Recent Posts

176

Living Room / Re: Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 28, 2009, 08:28 PM »

The problem with the front fan setup though is that, if I were to cut the hole and put the fan 1/2 in 1/2 out, it would hit more resistance than it is now, because both hard drive slots would be partially blocking it (making it about 1/2 effective instead of the 3/4 or so it is now). The front won't work unless I had a smaller fan - I need something that will fit on top of/under the drives, to blow air on/over/along them. Front and side don't work, and if I went to the back of the drive cage (in relation to the front of the computer) it would have little/no cool air coming in (no fan pulling cool and fresh air in).

The noise from the old 80mm fan was from both the fan itself, and from that causing it to shake and hit the case (several times a second). Right now, I've got the (quiet 120mm) fan held on by two Phillips screws going into the "netting" holes, and it is near silent.

177

Living Room / Re: Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 28, 2009, 08:01 PM »

With the case closed, the computer actually seems to more heat (the rear fans blow out air that is noticeably hotter than with the side door removed), hence I removed it. I might put my temperature monitor/fan control bay into it and see what it says (the wires, oh god the wires... *shakes with horror*)...

If the drives are running so hot that they are "burning" hot then most likely the spindle lubricant has failed, eg. it's partially solidified.  I've had this happen with a drive from 2001 that hadn't been spun up for a while.

-4wd (April 28, 2009, 06:45 PM)

Interesting... this computer did sit dormant for a bit a while back (a couple years now) - it had a dead PSU and I, at the time, couldn't diagnose the issue (but I eventually learned what was wrong all by myself! ). Dunno if a span of a few months is sufficient, though.

I would think that when they say "a little hot" they don't mean "burning hot".

-4wd (April 28, 2009, 06:45 PM)

When I say "burning hot" I mean where I can touch it for ~.5-1 second and have to take my fingers/hand away and say "Ow!", so I would assume as much.

Having the sides off the case actually decreases airflow.

-Deozaan (April 28, 2009, 06:21 PM)

probably wouldn't make that much difference in this setup

personally I'd cut an opening in the case behind the fan, mask the openings in the case either side of the fan, and mount the fan so it's drawing rather than blowing...

-Target (April 28, 2009, 06:31 PM)

I could cut the hole, but the front panel *still* won't fit on with it there. I need a more "permanent" setup than the front mounted fan. I did have a blazing fast 80mm fan there before (about 1/2cm thick, so it fit great), but it is out of balance and makes an awful noise, and then it usually hits the metal case, making more noise... horrible for sleeping

Also, replacement of the drives is absolutely out of the question - I bugged my dad about it back in January/Febuary, and the money is simply not available. Damn economy...

178

Living Room / Re: Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 28, 2009, 05:48 PM »

BTW, if the HDDs are that old and running that hot NOW is the time to backup all the data on them and replace them.

-4wd (April 28, 2009, 12:46 AM)

Isn't having a hot hard drive causing data loss kind of a misnomer?

I read somewhere that Google did a test on their zillions of hard drives and found that the drives that were running on the cool side were more likely to fail than the drives running hot.

-Deozaan (April 28, 2009, 01:45 PM)

That's interesting, never heard of that before. Kind of how a CPU that says at a constant temperature has a longer lifespan and better performance than those with variable temps.

The only thing I notice is that when the drives get hot, speed decreases slightly (up to 50% slower during the really extreme high temps, as seen during Analyze/Defragging with Defraggler). Right now I have a temporary 120mm fan on the front of the case, blowing air between the 2 drives (below C, above D). The case design is not very good (it was made to be a high-end office PC back when it was new, so "Home Server" kind of pushes that, especially with its age). Images attached.

Computer as-is normally (faceplate removed):


Up close (both drives visible):


Up close 2 (both visible):


Up close (length of case visible):


Full case:


BTW: The IDE ribbons are *not* in the way of airflow, as the images lead to believe. The computer is also ON (and that fan is spinning) in the pictures, too (camera captured it otherwise).

Based on those pictures, any suggestions what I could do to get more air flowing? My temporary solution won't last long (sister/friend comes over, "What's this? OW MY FINGER" is imminent... )

179

Living Room / Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 27, 2009, 11:32 PM »

I have a small home file storage/backup/µTorrent/BOINC server that runs pretty much 24/7 on a dresser in my room. It is a great little machine from 2001 with 1.6Ghz P4, 768MB DDR RAM and an ATi Radeon X1300 AGP card; however, the two IDE hard drives get EXTREMELY hot ("burning" hot) during intense file movements, defrags, things of that nature. I used to have a small hard drive cooler that sat on the bottom of the drive (via screws, or in my case, jury-rigged in) sporting 2x 80mm fans - it met its demise when the power plug ... melted. Both drives work great (both from 2002 now, aftermarket drives), so there isn't anything wrong except for the heat output (no grinding, data loss, etc).

So now I am looking for a new hard drive cooling system - air or water, but it has to be reasonably cheap (anything over $50 is pushing it unless it is water-cooling). If anyone had a recommendation for a good freeware HD Temperature (F/C compatible) monitor, that would be great as well

180

ProcessTamer / Re: a REALLY annoying part about process tamer.

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 27, 2009, 06:21 PM »

Semi-related bug report:

Just right clicked PT in the tray and hit Check for Updates and clicked OK to go to the DCUppdater site - it opened both the PT webpage (https://www.donation...proctamer/index.html) as well as the DCU page (should only open the latter).

181

Circle Dock / Re: SETTINGS wont work 'error message' Please help!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 26, 2009, 04:02 PM »

scratch that my friend  only needed to restart the program till your solution could take effect  thanks a lot!

-pangutana (April 26, 2009, 09:18 AM)

Glad it worked for you

182

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Sort images into folders based on resolution

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 24, 2009, 07:28 PM »

Alright, I just gave both apps a try- Dimensions-2-Folders is much better suited to the task I was trying to achieve, however the Multi-Rename Script that fenix pointed out definitely has some power (just overkill for something like this). I'll keep both handy for specific tasks

183

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Sort images into folders based on resolution

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 24, 2009, 06:38 PM »

Try this out:  Dimensions-2-Folders

Currently, it does not recurse subfolders in the source folder nor will it overwrite a file in the eventual destination folder.  These are behaviours that are easily added but I wanted to see if this is what you had in mind first.  As always, better name suggestions are always welcome.  =]

-skwire (April 24, 2009, 06:22 PM)

That should work just fine - I just have a collection of desktops that I have been downloading (mass googling and drag-and-drop downloading ) and need to sort 'em.


@fenix:
I'll give that a try and see how it works as well


Will post back in a bit when I get back on my Windows machine

184

Finished Programs / DONE: Sort images into folders based on resolution

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 24, 2009, 01:04 PM »

Not sure if something like this exists, but was wondering if someone knew about a tool/could whip something up that was able to scan & sort images based on their resolutions (would have to support non-standard sizes as well, like 1794x1250). It wouldn't have to be anything massive (or even have a GUI or options or anything), just something that would go through and make folders for each size, then move the images in.

Anyone?

185

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Stand-alone Audio Visualiser

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 22, 2009, 09:33 PM »

Bump

I'd like to see something like this too; Steriomix/What-U-Hear could be "monitored" for sound and then visualized, but I don't have any further knowledge on how to accomplish it.

186

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 22, 2009, 08:47 PM »

Animator vs Animation (and the sequel) are awesome

I showed them off in my computer programming/tech class last semester when we did Flash

187

Living Room / Re: How many furries here at DC?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 22, 2009, 05:32 PM »

Ummm... when I hear "furry" (link not exactly worksafe), I always associate it with pervs sexxing up in suits with animal tails >_< - so I almost choked on my morning coffee when seeing this thread.

-f0dder (April 22, 2009, 02:30 AM)

Yea, that is what most people end up (wrongly) associating it with because of negative articles, comments and sometimes outright BS. It is true that it happens, but that is like saying all black people steal - yea, some do, but you can't go labeling the whole basket because of a few bad eggs (bad metaphor, whatever).

Not to say I would mind a tail...

188

Living Room / How many furries here at DC?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 21, 2009, 10:35 PM »

Thought I would start up a thread to see if anyone else here at DC was "furry". It is summarized well on the Furry badge page:

... fans of fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics, like facial expressions, the ability to speak, walk on two legs, and wear clothes.

Basically anyone that takes an interest in, or relates to animals with human traits. Out of the thousands of members here, there have to be a few more than myself and scannie.

Anyone?

189

Living Room / Re: ZDNET: Have we arrived in the post-Windows era?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 20, 2009, 10:30 PM »

For what I do on my laptop (not my primary machine anymore, but nonetheless) I saw no need to keep using Windows Vista on it, and switched to Linux (Ubuntu, specifically). I lost absolutely no functionality and do the same things I did, with the same apps I used (open source FTW), just faster and simpler. As far as the OS debate goes, until you bring up the topic of (commercial) games, I (personally) have no reason to run Windows anymore. That is the only reason it sits on my two desktop computers - and with every release of WINE (or CrossOver Office, or whatever you prefer), the time ticks away on those as well.

Just my opinion

190

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 20, 2009, 06:47 PM »

Update: Personally, I've been enjoying the switch so far - still don't have suspend/hibernate working, but mostly everything else is going smoothly. The only problem I have is that everytime I open Rythmbox, it bugs me to find some codecs, but then complains that it can't find any not a big deal though. I've jumped into working on a modification for Ubuntu for some friends of mine, learning a bit more about what makes it tick. You can learn a lot when you know where look.

191

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 17, 2009, 05:33 PM »

@housetier
I did not do what would be considered a "backup"; just the files in my/sister's profile directories. The laptop was running Vista Home Premium and choking to death on it (512MB and no money to upgrade = sure fire way to kill my HD via swap), and there was nothing really worth backing up on it anyways.

So far the only other problem I have encountered is that Suspend (aka Sleep, Stand By, etc) fails still. HOWEVER, that is offset by the blazing fast bootup time compared to 8.10:

Bootup takes about 20 seconds from power-to-cursor; I timed it once getting 23 power-to-login screen
Shutdown takes about 15 seconds from clicking "Shut Down" at the 60 second time prompt, to being completely off (power light off)

@zaine/40hz
I have put Ubuntu 7.04-8.10 on all but two computers in the house (5 total), and have had little problems except Sleep and WiFi - I've only used Ubuntu/Xubuntu, Knoppix, Debian and a couple other distros, having the best "experience" (not reformatting within a week) with Ubuntu. This install was just a bad run of luck, but it is working great now. If I hit some more problems (post-final release) I'll look at some other options and see how they work

EDIT: For grammar

192

General Software Discussion / Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 16, 2009, 10:10 PM »

I am going cold turkey on my laptop from Vista to Ubuntu 9.04 and was hoping some fellow members could give me some insight as to what is new, broken, problematic and helpful in Ubuntu's latest RC.

My one negative experience so far (install is at 66% as I type this):
During my 1st install attempt (boot from disk, then run installer manually) the installer encountered an error and went "nuts" for lack of better words. The 2nd time (thus far successful), I chose to install directly from the disk menu, but this time I did NOT check the option to import my Vista account's Firefox data - so might wanna watch for that.

Anyone have any insight, experiences or suggestions? I need this laptop just for work (my sister will hate me, no more Sims 2), so I need it to be fully functional and ready to work at any given moment (Sleep did not work in 8.10). Anything that can be done to ensure this, I will gladly attempt


Last second edit: It took 2 DVDs (first was bad) and 3 (THREE) install attempts to get Ubuntu installed. Also, at the reboot screen for the Live CD, it only showed "and press ENTER to continue."

EDIT: Another problem: To install proprietary drivers for my Linksys WPC300N (yes, Broadcom, ugh) Ubuntu "downloaded" them. Uhh... HELLO? (Wired connection worked great for this after I laughed about the lack of a connection)

193

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: move small dialog windows to cursor position

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 13, 2009, 10:57 PM »

Somewhat off-topic:

In the about box (above), there should not be a comma in the first sentence. Also, the word "customizable" is spelled "costumizable," the comma there should be a semicolon (";"), "informations" needs to drop the "s," the last "it's" should be "its," and there should be a "the" after "at" and before "donationcoder.com"

Fixed version:

Spoiler

This is a small script that moves small dialog windows to the mouse position as soon as they are created. It's highly customizable; for more information on how it works, please see its topic at the DonationCoder.com forums.

I'm picky about that kind of stuff, so I thought I'd point it out...

</offtopic>

194

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Sort files into folders based on type

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 11, 2009, 06:50 PM »

Drag and drop works - didn't think of that!

Basically on the folder thing: no fault of the program. I had made a set of folders to have MoveOut organize them to see how that worked, but then I switched to ILikeToMoveIt and what it was trying to (correctly) do, was move all those folders into the _folders directory.

Downloading now

195

Living Room / Re: Fonts: Worth The Bloat?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 10, 2009, 11:37 PM »

I've never noticed fonts doing anything noticable to performance except when I fire up OpenOffice Writer and hit the font menu and the system crawls loading my several hundred fonts...

*Goes off to 1001freefonts.com*

196

Living Room / Re: adding memory to my Dell Precision 380

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 10, 2009, 11:20 PM »

 

It *is* a netbook (not made for speed, so I wouldn't expect it to have multiple RAM slots), but still, that's bad...
Tried Crucial's customer support? Might be able to send it back or get a refund of some type...

197

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Sort files into folders based on type

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 10, 2009, 06:38 PM »

I hope it works for you. Please be sure to use the new version I just uploaded.

-wr975 (April 10, 2009, 03:09 AM)

Ah, I have yet to try it out, but am updating now

Robobasket.  I purchased it on BDJ for 9.95.  I haven't really used it yet, but maybe it will help you.  Normal price is 19.95.

http://www.bitsdujou...software/robobasket/

-wraith808 (April 10, 2009, 09:45 AM)

I'll check that out now

EDIT: @wr975 Good looking app, testing it now, but why is direct input disabled for the two textboxes to specify the folders? I changed the option myself (glad I know AHK) but it is worth mentioning that Windows takes FOREVER to open the Network computer list, so allowing direct input would be something I would allow by default.

EDIT 2: After some failed testing, I disabled the Folders sub and it works great now (I guess it was trying to move the folders that MoveOut already had for me (exclude list might help?), so 6.5GB or so of processing isn't AHK's forte). One request: when it moves the EXE+other extension files to Apps, can it make a folder inside of
Apps with the same name of the programs so that it doesn't become a mish-mash of Program/INI/Program/INI/Program/ICO... etc?

Example:

Downloads folder before any action:
MySuperProg.exe
MySuperProg.ini
MySuperProg.ico

Current setup:
Apps\MySuperProg.exe
Apps\MySuperProg.ini
Apps\MySuperProg.ico

Theoretic setup:
Apps\MySuperProg\MySuperProg.exe
Apps\MySuperProg\MySuperProg.ini
Apps\MySuperProg\MySuperProg.ico

I would try it myself, but I haven't worked with AHK for anything beyond basic scripts for a couple of years now

198

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Sort files into folders based on type

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 09, 2009, 07:00 PM »

Awesome! I'm downloading it now and will give it a go over the next couple days as I continue downloading and see how it fairs.

199

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Sort files into folders based on type

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 08, 2009, 11:11 PM »

Skrommel's MoveOut might work for you.

-skwire (April 08, 2009, 09:09 PM)

Not exactly, but pretty darn close. Had forgotten about that little app Thanks

200

Finished Programs / DONE: Sort files into folders based on type

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on April 08, 2009, 08:36 PM »

I did a little bit of searching and surprisingly didn't find anything to do this (except for music-related circumstances), so here goes...

I have a Downloads folder on my home server machine that is past 7GB and climbing (yes, I actually DO clean it out ). I need a program that I can run that sorts the files into various folders based on their types (or file extensions, it doesn't matter one way or the other to me). It would need to be able to identify and place all of these file types into folders:

• Folders (thereby making a folder of folders, but if the folder of folders already exists, don't put THAT folder into a new folder... )
• EXE
• MP3
• MP4/FLV
• ZIP/RAR/7z/JAR
• ICO
• PNG/JPG/GIF
• INI
• PDF
• and more, preferably in a (user stupid) editable format

In addition, INI files that have an EXE counterpart with the same name should both be placed in a folder with that name (for coding snacks and whatnot).

Anyone able to take this?