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  1. Mercutio

    Musings on a new PC

    I think the better answer is just to avoid LG completely. I like LiteOn (still). I like NEC. I have been punished when I have purchased anything else.
  2. Mercutio

    Where to buy a dead Dell Inspiron 8600?

    Here around Chicago, the easiest way to get dead laptops is to hit local computer shows. I HATE computer shows, simply because I don't like paying for the privilege of buying broken, stolen or grey-market merchandise, but for your needs it's probably the right way to go. There's always some...
  3. Mercutio

    DRM and AVI files

    Nero Recode? Divx encoder? (.divx) Quicktime Pro?
  4. Mercutio

    IIS headache vs Apache simplicity.

    As far as things go, I don't think Apache OR IIS is a simple system to work with. There's strong and weak points to using both of them. I think I'd rather have Apache overall, but I'm not a web guy and to me the products are pretty close in terms of functionality. Godaddy is probably switching...
  5. Mercutio

    Custom Computer Chassis

    When it rains it pours. Someone give me a mini-ITX socket 370 system today. Looks like an i815. It gives a "no-memory" beepcode on start, which I'm hoping just means that it needs some different RAM. It'll be interesting to see what I can do with it, and how a C3 stacks up to a 1.2GHz P3. The...
  6. Mercutio

    Spiffy DVD Player

    I know not everyone shares my love for high-resolution audio formats, but pcconnection.com has Toshiba SD-6915SU 5-disc SACD/DVD-Audio/Progressive scan DVD players for $74 shipped. It doesn't do HD-upconverting, play MPEG4 or support HDCP, but even a brand name changer at that price is a pretty...
  7. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Wheee!
  8. Mercutio

    I have a headache!

    I'm using 2003. Are you trying to load the entire disk or just a partition. I'm just doing partitions.
  9. Mercutio

    Dell De-Crapifier

    Rest assured that Dell doesn't make any money on those deals either. They stopped doing those kinds of deals in the USA sometime last year. Dell is pushing for market share, basically trying to bury HP, but in the long term those machines are horrible for the company - the idiots who buy them...
  10. Mercutio

    Dell De-Crapifier

    I am all in favor of a tool like this for every kind of computer. It is 150 different kinds of annoying to find that a machine has shipped with a 14-day trial of Quickbooks or 30 days of McAfee AV (You mean anti-virus didn't come with the computer?!?), or, my personal favorite, a version of Easy...
  11. Mercutio

    Something Random

    It's a little robot built into a cooler (an igloo cooler) that can mix 5000 different drinks from a stock of 16 alcoholic beverages.
  12. Mercutio

    I have a headache!

    Ghost will also preserve a bootloader. I have a lab of machines that have grub installed, and I restore their 1st partition (the Windows partition) at least weekly without losing my boot loader. Acronis works while Windows is running. It's wonderful for backing up machines that need to stay...
  13. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Great news for Drunken Bastard!
  14. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I agree. It's lovely. Reminds me of where I grew up. There was a large picture window that looked out over a cornfield that stretched to the horizon. I saw beautiful sunsets like that all the time.
  15. Mercutio

    Tuning 2003 server for workstation use

    Try going Start > Run > gpedit.msc instead
  16. Mercutio

    Small LCD TV...reccomendations?

    One thing I can say is that most LCD TVs make pretty lousy computer monitors or monitor replacements, even if they kind of support the right resolutions. Why not just get a 24" computer monitor? You're probably doing external tuning anyway.
  17. Mercutio

    Tuning 2003 server for workstation use

    Actually, leaving the Indexing service on might well be one of the niftier things you can do with Server 2003. There's a pretty simple recipe for using the Indexing Service + IIS to make super-fast (Google-fast?) searches against the files on your computer. You have to write custom web page to...
  18. Mercutio

    16-core desktop?

    You could always take up scientific computing as a hobby. Never know when you'll need to simulate air currents in a hurricane or all the molecules in a nuclear explosion.
  19. Mercutio

    Teaching Linux

    I started learning with a short list of commands and a general idea of things I wanted to do. I started learning on the command line though and I'm still most comfortable there. Stay out of the GUI when you're learning. Stay out of the config tool (linuxconf, Yast etc). Set a goal (I want to...
  20. Mercutio

    Weird Hard Ddrve

    In the past, the "noname" hard disks at CompUSA have been Maxtors, but who can really tell in this case.
  21. Mercutio

    Worry-Free antivirus?

    I tell any and all of my students, in every class I teach, to ditch Norton or McAfee for AVG. I do this without any reservation. It works better and doesn't try to be some kind of extension to the OS. I got tired of bitching out home users who can't be bothered to whip out a credit card once a...
  22. Mercutio

    It's official : Windows boots on a Macbook Pro!

    Apple has absolutely nothing to gain from doing that. They sell hardware - and make money doing so. Their OS works WELL with that specific hardware. Apple can't possibly support the billion and one possible configurations of beige box in the world. Supporting OSX on non-Apple hardware would, I...
  23. Mercutio

    Norton Internet Security 2006

    Been there, done that. Maybe because I'm more often dealing with corporate versions of the poxy Symantec Malware? I hardly ever see "Norton" Antivirus, but I support Symantec AV Corporate several places (which, oddly enough is not usually the problem), and of course I hand out Ghost licenses...
  24. Mercutio

    Norton Internet Security 2006

    The Norton Removal tools never work. N E V E R. I've tried them dozens of times for dozens of different products, and each time I've had to do the manual removal. Anyway, tell your customer to sit down, shut up and install something decent like ZoneAlarm if he has to have a Nonstandard Firewall...
  25. Mercutio

    What I'm not going to do tonight

    Those town-hall things are usually filled with pre-screened republican zombies. No surprise they booed him - there wasn't a single other person there capable of thinking for him or herself. Anyway, todays reason I think George Bush should be removed from office and then voted out of humanity is...
  26. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Geeks make better lovers. It's a fluffy piece, but it's something we've known all along. :D
  27. Mercutio

    Norton Internet Security 2006

    It should come as no surprise, but I'm going to say it anyway: I believe that it is actually unethical to install Norton Internet Security. I've run across spyware/malware programs that have more useful functionality and aren't so difficult to remove. As an IT professional, you should be...
  28. Mercutio

    Norton Internet Security 2006

    I'd say you ought to know better than to install that piece of shit, but someone is probably holding a large-caliber handgun to your head while you do it, or it's part of some unpleasant gang initiation ritual or something, right? Anyway, you need to start all over again. That means finding the...
  29. Mercutio

    Evidently, I will be buying a $100 sound card in 2005

    You guys missed a wonderful chance to get the best sound card ever made. :(
  30. Mercutio

    Budget enclosures research. Asus and Logisys.

    I wouldn't trust a case/PSU under about $35. Not only because of unfinished edges, but also the possibility of bending the whole back of the case while installing the I/O plate or just bending one site to the point that devices can't be installed or covers can't be put back on without Buck's...
  31. Mercutio

    Notebook question

    Most of the portable DVD players I've seen use a laptop-type DVD mechanism; they're basically the same thing on that count. On the other hand, the laptop will be heavier and therefore harder to move.
  32. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    Always wanted to read Shogun. I've never found a copy at a time when I was looking for something to read. I just finished several science fiction novels by Elizabeth Bear that I enjoyed very much.
  33. Mercutio

    What I'm not going to do tonight

    Bush given stern lecture at Town Hall forum. This guy is my new hero.
  34. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    Bought it. Haven't read it yet.
  35. Mercutio

    1:02.03 4/5/06

    We tried that in the 70s. Everyone ignored it. I know of at least one sign on I-74 just outside the little town where I grew up that says "Peoria: 100 kilometers" (not km, mind you, kilometers).
  36. Mercutio

    1:02.03 4/5/06

    If you check Tea's IP, you'll find that she's posting from sub-Saharan Latvia.
  37. Mercutio

    Logitech Keyboard sillyness

    I have a Logitech Ultra X-2 Keyboard that I've become quite fond of. This is a keyboard that uses a laptop-like key mechanism with plastic buckles beneath the keys. The other night, my 13lb. male cat decided to dive-bomb this poor keyboard, landing squarely on a couple of the keys (b and n)...
  38. Mercutio

    Musings on a new PC

    Anyone have any thoughts on these budget PCIe cards? The choices I see are: GF6200 ($35), X300SE ($45), GF6500 ($45), X550 ($50), GF7300GS ($70), and x1300 ($75). $75 being my limit for a low-end card. I'm not doing the building here, so I included the nvidia "options". ;)
  39. Mercutio

    Don't EVER plug a standard motherboard into an eMachine case

    Er... just so I know: were the wires on the USB connector weird colors or was there any indication on the board itself? I've found off-brand boards that used an odd USB connector before and stopped from attaching "standard" front USB to them because the +5V (normally red) wire didn't match the...
  40. Mercutio

    1:02.03 4/5/06

    We stopped measuring stock prices in eighths about five years ago. :P
  41. Mercutio

    Ultra low-end dilemma.

    What's the equivalent GPU to the onboard video on an nvidia 6150-based board?
  42. Mercutio

    1:02.03 4/5/06

    It may have already passed for some folk, but sometime very soon it will be 1:02.03AM on April 5th of '06. Unless you're in Europe, where the neatness of that date won't happen until May 4th.
  43. Mercutio

    Ultra low-end dilemma.

    Of course, Coug is still talking about a Via-based platform. "Cheaper" they may be, both ATI and nvidia chipsets are both out of the realm of the truly low-end machine.
  44. Mercutio

    Ultra low-end dilemma.

    On the other hand, he's posting on topic.
  45. Mercutio

    I'm starting to get annoyed with Dell Tech Support

    Doesn't do much good when the only PC available is in pieces in front of you.
  46. Mercutio

    Codec/Spyware from Hell

    Vista seems to take steps along those lines. I have no idea whether it actually works or not.
  47. Mercutio

    Codec/Spyware from Hell

    Just what we wanted to read on this subject.
  48. Mercutio

    I'm starting to get annoyed with Dell Tech Support

    I'm not the person who started the work. I'm the person who finished it.
  49. Mercutio

    Ultra low-end dilemma.

    Humor me, o new guy. The first few things I see suggest that top-end Celerons might be a reasonable alternative to top-end Semprons, but that's not what we're talking about here. Are you suggesting that there's some critical difference in the mainboard chipset for the Celeron over the Sempron...
  50. Mercutio

    Ultra low-end dilemma.

    Care to back up that well reasoned and insightful opinion?
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