Scourge

Some doctor hacked open my wrist then did a crappy job closing it up. I have an ugly ball of a scar from it now(it's never going away, been there 10+ years now). I'm sure you'll be able to make it heal up fine whit, just take norgs advice. -George

hahaha, yeah, that's pretty sweet

I'm not sure what the performance diff would be, but I just made the jump to AMD and I couldn't be happier. I don't have any heat issues with mine, and I'm really picky about my comp being loud. I have an XP-90 heatpipe cooler with a 92mm thermaltake fan. Almost silent and keeps the cpu around 38C idle, it's get's up to 49C at the highest under full load. (Although since I added an extra 120mm fan to the case it hasn't gone past 44C, both 120mm's run in silent mode) Oh yeah, it's S754 Athlon64 3500+, lol. HTH -George

I would research the lenses too. I have found that the lenses that Cannon gives with their cameras are horrible; perhaps Olympis is the same. The kit lens that comes with the XT is nothing to write home about but it's not horrible by any stretch of the imagination. Anyone beleiving that, simply hasn't learned how to use it to the best of it's abilities. It's the photographer that makes the difference. I've seen many many pictures come out of the Kit lens that just blow me out of the water (although, non taken by me, haha). Glass is important, but learning how to use what you've got is even more important. The fact that the canon comes with a really cheap lens to start is a bonus IMO. It gives you a chance to get a feel for the camera and decide what you want out of a lens. You can then either stick with it, or grab something better/different. Oh, and M2, I would strongly recommend reading the forums on dpreview.com. Tons and tons of great info. HTH -George

I have those

Hahahaha, that was great!!! -George (BTTF is my favorite movie collection too, I'm a DeLorean freak)

I have a logitech trackball I use with my laptop. Can't use it for fps games though . ...hmm... maybe I'll play with it a bit later on, lol. -George

I've been slowly adding to this system since early Dec. Tower, Case: Antec Sonata II, 120mm tri speed exhaust fan, 120mm tri speed intake fan Motherboard: MSI K8N-Neo Platinum, 80mm vantec fan rigged to cool the NB Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3400+(S754) running at stock 2.2ghz Heatsink+FAN: XP-90 with a thermaltake 92mm fan Video Card: BFG 6600GTOC (Clocked to 583mhz core and 1.15ghz memory) Heatsink+FAN: ZALMAN VF700-AlCu Memory: Generic 1gb + 512mb ddr400 running at 333 (2.5-3-3-8) Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 OEM Floppy/Burner/DVD/CDROMs Hard Drive: Maxtor SATA 250gb 16mb Power Supply: Antec Smart Power 2.0 450W Other Tools of the Trade, Keyboard: Logitech G15 Mouse: Logitech MX510 Monitor: Samsung 930B 19" lcd Headset: Logitech 350 USB Speakers: Logitech X-530 Camera: Canon Rebel XT Printer: Epson Photo Stylus R300 -George

Came from the exorcist, here. http://www.angryalien.com/ Awsome movies!!!! lol -George

Scourge, I'm doing this to make things cheaper for everyone & to give those a ride that would not normally have one. Why should everyone spend $150.00 in gas when 4-5 people can share that cost? If your not willing to jump in with us, then why not offer to help us? We'll count your vehicle to help out. Again thats if you come. Heh ... I'm not offering up a ride for whomever right now because I don't know if I will be going. I don't want to offer a ride .... then not end up going, lol (that would really suck for someone). Also ... notice, someONE, lol. I kinda drive a REALLY small car. As in, you don't go anywhere with more then two ppl, lol. Two people and two computers .... with that, I will most likely have to take the stereo out to make it all fit, lol. That said, If I do go, and Tater Salad doesn't, I will most definately have an open seat if anyone needs it. -George (Oh, and bonus, my car gets around 43mpg on the highway )

You won't have to worry about me if I come. I'll be taking my car. If Tater salad wants to come, I'll drive him too, so that'll make things a lot easier for you, ,planning wise at least. -George

I'm a canon guy myself. I have the Rebel XT and couldn't be happier. One thing to definately keep in mind if you buy a DSLR, you will need to do a lot of PP'in(post processing) yourself. The cameras don't do as much in camera editing as most point and shoots. A lot of people are a bit dissappointed when they first get a DSLR if they don't know what they're getting into. The colours don't "pop" quite as much, and the images don't seem as sharp. After a bit of tweaking they will be better then anything you could get out of a point and shoot though. I spend twice as much time on the computer afterwards as i spend actually taking pictures. Check out the forums on dpreview, tons and tons of great info. HTH -George

Oh it was the blue bawls? That's definatley not supposed to be watery. ....... bwhahaha -George

Alrighty .. here it goes. Q. So as you go up the line from F1 up to F22 the opening that allows light to go through gets smaller, correct? A. Correct Q. If I'm shooting in F5.6 and some says you should step up an F-stop, should I be moving to F4 or F8? A. Stopping Up would be opening the apeture up larger, so F4. Yeah, It took me a while to get my head around it too. Now this is a tricky one. Yes, one stop higher will double the light. BUT going from say f5.6 to f5 is not one stop as one might guess. The stops go F1.4, F2, F2.8, F4, F5.6, F8, F11, F11, F16, F22. Moving from one to another will double/halve the anout of light depending on which direction you are going. Now you're wondering "but my camera has more numbers in between those" lol, yeah, confusing eh? Most lenses will go in 1/3 stops. A 1/3 of a stop difference in exposure can greatly effect a picture. (Most camera's will have an exposure control in auto mode that will let you make 1/3 stop adjustments .... ). And while I'm here and talking about stops and 1/3rd stops. Shutter speed stops. 1 second, 1/2 sec. 1/4 sec, 1/8 sec, 1/15 sec, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000. These are all the main stops. One stop between one and the next. Shoot away if you have any more questions. HTH -George

I find the eastiest way to understand that stuff is to know whats going on. First, the general. Iso is how sensitive the film (or digital sensor) is to light. When you take a pic there are three main factors to affect the outcome. Your shutter speed, apeture, and Iso. Shutter speed: It's how long the camera lets the film(sensor) see light. The longer the shutter speed, the more light you get. The general rule of thumb for shutter speed is no longer(slower) then 1/focal length. For example, if you are shooting with a 50mm lens, don't go lower the 1/50th of a second.(This will, of course, differ greatly from person to person depending on how steady you are). Personally, i never go lower then 1/60th while shooting freehand. This formula is a little more important when using longer telephoto lenses. If you are using a 200mm lens any shake is going to be more obvious since everything is magnified, so you would want to shoot at 1/200th of a second or faster. Also, if you are shooting an action scene you will want a faster shutter speed to "freeze" the action. Too slow a shutter speed and eveything will blur. Apeture: The apeture, or F-stop, is the size of the hole the light comes through in the lens. Bigger hole = more light. Apeture size is also measued as a fraction, F2.8 is actually 1/2.8. So F5.6 is a smaller hole then F2.8. It also affects what is called the depth of field. Basically, DOF(depth of field) is how much of the picture is in focus at once. Example: You focus on a person's face 2 feet in front of you. With a wide apeture, say 2.8, you may not be able you get the whole face in focus at once. The eyes are in focus, but the nose ia a little fuzzy. This would be because the depth of field is only a few inches(so anything more then a couple inches in front of, or behind the focus point will be out of focus). If you were to close the apeture a bit, down to F8 or so, suddenly the whole face can be in focus at once because the DOF would increase from a few inches to 6 or maybe 8. So you have to decide ... do you need DOF, or more light? ISO: Like I said, that is how sensitive the film(sensor) is to light. The higher the number (800) the more sensitive the film. The common speeds range from 100-1600 ISO. The sacrifice for having a more sensitive film is a loss of quality(although sometimes that may be the effect you're looking for). The guality loss manifests itself in the form of "grain". Just like it's name, think of rice. Best example, take a point and shoot digital camera(something nice and compact) set it on a table in a dimly lit room in full auto mode(but turn the flash off) and take a picture(I say set it on the table so you don't get any blur). You'll see how the picture quality is somewhat lackluster(unless you have a really really good camera, lol). Grain is most evident in darker parts of the picture. So when looking at ISO, generally, you want the lowest number and least sensitive you can use because it will give the best pictures. Now, all three of these things combine to balance the lighting in your picture. When I shoot, I choose what F-stop I want to use first, then I start at 100 iso. If the shutter speed is too low, I go up to 200, 400 and so on. Now obviously that's a little hard to do on a 35mm(I usually shoot digital) so you will have to anticipate what conditionss you will be in. For vegas outside daytime shooting, 100 or 200 iso will be great. 400 if you're shooting some really fast action. If you are going to be indoors, you'll want 400 or 800, although depending on lighting that may still not be enough(you'd still be able to take a pic, you'd just have to get so slow on the shutter speed that it will blur unless you have something to hold the camera, ei. tripod). Lol .... that turned into a really long post .... ah well. I hope this is understandable. I did repeat some of the stuff BGB said .... HTH -George

don't diss the rpg's, lol. This games's pretty good, although a little confusing ... I like it! lol -George

Wow .... well that makes me feel better. Thanks guys!! -george

Hey guys, I've got a BFG 6600gt oc. I just got a better cpu/mobo and whatnot. My gpu is now running quite a bit hotter. It's hitting 75*C and possibly higher. How hot can it get before I should start to worry? I'm probably going to grab another cooler for it, just don't know when. (most likely one of the big zalman units) Thanks -George

3400+ s754

Awww, but then how will I share all those midget vids with you guys?? lol How clean are we talking .... cuz ... uuhhh ..... not all of my programs are exactly mine My brother loaned them to me .... yeah, that's it, my brother ...... -George