Grafitti

I have it for the PC. Can't afford the XBox360, which has the best performance. I'm halfway through, and from what i've experienced, the PC version also has major updated graphics. The cars handle a lot differently from each other, and the customizing is nice. The canyon races are great, and the drifting is the best of all. The wingman addition is a good idea, and the CGI scenes and storyline is better than most wanted or underground. What i don't like about it:Cops are wimpy. I thought it would be harder to beat them.Not enough challengers when driving through the city.Gameplay to finish is short -- if you stick to it, 10 or 20 hours will do.The wingmen are more of an annoyance a lot of the time. they slam on their brakes in front of you, blockers do best when they're behind you, scouts seem to crash into either side of a shortcut frequently.Overall, still a great game, but it could have been better.

Well i suppose Vista is an improvement (loosely termed, at present) over XP. So while i won't be changing over any time soon, once Vista has been around for a bit and has gone through the public testing for 6 months or so, i'll be inclined to install it on my computer. Stupid to run it without an antivirus though. Even if I had a Mac or a Linux machine, i would still want an antivirus. While the spyware/malware/adware/virus count for windows may be in the tens of thousands, that doesn't mean that there are ZERO for Macs or Linux. There are a few, and with the slow but steady shift to open source, this will become the next big hacker target. They WILL find a way. I'm in no way negating these OS's strengths against viruses, but it's walking with blinders to assume that there are no vulnerabilities.

Though at a Microsoft conference the question was put to them and the reply was that MCE contains all the features of Professional, plus addons like Media Center - a supercharged version, was how they put it. Then i'd like to know if that is the case, why is it cheaper than professional, and if not, what does pro have the MCE doesn't?

I tried Windowblinds as well and found it a bit too much on resources. Msstyles is also pretty heavy, but i found that for me it used less resources. Not content with that, i tried the 9x look, got bored of that, then tried 3Ddesktop, too cumbersome to be useful, and then Astonshell. That used a little less resources than msstyles or windowblinds, and was a tradeoff, as it never loaded explorer. I found those to be more robust, the ones that completely replace the explorer shell. The only place i ran into trouble was when i would install user-created skins, which, if they had bugs, would cause frequent crashes. SO eventually i opted out of that, and switched to the KDE transformation pack from Bricopacks. I was happy with that until the Royale Noir was leaked, and so switched back to that... but no screenshots of all those other systems. here's my current: larger size: Desktop jpg 200kb

I think the main reason hackers target the average computer user is that they're a small part of the overall design. That's not necessarily the end goal of the professional hacker. He has a larger scope , and transforming the ACU into a zombie host or relay station, and having many linked together, can create an attack of a much larger scale in relative safety.Of course small-time hackers will hack ACUs just for the fun of it, or to get personal info off, but IMO a pro would use a network of hacked ACUs to break into, say, a credit card company's databases. Why go piddling for small-time cash when you could hit the jackpot?

Though I suppose these only can be found at that price in the states, huh? Or does best buy ship overseas as well?

Definitely Filezilla. I've never had any problems with it, and there's also a portable version which you can stick on a usb and use at an internet cafe that doesn't have FTP programs installed nor the ability to install them.The IE way to go, IMO, is absolutely the last option, a worst-case scenario, especially with large files.

Definitely the Dell you got was a bargain. I think it's the same one i was going for, but i didn't have the two weeks needed to wait for the customization. I also had a Vaio and Powerbook in my wishlist, but i couldn't afford them...

for my part, I'm jealous of Unimatrix and his mac collection. I so wish i could get one of those. here though, there's basically no market for apple products, and one store only who's an authorised reseller, so it doesn't make sense for me to spend the huge premium it would cost. You do have to realise that i mentioned that my home is my office as well, and i'm not the only one using all those computers. Still, with the insane power surges and dust and whatnot here, having at least 3 or 4 computers is the minimum so that you've always got something to fall back on when the surge fries your hard disk. ---a few months back there was a prolonged spike and the regular 220v jumped to 440. I lost almost a thousand dollars worth of equipment.

Well after i finally found where i posted this, i read your suggestions and tried Ubuntu. so far i haven't run into any problems, but still I find myself using windows more (dual-boot). also it runs rather slowly, but that could be due to the hard disk, which is only 4200 rpm. I've noticed major fragmentation issues. again, i don't know if this has to do with the speed of the hard disk, but i use diskeeper to defrag, and say i totally defrag it, and it gives me a 0 or 1 % fragmentation when i'm finished, i'll restart the laptop and it will be at 5 or 6 %, and this is without any other disk activity. why would this be happening? Other than that, i haven't had any complaints with it. the battery life on my 8 cell is nearly 6 hours. screen is great, only say if i were comparing it to a dell or compaq, the acer needs to be treated much more gently.But for the graphics card, i haven't had problems with Linux, as it's an Ati Radeon Xpress 1100.Would i recommend this laptop? Yes. definitely, at this price. if i were to have spent $1000 or more, my choice would probably have been the Dell 6400.

Total: 12 (9 desktops [all PIV], 3 laptops[1 PIV, 1 Core2Duo, 1 AMD Turion 64X2) None of the desktops are branded, all OEM parts. 2 21" Dell CRTs, all other desktops 17".1. a powerful computer that i use all day for work2. a server3. a P2P-enabled computer (not on my home network)4. a gaming/video capture computer5. my wife's computer6. kids' computer7-9. workstationsLaptops:1. Compaq Presario 2568 (on its last legs)2. Dell 64003. Acer 6100It is a lot, but my home is my office as well.

You didn't mention whether you want freeware or paidware, but the program i use for this exact purpose is NeroVision.Basically any format can be converted into a dvd, and menus, chapters, etc can all be created as well with a few clicks. If you happen to find a particular format, say some obscure avi codec that nero won't read, there are tons of freeware utils out there that can convert from whatever to a regular avi or mpg file, which you can then burn with Nero. If i want a professional result, I'll use Adobe's Encore DVD, but that's quite a jump in the learning curve, and not necessary for personal use.

I have 3 external drives. One is a WD mybook, 320Gb, which runs very quiet and usually is fast as well. Only when i'm backing up huge files onto it, mostly over 2 GB in size, does it stop/start writing. Another is a 200GB Seagate in a junky generic casing, which doesn't even stand on end. It can't be plugged in for longer than a couple days at a time before I need to unplug it because it gets too hot. (there's no fan inside). Plus points are small form factor and no noise. Then I have a 120GB Seagate which doesn't actually have a casing, but i have a usb to IDE cable for 2.5/3.5/5.25 drives, which is useful when you've got little drives laying around everywhere and you don't want to buy the full case for each of them.I also have a 400GB rack-mounted drive, but that's not quite external....

But Vista, built on a different kernel (ripped from linux, or so i've heard) will incorporate a different code architechture, which doesn't use DOS, for one. So theoretically, it could be a much more secure OS, the only problem is with the huge amount of third-party software, which requires that old kernel to run. If the big businesses insist on Microsoft leaving Vista open. then we might not be much better off, and i don't know what i'd prefer. Having to get all my programs over again, or working with a buggy system that I can still patch to my liking.

I noticed a slowdown when i used stardock, though i had the full package and not just the windowblinds. Right now i use a great theme from http://www.crystalxp.net/, there's vista, Linux, and crystal(Mac) transformation packs. Along with a neat app called Rocketdock, from the same site, i get the cool Mac-style expanding dock, which i get envious comments for from people who think i'm running Tiger on my Acer machine.

How would you upgrade to XP? What XP version is that? As Home, Professional, MediaCenter, etc, those are all XP. Of course XP will work, aside from any issues the computer might have with 64bit. Any distro should work on the machine, because the drivers are the same. Home would be a downgrade, Professional would be a minor downgrade.

Yeah definitely if cash is a big issue, it's not worth spending it on the latest version of photoshop. Go for either a free alternative, or buy a previous version secondhand from somewhere. I wouldn't advise getting version 6 or earlier, but 7 or 8 (CS) contain nearly all that CS2 has, of course missing all the latest addons, but still the powerhouse is there, and you're able to do most things with it. Plus if you've never used CS2, you won't notice a thing missing, and you're spending a fraction of the cost.

As of 8:30 PM where i am (GMT+5), the latest release is still 1.5.0.7

But the Windows key+L is alot faster, plus it's one less icon on your desktop. Maybe you like a lot of icons on there, i find it too cluttered. The less the better.

Well, i'd want one if i could afford it. Since I can't, why keep wishing?

I asked this in another thread, but what Linux distro runs easily on an AMD dual core? Someone told me that AMD X2 doesn't support linux yet. but if it does, what's a distro that is easy to use and set up for someone who hardly has any experience with it?

So would Win2000 Server be the easier option in that case?

I bought an Acer Aspire 5601WLMI for $850 after rebates. It has an AMD Turion 64 X2 ML-50 processor, 2 GB DDR2 ram, 120GB hard drive, 15.4 in brightview widescreen, etc. I did alot of online research before i bought it, as I don't like Acers, and would have gone for a Compaq or Dell had i had more time. But it seemed to get pretty high reviews, and on notebookreview.com it was in the top 5. But has anyone here had any experience with one of them, and can shed more light on whether i made myself a deal or a lemon?Also, say i was to try out Linux on it, would i run into problems with either the AMD or the dual core? and if not, which distro would be best for an Acer? --keeping in mind that i am a novice at linux and would prefer a familiar GUI so i don't feel too lost on my first try.

So, after watching the movie, i got into a debate with someone over the sinking of the ship. My question is: would a ship that size sink that fast? I've known of smaller craft, say 40 or 50 footers, who turned upsidedown in a gale, and stayed that way for a week or two. Why would a huge ocean liner, which has the bottom half of her sealed watertight, sink in an hour? Does that make sense from a laws of physics standpoint or not?

I just got myself a Dlink 108G wireless router, which i want to use to get all my computers online. The router has one Ethernet port that is supposed to be used for connecting to the DSL modem, and 4 ports for direct connections to computers. Now it's all supposed to be plug and play, but for me it isn't that simple. I have a strange internet connection. my uplink is a DSL modem, and my downlink is a satellite cable connection, which is hardwired to a PCI slot in my computer. So if i want to share this connection, it doesn't quite work automatically, as i can't plug the modem straight into the router. i have to use one lan cable to connect the modem to the computer, and another NIC card inside the computer which connects to the router. however, it won't automatically configure itself for ICS. if i try to automatically assign an IP it gives me an error, and if i do it manually, using a gateway, etc, i don't get any shared internet over the wireless. i can network fine to the other computers through that, but it won't share internet access. then i also need to connect a regular 8 port hub, so that confuses me more. how can i get everything on one network, and share the internet across as well? ---using XP Pro, just for the record. I wanted to install Server2000 on the computer with the internet link, turn it into a server, but the tech guy i asked said it wasn't necessary. is that true as well, or am i creating more of a headache for myself by not using a server?