|
fluf |
Top of Page Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ No entry. |
|
downloads |
Top of Page Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ Over the weekend I installed a DVD drive in my home PC (Intel D815EEAL mobo, PIII-1GHz, 256 MB RAM, two 13 GB Seagate IDE hard drives, multiple operating systems). The drive is a Pioneer 16X, and came with PowerDVD software. It was an OEM package that I bought on eBay. I replaced my old Mitsumi 32x CD drive with the new unit, setting it as the master drive on the second IDE controller. The drive installed as easily as any other IDE device, and the software installed with no immediate problems. But it detected my motherboard incorrectly, which I assume means that the mobo is newer than the software, not a surprising issue when you buy old OEM packages on eBay. The software thought that my motherboard didn't have DMA enabled for the IDE drives, when of course it did. Well, I popped in a DVD, just to see what would happen. It began to play, but with a horrendously low frame rate, and the sound was dropping out every time the picture jerked. Argh! Well, I knew the basic PC was up to snuff, so I figured that some tweezing was in order. I had my screen resolution at 1280 x 1024, with 24-bit TrueColor. When I went back down to 1024 x 768 at 24 bits, PowerDVD automagically began to keep up. Of course, this is just with the video built into the Intel Mobo, which was designed basically to be Good Enough for business and general use, but never had any pretensions to being hot enough for the latest games or high-rez, full-motion video. Still, at 1024 x 768, the picture on the inexpensive 19" Hitachi monitor was clear and crisp, such as no non-digital TV is able to render. The sound kept up with no drop-outs, and we were in business. My daughter slept over on Friday night, and we watched The Bachelor starring Chris O'Donnell and Renee Zellweger (her choice, duh, but cute) and Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams. The critics writhed and yawned over these, but we enjoyed 'em decently. Then on Saturday I rented The Green Mile starring Tom Hanks (need we say more) and Enemy of the State starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. I found it rather pleasant to see Will Smith playing a grownup, and having to exchange his trademark cockiness for some ignorance and humility. Then on Sunday we rented Disney's animated Tarzan starring the people who always star in Disney animated movies ('nuff said), and something I'd never heard of called Tigerland starring a new Hollywood hunk named Colin Farrell, which was about soldiers training to go to Vietnam in 1971. My ignorance led to a blunder I hope not to repeat... I'm watching a movie with my 15-year-old daughter, and all of a sudden two GIs are picking up bimbos in a strip club, and then it cuts to a couple of nekkid people rolling around in a cheap motel. OOPS! Here's something... DVDs don't have a "fast-forward" button like VCRs do. You can stop a movie, and jump to a new section, which is what we did. But YIKES, man! I can see that a little better pre-planning is going to be called for here. No more nasty surprises. |
|
serious stuf |
Top of Page Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ No entry. |
| reference basic pc maintenance bible gateway cat 5 cable pinouts google search interlinear study bible internic whois online dictionary |
Top of Page Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ No entry. |
|
Top of Page Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ No entry. |
|
|
Top of Page Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ No entry. |
|
Top of Page Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ No entry. |