Add the fact that yahoo's focus is to sell its search results, even if it means placing irrelevant results at the top of the page...
I think Yahoo!'s Focus! is to advertise Yahoo! Itself!, the selling being a byproduct of the Yahoo! Advertising!
At least that's what I can surmise from the endless variations of "Do you Yahoo!?" that keep me busy rewriting procmail scripts to filter out the crap, not to mention the advertising-laden "Yahoo! Groups" rubbish that seems to show up everywhere, spanning so many lines I can't decide whether to rewrite every email, discard selectively, or simply filter out every web weenie posting from Yahoo! Email! Account!
[The heart of today's problems. Fear of terrorists, fear of criminals, fear of government, fear of people different from us, fear of big changes in the world economy, energy, politics.
So then, choose not to be afraid. Choose something else.
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace you. Choose your future. Choose life.
Hiding file extensions/files/directories is evil, but it can be useful in any graphic application that has a built-in file browser in that you can hide from view the absurd "System Volume Information" found on each NTFS partition, for example, as well as a few installer-based dir names with equally absurd over-long names that are rarely, if ever, accessed. The 'recycler' folder is another example.
The DOS-inherited -s and -h attributes will need to be reset system-wide to pull this off. The -s attribute is mostly useless, but if set, will cause the file/dir to be hidden if the "Hide protected operating system files" setting is in effect. Similarly, the -h attribute (if applied) will cause the file/dir to be hidden if the 'Show hidden files and folders' setting is in place.
The easiest approach to implement the above is to check the 'Show system files' option and uncheck the 'Show hidden files' settings, then remove the -h attribute on all files system-wide (toggling the -s attribute before and after, as needed) and set the -h bit on those files/dirs that you don't want shown or believe have no value in being shown. As a bonus, you'll lose horizontal scrollbars and the distracting 'greying-out' of file icons when 'hidden' or 'system' files are being displayed.
I think the reason we don't want or care about FM radio can be summed up in two words:... Clear. Channel.
I assume what everyone is talking about when they dismiss radio as being teh suck is commerical radio. Personally, I stopped listening to commercial FM long before it became the province of Clear Channel and friends.
What is readily available on FM that is not commerical includes the following:
NPR News
NPR Programming
Jazz
Classical
If you're interested in music only, you may want to start with something like this station if you don't have something similar in your own backyard. Most likely more interesting than what you're listening to at the moment.
Then, of course, if you're not the musical type and have a preference for animated conversations in which people share their opinions with others who have identical opinions, there's always AM radio.
But the best way to optimize the paging file in Win2000 (and later) is to leave it alone.
Sorry, but that's not good advice. There are real issues with fragmentation on NTFS file systems. You can create an empty NTFS partition copy a few files to it, and you can be sure that if the files are larger than 4KB, those files will be fragmented. And if they are of substantial size, the files can be split into dozens of pieces. Moreoever, Windows provide no native ability to defragment metadata on any partition.
With respect to the swap file, Windows provides no native ability to defragment it. A default installation with default settings will have your swap file spread like diarrhea across the sytem partition.
What is good advice is either to set the swap to a fixed min/fixed max, and/or invest in a defragment utitilty to replace the stripped down version of Diskkeeper that comes bundled as the default defragmenter. (Note that, when possible, replacing most most anything on any Windows box with better alternatives is *always* a good idea so leaving most anything to Windows to manage is generally a bad idea.)
Among the commerical alternatives available, Diskeeper and PerfectDisk are excellent choices, and provide the ability to defragment files, metadata and the swap file.
Also note that you will get noticeable performance boost if you mvoe the swap file is located on a separate drive (different IDE channel).
Consistent with XP? That would mean an odd mixture of sometimes 16, sometimes 32 colours, sometimes more, and sizes in ranging (depending on the icon) from 16x16 to 48x48, each size being made available in either 16 or 32 colours or more, or all three, but not always, and depending on which.dll that particular icon is being served from, as opposed to other.dlls which contain an identical (but not always) icon.
There was a Slashdot article posted some time ago where Steve Jobs was quoted as saying (way back when, and I paraphrase) that Bill Gates never understood the concept of design.
Despite the overhaul made for the XP interface, much of the same crap found on NT, 2K, etc. can be found on XP, and the inconsistencies aren't limited to icon choices.
As for the icon editor recommendation, unless it's capable of replacing the icons buried in innumerable.dlls, I don't believe it could compare favourably against any number of alternatives (Microangelo, etc.) which, thankfully, make Windows at least bearable.
But that's just an opinion. I have otheres, of course.
"It's hard to explain to non-smokers, but smokers tend to have a subconscious yet very strong social bond with one another."
Maybe it's simply that smoking is a social thing?
While it's possible there may be an element of persecution complex in people who smoke as a result of the anti-smoking hysteria from their non-smoking brethren, I think doing like things encourages bonding. Especially when having a cigarette.
Today, if you invite people together for a social occasion and ask what everoyne wants, the responses will range from beer to white wine to red wine to mineral water to herbal tea to juice to some soft drink. If you can't have a communal experience, what's left besides Solitaire?
What works without adjusting the font size up and down is to set the font sizes "differently."
Using a setting of 10 pixels (for example) for both mono and variable pitch fonts, with a minimum set to 12 pixels, will avoid the/. rendering issues and result in a cleaner look on webpages where the designer has gotten carried away with font choices. Which is about all of them.
Britannica? Be kind. I grew up trying to read cover to cover the leather-bound editions my parents bought for me (I share your bias), and while today I scoff at anything in written form that's less than 5,000 words, I firmly believe Wikipedia is an excellent resource.
I get access to Brittanica's website through my SBC account. The books are just a few feet from me. That said, I've rarely bothered with either when I needed some information. Put another way, Wikipedia is just too easy. And for any subject that doesn't age well (anything technology related, for example), Wikipedia shines.
On the other hand, If I'm looking to read an extended on an obscure subject, then maybe I'll reach for the appropriate volume and pour myself a drink of something that does age well. Or I'll buy book on the subject and skip Britannica altogther.
The only thing I havent' found online for which I insist on authoritative information are dictionary lookups. The rubbish found on dictionary.com, Webster's, etc. is a poor substitute for owning some form the OED to browse.
What's even funnier (or sadder, depending on your point of view) is that the news Google presents for countries other than the US looks pretty much the same as the new for the US.
Pardon my ignorance, but Yahoo DSL service? Aside from their webhosting foray, my impression was that the extent of the Yahoo name involvement is little more than co-branding. My own case as an example, SBC provides the service, and Yahoo provides a portal which I'm supposed to find use for.
Apple... like rabid dogs on a barbeque-sauce-covered Pre-K student.
The symptoms for rabies includes a lot of things, but barbeque sauce and pre-K students aren't included. Most often a dog will be appear extremely tired, have a fever and exhibit a complete loss of appetite, not to mention fear of water.
An article worth reading on the "nonpareil" effect found here.
But because I'm obliged to satisfy my occasionally pedantic nature, the expression "nonpareil" is of Latin derivation but can be considered everyday French. Generally considered to mean "without equal."
The candies ("nonpareils"), on the other hand, aren't really candies in the sense that most people consider them. Or "tasty," for that matter. In fact, you could say that nonpareils are not nonpareil.
"They put their name on everything they give away and sell."
Yeah, but do we really need to be reminded of their name each time you use one of their commands? There must be some book somewhere that someone at Microsoft wrote that defines how to write command-line utilities in the most annoying method possible.
Agreed that Sysinternals does provide useful utilities, but I think what's being overlooked is that it's left to someone else to provide the basic (rudimentary, actually) toolset Microsoft seems congenitally unable to provide themselves (excluding their attempts to sell that confused collection of odd-ball utilities known as Reource Kit(s), Support Tools, etc., each of which is typically as brain dead as cmd.exe.
I think the majority of "the sounds of silence" articles (and comments) are from people who:
a) can't tell the difference; b) are in an environment with a fair amount of ambient noise; c) own a single, typically underpowered system that's used only occasionally; or d) don't care.
Personally, I'm sensitive to distraction and live in an area where birds chirping is usually the loudest sound to be heard. That said, I don't believe there is anything one can do to a silence a computer. Mitigate excessive noise, but silence? Hardly.
I've swapped out single and dual case fans with better quality replacements (all rated at 20dB or less), swapped out CPU coolers with Zalman, etc. models, tried different "silent" power supplies, and a few weeks ago, bought Antec's goofy looking (albeit well-constructed) Sonata case that promised me the Sound of Silence(TM). Hell, I even built sound-proofed cabinets. All that after reading every possible article Google has indexed on the subject.
The solution, if there is one, is either a server room (work remotely), a closet (if you can situate a desk in close enough proximity to the door), the opposite side of a wall (if the room is unused or otherwise unoccupied) or, if you don't live in a typical California home, a basement.
And really long cables.
Sorry, kids. High quality components are always better than shoddy ones, but all fans make noise, some drives are quieter than others but most will whine after a while, and no power supply is silent. Even modems make noise (a nice high-pitched hiss, but still a hiss). Multiply all that times 2, 3, 4, etc., and you're better off taking the dog for a walk than to spend any time or money trying to fix an unfixable situation.
Slashdot Mirror
I think Yahoo!'s Focus! is to advertise Yahoo! Itself!, the selling being a byproduct of the Yahoo! Advertising!
At least that's what I can surmise from the endless variations of "Do you Yahoo!?" that keep me busy rewriting procmail scripts to filter out the crap, not to mention the advertising-laden "Yahoo! Groups" rubbish that seems to show up everywhere, spanning so many lines I can't decide whether to rewrite every email, discard selectively, or simply filter out every web weenie posting from Yahoo! Email! Account!
So then, choose not to be afraid. Choose something else.
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace you. Choose your future. Choose life.
Alternatively, ... choose this.
Hiding file extensions/files/directories is evil, but it can be useful in any graphic application that has a built-in file browser in that you can hide from view the absurd "System Volume Information" found on each NTFS partition, for example, as well as a few installer-based dir names with equally absurd over-long names that are rarely, if ever, accessed. The 'recycler' folder is another example.
The DOS-inherited -s and -h attributes will need to be reset system-wide to pull this off. The -s attribute is mostly useless, but if set, will cause the file/dir to be hidden if the "Hide protected operating system files" setting is in effect. Similarly, the -h attribute (if applied) will cause the file/dir to be hidden if the 'Show hidden files and folders' setting is in place.
The easiest approach to implement the above is to check the 'Show system files' option and uncheck the 'Show hidden files' settings, then remove the -h attribute on all files system-wide (toggling the -s attribute before and after, as needed) and set the -h bit on those files/dirs that you don't want shown or believe have no value in being shown. As a bonus, you'll lose horizontal scrollbars and the distracting 'greying-out' of file icons when 'hidden' or 'system' files are being displayed.
I assume what everyone is talking about when they dismiss radio as being teh suck is commerical radio. Personally, I stopped listening to commercial FM long before it became the province of Clear Channel and friends.
What is readily available on FM that is not commerical includes the following:
If you're interested in music only, you may want to start with something like this station if you don't have something similar in your own backyard. Most likely more interesting than what you're listening to at the moment.
Then, of course, if you're not the musical type and have a preference for animated conversations in which people share their opinions with others who have identical opinions, there's always AM radio.
Most affective, definitely, but as to whether they're effective, time will tell.
Sorry, but that's not good advice. There are real issues with fragmentation on NTFS file systems. You can create an empty NTFS partition copy a few files to it, and you can be sure that if the files are larger than 4KB, those files will be fragmented. And if they are of substantial size, the files can be split into dozens of pieces. Moreoever, Windows provide no native ability to defragment metadata on any partition.
With respect to the swap file, Windows provides no native ability to defragment it. A default installation with default settings will have your swap file spread like diarrhea across the sytem partition. What is good advice is either to set the swap to a fixed min/fixed max, and/or invest in a defragment utitilty to replace the stripped down version of Diskkeeper that comes bundled as the default defragmenter. (Note that, when possible, replacing most most anything on any Windows box with better alternatives is *always* a good idea so leaving most anything to Windows to manage is generally a bad idea.)
Among the commerical alternatives available, Diskeeper and PerfectDisk are excellent choices, and provide the ability to defragment files, metadata and the swap file.
Also note that you will get noticeable performance boost if you mvoe the swap file is located on a separate drive (different IDE channel).
Geezus, man! Pick one. There's regardless and then there's irrespective.
Consistent with XP? That would mean an odd mixture of sometimes 16, sometimes 32 colours, sometimes more, and sizes in ranging (depending on the icon) from 16x16 to 48x48, each size being made available in either 16 or 32 colours or more, or all three, but not always, and depending on which .dll that particular icon is being served from, as opposed to other .dlls which contain an identical (but not always) icon.
.dlls, I don't believe it could compare favourably against any number of alternatives (Microangelo, etc.) which, thankfully, make Windows at least bearable.
There was a Slashdot article posted some time ago where Steve Jobs was quoted as saying (way back when, and I paraphrase) that Bill Gates never understood the concept of design.
Despite the overhaul made for the XP interface, much of the same crap found on NT, 2K, etc. can be found on XP, and the inconsistencies aren't limited to icon choices.
As for the icon editor recommendation, unless it's capable of replacing the icons buried in innumerable
But that's just an opinion. I have otheres, of course.
"It's hard to explain to non-smokers, but smokers tend to have a subconscious yet very strong social bond with one another."
Maybe it's simply that smoking is a social thing?
While it's possible there may be an element of persecution complex in people who smoke as a result of the anti-smoking hysteria from their non-smoking brethren, I think doing like things encourages bonding. Especially when having a cigarette.
Today, if you invite people together for a social occasion and ask what everoyne wants, the responses will range from beer to white wine to red wine to mineral water to herbal tea to juice to some soft drink. If you can't have a communal experience, what's left besides Solitaire?
What works without adjusting the font size up and down is to set the font sizes "differently."
/. rendering issues and result in a cleaner look on webpages where the designer has gotten carried away with font choices. Which is about all of them.
Using a setting of 10 pixels (for example) for both mono and variable pitch fonts, with a minimum set to 12 pixels, will avoid the
A Grammar Lesson for Slashdot Posters (the first of a continuing series) ...
Rearranging the first sentence in the original post yields:
[I]f you go to heavily poluted areas like Bangladesh ... a parallel is.
Duh. Like ... is what??
The rule is that a gerund demands the possesive. e.g. My posting such comments may be indicative of deep-seated frustrations.
Alternatively, the tortured construction could have been avoided and the sentence rephrased to say something along the lines of:
A parallel can be found in heavily polluted areas like Bangladesh.
Much better, innit?
Britannica? Be kind. I grew up trying to read cover to cover the leather-bound editions my parents bought for me (I share your bias), and while today I scoff at anything in written form that's less than 5,000 words, I firmly believe Wikipedia is an excellent resource.
I get access to Brittanica's website through my SBC account. The books are just a few feet from me. That said, I've rarely bothered with either when I needed some information. Put another way, Wikipedia is just too easy. And for any subject that doesn't age well (anything technology related, for example), Wikipedia shines.
On the other hand, If I'm looking to read an extended on an obscure subject, then maybe I'll reach for the appropriate volume and pour myself a drink of something that does age well. Or I'll buy book on the subject and skip Britannica altogther.
The only thing I havent' found online for which I insist on authoritative information are dictionary lookups. The rubbish found on dictionary.com, Webster's, etc. is a poor substitute for owning some form the OED to browse.
What's even funnier (or sadder, depending on your point of view) is that the news Google presents for countries other than the US looks pretty much the same as the new for the US.
I trust the "infodel" construct wasn't a typo.
Pardon my ignorance, but Yahoo DSL service? Aside from their webhosting foray, my impression was that the extent of the Yahoo name involvement is little more than co-branding. My own case as an example, SBC provides the service, and Yahoo provides a portal which I'm supposed to find use for.
Thief! You're really #523845.
Apple ... like rabid dogs on a barbeque-sauce-covered Pre-K student.
The symptoms for rabies includes a lot of things, but barbeque sauce and pre-K students aren't included. Most often a dog will be appear extremely tired, have a fever and exhibit a complete loss of appetite, not to mention fear of water.
No problem.
Cue Craig beaming out an uncut version of The Ring like they did in Scary Movie Part 3
You need this as well.
An article worth reading on the "nonpareil" effect found here.
But because I'm obliged to satisfy my occasionally pedantic nature, the expression "nonpareil" is of Latin derivation but can be considered everyday French. Generally considered to mean "without equal."
The candies ("nonpareils"), on the other hand, aren't really candies in the sense that most people consider them. Or "tasty," for that matter. In fact, you could say that nonpareils are not nonpareil.
Err, maybe enough with the excessive whitespace, as well?
The Preview button wants to be your friend.
"They put their name on everything they give away and sell."
Yeah, but do we really need to be reminded of their name each time you use one of their commands? There must be some book somewhere that someone at Microsoft wrote that defines how to write command-line utilities in the most annoying method possible.
Agreed that Sysinternals does provide useful utilities, but I think what's being overlooked is that it's left to someone else to provide the basic (rudimentary, actually) toolset Microsoft seems congenitally unable to provide themselves (excluding their attempts to sell that confused collection of odd-ball utilities known as Reource Kit(s), Support Tools, etc., each of which is typically as brain dead as cmd.exe.
Cygwin provides the unrar executable without the problems you mention.
Works fine, of course.
I think the majority of "the sounds of silence" articles (and comments) are from people who:
a) can't tell the difference;
b) are in an environment with a fair amount of ambient noise;
c) own a single, typically underpowered system that's used only occasionally; or
d) don't care.
Personally, I'm sensitive to distraction and live in an area where birds chirping is usually the loudest sound to be heard. That said, I don't believe there is anything one can do to a silence a computer. Mitigate excessive noise, but silence? Hardly.
I've swapped out single and dual case fans with better quality replacements (all rated at 20dB or less), swapped out CPU coolers with Zalman, etc. models, tried different "silent" power supplies, and a few weeks ago, bought Antec's goofy looking (albeit well-constructed) Sonata case that promised me the Sound of Silence(TM). Hell, I even built sound-proofed cabinets. All that after reading every possible article Google has indexed on the subject.
The solution, if there is one, is either a server room (work remotely), a closet (if you can situate a desk in close enough proximity to the door), the opposite side of a wall (if the room is unused or otherwise unoccupied) or, if you don't live in a typical California home, a basement.
And really long cables.
Sorry, kids. High quality components are always better than shoddy ones, but all fans make noise, some drives are quieter than others but most will whine after a while, and no power supply is silent. Even modems make noise (a nice high-pitched hiss, but still a hiss). Multiply all that times 2, 3, 4, etc., and you're better off taking the dog for a walk than to spend any time or money trying to fix an unfixable situation.
Known to be smelly, too.
"There are only four places an autostart entry could be ..."
o n/R un' \o n/R unOnce' \o n/P olicies/Explorer/Run' \o n/R un' \o n/R unOnce' \o n/P olicies/Explorer/Run';/ Command Processor/AutoRun' \o n/P olicies/Explorer/Run' \o n/R un' \o n/R unOnce' \o n/R unOnce/Setup' \o n/R unServices' \o n/R unServicesOnce' \m and ' \m and ' \m and ' \m and ' \m and ' \o n/E xplorer/SharedTaskScheduler' \o n/P olicies/Explorer/Run' \o n/R un' \o n/R unOnce' \o n/R unOnce/Setup' \o n/R unOnce/Setup' \o n/R unOnceEx' \o n/R unServices' \o n/R unServicesOnce' \o n/S hellServiceObjectDelayLoad';
Not likely.
#!/usr/bin/bash
# enumerate possible startup reg keys
for regkey in \
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/load' \
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/run' \
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Classes/batfile/shell/open/com
'/HKLM/Software/Classes/comfile/shell/open/com
'/HKLM/Software/Classes/exefile/shell/open/com
'/HKLM/Software/Classes/htafile/shell/open/com
'/HKLM/Software/Classes/piffile/shell/open/com
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Active Setup/Installed Components' \
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Command Processor/AutoRun' \
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/AppInit_DLLs' \
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon/Shell' \
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon/System' \
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon/Userinit' \
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
'/HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersi
# run your favourite registry tool command here
done
I agree it ain't rocket science, but it might as well be.