Recent Posts

376

Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by Lashiec on February 13, 2009, 08:58 AM »

That sounds kinda like PC Magazine or Extreme Tech reviews . Real hardware review sites are much more comprehensive, and they really need multipage articles considering the amount of text and graphs they can include in them.

377

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of GTAIV for PC [Ranting]

« Last post by Lashiec on February 13, 2009, 07:31 AM »

Um, the fact that your computer can cope with Crysis, which is a far more demanding game than GTA IV does not mean it would be able to run it at acceptable speeds. System requirements are there for a reason, and your computer is below even minimum requirements. Of course it does not change the fact that the PC port is riddled with very lousy programming, not that surprising considering that the console versions performed like crap as well (low unstable framerate, short viewing distances, etc.)

Apart from that, I agree with your review. The PC port is a slap in the face to gamers, with all those hoops to just launch the game just to play with another GTA (disclaimer: I always thought the franchise was WAY overrated). When you have excellent ports like Burnout Paradise or F.E.A.R. 2, it's simply not worth to invest a single cent in these trainwrecks.

378

Living Room / Re: Is World of Warcraft the only depression-proof industry?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 10, 2009, 07:28 AM »

A WOW subscription is cheaper than any of the other mentioned items, so duh

-f0dder (February 09, 2009, 12:40 PM)

They're also more satisfying, I think

It will be depression-proof as long as Blizzard does not screw up, or people gets tired of it and moves on to better things (or other MMOs). Currently it seems impossible but big MMOs had fallen in the past, and Activision's CEO is a money-whore. He may pull a StarCraft 2 in the future and shatter everything in a couple of months.

379

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 06-09

« Last post by Lashiec on February 10, 2009, 07:07 AM »

The way in which the launch of Latitude was reported by the mass media can only be described as a complete, scaremonger failure. Well, a few of them did an accurate and to the point report, but the rest...

380

Living Room / Re: New Ipod/ cleaning mp3s

« Last post by Lashiec on February 10, 2009, 07:03 AM »

I'll have to look into that, I would like the best quality practical, and I still want them in a common format to make them transferable/shareable. Any recommendations for settings/ format?

-Fred Nerd (February 10, 2009, 04:40 AM)

If you go lossy, MP3 would be the obvious option. AAC or Vorbis are other widely supported formats, although support in PMPs is more scarce (MP3 is simply ubiquitous). For lossless, it's either FLAC or WavPack. Or WAV, but it takes several more megabytes per file and it does not have tags.

381

Living Room / Re: Crash course in MUSIC: mp3/meta_Data/compilations/download_sites

« Last post by Lashiec on February 10, 2009, 06:55 AM »

With classical music I would imagine there are safe sites with free music out there (ANYone got any ideas on that one there?)

-tomos (February 09, 2009, 03:17 PM)

Deutsche Grammophon. On classical music, it does not get better than that, I think . Plenty of shopping options as well, including FLAC (w00t!)

382

Living Room / Re: Firefox getting forgetful

« Last post by Lashiec on February 10, 2009, 06:43 AM »

Try creating a new profile (Open a "Run..." box and type "firefox -profilemanager"), and see if the problem persists with a clean profile. It's probably due to the corruption of your Places database (where Firefox stores navigation history and bookmarks).

383

Living Room / Re: Crash course in MUSIC: mp3/meta_Data/compilations/download_sites

« Last post by Lashiec on February 09, 2009, 07:28 AM »

[Original post]

-tomos (February 07, 2009, 02:59 PM)

I use the following scheme:
 <Artist>\(<Year>) <Album>\<Disc Number>.<Track Number>. Track Title

Some renamers should be able to rename and even organize the files in directory trees (the one I use, ReNamer, surely does), but there's the problem of format support, and that you need another program to edit the tags, which most of the time also has the ability to rename the files according to the tags and the scheme you prefer. For options, refer to this thread

384

General Software Discussion / Re: What was it like to use Linux like back in 2000?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 09, 2009, 06:58 AM »

Hmh, ugliness >_<. In the looks department, Linux really came a long way. Except Knoppix, those ugly widgets are still everywhere.

I remember that back then, a friend of mine (older guy) was thrilled with Linux, and its level of customization. He always ranted about how cool was this one 'theme' (perhaps it was another thing) that made Linux looks like a space computer or something, very flashy (probably barely usable, anyway :P). He gave me a few tips on how to install SuSE on my back then brand-new computer (my first PC!), but never got to do it.

My older brother and his friends also loved Linux, and especially dabbling with KDE. It was a lot of work to make everything work, and they were learning every day for months (in their words), but it was worth it. Funny enough, now that Linux is much more usable and user-friendly, all of them are using Windows :D

385

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Lashiec on February 09, 2009, 06:42 AM »

So my point is this: I think (and this is really just an opinion), in the case of images and other media a hierarchical management system makes more sense.

-qforce (February 09, 2009, 05:00 AM)

Considering that you can assign tags (apart from other info) to several media formats and save them within the file, I don't think it does really make more sense. What's more, several apps used to view or manipulate media can parse that data and save it in a local database (only accessible by that app, though). Whether you bother to use those methods is another story.

Both methods are not mutually exclusive, and I use them without problems. Depending of the moment, it makes more sense to use one or another, but I don't think there's an optimal solution.

386

Living Room / Re: site:donationcoder.com [your username]

« Last post by Lashiec on February 04, 2009, 06:50 PM »

You need to improve your SEO abilities, or hire someone to do it for you

387

General Software Discussion / Re: XP SP3 blocks .NET security patches

« Last post by Lashiec on February 04, 2009, 06:44 PM »

One thing I forgot to comment is that .NET 3.5 SP1 slips an extension in Firefox without asking. Just for you to be in the know.

388

General Software Discussion / Re: Benchmarked: Ubuntu vs Vista vs Win7

« Last post by Lashiec on February 04, 2009, 06:37 PM »

So, how many mouse clicks do I save during the installation routine if I upgrade the computer?

389

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Lashiec on February 04, 2009, 06:20 PM »

It does not make sense at all. Starter is replaced by Home Basic in emerging markets (and no, it's not available in the rest of the world), and instead of killing Starter once and for all, they decide to bundle it with netbooks with such artificial limitations. People will flock to Linux in mass, or even worse for Microsoft, they'll keep XP, forcing them to continue support services for God knows how many time.

Meanwhile the nVidia ION chipset for Atom CPUs is capable of playing HD video without problems. And you say a netbook can't run more than three apps at a time? What a joke.

Now, despite this, no one is saying netbook makers will bundle the Starter edition with their systems, but Microsoft is supposedly targeting the market with this edition.

390

Living Room / Stop-motion videos

« Last post by Lashiec on February 03, 2009, 05:28 PM »

As I was getting up to date with my list of feeds, I saw two videos posted in one of the few blogs about design I'm suscribed to, that looked particularly interesting judging by their description.

The first one is amazingly cool, I love it. Called "Western Spaghetti", it shows a recipe for spaghetti with very particular ingredients.

The second one is a music video of a song by Oren Lavie^w called "Her Morning Elegance". The video shows that elegance, and the song is not bad.

Hope you like them
via Cuarto derecha

391

General Software Discussion / Re: XP SP3 blocks .NET security patches

« Last post by Lashiec on February 03, 2009, 03:34 PM »

I guess so. The next major version of Paint.NET will require it, so I would need to install it sooner or later. I rarely pause to think about installing updates or not, apart from reading the notes regarding possible issues, anyway

392

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Lashiec on February 03, 2009, 02:23 PM »

The thing is that, with or without IE (blergh, I prefer the U2 version) into Windows, the browser is losing market share every month, and even if they greatly fixed their ways with versions 7 and 8, I seriously doubt they will regain a considerable number of users.

WMP is also no threat to anyone, with iTunes and Winamp right there, and tons of others jukeboxes and players available and some being used in considerable numbers.

And finally, Microsoft moved Windows Live Mail and Movie Maker outside the OS, so that leaves them with practically nothing else, apart from maybe Media Center. So, unless mouser plans to sue Microsoft for the Start Menu search functions and the Snipping Tool, there's no much else to complain. Or I'm missing some critical app. Or (I hope not) Microsoft deliberately left a Trojan horse in Windows 7 without anyone knowing.

I'm more worried about some of the other things they're doing, like pushing Games for Windows down the throat of PC gamers, which makes them jump through hoops and hoops of nonsense using software that barely works. No wonder PC gaming is "dying".

393

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Lashiec on February 03, 2009, 01:55 PM »

What I don't really understand is why Apple doesn't come in for the same criticism with its inclusion of iPhoto and iTunes etc. I also don't really understand how Apple are allowed to restrict their product to their own hardware sales - they are after all selling operating systems separate to the hardware.

And what about Linux distros that are 'sold' bundled with Gigabytes of software. Surely they should play by the same rules and sell 'application free' products too. Free download distros could also be restricted to 'application free' ISOs so that users have to choose the applications they want.

-Carol Haynes (February 03, 2009, 01:27 PM)

Not enough market share to push the computing world in one way or another due to the inclusion of that software. While in the case of WMP, one could argue that the general crappiness of the main competitors (QuickTime and, especially, Real, which, BTW, were the main complainers) pushed the media player world in the Microsoft direction (until the marriage of the iPod and the iTunes), in the case of IE the inclusion really meant the web should accomodate Microsoft desires instead of the other way around. Thankfully, this has been totally reversed, and in this regard, the EU ruling comes too late, as Opera Software complaint. And I'll stop here before we get into politics discussing if Neelie Kroes is an US-business hater, a hero for the free market, or whatever.

After this short break, let's put the thread on the right path (:P) with an "unexpected" announcement

So, Home Premium or Professional? (I wonder if the former will include RDC this time).

394

Living Room / Re: Cleaning Inside the Case

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2009, 10:18 AM »

tinjaw recommends to shave the computer . Worked fine for me. In the past I also used the vacuum cleaner to clean the case, and microfiber cloths for the components, but I removed them prior cleaning.

And I use my fingers on difficult places. Gets you dirty, but hey, that's why they invented soap :-D

395

Living Room / Re: should intel concentrate on HD access instead of pumping up CPU Ghz?``

« Last post by Lashiec on February 01, 2009, 09:59 AM »

As various readers commented in that discussion, Intel makes the fastest disks around. And, coincidentally, they also make the fastest processors. Intel is a really big company, so they can easily focus their efforts in various fields, and still be at the top of all them, which mind you, it's what they're doing. Case closed :P

It should be said that even if Intel focused all its muscle on disks, it's practically impossible they could improve the access and data retrieval from them on a serious number overnight, radical improvements in technology take time. Not to mention it's impossible to have 1 TB of disk space with the access time of DDR3 RAM, you can't have short access time and big capacity at the same time with an acceptable cost for the customer, barring gimmicks like Gigabyte i-RAM or A-Card RAM Disks (which are not even as spectacular as they could be, blame bus speeds). Besides, there are several other SSD makers which are continuosly improving their disks performance, promising even more impressive results than Intel offerings, so don't throw all the weight on Intel shoulders.

Also, the GHz race has long died down, CPU speed has remained flat for a couple of years now (including AMD CPUs), yet they continue to improve performance via other methods, whether the task is single-threaded or multi-threaded. CPU speed is not the sole variable by which CPU performance is measured, and actually it rarely plays an important role nowadays.

396

Living Room / Re: Drive Dock: Turn bare drives into floppies

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2009, 06:34 AM »

Looks similar to this Thermaltake unit, which is more discreet.

397

General Software Discussion / Re: XP SP3 blocks .NET security patches

« Last post by Lashiec on January 31, 2009, 05:48 AM »

OK, seems this is fixed. Automatic Updates offered me yesterday .NET 3.5 SP1 (a gigantic download, BTW), so apparently security patches for .NET are again being pushed through the update system.

398

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout

« Last post by Lashiec on January 22, 2009, 01:37 PM »

Hmmm, Last.FM servers have been pretty shaky during the last few days (at one point foobar2000 did a submission of 12 cached tracks), so perhaps sooner or later you'll have to add track caching. That is, if the users also use Last.FM extensively, otherwise maybe you won't get any complains :)

399

General Software Discussion / Re: Fast Dial Warning for FF

« Last post by Lashiec on January 18, 2009, 01:28 PM »

I see. So the whole issue is more of a slip on part of the reviewing team than simply a glaring hole in the system, which makes everything more forgivable. Anyone makes a mistake every now and then, so probably the guy who approved the update will be questioned and punished accordingly, and the reviewing guidelines revised. But nothing really serious, which still does not mean some client-side measures should be in place, like Martin proposes.

400

General Software Discussion / Re: Fast Dial Warning for FF

« Last post by Lashiec on January 18, 2009, 01:02 PM »

Now that still doesn’t absolve the user of any responsibility in being careful with their Firefox-related downloads. But it probably gave a lot of users a false sense of security - a feeling that if the Mozilla Add-ons group was monitoring all extensions and themes carefully that any posted at the Add-ons site would be safe. Here's the reviewing guidelines that the AMO editors use. Again, I am not suggesting that users are not ultimately responsible for their own browsing safety, but obviously none of the editors at AMO took a look at this extension's updates at all or they would never have allowed it to be posted at AMO.

-J-Mac (January 16, 2009, 11:04 PM)

So, do AMO editors also check updated extensions or just new submissions? Because the thing changes depending on the approach.