@TimeBandit Which proves that this isn’t a Linux support/help forum. It also proves that despite the initial impression this forum gives, not everyone on here is a self-righteous arsehole :)
Best posts made by Gurth
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RE: We need to be more user hostile to help them embrace freedom!
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RE: Internet of shit
@tsaukpaetra said in Internet of shit:
https://www.bungajungle.com/products/nope-microphone-blocker?variant=37981010117
$25 for a plug with a few resistors soldered to the pins.
No, you got that all wrong:
$25 for two plugs with a few resistors soldered to the pins!
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Stick to emulators
TL;DR: Save yourself a lot of hassle by running your favourite old software in an emulator instead of on an actual, old computer
I’ve got a couple of old computers, that I occasionally get out of their storage crate and play around with — a ZX Spectrum, a Commodore 64, a few Amigas, a Macintosh Plus, and one or two others. Last week, I decided to get with the times and buy me some SD cardreaders for the Spectrum and C64.
Two days ago, my SD2IEC arrived from The Future Was 8Bit, so after downloading a bunch of stuff from a C64 archive site, I took out the computer, monitor, etc. and set everything up.
Nothing. I couldn’t get a picture on the screen — so was I using the right cable? I’d not used the C64 for so long that I wasn’t sure I was using the right cable from those in my old computers crate. After trying all possible ones, no luck. Let’s try an old, manually-tuned CRT TV, then. Nothing — I couldn’t find the C64’s blue screen anywhere with the tuner. But if I hooked the ZX Spectrum up to that TV, it worked fine. Okay.
Without changing the TV’s tuning, I unplugged the Spectrum and connected the C64. That resulted in a black screen, with no static, so it seems like both send their signals at the same frequency. Hmm … so it looks like the C64 does send a video signal, but there’s no data. (This was impossible to tell with the monitor because it shows a black screen rather than static when it gets no signal.)
It turns out, after doing some research, that a C64 giving a black screen is an indicator that certain chips are damaged … fuck.
The most common culprit is apparently a PLA that has a number of functions. Luckily, I have a second C64 that was already inoperative long before I got given it (something had burned through inside). Simple solution: open them both up and swap the chips. That turned out to be not so simple because on the damaged C64, the PLA was soldered into place, while it's in a socket on the other one. Typical.
Careful unsoldering got the chip out, but putting it into the other machine still didn’t produce any change. Next suspect: the VIC-II (video) chip, which apparently is always socket-mounted on C64s, so that was simple enough.
That’s the replacement VIC-II chip at the top (in the socket) and the original below. This produced a partial result: the computer did give off a video signal, but it was basically a new, random colour on the whole screen every time I turned it off and on again.
The obvious thing to do was see if the original PLA was good after all, and lo and behold, it was. I had a working C64 again! This is the point where I probably should have just closed up the computer and played games on it.
Instead, I decided to try and safeguard it against going wrong in future, since these problems are usually caused by the chips getting too hot. Brill
Iant plan …One of the C64 repair sites showed heat sinks on four of the chips, so I decided to copy that on the assumption they know what they’re doing (unlike me). Lacking any purpose-designed heat sinks, I improvised by cutting some lengths of aluminium U-channel to fit the chips. Then it turned out I didn’t have any thermal paste anymore, so that meant a trip into town. Buy some, put it on the heat sinks, stick them to the chips, and wait for the stuff to harden so the heat sinks stay in place — no worries.
Except that to a computer shop, apparently “thermal paste” is synonymous with “thermal grease”. Not a problem if you’ve got a factory-designed heat sink with a nice clamp to keep it in place, I guess, but a definite problem for me since this computer isn’t going to be stored horizontally. Fuck.
A little thinking and discussion later, I decided to wire them into place. There’s room under the chips to pass a wire, so all I’d need to do is do that and twist the ends together to secure the heat sink. You’d think.
The copper wire I used (it’s varnished, as it’s from an old transformer or something, so it shouldn’t short-circuit the chips — I hope) turns out to snap fairly easily if you tighten it too much, which meant seven attempts for four chips. Worse was that the thermal grease of course got squashed out from under the heat sink, and since it contains silver, I certainly didn’t want it touching any of the pins. In the end the CPU had to come out, the heat sink off, all the grease removed by washing the whole thing in toluene-based paint thinner, and then I could put it back in and re-attach the heat sink but with less grease under it. On the other three chips I managed to scrape the excess grease up and away from the pins with the blade of a No. 11 hobby knife.
The heat-sinked chips in the picture above are the VIC-II on upper left, PLA in the middle at the top, SID (sound chip) in the middle below, and CPU at right.
But did it still work or had my attempted repairs damaged it even further?
*phew *
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RE: What's an image file?
@BernieTheBernie Even more added value is that they used this feature to crop a photograph in portrait format to landscape (see the little rectangles on the lower right) and then used the phone to turn it back to portrait!
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RE: Internet of shit
@dkf Well, you are really just a glorified typist, aren’t you? Just like an airline pilot is little more than a glorified bus driver — the bus driver might actually be doing more than the airline pilot for the same amount of time of controlling the vehicle … Do you type as much as a secretary?
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RE: I hate printers, with a passion
@Arantor said in I hate printers, with a passion:
Is that a printer that can also play Doom?
It prints out the scene on a new sheet of A4 every time something changes. Like when you move.
You can then take the sheets from the printer, photograph them on a wooden table, scan the photographs and stick them together into a Flash animation that you export to MP4, in order to stream the game to your followers on social media.
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Spam prevention
This is a captcha I encountered on a web site’s contact form:
Other than it always claiming the answer is wrong, regardless of the calculation it posts, I was a bit curious to its effectiveness against bots, so I decided to run that screenshot through OCR:
(3+3)-0= 6 Correct captcha is required
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RE: Delphi - the moral AI
@Jaloopa So did they name it after the language they wrote it in?
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RE: WTF Bites
We put in a €20 of local currency and tried to scan it. Not only did it refuse the scan, but locked down the whole device.
Photoshop also refuses to open images that contain it. I just looked for scans of €20 notes, and found this one:
Dragging it onto Photoshop’s icon produces:
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Want to unlock someone else’s phone? Use a screen protector.
TL;DR: You can unlock a Samsung Galaxy S10 with any fingerprint if it’s got a silicone screen protector that also covers the fingerprint sensor.
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RE: Tales from Coronavee-rooss Italy, mamma mia!
@Zerosquare I noticed this bit:
Does that mean that these e-mails I keep getting:
(“Your account has been suspended” “Your subscription to Norton Antivirus Software has expired!” etc.) are not true⁈⁉︎‽
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RE: Internet of shit
@LaoC Or:
goes into town ASAP to buy a lifetime’s worth of bakelite light switches, then goes back for some more
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RE: Nostalgic for the Emacs/Vim wars of old?
@DogsB What I’m really waiting for, is a web browser that you have to use by flipping toggle switches on the computer’s front console, and that blinks a bank of red LEDs there to show you the page.
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RE: The Belt Onion club
@boomzilla No, they did care. They just weren’t, as a rule, trying to shield you from absolutely everything that could possibly hurt in even the slightest way. A caption that does fit this image is: “My parents weren’t trying to create a generation that doesn’t know how to deal with disappointment.”
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RE: Not YouGov this time: You <b>must</b> have travelled more than 200 miles..
That reminds me of a government survey I took a few years ago, which among other questions asked about the places where I feel unsafe:
Most aren’t important, but number 7 reads “in your own home?” and the second-to-last column is headed “Not applicable: I never go there” …
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RE: Looking for advice: Migrating to US or Europe
@sockpuppet7 said in Looking for advice: Migrating to US or Europe:
@medialint said in Looking for advice: Migrating to US or Europe:
I might be pursuaded to believe in the possibilities of UFOs
Anything that flies and wasn't identified is an UFO
When UFOs come up in conversation (which, I admit, is not often), I usually mention the time I saw some. Since they have come up now, I think I’ll do so here as well. I was out in the countryside, looked off to one side, and saw some flying things I couldn’t identify immediately. After a few seconds, I realised they were paragliders. In those few seconds between spotting them and working out what they were, I was looking at UFOs.
Most people I tell this to dismiss it as not a UFO story …
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RE: Tsaukpaetra explores his newfound power of Discourse
@anotherusername It’s not like a site admin in desperate need of an alibi couldn’t do that by changing the database directly anyway.
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Edge for Mac
After apparently reaching the conclusion that Windows users complaining about Edge isn’t enough, Microsoft is now also trying to foist it on Mac users.
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RE: Internet of shit
@cvi said in Internet of shit:
If you really need to blow fuses, build a short circuited plug.
Or do like someone I vaguely knew a long time ago. In the school we both went to, the physics classrooms had fixed desks with a 220 V electrical socket built into the vertical part. He apparently got into a fair bit of trouble for, during class, taking two Parker pen fillings:—
… inserting one into each of the two holes in the socket, and dropping a third onto them.
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RE: Internet of shit
@Parody said in Internet of shit:
Sadly, my microwave doesn't have a button for "listen to the bag and stop when the popping slows down in case I'm not right next to the microwave at the time." Sounds like an opportunity for those Alexa-based microwaves, though!
Clearly what it needs is an RFID chip embedded in the popcorn packet and a reader in the microwave, so it can know the URL from which to retrieve information on at what setting and how long to heat the popcorn.
A better solution, though, as far as I’m concerned, is to simply get rid of popcorn altogether.
If you put butter and salt on it, it tastes like salty butter.
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RE: Oh look, another internet company lets its ego get in the way of everything
@pie_flavor said in Oh look, another internet company lets its ego get in the way of everything:
@coderpatsy said in Oh look, another internet company lets its ego get in the way of everything:
@blakeyrat I only go to reddit for a few subreddits for specific games. They basically use reddit as free (and convenient if you already have an account) forum hosting, if they're not fan created/maintained to begin with.
That's the entire point of reddit.
That’s exactly what a batshit crazy person would say.
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RE: Internet of shit
@TimeBandit said in Internet of shit:
Get on with the times, it's
20192020 after allWe never had stuff this advanced in the 2020 I’m used to.
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RE: Regex confessions/regex challenge
@Bulb said in Regex confessions/regex challenge:
- Try to guess what it does
Drive people crazy trying to figure it out.
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RE: NodeBB for older browsers
@tania_v said in NodeBB for older browsers:
Recently, I have been thinking about the paradox: why a reasonable person always commits unreasonable actions. My actions regarding NodeBB are being carried out within the framework of this project
Am I the only one here who thinks that Discourse might be a better candidate for study in this regard?
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RE: WTF Bites
you could swipe your badge for someone else, it would really have to be a deliberate action.
Arrange for one person to go to the office every day and take the badges of all those who CBA.
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RE: Do people actually like poor quality user interfaces?
@Zenith said in Do people actually like poor quality user interfaces?:
- Why don't sites underline regular links anymore?
My guess is because underlining is ugly and should be avoided — or so typography guides say. That seems to be more important than the functionality provided by underlining links.
- Why can't we just have actual buttons for actions instead of styled links?
[snip] - Why do people reinvent the selectbox if they're not going to do anything that the browser's built-in selectbox can't do?
- Why do some sites render checkmarks and radiomarks the same way?
I’ve long had the feeling that people learning web development today are taught that HTML is some necessary evil that allows JavaScript to be used to actually implement things in. So they don’t look to see if there is a standard HTML tag that does what they want, but instead fall back to very basic elements and roll their own functionality from them.
My biggest complaint in this department is constructions such as:—
<a onclick="openLink('http://example.org')">Click me!</a>
or even better, something like:—
<a data-myURL="http://example.org">Click me!</a>
None of these break standard link functionality at all, of course …
- Why didn't anybody involved with HTML standards ever make table headers/footers fixed so the rest of the rows could scroll?
When I first heard about the
TBODY
etc. tags (having been using tables in HTML from long before these tags were introduced), I thought that was exactly the functionality they would provide, or at least allow to be easily implemented. I was disappointed soon after.- Why did non-IE browsers fight against a modal/blocking dialog window?
Blocking the whole program? No, thanks.
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RE: I hate printers, with a passion
@Gąska said in I hate printers, with a passion:
there's still no such thing as a cheap knockoff printer with cheap ink.
Technically not entirely an answer to the question as asked, but many brand-name printers are the cheap variety — or at least, sold at unprofitable margins (if not at a loss) because the ink sales will make up for it.
You can buy cheap ink, no problem. What is frequently a problem is getting your printer to accept that particular flavour instead of the one its manufacturer approves.
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RE: Scammers putting in more effort these days
It’s certainly more effort than was put into the spam I got yesterday:
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RE: Internet of shit
Speaking to Forbes, he confessed: "No one asked for smartness, for the smart home."
No, no one sat at home and pleaded: "Why can't I draw my drapes by tapping my phone without getting up?”
Well, no, they probably didn’t. But a hundred years ago, nobody sat at home and pleaded: “Why can’t I turn up the heating to a comfortable temperature and have it stay like that?”
One of the things that we've been spending a lot of time on is how do we rethink the privacy model.
How about not collecting and cross-referencing information unless it’s clearly necessary for the service being supplied, and discarding it when it’s no longer needed? No, wait, that would be too simple and not profitable.
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RE: Funny Placenames
I don’t think I’ve ever been there, but I doubt it lives up to its name:
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RE: Internet of shit
@remi said in Internet of shit:
Have you ever actually managed to get different pictures using the HDR mode of your phone?
Yes. I like photographing clouds if I see interesting ones, and turning on HDR mode results in obvious changes in colour, glare, etc. It’s especially obvious when you’re taking a picture against the sun:
Normal on the left (or at the top, I suppose, depending on your window width), HDR on the right (or below).
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RE: Fitting a Round Logo in a Square Space
Here’s my attempt at solving the problem:
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Amazon’s left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing
The day before yesterday, Amazon sent me this email:
Fine, I had bought a few books by this author before, and yes, I was interested in this one too. However, about a week ago, that same Amazon had emailed me about this:
After which I had re-ordered the book because even though it got returned, I do want to read it.
It’s also a bit puzzling why they refunded the first order instead of re-sending it and notifying me there would be a delay. The explanation of the refund doesn’t say why it was returned, only giving a number of typical reasons, and the book I re-ordered arrived yesterday at the exact same address I’d used for the first attempt. Yes, one day after they asked me if I was interested in this book …
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RE: Internet of shit
@topspin said in Internet of shit:
@DCoder said in Internet of shit:
@dkf said in Internet of shit:
@Akko said in Internet of shit:
A tank going 120 km/h would be fun (in the Dwarf Fortress sense) right up until the first bend
A tank going 120 km/h would demonstrate fun regard for the bend too.
Probably moreso if it was this behemoth from Red Alert 2:
THE INSTRUMENT OF DOOM!
Nah, that’s this:
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RE: Internet of shit
@Akko said in Internet of shit:
A tank going 120 km/h would be fun (in the Dwarf Fortress sense) right up until the first bend XD
Well, there’s always the case of the Leopard that did 80 km/h backwards …
During hot-weather testing of a prototype in the 1960s in Italy, test equipment in the engine compartment failed and jammed the brake system, which was discovered when the tank crested a 150-meter hill. It came to a halt after 1.3 km, having made jumps of up to 40 meters along the way.
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RE: Internet of shit
@topspin I think there’s a common problem with a lot of things that are now computerised but weren’t in their original form: the companies that make them are not computer companies. Apple, Microsoft and, I suppose, Google have computer UI pretty well down, but almost everyone else who sells devices that are basically computers in disguise, seems to do some combination of 1) copying PC or phone UI, and 2) completely original ideas that may make sense to them but not to anyone used to any other kind of device. Testing the device’s UI with actual users who haven’t been taught how to seems to happen exactly never.
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RE: Seriously Word, WTF
This is why you should create RTF files by hand in your favourite text editor, of course.
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RE: Application prefs, the Adobe way
Let me necromance this thread because I just discovered a new bit of settings manipulation that’s very similar but even more weird.
When you install InDesign, it gets localised to your system’s default language, which is not unexpected. InDesign of course doesn’t use the standard macOS localisation method,¹ but instead has a folder with titles corresponding to the localisation somewhere in its installation folder (not inside the app package). So, the folder
nl_NL
will obviously contain the files needed for Dutch localisation, and inside it are files with names in Dutch.Fine, so if I want to change the app to another language, I would need to find a version of that folder for my desired language, I suppose.
Nope. What you do is just rename the folder to the code for the language you want and restart the program — done, it’s now in that language.
(This is not the official method: that is to uninstall the whole program, then go to the Adobe Creative Cloud app, change your desired language there and re-install the program. This seems a little cumbersome.)
¹ It does have
.lproj
folders inside the app package, but each of those contains exactly one thing: a file namedlocals.strings
that is 2 bytes in size, and with contentsFFFE
in hex. Your guess to what these are for, is as good as mine. -
RE: The oldest person "alive"
@DogsB That’s a less serious version of what my father once mentioned he was told as part of first aid training during his military service: “To you, a casualty is not dead unless his head is separated from his body.”
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RE: Venmo social feed is dumb
@timebandit said in Venmo social feed is dumb:
@pie_flavor said in Venmo social feed is dumb:
I said , not .
Everybody knows we use Monopoly money here
Unlike American money, Monopoly money at least comes in different colours so you can tell at a glance which is which.
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Audacity and filenames
Playing with Audacity yesterday to create some Ogg files, I noticed something strange. If I do this:
I get a directory and a file (for raisins, probably):
Though that unexpected directory isn’t actually what this post is about. Now export to Ogg with no change to the filename, except for the extension:
Yet exporting to MP3 and WAV doesn’t seem to have a problem with the accented characters:
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RE: Internet of shit
@hungrier said in Internet of shit:
I don’t think I want to be near anything that can cause a saber to ignite, and most certainly not when I have my trousers down.