Sip

I have used both PHP and MySql ... just enough to get a small forum up and running ... not much messing around with MySql other an compiling and running it under Solaris and also configuring it. PHP, I've modified a few scripts here and there and looks to be like a fairly standard deal ... I am guessing it would take a few days to look up things in a manual to be confident enough to start writing stuff.

quote:Originally posted by Boghos:... BTW Sip Velcro was invented in Switzerland. Wow thanks. I had no idea! In any case, strike that stupid thing off the list. I just read "Velcro’s® name is derived from the French velours (velvet) and crochet (hook)." ... I think we should call it "freedom ties". (just joking of course ) [ March 31, 2003, 10:31 AM: Message edited by: Sip ]

Arpa jan, I guess you and I have something in common now! Here's something that REALLY made me laugh today. So I asked my little brother to see if he knew what LOL meant. He said, it stands for loling out loud http://zr2.cs.ucla.edu/Sip/zr2/roflmao.gif Talk about a recursive definition

quote:Originally posted by hyebruin:This is an example of what men are...selfish bastards who are only interested in sex... Ok, let's see now. "Shoes are just like men". "Men are selfish bastards who are only interested in sex". Therefore, we can conclude that shoes are selfish bastards who are only interested in sex. Well, one thing's for sure. I will not look at another shoe the same way as I used to [ March 30, 2003, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

quote:Originally posted by Stormy:...This is a bad war, because it has nothing to do with the defense of the United States of America. Iraq doesn't have weapons of mass destruction. The Bush Administration has pulled an enormous lie to the international community; to the American people. I was somewhat in agreement with this guy until I read that ... what a whacko!!!! OF COURSE Iraq has weapons of mass destruction! Of course the US knows that Sadam has them. Why? Cause guess who gave it to Sadam?!!!!! But yah, it seems like most people here had assumed US will just waltz in and will be embraced with open arms by the Iraqi people. Anyone who has ever spent any time in the region should know that is the farthest thing from truth. People get shocked here when they hear of "suicide" bombs ... it is a very foreign concept to them for example that someone could jump on a dirt bike and just charge a mine field in battle ... clearing a few of the exploding mines until that one that brings him to a stop but closer to his ultimate wonderul faith of being with Allah. ... and then there are these sorry-ass FREAKS here who are bitching and complaining about the use of dolphins to find the mines at sea. [ March 30, 2003, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

quote:Originally posted by Domino: Ah BTW, whats a pre-fetching circuitry ? For Domino: I am going to assume you know what caches are for. Basically, anytime the processor needs something which is in RAM, there is a big performance penalty since it takes a lot of time to access something from RAM. You have caches to minimize this penalty by keeping frequently accessed things in small high-speed memories that can be accessed quickly. If the processor asks for something which is not in the cache, then there is a cache-miss and it has to be fetched from memory. The idea with pre-fetching is to extend this even more ... now the pre-fetching logic will try to figure out (guess) what the processor may need, and try to get it (prefetch it) from RAM, before the processor actually asks for it! For example if you see that the processor is processing something on an array and is requesting sequential blocks from memory, you can prefetch the next block into the cache hoping that the processor will ask for it soon. Let me know if you want more details.

But I have to admit this new hyper-threading stuff sounds pretty cool. SMP (symmetric multi-processing) didn't take off for the average desktop but I can see a lot of advantages of hyper-threading for the average PC user.

I somehow doubt Pentium and Pentium 4 have much in common other than just the name. It would be interesting to know exactly how much of the original Pentium design is there in Pentium 4.

quote:Originally posted by nairi:... k@nstes k@lres?

Hey, I just realized "stormy" and "vava" yield a 98% success probability ... hmmmmmmmmmmmm

quote:Originally posted by Domino:Azat, warranties don't cover such kind of things. Sounds like someone's talking from experience!!!! That pic is great Azat

WOW Anyone watching Kobe and the Laker game? I don't believe what I am seeing!!!!!!!!!!! This is just unbelievable

I am NOT making this up ... I told a joke to my little bro a couple of months ago and he immediately started screaming: LOLOLOLOL ROFL ROFL ROZLMAO I was to embarassed to ask what ROZLMAO was and I still don't know. I sometimes have trouble communicating in real life since I can't use things like ... it can be very awkward since people can't tell if I'm joking or being serious.

quote:Originally posted by Domino:Thoth, you don't have to build it yourself, the place where you purchase it usually does it for you. I hate to pay for a computer when I can't chose each one of the pieces in. And how exactly do you do the choosing? Do you ever ask what the cache architecture is on the processor? Do you look at TLB buffer sizes? Do you ask whether there is pre-fetching circuitry or if there is any pre-decode instruction cache to speed things up? Would you choose a 2-way set associative 2-bank 64K L1 cache or a fully associative 1-bank 32K L1 setup if both have similar L2 caches? Do you look at the specifics of the north or southbridge chipset used on the motherboard? How about the DRAM ... do you check anything other than the latency? Do you at least count the number of "modules" on the board as some people do? How about ECC or parity? Would you go with DDR SDRAM, ESDRAM, RDRAM, SLDRAM? What exactly is the difference anyway? Basically, what I am trying to get at, is the way some of these questions sounded to you, is probably how "video card", "sound card", "IDE", "SCSI" sound to a person who wants to buy a "computer" [ March 28, 2003, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

quote:Originally posted by Domino:Seaphan, what if you don't want one or two pieces in that comp. what do you do ? Well, I personally have always put together my own stuff ... but it's definitely not something I recommend to anyone. The other thing is, when you buy a PC you end up paying for software licenses too since they come "prepackaged" with some OS. It doesn't matter that you want to put linux on it or that you get the OS for free from school. You still have to pay for it. But it's not like they add 20% to the cost of the PC for their profits ... they really don't have much profit especially on the low-end and sub-$1000 machines. One thing I don't like about buying "retail" is that sometimes they have integradted audio/video etc on the motherboard. I always like to have separate components to upgrade myself but again, to someone who is only going to post on hyeforum, check email, and do taxes once a year, I don't think that makes a difference

quote:Originally posted by Domino:Why anyone would buy a desktop with a compagny trademark and be limited with what they offer as a compleat product, and pay 20 % more because it has "Dell etc..." printed on it ? That use d to be true but I don't think it's true anymore. The profit margins on PCs are very very very very small. This means if you are not buying their high-end stuff, you are getting an extremely good deal. Lady-o-Grace: Dell, Gateway, HP (same as Compaq) are ALL good. You basically get what you pay for with these companies. You should ofcourse shop around and compare prices at different stores but you will notice that most prices are fairly standard on PCs. You should look around for rebates because that is the only way to get a "better" deal. For the type of stuff that you are going to be doing, basically ANY PC would do. I would recommend getting one which comes with a cd-recorder since that's always nice to have. Stay away from the really really cheap stuff. Stay away from eMachines (company). I recently bought THIS for my parents for $589 with $50 rebate. It's an excellent machine and is probably exactly what you want. Note that you will need to buy a monitor and speakers separately for this but that is an excellent price. Dell has comparable PCs but if you want something against which to compare features, that is a good start. If you have any questions about what exactly all those things mean, feel free to ask

quote:Originally posted by vava:I burn CDs nearly 3x a week on my laptop. I also watch DVDs in bed with my girlfriend - so it all depends on what you use it for. Hehehe ... I thought I was the only one who referred to his laptop as his girlfriend quote:Originally posted by hyebruin:Wow, Seaphan! I feel so good having read your post! I, too have a DELL, part of the program here but guess what? in the end it's going to cost us about $2,600!! because it counts as tuition each semester! Did someone say tax deduction (or credit)? quote:Originally posted by hyebruin:Here's a question? the fan! is it for cooling down the system? and what in the world is ethernet? Yup. The fan is for cooling. You will notice it will turn on when you use the system a lot and should go off if the system is left "idle". You can save battery power by slowing down most laptops ... not only will it use less power since it's slower, it will also use less power since it won't need the fans to cool itself off (chips gets significantly hotter if they are made to run fast and do a lot of computation). Ethernet: yes, it is basically a very common form of networking ... i.e. connecting a bunch of PCs together with wires. In most buildings (like schools), there will be an ethernet backbone to which you can connect a laptop PC using a network wire (looks like a bigger telephone wire). Now, there are a lot of new technologies for doing wireless networking. So instead of using wires like traditional ethernet, they use a small radio antenna and transmit like that. A lot of schools and offices are now equipped with this type of wireless networking so it's good to have it on a laptop. For example at UCLA, now you can take your laptop and pretty much go anywhere in Boelter hall and you'll be connected to the network. They are also working on making this available in the entire campus! So you can sit in Kerchoff for example and surf the web on your laptop with no wires

Big difference between my Dell (1.2 Ghz) and Sony R505TSK 850Mhz is the NOISE level. When the fan kicks in on the Sony (pretty much all the time) it is sooooo fricking loud. I can't take it to class or a meeting because of all the noise. The dell, you can't even tell there is a fan there ... but actually I think it has 2!!! Things you should look for: 1) Built-in modem 2) Built-in ethernet network 3) VGA-out port (for doing presentations) 4) TV-out is nice but not necessary (mine has it) 5) Battery life... it will make a big difference ... buy them with extra-capacity batteries as opposed to just standard. 6) CD Recorder/DVD player is not that big a deal on a laptop. I have never used the DVD player and I usually burn CDs on my home machine. Assuming the laptop is not going to be your main PC. 7) 256MB RAM should be enough. 512 is good. 8) CPU speed doesn't matter. Save your money on this if you can get more RAM or bigger disk/battery. 9) Anything over 20Gigs is good enough for a laptop. Of course bigger is better 10) It's nice to have both a touch-pad and the small joystick type mouse. 11) USB connections are VERY good to have. 12) Firewire may come in handy. Sony's have them (they call it iLink). Dell's usually dont. 13) If you can get one with built-in wireless ethernet, that's a BIG plus!!!! It's nice to have wireless connectivity ... I just use an add-on card with mine. 14) Don't waste money for a docking station. I'll post more if I think of anything else.

Go with Dell. I have had several laptops in the past few years ... I used to love Sonys but all I can tell you right now, is stay away from the new ones. They seem to use substandard parts... we have had several different ones at UCLA whose hard disks have died ... one had the LCD display go out. Right now, I have a DELL Lattitude (big one!) with a 14" screen and CD recorder DVD player etc and I just love it. Good thing was, I got it for "free" from intel (part of a fellowship) but this thing kicks arse. Battery lasts more than 6 hours!!! Maybe even 8 hours if I am careful!!!! Anyway, dell is good right now. You can't really go wrong with them ... I know quite a few people that have different ones at UCLA. It is going to depend entirely on how much you can spend and what features you are looking for. Also, you can't really beat their warrantee either ... I've never had to use it but I have heard very good things about them.

WOW! If that really works, I have to say it's really really impressive!!!!!! --- Edit: I especially meant that last one with the scanner. [ March 27, 2003, 05:17 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

Well, I won't argue with you there My only point was that I believe Powell's quote, I think, really captures how the american people in general feel here.

What's so strange is that a huge portion of this nation actually believes and lives by CNN's version of things. Sure, the politicians may be corrupt (it comes with the territory) ... sure there are a lot of ugly politics going on in the world ... but if you want to "meet the US", you should also meets it's people who don't hesitate to open their hearts and wallets to help whenever the world asks for something ... and they don't hesitate to send their sons and daughters to their deaths for something they believe in their minds to be "right". I'll give you a simple example about the true US: When you drive on the streets here, most people FOLLOW THE LAWS .. they stay in their own lane, stop at stop signs, stop and red lights, etc! I mean yes, this sounds like a rediculous example but I think it is truely symbolic of the kind of mentality people have ... they do believe in doing what is "right". Of course there are the bad apples, but I am talking in general. I can't say this about too many other nations which I have lived in. These are GOOD people. They really think they are doing the right thing. They are genuienly concerned about the rest of the world at times (I am talking about the average "joe"). But the rest of the world doesn't necessarily get to see this. I certainly didn't see it before I came here and experienced it first hand. I did grow up hearing and cheering death to America in school. But average american is not the selfish, ignorant, wastefull, lazy, dumb-ass that the world believes him or her to be. [ March 27, 2003, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

I don't know guys ... call me unethical but if I am in a situation where some guy has pulled a gun and is going to rob me, then kill me, then rape my wife and then kill her too, I think I wouldn't hesitate to kill that guy myself. And you know what, I think in that case I am justified in doing so. Why? 1) There will only be one death instead of two. 2) This guy will most likely not rob, rape, or kill anyone else after he's dead. 3) My wife won't get raped and I'm sure she'll be happy about that. 4) you really need more reasons? So now, assuming you're not going to argue with me philosophically on this obvious case, I don't think it's hard to extrapolate from this and make a case for the validity of capital punishment in certain situations. [ March 27, 2003, 02:42 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

I thought you can't really have a "meet the US" thread without this really cool quote by Powell. I just thought the quote itself was very well put. Supposedly when in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if the US plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush. He answered by saying that, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return." It became very quiet in the room.

quote:Originally posted by Domino:I have a sentation of Deja vu, like if I already have asked this question and had the same answer... This is so strange cause I had the exact same feeling!!!! So I looked and found The Thread. The funny thing is I could have sworn I've called you a witch somewhere before and demanded we burn you ... not sure if that's Deja vu or not But in any case, who would be interested in talking about stuff other than computers anyway? [ March 27, 2003, 02:05 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]