Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own (Read 299507 times)

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #100 on:** 08 January, 2015, 11:12:10 am »

Still, it's not all BLEAN news. The 300GB external drive which I had held to have killed itself utterly to DETH turns out to be very much alive and is now sitting on the shelf under the coffee table populating itself.

It also means that I have not lost a shedload of musical tunes which I had wossnamed from vinyl/cassette. Including a bunch of live Robyn Hitchcock ~~recordings of dubious provenance~~ bootlegs

TheLurker · « **Reply #101 on:** 08 January, 2015, 07:31:10 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 08 January, 2015, 08:40:13 am

In the red corner, a Win 8 laptop bought last summer. In the blue corner a Win XP laptop bought in 2009. Guess which one is faster at reading and exporting a metric fuckton of mp3 tags from/to a NAS

The BeOS box hiding behind them?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #102 on:** 09 January, 2015, 02:10:46 am »

Reports of the renaissance of that ^^^^ drive may be a bit premature. I am giving it the CHKDSK treatment during which time it has gone "KLUNK" with depressing regularity and indicated that it doesn't like national flags, Tangerine Dream or Hawkwind. In fact it seems really to hate Hawkwind with a passion rare in one so young, though that could be because there was more Hawkwind in the old iThings library than anything else.

Bah!

Edit: 333184 KB in 79 recovered files

Fortunately they all seem to be in the old iThings library but getting Stuffs off it is now a priority.

Biggsy · « **Reply #103 on:** 10 January, 2015, 06:35:55 pm »

I'm liking Remote Potato for remote web control of Windows Media Center's TV programme guide. (Also does streaming).

www.remotepotato.com

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #104 on:** 11 January, 2015, 01:36:35 pm »

It seems I get a $75 Walmart voucher if I just click there.

This information comes to me courtesy of AsianDating.

Lack of joined-up thinking there, Mr Spammer. Very poor.

Afasoas · « **Reply #105 on:** 13 January, 2015, 09:27:49 am »

Started listening to some Podcasts and decided I wanted to download the back catalogue without resorting to dreaded FruityTunes or any other client software. A quick look at the RSS feed and a Powershell script later and I has a shed load of listening.

Code: [Select]

$mp3sToDownload = @(([xml] (iwr http://foo.bar/podcast/psw.xml).content).rss.channel.item.enclosure | select url)
$myPodcasts = "E:\Podcasts\"
$PodcastsPreviouslyDownloaded = @(Get-ChildItem -Path $myPodcasts)


foreach($mp3ToDownload in $mp3sToDownload)
{
    $mp3ToDownloadFileName = $mp3ToDownload.url.Substring($mp3ToDownload.url.LastIndexOf("/")+1)
    if (-not $PodcastsPreviouslyDownloaded.Name.Contains($mp3ToDownloadFileName))
    {
	    $outFile = $myPodcasts + "\" + $mp3ToDownloadFileName
	    Write-Host "Downloading $mp3ToDownloadFileName ..."
	    iwr $mp3ToDownload.url -OutFile $outFile
	    write-host "Complete. Waiting 2 minutes..."
	    Start-Sleep -s 300
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Host "Skipping $mp3ToDownloadFileName, already downloaded"
    }
}

TheLurker · « **Reply #106 on:** 23 January, 2015, 05:20:09 pm »

How odd. Slave trader spam from Germany (in German). It looks as though Computer Futures may now be sharing CVs europe-wide possibly even world-wide; who knows?

So if you're up to snuff on WPF / XAML / C# and want to work in Frankfurt-am-Main from March to November (with the possibility of an extension) then they're the people to contact. I'd tell you more, but my German is, to put it generously, rudimentary.

Pingu · « **Reply #107 on:** 12 February, 2015, 01:06:09 pm »

Uh-oh. I've just run a SQL update which contained a semicolon instead of a comma. There are 2.5 million rows in the relevant table

Thankfully it's the development and not the live database

Pingu · « **Reply #108 on:** 12 February, 2015, 03:42:17 pm »

Did a rollback which took ages - no damage done

woollypigs · « **Reply #109 on:** 14 February, 2015, 12:15:43 am »

#! Developer/inventor has packed his bags and gone home and is leaving it to the community.

nicknack · « **Reply #110 on:** 14 February, 2015, 10:45:34 am »

I'm sure this doesn't warrant its own thread because I suspect I know the answer.
I've got 2 old pcs that seem to have entered a suicide pact. Up until yesterday morning I was happily using one that was dual booted with XP and Ubuntu Studio. It suddenly decides, on a reboot, that it won't work at all. Black screen and processor fan going full blast. I try it a few times with the same result.
The other pc (XP only) has been sitting there, surplus to requirements, since we moved house (18 months ago). Before we moved it was used a lot and didn't seem to have anything wrong with it. So I connect it up. It trundles through the first screen and then the screen saying it's booting into XP and to a BSOD. It didn't like something about the bios apparently. When I go back to it after rummaging around on the internet trying to find someone who could explain the error message and try to start it again it does the same as the other one. Black screen (no signal to it) and fan running constantly.
I presume they're both fubared but it seems odd they should both fail at the same time in the same way.
Before they get binned, has anyone got any ideas?

Feanor · « **Reply #111 on:** 20 February, 2015, 10:23:17 am »

Junior #2 came home from kickball training last night clutching a bit of paper.
It's the club membership renewal form, like we get every year.

Looks like the club secretary has created it as a PDF, and uploaded it to a file sharing website, and sent out a link to it in an e-mail to all the team coaches.

Our coach has clicked the link, which has taken him to the file sharing website.
The page has a big banner at the top with a PDF icon, the file name, and a durty great big green 'Download' arrow lcon.
At the bottom of the page, there's a row of adverts.
In the middle, there's a low-resolution preview image of the PDF.

He has not downloaded the PDF: he's just hit 'print' in the web-browser, printing out the download page complete with illegible preview image of the document.

Afasoas · « **Reply #112 on:** 20 February, 2015, 05:06:39 pm »

Quote from: nicknack on 14 February, 2015, 10:45:34 am

I'm sure this doesn't warrant its own thread because I suspect I know the answer.
I've got 2 old pcs that seem to have entered a suicide pact. Up until yesterday morning I was happily using one that was dual booted with XP and Ubuntu Studio. It suddenly decides, on a reboot, that it won't work at all. Black screen and processor fan going full blast. I try it a few times with the same result.
The other pc (XP only) has been sitting there, surplus to requirements, since we moved house (18 months ago). Before we moved it was used a lot and didn't seem to have anything wrong with it. So I connect it up. It trundles through the first screen and then the screen saying it's booting into XP and to a BSOD. It didn't like something about the bios apparently. When I go back to it after rummaging around on the internet trying to find someone who could explain the error message and try to start it again it does the same as the other one. Black screen (no signal to it) and fan running constantly.
I presume they're both fubared but it seems odd they should both fail at the same time in the same way.
Before they get binned, has anyone got any ideas?

Do you see any output on the display between switching them on and Windows starting?

nicknack · « **Reply #113 on:** 21 February, 2015, 10:25:20 am »

Quote from: Afasoas on 20 February, 2015, 05:06:39 pm

Quote from: nicknack on 14 February, 2015, 10:45:34 am
I'm sure this doesn't warrant its own thread because I suspect I know the answer.
I've got 2 old pcs that seem to have entered a suicide pact. Up until yesterday morning I was happily using one that was dual booted with XP and Ubuntu Studio. It suddenly decides, on a reboot, that it won't work at all. Black screen and processor fan going full blast. I try it a few times with the same result.
The other pc (XP only) has been sitting there, surplus to requirements, since we moved house (18 months ago). Before we moved it was used a lot and didn't seem to have anything wrong with it. So I connect it up. It trundles through the first screen and then the screen saying it's booting into XP and to a BSOD. It didn't like something about the bios apparently. When I go back to it after rummaging around on the internet trying to find someone who could explain the error message and try to start it again it does the same as the other one. Black screen (no signal to it) and fan running constantly.
I presume they're both fubared but it seems odd they should both fail at the same time in the same way.
Before they get binned, has anyone got any ideas?

Do you see any output on the display between switching them on and Windows starting?

Nuffink.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #114 on:** 24 February, 2015, 09:00:45 am »

I am now almost certain that the Noises Off (sounds like one of The Borrowers has borrowed an angle grinder) emanating from the innards of my laptop are caused by the fan. Teh Intarwebs suggests that, unlike the old one, the thing may be unmantled with nothing more than a screwdriver and a "spudger". I am not entirely sure what a "spudger" might be but suspect it is not a USAnian word for "cold chisel".

Vince · « **Reply #115 on:** 24 February, 2015, 09:03:43 am »

I think a spudger might be something like a guitar pick, thumb nail or soft cold chisel. Used for separating plastic mouldings that have been irretrievably clicked together.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #116 on:** 24 February, 2015, 09:28:38 am »

I've got a thumb nail

Two, in fact, neatly arranged with one on each hand

Might have a go at it later.

(Later)

Anyone got a nail file?

rafletcher · « **Reply #117 on:** 24 February, 2015, 10:23:51 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2015, 09:28:38 am

I've got a thumb nail Two, in fact, neatly arranged with one on each hand Might have a go at it later.

(Later)

Anyone got a nail file?

Re-purpose a spoon from a tub of ice cream?

tiermat · « **Reply #118 on:** 24 February, 2015, 10:41:53 am »

I find cheap tyre levers useful as spudgers.

The more expensive ones are too thick, but the cheap plastic ones you get in the Pundland kits etc are just right. They, generally, don't need to have a lot of strength.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #119 on:** 24 February, 2015, 01:35:01 pm »

Alas I possess neither tubs of ice cream nor cheap-donkey tyre levers. I do have a guitar pick, though I have no idea why as there has never been a guitar in Larrington Towers

Biggsy · « **Reply #120 on:** 24 February, 2015, 01:41:08 pm »

Get a set of spudgers off eBay.

www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060778.m570.l1313.TR7.TRC2.A0.H0.Xspudger+set.TRS0&_nkw=spudger+set&_sacat=0

Vince · « **Reply #121 on:** 24 February, 2015, 02:26:50 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2015, 01:35:01 pm

Alas I possess neither tubs of ice cream nor cheap-donkey tyre levers. I do have a guitar pick, though I have no idea why as there has never been a guitar in Larrington Towers

Maybe Larrington Towers is at the other end of the worm hole through which my picks have been escaping.

Biggsy · « **Reply #122 on:** 24 February, 2015, 04:56:59 pm »

A USB 3.0 2.5" disk enclosure that I recommend: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371130243136
- Except that a super-slim drive will need some padding.

A USB 3.0 2.5" disk enclosure that I DO NOT recommend: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351185502963
- Doesn't work at all half the time, and when it does, it's 20 MB/s slower than the other one (with the same SSD inside).

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #123 on:** 25 February, 2015, 03:53:10 pm »

Quote from: Biggsy on 24 February, 2015, 01:41:08 pm

Get a set of spudgers off eBay.

www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060778.m570.l1313.TR7.TRC2.A0.H0.Xspudger+set.TRS0&_nkw=spudger+set&_sacat=0

I thought I might look for spudgery in the old-skool Babbage-Engine shop in the High Street today but it seems now to be concentrating on selling Trousers. I don't think a pair of 501s will be much use for this task.

Thanks for the link; the "Collect at Argos" option is handy as there's one a couple of doors down from IKEA (a visit to which I have been carefully avoiding since Christmas).

jsabine · « **Reply #124 on:** 26 February, 2015, 12:28:53 am »

I've generally found old bank cards satisfactory for the limited amount of spudging I've had to indulge in.