When I was in high school and did the LAN party scene we never connected our LANs to the internet. Usually the upper-middle class kids hosted, and they had the expensive "high-speed" internet. Which at that time (2000-2002) was ~2Mbps on cable. Most of the attendees still had dial-up. So connecting the network to the internet was a bad idea, since people quickly forgot the point of a LAN party...

So, I don't really use, or frequently recommend Norton or other assorted Symantec products. (except for Ghost).

However, Norton consumer products have greatly improved in the last few years. The interfaces have been improved and simplified, and the code has been cleaned up and more streamlined.

Problems still happen, but I recommend people use the basic version of the software, since it lacks the firewall. The firewall driver is almost always the cause of problems with security software causing computer problems. At least for what I see of it, which is a lot.

If you hate Norton and vow to never use their products again, I would suggest taking a look at the Norton Power Eraser.. It's a free on-demand anti-malware scanning and removal tool that's pretty useful.

I am not sure if you are joking or not, but they still make Ghost. Although I use Ghost 8 frequently at my job for drive cloning, the latest version is Ghost 15, you can buy it at any reputable electronics/software retailer. http://us.norton.com/ghost/ Newer versions of ghost can ghost drives to virtual disk image files, so they can be opened in virtualization software.

The staff absolutely will unbox equipment to answer questions like that, because there will also be other customers asking the same thing


You mean there will be other customers asking if a computer runs linux? I honestly think that number might not be that high.

If you walked into the BestBuy I worked at (yes, I work for Geeksquad, but before you start throwing flames I am Linux+ certified) and we didn't have a floor model open available for you to test on, a sales associate who has no idea what you are talking about would come find me and I would look it up for you.

However, I am told that my store is much nicer than most other BestBuys...

However, each disc is usually locked to a single model, and does some sort of check that prevents it from running on any other model even if it has all the necessary drivers.


You are correct! On HP and Toshiba models this is referred to as Tattooing. If you ever had your motherboard replaced with a different model, you would have to have your new board retattooed, however, both HP and Toshiba keep the DMI (tatooing) utilities locked up, so you may have trouble getting them if you aren't an authorized service provider. :)

Beneath a Steel Sky was such a great game. Good plot and graphics!

Here's a video

Wiki article, I think.

Seriously, go play it!

Prions are so cool!

Everyone knows about mad cow, or as it's called in humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

but for another bitchin, and incurable, and untreatable, disease, check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia

There's nothing better than mutant proteins eating away at important parts of your brain, AFAIK, anyway.

Please excuse any typos, I just came in, and it's very cold!

From sourceforge's TOS:

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Um, seriously, what the hell!?

I mean, really. who in their right mind comes up with this shit. Can you imagine some well-paid guys sitting at a conference table saying, "Well, we're running out of people to sue. Oh, I got it, why don't we waste some more money and sue the company thats hosts all these projects, that'll shut them all down in one fell stroke. Genius, know we'll all get nice bonuses this year! haHA!"

What on earth are these people smoking? Obviously, they should be targeting Intel and AMD, if it weren't for their processors none of this would be happening. Or maybe take on the US government, for coming up with DARPAnet!

I agree with simulation games. Let me tell you about Microsoft Flight Simulator. what a great game, you'll learn all about flying, if you want, or you can just fly around and see landmarks. Hours of fun fun fun. Multiplayer is fun too.