OK, so everything as usual?

Marshmud: Brainking sold as planned? Has that happened? Today is my first day back :D I was pretty busy with a few life changing developments, and made a conscious effort to not visit BK last year. Couldn't keep away forever though ;)

Justaminute: It should. The iPad uses the Safari web browser by default, which works fine for BrainKing (as for almost any site without Flash). I don't know if it's a special version, like on the iPhone (?), but BrainKing has not been a problem for me to use on any mobile device that had the capacity to run a modern full featured browser. I even use it on my phone with Opera Mobile. Seeing how big the iPad's screen is, using BrainKing on it should be very enjoyable :)

Bernice: Take a look here: http://windowslivehelp.com/thread.aspx?threadid=780d83c9-dd37-467b-a1f6-8b469fb5828e

You just need to scroll past the understandable ranting of disgusted customers and the terrible answers by Microsoft support staff - you'll find an answer from "Windows Live John Dominic U.", that apparently helped out the guys in that thread that had that problem. Cliff notes: when sending an email, WLM assumes, that you use Hotmail anyway, because that's just how MS rolls, and creates an album online. Now when you don't use Hotmail or w/e MS ****, then that step fails, and it produces the error number you get, for which apparently 90% of MS staff can't tell what it means. The solution is to send it as an attachment instead of inline - or so I guess, I mainly skimmed that thread. But following that guy's guidelines seems to help.

Hm, that doesn't sound like BIOS. Iyam that sounds like the message is spit out by the display itself (the wording of the message, particularly "input" indicate so). I don't have a Ubuntu CD handy here, so I can't tell - is there a menu for video mode, i.e. resolution + refresh rate?

Usually not. On my laptop I have some Intel stuff which was supported out of the box. On my desktop I used a wireless USB adapter/stick, and Ubuntu told me that there were proprietary drivers to install. Does it not work for you?

(V): The default for NTFS partitions is that they are mounted in read-only, and with root as the owner, and you will have to change that in order to seamlessly read and write to it. I was just about to start typing out a guide, but I see that of course the Ubuntu documentation has one: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions - it's actually pretty easy, just that it doesn't work "out of the box". If you have trouble with that or are unsure of details, just ask here :)

And yeah, it obv doesn't matter whether you use just a separate partition or another HD alltogether.

Artful Dodger: Yeah, what could go wrong :D I'd reserve a little more space than that to account for installed applications and app data, but 8-10 GB should be plenty to start with. Of course you can start out small - you can always load the LiveCD and load parted or the GUI version gparted (parted = partition editor) to resize later as you see fit. Congratulations and enjoy your Linux! :-)

Ehm, I meant to say that they DO have write support - just not for ext3, which is what you will want to be using. Ext2 is outdated.

Download and burn to disc is the easiest path. There does exist an installer for Windows, but it won't result in a full featured install, and will generally result in a less stable system. So just burning a CD is the "standard" way. If you have a few GB of space on your hard drive, the installer should be able to just resize your windows partition and install Ubuntu on the free space.

Re: accessing Linux file systems from Windows: there exists a Windows driver for ext2 file systems, and I think two file managers that will do the same. As far as I know, none of them have decent write support. Your best bet is to either dedicate a partition to shared data and format that in FAT (or NTFS, which will need a little tinkering, but nothing too hard), or to use external drives for sharing data between the systems. On my one system that still contains a WIndows installation, I have a FAT partition and link to them from my home folders. Of course it comes with all the disadvantages of those file systems. With FAT you have no security whatsoever. With NTFS you rely on a poorly documented file system. For instance, you won't be able to access the data on NTFS partitions after hibernating your Windows system.

(V): there are no problems with board drivers or is that something WINE would be able to handle, or would be fixable via the UBUNTU software centre?

Well, I'm not exactly sure what you refer to with board drivers. But in general, driver installation on Ubuntu is a charm, as the system will detect all but the most exotic hardware, and load drivers automagically. The only exception is, if your piece of hardware is not supported by open source drivers. In every case that I came across, Ubuntu told me there was a proprietary driver available, and asked whether I wanted to download and install it. I said yes, and the download and installation was seamless. Compare that to hunting down drivers on vendors' sites with Windows. Also there is ndiswrapper, which will let you install and use Windows drivers for hardware that isn't otherwise supported, but that would be mostly old and obscure WinModems, etc. My system even instantly recognized my old TV stick that I couldn't even get the Windows drivers for... (well, not in a couple of hours of search)

It was nice to able alter a few lines in a duplicate of the start up disc to make the screen as you wanted it.

You'll love Linux. In Linux you will be able to change pretty much every setting, behavior, you name it, by editing text files. In Ubuntu less than in some other distros, as Ubuntu's goal is to be newbie friendly, and that leads to them making some decisions that limit control in favor of "easiness". But I don't think you'd usually notice that until you have spent a significant amount of time with Ubuntu and then other Linuxes.

Apparently CrossOver has come a long way in game support.

Oh, I'm not sold on the idea that it will fix your strange backgammon color problems though

Artful Dodger: Desktop environments for Linux etc. have improved a lot. It's no more difficult to use some of the modern Linux distributions than it is to use Windows. In fact, I find Windows a lot harder to use.

The problems people have are twofold:

First, there's the fact that they're just used to the Windows way of doing things. The Windows way is in many instances a chore. It's not easy or efficient when compared to the ways of many Linuxes, it's just what people have been taught to accept as "normal". It took some time getting used to, but after a couple of years on Linux, I want to stab my ankle every time I am forced to work with Windows.

The second is the most common problem though. A lot of people don't really know how to run their Windows system properly. But everybody has a few friends, who do stuff for them and explain things to them. So they get by. Because ~90% of such friends use Windows, they might not be of much help with their Linux boxes.

This is no problem for semi tech savvy people, because the information is out there. In fact, where Linux is about 1000 times easier to deal with is solving problems with system or application software. The info is out there most of the time. Forums are very good. Wikis are all over the place. If you google for a problem you ran into, you will find relevant information most of the time. I remember that researching Windows problems meant pretty much wading through pages of search results, only to be lead to one of two things - threads that were about your problem, but that didn't lead to a solution other than maybe "reinstall", or threads that were about something else completely. Of course all those threads were on forums that were plastered with ads. And of course you'd get the same thread copied to different forums countless times. After hours of unsuccessful research, you'd often just reinstall some things. With Linux I'll just head to the community pages of my distro of choice, or the given software (those forums, when they exist, are mostly pretty decent, because it's usually community driven software anyway), and either find a quick solution, or be sent in the right direction. And if you use Ubuntu, like MadMonkey suggested, you'll find yourself using a very user- and newbie-friendly distribution, with a huge and growing community, and generally very, very beginner-friendly documentation and atmosphere around the forums.

It might take some time getting used to it, but if you really try it - I can't imagine you could possibly regret the move. It's so much more pleasant.

(V): For Windows-only software, there are different possibilities, with different pros and cons:

1) wine
The project wine (formerly Windows Emulator, now Wine Is Not an Emulator) is an attempt to create a "Windows compatibility layer" for Unix-like systems. It can run a decent number of software, some better than the others, and some need some extra work to get running. You can check which of your apps will likely run at the AppDB over at WineHQ. But not all programs will rund, and some probably never will. Pro side is it's very resource efficient, and the windows will naturally integrate. Contra is that so much software either won't run or will run, but not be fully functional.

2) Crossover or Cedega
There exist two commercial extensions to wine, Codeweavers CrossOver and Transgaming's Cedega. CrossOver started to specifically support MS Office on Linux, and Cedega's main focus is games. Both have since grown a lot, and both support a great deal of popular Windows software. I think they both should have an AppDB like wine, but I don't use any of them any more, so I can't tell. The Pro side is that way more of your programs will run, that you can vote to get support for your favorite apps (at least that's how it was at Cedega a while ago). The Contra is that still not everything will run, and that it costs money. But IIRC it's not really expensive, so that's no biggie.

3) Dual boot
If you have enough disk space, you can just install them side by side, most Linux distros come with installers that will take care of setting this up automatically, but customizably. Pro side is everything will run just as expected, the Contra is you have a Windows system sitting on your computer ;) But seriously, this has implications. Should you want to reinstall Windows, prepare for some trouble. While a Linux installation won't break anything (Most distros will install the Grub boot loader that let's you chose between different OSes at boot time, and automatically detect and add your Windows installation). But when you install Windows on a system where Linux is installed - Windows will not care. It will simply assume that there is no OS, and will overwrite the MBR of your disk with its own boot loader. You'll have to fix it after installation. Another problem is that to share data between both systems, you'll want to use a file system that Windows can read and write, so you're forced to use FAT or NTFS for your data partitions, which suck.

4) VM
That's what I use when I play Poker. If you have the hardware (doesn't have to be too strong, just remember that the virtual machine will run on less resources than physical installation would need), you can use VirtualBox and install Windows in a virtual machine. Now every time you want to use your Windows-only software, you can start the Windows VM. It can run in full screen mode, as a normal window, or even "Seamless mode", where the Windows windows will be managed by your Windows manager, and will integrate into your desktop. It's pretty awesome ;) Plus, you can simply share data between your Linux host system and the Windows guest in VirtualBox through shared folders. Oh, and the clipboard is shareable, too. And you don't have to reboot every time you want to switch the OS.

If we're talking high end graphics intensive games - dual boot will be the only acceptable solution though.

Well, usually I would say with those All-In-One solutions you get the worst of both worlds - the lower upgradability of laptops and the lack of mobility of desktops. Given you don't really need mobility, but just like to have your computer next to your chair, it might as well be a valid option, as a desktop will only clutter up your living room with cables, and you won't get a cheap laptop with that big of a screen :D

Since quite a while I do have the following setup: I own a desktop that has plenty of power and RAM. And then I own a laptop, that is way weaker, and where the emphasis is on low power usage, and thus longer battery hours. I use the laptop when I leave the house (I use it on the train, and I sometimes take it to friends if I stay over night, and I always took it to university), or when I absolutely do not feel like sitting at a desk. Because of the less powerful setup, I will not use some of the applications I use on my desktop, or I will use them more rarely.

I think you could get a not-so-powerful laptop coupled with a good PC for the price of a laptop that is as strong as the PC would be. And gain power and flexibility at the same time.

Good points by coan. If you say though, Binabik, that you hate sitting at a desk, than a laptop will be a better choice. But just keep in mind, that, as coan said, you will pay more for the same abilities computation wise. Plus, it is a lot cheaper and easier to later upgrade a desktop than it is to upgrade a laptop. So it boils down to how much you prefer the flexibility of sitting on your couch with the laptop over better prices.

I would say out of the four brands you mentioned Sony is the one that is the most overpriced. I have a thing for Dell myself. But coan's right, as long as you stay with a big name, you will have a good chance of being very satisfied, and always a small chance not to be.

Czuch: Yeah, but if I understand it correctly, the hard drive is new, and thus empty, so no data will be lost ;)

The partioning software cannot know with certainty though, whether there isn't anything on the drive, or whether it's in a file system it doesn't recognize, so it just warns you about it.

TigerCat: It's not recommended to do so, because it will make Windows™ explode.

A mozilla article on the subject:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mozilla_Suite_:_FAQs_:_Remove_IE#Remove_Internet_Explorer_from_Windows

Remove Internet Explorer from Windows

Although uninstalling Internet Explorer from Windows is possible, you are strongly advised not to remove IE, for a number of reasons [4]:

1. Many web sites are programmed to work only with Internet Explorer. For example, webmasters authoring a site may have not tested with other web browsers. The majority of websites on the Internet should work with Mozilla browsers, but there are some sites that appear distorted or inaccessible unless IE is used as a browser.
2. Windows Update requires Internet Explorer. As an alternative, you may be able to manually download security updates, but it will require more monitoring and work than letting Windows Update handle this for you.
3. Some applications depend on libraries installed by Internet Explorer. These applications may no longer work or they may behave unexpectedly if IE is removed.
4. Some anti-virus products require IE for updates. Live updates or automatic DAT updates used by both Norton and McAfee are built on Internet Explorer's foundation. You may be able to manually update your virus signature files but it could require more work.
5. Both removing and restoring IE is risky and difficult. IE is complex with extensive hooks built into Windows, for efficiency and functionality. Thus unplugging it from your system may impact Internet connectivity, Windows functionality, and break functionality in Microsoft Office and non-MS products.
6. IE is more than a browser, it is the foundation for Internet functionality in Windows.

If you still want to remove IE despite these warnings, there are third-party programs available like LitePC that remove IE but these are most definitely not recommended for novice users. Instead of uninstalling IE, you should consider the alternatives first, such as making IE more secure, or hiding Internet Explorer.

MadMonkey:

"The reason is that .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installs a 'Windows Presentation Foundation' plug-in in Firefox."

MS is such a joke...Thanks for reminding me why I only run their stuff virtually, if at all, nowadays

Pedro Martínez:

diogenysos: I haven't tried it, but Macrium released a free version of their "Reflect" tool http://www.macrium.com/ReflectFree.asp

On first glance it looks like it would do what you are looking for. Full version comes with more features and extended support, but it seems like the Free edition is pretty usable. I would just try it out on a non productive machine.

alexlee: For me too, but only during the update checking and updating, and only when I had a single core CPU, it felt like it stalled the whole system shortly after startup. But once that was done, everything was fine. Now that I have my new computer, I basically don't notice ever that AVG is running.

wetware: I never used Avast, the ads appeared in Avira :)

Artful Dodger: I haven't tried Avast. What I found annoying about Avira was the advertisement window that popped up on every update. I like my AVG, but I am only really happy with it since I have more than one CPU core.

Czuch: It says that these are used mostly by hackers to have stuff sent to another IP address, or something like that?

That might be the case, but not with that IP address - just make sure they're all to 127.0.0.1 a.k.a. localhost. FWIW, you can clean them manually if you want to (or if there are some to other IPs than 127.0.0.1) by deleting the entries from your hosts file with a simple text editor :)

So I will just ignore these and not worry anymore, thank you again!

Exactly, relax :) And you're welcome!

Czuch: So does anyone know what these critical objects are? what caused them and why I can figure out how to deal with them through my ad aware?

it says redirected host entries in your hosts file, and in the IP column it says 127.0.0.1. That is really no problem and not critical at all. You can ignore that. What it means is simply that in your hosts file you have entries resolving host names to your local machine. This is often done to block ad servers. Say a site wants to load a picture from www.adhost.com - Windows will usually ask the DNS server what IP address adhost.com is. But if you add an entry 127.0.0.1 adhost.com to your hosts file, it will not ask the DNS server, but use this address instead. The effect is, that your browser wants to load the picture from your local webserver, which likely doesn't exist, and therefore won't load the picture. This is a pretty basic anti ad strategy, which will work ok though, if you get good compiled lists of ad servers.

Cliffnotes: ignore those "critical objects", you're fine.

Snoopy:

Snoopy: But that shouldn't really be a problem - it's just that Hotmail isn't aware of Chrome and doesn't recognize it, so it expects it to be out of date, while it is brand new.

MadMonkey: can't you take a photo of the screen? ;)

Andersp: You need a PC running Windows

Everything you said is correct except for that part - Skype is available for other platforms as well - including Mac OSX, Linux (but the Linux version is always way behind), Windows Mobile, Smart Phone, Nokia N800/N810 and WiFi phones with integrated Skype and standard cordless phones with integrated Skype. So WebTV users that don't want to buy a PC could as well buy a phone to use Skype. In some countries there is also a Skype phone available, called "3 Skype phone".

EDIT: On this Skype download page: Download Skype for Windows you can see a rather complete list of links with further information on all the platforms that Skype supports on the right hand side.

Gordon Shumway: Anyone with a Mac here, that has an idea for tiaria57? She said that it only happens with programs she's about to install and that the software was for the Mac...?!?

I moved this thread from the Firefox fellowship, because it is very likely that is has more to do with the Mac than Firefox itself, and because some Mac experts might read this board that are not members of the F/S.

---

tiaria57: Does anyone here run the Firefox with a Mac??? If so, can you let me know.. I have a major problem with downloading and although I have looked and searched for months, I can't figure it out.
[...]
I'm new to a Mac and whenever I try to download something, not an add on, etc. it goes to disc utility and there is no way I can get if from there. I have set it for all downloads to go to my desktop and even though it goes there, when I click on it, disc utility shows up and I'm lost because I can't retrieve it from there. I'm very frustrated because I am trying to download a texas hold'em site to no avail.

Gordon Shumway: I have two questions:
1) You said that happens every time you download something - does this also apply to pictures, etc. or just to executable files / disc images?
2) The hold'em software you downloaded - which site was it?
[...]
I just talked to a friend on ICQ, and he asked what file type the software is that you downloaded. Mac OSX should be able to simply install *.zip, *.tar, *.tar.gz and *.dmg. One possible reason for the failure would be if you tried to install a Windows executable (*.exe). It would help if you could post a link to the example files that you tried and that failed.

Mousetrap: That just means that the 17th hop on your way to BrainKing at that particular time was a host with the name PO8-0.prg-001-access-1.interroute.net, and that it took 55ms to send a package to it and receive an answer. This is obviously taken from a traceroute output ;-)

That traceroute thing is just to get a rough estimate of a) how many gateways are passed on a package's way and b) which networks usually are passed. It's not at all guaranteed that the route will always be the same (it is in fact very unlikely that your package will go through PO8-0 every time).
Interoute.net belongs to Interoute Communications in London. There's not much more you can learn from that line...

MadMonkey: There are two ways for my device: First, there is a button on the front which cycles through the plugged computers, or I can use a keyboard shortcut (It's two time scroll lock [have you ever used that key?]) for that. It then gives you an accustic feedback. I think every KVM switch has these two ways of switching, just the shortcuts may vary, Ctrl+NumLock is often used I think. Of course, I never use the button on the device's front, it's just too much movement ;-) And with the keyboard shortcut I can put the switch under the desk so it doesn't even get into my way.

I love this thing

Christoph Daum: another difference is that I also can share display, mouse and printer with it

MadMonkey: I use a KVM (Keyboard/VGA/Mouse) +USB switch for that purpose. The only difference is that it's an extra device and not built into the keyboard...

rod03801:
And this puts the icons on the screen automatically too?

Yes, for every file in the "Desktop" folder you see one icon on the screen.

When you say "copy" it, what does that process involve? (I'm sure it's nothing like copy and pasting text! LOL)

Well, you won't copy and paste text, but it is just as easy! Open the Explorer and maneuver to your home folder aka "C:\Documents and Settings\rod1". There you can simply right click on the "Desktop" folder and chose "copy" from the context menu. Then maneuver to the home folder of the new user "C:\Documents and Settings\rod2", right click, and chose "paste" this time. Click "OK" on the upcoming popup window that asks you if you want to replace files of the same name - that's it!

You mention the desktop, my documents, and possibly some applications. Is there anything else I might not be thinking of that I would want to bring over from it?

If you just want to move data from one user to another on the same machine, that should be it! Most installed applications will be available for every user, so those should work automatically. Anyway, I would just try it out and see if you are missing something. If you don't after a few weeks, you're possibly done. If you miss something you had with the other account, then you can look what's different! Or just come back here ;-)

rod03801: "Stuff on Desktop, etc."

Well, what's shown on your desktop is just the content of the folder %HOMEPATH%\Desktop. You can just copy it from, for example,

C:\Documents and Settings\rod1\Desktop

to

C:\Documents and Settings\rod2\Desktop

You can do that with your documents from "My Documents" as well. And for some applications this will work if you copy what's in %APPDATA%

C:\Documents and Settings\rod1\Application Data

or2ak.com: to be honest, I don't even know what VRO files are

Family Man: You could then change your browser's default font (and font size) to what you'd like it to be, as the No Font option means your browser's defaults are used. In Firefox you find the corresponding setting in preferences -> content.

Andersp: Avoid Siemens Access -Point/Router/DSL-Modem devices!
I only had trouble with them, the signal is very unstable if you're more than 5m away...

jadarite: I think you should move your "I want realtime chat" discussion to another board, like "Other game sites". This has nothing to do with computers or with the original spyware thread.

And, for the record: Most of us here like the turn based nature of BrainKing, and we wouldn't be here if we were desparate for realtime chats. And our gaming experience is extraordinarily great. Thanks for caring.

Family Man: Tracking cookies can be used to track your behaviour on various sites, but they can't really do any harm to your computer. Some sites store more than one cookie, so if you browse some commercial sites, you can easily get a high number of them in a minute. But they are definitely not causing your problems with forecastfox.

Family Man: That's because of the line and column numbers next to the board - they of course grow along with all the other text. The only solution would be if you are currently using the small sets of game pieces.

If I use the small pente pieces for example, the board gets distorted as soon as I increase the text size one time. If I use the big pieces, I can increase it five times before that happens.

Rose: You could try to follow the instructions at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1299854/posts instead of installing fasterfox, it works for me :)

Rose: You're right, sorry. I was talking about the FF Preferences and where they are located inside FF on different operating systems. If you use FF in Windows, they are located in "tools", if you use it on Linux they're located in "edit".

And in the preferences the privacy settings are located.

But this all doesn't seem to be the issue anyway ;)

Rose: Check your preferences (on Windows they are under the tools menu, I think. On Linux they're under the edit menu) -> Privacy. If there is a checkmark before "Always clear my private data when I exit Firefox", you might uncheck it, or click on Settings and uncheck "saved passwords" and "cookies". The former checked means that the passwords from the password manager are deleted, and the latter means that the information Brainking stores in a cookie, are also deleted. If you have checked "remember user name and password" on the login page, this information is stored in a cookie.

For the style switching: There are three links: "To simple style", "simple" and "castle". The latter two change the style but don't save it, only the first option saves it in the database.

Fencer: Swift is a Windows browser based on WebKit, Safari's rendering engine. It is still alpha, but for testing of the rendering it should be ok, I guess.

Binabik: No, you don't have to, Firefox does this all on itself. And perhaps I didn't express myself clear enough: For both Firefox versions 1.5 and 2.0 there is an update available which should fix your problem. For Firefox 2.0 it's 2.0.0.2. So check your version number ("Help"->"about Firefox"). If it starts with 2.0 but is not 2.0.0.2, an update might solve the disappearing bookmarks. Something caused that in particular situations the profiles were created with a write protection, so that firefox couldn't store the bookmarks permanently. This should be gone with 2.0.0.2/1.5.0.10. If it still doesn't store them, you could manually check if the profile folder is write protected..

MagicDragon: Well, Norton is known to eat up every bit of resources you give to it. I never heard of anyone that really was happy with Norton - just causing trouble all the time. Great that you got rid of it ;)