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I'm looking for a decent 2.1 system (or a sensational 2.0 system with really good bass :)). It's for my daughter; she's fussy but hates wasting money. Apart from music, she watches a lot of movies and obscure TV shows. I'm thinking either Corsair SP2500 (~$230 here) or Logitech Z523 / Z623...

My PC with a Corsair Force 60GB SSD screwed up today; first with internet access problems, then losing the plot while restarting Windows - so it currently can't start Windows, even in Safe Mode. And then I got a call from a client with a Force 120GB SSD: with the same problem of going out to...

I needed a place to park this truly fascinating link about water saving toilets: The low flush toilet controversy and MaP toilet testing I recommend watching the video. No, seriously.

Although Ddrueding and others have offered insights into their dwelling construction escapades, I thought a thread might be interesting to swap stories. In particular, I'm intrigued by the different building methods and terminology between different countries. My immediate inspiration is the...

I found this fantastic demo of what you can actually do with the 'USB' port on the Galaxy S3, including USB On-The-Go and MHL (with Bluetooth thrown in for good measure). A PC keyboard(!), external speakers, 3 different game controllers, flash drives, a 2.5" external HDD, a USB hub, an HD TV...

I realize that for many people here, their next phone will be a Galaxy S III or whatever rises up to challenge it. And then there's the sad handful of iPhone acolytes, but I don't want to dwell on their delusion. ;) My Android phone is 2 years old and that means the contract is over and I am...

Samsung and Apple Capture 55 Percent of Global Smartphone Shipments in Q1 2012

So I'm installing Thunderbird and trying to figure out the easiest way to get it to align with a version of Lightning calendar. Calendar functionality is obviously important to many people - after all, it's standard with Outlook. Tbird version 10 includes an architectural change that required...

I haven't bothered to look up any articles on it, but I see new motherboards with this chipset are now available. The main difference appears to be that USB 3.0 is integrated rather than courtesy of a 3rd party chip. As a result, manufacturers are no longer being too tight-assed to provide a...

Does anyone have any practical licensing tricks for someone without a current MSDN subscription? That is, how do you create multiple VMs without incurring the wrath of the licensing gods? Notice I didn't say use "VM" in the title because you can't search on a 2-character word. ;)

It's crunch time for me, I have to decide between WD and Seagate. Samsung is gone and there are no suitable Hitachi drives available. So should I go for the devil or the deep blue sea? WD WD20EARX 5400rpm unknown mS $123-$132 (WD doesn't like to reveal specifications - customers might get the...

Email is supposed to be a key application for mobile devices, so it's surprising how immature the current Android offerings are. The original bundled client has to be one of the worst apps that Google has produced. I persevered with it for 18 months because I only really used it to read emails...

I thought recent developments such as SOPA (and many others) really deserved their own thread. Although the sickness has infected all western countries, the US appears to be leading the charge and unfortunately has overwhelming influence. First up, here's an excellent debunking of the...

Apparently, Bluetooth dongles don't necessarily play nice with Windows 7. I think the blame lies mainly with Microsoft, but I'm amazed how few devices actually have a Windows 7 64-bit driver. I noticed this because someone had weird BSOD problems on their PC, which turned out to be due to the...

Okay, that's a bit non-specific. It's restrained considering the amount of time I wasted thanks to this sh*tty company and their half-assed software, not only today but many other days (and nights). Specifically, Android Market appears to have had an on/off problem for at least two years...

Lord Vader has left the building.

Online gamers crack enzyme riddle Foldit portal with more info

8 minute demo video. It gets more interesting after the first couple of minutes.

I have Thunderbird configured to connect to a Gmail account through IMAP. Everything has been fine for several weeks, but suddenly I get popup messages: I can still access my various other IMAP email accounts without any problem. I can use IMAP + SSL on my phone to access that Gmail account...

People here are undoubtedly aware that rather than compete, Apple has decided to pay an army of lawyers instead. They're particularly anxious about Samsung's latest offerings, the Galaxy II phone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. The Galaxy Tab seems to give them the most heartburn, perhaps...

Client with Windows 7 SP1 64-bit is trying to install some software that needs to install Visual C++ 2005 and Visual C++ 2008 SP1 redistributables in both x86 and x64 versions. VC2008 fails with: Error 1935.An error occurred during the installation of assembly 'Microsoft.VC90.ATL,version=...

Has anyone successfully used Outlook to access Gmail? POP3 isn't an option because it assumes a single client device, so I'm looking at IMAP, or is there some way to connect with ActiveSync (MS Exchange protocol)? From what I've read so far, Outlook 2003 sort of managed IMAP okay, but Outlook...

I need to find some replacement key tops / caps for a Dell laptop. Dell doesn't sell the keys separately, there's a two-month wait to get a replacement keyboard, and it will cost about $150. I found some vendors in the US that sell cheap replacement keyboards, but one wanted about $100 shipping...

Google buys Motorola

I need to set up Gmail on a couple of iPhones, but I'm hampered because i don't have an iPhone here. AFAIK, the latest versions of IOS4 can now be set up with the Gmail (IMAP) wizard option, even with push email. Has anyone confirmed this? Irritatingly, all the YouTube videos I can find refer...

This is probably going to upset a few people, so I put it in its own thread. IMO, it's a pretty good summation of how the rest of the world views the US right now. The author is a former senior Australian government minister. An ungovernable America is on its knees and all of us will suffer

Anyone have something positive to say about unfree antivirus software, eg "it detected and removed the rootkit within minutes"? In other words, any evidence that a particular product is worth the money? I guess something that doesn't turn an i7 into a Pentium 4 would be worth knowing about as well.

I need a Plan B. Specifically, a service to automatically sync contacts between smartphones and desktop email clients (preferably Thunderbird, ideally Outlook as well). It can be one-way, eg. desktop is always the master, but I need it to work with both iPhones and Androids. All suggestions...

I'm a bit fed up (again) trying to get useful information out of Google's web pages. I want to migrate a domain to GoogleApps, subject to these requirements: * Existing email is POP3, so I'll be relying on IMAP to upload existing emails. * Web interface will be secondary, so connection to...

To me, the real point in USB 3.0 is a fast powered interface for portable data storage. eSATA works fine if you have an external power source, but let's face it, most people (including me) couldn't be bothered to carry around a power brick. To be genuinely useful, the interface needs to provide...

Just a heads up. I transferred a 1.3GB file via RDP drive sharing and discovered it was corrupted about 2/3 of the way through. Unfortunately my DSL-VPN upload speed appears to be limited to 40kB/s, so it took all night and I then had to throw it away. I then chopped it into 7 parts (with...

I'm trying to do this through a VPN without success. I've set the workgroup the same and turned off everything I can see in the Win 7 security Advanced Settings. I can connect with RDP using the local (admin) user. I can't browse the Windows 7 PC in my workgroup, but more importantly I can't...

When it came time to connect the workstations to this Windows 2008 R2 server, I ran dcpromo. Four to five hours later, I conceded that the installation had been destroyed and formatted the boot drive (a new installation wanted to backup the wreckage). I chatted with Chewy about this last night...

First, a philosophical article from 2002 that helps a bit with perspective on the limitations of archiving mediums. Optical media companies talk up life expectancy - something of a conflict of interest, unfortunately. Officially, the best CD-R media is good for 100 years, DVD+R for at least 30...

So I'm planning to do something pretty unexpected: use a Phenom X6 as a (file & database) small business server. The idea is to have one primary server and one backup server, which can also take over as the primary if needed. Thanks to M$ licensing, only one at a time will be running Windows...

Some motherboards (eg H61) come with this host controller to provide SATA 3 & RAID support. I'm vaguely aware of people having more issues than with the Intel native controller. Has anyone here used one? I'm planning to buy more than one, so a little reassurance would be great, or a warning...

Happy End of the World, everyone. As I write this, it's already over in Oz, but most of you guys are just looking out on the dawn of a new age. I guess the fact that I'm still here means I don't have to worry about Winter anymore. I'm pretty confident that CougTek will be joining me. I'm off...

Firstly, which of these cases would you prefer, and why?

Has anyone tried dual monitors with the integrated video on Sandy Bridge CPUs? In practise, the H67 seems to come with both DVI and HDMI - as well as VGA. It's clear as mud whether that allows concurrent DVI and HDMI, or just VGA + a single digital output.

This is an itch I need to scratch; a place to share examples of everyday insanity that seem to be on the rise.

This thread is about software that can create bootable backups; specifically the ability to run directly from a USB drive backup. The point to this is that when an HDD dies, a user can be up and running again almost immediately, allowing more time for skilled personnel to become available to...

I'm cursed. This PC from hell has an Autorun.inf file in the root of C drive. It's 8 freaking gigabytes in size. And I absolutely, positively, cannot delete it. I've tried: Deleting it - it says it's in use Changing the attributes (it's system and hidden) - they refuse to change. Booting in...

No really, what are the circumstances that would make you (or your organization) seriously consider using blade servers? I have my own prejudices, I'm interested in what other people have to say.

I have a PC with a hard disk drive partitioned into 100MB Windows 7 system boot, 120GB C drive, and 1.7TB D drive. I need to move the Windows 7 boot and C drives to another drive, a 120GB SSD. I'm really not having fun, and can't seem to find tips that I suspect other people have left here. In...

Kyocera Echo. Engadget review here. Equivalent resolution to iPad that collapses into a phone form factor. Awesome, when can I buy one?

I would really appreciate people sharing any practical experience in dealing with hand/wrist tendonitis issues, i.e. RSI. My daughter is the sufferer. Mouse usage seems to be the trigger. She switched to her left hand and has now hurt that arm as well. For someone who's attached to one computer...

I've been trying to find a justification to use a desktop (as opposed to tower) case, specifically the Silverstone ML-03 because it's cheap and has front-panel USB 3.0 ports. But it's too thick for height-adjustable monitors to sit on, and most people with more than one monitor wouldn't want...

Les taux de pannes des composants and the translation: The failure rate of components Highlights On average, Seasonic power supplies are more than 2.5 times more likely to fail/be returned than Fortron Source power supplies, which in turn have twice the failure rate of Antec units. Some...

I'm planning a small business server(s). It will host databases, so it will have SSDs. Because many of us are a trifle edgy about SSD reliability, there will need to be some practical way to automatically or remotely reconstruct a working machine after an SSD failure. Unfortunately, the server...

I know that the Silverstone LC17/LC20 has an 18" rackmount option. Is there anything else out there that's consumer-orientated and therefore cheap? I'm after the shallowest possible case (to keep international freight costs manageable, so definitely not 700mm deep), with at least one 5 1/4"...