A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Ham]

Ian, learning Python and getting a wrong answer? Sound like a Broken Dream to me.

[ian]

Well, who starts counting at zero anyway. I don't have a zero finger. Computers are quantifiably stupid.

[Ham]

Sorry if I was being a tad obtuse, it was a Python Lee Jackson reference.

[ian]

It's OK, I googled. I can't actually say that made me any wiser.

In other matters, is it just me, but do younger people not know how to search the internet? They wander over and ask me a random question and I say 'I dunno, why don't you google it?' They stand there for a moment looking puzzled, then go back to their desk, stare at their screen blankly and then send me an email or slack message with the same question.

Huh?

So I google it and send them the answer back. Basically, my career to date has pretty much made me a poor cousin to Alexa. I'm sorry, I don't understand that. Here's some country music you might like from Amazon Music.

It's most peculiar. Is google too grandad for the 'kids?'

Actually, I got that tinkering with Python. What you doing? Learning Python. On your own? Erm, unless there's a very small person hiding behind me, yes. The Internet, it's full of stuff, at least 5% of which might be useful.

[Jurek]

Sorry if I was being a tad obtuse, it was a Python Lee Jackson reference.

That was Rod Stewart, wasn't it?

[Kim]

In other matters, is it just me, but do younger people not know how to search the internet?

I believe there's SCIENCE^[1] demonstrating that so-called "digital natives" aren't actually any better at this sort of thing than stereotypical clueless Baby Boomers, they're just less scared of the user interface.  A young person will competently find pages of irrelevant search results, rather than being afraid to click on anything in case the computer explodes, but if you want the job done properly you need the sort of person (irrespective of age) who has actual library skills, or at least understands what "boolean operator" means.



_{[1] Ask barakta, she's got a degree in this stuff.}

[Ham]

Sorry if I was being a tad obtuse, it was a Python Lee Jackson reference.

That was Rod Stewart, wasn't it?

Yes indeed, and a damn fine choon, his first, recorded as a session singer

[ian]

In other matters, is it just me, but do younger people not know how to search the internet?

I believe there's SCIENCE^[1] demonstrating that so-called "digital natives" aren't actually any better at this sort of thing than stereotypical clueless Baby Boomers, they're just less scared of the user interface.  A young person will competently find pages of irrelevant search results, rather than being afraid to click on anything in case the computer explodes, but if you want the job done properly you need the sort of person (irrespective of age) who has actual library skills, or at least understands what "boolean operator" means.



_{[1] Ask barakta, she's got a degree in this stuff.}

Hmm, it's certainly a curious phenomenon, but they seem to expect guidance rather than just figure it out, whereas I'm just going to give it a go. Possibly because I'm of the generation that had to get excited by the bounteous results of Ask Jeeves and Alta Vista, and knows what WAIS was. If we were bad back then, a stern librarian would take us into the stacks and punish us with microfiche. Hmm, perhaps, come to think of it, that was a teenage fantasy. Books late again, young man. Back under the bed with you, stern librarian.

But no, they don't seem very self-motivated, or that able to critically judge information. OK, generalizing.

[ian]

Because I forgot to return the replacement battery for my ancient Macbook Air that still refused to charge, I bunged £20 on a new non-Apple charger (I couldn't find anyone with a 45-watt charger to test, they're all 60 for newer Macbooks).

Blinkenlight! And 100% charged. I can't actually see any damage to the old charger, the cable is intact, the pins seem fine. However, it was last seen in a working status with my wife. Honestly, I don't know what she does to electronics. She emits rays of some sort. Currently griping in Barcelona because her work laptop has disavowed all sources of wiffle and I'm not there to fix it. I told her to call her work IT and then we laughed for three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

The old battery was mostly dead anyway, bled charge the moment you looked away, it's been in service since 2011.

Oh well, let's see if it continues to work. Need to calibrate the battery.

[Kim]

Honestly, I don't know what she does to electronics. She emits rays of some sort.

Bogons.

[Mr Larrington]

Crivvens! I just doned a big Windows update on the laptop and noticed, while faffing in "Settings" afterwards, an option to defer updates by up to 35 days   Iffen it actually does what it says on the tin, this might even spell an end to the miserable thing trying to suck updates down an hotel pipe of wretched dimensions even when you've disabled all the Windows Update services.

[TheLurker]

I have a horrid feeling that it downloads the damn things anyway and all that setting does is allow the "update" to fester on your machine for up to 35 days before it vomits all over your carefully configured settings.  I would be happy to be proved wrong.

[PeteB99]

Judging by the adverts it keeps serving up my tablet seems convinced that I now live in Feltham? I assume this is some kind of default.

[Ham]

That's related to your IP address and the registration of your ISP, rather than any knowledge of your geolocation.

[citoyen]

That's related to your IP address and the registration of your ISP, rather than any knowledge of your geolocation.

Yes, good point. Also why I get alerts telling me someone has just logged in to a device using my account in Aberdeen or wherever, when in fact I've just logged in back at home in East Kent.

[T42]

Oh, the joys of Eudora!  It knoweth not style sheets nor Active-X components, embedded HTML nor any other kind of taggy language.  Any message bits that contain <that kind of stuff> are simply ignored, so that e.g. Amazon's latest plea to 'Activate my free trial' consists of nothing but all the routing blah-blah followed by a gloriously blank page.  Oh, I can look at the full source and copy it into an HTML editor if I really want to, but I much prefer to hit the Trash button.

2005 tech rules!

[woollypigs]

Well this could be in some of the politics threads too

https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/group-sex-app-leaks-locations-pictures-and-other-personal-details-identifies-users-in-white-house-and-supreme-court/

[Kim]

Something is randomly high-pitched beeping.  It's not the smoke detectors; I decommissioned them last week, in favour of a new system with wires, mains power and proper error messages.  It's also not the burglar alarm that's been going off continuously since before the weekend - I've pretty much merged that with my normal tinnitus at this point.  And it's not Old Joe, who has been stopped in disgrace after repeatedly chiming at 18 minutes past the hour, and has far too much gravitas for a mere beep anyway.

On the basis that I've just taken custody of a pile of BHPC timing tech, the likely suspects are:

a) The shittest^[1] Windows tablet ever made
b) Garmin Virb camera with a flat battery
c) Cheap digital stopwatch found rattling about in the bottom of the bag
d) Vintage Toshiba laptop that is shut down and in another room

Place your bets now...


_{[1] On the unscientific basis that it lacks WiFi.  WTF?}

[woollypigs]

Do you have a few recording devices ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FvQzBnped8

[Kim]

Do you have a few recording devices ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FvQzBnped8

I actually considered that method for finding out which of the Fireangel detectors was instigating the low battery bips (they're networked, so they all bip within a few seconds of the one with the low battery, and the only way to work out which is at fault is to leap out of bed^[1] and use stereo hearing to binary search the rooms before the bipping stops).

I decided it was more sensible to condemn the lot and invest in a proper fire alarm system^[2] with a single easily-tested lead-acid battery.

Anyway, the beeping now appears to be happening on the hour.  This is probably related to me setting the time on the afore-mentioned stopwatch while fiddling with it last night.  We'll find out  at 1pm...


_{[1] Because these things always happen at 4am, and resolve themselves in a couple of minutes.
[2] The limiting factor is something that will drive a vibrating pad under barakta's pillow.  This is trivial with any proper wired fire alarm system, where such things are available to connect to standard sounder circuits, or can be added via dry contact relay outputs.  But, unless you use a DeafGuard^[3], there are only a couple of consumer-grade systems that support it, one of which is notorious for false alarms, and the other has '10-year' lithium batteries with a half life of less than a year and no consideration for how you (let alone a deaf person) actually work out which detector is at fault.
[3] Which is overpriced shit beloved of the hospitality sector.}

[Kim]

Anyway, the beeping now appears to be happening on the hour.  This is probably related to me setting the time on the afore-mentioned stopwatch while fiddling with it last night.  We'll find out  at 1pm...

Eranu!  Mystery solved.

[woollypigs]

\o/

[Kim]

And I've googled for the manual and worked out how to switch it off!

[woollypigs]

1/ find big hammer
2/ hit object
3/ repeat until moral erm beeping stops

?

[Mr Larrington]

With Kim having solved the mystery, the observation that my laptop, when hibernating, emits a series of barely-audible high-pitched"eeeeee" noises is offered solely as anecdata.  It should't be making any noise while it's asleep.  If I unplug the power cable the noise stops