Try using nslookup from a command prompt. Nslookup initially uses the default dns server you specified in your settings.
Here's an example session (some bits are in Italian, but this shouldn't be a problem):

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>nslookup
Server predefinito: www.routerlogin.com
Address: 192.168.0.1

> master.liveforspeed.net
Server: www.routerlogin.com
Address: 192.168.0.1

Risposta da un server non di fiducia:
Nome: liveforspeed.net
Address: 213.40.20.2
Aliases: master.liveforspeed.net

Then issue a server command with a dns of your choice (I use interbusiness dns servers in this test):

> server ns.interbusiness.it
Server predefinito: ns.interbusiness.it
Address: 151.99.125.1

> master.liveforspeed.net
Server: ns.interbusiness.it
Address: 151.99.125.1

Risposta da un server non di fiducia:
Nome: liveforspeed.net
Address: 213.40.20.2
Aliases: master.liveforspeed.net

What's the default dns server in your case? Does a different dns offer a different answer?

I was thinking the same thing, DieKolbralbe. I see no reason to mention speed hacks in this thread if the user didn't use a speedhack, it can be interpreted as a suggestion he did such a thing, and that would shame him with no reason. If that was a general hint, this should have been clearly specified. Same if it was an accusation.

End of my participation to this thread.

Quote from Leprekaun :

Now, my friend is a HUGE Alonso fan and he wore the Renault T-Shirt when he was there and then a bunch of guys there who had been to the Bahrain GP that year told him to take off the shirt.

So they told someone to take off a shirt just because they were played down by the subject of that shirt?

The problem isn't with taking away a right from a single citizen, it's the fact that all citizen must agree that a State has this potential right on life, and thus can excercise it right from the start. This encompasses every citizen, and not only criminals. Life is an inalienable good for its particular nature: once taken it cannot be given back, differently from freedom. Surrendering this right to a State means enabling the State to claim it. For Beccaria the right to life was non-existent, so you cannot claim it. When you kill someone you murder it, you don't claim his right to life. But when a juridical person does it, it does so because some laws enable it to do it. Yet States do not murder like criminals, it seems, they just take a non-existent right to life away from criminals.

Edit: to be a bit more clear I'll state that life is a biological concept and a natural condition. This sets it apart from legal rights, such as freedom, which isn't a biological concept nor a natural condition since its theoretical definition is much more abstract, in scientific terms, then the definition of life, or life as we know it.

Last edited by Albieg, Tue 14 Aug 2007, 13:16.

Quote from Dajmin :

Pfft, I think far worse things about people than that. On the whole they are selfish and inconsiderate, all about making their own lives better despite (or sometimes at the expense of) everyone else.

That's similar to what Cesare Beccaria wrote in Crime and Punishment, 1764:

In every human society, there is an effort continually tending to confer on one part the height of power and happiness, and to reduce the other to the extreme of weakness and misery. The intent of good laws [is] to oppose this effort and to diffuse their influence universally and equally. But men generally abandon the care of their most important concerns to the uncertain prudence and discretion of those whose interest it is to reject the best and wisest institutions.

Anyway Beccaria's conclusions are exactly the opposite, since he believes a State cannot claim a right on citizen's life, being life an inalienable good, and thus arguing that a citizen cannot surrender this right to a State. In fact when you accept death penalty you basically accept that a State has the power to take life away from you.

Quote from Breizh :

Did you forget to mention the common obsession with banning abortion in the US? Don't you think you ought to account for Americans' (a sizeable portion of them anyway) holding embryonic life sacred in such a way? Don't you think it incongruous to focus only on the death penalty (which you've yet to precisely demonstrate why you think it's not defendable) and not reconciliate such a humane disposition with your accusation of inhumane punishment? Or holding the right to survive so sacred as to allow everyone to have an equalizing but lethal means of self-defense even at the risk of criminals having guns more readily? These sorts of things are what you need to account for if you really mean to make a comprehensive assessment of the American context of things.
You're more on about how well you (I said already I'm only interested in a dispassionate discussion) can or can't cope with 'hideous' this or that which you suppose is going on in a brain trillions of electrons away than about the pros and cons of capital punishment. I'm done replying to anything but arguments towards that debate.

I'm against death penalty because I don't believe anyone should have a right to take other human lives, except for self defense, and death penalty is no self defense to me. Moreover, I am not willing to surrender this kind of rights to a juridical person (the State) whose behaviour should be far more rational than that of a physical person. I'm fine with the ability of a State to take away one's freedom, but nothing more than that. It suffices, and it's an unsurpassable limit for me. As for abortions and the like, open another thread if you like.

Yet you consider mine simple Antiamericanism, it seems. What an idiocy. Remember the outrage for the French nuclear tests at Mururoa? No one complained so hard about China, or Pakistan, or India... This happened because some protests are much more pragmatic than you think: you talk to someone you consider able to listen, not to deaf people. This is what happens with some aspects of the American life too: some people complain not because we think all Americans are stupid, but because they are allies.

I still remember Rumsfeld talking about old Europe, and then, after a year or two, I remember him humbled, saying "I am not the same Rumsfeld that I was before" during a visit in Europe. He learned that Europeans were just warning the US not to do something stupid. But we know how things are going in Iraq, don't we?

And now we're discussing about a person who's going to die for reasons most Europeans don't understand. This happens because we think we can actually talk about this with US people, while we would consider this almost impossible with China. Be pragmatical then: stop suggesting I am antiamerican, it's exactly the opposite.

Edit: Name a single post where I said that death penalty is not defendable. Name a single post where I said death penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment. Name a single person attacked here by me just because he believes in death penalty. Why do you attribute these expressions to me is beyond my comprehension once again. The things I consider hideous in this thread are only your empty accusations. As for a dispassionate discussion, trying to shit on my head from the start just because I linked a map that clearly shows that the USA (and Japan, sure) aren't in good company when it comes to death penalty isn't a good start, and all those things go a long way to demonstrate your prejudices.

Last edited by Albieg, Tue 14 Aug 2007, 08:36.

He he he... You misunderstand me Gunn. I don't consider those countries to be part of the axis of Evil (I missed Iran ). In fact I think you're perfectly right about idiotic politicians. It was a quote without quotes, and nothing more.

That's why I said "at least to some extent": because I think you're right, Maelstrom. Yet we cannot consider Russia equal to Syria, Cuba, Iraq or North Korea, just to name the Countries of the axis of evil.

Quote from StewartFisher :

Why is this fact relevant? Shame on the other seven, I say!

Six. I forgot Japan has death penalty too, so I stand corrected by myself. Why is this fact relevant? Because G8 countries all share some common traits: they're industrially advanced, they're fully formed democracies, they're countries where civil liberties are considered good, at least to some extent.

I'll mantain that the only G8 Country which has death penalty is the US. If you can't live with this fact, it's none of my business. I can live with this easier than you think.

Quote from Breizh :

Hey, check it out! Right on time. Who the heck is we, anyway? Wait, don't bother looking down your pedestal, you might spoil your immaculate vision.

I use to think my vision of the world is far from immaculate, and my ideas are far from idealistic. There are facts (like the map I linked), and then, well, your offensive sarcasm. Saddening, indeed.

Edit: How the hell you could say such a hideous and false thing is beyond my comprehension. You don't know me, remember. Counter facts with facts, please.

Last edited by Albieg, Mon 13 Aug 2007, 21:57.

Besides that, Kaspersky offline updates are available through the official Kaspersky site.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The person who commits these crimes waives all rights to Human Rights, and has voluneered to be considered merely as a sick animal.

Biology is important when we have to establish what's a man and what's not. This kind of limit cannot be politically or legally overturned, luckily, and calling men animals has already been abused in past persecutions. Let's get rid of this for greater good.

Quote from Breizh :

it's just a matter of choosing the right topics for any given country to earn an outright "more advanced" pedigree.

eath_Penalty_World_Map.png" target="_blank">This map is interesting. Guess what colour are - generally - those nations we consider economically, socially and politically mature.

Quote from [RCG]Boosted :

wont uninstall avast...best antivir/firewall i ever had.

Sorry to hear you had problems with Kaspersky, but if you want an antivirus you should really get one who does a better job than Avast. According to suspectfile.com (an italian site dedicated to security and rootkit eradication) Avast comes in the last places, being surpassed even by Avira Antivir. If you want an additional online scan try housecall.trendmicro.com, it's not perfect but does a better job than Avast.

Otherwise you have some different options, one being a manual identification and removal (the one I prefer), with the same old apps every technician interested in malware removal uses: HiJackThis, Autoruns, Process Explorer, GMER, RKUnhooker, The Avenger by Swandog.

The downside is that you must have at least a hint of the inner working of NT based operating system to use those programs because they tell you everything (including all lawful entries) about running processes, hidden processes, hidden files and processes run at boot time. You have complete control, but you're on your own.

What arco suggested is correct: having another antivirus and some antispywares/antimalwares doing additional jobs is not a bad idea, it's almost mandatory in automated removals.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

I'm not talking about the death penalty. I am talking about punishing people by killing them. That is what the military does, isn't it?

No. Should I explain what the Geneva Convention is, or what an army is and what are its purposes according to textbooks? I don't think so. Let's just accept your sentence is utterly wrong.

More ontopic, there's a public campaign to save Foster in Italy. La7, a major TV broadcaster, continually runs ads about him. He speaks and reads letters to his wife.

Death penalty is mentioned in two cases here: when talking about the proposed international moratory and when something horrible strikes the entire nation emotionally. Victims' relatives are generally excused for wanting to have a ruthless murderer dead, but politicians asking for it are reviled, so they have understood that asking for death penalty is only bad publicity. Death penalty doesn't sell here, and I'm happy about it.

In case you didn't solve your problem yet try moving the VGA cable away from electrical noise sources (power cords, electrical appliances cables, calculators, magnets and especially speakers and cellphones).

I'll add a general hint, when you solve a problem tell what the fix was, it may be helpful for other people having the same issues, and to solve further ones.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

It's a bad choice of colour, a much better choice would be the hue of blue in which the text box of the forums use.

I doubt this would improve the quality of the joke, however.

You say you have 248 MB of RAM and you want 256. This suggests you may be using an integrated VGA with shared memory, and 16 MB of RAM are used by the VGA, and you already have 256 MB of RAM. If you're unhappy with the performance of LFS or other games the main reason may be the integrated VGA. Adding RAM and (especially this) a proper, accelerated VGA may help a lot, although the computer is, overall, quite old. This means that - apart from used computers hardware - it may be quite difficult finding an AGP accelerated video card that fits your computer. It may just not be worth it, and if you're willing to try the job should be done by someone who knows something more than you about hardware, maybe recycling old unused components. If it's going to cost you something, I wouldn't consider it worthy.

Try using a restore point from two days ago, then. It may work. Check your BIOS before you do it and ensure the sound device is enabled, if you can.

As long as I know, that problem is related to Vista (wrong, corrected below). You could roll back to a working restore point (for instance, the day before the problem surfaced) but you must understand you'll lose every program installed through normal procedures after the date of the restore point (LFS should be unaffected since you have to decompress a zip file).
In this case, first take a look at the peripherals from the Control Panel and see if the sound device is disabled. Check the BIOS too. If the sound devices are present, download updated drivers, try uninstalling the old ones (or try uninstalling the sound device from the control panel applet) and install the updated ones. (Sorry for the confusion, this doesn't work on XP, or at least didn't work when I tried).

Edit: sorry, the problem is related to XP and NOT Vista as I said before. My bad memory. Here you have a sample. A restore point saves a reinstall.

Last edited by Albieg, Sun 12 Aug 2007, 13:23.

Knowing the operating system would help a lot, in this case. I had a problem with Realtek HD audio with Vista (XP and not Vista, sorry for the mistake) because the Realtek sound driver installation is faulty. No uninstall solved the problem, I had to roll back to a restore point just before the installation and perform that again because if you click on the driver installation when the OS pops up the driver install window you basically screw things up. You just have to let the installation flow with no intervention till next reboot. Weird and buggy, you end up with no sound device in Vista, although the Realtek Effects Panel works fine

Last edited by Albieg, Sun 12 Aug 2007, 13:20.

First thing you could do, try using housecall.trendmicro.com to check your pc, no matter if you already scanned with AVG. Try also Ad-Aware by Lavasoft in addition to Spybot, they complement each other quite well (although both are far from being perfect antispywares).

These are the things you can do without manual intervention/removal. There are some techniques to get rid of bad stuff, but they involve some knowledge that would be impractical to write down here.

These apps are increasingly harder to understand/use: HiJackThis, Autoruns, GMER, RKUnhooker. All of these software could help you understanding what's going on (along with Process Explorer/Process Monitor) and they do almost all you could need to solve the problem, but to use them and understand the output you must be able to separate good from bad, and that's the most difficult part.

If you managed to render a 4 hour movie in only 22 minutes you have probably used a codec that uses no compression at all, or a very light compression. Try transcoding it with DIVX or XVID using acceptable quality settings. This might take hours instead of minutes but you'll end up with a much smaller movie.

Edit: ah, four minutes, not hours... Well, in this case compression is BADLY needed

Last edited by Albieg, Sat 11 Aug 2007, 13:17.

The instructions for Skype should work also in this case.