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• PC Discussion Thread by GhosTagE [July 19, 2010, 11:29:44 PM]
• High-speed robotic hand by Totemo Oishi [July 12, 2010, 06:03:50 PM]

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[Totemo Oishi]

I pretty much have 2 jobs set up right now. One is a Comcast Cable tech, which will give me some good money (roughly $600 a week, which isn't fantastic, but definitely livable). So about $2,400 a month, after taxes. The other will bring about $3000 a month after taxes, but will require me to live on a boat for 28 days at a time, but I don't have to worry about food or gas, which will help me retain a few hundred a month, but it's highly dangerous and isn't really a long term career unless you REALLY apply yourself and get your steerman's license (which takes 4 years minimum), in which case you  work more locally and work in 12 hour shifts, making about $500 a day a few days a week. That's roughly $8,000 a month, which is a pretty darn good living, but you have to jump through a few hoops to get there. If I were better with math, I would pursue a Chemistry degree and become a marine chemist (which takes about 10 years or more; you need 2 years on river barges, 600 supervised hours on an ocean barge, a bachelors in Chemistry, a couple other things and then you need to find one of the few Marine chemists in the country, convince them to take you on as an apprentice, and apprentice under them for a few years. It's really tough to get there, but once you're there you're pulling $150,000 a year if you're lazy about it, but can pull in $400,000 a year if you work really hard at it and you're situated correctly, and the work you do can hardly be called work at all. All you really do is hand out gas-free certifications to shipyards and they might need several a week, and they CAN'T legally function without them, so these guys get away with charging $1,500 a pop. A friend of mine is gunning for it right now, but he's well-connected and he has a lot of the experience you need under his belt already, so he could probably get there by the time he's 30. If I started now, I might be apprenticing by the time I'm 30. Maybe. But again, I'm terrible at math, and I can barely get through college algebra as it is; I'm not sure how I would get through the Calculus and Trigonometry and whatever else I might need for a bachelor's degree.

ANYWAY. Back on topic time.

Yeah, really hoping to make those upgrades.

[John-117]

Hahah, now when someone asks who's at the door, you can say, "Cable guy!"

Dang, that chemistry field sounds like a nice lifestyle. Then again, so does the boat even though it's hard manual labor I'm guessing. You could just work 6 months, take 6 months off over and over and probably live pretty good. Or just do 1 month on, 1 month off and still be sitting pretty. Take some college class in between and slowly get that Chemistry degree. Plenty of options for you.

[Totemo Oishi]

Yeah, how it works usually is you get 28 days on, 14 days off. In that time you get to do whatever the hell you want. You could go to Europe for a week if you wanted. Once you're there for a while, you can start to fudge around with the schedule, stay 2 shifts on at a time, take 2 off. Sometimes the Captains (who make a ridiculous amount of money, but a lot of it goes to maintaining the boat) will drop you off early if they know you're passing close to home and you'll get getting off in a day or two anyway, or pick you up early likewise. While you're on the boat, you usually work in 6-hour shifts, one on, one off, one on, one off. I figure I could get a few textbooks, and work through them at my own pace on my time off on the boats. it would be hard, but it would prepare me for any future courses I would be doing, since math is by and far not my strong suit. Right now that's what I'm thinking, because even if I can't do the chemistry when it's all said and done, after a year and a half or so, I'll still have more than enough to carry me through a few semesters at school.
By the way, starting deckhands make about $130-$150 a day with health benefits.

[John-117]

Dang. If I didn't already have a full-time job, I'd probably look into that kind of gig. I like any kind of work. I'm not biased against flying a desk or getting my hands dirty. That's probably the best way to be out at sea, except for a luxury cruise or something like that. That's great money, and you can really feel like you earn the paycheck too. I've seen a few episode of Deadliest Catch, and I think there's a fair amount of risk involved, but you just have to keep wired tight and keep your eyes open, look out for each other, etc. And definitely buy the best safety gear, etc.

If I knew about that kind of pay, I'd probably be looking into it myself if I didn't have my current job. If all works well here for the next year or two, I might just take a year off and then try that whole boat thing. Do they require any past experience, or can anyone take an order and get the job done out there?

[Totemo Oishi]

Well, it helps to know someone in the business already, but if you keep applying and you can provide your TWIC ID readily, you can get in. I think the ID costs $75 or something like that.
Right now it might be difficult to get in, but check back after the economy has had some time to recover and it shouldn't be too hard. Usually people get into the business and realize it isn't for them.
It should be noted, that it can be extremely dangerous. The friend who is helping me get in owns a business (well, actually his family owns 3 - a Barge Transportation Corporation, a Barge Maintenance Company, and a Cigar Company - which are some of the best int he world). A few years back they had a barge explode near Chicago, and only recently has the FBI gotten involved. They have all the paperwork to prove that it was Exxon-Mobile who provided an inaccurate cargo manifest which resulted in the explosion, but now the feds are saying that they were using a propane torch to heat up a fuel pump, which is completely ridiculous. It's most likely that someone high up in Exxon has paid off the right people to make this insane investigation happen. That's what they say/ think, anyway. As long as I've known them, they've never lied to me. If they don't want me to know something, they won't talk about it, or ask me not to inquire so they don't have to lie.
Anyway, point being is that the barge friggin exploded and someone died. It's relatively rare, but it's not terribly uncommon for a multitude of other things to go wrong and cause serious injury or death.

Also, here's a link to the story I was talking about. This is probably the most balanced article I've read so far. The rest have been slamming these guys while ignoring the other side of the story.
||docSource||Knight%20Ridder/Tribune||provider||ACQUIREMEDIA&symbol=EMC:US]BusinessWeek

[John-117]

Hey, just saw a really sweet deal on Muskin RAM over at Slickdeals. 

[CorporalAris]

Ooh, with DDR2 prices going up, I would jump on that.

[Totemo Oishi]

Wow, that's not bad at all.

[John-117]

Yeah, and I just saw an OCZ PSU + RAM combo for a bitchin price.

[GhosTagE]

Hmm.. been a while xD eh

So I've upgraded my computer in the excitement of SC2's beta. Unfortunately I didn't get a key, but I have been trying it out against computers since people cracked it.

Specs:
Asus P5N-D Mobo
Coolermaster 750W
XFX GTS 250 512DDR3 x2
Quad Q6600 2.4 OCED @ 3.0 (Furthest I was willing to go with my cooler, I think it's OCZ Vendetta 2 or something)
Samsung SyncMaster 2253BW

I'm pretty happy with my performance :O I get about 60-90 frames on everything maxed in SC2 @ 1680x1050 32. I'm thinking about trying to overclock my video cards (stock) but I don't know where to start either.. OCing my CPU was my first xD what do you guys think?

I am still a huge noob at this xD but I find this fun.

[mmeadwolfe]

Hmm.. been a while xD eh

So I've upgraded my computer in the excitement of SC2's beta. Unfortunately I didn't get a key, but I have been trying it out against computers since people cracked it.

Specs:
Asus P5N-D Mobo
Coolermaster 750W
XFX GTS 250 512DDR3 x2
Quad Q6600 2.4 OCED @ 3.0 (Furthest I was willing to go with my cooler, I think it's OCZ Vendetta 2 or something)
Samsung SyncMaster 2253BW

I'm pretty happy with my performance :O I get about 60-90 frames on everything maxed in SC2 @ 1680x1050 32. I'm thinking about trying to overclock my video cards (stock) but I don't know where to start either.. OCing my CPU was my first xD what do you guys think?

I am still a huge noob at this xD but I find this fun.

The way to go with nvidia cards is nTune. After trying to find a link for you I found its now renamed nVidia System Tools.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.05.html

Ill remind you the rule of thumb, anything over 10% of the original clock is asking for trouble and go up slowly.

[GhosTagE]

Hmm.. CPU-Z and the nvidia thing says my core clock for GPUs is 0 or non existent...

I'm gonna download this nforce thing that it's recommending that I download, and if not, I'll wipe my drivers and reinstall them.

GL ME

EDIT: Did that, nothing.

This is some log in my CP:

========== GeForce Information ==========

GPU 1: GeForce GTS 250
GPU 1 Video BIOS version: 62.92.7d.00.50
GPU 2: GeForce GTS 250
GPU 2 Video BIOS version: 62.92.7d.00.50

========== GPU's Core and Memory Speed Information ==========


GPU Core Speed = 0


GPU Core Speed = 0

GPU SLI Mode Enabled.

SUGGESTIONS?

[CorporalAris]

The way to go with nvidia cards is nTune. After trying to find a link for you I found its now renamed nVidia System Tools.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.05.html

Ill remind you the rule of thumb, anything over 10% of the original clock is asking for trouble and go up slowly.

No.

No.

NO!

nTune is very bad.  VERY BAD.

Use EVGA Precision to overclock Video Cards. 

And if you can't see your clocks, reinstall the drivers from nVidia.com.

[mmeadwolfe]

No.

No.

NO!

nTune is very bad.  VERY BAD.

Use EVGA Precision to overclock Video Cards. 

And if you can't see your clocks, reinstall the drivers from nVidia.com.

Care to elaborate? I'v never had issues running it before.

[GhosTagE]

I wiped my old drivers clean and reinstalled, I still get the same problem.

WTF!

the nvidia one doesn't look bad, it's just since my clocks are not visible I cannot change anything (it's set to max 0)

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/7743/nvidiah.jpg SEE

I'm gonna try evga precision maybe in a bit

EDIT: OK for once the settings have stayed put, but how can I tell if they work?

DOUBLE EDIT: There is a very minimal difference in fps in starcraft 2 lol :X