xyrec

O.O sorry, I didn't realize there had been a prior outbreak. On the news they were talking about "if" it mutates to become contageous between humans. They didn't mention there already being a form that is contageous or any prior outbreak. As a matter of fact they were talking about like 60 victims total. There are probably 2 reasons why I've never heard of this. 1. I've only recently started paying attention to the news. 2. News from Asia tends to travel very slowly to the US and never receives large coverage.

I'm not sure how many of you pay attention to the news but on CNN last night they were making a very big deal out of a thing called Bird Flu. Also called avian flu or the H5N1 virus strain, this disease apparently has many top scientists in the medical field missing a few winks of sleep. This Bird Flu is a strain of influenza that is carried by various sorts of birds and foul. A family that was interviewed by the news said their chickens all died one day and they didn't know why. Then a day or two later their daughter became ill. Apparently this particular strain of Bird Flu and maybe others as well can be transmitted to humans from birds. So why is this all so important? Well first of all.... As I'm sure most of you realize, viruses tend to mutate. Some viruses mutate at an almost unbelieveable rate. They say that due to mutation, no two HIV infected patients have the exact same strain of the virus. Now then, this particular strain of flu when it infects a human seems to stay contained. So the patients don't infect other people. So whatever it's method of spreading itself is, it isn't very effective. So their big concern is that this particular virus will mutate to be more easily spread, such as becoming an airborn pathogen. You may still be wondering why this is important, after all, we have various strains of flu every year. Well apparently of the few people who have become infected in the past few years, over 50% have died. The Spanish Flu that swept the whole world in 1918 killed over 100 million people but it only killed approximately 5% of the people who were infected. So even with our modern methods of treating diseases, it could still kill an unprecedented number of people if it became highly contageous. So what do you make of all this? Is this just another scare like Y2K that will make countless people buy generators and horde bottled water, ramen noodles and canned food in their basements? Some scientists say that this bird flu just isn't the threat that it's being hyped as, yet at the same time there are other viruses that could potentially become as much of a threat as bird flu. Thus they don't just think we should prepare for bird flu, but for all viruses and other contageous diseases. To me, this sounds like a very smart idea. They say an ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure and in this case could mean saving the lives of millions of people in a worst case scenario. If there was a major outbreak, what would you do? Perhaps rush to the store with a face mask on and lysol cans blazing, grab all the supplies you could get, buy them and then head home to wait inside until news of a vaccine available in your area?

Please excuse my ignorance, but what does QFT stand for?

Downloading music is illegal. By law it is considered stealing. However, I can't imagine why people even bother to compare it to other forms of stealing. Stealing isn't just stealing. You can't generalize about theft. People steal to feed their families. Robinhood stole from the rich and gave to the poor, but he's considered a hero in literature. Nowadays, someone tries to steal from a rich person and give it to poor people the government would arrest them, throw them in jail with murderers and rapists and take back the money from the poor people. However, when a rich person like say Ken Lay of Enron steals millions of dollars and ruins the lives of countless people(even causes the deal of some elderly people who had heart attacks or strokes when they heard that all their retirement money was gone and they basically had no way of supporting themselves). What happens to him? He's probably in a mansion somewhere living the high life on all that money he pilfered. Try as you might, you just can't compare the two things. Is downloading stealing? Yes. Is it hurting anyone though? Is it? Can you honestly say that it is? If you borrow a friend's cd that they purchased legally and make a copy of it, your friend won't know unless you tell him, and neither will the recording company, the government or the musician that made the music. So does it hurt them? You might say that it does because they didn't get the 15 dollars for that cd so they arn't receiving as much money. That's one of those things that people could argue endlessly over but as far as I"m concerned, if the person copied the song instead of paying for it, they obviously didn't want it bad enough to pay for it and wouldn't have. How many people do you know of that have plenty of money lieing around to buy cd's with, that download instead? I don't know any. The people I know that download can't afford to buy music and usually do anyway. Even when napster was at it's peak, I knew people that regularly bought music in addition to downloading it. If downloading is so detrimental to musicians then why did countless cd's still go gold, platinum or multiple platinum in the time period when illegal downloading was at it's highest? Just for a minute, lets forget about whether or not downloading music is right or wrong and just accept that it's illegal. It is stealing. Why don't we steal? Why is stealing considered wrong in basically all cultures? It's because it hurts people. Not so much just because it doesn't belong to you. People tell their kids not to steal because they shouldn't take things that don't belong to them but that's really a pathetic line of reasoning and the kid probably won't get it. The real reason why people who honestly don't want to steal, don't steal, is they don't want to do something that hurts another person. {Going into a store and taking an item hurts the store. The store looses an item they already payed for and thus has less money to buy more products. That means less income all around and less income means lower pay for the employees who work there, and the guy who owns the store. So if you steal something from a store like wal-mart, you are literally hurting people by doing so. Same goes for it you come and take something from a person's house. With a song or cd that you copy illegally however, the artist, recording company or copyright holder did not actually pay for the copy of the song to be made, the cd or hard drive onto which it is stored, or the burner/computer/internet connection used to obtain/store/or copy the song/cd.} With that statement out in the open, I ask, why is downloading music illegal then? Sure, it is by definition stealing, but is it hurting anyone? So why do people find it so morally objectionable? I honestly don't know. Even stranger than the logic behind why it's illegal is how technical all this stupidity is. To be able to control music the various governments have had to add all sorts of laws to cover every aspect so that people can't find loopholes in the law and download music legally then. None of it really makes any sense. Consider this. What do the musicians, recording companies, or copyright holder actually own? Well they don't own the concept of sound because they didn't create sound. Neither did they create the instruments on which they're playing(well a few musicians have invented their own instruments but it's rare). They also didn't define the specific wavelengths of sound as certain notes. They don't own the air over which the sound waves pass to reach our ears. So what do they own? Basically a string of sounds in a specific order. How though can they own that string of sounds? They obviously don't own the individual notes or sounds because then none of us could ever play a musical instrument or speak legally because we'd be using something that someone else owns. If they owned even sections of the music but not the individual notes then no one else could strum a chord or play a scale used in a copyrighted song legally. So basically they must own only that specific recording. Those specific notes, in that specific order, played at the same pace and everything. But then if someone changed a version of the song to be a fraction of a second slower in pace, or was missing a split second of music so that it wasn't the exact same recording then it wouldn't technically be their property anymore. Because of this they now put labels on cd's that say you don't actually own what is on the cd. You own the chunk of plastic on which the music movie or game is recorded. Thus you can't reproduce or edit anything on it without express written permission from them. Therefore even if you own a cd, making a copy of it is now illegal, ripping them to mp3's and putting them on your mp3 player is now illegal and so is listening to samples of music on amazon because I highly doubt that amazon has gotten permission from every artist it sells cd's for to copy their song, convert it to another format and cut out a small section to use as a sample. So if you do that, you're committing a crime just as much as anyone who downloads an mp3. Whether you realize it or not, you are copying their music when you stream it and listen to the sample. They send the file to you and it's stored in your ram as the media player, plays it. So even though it is automatically deleted when you close the media player, you still stole a song for a few seconds. It's no different than someone downloading an mp3, listening to it once and then deleting it. Basically the bottom line is, it's now illegal to tamper with anything recorded on a cd or dvd, whether it be music, a computer program, a game, or a movie. Arn't they sneaky? So when you purchase a cd or dvd, basically what you're paying for is not the actual contents of the disc, but the right to use it as it was originally intended to be used(ie music is designed to be listened to, movies are supposed to be watched, games are supposed to be played, if you do anything other than those original intended purposes with the data on those discs then you're breaking the law just as much as any mp3 downloader)(Imagine stealing a book from a wal-mart, reading it, then returning it to the wal-mart from which you stole it. You still stole their book.....). So what does that mean? I can't be sure but as far as I can tell, that means that if you arn't paying for the right to use it, you can't use it. So if you borrow a dvd from a friend and watch it, it's an illegal action since you didn't pay for the right to watch that movie. Same thing would go for borrowing a game or listening to music on the radio. That would also make movie rental companies criminals since they are purchasing a copy of a movie and then renting it out to people who haven't payed for the right to watch that movie, and then collecting all the profits which could amount to much more than what the original movie cost, without paying any royalties to the owner of the copyright. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the way the law works but then that's why all these complicated laws are so ignorant, nobody knows what is or isn't illegal. The stupidity of these laws and the deviousness with which they are crafted brings me to my final thought on the matter. Why don't artists want their music copied? Is it really because it feels like it is an invasion of their privacy? Or because they just don't want their works copied without permission? If you think logically about it, it becomes pretty obvious. It's about the money, and in some cases, sheer greed. That's why the laws are there, to make sure they get all their money. Where has the artistry gone to? They call musicians artists all the time but the art in this world just seems to have died. I may be going out on a limb here by trying to assume what the intentions of people are but it seems to me that at one time, art was intended to be a beautiful thing for all people to enjoy. Something that people created for the express purpose of bringing joy to others. Now it's a business. What is a business? An organized means of making money, that's what a business is, and that is what art has turned into. Painters make paintings in the hope of finding some rich snobs with too much money on their hands to buy their painting for a ridiculous price. Musicians make songs and expect to sell them for millions. Why should a series of sounds be worth millions? I have no problem with people playing music for a living. It's a respectable job just like any guy sitting behind a desk filing stacks of papers for a living. However getting filty stinking rich by selling something like that for an inflated price to people who can't really afford it seems wrong to me. I guess that's how things work though. We live in a capitalistic economy, at least here in the states, and that's what happens in capitalism. If you make something that people want, and they're dumb enough to pay out the nose for it, then I suppose it's all fair. It's no coincidence that the more popular the musicians are, the more music they sell. They portray musicians as cool on channels like vh1 or mtv and then people want to be like them and buy their music because of that. It's the same as any other advertising except that it's a live spokesman representing the product. Also the majority of the population in most countries is below the middle class line so then the majority of the people who they are trying to sell their music too probably have trouble affording 15 dollars for a plastic disc that doesn't serve any purpose other than entertainment, which isn't a necessity, it's a luxury. That is why it seems so wrong to me for them to make millions upon millions while their fans who pay for their albums in many cases are poor as church mice. So in short, what am I trying to say by all this? I think art is something that should be enjoyed by everyone, not used to make inordinate amounts of money at the expense of the poorest class of most countries. You can agree or disagree with me on this but if you respond, I'd at least like to see logical opinions in return instead of flames. I can appreciate other people's opinions so if you think something I said is stupid, please explain why. On a side note, I really don't download much. I probably have less than 40 songs downloaded and own most of the cd's to that music. Then I think I've downloaded two dvd's and I own both of them. I just have a very strong opinion of this matter and it irritates me when people compare people who download songs with shoplifters and such.

My favorite quote was: It's the sad truth too....while the recording industry has just sat around complaining and trying to sue, they could've been jumping on the band wagon and put their music up for download and just charge a nominal fee for it. There are a lot of people who like a single song on a cd but arn't willing to pay for the whole cd to listen to one song. Instead of catering to these sorts of customers and supporting the rise of the mp3 players which are all but replacing portable cd players, the imbeciles just sat and complained. Now there is Napster, Rhapsody, iTunes and a number of other companies who have already cornered the market so it's too late. I dunno if their actions just stem from the extreme amount of unbridled greed that blinds them or what. If I was a stock holder in any of the major recording companies I would be livid with anger. Most of the people who download music don't have any money to take and napster didn't have much either. I bet the idiots spent more on lawyer fees trying to sue everyone than what they got as payment from the lawsuits.

My grandfather has told me about a relative of mine - I believe it's my Great Uncle on my Grandmother's side - who got a violin as a present when he was young and learned to play it without any lessons or sheet music. He just listened to other people play and taught himself. By the time he was an adult they say he could play along with the best of concert violinists but he didn't even know the names of the notes he was playing or anything about sheet music. As for me, I used to play the clarinet. I played from 6th - 8th grade in middle school. I dropped band when I went to highschool though because it was so time consuming. Since I hadn't been using it, my mom loaned my clarinet to my cousin who wanted to join band and now we don't know where my clarinet that cost 800 bucks when it was new, is. The most technical piece that I think I ever totally learned was Jupiter from "The Planets" which I was learning to challenge the chairs above me so I could move up to first chair. The second chair didn't practice much so I knew he wouldn't be able to play the song after the week you get to prepare for a challenge. The first chair couldn't hit high notes and the song is full of really high notes and in some places it goes from low notes to really high ones quickly which makes it even harder. I never did challenge them though because around that time I started to loose my self confidence and as a result, my ability to speak or play music in front of crowds. Now I have a 6 string accoustic/electric guitar that I try to play every now and then. I can't read standard musical notation for guitar but I can read tablature(who couldn't? it just shows what strings to press down on which frets). I have a book with some sheet music in it that is both standard notation and tab so I've tried to play the tabs for a few of them. The one I've praticed the most is "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who.

I've never tried civ out myself either but I'll probably try it out of curiosity one of these days. I'll second that notion that age of empires(aoe2 the conquerors expansion to be specific) is the greatest rts of all time. Starcraft is pretty awesome too. Actually a friend of mine has a copy of the original civ I think...maybe I should borrow it. Then there's also the bargain bin at the local Meijers, they usually have older games like that for 5 or 10 bucks. Of 1-3 is any particular one of the considered to be the best?

Glad to see she waited. It always makes me ill when I see girls(or guys for that matter) go out and get married the very nanosecond that they turn 18. My best friend's sister did that and I think she's regretted it ever since. She went and did some stupid eloping bit and her parents wre devestated that they didn't even get to see their wedding. Her dad will tear up if he watches a movie about a father and daughter and the daughter is getting married because it reminds him that he never got to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding.

Hey forsakenmage. I remember you, you're still on my friends list. Remember my character Shaltoa? I didn't know you still played...or if you don't play, I didn't know you hovered around these forums either. Anyway, on to the injuries. Once I was watching looney toons and there was an octopus spinning around. Of course, like most kids, I had to try and sping myself and after about 2 rotations I got dizzy, fell over and cracked my chin on the corner of a desk. Oh were the steri-strips painful. Then one time I was at school on the playground. Our tire swing had broken and only the chains it used to hang from were left. I guess I decided it would be great fun to swing on the leftover chains but after a swing or two I lost my grip and slid down the chain. Lucky me, my tooth broke my fall! It caught on one of the chain links, probably because I tilted my head forward as I started to slip and the chain kinda hit me in teh mouth and snagged a corner. The chip exposed the nerve and oh was that pleasant. When we went to the dentist he got ready to jab me in the gums with an enormous novacaine needle I wouldn't allow it. I'm terrified of needles...especially ones that are more than half a foot long. So I decided I could handle the procedure without the novacaine....I should've taken the novacaine. It felt like a hornet was stinging me right in the nerve. I still have a lovely little gray corner on one of my front teeth to remind me of how stupid I was when I was a kid. Another time on the school playground I was on the jungle gym, several feet in the air and I slipped off a bar, falling backwards. Not sure how but I managed to do a half twist in the air so that my face was towards the jungle gym as I went head first towards the ground and my chin caught on the lower bars on the jungle gym. I have a few more less interesting stories but the previous three are probably my most tramatic injuries. I was in a car wreck and came out with nothing but a bruise on my shoulder from the seatbelt so that doesn't really count..... If you care to hear about some other people's misfortunes.... My best friend is really accident prone and his parents hated to take him to any picnics because he was accident prone when he was little. They knew they'd have to take him to the emergency room, it just became a routine for them. Once he was watching everyone play horse shoes and a little girl asked if she could try. He was standing right behind her and she swung the horse shoe but like most little kids has apsolutely not sense of timing and let go of it when her arm was over her head. So it went flying behind her and smacked him right between the eyes. Another time he went to drink his coke and swallowed a bee..... Oh and there was the time he was trying to help carry poles for a volley ball net and went off running with one. It slipped out of his hands and one in planted firmly in the ground while the other managed to swing around and catch him right in the face. Ahhhh, I have a good one. My dad is a welding teacher and one of his students got the bright idea a month or so ago, to make a cannon. What does he decide to make his cannon barrel from? Perhaps heavy gauge steel pipe? Why heck no, that stuff costs money. Aaahhh, a car muffler pipe, this should do the trick, right? Okay, now I'll just fill it with 8 times the amount of gunpowder with which one would normally load a 50 cal muzzle loader. There we go, now what to use for ammo. Ah, I know, a golf ball, this won't flatten and mushroom out jamming in the pipe under the force of the expanding explosives will it? I guess I'll never know unless I try. *loads the cannon* alright, now to leave a small trail of gunpowder leading to the cannon. Gunpowder burns slowly, right? Just like in those cartoons. *lights gunpowder* *gunpowder burns up instantly* *cannon goes off and explodes like a grenade* Needless to say they couldn't even pick all the pieces of shrapnel out of him. It blew off several pieces of his fingers on one hand, only some of which could be sewn back. Blew away parts of his chest muscle and bicep. Lucky for him a chunk of metal didn't hit him in the neck and slit an artery. EDIT: Please excuse the poor grammer, spelling, and typos in this post. Normally I would edit my post to fix all the errors but it's 11:50am here and I haven't been to bed yet.

Hmmm....seems odd for something like this to happen so suddenly. I've seen a computer that someone brought in to the school where I took A+ training and it took over 15 minutes to boot. The reason for it's slow speed became apparent quickly once we got it to load though. It was crammed full of spyware and adware. Every 30 seconds aol would attempt to dial, there were shortcuts to porno in the start shortcuts and even in the programs list. Adaware found like over 500 items....even after we did everything we could think of the pc was still slow as a drunken sloth. In case you do have to format, do you have a cd or dvd burner? If you do, you outta be able to burn all your stuff from work that you need to keep, then after you format just copy the stuff back onto the pc. It'll be good either way since then you'll have a hard backup incase the computer totally poops.

Well I'm so fuming mad right now I could just about throw a brick through my computer screen. I made a big long winded post about my opinion of that pc you have selected and then I had a list of stuff I priced on tigerdirect.com. However I took so long making my post that the forum autologged me out so when I clicked submit it took me to a login screen and wouldn't let me go back. So of course after I logged back in it brought up a blank window for me to type my message in. So there went my post..... Well anyway the prices were $2393.00 USD for one that would spank the hiney(faster cpu, better mother board, faster single graphics card, double the ram, better hard drive with 50gb more storage, better looks{uv reactive cabling and fans plus a uv lighting kit and much cooler case} and a nice monitor, keyboard&mouse combo, and speakers although I can't be sure if what i selected on those 3 was better since you only described them as "optional in your list) of the one you had picked out. And then $2076.00 USD for one a little more similar to the one you have picked out. Both packages I priced included everything you would need for the entire pc, including the operating system, xp home edition sp 2. It's usually cheaper and better to buy the parts and put it together. Using online how-to-guides and the instructions that come with the parts you outta be able to install everything yourself no problem. Just go buy a 5 dollar anti-static wrist strap from radio shack or another electronics store for when you assemble everything. Equipment that expensive isn't something you wanna chance frying with static. If everything else fails call that one nerdy friend that everyone has and ask if he can help you a bit. Oh and you'll feel much better about the pc if you can say you put it together yourself. Not to mention the experience is helpful for when you're in your work place and something goes wrong with a computer. The biggest thing to remember when you shop for a pc or pc parts is that it's very easy to get ripped off. Stuff like those software options you included are usually a waste of money. I would never make any use of microsoft office. Maybe you might but the majority of us could get by with wordpad. The anti-virus is unnecessary when you can get everything you need for free on the net. Warranties are nice on pc's that you buy but if you can build your own pc you can also fix your own pc and the parts usually have their own warranties so if a part breaks you can get it replaced if it's still under warranty. Even dell doesn't offer a 6 year warranty, considering that most of the parts for your computer would likely be out of stock after just a couple years. I'd be cautious about trusting just any company's warranty. Most companies realize that most people are too lazy to use their warranties and they just stick the warranties in there as another option to charge you out the wazoo for. If I was you I'd do a lot of shopping and comparing, read a lot of consumer reports and reviews, and think long and hard before clicking the "buy now" button. That's a lot of money to spend for something that might be overpriced and underpowered.

I did a search for other posts by you and found the topic you mentioned earlier where you explained things between you and your "friend." I still don' think I totally understand the situation but I'll contribute my 2 cents anyway. First of all, no it isn't wrong to love someone other than your spouse(unless by "love" you mean to engage in some sort of sexual activity which isn't really love anyway). The only thing is that when you marry someone you're forming a union with someone that is supposed to be permanent. If you love someone enough to form a permant relationship with them on that level, you should love them more than anything else. I think this is where a lot of people get confused. They hear that you love someone and they think that challenges your love to your spouse, like as if two loves can't exist at once. It's really a screwed up interpretation of the word love. You can thank the english language for that, too many words have multiple meanings. Anyway, it's okay to love a friend, but why would you want to love a friend like that? True friends don't try to con another friend out of items and insult them. You seem to be worried too much about being a good friend to him, and that worry seems to keep you distracted from the fact that he obviously isn't worried about being a good friend to you. If that guy doesn't care anymore about you than that, he isn't your friend and never really was. In your other topic you mentioned having a history of domestic violence. I'm not a licensed psychiatrist or anything but from what I've heard, and in my own experience and observations, it seems that people who have a history of domestic violence have very little self esteem and it causes them to settle for things. Instead of trying to find good friends that actually care, they seem to think to themselves "well I'm worthless anyway, I don't deserve better friends" so they settle for pathetic friends. Then the same thing goes for when they date and marry, they end up settling for a lousy spouse because they don't think they can get anyone better, or that they don't deserve any better. That however is the opposite of how they should feel. If someone doesn't care about you, they don't deserve to be in your presence, leave them in the dust. If that "friend" of yours takes you off his list because you got angry and asked for something back after he insulted you, then he doesn't deserve to be your friend. From the sound of it, you have given him a ton of stuff and he hasn't even appreciated it. It's no different than in real life. If you have lousy friends irl they will be more than glad to take your things and time and leave you with nothing but a hole in your heart. Oh, and a mess. They come over without asking, dirty your dishes, eat your food, drink your soda(or other beverages), use your tv, clutter your house, and get things dirty. All while keeping you from doing things you may have needed to do. They'll ask to borrow things and never return them, ask you for your help moving furniture, doing yard work or any number of things, but then when you need anything they're always busy or their wallet is their other pants, even if they're wearing their other pants. You said a history of domestic violence so I hope you arn't still being abused by someone close to you. If something is still going on, you can leave me an address and name in pm and I'll gladly go kick the stuffing out of the sorry loser. Or since you are apparently an adult you could just leave the person and never speak to them again, which is what they deserve for abusing you. No one deserves to be abused either phsyically and verbally by anyone, especially not by people they would call friends, and most especially no by their relatives or marriage mate. I hope I haven't sounded like Dr. Phil here but it's the honest truth, if someone treats you badly, they arn't your friend and you shouldn't associate yourself with them.

If blowing in it made it start working again it could just be so dusty in there that the eye can't read the cd's through the dust. After you get a can of compressed air and blow it out, try buying a cleaning cd that has a little brush on the cd to clean the lens and run that through the thing. As far as I know there's nothing you can do about skipping though, you hit a bump, it's gonna skip. The only thing that compensates for this is if your changer has a skip delay where it reads ahead of what is playing and stores it in a buffer so that it isn't directly playing whats on the cd. That way a shock won't disrupt the playing and the cd reader eye has a chance to find where it was reading again and start reading once more. That's why if you have a portable cd player with like a 20 second skip delay, you can bang on it and drop it and it won't skip, but if you go jogging with it and it's subjected to numerous shocks in succession it will start to skip, because the buffer runs out of music to play and the laser eye isn't able to continue feeding more data into the buffer. If your cd changer doesn't have a skip delay built in I don't think there's anything you can do to add it, you just have to buy a newer one with that feature.

I have no idea what you guys are talking about with the butter knives but the katana with two blades is a real type of sword. One of the bad guys on the anime rurouni kenshin had that because he collected unique swords. They said on the show that it's purpose is to leave two gashes in close proximity so that the wound can't be sown together properly. That way if your opponent is wounded but escapes he'll be permanently maimed and won't recover from the fight.

I dunno about the pc problem but as far as the sister problem, go get yourself a retired police K-9 unit german sheperd. Building on his former training, teach him to kill anyone who touches your computer other than you. Then hang a nifty little sign on him that says "Touch my computer and you'll end up dog food." Oh, and he might be an older dog but that won't matter. He may not be able to chase down street thugs anymore, but I'm sure he'll be more than a match for your sister. :D

My areas of the most expertice tend to be with networking and hardware so I'm just kinda thinking out loud here, but arn't BSOD's a fault with windows and thus a software issue, not a hardware issue? I'm not sure why you assume that a format won't work but if you have a copy of windows xp sp2, I'd recommend burning anything you want to save onto a cd or dvd and then doing a format and reinstall. However, I'd suggest you consult some windows gurus and see if there's any kind of fix they know of that doesn't require a format beforehand. Just incase you don't really need to format.

I think tigerdirect has it for $180, that's xp pro sp2, but then they tack on shiping and handling to that.

That wouldn't surprise me at all, and the sad part is, symantec has no ground to stand on since you can download anti-virus software that is better than nortons for free. And if you're determined to pay somebody you can get avg 7.0 with firewall for around the same price as nortons. So anyway, the main topic. Well....when I use mozilla and firefox....I don't get spyware, and adware. When I use IE, I do get spyware and adware. That's enough proof for me so I'll stick with my beloved mozilla. Symantec can cram their reviews where the sun isn't so shiny.

Throw it away instead of formatting it and reinstalling the os?

I guess it depends on what firewall you have but most give you some sort of feature in the configuration of the firewall where you can select programs for it to allow traffic to reach, so just select runescape. Can't really give you any more specific instructions without knowing what firewall you have.

1000 bucks for a new screen? You my friend, got jipped unless that was a 5000 dollar vaio or something. You can get fairly reasonably priced laptops from dell for less than 1000 bucks....not the screen, the whole laptop. As far as the cause of the problem, I'd say hardware. Nothing about your software should've changed really, the tech should've installed the new screen without ever messing with any software.

If either of you is behind a firewall it might be blocking you all from searching for one another and connecting. Try shutting down any software firewalls either of you might have temporarily while you play the game then put it back up. Also, if you're on a router, the ip of your computer itself is assigned by the router and a private network ip can't be seen by a computer outside the network. You'll need to get the ip of your router that the cable or dsl assigned to the router and then have your friend find that ip. Then in the router's configuration you'll ahve to set it up to forward data on certain ports to your computer. I dunno if you even have a router for broadband since you didn't provide any details but if you are, and it's a linksys router(probably is, like 90% of everyone with broadband has a linksys router) go to your browser and instead of a website, type in 192.168.1.1 and a box will come up asking for a user name and pass. On most linksys routers the default user and pass is "admin" for both but if that doesn't work check your router's manual. Different routers have different versions of the firmware but on mine you click on "status" in the configuration menu and it'll come up with a page that has some information on it. One line should say Internet IP address. That's the address you need to use. For the port forwarding, on mine there is a link at the top to a page labeled "applications and gaming" which will let you forward data on certain ports to your computer. Check your computer's assigned ip(go to start, run, type cmd, command, or prompt{one of those should work} and then in the window type ipconfig and hit enter, then once you've found your ip address type exit and hit enter). Then for the forwarding, there is an application column that you can just put aoe2 in so you know what it's for. Then right of that is the start and end column which defines the start and end of teh range of ports. Then protocol, which you'll want to put select tcp on all of the port ranges from the dropdown menu. Then right of that is ip address, in which you put your computer's ip. Then right of that is an enabled column with a check box by each line, check enabled before you play and make sure you click save settings at the bottom when you finish. The ports to open are 443, 1863, 6891-6900, 6667, 28000-29100, 28000-28809. Those ports are according to the help on zone.com and should allow you to play via ip connect across the internet or on zone.com. When you arn't playing you should go back into your router's configuration and uncheck the enabled boxes on all those lines so that there arn't any ways for stuff to get past your firewall. You can always go back in and enable teh port forwarding again next time you want to play. Well I hope that helps, if not I just wasted a bunch of time. I also play aoe2 the conquerors, if you want to play a game sometime, pm me.

Or you could just open the case and look at the graphics card itself. :-P

Lol, corny pickup lines..... Anyway, I can't think of any good things to engrave. The one that logic-is-overrated came up with was pretty funny and serves as identification as well. I wonder, does the ipod nano run on a small hard drive or flash memory or neither? I've never wanted to get regualar ipods because the hard drives in them can break down if they suffer a lot of shocks like if you jog with one or you accidentally drop them. The ipod shuffle doesn't suffer from the same problems but it's too pricey for just a little flash memory mp3 player.

I hate it when people jump up and down screaming about piracy like someone is robbing a nearby bank. If they're this excited about the movie they're probably gonna buy it anyway so what difference does it make if they downloaded a lower quality version first. Not like as if square is loosing any money that way. Like as if they actually care about their product being reproduced without their permission, they just care about getting the money from that product. As long as they eventually buy or rent the movie square is loosing nothing so don't get all bent outta shape. Anyway, I'm really excited about the movie too. I'm hoping they release it on dvd, not just umd for the psp or I'll have to wait even longer to see it(until i can afford a psp).