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I know very little about 'AI' ... just a little here, just a little there. I do know that my electric bill went up last year ... supposedly from all the data centers being built and coming online. This article is interesting and disturbing if all true. Just to add: The article came from here ... https://citizenfreepress.com/ Something Big Is Happening By Matt Shumer • Feb 9, 2026 https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening + Some points from the article ... For years, AI had been improving steadily. Big jumps here and there, but each big jump was spaced out enough that you could absorb them as they came. Then in 2025, new techniques for building these models unlocked a much faster pace of progress. And then it got even faster. And then faster again. Each new model wasn't just better than the last... it was better by a wider margin, and the time between new model releases was shorter. I was using AI more and more, going back and forth with it less and less, watching it handle things I used to think required my expertise. Then, on February 5th, two major AI labs released new models on the same day: GPT-5.3 Codex from OpenAI, and Opus 4.6 from Anthropic (the makers of Claude, one of the main competitors to ChatGPT). And something clicked. Not like a light switch... more like the moment you realize the water has been rising around you and is now at your chest. I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job. I describe what I want built, in plain English, and it just... appears. Not a rough draft I need to fix. The finished thing. I tell the AI what I want, walk away from my computer for four hours, and come back to find the work done. Done well, done better than I would have done it myself, with no corrections needed. A couple of months ago, I was going back and forth with the AI, guiding it, making edits. Now I just describe the outcome and leave. + Second point ... How fast this is actually moving Let me make the pace of improvement concrete, because I think this is the part that's hardest to believe if you're not watching it closely. In 2022, AI couldn't do basic arithmetic reliably. It would confidently tell you that 7 × 8 = 54. By 2023, it could pass the bar exam. By 2024, it could write working software and explain graduate-level science. By late 2025, some of the best engineers in the world said they had handed over most of their coding work to AI. On February 5th, 2026, new models arrived that made everything before them feel like a different era. If you haven't tried AI in the last few months, what exists today would be unrecognizable to you. + Some extra ... Amodei has said that AI models "substantially smarter than almost all humans at almost all tasks" are on track for 2026 or 2027. AI is now building the next AI There's one more thing happening that I think is the most important development and the least understood. On February 5th, OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Codex. In the technical documentation, they included this: "GPT-5.3-Codex is our first model that was instrumental in creating itself. The Codex team used early versions to debug its own training, manage its own deployment, and diagnose test results and evaluations." Read that again. The AI helped build itself. This isn't a prediction about what might happen someday. This is OpenAI telling you, right now, that the AI they just released was used to create itself. One of the main things that makes AI better is intelligence applied to AI development. And AI is now intelligent enough to meaningfully contribute to its own improvement. ...

2005 - 2015 computers quality was good. Newer and older ones are poorly built, outright garbage. @Monroe, thanks, interesting!

We're veering off-topic, so I'll make this my closing remark. 10 is plenty for "browsing", per se. And having "fast internet" can sometimes cause more harm than good. I *intentionally* "throttle" my connection when streaming from my "tv provider" (I don't have a "tv", everything is streamed via computer or laptop). I "throttle" all the way down to 100 KB/s [so literally 1/100th of 10 MB/s] (I get buffer-lag at 75 KB/s but ZERO buffering issues at 100). This *forces* my "tv provider" to *STOP* sending me 4k resolution video streams! I have no use for 4k because it pegs my very old laptop's CPU at 100%. Why would I watch an hour or so here and there or an entire Sunday with the CPU pegged at 100% for the entire time? Would KILL this laptop in a matter of days. 100 KB/s seems to be perfect for 720p streaming "on the side" (more than fine for laptop display as "background" to real computer adjacently performing real tasks). That drops CPU to below 28%. 300 KB/s seems to be perfect if I want to "allow" my tv provider to send 1080p. At the expense of bumping the CPU up to around 35% and that's enough for the fan kicking up to a higher RPM occasionally.

longstanding misskey.io issue will be somewhat fixed in next build.

Hi George, thanks for the driver. It installed successfully.

I have not had any Zone Alarm problems for two days now. I found some information online about creating a 'path'. I found a ZA folder in the System 32 folder ... had no idea it was there. When a problem popped up about a missing ZA dll I would put it in the System 32 folder and the ZA Programs folder but I did not know there was also a ZA folder in System 32. There were three dlls that I added and now also to the System 32 / ZA folder ... so far it seems to be working. I had no prior knowledge of paths or creating a path. There was a gamer online having a problem and he was advised to create a 'path' for a solution, so I took that advice and added the dlls to the Sys 32 - ZA folder, the System 32 folder itself and also the Programs ZA folder ... have them everywhere to be found. From a gamer post online: Add a Directory to the PATH on Windows: Go to Control Panel and open the System icon (Start - Control Panel) Go to the Advanced tab Click on the 'Environment Variables' button Look into the 'System Variables' pane Add or find the 'Path' entry Double click or add the Path entry Enter your ZoneAlarm directory at the end, including ';' before (;C:\) Press OK Note: Be sure to reboot after following the steps above to ensure that the PATH changes are applied. ... I just replaced his game title with the ZoneAlarm directory. I may still have some problems but so far all seems OK. ...

OK, I did try that firewall in August or September when the Zone Alarm problems started. I had it saved from your article 'Antimalware, firewall, and other security programs for Windows XP' based on your review. I also had some other older firewall programs saved, Comodo and such. I had trouble trying to figure out Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall to get it working correctly. Probably didn't work with it enough. If I can't get the ZA working again I will install it again and check it out more. Thanks to Multibooter I want to try Kerio Personal Firewall v2.1.5 again. I had completely forgotten about Kerio FW and did not have it on my flash drive collection of firewall programs. I sort of remember it was easy to work with. ...

Thanks for comparing of yours to mine! But I think that your project, which I will take a closer look at as soon as possible, is much more demanding and plays in a different league. I'm not a professional programmer and have little experience with high-level programming languages. I'm more of a batch programmer. My projects are probably less demanding than yours. Still, I feel quite honored. Thank you for the flowers! My first post is rather meant as an article with full information about our existing proxies and will be maintained or extented if necessary. It is the result of my knowledge and a lot of researching. All important information in one place for those who are interested in that kind of stuff. I did my very best in well structuring of content and in full support of visitors or members. And I added my own stuff like modified, fixed, updated or self created versions of different tools. The people who find reading my article too tiring or simply too complicated, are not the people I want to reach or support. Therefore I disagree with making of a new thread. But I totally agree with your suggestion to restructure the download section. It has become a bit bloated and maybe confusing too. Thanks again for your opinion! Always welcome!

Thanks again for your support and your kind words! I appreciate your opinion very much. I hope you can understand a bit what's going on in my head right now.

Thanks for your replies and your interest in my work! And special thanks to @Dave-H and @mina7601 for supporting me continously! At the moment there is no download link. First of all it is just a preview of what, beside other projects, I've created the last weeks. @NotHereToPlayGames Therefore you won't find any related link. As mentioned before, I'm almost done with my project and now it's in testing phase. So far it's working as expected here. But everything must be checked and any improvements or corrections made if necessary. So still a bit of work. And first I'll just wait a bit and see how the overall interest is this time. In the past I spent a lot of time in writing informative articles and guides, assisting people who look for help, solving problems, modifying and fixing programs, keeping everything up to date and so on, but the overall interest expressed was rather low. A lot of reads and downloads, on the other hand only a few reactions and even fewer comments. Maybe it's just too tiring to show a reaction or leave a comment. And the best thing of all: The only request I had was not even answered. Except a reply of @Dave-H, of course, although the request wasn't addressed to him. Thanks again! Anyway, to me, all that is not really a sign of genuine interest. Of course I know nobody forced me to do all that, but anyway, It's actually a bit frustrating and not much fun in that way. Furthemore I think an author who shares his work with a community at least thrives on feedback and needs a bit of motivation for his creative ambitions. But anyway. I don't want to lose my fun in doing my work and only get annoyed by disrespectful behavior. In the old days my Latin teacher always tried to motivate us in translating by never stopping to say: New piece, new luck! And one thing is for sure: Time flies and will tell. Then we'll see. Kind regards, AstroSkipper

Hi. Just checked , the main driver nvhda64v.sys makes calls to PsGetVersion , so I think it is still used. Any way to cheat it without replacing ntoskrnl ? By the way , RtlGetVersion is absent .

Well , I don't think this will help because I've installed the driver manually, avoiding Nvidia's auto installer. I've spent another several hours trying different drivers and registry hacks. As far as I can see , there is just not enough info for the players to "see" HD audio capable device . Take a closer look at the Vista's registry entries under : [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render\{my receiver auto generated id}\Properties] For example, HDAUDIO string is missing , compared to W7 entries . So I changed the .inf file (added everything from W7 sections to the Vista ones) and when I try to install this driver manually Vista says driver is not signed , I pressed ignore and the installation went ok , but it didn't change anything . Still not enough needed entries in the "MMDevices". It is painfully annoyning to add them manually for each device , esp. since the names are auto generated . At least now I know what's the culprit and who's to blame . I think Nvidia made it that way so one couldn't use HD audio on Vista. I will not purchase their products anymore . I've been their fan for almost 20 years. Any ideas ? Thanks.

Well , I agree it makes sense for a laptop , but for a main PC ... why ? My Vista's boot time is 5-6 seconds on the gaming PC . What are the benefits in this case ? To make it 3-4 seconds ? Besides , 2.5tb isn't too much nowadays . I have my home video footage , clips from various trips and the such , which occupy more than 10TB. I think I'm a bit older than you , though ... so it had accumulated over the years. Also, I'm still not convinced in their ability to store information for a long time (without power) and their durability. I have 10 year old Raptors (under constant use) and they still going strong. P.S. I'm not using Win7/8/10 , and Vista doesn't do any annoynig constant writing to my HDDs.

Yeah , I too use a 24' CCFL 15 year old monitor and loving it very much. But DTS HD MA is ancient by modern standards and should be supported by ancient hardware, including Realtek (for examplle 2nd Generation Intel Core mobo's) , Nvidia's cards starting from GTX460 (I think, maybe even earlier). Do you remember the times when there was a small cable that we needed to attach to the motherboard's SPDIF and connect to Nvidia's DVI to bypass the digital sound. GTX 8800 definitely had this "feature" . I guess Nvidia was cutting the costs of the production so we needed to use onboard sound , later they added their own chip and it 100% supports DTS HD MA , I guess starting from 2010 or so.