The Technology Center: Idle Time

[Dopefish]

Welcome!

Use this thread to talk about anything technological, such as software, computer processors and architectures, hardware, programming, and anything that catches a geek's eye.

Keep this thread on topic as much as possible and have fun!

(By the way, the title is geeky in the sense that it's a reference to idle CPU time.)

[Craig]

Can we talk gadgets too?

Love the idea

[Dopefish]

Absolutely. If it has to do with technology, it'll fit right in.

[Dopefish]

To kick things off, I'll start off with something cool I started messing with today.

I've always liked the ability to create symbolic links in any POSIX environment. I use them constantly. In my home directory, I have symbolic links that will take me to various directories around the system. The things I use them for are typically to make things more convenient and faster to get around the system. It's useful stuff.

I came across a situation where I wanted something similar in Windows. You can create shortcuts, but they're nothing like symbolic links. I asked one of my friends if he knew of anything that could accomplish this and he mentioned something about NTFS supporting junctions. A quick search on Google for “NTFS Junction” led me straight to the Junction software on Microsoft's Sysinternals section.

It's a utility that gets run from the Command Prompt. The tool itself is pretty straight-forward. You simply specify the source directory and the target directory that it will “junction” with. So if you have an application that writes out log files to a directory, or screenshots, or anything that might consume space and/or create harddrive activity, you can junction it to a directory on a separate drive and everything will end up there.

I'm already putting this to good use.


Also, check out the main Windows Sysinternals page for all kinds of great utilities for Windows that are worth checking out.

[Dopefish]

For those of you wanting an adblock of sorts for Google Chrome...

http://www.privoxy.org/

It's very complicated to setup...but it works. It's highly configurable and more powerful than adblock for Firefox.

I haven't played with, or configured, it much, but I'll probably mess with it more tomorrow when I have time.

[SonicSpeed]

Originally Posted by Dopefish

For those of you wanting an adblock of sorts for Google Chrome...

http://www.privoxy.org/

It's very complicated to setup...but it works. It's highly configurable and more powerful than adblock for Firefox.

I haven't played with, or configured, it much, but I'll probably mess with it more tomorrow when I have time.

I've heard a few people that block ads with OpenDNS. I should try that out eventually.

Anyways, a general question for everyone. Do you buy items on the bleeding edge for more money, or do you buy the best of the previous generation.

Most of the products I buy are the better of the previous generation (or in my video cards case, 3 generations). It saves alot of money and still nets a decent amount of performance.

[Teck]

I'm kinda a mix...

I care about reliablity which often makes me buy from the last gen, but when it comes to things like my graphics I buy the latest...

[Tulkas]

Well, I also have that notion that buying top of the line now should last a while. I always try to scam my dad into giving me whatever he bought at the time (i.e. plasma tv) and tell him to buy a new one, instead of just getting some middle of the line that is cheaper. I always feel my dad should have the best and most current, and I will take whatever he doesn't want cause I know it was quality when he got it.

[panic!]

It depends on what it is and how much of an advantage it gives over the previous generation. With videocards I usually skip the generation after mine and go to the next series.

My current Gigabyte board is pissing me off so much, so I may go to an x38 chipset or something else.

[Dopefish]

I buy bleeding edge. As long as you buy hardware knowing and understanding that it's obsolete the second you buy it, it's fine. I don't expect it to last a very long time. I keep most hardware a year at most before I replace it with the latest and greatest. However, I will wait if something is on the verge of coming out-like Nehalem.