Sarah81

I would hope that this kind of speed would keep us satisfied for at least a few more years *grins* Personally ... the DNA computing thing is mildly freaky, for me at least. Although my writer's imagination can't help but think of all sorts of odd things, like having to spit into a cup attached to my computer to make it boot up.

Right now, I'm addicted to Klax. For anybody who doesn't remember, it's a Sega Genesis game. Blocks fall from a conveyor belt; your job is to stack them according to whatever requirements are laid out for each level (i.e. on some levels, you have to arrange at least three blocks of the same color in horizontal rows). Addictive because I beat it on the "easy" setting, so now I'm of course obsessed with beating it on a more difficult setting.

Hmm. This could be interesting, but I can't help but imagine all sorts of companies using this to kill off even more of their live-human-being technical support. I picture visiting the Dell Web site or something and, instead of an e-mail for support, a link to adding their AI bot to my IM software. *sighs*

Hey and welcome to the forums. Hope you enjoy hanging out here. (If you're anything like most of us, you'll be addicted to this place and never leave. Creepy but true. Heh.)

Which of course cost more than the Coke. *grins* Unless you buy it from one of the machines on my campus, in which case you could buy a new computer cheaper (yes, exaggeration, but not by much). Hehe.

Emo "music" in general annoys the snot out of me. Especially Bright Eyes. I went to see one of his concerts (with a friend who has this insane crush on him and oh gross I don't even want to talk about that). Needless to say, the show sucked and I wanted to go up on the stage and throw the idiot into the crowd so that all the weepy groupie chicks could tear him apart.But yeah, I can't wait for this stupid trend to pass so we can get back to music that's not total crap.

I enjoyed playing Goldeneye ... for about 10 mins. at a time until I got sick and had to leave the room (which happened with just about every N64 title I ever played). The sad part is that, when my sibs and I got bored with the missions, we'd load up on infinite ammo cheats and spell out our names on the walls in the game with bullets. Oddly, that turned out to be more fun than actually playing the objectives *grins*

Thanks for this link. I'm going to tell one of my brothers (the artist in the family) about this site so he can check it out. I hope it encourages him - he's not feeling so great about not having any "formal" training (he primarily sketches, but he'll carve wood and do all sorts of other things, depending on his mood). Maybe this site will give him a little motivation to pursue whatever it is that he wants to do with art.

Wow. That's really ghetto. Even more so than one pic I saw somewhere of a guy who'd used a plastic milk crate for his case. Pretty sweet.

Yep. I really brought the SNES with me. It's the one that my parents bought for my sibs and I well over a decade ago, the first Christmas that this console was out. It's been through all four of my sibs and I playing it and actually still works far more often than not. I'm surprised that the thing still works, seeing as it looks like utter junk. There's a corner of the actual console chipped off. The Reset lever doesn't work. The plastic's not that funky gray anymore - more of a weird yellowish/aged color. Oh, and the power input jack is broken off, so I have to plug in the AC power cord to the two prongs that are what's left of that jack. That's why I'm still a little surprised every time I put in a game and can actually play it on that thing *grins*

Yeah, I have a blog. I use MySpace because my cousins (who live 300 miles away from me) use it, and that's an easy and inexpensive way to keep in touch, share photos, that sort of thing. Not that I particularly like MySpace. I prefer DeadJournal, but said cousins can't get access codes for that service. Which leads me to ask: why do some services still bother with access codes, anyway?

Hehe - I know what you mean. I recently downloaded emulators so that I could play all the old NES/SNES titles that I have at home. I have an actual SNES console here at school too ... but only about half the games in our collection. I really enjoy the older games ... mainly because they're just fun. Mario Bros. (various titles) ... Klax (Genesis console) ... Mortal Kombat 3 (SNES) ... they were all great. And Tetris, of course - can't forget that one. I think the main reason I like the older console games so much is because the newer generation systems - beginning with N64 - make me nauseous. Can only play for a few minutes at a time, which really sucks all the fun out of Doom 64 *smirks*

Nice - hope you enjoy using your new monitor. About once a month, if not more often, my mother hints that she wants a TFT flat-panel monitor for her Dell desktop. I haven't checked into your model before, though, so let me know how it works out for you and I might add it to the list of possibilities *grins*

Oh, man. Years ago, when Mitsubishi rolled the first Eclipse off the line, my uncle bought one. Standard transmission ... flaming, cherry red ... pretty sweet stereo system (considering that this was before CD players were standard in cars) ... and talk about a *fast* car.So ... I've adored the Eclipse since I saw my uncle's, back when I was a little kid and couldn't reach the pedals even if I stood all the way up to do it. And every year, Mitsubishi rolls out a new model that makes me drool just a little more.This is weird, actually, because I'm a die-hard truck person. Oh, the stories of my first pickup ... it would break all of your wee little hearts *grins*

Let's see ... who would care if Yacoob stole software? The developers, maybe? I bet they would care a lot, seeing as they put countless hours into their programs. And Yacoob: if you created something and people stole it from you, I'm willing to bet that you would scream like a little baby about those evil, nasty thieves.

Wow. I'm surprised that Gmail didn't already have some sort of virus scan in place. I'm glad that they're improving the e-mail service, though - every time they add something new, or improve something they've already introduced, Yahoo! Mail (the one I use) is forced to at least consider improving their service as well *grins*

I'm not an expert on this subject ... but I'm also not one to be swayed heavily by feelings. So ... what I *do* know is that stem cells from placentas are being used to treat dozens of diseases and illnesses, especially in children. To that, I say, "Rock on." The placenta would just end up in the biological-waste bucket after the baby's birth anyway, so sure - harvest and use the sucker to help other people.And some new parents choose to have their newborn's placenta cryogenically preserved so that, if that kid gets sick in the future, doctors will have his or her own stem cells on hand to help treat the illness. Again: rock on. And, since that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge, I guess I'm done talking for now *grins*

Of course we can still survive (live) without computers. The real question is, "Who would WANT to?"Having my computer, and the Internet of course, just makes life infinitely easier. I don't have a car, so I can go shopping without leaving my apartment and trying to hire a cab or find someone to give me a ride. My university sends announcements through my e-mail account, so I'm out of touch with what they're doing if I don't check that e-mail account a couple of times a month. I register for classes online, stay in touch with friends who are at different schools (e-mail, IM), etc. And if I didn't have a computer, I would be writing my stories and such by hand, which would be too frustrating to keep doing for more than a few minutes.But if the computer suddenly went away and I couldn't access any of the hundreds of PCs or Macs on this campus, I would live. It would be horrible and nearly enough to make me suicidal at first, but I would make it.

Oh, I dare say that I'm cool with not making appearance-based judgment calls. I've had it happen to me quite a few times (I'm not a straight edger, but I definitely don't fit in with the "social norms" so I know how much it stinks to be misinterpreted and pre-judged).Being straightedge is fine with me. I don't care what people choose to do to or with themselves as long as they don't try to shove it down somebody else's windpipe. Personally, I enjoy my life of moderation (a couple of beers here and there, for example) way too much to entertain any thoughts of joining up. *grins*

If you're going to try and start a flame war, you might want to spell-check your insults. (Hint: "kindergartener" is one word, not capitalized unless it begins a sentence, and does in fact include the letter "t.") And here's a question for everyone: wouldn't life just reek if everyone had identical senses of humor? We'd never get to heckle, boo or hiss at comedy clubs *smirks*

Apple doesn't refurbish and resell through their Web site?

I used this one several years ago - for a few minutes, anyway. I got bored and lost interest. I guess I'm just not the sort of person who has the patience for raking in a few cents here and there while I'm online.

For keyboards, I like Belkin's natural/ergonomic keyboard. I'm using it right now, in fact. USB plug-in ... two USB ports on the back of the keyboard (so I don't lose any of those valuable ports - only have two on this laptop) ... and the ergonomic layout just makes typing easier, not to mention a little more comfortable.As for the rest of the stuff: I would definitely read replies to your original postk,, but you can also look around at consumer-opinion sites for reviews of different hardware.

I bought this Compaq Presario in August and haven't had any problems with it ... works perfectly for Web browsing, basic Web page design, gaming (mostly older titles), word processing, music (iTunes), etc. It's a pretty good notebook for the $800 price tag (before mail-in rebates). I would suggest taking a closer look at the Presario line.Or, you can always go to Dell. We have a Dimension desktop at home - have had it for about three years now - still love the thing. I know that's not the same thing as the Dell laptops, but I figure that if they can get a desktop right (and do it affordably), they probably have at least a clue about laptops as well.

Google's got a great search engine. They're expanding, but keeping quality (the overwhelming majority of Gmail users love the service, for example). They aren't setting fire to Yahoo's offices or anything like that, so ... let them see how far they can go. It seems like they're just trying to be the best-organized and most user-friendly product, which is pretty much what any business wants (especially internet-based companies).