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  1. Mercutio

    Changing the windows product key on an existing installation

    The full version can be used to upgrade. As far as I can tell you can upgrade from any supported version of Windows as long as the new key you put in is legit.
  2. Mercutio

    Apple Lossless

    There's some dumbass on a Torrent site I use who keeps posting neat stuff in Apple Lossless (.m4a) format. Apple Lossless appears to require iTunes for playback, or a program called "dbPowerAmp", which I have never heard of, to reencode to a decent format. I've tried installing filters and...
  3. Mercutio

    Changing the windows product key on an existing installation

    Do an upgrade installation from your actual media. That will work just fine.
  4. Mercutio

    Bizarre USB devices

    But maybe you know women of a different caliber than the ones I know. :D
  5. Mercutio

    Kubuntu supports 16:10 format, great!

    My experience with Ubuntu, the couple times I've tried it, has been dismal, but the only problems I've had with Fedora have come from corrupted ISO downloads. Maybe it's what you're used to.
  6. Mercutio

    Your favorite browser is now v1.5

    I've observed them to work well enough with Server 2003's Enhanced Secuirty Configuration, but that doesn't appear to be installable on other versions of Windows.
  7. Mercutio

    Intel strikes back

    Do they have a 65nm fab yet? Isn't that the thing that makes the Core* chips so wonderful?
  8. Mercutio

    Windows *Vista*

    The story as I understand it, is that everyone gets Home Basic (or Pro Basic) when they get their PC, and the "upgrade" versions will require payment and online activation from Microsoft. They're talking about requiring activation before Aero becomes activated. I cannot think of one compelling...
  9. Mercutio

    You Make the Call: Coin Collector or Future Copper Mogul

    It costs $.014 to make a zinc penny and as I understand it, copper is at an all time high price on commodity markets right now. Something like $4/lb.
  10. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Last time Buck took a long break from posting it was because he was on vacation. The time before that he was very ill, which is why I was concerned enough to ask if anyone had heard anything. If something happened to him, we'd never actually know, would we? Fushigi's also been gone a while...
  11. Mercutio

    Bizarre USB devices

    If I had to guess, I'd say a glass cylinder that's two inches in diameter and eight inches long is probably pretty had to break in normal use. :)
  12. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Where the heck did Buck wander off to? He hasn't logged on in ages.
  13. Mercutio

    Your favorite browser is now v1.5

    Firefox as a class: I get to teach a 15 hour class on Firefox starting today. It'll be attended by all of my co-workers, which I suppose means that the pressure to make it a good class will be somewhat higher than normal. I'm not exactly sure how I'll fill up 15 hours talking about a web...
  14. Mercutio

    Quake 4 version 1.2

    I think we need play-by-play from CNN Sport.
  15. Mercutio

    Bizarre USB devices

    Another opportunity to use my extensive knowledge of porn! Actually vibrators and other sex toys can be easily and safely re-used so long as they are cleaned between uses. Glass toys are easiest to clean; they are simply boiled. Most other toys are cleaned with a bleach solution. Eric, you can...
  16. Mercutio

    MP3 player rant

    Ugly
  17. Mercutio

    Merc's Useful Tools of the day

    The Gregory Santilli Memorial Firefox Extension
  18. Mercutio

    MP3 player rant

    My disdain come from two things: 1. itunes, which is awful and 2. The fact that iPods are essentially closed systems. You're carrying around 4GB or 60GB or whatever and you can't use the goddamned things as disk drives. More generally I also think headphones are medieval torture devices, but...
  19. Mercutio

    What type are you?

    Site with free online tests. No paying $15 for anyone.
  20. Mercutio

    MP3 player rant

    Nice to see mubs again. Hiya mubs! When one of my brothers gave me an ipod, I sold it about three days later. Stereodude's MobiBlu would be a really interesting device if it came in a 4GB capacity. Were I a portable music sort of person, I think I'd want to be able to carry around enough music...
  21. Mercutio

    Most-hated components - the top 10

    One of the things I impress on all my students is that good marketing is not the same thing as high quality. The example I almost always use to demonstrate this is S*ny. Almost everyone I teach knows someone who has been through two or three Playstations, or has had a S*ny DVD player that...
  22. Mercutio

    Merc's Useful Tools of the day

    Web Stuff Quick References
  23. Mercutio

    Linspire or Xandros?

    If apt is something you really want, you can bolt it on to just about any major distro. My SuSE machines have apt repositories set up. I've only seen Linspire (on a genuine Walmart PC, naturally), but it didn't look particularly different from any other Linux system. So I'm not entirely sure...
  24. Mercutio

    Is this Samsung drive dying?

    time, do you have a copy of spinrite? Do you need one? ;)
  25. Mercutio

    Tannin beat Tea to the 3000 mark.

    Many timez over gratz to Tea and to Tannin, who are always useful. Or at least interesting. Or, at really least entertaining. Or at really, really least completely, uselessly, pigheadedly wrong about the whole nvidia thing. Did we congratulate Bozo for his thousand posts yet?
  26. Mercutio

    Intel strikes back

    I think the rational outcome on AMD's part will be a move to more reasonable pricing. I don't know if they'll do it but to me it looks like the logical way to go. One of the problems I have with AMD at the moment - OK, the ONLY problem I have is that there's a big unappealing gap between...
  27. Mercutio

    Recommendations on good books to read

    There is only one book in my stack of reading material ahead of American Theocracy. I knew I'd get to it eventually. :)
  28. Mercutio

    Microsoft VPN stuff?

    Do you have a Draytek at each end point or are you connecting to something else? Just curious, since I have no Draytek experience.
  29. Mercutio

    Most-hated components - the top 10

    I build my own servers and I have enough parts to replace anything on them that breaks. About half the total number of PCs that I deal with as a contractor are IBM machines of one sort or another, but the rest is a mix of Dell, Compaq, Toshiba (notebooks) and Whiteboxes. I don't mind IBMs, but...
  30. Mercutio

    Most-hated components - the top 10

    I kind of think that Dell exists to make Compaq and Gateway look good. And then I work for a while in a Compaq shop and I start longing for Dells again.
  31. Mercutio

    Most-hated components - the top 10

    Let's not forget my other favorite Dell issue: The "We install a power supply that is rated for .1W more than the total component draw" issue. Nothing like finding a Mid-Tower case with room for two more hard disks and another optical drive, yet with a Prescott P4 and a 205W PSU. 205W?!? Even...
  32. Mercutio

    The weather is completly f*cked up!

    I'm rather enjoying only needing to run one air conditioner at the moment, actually. It can stay 65 degrees all year round.
  33. Mercutio

    Windows *Vista*

    The Vista Upgrade Advisor says my x2/4600, x850, 3GB system needs a better video card to be fully-Vista ready but that the right version of Vista for my needs is "Vista Home Basic Edition."
  34. Mercutio

    Suse Linux 10.1 x86_64

    Another interesting change in SuSe.
  35. Mercutio

    Suse Linux 10.1 x86_64

    I haven't tried 10.1 yet, but to be fair it is the first 100% free SuSe release. Apparently they've added yum-style updates to this release, which is really quite handy for users interested in trying out packages that aren't included with SuSe (e.g. MythTV). I'm not aware of anything else...
  36. Mercutio

    Most-hated components - the top 10

    At least you can get Asus to give you an RMA...
  37. Mercutio

    I fear a dead drive.

    You need to try a board swap. RAID1 is a bare minimum for important data these days. It's not like a 250GB drive is expensive any more. I'd also quote something like one or two 250 or 400GB USB drives that can be removed from the site and used in an alternating fashion to store backups. That's...
  38. Mercutio

    Most-hated components - the top 10

    I'd like to point out that Tannin violated Tea's rules with his item #1: He's complaining about ATI drivers, which are by definition not hardware. Also, I have no idea what part of Catalyst drivers don't just work every time. :P Also, SiS isn't my favorite chipset, but the recent versions...
  39. Mercutio

    Your favorite browser is now v1.5

    Open source works, time. That's why you can get a CPU-optimized version of a Moz-based browser and support for a modern web browser on platforms where none would be available. That's why bugs in Moz-based products are fixed within a few hours of being found. The Firefox extension API literally...
  40. Mercutio

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

    What is a $40 PC? Kind of related to Coug's recent topic, someone just asked me if I have an old PC I could sell for $40. I have several computers sitting around, from P5/166s to Celeron 300As to P3/800s, that might somehow be considered for that price range. The main problem I have with that...
  41. Mercutio

    Italy

    I did not find out in time to get Will his payloa... I mean delivery. :(
  42. 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.
  43. 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...
  44. 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...
  45. 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.
  46. 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...
  47. 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...
  48. 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
  49. 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...
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