AllfatherBlack

As a PC tech in my medium sized city, I often get asked this golden little question; " How do I protect my computer from malware? " And, and I love saying this because it always falls on deaf ears, I respond;" The only way to keep your computer safe is to browse intelligently. "And thats often when the customers leave, probably instantly forgetting what I said and changing their thought process to something along the lines of what theyre going to eat for lunch or who they would do if that person were there right now. But I digress. Now, since I never get to FINISH my goddamned suggestion with the slack-jawed locals that come into my store ( We specialize in serving white trash! ), Im going to finish them here. These are some things Ive learned while scouring the net for all but the filthiest of pornography...1. If It Looks To Good To Be True, Its Going To Install Spyware On Your Computer: This is a slightly altered version of a common tip, but of course, it rings true in the tech world as well. Say youre looking for an application online, lets say one that allows you to download the latest underground music, legally of course. You stumble across a little piece of software called " FileSlap " and follow the link to their homesite. Plastered all over the front of the page are pictures of half naked women clearly enjoying music in some shape or form. Off to the side are some guys playing basketball, and a banner on the bottom of the page screams " FREE! Download Music, Movies, TV, Porno, Government Secrets, Etc. " Now that sounds pretty freakin sweet. Its not often that you find a p2p program that will let you play basketball... or something... or that attracts half naked women with mini-disc players ( where di they get those? ). But guess what; this is a classic case of "too good to be true." If this program were so great, it would stand on its own merits. It would NOT need to convince you with nudie pics and it DEFINETLY wouldnt scream out that it allows to to do something thats almost definetly going to be legal as if this is no concern to them. Because maybe it is no concern to them. Because they live in another country where our laws dont apply. So keep a sharp eye out for things that seem " out of place, " and ALWAYS check the legitmacy of an application on multiple REPUTABLE web sites. 2. Sin Begats Sin: This is something to keep in mind for all of us who choose to scour the seedy dark alleys of the internet for the latest cracks and free warez. If you pursue something " less than lawful", you are likely to fall victim to a less than legal action yourself. Every time you visit a web site with warez, crackz, or serialz ( may not hold true for words spelled with 's' instead of 'z' at the end ), malware automatically installs on your computer unless you are thoroughly protected. Another thing that may not seem obvious to anyone with a crooked moral clock is that gambling is a sin. Now Im not a Christian and I dont hold much stock in some sins, but gambling is DEFINETLY a seedy act, especially online. If you gamble online YOU ARE BEING CHEATED. Unless, of course, you are cheating yourself. Its estimated that half of the "people" at any virtual poker table are actually poker-bots, automated programs setup to WIN, and I guarantee, they WILL, every time. Some sites are safer than others, but none are safe enough. Get robbed on the race tracks, where atleast youll be getting some fresh air. The same applies to porno. While there are hundreds if not MILLIONS of entirely... ermmm... legitimate porn sites out there that DONT install malware, the ones that have "the good stuff" that you dont want other people to know youre into often are the scummiest places online. Get a decent firewall and get naughty for a day. Watch as youre BOMBARDED with installation attempts and mysterious port connections. Congrats. Your penis got you in trouble again.3. TRUST NO ONE: Just because an email comes from your closest, dearest friend doesnt mean he had anything to do with sending it. We're all fully aware that millions of virii spread via email yearly, yet few of us seem to freakin care. We just open up our little attatchments all willy nilly like theyre effin Christmas presents. Well I know I wanted my credit card info stolen this year. Maybe next year Ill have my scrotum torn off with a meat hook. I love the holidays... if the title of your "buddys" email sounds a little off, that because it is. You should know these people. You should know better. If you dont, get to know them better. Be suspicious of all attatchments. Duh.Unfortunetly, theres little hope for properly getting my ideas across because I am as erratic as they come. Hopefully though, someone who doesnt get it already will get it now. To sum things up, just be suspicious. Everyone IS out to get you. Some suggested software to keep yourself protected is Sunbelts Kerio Firewall. Install it, use advanced mode, and visit some warez sites. Now slap yourself in the forehead and say "Doh!" if you visited these sites without proper protection. Youre now aware that youre infected. Sorry

...That just went my panties a little.Good show.

I take slight offense to the inclusion of religion in this topic. I felt I asked a simple question about perception, and while I now feel I worded it wrong, I in no way intended for religion to be involved. We should all be mature enough by now to have come to our OWN conclusions about religion, and while I try my damnedest to respect them all, hearing about them agitates the crap outta me. But then I have to admit, some true and valid points were brought up ( if you swim through the preaching ) about my topic. So, Im gonna let it go this time. But next time... *shaking fist* I guess what Im trying to say is, support your ideas with your OWN beliefs, not the beliefs of others. I want to hear from the individual, not... siighh... the majority.

WOO HOO! Finally, someone asking a question I can answer well! Since youre a gamer, I have PLENTY of suggestions for ya. 1. Kill unneccessary start up items: Use Msconfig or the fantastic Autoruns from Sysinternals.com to stop programs from loading automatically at boot. Not only does this speed up the boot, thats a lot less stuff thats constantly eating up resources whether or not you use them.2. Kill unneccessary services: Go to "run..." in the start menu and type "services.msc". This will open a list of 'services' windows uses for common functions, like that annoying error-reporting when something crashes and basic media burning functions, as well as a whole lot of other things. Turning off things you dont need in the services applet will free up TOOOONNNNNSSSS of resources. Error-reporting is useless, so you can disable that. Remote registry is a massive security threat so you can switch that to manual. So on and so forth, there are a great many websites that explain each of these functions and suggest what to disable ( or, preferrably, set to manual ). Be careful though, turning stuff off all willy nilly can make your computer mighty inconvienant. Once youve set all the stuff you dont need to manual, you will see the greatest performance boost you can from making ANY single software adjustment.3. Paging file on its own partition: Placing the paging file on its own partition keeps it from fragmenting your hard drive, as well as keeping it from fragmenting itself ( making it take longer to find data ). Some people will argue that installing your operating system on its own partition ( seperate from the page file AND the partition you intend to use for data ) also helps, and while Ive tried it both ways many times, I havent seen any significant improvement either way. Do it if you want every boost possible, but it can be inconvienant. 4. Defragment your drive: Do this constantly. Do it while you sleep. Do it if youve moved a lot of files around. Do it if youve installed anything thats 1 gig or more. Just freakin do it, because its the most commonly overlooked performance booster there is, and it can take a PC from clunker to... well, less cluttered and slightly faster clunker.5. Remove Viruses: This is a big duh, but if youve been online for more than a week ( since the last time you formatted ), you have been attacked by and likely HAVE some kind of malware on your computer. The best way to get rid of a virus is to format. But since most people dont like doing that ( I effin love it ), you can try virus removal apps. I suggest AntiVir, Spybot, and AdAware ( only AntiVir runs in realtime ). There are many great anti-malware apps out there, but a LOT more that really are malware THEMSELVES. So always check to make sure its legit, and remember; if you have to pay for it, it sucks.Ive posted a LOT of computer stuff specifically geared towards setting up windows based systems to perform their best. Check out some of my other posts to get a LOT more info on speeding things up. If you plan on doing all of these things, I suggest you format and THEN do them. Its always best to start off with a COMPLETELY clean system. I hope this helps!

I would like to thank all the people who humored me and responded to this stupid post :)Now to post some more stupid stuff! Its what I do best!

I think everyones missing the point; I just want to be loved *tear*But hosting credits do rock...

Arrrggghhh!Im sure we've all had this happen but Im going to ask anyway...Have you ever gone through quite some trouble to contribute something only to have ( seemingly ) nobody care? My example here will be a thread I posted in the computers section called " Avoiding Bottlenecks w/ Dual Channel Memory. " Now, Im aware this may not be the most entertaining topic, but I put a lot of effort writing the damn thing and I like to think its full of helpful information that might keep a lot of people from making regrettable purchasing decisions. It seems like a lot of people have viewed it, but dag nabbit no one commented! I want responses people! I want to know someone actually read the whole thing and I want to know if they think Im right, but I especially want to know if they think Im a jackass so that I dont make the same mistake in the future.But Im really just venting. And if youve gotten to this point, you damn well better reply, atleast to point out that Im a jackass :DOh, of course, this thread isnt intended to be about my complaints. I actually would like to know some things you guys have done that you were proud of but still went unnoticed. Im sure there will be more than a few golden nuggets in there.

Hahah, leave it to me to blab on and on and on and on and on and not cover a very simple trick that honestly didnt even occur to me. See, this is why I like forums. When I miss something, someone else just picks up where I left off and makes sure that we get all our bases covered. Thanks for making this a better thread, boyos!

We've all dealt with viruses. Some of us deal with viruses a lot. And others make their living spanking 'em like the naughty issues they are. With any amount of virus-slapping experiance youve likely come across that mysteriously " undeletable " file that, for some unGodly reason, cant be removed from your precious eMachine. Please note that if you consider your eMachine precious then your standards are ludicrously low, but I digress. The reason you cannot delete the file ( assuming some kind of permission has not been modified to lock it down preventing deletion in the first place ) is because it is tied up in some active windows process. For example, many viruses will load themselves up as part of explorer.exe, which is what provides you with that pretty little taskbar you have on the bottom/left/right/top of your screen. Since the virus is " in use " by explorer.exe, which loads at startup in both normal and safe-mode, you can not remove it, pretty effectively locking the virus onto your computer semi-permenantly. Our goal, of course, is to remove that permenant part.The easiest and most reliable way to remove a file tied up in a system process is to boot into another non-Windows OS and modify the file on your drive from there. Bootable Linux CDs are nigh infallible and pretty much the best way to go about doing this. There are other alternatives available, such as Bart PE ( Google it ), and you would be surprised how often just loading the command prompt will allow you to remove a file ( recovery console for XP ). For those of you who havent restarted since '97 and would like to keep the record going, another alternative is killing system processes that may be using aforementioned virii ( apparently thats not a real word but I like it nonetheless ). Task Manager allows you to kill most processes, but a few processes are considered essential for Windows to function properly and cant be shut down via Task Manager ( Csrss.exe, lsass.exe, etc. ). A few apps, such as Killbox, will allow you to kill process TM wont. Of course, when you do this, a little window will pop up and say " Hey buddy, I needed that. So now Im gonna be a like ' bweeeewww ' and shut off on your **bottom** ". Of course, it doesnt say that at all, but its something fairly similar. You now have approximately a minute to sob quietly before your computer restarts, whether you like it or not. But we're going more for the not, so to stop the countdown, simply click on Run... ( which can be found in the start menu and in task manager ) and type " shutdown -a ". And there. Now the computer can be used again. Note that, obviously, you will lose any functionality related to whatever system process you kill. Its possible to kill all but one single system process and continue using the computer ( in some manner ). Csrss.exe. if terminated, will blue screen your **bottom**, so dont do it. Its not often required that you kill all possible processes, as viruses arent often complicated enough to tie themselves into many processes. In order to determine what services may need to be shutdown to hunt down a virus, simply use an application like Hijack This! or SysInternals Process Explorer to view the .dlls associated with system processes. Deleting illegitimate .dlls often "breaks" malware, just like itll break normal software. Most .dlls without any identifier other than a filename are malware-related, but its absolutely crucial that you research ALL of them before deleting them. If you dont know why, you shouldnt be monkeying around with this in the first place. Killing the appropriate process or .dll often allows you to delete the malware abusing it, but not always.Occasionally, a file cannot be deleted in apps such as Bart PE or by killing any reasonable system process. This leaves the last option I will be covering; the registry. Normally people put big caps here and say " DONT MESS WITH THE REGISTRY UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOURE DOING OR HAVE MADE BACKUPS. YOU CAN BREAK THE *BLEEP* OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM OTHERWISE ". But I wont do that. Again... Actually, the registry can be a very scary place, but isnt as dangerous as most people make it out to be. You CAN break the *BLEEP* out of your system jerking around with it, sometimes irrepairably (excluding formatting, of course ), but assuming you make sure that any entry you delete will not be associated with anything you care about ( like malware ), you can fix a lotta virii ( viruses ) this way. Open Regedit by going to " Run... " and typing regedit or regedit32.Find the filename of the item your attempting to delete, which will often be a long string of absolute gibberish, then use the search function in Regedit ( make sure to highlight ' my computer ' on the left so you search the WHOLE registry and not just a part of it ) to find any key that mentions that file. ONLY delete the item the search function finds for you. ONLY hit delete once. When you delete an entry, the next entry is automatically selected, so beating on the delete key like a masturbating monkey will delete God only knows what and make your life Hell, which you deserve for touching your computer like that. Make sure to find every entry that mentions the filename of the file you want deleted. Once youve killed them all, try deleting the file youve grown to hate again.This should provide a nice stepping stone for those of you who are no longer willing to leave your security to antivirus scanners alone. Feel free to chew me out if you *BLEEP* up your system using any of these tactics. I mean, I should pay for trying to enlighten you, right?

I realize the title makes this post seem more important than it really is, and Im sorry for that. I was just reading an article ( okay, actually I just remembered an article I read ) by CNET or some other fairly large news source that mentioned " ... Firefox 1.5 users being unable to visit certain web pages, with no consistencies between the unviewable pages... " If you happen to be experiancing this problem ( I experianced it too for about 5 pages until it clicked ), and you use Firefox extensions, you might want to disable them sequentially to determine whether or not that may be the problem. FasterFox, a common and VERY popular extension, was keeping me from visiting web pages ( first thing I disabled, immedietly fixed the problem ). Considering it "enhances" network performance ( read: jerks with your network settings ), its really no surprise that it causes problems like this. Especially considering I was using the newest just-released version of not only Firefox but Fasterfox also. I saw improvement in not only load times for Firefox but browsing ( well, atleast page loading speed ), making this an unfortunet loss until the kinks get worked out. If youre having issues, consider your extensions and whether or may not they may be causing it ( especially if theyre less than official ). For example, if for some reason you can no longer download things ( or something akin to that ), and you have a download manager, suspect the download manager may be causing the problem. Disable it, or try another similar program and determine whether or not that helps. Hopefully, this helps. Now, its 3:30am people, go to bed....

(excessively long intro, skip to 'suggestions' for immediate tips) Its almost 2 am and I just finished an email detailing some ideas I had to keep systems a little more secure than usual ( tips that can be applied to most any Windows users system ). I dont feel like re-editing it so it doesnt sound I copied and pasted it from my email, cause I did, and its late. Please note THIS IS NOT SPAM. I did write all of this, just in an email before I copied and pasted it here. These are entirely valid and ( I hope ) helpful tips for most anyone. Of course I hate just yapping away like I know everything, cause Ill be the first to admit thats no where NEAR true. If you have ACTUALLY TRIED these things a reasonable amount of times and dont think theyll be that helpful, PLEASE SAY SO. I need all the feedback I can get to come to an intelligent conclusion. If someone TOLD YOU that wont work, or you read somewhere online that it wont, or you just THINK it wont, please shut your mouth until youve actually TRIED it. Someone might accidently read your ignorance and think you know what your talking about. Good luck kicking *bottom*. ------------------------------------ Suggestions - Install windows to a partition NOT lettered " C, D, E, or F " and name the system directory anything but "windows" : I dont think this will stop even a single decent piece of malware, but this might stop simple bombs or viruses simply programmed to install to " C: " or the " windows " folder, by far the most common primary drive letter and system directory name. Can be done during a new OS install or done with Partition Magic ( or an app like it ) - Ensure NO new OS install or customers computer leaves with administrative rights : Admin rights arent needed or often used by the common user, but using the Admin account can enable malware to molest your system like little boy at Neverland Ranch ( ba-ZING! ). Of course if they use a lot of different apps with saved user settings ( that might not get kept automatically when deleting an account ), we can just set their account to " limited. " - NO ONE should use IE as their primary browser : Its not like the damn thing is going to go away if you dont use it. People need to understand that theyre easy prey for malware and using something like Mozilla or Opera can save plenty of heartache ( not to mention Mozilla actually does kill pop-ups. IE claims it does, but sure as hell does a horrible job of it ). - Auto-blocking known bad sites and malware wildcards : Both IE and Mozilla offer options to block access to certain sites and wildcards ( ex *.trustedsites.com, *.adhost.com, etc. ). There are plenty of sites that offer extensive, constantly updated lists of known bad sites. Simply copying and pasting should prevent a good number of potential issues. - Kill unnecessary services : This might sound like an optimization kind of thing but also helps ensure the integrity of a system. Kind of like closing doors on a house, disabling unused services prevents malware from using flaws in those services to do... well, malicious things. Not to mention the system will be noticeably faster after a reasonable number of services have been killed. - Extended Anti-Virus Options : The Trinity is great; does what its supposed to do VERY well and without chewing on system resources like theyre delicious cupcakes covered in dual inline memory modules. But NO anti-virus is perfect. For advanced users who are willing to sacrifice a little hard drive space and extra memory, ClamWin is, in my opinion, the BEST anti-virus in existence. Updated every night at midnight, it offers no real-time protection and takes forever ( proportionately ) to scan even a single file, but its still the best. It takes forever because its ridiculously thorough ( it DOES open and check archived files, unlike AntiVir ), and real time protection can either be left to AntiVir, or, for mega-advanced users, WinPooch can be installed and associated with ClamWin, providing not only real-time protection, but the ability to see what malware is trying to do and the option to allow, deny, or fake it out, making the app in question THINK it successfully completed what it was trying to do when, in reality, it did not. This will keep malware from simply retrying if it fails until it succeeds ( not to mention constant attempts like that consume unseen resources ). Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta is also fantastic, and I suspect potentially better than spybot and/or adaware, though I have no substantial experience to justify that suspicion just yet. Its done fantastic for me a number of times, though, leaving one to question why they still call it " beta. " - More thorough suggestions as to what users should keep and NOT keep : I dont care what P2P app you use, from the worst ( Kazaa ) to the best ( Limewire ), ALL are potentially MASSIVE security threats. Most make it fairly simple to take IPs all willy-nilly, which is obviously not good, and ALL of them have infected file-sharing networks, from Paris Hilton-like disease buckets ( Kazaa ) to "who knows how dirty" like Lindsay Lohan ( Limewire ). NO ONE should be using AIM. AIM is the most popular IM service ( like Windows is the most popular OS ) and the target of most viruses because of it. Trillian offers a far more versatile and non-ad-intrusive experiance BY FAR. Also, rather than just removing Norton and/or McAfee, we should probably suggest users remove ALL ( ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL I cant say it enough ALL ) programs they may have downloaded to prevent malware because more often than not, what they download IS MALWARE. The ones that arent are usually *BLEEP* anyway and are only eating up HD space next to the *BLEEP*ing masters, so they should bow down like the ankle-licking *BLEEP*es they are before AntiVir gets uneasy and karate chops the *BLEEP* out of them. This INCLUDES spamblockers. If users are worried about spam, they need to 1) get a better mail service and/or 2) learn better browsing tactics. And will someone please explain to me what the hell the appeal is with Outlook? Cause thats *BLEEP*, and I never have and never will use it. ---------------------------- I jabber on about some of my other suggestions in other topics, so feel free to check em out if you think Im not an idiot ( or you think I AM an idiot but I might keep your computer a little cleaner ). Well Im squeezed for now. Chew on that!

Moldboys response seemed a little... "Back From The Future" so I thought I would update it a little. If your computer was purchased within the last EIGHTish years you have PCI slots guaranteed ( obviously not on laptops ), and more than enough of them ( probably ). If youre computer is about fiveish years old, you almost definetly have an AGP slot. If your motherboard is maybe a year old you might have a PCI-Ex x8 or x16 slot, and if so, you WONT have an AGP slot ( they serve the same purpose ). 95% of the time you can disable onboard video in the BIOS ( only do this with another video card installed and being used, otherwise youll have to reset the CMOS to regain video ). Assuming you have a EISA/PCI/AGP/PCI-Ex slot, you can ALWAYS add a video card and use that instead of the onboard ( integrated ) video. Onboard video ALWAYS blows goats. A PCI video card will always beat onboard PCI video and often beat onboard AGP video ( unless the onboard AGP is of higher quality compared to other integrated AGP video chips ). ALL integrated video also consumes your RAM ( some more than others ). This is part of the reason that youll almost always see improvement using a video expansion card. I hope this is helpful.

Hahaha, its great when your about to post a question, then you read down a little bit and find that someone already answered you! Lucky me. Thanks for inadvertantly answering my questions!By the way, I love Google, not sure how much I love them slapping ads on anything they can. DEFINETLY not okay with the AOL deal...

A new ocean? Thats kind of strange... why wouldnt we just call the new body of water, once it connected to an existing ocean, the name that the ocean it connects to goes by? And what if its not a new damn ocean? What if the damned world is splitting half and we're all like " Hey a new ocean... " Okay thats just stupid, but you never know. We've been wrong before.

Well there ya go! I could have easily Wiki-ed it myself but that wouldnt have been any fun! ;)I appreciate the prompt and helpful response. Not to mention its always good to hear what people think of a tech. Wiki said Bluetooth has already been hacked as proof of concept, though. And as far as Im concerned, once its been done, it will continue to be done until tech advances and we stop using stuff that had so many holes in it.Thanks again!

Im sure most of us that read these boards are absolute computer geniuses. Ive mentioned in some of my posts that it seems like everyones a computer tech these days. Well thats not going to stop me from, hopefully, contributing to the knowledge of others. Here are some quick tips on preventing bottlenecks, common with p4's, broken down for the lay user.Quick Quickie: Intels VS AMDsI am not about to voice my part on a battle thats been waged for quite sometime now between two companies that could have just as easily ended up one, big company ( referring to the fact that AMD almost worked with Intel to manufacture chips ). I just want to point out for those who dont know the subtle difference in the technologies. Quickly quick-like, Intel and AMD cpus handle instructions per clock cycle differently ( how many computations they complete on a clock cycle ). Intel uses tech that peforms 4 functions per clock ( note this is a very simple way of putting it that may not be worded correctly, so please feel free to fix any glaring inconsitencys ) whereas AMD ( like DDR RAM ) performs 2. It would seem AMD is half as fast as Intel but thats not true. AMD handles a heavier ( for lack of a better word ) load on its 2 than INtel handles on its 4. Ultimately ( note HEAVY ABRIDGEMENTS ), this results in AMD single functions ( having one application open ) peforming faster than Intels single functions, and the INtel performing better when multi-tasking ( usually medium to heavy multitasking ). Please read up on the subject as I by no means IN ANY WAY am beginning to cover how this works. I just wanted to support my thesis with a little explanation. BottleneckingBottlenecking is a problem best explained using RAM, I think. Most of us have dealt with RAM atleast once, and if you havent, this may not be the best explanation and Im sorry. But I digress. Most of us know that if we buy RAM that is faster than our motherboard can handle, we can still use the RAM, but it will run slower than intended. This is bad example of a motherboard bottlenecking RAM; the RAM can do more but wont because the motherboard only allows it to do so much. This is a poor example of bottlenecking. The bottlenecking we are going to be discussing pertains to mostly P4s, and data transfer between RAM and CPU. For a PC to reach its potential, the CPU and RAM must have the same thoroughput.In order to see the true data transfer potential ( aka thoroughput ) of your CPU, multiply the front side bus speed ( commonly 533mhz, 800mhz, or the new 1066mhz for Pentiums ) by 64 then divide it by 8 ( to find ANYTHINGS thoroughput, use this formula; REAL Clock Speed x Instructions Per Cycle x 64 / 8 ). An 800mhz FSB, multiplied by 64 and divided by 8 is 6400, meaning the thoroughput is 6,400 Mbps. If you have a P4 2.8ghz with an 800mhz FSB ( like me ) your thoroughput is 6400 Mbps, and your RAM should have the same. MY motherboard only supports up to DDR400 ( PC3200 ) RAM. To find my RAMs thoroughput, we multiply the REAL clock speed ( which is 200mhz, or 400mhz considering its doing 2 instructions per cycle ) by number of instuctions per cycle ( 2 ) by 64 then divide it by 8, which equals 3200 Mbps. Those in the now or those who have eyes will see that the PC rating matches the thoroughput. That because thats what its for, telling you the thoroughput and saving you time.As you can see my RAM is capable of HALF the thoroughput my CPU is, meaning I will only ever see half my computers potential. Fortunetly, Dual Channel memory allows one to DOUBLE the thoroughput of their RAM by installing 2 near identical ( identical strongly suggested ) sticks of RAM, or COAST ( cache on a stick ), into the 1st and 3rd memory slot (1st and second if you only have two, may be different depending on the motherboard ). Your motherboard must be dual channel capable to support this feature. Newer AMDs contain the memory controller ( which is what actually decides whether or not you can use dual channel ) on the CPU, so with newer AMDs, the CPU actually decides whether or not you can use dual channel. If you can use it, USE IT. The difference will be noticeable, and thats all that matters right?Simply use this equation to match your CPUs thoroughput to the RAMs thoroughput, preventing the most common bottleneck ( especially in P4s! Intel should be slapped for crippling themselves with industry standard tech );REAL Clock Speed x Number of Instructions x 64 / 8 = ( thoroughput )Cheat Sheet: Pentiums use 4 instructions, AMDs use 2, DDR memory uses 2 and SDRAM uses 1. The clock speed on DDR memory is TWICE the REAL clock speed ( hence DOUBLE data rate ), and the clock speed rfers to the front side bus speed when referring to CPUs.I hope this helps loosen up all those crippled P4s out there. Hell, I hope this helps just one person, so itll be worth while when I inevitably get reamed for being the wrongest person ever.

My first official web site was hosted on AngelFire. Being a gamer, I made a site for gamers. And like most amatuer gaming sites back then, that meant I stole every picture I could find about new games from other sites, slapped them on the page one after the other with no text, and thought I was contributing to all the other fanboys out there.Since then Ive become an infinetly better web designer ( making me a decent web designer at total ), and yet, I got more hits on my all pic sites back when than I have with any of my other ill-fated yet content-filled endevours.By the way, Im all for biting the hand that fed me. Angelfire blows. Dont use it. Work your *bottom* off on these forums for free adless hosting, then pay for it when enough people care about what you have to say. Hosting is so cheap these days that if you can afford an internet connection, you can DEFINETLY afford $3.33 a month for gigs of storage space and bandwidth.

Theres no such thing as a kiddy system. Notice where those ratings are placed? Not on the consoles, but on the games. True, GC does seem to have a lot of games appropriate for children, but they arent being created for children. They are being made FUN, and the things we consider fun dont change as much as we would like to think so. Pretty lights and shiny things still do it for most of us, whether we would like to admit it or not. Nintendo has proven time and time again through franchise after franchise that a fun game need not be excessively violent or pornographic. Those things sure dont hurt when you get older ( usually ), but they are by no means required for entertainment. Sony and Xbox never really tried to create fun games. Theyre just making games based on other peoples games. Nintendo trys to revolutionize things ( fitting terminology ) and we call think theyre a kiddy company. The maturity of the game you are playing should not matter. Its how much enjoyment it brings you that counts.

I shouldnt be asking, especially considering Im a computer tech and I oculd just look it up, but what is BlueTooth? For the longest time I just thought it was Microsofts standard for 802.11 tech ( like how Sony calls Firewire " i.Link " ) but Im starting to realize my understanding of the tech is lacking. Seems like, when it came out, everyone was Bluetooth this and Bluetooth that, now it seems like its just another *BLEEP* proprietary tech that will die off like mini-discs. Or laser discs. Or pretty much any unique idea Sony has, since they cant think up a successful product themselves, only improve on other peoples tech.A thorough explanation of Bluetooth would be much appreciated. Or a link to a thorough explanation. Whatever works ;)Thanks again

Well, I hate to do this, but considering the next generation of consoles is now available ( atleast 1/3rd of them ), I have to ask; Whos Future Is Brighter: Console or PC gaming? It seems to me that with every generation, console graphics improve nothing short of dramatically. Of course, thats likely due to the fact that between each generation is a number of years with which to progress ones technology. But the PC has had better graphics than every console since day 1. Until today. Well, whatever day the Xbox 360 was released. Consoles now have better graphics than even the highest end consumer PCs. Anyone who says otherwise is only kidding themselves, especially considering that, true to every generation of console, the graphics only get markedly better as time progresses ( until support is eventually dropped ). Considering the difference between 1st generation PS games and PS games at the end of its life cycle, Im confident that we will only be amazed as things get better. And, I hate to put all my eggs in one basket, which will of course come and bite me in the **bottom** later as it always does, but Im going to guess that gap between console and PC graphics will only continue to get larger ( in the consoles favor ). The generallized approach of the PC ( in order to cover every potential users needs ) will artificially "slow" the progress of consumer-level graphics, Im guesstimating, until we eventually get to a point where, as far as graphics are concerned, there wont be a debate. The dedicated graphics technology on consoles ( look at what ATI did with the 360, and how their game fell to *BLEEP* on the PC because of it ) should hold onto the lead for some time now... Of course, I would be a fool to finish this debate based on graphics. In fact, I purposely chose what SHOULD BE the weakest point, considering how insignificant graphics truely should be to a real gamer ( note: I am a aware that good graphics make for a better game. Duh. ). So the eye-pleasing goes to consoles, but what about the aureal experiance? Sound-wise, technology on both fronts, seems to me ( please feel free to correct me as Im NOT an audiophile ), is pretty much the same. Youre just as likely to have a 7.1 setup on your PC as your TV ( okay, probably a little more likely on the TV ). And considering you can hook up most any decent sound setup to most any device the outputs sound ( meaning you can use awesome tech on either PC or console ), this is almost a tie. Almost. While the tech seems to be similiar for both sides, the implementation of this technology is no doubt going to different. With all the THX/DTS hub-bub, enviromental effects and all the jivewords you can think of, someone HAS to be implementing sound better than the other. As I said before, Im not an audiophile. This whole blurb is just an opinion-piece which others can use to step off of. So, instead of "deciding" for you, Im going to leave this particular topic up for debate. Who do you think is better? We've covered sight and sound, two very important factors to anyones gaming experiance. But what about the interface? PCs and consoles, as Im sure we all know, use widely differing techs to interface with the game. PCs have the good ol mouse and K, and I like to call it, where as consoles have the reliable joypad. Of course, both mediums have peripherals to replace the opposite mediums interface, but we're going to ignore that fact since neither format ( PC nor Console ) has implemented rival tech very well. Mice on the console have been few and far between and almost always of poor quality, where as most PC joypads lack some damn button you wanted ( especially if you ROM multiple platforms on the PC ). Also, feel is a matter of PREFERANCE, so this inheritly cannot apply to everyone, and may very well not apply to ANYone. So, back to the question, mouse and K or joypads. M n K's ( mouse and keyboard ) are definetly better for the widely popular first person shooter, but consoles have made valiant strides towards closing that gap. Halo ( the original, I will NOT suffix it with " 1 " ), for me, was nigh perfect. I can play Halo on the Xbox, I would say, 90% as well as I can on the PC. Good enough for me, but clearly not perfect. Strategy games are also more intuitive on the PC. But thats pretty much it there. Most other genres of games ( adventure, sports, RPG, etc ) tend to be MUCH easier to play on a joypad ( which we're assuming is connected to a console ). I dread the though of trying to complete the original Crash Bandicoot with all the extras on a keyboard. *shiver* Then theres what I like to call "the Macintosh" effect. Like most blossoming technologies, the initial goal of any product is "more." More buttons, more functions, more uses, more goodness, right? Not so much. While we appreciated more buttons in RTS games as they grew up, "more" is quickly becoming NOT better. Macintosh has long shunned the idea of multibutton mice for ease of use ( an idea I do not agree with, mind you ). Now, we are starting to see more software shun more buttons and instead go with easier to use or understand buttons. Intuitive ( word of the day ) interfaces are KEY. A game can be fun, but it will be MORE FUN if the controls feel right. Joypads have long held the title for ease of use ( though some joypads seem to be TRYING to shake that idea ), and considering they tend to be very versatile if applied right, Im going to have to give this one to joypads hands down. And considering how good voice recognition is getting ( pick up a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking 7 and train it for a week, youll see ), the future of the keyboard isnt too bright. I doubt theyll be gone too soon, but as it stands, you can replace your keyboard with some decent software. This round goes to the joypad, and by association, the console. Now for the meat and potatoes of the debate ( Im trying to break this puppy down into easier to swallow chunks and important factors ). Gameplay. Ultimately, this is all that matters. However, comparing PC gameplay and console gameplay is VERY difficult to do intelligently. The advent of cross-platform gaming makes it more difficult. In fact, I cant really think of an intelligent way to go about this one, so Im gonna wing it like an opinionated jackass. Works with blogging, so shoot. Great games on the PC are, unfortunetly, few and far between ( GOD PLEASE remember that these are only my OPINIONS. As much as I love being torn-down by 12 year olds with bigger opinions than penises, I... well I dont really like that... ), but consoles, by virtue of there being more consoles than PCs ( PC or Mac vs. Xbox/PS/GameCube/PS2/SNES/Genesis etcetera ), have TONS. My love for video games STARTED with a console. I may not be able to remember what game that was, but damn it, I know it started there. Let me list games I consider great on the console; Crash Bandicoot, almost any Mario game, any Metal Gear game, Resident Evil, blah blah blah. Let me list games I consider great that atleast STARTED unique to the PC; Half-Life. Ummm... F.E.A.R., thats pretty good... same company, though... the Black Isle games, those are good except theyre all the same goddamned game... you get my point. Console game after game has been the new big thing, the biggest selling game ever, so on and so forth, where as really only one game rings as truely monumental to me on the PC, and thats Half-Life, and I still think its over-rated. Yes, I know there are plenty more, Fallout for instance, but the point is there are DEFINETLY a LOT more on the console. If you could only play PC games or only play console games, Im confident most of us would put our stock in the ol' flat box ( console, that is ). That isnt to say there isnt plenty of fun to be had on a PC, especially if you DONT game, or would rather be productive with your life ( clearly not the case if youre reading this ). of course, you can play almost all PC games on a fast PC, but you can ONLY play Xbox games on the Xbox, Snes games on an SNES, so on and so forth. Not to mention you can emulate most PS1 gen and earlier games on a PC, honestly bringing the PC ahead on the gameplay front. But, Im not counting cross-platform. Otherwise we couldve wrapped this puppy up and given it to the PC 5 paragraphs ago. Console = point. A finally, for the sake of shortness which clearly doesnt apply here, support, a catch all word Im going to use for ease of customer support and expandability ( read: expansion packs ). Customer support however, doesnt really work out here because developers provide the customer support, and you call them whether your on the PC OR the console. But, considering the same thing that is having problems can also be used to find a solution ( the PC and the good ol inter-ma-net ). half a point to the PC for being versatile, kind of a cheap half point, but the PC could use it. As for expansion packs, adding content is a field PIONEERED by the PC. "Additional content" is relatively new to the console, but old hat on the PC. This can be a good thing, this can be a bad thing. The option of providing additional content can lead to more than its fair share of developer laziness. Tell someone they only have to finish most of something and they dont usually strive to complete the rest. Look at the mid-90's and the PC. At first, people loved the idea of getting additional levels or weapons for a year old game. But then, for quite some time, the title "expansion pack" became synonomous with "unfinished pile o' sh**" that MIGHT get fixed when the "additional content" comes out. Fortunetly, times have changed, and thats not the case anymore. Now additonal content really is additional. You might have noticed I havent mentioned much about console expansion packs. They exist, the earliest I can think of being the GTA: London add-on for the PS1 ( bet a lot of you were only vaugely familiar with the fact that GTA3 didnt have a "3" in it for shyts and giggles ). But consoles ( until the Xbox ) had lacked hard drives to store the additional content, forcing one to do that which I hate most about PCs ( other than the fact that they are always broken ), disc-swap. Hard drives for consoles are available on a few systems, but costly, sometimes hard to find, and no where near as versatile as the PC kind. The added content tends to be of poorer quality than the PC faire ( though PC expansions are weak in and of themselves, in my opinion ), handing this one over to the PC. Hey look, a whole point! I know what youre saying now. Looks pretty one-sided right? And now Im supposed to say " ... and the winner is the console. Everyone love the console! Hail the new king!" Not quite. I asked in the beginning "Whos Future Is Brighter?" Im merely expressing here that the gap is closing. Consoles are gaining on the versatile approach of the PC with hard drives and internet connectivity, reclaiming some of their lost ground from back in the good ol days. PCs have been enjoying a nice slice of market share stolen from the console crowd via mass-multiplayer capability and, well, options. Its nice to listen to the music you like while gaming, an option now becoming available to the console crowd ( which it kind of already was in some ways if you owned one of those stereo thingies ). Now, some of you may have been catching onto something. Ive ( kind of ) excluded cross-platform options because they expose an inevitable truth ( I HOPE ); PCs and consoles are only different platforms for now. Both PCs and consoles are borrowing ideas from the other, closing the gap between the two. Eventually, and Im sure we all already assumed this, we'll be playing all our games on a glorified ( here it comes, PC advocates ) Personal Computer. But hey, consoles are really just specialized PCs anyway, right? Right. So who wins the debate this time? The console. Whos ultimately going to win by assimilation ( Borg-style, *BLEEP*es )? The personal computer. Which should we love more? The games. F*** the medium.

I actually saw my first live Xbox 360 game today. Just like every other time a new generation of consoles comes out I was impressed by the graphics. Long live the Xbox 360, down with Sony ( as a PC tech I deal with rootkits about once a week, not to mention Ive fallen victim to some of their shoddy devices )

What exactly is right and what is wrong? Does the perception of the mass majority decide what is lawful? What if 51% of people believe that something is one way and the other 49% thats like, totally not okay? Notice from cmatcmextra: Moving from What Is..?. You are only allowed to post topics in the What Is ..? forum, if you answer the question you are asking in the first post.

Pretty much anything by those jackasses at Simon & Schuster. Im sick of companies making shoddy games based on the assumption that atleast some will sell. God forbid we live in a society where people try to be PROUD of what theyve accomplished. Theres a real sense of dignity that comes with feeling neccessary. Try for once, *BLEEP*s!

Does anyone else think that the video of the new MGS game looks a little excessively amazing. The gap between console and PC graphics has been closed since this new generation of systems began development, but Jebus, the PS3 can apparently create damn near life like CGI models ( I prefer less than realistic myself). Wonder where graphics go from here? Eventually NPCs will use your ear canals to store their weapons...