Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own  (Read 296423 times)

Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
Huh, didn't realise that Windows 10 automagically mounts .iso files.
I'd downloaded a VMWare update iso and it popped up in my drive list.
vHandy :)
Everyone's favourite windbreak

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Dr Larrington, the next time you fail to plug back in our Aged Parent's wireless router after using your hairdryer, I will charge you a consultancy fee to cover my l33t remote diagnostic 5k1llz >:(
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Dr Larrington, the next time you fail to plug back in our Aged Parent's wireless router after using your hairdryer, I will charge you a consultancy fee to cover my l33t remote diagnostic 5k1llz >:(

Sorry but I find that highly amusing.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Dr Larrington, the next time you fail to plug back in our Aged Parent's wireless router after using your hairdryer, I will charge you a consultancy fee to cover my l33t remote diagnostic 5k1llz >:(

Sorry but I find that highly amusing.

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

A company I deal with has closed all its incoming email addresses, their main means of contact is now twitter DM. As an email user since the time it was JANET, I officially feel like a dinosaur.
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
A company I deal with has closed all its incoming email addresses, their main means of contact is now twitter DM. As an email user since the time it was JANET, I officially feel like a dinosaur.

One can only hope they remain in business long enough to rue the error.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

BrianI

  • Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Lepidopterist Man!
I should have been in bed an hour ago (6:30am start at work tomorrow!)

But I have finally managed to figure out using Virtual Box with Win 7 image, so that I can update my new Garmin Nuvi 55 satnav!  It seems the version that ships with Linux Mint doesn't have fully functioning usb, but the latest build from https://www.virtualbox.org/ does!   :thumbsup:

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Coo.  According to MrsLurker's sea noise generator* today is Friday the 54th of January 2017. Can't wait to see what day it thinks tomorrow is.


*Meditation. For the use of.

Update. 1st of March.  And today isn't Tuesday the 1st of March.  Nope.  It's Saturday the 55th of Jan. 2017.

I would love to know how they're calculating this.  I'm assuming it's on the basis of a tickcount or similar and I can't imagine that they're that pushed for space that they couldn't use a standard library for the conversion.  *Baffled*.

Fascinating.  How old is it?  Maybe it's run out of lookup table and it'll just keep adding days to Jan 2017...
About two years old, although there's no saying how old the code in it is.  It's only a 2 digit display so I'm letting it run on to see what happens at 99.

Oooh, _exciting_. Today is the Monday the 99th of January 2017... what brave new day will dawn tomorrow?
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
...what brave new day will dawn tomorrow?

A hexadecimal one.  Tuesday the A0th of Jan 2017. Interestingly the month is "stuck". 
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
I for one welcome our sixteen-fingered overlords.

Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
Just pondering the fact that when I first had a laptop you had to network using a pcmcia card and funky adaptors. Then laptops all had ethernet ports built in. Then Wifi as well. Hurrah!
Now laptops are too thin and sexy to fit an ethernet port in the chassis and we're back to needing dongle and funky cables to do ethernet.
Is it time we came up with a low profile RJ-45 replacement for Cat-5? Surely there's no real need for a cat-5 cable to terminate in anything thicker than a USB port?
Everyone's favourite windbreak

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
...what brave new day will dawn tomorrow?

A hexadecimal one.  Tuesday the A0th of Jan 2017. Interestingly the month is "stuck".

Perhaps the month will increment after the FFth of Jan?

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Is it time we came up with a low profile RJ-45 replacement for Cat-5? Surely there's no real need for a cat-5 cable to terminate in anything thicker than a USB port?

Didn't we cover this recently?

A resounding 'no'.  Plugging laptops in is an edge-case as far as structured cabling is concerned, and changing all that perfectly good - compatible - infrastructure to facilitate it would be daft.

By all means the next fibre thing can have a ludicrously low-profile connector - that'll come in handy in data centres, I'm sure.  But let UTP die out gracefully.  The Apple users can have their dongles - they should be used to it by now - and most networking to laptops will surely be wireless.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
...what brave new day will dawn tomorrow?

A hexadecimal one.  Tuesday the A0th of Jan 2017. Interestingly the month is "stuck".

Perhaps the month will increment after the FFth of Jan?
Good point,  I wasn't awake enough for hexadecimal arithmetic first thing, but I'm not sure I can be bothered hanging on to find out.   

The apparent swap to hex is a puzzle.  If it had been displaying base 16 since the 29th of Feb (and I'm not convinced that it has) then I'd expect today to be 9A rather than A0. Weird.  One to file under, "yet another example of crap software" and forget.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Afasoas

Is it time we came up with a low profile RJ-45 replacement for Cat-5? Surely there's no real need for a cat-5 cable to terminate in anything thicker than a USB port?

Didn't we cover this recently?

A resounding 'no'.  Plugging laptops in is an edge-case as far as structured cabling is concerned, and changing all that perfectly good - compatible - infrastructure to facilitate it would be daft.

By all means the next fibre thing can have a ludicrously low-profile connector - that'll come in handy in data centres, I'm sure.  But let UTP die out gracefully.  The Apple users can have their dongles - they should be used to it by now - and most networking to laptops will surely be wireless.

My relatively slim netbook type thing has an an RJ45 port that physically embiggens when you push the connector into it courtesy of a spring and a hinge. TBH I think the omission of Ethernet NICs from laptops has more to do with trimming usage of electrons than physical form factor...

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
...what brave new day will dawn tomorrow?

A hexadecimal one.  Tuesday the A0th of Jan 2017. Interestingly the month is "stuck".

Perhaps the month will increment after the FFth of Jan?

I'm waiting for the 35th of May.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
My relatively slim netbook type thing has an an RJ45 port that physically embiggens when you push the connector into it courtesy of a spring and a hinge.

Witchcraft!

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
...what brave new day will dawn tomorrow?

A hexadecimal one.  Tuesday the A0th of Jan 2017. Interestingly the month is "stuck".

Perhaps the month will increment after the FFth of Jan?
Good point,  I wasn't awake enough for hexadecimal arithmetic first thing, but I'm not sure I can be bothered hanging on to find out.   

The apparent swap to hex is a puzzle.  If it had been displaying base 16 since the 29th of Feb (and I'm not convinced that it has) then I'd expect today to be 9A rather than A0. Weird.  One to file under, "yet another example of crap software" and forget.

I have a suspicion that BCD is involved, and it hasn't been implemented properly.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
I'm waiting for the 35th of May.
I remember that book!  Roller skating around the equator? Sharks?*

*I haven't seen a copy since 1971 or '72 so the old recall circuitry may be playing tricks.

Feanor: BCD - yes seems quite possible.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
Is it time we came up with a low profile RJ-45 replacement for Cat-5? Surely there's no real need for a cat-5 cable to terminate in anything thicker than a USB port?

Didn't we cover this recently?

A resounding 'no'.  Plugging laptops in is an edge-case as far as structured cabling is concerned, and changing all that perfectly good - compatible - infrastructure to facilitate it would be daft.

By all means the next fibre thing can have a ludicrously low-profile connector - that'll come in handy in data centres, I'm sure.  But let UTP die out gracefully.  The Apple users can have their dongles - they should be used to it by now - and most networking to laptops will surely be wireless.

I must have missed it.

I don't like WiFi for anything more than temporary use or sofa surfing, I'd rather have a cable and dedicated bandwidth. However, I'm not advocating a change to existing infrastructure, just a standard for very slim laptops which could be implemented with a new patch lead, or even a female RJ-45 -> Male New slim connector adaptor on an existing patch lead if you prefer. It would still save you a USB port.

Maybe my office is rare in having users who regard laptops as status symbols but never take them _anywhere_
(Yes, I give them fatter laptops but they're all getting smaller!)
Everyone's favourite windbreak

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
I don't like laptops other than for temporary use or sofa surfing, but I appear to be increasingly in the minority...

I can see that a standardised patch lead wouldn't be a bad idea.  Although it's probably going to be a USB/Thunderbolt/whatever-Ethernet dongle at this rate.

Biggsy

  • A bodge too far
  • Twit @iceblinker
    • My stuff on eBay
I don't like WiFi for anything more than temporary use or sofa surfing, I'd rather have a cable and dedicated bandwidth. However, I'm not advocating a change to existing infrastructure, just a standard for very slim laptops which could be implemented with a new patch lead, or even a female RJ-45 -> Male New slim connector adaptor on an existing patch lead if you prefer. It would still save you a USB port.

That seems perfectly reasonable to me ...if only there were more than thirty-three (wo)men and a dog using ethernet with laptops to justify the expense of making a new standard.
●●●  My eBay items  ●●●  Twitter  ●●●

Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
I don't doubt that people at home nearly all use laptops/tablets/phones and wifi (he says, typing from a wired up desktop that is vastly overpowered for internet surfing) but there's no way I'd want to use it to provide connectivity in the office, where I do still find myself doling out an increasing proportion of laptops vs desktops. I will say that people seem far less blatent in their intent to use them as a freebie home computer than they used to be.  I assume that's due to the rise of fondleslabs of whatever size and flavour.

Good point on the multipurpose socket though, Kim. I guess that'd be the way to go.

Anyway, it's all bollocks and will never happen :)
Everyone's favourite windbreak

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
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That's what was at the end of the gpx file from today's ride  ??? RideWithGPS & BaseCamp didn't like it at all. Replacing it with </trk></gpx> fixed the issue.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
OK, so Macrium Reflect creates a file called backup_running in the target directory while a backup is actually running, and deletes it once it's finished.  Except if the system undergoes a spontaneous reboot, like it does sometimes, when one is having one's tea.  And then you can't re-run the backup, because it's still there, and you can't delete because it claims to be locked by another process even if you've restarted the box in so-called "Safe Mode".  Any guesses as to how to nuke the damn' thing?  It's on a NAS if that makes any difference.

Edit: Shut down, checked backup directory from another PC, offending file has buggered off.  Not there when being-backed-up-PC restarted either ???
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime