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MELBOURNE, March 27 (UPI) -- Australian researchers have confirmed that people will make passes at those who wear glasses, or as they put it: People who wear glasses are not geeks or nerds. "We have literally busted the myth that people who wear glasses are introverted or have particular personality characteristics," study leader Paul Baird of the University of Melbourne's Centre for Eye Research said in a statement. "They are more likely to be agreeable and open, rather than closed and introverted." Utilizing the University of Melbourne's Australian Twin Registry, the study involved 633 twins and a comparative group of...

Okay, a question for you techies out there. I just renewed my Norton Anti-virus system and the renewal for my SpySweeper is coming up as well. Is it necessary to have SpySweeper also? If Norton Anti-Virus is sufficient then it doesn't make sense to renew SpySweeper. Some have said they might even be interfering with each other. So to renew or not to renew SpySweeper? That is the question.

A minimalist redesign, a zippy new OS, and terrific new software make the iMac the all-in-one desktop computer of choice for multimedia loversEditor's Rating: The Good: Giant screen, easy-to-use software; plentiful ports for peripherals The Bad: Pricey; no media card reader; no ability to upgrade optical drive to high-definition DVD The Bottom Line: The updated iMac remains the champ for those looking for a multimedia PC Zooming around a sharp corner while playing Electronic Arts' Need for Speed video game on my computer, I spun out of control, hit a guardrail, and sailed over a cliff to my doom. It's...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Engineers, scientists, and computer whizzes study or manipulate nature and machines to find sound, logical solutions to nagging questions and everyday problems. But if hard empirical evidence is what makes a techie brain tick, then how is he or she able to justify or believe in something as scientifically unprovable as God or as mind-boggling as transubstantiation? Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, a self-described techie and Vatican astronomer, argues in a new book that a nerd is not necessarily a nihilist, and geeks can and do believe in God. In "God's Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make...

My wife just got a Windows automatic update for Windows Vista. The problem is that her machine is running XP.She tried to reject the update but the machine automatically re-started and now she's getting messages like "No operating system found". We're both just users with not a clue of what to do.

I am changing my email address and want to change it on the blackberry however the manual does not cover very well deleting or renaming email to the unit.

Well, my experiences of both types of laptop this week has left me reeling. Where do I start? Let’s start with the Mac, a MacBook with OSX preloaded. The MacBook was a joy to look at, very well finished with a glossy white sheen that looked and felt good in the hand. And light. On opening the thing had obviously been placed in suspension, and it just started. It found my network and was ready to use. The interface, OSX, with its one button for the mouse, threw me for a few minutes as I am VERY used to Windows...

I just purchased a new laptop for the 17 yearold as she enters her senior year in highschool. Its a very cool Compaq model. The box that it came in has a big sticker on the side that says "Do Not Sell Until Janruary 30th 2007". Vista. Its running the new Vista system. So far it runs good. No problems have arised. My question is with the wireless router that I bought and connected to my desktop. So far the router works great and the internet is working fine. From what I gather, I can also use the router to...

Lenovo Inc. recalled about 100,000 laptop computer batteries Thursday, warning that they could overheat and cause a fire. The battery recall was the second for the company in the past six months and comes as Lenovo, the world's No. 3 computer maker, tries to gain ground on its better-known competitors. The latest recall involves batteries made by Japan's Sanyo Electric Co. and follows four reports of overheating. In one case, a user suffered minor eye irritation, the company said. The Chinese PC maker, which has its world headquarters in Research Triangle Park, said consumers should stop using the recalled products...

Have an Acer laptop with battery problems, I think. Have fresh windows xp home and the problem still exists.

Hey gang, Once again, with hopeful heart, I turn to my fellow FReepers for some advice. In a nutshell: Got new computer. It runs on VISTA and DX10 (whatever that it) Come to find out Everquest One (and as far as I can tell, EQII) doesn't do either, and SONY doesn't particularly care. So, five years of customer loyalty ***blip***.. (...but I digress) Anyway, I am now looking for another RPG. One that will take/run on Vista and DX10. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, --YD

A very strange thing happened to my computer. The other day I was booting up and received a message that my C drive was almost full. I checked it and it was. So I went to system tools and ran disk clean up. This freed up about 3 gigs. I also noticed that there was a game on the disk, I removed it. Then I started looking at my d drive and decided to prune it as well. I got to a game I had and went to remove it it was taking a long time so I went to...

It's one of those software design decisions that makes you scratch your head and wonder, "What were they thinking?" The "it" in this case is XP's most powerful rebuild/repair option, and yet Microsoft chose to hide it behind seeming dead ends, red herrings, and a recycled interface that makes it hard to find and (at first) somewhat confusing to use.But it's worth exploring because this option lets you completely and nondestructively rebuild, repair, or refresh an existing XP installation while leaving already-installed software alone (no reinstallation needed!). It also leaves user accounts, names, and passwords untouched and takes only a...

I am trying to reinstall WimXP on an older Dell machine that has accepted it many times before. And now it freezes about 3/4ths the way through installation. I tried taking out a memory chip since it has slots for two of them and even relacing one chip with the other with the same results.No, I'm not going to buy a Mac. Yes, I am going to try a linux distribution. SLAX in particular because I'm burning the disc right now.

All, as noted in the thread Prayer requested for Sionnsar's family, I have a new, quite significant, and high priority pull on my time that will continue for an indefinite period of time. I will do what I can, and newheart and Huber long ago volunteered to help out with posting and pinging the Traditional Anglican ping list during my times away (traveling). Unfortunately I think these two are even busier than your truly --- but we'll do what we can to keep the Traditional Anglican ping list going. For the Washington State ping list I have mostly been pinging...

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a geek as "an unfashionable or socially inept person or a knowledgeable and obsessive enthusiast, such a computer geek." A dork probably wrote that. Because television, cinema and even the fashion runways are thronging with a new class of beta male with more brains than brawn and a wardrobe that is so far from cool it circles round and links up with cool at the other end. People are letting their geek flag fly. The reigning leading man at the box office is not some pumped-up action hero, but a sweet, lovable doofus who collects...

Agents of the computer fixing "Geek Squad" wear badges and uniforms and drive black and white cars — a look the California Highway Patrol fears too closely resembles actual police officers. The Volkswagen Beetles, emblazoned with a "Geek Squad" logo and painted black-and-white, are driven by men and women in white shirts and snap-on ties whose mission, for a fee, is to bring help to customers' homes, repairing and installing computers and entertainment systems. Best Buy Co. Inc. is now repainting its "Geek Squad" Beetles throughout California to comply with the highway patrol's request that the vehicles not look so...

... Whatever the reason, being a nerd, a geek, a dork -- whatever you want to call the tragically unhip -- is becoming a source of pride. ... And, increasingly, people are parading around in shirts that say "Dork Pride!" among other things. Such items have gotten so popular that CafePress.com, an online merchandiser, has created a special category for shirts and other items celebrating geeks, dorks and nerds. ... For now, though, he's going with it and has put a bumper sticker on his motorcycle that says "Talk Nerdy To Me" so he attracts the kind of women he's...

Dozens of grown men from their 30s to 60s crowd around the tatami mat room in Kagetsuen, a Shizuoka Prefecture ryokan inn, and begin playing with their train sets. More than 90 percent of the inn's guests are adults who enjoy playing with toy trains. These mature train setters have not only kept the inn afloat as others around it have fallen into oblivion, they've helped it grow in a prime example of the otaku business that's now booming throughout Japan, according to AERA (7/18). "Thanks to trimming down our target market, we could stay in business," Eiji Misu, Kagetsuen's...

For some in the tech industry, the chance to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in its opening couple of days is just not something they're willing to pass up—at any cost. And while that early viewing may be a badge of honor for geeks around the world, the "Star Wars flu" may pull down productivity figures, analysts warned. "There's nothing like being here for the first showing," said an IT manager for a financial brokerage firm on Wednesday, while standing in line in front of the Metreon theater complex in San Francisco. He had called in...

SAN JOSE – Susan Love's problems began with a smile. The New York City fund-raiser clicked on a happy-face attachment in a friend's e-mail last year. The virus crashed her computer within an hour. Love, 57, salvaged her data. But within a few months her computer's performance slowed to a crawl. In December 2003, she upgraded to a Sony Vaio with an extra-large monitor and Microsoft Windows XP operating system. Within a few days, "spyware" – programs that sneak onto computers uninvited – began sponging up valuable memory. Then her e-mail stopped arriving. Instead of crafting holiday e-mails, she spent...

~10:29am~ ESTCONVENTION JOURNAL - GULLIANI, McCAIN, and WAR:  There is little doubt that the convention delegates are taking this Convention seriously and last night the prime-time line-up struck themes that resonated across the gathered masses in Madison Square Garden, and no one left their seat once former NYC Mayor Rudy Gulliani began to talk about the importance of winning this fight against terrorism. Several moments of worth through the evening Monday night. I personally teared up horribly when the "Widows of 9/11" came forward to tell their stories. Most noticably to me was the clarity of  Tara Stackpole, the widowed wife of a fire-fighter...

HUGE HUGE HUGE MOVEMENT IN ABCNEWSWASHPOST POLL: The nefarious aspect of this poll is that they (ABCWAPO) claim the overall poll numbers are dead even - and this HAS to be bogus...because the internals are deadly for Kerry... Overall poll show likely voters: Bush 48% Kerry 48% Strongly support the candidates: Bush 56% Kerry 40% Trust more to handle: Terrorism - B-56%, K-38% Education - B-47%, K-47% Economy - B-48%, K-47% Health Care - B-43%, K-50% Iraq - B-52%, K-44% Taxes - B-48%, K-46% Best Describes the Candidates: Honest - B-47%, K-41% (net change for Bush since 8/1 - +6)...

***KERRY CAUGHT IN ANOTHER FIB (NOW ALMOST DAILY) - HEAR THE AUDIO - IN KERRY'S OWN WORDS***

"...Over most of the campaign year, John Kerry has not faced much adversity. From the media preordaining him as "the" candidate earlier in the year, to his sudden and swift winning of the nomination, to his further coronation experience at his nominating convention, things have pretty much gone his way. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have exposed something that I think is far more damaging about Kerry than they realized at the time. Vietnam - blah, blah, blah - you hear the two sides go at it and so it goes ... But last Thursday, John Kerry gave the...

BRIT HUME, OF FOX NEWS CHANNEL (CHILDHOOD SCHOOLMATE OF JOHN KERRY) BUSTS KERRY ON LIE TOLD TO AFRICAN AMERICANS IN 2003 - HEAR THE AUDIO/CLICK HERE

BRIT HUME, OF FOX NEWS CHANNEL (CHILDHOOD SCHOOLMATE OF JOHN KERRY) BUSTS KERRY ON LIE TOLD TO AFRICAN AMERICANS IN 2003 - HEAR THE AUDIO/CLICK HERE

Something struck me today that jolted my thinking on the whole Swift Boat Veterans issue. As I was reading the reports of John Kerry sending campaign staff to Crawford to ask President Bush to denounce (A G A I N ! ! !) the ads put out by 527 something just smacked me in the face. Over most of the campaign year John Kerry has not faced much adversity. From the media pre-ordaining him as "the" candidate earlier in the year, to his sudden and swift winning of the nomination, to his further coronation experience at his nominating convention -...

Fresh off after having to force his campaign to admit that his first purple heart wound was in fact self-inflicted, John Kerry continued his bizarre actions towards the President - when who he is really mad at is the Swift Boat Vets - who are not connected to the President. Kerry was forced to acknowledge as much in a phone call to one of the Swift Vets Sunday evening. Yesterday in New York - after speaking directly with a 527 group - Kerry again accused President Bush of "hiding behind 527 groups". Kerry did this despite President Bush's direct denouncement of...

***JOHN ONEILL TO DISCUSS KERRY CAMPAIGN ADMISSION - FIRST PURPLE HEART - SELF INFLICTED. ON AIR/2:30pmEST/Kevin McCullough Show - Listen Live***ONeill will also respond to Kerry's quiet attempt to contact Swift Boat Vets on Sunday as exposed by Drudge today...

NEW YORK - This morning, John Kerry used New York City as the launching pad for his latest rounds of attack on President Bush and urged the GOP to abandon the negative attacks of "fear and smear" and to return to the debate on issues. However, it is clear from a reported phone call that Kerry participated in Sunday evening that Kerry sees that the discontentment of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as fundamentally non-related to the Bush campaign. Kerry reportedly placed a call to Robert Brant (Ret.) Commander, United States Navy. Brant had skippered boats #96 and #36...

NEW YORK - Appearing on the Moncia Crowley Sunday show on NYC's WABC 770AM, the co-author of UNFIT FOR COMMAND, John O'Neill dared John Kerry to "sue me for libel". And he got specific... "If he was actually in Cambodia on Christmas Eve in 1968 he should sue me. If, in fact those other five boats on March 13th, if they all fled like he did instead of staying like he knows they did, he should sue me." "If he didn't wound himself with a grenade, causing a rice fanny wound, and then reported it to the Navy as a...

The "John Flapjack Kerry" camp is in complete disarray. Now look, you diehard dems know it and you can see it playing out right before your eyes. I know that now you're thinking to yourself thoughts like "I wonder if Dick Gephardt would be in this position?" or "Jo-motion wouldn't have had these kinds of issues..." AND YOU'RE RIGHT... But you let the nut-wing lefties wrestle control away from you in the primaries. The reasonable ones among you did not speak up when Farenheit 9/11 called into question the patriotism of even our nation's military service men and women. And...

Pittsburgh, PA (PRWEB) July 16, 2004 -- Have you ever been told that your not allowed to take your Personal video or Picture camera into a hotel and not take any type of video or picture shots? It happened at The Intown Suites located at 2420 East Dublin-Granville Road in Columbus Ohio. On July 13, 2004, Jon E Chryk, a 29 year old resident of Jacksonville, Florida who was on vacation in Columbus from July 8, 2004 until his vacation/job search abruptly ended by being removed from the intown suites property for apparently video taping the hotel establishment. According to...

UPDATE: NASA to Make (Kerry) Photos Available Again After a legal review by NASA lawyers, the photos of Sen. John Kerry in the famous ,"bunny suit" will be posted sometimes this evening on http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov.Check back for more details as they become available. Freeper comment: (This is from a certain Floridian newspaper this afternoon....developing.....) The full story is at: http://www.floridatoday.com/topstories/072904bunny.htm

Rush reports Kerry was out giving another photo-op with his $5,000.00 euro-bike and fell at least once over the weekend.

A proud US father and self-confessed engineering "geek" has named his son after a computer software term. Jon Blake Cusack, from Holland, Michigan, told local newspapers the US practice of adding "Junior" or "II" after a boy's name was too common. So, when his son was born last week, he decided on the name Jon Blake Cusack 2.0, as if he were a software upgrade. Mr Cusack admitted that it took months to persuade his wife, Jamie, to accept the idea. 'Cool' Mrs Cusack said she asked several friends if they approved of the name. All the men, she...

I received a cable modem as part of a free trial. I LOVE IT! Now I can pester FR with more posts, more hasty responses, etc. The fun will be terrorizing the libs. Seriously, are there any FReepers who use high speed access? What do you love about it? Hate about it,etc. I'd like to hear about anyone's experience with any kind of broadband situation.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1003671/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1003670/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1003530/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1002582/posts I captured these 3 minutes ago.

I just downloaded and installed Mozilla and it seems to be better than the Explorer 5.5 I had been using. What is the downside to this? It seems to do everything I used explorer for, plus it has killed all unrequested popups, yet permits popups that I request (like tvguide). Is there something I'm missing here?

A Hong Kong computer game enthusiast has been found slumped dead at a terminal in a game centre after playing non-stop for hours, police said on Sunday. The 28-year-old was found slumped at his screen early on Saturday after he apparently had played the online game Diablo II since early Friday evening. A policeman found him in the game centre shortly after 1am, five hours after he began playing the popular game, according to reports. His death at a game centre in Hong Kong's Yuen Long district came eight months after a 17-year-old game centre employee was found dead after...

Not only did Larry Wall answer your questions, but he said they were excellent questions. You've got to love Larry Wall, not just because he's a nice guy and created Perl, but also because he is the first Slashdot interview guest ever to send his answers preformatted in squeaky-clean HTML. We appreciate this like you wouldn't believe. They're great answers, too -- straightforward, heartfelt, and entertaining. Enjoy! 1) Perl as a "scripting" or a "programming" language by Marx_Mrvelous I've been using perl for a very long time, but primarily as a scripting language. I indeed mostly use it for extraction...

Owensboro, KY - An enterprising young man has managed to run his appliances faster by overclocking the electrical system in his house. Toast gets done faster, beverages get colder and clothes spin dry at the speed of light, well, almost. Lance Hatler, was irritated with the "measly 60 Hz" that the electric company fed into his house and decided he could do better. "I thought my overclocked computer system is pretty sweet. Why can't I apply the same principle to my house? I mean besides the fire code," questioned Hatler. After several trips to the emergency room for massive electric...