Posts by Henry Wright6

Fantastic, just what I needed. Thanks.
I haven't been able to track down that pinout diagram anywhere—it’s nowhere to be found. 👍 I'm going to go ahead and try to power it up right now; if the whole thing starts smoking, well, I guess that's just how it goes. 😵

Here are some photos of theconnector.

I managed to pick up a used USA Microsoft IBM motherboard, and I've run into a bit of a snag. It features a 34-pin header for the front panel—you know, the usual stuff like the drive activity LED, power status, the power button, reset switch, and all that jazz—but I am hitting a brick wall trying to find any technical documentation or even a basic manual regarding this specific CERN connector layout.

The board in question is the one shown here (the site won't let me upload the actual photo, unfortunately): http://www.ebay.com/itm/SCHEDA-MADRE...item3f3809ee60

So, if anyone out there happens to have a manual handy, or even just a simple pinout diagram for this CERN interface, I would be immensely grateful. 🙏
Best regards,

slycobra11 said:I'm trying to figure out how much these Dell Latitude keyboards actually cost. My brother's laptop has a busted keyboard—the repair alone is looking like it might hit $1000—so I need to know if just buying the part makes any sense. Looking for a quick answer here!

$1000 A repair? Honestly, you're better off looking at a brand-new machine rather than sinking cash into a Dell Latitude keyboard for $1000. If you have $1167 to $1333, you can find plenty of decent laptops to choose from—and unlike a patched-up old unit, you'll actually get a solid year or two of warranty on everything. 😍

boldranger12 said:Look, I’m doing alright personally—money isn't an issue for me, I make a decent living and I can't really complain.
But I’m talking about the general public sentiment here—the way the media keeps insisting people have nothing to eat and are literally scavenging through trash cans. If things were actually that dire, why isn't anyone hitting the streets to protest? Why isn't there some kind of revolution happening?
Maybe people just still have enough savings and patience left to hold out?

The thing is, nobody has actually called for action, and frankly, people need a leader who will actually stand up for them. An individual acting alone can't change a thing. Besides, most Americans don't have the money, the patience, or the mental energy left to fight back—everyone is already at their breaking point, and they feel paralyzed. But what's truly pathetic about this whole situation? It's the fact that a tiny group of maybe two hundred people is essentially deciding the fate of over 330 million Americans while hiding behind "the law"—even though those very same people are practically drowning in debt themselves.😠😠😠

Pigs.😛

Until we see a different breed of people stepping into the US Government and the US Congress—people who aren't just party zealots or hopelessly tethered to some corrupt, backroom political maneuvering—we aren't moving an inch. We're stuck. Until then, I suppose all we can do is sit here on forums like this and vent our frustrations. But honestly? Nothing changes until those individuals responsible for everything from the aftermath of the American Civil War up to this very moment are finally exposed. They’ve gutted this country and lined their own pockets through decades of theft; they need to be stripped of their ill-gotten assets and sent to a federal prison for good. Otherwise, we are just spinning our wheels. I fear we really are.

Roger Nelson5 said:It honestly always amazes me how resilient hope can be; it just refuses to quit on people.

The fundamental issue facing America right now is that we’re being led by the very people who caused this mess in the first place. A huge chunk of the current political crowd in Congress seems to have only one goal: securing their own congressional pensions. You see types like that former union boss (I can't even remember his name, what a joke...) who jumps straight into politics with the Republican Party and starts preaching a totally different gospel—that's your textbook example right there. Does anyone here seriously believe that people from this kind of political circle are suddenly going to have an epiphany and say, "Hey, let's actually get serious and fix our country's problems"? To tackle these issues, you need expertise, social responsibility, guts, and actual backbone—things these folks simply don't possess.

What really gets me about this political establishment is just how incredibly timid they are. You've got Đurđa Adlešić meeting with representatives of rowdy hooligans just to "hear their perspective" (seriously??), or Ivo Sanders making major political moves based on protests on Facebook. And then there's those moments where a single farmer rolls a tractor up to a government building and suddenly, miraculously, the money appears... There are so many examples it's impossible to ignore. You could argue about the reasons behind it all, but it's pretty obvious that people acting this way aren't going to pull this country out of its slump.

Even if they suddenly decided to address the real issues, the "challenges" aren't exactly simple. How do you downsize the federal bureaucracy? Do you just hand out pink slips to every tenth or fifth person? What happens if the axe falls on the one guy in the office who isn't some well-connected crony and is actually doing all the work? Do we really expect the heads of these agencies, departments, and bureaus to forget about all the favors they owe their political mentors and fire the people who were hired solely because of political connections? Plus, even if they had the best intentions and the brains to fix the massive government overspending, it's going to take a long time.

What’s actually coming is a general economic collapse, which will drag the whole country down with it. First, citizens' incomes shrink due to new taxes, which kills off purchasing power. Private companies will have to lay people off (which is already happening), and some will have to cut wages, which hits consumer spending and dries up tax revenue. As cash gets tighter, the government will likely try to find new ways to grab more money, like maybe a new property tax. The ripple effect of people getting squeezed will lead to massive trouble with mortgage and loan repayments. People who lose their jobs won't be able to pay their loans, and those seeing pay cuts will struggle too—especially if they were reckless with debt in the first place. Initially, you'll see people selling off cars, which will probably tank car prices. If someone has both a mortgage and a car loan and can't keep up, they'll likely sell the car first to scrape together some cash rather than moving out. Of course, if the economy bounced back in six months, that might work as a temporary fix until they find a new job. But that’s not how this works; next on the chopping block will be housing. People will start selling homes at rock-bottom prices, real estate values will crater, and banks will demand even more collateral for loans, adding even more pressure. Naturally, as home prices drop, the revenue from real estate transfer taxes drops too, and banks will become extremely stingy with lending. As for the banks, they haven't got a clue what's coming. If anyone wants proof, just look at the macroeconomic forecasts from JPMorgan Chase from November of last year signed by Jamie Dimon. The projections for the U.S. GDP movement in 2009 are particularly telling.

This is what you'd call a negative feedback loop: one set of parameters starts sliding downward, which triggers a fall in other areas, which then feeds back into the first set, creating a downward spiral that ultimately leads to a change in leadership.

Once the mass demonstrations and violence kick in and this political crew finally gets pushed out, I expect some "new leader" to emerge claiming to be the savior who can pull the nation out of the crisis. That person will hold onto power for three months, then a new one will step in, and so on. We'll keep selling off whatever we have left until we eventually go bankrupt.

Wages are going to drop, employment is tanking, pensions are taking a hit... but honestly? The thing that keeps me up at night is the social unrest. For instance, if they start auditing veteran benefits or digging into every single PTSD diagnosis on record, we could see that old, dangerous rhetoric resurface—all that talk about "traitors" and people "disrespecting our heroes." It’s classic, nasty demagoguery, but it's incredibly risky. Bottom line: things are going to get wild, and I have a feeling we're in for some heavy rock 'n' roll next year.

Until then, I just hope there's one more big spectacle in NYC to keep it feeling like the "center of the universe," and I truly hope Ivo Sanders stays in good health.

That particular sellout goes by the name of Boris Kunst—I haven't forgotten him, because I distinctly remember his rhetoric back before he held office, and now he’s crawling his way into this administration just to ensure he reaches retirement age comfortably.

There is an old saying: "If you can't beat them, join them." Well, of course, that's easy to say when you're part of the Republican Party. 😍

Scott Ward93 said:I’ve been mulling over what to actually do with this weirdly shaped patch of farmland—it's about 40ft by 360ft—and I’m honestly drawing a blank. Right now, it’s just overgrown grass that the neighbor mows down to feed his pigs and cattle. It used to be a vineyard, but it’s basically playing pretend as a meadow now, sitting on a slight slope.

I need some ideas on how to make this profitable, both in the short term and long term. What would you guys build there, or what would you plant to actually see a return on investment?

Equipment-wise, I’ve got a solid little vintage tractor—a 1987 Kubota—complete with plowing and tilling attachments. 😁... I have some downtime to work with, and my parents are freshly retired, so I figured this could give them something productive to do during the day instead of just hovering around the house.

thanks

You could always set up a few beehives and boom—you've got wildflower honey, and you don't even have to plow or dig a single hole. 😍

casualstag2 said:if you're on ADSL, just log into your service provider's portal and everything is right there—usage, connection times, all that good stuff)
personally, I rely on GlassWire to keep an eye on my real-time upload and download speeds, plus how much data I'm burning through by the hour...

Look, I have a flat-rate DSL line, but that isn't even the point here. The real issue is my wireless Verizon plan—it’s supposed to be capped at 512 MB, but last month I blew way past that limit. When the bill finally arrived? Let's just say it was enough to give anyone a massive headache. What I actually need is a simple little utility—something that tracks exactly how much data has been sent and received in real-time.👍

Samuel Smith5 said:the easiest way would be checking your ISP's customer portal
I suspect they have some sort of utility built-in—maybe something like GlassWire?

That’s just a tool for measuring data transfer speeds, which isn't actually what I'm looking for. Thanks anyway. 👍

Does anyone know of a specific program—something actually useful—that tracks "internet traffic usage"? I’m looking for something that would show me the exact amount of data I’ve "downloaded and uploaded," along with my overall browsing activity.
Thanks.😛

"How the government governs?" A catchy headline, I suppose—though it really should say "how our administration has been running things for a century," and honestly, we could keep going for another hundred years... But regarding the hospitals... well, we see it all the time, don't we? Certain politicians have such immense faith in our local medical facilities—or rather, they lack it entirely—which is why they head overseas for treatment. Take someone like Karl Rove, for instance, in recent times. Now, would any mere mortal dare brag about traveling abroad for medical care on the taxpayer's dime? If there are such people, more power to them, I guess... All these folks claim to love their country, but the moment their health is on the line, they flee to the other side of the world on the public's tab to use someone else's doctors. Meanwhile, us regular little Americans? You can't even get an appointment for a serious checkup without waiting six months, let alone anything more urgent... And this is just a drop in the bucket; there is so much more to be said about it...