Most of my playtime is spent on the Japanese servers of Fate/Grand Order and Princess Connect! Re:Dive these days, also some Fire Emblem Heroes too.

If anyone also plays them and wants to add me as a friend, feel free to ask and I'll share my IDs.

Decided to randomly reminisce about this place and somehow it's alive and well, and back to being GW instead of SW to boot.

Damn son.

Also, thanks dada for recovering my account!

Nostalgia holy shit.

1.   Have computers improved your lifestyle?
Yes. You just can't say "no" to a wealth of information and entertainment available almost instantly.

2.   In what ways has it improved your lifestyle?
It has given me a nice way to pass the time when I'm bored. Work, of almost any sort, is also far easier with a computer around for obvious reasons.

3.   What are your five main uses for your computer?
Playing/making games, watching anime, listening to music (aka: my personal jukebox), work, communication.

4.   What is your most hated aspect of the computer
The inherent fraility of the hardware, especially the hard drive. A computer is awesome, but the fact it can break so easily is something to keep in mind about.

5.   What is the main thing you would you change about your computer if you could?
More HDD space, you can never have enough HDD space. Barring that though, a more powerful computer in all regards. Also, vague question is vague.

6.   Has there been any negative impact on your life due to your computer?
Over-reliance on the internet, if you can call that a negative impact.

7.   What about positive impact?
Being able to readily access information, of all sorts, is a benefit beyond what words can explain.

8.   Would your life be better or worse off if you never had a computer?
Considering I use a computer on a daily basis, I'm biased in favor of saying it'll be worse off. Who knows though, if I never came in contact with a computer I'd probably have a far different opinion on the matter.

9.   How do you think computers are going to improve in the future?
Personally, I'm hoping for a human-like sentient AI. It'd be awesome if I could communicate with a computer as if it were a fellow human being, rather than just a machine.

10.   How far is to far when it comes to new technology? E.g. Integrating Computer chips into people so they can use there mind to talk to computers.
If and/or when computers do so much that humans don't need to do anything. Too much convenience isn't exactly convenient.

VLC still does the blocky thing with certain shows.  Futurama, for example, freezes constantly.  When I watch Ranma, however, it is fine.  They're all avi files.

The important thing isn't so much the container as it is the actual codec used to encode the video. There's a variety of ways to go about encoding video, notable ones being Xvid, DivX, h.264/x264, and wmv. Chances are, the Futurama files you tried to play were encoded in a different manner than the Ranma files. Try finding out what codecs those .avi files are encoded with. Your system specs would prove handy too.

As for the original problem with Winamp, did you try disabling the overlay (if it was enabled)?

While I don't know if it'll work for you seeing as I never captured video/audio myself, I believe VirtualDub has video/audio capture capabilities.

Well using your contracts example I can turn it into my favor by saying that I write each contract with the same speed so my speed of writing is always the same (processing power is the same = contracts per second or whatever) but I have to stop every now and then to wait for you to deliver the stuff to me (loading). On the second example I have far more contracts than I need so I don't have to wait at all (no loading, better pre-loading/buffering) but my processing speed is still the same.

If you have to stop doing something, then that is time wasted and performance (FPS in this case) lost. You aren't operating at peak performance if you have to stop every now and then and wait.

The second example put our roles in reverse: Instead of placing the RAM as the bottleneck I made you, the CPU, as the bottleneck. You, the CPU, may be operating at maximum performance, but the system as a whole isn't because you're slower than me, the RAM.

Indirectly, since RAM does not process the frames, but the processor which does, usually needs something from the RAM. The processor might work at 100% capacity but if you suddenly need to get in new textures or something the processor has to wait for the RAM to finish the loading before it can continue processing the frames. Your FPS goes lower only because the game is loading/"paused", not because you have insufficient processing power.

CPU/GPU Performance - RAM Performance = Total Performance (Assuming CPU/GPU Performance > RAM Performance)

Using my crappy example again, if I take longer to get your your coffee I am directly affecting the time you take in getting your coffee. The same can be said here: If the RAM is slow, the CPU/GPU's performance are lowered by that amount.

Another example: You (the CPU) can sign a total of 50 contracts per minute, but if I (the RAM) only bring 10 contracts to you per minute you can only sign 10 in the end. I am directly affecting your performance.

This can also work the other way: You (the CPU) can sign a total of 50 contracts per minute, but if I (the RAM) bring 2000 contracts to you per minute you can only sign 50 in the end. In this case you are directly affecting my performance.

but at the same time it can indirectly affect the FPS if the processor(s) are not getting the needed data fast enough or if they have to wait (pause processing) for new data to load.

Elaborate how this is indirect as opposed to direct.

"Directly" is when something is affected by something else. "Indirectly" is when something is affected by something else that isn't related at all.

Crappy Example: If I sold you a cup of coffee, I'm directly affecting you in how you obtain your coffee. If you're waiting in line and I first sold coffee to someone else in line, I'm indirectly affecting you in how you obtain your coffee (you wait longer, but that's not my intention and my job would be to just sell people coffee).

If playing back videos on the computer has shown me anything, it's all the components of the computer working together that dictates the FPS you get in the end. Agreeing with rami.

A clicking hard drive means that the read/write head is recalibrating itself as it can't find the correct sectors on the drive platters.

What this translates to in layman terms is that the hard drive is having hardware problems reading and writing data, you should backup anything important in there before it's too late. =x

Processor: +Intel
Motherboard: +ASUS
Memory: +Kingston
Graphics Card: +nVidia, -ATI
Power Supply: +Corsair
Hard Drive: +Maxtor/Seagate, -Western Digital
Monitor: +NEC, +Sony

I've omitted categories of which I have no preference for.

Are there any alternative methods/programs for typing in non-English characters in Windows XP? The default Windows IME has given me nothing but problems and headaches.

I do away with installing programs onto C: altogether.
Usually, the only stuff that gets installed into C: are system utilities and media codecs, things that wouldn't work anyway if I were to reinstall Windows.

Around 10GB to 15GB is my guess, though I personally go 20GB since I don't mind letting Windows have more space than it'll probably ever need.

Assuming the email service supports POP3 or IMAP, I like Thunderbird for its straight-to-the-point simplicity. I have no need for browser integration, calendars, plan schedulers, nor any of all that other jazz.

In all honesty, as Jeff has kindly said, it'd be nice if you could let us know exactly what you got/are getting for your system. Brand name, name of item, specs, everything. Some pieces of hardware just don't like working together, and some tend to have bad reviews from other users.

Putting together a complete list of parts for your system, especially before you buy them, and discussing it with someone (or a forum like here) knowledgable with computer hardware would save a lot on potential headaches.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_JPEG

However, as the wiki article says I have not seen this used in that many places. Though I'm sure there's bound to be someone more knowledgable on this subject.

I've heard from a certain youtuber that you won't be able to buy a new computer with xp starting tomorrow.

Not necessarily, Microsoft's just ending retail and OEM sale of XP starting June 30, 2008.
You can still get any surplus XP CDs, machines, and laptops that are still in circulation I believe, provided the store you visit still has them.