Computer tech blog

[Dr. Mario]

Yep. It often is weird when it comes to local currency. Also newegg.com sell 'em dirt cheap, even item of Japanese workship quality (which are usually expensive.) - I have had no problem with 'em.

Although you're not in USA, I would say it's pretty much out of your reach, but asking never hurts, anyways.

[Smokey]

Meh, even if i don't find a site wich ships overseas, i can always go on vacation to the US and pick the stuff up... ^_^

BTW, newegg does rock... gotta get in the airforce and get sent to the US for a year or so, that way i can stock up on hardware...

[Dr. Mario]

True. Newegg is the best.

Well, you can ask Newegg if they can ship them to your home country. If they can't, blame on trade regulation. I sometimes hate the import regulation: The importing license is so frigging expensive.

[Smokey]

They can't, wich is too bad, since they have some really nice stuff...
(they are lacking a bit with watercooling though... ^_^)

[Dr. Mario]

Bummer. That kind of sucked.

[Smokey]

Meh i have a feeling that i will go to the US sometime... i also have a feeling that i may be able to earn a few bucks off my colleagues when i do... ^_^
If i can have them save half the money i do they'll be happy, and i'll be happy, because that other half will be in my pocket... Glad it isn't illegal to buy lots of stuff abroad and sell them here... just a bummer that the taxman'll want a cut when i do make some real cash off of it (you can earn an extra â,¬500 a month tax free here)

Also, completely unrelated to you, but related to me and my keyboard layout; What does you computer produce on screen when you [ctrl] + [alt] + [5]?
On my PC, it gives a nice â,¬, discovered the wonders of [ctrl] + [alt] + [key]-ing when [ctrl] + [alt] + [6] gave me a ¼ and i decided to see what happens if i were to do that with the other keys... ^_^

[Dr. Mario]

Uh, what OS are you using when you did the key combo? I'm using 64-bit Windows XP (Cuz I like seeing my own Athlon entering Long Mode.) - did the same - nothing.

Oh, and be careful of tariff law - it's much stricter here in USA and in Japan (They share exactly the same trading law.)

AND! Annnd... (panting) I'm planning to build a nice high voltage power supply to power any gas laser I can touch - it involve the use of computer technology in form of Microchip PIC18F to switch the IGBT bridges on/off -

Added after 12 minutes:

- to give me the voltage I really need - in order of few hundreds to few thousands of Volts AC, just by adjust the PWM timing by the use of encoder knob. I'm also using a old DELL power supply (from a Pentium 4 Northwood system) to feed a transformer. The transformer came from a dead inverter-powered microwave oven and I rewounded it to my specification. I used a thick speaker wire to obtain high Voltage current of few Amps, just to power a Carbon Dioxide laser. And the transformer is of a flyback type.

[Smokey]

BTW, i am using Vista ultimate x64, with the locale set to holland and keyboard set to US international... i guess that "â,¬" is specific to europe then... but you don't get any characters when [ctrl] + [alt] ing keys?

And as for the tariffs on exporting.... nice and complicated, so i'll probably just end up buying some stuff just for me... ^_^

Oh, Cool, Lasers!... I always wanted to build a high powered laser, but i wasn't allowed to turn my room into a lab.... I'd have built a tesla coil too if i could...

[Dr. Mario]

Yeah. I'm having a mix of laser and tesla coil. The transformer is pretty much a tesla coil on steriod - I wound a long, thick speaker wire for a secondary winding to give me few amps of 10,000 Volts AC. I also am going to use a PIC18F to inject 28 KiloHertzs pulse to make the speaker wire being wound on the transformer pour out enough power to light up nearly 90 of 100 Watts / 125 Volts light bulbs connected serially, so yeah, I'm talking about serious power here. I may be operating either CO2 or -

Added after 10 minutes:

- metal vapor laser, they requires LOTS of Amps, much like the power pole, only DC. (It will be rectified once the transformer spit out high Voltage AC current).

Why PIC18? Safety first. And being able to tune AC frequency, in turn, changing Voltage it's producing.

My wife wouldn't mind too much if I would attempt to turn my room into a lab. (I usually do away in a tool barn.)

[Smokey]

Heh, well i guess i cant set up such a lab, because of 1. the power drainage and 2. they think i might kill someone or destroy the house if i do (i have a tendency to go overboard on things...and holes in walls isn't such a nice thing ^_^)

Added after 32 seconds:

was also once thinking of the feasability of a home built particle accelerator...

[Dr. Mario]

Yeah, I agree - at least you do know that working with that kind of electronics do require knowledge and guts to make it out alive and making it work.

And, I'm using fuse, circuit breaker chips, and relay switch, for to stop supplying power when it go wrong.

Plus, I'm using a old computer power supply, mainly for safety reason. 20 Amps at 12 Volts DC will be enough for me to operate the transformer off the H-bridge IGBT array, but I figure it's better to use a 5 Amps / 250 Volts slow-blow fuse, to -

Added after 12 minutes:

- prevent the primary winding from being cooked when the software on PIC18F just simply won't cooperate with PWM timer or the thicker secondary winding is hooked up to a heavy load, i.e. 90 100-W light bulb or Copper vapor laser - since the primary winding is consist of a strand of 20 AWG wire from a DIY Ethernet wire.

Also, I have worked with X-ray laser before - and it's way nastier than either Infrared or Ultra-Violet laser, leave alone those super-short wavelength of light invisible and dangerous.

[Smokey]

Well, x-ray's do produce radiation, no matter what device they're in...

[Dr. Mario]

Yes. Although, on one hand, not always - because some material, like Lead, i.e. solder, absorb it entirely. Air does too, producing faint blue light and rather strong Ozone. On other hand, the incident radiation (i.e. X-ray laser radiation) striking some metal like Copper would produce Secondary Radiation, either white X-ray light (like a light bulb) or X-ray laser radiation (of different wavelength).

Although X-ray laser is dangerous, it's a bit safer than ramping an old power Triode, because the laser -

Added after 11 minutes:

- beam stay confined in one spot, that is if it's well focused, until you tweak with its line of path with mirror.

And I was interested in building a X-ray laser, because then I would observe what a regular old 1N4001 diode do when I shine it on, and also being able to see a pattern of atoms (with severed face of a dead CRT while shine laser on few different kind of metal) and even see how fast it drill a hole in Lead brick. It was a bit (sort of) simple - it's filled with Nickel vapor, mixed with Xenon.

Added after 11 minutes:

Why Xenon and Nickel? First, Nickel was and is an excellent material to emit X-ray and, also is one of another lasing medium. Second, Xenon gas is used to heat Nickel up so much it heats up and vaporize to a point the current starts to flow through it. And Xenon also cools Nickel vapor down a bit once transformer switches off, making it ready to fire another rounds of X-ray laser emission as the transformer turns back on.

[Smokey]

Well, i have to brush up on my lasering again, and maybe i can build a small one without anyone noticing )that is untill my sis wakes up with a laserbeam above her feet )

Could be sweet though, if i could power it with a (wind)generator i designed... ^_^

[Dr. Mario]

Try going with laser diode - it's fairly easier to handle, except that it's sensitive to static electricity.

If you do, all you havd to do is to put len in the module and focus it until laser dot's the same diameter as when it's being emitted out of the module.

Oh, and if Microsoft said Windows 7 is based on Vista, then its core is pretty much still a part of Windows Longhorn (Vista's actually a part of Longhorn family.) - a picture of "Windows Vista Beta 1" Vistans came to my mind.

Added after 26 minutes:

This is what reminded me that Vista was and is a part of Longhorn family. I know it's a loli, but I didn't care much, I like to collect the pictures of OS-chan.

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