Dave Garrett

It's Garry Shandling's Show - complete series 16-DVD set for $49.98 at Daedalus Books.

Moldville

Looks like you do have to have admin rights to install it - if there's no chance of convincing someone in IT to do it, there's an older version available that doesn't require admin access to install it, but it doesn't have all the functionality of the newer versions. Details at the bottom of this page.

Looks really cool...don't know if I can install it on the corporate PC, but if I can... It's been a while since I've had to install it on a machine that I didn't have local admin access on, so I can't remember if that's required or not. It's basically a collection of Excel macros, and IT organizations tend to get cranky about things like that when they're not coming from a trusted source. Also, be aware that the developer publishes updates semi-regularly, and will force you to upgrade after a certain period of time by disabling the older version you have installed. Not sure if this is done by just embedding an expiration date in it or whether it phones home to check for available updates. Kind of a pain in the ass, especially if it turns out that admin access is required to install the updates, but it's so useful that I've managed to overlook these kinds of minor hassles.

If you use Firefox, various combinations of Flashblock, Adblock Plus, and NoScript will fix that shit right quick. I've used Flashblock for years, and it's dead simple - Flash content is automatically blocked but displayed as a Flash icon that you can click to enable the content if you choose to do so. Adblock Plus in conjunction with NoScript will give you almost total control over how webpages are displayed, but the downside is that figuring out what specific configuration best fits your needs can be complicated.

The most essential toolkit I've ever run across when it comes to having to deal with fucked-up data formatting in spreadsheets: ASAP Utilities

Unreal. This set has only been out for about two and a half years, and it was list priced at $120 when it was released. I got it at a pretty decent discount, but I still paid a hell of a lot more than $16.99. Anyway, if you're even a casual fan of the series or of TV Westerns, you should jump on it - it's a really nice set and beats all of the previous releases hands down.

Not sure where I ran across this recently, so it may have already been mentioned here: camelcamelcamel

Me too. At least they don't proudly advertise how low in carbs or calories their beer is. Anyone who's seriously concerned about either when it comes to selecting a beer is missing the point.

The full set of photos from that exhibit can be found here.

I've been on both sides of the eBay fence, and quite frankly there's plenty of bad behavior on the seller side as well. Wildly misrepresenting the condition of used items and gouging on shipping fees are the most common, although eBay has really tried to rein in the latter (and has arguably swung the pendulum too far in the other direction, so everyone suffers as a result of the actions of the most egregious offenders). But yeah, there's no shortage of asshole, bottom-feeding buyers who expect something for nothing and throw a fit when they're called on it.

Priceless! The untweaked "Nighthawks" is a personal favorite and is currently my desktop wallpaper.

The first computer I ever owned was a Mac IIx. And I've given serious thought to making the switch to an iMac for some time but ultimately couldn't justify the price differential. Macs are very nice systems, and OS X gets points from me for being Unix-based (and if not quite free like the various Linux distros, certainly inexpensive enough). But if you haven't lived with Windows 7 for a while, and your experience of MS operating systems is limited to previous versions of Windows, you might be quite surprised by how much it just works. This series of posts is worth reading, particularly the second one containing the Mac vs. Windows PC comparison table.

Not familiar with BJ's except through word of mouth - we don't have them here. And I can't say that I've really paid attention to the computer offerings at Sam's, as I tend to prefer Costco when it comes to warehouse club stores. The local newspaper has a very good technology columnist who publishes recommended specifications for desktops and laptops every year, geared toward novice, home, and power users. You will probably find his most recent update for desktops useful.

Sounds great, Dave! I am on Newegg's mailing list. Do you think that they would be a source of good deals for a unit? Most of their specials are for parts. Yeah, I'm on Newegg's list as well, but I've only ever used them for parts. They do have the occasional deal for a desktop or laptop there, though. I got my machine at Micro Center - they have stores in many cities, or you can order on the website (but some items are only available for in-store pickup). As an example, here is quite a good deal on a model that was the successor to the one I got, and this one's new instead of refurbished. I would also strongly recommend a bigger monitor as opposed to a smaller one - you won't be sorry. Make sure you get a DVI cable as opposed to the standard VGA cable that comes with most monitors, they're not cheap but are better for digital video applications.

I was pretty much in the same boat as you, with a 9-year-old computer that I kept intending to replace but kept putting it off because I didn't want to have to screw around with moving files, reloading software, etc. (I work in IT, so when I come home I don't really want to spend a lot of time fixing my own computer). What finally got me off the fence was running across a deal too good to resist - one of the local big-box specialty computer stores had a dozen or so refurbished HP desktops that normally sell for $450 or so for $339 each. They're not high-end gamer machines, but they have considerably more horsepower than you normally can find at that price point - Windows 7 Home Premium, 4GB RAM, AMD quad-core 2.9GHz Athlon CPU, 750GB hard drive, built-in wireless (this came in real handy when I was setting up the machine over the course of a couple of weekends, since I didn't have to run a network cable to my router in the other room). Of course, like all HP machines it had oodles of crapware preinstalled on it, so I had to spend some time removing all of that from the startup folder and reconfiguring it the way I wanted it, but after doing so I can't believe I waited so long to get a new machine. It's a lot faster than my old machine, for what I do on a regular basis (I'm not a gamer at all, but those who have played games on this particular machine have commented that it acquits itself respectably on that front for a midpriced desktop). Only real drawback is the anemic 250W power supply, which will have to be upgraded if I start using the expansion slots. Also got a nice 23" Samsung monitor on sale for $150, so for a little over $500 with tax, I'm very satisfied. The deals are out there, you just have to be patient and shop around. As an interim measure until you've accumulated the necessary cash, you may want to try backing up all your files and reinstalling your operating system - on a old machine, the registry can get corrupted over time and the quickest way to fix it is usually to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything.

I'll be all over that, when they figure out a way to retrofit this functionality to an existing set of frames - it sounds like the electronics required are embedded in the frames. I should've probably bitten the bullet and gotten bifocals several years ago. I've resisted doing so up until now, but I've pretty much gotten to the point where I have to take my glasses off to read anything.

Try this: Malwarebytes But be aware that if you have some sort of DNS redirect going on due to malware, it may block your access to antivirus or anti-malware sites.

The one you have is indeed a reissue, in a slightly smaller format than the earlier limited editions. A quick comparison of the various editions can be found here.

Anything by Richard Halliburton. Many a youthful imagination of yore was fired by his Complete Book of Marvels. Taschen published a very nice coffee table book, Burton Holmes' Travelogues, which should definitely be of interest. It appears to be out of print but copies can still be had from third-party sellers at Amazon. I got a copy for cheap when Taschen included it in a clearance sale a couple of years ago, guess that was a good indication that it was going out of print. There is an excerpt from it with some photos still up on their website, and a related book of Holmes' photographs is still available.

eBay is about to start including S&H in its Final Value Fees. As you might expect, sellers are plenty pissed off about this. Others are of the opinion that the bad apples who charged exorbitant S&H rates to pad their sale prices ultimately wound up screwing the honest sellers when eBay cracked down on the practice. eBay Fee Changes Hit Auction Sellers Hard

That's depressing that it was so close to a DVD release only to have the plug pulled in such a fashion. Reminds me of the MC5 documentary MC5: A TRUE TESTIMONIAL, which got as far as some theatrical screenings and promotional DVDs sent out to reviewers before the filmmakers had a falling out with Wayne Kramer and he successfully sued to block release of the film. I still have my Voyager laserdisc of IMAGINE THE SOUND, which seems like the best way to see it short of the odd rep screening.

I always think back to the short-short story I wrote in the eleventh grade about smuggling a shotgun into school and blowing away some of the school assholes. It got me an "A" in '74; I suppose now it would get me five to ten... When I was a sophomore in HS, our history teacher went into a fair amount of detail one day about how easy it would be to take over the large city we lived in with a relatively small force by attacking specific elements of the local infrastructure like ports, power plants, water and gas utilities, and so on. Try that today and DHS would be frog-marching his ass out the front door before the bell signaling the end of the period rang. Presumably he had the opportunity to further refine this plan, as he subsequently joined the military and has since risen through the ranks to become a fairly senior officer.

Cool - I've been using the IP Board app for a while with another forum, and I've added the Big O to my forum list. The app is slick, but they just updated it a week or two ago and the new version seems buggy. I use the New Content button heavily, and ever since the update I'm having to log in manually every time I browse the forum, which I didn't have to do previously.

I spoke too soon earlier in this thread (or maybe it was a related thread) - I have three separate orders from three different sellers in the UK that I've now been waiting on since the beginning of January. Two were pretty substantial DVD orders, but one was a regular-sized trade paperback, which blew my theory of the delays only happening with larger packages (I ordered a single DVD from Amazon.uk since then and it got here within a week and a half).