Wonderduck's Weekend
I worked all day Saturday, as the new fledgelings moved into the Duck U dorms that day, then had dinner with Ph.Duck immediately afterwards. I got home around 7pm, and by 8pm I was crawling into bed for a nap. I set the alarm clock AND my cellphone to wake me around 1030p, and I was out cold before my head finished sinking into the pillow.
Hydraulic pressure woke me up at six in the morning on Sunday. I had slept through two hours of Sports-Talk Radio and my cellphone's alarm (twice), which normally will kick me out of bed like a train had hit the headboard. Groggily, I purged the hydraulic lines and debated with myself what to do: go back to bed? Do laundry? Sleep? Laundry?
Laundry. I was nice to my neighbors, however, and waited until 8am to do it. After that was done, I had lunch while watching the NASCAR race and falling asleep. By 2pm, I gave up and went back to sleep... and woke up at 7pm. And I'm STILL sleepy. Next week is the start of classes at Duck U., so there's no rest for either the weary or for the Duck U Bookstore's manager.
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Hang in there, Duck. (Insert nostrum about not dying, being stronger here). You've done it before and can do it now - just keep on keepin' on. Your loyal readers will be here when the dust settles.
Posted by: The Old Man at August 19, 2013 07:20 AM (JFB5K)
"...Without You Suffering From Burnout."
Those were the last words my boss said to me on the phone today before I burst into a manic sort of laughter, high-pitched and brittle. The sort of laughter that inspires ultimate confidence in the listener.
I have nothing else to say, I guess. A couple more weeks and it'll all be over...
The Nightmares Have Begun
The stress of work is leaking into my sleeping brain, causing nightmares beyond telling. This one, though, is at least a little humorous. The other night, I dreamt that I was the only person in the world who remembered a particular song from 1992, and I HAD to preserve that memory, no matter what.
Now, the way I learned about this song in real life was interesting enough. I was home from Grad School, and had a few bucks free to spend on stuff. I had become the unofficial master of the mixtape for just about any party held by the theatre department, owing to my ginormous cassette collection, supplemented by a small but growing assortment of CDs. Add in the collections of the two roomies, and I had a ridiculously eclectic range of music to play with. There was only one problem: none of it was new. I jumped on my folks' computer (a 386, maybe) and swear to god, connected to Prodigy.
THAT was cutting edge back then, folks. Anyway, I headed to some of the message boards to ask for help... mostly for dance music. I got a few good song titles back, including the track involved in my nightmare.
Oh yeah, remember that? The nightmare? I woke up from it, thinking I REALLY WAS the only person in the world who remembered the song. I stumbled into my living room and started going through my CDs, trying to find the maxi-single... and I couldn't find it. The boxes in the closet didn't have it either. Actually desperate now, I called up yourfaceinatube, hoping beyond hope that someone else out there knew the tune! As it turned out, I need not have worried.
In fact, it was rather stupid of me to have been half-scared out of my wits; this was actually a Billboard Hot 100 hit, back when that meant something, and I KNEW that. Of course people weren't going to have forgotten it. Still, nightmares aren't supposed to make sense, are they?
And now, just in case something really DOES happen and everybody else forgets "Love U More" by Sunscreem, it'll be here.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 13, 2013 11:25 PM (QsGp9)
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When I was at Drexel One of the first classes to be equipped with Mac 128's, (Bastards the year after got Mac Pluses for the same price, and the upgrade would cost US as much as the computer), anyway, back then, some folks from Prodigy wanted us to help them beta test their Mac version. And only certain modems would work with it (they would monkey with the Hayes commands to try to improve bandwidth or something).
I tried it. It sucked. Terribly. I didn't bother logging in a second time.
Posted by: Mauser at August 14, 2013 02:48 AM (TJ7ih)
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Ah, the arrogance of Prodigy in their early days! We had some folks at the university ask us if it would work to get them online, and so I tried it out. To his credit, their phone-support guy not only managed to keep his voice under control when asking, "did the manufacturer say that your modem was Prodigy-compatible?", he politely waited until my howls of laughter died down.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at August 14, 2013 03:21 PM (fpXGN)
SUNUVABEECHMARTIN!!!!!!!!!11!1!
The replacement graphics card came in today. As soon as I got home, I put it in.
And it didn't work. Of course. Of course.
I just realized that I can't return it to Amazon now, either, because I sent the original to EVGA.
I am now taking suggestions on new desktop computers.
My opinion is that for the last few years, it didn't make any sense to go with a desktop computer. I buy big notebook computers and they work really well.
What I've been buying is gaming notebooks, computers designed to be taken to LAN parties. They thus have lots of compute power, excellent graphics, big screens, and they're self-contained and preconfigured, so there's no problem with drivers or anything like that.
My current computer is an ASUS G75V: 12G RAM, 2.3GHz I7 quad core, half a terabyte of disk, built-in high quality optical drive, and a 1920*1080 screen. I think it was about $1600.
No, it isn't a laptop. I used the term "notebook computer", which refers to the fact that it's all-in-one. But it's too damned big and heavy to be a laptop. That's the point.
It's the same kind of power and ability you'd get from a desktop computer, though, but less footprint.
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You could use my post about Himawari as a shopping list. It has so much power most of the time it doesn't even notice me using it. I'd get a stronger card though. for just a little more cash I could have had about 50% more oomph, and maybe, just maybe, less of a jet engine on the GPU fan.
Etna, on the other hand, is not as good for watching movies in bed as I thought. Aside from the terrible crick in my neck, the viewing angle on the screen is terrible up close.
Posted by: Mauser at August 13, 2013 01:50 AM (TJ7ih)
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Wish I could help. Ordered parts off of Newegg and had the g/f assemble it (she enjoys that). Dropped about $1500, but I went a little crazy here and there.
Posted by: Avatar at August 13, 2013 02:50 AM (GJQTS)
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Steven, so it's a laptop without the ability to move around or to easily upgrade, but with the extra price of a laptop?
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 13, 2013 06:31 AM (RgjI9)
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DR laptops are nice, but Wonderduck could probably build a nice gaming rid for about half what Steven paid, which is why people still do it. A few months ago, right before Haswell came out, I bought a core i5-3570K (on perpetual sale at Micro Center for $40 below what everyone else charges) with a Gigabyte PCI3 mobo to go with it and 4 gb of ram for under $400. You can buy a case as low as $30, but you probably wouldn't want to.
The 650ti boost I just got plays WoW at Ultra at 1920x1080 with 70+fps (in less expansive places, I might see 140 fps) and I paid about $170. That CPU+GPU combo can hit 200+ fps in Minecraft.
FWIW, I thought about waiting for Haswell, but I suspected Haswell parts would cost a little bit more (the roughly equivalent cpu+mobo would have cost maybe $50 extra) and I was coming from a 2007-era 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, so either was going to be a *major* upgrade, so I didn't wait.
A Trinity or Richland A8 is a pretty nice deal, too: quite a bit cheaper than an i5, and the built-in graphics are serviceable, although not nearly as good as a dedicated card. For my son, I coupled the A8-5600K with a micro ATX MSI motherboard for about $150. The only real drawback is the unfortunate SATA port placement under the footprint of the video card slot; you need to get right-angle SATA cables and make sure you get low-profile ones. It's also not as overclock-friendly as a bigger board would be, because you can't adjust the CPU voltage, so it runs a bit hot, but an aftermarket cooler helps with that.
Posted by: RickC at August 13, 2013 06:31 AM (WQ6Vb)
I don't have any good advice here, at least not better than what I've seen above. (I'll note that the active and useful duty life of any laptop-shaped object is about half that of a good desktop, and thus endeth my rant thereupon.)
Posted by: GreyDuck at August 13, 2013 07:20 AM (CUkqs)
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I will second the recommendation to look at AMD for your CPU. I just bought a new Richland system, and the CPU with integrated graphics was dirt cheap. I think I will get a couple of years of use out of the integrated graphics, and then to upgrade to a separate discrete video card - but that should let me extend the life of the rest of the system considerably.
Posted by: Insight at August 13, 2013 10:46 AM (OY+nB)
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With Trinity/Richland, if you want to game, you should buy a discrete card, if you don't want to turn the settings all the way down. But if you can live with lower settings, you don't NEED the card. Minecraft with Optifine on a Trinity is playable. Minecraft with or without Optifine on a Core i5 is barely playable. (Optifine is an add-on to Minecraft that increases performance and adds some nice graphical features.)
Posted by: RickC at August 13, 2013 10:49 AM (WQ6Vb)
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Honestly, I gave up on upgrading (as opposed to building with all-new parts) a few years ago. Just not worth the hassle, most of the time - there's always that chance you'll get a part that, while compatible on paper, just isn't going to work with your current setup. It's generally easier for new hardware as everyone's testing with everyone else. Last time I just took the old box, nuked the drive, and gave it away to a co-worker who didn't have a box of his own. This time I'm thinking I'll pack the thing to Hawaii and set it up as a home theater PC.
That said, I had an unusual need for two running boxes at once (i.e. g/f coming to visit for a month) and someone willing to blow a day assembling and testing parts (I'd put it off for months because I just didn't feel up to it on the weekends when I wasn't working). With as much of a time crunch as Duck's gotta deal with, that's not as good of an option.
Posted by: Avatar at August 13, 2013 01:37 PM (GJQTS)
CPU: AMD A10-5800K or A10-6800K (the newer chip is a little faster and a bit more expensive). Fast, inexpensive, and has the advantage of having built-in graphics that are actually good enough to game on, albeit at medium-to-low settings as RickC noted. ($129 / $149)
(AMD's FX series, which is what Mauser got, and I have here at PixyLabs, is the same design, but the A10 has 4 cores plus graphics, where the FX has 8 cores but no graphics.)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4. ($119) Everything you could want in an FM2-socket motherboard; includes VGA, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, so you can plug it in to pretty much anything.
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair or G.Skill DDR3-2133 RAM. (Around $130) The memory market is in a funny mood at the moment, and while prices have gone up overall, the price difference between low-end and high-end parts has shrunk dramatically, and speeds up to 2400MHz are now relatively good value. (The A10-5800K supports up to 1866, the 6800K up to 2133.)
SSD: If you can easily separate your OS & apps from general file storage, get a 120GB Samsung or Intel SSD. (I'd suggest the Samsung 840; I'm running a pair of 840 Pro drives, but that's because I do database stuff.) (Around $100) Or if you think you want a bigger C drive, go for the 250GB version ($200).
Disk: Seagate Barracuda 2TB. ($100) Easy choice.
Video card you have, and the system will work pretty well without one. Power supply.... Well, you might not want to pull it back out again, but the one you have is a fine choice.
Add a DVD-ROM or BD-ROM and a suitable case and you're done!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 14, 2013 01:52 AM (PiXy!)
+1 on Pixy's choices. AMD continues to make solid, low cost CPUs with very good performance and excellent integrated graphics. If you decide the mb graphics just aren't up to snuff, I'd recommend a ASUS or Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 video card; they're very reasonably priced at $120-140 now, play nice with the Gigabyte's chipset and run pretty quietly. Most of the 7770 cards use at least 1 GB of GDDR5 memory, have core and memory speeds in excess of 1GHz, and max resolutions of 2560 x 1600. Really good bang/buck ratio on these cards.
Posted by: JT at August 14, 2013 10:01 AM (iStSI)
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I have the 650 card, and wish I'd sprung for the 650ti. They really don't have any good benchmarks on the boxes these days.
Posted by: Mauser at August 15, 2013 04:26 AM (TJ7ih)
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I chose the 650ti boost based on the Tom's Hardware GPU bang for the buck list. I had planned on getting an ATI 77x0 or 7850 until then.
Posted by: RickC at August 15, 2013 09:06 AM (A9FNw)
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I bought the $200 Walmart Emachine special. (Not recommended for gaming.)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at August 15, 2013 12:30 PM (cvXSV)
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Heh, that's hardly recommended for anything.
I've been annoyed for two years because to save a few bucks, the company I work for skimped out when buying us developers new PCs. While I don't need a Core i7, it would've been nice to get something better than a Pentium dual-core. (If I could afford it I would buy an extra computer to use at work instead of the company one! I had an HP core i5 laptop I used until the defective POS stopped working and HP declined to fix it.)
Posted by: RickC at August 15, 2013 04:52 PM (WQ6Vb)
The USS Woban, YTB 138. No real reason for me posting this picture, except it's a great picture of a tugboat. Sure, it's not the most glamourous vessel ever, but without it (and ships like it) navies the world over would be in serious sheepdip.
I wrote about this "series" a few years ago. At the time, I reviewed just the first two installments, as that was all that was available. The remaining two were released shortly thereafter, and held up nicely to the standards set by the the earlier OVAs. For whatever reason, this evening I decided to rewatch the series, and lo and behold, there's a set of red half-frames in it. More for Steven!
Y'know what? MnK might be one of the nicest shows I've seen recently. It's not great by any stretch of the imagination. There's dozens of better series out there. But you watch it with a half-smile on your face for the entire time, and when it's over, there's this little sigh of contentment that you'll inevitably emit.
It's very much focused on a certain fetish... glasses are hot!... and if you're one of those people who don't "get it," you'll probably have a substantially different reaction, but for those that fall into the correct niche? It'll be half-smile and sigh time.
They don't all have to be high art, folks. In fact, it's probably better that they aren't.
An Origins Tale
No, not that Origins, as we were more of a Gen-Con group growing up... naturally enough, since it was (metaphorically) just up the road in Kenosha. THIS origins tale will be something a little more prosaic. Those few of you who didn't sear the post out of your memory will recall a little passage in the latest Eva 1.11 post, about how longtime friend Vaucaunson's Duck ran me down with his bicycle and ground my youthful face into the brick street. Ah, those wacky hijinks!
As with most good fiction, some bad fiction, and the occasional bit of writing you'll see here on The Pond, there is a germ of truth behind the story. In this case, while Vauc didn't actually run me over, he did have a bicycle, like many kids our age, and by "our age," I mean 12, which would be approximately three years after we first met. I was already infamous at Q.S. Trotter Grade School for having been the first student demoted from third grade to second in the middle of a school year. Of course, this naturally meant that I was as dumb as a box of hair, when the truth was somewhat more... strange.
See, my education up until my family migrated to Duckford was... um... well, I was part of an alternative schooling program known as the "Free School Movement." For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, the short version is that, instead of having a schedule of classes that I had to take, I learned what I felt like learning. I believe I attended the Free School for three years, from the ages of 5 through 8, until the Great Migration in '76. Now, I want you to imagine being five years old, and you're being told that you can learn whatever you feel like learning, and you don't have to learn what you don't want to. EVER. As it worked out, I was reading at a high school level when we moved to Duckford and I began attending QS Trotter... but I couldn't math my way out of a paper bag. The thing is, nobody had any idea where to put me when I got to conventional school. So I was placed into third grade... and within a month or so, everybody discovered that I didn't have a single freakin' idea of how to school, either. I never turned in a piece of homework, ever. Don't get me wrong, I did it all... but I just left it in my desk. That's what I did before, after all, how was I supposed to know any different?
In a lot of ways, the whole Free School thing was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, I still love to read, and writing? Well, there's eight years of crap here at The Pond to look back on. On the other hand, though, I still can't math worth a damn and I have no interest in learning to. So that's how I came to be infamous at QS Trotter...
...anyway. Met Vauc sometime afterwards, became friends, and somewhere along the way, he had a 10-speed bicycle; guess that would have been around 1980. I, on the other hand, had a somewhat clunky three-speed bike, painted a truly lovely shade of brown, and by "lovely," I mean something completely not lovely at all. I do mean "brown," however. I'm not denying that brown can be an appealing color, though it makes me look like a pile of dog poo with a pile of red hair on top, I'm just saying that my bicycle was nothing special to look at. Or ride, come to think of it.
In any case, I don't remember which of us came up with the nickname "Tenspeed and Brown Bike." Probably Vauc. Maybe you, earnestly bored reader, remember the short-lived Steven J Cannell show, "Tenspeed and Brown Shoe," starring Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldblum? I will admit to not remembering it at all, save for that it gave us the nickname that I remember so clearly, despite it being 33 years old... and judging from the response to a text I sent a few hours ago, Vauc remembers not at all.
Well, that's the way these things go. What my brain remembers as important are not the same as Vauc's, surely. I'm sure he has vivid memories of... I dunno, playing MAATAC in the Game Room, for example, that I don't have any recollection of.
In any case, that's the long-form explanation of the "bicycle over the face" gag. Pointless, wasn't it?
(I still remember modifying the rules to MAATAC to allow OGREs... good times, good times...)
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Memory is a tricky thing. I have vivid memories of riding around the neighborhood with you on our bikes, but not that. And true, I got a ten-speed before you did, but it was a Sears Free Spirit upright ten speed, without those ridiculous bent-over handlebars that were so popular. And more importantly, it didn't have one of those tiny seats that threatened to split larger riders in half.
But I remember that you got a mountain bike long before I got one. One of the first mountain bikes I'd seen. Replaced your brown bike, I think.
Hadn't thought about MAATAC for a while. Dang. Those microgames were great. But for me, nothing stands out in my memories like FITS. And your group of Sopwith pilots, the Snoopies.
Posted by: Vaucanson's Duck at August 10, 2013 02:34 PM (OFJiW)
Look, Here's The Story.
Over at the Duck U Bookstore, the Run To Rush has truly begun in earnest. While classes actually begin on August 21st, next week is when, historically, we take the next step in sales traffic. Right now, we're doing... oh, let's call it X in sales per day. Next week, we'll be doing 2X, maybe 3X. Rush Week itself, though, will see us doing 6X for a couple of days, 5X the rest. That's busy enough when you've got a full staff, but I don't.
My boss was in the store on Monday, and as always, he asked "what can I do for you?" My reply was simple: give me an experienced employee for a couple of weeks. Doesn't even have to be a new assistant manager, just someone I can have cover the sales floor while I do admin stuff. Unfortunately, pretty much every other store in our region starts classes within a week of me, meaning they'll be at least as busy as me, and loathe to release a trained staffer as well.
Which leaves me doing two jobs, though as the manager, it's all really my job. Anyway, I've got to cover the floor, unpack boxes, put incoming stock on the shelves, customer service, all that sort of thing... which I love, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, I've got to do paperwork, reorders, receiving, keeping the Home Office happy and the vendors paid... and only so much of it can be done after the store is closed.
As I'm hopping around like a frog with its head cut off all day, by the time I get home, a lot of what I want to do doesn't involve the computer. It does involve having a meal, watching the TV, and sleeping... and if I ever get that stupid graphics card back from EVGA, playing video games. ANYTHING to keep my mind off work.
So what I'm saying is that I'm going to be a little quiet here for a while. I'll probably post a random anime picture every day, or every other day, or something, so there'll still be content (or content-like substance), it just won't be the deep, probing, intelligent, thoughtful, erudite material you've grown used to from The Pond.
Like that.
Mr. WONDERDUCK: Please pass on to the boss, I need more men...
REGIONAL SUPERVISOR: Perhaps you can tell it to him yourself
Mr. WONDERDUCK: The boss is coming here, to Duck U....?
REGIONAL SUPERVISOR: That's right, and he's most displeased about your apparent lack of readiness!
Mr. WONDERDUCK: We shall re-double our efforts! Tell the boss that the store will be ready as planned!
REGIONAL SUPERVISOR: I hope so -- for your sake. The boss is not as forgiving as I am.
Posted by: Pete at August 07, 2013 03:30 PM (RqRa5)
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The "regional supervisor" is my boss, but your point remains.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 07, 2013 06:35 PM (vgfzZ)
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When I worked retail in college (Software, Etc.), our regional manager would "help out"* whenever we were short-handed.
*He would ask us what needed to be done, ignore what we said, help one customer (female, cute) then remember a call he had to make/take and wander into the back room for a few hours.
Posted by: Ben at August 07, 2013 07:48 PM (/Mdmg)
The Evangelion Movies: 1.11 You Are (not) Alone, pt 3
A couple of weeks back, we discovered that the giant robot designed to save the world, Unit-01, didn't actually need Our Hero, Shinji, to be able to defeat the attacking bad things, The Angels. In fact, considering his performance up until that point, he probably just hindered matters. Oh, and we also met Pen-Pen, the rare Hot Springs Penguin who is also God. That last sentence isn't written very well, is it? What I meant to say is that Pen-Pen is a rare Hot Springs Penguin. Pen-Pen is also God. As opposed to being the very uncommon Hot Springs Penguin that is God, which makes it sound more like a reoccurring thing, or that with enough Hot Springs Penguins you could have two that are God. Wouldn't that be a hoot?
Uh... right, no, sorry, not a hoot. Before He gets all pissy, let's move onto the real story... Shinji gets beaten up again!
I do find it somewhat amusing that the writers of Eva seem to hate Our Hero as much as we do. Let's get him beaten up whenever possible, by whomever possible. I'm surprised Pen-Pen didn't take a swing at him. In this case, it's a classmate who's little sister was injured in the fight we saw last time. Presumably when Unit-01 bled on her or something.
Pow, right in the kisser. Shinji goes down like the sack of tomatoes he is, and his two new friends leave him there, bleeding into the dust. That's often how I realized I had made a new friend. I still remember when I first met Vaucaunson's Duck, how he ran me over with his bicycle, taking extra-special care to grind my young face into the brick street outside his house. Nowadays we look back at it and laugh, but even then it was a special moment in my life.
P34 @ Monaco
I hope to have the third installment of Eva 1.11 tonight, but while you're waiting, here's this:
A lap of Monaco in the legendary Tyrrell P34 with most of the bodywork taken off. Helluva thing, those four front wheels. And here's what it looks like with the bodywork ON:
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Watching that first video, the overwhelming thing I felt was how VULNERABLE he seemed without the bodywork. It was scary seeing him come close to the walls and barriers.
I guess the cost/benefit ratio of the technology wasn't good enough for it to catch on. Or else F1 decided it was unfair and made a rule against it.
Posted by: Mauser at August 03, 2013 05:40 PM (TJ7ih)
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F1 changed the rules and said "4 tires, no more, no less."
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Mauser, it's strange, but the biggest problem with the long-term viability of the P34-type design had nothing to do with the chassis itself. Oh, to be sure, the FIA changed the rules to state that a F1 car can only have four wheels, and that put an end to that, but that took six years to occur, in 1983!
No, what killed the P34 as a racer were the tires. Goodyear had to make each set of 10" front tires by hand specifically for Tyrrell only. Of course, every other car on the grid could use conventional-sized front tires, so that process was much easier. Goodyear didn't develop the tire design at all, which meant that in 1977, the P34's second year of racing, it wasn't nearly as good as it had been the previous season, when it had 10 podiums and one race victory between the two cars (17 race season, but it didn't compete in the first three races).
In fact, in the race it won (Sweden, 1976), the P34 finished 1-2. The following year, there were four podiums total, no wins, and the car was in all 17 races. It also became fragile, though F1 cars notoriously were in that time.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 03, 2013 07:52 PM (dc/G/)
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I imagine a thin layer of fiberglass isn't all that much protection, but riding around without it just took away the illusion of protection.
I recall a few Road and Track type magazine articles about other 6-wheeled cars, with the other two up front. But the car I'm thinking of seemed to have them just to support the load of an enormous engine.
Posted by: Mauser at August 04, 2013 07:21 AM (TJ7ih)
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Mauser, would that have been the Covini C6W? Because, strangely enough, all the other F1 cars that had six wheels had four wheels at the rear: the Williams FW08b was the one that caused the FIA to finally create the 4-wheel rule; the March 2-4-0 was a four-wheel-drive car... with all four powered wheels at the back; even Ferrari tried something with the 312 T6, with four wheels on the rear axle...
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 04, 2013 11:18 PM (dc/G/)
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Hmmm, no, this was much longer ago, and more sedan-like. Fortunately, the commenters on another article on that site led me to the "Panther 6" which might be it.
Posted by: Mauser at August 06, 2013 01:25 AM (TJ7ih)
Yard Hopping
So Don is playing in Steven's yard, and for whatever reason that's driven Steven to play in my yard, so now it's time for me to play in Steven's yard, except it's not quite what he usually has in his yard, so it's more like I'm playing in the creepy shed in the corner of his yard. Or some other yard-based metaphor that hasn't come to mind yet, your choice. Anyway... behold!
Okay, they aren't red, but this is from Hatsukoi Limited, a series that aired in 2009, long before the current fad became a thing. These... these are practically ur-red-half-frame-glasses! Revel in this discovery, Steven, you seeker of special spectacles, for they may have been the harbinger of greater things!
Not that this isn't pretty great.
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Actually, GM produced a skosh over five thousand FM-1 and FM-2 variants of the F4F, and while Vought was prime contractor for the F4U, Goodyear and Brewster together produced about 1/3 of the twelve thousand Corsairs built.
Posted by: JP Gibb at July 31, 2013 06:05 AM (VSD03)
The things that can happen when you give a shiny new toy to someone who is young, inexperience, and lacking in common sense to know doing something stupid is stupid. Otherwise known as 'ensigns.'
Reminds of the story of one pilot's creative answer to finding out his Avenger's wings had not been locked in the down and deployed position - do a roll and fly inverted, hoping that gravity would do the necessary work...Which it apparently did!
Posted by: cxt217 at July 31, 2013 02:31 PM (vyvDA)
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How did the locking mechanism work? Was it something that snapped into place and stayed there, like a railcar knuckle coupler, or was it a glorified cotter pin? I'm just wondering if he had to fly inverted all the way home, or if it was a snapped-into-place-then-fine situation.
Posted by: Mitch H. at August 01, 2013 08:04 AM (jwKxK)
F1 Update!: Hungary 2013
Hot. A clear, cloudless sky graced by a flaming sun greeted the F1 Circus as the cars rolled onto the grid. The ambient air temperature was over 90°, the track surface was well over 120° and everybody was anxiously eying the soft tires to see if they'd melt or just fuse to the asphalt. Did they? Did the heat help or hinder polesitter Shiv Hamilton? Or was bloodthirsty Hannibal Vettel going to be able to do bad things to the rest of the field? THIS is your F1Update! for the 2013 Grand Prix of Hungary!
*AND WE'RE OFF!: To be honest, we here at F1U! were expecting the usual "Vettel takes the lead, then runs away and hides" race. And we were wrong. Today, the Red Bull RB9 looked mortal... worse, it looked human. In the opening stint, Hamilton led the field from pole, with Vettel around a second back. However, he couldn't get much closer as he had the Lotus of Lettuce Grosjean stabbing and diving at him for position. While entertaining enough, it was clear that the soft tires of everybody at the front of the field weren't going to last long... and they didn't. The instant he felt his rubber going bad on Lap 9, Hamilton pitted, and the race, oddly, hung in the balance.
*ON THE BUTTON: The Mercedes driver came out behind his former teammate, Jenson Button, in 8th place. Button had started on the medium tires, which would last some 25 laps. Hamilton had switched to the mediums as well, and on his fresher tires swept past the McLaren driver at the beginning of the next lap and began to turn fast laps. Then it was time for Hannibal Vettel to pit. He too switched to the medium tires, and he too came out of the pits behind Jenson Button. The difference, however, is that the Mercedes has a top speed of at least six mph faster than the Red Bull, and Vettel simply could not make a move on Button as a result. It took until Lap 24, when the McLaren's tires finally went, lemming-like, over the cliff, for Vettel to get past the Glare On Wheels. At the end of the first tire stint, Vettel trailed Hamilton by around 1.5 seconds. When Vettel finally got around Button, he was over 13 seconds behind, and the race was essentially over.
*GOING FOR SILVER: Kimi Raikkonen had a different tire plan from everybody else. Most of the field was on a three-stop strategy, but Raikkonen, driving a Lotus that was historically gentle on its tires, was going for a two-stop. Late in the race, it looked like it was about to pay off... he was in second place, but on Lap 55, Vettel pitted for the final time and set off in pursuit of the Finn. It took him approximately four laps to get within DRS range but there it stopped. Even though the Lotus had significantly worn tires, and Vettel got to use DRS, the speed difference was negligible... the Red Bull could get close, but couldn't do any more. Then, just as an anticlimax, the pit wall began to instruct Vettel to begin entering fail codes into the steering wheel, and to back off the man in second place for cooling purposes.
*AS AN ASIDE: Heat has always been the Achilles heel of Adrian Newey-designed cars. As perhaps the premiere aerodynamicist in F1 history, his designs are marvels at the esoteric art of bending airflow to the whims of the quest for speed. As a result, his cars get every gram of aero downforce possible out of the rules, but this often comes at a cost. First, his cars lack straight-line speed, caused by the drag inherent in downforce. Second, his designs are sensitive to ambient heat. The aerodynamic bodywork is so detailed, so sculpted, and so precise that there's usually no extra space to allow for cooling. During today's race, the team told Vettel to back away from the car ahead two different times: chasing Button and chasing Raikkonen. The RB9 needed to get clean air into its radiators to keep from overheating in the ridiculously hot Hungarian atmosphere. This cost the team dearly today.
*THE END: Hamilton got his first win as a Mercedes driver, finishing some 11 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel finished some three seconds back from the Lotus, followed by his teammate Mark Webber. Ferrari's HWMNBN was 5th, over half-a-minute behind the leader. Lettuce Grosjean, who had a penalty-filled race, finished in 6th, 52 seconds back.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: To be honest, nobody truly distinguished themselves today. Hamilton won, clearly, and that's quite nice, but he wasn't particularly challenged at any time. So instead of giving it to him, or Kimi, or Vettel, or anybody like that, we're giving it to Táltos Maldonado. The Williams driver finished the race in 10th place, thus earning the legendary team their first point in the championship standings for 2013.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull. They finished third and fourth, further solidifying their grasp on the Constructor's Championship. On a day when nobody stood head-and-shoulders above the field, that's got to count for something.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 31, Jenson Button was behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. He'd been behind for a bit, and was threatening to make a move on the Brazilian, but nothing was obviously going to happen anytime soon. Then, as the pair headed towards the chicane-like Turn 6/7 complex, the McLaren driver decided he'd had enough.
A small bobble by the Ferrari driver opened the door for Button, who decided that he didn't have to brake for the upcoming turns.
Somehow keeping the car from flying off into the Hungarian wilderness, Button managed to make the turns and just steal 7th place from Massa. It wasn't a flashy pass, but it was very well done indeed, and impressed us enough to win the MotR.
*MOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 24, Jenson Button was heading a train of cars, with Hannibal Vettel, Lettuce Grosjean and HWMNBN all stacked behind him. Unfortunately, his tires had fallen off the cliff, and it was clearly just a matter of time before the field swallowed him up. Vettel went by, and then Grosjean thought he'd have a go. First, he got most of the way past the McLaren, then tried to get back on the racing line.
Then he decided that he didn't really need to follow the layout of the track.
As is usually the case, the stewards took a dim view of these actions, hitting him with a 20-second time penalty after the race. It had no effect on his place in the standings, but it did show that last year's goofball is still lurking somewhere. Here's your Mooooo, Lettuce.
1
Happened to watch this race. First F1 I've ever sat through. I spend the whole time wondering what you would write about some of the race events, especially the drive through penalty on one driver, but then not on one of the others during the race.
I'm also curious.. do you think the piece of broken spoiler might have been affecting cooling on Vettel's car? (I think that's who they were referring to.)
Posted by: Tom Tjarks at July 29, 2013 09:28 AM (qE66L)
2
The enforcement of F1 rules are... notorious for being inconsistent. There are some things they're dead serious about (doesn't matter if you finished in first if you don't have the prescribed liter of fuel in the tank for after-race testing), but they're very slow to call in-race penalties on the front-runners.
Grosjean is a bit of an exception - frontrunner but also occasionally dangerous to his fellow drivers. Though Vettel came about thiiiiis close to hitting him on the start, pushed him all the way left and their wheels were interpenetrating. Risky, and taking advantage of Grosjean's reputation a little - if they'd touched, the ensuing hijinks would have been Vettel's fault, but Grosjean would have taken the blame for it, right?
Not the best race I've ever watched, but I guess having Vettel hunting Kimi was more fun than having Vettel ride off into the distance. (Not as good as Kimi hunting Vettel though!)
Why the hell is Hungary so -narrow-? Asphalt cost too much or something?
Posted by: AvatarADV at July 29, 2013 12:15 PM (GJQTS)
3
Avatar, that question is one that goes all the way back to the beginning of the concept of a Hungarian Grand Prix.
Originally, the Hungarian GP was to be run as a street circuit through the city of Budapest. Much like Monaco, it was to be tight, narrow and slow. Then, for whatever reason, the plan for the street circuit fell through. Maybe the city couldn't afford to repave the streets, maybe they didn't like the idea of noisy cars bellowing around the Danube? Whatever the reason, the design of the track was moved out of town, modified for the available terrain, and voila! The Hungaroring was born.
And nobody made the thing any wider.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 29, 2013 01:07 PM (NvF/3)
4
I think I liked Button's driving more than anyone else. He was almost helping his old teammate most of the race by frustrating Vettel. (It was also nice to see Vettel in the pack rather than out of sight of it.)
Posted by: Tom Tjarks at July 29, 2013 03:35 PM (qE66L)
5
So, does anyone know what HWMNBN actually said and in what context? I only know that Luca di Montezemolo berated him for improper conduct.
Posted by: Pete at July 29, 2013 08:19 PM (RqRa5)
6
Pete, he was asked what he'd like as a birthday present after the race. His reply was "someone else's car." He was later asked what he was going to do during the Summer Break to get ready for the next race. The response was "pray."
He's apparently not too happy with the Ferrari these days.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 29, 2013 09:15 PM (NvF/3)
(Throwing Hands Up In Frustration)
Right, I give up. I've done everything I can do, everything I can think of, and this stupid graphics card is still not working. Either the card has a problem, or it just won't work with my computer. Either is possible, I have no idea which is more likely.
F1 Quals: Hungary
Look, I haven't watched Quals yet, I don't know if I'm going to get a chance to due to this computer kerfluffle. There WILL be a F1Update! tomorrow, and here's the provisional grid for the race, but either this computer is going to work or I'm buying a new one very soon.
I gather that Shiv took pole at the very last moment from Hannibal, and that Mark Webber had serious car trouble all day, which is why he didn't set a time in Q3.
Graphics Card Installed, Problems Continue!
Right, this is getting really annoying. After dinner, I sat down in front of the open side of my computer and gently installed the eVGA GT630 I purchased last week. At first, it looked like everything was going smoothly... the drivers installed without freezing, which just confirms that indeed, the PSU was the problem. Great! Reboot when prompted, and voila! Windows boots up...
...Blue Screen of Death. "Machine_Check_Exception." Again.
Now I began to invent curse words. If you ever hear me say "serathilk", you know I'm really pissed. I rebooted in safe mode, removed drivers, and tried again. After a couple of tries (with BSoDs) , install happened, rebooted, and the screen came back up in 1440 x 900 resolution! Yay!
Then it BSoD'ed again. The only thing I can figure is that, somewhere, my motherboard hates the GT630. Or everything hates ME, one of the two.
I've sent a support request to eVGA, maybe I'll hear from them this weekend.
I really wanted to play Kerbal Space Program this weekend, too.
1
Have you tried running MemTest86 and prime95 for a while, just to make sure your RAM, CPU and motherboard are still working correctly? Maybe also run a complete SMART test of your harddisk (it could be corrupting your data...)
All of these aren't directly related to the new graphic card but strange things happen from time to time.
Posted by: christoph at July 27, 2013 06:36 AM (lj3PR)
2
Hard to do when you BSoD all the time. And why would any of that only show up with the new graphics card installed?
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 27, 2013 08:00 AM (HY5zN)
3
I don't know why it would only occur with the new graphics card. Nonetheless if I was in your situation this would be part of my procedure - just so that I could be fairly certain it's not one of those other components that's faulty.
With regards to BSoDs: MemTest86 is directly bootable (from CD/DVD, floppy disc or flash drive); the hard disk check can be done from any live linux distribution that has smartctl installed (e.g. clonezilla, if I remember correctly). prime95 will probably also run in Windows' safe mode (if that keeps BSoDs from appearing).
At least it would interesting if your system also randomly crashes or reboots when running an OS other than Windows.
Posted by: christoph at July 27, 2013 09:56 AM (lj3PR)
4
Not a chance in the world am I going to install Linux for this... I'll buy a new computer first.
I've put the old GT240 back in, and once again, no problems exist. It's like nothing was wrong.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 27, 2013 10:19 AM (NvF/3)
Regarding Memtest, there are lots of Linux distros that have LiveCDs. Put it in, boot from it, no installation.
But it sure sounds like a bum video card.
Posted by: RickC at July 27, 2013 10:26 PM (WQ6Vb)
6
EVGA gave up on it a long time before I did... I've got a RMA and shipping label to use to send it in for replacement.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 27, 2013 11:23 PM (NvF/3)
7
Probably for the best. Out of curiosity I did a quick web search for machine check exceptions and video cards, and it seems to generally be either overheat situations or bad vram. Overheating at boot seems really unlikely unless you changed your desktop wallpaper to be Unigine Heaven or something.
Posted by: RickC at July 28, 2013 10:50 AM (WQ6Vb)
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 28, 2013 08:22 PM (NvF/3)
11
Have you heard from EVGA yet?
I got tired of the integrated graphics on my PC this weekend, so I went out and got a 650ti boost. I went from ~25fps in WoW on a setting somewhere between the lowest two presets to 70-100fps on Ultra. Pricey, but awesome. Only drawback is the card is a little loud when you're gaming. I am considering an aftermarket cooling solution for that.
Posted by: RickC at August 05, 2013 02:57 PM (A9FNw)
12
Rick, it just made it to EVGA's California HQ this morning... one week via UPS.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 05, 2013 06:16 PM (6j8A+)
PSU Installed!
It only took nigh on three hours to do, but my computer now has a 600w Corsair CX600 installed. Now, I'm sure many of you out there are saying to yourself "three hours? How in the world did it take that long???"
Well, there were a few problems along the way. Problem number one, and the most time-consuming, discovering that the CX600 doesn't actually have a four-pin 12v ATX connector. This, I found out after I had spent an hour and a bit getting the old PSU out, getting the new one in, and running cable. The four-pin 12v ATX is used on old motherboards, like mine, and is never seen anymore. After nearly removing the installed CX600 in frustration, I remembered that I have another computer (which I'm typing this post on) and could google around about this conundrum. This is where I discovered that Corsair has a more modern eight-pin connector that splits into two four-pin 12v ATXs. While I wish that had been obvious from looking at the various cables, it's done and over with.
Problem number two, and the most aggravating, was finding out that my old PSU was actually better equipped for hard-drive and DVD drive power cables. That one, an old ThermalTake (which only puts 18amps to the 12v rail, by the way... well below the 20 required for my new graphics card, which confirms the suspicions of all of you, and thanks!), has four individual cords with a four-pin molex connector on them. The CX600 has ONE cord with four molexi "spliced in." The run from the top of my case (DVD) to the bottom (hard drive) is just barely within reach of the CX600's cord... and that, I think, only because my DVD drive is installed in the bottom of the optical drive bay. If it was in the top slot, I don't think it'd reach. Getting that cable run was quite annoying... I'm still not even sure I can put the side panel back on.
Problem number three was that the younger me who installed the ThermalTake PSU all these many years ago was something of a diplodocus when he put it in. Slip-tabs that would normally hold the drive in place were badly bent, a plastic friction clip wasn't there at all, so on and so forth. As it is, I managed to re-bend the bottom tab to do a little bit of gripping, but the three case screws that are supposed to just lock the PSU in place are, instead, doing most of the work of keeping it from falling.
So there it is... three hours of effort, dust and swearing... a LOT of swearing... but little Chiyo-chan now has a new heart PSU. Next step is the graphics card, but that won't come until AFTER dinner. I'm starving.
Here are a few things I am NOT going to do that involve this film:
1) Watch this clip again
2) Watch this clip in HQ full-screen (again)
3) Watch it when it comes out
4) Watch it when it comes out in IMAX
5) Watch it when it comes out on Blu-Ray
Really, it might be the greatest movie of all time, but that makes no difference to me. The thought of being adrift in space with no hope of rescue and a sudden reentry imminent is enough to turn my bowels to water and my knees to pudding. SEEING one of my worst fears on the screen like that? Nope, nope and a thousand times nope.
I'd rather chew my leg out of a bear trap than do that.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 26, 2013 12:42 AM (PiXy!)
4
Working on it. I hope to do the PSU switch today.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 26, 2013 07:23 AM (F+CeQ)
5
You are SO right, 'Duck. Did two tours in 'Nam and raised two teenagers (one of each sex) but the situation described in the trailer give me the galloping never-get-overs. Worse than going into a hot LZ.
Wonder how many in the audience at an IMAX showing will lose it? Might have to hose out the theater between showings...
Posted by: The Old Man at July 26, 2013 07:31 AM (EiwKY)
6
What are those suits made of, impenetratium? Stations and ships and other sturdy things being smashed, shattered, and blown into clouds of razor-sharp shrapnel all around them, and the suited astronauts just go bouncing around like perfectly frictionless spheric constructs on a 3D microgravity billiards table.
Posted by: Mitch H. at July 26, 2013 12:13 PM (jwKxK)
7
Ever watch Dark Star? Those guys just need to grab a surfboard-shaped chunk of space station....
Posted by: Ed Hering at July 26, 2013 01:25 PM (aEOAA)
8
Just gotta convince yourself that you'd survive it. (Love those dreams where you get shot a few times and then think to yourself "hm, the bullets didn't penetrate, I ought to look into why I'm invulnerable later on"...) Then it goes from "nightmare fuel" to "extreeeeeeeeeeeeme parachuting".
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at July 26, 2013 03:36 PM (pWQz4)
I've Got So Much Nuthin', It Hurts!
...and that's a lot of nuthin'. I've not had time nor energy enough to even think about installing the new PSU, which I remember as being a nasty job in this particular BTX case. Well, ces't la vie. More something will come soon, I hope. Here, have something fun, on me:
I... uh... even I don't know what to say to that, and I'm the one that put it here.