Venting here

[CyberGenX 0]

Hey Clutch, my wife pointed out that in my heineken binge I mistyped the title of the poll. Could you fix "Do your...." to "Do you..." Thanks in advance, owe you a heiney.

[shanil 0]

wat i told one guy who always pestered me was that i now charged for services rendered. and he never bugged me again.

just a suggestion.

[clutch 1]

Fixed. Friends don't let friends post drunk.

[CyberGenX 0]

Thanks.

[Marktait 0]

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I hate when I go to fix a computer that is "crashing" and "acting wierd" and come to find ICQ, Bonzi Buddy, Comet Cursor, RealPlayer, KaZaA, and 10 other things in the SYSTRAY running. It stretches all the way to the damn start button!

I went to fix a mates computer as he complained of crashes, when i get to his computer to have a prowl round windows i find about everything u can get that goes in systray .What the hell does he expect with all that across there.

[Cynan 0]

Hmm, something like this?...

 

 

[CyberGenX 0]

Not bad! Wish i had a SS of my clients tray. Even had an icon to launch other programs "like the quicklaunch" When expanded the icons went to the start button.

[Marktait 0]

To be honest it really depends who i am talking too, say i meet a real ***y bird.There wud be no way that i wud mention PC's, but if i was talking to a relaitive or summin or someone mentions PC's to me i will jump in to the conversation.

 

Just all depends really!

[Marktait 0]

What would these people do without XP's new feature to hide the icons on the systray??

[CyberGenX 0]

I love overhearing a conversation at eateries where the person talking has no clue about PCs yet is trying to impress their friend who probably never used one. My favorite is when people confuse hard disk space with memory. "How much RAM do you have Bob? "Oh I got like 40 Gigabytes of RAM, still doesn't seem to be enough though." LOL

[Cynan 0]

Actually the above screenshot is of my tray, heh, and I don't like them being hidden. After all, what is the point in having them in the tray, if you can't see them? It purpose is to show you whats running. I don't have anything in there that I don't want.

[Cynan 0]

lol I love overhearing ppl too. Its so funny

[CyberGenX 0]

Mine only has Norton Corporate Anti-Virus Icon in it, nothing else. Anal about have all available resources for the program I am working with at the time, mostly ACID and Premiere.

[sapiens74 0]

I always talk about computers when I get tired of hearing military stories.

 

Then I get to be the center of attention again

[Alien 1]

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What would these people do without XP's new feature to hide the icons on the systray??

LOL. Actually I turn that feature off, I like to be able to see what is in my system tray. The reasons for this are that @ 1 time or another I need to be able to see/read the icons [eg SpeedFan's display of my CPU temp], or be able to click on them to access their functions. I know there are some progs out there that want to run an extra process on startup & sit in the system tray & don't serve much purpose beyond using up system resources & being a way for the programmer to say "Hey! Look, I can make my prog show up in the system tray!" [eg Winamp agent].

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I love overhearing a conversation at eateries where the person talking has no clue about PCs yet is trying to impress their friend who probably never used one. My favorite is when people confuse hard disk space with memory. "How much RAM do you have Bob? "Oh I got like 40 Gigabytes of RAM, still doesn't seem to be enough though." LOL

Yeah, I've come accross that 1 too - & have had to repeatedly explain the difference to some people that I was casually asking PC specs of. Another 1 is when ppl refer to the case & its contents as the "hard drive". I've even had 1 or 2 tell me I'm wrong when I've politely corrected them on this!!!

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Actually the above screenshot is of my tray, heh, and I don't like them being hidden. After all, what is the point in having them in the tray, if you can't see them? It purpose is to show you whats running. I don't have anything in there that I don't want.

Yikes! & there's me thinking I had too many things running in my system tray! Let's play "Name that tray icon"

I know I've seen that cow's head icon somewhere before, but I can't think what it is, as I don't have whatever prog it is.

Winamp Agent [about as much use as a fart in a spacesuit ].

Lets see, it looks like you have 3 copies of SpeedFan running [@ least that's what it looks like] for your different temps. What's the 3rd 1 for? [2 for CPU & System, but what's the 3rd for?] & How do you run 3 copies of it from startup? installed in 3 seperate folders? [that is assuming that it actually is SpeedFan].

You have the 2 little computers icon thingy which is usually a telltale of being on dial-up [my comiserations if true ], though I think I heard that it has a use or appears under certain networking situations as well.

Oh look, you have a Creative Labs sound card. When I get my Audigy I don't think I'll be allowing whatever app it is [it's been a while since I had my hands on a machine with a CL card in] that sits in the tray to stay there. I certainly don't recall any constructive use for it being there. [who knows, maybe when I get my Audigy I'll find out they've added some feature of vital importance to the tray prog ]

The icon under the red 47&degC temp reading looks vaguely familiar - some sort of Java prog/utility?

Is that Norton Crashguard I spy? I tried an older-than-current version of it some time ago & from what I've heard it's still more trouble than it's worth.

I normally have 7 things in my system tray after a clean boot:

[Cynan 0]

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Winamp Agent [about as much use as a fart in a spacesuit ].

Guess again I don't have that silly lil agent thing running. Its the main app. that you see in the tray. I'm pretty much always listening to music and I prefer it taking up a tray icon then space on the tastkbar.

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Lets see, it looks like you have 3 copies of SpeedFan running [@ least that's what it looks like] for your different temps. What's the 3rd 1 for? [2 for CPU & System, but what's the 3rd for?] & How do you run 3 copies of it from startup? installed in 3 seperate folders? [that is assuming that it actually is SpeedFan].

Its actually Motherboard Monitor, and the three temperatures are: CPU1, CPU2, and System.

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You have the 2 little computers icon thingy which is usually a telltale of being on dial-up [my comiserations if true ], though I think I heard that it has a use or appears under certain networking situations as well.

Two network connections. DSL and LAN.

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Oh look, you have a Creative Labs sound card. When I get my Audigy I don't think I'll be allowing whatever app it is [it's been a while since I had my hands on a machine with a CL card in] that sits in the tray to stay there. I certainly don't recall any constructive use for it being there. [who knows, maybe when I get my Audigy I'll find out they've added some feature of vital importance to the tray prog ]

Thats one of the icons that I mentioned as perhaps being pointless. I used to always remove it post-install, but I left it in there this time as I was using it to quickly get to the soundcards settings as I was messing about with speaker posistioning a lot etc. I could remove it now but it I've kinda grown attached LOL.

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The icon under the red 47&degC temp reading looks vaguely familiar - some sort of Java prog/utility?

My 2nd useless icon. Its displays my uptime on my desktop. The icon being in the tray serves no useful purpose.

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Is that Norton Crashguard I spy? I tried an older-than-current version of it some time ago & from what I've heard it's still more trouble than it's worth.

Which icon? but nooope.

Any more guesses/guessers?


I use some viewers that load up in the tray too, such as ACDSee, QuickView Plus... but I always close them after I'm done. I used to have QuickRes and ZoneAlarm aswell, but I don't change resolutions much these days (besides I don't think you can get QuickRes to show-up in 2K/XP ?) and I stopped using ZoneAlarm when I switched to something else in the tray that it conflicts with.

[Alien 1]

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Guess again I don't have that silly lil agent thing running. Its the main app. that you see in the tray. I'm pretty much always listening to music and I prefer it taking up a tray icon then space on the tastkbar.

I didn't know you could put the main prog in the system tray, or is it just a shortcut? & if so, why not just use the QuickLaunch bar?

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Its actually Motherboard Monitor, and the three temperatures are: CPU1, CPU2, and System.

Ah, I see - you're 1 of those rich peeps that can afford a dualie. Reason I don't like MM is it it can't read HDD temps, plus SpeedFan is nice & simple & there's not as much fiddling about to do to get it set up.

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Two network connections. DSL and LAN.

Ah, I see. You might wanna check out DU Meter then - is a cool prog for network/internet speed monitoring [if you care about such things ]

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Thats one of the icons that I mentioned as perhaps being pointless. I used to always remove it post-install, but I left it in there this time as I was using it to quickly get to the soundcards settings as I was messing about with speaker posistioning a lot etc. I could remove it now but it I've kinda grown attached LOL.

Well, it looks like I will be doing battle with the Eeeeeeeevil CL tray apps even sooner than I expected - I just checked my bank balance & I have just enough spare to get my OEM Audigy, so will be going into town soon to transfer the money to my other bank that is nice enough to give me a card I can order with. [Indeeeed! ]

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My 2nd useless icon. Its displays my uptime on my desktop. The icon being in the tray serves no useful purpose.

Actually, this sounds kinda interesting - got an addy for it?

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Which icon? but nooope.

the 1 that looks a little like the radiation warning symbol - then again, maybe I'm thinking of Bomb Shelter [did same thing - just as badly, but forget who made it]

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I use some viewers that load up in the tray too, such as ACDSee, QuickView Plus... but I always close them after I'm done.

I just use either XP's built in viewer [forget what it's called @ the mo] & Paintshop Pro for any images, as for anything else - I have Office & Acrobat which covers all Office & PDF files, so I don't have any need for any other viewer.

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I used to have QuickRes and ZoneAlarm aswell, but I don't change resolutions much these days (besides I don't think you can get QuickRes to show-up in 2K/XP ?)

Ah yes, QuickRes - that takes me back - to the days of 98SE & my Voodoo3.

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and I stopped using ZoneAlarm when I switched to something else in the tray that it conflicts with.

Oh? what was it conflicting with? I still find ZA works for me just fine.

[Cynan 0]

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I didn't know you could put the main prog in the system tray, or is it just a shortcut? & if so, why not just use the QuickLaunch bar?

Yeah you can put the program in the tray. Its under Options->Display->Show WinAMP in:.

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...Reason I don't like MM is it it can't read HDD temps...

Actually MBM can display HD temps. too, with the adition of the HDDTemperature plug-in (although thats only free for one drive) and unfortunatly, no HD monitoring programs that I've seen can yet monitor them off a RAID controller

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You might wanna check out DU Meter then - is a cool prog for network/internet speed monitoring [if you care about such things

Will do

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Actually, this sounds kinda interesting - got an addy for it? the 1 that looks a little like the radiation warning symbol - then again, maybe I'm thinking of Bomb Shelter [did same thing - just as badly, but forget who made it]

Yeah.. Uptime 2000.

The radiation symbol is the World Time Servers Atomic Clock synchroniser. The one built into XP times out a lot for me (firewall problem no doubt) and I prefer to use this anyway.

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Oh? what was it conflicting with? I still find ZA works for me just fine.

WinRoute Pro (thats the icon next to the radiation symbol). They both want to take over the TCP/IP stack. The only thing that I miss from ZoneAlarm is the outgoing protection (from MS stuff mostly heh, oh and RealPlayer) and the advert blockers thats in version 3.

Have fun with the Audigy! If you have trouble and want to give it to someone else... hehe.

[CyberGenX 0]

You know what I did to solve the whole "screen real estate" issue is purchased a $15 4MB PCI video card and a 2nd 17" monitor $75 and run DUAL MONITORS. I have been running them for a couple months now and could NEVER go back. My primary screen has nothing on it and is reserved for the applications I actively work in. The secondary holds start bar, Icons, quicklaunch, winamp, email etc. I love it!

[clutch 1]

How do dual monitors game? I have been thinking about running one of my 17" units with my 19", but I would like to know how most games work in it. I wouldn't mind just having the game/app run in one like you mentioned, and the desktop and lesser apps running in the other.

[CyberGenX 0]

Most games run just fine, it just disables the ability to mouse over to the other monitor (for obvious reasons). One game I have to simply disble the other mon. Otherwise I get a wierd error. But I have been told the error is related to my second card not supporting 3D, since it's so cheap. Other than that I have had no problems gaming at all. The cool thing is running email, hardware monitor and winamp on one monitor and gaming on the other, you get to see incoming mail, temp and view yer playlist without ALT Tabbing. Or running a video on one mon and working on another.

[Cynan 0]

Hmm I have a Creative GeForce2 GTS and I ran it with an old ATI Mach64 card awhile ago, but I found that I had to disable the second monitor everytime I wanted to run a (3D) game.

 

Did you ever find that CyberGenX? and maybe the newer Detonator drivers better support it now?

 

I was thinking that only the newer cards worked (almost) flaslessy with games, though reading your last post, I might have to give it another go with what I have.

[CyberGenX 0]

Here are some of the games that I have that play without trouble;

Half_Life and Mods, Serious Sam (both), Jedi Outcast, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, Quake3, UT, Medal of Honor and RTCW. The only game that I recall having to disable the 2nd monitor is Nascar 4 and maybe NFS Porsche. The rest play on the primary great, one i think makes the other monitor only half visible (oh Well). My second card is an OLD PCI Cirrus Logic 5446 4MB.

 

One thing, if you are going to do dual mons...Don't plan on going back---If you remove a mon and you had a program that opened up on it, sometimes it loads in invisible space (where the 2nd used to be)

 

I am using Det. 29.42

[Alien 1]

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Actually MBM can display HD temps. too, with the adition of the HDDTemperature plug-in (although thats only free for one drive) and unfortunatly, no HD monitoring programs that I've seen can yet monitor them off a RAID controller

Yeah, it sucks that they can't read temps through a RAID controller. I want to run my HDD from my RAID controller, so that my CD [which will hopefully soon be replaced by a DVD - thinking on getting a Toshiba SD-M1612, 's not region free, but can be made so with a patched firmware] & CDRW can each be master on their own channels.

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Yeah.. Uptime 2000.

Thanks for that, wow, 2days, 13hours-ish since last reboot - if I ever get nostalgic for 98SE I'll just run that prog to see what my uptime is. After tomorrow morning, which is when my Audigy should get here [finally got around to ordering it Saturday afternoon], & not counting the reinstall I wanna do soon, I should have much longer uptimes. :crosses fingers:

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The radiation symbol is the World Time Servers Atomic Clock synchroniser. The one built into XP times out a lot for me (firewall problem no doubt) and I prefer to use this anyway.

This used to bother me more with my old mobo as the clock wasn't too accurate - think the battery may have been going, but with this new 1 things seem a bit better.

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Have fun with the Audigy! If you have trouble and want to give it to someone else... hehe.

LOL, yeah, right! If I have any probs with it it's going back for a refund. Dunno what I'd get as an alternative, though. Hey guess what? [this'll give the VIA critics a laugh] Before I ordered my Audigy I phoned OcUK tech support just to check if they knew of any issues between my mobo & the Audigy as they sell both [or did until Abit stopped making it]. They said it was a bit hit & miss - some cards would work on 1 mobo [with various makes & models], but on an idetical mobo it would cause probs - the funny part is that they said the only CL sound card they hadn't seen any issues with mobos of VIA chipsets is the Extigy - a USB soundcard! I think that's quite amusing considering the number of probs I've heard ppl complain about with VIA-based boards & USB.

[Uykucu 0]

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I love overhearing a conversation at eateries where the person talking has no clue about PCs yet is trying to impress their friend who probably never used one. My favorite is when people confuse hard disk space with memory. "How much RAM do you have Bob? "Oh I got like 40 Gigabytes of RAM, still doesn't seem to be enough though." LOL

Well Ram vs HDD mixup is quite common, but has anybody paid attention to people trying to use acronyms and mess them up totaly. They will tell you something like "I don't have any UPS ports left where i can plug my *anythin* to."

And before being able to reply you have to decode this to not having any USB ports left. This was the simplest when they think they know about computers it is just downhill from there.

I had one guy get in to a bet with me claiming DIMM stood for "Dual Integrated Memory Module"

I reaally enjoyed that six pack of Stella!