The Spam Thread!

[huckleberrypie]

Yeah, I tend to play DVDs through VLC as commercial DVD players tend to go through the DRM/region locking scheme. I think VLC simply ignores that and parses the DVD movie differently, though iirc later DVD drives are more strict when it comes to region locking e.g. RPC2 drives. The libdvdcss library isn't particularly well-liked by Big Hollywood though, due to it being an unlicensed implementation (though to the library's credit, it doesn't use a player decryption key appropriated off some closed-source software; it instead uses a generated list of keys or goes yolo and just brute-forces its way through which a modern computer can sufficiently handle).

[cpd2009]

Too bad VLC doesn't let you use DirectX Video Acceleration on XP. Other XP based media players like WMP or a dedicated MPEG-2 decoder allow DXVA. I ended up getting an $8 USD Corel DVD Xpack license for WMP, and said decoder supports DXVA.

If I want to play foreign DVDs that aren't region free, VLC is the only option thanks to said libdvdcss library. Though a lot of my UK DVDs are region free, and I have very few that would require VLC

Speaking of video related topics, Timothy's PSU is an AcBel 110 watt unit. I would have to find a compatible ATX power supply that would fit into his rather small case. A PSU upgrade may be required if I decide to install a dedicated GPU.

[huckleberrypie]

Been thinking about getting a new M.2 stick for my laptop as 5400RPM isn't cutting it for bootup and response times. Though if I am going for the purist route I'll have to source an original HP system recovery image rather than doing it ghetto-style by just shoving in a Windows 10 install and calling it a day.

[cpd2009]

I've decided to use a spare WD Caviar (model WD800JD) 80GB disk to install into Timothy as well as installing my old student copy of XP Professional. I won't have to backup much data other than reinstalling my games, apps, and all Windows Updates. After Windows Updates are done, Timothy will not connect to the internet at all. Too much of a security risk these days.

I'll start tonight. I'll have to double check the WD800JD to see if there's any old backup data on it first, then I'll create a CD-R containing his motherboard drivers and the Corel DVD Xpack installer and serial key. Any other apps like VLC I'll download on Pearl and stuff on a USB drive.

Speaking of VLC, I did hear that Videolan will stup supporting XP with VLC 4.0, according to this page.
http://normanr.wikidot.com/xp-forever

Yeah. There's a group of dedicated users who will continue to stick with XP as long as humanly possible. I guess they got wind of the LowEndMac group and want to be the Windows XP equivalent? There's nostalgia, and there's practicality. XP is nostalgic for sure, but as I mentioned before, it's becoming archaic in comparison to Windows 10. With no more support patches, it's going to be forever insecure and using XP for web browsing increases your chances of being attacked by malware.

[huckleberrypie]

I've decided to use a spare WD Caviar (model WD800JD) 80GB disk to install into Timothy as well as installing my old student copy of XP Professional. I won't have to backup much data other than reinstalling my games, apps, and all Windows Updates. After Windows Updates are done, Timothy will not connect to the internet at all. Too much of a security risk these days.

I'll start tonight. I'll have to double check the WD800JD to see if there's any old backup data on it first, then I'll create a CD-R containing his motherboard drivers and the Corel DVD Xpack installer and serial key. Any other apps like VLC I'll download on Pearl and stuff on a USB drive.

Speaking of VLC, I did hear that VideoLAN will stop supporting XP with VLC 4.0, according to this page.
http://normanr.wikidot.com/xp-forever

Yeah. There's a group of dedicated users who will continue to stick with XP as long as humanly possible. I guess they got wind of the LowEndMac group and want to be the Windows XP equivalent? There's nostalgia, and there's practicality. XP is nostalgic for sure, but as I mentioned before, it's becoming archaic in comparison to Windows 10. With no more support patches, it's going to be forever insecure and using XP for web browsing increases your chances of being attacked by malware.

They sure are a bunch of determinators, eh? Though in fairness most of them have moved on to using Windows 7 at least, which is now becoming the new XP no thanks to some who are incensed at Windows 10's forced updates, adware and telemetry.

[cpd2009]

Timothy's HDD upgrade is finished. Finally got the Deathstar out of there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGames_(vi...developer)
You may have never heard of this company, but if you were a middle schooler who just got his first web-connected computer in the mid-2000s, eGames could be a familiar name. At it's core, they were a shovelware company, putting out CD-ROM compilations of games at major retail stores during that particular decade. Some of them were your run-of-the-mill Shareware game collections, but others contained original games. I have a couple of these myself. One of them, "Break!" is a compilation of seven different Breakout clones from different indie developers, and all are rather good. Same goes for "Space Arcade Collection". In a way, eGames was a publisher that indie developers could seek out and have their games released to the market in the era before digital storefronts became the norm.

Even with original compilations like these, eGames could get a little sketchy. At my local flea market, they have an eGames 101 game collection. The catch? Most of said games on the disc are cut down "special edition" versions. They aren't shareware, but you only get half of the levels or content that the full version contains. Indeed, eGames did sell full versions of these "SE" labeled games as standalone discs for higher prices. They also bundled adware with some of their earlier games.

eGames discs began disappearing from retailers towards the late 2000s, and apparently they refocused themselves on becoming another one of those casual game developers for online storefronts and social media. They didn't go out of business until 2012, being acquired by a mining company of all things.

I may mention this to LGR, as it could make a very interesting Tech Tales episode. eGames discs pop up regularly at flea markets and thrift stores. Good luck getting them to run on Windows 10. My breakout collection only runs properly on XP.

[huckleberrypie]

A mining company? I bet it must be Liandri.

Anyway, I caved in and got this for my laptop:


Well since the Seagate hard drive that came with this thing is painfully slow and all, I caved in and installed this on my HP 14 just recently to give it a boost. I could've used the factory recovery utility but I got hesitant when I read that you can only create one and only one recovery media for the device, short of ordering one from HP, so I thought "screw this!" and went through the reinstall the old-fashioned way, i.e. install it from a regular Windows ISO.

[cpd2009]

A mining company? I bet it must be Liandri.

Anyway, I caved in and got this for my laptop:


Well since the Seagate hard drive that came with this thing is painfully slow and all, I caved in and installed this on my HP 14 just recently to give it a boost. I could've used the factory recovery utility but I got hesitant when I read that you can only create one and only one recovery media for the device, short of ordering one from HP, so I thought "screw this!" and went through the reinstall the old-fashioned way, i.e. install it from a regular Windows ISO.

Your HP 14 would only allow you to create one copy of recovery media? Seems a bit odd to me. I've never made recovery media on an HP machine before, but I have used such tools on my old Gateway boxes. Greta had a tool that let you make recovery discs, and there wasn't any limitations to how many copies you could make. I had another Gateway desktop running Windows 8 that used the built-in Windows tools to create recovery media, though it could only be made on flash drives.

Since Greta's recovery media is based on Windows 7, installing vanilla Windows 10 is the only option. Most of the drivers I can easily obtain from Windows Update or Nvidia, but a few I had to install from the Gateway support site. Said drivers are meant for Windows 8, but they work fine with 10.

[huckleberrypie]

At least that's what the recovery utility says. Makes me wonder why they didn't just include a separate recovery USB considering how cheap those thumb sticks are these days.

[cpd2009]

Windows 10 May 2019 update has dropped. I installed it as soon as I found out.

Upgrade went smoothly on both of my computers. No major bugs found yet, either.

I do like how bits of transparency effects are introduced with every update. It's no Windows Aero, but it keeps the overall theme from being too flat. It's obvious MS is trying to achieve a look similar to macOS in certain spots.