Re: [H] Duncan
At 12:25 PM 3/14/2015, DSinc wrote: To the List, I am now happily at home and completed the 2d phase of life; Iam now 67yrs old. It is indeed good to see that you're back. From another 67 year old guy who's been on the list for 20 years, Bill C.
Re: [H] SAMSUNG 850 EVO-Series
At 01:24 PM 12/8/2014, FORC5 wrote: any one have any info on the new Samsung ? http://techreport.com/review/27464/samsung-850-evo-solid-state-drive-reviewed
Re: [H] Duncan
On 11/22/2014 8:51 AM, James Edwards wrote: Yo everyone, pay attention! From his sister Bonny at addy4st...@yahoo.com To all, My brother, Duncan, (do not know how he's identified in your group other than the owner of this site) was admitted to the hospital on 11-11 after suffering multiple strokes. He was in ccu for 3 days, the hospital for 3 and is now in re-hab. He is mobile, somewhat, and coherent, but memory, vision, and balance are impaired. Thought you would like to know. He's optimistic, accepting, and going with the flow. He's himself in conversation, just trapped in a not too responsive body. Bonny Bonny, please send me a good address to send well wishes. I will forward it to the list. Jim Edwards Duncan I recall that we are exactly the same age and I always read your list messages with great interest. I look forward to reading more of them. I send you my best wishes for a complete recovery. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Bill Cohane New York City
Re: [H] Memorial Day
At 04:09 PM 5/26/2014, Jeff wrote: And for your service Thanks to all you guys. Bill Cohane LTjg USNR Newport, RI; Norfolk, VA; Brooklyn Navy Yard; San Juan, PR; Gitmo, Cuba; Naples Augusta Bay Sicily, Italy; Nice, France; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Athens, Souda Bay Crete assorted Aegean Islands, Greece; Kristiansand, Norway; Rota, Palma de Mallorca Barcelona, Spain; Turkey; South Africa; ...etc. 1970-1974
Re: [H] WTF?
At 02:12 PM 8/22/2013, DSinc wrote: ...is chronic port blinking normal on Netgear switches??? A returning user wishes to know! Hi Duncan! All the Netgear switches that I used eventually did the chronic blinking (after a few years of use). In each case it was that the power supplies had gone bad. (These were old 8 port switches with external black power blocks.) Regards. Bill
Re: [H] Cleaning and purging clutter in XP
Try this... http://www.graphixanstuff.com/Forum/index.php?showtopic=4959 On 5/14/2010 4:32 PM, Veech wrote: Recently I ran a scan with AVP and saw thatr there were nearly 500,000 files scanned. Holy cow! I am on a mission to clean out all this clutter. Are there any programs that will help make the job easier? No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.819 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2874 - Release Date: 05/14/10 14:26:00
Re: [H] Registry Cleaners
--- At 06:15 PM 26, 26 03 2010, Jason Carson wrote: Hello everyone, I am in need of some registry editing software. What are you all using to clean and/or edit the windows registry. I am using winXP Pro 32 right now. To edit: RegScanner (freeware) - improves Windows Regedit, makes it easier to use: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html To clean: PowerTools Lite - freeware version of the jv16PowerTools registry cleaner: http://www.macecraft.com/download/ptlite/ Bill ---
Re: [H] ?small problem
At 13:00 02/03/09, DHSinclair wrote: Bill, I have read thru your share several times. Many years ago FORC5 schooled me in the use of removing old ghost devices in the Safe Mode and the use of the View Hidden Devices switch in the CP/Device Manager. I now plan to view and decode all the items of my current hidden devices from the fully booted perspective. Thank you for the idea about the system file. I was able to find it after allowing hidden system file view temporarily. Normally I leave this stuff hidden because I can be a klutz! :) o-Yes, my system file is now 10,240 KB and dated yesterday. o-I do not overclock any of my systems any more. o-I do not see a Reset ESCD switch in my current 0502 bios (Asus P5Q3). I'm off to study the UM again. o-I have re-flashed my bios w/o any change. There is a newer bios available (0603) but the release notes do not suggest any improvement to my kit stack. Still thinking here anyway :) There is a 39 page discussion (pages are short, with only a few posts per forum page) entitled Windows XP freezes at mup.sys, how do I fix it? at http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/31874/. My suggestion is mentioned, as well as the idea that mup.sys is not the culprit but only the last good on screen (or log) entry before the problem happens. Several people mentioned that they have the problem when trying to boot in safe mode but not in regular mode. Some solved their problem by making hardware changes (swapping a memory stick, updating their motherboard BIOS, changing device driver version, new keyboard, disabling processor cache, for example) and some downloaded and installed a fix (a file download) from Microsoft or Intel. In my last email, I talked about %WINDIR%\System32\Config\System. System holds the System Hive which is the part of the Registry (HKLM\System) that's referenced when windows is starting up. I'm not sure about Windows XP, but Windows 2000 can only use 16MB of memory when first loading, and this limited memory must be shared by the kernel, the HAL, the boot drivers, and the system loader. If the System Hive gets too big, or badly fragmented, then it cannot load and windows stalls. That's why I asked you how large your system file was. My problem happened when my system file was about 9.8 MB in size. That was too much. (The limit is supposed to be 10.3 MB for Windows 2000 Server.) You can shrink the System file manually (ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE or equivalent) or use the Veritas VxScrub utility which you can download using the link http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/277301.htm. (You have to type in your name, phone number, and email address. I tested the link last night using fake personal information and the download works fine.) I used the Veritas utility (Vxscrub –forcepurge) to shrink my system hive from 9.8MB to about 4MB on one system. (Every time I changed one or both of the SCSI controllers in that system, I acquired 26 more SCSI devices in ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE, two entries per device, and I had changed SCSI cards several times over that year's period. Every time I added a USB device, multiple entries were added in ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE.) Using Vscrub looks complicated (you run it in command mode using switches) but the directions as listed on the webpage I gave are straightforward. It helps if you print them out. If something happens and you cannot boot up your system (to shrink the system hive) you could try the FixBoot command in the recovery console (boot from the WINDOWS CD and run \I386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons). This should fix the error temporarily. When I did this, the problem reoccurred every few days. Apparently the system file changes size during during daily use and system kept going over that 10 MB size. Another helpful utility is NTREGOPT (Registry Optimizer) which is a separate utility that is included with ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT which makes a copy of your registry...or lets you replace it with a previously saved copy). Both work for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista. NTREGOPT can shrink a registry if it's fragmented or contains too much white space. Get them from http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/. All these utilities (VXSCRUB, ERUNT, NTREGOPT) require a reboot after running. Regards, Bill primary email: wcoh...@nyc.rr.com list email: wcoh...@gmail.com (because I can't get list email at my Road Runner address)
Re: [H] ?small problem
At 17:37 02/02/09, DHSinclair wrote: Have what seems to be a small problem. WXPproXP3.. Was an Upgrade from W2KproSP4. Otherwise works superb! But, Can Not boot to Safe Mode...Hangs at mup.sys. Do have reading for this, but, am wondering if there may be something else going on? My network connection pointer in the CP is at #2. In the past, I have found that #1 was never totally ripped out :) I do not recall how to fully erase net connections, if this is what is going on... I have sat for 40+ minutes waiting, at the blue (Windows is Starting) screen trying to do a Restore Install. Not yet. I really do NOT wish to erase/reformat my C: partition; UNLESS the Collective convinces me this is the ONLY way. Hmmm. Perhaps Windows CAN NOT really be Upgraded? Sure looks like it at the moment. This is NOT a call to Resurrect. I am not Down. WXP is fully running (and I remain totally confused!) If this is a boot.ini file trouble, I can read/correct. (?) If this is a mbr partition error, I can read/correct. (?) Where to start? Ideas? Suggestions? Opinions (except Vista) welcome? Hi Duncan You mentioned that you changed motherboards (presumably without doing a clean reinstall of Windows 2K or XP). This is something that I've done a few times while running one Win2k installation and I've run into a problem similar to yours. With XP running normally, check to see how large (the single file) SYSTEM is. Problems like yours can occur if this file (no file extension, its name is just system, without the quotes of course) gets too large. Why would it get too large? Because Windows XP and 2K don't remove hardware information from the registry when you physically remove hardware devices from your box. By the way, SYSTEM is usually in the folder C:\WINNT\system32\config or C:\WINDOWS\system32\config). SYSTEM is the file that holds the part of the registry with all the hardware information (past and present). If SYSTEM approaches 10 MB in size (in Win2k, not sure the actual number in WinXP), Windows will not boot fully because it doesn't allocate enough memory for all the files needed in memory during the boot process for all the files that need to go into memory during boot. It doesn't matter how much RAM you have, it's just the way Microsoft handles things. I've lost the Microsoft Knowledge Base article that described all this, or I'd give you a copy or a URL for it. So if SYSTEM gets near 10 MB, Windows will think the registry is corrupt and will refuse to boot fully. You can shrink the size of SYSTEM by using ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE in Control Panel (or wherever it is in WinXP) to remove all ghost hardware. By ghost, I mean hardware that was once in the system but has been physically removed from the system but not from the registry. Windows hides this stuff in Device Driver and ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE. It might take an hour or two to remove all the hardware from previous motherboards, previously removed disk drives, USB devices, etc. When my Windows periodically failed to boot, I shrunk the SYSTEM file from 9.8 MB to 4.4 MB and the problem has never returned. I do recall that this problem occurs in both Win2k and WinXP. Maybe it's not your problem...but why not just check the size of your SYSTEM file and see if maybe it's too large. When I had this problem, I found over a hundred hidden disc drives in ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE, as well as dozens of hidden copies of every hardware device that you'd normally see once in Device Manager or ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE. If you deed to, you can get a copy of the free VERITAS Volume Manager 4.2 to remove more stuff from SYSTEM due to old disc drives. Let me know. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] Pillow talk radio?
-Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Ben Ruset Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 4:24 PM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] Pillow talk radio? Well, this doesn't fall into the cheap category, but a Chumby would do what you want to do. Maybe you could find a used one. http://www.chumby.com/ My son bought me a Sirius satellite car radio for Father's Day. My wife loved it so much she hijacked it into her car!! But she wanted an in-home solution. So I picked up a Sirius Boombox. Plug in the head-end unit, plug in my headphones, and when everyone is fast asleep, I have all the radio I could ever need way into the wee hours. Radio + subscription, + boombox set us back a few hundred, but it was well worth it. Bill
[H] It's A Record!!!
In all my years lurking around HWG, I don't recall ever seeing the volume of messages generated today by the list. 60!!! If that record was ever bested, I sure can't recall when.. And just when I thought things were dying off, it springs to life!! Excellent! By the way if we're taking a show of hands, no Facebook, please. I'm sure I'm old and in the way, but just don't trust them social networking sites... Bill
Re: [H] It's A Record!!!
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben Ruset Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 5:42 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] It's A Record!!! Even if it's just greyhairs busy wrapping themselves with tinfoil or being generally cranky. :) That would be me!! I'd raise my hand but I'd probably hurt my shoulder LOL!!
Re: [H] It's A Record!!!
The List has long been my staple for reliable information.. The Tech scene to keep up with, so endlessly vast. I get it all right here.. Now don't mind the grey in your hair. Just think about all the fun you had puttin' it there. Jerry Lee Lewis Don't Be Ashamed of your Age From the album, Last Man Standing Bill DHSinclair wrote: Yes, and I still recall many of those grey hairs! LOL! You and I have had our tiffs, but I'm glad we are still here. I am amazed that you stay in this business. To me, the tech has just gotten too much to follow anymore. The List is my resource. Duncan
Re: [H] OT Inclined planes
At 20:42 07/13/08, Harvey Best wrote: Thanks! I had been searching for a formula when I should have run a search like you did. How long does a ramp have to be to raise a plane 8 degrees from horizontal to a hight of one foot... One shouldn't have to find a formula to solve this. It's simple trigonometry (the definition of the sine of an angle in a right triangle) from high school math. If X is the hypotenuse of a right triangle (call it X because this is what we're looking for), A is an angle, and L is the length of the side opposite from A, then sine of A is defined as opposite over hypotenuse. Sin A = L / X Use A = 8 degrees and L = 1 foot. We get Sin 8 = 1 / X or X = 1 / sin8 Get sin 8 = .13917 (using the calculator applet in Windows). Note: be sure your calculator is set for degrees and not radians. X = 1 foot / .13917 = 7.1853 feet The whole point is not to look for (and memorize) some formula but to use a concept learned (hopefully) long ago. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] xp sp3 ?
At 17:52 04/29/08, FORC5 wrote: looking for the dl at MS and can only find sp3 overview. anyone have a link ? and is tt final. Want to dl it separate for streaming. When I goto live update they want to install the new wga and I say no. on a side note what was the dll causing the reboots ? I need more memory 8-) I downloaded SP3 this morning from Microsoft at http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/svpk/2008/04/windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu_c81472f7eeea2eca421e116cd4c03e2300ebfde4.exe I just checked and this link still works. (If this link gets broken, please recombine it.) I don't know if it's the final final. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] UPSes
At 22:32 04/17/08, Bobby Heid wrote: Hey, My old APC Back-UPS Pro's battery finally died. I run my monitor, router, and a few other pc related items off of it and I have an APC Back-UPS 1000 for my PC and external drive. Hi Bobby I replace the batteries in my UPS when they die with generic replacements from http://www.batterymart.com/c-replacement-ups-batteries.html. For example, a replacement for the battery in any BackUPS 650 (Pro, Pro PP, Pro S, regular, etc.) costs $29.95. A replacement for the BackUPS 1000 costs $59.90 If you don't see the model you have, call them and they'll check to see which battery replacement will fit your model. It's much more price effective to replace the battery than to buy a new UPS or even an official APC replacement battery. I've bought batteries for everything from hearing aids to tennis ball machines from Batterymart.com. I'm not saying they always have the best prices, but I've always been happy with their service and the quality of their products. I've used APC UPS' since 1995. Sizes from 400 to 1400. (I currently have three SmartUPS 1400 and two SmartUPS 1000 for my computers and peripherals, plus three BackUPS 1000 for phones, stereo, scanner, etc.) Regards, Bill
Re: [H] UPSes
At 02:12 04/18/08, Joe User wrote: Hello Bill, Thursday, April 17, 2008, 9:22:56 PM, you wrote: I replace the batteries in my UPS when they die with generic replacements from http://www.batterymart.com/c-replacement-ups-batteries.html. I guess I'll check these guys out. My replacements from Batterymart.com seem to last as long as the original batteries did. Good luck! Regards, Bill
Re: [H] UPSes
At 02:18 04/18/08, Joe User wrote: Have you bought and used APC batteries to compare vs these? Last few times I got bargain batteries the lifetime was horrible. Yes. I did replace with APC batteries (in my old BackUPS models) at first. I didn't see any difference between the APC batteries and the ones from BatteryMart...except for the price. And, if anything, I've gotten better life with the replacements from Batterymart than from the *original* APC batteries, (the ones that came inside the UPS when it was new.) As they say though, YMMV. Regards, Bill
[H] test (sorry)
Trying to see if I can post to the Hardware Group
Re: [H] test (sorry)
At 22:58 03/25/08, Jeff Lane wrote: Nice try, Bill Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 7:41 PM Subject: [H] test (sorry) Trying to see if I can post to the Hardware Group Hi Jeff Thanks for replying. This seems to have been the first message of mine that made it to the list in over a year. For some reason I don't get a copy of my own messages...even though the HW Group preferences webpage (for my mail and password) says I should. I'll see if I got a copy of this one. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] Surge suppressor / power filter
At 00:53 03/11/08, JRS wrote: I use a 1200 watt APC Smart UPS for my computer gear. True sine wave output. :) Three computers here (each with 10 internal SCSI drives)...three APC SmartUPS 1500 (computer, external drives, monitor for each UPS). Plus one SmartUPS 1000 for the little stuff: two routers, two switches, a printer server, and my wireless phone system's base station. (The SmartUPS 1000 started out on one of the aforementioned computers but I noticed one day that adding a measly thumb drive to one of the computers overloaded the 1000 VA UPS, setting off its alarm.) There's a vertical set of 5 lights on each of these SmartUPS models that indicates % of max load. The SmartUPS 1000 shows no lights lit. Each of the SmartUPS 1500 shows 2 lights lit. (The SmartUPS 1000 showed 5 lights lit when it was on a computer.) I've replaced the batteries on each of these UPS at least once. I get about three years on each set (two internal batteries in each) of batteries. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] PC boots Windows 2000 CD but not XP PRO CD?
Try using floppy setup disks...Download from MS. Should work.. Bill JRS wrote: Weird behavior Re-installing Windows on an old Dell Dimension 2100 for a friend. Boots fine to a Windows 2000 Pro CD, boots fine to an ERD 2005 CD, but won't boot to a Windows XP Pro CD. Tried 3 different drives and 4 different CD's, no joy with any of them, and it does read all the CD's fine after it boots to the currently installed Windows. The CD Drive light flickers as it's being read, but the PC goes right past the CD without even prompting Hit Any key to boot from CD like it does for the others. Is it possible for a BIOS to be so old it can boot from NT4 bootloaders, but not from NT5 bootloaders? Or is there something else about the XP Pro CD's that is different that the BIOS perhaps cannot handle? And of course, the latest BIOS for this old thing is from 2001. :)
[H] The Erosion of Internet Privacy
This article is making the rounds today.. Intel Official: Say Goodbye to Privacy http://apnews.myway.com/article/2007/D8SRJ1DO0.html Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information. Snipped.. The central witness in a California lawsuit against ATT says the government is vacuuming up billions of e-mails and phone calls as they pass through an ATT switching station in San Francisco. That coupled with the passage of the new Data Retention Law in Germany really makes it look like a global frontal assault on privacy.. http://www.kreativrauschen.com/blog/2007/11/09/german-bundestag-decides-to-imple ment-data-retention/ Pretty chilling.. Indeed, it really seems like they really ARE listening in.. Bill
Re: [H] Source for socket A XP3200 ?
Try pretestedcpus. http://www.pretestedcpus.com/ Hunter, Gary wrote: Hi, I'm trying to do a cheap upgrade on 3 PC's all AMD socket A. I tried ebay and bought 3 dead CPU's from a scam artist (currently going through a paypal claim to get back my $200). So know I'm sending this out to people I know I can trust. Does anyone have any XP3200 they can sell to me? Or does anyone know of a reliable place to get 3 of them at a reasonable price? Thanks Gary The information in this electronic mail message is sender's business Confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee(s). Access to this Internet electronic mail message by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful. The sender believes that this E-mail and any attachments were free of any virus, worm, Trojan horse, and/or malicious code when sent. This message and its attachments could have been infected during transmission. By reading the message and opening any attachments, the recipient accepts full responsibility for taking protective and remedial action about viruses and other defects. Travelport Inc. is not liable for any loss or damage arising in any way from this message or its attachments.
RE: [H] MS Office 2007 Opinions?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jin-Wei Tioh Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 9:46 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [H] MS Office 2007 Opinions? Am curious as to how many of you folks are using Office 2007 and how you like it / the new Ribbon interface? I'm currently still using Office 2K and am contemplating switching to either Office 2003 or 2007. TIA -- JW My personal opinion? Definitely go with Office 2003. Admittedly it's a little late in the product life cycle, but it's as stable as it's ever going to be and most bugs have been fixed or there are workarounds available. Add-ins have now been debugged and tested and generally run well. Office 2003 is pretty stable. I run 2 machines. One with Office 2003, one with 2007. For me, there is nothing I NEED in Office 2007. Office 2007 runs very slowly on my XP machine and the machine has plenty of muscle and horsepower. I must say I have never been able to successfully run 2007 with Vista. I am one of those users that experiences the mysterious 10 second crash with Vista and 2007. Open Outlook in Vista and it crashes within literally 10 seconds of opening. This is an expensive, released product and MS has no answer for this. I think that's a crock. I tried everything and then gave up. The ribbon interface? Yawn.. it's slick but does nothing for me. I love printing from the ribbon. Not. Think print is right there on the ribbon for you at your finger tips? Nope. You must select it from a drop-down menu. Though 2007 is a released product, and I was a Beta tester, really, it is nothing more than an advanced beta for me. Like anything else that MS concocts, it might be nice once all the damn bugs are worked out.. It would be 2003 for me.. Bill
RE: [H] MS Office 2007 Opinions?
I don't recall, Bill but doesn't Ctrl P still work for Print? Inquiring minds want to know. It does.. I'm just not a shift-key kinda guy.. I guess I keep looking for the print icon on the non-existent toolbar..
RE: [H] MS Office 2007 Opinions?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Sevart Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 1:24 PM To: 'The Hardware List' Subject: RE: [H] MS Office 2007 Opinions? Can you not add icons to the title bar when running under XP? http://www.xfury.net/o2k7print.png I really like the improvements to Outlook for version 2007. Still getting used to the new interface though. G. And around and around in circles I went...Until I found it.. That's a great tip... Thanks.. Still bizarre thought that it's not there by default... B
RE: [H] Best Verizon Phone?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Wayne Johnson Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 8:57 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: RE: [H] Best Verizon Phone? At 09:59 03-22-2007, Anthony Q. Martin typed: That's a good idea to use their return policy. I might try this. To get the rebate, I need to buy the phone online. If i do that, how do I transfer all of my numbers? There must be a way to move info from my LG phone to my PC and then out to this Q (assuming I get that)? Look at http://www.bitpim.org/ when used with a USB 2 phone cable or BT it makes it easy to transfer phone books etc or to sync with Outlook it's freeware. If you go to Howard's Forums you can find all kinds of tips on how to tweak the phone of your choice. Heck you may even want to peruse there first. --+-- Wayne D. Johnson Ashland, OH, USA 44805 http://www.wavijo.com Absolutely true. If you're transferring contacts from one phone to another phone, VZW will do that for you right in the store. No problem. Others prefer to transfer from their Outlook Contact List on the PC to their new device which can easily be done using USB and Avtivesync. Verizon also has this really cool thing called VZWSync. It is a web-based application. You log on using your phone number and a password. It is essentially a mirror of all your device settings and data. It shows your email, contacts, calendar, memos and a To-Do list. If I'm lazy, I log on, enter a new contact and it automatically syncs/enters the same data on my phone. Bill
RE: [H] Best Verizon Phone?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Anthony Q. Martin Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:17 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: [H] Best Verizon Phone? It's my time to get a new phone, so I'm wondering which is best? I want bluetooth. I want a camera (just in case). I'm not really interested in dropping 4 bills for a phone! So where does that leave me? Smartphone with a data plan, or regular phone? Bill
RE: [H] Best Verizon Phone?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Anthony Q. Martin Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:29 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Best Verizon Phone? Bill wrote: -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Anthony Q. Martin Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:17 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: [H] Best Verizon Phone? It's my time to get a new phone, so I'm wondering which is best? I want bluetooth. I want a camera (just in case). I'm not really interested in dropping 4 bills for a phone! So where does that leave me? Smartphone with a data plan, or regular phone? Could be either, unless I need to pay 4 bills. My current plan doesn't include data, AFAIK. I'm not sure if I really need it. Does smart = data? Ok, what does that mean, exactly? Disclaimer: 1) There is no perfect cell phone 2) There is no perfect wireless carrier 3) Individual results may vary. Bingo. You hit the nail on the head. A Smartphone will run Windows Mobile5 or another OS depending on carrier. Here in Vegas, Verizon rocks. Good solid coverage. I've had them for almost 5 years. I bought my Motorola Q nearly a year ago. I love it. It's not perfect. It's given me it's share of headaches. But I know what it's limitations are. I love Internet access and the ability to synch with Outlook. I don't use a laptop, so it opened a whole new world for me, on the go. This is sort of a pseudo-PDA hybrid phone. Verizon's EVDO data Plan is fast, but expensive. My data plan/unlimited usage runs about $45 a month. Married with a voice plan it's around $80 per month. Yea, that's expensive, I realize. But I get my email and Internet access on the run which is sweet. For me, the phone's reception is excellent. It is on an equal par with the RazR, which in this area gives strong reception. I seldom if ever drop calls. Just my 2 pesos worth. If you're up for contract renewal, at least look at some Smartphone option. Happy shopping!! Bill
RE: [H] Best Verizon Phone?
Is there a site that will tell me what it's limitations are? Sure. http://www.everythingq.com/forum/ http://www.qusers.com/forum/ And of course, the perennial Howard Forums.. I should say at the outset, you may also want to look at the Treo 700w. The war rages as to which is better. I think it might suffice to say that the Q is a phone first and a PDA second. The 700w is a PDA first and a phone second. In my area, the 700w does not hold a signal well. The 700w runs PocketPC which is a different flavor OS and includes touchscreen. Smartphones do not have this feature. PocketPC allows one to view and edit Word docs, Excel spreadsheets etc. The Smartphone allows one to view these file types but not edit them. And this is only scratching the surface of the salient differences. A pseudo-PDA is about right for me. I won't use a real PDA but I do use Outlook and would like to use this phone to sync both home (DT), work (DT) and phone copies . And that, you will be able to do with ease. The thing is, I get a lot of e-mail and a lot of big file attachments. Will this choke the phone? Remembering that this is a phone that doesn't have a 250G hard drive, I tend to be very space conscious. I get about 100 emails per day, many with attachments. I've never had a problem. Also, keep in mind that you can add a 1G+ Mini-SD and whooppe Away you go!!! No more storage issues. I did, and it was a breeze.. So many 3rd party apps also that you can install on the phone, it is amazing. Space has never ever been an issue with me, but I try to stay on top of it. Aren't digital only phones going to be more limited in terms of cross-country coverage? Not that I travel that much, but when I do travel I do tend to use the phone more then. I agree. Analog will be phased out in 2008. Carriers don't even sell them anymore and the analog networks are going away big time. My personal opinion is that the Verizon Network is very strong nationwide. I'll probably be flamed for this, but this is my experience. We travel a lot and when we go, we Get Out There. West Glacier, Montana late last Spring, no problemo. Travelled up to Yellowstone last September. Had perfect voice/data coverage in West Yellowstone and throughout much of the Park. And that is pretty damned remote. I was very impressed. Montana, Idaho, Wyoming... way out there.. Verizon was there with us. Oh, sure you'll hit dead spots anywhere.. But honestly, IMHO, not too damn many where we travel. But again, not everyone may feel this way and your mileage may vary. Day by day the coverage gaps get smaller and smaller. So, it's $130 w/o voice/data plan, and $80 w. However, my plan goes from $40 to $80 (not counting all of those extra charges they put on). So, 12 X $40 = $480 extra over what I'm planing now. Is the data plan really going to be worth this extra ($480-50=$430) to me? Can I know this without using the plan? Verizon has the standard 15 Day no hassle no questions asked return policy. Beat it to death, take it through its paces, see how you like it. For me personally, I was tethered to the desktop for email etc. Not being at home, I was dead in the water. Maybe I'm a hopeless junkie, but for me it opened up a whole new portable world for me and I regard myself as a light to moderate user. Bur when I need online access I need it it's just that simple. This has given me that opportunity. Yes, it's expensive. But I bite the bullet on it and now I rely on it. Can I do without it? Sure. But I'd much rather not!!! Like anything else, once you get hooked on it, it's pretty hard to give it up... I think once you experience the data plan, you'll dig it a lot.. Another thing.. Maybe I'm old and slow, but the Q had quite a learning curve for me. It was 30 days and beyond before I really learned the ins and outs of it and got comfortable. You can purchase 3rd party Registry editors and tweak this thing to death... Most phones, out of the box up and running in a few hours.. That was true for me, but the Q does a whole lot more and took me much time to learn it. Make sure you check out the Treo 700 as well so that you have a more well balanced opinion. Bill
RE: [H] Vista Supported software
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Dodge Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 4:06 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: RE: [H] Vista Supported software Try doing a repair of Office in Add/Remove. Worked for me. Thanks.. I should have done that to begin with.. Off I go.. Bill
RE: [H] Vista Supported software
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Winterlight Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 12:18 PM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Vista Supported software Is there any kind of web site that lists Vista supported legacy software. I figure sooner or later somebody is going to start compiling one of these. And I'm one of the unlucky ones totally unable to run Outlook 2007 in Vista Ultimate, It crashes within 10 seconds of opening. Even with all the evil add-ins disabled.. I have Google's this thing to death without an answer.. And though I may be in the minority, I'm not alone with this issue.. Clean install all the way around, by the way... Bill
Re: [H] Video Problems (NVidia related)
At 00:57 01/26/07, KHumrich wrote: How is your Power Supply? You said the card powers down and/or runs fine at the lower resolution, also the problem happens on cold boots, sounds like power supply COULD be the problem..Ken Hi Ken Thanks for the suggestion. I have to admit that I didn't consider the power supply. On the one hand, it's a PCPC 510 Watt supply (costs over $190) and I would hope that it isn't the problem. On the other hand, there are seven Seagate 15K Cheetahs in the case (and SCSI CDRW and DVD reader) along with the dual processors. Actually, the computer would show video just fine in 640X480, if (and only if) it was using the Microsoft generic VGA driver. (That's what choosing VGA Mode in the boot menu results in.) But the video always failed at 640X480 after booting into regular Win2k. (Video would corrupt a fraction of a second after Win2k started to display the desktop in regular Win2k.) I think video was failing right when Win2k switched to the manufacturer's video driver (either NVidia reference drivers or Asus drivers). So at the same resolutions, the MS generic VGA driver always worked but the NVidia (or Asus) drivers wouldn't. Okay. An hour ago I changed video cards again. I replaced the Asus FX5200 with a Leadtek A6200 that came by UPS today. First I uninstalled the NVidia driver software set, then deleted the video card from Device Manager, and then ran an utility called Driver Cleaner. (Thanks M!) Then I pulled the Asus card and put in the Leadtek card. I installed drivers from the Leadtek CD-Rom and all seems fixed. I've warm -and- cold booted many times and it is now running in 1600X1200 with 32 bit color. Time will tell if it keeps running. I don't know if the problem was a bad video card, corrupted drivers (fixed by using Drive Cleaner), or if it will return. Regards, Bill ---Original Message--- From: Bill Cohane Date: 1/25/2007 6:28:18 PM Subject: [H] Video Problems (NVidia related) I've been trying to set up one of a new Dell 2007FP monitor the past two days and I keep having big problems. I'll understand if you don't want to read all the following, but doing so will let you know all the steps that I've tried. Basically, my system boots okay into Win2k VGA Mode (640X480, 256 colors, 60 Hz.) but video is completely corrupted whenever I boot into regular Win2k..
[H] Video Problems (NVidia related)
Hi Guys! I've been trying to set up one of a new Dell 2007FP monitor the past two days and I keep having big problems. I'll understand if you don't want to read all the following, but doing so will let you know all the steps that I've tried. Basically, my system boots okay into Win2k VGA Mode (640X480, 256 colors, 60 Hz.) but not into regular Win2k. (VGA mode is like Safe Mode in the boot menu, but it has more functionality.) The system is dual PIII-1400, 1GB RAM, running Win2K SP4 and I'm using an Asus GeForce FX5200 128 MB video card. (I had been using an older Asus FeForce FX400 with no DVI out before changing to the flat panel monitor.) I don't run games, and the motherboard is AGP 2X only. I installed the 2007FP monitor and FX5200 video card with a DVI cable and installed the Asus drivers that came in the box with the video card. After successfully rebooting, when I attempted changing to 1600X1200 (32 bit color, 60 Hz of course), the monitor screen became horribly corrupted (only streaks of color side to side across the screen, from top to bottom) and dropped to power saving mode after about 3 seconds. I could now only boot into VGA Mode. I tried changing drivers to the NVidia reference drivers that came on the CD-Rom, then the FX5200 enhanced drivers from Asus's website, and finally some NVidia drivers that I had downloaded sometime last year. I tried changing drivers the Windows way (update drivers from Device Manager) and when that didn't help, by running the setup utility on the Asuss CD-Rom. I always looked for and deleted all video software from Control Panel's Add/Remove Software and deleted all graphics cards from the system (including ghost devices after clicking show all devices) using Control Panel's Add/Remove Hardware. I'm using the 2007FP driver from the Dell CD-Rom. (This works fine on my other computer which has a Dell 2007FP monitor and Asus FX5700 128 MB video card.) Over and over I deleted all the utilities that NVidia or Asus set to run at Startup (NVidia Contol Panel and Taskbar utilities, and something called NWiz.exe). Tuesday night I finally got the system to work at 1600X1200 (using the Asus enhanced drivers) in regular mode and ran the system for an hour, rebooting several times. Then I powered down for the night. Wednesday night I powered up but video had become corrupted again. It would work only in VGA mode. Then I changed from DVI cable to VGA analog cable and installed NVidia drivers from their website. I finally had success and the system booted okay and let me change to 1600X1200. The system ran okay for about two hours, during which time I rebooted several times with no problems. But the one time I powered down (after Shutdown), the system wouldn't boot into normal mode when I powered up. Video was corrupted again, even though the drivers hadn't been changed and had been working only minutes ago. Would you say I have something corrupted (drivers?) that isn't being replaced when I change drivers? Or could it be a hardware problem (video card or monitor)? Remember that it always works using the Microsoft VGA driver (640X480, limited colors) but not with the Asus or Nvidia driver (even at the same 640X480). When I get it working, it continues to work after warm reboots but not after cold reboots. I've wasted 8 hours on this problem. I don't want to start switching video cards and monitors until I'm convinced that it isn't a driver problem. (I don't want to risk corrupting my main computer.) On the other hand, the problem may in some way be hardware related since doing a cold reboot is when the problem resurfaces. Anyone know of a driver cleaner program that works with NVidia and Win2k drivers? Google only seems to refer to Win98/ME utilities or links that are dead. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] Jim HWG Subscription problem Bobby Heid [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I sort of have the same problem as Bobby. By sort of, I mean the following. I stopped getting HWG mail to my Verizon address a few weeks ago and had trouble resubscribing. So I subscribed to the HWG using my Road Runner email address. Messages started coming fine to the Road Runner address but I found that I couldn't send to the HWG list from that address. I gett the same error message that Bobby got (below) from my Road Runner SMTP server: The following addresses had permanent fatal errors - hardware@hardwaregroup.com. Maybe HWG is blocking Road Runner? I seem to recall something about that being necessary a year or two ago. So how am I posting this? I tried subscribing to THG from my Gmail address but can't send to THG from there. The other day I got a ton of old HWG messages to my Verizon address and HWG seems to be okay with my Verizon address againfor now. (One of my resubscribe attempts must have succeeded.) But Verizon is apparently not reliable enough for mailing lists and news letters and I suspect that sooner or later Verizon will start bouncing HWG messages again. (I've been dropped from lots of newsletters that I had delivered to my Verizon address because of bounces.) I am resigned to reading HWG messages that come to my Road Runner account and posting HWG messages while logged onto Verizon. Not too bad a problem. Regards, Bill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You aren't alone. I've been trying to contact jim as have about 15 other people Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless -Original Message- From: Winterlight [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:14:52 To:hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Jim HWG Subscription problem Bobby Heid [EMAIL PROTECTED] Posted on behalf of Bobby Heid [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hey, Sorry to bother you with the off-list email, but I am unable to post to the hardware group as of the last several days. Could you please post this to the list so that someone may see it and may know what the problem is? I seem to be receiving at least some HW emails. Here's the returned message: --- start of message -- The original message was received at Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:18:13 -0500 (EST) from cpe-024-168-241-112.sc.res.rr.com [24.168.241.112] - The following addresses had permanent fatal errors - hardware@hardwaregroup.com - Transcript of session follows - 451 4.4.1 reply: read error from mail.hardwaregroup.com. hardware@hardwaregroup.com... Deferred: Connection timed out with mail.hardwaregroup.com. Message could not be delivered for 2 days Message will be deleted from queue end of message - Thanks, Bobby
[H] MS At It Again..
Back to the future.. MS rips out IE from Outlook 2007 as the HTML Rendering engine.. Controversial to say the least.. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/01/10/microsoft-breaks-html-email-rendering- in-outlook/ http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/archives/2007/01/microsoft_takes_email_desig n_b.html Bill
[H] Is the list quiet or do I have a problem?
Hi Guys I haven't received anything for a couple of days...so please forgive this test message. Regards, Bill
RE: [H] Replacement for iTunes, MusicMatch, etc.
Nobody uses VLC Media Player? http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html Haven't thrown everything at it, but I've yet to see a format VLC wouldn't play, or an OS it wouldn't run on.. Bill
RE: [H] Blitzing files
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Glazier(Gmail) Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 9:26 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Blitzing files Eraser, http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/default.php (From WEB site:) Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows 2003 Server and DOS. Eraser is Free software and its source code is released under GNU General Public License. 2nd that notion... Eraser is excellent.. Bill
Re: [H] 2k wireless
At 13:40 12/13/06, Winterlight wrote: It is time to clean off the drive and do a new install on my laptop = Thinkpad 1.13 P3M with a GB of P133 and a Hitachi Travelstar. I have XP on it now but I am thinking I would be better off with 2k. For one thing 2k takes a lot less space and horsepower and I would like to start running more things out of a VM and leave the primary OS for games and multimedia. 2k has a smaller footprint, quicker, and I don't think I need what XP offers since I will be using Firefox, and I don't have a fast enough video card to do anything game wise other then legacy games. XP offers, better security for IE, but I won't be using IE, and XP has hyperthreading support, ... I don't need it, and better multimedia support, but not in a area I can take advantage of with this laptop as the most I will be doing is listening to mp3s, watching a DVD or video file and maybe watching TV with a USB tuner. Anybody think I am missing something? ... that my reasoning to choose 2k over XP is wrong? The only thing I am not sure about is wireless, 2K SP4 supports WPA ...right? I won't have any problems with wireless security using 2k ...right? I'm running Win 2K on my laptop and I added an Intel mini-pci wireless card. The Intel driver/software that came with this wireless card included WPA support and it runs just fine on 2K. I don't know (kind of doubt it) if Win 2K has built in WPA wireless support. I have a separate hard drive (I can add/remove the two hard drives to change operating system) with Win XP installed for this laptop and I find the native WPA to be much more confusing than what came with the Intel wireless card. So I use the Intel networking support instead of XP's wizard based stuff which I couldn't get to work, probably because I wasn't willing to spend enough time on it. I only wrote this message because nobody has yet commented on Win 2K and WPA support. So my answer is yes, it's possible to do WPA on Win 2K. Regards, Bill
RE: [H] Moving to Vista
Is there an upgrade path from XP or will Vista be a clean install.. THAT in and of itself might be the deciding factor for me.. Oh and the cost factor... Is it really worth the price just to pay for a new toy??? Bill
Re: [H] Is Vista going to be that much better than XP Pro?
Matthew was a tax collector, Paul was a tent maker, Peter a fisherman... Veech wrote: and Peter Paul was a candy bar. *sorry* - Original Message - From: Thane Sherrington [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: The Hardware List hardware@hardwaregroup.com Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 10:52 AM Subject: Re: [H] Is Vista going to be that much better than XP Pro? At 07:42 PM 08/10/2006, Winterlight wrote: Tallyho ! ]:8) Taglines below ! - No tax collector will ever enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Saint Peter was a Roman tax collector Paul was a tax collector. Peter was a fisherman. T
RE: [H] Rebooting issue...
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bobby Heid Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 12:23 PM To: 'The Hardware List' Subject: [H] Rebooting issue... I have to go over to a friends house this evening where the pc keeps rebooting. I'm pretty sure it's XP home. Can someone give me some pointers as to what I should be looking for to correct the problem? Thanks, Bobby Could be a number of things.. Have you run a Virus scan? This sounds like the MSBLAST Worm from a few years back... Bill
RE: [H] High CPU on Explorer.exe and TaskMgr.exe
Two thoughts on this.. Malware is a definite possibility.. I'd run HiJackThis! to see what's loading.. Secondly any strange USB devices? Bill
RE: [H] Anonymizing Technologies
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of lopaka Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 7:56 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Anonymizing Technologies Besides the usual ones, an encrypted browser came out recently too called torpark. I haven't had time to test drive yet. Yep. Torpark is the anonymous browser, Torbird, an anonymous email client based on the Tor Onion network.. Both developed by the same dude.. Both work very well and are easy to setup. Looks like he does this for the love of he art rather than for money.. In a day and age where we must assume that everywhere we go and everything we do on the Web is monitored by somebody, it's cool to see a Lone Wolf out there advancing a technology that says where I go and what I do on the Web is nobody's damn business.. Bill
RE: [H] -OT- Verizon cell phones
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of GM Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 12:24 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] -OT- Verizon cell phones Stick with LG Many problems with Razar My experience is exactly the reverse. In my area, I always have reception issues with any LG phone. We currently have 3 Razr's in the family and I have the Motorola Q on Verizon. The Razr's are pretty decent phones and we haven't had any problems. Reception is good. Motorola is a very solid phone manufacturer... They generally offer the best reception.. Phones are very subjective. Do your research, make your selection, test drive the new phone based on your geographical location and calling pattern. Take advantage of Verizon's 15-Day Return policy. I've done this several times. It's the only way to REALLY tell if the phone works for you.. Buy it and try it.. Bill
[H] Anonymizing Technologies
For those of you interested in these technologies, saw several articles this past week regarding the anonymous browser Torpark, and the anonymous email client, Torbird. Torpark is a variant of Firefox, Torbird a variant of Thunderbird. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/20/free_web_browsing/ http://torpark.nfshost.com/ http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/Aug-2006/msg00335.html http://torpark.nfshost.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21 Both can be run off a flash drive for portability, as they don't require installation.. Interesting stuff.. Bill
RE: [H] -ot- phone ?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Anthony Q. Martin Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 8:24 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] -ot- phone ? Why do they lock out features in the first place? .. It's all about the Almighty Dollar and nickel and diming the customer to death.. They won't allow me to transfer pix to my phone through Bluetooth as they want me to use their service and charge me a quarter a pop.. Bill
Re: [H] Laptop Battery Replacement
At 15:56 08/02/06, Wayne Johnson wrote: At 03:37 PM 8/2/2006, GPL typed: Anything anyone can recommend I be aware of? Anything to look for? I assume if I just match up the specs and computer I can find a quality battery replacement. http://www.kahlon.com/rm34731_Dell_Inspiron_600M.html I've always had good luck with these people. Here's another place to get Dell batteries. http://www.pacificbattery.com/dell.html I've bought a half dozen new Dell batteries from them and all have been as good or better than the ones Dell sells. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] LCD burn in ?
At 21:40 07/12/06, FORC5 wrote: I have had the same wallpaper on my desktop forever, the other day my son said he could see the image burned to the screen, I thought he was nuts but he is NOT. I did not think this was possible. On boot and booted to a pe disk or a Norton recovery disk it is plain as day. me not to happy. anything to do ? thought about running the stuck pixel video for grins to see if it helps. Sorry to have no advice for you. Just wanted to mention that I can see burn in on my 8 year old Viewsonic 21 P815 CRT monitor. Yes, it's from my desktop too. Not obvious, but you can see it when you have a white background. Regards, Bill
RE: [H] OT Very off topic but I need some help
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Harvey Best Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 5:39 AM To: Alt Cpu Subject: [H] OT Very off topic but I need some help Hi gang, As I posted the other week, my brother took his own life a week ago Thursday. (I was replying to some help I 'd gotten, but letting the Alt-Cpu member know I couldn't try the fix/idea suggestion until later because of all the arrangements). Now I have a BIG favor to ask, that some one on this list could probably help me with. And I would gladly pHaay what it costs if I can afford it. The church taped the funeral service. My father (deceased) was a Pastor, I am a pastor. There were a lot of preachers that spoke, and I was even able to speak at the service as well. As I said, we all (family) have cassette copies of the service. I have no cassette player of any type any more, and neither does my sister in law. The question, does anyone on the list have the capability to transfer the 2 cassettes on to a cd? I could then make my own copies for all the family. Of course, I would pay for the shipping both ways, cost of the cd and time used, if it's something I can afford. I know there is so much tech knowledge of all this list, and caring people who try to help each other. So, I thought I would ask. If someone can help you can reply to the list, and then we can go off list to discuss the particulars. Thanks, Harvey Harvey Best hbest Feel free to back channel me, off list and Id be happy to help.. Oddly, this is exactly what Im doing now. Several weeks ago, my wife announced to me that she had some old audio cassettes she wanted transferred onto CD. She said You have a computer, you can do that, right? I shuddered.. I knew there was a way, but. We still have a cassette player as part of our old Sony rack system. That+software, plus the right cables hooking up to the sound card and Im good to go. Took me a few tries to get the right cable from Rat Shack, but now all is well.. Its 109 degrees here in Vegas.. Cant go outside. So Im safely holed up in the AC transferring stuff from cassette to CD.. All day today.. Let me know. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bill
[H] Interesting Read: WGA
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1979756,00.asp Bill
RE: [H] News as junk mail
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 10:26 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] News as junk mail Has any one else noticed that a lot of junk mail has been coming in the form of news headlines, I get about 30 or so a day. Earthlink is catching them but I am just wondering if this is something common.what will they think of next Mark Mark Dodge That seems to be the newest wrinkle.. The sewage slowed for awhile as the Spammers retooled.. SpamPal catches them all.. But I noticed this one too.. Bill
[H] Where's My Spam???
Interesting observation.. I normally get 50-100 spam emails delivered to my account every day.. Number varies of course, but that's a good average.. It's been like this for as long as I can recall. Oddly, the last 7 days or so, the amount of spam I get has dropped dramatically. In the last 24 hours I've received only 6 junk messages. Anyone else notice this? Cox is my ISP.. Less than 10 spammed messages per day. To whom do we give the credit? Or have the spammers moved off towards other pursuits?? Or are they merely adjusting their techniques to mount another assault and beat the existing filters? Bill
RE: [H] Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jin-Wei Tioh Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 5:52 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible That's exactly why it has become standard policy for all the machines under care to restore the OS from a frequently updated image once it becomes infected with malware. Just can't really trust it anymore. D*mn malware authors to h**l. -- JW And don't forget to include the Geniuses from Redmond that gave us the fertile ground of their security-hole ridden OS that made all this possible in the first place... Bill
[H] ATM Theft
Man, these guys are getting pretty slick. The look of the machine wouldn't arouse my suspicion in the least.. But I guess that because I seldom use ATM's. http://www.utexas.edu/police/alerts/atm_scam/ Bill
RE: [H] Weird BitTorrent problem
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of CW Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 7:34 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Weird BitTorrent problem Christ, I don't know about that. I get ISOs (DVD ISOs) via Torrent (Mandrake is a great example) which are 6.77G or whatever, and generally I get around 400k/s. So, just start in the evening, done by the morning. Man, I would die for Torrent speeds like that.. Torrent files of 3-4G takes days and days.. ISP's must be throttling Torrent.. Bill
RE: [H] Weird BitTorrent problem
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Winterlight Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 12:20 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Weird BitTorrent problem But that's At 12:03 PM 3/25/2006, you wrote: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 2003 called Cable and phone companies are giving bandwidth away these days. Thank goodness for FIOS (not that I would ever touch anything from Verizon) - their precense made Cox drop my broadband bill to 29.99 and upped my download to 15Mb/s and uploads to 5Mb/s. Not COX where I am ... still paying 39.95 for 4Mb/s down and 512Kb upand I am standing 20 feet away from a fiber optic line. where was this? I suspect it's market-specific.. 'cuz it sure the hell ain't true here in Vegas where I'm capped at $49.99 for 5Mb/s down and Cox clearly holds a strangle-hold monopoly... And Torrent speeds crawl... But that's probably all the Terabytes of Porn being downloaded at 4AM Bill
RE: [H] Antivirus
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mesdaq, Ali Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 11:18 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: RE: [H] Antivirus Well if it were feasible to do that I personally would run kaspersky, nod32, trend, and bit defender. But I rather approach it like don't run anything unless I want it to run. But I am not sure av can live happily together on the same machine Running more than one AV engine on machine is not advisable. There is no significant evidence that I've found that running multiple scanners provides better protection. But even if it did, the performance degradation on a machine running multiple AV engines is significant. Google that one and read some of the stories. http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/231316555206 For the last several years, it's been a horse race between Kaspersky, NOD32 and Norton. They are neck and neck, while many feel NOD32 offers slightly better virus detection while of the three, Kaspersky has the best Trojan detection. Here's the February 2006 AV Comparatives: http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2006_02.php Bill
RE: [H] Antivirus
Is there a GOOD program that catches all viruses, or 99.9% of them? NOD32 is now my fave AV program. It is light and has a lot of good features. I think the short answer to the question is NO. Sadly, I know people that actually run multiple AV scanners though I feel that really the effectiveness is dubious. The debate in many circles continues to rage about NOD32 vs: Kaspersky. They are really neck and neck, each one offering some advantages that other doesn't have. NOD32 seems lower on resources while Kaspersky is thought to have better heuristics. Kaspersky has a larger virus database and generally is thought to have better Trojan detection rates than NOD32 though I don't know that this is true 100% of the time.. So I agree.. Also Kaspersky updates their AV bases every 3 hours which I think is excellent.. Personally for me, Kaspersky+Spyware Blaster+HiJackThis!+ good Hosts file and I have not had an infestation virus or spyware in over 5 years.. Bill
RE: [H] Google Desktop warning
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thane Sherrington (S) Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 8:57 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Google Desktop warning http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/10/google_desktop_privacy_kerfuffle/ I'm pretty sure someone on the list mentioned that Google Desktop was a privacy danger. Now we know it. T Absolutely. Forget about Google. Use Scroogle or Clusty. http://www.scroogle.org No cookies, no search-term records, access log deleted after 7 days. http://www.scroogle.org/gscrape.html Bill
RE: [H] Cell phones
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Dodge Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 7:40 PM To: 'The Hardware List' Subject: RE: [H] Cell phones OK, Ill ask, what is this hack??? Essentially, taking full advantage of all the phone's wonderful features that VZW has chosen to block. OBEX/Blutooth DUN, ability to transfer pix and ringtones from PC to phone and phone to PC. Not really a big deal for Cingular folks, but certainly a marvel of modern engineering for those of us that choose to suffer with Verizon's fee-based service model. They're called seem edits. Risky, tricky business running the risk of hosing one's phone, but well worth the effort. http://www.nuclearelephant.com/papers/e815seem.html Bill
RE: [H] Cell phones
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Sevart Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 9:37 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Cell phones Razor is as far as I am willing to look since I hate all brands (including the samsung Razor copy-cat) other than Motorola, so YMMV! No matter what you do I think you will have to have an international account or need a SIM based phone to travel w/o roaming. Man, I just don't get it. I think the RAZR is quite possibly the cell phone equivalent of the Pontiac Aztek. To each his own, I guess. :) ((loves his Moto E815 on VZW) Greg Ditto on the Moto e815 on VZW... One of the best combos I've ever had.. Bill
RE: [H] Cell phones
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 5:21 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Cell phones Those of you with the E815 - you hacked it right? Everything I have seen says that Verizon has locked down the bluetooth and browsing features to where they charge you an arm and a leg for what should be free. Like $5 for a ringtone instead of just being able to connect to your PC and transfer over part of one of your mp3s. I really hate that. Just give me the damn hardware and a connection. It's true. And it's a damn shame that we have to resort to hacking to get features that other carriers provide for free. Verizon is very piggish when it comes to features. But the e815 paired with the strength of Verizon's signal provides the best coverage I have ever seen. Bill
Re: [H] Nutty Steve Gibson claims WMF bug was planted by Microsoft
At 13:49 01/20/06, Ben Ruset wrote: I'm still waiting for the internet to break like Steve Gibson said it would when Windows 2000 was released. Gibson warned about the inclusion of raw sockets in Win2k. Everyone laughed. Since then, Microsoft has quietly eliminated the raw sockets with patches. To his credit, Gibson never made a big deal about their elimination. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] Nutty Steve Gibson claims WMF bug was planted by Microsoft
At 20:06 01/20/06, Ben Ruset wrote: Everyone laughed because raw sockets is not a real problem. *nix systems have had the ability to generate raw sockets for years. Things like clustering and VRRP depend on the ability to generate packets that appear to come from virtualized (or spoofed!) IP addresses. Raw sockets on Windows could have been a much bigger problem than those *nix systems because for every *nix system user, there were probably a thousand clueless people using Windows. Besides the fact that there aren't as many *nix users (as windows users), most of those *nix users are not so clueless. I don't see why people are so quick to attack Gibson. He puts out many free security utilities and spends a lot of effort educating windows users. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] Bad Netgear 314 ?
At 09:59 01/12/06, you wrote: I finally ended up buying a new router for 60 bucks from Office Depot. Problem solved. Lost 2 of these cheap consumer routers in 3 years. I've had three power supplies go bad on Netgear PS105 8 port 10/100 switches. These switch's work for a couple of years, then start to have problems, then die. The problems usually are indicated by the switch's port lights flashing on and off (all ports flashing synchronously at once) for short periods. This happens more and more frequently and then the switch dies completely. Maybe Netgear used really cheap power supplies on their consumer grade switches. Could this be the problem with your (Winterlight's) Netgear Router? Regards, Bill
RE: [H] Bluetooth Headsets
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 6:41 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Bluetooth Headsets My brother asked me to get him a Bluetooth headet recently..I got him an Epox HS-01 headset and a Nimbus DH-BT-TB6 bluetooth dongle. Now, after many hours of trying to get this working we are at a point where the Bluetooth drivers are installed, they reconise the headet, the security code is authorised and everything *SHOULD* be working but nothing appears in the mixer controls or in the Device pages of Audio Devices other then his soundcard How do you get Windows to actually USE a bluetooth device? Regards, Jason Tozer Database Analyst London Ext 1131 - 3SC.5 Bluetooth CAN be an absolute nightmare. Not always, but it can be. In my case it was. Literally tear your hair out.. Trying to get Windows to recognize my Verizon Motorola e815. Is the device successfully paired? Secondly, you may have a driver conflict which is very common. Check to see if the native Windows drivers are installed or the manufacturers drivers which support the device. Bill
RE: [H] Verizon DSL
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Winterlight Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 6:57 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: RE: [H] Verizon DSL FWIW I had a similar problem and it seems my modem was not on the *approved* list anymore so got a new Motorola from Cox for $60 and all is better, have not had to reset the modem once. ( the router a couple of times) but the modem has been a rock. Tallyho ! ]:8) I agree. I went through similar issues with Cox that they were unable to diagnose or resolve. Modem was old. Got a new modem and bingo!! All problems resolved. Bill
[H] 2 WMF Patches The Same??
I'm not sure if this piece is surprising or not.. Ilfak developed the WMF patch in a few hours and got it out there.. Microsoft sat on their hands how long?? Read all about it.. http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/184 Bill
Re: [H] Testing email from home
Does it WORK? Bobby Heid wrote: Well, I'll be! I got it? Now let's see if I get any more list mail. Here's hoping, Bobby -Original Message- *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *On Behalf Of *Bobby Heid *Sent:* Saturday, January 07, 2006 2:19 PM *To:* hardware@hardwaregroup.com *Subject:* [H] Testing email from home Hey, I have not been able to get email from home. I looked at my settings and it was set to inactive. I have re-enabled it again to see if I can get email. Thanks, Bobby
RE: [H] Windows vulnerability?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Veech Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 10:20 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: [H] Windows vulnerability? Guys, what's your opinion of this? http://www.grc.com/sn/notes-020.htm Sounds troubling.. To quote the SANS article, The Microsoft WMF vulnerability is bad. It is very, very bad. http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?rssstoryid=996 This link defines the problem pretty well. I'll let the article speak for itself. http://antivirus.about.com/od/virusdescriptions/a/wmfexploit_4.htm Any app that displays a WMF (Windows Meatfile) can cause a user's system to become infected. But again, AFAIK this is another example of social engineering to the extent that a user must interact or click on a URL that contains infected content. But I don't know if this is 100% correct. There may be other scenarios where a system can become infected. It's a Windows vulnerability and not a browser issue. No difference if one is using IE or Firefox. You don't have to specifically be using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.If the image is infected it can allegedly install trojans, spyware, toolbars and lots of other nasty stuff. All this occurs on a fully patched Windows system. There is currently no Windows patch for this and may not be available until perhaps next week. AV protection is also a rather dicey affair. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1907102,00.asp Thus as of this writing there are only 2 solution. I believe SANS recommends BOTH as they are the only solutions currently available. Unregister the affected .dll. You know the drill: Start/Run regsvr32 -u %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll There is an unofficial patch for the vulnerability. You can snag it directly from here: http://www.hexblog.com/security/files/wmffix_hexblog13.exe It can be uninstalled when the MS patch becomes available. Bill
RE: [H] Windows vulnerability?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Turnbull Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 2:12 PM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Windows vulnerability? From ZDNet: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=143tag=nl.e589 Microsoft's official workaround to unregister a certain DLL file using the command of regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll at the Start-Run prompt seems to also be very effective. Unfortunately, it kills the ability for Windows Explorer to display thumbnail images but I'm afraid we'll have to live without it until an official patch from Microsoft comes out (hopefully next month's patch cycle). There are new reports that there are certain cases where this fix doesn't work. MSPaint and Lotus Notes can still be exploited even with this DLL unregistered. I think we haven't heard the end of this one yet and there may be many more applications vulnerable to this exploit but the combination of hardware-enforced DEP and unregistering the shimgvw.dll file seems to be very effective for now. Best to all. Robert Turnbull, Toronto, Canada l, Toronto, Canada Good point, however unregistering shimgvw.dll ALONE is currently viewed as insufficient. There is speculation that the exploit might perhaps have the ability to re-register the DLL leaving one vulnerable once again. Bill
RE: [H] Windows vulnerability?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of dhs Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 5:57 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: RE: [H] Windows vulnerability? I've been following this thread closely. I have done the regsvr32 command on all my pc's so far. Is this command also safe for a server w/Win2K Server? Thanks, Duncan Should be.. http://www.frsirt.com/english/advisories/2005/3086 Bill
RE: [H] Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Edwards Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2005 2:53 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas Be kind to a stranger today. It's free and makes a difference. Jim I heartily second that.. Merry Christmas to everyone. Bill
[H] Windows Live Messenger
I'm Beta testing Microsoft Windows Live Messenger with MS. I'm not really that thrilled with it as I far prefer Trillian. Nonetheless, I have 2 invitations from Microsoft to allow folks to download the Beta. It is stable on my box, though it does have a few quirks and bugs. If anyone's interested drop an email add.. Bill
Re: [H] Motherboard upgrade
At 22:30 12/15/05, FORC5 wrote: Do you think my Win2k will boot (and allow me to update other hardware) if I upgrade motherboards (PIII board to P4 board, both with Intel chipsets) but move the same SCSI card into the new motherboard? should not be a problem but w2k can be very anal sometimes. Thanks Fred. I needed some moral support before taking the plunge. Also, thanks to Chris Reeves who wrote Yes, I've done this exact same thing on W2k Server a few times. and to Wayne Johnson who wrote Have done it several times with Win2k, Xp once with 2k3 without a problem. At most you may need the SCSI drivers on a floppy to re-install during boot up but usually that isn't even req'd. Sounds like I should be okay. Regards, Bill
RE: [H] -OT- Cuba
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thane Sherrington (S) Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:07 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: RE: [H] -OT- Cuba At 04:29 PM 14/12/2005, Bill wrote: You can certainly travel from Canada to Cuba without hassles. Ok, as I mentioned, I don't want to end up with a black mark on my US citizenship. Long ago, and far away, I was in Cuba for several months in the early 1970's. We sailed from St. John's Nova Scotia to Havana. St. John, New Brunswick, possibly? I don't think we have a St. John or St. John's in Nova Scotia, but it's a large port city (large by Maritimes standard) in NB. T DOH Like I said long ago, and far away.. I stand duly corrected!! Bill
Re: [H] Motherboard upgrade
At 22:10 12/15/05, FORC5 wrote: in device manager set hard drive to standard dual channel pci ide controller ( I am assuming not SATA ) I have a reg file to set boot back to default settings. have yet to have a xp mb swap not boot. ( w2k yes but not xp ) should be on THG FTP luck the trick with the add on controller works to most of the time. fred Hi Fred I have a computer booting off an Adaptec SCSI card (39160) and SCSI hard drive (15K RPM Cheetah). Do you think my Win2k will boot (and allow me to update other hardware) if I upgrade motherboards (PIII board to P4 board, both with Intel chipsets) but move the same SCSI card into the new motherboard? Regards, Bill
RE: [H] -OT- Cuba
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thane Sherrington (S) Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 12:17 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] -OT- Cuba At 03:20 PM 14/12/2005, Ben Ruset wrote: You're in Canada, right? I think you can go straight to Cuba from Canada. Use a Canadian passport and you should be OK. Ok, perfect. That's what I wanted to know. T You can certainly travel from Canada to Cuba without hassles. Long ago, and far away, I was in Cuba for several months in the early 1970's. We sailed from St. John's Nova Scotia to Havana. FWIW, amazing people, amazing country.. Bill
RE: [H] Phishing mis-spellers..
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Julian Hale Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 2:15 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Phishing mis-spellers.. At 09:57 PM 12/11/2005, you wrote: Thanks, Veech. Hovering over the click me link is a dead giveaway, also. ( paypal.signin-492.com) Never, ever respond to any of these. Jeff Actually, I've been thinking that jamming these people up with lots of false information may cause them sufficient problems to find another tactic. If a small number of the people who receive these messages would submit 10 false sets of information, it could cause the phishers quite a headache. Julian I've actually done this for several years.. Fill out all the form fields with useless garbage and a whole lot more really colorful, entertaining stuff. Know what I mean? Kind of like anti-phishing guerilla war.. I had a Network Admin tell me a few years ago that if lots of people did this... It's great fun!! Bill
Re: [H] Possible Phishing Attack? Fwd: Amazon Payments Billing Issue
At 16:21 12/03/05, Steve Tomporowski wrote: I got the same thing the other day. The key is to type in the wrong password and see if it lets you in. If it does, then it's phsihing I also get these almost every day. I've checked view source for many of them and I've seen some where the underlying link is maybe a thousand characters long. This leads me to think that if you merely click on one of these links from within your email program (and it opens in your browser), it's possible that some dangerous script or unchecked buffer overflow might attempt to execute. I don't feel 100% confident that Microsoft has patched all vulnerabilities like these. It's getting so that I really hesitate to click on links in any message, even in ones from vendors and organizations that I've been getting for years. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] USB boot
At 15:13 12/02/05, Winterlight wrote: I have two fairly modern workstations. One is based around a Asus PC DL Deluxe, and one is a Intel 865PERL. Both are around 18 months old, and come with at least six onboard USB2 ports. I can't boot off any USB flash drive, or even leave a USB drive connected during a boot up, and I can't figure out why. I had a similar problem with USB compact flash drives and Windows 2000 on two systems with Asus motherboards. (Older systems than yours...P2B-D boards, each with dual PIII-1400 processors.) I got blue screens at boot every time if I left a flash card in the USB reader. I first started using compact flash cards in a USB card reader well before SP3 or SP4 were released. I had to install a Win2k driver (supplied by Crucial) to get the card reader to work. (I seem to recall that native support for these devices was introduced with one of the late service packs...but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe my USB got screwed up some other way back then.) Anyway, the blue screens at boot (if the memory card was left in the reader) continued until a few months ago when I removed all USB devices and drivers (Add/Remove Hardware in Control Panel with Show Hidden Devices enabled...to show all instances of the USB ports and hubs and memory devices.) When I rebooted, Windows detected the USB stuff but insisted on reloading the same drivers (some Genuide file from the Win2k folder on the CDROM that came with Crucial's Compact Flash card reader). I had to delete these drivers manually from the WINNT/INF folder to keep them from being installed by Windows. After deleting all the USB devices using Add/Remove Hardware again, I was finally able to install native drivers for all USB ports and hubs. (I chose Windows Update as the source of the drivers when Windows asked me for a location for the drivers.) After all this, removable USB stuff is automatically detected with no drivers required. No problems now...although I've never tried to boot from a USB flash card. (If Windows has to write a lot to the flash card, that might be a bad thing. You have a lifetime of what, only a thousand or so writes on each memory cell on these flash cards? I'd rather do writes and erases of pictures or files instead of system files and data like that.) The above applies to both the native USB1 ports on the motherboard -and- the USB2 ports on various PCI cards that I have used in these computers. (Right now I'm using SIIG combo cards with Fast Ethernet, USB2, and Firewire ports because I was running out of free PCI slots.) Regards, Bill
Re: [H] WIFY Encryption ?
At 19:05 11/11/05, Winterlight wrote: Yes but I believe everything has to be WEP, as 2K does not support WAP. I use WAP on my laptop that runs 2k. (It has an Intel mini-pci wireless card.) I used the Intel driver utility that I downloaded for use with the card to set up the WAP.) Using a generic 802.11g access point hard wired to my regular router. Only the laptop and access point are currently doing wifi. So while Win2k may not have WAP built in, you can certainly do WAP on a Win2k system if your Access Point and wireless card support it. BTW, I can swap out the hard drive on the laptop and run WinXP. The same Intel software does WAP with this. (The Intel utility was lots easier to set up than the XP wizard. I gave up trying to get that to work.) Regards, Bill
[H] HP Laptop Battery Recall
I case anyone missed it, HP is recalling batteries on certain laptops. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06007.html Bill
RE: [H] Looking for Laptop Drive recommendation
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher Fisk Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 5:59 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Looking for Laptop Drive recommendation We have a device which uses laptop sized drives (2.5 form facter) and we need to find a high performance drive for one customer. (We're running into serious IO bottlenecks. Can anyone recommend a fast drive? Thanks, Christopher Fisk No idea as to the overall reliability of the Hitachi Travelstar.. Bought 2 laptops last year, one for myself, one for my son. P4's. But couldn't believe how slow they felt compared to our desktops systems with older hardware. Until I realized that the new laptops had 5400 rpm drives. Replaced both drives last year with the Hitachi 7200 rpm... Made a huge real-world difference. Have had no problems with either drive in a year.. Bill
RE: [H] auto reply ?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gary VanderMolen Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 4:01 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] auto reply ? In this day and age of spoofed spam, Out-of-Office autoresponders are not appropriate. If you receive spam on that account, and the From address is some innocent Joe, he will get the Out-of-Office notice. SpamCop has been urging its reporters to report this type of misdelivered email as spam. That can cause problems with your ISP. Gary VanderMolen - Original Message - how do I get outlook express to auto reply to incoming mail ? like when *out of office* Not to pile on here, but I've got my own horror story of ineptitude and Autoresponders. Years ago, I belonged to some mail list similar to this one, but it had significantly more members and was really active generating a lot of mail. Some guy in San Diego belonging to the list, took a long weekend off. Before he left his office, he flagged all his email accounts INCLUDING his mail list subscription to autoreply that he was out of the office and would not return until one early Tuesday morning.. You know where this is going.. Every message to the list generated an auto-response from this absent member that he was out of the office until Tuesday. And that message was, of course sent to every one else on the list. This was on a Sunday... He's not coming back until Tuesday... Early that Sunday morning I watched this debacle unfold over a period of 4 hours. Within that time frame, I received roughly 60 messages per hour, until about 2PM when I'd received over 200 messages, all from Mr. Weekend who could not be contacted in order to stop the flood of emails. Every list member received the same amount of mail. I calculated that by the time Weekend Boy returned to the office, every member would have received nearly 1,000 messages based on list traffic. Someone would write to the list, Turn it off, that would generate an auto-reply. People would plead with the List admin and each email would in turn generate yet another auto-reply.. and on and on and on... The guy was sending the mail from some corporate hospital account in San Diego. For some reason that I can't recall, the List Admin was not able to stop the auto-replies from hitting every member's mailbox every few minutes. Can't recall why.. Finally, I had to make a series of desperate long distance calls to the hospital's IT Dept. in San Diego. Took about an hour. Finally someone, off duty, with appropriate authority was contacted, had to drive to the hospital, was able to access this members account and disable his autoresponder. What a nightmare.. Autoresponders.. Yuk... Bill
RE: [H] Bit Torrent Prob
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of jeff.lane Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 1:48 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Bit Torrent Prob Brian, I have experienced the same thing on several occasions, many times even a far lower percentage. It's really frustrating, especially after a whole and night of downloading and the loss of seed credit. I think those 100%ers are just dropping after they get the file and do not seed. This is a bad thing for others. I try to triple my download, if possible. Hope you find an answer as I would like to know if there is another reason. Jeff Me too.. Have gone through this endlessly with Azureus. Hours and hours of downloads and then the damn thing chokes at 99.999%... While Azureus is a great client, I don't like the fact that it runs on Java which slows me down and chokes on large files. Went back to BitComet, not my favorite but haven't had a problem with large files since... Bill
RE: [H] P2P suggestions
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of joeuser Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 7:49 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: [H] P2P suggestions Normally, I just tell customers and clients to avoid using P2P because of the possible risks. However, it seems they wade into the unknown and come to me with problems related to something they are using. I used to suggest Kazaa Lite - this appears to have faded away. I understand limewire and bearshare have spyware components. What do you guys suggest for a kazaa / limewire - like p2p program. Torrents aside, can anyone suggest something spyware free that has a kazaa / limewire like UI? -- Cheers, joeuser (still looking for the 'any' key) Not using P2P, still good advice. But if one must.. For .mp3's.. Limewire Pro is fast and has no adware or spyware. Only the Pro version. Cost, about $20... The modified version of eMule Dazzle eMule which I hear is very fast... Bill
Re: [H] Gas prices
At 17:00 08/17/05, jeff.lane wrote: Like cold fusion? There were a couple of scientists, in Utah, several years ago that claimed they had made cold fusion work. That is clean, safe, perpetual, fusion .I don't recall their names but they had the scientific world standing on it's head for sometime until they discovered that it was not completely perfect, i.e., infinitely renewable. My question would be just how long did this run without renewal? After the idea of infinity went away nobody heard anything about these guys. If they had discovered pure cold fusion we could power a whole city in a clean reactor no bigger that a service station, if that big. The pellet to run a car thingall of it runs forever. Anybody think this won't or can't happen, or for that matter, may already be there??? Most scientists consider Cold Fusion to have been a fiasco. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann (the two Univ. of Utah Chemists who claimed to have first observed it) never could explain the physics behind their discovery. (Neutrons are always released by fusion reactions and none were ever detected with this so called cold fusion. In addition, most other scientists trying to verify the Univ. of Utah experiments failed to detect any energy release. The whole mess was probably due to the unreliability of closed calorimetry experiments.) So Physicists have pretty much debunked cold fusion. Interestingly, the DOE (Dept. of Energy) still occasionally gets suckered by cold fusion claims. These guys still seem willing to spend our tax dollars on research grants for things like perpetual motion machines, Kirlian photographs of the human aura, zero point energy, ball lightning, magnet therapy, etc. The most frequent warning sign of voodoo science is that claims are pitched directly to the media, like the way the two scientists from the Univ. of Utah released their results, instead of in scientific journals where they can be reviewed and tested by reputable scientists. That said, Cold Fusion still has believers, but not much confirmation. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] OT: Is this thing on??
At 19:43 08/10/05, JRS wrote: Haven't seen any posts in a couple of days Your post (above) was the first one I've seen today. I don't remember what came yesterday... Regards, Bill
RE: [H] hello, test
At 08:03 06/28/05, Thane Sherrington wrote: At 09:02 AM 28/06/2005, GP wrote: Seem to me Jim is never change isn't he, start to worry if this list suddently quiet. You know what Jim, we are getting older ;-) The list is getting quieter. I'm not sure if people are drifting away from the list, or if we are all just less interested than we used to be. Not drifting away, just not as talkative. Always lurking in the background. Regards, Bill
Re: [H] PCI NVidia card
At 12:05 06/28/05, Thane Sherrington wrote: I have a computer with a GeForce 5200 PCI card in it (an onboard i810 video) - when I run the NVidia drivers, it tells me that there is no NVidia hardware in the system. Anyone ever see this before? I kept getting the same error message no nvidia hardware after I replaced a defective Asus GeForce FX5700 with an Asus GeForce FX5600 AGP card and tried to install the drivers. I ended up deleting all Asus and Nvidia software (including the driver software in Win2k Add/Remove programs) and all video cards (including hidden ones) in Add/Remove Hardware. Then I had to use the drivers from a different Asus driver CDROM before I could get things sorted out. Not sure if this was a problem with the first nvidia driver set I tried or if it was a windows problem. I suspect that the error message was one of those cryptic ones written for one problem that resulted when another problem had a similar effect software wise. Regards, Bill
RE: [H] cable modem reset ?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FORC5 Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 10:36 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] cable modem reset ? anywhere from none to 4 or 5 times a day I have to reboot the modem to re establish WAN connection, COX claims not them. could my modem be going south ? is a best data DOCSIS 1.0 so a upgrade would not piss me off to much thanks fp -- Tallyho ! ]:8) -- What is a lie but the truth in drag? I'm on Cox also, in the Las Vegas area.. I had very similar issues which Cox was unable to diagnose.. Turned out my aging Com21 modem was the source of the problem. Got a new modem and life was fine.. Bill
RE: [H] Backup a DVD--possible?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thane Sherrington Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 3:26 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: RE: [H] Backup a DVD--possible? At 09:07 PM 24/05/2005, Chris Reeves wrote: Guys, we're basically discussing something not quite kosher. I don't have access to who's on the list anymore, so maybe doesn't matter, but uh, generally not a good idea. I was under the impression that even in the MPAA-run United States, it's still legal to back up one's own DVDs to protect them. Am I wrong in thinking that? T That is not correct. 321 Studios based their entire argument on the notion of fair use. Thus, if you own a DVD you have the right to make a backup copy for personal use. The courts, do not agree. Thus the hasty demise of 321 Studios. Their software had a built-in DeCSS decryptor. In order to make a backup copy using software, at some point, one must use a decryptor, which circumvents copyright protection. Software that includes a decryptor violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. But the digital cat-and mouse game continues with loads of software solutions that supposedly get around that. Though admittedly, most DVD burning solutions these days do not include a decryptor, using an add-on from another source. In terms of the MPAA, the Golden Rule applies here: He who has all the gold makes all the rules. Bill
RE: [H] Old Asus p2bd - should/could I use it?
At 13:10 04/16/05, W. D. wrote: At 01:22 4/16/2005, Bill Cohane, wrote: Guess I didn't look long enough for the source of that article! It only took a few seconds. The trick is to put a unique line in quotes like so: http://tinyurl.com/cp5h5 Yesterday, I used the exact same line (in quotes) and went through one page of useless results...mostly adds for PIII processors and short posts at discussion group. Today it worked right away. Go figure! Regards, Bill
Re: [H] Old Asus p2bd - should/could I use it?
At 06:32 04/15/05, Bill Cohane wrote: Also, P2B-D boards before revision 1.06 don't all work at 133 MHz. FAB (front side bus). If you have one of these boards, you'd be limited to 800 MHz. (8X100) Coppermines. Oops. You could do 8.5X100. Or even 10X100 MHz if you can find a pair of 1 GHz PIII that run at 100 FSB. Of course, you don't need to bother with multiplier jumper settings since PIII ignore them. Just the FSB jumper. Regards, Bill
RE: [H] Old Asus p2bd - should/could I use it?
At 00:01 04/16/05, rls wrote: Wow, thanks for all the good info. This board is version 1.05. I was thinking about going with the 8 x 100 PIII. But did not realize that the voltage limit would bite me. It was sort of an attractive way to go for me since I have about 700 mg lying around. But I wanted to with at least 1 gig hz on each cpu. I actually built this server originally for a company and has run 24 x 7 for nearly 8 years. Sort of aggravated to find out the Adaptec does not provide drivers for XP for the AAA-131U2. Was and expensive card way back when. Considering the obstacles, the cost of the processors, the age etc I think I will just pick up an MSI ATI 200 express m/b and 939 processor. But I appreciate all your input - btw - I had upgraded the bios to 14.003 while I was playing around with it. There's still a way to get your 1.05 (or older) P2B-D to take two PIII-850 or two PIII-1000. I saved an article that shows how to modify any slot one Coppermine PIII to request 1.80 volts from the motherboard. (All P2B-D boards can supply 1.80 volts to the processors. This is only .10 volts more than the official voltage for PIII-1000, or .15 volts more than for the PIII-850. A .15v increase that shouldn't be harmful to the processor. I've run dual PIII-800 at 1.80 volts for weeks without problems. I couldn't find this article tonight using Google. But if you're interested, I can zip up the webpage that I saved and send it to you. Here are some of the text contents of the webpage. (There are great pictures that I of course can't include here. They make the procedure look very easy.) Dual PIII 1.12 Ghz on the Asus P2B-DS Rev 1.04 the PIII 1Ghz/100Mhz Slot 1 processor is designed for 1.7v core. This is no problem for newer P2D-DS boards (Rev 1.06 and higher) - just plug in the processors and boot up - but gives us a problem on older revision boards. There are five voltage identification pins (named VID[0-4]) on the Slot 1 connector. These pins are used to support automatic selection of power supply voltages. These pins are not signals, but are either an open circuit (logic 1) or a short circuit to ground (logic 0) on the processor. The combination of opens and shorts defines the voltage required by the processor core. The power supply must supply the voltage that is requested or disable itself. The table below shows the VID[0-4] logic states for 1.7v (Pentium III 1Ghz/100Mhz Slot 1) and 1.8v (minimum available on P2B-DS rev 1.05 and lower). Voltage VID0 VID1 VID2VID3VID4 (Pin B120) (Pin A120) (Pin A119) (Pin B119) (Pin A121) 1.7 1 1 1 0 0 1.8 1 0 1 0 0 If we can change VID1 from a '1' (open circuit) to a '0', (short circuit to ground), the processor will appear to be requesting 1.8v. This might sound like a task requiring some delicate work with a soldering iron, however there is a better way. VID4 (Pin A121) is a '0' and is adjacent to VID1 (Pin A120), which we need to change to a '0'. Slot 1 Processor VID Pins A120 and A121 are the last two pins to the right on the heatsink side of the processor. If we look closely at the Slot 1 connectors on the motherboard, there is a tiny gold contact for each pin on the processor. The contacts are spring loaded, and are forced outward when the processor is inserted into the slot. The upper ends of the contacts are visible in the small rectangular holes on the top of the Slot 1 connector, and move back and forth in these holes as the processor is inserted and removed. If we insert a small U-shaped piece of wire into the rectangular holes corresponding to pins A120 and A121, the gold contacts will be forced against the wire when the processor is inserted, thus connecting A120 to A121 and changing the processor voltage request from 1.7v to 1.8v The U-shaped wire used to connect pins A120 and A121 should be about 3mm tall and 1 mm wide. It also needs to be just the right diameter. I don't have a micrometer to measure the diameter but I used the thickest wire I could find which would fit into the rectangular hole in the top of the Slot 1 connector easily. Use tweezers to drop the wire into the holes. Put wires in both Slot 1 connectors. Now insert your processors and connect the fan cables to the headers on the motherboard. I recommend setting the FSB jumpers for 100Mhz initially, although my system is perfectly stable with the FSB at 112Mhz. The CPU multiplier jumpers do not need to be set as the multiplier is locked at 10x on the Pentium III 1Ghz/100Mhz Slot 1 processor. The pictures on this webpage make this method very clear. (My copy of the webpage was saved as an MHT webarchive document via Internet Explorer.) Regards, Bill
Re: [H] Access GMail through Eudora
At 23:29 04/04/05, Wayne Johnson wrote: At 10:10 AM 4/1/2005, Thane Sherrington typed: http://email.about.com/od/eudoratips/qt/et121004.htm Any one get this to work as I haven't been able to ? When I check the Eudora.log it says Could not connect to pop.gmail.com\r\n Cause: connection timed out (10060) FWIW I do have pop enabled at my GMail acct. Lots of people are having trouble getting *some* recent versions of Eudora to work with Gmail. The following worked for me: Start a new email-message in Eudora and copy this text into it: x-eudora-option:SSLAltPortReceiveVersion=6 x-eudora-option:SSLAltPortSendVersion=6 now HOLD your ALT key, and click both links (confirming the popup with OK) If this doesn't solve it, or it breaks your other SSL connections use these URLs to get back to your old mode: x-eudora-option:SSLAltPortReceiveVersion=0 x-eudora-option:SSLAltPortSendVersion=0 This information came from http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/kb/2456hq.htmlhttp://www.eudora.com/techsupport/kb/2456hq.html. Regards, Bill
