Well I went ahead and got the 5700. It's amazing for the price.

So far, the max temperature after an hour of gaming was 69C. It can play Just Cause 2 and Dragon Age Origins easily at the highest settings.
And this time I registered it with XFX.

I'm building a new media center PC with that 8600GT for my family and buying one of the following for my own PC:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150323&cm_re=9800gt-_-14-150-323-_-Product

XFX PVT98GYDLH GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $105

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102864

SAPPHIRE 100283-2L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150439

XFX GS250XZDFU GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $145

Which card do you think will get me the most bang for my buck?

I'm leaning towards the 5770 because of directx 11 support, which would hopefully mean that I don't have to update my video card in the next 4 or so years; but I'm not too knowledgeable in this field so I would like the input of others.

Well I changed the thermal paste. It lowered  the temperature slightly (it now idles at 67 C), but not nearly enough. Drivers are also updated to the latest ones.

I should mention that the fan is always on 100% (I used RivaTuner to adjust it). Otherwise the temperature would be much higher.

My XFX 8600GT idles at 71 C and goes all the way to 106 C on load and crashes.

I have the stock cooler on it, and a PCI slot exhaust fan next to it, plus a 80mm intake fan next to it. There is one other exhaust fan (120mm) on the back of the case. How can I get the temperature down?

Also, I might just replace the whole case and card, so any recommendations for a cheap computer case ($50 or less) and a budget video card ($120 or less) are appreciated.

Have you tried to use one of those CD/DVD repair kits? (like this one http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Innovations-Skipdoctor-Repair-Kit/dp/B00005B9W6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246261839&sr=1-10 )

I've had errors on DVDs that I left lying around and that worked pretty well. Although my DVDs would just freeze the computer rather than give a CRC error, but CRC errors can be caused by scratched/dirty discs as well so if its a scratch, you can try one of those DVD repair kits I guess.

EDIT: Actually, don't use the repair kit. My data was stuff that could be replaced so I took the risk, but sometimes the repair kits end up messing up your discs even more (although it only happened once for me).

Isn't Souter a liberal (despite being appointed by Bush sr). He usually voted with the liberal voting bloc. In fact, he was even waiting for a liberal president to win so he could retire, since he actually said "If Obama wins, I'll be the first to retire."

You can try recording her doing something extremely bitchy and then release to the media anonymously. It's a long shot though.

Why don't you share a one bedroom apartment with somebody and split the rent? You would have to sleep in the living room and have very little privacy but its better than living in a van. Or find someone renting out a basement because those are pretty cheap. My cousin used to live in a basement for $200 a month but it floods sometimes when it rains so he moved out.

That's pretty amazing of the captain to have given himself up for the crew. I didn't think there were people like that now-a-days.

Connecting to server...
Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: yo
You: hola
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

I just found that hilarious.

Complaining is all fine and dandy, but don't go around annoying people. I know someone who complains all day about every little thing and most people just can't stand being around said person.

Yeah, the gap year seems like a bad idea. I sort of figured I was tired of school and really losing focus, so taking a gap year would help me regain some focus and figure out what I wanna do because I've seen so many people waste years going to college only to change majors several times or end up with a degree that isn't really useful or with a job/career they hate. But I like what Velfarre said about going to college and doing this kind of stuff at the same time, because chances are it'll be cheaper if its a program from the college.

Another question: how useful is college in terms of preparing you for getting a job/career?
I know high school was pretty useless because I forgot most of the things that I learned, and the only things that were retained were things that were used often. As for job skills, I got those almost completely from actual jobs and internships. Is it the same in college? Do you basically take meaningless classes to get a piece of paper and then get training when you actually land a career? I know you obviously need some of the classes but I feel like the majority of the things taught in the current education system are forgotten in the long run.

Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy some of those "meaningless" classes, it just seems like if they cut back on that, they could shorten the number of years you need to go to school/college and cut a lot of costs.

I think I'm gonna download this and watch it high I need a good laugh

I don't think you would laugh even if you were high. I skimmed through it on youtube, it was really bad. It was past the point of being bad enough to be funny, it was just terrible.

It seems like it. I called them up, they said they're going to send someone next week.

Anyone know if taking a "gap year" is a good idea? I have about 6 grand saved up and I can probably work full time a few months to save up more and then do something interesting. (Visit other countries do some volunteer work and etc) I know volunteer work sounds dumb but I'd seriously be interested in helping out in South Asia because I've traveled around the region and people with illnesses/disabilities/etc have a really tough time. I know some organizations are popping up that help those kinds of people get aid and rights. I was thinking of doing work for those causes in the far future (after college), but I want to experience that kind of work first hand before going to college. Besides that I also wanted to explore some of my own interests like hiking or getting into something new like learning an instrument or some martial arts or something. I've read up on it and it seems most colleges will allow you to defer admission for a year. Has anyone taken a year off before college, and if so, how was it?

Arghh this is really weird and its bugging me. My internet connection is acting funky. Some sites just won't load, (youtube, google, gmail, msn, yahoo), but others like GW and btjunkie.org work fine. Also, my torrents are downloading fine. I can't figure out whats wrong. I'm on a network and all the other computers are having the same problem. I tried connecting my laptop to the cable modem directly, still no dice. Anyone know what it could be?

The sites that do work load really really slowly. The other sites don't give a connection timed out page, they give this message:
Address Not Found

Firefox can't find the server at www.google.com.

I've tried IE and Chrome, same problem.

EDIT: Pinging www.google.com gives me : "Ping request could not find host www.google.com"

Yeah, I think I'm going to contact the school because I only get an EFC as well. The school's site says to login and check on their site but they don't have any information. It's unfortunately a really crappy school but its the only one out of 4 I applied to. And I got rejected from an honors program at another school so I decided to just go to the one that I have a scholarship for and that's close to home.

Anyone know how much money you can get?
The college that I'm going to is $30,750 a year for the fixed rate tuition plan (price won't go up in the future), and I get $19000 from the school per year as a scholarship. My EFC is 0 and I'm planning to mooch off my parents unless I find a really cheap place to live.

Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis).

This book is especially depressing for me because we were reading the book and watching the movie in my English class when my English teacher died.

Ugh holocaust/WWII movies just make me sick physically. I've watched way too many.

That said, Life is Beautiful is really depressing. It's a holocaust movie about a Jewish man who is trying to protect his son from the horrors of concentration camp by telling him its just a game and the grand prize is a tank. Its so depressing because the situation is so helpless yet the man (Guido) who is very cheery and comical tries so hard to protect his son. Its hard to imagine the kind of strength it must take to put up that kind of front. And all the things leading up to the camp parts of the movie make it much more heart-wrenching. Theres this one scene at a dinner where someone mentions the kind of math their kid in grade school does and it was something along the lines of "It costs X amount of money to take care of each disabled/mentally ill person. If there are Y disabled people, and they are all killed, how much money will be saved?" And you think they are talking about how horrible the situation in the problem is but they are more appalled at the difficulty of the math.