Topics

76

Living Room / Intel Rapid Storage Technology, hard drive problem.

« on: August 23, 2013, 02:41 PM »

One of my computers has a pre-2011 motherboard on it.  That has certain implications regarding drives larger than 3TB, and maybe other hard drive issues.  I am now having a problem (which has occurred a few times before) which is this:
If I disconnect any drives in the system, then it stops booting up.  This has been explained as some kind of effect of the MBR being distributed amongst the several drives, and if one is missing, the system can't boot.  It is supposed to be repairable using the windows boot disk, repair option, repair startup option.

The problem I'm having is that I've disconnected all the extra drives, and now the OS won't boot.  Furthermore, the BIOS doesn't even see my OS drive.  I can't do anything.  I can't repair it with the OS disk because it doesn't see the drive.  I've tried messing with AHCI settings, RAID settings, no luck.

What is the deal with the Intel Rapid Storage Technology?  I had to install it at one point because I added 4TB drives to my system, and until I installed RST, WIndows 7 couldn't see the drives with their capacity.  But now I realize that RST is more for RAID situations, so I don't get what is going on.  I don't like it.  Ever time I've had to add or subtract a disk, I've had this problem.  But now, I can't fix it anymore.

How can I make the disk bootable again?  I can connect it to another computer and do stuff there if necessary.  And if anyone can help me understand RST and why I need it, that would be helpful too.  Last time, this problem was solved by rearranging my boot priority settings in the BIOS.  But now, the bios can't see the drive so that setting is empty.  And the drive is not broken or dead, either.

77

Clipboard Help+Spell / quick-paste favorites: how to show more than one?

« on: August 21, 2013, 10:45 AM »

I was using CHS in the following way:
I have the favorites set in show in root in the quickpaste popup.
I have multiple favorites, but only one shows in the quickpaste.

How can I have multiple favorites in the popup?

78

Living Room / Links to info for analog-mimicing digital recording techniques?

« on: August 06, 2013, 12:30 AM »

As the local techy guy in the crowds I run in, I often am pulled into this debate of "recordings these days just don't sound as good as analog".  And it's true in a lot of ways, but also difficult to really understand the details of why that is.  First, there's way too much BS in the recording industry with their gold plated plugs and stuff, so that doesn't help, it turns any kind of inquiry into a needle in the haystack thing.  But there is something to it.  Check out this article:
http://www.engadget....05/john-vanderslice/

And I've read several like that.  If anyone can post informative articles that can shed light on this debate, I'd really appreciate it.  The goal for me is, how close can a home studio get for mimicking this analog sound that is often preferred by the people in the know?  Part of it (but which part?) is not even the equipment or analog vs digital, but just people want it to sound bassier or louder, etc...so that's something that can be fixed.  but if there is truly some quality that can't be replicated going on in a tape vs. digital, then i'd like to figure out those specific points.

i have a book by bob katz or something dealing with mastering, but i'm not sure if it talks about this particular issue.

my assumption is that i should be able to get pretty close to the "right" analog sound with digital equipment, at least close enough where people wouldn't complain too much.  but i could be way off.

79

Living Room / SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps Specification Set and Ready for Development

« on: August 01, 2013, 03:02 PM »

http://hothardware.c...ady-for-Development/

Things are about to get faster. The USB Promoter Group announced that it has completed the USB 3.1 specification, which will enable SuperSpeed USB performance of 10Gbps. This, of course, rivals Intel and Apple’s blazing fast 10Gbps Thunderbolt interface, and the new USB connection will make use of more efficient data encoding, and it will be compatible with earlier USB specifications (USB 3.0 and 2.0).

OK, I'm annoyed yet again.  I'm always on top of all these fast transfer speed technology.  Do you know how hard of a time I have had in the past decade finding ANY devices that even make use of these technologies?  USB 3.0?  hardly anything.  esata?  barely took off.  thunderbolt/light peak?  nothing.  And now there's USB 3.1?  We don't even have anything with USB 3.0 yet, and it's been a while!  I don't understand any of this.

Just last month, I probably spent hours trying to figure out what pci addon card i need to get to make use of the usb 3.0 ports on my tower and also add some spare ports for an external drive or hub.  The only ones available are the largely unreliable ones made in china.  And they have issues, I don't use any of my large 3.5" drives externally on them because they experience corruption issues because of the driver or something.  I only use the SSD external drive with it for transfers i don't really care that much about.

I even bought a couple of thumbdrives with usb 3.0 just to test them out (they all suck except for the big fatty fat ones).  But most of the manufacturers are still selling USB 2.0 stuff, like a 90-10% ratio.  And I heard (perhaps here?) that the reason is because they are just trying to get rid of their old stock.  It's all very annoying.  First thing that needs to happen is can some companies (american or another reliable sort) make a f*&^ing  PCI card that can add 4+ ports of anything fast?  Where is thunderbolt?  All that talk and two years later there is nothing!  two years!

80

Unicode Image Maker / meme outline feature

« on: July 31, 2013, 12:32 PM »

Mouser, for the sake of meme creation, can you add a feature that adds an outline around the font being used?  Basically, standard mame font is the impact font plus an outline.

81

Living Room / Please help superboyac build a server (2013 edition).

« on: July 30, 2013, 04:20 PM »

Modified 8-15-2013
Mini-Me Test-Run Storage Server:

ITEM	BRAND	MODEL	PRICE	STORE
Motherboard	SuperMicro	X10SAE (ATX form factor)	$216	===
CPU	Intel	Xeon E3-1245V3 (BX80646E31245V3)	$289	Newegg
RAM	Kingston	32GB (4x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 Server Memory DRx4 Intel (KVR16R11D4K4/32I)	$347	Newegg
NIC	Intel	Networking Card Ethernet Server Adapter I340 Quad Port PCI Express Copper 1Gb (E1G44HTBLK)	$250	Newegg
Case	Cooler Master	Storm Stryker	$169.99	Newegg
Power Supply	===	===	$===	===
OS	FreeNAS	v9.1	$0!	===

Note: HBA Card or SAS expanders or anything like that is not necessary because the motherboard can already support 8 SATA3 drives, and I don't plan on having more than that in this tower.
**

HARD DRIVE	BRAND	MODEL	CAPACITY	RPM	CACHE	INTERFACE	QUANTITY
#1-4	HGST	Deskstar	4TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x4

TOTAL:

16TB

x4

Storage Server:

ITEM	BRAND	MODEL	PRICE	STORE
Motherboard	SuperMicro	===	$===	===
CPU	===	===	$===	===
RAM	===	===	$===	===
Graphics Card	===	===	$===	===
Case	Cooler Master	Storm Stryker	$169.99	Newegg
Power Supply	===	===	$===	===
OS	FreeNAS	v9.1	$0!	===
HBA card	IBM	m1015	$110	ServerSupply
SAS-to-SATA cable (SFF-8087)	(N/A)	1m, forward breakout cable	$10	Monoprice

*
**

HARD DRIVE	BRAND	MODEL	CAPACITY	RPM	CACHE	INTERFACE	QUANTITY
#1-4	Western Digital	Black Caviar	2TB	7200	32MB	SATA 3	x4
#5-6	HGST	Deskstar	2TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x2
#7-8	HGST	Deskstar	3TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x2
#9-12	HGST	Deskstar	4TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x4
#13	HGST	Deskstar	2TB	7200	32MB	SATA 2	x1

TOTAL:

36TB

x13

OK, folks, I know I've done this before and I'm doing it again.  But this time I think I'm REALLY going to do it.  I'm going to build my massive (and I do mean that literally, see below) server.  I've collected about a year or two of notes, and while I have not figured everything out yet, a little more back and forth here and I'll be ready to go.

First, here are the related threads so far:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=20801.0
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=32359.0

And my first request that built my rock-solid desktop:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=16186.0

Eventually, I'll add a table of the parts and everything here.  The primary goal is to hold a lot of drives, over 20 of them.  The rest of the decisions will basically be built around that one.  I didn't want to go through the standard server rack route because the noise that results in cramming all those drives into a tight space.  The other thing I want to accomplish is that I want this to be the only computer in the house (other than laptops and tablets), so it will be in one room, and the rest of the house will be wired with ethernet/etc.  I haven't figured all that out yet, but that's the goal.  In the rooms, I just want monitors and keyboards/mice, but the computing is being done on this machine.

OK, here's what I have so far:
I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the MASSIVE Caselabs TX10-V case ($800).  I like how people there say it will be the "last case they ever buy".  I like that.  I love the room it offers.

I can't decide on a motherboard yet.  I want a physically large motherboard with lots of PCI slots. But I also want as many USB 3.0 slots as possible, and esata if possible.  I know I have to figure out which of those SAS expander or whatever cards to get because of all the drives (I have lots of notes, just have to sort through them).  But I mention the USB 3.0 and esata because I like those and they seem to be rare.  Also, I probably don't have to worry about this, but recently I experienced problems transferring 4TB drives between computers because one of them required a "intel rapid storage technology" (I'm guessing it was before the large drives were common) and because I didn't have it installed, it sort of corrupted the drive, and I had to do a chkdsk and recover all that stuff.  I don't want to deal with that.  I don't want anything to happen to the drive when I plug it in to stuff.  I've experienced similar issues with a third-party USB 3.0 PCI controller I just got.  I don't like it, it worries me.
Please discuss!  Talking through all these things really helps me.

82

General Software Discussion / Can someone make available to me the DC software installers? (read inside)

« on: July 18, 2013, 09:26 AM »

My work blocks dc software because they are malicious.  can someone provide the installers somehow on some offsite location (like MEga or something)?  I just got a new computer and I need:
screenshot captor
CHS
Find and run robot
dcupdater
unicode image maker SC
launchbar commander


Thanks!  much appreciated.

83

Living Room / Why the Surface hasn't sold well. (idiots)

« on: July 17, 2013, 03:51 PM »

http://www.businessi...snt-sold-well-2013-7
So this article is going to reveal the difficult mystery of why the surface has not sold well.

He told the resellers to bring their customers to a Microsoft Retail store and show them the Surface devices there: "You should feel free to use our store as an extension to your office," he said. "Bring your customers there."

Bob Venero, CEO Future Tech

Future Tech

Bob Venero, CEO Future Tech
Bob Venero, CEO of Holbrook, N.Y. reseller Future Tech, was incredulous.

"Really? Hey guys, let's bring our customers in and tell them, 'Look at all of this cool stuff. By the way, you can't buy any of it from us.' What? It's insanity," Venero told Business Insider.

Keeping the Surface away from the channel is also "an emotional issue" for resellers because the Surface is supposed to represent the best Windows 8 PC possible, he said. Why wouldn't Microsoft want its partners to be able to sell the best, he wonders.

Microsoft's reorganization last week doesn't look like it will solve the problem anytime soon.

"I"m trying to figure out the rationale, to understand why they put the Surface under a retail scenario. Xbox is retail. Where clearly the direction we're told from Microsoft is that Surface is for corporate [users] and it wants to drive it into the enterprise."

Read more: http://www.businessi...2013-7#ixzz2ZL0Bo02b

First, it's a dumb article.  Second, it's an idiotic article.

Why beat around the bush?  What is the big mystery?  Let me list all the DUH points:
--Why mess around with the whole start button nonsense?
--it's too locked down, not "messing around with" friendly.

Microsoft is not stupid, but they are pretending to be to hide their true agenda.  EVERYONE wants the start button back, and they are holding off on it as long as possible.  Secondly, the entire windows community is used to the hacker friendly operating system of the past 20 years.  This is the opposite.  Why would windows user desire an apple-like OS?  Doesn't microsoft realize there has been always was a raging rivalry between the two? Holy cow man.

And these are windows users!!  Not apple users who want the glitz and polish!  You are expecting nerdy, hacker, gadget loving, registry messing, service disabling, freeware loving communists, Windows IT users to gladly go to a windows 8 OS and take away all the things they love about computers?  Geez.

And I won't even get into the whole retail store, business/marketing argument that the article is addressing.

Idiots.

84

Living Room / I'm sooo exhausted with the overhyping of everything.

« on: July 12, 2013, 09:57 PM »

I consciously try to avoid to popular media to great degrees, and I'm STILL exhausted by hearing about all the nonsense, overhyped things going on in recent years.  Maybe it's always been this way, I don't know.
Lebron
the 41 megapixels of the lumia
zimmerman
pac rim
anything smartphone related
the economy
the president

tgi-flippin-F

85

Living Room / KPMG: Say it ain't so.

« on: July 01, 2013, 02:53 PM »

http://www.washingto...f0c195a79_story.html

Ex-KPMG partner pleads guilty in insider trading case; authorities say he was plied with cash

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, July 1, 12:26 PM

LOS ANGELES — A former partner at the giant accounting firm KPMG LLC pleaded guilty Monday to a securities fraud charge that authorities said involved providing insider information to a friend who plied him with cash, a Rolex watch and other luxury items.

Another big one.  This doesn't help the suspicions of those (like me) who find it hard to believe that these financial companies that handle massive transactions play completely by the rules.  Hopefully, this is an isolated incident.

86

Living Room / How to choose email address without using your name?

« on: June 29, 2013, 05:17 PM »

I was wondering what you guys would do if you had to choose an email address without using your name?  But you also want it to be business friendly, adult friendly, resume friendly, etc.  I've been using my superboy thing since a teenager, and i want a new one.  I don't want to use my name, so I was just wondering how you guys think through it. 

87

Living Room / Help me choose my next smartphone

« on: June 25, 2013, 09:43 AM »

Until the end of the month ATT is offering an exchange of contract smartphones while waiving the "activation fee".  I have a windows phone 8 (lumia 920) currently.  It's ok, does the job.  But it sucks at a lot of things.  it is the most unconfigurable phone I've ever seen.  The battery life is bad, most of the time it will drain in less than 6 hours whether I'm using it or not.  The wireless charging pad is really cool, but I'd prefer having a phone that doesn't make me worry about it.  if I use the gps map app to navigate an hour trip, often that will drain the battery by over 50%.  So that's my complaint, plus I can't really play with the phone.

The good thing is that it syncs with my office Outlook flawelssly.  I've read Android and the Blackberry Z10 have issues (please confirm, I'd like to know more).  I've used Android before but I can't remember how the Outlook syncing was.  I do remember it being really hard to do.

So here's the plan: tomorrow the htc one "google edition" comes out.  I'm going to get that so i can have a "play" phone.  (this is not part of the exchange).  The google edition phone will allow me to get my geek on and I can try out crazy apps, try different ROMs, etc.  But I need a business phone also just in case (I don't actually need two).  It's just the Outlook thing bothering me.

my priority for the exchange:
1) Blackberry Z10 (good message hub, fast, good size for biz)
2) Galaxy S4 (just to compare to HTC One)
3) Galaxy Note 2 (great overall phone, but big)

Any thoughts/experiences?  Please share!

88

Living Room / clever and easy music distribution ideas

« on: June 20, 2013, 12:18 PM »

On my new website, where I'll be posting my music, I want to make the actual songs available for free (for now) and I want to leverage the latest and greatest technologies we have available.  If anyone has suggestions, please throw them out!

the goal:
I want the music to get on the devices and pc's of users even if they can barely use a computer.

My ideas so far:
I have the mp3 file available as button download for desktop users).  For itunes (and other music management software), I'm hoping when they click on the button to download (links directly to the mp3 file), itunes will immediately pop up and add it to the library (is this correct?).
I also want a QR code with a direct link to the file so people can do the same with their mobile devices, whether it's an iphone, android, or whatever.. Once again, if the QR links to the direct file, it should always work, right?


edit, here's the website, for reference:
http://tbgentertainment.com/

89

Living Room / WTF? A serious news story about 50-foot tall humans on a planet??

« on: June 13, 2013, 11:54 AM »

Is there a joke I'm not getting here?
http://guardianlv.co...h-with-super-humans/

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has discovered over 50 new alien planets (Sept 12), which includes 16 so-called “super-Earths” and a Super Earth with Super Humans. The newly found alien planets consist 16 Super Earths with one called HD85512 which is apparently dominated by more than a dozen 50 feet tall Super Humans.

“This is the lowest-mass confirmed planet discovered by the radial velocity method that potentially lies in the habitable zone of its star, and the second low-mass planet discovered by HARPS inside the habitable zone,” said exoplanet habitability expert Wendy Waldman of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston.  “It’s the only one we’ve seen with outsized human beings.”

90

Living Room / More legislation regarding privacy.

« on: June 06, 2013, 12:58 PM »

Administration, lawmakers defend NSA program to collect phone records

It's funny how I'm pretty sure the "administration, lawmakers" that are making these decisions are personally probably uber-paranoid about privacy and wouldn't let a shred of their own personal privacy be affected.

91

Living Room / The real difference between a desktop pc and every other gadget you have.

« on: June 03, 2013, 03:13 PM »

I've been trying to identify what the fundamental difference is between a desktop pc and everything else, and it is this:
You can build the desktop pc from top to bottom yourself.

That's pretty much it.  Everything else, the phones, the gaming consoles, the tablets, laptops...you can't.  What's interesting is that all the pieces for the other devices can totally be made available like the desktop pc parts, but it appears that the only thing holding it back is basically politics.  You can build your own cellphone if you could get the antenna at a store or something, but you can't.  I don't quite understand why the DIY laptop didn't really take off.  Tablets should also be doable.  i don't buy the "it's too small and cramped" argument for why it isn't accessible.  If the demand was there, someone would make a standard laptop form factor case to hold all the other standard laptop parts.

ANyway, just some mental excretions...

92

General Software Discussion / Custom webmail recommendations (to switch from gmail)

« on: May 31, 2013, 10:35 AM »

I'd like to know what my options would be if I were to ween myself off of gmail and go to my own custom webmail service.  Does anyone have some recommendations?  I have server space and everything, so what application would be the best?  The default cpanel webmail options are ok, but nothing special.  I figure there are some open source gmail alternatives out there or something.

I'd love to eventually get off gmail and control my own destiny, so to speak.  I like gmail's simple search and the quality of results you get.  Other than that, there isn't much I see in gmail that is particularly important to me, other than some of their nice interface elements.  I'm sure with html5 and everything, the alternatives can look good also.

93

General Software Discussion / Recommendation for mosaic/tiled live screensaver that reads folders of pictures?

« on: May 16, 2013, 10:00 PM »

I want a screensaver or a software that can display a bunch of pictures from a group of folders.  But I want it to display the pictures like dozens at a time, not just one or two at a time.  Like a mosaic or tiled interface.  I'd like some snazzy effects, and the pictures to change often randomly, and the tiles don't have to be consistent sizes, they can be all over the place.

Anyone know of such a software?

94

Living Room / Recommend? USB 3.0 + eSATA hub for desktop tower

« on: April 27, 2013, 08:56 PM »

OK, here's what I need:
Some kind of hub to attach mount to my desktop so I can have USB 3.0 and eSATA connections.  Right now, I have neither, although the tower has two unused usb 3.0 slots, but the motherboard has no place for it (doesn't support it).  I have two PCI-E slots available.  I've looked around, I've found a couple of PCI-E things that have two of each connection on it.  I don't know why this seems to be the limit (4 total) but it is everywhere I look.

I also have a bunch of unused 5.25" bays, so I'd like to mount a hub in one of them that has few of each connector on it.  I'm not having much luck finding it, but as far as that goes, how would it connect to the motherboard?  I'm guessing the 5.25 hub would connect through a normal usb 3.0 or sata cable to some pci-e device, but I'm not sure.

Any recommendations?

Here's an interesting one...I like how the bay plugs into the motherboard directly with some funky pci-e cable!
http://www.aliexpres...ll-in/722192611.html

95

General Software Discussion / Finally! A private, non-cloud file-sharing service

« on: April 23, 2013, 04:15 PM »

http://arstechnica.c...x-no-cloud-required/


This is the one I've been waiting for!  See this post:
https://www.donation....msg296807#msg296807

I've always been interested in a way to access your files from everywhere, like dropbox, but without the cloud and without the size limitations.  So this is a very interesting development.  The main issue with private file access like this is that most residential upload speeds are so slow that downloading anything other than simple word documents would be a pain.  And you don't have all the seeders of a torrent to share the bandwidth and make it faster, so that seems to be the main obstacle for me.  That's where the benefit of a cloud comes in.  But with the cloud, there's the privacy issue and normally the size limitations.

96

Adventures of Baby Cody / Baby Cody is in Los Angeles

« on: March 03, 2013, 07:57 PM »

Baby Cody has arrived here in the City of Angels.  He'll never be the same.

97

General Software Discussion / Why did WinRAR Unplugged (portable Winrar version) get discontinued?

« on: January 24, 2013, 07:06 PM »

Anyone have any information about why the portable version of winrar got discontinued?

98

Living Room / Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« on: January 02, 2013, 05:03 PM »

http://www.crn.com/n...coming-this-year.htm

Could this be as exciting as it sounds?  Please!

99

Living Room / Best router and configuration for VPN?

« on: December 16, 2012, 10:35 PM »

For the first time, I am starting to consider using a VPN.  What is the best router/modem/configuration for using a VPN.  I know Renegade has mentioned Privacy.io (and others).  I'm trying it and it's very easy to use, which is nice...I find VPN an intimidating thing.  My issue now is trying to make sure I get the fastest speeds possible.  I don't mind a bandwidth speed hit, but not a lot.  Currently with the Open VPN options, my speed goes from about 1 MBps to less than 200 KBps using the Open VPN option.  That sucks.  I'm pretty sure it's a configuration or hardware thing, but I have no idea how to analyze it, so I need help.

I'm willing to get a new router, doesn't have to be cheap.  I'm willing to install things like DD-WRT if it helps also.  I just want to have some discussions about it with the folks here, thanks.

100

Living Room / Why does Google keep changing the bar menu order/visibility??

« on: December 16, 2012, 08:03 PM »

Before everyone starts explaining HOW to fix this (which I'm interested in also), the main question is WHY google is doing this.  Google seemingly changes what appears in the black bar every few days.  It's very annoying.  The main ones I use are web, news, shopping...probably in that order.  Now, the news keeps going away.  Why?  doesn't make sense.  Then I click on the "more" drop down, and there's only like 4 things there, and I have several inches of screen below it.  Instead of listing a whole bunch in there, they make me clikc "even more".  I mean, this is not only intentional, but a little suspicious.  If someone says this is for simplicity or something, i won't buy it.

I know the basic fix: log in with your account and customize it.  But I don't want to log in, because I don't like googling while logged in.  All the companies are ramping up their BS tactics.  2013 is going to be a very annoying year politically.  Guns & internet will be the issues all year long.  And I don't think the companies are going to lose, unfortunately.