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Whats better as just a laptop to use for personal use for me, a mac or pc? (link)
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In practicality, any modern OS will do anything a standard user could want. Fewer and fewer features, functions and programs are specific to any one OS.
Most people use windows; you yourself are probably more used to windows. If you want an OS that you know how to to use, get a PC. As a related note, I hate XP with a burning passion; Win2k isn't so bad, but it's still ugly (not to mentioned, all versions of windws are filled with gaping security holes). Vista is shaping up to look much better and be at least a little more secure, but isn't going to be out for at least another six months.
Mac OS is superior to windows*, and isn't hideously ugly. If you don't mind learning a new operating system, get a Mac. Responging to an earlier respondent, yes, OS X can get viruses. Guess how likely it is that you actually will though? The answer is not very likely, whereas I read somewhere the average windows pc has 16 malware programs on it. Also, if you have a spare windows install disk sitting around, you can set up new macs to run both that and X.
If you really care about security/don't mind learning a new operating system/like the challenge of having to fiddle a bit to make things work, get a PC without windows preinstalled (ask the manufacturer) and put Linux on it. It's superior to windows (at least from a conceptual and philosophical standpoint) and free, and does everything you need to do. Including running many windows programs, although that's usually difficult. I installed Linux on an old computer to see what it was like, and two days later decided to use it as my primary OS.
*The only thing windows does better for personal use is games, and only because games are made primarily for windows. Say this on a forum anywhere and you'll start a Mac vs PC flame war, but in actual fact the next version of Windows is supposed to implement features that OS X had /five years ago,/ and is an iterative development on the last version instead of a ground-up rewrite like OS X or a clean and effective OS like Linux.
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ok well i deleted all of my songs on limewire and i had 800 songs do u no where they went or how i can get them back because i really need them but they are not in the recycleing bin help please i will rate 5s (link)
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Limewire has never crashed my computer or 'given me spyware.' In my experience, it is stable and secure, and will only cause problems if you do something stupid.
That said, you're probably buggered. I know of one way, and it probably won't work.
Download disk investigator (http://www.diskcleaners.com/files/dskinv.exe). Install and run. Click the 'directories' button and browse to wherever the songs were. If you see files with red names, select them and click the 'undelete' button. A box will come up; if you have more than one drive, select the one that the songs aren't on. If you don't, don't. Click okay, and hopefully some of the songs will be recovered to the drive you selected.
If you don't see files with red names, I'm out of ideas. Also, if you know your drive is NTFS, don't bother because disk investigator doesn't support undeleting from that file system.
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whenever i turn on my computer and window loads a lot of system popups come and say something about this program cant work and check something about system32 and the installation diskette or whatever.. now i cant open itunes because it also says something about system32.. what can i do because i tried to reinstall itunes and it doesnt work.. any computer experts willing to help me?! (link)
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'system32' can be thought of as another way of saying 'windows.' Probably your windows installation is damaged.
I don't know how to fix this without more specific information, but you might want to try starting from the installation CD (should happen if you put it in the drive then restart) and look for some sort of a repair option.
If you have a way to back up your files, like an external drive or something, I'd recommend putting everything you want to save on that before trying to repair. In fact, if you have one, I'd recommend formatting the C drive and reinstalling windows entirely.
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Okay, so I have Adobe Photoshop CS2, and I've had it for a while now. The problem is, recently, it refuses to start up. It keeps saying the scratch disks are full, etc etc, so it can't load the brushes and stuff.
First of all, what's a scratch disk anyways? How do I clean it out or whatever so it's NOT full? How can I get photoshop to work again?! -panic- (link)
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A scratch disk is just a drive that Photoshop uses to store temporary files. The problem is that the drive is full; you need to either:
Clear out some space (try, like, deleting files), or
Specify a drive with empty space as your scratch disk
To specify scratch disks, go to file->preferences->plug-ins and scratch disks (this part might be slightly different depending on your version). Once you're there, select a different drive as your first scratch disk, or set the different drive as your second scratch disk.
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How can I change a WAV file that I recorded on my mp3 player to an MP3 file when I put it on the computer? (link)
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Probably the easiest way would be to use iTunes. Add the .wav file to itunes' playlist, right-click on it, and select 'convert to mp3.'
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i have limewire and sometimes when i download songs i get some popups and my computer gets slower, so what are some things i have to watch out for when i download songs ..any hints?
ps. i know that after i download the song i right click it and click on unshare file, what else? (link)
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Last time I checked, Limewire doesn't have popups.
I am going to recommend that you get adaware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/) and avg (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1), which are free antivirus programs, and so a full scan of your computer.
Then, I'm going to recommend that you not download files which are in dangerous formats, such as .wmv and .asx.
Edit: I feel compelled to append this after all the bad answers given.
Limewire is not an unstable program. It has very, very rarely crashed any of the three computers I have used it on except in exceptional circumstances.
I know that was a joke, but you do not recieve a virus for every song downloaded.
Limewire is not illegal. Downloading or uploading copyright content with it is.
Turning off sharing will not do anything at all to stop you from getting viruses.
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is limewire illegal? (link)
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http://www.limewire.com/english/content/ftc.shtml#8f
Far's I can make out, it comes down to this: having Limewire is not illegal. Running Limewire is not illegal. Downloading copyright material with Limewire is illegal. Distributing copyright material with Limewire is illegal.
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Ok so i have limewire and i downloaded atreyu - bleeding mascara (it was a music video) but it turns out it was a porno! so i deleted it but im really scared becuase what if it didnt really getdeleted and my parents find it.. is there anyway to make sure it was deleted? and to never be found on the computer?
please help asap! i rate 5's.
kthanxbye (link)
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A deleted file is easily retrievable until it is overwritten with other data. Disk Investigator (http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html) would be able to show you the name of the file - even if you've deleted it and emptied the recycle bin - and recover it until it has been overwritten.
To overwrite the file (and all other deleted files which may be retrievable), download Eraser from http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php. Install it and open 'my computer'. Right-click on the drive which had the file on it, and select 'erase unused space'. Click 'options', select 'pseudorandom data', click 'ok', and click 'yes'. It will proceed to overwrite the unused space on the drive, including the movie. No, this won't erase any files which haven't been deleted.
Eraser can be used to overwrite files that haven't been deleted, which saves you from having to overwrite all unused space every time you want to get rid of something. To do this, right click on the file or folder and select 'erase'. It's good practice to use it on any file you don't want people to see.
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Soon, I will be getting a new computer. The one I have now we've had for four or five years and it's getting slow. I have an iPod and I don't know how to save my songs so I can put them on my new computer. I don't have a CD burner so that won't work. Is there any way I can send them to a friend's computer and they can send it to my new computer? I really don't want to have to buy all my songs again that would be way too expensive. Thank you in advance. (link)
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Just using the iPod to move them is probably the best idea. When plugged in to the computer, you can use it just like you would any other kind of disk. Alternatively, if you have or can borrow an external hard drive, it will work just like the iPod for moving files. Finally, if anyone in your family knows networking and both the computers have ethernet or wireless, you can set up a network and move them that way.
EDIT: In reply to your question (I have no idea if it's possible to contact you directly or message you or whatever), the directions for using your ipod as a disk are as follows:
Set your iPod to be an external hard disk.
1. Connect your iPod to your computer and open iTunes.
2. Select iPod in the iTunes source list.
3. Click the iPod options button in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window.
4. Click the “Enable disk use” checkbox, and then click OK.
5. Close iTunes and notice that your iPod appears on your Mac desktop or in the Windows Explorer on your PC.
6. To eject the iPod on a Mac, select the iPod on the desktop and drag it to the Trash.
7. To eject the iPod on a PC, select the iPod in the Windows Explorer, right click on the iPod and then choose Eject from the pop-up menu that appears. Or at the bottom-right of the screen, click the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon.
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Ok, my computer is really messing up. I just recovered it, usually after I recover, it does just fine. But now, when I go to an icon website, the icons never move, I refreshed the page, and restarted the computer, icons are still not moving. On this website, or any other, every other word is turned into a link, when I click it, its just a none existing website, and I'm just not understanding any of this, does this mean I need a new computer? Or is it a program I'm installing? I have AIM and Jasc Animation Shop 3 installed, so, I'm not sure ifd these could be it, because I've never had a problem with them, thank you, I rate!
(link)
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I'm confident that neither of those programs can/should cause this. It seems likely that part of the OS or browser is damaged.... The thing to do would be to make a complete reinstall, but unless you've got a way to back files up, that's probably not something you want to do.
It's possible that if you download a different browser, it won't be affected. If you're using internet explorer, I would recommend getting firefox. If you're using firefox, netscape 6-7, or mozilla, and internet explorer is also messing up, try getting netscape 4.7.
If none of that works, doing a complete reinstall may be the only solution. You could try recovering your computer again, but I don't know what that is or what it's supposeed to do.
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Any time I get a "page not found" thing on my window (like when i try to type in an incorrect address or something) and try to use the back button, my computer starts acting crazy and all these windows pop up, like at least 25 of them and i can't exit out of them (and they're all blank...its not like pop up adds or anything, but they do have an address at the top with a bunch of letters, numbers, slashes, etc.). whats wrong with it and can I prevent this from happening?? (link)
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Sounds a lot like an ineptly made browser hijacker. The windows probably serve some purpose - if you check page source you'll probably see a lot of gibberish that you won't be able to read but actually does something vey sinister. Like the last person said, get an antivirus tool - AVG free edition and/or AdAware personal (google should turn up a link to their respective pages no worries) are handy.
If those doesn't fix the problem, I have one other suggestion. When you say "A lot of slashes and numbers and letters," that sounds like the thing in the address bar is in hexidecimal, which a web browser will display in a form with a slash and then two letters or numbers, repeated. This is done to hide the actual address of the file which the browser is opening; so if you can translate the hex, (google 'hexidecimal translator', though you'll have to delete the slashes in the address you want to translate) you should be able to find the name of the file and delete it. Before you do that though, open it in a text editor and save a copy of the contents somewhere. It's possible that the page itself is referencing a .dll which is causing the problem, and you will have to delete that to to stop it.
uc_asc@yahoo.com for questions and comments. I have a vested interest because I once used this method to kill a browser hijacker and I'm wondering how many can be gotten rid of the same way.
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I'm trying to defragment my c drive, but it says some file is corrupted, and will not let me continue. I also got a pop up message about a chdish utility i need to run... any help? (link)
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Better yet, you could start a command prompt and enter 'chkdsk /f', then enter 'y' when it asks if you want to run it on next startup, then restart. Then, you should be able to defrag.
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How can I color my scanned drawing on the computer to get a digital art effect? I have Photoshop 5, but I have no idea what I'm doing! :\ (link)
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That, my friend, is a question with a long and interesting (to a handful of freaks, anyway) answer. It depends - a lot - on what kind of effect you're trying to get. Do you want flat colors or shaded, or black and white, or effects... there's a great variety of things that you can do even with version five. Do you want to retain part of the origional drawing (outlines, etc.) or convert it entirely to photoshop'd?
First off, you can use the 'Filter' menu to make various artistic effects. Probably under the 'artistic' submenu. This works best if it's shaded/colored, and chances are it's not what you're trying to do.
Now, to be fair Photoshop is not the sort of thing that performs certain fuctions, and it's not the sort of thing that you can learn everything about by reading a manual. The only way to really learn how to do something is to learn by experimentation; you will develop your own techniques, which you will never forget and will be able to improve on and modify as requred. Also, results that you are happy with generally take a long time to make.
Short of that, I'll give two sort of short tutorial things here, one fast and dirty and the other with the intended result being something in the style of this http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/16177381/ , because that's what I know how to do. :p I garuntee that you will be sorry you ever asked.
If you care to contact me for more wossname, personalised instructions, contact me on AIM; I go by 'Another Aurelia'. You could also email me at uc_asc@yahoo.com
First tutorial: applying basic functions.
Assuming that this is a pencil or similar drawing on white paper. Open the drawing. Go to the layers pallette (should be at bottom right) and right-click on the "background" layer. Click 'duplicate layer'. Hit ok. Now, there should be two identical layers. Drag the one named 'background' to the trach can icon at the bottom and delete it. Now, make a new layer(2nd button from right at the bottom of the layers pallette) and drag it down below the copy of the background layer that you made. Select the copy of the background layer and go to the menu at the top of the pallette which says "Normal". Click on it, and select 'darken.' Now select the blank layer you created. You will now be able to paint without disturbing the outline/whatever that's on the top layer, but the top layer will be transparent where whatever is on the bottom layer is darker than what is on the top layer. This means that you can basicly color in the outline by coloring the bottom layer. You'll probably want to use the brush tool (b) (the brush pallette is the one with all the circles and dots on it... double click on the selected one to modify it. Experiment with different sizes and hardnesses, but you're probably going to want mostly large sizes and high hardnesses. For a little more refinement, you may want to use the burn tool (o) to darken a color or the dodge tool (also o; you have to switch between them by clicking and holding down on the button on the menu bar) to lighen it. When using burn and dodge, use the options pallette to select a very low pressure, probably about 5%, and generally 0% hardness.
Second tutorial: steep learning curve.
Open your scanned drawing in photoshop. You're going to need a variety of tools for this, so I'll give the keys for them here; you don't need to memorise them, it's just for future reference. They're also on the toolbar.
p: the pen tool. This will draw a line which can later be traced with a brush or pencil.
a: pen point selection tool. Used to select a point drawn with the pen in order to move it.
-: used to delete a point drawn with the pen tool without breaking the line. you can use the delete key if you want to break the line.
+: add point tool. Adds a point to the middle of the pen line.
convert point tool: found on the toolbar by holding down the button from which you select the various pen tools. It can change a point to one which makes the line curve through it (click and drag an angle point) or to one where the line passing through it makes an angle (click on a curve point and don't drag).
b: paintbrush tool. We won't actually use this much.
o: burn tool. Used to darken a color.
w: wand tool. Used to select areas of the same color.
k: paint bucket tool. Used to fill an area with the same color.
When using photoshop, always remember that you can use the history pallette to undo as many steps as you want. This will come in very handy.
Okay.... go to the little window that has the tabs 'layers,' 'paths,' and 'channels,' and click on the paths tab. Go to the bottom and click on the second button to the right, which will make a new path.
Now, select the pen tool. Using the pen tool is intersting, and you'll mostly have to learn how to do it yourself. It's not overly hard to learn, but can be troublesome. The basic function is as follows: use p to select the pen tool. Pick a place on the outline of your drawing and click and drag a little. Drag parallel to the outline to a point less than halfway between the point you selected and a place where the outline curves in a different direction. Then, go to the place where the line curves and do the same thing. It may take a little experimentation, but you should be able to make the pen line curve along the outline. Repeat this process until you have outlined the entire drawing. You may have to use multiple lines; no worries, all you have to do to start another is hit a (to select the direct selection tool), click in a blan area, then hit p for the point tool, and click somewhere where there isn't a line already. It will start a new one. You can resume work on a deselected line by clicking on one of the end points with the pen tool selected. To make a point or corner with the pen too, just click instead of clicking and dragging. You will need to enclose all the areas that you want to color.
Once you have drawn the entire outline with the pen tool, select the brush tool(b). Go to the brush pallette (should have a variety of circles on it and double-click on the circle (or dot) which is outlined. This should bring up a window where you can change diamater, hardness, and spacing. You'll probably want 1 or 2 diamater, 100% hardness, and 1 spacing.
Go back to the pallette with the 'path' tab and click on the layers tab. Use the second-from-right buttton at the bottom of the tab to create a new layer. Now, go to the toolbar and find the color selection box, which contains two large boxes and two smaller boxes. Click the upper right large box, and it will bring up a window which will let you select a color. The color you select will be the color of the outline. I suggest black or dark gray.
Now, hit a to select the direct selection tool and right click on the image somewhere. It should bring up a menu with a variety of options. Select 'stroke path'. Select paintbrush from the menu which will come up and hit ok. This will draw the outline along the path that you drew with the pen. Nifty, eh? It'll look ugly at first because the path is still visible; go to the path pallette and click in the gray area.
Now, use the wand tool to select the inside of an area that you want to color. Go to the select menu at the top of the screen, down to modify, and select 'expand'. Enter 1 and hit ok. Now, create another layer and hit k to select the paint bucket tool. Select the color that you want to fill that area with and click inside the area. Do this with every area you want colored, making a new layer for each. Note: you're going to want to move the outline layer to the top when you're done. On the layer pallette, click on it and drag it to the top position.
So now you have: one outline layer, several color layers, and the origional drawing at the bottom. Select the burn tool (o), go to the options pallette/tab (might be at upper right), and select a low exposure. I use 5% or less when shading a dark color, and up to 50% for a very light color. Now go to the brush pallette and select whatever you want the brush to be. I recommend a fairly large brush (probably on the order of 30-100 pixels depending on the side of the drawing) with 0% hardness. Now you can shade a colored area by selecting the layer that you want to shade and using the burn tool on it.
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okay so i spilt some soup on my dad's laptop keyboard! now some keys will not work and i dont know how to fix it! can someone please tell me what to do.. please dont delete this (link)
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As a suppliment to mrs radcliffe's advice, note that most (all that I've ever seen, anyway) keyboards have detachable keys which can be easily be pried off with a pen or screwdriver and reattached with no harm done. Removing the affected keys for cleaning may help.
Worst case scenario it'll need keyboard replacement, which will take shop time but most laptop components are modular so it shouldn't be a major issue. For a temporary fix, you can probably plug a keyboard from a different computer into the laptop's ps/2 or usb port.
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im having trouble with these stupid pop-ups on the computer...where can i get a pop-up blocker for free? (link)
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If you use firefox, it has a popup blocking option under tools->options->web features. Otherwise, you can just turn off scripts/javascript in some browsers, and some others have a no-popups option hidden somewhere.
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How do you make all that stuff that appears when you type in stuff in a box like on Google? There's so much of them on my computer and I can't get it to go away. I deleted the cookies in my Temporary Internet Files, I deleted my Temporary Internet Files,and I deleted my history but it still won't go away. How can I make it go away? Usually I'm good with computers but I just can't figure it out! Help!
~K~ (link)
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If you use a Gecko based browser, there should be a way to clear that sort of thing. In Firefox, it's under tools->options->privacy->form information.
If you're using IE5, go get Firefox. Unless you're using OS X, in which case go get Safari. IE has really fallen out of use as a modern browser, as Microsoft can no longer update it significantly. It also has more security holes than a swiss cheese, but that doesn't concern most people.
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everytime i open itunes, a little thing pops up asking me if i want to update it to a newer version of itunes. does anyone know if there is a difference when you update it, and is it worth it? (link)
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Unless you've got loads of RAM (like, more than you think you could ever possibly use), I wouldn't touch it. I upgraded, and it uses three times more RAM than my previous version.
I've since switched to winamp, because it uses 1/7 as much as iTunes 4.7.1, although if anyone knows where I could get an old version of iTunes for windows, I'd appreciate it. The older the better, as long as it's stable.
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I was wonderin if you knew any software to download music for free cause we tried to pay for it before it was only supposed to be 2 dollars a month and they charged us 4,754 dollars so i wanted to know if there was a good free one besides kazaa and winmx (link)
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I have in the past used Kazaa, eDonkey, iSwipe, bittorrent, and Limewire, and I'm trying Ares right now. I, personally, recommend LimeWire for individual songs and BitTorrent for albums. Ares looks all right for popular files, but doesn't do so well finding rare ones.
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My ISP is peoplepc. It only lets me stay connected for 4 hours then the internet kicks off. Is it something I can do or not? (link)
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[EDIT: deleted]
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