At this particular cross-junction of time, yours truly is very much in a condition that is commonly known to gynecologists as "motherfucking stoned like a motherfucker in Simon's house typing on his computer while everyone else is passed out". That's fucked uppp. Maybe I will regret this post later, but probably not.

Wha?...

I'm thinking of doing something tomorrow. I'll phone you dudes tomorrow when I can think of something.

Alison, when your sleeping your cardiovascular and lymphatic systems don't have to pump against gravity, so more fluid gets to all of your body parts, but as you stand, your body has to move fluid against gravity and since the vessels for the arms are above the heart somewhat less fluid goes to your arms and ends up going to the legs instead (since fluid moves with gravity and veins have to pump against it, you usually get alot of swelling in the legs if you stand all day)
And as a side note, if your legs are unable to pump all the blood and lymph back to your heart, you can end up with vericose veins or deep vein thrombosis...

Ah, acronyms.

First of all, "memory" refers to that short term storage that is used when the computer is on, and 'disappears' when you turn it off (that is, your RAM.) "Space" (or, perhaps more accurately, disk space) is the storage that survives when you turn off the computer. (Of course, there are significant hardware differences, but this is a good place to start.) To find out how much space you have left, generally, you can find some iconic representation of the hard drive in your OS (like "C:" in windows; I'm not sure about the mac equivalent), find its properties (I'd say right-click, but that doesn't necessary apply in the mac world). Usually that will give you that space used/space free information.

As for the mp3 player, you're probably talking about USB ports. Basically there are three versions of the interface: USB 1.0 (the "low speed" version, usually for keyboards, mice, etc.), USB 1.1 (the "full speed" version, the old fast version) and USB 2.0 (or "high-speed" USB (ok, that's not entirely accurate, but it's a close enough generalization)). Despite what they may claim, though, the interfaces are compatible. The only thing you'll notice is that USB 1.0 will be really slow.

To find out what you have, you can try to dig through the hardware specs in your computer (which, in Windows, is in Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager), or you can try to find the specs on your computer. What you're looking for is ____-speed USB or some version number (1.0, 1.1, 2.0). I can't remember what year the high-speed started, but if your computer is from the last three years, you should be ok.

And alison, the ring means you have to stop drinking from strange bottles, even if they do say "drink me." (There's a bad second joke in there, too, if you're apt to go looking.)

Can someone tell me, is what I meant to say.

While we're on the topic of computers, can tell me how I could find out what kind of UBS port I have? I'm thinking of buying an mp3 player and the one I'm thinking of buying said something about a high-speed UBS port only?

okay, and is RAM memory different from the memory you actually have available for storing things? if so, how do you find out actual hard drive space (what am I saying, RAM is totally different) how do you find out how much space is on your hard drive?

and why do my fingers shrink as the day goes on? my ring is totally falling off.

hmm... what else can I say in this post?... Todd Kerns is a total hottie, but i still have the hots for my prof. damnit. i mean, volunteers (who coincidentally have girlfriends - damnit!) aside, i can't stop thinking of dear old forestry prof, who gives me butterflies every time i see him... and to think i almost applied to be his grad student... wouldn't that have been bad? *sigh* i've got to start setting age limits.

Short answer, use 1000, like other SI measures.

Long answer, for low level prefixes, (kilo- and mega-), generally they use 1024, because it's a power of 2. Higher level prefixes (giga-, tera-, ...) started to use 1000, just because it's simpler to convert; particularly for consumers. It's dumb, but that's the convention now. Of course, it also depends on the implementation; some measures will use 1000, some will use 1024. (I know when they quote it to you in specs, they'll use 1000 so they end up with more gigabytes, but the software may decide that 1024 is more consistent.)