Date: 03/06/06     Keywords: no keywords

Hey all.

New member to this community.

Just a quick Hello to everyone in here.

Hello : )

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/889767.html

Date: 03/05/06     Keywords: no keywords

I've got a homebrewed PC. Fully integrated Intel motherboard. Jetram memory, Seagate HDD, some Panasonic DVD-RW, TFT monitor. Celeron-1700, powersink&thermal grease in place, temp. around 35 deg. (Celsius). Every piece of this workhorse (including power supply unit) was thoroughly tested (yeah, and i've got the new power supply), but it still powers up after 4th-5th attempt. Hints anyone?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/889357.html

Date: 03/05/06     Keywords: no keywords

So, with things such as DSD discs, SATA, USB, PCI-E and so on... it's apparent that computing is moving towards Serial more and more. I'm just wondering from you all, is it going to be possible sometime in the future for computer to process in serial?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/889132.html

Date: 03/04/06     Keywords: no keywords

Okay, after owning my video iPod for a total of 48 hours, I have decided that I need to produce video podcasts - especially after viewing Tiki Bar. Those who have seen my photography will attest to the fact that I have tons of sexy on-air talent available. And I'm funny. No, really, I am. Okay, maybe I'm not, but I know people who are (and I know where they live and where their bodies are buried).

So...

Adobe Premiere - check. Got it (it was cheaper to get the whole CS2-everything than just the apps I needed. Go figure)

Mondo powerful computer with kick-ass graphics and sound - check. I'm a nerd. Sue me.

Sound editing equipment - check. I produce electronic music for fun. I say "for fun" because I likely suck at it. I've got more money than talent, to be sure.

What I don't have - a video camera or two. I also don't have a clue. But that's why I'm posting here. Presume I have more money than brains (a decent presumption). What else do I need? What kind of cameras?

Is there an LJ community for idiots like me who want to jump on the latest bandwagon?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/888801.html

Date: 03/04/06     Keywords: software, linux

I freely admit that my software knowledge isn't as broad as it should be by now. I'm still new to linux! What I would really appreciate is if you would suggest the proper linux disto for me. I want a distro that's both good for wardriving and learning about linux in general. Pricewise- cheaper is usually better, but I want to know what is best. Thanks in advance~

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/888364.html

Date: 03/03/06     Keywords: software, web

Okay, I just broke down and bought a 60GB iPod. I've installed the software and am going to start playing.

Anyone have any pointers to web sites that will give me the skinny on what I can do, where I can get video, how I can convert some AVI files that I have (home videos) into a format so I can send 'em to my iPod, how I can get podcasts automatically downloaded, that kind of stuff?

Also, I hear that there's no API for this thing. I'd sure like to write an application that can make it work as a tethered store for my Nikon D70 while I shoot. Anyone know if there will ever be an API?

Much thanks in advance. It's all about the cool toys! :-)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/887913.html

Date: 03/02/06     Keywords: ebay

Full of linkage so you see the whole picture, LJ cut for your viewing pleasure...

So I've recently won a laptop off ebay from the seller mrbiggs228. All is well and the laptop has been shipped [while I have not yet received it I do have the tracking number]. So he leaves me positive feedback and all that goodness, and suddenly a few days later I recieve an email from Ebay stating this:

"Our records show that you were a bidder or buyer of one or more of this seller's items. We recently removed this seller's active listings and suspended the seller's trading privileges. Due to privacy concerns we cannot share further details about this seller."

I trust this seller, he has a rating of 44 with only 2 negative feedbacks, which after review were not justifiable. Also I recently found out that the bidder 123devonj with a feedback rating of NEGATIVE THREE (-3!) [all of which bash the buyer as a fraud] won a laptop from mrbiggs228. Well what a flippin' coinsidence that suddenly mrbiggs228 is banned! What crap is this?! I've sent multiple emails to ebay trying to figure out what's going on, and maybe clear mrbiggs228's name. I haven't even had the pleasure of leaving him positive feedback! Also, somehow I've been prohibited from contacting either member directly, even when not through ebay, at least that's all I can figure out since I've not received replies and ebay sends notifications of blocked responses... weird...

Anybody else here witness such nonsense on ebay? It goes to show how careful you have to be when dealing with frauds.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/887618.html

Date: 03/01/06     Keywords: web, google

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way is a web site I find very informative and I thought I would share it with the group. Everyone should read this website from top to bottom before ever posting on any forum (technical or not), before dashing off a emails, or bothering someone by IM.

Here is example of the wonderful wisdom imparted by this website:

There is an ancient and hallowed tradition: if you get a reply that reads “RTFM”, the person who sent it thinks you should have Read The Fucking Manual. He or she is almost certainly right. Go read it.

RTFM has a younger relative. If you get a reply that reads “STFW”, the person who sent it thinks you should have Searched The Fucking Web. He or she is almost certainly right. Go search it. (The milder version of this is when you are told “Google is your friend!”)

In Web forums, you may also be told to search the forum archives. In fact, someone may even be so kind as to provide a pointer to the previous thread where this problem was solved. But do not rely on this consideration; do your archive-searching before asking.

Often, the person telling you to do a search has the manual or the web page with the information you need open, and is looking at it as he or she types. These replies mean that he thinks (a) the information you need is easy to find, and (b) you will learn more if you seek out the information than if you have it spoon-fed to you.

You shouldn't be offended by this; by hacker standards, your respondent is showing you a rough kind of respect simply by not ignoring you. You should instead be thankful for this grandmotherly kindness.

This website should be a primmer and required for anyone using the intarwebs! Don't Thank me, just RTFA!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/887346.html

Date: 03/01/06     Keywords: no keywords

I have a question. Right now I have a Toshiba Satellite and I hate it with a firey passion and fully intend on buying a new laptop this summer.

My question is...is there any such thing as a laptop that doesn't HUM loudly? This is my biggest pet peeve!

I'm a college student and I can't take my laptop to class because (a) it's too big and (b) because it hums louder than a semi-truck!

So...do you know of any laptops that don't hum?

Thanks a bunch!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/887290.html

Date: 03/01/06     Keywords: virus, web, spyware, microsoft

Putting this out to a number of folks, in the hopes that someone can provide some insight:



Getting the following message, inconsistently:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** STOP: 0x000000A5 (0x00000006,0x00000000,0x00000000)
The ACPI BIOS in this system is not fully compliant with the ACPI specification. Please red the README.TXT for possible workarounds. You can also contact your system's manufacturer for an updated BIOS, or visit http://hardware-update.com to see if a new BIOS is available.

The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your system vendor or visit http://www.hardware-update.com for an updated BIOS. If you are unable to obtain an update BIOS or the latest BIOS supplied by your vendor is not ACPI compliant, you can turn off ACPI during text mode setup. To do this, simply press the F7 key when you are prompted to install storage drivers. The system will not notify you that the F7 key was pressed -- it will silently disable ACPI and allow you to continue your installation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, now..

The platform is a Dell Latitude C610, about five years old, with 1024M RAM in two parallel chipsets (512M each) -- this is the max. cap. for the stock system; HDD is an 80G (nom.) Hitachi. System is set up with triple boot: 1) Ubuntu (Breezy) -- default, 2) Knoppix (also 2nd-to-last stable build), and Win2K/Pro (heavily patched with Dell and MS). I mostly use the Win, because it supports my wifi card, as well as most multimedia. I usually do a complete purge and reinstall each year; this is about two months overdue right now, so there's some evidence of Windows artifacts I'm having. (I'm not including any of those here, since I don't believe they have anything to do with this issue, and because I don't see how Windows artifacts could affect the BIOS or system startup.) The multiboot is available through a selection interface provided under grub, which was installed under Ubuntu; grub replaced lilo, which was installed under Knoppix, as Ubuntu was installed last. Grub was installed in the MBR.

The message comes up most often on startup (or reboot), but sometimes without warning during use. The system halts completely, puts the message up, and that's it. It always requires a hard boot to get past it.

The issue may repeat a number of times in a row, and downtime does not seem to make any difference. Letting the system rest overnight may or may not work, and restarting it without rest over and over eventually results in a stable session. Just by example, this current session came after multiple restarts (most of them automatic, but quite a few also called, using the hardware switch), and this cycle of errors occured after many hours of downtime.

Following the instructions, I went to Dell's website, which provides excellent support. Dell confirms that my BIOS is fully up to date, and I would be awfully surprised if anyone other than Dell had a more current version.

Possibly related, I sometimes get this error, which only occurs at startup (or reboot):

"Memory write/read failure at [ADDRESS], read [VAL1] expecting [VAL2].
Memory address line failure at [same ADDRESS], read [VAL2] expecting [some other Value]."

The ADDRESS and VALs are different from one occurrance to another. I don't know if this indicates failure in a number of registers, or if it's just hitting an error by chance as it comes through some random register. If, as I suspect, a line spike is responsible, then there may be quite a number of damaged RAM registers. However, the inconsistency of the error, together with the fact that I can't imagine why it would seek different addresses at different startups (especially with no sessions in between), seems to argue against this. It would, however, be awfully convenient if the problem could be solved just by swapping out some RAM.

Now, these problems started right after the big blizzard we had. I suspect that a power spike might have frizzled some logic or memory hardware, or possibly corrupted some firmware. (It would be possibly useful, as a troubleshooting measure, to force a BIOS rewrite, but the interface in Dell's update patch detects the current BIOS ver. and won't allow a force overwrite. Don't know if a diff. ver. exists that would allow a forced overwrite, so unable to verify that BIOS is uncorrupted.)

The problem is not Windows-related; Ubuntu also fails on some startups, before the OS can launch, and sometimes after. (I haven't tried to see if Knoppix also suffers, but I have to assume that it would.) The errors occur most often at BIOS startup, before any OS is selected and launched.

Having said that, while the memory error (which is infrequent) always hits right at the very start of startup (before Setup is available), the ACPI message may occur at seemingly any time during system startup, OS startup, or normal use, so while it may involve a BIOS corruption, it's apparently unrelated to the startup sequence itself.

Malicious ware is not indicated: The system has repeatedly passed checks for viruses, spyware, adware, and rootkits.

It may or may not be related, in part or in whole, to some file corruption: I do regular cleaning and defrag, but for reasons unclear to me, there is substantial data that cannot be defragged. Thanks to some genius at Microsoft, more recent versions of Windows no longer provide a standalone DOS, and some DOS processes (e.g., chkdsk /f) cannot be run while Windows is running. I will try to do this from outside the OS, but I don't know how much luck I'll have. It's possible to instruct it to run these processes on next startup, but this is not working for me; I suspect this may be related to the grub multiboot process, which perhaps defeats automated pre-Win startup instructions. I will also try to investigate this, and any pointers are greatly appreciated. A nice chkdsk /f never hurts.

The problem is inconsistent; sometimes -- as now, for example -- the system behaves properly, sometimes for hours, sometimes all day and night, sometimes only for a few minutes. This leads me to some other theories, such as a possible physical circuit fault inside the box (perhaps triggered by some external event, such as atmospheric changes or some kind of vibration of cabinet motion); I can't help but wonder if the battery is involved in this.

I will try some other things to see if I can run this problem down, before I get to swapping out RAM or buying a costly new battery, but in the meantime I want to put this out to see if anyone can offer any insights that might save me a lot of time and effort (and possibly money).

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/886615.html

Date: 02/28/06     Keywords: no keywords

Anyone use Genuine Fractals 4.1 for upsizing?

Quick question - sharpen and then upsize with GF? Or use GF to upsize first, and then sharpen the enlarged image? I realize that the "accepted standard" is to sharpen last, but GF seems to imply that one should do all enhancement work first, flatten, and then upsize. That doesn't sound right. Anyone with actual experience?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/886383.html

Date: 02/28/06     Keywords: virus

My girlfriend has an HP Laptop with a 2.8 GHZ Celeron (yeah yeah..) and 512MB Ram, Sorta. She has one of those deals where the "Video Ram" is simply regular RAM that is dedicated to just doing video RAM stuff, so it reports as 448 all the time (took us a while to figure that one out.) Anyways her computer is running like crap, especially as far as sound is concerned. It is not uncommon for audio to "lag," even under the easiest conditions. For example if you're using WMP to hear a CD and you launch Word, you'll hear audio stuttering. This is very annoying, especially for certain programs that I installed for her on the machine. As one way to combat this problem I'm going to install 256 more RAM into her computer (Take 1 256 out, add a 512 in its place, she only has 2 slots... huh huh... 2 slots...) But I'm wondering if this problem sounds familar to anyone else or if they have experience with it. I haven't had these issues since I tried playing MP3's at full quality on my Pentium 200mhz years ago. I know she doesn't have a great processor, but I have to figure a 2.8 Celeron doesn't normally have these problems. Her computer appears to be virus free ( although she keeps finding 1 particular virus or something) and her Ad-Aware cleaned up a bunch of stuff recently. Also I don't think defragging is the issue either, since she hasn't done much to her computer since I last gave her computer a big defrag (3rd party, not XP.) Thanks

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/886068.html

Date: 02/28/06     Keywords: no keywords

if anyone could help id gretaly appreciate it...

im having an issue with my Windows Media player playing some video files on my computer...


when the video plays, the picture and the color is seperated vertically showing a gray
video in the middle with a fuschia colored one unerneath it and yellow and green-blue above it i believe.
it doesnt happen with all of my video files, but it is most of them so i
already tried downloading an codec for windows media player 9 and 10,
also i tried another thing on WMP troubleshooting site, but neither worked

so i was wondering if anyone has had a similiar issue, and if so
how to fix it

thanks in advance!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/885883.html

Date: 02/28/06     Keywords: virus

Hello, respected geeks. I have a question and I beg of you to offer some solutions, if you please...

My computer recently had a couple viruses and a few vulnerabilities, so I figured it could use a reformatting. I didn't like how it had been set up--although I did build it myself ('03), my guy friends took it upon themselves to upgrade it from 2kPro to XP Pro "for me" while I was studying freshman year of college. They loaded my OS onto this old 6GB hdd and utilized my 80GB to act as main storage. Of course, this was inconvenient, as I had to load all program files on the storage hdd. Well anyway, I purchased a 250 GB western digital hdd and an apparatus to turn it into a USB external, and backed up all my files I wanted to keep onto it. I then removed the 6GB, put the 80GB in its place as primary master IDE, and booted from the XP Pro CD.

I formatted. It started installing Windows. At 33 minutes remaining in setup, it froze--well, not froze completely, the little boxes in the bottom right corner were still blinking, and those stupid ads MS runs for its product toting how wonderful XP is kept blinking past, but...there was no progression in the installation. For Three. Hours. Finally, I came over and hit the space bar, then the enter button--and I got

The Blue Screen of Death.

I tried again. And again. And again. I had formatted, partitioned, reformatted, deleted partitions...all with the same result. Except that instead of freezing at 33 minutes, it would just go straight to the BSo'D. I tried a DFT--a drive fitness test...tried using a '98 boot desk, CHKDISK, SCANDISK, and FDISK. A fellow geek suggested maybe in my re-partitioning, a sector had just not completely un-partitioned, and therefore was a stuck...sector. Or something. Whatever, I figured this was not working right.

So I copied my backup onto this computer and tried taking the 250 GB out of the external USB apparatus and replace the 80 GB with it. Same result. So it's not my hard drive.

The BSo'D error says something about kernel...data...loss? something like that. It's in the middle of the "Installing Devices" process. It suggests turning off any caching or shadowing in my BIOS, but I don't see any options like that in my attempts to edit my BIOS. It also suggests trying to ensure that any hardware is installed correctly. Everything looks right--for god's sake, I built it. In BIOS it recognizes both sticks of 512MB, so I don't think anything's wrong with them. The only thing I've changed is which hdd is in there! :(

Please tell me you guys have some suggestions. I humbly beg for your advice.

Thanks in advance,
Kitty <3

x-posted: geeks, computergeeks

EDIT: Thank you all for your help! I unplugged the additional USB ports I had added, the zip, and the floppy. We're still in the middle of XP setup, but it got past the wicked 33 minute mark. Much obliged!!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/885405.html

Date: 02/26/06     Keywords: no keywords

Hi, first time posting here, and I already come with a problem.
I use Windows XP SP2 on an eMachines T1150(yeah, i know, really bad choice).
Lately, whenever I go full screen with a game or Windows Media Player Classic, I get booted out of it because of another program that just appears.
I can't seem to find the name of it, as the taskbar doesn't display the name of the program.
I tried looking under the Task Manager when the program popped up, but I can't find it under my UserName.
The weird thing is that this 'pop-up' doesn't show any windows and only appears whenever I go into full screen mode for other programs.
I scanned with Ad-Aware, but nothing was solved...

Any ideas how to fix this?

EDIT: I now noticed that this 'pop-up' program does appear even when I'm not in full screen mode. I'm guessing this is bad.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/884451.html

Date: 02/23/06     Keywords: no keywords

I've been considering this new laptop from Best Buy as a desktop replacement. It's currently much more powerful than my current desktop, but I want other opinions first.

Gateway MX7525

What do you think?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/882771.html

Date: 02/22/06     Keywords: google

Google turns up many advertisements, but I thought I'd go to the source:

Aside from burning and ripping, is there a way to convert an m4p (from iTMS) to an mp3 and retain the tag info?

Mac app preferred, but not a deal breaker if it's Windows based.

Thanks!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/882411.html

Date: 02/21/06     Keywords: no keywords

I'm asking this here because I don't know where else to ask and I don't feel like joining a community to ask what is basically a "poll" question. Anyways I'm looking to get a new cell phone soon. I'm looking to kinda go all out with a Treo or an equivalent, and I'm wondering about the OS that I should go for. Basically its between Palm and Windows Mobile. The fact that WM has its portable versions of Office and that the .NET Framework can be used in it is appealing to me. However, it doesn't look like many phones support WM, and the newest Treo that does is exclusively available with Verizon (I have Cingular and am not switching.) Does anyone have any experience with either OS in cell phones? Should I go for the WM with all its MS adaptability or go with Palm's more established system? Thanks.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/882153.html

Date: 02/20/06     Keywords: no keywords

Ok this is gonna sound weird. My dad is cleaning up his office and is about to pitch a bunch of computers. All of them still have their HDs in them, and since you can never have too much HD space, I was wondering if it was possible to set up a little external file server or something that would look like a RAID setup where I could just hook up all these HDs to an external case then hook them up to my machine via USB or some other connection. I doubt these are very high quality HDs, but could be good for storing big multimedia files that are currently taking up my main HD. Any ideas/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/881807.html

Date: 02/20/06     Keywords: browser, html, virus, web, spyware, linux

If you're a Windows or Linux user (the former especially), and you ever need to do a bit of surfing on a particularly shady website, and you want to protect your PC from any nasty spyware or other malicious code that might be present, the usual tactic is to rummage around for hardware, build a sacrificial system, install an operating system and applications, add it to your LAN, and get to the site in question.

Instead, try the VMware Browser Appliance. It's a self-contained copy of Firefox (running on Ubuntu Linux, but that's largely irrelevant -- Firefox is Firefox, from a user standpoint) that runs as "virtual machine" on your computer. When it runs, it runs inside its own window, not just on screen, but in memory, and the hard drive. It's completely boxed in: nothing you load can get to your other applications, or your hard drive, or onto your computer in any way other than inside that pre-defined box. It makes a great environment for testing website design, or testing a web application you're writing, or investigating a potential virus site, or anything else that you would be more comfortable not using your main PC for. You can configure it to either wipe itself completely clean every time you use it, or to retain the settings (bookmarks, cookies, etc) between uses.

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/browserapp.html

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/881615.html