Computer help requests

[Mongrel]

I have deliberately maintained an older iteration of Firefox in order to preserve certain legacy browsing and file-management extensions which are very useful to me but which are no longer supported by their makers.

My FF install is old enough that some browsing is starting to break (site loading issues, etc.) so I want to try and updating to the current version to see what tradeoff I have to take here.

However, it was a giant pain in the ass the first time I had to revert to an older FF update in order to get everything working again. What's the best way for me to backup my entire current idiosyncratic FF install? It may turn out that I will simply need to maintain a dual browser install (Chrome and my legacy FF) in order to access everything in an effective manner, so I would like to be able to revert if needed.

I tried googling for an answer but all I get is the basic instructions on how to do a profile backup,not something where I'm trying to preserve my actual current install, including version.

[Jokes about "install Chrome, stupid!" or whatever here]

[sei]

You can still get out-of-date addons to load via by disabling addon compatibility checking (using this addon, or some others). You can also edit the Firefox addon's version compatibility number for each addon you'd like to be able to load.

[Mongrel]

Oh keen. That seems like a much better solution than continuing to cling to an outdated browser.

[sei]

Yes. Now if only you could pass that attitude on to the numerous shitty IT departments that have people on things like old versions of IE...

[Mongrel]

Like, say, the telecom company I work for.

It's one of the things that makes me laugh most about work: That we're stuck on a crippled version of IE8 as our default browser and our own company website tells us we're using an outdated, unsupported browser. (and yes, the site actually doesn't work at all in IE8)

Our department actually got permission to install Chrome, but I still have to use IE for about a half-dozen company legacy programs.

[Grath]

IBM still uses version control software which has been obsolete since the mid-90s.

[beatbandito]

Going off PC World's recommendation I decided to try out Commodo anti-virus. It must have fucked something up royaly in the registry because now I can't access system restore, even in safe mode, and even Windows repair from boot doesn't start properly. Hell, I can't even shutdown windows one booted, it hangs after logging out and I need to hard shutdown.

Without a recovery disk, what options do I have to try and get things working?

[Thad]

Uninstalling Comodo probably won't do any good at this point but I don't suppose it could hurt. Other than that, I guess see what they've got in the way of support or forums and see if anyone else has had this problem and knows what to do about it?

If it does come down to having to nuke it from orbit and start over, I don't think you can get a Windows 7 installation disk at retail anymore, but Win 8.1 with Classic Shell isn't bad, if Win8's in your budget. You can always get your files off by booting from a Linux LiveCD (Knoppix is the original and still a good choice but virtually every Linux distro has a live boot you can download now) and copying to an external hard drive/network drive/what-have-you.

[beatbandito]

So after hours of trying to eliminate files and redownload missing .dlls it turns out the issue is with one of my hard drives. Whenever its connected it slows attempts to catalog, search or alter any files beyond a crawl.

I have it connected to my laptop right now and everything is showing up here. I was a bit quick to accuse Commodo, but it sucks anyway so whatever. Not sure exactly what caused it, but as soon as I can get a system to recognize the HD again this should be easier to fix.

[beatbandito]

The closest thing I can find to the issue seems to say my drive's read/write head is faulty. Basically all functionality gets caught up whenever it's attached. Trying to run a chkdsk or even just view the files wont fail, but go into loading purgatory and not respond until I detach the drive, at which point everything will immediately resolve.

Don't know if its worth going professional to recover the data, since it was basically all steam stuff and easily available to download again. Still, I was so damn close to the climax of Kotor 2.

[Grath]

Uninstalling Comodo probably won't do any good at this point but I don't suppose it could hurt. Other than that, I guess see what they've got in the way of support or forums and see if anyone else has had this problem and knows what to do about it?

If it does come down to having to nuke it from orbit and start over, I don't think you can get a Windows 7 installation disk at retail anymore, but Win 8.1 with Classic Shell isn't bad, if Win8's in your budget. You can always get your files off by booting from a Linux LiveCD (Knoppix is the original and still a good choice but virtually every Linux distro has a live boot you can download now) and copying to an external hard drive/network drive/what-have-you.

FYI - I got a Win7 install disk from Newegg back in June/July when I was building my current computer because I didn't feel like Win8.

[Thad]

Looks like they've still got retail versions, yeah. Don't know if they've still got OEM versions or not; I don't see any at a glance but they may require you to buy a hard drive or something before they let you select it as an option.

[Thad]

SO.

I'm trying to get back to recording audiobooks.

I've got the deck (an M-Audio Firewire Solo) mostly working now, but I can't get real-time audio through my headphones when I'm recording.

Audacity refers to this as "hardware playthrough", and says that it doesn't actually work on Macs and hasn't for years. (I can make software playthrough work. For values of "work" where it does that thing where you hear your own voice on a slight delay and can't keep talking.)

Audacity suggests that this is an OSX-level problem, but I swear it worked right in Pro Tools when I did it two years ago. (And I probably would have been using 10.7.5 then, same as now.) Granted, I did the bulk of my recording on an old-ass G4 Mac Mini (which I don't have anymore), which would certainly have been running a much older version of OSX (I think I got Leopard to run on it even though it wasn't officially supported), but I'm almost certain I recorded my first audition on the Mac Pro, before switching to the Mini.

Wonder if it would work in GarageBand. And I wonder if I have an old version of GarageBand sitting around here somewhere, given that Apple now only distributes software through the App Store, and responds to anyone who needs older versions with a hearty "Fuck you," because version control is for Linux users.

(And my plan to make Yosemite run on my old Mac Pro is not currently under consideration, not just because the installer didn't work but also because my recording deck is not supported past 10.7. Technically it's not even supported in 10.7.5, but the 10.7.4 driver seems to work okay, aside from the latency issue, which doesn't appear to have anything to do with the driver anyway.)

Installing Windows on my Mac is still an option but sort of makes me wince. Using the deck on my other desktop (which already has Windows on it) would require me to buy a Firewire card for it, which seems silly. (And while Audacity runs under Linux, I have my doubts that the Firewire Solo will. I never could get the Firewire 1814 to.)

tl;dr I don't suppose anybody knows anything about voice recording on an 8-year-old Mac?

[Thad]

I found an old copy of Garageband somewhere.

At a glance it looks like it's more than adequate for simple voice recording. Once I turn off all the music-specific shit.

Going to have to fuck around with the levels a bit; I could hear my voice in my ears and there was no latency but it was quiet. But a quick mic check suggests this might work out.

I am considering auditioning for Bash Command Line Protips. Though I really can't imagine anyone other than blind people would actually have any use for an audiobook describing command line syntax.



ETA: I looked for books with "dinosaur" in the title just to see if those gay dinosaur sex novels Mongrel was talking about were looking for narrators. Because that would either be hilarious or totally crush my soul. Possibly both.

Didn't find anybody, but someone DID write a book called Billy and the Cloneasaurus.

(Amazon links, as always, are affiliate links.)

[Mongrel]

Our new modem is a Smart rg-360. The default password and login for direct connection are, of-fucking-course, an incredibly stupid default. I would prefer to change this, but I've gone through every menu and googled answers for a while and it does not in fact appear that this is something that can be changed, at least not in an obvious or straightforward way that I can find. There IS a changeable username/password in one section, but that's specifically for managing the gateway and has to do with your ISP account name.

Now the wireless connection has a separate password, an actual real one. So that's not what I'm talking about. This is only for the direct hardwired connection, where I just type the 192.168.1.1 address into my browser. I guess if someone establishes a wireless connection they could go to that address as well, but they'd have to have the wireless password first.

Any suggestions on how I might change that? It shouldn't have any effect on our connection, I mean, it's just the password to directly access the modem's firmware. Or do we not need to bother and just focus on making sure the wireless is secure? (it also doesn't seem to have any place for me to assign a name to our wireless).

[Kayma]

I don't suppose you can SSH to it? Might be able to change it through shell. Probably not what you're supposed to do, though

[Mongrel]

Ha, I probably wouldn't know how.

[Classic]

I need to walk away from this for a while, but if you have any ideas I'd be pleased to hear it.
USB- WD Passport flash drive currently fails to detect on it's old USB port on the case. Port continues to work with other, presumably equally power-hungry devices. Worked on another, less convenient port attached more directly to the mobo.
New hardware detected "dun-duh" sounds repeatedly, approximately 10s apart, while plugged in to case USB port.

This series seems to have similar problems.

[Blossom]

Anyone have any experience with running 100% of network traffic through a VPN, maybe can recommend a provider? I want something that won't cost me speed and not be a hassle to use.

[beatbandito]

Bluetooth issues.

Saturday my bluetooth dongle stopped recognizing my ps3 controller I switched usb ports and tried resyncing and my computer stopped recognizing the dongle. I figured it crapped out since it was a cheap $5 piece I got off a shady site so I got a new one from Best Buy.

When I plugged in the new one my computer wouldn't make the new device noise but instead something that sounded more like the disconnect noise (but not). The computer recognized it was plugged in but it would be unable to find the proper drivers. It's a broadcom device and when I try using their installer it craps out immediately after downloading the driver package saying there was an issue.

After messing around for a while I finally deleted every bluetooth, motionjoy or controller driver on my machine and I was able to download a different version of the drivers from a third party site.

Now my computer once again has a bluetooth tab in device manager and I have the icon in my task manager, but ds3tool doesn't recognize it yet. Any tips or recommendations?