Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

prompt> sh a
+ 0 + 10 ╪

um. worked fine in real bash, gave the above rubbish in cygwin bash. am using size=`eval $size + $s` instead. the thing i thought i'd have trouble with was extracting the filesize but stat -c "%s" filename to the rescue.

Is there any way to change the attribution line in replies in Mail? So that instead of saying "On 10 Aug 2005, at 11:20 pm, John Doe wrote:" it says something a little more lively? My googling has turned up nothing, but googling for "Mail" is a most unrewarding exercise.

I used to be able to do this in Eudora with a little plug-in. I kinda miss Eudora, but I've made the change and I'm going to stick with it for a while longer.

when I turn it on all that comes up on the screen is a folder with a little exclamation mark beside it, similar to the low battery sign

I have had a little look around on google and people are registering the same complaint but no-one has provided satisfactory solution

in the past whenever my ipod has failed in its many novel ways it has normally rectified itself by just being left alone

perhaps that'll work this time but in the meanwhile, any suggestions?

thanks

I'd never seen that before

I'll try disconnecting it and re-connecting it

I'm not sure it'll do any good, can I buy replacement hard drives relatively cheap?

I want every folder on the drive to have bitrate/duration/date modified/type/size and nothing more (most of my folders are mp3s so these are the best settings for me), and I've spent an age setting these up, choosing 'apply to all folders' and 'apply this template to all subfolders' but after a short while I lose them.

I've googled for answers but to no avail, I've d/ld this TweakUI program that promised to mend it. It didn't. You guys are my only hope to stop me yelling FUCKS SAKE every 3 hours or so.

HELP!

fuck you windows, and also fuck you Maxtor drives!

but I'm coming in here for you lot to confirm it

and I'm not in a good mood so don't be a twat

OK

I have just had DSL installed

I bought a hayes ADSL ethernet modem

I had been trying to run it via airport but that didn't work

so I tried the direct connection via ethernet and that didn't work

I thought I should switch to the PC and maybe see if I can configure the modem via that route and get in on the mac through the back door

I switched to the PC

I set it all up and got on the internet for a little while

the POWER & ADSL lights have been on, steady for the duration

whereas the LAN led blinks intermittently and stays off more than it blinks

this leads me to believe the problem is either in 1. the ethernet cable or the ethernet socket

so I am going to return the modem - can anyone recommend a half-decent mac-compatible (i.e. with fkn decent mac documentation) ADSL modem I can use, preferably in conjunction with airport?

PS I am only on the internet now via the PC using the shitty USB speedtouch modem that demon gave me, which crashes my mac each time I use it

not in a good mood at all

: /

Are you sure it isn't just the cable?

and I'm not in a good mood so don't be a twat

Ungrateful!

I hate those modems that you configure through browsers : /

I'll try another cable then

if that doesn't work I'll return it and try a linksys, ta stet

markelby, please

airport can be such a fanny

*Most* ethernet hardware that doesn't have separate link and activity lamps will have a lamp that stays on for "link up, idle" and blinks rapidly for "link active". Slow blinking sounds like an error indication.

If you can, test it with the shortest cable you have that has moulded-on plugs - that's your best bet for cable-reliability.

(I've just spent three days sorting out the Ethernet cabling to an office. On all the cables, the link claims to be up but magically fails to transmit packets - but only when the cable is fitted in the last 5m or so of duct. If you pull it out, leave the cables dangling out of the wall in the next corridor and test it then, it works FINE. I hate hardware problems.)

thanks for the linksys tip stet

: )

(I'm intrigued)

I think it was the ethernet link

whether it was the hayes box or the cable

I don't know

I just replaced it with the linksys

and voila

I found messing about with computers, at that level, very stressful though

god knows how IT techs. cope

Anyway, is there any utility to check my FW ports? Or somesuch?

how do I best

1. test the speeds I'm getting

&

2. fix it so it's faster, because I know my speeds are too slow

(I was downloading tricky's mix on ILM earlier and only getting speeds of 5/6 kbps, when I'm on 2meg broadband)

?

2. God, I wish I knew. There are all sorts of voodoo things you can do with packet sizes and the like, but they have a negligble effect from what I can tell. If you're only get 5k/s on the speedtest tho, it's probably time to call yr provider

downstream 280 Kbps (35.0 KB/sec) 302 Kbps (inc. overheads)
upstream 211 Kbps (26.4 KB/sec) 227 Kbps (inc. overheads)

rubbish!

I am phoning my provider