Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own (Read 299686 times)

Biggsy · « **Reply #300 on:** 01 October, 2015, 07:56:12 pm »

Quote from: Gattopardo on 30 September, 2015, 11:29:52 pm

Anyone know of a safe place to download a 64bit win7?

Direct from Microsoft now if you have a valid product key: www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows7

Failing everything else, I can post you a copy of W7 Pro 64-bit on disc, but i don't think it'll be necessary.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #301 on:** 01 October, 2015, 09:17:00 pm »

Doesn't work with OEM codes

Biggsy · « **Reply #302 on:** 01 October, 2015, 09:38:36 pm »

Just PM your address if you want it on DVD. It'll be online somewhere though.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #303 on:** 02 October, 2015, 08:23:10 am »

Living as we do in an era of shortages of natural resources, breathable air and adequate claret, and in which software updates are almost invariably accompanied by howls of anguish from the usersphere, it is nice to be able to report that the combination of iOS 9, iPad and Chrome no longer requires that you tap the "Jump to" wossname on yacf three times before selecting your destination. Just once is all that is required now.

Hurrah for SCIENCE

Mind you, moving the cursor is even more hit and miss. If the Write app can have left and right arrow keys, Mega-Global Chocolate Manufactury Corporation of Mountain View, USAnia, why can't Chrome?

Gattopardo · « **Reply #304 on:** 02 October, 2015, 09:11:07 am »

Quote from: Biggsy on 01 October, 2015, 09:38:36 pm

Just PM your address if you want it on DVD. It'll be online somewhere though.

Thank you, but am sure there are easier sources

Gattopardo · « **Reply #305 on:** 02 October, 2015, 06:19:10 pm »

Have two copies iso , one from intopc and the other softpedia, they are both the same size so...

Afasoas · « **Reply #306 on:** 03 October, 2015, 10:14:51 am »

Md5sum ... somewhere someone will have written the md5 hash of these ISOs and there is a windows utility knocking around that will show you the md5 check sum of a file. I could tell you what it is if I were at work. It is a portable exe available from Microsoft themselves.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #307 on:** 04 October, 2015, 07:15:47 pm »

Having acquired a new sub-desk machine the old desktop has migrated downstairs. Install Thunderbird and copy complete directory wossname from C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles on the laptop. Fire up Tbird. It all works

Two days later either Thunderbird or Yahoo! decides! there! is! something! wrong! with! my! password! Which has been the same for a Several of years. Log into Yahoo via the web. Password works. Try again with Thunderbird. Password works again.

Pls to not be doing that again, machine

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #308 on:** 05 October, 2015, 05:05:42 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 02 October, 2015, 08:23:10 am

Mind you, moving the cursor is even more hit and miss. If the Write app can have left and right arrow keys, Mega-Global Chocolate Manufactury Corporation of Mountain View, USAnia, why can't Chrome?

Actually

It's the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia at fault here rather than the Chocolate Factory, and
There's a new two-finger cursor-o-matic thing which makes moving it a doddle

Though finding out about the latter by putting "iOS9 cursor totally f****d" into a FWSE is not the best way to find out about New! IMPROVED!! features.

And Write doesn't work at all under iOS9 chiz.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #309 on:** 05 October, 2015, 06:45:14 pm »

Plex Media Server, I do not know how you determine which Popular Beat Combos qualify for the "Seen live" tag but for the record, John Fogerty, Mastodon and the Montréal Symphony Orchestra are among the acts that I have not even seen dead.

Also that's a really shit picture of Johnny Winter.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #310 on:** 06 October, 2015, 02:27:55 pm »

Plex Media Server has joined the foot-operated dip switch and touch-screens for desktop PCs in the "It seemed like a good idea at the time" pile. Because it cannot cope with Popular Beat Combos whose name contains a "/". And thus makes an unholy mess of trying to import the Compleat AC/DC into its library. And when you then try deleting AC/DC and re-adding each album manually it doesn't just remove AC/DC from its library but also all the tracks from the source you were importing them from.

Fortunately I am paranoid enough to keep four backup copies of the mp3 collection...

Kim · « **Reply #311 on:** 06 October, 2015, 02:33:35 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 06 October, 2015, 02:27:55 pm

Plex Media Server has joined the foot-operated dip switch

* Kim wonders how on earth you're supposed to operate DIP switches with your foot, then realises she's showing her youth.

Actually, given some of the frustration you had to go through back in the day to make your Epson dot matrix produce a BRITONS '£' character, it would make a certain kind of sense.

Quote

Because it cannot cope with Popular Beat Combos whose name contains a "/".

What's it like with &ersands?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #312 on:** 06 October, 2015, 02:59:06 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 06 October, 2015, 02:33:35 pm

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 06 October, 2015, 02:27:55 pm
Plex Media Server has joined the foot-operated dip switch

* Kim wonders how on earth you're supposed to operate DIP switches with your foot, then realises she's showing her youth.

Actually, given some of the frustration you had to go through back in the day to make your Epson dot matrix produce a BRITONS '£' character, it would make a certain kind of sense.

Quote
Because it cannot cope with Popular Beat Combos whose name contains a "/".

What's it like with &ersands?

Seems happy enough with them. There's probably a setting buried under the boot floor to make it leave my laboriously-consistentificated mp3 tags the fuck alone but it still insists on changing "X And The Y" to "X and the Y", except when it doesn't.

Part of me wants to beat it into submission, another says to leave it until other important things are attended to (like for e.g. learning to fly a space shuttle or juggle chainsaws) and a third says that I don't need yet another way of listening to music over and above the half-dozen alternatives already available.

citoyen · « **Reply #313 on:** 06 October, 2015, 03:29:49 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 06 October, 2015, 02:27:55 pm

cannot cope with Popular Beat Combos whose name contains a "/"

I was going to say isn't that a security measure to do with escape characters, but I'm thinking of \ aren't I?

Feanor · « **Reply #314 on:** 06 October, 2015, 03:59:56 pm »

I imagine it's as simple as the group name being used as the directory name in the filesystem, so it's limited to names which are legal in the filesystem in question.

Not a great design, for obvious reasons.

( I wonder if that weird symbol Prince used is available as a Unicode character somewhere? )

Afasoas · « **Reply #315 on:** 06 October, 2015, 04:35:25 pm »

I've found PlexMediaServer to be great with the ripped DVD/BD collection, but MP3s - naming them consistently is a dark art.

I've had limited success renaming the MP3 collection with MusicBrainzPicard - in that sometimes it works, sometimes it partially works (losing MP3s in the process) and most times it doesn't work at all - doesn't actually save the renamed MP3s to the new location.

So, if anyone can recommend something that will go through MP3s ripped at various times using different software/naming conventions, identify them and rename them properly to work with Plex Media Server, I'd be eternally grateful.

Biggsy · « **Reply #316 on:** 06 October, 2015, 04:56:44 pm »

Quote from: Afasoas on 06 October, 2015, 04:35:25 pm

So, if anyone can recommend something that will go through MP3s ripped at various times using different software/naming conventions, identify them and rename them properly to work with Plex Media Server, I'd be eternally grateful.

I don't know what Plex requires, but try MP3Tag, which can modify file names as well as tags. It'll be one simple batch job to create new file names if the tags are correct and consistent, or vice versa, otherwise it might need multiple jobs, which could still be worth doing. It can search and replace with wildcards, etc.

Tips: Once MP3Tag is installed, right-click on your media folder(s) in your file explorer to load them into the program; do any jobs; then close the program and it'll save automatically.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #317 on:** 06 October, 2015, 04:58:48 pm »

I used a combination of Mp3tag, Excel, Word and a certain amount of manual jibbling (usually with ~~Canadian post-rock outfits~~ ruthless individualists who use quotes in their song titles) to achieve consistency at the file level only to have Plex bugger it all up again. What possesses it to change "The 13th Floor Elevators" to "13'th Floor Elevators" is as yet a mystery, and is likely to remain so until I've acquired fluent Portuguese, sussed why a Robocopy script works until I try to run it under Task Scheduler and built a wall ten thousand feet high around Tony Blair.

The "/" business also remains a puzzler, not least because it renamed both studio albums by "Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon" to "Gordon" but got a live bootleg one right

XP with Biggsy

Afasoas · « **Reply #318 on:** 06 October, 2015, 08:27:34 pm »

Colonel Larrington,
Plex isn't actually renaming your files though is it? It's just the displayed metadata that's incorrect?

MP3tag sounds rather Windowsy but I'll take a look. Thanks Biggsy.

Pingu · « **Reply #319 on:** 06 October, 2015, 09:38:44 pm »

I have EasyTAG on my Ubuntu box which seems to work OK.

Ham · « **Reply #320 on:** 06 October, 2015, 10:55:57 pm »

Plex creates its own database mashing the metadata with stuff it finds on the web. When it works, it is rather cool. It doesn't always.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #321 on:** 07 October, 2015, 06:19:16 pm »

Quote from: Afasoas on 06 October, 2015, 08:27:34 pm

Colonel Larrington,
Plex isn't actually renaming your files though is it? It's just the displayed metadata that's incorrect?

Correct, it just messes up AC/DC metadata to the extent that it's impossible to unravel. Mashing several albums into one non-existent one is its latest trick.

Also, becuase it's running on a NAS with a very little brane, it's limited in the types of video formats it can play and as a result I'm beating my own branes out trying to convert a bunch of old .mov files to for e.g. .mp4 without rendering the already rubbish sound completely inaudible

Quote from: Ham on 06 October, 2015, 10:55:57 pm

Plex creates its own database mashing the metadata with stuff it finds on the web. When it works, it is rather cool. It doesn't always.

Is there any way of telling it to leave the web alone and just use my lovingly hand-crufted metadata? I don't need the last.fm biographical bobbins, especially when it gets completely the wrong artiste.

Ham · « **Reply #322 on:** 07 October, 2015, 07:27:13 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 07 October, 2015, 06:19:16 pm

Is there any way of telling it to leave the web alone and just use my lovingly hand-crufted metadata? I don't need the last.fm biographical bobbins, especially when it gets completely the wrong artiste.

Settings -> Agents uncheck all the stuff you can on each

Clare · « **Reply #323 on:** 08 October, 2015, 08:50:15 am »

Reboot number 1 please.

Clare · « **Reply #324 on:** 08 October, 2015, 09:12:05 am »

Reboot number 2 please.