Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[aimeeandbeatles]

Um, a question. I've almost convinced mom that I should get an external hard drive. So far, I have two options:
a) Buy a pre-made external.
b) Buy an internal hard drive and a case.
(Note: In-store, I did the math, they both come out to be roughly same price for the same brand/size. For example I'm not comparing a WD 500gig external to a Seagate 1TB internal + case)

So, here's the advantages and disadvantages of both, did I miss anything?
Buy premade external
Advantages:
a) No messing with cables and ready to plug in.
Disadvantages:
a) Heard some bad things about the reliability of premade externals.
b) Can't swap HDD without voiding warranty.
c) More limited choice.

Also, some come with software, but I doint know if that's advantage or disadvantage (since I heard about DRM and stuff)

Buying internal drive and casing
Advantages:
a) Can pick out exactly the hard drive I want.
b) Can swap drives without voiding any warranties.
Disadvantages:
a) Messing with cables and I'm liable to MAJORLY SCREW UP THINGS

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I used gifninja to make a animated gif, but how do I reduce the filesize to something that can be used as a forum avatar? I used a 640x480 video file.

 

[PeteAtoms]

I used gifninja to make a animated gif, but how do I reduce the filesize to something that can be used as a forum avatar? I used a 640x480 video file.

You can't use animated images as avatars

 

[Turner]

But if you were able to, I'd use GIMP.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Wow, I didn't know GIMP had an animation editor. Gotta check it out.

Also, when I like to make video animations, what I do is go into Avidemux (opensource video editor), select the part of video I want, and then export all the frames as JPEG and then put them into animation program and adjust the framerate until it looks half-decent.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

But if you were able to, I'd use GIMP.

Do I need a plug-in for gimp, or can i do it in the regular installation?

 

[Turner]

I don't know if it has an animation editor, but I have edited animated gifs in GIMP. I'm not really a GIMP power user....

I would assume it doesn't need a plug in, as I just have the standard install.

 

[PeteAtoms]

I've never done it, but there are a couple of tutorials on the GIMP website.
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Advanced_Animations/

You could also try this out:
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/imageoptimizer/index.php

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

imageoptimizer's too restrictive. their max filesize is 300. my filesize is 850 or so.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: I found a picture of a LaserDisc recorder. Does anybody even still use them anymore?! And why?

EDIT: Laserdiscs are analog but I don't exactly understand that, since DVDs are digital.

 

[PeteAtoms]

Question: I found a picture of a LaserDisc recorder. Does anybody even still use them anymore?! And why?

EDIT: Laserdiscs are analog but I don't exactly understand that, since DVDs are digital.

This isn't really a computer question, or a technical question. I think these type of questions would best be asked here.

That being said, I'm sure there are a handful of people in the world that have one in working order, and might still use it. The same way some people will keep any kind of retro/obsolete hardware, sentimental reasons or otherwise. I dunno.

EDIT: Laserdiscs are analog but I don't exactly understand that, since DVDs are digital.

Google is your friend.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I don't understand?!

 

[PeteAtoms]

I don't understand?!

I'm not sure what you don't understand. So I suggest 2 things.

Read up on what "digital" and "analog" mean.
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital1.htm
http://telecom.hellodirect.com/docs/Tutorials/AnalogVsDigital.1.051501.asp
etc...

Than try reading this.

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: aimee - warned for spam. When I say you shouldn't post every little thought that pops into your head, this is what I'm talking about.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I don't understand!!

 

[Cutlass]

Last night I installed CivII on my XP comp. After I installed it changed the way the login and shutdown appeared and work. Now I need to pick the account I sign in on before it will go to desktop. I checked the user accounts, and there's my admin account and the guest account, which is turned off. And no other listed. I used to know a way to change that under some circumstances that had to do with the .net framework. But like with many things, I haven't needed to deal with that in years and have forgotten it. How do I change it back to automatically booting to the desktop?

 

[Turner]

http://www.the-pc-guru.com/Boot_straight_to_your_deskto.php

* Click Start, Run, and enter control userpasswords2 .
* Clear the check box captioned Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.
* Click OK.
* Enter the user name and password for the account you want to log in to at start-up.

 

[Cutlass]

Ok. Thanks. I may need to take classes again to remember all this stuff. Sucks when you don't use it for a while.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Is there a Firefox addon that lets you export a single folder of bookmarks to HTML file? It's a major pain to delete all of the ones I don't need. As far as I know its not an option within Firefox itself. At the Mozilla addons site I searched for "export bookmarks" and got some unhelpful stuff. You can do it by moving all the bookmarks to IE but I loathe IE.

EDIT: I found something for OPML, whatever that is.

ANOTHER EDIT: Discovered something neat! I noticed that if you right-click a folder, you get "Copy." So I copied it and pasted it into an HTML editor to see what would happen AND IT WORKED. I'll just leave this post for anyone who could find this useful.

STILL ANOTHER EDIT: It would be nice if there was a thread for little tricks like this that may not be obvious. Since all my threads seem to fail, somebody else can do it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Some poorly designed sites I've been on have a fixed-width background image repeating in the middle of a page, usually leaving something running down the middle of the page. Other than not maximizing the window, what can I do about it? (I tried to google and got some things about HTML and web design. Although it's annoying, I'm not going to hack into the server to fix it.)

EDIT: Another question: A while ago I saw a freeware program that simulates a webcam, but it plays a video. Anybody know what it is? The only thing I found was shareware