Messages

16

Computers - Technology / Re: Suggestions needed for my old pc

« on: May 07, 2009, 04:37:06 pm »

You want a board capable of running a Core2 CPU with an AGP slot ... but with better RAM options. I'm shocked you found anything under that combination in the first place 

17

Browsers / Re: What is the best browser?

« on: May 02, 2009, 02:47:49 am »

I use Firefox because it's so open and when I find a bug with it I can report it and in many cases chat to a developer and they'll get it fixed.

Generally however, browser likes are subjective and down to individual tastes. But there are somethings which are at least partly quantifiable from the browsers:

* General support of a certain set of specifications (CSS2, SVG etc...)
* General speed in a certain category of browser processing (DOM speed, certain types of Javascript speed)
* Effectiveness of the security model imposed

However all of these can be greatly spun one way or another, but with enough objectiveness you can certainly draw some constructive conclusions from trying to quantify them.

18

General Discussion / Re: Geneva Conventions - Torture

« on: April 30, 2009, 03:43:13 am »

o.k, firstly some things are clearly not subjective, like "intentionally inflicted" it either was intentionally inflicted or it wasn't.

I don't know what your focus of past wars is based on? Of course we tortured during these wars, for the same reason authorities have the urge to do it now. But it's about whether we keep trying to stand higher, look at what we did and say "Yes, that went too far" and keep pushing ourselves away from acting on those urges.

"like loud unattractive music" is not torture in of itself. However the act of keeping somebody awake for well over a week will cause severe mental suffering to the average person, no matter how much you can trivialise the method of doing so.

19

General Discussion / Re: Geneva Conventions - Torture

« on: April 29, 2009, 04:16:13 pm »

Hey fuzzy, I think the specific issues aren't listening to some loudly but rather intentionally not letting someone sleep for well over a week. Also not putting an insect in someone's holding cell, but rather putting them in an extremely crapped stress position, barely able to move and then putting an insect in when you know they're afraid of insects.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be greatly spinning the facts.

Copied and pasted straight from wikipedia:

Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is: "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions."

20

Browsers / Re: Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 (soon to be Firefox 3.5)

« on: April 29, 2009, 03:32:22 am »

TheHalf, you seem to be getting the 3.0.10 update and the 3.5 beta 4 updates mixed up. I'll make a post about the 3.5 beta 4 updates shortly.

21

Gaming / Re: Games,oldies and even older

« on: April 28, 2009, 03:35:54 am »

My son Andrew (25yrs) got made redundant 6 months ago, and most of the time he played 'World  of Warcraft'. Since he got a new job 2 weeks ago, he has hardly played it. I was very worried that he would become addicted. So he must have more sense than i gave him credit for

WoW is only seriously addictive if you have an addictive personality, in which case your most likely to just get hooked on something else instead. I've been playing a lot the last few months, but that's probably going to take a back burner now I've got a new job and am leaving Tesco stock control 

22

Gaming / Re: Cheat for alone in the dark 5 Pc

« on: April 28, 2009, 03:32:20 am »

Google

23

Computers - Technology / Re: Microsoft reveals their next OS - Windows 7

« on: April 28, 2009, 03:31:25 am »

I hear you can't upgrade from XP to 7.0 only from Vista, you have to buy the full new install, which from Microsoft is expected.

It's expected from any company that they don't support a path from version 1 to version 3 without going through version 2 first.

It's quite possible to get a legit version of the Windows 7 Beta. I downloaded the MSDN image file and registered for a FREE official key from Microsoft. I am currently running Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7000 on one of my computers and it's running flawlessly. The performance does seem a lot better than Vista, especially boot times. The interface does look a lot cleaner and I love the new taskbar.

Overall, it's not too much different from Vista, but it's definitely a noticeable improvement in both performance and interface, so in my eyes that's one good windows upgrade.

The only thing I have to complain about is the name. Vista is Windows 6.0 and Windows 7 is 6.1. I think calling it Windows 7 was a bad idea...

Lets quickly go through some of the recent major windows releases:
Windows 5.0: 2000
Windows 5.1: XP
Windows 6.0: Vista
Windows 6.1: Windows 7
 
This does not make any apparent sense to me. Are they thinking that this is the naming scheme? ->

1: Windows 3.1
2: Windows 95
3: Windows 98
4: Windows 2000
5: Windows XP
6: Windows Vista
7: Windows 7

This is the only thing I can think of.

It's based off the philosophy many games have their numbering, that is: "It's that number because I say it is!". Even it's NT number is 6.1, so they can't use that as the excuse.

24

Computers - Technology / Re: Wireless Routers

« on: April 26, 2009, 04:32:35 pm »

Sounds like either some buggy ethernet drivers or something broken on the motherboard (buggy network controller etc..)

25

Computers - Technology / Re: Wireless Routers

« on: April 25, 2009, 06:13:41 am »

Hi all,

Most "HACKERS" love wireless routers, most are configured incorrect with the a computers operating system ...... you can drive around any town, city or village and access many networks and personal computers, use wireless routers properly or risk being hacked.

Fuzzy

2 easy things to get around this:

1. Make sure you use a non-default password on the router
2. Make sure the default firmware doesn't have some huge security hole in it and update it if needs be

Other than that they can only steal your bandwidth but you can add a wireless security key system which hasn't been broken yet.

26

Music - Movies - TV / Re: Terminator, The Sarah Connors Chronicles

« on: April 25, 2009, 03:38:49 am »

  @ the end of Season 2

27

Computers - Technology / Re: Wireless Routers

« on: April 19, 2009, 01:41:16 pm »

Had a good read through info on the web regarding 802.11n routers. They have had many problems over these ;
last couple of years. Many have come and gone. The main problem seems to be the interference they cause to other routers within range and their ability to use both range widths effectfully. The price range is also high.
cheers

We got fairly standard 802.11n router for about £75, it has 2 omni-directional antennas and 1 focused antenna. Every review said it had fantastic wireless range, we don't even use it's n capability because the cards are a little too expensive atm, but it's good to know we'll be able to upgrade in the future. Before that we'd already upgraded the antennas on the PCs, they were £5, more than doubled the signal reception and were very versatile as they came off a wire from the PC and had a magnet base so we could stick them in a better receiving position (right between the back of a PC and the wall leads to poor signal quality).

Draft 2 of the 802.11n specification, which routers are generally on at the moment, means the router will search the bandwidth spectrum and try and avoid frequencies which interfere with other wireless settings. But as it stands if there are many wireless signals in the same area then the noise interferes with each other anyway unless your on a signal band 4 away from any of the others (pretty unlikely as there are 13 choices in Europe). Also, many companies provide firmware updates come out when the new drafts of standards come out so that they better comply and resolve such issues, I know the linksys routers (we have one) firmware are licensed in GPL and so people write custom firmware for them to improve particular settings.

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Computers - Technology / Re: Wireless Routers

« on: April 17, 2009, 11:34:25 am »

All routers provide internal firewalls.

You need to either look in to 802.11G with very good antennas to provide about 54 Mbps, 802.11G+ which is a proprietary system so you need the right cards and router to prove 104 Mbps or you need to look in to 802.11n draft 2 which will provide 200 - 300 Mbps.

Make sure you get cards which can receive the right sort of signal and provide them with higher dB(i) antennas if they need it, read a few reviews of the router beforehand to gauge it's wireless quality.

29

General Discussion / Re: The dreaded CREDIT Crunch.??

« on: March 24, 2009, 07:01:47 am »

That really sucks, I'm surprised the U.S don't have a national school system like in the U.K. To help promote jobs and prepare for the future the Government are spending lots of money on building new schools and strengthening the current system at the moment.

30

Browsers / Re: The Best Firefox Add-Ons

« on: March 13, 2009, 02:49:54 pm »

Oh forget Fasterfox I just installed Firefox 3.1b3 and all is smooth. Are any add-ons available for this beta version?

TheHalf™

Lots of add-ons are updates, I think they expect to have over >95% of all Major add-ons working for it before final release.