Quite the clever spam message I just received. I wonder how many would fall for this one. — Dear Email User, This message was sent automatically by a program on Email which periodically checks the size of inboxes, where new messages are received. The program is run weekly to ensure no one’s inbox grows too large. If your [...]
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I have a new computer. My dad and I switched machines, since his was way overpowered compared to mine. It’s an Asus Terminator 2 Deluxe, packing an Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz with hyperthreading, 2GB of DDR-RAM, and my own GeForce 6200 128MB DDR-RAM.

My dad had been running Windows 2000 on it for years now (with 512MB of RAM and the on-board video cad), and it was clear Windows 2000 was holding the machine down. It absolutely FLIES with Vista on it, in any case.

I’m quite happy. It’s also a lot quieter than I’m used to. Sassy.

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It’s been a while, but I’m actually waiting for two games to come out this year.

Spore.

And Fallout III.

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I think my 6-7 year-old x86 finally kicked the bucket. A few years ago, I was able to extend his life thanks to the ide=nodma boot parameter, which somehow allowed the faulty IDE controller to still install Linux, albeit grudgingly. Windows never complained, it just ran and chugged along fine.

Until a few days ago. I started getting blue screens (page faults in non-paged area, to be precise) completely at random, not linked to any specific action or application. I didn’t add any new drivers or applications to the system - in fact, I am very strict about what goes and doesn’t go on my Windows installations. I install a selective set of applications, applications I’ve been using for ages, that I require for OSNews, but mostly for Focus Shift; my scanner only works properly on Windows, and Paint.NET only runs on Windows reliably.

I did a thorough RAM check (I let it run 23 times), but it didn’t find anything. The drive in the machine is brand new. Those are the two key elements that can cause page faults in the non-paged area. Just to be certain, I’m running memtest86 right now. My guess, however, is that the IDE controller finally decided to end it FOR REALSIES this time, seeing the ide=nodma trick doesn’t work anymore either.

So, I’m kind of in trouble now. I already lost an OSNews story and a Focus Shift comic to the page fault errors, and I’m not keen on continuing to run through this minefield. I guess this means postponing Focus Shift (again) for a while until I come up with a solution.

I love that machine like a member of the family, for god’s sake. I have spent an insane amount of money on the thing in total, and I hate to see it go down like this.

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256 Bit should be enough for everyone.

Literally.

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I’ve fallen in love. With the Eee PC 900. That made me think.

An Eee 900 configured with a Fiona background.

That’s eternal happiness RIGHT THERE.

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Seriously, keyboard people? Want free advice?

Make keys that read ‘ok’, ‘cool’, and ‘OMFG UR SUCH AN IDIOT!!!!’.

Would make IRC so much easier.

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I’d like to make a plea, emanating from deep within my heart.

There is no web 2.0. There is no web 3.0. These imply there has been a web 1.0, and that 2.0 is incompatible with 1.0. This is nonsensical. Proponents of the meaningless term say that ‘web 2.0′ is all about user supplied content, which in itself shows a complete lack of understanding of what the web actually is. The web has always been about user supplied content.

You know, a printing press for everyone, and more of that dreamy nonsense.

The web, as it is today, is no different from the web ten years ago. The users of the web supply it with content, and the content suppliers of the web also use it. That has been the damn essence of the web from day one - even The Man himself agrees with me. Blogs, wikis, those things supposedly web 2.0 are just new means to the same old web’s end: publish information. They make it easier. They do not change it, nor do they add any new elements. They just allowed people without experience with html/etc. to publish on the web. That’s all.

Teh internets is still the same. They just use more gradients now.

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The best email ever sent, in the history of email. Ever and ever. No one will ever top this.

Would everyone in the room who maintain a complete, working operating system please raise their hands?

would everyone who is forced to co-opt or recommend other people’s operating systems… because their own is unfinished… please go away and write some code or something?

thank you very much

If you don’t get any of this, don’t worry, it means you have a life.

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Can anybody tell me what the hell is wrong with Firefox lately? It crashes a few times a day, at completely random websites. In addition, my scrollbars are all black.

I’m running 2.0.0.9, but the problems started on previous versions. Is Firefox’ quality control lacking or something?

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Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is reportedly “very interested” in a world where people share their WiFi connections in return for free access to other wireless hotspots in their communities, and recently met with the founder of upstart provider FON, whose business aims might just dovetail with the iPhone maker.

I fully agree with Jobs. I have my own wireless network, of course, and it’s completely open. No pass phrases, no WPA, nothing. If you happen to walk by with a WiFi enabled device, you are free to join my network and use it to browse the internet. I really don’t care. Of course, I live in East Bumblefcuk and nobody ever visits this god forsaken outpost of human civilisation, but it’s the principle that counts.

I believe in the ubiquity of internet access, and so should you. So open up your wireless network (secure your own PCs well, of course), and allow passers by to use it.

For cookies.

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My Inspiron 6000 was getting very hot lately - say, the past four months. Where the fan barely kicked in during the early days of the laptop, it spun almost continuously these days. This got me worried, and today, I took the entire laptop apart. Only to discover carpet had actually grown inside the laptop - right between the entrance to the fan cavity and the heatpipe.

Why hello there, Mr Carpet!.

I took Mr Carpet out of the fan cavity, and looked at him for a while. Then came big Mr Grumpy Vacuum Cleaner, and up, up and away Mr Carpet went. I imagined a faint ‘heeeeeeeeeelp’.

My Inspiron’s now back to cool and quiet service.

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Darn, this is a nice laptop. Small, optional red colour, Core 2 Duo, Intel videochipset. Nice, nice, nice.

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That’s right. I just threw out a decade’s worth of operating systems. Linux distributions, BSD disks, BeOS, Syllable, even the old SkyOS v2-3-4 disks many people begged me to put online (which I did not because that’s Robert Szeleney’s task, not mine). I threw it all out. Exit. Finito.

And that’s all I have left. Some Windows versions (NT, 95, ME, 2000, XP Pro, Vista 32bit as well as 64 bit), Office stuff, Mac stuff, Solaris 9 for my SPARC machine, and some other stuff. More than enough. Part of the image is blurred because I tend to write serial keys on the sides of the jewel cases.

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After Adam, I now too am giving Opera (v9.1) a chance. My main problem with Firefox 2.0 was the fact that it refused to remember my toolbar settings, switching back to the default set and size in each new windows. This started to piss me off so badly, I simply decided to ditch Firefox.

Other than that, Gecko is evil. I don’t know why, but I don’t like the way it renders pages.

Opera has a few quircks though. I cannot get the bookmarks bar underneath the address bar, and, more annoyingly, when you click on a directory in the bookmarks bar, the first two items are Bookmark page, and Open all folder items; this means I can no longer automatically click on the first item in the drop down menu. Annoyging, since I have had the same order of bookmarks for three to four years now, meaning my spatial memory is all messed up [insert sad smiley face].

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