rayzoredge

Since I'm planning on returning this to Dell, I've opted out of actually opening the sucker up.I've, so far tested in a SATA external enclosure connected to my computer via USB, have simply connected with no luck (or sound from the hard drive); tapped it and no sound; rapped it and no sound; froze it for an hour in a ziploc back and no sound; rapped it some more (and harder), with no sound; stuck it in the freezer for over 6 hours and tried, but no sound; stuck it in the freezer for over 8 hours but no sound; as it was still cold I rapped it hard with my knuckle, and there was ticking, GRINDING, and clacking, but no result; I then dropped it on purpose onto a wooden surface, and the ticking, grinding, and clacking continued; I rapped it with my knuckle and banged it on one side on my desk, and Windows recognized a Hitachi drive with a SATA bridge, but then it failed to recognize a device; I banged it some more, this time on the other side of the drive, and nothing; I banged it all over on my wooden desk, and IT SEEMED TO WORK, but only recognized two partitions on the drive, and acted as though you could access it but everything was horrifically slow, then nothing; then I've been banging it around for some time and I've gotten that same result once more before an hour later of banging I got the "clicks of death." I haven't been able to change the "clicks of death" with any amount of additional banging or knuckle-rapping.The good thing is that the hard drive itself doesn't look tampered with. The bad thing is that I'm still data-less.Should I try to freeze it again? Is there anything else that I can try that's non-intrusive?

I didn't mention every game I played, but they were the first to come in mind. The principle is still there though. I know that kids can be influenced as easily as simply watching Looney Tunes and how indestructible the characters are (especially Wiley E. Coyote). As kids, you see Tom and Jerry running around, hitting each other with hammers, setting tails on fire, etc. and maybe as a kid, you hit your brother or sister thinking that it wasn't really a bad thing as after all, Tom and Jerry never really got hurt. I know games now are still violent but bring more realistic familiarity (with games like Call of Duty 4 and Grand Theft Auto), but it still lies on parenting. (I solely blame a lot of things on parenting.) If no one is there to tell them right from wrong, especially when they pick up behavior from the TV, video games, peers, and even out of sheer curiosity, kids go astray. The worst part about this case is that, by Georgia law, they cannot be prosecuted for anything (as per one of the articles I've read). I wonder if any of them will actually be able to learn that what they did was wrong and then apply it to their moral banks.

I KNEW IT. As a joke I was going to respond with "Let's just blame this on violent video games and be over with it, since we all know that it's going in that direction anyway." But someone already beat me to the punch. As a frame of reference, I was raised on video games. As I was growing up, I was exposed to such horrific video games such as Street Fighter II, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, 1941, and the Mario Bros. You don't see me dressing up in a green tunic and stabbing people, do you? Or hopping on people's heads? Or beating up other kids and finishing them off with a fireball or a dragon punch combo? How about Fatalities in Mortal Kombat? It's almost disappointing that we blame violent video games, yet we don't see anyone ripping hearts out or decapitating each other. (Note the heavy sense of sarcasm.) It's a combination of parenting and what these kids learn. That's the whole thing behind violence. If you raise your kids right, teach them right from wrong, maybe how to respond to certain situations, then you should be peachy for the most part. These kids decided to kill their teacher because a student was told not to stand on a chair. Wow. But I guess it would be really easy just to blame other things, since that's the name of the game in America these days. Why haven't we learned yet? Will it take a couple more school shootings? Maybe something tragic, since that's what America responds to (temporarily). Maybe, just maybe, we need another school massacre to maybe jar some reality into parents that they should probably pay more attention to their kids instead of shoving them into daycare centers, let them watch anything, do anything, not set ground rules or teach moral behavior, etc.

That's Socrates and Plato for ya. Platonic/Socratic thinking on societies works upon the theory of the declination of society, beginning with a proper kingship and declining towards an oliogarchy, timocracy, democracy, and finally despotism. Since I'm currently taking a philosophy college course, I'm actually starting to agree more towards the writings of Plato and less supportive of democracy, but having been brought up with the ideas and concepts of equality, human rights, freedoms, and the strive for individual happiness for everyone, it's nearly impossible as I always take into account how everyone else would feel. That's not how Plato and Socrates thought. Democracy is one of the worst types of government that a society can have, simply because EVERYONE has a voice. If something is voted on and there isn't unanimous agreement, usually the idea is thrown out, even though it would be more beneficial than harmful. Just look at today's current state of the nation. We have sympathy and some of us object towards human cloning, yet it would be very beneficial for us to be able to test and experiment with clones to bring forth new discoveries and knowledge of humans to be able to cure and aid what hampers us as a species (disease, unwanted hereditary conditions, etc.). We don't like testing on animals or people because it's inhumane, but how would we know what is and is not good for us? We are for freedoms of religion, speech, and what-have-you, but doesn't it slow down or even stop the progression towards the common goal of advancement as mankind? The best kind of government, according to Socratic/Platonic thought, would be a kingship, but this too has limits. For one, the leading authority HAS to have knowledge, know how to advance society as a whole, and not have any self-interest. (Ideally, the leading authority should be a philosopher, or a Philosopher King.) The efforts of the leading authority MUST be for the people, first and foremost. The people, in return, MUST tend to what they are skilled at to provide and contribute to the society, and mustn't meddle in the affairs of others (i.e. a priest shouldn't try forging iron because he or she wants to, a blacksmith shouldn't try fishing, a teacher shouldn't try farming, etc.). (This is known as the ontological division of labor.) Of course, in a perfect world, there wouldn't be any conflict, but since there is always the threat of war, Guardians (soldiers) must be established to protect the people. They should be cared for, fed, and given the basic needs, but they are not allowed to possess land or property. In this type of society, not everyone is going to be happy, but it is focused on the goal of happiness for the society AS A WHOLE. Now, as for the original topic at hand: I agree and disagree with democracy, as you can probably see why with what I said above. There really should be a ruling authority that strives towards the advancement of the society as a whole, but we all know that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I really do wonder how a kingship would work for the United States. (I don't think it's possible unless there is a cleansing, as Plato would put it, of all people already influenced by the idea of equality and fairness so that it would be possible to start off of a clean slate and have no objection to the new idea of an incoming kingship.)

Wow. Nice topic revival. From what I understand, a Trojan simply serves as a backdoor into your system, in which an attacker has to exploit. (The Trojan Horse probably wouldn't have been as effective without any soldiers in it. ) If no one exploits this backdoor, what's the point of freaking out over a Trojan, especially if you have nothing to hide? If someone actually had their specific Trojan infect your computer, then had your computer's IP address to directly-connect with you remotely, then had an INCENTIVE to actually do anything, I can see why people would panic. However, as an everyday Joe Schmoe type of person, I don't see any immediate threat to a Trojan horse other than the annoyance/initial panic of having found one with your anti-virus/anti-malware software.Now, I'm sure that Trojans nowadays are either more advance in design or are coupled with other pieces of malicious code to perform other automated tasks, such as log keystrokes and send this data to a pre-designated server that would always be on. However, I know with Norton Antivirus 2007, this activity is monitored and if an unknown program without permissions attempts to send out data through a port, Norton or even Windows Firewall will let you know.So what's the deal?I think that the best way to deal with malicious code of any form is a simple backup and wiping (or even 0-writing, if you're that paranoid of recurring malicious code) of the medium that is infected. Most of the time, executables are more common as targets than actual information or document files that we hold more dear (pictures, music, text, spreadsheets, databases), and we can always replace programs. In my opinion, the only people, or should I say client machines, that should be worried about Trojans are the ones belonging to companies or any computer holding confidential or financial data. Consumers should worry more about annoying spyware, adware, and possibly the growing uncommon occurrence of viruses that actually destroy data.

There is always going to be some sort of bias towards any other religion other than the majority, since the majority look down upon those that don't conform... especially when those deviants deny and proclaim the non-existence of a deity that is the sole foundation of the majority's beliefs. It's sad to say that the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and those principles that we hold near and dear to our hearts in the good 'ol U.S. of A. are pretty much ignored, side-stepped, worked around, and yet be preached again and again as if our own nation is full of hypocrites. For reference purposes: The first amendment is a joke now. Look at how we are discussing bias against atheism. Atheism is a religion in its own right. So is science. If you actually define religion, it is a set of beliefs. It doesn't have to deal with a higher power. A religion doesn't have any rules to BE a religion. It's a set of beliefs. All of you that believe in a God, great. Good for you. All of you that don't believe in a God, that's fine too. Awesome. All of you who denounce each other because of their beliefs... and especially if you live in the United States as an American citizen... well, there's really not much to say on your behalf. You have a right to have an opinion as per the first amendment, but to tread on feet and take away the right of having the basic freedoms of speech and religion is wrong, as per the Bill of Rights. Funny now that I think of it that the U.S. is a Christian-dominated nation and that it makes prominent the belief of God's existence, when in all reality, our currency should be neutral, our Pledge of Allegiance should be neutral...

Haha... there will never be hard, tangible proof of a God or the absence of a God that will appease anyone. I will first state that I am agnostic, maybe even atheist, so that every other religious poster can see my words here as biased and full of error. I did, however, just read a really cool (and VERY dry) reading on the thoughts of Aquinas. In his writings, he establishes proof of a God by the process of induction, but one of the greatest arguments that I thought he had to prove the existence of God was that: we (as believers) have a clear and distinct idea of God; that the idea itself must have a cause; that this cause must be as real in cause as it is as an idea; that this idea of God can only come from God; and therefore, God exists. What I found funny is that with those statements, just saying that "God doesn't exist" proves God's existence, because then you would have to have the idea of God to deny God's existence. This, of course, raises the question from non-believers and naysayers: how is it that people could not have just conjured the idea of God? We've conjured up the idea of unicorns and fairies and aliens and dragons... why not God too? (Of course, that's my stance too.) I don't know if there is an answer to that, but in a way, it kind of makes sense. If we were just human beings, how was it that we even came up with the idea of God... possibly to give some sort of an answer to our existence? Couldn't we have just made everything up? Then again, what if God gave us our ideas and we are just realizing them over a span of time? Descartes takes an opposite approach to the existence of God, and I thought this interesting also. In his writings on Meditations of Philosophy, he mentions the principle of adequate reality, which simply states that something created cannot be better than the entity that created it. (We as humans can never create a better human being, ontologically-speaking. And no, robots do not count. Cloning creates an equal, but not a better being.) In this sense of the principle, there had to have been something that created us as human beings. That something would be God. Descartes also proves, in principle, that there is only one God. If God is perfect, that means that there can't be multiple perfect gods, or else they would be comparable to each other. A short, simple, and sweet explanation. (If God ISN'T perfect or absolute or all-encompassing or all-powerful, then there must be something bigger, larger, faster, better than God...) Of course, more naysay comes up with the question: So who, or what, created God? God couldn't have just come out of nowhere, would it? Then again, God is perfect, all-encompassing, absolute... - So if you are religious, or even if you are one of the naysayers like myself, I suggest you take up a college course in philosophy, or take a look at the philosophical views of Aquinas or Descartes... or any other philosopher that may have a stand on the existence of a greater power. It will at the very least stir up some good discussion instead of the usual "God just is" statements.

I think this would be a poor excuse to gain post count by saying that I'll read it. In all honesty, I haven't read it and don't think I will soon. To me, it's just common sense and courtesy. The general idea here is to not flame anyone, be completely rude, and contribute something worthy of reading for other members to learn from (instead of all those short responses that we've all seen that don't really say anything other than "lol cool." ) or something to indicate that the thread provokes actual interest and/or discussion. Of course, there are those side rules exclusive to Xisto that look down and discourage double-posting (which some of us still do from time to time, me included); encourage proper spelling, word choice, and grammar (for clarity and distinctiveness); warn against spamming; etc.I'm not saying NOT to read the rules, but if you genuinely have no clue as to how to participate in an online forum environment, you should take Xisto's rules as a good guideline of general behavior online.Not every forum on the Web has to be full of "txt t4lk," flaming, or any other sort of garbage.

The Internet is made of tubes. So if you kill every plumber in the world and demolish every sense and existence of plumbing... Branching from the joke, that IS the key to killing the Internet: connectivity. The Internet is basically a massive global network of servers and clients. If you take down the medium that holds them all together: the fiber optics, the cables, the microwave dishes, the satellites, and all the sites that deal with those mediums, no one would be able to connect to each other, which is the essence of the Internet (connectivity).What we know as the Internet is commonly misconstrued as the "world wide web," or what we see on the screen. But as I've said, if you remove any sort of connectivity option from every computer, every cell phone, or really, any device, any form of a network would cease to exist. You would not be able to dial/connect to your ISP, which gives you an IP address to identify yourself as a client to the Internet network, which means that you cannot send or request data through the non-existing network to servers across the world or even any servers or peer client machines right next to you.So yes, it is possible. But in all reality, since we have such a dependency on being connected with each other, there would be no real incentive (unless there were radical extremist groups planning on returning an aspect of "normalcy" or for whatever cause it would support), and there isn't any easy way to do it... which would make it near impossible.

Heterosexuals ARE going to find something disturbing/wrong in homosexuality. That's why we're heterosexuals. I'm sure that homosexuals look at heterosexuals and think that there's something wrong/disturbing with heterosexuality. I have no idea what bisexuals think. They probably have the best of both worlds, being unbiased as far as gender goes. Take a look at it as you would a culture, or a race, or hey! a way of life! Prejudice is everywhere, and for those of you who are from religious backgrounds can confess that religion itself, for the most part, has part in it. Most religious people will find homosexuality and bisexuality "wrong and perverse," but ever think about how "wrong and perverse" you may be in another person's eyes? (See Crusades.) Homosexuality and bisexuality and heterosexuality IS. That's it. It's not wrong; it's not right; it just is. You are close-minded if you think that homosexuality and bisexuality is wrong because of your religion, the way you were raised, or anything other than thinking for yourself. People need to make an actual stand for their own thoughts, and if they do so, that's their personal perogative and they shouldn't go about preaching it to others because THEY think it's wrong. That's why it's called an OPINION. This entire post is an opinion itself. My accusation of close-mindedness is an opinion because I think that religious people follow the teachings of the Church and the religious principles that guide their thinking. And that's why I promote as much self-awareness and thinking for yourself as possible. People may be born with sexuality, choose their preference, or be raised to be influenced to be of that preference. It really shouldn't matter, because it is their "choice." To be curt, deal with it. It's not like telling people that homosexuality and bisexuality will magically change the minds of everyone around you and we would be living in a homosexual- and bisexual-free world. Democracy was founded with the principle of choice... and that's what you get. Human rights includes the power of personal choice... and that's what you get. And if it wasn't a choice, that would mean that you would be denouncing another person based on something he or she could not control, which is just as bad as being racist, wouldn't it? Think about that for a minute. Arguments against it based on religion are rather pointless because you are already speaking in behalf of the beliefs that you have been accustomed to. (Note that I didn't say "your beliefs.") Arguments based on the fact that you cannot procreate are open to discussion, but do we all have to procreate? Not with the power of choice, and we all know by now that if you don't decide to have kids, your neighbor will be. Homosexuality and bisexuality has been around since we've been around as a race, and the last time I checked, we're actually overpopulating our living conditions still. Now, arguments based on "personal belief" (as it's hard to figure out what's really based on YOUR thought as opposed to peer-influenced thought nowadays) are valid as opinions, and should be viewed as so.

As far as data goes, it's just her pictures of her kids that she wants to keep. And yes, the golden rule of data is to back it up. Of course, I got the "I didn't have any reason or need to back it up." My argument? Lesson learned. One thing I'm sort of iffy on too is that I just called up Dell to have them replace the drive. They're sending a new one in and requested that we send them back the old one, so as much as I want to open it up to give it a try at swapping platters/parts, they will know I tampered with it, because I believe one of the screws will be underneath a silver foil sticker that's tamper-evident. Any chance that they'll even check it? A half of me says yes, but the other half says no, since it's such a large company and they probably wouldn't give two craps about the state of the hard drive anyway. I just tried it again after at least 6 hours of freezing and it didn't work, so I'm trying it one more time tonight when I get back... which would mean at least 8 hours of freezing time. (It shouldn't matter since I believe it's a mechanical failure, but hell, might as well, right?) I've rapped it a couple more times to see if it would get something to work, but it's still giving me the ticks of death. To make use of a double-post... (thank goodness for Full Edit of posts) What do people with experience recommend as far as swapping parts in the comforts of your own home? Since, obviously, I don't have a dedicated clean room, is it feasible to have a room with no air disturbance and work with latex gloves? When opening up the hard drive, I have read about it being vacuumed so that opening it "ruins" the drive. I'm not sure what this means exactly... does it just mean the endurance of the drive? (I'm sure the only reason why anyone would be opening it after it has been built is to commence data recovery without any intention of saving the drive itself for extended usage.) Will the parts for the same series of hard drive fit each other interchangeably, or do they have to be completely identical? Does an 80GB HD's logic board and mechanical parts differ from that of a 160GB HD from the same model, brand, and series? Notice from jlhaslip: Merged Topic Board Rules Xisto Readme

I'm thinking about just dropping it again just to see if whatever might have dislocated itself might jar itself back into place. If she dropped the laptop, that's the only thing that could be wrong with it: a mechanical failure. I'm just giving the freezing technique a try before I even attempt opening up the hard drive... and that's if we even go that route.I just read a couple of articles on opening those suckers up and it's rather scary... is it as hair-raising as everyone's making it out to be, or was it a rather casual procedure? There was one where the person simply used Ziploc bag "platter-handling mitts," a Ziploc bag surface to hold parts, and a dining room table (with a ceiling fan to blow dust onto the platters... )... and it worked!

Everyone's finding an alternative use to the Wiimote.It's crazy. Nintendo's original innovation for a new way of console gaming has become the basis for a new way to do everything.

One of my friends dropped her Dell Inspiron 1501 and the computer now won't boot. On inspection, the computer takes a long time to finish POST, then displays that it's loading Broadcom drivers, Intel drivers, and then it displays: No OS detected. Check PXE ribbon [whatever... can't remember what it said]. So I restart, check out the BIOS, and it shows me that the computer isn't even seeing the hard drive. (I'm personally used to a computer telling me that it can't find bootable media in this case, but I guess newer computers, or just Dell, now tells you that an OS isn't being detected.) So now comes the fun of trying to get this hard drive to work. I'm more used to the larger 3.5" hard drives that click, whirr, and actually vibrate when they are turned on. I'm not sure what 2.5" hard drives are like normally, but this thing didn't even do ANYTHING except get slightly warm when I put it into my SATA enclosure (meant for a 3.5", but it still fit, port-wise) and trying to access it via USB. (The infamous "USB Device Not Recognized" balloon came up every single time I turned it on and off and disconnected and reconnected the drive in the enclosure.) On a separate but related note, I've dropped an external 3.5" hard drive in the past from about five feet onto concrete and although it was exhibiting the USB Device Not Recognized balloon, sometimes it would actually read. (I would turn on the drive, and if it didn't work, turn it off, disconnect it, and do all that jazz to try it again.) The enclosure probably took most of the shock, but that kind of tells me that the laptop took most of the shock in the above case. (That laptop could not have dropped more than lap-height.) The drive I dropped was a Western Digital; this one I'm trying to recover is a Hitachi. Now, I'm wondering, do we have any data recovery specialists here at Xisto? I've tried rapping it, tapping it, and now I'm in the process of freezing it (in a plastic bag, of course). Is there anything else that I could do that I can do in my power to get this drive running, short of opening up the drive itself and replacing parts that I don't have handy?

I thought it was funny that my birthday is ON THE DOT with a color. Warm. I try to be. Light-hearted? Yes. Flowing with friends and family? Sure. Not liking violence? For someone that loves weapons but doesn't like bringing harm to others? I guess that works. Knowing what's "right" for the most part is a given, general statement. (It's actually DOING what's "right" that matters...) Kind, yes, cheerful... I put up a front. And unfortunately, I envy people. Close, but no cigar.

Out of all of those choices, I would think that the Italian Columbo 907 would be the best choice... but I wouldn't pay $5000 for a combination desk/bed. Give me a "normal" chair and desk... these choices aren't exactly very fitting for the home decor, not to mention possibly uncomfortable or ill-designed for ergonomics.

- Chrono Trigger- Secret of Mana- Illusion of Gaia- Earthbound- Final Fantasy 3- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TimeIt's funny that every single one of these games were on a Nintendo platform. You know a game is that good when you wouldn't mind playing it again... from beginning to end.Speaking of which, I might have to dig up my SNES emulator to fire up some memories...

That is completely inexcusable.I'm not sure what can be done, as I've only been to three funeral services (one I don't remember, one by the Army, and one for the father of one of my friends), but at the very least, I would either a) talk to the guy and tell him straight-out that he butched up what was supposed to be, at the very least, an accurate and sentimental memorial service for a loved one, talk to his supervisor (unless he owns the funeral home), c) never refer anyone to him, or d) negotiate a price drop, since this isn't something light that you can do all over again. He screwed it up; he should pay the price in compensating for some, if not all, of the services that he administered.If he is starting to go senile himself, he probably shouldn't be administrating any services at all and resign to a less prominent position that won't drastically affect suffering and surviving family members.On the other hand, you could live and let go. It all depends on the type of person you are.

I'm sorry to hear that.I am glad to hear that your mom is in a better place, though. May she rest in peace.

I'm sorry to say that I'm back to Windows again. Consistency of functionality of the Logitech MX3200 keyboard and mouse was what did me in. During the last post, I was happily poking around in Ubuntu, trying to make it a new home and adapting to it to replace my familiar Windows applications. I was able to do this because I eventually passed out (because I was sick) and left the computer on, enjoying two days of Ubuntu until this morning when I decided to turn it off.Bad choice.On boot, everything was fine and dandy, until I noticed that the mouse wasn't working after logon. (Great... this again.)I did a restart... and the same thing happened again.Looking at my xorg.conf file, I noticed a few changes... or the lack of them. My original configuration was changed to the default configuration that Ubuntu came with. Of course, I went back to the Ubuntu forums to look at what others recommended doing to get the functionality back.Following directions to the letter, I restarted and hoped.The mouse still didn't work.I tried another avenue of approach, using a different protocol (evdev, to be exact). (xserver-xorg-input-evdev was installed prior to this endeavour.)And of course, Ctrl+Alt+Backspace led to a distorted screen, then to a black, blank screen, then to a distorted screen... until it just froze on the distorted screen. In which case I just turned the machine off, since it just sat there, not doing anything, and then turned it back on.On boot, Ubuntu decided to run in low graphics mode at the 640x480 with VESA graphics, and my xorg.conf file was reset with the default values with the exception of added "failsafe" sections for the video card.After repeating this entire ordeal twice (tallying up to about an hour and a half of wasted time), I gave up.I hope that the new Ubuntu release will bring some sort of renewed way of recognizing wireless input devices that share a single receiver or that Logitech actually hears the pleas of Linux users and releases support for Linux drivers.

Have you ever heard of the ToughBook series by Panasonic? Now that's something that I wouldn't mind owning. As for the Mac Air, to me it's just another Apple product: sleek, slim, maybe innovative, and of course the thing to have because it screams out "TRENDY! FASHIONABLE! MAKE THIS A PART OF YOUR iLIFE!" One of these days I'm going to have to own an Apple, but at the same time, the price for most of their products are enough to keep me away. With the Mac Air, your money goes towards the completely-flat design and the fact that it's only 3 pounds. (Then again, there are other laptops, albeit not as thin, that weigh about the same or even less.) This is the chief selling factor that Apple has going on their site... and really, that's the only thing that you should expect of this laptop for the price that you'll be paying. The few things I like about this laptop that Apple has done right include the integration of components (again, design wins) and the multi-touch pad. That's unfortunately about it. Looking at the specifications for this laptop, it doesn't look like you could do much with the laptop unless you were the general consumer that does nothing much but word processing, surf the Internet, e-mail, chat, and anything else that's not too CPU-intensive. I have a computer with similar numbers as far as the processor and RAM and I can run Photoshop CS3 without too much of a problem, but using it to create movies with as simple of a program as Movie Maker (you can shoot me later ) was doable, but slow. If what Apple elitists say is true about Mac OSX and Leopard actually utilizing hardware to its full potential, I wonder to what extent that it is better. But compare a $700 tablet PC running Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.10 to a $1800 thin form factor Macintosh which may be equal to or lesser than my tablet PC... We won't really talk about the price of upgrades... You do the math. Now, one thing worth mentioning when it comes to bumping the price up to $3098 is the 64GB SSD. Even though it is an entire $1300 just for a processor upgrade (adding 200MHz... which we all know makes a negligible real-world impact nowadays) and the SSD, it is a jump towards solid state drive technology. It is very expensive, but at the same time operates on a much larger performance boost than the traditional platter hard drives. Thus, the race with RPM dwindles down with the advent of SSD, but not until SSD becomes more affordable. With the advent of new technology come new problems. The way a SSD works is that it is comprised of what we traditionally know as RAM. RAM loses its data when it is no longer powered by electricity, clearing it for its next usage when the computer is turned on again. This means that there is a small rechargeable battery that constantly provides electricity to maintain the integrity of your data. The reason why SSDs are faster than traditional HDs lie within the fact that there are no moving parts. Keep in mind that, as I've learned now, SSDs are not as much faster than their HD counterparts, and combined with the right hardware, can even seem unnecessary (with the justification of price). Source Also, whereas there is an average MBTF of 3 to 5 years for a hard drive, there is a wearout expectancy for a solid state drive. Apparently, it's good enough so that you won't have to worry about it, as the SSD will potentially last longer than you will live (depending on how frequently you read/write data over the life of the drive). Source Another good thing about SSDs vs. HDs is the lessened power usage. (How this works out, I'm not sure... I'm guessing it takes more power to move a head around?) This figure can be up to 10% in lessened power consumption. Source I don't see this going anywhere other than being the talk of the Mac community and seeing spoiled or rich kids flaunting the darn thing around high school or college. The price tag just doesn't fit with the product itself, which is underpowered for the stereotypical multimedia usage that most people know Macintosh computers "excel" at.

Trust is a very finicky thing. The best course of action to have done was to let your boyfriend know beforehand, but of course, that can also go into the spout of "Just a friend, huh? Hrm..."Then again, he could have been all right with it and would have thought nothing of it. I don't know your boyfriend so I can't even say anything about him, really.I'm slightly afraid of future relationships with women (or at least I would like to think so) just because I was burned in the past. I'm rather jealous and kind of untrusting now, although I wouldn't let my then girlfriend know my true feelings per situation... it's my problem and I'll stay quiet about it.My advice to you is that since you guys have been together for two years, you should both sit down and talk about it. Guys do appreciate the notion that you want their perspective on the whole thing, although not all guys are like that. (There is the tendency to just keep quiet and not talk about it.) Obviously he can't be controlling and tell you that you can't see him anymore, but at the same time it could be a compromise to regain his trust... or he can grow up and settle with the fact that you can't just have female friends. It would be stupid to have tension in a relationship just because of this... like I said, offer to talk about it. If he doesn't want to, let him mull a bit and let him initiate talking.And of course, if things aren't very agreeable, don't turn it into a shouting match. That never gets anywhere.

Apple has been pretty good with innovation, even though I'm sick and tired of all the elitism and i-This, i-That that Apple brings. (I'm not saying all Apple-product owners are elitists; but as with every other company, people tend to be full of themselves and their new gadgets/computers/etc. I'm guilty sometimes too, I'm sure.) This concept has been out for a while now. Last I heard (aside from this post), it was in the works. Functional, but I guess they are testing the idea.It'd be cool to have one, but fingerprints drive me nuts.

From what I understand, AMD used to be preferred for gaming since it had its on-die cache buffer built IN/INTO the CPU itself, giving it an edge on performance on Intel because Intel processors rely on having to communicate via a pipeline to the Northbridge, which is physically away from the processor itself.It's all about the design.Nowadays, with multiple cores and newer technology, I don't know which processor types are optimal for gaming. You are best with an older, single-core AMD processor for your older games, but I believe that newer games are taking advantage of multiple processor cores. As far as Intel's performance surpassing AMD's architectural processor design, I have no idea, but it might be close now. (It makes sense that AMD's design with on-die buffers will forever be superior when compared Hz for Hz, L2/L3 KB/MB cache for L2/L3 KB/MB cache.)For some reason that I don't understand just yet, Intel processors are slightly better at processing, encoding, and decoding multimedia data, whereas AMD has more of a slight forte on single-task processes (which applied to a preference for gaming as of yesteryear). Today, I don't think that it's even arguable to say what is better for gaming unless for the sake of comparing seconds on benchmarks. In real life, you might not even notice the difference... but keep an eye out for the possibility (or the existence) of NVIDIA video cards with Intel processors, and likewise with AMD and ATI. It only makes sense to me as a marketable scheme to force pairing of like purchases to avoid the possibility of the hardware recognizing that AMD isn't with ATI technology or Intel with NVIDIA and then resulting in purposefully "choking" performance. (That's just me though... anyone want to elaborate?)

You are awesome. Did anyone tell you that today? The resize tips work perfectly. And I was ready to live without being able to resize any windows just to deal with that... haha. I already had those lines for my keyboard and mouse there to get them to work... in the past, without any changes, if you move the mouse first (at the logon screen), it would move a quarter of an inch and remain unresponsive for the rest of that session. (With that case, the keyboard works.) Within the same session, if you unplugged and reinserted the USB receiver, the mouse will work with that lag I mentioned and the keyboard would become useless.Strange. I'll just have to remember to just type, then move the mouse. Oh well... can't complain. Haven't been back to Windows yet. Gotta learn GIMP and use Ubuntu's version for financial software... that should be fun.Thanks again!