I had the same issue with my old AIW 9600xt. The fan bearings went, which was no big deal until it started to slow the fan down. Luckily I was able to find a chipset fan kit that had matched up with the holes on the card (with a little modification, I had to remove a couple fins from the fan to make room for a capacitor on the board). It ran perfectly and I'd say even did a better job cooling than the original fan did. As a bonus, it came with a couple little copper heatsinks, which I stuck on the VRAM chips to keep them cool too. For about $15, I got a few extra years out of the card (which still works, it's just been upgraded).

It's all about who is shouldering the responsibility and the risk in the trade. If a trade goes sour, someone has to foot the bill, in this case it's the trader. The programmer, on the other hand, still gets his(her) paycheque regardless. It's the same deal with CEOs and such. Yes, the CEO makes millions, but they also bear the fiscal (and more importantly criminal) responsibility of the company. So if the company is breaking the law, it's the CEO that takes the shit for it. If the company folds, it's the CEO that has to pay off the investors. So yeah, it seems like these people get paid shitloads for doing nothing, but really they're getting paid to shoulder the risk.
In the case of these programmers, they've decided that they're OK with the risk in the face of being able to make more money. If a trade goes bad, they can be out alot of cash, but if things are good, they make more than they would have.
TL;DR: Nothing to see here, move along.

http://www.geeks.co.uk/9153-top-ten-video-game-flops

The formula for induced voltage in a transformer is Vs = (Ns/Np)*Vp Vs is the voltage in the secondary coil, Vp the primary. Np and Ns are the number of turns of wire in the primary and secondary coils, respectively. The way a transformer works is an AC current is passed through the primary coil, creating constantly expanding and collapsing lines of flux. These lines of flux pass through the secondary coils inducing a current in them. The voltage produced as a result of the induced current is directly proportional to the ratio of the amount of turns of wire in the two coils. Not that it has nothing to do with the size of the wire, just the amount of pieces of copper passing through the flux. Often, transformers use the smallest wire possible that will still support the amount of current needed.

A cell phone with a 1GHz processor has hundreds of thousands, if not millions or more tiny copper conductors. If a line of flux crosses all of them, then they will each induce a potentially damaging current, especially considering that an increase of 1-2V will create sufficient current to severely damage most handheld electronics. A power transmission line is effectively one conductor (it may be a stranded conductor, but that's considered to be connected in parallel, thus the voltage is equal in all conductors, not added together) and is generally in the 3-25kVAC range before the transformer and 120-240VAC after the transformer (these are all RMS values of course, hook an oscilloscope up to a 120VAC power source and you'll see closer to 170Vp, which is 340V from absolute maximum to absolute minimum).

So let's do some math. Let's say an EMP drives a pulse of 1Wb/s, which when passing through a conductor will induce a voltage of 1V. So now the processor in the mobile device, which is used to 1V, is now randomly dealing with voltages anywhere from -1 to 2V. This can either exceed the maximum forward or reverse voltage in the transistors, thus destroying the processor. The change of 1V in the 3.3kVAC transmission line is not even noticeable in the background noise.
Increase that pulse to 100Wb/s, now you're creating 100V in each conductor (note, I'm not considering losses due to distance, let's assume you're the strength is measured at the location not the source). The mobile device, due to the density of the wiring, may start arcing between traces, maybe even give whoever is holding it a bit of a shock. The extra 100V may be enough to pop your household breaker, maybe a couple fuses in your more sensitive electronics but I bet your stove and fridge will still work. The 3.3kV transmission line may see a noticeable blip, but nothing out of the ordinary still.
You would need a pulse in the range of thousands of webers/second to do serious damage to power transmission systems and large household appliances, and by then, your iPhone would become a pretty crispy critter too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer I would like you to quickly read up on how a transformer works. It is basically two inductors with a common iron core. the electromagnetic flux created by the primary coil induces a current in the secondary coil. this is very similar in nature to the way inductive battery chargers and such work (minus the common iron core). Two coils are places relatively close together and one induces a current in the other by creating an electromagnetic field.

Now, to address your comment. An EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) is a very short burst of EM from a source (generally considered very large and energetic). This radiation....radiates from the source and induces an electric current in any material that is susceptible to such. Therefore, the copper traces in circuit boards, wiring in cars, TV and radio antennas and so forth all pick up this pulse and create a current. If the induced current is energetic enough it can cause voltages inside solid state devices exceeding their maximums and destroying the circuitry.

Oddly enough, bigger things like household appliances will be less affected, since a) they are already built to handle high currents b) fairly well shielded since they are often built inside grounded steel cases which will protect the more delicate electronics (think faraday cage) and c) protected from outside overcurrent via the step-down transformer at the telephone pole, the 15A breaker in the house and the built in fuse that just about everything in your house that plugs into the wall has.

So i guess what I'm trying to say is, you have it backwards. mobile devices are likely the most vulnerable, while stuff connected to the power line will be barely affected (aside from blowing every fuse and breaker in your house)

it's not so much a dummy load as a combination of a) selling excess power to places that are under supplied (Ontario does this a lot) and b) anything that is not routed usefully gets soaked up in the system itself. Transformers draw current through the primary coils even if the secondary is unloaded, therefore whatever is not used goes up in heat

A law is different than active countermeasures. You can outright ignore a law (provided you don't get caught first), you need to do something about countermeasures. In this case, you'd need an ID ant matching credit card, which was used to originally purchase the pass, to get in. Aside from the scalper hacking the database to insert your creds (meaning you'd have to provide your credit card info to a scalper), or scalpers creating a fake ID (with credit card) for each person buying the ticket (very time consuming), this can be a pretty effective way of preventing resale and transfer of tickets.

That being said, if TicketMaster can overcome the 'grandma problem' by making some sort of limited transferability/gifting option, I actually somewhat like the 'no ticket' thing. it's one less thing for me to have to remember, since I always carry my credit card and driver's license with me. Maybe they can put in a gift option when purchasing, you enter the actual ticket holder's name and address, they get an email to a ticket they can either print, or pre-register online to not use a ticket. then they just show up with their ID and they're good to go. Once again, that will limit scalping since it is a) time consuming to transfer each ticket to the buyer and b) has to be done at the time of purchase, preventing people buying in bulk and selling later.

Or, they could just go back to using paper tickets and just accept the scalpers for what they are.

I wholeheartedly agree. All the bands I've seen live, I've either seen for free or very close to it. If you keep your eyes open, even big name bands play small venues here and there. In my hometown, we had a festival every summer with a couple concert stages - acts like the Tea Party, Sloan, Philosopher Kings, Spirit of the West and so on would play there and admission for THE WHOLE FESTIVAL was $5. oh, and beer was $2.50 a bottle. In Ottawa, the Blues Festival is on right now, Iron Maiden is playing (tonight actually). Cost to get in for the day? $60. Yes, that is a little pricey, but it's an all access pass to everything going on today. $150 gets you a pass for the week. As far as smaller venues, keep an eye on your local college/university. sometimes they'll have a band playing and allow non-students to come and pay a cover charge which is usually less than $20.

it's not card owners using/not using the chip that is the problem, it's the retailers. I don't know how many places I've gone to that still don't use the chip readers (most of which already have machines that accept the chip) and I'm forced to use the magnetic strip. The worst is, we're not talking about little mom-and-pop convenience stores, places like Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire still don't accept chip cards.

Should have posted that as an AC....

YYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Monopoly-00035-Money/dp/B00000IWCW/ref=pd_bxgy_t_img_a

Ditto for Monopoly money too

Unless that asshat happens to be the Pope

That's where you are wrong. It's not as much about 'hurting' the game company as it is about having discretion when it comes to purchasing decisions. If Company A overcharges for a product that is limited in functionality and Company B sells a similar product for less money, is fully functional but may not be as polished or up to date, then you must make a decision for yourself, without worrying about the welfare of either company. If they are smart, they will find a way to survive with or without you. If not, then they will sink and another competitor will take their place on the market. I honestly don't give a rat's ass who makes the games I play. If they're good in my opinion, they get my money; if not, I will move on and look for another game that might be worthy. It's as simple as that.

how in the fuck do you get 167? any (whole number) multiple of an even number is always even. 24 hours / day * 7 days = 24 + 24 + 24 + 24 + 24 + 24 + 24 = 48 + 48 + 48 + 24 = 96 + 72 = 168. and if that's not enough, Google said so. http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=number+of+hours+in+a+week&aq=f&aqi=h1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=