VF-19

On the mention of the animated toys. They're actually showing up here in Ottawa, and not just in the specialty shops. I spotted, and picked up, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee. What great toys.

On the topic of "biggest zoom I can afford", here's mine: 1000 mm F10. The thing peeking out the back is the camera. This won't so much as capture the plane, but to get the pilot's portrait!

Actually, I think the metal housing for the arc reactor is actually grafted into his rib cage, so it supports the ribs, instead of simply "floating" in a hole. You'd want something that keeps you alive securely fastened to you, and not moving around if it's not supossed to.

According to what I know (take with a grain of salt), the current re-releases (viper, raider, basestar) are the testing grounds for wether or not new kits will sell. So if these kits sell, new series kits will be made. I did my part and bought the Viper and Raider, both are actually great kits, and are going together rather well. As for the garage kits, you'll have to poke around starship modeler to get info on what's out there.

Actually, I don't think she knows Tigh is one oif the final five. Her whole interaction with him was more on how the wiping out of the 12 colonies has affected her mind. To say the least, I think she's crazy. But so again, so is Tigh...

While I only have one gundam display stand (and only 2 detolfs), you can fit 3, maybe 4 in on one shelf. So, two per shelf would leave plenty of room for poses.

I was thinking more along the lines of mockups made to replace the missing/damaged parts. It doesn't have to be made from the same materials, just as long as it looks right. That or place the plane up against a wall to "hide" the missing wing. The old War Museum in Ottawa did that with a spitfire, due to a lack of space; the wing was stored at the Aviation Museum, and later re-mated to the plane when they built the new War Museum.

I doubt it would ever fly again, but you might be able to refurbish it and put it on display somewhere, depending on how much it will cost to make it look good again...

Out of the box, XP professional can handle 3 gigs of RAM. However, if you're willing to do potentially dangerous (to the OS that is) tweaks, you can increase it to over 3 gigs. But be prepared incase you screw up (back up everything etc...). Vista can handle more than 3 gigs, although the exact amount escapes me. There is one other alternative, and that's to shut down bloatware on the system that you're using. In theory, you can slim it down so that you only use 1/2 (at best) the RAM you're using when the system is idle.

....Brains.... On a serious note, I too have a simple shop compressor with a 2 gallon tank, It sits on the floor under my workbench. While loud, it's pretty good for what I paid for, which was about $75 a few years ago. Fills up (max 100 psi), and I spray away for quite a while, since I only use max 20 psi when I'm airbrushing.

The 1S has movable antennas, the 1J and 1A don't. It kinda sucks because there should be movement up there...

Wait? What? Canada finally upgraded from the CF-18s we have?!?

I'm smelling a MG or PG VF-25 down the road. One that's fully transformable with internal detail to boot.

You've hit it on the head. I was lamenting about the lack of any exclusives up here. I did however spot Walmart Exclusive MP Starscream... At a local toy shop that wanted $120 for it... Ouch.

That actually looks rather nice. Any idea as to how much it will be?

Tripod. That is all. On a side note, I really, really hope that the local Toys R Us and Wal-Marts up here start getting plenty of transformers. I mean, I haven't even seen the Walmart exclusive Starscream at all...

Hmm... I only had to wait about 3 days for my core... Maybe the stores in Ottawa know something that the stores in the US don't?

David: Now that looks like fun. I wonder what it feels like from both the extreme front of the cabin and the extreme rear! Mind you the only plane I've ever been on was one of Westjet's 737, and on that flight I had both turbulence (fun, no really, it was fun!) and a slight shocker of having another jet liner blast past below my window. Sadly, I didn't think to get a picture...

Not me! I'd be having a blast! I'd love to be in an airliner that's flying more like a fighter. Just give me the proper restraints so I don't go flopping everywhere in the cabin!

I don't think it's worth it at this time... Unless you use CPU heavy programs on a daily basis. Besides, you could simply buy a dual core CPU, and a motherboard that's ready for quadcore if you need it down the line (or find a really great deal).

Excellent choice on the 8400. You know, you can overclock it slightly so that it becomes an 8500. Just up the Front Side Bus a bit from 333 to 340-60. I've got mine running nicely at 3.24 Ghz. And I did bring it all the way to 3.7ish, and it didn't even blink! "What's that master? Go faster? OK!" Wolfdale cores are great! Aside from some weirdness on the PATA port (one optical drive isn't recognized on every other boot), it's been great.

Case with a low mounted fan on the side? There's plenty out there, but if you don't find what you like, get a fan, mark the outline on the case, and attack the panel with a dremel! Just be sure to leave some material so that you can actually mount the fan. The Thermaltake Eureka has a pair of stylish (or not) cutouts on one panel, and you can actually mount a 120mm fan to it, provided you actually cut up some of the fan mounting material so that it'll sit flush. Intake fans have one purpose: 1) to get a source of fresh, cooler air into the case, the air is heated by whatever heats it, and rises, so that it's blown out the back via the rear fan. However, in my case (litterally), the hard drives, all four of them, block the intake fan, so I had to modify a 120mm fan to blow air onto my videocards... Trust me, you want at least one 120mm fan in the front and one 120mm fan in the rear. You need that air moving over the motherboard or it will get rather warm. Besides, if you're worried about noise, you can spend a little extra and get antec Tri-cool fans. They come with a nifty speed selector on them, and you can set it to the lowest speed to make them almost silent, and you'll still have air moving around in the case.

No, dual slot-exaust out the back cooling solution doesn't mean quieter. Take the stock ATI 1900 cooling solution. It's freaking loud at idle, worse while the cards are actually working, and it's annoying to boot (and I'm deaf! ). I know, I have two of those hot beasts. I finally got annoyed enough to swap out the heatsinks for Accelero X2s. While they don't exaust out the back, they're much quieter and they do run the cards cooler... Current problem notwithstanding. If you can, go to a PC store and listen to the two of them, and pick the quieter one. My whole adventure with nearly toasting my 1900s makes me wonder why there's no cooling solution for the backs of the cards...

If you don't have a spare jumper to use, you could try a small piece of wire, twist tied around the two prongs you want to connect. Just be careful not to touch any other prongs with the wire.

I take it that the computer either only has IDE or Sata I ports right? Well, if it has SATA I you can flip a jumper on the drive (check with the manufacturer) to convert it to SATA I, which would make the drive completly accessable to you.