The Bitching Thread

[Animeniax]

Honestly, I don't even know how the Australian economy stays functional with such a high minimum wage. Over here, it probably only costs $5-10 CAD to hem a pair of pants - at a regular store. If you pay someone to informally do it, it's more like $3 CAD/pants. Definitely something I'm going to look into.

There are fast food workers in the US who are on strike looking for $15/hr. Are people really that dumb? If fast food workers get $15/hr then where's the motivation to do anything else with their lives than be a fast food worker? You'd have to pay other low skilled laborers more money, or raise prices on products, then have to pay others more to be able to afford those prices, so the fast food laborers are back at square one.

[Sapphire]

Formal warning: stay on topic* and do not continue the exchange here. PM me if you don't know what this means.

(*Bitching about other people's posts doesn't count)


edit: report problematic posts.

Psht, this is the perfect place to bitch about others (in here)!

[David75]

You mean like an extension of the Flame Pit?

[enkoujin]

There are fast food workers in the US who are on strike looking for $15/hr. Are people really that dumb? If fast food workers get $15/hr then where's the motivation to do anything else with their lives than be a fast food worker? You'd have to pay other low skilled laborers more money, or raise prices on products, then have to pay others more to be able to afford those prices, so the fast food laborers are back at square one.

You're right. From my understanding of junior macroeconomics, one problem is that even if you do increase the minimum wage, you're probably subjecting your society to two mechanisms: long term inflation (positive/negative depends on society) and structural unemployment. As businesses seek cheaper labour, this would result in greater law evasion by increased migrant workers to meet labour demand or outsourcing work, which result in greater loss of domestic jobs.

Of course, I haven't taken senior economics, which probably places greater emphasis on mitigating negative externalities through government intervention, so I'm incorrectly oversimplifying the issue.

This reminds me that high schools should incorporate basic micro and macroeconomics into the curriculum.

[Animeniax]

You're right. From my understanding of junior macroeconomics, one problem is that even if you do increase the minimum wage, you're probably subjecting your society to two mechanisms: long term inflation (positive/negative depends on society) and structural unemployment. As businesses seek cheaper labour, this would result in greater law evasion by increased migrant workers to meet labour demand or outsourcing work, which result in greater loss of domestic jobs.

Of course, I haven't taken senior economics, which probably places greater emphasis on mitigating negative externalities through government intervention, so I'm incorrectly oversimplifying the issue.

This reminds me that high schools should incorporate basic micro and macroeconomics into the curriculum.

It's fairly simple if you think about it. Pay workers for the job they have. If they want more money, they have to increase their skill set. Don't expect more money for doing the same job (outside of COLA or merit increases). If these fast food workers strike, there are plenty of people who will take the jobs at minimum wage. Or heaven forbid, some of these fast food places close down and people eat healthier.

[Ryllharu]

This reminds me that high schools should incorporate basic micro and macroeconomics into the curriculum.

There have been a number of pushes to force a class into the national curricula that amounts to, "How to Survive After Leaving Highschool." Unfortunately, most of the proposals don't go anywhere.

Really basic stuff that most people have to learn the hard way, like:
- Pay your bills on time. Why? Your credit rating.
- What's a credit rating and why you want an awesome one.
- What you need to apply for loans/mortgages.
- Why you want to have a household budget.
- What is a retirement fund? What's the difference between an IRA and a Roth IRA?
- If you need help, where you can go to ask for it, and no, it isn't something worth being embarrassed about.

A small number of Universities have this as a required course for Seniors, or the ones that don't have it as a strict requirement have them filled instantly. All of them should have it, even if it is just like a once a week course.

It really should be required learning for anyone exiting at a given level of education, probably high school.

[Animeniax]

Needed some Arctic Silver 5, but I didn't want to order it online and have to wait at least 3 days for it to arrive. It's hard to find at local stores in Austin. I found it at a Radio Shack but it's repackaged in Radio Shack packaging and they charge $13+tax for the same 3.5g that costs $8 at Newegg.

[Dark Dragon]

See if you can find Shin Etsu.

I generally gets much better results with it compares to Arctic Silver and i get them for pretty cheap here in houston (4-6$).

Hell, the reason you probably have a hard time finding it is because AC5 is old and outdated. I haven't looked at the exact names but i know there's a few new brands that outperforms it.

Edit: This is slightly old, but it should be relevant since these are the brands that i see comes up often.

[Buffalobiian]

The policy in Australia for some time now has been to maintain an inflation rate of 2-3%p.a.for a healthy amount of growth. Wage increases should at least match inflation or else workers are really getting poorer.

I've got some old thermal paste in my drawer and I have no idea how good it is. I sure wouldn't want to fry a cpu.

[Dark Dragon]

Let me know the name and approx how long ago you got it and i can probably tell you.

[Kraco]

Based on what I've read about thermal pastes the only major difference of real relevance between them is that some unlucky ones turn to dust in a number of years, losing their effectiveness, whereas the luckier ones remain more like they were long enough for the computer to be scrapped in any case. Otherwise the performance differences, as long as we talk about decent stuff, probably fall below the differences caused by the skills of the person installing the cooler (too much/too little or uneven).

But since building a computer is essentially selecting components that suit your tastes and otherwise amuse you, naturally a thermal paste, should you go for a custom one, is just like any other component. I have actually never bought any. I have only used the ones that came with the components, and I never needed to reinstall them so the factory paste has been enough.

[Dark Dragon]

That's partially true. The thing that you look for most in Thermal paste is curing time, essentially anything that reach peak performance within a week is good to go.

This only really matters for people that want power with a fully decked out computers that it's absolutely necessary for the paste to reduce as much heat as possible. For pretty much everyone else though, most paste will do just fine.

[Animeniax]

See if you can find Shin Etsu.

I generally gets much better results with it compares to Arctic Silver and i get them for pretty cheap here in houston (4-6$).

Hell, the reason you probably have a hard time finding it is because AC5 is old and outdated. I haven't looked at the exact names but i know there's a few new brands that outperforms it.

Edit: This is slightly old, but it should be relevant since these are the brands that i see comes up often.

I went to a Fry's here in Austin and they don't carry Arctic Silver 5 but they do have the Shin-etsu TIM. I'd never heard of Shin-etsu before so I didn't want to risk it. I'll check out the articles and maybe return the AS5 and go back to Fry's for the Shin-etsu. Thanks for the info.

I wonder about the importance of curing times. I'm not one of these guys who builds a PC and then immediate torture tests it for 24 hours.


@Buff: I had 2 year old tubes of AS5 and some Tuniq TIM and they were both solidified and unusable. They were both capped and stored at 80F room temp. If your thermal paste is still smooth flowing and consistent then it should be fine to use.

[Buffalobiian]

@Kraco: What I was questioning was whether the tube of paste was still usable for further installations, not whether the paste on my chip right now is becoming bad.

Let me know the name and approx how long ago you got it and i can probably tell you.

Thermalright Chillfactor. It came with my Thermalright HR-01 Plus heatsink that I bought in 2009.

@Ani: I've read that the key is to store the tube upside-down so no air gets in. I haven't been doing that to mine. I guess I'll find out next time I have to use it.

[Animeniax]

If it's from 2009 then it's most likely toast. I'd order a new tube with your next CPU or motherboard purchase, which I should have done to save myself a few days wait and two trips to the store.

[Dark Dragon]

@Buff That's a pretty good paste, but check the consistency before using. 4 years old is is not great depending on where you stored it, just careful and not use paste that has gone bad.

Most of the time, i'd rather just buy a new tube. There's no point trying to save 5-10$ if it could potentially damage your much more expensive CPU.

[Buffalobiian]

Some machines (speaker systems, in this case) just have horrible software menu designs.

Tip to future/current interface designers: If the system has a menu->settings option.. make sure ALL the options for the system are in there in some form. Don't leave L<-->R balance out of the entire settings config, only to make it available when you're playing a dvd/clip.

It makes it hell trying to troubleshoot why sound was missing from one speaker. People will play with every setting under the settings menu, only to learn that it doesn't actually contain all the settings.

I had a similar gripe a few years ago when everything decided that they wanted to use small icons instead of the traditional menu bars. Sure it saves space, but it also means that options are hidden and unavailable until you perform certain actions or changes. Drop-down menus gave you the ability to preview their options before investing into it.

[Animeniax]

I reapplied the TIM on my i7-930/Corsair H110 watercooler with MX-4 and now my temps are worse than with the stock TIM they pre-apply to the cooler block. Not only that but now my PC won't wake from sleep because the overclock fails and I have to go into the BIOS to reapply all the OC settings each time it tries and fails to wake from sleep.

FYI I only have the H110 in this system because of a logistics problem (it wouldn't fit in the case I got for the Z87 system I built).

[Buffalobiian]

I've personally never had better performance than the pre-applied TIM. I have no idea if it's because I use too much... or too little (or if there were air gaps). The pressure and mounting should have been right.

[Animeniax]

Well the stock TIM on the H110 is noted for being pretty high quality, so I was hesitant to use another compound. But I thought the temp on the stock TIM was a little high so I switched to MX-4. I might clean it off and reapply since there was a lot of movement when reinstalling the cooling block.