AOL's been rumored to be dying since around '95 if I remember correctly. AOLWatch used to post new links about AOL-related issues on a daily basis - it seems like it has been on autopilot for the last couple of years replaying the same pages over and over again. I guess David Cassel abandoned it for fear of the Ur-Quan returning and took off for Pluto.
Everyone said AOL was going to die years ago... Then they went flat rate and got new member singing up in droves. I'm sure AOL has another ace up their sleeve and will be able to cheat the reaper yet again.
It's true though. Why would MP3 be so popular with the general public if it THROWS AWAY 9/10th of the original data? The truth is, human hearing is the weakest link. For most people (and I include myself in this), hearing frequencies above 20kHz is just (pardon the pun) unheard of.
More dynamic range? Fans of classical might consider the dynamic range of a CD limited, but the industry is driven by pop music sales and most pop music has had the dynamic range artifically compressed (called normalize in most audio editing software) so it can be boosted for enhanced bass and/or loud airplay on the radio.
It's truly a format for audiophiles... If you absolutely have to have the best sound possible. Joe consumer, however, will be less than impressed.
...is not that Microsoft has done this, but that they're so shocked and shaken over Apple's switch campaign that they felt this was necessary.
Without getting too offtopic, I owned a Mac for awhile and wasn't too thrilled with it. Yes, it was usable, but the thought that kept repeating in my mind was "I can sell this on eBay and use the money to buy MUCH better hardware for my PC." - so I did. Do I regret no longer being "biplatform"? Nope...
It wasn't so much that I had anything against the Mac platform... I just didn't NEED it. My PC didn't give me any trouble and all the apps I use for doing what I like to do work fine on the PC. I guess if I felt the same way about the Macintosh to begin with, I wouldn't want to switch either and no amount of Microsoft fluff could change my mind. In the end, it just comes down to using what it is you like to use...
As a side note, I think some of you Slashdotters agree that you'd be more than willing to go "biplatform" if Macs weren't so expensive... There's a $199 Wal-Mart PC for the curious Mac users, where's the $199 Mac for curious PC users?
That's actually Ja Rule. Eminem has made a point of the fact that he won't say "nigga" because he is white and for a white man to refer to a black man as a "nigga" is considered derogatory. If you actually listen to Eminem's message, it's basically self-parody. He's got a point that if this country was truly so shocked by what he had to say, NO ONE WOULD BUY HIS ALBUMS.
A better analogy would be that Wal-Mart sells shotguns. Killing animals with firearms = good, playing a video game with virtual tits and ass = bad. That's just typical good ol' boy thinking anyway - it's to be expected from Wal-Mart.
Li-Ion batteries are a great improvement in terms of capacity over older NiCad and NiMH (Every time I see that, I think of that movie with the rats... but I digress.) technologies. In terms of price; however, I'm less than satisifed. My cell phone uses a Li-Ion battery and it seems like it's nearing the end of its useful life. You can imagine how shocked (pun intended) I was when I found out the cost of a replacement battery was equal to the cost I originally paid for the cell phone! The advances in battery technology are nice, but I'd be more than willing to accept bulkier batteries if they were a lot less costly.
A Mac OS/X running on Intel hardware is nothing but Microsoft's worst nightmare in terms of what it can do to its market. So it's just a trumpcard in negotiations with Microsoft (i.e. "If you stop Office/Mac, we drop the atomi^M^M^M^M^M Mac OS/X for x86").
Time to burn some karma...
The reason you won't see OS X on x86 hardware is simply public perception. If a Mac was released based on x86 hardware, the first thing people would think is "If it's x86, why isn't it running Windows?" Apple's biggest fear would be that they'd eventually get sucked (or forced) into the Windows world. Microsoft could say "Hey, you're x86 now, we're not making OS X versions of our apps anymore, just run Windows like everyone else." As others have stated, Apple CANNOT exist as just another PC company. The profit margins are razor thin and the competition is brutal.
You're also overestimating the "threat" OS X represents to Microsoft. OS X for x86 may be rejoiced by the geek community, but for everyone else it will just be given a collective shrug. Yay, another OS for the good ol' PC - all my games and apps still require Windows.
For Apple's own good and the market segment they're selling to, they have to keep "thinking different".
So much for hoping I'll ever be able to play my collection of DivX movies on anything other than a computer...
Most of them are in DIV3 (the original hacked Microsoft Codec), the more recent ones I've started using XVID. While I'd welcome a new codec for better quality, the chances of a dedicated DVD-like player that will play all the various DivX formats seems slim.
Not to discourage, but it won't really matter to the masses until there's a native, easy-to-use Windows client.
AIM has a voice-over-IP feature. What I would REALLY like is a voice-over-IP app that works properly even if both sides of the party are behind a NAT box.
But how much greater to wait for the companies most keen to restrict all our rights to invest a whole lot of money in Palladium - just to see it cracked and made completely useless ?
Ugh. Yet another reason to hate Palladium. After it gets hacked, you just KNOW they'll release Palladium service packs. I can see it now "Sorry, you can't install The Sims - Drunken Frat Party without DirectX 14 and Palladium 3.1 or later."
It's a good thing they called this X-Box 1.1v, cause I'm sure there'll be a LOT more point revisions in the future - Microsoft has the fundage to do it.
I mean, you would have to be a complete and utter pervert to want to moderate slashdot when you're sitting on the can!
All you really need is 802.11 or a long enough network cable... Erm, not that I know anything about using my laptop while on the john. Sure, those AIM conversations can wait until I get back...
Regional coding (mostly in DVDs) should be banned.
Like the typical American consumer, I've never run in to a problem with regional coding. All the DVDs I buy from the store work just fine in my DVD player and on my computer. I can understand how this can be frustrating if you want to watch imported DVDs, but as you said, they WILL work on an imported DVD player.
Audio CD copy protection is another matter. I do not own a portable CD player, nor do I have any desire to purchase one. I primarially listen to music on portable MP3 player or on my computer. If I CANNOT format-shift a purchased CD to MP3, it is WORTHLESS to me. Right now, the music I get for FREE from P2P has more value to me than a purchased CD. I want to support the artists that produce the music I enjoy, but if I do so I get a product that is of no use to me. There is something wrong with this picture and if a law has to be changed to make the media giants realize it - so be it.
Beware - owning this will be a DEAD giveaway that you have a very, very tiny penis.
It's hidden away inside your computer where no one will ever see it and its timedemo scores will be outclassed in less than 7 months time. That hardly sounds like overcompensation to me. I'd opt for enlargement surgery instead, that way you'll have a visibly apparent bulge (and even more so if it gets infected) and longer-lasting babe attracting results.
I've always hated automatic boxes (and in the UK, they're in the minority, thank goodness). They take away all the fun from driving; they never seem to be in the right gear.
As an American (or USian, if you like that term better), I prefer my slushbox. Where I live in central Florida, there's two types of driving you do... Around the suburbs, it's stop and go. You get to a stoplight, go about 1/4 of a mile, get to another stoplight, etc. When the highways are crowded, you go a few feet, stop, go a few feet, stop, etc. If you've seen the beginning of Office Space, that's what it's REALLY like. The other type of driving is crusing... On the toll roads when there's little traffic or if you're lucky enough to be on the highway when it's not crowded, you can just lock in the cruise control and forget about it. It's too flat in Florida to worry about any hill climbing gear shifting problems - at highway speeds you're crusing in overdrive the whole way.
I was forced into driving two manual transmission vehicles (A Toyota Tacoma pickup and a Chevy Camaro V6) and I didn't like it at all... The stop and go traffic was nerve wracking. Okay, we're stopping, put in the clutch, put it back into first. Give me a break - this sucks. Yea, it might be fun if my acceleration speed wasn't limited by the shitbox Ford Escort in front of me and I didn't have to stop 40 seconds from now at the next red light. If most Americans have to drive in suburban gridlock like me, I can clearly understand why the manual transmission is less popular.
The car I drive is not fast. It's a utilitarian fuel efficient sedan... Yes, you can probably out accelerate me, but I'll see you at the next red light.
With any Palladium system, you will be able to disable Palladium in BIOS, so it _doesn't matter_ if a system supports it or not. If you turn it off, you will be unable to use Palladium protected media, just like pre-Palladium systems.
...and with any DIVX enabled player, you could just watch DVDs and never touch a DIVX disc, right? That is of course until DIVX "enhanced" players have a majority share in the market - then DVDs would have disappeared. Likewise, when most PCs support palladium, it will start becoming mandatory. Want to play that new FPS game online? It needs to run in a trusted enviorment to make sure you're not cheating. Want to run the latest version of MS Office because MS changed the document format yet again and you need to open documents from work? MS Office now requires Palladium support enabled to run. If you're presently not using a MS OS, it may be easy to overlook the significance of Palladium. Just remember, if you don't speak out for the Windows users because you're not a Windows user, just wait 'till big brother comes for you because "only hackers/terrorists/child pornographers use non-palladium hardware/software".
Screw warrenty service on WD drives. If their diagnostic software returns a final error code of 0000, they won't even help you even if the drive spits fire. At least my 40GB Maxtor drive seems to be working fine (knock on wood). For your reading enjoyment, I've included the e-mail WD sent back to me about my problem...
Subj: Drive develops bad sectors [Incident: 020812-000049] Date: 02-08-12 15:07:24 EDT From: wdc@custhelp.com (Western Digital Support) Reply-to: wdc@custhelp.com (Western Digital Support) To: powercntrl@(removed address)
Recently you requested personal assistance from our e-Service center. Below is a summary of your request and the response from one of our Specialists.
We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 48 hours. We appreciate your patience, and sincerely hope that this resolves your issue.
You may update this question by replying to this message. Because your reply will be automatically processed, you MUST enter your reply in the space below. Text entered into any other part of this message will be discarded. [===> Please enter your reply below this line Please enter your reply above this line ===]
Bad sectors as reported by Scandisk or other disk utilities, may or may not indicate physical damage to the drive. Anything from a virus, to a faulty data cable, to improper BIOS settings can cause bad sectors to be incorrectly reported in Scandisk.
The first thing to do is run the diagnostics utility available on the Data Lifeguard Tools diskette. You can download the latest version by going to the following link:
http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/dlgmaker.exe
Boot directly to the Data Lifeguard Tools diskette and choose Diagnostics from the main menu by highlighting it and pressing Enter. If you have more than one drive in your system, you will first need to select the correct drive from the main menu of Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. Highlight "Select Drive and View Status" and press Enter to see the list of drives in your system. Highlight the correct drive and press Enter to select it and return to the main menu.
Once the drive has been selected, choose to run the Extended Test from the main menu. At the next screen, press "R" to start the test. If the final error code is 0000, the drive is fine. If the final error code is anything other than 0000, access the following link to find error code definitions, as well as a recommended course of action:
http://www.westerndigital.com/service/FAQ/errorc od es.html
If the error code is 0000, we recommend that you backup any important data on the drive. Run the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics again and choose to "Write Zeros" to the drive. This will perform a "low level" format on the drive. All of the data areas on the drive will be set back to factory default, clearing any data corruption or bad sector markings. Also, it will test the drive again to make sure there is nothing wrong with it.
Caution: Writing Zeroes to a hard drive will ERASE ALL DATA from the drive, and the erased data will be totally unrecoverable. After finishing this procedure you will then need to re-partition and format the drive.
If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.
Kind Regards,
Customer (Powercntrl@removed-address) - 08/12/2002 09:34 AM I have an extended service agreement with the retailer I purchased this drive from and I've already exchanged it 3 times. Each drive has had exactly the same problem, it initially works fine, then after about 2-3 months, it develops a bad sector (reported by Windows as "Data error reading drive C:") that scandisk is able to identify and mark as bad. This has resulted in loss of data every single time. After the second drive was exchanged, I purchased a new power supply as I suspected it was causing the problem - it turned out this was not the case. The current drive I am e-mailing about has developed 2 bad sectors already and I have discontinued using it and replaced it with a 40GB Maxtor. I tried DataLifeguard tools in the past and while it was able to restore the drive to "error free status", the drive simply developed another bad sector within a few days.
While I'm sitting here drinking my cold, refreshing Coke, I looked on my KDS LCD flatscreen monitor that I bought from ThinkGeek and realized that they should apply this to TV shows as well. Why interrupt a show with a commercial break when product placement could work just as good? In the movie "The Truman Show", which I watched the other day on my DirectTV satellite system, the "show" that the movie was about had no commercials, just product placements. While that was just a movie, if The Sims proves this can work for other mediums, maybe we'll soon see a future where Tivos can no longer skip over commercials because there AREN'T any to skip over.
Truthfully you are looking at spending around $350+ dollars if you really want a good solution.
Basically, since it is for my brother, he pretty much just wants it for the novelty of having GPS in his vehicle. He's still in highschool and doesn't really have a lot of money, and he'll be a bit disappointed if I have to tell him he's gonna have to spend even $150 for Staples current GPS offering... Really what I'm trying to find for him is something like the Rand McNally StreetFinder and GPS Staples used to sell, in the neighborhood of about the same price.
I just helped my brother assemble and set up one of those aluminum small Shuttle barebones computers in his SUV. Since he has no opposition to using Windows, the software side of GPS mapping software is no problem. He wanted to get the Rand McNally Streetfinder software and GPS bundle that Staples had for $89, but it seems to have been discontinued.
Streetfinder is inexpensive enough by itself at $30, but finding a GPS that includes a PC cable seems to be running in the area of $150. Anyone have a recommendation on an inexpensive GPS unit that can connect to a PC and works with Streetfinder?
I upgrade my computer (usually a new video card, motherboard, RAM and CPU) every time a new game comes out that runs like shit on my current system. GTA3 is really starting to put the upgrade pressure on me. It's a good thing I didn't hold out for Duke Nukem Forever or I'd still be using a 166MHz Pentium MMX.
...is not that someone is trying to scam buyers with unauthentic products. Fake Rolexes, junk laptops and a ton of other crap on eBay slips through the cracks. -1: Redundant. No, what I find truly disturbing is the fact that there are actually people interested in buying a product that contains a dead monkey's shrunken head. Eww.
Yes, but does the book tell you why anyone out there would want to read a blog about your life?
I agree. While I love Slashdot and Slashdot is essentially a blog, it's the new information and insightful comments that keep me coming back. Okay, I'll admit it, I've also got a morbid curiosity for reading -1 as well.
The critical mass of community Slashdot has - its main interesting feature, would be something difficult to recreate just by putting a blog online and hoping for the best. I'm sure there are some people that really get a kick out of finding out somebody on the Internet just got a new cat and his car is getting repainted, but that just isn't the level of intellectual stimulation that draws me to a web page.
On the Mac you can run Windows in Virtual PC. I'm not sure if Wine supports Media Player 7 (I use Linux as a server/NAT box OS, not on my desktop), but one of my friends runs Windows 2k under Linux with VMWare. I believe VMWare also runs on FreeBSD.
Of course, you could always drop CinemaNow a line and tell them you'd be interested in their movies if they were viewable with native player software for your favorite OS. If they don't listen, the best way to show them you don't agree with their choice of file format is simply keep your wallet closed.
Hacking the format is just going to add fuel to the DRM fire and the entertainment industry and Microsoft have the money and the lawyers to let the inferno blaze. DRM is really a social/legal issue and is NOT something that will be addressed properly with hacks.
Slashdot Mirror
Did we resurrect this software because it's the only thing bad assed enough to fight Blender and prevent its dark army from destroying the world?
Will we get to see two chicks do battle with sharp objects?
No? Yawn.
AOL's been rumored to be dying since around '95 if I remember correctly. AOLWatch used to post new links about AOL-related issues on a daily basis - it seems like it has been on autopilot for the last couple of years replaying the same pages over and over again. I guess David Cassel abandoned it for fear of the Ur-Quan returning and took off for Pluto.
Everyone said AOL was going to die years ago... Then they went flat rate and got new member singing up in droves. I'm sure AOL has another ace up their sleeve and will be able to cheat the reaper yet again.
Sure, DVD-Audio sounds better... to your pet bat
It's true though. Why would MP3 be so popular with the general public if it THROWS AWAY 9/10th of the original data? The truth is, human hearing is the weakest link. For most people (and I include myself in this), hearing frequencies above 20kHz is just (pardon the pun) unheard of.
More dynamic range? Fans of classical might consider the dynamic range of a CD limited, but the industry is driven by pop music sales and most pop music has had the dynamic range artifically compressed (called normalize in most audio editing software) so it can be boosted for enhanced bass and/or loud airplay on the radio.
It's truly a format for audiophiles... If you absolutely have to have the best sound possible. Joe consumer, however, will be less than impressed.
...is not that Microsoft has done this, but that they're so shocked and shaken over Apple's switch campaign that they felt this was necessary.
Without getting too offtopic, I owned a Mac for awhile and wasn't too thrilled with it. Yes, it was usable, but the thought that kept repeating in my mind was "I can sell this on eBay and use the money to buy MUCH better hardware for my PC." - so I did. Do I regret no longer being "biplatform"? Nope...
It wasn't so much that I had anything against the Mac platform... I just didn't NEED it. My PC didn't give me any trouble and all the apps I use for doing what I like to do work fine on the PC. I guess if I felt the same way about the Macintosh to begin with, I wouldn't want to switch either and no amount of Microsoft fluff could change my mind. In the end, it just comes down to using what it is you like to use...
As a side note, I think some of you Slashdotters agree that you'd be more than willing to go "biplatform" if Macs weren't so expensive... There's a $199 Wal-Mart PC for the curious Mac users, where's the $199 Mac for curious PC users?
So the following sample of Eminem lyrics
That's actually Ja Rule. Eminem has made a point of the fact that he won't say "nigga" because he is white and for a white man to refer to a black man as a "nigga" is considered derogatory. If you actually listen to Eminem's message, it's basically self-parody. He's got a point that if this country was truly so shocked by what he had to say, NO ONE WOULD BUY HIS ALBUMS.
A better analogy would be that Wal-Mart sells shotguns. Killing animals with firearms = good, playing a video game with virtual tits and ass = bad. That's just typical good ol' boy thinking anyway - it's to be expected from Wal-Mart.
Li-Ion batteries are a great improvement in terms of capacity over older NiCad and NiMH (Every time I see that, I think of that movie with the rats... but I digress.) technologies. In terms of price; however, I'm less than satisifed. My cell phone uses a Li-Ion battery and it seems like it's nearing the end of its useful life. You can imagine how shocked (pun intended) I was when I found out the cost of a replacement battery was equal to the cost I originally paid for the cell phone! The advances in battery technology are nice, but I'd be more than willing to accept bulkier batteries if they were a lot less costly.
A Mac OS/X running on Intel hardware is nothing but Microsoft's worst nightmare in terms of what it can do to its market. So it's just a trumpcard in negotiations with Microsoft (i.e. "If you stop Office/Mac, we drop the atomi^M^M^M^M^M Mac OS/X for x86").
Time to burn some karma...
The reason you won't see OS X on x86 hardware is simply public perception. If a Mac was released based on x86 hardware, the first thing people would think is "If it's x86, why isn't it running Windows?" Apple's biggest fear would be that they'd eventually get sucked (or forced) into the Windows world. Microsoft could say "Hey, you're x86 now, we're not making OS X versions of our apps anymore, just run Windows like everyone else." As others have stated, Apple CANNOT exist as just another PC company. The profit margins are razor thin and the competition is brutal.
You're also overestimating the "threat" OS X represents to Microsoft. OS X for x86 may be rejoiced by the geek community, but for everyone else it will just be given a collective shrug. Yay, another OS for the good ol' PC - all my games and apps still require Windows.
For Apple's own good and the market segment they're selling to, they have to keep "thinking different".
So much for hoping I'll ever be able to play my collection of DivX movies on anything other than a computer...
Most of them are in DIV3 (the original hacked Microsoft Codec), the more recent ones I've started using XVID. While I'd welcome a new codec for better quality, the chances of a dedicated DVD-like player that will play all the various DivX formats seems slim.
Don't even get me started on OGG...
Not to discourage, but it won't really matter to the masses until there's a native, easy-to-use Windows client.
AIM has a voice-over-IP feature. What I would REALLY like is a voice-over-IP app that works properly even if both sides of the party are behind a NAT box.
But how much greater to wait for the companies most keen to restrict all our rights to invest a whole lot of money in Palladium - just to see it cracked and made completely useless ?
Ugh. Yet another reason to hate Palladium. After it gets hacked, you just KNOW they'll release Palladium service packs. I can see it now "Sorry, you can't install The Sims - Drunken Frat Party without DirectX 14 and Palladium 3.1 or later."
Remember the I-Opener?
Yea, that little Internet Appliance created by venture capital-funded Netpliance, whom had NOWHERE near the amount of money Microsoft does.
They according to this post on the I-Appliance BBS created SEVEN versions (including the original) of the I-Opener before heading to the land of failed dotcoms.
It's a good thing they called this X-Box 1.1v, cause I'm sure there'll be a LOT more point revisions in the future - Microsoft has the fundage to do it.
I mean, you would have to be a complete and utter pervert to want to moderate slashdot when you're sitting on the can!
All you really need is 802.11 or a long enough network cable... Erm, not that I know anything about using my laptop while on the john. Sure, those AIM conversations can wait until I get back...
Regional coding (mostly in DVDs) should be banned.
Like the typical American consumer, I've never run in to a problem with regional coding. All the DVDs I buy from the store work just fine in my DVD player and on my computer. I can understand how this can be frustrating if you want to watch imported DVDs, but as you said, they WILL work on an imported DVD player.
Audio CD copy protection is another matter. I do not own a portable CD player, nor do I have any desire to purchase one. I primarially listen to music on portable MP3 player or on my computer. If I CANNOT format-shift a purchased CD to MP3, it is WORTHLESS to me. Right now, the music I get for FREE from P2P has more value to me than a purchased CD. I want to support the artists that produce the music I enjoy, but if I do so I get a product that is of no use to me. There is something wrong with this picture and if a law has to be changed to make the media giants realize it - so be it.
Anyone know where i could get a neon kit for one of these?
Try surface mount LEDs.
Beware - owning this will be a DEAD giveaway that you have a very, very tiny penis.
It's hidden away inside your computer where no one will ever see it and its timedemo scores will be outclassed in less than 7 months time. That hardly sounds like overcompensation to me. I'd opt for enlargement surgery instead, that way you'll have a visibly apparent bulge (and even more so if it gets infected) and longer-lasting babe attracting results.
I've always hated automatic boxes (and in the UK, they're in the minority, thank goodness). They take away all the fun from driving; they never seem to be in the right gear.
As an American (or USian, if you like that term better), I prefer my slushbox. Where I live in central Florida, there's two types of driving you do... Around the suburbs, it's stop and go. You get to a stoplight, go about 1/4 of a mile, get to another stoplight, etc. When the highways are crowded, you go a few feet, stop, go a few feet, stop, etc. If you've seen the beginning of Office Space, that's what it's REALLY like. The other type of driving is crusing... On the toll roads when there's little traffic or if you're lucky enough to be on the highway when it's not crowded, you can just lock in the cruise control and forget about it. It's too flat in Florida to worry about any hill climbing gear shifting problems - at highway speeds you're crusing in overdrive the whole way.
I was forced into driving two manual transmission vehicles (A Toyota Tacoma pickup and a Chevy Camaro V6) and I didn't like it at all... The stop and go traffic was nerve wracking. Okay, we're stopping, put in the clutch, put it back into first. Give me a break - this sucks. Yea, it might be fun if my acceleration speed wasn't limited by the shitbox Ford Escort in front of me and I didn't have to stop 40 seconds from now at the next red light. If most Americans have to drive in suburban gridlock like me, I can clearly understand why the manual transmission is less popular.
The car I drive is not fast. It's a utilitarian fuel efficient sedan... Yes, you can probably out accelerate me, but I'll see you at the next red light.
With any Palladium system, you will be able to disable Palladium in BIOS, so it _doesn't matter_ if a system supports it or not. If you turn it off, you will be unable to use Palladium protected media, just like pre-Palladium systems.
...and with any DIVX enabled player, you could just watch DVDs and never touch a DIVX disc, right? That is of course until DIVX "enhanced" players have a majority share in the market - then DVDs would have disappeared. Likewise, when most PCs support palladium, it will start becoming mandatory. Want to play that new FPS game online? It needs to run in a trusted enviorment to make sure you're not cheating. Want to run the latest version of MS Office because MS changed the document format yet again and you need to open documents from work? MS Office now requires Palladium support enabled to run. If you're presently not using a MS OS, it may be easy to overlook the significance of Palladium. Just remember, if you don't speak out for the Windows users because you're not a Windows user, just wait 'till big brother comes for you because "only hackers/terrorists/child pornographers use non-palladium hardware/software".
Screw warrenty service on WD drives. If their diagnostic software returns a final error code of 0000, they won't even help you even if the drive spits fire. At least my 40GB Maxtor drive seems to be working fine (knock on wood). For your reading enjoyment, I've included the e-mail WD sent back to me about my problem...
e
c od es.html
Subj: Drive develops bad sectors [Incident: 020812-000049]
Date: 02-08-12 15:07:24 EDT
From: wdc@custhelp.com (Western Digital Support)
Reply-to: wdc@custhelp.com (Western Digital Support)
To: powercntrl@(removed address)
Recently you requested personal assistance from our e-Service center.
Below is a summary of your request and the response from one of our
Specialists.
We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you
within 48 hours.
We appreciate your patience, and sincerely hope that this resolves
your issue.
You may update this question by replying to this message. Because your
reply will be automatically processed, you MUST enter your reply in
the space below. Text entered into any other part of this message will
be discarded.
[===> Please enter your reply below this line Please enter your reply above this line ===]
Email Subject - Brief Description (100 chars max)
--
Drive develops bad sectors
Discussion Thread
--
Response (Barb) - 08/12/2002 12:06 PM
Greetings (name removed),
Thank you for your email.
Bad sectors as reported by Scandisk or other disk utilities, may or may not indicate physical damage to the drive. Anything from a virus, to a faulty data cable, to improper BIOS settings can cause bad sectors to be incorrectly reported in Scandisk.
The first thing to do is run the diagnostics utility available on the Data Lifeguard Tools diskette. You can download the latest version by going to the following link:
http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/dlgmaker.ex
Boot directly to the Data Lifeguard Tools diskette and choose Diagnostics from the main menu by highlighting it and pressing Enter. If you have more than one drive in your system, you will first need to select the correct drive from the main menu of Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. Highlight "Select Drive and View Status" and press Enter to see the list of drives in your system. Highlight the correct drive and press Enter to select it and return to the main menu.
Once the drive has been selected, choose to run the Extended Test from the main menu. At the next screen, press "R" to start the test. If the final error code is 0000, the drive is fine. If the final error code is anything other than 0000, access the following link to find error code definitions, as well as a recommended course of action:
http://www.westerndigital.com/service/FAQ/error
If the error code is 0000, we recommend that you backup any important data on the drive. Run the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics again and choose to "Write Zeros" to the drive. This will perform a "low level" format on the drive. All of the data areas on the drive will be set back to factory default, clearing any data corruption or bad sector markings. Also, it will test the drive again to make sure there is nothing wrong with it.
Caution: Writing Zeroes to a hard drive will ERASE ALL DATA from the drive, and the erased data will be totally unrecoverable. After finishing this procedure you will then need to re-partition and format the drive.
If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.
Kind Regards,
Customer (Powercntrl@removed-address) - 08/12/2002 09:34 AM
I have an extended service agreement with the retailer I purchased this drive from and I've already exchanged it 3 times. Each drive has had exactly the same problem, it initially works fine, then after about 2-3 months, it develops a bad sector (reported by Windows as "Data error reading drive C:") that scandisk is able to identify and mark as bad. This has resulted in loss of data every single time. After the second drive was exchanged, I purchased a new power supply as I suspected it was causing the problem - it turned out this was not the case. The current drive I am e-mailing about has developed 2 bad sectors already and I have discontinued using it and replaced it with a 40GB Maxtor. I tried DataLifeguard tools in the past and while it was able to restore the drive to "error free status", the drive simply developed another bad sector within a few days.
Barb
Western Digital Customer Service and Support
While I'm sitting here drinking my cold, refreshing Coke, I looked on my KDS LCD flatscreen monitor that I bought from ThinkGeek and realized that they should apply this to TV shows as well. Why interrupt a show with a commercial break when product placement could work just as good? In the movie "The Truman Show", which I watched the other day on my DirectTV satellite system, the "show" that the movie was about had no commercials, just product placements. While that was just a movie, if The Sims proves this can work for other mediums, maybe we'll soon see a future where Tivos can no longer skip over commercials because there AREN'T any to skip over.
Truthfully you are looking at spending around $350+ dollars if you really want a good solution.
Basically, since it is for my brother, he pretty much just wants it for the novelty of having GPS in his vehicle. He's still in highschool and doesn't really have a lot of money, and he'll be a bit disappointed if I have to tell him he's gonna have to spend even $150 for Staples current GPS offering... Really what I'm trying to find for him is something like the Rand McNally StreetFinder and GPS Staples used to sell, in the neighborhood of about the same price.
I just helped my brother assemble and set up one of those aluminum small Shuttle barebones computers in his SUV. Since he has no opposition to using Windows, the software side of GPS mapping software is no problem. He wanted to get the Rand McNally Streetfinder software and GPS bundle that Staples had for $89, but it seems to have been discontinued.
Streetfinder is inexpensive enough by itself at $30, but finding a GPS that includes a PC cable seems to be running in the area of $150. Anyone have a recommendation on an inexpensive GPS unit that can connect to a PC and works with Streetfinder?
I upgrade my computer (usually a new video card, motherboard, RAM and CPU) every time a new game comes out that runs like shit on my current system. GTA3 is really starting to put the upgrade pressure on me. It's a good thing I didn't hold out for Duke Nukem Forever or I'd still be using a 166MHz Pentium MMX.
...is not that someone is trying to scam buyers with unauthentic products. Fake Rolexes, junk laptops and a ton of other crap on eBay slips through the cracks. -1: Redundant. No, what I find truly disturbing is the fact that there are actually people interested in buying a product that contains a dead monkey's shrunken head. Eww.
I think I'm gonna lose my lunch.
Yes, but does the book tell you why anyone out there would want to read a blog about your life?
I agree. While I love Slashdot and Slashdot is essentially a blog, it's the new information and insightful comments that keep me coming back. Okay, I'll admit it, I've also got a morbid curiosity for reading -1 as well.
The critical mass of community Slashdot has - its main interesting feature, would be something difficult to recreate just by putting a blog online and hoping for the best. I'm sure there are some people that really get a kick out of finding out somebody on the Internet just got a new cat and his car is getting repainted, but that just isn't the level of intellectual stimulation that draws me to a web page.
Can I watch in on Mac? Linux? FreeBSD?
On the Mac you can run Windows in Virtual PC. I'm not sure if Wine supports Media Player 7 (I use Linux as a server/NAT box OS, not on my desktop), but one of my friends runs Windows 2k under Linux with VMWare. I believe VMWare also runs on FreeBSD.
Of course, you could always drop CinemaNow a line and tell them you'd be interested in their movies if they were viewable with native player software for your favorite OS. If they don't listen, the best way to show them you don't agree with their choice of file format is simply keep your wallet closed.
Hacking the format is just going to add fuel to the DRM fire and the entertainment industry and Microsoft have the money and the lawyers to let the inferno blaze. DRM is really a social/legal issue and is NOT something that will be addressed properly with hacks.