Recent Posts

8126

Living Room / Super up your iPod!

« Last post by f0dder on October 07, 2006, 07:50 AM »

I personally think iPods suck, but this is fun


http://www.command-t...05/03/13/ipod-super/

8127

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 07, 2006, 06:50 AM »

You can find same oppinions about Nvidia drivers f0dder. You are talking about 2.5 year old drivers and a documented known problem (see ATI knowledge base) which I think still is relevant today for some cards. Depend on chipset as well perhaps. Anyway, we are in 2006, PCI-E, new stuff Both Nvidia and ATI have made crap cards and crap drivers. Not really much to do about it.

-dk70 (October 07, 2006, 06:46 AM)

I've had unstable nvidia drivers, but never something that resulted in massive data corruption... and yeah, the issue became documented, but they didn't check for it and they didn't fix it for at least 6 months... so fuck ATI, really.

8128

General Software Discussion / Re: Things We Could Do Without: Software Patents

« Last post by f0dder on October 07, 2006, 06:12 AM »

IMHO software patents isn't wrong per se. What's wrong is the ludicrously high lifetime of patents, and that they can be granted for extremely generic cases... and that often "prior art" isn't taken into consideration.

So... I'm against software patents as they look now, but I'm not against the idea in general. If somebody comes up with some really unique algorithm, I think it's fair enogh that they're granted a couple years patent on it - but not more, considering how fast-moving the software industry is.

8129

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 07, 2006, 05:41 AM »

I'm staying away from ATI for a while - their drivers suck. I had some very nasty problems because of ATI.

JavaJones: I don't see ghosting problems here - 8ms speed on one monitor, 12ms on the other. But I'm on 17" not 21", which probably means a lot. Games do look different than on a CRT, but it's only really noticable on fast moving stuff like FPS, where it doesn't really matter. And the monitors are so much nicer for coding, writing, browsing etc. Unfortunately TFTs have spoilt me, so now even 85Hz CRTs flicker to me :/. But unless you're doing graphics, screw CRTs

As for Dell... I've only good good experiences with them, but I've shopped for "corporate" PCs and haven't got a crapload of lame programs installed. Wouldn't be surprised if the screw over home users, just about every company does that . Oh, and Dell are available in multiple countries, so it's pretty easy to refer to

dk70: assemling a PC is easy-peasy, buying a pre-built gives you peace of mind and the option to say "shit doesn't work, fixit".

8130

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by f0dder on October 06, 2006, 06:40 PM »

There's a big speed difference if you use something like AdBlock(*) for firefox... but just blocking cookies? I don't think so.

(*): on a 512/128 line: FOR SURE. On 4096/512: yeah, but not that much.

8131

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by f0dder on October 06, 2006, 04:40 PM »

blocking cookies by default is a good recipe for not being able to navigate modern websites.

-mouser (October 06, 2006, 03:56 PM)

i have a huge host file, 42K entries and i have never had website nagivation problems. 99.99% of tracking cookies/sites/adverts are all blocked.

-kimmchii (October 06, 2006, 04:09 PM)

Again, the question is: why?

8132

Living Room / Re: College - what to do?

« Last post by f0dder on October 06, 2006, 04:35 AM »

Well, probably too late to chime in, but I also say "drop it", so...

I do have a thing to add, though: spend a little time each friday reading up on the subject, even though you aren't taking it. That should give you a head start next semester.

8133

Developer's Corner / Re: F*cks per source package and license

« Last post by f0dder on October 06, 2006, 03:48 AM »

There's a lot of swearing in the linux kernel source, and not very much in the NT... interesting, no?

8134

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by f0dder on October 05, 2006, 05:43 PM »

mouser, that's where the "paranoid" comes in (yeah, I personally find that interesting myself, but regular users don't really need it).

-f0dder (October 05, 2006, 05:09 PM)

Yeah... we're not all elite users like you!   

-Mizraim (October 05, 2006, 05:40 PM)

Heh, I don't need it either - in fact I don't run any firewall software now because I find it to be a nuisance, and I'm protected well by my NAT'ing router. (And I'm not elite, really.(I'm just an elitist))

8135

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by f0dder on October 05, 2006, 05:09 PM »

mouser, that's where the "paranoid" comes in (yeah, I personally find that interesting myself, but regular users don't really need it).

8136

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« Last post by f0dder on October 05, 2006, 03:39 AM »

One problem with the Microsoft firewall: if you don't run a limited user account, it's very easy to disable the firewall or "poke holes" in it. Easier than with other firewalls, since there's an API for doing it.

Outbound protection is nice, though it's mainly useful for paranoid people. What you really want to concentrate about is not getting bad stuff on your computer, once it's there it's too late anyway. So, outbound protection will only help you getting frustrated because of popups and non-working windows (SMB/CIFS) filesharing.

You really ought to have a router doing NAT anyway, and never forward all traffic, only the traffic you need. And then you kinda don't need an inbound firewall either.

Recent Kaspersky antivirus now has "Behaviour blocking" built-in, by the way - pretty useful tool.

8137

Living Room / Re: What's Your Favorite Gadget? Here's mine with a Discount - A Seltzer Maker

« Last post by f0dder on October 05, 2006, 03:30 AM »

There are 2 types of people in the world... those who ruin jokes, and those who don't ^_^

8138

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 05, 2006, 03:29 AM »

Fixed solutions are rarely best buy - even when they do offer choices there are limitations. Important to be aware of them - to get most value or even prevent buying wrong parts for what computer will be used for. You have to investigate a little.

-dk70 (October 04, 2006, 10:10 PM)

Unless you know what you're doing and are willing to spend a lot of effort, "boxed" solutions are quite a reasonable alternative though. Spend a bit extra, get a bit less for the money, but... peace of mind.

8139

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 04, 2006, 06:07 PM »

It might be problematic fitting an "artic cooler" cooled card in a micro-atx casing, they are somewhat larger than normal cooling solutions (I have one, and even though my case is fairly large, it does give some problems with regard to harddrives).

I'd only go for micro-atx for VERY low-power CPUs, like the VIA Epia. It certaily was NOT a good idea for a P4 celeron based system I built, runs way too hot for my liking.

As for power supply, it's far more important to get one with stable voltages than a high watt rating. My 400W is plenty for two optical drives, 3-4 harddrives, GF6600, dual-core AMD64. If you get a PSU with unstable voltages, well, your whole system stability will be affected - 500W won't help you much, then.

Building computers is a complex task, main reason I only build computers for myself, and direct other people to Dell and whatnot.

8140

Living Room / Re: Hooked!

« Last post by f0dder on October 04, 2006, 10:08 AM »

Floating-point is evil

~4.7 million hits.

8141

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 04, 2006, 07:39 AM »

Remember an LCD almost require you to run games at its native resolution, 1280x1024.

-dk70

Not really - in games you won't generally notice running at non-native resolutions, that's mainly visible when dealing with text. And I doubt you'll find any video cards, even integrated, that can't deal with that properly at native resolution

And yes if you had both a 17 CRT and 19 LCD plugged so you could compare you would pick 19".

-dk70

Personally I'd pick a 17" TFT with decent refresh rate, then add another when I got the cash. Two monitors rock, and 1280x1024 on a 17" is just fine.

------

Don't worry much about XP Pro vs. XP Home unless you know you need Pro. Iirc the differences are in some domaing logon stuff and support of EFS (encrypted NTFS files). There's a chart somewhere at Microsoft showing the differences. Both Home and Pro require activation and has "call home" crap, you only get rid of activation by a "corporate" or "volume license key" version, but you can't afford that

Unlike mouser, I'd definitely worry about PCIe vs. AGP. The price difference on a motherboard should be almost non-existant today, while AGP cards are getting scarcer and more expensive.

You won't need a dual-core processor right away, most games don't take advantage of it, and some even fail (unreal tournament engine games) until you tweak a bit. Dualcore does make the whole computer experience smoother, but unless you do heavy computational tasks it's a bit much of a luxury to pay for.

One thing you will also want...a BIG CASE...and plenty of PCI slots.

-app103

Agreed. A big case with good airflow so you don't get overheating problems.

8142

General Software Discussion / Re: windows explorer alternative that lets me edit .txt files within the prog itself

« Last post by f0dder on October 03, 2006, 08:54 PM »

What's the problem with using an separate editor?

8143

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 03, 2006, 06:26 PM »

Remember that Pentium4 uses a lot of power and runs pretty hot... not a problem per se, but a thing to consider.

And I definitely agree with mouser on the monitor issue, go TFT. Also no reason for both CD and DVD, DVD drives can read CDs as well.

8144

Official Announcements / Re: --> SEPTEMBER SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS - POSTED!

« Last post by f0dder on October 03, 2006, 05:17 AM »

I received a big box with the mail today, containing a tiny cody figurine

8145

Living Room / Re: Flash Game: Curveball

« Last post by f0dder on October 02, 2006, 07:31 AM »

14860 here... 3D pong, eh? Cute enough

8146

Developer's Corner / Re: API-Guide 3.7: A Windows API Programming Reference

« Last post by f0dder on October 02, 2006, 06:31 AM »

Darn, it worked a couple months ago

8147

Developer's Corner / Re: API-Guide 3.7: A Windows API Programming Reference

« Last post by f0dder on October 02, 2006, 05:47 AM »

Since KenR asked in PM, here's how to obtain the PlatformSDK, taken from the ASM community messageboard. No reason to be limited to 925 functions and a cruddy interface ^_^

Quoting Morris from the thread linked above:

The "template" URL for older PSDKs is:

http://download.micr...ate/win98mexp/en-us/build/FULL/PSDK-FULL.num.cab

Now, the build might be:
2601.0          (August 2001 edition)
3590.2          (November 2001 edition)
3639.1          (May 2002 edition)
3663.0          (July 2002 edition)
3672.1          (August 2002 edition)
3718.1          (October 2002 edition)
3790.0          (February 2003 edition)
2600.2180       (PSDK XP SP2 edition)

For each build, the num should be iterated from 1 till you get a cab file smaller than all the others (usually the cab files are 25MB in size).

The last PSDK with htmlhelp v1 is 3639.1 (May 2002 edition).

8148

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 02, 2006, 05:33 AM »

"Refurbished" has a bad sound to it, though. Especially "refurbished harddrive".

8149

Developer's Corner / Re: API-Guide 3.7: A Windows API Programming Reference

« Last post by f0dder on October 01, 2006, 07:02 PM »

Looks a bit impractical to me... I use the PlatformSDK from May 2002, afaik the last htmlhelp v1 release before MS switched to the crappy new htmlhelp system.

8150

Official Announcements / Re: --> SEPTEMBER SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS - POSTED!

« Last post by f0dder on October 01, 2006, 06:46 PM »

I only get ~1700 hits... but I did use quotes around the words