BlackListedB

Borrowing a name of an LA newsprint magazine bands used to list for fellow musician searches (want ads) In this topic, my intent for it is to get you guys to talk about any tech toys you took in (from the trash, were donated or bought) I found two desktops just walking home, not even a block away, both loaded with old school AGP cards, one Socket A Athlon XP Biostar in case, the other a Dell Dimension 9300...AGP x8 in this later generation 478 P4 desktop, got a near top of the line at the time 6800GT graphics card, but as I was cleaning it, a capacitor up and fell off. Wasn't very firmly attached it seems! YIKES Thinking of keeping most of this, however, as time goes by it's harder to deal with the aging tech. What with XP's end of life term, it's interesting as well in that I got more COAs for the aging OS! hahaha So, comment on your own old gear as well, and what you use it for now, if you still do.

Well, Trevor's actor Steven expressed in interview how kids, his own, should not be privy to such adult content. I was talking about and looking into the last movie I saw the other night for GTAForums Offtopic, that being the 1978 rape revenge film I Spit On Your Grave, originally titled, Day of the Woman. If you look into the details about it's origins, up to 1980, when the title was changed beyond the scope of the director and writer. Still a great title, but it brought to the table discussion about it's contents in a serious and thoughtful manner, rather then knee jerk reaction, and as Wikipedia points out, people who likely had never even seen it, they took up a vocal protest against it, advocating censorship. Wikipedia again cements my belief that it maybe the best source for movie data, even more then IMDB at times, since it talks about response to such films, offers trivia and production data, all very interesting to research

Oddly, I come back to GTAForums to find another topic still open about PC, Rockstar North and why the delay. Doesn't seem prompted by anything other then elapsed time with no word from Rockstar. Weight in on what you guys think is the hold up, not that Rockstar are ignoring it presently, but when we might see it, this year? When RDR sequel comes, or news of PS4 and Xbox One?

You guys seem un-naturally silent here on even the music front. I keep most active at GTAForums in the rate the song above topic, it's fun no matter what time of day you visit. But it's sadly inactive and neglected here. Why is that I ask?? I'd love if you guys took an interest. it's not much effort to expend on your part. They do it all the time on the most active fansite around. Well, as you may or may not know, Finding song lyrics is one of the viral Malware traps best known, outside of 'pron' perhaps... but I believe now YouTube with lyrics is one of the safest and best growing database, and as you know, property rights owners would rather there be no sharing of any professional music on said channel, but they're simply over-numbered by the users who do uploads day after day. At least that's my take. Here's a song I heard many many years ago, never really knew what the late Freddie Mercury was on about, but here you can see quite clearly!

It's a challenge I always avoided, that tracing back to CRT tube based sets, main thing was dangerous high voltages that were enough to cause you serious harm, if not possibly injure you some way, some how. But I've been shocked a few times and burned on other projects just the same! Now, I actually hope not to have to do repairs, but I encountered yet another LCD someone was tossing out with their trash, and I decided I'd at least try and get it home. Well.... I did manage the no mean trick, it took about an hour to move the set about 7 or 8 blocks to my apartment, it was between my sister's home and my new one. Not too far, but I have no car, no truck, no trailer, I walked the set! It was a painful affair! Anyway, it did spring to life initially but then failed to respond moments later. I was able to get a playback signal in non-anamorphic mode, and navigate onscreen menus. For a bit it went to black and caused speaker distorted tones. The screen was in great shape. Of other found smaller screens, several actually worked fine, they were LCD intended for computers. VGA and DVI inputs only. This is the second full on HD set I found that shows signs of life. A further defective unit I disassembled and re-trashed, saving working speakers and electronic sub-sections. In looking at what's available for my replacement parts, I found this site I'd like to pass along... http://electronicshelponline.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-detect-t-con-board-faults-with.html Tells you more specifically what a technical term relates to in diagnosis. In my repair agenda, looking to get a remote and power supply unit, as well as check the fuse it uses. I noted eBay parts to give me an idea of the internal designs even before pulling the TV's chassis. Audio did also work while my signal was coming through. Previous HD 'Ready' repair also required a new AC adapter, in that unique case, a cord direct to set was not used, but rather an in-between Transformer box that had to be specific 24volts and 6 amps. If you were unaware of that, you'd buy the wrong adapter from eBay sellers because the set is actually marked for the spec, and they're offering the wrong adapter at lower 5 Amps. I tried one and it failed to provide enough juice. The replacement failed as well, due to poor build quality, but it looks like no more I'd have to spend then $100 on the parts if they prove to be the main culprit. (remote needed for brand association) I wonder if you guys do any of your own repairs, do you follow the throwaway society generally? It seems the prior owners just bought a new set to replace this one, it dates to early 2009 for manufacture. The 47LG50 model LG, a rather nice upgrade from my in-use Viore 32" The LG offers three HDMI inputs, VGA, component, USB, and standard composite and S-video. HiDef tuner also runs full 1080 Progressive. Hoping a PWR box replacement sets everything else in line for operating smoothly. Will let you know if my prognosis pans out. It's something of a gamble spending any money on a project like this, but say if the LCD or LED were damaged and you're looking at 30 inches on up, it's gonna be a hefty price tag!! Here we have CNET's take on it, $1500 originally in 2009 dollars!! http://www.cnet.com/products/lg-47lg50/

I was watching the most awesome Peter Frampton Guitar Center Sessions again, even though I'd seen it before, and wanted to compare his career in retrospect. As he appeared on stage with Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1993, at the FOX theater, I was a cable subscriber then and opted into the very special Pay Per View event that evening. It's NEVER been released to the public officially. Enjoy my earliest YouTube segments however...

Well, I suppose there was a general Query thread for this forum but lost activity in recent years. I get in trouble posting Tech advice in the GTAForums area of the Web, so I figure any findings and answers you might have or pass along for others could be posted here without fear of condemnation from Moderation staff. I hope you guys know the value in such things. Recently I commented on the Hiren CD, as well as ISOs available from other sites some might consider warez, but I was inquiring for an ISO I could make an installer disc without buying one second hand and then using a valid machine COA to install and register it, this came under fire as well, and it can be sketchy territory no doubt, but I like to refurbish and put things back into service, and computers simply appeal by virtue of their Swiss Army Knife capability. Oh, and sorry for the topic title error, I'd appeal to Chris or staff to remove the last letter on Guide which I didn't see on my screen at the time

As a more fun, lighthearted topic of discussion, did any of you guys catch the Lunar Eclipse last night?? I went out to film it, and it was REALLY cold, and I noticed today's local forecast actually gave single digit temps for some places in the State, in fact we got snow flakes last night in a partially cloudy sky, and more snow on the way in the next 24 hours. Winter just won't leave us alone!!! DAMMIT Aside from that though, the Lunar eclipse I saw was much like as it was shown on TV by others, and across the Net, but once it was fully in the Earth's shadow, I lost sight of it completely, too dang cloudy for one thing.

Of course, over the course of several Red Ring of Death Xbox360s, I wound up with HDDs included, and out of sheer curiousity as it happens with computers as well, I scour any content included before deleting anything, often times in the case of someone's computer, I find graphics or music I wish to save in my own archive. I never exploit personal data, rest assured, but I do see that happen to wind up in the used markets of goods, and that's a bad thing! haha Point of this topic is to go over my personal findings, one of which was Xbox Live accounts left on used HDDs did allow me for a time to use them activated with "GOLD" for online multiplayer and start over the online play aspects, for a time, this was actually a fun use of the freebie hardware I got, but eventually the ability to use an account for someone else expires. I saw this happen on more then one I got, so rest assured, no harm ensued in doing so, if dormant, I was just using it while I had it. If it effected their online MP aspect, I just don't know, but it seems it either expires or reverted back to the original owner. I would expect the user to do account changes before selling or pawning their old HDD or memory sources for their profiles. This should be common sense. The latest thing is a 120GB HDD I bought to recondition to PC (laptop 2.5), but finding the previous XBL gamertag on the HDD had GTA V in their arsenal, I opted to boot up my disc and see how far they were along in the game. About 75 missions unlocked and tons of cash, all they'd done, some of it seemingly like a cheat was invoked, like tons of cash in their account... This allows me to play their offline game as it was last saved to HDD. No Harm or Foul is invoked in doing so, this shouldn't effect them if you disconnect your online signal. As the game is starting, you're prompted for online data update, this effects saved Gamertag overall status, so if you were to play around with this in a similar situation, disconnect Broadband from the Xbox or PS3 so anything you do locally isn't effecting anyone needlessly. My system did have to run through some initial updates while online however, but I knew when I was going to explore their progress, I'd be doing so only on my local system. I hope posting these particulars isn't against any policy, rule, or ethics, it maybe dodgy in the ethics area, but hey, it's all fair game so to speak!

If you browse their Ask a Question (VERSION TWO) which, as an aside was started as a topic thread VERSION ONE by our webmaster Mike, aka PCGuytech_2005. That's the real fact, and nothing otherwise is the truth. Staff there, and Andrew was involved at the time, got upset over postings, kept locking and unlocking and then starting a new topic of the exact same subject... I tried to ask about why the temp ban, and someone who's been there even longer then me in 2003, he came out saying he felt a ban was not required, and of course, I agree, but that seems like being somewhat level headed, though he did say negative things about me. That one page discussion with Otter remains on the thread, and not deleted, but it shows there's a lot of vitriol there! The kind of responses you get in both topic threads is much the same, the quality of the people didn't change because a topic existed or vanished, what is severely lacking is REAL communication and understanding that NEEDS to take place to understand where people are coming from in what they post. Being allowed to reply in rebuttal is not a bad thing, pretending someone or something doesn't exist doesn't eliminate it. Erasing history to make your own doesn't negate the facts. The Nazi's did this during their reign of terror in the '40s. and I don't think drawing some similarities is too far out in left field. The mindset seems the same at times. They place themselves as some supreme beings. Their site garners the most participants, and it just goes to their collective heads, that's all I can make of it. It's so senseless otherwise. Oh, and Chris. We'd have thrown in the towel with GTAChronicles if we allowed ourselves to be trampled upon relentlessly by these type of other personalities. We're as much, if not more so, passionate about GTA and gaming in the current generation then anyone there. I know there are those who are more up on one aspect or another, and perhaps even better gamers or writers, but a forum is about gathering all the different USER aspects, and that is as important as it's ever been AMEN

I posted earlier a thread about Windows XP, hoping you guys will tell us how you plan to keep using XP past it's expiration date, and this thread will serve the same for those still going with what they've invested in, Xbox 360 original or SLIM, and PS3 'Phat' original or slim. I bought multiples as is somewhat well known. But I am debating selling my second repaired PS3 and buying another Xbox360 locally that's only being sold (pawnshop find) for $40 with no accessories, the only other system under $100 typically in the current used market is the PSP portables, old or SLIM versions again. This happens naturally with new consoles and handhelds on the market. So, how long do you see for current past gen use to continue and be OK with that? Originally I wanted a system straight away, and my folks gave me a Xmas gift of cash that I could have gone that route, but I opted to build a gaming laptop, but my lack of research there did cost me more money then I wished to spend. It pays to do a lot of homework when shopping for the best deal, You also don't want to sit on something when it appears, Once a deal comes to light, you have to react fast or it's gone! PS4 and Xbox One are the new systems we'll keep seeing new gaming 'killer apps' coming to, perhaps, at first, some of the wind came out of the sails when the same title came to both old and new platforms

In addition, GTAForums is down today, the whole site apparently, They were working on portions of it earlier, but I will tell ya, when that happens and you're in the mood to talk GTA and Entertainment..... WHERE YA GONNA GO?!?!? HERE or GTAC of course!!

Outside of that older GTA game title case, I've really heard next to nothing, zilch, nada about GTA V and any impact it's had on real world events. Considering it's massive sales figures, perhaps more people are aware of exactly what the game is about and no longer spin hyperbole that's simply unsupported. Cooler heads prevail. I haven't heard other games come under attack in relation to real world crimes either, but I always suspect someone to make a connection because of the original aim at youth demographic

Seems according to the stats of Xfinity's Watchathon that completed the week prior, not much to anyone's surprise, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones seem to have garnered the most viewers. Now, outside of Xfinity On Demand from Comcast, can't say. And they do like to blow their own horn, as can be assumed with every company, but I believe it's fair to say. Had there been a topic about the show prior? If not....here we go.

That being HALL and OATES. Don't know if you guys catch Daryl Hall's original streamed live from his home rock n roll food show, but it's on Palladia every now and again, or is that AXS? One of those, Live from Daryl's House. http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/52229/Congratulations-to-Daryl-Hall-and-John-Oates-on-Their#comments \\\\WHAT HAPPENED HERE????\\\\\\ ///// I didn't attempt to make two of the same thread. I also don't want to delete all I typed, without understanding what happened////

That being HALL and OATES. Don't know if you guys catch Daryl Hall's original streamed live from his home rock n roll food show, but it's on Palladia every now and again, or is that AXS? One of those, Live from Daryl's House. http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/52229/Congratulations-to-Daryl-Hall-and-John-Oates-on-Their#comments I have to say I'm with Eddie Trunk of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show when he comes down HARD on the RnR Hall of Fame's unscrupulous snubbing of great rock acts who had been neglected with an induction like KISS and RUSH, who Ed seemingly had a hand in a turn around of events. More power to him!! I hope Rockstar won't forget the travesty of justice that has been plaguing the organization for years. Anyway, sure you guys check in with Newswire regularly, and what is still quite worrisome is that there's little to no talk outside GTAOnline. This has worried me from the inception of Online gaming, and it's still a factor despite the more widespread networking. We simply don't want to be uber reliant on that ONLINE connection.

Three times in about a week, another 3 days suspension for me at GTAForums, I have to get my side out somewhere, and it seems to me increasingly hostile mentioning these things at the forum itself. Hopefully you TGTAP guys can hear me out on this vent of sorts. I made a video for YouTube as well, showing my screen view of the warning from one member who presides over Technology chat and dares to challenge my know how and says my comments have no bearing on the posted thread. Same ole, Same Ole...really. The thing is, it's easy to say what they want when their moderation and Led By powers allow them to have the final say, and DELETE anything we as members add. Two guys over there in particular are challenging me with warnings all in the past month, and over all comments from other users in the form of positively "Thumbs Up" tagging a posting, since for me, PM is disabled I suppose with reasons staff have knowledge of and I do not. They control their forum, Chris and his hired hands control this one, and me and Mike control GTAChronicles. You can see how that pans out, irregardless of how many people take part. The atmosphere in comparison of how people are treated seems vastly different to me, even over the YEARS that have elapsed. I still see the need for forums like this and GTAC. Whoever opted to hire such *&$%#@heads for their moderating staff is a couple cans short of a six pack. The posting that offended the Mod Gods was removed, but my video covers all aspects of it in narration, so people can come to their OWN conclusion about whether it's Off Topic, and the sad thing is, it's posted in a section titled boldly.. OFF TOPIC, so why can't we be, ??? For Godsakes?!?! Honestly, there's no reason to have these stress-fests. No reason at all.

I want another game to feature the best 80s cars as LA Rush did for my own 82 Cutlass Supreme Oldsmobile, it provided one of my favorite cars I ever owned, to race with! SO FUN, SO NICE! It looked stellar too. You wouldn't get that from GTA though, it will always be unlicensed except for the music. Hey, Spartan, wanna borrow my Hotknife?? hahaha

As I've noted with just about 10 years spent online with GTAForums, controversy and animosity always follows me in the last half of those years as the staff running things has really not changed, so they're warning me, deleting postings and basically threatening me of a permanent ban that would not be reversed, however, avoiding such a fate seems only contingent on not posting anything, because, Honest to God, I don't know what sets these guys off. They've accused me of accusing them of phantom persecution, but to me it's so obvious, you'd have to be blind not to see it. I'll again screen cap the warning I got, however, to compare it to the posting becomes impossible because they've binned it, in other words, their moderation powers enable them to cover up the evidence that proves my case! Complete bullcrap if there ever was, but to start a war or post angry rants here is not my real intent, and posting here in TECH is because that's where most of the Mods get uptight. The topic I got a temp ban... THIS WEEK... Just last night in fact, ... http://gtaforums.com/topic/694620-which-windows-should-i-update/ The OP actually gave a thumbs up on my response before it became non-existent, so glad at least it was helpful as intended for him!! Now what exactly happened to cause a ban, beats me, but the warning from member/mod Sivispacem accuses me of posting something that doesn't make sense and may have no bearing on the above. It actually covered two items of current discussion from my point of view. This is ALL it was intended to do, first, get to the point about how Andrew who last posted claimed an AMD64 x2 dual core CPU cannot be used to game with, completely WRONG answer. The only thing pitted against Intel Duel Core, going back to Pentium D was AMD's 64 bit line processors, in it's earliest days it whooped Intel's arse!! This is fact based on tech magazine reviews, look it up if you want to call me out on such things. Now, Intel came back and stayed there with their ever improving Core2 line, and now Nehalem as we've mentioned, but AMD64 covered Turion as well as a return to Athlon, and Phenom, where Phenom actually was the stronger contender. The same can be said of Turion, a Celeron type budgetary processor, but as far as my use of Turion, I don't see a performance hit happening, but of course, Intel Core2 finally overtakes AMD since the Duel Core or Core Duo Centrino introduction for their mobile CPU lines. The other point the OP asked was which OS to use, for gaming preferred, but you're likely to use your laptop for more then just that! On a budget, anytime, anywhere. TWO CORES are better then ONE. I basically got the warning and temp ban based on covering a finding of mine I wanted to post in a Windows topic, so I included mention of how to remove the End Of Service for XP OS, it's found in the Windows System folder once it downloads with your annual updates, and keep in mind, you MUST download standard updates before they end, and get your XP up to date protection, etc. Remove that EOS message as you'll spot it within the items of the folder, and if prompted to download it, obviously, decline the offer, it's an annoying middle of the screen pop up that you JUST don't need. Including that as a helpful note got me a week long ban, again, GTAForums threatening me and could threaten anyone for doing things their way, Bottom line is probably watch how and where you post, and be concise to the reply more for the OP then other posters in the thread. It's safest proceeding at GTAF if you follow that guideline when you post. They're pretty anal about the Tech chat, it's more of a help section then really discussing tech for fun. SO GLAD Chris is allowing us leniency here, since it's sorely needed!!

Things settled down before they blew up at GTAForums, we good...for the moment. Lots of talk about the finale this evening, I'd like to hear your thoughts though. It seems I'd forgotten or missed about 9 episodes starting out Season 4, but I caught up during the marathon starting last night, and damn, I sure am tired! haha The series will spin off according to a report online and announcement AMC has made, however, won't involve WD characters, so the big question is would having two series this intensely created (with painstaking detail) be a demand on the production staff that might effect overall quality? Would this have relation to the graphic novels? I don't know anything yet, but some fans may take interest, but I doubt all will. Sorry to add another post on the same thread, but enough time elapsed since the earlier one, now the Season has concluded. Did this evening's episode seems short? In case you missed it, the flashback prison sequences WERE filmed last! I assumed they'd already been shot and never used in original editing.

Lets get right to the meat and potatoes in this thread, with MS support ending in days, XP will be wholly updated by third party companies, if used ONLINE, or with any new hardware or software you're bound to have issues. For established software and hardware basis, I believe, like Windows 9x, there will be uses still available for decades to come, though increasingly archaic I'm sure! Vintage game software, MAME emulation for example, and old titles will still need things like MS DOS and Windows 95 and 98 to run, if not in Emulation mode aka Compatibility mode of Windows itself. How do you see yourself comping with the newly released from corporate ownership XP? I just mentioned playing around with miniXP booting from a live source, no power, no more OS, but it's like Damn Tiny Linux as well! To have a gluten free OS you can't rely on the modern coded Operating Systems, they take up nearly 20GB of your HDD space! I should know, I ran into this exact issue!! http://www.technobuffalo.com/2012/02/20/microsoft-extends-support-for-windows-xp-and-vista/

ADD: Here's a Google link with various info on the disc I refer to, and associated topics, I am still yet to get a booting USB dongle going, but CD Recording almost seems like a dead art these days, but I found a deal on unused media and this disc is by far one of the most useful things you can burn to a CD and not need a DVD burner [My Broadwell Intel search was for what might come out in that regard, in the final months of this year] https://www.google.com/search?q=laptops+usin+Broadwell&oq=laptops+usin+Broadwell&aqs=chrome..69i57.8768j0j8&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#q=mini+XP+boot+from+CD