Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own  (Read 294793 times)

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
I had that when I copied our music onto a USB SSD from a PC attached spinny rust drive. It took a looooong time. I won't bore you with the details why it ended up being done over the Devil's radio.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Funny how when you have to move large amounts of data by Devil's Radio, it always seems to involve the machine with the WiFi stack that insists on doing obstructive things like stubbornly clinging to the 2.4GHz band or poorly-timed aggressive power manglement.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Funny how when you have to move large amounts of data by Devil's Radio, it always seems to involve the machine with the WiFi stack that insists on doing obstructive things like stubbornly clinging to the 2.4GHz band or poorly-timed aggressive power manglement.
it wouldn’t be the Devil’s Radio if it didn’t have these difficult to manage little quirks.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
My fondleslab is capable of transferring hundreds of megabits over the Devil's Radio in a robust and predictable manner.  Being a fondleslab, I think I've made use of this feature exactly once.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Capability should be inversely proportional to like requirement. It’s written into the roolz
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Funny how when you have to move large amounts of data by Devil's Radio, it always seems to involve the machine with the WiFi stack that insists on doing obstructive things like stubbornly clinging to the 2.4GHz band or poorly-timed aggressive power manglement.

My lapdancer does have a wired connection but it's still sl-o-o-o-o-w.  Doubly so when it's doing a full backup and downloading a year’s worth of Windows updates at the same time.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Afasoas

I'm in awe that anyone took the time to make this:

https://ijmacd.github.io/rfc3339-iso8601/

The amount of time that would be saved if the world stuck to consistent date formats when sharing data electronically.

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
1/ MS Teams on Linux when connecting to a meeting (voice only, don't have a webcam) it gives the disconnect sound from Skype for some reason.

2/ win10 tend to play the volume louder than linux. A good level in win10 is about 12 on my DAC, but on linux I have to go to 14-15, with the volume near to the max on the player (browser, vlc, foobar2000 etc) where on win10 I don't need to go near max to have the same level in headphone or speakers.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Pixel 6 voice to text

Tried this for the first time this morning. Absolutely amazing. Entered about 200 words without a single error. Commands are intuitive; I didn't even bother reading the help.

Will be making a lot of use of this. It is fast enough to transcribe normal speed. 'Creative' thinking and designing is easy when you can just think out loud and have it converted to text.

I've used speech to text before, when I bust my arm. It was sort-of faster than one-handed typing, but lots of errors. Still found it quicker to enter text using that and then correct via keyboard afterwards.

The version in Pixel 6 is incredible.

Camera at night

This didn't get very good reviews, with the reviewers grumbling about loss of quality.
I tried it in a room that was dark enough that I could only just see the furniture. The photo was clear enough you'd have sworn the lights were on.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

ian

I inadvertently installed MacOS Monterey (I hadn't realised it had been released).

I wouldn't have noticed I'd installed it had I not absently clicked my way into a 30-minute, 12 GB update. Looks much the same.

In other news, I have a sea otter from the Monterey Aquarium called Rick.

Still hasn't removed the literal bug from my screen. Come on Apple, release a new giant iMac.

Pixel 6 voice to text

Tried this for the first time this morning. Absolutely amazing. Entered about 200 words without a single error. Commands are intuitive; I didn't even bother reading the help.

Does it work with multiple speakers?  Would be good in a meeting if it highlighted indivdual speakers.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Barakta uses an app called Otter (which I believe can recognise speakers, but you have to tell it who they are manually) for live speech-to-text in medical appointments etc.  It works impressively well (and usefully fast), though like all speech-to-text it frequently falls over at the proper nouns and technical terms needed to establish context (ie. the things a deaf person most needs subtitles for).  The transcript is still useful as a memory prompt, in spite of that.

Obviously it's let down in real world situations by optimum positioning for reading the screen during a conversation not being optimum positioning for a crappy smartphone microphone.  Dictation is less challenging in this respect.

Pixel 6 voice to text

Tried this for the first time this morning. Absolutely amazing. Entered about 200 words without a single error. Commands are intuitive; I didn't even bother reading the help.

Does it work with multiple speakers?  Would be good in a meeting if it highlighted indivdual speakers.

I suspect not.

The function is running locally on the phone, (rather than using google data) which partly accounts for the speed.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
I have the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia app installed on this fondleslab, thus when I poke a link to the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia's webby SCIENCE the browser automatically fires up the said app…

…which then immediately fires up a new tab back in the browser at the page wot the original link was pointing at.  WTF is that all about?
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime



The function is running locally on the phone, (rather than using google data) which partly accounts for the speed.

.... on a specialised chip ("Tensor") developed by google for these AI apps, which is why it has gained auto-photoshop actions in the camera

Oh and the magic eraser isn't terrible. Poor compared to a proper job, but very easy to use and half-decent results.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

I have a baby Samsung Xpress laser printer, which is very infrequently used, mainly for printing backup versions of E-tickets etc.     I've just run off about 6 sheets of A4 & noticed it appeared to be smoking...  some sort of visible particulate vapour being given off. 


Is this to be expected of a device that is only powered up every few weeks or should I be investing in a fire blanket ? 
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
I suppose the fuser (heat lamp thing that melts the toner onto the paper) could have accumulated some dust.  I'd keep an eye on it.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
O hai EAA Team!

If the developers of The Game helpfully provide a list of country id numbers and suggest it might be a good idea for modders to stick to their recommendations, why not do that instead of robbing the ids of Yemen and Uzbekistan for a couple of your sub-divisions of Brazil, thereby making things Not Work?  There are plenty of spare numbers after Tuvalu (202).  Unfortunately you seem only to meet your public via a Portuguese language YouTube channel so it’s difficult to report this feature…

Kthxbai
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Can anyone think of the benefit to a spambot for submitting random contact forms? This question is engendered by recent submissions from bot(s?) on the website of Mrs Ham's quilting group. This is hosted on Squarespace and has a standard contact page. The last few days she has been getting random submissions with an email and a random word in the message box. Only 6 or 7 a day, so not a ddos, what possible reason could there be in setting that bot loose? I can't think of one.

The bot is likely looking for unfiltered blog comment (etc) forms that end up on the public interweb that can then be used/sold for real spamming.

I assume the random word is unique/gibberish?

Yes entirely a spambot random word. I suppose you must be right - "find a page with an entry form, submit, see if anything appears"

ETA - ReCaptcha enabled, pretty easy really

Question time - If I have a 6v battery and want to light up an LED, assuming summat like 2v forward voltage  for the LED, and 20mA, I make that a 200 ohm resistor needed, or thereabouts, or have I misunderstood how that should work?

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Question time - If I have a 6v battery and want to light up an LED, assuming summat like 2v forward voltage  for the LED, and 20mA, I make that a 200 ohm resistor needed, or thereabouts, or have I misunderstood how that should work?

Yep, that's right.  6V-2V gives 4V across the resistor.  4V/20mA = 200R

Question time - If I have a 6v battery and want to light up an LED, assuming summat like 2v forward voltage  for the LED, and 20mA, I make that a 200 ohm resistor needed, or thereabouts, or have I misunderstood how that should work?
I don't think that this will add much in this case, but here is my take on LEDs and resistors:-https://www.mtrak.co.uk/led_calculator.html *

* Now with added pictures.
Quote from: Kim
Paging Diver300.  Diver300 to the GSM Trimphone, please...