MSNwar

I realize it went off topic, but I love this stuff Tris, thats the key, teaming up with other small businesses. Build a network of trusted individuals and the results can be unbelievable. Example. Before SD-RAM started falling in price I received a heads-up from an associate in Taiwan. That was just one day before I was going to place a large order. Few days later the bottom dropped out and I would have been out of a lot of money! Another example. I needed to build 12 PCs and the price break on 12 is not all that much. Another small time builder wanted to do exactly the same thing and was in the same situation. Together, we bought 24 mobos and saved a fortune to include buying a better model. OEM CPUs such as the Athlon 2 G are real hot right now. 12 for EURO 55.00 each.

The firt step in acquiring a resellers license is to become a legal business. In my case I have a Sole Proprietorship License. As a sole proprietor, you only need to obtain a business license from the county and/or municipality in which you operate. All state/county web siteshave the necessary information and forms to get started. I am out of Tennessee and here is a link to their web site Click Here it is very good at explaining the advantages and disadvantages of all the business models. After you have your license, go to the Microsoft OEM site and sign-up, it is free and you will become a Microsoft OEM System Builder. There you will find a list of authorized Microsoft Distributors to do business with. This is your Microsoft Reseller Membership link Click Here Visit all the manufacturer's web sites to join their reseller programs. Some manufacturers require a Reseller Certificate before they will do business with you because some (not all) states require the certificate. You use your business license id or tax payer id in conjunction with the application. Takes about a day and runs you $10.00 - $15.00 for each certificate. The advantage is taxes. You will be exempt from state taxes on purchases. However, you will be required to charge taxes on your sales, but this depends on which state you register your business. Your local Chamber of Commerce has all the details. Another advantage is in the event you do run into a defective part your source usually will send/deliver a replacement to you immediately. Often before you send them the defective part. Okay, here is a excellent wholeseller, my tip to you MA LABS When I build PCs I buy most of the parts from the above source to include the OEM software. My account rep and I have an agreement. I simply email a list of the extra parts I need with the original order and hold them for 30 - 45 days in case I need it to replace something. Then if I do not use them I return them in the original condition. Sometimes my rep allows me to keep them free of charge. Sometimes! lol. But I have been doing business with MA LABS for years and they know me. Sometimes I offer a choice of parts but only when I take advance orders. Usually, 3-4 weeks out. Normally, I build systems with the same motherboard, cpu, ram, drives, etc. Of course when you buy 12 of everything you get discounts that puts money in your pocket. I do not include mice and keyboards and at times modems. The later are more of a personal choice. For example, I have ADSL hardware and do not need a 56K modem. Without the cost of the 56K modem that saves your customers a few bucks. Some customers already have web cams, keyboards, monitors (I do not sell) and they just want a power house they can add their accessories to and be up and running within an hour or less. Lets talk if you need help getting started. Becoming part of a small network is essential in the long run.

I grabbed the first package for starters. We'll see how it goes

Check out http://www.cablenut.com The freeware software tweaks your registry. It improved mine. Then if you are having problems let us know.

I am going to purchase one of these Invision Forum Hosting Packages. What do you think? Setup Fee: $5.00 Monthly Fee: $8.00 Monthly Data Transfer: 5,000 MB or this one Setup Fee: $5.00 Monthly Fee: $20.00 Monthly Data Transfer: 20,000 MB Prepayment Discount Prepay for six months via PayPal, credit card, or e-check and receive a 10% discount off monthly prices and any setup fee waived. I will use it to answer questions for my site visitors, customers, post information like drivers for the PCs and parts I sell. It will not be a very busy site.

Forgot to post that it was 69%. Geek Certificate Played it again and it asks different questions. Got 61% second time

http://www.vnunet.com/geekometer Found this fun and thought you might enjoy it. Geek-O-Meter! Just how much of a geek are you? Pick an answer for each of the questions that follow and at the end we'll give you a detailed breakdown of your entire personality. But remember, you must answer truthfully or the snoopers from Microsoft will find out and rescind your XP licence. geek (noun, slang) Etymology: perhaps alteration of dialectal geck, from Low German gek, meaning fool. 1. Person accomplished in matters scientific or technical, or particularly single-minded. 2. Professional entertainer specialising in bizarre acts, such as biting the heads off live pigeons. 3. Person who carries more processing power about their person than existed in the entire world in 1979. 4. You. Don't try denying it. My results were: You are practically computer-literate, in an almost real sense. This could be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on whether you use your knowledge for good or for ill. Looking at your answers, I'd almost certainly say it was a bad thing. Be sure to get your Certificate at the end of the quiz http://www.vnunet.com/geekometer

Not sure how Tris does it, but I simply replace a defective part with the same or better part. About the same as a manufacturer's warrenty. The trick is to test it before you realease it and if there is a problem afterwards make it Top Priority. Also, have at least one extra of everything in the inventory for replacement purposes. Rarely, do I replace the whole PC, unless I have extra PCs on-hand. Personal reputation and a good web site for contact purposes and updated drivers etc goes a long way towards customer satisfaction and repeat customer trade. A good example is IBM's Members Area.

I thought about putting it on the news page, but since I wrote it for my site I did not think it would be acceptable. But it can be moved if you think it is appropriate? Glad you all like it and hope you have fun with it. :santa

I do not see any christmas decorations beside the recents. My resolution is 1024x768. Too much eggnog Tris? w00t

Beginners often install Gator because the web site they visit just makes it sound good. My wife does things like that all the time, lol.

Visit Microsoft for the full experience: Microsoft Windows XP Experiences Microsoft introduced four new web sites in November 2002 for the purpose of assisting Windows XP customers in getting the most from their PCs and other devices. The sites are changed and updated regularly with informative and entertaining how-to videos, top 10 lists, and tips and tricks to help users take advantage of their digital cameras, digital video cameras and digital music players. The web sites are organized as follows: Music & Video With Windows Media Player. This site instructs users on the fast and flexible playback features of Windows Media® Player, which make it easy to enjoy music and movies any time. The site also includes services offering premium entertainment. Home Movies With Windows Movie Maker. This site describes how to create and edit home movies in minutes using the new Windows Movie Maker 2. The site also teaches users how to share movies via the Web, e-mail, computer or CD. Communicating With Windows Messenger. This site helps users stay in touch with friends and family all around the world using Windows Messenger to exchange text messages instantly or even to see and hear each other on their computer screens. Digital Photography With Windows XP. This site helps users understand the features in Windows XP that make it easy to transfer pictures directly from a digital camera to the computer. The site also instructs users on how to organize and share photos. Also featured are the Windows XP Winter FunPack Downloads. Microsoft makes available four seperate Winter Packs to keep us busy with fun projects to do with Windows XP and our PCs. They include: Digital Music with Windows Media Player 9 Series Winter Fun Pack New skins, Auto Playlists, and Visualizations make it more fun to enjoy your music with Windows Media Player 9 Series. Digital Video with Windows Movie Maker 2 Fun Pack Check out this expansive collection of wintery sound effects, holiday music, titles, video titles, and cut scenes. Whatever the occasion, there’s something here that will help you make your home movies even more creative and professional looking. Digital Photography, Communications and Browsing Fun Pack Discover a fun set of Internet Explorer holiday favorites and use the Fun Pack templates to create custom greeting cards. Winter Fun Screensavers Check out these cool screen savers with vivid 3-D and interactive sound effects. "The Winter Fun Packs are nice with a hot cup of coco over a cold winter weekend." Microsoft Windows XP Experiences Enjoy :santa

Found this knowledgeable article at ExtremeTech.com that briefly explains how three different programs may assist in removing Gator and similar Ad-ware nuisances. Download, install, and run full scans and cleans with ALL THREE of these programs listed below. All will detect and remove gator to some degree, since it is among the top five most annoying things online, but they have different specialities. (if you are using Micro$haft's Internet Exploiter for your web browsing then trust me, you will be infected with a lot of different things!) One note I will add is that you should be prepared for them to find like 150 things in your system, most of these will be "cookies" - little chunks of info stored by different web sites, such as username/password, how many visits to the page, etc.. - these can all be safely deleted and are not really a danger to you, they build up over time if you are using IE. The things you are really looking for are FILES and REGISTRY KEYS that are reported as spyware, these are the ones to get rid of. PestPatrol and SpyBot-S&D might come up with a few other things on your system that you don't need to change, for example SpyBot detects "broken links" - shortcuts/icons that point to files that no longer exist - but these can't harm your system in any way. I recommend using Ad-Aware first (be sure to do the update before running the scan), this will get rid of most of your cookies and the main Gator components, then pestpatrol and lastly SpyBot. Pretty much anything that Ad-Aware finds should be wiped, if there is something there that you aren't so sure about, copy the logfile text and paste it into a post for user review here. To do this, when Ad-Aware finishes its scan, 1) click "View Log" or "Show Log"; 2) select all the output there and right-slick your selection, then choose COPY; 3) Paste (right-click, paste) into a reply to this message! I recommend posting the logs for the other two programs too, it may not be as easy as Ad-Aware though (will try them on here myself and add step-by-step instructions soon) but well worth it (if you just wipe everything that they bring up you may stop one or more programs from working, so better to leave your machine in its gator-infested state for a day or two longer rather than screwing up your current setup - just don't enter ANY personal or finance information on your computer during this time!!!! There are at least two ways I know of to hack through gator and steal all your passwords and other info, and I haven't even looked at the later mroe advanced versions. Sorry to blab on like this. Here are the links: ---------------- Ad-Aware 5.83 ---------------- Home Page: [ http://lavasoft.de/ or http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ ] Latest version of the program (Direct Link): [ http://ftp.pcworld.com/pub/new/utilities/s...ecurity/aaw.exe ] Latest reference file(*): [ http://www.lavasoft.de/aaw/binary/reffile.zip ] (*)UNZIP TO "C:\PROGRAM FILES\LAVASOFT AD-AWARE" BEFORE RUNNING SCAN. ------------- Pest Patrol ------------- Home Page: [ http://www.pestpatrol.com/ ] Latest version of the program (Direct Link): [ http://research.pestpatrol.com/downloads/e...tPatrolEVAL.exe ] --------------------------- SpyBot - Search & Destroy --------------------------- Home Page: [ http://security.kolla.de ] Latest version of the program (Download Page): [ http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en...n&page=download ] --------------------------- Good luck! - DaRcAntiX Technical / IT Support Education Queensland

I dont think he comes around here often if ever any more.. seems to be busy over at Techzonez... =Drew He is real busy right now, "Between Cheap Computers and Cheap Software" w00t

Oh yea, wear them inside out and save a few days wear and tear helps :sorcerer

The Santa Claus Hat on the MSFN Logo is a nice touch. :santa

yea, you got to be real brave to use that stuff these days.

yea I saw it but will wait for the DVD. So darn tired of crap quality.

Trailer looks real good. It is almost the same thing as the commercials on Sky. I can't wait for it to be released on DVD.

yea I think lite-on will be my next burner as I have heard nothing but good news about them.

COMPUTERISED scanners and "fuzzy logic" software have been harnessed by food scientists to yield the mathematically perfect pizza. The pizza of the future will have sauce spread evenly and lushly across its base and its mushrooms, ham, sweetcorn and other toppings will be positioned with millimetric accuracy, thanks to the culinary efforts of Sun Da-Wen and Tadhg Brosnan at Ireland's University College Dublin. The breakthrough was derived from digital snapshots of 25 pizzas which were then broken down and transformed into a mathematical formula to define the optimal pizza's base area, spatial ratio between toppings and circularity. The study is reported in next Saturday's New Scientist. It is published in full in a specialist publication, Journal of Food Engineering. The findings should be useful for ensuring quality control in pizza factories, enabling cameras to instantly pick out a pie with sparse toppings or which is skimpy or patchy on sauce. Source:News.com

Patrick Stewart in "Star Trek: Nemesis" Jennifer Lopez scrubbing floors, Rob Schneider swinging from poles and Captain Picard battling his clone — that's the new fare movie fans will have to choose from this weekend when "Maid in Manhattan," "The Hot Chick" and "Star Trek: Nemesis" hit theaters. "Nemesis" is the fourth "Star Trek" film to feature the "Next Generation" cast and the 10th movie in the franchise overall. Several early reviews are already hailing "Nemesis" as a return to form for the series, which hasn't produced a film since the poorly received "Star Trek: Insurrection" in 1998. In addition to a plot involving Romulans, a vampiric half-Reman cloned from Captain Picard called Shinzon, and a plot to destroy Earth, "Nemesis" also features the long-awaited marriage of Will Riker and Deanna Troi. "I think we did a wedding for many reasons," said Marina Sirtis, who plays Troi. "One, for the fans. [Two], it set up the movie, certain plot things. And three, it was a good way to start because it was the first scene that we shot. So we had a party for two days, and although we weren't drinking real champagne, we actually did have a real party." Wedding scene aside, "Star Trek: Nemesis" is far from a sentimental film. The Enterprise crew, after all, has that pointy-toothed clone to contend with. To properly play Shinzon, method actor Tom Hardy spent a lot of time studying the real-deal Picard, as brought to life since 1987 by Patrick Stewart. "I got every single tape from 'The Next Generation' that Paramount would give me, all the 'Next Generation' episodes and all of the films as well. And I watched those with scrutiny, scrutinizing his movements and how he talks, his slight moves, his shadow actions, stuff like that." Whether or not Picard — clone or otherwise — will be seen on the big screen again after "Nemesis" is up to fans. "The slogan says, 'A generation's final journey begins' — begins," Brent Spiner, who plays the android Data, pointed out. "So the gist of that is, if this movie doesn't make any money, we won't be coming back. It will be the final journey. If it does make money, it's just the 'beginning.' " "The Hot Chick" is the latest Rob Schneider movie from Adam Sandler's production company and sees the "SNL" veteran playing a teenage girl who wakes up one morning as a 30-something man. Also opening are J. Lo's romantic comedy "Maid in Manhattan" (see " 'Manhattan' Gives J. Lo Newfound Respect For Maids"), the school marching band flick "Drumline" (see "Dallas Austin Making Film About This One Time At Band Class..."), and in select cities Jack Nicholson's "About Schmidt." MTV.com

I have found that the best way to save money on underwear is to just wear it for a few days at a time. Saves wear and tear you know! w00t

I remember posting a news article at xperites a few months ago that reported how a woman got fooled by one of these mails. She worked for a large legal company where she had access to large sums of money. She actually deposited over $100 thousand of the companies money into the scammers bank account. Her ordeal lasted months and she actually received small sums of cash from the scammers, but never more than she gave them. She was discovered by the company she worked for and will be convicted.

8/16. Reminds me of when I was restricted to base for four weeks and we had to go out to the perimeter fence to see the girls for a few minutes R&R, he he.