Recent Posts

901

General Software Discussion / Re: Cause of Vista crashes

« Last post by Lashiec on April 01, 2008, 05:41 PM »

I have had about 5 crashes on Vista since I got it. All related to ATI drivers. The drivers are good, but they update them so freaking much, and have this totally crap update system (word of mouth/luck). You never have the latest drivers!

-wreckedcarzz (March 31, 2008, 07:35 PM)

The unwritten rule with Catalyst, and probably with most complex driver packages, is that once you find a release that looks stable, stick with it, unless the newer version addresses the problems of a certain game, improves general performance, or implements a nice new feature.

And since when does Catalyst have an update facility?

902

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by Lashiec on April 01, 2008, 05:37 PM »

Hey, a Spanish webcomic! Bookmarked!

903

General Software Discussion / Re: Cause of Vista crashes

« Last post by Lashiec on March 31, 2008, 06:29 PM »

Well, I do not approve nVidia's stance, but actually the SATA specification allows that. I do agree that it should be disabled by default.

904

General Software Discussion / Re: Good video codec for playback on older machines.

« Last post by Lashiec on March 31, 2008, 06:22 PM »

Try with CCCP first, and ignore the rest of the codecs. K-Lite packs too much in it, and 99% of the time you won't need so much extra functionality. You can also try with mplayer, VideoLAN, GOM Player or KMplayer, just to name the ones which pack their own codecs, and don't use DirectShow.

As for the encoding side of the question, video encoding is not my thing

905

Living Room / Re: Good Names for Your Child :)

« Last post by Lashiec on March 31, 2008, 06:15 PM »

Oh, that explains why app opened that cooking blog

906

Living Room / Re: Got to Love Flickr

« Last post by Lashiec on March 31, 2008, 06:11 PM »

Interesting photos, there is quite some talent in Flickr, and the fact that the photos are CC-licensed (and don't have those giant watermarks like some other photography site) is a huge advantage. The only drawback is that, being so humongous, it's quite difficult to find the best works.

907

Living Room / Re: Upgrading Video and Power Supply on an Dell XPS 400

« Last post by Lashiec on March 30, 2008, 01:05 PM »

Personally it seems highly unlikely to me that they would be using proprietary power connections.

-mouser (March 30, 2008, 11:31 AM)

Well, I once considered a Dell computer, but after looking at the components layout, it looked absolutely non-standard to me.

Besides, a Google search shows some people complaining about third-party PSUs not fitting in Dell computers, Dells claims they don't have a more powerful model for Josh's computer... basically, they're shouting: "You should buy another computer!", either because it's true or they're trying to confuse the costumer (after all, they sell GeForce 8800-equipped computers).

908

General Software Discussion / Re: Cause of Vista crashes

« Last post by Lashiec on March 29, 2008, 09:47 AM »

Out of curiosity do NVIDIA and ATI provide the drivers on Mac systems or are they written by Apple or a third party?

-Carol Haynes (March 29, 2008, 04:09 AM)

Good question. I ignore the answer

909

Living Room / Re: Computer will not start!

« Last post by Lashiec on March 28, 2008, 09:16 PM »

Actually, I was asking which PSU Deozaan has, but I think that if you face computer problems in the future (I hope not!), lack of power won't be one of those

910

Living Room / Re: Computer will not start!

« Last post by Lashiec on March 28, 2008, 08:59 PM »

So, which is your PSU?

911

Living Room / Re: Made the JUMP! --- X-STATIC About it!

« Last post by Lashiec on March 28, 2008, 08:48 PM »

Hehe, after reading the title, I thought you made the JUMP to Vista

Congratulations, I hope your new adventure alone is highly successful

912

General Software Discussion / Re: Cause of Vista crashes

« Last post by Lashiec on March 28, 2008, 08:43 PM »

Well, that chart is only numbers, and there are quite a few variables at play to explain those percentages, most of them are pinpointed in the Ars' article linked at DownloadSquad.

It's well known, though, that nVidia had a rough time updating the ForceWare package of drivers to work with Vista and, at the same time, to properly support its new 8xxx generation of graphic cards (DX 10), which were released more or less at the same time than the new Windows. ATI didn't had those problems, as the current generation at the time was the Radeon 1xxx (DX 9), which already had its share of development by then, and the newer 2xxx parts (DX 10) were released in May of 2007. Maybe ATI adapted itself to Vista better than nVidia (in general, Catalyst got better under the umbrella of AMD than before), but this is something to be considered as well. Essentially, they got lost in the translation :)

Don't Apple use nVidia and ATi cards? Until recently they used nVidia 7300 and now they use ATi Radeo 2600HD XT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600.

-Carol Haynes (March 28, 2008, 07:33 PM)

Well, OS X uses OpenGL, and those cards are compliant with the latest spec, so there's no much hurry to use the latest and greatest card. Besides, I think the most graphic-hungry game available for the Mac is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which although a demanding game, it's not Crysis by any stretch. Still, the GeForce 8800 GTS is available at the Apple shop.

913

Living Room / Re: 1s y0ur $0n a c0#pu73r h3x0r??

« Last post by Lashiec on March 28, 2008, 08:40 AM »

Ha, I knew I read this story somewhere. And of course it's satire, that was the main point of the site.

914

Living Room / Re: When a Brain Scientist Suffers a Stroke

« Last post by Lashiec on March 28, 2008, 08:31 AM »

Wow, that was scary! (in reference to Deozaan's story)

915

General Software Discussion / Re: On-Line Dictionaries

« Last post by Lashiec on March 27, 2008, 09:52 AM »

I only use online dictionaries (when I'm on the computer, that is), but a pile of them, mostly the Farlex Free Dictionary, FreeThesaurus and the Wikipedia, but also Dictionary.com, Urban Dictionary and, of course, the "Diccionario de la lengua española" edited by the "Real Academia Española"

916

Screenshot Captor / Re: TacOnlyOne registry key detected as Trojan MalWarrior

« Last post by Lashiec on March 26, 2008, 07:50 PM »

Update your SpyBot, I just checked and no longer detects the RegKey, so they fixed the issue.

917

General Software Discussion / Re: Can't *think* of a robust password? - free PC Tools Password Utilities

« Last post by Lashiec on March 26, 2008, 07:36 PM »

Well, it's secure as long as you're the only one using the computer, or witnessing its use by other person, or you protect them with a master password. The file containing the passwords is encrypted with the Triple DES algorithm (in Opera, and I think in Firefox as well), so no problem there.

Don't know about the scheme used by IE, anyway, one of the advantages of storing the passwords in the browser is taking advantage of the portability most browsers offer, and IE is not one of them :)

EDIT: Removed confusing abbreviation (or something)

918

General Software Discussion / Re: Can't *think* of a robust password? - free PC Tools Password Utilities

« Last post by Lashiec on March 26, 2008, 07:23 PM »

I'm not sure I really understand the point of standalone password generators. The password can be relatively hard to guess or crack and can be used - but how is it to be remembered? It will be too random/long for most humans memory to be reliable. And, if it is recorded somewhere, couldn't it be found by someone else?

I understand the point inside a password manager which will only need one master password. I understand the value of the two input system (master password and account name) that effectively only needs one master password and use this myself on minor accounts where security does not really matter (though I still record them in Keepass). But I don't really understand the point of just generating uncrackable impossible to remember passwords without a method of recording them that is itself secure.

-Dormouse (March 26, 2008, 07:18 PM)

You can use a notetaker that automatically encrypts its contents, like LockNote or fSekrit or use the "Remember passwords" option in most browsers, it's just another method to achieve the same that KeePass or RoboForm do.

919

Living Room / Re: From the maker of Samorost... Questionaut!

« Last post by Lashiec on March 26, 2008, 07:15 PM »

Aaaah, so nice! I can't wait for them to release Machinarium, we're in need of moar graphic adventures

920

General Software Discussion / Re: XP's slow death is approaching, according to Microsoft's timeline

« Last post by Lashiec on March 26, 2008, 07:01 PM »

I do agree on "one version is enough" (though MS doesn't, wanting to charge more for the enterprise/datacenter registry tweaks versions), and having to be very modular (basically, nlite/vlite on steroids, and supported by MS).

-f0dder (March 25, 2008, 09:41 PM)

This is coming, but instead of a cool thingie to install/uninstall every component we need/hate (:-P) ala nLite or litePC, seems we're getting a modern version of Clippy: "I see you want to use the Calculator, that feature will cost you $10". As long as they only charge for the most exotic functions, like Media Center, and not too much, I think it's fine.

Microsoft are working in teams, so it's not like stopping work on IE would give you more kernel developers... I wouldn't even want people from the IE team working on the kernel.

-f0dder (March 26, 2008, 08:40 AM)

Indeed

921

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Sonny (RPG)

« Last post by Lashiec on March 25, 2008, 08:44 PM »

Is not what RPGs are all about?

922

General Software Discussion / Re: Monster Cables- The World should know!

« Last post by Lashiec on March 25, 2008, 08:43 PM »

CWuestefeld: it's a desperate-last-measure thing, though. I've used it once in the past, and it did work (though what made it work might as easily be a slight bump to the drive or whatever)... after a while, the drive short-circuited because of condensated water though, and I guess I'm lucky it was only the drive the shorted

-f0dder (March 25, 2008, 08:34 PM)

Don't they recommend to put the HDD into one of those plastic bags with the zip lock used to freeze food to avoid things like that?

923

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Sonny (RPG)

« Last post by Lashiec on March 25, 2008, 08:30 PM »

Looks quite nice, I think it can use some of my gaming time. Thanks for sharing it!

924

General Software Discussion / Re: Monitor system changes

« Last post by Lashiec on March 25, 2008, 08:15 PM »

I wonder.... how many software has DonationCoder hosted in subpages without no one noticing?

925

General Software Discussion / Re: Monitor system changes

« Last post by Lashiec on March 25, 2008, 08:10 PM »

Mmmm, I guess any software installation monitor like REVO Uninstaller or Total Uninstall will fit the bill. Regshot if you want something simpler without all the extra features of the other two.