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  1. T

    New Toy - High Resolution - Text Too Small

    I used to recommend the Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Touch Professional keyboards exclusively, but then the feel seemed to go off. Then I had one or two bad ones (that we got stuck with - intermittent keypress reliability), and the neighbour has never been happy with his Diamond Touch Multimedia...
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    Ever deepening hatred for WD

    At the risk of sounding anally retentive Bill, it's not a self-selecting sample. ALL of the drives he sold are included, rather than a sample selected by the whim of individual customers. The only real issue is the fact that he buys them from a single supplier.
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    Terminal Server Proposal

    I think the concept is nuts. That's $1000 per user (including the licensing as Merc pointed out) which could have been used to buy new PCs.
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    New Toy - High Resolution - Text Too Small

    Okay, I didn't explain myself properly. Mitsubishi Electric is of course a global company that has many subsidiaries. Mitsubishi Electronics makes computer monitors. Internationally, Mitsubishi CRT monitors are badged Mitsubishi and the LCD monitors are badged NEC, doubtless reflecting their...
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    New Toy - High Resolution - Text Too Small

    Well, they're not brilliant, but what else is these days in the world of budget CRTs? (apart from Philips, if you get the joke ...) Having seen more than 10 Samsung/Samtron monitors, I'd venture to say they're a little better than Tea suggests. In fact, we've had more trouble with the limited...
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    New Toy - High Resolution - Text Too Small

    Bugger that (the Mitsubishi Electric)! Get a Samsung 21" - it's exactly the same viewable area and now costs only US$500 down under (so imagine how cheap it is in the US). Alternatively, ditch the lasptop and get a decent laptop that doesn't cause eyestrain (see, now I'm being really...
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    Brrrrrrrr....so bloody cold

    jtr1962: Yeah, just add 10 points to the humidity and you'll get the idea (I meant 65% minimum in the hottest part of the day). Although you can take away 10-20 points in 'Winter' (tropical climate = dry Winters - no rain). And unfortunately, we now experience 90F+ days over a seven month...
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    Brrrrrrrr....so bloody cold

    Just finished the hottest day here for nearly 80 years: about 41.7C or 107F (half way between two Weather Bureau observation stations). At 3:15pm, I confirmed 41C outside (in the dirt of a shaded pot plant to minimize radiant heat effects from the bricks). Fortunately, the normally suffocating...
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    Something Random

    Ummm, it has a hell of a lot. Top speed is pretty much a function of the square root of the power versus the aerodynamic efficiency (frontal area + drag). It has more power than a current F1 car and quite a lot less drag (but more frontal area). The WM P88 Peugeot reached 405km/h at LeMans...
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    NEC ND-2500B DVD-Writer, ok?

    I'm interested too. The NEC is about the only other drive available here that I'd consider in the DVD-RW segment. A supplier who moves a fair number of Sony, Pioneer and NEC drives claimed that they had very few NEC come back (unlike Sony BTW), but I don't trust salespeople. Clearly, the...
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    NYT on the stupidity of everyone we know

    :P :P :P
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    Where are you on the political spectrum (test)?

    I agree with Flagreen and jtr1962.
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    Where are you on the political spectrum (test)?

    With respect, I think it's complete rubbish. Apart from an expected slight libertarian bent (minus two to minus two and a half), my first effort came up with -5 economically. Bullsh*t! I am not halfway to being any kind of idealogue. :x Like Flagreen, I was frustrated with the quality of...
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    Onboard vs. PCI sound and LAN

    I think you meant 2GBytes, not 2Gbits? Unfortunately, I don't agree with your conclusions. I think you misunderstood Blake's well-reasoned argument that this is a 'band-aid' solution from Intel (not to say it won't work extremely well, just that it's quite unnecessary for the other chip...
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    MS Win2k and NT source code out!

    Not to mention the references to live six unil.
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    WMD? Never heard of them.

    From www.abc.net.au: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he does not recall British Prime Minister Tony Blair's pre-war claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ready to be deployed in 45 minutes. "I don't remember the statement being made, to be perfectly honest," Mr Rumsfeld...
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    BIOS setting wrong CPU speed

    Ditto, ditto and ditto! :) Gigabyte product is not perfect - it's just by far the best we've got. As the website says, "GIGA-BYTE is the only motherboard manufacturer to win the Taiwan Symbol of Excellence for SEVEN consecutive years.". So I'm reluctant to throw too many stones at said...
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    Diagnostic tools

    I like 3DMark 2001. It seems to exercise the whole machine much better than a simple CPU test - which I've found largely useless except for thermal testing. A low level HDD test is useful. I don't know what I'll use now that: a) IBM doesn't make drives, and b) SATA becomes the standard If you...
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    Anyone used WinExit?

    Most corporates use a password on the Windows screen saver to 'protect' the session from unauthorized access. This is one of the twenty thousand less endearing Windows characteristics, due to the fact that the workstation proceeds to lock out everyone except the original user or an...
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    What about Howard Dean?

    Clark is far out in left field?!!! Boy, do I have a lot to learn about US politics! Since you wrote this, I tried to read up on him, and all I could find was that he was of that unusual breed: the intelligent soldier. I'm not trying to be facetious. There was a guy called Alexander like that...
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    What about Howard Dean?

    May I ask you Bill, as a staunch Republican, which Democrat candidate do you perceive as the biggest threat?
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    [NEWS] Dilbert mocks ATI and nVidia

    Brilliant! As usual ...
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    5.1 vs 4.1 speakers

    In a small environment, such as a TV or computer, how important do people believe the extra center speaker to be? It makes sense to me in a cinema, but I wonder if it's a bit redundant in home situations? I'm also assuming that the separate bass channel is not going to be of any real...
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    Something Random

    The final form of the Bugatti Veyron looks much better than expected. The 1000hp engine's not bad either: 0-100kph (63mph) in 2.9s, 0-300kph in 14s, and I love the fact that it's speed limited to 400kph (250mph) ... :o
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    NTFS v FAT32

    I looked into this a while ago and satisfied myself that ReiserFS has been sufficiently stable for at least a couple of years. There's a reference here to some corruption-preventing patches two years ago. It says "Please note, this corruption only affects ReiserFS in the 2.5 development kernel."...
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    [NEWS] - Command queuing at Tom's

    Yep.
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    NTFS v FAT32

    NTFS journalling doesn't have much to do with its robustness in terms of data integrity. Journalling file systems came about because scanning a drive can get seriously tedious with large amounts of data. The added redundancy Merc mentioned has more to do with it. And yes, Linux (Suse 9.0 at...
  28. T

    NTFS v FAT32

    Liam, You might care to try Zero Assumption Recovery. The author popped up on SR about eighteen months ago with a very early prototype, and he seems to have refined it quite considerably since then. You can do a decent amount of test recovery before forking over the US$99. I haven't had...
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    Sexy bird

    I don't understand why anyone would compare the SR-71 and the F22. One is a high-tech battle platform and the other is the second greatest aircraft ever built. 8) A great photo. I also found this page that provides an excellent precis. Regular plane travellers might get a kick out the link to...
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    Stupid question #4309

    {Tools} {Internet Options} {Advanced} Under 'Browsing', look for 'Enable Personalized Favorites Menu' and uncheck it. Exploder will require a restart before you see any change.
  31. T

    Favorite Quotes

    It wasn't called Heavy Metal when I invented it - Dave Davis of The Kinks I really think something's wrong with me - Ray Davis of The Kinks My bullshit's worth more than other's diamonds - Lou Reed Definitely there is something good in Tubular Bells, but I can't point out at it exactly - Mike...
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    Favorite Quotes

    :lol: "There ain't half been some clever bastards ..." Ian Dury
  33. T

    Over The Top

    Yep, $80 is really significant in this sandpit ... :) I forgot to mention, he seriously considered an HP Titanium solution, but worried about its long term prospects!!! That's at least part of the reason he didn't jump for Opterons: the uncertainty of how future 64-bit support will fall. I...
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    Over The Top

    One of my neighbours (there's a bunch of us here now with home-based businesses) is an industrial designer (or something like that). He uses SolidWorks, a 3D design tool. You can spot it in one of the SPEC benchmarks. He decided to get himself a new computer (his current spec is a PII 450 with...
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    Beagle2 website

    So let me get this straight: Spirit had a software problem?!!!
  36. T

    Splash: What are you using for new systems at work?

    Merc, I've assumed that CityK is exercising the gentle art of satire. I can't tell if you're entering into the spirit or not. I think it's perfectly obvious why gun collectors should have some sort of special exemption with semi-automatic weapons. After all, I collect bugs as a hobby: Anthrax...
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    Musical chairs (I mean computers)

    Forgot to mention, in case anyone here hasn't realized: When you boot from the Win2k CD and it asks if you want to create a new installation or repair and existing, the trick is to select 'New', not 'Repair'. After a little while, it will ask you the same question in a different format! This...
  38. T

    Musical chairs (I mean computers)

    As for using Windows repair to allow changing motherboard chipsets: Yes, I normally prefer starting with a clean slate instead. Windows 2000 is infinitely better than Win98 in this regard, but it's still a Microsoft product. :P However, I believe it mostly works in this situation. It's just...
  39. T

    Musical chairs (I mean computers)

    Thanks for the opinions, guys. Based on your consensus, I deferred ordering a replacement HDD and kept concentrating on the software side. I asked the user to check processes (before we killed the swap, it crashed too quickly for anything like this) and discovered that system and scvhost were...
  40. T

    Musical chairs (I mean computers)

    There are three PCs: A1 - A1600 on KT266A with WD 20GB B1 - A1600 on KT266A with WD 100GB A2 - A2500 on nForce 2 with WD 20GB B2 - A2500 on nForce 2 with WD 100GB A1 & B1 are identical except for the HDD; same motherboard, RAM, display and network cards. A2 is A1 after upgrading but B2 is a...
  41. T

    Most ignorant thing I've ever heard in my life

    <nods knowingly> Don't forget punch cards! The most powerful computer (actually the only one) at my school was my HP programmable calculator. My advanced maths teacher was insanely jealous. :)
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    Beagle2 website

    That's a terrific site, i. ... the flight software is not functioning normally. The two times we have gone and communicated with the system, we have gotten different flight software behaviors ... We are trying to look at those responses to determine 'ok, how come it's behaving that way? And how...
  43. T

    Beef

    I think this is a good time to mention Dana Lyons' classic anthem, Cows With Guns. It's about 4.8MB and worth every bit. :) BTW, I'd recommend avoiding the flash version of this on the web because for me at least, it killed the fun.
  44. T

    Replace Epox with MSI?

    Well, after tentatively ordering 7VT600, I got cold feet and changed to 7N400 Pro2. It's an extra $35, but it's the most comprehensive socket A board I've ever seen: nForce 2 Ultra 400 4x DRAM slots (with dual-channel) 4x ATA with RAID 2x SATA with RAID Gigabit LAN 3x 1394 Firewire 6x USB 2.0...
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    Replace Epox with MSI?

    I did realize this, Blakerwry. I was trying to make a point. :-?
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    Epox 8KHA+ leaky capacitors

    I've just had an Epox 7KXA (slot A) fail. Same caps, same problem - just much older board. :( At this stage, I suspect everything we've sold in the last three and a half years is more likely than not to fail - it's just a question of time. :evil: Anyone who hasn't already read the posts here...
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    Epox 8KHA+ leaky capacitors

    Dear Sir, Thanks for your picture.Base on your serial no.It is already out of warranty.So sorry,our dealer or us can't replace another one or repair without charge for you. But we can repair this board with charge,if you need. Thank you for your interest in EPoX products and contacting our...
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    HD read/write question

    What Freeborn claims does make sense. If so: A head switch is no longer the whole story; it needs to be accompanied by a small seek to re-align the head for that particular platter. So 'platter-switch' time will be a combination of head switch plus this track positioning time. If the controller...
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    Epox 8KHA+ leaky capacitors

    But it's not universal. We checked an SL-75KAV at the same time as inspecting the 8KHA+ boards, and its was fine. And it's had a *hard* life. I don't suppose you identified the brand of caps on those failed boards, Dr Bombcrater?
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