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IE8 is absolutely slower on Windows 7 than it is on XP. It actually takes longer to come up and connect to a site than Firefox does. I've got it on a couple machines now, a crummy HP Notebook with a single-core Celeron, 1GB RAM and 945 graphics, and a much nicer x2/4800 with 8GB RAM and a Radeon...

Seriously. This is some damned happy software if you spend time on multiple RDP, Citrix, VNC or SSH connections. Terminals. We will discuss how you can repay me for this bit of awesome at a later date.

It's not that bad. You put on a coat and some gloves, and you're warm enough to scrape your car and have a harrowing drive to where ever you're going because no one in fucking Indiana has ever heard of, let alone seen or actually used a snow plow.

I don't think there's a mechanism for getting a firmware fix distributed to all the systems that might need it. A tiny fraction of the installed base of those drives are going to be used by people aware of the problem. OS update services don't to the best of my knowledge ever flash firmware, and...

I really wanted to try Windows 7 on a modest system, but the 32-bit version of Windows 7 bluescreens during install on this Acer notebook I have. I'm still going to load it on something nicer in desktop-land, but bluescreens aren't very good for a first impression.

The existing name and address will still be out there. You'll get conflicts, and some of your clients will probably end up talking to the wrong machine. Another issue: You're centralizing file shares. Are you completely sure that's a good idea? How much WAN traffic is that going to generate...

You might have some clients doing name lookups via SMB broadcasts or defined in a static hosts or lmhosts file. Plus, it could take a while for machines to lose old entries in their DNS cache, so who knows how long you would have problems with people updating data in different places. But hey...

I just spent all goddamned morning screwing around with a G5 tower with no OS on it. Turned out someone had replaced the original DVD drive with some generic unit the machine didn't support. That only took two and a half hours to figure out. I swapped it for a Pioneer drive and everything...

I've probably built or been responsible for building 600 or so LGA775 systems in the last couple years. None of them have ever had the heat sink pop off. Almost all of them bow the motherboard at least somewhat. I used to hate the Intel HSF retention system, but with practice, it's much easier...

In theory, a lower multiplier and higher core frequency mean that all the parts on your motherboard are delivering data to your cpu more often, resulting in more efficient processor time.

I'm not sure. Maybe WMP automatically updates ID3 tags or something.

I can access it through either the ID associated with my work account (Microsoft Partner PRogram) or through a personal address, which only has a Technet Plus subscription. I think that if you can get in the MSDN downloads area, you're fine. The file is 3.15GB. I plan to install it on either an...

I signed in to Technet this morning and I see that Microsoft has posted an official Windows7 beta. I am downloading it now.

I've had problems with SATA-to-IDE ones coming loose or falling off on their own.

The ladies in the Hallmark Store looked at me funny when I asked for Kwanzaa greeting cards the other day.

Crappy year in, crappy year out. OK, actually I had a somewhat decent day today. For once. But Happy New Year to everyone else.

Greg, you misspelled Samsung.

It was a fairly common practice for some types of workstations to ship with a "server" edition of Windows, if the hardware in question used more than two physical CPUs. In those situations, systems would be deployed with Windows 2000 Server or Server 2003 Web Edition. 2003SWE has only a very...

Wrong. There is one operating system, Windows, based on the NT microkernel. Every shipping version of Windows includes all the same system binaries and all the same optional software. The differences between the versions of Windows within a generation amount to a set of license restrictions and...

The Samsung LNxA650s start at 32" and include 40", 47" and 52" models. They have astonishing color contrast and very deep blacks. They're well-suited to movie viewing as well as use as a computer displays.

You now have one shopping day left before Umoja, the first day of Kwanzaa.

I enjoy the process of assembling computers, and unlike you, Coug, I'm not doing it with the idea of making a profit. I use a standard set of parts and I always have the equivalent of a couple spare systems sitting around. I really have very few problems with those low-end systems; power...

I build a lot of really low end machines. I make an effort to put in a quality power supply, but in a $250 computer, high power efficiency isn't really a possibility. Probably 70% of the systems I sell have Antec Earthwatts units in them, but the other 30% just don't.

I repair too many machines that have an Acer badge on them to give them any serious consideration. The Lenovos are not Thinkpads. They use a different ODM for everything that doesn't have a Thinkpad badge. Ideapads are pretty nice for consumer shit - but they aren't the same thing and should...

I can usually tell the difference between onboard sound and a decent add-in card, if the PC is hooked up to decent enough speakers. I'll admit that a lot of the time it doesn't matter, but I'd far rather have my AuzenTech hardware than some crappy Sigmatel or RealTek chip.

Nope, but the USB digital sound wound up as a sales point.

That's an aggregate number. I'm sure each system in the supercomputer is closer to the scale I mentioned. :P

I've read that AMD is working on integrating an ATI GPU in future generations of its processors, as a replacement for one of the general-purpose cores found on current chips. I'm not sure that's the right way to go. I have to think that an add-in GPU is always going to be a lot more advanced...

Not that I know of. How is that germane to this particular discussion?

I don't have fun. No, really. I don't. Based on observation, I know that there is such a thing. I'm not sure I've ever had any of it. The closest I really get is the sense of accomplishment I have from dispatching my responsibilities. My leisure activities are geared more toward passing time...

I think that even if they aren't, Hitachi, Fujitsu, WD and Seagate probably are, and I'll bet there will be some sweet, sweet discounts to make sure that their inventory is run out, too.

I have never encountered a PDF file that Foxit could not open. I have found secured PDFs. Fortunately, I have other software for stripping that protection if need be. For that matter, I think I've needed to do THAT a grand total of twice. But Foxit opened the protected files both times. Given...

You said Creative in the same sentence with drivers, and that's as much troubleshooting as needed to be done.

Most of the laptops sold are $500 vomitbook models and el cheapo business fleet systems. Those machines won't be moving to SSDs until Acer and HP and Dell and the other purveyors of vomit have removed the last of their shitty 4200rpm 80, 100 and 160GB drives, let alone whatever other standard...

From the SSD thread, and clearly not related to that topic, except insofar as I would buy timwhit an Intel SSD for every SATA port he owns if that would result in my having a girlfriend. You know, I spent many thousands of dollars on therapy and medication over a period of several years. The...

On most of the systems I build, there's no subjective difference between, say, a 2GHz E1200 and a 2.2GHz (I think) E7300 and a 2.4GHz Q6600, unless I start using them at what is for me a normal workload - pirating a DVD while doing image-intensive word processing, with 50 or 100 open browser...

In one of the weirder things I've had to do recently, I put one of these on a server that needed not just audio but a SPDIF connector. Yes, that's right: $4250 including labor so that my customer never has to be without pure digital XM radio because he's too cheap to buy a $50 XM receiver for...

I got in an argument with one of those bell-ringing fucks today. I put $10 in their bucket and when she said "Merry Christmas" I responded with "Have a safe and happy Kwanzaa!" and she started lecturing me about how I was a pagan and how I shouldn't have put money in her bucket if it wasn't done...

Foxit PDF Editor is fairly inexpensive and works well.

I think I mentioned that bit already. I don't have access to enough hardware for any one customer's environment to do testing of their applications to see how well they would work in a virtual environment, which makes me rather leery to deploy their servers that way. The LAST thing I want to...

If I wanted to buy a woman's company, I certainly could. My brother makes regular trips out of the country with the express purpose of visiting prostitutes. I have money. I could do the same thing. I have a certain disdain for that idea, myself. I'd rather go without - and in my case that has...

Shutting down your VM instead of just closing its window is a big help with that. The machine I'm using right now has a total of maybe 20MB RAM devoted to VMware Server. Of course, that's the old, good version.

timwhit, I will very gladly swap you as many Intel SSDs as you have SATA ports for a girlfriend.

The 80GB one. I'm not sure if I'm going to put it in a notebook or my game system. One or the other, though.

VMs are great for migrating low-complexity legacy systems on to new hardware (e.g. move the Novell based point of sale system onto a Linux Host). I've done that a bunch of times. I've never worked in an environment with high density clusters when you can seemlessly migrate guest images among...

VMs are great for migrating low-complexity legacy systems on to new hardware (e.g. move the Novell based point of sale system onto a Linux Host). I've done that a bunch of times. I've never worked in an environment with high density clusters when you can seemlessly migrate guest images among...

There's still the free version of TrueImage available to Seagate owners.

I would just like to point out once again that I make a lot less money than a lot of the other IT folks here; probably less than half what ddrueding or Fushigi make. We're not all made out of money. :P But I did just order an Intel SSD. Happy Birthday to me.

Well that's certainly nifty!

All my systems - every single one that I am responsible for - is on XP SP3 these days. I have not had any issues with it.