Devoid of Anything Useful

Coming in a week...

[Flashy Text] Post Updated [Flashy Text] // I'm sure those tags work...

There are a few things WinXP users always piss me off with, being still stuck as one myself, and it is usually not because XP was made by Microsoft.

// this is still largley uncomplete. The reason it is is because I want to see something new appear and push NJRC down.

These few things I mention are simple to solve. If you can run XP, you can tweak your com. Of course, Vista people are encouraged to follow this too; but the specific menu/directory names may be different.

1) Thumbnail caching (continous present tense of "to cache")
When you use the Thumbnail view on folders with more than a certain number of pictures, XP stores a "Thumbs.db" file in that folder (now you know what that is for) so that the next time you use Thumbnail view, they would load faster.

However, unless you are trying to view some folder with more than a thousand pics like my ecchi pic collection, it does not really speed up the thumbnailing, and just takes up some kB in your drive. Some kB only, you say. An average Thumbs.db file is about 50+kB for a folder with at most 100 pics. Multiply that by a lot of folders, and you see the picture.

2) Default Folder view not "Details"
What is the use of having so much space used to display a file using tiles? Even List is better than tiles. Details would be the best, but the right details must be chosen. Usually you just need the size, type (for sorting) and Date Modified. Sadly Folders don't show the size of their contents.

3) Hiding known file extensions
This is not just an annoyance. It could be a security threat. Imagine if someone wrote a malicious program, changed the icon to an innocent text document, and just left it on the desktop. You open it, thinking it is a mysterious text file and boom. Your com crashes.

Also, when trying to change the file extension, it is irritating not to see the original exension. When I tried creating a batch file on someone's com to ffmpeg, I had trouble changing the exension from a .txt to a .bat

4) Cluttered Desktops
A desktop with more than 10 icons is flooded. You would only need My Computer, My Network Places, Recycle Bin, at most 2 to 4 CD/Hard Drives.


5) Stuffing everything into the system drive (most commonly C:\)
Now that I've got an excellent example look at what happened to poor Edward. Got his laptop screwed (or more accuratley, his HDD). It would have been simple enough if the drive was partitioned, then at least the data disc can still be accessed via a Portable HDD case. Sadly, from what I can recall he didn't, and saddedly he had to copy some stuff from me which i copied from him. Good Riddance.

6) Lack of creativity (for a lack of a better word to use)
Seriously, less than 41% (and yes, 78.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot (this too if you didn't know)) of XP users know what a web browser, word processor, spreadsheet program or a vector/raster image editor. Basically what you know are Internet ExploderExplorer, Microsoft (some of you affectionatley drop the M$) Word, M$ Excel and Adobe Photoshop/M$ Paint.

So, after reading, here is a useful guide

How not to annoy me in just about 15 minutes.
Just go to Start Menu > Search > For files or Folders (or just go to My Computer and hit F3). The search sidebar should be there.

Click "All files and Folders", and key in "Thumbs.db" (without inverted commas) into the "All or part of the file name".
Then goto "More advanced options". Check "Search system folders", "Search hidden files and folders" and "Search subfolders".

Run the search, and you would soon get many (unless someone cleared them for you/you don't use thumbnail view).

After the search, just to show yourself how much space you saved, select all the files (Ctrl+A) and check Properties. Then chuckle to yourself for saving that amount of space.
Hit delete. Some files may produce an error, this is likely to be because they were trapped in a zip folder. Ignore them and carry on.

Now what. You deleted the Thumbs.db, but XP would still make them when you use the view. Now you need to tell it to stop.
Go to Tools > Folder Options > View Tab, and check "Do not cache thumbnails". While you are there, you might as well uncheck "Hide extentions for known file types".

Also, if the folder view is already details, just hit "Apply to Folders" at the top. If not, change yor folder view and do it.
//

It will be too late to partition your drives now, so I would not really bother, and just start replacing those words in your vocabulary.

Still incomplete, but just comment away.

After watching ZnT3 for a bit, I shall add on to the few comments that I have made pre-Ep7.

Amazingly, the wikipedia article on the episodes have not been updated for Ep8 and 9 (as of 070908 19:21). Usually they have been rather nicely updated just after I watched them on Art Central.

Of which brings me to the next point. Did Art Central ever show ZnT1 and 2?

from HalberdierRetsel of MyAnimeList.net (07-24-08, 7:48 AM)

Mediacorp certainly improved a ton by buying ZnT3, now shown freely on Art Central, but that is OBVIOUSLY only catering to the already active webmembers, since ZnT1 and 2 was never shown here. Which brings us back to a point: Why do they want to compete with the internet? At least get a brand new anime that no one has watched before! Then maybe it's possible. They're obviously losing out to air a now airing, already in its 3rd part, without ever showing hte locals parts 1 and 2. Totally ingenious business strategy there.

Which reminded me of the time I spent chionging ZnT1 and 2 from Veoh so that I could watch "Legally". Nice one.

Plot progress has been made since those fillers. Colbert-sensei ain't dead they freaking asstards who made me cry for a bloody revival. Apparently Tabitha casted some "fake death" thing (as translated by our dear friend Odex) and Jean Kirche went to dig him out once she heard about it. The giant bird thingy was developed by Colbert, funded by Kirche and apparently she has a thing for Colbert. Nvm. Then Louise does a bit of chasing about Henrietta and Saito's behaviour during the Ball but ends up with info about Tabitha instead. Tabitha returns home to find her mother missing and gets captured by an elf. [ep8 end] Tabitha's sister appear while they search for evidence of that night. The Ondine Knights want to go rescue Tabitha, but Saito, Guiche, that fat guy and Louise end up being arrested by queen for defying orders as it could cause trouble with Gallia. They escape with help from the rest.

That took some time. I typed out most of it from memory and by refering to this, which I found while checking if anyone had actually put something there.

NJRC ended. Yay. Not much difference from last year.

This is a video of another team, I uploaded the video before the results were out, but it managed to get 1st for the Best Video (secondary school category).

Starring Perry, Nat, Malcolm, Andre and Ryan (no order).
(I appear at 0:26 to 0:28, in my jacket.)

The JC side (in the Tertiary category) got (From memory. Not really sure first, second or third) Most Bizarre Robot, Best Presentation, Best Research, Best Robot Performance and the Overall Champs.

We, The High School section got a Judges' Award for Perseverance (add a Soul booster and we can get Bloodstone), Best Research, Best Video (1st), Best Presentation (2nd) and SumoBot Champs. Martin didn't get Entrepreneur, Nat didn't get Programming and I didn't get Mechanical or Sumo. But it was all good fun

Since I can't do something like that now, let us support Martin (from our dear neighbours 2L) and help him advertise his venture. Of course, that is low key and low risk, involving at most a loss of a hundred. But it is a good start. I have always had a lack of sensible (at least thats what they said) ideas. I never really listened.

And in Haruhi's name Google Chrome news is really big. I thought only the browser people will talk, but apparently Google is already challenging Microsoft with a new browser that can handle web applications better, of which web applications would be the ones Google is developing to replace MS Office. Lol

The newest kid on the block is out. Google Chrome, the new Open Source Web Browser Project. View more here.

Apparently I would consider this useful, so the blog name already seems shaky. Nevermind. It is still in Beta, but after using it for a while it doesn't seem bad. Even for someone who is still reluctant to use FF3 (except for my portable FF).

I see a few IE related dependencies (Proxy settings etc.), but many features overflow so much you don't notice. The tab bar is right on top, no window bar in the way. There is "incognito mode" where nothing is tracked on your com (which of course means that anything on the server side is ignored). All new tabs are new processes (of which I have detected as I have a system sound (a short chirp) for a program opening. Imagine what it sounds like when my com boots up). It fires up almost immediately, though I haven't played with it enough to feel the true increase in speed.

It is cool. I just need to wait for the portable version and it will replace my FF3 Portable. It probably won't ever replace FF on my desktops, until I see extensions come out.

Whatever is the true form of the word. As long as you get the meaning of which I had intended to get across (the noun form of "to be objective").

Nevermind. I shall start with an example. As GC noted, there is something useful to him on this blog. But to a person dying of hunger, can this blog be of any use to him (of course, neither would any other blog). So I should name this blog "Devoid of anything useful, except to a certain few". Of which stalkers, Authority, Law and many others would form the certain few.

Objective-ness is highly important now, when there is too much of too little information. When one speaks about hating something, please state what exactly is the thing that you hate. For example, if you hate Mario (not the Nintendo one) please state if it is the DPS (not Damage per second but similar), his recent changing of policies which we think he thinks will make him less unpopular, or just his face.

Anyway, sometimes I may not be objective enough. In order not to be hypocritical I will just say that if your brain is still moving faster than your mouth I advise you too be more objective.

Oh, and more 5 cm per Second Screenies here