The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[RosieCotton]

Oops. You beat me to it.

[Dawntreader]

Oh...ok thanks!

[ksen]

Oops. You beat me to it.

;^P

[Alkhin]

Alkhin is WAAAAAY behind in the conversation, but became DETERMINED to find the quote I wanted to post about Aragorn coming by sea, rather than by land...

From The Houses of Healing,

Then Aragorn entered first and the others followed. And there at the door were two guards in the livery of the Citadel: one tall, but the other scarce the height of a boy; and when he saw them he cried aloud in surprise and joy.
'Strider! How splendid! Do you know, I guess it was you in the black ships. But they were all shouting corsairs and wouldn't listen to me. How did you do it?'

[HairOfTheDog]

I am really happy with cable Rosie, I wouldn't ever go back.

From the tests I have seen cable is faster than DSL for downloading, because they partition it that way. for home users who typically want to download more often than upload. DSL is the same speed up and down, I think.

Either one would be so much of an improvement over dial up!

As for the computer issue....

I have been on the phone with Dell all morning...

Yes, it is under warranty! They are sending me a new monitor. Heh... It isn't the monitor.

I think it is the video card, because the display looks fine in the monitor self test when it is unplugged from the computer.

They said that when there is a 50-50 chance of being right, they would rather send the monitor than the card, because it is easier for the customer to install.

I think it is because it is cheaper for them to send a monitor that they make than it is to send a video card they would have to buy from NVidia? possible?

So, Monday, I will have a new monitor, and if I am right, I will also get a new video card a few days later! Not a bad deal except I can't see the screen in the mean time!

[RosieCotton]

Shipping on a monitor is high, though - they weigh a ton! So maybe they're being up front with ya.

[ksen]

See you all later. I am heading to Pensacola on Sunday until Friday night. I don't know if I will make it back on before I go. So just in case see y'all later.

Keep it secret, keep it safe!

356 HOURS UNTIL FLORIDA MINI-MOOT!!!!!!!!!!

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah - shipping will be high! - and they have to pay twice because they want me to return the old one!

I hope they are right, I just have a feeling....

[Sam Cree]

Oh, that is why you've been gone. I was afraid you had fallen into shadow with the dwarves.

I am very glad I am wrong.

[HairOfTheDog]

The shadow holds no sway with me!

[Sam Cree]

Have a safe trip. Will you be able to communicate from there?

[ksen]

Will you be able to communicate from there?

No, I'll be incommunicado (internet wise) for the week. I think the brainwashing works better that way. ;^)

Ok, I'm really gone now.

[HairOfTheDog]

Since I can barely see my monitor, I am reluctant to start up the thread because it is hard to SEE!

If I miss any posts, it is because it is hard to even read the my comments page on which posts I have seen or not! It is gonna be this way all weekend! UGH!

So post to me again if you ask me something important and I miss it.

Right now I am trying to get a batch of cookies done before the mail comes!

[Ramius]

From the tests I have seen cable is faster than DSL for downloading, because they partition it that way. for home users who typically want to download more often than upload. DSL is the same speed up and down, I think.

Cable is about 1Mbps to 1.5Mbps downstream, but is only about 128K upstream. Actual speed will vary according to whatever your neighbors are doing at the time, since cable is a "loop" topology. A good firewall is essential because your packets go physically through your neighbors' houses and theirs through yours.

DSL speed varies according to how much you want to pay. Most are about 512K down and 256K up (for about $50/mo), but you can buy symmetric DSL that goes up to about 1.1Mbps both ways (about $350/mo). DSL is a "star" topology. You are connecting to a router at the phone company, so there's nobody between you and them.

They are sending me a new monitor. Heh... It isn't the monitor. I think it is the video card, because the display looks fine in the monitor self test when it is unplugged from the computer.

They're sending a new monitor? Idjits. They should know better by now.

They said that when there is a 50-50 chance of being right, they would rather send the monitor than the card, because it is easier for the customer to install.

Using that logic they should send a new mouse too, since they are so easy to install... geez.

The shipping on the monitor will be more costly to them than those cards are when they buy them by the trainload from nVidia. Yeesh. I do like Dell, and they've given me good service before, but sometimes the helpdesk monkeys can be the biggest idiots in the world.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, this will be a frustrating few days because I can't see what I am doing, but it sounds like I am gonna win in the long run!

It doesn't make sense!

[300winmag]

Nope... I support PCs, when I can't find a job supporting Unix workstations. I'm a computer nerd, through and through! This job though, will be supporting PCs located in a hospital.

Congrats/condolences on your line of work. I do computer support in a large hospital system, and I can tell you, it's 10% technical, and 90% people skills.

While some of the locations aren't too pleasant (no customers at the morgue when I've been there, fortunately), I've found that the humility I learned helped in balancing out the fact that I can out-work three twenty-somethings. And I get to lead the underground Palm Pilot revolution. :)

I've worked in business, government, and automotive settings, and I find hospitals to be the toughest, but the most satisfying.

[2Jedismom]

I think the picture that I linked to of Aragorn is not of him arriving in Gondor (which we all know he arrived in the Corsair's boats). I think it is him fully decked out, off to make war on Sauron...

The day after, being the third day since they set out from Minas Tirith, the army began its northward march along the road. It was some hundred miles by that way from the Cross-roads to the Morannon, and what might befall them before they came so far none knew. They went openly but heedfully, with mounted scouts before them on the road, and others on foot upon either side, especially on the eastward flank; for there lay dark thickets, and a tumbled land of rocky ghylls and crags, behind which the long grim slopes of the Ephel Dúath clambered up. The weather of the world remained fair and the wind held in the west, but nothing could waft away the glooms and the sad mists that clung about the Mountains of Shadow; and behind them at whiles great smokes would arise and hover in the upper winds.
Ever and anon Gandalf let blow the trumpets, and the heralds would cry: “The Lords of Gondor are come! Let all leave this land or yield them up!’ But Imrahil said: ‘Say not The Lords of Gondor. Say The King Elessar. For that is true, even though he has not yet sat upon the throne; and it will give the Enemy more thought, if the heralds use that name.’ And thereafter thrice a day the heralds proclaimed the coming of the King Elessar. But none answered the challenge.[JRR Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book 5, Chap 10 The Black Gate Opens]

[2Jedismom]

And I think Sam is wearing Sting in this picture. Which leads me to believe this is at least after Shelob...

Any thoughts?

[2Jedismom]

This picture. Isn't Sam wearing Sting?

http://www.theonering.net/movie/scrap.static/5807.html

[Overtaxed]

It sure looks like the hilt of Sting. Maybe it's on the road to Mount Doom. It' seems a bit light to be inside Shelob's tunnels.