New Stuff

[Placebo]

wait.. you overclocked an MX400.. You n00b, those things were heaps of crap..

No. I was wondering in my post why overclock it, you would just overcook it. You're connecting this with how i heated the case panel using a electric heater which somehow affected the mx400 to not show artifacts on screen.
And that was a reply to your sentence

This is why it's probably safer just to overclock it.. but then I don't think many cards these days suffer from the cold too much.

spare Placebo; he poses no threat to science

I wouldn't be so certain.

Hm, i could relate to that, but let's pretend i understood

[gamer0004]

Thank god I use Open Office lol (awaits flame war to start)

Heh, why? OO is an absolutely fantastic software suite.

I tried the "writer" and after only a couple of minutes I uninstalled the whole thing again. I don't really like MS Office, but there was one simple thing with OO which I couldn't bear: zooming. In Office, when I zoom it zooms in to the middle of the page nicely, so I can see as much of the page that can be written upon as possible. In OO, when I zoom in, it zooms in on the nice grey sides and the part of the paper which I can't use, as a result of which I can see actually less useful page than before. I hate programs which do that (especially since I never use the 100% view setting).

[m3rc1l3ss]

Who needs office (open or M$) I just use Notepad plus for everything other than power points.

[Jonas]

Who needs office (open or M$)

*Raises hand*

Just because I'm competent enough to use a program like Notepad+, doesn't mean I don't appreciate a proper bloody interface.

[Mr_Cyberpunk]

Just because I'm competent enough to use a program like Notepad+, doesn't mean I don't appreciate a proper bloody interface.

ROFL.

I was wondering in my post why overclock it, you would just overcook it.

You'd only over cook it if you didn't know what you were doing, the trick is to just up it an extra few MHz till you hit the right temperature. Then when its all good pull it back down to its normal setting. Its not healthy for the card to do that but it'll stop it from freezing on you.

[justanotherfan]

Yeah, turning off case fans and overclocking a little would help keep a warmer ambient temperature in the case. Could work well. Just undo it when the outside temperature rises.

I had terrible issues with Windows 2008 (Vista with some stuff disabled by default) and won't be using it again. One example would be where one morning it could no longer shut down, and logging-on randomly froze the system. They'll need a SP1 before I even test it again, and most likely I'll wait to test 7 or its server version. My testing Fedora went better than switching to Vista.

The Open Office versus MS Office thing does turn into a flamewar often. It's much like the GIMP vs Photoshop flamewars, except I know GIMP can't do some basic things yet (CMYK, 16bit, etc), while I think OO probably duplicates what Office does effectively. I don't use word processors for anything other than essays with basic formatting (MLA, rarely APA), so I can use anything. I've even used Simpletext for essays, but text editors are intended for displaying text on-screen rather than formatting it for paper. For my purposes and for everyone else I know, Open Office is far more than sufficient. Some people I know have taken classes on using MS Office, so they've learned its interface and can't really switch -- much like how the GIMP infuriates me when I can't find a tool or option that's front and center in MS Paint, but I could still learn it.

[DaveW]

Windows 2008? I've never heard of that...Vista runs fine for me though. Do you mean Windows Server 2008?
Windows 7, once they fix this installer issue (which is likely to be to do with .NET libraries, which would explain it effecting Microsoft installers only) is a perfectly viable operating system to use - even in beta.

And I much prefer Office over OO, the interface and features are so much cooler.

[EER]

I do two simple things with office:
1) Type text
2) Paste screenshots and crop them

2 is the reason that I am using MS Office. At home I never use any office apps, because frankly ... why should I?

[justanotherfan]

Yes, Windows Server 2008. Since there's usually only two versions of Windows available at any given time (plus the permutations of each version "edition", and XP vs. Vista is the horrible exception), I use the shortened notation as "server" is redundant. Sometimes I use "Win2003" notation, which is the system I'm posting this with. I use the server versions of Windows for various reasons I can explain, even though I wouldn't be caught dead running something like IIS.

I dislike the Office interface. I know the older verisons of Office quite well, but the whole ribbon concept makes it difficult for me to find tools/features in a large grouping of small unlabeled icons. Other people love it. Open Office tends to match the older versions of Office well enough to not annoy me.

EER, you could probably switch to www.OpenOffice.org and www.GIMP.org. Or even ABI Word (www.abisource.com) and MS Paint, judging how you describe the features you need. That could save money, save computing resources, and heal the world. I'm very much a fan of open source projects for various reasons I can explain, and I use and suggest open source programs over closed source ones whenever open software does what you need done.

[DaveW]

Open Source users are supporters of communism.

[EER]

At home I use Ubuntu with the GIMP and OO.o. Or ... I have them installed. I don't really use any office application outside of work, because I do not require one. I use the GIMP because I occasionally would like to resize pictures.

The use case I described is at work, in MS word, I copy/paste any screenshot, select it and then drag & drop to resize. This costs me about 3 seconds per screenshot.

In OO.Writer (2.x) I have to right-click the screenshot and then manually type how many pixels I want to crop, if I fail to enter the correct amount of pixels, repeat.
In OO.Writer (3.0) this has improved so at least I have a PREVIEW when manually typing how many pixels I want to crop, in which case I won't likely make a mistake.

Still, both simply do not meet my one requirement for any office application, which is: drag & drop crop. So I don't use them for work related stuff.

Other than that, at work we are very MS oriented (I am the only one who dares touch a linux machine and develop software for it) so I doubt we would switch to OO even if it would meet my requirement.

[Nameless Voice]

Has OpenOffice improved much in the last 2-3 years? Because the last time I tried it, it was awful. I tried to like it but just couldn't stand it, particularly the unintuitive interface (things like "Save" and "Discard" instead of "Yes" and "No", having to use backspace instead of delete to clear cells in Calc for no logical reason, etc.)

It did make really nice small .doc files though, I have to give it that!

[bjorn98009_91]

Open Source users are supporters of communism.

And what's wrong with that? Seriously, the private market couldn't handle the responsibility, hence the economic crisis.

Ok, maybe not a step so radical as communism is, but at least a step in that political direction would be good... Make rich people less rich, increase well-fare and build a safety net for the poor people. I think what Obama represents is laying in that area, or at least somewhat.

[justanotherfan]

I tried to like it but just couldn't stand it, particularly the unintuitive interface-- things like "Save" and "Discard" instead of "Yes" and "No"

That's an old Macintosh convention. With Windows you have to read the entire dialog, and then make a sometimes-vague choice (eg. "This file is newer than that one. Do you want to keep it?" <yes> <no>). With the buttons saying what they'll do, I'd argue it's far better, but it's probably annoying when you've learned the other way.

Political terms are so confusing. I'd say Open Source supporters are endorsing collectivization of programming work, and a free minimum standard for all desktop/server software. Those could be socialist goals. When you run open source software, you run with FDR (or Tommy Douglas, Clement Attlee, or the Rt Hon. Localized Softsocialist. Sorry about the FDR pun). I don't think there'll be an opensource communist revolution, unless Richard Stallman acquires a Kalashnikov.

[Mr_Cyberpunk]

The following applications have been added to my systems.

*Blender + Game Blender
*Open Office
*GIMP (I still prefer Photoshop though and will probably still use it, I just have gimp on there in the event that I can't afford Photoshop in the event I produce something full of win to sell legally.)
*Firefox

Yes.. I am a communist Down with the Establishment! Down with Captialism!

lol.. well really I just hate Microsoft- even if I do use their OSes their ehtos towards their consumers is utterly appauling- I mean Bill Gates has never even thanked us for all our support over the years the ungreatful asshole- Steven Jobs too gets the same reputation however Leopard is a very nice OS compared to its predecessor which IMO was fucked to hell (begins setting Tiger CD on fire)

Open Source is awesome.. Totally support it because its making game development and IT development cost effective for all of us and at the same time ruining the monopolies that are destroying our industries. Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and AutoDesk come to mind as the BAD guys of industry. (especially AutoDesk.. they're far worse than Microsoft IMO)