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  1. Mercutio

    Kinky for Governor

    I didn't realize it was legal or indeed even possible to be jewish in Texas... Seriously, though, he has some pretty reasonable thoughts on biodiesel and on education. And he writes a decent mystery novel, too.
  2. Mercutio

    Stupid copyright laws, Australian style

    That's OK. In the USA, a couple of television networks are trying to make it illegal for a camera to record an image off a TV screen (which would be regulated by the device and by law). Hope Junior wasn't too close to the TV when he took his first steps...
  3. Mercutio

    Your favorite browser is now v1.5

    Maxathon remains vulnerable to all the same problems IE has. You still get pounded in the ass, but your rapist looks a little bit nicer. Thanks but no thanks. IE7 kinda sorta implements tabs, has a really pathetic RSS reader and a persistent search with your choice of a whopping 20 different...
  4. Mercutio

    Linux or BSD distro for a Pentium MMX 200MHurtz w/ 32MB RAM

    TX and VX were the memory-limited chipsets. HX supported as I recall supported 256MB.
  5. Mercutio

    Linux or BSD distro for a Pentium MMX 200MHurtz w/ 32MB RAM

    A guy I went to college with is still using a 486/66 with 16MB RAM as his primary computer. He has a VERY tightly tuned X installation that he runs when he needs to... I don't have much to add to what others have suggested, but you might be better off with an old Linux distro of appropriate...
  6. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Some guys carry weight differently. When I was 16 and weighed 230lbs, I had a 38 inch waist. When I was 19, was lifting weights and stuff, and weighed about 185, I had a 38 inch waist, still. Now I'm about 265 and have a 44 inch waist. In other words, no matter what I do, I am going to have a...
  7. Mercutio

    Tuning 2003 server for workstation use

    Yes, several of my students have experienced that as well. Speaking of Server 2003, I am really curious to find out what the price difference between Vista Ultimate edition vs. Server Web Edition will be. I have a feeling Web is going to come out looking like a real bargain
  8. Mercutio

    Yahoo email: Porn distribution galore

    Yahoo has really lovely spam protection. You just have to turn it on. Log in to Yahoo mail, go to options, Spam Protection and SpamGuard (I pay for Yahoo Mail, so I have Spamguard Plus, which is a learning filter). Under Spamguard, choose "Immediately delete these messages upon receipt." I...
  9. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Relating to timwhit's interest in "American Theocracy", here's an article from today's Salon.com: "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism" Across the United States, religious activists are organizing to establish an American theocracy. A frightening look inside the growing right-wing...
  10. Mercutio

    Alone with a computer

    It is good to see you, Tea. I'm glad they finally released you from that Turkish prison.
  11. Mercutio

    Intel & ATI ??

    Seems like a good way to get decent onboard graphics for an Intel System. The price is certainly reasonable. I'm not seeing any reason to complain about it. Mate it with a dual core something or other and I'll bet it would be a pretty nice little setup.
  12. Mercutio

    keyboard weirdness

    Try hitting Shift-Numlock to toggle it on and off. It's a kind of a whacky issue that lots and lots of thinkpads have, something about numlock behavior with an external keyboard and I don't remember the details since I don't bother to use anything but the perfect keyboard that's already on the...
  13. Mercutio

    keyboard weirdness

    Is this a laptop keyboard?
  14. Mercutio

    Colbert and the President

    This is the political thread closest to the top of the Pub page so... Who will be the most hated President?. W. just dropped to 31% approval. I can't believe it's still that high, but maybe if the price of gas goes up another $.50...
  15. Mercutio

    Have you ever had the wrong OS on a box?

    Greg, that would be the second choice. You can handle it. Really. Honest. :)
  16. Mercutio

    Microsoft VPN stuff?

    Hope you aren't trying to do L2TP. Many SOHO routers can't forward IP by protocol, which is something L2TP needs to work. Yet another reason to set up a Smoothie I guess.
  17. Mercutio

    Friends invite me to YM, what can I do for security?

    I've been keeping a Meebo Window open to deal with PITA client who won't use decent forms of communication. It works.
  18. Mercutio

    Have you ever had the wrong OS on a box?

    I just use "C:\Drivers". Windows doesn't autodetect things (you can integrate drivers with slipstreaming, but that is complicated and obnoxious), but you know exactly where they are and can point it to the right place when prompted.
  19. Mercutio

    Have you ever had the wrong OS on a box?

    Here's a hint: Build yourself a driver CD before you install the new OS. Once the OS is installed, copy the drivers to a \drivers folder on the PC. Leave it there forever and never go hunting for drivers on the web again. That's SOP for PCs I build.
  20. Mercutio

    Walmart's $598 ECS Wonder-Laptop

    Given that I've seen trailer-park types do things like bolt the motherboard directly to the chassis (no standoffs), then take a jigsaw to the case (with motherboard attached!) to make cards fit right, I'd be very, very, very scared of what a Walmart shopper would do with DIY components.
  21. Mercutio

    Walmart's $598 ECS Wonder-Laptop

    It might also interest folks to know that Walmart is going to start offering ala carte PC parts for those interested in building their own PC. I can't imagine how that will work out, but supposedly they're going to outfit something like 1/3 of their stores for it.
  22. Mercutio

    Have you ever had the wrong OS on a box?

    There's nothing wrong with gaming on Server 2003. There's probably something wrong with your main machine being an XP box, but that's more a matter of your own poor taste.
  23. Mercutio

    Ramblings on the brands we love (or hate)

    1. The board went back the same day. 2. Jetway is and always has been the worst possible brand for anything and everything I can think of. It may be part of the global "PC Chips" umbrella, but if it is, it's the part where the stuff that got rejected from all the other brands. 3. ECS, as I...
  24. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    The problem with Lucifer's Hammer is the co-author. I have no idea why Jerry Pournelle is famous for anything except collaborating with Larry Niven.
  25. Mercutio

    Ramblings on the brands we love (or hate)

    True Story. I needed an AGP video card with a DVI connector. Didn't want to spend much money (just wanted to demonstrate to one of my customers that DVI looks nicer than VGA). Drove over to my local disti. Cheapest card they had was a $32 64MB Radeon 9250 from Jetway. Jetway is the company that...
  26. Mercutio

    Despised software, anyone?

    iTunes is a pile of shit. It gives software in general a bad name. And Acrobat 4 is usually better behaved than 5. But then, the minute you use something not from Adobe to view a PDF, you find they suck a lot less anyway.
  27. Mercutio

    Colbert and the President

    Reality has a well-known Liberal bias. That is all. Actually, no it isn't. The whole episode was like Jon Stewart dressing down the hosts of CNN's Crossfire. It's not that the man was six feet away from the chimp-in-chieff while he was saying things like: "The greatest thing about this man is...
  28. Mercutio

    Despised software, anyone?

    Don't for get the magic of google's "site:" keyword, for searching obnoxious monolithic web sites (cough IBM/Microsoft/Sony cough)
  29. Mercutio

    Despised software, anyone?

    Should've done the printing on a Mac. ;)
  30. Mercutio

    Bought a Thinkpad A30. This thing is a thank.

    I may have a 512MB PC133 DIMM for that thing, Coug. I'll have to look and see if I still have it. I know I have at least a couple 256MB PC100 modules, but they're Compaq spares and I kind think I couldn't make them work in anything else. Anyway, there's no doubt in my mind that Thinkpads are...
  31. Mercutio

    Athlon XP power saving

    Something else: Because of the orientation of parts in a desktop case, the PSU is not "above" the CPU (warm air rises etc etc), it's to one side of the CPU. I believe that reduces or possibly minimizes the amount of airflow and/or ventilation provided by the power supply, which could very well...
  32. Mercutio

    Athlon XP power saving

    I guess I need to post a photo of the cases in question. There's just shy of nothing I can do to improve airflow in any of them. Anyway, 50C is about my comfort level. Obviously, the AMD chips WILL work when they're much hotter than that; these PCs were running at over 60C for two and three...
  33. Mercutio

    Despised software, anyone?

    The full version of Acrobat is different in only the tiniest ways from Reader. I've gotten to use it a few times and as far as I can tell it sucks no less than the free version. Basically, you gain the ability to set content protection and to copy and paste bits of text or graphics. That's what...
  34. Mercutio

    Athlon XP power saving

    None of the desktop cases I have support a fan of any meaningful size in the rear of the case. None of them have air-holes for ventilation in the front of the case (none I can think of anyway), although two of them have a place to mount a front fan. As I mentioned in the thread I referenced...
  35. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Didn't write this, but I found it. It's a fun little read. Dear President Bush, Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual...
  36. Mercutio

    Athlon XP power saving

    In this instance I believe that the incredibly poor ventilation from desktop cases with 17" monitors sitting on top of them is the main cause of difficulty. In the past I've tried premium copper heat sinks and various different thermal compounds without much luck.
  37. Mercutio

    Ramblings on the brands we love (or hate)

    I just did a batch RMA of drives to Samsung. My "batch" was 5 drives that I've collected over the last 18 months. Two of them are being RMA'd for things like making noises I haven't heard drives of that model make. Two of them are plainly out of warranty (manufactured February 2002 and April...
  38. Mercutio

    Musings on a new PC

    SuSE is free and quite usable. Good OSes don't have to cost money. :)
  39. Mercutio

    EFF petition

    I don't think it's stealing to copy a bunch of bits. Sorry. I don't. That's the wrong word to use to describe trading digital information. The original data still exists. Someone got paid for it. It's not like I took a physical, depletable item off a store shelf so that no one else can have it...
  40. Mercutio

    Athlon XP power saving

    1. All the machines aren't on very often. 2. Having machines at 100% CPU utilization frightens and confuses the other instructors. I got yelled at last time I had folding set up. 3. The PCs in question were using AMD retail heat sinks with artic silver in place of the standard thermal pad. I...
  41. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    mubs, You aren't going back to India, are you? :(
  42. Mercutio

    Athlon XP power saving

    Two PCs sitting side by side in a room with the thermostat set to 23C. Both Barton 2500s on GA-7S748 motherboards, in Enlight desktop cases. Base CPU Temp after 20 minutes being on and idle (measured with motherboard monitor 5): PC1: 71C PC2: 68C Installed CoolOn on PC1, rebooted. (BIOS...
  43. Mercutio

    Does anyone understand how Frontpage and Access interact?

    The really offensive thing is that this person is supposed to be an instructor of web and programming related topics. We need a full-time sort of person, unfortunately. I *really* need to break down and learn design stuff I guess.
  44. Mercutio

    Does anyone understand how Frontpage and Access interact?

    I swear I'm going to quit this job if people don't quit asking me about Frontpage crap. The... person who does our web page likes to "live-edit" it - work directly from Frontpage with the actual page. And she just deleted a bunch of stuff. This is, of course, my fault. Or "web person" doesn't...
  45. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    Slightly related to that subject... I used to love to go to the library. I can't stand the ones we have where I live, though. Nothing worse than getting a book you've been looking forward to reading and finding out that some jackass took a sharpie and marked over every time used the word "God"...
  46. Mercutio

    Musings on a new PC

    If the choice is between someone who only has $250 having a computer and not having a computer, I think I'd be a little less picky. Not only that, I think it's the right place to cut a corner. That system has a motherboard that's several steps up from PC Chips/Jetway/ECS. It has enough RAM. It...
  47. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    Two more things: 1. Literature Map, a tool for finding authors much like the tool timwhit posted for finding (non-classical) bands whose music you like. 2. I keep raving about comic books. Here's a small collection of a comic that I really enjoy. The files are in .cbr format, and can be most...
  48. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    I *still* haven't gotten around to reading that. I keep finding fiction that I want to read more. It'll probably be out in paperback by the time I get around to actually reading the hardcover. Sigh. I've been reading books by Eric Flint for several years. He's actually lives in nearby East...
  49. Mercutio

    Athlon XP power saving

    I've got a room full of Barton 2500s on SiS748s that I think are about to melt down. So I'm very interested in this.
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