Zxian

@teqguy - Ever heard of a guy called John Nash? He basically just said exactly what you did, only from an economics point of view. Companies could drive prices up if they worked together. In terms of quality, the same should hold (if everyone is nice and worked together). Unfortunately this just isn't how the world works. As for the large amounts of RAM... I've installed Diskeeper on my girlfriend's parents computer (which only has 128MB of RAM), and it runs just fine for them. The 5% of RAM usage so that they don't have to worry is completely acceptable by their and my standards. Don't try to tell me that I should teach them how to use their computers because it's simply not worth my time or theirs. Give them a system that works and takes care of itself, and they'll be happy for years to come. Sure it's not a gaming system like Jeremy's or ripken's, or a mobile workstation like my laptop, but it does what they need it to - surf the web, check e-mail, write documents, etc etc etc. They don't need anything more. As for keeping an application running in the background, if you've got the resources (i.e. you don't notice it during your average use), why NOT keep it running? That way, it's there when you need it and startup time is zero. Let's take Photoshop as an example. If you could keep Photoshop loaded into memory without any downside (which would be hard on just about any system), why wouldn't you? It would keep you from waiting 20 seconds each time you wanted to used it. If I could have every program I use loaded into memory with no downside, I'd take it. There's always the axiom - unused RAM is wasted RAM. If Windows XP wasn't as smart as it is with memory caching, then you'd definately notice things slowing down when you keep closing and opening programs. All these "what if" comments are somewhat off-base, since that's simply not how things work! We have disk defragmenters because we're dealing with physical hard drives, not flash memory or RAM or whatever else. Hard drives are still miles slower than RAM, and for the next few years at least, they will be.

Why not compare by price, and not "clock speed". How would you determine if two completely different CPU's have the same 'specs'? Once you go above the 'average' computer requirements, the (performance gain)/price drops pretty significantly for AMD chips. Sure you can blow $500 on a CPU, but how will it be 150% better than a $200 CPU?

25W and 35W, eh? According to Notebook Hardware Control, I'm discharging my battery right now at 23W, with full screen brightness and wifi on. Just turning screen brightness down makes it 18W, and wireless off makes it 16W. I have never once seen an AMD system match these numbers. The great thing about the Intel Core Duo chips is that they've got the exact same power requirements as my Sonoma core. The bottom line is that when it comes to low power consumption, Intel wins. Just for the record, I played Civilization 4 this weekend for 2h and 15mins on battery. That's with full screen brightness, and decent game speed. I'd love to see an AMD system be able to match that kind of battery performance.

I'd also say the free version of NetLimiter. I've got it on my desktop at home so I can see what each app is using, and how much total bandwidth I've used (since my ISP is stupid and caps usage per month... )

Just for everyone's reference, the Windows Defragmenter: a ) Does not run on its own in the background. It will defragment and re-allocate files associated with the Windows Prefetcher from time to time, but it will not automatically defragment all of your hard drives automatically. This is one of the new features that Microsoft stated it would try to include in Vista. b ) Deal with any sort of intelligent file placement unlike PD, DK, or O&O. It'll just try to make the files whole again. If there isn't enough space for the file, then it just moves on to the next one. c ) Does not give very good information about what it's doing. A proper GUI will give you some information about what's going on. That's why it's called a Graphical User Interface - it allows you to interface with the program and extract information. d ) Does not do a good job! I remember that I once had a "temp" drive where I used to just copy everything, from CDs, the internet, my downloads, etc etc etc - 20 GB of stuff. I had forgotten to run the Windows defragger on it (this was before I had heard of PD or DK or O&O). So I ran it... before defragmentation - 33% fragmented, after - 22% defragmented. I figured "It might need another go", so I ran it again - 22% fragmented after again... and again... and again. I ended up copy all the files to CD (I didn't have a DVD-burner back then), and then formatting the drive! Also, the argument about continuously needing to defragment itself... how would the files related to the program become fragmented again? Sure, the first time, you need to defrag another 15MB or so of files. For me, that's 0.1% of my hard drive space - not a significant amount. Unless they were modified, overwritten, or changed in any other way, they'll stay right where they are. Fragmentation only occurs when files are created or changed - not read. As for your defragmentation habits, sure that's fine, but ask the average user (i.e. anyone on the street) if they would rather deal with defragging themselves, or use 1-2% of their RAM to have the system take care of itself. The single largest selling point with most maintenance/security software is the "automatic" part - i.e. you don't have to do anything. If you're nit-picky about 5MB of RAM, then you should really re-think about how modern computers and operating systems work (I'll give you a hint - caches, caches, and more caches - it's all in memory). I've got PerfectDisk on my laptop, and Diskeeper on my desktop at home. Reason I use those two and not the same? The one feature that Diskeeper has that PD doesn't - "Set it and Forget it". I've never once had to manually run fragmentation on my desktop at home since I installed Diskeeper. The concept of scheduling seems a bit odd to me, since there's not much point in defragging EVERY week if the system files haven't changed. If PerfectDisk came out with a similar feature, I'd install it at home in an instant. On my laptop however, I only run PerfectDisk every 3-4 weeks. My files don't change that much, and after enough time spend infront of this 15.4" screen, I've got enough of a "feel" for when it's time to defrag. Whatever you use will probably do the job for you. If one is "better" than the other - I have yet to find a completely unbiased third-party real-world test to prove this. For the record, Raxco should be ashamed of letting that system get over 100,000 fragmented files. The whole point of a defragmenter is to keep things in check. Diskeeper's methods are completely different from PerfectDisk - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If they can keep fragmentation at bay by doing several lightweight passes, then it's just as good (if not incrementally better) than doing one big-a** "here's everything" pass that PerfectDisk does. As for time spent - the defrag tools will ALL take time to scan over your files - fragmented or not. If the disk has already been defragmented with PD or O&O or whatever else, what beneficial information can you get from the time taken to run a seemingly useless defrag pass with the Windows built in defragmenter. Unless one program takes significantly longer than another, there probably isn't much point in dealing with this. By the way, I didn't mean this post as a personal attack, but just as a different point of view on the subject. I really don't see any reason to tell someone that they're wrong for using a particular program. I'd just like to get most of the facts straight so that people have the ability to make an informed decision. Oh how I wish, I wish, I wish that I could install Windows on ReiserFS...

The question is a bit hard to figure out, but... Is it that when you try to make the video "Full screen", you get a black screen with the regular sized video in the middle? If you're using an LCD, or if this is a laptop, check your video drivers to see what they're set to do when in fullscreen mode. They may be set to "centered timings" or something of the sort. Also, I had put the [how-to] tags in the XP Forums for guides (i.e. This is a guide on how to do *blah*), not to ask for help on how to do something. Let's just try to keep some consistency.

If you have to ask that question, I don't think it's a good firewall. To me, a good firewall is one that when something comes up that requires your help: a ) Tells you about the event - detailed information including application name, port number, destination IP, etc etc etc b ) Gives you a list of options as to what to do c ) Blocks the application until you've given the 'OK' I used to be a big fan of Sygate, but I've been trying Outpost for a while and it seems to be doing the job. The built in DNS Cache and ad-blocker are pretty nice features as well. I had it on "Rules Wizard" for about a week when I first started it, and then once I had configured most of the rules, switched to Block Most. This is mainly just because I didn't want to be bothered any further, and because the tray icon is prettier that way... The only thing I wish Outpost had was a button for "add rule". You click, select the application, and then configure the rule. That instead of going in, finding the application settings page, and then editing the rules... Just a note - the interface of Outpost isn't for everyone. It's deinfately something that takes some getting used to, and most people just want an "OK" or "not OK" when they open the window.

Makes three of us with the broken link. By the way - I recommend NOD32. All of the good reasons, and very very few of the bad.

No, no, and NO! Do you have ANY idea how much of a hassle it causes for the average user if they were to remove IE from Windows? Take a second and step back from your own technical knowledge, and compare that with your average person at the local "free wireless" coffee shop. If they're running Windows XP, think about the chances that: a ) They know about nLite b ) They've done any sort of system modification c ) They've got a package based security setup d ) They care Telling the average user (or even a more advanced user) that they should potentially cause compatibility issues on their computer is just a bad idea. The website that I need to use to log in at my university NEEDS IE. Doesn't work in Firefox, doesn't work in Opera, and doesn't work in Safari (p***es the hell out of Mac users). Long of the short of it - it's a bad idea to suggest removing IE. There are SO many parts of Windows that you apparently don't use that rely on IE - removing it would break them and probably void a large chance of them being able to find online help (aside from the nlite forum). How come I never got spyware or adware using IE? What N1K said...

USB 2.0 issue? I heard about something, but that only applies when devices are plugged in, doesn't it? As for the Core Duo having diminished battery life, my friend just bought a Dell Inspiron E1705 (the 17" model) with the 1.83GHz Core Duo, and he gets at least 5 hours of battery life with average use (med screen brightness, wi-fi on). From what I've heard, AMD isn't aiming to be anywhere near that mark with any of their laptop platforms.

Well... sorta. There are things that you really need to be careful with in C++ that Java takes care of for you. For example, memory management is much more "hands on" in C++. Java has the garbage collector that cleans out your dynamically allocated memory for you, while in C++ you need to explicitly release that memory (otherwise you get a memory leak). Also, there's the whole consideration of pointers that is completely absent in Java. I would suggest reading up on these. They're pretty powerful in some applications in ways that are much more efficient than using big arrays or other data structures.

Wow... this is a lot better than I had originally hoped. Thank you all very much for the help. I really should start learning VBS. gunsmokingman - where did you pick up VBS? Any good online tutorials? I know that someone posted a few links to some here a while back, but that post was probably close to a year ago.

I'd say the Intel Core Duo in either case. Your main performance boost when it comes to gaming will come from your video card - chances are both CPUs will be able to handle about the same. The Core Duo is a pretty rock solid setup for any user. And puntoMX... why not get a 9-cell battery? That's what I've got (with my Sonoma core).

oOoo... this looks helpful. Thanks BeenThereB4.

I'm trying to find a way of running 7-zip to archive my "My Documents" folder and store it in a file that contains the date (and possibly time) in the filename for quick reference of when the last backup was made. The "date /T" command in XP provides the date, but the string contains slashes, which XP doesn't like for filenames (for obvious reasons). Any leads as to how to do this would be appreciated. Even just an example of how to make a .txt file with the date as part of the filename. Thanks in advance.

@wolf74481 - His problem is with Windows, not Frontpage. The problem occured after installing frontpage, but deals with WinXP. Topic stays here.

Moved to nLite Add-Ons.

Moved to Software Hangout.

In my desktop screenshot, I'm using the RoyalFour theme, AveDesk, and Smaurize. The background image is just something I found from Final Fantasy X. PM me if you want specifics. I'm actually running Windows 2003 in that screenshot, since I get it free from my university, so you can see that most of this stuff works in Win2k3 as well as XP.

Wikipedia my friend... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC One of the big reasons why XP will not run on the SPARC processor is because it is a RISC architecture, while XP is compiled for CISC architecture, specifically IA32 - aka X86. For a comparison of the two, read over the following two articles. RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer CISC - Complex Instruction Set Computer

A post only gets bumped up to the top when someone writes something new. Don't unnecessarily bump your own post.

This question was asked a while ago... still no answer to it. Here's a link to the old thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=46660&hl=

WRT54G - HyperWRT+tofu - Link of WRT54GS or WRT54GL - HyperWRT+Thibor - Link I've had the tofu13c build running on my WRT54G for quite a while now and it's nothing short of fantastic.

My Intel wireless NICs don't have any problems staying connected to Linksys routers. Neither does mine... My girlfriend and I both have Intel PRO 2200 cards, and I know that Linksys and D-Link cards have also connected to my network. No problems whatsoever...

YOu can actually open up notebooks to see what's inside, if the manufacturer made the wifi card a user accessible device. But that's beside the point. You should check the device properties in device manager. If it's the Intel PRO 2100 card, then there's no bluetooth. If it's something else, Google it and you'll probably find the specs.