Topics

1

Living Room / Power supply and SATA

« on: May 25, 2010, 09:57 AM »

Greetings folks,
I hope this is in the right forum, I couldn't find any category that fit my topic.
Its been a long, long time since I've visited.  My disabilities have gotten me down and I've had a hard time getting back to my favorite hobby, computers.  This brings me to why I am bothering you today.  I recently bought a new HD for my computer.  I have a SATA HD and replaced it with a 500GB HD.  I had intended on using the old HD as a backup but when I cracked the case I found that while the mobo had a couple extra SATA connections and I had purchased a SATA cable, my power supply only has two power connectors for SATA, one is being used by my DVD burner and the other by the HD.
The power supply has several of the old four pin power connectors but no extra SATA power cord.  Is there any way to convert one of the four pin connectors to a SATA connector or do I just have to spring for a new power supply?
Thanks.

2

Living Room / A Code writer writes a book.

« on: July 08, 2008, 12:44 PM »

I just read an interesting article in Time magazine about a coder who has written a best seller.  Author David Wroblewski has written a novel titled  The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.  The Time article didn't really review the book, it discussed Mr. Wroblewski's method of writing and the difference between writing programs and writing fiction.  Its a short but interesting article.  I haven't read the book so I can't speak to his talents as a writer but it is his first book and it made the best seller list.
   The article is titled: 
A Software Dude Is a Best Seller
Tuesday, Jul. 08, 2008 By JOSH QUITTNER

3

Living Room / Microsoft extends XP--for budget laptops only.

« on: April 03, 2008, 05:06 PM »

http://Microsoft ext... budget laptops only

On a forum topic concerning killer apps I mentioned that I understood the definition of a killer app as software that was so desirable that it encouraged people to upgrade in order to run it.  In every case I know of it was a game that demanded an upgrade of the hardware.  Vista is the first time I've heard of an OS straining hardware enough to force upgrades.  Microsoft really screwed the pooch on this one.  Until there is some serious software out there that will run only on Vista, there is little chance of people upgrading their computer just to run an OS.  Sadly, until there is enough of an installed base, who is going to write a killer app for the Vista?

4

General Software Discussion / Video Accelerator

« on: February 18, 2008, 09:41 PM »

A friend of mine just sent me a link to this site:   http://www.videoaccelerator.com/ 


I've searched the forums and found no mention but perhaps one of you are familiar with the product.  Apparently it is from the folks who developed DAP, which I used back in the dial-up days.  They say it will speed up broadband so that streaming video plays much smoother, with no hiccups or skips.  They also keep a record of your video viewing so you can return to a video easily.  If nobody has any experience with it, perhaps I'll give it a go.  They also offer a Pro version that they say will do the same for your iTunes downloads--for a fee.

5

General Software Discussion / Apple software recommendations?

« on: February 02, 2008, 11:13 AM »

Greetings,
I'm quite new to the forum and have been trying to read all the forum posts to catch up with things but I've come up with a question and can't find anything related in the forums.  My sister owns a Mac and a digital camera.  She likes to send around pictures she's taken but she sends the original image that is usually a meg or more in size, which isn't real convenient for some in the family that are still in dial-up mode.  I wrote her and suggested she convert the image to a more manageable size.  She said she doesn't have a program that will do that for her.  I went to Tucows and found a couple of free programs that got good user reviews but I thought I'd ask you folks that use Macs and see if you had some suggestions for her. 
She needs something fairly user friendly as she's not real computer literate.
Thanks for your help.