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I'll be onboard for that if you don't feel confident making the repair yourself. Yeah, it looks like the usual bad cap issue we've all seen on older motherboards. I would probably replace them with solid polymer caps just so the problem never recurs, assuming of course I can find the same value...

If I were you I might wait a bit until OLED becomes more affordable. I've seen OLED in person. It's no comparison to anything else but it's still too pricey for my tastes. I'll echo what I said to SD, but with the caveat of waiting for 4K OLED. I've seen OLED, and I've seen 4K monitors/TVs. Put...

Try replacing the caps first. That may very well fix the problem. Too bad I'm not local to you or I could replace them for you. BTW, I know exactly how you feel about dumping the TV in the trash for what is most likely a repairable power supply issue. I hate to part with things I know can be...

No, no penalties or interest provided the amount you pay during the year is at least 90% of your tax liability or 100% of last year's tax liability: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc306.html I may or may not invest the money but it's easier for me to just pay in one lump sum next April, even if...

I was thinking the same thing. I'm pretty good at paying the minimum amount of tax I legally have to pay. I'll grant there are certain gray areas like business expenses where you can fudge stuff to an extent, but getting back 5 figures instead of a few hundred would make me seriously question...

Doug, I find that while taxes are complicated sometimes, it's beneficial to me to do them myself rather than pay money to someone else to do them. Unless a person is running a fairly large business, or has very complex investments, I'm not seeing why anyone would need to pay to have their taxes...

A tornado actually touched down right where I live in 2010. We didn't sustain any damage directly, but many others did. I took loads of pictures on the day it happened and several days afterwards: http://s91.photobucket.com/user/jtr1962/library/Flushing%20Tornado%202010/09-16-2010?sort=4&page=1...

My WinSXS folder is only 8.84GB. Then again this install of Windows 7 is only about 18 months old. Seriously though, Microsoft should come up with a solution to this. Now that many machines are using SSDs for boot drives, you can't assume a ridiculously large amount of space for the Windows...

Based on the experience in my family, we seem to suffer only the side effects of pain killers but not the relief. About the only thing which works for me much of the time is drinking myself into a stupor. I obviously can't do that on a regular basis without risking liver damage plus loss of my...

This year it's only $95 or 1% of your income, whichever is more. Eventually it'll increase to $695 or 2.5% of your income. Given the numbers Merc gave, if you're making less than ~$130K it'll be cheaper to go without insurance even once the full penalties kick in. If your income is less than...

That's exactly the kind of situation I was thinking of when I wrote my lengthy post above. When you're locked into a combination of hardware/software which still works fine for you, upgrading just for the sake of switching to a more modern OS is at best an expensive proposition. In this case...

Just out of curiosity, exactly what do people use Outlook Express for anyway? I know it's for emails, but when I read or write emails I just do that from my web browser. Yes, Yahoo and the like always change how their email works, and it gets annoying at times, but I would imagine keeping...

This is very true. Quite a few computers in business environments either aren't connected to the Internet at all, or are connected through a server/mainframe which not only blocks malware, but often blocks users from even accessing sites known to contain malware. In this type of environment you...

Starting signs of carpal tunnel syndrome? Count yourself lucky that it took until well into middle age before this happened. I started in my mid 20s. By the time I was about 30 it was so bad I could no longer work full-time. It only got worse after that. It seems to have plateaued for the last...

I tend to charge my 2000 mAh Eneloops at 600 or 700 mA. This is gentler on the cells than the default 1000 mA. I also have some Duracell ion-core cells (the made in Japan ones are most likely rebranded Eneloop XXs). I usually use 1000 mA for these, although lower currents work fine. The MH-C9000...

Until HAMR is commercially feasible areal densities probably aren't going to increase all that much. I suspect by the time it is SSDs will be approaching magnetic disks in terms of price per TB. HAMR can potentially increase densities by a factor of 100, but by stacking flash RAM chips (V-NAND)...

Same here. The only thing I know is a touchdown is 6 points. I watched most of the game just for the heck of it (and because it was in the NY Metro area). I get into baseball a lot more but I'm still not what you would consider a hard-core baseball fan. On the other hand, when the Tour de...

Just using a liquid cooling block on the CPU might get CPU temperatures a few degrees above 0°C. On the other hand, if you use a liquid cooling block to cool a decent size thermoelectric cooler you could see CPU temperatures well below 0°C. Going by the specs, if we assume a 125 watt CPU, you...

I'm the same way. I'm actually glad PCs have more or less plateaued as far as speed goes. It makes the decision to upgrade much easier knowing you won't be able to buy a system twice as fast for the same price in six months.

What are you using now for monitor? I'm asking because unless it's a CRT, most monitors which are less than about a decade old aren't much worse than most of what you can buy nowadays on a small budget. Until recently when 4K monitors started appearing, I didn't see any compelling reason at all...

I'm also sorry to hear about the recent turn of events with your wife. It may be hard at times, but she needs to keep a positive outlook. Those who do have a much better shot at living a long time. I know at least two people (my dad and my maternal grandmother after her husband died) who just...

Everyone has areas where they're talented and not talented. I wouldn't be all that great in HR, either. I'd probably end up running it like the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket". Those things are very important if you want to retain quality employees. That's actually why I gave up on...

A lot of that is the fault of companies which partition tasks off to whomever they think can do it. If you do a particular task well, then you get stuck doing that task and nothing else. End result is employees who only see themselves useful for one or two functions in a company. IIRC, Japanese...

Parts and your check are here. After I flow solder the LEDs to the MCPCBs, I'm going to put a few inches of 24 gauge wire on the LED boards for now to test them. I'm figuring when you wire everything up you can solder whatever gauge wire you want to the short pieces of wire. Does this sound OK?

Most PC users wouldn't see much of a difference between a 10-core Xeon and something like a 4-core i5. This is one of those cases where you'll know if you need it or not. My decade-old XP3200 was actually adequate for 95% of the stuff I did on a PC. I needed more 3D horsepower and better...

I feel the same way. Too many interesting projects come my way for me to say I'll never work again, even if I didn't need the money. I would think of retirement as only doing the projects which interest me.

I recall posting on Storage Review maybe ten years ago that one day computers would have slots for non-volatile solid-state storage as well as the usual RAM slots. Interesting that we're seeing the start of that concept now with server hardware. In a few years it might be the norm for desktop...

Congratulations! Being "free" at last is one of the greatest feelings a person can have, even if in a case like mine it's going from working for someone else to working for myself. It's nice not living by the clock anymore. I long for the time when I can only pick just the projects which...

It's not of the same magnitude as the mistakes you three made but one time a potential customer asked me for a data sheet for some component I was considering using in a project for them. At the time I had the hard drive from my sister's PC in my machine to scan it for malware. Her PC was...

My experience is the same. I never spin down drives, and I've yet to have a drive fail on me. Once my machines only use SSDs, I'll consider powering them down if I'm away for more than an hour or two but I would consider this practice very harmful to mechanical disks.

Here is an interesting read of the subject. Of note here is this: Zone III, is termed the Wearout period and is characterized by an increasing failure rate as a result of equipment aging and deterioration. Because modern electronic equipment is largely made up of semiconductor devices that have...

Just a suggestion here in case you haven't tried it-boot using the Ubuntu disk you created when your machine had problems a few months ago. Try sleep mode in Ubuntu. If you have problems using sleep mode in Ubuntu then we can assume this is a hardware problem, not a software problem. The PC has...

Polycarbonate with UV stabilizers added is highly resistant to UV as well as virtually unbreakable. For the gasket, maybe some type of silicone?

$280 for that kind of capability isn't bad. I would ultimately like to both scan and make items. My larger concern was actually being able to scan things because I know eventually 3D printers will be mainstream. Seeing what you can do with less than $300 worth of hardware sets those worries to rest.

OK, I think I have a set of suitable drivers. 15-LED string 5-LED string (will work with 2 and 3 LED strings if I add extra LEDs to bring the output voltage past 12V)

I found a better driver. This one works with standard triac dimmers. It should work fine for all of the strings except the one with 2 LEDs. For that I could just add an extra LED in series with the string to get the string voltage past 8V. Edit: I just noticed minimum order quantity is 50...

This looks like it might work on the larger chain. I think 350 mA will give enough light. Unfortunately, the driver uses 1-10V dimming, not triac dimming. The dimmer would be wired to the module, so it could be wall mounted same as a triac dimmer.

3D scanning and printing is something I can see myself getting into in a big way once the cost of the hardware drops a bit. I love the idea of being able to either design a part and print it, or scan an existing part, modify it if necessary, and then make as many as I need. I think 3D...

Probably but some people like overkill. 100,000 cd will ensure they won't see much for a while even if they quickly blink their eyes shut. That said, I personally think small form factor lights are better as defensive weapons. If an attacker sees you whipping out a big light, they'll probably...

Blinding potential attackers. If you shine a 100,000 cd flashlight in someone's eyes, especially at night when their eyes are dark adjusted, they won't be able to see a thing for at least 20-30 seconds. That gives you time to either escape, or if the light is heavy enough, use it to beat the...

That's really the part which has me worried. The predicted temperature rise due to CO2 is bad enough, but if the methane in the methane hydrates is released, we could be looking at a Venus scenario.

Australia is just getting the kind of temperatures much of the rest of the world will be seeing by mid-century. I read somewhere that by 2050 an average July or August day in NYC will be upwards of 50°C. I hate to think what a heat wave will be but you'll probably have thousands dying. I'm...

I could grind down the MCPCBs a bit to ensure they would be under 0.315". A near perfect fit is obviously better thermally here. When all is said and done I'm pretty sure the LED will be close to whatever temperature the ground is.

LED drivers typically have an output voltage range over which they operate. There has to be a range because Vf of white LEDs can vary from 2.8 volts up to as much as 4 volts. This built-in compliance voltage range will take care of any variations in wire length. Electronically, constant current...

I just checked Mouser. A 5000K XP-G2 in the top bin (139 lm @ 350 mA and Tj=85°C) is under $5 in the quantities we'll need.

That would make the most sense. All I would be doing with the LED units is gluing the LED in with thermal paste and running the wires outside the unit somehow. Those things are all easily within your capabilities. I can solder short wires to the LED boards which you can splice to the longer ones...

A brace soldered to the pipe is fine both mechanically and thermally. The long pipe is good because it adds stability when buried and also increases heat dissipation abilities a bit. The main issue I'm seeing with that is the fact the one side of the wire will be against bare metal (and hence...

One issue I'm seeing with your idea is physically mounting the LED into the finished assembly. It's a long way down that pipe without much room to work with. And it's hard/impossible to see what's going on at the bottom while you're putting the LED in. You need a platform of some sort closer to...

They're using degrees F. -135.8°C would be -212.4°F. It's never gotten this cold on Earth's surface during recorded history. I agree they should have mentioned the scale.

Be glad we don't have this kind of cold.