Tech minor victory thread

Now THAT looks like a prop keyboard from an 80s sci-fi movie :D
Yep. Those keycaps (Granite) are supposed to go back on sale sometime this month, I'm hoping to snag a set. My current keycaps (meant to test the flat-profile caps' comfort) is... EpilepticEclectic.

IMG_20160811_141336429.jpg
 
Finally got the Granite base set, it arrived yesterday. I held off on getting the caps specific to the 'dox, since it would double the cost, instead going with matching spares from a grab bag.I'll try to slowly collect the missing pieces from private sellers... Or bite the bullet eventually, I guess.

Also, today I got the aluminum top plates in the mail. They're thin enough that they fit between the top acrylic layers, for a nice glossy sandwich :D

IMG_20161003_192632120.jpg
 
There was a guy I worked with who used a very similar type of keyboard at work, but even more "curvy" than that, but same general idea. Always intrigued me, but never went for it.
 
There was a guy I worked with who used a very similar type of keyboard at work, but even more "curvy" than that, but same general idea. Always intrigued me, but never went for it.
A dactyl, maybe? I've heard they're really comfy, and it's definitely closer to the inspiration for both keyboards (Kinesis Advantage). Would love to try one out.

 
A dactyl, maybe? I've heard they're really comfy, and it's definitely closer to the inspiration for both keyboards (Kinesis Advantage). Would love to try one out.

Related, again, but it had wrist rests like the original image you showed, as well as there were a few more "separate" keys here and there.

Either way, I hope you like the one you got.
 
Related, again, but it had wrist rests like the original image you showed, as well as there were a few more "separate" keys here and there.

Either way, I hope you like the one you got.
Nifty, wonder what it was.

Yep, quite satisfied with mine, though I'm still trying to get the firmware to do what I want.
 
Nifty, wonder what it was.

Yep, quite satisfied with mine, though I'm still trying to get the firmware to do what I want.
It's over 10 years old, whatever it is. He's had it that long.


Fiddling with keyboards (any input device really) is always a weird balance between what you're used to, and wanting to strike out into a new input method, but stumbling precisely because it's NOT the one you're used to. So even if the new is better, it's not better yet, which is tough to get past.

So good luck man. You'll probably need it!
 
The Sandy Bridge based PC I built is still viable five years later. Running a Core i5 2500K at 4.6GHz. Upgraded the video card at the beginning of the year, and now just ordered an extra 16GB RAM. I tried upgrading the memory just after Xmas, but one stick of the new set crapped out after the return period expired. So this time I just ordered a larger set of the Ripjaws memory I already have. Let's try that 24GB RAM again, hmm?
24 is a bit of an odd number for RAM. Do you have 2 8GB sticks and 2 4GB sticks?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
With the GTX 1060, a bargain at $199, even Space Engineers runs 60+fps while on a planet's surface! O_O

My old R9 270x, which cost $219 3 years ago, often got bogged down into the 20s. Although, I think I saw a whole lot less trees rendering now than when I last played SE... So there might be some shenanigans afoot.

I still gotta tinker with the vsync, I think it might be causing me some microstutter in Overwatch.
 
I will once the order arrives. Running 2 4GB sticks now.
It's not unusual for you to have to step down the memory speed when using 4 sticks. If you keep having stability problems later, try stepping your memory down to one speed notch lower than whatever is printed on it (Run your 1667 RAM at 1333, etc.).

--Patrick
 
They're all the same spec this time, just different sizes.
Good! You should always use memory that's all rated for the same speed. But keep in mind you still might have to run them one speed notch lower when you're using 4 instead of 2.

--Patrick
 
My minor victory: Computer refused to start up, it would sort of start running and then sputter out and die, only to repeat the process again by itself, again and again. I opened up the case, blew out some of the dust, and now it works again.

Power supply problem, maybe?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
My minor victory: Computer refused to start up, it would sort of start running and then sputter out and die, only to repeat the process again by itself, again and again. I opened up the case, blew out some of the dust, and now it works again.

Power supply problem, maybe?
That'd have to be some hellacious dust buildup for blowing out the case to be the sole reason it works again. Seriously, I've seen computers chugging along caked in a half centimeter thick layer of dust (and sometimes cigarette ash, ugh).

Makes me think there's another thermal issue that passing extra air/giving time to cool off mitigated. It still might be the power supply (those things can get pretty damn hot when they're malfunctioning), and that would be a near-best case scenario as PSUs are cheap to replace, but it could also be something as simple as a CPU heat sink needing to be re-seated with fresh compound applied, or something as worrisome as an overheating cap on the motherboard getting ready to burst into literal flames.
 
My vote's also for PSU, though it could be some connector is not fully seated, and pulling around in there got it seated.
It could also be that a fan was obstructed and the computer was refusing to start up with a fan running at 0RPM.

--Patrick
 

GasBandit

Staff member
One of the HDDs in the production server's drive pool was failing! Oh no!

Right-click and repair actually worked for once, didn't require a reboot, and didn't disconnect anybody! Oh yeah!
 
One of the HDDs in the production server's drive pool was failing! Oh no!

Right-click and repair actually worked for once, didn't require a reboot, and didn't disconnect anybody! Oh yeah!
I hope it's using one of the redundant RAID flavors.

--Patrick
 
It's a WINDOWS HOME SERVER.

Using a DRIVE POOL for redundancy.

It chews through a couple 2TB drives every few years.
Oh dear lord - if it were me, I'd RAID that sucker - drive redundancy would at least help with keeping data without interruption if it's chewing through disks like that. Are you keeping good backups of the data?

My new job (am now an IT Consultant again) is recommending RAID 50 for our clients' new servers for critical data.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Oh dear lord - if it were me, I'd RAID that sucker - drive redundancy would at least help with keeping data without interruption if it's chewing through disks like that. Are you keeping good backups of the data?

My new job (am now an IT Consultant again) is recommending RAID 50 for our clients' new servers for critical data.
You speak like I get an actual budget for anything other than panic-stricken putting-out-of-fires.

I'm not keeping backups of the data, per se, because I'm using the drive pool as its own redundancy, not to increase the size of the storage. Kinda like a poor man's raid mirror. The down side is (as I'm sure you know) Windows Home Server doesn't quite know how to deal with drives over 1tb in size, and since I'm using 2gb drives, they steadily generate bad clusters over time. Every few years, I swap one out, the data gets copied over, and we all continue on our way.

Right now, I've got about 860 unusable gigs between the two drives in question. :p
 
Eww.. Even RAID is not a backup solution - it's for redundancy or speed... Can they at least get you a couple of USB drives to take a copy of the data periodically?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Eww.. Even RAID is not a backup solution - it's for redundancy or speed... Can they at least get you a couple of USB drives to take a copy of the data periodically?
Yeah, I kinda do that when I can. The advantage of drive pooling this way is both drives have the complete file system on them, so no matter which one dies, you can either just throw in a new drive and add it to the pool, or put the one good remaining drive in another PC and copy off the files. You're only fucked if both drives go at once.
 
Yeah, I kinda do that when I can. The advantage of drive pooling this way is both drives have the complete file system on them, so no matter which one dies, you can either just throw in a new drive and add it to the pool, or put the one good remaining drive in another PC and copy off the files. You're only fucked if both drives go at once.

"The only way it can fail is if x happens"
And then x happened.
 
The local MakerSpace held a robot mini-Sumo event. They had put together a robot kit for ~$25. I started from their kit, redesigned the frame, cut it out on the laser cutter, assembled it, and wrote some new code for it; in what was basically a one day build. I ended up in second place.

My robot, Killdozer:
 

GasBandit

Staff member
My new ram got here yesterday, and I upgraded from 8 gig to 16 gigs. Yay. Can't think of a thing I want to play now that needs it >_<
 
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