CoffeeFiend

The Intel box uses an older socket 775 which is quickly reaching EOL. There won't be any worthwhile updates for this anymore. Socket 775 has been replaced by Socket 1156 for mainstream and 1366 for enthusiasts a while ago. It's 99% likely a mATX board, which in Intel land usually implies having only 2 DIMM slots so no expansion room there either (if I had to guess, I would say it's an ASUS P5G41T-M LE). As for the G41 chipset, it uses a P4-era ICH7 (ICH10 is already 2 years old, ICH11 is due real soon), the onboard video is pretty much junk by any modern standard (good enough for Windows and MS Office and some games that are a few years old but that's about it), you don't get a PCI-e 2.0 slot (admittedly not a big limitation yet though). No SATA 6Gb/s, no USB3. And yes, the power supply doesn't seem to be exactly impressive. The AMD box has a quad core CPU that's significantly faster, but that's assuming you'd make use of all 4 cores, which most of the time won't be the case. Its single threaded perf is slower than the Intel box which will make some things run slower despite having a faster CPU. At least it doesn't use a totally outdated socket, so you'll be able to drop a new CPU on it if you ever feel like it. But then again, they went with an older board that still uses older DDR2 (and most likely AM2+) which also limits upgrading. Id I had to guess, I would say it uses a ECS Geforce6100PM-M2 board. I can't say I'm very fond of ECS, and that board is pretty limited as well, even for a AMD mATX board (also only 2 DIMM slots). The onboard video with a GeForce 6100 chipset (not that I want to use one of those for stability's sake) is even more pathetic than the Intel X4500 (that's saying a lot). No PCI-e 2.0, no SATA 6Gb/s, no USB3 either. And most likely the same PSU. Honestly, I find it real hard to pick between both, because both suck. But out of those 2, I'd probably sooner pick the outdated (socket 775) Intel box, because it has faster single threaded perf, uses DDR3, probably has a somewhat better quality motherboard, and has somewhat better video. IMO you're FAR better spending a little more and getting something decent instead of these. You're already talking about replacing parts (like the PSU) and you haven't even bought it yet. Buying low end trash isn't a good way to save money as you'll just be replacing everything soon enough. I think there are better ways to spend the same money. Both the machines you linked to cost ~$300 USD. So here's a couple quick suggestions around that: If you're going to buy a separate video card anyway (no need for onboard video), this is an option: GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard -- Great quality board, AM3 socket, 4 DIMM slots for DDR3, USB3 (6 ports total), SATA 6Gb/s (8 SATA total, plus 2 eSATA too), 2 firewire, digital audio outputs, the PCI-e x16 slot is version 2.0, etc. G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT -- 4 GB of DDR3 AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor ADX435WFK32GI - OEM -- still faster than the Intel CPU in the box you linked to, but single threaded is still a bit slower This leaves you with $60 that can go towards a cheap case (assuming you need one) and PSU like in the boxes you linked to, or you can opt not to waste money on the ghetto PSU in the first place and just getting something decent instead. There's some great 400W units who could handle it too. Quality truly matters here. Or if you must have onboard video for now; same CPU and RAM, but with a different motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. Another great quality board, AM3 socket, 4 DIMM slots for DDR3, USB3 (6 ports total), 5x SATA 6Gb/s + one eSATA 6Gb/s, firewire, digital audio output, there's two PCI-e x16 2.0 slots in case you want 2 fancy video cards, etc. And here you also get half-decent onboard video a Radeon 4250 (still not enough for the latest games though -- no onboard video will handle that) with a decent set of outputs too (VGA/DVI and HDMI). That still leaves you with $50 to go towards a case and PSU. Video card wise, I'd sooner pick a Radeon 5750 myself. Same price basically, similar speed as the GTS 250 (arguably a hair faster), lower power consumption, runs colder, it's a DirectX 11 card too and it has some cool perks like Eyefinity. As for a power supply, a GOOD quality 450W would handle that just fine. There's some great 400W units who could handle it too. Quality truly matters here.

Hardly. It's more like negligible. The total cost for your printer being in standby for the whole year: 365 days * 24h/day * 1W or so of power draw = 8760 Wh = 8.76 kWh. energy.eu says in Greece you pay around € 0.089 per kWh, so the total cost for the device to run in standby the entire year is € 0.78 including all applicable taxes which is pretty much $1 USD at the current rate. If you only wanted it to go in its "almost off" state which only draws 0.5W or so, then you savings would be only half of that (an euro saved every almost 3 years) There is no way to *really* turn off a device like this (and have no power draw at all) unless it has a physical power switch. Nothing done in software (both in the printer or on the computer) will change anything to that. The only thing you can do is use a power bar (or unplug it), but even then a decent power bar will take several years to pay for itself in power savings from that device. There's no real savings to make by turning this off as its power usage is very, very low (low enough to make a real power switch pointless IMO) If you want to save money on power, look elsewhere (heating, lighting, efficient appliances, insulation, etc). This can save hundreds of times more power.

I've also seen a ridiculous amount of WD MyBook external drives suffer the exact same fate. Ditto for seen several enclosures that are sold without drives.

And the last 2 solutions don't require a download either. They're not interpreted though, so you do have to compile before running them. Win 7 already has all you need to compile, have a peek inside C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5 I don't let anything Java related get near my computer but that's just me.

There's many ways to skin a cat. Powershell version (just for fun, I'm well aware that's not what you asked for language-wise), assuming I've understood your request properly (deleting the newest file in a directory): Get-ChildItem E:\fraps | Sort-Object -Property LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 | Remove-Item or the shorter version, using built-in aliases and omitting defaults: gci E:\fraps | sort LastWriteTime -Desc | select -First 1 | rm It would be trivial to do in vbscript or jscript as well (using a lot more code though -- I like that this was ridiculously fast to write and with very little code). As for batch files, I'll leave that fun to someone else. Edit: bah, I'm bored. Here's a vbscript quickie that does the same thing too: Option Explicit Const path = "E:\fraps" Dim fso, folder, f, newest Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set folder = fso.GetFolder(path) For Each f In folder.Files If newest = "" Then Set newest = f Else If newest.DateLastModified < f.DateLastModified Then Set newest = f End If End If Next fso.DeleteFile (newest.Path) ...and the JScript equivalent: var fso, folder, files, f, newest, path path = "E:\\fraps"; fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"); folder = fso.GetFolder(path); files = new Enumerator(folder.Files); for(; !files.atEnd(); files.moveNext() ) { if (newest == null) { newest = files.item(); } else { if (newest.DateLastModified < files.item().DateLastModified) { newest = files.item(); } } } fso.DeleteFile (newest.Path); .. and here's the C# version (accepts the path as an arg; compile with csc.exe): using System; using System.IO; namespace bored { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(args[0]); FileInfo[] files = di.GetFiles(); Array.Sort(files, (f1, f2) => f2.LastWriteTime.CompareTo(f1.LastWriteTime)); File.Delete(files[0].DirectoryName + "\\" + files[0].Name); } } } ...and the VB version too (path as an arg too; compile with vbc.exe): Imports System Imports System.IO Module bored Sub Main(ByVal args As String()) Dim files As FileInfo() = New DirectoryInfo(args(0)).GetFiles Array.Sort(Of FileInfo)(files, Function(f1 As FileInfo, f2 As FileInfo) Return f2.LastWriteTime.CompareTo(f1.LastWriteTime) End Function) File.Delete(files(0).DirectoryName & "\" & files(0).Name) End Sub End Module I'm feeling too lazy for a C++ version (or any other language for that matter). If you want anything else, just ask. No error handling of any kind in any of them. If there are no files, or the path doesn't exist, or you don't have sufficient permissions, or anything else along those lines then something strange will likely happen. If you insist on using an antiquitated batch file for some strange reason then someone else will have to take care of it.

Such computers were sold at large, to pretty much anyone. And it wasn't just Dell either. I've seen plenty of them from many other manufacturers big & small (including many big/well known/reputable brands too), mostly on motherboards and in PSUs. It's not even limited to computers, all kinds of electronics from that era were built with junk caps.

@5eraph: it all depends on which codec & player you're using to decode it with. Some drivers break video acceleration too (again, depends on the video card) and such. Which video renderer you use can also change things quite a bit. Some players are just crap too -- VLC is pretty much worthless for mostly everything HD (even when the CPU is not maxed). Working fine on Win7 x64 with MPC-HC (E2160, Radeon 4670 and also: Athlon X2 4850e, Radeon 3200)

If your card supports it, yeah. It has to support monitor mode (mainly a driver issue) which very often doesn't doesn't feed any data, it has to be able to see the 802.11 headers when capturing, and also capturing non-data frames. Not too many adapters support this. I have yet to find one that does besides the airpcap. I'd love to find a card that works (doubly so if supported by Win7 x64) because the airpcap is too pricey for me (don't have enough use for it to justify the $200+ cost). So far the only practical solution I've seen is using Linux in one way or another. And he'll install that on his son's ipod touch how? Edit: ah, so there was a ipod version? Ok... Not too sure how that's even applicable.

Yeah, I mentioned using Linux too Only if your card is USB, and also supported by Linux, and that you don't mind it not being usable by the host OS (Windows) meanwhile (i.e. usually using a 2nd/dedicated card) The point is, it's not easy to do under Windows and with the existing wifi card most of the time. But yeah, you can always setup something to capture (drone in router, USB wlan card + vmware, airpcap, etc). At which point you can think about setting up several other things to handle decrypting/filtering/extracting the chat text/storing it somewhere. And there are so many simple ways around such a complex setup that requires so much work, like using another AP for instance. It's a lot of trouble for a problem that seems simple enough in the first place. @iamtheky: none of this will work for the wifi device.

It sounds like your card is damaged indeed. There are several possibilities: -You plugged the power backwards at some point. You say you had it working for a while, but a lot of people are plain unwilling to admit doing this -- although it certainly is possible (I've done it before) -The power supply passed a very nasty voltage spike damaging components on the video card (also possible, but most likely other components in your computer would have failed too) -If it was a ghetto PSU I would have been tempted to blame it, but Seasonic makes great units generally speaking (although this is a somewhat older unit, with a weaker 12v rail than I'd wish for, especially with a lot of drives and such -- 432W combined out of 600W; their current models like the SS-600ES and SS-600ET do over 550W). I don't really see it being the source of your problems. -The card was already damaged somehow and it decided to die just now, heat may have helped a.k.a. bad luck -As for a power supply being "too strong", it is not an issue. You could have a 1500W PSU if you wanted. That will not damage a card. There's just more power available for various devices, it doesn't make them use more. -How much power does it need? Not sure, I'd guess around 70W or so (about 6A). They recommend a 400W PSU with 18A on the 12v rail minimum but you already have twice that so I don't really see it being a problem First of all, I'd have a very good look at the voltages coming out of your power supply. If it's the culprit, you could fry everything in your computer. There's also a possibility that it was damaged or degraded by the video card. If you have a digital multimeter have a look at the 12v rail primarily (between the yellow wire and either of the 2 black ones besides it in a plain old molex). Last resort is checking it in your BIOS. Once you got that sorted, then you could take pictures of the card, particularly around the power connector, on both sides of the PCB (zoomed in as close as you can get it, and pic has to be sharp or it's useless). This way we can have a look at what happened (what failed or how it failed -- chances are it's a simple TVS diode that failed for instance) Last thing -- I definitely wouldn't put that card back in my PC if it reads a short and the wires melted on the PSU. That's about as bad of a short as it gets, and the best case scenario is about that -- melting some more wires.

Capturing wifi traffic isn't so easy though. You're looking at the $200+ airpcap, or a kismet drone setup (the drone running on a dedicated router running Linux or similar), or a Linux computer running similar software with a supported card... Then once you got that figured out, you have to do the WPA2/WPA/WEP decryption and filtering to get the MSN traffic (you'll have to extract the data somehow, there might be some kind of tool that analyzes the protocol, I've never looked for one though). +1

It's also a LOT easier to debug (you can step though code, set watches on variables, set breakpoints, etc), it's vastly more powerful, more robust, less cryptic in many ways, and it's also easy to have no GUI at all when desired. It's hardly perfect (the error handling still sucks quite badly IMO, not too keen on the VB syntax either -- jscript is a lot nicer/better than vbscript on both of these points) but it's still quite a step up from batch files. And yes, as Yzöwl said date formats often change based on locales and settings. I personally stick to the ISO 8601 date format to prevent any issues.

You're currently converting from a compiler/IDE that's over a decade old. You're going from something right out of the early Win98 era, to something from the Win7 era where pretty much everyone runs a NT-based OS and even 64 bit versions of it. Things not going very smoothly is somewhat expected as a LOT of stuff has changed since. Going from 2008 to 2010 or such usually won't cause any problems.

Finally. It would be nice in a way to see a class action lawsuit against this, but then again it's usually only the lawyers who get a lot of money out of it.

Oh dear, so this means I won't have Nero for burning if I have Windows 7. Nero 6 is from early 2003 so it's kind of understandable they're only going to support it for so long. As for not having it, there's always the free Nero 9 Essentials I suppose. Nah. These "bundled with a writer" (oem) versions have always been kind of old (I remember some coming with nero 3 or 4 a few years ago), and were tied to the drive brand too (might not be the case anymore), and some are "lite" versions too (not a license for the entire suite/features). Nero would like you to buy the "real" suite at full retail price for anything beyond that (that is how they make a living). Also, I've never seen or heard of free Nero upgrades from a version to another, very much like for any other software vendor. There's always the upgrade pricing too. And there's many alternatives that are quite good and often cheaper. I use imgburn (freeware) as much as Nero personally. Lots of people also use CDBurnerXP (also free). There is also InfraRecorder and several others (all free). And Windows has built-in burning functions too (albeit basic ones -- data/iso in Explorer, audio in WMP).

What, no duct tape? If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.</Red Green> On a more serious note, I've done that before too (using tie-wraps) and it worked fine.

Even if you go with a 64 bit version of Windows 7, the vast majority of 32 bit apps will still work (I have yet to find one that doesn't). Nero does for sure (at least recent-ish versions of it), never tried the other one. What won't work with a x64 version of Windows is ancient 16 bit code. But even in this case there's the XP compatibility mode, or virtualization, dosbox, etc.

Sysinternals Process Monitor + Wireshark

Ozzy Osbourne - Let It Die, from the new Scream album.

That would work just fine. Plug whatever needs the speed in the new switch, the remainder in the old one. Then plug both switches together and the router where you want, or just plug both switches in the router. It's hard to mess this up.

With XP and before services had more impact on system performance. Your bottleneck will be disk speed, not the OS. I could saturate most of a Gigabit connection with Vista, but that was on a RAID0 setup. Over USB2? I don't see it hitting 40MB/s too often (nor for long when it does) -- more like 25-30 on average being a USB device. I've even seen HDTach benches of this thing saying more like 20 average, and speeds dropping to 15-ish when half full (i.e. when actually making use of it). If you wanted performance, then you go for eSATA instead. It would have been not only faster but you'd also have more bang for your buck. For example, this external eSATA 4 bay enclosure with this WD 2TB drive or this other WD 2TB drive would have costed you 35% more overall, but for 200% the space, better performance, and everything would be new with full mfg warranty. Or if you went with a smaller 1TB drive the price would be identical (but still faster and with full warranty). You'd also have far lower latency over eSATA than USB (you can expect a 20-something ms latency with this thing), and simultaneous read/write operations go a lot smoother over eSATA too. Either ways, Gigabit would still help as you're going to be limited to 12.5MB/s or less over a plain old 100mbit Ethernet connection.

Well, it depends on your setup. Over wireless of course it makes no difference. As for wired connections, gigabit ethernet switches are dirt cheap (my 8 port Netgear Gigabit switch that also supports jumbo frames was like $50). And yes, it makes quite a difference. Both will be able to max out a 100mbit or wireless connection very easily. Transcoding is fairly CPU intensive indeed. And if your CPU is pushed to its very limit, the odds that it would do the job fine with any another OS are pretty slim (the fix would be more like a CPU upgrade). Vista's main overhead vs Linux is RAM usage (and even then, I had a plain old vanilla install of Vista that would boot in 365MB usage), but that's not what you really need a ton of here. Well, for the most part the "unecessary" stuff once loaded will get paged to disk anyway, so no big deal. You could disable things like indexing though.

That's another great option that I've recommended several times before around here, but he seemingly wants to do a lot more than what those solutions do (video transcoding, online backups, etc)... Hence my "Go with Vista" answer.

Drobo is a company... They have a lot of different products. Hard guessing what you got for sure (a model # would be ideal). That's not very descriptive either. You make it sound like that's a bad thing. I'm happily "stuck" with Windows for pretty much everything I do too. Reinstalling isn't a bad idea as you can't be sure what the previous owners did to the OS (I like clean). Firewall is already setup out of the box if you want one (and the vast majority of apps will setup exceptions when they are required). Windows "SMB"? There is nothing to "setup", that's always worked out of the box. You just need to setup some shares. Out of those 2, I'd definitely go with Vista, hands down. Either ways, I recommend trying it for yourself before listening to all the haters (who for the most part never even tried it themselves). I've happily used Vista for something similar to this for almost 2 years, without a single issue. Connection caps are a non-issue for a home server. They pretty much prevent you from running a hosting company with it, but here you'll be limited by your internet connection WAY before that. Safety issues? Just stay patched, just like for any other version of any OS and you'll be fine. I don't see any problems with using a cheapo Vista box for that. It uses the new SMB2 stack, and it probably has a gigabit NIC, it's darn easy to administer, remote desktop is built-in (you can run any app on there too which can be quite handy), there's support for ever device you'd ever want to plug in, it's trivial to share devices like your printer(s) should you ever want to, you could use it to share your music library with WMP (and even use media center), and run every single app you've mentionned too. I can't really think of any reason NOT to (Win 2008 R2 would be nicer, but it's unecessary and not as cheap).

It's rather unlikely to be a RAM problem, but I'd still run memtest86+ to check it anyway. Ideally you'd check the RAID card's RAM too but that's a little trickier. First thing I'd do is check the SATA cables (and make sure they are the locking kind), and making sure I have the latest firmware on the RAID card along with the latest drivers for it (and Windows fully patched of course). There's also still the possibility of having one or more bad sectors on any of your drives (don't rely on SMART to let you know). It also could be caused by any piece of software that interferes with disk I/O, like an antivirus (or even malware). There's also the possibility that the error ID 55 isn't actually a "real" problem as seen here. It would also help knowing more about the particular problem, like if there are any other errors logged around the same time. There's a lot of possibilities which are FAR more likely than "my RAM flips bits randomly a billion times more often than it does in any other computer", and I'd say the odds ECC would fix any of this are right next to none (I'd bet good money it won't fix it)