Computer illiterate people who think they know things V8: Mandrith appreciation Station. - Hardware & Software

[QUOTE={ABK}AbbySciuto;27657227]Bumped the Sparkbrowser thread for nostalgia, and relevant thread info.[/QUOTE] The thread's not even half a year old, how can it be nostalgia?

[QUOTE={ABK}AbbySciuto;27657227]Bumped the Sparkbrowser thread for nostalgia, and relevant thread info.[/QUOTE] What do you have against Sparkbrowser, it's an excellent browser :colbert: I wonder if the guy even uses it himself, it's so damn bad and he's so serious about it...

[QUOTE=ze beaver;27657680]What do you have against Sparkbrowser, it's an excellent browser :colbert: I wonder if the guy even uses it himself, it's so damn bad and he's so serious about it...[/QUOTE] Or perhaps, he's just one uber good troll.

Some kid is trying to get a video card off of me, he keeps asking for a "monitor video card" and even once asked for "a video card that fits in a psi slot. the kind you hook a monitor into." I think I may find some old 2 MB PCI video card from the early 1990's for him, for his frankenstein computer that I don't know what he expects to do with it. He doesn't know what an AGP slot is either so, not having seen it myself, I don't know that I can give him a decent card anyway. I'm sure I have something in this box of parts...

Regarding 7 vs Vista: I'm wondering if it's a split population case - Vista only works perfectly on certain configurations, and 7 has what became known as "Vista syndrome" on those same conditions? For everyone's consideration, here's my case: When I need to reformat my OS partition, I need to install Vista [b]first[/b], and [b]then[/b] install Daemon Tools and install 7. This is because I got my copy of 7 from MSDN and I don't have a DVD burner. Vanilla Vista (before Daemon Tools even) runs slow as shit on my computer. And I mean [b]slow[/b]. I haven't actually run it long enough to get a decent count of blue screens (I don't even run it enough for Windows ME to get a bluescreen, I assume). Once I get Windows 7 installed, a vanilla install runs [b]much[/b] faster. On the same hardware. And the only time I blue screened it was when I tried to make a RAMdisk (I had 2 GB, so I figure "nobody's going to miss 256MB". It BSOD'd. At the time I just thought "OK, 256 is too much", though in hindsight it might just have tried to take RAM that was holding something important)

You don't have a DVD burner? They're like $20.

[QUOTE=Dr Nick;27658450]You don't have a DVD burner? They're like $20.[/QUOTE] I know, but I can't be fucked to order one online or pick one up at Fry's. I'd need to buy blank DVDs too, so...

Boot from usb?

I don't like 7 because it didn't appeal to me like Vista did. AAAAAEEEEERRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[QUOTE=lavacano;27658572]I know, but I can't be fucked to order one online or pick one up at Fry's. I'd need to buy blank DVDs too, so...[/QUOTE] I still have ~50 DVDs from that 100 disc spindle I bought... back in 2008. I have all my Steam games backed up on DVDs so I don't have to re-download them :buddy: [editline]25th January 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=LinuX;27658920]I don't like 7 because it didn't appeal to me like Vista did. AAAAAEEEEERRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO[/QUOTE] I personally find Aero ugly so I disabled it.

I use aero when games like TF2 are loading. I can browse the internet and just alt-tab into it when it's done. [editline]25th January 2011[/editline] I can see by the top of the web browser if it's finished or not.

[QUOTE=wingless;27652912]No, Vista was never bad it was just idiots going "hur hurr bluescreen" and "Hurp, it's slow it won't run on my machine from 1998".[/QUOTE] Windows Vista 64 bit insta-BSODs on all of my computers and will never start up again right after the installation completes :colbert:

[QUOTE=meppers;27655932]i just bought a WD caviar black 1tb hard drive today, the box said it had a 32mb cache. ...but the sticker on the drive itself says 64mb [img_thumb]http://forums.psucomic.com/images/smilies/tsh.png[/img_thumb] and it was supposed to be a 3mbps drive according to the price tag but i dont think WD makes a 3mbps drive with 64mb cache edit: yep, its a 6gbps drive[/QUOTE] so im installing a fresh copy of windows 7 for the first time (i upgraded from vista on for my last windows install) and i find out that i only have an upgrade cd key. well so i installed a fresh win 7 install and then while it was in it's 30 day unregistered period i installed windows 7 on top of windows 7. and then the upgrade cd key worked flawlessly, thats some shit security on MS' part

[QUOTE=wingless;27652912]No, Vista was never bad it was just idiots going "hur hurr bluescreen" and "Hurp, it's slow it won't run on my machine from 1998".[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/966926[/url] Happened to me without modifying the OS in any way. Computer was just over a year old too.

[QUOTE=wlzshroom;27656355]rinkworks has a lot [url]http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/[/url][/QUOTE] My god, how can being as stupid as most of the people in that even be legal

[QUOTE=Tobba;27660541]My god, how can being as stupid as most of the people in that even be legal[/QUOTE] Found this on there. [quote]On one occasion, a lady came into the store, apparently interested in buying a home computer. After surveying the models on display, she walked over to one and pointed to the monitor and keyboard saying, "I think I need one of these, and one of those...." She then pointed to the CPU and continued, "...but I don't think I need one of those."[/quote] Did the writer just call the tower a CPU? Oh god, there were another two like that further down the page...

[quote]Back in the mid-eighties, the high school I went to had just purchased a handful of 8086s along with some basic hardware -- at that time these things still were horribly expensive. A few weeks later, the computer lab was broken into and some of the hardware stolen. But the computers themselves had been left untouched: only the monitors and keyboards were gone. Apparently, the only computers the thieves had known were C64s or Apple II's, where the computer and keyboard are part of the same unit. Imagine the frustration when these guys tried to get the stolen machines to work![/quote] that is one of the funniest things I have read in a while.

snip

[QUOTE=wlzshroom;27660997]and that exact thing is why i think that nobody should sell prebuilt computers i mean come on it's like buying a lego set except with around 100-1000 less blocks [/QUOTE] I think the analogy you mean is to buy a lego set that is already made, with a hefty hefty builders charge, only to find out it was made out of megabloks instead of real lego so it works a lot worse, looks worse, and you don't get the fun of assembling it. [editline]25th January 2011[/editline] Snip defeated :frogc00l:

Prebuilt computers still serve a good purpose, considering the Rinkworks website, most people couldn't handle it even with step by step instruction.

[QUOTE=MacTrekkie;27661025]I think the analogy you mean is to buy a lego set that is already made, with a hefty hefty builders charge, only to find out it was made out of megabloks instead of real lego so it works a lot worse, looks worse, and you don't get the fun of assembling it. [editline]25th January 2011[/editline] Snip defeated :frogc00l:[/QUOTE] goddamnit mactrekkie

Low-end prebuilts usually have a decent price/parts ratio. By low-end I mean 200-300$. But then 10 years later, some random guy wasting his life on an Internet forum will get your old shit, open it up and cuss for a few hours at the motherboard's form factor.

Not so much computer illiteracy as it is frustration with my mom and computers. So our family computer is a Pentium 4 from 2003. Probably pretty high end for back then, but a real piece now. She used to complain about how slow and crappy it and how she liked my laptop so we bought her a laptop for Christmas, which has an i3 and Blu-ray. Much more superior than the Pentium 4 machine right there. The thing is, everyday, my mom is still using that old Pentium 4 and getting frustrated because its too slow to play her Facebook games. So I go up to her and ask: Me: Why are you still using this computer? Wouldn't you rather use your laptop that can actually RUN that game that your playing? Mom: Yeah, but that would mean that I have to turn on the laptop and I don't really want to wait around for that. Me: But you've been on this computer for at least an hour. If you waited a minute or so to turn it on your laptop, you could be using that one instead and not have to worry about the game crashing [and it does crash, A LOT]. Mom: Yeah, but this one was already on. Granted, that excuse would make sense if she just wanted to quickly check her email or look something up. But there is no reason to be getting frustrated at a stupid Facebook flash game that is running crappy and causing Firefox to crash for an hour, when a perfectly good computer is RIGHT THERE.

[QUOTE=Demache;27662435]Not so much computer illiteracy as it is frustration with my mom and computers. So our family computer is a Pentium 4 from 2003. Probably pretty high end for back then, but a real piece now. She used to complain about how slow and crappy it and how she liked my laptop so we bought her a laptop for Christmas, which has an i3 and Blu-ray. Much more superior than the Pentium 4 machine right there. The thing is, everyday, my mom is still using that old Pentium 4 and getting frustrated because its too slow to play her Facebook games. So I go up to her and ask: Me: Why are you still using this computer? Wouldn't you rather use your laptop that can actually RUN that game that your playing? Mom: Yeah, but that would mean that I have to turn on the laptop and I don't really want to wait around for that. Me: But you've been on this computer for at least an hour. If you waited a minute or so to turn it on your laptop, you could be using that one instead and not have to worry about the game crashing [and it does crash, A LOT]. Mom: Yeah, but this one was already on. Granted, that excuse would make sense if she just wanted to quickly check her email or look something up. But there is no reason to be getting frustrated at a stupid Facebook flash game that is running crappy and causing Firefox to crash for an hour, when a perfectly good computer is RIGHT THERE.[/QUOTE] funny thing is i'm running a pentium 4 also and i have no crashing problems (though that is probably because i am cautious about my cpu and memory usage)

[QUOTE=wlzshroom;27662784]funny thing is i'm running a pentium 4 also and i have no crashing problems (though that is probably because i am cautious about my cpu and memory usage)[/QUOTE] hers is probably bloated with free "emoticon" packs and shit like that.

[QUOTE=MacTrekkie;27662828]hers is probably bloated with free "emoticon" packs and shit like that.[/QUOTE] No not really, I've taken measures to PREVENT that from happening. Its quite healthy for a Pentium 4 machine with only 512 MB of RAM. Its just that those flash games on Facebook take up a metric fuckton of resources (I think its Farmville and some ESPN College football game and they both run at about 4 FPS). Yes, her COWORKERS got her hooked on Facebook games. It was easily using 300 MB of RAM (not good when she already has 5 tabs open) and maxing out the CPU (80% of the CPU was the plugins-container.exe or whatever firefox calls it process for flash). Apparently it doesn't like that and then Firefox hangs and crashes.

Both the coders who make the Facebook API and the coders who make the games have a lot to improve on. I don't know why people continue to play (and sometimes even pay for) such horribly made games.

I guess some people are just very bored

[QUOTE=Niteshifter;27663683]I don't know why people continue to play (and sometimes even pay for) such horribly made games.[/QUOTE] People will play anything thats "free"

I won't.