Sip

By the way, do NOT forget office updates ... most people don't even realize there is an automatic office update site just like the windows update. There's a link to it from the regular windows update site as well.

I continuously do the updates ... for example, there is one that I saw today having something to do with the "Data Access Components" whatever that means. I have installed all critical patches on both my laptops, my tabletpc, and my 3 desktops with no adverse side effect that I have noticed yet in the past 5 years. The patches are almost always patches and nothing more. They dont' run additional services that may slow you down. Some simply disable already existing services that may be turned on by default.

By the way, my SMC g router can do both 802.11g and 802.11b ... right now, I am just using it in b mode ... if yours can do the same, then just go with the b. Just make sure you check before buying.

Eve, that is an 802.11b card ... if you want G, keep looking. USB 1.1 will not have the bandwidth to support G at full speed. But 11b will not be that much of a problem ... just be aware that the more USB devices you have connected, the less the performance of the network component will be as bandwidth is shared. With USB 1.x, you have something like 12Mbps max theoretical throughput if I remember correctly.

So what makes the remaing RPC patches for example so much less important than the blaster patch? ALL critical patches are important. That's why they are critical. I would not remove any of them. I also don't buy into this "patches made my computer slow"

We seem to forget the most important thing ... all this was probably Edward's fault.

I'm not vava but I may be able to help ... get rid of the MAC and keep the Linksys By the way, can I move in with you? I promise I won't hog too much of the bandwidth ... though 54Mbit with the G is a lot anyway

sweet ... firewire or usb 2? or both?

eve ... if you got the ASUS A7N8X-E motherboard, I will be able to help you out on saturday since that's when mine is arriving Edit: sweet case! I got a new one too but I don't think it's that sexy. edit 2: Mine's going to look like http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SpecB/images/BA19689.jpg

anileve, LMAO about the broklyn company ... they did the same thing to me! I was very confused when the guy asked me if I had a boyfriend I was trying to tell him that the rating on their "exteded" batteries for $30 were half that of the $10 one I could buy off of ebay. Well, half hour later I found out through email that the thing I wanted to buy was out of stock About secure digital vs compact flash ... to the average user it's just a different standard. CompactFlash is more widely accepted and used but SD is gaining popularity and is much more streamlined and sexy from what I have seen. I like compactflash since all the circuitry is built into the CF package. You can just plug it into any PCMCIA port (laptop) using a very cheap adapter and read it straight off ... i.e. you don't need special readers and what not. I don't know exact technical differences but at least traditionally (i.e. as of few months ago), compact flash has been cheaper than SD. If I were to buy something, I'd probably lean more towards compactflash since I am so used to them and already have a few cards. But in buying a new camera, it's probably not that big an issue although you may want to consider memory costs if you plan to get additional chips. I've said it before in this thread but the Sandisk ULTRA II CF cards are simply amazing right now. I am very impressed with the speed and the price is very reasonable.

They should be the same. Flat rectangular looking plugs. If one side is curved but the plug still rectangular, then it may be a firewire port. If the plug is more squarish, then it may be the other USB connector (you may need a converter). I am guessing it's a firewire port (IEEE 1394) though. Sure it's USB?

Don't worry I won't laugh ... at least not in front of you You should use the current address/password that you have. Just reinstall the software they provide. That usually should take care of problems. Don't sign up for a new account as that may result in them charging you for another one ... If you don't know how, their tech support may be of help but usually they'll give you an option during installation if you want to use an existing account or if you want to create a new one. You shouldn't have to remove anything.

Not sure what it could be. If your internet service provider (verizon?) provided a CD for you, reinstall that. Then do Windows Update to get all latest updates. That is the safest bet. I assume Windows EX pro means Windows XP Pro Good luck!

Some questions: 1) What do you mean by your "mail"? Who is your mail provider? Is it a web-based email service like yahoo or hotmail or something you pop using outlook? 2) What do you mean it logs off? You mean it disconnects you from the internet? 3) What operating system do you have? Do you have any other browsers such as Netscape or AOL? By the way, by "window explorer", I assume you mean internet explorer.

But of course What I don't understand is how that clown managed to land the wife that he found!

Anoushik, I am digging what you are saying!!! But I would say the "romantic" period was a bit before the 19th century. I would say our modern concept of "romantic love" started to appear during the Renaissance around the 15th century (maybe a bit earlier) ... one can see some examples with Shakespeare and the now cliche Romeo and Juliet type of "love". If you look before that, it's hard to find this "love" between a man and a woman as we know it today. The church also seems to have had a BIG role in trying to push to make the "love" being the glue of the monogamous family unit as the basis for a moral society. Now you talk to the average person on the street and they'll make it sound like "true romantic love" is such a universal thing rooted in the human psyche while most of it is learned social behavior. Bruin, knowing you, your heart will probably never stop to laugh.

Is love really "disappearing" or did it never even really exist the way fairy tales , hollywood movies, and romance novels depict it? I mean before 50-60 years ago, doesn't sound to me like love was the reason for marriage. And now, people are more confused than ever about what love was, is, will be, and is supposed to be. So maybe, just maybe, it's not really "disappearing" at all! Maybe it was never really there to begin with.

IRA stands for Independent Retirement Account. You can pretty much have a lot of flexibility and control over your IRA's and there are several tax advantages. A ROTH IRA is a special type of IRA where you pay no tax (there are details of course). You can find a ton of info about Roth IRA's here: http://www.fairmark.com/rothira/

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I have can use this!!!!

http://zr2.cs.ucla.edu/hf/mos_hunt.jpg

Since I personally can't define love, I ran to the dictionary as usual ... love: A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness. Sounds to me like the keywords come at the end ... a sense of underlying oneness. If there is no real underlying oneness, in other words, if the love is one directional (either loving or being loved) then there can't be much emotional rewards. For "loving" to be emotionally rewarding, I think it has to be bi-directional. The loving and the being loved have to both be there ... otherwise things won't be right and there won't be that many rewards. ... so I'll have to agree with the others who have pretty much said the same thing here.

fackit, seems like you are saying art is bullshit. But then, is bullshit also art? If so, I am set to make a ton of money here in Wisconsin

I am slowly getting the hang of it Sasun! Here are a few I took recently: Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 and my favorites Pic 7 Pic 8 I was mostly experimenting with the manual focus and the shutter delays ... the night mode shooting on this is VERY good if you learn to use it correctly. Basically it can open the shutter for a while to get the dark background then fire the flash to get the foreground. On top of that, you can lock the focus on a certain object and then move the camera, mess with the exposure timing and other things. You can get some CRAZY pictures with it. Of course the pics above have been cropped and shrunk for the web.

Like any language, you can spend an entire lifetime studying and still not know it! But to answer your question, it will heavily depend on your surroundings and your abilities. I can generally pickup a language and speak it, at least for day-to-day conversations, in a matter of about 2-3 months. It was the same for both German and English. In about a year I can be indistinguishable from native speakers. However I look around and see people who have been here in the US for years and years and still can't speak English which I consider much much easier to learn and speak than Armenian.

Armat, I am certainly in no position to give any advice ... so take this from someone whose cockyness got the best of him during the late 90's BOOM and learned his real life lesson ... Do not treat the markets as a game. There is a lot of money to be made but also a lot of money to be lost. If you do that, it will become like gambling. No one really knows how the markets will behave in the short term. The best strategy is to invest wisely. Do some homework ... start to follow trends ... understand what is happening. Look for the longer terms. And whatever you do, don't start "investing" on borrowed money unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing. Fortunately this is one route I didn't take but I know a few people that did and got burned BIG times. We live in volatile times. A small incident can wreak havoc on all markets. The markets and the dollar could plunge in a matter of hours for the short term so the key is thinking long term. But having said all this, I do think it may be 'fun' experimenting with shorter term "investements" such as day trading, currency exchanges, and the likes. Just don't bet the farm on it and leave yourself a way out (i.e. don't go in debt). In the end of the day, money must be earned and the only way to earn it is to add value to something ... to produce something real ... to accomplish things worth something. If it looks too good to be true or if it looks "phoney", or too easy, then it probably is!!!! Stay away from it or risk the burn ...