Computer help requests

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Classic
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Classic » Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:40 pm

Thanks for those tips. Managed to fix the problem!
Good news I am not fucked!

Story follows:

So after blowing out my comically gross case I put the machine on using the mobo gpu. No problems. I plug the Radeon card back in (with MSIAfterburner on) and find problems start basically immediately as the fans start spinning. Theory becomes that the fan is spinning so hard and the card is so overweight that it's jiggling itself loose from the mount.

Another few pounds of air to even more thoroughly dust the filthy card, and some more effort to make sure it's mounted properly and securely I start the rig again and notice that Radeon's gamer optimizer stuff is on and trying to optimize shaders for the card. I turn that shit off and it works without problems even when I use afterburner to spin up the fan to max speed.

... So basically radeon's optimization stuff managed to completely fuck my rig for a while and I was a dope for not noticing. OR... I managed to go for 3+ years with a crappily mounted graphics card and just now fixed it to no immediate detriment!

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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Fri Oct 19, 2018 6:48 pm

So my grandma apparently fell for a ransomware scam. I think it'll be OK (I'll go over after work, reinstall the OS, and restore from Time Machine), but can anybody recommend good ransomware protection for Mac?

I'm seeing some good reviews for Sophos.

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hngkong
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby hngkong » Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:53 am

Is there a tool that I could point to a folder and it would compare all of the files in that folder to all of the other files in that folder? I know the diff command in Linux can compare files, but I would need it to be automated and preferably for Windows?

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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Fri May 24, 2019 1:51 pm

Had a power outage yesterday, after which my main desktop wouldn't boot.

It turned out not to be a big deal (fsck fixed it), but it did get me thinking a UPS might be a good idea. Preferably one that can tell my computer it's on battery power so it can shut down gracefully.

Any recommendations?

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Grath
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Grath » Fri May 24, 2019 9:47 pm

I had a pair of Powercom KING PRO KIN-2200AP that I bought in 2014, which lasted until 2018 and then kicked the bucket. I ended up buying some Cyberpower UPSes (CP1500PFCLCD, OR1500PFCLCD) to replace them.

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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:43 am

So as you've probably guessed by now, I do not trust The Cloud. However, it is the year 2020 and I would very much like for my data to sync from my phone to my desktop to my laptop to my HTPC to my other HTPC to my tablet to my other tablet to my ebook reader to my other laptop and look the point is I have a fuck of a lot of networked devices.

I've got Nextcloud set up on a Rockstor server in my house. I've had no end of trouble with it and I'm pretty close to throwing my hands up.

If I do want to explore setting up a remote filesync server on someone else's metal (possibly still using Nextcloud but, presumably, without all the fiddling I have to do to run it on my own machine), are there any good, trustworthy, reasonably-priced remote servers where I can set up a VM? Amazon and Google are right out and I'm not thrilled at the thought of going with Microsoft, either.

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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Fri Aug 07, 2020 7:57 pm

Anybody know a way to contact whoever's maintaining a menu on DoorDash and tell them it's wrong?

The menu for my favorite local middle-eastern food place is missing several items* and it's driving me nuts.

(I'd just call the restaurant, but I suspect it's not the actual restaurant owners themselves who set up the page -- because presumably they'd have gotten their own menu right.)

* at a glance: babaganouj, the Greek salad, and the chicken shawerma sandwich -- and I don't want to order a beef shawerma sandwich and put "chicken shawerma" in the special instructions because I've had enough online orders where people completely ignore the special instructions

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Mongrel
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Mongrel » Fri Aug 07, 2020 8:29 pm

Uh, DoorDash is scum and usually (as in, literally more than half the time, according to most reports) their listings for restaurants are unauthorized and often completely unknown to the restaurant owner, with employees going so far as to order food for takeout under the pretense that they themselves are the customer.

Your suspicion that they didn't set up that page themselves? Yeah. All the food delivery guys are awful, but especially them. Please don't use DoorDash.
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby IGNORE ME » Fri Aug 07, 2020 8:42 pm

DoorDash is notorious for being the worst offender, but as far as I'm aware all of the gig-economy delivery services are like that. GrubHub at least has a particular tier of service (GrubHub+) that requires buy-in from the actual restaurant, so you can filter on that - whether you actually subscribe to the service or not - and be reasonably assured that the restaurant actually knows that your order is going through a third party courier.

GrubHub is bad for restaurants in... other ways, but again, that GH+ filter at least kind of implies that it's something the restaurant made a decision about.

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Mongrel
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Mongrel » Fri Aug 07, 2020 9:03 pm

Oh yeah, they're all pretty terrible. Just asking to, please, at least don't use the very worst offender.

I actually can't stand gig delivery service sto the point where we've ordered in through one maybe... twice? three times? this year.

It's also frustrating that some owners who might otherwise have their own delivery service feel pressured to join a delivery service to "stay competitive" (even though a significant proportion of sales through those services represent a wash, if not an outright loss for restaurant owners). I'd much rather pay twice as much to some local dork working for the place. Damned hard to find places where you can do this!
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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:36 am

Mongrel wrote:Uh, DoorDash is scum and usually (as in, literally more than half the time, according to most reports) their listings for restaurants are unauthorized and often completely unknown to the restaurant owner, with employees going so far as to order food for takeout under the pretense that they themselves are the customer.

Your suspicion that they didn't set up that page themselves? Yeah. All the food delivery guys are awful, but especially them. Please don't use DoorDash.

Yeah, I get that but there's a pandemic on and I'm not leaving the house except to go to the doctor and nobody else offers delivery from Haji Baba. I looked.

It's a shitty situation but refusing to patronize one of my favorite local businesses for the indeterminate future because DoorDash sucks is something of a cutting-off-the-nose-to-spite-the-face solution to the dilemma.

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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Mongrel » Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:40 am

If they're ripping off Haji Baba without Haji Baba's knowledge, that's not really benefiting them and I don't see how refusing to participate in that is spiting anyone but DoorDash.

I mean, it's a bit of effort, but you could try calling them and see if they even know they're listed on DoorDash.

Or shit, just call and ask if they deliver - they'll either say "no", "yeah, use DoorDash" (with a slim possibility of "yeah we have a guy", but if that was the case you'd probably already know that).
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Grath
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Grath » Sat Aug 08, 2020 11:16 am

Mongrel wrote:If they're ripping off Haji Baba without Haji Baba's knowledge, that's not really benefiting them and I don't see how refusing to participate in that is spiting anyone but DoorDash.

I mean, it's a bit of effort, but you could try calling them and see if they even know they're listed on DoorDash.

Or shit, just call and ask if they deliver - they'll either say "no", "yeah, use DoorDash" (with a slim possibility of "yeah we have a guy", but if that was the case you'd probably already know that).

If they don't know they're on DoorDash, there's no way they're giving random people ordering take-out discounts. If anything, it means Thad is paying substantially more and/or DoorDash is covering the difference with their own money.

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Mongrel
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Mongrel » Sat Aug 08, 2020 2:12 pm

Well, if DoorDash is doing their underpricing scheme, the better to tell Haji Baba, so they can get down on some of that sweet sweet Pizza Arbitrage.
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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Sun Aug 09, 2020 2:47 pm

Grath wrote:
Mongrel wrote:If they're ripping off Haji Baba without Haji Baba's knowledge, that's not really benefiting them and I don't see how refusing to participate in that is spiting anyone but DoorDash.

I mean, it's a bit of effort, but you could try calling them and see if they even know they're listed on DoorDash.

Or shit, just call and ask if they deliver - they'll either say "no", "yeah, use DoorDash" (with a slim possibility of "yeah we have a guy", but if that was the case you'd probably already know that).

If they don't know they're on DoorDash, there's no way they're giving random people ordering take-out discounts. If anything, it means Thad is paying substantially more and/or DoorDash is covering the difference with their own money.


Yeah, it's that. By the time I pay the delivery fee and the driver tip, I'm paying twice what I would if I bought it at the counter myself. Which isn't ideal, but still not a bad price because this is a place where you can get a damn good meal for under five bucks.

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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Sat Aug 22, 2020 8:42 pm

Haji Baba is on Postmates now; I swear it wasn't two weeks ago. And they have the correct menu. Our long national nightmare is over.

...except I would find this out after they're already closed. Phoenicia Cafe it is.

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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:11 pm

What's a good news aggregator site? Ideally one where I can mute not just specific sources (Fox News, Breitbart, and frankly fuck the NYT and Newsweek at this point) but particular topics (I don't care about sports and while I'm okay with the topics of entertainment and health in theory, the vast majority of articles in those sections are gossip about who Brad Pitt is dating and sensationalistic misrepresentations of recent medical studies, respectively).

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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Mon Sep 07, 2020 2:06 pm

Thad wrote:What's a good news aggregator site?

Trying out News360. You start by training it by checking off your interests from a list that...isn't exactly up-to-date. I was amused when I saw "Xbox 360" and "Wii" categories but "Xbox One" and "Nintendo Switch" were nowhere to be seen, but that's nothing compared to the "Timely Marvel Comics" category (Marvel was called "Timely" in the 1940s).

I don't expect to be seeing much news in the "Steve Jobs" category, either.

All in all, the algorithm does not fill me with confidence at the start. This is the image they have for the "RPG" category:

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Here's the one for "Board Games":

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And this is the one for "Beer":

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Re: Computer help requests

Postby IGNORE ME » Mon Sep 07, 2020 5:04 pm

I'm sure someone in Laguna Niguel has made a beer out of that.

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Thad
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Re: Computer help requests

Postby Thad » Wed Sep 09, 2020 1:47 pm

I've been trying News360 for the past couple of days. I don't like the way it's organized (infinite scroll), and not only do I have to do the usual pruning of sources like Fox News and Breitbart, there's even fringier shit I've never heard of that I'm having to stamp out.

I appreciate that it's got more granular controls on muting not just sources but topics -- clicking "I don't like David Brooks" made me unreasonably happy -- but I still wish there was a way I could block, say, all headlines that begin with a numeral, or "Trump" followed by a verb.

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