Homebrew01

So, which model lense(s) do you use for soccer games & such ?

waterrockets 

Sounds like a great opportunity for you. Congrats on getting over the hump. Here's to hoping your last 10% of work doesn't take 90% of the time

Canon 70-200mm f2.8L.

After I shot for a month with the 18-55mm kit lens and the Nifty Fifty 50mm f1.8, I realized much more what I needed to shoot sports: a constant focus 200mm zoom. For constant focus on Canon, that means L glass, so it was one of four 70-200mm lenses: f4, f4 w/IS, f2.8, or f2.8 w/IS. The prices on those range from about $700 to $2300. I decided that IS wasn't important for outdoor daytime sports, and I wanted the f2.8 for the shallow depth of field, so I chose the 70-200mm f2.8L w/out IS (since IS would cost another $1000!).

It's been a great lens. I still use it for indoor events like kids' concerts and plays, and it does an incredible job in the low-ish light.



Good for other non-sports action as well:

Homebrew01

We've got a EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens that came with the camera bundle. It's an entry level lens, but good enough for now until the skills improve. Tested it out at the kid's game yesterday and got a few good shots.

waterrockets 

Cool! Post up

mollusk

How is HP still in business? Spawn2 needed to scan a drawing. We haven't had to use the scan function on our "commercial grade" HP scanner for a few years. It was sold as "Vista ready". It did work under XP-32 bit and It NEVER worked under Vista. There are also no drivers on the HP site for Vista 32 or 64 bit, or for Windows 7 32 or 64 bit, or XP-64 bit. WTF?

I can see "big business" pissing on regular consumers as a business model, but here they are pissing on people that paid for "commercial" hardware. Idiots.

Eventually I got the scan using Linux/Sane.

ridethecliche

HP is not really doing so hot right now.

mollusk

20 or so years ago I was doing yard work in my back yard and suddenly i saw my wife pitching an HP printer out the back door and cursing a blue streak.

Same as it ever was

waterrockets 

It's interesting -- I've bought three HP PCs in a row (AMD) and have really loved them. One is a 2006 Media Center PC, and it's still recording all our TV on two cable boxes and OTA HD, and distributing it through the house to an XBox 360 and some extenders. I think the PCs are a great value and perform well.

The last HP peripheral we had was a 1998 HP LaserJet printer that was really quite awesome. It finally stopped pulling paper up, and was going to be expensive to repair. Since then, HP hasn't been the answer for scanners or printers when I go shopping...

mollusk

There are two HP desktops in my house and one is a media center. I had to replace the MB in that one. It was a really cheap MB. And the power supply died on that machine, but that is a trivial fix.

The other one has also had MB problems. The on board NIC stopped working and there was no free slot to put one in. Actually that is not totally true. There is a free slot, but it is sideways and faces the case. I supposed that I could get out my metal snips and cut a hole in the case and then use the slot. Instead I got a wireless USB for it.

slynkie

D&D was brought up in this thread before, but it's been on my mind...

I haven't actually played in 15+ years. Lately though I've been watching the youtube videos of the guys from Penny Arcade, Scott from PvP, and Wil Wheaton playing 4ed D&D (1st video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqXqK3ZlqWI)...and it just reminds me of how much fun I used to have.

My wife just shakes her head and looks the other way.

Is anyone here actively playing D&D?

waterrockets 

Wow. In my own small sample-size world, HPs have been awesome. Sucks that you've had the opposite experience.

The HDD died in the Media Center after 4 years, but it was a WD Caviar, which is a fine drive -- just happens sometimes. Other than that, they've really been completely problem free and performed as expected.

Was the bad mobo an AMD or Intel system? Engineers from AMD or Intel do a lot of the design on those boards... and I'm going to be partial to the AMD work since I worked there and still train daily and race with folks up the hill at AMD.

mollusk

Both AMD boards made in PRC.

waterrockets 

Gah.

mollusk

For a replacement MB I used an MSI board. Works well, but lost the card reader functions as there was no header for that.

waterrockets 

Replacing boards is actually kind of fun, but not as a repair :-/

mollusk

The hardest part is getting Windows authorized (if you want to keep that OS). M$ told me that I had to go to HP because the OS was on a license from them. HP said "no way" because I didn't buy the replacement MB from them and was no longer "their" computer. I think that I just tried what looked like a "key" printed on the label on the case and it worked.

waterrockets 

That OEM windows crap really pisses me off. You bought the freaking rights to use the software.

I remember one of my friends, as a joke, wrote a batch of letters to record lables. He was asking them to exchange his vinyl for CDs (this was 1992 or so). He said he'd pay for the cost of the media (<$1), and he already had the rights to a copy of the music. He never heard back, but it's funny idea.

At least we don't have to do that for CD->MP3, since you can just rip it.

soma5

My geekly opinion is that HP products are poorly supported, especially as operating systems change. The last HP product I owned was a printer that was no longer supported under XP. Way to go. Way to kill a formerly respected brand. Oh, I have a Laserjet II that still works. That was when they made products to last.

waterrockets 

Honestly, it's not in too many high-tech companies' interest to produce durable goods any more.

shovelhd

Yeah. You bought the rights to use the software, on that hardware only. Once it dies, the rights terminate. You paid less for the software and agreed to these conditions. It still sucks.

TMonk

TEM -> Image J -> Excel
TEM -> Image J -> Excel
TEM -> Image J -> Excel
TEM -> Image J -> Excel...

I've spent way too much time in front of a screen today.

SalsaPodio

Finally getting to stuff I like in thermo.

Homework consisting of determining how to model gibbs free energy curves for solutions, and comparing them to data obtained about the activities of the components. I think this is some of the more interesting stuff.

We're learning about chemical reactions right now, and I think it is going to help me quite a bit. I'm trying to figure out how to do some calculations to determine the vapor pressures of different chloride species (AlCl(3/4) and HfCl4) as a function of temperature. I'm eventually trying to determine a temperature range where the difference in vapor pressure between a few of the constituents is favorable to allow co-deposition of both Al and Hf on some samples. I know there are programs to calculate it for me, but my professor doesn't want to spend the money to get it.

waterrockets 

Slave labor is a wonderful thing. And you're paying for the privilege at least it's work you're enjoying.

mollusk

Clausius-Clapeyron

mollusk

Sent a "teaser" document to my consulting client today with outputs from what I have been working on for them as the main component of the work. Got a call back within 15 minutes. They are very excited. Not only did I deliver what was promised I also generalised the code WAY beyond their wildest expectations. We had scoped the work to only do the easy, first step in the modeling. I produced the whole enchilada. They can now solve many more interesting problems if I give them the entire code. And I will.