Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

No, not games, just 3D apps that aren't available on OSX. This, specifically. Everything just showed up black in VMWare, but it works perfectly fine (albeit only half as smooth as if I boot into bootcamp) in parallels.

Allegedly, with a new MBP (definitely not my early 2008 model) with the good GPUs games run so well that you don't wouldn't even gain that much by restarting and booting into bootcamp. This is version 6, mind you, if you tried anything earlier your experience is irrelevant. In my experience though... I just tried running trackmania (twice) and it crashed the virtual machine (both times) so I don't even know.

IDK, I have a friend with a brand new MacBook Pro, and he says even native games run like crap in OS X compared to his Windows XP dual-boot.
 
10x1018iuob24r5deshd.jpg


Makes me miss my HD2 somewhat.
 
Yep.

I'm tempted to get one of these for my Macbook Pro:

seagatemomentusjs.jpg


Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid. 500GB for $165AUD.

I swapped out the stock 160GB drive for a 500GB WD Scorpio Blue last year but its rather sluggish. Doesn't help that OSX seems to like shutting down the HD very often too since whenever I try to load something you can hear the drive spooling up and that I had to scan the HD because there were a lot of errors and my computer refused to boot.

Oh, and is 121000 load cycles for a about 1 year old drive too much?
 
Last edited:
Do anyone know some good apps for the G15 lcd? :)
 
10x1018iuob24r5deshd.jpg


Makes me miss my HD2 somewhat.

I called up my local Orange phone shop yesterday to see if they had a date for the Desire HD, apparently not. :(

Should be less than 7 days before I can get my grubby mitts on one though.
 
What are you looking for?

Ventrilo is always good one if, like ne, you are perpetually on vent...
 
hmmm... for some weird reason both my home PCs can't connect to some sites after a while.
only thing that resets it seems to be a modem reboot

It's not like it's obscure weird sites either, I couldn't use ikea.com/be before while this site worked fine

what could be causing this?
 
hmmm... for some weird reason both my home PCs can't connect to some sites after a while.
only thing that resets it seems to be a modem reboot

It's not like it's obscure weird sites either, I couldn't use ikea.com/be before while this site worked fine

what could be causing this?

When my ISP's DNS server goes down, sites I have accessed recently still work as do IM programs and the like, but trying to load a new page fails.
 
I decided tonight that I'm lacking software to subscribe to podcasts (I keep forgetting to download them). I reluctantly had iTunes on my old machine which worked nicely for podcasts but just got in the way, so I downloaded the latest Zune software as a bit of a gamble but my god it's good. Essentially it's a front end for WMP12 (they share all settings for libraries and ripping/burning functionality) and not only looks nicer than WMP but gives you the podcast option. However it doesn't allow me to copy music to my phone because it's not a Zune and it initially screwed over my library settings but that was easily fixed.

Very happy with it for an MS product. :)
 
When my ISP's DNS server goes down, sites I have accessed recently still work as do IM programs and the like, but trying to load a new page fails.

So basically my ISP is shit? Because I sorta knew that already

weird thing is that stuff like facebook doesn't load either, and that's one I use almost daily...
 
Wooooooooow. I just had the father of cloud computing speak to my beginner linux class for a few minutes. That was interesting, but he mostly just talked about how he worked for Tandem computers in the early 80s and his time at Oracle and stuff. (Then his second employment at Oracle and the start of the cloud computing project.) (Everyone in the class but me is a computer major of some sort. @_@)

It was pretty interesting. His name is Dr. Timothy Chou.

*edit* This:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/saas/liveblogging-saascon-tim-chou-and-the-end-of-software/219
 
Last edited:
yikes i knew rogue security apps sucked but never knew they got this bad :S

 
Does anybody here know about capture devices?
The kind that allows you to connect RCA (or possibly HDMI nowadays?) from devices to record on the computer.
Looking to record some stuff from PS2 and possibly the 360.

Just wondering what to get, I have one from like 10 years ago with a whopping 320x240 resolution.
Looking to get something with a decent (bigger than that) resolution and if possible HDMI input.
Not too sure about HDMI, but RCA with a decent resolution.

Cheeeeeeeers.

EDIT: Hell, any method really for recording to computer short of getting a capture card installed.
 
Last edited:
I spose you're right about HDMI.

Nah like a usb dongle that has RCA inputs.

I think I may have found what I'm looking for...still would like to see if anyone has had any experience with them.
 
The Dazzle is probably the best way to go about this without going for a full on Hauppauge PCI card, it's simply USB and comes with Pinnacle Studio to capture the video. I have a Dazzle that's a few years old and you can see the quality on my Youtube channel, it was used to record an old Robot Wars VHS video.
 
Last edited:
Forgot about Pinnacle. I have a Asus PCI card that I use from time to time.

Also, I need to extract the sound from a 720p WMA clip to an mp3. Any good programs for that?
 
Last edited:
Forgot about Pinnacle. I have a Asus PCI card that I use from time to time.

Also, I need to extract the sound from a 720p WMA clip to an mp3. Any good programs for that?

Do you mean WMV? I've never heard of 720p audio before. :D

I use my acquired copy of Premiere pro to do it, but VirtualDub (I think) or Windows Movie Maker will both do it too. You might need the Lame MP3 codec.
 
Do you mean WMV? I've never heard of 720p audio before. :D

I use my acquired copy of Premiere pro to do it, but VirtualDub (I think) or Windows Movie Maker will both do it too. You might need the Lame MP3 codec.

Meant WMV. I'll see what I can do.

On another note, would adding another 2gb of RAM to my notebook's 1gb do anything for the 4 series Intel GPU? Or is there anything I can do to improve its performance?
 
Top