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  1. Mercutio

    Time for Heresey!

    I actually have a problem with one of SR's mods... I was joking around with the former russofris (Big Buck Hunter) about his new nick in relation to an SR member and member here. Quoted a bit of a Futurama episode in full context (with several smilies etc). The whole post was deleted, like it...
  2. Mercutio

    Time for Heresey!

    In the very old days of the internet (USENET, mostly), prior to the web, prior to AOL, there was the idea of "September". September was when newbies came online through university accounts. Without knowing history or how to use the software they had been given, the newbies came and did the same...
  3. Mercutio

    I have seen the light...and it's a 21" flat panel

    Amy's first year was a little under $22,000. That was almost three years ago. I wrote a check. She dropped out.
  4. Mercutio

    Use for fast computers

    I'd love it. I use server-side blocking on my own mail. It works very well. Every weekend I go through the spambox to see what didn't make it to my normal inbox, and every weekend I gleefully delete it all. I'd estimate I get around 150 spam messages a day through my various accounts, and...
  5. Mercutio

    Report by the E.P.A. Leaves Out Data on Climate Change

    Put a bunch of oil men in the white house and you expected maybe a different outcome?
  6. Mercutio

    AOpen Motherboards

    Almost everyone bumps PCI to 34MHz. I wonder if Abit doesn't bump it to 35 or 36 to maintain its status as a "performance" brand.
  7. Mercutio

    Opera 7.11 crashing

    Moz 1.4 adds NTLM authentication, making it much more usable on corporate intranet sites. Yay!
  8. Mercutio

    Compact flash write speed

    Apacer DIMM memory is also shoddy stuff. Some of my students used it in a "building computers" class not long ago. There was much grief. Dare I make the obvious Apacer = Acer connection?
  9. Mercutio

    AOpen Motherboards

    I'd say that right up until the most recent set - these nforce2 and Canterwood boards, Gigabyte was fairly mainstream. Certainly nothing like overclocker boards from Soyo or Abit. Abit is just... not good IMO. I tried to use Abit boards in mainstream builds for a couple of years. I replaced a...
  10. Mercutio

    AOpen Motherboards

    Don't start with it again, scooter.
  11. Mercutio

    AOpen Motherboards

    I hadn't forgotten about that one. Every manufacturer gets to make a mistake now and then. Notice they haven't done anything else with it, since.
  12. Mercutio

    AOpen Motherboards

    Aopen is much like Gigabyte or DFI or FIC - their products are not flashy, not useless-feature-packaged and not terribly expensive. AOpen is a reseller product. Not marketed to hobbyists (much) nor to budget buyers. Solid and basically middle of the road. AOpen is part of Acer. The amazing...
  13. Mercutio

    Visio : No maps for China or Taiwan for "diplomatic rea

    Having been to Toronto, I can't imagine why someone wouldn't want to be part of it. Toronto is unbelievably clean and the people were extremely friendly. Of course, I had spent the three days beforehand in NYC, so maybe my opinion is a little skewed.
  14. Mercutio

    Disturbing find about Google

    I'm not limited in any meaningful way. My singular whine about things is that there's no driver for video-in on ATI AIW cards. Oh well. My setup is exactly how I want it, otherwise.
  15. Mercutio

    Neat site

    I'm having a tough time dragging myself away from Wordspy, which is a sort-of guide to terms that seem to have been coined in the internet age. Maybe not everyone is interested in words, but some of the entries are really quite illuminating.
  16. Mercutio

    Disturbing find about Google

    Exactly how is there "no real alternative"? I use Wordperfect for word processing, Mozilla for browsing and do most of my actual "work" on Linux machines, something I've been doing comfortably since the mid-90s.
  17. Mercutio

    Disturbing find about Google

    You forogt their enormous share in the desktop office suite market, the stick that beats everything else over the head. Also their considerable share in email clients and corporate messaging software. And I'd hazard a guess that Microsoft is in some kind of strong leadership position with...
  18. Mercutio

    Writing something

    Didn't get very far in writing this weekend, did I? Sorry folks.
  19. Mercutio

    Which components for a basic, high-reliability system?

    Tannin, ATI is like VIA. Either you have the touch and it's fine or you don't and it isn't. Just the same, I didn't start to "like" ATI products until just a couple of years ago, and all I can say is that ATI's drivers have only gotten better. Besides, the Radeon 7x00s look way, WAY better for...
  20. Mercutio

    Which components for a basic, high-reliability system?

    Listen to Coug. No reason to pay extra for the AXP unless you're going to use at least one of its many outstanding extra features (USB2, Firewire, digital sound input, RAID). There's nothing wrong with the AIW 7500. The retail package includes the remote wonder, which is the coolest toy ever...
  21. Mercutio

    2 gems of

    The very first post I ever made at SR was on this subject, but I've found that IBM systems do work better with IBM certified RAM. While working an NT 3.51 deployment, I was shipped 40 IBM PCs but only 25 IBM RAM upgrades. I ran out to the local PC shop in downtown Chicago (elek-tek) and grabbed...
  22. Mercutio

    Which components for a basic, high-reliability system?

    Do the fanless VIA chips run hotter than P4/AMD chips that're properly cooled? I'm wondering what not putting a fan into a VIA-based machine does to overall temps for other components.
  23. Mercutio

    Which components for a basic, high-reliability system?

    I suspect there's a high degree of reliability in the newest VIA processors, since they can run without a fan, but I don't know enough about that market to make suggestions. But I do know what parts I've had good luck with. GA-7VAX Tbred XP 1700 + Speeze "whisperrock" fan 256MB Samsung PC2700...
  24. Mercutio

    Which components for a basic, high-reliability system?

    mini-itx, unfortunately, doesn't lend to cutting costs. :(
  25. Mercutio

    Western Digital Caviar SE vs Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 8MB

    Maxtor, if you can find one with a long warranty. It's neck-and-neck with the Seagate everywhere but noise. I don't know of any reliability issues with the Seagate. I think that would be my second choice.
  26. Mercutio

    Boot off RAID 0 (stripe)?

    Brother, I urge you to avert your gaze from the Promise controller. When you're bitten by the stone-throwing RAID0 black demon-infidel, it's best to ask if you really need RAID0. Most people don't. If you're absolutely convinced you're one of those people, operating system files are something...
  27. Mercutio

    GF4 or R9500/7000: which has better image quality

    Easy way: Boot into safe mode. Delete whatever is listed under display adapter. Reboot. Install driver (default location should be C:\ATI\catalyst-whatever). Or just run the ATI installer with whatever driver happens to be installed, that's worked just fine every time I've tried it.
  28. Mercutio

    SMP in the modern age

    Or something that would actually make your computer faster, like more RAM or an X15. ;) From what I've read, I think even most of the gamers here would be really happy with a $180 Radeon 9600.
  29. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    Dell keeps its stuff in a hidden folder instead of a super-secret partition. At least, that's how the last couple of batches of them I saw were set up. Speakers: Labtec Spin55s. Not the greatest things in the world. Up near the top of the thread, but not my initial post.
  30. Mercutio

    SMP in the modern age

    I loved SMP on desktop machines. My first was a 486/33 dualie (OS/2 then Linux for SMP). I moved to dual P5/133s (one NT, one Linux) then PPro200s. My last SMP box to date was a dual P3/550. Basically, the SMP rigs were more generally responsive and held up well, but over time I found it harder...
  31. Mercutio

    [NEWS] - SR has results for Samsung V80

    Eugene also indicated there's an active search ongoing for the 7200rpm P80 drives.
  32. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    If the CPU in question is indeed one of the brand-new P4 "B" chips, it may very well be subjectively faster than an XP 2800, time. Gobs more bus bandwidth and I/O-starved hyperthreading have to be good for SOMETHING.
  33. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    If you read the very first sentence in this thread, yes, I indicated that this thread was about a bunch of computers. Not just one. I choose not not to make a living - normally I don't even try to make any money, beyond the tiny amount that that makes my business qualifty as such - as a...
  34. Mercutio

    NTFS/Dynamic Disks....disaster recovery bascis

    Correct. If you were using EFS, there would just be some files you couldn't read without that Recovery Key. The hard disks and the data on them would still be generally readable.
  35. Mercutio

    NTFS/Dynamic Disks....disaster recovery bascis

    ... and to do that: Log in as "Administrator" Hit admin tools, Local Security Policy (secpol.msc) Public Key Policies Encrypting File System Select the username whose key you want to back up. Right-click to export. Choose to export to a PKF file and include certificates, then select...
  36. Mercutio

    NTFS/Dynamic Disks....disaster recovery bascis

    There's a bit of terminology: Partitions are containers of filsystems on Basic Disks. Volumes are containers of filesystems on Dynamic Disks. Simple Volumes are those contained by a single disk drive, without any fault tolerance or array-like properties. Simple Volumes can be read by any...
  37. Mercutio

    Matrix reloaded?

    I just watched the DVD version of Animatrix on my projector. I started on my TV, but realized I had something worth a little bit of my bulb's life shortly after the opening title credits. The incredible thing is, the short stories told in Animatrix are, to me, far FAR more compelling and...
  38. Mercutio

    NTFS/Dynamic Disks....disaster recovery bascis

    The volume information is stored within the filesystem. You can remove the disk, install it in a different machine, and read all the simple volumes on that disk.
  39. Mercutio

    Building a perfect single CD for drivers

    I was planning to provide links. :P
  40. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    You did that on purpose. The Dell may be slightly quieter. It's a very close thing. Considering that the Compucase is a real, metal case (ie, harder to make quiet), I'd give it more credit than you obviously are. Look-wise, the Compucase is beige and boxy; the Dell is black and boxy. I can get...
  41. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    XP Home for someone who does not and will not need to be part of a domain.
  42. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    Or spell "significantly". :D Case: As good, if not better (I'd say it's a judgement call) Warranty: For a business I typically provide two years if I'm selling the machines. This does not happen often, but my customer in this case is one I've dealt with for probably four years. Since most of...
  43. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    ... all of which add to the price, and make a product that is less competitive to the one I've posted. Besides, I'm of the opinion that there are a great many cases in the world better than those used on Dell machines. Palo Alto cases leave me limp (they're quiet and largely toolless. So is...
  44. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    $170 ($98.something in shipping), but yes. For $170, it wasn't a bad thing, but I also know that there's no way in hell Dell made any money on that deal. If Dell offered a deal like that every day, they'd be out of business. Of course, I immediately had to replace the RAM (only 128MB) and hard...
  45. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    ... which, as we've already discussed, virtually no one knows about.
  46. Mercutio

    Building a perfect single CD for drivers

    It's a boatload of work, but I'll do it over the weekend. :)
  47. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    Configuring an 8300 for the lowest prices I could on everything, I can't get below $750, including the rebate. For the money, my $750 machine is a better box than Dell's $1000 or $1200 system, let alone the unappealing machine I end up with if I drop everything to the bare minimums. My point...
  48. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    Liteon 48x CD-RW. Compucase 6812 (300W HEC). Labtec SPIN-50s.
  49. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    Going straight to Dell's site, I got two discounts on the 8300: double RAM and a rebate for $150. I used double RAM in my calculation, didn't add the rebate. Didn't check coupon sites, 'cause 95% of computer buyers wouldn't know to.
  50. Mercutio

    Beating Dell

    I just did a write-up for a bunch of mid-price PCs. XP2800 Epox 8RDA+ 120GB 7200rpm Samsung drive 64MB ATI 9000 2x256MB PC2700 XP Home WordPerfect Suite 2002 That rig is basically a dream machine. Total came to basically $775, without a monitor, including shipping. Even moving to an i865 and a...
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