Glenn9999

If I had to guess, it's a safety thing for certain applications that (under NTFS) would read for an 8x3 name and get "program" as a directory instead of "Program Files" or "PROGRA~1" as Windows 98/ME flew. I wouldn't worry unless you have programs that have problems with NTFS style file names.

Alright, if anyone won't acknowledge specifically playing this game, I'll go ahead and ask some general questions out of the pile of them that I had: 1) I want to get this game working on Windows XP. It fires up and works for the first level but then drops out to the command-prompt complaining about not being able to read the ROM drive. Upon searching, I find people mentioning that they were able to do some things to make it work in XP, but no specific directions about how to... 2) I notice on the Sega version is where most seem to talk and the game play videos I find on Youtube. I see mention of a fire-rate increase code for that version. Is there any documentation that it might have been carried over in the port to the PC that I have?

Actually, M$ does a revision to DX every 2 or 3 months (can't remember which). There's been effectively 11 or 12 versions of it since SP2 came out.

Why not disable it once you are first able and then enable it when you are done? NET STOP SRSERVICE and NET START SRSERVICE (I believe).

The big problem with that video was that you had the blind (the folks at Humber College) leading the blind (the folks putting together that "news" story). The biggest thing to remember about what was put before those techs is that people typically don't sabotage machines like they did. With the first one (at the apartment), they sabotaged a RAM module, and disconnected the computer speaker (evidently) so the computer would not produce the telltale POST beeps. The problem with plugging any equipment into good equipment that is faulty (the RAM chip, or video card, or anything good into a faulty motherboard), is that you can damage the rest of the equipment. We don't know because we weren't told, but the motherboard on that computer could be damaged among other things for them attempting this sabotage. Not to mention, the "but you can only get it for $25" garbage they were putting on there - they have no clue about how business operates. And on the second computer, people typically don't sabotage Windows system files. For what most of them said, they were correct - effect (missing system file) doesn't happen without a typical cause (viruses?). Like I said, you got a good dose of the crap that goes around on all sides (not excusing a couple of the techs they happened to find who WERE idiots), as well as a good lesson to be able to learn from (where is that crap in that video?). Chief among them is that stupid "advice" from the female Humber college teacher about fixing it by putting the disk in and doing a repair install. Okay, what of the patches, what if it's a different service pack, what of the files the person had on the computer, etc. Stupid move and it got broadcast all over Canada. Sadly enough, only a few people have better sense than that. Again key: Better be able to deal with people at all stages of imbecility and like it, more than working on the computers.

I should say, as the folly of many a person involved in any computer technical field, remember that the majority of your time and success will not be in what you know or how well you can get a job done, but how well you can deal with people. In fact, dealing with people is going to be the major deciding factor to your success and failure (I know for what I did when I was working, I only actually exercised any computer tech knowledge maybe 5-10% of the hours I was there, the rest was people stuff and Dilbert hell). So look within yourself and see if you can deal with that - in fact, see if you can watch a technician through a day or week, or find some stories online and see if YOU can deal with some of those things (along with the usual standard of complete cluelessness and idiocy) without saying an angry word, insult, put-down, etc, or going crazy with time. I know I could never do technical support because my tolerance for idiocy and crap is very low - that's something I know of myself. It'd be hard for me to not have a word to say when I go out and try to troubleshoot a "broken monitor" whose only problem is the one sitting a foot away from the keyboard not plugging it in when they moved the desk (real story! Luckily I wasn't the one to have to deal with it though). Just keep in mind, the majority of your success will hinge on dealing with a sizable number of complete imbeciles. The question is "Can you do that?" Edit: A great illustration of the people crap that goes all the way around - from what you shouldn't be as a tech to what idiots people are that have computer serviced in general (the Humber college idiots and the "journalists" that put this piece together). http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2007/10/03/geeks/

Has anyone had a look at the "exclusive" online DVD content on any of the Star Wars DVDs? Their little security check seems to not work for me (put in disk, select proper one, click button), so I'm wondering what I would find if I got to that point of getting past that on that site and if it would be worth my time?

I got a few questions regarding Darius Gaiden for the PC, but since I seem to find very little that talks about the game at all online and almost nothing about the PC version, I thought I might ask the "has anyone played it?" question first before I ask the questions I had in mind...

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is pending, though, too. Why bother with patch lists when the next service pack is coming (2nd half, calendar year 2007)?

I'm very happy with the two that I've had (the first one died a couple of years ago after about 6 or 7 years service). Perhaps the best computing related item I've ever purchased in the last few years. Unbelievably handy and much easier than burning a CD in a lot of instances. The only drawbacks I see for them: 1) If you get into a corporate environment, there can be problems, since the tendency is to lock down USB ports these days. 2) They can be so small as to lose. If/when you get one be sure you secure it somehow so you don't lose it, run it through the wash, etc. Security issues are of concern too, since they can be easily walked off with too. This leads into perhaps the biggest concern you'll need to have beyond manufacturer reliabilities, etc. If the drive has a cap, make sure that the key ring (if there isn't one) is not on the cap, or that the cap doesn't come off easily. My first one had the keyring on the cap, which was easily released, so it couldn't have been used/stored on a key chain.

http://www.msfn.org/board/HOTFIXES_Win2000...200_t86450.html http://www.msfn.org/board/Vista_updates_Fe...cks_t92263.html

FWIW, I've been using Wallpaper Changer (freeware) since the 9X days. Been working very well for me even into XP. Don't know how it is for Vista, since I haven't run it. http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/

For what I know, it can be done by a compiler, like for making programs. I'm not sure if there's any utility programs out there that will do it, though.

Okay, so how does that (or anything on the page) translate to "supports widescreen resolutions"? That's what I'm not getting - if some cards support it and others don't, there needs to be a way to find out, especially before a wide-screen monitor gets purchased, right? So assumably, if there's a widescreen monitor out there that supports 1024 or 800 across, then any card that supported 1024x768 or 800x600 would work on the widescreen? So the question of whether a card would support widescreen resolutions or not would be a moot point? I've gathered it's not, so how do you tell?

I'm pretty sure the video card I have probably doesn't support widescreen resolutions (GeForce4 MX 440), so none of that really is a question. The question more is what exactly is required for the video card and drivers/OS to make it work to be able to web search or whatever and determine that. In other words, I'm looking for some knowledge more than anything specific with my system.

I'm looking around and I haven't been able to find a page or any references to indicate what is necessary to run a widescreen monitor on a computer. Is there a reference or explanation anywhere regarding that? I notice a lot of them on demo computers are showing stretched full screens, so I'm wondering about this. To run one "right", is there a requirement for a videocard that supports different resolutions, or would a driver change work, or can you letter-box an image, etc? Basically just asking what I would need to know in considering one before I would make the purchase and not end up with something decent.

Here's some more ancient computing fun - most people would have had some contact with these as opposed to the 3380 DASD drums: The IBM 1403 Printer http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/1403.html http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits...s_5404PH09.html http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/ (this was a musical printer, too!) The IBM 2501 Punch Card Reader http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/2501.html (these things are what passed for "removable storage") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_card#IB...nch_card_format (How computer programming was done before the terminal) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_prog..._punch_card_era A 3 minute MP3 encoded at 128KB/s would take 14 of these boxes full to store. Roughly 23000 cards, stacked on top of one another would be 5'9", roughly 1650 cards per box. 1 gig would represent roughly 125 million cards and 75760 boxes! There has been definite improvements there! Computing has definitely changed from the industrial machines they typically used to be. Better the technology has increased storage capacities and lowered the size too!

Alright, I got a hint (actually I had to remember the old mainframe related stuff I did as a programmer). In 1987, this would have been an IBM 3380, possibly the Model J (according to the picture). Incidentally, the correct terminology was DASD or "Direct Access Storage Device" rather than hard drive. Mainframe things are characteristically more expensive, but at the same time, one must remember that the hardware was meant for a computer with multiple users at once and designed that way. To that end, it might be more interesting to compare the time of the 1 gig PC hard drive. This would have been the first DASD IBM made with a capacity greater than 1 gig. The 3370 featured a capacity of 571MB. http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits...orage_3380.html Depending on the features selected, purchase prices at announcement for the 3380 Model A DASDs ranged from $97,650 to $142,200. Lease charges ranged from $2,170 to $3,713 a month. Model B devices could be purchased for $81,000 or $111,600, or leased for $1,800 or $2,480 a month. By appearances, the drive components were taken out of the housing. The housing would have set on the data center floor near the mainframe system itself. Here is the 3380E's housing from the IBM webpage above. Also of note, most of these "new technologies" that are coming out on the PC in both hardware and software are tried on the IBM mainframe first. Actually to follow the development history, the PC development (especially on the software side) is trying to resolve most of the problems already solved on the mainframe. (CICS => .NET as an example for software, or the things this page talks about vs. RAID)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295659 I believe is what the OP was quoting?

Don't think so. Stuff like VirtualDub or ABC Videoroll won't work for you?

One can always cook up a DOS disk for that, too (I did, and ended up with about 168MB or so). One thing I found surprising is how many good useful DOS apps there are out there even for today's machines, etc. Even drivers - there's some I use on my DOS disks today, that would have been a fantasy to have back in the days when I was using DOS/Win95 regularly. Pair that with all the memory these modern machines have compared to those days (there's programs that will create huge RAM drives bigger than most people's hard drives back in the DOS days), and it makes it quite nice to do.

Technology moves quickly. When I had my first computer in 1993, I had a 160MB hard drive, no CD drive (wasn't on the market yet in a widespread way), and the only removable storage was as many floppies I could find. I had 8MB of memory in it. Now (as of 2003 on most of this, 2005 on the DVD drive), I have an 80 GB hard drive, a DVD burner capable of making disks with a maximum of 8GB per disk, and 512MB. All this would have been mindblowing just 10 years ago. Not to mention, I carry around in my pocket a removable rewritable storage device that's 20x larger in capacity (and faster!) than my first hard drive. Of course, those that have been dealing with computers longer than I have can tell stories like this to compare 1983 to 1993.

I don't know much about the fonts problem (Internet Options/General/Fonts won't do it?), but you can always try uninstalling Service Pack 2 if you have that option, to get IE6 SP1/XP.

You should be able to put this registry change into a .REG file for both cases, and double-click the proper one for which user-agent string you want.

How about something like this? http://www.msfn.org/board/Batch_Patcher_t9...amp;mode=linear