H.O.D

As you can see there are a lot of people using Linux over here. So rest assured that you have a mini-community of sorts to post your queries to I'm a newbie user and have started using Ubuntu recently. It was the first flavour recommended by many people and I found that I liked it right away. It's really great to use and for a newbie user who doesn't want much from his OS, it's perfect. But if you want to get more out of your computer, then you better start looking at other flavours like Fedora, Mandriva as well. Mandriva comes fully loaded with all kinds of packages and software so there isn't much to add after installation, whereas in Ubuntu you have to download some basic things such as audio codecs. Also it would be better if you start off with dual-booting. In the starting you may find that you are comfortable doing some things in Windows than in Linux. Until you get used to the working of Linux you can switch between those two. For example, I have problems connecting my netbook to my TV using a VGA cable in Ubuntu. When I tried the same in XP it was up and running in seconds because of the software provided along with the netbook! There are things like this which are still making me stick to dual booting, but most of the time I'm on Ubuntu only and it's really very smooth.So I hope this newbie's experience was of some help to you. Since you already used xubuntu once you know how it 'feels' :angel: So I hope you get reconnected with Linux very soon again!

@Spyda: Here's another Indian replying back to your harsh comments. While I agree that what happened to you is completely unfair, it's not right to judge an entire nation by a few people's behaviour. It's just our bad luck that the smartest people on the net happen to be the fraudsters/scammers/crackers. It's not the case with just one country but it's happening all over the world. How would you feel if a foreigner visited your country, ran into a few ruffians and judged that the country is full of them? That doesn't sound good, does it?!Actually a lot of Indians get scammed/tricked by other Indians - that's because most of the internet users here have got access to the internet very recently. Before the new millenium the internet hardly made any impact here and it was thought to be a passing fad. After broadband rates came down, people were only beginning to realize the power of the internet when they were taken aback by how easily one could get cheated online.So I request you to please take back your comment. It's not good to blindly judge a billion people based on what 4 people did to you!@mahesh2k:That thread you mentioned sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to reading it soon!

This is truly shocking -I can't imagine criminals are interested in doing such things as well. Most people simply buy a ready-to-take-home PC and very few assemble it themselves and so this is going to affect only those few people, but still it's nasty to do such a thing. When you think about it, it's also funny in a sort of way! No one would imagine getting cheated while buying such a small thing as a processor! Ok so lets hope this gets covered soon and such a thing doesn't happen again

This is a good news for all those users who just use paypal to withdraw payments they get online. But for those who have to make payments online, I guess the scare isn't over yet. I think they (paypal staff) are not clear when they will allow sending of payments to others. They should at least give some estimate as to when they will allow users to make payments so that they can plan alternatives till then.

I'm using the Intel Atom processor right now and it's more than enough for my basic computing needs.The only problem I've had with it till now is that it tends to hang for a while even when I'm not using any heavy apps. But on the whole it's really smooth to work with and it's made netbooks really popular. Another great product from Intel!

English is either very easy or very hard to learn. It all depends on the person who're trying to learn it. I think for people living in America it is rather important that they learn the language for their survival. If the Americans went to, say France, and forced the people there to learn English, that would be nasty, because they don't really have a reason to do so. French is enough for their survival there. But in a foreign land it is important to learn the language the foreigners speak! So I feel English should be learned by all people visiting the US/UK and even if they're not planning to settle there it would be better to know the language before bumping into trouble!

I remember my first visit to a library. I was simply stunned by the number of books available there. You could say I was spoilt for choice. I think even a person who doesn't read many books is stunned by a first visit to a library and would like to read some books right away! Then the general feeling that libraries are only for bookworms sets in, and most people shy away from them eventually. Now coming to libraries in today's world, the few remaining fans of libraries are attracted by what the internet offers and this is yet another threat to the already diminishing libraries. While it's true that falling broadband costs and free access to a lot of information is helping people find what they're looking for easily, it's important that we take care of our libraries as well. Agreed that no one has much time today, but people used to find time to visit libraries in the past and it is still very much possible today also. We just have to be genuinely interested and visit the good ol' places.

Um I think jsmith091009 wants to remove the gmail account, and not the orkut one. This is a bit tricky, because they're stuck together, and as mahesh said, it's only possible to remove the orkut account but the gmail account would still survive and the user would lose his orkut profile. Losing the orkut profile seems inevitable if the user wants to stop using gmail. Instead, I recommend jsmith091009 not to use gmail while using orkut and vice versa. And you can set your status as "Invisible" either in gmail or orkut, so that others can't see that you're online. I think this will be a better solution than deleting it entirely

I read about this in the papers but never got to see it up close. Wow this surely is some exciting stuff. I only hope it doesn't have too many cons, though. If it works out for everyone then this is surely an excellent thing to watch out for in the coming days

OK the title may seem silly but the fact is that I've never used a netbook (or any other type of laptop for that matter) before and I'm unsure about how I should use it. I'm talking about battery maintanence. My netbook has a 6-cell battery and gives an average of 5 hours backup. I easily do 5 hours of computing daily so that means charging the battery daily. Is this going to affect its life?My second query is on how long I can use the netbook with the power cable - if using the power cable on a stretch doesn't do any harm to the battery then I'm ready to do that because it saves the battery, right? So is this safe? Please advice me because I don't want to do any damage to my new netbook.

in games like pacman, tetris, etc the replayability is indeed high because in those type of games the excitement never ends, and of course, as you mentioned, you get to see whether you can beat your own/others' high scores. And as for the campaign-based games, you said you like to see things which you missed the first time. Well if you missed them the first time, then they weren't that important, were they? Hmm as I write that I think they're in there because of the very fact that some gamers will come looking for them. So is that single reason enough to play the game over and over again? I dont think many people would do that. For example, in the game Prince of Persia:Warrior Within, there are collectable art chests and life upgrades. Most players go after the life upgrades because collecting all of them offers a different ending. But very few players try to collect all art chests because they offer nothing but some (stunning) art works, which are just collector's items. So most players wont play the game just for things like these. There has to be something new and appealing to the gamers, only then will they like to come back again and again

yes paypal has really made a lot of people angry with this sudden decision of theirs. It's really annoying that they're not providing a good reason for it, and the worst part is that it looks like they're challenging their customers, "Without us, where will you dare to go?" And in reality, they do have a good point. Most sites and companies accept only paypal and not any other payment processor because they have to create an account and get it verified, etc just for the sake of a few people. When I asked my friend/employer if he would create an alertpay account to send me the money, he blankly said NO, because no one else asks him for alertpay, and he didn't want to go through the whole process of creating an account just for me. So like it or not, we're stuck with paypal For people like me, once the bank transfers are allowed again in a few days, things will become normal. But for the people who have to send payments are in a tight position, as they have to wait for some months before they're able to get their accounts working normally again. Well let's just see where this game goes now. This is really a bad move from Paypal's side. A rebellion could see it lose thousands of loyal customers.

Yes simply believing that one's system is secure is mere foolishness, but it doesn't necessarily mean that one should always be scared of getting hacked, does it? If we use proper security measures then we need not be fearful about what is about to happen in the near future. If we keep on getting scared then we might not be able to do anything fun on the internet or on the computer itself!

Well I always wondered why someone would like to play the same game over and over with different difficulty levels. The game is thrilling only when it is played for the first time. That is when the twists and surprises really connect to us. So the next time we play the same game again with a different difficulty setting, we won't enjoy it that much because we already know what's going to happen. The same kind of thing happens when we watch a movie for the second time - we know what's going to happen so we are not surprised, but we are at least excited to see the same thing again. In a videogame, while it may seem fun to see the same thing again, it won't be very much fun to play the same thing again, as it involves a lot of effort, and the majority of the gamers are lazy So your idea of new content each time is very good, but as you yourself said, most companies would definitely not risk trying this. The gaming industry is already reeling with the effects of the recession and piracy. So they wouldn't want to take any risks at this point of time. They would rather tread the same old route and play it safe. Let's hope that someday the game producers take heed of suggestions like this one and introduce some very good changes in the games we play

Well if you talk about only Hollywood, then yes, there's been no real competition for Avatar so far, at least not something that's being talked about internationally! And as for the rest of the world, well there have been some good movies providing competition to Avatar and it's really amazing that it has come out well even against the local movies. Of course there are a set of people who watch only local movies in theaters and watch pirated copies of English movies, but still the rest of the international audience has widely accepted Avatar and that is where it's biggest success lies. But the funny thing is that if it were not for the graphics, then this movie might have been a failure with the international audience. It might have done average in Hollywood because it's script is average, and without the graphics, it wouldn't stand a chance in the rest of the world. Oh well, it's over now and the movie's been crowned as the highest grosser, so let's slowly stop talking about it, okay?

I got such type of spam on other IPB forums as well - well just two of them to be precise. Some of them were just advertising but some of them were scareware and were designed cleverly, putting an authentic looking link which automatically generates the user name and includes that in the link. If an unknown member were to think that it is really from the forum admins and clicked that link, then god only knows what kind of disaster would take place on that user's computer! Sheesh if only these spammers used their intellect for something useful instead of cheap tricks like these

The update from the paypal blog says that they are still 'fixing' the issue and the only good part is that they will be allowing withdrawals to bank accounts 'in a few days'. For lifting the block on sending payments, though, it will take months! So it's a mixed news for most people, but at least the bank withdrawal facility is good to have back, and if I'm not wrong only personal payments are blocked, and I received a payment of over $100 without any problem from the US. So let's just hope it all gets settled in a few more days, and not months/years!

I wanted to write this in the free antivirus thread below, but it was closed so I'm starting a new one. Some of my friends have started using Microsoft Security Essentials on their systems recently. They like it because it offers all the features of paid AV software for free. They've told me to use it too, but I'm a little sceptical about the whole thing. My argument is, Microsoft has been unsuccessful in keeping out viruses from Windows all these years; then how can it develop a software which can secure Windows?! Isn't it just another easy way for crackers to get through?Or am I getting all this wrong, and is MS Security Essentials a really good tool? I'm in a state of confusion here so I hope some of you will be able to help me. Thanks.

wow this sure looks promising - my favourite part is the video embedding part - now there's no need to wait to install all those plugins on new systems anymore. Hmm I think this feature will help in the sale of IPads too - anyway it's not time to talk about that now. HTML5 is surely an awesome phase in the advancement of the internet and I'm positive that it will become a major milestone soon.

I've been wanting to replace my 8-year old PC with a brand new Desktop computer which is future proof. But in the time that I need to get my config ready, I decided to try using a netbook, just for fun. So I started researching into the netbook market and found that the users are spoilt for choice - there are a lot of models available and a lot of them have similar configs, sizes and everything else. So I simply went to CNET, and looked at the top 5 list of netbooks, and after Apple Macbook and one other expensive one, I finally laid eyes upon the HP Mini 311, which was sitting at number 3 on the list. The best thing I liked about this netbook in print was that it has NVidia ION graphics instead of integrated graphics, and it also has an in-built HDMI port for connecting to the TV. Since I like watching movies a lot I think this one suits me very much. But then I moved onto the cons list and there were some reviews saying that the boot time was slow and that the fan made too much noise. While I don't have any problems with boot time, I certainly don't want a noisy netbook, especially after living with a noisy PC for 8 years! I tried looking at some other netbooks but they lacked the graphics and HDMI support (they had either one but not both) and also they were a notch too expensive. So I'm in a dielema on whether or not to go for this netbook. Can someone experienced help me out in this matter please? This is the first computer (desktop/notebook) that I'm buying in 8 years so I don't want anything to go wrong!!!

Oh this is some bad news for me as I'm expecting some payment from the US soon. Why would they take such a sudden decision anyway? I read somewhere that a large number of fraud cases are surfacing from India which is the reason why paypal took this harsh decision The worst part is that they've not mentioned how long they plan to do this and when they will relieve their harassed customers

Farmville is just a timepass-sort of game and can be bearable when you get too bored. And it's a great way of catching up with long lost friends who simply have no time to write a message but have lot of time to play the game I keep in touch with some friends through farmville only. They are never tired to play the game even if they dont have time for socializing, so just knowing that you are in contact with them is a good feeling.It's kind of funny - at first friends had no time to meet each other in real life but they had time to meet on Facebook and similar sites. But now they have evolved and don't have time on facebook also. They just stay in touch through media like farmville. Hmm wonder what they'll do next

To put it in geek terms, a shell is the interface between the user and...hmm whatever the user is connecting to. It's just a place to dish out your commands, and you will never get any graphical interface within a shell. But programmers say shell access gives you greater control and power to do whatever you want. I prefer the graphical interface, even though its functionality is limited. And I think shell was first used in UNIX if I'm not wrong?

Lol this is so funny - how could they even not encrypt their database records?! In this day and age?!! Half of the people use the same set of passwords for each and every site they register to so unless the hacker is stupid he can get access to almost every aspect of the victim's online presence. While keeping weak passwords is the victim's fault, getting hacked isn't entirely the person's fault. In this case, clearly the website and the people who maintain it are to blame - they may have cost losses to hundreds of people in terms of privacy, money, etc

@SM: I think even if it weren't for IMAX, the movie would have surely gotten the top spot, only a little later. It's true that most people like the graphics more than the story, but even on a normal screen it would have appealed to a lot of people and thus it would have raked in a whole lot of money anyway. The few who were disgruntled with the story might also have had a few moments of fun with the graphics so everyone's happy