Topics

1

Living Room / Thanks for the DC Credits - 3D Printer purchased

« on: April 20, 2018, 06:54 AM »

Thanks to all DCer's that have donated over the years - to the site and to me personally (with many coming from Mouser). Mouser finally made me cash out the credits I'd been storing (for several years) - and some new ones... the result, a lovely new 3D Printer (Anycubic i3 Mega - same as Mouser).

Had a slight bit of trouble with it on day one - printed for 10 minutes then stopped. Seems there was a lose wire to the bed so it wouldn't heat up. After a few photos and instructions from Anycubic support (asking me to test voltages and current) it suddenly started working again - hence the lose wire theory.

I've printed a Baby Cody - it isn't a penguin! (I've only got the black plastic at the moment.)

Now I've got the same printer as Mouser we might be able to improve on the Cody models with a few more experiments, i.e. smoother polygons and all that.

Other than the initial bed temperature problem the whole thing has been very easy to set up. Just a few screws to put the thing together - probably takes about 10 minutes. Levelling the bed - just a few minutes. And that's pretty much it - so you can be printing in well under an hour. Crazy really. And the price - crazy too. I almost bought a printer when you couldn't get one for less than $2000 - now they are close to $200 - I still find it amazing.

Anyway, thanks again to all that have supported DC - you have given the gift of a 3D printer to me - so "thank you very much!"

2

Living Room / new DVD "M-Disc" perfect for archive material

« on: July 19, 2012, 04:53 AM »

An article over on the PC Pro website: http://www.pcpro.co....-that-lasts-forever/

The M-Disc shares the same size, shape and 4.7GB capacity of a DVD, and indeed can be read by any standard DVD drive, yet Millenniata says this special disc “cannot be overwritten, erased, or corrupted by natural processes”. As the website says, it’s “the first ever permanent file backup disc that lasts forever”.

Read more: M-Disc: the DVD that “lasts forever” | PC Pro blog http://www.pcpro.co....rever/#ixzz213pNy8M0

3

Living Room / Leap - touch control: makes Minority Report look prehistoric

« on: July 17, 2012, 01:15 PM »

Have you seen Leap? It's insane. Get ready to forget about pathetic touchscreens and tablets - they are rubbish and already obsolete.

Check the video out: http://www.technolog...ogy-since-the-smart/

Okay, maybe not quite Minority Report because we still need the holographic screens - but Leap's sensitivity is already more advanced.

Incredible.

4

General Software Discussion / Is there a Firewall with a quick toggle per program, to open/close connection?

« on: July 09, 2012, 05:26 AM »

I use NetLimiter 3 Pro as firewall. This allows me to open and close connections per application - which I find very handy when testing local (wamp) versions of websites. I need to block my "development" brower's outbound connections to reassure myself that the site I'm testing is using the correct URLs.

The slight problem with this setup is that I tend to swap between live and local versions of the sight whilst fixing issues, which means I have to keep toggling the open/blocked connection of the browser. This wouldn't annoy me if it were just a quick click a single button process - but, instead, it requires four or more clicks (six or more if I have to go into the tray to open NetLimiter).

So, my question is:

Is there a firewall that has a quick single click type open/close connection button for each program it is monitoring. Even better would be something that allowed for creating a (desktop) shortcut that activated the toggle.

My request is for a toggle button thing per connected program - NOT a global type firewall block to disconnect all current connected programs.

Thanks.

5

Living Room / ICC clarifies new Cookie Law - doesn't sound too bad now

« on: April 27, 2012, 07:23 AM »

As the current definition of the Euro Cookie Law is unworkable nonsense, the ICC has provided a more sensible interpretation.

Finally, something resembling advice has appeared, but it’s not come from the ICO but from business organisation the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC). Despite the inevitable disclaimer on page 2 that it “does not constitute legal advice”, it’s by far the most practical guide to the cookie regulations I’ve seen so far and is the result of research carried out by an organisation looking at this from a practical point of view rather than the compliance-based approach of the ICO.

Original article: http://www.pcpro.co....ut-not-from-the-ico/

ICC UK Cookie Guide PDF: http://www.internati..._uk_cookie_guide.pdf

6

Living Room / Suggestions for guides on all this DNS, CName, A Records stuff

« on: April 01, 2012, 08:54 AM »

I consider myself a "designer" (with the prefix of "web" I suppose), but the person that pays my wages likes to think I'm something more; which means he's always asking me to set up someone's domain on a host somewhere with the assumption I know what I'm doing. I do remind him that I don't know what I'm doing but he doesn't care - he can always set things up himself if he really has to; he'd just rather not have the bother.

I'd like to fully understand all this nameserver stuff, then I can at least understand what this bloke is saying when he starts going on about the A Records need changing to work with Google Mail (or whatever).

The problem is, I've tried reading a few guides but they aren't brain-dead enough for me to get a full mental picture of how everyting works. I need something that is patronisingly obvious (if possible) so I can see how all the dots connect.

It's like, I know enough to fill the the boxes to set something up, but I've no real idea of what's going on behind the scenes. If there's a problem with configurations, I'd like to be able to spot them or understand why they are so.

Are there any suitable guides or is it the kind of thing that will just make sense one day (maybe I've not made enough mistakes yet to form a picture of what's right or wrong).

Thanks.

7

General Software Discussion / The start of the Start Button Menu things for Win8

« on: March 19, 2012, 11:38 AM »

(As expected) Stardock have created Start8 to bring a bit of sanity back to Windows 8.


http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

It looks way too big, to me, as a menu to be of genuine help. I don't see the need for all the white space and the position of the scrollng menu bit (too far to the right). I suppose it's a start (no pun intended) for the start button menu clones.

8

Living Room / A nice bit of profanity from "Apple Scotland and Siri" (video)

« on: February 07, 2012, 04:13 AM »

9

Living Room / Apple, I hate you (again) and the web design community too

« on: December 16, 2011, 01:50 PM »

Safari is the last browser I test web sites on. I don't use Macs, I'll only touch one if I really have to. So I've been trying several methods to avoid using a real bit of Apple hardware if I think I can get away with a simulator of some sort. But none of these simulators work 100% so I've finally accepted I need to use real Apple hardware.

So, I bought a cheap Mini Mac with Lion installed. This allowed me to download and install Apple's Xcode developer crap which comes with iPad and iPhone simulators. I thought it worth the cost as this was guaranteed to work perfectly - it's all Apple hardware and software and Xcode is designed for developing Apple apps. It has got to work.

But it doesn't. It is totally pathetic. The simulators are not 100% accurate. Which, to me, means they are a bad joke. I suppose I should expect this kind of thing from the messiahs of marketing manipulation.

What I don't like is that I've been searching for hours for people discussing this problem and I can only find two posts throughout Google - both of the them by the same person. It appears that the whole web design community is oblivious to how bad things are, well, all except the other guy and me.

I'm now going to be forced to use a real hardware iPad and a real hardware Mac and a real hardware iPhone (which I'll have to buy) just so I can test for the occasional "bug" in Safari's rendering of web pages.

Thanks Apple. Thanks for being absolutely, totally, rubbish. (I'll forgive the web design/development community as they are mostly Apple fan-boys anyway, i.e. already completely deluded.)

10

Living Room / Ground Hog Day - failed system image restoring yet again

« on: December 13, 2011, 02:13 PM »

Not really sure how many times this has happened, maybe it's just the once and I'm reliving it Ground Hog Day style, over and over - until I get it right.

Here's the scenario:

1) New, one month, old machine.

2) Bluescreens a few times a week - only pattern I can see is that Gmail or Google Reader are open in Firefox 8 sometimes.

3) Made several system backups during the month using Paragon 2011.

4) Not tested any of the backups - didn't think I needed to, it's a NEW system, why would it not work?

5) Today, restarted after bluescreen and firefox has lost all the settings I've carefully done. Putting the setttings back will take longer than I want... so, I decide it's time to use the most recent system backup and quickly get everything working again.

6) Paragon completely fails and decides to destroy the drives boot manager files instead.

7) I waste an hour trying to get Paragon to work, then have a brainwave and realise that the Windows boot disk will fix the boot manager problem - assuming Paragon has been so pathetic it hasn't even removed my system files.

8 ) Windows does fix the boot manager and the machine boots into the last known good system. Phew.

9) I type this post whilst waiting for Windows built-in backup to make a system image...




So, here we are again. Another thread about why you should check your backup/recovery process. I feel like I've been very lucky as Paragon could have really mucked things up for me. Now, I've got to assume that Windows backup will work when I need it to - the problem being that I can't afford to test it right now; if it fails then I've got a week's worth of installing and setting up to do.

It seems that a golden rule ought to be that backup/recovery should be tested at the earliest point possible, i.e. immediately after installing windows. If the process fails, then you've only wasted an hour (or less) rather than an entire week, or month, of reinstalling everything and configuring to your usual requirements.

Does this mean Ground Hog Backup Day is finally over for me? I really hope so. I'm sick of my own incompetence with all this - it's almost like a compulsion to fail. It's just sick. If I ever write a post like this again, I want Carol Haynes to come here and confiscate all my computer equipment (Carol, I'll gladly pay you for the trouble).

11

Living Room / nice personal message just received from a new friend

« on: December 09, 2011, 12:08 PM »

f_77 was so kind to send me this personal message via the forum:

Dear Friend,

Do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics although, I wish to use this medium to get in touch with you because of its fastest means.

I am Barrister.Jafiq Bello, The Solicitor and Executor of my late client,who died of kidney cancer with un-identified family or relative. I am contacting you to stand in as a next of kin to his deposit of 12.500,000.00(Twelve Million Five Hundred  Thousand Dollars ) with one of the leading banks here in West Africa.

On confidence of patent recovering, I will give you more information, hence you will corporate with my due understanding and knowledge of bringing this claim to a best conclusion,i want you to understand that i am contacting you for your family inheritance,I will like you to contact me with my private email address([email protected]) so that i will give you more information regarding your family inheritace.

Regards
Jafiq Bello

12

General Software Discussion / make USB port disabled or delayed enable on startup - any util do this?

« on: December 01, 2011, 05:51 AM »

I need my machine to disable a specific USB port during startup or, even better, to simply delay enabling it for about 10 seconds.

The problem is that I've got one of those small MIMO touchscreens - it uses USB for power and image signal (using the DisplayLink drivers), and it refuses to connect properly during the startup of the machine.

If I leave the MIMO plugged in during startup, I can't even attempt to get it working by unplugging it and then plugging it into a different USB port.

This is how I get the MIMO to work without fail:

1) I have to boot the machine without the MIMO connected.

2) Wait for everything to load in.

3) Plug the MIMO into a USB socket.

4) Remember to disconnect the MIMO before I boot the machine next time.

This is the second machine I've had the problem with, so I think it's all just a symptom of the hardware and software I have to use. I've tried all the motherboards USB ports and a couple of external USB powered hubs - nothing makes a difference. The MIMO just doesn't like my setup - maybe it's because there are three other monitors plugged into the computer.



Anyway, is there a util that will delay a USB port connecting during startup. If not, is this something Autohotkey could do (and if so, would someone be so kind as to make it for a few DC credits).


Having said all this, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that merely disabling the USB port isn't enough to resolve the problem; maybe the system goes through more of a hardware scan when the MIMO is plugged in and this kicks the systems graphic management into action.

13

Living Room / Real life version of a Half Life 2 map

« on: October 11, 2011, 06:05 AM »

This is probably old news, not found it on DC anywhere, though, so here goes...

Ever wanted to walk around a real life version of Half Life 2, complete with ledges that will easily send you to your grave? Well, now you can. Simply visit the Caminito del Rey http://en.wikipedia....iki/Caminito_del_Rey and start having instant Half Life flashbacks.

Here's a youtube clip (one of many) which resembles the best complete "walkthrough" of the level.

For added authenticity, take your own headless, plucked, chickens and pretend they are Half Life Headcrabs.

(Looks like it's going to be a tourist destination eventually as there are plans to reopen the path - at the moment you have to abseil to it.)

14

Living Room / It's alive, it's alive!!! mwahaha! - WinButtons and 7" touchscreen works

« on: September 05, 2011, 04:09 AM »

Ath's WinButtons: http://ath.dcmembers...tware/winbuttons.php and a 7" MYMO Touchscreen are now part of my system - AND IT ALL WORKS perfectly.

Okay, there are slight issues but they aren't worth mentioning just yet; it works better than I could have hoped for within a few minutes of setup.

THIS REALLY IS THE ULTIMATE TOUSCREEN + PC setup. (Potentially, at least; this is still early days.)

I've already said to Ath that I think this could easily make the iPad look prehistoric in comparison. Imagine the combined power of your computer setup and the ability to have a super multi-purpose "magic" keyboard that changes to every one of your program requirements. WinButtons makes touchscreens genuinely useful to your average user - that's amazing - that's a first. (It's blowing my mind just thinking of what's possible - even without considering the serious business market - imagine if Adobe or Microsoft were selling a universal touchscreen device. Oh, I'll shut up as I'm getting carried away.)


Here are a couple of photos. Not a great deal to look at as I've only just had all this working for about 10 minutes (yes, it works straight out of the box). I'll try and do a video demonstration when I've set up all my buttons and programs.


WinButtons with custom 40 button layout on MYMO 7" touchscreen. I shall be moving the touchscreen down so that it doesn't get in the way of the the 30" center screen. (On the left screen is the WinButtons template in edit mode.)


Close-up of the 40 button layout. Sorry for the poor quality (I need to buy proper a camera). The four buttons in the top left are graphics - just for testing.



Oh, just a quick description of what actually happens when using all this stuff:

1) A program has focus, say, Photoshop for example.

2) The touchscreen displays a specific set of buttons related to the above program (in focus).

3) Hitting the touchscreen buttons trigger macros or, more simply, just hotkey shortcuts already built into Photoshop.

4) Moving Photoshop (or whatever) out of focus, i.e. to focus desktop or Explorer, makes another Button layout appear on the touchscreen. This layout has its own set of custom triggers/buttons and appearance.


What's the point?

a) No need to remember hotkey shortcuts as they'll be displayed as buttons on the touchscreen (nice graphic buttons will help this).

b) No need to remember which macro key on a fancy keyboard relates to which function. (I've got around 30 macro keys on my MS Sidewinder keyboard and I can't remember which key is which.)

c) It's like Star Trek but without having to wait a hundred years for the technology to arrive. (This isn't rocket science, something like WinButtons and a touchscreen should have been on the market a few years ago.)


More posts on the project to follow, I'm sure...

15

Living Room / Ultimate touchscreen control via iPad remote software - I'm excited

« on: August 25, 2011, 12:34 PM »

I've been wanting to try a touchscreen remote control "thing" for years now, something to provide quick ways to hit all the keyboard shortcut combinations you get in Photoshop and lots of other programs, the problem was that there just didn't seem to be a good way to do it.

I've tried a few keyboards with lots of extra macro keys, which works fine until you start to forget which key did which macro/hotkey - hence the desire to use a touchscreen that would have nice, pretty, graphical buttons that are easily identifiable.

Ath's WinButtons, http://ath.dcmembers...tware/winbuttons.php almost seemed like the perfect solution but it requires testing on a touchscreen - something I was prepared to try until I saw several reviews destroying my confidence in mini touchscreen technology (if they were a little cheaper I'd get one).

But, now, I've just found this: Keypad Pro http://keypadpro.dop...thepom.com/Home.html Which appears to be the perfect touchscreen creation and editing program - if you already own an iPad, which I do, and don't own a mini touchscreen, which I don't.

I've not tested it out yet but the features look quite amazing with the touch-slide capabilities. Depending on how well it works, I may even get an old iPad simply to use as a dedicated touchscreen device. Or, I'll just bite the bullet and go the WinButton way with a mini touchscreen.

Disclaimer:
Or, I may realise these things just don't beat learning the layout of macro keys on a keyboard.

16

Living Room / "good" LCD monitors - what are their type

« on: August 21, 2011, 06:11 AM »

Sorry, I'm pretty sure someone has stated what "type" good LCD monitors are elsewhere on the forum, I just can't remember who and where.

What I mean by "good" is the type of screen that doesn't appear to change in contrast or brightness as you change you viewing angle.

I've got two "good" monitors that appear consistent regardless of viewing angle and two that show immediate differences just by moving my head a few centimetres (admittedly, the two that are "bad" are in portrait mode, so the problem becomes exaggerated).

I'm intending to replace the "bad" monitors with "good" monitors, so knowing exactly what type to look for will be helpful - then I can go for the cheapest replacements possible.

Thanks.

17

Living Room / when is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D

« on: August 19, 2011, 02:15 AM »

I'm really getting tired of computers; hardware if nothing else. I simply wanted an extension cable so that I can place the monitor about 3m away from the pc.

Apparently this is just too demanding of me. The universe (or the pc hardware subset, at least) has decided that I am not allowed to have a graphics card's digital signal traverse such incredible distances of 300 centimeters.

So, can anyone enlighten me as to why a DVI-D cable that is 2 meters works perfectly well (the one that came with the monitor), and a 3 meter DVI-D cable I've just purchased doesn't work at all?

The connections, i.e. number and shape of pins, that each cable has are identical - but I'm obviously a fool and can't see the blindingly obvious differences. Maybe the one that works has 10,000 angels sitting on the head of each pin (or whatever the phrase is). Somehow I need these angels to migrate over to the new 3 meter cable's pins.

Honestly, I'm just sick to death of hardware not working. This is just a DVI-D cable, how simple a piece of hardware can that be.

As a caveat: I am connecting to a 30" monitor (2560 x 1600) but I don't see why that should be an excuse.

p.s.
Yep, I've tested the 3m cable and it works perfectly well with a lower resolution monitor (1920 x 1200).

18

Living Room / Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« on: August 13, 2011, 04:53 AM »

For years I've stuck with Samsung hard drives, bought several (still using them), recommended them to people and believed you couldn't go wrong with a Samsung.

Not so. I bought a 1TB Samsung drive a couple of weeks ago and now feel like I cannot take listening to it's annoying "hum" any longer.

The drive produces a low humming sound that whirs in and out every few seconds. It's like it has been carefully designed to create the most annoying almost subliminal noise a human can hear. It's driving me insane.

I wouldn't have bothered mentioning this but I've found I'm not the only one with this complaint. There are several posts online about this very same annoying hum - all from Samsung drives.

Samsung's response? "It's normal behaviour." How strange that this is "normal" and yet all my previous Samsung drives are perfectly quiet - even the ones that are of identical size to the new annoying drive. Does Samsung consider the older quiet drives "abnormal" perhaps.

I've tried repositioning the drive, placing it on foam padding, placing it at different angles - nothing matters. The Samsung Hard Drive Tool doesn't help either - the "accoustic" settings make zero difference to the noise.

Honestly, I'm just amazed. Samsung have clearly changed their drive manufacturing process and it stinks.

So, that's it. I used to champion the Samsung Hard Drive. Now, I'll never buy another one and I'll be sure to tell everyone else to never buy one either.

Samsung, I absolutely hate you.

19

Living Room / xkcd - password truth

« on: August 10, 2011, 02:26 AM »

This password epiphany seems to be popping up in several news articles recently. Here's xkcd's take on it.

http://xkcd.com/936/

20

Living Room / I was wrong - again! (cheap monitor theory invalid)

« on: July 30, 2011, 09:19 AM »

A few month back I bought a cheap Samsung 24" monitor. This was for a secondary machine that I only occasionally need to use (off premises). After a few days I realised the screen was hurting my eyes within a short period of use. More investigation made it obvious that the text on the screen was slightly blurred in the center of the monitor.

I immediately concluded that this was due to it being a budget priced monitor and enjoyed telling everyone (that would listen) that budget monitors where evil - even to the point that they should be given a health warning, or simply banned from sale.

I've now discovered this isn't the case - and, also realised that my memory must be failing otherwise I wouldn't have come to this wrong conclusion.


The simple fact is that it isn't the monitor that is evil, it's the GRAPHICS CARD.

I've just plugged my EIZO (crystal clear image) monitor into the secondary computer I mentioned above. And the exact same problem has happened with the blurry text.


Now, maybe I'm still jumping to conclusions; there are three possible causes as I see it:

1) It's the graphics card - an onboard intel thing.

2) It's the VGA connection (Yes, I know, maybe I should have thought about that being the cause before - as I said, my memory is going, I know I've seen similar poor signal coming from VGA before).

3) It's the operating system (though, I have reconfigured cleartype and enabled/disabled it several times without any improvement).


The onboard card only has VGA out (which is then going to DVI on the EIZO) so I'm going to stick another card in with DVI connections - which I expect will make everything work perfectly.


So, I just wanted to say, to anyone out there still using VGA connections (even to an LCD), you may like to consider upgrading your graphics card. There really is a dramatic difference in quality, well, blurred text isn't fun to read even if it's almost imperceptible.

21

Living Room / Dumb backup method - lost several years of notes

« on: July 14, 2011, 06:28 AM »

Well, I was having such a good day today (posted elsewhere on the form about receiving a full refund for a pc I had to return), but I've just discovered that I've lost several years of important notes I was recording in Surfulator.

I'm still a bit shocked by this as I *thought* I was backing up the Surfulator database along with everything else I continuously backup with MirrorFolder. Seems at some point I decided to stop backing it up - or, maybe, I've just gone and manually deleted the backup whilst half asleep.

This massive error has only happened because the Surfalator database was on a RAID 0 drive, which died when the machine it was inside died. And I thought I had the database mirrored to another drive - so, yep, I thought I could format the drives in the RAID 0 setup, which I did. Now I've discovered there isn't any mirrored backup.

So, I've lost lots of little technical notes that I referred to on a weekly basis. Probably more stuff than I realise. I'm sure I'll rediscover the most important ones online again - but it will take hours of searching at the very least.

I really thought I'd got this kind of data loss covered. Seems I'm just so dumb I wasn't even monitoring it - the worst kind of backup method you can imagine. Incredible.

22

Living Room / A M A Z I N G ! - I got a total refund without any questions asked.

« on: July 14, 2011, 04:13 AM »

Elsewhere on the forum I'd made a couple of posts related to a new machine I'd ordered because of a lightning strike taking out my previous pc.

I'd got into a flap over the new machine as it refused to cooperate from day one. Windows took several attempts to install (like 8 hours worth of attempts) but, eventually, it did work - for FOUR whole days. After which the machine decided it had never been introduced to the solid state drive that Windows was on; at this point I'd had enough.

I honestly didn't know what to do with the machine after that. My usual approach would be to spend hours/days/weeks attempting to get the machine working perfectly. Thankfully, regular forum members persuaded me to return the machine and ask for a refund.

The UK has "7 Day Distance Selling Regulations" that, usually, allow for online purchases to be sent back within 7 days of delivery. There are caveats to this, one of them being that it doesn't apply to "custom built" items. This is where I thought I'd come unstuck with the return of the "custom built" machine.

I've been planning my argument all week, anticipating that the store would have several reasons for me not to have a refund - I even expected them to blame me for the machine not working (perhaps I'm just paranoid). But, AMAZINGLY, I've just opened my inbox to find that I've been given a complete refund - no questions asked. That's it. Done. End of.

This is even better than having the machine working perfectly from day one as the refund includes the £150 I was charged for them building the defective machine - something I'd not realised when I made the impulse purchase.

I'm going to take a breather before ordering anything else. I seem to regret every impulse buy I make (or maybe that is just selective thinking).



Anyway, thanks to the DC'ers that told me to take the machine back and ask for a refund. Without you, I could easily have been sat here now still trying to get the defective machine working, or aimlessly toing and froing to the store (an hours drive away) trying to get the defective part identified and then replaced.

Oh, by the way, the store is: www.overclockers.co.uk (and I can't say a bad word against them).

23

Living Room / quick opinions: do i return this annoying machine

« on: July 07, 2011, 04:19 AM »

Sorry for creating a new topic that is very closely related to my previous one here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=27196.0 I thought I'd start here as I just need quick opinions for the following question.

I bought a new computer last week. I had problems installing Windows on it and concluded it was a SATA cable problem. Today (6 days after the machine arrived at my house), I turned the machine on and the system didn't recognise the solid state drive where the operating system is.

I've now got the machine working - simply by unplugging and reconnecting the SATA cables a few times. I've yet to restart and investigate further.

I'm looking at this situation with two options available:

1) If I'm correct, I have one day left to send this machine back to the store and get a full refund (unless they decide to be difficult). This is under the distance selling regulations (in the UK). I'd do this as I simply don't want to assume this machine is "perfect"; I want to buy a machine that works correctly straight out of the box - not something that might fail in a few days again.

2) I keep the machine and attempt to make the cable problem go away myself. Maybe it really is just a socket that is a bit "large" and the plug needs a bit of help to stay secure. Or, maybe I should just accept there is something at fault with the solid state drive. (I will be conducting a few test after making this post).

As a note: I did change the cables around a few days ago whilst attaching two more hard drives. This means I must have moved all the cables around inside the machine quite a lot whilst setting things up - none of this caused the machine to stop booting. So it seems odd that today the machine would not recognise the SSD. (Anyway, on with the tests.)

24

Living Room / nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« on: June 30, 2011, 04:11 AM »

a few nights back a lightning strike hit a tree about 50 metres away from my house. it was a rather surreal event, which reminded me of the death-rays in Spielberg's War of the Worlds; their was a strange humming sound then a brilliant white light and then a sound that made me think the house had been hit by a bomb (all that was obviously the tree being hit and its branches exploding off).

as i'm in England, thunder storms tend to be rather unineventful and i just leave all electrics plugged in and powered on. which is exactly what i did this time, except the computer was powered off - i thought this would be sufficient. my error.

the lightning strike has killed my computer and several of the neighbours computers. our broadband is dead, though the phone line works fine. the neighbour living next to the tree has been without power after their entire electrics were damaged, a few plug sockets charred and melted.

Now, the point of this little story is that i'm wondering how can i prevent this rare event happening again; i don't like the idea of having to buy a new motherboard/cpu/etc each time there's a bad thunder storm. you may say, just unplug the computer from the mains power supply, which is true; the problem is that i may not be there to unplug the machine if i've left it running and an unexpected storm arrives.

as it goes, i think it was a freak storm, but i'm not going to take the view that lightning never strikes twice. the weather patterns around the world appear to be changing so i'm sure there will be more "freak" storms over my house in the next few years.

okay, enough waffling. the question is, would anything have prevented the damage whilst keeping the computer powered on?

would an "uninterruptible power supply" have saved the computer? that's about the only thing i can think of trying. i obviously don't want to buy one if they aren't going to prevent the same thing happening again.

thankfully, none of my data was harmed. but i shall be building the new computer with several redundancy and backup layers built in as the lightning strike has made me realise just how catastrophic the data loss could have been.

(i'd been toying with the idea of upgrading the pc for a while so nature simply stopped me from procrastinating further: new machine will be: i7, 12 gig ram, solid state main drive, etc. Which, i hope, will be a noticeable improvement on the athlon 4800, 4 gig ram, raid 0.)

25

Living Room / xkcd - why we should fear the cloud

« on: June 06, 2011, 05:30 AM »

xkcd, succinctly, demonstrates the problem with the cloud...

<img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com...comics/the_cloud.png" />

http://xkcd.com/908/