283 replies to this topic

[monogodo]

Not a problem.

Also, if your laptop happens to have a Firewire port, try to get an external drive with a Firewire connection. The transfer speeds between the computer and external drive will be faster via Firewire than via USB. If you don't have Firewire, don't worry about it.

[jeckles]

Hey, Tech Geek!

This morning, I had a popup from the tray on the taskbar that said that Windows Updates had been downloaded and were ready to be installed. I clicked it, and selected the Custom install option, so that I could see what I was installing. It was XP Service Pack 3. I wasn't aware that MS had released SP3.

Should I go ahead and install it, or should I ignore it for now?

SP3 is only available as a Release Candidate (beta) version... it would not have been delivered as part of the Windows Automatic Updates.

[monogodo]

It downloaded automatically to the computer running XP - Media Center Edition. It keeps wanting me to install it.

The machine running XP Home Edition did not receive it.

So would your recommendation be that I not install it?

[jeckles]

It downloaded automatically to the computer running XP - Media Center Edition. It keeps wanting me to install it.

The machine running XP Home Edition did not receive it.

So would your recommendation be that I not install it?

I'm saying that Microsoft did not push that to your computer. "Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005" is the most recent patch level for Media Center. I would be very suspicious of that "update" and run a virus scan on your computer. I have never heard of beta level patches or SPs being pushed through the WAU infrastructure.

There is no reference to SP3 on the Media Center update page:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ediacenter.mspx

and no mention that Media Center should be a t SP3 on the Service Pack roadmap:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/servicepacks.mspx.

I could be missing something, I don't deal with any Media Center machines, but this seems fishy to me.

Edited by jeckles, 05 February 2008 - 02:53 PM.

[thegrunter]

I'm really an idiot. I am unable to form simple sentences. I have done this before, but my brain hasn't worked right the last week or so (probably longer), I am trying to download songs and put them in Itunes. I downloaded an album for free, it came with liner notes and front and back cover. It came in a zip drive. So I unzipped it, and could put the songs into Itunes, that was easy enough. But, because Itunes is probably the worst music program, I am unable to put in the album artwork (and I am anal like that, I like to see the covers). It says that album artwork is not modifiable. So how do I get this album with artwork to unzip into Itunes? I almost paid like 60 bucks for this one stupid song, but luckily the musician decided to release all of his out of print EPs for free.
And then, if a record company releases an MP3 of an advance song, shouldn't that be downloadable too? What am I doing wrong, aside from being crazy?

[monogodo]

have you tried to drag the album artwork file onto iTunes?

[Dave]

If I needed to build a laptop...
1. where's the best place to get the parts?
2. would i be able to build one that's cheaper than a Dell?

(I need a laptop that can run a local Apache server, do some word processing, little internet, that kinda crap)

[monogodo]

While I've never built my own PC, let alone a laptop, I figure the concept is similar. I went to google and did a search for build your own laptop. There were lots of good results.

From what I've read, it's very difficult to build one yourself cheaper than it is to buy a pre-built one. Dell offers an Inspiron with Vista Home Basic for $499. They're out of stock on their ASUS that comes with Linux for $455.

Edited by monogodo, 03 March 2008 - 12:24 AM.

[Meathe]

If I needed to build a laptop...
1. where's the best place to get the parts?
2. would i be able to build one that's cheaper than a Dell?

(I need a laptop that can run a local Apache server, do some word processing, little internet, that kinda crap)

1. You can find them, google 'whitebox laptop' or barebook (though that's probably going to get you some seedy links too). They're typically motherboard, screen and battery. Supply your own processor, optical drive, HDD & memory. I know Aopen made one a while back.

2. Not really. The wishlist of software there is pretty light in terms of processing power, and you can get a Dell 15.1" laptop with 512mb and an 80gbHDD for under $400. Whilst you might want to bump up the memory, you probably couldn't get a whitebox, processor, memory & HDD for less.

[monogodo]

Hey, Tech Geek!

This morning, I had a popup from the tray on the taskbar that said that Windows Updates had been downloaded and were ready to be installed. I clicked it, and selected the Custom install option, so that I could see what I was installing. It was XP Service Pack 3. I wasn't aware that MS had released SP3.

Should I go ahead and install it, or should I ignore it for now?

I'm an idiot. A couple of weeks after I posted the above question, I got the same Update notice on the other computer. I never did get it on the XP Pro machine at work. I simply kept ignoring it. Last week, I clicked on the balloon to check what updates were there. I read through the list, and discovered that the update wasn't Windows XP Service Pack 3. It was Office XP Service Pack 3. That's why it didn't initially appear on the other computer, and never appeared on the work computer. It only appeared after I'd installed Office XP, and we run the newest version of Office at work.

So I went ahead and installed it and everything is fine.

[Chad]

Didn't J say that there was an SP3 in the works though?

I remember after I read I went searching for an SP3 myself. Even though I wouldn't have the foggiest idea to do to beta test any kind of software, I always love trying new shit. Except Firefox 3. I tried that and it fucked up all my addons.

[monogodo]

Yes, there is a Windows XP SP3 that's being worked on. I've read about it, but it's not available yet, as far as I know.

And yeah, I learned the hard way to not install any pre-release version of Firefox.

I was able to get in on the Alpha test of the IM software Digsby. I suggested some improvements and found some flaws. I even exchanged emails with the developer while trying to help fix the flaws. It was kinda fun.

Edited by monogodo, 13 April 2008 - 04:27 PM.

[Chad]

Have you ever heard of or tried Pidgin? That's what I use and I can't say enough good things about it.

And back to the Firefox thing, I remember it was you (I think, if I'm wrong disregard all this) who made a thread or a post about Firefox 2 beta, and I tried it and used that until it was officially released. Mainly for the spell check feature. 3 though, again I am very ignorant to the process of beta testing anything so I should have left well enough alone on that one.

[monogodo]

Have you ever heard of or tried Pidgin? That's what I use and I can't say enough good things about it.

Nope. I've used Trillian and Trillian Pro for years. I loved the fact that it had all of my accounts in one place. What sucked was that more of my friends are using GTalk, which Trillian doesn't support yet. Another nice thing about Digsby is that it also incorporates email and social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. I actually have it checking two different Gmail accounts, and used to have it check my ISP email (until I canceled the account).

And back to the Firefox thing, I remember it was you (I think, if I'm wrong disregard all this) who made a thread or a post about Firefox 2 beta, and I tried it and used that until it was officially released. Mainly for the spell check feature. 3 though, again I am very ignorant to the process of beta testing anything so I should have left well enough alone on that one.

Yeah, it was probably me who posted about the Firefox 2 Beta. I also remember having a bitch of a time getting the release version of FF2 installed when it was finally out.

Because of that, I'm staying away from Firefox 3 until it's officially released.

[realflux2]

Has anyone ever tried Sea Monkey?

[Chad]

Has anyone ever tried Sea Monkey?

I tried it with a Linux distro once. I was not a fan of it at all.

[monogodo]

Networking question:

Our new place is pre-wired with four CAT-5 jacks, 3 in the living area, 1 in the bedroom. The jacks also have cable outlets in the panel.

I know I can have the TV Cable box plugged into one cable outlet, and the Cable Modem plugged into a different one, closer to the computers.

Can I then have one of the outputs from the router plugged into the network jack closest to it, and then plug the TiVo (for example) into the network jack closest to it, and have it work?

[Meathe]

Networking question:

Our new place is pre-wired with four CAT-5 jacks, 3 in the living area, 1 in the bedroom. The jacks also have cable outlets in the panel.

I know I can have the TV Cable box plugged into one cable outlet, and the Cable Modem plugged into a different one, closer to the computers.

Can I then have one of the outputs from the router plugged into the network jack closest to it, and then plug the TiVo (for example) into the network jack closest to it, and have it work?

The ports are likely to all meet up in a hub somewhere. As long as your cable box is happily running DHCP (haven't seen one that doesn't), you shouold be good to plug everything in and go.

[monogodo]

The ports are likely to all meet up in a hub somewhere. As long as your cable box is happily running DHCP (haven't seen one that doesn't), you shouold be good to plug everything in and go.

They all meet up at some sort of juncture board thingy in the closet. I've got a picture of it on my phone that I haven't pulled off and uploaded. I'll try to get it online soon.

[monogodo]

I've got another question for the Tech Geek(s):

I hate my old computer, as it's slow and has all kinds of problems. I see in the fliers I get from MicroCenter that they have a CPU/motherboard/1GBRAM bundle for about $90. What I'm considering doing is picking up one of those bundles & swapping out the CPU/mobo/RAM in my old computer for the new bundle. My question has to do with the OS. Since the OS resides on the HD, what problems might I encounter by simply swapping out the parts? Or would I have to do a completely new installation?