Christianb

Hi Alec, I really don't recall helping you all that much. I certainly remember writing you quite a few long post though and recommending InnoSetup. In fact it seems like you have helped me quite a few times more. Although I gotta admit, most of the time it's you and I that are helping someone else . Speaking of Open Source Dev tools I tried XBasic, which is supposed to be one of the closest things to Visual Basic in the open source world. Well it's not a VB clone really, it's a basic clone, and you can create a UI using wxWindows objects (like Java, only there's more supported platforms, it isn' web based, and it's an open-source alternative). I was rather disapointed. I hate case-sensitivity, and a lack of syntax highlighting to let you know whether or not you're on the right track. The cool thing about XBasic is that your source code can be compiled to work on Win32 and Unix. The IDE is the same for both platforms (mediocre ). The problem is that the Win32 version of XBasic compiles to a wxWindows .exe which means that the compiled .exe is about like Java: slow, and consists of non-standard controls (controls proprietary to the window-ing environment). I also took a little bit of a look at Delphi and PowerBasic. Believe it or not PowerBasic is even faster than Delphi! That's something alright, but Delphi is significantly easier to use, cheaper, and more integrated between code and UI design. Not to mention you can actually find a job using Delphi . So Long Buddy, Christian

Hi Andy, Thanks for that PDF file I saved it to my PC for future analysis. That file is hella cool 8) . -Christian

VideoBruce may be right. I wouldn't be at all suprised if most users wouldn't be just as happy with a solution from OpenOffice.org or Abi Word. Adios Amigos, Christian

I liked the bearded clam case joke . So is there a specific term for those large black cases that 99.99% of Movie DVDs ship in? Thanks, Christian

Hi Gang, I finally found out some info on this lawsuit against IBM. It's related to their defective 75GXP line which acconts for most of their 15-75GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache drives. There's a web form listed their to leave your testament. Hopefully, we'll all be compensated for the incredible loss of time, productivity, and peace of mind we all expect from our hard drives. For the record I won't be buying an IBM HD ever again or their Hitachi clones. Western Digital Special Editions are the best right now to my knowledge they're the only line of parallel IDE drives to offer a 3 year warranty any more. When an IBM HD fails they don't send you a new one, nor will they cross-ship, but they are happy to make you wait for 3 weeks while they ship you a refurbished replacement from Malaysia. When a WD Fails they'll have you a new one in about 2-3 days, and it's a brand new drive. Not only that if you decide that you would like to trade-up to something better at the same time, whey'll let you do so. IBM does not. Way to go WD! http://www.sheller.com/ibmclassaction.htm Adios Amigos, Christian

Hi Alec, I couldn't agree more. Western Digital has a long history of making quality drives, not always the fastest, but always durable. And yes what separates the good companies from the bad is how they respond when their products turn out to be defective. I read a study saying that 1/4 of all computer hardware shipped is defective. With numbers like that don't you want to give your money to the company with the balls to do a product recall. IBM won't do it, fujitsu likes to lie to users for a year and tell them everything is fine, and then do a product recall. Who will you give your money to? When I was a boy I'd often take my hard disk with me when I'd visit my dad. This would ensure that all my games would come with me . I had a western digital drive that I took on two plane flights one from Seattle to Sacramento and back. On the way back I came home with a Seagate drive my dad gave me. Both drives eventually failed due to the presurized cabin. However the Seagate died the moment I took it home after only one plane flight. The Western Digital drive continued to work for about 4 months, before it also died. However do recall the Western Digital made it two plane flights and then some the Seagate died after one exposure. I can only assume that laptop HDs and or the laptop's outer enclosures somehow protect the drives from this type of air pressure. I did travel with the drives in boxes and somehow it still affected them? Oh well, they were only 210MB (Seagate) and 340MB (WD). So you know this happened quite a long time ago . Adios Amigos, Christian

Hi Ej, That's promissing for me. Perhaps I'll send mine in. I'd love to have two 60GBs that...I don't know...WORKED! Thanks for the info, Christian Blackburn

I'd also like to note that IBM and WD use the exact same drive technology that is they're bedfellows. The difference is WD recalled their defective 75GXP generation drives like a decent company. Fujitsu and IBM like to beat around the bush and completely screw their customers instead. Of course Fujitsu justed lied to everyone for a year saying there weren't any problems even though they knew otherwise. Then at the last minute they came out saying oh ya it was our suppliers' fault. Which it was, but they should have recalled the whole line immediately rather than saving face in the short run. Adios Amigos, Christian

Feel free to reply with your own experiences.

Hi Alec, Thanks for the info. I removed this application from my system's startup routine since it's just going to slow things down. Sure it'll slow down the execution of office application's but I don't really run them all that frequently so it's not a very big deal to me . Thanks Again for the Help, Christian

Office 2K has one of the worst installers I've ever worked with. Good luck you'll probably need it. -Christian

Hi El Vago, I knew immediately what your problem was, because I've experienced it in the past and in fact just went through the same thing today. I installed a new HD and it's indexing all my old files that just happen to be on a new drive . In the future please be sure to provide more details, for example you neglected to list your OS, Memory resident applications, and what hardware you have installed. -Christian

Hello Everyone, I'd like to stop and take this special moment to thank all the junk mail solicitors that have written me about penis enlargements. I have taken the time and money out of my busy schedule to respond to and purchase each of their offers. From hence forth you are all to address me as "Incoveniently Large Dick Man" LOL! And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I do get a custom made cape with that!

Hi CatDog, First off don't accept a copy of IE from any URL, except Microsoft. There's no need to take that risk, MS has an incredibly fast connection so why fool around any where else? Start the little installer and choose download rather than install. It'll download all the files to a directory and away you go. Unless they changed that in 5.5, but all previous versions made it a visible option right at the start of the installation. -Christian

That would of course make you bi-OSual .

Hi DoskFreak and others, Actually the glide verison of D2 is dramatically better than the DirectX version and that's totally Interplay's fault. There are possibly more polygon's with D2 Glide, but there are definetly better textures, way better! The DX version is butt only the glide version is the only way to travel. Alternatively you could just spend about 10 bucks on ebay, Half.com, or DirectDeals.com and buy yourself a copy of D3. However I didn't really find the space ship movement to be as good as it was in D2. The graphics however are much, much, much better. As far as I know D3 is technolgically better than Quake 2 and Unreal in fact. Not only that you have your choice of Glide, D3D, or OpenGL and there's even a Unix version if you go both ways . -Christian

Hi Ali, Please forgive me if I ask something you've already tried, but did you try each stick individually? One of them may be bad. Usually Windows just detects more RAM and works fine, I highly doubt you are having issues with windows related to the quantity of ram. You may have one bad stick or one incompatible stick or perhaps the two sticks are different speeds and simply won't work together. The other possibility is that your P3 Motherboard only supports 768MB of RAM which is highly likely. Also you should turn off quick startups in your bios and have it do more thorough checking of your ram, it may find the problem for you. There could also be a code issue in your bios, do you have the most recent version? Good Luck, Christian

Hi Duhmez and Mr. Guverment, Thanks for the help guys you both gave invaluable suggestions I will give it a go and let you all know . -Christian 8)

Hi Gang, I thought some people out there would like to know what to expect if they don't have a digital camera at the airport. Cheers, Christian[/img]

Hi Wavex, Whatever quantity of ram you wind up getting I would be sure not to fill all your slots unless you're going to buy enough ram to max out your motherboard. -Christian

Hi Alec and duhmez, The main defraging program I use is SystemSuite 3.0's Defrag. However they're usage monitoring tool causes I/O crashes. So I disabled that and now everything works fine, slower, but fine. So I'm not getting a full optimization, but it's simply the easiest fix it and forget it type defrag I've ever used. You can just select some or all of your drives in about 5 seconds click next and away it goes. That's what I've always hated about Norton's SpeedDisk you have to set the start and stop times for each drive. There just isn't an option to have it do them all and stop when it's done (which is of course the most logical feature offering). I've never used Disk Keeper though, I'm sure it's good. Have you ever used SystemSuite APK? It's excellent. I like their tools a lot better than Norton's however I heard that SystemSuite 4.0's Zip feature is loaded with adds for the full Zip-It product, but really I never used that module all that much anyhow . I'm just waiting for SS 5.0 to come out before I start using 4.0. I like stable apps . The reason 5.0 isn't already out is because the title just switched hands from Ontrack to V-Com, both companies make excellent product though. However, it's my opinion that the first version of a program under a new owner is usually sketchy at best . -Christian

Hi PaTiNsAnE, I assume this is a USB mouse? It sounds to me like you're power supply might be on it's way out. If your power supply isn't providing enough juice your whole system will fluctuate like that. Another possibility is that you have a faulty USB port or just need a USB driver update. You don't have a USB 2 controller do you that could also be problematic since they're so new. Try getting a voltage monitoring tool that supports your motherboard, noting that not all motherboards can even do that. Another thing is that the USB plug may be a loose fit or not in there all the way. Try using a different port, that isn't so "loose" and see if that doesn't help. Another option is to buy a 7+ dollar USB controller, plug your mouse into that and see if the problems don't disappear. I had a bad USB port on an Intel 440BX chipset, which is otherwise known for having rock solid USB functionality. I was just unluckly and also found out about my problem after the warranty period . Good Luck, Christian

Hi Brian Diet Kaza is the same thing (spyware free), but it also speeds up downloads a little, by choosing find more locations on a timed interval for each downloading item. However the version I have doesn't resume failed downloads, but 2.0 does. However I'm in no hurry to upgrade. I'm also trying to impliment this feature myself in a program I'm writing called KaZaA Control. However, it's only somewhat stable right now and so I haven't uploaded it to any files libraries yet. Also I don't have settings dialogs for all the options yet . I do however have enough of the auto-update engine working for it to detect an updated version, offer to download it, and initiate the file download dialog of IE. Adios, Christian

Hi Gang, I seem to have an incorrect passowrd saved in Front Page 2002. This password logs onto my web HTTP://www.RawSeattle.org. The log-in dialog comes up so fast that I can't cancel it. How can I get Front Page to forget this password? Oh and for the record that isn't my cheesy jpg listing info on the home page. There's a number of people that work on the website. I would virtually never list a bunch of text in a graphic, let alone a JPG. Thanks so much for any and all help, Christian Blackburn

Hi DS3Circuit, Yep that's what I had to do. Deleting registry entries, browser caches, and cookies, didn't do the job. I don't think the later two have anything to do with it, but the not very computer savvy support technician at my Hosting service suggested doing so and I wasn't willing to rule anything out without trying it first . -Christian