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that is epic Stamatis nice find someone had too much time on their hands

Hey mmskate13, Where are you from? I can give you some info for the stuff I know something about. 1. Astronomy. I think its a very cool field, but there may be some confusion about what people do in it. It depends exactly what you want do to however: typically astronomy involves either observational or purely theoretical work. My PhD adviser, e.g. 20 years back or so built some balloons that were going into the upper atmosphere and I think were measuring extraterrestrial x-ray sources. For example, for what I remember people found out that some pulsars (basically space objects rotating insanely fast) could be detected by looking at these periodic x-ray signals. I also have a friend at Harvard who is doing purely theory, that is he has access to the data of large sky surveys and last time I talked to him he was showing me how he used this data in his computer simulation of the distribution of dark matter within the milky way galaxy. Also my university participates in the Mars rover program, so there is quite a few of physicists and engineers workig on that, that goes from building the thing to actually analyzing the data. This is for example what astrophysicists/astronomers do. And to do that typically one goes by getting a BSc degree in physics then a PhD in physics/astronomy, then probably 3-4 years of postdoctoral positions before landing an assistant professorship position. It is a bit time-consuming profession, but for many it seems it is worth it. They are not super-high paying jobs but its more having to do something that they really enjoy doing (i.e. it doesnt feel like a job). The good side, the research can be very interesting. The bad side is that getting into a good astronomy PhD program in the US is insanely difficult as they are very competitive. Also the chances of getting a job as the professor in the field is very hard. On the other hand, I've heard a lot of astronomy PhDs easily get other jobs where you need to do a lot of computing/numerical simulations (I know in particular Wall Street/Consluting companies are popular destinations). I don't know much about engineering side of it, but it seems there is a demand for it. I know every years or so NASA Jet Propulsion Lab folks come to my university recruiting graduate students in physics/engineering close to getting their PhD. Also, I am not sure what are the qualifications to become an astronaut (not an astronomer). It is hard to predict what kind of jobs are going to be in demand once you finish your university education, so in my opinion my best suggestion is to find something you really enjoy doing with the constrain that it will allow you some flexibility even if you aren't able to score your first choice profession, which may not necessarily be a bad thing, btw. (Like being a painter I imagine you'll have trouble earning money.) I'll comment on the other stuff you wrote later, I want to go home now. Also if you want I can write down, in length, about what I am doing.

Asus MarsII QuadSLI Build by ConkersGrillforce1337 Asus MarsII Initial Build In late October 2011 I and some of my friends built the system for the first time. It was the first time I ever built a desktop system. Components: Asus R.O.G. Maximus IV Extreme-Z Intel Core i7 2600K G.Skill RipjawsX 4x2Gb, 1866Mhz, CL9 ASUS MARS II Quad Sli SH100S3Kingston HyperX SSD 240GB + WD VelociRaptor, 10'000rpm, 600GB Enermax MaxRevo 1500W + Corsair AX850 Corsair H100 + Kingston HyperX Cooling Fan Black Plextor PX-LB950SA Aerocool Strike-X Panel Logitech G19 3x Dell UltraSharp U2412M The build process was associated with some unforeseen problems. Especially the assembly of the upper psu and the Corsair H100 CPU cooler with lack of space. After some hours and several tries the system started to work. Xigmatek Elysium vs CoolerMaster HafX: Xigmatek Elysium + Radeon HD 6990: Full resolution pics: Click here Asus MarsII Repaste Svl7 has done a repaste on both cards to dissipate heat more efficiently. Full resolution pics: Click here ​LGA2011 Update The configuration above had one big, the lower MarsII was completely over the usb, audio,...connectors. The result was that the lower MarsII had not a permanent 100% connection to the PCIe interface. I knew Asus recommended the Asus Rampage 3 Extreme to MarsII QuadSli users, fortunately at the same time the successors of the LGA1366 were released. I decided to buy a Asus R4E and Intels new flagship Core i7-3960X. I ordered a new rear fan with red leds and a second ram cooler too. I also replaced the four ram cooler fans with blue leds by red illuminated fans. Full resolution pics: Click here RMA Rebuild I had to RMA my Rampage 4 Extreme due to BIOS flash problems. After a month I got my motherboard back and I reconstructed my system. This time I put more emphasis on putting the cables together in order to improve the air flow. Due to thermal issues with GPUs 2 and 4 I had to be a little creative. The professional solution would be water cooling system, probably some time in the future... Full resolution pics: Click here Benchmarks 3DMark11 E24118 P17035 X6930 3DMark Vantage E94797 P53745 X35753 Full resolution pics: Click here Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II Top The constant heat problems when working with two Asus MarsII graphicscards have forced me to buy an Asus GTX 670 DC2T card. Now I have time to create my own watercooled solution or probably I'm able to get the watercooler design from l3p.nl. Back on topic, I'm pretty impressed what a single GTX 670 is capable of. I'm running the card on all three displays with a resolution of 6040x1200 (bc) and every game is playable on maxedout settings there are only three exceptions so far: Battlefield 3, Metro2033 and Crysis2. I ran some benchmarks, results in the images below. Some further testing will be necessary to get the card to its limit, thanks to Svl7 for analyzing the vbios. Full resolution pics: Click here Watercooling Project Taking the Asus MarsII to the next Level, discussion continues here

Let me know about your findings with the tool I told you about in the PM.

The m14 showed up today, not even 30sec after getting in the hoise my tablet alerted me to email, my m17 is with fedex will be here tomorrow afternoon. The 14 what little time I have used it seems like a sweet machine. She will be very happy! I am very excited to see mine will be here before christmas and I don't have to look at the m14 long before mine gets here. Already have battlefield 3 and COD MW3 waiting to get installed.

Well, in case the VBIOS isn't compatible you won't get any picture an might have to blindly flash the card... but as far as I know this won't be necessary. You have a desktop system, you should be able to simply use an integrated GPU (e.g. the one on the Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs if you have one) or just another PCI card in case you "brick" your 6970 with the flash. Then you still got a picture and can simply flash the VBIOS to the according PCI slot. As I said, I don't have a desktop myself, but I think it should work like this.

Will these work to update over dell drivers? These are 8.93... http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/1322-amd-catalysts-8-93-november-18th-release.html Oh cool didn't see update to your post at the time. Great have fun hopefully they prove to be stable for you.

http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/1373-amd-11-12-drivers-12-1-preview.html#post16703 . You can try those drivers there 12.1

A. Blind flash is a method of booting your system in the state where vbios is corrupt and it is causing to boot with nothing displayed on screen. So following known method with instructed key strokes etc one can reflash vbios in this state hence the name blind flash.

True it seems the military or government jobs seem like the only stable careers but like Steven mentioned, when the government budgets contract significantly due to a non-existent middle class, those jobs are the first to be slashed. As a soon-to-be doctor, my employment is pretty much guaranteed world wide but as a student I've struggled a lot and have a ton of debt so I can very much relate to people that are struggling. I was speaking with my father who's been around since the 60s in the US and he said he's never seen the US in such bad shape his entire life. The worst part is, all I see on the news are the same sleazy politicians sponsored by the same corporations and lobbyists who aren't interested in effecting any real change. They key to any country prospering is a strong industrial base which we have all but outsourced to China and India. It started with Clinton in the 90s tossing most favored nation to China and allowing state secrets to be sold and then the Republicans pushing for outsourcing the past 10+ years. At the state level, especially California, the Democrats have destroyed a once great state by regulating it to death and choking small businesses. With these occupy Wallstreet protests and seeing more and more reports of Americans struggling to pay for necessities, it makes me wonder how much longer it'll be before we start seeing mass rioting on the streets. If it wasn't for the safety net of welfare, I think we would have reached that apex long ago but even with it around, its inevitable--that is unless the government keeps finding a new boogieman to distract the citizens.

@MMskate - Any City/State/Govt worker makes the assumption that the respective City/State/Govt doesn't go bankrupt or reorganize or change benefits. No money = no benefits. Money = higher Taxes. Broke Citizens don't pay taxes. In the end, if we don't do something about such a huge divide in pay and social status we are doomed.

This girl is awesome:

Saw this on RWJ, British chick goes on a racist rant about minorities taking over HER England: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd8iYLvlQaM&hd=1 She would probably freak out in California seeing half the population is Mexican lol! P.S. I hear once she went to jail, she requested to be served Kebobs.