Coal – What’s it Worth?

Every year people die in the most dangerous job in the world.  Coal mining is considering one of, if not the most dangerous.  Even in the “Western” world, with our “Modern” mining techniques, it’s still quite a dangerous job.  So, why are we still mining for coal?

One of the obvious reasons is Coal is cheap compared to other resources such as gas and oil.  The other reason is that many power plants that we have run off Coal and it’s a necessity pretty much to have power.  If you didn’t have power, you’d have no iPad 2, no iPhone 4S, no Computers, no Internet, etc.  Many of these things we use on a Daily basis.

Maybe it’s time that we started looking for other methods of producing power such as: wind, solar, water, there are other options, we just need to be more creative and make them not so expensive.  That’s another reason why we haven’t moved on to other power sources, the cost.  Below are a couple of images related to the Coal mining.  Click on them to see more.  Both take you to the same article.

How to find out what’s trending on Youtube?

If you’re looking for a great way to find out what’s trending on Youtube.  Today is your lucky day.  They’ve added features to the site that allow you to find out what is trending.  This is great if you’re looking for something to share, or even just something to watch.  You can read all about it by clicking on the image below.

Youtube Trends

What’s Needed For A Gaming PC?

Many people want to build a Gaming PC, but don’t know where to start.  That can be a big problem for some.  Especially if you don’t know much about PCs that are built for Gaming.  What’s in them and what part should you get?

The “Motherboard” is perhaps the most important part of any PC.  It’s what determines what your PC can use as far as parts and it’s updatability.  Depending on what you want to do with a Motherboard determines what kind you’ll want.

Another thing you’ll want to look for when comparing Motherboards.  Now, a lot of Gamers go for AMD Processors.  The claim is that AMD is actually better for Gaming than Intel.  If that’s the case, then why are so many Games developed on Intel processors?  Intel still has the fastest processors.

GIGABYTE GA-Z68P-DS3 LGA 1155

The above motherboard is a great over all motherboard.  Especially for starting out in the gaming department.  It supports up to 32gb of Ram and will also support the Core i5 and Core i7 processors.  Off to a great start.

When it comes to Processors, you might want to splurge a little in this department.  You certainly don’t want a weak processor.  That’s the main backbone of your PC, other than the Ram.  When looking at Processors, it’s a good idea to take a look at the over all reviews of a product.  This particular processor has a 5 Egg review at New Egg, out of 138 reviews.  That makes this a great no brainer choice.

Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155

With a power surge of 3.1ghz and a 3.4ghz Turbo Boost, this processor will handle pretty much anything you throw at it.  Except for maybe a Rock.

When it comes to Processors and Motherboards, it’s very important that you match up the sockets.  For example, if you look at the caption, the Motherboard and Processor both have “LGA 1155” sockets.  Keep that in mind.

In today’s market of gaming, I recommend at least 4 gig of Ram.  Ram is what relays the processes back and forth between the Processor, Graphics Card, and Motherboard.  If you have a slow computer, chances are, you don’t have enough Ram.  That 4 gig of Ram, is the “Bare Minimum.”  If this was me, I’d put in 8 gig of Ram.

Patriot Viper Xtreme 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

To me, the Patriot Viper Xtreme series is a winner here.  At a mere #27.99 each, you can’t go wrong.  Snap two of these in your PC and you’ll be, “Shooting first and taking names later” in no time flat.  On top of that, it’s only 8gig of Ram, which leaves room for upgrades in the future.  Want to double that to 16gig?  No problem.  Snap a couple more of these in and you’re good to go.

The Video, or Graphics Card is another area that you might want to splurge in a little bit.  When you’re playing games, if you get into an intense fire fight, certain graphics cards might not be able to handle them.  For a Gaming Rig on a Budget, I recommend the following graphics card.

MSI R6850 Cyclone PE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16

This 1GB graphics card houses a 256 bit interface with GDDR5 Ram.  The Core clock runs at 775mhz, and the Memory Clock runs at 1000mhz.  With 960 Stream Processing Units, this bad boy will make sure you get through that Fire fight and live to tell the tale.

Now you’ll need a Power Supply to power it all, once you get it all hooked up.  New Egg actually has a feature that lets you see how much wattage you need in a Power Supply.  They recommend at least 460w for this particular setup.  I how ever, will be recommending a slightly bigger Power Supply.  We want to be able to upgrade after all.

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W

With a 5 Egg rating from New Egg, this 650w Power Supply will work just fine.  It’ll get you enough juice to the Motherboard, Ram, Graphics Card, and Processor.  You won’t have to worry about a shortage here.  This also leaves room in case you do decide to add that extra 8 gig of Ram.  You might also decide to add an extra Graphics Card.  This will allow for those changes to happen.  You can even install an extra Hard Drive with no problem.

The Hard Drive is where you’ll be storing your OS and Gaming data on.  If you want it fast, you need a faster Hard Drive.  I recommend the Corsair Nova 2 Series Solid State Drives.  It’s a small drive, but it’s fast.  It’ll cut down on booting time and add a faster frame rate.

Corsair Nova Series 2 CSSD-V60GB2 2.5" 60GB SSD

We can’t forget to get a case to house it in.  There are many cases out there for you to get that will cut your budget a little and help you save money.  If you want to make a statement though.  I recommend getting something flashy.  Gamers love their cases.  We have to build a machine to match that attitude.

NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case

This bad boy is sure to make any gamer proud and make your friends jealous.  With 5 External 5.25″ drive bays, you’ll have plenty of room to install an extra DVD Burner if you wish, or even a Temperature control unit.  The 7 Internal 3.25″ drive bays will give plenty of room and air for those Hard Dives.

One of the last things you’ll need is a DVD Burner to install all those games you’re going to get.  One might argue that DVD Burners are all the same, and in reality, that’s pretty much true.  It doesn’t matter if you get a $60 or a $20 DVD Burner.  What matters is that they work.

ASUS 24X DVD Burner

This ASUS DVD Burner, will make sure your games are installed and you’re able to play them when the time comes.  The best part is, it’s only $20.

So far, all of this still cost less than $900.  The price so far is $877.92.  Throw in Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1.  The 64 bit version, and that only bumps it up to $907.91.  Then, all you’ll need is a Monitor.  You can pick those up at any computer store or Best Buy for $99 or less.  Even if it cost you $99, that’s still only $1,007.9 and you’ll have a gaming rig that cost much less than the $3-$4,000 rigs that the big time gamers buy.  At the same time, you’ll be able to keep up with them and you’ll have a nice looking Rig too.

Notice: I’m in no way affiliated with New Egg.  That just happens to be my preferred place to shop online.  You could also visit.

Tiger Direct

or

Amazon

Kids Are Smarter Than Adults

Many people tend to think that kids are dumb and stupid.  I can tell you from experience that they are exactly the opposite.  Most of them anyway.  Why are kids smart?

When we grow up, we tend to think about Money, Making things easier for our friends, Owning a home, Starting a family, many numerous things.  Kids think about having fun, enjoying life, what’s it’s like to be a grown up, but some kids even think about what’s best for them.

Remember the whole ordeal with Congress saying that Pizza is a Fruit?  Seriously congress?  Surely you don’t think that?  Or is it the money talking from the Pizza Industries that supply pizza to the majority of schools?  Bribery is a federal offense and while most of you haven’t got caught yet, we know.  We’ve been watching, listening.

Especially the kids.  This kid has a message.  Be sure to share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

On Hold

Well, this bites.  Another piece of my computer is falling apart.  Yep, my DVD Burner is going bad.  What’s the deal?

Some of you may remember my first piece of software to test and review was supposed to be Encyclopedia Britannica.  Yep, that failed.  I took back the software to Staples, only to get a replacement that had the same issue.  I tried installing another game, Sim City 4, which also happened to be a failed attempt.

So, I tried a few things.  Took apart the DVD Burner and cleaned the lens.  After putting it back together, no success.  Grrr.  It was a pain to take apart to begin with.

Updating the firmware was a big failure too.  I had to go through a site that wasn’t the official site of LiteOn, which is the DVD Burner manufacturer.  Maybe that had something to do with it, but hey, was worth a try.  Doesn’t do LiteOn any good to not be able to update the firmware.

The last thing I did was delete the register keys, uninstall the driver, and reboot.  Nope, notta.  Yet another failure.  At this point the frustration is building.  So, I tried one last thing.

Instead of a CD-Rom game that I had, I tried one of the DVD-Rom games I had.  Spore was the choice of game.  Put it in the drive……  Success.  The DVD was recognized and I was able to install the game.  My first review, just might be of Spore.

After reading a few forum post, from tech forums, I’ve come to the conclusion that my DVD Burner is on its last leg.  Going to have to get a new one, but I’m not sure when that will be.

I now have two options.  Continue with Spore and check out some free games online.  Yes, free fits the Budget category.  Or put the whole budget games and software route on hold.  I know though that’s not what you want, so I’ll be checking out games online that I can download and what not.  Stay tuned.