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    A physicist walks into a bar....

    Every Friday afternoon, a physicist goes down to the bar, sits in the second-to-last seat, turns to the last seat, which is empty, and asks a girl who isn't there if he can buy her a drink. The bartender, who is used to weird university types, always shrugs but keeps quiet. But when...
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    Computer tips for the fix-it-yourselfer

    Lessons I've learned from actual tech support and repair events I've dealt with over the years: If there isn't a standoff under one of the holes in the motherboard, *do not* screw it directly to the bottom of the case. Any time your motherboard starts to curve upwards like a dinner plate...
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    The Fear of Instant Schwarzeneggerization

    So a friend of my brother (or friend+ since they lived together for several years and she still spends weekends at his house) comes by last night with one of her friends and asks if I could show them some basic exercise techniques so they can "tone up." (I have a gym, my brother doesn't, and...
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    Geeky license plate frames

    My car developed an expensive problem the other day, so I went out and got another one. As dealers like to do, it's got emblems and license plate frames on the front and back advertising the dealer. I don't believe in wearing advertising (or driving with it) unless they're paying me and I paid...
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    The Shadow Walkers

    We wrapped just last week on the horror movie The Shadow Walkers, so the movie website is still in its early stages. We'd cut a quickie trailer early on with footage from the first ten days or so, but the band who had originally agreed to create the soundtrack is making noises about pulling out...
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    I am not a muffin!

    Once in a while, I'll take a look at the recent referrer list for my personal website (it just lists where people are coming from) and there's plenty of strange stuff out there, but this morning I'm getting a bunch of people coming in from Google's image search on chocolate muffins, which is...
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    ...then I got undressed and she said, "You're Huge!"

    I had an amusing (and completely unexpected) evening that I thought ATOTers would appreciate. I don't think I can post about it on my own site because too many people would know who I was talking about--so *you* get to read about it instead. Around 7:00 last night, I'd finished up with the...
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    Whipped up a quick-n-dirty reel the other day

    I got a call from a producer/actor I've worked with before who was about to head off to China and Korea to pitch some action films to a couple of investment groups. Million dollar budgets, plus or minus. That'll get you a medium-sized dust bunny in Hollywood, but it's high-end for me. So he...
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    See if you can identify the problem with this computer

    "I'm getting errors when I try to capture video files." "Do you have backups of your data?" "No." "Well, bring it over; I'll put in a new drive and copy your old stuff over." (...days pass. he doesn't show up...) "I'm getting errors when I try to save my files." "Bring it over; I'll...
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    What's the oldest operational computer you still have?

    I was moving some of my older, more interesting, computer equipment and decided to snap a picture of this one, a Rockwell AIM-65, which features a 1MHz 6502, 1K of memory (expandable to 4K), a 20-character LED display, and a built-in 2" wide printer. That's the oldest computer I still have...
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    Yet another desk/work area thread

    Got tired of constantly rearranging and rewiring my equipment just about every time I need to do something with it, so I decided to try organizing it and making it more accessible. I disconnected and hauled out about 95% of the rats' nest of cables that usually covers the floor, took the...
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    Win2k: CHKDSK ate my hard drive

    Last night I got a "corrupt directory" error when selecting a directory (several levels deep) in Windows Explorer. Nothing important; I was just checking on the version of a piece of freeware. Everything else appeared fine. Foolishly, I asked Windows to check for and fix errors on the drive...
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    Paranoid Ebay moment

    I'm having a paranoid moment. I sold a piece of stereo equipment on Ebay; we're not talking about a lot of money here--$153.50--and the winning bidder turns out to be in Poland. He's got a feedback rating of 19/100%, though the most recent is from last August. But he sent me a note after the...
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    25-Pak Platinum 4x DVD-R media $11.99 AC at Microcenter B&M

    Just got email from Microcenter pointing to a printable coupon for their Platinum 4x DVD-R media, $11.99 for 25. Microcenter Printable Coupon I've had good luck with these in the past, using a Pioneer DVD-106 burner.
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    Buslink 52x24x52x external USB2 CDRW $39.99 + shipping

    Seen on ConsumerDepot.Com: BUSLINK 52x24x52x External USB CDRW - $39.99 (no rebates) (Yes, it's a slow-loading site, but the page will come up...eventually.)
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    512M PC100 ECC Registered 64Mx4 SDR support?

    I got in a bundle of PC100 SDRAM as described above--and I'm having a hard time figuring out what chipsets and motherboards support it. Most Intel chipsets support Registered ECC memory, but not (as far as I know) 512M DIMMs made with 64x4 chips. Most recent non-Intel chipsets that would...
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    Amusing problem with Tyan dual athlon mb

    So, I get in the parts to build my first dual-CPU athlon system: Tyan Thunder K7 s2462ung mainboard (w/ dual uw160 SCSI), two Althon MP 1200, each with dual-fan CPU coolers, four 256 Meg registered PC2100 DDR DIMMs (Thunder K7 only works with registered DDR memory), a couple of 7200RPM ATA100...