Computerus

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beatbandito
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Re: Computerus

Postby beatbandito » Sat Aug 22, 2020 12:02 pm

Thad wrote:Found an old Reddit thread describing how to get Windows running on certain models of Chromebook. That changes things a bit, because a lot of these are easy to pick up for under $100 -- and it also changes the value proposition, because I already have a C720. So now it's not just a matter of looking for a cheap Windows laptop I don't expect to use much; there's also a possibility of looking for a new main laptop to put Linux on, and converting my old main laptop to said cheap Windows laptop I don't expect to use much.

Oh, I like where this is going. Gonna wait and see what you have success with and try to use a combo of it and the wireless hdmi grath recommended for my tv set-ups.
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Grath
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Re: Computerus

Postby Grath » Sat Aug 22, 2020 12:53 pm

beatbandito wrote:
Thad wrote:Found an old Reddit thread describing how to get Windows running on certain models of Chromebook. That changes things a bit, because a lot of these are easy to pick up for under $100 -- and it also changes the value proposition, because I already have a C720. So now it's not just a matter of looking for a cheap Windows laptop I don't expect to use much; there's also a possibility of looking for a new main laptop to put Linux on, and converting my old main laptop to said cheap Windows laptop I don't expect to use much.

Oh, I like where this is going. Gonna wait and see what you have success with and try to use a combo of it and the wireless hdmi grath recommended for my tv set-ups.

FYI the Chromebox is a reasonably established concept at the point, for a mini computer that runs ChromeOS but you aren't paying for a screen that you don't intend to use. That with some form of screen sharing app and/or booting Windows on them could be a serviceable option.

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Thad
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Re: Computerus

Postby Thad » Sat Aug 22, 2020 8:53 pm

Grath wrote:
beatbandito wrote:
Thad wrote:Found an old Reddit thread describing how to get Windows running on certain models of Chromebook. That changes things a bit, because a lot of these are easy to pick up for under $100 -- and it also changes the value proposition, because I already have a C720. So now it's not just a matter of looking for a cheap Windows laptop I don't expect to use much; there's also a possibility of looking for a new main laptop to put Linux on, and converting my old main laptop to said cheap Windows laptop I don't expect to use much.

Oh, I like where this is going. Gonna wait and see what you have success with and try to use a combo of it and the wireless hdmi grath recommended for my tv set-ups.

FYI the Chromebox is a reasonably established concept at the point, for a mini computer that runs ChromeOS but you aren't paying for a screen that you don't intend to use. That with some form of screen sharing app and/or booting Windows on them could be a serviceable option.

Oh yeah, already did that. Can't find the post just at the moment but I bought an old HP Chromebox on eBay, swapped out the SSD (and I think the RAM too), flashed it with Mr. Chromebox, installed Manjaro/GNOME on it, and hooked it up to an old monitor and speaker I wasn't using and set the whole thing up in my kitchen.

If you'd rather use Windows, there are a number of Chromeboxes that'll support that instead; see the same link I included above. (The HP model I've got is one of them; it's the i7 model codenamed Zako.)

Or if you're okay with ChromeOS, you can skip most of that shit and just stick with the original hardware running ChromeOS and use a screen-sharing app. I think ChromeOS supports Android apps now, though that's not supported on older machines so if you want to go the ChromeOS/Android app route you'll want to verify that it'll actually work on a given Chromebox before you go buying it.

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Re: Computerus

Postby Thad » Tue Aug 25, 2020 6:25 pm

I decided to roll the dice on a laptop described as simply "laptop" from a seller with zero feedback. Near as I can tell from trying to read a blurry photo of the tag, it appears to be an Asus L203MA. Which meets almost none of the criteria I stipulated in my earlier post, but at least it was cheap.

I think "spend a few hundred on a new primary laptop and use the C720 as my Windows machine" may still be a viable strategy, but I'm going to hold off for now.

I'm considering a Star Lite Mk III as maybe a new main laptop. I could probably get a similarly-specced Thinkpad for $100 less, but I'd have to make sure I could run Linux on it; I know Lenovo's had some issues in the past with locked-down EFI, and that's before you even start getting into drivers.

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mharr
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Re: Computerus

Postby mharr » Tue Sep 22, 2020 10:19 am

Okay I think this one's the hardware advice thread? I have an old ASUS RoG laptop that's dying by inches but is still my most powerful workhorse and gaming machine (seriously impressed by how gracefully these things fail) and the fans are on their way out now. Temperatures are getting near to triple figures and thermal shutdowns are looming.

Conveniently, it has a separate access panel behind the screen hinges which would allow me to bolt pretty much any arbitrary cooling system onto the tops of the heat sink fins (pipes are welded underneath) but I'm not sure what general approach is likely to have the best effect. A vertical fan CPU cooler on top of each heat sink, with maybe a copper plate clamped to the CPU one first? PVC plumbing and hot glue to divert the ports to a single outlet pipe with big ass fans on the end? Could Peltier pumps be useful here?

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Re: Computerus

Postby Mazian » Tue Sep 22, 2020 9:32 pm

Can you replace the fans, and blow any accumulated dust out of the heat sink slots? Next best might indeed be using new fans over the existing heat sinks, directed into or through the slots. The fin edges wouldn't be great for transferring heat to another solid object.

Peltier junctions are rarely the solution for CPU cooling. They've only got on the order of 10% efficiency, so if you're supplying 10W of cooling on one side, now you have to dissipate 100W of heat on the other side. Handier if you need to get the cold side below room temperature in some device.

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Re: Computerus

Postby mharr » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:33 am

Replacement is a no-go without a serious maker lab, the few allegedly compatible fans are expensive, sketchy looking and don't deliver to the UK. I need to do something based on generic ones which means mounting them externally.

Okay: solid state devices are out, but these heat sinks seem to be built with a lot of flat surface connecting the blades across the top. Directly cooling those surfaces would be fairly straightforward, but maybe less effective than just suctioning a lot of air through the fins?

I'm already doing the latter for the GPU with spit and baling wire, so I guess it makes sense to try the other approach on the left and compare results. Nothing to stop me doing both at once either.

Still won't be as stupid ugly as the official watercooling dock.


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Thad
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Re: Computerus

Postby Thad » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:00 pm

Thad wrote:I decided to roll the dice on a laptop described as simply "laptop" from a seller with zero feedback.

Given that background, it's not entirely surprising that the seller never accepted my payment or responded to my messages. I just hit the 30-day mark where Paypal automatically refunded my money.

At least they didn't take my money at all; that's considerably better than taking it and not sending me the laptop.

Anyhow, it wasn't a great laptop anyway.

I went ahead and put Windows 10 on my Surface 3. I've been a little surprised by how janky the experience is; I thought the MS hardware/software integration would make for a much smoother UX, but I guess there's only so much you can do with a low-power processor and a touch UI bolted onto twenty years of legacy cruft.

Anyway, it'll run FF7, though it chokes a little on some of the spell animations (presumably because of the hi-res texture pack; I'm at least hoping it wouldn't choke on the vanilla version of the game). The important thing is I got through the fucking snowfield without any crashes. Tempted to switch back to the other laptop now that I've done that.

I'd still like to get another laptop. Whether I still wanna go with a cheap Windows laptop or go for more of a midrange Linux laptop and put Windows on my Chromebook, I haven't decided yet.

I don't expect that's a decision I'll be making right away. November's the month when home insurance, car insurance, and property tax are all due at once.

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Re: Computerus

Postby Mongrel » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:04 pm

Thad wrote:Anyhow, it wasn't a great laptop anyway.

You don't say. xD
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Re: Computerus

Postby KingRoyal » Tue Oct 06, 2020 1:17 pm

At this point, I've amassed a sizeable collection of book PDFs on my desktop but find reading books/manuals/textbooks on my desktop to be less than enjoyable. I'm now looking for a way to easily sync my library between my desktop and my tablet.

Normally, Google Play Books does the job. I can upload PDFs to them and access them for reading on my Tablet. But there's several caveats, first and foremost that I'm trying to reduce the amount of Google in my life. This being a Google product, it's also subject to the whims of Google who may just change the service at any point for any reason. And I don't think I could put my entire library on there, simply because of the size.

Does anyone know of or have experience with software for this kind of book library organization and syncing between devices? For true low-tech I could also put what I want in a Dropbox folder, but I'm not happy with Dropbox's board of directors. Any recommendations or anecdotes or unhinged rambling would be appreciated
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Thad
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Re: Computerus

Postby Thad » Tue Oct 06, 2020 1:42 pm

Have you tried Calibre? It's not quite what I need (it doesn't sync your reading position), but it's got built-in tools for transferring books between your desktop and your tablet (or whatever external device) over USB and wifi. I don't think it's automatic, though; I think you have to do it manually.

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Re: Computerus

Postby Blossom » Tue Oct 06, 2020 2:02 pm

Ultimately, the answer here is probably going to be to set up an ftp server on rented webspace, because automatic syncing all relies on the app ecosystems you're trying to avoid.
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Re: Computerus

Postby KingRoyal » Tue Oct 06, 2020 2:29 pm

Yeah, I'm checking out Calibre right now. It seems to do mostly what I want, and I'm fine with manual sync for now since these are books and not music so reading one takes time and selection anyway.
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Re: Computerus

Postby Thad » Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:55 am

Ars Technica's Jim Salter has an article on Apple's new M1 chip up and it's a pretty impressive piece of hardware.

Apple is a company that consistently makes impressive hardware but wraps it all in a design philosophy that just doesn't appeal to me. (I'm still thinking about getting a new laptop. The other day I thought hey, maybe I should just buy a used MacBook Air and put Linux on it. That sounded like a good idea for about five minutes until I remembered oh right, 4/10 repairability score on iFixit.)

The trend line in Intel vs. ARM remains much the same as it's been -- ARM completely owns the mobile/IoT space, and continues to gain ground in the laptop and server markets. We can now amend "nobody is interested in ARM on the desktop" to "nobody is interested in ARM on the desktop except Apple", which is probably not a significant change unless you're Intel, or a developer writing low-level code. The Mac is still kind of its own weird little niche in the desktop space, with MS/x86 owning the rest of it, and there doesn't seem to be any momentum for that to change as yet. If Windows for ARM really starts to catch on in the laptop space, I can see that changing, but for now at least that's an even smaller niche than the Mac.

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beatbandito
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Re: Computerus

Postby beatbandito » Sun Jan 31, 2021 7:56 pm

We have a lot of threads very close but not exactly appropriate for current computer hardware for gaming. So it's going here now.

I'd like to get a good, dedicated pc controller after having used ds3/4windows for probably literally a decade, as long as computer games using controllers has been pretty standard.

Thing is, everything I see, ds4window's interface giving you keyboard input options is basically the only thing that does that. And extra, fully mapable buttons, are very important.

Ideally it'd just be a ds4 but with four buttons instead of the TouchPad, and two more paddle buttons on the inner grip, like the Xbox elite controller.

Unfortunately, the elite controller doesn't have any way to modify the paddle buttons for keyboard, and there does exist some third-party payware that does, but it sucks to use in the free trial, so that's off the table.

Steam controller seems like the best bet, but that fucking indent circle thinbstick/dpad makes me nauseous to look at, and I'd rather not spend $150 realizing it also doesn't feel right or act how I expect.

So if anyone has a recommendation for something like this and can put it out there for me to look into. Even "no, the steam controller feels very good even compared to normal controls and has worked great in non-steam games for mapping". But from what I've heard it's great for very specific needs, but not a great replacement for standard use+.
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Re: Computerus

Postby Niku » Sun Jan 31, 2021 8:46 pm

The thing kinda came out with no fanfare, but there's actually a hardware add-on that plugs into the DS4 mic port and gives you two back paddles; I have no idea if they're separately mappable in windows or not, but might be worth checking into?
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Re: Computerus

Postby beatbandito » Sun Jan 31, 2021 11:45 pm

Niku wrote:The thing kinda came out with no fanfare, but there's actually a hardware add-on that plugs into the DS4 mic port and gives you two back paddles; I have no idea if they're separately mappable in windows or not, but might be worth checking into?


You know, I was about to respond "I did see that, unfortunately it's just duplicating the shoulder buttons and ds4windows doesn't seem to recognize it separately." But I realized I only knew the first part for sure. I checked into it, and still haven't confirmed either way, so there's hope. But the mount itself has a UI to change the input from, so there's not a ton of hope.
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Re: Computerus

Postby Thad » Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:11 pm

I've had mostly-good luck mapping controllers in Steam (there's a UI for it in Big Picture mode), though I've found games that don't seem to support it and occasionally it does weird shit like register a controller twice. I don't have much experience adding non-Steam games to the Steam launcher, so I don't know how well that works with it, but it might be worth a shot.

My understanding on the DS4 paddles is that you can remap them, but only to other DS buttons; I don't think you can map them to unique keys.

The Steam Controller is extremely configurable (you can map each paddle to a unique function, map combinations of buttons, map a button to toggle to a different control scheme, map pulling a trigger all the way down to a different key from pulling it just partway down, use the touchpads for gesture controls or radial menus...) but the utility of the left touchpad varies wildly from game to game and in most cases I'd rather just have a D-pad, and I don't like the positioning of the face buttons (I frequently find myself pushing A or B when I mean to push X or Y, respectively). I wouldn't pay $150 for one, but it might be worth keeping an eye on eBay and seeing if you can snag a deal. (I see a Steam Link with a Steam Controller right now at $85 Buy it Now with free shipping; that's still more than I'd recommend paying for just the controller; I've never used a Steam Link so I don't know how much that sweetens the deal, but in any case you might be able to resell at a profit if you don't like it when you get it.)

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beatbandito
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Re: Computerus

Postby beatbandito » Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:49 pm

To update this, since it seems like the right thing to do:

I couldn't, even, with the steam controller. Even though the index seems like it would make an inevitable future project easier.
The DS4 attachment can't be customized with ds4windows, it's just mimicking existing inputs.
There are other options out there, but ultimately the customizability of ds4windows just doesn't seem like something anything else can offer.

It may actually just be my specific controller, but I can only really reliably either press right or anything but right on the touchpad, so that's become two buttons. But the swipe stuff is a lot easier to trigger than I would've expected. From anywhere on the face a slight movement in a cardinal direction can even hold the input, all with the right thumb. So I've got six new face buttons, only one requires I take my thumb off the movement controls, which is more-or-less what I was hoping to get. Two more independent triggers on the inner handles would be nice though.
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Re: Computerus

Postby Grath » Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:33 am

Fucking computers and fucking invasive-ass DRM: I built a shiny new computer, the crucial details of which are X570 motherboard + a Ryzen 7 5800X, but I specifically chose a motherboard that was recently released for maximum chance of getting a new enough BIOS for Zen 3 CPUs to work. Unluckily, I did get a board with the first BIOS revision that supports Zen 3, so I thought I could avoid flashing the BIOS. Then I tried watching Netflix via Chrome. Get a couple minutes into an episode of The Witcher and... screen goes black, computer reboots. WTF. Try unhooking the speakers I had temporarily kludged in place (had a friend over for the first time in... a year) and it keeps doing it. I resort to installing the Windows 10 Netflix app which didn't trigger whatever broken hardware path that keeps killing my computer. Then I try doing a stream of Disney+ tonight and rather than "a few minutes", instant BSOD reboot. Somehow Disney+ being new and niche enough, when I googled that issue it actually brought me to a Reddit thread where someone said "hey, I was having issues with Netflix and Disney+ too with a Ryzen 5000 CPU, updating my BIOS fixed it."

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