Have you tried booting up in safe mode? If that works then there is probably some kind of driver or corrupted file issue. If you havent updated any driver's or added any new periferals lately then I'd try booting off the windows cd and doing a repair. If you have added something new or updted a driver try to back out of the change.

If safe mode doesnt work then a hardware issue becomes much more likely.

I just dove into Linux for the first time myself and have been at it for about a week. I went with ubuntu myself. I can't speak to the modem issue but the dvd situation is easily rectified with a quick google search. Only took about a minute to get the codecs and VLC media player installed and I was good to go.

Speaking a little more generally, My impression of Linux has been pretty good so far but I wouldnt recomend it unless you're fairly computer savvy. Its definately not ready for uncle Joe and his new PC he just bought from Best Buy. I also wouldn't recomend it as a gaming platform either. The selection of games that come in a linux flavor is limited at best.

My only other piece of advice is to give Fedora a try. I havent really used it but I've been finding that software developers seem to test their linux software on Fedora/Redhat distributions about 99% of the time. That leads me to believe there is a good chance you'll experience fewer difficulties by going that route.

[QUOTE="Mossad"]The smallest transistors around today, as far as I could find, are about 5 nanometers so yes as you can guess thats nanotechnology. And yes there are limits to how small a transistor can get before circuit boards will have to get larger. We're actually approching the minimum size as well. I've seen estimates that we will reach the limits of current transistor technology within a decade. In order to progress further we'd have to turn to an entirely new technology like quantum computing.LordEC911

Link?

I think this was the article I come across in my search. And yes I do realize it says NEC claims, but I did also find this article, claiming a 3 nm transistor while looking for the previous link. Plus this is just intresting.

Im suprised no one's mentioned Chuck Norris.Honenheim

Well clearly its because the topic is greatest person where as Chuck norris is a god. (Sorry couldnt resist)

Are you asking about jobs for a 16 year old or career type jobs. IF you're talking jobs for a 16 year, I like the suggestion above of hitting up your local computer store(s) and seeing if you can get a job building or selling computers.

If your talking career, I think electrical engineering is what you are looking for. Electrical engineers are the "hardware guys" of the computer world. Tons of jobs and great pay, especially in the space industry.

Nvidia is suppose to come out with an 8700 series that is the same size as the new ATI cards. All we are seeing now is that C.P.U.'s are the same size, but with more cores. Computers have not gotten smaller over the past 10 years and I do not see anything to change over the next few years atleast. Preformance/price will determine if ATI can take a bite out of Nvidia not the size of the cards.roulettethedog

Computers most certainlyhave gotten smaller. Its just that everytime something shrinks we fill the extra space with more stuff. In fact thats the whole basis for Moore's Law. The smaller transistors get, the more of them you can pack on a chip.

Still its not hard to see how much smaller computers have gotten. Look at the IPOD. look at laptops. look at cell phones. Cell phones can function as phones, cameras, walkie-talkies, web browsers, music storage devices and more all at the same time in a smaller package than their predecessors no less.

In any event, I get the feeling what the OP was trying to say is that the big money is with the main stream non-enthusiast maket. The beast that is the 8800 Ultra is only of interst to the relatively small enthusiast crowd. The smaller more modest cards ATI is putting out as of late are much more attractive to the mainstream audience.