Octopus Overlords

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 4:46 pm Part of it is texture. Cheap keys quickly turn into "slick plastic" that doesn't feel quite right when you type on them. You usually want keys made of PBT plastic that retains a slight "rough" texture even after being used.

Yes, that's why I suggested you save your money and put it towards purchasing a better-quality mechanical keyboard that comes with double-shot PBT or laser etched/engraved keycaps already included.

Not that many 96-key layout keyboard on the market.

That's all right. I have my eyes on a 132-key keyset on Mechanicalkeyboards.com for $50. Unless I find it cheaper on Asian sites, that's my target for... April.

One of the "fun" parts of having a mechanical keyboard is the ability to swap keysets.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 5:36 pm Not that many 96-key layout keyboard on the market.

True, but if compact, minimalist design with top-notch build quality is your priority, you could opt for something like the Varmilo VA87M, which includes dye-sublimated PBT keycaps.

I'm trying to minimize the number of keys to the right of my enter key. And I can always buy PBT keys separately.

Im the opposite. The more keys over here the better.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:44 am I'm trying to minimize the number of keys to the right of my enter key. And I can always buy PBT keys separately.

In that case, I'd suggest a reliable 60% keyboard, such as the good ol' Ducky One 2 Mini or Ducky One 2 Mini Mecha, which includes laser-engraved, textured double-shot PBT keycaps and nothing whatsoever right of the enter key:

My current keyboard is TKL (Tenkeyless - aka, no number pad.) I figured it would drive me nuts, but the only time I care is once a month when I'm balancing my checkbook, and there aren't so many entries that it takes more an a few second more total. On the other hand, gaining four or five inches of mouse space is a huge boon (I use low sensitivity for accuracy, so I need room to move that sucker.)

I have a 70% keyboard (RK-72) which has just 2 columns to the right of the enter key) and the 90% keyboard I'm using now (just numpad to the right of enter key).

I found the two proper shift keys to complete my keyboard. Did have to use a blank for the right side and a light blue for the left side, but they are the right sizes.

For those who like small keyboards, Corsair (one of my favorite keyboard makers) just released a mini. It's not cheap, but Corsair's stuff is top quality.

Can't be any higher quality than Poker who invented 60% keyboards.

It's hard to say without having them side-by-side and someone testing them who knows a lot more about switches and response times than I do.

Might be an article useful to some, from PCGamesN, How to install a power supply. The title is a bit limiting, since it also discusses how to pick out the right power supply, including what all those stickers on the side of the PS really mean:

That 80 plus is kinda out dated now days but they still use it.

Got my Sonic dual DSL setup, and it was running fine last night. This morning, everybody complained "it's slower than before!" and I was like "WTF?"

I tried my Echo Show, and it keeps displaying an orange line, which means it's not connecting to Amazon. WTF?

Then I went downstairs to check on the box... Someone put it in a dish holder tray... vinyl covered metal. Basically a half faraday cage.

So I rearranged the cables, removed the dish holder tray, Got a cardboard box to put the router and the DSL modem/router on.

Now it works fine. :-\

Wish.com's prices are impossible, probably because they can't even get the definitions right

Thought folks might enjoy this, my old computer setup from 2002. That's a Hewlett-Packard 9780C AMD Athlon 900MHz.

click to enlarge

Living the dream. You had a foot in 2005.

Back then you were younger than I am now. Is that a Palm device I see?

CH Flight Stick?, Palm TX? HP DeskJet of some sort. Looks like you have both a CD and a DVD drive, with the latter probably a later addition. And you didn't bother to install the floppy drive faceplate. And RoadRunner Cable?

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:33 am CH Flight Stick?, Palm TX? HP DeskJet of some sort. Looks like you have both a CD and a DVD drive, with the latter probably a later addition. And you didn't bother to install the floppy drive faceplate. And RoadRunner Cable?

Yes to all except that's not my Palm TX, since I didn't get that till 2006. That's an earlier Palm model.

A closer look at the computer. I've got the drives chassis slid out for some reason:

Just replaced the radiator fan on my existing water-cooled I7. I only noticed yesterday that the fan had died. The waterblock was that efficient... I can game without fan blowing on the radiator. Only 10C difference at idle. I am surprised I didn't get thermal shutdown as I was also doing Folding@ home and taxing the CPU to the max and temp was way past the red mark at about 99C! Without the fan, it idles at about 40C. Now with the fan on it's down to 30C. And with Folding@home running it's stable at 84C. :-\ I think I'll stop folding, or turn off the CPU folding or something.

I bought a cheap smartwatch and it's... interesting.

It's the Wyze smartwatch. Customization is all done through the companion map on the phone, but it does have oximeter and pulse, and sleep / exercise tracking, as well as phenomenal battery life. I full-charged it and it's lasted 3 days with only like 15% battery use. They claim 9 days of battery life, and I believe them. It also serves as a shortcut to other Wyze device control, such as camera, switch, and their own smarthome stuff. No GPS, but it's made of aluminum. But lack of Alexa was somewhat surprising. I guess they are mainly expecting this watch as a second screen for the phone and extra sensors, so if I want Alexa I can use the phone for that. But I use Alexa for my smarthome stuff and ability to control that through my watch would have been appreciated.

How is it after 35 years and 10+ versions, Windows support is still so shitty? Mrs. Nym's 2-year-old machine went into an Automatic Repair startup loop this afternoon, and I've spent all day troubleshooting it. It appears to be a boot file problem, but nothing's helped. And I've read and followed every article on the internet. Why did I have to figure out how to read a .txt in Command Prompt to find the possible issue? Why all the esoteric bullshit?

Gave up and am doing a repair installation now. If she lost any files she needed, one of us may literally not be alive in the morning. I hope it's me.

Sudy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:58 pm How is it after 35 years and 10+ versions, Windows support is still so shitty?

Because Windows' functionality is 60% running your computer and 40% maintaining Microsoft's business interests.

Sudy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:58 pm How is it after 35 years and 10+ versions, Windows support is still so shitty? Mrs. Nym's 2-year-old machine went into an Automatic Repair startup loop this afternoon, and I've spent all day troubleshooting it. It appears to be a boot file problem, but nothing's helped. And I've read and followed every article on the internet. Why did I have to figure out how to read a .txt in Command Prompt to find the possible issue? Why all the esoteric bullshit?

Gave up and am doing a repair installation now. If she lost any files she needed, one of us may literally not be alive in the morning. I hope it's me.

We had a computer at work conk out and go into an endless startup loop after a Windows update too, but using the restore function from within the Windows installer fixed it right up. Well, mostly - Edge still wouldn't start and we need that for Zoom meetings. It turns out you can't install Edge if it's already been installed and you can't uninstall Edge from Windows, so that was fun to fix.

I went through every possible recovery option including a lot of Command Prompt stuff I found online, but nothing worked, and I'd often get some kind of error that would just lead me down another rabbit hole. Amusingly, I managed to disable Automatic Repair from launching at one point (intentionally), but then couldn't re-enable it again even though I followed the correct steps and got a positive acknowledgment in Command Prompt. Frustratingly, I then realized I couldn't do a repair from the USB recovery disk I created. Thankfully, Dell has its own recovery utility that while not helpful in itself, allowed me to manually launch Automatic Repair.

Similar to the xkcd comic, I'd be reading Microsoft trouble tickets from years ago that went nowhere before abruptly ending when I presume the users gave up and repaired or reinstalled. They always start promisingly... "I have an error that says x". "We'd like you try these troubleshooting steps please." "OK I did that, but now I've got an error that says y". "Please see our linked guide to creating a recovery disk to reinstall Windows. Have a nice day!"

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 9:35 am

Sudy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:58 pm How is it after 35 years and 10+ versions, Windows support is still so shitty?

Because Windows' functionality is 60% running your computer and 40% maintaining Microsoft's business interests.

Actually, it's 40% running your computer and 60% maintaining compatibility with software that came out 35 years ago.

EvilHomer3k wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:57 am

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 9:35 am

Sudy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:58 pm How is it after 35 years and 10+ versions, Windows support is still so shitty?

Because Windows' functionality is 60% running your computer and 40% maintaining Microsoft's business interests.

Actually, it's 40% running your computer and 60% maintaining compatibility with software that came out 35 years ago.

And I'm glad they do. I still use Winamp for all my musical needs, and Paint Shop Pro 4.10 Shareware has been my favorite graphics program since 1996 (I eventually bought PSP 10, so don't shame me for using 25-year-old shareware). Both of those programs still do everything I want with minimal complexity. PSP 4 hasn't installed properly since Windows XP, but it still runs fine if you just copy the installed folder and launch the exe.

Honestly, it's quite amazing the job Microsoft has done maintaining compatibility for such a long time. I don't know of any tech company that's done that for such a long time on so many versions of the OS and so many different hardware configurations. The number of variations is truly mind boggling.

I recently changed my DSL provider... AT&T can only give me single channel DSL (18 down, 1.5 up) but Sonic will give me dual channel DSL (up to 60 down and 8 up, but in reality, more like 40 down and 4 up) for less. What's not to like?

The new DSL "modem" is by Pace and is also a MIMO antenna-less AC router. I also dusted off my old power-line network adapter to test if the wired connection is any faster. (connect one end to router, other end to AC outlet, run upstairs to plug one end into AC outlet and other end to ethernet port on PC).

Turns out the WIRED connection is quite a bit slower. I'm getting results anywhere from 9 to 11 Mbps down. I turned the Ethernet off and went to Wifi AC and I'm getting Speedtest from 23-28 Mbps down. :-\

Time to unplug that, I guess.

Kraken wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:11 pm
And I'm glad they do. I still use Winamp for all my musical needs, and Paint Shop Pro 4.10 Shareware has been my favorite graphics program since 1996 (I eventually bought PSP 10, so don't shame me for using 25-year-old shareware). Both of those programs still do everything I want with minimal complexity. PSP 4 hasn't installed properly since Windows XP, but it still runs fine if you just copy the installed folder and launch the exe.

if you ever want to get out of the unsupported projects, get foobar2k and skin that to look like WinAmp. foobar gets regular updates and new plugins.

and paint.net is a good free option for graphics editing, if you don't want to go the GiMP route

For ****s and giggles, I bought two "2 TB" flash drives from China for like $20.

What's surprising so far they actually did show up... And FakeFlashTest so far has went through the drive... and only got stuck in the last 5%. I suspect someone did some shenanigans internally to them. But I just want to see what they actually do put on these.

Just popped it apart. Controller's legit, but PID and VID are UNPROGRAMMED (it literally says VendorID) yet the capacity says 1.9TB or so.

I have a feeling these are much smaller, 64 GB or 128GB at most. None of the markings on the flash chip produced any usable results.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mtwBToxqeXZT74WZ6

Atomic Shrimp has done a few videos on these "2TB" flash drives.

Shenanigans.

A little Gizmodo article with a number of browser extensions for Chrome that kind of let you peel back the interwebs as you navigate around.

Does anybody have a recommendation for a cheap wireless keyboard? RF and Bluetooth are both fine. It doesn't need to be elaborate, as it will be used only occasionally for minor things - a search term, filling in a password, etc. Reliability, of course, is important, and small is better than big, as long as it has room to type comfortably.

I am not looking to spend much, as this is more of a utility deal than anything else.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Apr 16, 2021 4:57 pm Does anybody have a recommendation for a cheap wireless keyboard? RF and Bluetooth are both fine. It doesn't need to be elaborate, as it will be used only occasionally for minor things - a search term, filling in a password, etc. Reliability, of course, is important, and small is better than big, as long as it has room to type comfortably.

I am not looking to spend much, as this is more of a utility deal than anything else.

The Logitech mouse and keyboard combos are pretty cheap and as far as I can tell battery life is near infinite. I wouldn't necessarily want to type an essay on them, but I use one for my HTPC and it's fine.

If you already have a Logitech Mouse, I believe you don't need a second receiver to add a keyboard.

I have several Bluetooth keyboards, from Anker, from Epomaker, and from Uh... Royal Kludge "RK". They all work fine. The Anker is basically a clone of the Apple keyboard, same layout, IIRC, but works cross-platform. The other two are mechanical and can work as both wired and wireless.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0096M8VR2/ You can find keyboards looking exactly the same for $17, 19, whatever. I believe they do take two AAA batteries.

HOWEVER, if this is for a home media PC, I bought my dad this one: mouse/keyboard combo. Technically a trackpad. But whatever. He had a previous one, but it lasted about 2 years before the trackpad stopped tracking. This one is probably the simplest as it comes with its own battery (just recharge MicroUSB occasionally) and has its own dongle included.

For grins, I installed Windows Subsystem for Linux, so I now have a true Ubuntu Bash prompt while I run Windows.

Actually got my system corrupted slightly had had to reboot and DISM repair and few things. But it booted fine now. Took me a few hours though.

There are a couple things I want to try in Linux that's not possible on WIndows.