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

[Gattopardo]

Found some (well many) older laptop ram ddr1 and less.  Some ddr2 but 1gb or less.

Was wondering what to do with it?  Any value or anyone that would want or have a use for them.

Or recycling.

[essexian]

My computer knowledge could be written on the back of a stamp....indeed, I think it was a huge mistake moving away from Windows 3.1....so I suppose my laptop is dead as it is showing that no hard drive can be found.

I have tried the stuff in the start up "esc" thingy with no luck.

I suppose the machine is now a couple of kilo's of trash. Sigh. Disappointed as it was only a year or so old.


EDIT....forget this.... I tried pressing buttons left, right and centre and for some reason I don't understand, it all seems to be working okay again.

Frankly, we made a mistake moving away from slide rules.... hell, I do wonder at times, whether we were wrong climbing down out of the trees 

[Kim]

Failure to find the hard drive is generally a problem with the hard drive (usually a mechanical problem, like the bearing getting sticky), which is a failure-prone and therefore eminently replaceable part.  No need to trash the whole machine.

Failure to find a bootable operating system on the hard drive may simply be a software problem.  It's entirely possible for something important to the boot process to become corrupted without an actual hardware failure.  A clever person might be able to persuade it to work again.  A person who's even cleverer might wipe the disk and reinstall the OS so it definitely works without wasting too much brain power on it.

TBH, I reckon Windows 3.1 was the big mistake.  The dead trolls said it right.

[TheLurker]

TBH, I reckon Windows 3.1 was the big mistake.

DSM-11 FTW.  Preferably on a PDP 11-7x or 11-8x.  Pictures?  Who needs pictures? 

[essexian]

Well after working for another four hours, the machine died again and now despite everything I try, its now unwilling to start.

I note what you say Kim about a smart person may be able to fix it, but frankly, I need a machine this afternoon so I have gone out and brought a new one.....is it wrong to use the "how much did your new bike cost" rule for a new Computer? CBH thinks it cost £150 less than I actually paid. 

There is a local computer person nearby so I might take the old machine to them to see if they can fix it: it has quite a few photos etc on it which I would quite like to have access to....what's that? Cloud storage? 

[T42]

I just installed the latest Java update. So what? Well, once it was finished a message box told me "You have just installed Java <blah blah blah>" - without congratulating me!

There's still hope for the world.

[hellymedic]

The headphone socket on my 'Apple just works' MacBook Air has failed.

The speakers still speak when I plug in the phones, to which there is no sound.

Phones worked earlier yesterday. Plug feels as if it's gripped properly by the socket.

[Kim]

Probably worth trying another set just to confim the headphones haven't actually failed in a way that inhibits their detection (might be that it's measuring impedance rather than physically detecting the presence of a plug), as that's going to be by far the least painful problem to solve. 

It could also be possible that there's something softwarey overriding the normal headphone detection, I suppose.  I don't have the Mac experience to suggest where to look, thobut.   

[hellymedic]

Thanks! I'll snaffle/borrow David's phones at some stage.

ETA No luck with Davi's posh Sony phones. (Mine are magenta JVC cheapies I got from Sainsbury's.)

Restarting the computer several times made no difference.

[T42]

Realized yesterday that it was getting bloody hot under my desk, and the computer fans were simply recycling hot air.  I now have a fan blasting straight in under.

[Auntie Helen]

I have the 50GB iCloud at 79p per month but decided I would just use my hard disk and reduce back to the free 5gb.

I transferred all my documents to the MacBook hard disk but it made no difference to iCloud, it still said I had 35GB data in there, even though I only had 100MB documents and my Thunderbird emails (which ended up as 3.5GB)

So I got onto Apple Support and some nice Irish people talked me through various things.

Then we got to the next point and the guy said "We have to remove all Documents and Data". I had made a backup of all of these on the Mac's desktop. I said to him "what about the Thunderbird Emails". He said they definitely wouldn't be deleted (he was doing a screen view at the time so could see my iPad). I said "Are you really sure?" and he said "Yes."

So I pressed "Delete all Documents and Data" and my Thunderbird emails disappeared. My most recent backup is 2 months old as I was now using iCloud. The Apple Support Guy has escalated a ticket to see if they can restore it from their servers as otherwise I've lost all my filed emails for the last two months. I was able to restore from a backup so I know I have emails up to the end of May.

He then said "you should always do a Time Machine backup, iCloud isn't a backup." Even though it was he who told me to delete it and I clarified twice that it was OK to do!

Fixed the issue though, my iCloud data usage is only 100MB now...

[hellymedic]

The 'E' key on my MacBook Air is coming adrift. It works if jiggled.

I am not a rough or rapid typist.
At all.

David says he's not seen anything like this on any Mac he has owned.

E is, of course, the letter used most frequently.

Underwhelming. I'm sure we'll live with this and/or fix it.

Apple just works.

Always.

[Jaded]

Hmm. Time Machine isn’t really a backup though, certainly not a full one.

[woollypigs]

@Auntie

I use Google for things online and I noticed that I was coming close to my limit too. Some poking around I found out that the bin/trash in google drive was the culprit. Could that be your problem?

I understood the Drive bin behaved like Gmail bin - got emptied after 30 days or so.

[Auntie Helen]

They checked that and it wasn't the case. It seems to be a mini bug for some users.

[Kim]

Incidentally, does anyone else get irked when computers use "[rubbish] bin" for what really ought to be "trash[can]"?  It's like someone's over-enthusiastically localised the UI into British English; presumably due to excessive exposure to RISC OS at a formative age.

(My regular desktop is MATE.  It has a "Wastebasket", which has gone past localisation and well into taking the piss.  The contents live in ~/.local/share/Trash/ as if to prove my point.)

[Mr Larrington]

Microsith uses "Recycle Bin^*", which makes a certain amount of sense.  IIRC the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia used "Wastebasket" in the days when I had regular access to a FruitCo babbage-engine.

* though mine's now "Dave's Anbaric Dustbin"

[hellymedic]

It is yclept 'Trash' on this MacBook Air.

[Kim]

Microsith uses "Recycle Bin^*", which makes a certain amount of sense.

Yeah.  It suggests that you can fish things out of it without getting your hands dirty, which is a dangerous metaphor if ever there was one.

Anbaric Dustbin

Excellent idea!  *renames*

[nicknack]

Rubbish Bin on Ubuntu.

[Pickled Onion]

Wasn't it do with Apple "inventing" the Trash icon and suing anyone who copied it? Or is that urban myth?

[Jaded]

Apple did indeed de-UK English the Trash Can, as Mr L remembers. They gave a reason but I don’t remember being that impressed with it.

[essexian]

"They" updated my works computer yesterday from Windows 7 to 10 so of course this morning, nothing is working as I don't seem to be able to get into our office drive where, of course, all my work is kept.

Sigh.

I would phone the Helpdesk but I can't log into the office system to get the phone number.

Sigh.

I would go back to bed but I have 12 days to do 17 days work in so can't afford to lose any time (and yes, I do get that I have just wasted a couple of minutes writing this!)

[woollypigs]

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/an-11-year-old-changed-election-results-on-a-replica-florida-state-website-in-under-10-minutes

An 11-year-old changed election results on a replica Florida state website in under 10 minutes

[Kim]

You'd think anyone reporting on a hacking convention would have got over the "ZOMG some children know more about computers than some adults" thing about 30 years ago.