Sarah81

*sighs* I don't like Mac anyway - well, not for their computer systems, I mean. I still don't quite understand how they can charge over twice the amount that PC users can pay for a comparable PC-based notebook computer. I keep expecting Apple to go right out of business, but they hang in there. Weird. Very weird.

That's just odd. I never thought about filling a case with cooking oil.Interesting that the other internal hardware didn't die. Hmm. Now every time my laptop starts getting noisy, I'm going to be tempted to go into my kitchen and get that big bottle of cooking oil I just bought yesterday. D'oh! *grins*

Now that all of you have pointed out the weirdness surrounding Google, especially their massive GMail account offerings, I have something mildly disturbing to think about for the rest of my weekend.Good thing I only signed up for GMail out of curiosity, and not to use as a primary account.So. I guess I'll end with advice that my Mom gave me about the Internet several years ago: if you want to send information, even just a note to a friend, that you don't ever want anybody else to read, then write a letter, stick it in an envelope, and put it in the mail.

Last year I was still running an old HP (Win 95-based system - had a whopping 1.3 G hard drive) that my grandmother had given to me. Loved having the aging dinosaur in my dorm room at college because I could write (it actually had an old-school copy of Word on it, which was great). Other than that I couldn't do anything with it. I couldn't even really do much to upgrade the system, which I looked at doing a couple of times just to see if I could speed things up a little bit. The video card finally started dying, which wasn't very good for me. I had to adjust the monitor so that the brightness and contrast were jacked all the way up - just so I could read my Word documents. I switched out monitors, which didn't help at all, so I knew that the card needed to be replaced.Wasn't happening. I couldn't find one that would work. I didn't spend hours and hours looking around, though, because, you know, this system was pretty old and I didn't see the point in investing a whole lot of effort trying to track down an old card that would probably just die on me.Anyway ... because I lived in a college dorm, and my RA lived right next door, and I didn't have my baseball bat with me, I couldn't do anything overly *loud* or *satisfying* to destroy the stupid computer. So I disassembled the entire thing. Yes. I even took the screws out of the case - the ones that held the power button in place. Every screw that I could find, I took out. And eventually, the computer was in about eight zillion tiny pieces, which was sort of satisfying.Then I lugged the large pieces (monitor and case) out back and threw them in the Dumpster. And when I say "threw" I mean launched as hard as I could into the back wall of said Dumpster. The noise was so loud that people driving down the street right next to the Dumpster actually stopped to look over and see what had just happened.Then I called my mother. This day - the day that my poor old computer died - happened to be my birthday. Unfortunately, she didn't sympathize enough to buy me a new computer. *grins* But at least I tried. The only really good thing was that I had access to several computer labs on my campus, so I could still get schoolwork done and all that good stuff. And I eventually ended up inheriting another computer, which was almost as old as the one I took apart. That one, unlike its predecessor, is still alive. I just left it at home so that my younger sibs can use it if they want to.

I agree. We should be well informed, but when the talking heads and wannabe TV celebrities stop talking about information that we need (like a drug's potential side effects) and start trying to dictate our decisions to us, I lose interest, not to mention any respect that I might have initially held for those guys and girls. And is it just me, or do a lot of the talking-head types start with valid points, like drug side effects, but quickly descend into idiocy? Ultimately, do we really need to listen to these people for more than the first two to five minutes of their speeches?

I'm glad that you found something that you really love. Me, I'll stick with XP. I know that a lot of people absolutely hate Windows, mainly because it tends to have glitches, glaring errors, and other, even nastier stuff ... but I haven't had any problems that a couple of minutes spent tweaking can't fix.Maybe I'm just lucky. *grins*Now, if you want nightmares ... let's talk about Win 98 *snickers*

In 20 years, we'll go to doctor's offices to have nurses inject iPod microchips into our earlobes. Hey, we won't even need headphones anymore.Seriously though, this is an interesting topic. I'm not sure what the next step will be ... or what we'll use to listen to music 20 years from now. I would just be satisfied with less cruddy music in the future, really.

You pose some very interesting questions in this post. I don't really know much about science (or MMORPGs, hehe), so I can't give any *definitive* responses - just guesses that are more my imagination than anything else.I think that computers and humans are someday going to be so closely enmeshed with one another that it will be sickening. Seriously. Go to the Wired magazine archives and look up the issue in which they did a cover story about using computers and virtual-reality type things to help a blind guy see. The photos are pretty gruesome (they actually had to, uh, install the computer wiring and such in this guy's head). Disgusting? Probably not to the guy who was able to see (grainy, simple images, granted, but his brain still transmitted them so that he could pick them up and interpret them the way that we do when we look around). So, we're already starting things like you're talking about with the coma-patient questioning. I'm sure that we'll only become more advanced as we continue experimenting and asking various questions.

I wouldn't call it "unfair" so much as bad timing on your part. Maybe the next time you decide to buy a trendy status symbol, you'll wait until prices come down.

Hey, everyone. I just convinced my Mom to switch to Firefox - from Netscape. She's stuck with dial-up, so she loves the fact that Firefox is going about eight times faster than Netscape was ... and that this browser is more stable.She asked me if I could find some way of making Firefox look more like Netscape. She wants a theme that will mimic the default Netscape skin, with the big rounded buttons and all of that stuff. I looked around and couldn't find anything, but now I'm hoping that one of you might have an idea.

Oh, absolutely! The ideas for stories and stuff like that are the only things that I really appreciate about my nightmares. I have them at least three times a week ... but at least none are terrifying enough to make me wet the bed, hehe.

Everyone either was, or is, a newbie, especially when anything related to computers is involved. I could tell all sorts of fun stories about hard drives I've crashed, operating systems I've trashed, and mice that mysteriously dropped dead in my hand. But most of you probably did the same things when you were just starting. I'm not a computer genius, but I like being able to help people who don't understand something that I can do. I didn't really have anybody to teach me, so I had to either figure things out for myself or try to find the answers in books (which doesn't always work very well, as many of you probably know). I think that, if I'd had access to this type of forum when I started out with computers however many years ago, I would know more today ... and wouldn't have destroyed so many computer systems with my big, big, costly mistakes *grins* So ... I'm in total agreement about being nice to newbies.

In response to Houdini's explanation, which is a very good one:Just remember, everyone, that amateurs and professionals alike can post blogs. Anyone who can get online can post something in their own blog, and it doesn't cost them anything.So, if professional journalists can get away with totally messing up ... then bloggers can definitely make their own mistakes. No matter how much we'd like to believe a particular source, we still have to do our own research.But even then, most bloggers are just writing about their (our?) personal lives, so accuracy and truth in reporting are sort of beyond the scope of many entries.

I make money online. Okay, so I don't do the referral programs and pay-per-click stuff, but I *am* paid to write Web content, which sort of requires the Internet *grins* I did pay-per-click type stuff when I was ... 15 or so - too young to get a real job - I used my Mom's information and made ... a couple of dollars. Maybe. Unless you can get lots of referrals, these make money online sites just don't work very well.

That's just stupid. The RIAA is full of itself, as usual.But at the same time, if this woman is letting other peoples' children - minors - use her computer, then she should have at least a vague idea of what they're doing. If this friend of her kid is really the one who downloaded all these MP3 files, then she's lucky. The kid could have gotten into adult material, or otherwise gotten into serious trouble.So ... basically ... I think she should pay attention to what other computer users - at least the underage ones - do with her computer. I don't think that she should pay the fine, but I hope that she pays more attention after this.

I heard something about the Attorney General going after Sony, but I didn't realize that Sony has been accused of putting spyware on actual, hard-copy, legal CDs. That's insane. Good thing I've never really been into putting my CDs into my computer for the cruddy little "extra features." Otherwise I could very well be an insanely furious person right now *hates-hates-hates spyware, especially when it's packaged with something that I paid good money for* And I'm not surprised that Maddox (our AG here in Texas) is going after Sony. He's a vicious guy, but in a good way. If anybody can pee in Sony's boot (common Texas expression, cleaned up for this forum, for anybody who doesn't know), it would be this guy.

Did this woman's biological clock finally reset itself and start her over in the usual babyhood things all over again? That would be beyond creepy. But interesting in its own strange way.And does her culture have a tooth fairy of sorts? Or does the ceremony for the first baby tooth cover that part of things?

To me, G'n'R is sort of like Aerosmith. What I mean by this is that I'll happily buy greatest hits albums, but that's all. No concerts, tee shirts, or "regular" CDs. Why? Because the regular releases have three or four good songs tops, then descend into utter garbage ... hence, a waste of almost 20 perfectly good dollars.But hey - I can't think of any band/musician who hasn't released a song I hate. *grins*

I do the MySpace thing, which I got into a few months ago because some of my cousins (they live kind of far from me) wanted me to sign up so that we could all try to keep in touch. Overall, it's not a bad blogging site, I guess. Personally, I prefer DeadJournal even though they still make users either pay for the subscription or get an access code from a current member. Hey, even LiveJournal stopped that code junk *grins*

I'm way too lazy to set up - and then maintain - my own forum. If people want to talk, they can send me an e-mail or something. *grins*As for Xisto (in response to m^e's post): I really hope this forum stays the way it is. I didn't think that I would really enjoy hanging out here when I first signed up for the web space, but I do like reading and posting here.

Same here. The Recycle Bin was actually one of my fave new features when Win95 came out simply because I'm one of those silly people who'll delete something and, ten minutes later, think "NO! I still needed that!" (Usually what happens is, I delete what I THINK is an older draft of my writing, only to browse around and find that, nope, it's the newer version.) But I've cured myself of that for the most part. *grins* and I've learned how to back up my stuff religiously.

Alienware computers are great if you need that high-high-end stuff (which I don't). Now I can imagine those people who do little more than check e-mail, seeing these high-dollar systems in the mall and saying, "Gotta have one of those! They're really expensive, so they gotta be the best!"This, I suspect, is exactly what Alienware wants *grins* I'm sure it'll work out pretty well for them.

I'm using my university's wireless network because my on-campus apt., which was built in the 1970s, doesn't have the wired connection (big surprise there, right? Hehe). Personally, I would prefer wired because, when I had that in my dorm (same school), it was more stable than the wireless connection. And connection speeds were a little higher. But, having access to wireless in my apt. is better than having to take my laptop to the university center or some other building on campus just to check my e-mail.

Yeah, I can see why they yanked that ad. It's not overly disturbing by *today's* standards, but ... 20+ years ago ... yeah.

I tend to go for quality over quantity, especially when it comes to life. I don't know when I'll die, so I want to get the most out of right now. If I live to be 120, which is how old I tell everyone I want to be when I finally bite it, then great. If I crash out before I hit 25, then that's great too. *Grins*