10/3    (restored)
        What (free) DVD ripping software do you use for Windows that converts
        to mpeg or avi?
        \_ rip to VOB files first and then convert.  It's not that hard.
           http://www.doom9.org
           \_ I don't have a problem ripping the VOB's.  When I try to convert,
              all the programs I have crash.  Could you name one that you use?
              \_ well, I use a combination of dvd2avi and either tmpgenc or
                 VirtualDub.
                 \_ When I try to save to .avi with dvd2avi, it just says it's
                    finished, and the avi is 0 bytes long.  When I use
                    VirtualDub to open the vob, I get the error:
                    MPEG Import Filter: pack synchronization error
                    What am I doing wrong?
                    \_ despite its name, don't use dvd2avi for saving an AVI.
                       this is all explained in detail on a number of websites
                       (such as doom9) ...
                       \_ Okay.  I've skimmed through the docs on doom9 and
                          another site (riphelp.com) and don't see a simple
                          top-to-bottom description of vob->avi (or other
                          format).  What am I missing?

9.25    I need to cut up a porn flick into smaller pieces.  Can anyone rec
        an AV editing ware?
        \_ That one with John Bobbit is good.
        \_ for what platform?  Windows?  in what format?  AVI?  Use
           VirtualDub http://www.virtualdub.org (use direct stream copy
           mode) ... MPEG1?  Use Tsunami MPEG Encoder
           http://www.tmpgenc.net (File > MPEG Tools > Merge & Cut)
           --jameslin

9/19    I dutifully installed cygwin on win95.  However, some program, like
        tex and tcsh, dumps core or stack.  What is the problem?
        \_ I read somewhere that cygwin on windows 95 doesn't
           work so well
            \_ I wrote somewhere that win95 doesn't work so well, so what
                you read is pretty certainly true.  Umm, I'm not one of
                these "get a real OS" people, most of the time but
                Windows 95 ???

9/16    what is a good usenet news reader for windows?
        \_ NewsFerret.  Hard to find, but great for searching.  -John
        \_ outlook bar none.
           \_ Yeah.  non-buggy newsreaders are for wimps
        \_ Agent.
              BNR(Binary News Reader) is good if you are only downloading binary
              files.
           \_ Start with Free Agent. Upgrade to Agent if you like it. Also,
              BNR(Binary News Reader) is good if you are only downloading
              binary files.
           \_ Agent sucks cause it doesn't view pictures inline.
              \_ Iview.  Tag and execute dozens at a time, each gets it's own
                 no frills window and you can get off on a few pics while the
                 next 50+ are loading.  ;-)  Better than inline.
        \_ I can't believe Sodians didn't mention Xnews.  I used to use
                           \_ Is it installed on Sodia?
           Agent myself, stumbled to this Xnews on accident because Agent
           had some problem with Netscape.  Once i switched to Xnews,
           there is no turning back.  Xnews has almost all the good stuff
           Agent has (i.e. regex filter), but lighter and it's FREE.
           only problem i have is to display different languages in
           different groups.  Xnews' website is not reliable, do a google
           and search for keyword for "Xnews" and "Luu Tran" for other
           downloading site
           \_ What if the only thing I'm doing is download yenc encoded multi-
              part binaries?  Is Xnews better for that than Agent?
              \_ if that's all you care about, try GrabIt
                 http://www.shemes.com/grabit.  Or use yProxy
                 http://www.brawnylads.com/yproxy and use any newsreader
                 you want.
                 \_ It's all I care about.  Thanks for the links.

9/13    "Microsoft Flaw May Allow File Theft"
        http://csua.org/u/295
        Yawn ... but wait, this is unlike before:
        "The company said it will definitely repair the problem only for
        owners of the most recent versions of the software."

9/9     Being a unix-phile, I'm just not up on windows software, what's
        the recommended packet sniffer for use with windows2000?
        \_ I have my windows box on a shared hub and use my unix tools.
        \_ You could always use tcpdump for windows. Windump, that is.
        \_ Try out ethereal http://www.ethereal.com --scotsman

9/4     Is sniffing whiteout really as harmful as people say?
        \_ Doesn't that give you syphillis?
        \_ They say it kills brain cells, but anyone who'd do it was
           clearly lacking in that department to begin with, so it's
           hard to say.
           \_ Dumbass!  The less brain cells you have, the more precious
              they are.
              \_ there exists a point beyond which the number of brain
                 cells do not matter.  it is not clear whether our
                 cells does not matter.  it is not clear whether our
                 whiteout sniffer is beyond that point.
                 \_ sort of like the difference between lettuce and cabbage?
                    \_ more like between windows me and windows xp
                       \_ so you have to disable 90% of the stuff in the newer
                          one so it works halfway decently?
        \_ Now I wanna sniff some glue.

9/3     Why can't an NT kernel-mode driver perform floating point calculations?
        Thanks.
        \_ I haven't written NT kernel-mode drivers in a while but my
           recollection is that saving and restoring the floating point state
           is relatively expensive and they didn't want to do this when
           switching among kernel threads.
           \_ If the kernel used floating-point math, you'd also need to
              save and restore all the floating-point registers every time
              a process made a system call.
              \_ Couldn't you just save and restore only when you intend to
                 use FP?
                \_ uhh, you could save the registers in the kernel code and
                   restore them before returning to user space
                   \_ That's what I mean -- the kernel needs to take the
                      time to save and restore the registers every time a
                      system call is made.  It's easy to code, but it makes
                      every system call slower.

8/26    Where is a good place to buy a Slackware 8.1 CD locally? I have a
        "new" Toshiba 445CDX Laptop and the 2.2.16 kernel in Slackware 7.1
        does not seems to support my PCMCIA controller. Otherwise, any
        suggestions for downloading the install files from Windows and then
        switching to Linux to upgrade the OS? What's up with
        <DEAD>callug.cs.berkeley.edu<DEAD> ?

8/26    After I save a file in win95, I need to process it from DOS prompt
        (to use with sftp for putty for example). I find the file name to be
        "currupted" - it's shorter and contains strange characters like "~".
        I know this must be a feature from MS but how to get around it and
        access the file from DOS using the real file name?
        \_ try using cygwin
        \_ the win95 shell displays that because it's DOS and DOS doesn't
           do more than 8.1 filenames. Just use those shorter names
           (i believe they show up correctly in windows), use the long name
           with quotes around it (i think that works) or better yet
           upgrade to win 2000.
        \_ if you use the short file name with scp, you'll lose the long file
           name on the other side.  you need to double quote the LFN to do
           what you're talking about.  or as the above say use cygwin or w2k.
        \_ By "DOS prompt", do you mean the DOS window in Win95, restarting
           Win95 in DOS mode, or plain MS-DOS 6.xx?
        \_ Enclose your long/full name with double quotes.
        \_ Use double quotes.
        \_ I think double quotes will do the trick.

8/14    Some applications don't have the "print to file" option.  Is there
        a way to install a printer type that will generate a PS file when
        printed to it?  This is w2k.  I've been dicking around with this
        all morning and still can't find a way to print.  This is for an
        efax viewer and something called elynx viewer.  There's no "print
        to file" option and printing to "PDFwriter" won't work either.
        Yup, adobe acrobat doesn't always work.
        \_ I know in win95/98 if you install a PS printer driver, like for
           a HP laserjet 4, you can select "print to file." don't know
           about win2k.
           \_ I can corroborate for Win2K... I've done just this.
        \_ If you have a Unix machine on the network, you can setup a cups
           printer instance to print to a postscript/pdf file and mail it
           back to you.

8/9     YA Windows Exploit:
        http://security.tombom.co.uk/shatter.html
        \_ yawn. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/06/1828256
           and it's more like a VirusScan exploit.
           \_ no. it's a windows exploit.  the virusscan characteristic is
              a variety rather than a species.
              \_ no, it's a virusscan exploit because virusscan is the one
                 providing a gui window as a root process.
                 \_ gee, I'm sure there are no other windows applications that
                    do that.
                    \_ gee, then don't run those if you're concerned about this.
                       \_ Er.  did you read the paper at the url you posted?
                          Hell, there are microsoft applications that do the
                          same damn thing.

8/8     /csua/pub/jobs/ZoneLabs
        Need senior windows C++ gui programmer immediately.
        Also java developers and those with firewall development
        experience. -sky
        \_ hmm...do you know a Chris Manian there?
           \_ yep. -sky
        \_ Hey I'm alerady using zone alarm 2.4 and happy with it.  Is there a
           real reason to use 3.x other than newer/cooler?  There any security
           issues in the older 2.4 code?  Thanks.
           \_ I'd upgrade to 2.6 if I were you.  There was a big UI
              change in 3.0 that a lot of people weren't happy about.
              3.0 does add privacy protection (ad blocking, cookie control,
              etc..) and protection against the insertion of malicious
              DLL's into trusted app.  Privacy is pretty flakey though...
              If you were gonna upgrade to 3.x I'd upgrade to ZA Plus,
              which doesn't include the privacy features. -sky
              \_ thanks!

8/6     w2k sp3 available.  Lots of USB, pcmcia fixes.
                \_ Is she hot?

8/3     Anyone use SecureCRT? For some reason it keeps disconnecting me to
        CSUA if I'm idle for more than 20 minutes. No other ssh program
        (Windows or UNIX) does that to me, and I don't see any settings
        related to timeout. Any ideas?
        \_ I use the very old 2.4 version which doesn't disconnect me although
           it'd probably be healthier if it did.  ;-)
        \_ Relatedly, any recommendations for a win ssh client that supports
           PKI?
        \_ I use it and haven't experienced any problems.
        \_ Go to Options, Session Options, Options and turn on "anti-idle" -bhc
        \_ perhaps you're behind a NAT gateway with a low idle session timeout
           setting?

8/3     What plug-in do I need to play AVI's on my pc?
        \_ on Windows?  Windows Media Player?
        \_ i bet it's divx avi.  search the web for divx codecs
           \_ if so, and you're not planning on doing encoding, install
              ffdshow instead. http://cutka.szm.sk/ffdshow/index.html
              It'll decode divx3/4/5 and xvid video and has good
              postprocessing control. --jameslin

7/30    Cygwin question. What does one need to do in add'n to 'chmod u+x
        ./<filename>' to make scripts executable in cygwin on NT? I've RTFM and
        found nothing regarding script execution that's applicable.
        \_ say what?  I've got no problem just running scripts under cygwin as
           if it was a real unix shell.
        \_ as you may recall, there is no executable bit in windows. thus,
           cygwin just looks at the extension or checks for the magic shebang
           header. so add #!/path/to/whatever at the top of your scripts.

7/25    Where's your MS, nweaver?
Mr. Nicholas Croyle Weaver
Huntington Beach, CA
UC Berkeley Degree
B.A. 1995 Astrophysics
B.A. 1995 Computer Science

7/22    anybody know why the "print to file" options is sometimes there
        and sometimes isn't there in windows?  It seems to be application
        specific.  I'm wondering why that's the case.  Shouldn't this be
        a driver thing?  The windows printer driver should always be able
        to generate a postscript file right?
        \_ A Postscript printer driver should always have the option to
           "print to file".  Additionally some apps have "output page
            as EPS" or the like.
        \_ Because the application author is the one who decides what goes
           in the menus.  Your windows fu is lacking.
           \_ I have absolutely NO windows fu at all.
        \_ "No manual entry for fu"  what is fu?
           \_ your fu fu and dict fu are lacking. man dict; dict fu
           \_ I think it comes from "Kung Fu".
              \_ what, then, is "Kung"?
        \_ set the print driver to use port "file". any postscript printer
           should generate the correct ps...  HP PCL users you get PCL
           instead.  Therefore, make a new printer of some sort of postscript
           variety.

7/19    On NT is there any way to find out which process is currently using a
        certain .dll, or at least whether or not the .dll is currently being
        used?  Thanks.
        \_ MS has some freebie tools for stuff like this.  Sorry I can't
           recall the name of any of it but I know they exist.  There's also
           third party stuff.  It's thankfully been a very long time since I've
           had to admin an NT machine....  -solaris dude
        \_ Dependency Walker
        \_ There's a program called handleEx that does it

7/13    stupid Linux question - can i copy files from a Linux machine
        onto a floppy disc and read them on a windows machine? (it didn't
        work when i tried it and i don't know if it's because my floppy
        drive is broken or because i'm doing it wrong).
        \_ I've done it.  Is it a DOS floppy?  Did you type 'sync' before
           removing the floppy, or otherwise unmount it properly?  --PeterM
        \_ If you have a dos formatted floppy (yes, you can format it under
           Linux as well), there's usually something like mount -t msdos
           <floppy device> <directory>  Then copy files into that directory,
           unmount it, and voila.  -John
        \_ Does anyone still use the mutils?  mformat, mdir, mcopy, etc.
           Basically DOS filesystem utilities for floppy disks on *nix OSes.
           --scotsman
           \_ well, I think trying to mount the floppy drive isn't working.
              I type 'mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy' and the floppy
              drive light comes on briefly but when I try to umount it, it
              doesn't seem to exist ('no such file or directory'). -op

7/11    what's the difference between <DEAD>cal.berkeley.edu<DEAD> and
        <DEAD>cal.alumni.berkeley.edu<DEAD> again? I have one and how do I get another?
        How come they have very different IPs?
        \_ <DEAD>cal.berkeley.edu<DEAD> is an alumni/student portal co-sponsored by
           the alumni association.  http://alumni.berkeley.edu is the alumni
           association's web page, which doesn't offer services such as
           email/web space.  In short--
        cal : http://mail.yahoo.com
        cal.alumni : http://news.yahoo.com
        \_ <DEAD>cal.alumni.berkeley.edu<DEAD> Server: Apache/1.3.12 (Unix)
                                           \_ 1.3.12? Security hole!
                                                \_ Are you going to email
                                                   their webmaster?
           http://alumni.berkeley.edu     Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
           <DEAD>cal.berkeley.edu<DEAD>        Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
                                           \_ Windows? Security hole!
                                              \_ Windows == Security hole?
                                                 \_ Windows == GOOD AMERICAN
                                                    PRODUCT! YOU COMMIE!

7/9     I need to (close to) real-time capabilities under Win2k.
        Specifically is there a way to get a consistent 1ms resolution? I
        need to use it as a clock for the rest of my program.
        \_ ObUseARealOS
             \_ I realize that, but I'm restricted to a Win2k box. -op
                \_ well call their support folks up and ask them the same
                   question.  Do we look like microsoft support?
                   \_ new motd insult: you look like microsoft support.
        \_ At Siemens, I know we often used a special version of NT that
           had RTOS-like capabilities. Search for Real-Time or RTOS on MS.
        \_ Win2k hsa a registry setting that controls time slice length but
           I don't know it off the top of my head.  Try google or get an
           advanced book on multi-threaded win2k programming.

7/4     Is anyone on Soda a shareware author for living?  Is it at all
        possible?
        \_ does http://www.wulfram.com count?
        \_ I think this guy has no day job, and probably makes a decent living:
           http://www.winedt.com
           his software really really really kicks ass, though, and
           the price is pretty low for how great it is, so people don't
           feel as annoyed by paying.  if this software were for sale in a
           store for 100 bucks, i'd still go buy it.
        \_ There are a very rare few people in the world who have made huge
           wads of cash from shareware.  There is a slightly larger group that
           makes a living but nothing spectacular from it.  The other 98% don't
           make enough to buy a can of beans.
        \_ I don't know of anyone who does it full-time, but there are a lot
           of people out there who write one or two cool toys, and then
           get a fair amount of pocket money out of it.  Except for the fact
           that he's a really over-the-top jesus looney, the dude who wrote
           UltraEdit is a pretty good example.  -John

7/1     Ross Anderson on TCPA/Palladium:
        http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
        \_ What a chill wind from Redmond blows...

6/28    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25940.html
        Analysis of MS Palladium scheme.  It's even worse than I'd first
        thought.  Very ugly stuff.
        \_ You expected any less?
           \_ It didn't occur to me such evil was possible but I'm not
              at all surprised it was MS that came up with it.
        \_ see also http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html
        \_ What is stopping people from just replacing the "fritz" chip
           with a FPGA that says yes to every query?
           \_ Destroying your MB because it'll be built in that way?  Or worse,
              it'll be part of the CPU in v2?

6/24    The future of computer security is Palladium:
        http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/06/24/020624hnpalladium.xml
        \_ Uhm, no it isn't.  Only in BG's little brain.

6/21    Please recommend a good/free schedule/script program.
        \_ for what OS?
        \_ cron?  could you describe your problem in more detail?
        \_ cron for unix, at for unix for one shot jobs, and nt/2k/xp have an
           at command which I've never used so best of luck with that one.

6/18    http://msnbc.com/news/768401.asp
        dwallach says windows is not all that bad. <shrug>
        \_ "In the last 15 years alone, software defects have wrecked a
        \_ "In the last 15 years alone, software failures wrecked a
           satellite launch, delayed an airport opening for a year, destroyed a
           Mars mission, killed four Marines in a helicopter crash, induced a
           U.S. Navy ship to destroy a civilian airliner, and shut down
           ambulance systems in London, leading to as many as 30 deaths."  Are
           these all true???
           \_ Arianne was the mislaunched satellite. The US ship Vincennes
              fired at an Iranian airliner over the gulf.
           \_ Yes.
              The 2 above;
              - 4 marines were in a Blackhawk during a routine check-out flight
                prior to full production;
              - the airport (I shouldn't have to tell anyone here) was
                Denver/Boulder;
              - the Mars Mission was the one that smashed into the surface (as
                opposed to Surveyor, which likely burned up in the atmosphere);
                \_ The Mars Global Surveyor is safely in orbit around Mars. You
                   mean Mars Climate Orbiter. The lander was Mars Polar
                   Lander. --dim
                   \_ Thanks.
                \_ Vincennes is very debatable. Captain is ultimately
                   responsible and he was rewarded for the shootdown.
                   [ reformatted - motdformatd ]
                   http://serendipity.magnet.ch/more/lockerb.htm
                \_ http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/7.46.html#subj2
                   Risks on the Vincennes incident.
              The ambulances I don't know about.
           \_ I'm sure human error accounts for a greater percentage.
              \_ Sure, but, as the article says, simple typos shouldn't
                 cause lethal mistakes.  I hear this argument from coders here
                 all the time.  "If they put in garbage, of course it won't
                 work."  Yes, but if they put in garbage, does your code have
        \_ The idea that software is getting worse is ludicrous.  Even Microsoft
           is getting better.  Who would take NT3 over windows 2000?
                 to die a horrible flaming death?  Or does it take too much
                 time to write an exception handler?
                 \_ hmm...  possible research area?

6/17    How does WinNT schedule Tasks?  Who gets priority?
        \_ Priorities 16-31 are "realtime" priorities which are absolute.  Any
           thread with a higher number runs until idle before any thread with
           a lower number can run.  Priorities 1-15 are normal priorities.
           a lower number can run.  Priorities 1-15 are dynamic priorities.
           CPU cycles.  Not sure about priority 0. --- yuen
           A thread with a higher number gets a bigger share, but not 100%, of
           CPU cycles.  Not sure about priority 0. It probably means it doesn't
           run until all other threads with priority 1 or above are idle.
           --- yuen
           \_ thanks.  But what is the behavior of equal priority tasks?
              \_ For normal priorities, timeslicing.  For "realtime"
                 priorities, a thread runs until idle before another thread of
                 the same priority can run.  --- yuen
                 \_ Can one thread interrupt another?
                    \_ sure, causing a BSOD would be a pretty nasty
                        interruption.
                    \_ Yes, if it has a higher priority.
                       \_ Where can I get the nitty gritty ugly details of
                          exactly how threading works in 98/nt/2k/xp?

6/17    I need to write an interrupt service routine to detect hardware
        interrupts, under Win2000, but I don't want to reinvent the
        wheel.  Is there some place that offers skeleton code for ISR's
        so I don't need to write one entirely myself? I searched the
        msdn site but they only had a few help pages worth of material,
        nothing else.
        \_ Just copy the sample code in any NT driver book.  E.g. "Windoze NT
           Device Driver Development" from OSR, or "Developing Windoze NT
           Device Drivers" from Addison Wesley.
        \_ Install the Windows 2000 DDK.  Install sample source.
           Look in src\general\int\stat.c for the function
           statInterruptServiceRoutine.  Note I am looking in the NT 4.0
           DDK...It might be different in the 2K or XP DDK
           -sky

6/15    Microsoft accidently sends virus in korean languager version of .net
        http://news.com.com/2100-1001-935994.html?tag=fd_top
        \_ old news.  "Microsoft ships virus!"  Yeah whatever.  That happened
           when Outlook first escaped into the wild.  It's like having a news
           report headlined, "Microsoft ships software with bug!"

6/9     What is up with the logos of http://msdn.microsoft.com and http://amazon.com being
        identical? Same font, same arrow.
        \_ what about Lucent and Zachary's Pizza?
        \_ what about http://chickswithdicks.com and yermom?
        \_ Obviously, they are both part of a vast Washington state conspiracy
           to brainwash the rest of the country.
           \_ obYerMomAndMyDick

6/6     Anyone have a copy of windows 1.1 (sic) they are willing to give
        me a copy of (or point me to url?) -crebbs
        \_ is Windows 1.01 good enough?
           http://21ct.gooddays.org/app/win101.html
             \_ should be. thanks. -crebbs
        \_ windows 3.11?
           \_ Yes, that's right, 1.1 (sic) means 3.11.  Very good!
        \_ try the old warez sites. the ones that keep out of date games
           from the 80s.

5/27    XP AntiTrust patch:
        http://money.cnn.com/2002/05/24/technology/microsoft.xp.reut/index.htm

5/24    They came by air, now they will come by *sea*--see the second half
        of this article:
        http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20020524/D7JN51I80.html

5/24
Microsoft also will use the Windows update to crack down on
software pirates: It identified a stolen unlocking combination widely
distributed on the Internet to install Windows XP illegally.
        \_ Not surprising, but url?
        \_ duh, you're supposed to use one from work.
        \_ So what if the "pirates" don't auto update?
        \_ What is wrong with Windows 2000?
           \_ Latest == '1337est
                \_ Yeah even if it can't run the latest games like GTA3 without
                   special patches....

5/21    M$ Software so buggy that protocols and api's can't be made
        public without compromising national security:
        http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D701%2526a%253D26875,00.asp
        \_ Not good enough for nuclear reactors or air traffic control, but
           good enough for nuclear missles and banking.
           \_ Because, like hey, its only a few nukes and some other people's
              money.  And with the recent treaty with the russians, even fewer
              nukes soon, so load up minesweeper on your WinXP server and we're
              ready to safe guard the country's weapons and financial system!
              \_ Let's roll.
                 \_ All I need now is my slim picken's hat with MS logo.
        \_ "Windows NT Cripples US Navy Cruiser"
           http://www.info-sec.com/OSsec/OSsec_080498g_j.shtml
           M$ has planned for this anti-trust lawsuit years in advance by
           inserting bugs into its code.

5/3     Anyone know about 4-pin/6-pin Firewire? I wanna get an iPod, but
        have a Sony Vaio with a 4-pin Firewire port. Should a 4-pin to 6-pin
        plug be enough to get this to connect? (In addition to any extra
        software I need to get of course.)              - rory
        \_ Yes. Infact the iPod should come with that adapter.
           \_ Really? That'd be great if the adapter was even included,
              but my understanding was that all the macs had the 6-pin
              ports and Apple not was putting any effort into supporting
              non-mac usage of the iPod. url? Thanks.
              \_ I thought that the new iBook had the smaller port, but
                 it turns out I was wrong. Anyway, I asked a friend of
                 mine here at work who has a iPod and he has been using
                 it with his vaio at home with just the 4 pin to 6 pin
                 cable and xpod or some such software.
                 \_ Great! That's just what I wanted to hear... thanks!
                    ... and if you ever find out the exact software he
                    is using, please post or email. I am looking at a
                    couple different programs right now-- some free, some
                    not.
                    \_ The guy at work uses XPlay:
                        http://www.media4.com/products/xplay
        \_ the only difference between 4- and 6-pin firewire is that 6-pin
           carries power on the extra two pins.  If you have a device that
           can be powered externally, then you should be able to go from 6- to
           4- with no problem.

4/29    I don't get it:  I have (or had) windows 2000 on a fat partition.
        When i boot i get the "boot device no good" error message after it
        starts the windows 2000 graphical boot up screen (the second screen
        with progress bar (the first being ascii the second being graphical).
        If i boot from floppy it doesn't see any MS partition type.  So Where i
        is the pre-boot info coming from?  How is it getting as far as it does?
        \_ Since you don't provide enough info, I'm guessing: your FAT is
           FAT32 and your floppy is an older FAT16 DOS which doesn't know
           FAT32.  You'll need to make the boot floppy from win98 which will
           put a FAT32 capable DOS on it.  As for your real problem I've never
           seen a Microsoft error that says, "boot device no good".  Perhaps
           you'd like to tell us the real error?
           \_ Maybe his error message comes from the BIOS.
           \_ windows 2000 doesn't run on fat16 so that's a good guess.  It
              doesn't see an ms partition booting from a win98 boot disk or
              a win2k CDROM using the  "Console" repair mode. -top

4/26    http://sinfest.net/d/20010811.html
        \_ amen brother. - bdg
        \_ "pansy" no uhm wait... "loser"... no... "sucker"... hmmm....

4/24    On Windows platform, how do I capture the text from a command prompt
        window (another program is running there)?  This is to help maintain a
        very old system that I don't have the option of rewriting.  I promise
        after this I'll get a Real (TM) Operating System.
        \_ Get a Mac and start getting some real work done.
        \_ if you can run the command prompt window from a telnet session into
           the windows box (i.e. see seattle labs' remoteNT product), you can
           capture that text and operate on it with the likes of perl and/or
           expect. -ERic
           \_ I still have the code for that we used at various not-to-be-named
              companies.
        \_ do you mean copy and paste?
        \_ (1) Right click on title bar --> Edit --> Mark
           (2) Highlight the text
           (3) Right click on title bar --> Edit --> Copy
        \_ If the Old Windows Application runs in a command/dos shell, can you
           make it redirect it's output to a file or is it interactive?
           Thus: C:> owa.exe > output.txt
        \_ Thanks for all the responses.  Actually, the program is interactive,
           and I need to be able to examine things on the fly, so I can't
           redirect in/out.  Sounds like simulating the mouse-presses in the
           MS-DOS prompt and then reading from the clipboard might be easiest.
           (Yes this is basically cut and paste, but programatically.)

4/23    Do WinBlows implement mbone yet?
        \_ Does anyone use mbone for anything?
           \- see ftp.ee.lbl.gov/talks/vj-ucb-feb17.pdf --psb

4/19    People always complain NT platform is not as stable as Unix platform.
        From the architecture/coding implementation point of view, what are
        the main difference between these 2 OS? Good insight appreciated.
        \_ \/\/1/\||>0\/\/5 r0000lez!@!1111  (sorry, had to)
        \_ for starters, much harder to strip extraneous crap from your system
           so that you konw its runnin the bare minimum applications it
           needs to to perform its function.  With UNIX you can be sure youve
           got just the bare OS and kernel and still have it functional.
        \_ windows registry.  Ever corrupt one?
        \_ Windows always crap up on me.  The other day, my windows doesn't
           start but gives a blue screen.
           \_ I totally. windows is suck. The UNIX better in so much.
              Solaris or any.
        \_ NT is too GUI-dependent.  If something go wrong and you not can
           load the GUI (not even in the safe mode), and OS partition is
           NTFS, it a big hassle.
        \_ Unix good.  NT bad.  Is known so to be.
        \_ It is much harder for me to figure out what is going on in
           a windows box to fix problems. No truss, no lsof, etc.

4/19    I'm looking for free windows (2000) software that will just
        play the mic input.  (e.g. so that i can plug a microphone
        into my computer and talk and hear it through the speakers
        without having to record and playback). I don't care much
        about sound quality. recommendations?
        \_ yahoo messenger with 'talk' turned on
           \_umm, o.k. i'll try it.
        \_ Hmm, it should be as simple as setting a couple of bits in the sound
           chip.  But since you probably don't have control over the sound
           driver, this won't help.  Did you try opening the Volume Control
           from the Task Bar and then turning up the volume for Microphone?  (I
           don't have a microphone to try.)  -- yuen
            \_ yeah, if i turn the "line-in" and the reg. volume ALL THE WAY UP
               i can kind of hear it throught the speakers, but then any system
               sounds are way too loud.
                \_You need to use the mic in and/or the microphone boost under
                'advanced properties'
               \_ Line-in?  Did you plug your mic to the wrong jack?  On my PC
                  there's both an audio-in jack and a microphone jack.  On my
                  NT the Volume Control has both a volume for Line and one for
                  Microphone.  If you don't see that, go to Options ->
                  Properties and select all of the controls in the list.  Also
                  try to select "Recording" and then play with the Microphone
                  volume control in that section.  -- yuen
                    \_ i've tried it with both.  doesn't seem to make much
                       difference. I was able to up the volume a little by maxing
                       the appropriate selection in the "recording control", but
                       it is still very soft compared to normal computer sounds.
                       (it is better though so thanks to all above for the help).
                       difference. I was able to up the volume a little by
                       maxing the appropriate selection in the "recording
                       control", but it is still very soft compared to normal
                       computer sounds. (it is better though so thanks to all
                       above for the help).
                       [ learn to format - motdformatd ]
                       \_ get an amplifier for your microphone then.

4/9     You know that tooltip that pops up when you hover the mouse
        over the time in the taskbar on Windows systems? I could have
        sworn that it used to show the day of the week along with the
        date. Can it do that, and how would I enable it? Not talking
        about 3rd party addons.
        \_ the tooltip displayed is whatever you have Windows' long date format
           set as. (Control Panel > Regional Settings > Date)
           \_ thanks

4/4     Probably a dumb question, but I'll ask anyway: Are apps written for
        win95/98/NT generally compatible with winME? Thanks!
        \_ If they are simple apps like Word or Winamp, yes. If they use
           device drivers like a video camera app or scanning app, then
           don't count on it.
        \_ In theory any newer device will have winme drivers but... Anyway,
           there's no reason to use winme.  Either use win98 or win2k.

4/5     I never understoof why one would want transparent windows.  Doesn't
        it just make it harder to read?
        \_ but it looks kewl d00d
        \_ having two terms on top of each other in different colors
           is way cool.  Have one chat, and another source code...
           maybe have two server access/error logs scrolling by
           underneath.
        \_ Depends on the level of transparency. If the opaqueness
           is high enough say (80-90%) then terminals are just as
           readable as at 100% opaque.
           The only legitimate use I've seen for transparent windows
           is transparent terminals (as found in MacOS X). Being able
           to read a web page with configuration commands for a
           particular daemon while entering those commands on the
           terminal is useful (esp. on a Laptop).
           \_ just get a bigger screen (or another screen) cheapo (harpo's
              brother).
        \_ If you use an appropriate background, readability isn't
           an issue: http://bushong.net/pics/screenshots/view/eterm.png
           -geordan
        \_ Ok ok so there are ways to adjust the transparency and use
           different backgrounds, etc.  That's nice.  Now then, why
           would one want transparent windows?
           \_ in order to read web pages behind your terminal windows.

4/3     Has anyone tried Cygwin? How is it?
        \_ If you're willing to put in the effort to get it configured and
           running you'll get a decent system.  A friend of mine compiled and
           ran apache on cygwin/nt with numerous mods for a production server.
           It 'worked' but I would not do this in any place I cared about.  I
           provide this only as an example of what can be done, not what should
           be done.  Think of the children!
        \_ If you're willing to put in the effort to get it configured
           and running you'll get a decent system.  A friend of mine
           compiled and ran apache on cygwin/nt with numerous mods for
           a production server. It 'worked' but I would not do this in
           any place I cared about.  I provide this only as an example
           of what can be done, not what should be done.  Think of the
                                           Lorelai, is that you? _/
           children!
        \_ My laptop dual boots to Linux/Win2K. I got sick of rebooting
           to do development, so installed cygwin and use it to this end.
           I'm doing my whole 162 project using it this semester and
           haven't encountered any problems. I even got the mips cross-
           compiler to work using cygwin gcc (thanks to this guy:
              http://upe.cs.berkeley.edu/~jeffpang/cs162 )     - rory
        \_ If you want a half broken UNIX environment on your Windows
           system, Cygwin is the way to go. If you are just interested
           in a half broken UNIX environment, just install '1337 GN00
           L1NUX instead.

4/2     Can't find fdisk in WinXP. What is it now?
        \_ if it's like 2000, somewhere in the Control Panel, there's a
           Computer Management applet that lets you partition disks.

3/27    WinXP has 'snap to grid' for desktop icons.  It's the only xp feature
        I want on w2k but I couldn't find a w2k utility that would do this.
        Anyone seen such a thing?  Got a URL?  Thanks!

3/26    Is WinXP more stable than Win98?
        \_ That depends on the meaning of "stable". - Bill G

3/20    What are some good reasons to upgrade to OfficeXP? Are XP documents
        readable by Office2000 documents?
        \_ yes.. i believe back to office97.. -shac
           \_ Wow, that's some technology. I didn't know that Office2K
              documents could be used to read other Office docs. I figured
              you'd like like, the actual office software or something.
              I must be getting old. Intelligent word docs! Is this some
              kind of macro thing?
              \_ pedantic "humor" deserves one line at most

3/16    Hey does anyone remmeber the Alex file system? Anyone know if it is
                          \_ no. -alex
        still available or if there has been any improvements in the last 10yrs
        on ftp-backed file systems? ok tnx --psb
        \_ WebDAV relevent?
        \_ Didn't Microsoft innovate that?  I think they did.
          \_ we've got to stop antitrust laws, Java, and Linux from
             preventing Microsoft from innovating. It's what the consumer
             wants.
             \_ Yeah I read this thing the other day that said Linux was anti-
                American.  We should stop letting foreigners write code.

3/13    how do i view a bunch of short mpegs in windows, all
        in a row, purely for academic purposes of course.
        \_ On 1 hand or 2?
           \_ it's an academic purpose! how fast, how far, how often
        \_ Why was my reply deleted?  1 hand or 2?  Damned prudes.
        \_ don't use windows? umm. you can amke an .asx... find one on the
           web and figure out how to use it... I have no clue.  The other way
           I can think of is to make a batch file that uses "start" -dwc
           \_ The batch file doesn't need "start".
        \_ You could create a SMIL document that defines the playlist
           and just drop the SMIL file onto QuickTime.
        \_ Go to http://www.intervideo.com
           Download WinDVD 3.0 demo
           Search on http://www.astalavista.com for crack
           create playlist in windvd.
           \_ There's crack on the net?  I searched for crack and all I got
              was tons of pirated software.  I need it bad, man!
        \_ use a media player like Zoom Player which will let you queue
           up files in a playlist.  It's free and fairly lightweight.

3/9     http://www.microsoft.com/unix/ie/downloads/default.asp
        \_ What's your point?  MS did this 3 or 4 years ago when the
           browser wars were in full swing and they needed "Runs on UNIX"
           check boxes in the feature comparisons with Netscape.
           \_ The point is they kept the unix version relatively updated
              and didn't drop it after netscape keeled over at IE 4.x.
              \_ It probably made it easier for them to do the
                 MacOS X version
                 \_ Hardly.  The MacOS X version is native.  The UNIX version
                    uses the MainStay libraries to map Windows calls to X and
                    UNIX equivalents.  Completely different source.
              \_ Not really.  It's IE 5.0, not 5.5 or 6.0, and hasn't been
                 patched for most of the IE 5.0 security bugs.
        \_ Doesn't run on BSD or Linux.
           \_ IE Runs on BSD, MacOS X that is.
           \_ So what?
        \_ Page doesn't even load.
                \_ mine too
        \_ ie4 rocks on sol2.7! I Didn't patch it yet for ie5.

2/25    I have the following line in my .Xdefaults file:
           emacs*font: fixed
        but am trying to run emacs on my windows machine and was
        wondering if there was any way to acheive the same result
        through emacs. Anyone know? Thanks.
        \_ If you're running NT emacs 20, click Mule -> Set Font/Fontset, then
           choose your font.  Is that what you want?  I don't know how to
           specify a font in some config file.
           \_ And if you like the font "fixed", you can get it from
              ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/mikeh/fonts.zip
              It's called "vt100", and you can install it using the
              Fonts control panel.
              \_ cool, thanks!
                 Though... I guess the next question then is, is there
                 anyway to do this in my .emacs file? (set the font,
                 that is)
   (set-default-font "-*-Courier New-normal-r-*-*-12-90-96-96-c-*-iso8859-1")
   ;; that's on NT Emacs 21.1

2/21    Anyone here gotten mulitmonitor working with two video cards?
        \_ Yes. Matrox G400/450 under Windows 2000.
                \_ is this an editing system?  If so please contact brain
        \_ Yes.  Onboard video and ATI Xpert 98 under Win98 and Windows 2000.
        \_ Yes. OS X w/PCI Radeon & GeForce 3
        \_ Yes. /dev/ttya and /dev/ttyb

2/13    Is it possible to install NT Checked build on a machine that's already
        running the Free build?  When I tried installing it keeps on
        blue-screening after it asks me to reboot to continue installation.
        Thx.
        \_ Apparently not.  -sky

2/13    Are there any "official" NT books / references on learning the
        following?
        - kernel-mode programming in general
        - kernel-mode device drivers (same thing as above?)
        - user-mode programming.
        I've seen a couple good books on kernel-mode drivers, but they don't
        look like they're published by Micro$oft (because sometimes they say
        bad things about NT.)  Thank you.
        \_ http://Amazon.com.  B&N.  Whatever.  Same as always.

2/10    http://eveander.com/arsdigita-history
        A short history of Ars Digita. Just in case you are wondering what
        all those drones in Haas are trained to do.
        \_ Philip Greenspun is charming over the web and an asshole in
           person. He brought a lot of what happened on himself.
           And do you really think Eve would be a VP if she wasn't
           sleeping with him?
           \_ Give us all the intimate details!
              \_ just FYI, she would have been VP regardless... she was
                 one of ~5 founders! (all became VP's)  - former employee
                 \_ OK, ^VP^founder. Happy? Still accurate.
                    \_ Actually, its kind of funny you should mention that
                       because when the company was founded by her and
                       others, she wasn't sleeping with Philip... in fact,
                       she was sleeping with that guy Aure that she
                       mentions in the article.... which could have in
                       some way contributed to the fact that he was the
                       first of the old-school VP's to go.
                       \_ I bow to your superior knowledge on this subject.
                          Please keep the gossip coming. -- original replier
                          \_ What else would you like to know? :)
                             \_ Um, sexual escapades, screaming matches,
                                bitchy comments made behind people's backs,
                                love triangles, you know, the works.
                             Here's a juicy morsel:
                             There is a Yahoo group called ex-aD of former
                             employees. While this is mostly disgruntled
                             programmer and admins, some former managment
                             also sub- scribes. Recently, the ever-charming
                             philg himself posted a message announcing that
                             he just bought a new cessna-type plane with the
                             $7M he got from the lawsuit, and is now
                             planning to fly to alaska, and asking if
                             anyone would like to come with him. Needless-
                             to-say, the responses were quite humorous.
           \_ Well, he takes good pictures too.
           \_ Sleeping with your underlings is not only highly unprofessional,
              it exposes the company to sexual harassment lawsuits. Sounds
              like Greenspun had it coming.
        \_ Check out the comment by Bay Area electronic musician Tim Perkis.
           Right on the money.

2/8     Once again, Windows is my bitch.  Trying to install software
        which I had successfully installed before on another similar machine
        but this time, it kept crapping out saying: "Setup has detected that
        unInstallShield is in use. Please close unInstallShield and restart
        setup. Error 432". Even removing all instances of IsUnInst.exe failed
        to get around this. But I fooled it and made it do my bidding.

2/6     I just got hit by the Nimda worm.  Does anyone have experience
        getting rid of it?  :(
        \_ install *nix
        \_ Reformat, reinstall. Seriously. Nimda installs backdoors.
           *anyone* could have done *anything* to our system.
           \_ Certainly do this. And keep up with patches! Seriously,
              Nimda has been around for so long -- you shouldn't have
              been affected at all.
              \_ I have a RH6.2 Linux on the internal LAN.  Do I need
                 to reinstall that too?  Lots of DNS probes after my
                 windows gateway was compromised.
                 \_ uh... if it was infected. Does Nimbda even
                    affect non-windows?
                    \_ In the anal-sense, yes. But only because Nimda
                       probes randomly-picked IP addresses. However,
                       Nimda can only _infect_ very specific systems
                       (which are usually MS Windows systems).
                 \_ Make sure you have all the patches for RH6.2...
                    Nimda won't get it, but there are other worms
                    that can do some damage.

2/5     Hi, I'm looking for a web site whereby people can enter a surname
        and it'll identify from what country the name originated in.  Is
        there such a thing?  Thanks.
        \_ Just post the name here and we'll tell you.
        \- http://surname.org
            \_ If you don't mind 3 pop-up windows and blinking ad's.
                \_ It's a new net.  No more supported-by-tax-dollars.
        \_ google it and look for the country code

2/5     I'm a sysadmin. Made a house-call to fix CEO's wife's computer.
        She already did a great job of troubleshooting so there wasnt
        much for me to do. Instead I came up with a simple alternative
        that worked. She was very thankful and now sent me a Fry's gift
        certificate for a couple hundred dollars.  Is this too much money?
        What should I do? Just send a thank-you card? Or decline it and say
        I was just happy to help and was just "doing my job"?
        If kept, I will spend it on something my colleagues will also enjoy.
        Please give any advice, motd.
        \_ Thank you card.  It's annoying to have your gestures of thanks
           declined.
           \_ thanks for helping confirm this for me.
        \_ Is your CEO using company resource for personal need?
           \_ she's a big part of his continued success. if he does well,
              the company does well and so does my job and stock do well.
              Anyways, I had to go out there to check on other things.
        \_ Return the gift and ask for sex instead.
           \_ Only if she's hot.  Is she?
              \_ She's hella hot. No sex.
        \_ I'd send her a thank you card, use the money to buy something,
           and not talk about it to others.  You might want to mention it
           \_ Seconded.
           to your CEO, depending on what kind of guy he is.
           \- thisisthecorrect advice. this probably isntthat much for a
           ceo and family.
        \_ Split the gift money into two halves. Buy yourself something nice
           with one half and a gift for your CEO with the other half..
           \_ That is just weird.
        \_ Nice!  I can see it now.  "Dear PCWorld forum...."
        \_ Buy her a nice sex toy as a thank you.
           \_ With a Fry's gift certificate?
              \_ One of those vibrating joysticks?
        \_ It is *not* part of your job to do house calls.  I've done house
           calls because it was clear that if I didn't I'd be looking for a
           new job.  Unless it says so in your contract, house calls aren't
           included.  Think I'm being a dick?  Who is liable if you get
           injured?  Slip on their floor?  Get in an auto accident?  The
           insurance company won't cover you for worker's comp. You're fucked.
           Take the gift, send a nice thank you to her and don't tell anyone
           else about it.  Don't do it again if at all possible.  The 'gift'
           is not a gift. It is payment for your work as a consultant.  Don't
           do any weird shit like splitting it and buying a gift for them or
           mentioning it to the CEO or anything else.  You're nice but very
           naive.
           \_ You bring up some good points I did not think about. I think it
              is part of my job even though it's not written down anywhere
              I set up their computer systems at this home. I also helped
              with their home down south (flew on a jet).
              \_ So they paid you extra/bonus/OT/whatevr for being their
                 personal compupet setting up their computers and home networks
                 all over the country?  This isn't your job.  You're being
                 taken advantage of.  Let's compare.  I'm the admin at an
                 online place in the Bay Area.  I work less than 8 hours a day,
                 I don't visit homes, I don't do windows, I don't fill out
                 time sheets, I don't kiss anyone's ass, but I do report to
                 stupid people (can't have it all) and I make a lot more than
                 $100k.  The parent company is 50+ years old, stable, private
                 and will never IPO but I'll have this job as long as I can
                 stand it.  Which job would you rather have?

2/1     Idiots Dos the World Economic Forum website.  Claim some sort of
        bizarre victory.
        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10521-2002Feb1.html
        \_ See next motd topic.

1/24    Need a keyboard shortcut for volume and other stupid M$ Winblows
        stuff. Whats a good memory resident shareware?
        \_ this won't let you adjust volume directly, but it'll let you use that
           otherwise generally-useless Windows key:
                http://www.copernic.com/winkey

1/24    What are ".shs" files in NT?  I got such a file.  "assoc" says it's
        "ShellScrap".  What's that?  Thanks.
        \_ IIRC you can have "shellscraps" of executable code sort of like
           batch files.  I wrote one once for kicks but don't remember why I
           did that instead of a .bat.  Load it in notepad and see.

1/23    Last week for commenting on the MS antitrust case.  You always wanted
        to comment, right?  Now's the time.
        Quick way to add your voice:
        http://www.codeweavers.com/~jwhite/tunney.html
        Good summary of problems with the proposed settlement:
        http://www.kegel.com/remedy/remedy2.html
        \_ Yes, my voice will made a difference.  I can feel the power
           flowing through me as I click and type!  Internet me, baby!

1/20    Is there some way to minimize all the open windows in XP (like in
        Win2k or Win98, with that button?)
        \_ Have you tried the <Windows key>-M chord? This has worked on
           95/98/NT4/2k, and is probably still working in XP. -alexf
           \_ What is this "Windows key"?  Is that for people who bought one
              of those lame keyboards that has "Internet" and "email" keys?
              \_ The "Windows key" is a little key between Ctrl and Alt on
                 my keyboard which is set to act as Meta in X and linux
                 console. It so happens that M$ OS'es use it for other
                 purposes and that it has some funny M$-looking squiggle
                 on it; neither of these things gets in the way of it being
                 a useful extra mod key. -alexf
              \_ it's for people who weren't stupid enough to throw away
                 the keyboard that came with their machine, you dumb fuck.
                 \_ HAHAHHAHAA I built my own.  I didn't "get a Dell dewd!".
                    Did Mumsy and Dadee buy you a new Dell this Xmas?
                    \_ I built dozens of computer, but nowadays, I get Dells
                       for my desktops.  As for keyboards, I have quite a
                       few spares in my store room.  I am thinking of
                       throwing them away.
           \_ I like Win+D better, which toggles between minimizing everything
              and restoring them back.  Keyboards with "Windows" keys were
              introduced after Win95 came out, and no, they don't necessarily
              have those silly "internet" and "email" buttons.  The "volume"
              buttons sometimes can be handy, though.
              \_ Win-D didn't appear until 2k or so, fwiw; and win95 did
                 have win key shortcuts, whatever the order of
                 introduction. -alexf
                 \_ I thought at least Win98 had Win+D, if not 95. -geordan
                    \_ "or so"; yea, 98 has it. -alexf
                      \_ I'm very dissapointed in both of you. -chialea
                         \_ Fuck off, chialea. -alexf
                         \_ NORAGE IZ POWAA!! -geordan

1/15  .name URLs now available
        \_ What is it?
        \_ Is it permanent?  (I mean as permanent as
           http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~mylogin
           \_ http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/002411.htm
              \_ Gee.  They might as well open up the name space for *anything*
                 that is descriptive, e.g. "JohnDoe@university.of.california.at.
                 berkeley", "JohnDoe@2345.dwight.way.apt12.berkeley.ca94704",
                 "JohnDoe@510.643.1234.us"
        \_ worthless.  Making a 4 letter extension is going to break all sorts
           of code out there.
           \_ Maybe badly written code...  There have been >3 letter extensions
              for quite a while.
              \_ Not to mention 2-letter extensions like .tv and all the
                 international extensions (.jp, .it, .ca, etc)
                 \_ They're called TLDs people, not "extensions". This ain't DOS.
        \_ yeah baby, <DEAD>cum.cum.cum<DEAD>

1/11    I just installed 256megs of memory on my Dell desktop, bringing
        it up to a total of 384 megs. Everything seems fine, except one
        little thing. When I go to the start menu and click "New Office
        Document" and then select Blank Document, for example, it doesn't
        do anything...until I do something like just opening up a folder,
        or another program, or pretty much anything that requires double-
        clicking. So the new document does pop up, but only after I open
        something else. I really don't remember if it did this before, but
        could this be related to the new memory (DIMM, by the way). And
        it's Win98. Thanks.
        \_ have you popped the memory out and verified the behavior?
        \_ You know about windoze wasting heap trying to cache too much,
           right?  Put [vcache]\nMaxFileCache=65536 or something
           reasonable in system.ini.  Not that this is your problem.
           As for the actual problem, hmm.  Maybe it's that you're
           running windoze, MS office, or the combination of both. hehe
           \_ It's not smart enough to shrink the cache whe heap space is
           \_ It's not smart enough to shrink the cache when heap space is
              \_ No, that's not the problem.  As I understand it, it pre-
                 allocates heap for handling the file cache.  If you have
                 more than 512MB of RAM, the amount of heap needed for
                 maintaining that much vcache is almost 128k, which is
                 the fixed amount of heap windoze 95/98/ME has.  When
                 that happens, you get a out-of-memory error even though
                 you have more memory than ever.  It does not affect W2K/NT.
              running short?  Which versions of Windoze have this problem?
              \_ Well, kind of....  As I understand it, it pre-allocates
                 heap for handling the file cache.  If you have around
                 512MB of RAM, the amount of heap needed for maintaining
                 that much vcache is almost 128k, which is the fixed amount
                 of heap windoze 95/98/ME has.  When that happens, you get
                 a out-of-memory error even though you have more memory
                 than ever.  It does not affect W2K/NT.
                 \_ If you want to run windows with anything more than 32
                    or 64 MB of RAM, you should use win2k or NT, only.
        \_ dude, you got a dell!
           \_ Hmm.  I didn't consider that, but then, it's still better
              than compaq.
              \_ Or as we affectionally call it at work, crapaq

1/11    IE6, upgrade or wait?
        \_ No probs with it. Very similar to IE5/5.5, with added cookie
           filtering being the only real visible new feature.
        \_ I don't like the new icon.  Other than that I'd say go for it if
           you're already using 5.x.
        \_ If you must run Windows, it's a decent browser (a lot faster than
           NS6.)  Otherwise have a look at Opera 6, it rocks.  -John
        \_ I downgraded back to 5.5 because I couldn't figure out how
           not to have favourites opened via the link bar open up in a
           new window. And I'm not talking about using the
           "Resuse windows for launching shortcuts" mis-feature. Other than
           that, it was noticably faster and cookie management seemed a
           whole lot better.
           \_ doesn't happen for me.
        \_ Why you using evil empire stuff. We are sad.

1/10    Funniest OS Shootout I've seen:
        http://www.screamingbanana.com/AUwhichplatform.shtml
        \_ This is not funny.  At all.
           \_ Fuck off, asshole. If you don't have anything useful to say,
              \_ Try not to lose your temper. - not original poster
        \_ "Windows: Famous for stranding billion-dollar battleships at sea."
           Is this real?  Any URL for news articles?  Thx.

1/10    Any Hummingbird Exceed users out there?  I'm running Exceed 6.0.2.0
        on NT to run X apps on a remote Solaris machine.  Copying an X
        selection from xterm to the NT Clipboard works fine, but copying from
        Emacs 20.3.1 doesn't work.  The X selection is not copied and the NT
        Clipboard still has the previous content.  Any idea?  Thanks.  --- yuen
        \_ have you tried using ctrl-insert?
        \_ I had the same problem. No, ctrl-insert does not
           work. I've decided it's an emacs problem since I don't have
           this issue with any other X app. I run exceed 5.1.3 build 5 and
           XEmacs 21.1.
        \_ Have you tried actually doing the copy from Exceed's 'Edit' menu?
           (as opposed to with some keyboard shortcut) This alleviated some
           cutting and pasting problems for me.
           \_ I've been using the Edit menu, but it doesn't work.  --- yuen
           \_ Which Edit menu? A right click on the system tray icon shows
              a "Copy X Selection" menu option bu there isn't an Edit menu
              there.
        \_ I've had this problem before.  I think the solution was to run
           the update program to get a patch.
           \_ Just checked my old email.  I had the same problem as you
              do.  Just run Hummingbird Update.

1/4     W2K has by default a button next to the "start" button that is used
        to clear the workspace.  I'm not sure what happened to mine.  How
        do I get it back?  What executable do I look for in creating the
        shortcut?  Thanks.
        \_ What do you mean by "clear the desktop"?  My W2k never had such a
           button.  Maybe you want the tool bars menu you can find by right-
           clicking on the system tray?
        \_ you mean the button that automatically minimizes/restores
           everything?  It's in the Quick Launch toolbar or something.  Or hit
           Win+D.
        \_ right click on the desktop toolbar.  choose the item for Toolbars.
           make sure "quick launch" item is checked.
           like the other people said, pressing WIN+ D will work.  as well as
           WIN + M
           \_ oh crap.  I toggled the "quick launch" thing and now the
              quick launch buttons are on the right hand side.  It used to be
              next to the "start" button.  Moving it to the left doesn't work.
              the window icons always get in between the start button and the
              quick launch buttons.  Is there a way to fix this?  the help
              index doesn't seem to talk about the placement of quick launch
              buttons.
              \_ geez.  what do you mean moving it to the left doesnt work?
                 it does.  if you still cant get it to get to the left side,
                 close all apps, then with the vertical bar, shove it to the
                 left and it should stay there.
                 \_ Look, this guy is obviously a clueless Windoze moron.
                     \_ Yes and you're obviously a clueless linux bigot.  So
                        what?  You don't see anyone going off on you about it.
        \_ Is there a diff between Win-M and Win-D?

12/24   I can buy 1 17" monitor or 2 15" monitors. I prefer the latter because
        of the more-bang-for-bucks factor. Does anyone know if it is possible
        to get a video card that supports 2 monitors?
        \_ Are these LCDs or CRTs? If you are considering LCDs, I'd recommend
           going with a single 17" since these are general brighter and support
           a wider range of resolutions (most 15" are limited to 1024x768).
        \_ There are plenty of dualhead video cards around from Matrox, ATI,
           ...
        \_ I have a G400 that works in dual mode quite well w/ Win2k. Also
           works w/ 98/ME. I had to upgrade my BIOS and the drivers to get
           it up and running.
           \_ Severals friends and I have also gotten it running under Linux.
              There are tons of resources for this on the web. do a search for
              "xinerama mode" or something.
        \_ Bang for the buck?  How about dozens of 9" b/w monitors?  Do you
           have 2 sets of eyes?  Get the 17" or bigger if you can afford it
           unless you have a specific need for a dual head system.  I bought
           a 21" years ago for almost a thousand bucks.  I'm still using it
           now.  I'd never go back to 19" or smaller for daily use.  Dual 21"
           could be cool though.
                \_ 2 17" is better than 1 21". Bigger and cheaper.
                   \_ Yes, and 50 9" green screens are bigger and cheaper
                      too.  Don't you have 50 terminals hooked up to your
                      box?  You and your 2x17"... you fool.
                        \_ while 2-4 displays are possible, the practicality
                           of 50 monitors is questionable. Your argument is
                           quite weak, and I suggest you try again you self
                           righteous pedantic fool.
                           \_ You ignorant lout.  We wired 50+ terminals to
                              a Sun 10 years ago at my work.  Did you even know
                              what Unix was then?  I know exactly what I'm
                              talking about where as you clearly do not.  Go
                              back to your G400 and Linux Rewlz! books.  This
                              obviously is beyond your kiddie knowledge.

12/24   http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2001/December/01_crm_643.htm
        WASHINGTON, D.C. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today
        that in three separate federal law enforcement actions federal
        agents executed approximately 100 search warrants worldwide
        against virtually every level of criminal organizations engaged
        in illegal software piracy over the Internet. The three Operations,
        codenamed "Buccaneer," "Bandwidth" and "Digital Piratez," struck
        at all aspects of the illegal software, game and movie trade,
        often referred to as "warez scene."
        \_ Yes, and?  So?
                \_ "worldwide".  -John
                   \_ Yeah, and, so?
        \_ The FBI is never going to stop warez. Warez is copying Office
           from your work machine to use at home. Warez is giving a copy
           of a game you bought to your friend. There is no way they can
           prevent this.
           \_ I'm so sick and tired of you hacker terrorists stealing
              MSOffice from work.  When will you figure out that you're
              causing billions of dollars of damage to the economy every
              year?
              \_ Stoping acting so cheap Bill.
              \_ Woohoo!
              \_ According to Microsoft, it's OK to install a copy at home,
                 at least under the Select program.  -tom
                 \_ Yeah like how many did that?  More like small company or
              \_ Don't worry, as soon as StarOffice 6 comes out of beta, I'll be
                 uninstalling MSOffice (my legal copy).
                    department in large company owns one copy and a cd writer.
                 \_ tom, don't you work for UC still?  doesn't MS still dump
                    all their sw on you for free?  for now?
                    \_ Yes, I work for UC, and no, MS doesn't dump software
                       for free, except on the EECS department.  -tom
                        \_ You mean you don't know anyone at EECS?  Your dept
                           actually pays MS for software??
                           \_ I know plenty of people at EECS, but no, my
                              college doesn't violate software licensing
                              agreements, even with Microsoft.  -tom
              \_ Don't worry, as soon as StarOffice 6 comes out of beta,
                 I'll be uninstalling MSOffice (my legal copy).
                 \_ yeah and reinstalling OfficeXP when you get annoying .xls
                    and .doc OfficeXP files that use PKI in interesting ways.
                    I can't even find o2k in the stores anymore!
                 \_ Sun needs to put way more money and time behind SO
                    before it is good enough for casual use.
                    \_ Money?  It's open source dude!  The Community will just
                       scratch that itch!

12/21   DO kernel patches still need/recommended to be added in single-user
        mode? Got some folks at work who add KJP in multi-user-mode.
        We also get periodic system errors so they add patches but they are
        patches that don't address the problem. The READMEs say the patches
        R4 something totally different. Even the "lead" won't listen to me.
        Either i'm an idiot or surrounded by idiots. Should i quit?
        \_ Never quit a job without another job lined up.  Especially now.
        \_ I'd shutdown, reboot, go to single user mode, install patches,
           reboot. This assumes you have a good tested backup. The first
           reboot can root out problems which might have cropped up since
           the last reboot (ie it's not the patches). You reboot the second
           time to insure patches are loaded and confirm the patches haven't
           messed anything up. Geez, it's minor downtime. Your group would
           be foolish to risk having to recover from backup instead of taking
           the tiny hit for outage time. Yes, you're surrounded by idiots.

12/19   http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-8244349.html?tag=mn_hd
        XP, the most secure OS M$, is more vulnerable to hackers than its
        predecessors. Dude, M$ is so fuckin pathetic!!!         -linux r3wl!!!

12/18   I just got a BSOD in my NT and it said it's dumping physical memory.
        Where can I find the file so that I can delete it after I reboot?  Thx.
        \_ look online!

12/6    I have heard that Microsoft is making June 2002 job offers
        to UCLA computer science seniors this week.  Is this also
        happening at Cal?  Has anyone heard anything about recent
        or upcoming job offers from Microsoft or other software firms?
        Thanks for any info.  -mas

11/25   Does anybody know if it is possible to restore a file that has
        been deleted from the Recycle Bin in Windows 98?
        \_ Use Norton Utilities or similar program
        \_ I have no personal experience with this program, but you could try
           this: http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/index.html
        \_ In English: the shitty filesystem that dos/win9x use doesn't really
           delete your data, just the directory entry and even that only by
           changing the first character.  Thus if you haven't overwritten that
           directory entry or the data it points to, any of a million undelete
           programs for dos/win9x will get your data back.  Norton and various
           others will take your money for undelete or you can use google for
           free.  --at
           \_ While I agree with the sentiment towards Win9x/DOS and its
              filesystem, I think the technique it uses for file deletion
              (remove the directory entry and leave the file data) is
              reasonably adequate in non-security-sensitive applications.
              I also believe most other "popular" filesystems use the same
              method.
              \_ I suppose if you're only storing your pr0n and pirated mp3
                 collection then this method is adequate for your purposes --at
                 \_ well, duh.  who doesn't want to be able to recover pr0n?
                        \_ why are you deleting such incredibly valuable
                           data in the first place? --at

11/21   http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/2001/press_usschools.html
        happy microsoft will write off the 1 billion dollar
        cost off of their federal taxes-day. - danh
        \_ this is quite slick, it's almost as if they are just donating the
            hardware so more people can run their software.
            hardware so more people can run their software, yet they get
           to count the software installed as part of the 1 billion dollars.
           i bet they loaded each machine up with a lot every microsoft app
           to get the most bang for the buck.
           \_ Wow!  Really?  You think so?  You mean MS got a sweetheart deal
              which *requires* them to put a zillion machines into the schools
              they're been trying to get in to for years because most schools
              are heavily Mac biased?  How cynical of you to think this isn't
              a real punishment for MS but actually a huge business win at the
              expense of the schools, Apple, the plaintiffs and the legal
              system.
              \_ whoa.  Someone got off on the wrong side of the corporate
                 mattress today.  Microsoft is a thriving U.S. business.  You
                 must be in bed with Osama!
                      \_  No, he's right, whoever that was.  Microsoft sucks.
                          I hope that Sony or Nintendo gets to wipe them  all
                          over the walls later this year.
                          \_ aw, come on.  it's not abouyt apple vs
                             microsoft.  all the tech companies nand
                          \_ aw, come on.  it's not about apple vs
                             microsoft.  all the tech companies and
                             schools for year. it's bullshit.  how
                             can people seriously be stupid enoght to
                             look at districts where taeaching starting
                             asalaries are less then 30k per year and
                             think putting tnetwrok jacks in the class
                             room is a good use of money?  it's just
                             a lot of well meaning idiots in politics
                             all of society.
                             have been trying to get more computers in the
                             schools for years. it's bullshit.  how
                             can people seriously be stupid enough to
                             look at districts where teachers' starting
                             salaries are less then 30k per year and
                             think putting network jacks in the class
                             rooms is a good use of money?  it's just
                             outright corporate welfare at the expense of
                             all of society, and in the long run at
                             the expense of the tech companies, since
                             they benefit from an educated population.
              \_ I especially like the part where most of the hardware may
                 be either pentium or MacIntoshes (ie. unable to run any
                 current MS software, so MS will donate the old windows 3
                 or Office 95 CDs/floppies that are stored in the warehouse).
                 Just pure weasel good. Hell, that's weasel-on-a-stick good.
   http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/education/docs/msschools21.htm

11/12   Anyone know how to stop Win2K from turning off my computer when I
        shut down?  I don't want to disable ACPI.
        \_ what do you want it to do instead and why?
           \_ My computer is behind my desk on the ground so it's a pain to
              reach the power switch to turn in on after Windows shutdown.
              I want it to show that screen that says "It's OK to turn off
              your computer now," so I can turn it on and off with the power
              strip on my desk.
              strip on my desk.  However, if I turn off all the power
              management features it can't turn off my monitor when I'm
              away for a while.
              \_ even if you get to the "It's OK to turn off your computer"
                 screen and manually turn it off, you may not be able to turn it
                 back on via the power strip.  does your motherboard support
                 waking up via the keyboard?
        \_ isn't that ATX specification?

11/12   Is there something better than TaskManager for viewing
        process/thread info for win2k? I'm trying to get the command-line
        arguments of a process so I can end the correct one. Command-line
        or GUI-based doesn't matter.
        \_ Try "Process Explorer" at http://sysinternals.com, under Utilities  -phale

11/8    Is there a way to do access control lists using .htaccess files in
        apache?  I want to do something like if src IP is A then redirect
        to this URL.  if src IP is B, deny.  If src IP is C, then permit.
        That kind of stuff.  I've been getting a lot of hits that try to
        execute cmd.exe or some other NT stuff.  To exploit IIS. But my server
        is a unix box.  They're getting to be annoying and I want to filter
        them out.  Thanks.
        \_ You can certainly block certain IP addresses using the Allow
           and Deny directives.  Don't know if .htaccess does redirects
           based on IP address.  You should go on google and type in
           "htaccess allow deny".
        \_ You can do anything you want (almost) with mod_rewrite (it's one
           of the standard modules).  Check out:
           http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html    --dbushong

        [MOTD partially restored; apparently someone thought
         it was too long - boo-hoo....]

11/2    Hi there,
        I just wanted to let CSUA know that there will be a Microsoft Tech
        talk this friday in 306 Soda from 5-6:30.  You can win copies of
        Windows XP, Microsoft software, t-shirts, books and other cool
        stuff.  It's an event sponsored by Microsoft Research to let
        students know about the new operating system that was just
        released last week.
        Thanks, Kirsten
        \_ isn't this this friday?  upcoming friday?
           \_ it's today.  in 2 hrs.

11/2    Anyone know how to get AOL IM to completely disappear when I
        hit some sort of panic button? I use it while "working" and
        occasionally someone will walk by...
        \_ Open an emacs window full-screen and put it in background.  When
           your boss walks by, click anywhere outside any AIM windows and the
           your boss walks by, click somewhere outside any AIM windows and the
           emacs will cover up everything.
        \_ Always use windows-M for everything
        \_ alt-space n
           \_ How do I restore all the windows afterwards?  There's no "Undo
              Minimize All" when I right-click on the Task Bar.
              \_ windows-shift-M
              \_ if using Windows 98 or later, just use Windows+D to toggle
                 jumping straight to the desktop and back.
              \_ if using Windows 98 or later, just use Windows+D to jump
                 straight to the desktop and back.  Of course, a view of the
                 desktop with no windows doesn't say much for being productive.
           \_ What is this "windows" key of which you speak?  Real Men(tm) use
              the old 101 key true blue IBM keyboards.  :)
        \_ alt-space n
        \_ alt-f4. just kill the window.  your job is more important than
           whatever you were wasting time with in the window.  you can restart.
           \_ except of course, alt-f4 often gives you lots of nasty pop-up
              windows, like "are you sure?" which defeats the original poster's
              purpose.
              \_ Ok... "alt-f4-enter".  Or get a real chat client.  Or don't
                 chat on your employer's time.  That could work too.
                 \_ alt-space n is faster to type and probably still more
                    what you want.  --dbushong

10/29   To ensure the saftey of america we must all use XP:
        http://www.satirewire.com/news/0110/terror_bill.shtml

10/26   What's the difference between a UART and a COM port?  I thought a
        COM port is just a UART wired to a physical 9-pin or 25-pin connector.
        Thanks for any info.
        \_ A COM port is just the Windows take on a serial interface, whether
           it's a UART on the motherboard, a internal modem, or a PCCARD
           modem..

        [Someone nuked the MOTD again.]

10/25   NT was supposed to be much more stable than Win3.x.  Then Win2k was
        supposed to be much more stable than NT.  And now XP is supposed to
        be much more stable than 2k.  Sigh.
        \_ Thing is, Win2k really is more stable than NT. Sure, it locks up
           occassionally, but not the seemingly hourly BSODs in NT
        \_ Also, XP supposedly "does away with the decades-old DOS fundamentals
           on which its predecessors were built".  Wasn't NT supposed to do
           that years ago?
           \_ Yes, NT and 2k removed DOS, but neither were marketed towards
              consumers.  I've been running 2k for over 6 months, and have had
              only 2 or 3 crashes.
                \_ Been running 2k since around the time it came out and only
                   1 or 2 freezes while installing new hardware.  And yes, XP
                   is now being marketing to consumers so they need to be told
                   that there's no more DOS in it because this is supposed to
                   be a 98/ME upgrade to XP for them.
        \_ What is the killer app in XP that I need?  win95 was a must because
           of MS office and the long file names (for me at least).  Anything
           new must-have feature in office XP that will entice me to upgrade
           to windows XP?
           \_ if you're already running win2k, there's really no compelling
              reason to upgrade.  if, like most consumers, you're running win9x,
              then the main reason is stability and a better multi-user
              then the main reasons are stability and a better multi-user
              environment.
              reason to upgrade.  if, like most consumers, you're running
              win9x, then the main reasons are stability and a better multi-
              user environment.
        \_ is there something wrong with this?  would you prefer later versions
           \_ I think this person just wants a night on the town with a
              handsome, burly man for dinner and dancing.
           become less stable?  wha--?
           \_ I think it's just general grumpiness that MS can't make a semi
              stable OS in the first place and trumpets their past failures
              as successes today.  Or I could be wrong.
           \_ I think this person just wants a handsome, burly man to take
              him out for dinner and dancing.
        \_ Why is there no deltree in windows?
           \_ Try "rd /s mydir".  -- yuen

10/24   Any utilities which can capture video streams onto file?
        \_ There are hacks to download the popular formats onto disk, like
           .rm and .wmv. Dunno where though, sorry.
        \_ capturing streaming video?  for Windows, do a search for "Streambox
           VCR" ... if you mean capturing from a television signal or whatever,
           get VirtualDub.

10/19   To answer a question posed earlier: WebWasher is a reasonable
        Windows web ad remover and pop under eliminator.
        \_ IE6 has cookie killing built in (finally) but not specific option
           for killing popups except disabling javascript entirely.
           \_ How do you turn off IE6 popping up a new window everytime
              you open a bookmark?

10/17   Are there any free programs/patches to make windows more usable?
        One thing I would really like is "focus follows mouse" so that
        my keystrokes go to a window that isn't on top.  Anyone know
        where I can get something like this?  Thanks.
        \_ TweakUI can do this and lots more.  Search for it on Google.
           \_ Yeah it also does command-line completion.  PowerToys let's
              you right-click on a dir and jump to DOS there.  Let me
              know if you want it in /csua/tmp.  What OS?  Win2K?
        \_ try the linux patch
           \_ Wow, that was clever.  But after I install the Linux patch,
              none of my apps work.  At least I have "focus follows
              mouse".  Oh yes, don't forget: RIDE BIKE!  USE LINUX!
              \_ and, they worked before?  I mean, it's windows!
                 \_ They did what I needed them to do.  So, yes, they worked
                    before.  When Linux grows up and gets real apps that
                    non-nerds can install and use without 5+ years and *nix
                    certification, it'll stand a chance in that market.  Until
                    then, it's a good apache host for small sites. --*nix admin

10/17   The software technology, according to industry sources, would
        essentially act as a downloader, repeatedly requesting the same file
        and downloading it very slowly, essentially preventing others from
        accessing the file. While stopping short of a full denial-of-service
        attack, the method could substantially clog the target computer's
        Internet connection.
        http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2818064,00.html
        \_ yeah, like this tactic won't be effectively nullified in the
           next release of whichever file-sharing program is being targetted,
           or at worst the release after the next
        \_ Sounds like a job for caching proxy servers.

           \_ GO CLICKARRAY!
10/17
"The integration of Passport into XP seems to be pointless," said
Child, a high school student from Atherton, Calif. "I don't know why
Passport can't just stay in Web sites where it belongs. The only
explanation is that Microsoft wants to begin to integrate Passport
into applications as well."
        \_ Well, duh.  Even Microsoft has said this - look at .NET
           and the new Messager in XP.
                \_ Which is why it'll be more than just an operating
                   system. It'll be a new eXPerience!
                   \_ Yeah, eXPerience the pain when some virus writer
                      discovers a security hole.

10/16   Is there a way to make movie's/animations available on the web, yet
        make them un-copiable?  I think real networks has a technology that
        does it, but they charge, iirc. Any free one's?
        \_ There's a ripper program available so, no, Real hasn't done it
           either.  So what you really want is the Holy Grail of copyright
           protection: viewable content but no copying.  Let us know when
           you've come up with it; I've got some VC friends who want to talk
           to you.
        \_ All porn wants to be free.
        \_ anything digital is copiable.  once you learn to live with that, you
           and your userbase will be happier.  yes, you can make your own
           proprietary streaming video format with your own proprietary client
           that disallows saving to disk, but somebody could always reverse-
           engineer it and make their own client.  why do you really care?
           do you really want totalitarian control over your content?  I'd
           personally prefer knowing that someone downloaded my movie and
           thought it was good enough to keep and watch again.  and plus, if
           they want to watch it again, they don't eat up my bandwidth.
           unless, of course, you want people to pay you each time they watch
           your movie, but that's another can of worms...
           \_ microsoft does not agree with you
              \_ what's your point?  Microsoft thinks their anti-piracy attempts
                 in Windows XP will help them too.  Microsoft thinks that
                 there's a 1:1 correspondence between piracy and lost sales.
                 Microsoft fails to recognize that piracy helped it become a
                 monopoly.  what do I care what Microsoft thinks?
                 \_ because, you, my fellow nerd, do not live in a vaccuum.
                        \_ he said "What do *I* care", hence the decision is
                           centric to him, my fellow logician.
                    \_ You should learn how to spell, my politically sensitive
                       friend.
                    \_ you sure?  And no, it doesn't matter in this case what
                       MS thinks.
        \_ Basic truth: If you can view it on the screen, you can record it.
           \_ Really?  When I do a screendump (Alt-PrtScn) in Media Player, all
              I get in the clipboard are the UI, and the movie area is blank.
              \_ when poster said "you" he did not mean you.
              \_ It's an overlay.  Just disable hardware acceleration and it'll
                 do all the drawing in software, and then you can capture it.
                 \_ Thanks!  I'll try that.

10/16   In NT, how do I find out which process is currently using a certain
        DLL?  (Using the command line or in a debugger or whatever.)  Thanks.
        \_ I've got a really cool proggie that shows all dependencies and
           files used by any Windows program, but I would have to root
           around for it.  Mail me if interested.  -John
        \_ http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml
           \_ Cool!  Thanks.

10/10   Anybody run apache on windows 2000?  I'm trying to get the equivalent
        of "http://foo.com/~user" to work.  How does one get the ~user to
        work in w2k?  thanks.
        \_ Just load IIS, then you don't have to deal with that longhaired
           UNIX stuff and characters like ~.
           \_ just watch out for the malformed http request of the week.
            \_ Yep, Code Red and Nimda are always fun.

10/9    what's the big deal about athlonXP?  why are they calling it XP?
        \_ marketing bs with M$
           \_ they deny this of course.
              i think it should have been called
              "Super Athlon XP Professional Turbo Champion Edition"
        \_ And what about "Athlon 4". Did I miss Athlon 2 and Athlon 3? ;p
           \_ weren't those the CPUs that Netscape 5 was optimized for?
              \_ only the Solaris 6 version.
        \_ AMD is not competing on MHz.  But they still need something catchy to
           show that they are the latest (and thus implicitly the best).  Since
           Windows XP is marketed by MS to be the latest and best, the "Athlon
           XP" trademark invokes the images of the latest and newest (and thus
           the best).   Pretty smart actually, since MS will pay for all the
           marketing, and AMD doesn't have to follow the MHz war as tightly.

10/4    I've switched to MS outlook and I can't find where my mail folders
        are kept on disk.  I see "Sent Items", "Outbox".  there are files in
        there but when I do a search on those files on the whole HD, I can't
        find it.  This is w2k.  I searched everywhere under "Document and
        Settings\user\..."  can't find it.  Is it kept as a file or as some
        sort of database file?  Thanks.
        \_ C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\
           somewhere in there.
           \_ Stupid windows.
              s/\\/\//g
              \_ I don't like outlook.  switch to outlook express
                 or run cygwin mutt.
                 \_ Or run both with IMAP.
           \_ also possibly in C:\Documents and Settings\username\
              Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

10/2    is there a way to download the service pack for IE 5/5.5
        and burn it to a CD?  I need to patch my mother's
        machine (i hear nimda is scary) , but she has a modem and I don't want
        to spend 9 hours on a phone line connecting to microsoft. - danh
        \_ An alternative is to zip the file to multiple diskettes.
          \_ no no you don't get it, to update IE 5/5.5, you download
             a tiny program from ms called ie5setup, then you run
             ie5setup, and it does who knows what, magically determines
             what security updates you need, and connects to ms'
             magical machines and downloads the security updates
             it knows you need.  this could be anywhere from 5 megs
             to 17 megs, and you have to be online obviously
             to do this, so ie5setup can download the stuff.  as far
             as i can determine there's no way for me to download
             all this crap into a handy form I can burn to a CD,
             and I am sure this is completely intentional, ms
             probably wants to scan my hard drive or keep track
             of who updates ie 5 or provide an incentive for me
             to fuck up my system and upgrade to IE 6 with http://search.msn.com
             integrated into 404 document. - danh
             \_ if you or your mother is using win9x, then download the install
                stub, do a custom install, select your components, and click on
                the Advanced button (I think; I haven't done this in a while).
                The reuslting dialog should be a checkbox that will allow you to
                save the install files to disk.  If you or your mom has Win2k,
                then I think you'll have to order a CD from MS.
        \_ Some lameass deleted my answer.  Yes, you download the install
           program, and then the pieces.  The details are at:
           http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q257/2/49.ASP

9/19    What is the Code Blue worm.  Is it related to Nimda?  And how is it
        different from Code Red?  I know nick wrote something about Code
        Black, as well.
        \_ I used to make fun of nweaver, now I am a believer.
           Where can I get his web site that explains it all? -nweaver #1 fan
        \_ It's always Micro$oft OSes that fail on virus attack.  Can we file a
           class action law suit accusing M$ of lying when it sold WinNT/2k
           Workstation/Server and said they were very stable and secure?
           \_ They didn't say it was secure.  They said things like "more
              secure" and "most secure ever" (meaning Windows OS's, since
              other OS's don't exist in Redmond-speak).
        \_ It's always Micro$oft OS that fail under attack.  Can we file a
           class action law suit sueing M$ that it lied when it said WinNT/2k
           Workstation/Server are very stable and secure?

9/18    Are there programs which can auto-detect soundcard make and model, and
        hence, what driver one needs, in WinNT? This is standard in Win98 but
        I haven't found anything that does this for NT.
        \_ Don't use NT. Use 2k. Not only is it vastly better in stability, it
           does novel things like HW autodetection and USB. There really is
           no point to using NT now, unless you like pain. - ajani
           \_ Imagine for a moment that I don't have a choice...

9/16    wow. MSFT is only contributing 5 mil to disaster relief... which
        is amazing considering how much money they have floating around.
        \_ From what I read they are donating $1e7, $5e6 cash $5e6 software.
           The red cross has specifically asked for Win* and Office.
                \_ I don't consider donating a bunch of licenses
                   for software to be particulary generous. - danh
                \_ you know I'm not a huge microsoft fan, but it seems
                   bitching aobut them ONLY donating 5-10 million is a
                   just lame.  -aspo
                   \_ Just stating what I read, don't rightly care one
                      way or the other.
                        \_ sure you do!  you posted it! - danh
                           \_ I posted the bit about $5e6 cash and
                              $5e6 software. I didn't post the wow
                              bit. Besides, the red cross specifically
                              asked for the software so that bit of
                              the donation seems right on the mark.
                              asked for the software so it seems
                              that ms is right on the mark.

9/14    I added a second IDE drive (slave) to the primary chain in my system
        and the drive is only detected on cold start (ie power up) and its
        never detected on warm start (ie reboot)?  I've tried jumpering the
        drive for cable select but that didn't work. Any ideas?
        \_ get a new hard drive
           \_ So this is a drive problem and not a controller/config
              problem? Sigh. I really didn't want to wait in the return
              line at fry's.
              \_ what OS?
        \_ Check the settings on your first drive.  Some older drives have
           different settings for Solo vs. Master.

9/13    Bill G and Lawyers worked on briefs while NYC Burned:
        <DEAD>quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=AO5.bbhXMTWljcm9z<DEAD>
        \_ And the world's richest man and the world's biggest corp. are still
           not donating anything.  Let's start a publicity campaign to
           condemn that.
           \_ wrong, MS donated 5 mil in cash and 5 mil in software
              \_ wow. that's equivalent to 100,000 windows XP sales. go billy.
                \_ you know, 5 million is 5 million.  how much have you
                   donanted?
                 \_ They donated copies of Office for the Red Cross.
                    \_ I'm surprised they didn't sic the BSA on the Red Cross.
                   \_ actually I wasn't being sarcastic. FYI,  I donated $2.10.
           not donating anything.

9/12    hi red cross NYC needs equipment.  anyone want to help out? - paolo
   http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/0,23008,3347294,00.html
        \_ wtf? "15 PC Anywhere licenses", "50 MS Office Professional licenses"
           they shouldn't even need to ask the general public for things like
           that.  I find it hard to believe that a software company would not
           donate any number of software licenses for this.  furthermore, if
           they really need this software that badly, I'm sure no one will care
           if they warez them.
           \_ I guess Bill and M$ needs the money more than say Chambers and
              Cisco or GE. Makes you wonder what they need the money for.
           \_ Why don't they use Free Software (TM) if they're poor?
              \_ Because an emergency is an emergency, and they don't have
                 time in the short term to retrain people. Now in the _long_
                 run, it's up to _us_, the people who understand how much
                 better the free software solution can be, to go out and
                 _patiently_ explain to organizations like the Red Cross that
                 they need to switch over and figure out how they can do so
                 with the minimal expenditure of time and resources. Keep
                 in mind that they have to run off very limited volunteer
                 hours, mostly provided by people not highly skilled in
                 computer-related things. -alexf

9/10    Hey, anyone worked with Windows resolvers?  Particularly 95, 98, ME?
        I'm trying to discern what it can support in terms of encoding (i.e.i
        if it can handle 8-bit clean or even better supporting Unicode/UTF-8)

9/6     What the f*ck!!!???
        "Feds Stop Seeking Microsoft Breakup"
        http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010906/ts/microsoft_antitrust.html
        F*ck the GOP!
        \_ First of all, this isn't exactly new information.  Second of all,
           the judges unianimously agreed that microsoft still needed to be
           punished -- they just disagreed with the idea of a breakup as the
           proper punishment.     -mice
        \_ But push polls show that most Americans favor Microsoft.
        \_ don't worry, if this doesn't make the market go back up nothing will
        \_ So what? Breaking them up would have been dumb; it didn't make sense
           in terms of solving the real problem. Breaking up AT&T worked because
           it created competing entities. Breaking MS into operating systems and
           apps would not do anything about the underlying OS monopoly. The
           aim should be to promote competition, not just arbitrarily f*ck with
           the company. Personally I don't think they have a monopoly any more
           than Sony has a PS2 monopoly. How come I can't play GT3 on Dreamcast?
           \_ It would be easy to break M$ into competing companies. This is
              just more proof that our government is entirely bought and sold.
              \_ How would you do it then? You'd have to somehow enforce
                 application compatibility between two competing OSes. Which
                 you can't do without castrating their ability to develop new
                 systems.
           \_ This is a bad analogy. Baby Bells, whether they were split or
              remained a single company are still a monopoly. Spliting MS is
              more quivalent to disallowing Baby Bells (be they one or many
              companies) from providing any services such as long distance
              calls in addition to the basic phone services.

8/30    Anyone know how I can watch DVD's on my Windows 2000 box? I have
        a DVD drive, but am not sure about what software/drivers I need. Do
        I have to buy some software or is there something built into Win2K
        that supports this? How about a free software solution?
        \_ buy PowerDVD or WinDVD.  They're pretty cheap.  If you have an ATI
           Radeon card, you can use ATI's DVD software, which has very good
           picture quality.  Your DVD-ROM drive may also have come with
           software.  afaik there is no good Windows DVD software that is free.
        \_ Your DVD didn't come with DVD software?
           \_ Well, the problem is that I bought a Sony Vaio that came with
              Win98 pre-installed... and I think that had a somewhat-crappy-
              but-sufficient DVD player. But I wiped that and installed
              Win2K and am now trying to find something.

8/27    Hey I just bought a WinME Dell PC.  (Yes, I'm a whore.)
        How do I make it password protected?  The Windows password
        is a formality.  You can ESC right out of it.  Any other methods?
        \_ Doh, that password that is asked when you boot windows 98/ME is
           used for authenticating you only to the -network- SMB-based
           servervices. It was never intended to protect the local machine.
           If you are really worried about security at least get a real
           multi-user OS like Windows2000 like a real man.
        \_ For an extra $80, you could have gotten Win2K prof on that machine.
        WinME is worse than Win98.  Win2K is the first decent OS M$ has ever
        made. -eric

8/23    One of the byproducts of the Linux 2.5 Kernel Summit
        http://lwn.net/2001/features/KernelSummit was the notion of an
        enhancement of the loadable kernel module interface to facilitate
        security-oriented kernel modules.  The purpose is to ease the tension
        between folks (such as Immunix and SELinux) who want to add substantial
        security capabilities to the kernel, and other folks who want to
        minimize kernel bloat & have no use for such security extensions.
        \_ well, folks "with no use for security extensions" probably ought
           to run cygwin xfree4 on win98 then.  See screenshot:
           <DEAD>sartre.dgate.org/~brg/cygwinxfree.gif<DEAD>
           <DEAD>sartre.dgate.org/~brg/cygwinxfree.gif<DEAD> - notbrg.
                                                          \_ shouldn't that
                                                             be !brg ?
           \_ Why not just use exceed or xwin32? Seems a lot less of a hassle.

8/17    Is there an equiv of lsof -i for NT/2000?  I.e. How do i go
        about finding out what process is controlling (say) port 1025
        on a Win 2000 box?
        \_ try this: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/tdimon.shtml
           other useful sysinternals utilites are filemon, process explorer,
           ...

8/14    Could someone please repost the link to that article about the
        TCP/MS theory and how M$ is going to take over the internet?
        What were people's thoughts on this?
        \_ I found the link in a motd archive... still really curious to
           hear others' thoughts on it though.
           http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010802.html
        \_ Cringely was just reiterating stuff from Gibson.
           http://grc.com/dos/intro.htm
           http://grc.com/dos/sockettome.htm

8/13    Edlin is the standard!  Seriously, just wondering who has
        used edlin before.
        \_ oh baby yeah.  my dad taught me edlin when i was 10 or so.  it
           was easier than the funky diskedit clone he'd use for other things.
           --scotsman
        \_ I have... -geordan
           \_ I suppose you were using a pre-"edit" DOS version?
              \_ I remember editting autoexec.bat and config.sys with
                 edlin.  That must have been in the DOS 3.x era.
              \_ Yes.  Boy, when "edit" came out (yeah, it was qbasic,
                 but no one really cared) it was like a whole new world.
                 Much better than the treebark I used to use.  And I liked
                 it.  I loved it.  -geordan
                 \_ ditto.  DOS 3.x or before had no edit.  edit was so
                    cool.  What was the last official dos version?  6.11?
                    \_ 6.3?
                    \_ There was PC DOS 7.1.  Don't know about MS-DOS.
        \_ I vaguely remember back in the pre-"edit" days I used something
           else other than edlin to change config.sys and autoexec.bat, but
           I forgot what program it was.  I think I used edlin only once or
           twice.
           \_ copy con c:foo.sys and then hit ctrl-z when done - paolo
              \_ The truly lazy hit F6. -geordan

8/13    Sun takes the Java fight public:
        http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6839693.html?tag=tp_pr

8/13    here's an old hat:
        http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010802.html

8/13    the war is on!  help spreading java on windows xp!

08/11   http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~nweaver/warhol.html
        \_ nweaver d-d-d-definitely needs a gf
           \_ FIND ME ONE THEN, DAMMIT! -nweaver
              \_ You can find one yourself.  Lower your standards,
                 look in new places.
                 \_ you mean masturbating in your soda office won't find
                    you a girlfriend?
        \_ grammar error in Paragraph 4, Sentence 1.
           \_ you mean a grammatical error?
        \_ Interesting idea. What makes you think that the
           "bad guys" haven't already though about and
           implemented something like this?
           \_ help nick realize his dream!
        \_ the only way this is going to happen is if you find
           a service that's not commonly firewalled off. like http
           or ssh.
           \_ OH, like IIS?
              \_ Doh!
        \_ nweaver, your simulation is already done. For years scientists
           have already simulated the outbreak of disease. Assume a variant
           of bubonic plaque breaks out from Africa. More than 1/3 of the
           human beings will die before they receive treatment. It's called
           the "next plaque." We're already breeding super plaque of the
           next generation. It's just a matter of time. Since 1/3 of
           humanity will die anyways, who cares about wormhole. Complex
           systems grow and die quickly. That's just a fact of life.
           \_ Bubonic "Plaque", eh?  Is that what happens when you don't
              visit the dentist for a really, really long time?
           \_ man, you are SOME dipshit! bravo!

8/9     On Win ME, something happened.  When I copy files, the file name
        gets copied but the whole filename gets capitalized (every letter).
        What happened?  How can I fix this?
        \_ why are you using WinME?  seriously.  at least use Win2k.  Jesus.
           anyway: where were you copying from?  local HD or network share?
           were you copying via Explorer, or were you copying from the command
           prompt?
           \_ explorer from local drive to external drive.
              why ME?  System came with it when I bought it.
              I didn't bother inquiring about the others
              \_ what kind of external drive?  what file system does it use?
                 \_ firewire external drive.
           \_ Isn't ME supposed to be like 95 and 98 which are for single user
              and are supposed to be lighter-weight than NT/2k/XP?
           \_ I don't use WinME so I can't say I know what the issue is.
              But it sounds like Windows is somehow retrieving the DOS
              FAT16 8char filename rather than the FAT32 long filename upon
              copying.  By default, FAT16 DOS filenames in Windows are all
              caps, right click on any shortcut in Windows for evidence by
              looking at its DOS name.  Read this tech doc for more
              information on Windows/DOS filenames.
              http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2bea.htm
              \_ thx!
              \_ thx!  I think something got corrupted somewhere.  I ran
                 scan disk, and my whole filesytem looks like FileN~1,
                 FileN~2.  Are external drives this unstable?
                 \_ That's not a bug.  That's what long filenames look like.
                    \_ When the old file name used to be
                        "This is an example of a filename", then gets
                        transformed into "FileN~1", then that is a problem.
                 \_ WinME sucks. Either use win2k or downgrade to win98

8/8     What's the difference between Visual Studio and Windows NT SDK?  Do
        I need both to write code for NT target platform?
        \_ Yes.  What you want is the Microsoft Platform SDK, all 400 or 500
           megs worth.  You'll also need the latest visual studio service
           pack (I believe it's pack 5).

8/3     Is it possible to have a machine dual boot between Win2000 and
        FreeBSD? I heard that Win2000 needs to be the last OS installed
        but I'm wondering how strict that requirement is. Thanks.
        \_ Odd. I have several Win2k and Linux dual-boot systems.
           I install Linux *last*.  --PeterM
           \_ But does it matter, Linux or FreeBSD?
        \_ installed win2k/freebsd on my ibm laptop. works --jon
        \_ On the contrary, I installed Win2K/Linux on my Sony Vaio
           a while ago and I seem to remember something about Windows
           being dumb and not working if it doesn't boot from the
           first part of the hard drive.
        \_ There's definitely an issue with Win9x in this area but not 2k.
           I think 9x needs to be on the first drive or something, plus it will
           blow away any boot managers when installed.
        \_ Win9x needs to be on the first partition of your primary drive.
           However, what you do is install it, then install *nix somewhere
           else, and use a halfway-decent boot manager to that installs over
           the Win9x one.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.  -John
           \_ So bottom line (if there is one), does it matter if I
              install Win first or FreeBSD first?
              \_ I concur with John... do what he said.

8/2     Why install linux when the selection of out of the box software in
        the stores is not that great?  This is not a troll.
        \_ Fewer crashes than NT, I guess.
          \_ Most out-of-the-box software in the stores is shit.

7/26    Does anyone here use vmware to run windows applications on a Linux
        host? Is it good enough to run things like Quicktime and MS Media
        player? Given that I have unlimited memory, which version of windows
        is better to use in vmware for better performance, Me or 2000?
        \_ You.
        \_ win98 >> WinMe
        \_ Win98 is your best bet for things you're talking about.
        \_ Install WinXP. i'm sure it's just what you're looking for.
        \_ according to my friend, the I/O isn't too hot, and it's very
           dependent on your CPU speed.  On his P2-400, he can play audio
           fine, but QuickTime drops a majority of the frames.
           \_ QuickTime for Windows is the Devil's spawn.  It's proof that
              if Apple were on top, Steve Jobs would be 18x more evil than
              Bill ever was.
              \_ While I agree with the sentiment, why is QT the devil's spawn?
                 Seems fine to me.
                 \_ For one thing, the browser plugin is fucked (doesn't
                    allow saving or resizing, and drops half of its
                    frames.)  -John
                    \_ You need quicktime pro for saving. basic qt doesn't
                       support saving.
                 \_ For another, it plays slow as shit unless you have
                    überCPU, and wouldn't dream of doing hardware scaling
                    M-|berCPU, and wouldn't dream of doing hardware scaling
                 \_ For another, it wants to 0wn every media type on earth,
                    even ones it can't handle correctly (like MPEG)
                    \_ When QT3 for Windows came out, not only could you
                       not uninstall it cleanly, but it took over MPEG and
                       then refused to play the movies, took over MIDI killing
                       off my good hardware MIDI samples and replacing it
                       with its own shit... all without ever asking.
                       \_ Well, maybe if Windows didn't have such a broken
                          install/uninstall process...
                          \_ What's broken about it? Winamp installs fine.
                             What follows the ...? Are you saying QT had to
                             do what it did because of the installer? Or did
                             you have an aneurysm and lose your train of thought
                             \_ Installation on Macs = copying a directory to
                                your hard disk and running it. Why do I have
                                to go through an Install-Shield process so
                                that it can modify my "registry settings" and
                                install GDF1053345.dll into my C:\WINDOWS\
                                SYSTEM directory and find all the conflicting
                                versions of GDF1053345.dll that might be
                                used with god knows what?

5/30    I need to create a link to
        C:\notes\notes.EXE  fdholn01!!fdglobal/workgrps/procurem/evalform.nsf
        but when I use
 href="C:\notes\notes.EXE fdholn01!!fdglobal/workgrps/procurem/evalform.nsf"

        ie puts a damn file:/// infront and thus ruins the ability of the
        file to open.  Is there any way to force feed a browser a hard coded
        link? - kinney

7/19    Whats up with the new hotmail- its like they have 1000
        programmers dedicated to continual changes. Its one thing to
        change the look and feel- but these guys just totally revamped
        the site
          "Much of the work in putting together things like amplifiers,
        filters, lasers and switches is done by hand and there are few
        standardized assembly processes. So much manual labor and
        customization also drives up costs along the assembly line"
          Ya and everyone thought machines were going to replace man..
        Problem is that the machines became to expensive and to complex.
          This new hotmail interface isn't that bad- the only thing I don't
        like is the word tool bar
          All I want is for them to take the damn word toolbar off... I
        guess they did some test to integrate this with messenger and it
        crashed messenger..
          REGARDING no JAVA in XP- THIS WAS MY STANCE like 6 or 7 years ago
        when I first saw the web and wrote an anlysis about Netscape v
        MSFT. The idea was that IE is going to become the desktop and all
        apps are going to be written for the web. The far extension of
        this is as long as you build an OS with IE capability- you are
        set. Where does java fit- ??????
        \_ I guess this is Kinney drivel.  Only the 2nd time I've seen it
           not deleted in the motd.
           \_ it was deleted earlier but someone restored. this particular
              one is shorter than most. frankly, i'm disappointed with it.

7/13    My windows 2000 is screwed.  No matter what program I try to run
        it says, "Cannot find the file '....' (or one of its components).
        Make sure the path and filename are correct and that all required
        libraries are available."  Even regedit doesn't run.  What is the
        one .dll or whatever that can screw everything up?
              \_ maybe you lost the path environment variable. make sure
              it points to winnt/system32, check windir as well c:\winnt
                \_ When I tried to use the control panel to change the
                   environment variables, clicking on system gives
                   "Accesss to specified device, path or file is
                   denied."  The paths seem to be right if I look at
                   the it through My Computer -> Manager -> ... ->
                   Environment Variables.  I tried it as an
                   "Administrator" and the result is the same.

7/13fri beijing takes the games!!!
        \_ Sounds like a virus to me.
        \_ Well, what is the actual value of '....'? Why don't you make sure
           the path and filename are correct and that all required libraries
           are available?
           \_ Wow.  You've learned to cut and paste.  Excellent, young troll.
              Perhaps soon your keeper will allow you to wipe your own butt.
              program that runs fine IE 5.5.  Many document icons also
              \_ you should learn the meaning of "tongue in cheek".
              has been installed for a few weeks and ran fine.
                 \_ you'd still be a moron, though.
                    \_ well your replies are as, or more, useless than mine.
                       and mine are more interesting, because i mention
                       hot naked chicks.
                       \_ Damn!  You're right.  Point to you.
                        \_ I love hot naked chicks, but right now I just
                           want my w2k working again.  :(
           \_ '....' involves almost all my programs right down to calc.exe,
              Almost any program that I tried running gave the above.  Only
              program that runs fine is IE 5.5.  Many document icons also
              reverted to the generic one with the windows logo.  IE 5.5
              has been installed for a few weeks and ran fine.  Path and
              filename looks right, and I have no clue how to find out
              what are the required libraries - must be something common to
              all these programs.  Please help me!
              \_ maybe you lost the path environment variable. make sure
              it points to winnt/system32, check windir as well c:\winnt
                 \_ Where do I find the path environment variable?
                    \_ Man, you are a hurtin' puppy.
                        \_ I know.  Hehe, I found how to set the variables
                           using google.  Kind of embarrassing.  I will try
                           it once I get home.  Thanks for the answers so far.

7/8     M$ is not out of the woods yet:
        http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95000750
        \_ http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe.cgi/hack-phreak
        \_ It's a nice notion, but note that the authors are Ken Starr,
           everyone's favorite overzealous prosecutor from the Monica
           Lewinsky scandal, and Robert Bork, the man denied a supreme
           court seat for being "too conservative".

7/5     Any way around windows 2k and XP forced registration?
        \_ where does win2k force you to register?
        \_ Use non-Microsoft OS!
        \_ get a corporate version of XP
           \_ and then get a buddy to log on with a scout marauder with -32625
              holds, and then get a planetary T-warp
              \_ heh heh heh... man, those were the days...
        \_ http://www.bigredh.com it is the answer to all your problems
           \_ bigredh better find another name.
              \_ why?

6/30    I still haven't seen anyone explain just exactly how consumers will
        be better off if Microsoft was obliterated. Some of the arguments
        I've seen are basically arguments against IP in general. That is,
        consumers will be better off if Windows was open sourced, etc. So
        they'd be better off if Office was open sourced too right? You know
        that Office has a bigger marketshare than Windows right? Office is
        a big monopoly, but there's nothing stopping someone else from offering
        a competing product. Nothing at all except the investment...if they
        don't think the investment would pay off then there you have it,
        MS must be keeping things competitive. The fact of the matter is that
        for all the so-called monopoly products (Windows, IE, Office) no one
        has been able to produce a competitor that is tangibly better, that
        would make people take notice and give a shit about. In the case of
        IE and Office, the competitors are worse.

6/29    This is like the 80's thing with Gotty instead of the tephlon don
        we have the tephlon monopoly. That is just total BS and i can't
        believe no one in the press is bitching about it. Bush is liable
        to get reamed on this issue is a few years.  The government needs
        to just gut ms. It really would then be a much more economically
        dynamic corp.  I actually believe that a break up would increase
        the shareholder value to the ability to unlock some of the hidden
        value of microsoft. Microsoft Media is basically going to buy out
        like Disney and maybe charter ( pual allen owns charter ) and go
        toe to toe with AOL. Right now people really need to worry Media,
        the whole Napster thing should have been a shot in the arm but
        people are concentrating on other issues like the slow down in
        hardware. If a company like msft controlled Napster what would
        have happened- they would have won- the technology and structure
        would have been bullet proof. They could have integrated the
        whole thing seemlessly into hotmail with streaming adverstisment
        and future released and "banners" Also note that disney and aol
        both trading for higher PE's than msft. In terms of media ms has
        always been into the "family" shit which would make a good case
        for merging with disney.  Microsoft has got some real value under
        the hood and all people look at is the OS and Office.
          Then the database group. Just spin off SQL Server and business
        Apps into a sep company to go toe to toe with ORacle and others.
        The guys that use SQL Server internally at fluor just love it-
        one of the biggest reasons- nice integrations with what?
        Win2k.... go figure.  For a breakup you don't need to touch the
        office suite or OS to is like so yesterday- leave that for later-
        but I don't want ms to control the media which given there
        structure and cash they go do it easily. They are a monopoly and
        a monolopy is alwasy going to assimilate assimilate assimilate.
        It is a losing battle to screw with what has already been
        assimilated- so they should prevent them from screwing with other
        perfectly heathly markets.  Just my 2 cents
        \_ You're delusional if you believe anyone took the time to read thru
           all that, Kinney.
           \_ they obviously do because they reply thru email.

6/29    Whee, death! Everyone loves obituaries. Who's dead today? For the latest
        celebrity deaths try <DEAD>www.youreouttahere.com!<DEAD> Where are those bodies?
        Skip on over to <DEAD>www.findagrave.com!<DEAD> Ain't progress grand? You can even
        create a virtual grave and leave virtual flowers at it! Ever wonder
        which mathematicians died on this date? This place has your ticket:
        http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Day_files/Now.html
        Or skip on over to DeathNET, for all things death, try the hiband site!
        http://www.rights.org/deathnet
        Or skip on over to http://www.geocities.com/cribbswh/obit and search
        for obituaries in your favorite state! And check out all these deaders:
        http://www.nytimes.com/pages/obituaries
        Them's fine reading folks, mini biographies delivered fresh every day!
        \_ Bob, is that you?
           \_ Nope, it's me. Damn I better start accomplishing something so
              that when I appear in there they have something good as the tag
              line. One of those guys had "Transportation Official" as his
              tagline. God that sucks. The man's life was summed up as
              "Transportation Official". Me, I'm not married so no "loving
              husband/father" shit. No famous works, no businesses founded.
              I'm useless. I should think up something for them to say and
              put it in my will.

6/29    To complement the satanism that happened yesterday and 2 days ago:
        http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2001/06/28/national1211EDT0622.DTL
        \_ ya that ruling was BS
             "But it threw out the allegation that Microsoft illegally gained
           a Web browser monopoly, and sent back to the lower court the
           question of whether Microsoft improperly bundled its Windows
           operating system with its Web browser. "
             anything they bundle in the OS should be illegal. It is really
           nice and convient that they do still- it has killed a lot of
           companies which could have provided some flourishing industries.
           \_ People only have a right to buy what people wish to sell
              them.  How would you like it if anyone buying your old car had
              the 'right' to just pick the parts they liked, and leave the
              rest to you?
           \_ People only have a right to buy what people wish to sell them.
              How would you like it if anyone buying your old car had the
              'right' to just pick the parts they liked, and leave the rest
              to you?
              \_ i'll sell you my old car at gunpoint then.  you have to buy
                 all of it, ok?  I'll sell it cheap too. - paolo
                       the   vendors   to sell Microsoft stuff.  If the
                       vendors also sold linux-equipped systems, Microsoft
                       allegedly raised prices or revoked the offending
                       vendor's licenses.      -mice
                 \_ Troll.  No one is forcing you to buy Windows.  If you are
                    buying, it means you want it.  If you don't want it, don't
                    buy.
                    \_ I think the case had more to do with Microsoft forcing
                       the vendors to sell Microsoft stuff. If the vendors also
                       sold linux-equipped systems, Microsoft allegedly raised
                       prices or revoked the offending vendor's licenses. -mice
                       \_ Microsoft is not forcing (i.e. using force) anyone
                          to do anything.  If Microsoft positions itself in
                          such a way as to make it advantageous for vendors to
                          sell Windows, good for it.  But they are not using
                          force.
                       \_ why should this be illegal? they didn't "force", they
                          gave better deals in exchange for exclusivity. you
                          could always have bought a Macintosh, Sun, IBM, HP,
                          Amiga, etc.
                          \_ I guess you would have been comfortable paying
                             the Standard Oil and AT&T taxes in addition to
                             state and federal tax.
                             \_ the point is that the competition was always
                                there. the real issue is the developer support.
                                people use windows primarily to get the software
                                they can't use on other OSes. that is fact. why
                                didn't all the other OSes recognise this and
                                try to work together to build a common dev API?
                                because they all want to be like microsoft
                                themselves. Apple is just an incompetent M$.
                                \_ WTH are you talking about? M$ is the one
                                   vendor that always does one offs. Sun,
                                   HP, IBM, and even Apple (with MacOS X)
                                   all support common UNIX apis. M$ is the
                                   one with proprietary WIN32 shit.
                    \_ More inept troll.  I don't want Windows. Unfortunately,
                       MS has managed to convince enough people to use Windows
                       that it is not financially feasible for me not to buy
                       Windows.  Having been forced to purchase Windows, an OS
                       I don't want, I find it even further infuriating to find
                       IE, a browser I don't want, inextricably linked to the OS.
                       --erikred
                       \_ HP bundles Netscape. Sun bundled Hotjava. SGI
                          bundles Netscape. What's the problem? --dim
                          \_ the problem is, HP, Sun, and SGI are not using
                             their monopoly power to kill a competitor
                             (Netscape).  HP and SGI aren't even bundling
                             their own product.  Do you really not
                             understand this?  -tom
                       \_ Make up your mind.  Financially advantageous == want.
                       \_ this logic is flawed. you say you don't want windows,
                          yet you buy it of your own free will. you contradict
                          yourself, in addition to not formatting properly.
                          \_ Untrue:  I buy Windows because not buying Windows
                             puts me at a disadvantage when doing business with
                             people who use Windows.  To say that I buy
                             Windows of my own free will ignores the pressure
                             a market-dominant OS brings to bear on those who
                             do not wish to buy into said OS yet are forced to
                             do business with those who have bought into said
                             OS.  As for formatting, ok thnx.  --erikred
                             \_ why are you forced to do business with these
                                people? why did they choose windows?
                       \_ Huh? Its not financially feasible for you to buy/beg
                          a cheap computer and net install Free/Net/OpenBSD
                          (which are all FREE)? I don't understand. Perhaps you
                          mean that without knowing windows you cannot get a
                          job. In which case I completely disagree. Its is quite
                          easy to get a job coding for UNIX, and these jobs pay
                          quite a bit better than windows jobs.
              \_ You're obviously confused about both the law and
                 economics.  The law changes when you have a monopoly.
                 \_ The law is not always right.  I am talking about rights,
                    which the law does not always enforce consistently.  You
                    can't argue from 'law' because 'laws' are often unjust.
                    For instance, they were unjust in Nazi Germany.
                    \_ You go Randy!  Invoking Nazi Germany, that's the way
                       to make a point in online forums!
                       \_ Go go gadget well-reasoned post!
                    \_ This is stupid.  Did you know that the free market is
                       broken when you have a  (non-natural) monopoly?  It's
                       inefficient, bad for consumers, bad for the country, etc.
                       \_ There are no (long-standing, stable) monopolies in
                           a free market system.  Give me one counter-example,
                           or, failing that, give a reasonable account of how
                           one might arise.
                           \_ oh god.  Please ignore the troll behind the
                              curtain.  -tom

6/28    R U:
        pro-MS?  anti-MS?  neutral?
        There are probably a lot more neutrals in the general population
        than those who are taking a stand. (csua motd is not the general
        population)
        \_ Anti-MS!!  Especially right now.  Installing a game on my
           Win98 partition made Windows unusable.  Splendid!
        \_ Win98 is perhaps the finest gaming PC platform i've seen, as
           far as variety of games go.  I find that whenever i want to
           play games, i always load vmware, load windows98 and then run
           a game.
           \_ I prefer Win95 for gaming. When I feel like playing a
              game that's not available for Mac, I launch up VPC with
              Win95, install and go. I can't wait until they release
              the MacOS X native version of VPC.

6/27    2 days ago, jkh@freebsd.org annouced he was working for apple (a
        company 10% owned by bill gates).  now:
        http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/dotnet/2001/06/27/dotnet.html
        "On Wednesday, Microsoft announced plans to release what amounts to a
        shared-source version of its .NET infrastructure for Windows & FreeBSD"
        \_ WTF is CLI?
           \_ "Common Language Infrastructure"  it is NOT Command Line
              Interface.  It's M$ renaming XML so they can patent it.
              \_ they should have called it "Common Language Infrastructure
                 Technology."
                 \_ How about "Common Language Infrastructure
                    Technology - Generic"?
                    \_ did you miss the "clit" reference or are you adding
                       a G-spot reference?
                       \_ The latter.  I couldn't think of a better word to add
                          that starts with a G.  "Gold" was my first thought.
                          \_ "Global" is also an overused tech word starting
                              with G.

6/19    What is the equiv of a pipe in windows?
        \_ that would be.. uhhh.. a pipe.
           "type autoexec.bat | more"
           \_ But that's Microsoft Pipe 2000, Small Office Edition "PLUS!".
                                  ^- Crack
              You can purchase a license for it for a small price of $99.99/mo.

6/15    In a controversial press release, RIAA announced that using FAT32 file
        system should be made illegal. Recently it has come to RIAA officials'
        attention that the FAT32 file system, commonly found in the PCs
        running MS Windows software, can be used for storing pirated mp3 files.
        "We were shocked when we have learned of such possibility. We are
        already working closely with Microsoft to create a successor to FAT32 -
        PHAT32, a new read-only file system." - said a RIAA spokesman today.
        Microsoft's Steve Baldmer confirms: "We have been considering to
        disable the write access for a while now. After all, our users don't
        need write access to install applications any more. The upcoming
        Windows XP release has everything that a user will need including
        a virtual kitchen sink." SodanNews reporters were not able to reach
        Sinkware Solutions officials, the makers of Virtual Kitchen Sink 2000
        (tm), for a comment.
        \_ Don't you mean Virtual Kitchen Sink XP? Surely they wouldn't ship
           WinXP with an outdated VKS install...
        \_ Is this the CSUA version of The Onion?
        \_ Humble, indeed.
        \_ Funnies aside does anyone care to speculate how well does
           Relatable technology that identifies a song from its signal
           work? Napster is using it to fingerprint tracks.
        \_ When questioned about their views on NFS, an RIAA spokesman replied,
           "What is NFS?" After a brief explanation from SodanNews reporters,
           the RIAA spokesman was aghast. "Network file systems are an
           abomination. Clearly they were designed to violate copyright law by
           promoting the unauthorized distribution of music, and their use must
           be stopped." Steve Baldmer responded, "This only proves that Unix is
           evil. What do you expect from people who think software should be
           free? They're pirates, plain and simple."
           \_ And who says AI is useless!
           \_ Its all about subliminal channels.
        \_ When questioned about their views on NFS, an RIAA spokesman
           responded, "What is NFS?" After a brief explanation from SodanNews
           reporters, the RIAA spokesman was aghast. "Network file systems are
           an abomination. Clearly they were designed to violate copyright law
           by promoting the unauthorized distribution of music, and their use
           must be stopped." Steve Baldmer commented, "This only proves that
           Unix is evil. What do you expect from a bunch of hippies who think
           software should be free? They're pirates, plain and simple."
           \_ You should have seen the horror on Balmer's face when he
              heard about AFS!

6/9     Does anyone know how to configure a NIC to be in stealth/
        promiscuous mode in Windows 2000? Please email the answer to me.
        Thanks.                                 -- ivy
        \_ Bwahahahahahahahaha

6/8     I am moving to Geneva from New Jersey and would appreciate
        recommendation of shipping/freight companies, preferabbly with
        storage options.

Microsoft windows 2000 DNS RULEZ!f
        \_ How many sodans have moved from Geneva to New Jersey and can
           offer such advice?
           \_ John?
              \_ Who the fuck else would it be except that freak?
        \_ what's in Geneva? tech company? research?
              \_ Well CERN is in Geneva. A job a CERN would be a chance
                 of a lifetime, esp. for a experimental or theoretical
                 phyiscist. The still have a lot of ee/cs research there
                 but its not as interesting as the phyics.
                 Other possiblities include the UN or a Bank. Lots of
                 banks have CS guys and math guys.
           \_ better to ask what's in New Jersey? tech company? research?
              What is in Jersey that would make you leave Geneva? Grad sch?
              Research?
              \_ well yeah, that's kind of my point. is Lucent doing stuff
                 in Geneva? or is this fellow *gasp* not in ee/cs?
                 \_ Bet he's (no chance a she) not ee/cs.
                    \_ Could be ee/cs. CERN has a lot of ee/cs.
              \_ NJ has Bell Labs, Princeton, Rutgers and IAS. A job at any
                 of those places might be worth moving to NJ.

Microsoft windows 2000 DNS RULEZ!f
        \_  Vadim Kogan: "Think Different"(tm)
            \_ Is this guy related to kahogan?
                    \_ where is Andre Cogan?  The man is such a goofball.
                       His sister, Oana, is absolutely HOT.
                       \_ pix please!
        \_ It's not called "DNS", is it? It's got some M$ version name.
                \_ it IS DNS and it is fully compliant. of course some
                    things won't work with BIND 8, but if you get BIND 9
                    you can be cool and work with MS.
           \_ are you thinking of WINS?

6/5     Awhile ago, somebody posted here that NASA Ames does much
        of its coding in Fortran95 or 99 (was that you, Matt?). I
        was wondering what OS and development toolset they use. I'm
        about to work on a Corps of Engineers hunk of code written
        in Fortran95. They ported it to MS/DOS but I doubt anybody
        would actually develop code under MS/DOS. -ulysses
        \_ When I worked at Nasa Ames (1992-1996), we were using
           Fortran 77 & 95 on SunOS 4.1.1 and IRIX 4.x (or maybe 6.x
           I don't remember). We used g77 and SunPro and whatever
           SGIs compiler is called. I think that we had one person
           using MPW Fortran a PowerMac under MacOS 7.x. We had a
           fft toolkit and a graphics toolkit (powercenter?).
           ----ranga
           \- what i worked at ames, we used basic and turbo pascal on dos--psb
              \_ Which division did you work for? I was in code AA and IC,
                 which have pretty good computing resources.

5/29    I started a summer job at Analog Devices today (maker of
        DSP chips and competitor to Texas Instruments).  My boss
        told me that most of the DSP tools are now made for Windows.
        Only a few years ago they were mostly UNIX based.  I can
        understand people using Windows for games or people who don't
        know about computers using Windows for Word/Excel etc., but
        engineers?!  What is the world coming to? -emin
        \_ The guy below is right. Most HW tools are for Suns and I bet
           that TI uses Sun/Synopsis tools to actually design the DSPs.
           It's just the users of those DSPs that frequently use a
           Windows computer to reprogram the processor. Don't worry.
           We electrical engineers will never sucumb to an inferior OS.
           \_ most of these tools are available for Linux now. my company
              has like 1 Sun box for some reason or other but everything
              else is x86 Red Hat. we don't pay Red Hat anything either.
                \_ So your company is betting it's future on a product they
                   don't think is worth paying for and they don't care if the
           \_ You vastly misunderstand, friend.  ED is the STANDARD.
                   producer goes out of business?   Doesn't make much sense...
                   \_ just like redhat supplanted slackware years ago,
                      it is more likely a new, better distribution will arise
                      than that the existing one will vanish abrubtly. note
                      all the redhat-derivatives that will not vanish.  it's
                      a cultural effect, more than technological.
        \_ Most HW design tools are still unix based.  Actually Sun is the
           standard for CAD tools.  Floating point performance is better I
           guess.  Which DSP tools are you talking about?  I bet unix versions
           exists, but your company is not buying them because they want to
           "standardize" on PCs.
           \_ The problem is my company (Analog Devices) makes DSP
              chips and associated tools such as the development enviornment
              compiler, etc., so I can't convince them to buy something
              for UNIX.  I probably couldn't even convince them to make
              stuff for UNIX since they used to make tools for Windows and
              UNIX, but due to the demand they now focus on Windows.  So
              performance, highly optimized compilers, lack of good
              now I must use the abomination known as Visual C++. -emin
              \_ You will make a fine addition to our empire. -the emperor
           \_ the word I get from people who actually the software is that
              solaris is a far more sane development environment than any
              of HP-UX, Irix, or Tru64/OSF/Digital Unix.  Also, until
              recently, x86 PC's (at least on *nix, lets compare apples to
              apples) just werent a contender in the high-end CAD market
              because of relatively poor memory capacity as well as
              performance, lack of highly optimized compilers, of good
              floating point, and one could go on and on.  Currently
              available PC's are now at a point that they can be a real
              alternative; now you have tools like synopsys VCS on linux --Jon
        \_ i've noticed that the people doing DSP are suckers. they use
           UNIX awkwardly. i've noticed that they like to poiint and click.
           i think it's also true that most device programmers and anything
           that interfaces with a dongle used to come for DOS. windows came
           along and they upgraded to windows. DSP and micro programming
           was always something you did on a PC. and it started wtih DOS
           and migrated to windows. linux is a new fad. just wait for it to die
           and your problems will be solved. -ali
           \_ Here we go again. ali pretending to be an expert on something
              he knows nothing about.  I guess we can just wait for ali to
              die and our problems will be solved.
              \_ heh. you will find that i'm quite right about this. you'll
                 find that in general, i know a lot more than you about a
                 lot of things. in fact, i have had sex with your girlfriend
                 five times already and your mother wants to perform sexual
                 favors for me but she is too skank for me to let her. -ali
                 \_ You forgot about the hot gay sex -- mustn't forget
                    the hot gay sex, bitch.  - ali #2 fan
                 \_ Well, I did yer little sis last night. We did it anal,
                    oral, vaginal, and titular all night long.
                                       \_  You fucked her title?
                                           \_ If you have to ask,
                                              you don't know(TM).
                                              \_ Hint: titular doesn't mean
                                                 what you think it means.
                                                 Back to vocabulary boot camp
                                                 for you.
                 \_ You are a pompous fool, aren't you ali?
                 \_ you sure showed 'em ali! - ali #1 fan!!
           \_ Yeah, I was looking for a compiler / development
              environment for the embedded system PowerPC 8260, and a
              quick search this afternoon yielded only windows-based tools.
              I think most people doing DSP are EEs, and are less familiar
              with unix.  Of course there are people like me who are
              expert at both.  -- pompous fool but not ali
              \_ That can't be. ali is "THE" pompous fool.
          \_ i've been asked to clarify my position and my reason for
             posting what i posted. it was apparent to me that people replying
             to the question had no fucking idea what the original poster
             was saying and were talking about CAD tools for chip design
             instead of software tools for DSP. i noticed that none of the
             replies were relevant and became aggravated with the amount of
             shit motd posters are filled with. so i made a quick tempered
             post to point out that those replying are dipshits. i'm sorry
             i did not use the requisite amount of humility in my post. and
             please, when i say "get a fucking clue," take it as a kind
             suggestion, not vituperation. you should absolutely feel free
             to stay clueless and to keep spewing your uninformed bullshit.
             -ali.
             \_ The rod up that guy's ass must have a rod up its ass.
        \_ Windows PC's are cost-effective and do the job -ee grad
        \_ Summary: DSP programming is mainly done on Windows and everyone
           hates ali for some reason.

4/423   for thoes of you who multi-boot, what boot loaders do you use or
        recommend?
        \_ I have two boots.  I wrote an "L" on one and an "R" on the other
           with a paint pen and have not had any problems booting yet.
        \_ Use whatever boot loader your OS comes with. For Linux/i386, grub
           is a good alternative to LILO, though the installation is somewhat
           awkward. --Galen
        \_ I just use LILO... never had a problem.
        \_ grub
        \_ partition magic for fs layout and partitioning... well, *magic*,
           then lilo for boot records.
           \_ ditto.
        \_ bsd boot>
        \_ jtag emulator (Doh!)
        \_ The NT boot loader!
           \_ can the NT boot loader be installed independently of NT?  I have
              neither Linux nor NT on this system, so I don't have LILO or the
              NT loader.  FreeBSD's boot manager is a bit too spartan for my
              tastes.
                \_ In theory, yes, you can install just enough of NT to get
                   the boot loader but I was kidding.  No one would really do
                   this on a non-MS system.
        \_ osbs

5/21    Is it worth buying a new wintel PC right now or should I wait until
        the Pentium4/Athlon prices drop more? I looking into buying a 1GHz
        Pentium3 or similar system, I just went and configured a Dell Dimension
        with 933MHz CPU, 256MB RAM (SDRAM) 32MB GeForce2. No monitor, with
        RedHat Linux, no windows. Came out at like $985
        \_ Sounds about right, you can probably save $100 or $200 if you
           build it yourself.
           build it yourself. I'd wait though, prices are dropping and
           AMD and Intel are bound to make drastic cuts as thier markets
        \_ I would get it now, nothing too interesting on the immediate
           horizon.
           evaporate.
        \_ how bad do you want it? i would wait a couple months. depends
           what you have now and what you need to do.
           \_ This is always the answer to "Should I upgrade now or wait?"
              It's just common sense.  Upgrade when you need to and the price
              is right.  Only you can know when the price/time is right for
              you.
           \_ Definitely buy before the end of the summer, after that
              you'll get reamed.  After the summer Micro$oft will begin
              it's marketing rollout of Windows XP which will create a huge
              spike in demand for PCs and upgrade components.  I remember
              right before Win95 came out the PC makers were in a slump and
              95 created a huge demand for PCs right after it was released.
              Believe me, buy now or pay later, I saw it before and it
              will happen again especially since M$ is spending even more on
              marketing this time than in 95.
              \_ nah, XP isn't that big a deal. i don't think people will
                 care much. certainly not businesses. and home users aren't
                 gonna go rushing out for it either. just the vibes i'm diggin.
                 \_ yeah, but MS is spending twice as much on advertising!
                    \_ fuck that; the reason ppl will switch is that they lease
                       computers from dell, and have little sayso about the OS
                       on those leased machines.  Hence, secretaries and other
                       non-tech staff will use XP, <DEAD>office.net<DEAD>, etc, and of
                       course, this makes the IT dept have to deal with XP.
              \_ Only because win3.1 was such total trash that even win95 was
                 looking great in comparison.  The same thing did *not* happen
                     \_ this is true. win95 was microsoft's first OS that
                        looked and behaved like more than just a slow MS-DOS
                        shell.  [restored.  erikred, don't modify other
                        people's posts.  just add your own comments. thanks]
                 with win98, winme, nt4.0, or win2k.  I grabbed win95 asap and
                 did the same for win2k.  The rest was just bug fix crap.  XP
                 doesn't add anything new either.  Oh ya, it does.  It adds
                 MS's new mandatory registration and user tracking system.
                 I'm sure that's a big feature the people and IT depts. badly
                 want.  You should wait to buy a new machine until you need
           \_ What are you talking about?  The P3 isn't being shelved.  You'll
              still be able to buy a P3 a year from now.  Get off the motd.
                 one.  Then go get the best for your money.  Prices *always*
                 drop over time.
                 \_ I skipped win98, me and nt, but I really liked w2k,
                    which makes w95 feels like crap especially if you are
                    doing any sort of networking.
                        \_ I did win98 for games until win2k came out.  I
                           still have a win98/win2k multiboot setup but haven't
                           booted in 98 in almost a year for anything.  Disk
                           is cheap and I'm too lazy to delete it.
                           \_ The only game I've been playing for the past
                              2 years is aoe (and I kick arse at it).  It
                              runs fine on w2k so I am happy.
                 \_ IT departments won't care, because corporate versions of
                    XP will not have the activation crap.  Of course, home
                    users would just end up pirating corporate versions.  And
                    as far as I can tell, piracy helps Microsoft in the long
        \_ Buy now.  Pentium 4's suck.  Athlons + mobos still need work.
           Pentium 3's have topped out at 1 GHz (and at that speed they
           suck), and the next Pentium 3's (1.13, 1.2 GHz - 0.13um process)
           out in a couple months will probably be $$.  Get a Pentium 3 866
           or 933 system.  If you wait you'll be paying 15% more for
           a Pentium 4 system or a 1.13 MHz Pentium 3 that no one has
           any clue how it'll perform. -jctwu
           \_ This is clueless crap.  Where'd you get the idea you won't be
              able to get an older P3 in 6 months or a year or that the 1.13
              Ghz (not Mhz) P3 will perform poorly compared to current P3's?
              There is no reason to buy now unless you *need* a new computer
              now.
                    run.  Would Windows and Office be such mainstream apps if
                    it weren't for piracy?
                    \_ I'd *never* let users pirate the XP stuff for home use.
                       The last thing I want is MS combing their databases and
                       deciding my company needs a BSA jackboot software
                       licensing audit.  You *really* think the corp versions
                       won't be tagged and trackable?  I wouldn't bet my job
                       on it.  -- IT Manager for my company
                       \_ So what do you think is going to stop the people
                          in your office from pirating XP? Surely you don't
                          think that its your disapproval.
                          \_ The fact that I don't provide access to the
                             install media for any apps.  No one here is
                             insane enough to try to zip up all the files and
                             the registry tree changes and hope it works the
                             same at home.  If they really needed it at home,
                             they're either using a company laptop with all
                             software pre-installed or we buy them a copy.
                             Where did you get the idea they could do anything
                             they wanted all willy-nilly without my approval?
                             \_ Obviously the users at your coporation are less
                                creative than at mine. Most software ends up at
                                home in less than one month and that is without
                                the install cds.
        \_ Yes, buy now.  Nothing interesting coming out on the immediate
           horizon anyway.  The 4100 series and the 815E chipset is good,
           and is at a good price point in its life cycle.
           \_ I second recommendation for 4100.  The case is a pleasure
              to work with, the PC is well-built.  As for prices -- do you
              need SMP?  If yes, wait for dual Athlon.  If not, go with
              Ghz P3 -- it won't get too much cheaper.  Don't get memory
              from Dell -- get it from Curcial, save money.
                                       \_ Or http://memorytogo.com, they have
                                          pretty good RAM prices.
              \_ But Dell is having "double your memory" sale these days.
              \_ hahaha. "won't get too much cheaper" ...i like the "too"
                 qualifier. that way you can say, no matter how much it
                 drops, well it wasn't "too much".
           \_ No.  Don't buy now unless you need it.

5/15    Was there no 128-bit encription in IE before 5.5?  I just got a Win2K
        machine with IE 5.5, and it says 128-bit is only introduced in the
        latest version.  (I usually use Netscape browser.)
        \_ There was 128 bit in 5.0 and I think 4.x had it too if you filled
           out an online form promising you weren't a terrorist.
        \_ For Win2K you need to download a separate encryption update. W2K
           ships with 5.0, but you don't have to upgrade to 5.5. Just
           install the update. --dim
           install the update. http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/r
           ecommended/encryption/default.asp
           --dim

5/9     I am looking for windows 98 exploits.  Where's a good place
        to start?

4/30    Recommendations for Win2K disk cloning software?  These PCs
        will go on the same network; I've heard of SID problems
        with Norton Ghost and don't know which Ghost supports it.  Thanks.
        \_ SIDs only come into play with a pure win2k environment using the
           Active Directory.  There are no other SID problems.
        \_ Win2k has its own utility for creating images. You still need
           Norton Ghost or similar for installing those however.

4/30    Do you know someone who purchases a PC without the required
        standard M$ software? If so M$ wants to hear from you:
        http://www.aaxnet.com/news/M010425.html
        I can't imagine why anyone would want to buy a PC without
        M$ software on it? Can you?
        \_ Too obvious.
        \_ Me Too!

4/20    In NT emacs20, how do I flip the foreground and background colors for
        for the text window as well as the "status bar" (the bar that displays
        the file name)?
        \_ M-x customize-face modeline

4/19    Anybody have experience installing w98 drivers under w2k?  I read
        some FAQ about both conforming to windows driver model so they should
        be compatible.  I'm wondering if this is indeed true.
        \_ not true.
        \_ BZZZT!  Well written drivers won't even allow you to install them
           on the other OS.
           \_ No well written drivers will include both 98 and NT interfaces
              so that they automagically work with both versions.
                \_ Huh?
                   \_ Sorry.  No well written drivers will include both 98 and
                      NT interfaces so that they automagically work with both
                      versions.

4/17    Sysadmin job posting --appel

                /csua/pub/jobs/Skotos
                \_ advanced experience with Windows and 2+ years Unix
                   experience for $15/hour?  hahahaha
        \_ advanced experience with Windows and 2+ years Unix
           experience for $15/hour?  hahahaha
                \_ That's 2+ years Unix experience.  Not Unix sysadmin exp.
                   I actually read the job, (unlike you), and that's ok for
                   a student slacker job as long as they understand the kid
                   has other things to do and is going to flake a lot.  It
                   looks ok to me for someone who needs a first job and wants
                   more on their resume than "Member of CSUA/HKN/XCF/Fubar"
                   or whatever other student clubs there are.  Non-job shit
                   may sound important to you, the student, but out here no
                   one gives a flying fuck what your non-job related beer
                   swilling student club was doing.  -!appel
                   \_ the prequisite skills that are preferred is a bit over
                      the top for just 2 yrs xp.  you're going to weed out
                      a lot of good people who would take such a low wage.
                      people already with all those skills can get much better.
                        \_ The preqs for a student job are always fluffed. They
                           obviously (to me) just want a kid who knows some
                           unix and is really good with windows.  It looked
                           like a really straight forward job posting.  Anyone
                           not afraid to apply is probably good enough to get
                           hired and I still say the pay is decent.  This is
                           a student job.  Your alternative as a student is to
                           get $6-$8 at the library or $8 washing bottles in
                           the Chem dept or $8 as an "engineering aid" for
                           eecs which has the same skillset requirements: a
                           student who knows some unix and a lot of windows.
                           There are *no* students who fit the exact criteria
                           of this job.  They're fishing for what they can get.
                           This is no different than FTE job postings for much
                           higher end professionals.  They ask for the moon but
                           will be happy with someone who knows the moon is
                           made of cheese.  (You did know the moon is made of
                           cheese, right?)