Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

I don't think there's such a beast. Why do you think yr USB ports are fucked?

Can anyone explain why my Mac does not want to install Flash Player 9+? I've tried so many times and it's just 2 hours 40 minutes of rainbow spinny wheel limbo.

Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 450 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 576 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1

What OS version?

10.4.10

ALSO why MS Word wants to check and acknowledge EVERY SINGLE ONE of my 12,000 fonts when I try to open the damn program?

Open Console and see if any interesting logs are going by.

Word 2008 is better with the fonts. You are using an earlier Word, yes?

I don't remember what Word I tried but it was two years ago. I couldn't even get through the Aachens. Will look into Word 2k8.

I mean, I tried it once and got so hulked out only a very long bike ride could calm me down.

My computer is old!

the pterodactyl inside it that writes on the slate screen when you type has probably died

I seem to recall that Word X was an absolute beast about fonts. 2004 was better, but not great.

DO NOT TELL ME I KILLED A PTERODACTYL

Before 2006 they used Pterodons

You need a font manager. that is all I know. I read a thread about this somewhere last week.

Getting a font manager to fix broken Word behavior is like buying a machine gun to rid yr house of termites.

OK, fucking computers again.

i want to use the eurosport online player - http://player.eurosport.co.uk/ - and when i try to subscribe, it tells me:

Windows Media Player Plug-in for Firefox needed.
Click here to download the plugin

but i have a mac. i do have flip4mac installed but i still can't see the test video on the eurosport subscription page. is there a way round this? and if not why haven't they bothered to make it available for mac users?

I can't test 'cause my country is "denied", but they probably have a malfunctioning browser/player sniffer.

Or they forgot that mac users even exist <- genuine possibility.

well, forgot or don't give a shit.

that's really rubbish.

who recommended that i should get a mac in the first place.

Most Internet stuff works on Mac now, but obviously not all.

works in linux (fedora 9) btw.

i was already subscribed, somehow (have had a yahoo account for about a decade) so i can watch all the low bitrate blurryvision tennis i want. be still my beating heart.

What is the required configuration?

Eurosport's TV Centre service is accessible from a computer which has the following software installed : Windows Media Player 9.0 or more recent, Microsoft® Windows® 98 Second Edition, Windows® 2000 or Windows® Millenium Edition or Windows® XP, a 800 MHz processor minimum, Intel Pentium IV or equal, 256 Mo of RAM or more, a Broadband Internet of 2Mb or more, a sound card of 16 bits or more, and a graphic card of a thousand colours or more.

It's the same with 4oD, and the excuse 4oD gives is that they're worried about DRM issues, so this won't be sorted soon.

However, I've had a look on Beeb Sport website aaaaand...

0830-1400, live coverage on BBC Red Button and BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra

0000-0825 and 1400-2359 looped highlights on BBC Red Button

* Red Button coverage streamed on BBC Sport website throughout the fortnight

Now, I'm not sure how satisfactory you'll find that, but it does mean you can watch the evening sessions live starting from tomorrow morning on the BBC Sport site - the first pairing of matches would be Hantuchova-Dellacqua and Seppi-Federer.

Windows Media Player 9.0 or more recent, Microsoft® Windows® 98 Second Edition, Windows® 2000 or Windows® Millenium Edition or Windows® XP, a 800 MHz processor minimum, Intel Pentium IV or equal, 256 Mo of RAM or more, a Broadband Internet of 2Mb or more, a sound card of 16 bits or more, and a graphic card of a thousand colours or more.

^^wtf does any of this gibberish mean.

it'll be fine, i have eurosport, but there's someone crashing on the sofa tonight so i can't watch the tv. have opened a bet365.com account though and hopefully can get on their choice-of-four-courts streaming service though.

Honestly, lex, if you have trouble parsing that sentence, then a Mac was definitely the right choice for you.

Anyone know where I can get a free (preferably legal) DVD decoder on the web (for Windows XP)?

preferably legal

De facto, maybe, but de juro, no.

I was hoping there'd be some kind of legal 'trial version' type thingy (see pkzip etc) where they give you the basics for free and encourage you to pay to 'upgrade' but you never do.

If needs must, De Facto'll do

The point is that the very nature of the beast is illegal. There are plenty of apps that don't charge for DVD ripping, but none of them are fundamentally legal to use.

Enforcement, on the other hand, is selective.

Perhaps I misunderstood decoder. If you want something that just "plays" DVDs -- sorry to use plain English here -- then VLC will do the trick on any platform for $0.

The whole internet should work on Mac.

proprietary windows codecs, i would argue, aren't the internet.

Oh okay. Yeah. Cunts who insist on using proprietary Windows codecs in websites are cunts.

(my point stands)

if you have more then a couple of fonts on a mac you need a font manager. It will make your entire computer much happier. The best is FontExplorer X, which also had the benefit of being totally free, untill a few weeks ago. Now it costs like 40 bucks, which still makes it cheaper then crappier solutions.

http://www.fontexplorerx.com/

"Perhaps I misunderstood decoder. If you want something that just "plays" DVDs -- sorry to use plain English here -- then VLC will do the trick on any platform for $0"

Yes that's what I'm after, should have been clearer. I've just had a look at the VLC website, looks to be just the ticket. Thanks.

Supposedly Flip4Mac can't handle DRMed WMVs, right?

I have pretty stupid question, but anyway: when you delete music from itunes and you select the keep files option, where do they actually go?

"a"

they're in itunes/itunes music

or wherever it is you keep your library

hmmm, I took some tracks out of my library, and selected to keep them, but I know not where. No big deal but thanks!

Has anybody had any experience with Mac TextEdit files going corrupt? I had this 2 page text file with that started acting weird. Sometimes you see it and sometimes you don't. When you click on it sometimes it disappears. It won't open in any program or place anywhere. I made a copy of it and that just comes up gibberish. Is it history? Am I missing something?

can you open it in vi or something?

There is no native TextEdit format. There's RTF(D), Word formats, OpenDoc, and probably others. Which format is it?

TextEdit saves as RTF. I have a copy that says Plan text document but that may be just because I added .txt to the filename to see if that would do it. I mentioned TextEdit because I thought that likely caused the problem.

I don't know what vi is. I've tried opening it in word and placing it in quark and indesign. An IT guy here tried something via terminal but nothing worked.

So it does not open correctly in Word?