Author Topic: Hardware/OS Geek Thread  (Read 53047 times)

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Offline Nathan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #150: September 15, 2009, 06:05:08 PM »
Trivia question, which came first, the fax, the computer, or the telephone?
Computer ;)

Offline NatsAddict

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #151: September 15, 2009, 06:09:33 PM »
IN CONCLUSION:

Everyone should use what they like best, and we certainly have no lacking for diversity of opinion around here! :lol:

Exactly.


Here is a shot of drawers that I forgot earlier.  The first one, which opens vertically, is one I use for my self-designed LAMP tools (notice, I even used the XAMP icon - the wrench and screwdriver icon 6 to the left is also a drawer).  Just for reference, at the bottom of that drawer, I added another drawer.  The second one is open horizontally.  The closest I've seen in windows so far is to pin a folder, which linux can do, but thats a bit of a kludge.

FWIW - the pins in the drawer:
rapache
restart apache command
php manual
link to page containing phpinfo();
link to phpmyadmin page
link to MySQL manual
MySQL Administrator
MySQL Query Browser/Tool
MySQL Navigator
restart MySQL command


Offline Nathan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #152: September 15, 2009, 06:10:42 PM »
The more I use Windows 7, the more I think that MS is finally getting back on its game.  The UI is polished and easy on the eyes, it seems snappier on the same hardware compared to Vista, and in general seems to me to be every bit the equal in terms of most things compared to OS X.  Yes, as a Mac user, I am saying that Windows 7 is on equal footing with 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Plus, the new Zunes actually look like a decent product compared to the original.  Great displays.

Windows Mobile, on the other hand, still has a way to go to catch up to its competitors IMO.  I'm guessing that WinMo 7 will hopefully do this, because 6.5 doesn't look like that much of an upgrade.  Personally I'm waiting for a nice Android smart phone to come to Verizon or at least AT&T to replace my iPhone down the road.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #153: September 15, 2009, 06:12:21 PM »
NA, I would suggest this for a read: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=299

All the hype about Vista's DRM is ridiculous overblown paranoia and FUD - typical of the anti-MS (read: Linux, no offense) crowd.  The part you appear to be referring to is addressed on page 5.

I'll go with "the computer" for my trivia answer...  I smell a trick question.

Offline NatsAddict

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #154: September 15, 2009, 06:13:21 PM »
Computer ;)

As a mechanical device, yes.  The question should have said "electronic computer," resulting in a different correct answer.

Offline Nathan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #155: September 15, 2009, 06:18:08 PM »
I play around in Linux, and OS X has a basis in BSD, but this pic still cracks me up.

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #156: September 15, 2009, 06:20:11 PM »
I don't get what is so nice about all of the icons at the bottom of the screen like on a Mac.

Do you guys not use a mouse/touchpad? Do everything with a keyboard?

Offline Nathan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #157: September 15, 2009, 06:20:25 PM »
As a mechanical device, yes.  The question should have said "electronic computer," resulting in a different correct answer.
electronic computer / fax / telephone

In that case, the fax came first.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #158: September 15, 2009, 06:29:12 PM »
Here is a shot of drawers that I forgot earlier.  The first one, which opens vertically, is one I use for my self-designed LAMP tools (notice, I even used the XAMP icon - the wrench and screwdriver icon 6 to the left is also a drawer).  Just for reference, at the bottom of that drawer, I added another drawer.  The second one is open horizontally.  The closest I've seen in windows so far is to pin a folder, which linux can do, but thats a bit of a kludge.

I'm not trying to knock it, but when I saw that image, the very first thing I thought was that it reminded me of the old win2000 start menu.

That said, I do think jumplists could be more versatile.  I'm hopeful that there will be a lot of developer support for the idea though.  Right now, 7 isn't even "officially" out, but a couple of the apps I use already make use of the new taskbar/jumplist features.  Once 7 has been out for a bit, I think we'll see a lot more practical uses for jumplists than simply pinning files, folders, and shortcuts.

My biggest grip with Windows has always been the lack of native customization options.  You can do almost anything you want to Windows via the 3rd party route, but it would be nice not to have to go that route as often.  I found a really fantastic app that provides edge snapping, a bevy of window placement shortcut keys, and a few other nice options, and while I would definitely call it a keeper if it were free, the author charges $25 for it.  There are some free apps out there that provide some of the same functionality but are ultimately inferior.  Or I can write an app myself (blah).

PS - tip - if you hold shift when you right-click on taskbar icons, you'll get an alternate set of options.  In most other cases, you'll generally get the same list with a few extra options.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #159: September 15, 2009, 06:35:47 PM »
I don't get what is so nice about all of the icons at the bottom of the screen like on a Mac.

Do you guys not use a mouse/touchpad? Do everything with a keyboard?

Didn't/don't you ever use the quicklaunch toolbar in XP/Vista?

And yes, I am a giant keyboard nerd.  I know more keyboard shortcuts than anyone ought to know :lol: :-[

Also, <windowskey> + # will open/restore/minimize/switchbetween the corresponding taskbar button, depending on it's current state.

So for example, I can press WIN-1 and launch Firefox, or if it's already open and in focus, this will minimize it.  If it's minimized, this will restore it.  If there is more than one Firefox window open, it will function like alt-tab, but only for Firefox.

WIN + HOME will minimize everything but the current window (also known as aero shake, which I think is the dumbest mouse gesture ever even though the result is a good idea)

Offline PC

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #160: September 15, 2009, 06:49:10 PM »
Before I switched to Macs and built my own rigs, I was an AMD fanboy.  It is sad that they have lost their edge against the giant.  I thought the Phenom X4s were supposed to be be like 85% the performance of a Core i7 (WTF is up with these names intel?) for a lot less cost?

When I was PC laptop searching a year ago I made sure to steer clear of any AMD models due to the craptier power consumption compared to Intel.  The only bad part was that a lot of the Intel models also had Intel graphics which are absolutely HORRIBLE!

I have been and still is an AMD fan.  I've bought and built with AMD processors for twenty years.  There's an AMD processor in the computer I'm using to post this message (Vista Ultimate x64 running on it  :D )  For most of that time, AMD destroyed Intel on the price vs. performance scale.  Still today, the Phenom IIs are good, just not great on that scale.  They're mostly comparable to the Core2 Quad, just cheaper.  But not that much cheaper.

The top of the line i7 are just vastly overpriced (in the neighborhood of $1000  :shock: ).  The lower end i7 are probably the sweet spot.  They're more expensive than the Phenom II but they peform a lot better.


I remember paying $400+ for the first Athlon 64 3400+.  Those were the days.

I paid $600 for an Athlon XP 900+ slot A, not socket A, SLOT A.  :-[  That, in retrospect, wasn't the day!  

Offline sportsfan882

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #161: September 15, 2009, 06:56:35 PM »
Didn't/don't you ever use the quicklaunch toolbar in XP/Vista?

And yes, I am a giant keyboard nerd.  I know more keyboard shortcuts than anyone ought to know :lol: :-[

Also, <windowskey> + # will open/restore/minimize/switchbetween the corresponding taskbar button, depending on it's current state.

So for example, I can press WIN-1 and launch Firefox, or if it's already open and in focus, this will minimize it.  If it's minimized, this will restore it.  If there is more than one Firefox window open, it will function like alt-tab, but only for Firefox.

WIN + HOME will minimize everything but the current window (also known as aero shake, which I think is the dumbest mouse gesture ever even though the result is a good idea)
Why can't you just use a mouse or touchpad to minimize/maximize or whatever? seems quicker to me. you can't do everything with the keyboard.


Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #162: September 15, 2009, 07:01:04 PM »
The new Lynnfield i7 860 is the current sweet spot for price/performance.  four cores and hyperthreading with turbo up to 3.46ghz for single-threaded workloads.  I want one so bad, but $300 for the chip, another $150-$200 for the motherboard, and ~$150 for 8 GB of DDR3 is more than I can justify when my Core 2 Quad is still running strong.

Why can't you just use a mouse or touchpad to minimize/maximize or whatever?

Because most of the time it's imprecise and slower.  With a real mouse, one hand on the mouse and one hand on the keyboard is ideal, but touchpads are hardly ideal.  I wish they still made laptops with trackballs :(

Quote
seems quicker to me. you can't do everything with the keyboard.

Yes I can.  I can also tell you how to get almost anywhere in windows in one step from a run box (WIN + R)

I paid $600 for an Athlon XP 900+ slot A, not socket A, SLOT A.  :-[  That, in retrospect, wasn't the day! 

A Duron 1300+ was my first AMD chip.  Upgraded it to an XP 2000+ a few months later for fairly cheap.  That was just about the time that P4's were starting to catch up and overtake the XP's in performance.

Offline NatsAddict

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #163: September 15, 2009, 07:05:37 PM »
I play around in Linux, and OS X has a basis in BSD, but this pic still cracks me up.
(Image removed from quote.)

Great pic.

And when you deal with them all, t-shirt/golf shirt, shorts (frayed), barefoot/sneakers, socks if its a formal occassion.  No jewerly, not even a watch or wedding band.


NA, I would suggest this for a read: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=299

All the hype about Vista's DRM is ridiculous overblown paranoia and FUD - typical of the anti-MS (read: Linux, no offense) crowd.  The part you appear to be referring to is addressed on page 5.

I'll go with "the computer" for my trivia answer...  I smell a trick question.

Good article.  Thanks.

I'm getting REALLY crap throughput backing up, and I had just read where SilverLight is now incorporating DRM.  It is taking 7 nearly 6 hours to backup  about 300GB (60 GB compressed).  Recently reading about DRM going into Silver Light if it was all over the place as it was for a while with Vista.  Very little of the total filespace is multimedia.  I was hoping that was not the cause as it couldn't be readily addressed.  I don't know what would have changed between Vista and 7 that would require an update to the software  (Genie Soft).  It is the same hardware and all 64-bit.   The 7 backups are providing half the throughput of Vista.  I haven't found anything on google.  I'm going to look at it more this weekend, so any ideas will be greatly appreciated.  I've played with changing compression levels, changed destinations, swapped components etc., but not getting a notable difference in the result.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #164: September 15, 2009, 07:06:30 PM »
The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets



^^ was written after the release of the public beta, but most of it still applies.  Fairly comprehensive list of stuff along with a lot of the good WIN keys.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #165: September 15, 2009, 07:10:16 PM »
Great pic.

I had a couple of grids a while back that had Mac/Win/Nix represented.  I wish I could find them again.  They were all Linux-slanted so the Linux pic was always something really cool and powerful looking.  The Windows pic was always something bland but serviceable, and the Mac pic was always something like a child's toy computer or a speak-and-spell :lol:


Quote
Good article.  Thanks.

I'm getting REALLY crap throughput backing up, and I had just read where SilverLight is now incorporating DRM.  It is taking 7 nearly 6 hours to backup  about 300GB (60 GB compressed).  Recently reading about DRM going into Silver Light if it was all over the place as it was for a while with Vista.  Very little of the total filespace is multimedia.  I was hoping that was not the cause as it couldn't be readily addressed.  I don't know what would have changed between Vista and 7 that would require an update to the software  (Genie Soft).  It is the same hardware and all 64-bit.   The 7 backups are providing half the throughput of Vista.  I haven't found anything on google.  I'm going to look at it more this weekend, so any ideas will be greatly appreciated.  I've played with changing compression levels, changed destinations, swapped components etc., but not getting a notable difference in the result.

Are you using the built-in backup or something else?  Network or local?

D'oh, nvm the first question.  Just realized what you meant by "the software"

In regards to silverlight DRM, it sounds like nothing more than the standard "do what must be done" type of thing.  MS doesn't want the Windows to get left out in the cold as a content delivery platform, which is understandable.  I'd be wary of the register anyway...  they and their US sister site theinquirer.net are notoriously anti-MS, so I'd take anything they report with a grain of salt.

Offline PC

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #166: September 15, 2009, 07:10:30 PM »
A Duron 1300+ was my first AMD chip.  Upgraded it to an XP 2000+ a few months later for fairly cheap.  That was just about the time that P4's were starting to catch up and overtake the XP's in performance.

I still have a Duron 1300+!  It's about 10 feet away from me right now. :lol: 

...in a full tower case!  :rofl:

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #167: September 15, 2009, 07:11:21 PM »
I still have a Duron 1300+!  It's about 10 feet away from me right now. :lol: 

...in a full tower case!  :rofl:

Mine ended up in my grandmother's email-getter :lol:  No idea what happened to it.  I think that machine might still be in my parents' guest bedroom.

Offline Nathan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #168: September 15, 2009, 07:16:22 PM »
A Duron 1300+ was my first AMD chip.  Upgraded it to an XP 2000+ a few months later for fairly cheap.  That was just about the time that P4's were starting to catch up and overtake the XP's in performance.
My first ever computer was a Compaq with an AMD K6-2 at 350 MHz and 128 MB RAM.  The first computer I built myself I bought a AMD Athlon XP 1600+ that I overclocked to a "2100+" stably, ran for years with no problems.


Why can't you just use a mouse or touchpad to minimize/maximize or whatever? seems quicker to me. you can't do everything with the keyboard.


I also use the keyboard as much as possible, especially on the MBP.  Both the Chief and I would probably be faster than you with us using keyboard shortcuts and you using the mouse.  I love the integrated search that OS X Tiger (spotlight) and Vista (don't know what they called it) introduced.  I want to open Disk Utility to burn a iso image.  I click on the HD icon, go into the Applications folder, then the Utilities folder, then double click the Disk Utility icon.  Or, using Spotlight, it would just be Command + Space, type "di" and hit enter.  Much quicker.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #169: September 15, 2009, 07:25:39 PM »
My first ever computer was a Compaq with an AMD K6-2 at 350 MHz and 128 MB RAM.  The first computer I built myself I bought a AMD Athlon XP 1600+ that I overclocked to a "2100+" stably, ran for years with no problems.

My first computer was a Canon (yes the camera company!) notebook with a whopping 10" diagonal screen, 800x600 resolution, powered by a 486 DX2 clone (made by AMD, actually, so I guess THAT was my first AMD chip) @ 66 MHz with 4 MB of RAM and a 350 MB HDD.  I later upgraded the RAM to 8 MB for $250 because I wanted to be able to play "Hexen" :lol:.  The HDD "failed" (read: I killed it when I smashed my fists on the keyboard in a fit of rage over something stupid) but Canon somehow replaced it under warranty anyway, and upgraded it to an 800 MB model.

Been running my current C2 Q6600 @ 3GHz for about a year and a half, nary a problem.  Have it set up so everything else runs stock speed, and the CPU stays cooler than it did at stock thanks to the upgraded heatsink/fan.  Even without the overclock though, this chip was worth every penny of the $250 I paid for it.  Both of my prior C2's ran 3GHz without breaking a sweat.  Intel's process is so good, you just know they could be releasing faster chips if they had any real competition.

Quote
I also use the keyboard as much as possible, especially on the MBP.  Both the Chief and I would probably be faster than you with us using keyboard shortcuts and you using the mouse.  I love the integrated search that OS X Tiger (spotlight) and Vista (don't know what they called it) introduced.  I want to open Disk Utility to burn a iso image.  I click on the HD icon, go into the Applications folder, then the Utilities folder, then double click the Disk Utility icon.  Or, using Spotlight, it would just be Command + Space, type "di" and hit enter.  Much quicker.

I think it's just called Windows Search, but yeah it's great.  I love never getting that stupid "this shortcut has moved, please wait for all of eternity while I try to find it for you or click here to find it your goddamn self" dialog from XP anymore.

Offline NatsAddict

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #170: September 15, 2009, 07:51:41 PM »
electronic computer / fax / telephone

In that case, the fax came first.

WInner

Offline PC

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #171: September 15, 2009, 08:00:28 PM »
My first computer was a Canon (yes the camera company!) notebook with a whopping 10" diagonal screen, 800x600 resolution, powered by a 486 DX2 clone (made by AMD, actually, so I guess THAT was my first AMD chip) @ 66 MHz with 4 MB of RAM and a 350 MB HDD.

My first laptop was a Canon (yes the camera company!) notebook with a whopping 10" diagonal screen, 800x600 resolution, powered by a 486 DX2 clone...

...with 16MB of RAM and a 500MB hard drive. :lol:

So mine was better than yours!  :rofl:

Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #172: September 15, 2009, 08:04:36 PM »
My first laptop was a Canon (yes the camera company!) notebook with a whopping 10" diagonal screen, 800x600 resolution, powered by a 486 DX2 clone...

...with 16MB of RAM and a 500MB hard drive. :lol:

So mine was better than yours!  :rofl:

16 MB?!?!  High roller! :lol:

Offline Nathan

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #173: September 15, 2009, 10:17:15 PM »
These new "Envy" laptops from HP look like they might be pretty sweet.
http://gizmodo.com/5359331/hp-envy-hands-on-macbook-pro-clone-better-than-the-real-thing

They do look a lot like the MBP design, but they have a lot of what I like from that design, such as the type of "spaced chicklet" keyboard and a more sturdy build.

The Envy 13 is supposed to have a 8 hour battery with a magnetically attachable upgrade to go 16 hours :shock:



The Envy 15 has a Core i7 at 1.6 GHz that can throttle up to 3 GHz :shock:  I'm sure the battery life on that will be pretty horrendous.


Offline The Chief

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Re: Hardware/OS Geek Thread
« Reply #174: September 16, 2009, 08:37:19 AM »
Magnetically attachable battery? :lol:



@ HP skinning the start menu :bang:

I wish OEMs would keep their dirty grubby stupid hands out of the OS UI.  It's bad enough they murder the OOB performance with bloatware so that Best Buy can charge the poor people who don't know any better just to clean up the computer they just sold them :roll: