Search results

  1. H

    Obscenely slow notebook hard drive

    Automatic fix worked just fine. Quick and easy solution to a problem that's been bugging me for two weeks. On the bright side, I've got upgraded RAM and more recent drivers, as unnecessary as it may've been....
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    Obscenely slow notebook hard drive

    Bang. There we go. Read speeds went from 2.8MB/s to 22.4, an eight-fold increase, and burst transfers went from 3 to 89MB/s; CPU utilization went from ~95% during reads to ~4%. Better yet, this fix did the same for my DVD drive, which was to be my next target because I had trouble playing...
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    Obscenely slow notebook hard drive

    After moving cross-country, I'm stuck for awhile with my laptop as my primary computer -- which means I've finally realized how damn slow it is. It's an older Averatec 3225, with a Barton-mobile 2000+, 1GB (single-channel), integrated S3 Unichrome graphics, and a 40GB IBM/Hitachi Travelstar...
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    Okay G80/R600, but when's the next quantum leap in video?

    Sooner or later they're going to hit the point of real-time photorealistic animation, and then devs will go back to concentrating on gameplay rather than graphics. And I don't think that day is too far, relatively speaking. In 15 years we went from 4D Boxing to Oblivion. I wouldn't be surprised...
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    Transformers Optimus Prime 20th Anniversary Figure, one big heavy mother! The non-molested 1980's version of Prime!

    I remember my parents arguing over this thing when I was about 8 years old because my dad spent three pre-Christmas hours standing in line to buy one. I also remember thinking, at the time, that it was worth it. Ah, the good old days, when toymakers knew about this material called "metal".
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    Comcastic Billing Price Hikes

    Yeah, that'll be the day. The FCC is moving towards inter-technology competition (i.e. cable vs. DSL vs. BPL vs. wireless), not intra-tech competition.
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    Has a woman ever hit you?

    I got cracked in the face by an old girlfriend, but instead of responding in kind I just turned my head back towards her and laughed in her face. For some reason she found that infuriating.
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    HOTHOTTT Seagate 400GB 16MB SATA2 for $99.99 AC and FREE Ship @ Newegg

    I had heard the 7200.10 series was annoyingly loud. Has that been fixed?
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    BACKYARD SPA $699.99 Harbor Freight

    Nothing says "classy" like an inflatable hot tub. I'm putting mine right back of my trailer!
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    Free Pledge of Allegiance Bumper Sticker

    Yep. Since you're all about traditional American values, why not go back to the Pledge as it was originally written in 1892? You know, the one written by a socialist trying to encourage obedience to the state? The one that didn't mention God? If you prefer it the modern (post-1954) way, fine...
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    Kickass SATA DVD-RW -*OUT OF STOCK*-

    That...would be hilarious.
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    Back to school coupons at BB (30% off) Cracked!

    They still honoring the coupons?
  13. H

    Simple friggin' task for Google Desktop Search

    All I'm trying to do is get Google Desktop to generate a list of the photographs I've taken with my digital camera. Shouldn't be hard -- each and every filename begins with the letters "DSCF", followed by four numbers. All are JPGs. So I figured the query "DSCF*" or "DSCF*.JPG" would do the...
  14. H

    "Thank you, Israel"

    I say we make use of a couple of bombs that are scheduled for decommission, turn the whole region into a glass parking lot, and then repopulate it with sane people. Maybe people from Wisconsin.
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    "Thank you, Israel"

    Yep. Hundreds or thousands. I figured with an estimated death toll of around 400, the number injured has to be a couple times that number.
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    "Thank you, Israel"

    I don't think anyone's got any sympathy for Hezbollah here; that's not the point at all. What sympathy there is is directed towards the hundreds or thousands of civilians killed or wounded.
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    "Thank you, Israel"

    Er....Ted Kacynski? Eric Robert Rudolph? Timoth McVeigh? Abortion clinic bombers? The Provisional IRA? ETA? Aum Shinrikyo? Shining Path? FARC? Baruch Goldstein? Makhteret? Muslims make up the vast majority of terrorists, sure, and they've got their own uniquely psychotic brand of terrorism...
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    Back in Stock: Connect3D X1900XT, $289.99

    Jump on them before they're gone again. -hc-
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    Buying $550 headphones

    ...says the guy with the tricked-out dual-core, dual-LCD, SLI rig. I dropped $200 on a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros (I know, I know, open cans are better, but I live in a tiny Manhattan apartment and the wife just loves the sound of AK47s in the morning) and I couldn't be happier about it...
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    europe sucks

    I used to think the US was the center of lowbrow culture, but I've since realized that we're actually just the source. My first suspicions were aroused when I saw a giant poster in Paris for a Dennis Rodman movie. I mean, FFS, nobody in the US watched that movie. NOBODY. And yet there it was...
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    Seagate 7200.10 320GB Serial ATA II HDD + Ritek 25 DVDs for $100 shipped

    As far as your system knows this thing is just like any other SATA drive. That's the joy of industry standards.
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    Sprint Class Action Settlement, claim must be postmarked July 12th

    Ugh. These are the sort of "coupon settlements" that really piss other lawyers off. Apparently there's just this subclass of bastards who make millions doing this, hurting their "clients" and undermining the entire judicial system. OT: As irritating as these guys are, though, they're not...
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    NSA secretly collecting phone records of tens of millions of citizens and businesses with help of phone companies

    Ah, the old "why do you care if you're not doing anything wrong" defense. That argument's facially ridiculous, but persistent monitoring has deeper societal implications as well:
  24. H

    Digitizing decades-old 8mm films?

    Thanks, that Home Movie Depot thing looks workable. Going to be weird to see this stuff after thirty years....
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    Digitizing decades-old 8mm films?

    I discovered a trove of old 8mm film reels in my folks' attic, going as far back as their wedding in the 60s. We haven't watched any of them since I was a kid; after the VCR came out, I guess it seemed too much of a hassle to pull out the projector and screen. Anyway, I figure it'd be a great...
  26. H

    Federal judge rules "intelligent design"... UPDATE

    Walking by the Methodist church here on 11th and 5th in Manhattan I noticed a sign reading, "Jesus died to take away your sins, not your brain." Bravo.
  27. H

    Cold as a well diggers backside.

    Actually kinda hot. Wouldn't be if the chips were widely available, but they're not; and those you can find tend to cost more. And these Optys are worth the price, especially the 146s, which seem to clock markedly better. I'm running a CAB2E 0540, 2.95GHz @ 1.45v.
  28. H

    sargento cheese blows

    Holy !#$#. Totally OT, but I can't restrain my wonderment. Lemme see here: Joined five years and nine months ago, roughly 2100 days. 57643 posts/2100 = 27.45 posts per day. That can't be right...can it? My worldview is being challenged by that postcount.
  29. H

    Just recieved a used Black Ice Extreme 2 Radiator..

    I think you need to give it a thorough cleaning and a coat of paint, but if it doesn't leak it should perform like new. Next time ask for a picture!
  30. H

    Best way to nerf the Internet?

    Firefox is a given, I'll set him up with that. How limited is a limited user account on WinXP? Will it allow, say, Zonealarm upgrades? Installing FF plugins? -hc-
  31. H

    Best way to nerf the Internet?

    My grandfather's 6-month-old PC is so ridden with spyware/malware/you-name-it that his screen resolution randomly changes. A Spybot scan turned up a veritable "who's who" of applications whose creators are going to hell. He's fascinated by this whole internet thing, but fascinated the way a...
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    Inverting Mobo in a CM Stacker

    Thanks for the links! I didn't even know CM had a forum -- should've been the first place I looked. Turns out a few other people have had the same problem as me; apparently there are a few slightly different revisions of my case, and I happen to have the one where you can't just flip the frame...
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    Spreading thermal compound or not?

    The dot method. Prevents air bubbles, and gets the only part of the IHS that matters -- the part over the core. As long as you've got good heat transfer between the area of the IHS directly over the chip (and maybe a bit around it) you're fine, which is why many waterblocks don't even cover the...
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    Inverting Mobo in a CM Stacker

    I was hoping to avoid the dremel because the obstructing piece is structural, and I hate weakening a case if I don't have to. Might have to bite the bullet on this one, though. And the original Stacker came with the parts for the BTX conversion, but flipping an ATX board leaves the PCI slots...
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    Inverting Mobo in a CM Stacker

    I figure my Stacker (the gigantic original model) will work best in an inverted-motherboard arrangement, but can't figure out how to reconfigure the damn thing. I've got a large rad on the floor of the case, so flipping things would put the RAM and voltage regs right into the radiator airflow...
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    Playstation 2 class action suit

    Ugh. What, do you expect a firm to spend hundreds or thousands of hours litigating a case in exchange for a free copy of Metal Gear Solid? It says right there that the court will decide compensation, so it's not like the lawyers assign their own fees. That said, if we get any deeper into this...
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    Opteron 146 Socket 939 $160+shipping (OOS ATM, but can Pre Order) at TankGuys

    The worst opties are doing more than 2.5-2.6, and with the 1MB cache that beats out the Venice by a good margin. -hc-
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    Delphi LOWERS offer to UAW to $9/hr!

    And the GOP believes that everyone is accountable unless you're in Congress. -hc-