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Auto Insurance and MS Pages: 12

NickD on Thu May 18, 2006 8:40 AM User is offline

Was single for about nine years and owned three vehicles, could never understand since I am only one person that could only drive one vehicle at a time why I had to cover each individual vehicle separately. This makes for one heck of a yearly premium as paying about three times as much, sure they offer a 10% multiple vehicle, but I still could only drive one vehicle at a time.

Ironically when I got married, with my wife driving an assigned vehicle there was no rate increase, but now we can drive two of the three vehicles at the same time, ha, if I married a second wife, she could drive the 3rd vehicle with no increase in premium. Just sounds crazy.

Seems like MS is following the same logic, again I am only one person with a legal copy of XP pro, I switch computers a lot and have installed this on maybe 3-4 different computers, but I am only using one computer at a time. Don't even have the original computer I first installed XP on, it's history. But seems now MS is generating a new code based on the hardware configuration of the computer with the registration key and if you switch this OS to a different computer, even though you are the legal owner of the software, they are spying on us and saying your copy of XP is a counterfeit. Was shocked to see that when I switched on a rarely used computer. This new Compaq I purchased came with XP home installed and was told this OS is keyed strictly for this computer and won't work on anyother computer by HP.

HP adds a bunch of garbage to the OS, trial programs, and ads that adds up to 12 full CD's of junk. I got rid of that crap and burnt the good stuff on just two CD's with Ghost. When the HD died on the first computer, made the comment to the HP tech, least I have that for the new computer, he said it won't work. Got no good answer why they add all that crap, even when you buy the cheapest 30 buck burner you get enough stuff to burn a disk, what came with this computer were 30 trials that died after that time, what a ripoff. So I had to go through all that nonsense again, all computer manufacturers are doing that now and MS is getting a couple of bucks for any ocmputer that is sold and if you pitch that computer, the OS goes with it. Guess Bill ain't making enough money. Ha, can't even buy a store version now of his stuff and install it on more than one computer unless you stay off the net. And you can't stay off the net, because the rest of the program has to be download, we should all boycott MS. Bill really has me ticked off this time.

MrBillPro on Thu May 18, 2006 10:32 AM User is offlineView users profile

Nick, I would be calling MS tech support from what I have always understood that you "can't" run the same copy on two computers at the same time but if you upgrade your PC and trash the other one "not literally" you are ok to use the copy you have, it would be worth a phone call and I think you will find that they will say it ok also, but I am not 100% sure but if you do get back and let us know the verdict.

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Don't take life seriously... Its not permanent.

k5guy on Thu May 18, 2006 11:00 AM User is offline

It is specifically written in the license for XP.

1. GRANT OF LICENSE. Microsoft grants you the following rights provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this EULA:

1.1 Installation and use. You may install, use, access, display and run one copy of the Software on a single computer, such as a workstation, terminal or other device ("Workstation Computer"). The Software may not be used by more than one processor at any one time on any single Workstation Computer.

See the EULA for XP home. See the EULA for XP Pro.

MS went this way, supposedly, to combat piracy. I really think they did it to maximize profits. I guess they keep the shareholders happy.


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NickD on Thu May 18, 2006 11:03 AM User is offline

Ha, when I purchased Win98SE, got a bad CD, no amount of arguing with the store would get me another copy as the box was opened. No choice but to contact MS for a replacement that took over two months. First was the battle with tech support in wanting to charge me some 50 bucks just to answer my question as to how to return this disk. But amazing I got around that by calling the sales department instead. Man did they want proof of purchase and a lot more information about me then when I got my top secret clearance, also wanted my CC number as the price of a replacement disk was 30 bucks, no if's, ands, or buts about that. After they were finally satisfied, waited 2-3 weeks and nothing in the mail. Called again and my file was lost, had to resubmit all that information, but at least the second time around, it was all gathered, but still took another month before I finally received the disk, they already had the old one, had to mail that back to them.

So you want me to call them again? For a program that cost twice as much?

Ha, was expecting K5guy or BigChris to respond and say use Linux. This time was going to ask, how do I get started.

Suppose Bill has every right to do this, if you buy anything else today, have to junk what you have as nothing in the old stuff is reusable. He has got us where he wants us, completely dependent on the computer for all of our business and other needs no different than the oil, drug, utility companies, the AMA, or the city tax assessors office. You either pay, go broke, have everything taken away from you, or die.

Shame is, we use to have a government that would protect us against things like this, but we ain't got that anymore.

k5guy on Thu May 18, 2006 11:25 AM User is offline

Quote
Originally posted by: NickD

Ha, was expecting K5guy or BigChris to respond and say use Linux. This time was going to ask, how do I get started.

Nick, start here. But I don't suggest this for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of work to totally divorce yourself from the Evil Empire. But as Chris knows, its worth it.



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Bigchris on Thu May 18, 2006 12:22 PM User is offline

Chris knows it but your timing is bad because he's trying to be helpful and non-disruptive right now...

NickD on Thu May 18, 2006 12:42 PM User is offline

Quote
You may install, use, access, display and run one copy of the Software on a single computer

Did I agree to that? Ha, Judge, nothing like this was written on the outside of the box and had to open it so I couldn't take it back to the store, MS coerced me into agreeing to their contract, if I didn't, couldn't even load the program and would be out two hundred bucks. But the judge says, (after Bill's boys hand him a brown envelop with 200K in it), you broke the law, so I am sentencing to 99 years in prison for loading that on a replacement computer.

Gee, I am a bad boy.

So they are calling that Fedora now? And on four CD's in ISO format? How many gigs do I need in my HD to run this thing? And what is this about my heart?

Is Bill tightening the screws on DOS 6.1 too? Why can't life be simple?

k5guy on Sun May 21, 2006 1:48 PM User is offline

LOL Since most states agreed to shrink-wrap licenses, you are stuck into agreeing or immediately taking it back for a refund. This is partly why we run Linux: freedom. Freedom from MS, freedom to change stuff, freedom from idiotic licenses. Do a google search on "UCITA" for more information on this bad legislation.

I use Fedora, I think Chris uses SuSe (or used to)... there are many variations of Linux. Pick one you like, and go with it. http://www.linuxiso.org/ is good start.

My Fedora installation takes 12G, but I am a disk pig, and I have 140G available to me. You can cut it down to way under 10G if you are picky about what you install.

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NickD on Mon May 22, 2006 7:41 AM User is offline

The Compaq computer I recently purchased came with a 160G drive with two partitions, a 7G partition with all the compressed files on it for the OS and a bunch of junk, the other was drive C with a 153G partition. Crazy I thought, can you imagine running Nortons Speed disk on a 153G partition, would take eons. HP's position on this is to use only one partition with your OS, data, and a ton of internet ad and mal ware, I told them they were crazy and they didn't argue that point.

The instructions said to get twelve CD's and burn what was in that 7G partition, but don't power down your computer or stop the process, because due to the licensing agreement with MS, you can only do this once and after you do this, the program locks. After that, you run a decompression program that expands this junk unto drive C then destroys the contents in this 7G partition. Well you do have the backup disks, but if your OS system crashes your CD won't run and you are screwed anyway. Before I even started, purchased a second 80 G HD and backed up the 7G junk partition. Paid a couple of bucks more for the retail version so I would get the WD disk that is suppose to let you partition their drive, what a screwball program, it had no old fashion sys command to make your desired drive the root drive and it partitioned in some strange random fashion.

I wanted the 80G to be my primary drive, and learned I could use the latest version of Win98SE Fdisk to partition it, some screwy bug I don't remember, but made a bootable CD with Fdisk installed, but when I installed that CD in the CD, BIOS would not recognize that drive, remove the CD and it would, so I added a floppy drive to the computer, least the mainboard still had a floppy connector even though HP doesn't recommend adding a floppy, that let me partition the drive, but the format with 98 only does FAT32, so I had to use my XP Pro disk to format the root drive that Fdisk let me specify. Once I had that, used ghost to backup the 7G junk partition and loaded that to the primary drive, then could use XP to format the remaining partitions, but noted a 10G limit on FAT32 partitions, wonder why they did that so had to format in NTFS. Assigned the smaller partitions as my data storage so at least I could get the data off with a floppy in case MS crashes the main partition with all their worms they say they are trying to prevent with countless upgrades.

XP could run nicely on two 15G drives with all kinds of space, one 3 G partition is more than sufficient for downloading even the largest piece of garbage where it can be burnt to a DVD, senseless to keep this stuff on an HD.

So in essence only actively using about 15G from each drive leaving a 65G partition from the 80 I assigned to drive X and 145G from the 160 I assigned to drive Z and just ignore them, since they are blank, speed disk doesn't take all day to check them out, I have no idea what to do with this extra space, with the two drives have plenty of space for both all the programs I run with the second drive used for backups. Really important stuff gets burnt to a CD, most people I know just use drive C and when it crashes, all is lost, but there is an 800 buck program that is suppose to recover some of the data, no one I know wants to spend that much.

Looked over the Linux sites, one thing that is missing is the system requirements, guess you have to be born into Linux to know that stuff.

bohica2xo on Mon May 22, 2006 2:20 PM User is offline

Nick:

Just go HERE, buy the CD. Shove the CD into the drive, select "take over"... and you are done. Buy a copy of Sun's "Star Office" for about 60 bucks, and open any MS office junk anyone sends you - Excel Word, PP etc.


B.

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"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
~ Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi, An Autobiography, M. K. Gandhi, page 446.

NickD on Tue May 23, 2006 6:55 AM User is offline

What happens if I install LinspireLive on more than one computer?

Bigchris on Tue May 23, 2006 8:09 AM User is offline

Nothing. You don't install LinspireLive. It loads from the CD into ram and runs there. It may use an unused portion of an HD as a swap file but doesn't leave anything there. If you buy a copy of regular Linspire you may install it on as many computers within your household as you wish. License

JJM on Tue May 23, 2006 12:56 PM User is offline

Nick,

Licensing issues aside (which MUST be adhered to), from a strictly technical standpoint only, Windows XP (or 2000 and NT) can be installed from one computer to another. Simply copy the "I386" folder and type "WINNT" at a command prompt.

The "Genuine Windows Validation" is easily to get around for the most part. For example, if you can't get SP2 because you failed validation, just get the administrator download of SP2 right from the Microsoft download site. There are also "mods" eliminate the validation thing.

You probably won't have much luck Ghost; I've found it pretty much useless -- usually at a time when I need it most. Acronis True Image is a FAR superior cloning tool -- even among different platforms, perfect every time! Worst case scenario is using Microsoft SYSPREP before cloning, then the image will be ready for almost any machine it's dumped on. Then you just have to get rid of the OEM stuff, like logos, wallpaper, etc.

I pretty much stopped using anything Norton, seems to cause more problems than anything else, and it's pretty much useless for the most part. It's ashame, it was THE leader of utilities at one time.

Joe

NickD on Thu May 25, 2006 8:06 AM User is offline

Ghost 9 sucks, only operates within the confines of the OS and if the OS system is shot, what the hell good is it? The version that comes with Norton System Works 2001 is the best, make a simple boot up disk using any DOS, the floppy that Nortons makes is base on that obsolete IBM version of DOS, but can make one using Win 95 or 98 just as well, copy a Dos mouse drive driver, I use Logitech, write a simple autoexec.bat file and copy the Ghost.exe file. With this floppy, can boot up any machine, even one with XP on it and make compressed backup files, store these on a spare HD, or burn a series of CD's, can also route the signal to a USB cable, but I haven't tried that yet.

With this single floppy, then can load these backups to any HD, a disk copy will even make new partitions, did notice one limitation, can only handle I think to about 12 partitions, more than that, the directory won't show these extra partitions. The version that came with system 2002 sucks, they added a registration code that I really don't understand, they give it, but make you type it in each time you do an operation, a complete pain in the butt. Good to back up your drive C before trying any new program, Windows never removes all that crap that is added and if you don't like the program or it crashes your computer that many do, simply revert back to your backup and everything is like it was before you started. Also great if you picked up some kind of worm the net is loaded with. You don't even need Ghost installed when adding backups to a new computer, but if it is on drive C, will be on the new computer as well, the gain of having Ghost installed is that you can pick apart the backup file and take out any single file or a complete directory.

I have been using Nortons for years, like disk doctor, speed disk, and ghost, MS is using a poor licensed copy of Nortons for there disk defragmenter that takes forever to run and their scandisk sucks, but have to admit, with each year, Nortons is getting worse and once good programs are going to pot.

Nortons does check and compact the registry, but so does System Mechanic, CC cleaner, Registry Mechanic, if you run all four programs, each seems to find some junk the other three won't find, no such thing as one good registry program like no such thing as one good adware program, all seem to find something a little different.

I am dead lost with your statement on copying the I386 folder and typing Winnt on the command prompt line, what command prompt line if nothing is installed on a new computer?

MS installed some kind of worm on my counterfeit version, strange, I had that program running for a couple of years with no problems so keep on getting popups as this version of XP is not genuine. I only loaded XP on that computer to learn it so I wouldn't mess up a usable computer, but in general I either do not understand XP nor know how to use it. If you switch on auto upgrades apparently that confidential information is not confidential anymore, although this computer was getting valid upgrades, within the last month or so, it got the MS worm popping up an not genuine copy. If you switch off auto upgrades, get constant popups that your computer is not secure.

I am getting sick of MS upgrades, the vast majority do not fix anything, load up your HD with crap and slow down your computer and those on the fly upgrades can crash your computer that happened to me many times with some kind of glitch. Heard on the news that Bill doesn't like the empire that google created and starting a war with them. Don't be surprised with some upgrade you gotta have that when you open google, your entire computer crashes like it did with netscape. Bill also hates FireFox and that is starting to have problems now. But why should I complain when the entire nation puts up with Bill's crap?

Also hate Adobe, send them another 300 bucks for an upgrade and within a year, it's obsolete, no improvements, just a bunch more crap, but you can't download a government .pfd file and save it anymore unless you upgrade. Getting to the point where going to buy a typewriter and say screw the computer.

Bigchris on Fri May 26, 2006 6:58 AM User is offline

Seems like when you find yourself in a hole the best thing to do is stop digging. I feel your pain, so here are some suggestions.
The Win98SE diskette is problematic because the FDISK on it doesn't work right with big HDs. If you search the MS knowledge base with "FDISK" you'll find a downloadable replacement FDISK program.

You can create a bootable CD from the patched Win98SE diskette that works - I've done it.

Boot from CD is a BIOS option. If you can boot from an XP CD, the option is set correctly.

Partition Magic is very useful for changing your partition sizes around and moving stuff from one place to another. It was originally sold by Power Quest who was later bought out by Symantec. Power Quest Version 8.0 can still be found on ebay and works better and is cheaper than the newer Symantec version.

A DVD rewriter costs $30-40 and plugs in in place of your CD drive. A DVD rewriter reads and writes CDs or DVDs.

Single layer DVDs come in rewriteable or write once formats and each hold 4.5 Gigabytes
Double layer DVDs are mostly write once and each hold 8.5GB.
Either type can be created as bootable.

Diskette quality is constantly going down so the more you buy, the more likely you are to lose data.

The free downloadable Adobe readers can back up a .pdf file to disk or diskette.

The free downloadable Open Office for Windows reads and writes MS Office files and also produces .pdf files.
I can't understand why you'd be paying Adobe anything.

I've got two computers here that have no space for a floppy drive, but all modern computers have USB ports. For those rare cases where only a floppy will do, I bought myself a Sony USB floppy drive. It is powered by the USB port so I just plug it in and it is recognized immediately by either Windows or Linux and just that quick I can read or write a floppy or boot the machine from it. When I'm done with it I just unplug it and put it away. Couldn't be any easier.

Edited: Fri May 26, 2006 at 7:27 AM by Bigchris

NickD on Mon May 29, 2006 8:43 AM User is offline

No problem with partitioning even a 160 GB drive with Win98SE FDisk, but have to use an XP disk to format to NTFS, FDisk will only do FAT32. Never knew why even the first CD readers weren't treated as a hard drive, at first had to buy a Sound Blaster card just to get a connection point and add yet another driver. Did have a weird problem with this Compaq, BIOS would recognize the drive if there was no disk in it, but boot up with a disk in it, and BIOS couldn't find it. Went around in circles with the brilliant HP techs on their chat line. Was told I had the latest BIOS version, but when the HD on that box crapped out, had to return it anyway. Officemax did receive a fresh shipment with a BIOS version greater than what I had that didn't have that problem. Had to tell the brilliant HP techs about that.

Ha, even if you buy a retail box all set to go, still can't escape problems, but can always expect some problems if you put a bunch of components together. Was happy to see a floppy connector on the mainboard, as you said, can use a USB floppy that was recommended to me by HP and Officemax, but only good if Windows is working, if it ain't working, you are screwed, personally, I feel this is stupid. Never seen a field like the computer industry where products are sold without being tested, now with firmware products, including our vehicles, doing a very sloppy job with programming as they figure they can sell you an upgrade. Testing a new product used to consume over a year in development, those days are also gone.

I do have a whiz banger of a CD drive, dual layer, handles all disks, and has that LightScribe that I do like for making neat labels with all the song titles and times on it. Ha, tried to copy a DVD, that didn't work, practically all software will not copy a copyrighted disk. So what about making a backup of a DVD you already own? Seems okay with audio, but not with movies, not that there is anything worth copying.


"The free downloadable Adobe readers can back up a .pdf file to disk or diskette."

Now this is news to me with the reader, you mean I can download an IRS form, fill it out, save it, and even make changes to it with the reader? Couldn't do that for the longest time. Even with Arcobat ver. 5, couldn't do that and if you downloaded the reader with 5 installed, it would corrupt all the Acrobat *.dll files so neither would work. Why can't the idiots at Adobe store their stupid *.dll under the program directory?

Suppose I could make a C backup using my floppy drive that always works and try downloading the reader again, if it doesn't work, can go back to my backup that even writes the registry the way it was.

Bigchris on Mon May 29, 2006 10:28 AM User is offline

Quote
Originally posted by: NickD

Now this is news to me with the reader, you mean I can download an IRS form, fill it out, save it, and even make changes to it with the reader? Couldn't do that for the longest time. Even with Arcobat ver. 5, couldn't do that and if you downloaded the reader with 5 installed, it would corrupt all the Acrobat *.dll files so neither would work. Why can't the idiots at Adobe store their stupid *.dll under the program directory?
No, I meant you could download and save the file with the reader, then print it, fill it it out and send it back to them. The whole point of the pdf format was to be able to distribute files exactly as created, unalterable by the recipient. Sounds like you're trying to swim upstream against the tide.

The bios in my computers allows booting from a USB attached floppy without any O/S installed. If yours doesn't you can thank Compaq for that too.


Edited: Mon May 29, 2006 at 10:30 AM by Bigchris

NickD on Mon May 29, 2006 11:53 AM User is offline

With Arcobat, can download the file, fill it in with choice of my type, make it super neat, make any changes, and safe it. If I need more copies, just open the file and print it out. If I have most of a form filled out and need to change the name or some other simple thing, can do that to, can even change some forms, but don't do that, otherwise it is not legal. Purchased Arcobat 3, 5 and 6, now 6 is being obsoleted by 7, but the forms haven't changed that much if at all.

Can even e-mail the form like I did for my VA application, they really liked that to save them the time of retyping it. One purpose of the computer is to save redoing repetitive tasks. Since practically all government forms are fillable now, we should have a program that can save these forms. You say there is a free one?

k5guy on Mon May 29, 2006 3:07 PM User is offline

Not one that fills out forms. There are free readers.

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Bigchris on Mon May 29, 2006 4:09 PM User is offline

Quote
Originally posted by: k5guy
Not one that fills out forms. There are free readers.

Yea, what he said!

If the government wants you to fill out forms that way, they probably expect you to deduct the extra cost on your taxes.

NickD on Mon May 29, 2006 7:22 PM User is offline

LOL, well I did think about changing the 1040 form on page two to get a zillion dollars standard deduction and a zillion more for each dependent. And the Schedule C for a zillion dollars per business mile. Wonder if they would have caught that if it were written exactly that way on their form?

Meantime, will stick with Acrobat.

k5guy on Tue May 30, 2006 11:57 PM User is offline

LOL Try and see if we'll visit you in prison. You might even get the Martha treatment!


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Bigchris on Wed May 31, 2006 1:07 AM User is offline

He wouldn't be there long. He'd just use Acrobat to grant himself a pardon.

NickD on Wed May 31, 2006 8:08 AM User is offline

I am paying for the finest Hammermill paper and using a postscript printer at my expense and presenting the forms in a very neat and organized manner, seems to make a difference in processing, plus any errors can be costly to correct. Wasn't too costly for me to have my birth certificate corrected, the doctor with doctors handwriting hand wrote my original and the State of Illinois butchered it in the computer translation. That took five months of going back and forth to correct. I even blew up my one original and tried to use logic to say, doesn't that look more like a "Z" than an "M". They wouldn't buy that, had to get other legal documents with the correct spelling of my mother's maiden name.

Wasn't so nice in Venezuela where there was errors in my wife's marriage and her daughter's birth certificate, while these were clerical errors on the part of the officials, still cost us a couple of thousand to get them corrected. Illinois charged me twenty bucks.

In referring to the paper reduction act, we had a stack of letter sized papers filled on both side over an inch and a quarter thick for our immigration application that we submitted, my wife, attorney, and I scrutinized each sheet for any possible errors, twice. One error, if they could find one, they would have sent the entire stack back and kept our application fees. Ha, how long would it take to process 13 million people that way?

Based on many of the questions, a key theme of all these forms was that I didn't marry my wife for profit just to get her into this country with a $250,000.00 fine and up to five years in prison. If a guy wanted to start a business doing this, would have to charge the spouse at least $250,000.00 to break even and more to make a profit with all the other factors involved, marriage, divorce, ect. plus take the risk, hardly seems worth it.

Edited: Wed May 31, 2006 at 8:13 AM by NickD

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