rayzoredge

I don't know if you already went out to pay someone to do this for ya, but I would go by James's route and use a distro of Linux to access the drive. A Live CD should work fine and let you access the drive to take everything off of it and back it up to another external hard drive or to your local disk. After you're done backing everything up, you can format the hard drive, scan it, and do whatever you need to do to it to get it to work.Another alternative is to try to access it from another computer, but if you think that it's infected with malware, then I wouldn't try that route.The only time I've experienced something like this was with my eSATA ExpressCard and my two external SATA hard drives. Plugging one in would be fine, but as soon as I plugged the other SATA drive in, the entire OS would hang until I unplugged the ExpressCard. (If anyone knows why, please let me know.)

Anything's possible.Right now I imagine off the top of my head downloading the FLV file from the Flash app, converting the FLV to a workable video format, then extracting the audio with something like Bink and Smacker.If you don't want it stolen, don't put it on the Internet. Put up some copyright notices and you should be all right as far as the legalese goes...

If anyone is stupid enough to believe the hype (to the word) that companies make to sell their product, they deserve to go bankrupt for being sheep and following the bandwagon.*Baa* "People are suing Miss Cleo for fraud. F**king DUH!" - Robin Williams, Live On Broadway 2002

Serverph most likely has it on the dot with the reason why they're doing it.I just put my name on it for giggles. Who knows? If any or a lot of us become famous, that chip will go for a lot on eBay. That and you can say that you own the moon because your name's on it...

It's out of courtesy that you should put the seat down or put the seat up. You can throw love in there... but I sure as hell won't prioritize it as something that I would base my relationship on. The seat doesn't stay down while guys go to use it because although we can aim DURING the flow of urine, it goes in random directions at the very beginning and at the very end, ending up on the seat itself. To give you a mental image, try pinching a garden hose before turning it on, then let the water pressure straighten the flow out. Where does the water go at first? Where does it go when you go to turn the water off and pinch the hose? Nobody knows. And I'm sure that I don't even need to get into the random postures that a guy has to attain to urinate with "morning wood." It's not a straight shot every time, girls. That's why urinals are designed the way they are.As far as remembering to put the seat down "out of necessity," I can't remember the last time that any girl put the seat up for me.I don't know about you, but I wash my hands after I use the bathroom, so that removes the whole nastiness/germ argument. If anyone is really that squeamish, use a couple of sheets of toilet paper, or apply pressure to the side of the seat to bring it up instead of actually grabbing it.P.S. This is a great discussion.

I have mixed feelings with the OP. Hope I'm understanding the whole thing as you mean it.It was kind of dumb in a way for the girl to overreact the way she did. If you truly were looking for your ex to establish contact and be able to take care of your daughter, then yes, she was on the wrong foot to think that you were contacting your ex because you had feelings coming back to you. Like you said, your daughter comes first and rightfully so, and I'm glad you're taking that responsibility.The thing that gets me though is that she apologized to you and you basically told her to go fly a kite. That's not exactly kosher in my book... not that it matters, anyway. We know that she knew about this whole situation beforehand, but look at it from her perspective. How would you feel? People have security issues. You both probably weren't in a relationship long enough for both of you to build that kind of trust level where she wouldn't be bothered much about you talking to your ex for ANY reason, nevermind talking to her about your daughter.If your daughter has a fight with you and comes back to apologize, are you going to disown her instead because she slipped up? Should she do the same to you if you screw up and disconnect all contact with her father?When you jump into a relationship, you have to expect yourself and your significant other to have disputes but also compromises to settle those disputes. If she's going to get a job that requires a commute or for her to move, she should have discussed it with you before and you both should realize that someone's going to have to give up something, whether you move with her or she gives up the job to be with you. In all reality, a distant relationship only works if both persons are willing to make it happen, but apparently you lack the dedication and commitment to this girl. If that's a good or bad thing, I don't know... I have no idea who she is or if she's worth sacrificing for.Look into your priorities and take a better look at what you want from life before making such haphazard decisions on a whim.

Odomike... you won't get any hosting credits for sucking up. I don't even have a home page anymore. Using Firefox, I always use multiple tabs from the last time I browsed... but the ones I always keep open include MySpace, Facebook, GMail, and Xisto Forums. I'm starting to keep eBay tabbed too...

That will never happen. That's why we have an open source movement that actually collaborates free-lance developers and their efforts to provide for the general public free (and mostly good) software. Microsoft is competing to have Windows operating systems on every computer in every home, office, and mobile device, as is Apple. Apple has been making quite a leap with its supposed easy-to-use interface and "superior" hardware (which doesn't make sense to me, since both operating systems utilize the same hardware, I believe), and even Linux is making a presence in commercial products (whether you realize it with the Asus eeePCs or not with the PS3 - which uses Yellow Dog). In this age of capitalism and the consequent greed, it would take a benevolent or crazy M$ CEO (since Gates is retiring) to band together with Apple.

'Tis all good.It's a stretch, but try running "sfc /scannow" to check the integrity of your system files. Have your Windows CD handy.

I was just talking to a buddy of mine about this. I understand that the guys down at EA (or any company, really) spend a lot of time, spill some blood and tears, and do a lot to churn out games that we all enjoy. I understand that they want to keep people from making unauthorized copies of the game, which would mean less actual sales of the game, which means less cash in the pocket and less profitability. It makes sense. How would you feel if you spent a few years developing a game, only to sell a dozen copies and having the rest of the world share your game with each other without you earning an additional dime for your hard work? You could feel pretty good about it, actually. There's a reason why people create free MMORPGs for everyone else to play. There's a reason why people join the open source community, release free programs, and give up their time, money, and efforts to produce that everyone else can enjoy. Some of it is out of good will. But there's a catch to all this. How many non-geeks know of Linux? of OpenOffice? of Maple Story? (just to name a few) Think of the free software that's on your computer right now that you benefit from. It's all about spreading the good name. If you put out a product that everyone can appreciate for free, people will know you and your work. Consequently, a lot of people (and companies) will notice you. A developer then has choices to exploit this sort of fanbase. Does he utilize viral techniques to further up hype about his game? Does he take the opportunity to utilize advertisement as a form of revenue through a free game that thousands of people play and will be exposed to? Does he start an online store with game-related collectibles that people are going to want? (Look at what Portal did for the sales of the well-loved Companion Cube, or what Wall-E did for sales of Wall-E figurines, robots, and toys. Or anything, really.) I say that companies EMBRACE piracy and let their stuff out for free, then utilize advertisement or whatnot to earn their revenue. (It would have worked for Battlefield 2142 if people didn't label EA's attempts for advertisement as spyware, which, really, it was. Paying for spyware to be willingly installed on your machine... hrm. ) But I guess that's not how it works in the commercial end of things...

Has anyone actually been satisfied with the release of SP1 for Vista? Does it solve the problems that we've all griped about? Overview of Windows Vista SP1 From what I'm reading from that document, I'm actually surprised, appalled, and in a way, now wondering if Vista can actually be an upgrade. I laughed at: That's awesome. I never knew the HD drive that I bought was an HD until SP1. Also mentioned is the exFAT file system. Why, oh why, would you format and utilize this file system on your removable devices if no other OS can detect it? Backwards-compatibility and all-around utility would be great, M$. At least allow for other OSs to recognize the disk as a FAT32 system. C'mon now. Aside from a couple of things, M s flowery language suggests that it has come a long way from what it was on initial release. Does anyone have any hands-on experience with it? Do share. (If there's no response, I might try it myself if I can find Vista drivers for the hardware in my laptop.) Update: A friend of mine has upgraded to SP1 and as far as I can tell, I personally didn't see much of an improvement. (I know it's a whole different ball game to actually use it for a while to evaluate, but the problems that plague Vista still keep me away.) Reading the white papers on the service pack actually gave me a false sense of hope for this crappy operating system. How can I say that Vista sucks without using it? I may be wrong, but I've had too many issues with just trying to do basic stuff on my friend's computer... and if an operating system pisses you off in as little as 20 minutes of intermittent use, there's something wrong. Vista has a great polished look, has Aero, and supports DirectX10. Those are the only good points that I can claim about the operating system. Reading up on the many, many issues that it STILL has after the release of the first service pack makes me wonder if it will ever be a viable operating system. (Then again, it took XP two service packs before it became something that I could work with well.) Some personal issues that I had during my intermittent use of Vista were enough to keep me from even experimenting with it on my own computer. Last night, I planned on using a SanDisk Cruzer Mini 8GB USB drive to move a 4.11GB file from my friend's Vista machine to my XP laptop. It was formatted with NTFS and had nothing on it. Dragging and dropping the file to my USB drive left me confused with a "The file is too large for the destination" error. Remember... there's nothing on this drive. I tried multiple times, then decided to format the drive, still NTFS. Still a no go. I attempted to do a full format to FAT32 for giggles to see if it would work. Still a no go. I restarted the Vista machine and tried again from a fresh boot. No go. I decided to do a quick format back to NTFS. It works. What the heck, Microsoft? Seriously. Another issue I had that still exists with the first service pack is the insane lag that people have complained about between XP and Vista machines on the same network. We were trying to play a LAN game of Command and Conquer 3 and I was frankly surprised that we saw each other on the network (within C&C3) with no problems. He creates the game, but sometimes I time out trying to join. (This is on a wireless LAN, by the way, and not over the Internet.) When I do get in and we try to start the game, sometimes I time out because "the host isn't responding." When we finally get into the game, the infamous lag spikes between XP and Vista machines occurs... and apparently it's because Vista constantly searches for new wireless networks every 30-60 seconds... or in our case, 10-20. It wasn't unbearable because I'm used to lagging a bit with my DSL connection at home when playing games over the Internet, but to most other people, that would be unbearable. Those two issues were enough to have me still bash the crap out of Vista whenever someone mentions it to be a viable operating system. I just can't deal with it in its current state. I understand that all operating systems go through their development phases... I was wary of switching from 98SE to XP back in the day, but until Vista demonstrates itself to be better than its predecessor in more ways than it is worse, it will remain a POS OS in my eyes. Note: I have friends that use Vista with no real problems. It's all dependent on what you do with your machine... and if it's just the basics (word processing, e-mail, Internet surfing), I'm sure Vista fits the bill as a pricey, prettier alternative to XP. But even then, I still wouldn't recommend Vista to anyone at the moment.

I am very surprised that no one suggested Wink. It's a free program that records what you do on your desktop and it does it pretty well, I think, for presentations or tutorials and such. Files are rendered into Shockwave files that you can put onto a website, but I'm sure that you can find a utility that converts SWFs to AVIs or some other desired video format. (If I remember, Smacker does this.) The way it works is that it takes screenshots of your desktop at a specified framerate and records your mouse pointer positions instead of actually capturing video, so depending on what you're planning on doing with it, it might be a good or bad thing. (File sizes will be small though.)

Whatever. It's just more hype that we all love to gobble up and fathom over. Hopefully within the next couple of years, we do make some more drastic improvements with graphics and how they're displayed, since we can already see that video card manufacturers are willing to push whatever is available for technology with their GPUs. Otherwise, if we're still playing around with DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.0, there's going to be no real incentive to go out and purchase the PS4. Then again, OpenGL 3.0 should be out by then, and from what I'm reading on it, everything has been changed up along with continued backwards support for previous versions of OpenGL.I'm expecting BluRay to be on it... maybe some other bells and whistles, but I wonder what Sony has for revolutionary plans for the PS4.

I wouldn't say that things NEVER work out, but SM would be right about them not working out very often. If you want to look at it from this perspective, is a potential relationship gone awry worth your job? Internal fraternization is frowned upon because of the fact that if things get a little hairy, work performance suffers, especially if you have to work WITH her. I'm not saying to go ahead and drop the issue to save your job security, but I'm also not going to advise jumping headfirst into trying for a relationship so that you don't miss out on possibly one of the best decisions you'll ever make in your life. My advice in this situation is that when the situation is relevant, joke about dating her. That way, you throw the ball in her court. OR, if you would rather be more straightforward and less tolerant of this game BS that we all love to play (but never can really understand), sit down with her after work and talk to her about it (nicely).

I see blogs as a way for people to give others a chance to read what they think, whether it's the unspoken word or if it's their opinions on something. If you don't like someone's opinion on something, you can comment on it and share your own thoughts or just not read it.I blog from time to time to vent and in that way have a bit of a release, and in this way my friends have a choice as to whether they want to hear about my problems or not.

What I do understand from your original posting is that you were infected with malware, supposedly cleaned it, and now cannot get automatic updates to work. I was trying to inform you that automatic updates cover downloads of service packs, hotfixes, and updates to particulars for Windows XP. However, maybe I came across as a spammer looking to increase his post count. If you let me know that this was on a network with sensitive data, then I would have to let you know that you shouldn't be experimenting with anything with that particular computer or on any computer that's part of that network. Otherwise, you would be compromising yourself... no one or nothing else to blame. I do not know what you did with this computer and I don't know what you were infected with specifically, but I gave you the advice that I pass along to others. If you have a legitimate copy of Windows XP and find no other solutions in an appropriate amount of time, I would suggest that you back up your data, format the hard drive, utilize a secure delete application to prevent any possible reoccurrence of the malware you had before, and reinstall Windows XP. It's a pain in the butt but it ensures that you have a clean machine. (Last resort, of course... I know now you didn't want to actually utilize that as an option.) I did a Google search myself on your error and turned up something that you can try. If that doesn't work, feel free to call me an idiot that spams Xisto with useless posts. I don't know if you have a spare computer or if you have a computer at work that you use, but whatever the case, make sure that any machine you experiment with is expendable in the aspect that you can afford to lose it to a situation like this.

I answered my own questions a while back, but just to educate the curious: 1. Delrin bolts will swell if ordinary gun oils are used on it. I have not had any binding issues with the bolt yet, but it is always a good idea to lubricate any moving parts regardless, especially the O-rings to prevent them from drying up and being sheared away. I use Shocker Lube to lubricate my bolt, and just one tube of the pink stuff will last you a lifetime. Really. 2. The reason why the 'Cocker would lock up the way it did was because sometimes if you short-stroke the marker (not fully pulling the trigger for each shot, thus causing a double feed and a guaranteed ball chop), the resulting ball chopping may place a shell piece into the bolt area and somehow wedge itself in between the body of the marker and the bolt. How this happens, I have no idea, since there's not much of a tolerance for room, but it happens. The only thing you can do for this is to *BLEEP* the marker, run a squeegee through it, and play on. (So don't be too worried if this happens to you.) 3. Bad paint is one factor, but proper timing of the marker is another. Make sure that the front of the bolt completely clears the feed neck when you *BLEEP* the marker... you should be able to fit your finger in there and feel the face of the bolt without running into the top of it with the tip of your finger. Look up cocker timing to figure out how to do this. 4. I still have no idea why my gun does this, as it is fairly used and the marker is still inconsistent. Any clues? P.S. Hehe... Xisto filters a word that's kind of relevant and important. Replace *BLEEP* with c-o-c-k.

Just to let you know, you're not missing out on anything with auto-update turned off. I know I'm not exactly really helping with this post, but after installing SP2, any further updates, hotfixes, or whatnot is only issue-specific. SP3 brings nothing to the table for Joe Schmoe and only really benefits the IT guy at your office with data encryption, networking updates, and whatnot. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) In fact, I recommend to keep auto-update OFF to prevent Microsoft from bunking your computer with extra services and any other annoying crap. (WGA, anyone? ) Unless you deal with sensitive information over a network or experience any issues that are specific to your machine or your programs, I wouldn't worry about it. You can manually download hotfixes from Microsoft's website anyway. P.S. Internet smarts: Don't trust anything. You did the right thing by scanning the file first, but did you have updated virus definitions in the case that it was a new development? Gut feelings are good too... if it doesn't seem right, it's not worth the curiosity (unless you're on a work computer ). Also, make sure that whatever files you receive are from a "trusted" source.

People need to evolve or grow the heck up.Just reading the OP belittles what respect I have left for a lot of guys, and that's bad. What possible gratification would you have in doing what gisellebebegirl was describing, aside from maybe getting some kicks in knowing you grossed someone out? People are idiots.KansukeKojima might be right about guys - and this would be applicable to girls too - about humans being, well, human. It's the maturity that I encourage to have some self-control and not be a moron about something like this. I'm not sure how everyone else sees it, but I view sex as something that you share with someone you love and care for... so things like one-night stands and promiscuous activity may seem appealing at times but in the principle of things, I don't find the concept very attractive at all. The media does promote a lot of approach towards sex appeal and guys and girls gobble up this crap like a kid in a candy store, and it takes quite a bit to actually separate what you're being pushed towards with what you really want to be as a person. I always question why girls always complain about shallow guys and arsehole boyfriends and yada, yet they wear "skimpy" and "skanky" outfits... and you can't tell me that a miniskirt during the colder times of the year can be comfortable, or a low-cut tee is really there for cooling purposes.As far as receiving random invites, go to Options > Privacy and check the "Only people on my Allow List can see my status and send me messages" box. That's just a no-brainer right there if you want to keep this sort of thing from happening.

I was just looking at tax deductions because I'm buying a bunch of stuff for when I go downrange and was planning on doing a tax write-off on that stuff. However, I'm not sure what is allowed technically/legally, so if anyone could point me in the right direction, that would be cool.Basically, I'm going off and buying a ton of stuff off of Ranger Joe's because we all know that in today's Army, yesterday's Army, and the Army of yesteryear, the government has been great in equipping the individual soldier with the best stuff to keep them alive. This would include a bunch of MOLLE gear, backpacks, maybe some weapon accessories (depending on what I actually receive for a weapon as opposed to what I'm assigned now), uniform and apparel items, et cetera. The thing is, if I can get a tax write-off on these things, why not?On a cool note, Internal Revenue Code section 183 states that you can claim deductions on a non-lucrative HOBBY. Does that mean that we can claim things we've bought for FUN? (Paintball equipment and computer components cost money!)

I saw what you wrote in the Shoutbox. Stereotypes are an unfortunate thing, but it's really how you take it and react to it that makes it a bad thing or a good thing. Some of us fall right into the general assumption of things, and maybe you're just a special case out of a rather surprising number of blond people who are actually capable of solving a function to graph a parabola, or tell me specifically what's wrong with my car, or even let me know that Vista is actually a viable operating system for most consumers. Some people almost embrace stereotypes and form other stereotypes with that (i.e. a lot of people took in a bit of black culture and now we have stereotypes for "white people acting black"); some people take it in and make it a joke so that there are no feet to tread on (like me); and then some people are sensitive about the whole matter and let it bother them.Personally, I know a lot of blondes (and brunettes, and redheads, and whatever you call black-haired people... blackheads? ) that are really smart and surpass me in IQ tests, grades in school, et cetera, and I'm Asian, so that's supposed to mean that I'm wicked smart, know a lot about computers, love taking pictures, be short in stature, et cetera. Am I an exception? Are you?(By the way, some preassumptions are true about me, but we won't tell anyone that!) I think you should let people make their assumptions about you. The way I see it, in that aspect you can only dazzle and amaze people with your unexpected wit and knowledge.

The game looks fantastic, but sadly enough I don't think I'm going to pull off another mistake and purchase a PS3 solely for a few games. Not yet, anyway... I bought a 360 for Halo 3 anticipating prolonged gameplay and whatnot, but so far it lies laying dust, while my Wii is snagging up all the attention. Looks like Hideo Kojima has done it again with another smash hit, though.

Schools are safe havens... or at least I never had the feeling that I was going to be killed on a school day when I went to school.Back in elementary school in Honolulu, HI, we did have security guards, but for the reason of breaking up fights and to discourage any misconduct. These guys were 300-lb Samoans... you didn't want to cause any trouble around those guys unless you WANTED to be manhandled. I would NOT recommend throwing in armed security guards in any school. Just the act of doing so makes us as a society succumb to the possibilities of our own people terrorizing our way of life. It's stupid. We should not have to worry about this kind of crap at all.On the same token, to prevent any occurrences, I would put into effect a law that any bomb scares or threats about bring in weapons to a school should be punished by expulsion from the school and/or a heavy fine to discourage such behavior. Also, in the case of an actual school shooting, teachers and staff should be trained to react accordingly to such situations: either remain calm and comply to demands, or know how to seek shelter, assist, and escape.It's so retarded that we have to even worry about this crap. Get along with people, get to know them, and if someone's acting distant, seek help for them. Help your fellow man... don't fear him.

I was in OP's position for a good while, wondering if it was worth upgrading from FF2 to FF3. I've installed FF3 on my work machine and had some nitpicks, but after eventually upgrading all of my personal computers with FF3, I haven't really noticed much to gripe about.A lot of improvements to the browser isn't going to be noticed by Joe Schmoe. I haven't reviewed the changes and improvement list yet or just don't remember them, but I'm sure that a whole new world is opened up for web developers. From the average user's point of view, we'd probably only notice the address bar, the download history, and maybe the lessened possibility of crashes. I don't know what people are talking about with the "fixed" memory leak issue... the process still is a RAM hog, but since I have 2GB of RAM, I'll trade stability and security for resources at this point. In short, upgrading to FF3 hasn't left me in a tizzy, and I've been able to use FF3 as easily as FF2 without having to scramble to find where things are or have to learn anything new. It's still the same great browser, but with a lot of improvements in the background that not a lot of average users will actually discover to appreciate.

If you're looking for a commercial defragmentation program, I recommend Diskeeper. It defrags on the fly and you can set it to automatically defrag your hard drive when idle resources are available.