Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own  (Read 296373 times)

ian

Yes, screen zoom is also cool especially cool for product stuff where you're expected to show some squirrelly little web application on a projector and people insist on the sitting on the back row of the huge auditorium. Saves the usual 'I couldn't read it' feedback (well, fucking well sit near the front you numpty). It also works with presentation slides, so someone squeaks from the audience, I can zoom in.

Very few people know how to do these things, so I think the bar for ninja presentation skillz is set fairly low.

I have eight full resolution desktops on my 27 inch iMac and swish merrily between them. Saves the space of a second monitor (and I couldn't find one to replicate the iMac anyway).

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Yes, I freak people out with my b for blanking screen on ppt and knowing that ppt under doze lets you jumps straight to a slide by number so you can go back and forth via the keyboard like a wizard.

I use CTRL+Scroll a lot under any OS, haven't seen the latest MacOS version yet, must have a play, historically I was unimpressed cos the quality of the zoom was shite and jaggy.

Oh yeah. I went mano to mano with (a new) Virgin Media hub 3 and won.

Engineer visit to fix a phone line culminated in the Internets dieing. Engineers diagnosis  was the router, even though it came back I thought it better to swap out, which he did.

Disabling WiFi is fine, but if you want to change the internal IP subnet from 192.168.0, officially there is no way. As I have various stuffs baked in to the old 10.x network, this would have been a major pain. With a little poking around I found that it can be configured with SNMP strings in the URL with hex for the IP (as long as you get the session authorisation number). Boom.

Chris S

I have eight full resolution desktops on my 27 inch iMac and swish merrily between them. Saves the space of a second monitor (and I couldn't find one to replicate the iMac anyway).

Surely you forget where you put stuff?

I've tried using multiple desktops/spaces/workspaces/arenas (whatever we're calling them this week) in the past - it's so doable when you have 32Gb RAM; but I end up forgetting where I've put things.

I quite often have the same issue with virtual machines. I'll often be working with a dozen or more active VMs - running tests, doing RPA - whatever; and I end up forgetting what's running on what VM.

Maybe it's just an age thing.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
I have eight full resolution desktops on my 27 inch iMac and swish merrily between them. Saves the space of a second monitor (and I couldn't find one to replicate the iMac anyway).

Surely you forget where you put stuff?

I've tried using multiple desktops/spaces/workspaces/arenas (whatever we're calling them this week) in the past - it's so doable when you have 32Gb RAM; but I end up forgetting where I've put things.

I find it works if things have a consistent place according to function, but how well depends on the amount of crossover between them.  I always seem to end up with one that's a twisty mess of terminal windows running ssh, all different.

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Can you not name the multiple desktops/spaces/workspaces/arenas (whatever we're calling them this week)?

Afasoas

I really miss having a second monitor when I'm at home. It's comes in beautifully handy at work.


Following the recent saga of pfSense stalling on boot due to a missing network port, I've replaced the Intel PRO/1000VT card in the firewall with another identical card and all is well.
Just for the lolz, I popped the card with the dodgy port into my desktop. All four ports available courtesy of the IGB driver and all four ports work.

Took the liberty of putting a second replacement card into the backup server too. Another step towards running a second redundant firewall with automatic failover should the master die. Of course, this relies on me getting four public IP addresses on both broadband connections so I'll settle for a cold failover if/when I upgrade the backup servers CPU to one that has the necessary virtualisation gubbins*.

*Reducing it's power envelope is the first priority

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
I really miss having a second monitor when I'm at home. It's comes in beautifully handy at work.

After changing jobs a couple of years back, I added a second monitor to my main home PC because running our software pretty much requires multiple monitors.

Now, after a few years of using multiple monitors both at home and at work, I find single-monitor systems absolutely horrible to use!

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Now, after a few years of using multiple monitors both at home and at work, I find single-monitor systems absolutely horrible to use!

This.  It's like drinking a McDonald's milkshake with one hand tied behind your back or something.

It's why I don't really get on with laptops.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
me too - have added a cheap HDMI telly for when I am working at home and it does the job.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
I really miss having a second monitor when I'm at home. It's comes in beautifully handy at work.
I don't, at least not for the odd bit of coding I do at home* and I certainly don't need it for arguing on the internets.   Now where did I put that flint axe head? :)

Confession:  I do run my work setup in my study with two monitors.  I'm not quite that stick in the mud.


*I.e. stuff on my machine with my licenses in my time rather than stuff on the work machine (which is also "at home") with their licenses when they're paying me.  Ohhh I'm sure you know what I mean.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Afasoas

Single monitor is quite restrictive when I'm working from home - which isn't infrequent given the nature of what I do.
It's nice to have monitoring in one window, with terminal/remote desktop sessions in another so that when I make a configuration change I get instant feedback as to whether or not I've broken something.

It's also useful for the occasional bit of coding I do - run the software/web application on one display and open the development environment on the other. Or when collaborating with people.

The monitor I've got is quite a posh one from my photographing days ... I'd ideally like an identical one so that it's inferiority doesn't upset my OCD.

ian

I have eight full resolution desktops on my 27 inch iMac and swish merrily between them. Saves the space of a second monitor (and I couldn't find one to replicate the iMac anyway).

Surely you forget where you put stuff?

I've tried using multiple desktops/spaces/workspaces/arenas (whatever we're calling them this week) in the past - it's so doable when you have 32Gb RAM; but I end up forgetting where I've put things.

I quite often have the same issue with virtual machines. I'll often be working with a dozen or more active VMs - running tests, doing RPA - whatever; and I end up forgetting what's running on what VM.

Maybe it's just an age thing.

Swiping up gives a nice row of selectable desktop thumbnails. Plus I use a different distinctive background for each so I usually remember where I left an application. You can tie applications to desktops but that's too organized for me. Swishing backwards and forwards is completely fluid and you can hover between desktops so you can see what's on two. Also swiping down while in an application gives you the location of every window even if I've spread them across desktops. And none of this seems to have a RAM or performance hit, it all seems to ride the graphics card memory.

It's awesome on a 27 inch machine but makes a 13 inch Macbook's more limited desktop space far more practical. Design on one desktop, proof on another. I couldn't go back to a single desktop space.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Been using multiple desktops since Irix 5.3. Much prefer multiple monitors though.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Looked to replace the cmos battery on Toshiba nb100 and after stripping the laptop down found that it is not a cr2016 or 2032 but a different one that I can make out the number.  Arse.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Looked to replace the cmos battery on Toshiba nb100 and after stripping the laptop down found that it is not a cr2016 or 2032 but a different one that I can make out the number.  Arse.

Can you measure it?
Diameter and thickness?
The numbers in the crXXXX are just dimensions.

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
With a little removal of the tab spot attached on it is a cr1220 (well maxell ml1220)  RS sell the cells with tabs attached.....but out of stock :(

Maplin don't sell the right ones so cricklewood electronics for the correct cell.  Only 60p.

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Work's database is acting weird. "select to_date(sysdate, 'dd/mm/yyyy') from dual;" is returning "25/05/0017" whereas "select to_char(sysdate, 'dd/mm/yyyy') from dual;" is returning "25/05/2017".

 ???

Work's database is acting weird. "select to_date(sysdate, 'dd/mm/yyyy') from dual;" is returning "25/05/0017" whereas "select to_char(sysdate, 'dd/mm/yyyy') from dual;" is returning "25/05/2017".

 ???

It's because you've passed a date into a function requiring a string. So you get an automatic conversion to a char(n) with the default format, presumably that default is a two digit date, so you've lost the century before it gets to the to_date function.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Either that, or M has been going through agents at a rate of knots.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Was going nuts trying to download stuff off my newish mobile via USB.  It just didn't do what it was supposed to do, i.e. let me change from charging to download.  Simple answer: the USB cable I had chosen was for charging only and didn't do do downloading. 
Move Faster and Bake Things

nicknack

  • Hornblower
Now, after a few years of using multiple monitors both at home and at work, I find single-monitor systems absolutely horrible to use!

This.  It's like drinking a McDonald's milkshake with one hand tied behind your back or something.

It's why I don't really get on with laptops.
I run Ubuntu Studio on a laptop in my music room with a separate monitor (with several workspaces) perched above it. So I can drag stuff up and down rather than side to side.
There's no vibrations, but wait.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
I've got a nice 27" monitor at the two places I usually dock my MBP and for the places I don't have such a behemoth, I can use the iPad as a second screen with pressure sensitive touch stuff.  :thumbsup: (or as a third monitor when I have a behemoth attached)

If I put things on different desktops I'd forget where they were. I grew up with a 512×342 pixel monochrome display.
It is simpler than it looks.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
So, following on from my major IT meltdown in Feanor Towers last week
( mostly my own fault for failing to pay proper attention to error messages when applying saved configs to a replacement firewall )
I've done a bit of testing in relation to a separate switch failure.

I have a fairly extensive network, but in the computer room, all the main servers and my own PC are on a modest netgear GS108 8-port gigabit switch.
( This uplinks to the core switch in the network cabinet, where most other things connect, and where PoE is done )

The 8-port unmanaged netgear switch is OK to a point, but it has serious thermal management issues.
Plugged in to the power, with no network cables, it runs cool.
Plug in 8 LAN cables in link-state, and the temperature of the case rises quite noticeably, but the device continues to function.
Now start shifting serious data on several of the ports, and the CPU starts to heat up and the device becomes hot to touch.

Then it dies.
It starts dropping link to the PCs.
The PCs start to report  LAN down / up / down  / up / down.
Then it's just down.
All LEDs on the switch have gone on solid ( no blinky ).
The hardware has just gone into a latched state.

Toss it away, and insert a spare D-link switch and sanity is restored.
After a cool-down and cigarette, the shitty netgear is good to go again.

So if you plan to use one of these, don't stress them too hard with connected ports or heavy throughput.
They are only suitable for shoving behind the TV cabinet to connect 3 or 4 devices, where only one or two will have any actual throughput.




Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Yoicks!  I got one of them, plus one of its five-port little brothers, plus one of its "looks presentable enough to have alongside the telly" cousins, but I suspect they never get worked hard enough even to break into light perspiration.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime