HellFire121

I'd chose a desktop simply because they are cheaper and for the same price desktop that you can buy a laptop the desktop will always outperform the laptop.Then there is speed. Usually most desktops have higher clock speeds and more space in the case for bigger components which would mean better performance in some cases.The components are cheap for desktops so if it's time for an upgrade it might just be a few hundred dollars compared to a laptops upgrade.Then there are other things that you could try on laptops but things like case modding with led fans and neon lights and stuff i doubt that laptops will have the space for that, it pretty much has all the components needed crammed in there anyway.The only time i'd get a laptop is if i needed to do things on the move where as now i don't need to do that.So i say desktop because: Price, Performance, Customizable and room for upgrades.-HellFire

Overall it is a good template for personal stuff but i wouldn't use it for anything else other than that. Otherwise it's pretty basic and simple. Maybe you could also fill in the outside right next to the main table with a matching colour or something because it does look really out of place with just a white stripe going down on either side.Also the between the 'navigation' and 'introduction' columns there could be more of a space because it looks kind of crowded there.-HellFire

I use the opera password manager for some of the sites that i don't care if i lose my password or i need a quick login. The password is encrypted and you can choose if you want to save the password for just that page, the whole server or never. It's a handy feature and in my opinion opera's version is pretty secure. I've never had any passwords leaked or hacked plus you can set a master password each time you want to access the password manager/fill out a login form.-HellFire

I've never actually done this with the offers avaliable in my country but i think that it's just a scam. Yeah sure they might be giving away some free ipods but what about later? They could just scam the money off you.When i have seen a few people that have done this and actually got their ipod then i might reconsider, i wouldn't do this for an ipod though since i am not a fan of them. I'd rather an ordinary mp3 player over them.-HellFire

You could put zonealarm coupled with a standalone antivirus or just use the zonealrm security suite. I've had no problems with this kind of setup in a networked environment. The only problem about using this is possible conflicts and the initial setting up of both programs.Otherwise this can be the best solution, doesn't use too much resources as well.-HellFire

As people have said above it really depends on your preference. I would chose just plain fifa 06 but fifa 07 is out now so you'd be better off getting that. I find that the original fifa title has nearly everything in it there is no need for another type of game to fill in that aspect.I'm not a real fan of soccer games because i find that they get boring after a while, after all you only play match after match of soccer nothing new really.Only time i'd really get into this kind of stuff is when you're actually in the game in virtual reality-HellFire

As far as i can see it is not entirely pointless, but it would be for the average user that can read. If a visualy impared person (or someone who can't read properly) gets one i guess it would be easier for them to notice if it is a serious error or just a small one.But what i would suggest for the average user is give a more detailed error message so they know exactly what happened, what went wrong and steps to fix it in plain english.Also i'd like to see an option to turn on advanced error messages for the more advanced users.-HellFire

I would think that driving in real life would make you more familiar with the feel of driving if you use a racing simulator with the wheels and pedals. Some games i know of like rFactor which is a very realistic racing simulator would be good if you are training to be a grand prix driver or something because the realism aspect is pretty much perfect. So simply put if you are driving in real life yeah it can give you the edge but the opposite way around could cause disaster if you adapt the techniques used in the game to real life.-HellFire

Hmm that's a pretty handy program, i might try this later when i get a chance to because some installers even if you accidently start them up will begin to run the code installing the spyware/adware or virus' or whatever. I might try to use this when other people are using my computer so they can do what they want in the sandboxed environment without actually doing any damage to my programs and documents.-HellFire

I've used gmax and 3ds max (gmax is like a free version of 3ds max for game editing etc..) and i'd say from my experience 3ds max would be the way to go. It has tons of features that will come in handy no mater what job you are doing, it's a bit pricey but it will get you there (I think they do have a demo version for you too)-HellFire

The players i've used in the past have been windows media player and realplayer, i must agree that realplayer does suck. Yeah it can have some good features but what really lets it down is all that spyware. Windows media player isn't bad, at least it's clean but it does lack features and is what most users use.I prefer winamp which is what i'm using at the moment. There are good features, a great media library, global hotkeys, online music and videos and more. I like it because it is pretty low on resources (Even when i have the display smoothness maxed out and i have a nice 'fade the window to transparent when not the active window' effect).Just to sum it up, winamp because:- Great media library- Big range of plugins- The sound is good- Low on resourcesAnd also, the basic player is free which includes all the features above!-HellFire

I'd say the xbox 360, i've always been a fan of the xbox because it was basically like a modified computer - it had an x86 processor, hard drive and everything. Also i've played a few games on one and they look impressive, i like the feature that you can have 4 controllers connected via wireless and you can dynamically change the player number you are and the player profile stored on the xbox that is common among all the games. I think the ps3 would be the main competitor against the xbox, yeah it is nice - good features good performance but the price is the main drawbackAs for the Wii i can honestly say i am not getting this, for some reason i think all nintendo products are 'kiddy' as you said above, the games feel boring but for people that like these sort of games the wii is a great improvement over past consoles.-HellFire

I've tried to do this too because i like a higher resolution than other users on my computer, i have heard somewhere that there is a simple registry tweak that will change one account's resolution but i'm not sure if it really works, also i think there is a program that loads on boot and changes the resolution after you login.-HellFire

Well as xboxrulz said the kid would be using a very limited environment, no internet acccess, no installing, not even some games. I personally think this approach isn't that good because if you want to run your computer in tight security, you would simply be able to do nothing. At the moment i would prefer to stick with windows xp, sure vista has some great features but the majority of not so great features is enough to change anyone's mind. Also the fact that if you want to use vista the way it was intended to you would need to have a very good computer, one that would meet the requirements of some of the best looking games out now. Now i think that is asking too much for the average user.-HellFire

I personally wouldn't do anything to that specific registry value since you never know what it could do, sure it could change the welcome text or whatever but what if some programs or services rely on that registry entry to be the default.I also wouldn't have any use for it but some other people might, it could also be used in public places too, other than all this it's a great tip for people that need this sort of thing-HellFire

Well i'd say because the average user usually has very little knowledge of security, some users don't even know what an antivirus or firewall program is. Also these users tend to keep their data exposed so if anyone can access the computer anyone can access the data.Also as someone mentioned above it is easier and there is a smaller fine so basically they are getting some cheap files off someones computer.-HellFire

Same here, i agree they'd lose a lot, in other cases it can be good to be strict about things. They are implementing a new feature that will basically run everything in 'limited mode' (which would be equal to windows xp's limited user mode) except the things that need admin rights. For example, games. From what i've heard is that the os will grant only the privelliges the game needs to run which is way more secure than just running it in administrator mode.As for the anti pirating stuff it is on their benefit and it will be designed to stop law breakers. I think limiting installs and locking to hardware is a big turn off because i frequently upgrade my computer, if i can't play the latest games i get a new video card etc. What would be ok is if it binds the install to your harddrive. You will be able to upgrade what you want but you will of course need to have that same harddrive.-HellFire

I personally don't use AVG but from what i've heard and discovered that it's the best free antivirus program. I have tested some other free antivirus programs such as avast and it just doesn't compare. In one case last year AVG actually detected a virus that my paid for antivirus couldn't - so that says alot.I have also used ad-aware and it detects most spyware and removes them from your computer. In some cases you might find it hangs on a screen and you need to reboot but otherwise it is a great standalone antispyware app.Right now, i'm using norton internet security 2006 and although what people say about it it's fine with me.If you are going for some free security programs i'd recommend this lineup:Antivirus - AVG freeAntispyware - Ad-Aware Firewall - Zonealarm freeThe zonealarm firewall - even the free one provides excellent protection against nearly all attacks. The paid for/subscription versions provide more features such as email filtering and IM protection-HellFire

Even though i don't own one you might want to try some of these steps:1. Update firmware and drivers (You also might want to run windows update on the computers)2. Make sure there isn't any interference around the router/card in the pc3. See if you can somehow check if the routers running at full signal strengthI recommend you do step 1 and 2 and if that doesn't work it could be a faulty pci wireless network card (Is this happening to just one pc or all of them?)-HellFire

Also you might want to check if you can upgrade the firmware/software on the ipod itself. I'm not sure how you can do this because i don't own one personally, just a thought that usually fixes these kind of things.-HellFire

Firefox 2 is no real big deal for me, i'm an opera fan. Sure it is great to add on new features with extensions and stuff but what i'm more concerned about is what comes by default and what features it has. Opera has always had the latest features and with firefox trying to keep up.The main reason why i ditched firefox is it wasn't acting normally, after the program closed it was still 'half open' with buttons appearing on the taskbar that wouldn't go away after a restart - now this was a problem, taking up not 1 but 2 full sized taskbar slots for some reason. The only solution was to uninstall it.I got opera when it was version 8.5 i think and still it had more features and a MUCH easier to navigate interface, now with opera 9 the features are just insane - i can't wait until opera 10-HellFire

Well it's finally here, battlefield 2142. I know most people don't want to get this because of the stuff EA/DICE did to bf2, anyway i got it before it was released on EA downloader ($110 here in australia).The first thing you'll notice is how similar the ingame interface looks to battlefield 2, it looks like a mod at first but when you get into the game it isn't. It uses a modified version of the bf2 engine which has added support for snow and rain as well as some pretty cool lighting effects.Apart from conquest mode there is also a new titan mode. The two teams compete to see who can blow up the other teams titan first (titan = one huge flying aircraft/ship/whatever). First you have the missile silos at the bottom which you fight for to blow up the titans shield. Once that's gone you need to board their titan and destroy 4 control panels, then it's off the destroy the reactor. It's a nice change to the conquest mode.With about 40 unlocks and 40 ranks there is enough to keep you playing for a long time, also in the stats department if you don't play for a while you get a special 'away bonus' to help get you back into action. There are 4 classes of awards, from lowest value and easiest to get to the highest value and hardest to get are: Pins, Ribbons, Badges, Medals. Almost the same as battlefield 2 with the exception of pins. There are 2 paths to unlock for each of the 4 classes (Recon, Assualt, Engineer, Support) which has different gadgets in each path - in the end you'll end up unlocking both paths anyway. Squad leaders also can unlock things such as a spawn becon and a drone that follows the SL.The points system has changed a bit too, now you get rewarded with extra points by following your squad leader/commanders orders. In titan mode, you can spawn on any transport ship on your team, regardless of who's in it on your team. There are also pods, they can be used to launch up to the enemy titan, spawn in, or get off your titan.There are a range of vehicles to choose from too, including walkers, a chopper like ship that doubles as a jet but there is a big difference, particulary in the TV missiles. They start off slow then increase speed and they are moved by moving the mouse, now it is very hard to hit targets. Then you have jeeps with turbo, the pod enabled apc, hover tanks and more. The commander has a few toys up his sleeve too, including the EMP strike and the orbital strike.There's much more to discover in battlefield 2142 but i'll leave it up to you.Some negative things i've noticed:- Today i havn't been promoted even though i'm over the requirements- Some awards havn't been awarded- Stat's tracking isn't working as it should- The different feeling when the 'Camera shake' option is on, and it's on by default. It also contributes alot to lag.I'm guessing most of the stats errors are because the game only just came out and the servers are lagging like hell.Apart from that, you will definately notice the VERY FAST loading it's a nice change from bf2.Ratings:Graphics 9/10 - Some good effects but some textures let it downSound 8/10 - Sounds buggy sometimes but most of the time it's smooth and high qualityGameplay 8/10 - Apart from some of the buggy feeling it actually isn't a bad game to playOverall 9/10Even if you'd think EA are stuffing up again with 2142, i'd give them another chance because this could really change things around.-HellFire

I've heard about this one and it looks like a rip off of battlefield 2. Because i own battlefield 2 i'm sticking with that although some of my friends play warrock and they say it isn't too bad for a free game, but it is still in beta and i'm not sure if it will stay free after the open beta test.My opinion is if you have battlefield 2 or planning to buy 2142, stick with it. If you don't have either go download warrock because you've got nothing to lose (only bandwith ).-HellFire

I'm not sure about that program you are using, you might want to try Azureus. It will have the same if not more and powerful features in the program you are already using in addition to some neat ease of use features plus it is java based so it works on all platforms.As a security note/reminder, you should always have a decent working and up to date antivirus program as well as a firewall. Whenever downloading anything from any form of p2p networking i'd be VERY careful about what i'm downloading, i can't risk an infection.-HellFire

I've tested smtp on my account and it works fine, looks like only phpmail is affected.-HellFire