Announcement: Done To Death Topic List v3.2! README (Updated 12-01-2007)

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

Done to Death FAQ v3.2

Since certain topics keep coming up, we thought it'd be best to put the most commonly discussed topics here and their answers.

Notice!

If you make one of these topics, chances are we'll shove you toward here. On a more serious note, if you disregard the information in this sticky, your post/thread is subject to be moved, locked, and deleted as well as a visit from a mod.

Highly recommended reading!!

How to ask a question? It'll help you sound smarter when asking questions, and will make it easier for people (not just us) to help you.

And without further beating around the bush, the D2D list:

Software

• I want to test your skills as computer people! Here`s a random challenge!
  
• I`ll help you with computer problems for gold!
  
• What computer language should I learn?
  
• What browser? Have you heard of this browser?
  
• This VS. That, which is better?
  
• What peer-to-peer application do you use?
  
• How do I screen capture a movie / Anime?
  
• What about some useful software?
  
• How do I uncompress this file?
  
• I downloaded a movie/anime/song/game and it won`t work, help me!
  
• Where do I download movies/game/song/anime?
  

Hardware

• What`s your dream machine? Here`s mine!
  
• What are the specs on your computer? Here`s mine!
  
• What kind of computer/item should I get?
  
• Should I build, buy or upgrade?
  
• What`s better, ATI or nVidia?
  
• What`s better, Intel or AMD?
  
• What about Alienware?
  
• What about an Internet connection?
  
• What is better, a desktop or a laptop?
  
• What about drawing tablets?
  
• What about iPods?
  
• What about the Zune?
  

Computer Problems

• I need BBCode, signature, profile or general Gaia help!
  
• I feel like making a post where I help people with computer problems!
  
• Why does IE only allow me to save images as .bmp files?
  
• What is a bot? What is botting?
  
• My Video doesn`t work but I can hear audio!
  
• My audio works but I can`t see the video!
  
• My software is complaining about a missing codecs?
  
• Are you a geek? Am I?
  

Internet

• Where can I get my website rated?
  
• Where can I get my HTML code checked?
  
• What about some free webhosting?
  
• What about some good paid webhosting?
  
• I need some free image hosting!
  
• Where can I get a domain? Domain Registrars.
  
• How can I get music, videos and the like on my website/blog/profile?
  

Miscellaneous

• I have a joke!
  
• What about hacking, being hacked, "Is your son a hacker"?
  
• Where can I post an image of my desktop?
  
• Where can I post an image of my setup, desk, casemod, room, etc?
  
• Can I post "shock" images?
  
• Those "crash differently" video`s are so funny!
  
• Yay, Xanga, MySpace, etc!
  
• What instant messenger do you prefer?
  
• How do I get past my school`s filtering/proxy stuff?
  
• Can I get some coding help?
  
• Are there any <your item/software here> users here?
  
• Can I post Satirical versions of other popular topics?
  

Quote:

If you have anything that you think should be added to this list, by all means PM me. ^_^

This FAQ is the combined work of many people, the C&T regs both past, present and future as well as the C&T moderators. Thanks everyone!

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

I want to test your skills as computer people! Here's a random challenge!

• This covers a large range of topics. Mainly topics like "Try to figure this out! I already know how, I just want to see if you do". Chances are, if you know, we know and we've seen it many times before. If you want to discuss how it works or what not, that's fine. Just use common sense please.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

I'll help you with your computer problems for gold!

• Don't. It's against the C&T rules here.
  
• These are also commonly referred to as "guru" threads.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What computer language should I learn?

• Here is a great guide to help you!
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What browser? Have you heard of this browser?

• What browser do you use?
  
• What browser is best?
  
• What browser should I use? For this we recommend that you google for browsers to try out. Notable ones are: Maxthon, Firefox, Opera, Avant, Safari and Camino.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

This VS. That, which is better?

• The only person who can make that decision is you.
  
• "Better" is subjective, and it's a personal preference. Nothing has been proven from these topics, besides ignorance of the highest order.
  
• Not all topics with "versus" or "VS" in the thread title are frowned upon, but those that are covered in this sticky, are.
  
• No Windows version X VS. Windows version Y.
  
• No OS A VS. OS B threads. Just don't.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What peer-to-peer application do you use?

• There are a number of peer-to-peer applications that are popular. The most notable are Bittorrent, Limewire, Gtk-Gnutella and giFT.
  
• Other ways some people prefer to get files is the old-fashioned way: via IRC, newsgroups/usenet or private ftp archives.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

How do I screen capture a movie / Anime?

• Here is a link to a very good tutorial on this subject.
  
• Here is a nifty little tut on how to take screencaps with Media Player Classic.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What about some useful software?

• Gif animation software
  1.) Microsoft GIF Animator - crappy, but free.
  2.) Ulead GIF Animator - $49/15 day trial.
  3.) CoffeeCup GIF Animator - $34/15 day trial
  4.) Unfreez - Combines many gif into a single animated gif.
  5.) Macromedia Flash - $499/30 Day Trial
  6.) List of other possible software from about.com.
  
  
• Graphics programs
  1.) MSPaint (Start -> Run -> mspaint)
  2.) Pixia
  3.) The GIMP
  4.) OpenCanvas - $72 (Prices vary upon version)
  5.) Paint Shop Pro - $129/Free Trial
  6.) Fireworks MX - $300/30 Day Trial
  7.) Adobe Photoshop - $599
  8.) Adobe PhotoShop - Student Discounts
  
  
• Virus Scanners
  1.) Panda Scan - Online scan
  2.) McAfee Freescan - Online scan
  3.) Trend Micro's Housecall - Online scan
  4.) AVG AntiVirus Suite
  5.) AntiVir Personal Edition suite
  6.) Avast! - Free for home users.
  7.) Norton AntiVirus - $50/15 Day Trial
  
  
• Spyware Scanners
  1.) Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition
  2.) Spybot: Search and Destroy
  3.) CW:Shredder. - Just for CoolWebSearch
  4.) Various one shot spyware detectors.
  5.) HijackThis!. HijackThis! is a last resort tool for removing spyware. This is quite dangrous and should only be used by experienced users and by people being helped by experienced users. It is useful, however, when asking for help here to remove pesky spyware, as you can assist others in helping you remove it by posting up Hijack This! logs.
  6.) Microsoft Anti-Spyware BETA - This is for use with only legal copys of Windows XP.
  
  
• HTML Editors
  1.) Macromedia Dreamweaver - $399/30 Day Trial
  2.) Microsoft Frontpage - WYSIWYG editor
  3.) CoffeeCup - $49/30 Day Trial
  4.) Arachnophilia
  5.) TextPad
  6.) Crimson Editor
  7.) VIM
  8.) Bluefish - Linux only
  9.) Other simple text editors include edit.com, notepad, wordpad, Emacs and pico.
  
  
• IRC Clients
  1.) BersIRC
  2.) BitchX - Not for Windows
  3.) HydraIRC
  4.) mIRC - $20/30 Day Trial
  5.) TinyIRC Free - Pro version is $19.99
  6.) xChat
  
  
• Media Players
  1.) Winamp - Pro Player is $14.95
  2.) iTunes
  3.) Foobar2000 - Multiplatform media player.
  4.) VLC - The VideoLan Media Player - Multiplatform media player.
  5.) Media Player Classic
  
  
• Firewalls
  1.) Kerio Personal Firewall
  2.) Sygate Personal Firewall
  3.) Outpost Firewall
  4.) Zone Alarm
  
  
• And a general freeware list.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

How do I uncompress this file?

• We've seen quite a few questions about rar files and how do you use/open them. Rar is a compressed archive of files, similar to that of zip files.
  
• You will commonly see these file extentions: rar, cab, arj, lzh, tar, gz, tar.gz, bz2, tar.bz2, ace, uue, jar (Java Archive), zip, 7z, z.
  
• Try looking up the file extension at filext.com as they will normally list what kind of file it is, and what software is commonly used to open them with.
  
• Common compress/uncompression utilities are: WinRar, 7-zip and WinAce.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What's your dream machine? Here's mine!

• What is your dream machine?
  
• This is my dream machine!
  
• What are your computer specs?
  
• Here are my specs?
  
• There's already a thread for this. Take a look here.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What kind of computer/item should I get?

• Most opinions come from Tom`s hardware guide, so check there first. Then google it.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

Should I build, buy or upgrade?

• Building or Upgrading is almost always cheaper, provided your time is worthless. If you have no time, buying is a good choice.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What's better, ATI or nVidia?

• Both ATi and nVidia are offering comparable features and performance at the same price with their video cards. However, nVidia currently has the higher feature set out of the two. Please note, this changes constantly, as both companies are trying to beat the other. It's an arms race.
  

[Pirogoth Wolfblood]

What's better, Intel or AMD?

• The single core AMD chips excel at gaming functions, while the single core Intel chips are better at multimedia creation or multitasking.
  
• The dual core Intel's are better overall compared to the AMD's dual cores, but this has changed constantly over the last year.