Glenn9999

A lot depends on how popular the game was, and how many people in the area you are trying to sell it in are interested, and (why what was posted was sold for what it was) how many are made. The amazing thing to me is that NES is relatively popular and you can get/pay some steep prices (for used) for the console itself or the games. The last time I looked, the complete NES console, minus Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt, averaged about $25 US and a A-list title (something everyone liked and wants compared to demand, like Legend of Zelda or Mike Tyson's Punchout) averaged around $15-$25 US. Of course you can get less popular/plentiful games for much cheaper and find those easier than the A-list stuff. Considering those prices for used items, the amazing part (to me) is when I got to talking to a few people that deal with these things. It seems that the reason those prices are high is that most of the parents today, who grew up on video games, are finding that Junior can't figure out the PS3, Xbox, or Gamecube when they get it, so the parents are going nostalgic. This also explains the "casual gaming" movement and the trend Nintendo has taken with the Wii towards it. Interesting stuff... Looks like $5-$10 US according to E-bay, assuming it works.

Some random parts questions from cleaning out my random parts bin (and other stuff): 1) I ran across a couple sets of cables I couldn't ID. One cable in the set has 4 pins to 4-pin, both female ends. The other cable has 4 pins to 3 pins, both female ends. The ends look like the end of a typical CPU fan that plugs into the motherboard. What are these for? They probably came with some hardware I have but are not used, and probably why I'm not remembering what they do. 2) I came across parts (2 sets) of what looks like a 3.5" to 5.25" drive kit (again don't remember where I got them). But I'm not figuring out how to use them. There's a face plate (5.25" size with a 3.5" hole in the middle) and then there's two rails that obviously perform the function of holding a 3.5" drive into a 5.25" bay. But I don't see how you could attach the face plates to the drive or the rails and have it function properly. Any clues on this one, or are the face plates not necessarily mated with the drive brackets? 3) I came across about 6-12 CD audio cables (4-pins). I noticed that a header for this wasn't present on the SATA DVD drive that I installed in my last build. Is this normal now, and therefore should I junk these? 4) Is it worth hanging onto a lot of floppy drive cables these days? 5) Is it worth hanging onto number of 80mm case fans? I ask because I noticed the case on my last build used exclusively 120mm fans. 6) How are PC speakers handled these days in computers? I noticed the cases on my last two builds don't have one, yet the motherboard for the newest build still has a spot for them. Are they required (I would think there still has to be a way for the computer to relay BIOS level issues) or not? Is this a separately purchased item now in most cases? I haven't had a BIOS issue on the newest one, but the other one turned out to put vocal messages out through the on-board sound. Is this standard, and therefore makes the PC speaker completely unnecessary?

It appears to be a logic error. i is assigned the value -1 to start, and is only increased if the "if pos2 > 0 then" block. If the "if pos3 > 0" block is executed without the "if pos2 > 0 then" block, then the line after what you marked will produce the error since the subscript would be invalid (-1) in most cases. I don't know if that helps fully, but hopefully it'll give you a pointer towards how to solve it.

What kind of experiences and things do you run into in buying games online? I'm specifically looking at sites like Steam, Direct2Drive and so forth. What kind of hoops do you have to jump through on most of them after you lay down the money? Activation? Have to have an active Internet connection? Limited installs? Other things? Any problems in dealing with such sites that I should be aware of if I were to try buying a game online?

Certain things in 95/98 are backward when it comes to the API, so you have to code for them in assembler instead to get the functionality (which is a pain to be truthful). The program solution is the only valid one for 95/98 for this reason (the HLLs posted have this functionality).

I've thought on things I've read and just tried to search for some more on this topic and didn't find anything. So I'll ask...what suggestions would you make for changes to an XP install to be secure, both from external problems, and from a foolproof user standpoint. More or less, stuff that is non-intrusive (less dialogs and steps the better), keeps malware from running as well as possible, and keeps the user from doing something that might screw up the system? More or less settings that gives the computer the highest chance of running for a long time without required intervention or problems. My initial thought was to set up the main account so it's not an administrator, and do the usual stuff like disable autorun and disable saving of executable attachments, but is there anything else that would be good? I'll admit that I don't know the effect on most software of running as a standard user, so I don't know if that would present a problem? Also, I'm looking at how to automate certain tasks, like disk checks and cleaning up temp files and the like. Also as a side question, what do you do if you need to delineate a specific web site to not be cleaned up and secured against (cookies allowed, popups allowed, most active content allowed), and not sacrifice having those things secured against for other sites?

Okay, any thoughts on this would be welcome (I just got the go-ahead to start actually buying stuff from this person - more coming up with a list, but same idea). I'm just sticking to NewEgg so that'll be the easiest for when I sit this list before this person. But if anyone has better ideas on something that's equivalent/cheaper, or something for the same cost that would be better...(would going the AMD route be better, cost-wise for the performance?). Did I miss anything on these parts to not fit spec? Antec Three Hundred 430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811129065 $99.99 ASUS P5E-VM DO LGA 775 Intel Q35 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131222 $109.99 Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115206 $119.99 Crucial Ballistix 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model BL12864AA80A - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820148203 $15.99x2 I stuck to 2GB here because of the 32-bit OS. Would it be better to go higher, or go 64-bit with the OS? Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit for System Builders - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16832116515 $119.99 Should I go to Vista here? Is SP2 better than what I saw of Vista when it came out? Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136319 $74.99 Because of the before-mentioned SATA thing, I might be doing a DVD drive, I'll have to ask them when I go back to them with the list.

Using it more strenuously will make the mechanical parts wear out faster. So essentially yes.

Yep. Not a day now that I don't regret ever even thinking about it. Not necessarily for those reasons. Let's just say that if I knew Dilbert was a documentary on it and not just a cartoon, I would have never even bothered. That's most of the real problem I run into. Very little time gets spent actually doing any real work, and the rest of the time is putting up with the Dilbertesque nonsense. Case in point. Sure there's Internet to accomplish business functions where I worked. But not for you to use. PHB says it's not needed for programmers.

That's what you get when people just want to get the job done with no understanding of what they've done and no effort to clean it up. And yes many do it for a job security thing too (the real 100 line, 600 op code C source to add 1 to a variable comes to mind). You have to reverse engineer, there is no alternative in most cases. I even had to rewrite a number of things using the original code and its output as a guide because the business logic in the original code was so obfuscated. At least you hopefully are learning how important it is to make the original code you do human consumable for the next person that will look at it. We didn't even have that exemption.

Lucky you! I had on average 2-3 hrs of work a day in my last position, but policy dictated that it was a fireable offense to go onto the Internet. Let's just say I don't care too much to be bored to tears like that ever again.

You sound just like me when it comes to the jobs I've been involved in. For what I notice, most people just look to get the job done however they can and move on, rather than do any kind of decent job on what is before them. Why? Either just wanting to get done and move on because of job pressures, or incompetence. And forget documentation, no time for that, ever. That's assuming anyone there even knows enough to make it. And there's no incentive to change it either, because this is how it was for their bosses and their bosses boss and... well you get the picture.

http://www.msfn.org/board/Batch-Patcher-t96854.html

There's always some shenanigans afoot with any of them. Be thankful that your package of $300 computer components wasn't almost left at a strange neighbor's place when you didn't answer the door (FedEx did that one with me). The moral of the story: Always know general receipt times and follow up HARD if they are missed. And the FedEx people responsible did hear an earful over that. Have your vendor ship with a signature required clause if you can get away with that with them. Perhaps the best.

Okay, let's try this one. Attachment added as well. Download link

I can't say I know the issue, since the link works fine for me and always has. :S And I can't change the attachment facility link upon edit either, so really can't do much more.

This was higher spec stuff on NewEgg (1033 I think, I'm not in the mood to go load it up) that I was trying to match with the motherboards that I was finding when I was spot-checking things. Another case of planned obsolescence. Got you. Unless the newer stuff really blows away this drive (I mean 2 to 3X performance, something very impressive and demonstrative upon benchmarks or otherwise), it would be very hard to justify parting with the drive to this person, compared to the optical drive, especially since this drive is about a year old. Okay, back to my original post. What's the difference in performance compared to the Athlon XP 2000+, besides the fact that there are more cores in the newer processor (which does not necessarily provide a benefit in all apps, especially the ones mentioned)? The fact that my XP system has less specs and seems to be doing the tasks mentioned above that this person does very ably (and that they witnessed it in seeing what XP is) is going to put a question out there that needs answered in justifying the new system (as point #1 hopefully made clear). The motherboard and CPU is old and liable to break at any time, yes, but beyond that, what would I argue? Again benefit needs to be demonstrated for money spent, not just "it's old that's new, so it's faster". I definitely would accept that help, and this person might agree to the new system anyway. And I know if I had the money, I'd be replacing that 2000+ as quickly as I could. But since I'm not playing with my own money here, I need to be able to do a little more to justify my decisions in fixing the issue that's leading this person to come to me. At least to help them to feel that they're getting the best thing they can for the money they want to lay out. Thanks for the responses so far!

I'm to the point of planning out a purchase of a newer system for someone, and I was wondering some things. Most of this is mainly from a bang for the buck perspective - I don't want to suggest more than they really need or would want: The obvious first question to get out of the way: 1) The system this is replacing is a Athlon XP 2200+. Since I observe that I'm running Windows XP on an Athlon XP 2000+ very acceptably (for me anyhow, it could use improvement in a category or two), would it be an acceptable option for to just suggest them to drop coin on a copy of Windows XP (assuming it can be found) and a matching RAM upgrade and be done with it? Obviously, the machine upgrade would have to happen in the case of Vista or W7, since I can testify for myself that the RC2 of Vista ran rather poorly on the 2000+. I'm asking this one because I can't run either the XP advisor or the Vista advisor on this system (it's a very old copy of Windows they carried over from an older system that's starting to break with some newer web site apps and the like), and would need to figure out something more definite for this system. The real problem is more the OS on this system than it is anything else, assuming something isn't about to break and I'm not aware of it (very old system too, but was a very cheap upgrade from a computer that matched the specs of the OS back when it came out that didn't work well at all). System is only used for web surfing, e-mail, occasional simple gaming, flash games and flash videos - much less than what the 2000+ gets used for. 2) Then for the machine, I looked at a few things and it seemed to suggest that the Core2 Duo, or the AMD at the comparable price point would be good. How do the speeds of these things compare to the CPUs mentioned above? I seem to notice in reading that the focus has been on more cores lately as opposed to increase in processing cycles. True or false? 3) Is it just me or has memory gotten very cheap lately? I looked into it and found 2GB of DDR 2 memory for $60. 4) The biggest thing I'm noticing as a problem is a changeover from standard IDE to SATA. I'd hate to have to suggest that they'd jettison a perfectly acceptable & working (and fast for both XP and Vista, I've found) hard drive because of this (it's a Western Digital 80GB, 8MB cache), so I'm wondering is there a good converter that one can get so this drive would work? Though as far as the parts go, the drive that will accept CDs would be an easier sell than the hard drive. Or would there be no choice in this matter (i.e. most mainboards would require bootup from a SATA device)? 5) Video...they won't be playing Crysis anytime soon, so I don't think they'll need a hot-rod video card. But would just about anything work here (including built-in video), given what I mentioned above, or would there need to be some special consideration in this area? Thanks for reading

Here's something you don't have to anticipate (any longer if you're following it), if you want some newer gaming. (and no, I'm not connected to it, just interested in getting the word out) Pull out your old copy of Deus Ex (if you got it), and check out http://www.thenamelessmod.com

Download it again. It should be 316.4 MB. MD5 should be BB25707C919DD835A9D9706B5725AF58 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

.NET 1.1 is an equivalent replacement to .NET 1.0. So just deny the install of the 1.0 version and install what you have and you'll be fine.

Okay, so a symbolic link and a hard link is essentially the same thing (same idea as a shortcut?) - just that the symbolic link can work for a network share as opposed to a hard link being only for the same drive? And a junction point is the same as a reparse point? Essentially to compare these concepts, the reparse point is for a directory, and a hard link is for a file, but they both essentially do the same job (make some disk resource appear to be there, but is redirected to another source?). To add something else to the mix, how about object identifiers? I would think that would be a good enough idea (tracking files that are moved to their real locations), but the thing I'm wondering is that there has to be drawbacks to it that cause it to not be in wider use? That makes me wonder since OS/2 essentially had that feature built-in (and it was nice, too, no "resource is not found, searching drive" messages). (If you're wondering, I've been fishing through the Windows API file reference and been trying to find stuff that isn't generally implemented and trying to figure out when/what/why to use them and get them implemented in a good way - that's how the file compression post in the programming forum came about) Edit: I just noticed Sysinternals has a forum now, so that might be good for some more technical questions I've got

I'm looking for a good comparison between the three things listed in the Topic Description. I found definitions for all three, but am finding it hard to answer the questions of what are they good for, why would I want to use one over the other (they seem like very similar concepts), and so forth.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is a Flash-related problem. You might do better with version 10, but I know I had nothing but problems with Version 9. This is especially true on the Windows 9X stuff I've run, due to resource leaks - if I would run sites with Flash stuff on it long enough, it would fail (usually about 10-15 minutes worth of it).

Since I saw a topic on compression, and I happen to have this code handy, I thought I might share this - hopefully it's useful to someone. What this does is enable you to compress or decompress a file on an NTFS volume. This works on a directory, as well, but it will only signal that future files created in that directory should be compressed and will not compress the files that are already present. As I'm sure most know on this forum, compressed files on NTFS volumes typically show up in Explorer in blue shade. Of course, you will need the Windows unit for this stuff. The actual compression/decompression function: function CompressFile(filepath: string; state: boolean): boolean; const FSCTL_SET_COMPRESSION: DWord = $9C040; COMPRESSION_FORMAT_DEFAULT = 1; COMPRESSION_FORMAT_NONE = 0; var compsetting: Word; bytesreturned: DWord; FHandle: THandle; begin // an OS check, replace this with whatever is good to you if not os_is_nt then raise Exception.Create('A Windows NT based OS is required for this function.'); // the actual code FHandle := CreateFile(PChar(filepath), GENERIC_READ or GENERIC_WRITE, FILE_SHARE_READ or FILE_SHARE_WRITE, nil, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, 0); if state = true then compsetting := COMPRESSION_FORMAT_DEFAULT else compsetting := COMPRESSION_FORMAT_NONE; if DeviceIOControl(FHandle, FSCTL_SET_COMPRESSION, @compsetting, sizeof(compsetting), nil, 0, bytesreturned, nil) then result := true else result := false; CloseHandle(FHandle); end; This will be useful to find the compressed size of the file. function GetCompressedFileSize(FileName: string; var HighFileSize: DWord): DWord; type GCSFunc = function(FileName: PChar; var HighFileSize: DWord): DWord; stdcall; var libhandle: THandle; funchandle: GCSFunc; fresult: DWord; begin fresult := 0; libhandle := LoadLibrary('KERNEL32.DLL'); if libhandle <> 0 then begin @funchandle := GetProcAddress(libhandle, 'GetCompressedFileSizeA'); if @funchandle <> nil then fresult := funchandle(PChar(Filename), HighFileSize); FreeLibrary(libhandle); end; result := fresult; end; NTFS marks these files with standard file attributes that can be used with FindFirst/FindNext. const faCompressed = $800; This definition will enable you to test for a compressed file. HTH someone.