Posted 10/25/2009 at 08:26:45pm

When I did repairs for Toshiba part of the training we had to go throgh for our certification was a lesson on ESD.  We were required to wear wrist straps when doing repairs on their notebooks because even a small ESD event could damage an IC, but not cause it to break.  However the system would start doing wonky things because an IC was only just slightly damaged but not totally broken.  My instructor said that they had xray'd parts in their labs and seen damage from ESD.  Keep in mind laptops are special beasts too.  Lots of plastic and not a lot of places to ground yourself out.

That said my instructor in college for my Technician certification always insisted that grounding yourself on the case frequently is just as good as a wrist strap and not nearly as annoying.   For my own desktops I ground myself out on the chassis during construction and I have never had an ESD related failure, knock wood.

Posted 09/06/2009 at 07:36:21pm

Why would I pay over $200 for a device that only displays books in a proprietary format, when I can buy a Netbook for about the same or not much more.  The price definitely needs to hit under the $100 mark.

Posted 09/02/2009 at 08:43:48pm

If all you want to do is slipstream your XP disk, just use the built in method that your SP2 or SP3 installer already has.  There is a very comprehensive article I found here that documents the process.  It even tells you how to remove the old SP files and update the tools on the disk.
I like having non-n-lited virgin copies as a base to work from as n-lite loads additional files into your OS on install.   Also the disks canot be updated with new SPs or hotfixes, you always have to go back to your original disk and re-n-lite.
Using the Microsoft built-in method you end up with a new XP cd that you can integrate other hotfixes into and there are no non-microsoft files installed during the OS install. 

Posted 06/04/2009 at 09:13:23pm

My wife and I are currently living and working  in China.  This is my second year and her third year here.  There are certainly frustrations and things that are different from back home.  But you gain perspective living in another culture for awhile.

 I use a variety of proxies and VPN software to get around the blocks here, Freegate, Ultrasurf, Psiphon, etc.  Its silly that some sites are blocked, but its not much more than an annoyance, you just startup the proxy.

Posted 06/04/2009 at 08:57:14pm

I live in China currently.  You get quite a differnt perspective for a people and a culture once you actually live there for awhile.