Zennie

I've bumped into a couple of web pages that have some wild mods. Pizza box cases... fluorescent paint jobs... clear side panels. Wild stuff. Never done anything to mine though. Yeah & get that pic of ferret's case. I love that kind of stuff. Oh & since Clay is asleep at the switch I'll say his line for him... NERDS!!!! "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Well that was the "Value" (i.e. low-end) system. I was trying to show what you can get in the PC world for far less than the "value" iMac. Also, the write-up was done in November so it is a tad dated. In any event, here are his "High End" specs FYI... AMD Athlon System Case: Full Tower PC case w/ 350W PSU-$130 Processor: OEM Athlon XP 1900+ (1.6 GHz)-$261 Cooling: ThermalRight SK6 w/ Delta Black Label fan-$41 Mainboard: ABIT KG7-RAID-$136 RAM: 1x512 MB DDR-$64 Hard Drive: IBM 60GXP 60GB -$130 Video Card : Visiontek Xtasy GeForce3 Titanium Ti500 -$322 Monitor: Samsung 900NF-$379 Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum-$158 Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 4.1-$295 DVD/CD-ROM: Toshiba SD-M1612 16X DVD-ROM-$63 CDRW: Plextor PlexWriter 24/10/40A-$175 Communications: 3Com EtherLink 10/100 3CR990-TX-97 or US Robotics External v.92-$88 Mouse: MouseMan Wheel Optical-$40 Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro-$35 Gamepad: Logitech Wingman Rumblepad-$25 OS: Windows XP Pro-$135 Floppy: Generic-$10 Total: $2487 "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Ah so!

Uh huh. Ya know, I kinda have the hots for him so maybe I'll have to move out there. Seriously though, if Liz does get a decent offer I'll be calling both of you. Thanks for all your help, both now & when we made our trip.

On-board cache will definitely make a difference. The math coprocessor will also have an influence, especially when it comes to math-intensive operations such as graphics. IIRC, the G4s have AltiVec, which is supposed to have some serious number-crunching abilities. I still have my doubts that a 700 Mz G4 can outperform a 1.4Gz Athlon (which runs around $115 according to sharkyextreme)... especially if I slap that on a mobo that supports DDR RAM. In fact, here are the specs in Sharky's "Value" gaming system... AMD Athlon System Case: Enlight 7230 Case-$50 Processor: AMD Athlon XP 1600+-$114 Cooling: Thermosonic ThermoEngine-$26 Mainboard: EPoX EP-8KHA+-$102 RAM: 128 MB PC2100 DDR-$13 Hard Drive: 40GB IBM Deskstar ATA-100 7200 RPM-$99 Video Card : Gainward GeForce2 Ti 64 MB-$117 Monitor: LG Electronics Flatron 17" 795FT Plus / Samsung 19" 950P-$235 Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live! Value-$23 Speakers: Altec Lansing ACS 54-$46 CD-ROM: Asus 50x CDROM-$34 Communications: 3Com EtherLink 10/100 3C905C-TX-M or Creative Labs Modem Blaster 56k-$28 Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical-$21 Keyboard: MS Internet Keyboard-$15 OS: Windows 98SE-$60 Floppy: Generic-$10 Total: $993 You oughta take a look at his "High End" configuration. It's got everything, including the kitchen sink for around $2400. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Oooo. Even better. Find a nice, long straight, steep slope and ease it in. Can you imagine the looks on Biff & Buffy's faces as some guy goes screaming past and belly slides about 300 yards downhill? We would definitely need video. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

If I were a betting man, I'd bet the first birdman-only landing will be on water. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Where in Tejas are you planning on coming? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Noooooooooo!!!!!!! Well, I couldn't practice even if I wanted to. I'm licensed in Indiana. But I have actually been toying with finidng something that would merge my legal and tech backgrounds. So maybe managing an IT section at a law firm or something. Ya my wife & I were out in San Fran. a couple months back. We liked it a lot but the cost of living was astronomical. My wife got a call out of the blue from a potential employer and we figured "What the heck?" It would have to be pretty sweet though, nice as California is. We have a house, her family & some very close friends here, so we'd be giving up a lot. But we figured we should at least gather as much info as we can and make an informed decision (if she gets an offer). "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Just out of curiosity, and this is strictly a hypothetical question, if one's wife were to, hypothetically, get a job offer in Sacramento, would you recommend pulling up the stakes from... oh, let's say, hypothetically, Houston, Texas... and moving out to Cal-i-for-ny-ay? Would one take a huge hit standard-of-living wise? Would it be easy for a computer geek to find a decent paying job? Is there sane housing anywhere within, oh, 800 miles of the city? And most important ... DROPZONES.... I, er, one would need to have good dropzones in the area! Any tips would be gratefully, and hypothetically, appreciated. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Me three. Still lookin'. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Yup. "Perky" fits the bill just about right. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Man, and I though I was cynical. Actually, after Dave had his big quadruple bypass (wonder why he needed that ), Wendy's started to push "healthier" (relatively speaking) menu items... salads, spuds, grilled instead of fried chicken. Pretty successful too. I know a lot of people who live on their grilled chicken ceasar salads. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Heh. I have an original Bondi Blue iMac that I had given to my brother. He didn't use it, so when I took it back I spent about a day trying to figure out what the heck to do with it. Finally installed Yellow Dog Linux on it and now it's my webserver. I have KDE on it, but it's slow as molassess so I pretty much stay logged off and let it just serve web pages. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Heh, you need to sign on for a Jackie Chan movie with that kind of creativity. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Because he was one of the few corporate execs that I actually admired. He was adopted as a child and heavily involved in adoption charities. He never seemed to take himself too seriously and made it to where he was with only a high school diploma. I've seen a few interviews and he always struck me as humble and good natured. Definitely a breath of fresh air from the narcissistic, overpaid Harvard MBA brats that seem to permeate todays' corporate America. About all they know how to do is "restructure" (i.e. lay off the unwashed heathens) and give themselves multimillion dollar bonuses. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Besides just watching videos and observing people flying (which alone helps me a lot), I highly recommend Pat Works' "The Art of vRW". It is both a book and video and has lots of good tips for all experience levels. FYI, this thread prolly belongs in the Freeflying forum. Oh well. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Actually there is a page that lists them. You can find it here. Dunno how up-to-date it is. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

He wasn't that old, only 69. He did have quadruple bypass surgery a few years back and a blurb on MSNBC said he had been on kidney dialysis since December. So my guess is renal failure. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Just learned that Dave Thomas (the founder of Wendy's) died. What a major bummer. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Obviously something messed up went on here, but some things just don't add up. Almost immediately after the incident the police tell everyone that he was a "loner" who "had no friends" and "never talked to anyone". Gee. Where have we heard that before? Then they reference a suicide note (which they won't show to anyone) which supposedly evidences support of Osama Bin Laden and various other nasty things. Everyone who knew him says exactly the opposite... that he was a friendly, good natured kid and an honor student. That he wasn't a loner and seemed fairly well liked. And that he was very distraught over Sept. 11 and confided that he wanted to join the Air Force to help fight. So what do the cops say? "Nope. Forget the people that knew him. He was a loner. He came from a broken home. Nobody liked him (except his dog). He supported Osama Bin Laden." I'm sorry. But this just smells really, really bad. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

My wife's cousin, who is an absolute hoot and a true one-of-a-kind once wrote a song entitled "I Wanna Be A Nonconformist... Just Like You!". I always loved that title. It's so, so true. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Just out of curiosity, any reason why a Vector isn't on that list? I love mine and I've seen a fair number of Javelin folks (especially the freefliers) at our DZ moving over to Vector/Microns. And quite honestly I can't think of anything I don't like about mine other than I bought it used so the fit isn't exactly perfect. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Heh, The Stinkies.... Funny thing is she's actually pretty good looking (she's one of the leather chicks in my Halloween photos for all you curious folks). But man can she unleash Hell... "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

That and because you like the cheap stuff that we normally reserve for SCR pours! Speaking of which, has anyone ever seen someone actually tossed from a plane early for excessive flatulence? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."