Christianb

VMWare turned it off and I like Autoplay.

Hi Thanks, I really appreciate your help. The location may be a bit elusive, but the key name is blatantly obvious: Autorun. Thanks again for the help, Christian

I have tried it several times on friend's computers and thought that's highly overated. I'm sorry I just don't get it . Too much space, too much money. I mean really what'd you rather have digital camera or two monitors?

Hi I was thinking about buying this sound dampening fabric for the inside of my case. Has anyone tried any of these products? How much did it cut down the noise? Did it just work with the fan or HD and not the other? Could you still hear them both? Was it worth the money. This package is 16.99 + Shipping. Does anyone know of a better deal or brand. http://www.xpcgear.com/akpaxmatacab.html Thanks for the feedback, Christian

Would you say that the dos virtual environment improved from Windows 2000 to Windows XP?

To my knowledge there aren't any windows ports aside from Lemmings for Windows. However, the second peter spada lemmings game does work on windows. There's also lemmings the revolution which is a lemmings Direct3D game by Psygnosis. You might also consider Pingus which is a lemmings clone with pengiuns as the mascot animal. VPC might work for lemmings games, but in the demo at least of VPC 5(Virtual PC www.Connectix.com) the mouse movement is really slow and therefore extremely difficult for lemmings gameplay. However there are patches for VPC full version so who knows whether or not it works well in the full version. I am very impressed with VPC as far as dos emulation goes. However they need to add a driver so you can type "exit" at a dos prompt and have it end your emulation session. VMWare sucks for dos emulation, because they don't emulate EMS correctly and it crashes all the time and they even admit it in the tech docs. So until they get things fixed I'd say that VPC is the way to go. I have a pentium 4 1.6GHZ and 256MB RAM and keep as few processes running as possible and yes still the mouse is slow.

After reading this article http://news.com.com/2100-1001-956647.html?tag=fd_top I find it more than a little funny that Microsoft is unable to tell why specific Windows 2000 systems are being hacked. They don't know whether an old vulnerability is being exploited, because they can't tell whether or not all the existing security patches have been installed. This makes me laugh. I've hated MS's security patch team ever since this whole hacking craze started. Microsoft needs to learn to use their own technology and utilize it consistently. Of course they can't tell what patches are installed. Some of them are in Windows Upate, Some in KB Articles, and some in the Microsoft Security advisor. Nobody can keep them all straight, but they aren't all in one place. Why in the hell don't they just stick with windows update? It's supposed to be a one stop windows update shop right? If they were utilizing windows update exclusively maybe they'd be able to tell whether all the patches were installed or not. Duh! They also need to do the same thing with office and visual studio too. They have facilities to autodetect the necessary patches so why in the hell do they keep releasing all these standalone .exe patches? I know it's easier for Admins when they're in .exe format, but if Windows Server products had an option to select what windows updates would be installed on all network clients that would eliminate that problem too. [if they don't have that already?] Oh well we already know MS sucks and is bloated with bureacracy and can't get anything done in a timely manor. Rant(us) End(us), Christian Blackburn

Quote: can't wait until that graphics card gets here dual 21 inch is gonna be sweet No offense, but don't you think that's a giant waste of money? Rather than buying extra screen realestate with a second monitor why not learn to toggle (Press Alt + Tab) or use the taskbar and switch between apps. Also there are tons of programs that give you mutliple desktops like unix. Two monitors can also be kind of annoying if you have one of the left and one on the right. You might find that one in the middle directly in front of you is more comfortable. I'm not trying to knock you or call you materialistic. I just don't want to see you waste your money on something that really doesn't do anything special. I mean you can only look at one monitor at a time anyways. I will admit Matrox is doing something cool with three monitors for games, but that too is just money down the drain. We live in a world with pollution, evil, and suffering do you really think 3 monitors is going to ease your pain or anybody else's? What if you bought a small patch of land with the 1000 dollars you didn't spend on a 3 monitor setup. You could grow apples or have a park for your neighborhood or something.

Wow I guess those who used Windows Update had a really bad time. I think I tried SP1 off Windows Update on a system at work and it worked great, but that was then and this is now. After working at Microsoft and installing Windows 2000 beta builds off a 10 megabit network you learn to download all the files first, because you just never know when the network will burp. So in the future I'd recommend following the link I provided (at the top of this topic) and download the full 120 meg file and that way you know ahead of time that if the update program needs a file it'll be there ready and waiting.

Roger that. Another problem is MS keeps hiding the file extensions to be more Mac-like. What's stupid on a mac is even more idiotic on a PC. If you ask a user do you have a .Doc they go huh?, because they're toddler install of windows does show them how things work.

I worked at MS twice as a tester and no they don't fix that much stuff. Most of the bugs reported don't get fixed. MS goes hmm that'll piss off users, but it'll cost us X man hours to fix so screw 'em. So then MS gets a trillion support calls regarding issue XYZ that they could have just fixed and avoided. Although that doesn't bother MS either, because they charge a shitload for support calls which should be free or close to it. Furthermore it's compeltely idiotic to build a program with known bugs that'd be like continuing to build a new house when you already know the foundation has rotted.

Java is big, very big. It'll replace C++ as the #1 programming language within the next decade. Think about it. You only have to write a program once and it'll work on a zillion platforms. Hmmm....Yeah that's better than porting, recompiling, and testing all day long. Granted it ain't perfect, but it's the best thing we got by a lot.

Is it just me or is the term "Manifest Mailing" more than a little too much like Manifesto Mailings? Can you say Unibomber? http://www.usps.com/shipping/onlineforms.htm Craziness you'd think they'd be hypersensitive about those mailings wouldn't you? -Christian

No I'm not offended I just found it humorous. I did however like the documentary on the Unibomber with Dean Stockwell from quantum leap. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0118024

While you're in folder options you might also want to make sure that "Hide System Files and Folders" and "Hide protected Operating System Files" are both disabled as well. This will enable you to understand and fix more computer issues than you would otherwise be able to. You can also right click over a file and choose rename on the context menu, but F2 really is much faster. Keyboard Shortcuts are the bomb. I wish Netscape would learn to use them. I still wouldn't use their browser very often, but many other users (myself included) would be more likely to use it at all.

Judging by the model name of your scanner it would seem to be a parallel port device. Windows 2000 has god awful parallel port support, while using the port your system will be at 100% CPU the whole time, every time! I think this was fixed in Sp3. You might start by trying that, but in any event make sure you check your manufacturer's website and figure out what mode of parallel they want you to select both in your bios and in Win2K's Device Manager in order to make things work. The basic reality is Parallel is dead and Microsoft knew it and spent more time, money, and support on perfecting their USB interface and did a half ass job on Parallel support. Good Luck, Christian Blackburn

Quote: Have you tried Opera or Mozilla? Both are a fraction of the size of Idiot Exployer without the spyware! What spyware? Internet Explorer asks you if you want to transmit user data when it crashes. To my knowledge none of your information is transferrred to Microsoft without your consent with IE. Do you have something to substantiate that MS is using spyware in IE? Don't get me wrong I hate MS, after all I worked there. They have done many underhanded things, but I don't believe they would risk what you're describing. Thanks, Christian

As for the second screenshot I would have to say that this is related to the degradation in peformance. Windows tends to fail often whilst downloading if the stream isn't steady and fast. So yes if you use ICS and dividing your connection (assuming the other PC is actively consuming bandwidth) you should observe that behavior. Windows ain't perfect by any means, believe me I know I used to work in the Windows Consumer Hardware Lab at Microsoft [Win2K and 98Se]. Have you considered getting a switch and seeing if that doesn't resolve your problem? YOu can get a nice LinkSys switch for about 25-35 dollars I believe (probably cheaper it's been a while). A really easy work around is to just press F5 in your browser and the page will reload.

Hi Gambler, Let me start by saying that you won't be seeing any pictures while in HTTP mode. So the screenshot you provided: http://217.8.136.112/root/pix/no_images.jpg Shows a system doing exactly what it's supposed to. The view you're showing is like browsing an FTP site, in the name of performance pictures aren't auto-loaded. Can you imagine if you browsed a folder with 1000 pictures, how long would that take to load? How many thousands of times faster would it be able to load by just displaying the title? In the HTTP protocol if you want your pictures to show up you need to create an index file to display them. HTTP requires an HTML (usually .htm) file that instructs the browser what to display and how. Create a file named default.htm and give it the following contents: <IMG SRC="7000.jpg"><BR> and repeat that on a new line for each file you want to display.

Wow AlecStar you have a very good attitude. I figured my post would annoy you. I also couldn't agree more about the value of one's health. I'm a raw foodist so I definetly value and enjoy good health.

I would like to mak everyone aware of a freeware Intel Architecture emulator called Bochs (http://bochs.sourceforge.net/irc-20010619.html). It's a great idea and an honorable project. However it is confusing as hell and needs a lot of work. Those who have time should really help out. Emulators are the most important software programs out there.

I'm going to be using Dos Box eventually, but right now things are too premature: http://dosbox.zophar.netIt's totally easy to use, you just create a folder for you dos apps on your normal system. You map the drives Mount C C:\MyDos Mount E H:\ And that wound give you a C drive and a CD-Rom. ISn't that cool and easy? http://dosbox.zophar.net

I'd like to emulate Dos 6.22 with Sound Blaster, ISA Video, 486 Processor, and CD Rom all emulated properly. Has anyone done that? It absolutely must emulate the ISA video architecture.

Who has had good luck emulating dos and with what emulator?

Can anyone determine if this game works on Windows 2000 and list the service pack, and direct X version you used. If the game works on Windows 2000 then perhaps we could focus on what's different between the two and try to pinpoint a solution.