CoffeeFiend

@durex: It's only complex to use as it's made to work on all kinds of different translations windows and such. Making your own silent installer is in fact very simple otherwise. (replace a file, edit a couple lines in a ini, and that's about it). As for using this method, it's doing mostly the same thing to a empty user profile as the scripts in simonsays' guide do (not that much differences in both ways/scripts used) @drthawhizkid: if the only thing that bothers you is an uninstaller, it's very easy to import the uninstall infos in the registry and recopying the uninstaller over (I used to do that with 0.9.3 and it worked flawlessly) Not that I use that method either though. Personally, I prefer to use the real installer (made silent) over repackaged/captured installers (msi and others). Simonsays has a great one with all useful plugins (not to be confused with extensions). You can also customize it.

Like it was mentionned before in this thread -using a SID like that won't work. if you wanted to read/write to different SIDs, you have to write some code/script to resolve them first. -it's been thoroughly discussed before. if you just import (your previsouly exported/edited): Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\EasyBoot Systems\UltraISO\5.0] "Language"="1033" "UserName"="XXXXX" "Registration"="XXXXXXXXXXXX" it'll work fine. (Ue your own info, and of course 1033 is for english (it is language dependant). Unless this has changed in a very recent build? Either ways, most likely your way won't work as it doesn't import the language info, and using the SID sure won't work.

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It's *nix hosting: Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 PHP/4.3.9 FrontPage/5.0.2.2634a mod_ssl/2.8.22 OpenSSL/0.9.7a Hence Apache instead of IIS and so forth... (much cheaper to host too) As for reg tweaks, I'm sure we could add thousands more tweaks (especially as a collective effort). I think it would be helpful to split some of them versus have it all in one big file. How exactly to split it? Perhaps by set categories (networking, GUI appearance, networking, ...) Also, it's only going to become harder to maintain as we add more stuff

That's pretty much what I've been talking about for a while... It's actually rather simple, and not that hard to implement either (it's just a few simple data tables). If the site was hosted on iis/mssql (using asp pages, stored procedures and everything) I could take care of it, but since it's apache/mysql/php, then someone else will have to get their hands dirty Anyways, personally, I could see people posting (contributing) anonymously, as long as someone has to review (accept) it before it's activated (displayed). "Tapping" into IPB's users for authenticating mod's can't be that hard either, or you could just keep a separate table for that too as you may want to giev that responsibility to different people than the already busy forum mods anyways.

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imagevenue puts logos at the bottom of your pics and limits file size to 1mb. storage period is unlimited (don't know any sites that limit that anyways), unlimited bandwidth (that usually means your bandwitdth is limited by the server's speed anyways). No owrd on if they'd let you use a half gig worth of storage. Not sure about their speed, reliability, and they seem low on features... Ofoto has unlimited space, more features and everything. (never tried it, so I'm not sure how good it really is) It's by kodak and they make money off selling prints. I still prefer hosting my stuff elsewhere (your own website) and getting prints done how/where you want it.

You don't "image" a folder, imaging is for partitions or disks. Folders just contain files, nothing special. I have to go with prathapml's advice. WinRAR works great. If you can't afford it, there's always 7-zip.

I have to say like cancer10 on this one. IO signed up several times for a hotmail account just to try it out. Created the account, didn't give the address to anyone at all, didn't use it at all. Every single time I'd check it, there would be dozens if not hundreds of spam emails to delete (since I didn't use it, all I was getting is spam). So I gave up on it completely. They also offered less space and I don't like their site. Yahoo mail, at times you're fairly spam free, sometimes you get a bit more (to be expected as spammers come up with new tricks and that they're countered). No major complaints. Gmail... I have yet to receive my first spam email in any of my 3 accounts. The only downside is, I don't really feel like switching all my accounts with various sites (eCommerce, forums, etc) and friends/family to a new gmail account for the limited gain of more storage space that I don't really need. So I'm still mostly with yahoo and use gmail as secondary.

Well worth the look, thanks!

Long live DVD? I'm rather looking forward to something else to replace it (can't wait really). Even the dual layer discs (not quite cheap yet for everyday use) don't hold that much really... Not that I want DVD dead, but it's just not enough (ok, it still beats using 700mb CDs). How about ultraviolet laser 500GB discs (as Pioneer promised)? Blue Ray will be nice, but this is gonna be really great. With 500GB discs, I wouldn't mind backing up all my stuff regularly. I mean, even with expensive dual layer DVDs, it still takes a half spindle (25'ish) to backup a simple single 200gb drive, now what about backing up multiple raid arrays or whole SANs? ... Tape drives only hold so much. Nowadays, anybody who wants to can buy over 1TB of storage easily (around 600 USD). [edit] Looks like 4x media might be becoming harder to find soon (they're selling below production price) and I guess less production and same demand will drive the prices back up slightly. Perhaps they'll all switch to making faster (about same scenario) and dual layer discs (more lucrative).

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I never looked into it, but btw there is a (localized) search plugin for eBay too (for that box at the top right corner). Works for me...

You mean, like this? It's sold just about everywhere on the web too (places like amazon) and it's probably available from online rental places too (ala netflix).

Since you need that and don't mention speed, your best bet might be locally hosting it (IIS or apache). Half decent free hosting is a rarity nowadays, add 500mb space requirement to that and there's not much left if at all. It only gets worse if you need some other common features like php/mysql, decent speeds and such. Next option wouldn't satisfy your "free" requirement.

Ever heard of spyware?

I'm not concerned about my unattended install whatsoever, and not too much about "video" DVDs either. If these discs are as resistant as they claim *AND* that they're not organic dye based (ie: something that WILL last for quite a while), then it could be a good storage medium for pictures and such, which is a major problem now for most ppl shooting DSLRs nowadays (lots of stuff to store safely but no real solution). I don't mind paying more for the media. If the same holds true for the Blue Ray discs, then I'm definately going to be buying a drive ASAP. Their size would also be great for saving things like HDTV TransportStreams as-is for those of us who get the nice feeds (no reencoding, no splitting/spanning across several discs, etc), I can already see lots of use for it (especially if the media is really reliable, unlike DVDs). Personally, I hope to see Blue Ray win, let's hope it won't be like the vhs/betamax case

Sounds really nice, can't wait to try it!

Security is only a small part of it. Firefox is better overall imho. I don't have such high memory usage with it either (especially if you use tabs, it will use a lot LESS ram than IE would). Better rendering and standard compliance, and the great features of the many extensions truly makes it rock. Lots of them are very addictive, I could hardly consider loosing any of them. They save you a lot of time and add features that we use all the time.

I completely agree. RIAA is all about corporate profits and protecting that. They don't care about the artists one bit, nor do they care about the buyers. (They don't have a problem with suing 12yo kids either) I'd like to see the same. Music sold on the net in a convenient way for people, at a reasonable price, so people don't mind paying the lower fees to directly support their artists (they could afford it easily if it wasn't for all that money the RIAA stuffs in their pockets), that way everybody wins. (A bit like iTunes I guess, but perhaps in a more "open" format that would work with most platforms/software players/portable players) But, it's not like the RIAA would let that happen. I care to support good artists for their good work, but who really agrees with all that money going to the wrong pockets?

Firefox really blows away IE when it comes to rendering (other than the couple IE only non-standards compliant crappy websites), I don't know what you're onto here. I have yet to see a browser not "render images" correctly. I have no idea what you're calling butt ugly here, IE's the only butt ugly browser I've came across in a while. You also try to make a point about firefox exploits but, the thing is, it's made with good coding practices, it's a million times safer than IE will ever be. The user base is mostly IE too, so IE is the prime target for scum too (also happens to be the easiest to compromise). When firefox has an exploit? The patching will be faster, the extent of what's affected should be lesser, etc. IE users are dreaming to see something compromise firefox, but I doubt we'll see it anytime soon. And about winamp flaws, no that won't switch me away as it's not exposed to the web and they have updated/fixed versions (I doubt it's weaknesses will render your PC useless like IE would do either). All software have flaws - but IE *IS* a flaw. Look at how much of the updates you download on WU are because of IE/OE (and what's part of the SPs). That's about half of them. It's by FAR the single most unreliable unsecure app I've ever seen. It's the only app I'd really switch to anything else. Firefox rocks. [edit] By the way, other sites affected by ad servers include NBC/Universal, The Golf Channel, The A&E Network and Sony Pictures Digital and a whole lot more.

Hmm, digging for old threads? Salling CDs is like selling software or anything else. It might not be work, but composing, recording and such definately was. (Just like Bill Gates won't release windows on p2p and expect to make money from say, service on the road or something) It costs a LOT of $, takes a lot of time and they need to make the money back. AFAIK, the tours hardly rake in any money, it mostly promotes CD sales, and not all artists want to be on the road all year to make a living (lots don't even do tours). They work for a living, but the sales part definately needs to be looked at again.

Turning sigs off is useless. You'd have to basically turn advertizing kind of pictures and such off - everywhere on the web... And there's more issues than that (like the new IFrames one) and there's more to come... I have to agree with gamehead200 here - firefox all the way.

I've been using just /qb, and it has never rebooted nor asked to. It might change depending which version you got...