computers don't really inspire confidence anymore.....

[svx]

I... buy my stuff on ebay. Usually.

Speaking of which...

watchtower is my computer, an AMD 64 X2 dual core 5400+ with an Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wifi motherboard, nVidia GTS 250, and... some RAM. Random RAM. And, this:

02:07.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems 56k WinModem (rev 01)
   Subsystem: Agere Systems LT WinModem 56k Data+Fax+Voice+Dsvd
   Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
   Memory at fdfff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
   I/O ports at cc00
   I/O ports at c800 [size=256]
   Capabilities: [f8] Power Management version 2
   Kernel driver in use: martian
   Kernel modules: martian_dev

I live... with trees. And fields. I'd often be seen wielding my AR-15 with two clips duct-taped together, a can of beer in my hand, and either lounging atop a lawn chair or my Ninja ZX-750. With my AR-15. Plinking things off as I ride. If people were around. That's why I need a modem.

And that modem sucks.

I have a pile of modems here beside me:

An Ambient AMI-7019F/2019C (according to the top left corner),
A Smartlink SL-1800 (according to the chip),
An Intel 537EP,
And a (Rockwell? Guessing...) RS56G.

I spent lots of time researching these a while ago. And I'm disappointed. I used to use the Intel 537EP years ago. And now I find that Intel doesn't offer generic Linux drivers anymore; I found the latest ones, and messed with them until they compiled. But then I found that they use a 32-bit close-sourced object and just wrap around it. And then the Smartlink -- it would use the slamr driver from the pretty common slmodem Linux drivers, but... that... also does not support 64-bit. And the same for everything else. None of these modems have decent drivers. And I'm not making them.

So I've ordered a US Robotics USR5610B for $15 from ebay.

If it doesn't work, I'll unload my AR-15 on it. And then drive over it on the Ninja. And then cry. I'll cry.

Maybe I should use Windows. Windows-tans are... cute...

[Red-Machine]

Why do you still use modems?  Do you have direct cable connections to things or something?

[Chocofreak13]

oh, modems, i lawl'd. i actually miss the dial-up sound. it's nostalgic.

and svx, it depends on your preference. if you like linux, use linux. if you think you'd like windows better, then use that.

maybe you should practice with wine or ubuntu first. xD
other than that, XP is stable, so i recommend that. :3

[Red-Machine]

XP is actually pretty flawed to be honest.  Like it's habit of copying everything from your video card's RAM into main RAM; so if you have a modern graphics card (128MB plus) you lose a LOT of system RAM.  I once knew someone who had an XP machine with 1GB of RAM and a 640MB graphics card.  1GB minus 640MB from graphics card, minus 200MB or so for the OS & additional programs and say 50MB for the device drivers.  That left him with less than 128MB for gaming.  Stupid, huh?

[svx]

I've installed Windows 7 on some computers lately...  Ehh. It's pretty nice. I guess.

It's weird to me. But the interface is pretty. And I haven't seen it crash yet. I think the only thing that irks me about Windows these days is that Microsoft hates C so much that they refuse to add C99 compatibility to their compiler, even with C1X becoming the new standard soon.  Microsoft seems to love C++... But... I hate C++.  I like C and assembly.

And... Windows is tough to program for. Its web of libraries is like a programming language unto itself.  I like the simplicity and standardization of Linux and all of the obligatory components, but it's a pain that the hardware manufacturers don't take it too seriously.

Ehh.  As for the modem?  It's for... the... internet. Uhnm. Yeah. Out here in the fields, there's no such thing as DSL or cable. Satellite internet all runs through Wildblue and has that lame Fair Access Policy (wikipedia it; it's stupid!) that throttles the speed down to 3kbps permanently for the remainder of a month or two months after you download more than a gigabyte or so, and it's not worth the $80/mo they charge...

I'm waiting for this lightning bolt US Robotics modem to come. So bad. I'll edit some pictures. I mean, I'll post some pictures. Of how cool it is. When it gets here. Period.

Spilled my beer. Too excited.

[Chocofreak13]

poor dear. drink it out of the floor.

programmers seem to prefer linux it seems. for just a basic user, XP is queen. ^^
not half bad for art, too, however i'm hooked on win. 7 after trying it (that doesn't mean i'm going to abandon any of the older OSes. i'm still going to use XP, if the DRIVE WOULD FUKKING FORMAT----)

[svx]

Ehhh...

Windows 7 is... pretty nice. The more I play with it, the more I like it. But it's weird because... it... is... weird. Yeah...

Ermm... Ehm.  Why won't it format?

Tried seeing if you can read or write a partition table to it in DOS? Or Linux? Or something? Something you boot from a USB drive or a, um. What are they called? Floppy? CD? Whatever those are.

I work with a lot of hard drives. I'm... good... at... data recovery. And drinking. But I digress. Aozora Very Good Days is the best song Stereopony ever did. If you like J-Pop. Anyway, erm. Hmm...

I've had a lot of weird problems with Windows not wanting to format things properly whenever I put Windows on computers. I've learned that when Windows thinks a hard drive is bad, it's... wrong. Usually. Sometimes. Ehh. There're lots of programs out there to fill the #@*%&er with zeroes; if you can write a partition table to it, I recommend trying that to see if it's really bad...

Or...

It... could... be... a... bad hard drive? I guess. I dunno. What was I doing just now?

[Chocofreak13]

the hard drive isn't bad; if anything, the motherboard is. i try to load from cd and it decides to be a sped and not write cause it says something like "insert proper boot media or reboot and select proper boot media"

when i insert a known good cd. it's weird, cause i just wrote to the drive a few months ago and everything was fine.

the computer boots, it just doesn't reformat. and like i said, i tried to write to the blank drive (which nanami sees as storage space, so it's also good) and it still refuses to write.

at any rate, i've sent speedy to the repair shop so i'll just have to sit and wait to see how she turns out. she'll probably become my main computer.