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  1. M

    Making use of warranty vs. privacy

    For businesses, if they worry about sensitive data on their drives, they usually have a contract with the OEM that allows them to keep failed drives (and still get the replacement) rather than send them back for RMA. Even so, the major OEMs and drive manufacturers aren't going to do anything...
  2. M

    Cat6 cable and hardware?

    I agree with you completely here. You do not want to be troubleshooting in-wall/attic cabling. If it doesn't work, you can try a new end - no go, then guess what? You're now re-running a cable, which is way more than a 5 minute job. With a patch panel, you toss a new $0.89 patch cable in...
  3. M

    Seagate & WD woes because of Thailand flooding.

    Considering I bought some 1.5TB drives for $50 each a couple months ago, seeing 1TB for $130 is no small jump. Give it a couple of months and supply is going to thin out significantly as OEMs scramble to secure enough drives to sell systems.
  4. M

    HTPC Plan - Cutting the Cord - Looking for hardware advice

    If you can find a 2TB drive for under $100, and think you'll need it anytime in the next 6 months, BUY IT NOW. There will not be black Friday deals on hard drives that bring them anywhere close to what prices were two weeks ago. A quick perusal of Google shopping for "2tb hard drive" shows...
  5. M

    HDD "crisis" and speculation

    You're correct that it is a natural disaster, and that the impact on those people is tragic. This does not, however, negate that, as it relates to computers, this is a crisis. As it relates to global economic recovery, still shaky from 2008, this could cascade into a crisis. The world is...
  6. M

    Seagate & WD woes because of Thailand flooding.

    SSD demand will jump due to the lack of supply of mechanical drives, especially in corporate laptops. The OEMs are going to have the bulk of whatever supply is left, and are going to push SSDs in order to secure sales of systems once that supply runs low. That means increased prices and lower...
  7. M

    Negative progress in monitor technology?

    Sure there have been significant improvements in display technology. In fact, pretty much every meaningful spec has improved significantly. Compare a modern 20" LCD to a 20" CRT from a decade ago, side by side, and tell me which one looks better. Then look at the price tags, even unadjusted...
  8. M

    Someone please tell me...

    Memory typically runs at 1.5V, so to use 15W per 1GB, a 4GB DIMM would be pulling 40 amps. There is no way that much current is going to be flowing through those tiny traces on a motherboard. http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KHX1600C9D3_4G.pdf According to this datasheet, that 4GB DIMM...
  9. M

    SANs

    Think of a SAN as one really big computer made up of several smaller computers. Instead of a SATA cable running between the controller card ("Head Node") and the hard drive ("Storage Node"), it's all interlinked via network cables. This allows for massive scalability, while providing greater...
  10. M

    Computer desk + chair problem

    For the best ergonomics and reduction of eye-strain, your eyes should be perpendicular from from the top of the screen. I have a 4-monitor setup stacked 2+2. The bottom 2 are my personal system, the top two are for my work system (hooray for telecommuting). When using the top two, they are...
  11. M

    Gigabit NICs - PCI or PCI-E? And is Intel worth price premium?

    Intel NICs are superior to Realtek and Atheros. Whether or not the price difference is worth it is something only you can answer. My two desktops both have Realtek integrated NICs, and I've never had any problems getting 70-80MB/s transfers, but the HTPC I built a few weeks ago has an Atheros...
  12. M

    RAID enclosure hit the floor, 1/2 drives dead, how to proceed?

    Good grief! I'd call UPS and file a complaint - that's horrible!
  13. M

    HTPC: AMD vs. Intel

    A Core i-series proc isn't really even all that necessary. You can get a Pentium-series Sandy Bridge for significantly less, and it will do just as well playing back video, while still giving you the option of adding a discrete card later on. I found a great deal on a motherboard w/ Pentium...
  14. M

    Will a mechanic easily find flood damage?

    Rust on a five year old car? I don't think you should be seeing any rust (of course, I'm no expert).
  15. M

    Post a picture that's worth a 1000 words

    The text also clearly states that the photographer killed himself just a few months later because of the awful photographs he had taken. Give the man a rest, he felt such anguish that he had to end his life.
  16. M

    What's the next fuel-saver vehicle coming down the line?

    The Volt is so far removed from current hybrid technology it shouldn't even be called one. At no time does it operate off the gasoline engine. It is driven purely by the electric motor, which draws from the batteries. Only when those batteries are low does the gasoline (or diesel) engine kick...
  17. M

    Woman Calls Orem Police To Free Her From Her Locked Car

    Don't the police have a duty to protect? Doesn't allowing her to live and operate a motor vehicle constitute a failure to protect everyone else?
  18. M

    Doom 4 - The Offical Thread of Duct Tape & Flashlights

    "Doom is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth," said id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead. So I'm presuming then that this will be made in the vein of Doom II: Hell On Earth...
  19. M

    EA copy protection taken to new heights

    The truly amazing thing is that the recording industry, for all their ineptitude in regards to suing their customers into oblivion, has actually wised up in regards DRM. Why the hell can't other industries recognize DRM does nothing but anger the real, paying customers. Someone who is going to...
  20. M

    The post your workstation pictures thread!

    Thanks! The keyboard is a ZBoard. I was kinda skeptical about it when I got it, but I needed a new keyboard ASAP, and having some of the special buttons for WoW was nice. It's actually pretty well built and does the job well.
  21. M

    The post your workstation pictures thread!

    Here's mine. Pic 1 Pic 2
  22. M

    How do you justify (ethically) consuming animals and animal products when you don't need to?

    Ethics have nothing to do with it. I justify it because I'm at the top of the food chain, and eating meat is a healthy and natural part of a balanced diet. Going vegan is extremely dangerous if you're not very careful. Vegetarian is fine, but I'd personally never do it. I think most of us...
  23. M

    7:29 Nurburgring lap time for GTR

    Can't wait for official times for the ZR-1. Hats off to Nissan for this. It's great that there are an increasing number of reasonably* priced supercars spanking the bejesus out of the high-end exotics. *reasonable being defined as under $100k.
  24. M

    Some advanced microprocessors have hidden backdoor "kill" switches apparently.

    Wasn't the Syrian radar system developed mostly by the Russians? The likelihood of an Israeli chip finding its way to one of their radar computers seems very slim to me. More likely there was some sort of conventional radar jamming utilized. Perhaps something very, very new. But I find the...
  25. M

    Blu-ray standalone players remain so low....

    Standalone is irrelevant. The absolute best BR player available right now is the PS3, and many of the people who are buying BR players are doing their research, thus not wasting money on standalone units. When prices drop closer to $200, it will help, but I think the main thing holding back...
  26. M

    What has been you favorite car(s)?

    Tough call. My 93 Mercury Capri XR2 holds a special place in my heart for being my first car, and also because of the fun of it being a convertible. My 89 Audi 100 was incredibly fun in the snow, but it refused to hold an alternator belt for more than a couple days by the end, and suffered...
  27. M

    It was on this day eleven years ago that PC Gamer revealed 3D Realms' plans for Duke Nukem Forever.

    That's exactly my plan. I'm buying it based on the utter impossibility of its existence. That and it will likely be my last purchase before the planet explodes.
  28. M

    Is it ever a good idea to use a 401K to help pay for a house?

    I read it as $1075 after taxes, which puts him at roughly $38k/yr. $112k house is just about right.
  29. M

    Feds: 36 mpg for cars by 2015

    You mean like how the 09 Chevy Cobalt and 08 Ford Focus get 35mpg highway? Cobalt, Focus, Civic, Corolla These are all compact cars, yet the best any achieve is 28/37. That alone would still fail to meet the 35mpg average stipulated here. Tundra, F-150, Silverado In full-size trucks...
  30. M

    is enviornmentalism the new patriotism?

    You mean so well that they've had to almost entirely shut down Beijing's industry and automotive transportation in order to clean up the air enough that Olympic athletes are willing to risk breathing it? You know, all of the people here arguing against taking measures to reduce global warming...
  31. M

    Will we develop anything faster than Radio Waves?

    Just make sure that whatever we're sending is bad news.
  32. M

    Quiet Boot Drive

    The Green Power drives are great - quiet and reasonably fast. They're not going to be nearly as fast as a Raptor or SSD, but for me at least, they hit the perfect balance between performance and noise (and lower energy consumption!)
  33. M

    ATI RV770 in May??!!!

    I just hope something new comes out from either ATI or NVIDIA this year that is substantially faster than my overclocked 8800GTX. Aside from dual-GPU solutions, there doesn't seem to be a big difference in performance - at least, not enough to justify a new card. It's so strange that a couple...
  34. M

    What would you do with $100 billion?

    Oh, I'd do the usual - private island, every supercar I could think of, give some to charity, leave a sold trust fund for my family and future generations, etc etc. But the main spending would be on a moon base.
  35. M

    Windows 7 will be released

    Windows 7 is supposed to be a completely new Windows from the ground up, not one built off Vista or XP. All the information thus far has pointed to it only even having backwards compatibility via virtual machine. Development has been ongoing for awhile, and so I'd be surprised if it wasn't out...
  36. M

    Interesting E-Bay/Paypal problem

    You seem to be upset that two people failed to understand your meaning. Yet if two different people came to the same (apparently incorrect) conclusion from reading your posts, maybe it is your ability to communicate clearly that is in question here. You state that you are selling a laptop at...
  37. M

    Interesting E-Bay/Paypal problem

    Uh, sorry, but I have to ask why your reply was so harsh? You most certainly did NOT state that "every winning bid for a laptop I've sold has been bogus." You stated, and I quote, "This happens literally every single time." There was no other part to your sentence, and nowhere in that...
  38. M

    Help me choose: '00 Audi A6 2.7TQ or '00 Audi A4 1.8TQM

    Personally, I'd be weary of any used turbo car with 100k miles on it unless it had full documentation from the original owner. Especially one that is as expensive to repair as an Audi.
  39. M

    Thoughts on extended warranty for used car purchase?

    After my experiences, I will never buy a 3rd party warranty again. If it's not backed by the factory, forget it. I had a 36k mile aftermarket warranty on my Buick. 20k miles into it, the transmission failed. They refused to cover it because I couldn't produce receipts from oil changes...
  40. M

    Terminal technology

    It's not just resolution - it's what you do with those pixels. We're not yet to the point of being able to render real-time images that are indistinguishable from real life. It's the same as the "supertweeters" of decades past that could go ridiculously high -- the technology didn't stop...