Search results

I'd like print out the Exif info for a bunch of pics; I'll pipe the output to PDFs. Output can be in one file with the picture file name preceding the Exif dump for that pic (so I can identify which pic the info belongs to), or it can be multiple files, one file of Exif info per pic. I took a...

I haven't ripped a CD in decades. What's currently the best way to rip entire audio CDs to FLAC? I want to feed the CD, fire off the ripper and have a bunch of flac files at the end of the process. It's too tedious to rip one track at a a time. I'd also like to rip sections of DVD audio to...

The C drive in my daughter's PC (Win XP SP3) is 87.5% full. Windows is the biggest culprit at 5.32GB. In the Windows folder: Installer: 1039 MB $hf_mig$: 795 MB ServicePackFiles: 461 MB assembly: 326 MB SoftwareDistribution: 294 MB...

My sister, who's been a luddite all her 55 years, finally has learned how to use email and wants a laptop for email, web browsing and Skyping with her kids (webcam essential). Win 7 Home Basic is available pre-installed in a few countries only (including here) and is n/a in the "developed"...

Y'all know I'm planning to build a new system. Want to run win7 64-bit on it. Have some legacy apps I need advice with. a) A Win 3.1 era app that I still use. The newest OS it'll run on is Win 98. I use it on a W98 guest running in VMWare Workstation ver. 4 on an XP host. The only peripheral...

Stupid question, but I'll ask anyway :) I'm not in a great hurry, but my current system is 5+ years old and getting a wee bit long in the tooth. I'm not able to keep up with what's happening anymore; I can barely keep up with SF, the only place I visit. Is now a good time or should I wait? I...

I have an APC BackUPS BR-1500 with an attached extra battery pack, BR-24. They were purchased in April 2007. The BR-1500 died in September 2008 and the complete unit was replaced by APC under warranty. The batteries in the replacement are dated July 2008. Have had no issues so far. It has...

I'm thinking of getting some stuff from Bluelounge, including this cableclip. I've always believed that winding a cable that is in use in a loop will create problems - inductance, signal getting funky, etc. To date I've always laid cable out, making sure it's never looped. Am I paranoid? The...

What the heck is a single long beep (not the short single that occurs on a normal boot up), repeated at intervals? My beep code cheat sheet doesn't have it listed. To get rid of it, I pulled out the video card, air-dusted it and reseated it; did same with an add-on PCI USB card. PC booted...

Any good ones? They mostly seem to be flaky. WD seems to be selling one. Perhaps worth a try? Thanks.

I'm going to order a Technet Standard subscription (my first). What should I do as soon as I get it? Go to MS's website and ask for as many keys as is allowed for each sw I'm likely to use? I guess the download can happen anytime during the period of the sub. Or can I do it after that as well...

On Aug 21, in the Win 7 thread, I wrote: "What's this I just found out about OEM versions not for end-users / hobbyists? If you don't use the pre-installation kit, don't put it on a brand new PC, and don't sell the PC to an unknown person, you're in violation of the license terms. I ordered...

I want a smaller monitor than Snowhiker, hence this new thread. When I bought my Dell 2007WFP, my daughter got my 1997 vintage Viewsonic PT775 CRT. It's now dying, and we need a monitor. One option is to get a lowball LCD for her. The other (that I prefer) is to get a better LCD for me and...

Sorry, long post! Admittedly, my OS install is long in the tooth; installed almost exactly 4 years ago. I am dreading reinstallation of all the sw, the utilities, the tweaks, etc. But while the system is generally ok, disk throughput seems poor. I had 2 Hibachi 250 GB SATA drives in the...

No good reviews anywhere. I'll be using it now in an XP-32 SP2 system, and later in a Win7-64 system. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Back door to complete control

I was gifted a 5th generation 60 or 80 GB Video Ipod Classic in 2006. It stayed in the box till a couple of weeks ago, when I had to "set it up" at my daughter's insistence (she's 13). She's using it now. I played with it a bit and was rather taken with the ability to put video clips on it...

Company emerges from stealth mode Black silicon: 100 - 500 times more sensitive to light and to IR Better digital cameras, better imaging devices, better solar cells (they generate current off of IR too).

What is the Milky Way Speeding Towards at 14 Million MPH? Fascinating article. I felt really, really small (in every way!) after reading this.

For the beleaguered LM: * 4-platter 1.5 TB drive, to ship in August, price not revealed * Momentus 5400.6 and Momentus 7200.4, 500GB 2.5" laptop drives to ship in Q4 News item here.

"It's stepped down from tape to digital to compressed digital, so people are now listening to a Xerox of a Polaroid of a photograph of a painting." I really liked the analogy! What would Merc say about this?

Several people have asked for a tool that does something like this one does; maybe not exactly, but close. Check it out. Dir Utils Summary of features: Extensionize: categorises files by their extension and moves them to pre-designated directories. Alphabetize: creates sub-directories based...

Engrish. NSFW

Stumbled on it while reading an interview of T.J. Rodgers (Cypress Semi). He says, "First of all, I think Silicon Valley people, if you gave them the world's smallest quiz, my belief is you'd find that people in Silicon Valley are highly libertarian but they don't even know what that phrase...

Cnet News Story here 2.5" 500GB 5400 RPM 9.5 mm HDD 2.5" 250GB 7200 RPM HDD 128GB SSD "will be available to a few PC manufacturers mid-year".

Windows-based cash machines 'easily hacked' That Windows is insecure ain't news to me, but what is astounding is that there are ATM manufacturers and banks stupid enough to run the machines on Windows. How stupid will the human race get?

Returning a lost camera to the owner

Good for a laugh; some are quite good. It's a montage of real people's faces and the faces on various currencies.

Stumbled on this link; was interesting for me.

"Staples now carries the most Dell ink and toner, notebooks, desktops, all-in-ones, printers, and monitors at your local Staples store. Dell is also available online (at Staples.com)". YAY! (This is an email I just got from Staples). So the vaunted direct-sell model ain't working no more......

Help!!! I was all set fine. My laptop drive was partitioned to C, blank and E, with my burner being F. Blank was a Truecrypt encrypted drive that became D when I mounted it. Life was good. Then company IT gave me a Roxio Easy CD DVD Creator 6 Basic CD to install a burner (I know, I know, kill...

Looking for crisp text, good picture display and viewing angle, and a decent price. 4:3 or wide-screen immaterial. It's for someone in the family. Anybody got any favorites? Thanks.

CS2 is available for a much cheaper price; is CS3 worth the premium? (please don't tell me to torrent it; I already know that and won't!)

Johnathan Goodwin can get 100 mpg out of a Lincoln Continental, cut emissions by 80%, and double the horsepower. Does the car business have the guts to follow him? Fascinating article in FastCompany.

Article here.

Never heard of this guy till today. His story makes for fascinating reading. News / story on Cnet.com

And where's Merc?

Le'Egg somes to mind immediately. But you folks used to complain in the past that Newegg didn't ship HDDs properly and the DOAs were quite a large number. Has this changed? Is is safe to buy HDDs from Newegg? I'm taking these out of the country and so longevity of the drives is more important...

I have 2 x 1 GB of dual-channel RAM on my NForce 4 motherboard (DFI Lanparty UT SLI DR Expert - I hope I got that mouthful right). CPU is a Socket 939 X2 4400. 1) If I add 2 more sticks of dual-channel RAM, will memory speed slow down (because all slots are full)? I vaguely remember reading 2T...

Is this possible? Or is the encrypted data tied to the system (GUID) that created the encryption? I'm traveling a bit these days for my consulting gigs, and miss my data. Clients provide laptops for use. I'd like to put my data on a high-capacity flash drive or a 2.5" HDD and encrypt it on my...

I'm mulling buying a cell-phone / PDA combo. What's not important: - data access / email / internet etc. - music, videos, etc. What would be nice: - to be able to read/modify/create Word/Excel docs - camera What's important: - phone performance and usability - PDA functions: contacts...

I have my Win XP Pro install set to tell me when there are updates. I then allow it to download them after reviewing the updates. (I skip the Outlook stuff since I don't have Outlook installed, but it shows up everytime anyway and I have to check the box that says don't show this one anymore)...

Is there any software that can scan an original paper form and create a digital fillable form - pdf or word or excel or proprietary? I know Acrobat Professional can do this, but it's $285 street. Acrobat Std. can't do this, and the oher features I want in Acrobat Std. are available free (in...

I will be purchasing a 4-port wireless router + desktop wireless adapter + notebook wireless adapter. I need to buy by March 24, and need to buy in store. The setup will have to work well through brick walls. There will be open space between the router and the PCI adapter, but it's not line of...

Anybody notice anything strange? For the last week or so, many emails in my Yahoo account (and my wife's) are blank. ie., the body is blank, attachments don't show; only the headers and nothing else. Copying and pasting the entire email into Notepad or Word will show the message. Or replying to...

Birds died by the thousands, and none seem to be left. Sad.

My ISP forbids sharing. They use the NIC's MAC address hard-coded into their server which authenticates it on login. All internet access is possible only after login. Their TOS says one connection = one computer and any violation will result in cancellation of service. My contact guy claims...

Altered Oceans

I'm going to be a nitwit (I was going to say twit, but the word always makes me think that means "twin tits") and start a new thread for this. With all the WGA crap, inevitable MS prodding to upgrade to Vista etc., I've reconciled myself to not getting any mileage from my proposed migration...

Is there a significant difference between the following processors for a notebook for general average use? The buyer is verrrry price sensitive. Listed in alpha order: Core Duo Core Solo Mobile Sempron Pentium-M Turion 64 Mobile Thanks! m