Brian Sierakowski

Might want to look at something like this or this for your SATA to USB switcher. I've seen one made for laptop hdd's that's just the cable, I cant seem to track that one down ATM.

Timely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBtxB_PnCTo

Ha, yes, both :).

Exactly. That is probably the bigger question, as games are made to be fun. I would hope that eventually people will say "Jesus, another shooting game? Lets play Mario Cart."

I don't think I said that debating the issue is not worth while, quite on the contrary, however, given the evidence, I don't foresee things happening as predicted. I just don't think video games are going to get to the point that we can't tell the difference, I think we're vastly underestimating the human mind. I will be able to determine the difference between a person getting shot in the room, as opposed to a video of a person being shot, and that's about as photo realistic as it gets. I think the rape games analogy is a bit of a red herring, I don't think rape games create rapists, but I'll bet most rapists would love to play that game. The game doesn't beget rapists, possibly it's the other way around. Never say never, but for us to have a game that truly blurs the lines of reality, it will have to 1) create a full environment, stimulating all 5 senses (the taste of the air, the smell of the gunpowder, etc), 2) have no "start" point, at which you mentally put yourself in a state to play a game, 3) filter out any distractions, as in a battle field there are rarely ringing telephones or doorbells. And possibly more, I think our mind is a lot more adept at compartmentalizing our experiences then to believe any projected image deserves the same level of priority as something "real." Plus, we have to keep in mind anything that is using this new technology is going to try and be FUN. The first console to use life like movements has turned out to be totally tame to it's controllered brethren, perhaps THAT'S the direction games are going.

Such is life :). Guitar went for a bit less then I expected, but a better overall turnout then I expected.

I still don't know if I buy that... Even if video games are photo realistic, even if you could import your likeness as the main character, and your city as the surroundings, you still have to say to yourself "I'm going to play a game," and then proceed to do so. Unless in the future we have video games that start immediately when you wake up, containing exactly the world around you, there will always be a conscious separation between game time and life time. And, that's still begging the question of if people want to play video games that resemble their daily lives? I don't know if any research has been done, but I'm pretty sure people play video games to do fun things in different environments. If it is as you predict, i agree that that would be a very sticky subject, but I think we could also sit around and debate the malignancy of the rule of our future dragon overloads. Sure, it would be horrible if space dragons came to earth and enslaved the human race... but I don't think that's reality, and trying to amend our actions now to avoid it isn't worthwhile. ... Space dragons :).

If I were you, I'd inquire why it was necessary for your data to leave the office. Regardless of the stolen device, why is it justified that that individual needed to have your info on his laptop to take home? They may have a reason, but I suspect it will be pretty wack.

I believe Systm has a show on how to turn a dish into a Wifi transmitter.

I totally agree that there has to be some point in which hyper violence needs to be stopped, does anyone remember the game from a few years ago postal 2? It included such great plot devices as knocking off peoples heads with a shovel, urinating on people, and Gary Coleman (seriously.) At a point people vote with their money, the game did not do very well at all, and I don't think they made it to postal 3. I think the article raises two points that I really disagree with. One is the concept of any "slippery slope," that's a text book logical fallacy, and should set off red flags when every you see it. The other issue I take is the games he's using as examples. Bioshock was cinematic by definition, and I think was a great illustration of the dark path humanity could turn down when it's left with no boundaries (ironic, given the article states that we may need some boundaries.) Fallout 3 was a great game as well, certainly VERY violent when you get a head shot in slo-mo, but again, this was an illustration of a world where there is no central law. GTA 4 is... well, GTA 4. I can't really defend that one, because a lot of the killing can be gratuitous, with no benefit except for maybe a weapon and a few piles of money. But did anyone else feel that GTA 4 was that realistic? The fact that it's third person makes it a game about a guy killing people, not a game about YOU killing people. Anyway, my point is this: the theory of having games based on killing for no reason some point in the future is a scary one. However, given the evidence we have now, I don't think we're there yet, and I don't think we're on the way. Bioshock and Fallout 3 seem to say that we're heading towards a more cinematic experience when we pick up these games, but I don't know that it's a more violent experience. In Wolfenstine 3D, you picked up a gun, and fired until the target died. Are the games we have now THAT much different?

Third edit is the charm... CNAME works wonderfully, I see why I could not get it to work before :). Thanks! -Brian

Hey, I had an issue today where we have an A record set up in our DNS server to get to our webmail: mail.mycompany.com. This points to the IP for mail.google.com/a/mycompany.com, which usually works fine. Today, I got a call from the office (I work remotely usually), and they said that they couldn't get to mail.mycompany.com. I tested it from my machine and it worked, but via my VPN it didn't, and I VNCed into his laptop just to see that he wasn't making an obvious mistake. I tried pointing his browser directly to mail.google.com/a/mycompany.com, and it was able to get there. It turns out that the IP for mail.google.com/a/mycompany.com changed, I don't know if this has anything to do with them moving out of beta... but it's happened a few times before (once or twice). The biggest issue is that our network is going to assume that mail.mycompany.com is local, since our domain is mycompany.com, so we have to assign it to an IP using an A record. Here's my question; is there a type of record that we can use to say "I know this looks like it's internal, but it is actually external, please use an external dns"? Or, is there any DNS record that can map a hostname to a hostname? Set up a record that says resolve mail.mycompany.com to mail.google.com/a/mycompany.com? I've messed with dname records and such, but nothing seems to be working quite right. I just wanted to see if there was a good solution so I can fix the problem and not just provide a solution. WCS, I will just update everyone in the office to the mail.google.com/a/mycompany.com link and we'll not have to worry about it again. Thanks!! -Brian

No win7.iso boot with unetbootin :). Have to do this: http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345

UNetbootin worked like a f'in charm, thanks guys! I had two issues, 1) My computer considers my USB key to be a harddrive, and not a form of removable storage, and 2) I had prior used this key to install win7, so I (of course) had to format the key before I loaded the Macrium image. I'll try this is in a bit with the Win7 iso, I somehow doubt that it will work :). Thanks again!

I would say lets get the data off and safe before our friend Jonnycake gets too out of hand :). @MRGRIM, I'd say that's a pretty good solution too!

In that case, when you log into the working computer, make sure that you either have an antivirus installed, or are not logged in to an administrator account. Or both :). When you boot the drive, if you can see the files, hit it with an AV to clean it up while its in isolation before you bring the files over, that way you don't infect your good computer too. You may also want to use Unstoppable Copier, as you can do source="external drive", destination="folder on working computer hdd", and it will also attempt to copy and repair damaged files as well. Let us know how it goes!

I think that pulling the ad was the wrong move... the kind of people who found this ad offensive are not the kind of people who switch browsers. I feel like finally Microsoft is doing something hip and relevant, and they react to the inevitable backlash by backing down. They still have a lot to learn, but every since Gates left it seems that MS is starting to go in a really good direction.

Yup, agreed. If its X-Raid, you'll have no problem adding another drive in, else wise we'd have to look it up, because that's the only raid system I know of that has a plan built in for adding drives to a non-commercial raid.

Yup, putting that internal HDD into an enclosure and connecting it to another computer will absolutely work, provided it's just windows that's gotten messed up and there is nothing structurally wrong with the drive. You could also set the jumper setting to slave and put it into the working computer internally if you don't have an enclosure handy. You may also want to look into having some recovery tools ready in case your machine recognizes the drive, but you are unable to browse the files due to corruption. I've had a lot of luck with something like this: http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm, and you probably want to have it installed on the working computer before you connect the other one, as every time you access a corrupted drive, you run the risk of overwriting files. Good luck!!

Hey dude, What raid system are you doing? One setup through nexsan that I've used allows for hot spares to be created and added to the array, all you need to do is insert the drive and "add" it in the web gui. So, it all depends on the system that you're using and if there is a good way to get around it.

OK, this is very cool, but I'm not sure if I can use it for what I want. I was trying to make a rescue for Macrium Reflect, and it required me to burn a cd from the ISO file, with UNetbootin, could I fake it out by selecting a random distro (or SystemRescueCD), and then use the ISO generated by my program? Basically the position I'm trying to get myself into is that whenever I get an ISO I need to boot from in the future, I want to be able to accomplish that without having to burn a CD. Just like now I don't need to burn an ISO to use it within my OS by mounting it. What does everyone think of that?

Hey guys, Finally have a better description of the whole project written up, if anyone is interested in learning more I can send over the NDA soon and have the project overview close behind it! Thanks, -Brian

Thanks, I'll have to check this out!!

So, I've been doing a lot of research on this as I don't really like disk media at all. I'm trying to find a good way to take a bootable ISO and put it or the files on a USB key, and boot from that. I've gone through quite a few guides and I've seen one or two programs, but nothing seems to be all that consistent. I've found a few specific applications that you can install in this way (win7), but the linux rescue CD I made couldn't be coaxed into booting off my flash drive. Does anyone know of a good solution to this problem? Thanks, -B

Yeah, I have been trying to get Bri.an , but the Netherlands have been oddly resistant to the idea, lol. Perhaps try this site: http://domai.nr/, they can help you breakdown your domain name into non traditional TLD's, and will hook you up with a few sites that can sell it Is that what you're looking for?