manufacturers TOOK a shortcut. They use an instruction set which allows a full 64-bit address space, but current CPUs just only use the lower 48 bits. The alternative was wasting transistors on handling a bigger address space which wasn't going to be needed for many years.

So once we get near the 48-bit limit, it's just a matter of releasing CPUs that handle the full address space, but it won't require any changes to the instruction set, and it won't break compatibility.

Do you have a 64 bit CPU?

can it really get to any 64 bit address?

Then what is 64 bit computing?

Can we protest? Did we pay for 64 and only get 48?

If this is not corrected soon, we could be in real  trouble. For example, the world debt, in dollars and cents, might go beyond the limit of 48 bit integers. Would that present a problem? If not, why not?

But if the 8086 was a 24 bit address machine  instead of 20 bit, things would have been very interesting b sack in the DOS days. Hindsight.

Still, I don't see having 16 more address lines would be a waste. It could open the door to new kinds of devices that run from the address lines.

I can think of a specific application where having all 64 lines available could serve a esoteric  device that could attach to  the motherboard.  It wound be a memory mapped  video card that can play games only from one software vendor.

But how big is 48 bit addressing? What if they didn56 bit addressing? Only 8 more little wires. They could shoe it in somewhere.

The idea I gave to Salmon Trout could work. Each graphics maker could have his own direct memory 16GB graphics area in the upper part of the 64 bit array. Each graphics card could be made with very unique Hardware and Proprietary software.

Another, Universal Database:
One could imagine a database that would use the additional address lines to get to external data. All the data in the world could be assigned a place in the 64 bit address space. When you make a query, the address lines  esoteric device would send a message to a massive super internet that could instantly convert the address into a website IPs  and provide the data you requested. Or maybe the address lines would be the actual IP address.

Really, they add extra cores. They could add 16 more wires. Hey! there is an idea! a quad CPU with each having nits own path into the upper  memory area.

What would you do with a CPU that can physically reach into a 64 bit space.? Or even 56?

Or, Why do you think 48 bit will always be enough?

I dunno if any of you happen to remember me, I doubt it ><

All I know was that I thought I was the awesomest computer person to ever exist or SOMETHING, and then I came here and I realized I KNEW NOTHING. XD At any rate, here I am again, with a little bit more knowledge than last time. I dunno how LONG I'm staying around but you know, whatever ><WELCOME back.

This s a collection of stories from last year. So it is not current News, but you should want to follow the links and see what the fuss was.
(I have not used the quote thing. It is ugly.) t It should be obvious these are quotes.

Smartphones make Top Health Tech Hazards

Battery Case for Smartphone Recalled Due to Fire Hazard
The CPSC and Health Canada recently announced a voluntary recall of smartphone battery case due to an overheating risk when charging, posing a fire threat.
http://www.strquality.com/en-us/newsevents/Pages/Smartphone-Recall-Battery-Case.aspx

Lithium-Ion Battery Hazards
Oct. 7, 2012 R. Thomas Long, P.E., Michael Kahn, Ph. D., and Celina Mikolajczak, P.E.
http://magazine.sfpe.org/content/lithium-ion-battery-hazards

The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) completed an assessment of the hazards associated with Li-ion batteries related to storage of Li-ion batteries and fire protection; this article provides a brief overview of this work to-date.1 Before the global fire safety challenges associated with Li-ion batteries can be addressed, an understanding of Li-ion technology is useful ...

From an individual case:

 like to post an instance that occurred since back in March. On a Sunday morning, I plugged in the micro USB to a Nokia E7-00 I got since Oct. 2011 to start my ROUTINE e-mail checking. About 2minutes later when I touch the micro USB plu on the phone, it was boiling hot! Facing this abnormal temperature, I immediately unplug the mciro USB from the phone. Guess what! The micro USB cable socket and the socket on the phone start to burn! Inexperienced with such an emergency situation, I put out the fire with my own finger! (So, hospital I went, of course! Yet, the pain caused by the burn discouraged me from using any keyboard for 2 weeks!)

What happen next is the painful PROCEDURE dealing with the phone maker:
NoKIA. (by the way, sounds like: (NoCare))
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056726049

For more, search : Smart Phone Hazards

This is recent and you have to read it.:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/technology/130326/dirty-smartphones-ted-smith-toxins-gadgetsI heard cars are pretty dangerous too. Quote from: Carbon Dudeoxide on April 11, 2013, 08:11:56 PM

I heard cars are pretty dangerous too.

Geek this is absolutely terrible news...especially given the fact you stated that phones are replacing PC's...
Now what on Earth do we do ? ?

Ted Smith , Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Founder
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006
Improving the environmental health and safety practices of the global electronics industry
Silicon Valley may be ground zero for innovation, but it was also a potential environmental disaster area in 1982 when Ted Smith founded the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition in response to the public health threat created by hazardous groundwater contamination from high-tech manufacturing facilities in San Jose.

After organizing the community to clean up the groundwater contamination, the Coalition pressured computer and electronics manufacturers to make more environmentally friendly choices and use cleaner production methods. Hewlett Packard and Dell Computers led the industry in actively promoting the Coalition's Computer TakeBack Campaign, which Smith started in 1997 to get computer companies to recycle obsolete computers appropriately.

The "Dirty Dozen"
aldrin ¹
chlordane ¹
dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT)¹
dieldrin¹
endrin¹
heptachlor¹
hexachlorobenzene ¹,²
mirex¹
toxaphene¹
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) ¹,²
polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins²(dioxins)
polychlorinated dibenzofurans² (furans)
1-Intentionally Produced.
2-Unintentionally Produced - Result from some industrial processes and combustion.
For more information, see table below.
http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/pop.html

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes.[1] Because of this, they have been observed to persist in the environment, to be capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue, biomagnify in food chains,[1] and to have potential significant impacts on human health and the environment

But the mining industry, world wide, continues to harm people.

What about rare earth minerals ? ?
Why are my flourescent light bulbs so expensive now ? ?