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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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 Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:43 am Post subject: |
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| Hmmm....I don't want a TV anymore. I'd rather connect the cable outlet to my PC. BUTTTTTT.....my video card only has an S-video out and my wall connection is a coaxail line. How do I do this? |
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Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 11:11 am Post subject: |
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| cubanlord wrote: |
Where or How can I get my hands on an English OS (operating system) here in Korea? |
When I first arrived in Korea I was put into an apartment with a PC (WOO!). After a short time I realised it was totally loaded with every piece of ad-ware, spyware and virus going at the time. It was really sucky. In fact after about a week it was totally useless.
It was nothing to do with me, it was already screwed when I arrived. I downloaded adaware and AVG and every anti-virus and anti-spyware piece of software I could find. It stopped booting and refused to work.
It was screwed beyond belief. It needed Windows re-installed in a bad bad way. And I didn't have an OS CD.
So I took it to my local computer store, in a small town Korea. They told me what I already knew, it was screwed and needed to be formatted and sorted. It was small town Korea so they didn't have an English Windows CD so they gave it back to me with a Korean OS. It cost W20,000 but I didn't care at first.
Then I found out that it wasn't actually my computer. In fact its owners had just been on vacation and were coming back quicksharp. In their minds they had left a working computer in English, and now they would be getting a computer in Korean. They would be pissy. I was new to the country and didn't want to be pissing off a couple of the foreigners in town. I realised now I was in trouble. The owners of the computer were coming back in a week, and now their 'working' English language computer had been replaced with a Korean operating system. As far as they were concerned it had been fine beforehand. (Even though it wasn't)
So I went back to the computer store and told them I needed an English Windows XP. They said "No have" so I begged and pleaded and they said come back tomorrow. So I did. And.. they had me a brand new freshly burned XP DVD! woo hoo!
I asked how much. The guy said "man won" so i reached into my wallet.. and he said "ha ha ha joke! service-uh! you customer!". I was pretty happy at the price. Unfortunately they wrote the licence number in that funny Korean method of writing which was indecipherable to me at the time until I went back for a translation (You know, the 9s that look like Ps and the 7s that look like Ns and the 1s that look like 7s...). So It took another couple of trips to get it sorted.
Anyway, at the 11th hour, it (almost) got sorted just before the real owners of the computer got back. (And it was a piece of *beep* old ass crappy slow computer worth about $2 anyway..)
Cost of new Windows XP: Service-uh! Assah!
Unfortunately I hadn't checked that everything worked right. The sound system didn't work. I didn't know this when I gave it back to them. The soundchip was built into the motherboard but XP hadn't auto-detected right. The owners got their computer back and as far as they could tell it was the same as before, except the sound didn't work.
So, they accused me of stealing and selling the (non-existant) soundcard. That sucked. (If they had a bit more of a clue they would realise that a FOB whitie probably wouldn't be able to sell a second-hand soundcard in small town korea for more than like.. the cost of a bottle of soju...hmm.. maybe they didn't have a high opinion of me =) )
Anyway, in answer to your question, go into your local computer store (not a big retailer!) and say you need an English Windows XP. They'll probably hook you up. I guess those auto-update things won't work so hot though? oh well..
Oh and a followup question to keep Mr. L happy:
QUESTION: I'm an idiot but if I keep taking IQ tests one day I'm sure I will break into triple figures. Now, bearing in mind my mental capacity, should I buy a Mac or a PC?[/b] |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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| cubanlord wrote: |
| Hmmm....I don't want a TV anymore. I'd rather connect the cable outlet to my PC. BUTTTTTT.....my video card only has an S-video out and my wall connection is a coaxail line. How do I do this? |
Buy a TV tuner card. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Hyeon Een wrote: |
Oh and a followup question to keep Mr. L happy:
QUESTION: I'm an idiot but if I keep taking IQ tests one day I'm sure I will break into triple figures. Now, bearing in mind my mental capacity, should I buy a Mac or a PC?[/b] |
"Mac" as a PC is history. Macintel, mate. The choice is only about OS now.
Actually, this leaves the dilemma exactly the same.  Going with Mac OS still means that you have many more built-in tools at your disposal and less choices about software.
However, this topic dead as fried chicken. For most, Mac OS will fill their needs, save gaming. |
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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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| Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Demophobe wrote: |
| Hyeon Een wrote: |
Oh and a followup question to keep Mr. L happy:
QUESTION: I'm an idiot but if I keep taking IQ tests one day I'm sure I will break into triple figures. Now, bearing in mind my mental capacity, should I buy a Mac or a PC?[/b] |
"Mac" as a PC is history. Macintel, mate. The choice is only about OS now.
Actually, this leaves the dilemma exactly the same. Going with Mac OS still means that you have many more built-in tools at your disposal and less choices about software.
However, this topic dead as fried chicken. For most, Mac OS will fill their needs, save gaming. |
Well now wait a minute. Mac's (at least when I was using them a few years ago) weren't that reliable. Yes, some programs are compatible with them, however their OS gives you little control over what is actually happening in the PC. I, as many of you on this board can agree, like to have control over my own PC. I like to be able to repair it if something goes belly up. On macs, parts are difficult and expensive to come by.
Unfortunately I don't have that much experience with them. Although, IIRC, it's difficult to upgrade and get large motherboards for future expansion, etc. Please correct me if I am wrong.
In conclusion, if you are going for high power photoshop crazy skillz, then yes, go with the Mac. ANYTHING..AND I MEAN ANYTHING ELSE....go with a PC. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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cl, Mac have changed to Intel CPUs.
Users of Intel-based Macs who want to run Windows have had to make a choice between using Apple's Boot Camp to exit OS X and boot into Windows or a virtualization package capable of running Windows from within OS X, the most high profile being Parallels Desktop (which is now sold in Apple Stores).
Many chose Boot Camp, putting faith in Apple over Parallels when it comes to beta software. But as Parallels has matured and gone final, users have given it a big thumbs up for a simple, unobtrusive way to get some Windows computing done without having to reboot.
I'm more than certain running only Windows is already, but Windows loads itself using BIOS, where Apple's Intel Macs, however, use a newer technology known as Extensible Firmware Interface, or EFI.
However, the boot loader is all that needs to be changed, and there have already been instances of that happening and it's only a matter of time before this becomes commonplace.
Then, one can boot into Windows on a Mac, or, Mac on a common Intel-based machine like ours.
So, the lines between Windows and Mac are very blurry already and will soon be erased altogether. |
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Dodgy Al
Joined: 15 May 2004
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 2:19 am Post subject: |
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| When I turn my laptop on, the USB hub and cable modem have to be unplugged, otherwise Windows won't boot up. Why? |
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jaykimf
Joined: 24 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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| What is Viiv? What good is it? Should I care if my next computer has it? |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Viiv |
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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't get it. My video card specs have these weird things called pixel processors and vertex processors. What are they? Are they important? |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:49 pm Post subject: this is a real question |
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| What the hell is a paging file? what does it do? |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:59 am Post subject: Re: this is a real question |
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| SuperHero wrote: |
| What the hell is a paging file? what does it do? |
A swap file (paging file, Virtual memory, although the latter term is an incorrect reference to this function/feature exactly) allows an operating system to use hard disk space to simulate extra memory. When the system runs low on memory, it swaps a section of RAM that an idle program is using onto the hard disk to free up memory for other programs. Then when you go back to the swapped out program, it changes places with another program in RAM. This causes a large amount of hard disk reading and writing that slows down your computer considerably.
This combination of RAM and swap files is known as virtual memory. The use of virtual memory allows your computer to run more programs than it could run in RAM alone.
The way swap files are implemented depends on the operating system. Some operating systems, like Windows, can be configured to use temporary swap files that they create when necessary. The disk space is then released when it is no longer needed. Other operating systems, like Linux and Unix, set aside a permanent swap space that reserves a certain portion of your hard disk.
Permanent swap files take a contiguous section of your hard disk while some temporary swap files can use fragmented hard disk space. This means that using a permanent swap file will usually be faster than using a temporary one. Temporary swap files are more useful if you are low on disk space because they don't permanently reserve part of your hard disk.
The pagefile.sys file is how Windows NT handles virtual memory using demand paging. Demand paging is essentially a way that the operating system can substitute space on the hard disk for actual RAM. This is accomplished by the Memory Management Unit (MMU) on the CPU. Memory is broken up into small chunks called page frames. In this case, "memory" means the space that exists both in RAM and on the hard disk in pagefile.sys. As code and data load into RAM from the hard disk, RAM fills up. When Windows NT decides that RAM is so full that the operating system needs more RAM to get things done, the operating system takes a look at the page frames in RAM and decides which of these page frames have not been used recently. Once Windows NT has rounded up all the least recently used page frames in RAM, it writes these frames to the hard disk, in the file called pagefile.sys. After these page frames are swapped to disk, Windows NT has then freed up the RAM these frames were taking up. Windows NT then uses this free space to load code and data which previously could not be loaded for lack of RAM space.
Once this paging has taken place, Windows NT continues at the tasks set before it. When this execution of tasks gets to a point where a page frame is needed which had been moved from RAM to the hard disk, Windows NT retrieves the frames swapped out earlier to the hard disk and returns them to RAM. In doing so, Windows NT will probably then need to take some other page frames still resident in RAM and move them to disk in order to make room.
For code to execute or data to be manipulated, the code or data must be in RAM. If an executing process needs to use code or data that have been swapped out to disk, these pieces of code or data get moved back to actual RAM. The sum of total space available in RAM and in pagefiles is often called virtual memory or virtual address space. Demand paging will allow you to run more programs than you actually have the physical RAM to load, but there is a penalty for demand paging in terms of computer speed. Since disk accesses happen at a rate far slower than RAM accesses, each time the operating system is forced to move page frames to and from disk instead of just executing in RAM, performance suffers. |
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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:05 am Post subject: Re: this is a real question |
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| Demophobe wrote: |
| SuperHero wrote: |
| What the hell is a paging file? what does it do? |
A swap file (paging file, Virtual memory, although the latter term is an incorrect reference to this function/feature exactly) allows an operating system to use hard disk space to simulate extra memory. When the system runs low on memory, it swaps a section of RAM that an idle program is using onto the hard disk to free up memory for other programs. Then when you go back to the swapped out program, it changes places with another program in RAM. This causes a large amount of hard disk reading and writing that slows down your computer considerably.
This combination of RAM and swap files is known as virtual memory. The use of virtual memory allows your computer to run more programs than it could run in RAM alone.
The way swap files are implemented depends on the operating system. Some operating systems, like Windows, can be configured to use temporary swap files that they create when necessary. The disk space is then released when it is no longer needed. Other operating systems, like Linux and Unix, set aside a permanent swap space that reserves a certain portion of your hard disk.
Permanent swap files take a contiguous section of your hard disk while some temporary swap files can use fragmented hard disk space. This means that using a permanent swap file will usually be faster than using a temporary one. Temporary swap files are more useful if you are low on disk space because they don't permanently reserve part of your hard disk.
The pagefile.sys file is how Windows NT handles virtual memory using demand paging. Demand paging is essentially a way that the operating system can substitute space on the hard disk for actual RAM. This is accomplished by the Memory Management Unit (MMU) on the CPU. Memory is broken up into small chunks called page frames. In this case, "memory" means the space that exists both in RAM and on the hard disk in pagefile.sys. As code and data load into RAM from the hard disk, RAM fills up. When Windows NT decides that RAM is so full that the operating system needs more RAM to get things done, the operating system takes a look at the page frames in RAM and decides which of these page frames have not been used recently. Once Windows NT has rounded up all the least recently used page frames in RAM, it writes these frames to the hard disk, in the file called pagefile.sys. After these page frames are swapped to disk, Windows NT has then freed up the RAM these frames were taking up. Windows NT then uses this free space to load code and data which previously could not be loaded for lack of RAM space.
Once this paging has taken place, Windows NT continues at the tasks set before it. When this execution of tasks gets to a point where a page frame is needed which had been moved from RAM to the hard disk, Windows NT retrieves the frames swapped out earlier to the hard disk and returns them to RAM. In doing so, Windows NT will probably then need to take some other page frames still resident in RAM and move them to disk in order to make room.
For code to execute or data to be manipulated, the code or data must be in RAM. If an executing process needs to use code or data that have been swapped out to disk, these pieces of code or data get moved back to actual RAM. The sum of total space available in RAM and in pagefiles is often called virtual memory or virtual address space. Demand paging will allow you to run more programs than you actually have the physical RAM to load, but there is a penalty for demand paging in terms of computer speed. Since disk accesses happen at a rate far slower than RAM accesses, each time the operating system is forced to move page frames to and from disk instead of just executing in RAM, performance suffers. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:34 am Post subject: |
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Demophobe,
Do you work in IT? If not, why not? |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:12 am Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
Demophobe,
Do you work in IT? If not, why not? |
Nope. For what I know, there is no money in it. I'm just an enthusiast who digs computers. I read and post on a number of forums (go to arstechnica and try to find out who I am there!), and learn a lot from other users.
I have to say that my real "schooling" came from the years '96 to '99, when there was no English computer support in my small town, and I couldn't speak much Korean back then. I cooked a fair few computers in my self-diagnosing the problems that arose (Win98...ugh), overclocking (my university computer - a pentium pro 66MHz @ 90MHz!), and generally uber-tweaking, but learned more from it all than any book could teach.
Then I went through the "I gotta have the fastest computer" for a number of years, and in doing that, I had to look out for details. Small, silly things that only a nutcase could care about. I would go shopping with product numbers, fab locations, exact RAM serials...it was really crazy, but really fun as well. Putting together a system in which you know everything - absolutely everything about what's inside and what it's all doing - that is a real treat of a feeling.
Only a freak would enjoy listening, and actually listen, to a hard drives' heads moving...I still love that sound.  |
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