Yup, almost exactly what I do (I forgot to mention DVDShrink). I also found DVD+R better, but only because my burner is slightly faster with +R. Oh, I did find that Taiyo Yuden discs seemed to give me the best results too.
I also used some of the guides at doom9.net to fine tune DVDShrink.
Agreed. That issue was actually the last one I fixed. I had to stick to 800x600 for several weeks before I finally found a fix. I installed the restricted driver. No good. I manually put in the monitor sync rates. I did this, I did that, nothing. Then I found some command someplace, which turned off certain features of the card, and suddenly it worked.
I'm rather new to Linux but not to PC's. I've worked with them my whole adult life (professionally for 16 years). So I'm far from your average user. Most would have given up in frustration and gone back to Windows. So I do believe Ubuntu is almost there, but not quite yet. I have faith it will be soon though.
Regardless of those facts, I still talk it up. Once running (the way you want it) it is great. Much faster than XP on the same box. I just added several years of extra life into my PC's. Vista would have forced me to upgrade hardware.
I've completely switched to Ubuntu at home. For the most part, it has been relatively painless. My wife has had a few printing issues. I had to spend some time getting the wireless to work in our Dell laptop and I had to tweak our ATI card settings in xorg.conf manually to get a good resolution.
Other than those minor things, it has just worked.
I use our main PC as a studio PC. It has a M-Audio 1010LT card which worked, but it took me some time to get the recording issues sorted out. JACK has a slight learning curve as did Ardour, but no more so than Adobe Audition did on XP. I've been rather pleased with the free available software for studio use.
I've even used GIMP a few times to edit some photos. While I had to hunt around a bit looking for the feature I wanted, I haven't run into anything it can't do that I need. Photoshop was always overkill for me anyway.
My experiment at home to run Ubuntu on our laptop has turned into a complete conversion and I'm not looking back. I talk it up to anyone who'll listen.
I've been using computers for around 25 years and professionally for 15. I'm not an average user, but here's my latest experience with Linux (Ubuntu).
About 6 months ago I wiped out my Dell Inspiron 2200 and installed Ubuntu Edgy. The install went cleanly but it took me many hours over the course of several days to track down just the right information to get the wireless working (Broadcom 4318 chipset). The wireless ability of the laptop is the one thing I couldn't live without so that alone was almost enough to make me go back to XP. After a few days of researching to find replacement apps for the things I did under XP, things settled down and I started enjoying Ubuntu. I did manage to find suitable replacements for most of my software. The laptop mainly gets used for browsing, email, web development, and music. All of those apps are readily available.
A few months went by and Feisty comes out talking about improved wireless support so I upgrade. The upgrade process went cleanly, but wireless once again goes bye-bye. In frustration I wipe the machine and install Feisty from CD. Still no wireless and again I need to track down the information needed to get it working again. A little frustrating but I'm a geek so I manage. I get the apps I had found before re-installed and again everything is fine.
So, last week I decide it's time to dual boot my main desktop PC with XP and Ubuntu. Again, the install goes well but the grub installation blows up. Apparently it was having a hard time with the MBR. My XP install is still working OK at this point, so I have time to track down how to manually install grub. Well, at some point I manage to totally screw up the MBR and so I say screw it and wipe the machine and install Ubuntu clean (again, not an average user as I have everything backed up, so no loss). The install goes great and everything works out of the box. Because of what I learned with the laptop, I'm able to quickly get things installed and going. However, I use my desktop as a home studio and video editing. These apps, as I have now learned, are a little more lacking. I'm currently looking at UbuntoStudio to see what apps they are using and see if they will work for my needs (and then install them on Feisty).
Anyway, the gist of my post is that to use Linux, even now, requires some know-how and determination. Not what most average users want to deal with. They just want things "to work".
Over the years, I've tried Slackware, Redhat, SuSe, etc. and Ubuntu has been, by far, the best Linux experience to date. The others all got wiped and replaced again with Windows after a short time. This time, however, I feel confident that I may finally be able to stick with Linux. Only time will tell for sure but I'm going to try my best to make it stick.
Apparently I'm a moron for not just smashing it anyway, so I guess that is my only recourse now. Maybe I'll take it with me on my next trip to the shooting range.
$50 might not be much to you, but I've sold items for less. Why not let someone snag a few parts out of it rather than just tossing it? That is, of course, that I find a way to keep my information stored on it safe.
The damaged razr is one of the earlier phones. I replaced it with a v3i which does indeed use a microSD card. I can find no easy access to any form of memory card in the old one.
Not a huge deal, but once I found that damaged Razr phones sold for so much, well, I wouldn't mind cleaning the phone out and selling it.
I have a water damaged Razr phone that I haven't sold yet because of this very reason (they sell for around $50 on eBay). On the internal memory are all of my numbers, text messages, etc. I'm not sure how to wipe the phone though (it powers up but complains about the sim card not being present). Any suggestions?
I got my son one of the imported blue DS Lites (before they were available here) and it is a great little machine. I plan to get my fiancee one for her birthday and maybe one of them will repay the favor by getting me one (if not, I will eventually).
The games are great, the system is great, and the price isn't too bad. People will be buying them in droves.
I have many close friends who work in law enforcement, from state, local and county (in Indiana). All of them have told me that those FOP stickers mean nothing to them. Likewise with the little FOP associate member tags that you attach to your license plate. Actually, several of them have told me that with the exception of senior citizen's, most people with those stickers or tags get them because they are speeders or have something to hide (like routine DUI people) and thus watched more closely.
My fiancee wasn't a big gamer either and I too got her hooked on Animal Crossing. So much so, that she was disappointed when I paid my last loan off first (got the gold statue). Everytime she plays now, she makes a comment about her "little silver statue". I've since lost interest, but it is a great game.
I also got her hooked on playing the Gameboy SP. She has beat more games on it than I have. Makes it much easier to buy games now if I can hook her on them as well. So thanks Nintendo!:-)
My Grandfather (RIP) retired from IBM (as a child I remember drawing on punch cards he always had laying around by the box full, but I digress). He bought my first computer. A VIC-20. I loved that thing. In no time at all I had got the 24k expansion cart and still remember needing to code without spaces and comments to get as much out of it as I could. Good times.
I still have it. I pulled it out about a year ago and loaded up some of my first programs. Very interesting seeing stuff I had coded at a young age (11 or 12). Actually, because of the way I had coded without comments, etc, it was very hard to even understand what I had done. Keep in mind, I'm a programmer now, so seeing this old code and having a hard time seeing what I had done so long ago was funny (and oddly humbling, because some of it seemed better than I can do now).
The last few times I've gone to the theater I felt cheated. Expensive ticket prices, expensive refreshments (and who wants 2 gallons of soda?), 20 minutes of commercials, then a sub par movie. Add to that the many distractions of phones, chatting, people going to the bathroom 20 times (thanks to the 2 gallons of soda) and other things. No thanks. I think that even the die hard movie goers have started feeling the same.
It's a shame really. I have fond memories of going to the movies when I was younger. My childrens memories will be of watching the DVD at home (which isn't really a bad thing I guess).
This will be one of the only movies in years that I plan on seeing opening weekend. What makes it even better is that my girlfriend is also patiently waiting. She is not a scifi fan at all. I talked her into watching FireFly with me. She loved it. So much so that she would get home from work and one of the first things she'd ask is "Are we watching disc 3 of FireFly tonight?".
Since then I've loaned the discs to her Dad and her Brother who have both loved the series as well. I've probably helped sell at least 8 movie tickets to people who didn't even know about FireFly or the upcoming movie.
We have two GameCubes in our home. One in my sons room and one in the living room. Between the two systems (he's got his games, I've got mine) we've got at least 30 games. That number fluctuates because we often trade in games. However, we've got at least 15 or so that we wouldn't trade. IMHO, lot's of good titles on the GC.
We also own four Gameboy SP's. Each member of the family has one. I'm not even a Nintendo fanboy or anything. The Cube seemed like the best bet for the various ages in the house. The GB's were pretty much a given, as the DS and PSP are a bit more than I want to spend (and weren't even available for most of our purchases).
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Excellent post sir.
I use Ubuntu 8.04. It's hardy out of the box.
Just replace the tubes!
Yup, almost exactly what I do (I forgot to mention DVDShrink). I also found DVD+R better, but only because my burner is slightly faster with +R. Oh, I did find that Taiyo Yuden discs seemed to give me the best results too.
I also used some of the guides at doom9.net to fine tune DVDShrink.
On Windows, DVDFab HD Decrypter does a great job of ripping. Then use your favorite DVD burning software.
Now that I'm on Ubuntu, I use k9copy to rip and K3B to burn. Works wonderfully.
I can't help you with your old DVD player though. You'll have to play them on your cheap player.
Agreed. That issue was actually the last one I fixed. I had to stick to 800x600 for several weeks before I finally found a fix. I installed the restricted driver. No good. I manually put in the monitor sync rates. I did this, I did that, nothing. Then I found some command someplace, which turned off certain features of the card, and suddenly it worked.
I'm rather new to Linux but not to PC's. I've worked with them my whole adult life (professionally for 16 years). So I'm far from your average user. Most would have given up in frustration and gone back to Windows. So I do believe Ubuntu is almost there, but not quite yet. I have faith it will be soon though.
Regardless of those facts, I still talk it up. Once running (the way you want it) it is great. Much faster than XP on the same box. I just added several years of extra life into my PC's. Vista would have forced me to upgrade hardware.
I've completely switched to Ubuntu at home. For the most part, it has been relatively painless. My wife has had a few printing issues. I had to spend some time getting the wireless to work in our Dell laptop and I had to tweak our ATI card settings in xorg.conf manually to get a good resolution.
Other than those minor things, it has just worked.
I use our main PC as a studio PC. It has a M-Audio 1010LT card which worked, but it took me some time to get the recording issues sorted out. JACK has a slight learning curve as did Ardour, but no more so than Adobe Audition did on XP. I've been rather pleased with the free available software for studio use.
I've even used GIMP a few times to edit some photos. While I had to hunt around a bit looking for the feature I wanted, I haven't run into anything it can't do that I need. Photoshop was always overkill for me anyway.
My experiment at home to run Ubuntu on our laptop has turned into a complete conversion and I'm not looking back. I talk it up to anyone who'll listen.
I've been using computers for around 25 years and professionally for 15. I'm not an average user, but here's my latest experience with Linux (Ubuntu).
About 6 months ago I wiped out my Dell Inspiron 2200 and installed Ubuntu Edgy. The install went cleanly but it took me many hours over the course of several days to track down just the right information to get the wireless working (Broadcom 4318 chipset). The wireless ability of the laptop is the one thing I couldn't live without so that alone was almost enough to make me go back to XP. After a few days of researching to find replacement apps for the things I did under XP, things settled down and I started enjoying Ubuntu. I did manage to find suitable replacements for most of my software. The laptop mainly gets used for browsing, email, web development, and music. All of those apps are readily available.
A few months went by and Feisty comes out talking about improved wireless support so I upgrade. The upgrade process went cleanly, but wireless once again goes bye-bye. In frustration I wipe the machine and install Feisty from CD. Still no wireless and again I need to track down the information needed to get it working again. A little frustrating but I'm a geek so I manage. I get the apps I had found before re-installed and again everything is fine.
So, last week I decide it's time to dual boot my main desktop PC with XP and Ubuntu. Again, the install goes well but the grub installation blows up. Apparently it was having a hard time with the MBR. My XP install is still working OK at this point, so I have time to track down how to manually install grub. Well, at some point I manage to totally screw up the MBR and so I say screw it and wipe the machine and install Ubuntu clean (again, not an average user as I have everything backed up, so no loss). The install goes great and everything works out of the box. Because of what I learned with the laptop, I'm able to quickly get things installed and going. However, I use my desktop as a home studio and video editing. These apps, as I have now learned, are a little more lacking. I'm currently looking at UbuntoStudio to see what apps they are using and see if they will work for my needs (and then install them on Feisty).
Anyway, the gist of my post is that to use Linux, even now, requires some know-how and determination. Not what most average users want to deal with. They just want things "to work".
Over the years, I've tried Slackware, Redhat, SuSe, etc. and Ubuntu has been, by far, the best Linux experience to date. The others all got wiped and replaced again with Windows after a short time. This time, however, I feel confident that I may finally be able to stick with Linux. Only time will tell for sure but I'm going to try my best to make it stick.
Jason
That's what I feared. Thanks for the info!
Apparently I'm a moron for not just smashing it anyway, so I guess that is my only recourse now. Maybe I'll take it with me on my next trip to the shooting range.
You are correct, I am missing a slash. I post so rarely I hadn't even found the error yet. Thanks!
$50 might not be much to you, but I've sold items for less. Why not let someone snag a few parts out of it rather than just tossing it? That is, of course, that I find a way to keep my information stored on it safe.
The damaged razr is one of the earlier phones. I replaced it with a v3i which does indeed use a microSD card. I can find no easy access to any form of memory card in the old one.
Not a huge deal, but once I found that damaged Razr phones sold for so much, well, I wouldn't mind cleaning the phone out and selling it.
Subject says it all, really.
I have a water damaged Razr phone that I haven't sold yet because of this very reason (they sell for around $50 on eBay). On the internal memory are all of my numbers, text messages, etc. I'm not sure how to wipe the phone though (it powers up but complains about the sim card not being present). Any suggestions?
I got my son one of the imported blue DS Lites (before they were available here) and it is a great little machine. I plan to get my fiancee one for her birthday and maybe one of them will repay the favor by getting me one (if not, I will eventually).
The games are great, the system is great, and the price isn't too bad. People will be buying them in droves.
All I can say is that Nintendo has done it again.
I have many close friends who work in law enforcement, from state, local and county (in Indiana). All of them have told me that those FOP stickers mean nothing to them. Likewise with the little FOP associate member tags that you attach to your license plate. Actually, several of them have told me that with the exception of senior citizen's, most people with those stickers or tags get them because they are speeders or have something to hide (like routine DUI people) and thus watched more closely.
My fiancee wasn't a big gamer either and I too got her hooked on Animal Crossing. So much so, that she was disappointed when I paid my last loan off first (got the gold statue). Everytime she plays now, she makes a comment about her "little silver statue". I've since lost interest, but it is a great game.
:-)
I also got her hooked on playing the Gameboy SP. She has beat more games on it than I have. Makes it much easier to buy games now if I can hook her on them as well. So thanks Nintendo!
My Grandfather (RIP) retired from IBM (as a child I remember drawing on punch cards he always had laying around by the box full, but I digress). He bought my first computer. A VIC-20. I loved that thing. In no time at all I had got the 24k expansion cart and still remember needing to code without spaces and comments to get as much out of it as I could. Good times.
I still have it. I pulled it out about a year ago and loaded up some of my first programs. Very interesting seeing stuff I had coded at a young age (11 or 12). Actually, because of the way I had coded without comments, etc, it was very hard to even understand what I had done. Keep in mind, I'm a programmer now, so seeing this old code and having a hard time seeing what I had done so long ago was funny (and oddly humbling, because some of it seemed better than I can do now).
Considering you just took a shit all over this thread, I'd have to recommend taking a piss.
The last few times I've gone to the theater I felt cheated. Expensive ticket prices, expensive refreshments (and who wants 2 gallons of soda?), 20 minutes of commercials, then a sub par movie. Add to that the many distractions of phones, chatting, people going to the bathroom 20 times (thanks to the 2 gallons of soda) and other things. No thanks. I think that even the die hard movie goers have started feeling the same.
It's a shame really. I have fond memories of going to the movies when I was younger. My childrens memories will be of watching the DVD at home (which isn't really a bad thing I guess).
This will be one of the only movies in years that I plan on seeing opening weekend. What makes it even better is that my girlfriend is also patiently waiting. She is not a scifi fan at all. I talked her into watching FireFly with me. She loved it. So much so that she would get home from work and one of the first things she'd ask is "Are we watching disc 3 of FireFly tonight?".
Since then I've loaned the discs to her Dad and her Brother who have both loved the series as well. I've probably helped sell at least 8 movie tickets to people who didn't even know about FireFly or the upcoming movie.
We have two GameCubes in our home. One in my sons room and one in the living room. Between the two systems (he's got his games, I've got mine) we've got at least 30 games. That number fluctuates because we often trade in games. However, we've got at least 15 or so that we wouldn't trade. IMHO, lot's of good titles on the GC.
We also own four Gameboy SP's. Each member of the family has one. I'm not even a Nintendo fanboy or anything. The Cube seemed like the best bet for the various ages in the house. The GB's were pretty much a given, as the DS and PSP are a bit more than I want to spend (and weren't even available for most of our purchases).
what is a good way to break the addiction?
Get married. Seriously, your "Honey Do" list will keep you off the computer.
If it doesn't, the nagging will.
We as consumers need to really put our food down on this DRM crap...
Yeah, it makes me puke too.
It said Asshole in binary. Yeah, not a big deal, but I guess some people got annoyed they took the time to translate it. ;-)
Yeah, it's easy to spot one of your own, eh?