MEWXPZLFUDAWV Club!

[Bella]

No, no, scratch that question about the bookmarks cause I imported them to Safari and then backed them up. I have a new question. Why can three out of my five backup DVDs only be read by K8? Yes, three of those backups, when loaded into DY, come up as blank disks. When loaded into K8 they don't respond as normal DVDs should, they load as CD-Rs and are very slow and hangy.

Wait, I may have answered my own question...

[C-Chan]

Seriously, I have a recovery disk. No place to hide one of those moronic, semi-working recovery partitions on a laptop, y’know. And funny you should call it a common thing in Windows life, those PC performance enthusiasts who’d talk about reinstalling XP every year always mortified me with the thought…

Oh, you'd be surprised where they stick those blasted recovery partitions.  For all its faults, at least Windows 98 systems always came with recovery disks.  Â¬Â¬

It's been so long since I've seen them, I couldn't get used to the fact that my EeePC, Shuttkle KPC and Acer Aspire One ALL came with Recovery Disks.  I was like "What the frak are these things?", and even tried nibbling on them to see if they were edible.  -.-

But seriously, if the recovery disk is native to K8, you shouldn't have any problem at all -- because Factory recovery disks usually set up everything you need (not just the system, but also audio drivers, chipset drivers, lan drivers, everything to make the system run as fresh as the day you picked up from the store).

Still, doesn't hurt to have a little moral support around.  ^^

How easy is a desktop to drop-kick? T__T

*cough*

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/08/27/a-real-space-oddity-arrives-at-pc-pro/
http://www.linutop.com/linutop2/index.en.html
http://www.aleutia.com/
http://www.fit-pc.com/new/small-and-quiet.html?gclid=CNXj_bfKs5UCFQhdswodnnEwQw
http://www.zonbu.com/home/index.htm

Ack, I couldn’t find my Puppy live CD so I loaded up Zenwalk on DY. Still really frickin’ fast…

If you're feeling absolutely adventurous, you might consider giving this a try:

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

Believe it or not, it's smaller and faster than Puppy or even Damn Small Linux!  @__@

And I read through lesson 5 and tried out some of the copy/moving/deleting controls for myself (not on any important files, mind you). I didn’t really get the whole wildcard character thing--I mean, I get it, but I don’t get it in practice.

Like all things, that takes practice in order to really nail it.  For example, if I wanted to copy all the files and directories on a USB stick onto a folder on my /Home drive, I would write it out as follows:

Code Select Expand


mkdir /home/cchan/destinationfolder
cp -R /media/cchanusbdisk/* /home/cchan/destinationfolder

The first line creates the folder in my home drive.
The next one copies the entire contents of my USB stick (currently mounted in /media/cchanusbdisk) and pastes them into the newly created /home/cchan/destinationfolder.

The "-R", btw, activates the "recursive option in the cp command, which ensures that all folders and their contents are also copied as well.  By default, the cp command only copies top-level files ONLY (not even directories).

As you probably know by now, typing:

Code Select Expand

man cp

...will bring up the manual for the cp command, which provides more information on its usage and the other options.  Press the "Q" key to exit out of it.  ^^

Yeah I guess I might be pissed if I knew my work was going to help out the competition. And not XP because, tsk tsk, that’s harmless now, but Vista. Assuming whatever works on XP works on Vista, that is >____<

My agreement actually isn't so much in the "helping of the competition" aspect, since that's the risk we all take when releasing software under the GPL or similar licenses.  As long as they abide by the terms, subsequent distributors and users can do whatever they want with it -- it's in their right, and more so if they actually put some effort into maintaining and/or improving the software.

The problem is just that, however,... despite the overwhelming volume of Windows users, a very horrifying minority relative to other platforms are actually willing to actively contribute to FOSS software -- and in the case of Inkscape, this has often led to the main developers reallocating resources away from the main branch just to get the Windows version up and running (you'll recall it took a while for the WIndows port of version 0.46 to be released).

This in itself is unfortunate, but understandable given the culture difference -- I believe that if only 1% of Windows users participate positively while the remaining 99% did absolutely nothing, that would still offer a fun and stimulating environment for the developers to keep supporting Windows.

The reality, unfortunately, is that 1% of users participate positively, 49% do nothing,... and 50% participate NEGATIVELY towards the project, wasting time, destroying developer morale, and spreading a kind of vitriol FUD that most proprietary software companies can only DREAM of spreading in their Press releases.  It's a common paradox I've witnessed where, the more free an application is, the more demanding the users become -- they thump their chests proclaiming with great pride they're too stupid to read instructions (and hence the reason why the program is not ready for "prime time"), but grow meek and sheepish when they shell out $3000USD for a 3D graphics suite that remains immutable to most of their wishes forever.

I've had similar experiences here where people (artists and non-artists alike) feel that my free OS-tan art should be judged the same as paid commission work -- and to add insult to injury, also consider all the detail and backstories I traditionally add to my characters irrelevant (when in fact it has always been my primary focus).  I have the same words for them as I have for the people who threaten to go back to "Windoze" if I don't give them what they want for free: "don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out".  `v'

Say, how can I backup my bookmark list when I can't open Firefox? Not that I have many bookmarks, but I've never known how to find those files in Firefox.

*wanders off to go sleep on the notion of reinstalling XP*

I think you answered this afterwards,... if not, go into C:\Documents and Settings, and search for a folder with your XP codename on it. You'll see the Windows-equivalent of a "/home" folder inside.  Enable "Show Hidden Files" from the folder options, then open the hidden folder called "Application Data".

Inside you'll see the Mozilla folder -- keep clicking down till you cover the file path "..\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\63tsluv1.default" or something like that.  Inside that Profiles subfolder, you'll see a "bookmarks.html" file that contains all your bookmarks from Firefox -- this you can copy and paste out of there, and then import it later to another browser.  ^__^

Those tiny cube computers are so cool! DO WANT! But it's a shame they likely won't be released outside of Japan and they are expensive for such an underpowered computer

Netbooks are better anyway, since they're cheaper AND come with a screen/keyboard/trackpad.  ^.^

No, no, scratch that question about the bookmarks cause I imported them to Safari and then backed them up.

I knew it!  ^.^

I have a new question. Why can three out of my five backup DVDs only be read by K8? Yes, three of those backups, when loaded into DY, come up as blank disks. When loaded into K8 they don't respond as normal DVDs should, they load as CD-Rs and are very slow and hangy.

Wait, I may have answered my own question...

Uh,... I guess.  ^^;

In any event, when burning archival disks, my best advice is that you always burn them at the slowest speed possible by your burner.  

If you'll recall from the 90's computer boom, old CD-ROM drives (and writers) were always advertised by their speed,... it seemed like each company was having an arms race to see how fast their drives could be.

But while drives today are fast, they're speed is a bit muted.  That's because CDROM speeds also work as a plateau -- performance improves up to a certain point, but make it tOO fast and the optical driver laser can't physically keep up and starts experiencing read errors (causing seek-time delays), or worse write errors (when burning).  Naturally, this also contributed to greater wear and tear on optical devices -- a big problem on laptop drives, since they're usually flimsier than their desktop-counterparts.

So if you burn something you don't really care for, it doesn't hurt to blast through it like there's no tomorrrow.  But if you expect to cry if the disk ever becomes unreadable, make sure it gets burned the best way possible.  

As Napolean once said: "I’m in a hurry…Dress me slowly".  ^__~

[Bella]

If you're feeling absolutely adventurous, you might consider giving this a try:

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

Believe it or not, it's smaller and faster than Puppy or even Damn Small Linux! @__@

Wow...that looks pretty cool....but I think I have my hands full with K8 and all this drama right now. I'm not feeling to adventurous at the moment ^^

Like all things, that takes practice in order to really nail it. For example, if I wanted to copy all the files and directories on a USB stick onto a folder on my /Home drive, I would write it out as follows:

Code:

mkdir /home/cchan/destinationfolder
cp -R /media/cchanusbdisk/* /home/cchan/destinationfolder


The first line creates the folder in my home drive.
The next one copies the entire contents of my USB stick (currently mounted in /media/cchanusbdisk) and pastes them into the newly created /home/cchan/destinationfolder.

The "-R", btw, activates the "recursive option in the cp command, which ensures that all folders and their contents are also copied as well. By default, the cp command only copies top-level files ONLY (not even directories).

As you probably know by now, typing:

Code:
man cp


...will bring up the manual for the cp command, which provides more information on its usage and the other options. Press the "Q" key to exit out of it. ^^

Okay, that makes a little more sense. I guess.

My agreement actually isn't so much in the "helping of the competition" aspect, since that's the risk we all take when releasing software under the GPL or similar licenses. As long as they abide by the terms, subsequent distributors and users can do whatever they want with it -- it's in their right, and more so if they actually put some effort into maintaining and/or improving the software.

The problem is just that, however,... despite the overwhelming volume of Windows users, a very horrifying minority relative to other platforms are actually willing to actively contribute to FOSS software -- and in the case of Inkscape, this has often led to the main developers reallocating resources away from the main branch just to get the Windows version up and running (you'll recall it took a while for the WIndows port of version 0.46 to be released).

This in itself is unfortunate, but understandable given the culture difference -- I believe that if only 1% of Windows users participate positively while the remaining 99% did absolutely nothing, that would still offer a fun and stimulating environment for the developers to keep supporting Windows.

The reality, unfortunately, is that 1% of users participate positively, 49% do nothing,... and 50% participate NEGATIVELY towards the project, wasting time, destroying developer morale, and spreading a kind of vitriol FUD that most proprietary software companies can only DREAM of spreading in their Press releases. It's a common paradox I've witnessed where, the more free an application is, the more demanding the users become -- they thump their chests proclaiming with great pride they're too stupid to read instructions (and hence the reason why the program is not ready for "prime time"), but grow meek and sheepish when they shell out $3000USD for a 3D graphics suite that remains immutable to most of their wishes forever.

WTF?! Why the hell are there developers who’re participating negatively? Isn’t that like taking a job at a business you hate just to heckle the employees? Is it out of spite? Are they evil ninjas working for the proprietary companies? Or do they have good intentions, but just end up being demanding and unreasonable? Don’t the software project teams have some rules laid out, like, oh, I don’t know, no abusive or counter-productive developers?

I've had similar experiences here where people (artists and non-artists alike) feel that my free OS-tan art should be judged the same as paid commission work -- and to add insult to injury, also consider all the detail and backstories I traditionally add to my characters irrelevant (when in fact it has always been my primary focus). I have the same words for them as I have for the people who threaten to go back to "Windoze" if I don't give them what they want for free: "don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out". `v'

This can be said of any hobby, I guess…the entire idea of a pastime is something you do for your own enjoyment, not to make money.

Uh,... I guess. ^^;

In any event, when burning archival disks, my best advice is that you always burn them at the slowest speed possible by your burner.

If you'll recall from the 90's computer boom, old CD-ROM drives (and writers) were always advertised by their speed,... it seemed like each company was having an arms race to see how fast their drives could be.

But while drives today are fast, they're speed is a bit muted. That's because CDROM speeds also work as a plateau -- performance improves up to a certain point, but make it tOO fast and the optical driver laser can't physically keep up and starts experiencing read errors (causing seek-time delays), or worse write errors (when burning). Naturally, this also contributed to greater wear and tear on optical devices -- a big problem on laptop drives, since they're usually flimsier than their desktop-counterparts.

So if you burn something you don't really care for, it doesn't hurt to blast through it like there's no tomorrrow. But if you expect to cry if the disk ever becomes unreadable, make sure it gets burned the best way possible.

As Napolean once said: "I’m in a hurry…Dress me slowly". ^__~

Oh, thanks a lot for telling me this…afterwards! T___T

No, I kid, I kid, if I can use these DVDs to restore my files after I reinstall XP and then use ‘em as Frisbees afterward, I’ll be happy. But it turned out my suspicion was correct--three of the DVDs had been burned in CDR mode, not DVD mode. K8 and DY read them as CDRs instead of as DVDs, and apparently this has a big difference.

[C-Chan]

WTF?! Why the hell are there developers who’re participating negatively? Isn’t that like taking a job at a business you hate just to heckle the employees? Is it out of spite? Are they evil ninjas working for the proprietary companies? Or do they have good intentions, but just end up being demanding and unreasonable? Don’t the software project teams have some rules laid out, like, oh, I don’t know, no abusive or counter-productive developers?

I actually meant Users were participating negatively -- and while a couple may sound like paid plants, seeded into the project to add discord, I'm sure the overwhelming majority are just people too entrenched and full of themselves.  That doesn't sound surprising at all when you realize that people like that DO exist in real life (but may not appear as numerous, since they may not have the comfort of anonymity to mask their vitriol).

However, now that you mention it, I HAVE met developers who more often than not contributed negatively to a project.  Or rather, they may contribute something valuable to a specific thing (like localization), but raise complete havoc in other project subsets or administrative tasks.  That, and/or they were just plain rude.

You can enlist the help of the greatest artist in the world -- but if he's a total arsehole and destroys the fun out of a collaboration, there comes a point where having a great team player is better than having a great artist.  Same with development, and when at least one of those developers left after some longstanding grievances over his temper, maturity and abuse of power, he was not missed.  Certainly not by me.

But the damage was done -- hours upon hours of codework lost bickering over inane nonsense.

Indeed, there are some "rules" to guard against this -- but enforcement is hard to manage in a community-based project, especially if the troublemaker is himself a moderator/admin.  In this particular aspect, company-led projects (like Ubuntu, Mandriva and Sun) have a slight advantage in this regards, even if they're bogged down by TOO much inflexibility.

Oh, thanks a lot for telling me this…afterwards! T___T

No, I kid, I kid, if I can use these DVDs to restore my files after I reinstall XP and then use ‘em as Frisbees afterward, I’ll be happy. But it turned out my suspicion was correct--three of the DVDs had been burned in CDR mode, not DVD mode. K8 and DY read them as CDRs instead of as DVDs, and apparently this has a big difference.

Guess its because I haven't used Infrarecorder much, but I kinda thought it burned the same way as K3b (which automatically detects if the disc inserted is a recordable CD or DVD, or even a double-layered DVD).

Oh well, live and learn -- and despite the small inconvenience of having to carefully observe the mode it burns in, I guess Infrarecorder does still serve as the best burning solution for Windows in that it: 1) works, and 2) costs nothing.  ^.^'

In other news, the browser wars are about to get VERY interesting.... -v-

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62045672,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw

[Bella]

actually meant Users were participating negatively -- and while a couple may sound like paid plants, seeded into the project to add discord, I'm sure the overwhelming majority are just people too entrenched and full of themselves. That doesn't sound surprising at all when you realize that people like that DO exist in real life (but may not appear as numerous, since they may not have the comfort of anonymity to mask their vitriol).

However, now that you mention it, I HAVE met developers who more often than not contributed negatively to a project. Or rather, they may contribute something valuable to a specific thing (like localization), but raise complete havoc in other project subsets or administrative tasks. That, and/or they were just plain rude.

You can enlist the help of the greatest artist in the world -- but if he's a total arsehole and destroys the fun out of a collaboration, there comes a point where having a great team player is better than having a great artist. Same with development, and when at least one of those developers left after some longstanding grievances over his temper, maturity and abuse of power, he was not missed. Certainly not by me.

But the damage was done -- hours upon hours of codework lost bickering over inane nonsense.

Indeed, there are some "rules" to guard against this -- but enforcement is hard to manage in a community-based project, especially if the troublemaker is himself a moderator/admin. In this particular aspect, company-led projects (like Ubuntu, Mandriva and Sun) have a slight advantage in this regards, even if they're bogged down by TOO much inflexibility.

Oi, I guess jerks are everywhere -___-

Guess its because I haven't used Infrarecorder much, but I kinda thought it burned the same way as K3b (which automatically detects if the disc inserted is a recordable CD or DVD, or even a double-layered DVD).

Oh well, live and learn -- and despite the small inconvenience of having to carefully observe the mode it burns in, I guess Infrarecorder does still serve as the best burning solution for Windows in that it: 1) works, and 2) costs nothing. ^.^'

No, my tirade was for your not enlightening me on the speed/quality connection.

In other news, the browser wars are about to get VERY interesting.... -v-

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62045672,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw

Oooh, maybe I’ll have to give it a try. I have become something of a browser aficionado XD

In Anguishing and Languishing News, I’m still stalli--Er, I mean to say, deciding if I should reinstall XP. I mean, I’ve decided to, I’m just trying to work up the nerve. Like when you decide to roll your junky car off a cliff to collect insurance! XD

Damn my cowardice/procrastination attitude fault T___T

In Oh Dear Gawd What Lengths Will M$ not go Through to Raise Usership News, imagine my pure IRE when I saw a commercial for something called the Mojave Experiment yesterday, a kind of blind-taste-test for Vista. So I went online to do more research…I’ll let the sites do the talking.

http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/07/mojave-experiment-bad-science-bad.html

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/29/mojave-experiment-goes-live-doesnt-fail-to-annoy/

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/marketing/why_the_mojave_experiment_fails.html

M$ + wannabe cool marketing campaign = LOLsrslyWTF?! I mean, when Apple does a condescending marketing campaign--they do it well, and they make it entertaining. When M$ does the same…it’s cringe-worthy. And chock full O' FUD.

[NejinOniwa]

Oooh, maybe I’ll have to give it a try. I have become something of a browser aficionado XD

Posting this from Google Chrome. Bugged up as hell on the process side, and I can hardly change settings in install and initial setup without it crashing. Web side seems to be OK, though, and it does have a savvy interface - what I can't get used to is the fact that the tab bar is united with the window bar, and above the URL box. Otherwise things seems to be fine.

More to come, perhaps.

Added after 40 seconds:

Oh, and also: No adblock = CRAPPY CRAP CRAP. I puked.

[Bella]

*bawling*

That's very helpful Nejin-san--I'll avoid Chrome for now...

*continues bawling*

Okay, I guess I'm gonna reinstall XP, like--like--right now--no, I still haven't worked up the nerve, but I don't think I ever could. Not without some Geek Squad jerks making a backup of all my files for a few hundred bucks. Hell, I'd even feel better if my technopathic buddy was here! But what would the chances be of both my backups failing...? Oh God no, that implies there is a statistical chance of both them failing--!

*bawls*

[IanDanKilmaster]

Oh, and also: No adblock = CRAPPY CRAP CRAP. I puked.

Not to sound pessimistic, but why would Google include that?  Ads are their bread 'n butter.  Of course, the project is open source, so I guess it won't be too long before a third party will figure out how to add that feature.

For now, I'm content to wait for Chrome until they release it for Linux, and then possibly wait again until someone makes a repo for it in Ubuntu.  Then again, there's always the option of compiling it myself.

[Bella]

Ooopsie, I chickened out at the last minute when K8 had difficulty reading a DVD I burned. Of course. Right now I see these options:

1) Leave K8 as is and buy one of those little gBook pieces of garbage. Course, I put emphasis on the words "garbage", because gOS would probably be installed for about fifteen minutes before I got a real OS in there. Then again all the reviews I've heard of those have been full of hatred, and not only for the software, either.

2) Leave XP as is, install Puppy Linux or something else tiny-but-useful on a pen drive, and just use that...but this brings us to the problem of hardware drivers, because I don't think one exists for Linux that'll allow me to use my Broadcom wireless card. Or if there is I haven't found it. Yes, 100% of my networking is done wirelessly, and no, I've never gotten the internets enabled on Linux. This is, of course, assuming I could even get K8 to boot from a USB drive.

3) If I'm going to destroy all my documents anyhow, I could always do a partition and install Linux right on the hard drive alongside XP. Then there'll only be a chance that all my documents will be destroyed. No, wait, that'll void my warranty...

4) Get the Best Buy morons to make a backup and reinstall XP. Because no amount of money can be put on four years worth of artwork, digital pictures and documents.

5) Man up and just restore the damned system already, because I already have two dubiously reliable backups that should work.

I know, I am a shameful coward. But I feel I cannot purposefully delete all my data without a backup that I know will work. Not that I think will work, or that should work, but will work without a question of a doubt.

Option 2) seems like a good one, but I feel to that will be like sweeping the mess under the rug to deal with on another day, something I don't do.

Right now option 4) seems the most logical, only if for the fact that those idiots are good at making backups. They must have some guarantee for their work.

[C-Chan]

Oi, I guess jerks are everywhere -___-

Yes indeed, that's the sad truth.  ^^

On the other hand, it's probably better this way.  As I always say: "Nothing can be Perfect without a few Imperfections."

Had the community been uniformly kind, helpful and devoted, I would have been very suspicious.  Even we have our differences every once in a while, but it helps to keep things balanced.  ^.^

No, my tirade was for your not enlightening me on the speed/quality connection.

Case in point... there's a zen-like quality in knowing I potentially helped Bella-hime create her first Coasters.  ^.^

Auuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm..... *meditates*  -.-

But yeah, kinda thought you knew that since that's been common knowledge since the late 90's.  That, and the fact that the CD labels sold in stores are BAD for the life of your writable discs, and also the fact that writable disc manufacturers lie about the lifespan of a their products.  ^____^

(Or rather, it's not that they lie.... a CD/DVD WILL last 100 years.  But that's only the PLASTIC,... they NEVER said ANYTHING about the dye layer.  ^.^;

In Anguishing and Languishing News, I’m still stalli--Er, I mean to say, deciding if I should reinstall XP. I mean, I’ve decided to, I’m just trying to work up the nerve. Like when you decide to roll your junky car off a cliff to collect insurance! XD

OMG.  T____T'

Here...

*hands Bella some parsley to slit her wrists with*

M$ + wannabe cool marketing campaign = LOLsrslyWTF?! I mean, when Apple does a condescending marketing campaign--they do it well, and they make it entertaining. When M$ does the same…it’s cringe-worthy. And chock full O' FUD.

*BRAIN EXPLODES!!!!*

Oh dear GAWDS, I think I'm gonna puke.  >v<

In fairness, I guess that's just the wonderful world of advertising.  People will LOVE Coca Cola and/or Pepsi, until they find out it gave them diabetes and/or kidney diseases.  (although some will still drink it anyway -- what can we say, it's just DAMN good marketing.....  -.-; )

Posting this from Google Chrome. Bugged up as hell on the process side, and I can hardly change settings in install and initial setup without it crashing. Web side seems to be OK, though, and it does have a savvy interface - what I can't get used to is the fact that the tab bar is united with the window bar, and above the URL box. Otherwise things seems to be fine.

Yeah, tried it out myself in Virtualbox XP when it first came out.  It's neat, but certainly FEELS like a Beta.  Also had a nasty habit of making my processor work harder, probably because it was semi-virtualization on top a virtual environment (that, or my KPC's processor is just a bit finicky). ^^;

*bawling*

That's very helpful Nejin-san--I'll avoid Chrome for now...

*continues bawling*

Oh yeah, I just said it for the sake of saying, but as a Beta release it's only really meant for developers and testers (or just REALLY curious people).  Certainly not meant for people too scaredy-cat to reinstall XP.  Bwahahah!! `v'

Okay, I guess I'm gonna reinstall XP, like--like--right now--no, I still haven't worked up the nerve, but I don't think I ever could. Not without some Geek Squad jerks making a backup of all my files for a few hundred bucks. Hell, I'd even feel better if my technopathic buddy was here! But what would the chances be of both my backups failing...? Oh God no, that implies there is a statistical chance of both them failing--!

*bawls*

OMGx2.... T____T'

Well I suppose I can't be too hard,... I only got acclamated be reinstallations after I lost everything to the great Hard Drive Crash of '01 (where I lost TONS of my ancient game-mod artwork).

But don't fall into the trap of shelling out TONS of money just for security -- that's just giving up.  Remember the old phrase by one of your founding fathers:  "Those who give up Freedom for Security deserve Neither", or something like that."  -.-

Plus you ONLY have 10GB of files to back up.  Why not dump them all into DY and/or another computer, and create more backups?  That way, you have 4 or 5 backups -- talk about impossible odds.  --;

Not to sound pessimistic, but why would Google include that? Ads are their bread 'n butter. Of course, the project is open source, so I guess it won't be too long before a third party will figure out how to add that feature.

For now, I'm content to wait for Chrome until they release it for Linux, and then possibly wait again until someone makes a repo for it in Ubuntu. Then again, there's always the option of compiling it myself.
_

I actually agree that Google wouldn't willing block pop-up ads, since a few of them might be their own for all we know.  ^^;

But if it ever attracts the same HUGE Extension community that Firefox has, then yes pop-up blockers would be the first in the field.  ^^

I'm in no rush to adapt it either -- I don't do much in a browser besides surfing (i hardly even use FF extensions).  I am very giddy about it though, if only because it's likelier to cut into IE's market share than into Firefox'.  It has the name-brand recognition that so many casual users crave. (few people at work knew what Mozilla or Firefox was, but almost ALL "googled" at one point in time or another).

Right now option 4) seems the most logical, only if for the fact that those idiots are good at making backups. They must have some guarantee for their work.

OMGx5... T______________T;

Well see my above post about making more backups on other machines -- you already have an external hard drive, so it should be easy as pie.  If you feel its a bad omen to "destroy" those files when you do the reinstallation (even if you have 10 backups around the house), then don't leave them in the computer.

MOVE them into your external hard drive, instead -- that way, psychologically-speaking, you'll only be reinstalling an empty shell rather than all your precious media.  That way too it serves as a good last-minute check -- with Windows emptied out including of all the applications that let themselves be uninstalled), it's easy to spot anything that was accidentally left behind.

I won't sanction wasting money to feel better, even if it means buying a Linux netbook.  If you want a good Linux netbook, I'll help fund the purchase of an Acer Aspire One, a Dell Inspiron 9, or whatever doesn't come with SUSE or Xandros,... but never under these circumstances, no.  I want you to BELIEVE in yourself -- that's really the most important part of why I want you to go through with this.  Confidence can't be bought, it has to be built from the ground up and now (or at least when you're done making more backups or researching the subject matter more) is the best time to start!

And BTW, being a man is overrated.  ^____^
Want REAL courage....

...

...YOU GOTTA BE A PIG!!!!!!  ^V^

[IanDanKilmaster]

But don't fall into the trap of shelling out TONS of money just for security -- that's just giving up. Remember the old phrase by one of your founding fathers: "Those who give up Freedom for Security deserve Neither", or something like that." -.-

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin

Yeah, you seem to have the general idea -.- Kudos for referencing one of my favorite revolutionary quotes and applying it to an everyday situation, haha.

I actually agree that Google wouldn't willing block pop-up ads, since a few of them might be their own for all we know. ^^;

But if it ever attracts the same HUGE Extension community that Firefox has, then yes pop-up blockers would be the first in the field. ^^

I'm in no rush to adapt it either -- I don't do much in a browser besides surfing (i hardly even use FF extensions). I am very giddy about it though, if only because it's likelier to cut into IE's market share than into Firefox'. It has the name-brand recognition that so many casual users crave. (few people at work knew what Mozilla or Firefox was, but almost ALL "googled" at one point in time or another).

I agree completely.  My friend and I were discussing this just last night.

[NejinOniwa]

I actually agree that Google wouldn't willing block pop-up ads, since a few of them might be their own for all we know. ^^;

Actually, popup-blocking is pretty neat in Chrome since it keeps it all in its own process and all - it's just the casual page ad blocking that we're missing.

Plus you ONLY have 10GB of files to back up. Why not dump them all into DY and/or another computer, and create more backups? That way, you have 4 or 5 backups -- talk about impossible odds. --;

An even more fixy way to do it:
Fix 3-4 Gmail accounts, Get GSpace for Firefox, upload everything you have onto the internet.


GLOBALIZATION~

[C-Chan]

Yeah, you seem to have the general idea -.- Kudos for referencing one of my favorite revolutionary quotes and applying it to an everyday situation, haha.

Ah!  There we go!  Knew I wasn't entirely off the mark.  ^^

Actually, popup-blocking is pretty neat in Chrome since it keeps it all in its own process and all - it's just the casual page ad blocking that we're missing.

Yeah, I still remember my old Hacchan days when I had to manually chase pop-up windows around to close them.  Very freaky stuff that I'm glad they found a sorta-solution to.  ^__^'

But wonder what creative hack will find a way to make that annoying again.  ^.^

An even more fixy way to do it:
Fix 3-4 Gmail accounts, Get GSpace for Firefox, upload everything you have onto the internet.


GLOBALIZATION~

Hot damn!  I forgot about cloud computing storage!  ^_______^

Yeah, that could definitely be an absolute last-resort backup system -- post your sensitive files in some sort of online storage, in some server far far away from your home and country.  And if you're worried about prying eyes, you can even zip them up and password protect them.  ^___^

After all, as Linus once said, the best backup solution to a file is to release it online.  I already have most of your images in my computer,and in at least a few of the backup DVDs I've made of all my files.  So you can count on me to protect a little bit of "Bellaness" in this world.  ^_____^

===================

In other news, I kinda like this article:

http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200809/ij_09_04_08a.html

And in other OTHER news... it's about freakin time....  T___T

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dncwxa1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=productdetails~laptop-inspiron-9

[IanDanKilmaster]

An even more fixy way to do it:
Fix 3-4 Gmail accounts, Get GSpace for Firefox, upload everything you have onto the internet.


GLOBALIZATION~

Also keep in mind, this may or may not violate the Google TOS, and I have read about reported cases of google suspending or terminating the accounts of people who use their e-mail for this purpose.  That being said, I'm not entirely certain such a legally ambiguous (I say legal for lack of a better word) method for online storage is suited for backing up.  Given Bella-san's reluctance to use other methods, I'm not sure this would suit her either... perhaps X-drive's an option?  How small could one compress 10GB of data?

[C-Chan]

Well, with standard gzip or lzma compression (the kind used in Linux LiveCDs).... quite small.

Surely half or even a quarter of its size.  ^.^

Really would depend a lot on the file content -- JPEGs and MP3s, for example, are already heavily compressed.

Yeah, I was actually thinking more legitimate online storage solutions too.  ^____^

e.g.,

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9917948-7.html

Still involves money, but nothing near the cost of a new laptop or those Geek Squaders.

And still a last resort solution anyway (I don't trust it myself) -- only a slow and deliberate backup process can allay Bella-hime's fears.  ^^