grundledib

I'ma say that I dont think this is strictly speaking true. Not just HDDs, which do break over time (they're mechanical, after all), but the electronics in other components from CPU to GFX Card to Motherbord run down, AFAIK. Yes the HDD will slow down as it gets filled with stuff, especially when there is about 20% free space left. As for the other components, the CPU and the GPU can slow down depending how much they are making heat and how often you clean them, as overheating will cause damage. Yes, HDD access and read times/ speeds slow down as more of the available space is used, but the differences between a 4 year old hard drive that's been defragged, cleaned up and reformatted, and a brand new equivalent, are minimal and most likely wouldn't warrant buying a new drive. What I'm saying is that >90% of the effect of a computer 'slowing down', especially over a period as short as 4 years, on what I assume to be a fairly gently used laptop, is down to software/ maintaining the HDD poorly. Anyway, the most important thing is that the OP doesn't buy a new computer because his old one is 'slowing down' without going through some of the steps I listed above.

You got tickets to the London show? Lucky bastard.

I own a Sony PRS-505 I picked up cheap on eBay a few months back. I got it out of convenience- I'm one of those people that's constantly flitting between books and is probably reading 3 or 4 different books at any one time. Taking that many books 200 miles on the coach/ train every time I go home for holidays/ the weekend is a nightmare. I do still covet books, and nothing will ever replace new book smell/ feel, but in my current situation, I simply cannot store as many physical books as I would like to, hence the reader. That being said, reading on it is a joy, and a huge amount better than reading on an LCD screen of any description. The contrast of E-Ink displays are very similar to that of a newspaper, for example, which makes using them to read very easy on the eyes.

My list of favourite books/ series is a little odd. As a kid, my favourites were always Philip Pullman's books (pretty sure I owned every book he had written at one point, haven't bought or read any of his books in 2 or 3 years) Nowadays, I still love the Bartimaeus Trilogy and the Inheritance series (even if it is basically Star Wars with dragons) If you ask me now though, my favourite series is, by far, the Hyperion Cantos of Dan Simmons. A film is apparently being made of the first two books, but I really can't imagine it'll be any good. Be warned that the books are a lot better than the film ever could be, so don't you dare judge the books on the back of the film. I'm a big fan of Arthur C Clarke as well, specifically the Rama series; David Fincher's been talking about making a film of Rendezvous With Rama for years. I can't imagine it'll ever happen, but that one would work a lot better than a Hyperion film ever could. In terms of fantasy, I'm more into Mervyn Peake's books than Tolkien's. As far as I'm concerned, he invented modern fantasy a good 10 years before The Hobbit and LOTR were published. Look up the Gormenghast series. I also love Terry Pratchett's Discworld books (and have endless respect for him as a person). I don't care if they aren't what you'd call 'literary genius', they're hilarious and satirical in a gentle way that only Pratchett can manage. Plus there are now 40 of them, I think. Not going to run out of Discworld books any time soon.

If anyone here is going, make sure you see Gogol Bordello. It doesn't really matter what you think about their music, they are the most hilarious fun to see live. Other than that, the lineup doesn't really look all that great, IMHO.

I'm really, really disappointed with it. Their best album is still Revolutions, and always will be, judging by the direction they've been taking with the last few albums. Still, when the tour eventually works its way around to my neck of the woods (won't be until at least August, judging by their tour schedule), I'm gonna be seeing them as often as possible. Seen them twice already, they're one of my very favourite live bands. Tim McIlrath is nothing short of a manic frontman.

Under. Over often bothers me so much that I have to correct it. Anyone who says it doesn't matter to them is lying.

Cracking open a laptop case is very easy. Turn it over, unscrew the screws around the edges of the panels you can see, take the panel off, give a good squirt of compressed air. Repeat every 3-4 months or so. As for your computer getting slower, it's the operating system. Hardware does not get worse/ slower with age. The best thing you can do is backup all the contents of your hard drive (after deleting any unnecessary data), format the disk and reinstall your operating system. If your laptop is 4 years old, I'm guessing you're running Windows Vista? It's well worth upgrading to Windows 7. This sounds difficult, but it really isn't; Microsoft have made the whole process very easy since XP came along. Ideally you should reinstall Windows every 6-8 months or so to stop it accumulating excess bloat, as Windows tends to do. If you feel like you couldn't handle reinstalling an OS, then you should, at the very least, defragment your drive, clean the registry (doesn't do a lot, but it can't hurt), run regular virus scans and uninstall all the programs you don't use any more. To defrag, use Defraggler To clean the registry, use CCleaner The best anti-virus scanner for Windows at the moment is Microsoft Security Essentials I'd really recommend using a browser other than Internet Explorer, if you aren't already. My personal preference is Firefox, but Google Chrome and Opera are all very good too. If you want to get a new computer regardless of the performance of your current one, building a PC is very easy, no matter how daunting the prospect is. Take your time to research what you want your computer to be able to handle and how much you want to spend. Look for guides on building a computer, watch videos, or, best of all, find someone you know who knows how to do it already and ask them to help you. I find that this is a very useful guideline for what to buy at each price point. That would be the best place to start. I'm not familiar with the current range of laptops, but I would suggest that if you only use your computer inside your home, a PC is cheaper spec-for-spec, and far more customizable and upgradeable. Hope I helped and didn't sound like a patronising arse. Feel free to PM me if you want any help with anything.

Difficult. Nearly impossible to do without experience in metalwork. What case have you got? If it comes with a 'stealth' bezel for optical drives, there must be a way to mount that bezel to the case? Without knowing what that bezel looks like, I can't tell if it could be adapted for other drive bays, but I don't see why not.

Right, you told me to post first, so here I am. grats chublet. Get your slayer up ^.^

:shock: That's INSANE! HUGE congratulations, obvious 10/10 Although I can't believe no one's managed that in, what, nearly 9 years of RSC? Astonishing achievement.

:o:O:O Awesome! 10/10 Just 177m exp left now :P

+1 I used to have a 4GB Sansa and loved using it. Beautiful piece of design :P Anyway, it depends on what you're using it for... Generally, small flash based players are better for running with, so I'd say either check out a Sandisk Sansa of relevant size, a Creative ZEN (I myself have an old ZEN Vision:M 60GB... tis an effing brick but so much better than either iPods or Zunes...) or whatever the equivalent sized iRiver player is (not sure about them, haven't looked at their website in a while). All of them have advantages over iPods or Zunes: All Sansas have a MicroSD expansion slot so you can add however much memory you want, Sansas are generally a joy to use (I found the Sansa's wheel a lot better than the iPod wheel) and the UI is absolutely intuitive. They also allow you to replace your own battery (little screws on the back) although explaining to everyone that your mp3 player is in fact better than an iPod does get a little annoying at times. Creative is well known for over engineering most of their products, so a well looked after ZEN will probably outlast you, and the sound quality is outstanding on all ZENs I've ever listened to (especially when compared to an iPod). iRivers tend to be more expensive, but the sound quality is even better than the equivalent Creative and having something completely original is somehow compelling... Go for any of them and you'll be happy All the ones I mentioned are also fully plug-and-play, so you can literally drag and drop music into the relevant disk in My Computer or whatever the Mac equivalent is, and it'll recognise it from the ID3 tags. However, if you do use software, the Creative software can be a little bit tetchy when dealing with huge numbers of files (transferring 20,000+ images and music files onto my Vision:M has caused the software to throw a hissy fit in the past). On balance, I'd say as long as you don't get an iPod (crappy sound quality, AWFUL software, unreliable and expensive to repair) or a Zune (don't know too much about them, but I've never encountered a piece of Microsoft software that hasn't had crippling bugs in it so I'd avoid them like the plague).

Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle are both very similar in style, and equally unfunny. The one liners are amusing for a couple of minutes, but they are CONSTANT and get more than a little boring after a while. I've never understood Peter Kay or mini-Kay (Manford)... I also hate Bernard Manning/ Jim Davidson/ Al Murray with a passion - mindless racism and distinct lack of wit does not a good comedian make. Think I'll wade into the Bill Hicks debate here... He wasn't the funniest comedian the world has ever seen, but was incredibly important as he raised a huge number of very thought provoking and serious political points yet still managed to hide them behind a brilliant wit that would keep you almost in hysterics till the end of a show, when you had time to think about the points he made and realise what half the jokes were about...