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  1. Mercutio

    Something Random

    IBM 1401: a User's Manual. In this case, the video is an interpretive dance. The Mainframe is used AS the principle musical instrument. How cool.
  2. Mercutio

    Something Random

    There might be a legitimate state interest in encouraging childbirth and couple-hood, that being that there's probably a commensurate reduction in crime and public health issues for intact families. From the standpoint of resource allocation/energy footprint, I kind of wonder how worthwhile it...
  3. Mercutio

    HP Laptop with Vista: My "New User Experience"

    Oh. I see how it is. You'll provide women for the maple-syrup-swillin' poutine and Tim Horton's lovers but it'll be a cold day in Palo Alto before you put even ONE chick in a fedex box and ship her off to Indiana! I'm telling Cougtek about all your plans for an English Only Quebec, sirs, and...
  4. Mercutio

    Forum complaints / problems to fix master list

    Shit. I'd send a whole PC, except that Handy would probably expect that by now. :D
  5. Mercutio

    Took a chance

    The Tech Report has an interesting article on the value proposition of current Intel and AMD processors. There's even some folding-specific comparisons. I linked to the last page of the article.
  6. Mercutio

    Cellular Internet Service

    In what twisted world do you live that a Treo is a "small" phone?
  7. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Eugenics was an idea that had a great deal of traction among the intelligentsia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It wasn't all Nazis. Mainstream physicians, philanthropists and social philosophers genuinely thought it was a good idea. There was a particular interest in sterilizing poor people...
  8. Mercutio

    CD Copying for Vista

    I'm still a big fan of Nero. Nero 7 is kind of bloated, but the basic apps (Nero, Express, ImageDrive, Recode, Vision, and the Wave Editor) are pretty spiffy. I pair Nero with AnyDVD to handle my DVD copying needs.
  9. Mercutio

    What notebooks have decent screens now?

    Thinkpads have joy-nipples. They also have three sets of left/right mouse buttons (lower, trackpad and upper) for different hand sizes/positions. Little touches like that are one of the reasons I so adore Thinkpads.
  10. Mercutio

    Folding@Home

    Well, it was a Vista DVD. It's probably doing more good as its constituent atoms than it was in DVD form anyway.
  11. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    I've sincerely enjoyed everything Judd Apatow has ever done. Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, the Cable Guy, Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up are all wonderful films. My honest opinion (aside from the essential fiction of the movie, about fat losers getting laid), is that it is a very...
  12. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    Also, Micheal Moore's Sicko was leaked on the Internet a few weeks ago. I only technically have insurance (very expensive, catastrophic-only coverage) but that movie made me want to find insurance executives and get all Cougtek on their asses.
  13. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    I saw Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer recently. It was appropriately comic-book-y (which means the plot was kinda juvenile and had holes you can drive a truck through, but I'm fine with that), but I wanted to see more of the Thing and Mr. Fantastic. The Silver Surfer was all noble and...
  14. Mercutio

    What notebooks have decent screens now?

    How about just carrying around a 20" monitor in the ol' Subaru and using a laptop that isn't the same size and weight as a microATX desktop?
  15. Mercutio

    Cellular Internet Service

    Sprint has an exceedingly yummy offer called Sero, which offers a 1000 minute phone/unlimited (EV-DO?) data plan for $50/month and steep discounts on phones. Drawback is that it has to be a new number. I wouldn't mind doing the phone as modem thing, but I really don't like smartphones. I...
  16. Mercutio

    Cellular Internet Service

    I use Verizon. My phone stuff is outdated and crappy right now. And in the past I've had limited data packages but they are very limiting. Also the tiny amount of investigating I did suggests that Verizon takes offense to using its service for ANYTHING but basic web and e-mail. Don't stream...
  17. Mercutio

    Build your own Router/AP

    Whoops. MIPS-based. Whatever. I looked at both.
  18. Mercutio

    Build your own Router/AP

    I have the Geode-based mainboard, a chassis, a power supply and a pair of Atheros (work well with Linux) based miniPCI cards that I've stolen out of dead laptops. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for an antenna yet, but I have some nice Hawking omnidirectionals sitting in a box. The power...
  19. Mercutio

    ZFS

    I'm not exactly sure but there are 23 400/800GB tapes for my whole media collection.
  20. Mercutio

    Cellular Internet Service

    Verizon and Sprint both offer a Cellular-based data service called EV-DO. Speeds are supposed to be pretty quick for wireless - around 700kb/sec and prices are not unreasonable ($50/month). Has anyone tried these services? Do they work all over the place or just in certain areas? Are speeds...
  21. Mercutio

    Train Travel

    Germany's climate generally isn't such that AC is needed. Ditto for France. They treat temperatures over about 90 degrees as a health emergency as a consequence of that. Basically western Europe has a much milder climate than folks in the USA are used to.
  22. Mercutio

    ZFS

    I think I've mentioned this before but I moved most of my pr0n off to tape a while back. I've only got maybe 1.8TB of smut that I can directly access at the moment. :P
  23. Mercutio

    Build your own Router/AP

    The case is a $25 option for it.
  24. Mercutio

    Build your own Router/AP

    I don't *need* a pair of NICs. My thinking was to provide an 802.11g and an 802.11a network. Or you could have two "g" networks, one on an intranet and the other sitting in a DMZ with internet access only. Or provide a "b"-only network and a "g"-only network, so "b" clients don't kill "g"...
  25. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Just a lot of stupid crap that has reminded me how much my life sucks.
  26. Mercutio

    Content Management Systems

    When I looked at closed-source systems a while back, a lot of the quotes I got were around $10k for systems that were built on MS Jet or SQL Server... without including the cost of the DBMS. MySQL really, really shouldn't be a big deal for anyone who has dealt with Oracle.
  27. Mercutio

    Build your own Router/AP

    I'll probably try it with Linux. I'm not sure how far I'll get, but there are distributions made for these things. There's a pre-built appliance OS for them as well, for the ddruedings of the world.
  28. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I've been very depressed lately. Going home from work and immediately going to bed. But at least I've been working a lot more.
  29. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    I still haven't gotten that pizza. I have not been anyplace where there is good pizza and I don't think it's worth the effort to drive to get it.
  30. Mercutio

    I'm going to be a dad...

    I think I'm in the same boat with Coug on this one.
  31. Mercutio

    MP3 player rant

    I like my Creative Zen a lot better than any iPod I've ever used, but I don't listen to music on mine.
  32. Mercutio

    Build your own Router/AP

    I bought one of these earlier this week. I plan to plug in a pair of mini-PCI 802.11 cards I have sitting around and to turn the whole thing into what I hope will be a vastly more powerful and reliable access point than the Linksys units that keep breaking on me. If I get any good at building...
  33. Mercutio

    ZFS

    Has anyone had any experience with ZFS? Fushigi, maybe? Or Gary H? I've been reading a bit about it, and it sounds really sexy.
  34. Mercutio

    Took a chance

    I have bought and RMA'd stuff from Directron. They're a perfectly good internet retailer. I also really like Provantage. They tend to be a little cheaper on Printer supplies and some network kit than other places online. Anyway, yeah... overclocking C2Ds. Really, really easy. Been saying so...
  35. Mercutio

    Numbers

    I've never broken a SATA connector, but I've seen other people do it. My reason for wanting molex connectors is that less expensive power supplies typically do not have SATA connectors. Piyono, this was a state program funded by our Employment Office. I was teaching 20 - 25 kids at a time. Some...
  36. Mercutio

    What notebooks have decent screens now?

    I see absolutely nothing wrong with a 14" screen. Notebooks that have smaller screens have batteries that last longer. I like having a notebook I can run for five and a half hours while it's unplugged.
  37. Mercutio

    Numbers

    Recently, I had the opportunity to build 100 identical systems. Strictly speaking, 94 of them were assembled. So all these numbers are out of 94: Motherboard: GA-M61SME-S2 Failures: 2 DOA, 1 moron-can't-listen-to-instructions-related (ATX12V in backwards, system powered on and smoke came out)...
  38. Mercutio

    Laptop Coolers?

    Look down a couple threads to the uATX case suggestion thread. :P
  39. Mercutio

    Laptop Coolers?

    This is supposed to be a universal cooler. But, um, can I just say "I told you so." about those 17" laptops, Nits?
  40. Mercutio

    Laptop Coolers?

    I would love to hear justification from ANYONE for buying a "portable" computer with an eight to ten minute battery life.
  41. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    Heh. 50 miles is too far for pizza. Plus the construction on the Indiana Toll Road and on 80-94 around Torrence are enough to make grown men weep. I had a three hour drive from Orland Park (about 35 miles) on Wednesday. Idled the whole way. One of the other difficulties in this is that I hate...
  42. Mercutio

    Laptop Coolers?

    AD, here's the ultimate IBM testimonial: I stepped on one. Full weight, on the not-screen side. The damned thing did not break. It wasn't even DAMAGED. I've seen coffee spilled in them. It all went out the bottom of the unit, no harm done, other than needing a keyboard cleaning. The inertial...
  43. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    There's no good pizza nearby. :(
  44. Mercutio

    Laptop Coolers?

    Apple's notebooks are made by Asus. Asus notebooks don't seem to get hot. No idea what's going on there. Also, Latitudes and Inspirons are made by different companies.
  45. Mercutio

    Looking for a uATX case

    It takes a microATX power supply. I've built about 120 systems using that case. The really are THAT good.
  46. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    timwhit: Two blocks south of the ComEd building. Several years ago. I've also been served rotten food (salads) there on multiple occasions and in different locations and the location that was in Merrillville used to have problems with insects, as well. Their pizza is really good but after the...
  47. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    Every Giordano's I've ever been to is an unhygienic hellhole. I was served a Pizza with maggots in it at a downtown Giordano's. I mean it was infested. And the fuckers wouldn't even give me my money back. I ended up talking to a cop. The cop told me I must've put all the maggots in there.
  48. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    I think the nearest one is in Crown Point, which is 25 miles away. There's an Eduardo's in Hammond, which would be my choice (they, by the way, have an AWESOME thin crust pesto and spinach pie). Or Uno's in Merrillville. The closest Papa Johns is closed because of fire and the next closest is...
  49. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    Also, in re-reading the Necro-thread, I find that a great question has been left unanswered: Do Aussies get Mexican food, or is it an unimaginable delicacy for the antipodeans?
  50. Mercutio

    Best Ingredient for Single Topping Pizza

    I woke up this morning with an insane craving for pizza. The place where I live now does not have any good pizza restaurants and I don't really want to drive 30 miles to get some. And it's way too hot to want to run the oven and try to make one. So I thought, since I'm not going to be getting a...
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