From borgholio at storymind.com Mon Aug 4 19:53:48 2008 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Mon Aug 4 19:55:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Question about transferring a RAID-1 array between computers Message-ID: I have two disks in a RAID-1 PATA array on one computer. They are connected to the onboard RAID controller of that motherboard. My new motherboard does not have onboard PATA RAID, but it does have SATA 2 which has built-in RAID. My question is, would I be able to take the two PATA drives out of my old computer, put PATA -> SATA adapters on them, plug them into my new motherboard, and have the array function as it did before? Or would I be better off installing a PATA RAID card? From devnull at spamcop.net Tue Aug 5 20:23:06 2008 From: devnull at spamcop.net (Miss Betsy) Date: Tue Aug 5 20:25:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Can a celeron processor do what I want? Message-ID: The application is a streaming video program. I got a quote on a celeron processor. However, a bright, young college geek says that it will slow everything down after a while. There will also be a QuickBooks Pro program on the same computer which I know takes a lot of resources also. I read that the celeron is like a compact compared to a luxury sedan. Young college kid may just be always looking for the best, but I don't know enough about the applications to know if they need a better processor. Another major factor to me is that even if the kid can find a whole package cheaper than my quote, the quote came with set up and training in the streaming video application. The quote was for about $1200 (I don't have any of the figures with me) for new computer including webcam. Is that ridiculous? (there is more to this story than I am telling). How much more could I expect to pay for the Intel Pentium? I know there are different levels, but what I want to know is if I could make a case that the original quote is reasonable and would work, or how much more a more solid Pentium would cost if that's an issue? These are the original system specs that resulted in the quote on the celeron Pentium II 450 MHz or higher processor, Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP (home or professional), 96 MB of RAM, 128 MB for Windows 2000/XP. (128 MB recommended). Miss Betsy From me at privacy.net Tue Aug 5 20:58:34 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Tue Aug 5 21:00:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. Message-ID: My grand kids just moved in to a new place. They have cable and cable internet with wifi. I can't run a CAT5 cable to the game room. (Attic is too small and much too hot) I need a recommendation (and source) for a wifi adaptor to connect to the grand kids computer so I don't need a cable. Box is XP home. Distance is 50 to 100 ft (max) so a USB would work as well as a internal card or a stand alone adaptor. TIA FP From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 5 21:22:31 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Tue Aug 5 21:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Miss Betsy" wrote in message news:g7aqrk$qo8$1@news.spamcop.net... > The application is a streaming video program. I got a quote on a celeron > processor. However, a bright, young college geek says that it will slow > everything down after a while. There will also be a QuickBooks Pro > program on the same computer which I know takes a lot of resources also. > > I read that the celeron is like a compact compared to a luxury sedan. > Young college kid may just be always looking for the best, but I don't > know enough about the applications to know if they need a better > processor. > > Another major factor to me is that even if the kid can find a whole > package cheaper than my quote, the quote came with set up and training in > the streaming video application. The quote was for about $1200 (I don't > have any of the figures with me) for new computer including webcam. Is > that ridiculous? (there is more to this story than I am telling). How > much more could I expect to pay for the Intel Pentium? I know there are > different levels, but what I want to know is if I could make a case that > the original quote is reasonable and would work, or how much more a more > solid Pentium would cost if that's an issue? > > These are the original system specs that resulted in the quote on the > celeron > Pentium II 450 MHz or higher processor, Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP (home > or professional), 96 MB of RAM, 128 MB for Windows 2000/XP. (128 MB > recommended). > > Miss Betsy A celery processor based laptop with XP or Vista, and 1-2 GB of memory should cost no more than $400, usually less. I've seen a Toshiba with 15" screen, XP-SP2, and the new C-something Duo (not celeron the other one) and 2GB of Memory, Bluetooth, Wifi, 4USB, Built in Webcam and Firewire for 499 at WalMart. So that training and software had better be damn good for the remaining $800. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Tue Aug 5 21:39:31 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Tue Aug 5 21:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: > The application is a streaming video program. I got a quote on a > celeron processor. However, a bright, young college geek says that > it will slow everything down after a while. There will also be a > QuickBooks Pro program on the same computer which I know takes a lot > of resources also. > I read that the celeron is like a compact compared to a luxury sedan. > Young college kid may just be always looking for the best, but I > don't know enough about the applications to know if they need a > better processor. > Another major factor to me is that even if the kid can find a whole > package cheaper than my quote, the quote came with set up and > training in the streaming video application. The quote was for about > $1200 (I don't have any of the figures with me) for new computer > including webcam. Is that ridiculous? (there is more to this story > than I am telling). How much more could I expect to pay for the > Intel Pentium? I know there are different levels, but what I want to > know is if I could make a case that the original quote is reasonable > and would work, or how much more a more solid Pentium would cost if > that's an issue? > These are the original system specs that resulted in the quote on the > celeron > Pentium II 450 MHz or higher processor, Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP > (home or professional), 96 MB of RAM, 128 MB for Windows 2000/XP. > (128 MB recommended). > > Miss Betsy If this if familar to you at all, I can tell you that a 3.0 GHz Walmart Special Celeron powered desktop is capable of handling the likes of PaintShop Pro and PrintShop. It was filled up with Norton SystemWorks and other hefty stuff. Never noticed any slowdowns but never did any bench comparisons either. Speed seemed good at all times. I've done just about everything but video editing on it so don't know how it'd be with a rendering situation like that. That said, I do use my Pentium P4 for daily work though; faster hard drives, more RAM, all that stuff; there's only 512 RAM in the Celeron machine and older, smaller 5250 rpm drives. IIRC the registry size in the Celeron was about 3 Meg. HTH Twayne From nobody at nowhere.not Wed Aug 6 02:25:45 2008 From: nobody at nowhere.not (Robert Blair) Date: Wed Aug 6 02:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. References: Message-ID: On Wed, 6 Aug 2008 00:58:34 UTC, "Frog Prince" wrote: > My grand kids just moved in to a new place. They have cable and cable > internet with wifi. I can't run a CAT5 cable to the game room. (Attic is > too small and much too hot) > > I need a recommendation (and source) for a wifi adaptor to connect to the > grand kids computer so I don't need a cable. Box is XP home. > > Distance is 50 to 100 ft (max) so a USB would work as well as a internal > card or a stand alone adaptor. Since it has a NIC already I would get a wireless adapter instead of adding another NIC. I use a "game adapter" (Linksys WGA54G) to connect a computer (a very old laptop) without a wireless NIC to my LAN. Plug your cat5 cable into the "game adapter" and use your browser to configure it. Another option is a USB Wireless Network Adapter (Linksys WUSB54G) which I purchased but have not used yet. -- Robert Blair From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 6 07:22:51 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Wed Aug 6 07:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:g7aucq$4rn$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Miss Betsy" wrote in message > news:g7aqrk$qo8$1@news.spamcop.net... > > A celery processor based laptop with XP or Vista, and 1-2 GB of memory > should cost no more than $400, usually less. > > I've seen a Toshiba with 15" screen, XP-SP2, and the new C-something Duo > (not celeron the other one) and 2GB of Memory, Bluetooth, Wifi, 4USB, > Built in Webcam and Firewire for 499 at WalMart. So that training and > software had better be damn good for the remaining $800. > Centrino duo was what I was thinking of. WalMart was selling the wide screen Toshiba, with the 2GB Memory, 240 or 120 GB Hard Drive, all the above interfaces for 499 this past couple of weeks. Ethernet, and modem also built in BTW People I know either love or hate Toshiba. From wb8tyw at qsl.network Wed Aug 6 09:37:45 2008 From: wb8tyw at qsl.network (John Malmberg) Date: Wed Aug 6 09:40:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Question about transferring a RAID-1 array between computers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > I have two disks in a RAID-1 PATA array on one computer. They are > connected to the onboard RAID controller of that motherboard. My new > motherboard does not have onboard PATA RAID, but it does have SATA 2 > which has built-in RAID. > > My question is, would I be able to take the two PATA drives out of my > old computer, put PATA -> SATA adapters on them, plug them into my new > motherboard, and have the array function as it did before? Or would I > be better off installing a PATA RAID card? Hardware raid usually uses proprietary metadata on the disk to store the configuration. It is unlikely that a disk can be moved from PATA to SATA and have it work. If the old computer is still working, I would recommend using your favorite transfer program/method to move the data from the old to the new, as you are going to newer drives at the beginning of their lives, rather than buying a controller for obsolete drives that are approaching the end of their life. Watch for bargains for a transfer drive. I recently found 750 GB USB drives on sale at Best Buy for $64 each (no rebate), and they seem to work fine plugged into my DS-10 running OpenVMS 8.3 Sad that I can buy 3/4 of a terabyte of storage for less than it cost to fill the minivan's gas tank. -John wb8tyw@qsl.network Personal Opinion Only From wb8tyw at qsl.network Wed Aug 6 09:49:10 2008 From: wb8tyw at qsl.network (John Malmberg) Date: Wed Aug 6 09:50:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Robert Blair wrote: > On Wed, 6 Aug 2008 00:58:34 UTC, "Frog Prince" wrote: > >> My grand kids just moved in to a new place. They have cable and cable >> internet with wifi. I can't run a CAT5 cable to the game room. (Attic is >> too small and much too hot) Plenum rated cable should not care about the heat, that should only affect the installer's health. >> I need a recommendation (and source) for a wifi adaptor to connect to the >> grand kids computer so I don't need a cable. Box is XP home. >> >> Distance is 50 to 100 ft (max) so a USB would work as well as a internal >> card or a stand alone adaptor. I used WIFI for a while in a configuration like that. Everytime the Microwave in the next room was on, my network connection suffered. > Since it has a NIC already I would get a wireless adapter instead of > adding another NIC. When I looked at the external wireless adapters, they cost significantly more than adding an internal wireless NIC. So much so that I would only use them if no other option was available. > Another option is a USB Wireless Network Adapter (Linksys WUSB54G) > which I purchased but have not used yet. I had a Belkin one. The "Automatic Updates" or something tended to disable it until I uninstalled the software and reinstalled it. I had to do that ritual at least once a month. In the end, I ran the CAT-5 cable. Use plenum rated. Check what your phone lines are. In the newer construction, they are using CAT-5 plenum rated with 4 pairs. The phone uses 1 pair, and 100 Mbit uses 2 pair. -John wb8tyw@qsl.network Personal Opinion Only From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 6 13:43:18 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Aug 6 13:45:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:g7c1if$lm9$1@news.spamcop.net... > > > Centrino duo was what I was thinking of. WalMart was selling the wide > screen Toshiba, with the 2GB Memory, 240 or 120 GB Hard Drive, all the > above interfaces for 499 this past couple of weeks. > > Ethernet, and modem also built in BTW > > People I know either love or hate Toshiba. > All that in a laptop for only $499?! Wow.....that's a helluva deal. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Wed Aug 6 14:32:16 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Wed Aug 6 14:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: > "bar0" wrote in message > news:g7c1if$lm9$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> >> Centrino duo was what I was thinking of. WalMart was selling the wide >> screen Toshiba, with the 2GB Memory, 240 or 120 GB Hard Drive, all >> the above interfaces for 499 this past couple of weeks. >> >> Ethernet, and modem also built in BTW >> >> People I know either love or hate Toshiba. >> > All that in a laptop for only $499?! Wow.....that's a helluva deal. Beware Walmart; before buying there, check to see if the brand machine is even recognizable and same with components. They like to use non-standard RAM sticks also that are hell to replace/upgrade, same with the drives, which are usually the old 5250 rpm drives. They're cheap cheap cheap IME. Better to go TigerDirect etc.. My 2 ¢ Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 6 15:21:46 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Bar0) Date: Wed Aug 6 15:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g7cnrm$gdd$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "bar0" wrote in message > news:g7c1if$lm9$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> >> Centrino duo was what I was thinking of. WalMart was selling the wide >> screen Toshiba, with the 2GB Memory, 240 or 120 GB Hard Drive, all the >> above interfaces for 499 this past couple of weeks. >> >> Ethernet, and modem also built in BTW >> >> People I know either love or hate Toshiba. >> > All that in a laptop for only $499?! Wow.....that's a helluva deal. Worst Buy , Fries, and ConnArtists all offer similar stuff, in the same price range. Of course everyone would like to slyly offload their Celery now that the best before date has passed. From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 6 17:16:59 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Aug 6 17:20:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Audio problem Message-ID: Recently my PC audio has been acting wonky, and not in a consistent way, of course :-( I listen to live audio during the day, one uses XM Radio's application "x-mplayer2" which utilizes Windows Media Player (it's not really a streaming app, you can't record it using any streaming audio capture tools), while the other one uses Adobe's Flash Player "player.play.it". If you go to http://www.wjfk.com/pages/703221.php and click on "Listen Live" you can see what I mean -- that's real streaming audio and I can record it. Lately, like the last month or so, the sound has been suffering from sporadic disruptions of various types. Sometimes the audio just goes silent (I suspect due to a temporary interruption of the stream), sometimes the voices "stutter", and sometimes there's just plain weird noises emenating from the speakers. I notice that when the CPUs are under a high load (Vista HP with dual core Turion processors) the problem is aggravated, but it also occurs when not much is going on. I've spend most of the day examining services, apps, googling various audio service definitions, and reading the event files. I have a Microsoft USB KB plugged into a hub, and I noticed that the event list showed many, many warnings that appear to be associated with my KB. I also found this critical warning: This process is doing excessive disk activities and is impacting the performance of Windows: File Name : ntoskrnl.exe Friendly Name : Version : Thread time : 6728ms Blocked Time : 4947ms Incident Time (UTC) : 8/5/2008 3:28:45 PM While gargling that issue, I across this: http://tinyurl.com/6yzn8e where a guy seems to have had problems with a corrupt ntoskml.exe file and linked it to a keyboard issue. Now how to tie this problem to my audio problem, well I'm at a loss there. My soundcard is: Name: SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio Manufacturer Analog Devices Status OK PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_11D4&DEV_198B&SUBSYS_103C2A40&REV_1003\4&93A838&0&0001 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\adihdaud.sys (6.10.1.5510, 340.00 KB (348,160 bytes), 10/4/2007 5:14 PM) This is the error message that I found in the event log, the are multiple messages all tied to this event with slightly different info. Driver Friendly Name : USB Miniport Driver for Input Devices Driver Version : 6.0.6001.18000 (longhorn_rtm.080118-1840) Driver Total Time : 377ms Driver Degradation Time : 361ms Incident Time (UTC) : 8/5/2008 6:50:58 PM Device Name : HID\VID_045E&PID_00B0&MI_00\8&1376409d&0&0000 Device Friendly Name : Microsoft USB Digital Media Pro Keyboard (IntelliType Pro) Device Total Time : 377ms Device Degradation Time : 361ms To top it off, I found a lot of warning messages about problems awakening from "sleep" mode (I almost always bang a key on the KB to wake it up), a lot of the warnings were about "ACPI Driver for NT", some of the other things causing the delay in wake up were "RAS SSTP Miniport Call Manager", "OHCI USB Miniport Driver", while the driver "HidUsb", name "USB Miniport Driver for Input Devices", showed up the most frequently. So do I have two problems here, where the keyboard delays the machine from waking up, plus the audio problems of unknown cause, or is it all linked to the keyboard? The thing is only 6 months old (machine and KB), up to date AVG 8, scanned nightly. I know I posted a lot of info, but any suggestions/clues would be appreciated! From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 6 20:00:06 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Aug 6 20:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g7cqne$seg$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> People I know either love or hate Toshiba. >>> >> All that in a laptop for only $499?! Wow.....that's a helluva deal. > > Beware Walmart; before buying there, check to see if the brand machine is > even recognizable and same with components. They like to use non-standard > RAM sticks also that are hell to replace/upgrade, same with the drives, > which are usually the old 5250 rpm drives. They're cheap cheap cheap IME. > Better to go TigerDirect etc.. Wouldn't it be on Toshiba as to what components go into the boxen? Or does/can WM custom order POS PCs to keep the price down, like they sell a laptop that is almost "store branded", in that you won't/can't find that exact model anywhere else? I know that there is one line of LCD TVs that is only sold in WM...... From joegill at removethis Wed Aug 6 22:28:32 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Wed Aug 6 22:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g7ddu5$jdu$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g7cqne$seg$1@news.spamcop.net... >>>> People I know either love or hate Toshiba. >>>> >>> All that in a laptop for only $499?! Wow.....that's a helluva deal. >> >> Beware Walmart; before buying there, check to see if the brand machine is >> even recognizable and same with components. They like to use >> non-standard RAM sticks also that are hell to replace/upgrade, same with >> the drives, which are usually the old 5250 rpm drives. They're cheap >> cheap cheap IME. Better to go TigerDirect etc.. > > Wouldn't it be on Toshiba as to what components go into the boxen? Or > does/can WM custom order POS PCs to keep the price down, like they sell a > laptop that is almost "store branded", in that you won't/can't find that > exact model anywhere else? > > I know that there is one line of LCD TVs that is only sold in WM...... >From what I can gather, see this article: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html Wal-Mart sets the 'specs' and the price they are going to sell if for.... The manufacturer then has to decide if they can build what Wal-Mart wants at their price... So if we are talking about PC's they sort of dictate the price and the manufacturer has to build one that they can sell to Wal-Mart and still make a profit. It's not just PC's they do this with.. From joegill at removethis Wed Aug 6 22:48:28 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Wed Aug 6 22:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Miss Betsy" wrote in message news:g7aqrk$qo8$1@news.spamcop.net... > The application is a streaming video program. I got a quote on a celeron > processor. However, a bright, young college geek says that it will slow > everything down after a while. There will also be a QuickBooks Pro > program on the same computer which I know takes a lot of resources also. > > I read that the celeron is like a compact compared to a luxury sedan. > Young college kid may just be always looking for the best, but I don't > know enough about the applications to know if they need a better > processor. > > Another major factor to me is that even if the kid can find a whole > package cheaper than my quote, the quote came with set up and training in > the streaming video application. The quote was for about $1200 (I don't > have any of the figures with me) for new computer including webcam. Is > that ridiculous? (there is more to this story than I am telling). How > much more could I expect to pay for the Intel Pentium? I know there are > different levels, but what I want to know is if I could make a case that > the original quote is reasonable and would work, or how much more a more > solid Pentium would cost if that's an issue? > > These are the original system specs that resulted in the quote on the > celeron > Pentium II 450 MHz or higher processor, Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP (home > or professional), 96 MB of RAM, 128 MB for Windows 2000/XP. (128 MB > recommended). > > Miss Betsy Some random thoughts... One idea to consider.. Do you just want to spec out a PC for the here/now, or for the future too. It seems, at least to me, that more and more 'function' is being pushed down to the client PC. As more function is pushed down, more processor power is needed. Don't short the PC on RAM.. 3G is max Vista can use now.. The next generation can probably exploit 4G. In addition, if applications are data intensive, you don't want the processor waiting on data before it can process! So you want some sufficient amount of cache. You say you have a webcam. In my experience, video, especially if you plan to do video editing can be resource intensive. It all comes down to, are you spec'ing out a PC as a disposable PC, or one that you will use for years and years..... From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 7 10:08:10 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 7 10:10:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g7cqne$seg$1@news.spamcop.net... >>>> People I know either love or hate Toshiba. >>>> >>> All that in a laptop for only $499?! Wow.....that's a helluva deal. >> >> Beware Walmart; before buying there, check to see if the brand >> machine is even recognizable and same with components. They like to >> use non-standard RAM sticks also that are hell to replace/upgrade, >> same with the drives, which are usually the old 5250 rpm drives. >> They're cheap cheap cheap IME. Better to go TigerDirect etc.. > > Wouldn't it be on Toshiba as to what components go into the boxen? Or > does/can WM custom order POS PCs to keep the price down, like they > sell a laptop that is almost "store branded", in that you won't/can't > find that exact model anywhere else? > > I know that there is one line of LCD TVs that is only sold in WM...... That's been my experience. They will even use non-standard brands etc. that only existed for the purpose of selling to them, as in the Balance Digital Technology desktops. They also buy up warehouse clearances, I'm pretty sure. A name brand there means little because of the way they do their RFQs; I want this for $100: So that's what gets made for them. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 7 10:13:34 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 7 10:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: > "Miss Betsy" wrote in message > news:g7aqrk$qo8$1@news.spamcop.net... >> The application is a streaming video program. I got a quote on a >> celeron processor. However, a bright, young college geek says that >> it will slow everything down after a while. There will also be a >> QuickBooks Pro program on the same computer which I know takes a lot >> of resources also. I read that the celeron is like a compact compared >> to a luxury sedan. >> Young college kid may just be always looking for the best, but I >> don't know enough about the applications to know if they need a >> better processor. >> >> Another major factor to me is that even if the kid can find a whole >> package cheaper than my quote, the quote came with set up and >> training in the streaming video application. The quote was for >> about $1200 (I don't have any of the figures with me) for new >> computer including webcam. Is that ridiculous? (there is more to >> this story than I am telling). How much more could I expect to pay >> for the Intel Pentium? I know there are different levels, but what >> I want to know is if I could make a case that the original quote is >> reasonable and would work, or how much more a more solid Pentium >> would cost if that's an issue? These are the original system specs >> that resulted in the quote on the >> celeron >> Pentium II 450 MHz or higher processor, Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP >> (home or professional), 96 MB of RAM, 128 MB for Windows 2000/XP. >> (128 MB recommended). >> >> Miss Betsy > Some random thoughts... > > One idea to consider.. Do you just want to spec out a PC for the > here/now, or for the future too. > It seems, at least to me, that more and more 'function' is being > pushed down to the client PC. As more function is pushed down, more > processor power is needed. > > Don't short the PC on RAM.. 3G is max Vista can use now.. The next > generation can probably exploit 4G. > > In addition, if applications are data intensive, you don't want the > processor waiting on data before it can process! > So you want some sufficient amount of cache. > > You say you have a webcam. In my experience, video, especially if you > plan to do video editing can be resource intensive. > > It all comes down to, are you spec'ing out a PC as a disposable PC, > or one that you will use for years and years..... Video processing is very intensive work. The most intensive is the rendering modes. For capture and for rendering you need fast drives, lots of RAM, a very good Video card with its own onboard RAM and as high a speed processor as you can afford. When I upped my RAM from 512 to a Gig, it almost halved rendering time. So I went to 2 Gig; without noticeable improvement. There's always a bottleneck to chase so you have to decide where the point of diminshing returns is. I use Ulead for video work. HTH From loyal at spamcop.user Fri Aug 8 02:51:51 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Fri Aug 8 02:55:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I have 3 computers in the bedroom ethernetted to a NetGear WGPS606 that acts as a wireless bridge to my NetGear DG834G DSL modem/wifi point in another room. Needs a reboot about every 3 months, but otherwise, quite dandy. Might be easily found on ebay and such. I also have a NetGear PS101 print server on the DG834G, which lets me print via TCP/IP from anything on the local network. AndrewB Frog Prince wrote: > My grand kids just moved in to a new place. They have cable and cable > internet with wifi. I can't run a CAT5 cable to the game room. (Attic is > too small and much too hot) > > I need a recommendation (and source) for a wifi adaptor to connect to the > grand kids computer so I don't need a cable. Box is XP home. > > Distance is 50 to 100 ft (max) so a USB would work as well as a internal > card or a stand alone adaptor. > > TIA > > FP > > From loyal at spamcop.user Fri Aug 8 03:11:53 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Fri Aug 8 03:15:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I doubt you have a corrupt ntoskrnl.exe issue. If you did, you wouldn't be able to boot into Windows at all. ntoskrnl.exe is the core of Windows - it's the kernel of the operating system. My guess after reading the tinyurl you posted is that most of the people had some sort of disk corruption, especially on their older pcs, or some virus sneaked through and tried to attach to the kernel, but failed due to a bug or issue (there are probably dozens of real versions of ntoskrnl.exe, one with every build of Windows and service pack). Although you have AVG 8, have you tried any spyware scanners like ad-aware or such? That might explain the disk activity of ntoskrnl.exe, if your machine is a spambot or something like that. But also, streaming media may result in disk activity too. Do you have a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Vista? You listed that error message from the event log, but it doesn't indicate what the problem was. Just the timestamp of the incident. Do you have another pc at your location you can use to stream to see if it's your ISP throttling you? Or maybe borrow one? AndrewB Indigo wrote: > Recently my PC audio has been acting wonky, and not in a consistent way, > of course :-( > > I listen to live audio during the day, one uses XM Radio's application > "x-mplayer2" which utilizes Windows Media Player (it's not really a > streaming app, you can't record it using any streaming audio capture > tools), while the other one uses Adobe's Flash Player "player.play.it". > If you go to http://www.wjfk.com/pages/703221.php and click on "Listen > Live" you can see what I mean -- that's real streaming audio and I can > record it. > > Lately, like the last month or so, the sound has been suffering from > sporadic disruptions of various types. Sometimes the audio just goes > silent (I suspect due to a temporary interruption of the stream), > sometimes the voices "stutter", and sometimes there's just plain weird > noises emenating from the speakers. I notice that when the CPUs are > under a high load (Vista HP with dual core Turion processors) the > problem is aggravated, but it also occurs when not much is going on. > > I've spend most of the day examining services, apps, googling various > audio service definitions, and reading the event files. I have a > Microsoft USB KB plugged into a hub, and I noticed that the event list > showed many, many warnings that appear to be associated with my KB. I > also found this critical warning: > > This process is doing excessive disk activities and is impacting the > performance of Windows: > File Name : ntoskrnl.exe > Friendly Name : > Version : > Thread time : 6728ms > Blocked Time : 4947ms > Incident Time (UTC) : 8/5/2008 3:28:45 PM > > While gargling that issue, I across this: > > http://tinyurl.com/6yzn8e > > where a guy seems to have had problems with a corrupt ntoskml.exe file > and linked it to a keyboard issue. Now how to tie this problem to my > audio problem, well I'm at a loss there. My soundcard is: > > Name: SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio > Manufacturer Analog Devices > Status OK > PNP Device ID > HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_11D4&DEV_198B&SUBSYS_103C2A40&REV_1003\4&93A838&0&0001 > Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\adihdaud.sys (6.10.1.5510, 340.00 KB > (348,160 bytes), 10/4/2007 5:14 PM) > > This is the error message that I found in the event log, the are > multiple messages all tied to this event with slightly different info. > > Driver Friendly Name : USB Miniport Driver for Input Devices > Driver Version : 6.0.6001.18000 (longhorn_rtm.080118-1840) > Driver Total Time : 377ms > Driver Degradation Time : 361ms > Incident Time (UTC) : 8/5/2008 6:50:58 PM > Device Name : HID\VID_045E&PID_00B0&MI_00\8&1376409d&0&0000 > Device Friendly Name : Microsoft USB Digital Media Pro Keyboard > (IntelliType Pro) > Device Total Time : 377ms > Device Degradation Time : 361ms > > To top it off, I found a lot of warning messages about problems > awakening from "sleep" mode (I almost always bang a key on the KB to > wake it up), a lot of the warnings were about "ACPI Driver for NT", some > of the other things causing the delay in wake up were "RAS SSTP Miniport > Call Manager", "OHCI USB Miniport Driver", while the driver "HidUsb", > name "USB Miniport Driver for Input Devices", showed up the most > frequently. > > So do I have two problems here, where the keyboard delays the machine > from waking up, plus the audio problems of unknown cause, or is it all > linked to the keyboard? The thing is only 6 months old (machine and KB), > up to date AVG 8, scanned nightly. > > I know I posted a lot of info, but any suggestions/clues would be > appreciated! From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 8 07:55:03 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Fri Aug 8 08:00:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:g7gqe5$89v$1@news.spamcop.net... >..... > > Frog Prince wrote: >> My grand kids just moved in to a new place. They have cable and cable >> internet with wifi. I can't run a CAT5 cable to the game room. (Attic is >> too small and much too hot) As long as your not in Farmers Branch, you should easily be able to find a contractor who'll run the cable to the Game Room. From me at privacy.net Fri Aug 8 17:14:23 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Aug 8 17:15:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:g7hc6r$ngo$1@news.spamcop.net... | | "AndrewB" wrote in message | news:g7gqe5$89v$1@news.spamcop.net... | >..... | > | > Frog Prince wrote: | >> My grand kids just moved in to a new place. They have cable and cable | >> internet with wifi. I can't run a CAT5 cable to the game room. (Attic is | >> too small and much too hot) | | As long as your not in Farmers Branch, you should easily be able to find a | contractor who'll run the cable to the Game Room. | What;s the problem with FB? From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 8 17:25:08 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Bar0) Date: Fri Aug 8 17:30:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:g7icve$a4g$1@news.spamcop.net... ... > | > What;s the problem with FB? Some new laws introduced in the past year or so. From me at privacy.net Fri Aug 8 17:49:48 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Aug 8 17:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. References: Message-ID: Tate's is lost. X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512 X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 080808-0, 08/08/2008), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Not-Tested Xref: news.spamcop.net spamcop.geeks:27662 "Bar0" < | > What;s the problem with FB? | | Some new laws introduced in the past year or so. To prohibit what exactly? From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 8 20:32:54 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Aug 8 20:35:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:g7grjn$d7h$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Although you have AVG 8, have you tried any spyware scanners like ad-aware > or such? That might explain the disk activity of ntoskrnl.exe, if your > machine is a spambot or something like that. But also, streaming media > may result in disk activity too. > Thanks for the response, I was wondering whether I was ever going to get any help! I have SpyBot running in realtime to monitor registry changes, but don't use ad-aware anymore. > Do you have a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Vista? 32 bit > > Do you have another pc at your location you can use to stream to see if > it's your ISP throttling you? Or maybe borrow one? I have my old PC in the basement hooked up to a stereo system to eventually get around to ripping .wav files from LPs, but it's not connected to my modem, and it would be a royal PITA to do so. I did discover one thing that might have been causing the problem, not sure yet. I had installed "SoundTap" in an attempt to capture the XM audio stream, didn't like the results, and it "took control" of the sound card at the most basic level during install. My problems started before I installed that software, BTW. Anyway, I tried to unistall SoundTap, and found a driver that refused to be deleted. Today I finally figured out how to gain permission to delete the subdirectory, and checked to make sure that the driver wasn't loaded after a reboot. I also re-enabled some Windows services that were related to Bluetooth and other things (thinking my wireless mouse runs on Bluetooth, which isn't correct). I also noticed last night before the SoundTap driver deletion that while watching live TV on my PC I had absolutely no problems with the sound, which points to the streaming process as the real issue. Point aside, DO NOT screw with SoundTap (or any other NCH software), it's insidious, especially their 'toolbox' feature. It took me multiple runs of RegCure to delete all references to that fscking program. Today I don't think I've had any sound issues except for a few minor pops and crackles while listening to XM Online -- the other streaming audio service has been flawless. Could be a simple as the fact that I unplugged and cleaned all the audio connectors, but I doubt it. While dealing with this whole issue, I got the brilliant idea to use the line out from my PC to my powered speaker system to run a line down to the basement LP recording stereo using one of the spare line in inputs so I can listen to my PC audio in my workshop during the day. I already have the wire and the male 3.5 mm plug to L/R RCA male connector cable, just need to find a single male to double female 3.5 mm splitter to make it work. Only issue I can see is that the signal strength may be reduced significantly over the 30 foot wire run (I'm using some spare 22 gauge speaker wire). Any insight on that? From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 8 20:38:01 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Fri Aug 8 20:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:g7if1l$ip2$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Bar0" < > > | > What;s the problem with FB? > | > | Some new laws introduced in the past year or so. > > To prohibit what exactly? > > Renting of accomodation to, hiring of, and some other measures to discourage illegal aliens. To tell the truth. I'm not well informed what the measures actually are, or what the Bylaws say. I just remember the kerfuffle in the news some time back. From me at privacy.net Fri Aug 8 22:14:47 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Aug 8 22:15:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need recomendations for a wifi adaptor for a desk top computer. References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:g7iotd$hpo$1@news.spamcop.net... | > | > | > What;s the problem with FB? | > | | > | Some new laws introduced in the past year or so. | > | > To prohibit what exactly? | > | > | Renting of accomodation to, hiring of, and some other measures to discourage | illegal aliens. | | To tell the truth. I'm not well informed what the measures actually are, or | what the Bylaws say. I just remember the kerfuffle in the news some time | back. and that has what real impact on having a cat5 cable run? An aside that was for renting to IA and the court tossed the law. FB is thinking about an appeal to the USSC From devnull at spamcop.net Sat Aug 9 12:30:32 2008 From: devnull at spamcop.net (Miss Betsy) Date: Sat Aug 9 12:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:g7c1if$lm9$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Centrino duo was what I was thinking of. WalMart was selling the wide > screen Toshiba, with the 2GB Memory, 240 or 120 GB Hard Drive, all the > above interfaces for 499 this past couple of weeks. > > Ethernet, and modem also built in BTW > The quote I used had other things in it so the computer and monitor is $762, but I still am confused about what I actually need and how much it would be to go with the local store vs buying online. For instance, how much is setup and instruction worth? (someone would have to do it) And whether a larger processor is needed. The difference seems to be in the cache size for certain applications. It is the processor I am concerned about. The software application is VidiTalk. I think that the difference in price for processors is about $30. The prices I am finding online range from $300 to $900 for the complete computer. There must be some differences in what is offered within that price range! Only I can't tell what it is. I have a feeling that the $762 quote (except for a bigger processor which might be a little bit more) is not that far off, but I need proof to show the buyer. Miss Betsy From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 9 13:33:19 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sat Aug 9 13:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Miss Betsy" wrote in message news:g7kgn4$e6$1@news.spamcop.net... > > > "bar0" wrote in message > news:g7c1if$lm9$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> Centrino duo was what I was thinking of. WalMart was selling the wide >> screen Toshiba, with the 2GB Memory, 240 or 120 GB Hard Drive, all the >> above interfaces for 499 this past couple of weeks. >> >> Ethernet, and modem also built in BTW >> > > The quote I used had other things in it so the computer and monitor is > $762, but I still am confused about what I actually need and how much it > would be to go with the local store vs buying online. For instance, how > much is setup and instruction worth? (someone would have to do it) And > whether a larger processor is needed. The difference seems to be in the > cache size for certain applications. It is the processor I am concerned > about. The software application is VidiTalk. I think that the difference > in price for processors is about $30. The prices I am finding online > range from $300 to $900 for the complete computer. > > There must be some differences in what is offered within that price range! > Only I can't tell what it is. I have a feeling that the $762 quote > (except for a bigger processor which might be a little bit more) is not > that far off, but I need proof to show the buyer. > > Miss Betsy I would get a centrino "duo" or better processor, 64 bit capable. that gives you upgrade room and lifetime as windows evolves over the next while. Keep an eye on sales flyers. the Walmart deal I mentioned is a great buy. check through some weekend papers. The best deals are not always on-line. 64 bit will allow you to upgrade to Vista 64 if/when that becomes "compulsory" It also allows Massive amounts of memory if/when that becomes "compulsory" Making allowances for future software bloat. When needed Disk and memory upgrqde is cheap nowadays, upgrading a processor isn't. From devnull at spamcop.net Sat Aug 9 17:27:59 2008 From: devnull at spamcop.net (Miss Betsy) Date: Sat Aug 9 17:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:g7dnpu$c7g$1@news.spamcop.net... > Some random thoughts... > > One idea to consider.. Do you just want to spec out a PC for the here/now, > or for the future too. > It seems, at least to me, that more and more 'function' is being pushed > down to the client PC. As more function is pushed down, more processor > power is needed. > > Don't short the PC on RAM.. 3G is max Vista can use now.. The next > generation can probably exploit 4G. > > In addition, if applications are data intensive, you don't want the > processor waiting on data before it can process! > So you want some sufficient amount of cache. > > You say you have a webcam. In my experience, video, especially if you plan > to do video editing can be resource intensive. > > It all comes down to, are you spec'ing out a PC as a disposable PC, or one > that you will use for years and years..... Years & years. If it is resource intensive, is that the same as data intensive? Only one program would be running at one time, but they are both resource intensive. Miss Betsy From devnull at spamcop.net Sat Aug 9 17:31:51 2008 From: devnull at spamcop.net (Miss Betsy) Date: Sat Aug 9 17:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:g7kkd5$got$1@news.spamcop.net... > 64 bit will allow you to upgrade to Vista 64 if/when that becomes > "compulsory" > It also allows Massive amounts of memory if/when that becomes "compulsory" > > Making allowances for future software bloat. > Is this 64 bit part of the processor? > When needed Disk and memory upgrqde is cheap nowadays, upgrading a > processor isn't. Yes, that's what I needed to know Miss Betsy From devnull at spamcop.net Sat Aug 9 17:38:44 2008 From: devnull at spamcop.net (Miss Betsy) Date: Sat Aug 9 17:40:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g7evub$b9a$1@news.spamcop.net... > Video processing is very intensive work. The most intensive is the > rendering modes. For capture and for rendering you need fast drives, lots > of RAM, a very good Video card with its own onboard RAM and as high a > speed processor as you can afford. > When I upped my RAM from 512 to a Gig, it almost halved rendering time. > So I went to 2 Gig; without noticeable improvement. There's always a > bottleneck to chase so you have to decide where the point of diminshing > returns is. I use Ulead for video work. So, in my specs, the 1GB RAM is probably ok, for now. And make sure the video card is the very best on the market now. But is 80GB hard drive fast enough? Miss Betsy From loyal at spamcop.user Sun Aug 10 01:43:20 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sun Aug 10 01:45:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: bar0 wrote: > I would get a centrino "duo" or better processor, 64 bit capable. that gives > you upgrade room and lifetime as windows evolves over the next while. I'm not sure I would put a Intel Centrino CPU in a desktop computer. They are meant for laptops because they are slower and also use less electricity - meaning longer battery life. > It also allows Massive amounts of memory if/when that becomes "compulsory" Using a lot of memory depends on your OS. Any 32 bit OS can only address 2^32 bytes, or 4gb of memory. 64 bit OS's can address 2^64 bytes - mostly only needed for servers at this time. Tangent note: sometimes using 32 bit software on a 64 bit OS does not work smoothly. I gave up on 64 bit Ubuntu because some proprietary software (Adobe Flash was one) does not yet have a 64 bit version yet. So if you make a transition in the future, plan to start clean. AndrewB From loyal at spamcop.user Sun Aug 10 01:48:58 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sun Aug 10 01:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Miss Betsy wrote: > > > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g7evub$b9a$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Video processing is very intensive work. The most intensive is the >> rendering modes. For capture and for rendering you need fast drives, >> lots of RAM, a very good Video card with its own onboard RAM and as >> high a speed processor as you can afford. >> When I upped my RAM from 512 to a Gig, it almost halved rendering >> time. So I went to 2 Gig; without noticeable improvement. There's >> always a bottleneck to chase so you have to decide where the point of >> diminshing returns is. I use Ulead for video work. > > So, in my specs, the 1GB RAM is probably ok, for now. And make sure the > video card is the very best on the market now. But is 80GB hard drive > fast enough? If your motherboard has 2 slots for memory, you'll probably want a single 1gb stick. Most computer makers will put two 512mb sticks in, as they are cheaper. Having one stick will allow you to insert one later. Rather than buying 2 and having what you got originally left over. Memory is CHEAP these days. 80gb hard drive fast? Size does not make a hard drive fast or slow. The RPM's of the drive make it fast or slow. 80gb would be the absolute low end these days in hard drive size. Fry's Silicon Valley has a 500gb SATA Maxtor for $80, and a WD notebook 160gb for $60 (PATA and SATA versions) on sale this weekend, for comparison. AndrewB From loyal at spamcop.user Sun Aug 10 12:08:08 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sun Aug 10 12:10:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: ... > While dealing with this whole issue, I got the brilliant idea to use the > line out from my PC to my powered speaker system to run a line down to > the basement LP recording stereo using one of the spare line in inputs > so I can listen to my PC audio in my workshop during the day. I already > have the wire and the male 3.5 mm plug to L/R RCA male connector cable, > just need to find a single male to double female 3.5 mm splitter to make > it work. Only issue I can see is that the signal strength may be reduced > significantly over the 30 foot wire run (I'm using some spare 22 gauge > speaker wire). Any insight on that? You'll have to try it and see. I don't think you'll have any major issues. But experience will be the indicator. You might be able to just set the cable down, before laying it, and hook a headset to the other end to see if the distance plays a factor before dropping it in your walls. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Aug 11 15:20:48 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Aug 11 15:25:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:g7n3p5$bbl$1@news.spamcop.net... > > You'll have to try it and see. I don't think you'll have any major > issues. But experience will be the indicator. Guy at Radio Shack said a 30 ft run shouldn't be a problem. I finally got to use some of that pile of speaker wires I've been accumulating for the last 30 years ;-) I found two separate harnesses that luckily had matching covered connectors on each end, so that saved me from having to solder together the two pairs of wire. Just got the female jack I needed (forgot to pick it up when I was at RS on Saturday), going to finish the job after I read the new SC posts. > > You might be able to just set the cable down, before laying it, and hook a > headset to the other end to see if the distance plays a factor before > dropping it in your walls. > No problemo there. I already have a hole in the floor near the baseboard behind my desk where we ran the new cable modem line, it drops into my unfinished basement. A few wire tacks and I'm done. Hopefully I'll escape this time without physical damage! On Saturday when I temporarily ran the wires from the stereo to the hole in the floor to make sure the cable was long enough one of the legs of the ancient metal footstool I was standing on collapsed, dropping me in a flailing bundle onto the concrete basement floor. Luckily, I had some spare carpeting laid down there, so it cushioned the shock a little. Still ended up hurting my left shoulder, which took most of the blow, wrenched my back (again), and suffered a few cuts on my right foot (dunno how that happened). Not going to work barefoot this time! ;-) Can you believe I had to pay a whopping $30 for a simple 3 ft tall aluminum stepladder at Lowe's?! Probably could have gotten a cheaper one at Target, but.......what the hell, this one will last me a lifetime. From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Aug 11 15:27:30 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Aug 11 15:30:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Miss Betsy" wrote in message news:g7l2oc$ek1$1@news.spamcop.net... > > So, in my specs, the 1GB RAM is probably ok, for now. And make sure the > video card is the very best on the market now. I wouldn't buy _any_ new computer with less than 2 GM of RAM. It's cheap, and it's easier to have it factory installed and tested than to have to upgrade it yourself if you're not computer hardware literate (you could accidentally fry something on the MoBo if you're not careful). But is 80GB hard drive fast > enough? > The size of the hard drive (80 GB of data capacity) has nothing to do with it's speed. You want to look at the access time in the specs, faster is of course better. From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Aug 11 21:43:00 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Aug 11 21:45:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem DAMMIT In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g7q3ec$14d$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "AndrewB" wrote in message > news:g7n3p5$bbl$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> You'll have to try it and see. I don't think you'll have any major >> issues. But experience will be the indicator. > > Guy at Radio Shack said a 30 ft run shouldn't be a problem. I finally got > to use some of that pile of speaker wires I've been accumulating for the > last 30 years ;-) I found two separate harnesses that luckily had matching > covered connectors on each end, so that saved me from having to solder > together the two pairs of wire. Just got the female jack I needed (forgot > to pick it up when I was at RS on Saturday), going to finish the job after > I read the new SC posts. CRAP! I _knew_ in the back of my feeble brain that a ground wire was probably missing but couldn't figure out how to implement it (and the DC wire harnesses I had a stash of were from car speaker systems, only needed two wires). I finally got everything hooked up, and when I plugged everything in my PC speakers still worked fine, so far so good. But when I plugged the cables into the stereo, all I got was "huuummmmm". Signal was only coming in from one channel. Discovered that the second wire was actually a ground, not a signal. I _was_ curious as to why the strain reliefs in the 3.5 mm jacks had little holes drilled in them, like there was supposed to be a wire soldered there.....guess I need to go buy a 3 wire hunk of cable and repeat the excersise, correctly this time, I hope....or I could strip one wire from the spare pieces I have and splice them together to make up the ground wire. I don't think I've ever seen 18 gauge 3 wire speaker cable before in a store, but it must exist, right? From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Aug 11 21:48:13 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Aug 11 21:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem DAMMIT In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g7qpqv$q5r$1@news.spamcop.net... ..or I > could strip one wire from the spare pieces I have and splice them together > to make up the ground wire. I don't think I've ever seen 18 gauge 3 wire > speaker cable before in a store, but it must exist, right? Conversely, instead of running a completely new set of wires, I could probably just switch one of the wires from a L/R channel and use it as the ground wire, ending up with a mono line-in, which doesn't matter since it's just talk radio for the most part. Would that work? Any issues with overdriving the unconnected channel on the sound card? From me at privacy.net Tue Aug 12 07:55:30 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Tue Aug 12 08:00:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem DAMMIT References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g7qq4p$ra1$1@news.spamcop.net... | | "Indigo" wrote in message | news:g7qpqv$q5r$1@news.spamcop.net... | ..or I | > could strip one wire from the spare pieces I have and splice them together | > to make up the ground wire. I don't think I've ever seen 18 gauge 3 wire | > speaker cable before in a store, but it must exist, right? | | Conversely, instead of running a completely new set of wires, I could | probably just switch one of the wires from a L/R channel and use it as the | ground wire, ending up with a mono line-in, which doesn't matter since it's | just talk radio for the most part. Would that work? Any issues with | overdriving the unconnected channel on the sound card? If the input audio is L/R channel use two resistors (1K ohm should work, not critical regardless as it's only for isolation) one for the left channel and one for the right channel to combine the audio to a single line. Use the other wire for ground. On the input side simply connect both inputs to the same wire. ~1k resistor could be as high as 50K and still work. L out put ---||||--- ---- L input | ----- | R out put ---||||--- ---- R input ground ----------------------- BTW it might work without the resistors but being an old time radio tech (back to the vacuum tube days) I try to be conservative as the lack of resistors could induce some distortion. Unlikely to cause any damage regardless. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 12 19:49:30 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Tue Aug 12 19:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem DAMMIT In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:g7rtnl$r42$1@news.spamcop.net... > | > | Conversely, instead of running a completely new set of wires, I could > | probably just switch one of the wires from a L/R channel and use it as > the > | ground wire, ending up with a mono line-in, which doesn't matter since > it's > | just talk radio for the most part. Would that work? Any issues with > | overdriving the unconnected channel on the sound card? > > If the input audio is L/R channel use two resistors (1K ohm should work, > not > critical regardless as it's only for isolation) one for the left channel > and > one for the right channel to combine the audio to a single line. Use the > other wire for ground. Thanks for the tip, but I decided to just go mono, I built a test cable and sound still comes out of both stereo speakers, so I'm fine with that. Just need to finish resoldering all the connections, something I was going to go when I got home from PT (4:15 pm today), but instead, like a moron, went to the computer first, and I've spent the last 3 hours installing/uninstalling/configuring various plug-ins and skins for WinAmp and WMP. Discovered that I didn't even have WinAmp on this machine, and WMP has a really crappy equalizer. Roxio has a decent one, but I've always used WinAmp in the past, I can't believe it took me this long to realize I didn't have it on this newish machine! Guess I was just using default installed apps while I was busy doing more important stuff since I don't listen to music much on the puter. Now that I got involved in running a new audio service cable I guess something clicked in my head that I didn't like the audio apps very much. Man, there are a TON of shitty skins and plug-ins out there for WinAmp! And a lot of them have this stupid .wal extension, which Vista won't open (although it is a custom WA extension and *should* work), but I discovered that they're simply .zip files, renaming the file extension got them to execute. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Tue Aug 12 23:46:15 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Tue Aug 12 23:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] RAM voltages Message-ID: Hi nerdettes & nerdudes, Got a little problem with RAM specs and Crucial's a black hole, as are the ms HW AND SW newsgroups I've asked on. So maybe someone here has an answer; wouldn't be the first time spamcop's come thru for me: I need to add RAM to a Walmart "special". It's a 'Balance Digital Electronics' machine which means "Dig like hell for any information on it about anything". The currently installed RAM, according to Sys Info and SIW is an SSTL 2.5V RAM, but the only RAM I can find anywhere says it's 2.6V. So, the questions: Does it matter? Will 2.6V work fine where it says SSTL 2.5V is currently installed? Would one of each work together or do they have to both be the same? It's pretty common RAM otherwise: PC3200-400MHz, non-ecc, non EPP, etc. But that voltage is giving me fits trying to work out. What IS the 2.5 and 2.6V?? Is it a threshold? Is it a level where, say, low is guaranteed to be anything below 2.6 (or 2.5) V? I ask because, near as I can tell, the RAM supply itself is 3.3V, so ... 2.xV sounds like a threshold or hysterisis area. It's "cute", actually: the label on the front says Intel 3.0 GHz/XP Home, and inside you find a 2.4GHz processor running at 2.4 GHz, using 3.066 GHz RAM, with a cpu cooler for up to 2.2 GHz, and 256 Meg of RAM. And the cpu fan blows the heat out of the heat sink and right into the intake of the fan for the switching power supply! I took the cpu temp from 68C down to 41C just by putting in a copper heatsink and properly sized fan, plus a piece of foil to direct theheat toward the case vents instead of into the psu. No WONDER Walmart specials are sooo, special! Holy shit, anyone could sell cheap machines too building them that way! Apparently there's dumb and then there's Walmart a few rungs below that. I'd hate to ever meet those Balance engineers! What morons they must be. Regards, Twayne From joegill at removethis Wed Aug 13 00:55:11 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Wed Aug 13 00:55:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: Wasn't Crucial's application able to 'sense' the motherboard? Did you try that tool, or just go through the menus? "Twayne" wrote in message news:g7tle6$2n6$1@news.spamcop.net... > Hi nerdettes & nerdudes, > > Got a little problem with RAM specs and Crucial's a black hole, as are the > ms HW AND SW newsgroups I've asked on. So maybe someone here has an > answer; wouldn't be the first time spamcop's come thru for me: > > I need to add RAM to a Walmart "special". It's a 'Balance Digital > Electronics' machine which means "Dig like hell for any information on it > about anything". > The currently installed RAM, according to Sys Info and SIW is an SSTL > 2.5V RAM, but the only RAM I can find anywhere says it's 2.6V. > > So, the questions: > Does it matter? > Will 2.6V work fine where it says SSTL 2.5V is currently installed? > Would one of each work together or do they have to both be the same? > > It's pretty common RAM otherwise: PC3200-400MHz, non-ecc, non EPP, etc. > But that voltage is giving me fits trying to work out. > What IS the 2.5 and 2.6V?? Is it a threshold? Is it a level where, say, > low is guaranteed to be anything below 2.6 (or 2.5) V? I ask because, > near as I can tell, the RAM supply itself is 3.3V, so ... 2.xV sounds like > a threshold or hysterisis area. > > It's "cute", actually: the label on the front says Intel 3.0 GHz/XP Home, > and inside you find a 2.4GHz processor running at 2.4 GHz, using 3.066 GHz > RAM, with a cpu cooler for up to 2.2 GHz, and 256 Meg of RAM. And the cpu > fan blows the heat out of the heat sink and right into the intake of the > fan for the switching power supply! I took the cpu temp from 68C down to > 41C just by putting in a copper heatsink and properly sized fan, plus a > piece of foil to direct theheat toward the case vents instead of into the > psu. No WONDER Walmart specials are sooo, special! Holy shit, anyone > could sell cheap machines too building them that way! Apparently there's > dumb and then there's Walmart a few rungs below that. I'd hate to ever > meet those Balance engineers! What morons they must be. > > Regards, > > Twayne > From devnull at spamcop.net Wed Aug 13 07:03:24 2008 From: devnull at spamcop.net (Miss Betsy) Date: Wed Aug 13 07:05:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g7q3qu$2lu$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Miss Betsy" wrote in message > news:g7l2oc$ek1$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> So, in my specs, the 1GB RAM is probably ok, for now. And make sure the >> video card is the very best on the market now. > > I wouldn't buy _any_ new computer with less than 2 GM of RAM. It's cheap, > and it's easier to have it factory installed and tested than to have to > upgrade it yourself if you're not computer hardware literate (you could > accidentally fry something on the MoBo if you're not careful). > > But is 80GB hard drive fast >> enough? >> > > The size of the hard drive (80 GB of data capacity) has nothing to do with > it's speed. You want to look at the access time in the specs, faster is of > course better. First thanks to all who have replied to this thread. It has made it a lot easier for me. (and, no, I would never attempt to do it myself! Fortunately, we have found someone who really does know what he is doing to make computer repairs. For complicated reasons, I couldn't ask him for recommendations.) One last question, this 'speed' is something that is contained in the hard drive specs, not the Intel processor specs, correct? (I did find that speed differed from level to level there). Betsy From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 13 15:08:28 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Aug 13 15:10:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Can a celeron processor do what I want? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Miss Betsy" wrote in message news:g7uf0k$bq1$1@news.spamcop.net... > > One last question, this 'speed' is something that is contained in the hard > drive specs, not the Intel processor specs, correct? (I did find that > speed differed from level to level there). > Yes, the various hard drive specs you want to look are related to I/O speeds for the HD. For example, this drive at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136161 has these specs: Performance Interface SATA 3.0Gb/s Capacity 250GB RPM 7200 RPM Cache 16MB Average Seek Time 8.9ms Average Write Time 10.9ms Average Latency 4.2ms RPM is how fast the platter spins (faster is better, 5200 RPM is common on cheaper drives) Seek Time is how fast it takes for the HD head to get to the sector where the data you want is located (lower number is better) Write Time is pretty self explanatory (lower number is better) Latency I'm not so sure how important that is From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 13 15:39:31 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Aug 13 15:40:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g7tle6$2n6$1@news.spamcop.net... I took the cpu temp > from 68C down to 41C just by putting in a copper heatsink and properly > sized fan, plus a piece of foil to direct theheat toward the case vents > instead of into the psu. Aluminum foil laying on/near the MoBo and CPU? Think that's such a great idea? I made my left-handed wind shifter out of cardboard in my old PC, I wouldn't use anything conductive just to be safe. From kenbrody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 13 17:20:43 2008 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Wed Aug 13 17:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: <48A3502A.9E92D388@spamcop.net> Twayne wrote: > > Hi nerdettes & nerdudes, > > Got a little problem with RAM specs and Crucial's a black hole Was their scanner unable to determine the motherboard? [...] > I need to add RAM to a Walmart "special". It's a 'Balance Digital > Electronics' machine which means "Dig like hell for any information on > it about anything". Can you open up the case and find any model number on the motherboard itself? If so, Crucial's website may be able to tell you about it using the dropdown lists to narrow it down to that particular model. Otherwise, search for the motherboard model number plus the word "manual", and you may be able to find more info on it that way. [...] > It's "cute", actually: the label on the front says Intel 3.0 GHz/XP > Home, and inside you find a 2.4GHz processor running at 2.4 GHz, If that's true, why not get your money back for the false advertising? [...] -- +-------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+ | Kenneth J. Brody | www.hvcomputer.com | #include | | kenbrody/at\spamcop.net | www.fptech.com | | +-------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+ Don't e-mail me at: From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 13 19:28:56 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Aug 13 19:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Audio problem DAMMIT In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g7t7i4$pps$1@news.spamcop.net... > Thanks for the tip, but I decided to just go mono, I built a test cable > and sound still comes out of both stereo speakers, so I'm fine with that. > Just need to finish resoldering all the connections, I must have been imagining things when I heard stereo sound with my test cable. I finally finished up the harness, plugged it in, and much to my dismay there was no noise -- not even the "huuummmm" the ungrounded incorrectly wired harness made. Much confusion, so I plugged the input end 3.5 mm jack into my pocket TV headphone output and voila! Sounds emanating from the stereo downstairs! Damn, I guess those line losses _are_ too much?! So I plug the jack into the headphone output on my PC, and again, hear noises from the stereo, but the PC speakers go silent (you can only use one or the other, like my TV audio outputs work). Well, ok, I guess I can live with that....so I unplug the headphone input...but I start hearing crackling noises (again) in the audio. So I look behind the box and discover that in during my lazy "blindly hunt and search" for the main speaker output jack I had accidentally plugged the 3.5 mm splitter into the surround sound output. No wonder the speaker output from the PC sounded weird, it was coming from the built in PC speakers, not the powered set, and with no surround sound source of course the rear speaker output was zero! ;-) So I plug the splitter into the correct "front" speaker output, hook up the cable to the downstairs stereo again, and voila! Sound! But only from one channel, which is ok, that's all I really needed. But it's still crackling, especially the XM streaming audio, like REAL bad. As an aside, I recently bought David Gilmour's "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" DVD, and had tried ripping the audio and copying the video (no go on the vid copy, it's copy protected of course). So I'm trying every single A/V piece of freeware/shareware/built-in software trying to figger out how to at least rip the audio, and I discover that two of the pieces of software that came with the PC (Roxio stuff) will not run. So after about 1/2 hour I finally figure out how to break into the D:\ original image partition to get to the .msi files for those two apps, and "repair" them. Frigging Roxio DVD Creator took nearly an hour to reinstall! Thinking that those or some other freeware A/V apps may have corrupted other files, I also reinstalled the SoundMax audio drivers (didn't bother to uninstall anything first) and rebooted. Now, with fingers crossed, I may have everything working properly, FINALLY. Currently listening to streaming audio, no crackles or stuttering so far (it's been about 1/2 hour now), and I've gone thru some CPU intensive periods during that time (AVG 8 auto-update), times that used to cause severe stuttering from the sound card. I don't pretend to understand any of this (like how it happened or what fixed what), but by trial and error it looks like I got it fixed. I was worried that 1) my ancient powered speakers needed replacing, or 2) the sound card on my < 1 yr old PC was bad, but it appears not (fingers triple crossed! ;-) From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 14 16:59:12 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 14 17:00:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] MBTA published checksum info in court filings Message-ID: Here's a "funny" one: MBTA published checksum info in court filings Something most troubling in the email exchange between Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Jennifer Granick and MBTA attorney Leuan Mahony, posted by News.com. The essence is that MBTA itself included the MIT students' confidential report (PDF) to MBTA on their security weaknesses as an exhibit in their complaint and it is now a public document. Worth giving it a read, really. Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 14 17:02:50 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 14 17:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: > Wasn't Crucial's application able to 'sense' the motherboard? > Did you try that tool, or just go through the menus? Both: It could read the data for what was in the machine but that was all; no recommendation because the mfg etc. were unknown. Once I knew what was in the machine for sure I started looking and came across the voltage issue. And menues were no good; that brand isn't covered. Turns out: The RAM PC3200 could have been and really should have been, PC2700 I think it was. A 2.5V RAM stick. > > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g7tle6$2n6$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Hi nerdettes & nerdudes, >> >> Got a little problem with RAM specs and Crucial's a black hole, as >> are the ms HW AND SW newsgroups I've asked on. So maybe someone >> here has an answer; wouldn't be the first time spamcop's come >> thru for me: I need to add RAM to a Walmart "special". It's a >> 'Balance Digital >> Electronics' machine which means "Dig like hell for any information >> on it about anything". >> The currently installed RAM, according to Sys Info and SIW is an >> SSTL 2.5V RAM, but the only RAM I can find anywhere says it's 2.6V. >> >> So, the questions: >> Does it matter? >> Will 2.6V work fine where it says SSTL 2.5V is currently installed? >> Would one of each work together or do they have to both be the >> same? It's pretty common RAM otherwise: PC3200-400MHz, non-ecc, non >> EPP, >> etc. But that voltage is giving me fits trying to work out. >> What IS the 2.5 and 2.6V?? Is it a threshold? Is it a level where, >> say, low is guaranteed to be anything below 2.6 (or 2.5) V? I ask >> because, near as I can tell, the RAM supply itself is 3.3V, so ... >> 2.xV sounds like a threshold or hysterisis area. >> >> It's "cute", actually: the label on the front says Intel 3.0 GHz/XP >> Home, and inside you find a 2.4GHz processor running at 2.4 GHz, >> using 3.066 GHz RAM, with a cpu cooler for up to 2.2 GHz, and 256 >> Meg of RAM. And the cpu fan blows the heat out of the heat sink and >> right into the intake of the fan for the switching power supply! I >> took the cpu temp from 68C down to 41C just by putting in a copper >> heatsink and properly sized fan, plus a piece of foil to direct >> theheat toward the case vents instead of into the psu. No WONDER >> Walmart specials are sooo, special! Holy shit, anyone could sell >> cheap machines too building them that way! Apparently there's dumb >> and then there's Walmart a few rungs below that. I'd hate to ever >> meet those Balance engineers! What morons they must be. Regards, >> >> Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 14 17:09:06 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 14 17:10:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g7tle6$2n6$1@news.spamcop.net... > I took the cpu temp >> from 68C down to 41C just by putting in a copper heatsink and >> properly sized fan, plus a piece of foil to direct theheat toward >> the case vents instead of into the psu. > > Aluminum foil laying on/near the MoBo and CPU? Think that's such a > great idea? I made my left-handed wind shifter out of cardboard in my > old PC, I wouldn't use anything conductive just to be safe. It's not aluminum foil per sae. It's a piece of dairly stiff but very thin sheet aluminum. It lodged in rather neatly and I put one corner under the cpu-fan screw head. You did get me to thinkng about Mr. Murphy though; guess I'll pull it out and put a few coats of acrylic on it. Thanks for taking the time; never trust to woulda/shoulda/coulda & "seems like"!. Guess I was in a hurry. I started out to use fishpaper but then thought about the amount of heat that might be there and dropped that one when I remembered I had the sheet alu. Regards, Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 14 17:16:46 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 14 17:20:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages References: <48A3502A.9E92D388@spamcop.net> Message-ID: > Twayne wrote: >> >> Hi nerdettes & nerdudes, >> >> Got a little problem with RAM specs and Crucial's a black hole > > Was their scanner unable to determine the motherboard? Yup. No luck at all; I did get the specs on the RAM though, so that helped. > > [...] >> I need to add RAM to a Walmart "special". It's a 'Balance Digital >> Electronics' machine which means "Dig like hell for any information >> on it about anything". > > Can you open up the case and find any model number on the motherboard > itself? Ain't none. In fact, I noticed as I opened the case there isn't even a UL/CSA/CE/ETI or any other kind of RF or Safety marking on it either, lol! What a piece of crap! > > If so, Crucial's website may be able to tell you about it using > the dropdown lists to narrow it down to that particular model. > Otherwise, search for the motherboard model number plus the word > "manual", and you may be able to find more info on it that way. Had the mobo part number; actually found it on a forum and even found a pic of the board on a Chinese site but there wasn 't any way I could find to translate it to English. But Crucial didn't know what it was in their dropdowns. I found two possiblities, they weren't in Crucial's list either. > > [...] >> It's "cute", actually: the label on the front says Intel 3.0 GHz/XP >> Home, and inside you find a 2.4GHz processor running at 2.4 GHz, > > If that's true, why not get your money back for the false advertising? Well ... mostly 'cause it's 3 years old! I see Walmart's selling some Dells now; I'd love to get a look in one of those to see if they cut any corners or if they made "special" models for Walmart. I'm going to grab a model number and go look in Dell to see if it's available there. Maybe Walmart decided to sell some actual computers :^). Somehow I doubt it though. It's OK though; I've got it all worked out now, finally. See my "Resolved" post in this thread. Regards, Twayne > > [...] > >> Kenneth J. Brody | www.hvcomputer.com | #include >> | kenbrody/at\spamcop.net | www.fptech.com | >> | > +-------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+ > Don't e-mail me at: From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 14 17:37:47 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 14 17:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: If anyone's interested, here's the wrap-up of this little saga. This AM I got a call from Crucial and early this PM email replies to both of my email requests for assistance. Fortunately, all 3, 3 different people, had the same answers. You CAN replace 2.5V RAM with 2.6V RAM and vice versa, as long as they are non-ECC and non-EPP. Then I let them into the subject machine and they ran their vacuum cleaner and sucked up some info. It had a 2.4 GHz cpu but a 3 GHz capable RAM stick. The 3 GHz sticks are all 2.6 V. So, it was already a 2.6 running in a 2.5 slot. They had no record of the mobo model etc but they did say that for 2.4 GHz, PC2700-200 RAM was all that was required, not PC3200-400. So, we were able to pick a PC2700-200Meg 512 Meg RAM stick, which ran at 2.5V, and I ordered it. That way I could just add it TO the 256 that was already there; that will be enough RAM for this machine. Now, THAT IS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY!! I told t hem I'd spread the word about them so here, I'm doing it! Then I looked and there is one empty drive bay/connectors so I ordered a WD 250 Gig IDE drive from Tiger Direct for $59. I'll add that to the 80 Gig that's already there and my sister will have a half way decent machine. No SATA controller of course so SATA was out. Oh, here's another neat thing I discovered: The cpu is an Intel Celeron 2.4GHz withOUT hyperthreading! In order to get the machine to run like it was a half way decent machine I had to turn on BIOS and VIDEO caches. Between that, the RAM and the 7200 rpm Hard Drive I'm hoping it'll be a functional amost 2 GHz machine equivalent. I've searched and searched the CMOS RAM for a way to turn on/off hyper-threading but I can't find anything that sounds like it or that I don't know what it is. It's a Phoenix BIOS, 2002 version. Hmm, I hadn't thought about a BIOS upgrade. But then I also noticed the BIOS is in a chip/socket so maybe there isn't any upgrading it. Hmm, something else to look into! BIOS is new territory to me; if I can't flash it, I know nothing about it. Sooo, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Twayne > Hi nerdettes & nerdudes, > > Got a little problem with RAM specs and Crucial's a black hole, as are > the ms HW AND SW newsgroups I've asked on. So maybe someone here has > an answer; wouldn't be the first time spamcop's come thru for me: > > I need to add RAM to a Walmart "special". It's a 'Balance Digital > Electronics' machine which means "Dig like hell for any information on > it about anything". > The currently installed RAM, according to Sys Info and SIW is an SSTL > 2.5V RAM, but the only RAM I can find anywhere says it's 2.6V. > > So, the questions: > Does it matter? > Will 2.6V work fine where it says SSTL 2.5V is currently installed? > Would one of each work together or do they have to both be the same? > > It's pretty common RAM otherwise: PC3200-400MHz, non-ecc, non EPP, > etc. But that voltage is giving me fits trying to work out. > What IS the 2.5 and 2.6V?? Is it a threshold? Is it a level where, > say, low is guaranteed to be anything below 2.6 (or 2.5) V? I ask > because, near as I can tell, the RAM supply itself is 3.3V, so ... > 2.xV sounds like a threshold or hysterisis area. > > It's "cute", actually: the label on the front says Intel 3.0 GHz/XP > Home, and inside you find a 2.4GHz processor running at 2.4 GHz, using > 3.066 GHz RAM, with a cpu cooler for up to 2.2 GHz, and 256 Meg of > RAM. And the cpu fan blows the heat out of the heat sink and right > into the intake of the fan for the switching power supply! I took > the cpu temp from 68C down to 41C just by putting in a copper > heatsink and properly sized fan, plus a piece of foil to direct > theheat toward the case vents instead of into the psu. No WONDER > Walmart specials are sooo, special! Holy shit, anyone could sell > cheap machines too building them that way! Apparently there's dumb > and then there's Walmart a few rungs below that. I'd hate to ever > meet those Balance engineers! What morons they must be. > > Regards, > > Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Aug 14 19:15:28 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Aug 14 19:20:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g828j7$efk$1@news.spamcop.net... > You CAN replace 2.5V RAM with 2.6V RAM and vice versa, as long as they > are non-ECC and non-EPP. I figured enough, you can never have perfect voltage control from the PS AC/DC converters, but I didn't open my mouth in case I was wrong since I don't have any experience with operating RAM at off-nominal voltages ;-) Most SS electronics will actually function ok up to at least +/- 0.3 volts, in my experience, but they can be temperature dependent if operating at a lower voltage than is standard. I've seen electronics boxes work fine in ambient conditions and lower than spec voltages, but when you drop the temp to some "magic" point, like -15 or -20 C, they cease to operate because some component isn't getting enough juice. So, we were able to pick a > PC2700-200Meg 512 Meg RAM stick, which ran at 2.5V, and I ordered it. That > way I could just add it TO the 256 that was already there; that will be > enough RAM for this machine. What the heck is a "200Meg 512 Meg Ram stick? I assume it's 512 of RAM, but why the stupid and confusing name? But then I also noticed the BIOS > is in a chip/socket so maybe there isn't any upgrading it. Hmm, something > else to look into! BIOS is new territory to me; if I can't flash it, I > know nothing about it. The BIOS in my old PC was stored the same way. You had to open the box and short out some pins by moving the connector cap to erase the existing BIOS, then you flashed the new BIOS to the EEPROM (I *think* it's EEPROM). Very scary process the first time you do it! From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Aug 14 19:18:55 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Aug 14 19:20:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g826te$8lr$1@news.spamcop.net... > Thanks for taking the time; never trust to woulda/shoulda/coulda & "seems > like"!. Guess I was in a hurry. I started out to use fishpaper but then > thought about the amount of heat that might be there and dropped that one > when I remembered I had the sheet alu. No problemo, always glad when I can actually contribute something to this board instead of constantly asking for info and help ;-) But what the heck is fishpaper? From user at domain.invalid Fri Aug 15 11:10:24 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (User) Date: Fri Aug 15 11:15:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: MBTA published checksum info in court filings In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 14.08.2008 15:59, Twayne wrote: --- Original Message --- > Here's a "funny" one: > MBTA published checksum info in court filings > Something most troubling in the email exchange between Electronic > Frontier Foundation lawyer Jennifer Granick and MBTA attorney Leuan > Mahony, posted by News.com. The essence is that MBTA itself included the > MIT students' confidential report (PDF) to MBTA on their security > weaknesses as an exhibit in their complaint and it is now a public > document. > > Worth giving it a read, really. > > Twayne > > Great, but what's the link? From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 15 12:03:34 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 15 12:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g828j7$efk$1@news.spamcop.net... >> You CAN replace 2.5V RAM with 2.6V RAM and vice versa, as long as >> they are non-ECC and non-EPP. > > I figured enough, you can never have perfect voltage control from the > PS AC/DC converters, but I didn't open my mouth in case I was wrong > since I don't have any experience with operating RAM at off-nominal > voltages ;-) Most SS electronics will actually function ok up to at > least +/- 0.3 volts, in my experience, but they can be temperature > dependent if operating at a lower voltage than is standard. I've seen > electronics boxes work fine in ambient conditions and lower than spec > voltages, but when you drop the temp to some "magic" point, like -15 > or -20 C, they cease to operate because some component isn't getting > enough juice. Yeah, and the "SSTL" had me curious too but I never got a definition for that. But a system that worked great here and not "there" is exactly what I was worried about; I agree. > > So, we were able to pick a >> PC2700-200Meg 512 Meg RAM stick, which ran at 2.5V, and I ordered >> it. That way I could just add it TO the 256 that was already there; >> that will be enough RAM for this machine. > > What the heck is a "200Meg 512 Meg Ram stick? I assume it's 512 of > RAM, but why the stupid and confusing name? Apparently at least Crucial and the SIW program I used add the FSB max speed to the RAM type. PC3200-200 and PC3200-400 for example indicate the max FSB speed on the board. Since this machine is 133 I can see why either would work. e.g. the SIW indicated 256 Meg, Memory Type SDRAM DDR-400, which I admit is a little redundant, but Crucial didn't blink an eye at it; they returned the same data. BTW, if you're interested, their RAM investigator is a downloadable app; I grabbed it for future reference; you don't HAVE to do it online. _Aside:_ Just for grins, since the BIOS allowed it, I tried increasing the FSB speed to the next setting to see what happened. What happened was, I had to look for the BIOS erase jumper to get booted again! It wasn't labeled, either; had to guess by its location on the mobo. Then I noticed the label: It's UNDER the header base! Duhhh! > > But then I also noticed the BIOS >> is in a chip/socket so maybe there isn't any upgrading it. Hmm, >> something else to look into! BIOS is new territory to me; if I >> can't flash it, I know nothing about it. > > The BIOS in my old PC was stored the same way. You had to open the > box and short out some pins by moving the connector cap to erase the > existing BIOS, then you flashed the new BIOS to the EEPROM (I *think* > it's EEPROM). Very scary process the first time you do it! Yeah, now that I've identified the mobo maybe I can figure out if/how it can be flashed. Couldn't hurt; it's got a 2002 date on it! Watch it turn out to be a unique BIOS! It's been an "interesting" exercise if nothing else. I've got it fully rebuilt now and it's actually not too bad. Pauses from anything that causes a massive prefetch reorg are a little annoying, but all are less than 10 seconds at least, and the page file use is high until I get the new RAM. Least I hope the new RAM helps that. Cheers, Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 15 12:08:15 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 15 12:10:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g826te$8lr$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Thanks for taking the time; never trust to woulda/shoulda/coulda & >> "seems like"!. Guess I was in a hurry. I started out to use >> fishpaper but then thought about the amount of heat that might be >> there and dropped that one when I remembered I had the sheet alu. > > No problemo, always glad when I can actually contribute something to > this board instead of constantly asking for info and help ;-) > > But what the heck is fishpaper? It's like the kind of paper cereal boxes and such are made from, but it's treated to be fire-proof or fire-retardant depending on the type, and it's much stiffer than cereal box cardboard. It's commonly used in electronics for insulation and/or air direction control (chimneys). The downisde of it is, when it gets too hot it just crumbles away and can soak up moisture. I've never seen it at RS but it's often in the other hobby shops for electronic stuff. Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 15 15:09:21 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Aug 15 15:10:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RAM voltages In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g849la$vhq$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> But what the heck is fishpaper? > > It's like the kind of paper cereal boxes and such are made from, but it's > treated to be fire-proof or fire-retardant depending on the type, Kind of like a wax coated paperboard? But fire-retardant? Why would it need to be treated with expensive retardant? I think it's regular wax, for freshness. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 15 17:31:22 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Aug 15 17:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g849cg$tlv$1@news.spamcop.net... > BTW, if you're interested, their RAM investigator is a downloadable app; > I grabbed it for future reference; you don't HAVE to do it online. I've had the standalone shareware version SIW for a long time on my various machines, lots of great info available. SiSandra is another good one. Both have limitations on some of their apps unless you pay up, but for what I want to look at they work fine. > _Aside:_ Just for grins, since the BIOS allowed it, I tried increasing > the FSB speed to the next setting to see what happened. What happened > was, I had to look for the BIOS erase jumper to get booted again! It > wasn't labeled, either; had to guess by its location on the mobo. Then I > noticed the label: It's UNDER the header base! Duhhh! > Double Doh! You got _really_ lucky there, you know that, right? > > It's been an "interesting" exercise if nothing else. I've got it fully > rebuilt now and it's actually not too bad. Pauses from anything that > causes a massive prefetch reorg are a little annoying, but all are less > than 10 seconds at least, Do you know what apps cause the "prefetch" slowdown? I know absolutely nothing about prefetching, guess it's time to gargle it. I occasionally have "stuttering" sound card issue, sometimes when CPU usage is high, sometimes not, so I know it's something else causing the problem. In another thread, I said that I've fixed all of my soundcard issues except for that one. I discovered that the irritating crackling noise while listening to streaming XM audio was not being caused by my PC, because I heard the same damn crackling noise emanating from my XM car stereo while driving today! Must be sun spots or sumpthin..... From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 15 19:01:26 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 15 19:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: ... > I've had the standalone shareware version SIW for a long time on my > various machines, lots of great info available. SiSandra is another > good one. Both have limitations on some of their apps unless you pay > up, but for what I want to look at they work fine. That's one of the bennies of groups; new stuff! Looked at SiSandra but don't see a state-side source yet, but I didn't look real hard. More interested in what it was. Might be worth a trial download; thanks. > > >> _Aside:_ Just for grins, since the BIOS allowed it, I tried >> increasing the FSB speed to the next setting to see what happened. >> What happened was, I had to look for the BIOS erase jumper to get >> booted again! It wasn't labeled, either; had to guess by its >> location on the mobo. Then I noticed the label: It's UNDER the >> header base! Duhhh! > > Double Doh! You got _really_ lucky there, you know that, right? Nah, long's it's something you do with power off, like CMOS resets are, it's not a big problem. I did get lucky that way though, you're right, in grabbing the right one. I was more worried it'd turn out to be one of those "short this to that" things without a jumper to work with. These old fingers ain't too steady no more. > >> >> It's been an "interesting" exercise if nothing else. I've got it >> fully rebuilt now and it's actually not too bad. Pauses from >> anything that causes a massive prefetch reorg are a little annoying, >> but all are less than 10 seconds at least, > > Do you know what apps cause the "prefetch" slowdown? I know absolutely > nothing about prefetching, guess it's time to gargle it. I > occasionally have "stuttering" sound card issue, sometimes when CPU > usage is high, sometimes not, so I know it's something else causing > the problem. In another thread, I said that I've fixed all of my > soundcard issues except for that one. I discovered that the > irritating crackling noise while listening to streaming XM audio was > not being caused by my PC, because I heard the same damn crackling > noise emanating from my XM car stereo while driving today! Must be > sun spots or sumpthin..... Well, basically, that would be any situation that makes the computer discover that it doesn't have a bunch of stuff already in prefetch that it needs and it has to pull some stuff in off the disk to use, and of course, throw out some prefetches already there to make room for it. I'm making this up, but say I was running a video intensive (math stuff) set of apps and suddenly switched to something that used a huge database (arrays and string manipulations). If the prefetch was full of math oriented graphics "stuff", it'd have to repopulate it for the new tasks that were requested. Prefetch is sort of a "look ahead" or "predictive" buffer of stuff you "might" use next. I ain't no expert. It would be normal for stuttering to occur when cpu usage was near being maxxed out, BTW. More RAM, faster hard drive, whatever; somehow the cpu needs to have time to process everything. However, I doubt very much that prefetch would be the cause of stuttering or static with sound applications. Prefetch probably isn't much involved in that process once it's been initiated. Besides, you say it's apparently not anything the PC is doing because you hear it in other outputs (car, etc). That would indicate some sort of radio wave (electro-magnetic interference). That could be caused by all kinds of things ranging from an electric fence or protection device of some sort to neighborhood equipment to power grid transmissions to gosh knows what. A few years ago I had a problem like that which turned out to be my neighbor's electric fence for their sheep. It was being picked up in my computer speakers as a series of pops once a second, and was even audible on my analog phone lines. And finding the source of it turned out to be the easy part; it didn't bother HIS computer or phone line, so he wasn't too anxious to do anything about it! It was actually the phone company that tracked it down for me because I reported the "pops" as a problem on my phones. I actually had to go over to his farm and help him troubleshoot his ground system to get rid of it. At one time he had a neutral problem between the house and the barn, so every time he did anything with his electrical, he'd drive in a new ground rod; he had ground loops with ground loops in them!! Took a couple weeks to get it down to two rods, one at the house and one at the barn, and then get his electric fence connected to the right one. You should see the spaghetti he has for wiring<.g>! I guess the first thing I'd do if it were me, is prove that what you hear in the car is actually what you hear in the computer speakers, if I understand you correctly. Somehow, you have to be able to hear both of them at the same time to prove that they're synchronized or at least nearly so. If not, there could be multiple, unlrelated problems. I have something like that going on right now too, in fact. Seems like a random static noise in the speakers. Neither the computer Volume control, nor the Mixer controls have any affect on it. But the volume knob on the speakers does have an affect on it. Sometimes it'll be gone unless something turns the amps on to put out a sound, other times it'll be there whether there's an audio gate on or not. Playing music, there's no sign of any static on the waveform, but if I try to record, the static is definitely there in the waveform being recorded, regardless of the recordging source (CD, mic, TV tuner, whatever). There's no pattern to it or anything I can discover so far. It's been bugging me for a couple months now. I even tried a different set of speakers from another machine; no difference. Tell ya what: If you find a solution, let me know and I'll do the same for you! IIRC your setup is a lot more complex than mine though, for what that's worth. The only unusual component I really have is a TV tuner (TIVO) but I keep unused input/outputs disabled. And disabling the full audio out doesn't stop it either. Have you tried using the Mixer to turn off all the inputs and outputs one at a time and as a group? Probably, I seem to recall this is a long time project you've been at. Cheers, Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 15 20:14:31 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Aug 15 20:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g851rv$vpr$1@news.spamcop.net... > > That's one of the bennies of groups; new stuff! Looked at SiSandra but > don't see a state-side source yet, but I didn't look real hard. More > interested in what it was. Might be worth a trial download; thanks. > First link to come up on Google for me was http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,4005-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html > Well, basically, that would be any situation that makes the computer > discover that it doesn't have a bunch of stuff already in prefetch that it > needs and it has to pull some stuff in off the disk to use, and of course, > throw out some prefetches already there to make room for it. I'm making > this up, but say I was running a video intensive (math stuff) set of apps > and suddenly switched to something that used a huge database (arrays and > string manipulations). If the prefetch was full of math oriented graphics > "stuff", it'd have to repopulate it for the new tasks that were requested. > Prefetch is sort of a "look ahead" or "predictive" buffer of stuff you > "might" use next. I ain't no expert. I did google prefetch in the meantime, it's nothing sinister or resource intensive or anything like that. It simply keeps track of what files and dlls etc. you need to load when you start a specific app, it's a way of speeding up the loading of the app. Otherwise it does nothing. > > It would be normal for stuttering to occur when cpu usage was near being > maxxed out, BTW. More RAM, faster hard drive, whatever; somehow the cpu > needs to have time to process everything. Well, I got what I got, I'm not opening up this PC to fool with anything. It's a custom case HP Touchsmart, an "all in one" PC, only things not physically hard connected are the keyboard and mouse. I'll just deal with the CPU max-out stuttering, I guess. It's only happening lately because I'm trying to rip audio from a DVD, which is turning out to take at least 4 steps before I can turn it into single song files. Have to do it by hand in the end, cutting the single monster MP3 file by listening for breaks in the concert audio. At least I managed to rip the video to a .wmv file(s) so I can re-record it to a DVD for my sister, she loves Pink Floyd/David Gilmore. Everything I'm using is freeware, the key missing item was an app called "DVD43", which decodes the copy-protected DVD. Using that with AVS Video Converter 6.2 allows me to rip the video, which I then ripped to MP3 so I can listen to it on my MP3 player or burn it to an audio DVD disk to play in my car stereo. AVS puts a watermark on the video file, but it's pretty unobtrusive so far, it looks like it only shows up at the first and lasat 30 seconds of the video (I haven't watched most of the WMV file yet to see if it shows up elsewhere). > Have you tried using the Mixer to turn off all the inputs and outputs > one at a time and as a group? Probably, I seem to recall this is a long > time project you've been at. To be honest, I don't even know where "the Mixer" is located ;-) And yes, I've been working on this audio problem for a while, about a month. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 15 23:55:13 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sat Aug 16 00:00:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages References: Message-ID: > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g851rv$vpr$1@news.spamcop.net... ... > > Well, I got what I got, I'm not opening up this PC to fool with > anything. It's a custom case HP Touchsmart, an "all in one" PC, only > things not physically hard connected are the keyboard and mouse. I'll > just deal with the CPU max-out stuttering, I guess. It's only > happening lately because I'm trying to rip audio from a DVD, which is > turning out to take at least 4 steps before I can turn it into single > song files. Have to do it by hand in the end, cutting the single > monster MP3 file by listening for breaks in the concert audio. At > least I managed to rip the video to a .wmv file(s) so I can re-record > it to a DVD for my sister, she loves Pink Floyd/David Gilmore. > Everything I'm using is freeware, the key missing item was an app > called "DVD43", which decodes the copy-protected DVD. Using that with > AVS Video Converter 6.2 allows me to rip the video, which I then > ripped to MP3 so I can listen to it on my MP3 player or burn it to an > audio DVD disk to play in my car stereo. AVS puts a watermark on the > video file, but it's pretty unobtrusive so far, it looks like it only > shows up at the first and lasat 30 seconds of the video (I haven't > watched most of the WMV file yet to see if it shows up elsewhere). > >> Have you tried using the Mixer to turn off all the inputs and >> outputs one at a time and as a group? Probably, I seem to recall >> this is a long time project you've been at. > > To be honest, I don't even know where "the Mixer" is located ;-) And > yes, I've been working on this audio problem for a while, about a > month. Hey, I just had an experience that might help, dunno! REcall I mentioned I had speaker static pops? Just for grins, I went into the System Sounds to adjust some of my lost messages - I have several voice messages so I know what the hell the beep boop bongs actually mean! Anyway, while I was there I decided to test the audio system. Turned out I was set up for a two speaker system, no center woofer box. But I actually have a Surround Sound. I was blaming the static and pops, but ... the cenral woofer was hardly doing anything! So I went and reset the system for Surround sound and made sure the right sound card was selected, and guess what? The static stopped! As soon as I clicked OK! Couldn't hurt to have a look at it on your machine! I have NO idea why it worked, or where the noise, static and pops was coming from, but I don't care; it's finally gone! It's going to seem awfully quiet in here now! As for mixers, I suspect you have at least two software mixers. The first one, just double click the speaker icon in the System Tray. You must know what it is, just not the name; you can set what's on, what's off, and both record and playback volumes for the system in that mixer. If you dont' have a speaker icon in the System Tray, you should; they do get "lost" once in awhile and need to be turned back on sometimes. Then, in your sound card applications you should have another one. I have an SB card and an SB on board system plus modem audio, and each of those have a mixer associated with them. For the SB in my case, it's in the EAX Panel under my sound card in Control Panel. Check around; it must be there. Try the Help and look in the Index for Mixer. Probably won't help, but thought I'd mention it just in case... BTW, speaking of freeware: I think the best audio app I have is Audacity (audacity.com). I especially like the "what u hear" feature - no fussing with selecting the sources. Of course, if a system message happens to play while you're recording, you'll record that too, but ... . Very nice app if you're not familiar with it. I'm into open source apps in a big way too. SourceForge.com is an excellent starting place for things like that. OK, I'm off to get some sleep; past my bedtime! Cheers, Twayne From user at domain.invalid Sat Aug 16 09:05:59 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (User) Date: Sat Aug 16 09:10:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: MBTA published checksum info in court filings In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 15.08.2008 10:18, Charles wrote: --- Original Message --- > It wasn't me! It was User ! > >> Great, but what's the link? > > q=MBTA+published+checksum+info+in+court+filings> > Your long url doesn't work but we found it anyways ... thanks. From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 16 13:03:57 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sat Aug 16 13:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: RESOLVED Re: RAM voltages In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g85j2q$qnv$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Hey, I just had an experience that might help, dunno! REcall I mentioned > I had speaker static pops? Erm, not really ;-) Been so wrapped up in my own audio problems and ripping work my brain ain't got room for nuttin' else! And I'm tired, dude....I'm still recovering from my health issues, and my brain has been forced to work harder and longer this last week or so than it has in a long, long, time, this morning I woke up early and just didn't have the strength or desire to get out of bed until 11:30. I *should* take a break, probably will tomorrow, hopefully there will be an F1 race on so I can just couch it all day. But I've got two apps loaded with ripped files waiting to be sliced up so I can burn audio disks. The 2nd DVD video disk I ripped is sitting in DVD VideoSoft video to MP3 converter waiting to be converted to MP3, and I'm contemplating using the editor in that to trim individual tracks out so I don't have to manually listen to them in MP3 Cutter to cut individual tracks. The advantage is that I can actually SEE what is going on, especially important with the second disk because there's documentary stuff mixed in with concert footage. I think I'm going to pop the DVD into my "real" DVD player and just use the "skip to chapter" keys to write down the start/stop times of the footage I want to convert, it'll be a lot easier I think. The first disk I ripped is sitting in MP3 Cutter, just stripped the first song out and saved it. Come to think of it, I should watch that DVD too to record start/stop times, would save me a lot of time, although I'm sure enjoying listening to the music! Damn, David Gilmore and friends (you wouldn't believe the lineup he has helping him on some songs) are just awesome. > So I went and reset the system for Surround sound and made sure the > right sound card was selected, and guess what? The static stopped! As > soon as I clicked OK! Couldn't hurt to have a look at it on your machine! That was one of the first places I checked, mostly because I wanted to see the audio driver properties. > I have NO idea why it worked, or where the noise, static and pops was > coming from, but I don't care; it's finally gone! It's going to seem > awfully quiet in here now! Well, if it's anything like a regular stereo output, mixing phases and feeding the wrong data to the wrong speakers can really mess up the amp(s). > > As for mixers, I suspect you have at least two software mixers. > The first one, just double click the speaker icon in the System Tray. Oh, THAT thing. Ok, yeah, I know how to work that. > > BTW, speaking of freeware: I think the best audio app I have is Audacity > (audacity.com). I especially like the "what u hear" feature - no fussing > with selecting the sources. Of course, if a system message happens to > play while you're recording, you'll record that too, but ... . Very > nice app if you're not familiar with it. I downloaded it in a vain attempt to record streaming XM audio, but it didn't work, the XM feed is "special". I tried using it yesterday to cut up the big MP3 file, but it choked on it (300MB). That's when I went searching again and found MP3 Cutter, which is working fine so far. From me at privacy.net Fri Aug 22 09:19:46 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Aug 22 09:20:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] 2.5 the speed of light? Message-ID: Scientists at the Univ. of Pennsylvania have theorized a way to increase the speed of pulses of light that bound across chains of tiny metal particles to well past the speed of light by altering the particle shape. Application of this theory would use nanosized metal chains as building blocks for novel optoelectronic and optical devices, which would operate at higher frequencies than conventional electronic circuits. Such devices could eventually find applications in the developing area of high-speed optical computing, in which protons and light replace electrons and transistors for greater performance. http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR~PUBCODE~014~ACCT~1400000100~ISSUE~0808~RELTYPE~PHOT~PRODCODE~0000000~PRODLETT~JM.html From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 22 12:27:29 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 22 12:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? References: Message-ID: > Scientists at the Univ. of Pennsylvania have theorized a way to > increase the speed of pulses of light that bound across chains of > tiny metal particles to well past the speed of light by altering the > particle shape. Application of this theory would use nanosized metal > chains as building blocks for novel optoelectronic and optical > devices, which would operate at higher frequencies than conventional > electronic circuits. Such devices could eventually find applications > in the developing area of high-speed optical computing, in which > protons and light replace electrons and transistors for greater > performance. > > > http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR~PUBCODE~014~ACCT~1400000100~ISSUE~0808~RELTYPE~PHOT~PRODCODE~0000000~PRODLETT~JM.html Fascinating. I thought computing AT the speed of light was fast! I love those scifi sounding things that could become reality someday. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 22 16:56:32 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Aug 22 17:00:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:g8mee2$iqt$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Scientists at the Univ. of Pennsylvania have theorized a way to increase > the > speed of pulses of light that bound across chains of tiny metal particles > to > well past the speed of light by altering the particle shape. Mr. Einstein (and a lot of theories) are going to be pretty perturbed if indeed the speed of light is not a finite number..... From qcorrell at pacNObell.net Fri Aug 22 17:03:53 2008 From: qcorrell at pacNObell.net (Q Correll) Date: Fri Aug 22 17:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? References: Message-ID: Frog, Einstein must be turning over in his grave. -- Q 08/22/2008 14:03:33 XanaNews Version 1.18.1.52 [Everyone's & Q's Mods] From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 22 17:46:12 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 22 17:50:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? References: Message-ID: > "Frog Prince" wrote in message > news:g8mee2$iqt$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> Scientists at the Univ. of Pennsylvania have theorized a way to >> increase the >> speed of pulses of light that bound across chains of tiny metal >> particles to >> well past the speed of light by altering the particle shape. > > Mr. Einstein (and a lot of theories) are going to be pretty perturbed > if indeed the speed of light is not a finite number..... Mmm, maybe not; I'd be hard pressed to find my source now, but I've read that the "shape change" allows for some kind of coninuium break where the particle can appear in another place before it leaves its current location. I think Einstein talked about travel through gravity fields, but I recall at the time thinking the two theories seemed to be compatible. NOT that I can even pretend to actually understand any of the theories at all. I can read the words and know what each word means, but then after reading I end up with a big "HUH?" Love that kind of thing though. Hmm, wonder if I could find that in my archives? Don't hold your breath though. Fascinating stuff. Twayne From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 22 18:06:47 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Aug 22 18:10:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g8nc32$ag5$1@news.spamcop.net... > Mmm, maybe not; I'd be hard pressed to find my source now, but I've read > that the "shape change" allows for some kind of coninuium break where the > particle can appear in another place before it leaves its current > location. You're not referring to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, are you? Whereas you can either know the location or velocity of a particle, but not both, because the mere act of viewing it provides it enough energy to move it elsewhere (in a nutshell, from what I remember). From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Aug 23 02:25:30 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Aug 23 02:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] XP SP3 Message-ID: Greets I didn't realize XP SP3 was released a few months ago. My laptop just downloaded it this week. I have yet to install it. I can't find too much information on it at this time. Any thoughts on SP3 vs. SP2? I usually only take security fixes and very important ones from Microsoft. As a result, over the 4 years of ownership, I've only had 3 BSOD's ever. Beat that for a Microsoft OS. :) I also usually don't take an OS until the first service pack is out. So at this time, Vista is eligible for my home computers, but unlikely to get installed at this time. Looking for thoughts on one's personal experience with SP3. Thanks AndrewB From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 23 02:50:39 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 23 02:55:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:g8oago$9dg$1@news.spamcop.net... > Greets > > I didn't realize XP SP3 was released a few months ago. My laptop just > downloaded it this week. I have yet to install it. I can't find too much > information on it at this time. > > Any thoughts on SP3 vs. SP2? > > I usually only take security fixes and very important ones from Microsoft. > As a result, over the 4 years of ownership, I've only had 3 BSOD's ever. > Beat that for a Microsoft OS. :) > > I also usually don't take an OS until the first service pack is out. So > at this time, Vista is eligible for my home computers, but unlikely to get > installed at this time. > > Looking for thoughts on one's personal experience with SP3. > > > Thanks > > AndrewB 1) From my experience, I installed it and have had ZERO problems from it!! 2) There was an initial problem with Symantec products (NIS, NORTON, 360 etc), I believe. Google Norton SP3 for details. There is a process to get around the problem 3) I have recently heard of an issue. Some people were using the XP 'search' toolbar(deskband). SP3 wipes that out, supposed to comply with the changes they had to make to XP for EU compliance. From news0807REMOVECAPS at orrery.e4ward.com Sat Aug 23 03:38:04 2008 From: news0807REMOVECAPS at orrery.e4ward.com (Ian Smith) Date: Sat Aug 23 03:40:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: AndrewB wrote: > > Looking for thoughts on one's personal experience with SP3. Fine here. Initial problems browsing with ZoneAlarm, but they (ZoneLabs) fixed it within 24 hours. regards, Ian From jwjr at poSPAMSUCKSbox.com Sat Aug 23 08:19:32 2008 From: jwjr at poSPAMSUCKSbox.com (J. Weaver Jr.) Date: Sat Aug 23 08:20:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: AndrewB wrote: > Looking for thoughts on one's personal experience with SP3. No problems here, across 6 different machines. -JW From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Sat Aug 23 12:35:20 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sat Aug 23 12:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? References: Message-ID: > "Twayne" wrote in message > news:g8nc32$ag5$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Mmm, maybe not; I'd be hard pressed to find my source now, but I've >> read that the "shape change" allows for some kind of coninuium break >> where the particle can appear in another place before it leaves its >> current location. > > You're not referring to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, are you? > Whereas you can either know the location or velocity of a particle, > but not both, because the mere act of viewing it provides it enough > energy to move it elsewhere (in a nutshell, from what I remember). Actually, I think that's it! lol, I started to research that again to see what I could come up with and I got to about the third article ... and before I knew it I'd wasted over an hour and gone no further! Self discipline went right out the window! So, thanks for nothing! :^) I know where I'll be wasting, I mean, spending, my evening now! Regards, Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Sat Aug 23 12:44:19 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sat Aug 23 12:45:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 References: Message-ID: > Greets > > I didn't realize XP SP3 was released a few months ago. My laptop just > downloaded it this week. I have yet to install it. I can't find too > much information on it at this time. > > Any thoughts on SP3 vs. SP2? > > I usually only take security fixes and very important ones from > Microsoft. As a result, over the 4 years of ownership, I've only had > 3 BSOD's ever. Beat that for a Microsoft OS. :) > > I also usually don't take an OS until the first service pack is out. > So at this time, Vista is eligible for my home computers, but > unlikely to get installed at this time. > > Looking for thoughts on one's personal experience with SP3. > > > Thanks > > AndrewB I always get jealous of the people who are going to say it went fine, and to be honest, I thought it would for me, too. It was OK on my laptop, a P4 test bed I use for "playing" on the 'net. It failed on a Balance computer, a Walmart special with a P4 Celeron uniprocessor. Lots of various annoyances, nothing actually failed, but didn't quite work either. Tried it 3 times, the last time with a virgin OS clean install from image. No go; every time, same symptoms. Couldn't back it out either. But then Balance Technologies is a real POfS, so ... Just for grins, installed XP/SP2 on my Dell dual-xenon server. Wouldn't install. Couldn't easily remove the remnants; put win 2000 sErver back on it. I still have my work machine, a P4 desktop I haven't tried it on. Not willing to mess with it for no good reason so waiting til I have the time to print all the KBs and lists of what to do again. I think it'll work here but ... my record to date isn't so good on testing it out. I have a feeling they pushed SP3 out too fast, same as they do with their OS's. But they're not about to fix anything in this one. From qcorrell at pacNObell.net Sat Aug 23 18:34:52 2008 From: qcorrell at pacNObell.net (Q Correll) Date: Sat Aug 23 18:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? References: Message-ID: David, | Good luck in the poker tourney. 8-) Thanks! Fancy meeting you here. -- Q 08/23/2008 15:34:17 XanaNews Version 1.18.1.52 [Everyone's & Q's Mods] From me at privacy.net Sat Aug 23 14:23:51 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Sat Aug 23 21:45:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:g8oago$9dg$1@news.spamcop.net... | Greets | | I didn't realize XP SP3 was released a few months ago. My laptop just | downloaded it this week. I have yet to install it. I can't find too | much information on it at this time. | | Any thoughts on SP3 vs. SP2? | | I usually only take security fixes and very important ones from | Microsoft. As a result, over the 4 years of ownership, I've only had 3 | BSOD's ever. Beat that for a Microsoft OS. :) | | I also usually don't take an OS until the first service pack is out. So | at this time, Vista is eligible for my home computers, but unlikely to | get installed at this time. | | Looking for thoughts on one's personal experience with SP3. | | | Thanks | | AndrewB FYI some (all?) the wireless drivers for Belkin don't play with XP SP3. A fact that Belkin support is not very willing to tell you. Level 3 says they have no idea when the drivers might be updated. From acmeanvil at fishnet.com Sat Aug 23 22:29:08 2008 From: acmeanvil at fishnet.com (rooster) Date: Sat Aug 23 22:30:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Query: watch.ru Message-ID: watch.ru McAFee's overview indicates watch.ru is relatively benign, albeit; ?Reliable sources indicate that this site may be a legitimate business under attack by spammers.? The html on the site presents enticements to d/l ?macromedia flash player? (?fp...macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer", as well as to click on ?iframe? <.../cgi-bin/lasttopic.cgi>. As a general rule, both of these kinds of objects present potential malware threats. Checks on embedded links on watch.ru to other sites (e.g., liveinternet.ru, alltime.ru) didn't yield anything especially damning. I suspect there might be click fraud or malware involved since watch.ru has a history of vulnerability and the recent incidence of spam linking to watch.ru correlates with other click fraud, phishing and malware attempts I'm seeing. Are any of y'all set up to drill down any further to see if this is just an intermittently spammy site that resembles a dangerous site or if it's actually currently dangerous? IMWTK -- Happy trails, rooster boundary beach, bc From qcorrell at pacNObell.net Sat Aug 23 22:39:52 2008 From: qcorrell at pacNObell.net (Q Correll) Date: Sat Aug 23 22:40:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? References: Message-ID: David, | Been here longer than the other place. 8-) That's cool, I guess. I don't often read much here. So it's not a surprise that I haven't seen your sig before. -- Q 08/23/2008 19:38:22 XanaNews Version 1.18.1.52 [Everyone's & Q's Mods] From loyal at spamcop.user Sun Aug 24 02:20:26 2008 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sun Aug 24 02:25:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Ian Smith wrote: > AndrewB wrote: > >> >> Looking for thoughts on one's personal experience with SP3. > > Fine here. Initial problems browsing with ZoneAlarm, but they (ZoneLabs) > fixed it within 24 hours. I believe the ZA issue occurred with the huge DNS security update that affects most computers (more than just Windows). I got that update about 2 months ago and a newer ZA about a week or so later as well. Assuming we are talking of the same issue of not being able to connect to the net while the firewall is in stealth mode. Since the DNS issue was a security issue, I took it when it arrived. AndrewB From user at domain.invalid Sun Aug 24 09:37:43 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Sun Aug 24 09:40:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: rooster wrote: > watch.ru > > McAFee's overview indicates watch.ru is relatively benign, albeit; > ?Reliable sources indicate that this site may be a legitimate business > under attack by spammers.? > > The html on the site presents enticements to d/l ?macromedia flash > player? (?fp...macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer", as well as to click on > ?iframe? <.../cgi-bin/lasttopic.cgi>. > > As a general rule, both of these kinds of objects present potential > malware threats. Checks on embedded links on watch.ru to other sites > (e.g., liveinternet.ru, alltime.ru) didn't yield anything especially > damning. I suspect there might be click fraud or malware involved since > watch.ru has a history of vulnerability and the recent incidence of spam > linking to watch.ru correlates with other click fraud, phishing and > malware attempts I'm seeing. > Are any of y'all set up to drill down any further to see if this is just > an intermittently spammy site that resembles a dangerous site or if it's > actually currently dangerous? > > IMWTK G'day Rod. I think you would need to nominate the actual pages you suspect (just munge them slightly so they're not 'clickable' by the innocent/unprepared. Or you could check them yourself with LinkScanner Online - http://linkscanner.explabs.com/linkscanner/default.asp A positive is a positive with that but a negative is indeterminate (so don't accept the offer to go to the page just because you get "Congratulations! LinkScanner Online did not find any exploits.") Well, watch.ru seems to be a spammer (flogging moody timepieces, as it happens) - see forum topic http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9690 It would be generally unusual for a 'commercial' spammer to spoil business by trying to hijack visitors' PCs but maybe they've just been hacked. There was an awful lot of that going around in the last few weeks leading up to the CNN Top 10 and other illicit attempts to subject PC ownership to the rigours of 'survival of the fittest'. Imagine - hacking a spammer! "Little fleas have smaller fleas," etc. Still, the Russians evidently see spamming in a 'different' light, just another kind of advertising to them. From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Aug 24 11:01:39 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sun Aug 24 11:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:g8pe82$bus$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> You're not referring to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, are you? >> Whereas you can either know the location or velocity of a particle, >> but not both, because the mere act of viewing it provides it enough >> energy to move it elsewhere (in a nutshell, from what I remember). > > Actually, I think that's it! lol, I started to research that again to see > what I could come up with and I got to about the third article ... and > before I knew it I'd wasted over an hour and gone no further! Sounds like me on YouTube last week....I went there to rip audio from a couple music videos and ended up spending almost 3 hours there ;-) I was looking for a couple 80's New Wave/Alternative songs and in the sidebar they kept recommending similar videos "Oh wow! I haven't heard that song in forever! And look, they have that one too!" LOL Some of the audio was pretty crappy though, ended up junking some of the ripped stuff, which took even MORE time..... From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Aug 24 11:03:16 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sun Aug 24 11:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: 2.5 the speed of light? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9B03C288BD46TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > "Although the superluminal wave packets cannot be used to transmit energy > or information faster than the speed of light, and therefore do not > contradict the theory of relativity, they are fascinating objects and can > be utilized in optical communications." > > They can't be used to transmit information but they can be used in optical > communication? Lucky for us that communication does require the > transmission of information. Geez.....aren't the rest of us great comprehensive readers? I have to admit I read it pretty quickly. From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Aug 24 11:05:41 2008 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sun Aug 24 11:10:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:g8oc0b$fje$1@news.spamcop.net... > 2) There was an initial problem with Symantec products (NIS, NORTON, 360 > etc), I believe. Google Norton SP3 for details. There is a process to get > around the problem Gee, why am I *not* shocked to hear the Symantec's crap didn't like SP3? Why anyone would use that sh*tty software is beyond me. From not at home.today Sun Aug 24 11:26:37 2008 From: not at home.today (Ant) Date: Sun Aug 24 11:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru References: Message-ID: "Farelf" wrote: > rooster wrote: >> watch.ru >> >> McAFee's overview indicates watch.ru is relatively benign, albeit; >> "Reliable sources indicate that this site may be a legitimate business >> under attack by spammers." > I think you would need to nominate the actual pages you suspect Certainly not much use without them. Going to index.html of the domain gives a "500 Internal Server Error", which is suspicious in itself. From joegill at removethis Sun Aug 24 13:12:09 2008 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sun Aug 24 13:20:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:g8rtc3$6t2$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:g8oc0b$fje$1@news.spamcop.net... >> 2) There was an initial problem with Symantec products (NIS, NORTON, 360 >> etc), I believe. Google Norton SP3 for details. There is a process to get >> around the problem > > Gee, why am I *not* shocked to hear the Symantec's crap didn't like SP3? > Why anyone would use that sh*tty software is beyond me. And Symantec just sucked up "PC Tools" line of products.... Actually the Norton 2008 products have not been bad for me. I am using the free set from ATT. Not a bad product, IF..IF..IF you have lots of memory... The install now will halt if it detects less than 512M From avoozl at spamcop.net Sun Aug 24 18:13:03 2008 From: avoozl at spamcop.net (Chris F. Willoughby) Date: Sun Aug 24 18:15:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP SP3 References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:g8qed2$rju$1@news.spamcop.net... >> FYI some (all?) the wireless drivers for Belkin don't play with XP SP3. >> A > fact that Belkin support is not very willing to tell you. > > Level 3 says they have no idea when the drivers might be updated. > > Not to do with SP3 however.. Also heard from others about belkin network support. Ugh. Don't use them if you can't fix everything yourself... From acmeanvil at fishnet.com Mon Aug 25 00:46:24 2008 From: acmeanvil at fishnet.com (rooster) Date: Mon Aug 25 00:50:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Farelf wrote: > rooster wrote: >> watch.ru >> >> McAFee's overview indicates watch.ru is relatively benign, albeit; >> ?Reliable sources indicate that this site may be a legitimate business >> under attack by spammers.? >> >> The html on the site presents enticements to d/l ?macromedia flash >> player? (?fp...macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer", as well as to click >> on ?iframe? <.../cgi-bin/lasttopic.cgi>. >> >> As a general rule, both of these kinds of objects present potential >> malware threats. Checks on embedded links on watch.ru to other sites >> (e.g., liveinternet.ru, alltime.ru) didn't yield anything especially >> damning. I suspect there might be click fraud or malware involved >> since watch.ru has a history of vulnerability and the recent incidence >> of spam linking to watch.ru correlates with other click fraud, >> phishing and malware attempts I'm seeing. >> Are any of y'all set up to drill down any further to see if this is >> just an intermittently spammy site that resembles a dangerous site or >> if it's actually currently dangerous? >> >> IMWTK > > G'day Rod. > > I think you would need to nominate the actual pages you suspect (just > munge them slightly so they're not 'clickable' by the > innocent/unprepared. > The only url/page that appears on this iteration is . That's _all_ there is. > Or you could check them yourself with LinkScanner > Online - http://linkscanner.explabs.com/linkscanner/default.asp > A positive is a positive with that but a negative is indeterminate (so > don't accept the offer to go to the page just because you get > "Congratulations! LinkScanner Online did not find any exploits.") I'd been there. It's just that was thinking there *must* be some referrer code embedded somewhere on watch.ru; perhaps something new that linkscanner's estimable, though auto, features weren't catching.... If I had a sandbox or some way to protect myself, I'd follow the flashplayer and iframe links to see what showed up. But I'm just a lonesome desktopper behind a conventional firewall routed via hs modem to my ISP. I don't mind driving along jungle trails, but I'm not gonna get out of the Rover just to check out funny smells coming out'n the bushes. Different tool for different fools.... > Well, watch.ru seems to be a spammer (flogging moody timepieces, as it > happens) - see forum topic > http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9690 It would be > generally unusual for a 'commercial' spammer to spoil business by trying > to hijack visitors' PCs but maybe they've just been hacked. There was > an awful lot of that going around in the last few weeks leading up to > the CNN Top 10 and other illicit attempts to subject PC ownership to the > rigours of 'survival of the fittest'. > > Imagine - hacking a spammer! "Little fleas have smaller fleas," etc. > Still, the Russians evidently see spamming in a 'different' light, just > another kind of advertising to them. "hacking a spammer." Doesn't really make sense though, does it? If I'm understanding you. The spamming agent (spag) would have to have rather intimidating receivables clerks when it came time to collect from watches.ru for his masters unsolicited promo services; eh? If the watch.ru spew *isn't* a malware medium directed at hijacking the unwary, perhaps we're seeing a turf war over share in the fake bling market. The 2 biggies, King Replica (cum Elite Herbal, cum Herbal King) and Prestige Replica(s) have been hosted on Korean nameservers, ...although PresRep also has a smattering of Chinese, Panamanian and Romanians in the mix. Point being, no .ru's. The legitimacy of watch.ru aside for the moment, perhaps this blitz is a full-frontal attempt to get the watch.ru site blisted/red flagged to discredit them (further) in order to level the playing field. FWI King Replica/Elite Herbal/Herbal King uses name server: 124.1.2.3 124.0.0.0 - 124.1.255.255 netname: SKNETWORKS descr: SK Networks Co. descr: 199-15, Ulchiro-2Ga, Chung-Gu, Seoul, 100-192 descr: ************************************************ descr: Allocated to KRNIC Member. Prestige Replica(s) also uses a preponderance of Korean nameservers (e.g., ns1.monn12.com 211.110.100.137 & etc.).,. with a smattering of Chinese, Panamanian and Romanians into the mix. I don't know if anyone has established it, but these two bruits might be affiliates. On one hand, it's obvious. But that's not the same as provable. watch.ru on the other hand is distinctly Russian, ...been around for 10 years or so, following a business plan that kind of straddles the line between outright spam and mere opportunistic marketing, (i.e., between criminal and really irritating) ns.caravan.ru. 217.23.128.1 ns2.caravan.ru. 217.23.146.1 FFYI: (from my notes) #985 watch.ru SC link resolver misquotes link! http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z2183806550z9274e85fe59499a998169b98da18ba11z Subj: Rolex, Raddo, Patek Philippe, Omega, Gucci Resolving link obfuscation http://www.watch.ru http://www.watchru Host www.watchru (checking ip) IP not found ; www.watchru discarded as fake. Host www.watchru (checking ip) IP not found ; www.watchru discarded as fake. Tracking link: http://www.watchru/ No recent reports, no history available Cannot resolve http://www.watchru/ -- Steve; Sorry if my input is a bit disjointed. We've been trying to get back out on the water, the weather has not been conducive (per the missus) and we've got our usual compliment of summer guests, annexing the study *and* my computer.... Point being; when you retire, *don't* get talked into getting beach front property. Happy trails, rooster boundary beach, bc From user at domain.invalid Mon Aug 25 07:44:21 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Mon Aug 25 07:45:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: rooster wrote: > Farelf wrote: > >> >> Imagine - hacking a spammer! "Little fleas have smaller fleas," etc. >> Still, the Russians evidently see spamming in a 'different' light, >> just another kind of advertising to them. > > > "hacking a spammer." Doesn't really make sense though, does it? If I'm > understanding you. The spamming agent (spag) would have to have rather > intimidating receivables clerks when it came time to collect from > watches.ru > for his masters unsolicited promo services; eh? What I had in mind is some third party silently inserting code and/or exploit pages into the relatively innocent 'straight up' spammer watch.ru. There seems to be a lot of this sort of thing happening. Purpose, to assimilate as many visitors as possible into the botnet(s) using the CNN Top 10 and other malicious link spams. Nothing to do with the unwitting hosts. See http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9627 - with links http://www.vivtek.com/projects/despammed/stormspam_explanation.html and http://www.vivtek.com/projects/despammed/stormspam.html explaining it more purposefully than I could (and with about 10^4 times the data to play with - probably a bit more spare time too). Not to mention more knowledge. And a higher IQ. And a nice dog. You get the picture. > > If the watch.ru spew *isn't* a malware medium directed at hijacking the > unwary, > perhaps we're seeing a turf war over share in the fake bling market. The > 2 biggies, > King Replica (cum Elite Herbal, cum Herbal King) and Prestige Replica(s) > have been > hosted on Korean nameservers, ...although PresRep also has a smattering > of Chinese, > Panamanian and Romanians in the mix. Point being, no .ru's. The > legitimacy of > watch.ru aside for the moment, perhaps this blitz is a full-frontal > attempt to get the > watch.ru site blisted/red flagged to discredit them (further) in order > to level the > playing field. I think just to expand the botnets for any/all of that, plus take down Georgia's internet, perfect the Theory of Everything/GUT and rule all of the observable universe. Something in between and not limited to the first and the last. > > FWI > King Replica/Elite Herbal/Herbal King uses name server: > 124.1.2.3 > 124.0.0.0 - 124.1.255.255 > netname: SKNETWORKS > descr: SK Networks Co. > descr: 199-15, Ulchiro-2Ga, Chung-Gu, Seoul, 100-192 > descr: ************************************************ > descr: Allocated to KRNIC Member. > > Prestige Replica(s) also uses a preponderance of Korean nameservers > (e.g., ns1.monn12.com 211.110.100.137 & etc.).,. with a > smattering of Chinese, Panamanian and Romanians into the mix. > > I don't know if anyone has established it, but these two bruits might > be affiliates. On one hand, it's obvious. But that's not the same as > provable. > > watch.ru on the other hand is distinctly Russian, ...been around for 10 > years > or so, following a business plan that kind of straddles the line between > outright > spam and mere opportunistic marketing, (i.e., between criminal and > really irritating) Yep > ns.caravan.ru. 217.23.128.1 > ns2.caravan.ru. 217.23.146.1 > > FFYI: (from my notes) > #985 > watch.ru > > SC link resolver misquotes link! > > http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z2183806550z9274e85fe59499a998169b98da18ba11z > > Subj: Rolex, Raddo, Patek Philippe, Omega, Gucci > > Resolving link obfuscation > http://www.watch.ru > http://www.watchru > Host www.watchru (checking ip) IP not found ; www.watchru discarded as > fake. > Host www.watchru (checking ip) IP not found ; www.watchru discarded as > fake. > Tracking link: http://www.watchru/ Crappy spamware mass-mailer. You'd think they'd get better gear. > No recent reports, no history available > Cannot resolve http://www.watchru/ Of course not. Crappy spamware mass-mailer. From user at domain.invalid Mon Aug 25 08:14:51 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Mon Aug 25 08:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Farelf wrote: > What I had in mind is some third party silently inserting code and/or > exploit pages into the relatively innocent 'straight up' spammer > watch.ru. Well, I retract that. Forged headers in watch.ru examples instanced, just a 'common' spammer - but, from the lengthy trading history etc., I should think wholly commercial. Any exploits, I figure, are more likely to be the work of outsiders. Commerce and ruling the universe don't really mesh. Apart from the case of Mr. Bill Gates. Yeah, 'business plans' might change but what are the odds? From acmeanvil at fishnet.com Tue Aug 26 17:35:24 2008 From: acmeanvil at fishnet.com (rooster) Date: Tue Aug 26 17:40:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Farelf wrote: > rooster wrote: >> Farelf wrote: > >>> Imagine - hacking a spammer! "Little fleas have smaller fleas," etc. >>> Still, the Russians evidently see spamming in a 'different' light, >>> just another kind of advertising to them. >> >> >> "hacking a spammer." Doesn't really make sense though, does it? If I'm >> understanding you. The spamming agent (spag) would have to have rather >> intimidating receivables clerks when it came time to collect from >> watches.ru >> for his masters unsolicited promo services; eh? > > What I had in mind is some third party silently inserting code and/or > exploit pages into the relatively innocent 'straight up' spammer > watch.ru. There seems to be a lot of this sort of thing happening. > Purpose, to assimilate as many visitors as possible into the botnet(s) > using the CNN Top 10 and other malicious link spams. Nothing to do with > the unwitting hosts. See > http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9627 - with links > http://www.vivtek.com/projects/despammed/stormspam_explanation.html and > http://www.vivtek.com/projects/despammed/stormspam.html explaining it > more purposefully than I could (and with about 10^4 times the data to > play with - probably a bit more spare time too). Not to mention more > knowledge. And a higher IQ. And a nice dog. You get the picture. "silently inserting code and/or exploit pages " ... that was my original suspicion. But I was able to tease indications of such threats out of the html on the target page and/or the redirects on the CNN, MSN, "Top News Agency" fake news spews. My working hypothesis on these is that each iteration presents at least 2 discernible threats per spam. One threat uses the exploit: <... URL=get_flash_update.exe" />, and the other takes the form of click fraud, the 'hook' being an offer of free AV Ware, (e.g., 79.135.167.18/antivirus/ /////////////////////// From my notes: ^^From: MSNBC Breaking News ^^ ^^Subject: msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Bulimia Not The Same As Being A Greedy Bastard, Say Doctors^^ Iteration of the bogus CNN alerts. Maguffin: Trojan Downloader. Infection of MSIE 7 with Trojan or other malware (e.g., Cbeplay.a) by enticing recipient to click on "activex_is_here" link to d/l codec: <..."location.href='adobe_flash.exe'", 3000>. Spam URI domain is registered with REGTIME-REG-RIPN, using ns1.mchost.ru [83.229.187.19] and ns2.mchost.ru [83.229.186.19]. Purported registrant of record is Evgeniy Y Soldatov, but both ns1 & ns2 IPs are nominated to a Roman S Veretelnikov under the auspices of McHost.Ru, Inc. ///////////////////////////////// Similar, but not identical, was the run; "Top News Agency" with message body link to: <"iispc[dot]net[slash]index1[dot]html"> ...which page also had embedded iframe pop-ups (ip. cit., 79.135.167.18/antivirus/) which might (does) signify click fraud and therefore the product itself should be treated as dangerous malware. The thing of it is, is; the watch.ru spew, AFAICT, doesn't fit the mold. The reason I posted here instead of the forum was to see if anyone had sophisticated tools (i.e., geekware) to find indications of some marvelous malicious thingies embedded at watch.ru that pilgrims like me wouldn't have a clue about. My data base isn't large enough to render a high level of confidence WRT the the spam sources. The CNN, MSNBC appear to be from the same spamming agent, the "Top News Agency", is probably from an affiliate. But the watch.ru source profile doesn't seem to have anything in common with them. If we rule out malware insertion as the mission of the spew, I'm left with considering that the object of the watch.ru spew is either shameless self-promotion, an indication of a shift in their business plan to include phishing for financial info, or is an attempt by other 'fake bling-flingers' to damage the competition. None of these really satisfies though; does it?. Watch.ru would be shooting themselves in the foot PR-wise, competitors have more subtle ways of compromising/attacking a web site, and the short-term effect might be expected to vector a lot of potential rubes to the watch.ru main page. You'd think someone at my time of life would have found enough things proven to make themself feel stupid without expanding the catalog by getting caught up obsessing on spammers; eh? >> > > Crappy spamware mass-mailer. You'd think they'd get better gear. > >> No recent reports, no history available >> Cannot resolve http://www.watchru/ > > Of course not. Crappy spamware mass-mailer. ... does a pretty good job most times, don't it? I seldom look at it, so I wouldn't know. I find it tough enough tracking links by hand. Anybody who could come up with a way to automate it is a genius AFAIAC. -- Happy trails, rooster boundary beach, bc From not at home.today Wed Aug 27 13:28:29 2008 From: not at home.today (Ant) Date: Wed Aug 27 13:35:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru References: Message-ID: "rooster" wrote: > The reason I posted here instead of the forum was to see if anyone had > sophisticated tools (i.e., geekware) to find indications of some marvelous > malicious thingies embedded at watch.ru that pilgrims like me wouldn't > have a clue about. I'd do that but have to get to the site first. Even with your corrected link (prefixed with www), the URL still gives me a "500 Internal Server Error". Perhaps it's filtering on HTTP headers or IP location. From user at domain.invalid Wed Aug 27 17:53:06 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Wed Aug 27 17:55:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Ant wrote: > "rooster" wrote: > > >>The reason I posted here instead of the forum was to see if anyone had >>sophisticated tools (i.e., geekware) to find indications of some marvelous >>malicious thingies embedded at watch.ru that pilgrims like me wouldn't >>have a clue about. > > > I'd do that but have to get to the site first. Even with your > corrected link (prefixed with www), the URL still gives me a "500 > Internal Server Error". Perhaps it's filtering on HTTP headers or IP > location. > > Interesting - DNS records for watch.ru at http://centralops.net/co/DomainDossier.aspx seem to be all in order. "Reliable sources indicate that this site may be a legitimate business under attack by spammers." (siteadvisor) - I guess there are some sort of countermeasures in play, or they're knocked out. From acmeanvil at fishnet.com Thu Aug 28 07:42:33 2008 From: acmeanvil at fishnet.com (rooster) Date: Thu Aug 28 07:45:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <48B68F29.1060702@fishnet.com> Ant wrote: > "rooster" wrote: > >> The reason I posted here instead of the forum was to see if anyone had >> sophisticated tools (i.e., geekware) to find indications of some marvelous >> malicious thingies embedded at watch.ru that pilgrims like me wouldn't >> have a clue about. > > I'd do that but have to get to the site first. Even with your > corrected link (prefixed with www), the URL still gives me a "500 > Internal Server Error". Perhaps it's filtering on HTTP headers or IP > location. > > Well ... there's a couple of things. I gave the referrer earlier: ... and that contains all the info I had on that one spam under review. still obtains on my machine with both "curl -i " and "w3m" tools. The html can be fetched OK as well as the site's plain text. Maybe you could try "curl" with the " -e/ " or " --referer " option if you haven't tried it already. I'm told this sometimes gets by servers you've pestered before where the admin has got your number; ... IP that is; and, as you indicate, he's filtering on you. As y'all can see from below, these options combine to evade filters, _even_ _though_ the "500" header error appears. Slick; eh? "rooster@royrogers:~$ curl -e -i http://www.watch.ru HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:17:55 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Connection: close Transfer-Encoding: chunked Content-Type: text/html;;charset=windows-1251 ??? ? ?????: ??????? etc., etc., etc., If this doesn't work for you, and if you can't query the site from a remote server or proxy, my only option might be to copy the complete html to you via SC Personal Message utility.... I don't think it a good idea to post it here. Send me a PM if you still can't get satisfaction from your location/machine. nslookup and traceroute are also working for watch.ru [89.253.245.191] Incidentally, it shouldn't make any difference but the text on the site is in Cyrillic. Happy trails, rooster boundary beach, bc From acmeanvil at fishnet.com Thu Aug 28 07:59:46 2008 From: acmeanvil at fishnet.com (rooster) Date: Thu Aug 28 08:05:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <48B69332.7060201@fishnet.com> Farelf wrote: > Ant wrote: >> "rooster" wrote: >> >> >>> The reason I posted here instead of the forum was to see if anyone had >>> sophisticated tools (i.e., geekware) to find indications of some >>> marvelous >>> malicious thingies embedded at watch.ru that pilgrims like me wouldn't >>> have a clue about. >> >> >> I'd do that but have to get to the site first. Even with your >> corrected link (prefixed with www), the URL still gives me a "500 >> Internal Server Error". Perhaps it's filtering on HTTP headers or IP >> location. >> >> > > Interesting - DNS records for watch.ru at > http://centralops.net/co/DomainDossier.aspx seem to be all in order. > "Reliable sources indicate that this site may be a legitimate business > under attack by spammers." (siteadvisor) - I guess there are some sort > of countermeasures in play, or they're knocked out. Yeah,,,, unless Leo K. et. al, is just trying to "heap contumely upon their heads" by way of extorting some sort of compliance/acquiescence, I dunno what this blitz is intended to achieve. Up to now, they've just been a bunch of poor, but honest, fake watch peddlers. -- Happy trails, rooster boundary beach, bc From user at domain.invalid Thu Aug 28 10:54:35 2008 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Thu Aug 28 10:55:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: <48B69332.7060201@fishnet.com> References: <48B69332.7060201@fishnet.com> Message-ID: rooster wrote: > Yeah,,,, unless Leo K. et. al, is just trying to "heap contumely upon their > heads" by way of extorting some sort of compliance/acquiescence, I dunno > what this blitz is intended to achieve. Up to now, they've just been a > bunch > of poor, but honest, fake watch peddlers. > There again, eschewing poverty, they may, themselves, have turned to the dark side and with cunning misdirection even now advance their plans for outright ownership of the observable universe while we heedlessly look t'other way. Whatever is afoot, affordable horology will be the poorer for it, mark my words. FWIW, my one fleeting visit there was without apparent incident. Exploits/attempts are perhaps intermittent, as amongst your suggestions, and I didn't hang around. From not at home.today Thu Aug 28 11:50:45 2008 From: not at home.today (Ant) Date: Thu Aug 28 11:55:02 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru References: <48B68F29.1060702@fishnet.com> Message-ID: "rooster" wrote: > still obtains on my machine with both > "curl -i " and "w3m" tools. > The html can be fetched OK as well as the site's plain text. Maybe you > could try "curl" with the > " -e/ " or " --referer " option if you haven't tried it > already. I'm told this sometimes > gets by servers you've pestered before where the admin has got your > number; ... IP that is; and, as > you indicate, he's filtering on you. > > As y'all can see from below, these options combine to evade filters, > _even_ _though_ the "500" header error appears. Slick; eh? > > "rooster@royrogers:~$ curl -e -i http://www[dot]watch.ru > HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error > Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:17:55 GMT > Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) > Connection: close > Transfer-Encoding: chunked > Content-Type: text/html;;charset=windows-1251 That's interesting. I used wget and it obviously acts on the 500 and ignores any content, whereas another tool I tried didn't and got the page (the headers still showed the 500). I suppose browsers must do the same otherwise the site would be useless. Regarding the content, I can't find signs of malware auto-loading or other trickery on that page although it's possible some links from there may be compromised. The script in 'ajax_tools.js' allows stuff to be loaded by an XMLHttpRequest but isn't called. The iframe to 'lasttopic.cgi' is commented out, so it's not active. There are two Flash files: 'new.swf' is just a clock showing the current time. '1000443.swf' is an animation and link to www[dot]service.watch.ru. From me at privacy.net Fri Aug 29 09:10:45 2008 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Aug 29 09:15:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] XP and HDD partition Message-ID: XP and HDD partition. I have a neighbor lady who had her HDD partitioned to C:/ and D:/ and has somehow lost the D:/ partition. She played with the problem for about 6 weeks and now wants to know if there is any way to recover the data from D:/ as it was a lot of photos in RAW format. I doubt it seriously but told her I would ask. TIA FP brother_rabbit @ hotmail.com From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 29 11:52:40 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 29 11:55:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP and HDD partition References: Message-ID: > XP and HDD partition. > > I have a neighbor lady who had her HDD partitioned to C:/ and D:/ and > has somehow lost the D:/ partition. > > She played with the problem for about 6 weeks and now wants to know > if there is any way to recover the data from D:/ as it was a lot of > photos in RAW format. > > I doubt it seriously but told her I would ask. > > TIA > > FP > brother_rabbit @ hotmail.com This should be done as a last last-resort, but it's possible a chkdsk on D and then on C might recover it; I've had stranger things work. I said last-resort because whatever is corrupted *could* result in the permanent loss of all the data on the drive D and total destruction of the tables for it. Chkdsk will run merrily along fixing things when in reality each fix is a further corruption. Doesn't happen often, but it does/can happen. I doubt it's anything she could do but there ARE apps to locate/fix partitions out there. Partition Magic for instance can check a partition for errors and fix them, but I've never had occasion to use it. And then there are the freebies of course which I've also never delved into. I'd think first you'll have had to look at the partitions with Disk mgmt & get an idea what's there or not, and plan from there. Don't neglect data recovery apps while you're researching things to use. If nothing else the kindest thing might be to teach her how to back up and prevent the situation in the future. Guess it depends on what kinds of snacks she offers while you're working. Luck, From blacklist-me at davjam.org Fri Aug 29 11:53:35 2008 From: blacklist-me at davjam.org (David Bolt) Date: Fri Aug 29 12:00:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP and HDD partition References: Message-ID: On Fri, 29 Aug 2008, Frog Prince wrote:- > >XP and HDD partition. > >I have a neighbor lady who had her HDD partitioned to C:/ and D:/ and has >somehow lost the D:/ partition. > >She played with the problem for about 6 weeks Oh, oh. That's not a good sign. >and now wants to know if there >is any way to recover the data from D:/ as it was a lot of photos in RAW >format. It all depends on just what she's done to try and solve the problem. The less she's done to the drive, the more her chances of recovering the data. >I doubt it seriously but told her I would ask. You could try TestDisk which is freeware, doesn't require installation on Windows, and may be able to locate the missing partition and rebuild the partition table. You can find a step-by-step example of it here: And the download links are here: Also, there's also a photo recovery tool, PhotoRec, included with TestDisk. Regards, David Bolt -- Team Acorn: http://www.distributed.net/ OGR-P2 @ ~100Mnodes RC5-72 @ ~15Mkeys SUSE 10.1 32 | | openSUSE 10.3 32b | openSUSE 11.0 32b | openSUSE 10.2 64b | openSUSE 10.3 64b | openSUSE 11.0 64b RISC OS 3.6 | TOS 4.02 | openSUSE 10.3 PPC | RISC OS 3.11 From acmeanvil at fishnet.com Fri Aug 29 13:18:44 2008 From: acmeanvil at fishnet.com (rooster) Date: Fri Aug 29 13:20:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: <48B69332.7060201@fishnet.com> Message-ID: <48B82F74.7080607@fishnet.com> Farelf wrote: > rooster wrote: > >> Yeah,,,, unless Leo K. et. al, is just trying to "heap contumely upon >> their >> heads" by way of extorting some sort of compliance/acquiescence, I dunno >> what this blitz is intended to achieve. Up to now, they've just been a >> bunch >> of poor, but honest, fake watch peddlers. >> > > There again, eschewing poverty, they may, themselves, have turned to the > dark side and with cunning misdirection even now advance their plans for > outright ownership of the observable universe while we heedlessly look > t'other way. Whatever is afoot, affordable horology will be the poorer > for it, mark my words. Aye; theys be marked, cap'm. But considerin' the _size_ o' some of 'em, I be thinkin' I'll need to ship a couple a' extry barrels o' highlite ink next time we touches port. (Quothe the pot to the kettle) > FWIW, my one fleeting visit there was without apparent incident. > Exploits/attempts are perhaps intermittent, as amongst your suggestions, > and I didn't hang around. Lev N Novogrudsky registered the site back in 1998 and he's been fairly careful not to get blacklisted; at least not for more that a couple of days here and there. This blitz is having a negative effect on his reputation. I know Spamhaus is keeping an eye on the spew and has already drawn tentative conclusions about what is going on behind the scenes. We'll have to wait and see; I guess. I'm considering that Lev N. might be conducting a modified "Going out of Business Sale". In the face of the burgeoning competition, he might have come to the conclusion it's either spam or scram. Lev's company might already have been co-opted by the boys formerly known as the RBN in something resembling a hostile takeover. What we might be seeing is the "gutting" phase of the tried & true ?acquire controlling interest, gut & dump? formula used by ruthless corporate predators. Once all the 'goodwill' and most of the inventory has been written down; poof! -- Happy trails, rooster boundary beach, bc From acmeanvil at fishnet.com Fri Aug 29 13:26:28 2008 From: acmeanvil at fishnet.com (rooster) Date: Fri Aug 29 13:30:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Query: watch.ru In-Reply-To: References: <48B68F29.1060702@fishnet.com> Message-ID: <48B83144.8060600@fishnet.com> Ant wrote: > "rooster" wrote: >> still obtains on my machine with both >> "curl -i " and "w3m" tools. >> The html can be fetched OK as well as the site's plain text. Maybe you >> could try "curl" with the >> " -e/ " or " --referer " option if you haven't tried it >> already. I'm told this sometimes >> gets by servers you've pestered before where the admin has got your >> number; ... IP that is; and, as >> you indicate, he's filtering on you. >> >> As y'all can see from below, these options combine to evade filters, >> _even_ _though_ the "500" header error appears. Slick; eh? >> >> "rooster@royrogers:~$ curl -e -i http://www[dot]watch.ru >> HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error >> Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:17:55 GMT >> Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) >> Connection: close >> Transfer-Encoding: chunked >> Content-Type: text/html;;charset=windows-1251 > > That's interesting. I used wget and it obviously acts on the 500 and > ignores any content, whereas another tool I tried didn't and got the > page (the headers still showed the 500). I suppose browsers must do > the same otherwise the site would be useless. > > Regarding the content, I can't find signs of malware auto-loading or > other trickery on that page although it's possible some links from > there may be compromised. > > The script in 'ajax_tools.js' allows stuff to be loaded by an > XMLHttpRequest but isn't called. > > The iframe to 'lasttopic.cgi' is commented out, so it's not active. > > There are two Flash files: > 'new.swf' is just a clock showing the current time. > '1000443.swf' is an animation and link to www[dot]service.watch.ru. > > Way to go. You've pretty much confirmed what McAFee and Robtex have concluded; too. I guess this rules out the likelihood that there's a "Prestige ...King...Replica..." type Phishing derby associated with the site; ...at least so far. Thanks a bunch. Much appreciated. -- Happy trails, rooster boundary beach, bc From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 29 18:01:20 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 29 18:05:04 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP and HDD partition References: Message-ID: > On Fri, 29 Aug 2008, Frog Prince wrote:- > >> >> XP and HDD partition. >> >> I have a neighbor lady who had her HDD partitioned to C:/ and D:/ >> and has somehow lost the D:/ partition. >> >> She played with the problem for about 6 weeks > > Oh, oh. That's not a good sign. > >> and now wants to know if there >> is any way to recover the data from D:/ as it was a lot of photos in >> RAW format. > > It all depends on just what she's done to try and solve the problem. > The less she's done to the drive, the more her chances of recovering > the data. > >> I doubt it seriously but told her I would ask. > > You could try TestDisk which is freeware, doesn't require installation > on Windows, and may be able to locate the missing partition and > rebuild the partition table. You can find a step-by-step example of > it here: > > > > And the download links are here: > > > > Also, there's also a photo recovery tool, PhotoRec, included with > TestDisk. > > > Regards, > David Bolt David, that's a great find if it works as advertised! A tad cryptic but not unusable by any means. I even have something to test it on sitting right behind me. Great timing! Maybe I got me a new toy to play with; thanks. Cheers, Twayne From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Fri Aug 29 18:48:30 2008 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Fri Aug 29 18:50:03 2008 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: XP and HDD partition References: Message-ID: > On Fri, 29 Aug 2008, Frog Prince wrote:- > >> >> XP and HDD partition. >> >> I have a neighbor lady who had her HDD partitioned to C:/ and D:/ >> and has somehow lost the D:/ partition. >> >> She played with the problem for about 6 weeks > > Oh, oh. That's not a good sign. > >> and now wants to know if there >> is any way to recover the data from D:/ as it was a lot of photos in >> RAW format. > > It all depends on just what she's done to try and solve the problem. > The less she's done to the drive, the more her chances of recovering > the data. > >> I doubt it seriously but told her I would ask. > > You could try TestDisk which is freeware, doesn't require installation > on Windows, and may be able to locate the missing partition and > rebuild the partition table. You can find a step-by-step example of > it here: > > > > And the download links are here: > > > > Also, there's also a photo recovery tool, PhotoRec, included with > TestDisk. > > > Regards, > David Bolt HUH! It worked, somehow. The poor gal now has her recovery partition back! Not only that, but it seems to work as advertised. I'm impressed. Got more testing to do, but since this screen was still open I thought I'd post back again. I'm sure it won't take long, but as soon as I find a second situation to use testdisk, and assuming it succeeds again, I'll have to donate. See? Now you went and cost me money! Hissss!! Open Source to the rescue again! Cheers,