Computerus

[Thad]

I went into my local Staples yesterday and they got that price for me, plus free shipping to my house.

Of course, then it was $5 less on Amazon today.

(I DID consider getting that giant Kensington trackball today when it was down to $50 but decided that was probably unnecessary.)

[Thad]

...damn, I don't think this mouse is going to work out.

It's a lot less vertical than I remembered it being, so I'm thinking it must not be the mouse I was thinking of. Maybe that was an MS model? They've got that weird Sculpt thing that looks like it might work; maybe I'll take a trip to Fry's sometime and try one out.

[Thad]

...so I finally got sick of Bionic Commando crashing every time I launched it and looked up the error message. Apparently nVidia's got a legacy version of the PhysX drivers and that's what you need to install. (It's kind of bullshit that Steam doesn't do this for you, and instead automatically downloads and installs a Windows XP-vintage version that is virtually guaranteed to crash the game on any computer built in the past 5 years.)

Oddly, when I stream it from my office PC to my HTPC, my PS4 controller works without a hitch and without needing any configuration, but when I run it locally on my HTPC, the controller doesn't work. (The controller is paired to the HTPC, incidentally, not the office PC, so no that's not it.)

Presumably it'd work if I installed one of the various third-party programs that makes a PS4 controller register as an Xbox 360 one. Which I'll probably do the next time I want to run it on my HTPC while my office PC is booted to Linux and not Windows. But if I've already got Windows booted on the office PC anyway, then it's less hassle just to stream it.

On the plus side, the PS4 controller definitely DOES seem to have been the right choice for 2D gaming; I've died a bunch in Bionic Commando but every time it's felt like it was because it's a 1980's NES game with cheap-bastard enemy placement and damage, not because my controller was even a little bit imprecise.

(I've also discovered that rumble's not working on the PS4 pad, but by way of explanation as to how little that matters to me, I didn't even notice it until Arkham Knight started hitting me with those damn rotate-the-joystick hacking minigames.)



MEANWHILE, I'm trying the VerticalMouse 4 again, this time with the strange default button configuration instead of the custom one, and I have to admit it's more comfortable this way. Still not perfect (and I'll keep the Logitech mouse around and maybe swap back and forth between them, and I might still check out that MS puck mouse or maybe buy another VerticalMouse 3 on eBay).

Today my left shoulder is bothering me a lot more than my right wrist (though they're both bothering me; I had a nasty headache and have been gaming most of the day because that helps me with headaches).

While the Microsoft Natural is still my favorite keyboard design (and has been since the mid-1990's), I have to admit its width could be a problem, given the amount of travel between the right home row and the mouse. Lots more right hand movement than with a more compact keyboard, and also it means you're sitting off-center either when you're typing or when you're mousing.

I like the look of the keyboards where the numpad is a separate piece instead of attached to the keyboard; I use the numpad often enough that I don't want to have a keyboard with no numpad, but seldom enough that it wouldn't be much of an inconvenience to have to grab it off a shelf as needed.

On the other hand, nobody seems to make a keyboard that (1) is ergonomic, (2) detaches the numpad, but (3) keeps the Insert and Delete rows and the arrow keys at full-width. And I really do not like keyboards that rearrange those keys and/or smash them together.

[Mongrel]

Okay, I've mentioned that I have a preference for an older mouse, because no new mice exist with this shape and button configuration, which I find most comfortable and useful. This is the mouse, an old Logitech G3

My current one has a problem. All the main buttons are fine, however, this mouse has a physical switch that doubles the pointer speed and that button is dying.

Ordinarily, a normal person would just use basic Windows mouse settings to tune for a higher speed. Unfortunately I use my mouse with very high pointer speeds, high enough that my preference is actually above the allowable Windows maximum. So I have it set to something between 3/5ths and 2/3rds in the Windows speed setting and then every day, when I boot up my computer, I HIT THE TURBOS press the physical doubling button on the mouse, effectively using the mouse at 120% - 150% speed versus Windows would normally allow.

Ideally, I would just have the damn thing always "on", however, the driver appears to have no native settings, THAT I CAN TELL, to allow me to enable that as the default setting.

Does anyone know of a way to A: Permanently leave that setting on, B: At least enable it via software on boot - even if I have to click a couple menus when I start up, that's really not bad as a workaround, or C: Install something that will allow me to set the base mouse speed higher than Windows 7 normally allows (C is the least optimal, because I think the switch is for hardware in the mouse and not something done in windows, so it's possible it will work less well, but I'm willing to try it).

[Grath]

Okay, I've mentioned that I have a preference for an older mouse, because no new mice exist with this shape and button configuration, which I find most comfortable and useful. This is the mouse, an old Logitech G3

My current one has a problem. All the main buttons are fine, however, this mouse has a physical switch that doubles the pointer speed and that button is dying.

Ordinarily, a normal person would just use basic Windows mouse settings to tune for a higher speed. Unfortunately I use my mouse with very high pointer speeds, high enough that my preference is actually above the allowable Windows maximum. So I have it set to something between 3/5ths and 2/3rds in the Windows speed setting and then every day, when I boot up my computer, I HIT THE TURBOS press the physical doubling button on the mouse, effectively using the mouse at 120% - 150% speed versus Windows would normally allow.

Ideally, I would just have the piss all over thing always "on", however, the driver appears to have no native settings, THAT I CAN TELL, to allow me to enable that as the default setting.

Does anyone know of a way to A: Permanently leave that setting on, B: At least enable it via software on boot - even if I have to click a couple menus when I start up, that's really not bad as a workaround, or C: Install something that will allow me to set the base mouse speed higher than Windows 7 normally allows (C is the least optimal, because I think the switch is for hardware in the mouse and not something done in windows, so it's possible it will work less well, but I'm willing to try it).

Have you tried installing and poking around in Logitech Gaming Software? That's the standard one-thing-does-everything software for configurating Logitech fancy peripherals these days to my knowledge, and it may be able to make your mouse default to MAXIMUM FAST

[Mongrel]

Crap - no dice. I installed it, but it gives me "No devices detected" and therefore no option to change any settings.

Cripes, I can't believe that changing the default DPI on mouse inputs is this hard.

[Thad]

I don't know if my Avira has been pwned or glitched out or what, but I booted to Windows and every goddamn time I try to download an exe file (nVidia drivers etc.) I wind up getting redirected to an Avira update ad. I haven't been able to find anybody else reporting this problem, so I don't know where it's coming from.

Guess I'll switch back to Panda.

[Mongrel]

I talked about this previously in the "Unforgivable Sins" thread, but I'm putting this update in this thread in the hopes of maximizing the number of people who see this.

If you are on Win 7 or 8 and have been getting nag messages to upgrade, things are about to get worse, as Microsoft has confirmed that the new policy will be to force the update on all users even if they do not choose to upgrade.

I don't have any strong feelings on Win 10 as a piece of software one way or the other (though it's apparently very prone to "ET phone home"), but with pop-up ads from my own current OS, forced downloads, and bait-and-switch menus in the upgrade screen (clicking "Reserve your copy" constitutes a single-click acceptance of the upgrade, apparently, which I discovered the hard way today, but luckily managed to abort abort abort), Microsoft can get fucked.

If you want to keep running Windows and also wish to retain control of your own fucking operating system, or even if you just want to get rid of those fucking ads, I STRONGLY recommend installing GWX-Stopper.

[Mazian]

That's a couple of months old, and the link title is misleading, but what the article discusses has already been what's happening for some time: Windows 7/8 will pre-download the W10 installation data automatically, and waste several precious gigabytes of C: drive space (which is highly annoying for everyone using small system partitions), but not force the upgrade itself.

[Mongrel]

I think even that's changed though. Several of my friends on Windows 7 or 8 have said that Windows tried to upgrade their system without their asking for it. I don't think it's happening to all users, but there's a non-zero number of instances where not only is the upgrade downloaded, but the upgrade is at least attempted without the owner/user giving consent. This is of course being called a bug, but it's magical how these "bugs" always seem to work out in the publisher's favour and not the end user.

And of course, if they're going to pull bait-and-switch tactics on their ads, it's easy for an unwanted upgrade to be installed.

[nosimpleway]

I woke up this morning to find 8.1 Windows Update doing its damnedest to get me to move up to 10. It didn't auto-install, but it did nag me a bit to try to get me to hit the upgrade button.

[Thad]

What popups are you getting? I've gotten some annoying ones telling me to get MS Office, but that's it, and I disabled them.

Could be because I'm running the tester version, though.

There have definitely been reports of unwanted upgrades in the wild.

[Mongrel]

I was getting a full advertising suite, with effusive flipovers praising Win10's features.

EDIT: Also, the more I'm hearing about Win 10, the more I'm souring on it. First off there's the above-mentioned issue where it very frequently contacts Microsoft, way more so than any previous iteration of Windows. Second, it's also started to come out that in the Windows 10 environment, all updates are mandatory and automatic. Regardless of any other benefits Win 10 might provide, that's way, way over the red line for me; a total deal-breaker.

It's also aggravating to hear people defending this by comparing it to mandatory general vaccination. Everything else that's wrong with that analogy aside, Microsoft is not the fucking public health department.

[Thad]

Yeah, I wouldn't use it for my primary. Then again, I haven't used Windows as my primary in OS since...2002 or so? I've got an installation on my HTPC and another on my main PC for gaming. I think it's fine for those purposes but I understand your complaints.

The privacy stuff is a real sticking point (and it's notable that a recent update reverted custom privacy settings to the defaults for some users). I haven't seen the kind of ads you're talking about but those sound pretty irritating.

I definitely think there should be a way to opt out of system updates, though I don't have such a problem with making them automatic by default. (If you leave updates to users, shit never gets updated.)

[nosimpleway]

Computer: "I'd like to update some software."
User: "sure np"
Computer: "I'll need to reboot the system when I'm done."
User: "over my dead body"

[Thad]

I actually really like how the default behavior is now to schedule post-update reboots for 3 AM. It's one of those really obvious things that should have been implemented years ago.

[beatbandito]

Hey Windows 10 thanks for taking away the clock and battery display on the quick swipe menu. There's absolutely no reason to have those two things in an easy to access place right? Otherwise you probably wouldn't have decided I don't need a task bar anymore either.

[Grath]

Hooray, Cyber Monday discounted computer upgrades:
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sde1 3845577736 69632 3650140888 1% /bfd0
/dev/sdf1 3845577736 69632 3650140888 1% /bfd1
aka for those of you who don't speak Linux's 'df' syntax, two 4TB hard drives.

[Wheels]

Want to see something funny? Read the top part of this page.
https://developer.apple.com/opensource/

[Thad]

Apple, the first major computer company to make Open Source development a key part of its software strategy, continues to use and release significant quantities of open source software.

It might be technically accurate, depending on how you parse the weasel qualifiers major and key.

Intel and IBM were contributing to open-source projects before Apple was, but you could argue that it wasn't a key part of their software strategy until later. And Red Hat, obviously, had open-source development as a key part of its software strategy before Apple did, but you could argue it's not a major company (or at least wasn't in the 1990's).