Avast! for antivirus. Also, look at the bottom of your laptop, see that sticker that says "windows" on it with a string of letters and numbers? that's what you paid for, the "windows cd" is immaterial, you don't need to buy a new copy of windows, you just need your license number which is required to be affixed to the machine chassis by the manufacturer, and any windows CD of the same version will work (and is legal). Also, viruses / spyware don't just float into your computer across the Internet. The person who mentioned your browsing habits is partially correct. Your computer doesn't just pick up viruses because it's on, you have to navigate it towards a place where a virus / spyware resides (this can be infected banner ads on perfectly legitimate websites btw). Get avast, use a script blocker (noscript is great if you're on firefox) and don't open emails from people you don't know.

You released her? Are you insane? What have you done? The reason for the shock collar was to inhibit her sex drive down to only 5x normal, without it... you may never walk again!

The biggest performance hit (this is true for any game that has it) is dynamic shadows. If you're looking for a sizable boost, turn them off.

Because you keep saying "hardware" when, in fact, the hardware IS the same. Having been a network engineer for 21 years now (please kill me), I use and have used just about everything under the sun from giant Data Generals (circa 1975, I can't believe the damn things were still running in 1996) to Windows 8 and everything in between including at least a half dozen OS's that don't exist anymore. The hardware was arguably better prior to 2003(?) when they were using a RISC processor, but when they transitioned to Intel processors the fact is, the guts of your Mac are exactly the same off the shelf hardware as just about every other computer out there. Pull the cover and you'll see an Intel processor, a WD or Seagate hard drive, Intel or NVidia chipset video, off brand RAM, etc. The difference is in the operating system and the pretty case. Like I said, I use both (as well as several flavors of Linux, a couple custom written OS's for pharmaceutical equipment, a couple DOS machines etc) and what is "better" is completely subjective, but the hardware argument is invalid.

Really? 40 gig? when 2.5 TB drives are about $100? Also, while we're at it, owning a mac and complaining about the 90 bucks for windows is like owning a gold-plated row boat and complaining about the cost of paddles.

There is a buff that puts everyone sub-50 on even footing as far as hit points, damage and heals. Granted, lower lvls will have fewer abilities to draw on, but if you've ever been lvl 15 and completely destroyed a lvl 45, that is the reason why. I love that feature, I love taking my lowbies in and wrecking people 3x my lvl. Level brackets really aren't an issue.

It's basically rhythm / timing of flow (in music). He was using it when he meant "rate" which isn't quite the same thing but can be substituted in certain situations; his usage of it the first time was fine, the second time was a bit off. Your usage of it in your (not un-funny) example was more than a bit off. =P

I found the problem. You're not entitled to anything except for access to the online service that you pay for, which (before the patch complainers chime in), is subject to downtime (something you agreed to when you hit "I accept"). Unless you are a shareholder, you are entitled to NOTHING more than that. If you are a shareholder, take a quick peek at your shareholder agreement. Said agreement will also make you entitled to certain other things such as quarterly reports, access to financials, etc.

I went to the movies last night. About 90 min of "entertainment" (wherein I had to tell some ******* behind me that was loudly talking to the screen to shut the hell up (after 3x asking nicely)) cost me $40 for my wife and I. So, let's just use that shall we? $40 for a single 90 min source of entertainment for two people. Breaking the value down that's 180 min (3 hrs) worth of entertainment for 40 bucks... Basic math says that it's $4.50 / hr of entertainment. Your friends can't get 3 hours and 20 min (3.33 * 4.50 = ~15) of entertainment from SWTOR in a 30 day period? I don't believe you. I have kids, a career, and work about 55 hrs a week and I spend more than 3 and a half hours a week here (sometimes in a night).

And the average human eye can't distinguish above 18 fps (interlaced) to 32 fps (non-interlaced direct image transfer)... I'm sure you're all exceptional though and have the sharpest vision any human ever did making you able to detect all the way up to 50fps. which makes your complaint about being below 100 fps... typical of these boards.

TBH my post wasn't directed at you, in fact yours was the only post that wasn't utterly useless. Also, I love your quote... and it's quite apt in this discussion.

People with no knowledge of computers should not post answers to questions about them. I understood what you were asking in your original post and no, OP, putting it on a flash drive will actually make things worse. Part of the problem is the name "memory stick". They call USB flash drives "memory sticks" but they are not actually "memory" as far as the computer is concerned. RAM (of which you have 2gig) is the computer's operating memory... think of it as what the computer uses to process things. Drive space is different, it's what the computer uses to store information. For the purposes of this discussion, the two are not related in a significant way. If you were to move your SWTOR files to a USB memory stick (AKA: flash drive, which is actually storage, not memory) it is not making more RAM available, only drive space so no, it would not help you. Also, USB is much slower than your hard disk interface so it would actually make the game run more poorly. RAM is cheap these days, you can get 4 gig of DDR2 (probably what you're using if you only have 2G) for under 40 bucks.

Yes you can. Assuming the following: - your headset is USB and not a regular headphone jack (3.5mm) - you are in fact running on Windows 7 (not Mac OS with 7 through a VM) If both these conditions are not met then the answer is no. If both conditions are met, then yes you can. USB headsets (speakers etc) are treated as their own sound device (not output, device... card if you will). You can tell Windows which sound "card" to use for particular tasks. I do something similar with music, Ventrillo, and SWTOR. system sees 3 devices and sound from each program plays to different devices.

This is the correct answer; it happened on 3 of my toons. I had quests for all the instances I was eligible for and could queue for no FP's, drop quests and voila!

Of course you would, then it's the healer's problem instead of yours! I do agree that it's a bit over-used, but not to the degree you're making it out to be IMO. I am looking forward to some more advanced boss mechanics in the future. I know most MMO's first-run raids are fairly linear and tank-n-spank, I'm really looking forward to some high-coordination, randomized boss mechanics in future ops.