Fettled any computer stuff today?

[Wombat]

Git.

I'm currently woefully under-impressed with my Revodrive hybrid drive.  I just can't see its any faster than a conventional spinny disc. (I know its got a conventional spinny disc, but the idea of the SSD bit is that it handles all the quick stuff and speeds up the overall performance a lot.)  I'm tempted to junk it and get a "proper" SSD.  This could be spendy.

[Woofage]

Mindful of my OS - Mint 14 - becoming end of life I looked for an upgrade. Mint 16? Nah, supports ends July '14 (thanks, Ubuntu ). Arch? It may have a good rep but give me an installation guide that I can understand please! So, Mint Debian Edition it will be. I'll hopefully do it at the w/e.

[Dibdib]

All done and copying my stuff back from the external drive. I had a minor xkcd://910 moment but settled on Hodor, as it'll be "carrying" a Windows VM called Bran:

[mcshroom]

Decided to try and solve the confusing lack of application memory issues on my phone.

In the end removed over 1GB of dump files from the /data/log directory, created a small script to make the directory read only every time the phone reboots, and then went on to change the RIL to hopefully stop these files from being created. Now I get to see if it's actually worked.

[Afasoas]

All done and copying my stuff back from the external drive. I had a minor xkcd://910 moment but settled on Hodor, as it'll be "carrying" a Windows VM called Bran:

I'm having one right now, which makes almost two today.

I'm popping 'nix onto a netbook which I'll try and use as a stopgap to my ailing laptop's replacement.  The other laptop is called Airnimal. Desktop is Colnago. NAS boxes are Carradice and Ortlieb. I already have a Brompton which is the gentoo netbook I use for hosting, running website backup scripts etc. and I've previously had a Birdy.. so any suggestions continuing the Bikeshed theme? (...the RaspberryPi is Dahon before anyone makes that suggestion!)

Pity I broke the theme for my tablet (bigStinky) and phone (littleStinky).

[David Martin]

Managed to recover the files off the churches broken office PC. Windows file permissions are really bizarre. 'You must get permission from user xxxx to access this file' I am user xxx, what are you playing at?

And silly things about 'filename too long'.

Grr.

[Feanor]

Managed to recover the files off the churches broken office PC. Windows file permissions are really bizarre. 'You must get permission from user xxxx to access this file' I am user xxx, what are you playing at?

And silly things about 'filename too long'.

Grr.

In Windows, the displayed username != the underlying user.

All users have a unique SID ( Security Identifier ).
The displayed username is entirely cosmetic.
All permissions ( ACLs) are based on that SID.

So it's possible to ( for example ) create a User Account called 'David', which will have a unique SID, and have ACLs ( access control lists ) based on that SID.
If, for example, you delete that user account, and then re-create it with the same name, that's not good enough.
The re-incarnated 'David' will have a different SID.
And that will not match the ACL for the files in question.
Or if you boot with a fresh install, which again will have new SIDs for the usernames.

You need to have Admin rights, and 'Take Ownership' of the files in question.
That will re-write the ACLs with your new SID.

[Dibdib]

Spent most of today fettling my (very very basic) code-fu with learn python the hard way.

No real reason why, just felt like it, although maybe I'll find some practical use for it one day

[David Martin]

You need to have Admin rights, and 'Take Ownership' of the files in question.
That will re-write the ACLs with your new SID.

That is what I had done. It still threw silly errors. I had atempted to do that with an admin account. I was copying files from a HDD attached via a USB adapter. WInXP disk to Win7 Home Premium. Admin account. Follow the 'take ownership' and do all subfolders etc. A short copy later 'you need to get permission from xxx to do this' when xxx is the account I am logged in as and with which I have just taken ownership.

[Biggsy]

I've had similar problems with Take Ownership not working or doing enough.  A utility called Unlocker does the trick.

[Afasoas]

I've managed to get CrunchBang running on the new (to me) Acer netbook. I'm still configuring it - I'll be using it as a temporary replacement to my laptop so fingers crossed this goes well.

I'm delighted with CB so far. I like the minimalist interface and it seems very resource efficient. I've finally remembered the BIOS setup utility password for my desktop so I can disable secure boot and in-turn dual boot it with a Linux OS. I was looking at Mint but I think CrunchBang will meet my needs there too.

[Woofage]

Mindful of my OS - Mint 14 - becoming end of life I looked for an upgrade. Mint 16? Nah, supports ends July '14 (thanks, Ubuntu ). Arch? It may have a good rep but give me an installation guide that I can understand please! So, Mint Debian Edition it will be. I'll hopefully do it at the w/e.

Did it. From booting the install disk to posting this message on a new OS took roughly 16 minutes .

[Dibdib]

Currently fettling a Windows XP virtual machine from the restore CD of my old uni laptop so I can play some old XP-only games. Somewhere in my mum's attic I have a copy of Starship Titanic - I couldn't find it this weekend but I'll have a proper rummage around next time I'm there.

I was a little worried because it was an Advent-branded restore CD rather than a proper Windows XP installation disc (Somewhere I have a legit XP installer disc but it's probably in the same place as my Starship Titanic CDs. To my surprise it actually worked, although I had to call Microsoft's automated activation line.

(Continuing the Game-of-Thrones-inspired naming convention, this VM is called Aemon 'cause it's really old.)

Edited to add: The good news is that XP is now nicely patched. The bad news is that I'm not sure it'll run on Windows XP, and I might have to dig out the very-well-buried Windows 95 installer when I dig out the game CDs.

[David Martin]

Got the first draft of code for v2 of the pumptrack timing system working. I should be able to put this together and test soon, when the display driver ships arrive. It will be awesome, then I have to fettle a case. I am tempted to see what can be done with a laser cutter and black/white laminate for the plug panel and also to decide whether or not to add camera drivers so that it can automatically snap each rider as they pass through the timing gate.
 

[Dibdib]

I'm still trying to teach myself a bit of Python, and have hacked together a little Eddington calculator which uses the CSV export from Veloviewer. Nice little learning/practice exercise, and it'll be something I'll actually use too

[Wombat]

Continued fighting the netbook, as a friend suggested I might do better selling it with the original hard disk in it, and selling the SSD separately (after all, no-one in their right mind would install a £180 SSD in a £250 netbook, would they?  OK, I did, and it worked well).  Trying to get the netbook working from the recovery disc, which doesn't have any of the required drivers on it, and Samsung's website doesn't have all of them either.  I've never had a PC which didn't just pick up all the required drivers when installing Windows, but I tried installing a normal Windows 7 Home premium, which is what it was running anyway, but nothing worked, VGA only screen, no ethernet or wifi or bluetooth.  Using the recovery disc after that, brings it back down to starter edition, but still no drivers (This is the recovery disc supplied with the netbook!) A trawl of Samsung's website driver page for this specific machine reveals lots of wifi drivers, but none of them work.  I now have several screen resolutions open to me, but none are the correct aspect ratio, and I have ethernet and bluetooth, but no wifi.  I think the only option open to me now is to create an image onto the original hard disk  from the SSD (which was itself created using the Samsung SSD data migration software... otherwise, I've bricked it.  I don't want to keep taking the netbook apart, as its all a bit fragile.

Trying to improve the OCZ revodrive on this desktop PC hasn't brought any great revelations, either. Repair reinstallation and update done on the driver, with no effect.   Bootup message states its running OK at PCI-E x4, at 5.0 Gbps, but it just seems lacklustre,  f'rinstance, copying files to a USB3 stick usually runs at about 30MB per sec, and copying them from that stick onto the new SSD equipped laptop runs at about 100MB per sec.  I'd hoped for snappy loading of my Photoshop library, but no, it takes ages.  Its an Asus Z87A mobo with 16Gb of RAM and an i7 4770K processor.

[Biggsy]

Trying to improve the OCZ revodrive on this desktop PC hasn't brought any great revelations, either. Repair reinstallation and update done on the driver, with no effect.   Bootup message states its running OK at PCI-E x4, at 5.0 Gbps, but it just seems lacklustre,  f'rinstance, copying files to a USB3 stick usually runs at about 30MB per sec, and copying them from that stick onto the new SSD equipped laptop runs at about 100MB per sec.

You're comparing writing to reading speed of the USB stick and ports there, most likely nothing to do with the Revodrive.  The Revodrive should be tested indpendently - eg with ATTO (what OCZ use), or HD Tune (with Block size set to 8 MB).

I'm thinking either the USB stick simply can't write faster than 30 MB/s, or that the desktop port is working at USB 2.0 speed.

[Afasoas]

Trying to improve the OCZ revodrive on this desktop PC hasn't brought any great revelations, either. Repair reinstallation and update done on the driver, with no effect.   Bootup message states its running OK at PCI-E x4, at 5.0 Gbps, but it just seems lacklustre,  f'rinstance, copying files to a USB3 stick usually runs at about 30MB per sec, and copying them from that stick onto the new SSD equipped laptop runs at about 100MB per sec.  I'd hoped for snappy loading of my Photoshop library, but no, it takes ages.  Its an Asus Z87A mobo with 16Gb of RAM and an i7 4770K processor.

What flavour of Photoshop are we talking?
Where is Photoshop installed? Where are the pictures stored? Where's are the scratch disks located?

[Wombat]

Trying to improve the OCZ revodrive on this desktop PC hasn't brought any great revelations, either. Repair reinstallation and update done on the driver, with no effect.   Bootup message states its running OK at PCI-E x4, at 5.0 Gbps, but it just seems lacklustre,  f'rinstance, copying files to a USB3 stick usually runs at about 30MB per sec, and copying them from that stick onto the new SSD equipped laptop runs at about 100MB per sec.

You're comparing writing to reading speed of the USB stick and ports there, most likely nothing to do with the Revodrive.  The Revodrive should be tested indpendently - eg with ATTO (what OCZ use), or HD Tune (with Block size set to 8 MB).

I'm thinking either the USB stick simply can't write faster than 30 MB/s, or that the desktop port is working at USB 2.0 speed.

I'll check the claimed read & write speed sof the usb3 stick, but I think they're way above the write speed I'm experiencing.  I'll also try it in the other direction to see what write speeds I am seeing claimed for transfer from the SSD equipped laptop to the stick.  I will also check out the test software you mention.  All USB ports involved are full USB 3, which is natively supported in Win 8.1, which both PCs are running.

[Wombat]

Its only Elements 11, Alfasoas! I also have lightroom 5.4.  All file locations are as default, on the one and only drive on the PC.  Backup is done separately via Acronis True image 2014, but I separately manually back up the photographs folder (rather than the catalog (sic) itself) to another drive.

The elements catalog has about 27,000 photos in it, file sizes varying from about 2Mb to 20plus. 

Its hard to compare with the speed of loading on the laptop which came with elements 12, as that only has a tiny catalog of all my Sierra Leone railway photos, totalling about 4 Gb.

One of these days I will find time to learn to use and manage Elements and Lightroom better...

[Biggsy]

I've got a Lexar USB 3 stick here.  Actual performance via USB 3: read 104 MB/s average, write 34 MB/s average (though peaking at 89).  It's common with flash memory to have much slower write than read speed, though there are exceptions.

USB 3 can throttle down if it doesn't like a device or cable anyway.  Try doing without an extension cable, if using one.

[Wombat]

This is a Kingston one, but I didn't get a chance to check it out last night as I was involved with my other little project of strapping about £8k worth of live steam locomotives and handbuilt rolling stock to a display board so it can be left in a field with thousands of people milling about.  I'm not sure my insurance company will be all that pleased, as they will only cover for £5k worth of it being out andf about at one time.

I was going to check out a transfer in the reserve directino and check out the claimed speeds.

[Afasoas]

I was getting hounded for the "admin password" all weekend.
I arrive on side today and ask what the password was needed for. I'm told "we can make $unterPerformingProgram work faster by enabling Java".
I patiently explain it doesn't use Java.
"Oh but a customer in a viewing session said we need to install Java to make it run faster".
I explain said software uses Microsoft .NET framework and as Java is not a Microsoft Product, said software is very unlikely to have a Java habit.

And this is why sysadmins don't give passwords out.


In the meantime, I'm having fun with two PCs which keep doing a DHCP time out. The network connection is indicated to be "unauthenticated" and the Firewall profile has been set to "public". They are identical hardware, but different from the rest of the estate, so I've installed everything from scratch and by hand.

Both PCs initially connected to the domain and worked as expected. Within a day, the above problem occurred.
Late last week, I detached both machines from the domain, deleted their AD accounts, removed their DHCP reservations and recreated them. I then rejoined them to the domain and after 24 hours, we're back to square one.

Today, I've uninstalled/reinstalled the network card drivers and run the following:

Code: [Select]

netsh winsock reset catalog

netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log

netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log
This was followed by a nifty reboot.
This fixed one machine and not the other. The other allowed me to log-in to the domain, but as soon as the machine was restarted, the problem recurred.

Starting to run out of ideas on this one.

[tiermat]

Wrote two small batch files to make it easier for Mrs T to top up her ebook and her iPod.

Both mount a network drive first.
Then one starts Calibre, whilst the other starts iTunes (what a sack of shit that is)
When finished both remove the network mount.

All tested and working

[barakta]

When I last ran mac OSX I used to "rm -rf itunes" cos it's such a hideous sack of shit even on the Mac.  I don't know anyone who doesn't dislike it.  Confusingly laid out horrid piece of shit.  My mum has iPhones and one of those iPod mini things so I have to tech support or beat my head against it a couple of times a year for her which I hate.  But she's my mum so I do it.