Also, if you haven't already done it, when you're at the same section of the System Properties dialog, click on the "Settings" button under "Startup and Recovery" and uncheck the box next to "Automatically Restart" which is found under the sub-heading of System Failure. It's one of the numerous stupid default settings that MS have enabled after installing XP. If the computer has suddenly rebooted on you, chances are very high that this is the cause of it. The crying baby Jesus is the only one who knows why it's done this way, since XP can--and most often does--recover from a program crash without the need to reboot. By unchecking that box the system will simply alert you that a program has crashed, without you losing data etc in programs not affected by the failed program.

Huh. I've never had XP reboot unexpectedly on me. Much crashage of apps, though.

I have. A few days after I first installed XP the system rebooted without warning or explanation; one second I was doing something, without any apparent problem, and the next thing the computer had started to reboot. I don't recall the errant program, or why the OS thought it was so nasty it had to flee in terror but that enabled function was the actual cause of the reboot.

Hi ej. You are using XP? I had the impression you had managed avoid the Micro$oft tentacles.

We got a black iBookMacBook yesterday. It's very pretty.

Gar ... Still using XP. I tinkered with Ubuntu earlier this year but it somehow corrupted itself and I got rid of it. I would've persisted and tried to repair the install but I'd inexplicably developed a bios problem that made booting with a CD very difficult--basically I had to disable the HDD in the boot-up sequence within the bios.

This is cool (although not as cool as a black iBook): PC case modded to look like a movie bad-guy bomb

The WMD is a custom-built PC whose case resembles a shiny, hollywoodized terrorist bomb, straight out of a Bond flick.

details: [link]

Haven't had time to look at the whole thing, but it seems there's no "red wire--no, the blue one!" However, the case looks too advanced to be defeated by a 50/50 odds cutting of a single wire, so I guess that's consistent with its aesthetic.

Excellent article/FAQ on the new Macbook: [link]

History of 404: [link]

This was interesting:

According to the W3C, 404 Not Found is only supposed to be used in cases where the server cannot find the requested location and is unsure of its status. If a page has permanently been deleted, it is supposed to use 410: Gone to indicate a permanent change. But has anyone ever seen 410? It must be 404...

You know, that'd be useful if you got some error other than 404 if the page you're looking for used to exist on that server but not anymore. I wonder why that error code was never adopted (or at least widely used)?

This is cool (although not as cool as a black iBook): PC case modded to look like a movie bad-guy bomb.

Yeah, it really is cool. But my practical side keeps saying, "until some nosy neighbor spots it thorugh a window and calls the bomb squad."