Grafitti

I voted for xboxrulz. Although if it were a multiple choice, I would have also added Handyphp and maxotek. Hellfire's site is suspended. I wouldn't have voted for my own, because while I like it and it suits me just fine, it's got zero fancy coding. And so I voted for ones that combined a nice layout with something under the hood.

Well since the generator gets turned on in no more than 15 minutes after the power goes off, I'm going to try hooking up the monitor as well. Reading about this UPS in the manual, it's supposed to be for 4 regular desktops AND 4 17" monitors, at 10min backup time. The thing has 8 main power outlets on the back. So with my computer and monitor and inkjet and external hard disks all plugged in, i should at least be able to hit 15 or 20 minutes. It came without cables, so I haven't yet had the time to go back out and get them. My only worry about plugging all that in is if it will kick in instantly with the full power, or if the initial drain will make it flicker and consequently make the computer restart. But from what i understand that's not an issue with an online UPS... i do hope so.

Good tip. Another one is to do away with windows explorer and move on to something more powerful like total commander. There if you have hide files disabled, anything that's on the flash disk is listed there. And since it won't automatically load thumbnails unless you specify that, there no accessing the virus. If you know what to look for, you can spot them right away and delete them before they do any damage to your system.

I've found Diskeeper 11 to be an especially good help in defragging and boosting everything from boot time to page file access. It does a great job. Course it's not freeware, but worth the investment.

I think it's especially nasty of Apple to ruin your phone with their updates. So what if you unlock it? you void your warranty. But that's the same with everything. You open, change, or take it apart, and you lose your right to free service. But you don't lose your right to use said product. Really this smacks of the exact same attitude that everyone rants on about Microsoft having. Apple is no different. But i'm sure the same guys who cracked the original iPhone protection won't take long to crack the update and release a patched version, which will run fine on an unlocked iPhone.

OK. I hope I'm beginning to grasp it now. So the UPS I've got now is the following:Brand - OptiUPSTopology - Line InteractiveAutomatic Voltage Regulation - YesMax Capacity - 1000VA / 700WBattery - 7.2AH x 2Surge Energy Rating - 1050 JoulesNot 100% sure I understand all of that, but I think it will do for what I need.

I see. But then, since my Vm doesn't find the soundblaster driver in the XP package, where can i download this generic, if that is the correct term, standalone sound driver for the VM? Yes, i did. That took care of the graphics, but not the sound.

In Karachi.... Half the time it's "scheduled" loadshedding and the other half is unannounced power cuts. I may not have the terminology down correctly, but from what I know, Karachi uses around 750MW but the power grid only can produce 450MW. I do have a stabilizer sitting around somewhere, so I could add that. But someone told me not to stick a UPS after a stabilizer because if the UPS has a built-in stabilizer then the other stabilizer drains it. Is that true?

Well I guess either one would work for me then. I wanted an online one to get the full protection range, but they don't really have them available here. I found lead acid batteries, but they're almost just a crate with a car battery inside, so won't do for my office. I got a 1000w backup UPS. It came in 800w and 1000w versions, and the price difference was $20, so I figure if I want a bit more life and also add a little printer and external hard disk to the UPS load, the 200w wouldn't be a bad idea. It wasn't cheap, though, or at least not as cheap as I had thought... $130 for the 800w and $150 for the 1000w. Though with an average of 5 power cuts a day, not counting freezing up times due to low voltage, I'll easily recoup the investment in time saved.

I'm running XP Pro inside the VM. Just because I want a test system to install new stuff on, and for my son's preschool games, which come with a lot of crap included that i don't want messing up my system. The thing I don't understand is why XP would recognize the sound card outside the vm but not inside. I tried using DriverBackup to extract the driver from my normal xp, but installing it just gives the same problem inside... won't change the "no driver installed" message.

Thanks for the info. I did read the other thread you mentioned, but wanted to get taliored specifics, as anything I'm looking at seems to cost close to $150. So i didn't want to make a stupid investment. Though my power supply is rated for 500w, it outputs around 480w as it's a proper ASUS one. So I need to get something, maybe even more powerful than just 20 min. I really should have looked it up on wikipedia though. As the first thing that pooped out at me when i looked at that link was the online or backup versions. And I realize that all this time all I've been looking at are backup models when i should have been on the prowl for a good online UPS. Thanks.

I've got a 21 inch CRT monitor, a 1.80 dual core, Intel 946 motherboard, 256mb Geforce 7600GS, five hard disks, a 500w power supply, and a dvd burner.If I want a UPS that can power the computer for at least 20 minutes, how powerful does the UPS need to be? I need to know what I would need, both for the computer+monitor, and then just for the computer.

I installed VMware on my desktop, which has a 946GZIS motherboard with a Sigmatel Audio Controller. It runs fine as a normal system, but in VMware it won't register the sound card. In system hardware, it's just got the yellow question mark and says the drivers are not installed. But i've tried installing it off the Intel CD, plus i've downloaded the drivers from Intel as well, but they just install and want to reboot the computer, but don't seem to have any effect.

I wish the poll was multiple choice. As it is I could only vote for one of my systems. So...Desktop1: (P4, 512MB, 80GB HDD, XP Pro, @ 6 programs launched on startup) - 25 seconds with auto logonDesktop2: (P DualCore, 2GB, 300+500+160+160+200 HDD, XP Pro, @ 8 programs launched on startup) - 70 secondsDual Boot Laptop: (P DualCore, 2GB, 120GB HDD, 2 programs launched on startup) - not counting OS select menuXP Pro: 25 secondsVista: 50 seconds (but when rebooting after installing updates, logon takes 2 or 3 minutes)

I agree that the most used app isn't necessarily the best. Though since we're all stating what we use, I alternate between AVG and NOD32 for antivirus protection. I don't currently run a 3rd part firewall, though probably i should. I disagree that you can have a windows system with no antivirus and be perfectly fine, unless your computer never connects to the internet, and never gets flash disks plugged in. Maybe under those circumstances, yes, but I doubt if otherwise.For system tweaking and tuning I use X-setup Pro. Nice, very powerful program, hundreds of tweaks, divided into average user tweaks, and professional admin ones. This is not a free program, but I have it from a while back, so I keep using it. Otherwise, I just use tweakUI and do all the other changes I want myself.

If you're using a pirated serial, then most likely between when you installed it and now, it downloaded an update which nullified the blacklisted serial. If, on the other hand, you actually bought an original copy, then your first recourse should be to call the company and have them solve your problem.

Well, some of it is Windows problems, but the majority is just user stupidity. Your house might have a faulty lock on a window, and a burglar gets in through there. It happens. But if you've left the front door open all night, you can expect to have a lot more unwanted guests. A couple years back I was sent this computer to repair, and it wouldn't even boot up, it was so full of stuff. When i finally piggybacked it onto another system and ran NOD32 on it, seriously, there were over 14,000 viruses, malware, spyware, adware and what have you. The guy had no firewall or antivirus on his system, and he had been running it for about a year and a half. There you have a classic case of user stupidity.

Windows defaults to Simple File Sharing when installed. Simple File Sharing removes, among other things, the advanced protection and security options from windows explorer menus. This means that if you have SFS enabled, and suppose your Admin account has Private Folders enabled (as usually it does), you won't be able to get in, and will get the "access denied" when you try to open the Admin folders. To solve this, log in as something other than a guest -- preferably an admin, but i think a power user would work as well. Open Explorer > click Tools > Folder Options > View Then scroll down to the bottom. The last option should be "use simple file sharing". Uncheck this box. Now right-click on the protected folder, click the security tab > advanced > Owner. Then the User you're currently accessing windows from should be shown in the list there. Click that user name, and replace owner. Click yes to the confirmation, and now you have access to your previously protected files. If your name doesn't show up in the list, go to the Auditing tab, add your user, and then select both the Inherit and Replace checkboxes below, then apply changes. This has always worked for me. One word of caution: It only works if EFS is not enabled. If it is, all you'll do is ruin your files.

I suppose a ways down the line, when 50 or 100GB flash drives become commonplace, that the USB 3 specs would come in handy. You wouldn't have to worry about bending the cable if you're plugging the device straight in to a port on the computer.

I'm Christian, and I don't believe in evolution. However, I'm not going to get into a flaming war over it. All we'll end up doing is going in circles. No one will change what they believe, and it'll just be a way for everyone to let off steam. The way I see it, free choice means you can believe what you want, and when we die we'll see who was right. But that picture dserban posted is really good! I love the sharp wit. "There is no god, therefore your atheism doesn't exist." is also a great line.

Daddy Yankee - Barrio Fino albumDire Straits - Sultans of Swingand whatever else happens to catch my fancy

True, but from the sound of it I doubt he's got a motherboard with 256MB memory option.

Of course. But with all the Microsoft bashing going on, you'd think users would be aware of this sort of stuff. It keeps popping up in one form or another, but every time it does, everyone's shocked. Same thing with gmail. "It's not secure??? OMG, why didn't anyone tell me about this before?? I better move to Yahoo. They're not secure either?? " and the list goes on. You don't want others reading your mail, use encryption. You don't want Microsoft doing stuff to your machine without your consent, get a good 3rd party firewall and block all their connections. Or just unplug your computer. That's the only 100% safe option.

I'm glad they got busted. Using social engineering to trap unsuspecting users is something we blame scammers and hackers for, and shouldn't be done by those theoretically on the "right" side. I feel that memo about getting their 1000+ employees to link to Miivi on their Myspace accounts is particularly nasty. It's one thing to post fake torrents, because those people already are downloading pirated materials, and the line is a bit more hazy on who's legit. But by linking it to the myspace they're attempting to pull in tons of people who might never have downloaded pirated stuff in the first place, and so really, they're both aggravating piracy and sneakily drawing more innocent victims into their trap. I do hope they go bankrupt.

I tried that workaround previously. Actually that one looked the most promising of all the workarounds, but it only works with videos encoded with vodei 1.9 or earlier. Since this is a 2.0 release I was stuck with it, but installed vodei in a virtual OS, then used Dr. DivX to reencode the file. Still was tagged with that vodei garbage, so took the DivX output and ran it through NeroVision, exported as DVD quality Mpeg, and then it seems to have removed the protection. It plays fine on other computers without the vodei codec installed. The installer though does seem to leave a lot of junk behind. Can't tell if it's malicious or not --- I would think not --- but still not something I would install on my actual workstation. Thanks for the tips tho!