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User: robosmurf

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  1. Re:Neighborhood friendly computer geek on Apple Laptop Upgrades Costing 200% More Than Dells · · Score: 1

    I've replaced the hard drive in my Powerbook 12in (from 4 or 5 years ago). It was non-trivial, and involved removing a dozen or so screws, removing the keyboard and opening the case.

    At least the hard drive was industry standard, and the new generic one I bought worked without trouble.

  2. Re:DPS on AoC Bug Penalizes Female Characters? · · Score: 1

    Well, to a certain extent FFXI attempted this.

    As each character can level multiple jobs (classes) then there is a reason to be in low level areas.

    Also, there are a number of areas that are level capped (you temporarily de-level when entering). This is an interesting idea, but seems to annoy many people.

    Also, FFXI hasn't changed the level cap in years, so most of the recent content IS tailored around the high level players.

  3. Re:On what planet is this 'news'? on How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, it really isn't.

    The cell does have a PowerPC core in it, but it's not the same as the PowerPC that was used in Macs. It's considerably stripped down, and as such isn't that great for general-purpose computing.

    I have been considering putting linux on my PS3, but only to tinker with the SPE cores. It's otherwise a really poor linux system.

  4. Programming is needed, but don't dismiss Excel on Programming As a Part of a Science Education? · · Score: 1

    A good grounding in programming is vital in many area of physics, especially experimental physics for simulations and analysis.

    Doing my physics doctorate I used a wide variety of languages and programs. These included C, C++, Matlab and, yes, Excel.

    There are indeed times where Excel is a suitable tool for the job. It is a convenient way to store data and do simple analysis. It also allows easy notation of data which can be extremely helpful.

  5. Re:A rare topic on What Is the Oldest Code Written Still Running? · · Score: 1

    It was probably this story:

    http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20010409S0012

    of a lost Novell server.

  6. Re:10 More Years of Region Locked Movies on Toshiba To Halt HD-DVD Production · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's even worse than that: at least with DVD region-free players were available easily almost from the beginning.

    With Blu-ray, almost all Blu-ray players in existence are Playstation 3 consoles. As far as I'm aware, no one has managed a region-free version of this.

  7. Re:So... on Toshiba To Halt HD-DVD Production · · Score: 1

    It looks like it. Though it remains to be seen whether Blu-ray will make significant headway against DVD, or will flop like SACD.

    In fact, if Blu-ray is successful, then this could be a major victory for Sony. With the complexity and compatibility problems of the Blu-ray specification, the Playstation 3 is pretty much the only Blu-ray player worth getting. I predict other manufacturers are going to struggle to produce Blu-ray players that can compete.

  8. Re:Better luck next time on Toshiba To Halt HD-DVD Production · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Except that the Blu-ray specification is such a mess that there is exactly one Blu-ray player on the market that is worth buying as it will be properly compatible - the Playstation 3.

    The Playstation 3 has outsold all other high-definition disc players on the market put together by a huge margin. This is the only machine that disc manufactures will make sure is fully compatible.

    If this situation continues, and the other manufacturers don't drastically improve their performance, then Blu-ray is set to become almost as proprietary to Sony as the UMD.

  9. Re:Next week's XBL news... on Microsoft Apologizes for XBL Downtime With Undertow · · Score: 1

    Actually, I have indeed been having trouble downloading stuff from XBLA (including Undertow) - it keeps giving me intermittent errors.

  10. Re:So we are back to RAM drives! on 2008, The Year of Solid State Storage · · Score: 1

    RAM for a RAM disk could potentially use slower (and cheaper) memory than the main memory.

    Also, as it wouldn't have to be attached to the main memory controller, there is the possibility of adding more RAM than could be supported by the main system.

    Neither of these reasons is amazingly compelling, but there might be a niche for this. Particularly if people are still stuck with 32bit Windows, and thus limited in main RAM size.

  11. Re:Partially correct story on EVE-Online Patch Makes XP Unbootable · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily true.

    I got hit by this bug when I installed the patch *after* they fixed it, as the Eve background downloader had grabbed it before they fixed it.

  12. Re:Summary innaccurate/sensational on EVE-Online Patch Makes XP Unbootable · · Score: 1

    Actually, they will, as many Dells come pre-installed with Windows not in the first partition (they have a hidden recovery partition).

    Certainly, I've got a Dell 9200 which is currently broken because of this (and the Dell won't boot from the recovery disks either - this is probably Dell's fault though).

  13. Gah on EVE-Online Patch Makes XP Unbootable · · Score: 1

    I've been hit by this, and my system is pretty screwed at the moment.

    I've got a Dell 9200, and it doesn't boot, and more problematically it crashes booting from a windows XP recovery disk (though that is probably not CCP's fault).

    I'll have to brave the NTFS write support from a linux boot-disk or find another machine to plug the HD into.

    I'm probably going to cancel my EVE account over this.

  14. Re:My experiences on Leopard Early Adopters Suffer For The Rest of Us · · Score: 2, Informative

    Although I agree in general, I should point out that I didn't install APE. Another program that I used (then ditched because it was too flakey) installed it. This was why I forgot that I might have it installed.

    Thus, non-technical users may well have APE installed, even if they didn't explicitly install it themselves.

  15. My experiences on Leopard Early Adopters Suffer For The Rest of Us · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've installed Leopard on both my PowerPC Macs (yes, I got the family edition).

    One install went very smoothly (though Leopard does run slowly at first due to Spotlight indexing everything again).

    The other install ran into two separate problems. Firstly, I got the Blue Screen freeze (solution - reboot to single user mode and delete APE). Secondly, the Finder would hang on launch (solution - bring up a terminal and remove the divx support library).

    Both of these I resolved fairly quickly with a google search, but the solution each time would be worrying to a non-technical user.

  16. Re:Classic apps are not what you think they are... on Apple's OS X Leopard In Depth · · Score: 1

    Actually it would be more like Vista dropping support for Windows 3.1 (Win16 API) or DOS.

    Vista 64bit has done exactly that. It won't run any 16 bit code (nor did XP 64bit).

  17. Re:Wow on High-Quality HD Content Can't Easily Be Played by Vista · · Score: 1

    No, that isn't true.

    The Image Constraint Token ONLY applies to analog outputs.

    Even if it isn't set, you won't get full resolution output of an AACS encrypted format on an unencrypted digital output (e.g. DVI without HDCP) .

  18. Re:Poster is Clueless Himself on What's Keeping US Phones In the Stone Age? · · Score: 1

    The article on the cost of text messaging in Europe doesn't say what you think it does.

    The 25p rate is the roaming charge, i.e. the amount you'd pay for sending a message from another network in another country.

    Text messaging from your own network is much cheaper than that.

  19. Re:Bullshit on Hotmail Delivers Far Fewer Emails with Attachments · · Score: 1

    Conversely, I've got one account where if I send mail to hotmail from it, the mail is almost always lost.

    Also, one stage of the hotmail spam filters DO destroy email without putting it in the junk mail folder.

  20. Re:I'm skeptical on Hotmail Delivers Far Fewer Emails with Attachments · · Score: 2, Informative

    They would, and for one, I have.

    I've complained bitterly about this to hotmail support without result.

    The problem is that the 81% is misleading.

    If the mail is coming from a known sender, then it is likely to get though, which is why people don't see a loss.

    However, mail from a random address with an attachment is very likely to get silently dropped (no, it doesn't end up in the junk mail folder). Most users probably ARE losing a lot of mail, but as this mail is probably from people who have not mailed them before they don't notice.

  21. Re:Hard time believing the story on Hotmail Delivers Far Fewer Emails with Attachments · · Score: 1

    That's probably because your mail is coming from known people.

    I've been using hotmail for years, any have lost a HUGE amount of mail.

    Hotmail is simply not a reliable mail service.

  22. Re:Startling discovery on Hotmail Delivers Far Fewer Emails with Attachments · · Score: 1

    The article is entirely believeable.

    The hotmail spam filter is amazingly aggressive. I can well believe a 81% false positive rate on mail with attachments send from unknown addresses.

  23. Re:Exaggeration? Naaah. on Hotmail Delivers Far Fewer Emails with Attachments · · Score: 1

    That isn't true.

    I've been a hotmail user for a long time (for historical reasons, I'd change if I could).

    I have a paid account, and have been frustrated for a long time at how unreliable hotmail mail delivery is.

    The hotmail first level spam filters (which you CAN NOT disable), will silently delete email with a significant false positive rate.

    Also, for the last week or so hotmail has been having trouble delivering mail to yahoo.co.uk at all.

  24. Re:Startling discovery on Hotmail Delivers Far Fewer Emails with Attachments · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm a hotmail user and I can well believe the loss rate.

    However, I can also believe those who state that they have never lost mail.

    Why? Because they are being eaten by hotmail's spam filters, which, despite no mention of this in the hotmail documentation DO siliently delete mail. No, they don't end up in the junk mail folder.

    Thus, if you get attachments from accounts that don't get caught by the spam filter, then you won't see a loss.

    However, if someone random sends you an attachment, then hotmail is very likely to lose it.

  25. Re:Bad on/off interface on Palm Unveils Foleo, Linux-Based "Mobile Companion" · · Score: 1

    No you've missed his point.

    For instance, light switches, although they are physically a single item have two distinct states. This is very much like having two controls. For the push type buttons you push in one of two different places, so these are effectively two buttons.

    What he was complaining about was having a single stateless button to control the power.

    Although most laptops do this, it is indeed occasionally annoying. Particularly when laptops take a long time to transition between states.