I always did what Mike said, ever since middle school, but it never seemed right to me. I'll just write my own English rules (!) .? << endl; 

Regarding building a new PC, I have a couple questions:
1.) I have an ATI card, and I heard switching between ATI and Nvidia drivers can be very very painful if you don't completely remove all traces of ATI drivers before installing Nvidia drivers. Would it be easier to just stay with ATI or is Nvidia worth it? (Probably I'll get either a 7800 GT or x1800 XT.)

2.) My friend said if Windows XP detects major hardware changes then it will lock me out of my computer and refuse to boot up unless I reinstall Windows. I would rather not do that. Is this true to anyone's knowledge? If so, are there any work arounds or anything? I don't want to have to back up my entire Quake directory and huge amounts of anime/manga to reinstall Windows. 

1/ I don't know about "collisions" between ATI and Nvidia, but I have other examples of concurrent tools that requested a complete uninstall process to work (e.g Norton vs Avast, etc..) So concerning video cards, I wouldn't bet on the fact you can do it safely: drivers are nothing more than programs that run your video cards, so...

2/ He is true: I sadly experimented it with my parents' PC. I had to reinstall Window, and then reinstall all the other programs cause Windows didn't recognized them any more: one week of work, thanks Microsoft.. :(

IMHO, best things to do is to go for a "higher" ATI. As back compatibility is normally ensured, I guess you will not have too much problem to upgrade your settings... just don't install this fucking Control Center.... 

you don't have to reinstall, you just have to reactivate it. If you don't reactivate it, it will eventually lock you out, just the same as if you do not activate it within the 30 day period prior to installing the OS. Also after a certain amount of formats/reinstalls,
you will be told when trying to activate XP that, basically you have done it to many times and you have to ring microsoft bla bla bla, they will walk you through the process and you'll be back up and running in no time, however you will have to go through the calling microsoft after nearly every format/install after that. It's a fairly painless procedure though.

I have also been told that after 50 installs, you will have to buy a new copy of XP, as you will no longer be able to activate your copy. I don't know how true that is, I haven't experienced that yet. But the other above I am very familiar with unfortunately.

This is actually the reason that I am experimenting with Linux, and as long as I can get my games to run fine, bye bye Windows.

I like to be able to do what I like with my OS, install it when, and as many times as I like. I believe that if you read through all the agreements with XP, you will find that they can actually shut you down and deny you access to the OS when ever they feel like it. They would of course have to have a good reason, but by installing XP and accepting the agreements, your basically telling them you agree with that. I have only been told this and shown excerpts, never actually bothered to read it myself, but I had no reason to doubt the peeps that told me, then again... 

There are differences between the 'oem' and retail versions, they go through different activating proceedures, so somethings experienced with the oem version may not apply to the retail version. I have a couple of both and have seen this first hand.

Then of course I may be full of shit, and all the above is just bullshit... 

Last one I promise.

major hardware

The emphasis here should be on major, I have changed video, sound cards, Ram, (I don't consider them major)many a time without any need to do anything with regaurds to keeping the OS running. From what I have seen it's basically motherboards, perhaps CPU that will require action, or perhaps a number of items at the same time. But if you are like me, any hardware upgrade is usually follwed by a complete format reinstall, after I have checked everything out on the current install as to try and avoid any problems on a clean install.

Am I drunk? No,
stoned? well thats against the law, so I wouldn't do that, perhaps a bit dizzy
I don't usually talk this much, it won't happen again.

Actually being stoned isn't against the law, being in possession, or operating a vehicle whilst being stoned are, so.... yeah, I'm stoned, absolutely out of my tree, and loving it. Carry on!! 

... either change of environment (go for Linux), or buy a brand new PC...

I think the safest way to avoid fights with environment settings/re-installation/etc.. bla bla bla... would be to buy a brand new PC... just to be able to re-install your Windows compatible tools... bleh ! 

i doubt you'd run into any problems with just a video card replacement, but i don't have experience when going from ati to nvidia.

typically, things like motherboard or cpu would maybe make windows stop working. a friend of mine told me there's a way to get windows to redetect hardware configuration, but he forgot how. 9_9 worth looking into, anyway. 

thanks to the people who put up info ages ago regarding a new comp.

Got it today, and it's a flier. The 7900GT is indeed a monster card, I just need to find somewhere in melbourne that can get me a dual link dvi-d cable for my monitor. But games look great and fly.

Now i just need to find the time to go through all the titles I wanted to play. 

within the 30 day period prior to installing the OS
That of course was ment to be '30 day period AFTER installing the OS

So According To [59.167.126.200]... either change of environment (go for Linux), or buy a brand new PC...

I'm not totally sure that is what I said, I'll have to wait a day or 2 to know for sure, but by then I prolly won't care 0_o 

I'm not totally sure that is what I said, I'll have to wait a day or 2 to know for sure, but by then I prolly won't care 0_o

errr... I was joking... really... just in case you took that as is ;P 

'Strunk and White says outside (like this).'

I'm not sure about White but I'll stand by Strunk and change my ways henceforth (in fact I'll start right away!).

Oh, but now I have two and that can't be right (can it?). 

You can combine ! and ?, into !? (but maybe that's only for exclamatory questions in comic books.).

You can't combine . with ! or . with ? or . with ; as far as I know (and I don't know a lot!.). ! 

If you are switching from ATI to NVIDIA and vise-versa and fear driver overlap issues, just use DriverCleaner from http://www.drivercleaner.net/ and that's it, problem solved.

If you are putting together a full new PC and not just replacing a videocard, do not expect to just put your old harddrive and expect Windows to work. Even if it does, it's likely to be way slower then it should be. Always do a full Windows reinstall when you do a major upgrade of CPU + motherboard (like going from AMD Tbird to Athlon64 or from Athlon XP to Pentium 4 or whatever).

As to what comes to the whole Windows Activation bullshit, just get a Windows XP PRO SP2 Corporate Edition CD image off the net and you're set. It will NEVER ask you to activate or reactivate or whatever. No matter what hardware changes you make. 

When you at some point do a full system format and reinstallation. Do not forget to split your primary harddrive into multiple partitions, so that you have at least a C: for the OS and apps and D: for everything else. This way you will avoid the trouble of having to fuck around with backupping dozens of gigabytes of important data should you ever need to reinstall Windows. 

!, ?, and ; already have a .

: has 2 

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60225/high/bmepb228377.jpg 

that's all well and good until a hot chick asks you what it represents.

"umm.. it's a computer game that I play a lot"

"Oh." 

I think he should get his money back. 

Maybe his girlfriend did it.
...
Probably not though, huh? 

I consider quake to be bad habbit 

great fun.....two posts in three days..btw the secret word for tonight is "joystick".

(and thanks alot for the recent releases, havent played them all but i will get to it :) 

Yeah
http://theimaginaryworld.com/qwwisp03.jpg 

Just grab a copy of "driver cleaner pro" free software, uninstall ATI, run drivercleaner and clean ATI, then power down and install the nvidia card, power up and bobs your uncles mother 

I took care of his horses for nearly two months and he never paid me once. Bitter memories, man.