Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own (Read 299505 times)

Ham · « **Reply #1025 on:** 31 May, 2018, 10:05:26 am »

Dear Very Big Knob at my Megacorp,

Thank you for circulating this new Powerpoint template for us all to use, very pretty it is and only 11Mb. I've taken that, deleted the slide masters that were nothing to do with it, resized the images and got rid of Micro$hafts obsession with bitmaps, replacing them with visually identical jpg. It's now 350Kb. Shall we use this instead?

kthxbai

ian · « **Reply #1026 on:** 31 May, 2018, 12:55:36 pm »

Does Powerpoint still not handle vectors? Mine doesn't, but I'm still using Office 2011 for Mac. Reminds me that I have to wrestle Office 365 from the mothership. They'll probably make me do battle with procurement 'as we don't support Macs.' This is untrue, our IT people in my experience don't support anything.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #1027 on:** 31 May, 2018, 01:15:57 pm »

Tried to install an update to iTunes last night. "Soz. No can do!" said the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia's installer thing. "Because I cannot access C:\Program Files\iTunes."

It is right. Something has munted the security settings on said directory so thoroughly that it'll probably take three hours of Google and swearing to fix. And I can't even blame the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia because the same update worked seamlessly on another machine.

Bah!

Ham · « **Reply #1028 on:** 31 May, 2018, 01:23:21 pm »

Quote from: ian on 31 May, 2018, 12:55:36 pm

Does Powerpoint still not handle vectors? Mine doesn't, but I'm still using Office 2011 for Mac. Reminds me that I have to wrestle Office 365 from the mothership. They'll probably make me do battle with procurement 'as we don't support Macs.' This is untrue, our IT people in my experience don't support anything.

Short answer - No. Longer answer, yes, but only in Micro$hits own drawing format, that limited drawing capability has classically been one of the reasons for using Powerpoint.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #1029 on:** 31 May, 2018, 04:05:59 pm »

Company anti spam thing, you are useless at keeping out dodgy emails sent to the generic sales force email addy. You try to make up for this by stopping a much needed authentication email sent to me. It'll turn up tomorrow. Bah.

ian · « **Reply #1030 on:** 05 June, 2018, 04:08:17 pm »

Quote from: Ham on 31 May, 2018, 01:23:21 pm

Quote from: ian on 31 May, 2018, 12:55:36 pm
Does Powerpoint still not handle vectors? Mine doesn't, but I'm still using Office 2011 for Mac. Reminds me that I have to wrestle Office 365 from the mothership. They'll probably make me do battle with procurement 'as we don't support Macs.' This is untrue, our IT people in my experience don't support anything.

Short answer - No. Longer answer, yes, but only in Micro$hits own drawing format, that limited drawing capability has classically been one of the reasons for using Powerpoint.

It still astounds me that a program that by definition should be resolution-independent (after all, you never know what the projector you use for presenting will support) doesn't even support PDF.

Pingu · « **Reply #1031 on:** 01 July, 2018, 07:20:54 pm »

We've got to poke it to know it...

IMG_1264_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

IMG_1265_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

IMG_1266_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

Kim · « **Reply #1032 on:** 01 July, 2018, 08:12:29 pm »

We had fun with one recently: Wired it up to a power source and ran a screwdriver down the platter to scrape all the data off. The disk itself was transparent.

DaveJ · « **Reply #1033 on:** 02 July, 2018, 11:18:01 am »

Glass? The 2.5" disks sound like they might have been if you hit them with a hammer.

Dave

Gattopardo · « **Reply #1034 on:** 06 July, 2018, 11:03:41 pm »

Is it ethical to borrow other peoples wifi signal?

jsabine · « **Reply #1035 on:** 07 July, 2018, 12:48:23 am »

Depends. Will you give it back?

Kim · « **Reply #1036 on:** 07 July, 2018, 12:57:14 am »

Unless it's intended to be an open network for public use, then it's going to be an offence under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act, but so is turning off the washing machine, so whatever.

In the more likely scenario of discovering that a neighbour is a luser with an unsecured network, I'd apply the common sense approach of not doing anything particularly bandwidth intensive (so as not to incur charges or impact the performance of their network), and only if you have a pressing need to do so (need to get online to top up your mobile, moved house and are still waiting for our-favourite-telco to sort your DSL out, that sort of thing). And, it goes without saying, not doing anything dodgy with it.

Also, bear in mind the possibility that the neighbour *isn't* a luser and it may be a honeypot...

Gattopardo · « **Reply #1037 on:** 07 July, 2018, 07:19:40 am »

Quote from: jsabine on 07 July, 2018, 12:48:23 am

Depends. Will you give it back?

I'll only annoy a few electrons temporarily..

Quote from: Kim on 07 July, 2018, 12:57:14 am

Unless it's intended to be an open network for public use, then it's going to be an offence under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act, but so is turning off the washing machine, so whatever.

In the more likely scenario of discovering that a neighbour is a luser with an unsecured network, I'd apply the common sense approach of not doing anything particularly bandwidth intensive (so as not to incur charges or impact the performance of their network), and only if you have a pressing need to do so (need to get online to top up your mobile, moved house and are still waiting for our-favourite-telco to sort your DSL out, that sort of thing). And, it goes without saying, not doing anything dodgy with it.

Also, bear in mind the possibility that the neighbour *isn't* a luser and it may be a honeypot...

Well my favourite new telco (virgin), are offering a new service of sharing wifi with other users while out and about, but only on their latest hub. This hub has many many users complaining of poor wifi compared to the older hub. Connecting to shared virgin email signal is patchy at best and a unable to connect.

The worst bit is the mobile phone app kept turning the wifi on whilst the phone was not in use.

hellymedic · « **Reply #1038 on:** 07 July, 2018, 08:46:46 pm »

I am using David's MacBook at present.

I seem to have killed my trusty MacBook Air DEDD with a spilt drink, which only wet the Magsafe port. The charger itself is working OK with this Macbook (I think it's a Pro from 2009).

The drink was a diet squash, so didn't have much sugar.

Initially, the display was blank and the fans were working overtime. The fans stopped when I held the 'on' switch but now the whole machine lacks any hint of life.

The rest escaped dry so nothing went on the keyboard etc.

This is more than a little inconvenient! David's at a concert tonight.

I suggested judicious use of a hairdryer, a suggestion rejected by David.

I'd welcome any suggestions...

Kim · « **Reply #1039 on:** 07 July, 2018, 08:58:28 pm »

It's a Macbook, so presumably you can't deprive it of power completely by removing the battery, which is always the best thing you can do in the event of a spillage, to stop electrolytic corrosion.

If it happened to me, I'd squirt copious amounts of IPA^[1] at it in the hope of displacing the liquid and follow up with compressed air. Judicious use of a hairdryer (not too hot) isn't a terrible idea. Distilled water is an improvement on squash, but will itself take ages to dry.

Sugar is sticky, but not ionic, so isn't itself conductive. I expect there's enough citric acid, minerals etc in it that are, though.

_{[1] Not the beer.}

Gattopardo · « **Reply #1040 on:** 07 July, 2018, 09:29:36 pm »

Is it needed in a hurry?

Might be an idea to take it apart and clean things up with IPA. But initially spray IPA in the area of the spilt drink.

hellymedic · « **Reply #1041 on:** 07 July, 2018, 09:44:12 pm »

I'd like it sooner rather than later.
Mail and banking would be nice.

Passwords might be a problem...

Gattopardo · « **Reply #1042 on:** 07 July, 2018, 10:08:06 pm »

Can you or david take the bottom bit apart? Have you got the small enough screwdriver?

hellymedic · « **Reply #1043 on:** 07 July, 2018, 10:18:49 pm »

I see this needs a star-fangled tiny screwdriver.
I certainly don't have one and I don't know about David.

I've got into mail and banking.
Twitter will have to wait.

jsabine · « **Reply #1044 on:** 08 July, 2018, 01:13:44 am »

I've got a feeling that the star-shaped fixings on macbooks have five lobes: if either of you does have starry screwdrivers, they're almost certainly torx/t-star, which have six lobes.

Don't try to use them together - that way madness lies. And product damage.

hellymedic · « **Reply #1045 on:** 08 July, 2018, 01:30:21 am »

They are indeed 5 pointed.
David says he has starry screwdrivers but I know not their point count.

hellymedic · « **Reply #1046 on:** 08 July, 2018, 01:56:28 pm »

Quote from: hellymedic on 07 July, 2018, 08:46:46 pm

I seem to have killed my trusty MacBook Air DEDD with a spilt drink, which only wet the Magsafe port. The charger itself is working OK with this Macbook (I think it's a Pro from 2009).
The drink was a diet squash, so didn't have much sugar.
Initially, the display was blank and the fans were working overtime. The fans stopped when I held the 'on' switch but now the whole machine lacks any hint of life.
The rest escaped dry so nothing went on the keyboard etc.
This is more than a little inconvenient! David's at a concert tonight.
I suggested judicious use of a hairdryer, a suggestion rejected by David.
I'd welcome any suggestions...

MY MACBOOK AIR LIVES!

It seems to be working normally now having rebooted normally.

I wonder whether the wet MagSafe Port was a red herring as another charger could recharge the Air and my charger worked OK on David's MacBook. (The sticky tape splinting the wire WAS wet.)

The Clue might have been the fans working overtime.

It seems cured after chilling out overnight.

David earlier thought the Eprom had failed and would be spendy to fix.

If this MacBook can't stand the heat, maybe I should get it out of the kitchen!

(It's 28.0 here with 42% humidity. It's resting on a hard, tiled surface; this should not really overwhelm it IMO.)

Gattopardo · « **Reply #1047 on:** 08 July, 2018, 05:21:32 pm »

Coolio.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #1048 on:** 12 July, 2018, 12:23:59 am »

The Puffin browser has unilaterally decided that when I hit "Post" to reply to a post in here, what I really mean is "Start New Topic"

ETA: reset fondleslab. It's working again.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #1049 on:** 14 July, 2018, 02:27:18 pm »

Quote from: Pingu on 01 July, 2018, 07:20:54 pm

We've got to poke it to know it...

IMG_1264_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

IMG_1265_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

IMG_1266_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

Dibs the magnets