Messages

1

Official Announcements / Re: New DonationCoder, New Ideas

« on: January 20, 2018, 08:34 PM »

"... be nice if we could revive the old idea of DC "columnists" who would each write...".
Monthly would even be welcome.
I really need to check in more often.
Started in 2007.
My loss.

2

Living Room / Re: Be prepared against ransomware viruses..

« on: October 07, 2016, 10:17 AM »

Thanks for all the tips and info.  I have tried most of them.  I do not think that BIOS chips are replaceable such as they were in past on my Fatality board.  I do not think that my beeper is hooked up.  It is Antec case so probably has one.  I will check.  Mobo fan starts and then stops so I have replacement coming in 2 days.  Will get new battery, clean video card and remove second card, hook up one monitor, keyboard and mouse maybe.  There is the old type keyboard plug in option on this board so I may try that.  Will update in several days after replacement fan comes.  Thanks again.

3

Living Room / Re: Be prepared against ransomware viruses..

« on: October 06, 2016, 09:58 PM »

I do not find any information on dealing with ransomware once it is installed. There are no posts (on donation coder or any search engines ) of ransomware being sophisticated enough to lock up keyboard at bios and backup bios level.  Without keyboard I cannot navigate bios and run any repair disks.    I removed battery for two days since there are no longer pins to short and now am getting blank screen.  Motherboard Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3.  Win 7 64.  I am behind NAT router and had stopped running spyware, AWG etc.  Only Windows Defender.  Hate to admit it but because of VERY unusual circumstances I granted remote control w/o realizing it.  Yeh.  Dumb, dumb, dumb! Any ideas?

4

General Software Discussion / Re: Programs you can use during a financial meltdown!

« on: October 10, 2008, 08:52 AM »

Reference original topic:

Not a program as such but a web site:

Hemlock Society
http://www.compassionandchoices.org/

5

Living Room / Re: Amazon's Kindle eBook Reader

« on: December 08, 2007, 06:43 PM »

Kindle sold out. Price on EBay $700 to $1100.New books are $10. Text books $70-$100. I didn't see much in the 25 cent to $5 range in their 10000 books available. Browsing what books available very difficult. After seeing a video demonstration I was thinking of getting one. Now after seeing the price structure of downloads I am no longer interested. As a dedicated library user and supporter these prices scare me. Be good for executives, students, travelers and home bound individuals. And for those with money. I WOULD like to have one!

6

General Software Discussion / Re: ghacks post: "Why I decided to uninstall my Antivirus software"

« on: December 08, 2007, 06:33 PM »

I shut off spyware on older machines.  With 2GB memory and dual core CPU almost the norm I question if leaving virus/spy/malware installed and turned on to cause any problem at all? It doesn't seem to on my systems.

I feel much safer with Sandboxie when getting off the safe paths.  The paid version, which costs very little, is much easier for me to use.

7

Living Room / Re: these new cheap core 2 due laptops - any good?

« on: November 05, 2007, 10:37 PM »

well, i paid $750 -$50 instant rebate plus another mail-in rebate of $150, so, $500 for my first laptop? not bad, this was an Office Depot deal. although for my next one will DEFINITELY be a dell. hopefully they still offer a choice of Ubuntu or XP nex year!

-jammo (November 04, 2007, 11:12 PM)

I get sales junk from Dell several times a week. Was very surprised today to see a Dell 14" vista notebook for $599.00.
http://configure.us....oc=bqdwj4a&s=bsd

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Living Room / Re: these new cheap core 2 due laptops - any good?

« on: November 05, 2007, 10:13 PM »

Look fine, and smooth enough once started, but feels too heavy - but I feel the same running Vista on my AMD64x2 4400+/2gig/GF7600. I chose the standard battery pack for the lenovos (higher cell-count ones are available), last around an hour and a half doing real work.

-f0dder (October 20, 2007, 05:55 AM)

I am running Vista Business on AMD64X2 4600 and one GS 7300 and 2GB memory - identical to fOdder's machine.  This machine has a 10,000 Raptor Hard Drive and is the SMOOTHEST, most comfortable OS I have ever used for browsing.  Everything serious gets done on my XP Pro.
As was mentioned earlier, the SPEED of Hard drives is something that never occurred to me. For a battery powered laptop it would seem extremely important as long as there were not significant power requirements.

9

General Software Discussion / Re: Have any web-based applications replaced desktop apps for you?

« on: October 17, 2007, 06:26 PM »

Firefox, Del.icio.us, Google Apps and OpenOffice(work in OO. transfer to .Doc) are all I require for many many computers and OS's. A dumb terminal with subscription service would be perfect if priced reasonably. I have promoted this idea for thirty years.  It was tried in France.
Anything important I make a paper copy of.
All financial and personal stuff kept on separate computer that is NEVER connected to net.

10

General Software Discussion / Re: 13 Reasons Why Linux Won't Make it to a Desktop Near You

« on: September 27, 2007, 11:33 AM »

This seems like an OK thread to ask WHY does one have to use terminal/konsol?  Is a windows-like install difficult because of so many different Linux flavors or differences in Intel and AMD architecture or all the above or some other considerations?

11

Living Room / Re: Microsoft patches applied - EVEN WHEN AUTOUPDATE IS OFF

« on: September 27, 2007, 01:44 AM »

Anyone who has had their operating system shut off when they were relying on it can attest to the ensuing panic and sense of helplessness.  This has occurred to me three times recently on visa and xp systems.  All were legal but I made errors in partitioning and repair.  Lost one system entirely.  If you make a mistake with Linux you just start over.
My thought here, I think, is that the complete LOSS of control over a major investment really makes one think about how much control and potential control MS  has over our lives.

12

Living Room / Re: Forum Signature Spam: Let's discuss how to handle..

« on: September 27, 2007, 12:28 AM »

housetier posted while I was posting.  Because of abuse I have seen as a moderator and user I would have to join housetier in the no images, banners things.  I also agree with the five line limit although that would cut off my gaming signature which I display for one day every three months.  Might need more discussion on the five line limit as that cuts down your current sigs by 50%.  It's OK from my perspective/experience.

13

Living Room / Re: Forum Signature Spam: Let's discuss how to handle..

« on: September 27, 2007, 12:18 AM »

I use to HATE signatures.  I like them now but turn them off after I associate them with everyone's name.  The last several hours here I have not noticed any that rattle me.  jgpaiva has largest I have seen and it is OK.  If it stretched across entire page and was a color photograph or if it was animated I would immediately go looking for shut off button.

14

General Software Discussion / Re: 13 Reasons Why Linux Won't Make it to a Desktop Near You

« on: September 26, 2007, 10:14 PM »

This week I experienced the joys of freespire, Linspire($50), and Linux Mint  all claiming to have one-click program installations.  Mint had nothing of interest.  Liked freespire so I bought Linspire for $50 in a desperate attempt to get netzero.deb loaded for dialup access.  When I purchased Linspire 6.0.0 they neglected to inform me that their one click CNR access isn't available yet!  In order to resolve problem I changed ISP providers(which I didn't want to do) , loaded Ubuntu , and was on line in an hour.
In the last year I have spent 300 to 500 hours trying to learn Linux(only recently did I get a book - Ubuntu for non-geeks) and I still don't know nothing.
90 to 95% of American computer users are NOT going to find linux an alternative as it is.

15

General Software Discussion / Re: XP or Vista user — take the poll!

« on: August 10, 2007, 08:34 PM »

I voted for Vista since I already purchased.  If I can sell that computer I will only use XP Pro, mac and Linux.
I prefer XP and think MS ripped me off on Vista Business.
I keep telling people that I am waiting for the Vista genie to appear on my screen, wave his/her wand so that all of my Vista expectations are met.  Don't think it is going to happen.  Very very disappointed.

16

ProcessTamer / Re: Process Tamer Update Coming -- Express your feature requests here!

« on: April 22, 2007, 04:54 PM »

Worked fine on my XP Sp2 with controlling Firefox and opera which I run at same time.
Then I played with it and had to disable it.  I do not have lower area of config box with the reset button shown in help?
Copied settings in example(help) and working now.  Where is my default settings button?

17

General Software Discussion / Re: Anybody know of a background traffic monitor?

« on: April 22, 2007, 04:07 PM »

One program that could help is Firefox add-on NoScript.  Especially with dial up.  You think you are connected to say ebay but four other sites ride along as part of package.  I use it to restrict flashing ads on ebay and other sites.  Somewhat of a pain to use it would be better than being bogged down.