GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

My grad school group is looking to host web based calendar system on our server to reserve instruments. Do any of you, perhaps Todd, know of a good one? Here are some features we'd like: -ability to email all users simultaneously -email users by clicking on their scheduled time -prevent an instrument from being doublebooked -email administrator to request training for an instrument -web based administration interface

My Mac mini (2011) died. No warranty. I was using it with attached USB drives and a Drobo I replaced it temporarily with a laptop I had lying around and re-attached my existing drives to it to serve files. This is a temporary solution. Before I had the mini I had a Netgear ReadyNAS with two drives in it. I need to serve out video, back up photos and other important files from across my local network, and run Crashplan and such. Maybe Plex? I was thinking of building a FreeNAS box myself, because it's the kind of thing I like to do. Then I stumbled across the FreeNAS Mini. Overkill? Probably. But that's when my middle name again reared its head: "Pay For Con…

Alright, I'm trying to install Linux (Ubuntu 6.06) on my admittedly ancient (by Borg standards) computer (Sony Vaio PCV-RX550/-7732). After the install (I let it wipe the disk [200G Seagate Barracuda]), Grub comes up and says "Error 18". So I think what's going on is that the Bios can't handle the large disk drive, but if I'm reading this page correctly, they want me to shrink my root partition down to 512M? That don't seem right -- the installer won't let me even shrink it down that small...

Does anyone here know if a Windows 7 OEM disc can be used to upgrade a current Vista installation? I'd rather pick up the OEM than the upgrade for the following reasons: 1. OEM is cheaper 2. In case I want to do a clean install, I'm not sure if the upgrade disc would require me to do a Vista install FIRST and then a 7 upgrade SECOND. --> Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong with this assumption. This might convince me to just buy the upgrade then. Thanks!

In this day and age, this should not be that hard. I am looking for some decent backup software. Here's how I'd like it to work. 1. I want real time backup -- I don't want to have to run it every night, or press a backup button. I want for the software to detect when I have changed a file, and back it up. 2. I want it to keep all version of the files it backs up. 3. I want the backup to be in the cloud -- I don't want to have to maintain a backup server, and I don't want to backup locally. 4. I want the software to sync several computers. I use about 5 different computers, and I want for a change on one to be replicated to the others. I have been usin…

I decided to give my dad my partner's old laptop (Pentium M 1.6Ghz 1GB RAM). After erasing everything and reinstalling Windows XP Pro from the original disk, the computer kept crashing. I am guessing that it had something to do with some drivers. Instead of trying to fix it, I wiped the HD clean and installed Linux Mint on it. I figured that he could do everything on Linux that he needed. So I get to my parents house today and find out that most of what my dad does on the computer is stream Netflix movies. As far as I can tell, you cannot stream Netflix with Linux (even with Moonlight). If there is a way, I would love to know. My other option is to insta…

I have a good client/friend that has cancer. He is having major surgery in about 2 weeks. I've been telling him to get a drive for me to transfer a bunch of music for him to use on his ipod and at home. I have an external in my office which I reformatted by accident. I have a 1 tb drive at home that is Mac OS formatted. I would like to be able to transfer about 400 gb of music from this drive to his new 1 tb Seagate Freeagent (not Mac OS). He uses a pc. Is there anyway for me to do this?

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?

I need to purchase a slim SATA ODD for a slim HTPC case. I'll need DVD, CD, and Blu-Ray read support (best accuracy is what I'm looking for). Write support is not as important but CDR, DVDR would be needed at least. I'm really looking for the best slim ODD to finish ripping my CD, DVD, Blu-Ray collection to storage.

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 have a HP PC with a 365W power supply, and I want to upgrade the video. The system currently has a single HD and a single DVD drive. The CPU is an Intel Core 2 Quad. How do I figure out whether the system can handle the power requirements of a video card? I'm looking to spend $120-$170 on a video card -- a middle of the pack gaming performer. I'm looking at Radeo HD 5750 cards and some nVidia cards. I also found an interesting fanless Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GT card. Quiet performance is always good. But as I read the product specs on newegg for various video cards, I see many cards requiring 400+ watt PS. Assuming I can even upgrade the PS in this HP, is that what …

Stupid question guys: Yesterday a friend on a flash sale bought a new PC based on I9 12900K with a 3080 graphics card. Ok, his old PC is a 7700K/1070 so just for the graphics card it's worth the change We tested it (mode stock, non overclock) and I have the feeling that, except for getting a better score in Benchmarks, for "normal" use (web, mails, youtube, some games...) there really wasn't much difference compared to my 9900K/3080: yes, yes, my 9900K takes a second longer to load some applications, it gets a few FPS less in some games... single core tasks it does seem somewhat superior (such as DCS in VR) but in general, I did not notice a "radical" change.…

So I went to the Apple trailers site, and it said I needed QuickTime v. 7 to view the Simpsons movie teaser. So I went to download it, and it's called "iTunesSetup.exe" -- WTF? Have they merged the two softwares? Is this like RealPlayah? I really like just having the media player, I don't need iTunes' other carp. So I guess the real question is, has anyone else installed this, and if so, can I still just watch vid clips like on the trailers site with it? Or if I click on the wrong thing, am I going to accidentally buy some MP3's...or somesuch whatnot...?

I'm trying to decide on a notebook. I haven't purchased a computer in a long time and I am really confused by all the new processors. I intend to use this notebook for web browsing, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, music (iTunes, foobar, running SqueezeCenter), ripping/burning cd's and dvd's, and hopefully be able to watch HD videos without dropoffs. I also like being able to open several tabs in Firefox/IE at once without slowing down. In other words, everyday tasks just no gaming or video editing. I don't have much money so my budget is around $350. I know that makes my selection very limited, but I saw these refurbished notebooks from Circuit City/Tiger Di…

Is there any way I could block specific TCP/UDP ports without reconfiguring the main router? My younger brother's XBOX Live games disturbing my sleep are getting a little old. While this would be easy enough to do at the router level, my brother is smart enough (I assume) to troubleshoot via cycling the router's power, resetting any changes I might make. I suppose this could be viewed as a passive aggressive way of resolving the problem, but I think all of the interested parties would prefer it to the more destructive solutions I have in mind.

Is there some way to monitor auction sites or forums such that when a particular product went on sale, you would receive an email or would otherwise be notified? For example, let's say I was in the market for another North Star. I could subscribe to the FS forums on HF, HC, etc. and get daily updates. Same with the 'bay. Not sure about the 'gon. But I'm wondering if there is some sort of service or feed or robot or spider or whateverthefuck that would monitor certain sites and notify me asap when something was posted for sale. Is this remotely feasible, or am I just being an assfacehole?

Hi everyone- Simple question before I cram this drive in my Drobo: can I put a drive in there that already has stuff on it, or should I only insert blank drives? I tried and tried to google this info up but no dice. Just want to make sure before I proceed. By my calculation there should be plenty of space left for protection after I insert the drive.

I am trying to simlify my life, and it is proving to be really complicated. Here's the story -- I would like to run a bunch of different software all on one computer. Most of it is not cross platform, or for one reason or another, I want to use various OSes for various tasks. Also, most of it is not goig to be in use all the time, but it would be nice if it was running when I needed it without a lot of configuration, and it would be nice to run much of it at the same time. Ideally, making this feel like a bunch of computers conected to a KVM would be perfect. So, for instance, I would like an automated cd ripper, a squeezebox server, and a music player. VortexBox will …

Ok gents I've worked on this thing for days now to no avail. My Toshiba LT (Vista) will not recognize my HR DAC. I've rebooted, gone into my INF files to check if any of the USB got renamed, tried all the USB ports, checked for driver updates, etc. Nothing. Any help is immensely appreciated, Thanks!

Need to connect a Sony GT1/Google TV to my Macbook, mostly for video. Anyone have a recommendation of which uPnP server to use? http://www.yazsoft.com/products/playback/ http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink http://www.twonky.com/products/twonkyserver/default.aspx

Anyone have any experience with cloning a windows 7 installation to a new disk? This one is slightly complicated in that the disk is in two partitions, and overall is 500Gb and I want to clone to only a 120Gb SSD. I only need the C: partition (D: is manufactuers recovery partition), however I'm not sure how to make sure the thing boots normally without cloning the entire disk, which isn't possible in this case...

I know iTunes can playback pre-emphasis CDs on the fly applying the required filtering to de-emphasize them, but it won't play FLAC files, nor will apply the de-emphasis filter on ALAC files made from pre-emphasized FLAC files. So it's either de-emphasizing the FLAC files using SoX or some other filtering tool and playing back the new corrected files on your preferred software, or using some software that can de-emphasize FLAC files on the fly. Does this even exist? I'd like to know about any music playback software for OSX that can play pre-emphasized lossless files applying the required filtering on the fly. Thanks.

I'm trying to get my squeezebox (v1) to play my personal Last.FM radio and it seems that the only way to do that is to get the stream url somehow. I've tried most methods that I've seen on the interwebz (squeezebox forums included) with no luck. If anyone sees a solution, I would love to know. EDIT: I know this can be done somehow since a foobar plug-in does it very well.

and how do I make sure I don't have to waste my time with this stuff ever again? let's see... I guess we can say the laptop isn't exactly responsive, there's a few too many search toolbars in IE (google, AIM, and something called MyWebSearch), some website popups occur once in a while telling her to buy "WinAntiVirus Pro 2006," she tells me that whenever she types in "www" into the web browser it disappears or something so I have to fix this so-called "www" problem (hint: the actual address bar is minimized and only the search tool text boxes are showing), some website told me to run PandaSoftware's online antivirus (pandas finding viruses? they don't seem exactly fit…

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.