That's a good point. My main reason for thinking the F1.4 was that I didn't think I'd stick with the 1.8 for long just because of the build quality. If I can make up most everything though, it might be worth the cheaper entry price. Thanks!

Great advice, thanks! I plan on shooting a lot with the kit lens, but I can already tell that's the weak part right now. Too many pictures I have to compromise on ISO because I can't get the apature wide enough, so they turn out grainy. Can you describe the 270 EXII a little more? I tend to shoot without flash just…

Changing lenses is one of the main attractions for me of a SLR. The only confusion at this point is if I should focus on EF or EF-S lenses for maximum compatibility. At this point I'm basically looking for the DLSR newbies checklist, of the major lenses that everyone should have and such.

Thanks for the recommendation! A lot of people are saying the build quality of that lens is less than ideal... would the 50mm f/1.4 (which has much better reviews and isn't *that* much more) be a better choice? My desire for zoom is more to do some amateur astronomy photography at some point. I'd imagine I'll need to…

I recently had a family member buy a Canon EOS Rebel T3 as a surprise present for my family. I know this is the entry level of entry level DSLRs, but I'm looking forward to using it as it is my first DSLR and I'd like something entry level to practice on for a while before moving on to something like a 5D or 7D in a…

I'm jumping in a little late on this one, but I recently picked up a Asus N53SV-XV1, and I've been really pleased. 15.6 inch (technically a little wider), full HD screen, nice speakers, quad core sandy bridge i7 (means it's fast and cool), integrated/discreet graphics depending on what you're doing, 500 GB hard drive,…

@shezzannn: Cache is good too though. The first linked post is what inspired my question, but the second one looks like it has some useful information. I'll have to try it out sometime. Thanks!

@kilodelta6: RamDisk is nice, but at the price they want I can get a SSD for the same or similar. Will try out the trial though, see how it works. Not too late either, I was busy with business travel, but your answer was pretty much what I was looking for.

@Newman513: Jumping in a little late, but I will say Toms Hardware was absolutely golden to me when I was building a new PC my first time. If you have some time and patience to spare, read the site and the forum for some time and you'll learn more than you ever though possible, enough to do a decent job on your own…

This is probably a little late for many to see it on the open thread, but here goes. I'm running a computer with 12GB of RAM (Why you ask? Because I can!) and I'd like my computer to use it a little more efficiently. Like, running whole programs off of it. My computer is capable of loading L4D or just about any other…

Is the Celebri distribution at all Gamestop stores? I'd really like to avoid a trip down to stinky Southcenter.

@Saint In: For some reason though it just felt much more jarring and poorly executed than either Bioshock 2 or Fallout. I remember it being in other places too of the game outside of the videos where it just wouldn't take itself seriously for a while and then it would again. To be fair, I haven't played it since…

@Ayepecks: Some were, but I remember many references to Dr E99 in the labs meant for the scientists. To be honest though I haven't played it for quite some time either. But I do remember it bugging me as out-of-place, while the same thing in Bioshock 2 or Fallout does not. Maybe it just needed to be integrated better…

@Ayepecks: I got the comedic tone mainly from how they treated E99. Here is an element that can control time, the application of which devestated the region and caused untold havoc, but the Soviets in the game treat it like a modern American marketing firm would treat it with the cheesy videos. The whole "turning an…

@TheRealDoshu: That it did. I just wanted it to make up it's mind about whether it wanted to be serious or not. Either choice would have been fine, but it was a weaker game for being incapable of making that decision.

Singularity? Really? I loved that game a a cheap summer holdover, but it couldn't even decide whether it wanted to be a serious Sci-Fi game or a comedic one. It switched tones *constantly* throughout the game and was incredibly interesting. First you have some subject matter they're trying to make serious, like the…

@trucknuts: And most bikers have no respect for stop signs, stop lights, crosswalks (I've seen far more pedestrians nailed by a biker running a light than a car), turn signals, lane courtesy and general road laws in general. Pedestrians rarely obey crosswalk laws either, either going when cars have red lights or…

@lemke ☠☠☠: That's a comical response. I hate bikers because they're assholes most of the time. Not that you haven't already made that clear yourself, but there's countless other examples of it. Bikers don't get to jump to the front of the stop signs with 20 cars in line, and they don't get to skip red lights just…

@im.thatoneguy3: They would be epic. See my other reply about the Italian Autostrade. Misread ops post thinking high speed local rail, which would never work, and my post was mainly about local light rail. That was my mistake, and I mentioned that. I'm fine with high speed inter city/intra country rail, especially…

@Tor Johannes Helleland: I misread his post, was thinking local high speed rail. I'm fine with high speed rail between cities. But at the same time, don't make the mistake that what works in Norway would work in America. Rail works better in Norway because there are long stretches of unpopulated land between populated…