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David Hingtgen

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Everything posted by David Hingtgen

  1. David Hingtgen
    I'd be very very surprised if my company PC would "let synergy in". They really lock down their stuff. Anyways---well, as of yesterday, MS says my Office 2010 key on my home PC isn't a valid one. It's been valid for quite a few years, but multiple browser/reinstall attempts later---nope, it utterly refuses to acknowledge it. Can't install, can't open my spreadsheets. Sigh. Are the 'discount' copies of Office ever legit?
  2. David Hingtgen
    DP isn't out of the question, but I currently have no DP cables. Laptop has no DP. So it's 6 of one, half-dozen of the other. (Laptop to docking station via USB-C, docking station and/or GPU to monitors via 2 DP or 2 HDMI cables) I don't think many, if any, software solutions will work. Company laptops have a good bit of encryption software etc, I don't even think you can drag-and-drop files with a physical direct ethernet connection to another PC... ::edit:: I mis-read that. So like, 2 DP cables running from GPU to monitors, and 2 HDMI cables running from docking station to monitors, and switching the monitor's input source as needed? That may work, let me check my GPU's ports.
  3. David Hingtgen
    And making Pitch Meeting references is super-easy, barely an inconvenience.
  4. David Hingtgen
    The problem isn't the laptop, so much as the desktop. Hooking the laptop to monitors is easy, it's "doing so, without degrading the desktop's connection to said monitors". I am actually currently leaning towards: Getting a docking station for the laptop, for the laptop to plug into. Docking station will be of a variety with twin HDMI outputs. As needed, I will disconnect monitor's HDMI cables from my GPU, and plug them into the HDMI ports of the docking station. Thus, the monitor end of the HDMI cables will always remain plugged in (because it's very hard to mess with the monitor's own ports), and the "source" end of the HDMI cables will be swapped around as needed between docking station and desktop-GPU. A docking station is needed due to laptop only having a single HDMI port, and can only support multiple monitors via its USB-C output. Not the best/easiest/cheapest solution, but the only one I can think of at the moment.
  5. David Hingtgen
    I'm re-using my GTX 1080, and don't plan to upgrade that for a while, and since that's the most expensive component, I plan to do just mobo/RAM/CPU/SSD. Re-use power supply and main/storage HDD. It's not "new from scratch", but almost a new PC? Yes, I know AMD is the new hotness right now, but I still plan on an Intel CPU/mobo, if for no other reason that familiarity with setting things up. Anyways, docking station question, as googling around hasn't really gotten me the answer, or maybe what I want is impossible: So, two monitors at home, currently plugged directly into the desktop's GPU. And of course, my fave ergo-mouse and keyboard, plugged into desktop. Recently got a company laptop. Using single small laptop screen sucks for actual work. I would like to be able to "plug in my laptop to my existing stuff, to use my home monitors/mouse/keyboard/etc". Normally, this is the realm of a docking station----the mouse/keyboard should be fairly easy to accommodate that way---but what docking station has multiple display port or HDMI *inputs*, that my GPU can output to? 99% of docking stations seem to be "one USB-C from a laptop for input, then docking station outputs to multiple monitors via HDMI/DP cables". But, I don't know of any GPU that outputs via USB-C, nor many desktops that do either. How can my GTX 1080 "send video signals to a docking station" etc? In short---how can I "easily switch between my desktop and my laptop, to display on my pair of monitors?" Keeping in mind that USB video sucks, and would basically kill the point of having a dedicated GPU AFAIK, if my 1080's output was converted and sent over USB. There's plenty of 2-or-3-monitor-output docking stations, but none seem to be set up for "input from a gaming PC, with multiple cables coming from a GPU". Heck, I'd probably just manually plug and unplug everything (monitors, keyboard,) when needed if I could, but my laptop only has a single HDMI plug, so I can't plug in both monitors to it directly.
  6. David Hingtgen
    I may need to build a new PC sooner than later----there seem to be a lot less barebones kits, CPU/RAM/mobo combos out there than there used to be----or am I just looking at the wrong places? Heck, historically I got a lot of my stuff from Newegg and NCSX----the former sucks now and the latter is gone. Also----any recent developments I should know about? (Like, a new Intel socket is coming soon and I'd be a fool to buy an LGA-1151 mobo right now)
  7. David Hingtgen
    That reminds me---are the headlights SUPPOSED to be partly exposed on KITT, or did the custom front end just never quite fit right? (or does it line up nice when new, but sags/droops over time?)
  8. David Hingtgen
    Erm, I believe the R/C 262 is a copy of the one at the Smithsonian, which is the one I saw.(I quick googled the serial number to check) Is there a very-similar-looking 262 at Evergreen?
  9. David Hingtgen
    Nope, replica, sorry. (at least the Fw190A is) (though many of that batch of replicas do have some original, un-used, factory-fresh parts in them) I'm curious about the 4-bladed prop though---most replicas have a 3-blade one very similar to the original.
  10. David Hingtgen
    I feel lucky to have seen an actual Fw190A-8. 90% of the few out there, are reproductions... Anyways:
  11. David Hingtgen
    I've seen that Me262. (the real one).
  12. David Hingtgen
    The way they did the dino-hands, is just a deal-killer for me. No matter how hard I try, I can't look past it (literally).
  13. David Hingtgen
    I see a whole lot more snake than cheetah in that poster, just saying...
  14. David Hingtgen
    I would imagine the original (JT3-powered) KC-135 has similar environmental systems as the 707----which, along with the DC-8 etc, predated "all other commercial airliners" and had engines not designed "to provide air etc for a bunch of humans". The early 707/DC-8 engines are very much "fighter jet engines without afterburners". They did not use bleed air and a/c packs "like every airliner after, to this day" to provide for "the fleshlings being hauled along". They had turbocompressers (nose-mounted for the DC-8, pylon-mounted for the 707) which quite "independently, and not all that well compared to 1960's and later stuff" provided air etc. If you flew in a re-engined KC-135, that should have a similar system as the re-engined DC-8, and if it STILL sucked, I don't know why...
  15. David Hingtgen
    I have a suggestion for how to spend your weekend...
  16. David Hingtgen
    In addition to Mike saying that Baltmatrix properly called it a tender---I believe he tends to do much better than most, when it comes to plane terminology. So he must have at least some interesting "mechanical transports". Also---well, I call vertical stabs "fins" all the time. Short for tailfin. F-15's have 2 tailfins. Most airlines paint their logo on the fin... What really irks me though, is how people call EVERYTHING THAT MOVES, a flap. Rudder=flap. Aileron=flap. Spoiler=flap. Flap=flap*. *though, if anything, the actual flaps, will be called ailerons or something...
  17. David Hingtgen
    Anyone need a Hulk torso? (from Rescue). I just found a Rescue on sale at Wal-Mart and picked it up, and there's zero chance I'm going to complete the build-a-figure. ::edit:: You know, I also have a monster-Venom arm, from Scream.
  18. David Hingtgen
    That mug really better be "Cheetah's first form" or something, and they're saving more for later, to avoid merch spoilers...
  19. David Hingtgen
    We still haven't seen Cheetah (main villain) *at all* (not even like leaked set pics AFAIK)-----am I the only one wondering if they were originally planning something kind of like "Cats", but have redone/backtracked their design/idea for her based on the backlash Cats got? (there are SO many different variations of that character, from "lady wearing a cheetah-fur-costume" to a literal cheetah-woman), so it's hard to know what they plan.
  20. David Hingtgen
    1. Yes, it is incorrect, actually. It's kind of like saying a 747 "hauls 4 engines under its wings as part of its payload". The tender is generally considered part of the locomotive. Length, weights, etc for a locomotive, unless specified, usually do mean "the engine and tender, together, as a single unit". The consist, is what the locomotive hauls---hoppers, tank cars, passenger cars. The locomotive doesn't haul the tender, it's part of it. (the tender is semi-permanently attached---you don't "drop it off at the station and pick up another" like you do with cars) Engine+consist=train. 2. Just FYI, but the Gobot Loco, is the EXACT same type of loco that Astrotrain is---and is also missing his tender... (it's Japan's fave loco, far and away, they literally have HUNDREDS on display at museums, so that pretty much every kid in the nation can go see one at any time)
  21. David Hingtgen
    Ok, gotta ask, (and sorry for venting, it's not personal)----because all us train fans are getting so bugged by this----why does no one realize this is a tender? 99% of reviews call this a caboose or boxcar or something. It's a tender---you know, the thing that like 90% of steam locomotives have, all the time, right behind them? Has Thomas the tank engine's "no tender" look become so popular, and so permeated the world's consciousness, that people no longer realize/remember that "oh yeah, steam engines have tenders behind them". (unless they're small and British). Seriously, every single "Wild West" train you see will have one, the trains at Disney World all have them, 95% of the ones you see in museums will have them. The wheel configuration is even decently accurate---tenders are full of water, and so are incredible heavy for their size---they often will have many small wheels in a row, like this: Sure, it's not EXACTLY what Siege Astrotrain has (treads!), but the overall wheel arrangement effect is pretty similar---2 axles up front, by themselves, widely spaced----followed by a group clustered together. Siege Astrotrain having a tender isn't some "weird use of extra plastic" that a lot of reviews seem to "complain" about its presence---it's the most appropriate/realistic Astrotrain has ever been. He's been MISSING his tender for 30 years and always looked "incomplete". He's finally got one. This is like adding 2 booster rockets and an external tank to Blastoff or Skylynx---sure, it's not how they've always looked, but it's DAMNED appropriate to do so based on their "need these things to actually move" alt modes.
  22. David Hingtgen
    That area being black is incredibly accurate to a real steam loco though. Even the most brightly-painted ones left that area black (or covered with heat-resistant graphite-aluminum mixes), because it gets so hot you can't keep it painted. I am planning to make a "real" Astrotrain (as in, take a model D51, and paint it purple) but intend to leave that area black, despite going for overall toy-accurate coloring----same reason I wouldn't paint a "real" Skywarp F-15's nozzles lavender. Lavender tailfins, trans-orange canopy? Sure. But lavender afterburner nozzles? Nope, simply "cannot be" in the real world. Same reason my "real" Astrotrain will not have painted treads on the tires---they are polished (well, more like burnished) bare metal due to the sheer action of running on the rails.
  23. David Hingtgen
    Yup---while there's still plenty of times that Treknobabble saves the day----a lot of the time it's because Sisko or Odo or Kira or even Garak simply did what needed to be done.
  24. David Hingtgen
    The old hinges---a million times yes, but I fear it'll never happen since they haven't made them in years and years. I need white, yellow, red, and blue.... (I bought like two dozen in black years and years ago when I found some cheap---very glad I did, as I needed a bunch for an Executor MOC)
  25. David Hingtgen
    I think the odds of it happening are like 1%, but I'd love it if Lego would look at "pieces that are in very high demand/high price" and just "run a big batch, to get them out to the people who need them". Not asking for "super-rare part used in 2 sets in 1982, in trans-green" but sometimes there's some parts that SHOULD be very common, but simply aren't for some reason, or something like "people need a trillion of them, and it's simply not common ENOUGH". Good example---the lightsaber piece, in dark bley. It's very rare, and very expensive. It shouldn't be. LEGO must make like a million of those a year, and dark bley is a very common color. It should be easy for them to run a batch in dark bley, just "to make available directly" even if not explicitly needed for a set they're making. Another example---https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3685&C=11#T=P&C=11 That, in black. Look how many were available, fairly recently. 4 to *18* in a single set, in the 2010's. But there's very few on Bricklink, and they're very expensive now. Why? Because one guy bought literally 99% of the entire world's supply, for a single very large MOC. I just need 2 for my MOC. But acquiring those 2 pieces alone, in good condition, will cost more than the entire rest of the MOC. Basically---any common/normal piece, still being molded and used in multiple sets each year, should be made available in "very common colors", if price/supply gets seriously out of whack. (like, averaging $10 per piece for basic black/white/grey)
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