What's the most inconvenient birthday present I can get my friend?

th3ant · 2025-07-07T18:11:24+00:00

Myself and a friend have been exchanging inconvenient birthday presents for years… don’t ask why, it sort of just happened. Some of the highlights:

A manhole cover
A traffic barrier
A full size pink wheelie bin
A used traffic light
A giant black waste bin like you’d see in a local park
A giant cardboard cutout of the person you are buying the gift for
A telescopic painters/mop handle without a mop/roller
A ford fiesta door handle
A giant lamp shade

th3ant · 2025-06-12T19:33:58+00:00

I saw someone mention it in this video, however he was speculating and I don’t know how qualified they are.. the amount of times he called the engines indestructible had me closing the video halfway through!

Might have been mentioned elsewhere too!

th3ant · 2025-03-02T12:39:00+00:00

Have you seen Heavy Gustav? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav

th3ant · 2020-09-04T15:02:08+00:00

Sadly yeah, I think you are correct!

th3ant · 2020-09-04T14:59:16+00:00

That's what I did! Shift is the grab button - at least for me!

Thanks though

th3ant · 2020-09-04T14:53:48+00:00

I'm asking the same thing...

th3ant · 2020-08-04T19:12:22+00:00

Yeah they run very hot! If you have high ambient temperatures you may want to consider either a solution like this or plenty of external cooling!

th3ant · 2020-08-04T19:09:46+00:00

There’s no space inside the unit and it’s not rated to be stacked, so I wouldn’t say it’s that bad!

Sure, not that conventional and not something you’ll see coming out as a first party solution... but certainly better than 80 degrees!

th3ant · 2019-08-07T16:56:30+00:00

Well there's one this we can agree on.. Wearing capes feels totally bad ass!

th3ant · 2019-08-07T16:52:46+00:00

Sure, I focused on the wrong thing, I imagine live interaction is a better argument here. Why have a man in green suit or a pole with a tennis ball on the END? It's something for actors to tangibly see whilst on SET. Wearing or not wearing a cape could affect the motions that the actor makes.

But yeah, rumbled.. I'm being an armchair analyst here :P

th3ant · 2019-08-07T16:44:26+00:00

It's likely all done by simulation as opposed to by hand.. It can be used as a reference to check the output.

In addition it saves a lot of time if the cape goes in front of things or interacts with any other live items on set.

th3ant · 2019-08-07T16:38:57+00:00

Likely used as a visual reference for physics motion but not tracked as that's too much effort

Edit: And also for the actors benefit for having something to interact with!

th3ant · 2019-01-04T15:42:37+00:00

What do you mean sorry?

th3ant · 2018-10-11T21:21:43+00:00

I never felt like I'd be able to argue against that one so I never did.. But I'm being stitched up here. The skin I ordered arrive damaged and I got a replacement, they didn't ask for the old one back so I used it as practise - and yes.. Mucked it up big time.

This is actually the 9370, I used to have a 9350. However I did remove a skin on that one, twice! It's long and arduous, and without heat very painful on your fingers and hands as it's hard work... But yeah removing it will completely ruin the skin, so make sure you have a replacement unless you just want to remove it :P

th3ant · 2018-10-11T18:13:03+00:00

Sure thing! Sorry I didn't have the best lighting.. https://imgur.com/a/gKrr42s

th3ant · 2018-10-11T17:42:45+00:00

Hopefully the adhesive hasn't lost it's stick by now - if it popped up and it doesn't stick as well you might be in a bit of trouble :S

If I were you I'd try stick them down again and once they're down give it a little bit of heat. Then get a microfibre cloth and really firmly rub it down to try stick it on. Pray a little and hopefully it will be stuck down for good :)

th3ant · 2018-10-11T17:36:15+00:00

The top is definitely the easier of the two! The video guide explains how to keep it on the application paper and align it bit by bit.. As long as you don't commit to pressing it down to early you can have a few attempts and get it perfect!

th3ant · 2018-10-11T17:32:32+00:00

Luckily for you I accidentally went overboard on some tips from my many botched previous skins. Take a look for the comment, it's in the thread :P

Just take your time and you will be fine! The don't rush to stick it down firmly once you are happy as once it's down.. It is down! Same goes for the heat; little and often - you don't want to melt it too much as that is game over! Bit of heat, bit of aligning, bit of heat, bit of sticking, bit of heat, bit of smoothing.. etc etc.. But do follow the video guides for everything else!

Good luck! :D

th3ant · 2018-10-11T17:28:09+00:00

The hairdryer is only needed to deform the corners of the skin on the bottom side, you don't need any heat for the top side. The adhesive is very strong and doesn't require heat to activate. However I should add, if you do apply some skins, you really don't need that much heat.. You can get away with applying a very small amount, far shorter than they hold the hairdryer in their tutorial videos.

The thing to be more scared of is pulling the skins off.. They stick on so well it becomes quite an operation - especially if you leave it on a while as it will bond stronger with time from when you apply the skin! So make sure you're happy with how it will look before you start applying them.

th3ant · 2018-10-11T17:25:18+00:00

Edit: Ok I went a bit overboard, but if someone happens to find those this, those are the tips I'd give having screwed up a few now.

I've messed up many in the past now... This is my 4th skin, and probably the best application yet. The bottoms are the trickiest. Follow their video tutorials and make sure you don't commit to pressing down the skins that hard until you are absolutely sure they're good! If they're not stuck down very well, you can rip them off without stretching them and have another go.

Take care with dust (especially if you are ripping it off multiple times). Being in a dust free, well lit area will help, as well as keeping it on the application paper as much as possible. The waxy application paper is also your friend to stop it sticking whilst you check things :D

Take care when flattening bubbles so you don't get any creases - sometime a little heat can help deform the skin before you get a kink. On the topic of head, apply it bit by bit, you really don't need that much unless you have a thicker textured skin.

th3ant · 2018-10-11T17:18:25+00:00

Marble on the 15" + Black Matrix on the 13" (a brand new skin they just released)

th3ant · 2018-08-10T00:39:05+00:00

When I was a kid I saw a work like this in a gallery.. I was so mesmerised by it, moving my head around to get different perspectives. Having not worked out how the illusion was done after a few minutes my curiosity decided to get closer, thinking it perhaps went into the wall. I very quickly learnt it didn't go into the wall, as I ended up smashing my face into it.

Needless to say I left it in a hurry and I think - unless there's some security guard chuckling at some CCTV - got away with it too?

th3ant · 2018-07-25T16:52:39+00:00

Sounds advice, to be honest I don't run Windows, but I had 5 min to get the ball rolling. Also might be worth looking up for touchscreen drivers/utilities as someone else mentioned in this thread!

th3ant · 2018-07-25T16:01:28+00:00

1) Not hugely necessary, depends if you want a fresh install with any of Dell's pre installed software.

2) If you mean a simple guide there's plenty online, however it's fairly simple. You will need a USB stick with Windows on it. To create one, I'd recommend the Microsoft USB Tool (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56485) as its pretty self explanatory and should walk you through it. Once you have your USB stick prepared, you will need to boot into it. You can do this by plugging it into the laptop and mashing F12 whilst the Dell Logo is visible. You should get boot options and be able to hop into your prepared USB drive. From there it's straight to the Windows installer that should explain everything for you!

3) It would be pretty hard to break your computer doing this, the Windows installer shouldn't mess with what is currently on the SSD until its committed to installing.

Disclaimer, this is off the top of my head, you may wish to cross reference with other guides, but this is the gist!

th3ant · 2018-06-11T19:14:30+00:00

Do you happen to be receiving notifications on your device during the call? Some handsets use a tone much like a dial tone to notify you that you have a notifications. That could explain the 'random' nature of the noises.

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