wutske

of course. It's just the same story as in the beginning of the XP era. First everybody was nagging about software not working, bla bla bla and like 6 years later, everybody is working happily with XP, no more compatiblity issues ... (only the usual windows annoyances )

Doesn't work here, it only switches focus between several windows, probably because I'm not using the taskmanger but ProcessExplorerNT. It's provides a lot more information + it resides in the system tray, so I can have at a single click .

it's just depens on what your vision of 'safe' is. With more than 50000 viruses available (more or less, since a lot of pre XP viruses don't work anymore) for windows, I wouldn't realy call it a safe environement. Of course, if you only look at patches, then it might be possible that windows looks safer, but even tough things are being patched, there still are plenty holes wich viri can use to exploit.Of course I'm not stupid, I'm very open minded and I'm not saying MacOS or Linux are the safest of them all, but since there's only a small group of Mac/Linux users available, they of course form a smaller target. Popular software has always been a popular target, look at Firefox, in the beginning there weren't any leaks (because no-one was looking for them), but nowadays there are a lot of exploits for FF available (luckily, the Mozilla team is fast enough ), just because it's popular.

soooo, basicly this program just records audio ? I've never seen so much text for such a simple program . But I think I'm going to stick with Audacity

it's an interesting site, at first sight. But I've checked out some previous giveaways and to be honest, they don't realy offer software that is usefull or that doesn't have a free (= always free, whenever you dl or activate - btw, I hate activations-) alternative.The games are a bit different, they aren't realy the kind of games I play, altough it seems like sometimes there are a few good ones . Still, I don't like the activation thing, what if you get addicted to it and have to format, that would be sooo painfull .

I have never had any spyware/adware problems because I downloaded and installed freeware. If you're not sure about a program, you could check out softpedia.com, they do check freeware and the programs that pass the test get a certification.Another good source is snapfiles.com . But I do agree with the "don't download too many" statement, before you know you're harddrive is filled . I'm starting to get this problem with my USB stick, it contains almost 500Mb of freeware 'portable' applications .

I've been using the program for a long time, I even recommended it to some of my friends. It's a lovely program, but it's getting kinda useless since I only manage to collect a few MB of rubbish on my pc .

Thanks . I try to create an equilibrum between the showing I'm not perfect and showing I might be perfect . The "//edit:" is something I've been using for a long time, it's an easy way to quickly add something to the post without altering the whole text. It's also the perfect way to show people something have changed (if they've already read the post before).

For the "dedicated" data line part, I think it has something to do with the fact that you're using a PCMCIA SATA card. It's not that I'm saying PCMCIA is slow (in fact, it should be as fast as a normal PCI-bus), but I think (I guess) that PCMCIA isn't Full Duplex. This means it can't send and receive data at the very same moment, but it first has to send, then receive, send, receive ... wich causes things to slow down.

In your dreams , not every program that works on XP works on Vista, I think Microsoft deliverd the best proof: Visual Studio 2005, they needed to patch it before it would work. I've also read something about previous versions of Outlook that wouldn't work like they were supposed to do. I think it's safer to say that in general there shouldn't be a problem running XP-capable software on Vista. For the few programs that won't work, there's the compatibilty option like in XP. //edit: proof -> http://www.warp2search.net/

why would it destroy your windows partition ? As long as you don't do anything stupid (like deleting it ) you shouldn't fear losing windows. I've used it for a long time, never having problems with it. Now I've switched to Linux Live CDs or the Vista DVD (if the pc has a dvd drive of course), just because it's a GUI makes thing much clearer when you start deleting partitions.Btw. you can delete the linux partition using the XP drive management tools.

I haven't tried it yet since I'm running a bit out of space , but Filehamster should be a good backup program. It backs up your data by using revisions, so it saves several versions of your files, wich can be very handy. It also supports real-time backup (that's why it has revisions, it would be stupid to overwrite the files immediately ), so you don't have to worry too much about not having backed up your data. //edit: have I already mentioned it's freeware

I suggest to read this document: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ . It's a comparison of (non freeware, but if there are freeware version, they'll probably perform almost alike) virus scanners. It seems like Avast isn't as good as I had expected it to be, but I'm still happy about it (I hardly need a virusscanner, I don't visit 'bad' website, I don't have spam in my downloaded mails and I don't use Internet Explorer).

You should, it's your right (at least here in Belgium) to challenge your results if you have doubts about them. I don't think they can refuse to give you your results, so go ask for them. but that doesn't mean your prediction will be correct . I last predicted to have 10/20 for a test about network protocols, yet I managed to get a 14/20 .

I have no idea how norton works, but have you already tried browsing the hdd using a bootable linux cd ? Linux supports a lot of rare hdd formats, so maybe it supports the Sony PS2 format.I think you'll have most luck using knoppix (it's a 700mb download, and if it doesn't work, you still have a handy cd in case windows crashes again ).

indeed you're right : http://forums.xisto.com/topic/81490-topic/?findpost=1064285603 There are too many freeware apps on my pc so I'm not going to bore you by listing all of them, the best ones are already mentioned in this topic or the topic I just gave

I've been using VPC for a few month and I do like it more than the Vmware workstation. First of all, it's free and it is able to make new virtual machines (something vmware player can't) and it feels like it's running a bit faster compared to vmware.The lack of linux support hasn't been a problem, I've never had the intention to install a virtual linux environement (my virtual windows environement is solely made for trying software and visiting louche sites so I don't have to worry about screwing up my real windows installation )

I've been using Mercury Messenger for a long time now and I just love it . I'm always running the last beta, and altough they sometimes are buggy, I still can't stop using it (I've even put a complete java environement on my USB stick so I can MM at school ).I don't even care that it's written in Java, I never have more than 3 conversations open, so memory usage isn't a real problem (especialy not when I get my new laptop with 2Gb memory ).I've also used Gaim, Kopete, Trilian and Miranda and Windows Messenger. The last one sucks because it can't do anything else but chatting, Miranda and Kopete are too basic and I can't get uses to them (don't know why). Gaim and Trilian are good alternatives too, but they just can't offer what Mercury Messenger offers. Whereas MM has almost everything (and sometimes more) as WLM8, Gaim and Trilian still are anything near WLM8.

Look for computer magazines, they sometimes comes with a free Linux distribution, especialy if it's a Linux magazine

In the 'How Long Do You Spend Online' topic we can see that internet is very addictive (same goes for me ). Seems like a lot of hours are spent on being online, but how long do you actualy work (like doing stuff for your work at your work or at home, of doing school stuff ) on your computer ?I'll start; monday, thuesday, thursday and friday; always at least 2,5 hours (during sessions at school + lunch break)During the week, lets say rougly 1 hours per day (some day I work 2 hours, other days I work only a few minutes).During the weekend it could range between 3-8 hours, depending on how much I have to do.

you realy are a web developer, aren't you . It's nice, but it's one thing I'll never try, I still prefer writing a page that works best in FF and Opera, if that goes right, it'll probably work in IE too (because it accepts about everything).But then again, I don't write too fancy pages with all kinds of interactive stuff and scripts

what good is a beta staged browser for developement ? It of course handy, but it's not realy needed as long as you follow the rules (W3C and all that stuff). Doing a double check in a virtual pc running linux/macos could even be better.But before I digg it deeper in the ground, I'll first test it (after putting my memory back in my pc so I can run my virtualpc again, no more testing on this windows )

cool, would fit perfect in games like doom or half like

it's effective for every computer . Because there is an animation, there also is a delay (the time when you actualy play the animation). On slower computer, this animation tends to take a bit longer, so disableing it would be more efficient.On the other hand, when the cpu('s) are fully loaded (video compression, compiling, ...), you might see a big difference, even when you're on a fast machine.

My guess is that he goes to many lanparties. In that case, it's realy handy when you can carry everything in a small backpack. The fact is when notebooks are made for gaming, they usualy fail on every other aspect. They're not compact, they aren't realy silent, the battery life-time isn't super-be (even when not gaming) and they get hot, but they're great for gaming .