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| 12/24 |
| 2013/8/16-10/28 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:54728 Activity:nil |
8/16 I just left my employer. They didn't ask to get their HW back.
Is is common for employers to contact me a few months/years later
and ask for their HW back?
\_ Is it an iPhone 9 prototype? :-)
\_ as a matter of fact, it is just a 2 year old laptop
and they don't seem to keep track of inventor
\_ You're responsible for returning your employer's property when you
leave. Consider the downside of them realizing it's missing and
taking legal action (unlikely, but it does happen). Is a two year
old laptop worth *that*? Granted, that's a worst-possible-outcome.
\_ how much does a 2 year old laptop depreciate by? how much does
it cost to start a lawsuit?
\_ How much is your reputation worth? I worked at a failing
startup where a number of employees stole equipment.
I can guarantee you that they will never get a job at
any company I am working at.
\_ You've misunderstood. It's not the cost of a lawsuit. It's
the cost to swear out a criminal complaint, and that's near
zero. If a former employer wants to be a hardass about this,
they report the equipment stolen, swear out a complaint, the
police get a search warrant, and come looking for it. If they
find it, it's a criminal case against you, not a civil case.
So it doesn't cost your employer *anything*. It might not
even be your former manager, just some beancounter in finance.
In the case of failed startups, it's the outsourced
liquidation specialists (Diablo Management and their ilk).
\_ how about this scenario: They don't find anything in your
house. Someone blogs about it. It gets on Techcrunch and
Business Insider. Now the company is forever known as the
fucking lame vindictive asshole that nobody wants to work for.
fucking lame vindictive asshole that nobody wants to work
for.
\_ Still not worth the risk to me. The value of stealing
a two year old laptop is less than a day's pay. That's
an absurd amount of risk for such a small payoff.
\_ According to taxman, equipments write-off depreciation
is about 20% a year over 5 years. So a $3000 laptop
is worth about $1800 after 2 years. You make that
much in a day? You serious?
\_ 20% a year is not realistic for computers --
you can't buy a $1000 laptop new and sell it a
year later for $800. Also, most laptops are a
lot cheaper than $3000 new.
\_ The last time I talked to our finance people, we
were fully depreciating *computer equipment* in
three years, not five. And it looks like our
typical laptops are more like $1,700. Do I make
more than 1700/3 in a day? Hell yes. |
| 2013/7/8-8/23 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:54706 Activity:nil |
7/8 Suppose I just stopped going to work and stopped communicating
with them. How many days will it take before they stop sending me
paycheck (and maybe even try to get back the laptop they gave me)?
\_ They'll probably try to call your emergency contact first to see if
you're hit a tree or something.
you've hit a tree or something.
\_ this was much more amusing when I read it as "So I just stopped..." |
| 2011/12/21-2012/2/6 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/Editors/Emacs] UID:54269 Activity:nil |
12/21 In Emacs, how do I make it so that it will resize its screen
when the maximum resolution of my monitor changes? When I
use my laptop, my emacs is too big (and I can't resize it
because the bottom-right corner is not accessible).
\_ Which OS? Can't you drag the top border (not a corner) to resize
the height to be smaller?
\_ MacOS 10.7, bottom right only.
\_ How about "M-x eval-expression (set-screen-height
<some number>)"? You'll have to type this without seeing
the minibuffer.
\_ yes that works. I tried this at home (when
my screen is downsized from a 24" work monitor
to my laptop) and had to do this blind without
seeing the mini buffer and had to do it a few
times. I guess I should learn how to write
a keyboard shortcut in elisp :(
\_ Can't you drag/move windows by any border, or am I thinking
of a different OS? |
| 12/24 |
| 2011/3/12-4/20 [Consumer/CellPhone, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:54057 Activity:nil |
3/12 I am curious what others think of tablets like iPad. They don't seem
useful to me, but I use my computer for more than web browsing,
Facebook, and Twitter. Why would I buy one instead of a laptop?
They seem like a disabled laptop to me, but at a higher price.
\_ You are most likely a coder. iPad is not for coders. They are
what you get your non-technical friends. Or musicians. Look at
the amplitude app. Saves a tonne of gear shlepping. Wolfram Alpha,
etc: http://csua.org/u/sr0 and http://csua.org/u/sr1
And i'm not even going into how i used mine to replace a shelf of
technical books that I realized were kinda annoying without an
automated grep mechanism. But to write code on? never.
\_ http://csua.org/u/sr2 - this is a replacement newspaper for upper
management. The guys with the families, with the mistresses the
100k/yr golf memberships etc. EG. not you. They would like to
replace their daily printed reports with the latest in male jewelry
and hey if they can get interactive graphs showing your coding
teams' productivity whilst on the golf course in real time
so much the better.
\_ Lol i remember reading these 70s fiction books about "electronic
clipboards".
\_ Upper mgmt read those too, as twenny somethings. Natch, they
want ipads now.
\_ I am curious what other think of cookers like the microwave. They
don't seem useful to me, but I use my oven for more than heating up
leftovers, boiling water, and making brownies. Why would I buy one
instead of an oven? They seem like a disabled oven to me, but at a
higher price.
\_ microwave owners would trade good tasting food for a quick meal.
if you're making fun of the poster not understanding that
different users have different computing needs I'm right with you
\_ Interestingly, I don't own a microwave either for exactly those
reasons. I don't find it useful for cooking anything I would
want to eat. It's an unnecessary expense and takes up
counter space. Mine (received as a gift) broke a few years back
and I have no desire to replace it. I would buy an iPad if
it cost a lot less than a laptop, but it costs the same.
Would you buy a microwave if it cost the same as a range?
\_ define what you want the ipad for? and what you want the laptop
for?
\_ Here, these popular programs might show you who wants to use iPads:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/ipad_for_work
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/07/apple_ipad_as_business_device
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/09/top_ten_free_ipad_apps |
| 2010/5/7-8 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:53821 Activity:nil 51%like:53819 |
5/6 Syzygryd Salon at Grey Area Foundation For the Arts Friday, May 14:
http://www.syzygryd.com/2010/syzygryd-salon-at-gaffta-on-fri-may-14th
Come learn more about the Syzygryd project, and play with the hardware
and software we'll be demoing. Also, we're doing a kickstarter to
help fund our flame effects:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fire/syzygryd
-dans |
| 2010/4/5-15 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:53770 Activity:nil |
4/4 My macbook is dying. After three and a half years, I want to retire it,
and get a new one, but I live in constant fear* that Apple will pull a fast
one on me and update them as soon as I do. Anyone know anything about an
impending Apple laptop refresh?
* = hyperbole
\_ http://buyersguide.macrumors.com
\_ I also need a new Mac laptop and I am waiting for an i7-based
system. I am hoping these are out soon. |
| 2010/1/22-30 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:53655 Activity:high |
1/22 looking to buy a new development laptop
needs ssdrive, >6 hr possible batt life, and runs linux reasonably
Anyone have a recommendation? Thx.
\_ thinkpad t23 w ssdrive and battery inplace of drive bay
\_ Ever wondered what RICHARD STALLMAN uses for a laptop? Well,
wonder no more!
http://config.fsf.org/rms/wiki?name=rms
\_ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PADkpyVWAwQ
\_ Apple makes the best laptops, IMO.
\_ always disliked apple laptops. no pageup/down key, too heavy,
have that silly apple light on the back of the display, and
don't offer an extended-life battery as a mfg option --!OP
\_ My MacBook Pro has pageup/down. I find some of the laptops
like the Air to be really light. Battery life also tends
to be pretty good compared to the Dells and ThinkPads I
have owned. I buy new 2 laptops every three years (one
Mac and one PC) and I far prefer the Mac.
\_ real page up/down or fn up/down
\_ and you can run Parallels or VMWare and still get Winblows
and/or Linux, which is really really awesome. Plus, you
don't have to worry about having to reboot your Winblows
every few days. You really get what you pay for.
-20 year PC user, 1 year HAPPY Mac user
\_ why does every mac user say 'run parallels'?
why not just boot to a linux partition? -- !OP
\_ I recommend using a VM, but not Parallels. The reason
is that its far more convenient than booting another
partition. It's much nicer to be able to run both OS
at once.
\_ seconded, but that's because I run both a PC
and Mac and VM images are universal on both.
If I run Parallels, then I'm stuck in Mac OS land
\_ spoken like someone who never ran a VM. I can run
multiple OS's at the same time with only 5-8% penalty
in run-time (if the application isn't graphics oriented
like games). Obviously, if you're playing games, then
you need to run natively. But if you're doing web
or backend development, running OSs in parallel
is a godsend because I depend on apps that exist on
PC (shareware), Mac (Photoshop), and Linux (compiler,
apache, editor)
\_ Not a stranger to VMs, but certainly do not want my
long-uptime linux and freebsd work environments running
on something as unreliable as OS X.
\_ I hope you don't have a raid hooked up to it,
the upgrade from 10.4 to 10.5 hosed my raid.
\_ I run linux on my older ibook. PPC tho. Screw osx
pkg management is crap.
\_ oh wow, ok. America is great! Vote for GWB!!!
\_ I did look at those and they didn't have the battery life
they seem to die out around 4-5 hours of use, and I mean
compiling, debugging, etc. I'd like something that doesn't
die over a long flight (say to EU).
\_ Ok, what PC today lasts 6 hours of compilation?
\_ I get a good 6 hours work done on my current machine:
http://www.csua.org/u/pyp (portege r500, ssdrive)
Been using it fairly heavily day in and day out 16/7
for the last 3 years and the mobo is starting to have
problems recharging the batt. And heh, the keyboard
letters have all worn off.
\_ Get a spare battery. Dell laptops let you use an oversize
battery instead of carrying a spare battery.
\_ yeah oversized and spare batts are the way to go,
i don't think mac supports swapping batteries for
extending life :-(.
\_ You sure can switch batteries. I have three for
my Mac. Are you sure you know anything about Macs?
\_ How do you force it to hibernate so you can swap?
\_ Close lid, wait a few seconds. Or press the
power button and select Sleep. Or select Sleep
from the Apple menu.
\_ Sleep != Hibernate. If you put your Apple
laptop to sleep and remove the battery,
you lose your session. You can make
them hibernate with energy saver setting
tweaks, but the hibernate mode is
very slow compared to PC laptops. -tom
\_ Actually, it is, and you don't. (I just
tried it to be sure.) If you put the
machine to sleep, pull out the battery,
then put the battery back in, it takes
a while longer to resume, but you don't
lose your session. The same happens if
your battery runs down while the laptop
is on standby.
\_ Non detacheable battery?
\_ The new macbook pros are internal battery only,
but that is irrelevant, because...
there is still no extended battery option.
Why carry multiple batteries and have to power
down/switch batteries instead of having a single
heavier battery that lasts the entire flight?
I don't see the advantage.
\_ I get almost 7 or 8 hours of compute time on
my new macbook pro. I guess I could whine and
wish it lasted longer and that I could fit in
another battery, but I will chill. 7 hours
is a long time.
\_ fair enough. What PC do you prefer? Toshiba?
IBM?
\_ I've had toshibas and IBMs (pre lenovo),
I've not liked HPs or Sonys. I've even
had an eeepc that I used as a spare.
\_ MacBook Air.
\_ This is as ghey as driving an Audio TT.
\_ My wife loves her MacBook Air.
\_ Before the tosh i've had:
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sharp-actius-mm20/4505-3121_7-30800836.html |
| 2009/10/24-11/3 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:53466 Activity:kinda low |
10/24 How well do you see color? I got 8, how about you?
http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77
\_ 7
\_ what monitor did you use?
\_ LCD on thinkpad x32, under not so great lighting conditions.
\_ I scored 101, which seems impossible. Then again, I didn't
waste a lot of time to get it "just right". If the colors
were in the same general hue I just left "as is". My gf scored
67.
\_ impossible because you're perfect but got an imperfect score?
\_ Impossible because I certainly lined the hues up reasonably
well and yet everyone on here is scoring single digits. I
wouldn't say that I should necessarily score as well,
because I didn't give enough of a crap to pore over each
tile compared to the tile next to it, but I did sort the
tiles according to hue and shade (light pinks,dark
\_ I guess that's why you got a worse score?
tiles according to hue and shade (light pinks, dark
purples,etc.). I find it odd that we are scoring over 50 when
everyone else here is scoring 10 or lower. How does the
scoring work? How much time did you spend to get it
"just right"? I did the test in about 6 minutes (2 minutes
per row) on my Mac laptop. How much time did you spend?
\_ I spent 10 minutes and got 8, my gf spent maybe
8 minutes and got 12. Why do you say "impossible"?
Do you think you are a god given perfect person?
\_ Impossible that we would *both* score so low when
everyone else is scoring so high. Maybe I should
have said "Improbable".
\_ I got an 8 and I spent about 10 minutes on it total.
Since your g/f got a similar score, maybe it is your
monitor.
\_ Maybe, or the lighting conditions. I am still curious
how this is scored. What does each point correlate
to? If I reverse two tiles but they are in the
correct slots how is that scored differently from
having them in the wrong slots? If you start with
a perfect layout and move the tile at the far right
into the middle then how is your score affected
versus reversing the middle two tiles? In both cases
you are 99% correct in arranging the tiles in order
but I imagine the former scores worse. I suspect some
flaw in the scoring algorithm to be honest.
FWIW, I just retook the test and timed myself. I took
6 minutes 19 seconds and scored a "3" this time on my
monitor at work. WTF?!? I call shenanigans.
\_ Since something like 10 people took it and had no
problem, the issue is probably not related to the
test itself.
\_ It very well could be. 10 is not a large sample
size. Maybe the scoring is not very fluid.
The distributions we are seeing tend to
suggest that: no scores in the 20s for instance.
What separates a "3" from an "8"? How wrong
do you have to be to score a "100" versus a
"3"? To me that seems extremely wrong. Even
if the monitor was not accurate I was matching
inaccurate colors against each other. I can
think of lots of reasons internal to the test
why I'd witness this, including that the site
was effed up for a period of time.
\_ you're an idiot, and you don't even know why.
\_ dude it's a color vision test, not a job
placement or dating site test. Chill out!
Take it 5 times, average it out, and let
it be as is. These people who created the
site are PhDs who studied color their whole
lives to make products that aide people in
the graphics and arts department, do you
think they have an agenda by tweaking the
tests to be inconsistent and meaningless?
Peace out man. Peace out.
\_ monitor matters a lot too. What monitor did you use?
\_ Are you colorblind perhaps?
\_ Not at all.
\_ How do you know this? Have you been tested?
\_ I know because two of my coworkers are colorblind
and they often rely on me to distinguish colors:
particularly green from yellow. They have never screwed
something up by relying on my color judgement, so I
know I am not colorblind.
\_ that may be so, but are you color-perfect? would
you get pissed as well if you found out you don't
have a perfect pitch? Seriously, a large percentage
of the wannabe singers out there think they have
a perfect pitch when they don't even have good
relative pitch.
\_ colorblindness is not a matter of yes or no, it's a
matter of degree. It's not a "yes I can see all colors"
or "no I can only see black/white." It's a question of
how well you are equipped to see. We've established
that you're not colorblind, but also you're not
color-perfect either. If your work isn't in the arts,
don't sweat it buddy. You know, I felt bad that I didn't
have perfect pitch but that didn't stop me from learning
music theory and playing in the orchestra. There were
musicians who were simply equipped with amazing ears
and it's clear that god simply didn't bless me with
the gift of music, but I still have fun now and then.
So no worries, and peace out!
\_ 8 using a Dell Ultrasharp
\_ I'm the same guy but I got a 0 (perfect score) using a Mac
24" LED monitor. The Mac monitor is waaaaay better looking
and more pleasant to use than the cheaply built Dell.
It also doesn't hurt your eyes as much. This convinced me
to get a Mac LED monitor even though it costs 2X as much.
\_ 11 on a crappy Toshiba laptop
\_ 8 on a 24" Dell LCD. In my mid-40s.
\_ why does your age matter, do your eyes lose color
sensitivity as you age?
\_ http://www.visionaware.org/how_does_vision_change_as_i_get_older
\_ 7 on an aluminum iMac (LED) 24". -tom
\_ and your age?
\_ 41.
\_ scored a perfect on a Dell 24" in the dark |
| 2009/8/3-11 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:53235 Activity:low 70%like:53232 |
8/1 Where is the mac desktop going to go? It seems all the development
in sw/hw now is for the iphone, imac. 2 finger Gestures won't work
on the desktop. What happened to the xserve line?
\_ Two finger gestures DO work on the desktop. Have you used a new
Apple laptop lately...they support up to 5 finger gestures.
\_ you're making my point even harder, do the 5 finger gestures
work at all on the desktop with the mouse that God^Steve sold us
when we bought our quad g4 with the screen of giantness?
I look at apple store, there is no mouse replacement from Steve
I will not go 3rd party that is not The Way of Quality.
\_ desktop, laptop, not the same.
\_ laptop = thin client for desktop
\_ macbook, modern male jewlery for The Quality.
\_ So the Xserve line is dead then?
\_ Nobody here owns one.
\_ Why not?
\_ because not everyone is an iDiot |
| 2009/5/22-29 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/HW/Display] UID:53032 Activity:low |
5/22 Are LED monitors much better than LCD monitors?
\_ OLED is still too new to know. They're direct emitters, so don't
have a backlight, and can turn completely off, hence better black.
The early news was that blue pixels burn out relatively quickly.
\_ FWIW, Zune HD will use OLED.
\_ Dunno, but I saw a very nice LED TV for just $2K. Wouldn't that
pretty much completely kill LCD and plasma and that price?
\_ LED (not OLED) monitors means it's an LCD monitor with
an LED backlight (as opposed to older monitors which had
a florenscent backlight). LED backlights look better, are
\_ LED (not OLED) monitor means it's an LCD monitor with
an LED backlight (as opposed to older monitors which have
florenscent backlights). LED backlights look better, are
stronger, and last last longer than florescents, and are
quickly becoming the standard for anything but the cheapest
of displays. OLED tech is much more cutting edge/expensive
and high resolution displays are still crazy expensive.
\_ I see. I was wondering because I saw an "LED TV" for $10K
just a few months ago and now they are $2K, but the
former was probably OLED and the latter is definitely LED.
I still use CRTs, man, and my TV has an analog tuner and
no cable, which means I have no TV in about 3 weeks.
\_ You didn't apply for the $40 coupon for a D->A converter? |
| 2009/5/7-14 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/Virus, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:52968 Activity:nil |
5/7 Help, I think something's wrong with my network setting. I'd go to
a web site, and then it would say "cannot find address". Then I'd
reload again, occassionally 3 times, to load the page. Is this
due to DNS being too slow, TTL setting, or something else?
\_ windows mac or linux ?
\_ windows (company issued laptop, no alternative)
\_ Ugh, get corporate IT to fix your problem. I assume you
don't have admin privs, or do you?
\_ do you have to go through some weirdo proxy? Also run Adaware
and make you aren't carrying a virus SARS infected laptop |
| 2009/5/6-9 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/HW/Display] UID:52954 Activity:low |
5/6 My new Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP finally arrived. While it's only
1/2 the cost of an Apple LED Cinema Display 24, it has very rich
colors and is super bright. However, it is HUGE. It's about 5 inches
thick and looks uber ugly on my little desk. Functionally, it
does what it does well, and the specifications are superb. But
it's like a PC-- full of features (CF card, SD card, 4 USB, VGA,
displayport, DVI), 110% color gamut, etc etc etc. Yes on paper the
specs look good. But it is nothing compared to Apple's 24 inch.
I still think the Apple color looks better. More eye pleasing,
less strains on the eyes, more crisp text display, more accurate
colors. If it weren't for the fact that I can't do DVI->displayport,
I'd get an Apple. Dell 2408WFP-- looks good on paper, but it's
like a typical PC, loaded with features but lacks substance. I
guess I'll just use this POS until I get a new laptop with
displayport built in.
\_ Dell brightness really hurts:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?page=4&t=1908075
Total piece of shit.
\_ I have a dell 2405FPW, its an older model, I've had it almost 2
years now, and it is still doing great. It looks fine and I
actually use the USB and CF slots in it. I dismiss you as an
apple fanboi.
-ERic
\_ No. The Dell is to the Zune as Apple Cinema is to iPhone.
If you can't tell the difference, good for you. But to
me, the Dell is just harsh on the eyes and badly built. By
the way I'm not trying to insult you. Some people can't tell
the difference between Merlot and Cabernet, and some people
don't care. I don't know which category you fall into, but
I can tell the difference, and I care. To each his own.
\_ I think you mean the Dell is to Apple Cinema as the
Zune is to the iPhone. The Dell compares to the Cinema
display, the Zune compares to the iPhone. Back to the SAT
prep classes with you.
\_ This is a terrible analogy on so many levels. For starters,
the Zune isn't a phone. So an iPod would be a better analogy.
But the iPod is not just an output device, there are actual
usability components, so it's not just straight technical
specs, industrial design, or quality of components to compare.
I work at Apple and like my 23" cinema display at work, but
at home I have a Dell 2005FPW and it's quite fine. OTOH, I
don't know how much you'd have to pay me to use a Zune.
\_ I had a 2405 years ago. I replaced it with an Eizo model
within a couple of weeks and never looked back. It's not
just about the LCD panel (same Samsung panel in both). The
thing is cheaply designed using cheap components. Lamp
driver or some other high frequency switching circuit in it
was emitting annoying high-pitched sound. It was
completely unacceptable to me. Apparently, a lot of people
are deaf thanks to the kinds and methods of music listening
these days and can't hear it. FYI, if I knew Eizo was
going to release a 24" model within weeks of my 2405
purchase, I wouldn't have even considered the Dell.
\_ I have an Apple 23" and compared to my brother's 24" Dell,
images on the Apple look better. Still, if I had to replace
my 23", I'd go with the Dell b/c it is so much cheaper. (I
would probably have bought a Dell 24" in the first place, but
I managed to get a huge discount on the Apple, so I got it
instead). |
| 2009/5/5-6 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:52950 Activity:moderate |
5/5 Is there a good (or standard) way to make an offline copy of a w
ordpress blog (mine, not someone else's)? tia.
\_ oh man.
\_ I could cobble something together with curl / wget, but I'd
rather not if there is a standard way of doing this. I'm
pretty new to wordpress / blogging and I just want to keep
an offline mirror of my posts.
\_ This is just a guess: export entries via RSS and use a script
to download and archive entries.
\_ why not just do a database dump. what do you mean by offline?
if you want to setup a local instance of wordpress on your
desktop/laptop, there is a way via wordpress admin to
export/import all posts (and i think pages too). If you
want like a site mirror that you can browse on your
desktop w/out a webserver running then probably just
curl or sitesucker or whatever is going to be your
best bet.
\_ If you just want the entries, SiteSucker or any other webpage
downloader should do the trick. |
| 2009/5/2-6 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:52933 Activity:kinda low |
5/2 I have a 1Gbps switch. It is connected to a SANS RAID-1 with
two WD Green 1T that takes 1Gbps connection, as well as a laptop
that is also 1Gbps. Online benchmarks show *sustained* transfer
rate of about 1/2 of 1Gbps with the WD Green... cool!!! But
in practice, I'm only getting 68Mbps (read SANS->PC file transfer),
far below what I expected. The switch says both devices are using
1Gbps. BTW, setting the SANS on Jumble Frame/no jumble doesn't
change the transfer rate at all. What's going on?
\_ Are you limited by your PC's drive speed? 68 Mbps is 8.5 MB/s
which may be all your drive can do. What do you get copying
data on your drive locally?
\_ When I copy a 796MB file from the same drive, it took about
a minute. So I figured... 796MB read and 796MB write (gross
56 sec. So I figured... 796MB read and 796MB write (gross
assumption that they're about the same, but false).
That's 796*2 / 60 = 26MB/sec. So I hardly think I'm limited
by my drive.
That's 796*2 / 56 = 28MB/sec. So I hardly think I'm limited
by my drive. I'm almost certain the bottleneck is due to
something stupid I did, but seriously, I checked that NAS
is in fact set to use 1000Mbps (or no connection), and I know
my laptop transfer speed is super fast at work. Reallly baffled...
my laptop transfer speed is super fast at work. Reallly
baffled...
\_ Your drive can't do any better than 224 Mbps. Less over
the network given the overhead. Figure maybe 0.66 of 224
for 135 Mbps. That's only a factor of two different from
what you are seeing. Maybe there is some caching going on
to give you that 2x. If the NAS is *really* capable of
500 Mbps (which is what my $100K Netapp striped across
many disks can do so it seems unlikely) then I'd look to
your drive or your network card. Could also be that your
switch sucks. Try to connect with a crossover cable to
see if that helps.
\_ What is the Sustained Transfer Rate for the disks in your NAS?
Odd are it is about 25MBps/per disk. How wide is your stripe?
http://www.storagereview.com/map/lm.cgi/str |
| 2009/4/1-10 [Consumer/CellPhone, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:52782 Activity:nil |
4/1 Best places to get tech news? I'll start:
http://techmeme.com
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming
http://engadget.com
http://news.ycombinator.com
\_ python.reddit is also nice if you're into that kinda stuff. -t
http://engadget.com
http://news.ycombinator.com
\_ ycombinator? really?
\_ dans loves it
\_ I used to go there, but it's a bunch of self-confirming wankers
and pretenders who ask obvious questions in the hope they'll find
some insight that will allow them to skip the hard part of making
a startup. Also, Paul Graham is overrated. -t
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/feeds.html
\_ http://news.cnet.com (my employer)
\_ Ausman, is that you? :P -t
\_ Yes. |
| 2009/3/29-4/3 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:52768 Activity:high |
3/29 "Leaving computers on overnight = $2.8 billion a year"
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/130078
\_ Not good for hardware to power it up and down all the time. I
always leave all my computers on all the time, except for
laptops which I allow to sleep (but still be powered).
\_ How is this the case for desktops but not laptops? I don't see
how turning something off at the end of the day would cause a
problem. Seems like less wear and tear.
\_ It's more wear and tear to power cycle and lubricants get
cold. Your system will fail more quickly if you turn it
off every night in my experience.
How laptops are different:
1. Their h/w is better designed for low or no power.
2. They are much better about sleep/wakeup than desktops,
in part because of 1.
3. If a laptop dies it's not usually a big deal because
they are not expected up 100% of the time anyway.
\_ Here you go. Welcome to the 21st century.
http://tinyurl.com/dcur84
http://tinyurl.com/6egwdu
\_ From a link found in one of your links:
"[Temperature cycling] is a well-established failure mechanism and a
stress on components," McCredie pointed out. "What it really comes down to
is all these things -- chips soldered on modules, soldered on boards and
connectors -- that expand and contract when they heat and cool.... When
they all contract and expand at different rates, they can fail. That's
ultimately the bad thing with power cycling," he said.
--Brad McCredie, an IBM fellow for the Systems and Technology Group
You can say "Cycling power on a sick system is
going to bring attention to latent component
weaknesses that go unnoticed in operation" which
maximizes "server availability", but that's an odd
way of looking at it. If you don't power down the
system then you won't have the failure and your
availability will be greater. I have gone through
just a few dozen exercises where equipment in an
entire data center was powered down and equipment
always fails at a much higher rate when that
happens. Whether it's just highlighting a latent
sickness is semantics. If you don't power it off,
then it won't fail, even if the power off is not
the root cause.
\_ Well, if you want to cling onto any comment
as a way to rationalize your practices, that's
fine.
\_ why give this guy a pass? Fuck that!
this is our planet too. --ecoterr'rst
The way I synthesize everything is if
you're not power-cycling a lot, you'll very
likely be fine for the useful life of the
product. It's a tradeoff between perceived
higher failure rates, which may go up "negligibly"
with occasional power cycling, versus the cost
to your pocketbook and the environment of running
hardware 24/7 even when it's not being used.
There are multiple comments that suggest that
turning off your equipment at night (or whenever
it won't be used for an extended period of time)
is the better tradeoff, but of course you
conveniently ignore those points.
P.S. A datacenter is a very different use case
than a typical home or work desktop. Although
powering down parts of a datacenter would still
appear to be much more a logistical problem than
a hardware failure problem.
\_ Different use case, but basically same
components. If they fail measurably (not
"negligibly") in that case then they will
fail at your home, too. Most people probably
do not notice because a 1/N failure rate
means you will likely be fine, but when the
number of machines is 1000N it's a noticeable
issue. I always count on a power outage to
result in dead hardware. You can make the
argument that a 5-10% chance of failure (say)
over the lifetime of the system is low, but
I'd rather just keep my system up. The key
point here is not that I am against powering
off equipment, but realize it comes with a
non-negligible risk of failure. Given my
experiences I just keep my equipment powered
on. As far as being environmentally aware,
maybe you should talk to the people in the 55
story buildings who leave the lights on all
night. Go anywhere in SF, LA, or NYC
to see that lots of lights are not on sensors.
Those "spectacular city views" are wasting a
lot of $$$.
\_ well, if you have control of the lights
in the skyscrapers, by all means, turn
them off when not in use. If you don't,
you should make wise choices about the
things you do control. -tom
\_ I gave up on convincing him. Guy just
doesn't want to do it.
\_ I like my h/w to not fail. Maybe you
don't mind if it does. You can
pretend the h/w won't fail, the OS
will always boot fine, and the s/w
will start up fine every time if you
want to but there is evidence to the
contrary. It's not a case of comparing
my $500 machine to the $8/month bill
and saying that I can replace the
machine with the savings over the life
of the machine. Having my machine
fail is *BAD* and causes me grief.
If you turn yours off every day then
more power to you. My experience has
shown that IBM guy (who *you* ignore)
is correct and power cycling systems
results in failures. You know that
server in the corner that no one knows
what it does exactly but is VERY
IMPORTANT and the guy who built the
s/w that runs on it - and only on
that very h/w - left 15 years ago?
DON'T TURN IT OFF OR REBOOT IT.
Now, if you understand why that is a
bad idea extend it to your own system
because the same physics are at work.
Now if a h/w failure is meaningless to
you because you have great backups and
no need for quick recovery and can buy
another machine and so on then go ahead
and power down, but that's analyzing
risk/reward which is not the same as
saying there is no problem with
powering your system down. There is.
\_ You speak as if hardware won't fail
if you don't turn it off. It will;
it's just a matter of time. And if
your plan for handling the failure
of a VERY IMPORTANT system is to
not have it fail in the first place
by not turning it off, you're just
stupid. Although I've seen people
have just such "plans", but then,
newsflash, there are stupid people
out there.
\_ It will fail more rapidly if you
keep turning it on and off every
day, whether that's because
the components are stressed
or just because latent failures
materialize. I know HP said
that the h/w won't, but I
doubt they tested systems
under real world situations
like under a desk with a case
full of dust bunnies. My own
experience has shown that h/w
will fail when powered down
and I dread it whenever
electrical work has to be done
because it means something is
going to die. Sure, sometimes
h/w dies anyway but it's
*guaranteed* something will
die when everything has been
powered off. I have seen this
many times over 12 years now. |
| 2009/1/22-26 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:52444 Activity:low |
1/22 Paid Sharper Image 3 years of extended warranty and now my product
is dead and so is Sharper Image. Moral of the story: extended
warranty is a complete waste of money.
\_ http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080814120850AAltd6v
\_ THANK YOU MOTD GOD. Who says Motd isn't helpful? It is by
far the most helpful thing wrt to my dead Roomba. Thank you
Motd God, you've saved me $300.
\_ Paid apple 3 years of extended warranty for my laptop and
they fixed it when it broke 2 years into the warranty. Moral
of the story: extended warranty was worth it for a laptop.
\_ Many times the extended warranty is provided by a 3rd party.
Overall extended warranties -like all insurance- are a moneymaker. |
| 2009/1/13-22 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:52371 Activity:nil |
1/13 I've been using Ubuntu as my primary laptop for 3-4 month. But there
are still alot of things i need to learn... for example, after an
application crashes, where do I look for any sort of logs that might
give me a clue what happened? how linux monitor the crashes? So far,
i had two bad episode of thunderbird trying to log onto my company's
remote LDAP server and actually crashed the entire system... (as if
some pull the battery out of my laptop kind of crash). what kind of
logs do I look for? Also, when i type dmesg, what text file does it
display? thanks
\_ If your whole system is crashing, that's a kernel problem,
not anything related to your applications. Start by running
"cat /proc/sys/kernel/tainted" to see whether you're using
any unsupported proprietary drivers.
(It sounds like your problem isn't related to applications,
but if you ever do want to debug an application crash, you
can enable core dumps by adding the line "ulimit -c unlimited"
to your .gnomerc file. It'll take effect next time you log
in; after that, when any application crashes, it'll leave a
file called "core" in its current directory. You can debug
it by running "gdb application core".)
The data that dmesg displays comes directly from the kernel
(not from a file on disk), but it's logged in /var/log/dmesg.
\_ thanks!!! kngharv |
| 2009/1/8 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:52339 Activity:nil |
1/8 http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary?utm_source=embedded_video Apple Introduces a new revolutionary laptop! -onion news |
| 2008/12/15-29 [Recreation/Computer/Games, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:52248 Activity:nil |
12/15 Anyone have opinions on media streamers that connect to your tv and
let you play all those bittorrented movies? I'm getting sick of
my xbox refusing to play every other video.
\_ My current solution is an old pc with a cheap video card, using
Synergy on my laptop. This plus every episode of MST3K has provided
much entertainment.
\_ the leet hacker types use mythtv. http://www.mythtv.org
\_ The goal is to have a dedicated box. A full computer is such
a waste of electricy, and if I want it to be quiet it costs far
too much. |
| 2008/12/8-10 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:52193 Activity:kinda low |
12/7 What kind of adapter do I need on my Thinkpad to drive that new 30"
Apple Cinema display?
\_ New? Well, though I didn't know there's a new model, I'm pretty sure
that like the old one, you'll need something with Dual-link DVI, or
if they moved to DisplayPort (or whatever its name was), you'll need
that. Basically, with such a large monitor, it needs a lot of
bandwidth to get the signal over without a crappy resolution or
framerate. So unless you have a pretty nice graphics adapter on your
thinkpad, you won't be able to get the full benefit from it. If you
don't have even a single-link (standard) DVI port, you're double-
screwed, and won't be able to use it at all. --t
\_ I did a bit more research and my Thinkpad only drives up to
1920xXXXX so it's not going to use up the entire 2XXXxXXXX
resolution that the new 30" native resolution has. Also it's
a shitload outa my price range. I'm now thinking about the
regular 24" with 1920xXXXX resolution. I only need a DVI
right?
\_ Yeah, if your Thinkpad hs DVI you should be golden. However, do
consider getting some other brand if you're not looking to get
the 30" model, as you'll save a lot of money without
\_ Yeah, if your Thinkpad hs DVI you should be golden. However,
do consider getting some other brand if you're not looking
to get the 30" model, as you'll save a lot of money without
sacrificing much in the way of quality --t
\_ What other 24" brands besides Apple have good colors?
\_ Bah. my edit was deleted. After some research, the new
model uses mini-DisplayPort, for which no adapters
currently exists (but Apple is offering free licenses for
the specification to drive adoption). You're SOL for the
new one unless you decide to get a new mac. --t
currently exists (but Apple is offering free licenses
for the specification to drive adoption). You're SOL
for the new one unless you decide to get a new mac. --t |
| 2008/12/7-10 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/Networking] UID:52191 Activity:kinda low |
12/6 I got my g1 phone to provide my laptop with internet access.
It wasn't too painful.
\_ throw enough money at a problem and it gets solved
\_ was it real protocol-independent internet access, or were you just
using the phone as a web proxy?
\_ Tetherbot on the g1 creates a socks proxy
\_ meaning if you want to run non-proxy-aware apps on your laptop
its useless. Still waiting...
\_ It's trivial to run network aware programs through a proxy
in linux and macos
\_ what are these non proxy aware apps ? give me an example |
| 2008/11/11-26 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:51914 Activity:nil |
11/11 I have laptop running linux. Can I buy a G1 and tether them to
together?
\_ are you this guy
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/cpg/914246252.html
\_ afaik, G1 doesn't do tethering at all, no app support.
(though there are a few solutions that make the G1 a web/socks
proxy -- see http://android-unleashed.com)
-- Waiting for tethering before I get a G1 |
| 2008/10/30-31 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:51752 Activity:nil |
10/30 Does a AT&T laptop connect card work in Ireland? |
| 2008/10/20-26 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/HW/Display] UID:51587 Activity:nil |
10/20 Do people in photographic or graphic arts or advertising industries
use LCD monitors? When my Samsung SyncMaster 204B displays a picture
or some color graphics, the colors change when I move my head around
the monitor. I don't remember seeing this problem when I had a CRT.
How do people in the above fields use LCD monitors when color precision
is extermely important? Thx.
\_ you want a display with good viewing angles. I used to know all
the terminology. Good viewing angles don't necessarily give you
accurate colors. Visit http://hardforum.com, Displays. You will pay more.
\_ LCD guru, are Macs better for these type of things? I think
Macs in general have more vibrant colors, but I don't know
how accurate they are.
\_ The difference can be pretty dramatic. Go to a Costco or Best
Buy and check out the viewing angles. Then go to an Apple
store. Seeing is believing.
\_ google for color reproduction cinema
\_ I don't know about now, but in the recent past (say 4-5 years
ago) they did not use LCDs in favor of CRTs. No idea how that
has changed over the years, though.
\_ I worked for a game company and all the illustrators and graphic
artists had CRTs while the rest of the company had LCDs. |
| 2008/9/18-19 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:51217 Activity:low |
9/18 My 7 year old Dell laptop is slowly decending into its death throws.
I am seriously considering an Mac laptop; but am having a hard time deaa\
ling with the price. Curious to find out if people really think that
the extra $$ upfront was a good investment. a 2K macbook pro with
standard config can buy a high end dell laptop
\_ I have both a MacBook Pro (and before that a PowerBook) and a
Dell Latitude. I love Apple laptops. The only other laptop
I might consider are the ultra lightweight Acer Netbook style
laptops. The Dell is clunky and feature poor. It's also nice to
be able to run both MacOS (I like UNIX-style command line) and
Windows XP (using VMWare).
\_ Have you considered a MacBook? It is much cheaper than the MBP
and almost as good for most things. The only thing I dislike
about my MB is the integrated graphics. In all other aspects,
it is the best and most reliable laptop I have ever owned. |
| 2008/8/27-9/3 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/OS/Linux] UID:50980 Activity:nil |
8/27 I have a rather large linux partition. I just got a new laptop
and want to move all my settings and customization to that new
computer. how to do this? I tried remastersys but it seems that it
get stuck somewhere, and I am hoping it is not really trying to create
a 26GB iso file.
any ideas? is there anyway i can back up my debian package database
and do it that way? i am running Ubuntu Hardy. Thanks
kngharv
\_ Put both drives on a network and use rsync on the filesystem.
\_ When I was a POW, partitions had US! |
| 12/24 |