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User: snib

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  1. Re:Popular Choices on Running Mac OS X On Standard PCs · · Score: 5, Informative

    I used to run Kalyway 10.5.1 on my Dell Inspiron e1505 - it all ran pretty flawlessly. Some hardware drivers had to be hacked, and I couldn't get my video card to run at a native resolution.

    But it was only a couple weeks before I got tired of it. IMO, part of the charm of a Mac is... y'know... the actual Mac.

    Anyway, I used this guide for Dell Centrino Duo laptops, and other posts on the same site are extremely helpful if you're really interested in trying Mac OS X on a PC. Check the "OSx86" section, and especially this thread.

  2. Unwarranted on U. of Chicago Law School Blocks Internet Access · · Score: 1

    Seems to me the college classroom environment shouldn't warrant a ban like this. The students are paying for the class - if they don't want to pay attention and get good grades, it's their loss. Web surfing isn't going to disturb the other students in the class and therefore the problem is on an individual level - a place where, IMO, the university shouldn't interfere.

    Next thing you know they'll be building Faraday shields into all the classrooms....

  3. Re:Downgrade on The Death of Windows XP · · Score: 1

    Yeah, this has nothing to do with Vista, I've had to do this a number of times for XP machines. Small pain in the ass, but it really only takes a couple minutes and I've never had to hold for more than a minute. As long as you manage to get the words "hardware upgrade" across to the support person, they don't ask questions.

    Then again, you could forget license keys and activation altogether if you go with a free OS....

  4. Re:vista's not really that bad.. on The Death of Windows XP · · Score: 1

    > yah it's a memory hog

    Personally I think the memory is there to be used... if you want to run a barebones OS and use your 2GB for nothing, go ahead... ;)

    > but that's compositing window managers for you, including Compiz

    Compiz and beryl generally run a bit snappier (not to mention with more effects) on most hardware, but not all video cards support it. I'm running a two-year-old Dell Inspiron with a 256MB ATI graphics card and I've never been able to figure out how to get compiz support, but Aero ran without a hitch from the moment I installed it.

    > Most problems are with backwards-compatibility, which you shouldn't really expect anyway

    I've heard a lot of complaints about this, but I play old games, run emulators and virtual machines, use outdated software suites, peripherals, etc. and the only "problem" I've had is an occasional incompatibility with Aero (not Vista itself). Not to mention you can run an old program in Vista with compatibility settings for any Windows version back to 95.

    > The whole OS is more mature; it just seems to be more complete than XP which had half the OS tacked on in service packs.

    Agreed. The network settings, mobility center, audio management, speech recognition, preference windows, etc. all seem much more integrated and natural than XP's patched-together menus and dialogs.

    > Yeah it's bloated but I have the hard drive space.

    Who doesn't have 10GB to give their operating system? If that's honestly such a big deal then a hard drive upgrade is definitely in order. Or the serious tweaker can try out vLite.

    I'm no Microsoft fanboy (in fact I'd take OSX over Windows any day, if not for the $$$) but Vista really isn't the mess that everyone makes it out to be. Like past versions of Windows, it just works. No fiddling with packages, no tweaking common drivers, no console commands. And the panic about driver incompatibility is really a thing of the past - almost all manufacturers have updated drivers for Vista.

  5. Re:NO TFA on Pleasing Google's Tech-Savvy Staff · · Score: 1

    What are you talking about? The link is right in the summary, as always.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120578961450043169.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

  6. No Longer Available? on Apple Sends Cease-and-Desist To the Hymn Project · · Score: 1

    > But since the tools are no longer available (after several days there are still no public mirrors)

    Umm... a simple Google search for "myFairTunes" got me a working download for version 7 as the first result. Am I missing something?

  7. USB? Firewire? on Spec Will Cut External Drive Power Cords · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I guess I don't understand the value of eSATA. I don't see many eSATA drives, and I don't see many eSATA ports on computers or devices. Do we really need to add yet another port to laptops, in addition to the audio in/out, multimedia card, USB, Firewire, VGA, DVI, S-Video, Serial, Ethernet, Modem, etc etc? Wouldn't it make more sense to start eliminating ports and making everything work over USB, or Firewire, or some other spec?

    As far as the article, it looks like a neat new development, but I know that you can get power over USB and Firewire. Maybe not enough for an external hard drive (I don't know), but IMHO it makes more sense to upgrade the power capabilities of universal technologies rather than promoting an exclusively hard drive-related format.

  8. Re:Excellent on Warner Music Group Drops DRM for Amazon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oops... I guess i should put a link for those who haven't heard of it:

    QTFairUse download & discussion

  9. Re:Excellent on Warner Music Group Drops DRM for Amazon · · Score: 5, Informative

    I find iTunes' browsing interface to be very nice and the simple search to be faster and easier than every other music store I've tried. As for DRM, try QTFairUse - it very quickly strips DRM from protected tracks. It scans your iTunes library for protected tracks, backs them up, decodes them, and replaces them in your library and all playlists with the unprotected ones. 10-20 seconds per track and it's lossless. It also transfers the ID3 info to the new tracks, as well as album artwork. Of course there's already a lot of tracks in iTunes Plus (DRM-free mp3) which saves you the small trouble.

  10. Re:after the ffact on Anti-Virus Effectiveness Down from Last Year · · Score: 1

    > For example, web browsers should probably disable Javascript by default, and only have controls to explicitly enable it, on a website-by-website basis. Current versions of Firefox get this wrong and that's a shame, because I know that years ago, I saw some Mozilla derivatives that got it right.

    I know a lot of people that share your opinion and use extensions such as NoScript...but personally I find it very annoying to have to enable JavaScript every time I find a site that needs it. JavaScript is used for menus, mouseover effects, cookies, sometimes even layout adjustments. I tried NoScript and found several pages that just looked like crap or were hard to use until I figured out that it's because they use JavaScript to help with the menus or layout.

    I like what you're saying about safe browsers though...maybe if JavaScript simply didn't have the capabilities to access filesystem and ActiveX objects like it does, it would be a safer tool. I know CSS can be used for mouseover effects and all that, but most Internet users don't have a browser that supports modern CSS (*cough* IE *cough*). JavaScript is a much more universal approach, and it would be a shame to lose all the benefits of it just because of a bunch of additional crap that Microsoft and others have added on to the standard.

  11. Re:after the ffact on Anti-Virus Effectiveness Down from Last Year · · Score: 1

    I agree with you.... In fact I just posted here and asked this question:

    If people would start making an effort to use common sense in web surfing, would the need for an anti-virus disappear? Or is more practical to run an imperfect, bogged-down piece of security software (that really doesn't work too well, judging by my survey of people's computers) so that people can surf without thinking?

  12. Read title carefully... on Scientists Offer New Way to Read Online Text · · Score: 1

    "Scientists Offers New Way to Read Online Text"

    Looks like their method isn't working all that well...

  13. Re:Research confirms Chicken-Human Link! on T. Rex Protein Analysis Supports Dinosaur-Bird Link · · Score: 1

    > Not sure what the T-Rex data proves, other than lots of creatures have a similar genetic composition to a chicken. I'm glad someone pointed this out. In reality, any real scientist will know that this new data "proves" nothing. It is evidence that can be interpreted to mean dinosaurs evolved into birds, but it isn't conclusive. It just supports other interpretations of other data. > I'm more interested in the fact that T-Rex soft tissue can survive for, supposedly, 65M years... Another good point... Did dinosaurs live as long ago as we think? Or is it based on more assumptions used in dating methods?

  14. Release date? on Windows Vista Prices and Release Date Leaked · · Score: 1

    Haven't several of them been leaked or announced? And pushed back?

  15. Download on FairUse4WM Breaks Windows DRM · · Score: 1

    Download directly from FileForum here. I couldn't get the forum thread with the download link to load.

  16. /. editors: on Endgame- Google Maps RTS (beta) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Perhaps when a story is submitted for /. the person looking at it should look around for something like...

    DISCLAIMER: This is currently hosted on my personal server in my basement. Uptime cannot be guaranteed.

    When are they going to set up a mirror system for the story articles??

  17. The Red Fox + bookmarks on Browsers Fighting to Keep up with the Web · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "users satisfied with IE7 may not find enough reasons to download and install Firefox when they buy a new computer."

    I think a lot of Firefox users will still want to get Firefox because for a long time they've been clicking the Red Fox instead of the Blue E to get on the Internet. My friends, I know, will notice this at least, and most likely, when wondering how to transfer all their old bookmarks to their new computer, will look into downloading Firefox because that's what their old bookmarks are in.

    I think that interest in Firefox is not going to decrease with the release of Vista with IE7. A lot of FF users are people who would never switch, and the rest are probably too used to it to go back to IE. MS will have to make IE7 a lot like Firefox if they want to keep casual users from noticing the difference.

  18. Website on Nintendo Unveils Casual Gamer Brand · · Score: 2, Informative

    Official Touch Generations website here. It contains a full list of games included under the Touch Generation name.

  19. A lot to make up for on Store Your Own Juice · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This seems like a good idea but it's definitely an investment. At $20K (or $10K for the smaller one), you've got to use a lot of electricity for this to make up for itself, and it'll take time as prices change. This is definitely not something that will appeal to anyone outside a large facility that uses a lot of power consistently.

  20. Re:Beware Office 2007, it is that good. on Is Microsoft Silent Before a Deadly Storm? · · Score: 0

    Must-upgrade the computer, RAM, monitor, video card.

    Actually the beta version (which has the gradients, fading menus, other effects) runs on my $300 piece of crap quite smoothly. Using built-in Intel graphics, 17in LCD, and 512MB RAM, I can have a dozen or so open documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint without bogging down at all. It really isn't as intensive an application as some people make it out to be.

  21. What? on New Phishing Flaw in Internet Explorer · · Score: 4, Funny

    This doesn't work in Firefox. I hate it when people only design their pages for IE!!

  22. Re:What is it, Bash Microsoft Day at the press cor on 60% Of Windows Vista Code To Be Rewritten · · Score: 1

    Why was the title of this article "Too" when it was posted before the Windows delay articles???

    Because of this.

  23. Re:Skywalker story is already told on New Star Wars TV Series Confirmed · · Score: 1

    It doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with the movies. Knights of the Old Republic I & II, totally unrelated to the movies or any other storyline, were both great games and were awarded Game of the Year.

  24. Universal Disc player on Sony, NEC to Merge Optical Drive Teams · · Score: 1

    Is this the first step toward a drive that plays HD DVD and Blu-Ray? Is this even possible?

  25. Re:Download link on Mozilla Camino 1.0 Released · · Score: 1, Informative

    on OSX I've actually started using Safari more than FF - but maybe Camino will change that Just to make sure it's clear, Camino is not a build of Firefox. It is a separately managed project specifically designed for the Mac, but it uses the same rendering engine.