Jeff.Donohue

What's Booth's First Law, then?

But how many independent contractors were on the second death star when it got blown up?

I think this makes perfect sense. Of course, my name isn't really Jeff Donohue, I just play him on TV.

Actually, I outsourced myself to India. That was probably a bad move from a satisfaction standpoint, but I'm way cheaper than I used to be.

Dave, Wow... I have system envy. That thing must FLY. Don't leave it on too long, though, it might become self-aware.

My spectacular melt down killed both the chip and the motherboard, so it was about a $500 loss. Watercooling sounds scary, but it's improved over the last few years, so that now one of the Thermaltake systems will not be all that hard to install. It used to be that people would sort of cobble them together from spare car parts, but I always thought that was way more hardcore than I ever wanted to get. The off the shelf Thermaltake units are pretty easy, but you'll spend time simply pouring the water in (it's like filling a ziplock bag with water by using a dropper). If water scares you, you can also find good quality heat sinks by searching places like www.newegg.com (although read the reviews with caution, I'm told that Newegg deletes many bad reviews). Just don't trust the Intel heat sinks, and take the temperature readings very seriously (find out what the specs are for your chip from the manual and don't stress them). This is doubly true if you want to overclock (force the chip to run faster than its advertized operating rate). (If you are doing that, don't do it out of the box, get the system stable and then work your way up). The funny part about it is that I'm not really a tech guy (I'm a lawyer by trade), and if I can do it, a narcoleptic chimpanzee probably can.

I agree with Outlawphx entirely. The reason to build one is NOT to save money (you will spend more, guaranteed). The only reason to do it is, well, to get the experience of building it. If you like tinkering with stuff, it's fun... One other thing, to echo outlawphx's comments, you want to spend a little time before you buy making sure of the compatibility of the motherboard, processor, and memory, in particular. You might have buggy problems with the peripherals, but you will absolutely beat your head against a wall if the basics of the system don't assemble).

It's pretty easy, although what you discover when you do it is how important the cooling systems are. You don't think about stuff like fans and heat sinks when you talk about computers, but it turns out that they end up being hugely important. I built a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz monster that was supposedly going to have all my processor power needs for a while. I sort of skimped on the Power Supply (bad move) and used the heat sink that came with the Intel chip (hugely dumb move). Turns out, the system warmed up to a toasty 70 (centigrade), and after a couple of prolonged high drain activities (basically, playing Doom 3), it cooked itself into a very expensive piece of aluminum. Lesson: don't skimp on cooling systems (get a water cooled system like a Thermaltake if you're going high end Pentium), and don't skimp on the Power Supply (get a brand name, like Antec, that has plenty of power -- if you're running a lot of devices, think 510W). Don't just pull the old power supply out of some old PC you have. It won't have enough wattage to run all of the peripherals and, more importantly, the fans and cooling systems.

First off, it looks nice. In fact, it is infinitely cooler than my helmet (a fire engine red Parasport Evo open faced helmet). Here's why... Without thinking about it, I agreed to let my four year old daughter decorate it. I now have "My Little Pony", "Cindarella", and "Dora the Explorer" stickers randomly placed on it... You should see the looks I get on the lift... You wouldn't believe how often, in my short career, I 've heard "umm.... hey.... your helmet is.... different...."

Wow. She really gave it her awl.

Redshirt? This sums it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_(science_fiction) Yes. I am a nerd.

I'm in the process of ordering a suit... I decided on black pants and red shirt. I figure black pants are good for when they get dirty, etc., and red stands out. Plus, it's sort of an obscure homage to all of those Red Shirted Guys out there.

Thanks to all who responded. This has all been very helpful!

I'm curious about this statement. I could understand the logic as to why CRW jumpers might not want a RSL, but why would the same be true of camera jumpers? Keeping in mind my low jump numbers (and my expectation to keep jumping a RSL -- or Skyhook RSL -- long after I'm off student status), can someone explain why a camera-flier wouldn't want one?

Mostly right. Spanish flu (the 1918 pandemic) is genetically similar to H5N1 (the disease currently killing birds). It's easily transmitted bird to bird, particularly when they're caged up, but it has also spread to wild birds (which migrate). That disease has been found in birds from Romania to Korea. It doesn't usually infect humans (and it can't be transmitted human to human yet), but 61 people have died from getting it from birds (mostly in South East Asia). There is a chance that it could mutate, particularly if a person infected by a bird also had a human influenza virus. Once in humans, it might have a stable genotype (one strain) or it might have multiple genotypes (more than one strain). If it were to mutate into a form that transmits human to human, the fear is that it would be of the same scale as 1918. Tamiflu and other current flu vaccines would probably not work on a H5N1 variant in humans. A vaccine could probably be developed (if a strain can be isolated), but it will take at least 6 months from when that strain arises and is detected until when shots would be available. In the meantime, a lot of people could be sick. The real bummer about the 1918 flu is that it was actually more likely to kill you if you had a strong immune system than if you were a typical flu victim (elderly and children). It caused what they refer to as a "cytokine storm" in the body of people with strong immune systems. In short, nasty stuff. Similar thing could have happened with the Swine Flu back in the 1960s. It didn't, obviously. So, it could be a big deal, it could be absolutely nothing. Your chances of dying are still 100%, though, regardless of whether it does or doesn't.

I'm one of those people who tries to do everything at the same time (damn you, ADHD), and in addition to finishing out getting my A License, I have decided I want to get a private pilot's license (I'll go for the private pilot's license first and then do instrument ratings if the funds don't run out). I know virtually nothing about that process. I've found a few near by flight schools, but I'm curious what all of the pilots here recommend that I should look for in a school (right now, all I can do to compare them is see which one has the prettier looking airplanes -- like a crow, I'm a sucker for shiny metallic objects). Thoughts on what I should read before I get started? Is there an equivalent of dropzone.com for pilots? Is there an equivalent of a SIM? If not, is there a "Flight School for Dummies"-style book that you'd recommend? Thanks! Thoughts?

Don Meyer (Pepperell's parachute shop, http://www.parachuteshop.com/), Tom Noonan (posts here as LawnDart21) or Tom Porter (reachable through Pepperell). Not in Allston, but... [Edited because I posted what was meant to be a PM. Somedays, I'm not so computer savvy.]

Deuce, You're right that Tylenol can do great damage to the liver. However, Tylenol is the brand name of acetaminophen. It is not ibuprofin. They're different chemicals, basically. People confuse them a lot, but they are very different, both in their chemistry and in their pharmocological properties (how they are absorbed in the system, what they do while in the system, and how they are excreted out of the system). The problem with acetaminophen is that it causes liver damage for patents who have impaired livers (whether as a result of high ALT leves from drinking booze, or from Hepititis C, or other forms of liver disease). The problem with ibuprofin is that it blows holes in the gastro system of just the people who probably can't take acetaminophen. Edit: In re-reading your post, you probably knew that already. I'm going to leave the post up there, though, because it might help someone who doesn't know...

The risk is significantly worse if you consume alcohol regularly while taking high doses of ibuprofin.

See, now this is why I don't work for the Federal Government (anymore). If I were involved in screening the satellite photos for Google Earth, I would have photoshopped in a damaged flying saucer (or, perhaps more obscure, a guy with a crowbar), just to mess with people. Thank God I'm in the private sector where I can do real harm.

Mom?

It's easier to do it English wasn't your first language. You don't end up with the weird cognitive dissonance this creates.

Sober October? Why did you choose that long month? February's best. I keep thinking that I should skip a month or two Then I sober up Oh! my brave liver Sorry 'bout the alcohol Are you still working?

Oh, quit your whining. Oh, crap... [I still think Turkey in the EU is better than Turkey outside the EU.]