virus scanners annoy me, sometimes. I use AVG (free version) and it used to be hella annoying. But I hate paying for software

so I stuck it out, and it's less annoying now.

I don't know. I did a full scan, it found a few potentially bad things, mostly adware in old setup files of old programs I never installed. But I always throw installers at Virus Total anyway, so that's not much of a help. But what also happened was that certain programs would suddenly use 100 % CPU in the background when I closed them. I think that never happened before I tried MS SE.

What also annoys the hell out of me is that it continually tried to scare me with rubbish.

"You computer is at risk!" - just when I turn real-time monitoring off.

yeah, that's really annoying

"A potential threat to your computer" - some innocuous adware in an old installer.

stupid warnings

no need to be so emotive

Yeah.

I can see my computer, it's not at risk unless I'm about to drop water on it

or kick over

But I think many people buy this exaggeration of "threats", which causes them to buy moar anti-virus programs. MS SE is free, but I guess they participate in the general discours.

but I don't think I'm that clumsy

Hehe.

If you don't have a laptop...

@Cerberus ha, my clumsiness might be the cause of my EEE's inability to boot from USB anymore :(

Aww.

I thik I dropped it one too many times

So you have an Asus too!

yes

Good.

I saw you got one for your friend!

Yeah, and she liked it.

I was disappointed with their customer support, but the hardware is solid

Hmm what happened?

oh, well when I explained about not being able to boot from USB they said it was a software issue and not their problem. But I know it's not a software issue, because it was working, and now it's not (after I dropped it), and I should have pressed the point and got them to look at it under warranty, but I jut felt demotivated by their dismissal.

this was a couple of years ago now

it still works as it was meant to, I just can't install a different OS

I understand. That is annoying.

I hate pressuring customer support too.

Especially when I'm not prepared for some point they make that is not really true.

Yeah, like how do I deal with something I can't adequately explain? I'm not a hardware expert

You could buy an external cd-rom drive. Though I'm not sure whether those are bootable.

yeah, I could do that. I have thought about it. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble now. I might get a proper laptop for use on the move

I also highly recommend that you make a clone of your hard drive.

well, there's nothing on the EEE :D

The OS, I mean.

I back up my desktop now and again

So you won't break your OS and semi-brick it.

and I have the install disks if I ever need to reinstall

Huh?

@Cerberus ah, well luckily there is a factory reset switch in that situation

Ah, OK.

That is supposedly the same, right?

yeah

Though I don't know how well that works.

it wipes everything and put the EEE back to how it was when I got it

pretty well. I've used it a couple of times when there was space issues and I couldn't uninstall things (I have the xantos GNU/Linux version of the EEE)

OK and do you initiate this reset from BIOS? Or some F8 option?

Yeah, you have to press a set of keys at boot, I seem to remember

Ah OK.

it's in the manual

So unless your hard drive gets corrupted, you're safe.

Even if the OS won't boot at all.

in theory

yes

Heh.

But...?

I'm sure there's a way one could mess it up completely, with magnets or something

Haha, sure.

But isn't the hard drive itself in a metal case?

Hi!

@Cerberus true, plus it's an SSD

hi @WillHunting :)

Ahh OK.

Hmm I should test whether I can boot from USB.

What would be the easiest way to test that?

@WillHunting Of course! I have a fresh install, and it works very well.

make a bootable USB stick, plug it in and reset your PC

I only have my external hard drive.

I think the bootable DSL USB stick I have is easy to make

Ah OK!

@Cerberus no little ones, kicking about?

And I don't have to erase anything on my USB drive?

I think you would need to blank the drive. I don't know.

@MattЭллен I don't think so. I had a 128MB one once. Probably in the nineties.

@MattЭллен Hmm that is unacceptable.

@Cerberus :D I have a 128MB mp3 player

Damn Small Linux bootable USB

@MattЭллен Ouch, Fat32!

@WillHunting it the instructions I used to make my bootable USB stick

Perhaps I could make a partition on my external drive? doubtful look

@Cerberus yeah, it's pretty old :D it would fit on your 128MB stick though :)

@Cerberus sounds logical that that would work

@MattЭллен Haha cool! I had a 512MB one before I started using my phone.

@WillHunting true

@MattЭллен Yeah but that stick died long ago, sadly.

awww :(

@MattЭллен Hmm...

Or perhaps I should just buy a stick and try. Should be cheap enough.

certainly a simpler soultion

4 GB = € 3,50.

That is affordable.

nice! that's cheaper than here

I think

Really?

Then you could just buy it off Ebay. I bet they have even cheaper ones there.

@WillHunting Huh?

oh, we can get them for £3

See?

ace

well, I don't need one right now - I have more than one already :D

@WillHunting No, just my OS. So I reinstalled it.

@MattЭллен Silly.

I would like one with a lid that I can't lose.

oh, yeah, the flippy ones are good for that

But do those rotating ones protect the ehm thingie well enough?

we have those at work

Jinx!

hehe

Its member.

Eh yay! Even though I still don't understand the significance of those coke pictures people keep posting here...

@Cerberus !! well, I'd not thought of it as such an appendage. Yes, it seems to be protected just fine :)

@WillHunting Hmm yeah OK, but I wouldn't worry about that so much.

@Cerberus if you're jinxed you get the person who jinxed you a coke

thems the rules in this here chat

@MattЭллен Hmm ah. And how did this ritual come to be?

hmmmm. you've been here longer than me, but I blame Robusto

@Cerberus Jinx in the UK has different rules - if you jinx someone - this is achieved by calling jinx when you say something at the same time as someone else - then they can't talk until you say their name

Oh!

I don't know the origin.

Harsh rules, but no doubt just.

ebay.nl/itm/…

This is cute.

oh yes. How else would the Empire be what it is today?

Hahaha.

Aww.

Well, you have some bits left.

As have we.

@Cerberus nice. looks useful for laptops and such

Yeah.

holy moly! such precipitation must be dangerous to you health! Not to mention the falling animals themselves

@Cerberus aye, one or two. Nothing like the glory days, eh ;)

@WillHunting So you can have a numpad with a computer whose keyboard doesn't include one.

@WillHunting they don't call me "the funniest man in the world" for nothing!

or at all

@MattЭллен Alas, yes.

Funnily, USB keys are actually cheaper in real shops here than on Ebay!

0_0

@WillHunting Yeah, basically.

@WillHunting All new keys.

@WillHunting well then, they should be called second hand bads!

kingston.com/uk/usb/personal_business

What do you think of the little grey one?

tweakers.net/pricewatch/286380/…

I would choose the purple one, for looks. the littler grey one looks nice too

Hmm I don't care for looks, and the little one might fit into my wallet.

yea. it is nice and dinky :)

Haha yes.

the DT micro is also very small

I'd not seen a usb storage device so small, and with such capacity too!

Hello everyone.

its member is its biggest part

@WillHunting hides

@WillHunting but you can tell how big it is in proportion to the USB connector

hi @Mahnax

@matt Greetings.

stops hiding Hi Jasper.

@WillHunting Hm, did you go enjoy any of the festivities?

@WillHunting Aww. Well, try enjoying some of the movies, at least.

@WillHunting Hahaha, never seen one.

@WillHunting Oh, okay. I was thinking something closer to "Friday the 13th" or something.

@WillHunting Like "Eight Legged Freaks"!

@WillHunting Okay, like "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid"!

That was a cheap production.

It has 3.2/10 rating on IMDB.

the original Evil Dead was a cheap(ish) production - certainly made on a shoestring

@WillHunting Usually I find it to be the same thing, but in this case, the rating told me everything I needed to know.

I'm not sure of its universal suitability though

Yeah, you don't want to know everything.

@WillHunting Nah, I haven't found a suitable means.

@WillHunting Can I think of one, you mean?

@WillHunting Well, a Mac runs on Unix, which is very nice.

There is a way lower chance of getting a virus on a Mac.

...

Hi!

Hi!

Hi!

@WillHunting Ho boy.

If it isn't Apple boy!

@WillHunting Heh.

@Cerberus It is! And I'm not in the mood to argue with anyone today. I have work in an hour, and I'm tired.

@WillHunting Hasn't Windows long been bootable from USB?

@Mahnax I wasn't either, or you would have seen the arguments flying around the room already!

@Cerberus Good, good.

My ... were meant signify all the possible arguments I could have uttered.

@WillHunting Only 6.

Still long.

Mactex?

Ah.

I've never actually used Latex.

BRb groceries.

@WillHunting Not bad.

Sorry, I was afk.

you kids and your afking. Next thing you know you'll be outside, riding your bike.

Who would gp that far from his keyboard?

I no, rite?

good groceries, @cerb?

laryngeals

Ehhh.

um

Wong copy-paste.

lol

Mostly crips and bananas, actually.

Too lazy to cook, and besides my friends-colleagues will be here soon to work on our palaeography project again.

carbohydrate-tastic

And fat!

Wait.

I think I didn't get that one.

didn't get what?

like fantastic, but emphasising the carbohydrates

or you didn't buy lard?

@MattЭллен Ah OK, then I did get it after all.

Lard!?

lard is fat

but people won't buy fat in packets, so it's called lard

No no carbohydrate...

@MattЭллен Hehe, true.

Hmm.

@Cerberus yay!

technically lard refers to pig fat, but whatevs

That is actually funny, yes. Because lard is supposed to be fat in some kind of protein-meat structure, right?

oh, I don't know the technicalities

Not just the fat.

Hmm.

lardons are little bits of bacon

I know that much

mmmm lardons

No, you were right, I think: lard is described as the stuff that can melt only, not the thingies that hold it in a normal pig's fatty tissue.

@MattЭллен Ah, yes...

So what is the difference between lardons and little chunks of bacon?

thickness?

Bacon is always thinner?

I'm not sure. Wiki defines lardons as small strips or cubes of pork fat (usually subcutaneous fat)

oh, I see

Hmm.

bacon is cured. lardons are cured if they come from bacon

otherwise not

Ahh!

yay for wiki :)

And curing involves mainly salting and smoking?

I believe so, yes

OK.

but I don't think you can get lardons from bananas

Oh doorbell, bye!

cya @Cerberus, have fun :)

BWAAH. Work.

That is all.

hey

anyone know what 13horror is? i have a suspicion it's a shock site so i closed it rather quickly

yesss. reading comments on it im pretty sure it's a shock site now

no i will NOT turn my speakers up :-)

off-topic. really should be over at scifi.stackexchange.com

So, does anybody else read the CMOS (or their style guide of choice, I suppose) recreationally, or were the other schoolkids right in saying I'm just weird?

CMOS?

isn't that what comes on when the computer is booted?

Yes! Wide left!!! Thank you, Cundiff! Go Pats!!!!