Chris Y

Hi Y!A,

I'm visiting my parents and you all know the drill... fix any computer problems that they have accumulated since the last visit...

Anyway, the PC is relatively new (about 2 years old) and it won't boot up. I have thus far:

1) Disconnected everything except for Power, CPU, and RAM... fans all work, but no beeps.

2) Disconnected the RAM, and Mobo constantly beeps... I'm guessing that's the RAM error signal.

3) Put the RAM back on and unscrewed the Mobo from the casing and put a book underneath to make sure nothing was shorting out... no beeps and the fans just whir merrily away as before.

4) Took the CPU right off the Mobo, cleaned the surfaces, re-thermal-pasted, and reseated it and the heat sink... nothing changed again.

So I'm guessing either the Mobo or CPU is done... The Mobo is a crappy-cheap Gigabyte (rolled-my-eyes when I opened the case and saw that for the first time) and the CPU is an Intel... so I'm leaning more towards the Mobo being fried. Frustratingly, the Mobo doesn't even have an LED to tell me it's on or not.

I don't have spare parts to test them with... but what do you think? Do you have any other suggestions for me to try before I go out to buy a new Mobo? Or should I just buy a brand new laptop for my parents since they're so cheap nowadays?

Thanks in advanced for all your help!

Cheers,

Chris.

Hello Y!A,

I have an Nvidia Gforce 6600 and overnight, the display changed to 640x480 and 4-bit. All the tabs for display settings are there, but as soon as I hit the "Apply" button, everything goes back to the 640x480 and 4-bit.

I go into Safe Mode and everything is as it should be, so I'm guessing there's some kind of bug messing with my registry... your thoughts?

I'll check back often and add more details as necessary.

Please and thank you in advanced.

Hi Y!A. I've been having problems with streaming videos... mostly Youtube and hockey highlights on Canucks(dot)com. The freezing is pretty sporadic... sometimes, things work just fine, but at other times, it just freezes within a few seconds of starting a video for 10-20 seconds at a time. The whole computer is frozen except the audio and I would have to wait until it "unfreezes" to do anything... even the Task Manager cannot be brought up while the video is frozen.

Can you imagine watching the sports highlights as the excited announcer reads the play-by-play and suddenly the video freezes just moments before somebody scores and you can hear the crowd erupting into cheers? I usually download all the videos now just so that I can watch them locally without any interruptions. "This is annoying" would be putting it lightly...

Anyway, I'm on XP, the hardware is better than average, Internet is dedicated fiber optics here in Japan, HD freshly defragged and debugged, and the kicker... the video freezing happens on 3 different browsers! FireFox, Chrome, and Internet Exploder.

I read somewhere a while ago that it may be a software or driver conflict with Flash... I haven't tried testing this yet because I forgot what URL that info was at. Or could it be my router? Anyone got that link or have any other ideas?

Thanks in advance for your time. I'll check back often and update with more details as necessary.

Cheers,

Chris

.

I had spent literally days designing and developing my *personal* wedding videos to share with some family and friends. And well, where else but to upload to Youtube right? That was about a year ago... Since then, Youtube has completely pulled down my "marriage proposal" video I made for my fiancee's birthday (it can't get any more personalized than that) and muted the audio for my "wedding dinner profile" video...

It is clear in my video descriptions of the artists and songs used in the videos and I even wrote a disclaimer stating "Songs used in this video are all copyright materials of their respective owners. I do not claim any association with them nor am I selling this personal video. Please support our talented artists by buying their albums." to which I did legally purchase said music albums. If a WMG lawyer actually sat down and watched my videos, they must be blind and deaf to not notice that they are for personal use. Doesn't this law apply?

[Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.]

If not, then wouldn't a guy/girl who brings their stereo to the beach to enjoy some music with their family be in fact illegally broadcasting the CD to the general public? Shouldn't a music industry lawyer take away their stereo and sue the family?

Understandably, from a lawsuits perspective, Youtube (Google) has been cracking down hard on copyright infringement... so I've actually went out and inquired about how much it costs to buy the rights to use some songs, and most mainstream music publishers charge an annual subscription of thousands-of-dollars to use a library of hundreds-of-songs... Well, I just want to use 1 or 2 songs and I'm willing to pay a little for them just to avoid all the legal headaches... nope, there's no such option, unless you're willing to pay an arm and a leg for individual songs, the only option is to pay for the whole annual subscription... either that, or go spend hours-on-end shifting through the Creative Commons websites to (hopefully) find a song that matches the mood, feel, and lyrics I want...

I can totally understand it's illegal for someone to steal music (and/or videos) and go as far as claiming it as their own... but I don't... and to be honest, after someone watched one of my videos, they emailed me and commented about how beautiful the song was. Do I get a pat on the back for that potential customer or even get a penny for commission if they bought the CD? Nope... nor is it my intention... I'm just glad they enjoyed the video and hope they really do go out to support our artists.

I'm a regular guy who puts in a hard-day's-work Monday through Friday, pays my taxes on time, and just want to make some personal videos to share with family and friends without all the hassle and fear of my videos becoming disabled... Can anyone suggest another good video hosting site? Thanks in advanced!

PS. I do recheck my questions frequently and will post further details if needed.

Cheers,

Chris.

I had spent literally days designing and developing my *personal* wedding videos to share with some family and friends. And well, where else but to upload to Youtube right? That was about a year ago... Since then, Youtube has completely pulled down my "marriage proposal" video I made for my fiancee's birthday (it can't get any more personalized than that) and muted the audio for my "wedding dinner profile" video...

It is clear in my video descriptions of the artists and songs used in the videos and I even wrote a disclaimer stating "Songs used in this video are all copyright materials of their respective owners. I do not claim any association with them nor am I selling this personal video. Please support our talented artists by buying their albums." to which I did legally purchase said music albums. If a WMG lawyer actually sat down and watched my videos, they must be blind and deaf to not notice that they are for personal use. Doesn't this law apply?

[Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.]

If not, then wouldn't a guy/girl who brings their stereo to the beach to enjoy some music with their family be in fact illegally broadcasting the CD to the general public? Shouldn't a music industry lawyer take away their stereo and sue the family?

Understandably, from a lawsuits perspective, Youtube (Google) has been cracking down hard on copyright infringement... so I've actually went out and inquired about how much it costs to buy the rights to use some songs, and most mainstream music publishers charge an annual subscription of thousands-of-dollars to use a library of hundreds-of-songs... Well, I just want to use 1 or 2 songs and I'm willing to pay a little for them just to avoid all the legal headaches... nope, there's no such option, unless you're willing to pay an arm and a leg for individual songs, the only option is to pay for the whole annual subscription... either that, or go spend hours-on-end shifting through the Creative Commons websites to (hopefully) find a song that matches the mood, feel, and lyrics I want...

I can totally understand it's illegal for someone to steal music (and/or videos) and go as far as claiming it as their own... but I don't... and to be honest, after someone watched one of my videos, they emailed me and commented about how beautiful the song was. Do I get a pat on the back for that potential customer or even get a penny for commission if they bought the CD? Nope... nor is it my intention... I'm just glad they enjoyed the video and hope they really do go out to support our artists.

I'm a regular guy who puts in a hard-day's-work Monday through Friday, pays my taxes on time, and just want to make some personal videos to share with family and friends without all the hassle and fear of my videos becoming disabled... Can anyone suggest another good video hosting site? Thanks in advanced!

PS. I do recheck my questions frequently and will post further details if needed.

Cheers,

Chris.

One of my friends, who is a salesperson, got a deal for a website design project. He meets with the client, negotiates with them, draws up the contracts, and gets all the data/photos/content that I need. And since the website is to be in Japanese, he is also helping to do the translation work.

Me, well, I'm the web developer. I'm going to design everything from scratch, build the web templates, do all the coding, Flash animation, domain registration, server hosting set up, etc.

There will also be ongoing monthly payments from the client for maintenance and hosting fees...

It's really difficult to decide where to split the money... 50/50? 60/40? 40/60? etc... We both want to be fair with each other because we're real-life friends... but at the same time, we want to have a good business structure to avoid any miscommunications and to base possible future projects on.

Thanks in advance for all your input!

Hi Y!A,

I recently built a new PC:

Intel i5 750

Asus P7P55D LE motherboard

4G Ram

Nvidia GTS 250

running WinXP-SP2

I had trouble with one of the Ram sticks before, so I got a new pair (well, exactly the same ones, but new package) and it seems to have stopped bluescreening me... but now I'm getting some weird dots that weren't there before on the startup screens... almost as if the graphics were "artifacting". Here's what I'm talking about...

http://www.trinitistudios.com/screenshots/DSCF3225...

http://www.trinitistudios.com/screenshots/DSCF3226...

What are those?? My Mcafee, Adaware, CCleaner are up to date and show nothing wrong. It looks like driver problems to me, so I updated my motherboard and video card drivers, but nothing changed... and now I'm pulling out each of the new Ram sticks to see if that's the problem.

Overall, Windows seem to be running fine and all my programs and games hasn't run into any problems so far... those dots *only* appear during startup. Has anybody experienced this before?

As always, any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks in advanced! I will check back frequently and update my question as needed... just let me know if you need any further information.

Cheers,

Chris.

I have a part time job teaching children basic English here in Japan... and surprisingly, they are very smart and quick to learn. However, I have one class that has a group of students who range from 3 years old to 6 years old... and in children's years, that is a huge difference.

I'm trying to balance healthy lessons that are beneficial to all of them and planning exercises where everyone (hopefully) can learn something. What are your experiences? What works/ed for you? Do you have any advice or suggestions for activities or games?

Thanks a lot in advanced!

Cheers,

Chris.

Hi everyone!

I'm a Canadian citizen and I've been living (and working) in Japan for over 2 years now... I was wondering about contributing into the CPP (Canadian Pension Plan). I read a lot about the pros and cons of both pension systems and it seems that the Japanese National Pension is not the way to go... that goes the same with the Japanese Health Insurance; but don't worry, I got private health insurance.

As for applying for the CPP while living in Japan, will they require me to pay Canadian income taxes as well? Canada needs to know my income to calculate my CPP premiums right? So if I have to pay Canadian income taxes, wouldn't I be paying double taxes (Japanese and Canadian)?

I also know of the accord that is now in effect between Japan and Canada that there is an agreement between the two countries about social security... but really, what does that mean? If I paid into the Japanese National Pension, can I transfer 100% of my contributions and my contribution years towards my CPP if and/or when I move back to Canada? Or does it mean something else?

I'm getting married (to a Japanese) this summer, but my fiance and I are not sure if when we will move back to Canada... but we probably will eventually. Would this effect choosing between the Canadian or Japanese pension system?

Unfortunately, as the reality of it is getting more obvious, both Canada's and Japan's pension system is on the verge of collapsing and I will probably not see a single cent or yen... but both systems do offer disability and death benefits that seem somewhat beneficial... like an insurance of sorts.

Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advanced for your time!

Cheers,

Chris.

Sorry for the scarce details... but, the movie came out about a year or so ago... It starts off with a poor street performer with an old guitar that has a hole in it. While he was performing one day, an onlooker tries to steal his guitar case full of coins... the street performer gives chase through the streets and catches him, but feels sorry for the man and shares some of the coins with him.

The street performer later becomes fond of a girl who can play the piano well. He takes her to his favorite music instrument shop in Dublin (Ireland), where he teaches her a few simple chords of the song he's been working on, to which she hesitantly plays them on the piano. He then tries to make it big with a ragtag group of other musicians and rent a recording studio to produce their CD.

I've been trying to search for it on Google and IMDB, but to no avail... and I've been pulling out what little hair I have left trying to figure this out! >_<;;

An IMDB link would also be great, as movie title names may differ from country to country. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Chris.

Hi everyone! My Japanese isn't the best... Babelfish would spit out a garbage translation... and I would ask my girlfriend to translate this, but I want to make a music video for her with both English and Japanese subtitles. She likes Mariah, so I'm planning to have this video playing while I propose to her on Nov.25... also, that's her birthday... so it would mean a lot to me if anyone can help me out. Or if you have suggestions as to a better translation that makes more (Japanese) sense.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Cheers,

Chris.

=====ORIGINAL PROMOTIONAL MUSIC VIDEO=====

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/thank-god-i-foun...

=====ENGLISH=====

(Mariah)

I would give up everything

Before I'd separate myself from you

After so much suffering

I've finally found a man that's true

I was all by myself for the longest time

So cold inside

And the hurt from the heart it would not subside

I felt like dying

Until you saved my life

(Chorus - all)

Thank God I found you

I was lost without you

My every wish and every dream

Somehow became reality

When you brought the sunlight

Completed my whole life

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude

Cause baby I'm so thankful

I found you

(Joe)

I would give you everything

There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do

To ensure your happiness

I'll cherish every part of you

Because without you beside me I can't survive

I don't wanna try

If you're keeping me warm each and every night

I'll be all right

Cause I need you in my life

(Chorus - all)

Thank God I found you (I'm begging you)

I was lost without you (so lost without you)

My every wish and every dream (every dream, every dream)

Somehow became reality

When you brought the sunlight (brought the sunlight)

Completed my whole life

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude

Cause baby I'm so thankful

I found you

-Bridge- (Mariah & Joe)

See I was so desolate

Before you came to me

Looking back I guess it shows

that we were destined to shine

After the rain to appreciate

And care for what we have

And I'd go through it all over again

To be able to feel this way

(Chorus - all)

Thank God I found you

I was lost without you (lost without you baby)

My every wish and every dream

Somehow became reality

When you brought the sunlight

Completed my whole life (whole life)

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude

Sweet baby I'm so thankful

I found you

(Chorus - all)

Thank God I found you

I was lost without you

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude

My baby I'm so thankful

I found you

(Mariah)

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude

My baby I'm so thankful I found you...

=====JAPANESE=====

(mariah)

私はすべてをあきらめる

あなたと自分自身の前別のid

そんなに苦しむことの後

Iveは最終的に人のthatsを本当見つけた

私は長い時間の間自分自身によってすべて行った

中そう風邪

そして中心からの傷それはおさまらない

私は死にたい気がした

私の生命を救ったまで

(コーラス-すべて)

私が見つけた神に感謝しなさい

私はあなたなしで失われた

私のあらゆる願いおよびあらゆる夢

どうかして現実はなった

日光を持って来た時

私の一生を完了した

Imは感謝と圧倒した

原因の赤ん坊感謝しているImそう

私は見つけた

(ジョー)

私はすべてを与える

Theresはこの世界Iのwouldntの何も

あなたの幸福を保障するため

病気はあなたのあらゆる部分を大事にする

私の側のあなたなしで私が傾くので存続させなさい

私は試みたいと思わない

私を暖かい毎晩保つyoureなら

病気はすべて右である

原因Iの必要性私の生命の

(コーラス-すべて)

私が見つけた神に感謝し(Im頼む)

私はあなたなしで失われた(従ってあなたなしで失われて)

私のあらゆる願いおよびあらゆる夢(あらゆる夢、あらゆる夢)

どうかして現実はなった

日光を持って来た時(日光を持って来られる)

私の一生を完了した

Imは感謝と圧倒した

原因の赤ん坊感謝しているImそう

私は見つけた

-繋ぎなさい(mariah及びジョー)

私がとても荒れ果てていたことを見なさい

あなたの前に私に来た

背部を見て私は推測する示すことを

私達は照るために予定されたこと

認めるべき雨の後

そして私達にあるものがのための心配

そしてidはそれによってまた改めて行く

こうすればを感じられる

(コーラス-すべて)

私が見つけた神に感謝しなさい

私はあなたなしで失われた(赤ん坊をあなたなしで失われて)

私のあらゆる願いおよびあらゆる夢

どうかして現実はなった

日光を持って来た時

完了した私の一生(一生)を

Imは感謝と圧倒した

甘い赤ん坊感謝しているImそう

私は見つけた

(コーラス-すべて)

私が見つけた神に感謝しなさい

私はあなたなしで失われた

Imは感謝と圧倒した

私の赤ん坊感謝しているImそう

私は見つけた

(mariah)

Imは感謝と圧倒した

私の赤ん坊感謝しているImそう私は見つけた...

Well, I just reformatted my desktop, so it is a brand new install. It's running WinXP on an AMD AthlonXP2500 with 512M Ram. I'm using IE7 or Firefox 3.02 via a Linksys WMP54GS network adapter with the Linksys WRT54GS router. Even when I tried disabling my virus scanner and software firewall, I'd still only be lucky to hit about 20kbps when downloading...

Downloading the same file(s) (and sometimes at the same time as my desktop) to my Fujitsu FMV-NB40S laptop (running WinXp on an AMD MobileSempron3000 with 1.43G Ram) using IE6 via an Atheros AR5006X network adapter (and through virus scanners and a firewall), I average about 350kbps...

My laptop regularly shows that my connection is 54.0Mbps, but my desktop fluctuates between 24.0Mbps-54.0Mbps...

Is it the network adapter? Or is it really because of the Ram difference? Those are the only two big differences that I see... Either that, or is it really the browser difference?

Thanks in advance for all your help! Cheers!

Hello! I'm horrible at math and need the "Coles notes" version about investing and contributing to a pension. I'm asking since I'm sure there are many banking guru's here, so please bare with my ignorance.

Basically, I'm just looking for a "product" (is that what you guys call it?) to contribute to on a monthly basis... Something like, ionno... $100-200 per month... and where there is a safe long-term return... and most importantly, so when I retire, I'm not broke.

I have no idea about what a "term deposit" or "structured products" etc. are... I did at one point have a mutual fund with Sunlife, but that's been over for a long time now. "Tax deferred money"... does that mean where I can lower my income bracket so that I can pay less income tax? If so, I guess that's what I want to do as that was what I did before.

I'm currently living in Japan, but I'm looking to invest in Canada, I guess, since that's my home country. I have enough trouble understanding all the investment jargon in English already.

Can you give me a few pointers or advice please? And what company would be good, cheap, safe, etc. to go with?

Thanks in advance for your answers! Cheers! :)

I've lived in Japan for about 2 years now, and my BC (Canada) driver's licence had expired; it's a full licence that I've had for almost 15 years. I'll be coming back to Canada for a visit soon, and would like to renew it. Do I have to retake any tests or just do some paper work? Do I have to schedule any appointments with a DMV branch? And how long will the process take? Thanks in advance for your answers! Cheers! :)

My girlfriend and I won him (let's assume "he") from a carnival here in Japan about a month ago. Of course, in the beginning he was so scared of everything and didn't eat at all. We bought him one of those "Turtle Starter Kits" from the pet shop. It's a 6L plastic tank with slits along the top for air circulation and a cover. It also included calcium gravel, a ceramic cave, turtle water conditioner, and turtle pellet food.

This is our first pet turtle, but I did try to do as much research as I could... I also bought a thermometer and the temperature is steady at 23C (73F). I don't have one of those UV lights so I try to expose the tank to as much natural sunlight as possible... but he *always* hides in his cave almost 24/7.

Here's a video I took just last week when he was still eating in his "dinner bowl":

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=-kfENxXxdXI

Copy and paste the URL above if the link doesn't work.

Thanks in advance for all your advice!

Cheers,

Chris & Kaori