GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

This makes me sad... rather sad. On the bright side, I should be able to get an almost-free iPad2 w/3G soon. http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/20/atandt-agrees-to-buy-t-mobile-from-deutsche-telekom/ **BRENT**

After waiting for the painfully slow download from MSDN I was able to install the RTM of Windows 7 (ultimate x64 version). I didn't have any blank dvd's around so I installed it from a usb thumb and I really think it's the way to go. The install only took 10-15 minutes. Some early thoughts on Windows 7, it's definitely snappier than Vista, especially when it comes to UI affects and such. I should mention that 7 had drivers for everything in my laptop which was nice. I like the new taskbar it's refined and the UI affects actually improve overall usability.

I'm looking for ideas for a PC (non-Mac) laptop that can go to school daily, can do homework that is online-based (meaning Google docs, etc.), and can be a decent gaming machine for Steam-based games. It doesn't really need an optical drive and it should be light enough to carry daily. Probably 14.6-17" screen. The budget needs to be reasonable, but I don't want to be too limiting so I can get a good idea of the options. Thanks in advance for any input and specific models you can recommend.

So I checked Windows Update out of curiosity yesterday (actually looking for an Edge browser update) and noticed that the 2004 update has been around since May and Microsoft has been delaying the rollout. Then I looked for 2004 update problems and got a long list... what do you guys think about the latest major update? I'm inclined to delay this for as long as possible on my personal computer. Microsoft's track record with major updates has been truly terrible in the last few years, going from bricked computers to lost data. I'm afraid to estimate how many millions of dollars of productivity and data have been lost from these problems in enterprise and home computing…

Well I have the iMac up and running. Right now its primary duty will be to run squeezecenter for the abode as well as some web browsing. I have to say I am really impressed by the build quality and the quality of the OS. This is the first Apple computer product I have bought since my first PC in 1981 so I have not really paid a lot of attention to MAC software. It has the standard Mac apps as well as iWork 08. I will probably also put aperture on their to see how I like it for working with images. Other than that I am in the dark so tell me what other killer apps I should get to put my PC's to shame.

I recently procured some audio files with an .APE extension and am having trouble finding a free program that will let me do it. Is there one out there?

I use iTunes to manage my music collection. Its tagging capabilities leave a lot to be desired. I'm playing around with fixtunes to clean up some of the tags, but I was wondering if folks have any other suggestions about a good tagger that works with Mac and iTunes.

Just wondering if anyone has used Optimum Online for an ISP, I am moving to Hoboken in a week and this and Verizon Fios are the options available to me. All else the same, I would probably go with Fios, but there is a promotion that puts the OOL at about half the fios cost for the first year, so just wondering if anyone has tried it with good experiences. No p2p, so I shouldnt have the issues with upload capping I read about.

I'm giving my old Dell Laptop to the Little Monkey, so I'd like to kiddy-fi it as much as possible. Any suggestions for games, applications, etc. to make it more user-friendly for him? (He's 4.) It's running Windows XP. It's a beater.

GAH! I'm sick of using Window media crap. Is there a way to install a program on a Windows XP machine without administrator proveledges (this is my work computer and the folks down at IT won't install iTunes or Quicktime). Any workaround oh great computer gurus!?!?!

Does anyone know of any 802.11n extenders/repeaters? Right now my access point is in the HT/Game room which is in the basement and adjacent to the garage. My bedroom is above the garage and coverage is pretty spotty. The problem is the wall between the basement and the garage it's at least a foot thick solid concrete. Apparently the wireless doesn't like going through that. So I'd like to get some sort of 802.11n extender/repeater/bridge that I could put on the first floor which would give a huge boost to the signal I'd get in my bedroom.

I'm running pretty low on space on my laptop due to all the music I've been ripping to FLAC lately, so I'm left with two options: (1) get a new laptop, or (2) get a nice big external HD. (The internal HD is already at maximum possible with my 4-year old laptop - couldn't find any ATA-66 drives that were more than 100GB that were also 7200rpm.) For cost reasons I'd obviously prefer to get an external HD but that leaves me with a question. Is it feasible to run a USB external HD and a USB DAC at the same time? Should be technically possible I'd think but I was wondering if anyone has actually tried it and if there might any big latency issues that would make it less than…

What apps are you using these days? Me: - Remote - Bejeweled 2 - NY Times - Things - Epocrates - MLB.com At Bat - ESPN Fantasy Football - City Transit - Official NYC Subway Maps - Shazam (personal favorite) - Facebook

Hey folks- So with CPA exam and busy season behind me, I'm finally starting to re-evaluate on what is important: having a kick ass PC to play games on. My current PC is actually pretty great. Surprised to find my i5-3570 CPU I purchased in 2012 is still completely acceptable for gaming. I did upgrade my graphics card to a GTX 980, which is awesome. So I don't see the need for any additional upgrades. What I'd like to do now is thoroughly clean the outside and inside of my PC case. My NZXT is one of those silent cases, and it does a pretty good job of keeping dust out, but nothings perfect, and I'm basically done zero cleaning the past three years. I tried some…

Rather than resurrect a subthread in "what did you do today" or "ye mac thread", I thought I'd start a new one. What is the math software of choice to do DSP, modeling, etc.? I wouldn't mind paying a little bit, but of course I would prefer free, since I'm only a hobbyist at this point. I actually do need it at work (not really, my assessment), but CSC is so cheap they won't spring for anything the customer doesn't put in the contract as 'required'. Shelly posted that she hated the way Mathematica does licensing, and after investigating it, I concur that my infrequent use of it will not justify paying $155/year or $20/month. I might actually be in the Matlab …

This is what I have in mind: I sit in my office, open iTunes, which then plays songs that are stored on a hard drive that sits at home. But without using a desktop machine that actually streams the music. Now, I'm not very literate in these things. What I thought might work, while staying affordable, is to get a Western Digital Mybook World Edition (WD's consumer NAS device), which has Ethernet connection and a so-called WD Anywhere Access thing. Then connect and mount this disk (maybe via smb?) from the internet and then let itunes reference all the tracks in my library to that mounted disk. Would that work? Alternatively, is there a solution that might work wit…

I'd like to create a database of the rear album "art" of my Blue Note LPs, often containing many historical facts about the music or musicians. So the scanner needs to be at least 12x12. Attached an image below for what an average rear cover would look like. Any recommendations?

I've picked up a Duet (again) and would like to start playing around with ripping vinyl. Could one of you chaps who've already been down this road please point me in the direction of some decent software for the Mac to facilitate the process? Workflow tips also welcome! Thanks very much.

Hi All, I finally upgraded my laptop and it has 802.11g support, so it's time to upgrade my ancient Linksys BEFW11S4 router. I'm blindingly happy with it. It hasn't given me a single problem in the years that I've owned it. So I'm inclined to go with the latest Linksys version of this router, the Linksys WRT54G2, which goes for $44.89 at Amazon. I know that Linksys is not the favorite with many people here. Can the many network- and wireless-wise people here either validate my choice or suggest alternatives (or both)? Thanks in advance for your advice. Regard, -ken

We have to send Alden's Lenovo for service and need to back it up to a hard drive. Any good free or cheap options for backup software? Thanks

I am currently using an AirPort Extreme but I know I am on limited time here. Our house is two stories at around 3500 Sq. Ft. with cinder block outside walls which limit signal strength in the garage and outside. Thinking that a mesh system should be the way to go so looking for opinions as well as any recommendations. I like the software interface on the AE and have really had no problems with the system but unfortunately Apple has parked the bus on this one.

I have an IDE drive (DVD burner with lightscribe) that I'd like to use in my SATA-based machine (has no IDE whatsoever). Any adapters that you can recommend or disrecommend?

So I have a mkv file that I would ultimately like to try and get onto a writeable DVD that can perhaps be played in a standard DVD player. I have tried several pieces of software to would presumably at least allow me to transcode the mkv file to avi and therefore make it more "playable" on various HTPCs. For example, my PS3 won't play mkv but will play most avi. So can anyone help. Time really isn't of essence here, I've been working on this on and off for 6 months already. I keep reading page after page that allegedly link to programs like mkv2ps3 and others but eff me if I can even find download links some times.

For those of you playing the home game, my 2015 Macbook Pro went tits up a few months ago. Since then I have been wrestling with the idea of a replacement. Apple's current lineup is ...old and kind of crap. Their recent "California Streaming" event was a massive disappointment (I will not be doing my radio show from a smart phone, KTHX.) More broadly, I'm kinda done with Apple's anti-repair bullshit. I'm not done with MacOS, but I think for the next period of time I'm going to be sticking with stationary Apple products (I still have an iPhone, which I dislike but view as an inescapable evil like taxes and leaf blowers.) I have never owned a PC laptop. I don't…

As some may know, I recently have started a job that involves a good bit of travel, something like 2 weeks a month on average. I need a laptop, and think an ultrabook would really be the ticket. Does anyone have experience with any, not counting the mba? I have been looking mostly at the Gigabyte u2442n and asus nerdbook prime (err, zenbook). Any others people have had good experience with?