nitetrain8601

What the hell do you guys do to your laptop? In my experience and in the experience of my friends, a good 5 or 6 that I talk to on a regular basis who have one, they have never ever had problems. As far as Dell, that is by far the worst. Problems left and right, call up their customer service and you either get put on hold or talk to a guy in India. One of my best friends had a Dell, and he took care of his laptop quite nicely. Then over the course of 4 years, his hard drive failed him 3 times. 2 other times, his fan completely stopped working. Now the guy always always makes sure his computer is well-ventilated, and only used it for writing papers and occasional game playing (Roller Coaster Tycoon mostly). Dell flat out sucks. As far as Vaio's, I have a VAIO laptop and desktop computer. The desktop is about 5 years old, but still kicking strong. The laptop I got about 2 or 3 years ago. It's pretty nice, huge screen and everything. Never had any problems. The only pet peeve you may have is the battery life. Mine sucks donkey balls. I usually only get 20 or 30 minutes, even after turning the volume all the way down, dimming the screen to it's dimmest setting, and not watching any movies or listening to music or playing any games.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 12:11 PM) In my view Memphis has been one of the biggest offenders of late, they clearly have no intention of winning games any time soon. Boston in the pre-KG year was pretty bad as well, it was nice to see neither of them get the pick they wanted. They really need the lottery in the NBA a lot more than in the other sports because one bonafide superstar can have a massive impact on their win total and players tend to produce far earlier. It'd be chaos without it, just imagine what would have happened in the Lebron year or how much worse it would have been the last two seasons. On a side note, how mediocre does the 2007 draft look so far? It was theoretically supposed to be one for the ages, but Oden has barely seen the floor and will need time to shake off the rust, Durant is virtually just throwing up points in garbage time every game, and arguably the most productive player in the draft so far is a 10-9 big in Al Horford. I guess there's some pretty good depth with Young, Hawes, Chandler and Fernandez all playing well so far, but the top of the draft hasn't been as strong as expected. How is Memphis an offender? Because they traded away Pau? They made it clear what they wanted for him and got that from LA. Marc Gasol has been impressive. They suckered(though it probably didn't take much) Minnesota into taking Mike Miller and Kevin Love for OJ Mayo who is a stud in the making, they have a pretty good player in Rudy Gay, and a developing player in Darrell Arthur. I don't see how you say Memphis is trying to tank.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 03:05 PM) I see a signing announcement this weekend for us, I really have a good hunch. I don't.

I mind that we got a bunch of question marks/busts for Swisher, but I'm not surprised. Last year was terrible for him, so it's pretty much the best deal we probably could've got. Myself, personally, I would've kept Swisher and see if he could bounce back next year. Then again, KW may want to try something different this year, so we'll see.

Well I personally don't like Paulie's "quiet" attitude. I loved the type of attitude OC and Swisher brought. And apparently, they had their supporters with guys like Uribe and Pierzynski dying parts of their hair and such. And they were the first guys celebrating a good play with their teammates. I think our clubhouse is way too serious and that won't change until guys like PK leave.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 08:54 PM) Well, I guess it will be interesting to see who has more impact next season at the MLB level...Betemit, Nunez and Marquez, or Ryan Sweeney? I don't think we'll see Gio Gonzalez again as a starter again with the A's, maybe out of the bullpen. He didn't have one quality start. He did have a couple of nice outings, but his ERA reached almost 10 at one point. 6 IP, 4 ER (TOR) 5 IP, 1 ER (against TB, that's more impressive) 5 IP, 2 ER/4 R (at Seattle) But he really got his pitch count up...he just couldn't go deep into any of his starts, past 6.0 IP. Kazmir has been doing the same. Gimme a young Kazmir any day of the week.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 07:56 PM) Not talking about OPS's or VORPs...I'm talking about OVERALL. Juan did an AMAZING job manning the corner the last few months. I think you're in denial about Swisher. I guess you didn't follow the thread. What's been discussed about Swisher on here. Ton's of heresay on post-PED. Off field indulgences. Coaching staff couldn't stand him. Personally I think he's somewhat of a headcase too. Nice guy...sure. But his confidence level was so pathetic it completely ruined him. So good luck with that NY... No, the sources for PED's is Soxtalk posters. There is nothing credible that links Swisher and PED's. As far as the coaching staff, they jacked him up a bit, especially Walker from what KW said. As for his off the field issues, I cannot defend that, even though I really don't know of any. I mean, I he sulked at himself when he was doing terrible, but at least he held himself accountable. I'm not a huge Swisher fan like a ton of people here, nor do I hate the guy either. But you are bringing up allegations brought forth by a message board who had their own ideas. Innocent until proven guilty. I haven't heard anything other than Soxtalk even say anything about the coaching staff hating him. They benched him when he should've been benched. I never heard anyone and I mean anyone link him to PED's besides the wonderful posters of Soxtalk. I'm not saying it isn't possible for all of this to be true, but I have a hard time believing it when the best source provided is a few guys from Soxtalk say, "He was probably on 'roids" when he was sucking and then running with that. And I also don't think Swisher will have as terrible of a year as he did. I would be shocked. As for the rest of it, I didn't like giving up Gio much less DLS and Sweeney for Swisher at all. Gio > Swisher.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 07:02 PM) I'll update this when i hear anything interesting. From the Conference call KW likens Marquez to Garland Sees Betemit as utility/insurance to Josh Fields Sees Nunez in the bullpen Attributes Nick’s struggles to being unlucky, He refers to babip. Says that Swish changed his mechanics (Walker?)leading to a mental breakdown. Uribe is gone. Crede is gone. KW doesn't want background noise on his conference call Biatch! Why in the world do we have guys like Walker jacking up good hitters? This is what I thought happened to AJ which is why, despite what he says, he has turned into an undisciplined hitter. Instead of spreading the ball around, his approach has changed. FIRE WALKER ALREADY!

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 05:12 PM) Hell we had Griffey out there for a good portion of the season. McClouth may look like Willie Mays after that experiment. Don't ever use Griffey to express any negative thought ever again. The Kid is sacred.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 05:10 PM) For Paulie not only stay healthy...but be better than pathetic until October (if he's not dealt). Lot's of upside I guess...and I still think Kenny's building more towards 2010. That's why there may not be any big deals (BIG back to us anyway)...no Roberts-type deals. Yeah, I agree. I don't really think he's trying for 2009 all that much. He's basically rebuilding(retooling as he says) for 2010, so he won't have to keep getting rid of players like he has been since he took over. I mean, maybe things would be better if our players were able to gain familiarity with one another. Regardless, I think instead of modeling after the Braves, he's slightly adjusting his philosophy to model the Sox after Tampa Bay. Rebuild that farm system, and have young players everywhere who are good.

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 05:06 PM) McClouth would be a perfect fit for the Sox. As a terribly defensively overrated OF?

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:53 PM) Nope, not bad. Terrible. I should've put start in there. No, we're not going to win a WS with that, but as soon as you plugin LF and CF, things look mighty bright. DH will probably be new too. Those INF spots usually gave the Sox trouble. (Crede couldn't hit and when he did, he couldn't defend, Uribe is the tazmanian devil, willie harris stinks, Konerko has no range). I mean, if it works out like it projects to work out, the Sox have a very very nice INF. C is the only spot I think KW will have trouble replacing.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:49 PM) Exactly, especially when he's available for 4/40. I don't know why Minaya would be after Jenks to be honest, especially considering what he would have to give up to get him. And say what you will about Bobby's declining K rate, but the guy has got it done for 3 straight seasons, and his ERA is always good. He keeps the ball in the park, and let's the defense do the work behind him. A huge screw, declining k rate, and the fact that Bobby doesn't dominate like he did when he first came up are great reasons for concern. I'm a huge fan of his, but he can't throw 101 like he used to(before the Sox), and nor can he simply just overpower hitters like he used to(see Game 1 of World Series against Houston when he had Bagwell on his knees). He makes things way more than interesting.

So in 2009, our lineup could be: C - Pierzynski 1B - Konerko 2B - Beckham 3B - Viciendo SS - Ramirez RF - Quentin/? CF - ? LF - Quentin/? Not bad.

Good defensive player and can control an offense. He's horrible, at the same time, offensively.

If Gonzalez really is that good, then the real losers in this are the Arizona DBacks. I mean, I'm a huge Dan Haren fan, but giving up Gonzalez(potential superstar) and Quentin(potential superstar), they are dumb. Quentin as we have seen is a stud. Gonzalez from all accounts is a stud. And by stud, I mean, MVP contender types.

Basically, KW is in Billy Beane's situation when he traded away Billy Koch to us. Billy Koch was Rolaid's Relief Man of the Year I believe when we got him. He was a super hard thrower and such. His value was at it's peak. Now Beane knew about durability issues and traded him right away before any would think twice. Think of it this way, most closers do not last long. Only one I could think maintained the same level of success is Mariano Rivera. I love Bobby as much as the next guy, but I would trade him.

QUOTE (SoxFan101 @ Nov 6, 2008 -> 03:20 PM) What are you talking about, we have been a jump shooting team ever since we traded Curry. Moreso than not that got us into the playoffs and even into the 2nd round, you must have been watching a different team all these years. Bulls had the worst FG% last year. Outside of Ben, no one is really a good shooter on this team. Maybe Noc and that's it. You could get away with non-slashers who shoot 3's or shooters who don't slash, but you can't get away with non-shooters who don't slash which is what Deng and Thabo have become. Btw, from a Bulls board, after 10% of the season being done:

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 9, 2008 -> 03:38 PM) I disagree. Oh noes?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 8, 2008 -> 10:41 PM) That 2006 draft that so many were high on is developing into an absolute piece of cow dung. Roy and Aldridge look pretty damn good.

From a Cowboys fan, Berrian was overrated trash. Bears fans should feel lucky they avoided resigning him. I only watched the 4th quarter of the Bears game, but a major problem to me looked like Grossman was told to throw more slants and short passes than not. He excels at throwing bombs. That's why Berrian has his big contract. Regardless, a bigger problem is the Bears secondary which was always overrated is complete trash this year. I think it's worse because Urlacher has sucked big.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Nov 7, 2008 -> 04:28 PM) Absolutely. The Mets right now look to be the best fit for the White Sox, on a few different fronts. Hell, even Dye could make some sense, with Church moving over to LF. I may be wrong, but wasn't Church originally a LF with the Nationals?

I bought and love MLB2k8. It's very hard to get used to at first, especially the pitching, but once you get it down, it's super fun and they actually brought in the difficulty that is pitching. Instead of just pressing the buttons, I prefer to have to mimic my exact windup each time for the perfect pitch. Can MLB2k8 be tweaked? Yes. But it's pretty decent with the realism.

I actually like Armageddon. I could see why film buffs would hate it, but sometimes people have to take movies for what they are. In Michael Bay's case, he loves a lot of action and explosions, so I sit back and enjoy the ride. Is it something that would have in reality? 95% of the time, no. But that's what movies are supposed to do, take you away from reality.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...--+Red+Sox+news