Atreyu

Wow.. we seem to have a lot of folks from Europe on this board, I never realized! When I get some money together I'm gonna head over there for vacation. I've been to the U.K. before, for two weeks, and I loved it. That was the neatest thing I have ever done. I want to get down to the Italy/Greece area next time I go (maybe do some online shopping while I'm there :-) ). Anyways, I dig you European folks. How are things going with the Euro? Bla bla.. I'm super bored at work today, can you tell?

http://www.enpc.com seems to have pretty good prices and average shipping costs. I've never bought anything from them though so I cannot comment on their ability to function as a business. Anybody have insight to this merchant?

I checked out MWAVE.COM per sapiens74's recommendation. They seem to be pretty good and the shipping costs were very, VERY reasonable. I'll probably try to grab my 641's off of there, but not until I get the morons at MicroPro.com to credit my card. The fools charged me (not a temporary authorization) while they didn't even have the product in stock... and furthermore they didn't have a record that my card was charged. Well if I go to my credit card's website, it says very clearly that I was charged $167 on 3-19-02. I feel like I'm on a conquest here... I'm just tired of getting shafted by these online scams. If you're going to run a business, know that your customer is its life-blood and treat them like royalty. If they don't treat me as such, vengeance will be mine!

That's the kind of info I'm lookin' for... thanks! It will help us all out from getting screwed in the future.

LOL Clutch do you dream of NTCompatible? I think you must carry your new pocketPC around all day long with NTCompatible loaded up on it or something cuz you are like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon with this board. edit: I wrote that because he replied within one minute of my posting.. da nut. I have another online merchant to stay away from http://www.pc-beyond.com "Beyond Computer Inc." Not only are they out of stock on much of what I wanted to order (which their website does not accurately represent), but it's one of those places that nobody who works there speaks English as their first language. They called me "dude" once when I was talking to them. Stay away.

Nobody is going to be able to help you with that info. We need tons more to even begin troubleshooting. What was the message under the STOP? Did this happen after you installed something (hardware/software)? How often have you seen this? What are your system specs? How are you trying to install XP? When in the installation is it happening? Have you ever used NT-base operating systems before? We need a lot more... help us help you.

Yup I have yet to see a nice "Linux Security Bulletin" email pop up in my inbox yet like I do when a problem surfaces with Microsoft... and I certainly don't expect to. Thanks Microsoft, for all you do to keep your products up to date and your customers informed. It's that system which makes Windows and other Microsoft technologies far more trustworty and secure than open source platforms. The reason? Accountability. As they say, you get what you pay for!

On a side note... I do think that AOL is in the right on this one. I can definately see security issues related to "other" applications accessing the system... and even moreso: Trillian is gaining a huge user base and making nice amounts of money on a system paid for and designed by AOL. Technically, AOL is entitled to royalties from Trillian for the use of their system. Oh well.

Same here. One comment... AOL is worse than Microsoft in the evil category, by FAR. When was the last time you got some free CD from Microsoft in the mail containing their latest trial version of SQL Server? Probably never. When was the last time you got some free AOL CD in the mail with their latest trial version of American Online? ALL THE FREAKIN TIME! I have so many AOhell CD's that I've converted to drink coasters as a result. Heck, I even threw some in the microwave for a thrill (if you've never done this, i suggest you give it a try. it's neat). While Microsoft is huge, it's because people choose their products over the competition. AOL is huge because they force their product into every household. I hate this and curse AOL's name. IM used to be cool back when it was much thinner with no advertisements or TRASH. ICQ kicked major butt before AOL got it's greasy hands on it. Now it's full of ads and garbage as well. Then came Trillian... the heavenly program which solved all the world's problems. This is a truly a great program, but I fear that one day it too will fall under the corporate umbrella, it's quality slowly deteriorating. If you guys are sick of ICQ and IM and all the garbage that comes with them nowadays, check out http://www.oldversion.com/ It has all the old versions of the coolest little programs released in the past 5 years. Anyway.. that's my two cents worth.

I need an outlet, and I thought the "other" forum at NTCompatible would be a fitting place.. How else to describe my rage towards Verizon other than to say they are without competition, the most unorganized, poorly-managed, incompetent, selfish, deceiving, and careless company I’ve ever dealt with. Where to begin…? Let’s start with the spread of the infection two years ago. During the summer of 2000, Verizon slimed its way into the Northeast, taking over Bell Atlantic (I miss you guys!!). During that summer I was a waiter at a resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Being only a summer job while away from school, I lived at the resort in one of the hotel rooms reserved for employees who shared similar circumstance (yes, it was sweet). Being a die-hard computer junkie, I wanted to be online.. even if it WAS through dial-up. I did not need to subscribe to an ISP because there was a satellite campus of my college (Penn State) near where I was staying… which provided any students in the area with dial-up access. The only problem was that the campus might have been a long distance call away. To check on this, I called Verizon to ask if calls to that campus would be considered long distance. They ran some sort of test or looked at a map, got back on the phone with me and told me “no”…. the call would not be long distance. Very happy with this, I immediately dialed-up, and stayed dialed-up for the entire summer. At the end of July I received my first phone bill, $1,827.xx. Since the bills come one month “behind”, I got an even more gut wrenching feeling, knowing about an impending $700 bill to arrive in August. How does a 21 year old college student who lives off of ~ $2,000 per year react to this sort of shock? First I laughed. Then I got scared. Then I wanted to throw up. Then I wanted to just cry. Those bills would mean that I would work my butt off all summer long, and still not have enough money to pay off an outstanding phone bill… not to mention tuition for the upcoming year, food and other living expenses, car maintenance, and books. It turns out the call was not a “long distance” call but, rather, a “local long distance” call.. or a “toll call”. As I often do when I encounter huge roadblocks like this, I first called my father for advice. After I got past all of his “I told ya so’s”, he suggested a few courses of action. The first, obviously, would be to call Verizon and try to negotiate a settlement through them. Well, if you remember, during the summer of 2000, Verizon employees were on strike. It took until summer’s end before I was able to reach a representative. Then, after a week of nagging and negotiating, they chopped off $900… a nice gesture, but still unacceptable. They would not budge any further, so I decided to take things up with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The PUC heard my complaint, filed it, and sent it up the line to the head honcho-judge-type person there. During the phone call I was advised to not speak with any representative from Verizon and not to send any payments until a “verdict” had been reached. Also, I was instructed that if Verizon called, I was to refer them to the PUC with complaint (or issue) number. I did what the PUC told me to do, but by this time Verizon had forwarded my information and the “story” to a creditor. I was receiving calls almost daily from those jerks, and not being Verizon, they did not care about the PUC or the issue number. I then called Verizon (against the PUC’s recommendation) to inform them of the actions taken by me, with hopes that they would withdraw their troops until a notice was issued by the PUC. According to the representative at Verizon, when a problem of this sort thrown into the laps of the creditors, Verizon washes its hands. In other words, I was screwed. I had the creditors badgering me for payments, and the PUC telling me not to pay. Eventually I got the PUC to call the creditors and tell them to lay off… which worked for a while. October rolled around and I got a letter in the mail from the PUC confirming my responsibility for the payment. Their argument was that since I did not have the name of the Verizon representative, their extension or direct contact information, or the time and day of the call, I had no way of proving my story. I then dropped my sword and gave in. I was defeated. I did all that I could do for the time being. Verizon won. The enormous corporate monopoly was successful in bleeding me of every last penny in my pocket. Fortunately by the time the “verdict” rolled around, I had an internship at General Electric and was able to pay off the debt with seven, $270 monthly payments. I was so poor during my senior year of college because of them. At one point, I had $15.83 to my name. That’s it. I got through that mess, but it left an awful taste in my mouth. Nowadays, with every chance I get, I bad mouth the organization as much as possible and suggest to anybody that if they have a choice between Verizon and some other company… chose that other company. Since then I’ve had other issues with Verizon, dealing with everything from billing, to DSL service that doesn’t work, to incorrect recording of my home address in nearly every one of their systems, to unexplained Verizon letters in the mail telling me that payments are overdue, to customer “service” representatives who know even less about customer service than the product they are supporting, to the representatives who can’t speak a coherent form of English, and finally, to the woman who asked me if my “Internet browser was working correctly”. On a more positive note, the DSL repair service team does a wonderful, WONDERFUL, job to troubleshoot their problems and eventually (after two months) fix the problem. Turns out, to fix my problem, they did something I suggested they do 3 weeks ago… which was re-route my DSL to a different shelf, since the one I was currently connected to was running at 95% utilization. But hey… what do I know right? I’m just a stupid customer! Well anyways… if you can avoid Verizon, do so.

I'll go with cable as soon as it's available in my area. I mean heck, you can get the same speeds at half the price. Even more attractive is that I wouldnt be giving Verizon money. Overall I'd say I'm pleased with my DSL. However, like with everything else from Verizon, it's had problems.

Try out the Logitech Z-540's $80 bucks 4.1 and killer sound no matter how loud you set them. Logitech bought Labtec and therefore all of their patents, so the z-540's employ the same technology as the Labtec pulse 424's (i have a set and they kick *** as well). Go for the Z-540's, in my opinion they are the best speakers for the price on the market.

here here!

From what you have heard/read, what do you guys think about Lindows? For those of you that don't know, it's an operating system in development which will be able to run both Linux and Windows apps. It is actually Linux, but with a built in Windows emulation layer. It sounds pretty neat, but who knows. Lindows

You can find that out by looking at the WAN address in your router's settings.

That will turn off the stupid dog, but it won't change the annoying search setup back to good ole' Win2k's search setup. You need TweakUI with the powertools suite to do that. ---at least i have yet to find another way.

That's pretty funny. Other than behavioral issues, that parent has no idea what he's talking about. He obviously has very little knowledge of computer terms and technology... especially when he was talking about Linux. Being a "model" parent, and if he is concerned about his child abusing the net, he should read about content control, security settings in NT (and should be using NT), and the technology in general. Also, maybe he should realize that his lack of discipline towards his kids, and his willingness to drop thousands of dollars on them for a "toy" has contributed to their aloofness and change of personality. Perhaps he should reconsider his no-spank policy. Sorry... that article ticked me off. Perfect case of a parent having problems with his kids, and blaming other people for it. What an idiot. Also, when people make a sad attempt at portraying themselves as an expert on something they obviously know nothing about... that also really irritates me. Oh well.

It sapped my will to live

Whew, thanks Philipp. That other one was pretty bad.... however if the other forum makes life easier for you, by all means use it! After all, it's your box, your forum!

I decided one night to make a .wma file to see what Microsoft was boasting about. The file size was super small, WAY smaller than your average MP3 and sounded just as good. I'm considering converting my MP3 collection to .wma since it would take up less than half the space. Anybody here prefer .wma over .mp3? I was pretty surprised at the sound quality vs. file size. If Microsoft came out with the technology earlier, I could definately see .wma being mainstream and not .mp3.

which sorta turns my stomach.... knowing that microsoft will have taken yet another idea conjured by somebody else, changed it around a bit, then claimed the technology was their invention all along. this is what i don't like about microsoft. i don't think it will happen though. the term "mp3" and it's technology is so deeply rooted in the computer world that not even microsoft will be able to phase it out. as far as sound quality goes... i think it is equal between the formats. what impressed me was the size of the .wma files for the sound they produced. I remember when I was 11 years old and I got my first CD player. I was in awe that some laser could read music off of that shiny disk. I remember wondering to myslf, "self.. when you're older, what kind of medium will they put music on that could be any cooler than this?". I was also impressed at how I could type in the track number that I wanted to hear and the cd would go right to the song. Nowadays, with mp3-capable cd players as well as personal mp3 players like the ipod, you can fit ~200 records onto one CD (or device). 200 records, hundreds of hours of music on something you can hold in the palm of your hand. Is anybody else as impressed by this as me?

Probably because the new "Luna" theme is the ugliest/corniest thing ever created, and Microsoft realized it has no place in a server operating system

If they took out IE, that would be the FIRST thing I installed! You don't get the same NTFS authorization abilities from any other browser... which is very important to me. Also it's tons faster and secure then Nutscrape and Opera in my experience.

You could always try Barns & Noble Booksellers