Thank Google; I received this in my inbox on May 12th. What tipped me off first was the writing style, and after that the address. So I hit Google to try and figure out where the story came from and I almost imidiately came across the link I posted. : Dean Michaud

Thankfully, this story is a fake: http://lionvs40midgets.tripod.com/[^] It sure had me boggling though. : Dean Michaud

I agree; Audacity is the way to go if you ask me. If people know of a better or equal application I'd like to know about it though. : Dean Michaud

Check out the help on SHGetSpecialFolderPath() and SHGetFolderPath(); I've not used these in a while, but they fit the bill. : Dean Michaud

Regardless of this being 100% true, I had a similarly funny thing happen to be in the mid-90s. When I was in high school I subscribed to Columbia House (mail-order music company). When I moved out of my parent's house to go to university I did not change my address with Columbia House, so they kept sending correspondance letters to my parent's house. For those of you not familiar with Columbia House, here's some info for you: Every month they send you a postcard-like form. This form has a suggested album that they will automatically send you if you do not respond (they claim they do this for your convenience, meh); you can decline the suggested title and/or order other titles. In Canada, in the mid-90s, you had to include postage to return the form to them. During my second year of University my mother got tired of having to decline the recommended title, affix a stamp, and send it back to Columbia House. She tried to terminate my membership for me... but for whatever reason they kept sending the forms for another 6 months. She decided to call them and complain... but my mother did not just give them the usual, she told the person on the other end of the phone "Please stop sending me these forms; my son died and the mail addressed to him is upsetting and disturbing my family." The forms did not show again following her phone call. 4 years later, shortly before Valentine's Day, I got a card in the mail from Columbia House with information on how to re-join. The inside of the card read "We've missed you, we want you you back".... apparently they wanted me back from the dead! They must have quite a marketing department there, they even market their product to the dead. I still get a good chuckle today! : Dean Michaud

I agree 100% - with these two applications alone I managed to make copies of the most watched DVDs I own. When you have kids ... their little fingers tend to not treat DVDs as kindly as some might think; for instance, did you know that when you take a DVD and wedge it between the dumping-part of a toy Tonka dump truck and its cab that it would snap the DVD into two almost perfect halves when you pivot the box up and down a couple times? No? Well now you do! Back them DVDs up parents! : Dean Michaud

Just before Xmas I was having the same problem with a different game (Everquest 2). I went from my old GF4Ti4200 to an ATI 9800 Pro. It's quite decent, but not top of the line; I had to make sure the card would bust the bank but would still give me a good gaming experience. I've never owned an ATI card before, not in the last 8 years anyways, and I am quite pleased with my purchase. If you get anything newer than that, I betcha you'd be happy. I noticed someone else mention the X800 from ATI; smoking card if you can afford it! Have fun researching which to buy; post which you bought when you get around to it (heck, let us know what you think of the game too... I've been thinking of getting it too). : Dean Michaud

Jim Crafton wrote: Well I would have thought that too. Except, with 1 GB of RAM why should ANY swapping occur? Well, I know it is a game, but when I am playing Everquest 2 I notice that now and again the game does go over the 1GB of physical memory I have; sometimes reaching as high as 1.3GB. I am not sure why it gobbles up so much memory, but I have a feeling the game is designed in such a way as to take advantage of anything and everything you have to throw at it hardware-wise. Sadly, I've contemplated slapping another 3GB into the box. : Dean Michaud

I always thought the rule was "do not to warm up your shotgun shells on the camp stove if you left them in the truck overnight". : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

Anyone else having problems when zooming in? It goes all wacky pixelated when I seem to go past 1/4 zoomed in. I'll have to check it from home in case it is my work connection. : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

I am almost ashamed to admit this but... ... I might actually wait to play HL2 until after Xmas. On a lark I purchased Everquest 2 last week. I've not played any EQ before, played Shadowbane for a couple weeks (yuk) and then I dabbled with Dark Age of Camelot, which was decent, and thought EQ2 might be able to sway my feelings of uneasiness in MMORPG products. Well, I am quite impressed with it... enough that I don't want to have HL2 cutting into my Everquest 2 gaming. I cannot beleive that this is true; I may even break down tomorrow night because I have to pick up my HL2 pre-order after work tomorrow... but if I can hack it, I'll push off playing HL2 until after Xmas. As I said... I am almost ashamed to admit it. : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

Hopefully said-Martian-squeegee-kids don't damage your vehicle when you refuse to pay them. I'm not sure how much of the Martian currency we sent with the rovers is left. : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

From that response, I'll assume that the link is not "work-friendly"? Just guessing... : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

In regards to becomming a sissy: My wife has been making fun of little-sissy-me since I started playing Doom 3. I can play for around 20mins, and then I need a break. It sometimes scares the piss out of me, plain and simple. Then again, I do play in the basement, turn off the lights, and play with headphones on... I think I'm just looking for mental punishment. what's worse? I am enjoying the game enough to keep coming back for more! Having said that, however, the game might just become repetitive if they don't start showing me more than hallways, medical labs, and hallways. I've yet to get turned around like I used to in the original Doom... not that this is horrible... but when I finish Doom 3 in Marine mode and unlock Nightmare mode, I would hope to get frazzled when enemies keep respawing and eventually get hopelessly lost. There's a lot of laughs when you get cornered, lost, and many baddies come lunging (sp?) for more brains. I do plan on getting the Duct Tape mod that tapes the damned flashlight to the top/bottoms of some weapons to allow me to see a little better. Even after tweaking my vid card's brightness outside of the game, and turning the brightness all the way up in D3, it's still freakin' dark! Then again, I think they were going for dark. For those who are wondering if this is a good game? I have this to say; I don't know yet. See, I like games mostly for their technology - I am an eyecandy fool. But the game is fun to play, running into rooms with guns blazing, hitting mostly walls and lights, and hoping that you don't soil yourself before you reach the next lit area. It's got some good surprises, moody atmosphere, awesome sound, and many creapy shadows. The gameplay is what you'd expect; you get the nerve to go forward, turn corner, flinch at demons/ghouls/zombies/screaching cats/explosion sounds/falling debris/etc., and BANG! BANG! BANG! As for story? I do love a game with a good story (e.g. Deus EX 1 [not 2]) and System Shock 1 & 2) but so far Doom 3 barely has any story. It's been more "Well... here's a semi-plausible reason to go to the next area". But this is id Software, not Valve Software or Squaresoft; I expect nothing more or less from them. Holy jebus, I gotta get back to work! Stoopid Doom! : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

David Cunningham wrote: there's been a real shortage of good vibe Sadly, 'good vibe' usually manifests itself through people's silence. I am sure that most of us that do regularly visit TCP have nothing but good vibes for this place. :) I can almost feel the pain and strain of the webservers... I am one that's cheering on the sidelines - keep up the good work! : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

I need to be able to detect CD Burning devices, but after searching for some time now I'm still not sure how to get the information I need. I need to be able to detect that there is indeed a device that can burn to CD-R/CD-RW (be is a CD burner, or a DVD burner than supports burning CDs too). What I *really* need is the drive letter for that device. I do not actually need to do any burning, I simply need to detect that one exists and report the drive's letter. If you have any ideas that will save me from Google-Hell, please let me know! Thanks! : Dean : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

Out of curiousity, are we sure that this website is 100% legal in itself? I've heard rumors that the operation is shady, but I personally have zero proof of that. It kinda feels like buying new high-end streo equipment from 'some guy' for a fraction of the cost... I'm weary about whether or not the source of the equipment is legal. I am just curious. : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

Nothing will ever make stealing anything right - taking something without permission from others is always going to be wrong. I do agree that we need to go about buying music differently; but it's not right to steal a copy and then decide you want to buy it. I think if it became more feasible for bands to sell me their music directly I'd be much more inclined to buy music because I'd their time and talent was being compensated. As things are right now, I buy my music used 90% of the time, I cought up the $5-$10(CDN) for the CD and if it's only so-so I can always return it for roughly half of what I paid for it. This does not happen to often because I can usually get a good listen of the CD at the store before I purchase it (yeah, I'm one of those boneheads with the 'phones on listen to CD after CD at the store :P). This works well for me, and I'm hardly ever burned. : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

That is the same as I do; the local CD Exchange here in Ottawa gets my money more often than not when it comes to music, heck, even some DVDs. I got They Might Be Giants on DVD from there for $12(CDN) used (wheee!). Used CDs range from $5(CDN) to $10(CDN) depending on the artist and how new the CD is. If any of you are always buying new I suggest you check out your local used music stores, and visit more than 1 because content differs greatly from store to store (at least here in Ottawa). I am finding that I can find more music that meats my taste in these stores, and the people that work there often like the same music... and they are often quite knowledgeable about music/artists. : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

BrockVnm wrote: wasnt a big problem with taping songs off of the radio or taping songs from a friend who had the tape. I just dont get the big issue. Actually, a very similar stink was made with the advent of cassette tapes - Google around and you'll find a very similar story that goes way back a few decades. The record company has not changed it's song for a long time, they've become a broken record . : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud