The Tech Random Crap Thread

[DarkAudit]

For when your issue/comment/question isn't really worth a new thread, and you'd rather not necro a thread more than four years old (full disclosure: I haven't even found one that recent that was on topic ).

So anyway. Had multiple streaming video tabs open in Chrome, and as I opened the second and third, the sound and frame rate in the first went to absolute crap and stayed that way. (Not to mention the video stream won't even attempt the connection until you are actually on that particular tab.) Decided to give Firefox a look, not that they've got that multiprocess thing going. Same 2-4 video tabs open. And it did NOT cut the bandwidth into incoherence.

Not to mention opening a block of comics from GoComics all at once feels a bit snappier in Firefox now than Chrome. Hmm...

 

[PatrThom]

Chrome is still one process per tab.
New Firefox allows tabs use more than one thread.

--Patrick

 

[DarkAudit]

Hmm. The image in @GasBandit's reply in the What Are You Playing thread is blocked in Firefox but not Chrome. And I can't find out why.

And now I have. Firefox doesn't support webp. So it's a @GasBandit problem for using a crap image format and not me.

 

[GasBandit]

Hmm. The image in @GasBandit's reply in the What Are You Playing thread is blocked in Firefox but not Chrome. And I can't find out why.

And now I have. Firefox doesn't support webp. So it's a @GasBandit problem for using a crap image format and not me.

I dare say Giphy is the trendsetter. Firefox needs to get its butt in gear and keep up.

 

[PatrThom]

Hmm. The image in @GasBandit's reply in the What Are You Playing thread is blocked in Firefox but not Chrome. And I can't find out why.

And now I have. Firefox doesn't support webp. So it's a @GasBandit problem for using a crap image format and not me.

Yeah, I don't get to see them, either. It just tries to download a file instead of playing it because webp is a Google format, I think.

--Patrick

 

[DarkAudit]

I dare say Giphy is the trendsetter. Firefox needs to get its butt in gear and keep up.

OTOH, webp is a Google product. Nuff said.

 

[Gared]

My six year old WD 1TB external drive is finally starting to show signs of failure, so I'm in the middle of a 16 hour transfer of all data from that drive to my six month old WD 2TB Elements drive. Then I have to move all of my important docs and such to the elements drive as well, because my 10 year old internal hard drive is starting to show signs of failure (and just plain old age) as well. Right now it doesn't matter which browser I use, in the Chrome vs. Firefox debate, because any time either of them needs to check for cached data everything else I'm doing hangs until the cached data has been retrieved. Everything. Using the VideoStream app to cast to the TV? Hangs. Playing a game (Steam or otherwise)? Hangs. Opening a new tab? Hangs. Typed the word "maps" into the browser bar? Hangs. Working on a spreadsheet in Excel? Hangs. Opening a Word doc? Hangs. And let me tell you - it's always super fun to be wandering along in Minecraft and have it hang suddenly, then come back to a deathscreen and a resounding wave of creeper explosions.

The most annoying thing is that it seems to be hit-and-miss about what it will attempt to pull from the cache and what it won't - I've tried timing various pageload scenarios in order to nail down a pattern, but they're so unpredictable that it hasn't worked so far. The one thing that all of these scenarios do have in common though? Each time something is hanging up operations, the HDD light on my tower never turns off, never blinks, it's just on solidly. In fact, there are days when it's on more than it's off. If this house deal goes through, I'm taking some of our monthly savings and buying a new laptop and a docking station.

 

[strawman]

... And more RAM and an SSD.

 

[PatrThom]

...and another external to make a second copy of all your important stuff.

--Patrick

 

[strawman]

...and offsite unlimited "cloud" backup (carbonite, backblaze, etc)

 

[Gared]

... And more RAM and an SSD.

Undoubtedly. I've considered upgrading this machine many times over the years, but aside from occasionally upgrading the video card, everything else was too little return for too much investment - at its core, this is a 10 year old Lenovo workstation from the open-box/display unit shelf at Frys.

 

[DarkAudit]

Going to hit up the Pitt surplus store this morning. Looking at either one of their stack of i5 Optiplex 790s, or an HP Pro i7. I want to turn whatever I end up with into a Hackintosh.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I have a saitek x52 pro HOTAS flight stick. It is one of the most common flight sticks used in games, to the point that the in game controls in Elite Dangerous are modeled to look like it. It is a standard in flight sim gaming.

Windows X hates it. If I manually load the drivers it works just fine, but WinX also hates anyone who manually loads drivers. Any time I change my internet settings and forget to do all the loopholes that prevent WinX from automatically updating, it will immediately try to "fix" the drivers for that stick and completely break it, to the point that I have to them uninstall it completely and carefully reinstall the correct drivers so that windows fucking update can't screw it up.

What ever happened to "don't install updates unless I say to" option. Anyone remember when options like that existed? It was a great option.

 

[GasBandit]

I have a saitek x52 pro HOTAS flight stick. It is one of the most common flight sticks used in games, to the point that the in game controls in Elite Dangerous are modeled to look like it. It is a standard in flight sim gaming.

Windows X hates it. If I manually load the drivers it works just fine, but WinX also hates anyone who manually loads drivers. Any time I change my internet settings and forget to do all the loopholes that prevent WinX from automatically updating, it will immediately try to "fix" the drivers for that stick and completely break it, to the point that I have to them uninstall it completely and carefully reinstall the correct drivers so that windows fucking update can't screw it up.

What ever happened to "don't install updates unless I say to" option. Anyone remember when options like that existed? It was a great option.

Never update. Never reboot.

 

[DarkAudit]

The optiplex 790 was $50 with an i5 and 8GB RAM. Needs an HDD.

Pitt has a surplus store open to the public. WVU does not. [emoji30]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[DarkAudit]

Small argh. Intel HD graphics 2000. Not really a Hackintosh candidate. SFF case means a low profile video card is necessary to continue down that path. A PSU upgrade may also be needed. 250W stock.

 

[PatrThom]

Well on the plus side, the Macs that shipped with Sandy Bridge can run the current OS (10.12), so you shouldn't be limited to 10.11 or any of the older ones.

--Patrick

 

[DarkAudit]

Well on the plus side, the Macs that shipped with Sandy Bridge can run the current OS (10.12), so you shouldn't be limited to 10.11 or any of the older ones.

--Patrick

I've got plenty to do with it in the meantime anyway. Just installed a 1TB HDD and had to settle for a displayport to HDMI adapter if I wanted to hook it up to anything today.

So for the time being, this $50 Optiplex will have a 43" monitor.

 

[Eriol]

I can't make this up: Eastlink customer's 20-year-old email account shut down over unusual address

A Halifax man is facing the daunting task of going through almost two decades of email messages after his email provider served notice it was deactivating his account in 30 days because of his email address: noreply@eastlink.ca
...

So this isn't recent trolling, he's had it for 20 years.

 

[Denbrought]

I can't make this up: Eastlink customer's 20-year-old email account shut down over unusual address
So this isn't recent trolling, he's had it for 20 years.

Part of the reason why I pay for a domain, so I can have an owned e-mail address to alias over my Gmail (Also because xx@xxx.xxx is far easier to write down than xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx). Reminds me I need to switch more services to the custom address.

 

[GasBandit]

Part of the reason why I pay for a domain, so I can have an owned e-mail address to alias over my Gmail (Also because xx@xxx.xxx is far easier to write down than xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx). Reminds me I need to switch more services to the custom address.

I kinda tried that for a while too, but "gmail" is shorter to type than "gasbanditry" Ah well. But, for the record, gasbandit at gasbanditry.com does forward to my gmail account.

 

[PatrThom]

gasbandit at gasbanditry.com does forward to my gmail account.

...where it will be vacuumed up into the telemetry factory oh wait they promised they were going to stop that.

--Patrick

 

[Denbrought]

I kinda tried that for a while too, but "gmail" is shorter to type than "gasbanditry" Ah well. But, for the record, gasbandit at gasbanditry.com does forward to my gmail account.

Aw, I was gonna suggest grabbing gas@band.it, but the domain is taken.

Edit: Get on with the times, gas.af and gas.moe are available!

 

[GasBandit]

Edit: Get on with the times, gas.af and gas.moe are available!

Weird and scary.

 

[DarkAudit]

I hadn't logged into my Imageshack account in over a year. I didn't realize they held everyone's images hostage in order to coerce them into switching to a paid account. Fuck that noise. The placeholders for all my stuff were still there, but not the images. A reply to a comment on the ransom demand suggested emailing support to get the images back. So I did. Then I'm taking them elsewhere. Fuck those guys.

 

[PatrThom]

I hadn't logged into my Imageshack account in over a year. I didn't realize they held everyone's images hostage in order to coerce them into switching to a paid account. Fuck that noise. The placeholders for all my stuff were still there, but not the images. A reply to a comment on the ransom demand suggested emailing support to get the images back. So I did. Then I'm taking them elsewhere. Fuck those guys.

Yeah, it's been making headlines, just like "pay $400 to see your images" Photobucket. The kind of headlines that say things like, "how much longer do you think they will exist as a company?"

--Patrick

 

[DarkAudit]

Yeah, it's been making headlines, just like "pay $400 to see your images" Photobucket. The kind of headlines that say things like, "how much longer do you think they will exist as a company?"

--Patrick

Hmm. Here's a test...

Should be the GB Ewok if they haven't started enforcing the new terms.

In any case, I'm downloading everything out of my bucket right now. Screw these guys, too.

 

[GasBandit]

I can see it.

 

[DarkAudit]

I can see it.

Cool.

Also, damn. Dude. Just... dude.

 

[PatrThom]

Hmm. Here's a test...

Should be the GB Ewok if they haven't started enforcing the new terms.

In any case, I'm downloading everything out of my bucket right now. Screw these guys, too.

It's like we have our own ewok canary.

--Patrick

 

[DarkAudit]

Looking at Newegg and Amazon, an i7-3770 by itself is more expensive than the refurbished systems it's installed in. And absolutely nothing less than $250.

iMessage is working, so I think I've cleared all the hurdles of getting a full-on hackintosh working. According to TonyMacX86 forums, the 7010 is one of the easiest systems to hackintosh. Fine by me.

BTW: who here runs macs as their daily driver?

 

[strawman]

BTW: who here runs macs as their daily driver?

I use a number of computers, but I spend 30+ hours a week on my macbook these days (and 20+ hours on various windows machines). Three weeks ago hardly at all. The mac specific contract will be done in 7-10 weeks, though, so I might be back to windows for 90% of my usage.

Sooo.... I guess I'm not sure if I meet the definition of "daily driver" but it's a tool, I use it a lot at times.[DOUBLEPOST=1499696754,1499696715][/DOUBLEPOST]I'm on it right now because my work computer has no internet this morning.

 

[DarkAudit]

I use a number of computers, but I spend 30+ hours a week on my macbook these days (and 20+ hours on various windows machines). Three weeks ago hardly at all. The mac specific contract will be done in 7-10 weeks, though, so I might be back to windows for 90% of my usage.

Sooo.... I guess I'm not sure if I meet the definition of "daily driver" but it's a tool, I use it a lot at times.[DOUBLEPOST=1499696754,1499696715][/DOUBLEPOST]I'm on it right now because my work computer has no internet this morning.

I was thinking more along the lines of a Mac as the weapon of choice for most recreational computing. I've got Deluge and VLC for my torrenting and video watching, but I haven't found an equal to Irfanview for my image viewer or Newsbin for USENET yet.

 

[MindDetective]

Looking at Newegg and Amazon, an i7-3770 by itself is more expensive than the refurbished systems it's installed in. And absolutely nothing less than $250.

iMessage is working, so I think I've cleared all the hurdles of getting a full-on hackintosh working. According to TonyMacX86 forums, the 7010 is one of the easiest systems to hackintosh. Fine by me.

BTW: who here runs macs as their daily driver?

I do.

 

[strawman]

I was thinking more along the lines of a Mac as the weapon of choice for most recreational computing. I've got Deluge and VLC for my torrenting and video watching, but I haven't found an equal to Irfanview for my image viewer or Newsbin for USENET yet.

I'm not your guy then. I have pixelmater for image editing, and just use the built in apps (and MS office) for most of my other stuff. I use vmware fusion and a windows 7 pro image to run windows apps on it, but there's a performance penalty for that type of usage.