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fyhuang

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Posts posted by fyhuang

    Napster question

    in Computer Desk

    Posted · Edited by fyhuang

    Not if you have digital output (whatever that means). Besides, DRM isn't quite effective I think. Everyone keeps making more and more advanced DRM schemes, but in the end it all comes down to the player and/or device actually following the DRM rules. What if I just programmed a player that ignored the DRM tacked on to the end of the song and just played it?

    All in all I think DRM is a totally stupid idea. There really is no way, beyond physical deterioration that people will be able to stop educated people from playing their songs unrestricted. I must state my point that I believe education about a problem is much more effective than attempting to block the problem with restrictions. It will be much more effective if the industry spent more money telling people that copying music is wrong (because if you ask me most people don't know that), than if they put ineffective DRM measures and stuff on their music.

    Same with stuff like driving. To get kids to drive safer (and to prevent accidents and all that), you don't take them off the road, you keep them on the road so they can learn how to be safe (with appropriate, non-restricting precautions like keeping an adult in the car). If you keep them off the road, when the time comes that they actually need to drive they'll be much worse off for it.

    My .02. Cheers!

    Notebooks

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    Heh. I e-mailed Dell tech support asking them how to load an extremely large SoundFont (I have a suspicion that it's because of the OEM-ness of my Audigy 2), and what did they tell me? Move the card to a different slot. So I did, and then I got blitting noise (see my thread :)). Of course, it didn't help one bit.

    Better to just come here and ask :P.

    Oh, and Alienware's got a laptop for 'students', apparently, cause its light and everything but has the Alienware power and stuff. Check it out.

    Cheers!

    Notebooks

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    I don't think anything about Dell computers' prices (they're fine by me), but it's really just preferences of BIOS and stuff. You will NOT be able to dual-boot effectively with a Dell. Not without many days of hard work.

    I've never used a Toshiba so I can't give you anything about that. HP laptops (and computers in general) are not good (sorry to any HP employees here!). They crash a lot, die very soon, and are in general low quality.

    I've heard good things about Acer. In fact I'm planning on getting an Acer (not sure when, maybe in a few months). I'll tell you what I think when I do get it :).

    Cheers!

    Notebooks

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    Stay away from: Dell, HP. IBM sold its computer section to Lenovo (in China), so you might experience a bit of, er, lack of support for your IBM notebook.

    I personally would get an Alienware :), but...

    1 GB RAM is always good. ATi card? See if you can get one with an nVidia 6200 mobile instead. nVidia cards work better with Linux if you ever plan to get one and they (should) do better than the ATi cards in OpenGL as well. I think the X300 is rather slow too.

    Cheers!

    Stupid 'zzz' sound out of my headphones!

    in Computer Desk

    Posted · Edited by fyhuang

    Heh I have an Audigy 2, I don't think you could call that low-end...

    I'll move it down to the bottom slot and see if it helps. I think that's what it is, blitter noise. Yes, it does occur with Firefox and almost all other programs, and especially when moving windows.

    Thanks!

    [edit] Heh, my Audigy 2 is right next to my graphics card, I can see the problem there :).

    Stupid 'zzz' sound out of my headphones!

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    Well, I have these new headsets, right (see 'New Skype version')? So I put them on, and set the volume to a reasonable amount, but whenever something on the screen changes (for example, if I scroll down or something), I get this low-pitched buzz ('zzz'!) for a split second. Every time I scroll or something the buzz is there. It's not particularily loud, but it's annoying.

    I think it's related to the video card's refresh. When I play 3D games (as the screen is updating every frame), the buzzing gets extremely frequent (you know, like every frame :)) and it's really annoying. This doesn't happen with my normal speakers (at least not that I can hear) - I'm plugging the headphones right into the front speaker plug on the sound card.

    Do you think it's video-card related? How to fix it? Thanks and cheers!

    New Skype Version

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    I bought my nice $30 headset! But! under my Linux it only records at a very, very low level. Not only that, it also records the bg music that I have playing (not a result of the microphone BTW), even louder than my voice!

    I'll have to get that fixed :).

    Cheers!

    nVIDIA card

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    Hey, if I could figure out how to hack the Linux kernel to allow support for using AGP memory as an addon to system memory... :). Not to mention, that 3Dlabs Realizm card has support for 256 GB of virtual memory! And it's got dual VPUs. Amazing stuff, but it costs a bundle too.

    Cheers!

    New Skype Version

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    I love Logitech, so I'm going to recommend you get a Logitech headset. You can find the Logitech Internet Chat Headset at Amazon for $15 or so... if you can spend about $30 there's a nice ventilated 'precision gaming' headset :).

    Cheers!

    New Skype Version

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    FYI: I think the new versions are ported over to Linux/OS X fairly quickly. Check in a couple of days :)

    Great! Skype is one of the only commercial programs I have seen thus far that provides adequate Linux support. Go Skype!

    Cheers!

    nVIDIA card

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    If you ask me an X300 is pretty bad... I would go nVidia in this newer respect. 6600s vastly beat the X600 and X300 (GameSpot.com benchmarks), and they're less than $200 usually (I was looking on NewEgg - 6600 256 MB for $150). Not to mention, ATi Linux support is very, very, very bad.

    I think, normally most games only require 64 MB or less of video memory (proven on my computer!), and only games such as DOOM 3 need more. 256 is just for bragging rights.

    Cheers!

    Computer Trivia

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    Lol I've returned from being AFK!

    I think it's some form of Unix or BSD but I don't really know. I personally despise WindowMaker (gah!) and GNUstep I've heard of but haven't really used.

    WFG Firefox users

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    I think our town already has a fairly high percentage of Firefox users so I'm thinking that it should be marginally easier. It might take a while, but hey :).

    Oh, and the Wise One lives in the Inner Chambers of Sol Sanctum. And, you know, whatever hobos happen to be lying around at the moment with a laptop.

    Cheers!

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