Grafitti

I tried VLC. It won't even play the file. The position marker flicks along the bar, but no video window opens. KMplayer at least reads the avi header, and plays the 5 second promo which flashes the message that I need the vodei codec. I haven't found a working fix for it yet, so what i was thinking of doing is just use vmware to run a virtual copy of windows in which i will install the vodei codec and try then to convert it to a regular avi file, and then i should be able to take it out of the virtual machine and it should play properly. At least i hope it's this simple.

Get a proper chair, have the monitor at proper eye level, and take regular breaks.

I have this video file, supposed to be an Xvid Avi file, but it's encoded with the new vodei codec. Before installing it, i searched around a bit to see if people had anything to say about it, and unfortunately the majority of them weren't positive. Even the ones that were, admitted that even though it's supposed to be freeware, when you start watching a video, about every 15 minutes a nag screen pops up, and after ignoring it 5 or 6 times you can't play anything with it anymore unless you buy it. I found some fixes for ripping it out of the vodei codec and into a regular avi, but they are all for the older pre-2.0 versions of vodei. This file is encoded with the 2.0 version, and so far I haven't found a working solution.

I frequently go through my temp file and delete all the stuff in it. I notice that when an application hangs, or when there's a power cut in the middle of my work, the files just sit there and don't get deleted. Fortunately I have an 80GB partition for C:, but still it can fill up pretty fast. I think i clear about 10 or 15 GB per week out of it. Multiple photoshop temp files in excess of 2GB each, Nero images, extracted file copies, and more.

For Adobe it's just market sense to move into the online world.. Google seems to be snapping at the heels of just about everyone, and the sooner you can establish yourself as a player the more brand awareness you create. Especially in the case of such a large company as Adobe, the buzz will get out pretty quick, and if they're serious about grabbing a share of the online visual editing market, they'll provide something that has unique features that the competition doesn't offer. At least that's what I hope they're thinking...

Short version: don't buy it now. XP is still the way to go. Later down the line Vista will be a better alternative, but then you can just buy the upgrade.

Agreed about both QOS at Xisto (wouldn't go anywhere else) and the problem with mini-post spam. However, I saw this one feature on another forum, there was a "thank" button, where you could just click it if you really appreciated the person's post. then on the left side under the avatar, there was another line that said how many times the user had been thanked. Sometimes i do minipost just to thank the person who helped me, but if there was such a system in place it could remove a bit of this stuff. Then again, it could also be opening the door for current spammers to multi-click everything, and then we might be back to square one.

etc. Windows XP only needs a personal serial typed in, to replace the OEM blacklisted one, and Microsoft can't tell the difference (over the internet, that is). But depending on the level of expertise, looking over your machine in person they might be able to. Even if they just ask you for proof of purchase. then you're stuck bigtime. How about borrowing the cd off of a friend?

Sounds like a nice thing to do in your freetime. Except that, like Sten, I don't really have any free time. Got too many projects in the works, and can't even fit in all the personal projects I want to do in my freetime.... i could use a 48 hour day

Grafitti, for the obvious reasons, back when I was younger. And though I don't tag anymore, the name still stuck.

RealVNC solved my problem. though I'm still finding out how it works, so far it's been what I need.I also have logmein accounts set up, but over the slow connection here it doesn't quite work so well. even though both my computers are in the same building and connected via lan, the logmein connection seems to go out through the internet connection and back in, which isn't a useful thing due to low quality of bandwidth here.

Another idea is that it could be something with the external case. Unlikely, but worth checking into. Sometimes USB ports don't provide enough power, and the drive heads start skipping. Or there could be a problem with the drive itself. Do you or your friend have another external case to try it in, or some way of attaching it as a slave drive? Then try to format from there. I did have a case once that had bad contact points with the USB cable, and it would corrupt large files when i tried to copy them.

Yes I have noticed the hard drive thrash problem especially right after coming out of sleep or hibernation. It's so damn irritating.

Is there some way that I can use remote desktop without it locking the user's screen? As if i'm trying to troubleshoot a problem over the network i want them to be able to see what i'm doing to their machine so they can learn, but I can't figure out how to do it. I don't need it to have dual keyboard and mouse input, I just need the monitor on their end to be enabled as well as mine. Possibly a third-party program is available for this?

It's true. Resurrected after a year and a half. But i agree about the Sandisk. I just bought a 2 GB 240c Sansa, and stuck another 2GB in it with the expansion slot. 4GB Mp3 player, FM tuner, Voice recording, Radio recording, all for only $110. Generic chinese products aside, you can't do much better than that price.

I disagree. XP is pretty good. Vista is still not able to be trusted. I'll wait for at least the first service pack before i reinstall it. Though China got a pretty sweet deal, didn't they? $66 for Vista? At that price, it's hard to beat.

You need to get into the BIOS. it'll be written there. Either that, or right when you turn on the computer, either the first or second batch of text that pops up for a second onscreen tell you your BIOS and version number.

I've got another bug to add to the list. A friend of mine bought a Compaq Laptop, brand new, Vista Business edition. Laptop worked fine for a week. Rarely online, only checking email. used MS Office 2007, but that's about it. All of a sudden, the laptop takes forever to boot. And tasks and programs are insanely slow. It's a 2.0Ghz Core2duo, 2 GB ram, but opening windows explorer takes at least 10 seconds. Processor usage is minimal, free ram in abundance, no other programs installed, spyware/adware/malware checks come up clean, hard disk defragmented. But still nothing. I can't figure out how it would just keel over and go belly up like that, on a brand new install.

Well at the rate i collect stuff --- mostly documentaries, and movies and other stuff. I add roughly 4 GB per day to my archives, so that doesn't leave much room to grow with the current formats. Like i said, I use regular dvds, and a duplicate sits on hard disk, but if i ever were to move, it would probably weigh a lot more than i expect.

With the financial clout Google has, I don't think we'll see them losing the domain anytime soon. Worst case scenario is they'll pay big bucks to the ones bringing the suit to settle, or work out a revenue-sharing plan.

For me it all depends on how cheap they eventually become. I could use a terabyte of storage, no problem. I've got more than that in hard drive space, and i'm thinking of another 500GB external which would free up some space on my desktop -- can't even defrag anymore. But i would be leery of storing so much on it. at least with 5 hard drives i'm only apt to lose a few hundred gigs at most if something fails. If i happen to sit on that terabyte disk, or anything happens, I'd be out for the long haul. So if i were to use them, i would make 2, if not 3, copies of everything. For me now, nothing except regular dvds is an option, and even those i'm paying through the nose for... about $0.50 a dvd. If i were to use DL dvds, the price per dvd goes to $10. And for lightscribe, close to $15. So as long as there's this insane price gap, i'll stick with the lower end dvds, even if it means a few more kilos to lug around, thank you.

I guess it's not so much for companies, because their tape drives, blade systems, and multiple raid arrays make it a bit silly to stick everything on a tiny flash drives. I think it's more of a geek toy for now, and floating it on the market to see how it fares, after which we'll start seeing it in phones, PDAs, and MP3 players. I would love to have an MP3 player with that capacity.... I've got a 20GB creative now, but it's a hard drive model, so no shocks or shaking, if you want it to keep working.

A bit bare for a topic starting thread, isn't it?In any case, I would go for photoshop. Though I'm sure Paint Shop and the rest of the Corel suite are great, and i think especially for digital painting they're better than Photoshop. But since I started out in Photoshop, and all my knowledge lies there, I vote for that one.

First of all see if your graphics card port is up on the side of the back of the computer case (if you've got a computer shaped like 95% of us). If it's up there, it's built in. If it's down by the pci slots, then you have a standalone card. Whether it's PCI --god forbid--, AGP, or PCI-E is something that you have to find from the system properties. You can also get details about the graphics card by right-clicking on the desktop >display properties >settings >advanced >adapter and it'll give you all the info you need. See example:

A bit too much paranoia, I agree, but I still disagree with those who claim it's more secure than yahoo messenger. Perhaps only because bugs haven't been discovered in it yet, but security through obscurity hasn't ever come out on top.