Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:05 pm

Yah, I have a friend who says that he discovered he has some sort of gluten intolerance. He'd eaten it for decades, but now states that it he'd had an upset stomach from it during that time. Maybe so, I dunno. It could just be that his wife used mind control powers on him, but he's not a jerk about it, so hey.

He's got a couple kids one of whom is purportedly allergic to various things including gluten, along with deathly allergic to peanuts. I'm slightly skeptical since I'd seen her eat stuff cooked in peanut oil without trouble before they'd done a scratch test, etc. But hey, gotta respect it since it's not something ya fuck around with, and since his kids can't have gluten it makes sense for the parents to avoid it and keep it out of the house anyway. So doubly the reasons to not give him crap about it.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:10 pm

I'm told peanut allergies can worsen with successive exposure.

Personally, I spent a while suffering from a mild peanut allergy. It gave me an upset stomach when I ate a lot of peanut products. Wouldn't have been much of a problem, except I ate PB&J sandwiches and peanut-butter crackers on a daily basis. It was unpleasant but not dangerous.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:42 pm

I get torn up by soy. I wouldn't call it an allergy, but I will say it makes me ill.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:33 pm

Yeah, my nephew apparently has a peanut allergy. My sister keeps some epinephrine (?) on hand at all times. I didn't even know this until I was talking to her yesterday and brought up allergies.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:16 pm

name_here wrote:I'm told peanut allergies can worsen with successive exposure.

That's true of a few different ones, such as wasp allergies.

And yeah, epinephrine is the artificial adrenaline you jab into someone to force their heart to keep beating.

rampaging-poet · Post by **rampaging-poet** » Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:31 am

This morning, I tried to calculate the number of settings on The Machine of Lum the Mad, an old D&D artifact with lots of controls and no way to know what any of them do. The Book of Artifacts claims there are over 8.5*10^48 combinations, but I calculated only about 4.16*10^27. The combinations of levers and dials are pretty easy to calculate, (2^10 and 7^20, respectively), but I'm not sure if I've calculated the switchboard correctly.

The switchboard is a set of 26 wires and 26 ports. Each wire can be plugged into one port. If N wires are actually connected, there should be 26 choose N ways to pick the wires and 26 pick N ways to assign them to the ports. The total number of ways to arrange the entire switchboard would then be:

Code: Select all

     26
    ---
     \       26! * 26!
T =   >     -----------
     /    n! * &#40;26 - n&#41;!^2
    ---
    n=0

Does this look reasonable, or have I messed up horribly somewhere?

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:01 pm

For the switchboard, I'm assuming that "unplugged" is a valid state for a wire/port.

This gives \sum_{n=0}^{26}{}_{26}P_{n}\approx10^{27} ways to arrange the switchboard, which gives about 9*10^46 combinations, assuming the levers and dials are the only other controls.

Voss · Post by **Voss** » Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:35 pm

fectin wrote:I have a couple family members who found that when they avoid gluten, they're happier. One found that he consistently thought faster and felt better when he avoided gluten; another had recurring stomach pains that stopped recurring. Neither is especially interested in finding out whether those benefits are real or placebo, and I don't fault them for it.

Of course, they're also not jerks; they just choose different food at restaurants, eat smaller portions when served bread, and favor wine over beer. Also, and this is key, they don't talk about it.

Ugh, you're giving me flashbacks to my last job. Friday lunches could get out of hand quickly. 2 vegans (one often super serious about it) and a gluten allergy. Usually it wasn't a problem, but every so often the sensitive vegan would go off a tear and pin the poor waitresses to the floor for 10 minutes about every single aspect of a dish. The woman with the gluten allergy usually didn't join us for lunch (which, fair enough, because the food an albuquerque was generally shit), but sometimes the super-serious vegan would talk her into it, and then descend into madness on behalf of both of them. Almost to the level of inspecting water glasses for bread dust and shit, to the point it was visibly embarrassing to be in their company.

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:29 am

This derives from the recent AtGD thread.

What's a CPU validator?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:32 am

a CPU validator is something that validates a CPU.
quite simple for something that technical neh? O.o

if it has to do with the free software tool CPU-Z:
"The "validation" feature refers to the CPU-Z Validator facility, which allows one to prove that their CPU-Z readings are genuine (needed when sharing information about overclocks, hardware stability etc...) and not faked."
http://valid.canardpc.com/

i am guessing you might be asking because of this?
http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=53993

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 3:38 am

Oh, interesting. So it's a software to verify that you didn't make up data about your computer and that it really is performing [X] at [Y] efficiency/capacity/etc?

Stahlseele wrote:i am guessing you might be asking because of this?
http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=53993

YouLostMe wrote:This derives from the recent AtGD thread.

Indeed, sir. Indeed.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:09 am

Yeah, it's to make sure your E-Peen really is as huge as you boast.
And i have no idea what that AtGD is supposed to mean O.o

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:12 pm

I would assume that the legit purpose of a CPU validator is to verify that your CPU is functioning as specified or determine how actual performance compares to theoretical performance given that equations for predicting how electronics behave are frequently only accurate at "normal" conditions and deviate from reality as heat increases.

Do they also check for errors? I've heard that overclocking can cause the CPU to make calculation errors and literally this week learned where digital calculation errors come from, so it seems like that would be a useful tool to have. Probably fairly difficult to implement, but I guess if you have two CPUs you can overclock one, run it through a shitton of calculations repeatedly. and write them to the hard drive, and have the other one see how many it got right.

You could also verify equality of repeated attempts at the same calculation on the overclocked CPU, but then you're attempting to find an unknown error through using a process that has an unknown error, and then the output may also suffer from the unknown error in addition to the error propagation, and all these errors are both intermittent and random, and basically it's a bottomless well of madness. Though I guess you could run it a lot and display the outputs repeatedly so the user can determine the error within an order of magnitude.

----

On a closely related note, how DOES one overclock a CPU? I have a stupidly large CPU fan and want to make use of it.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:16 pm

On a closely related note, how DOES one overclock a CPU? I have a stupidly large CPU fan and want to make use of it.

Advanced BIOS settings for the most part. They'll give you readouts on cycles and heat and will usually give you some things to fiddle with at your own risk.

-Username17

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:13 pm

Depends on the CPU and the MainBoard.
If you have an OC-Capable board, you can manually adjust FSB-Speed and Voltage and Clock-Speed and Multiplier . . and Voltage, which is needed for higher OCs. And for RAM you can tune the Timings and the Clock too.
But yes, if you set one wrong number, it all goes up in smoke.

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:34 pm

Stahlseele wrote:And i have no idea what that AtGD is supposed to mean O.o

About the Gaming Den.

My bad.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:50 pm

So, I've started working out. I've noticed my cheap 20$ 10 year old walmart sneakers really need to be replaced. What are some good things to look for? I'm not willing to spend more than 50$ on shoes.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:56 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:
On a closely related note, how DOES one overclock a CPU? I have a stupidly large CPU fan and want to make use of it.
Advanced BIOS settings for the most part. They'll give you readouts on cycles and heat and will usually give you some things to fiddle with at your own risk.

Yeah, you won't find "Overclock On/Off" in the BIOS, but if you look through it you'll find things on CPU cycles/speed, and hopefully it will come with a warning on heat and such.

Keep in mind that it's generally not recommended, in some cases it's enough to go "lol fuck your warranty" and even without overheating it can shorten the lifespan of your CPU. It's almost always better to just buy better parts, but that's not always feasible.

Also, never overclock a laptop/notebook, it will suddenly turn into plasma or explode. That's actually how Rei does this.

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:24 am

If your laptop explodes it is more likely to be a manufacture fault though. See for example this article from 2006: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/ ... _fire.html

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:26 am

My CPU fan is so big it barely fits in the case. I think I have some safety margin.

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:28 am

That could be a bad thing. You will need the airflow for cooling.
In any case, you will want to do a search for <cpu type> overclocking,
if only to find out what people are hitting on air, and probably without overvolting.

John Magnum · Post by **John Magnum** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:01 am

AMD has in-OS software to do some overclocking. Are there compelling reasons to avoid using it in favor of doing your overclocking through the BIOS? Other than "If you wanted to overclock, why did you get an AMD processor"?

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:57 am

Cynic wrote:So, I've started working out. I've noticed my cheap 20$ 10 year old walmart sneakers really need to be replaced. What are some good things to look for? I'm not willing to spend more than 50$ on shoes.

It really depends on what you're doing. If you're weightlifting on a budget but must wear shoes I'd get something with a nigh incompressible soles and heels like low top chucks since stability and balance are super important for maintaining good form on deadlifts and the like. If you can get away with being barefoot at your gym or have a home setup that's also a good option for weightlifting and it lets you save your money for a more specialized shoe if you're also into running or basketball.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 4:43 am

1) Why does the US Government require you to claim your dual citizenship while still a minor? I was eligible for it due to my grandfather, but I missed the deadline. I'd rather not go through the years long application process or marry for it, so I suppose I'm 'stuck' being just Canadian. Just seems weird that you have to decide before you turn 18 is all.

2) Does anyone here know how to speak or translate Sanskrit?

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 7:24 am

Meikle641 wrote:1) Why does the US Government require you to claim your dual citizenship while still a minor? I was eligible for it due to my grandfather, but I missed the deadline. I'd rather not go through the years long application process or marry for it, so I suppose I'm 'stuck' being just Canadian. Just seems weird that you have to decide before you turn 18 is all.

That's the same for other countries too - missed my own deadline for my mother's country's citizenship.

As an aside though, having dual US citizenship can be an ordeal thank to the IRS' wish to tax anyone, no matter where they earn their money, and whether or not they already paid taxes on their income. Lots of red tape and fees for consultants and such each year to deal with the IRS.