Flenix .

Hello.

I'm trying to find an ideal laptop, but struggling to find the specs I want.

I'm looking for something around 13" (Anything bigger is fine, 13" purely for budget but happy to go up to 17.6"). It needs to be touch screen, and ideally transformer-style (IE, the screen can be on the outside when closed. A detachable screen would be acceptable)

Processor-wise i3 or equivalent, anything better is a huge bonus though. It also needs to support at least 4gb of RAM, but obviously I don't mind if it initially comes with less. Can't be ARM; I'll be running Windows 8 full.

Storage isn't too important, but at least 120gb or so would be good.

NFC would be a cool bonus but not too bothered.

I'll be mostly just doing documents, browsing and coding (Java & C++; so ARM processors and Windows RT aren't any good), but I may play the occasional lightweight games (for example Minecraft)- ideally I'd get a confortable 30fps on that as a good benchmark. I'll be installing Windows 8.1 on it, so if it comes with that then cool, if not I'll just wipe and install that anyway.

I'll probably buy it used, but price is a factor here, so cheaper is better.

What can people recommend?

Hello,

I've just bought a 2008 Mac Pro. I want to upgrade the memory in it, but the official Apple RAM (which you can only really get from other scrapped machines and so it's quite expensive.

However, I've looked for other RAM which wasn't removed from an Apple machine and it's considerably cheaper - but I can't find any information on whether this will actually work in my machine.

Crucial.com tells me the machine simply requires "Memory Type: DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 (ECC)". I've always known ECC ram is a little harder to get/more expensive, but will something like this Samsung set work?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8GB-Samsung-DDR2-PC2-640...

Thanks

Hey guys,

I have two scenarios I want to achieve with .bat files.

The first is, I want to put a .bat file inside a zipped folder. When a user unzips and runs this .bat file, it should move all the files/folders inside to a specified directory. It should do this regardless of where the folder currently sits (I want to just say "everything at the same level as this .bat file goes to X" basically)

The second is, I want to copy a single file to multiple locations, and name the copied file something different (All the same name, but different to the original). I've made an API which I use on multiple projects, and it's quite tedious at the moment, dragging the files into each projects compile path individually.

I've never written .batch files before but I've used them quite a bit, from what I understand both of these should be quite easy to accomplish?

Any help would be great, just pointing me in the right direction would be good :)

As it says on the title.

I want to download a .zip file from somewhere on the web. It should then extract the zip into a directory on the computer, specified by a file inside the .zip.

What I want to know is what would be the best language for like this, and where's the best place to start? I know some basic Java stuff, but I'm keen to learn other languages and I feel this would be a pretty simple thing to do. It does need to run on win/mac/linux.

This isn't for anything sinister. I run a minecraft game server which uses mods, and a lot of people have trouble with installing mods into the correct place, so I want to make an installer which does the dirty work for them. I'll make the installer open-source so anyone using it can see it's clean... not that the average user of something like this would understand the code of course, but the thought is there!

Any help would be great, thanks.

Hey guys.

I have a pretty messy room, and I'm a bit of a hoarder. On Monday night, I accidentally stood on an upturned plug and the longer pin (I'm in the UK) went into my foot. I was wearing socks at the time, so it just fell out again straight away.

I didn't think much of it at the time. It hurt a bit, but after a second I just carried on, walked downstairs to get a drink.I didn't even realize there was damage until I went to bed.

Tuesday morning, it was a little sore and I couldn't completely put my weight on it. It was in the higher part of the arch of my foot though, so I could quite easily walk on the side of my foot, so it wasn't a huge deal. It was a little tiring walking like that though.

Wednesday I took a relax day. I'm unemployed so I don't really have to get out unless I want to, so I just had the day off and worked on some projects, barely walking around at all.

Today though, it seems to have gotten much worse. It really hurts even when I walk on the side of my foot, and it's even painful when I'm not walking. The only time it doesn't hurt is if it's completely lifted, or resting on the heel. I can't completely clench my toes because it's too painful (although I think I could if I put through it)

The injury doesn't look infected or anything. I can't understand why the pain has increased- I would have thought it would be pretty much better by now.

Any advice? I don't really want to go pester a doctor with it. It seems like such a minor thing...

Today I got an iMac off Freecycle. It didn't come with any cables- just the machine itself.

When I got it home, I plugged in a spare kettle lead I had and powered it on. There was a loud fan and a quick beep, then the power light was just flashing. I turned it off and opened it up - no RAM or HDD.

I took a 512mb stick out of the powermac I had kicking around, and put in a spare 80gb HDD. Tried powering on again, and got the normal mac Chime.

However, the screen remained black - not even a backlight.

I gooogled around - apparently it's a common issue with the capacitors. I opened it up, checked them and they were all fine. I couldn't find any other results...

Does anyone know another solution I could try?

Like I said, it didn't come with any accessories, but I have a wired Apple mouse and a generic USB keyboard I can use.

Hey guys

I'm planning a future computer upgrade right now, and narrowed my motherboard down. I have 3 near-identical choices; The ASUS P9X79 Standard, Pro, or Deluxe. Prices I've found are roughly £150, £200 and £250, respectively.

Now, there isn't MUCH difference between the boards, a few different ports here and there, but the main difference between the standard and the others is the PCI configuration.

On the standard board, the PCI selection is as follows:

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (dual x16) *1

1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x8 mode) *1

2 x PCIe 2.0 x1

1 x PCI

However, on the upgrade boards, they are both this:

3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x8) *1

1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x8 mode) *1

2 x PCIe 2.0 x1

On every PC I've ever used or dismantled (A personal hobby is scrapping older machines), there has ALWAYS been PCI sockets. Right now I'm mostly attracted to the Pro board, but I just want to make sure the lack of any PCI isn't going to hinder me later. The only PCI card I'm using right now is a VIA SATA controller which I use for xbox 360 repairs, but maybe there is a PCI-e equivalent?

Basically what I'm asking, is the future of computing going to use PCI cards, or are they on the way out? And where can I get more info on the numerous types of PCI-e cards?

Finally, I DO plan to use two graphics cards, although I've not decided on what models yet. I will be using 4-6 screens (I'm a heavy multi-tasker and doing work in graphics and animation) so the cards will probably take up two sockets each.

Thanks for any help :)

Hey guys, I have all symptoms of noro except vomiting. I'm Emetophoebic (fear of vomiting) and wanted to know if it's possible to have the virus without throwing up. Don't care about the other symptoms as long as I'm not sick! Thanks

OK,

I am making a live keyboard rig, consisting of a Microkorg for synths, a Korg SP200 for piano sounds and some kind of MIDI keyboard with rack gear for all the other sounds I need. I am then filtering it through a Kaoss Pad sometimes, which is in a loop so I can turn it off (using a Boss PSM-5). I want a very small mixer that would fit on my stand, so no bigger than the Kaoss Pad. Basically what it needs is 4 inputs, one output, which I've found for around £15-£20. AS AN EXTRA however, I'd like there to be some kind of effects loop type thing I can put the Kaoss Pad into, so the output from this can go straight to the mixer. Also, having this in stereo would be a great addition (so 8 inputs, 2 outputs) and finally an XLR port would be a plus but not essential.

Does anyone know of such a device? If not, I'll just get two of the 4 channel ones then run that into the Kaoss Pad, but I'd rather do it with the mixer i described if I can.

OK, so we did a gig the other day and one of the bands blew our bass cab. If they refuse to pay for it, is there any way i can force them to? like take them to court or whatever? thanks

A friend of mine said she keeps having a nightmare about her past, every night for the past few weeks. The weird thing is, they're in chronological order, like all the bad things that have ever happened to her all in the order they happened. She hasn't had the same one twice, and there hasn't been a break between each (usually one event every night, sometimes two). She said there is still a lot of stuff that happens between where her dreams are set and the present, meaning there are a lot more nightmares to come. She is scared to sleep at night now because she doesn't want to have another one, and shes loosing loads of sleep because of it. I feel really helpless because there is nothing I can do to stop the nightmares, does anyone have any ideas?

Obviously because shes my friend and she trusts me, I cant say what any of the nightmares are about. Just that they are about her past, and the bad things that have happened. They've been going on for about two weeks.

OK, so our band is looking at getting a MIDI weighted keyboard instead of a proper stage piano, as we can get one for about £50 instead of the £500 for a proper one with the built in effects. We have plenty of MIDI controllable software and VSTs and stuff between us, but I was wondering if there is any proper hardware that does the stuff? For example, is there a little rack mountable interface that you plug your MIDI cable into, then use your controller to control the sound on that device? Then even better if you can use the MIDI through ports to link multiple effects together, but thats less important. The main sound we need is a Piano, but some various pads and other real instruments would be pretty good too (we have a MicroKorg for all the synthy stuff)

any help appreciated, especially links, especially ebay links :) we are a fairly new band and want to keep it as cheap as possible without loosing out on too much tone, so used is the way to go for us :)

OK, I have a Phonic Helix Board 18 Firewire Mixer, which I got to put in my home studio. Its a great little mixer, but doesn't have a built in amplifier. It has the two outputs it needs for one however, so all I need is the power amp and some speakers and i'm off. Now the question arises: WHAT power amp should I get??

I assume I can plug anything in to it, but the speakers it plugs in to have to take the juice. (I have a couple of marshall stacks, so I know about watts and ohms and whatever)

I haven't actually got any speakers either yet so recommendations of what will work well with what power amps are good too, but our school (where we have band practice) has a couple of Laney PA speakers which are 8 ohm/400W. So if you can show me one that ALSO works with those, that's a bonus ;)

The mixer will be for band practices, running vocals, keyboards and bass through (at the moment you can only hear the guitar and drums) - the mixer has 12 normal 1/4 jack line ins, and also 8 XLR with optional phantom power.

Any help appreciated! Don't want to be spending too much, i'm more than happy to get used (probably will get it used anyway, cheaper :D) - I live in UK so don't want to spend more than £50ish (I believe that's like.. $80-100 ish?)

thanks

I'm sure most people reading this will know of the Marshall 1960 cab, which is available in 4 ohms and 16 ohms mono, and 8 ohms stereo. I want to convert it to take 8 ohms mono, and I know this can be done as i've seen a converted one for sale (Unfortunately it sold before i could get the money together). I'm handy with a soldering iron, I just need to know what I need to change on there? email address is hedgesj@hotmail.co.uk if you need to send photo's or anything, just make sure you do answer on here too so if I choose yours you get your best answer points!

OK, I'm looking into building an all-in-one computer for at home, as at the moment I have a £800 HP Vista laptop for school/general use (DONT GET ONE - HP ARE RUBBISH) and an old imac G5 running 10.3.5 (I don't know exactly what animal that is..) for my home studio. I intend to start building a powerful desktop PC, but because of the nature of the music production tools I use I'd need multiple operating systems, or multiple computers. In short, I'd need Snow Leopard (the latest Mac OS) for general recording, MIDI, etc, a much older operating system (WIN 98, or the mac equivilant age) to run the Korg Oasys PCI card, and Windows XP/7 for general use. As i'm building the computer (ish) myself, would it be possible to just install three hard drives (maybe just use some external firewire ones) and have one OS on each drive, then at startup select which one I want to use? I have no idea if its possible, any tips would be great.

Also I've looked into getting OSX running on PC, and there is a method using flash drives that I think is pretty easy, so dont worry about that part ;)

Basically I need a decent studio mic to record guitar, and maybe drums too. Will be for recording the output of my amp, ie I'd have it against a speaker. Phantom power is preferable, as my mixer has it. I don't wanna pay more than about £100 including postage (about $170?) - don't mind if its new, or average used price. Any links would also be great, especially to used ones. Thanks

Basically I need a decent studio mic to record guitar, and maybe drums too. Will be for recording the output of my amp, ie I'd have it against a speaker. Phantom power is preferable, as my mixer has it. I don't wanna pay more than about £100 including postage (about $170?) - don't mind if its new, or average used price. Any links would also be great, especially to used ones. Thanks

Basically about once a day for past three days, I have this like 10-20 second lapse thing where the left half of my brain just feels like someone shoved dynamite in it, like it feels like its burning and its gonna explode. Not nice, as you can imagine. Its only happened badly 3 times covering the entire left side of my brain, but a few times its just happened on the back (much milder, i can just rub it instead of loosing the ability to do things). When they happen I have to stop whatever im doing, the first time I fell over and almost went down the stairs, second I had to stop writing in a lesson at school and third I had to sit down in the street (today).

I would use one of those online GP things, but they always seem to say "you have 21 seconds to live" or "you have eye cancer" or whatever, so I don't really trust them. Is there a doctor in the house that can tell me its just an infection, or to dive in an ambulance?

If it helps, I think the left side is creative side, and I'm a creative thinker. I draw, im a musician, i love writing stories etc.

OK, my Vista laptop suddenly decided it doesn't like start up anymore. I turn it on, and it loads a little then opens the start up repair, which cant do anything and just shuts down the computer after trying. I've got loads of stuff on there, but I had Windows Live OneCare which backs up stuff to a partition on my hard drive. Is there any way I can preferably fix it, so my laptop will load normally again, or at worst just get the important things off my hard drive and do a reinstall (or upgrade to Windows 7)

I'm using a second laptop at the moment, so if there is any way I can hook them together and transfer files from laptop 1 to laptop 2 it would also be useful. I'd only transfer trusted files obviously in case it was a virus, but I have a lot of my music compositions and all my A level coursework on there and I need them for obvious reasons

Any help greatly appreciated

OK, me and my friends have all gone in to 6th form at school. We used to go to my friends house just down the road at lunch times to play on his xbox, as none of us are getting so much work we have to use lunches yet. His mum got sick of it, and has banned us, so we now all got a game on our laptops (Unreal Tournament 2004 demo, its only 300mb so it fits on a USB stick to share it and its multiplayer) and we found if we use an ethernet cable, we can play the multiplayer. The only problem is, the cable will only connect two computers. What we need is a method to connect more laptops together, without using internet etc (against school rules, we've asked) so we can all play together, with minimal lag. What would be the cheapest option of doing this? At the moment there are only 4 of us who want to play, but we can see it easily catching on with some other of our friends who bring in laptops and the game supports up to 16 players. Any help appreciated, but anyone who says "you should be doing school work when in school" - that's what our study periods are for. We are all up to date on work, so its either this or be bored and play free cell.