Bwaaahaahaa-- that's hilarious!

And it reminds me of that one time I did similarly, using heated up nails to poke holes in some plastic containers, but didn't note that the nail too cool to melt plastic was plenty hot enough to burn an otherwise beautiful wooden table, and even get it smoking...

Ah, the discoveries of youth.

You said DISK...

TOTALLY Freudian mis-hearing there... :^b

I haven't run into this (yet?), but I've noticed the noisy drive phenomena come up a time or two during really huge operations, which always gets my attention because noise = wear and tear.

I don't know if it's a related issue, but I always make it a point to get drives with the biggest built-in cache I can get (and usually found that shopping around gets this for about the same price anyway!).

On semi-related noise fronts, I recently installed (read: all but forced) some really spiffy drive fans for my drives recently. One of them wasn't in there even a day before it started making this odd noise that turned out to be that the (cheap plastic in the) fan had cracked.

Needless say, I had to replace it and do some more work, and now the whole rig is the quietest I could get (reading the dB levels helps!). Alas, I had to take a dremel(!) to my case to put in (and deburr) the screw-holes that Gateway was too cheap to have spec'ed in the first place, along with coaxing parts in veeery carefully as to not mess up my memory.

But there's nothing like that studly feeling that comes from making a part _behave_ by force (using power tools, no less), and the satisfaction that I can run my gear 24/7 knowing it's pampered and smooooooth.

One of the units (that pokes out front) has these blue LEDs on the fans that look sweeeeet, but they don't have an off switch and are a bit bright, especially at night. I'm seeing if I can rig up a circuit that uses a photo-resistor to adjust the light level of all my LEDs so they can dim as the lights go down. I just need a clever way to junction it all smoothly. I might even put in a knob or switch for custom-setting it all.

Some of the best ideas are things that should've been there from the get-go. =^)

And I've seen it do things like trigger hard disk failures (albeit temporary ones that went away after reseating its respective cable connections), as well as muck with ISA or PCI modems.

My theory as to the cause of stuff like this is what I call a "floating ground" misconnection. I've noticed that these kinds of problems (i.e., the ones fixed by re-seating) tend to happen on plug-in components that have only ONE connection pin/contact that's defined as 'ground'. Usually, this pin or contact is also at the very end-- front or back-- of the pin/card connections. Examples include PCI cards, video cards, and PATA drive ribbon cables (I have yet to see it in SATA drives, but it's *possible*)-- the last one meaning it can affect hard drives, DVD/CD drives etc.

Anyhoo...the pin that's "ground" literally defines the actual operation voltage differences (something that's very important in digital systems); if you have a bad grounding, the pin that's supposed to have 3.5 volts on it will actually have a different value-- say 3.0 volts, and so forth, mucking up ALL the voltage values (and their respective tolorance values) for the whole affected system. Most times, since it's a reduced voltage, it doesn't do any damage (versus a short that might fry such systems. My theory is that having gunk or the teeny-tiniest of gaps or variances in the actual seating of the ground pin either adds resistance or some other aspect that mucks with its value. Reseating (and sometimes a careful cleaning with alcohol) will generally fix this is.

This doesn't seem to happen with systems where the ground is a significant contact area, like USB connections (at least the honkin'-huge connector-- can't say as much for the micro-connectors, tho' they hold up pretty well too), nor in systems that have (actual) multiple ground pins or contacts.

Another extreme version of this is a loose solder connection on where the seating occurs, but this usually results in spotty results whenever you even LOOK at the machine funny.

Anyway, I hope the info helps other folks who might see similar problems in their diagnoses, and I'm glad to hear your stuff's working again!

Dood...that's SICK!

I like it. It explains a lot...

That sounds sweet! Congrats on the save!

But it left me wondering...what would happen if the tooth faerie went on strike? What would be the fallout, i.e., who would be affected by the sudden shortage of baby teeth on the "supply" end? And just what *is* it that they do with all those teeth?

I smell the makings of a fun children's story...

I know a little too well first hand how hard some of this stuff can be to get going!

Speaking of which...I'm having a hard time getting any of the spiffy freeware animation and/or video editing software to work on either my Ubuntu- *or* XP-based machines. I'm beginning to fear that the problem is the dual x2-64 CPUs that are common to both of them! :^(

Can you recommend any place/forum/diety that helped you cut through the mustard, so to speak?

This must set a new speed record for the distance between "OMIGOSH, CAN I *GET* THIS?!" and "Oh. That's funny!"

Personally, I'd often wondered if there was something to that old theory about the vibrations of the instrument and their proximity to...things...on the cellist. Especially given the expressions I've seen on the faces of a few cellists as they were...at it. X^o

*Oooooohhhhhh*!!! I get it now! Thanks!

Though I have to admit, the idea of a level 400 'Animator' sounds Really *&#$in' KEWL!

It sounds waaaaay beyond my level 12 Paladin... :^b

I have two stories to share:

A long time ago, I wanted to get into (computer video) animation, and got a supportive email from a big hero of mine (who was basically running animation on all the major sci-fi stuff of the time, including B-5, most of the Trek stuff, and other programs). He basically said I could take classes and they'd be a good investment, but if I *really* wanted to get into it, I should get a really good PC, a copy of [software _____] and just start '...learning [my] ass off'.

It sounds an awful lot like what you're doing.

I did some following down the same path, but then veered off as I realized it wasn't such a good fit for me. But some time later, I was making some candies for a good friend-- ironically, it was more at her insistence that I should be doing it than any major desire on my part. Somewhere in the middle of that, at about 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, I watched some melted chocolate "click" as it achieved *perfect* temper right in front of my eyes. I touched a part of that chocolate to my chin (just under my lip) and "learned" the feeling of the right temperature where that happens. Then I melted my next batch and did it again. Then I whipped out a marble slab and just "eyeballed" that temper.

The next hour was a blur, but it ended up in some of the most amazing stuff I'd ever made (up to that time). I rushed it off and bumped into a friend of mine, who remarked on how I was *glowing* (and pointed out that I had a streak of brown on one cheek-- chocolate as it turned out).

I'm still looking for that kind of stuff-- there doesn't seem to be just one thing-- but that "toe-curling feeling" I get every time I make some caramel or melt chocolate for truffles-- it's a love-hate feeling of things I've mastered combined with all I have yet to learn (and how they both just...burn in me)... ...I think that burn is the stuff of life, and it sounds like the path you're on. All I can say is trust your feelings and damn them torpedoes as HARD AS YOU CAN (and keep at it no matter what).

Hey! Don't blame the code monkeys! Blame the monkey-managers who impose the impossible deadlines, after the sales-monkeys tack on extra promises of stuff we can't deliver to close sales!

Although this does remind me immensely of a funny interlude sometime back...we were working late hours once on a deadline, and somebody tossed a koosh (it was always either a koosh, rubber bands, or that set of ping-pong-ball guns we got a while back, we were always throwing something around). Anyway, our boss walks by...

Boss: Get back to work and quit throwing shit at each other!

Guy 1: But we're code-monkeys! We're *supposed* to throw shit at each other!

Guy 2: No, that's supposed to be throwing your OWN shit at each other!

Guy 1: Well, it's MY koosh!

Guy 3: Have you seen [Guy 1]'s code? It pretty much is shit...

::Guy 3 get nailed solidly with a koosh::

Boss, laughing hysterically: QUIT THROWING SHIT AT EACH OTHER!

(more accurately http://wtfcnn.blogspot.com/)

They feature headlines by CNN that are really boneheaded.

And yes, I see tantamount used for paramount all the time, though never the converse...

A.K.A., the Vampire Catfish.

They're little-known outside of their region (the Amazon), but in that region, they're feared more than pirahna (with good reason!). There are stories of their draining all the blood out of cattle crossing the wrong stream, which are possibly exaggerated; however, there are also documented cases of which I'm not going to even mention the details here. I'm just providing a link and a warning that just the TEXT of it may well give you nightmares, or at the very least make any man-- or woman-- suddenly cross their legs and vow never to swim in any river near the Amazon...ever. You have been warned...

http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/animals1/catfish/candiru.html

and here's another, with some pictures(!), and double the above warning:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/piranha038/candiru.html

Either way, I think this one would be a top contender, for its fit (no pun intended) as well as exotic nature. Plus it's innocuous-looking enough that it won't raise any eyebrows on first sight. :^)

Congrats! Isn't it great to feel that kind of great fit when it's happening?

I've noticed that once one finds one's path as you describe, everything seems to just flow together beautifully. I have known it before and I'd like to know it again, and now I shall wish that the same fortune may smile upon me, as I have wandered quite long enough, thank you!

In the meantime, luck and godspeed for your remaining preparations!