A thread for boring computer questions.

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If you want a laptop to last a long time, it doesn't really matter what you install or not on it - if things get fucked up for software reasons you can always do a reinstall. If you want it to last, then just treat it like it's a fragile object - laptops die because of one two many knocks/drinks spilled on them.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 31 July 2005 15:28 (nineteen years ago) link

like people, then!

thanks for your advice, folks. i shall bear it all in mind when downloading pr0n conducting research.

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 31 July 2005 15:33 (nineteen years ago) link

hmmm. that didn't work very well. what's the html for strikethrough? obviously not k!

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 31 July 2005 15:34 (nineteen years ago) link

strike and /strike

Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 31 July 2005 15:40 (nineteen years ago) link

like this?

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 31 July 2005 15:41 (nineteen years ago) link

woo!

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 31 July 2005 15:41 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...
We used to use icalx.com for calendar sharing on Ical, but it appears to be down, and I'll bet it won't come back. OUr web hosts don't have webDAV servers, and as they're work related, we can't have them publicly available.

It needs to be simple, so getting people to use another app is out of the question. It needs to be cheap, so getting 7 people to get .mac is also out of the question. So...

Anyone know of any free / cheapish webDav server space we could use for hosting 6 calendars?

Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 20 October 2005 11:55 (nineteen years ago) link

there's one built into OS X. Otherwise cheack out freshmeat.net.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 20 October 2005 11:56 (nineteen years ago) link

You mean I can store files there and as it's webDAV enabled, we will be able to use them?

Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 20 October 2005 12:30 (nineteen years ago) link

huh?

Freshmeat.net is a directory of software, mainly opensource and may be able to help you.

As for the Mac thing there was a useful article on macdevcenter.com on setting up a homemade .Mac server on your mac which included a WebDav calendar server. Set one of the office Macs to be the WebDAV server.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:12 (nineteen years ago) link

unfortunately the webdav thing is only easy (and i mean REAL easy) to set up with the server admin tool (oo, tick a box!). maybe there is something for regular clients to set this up. that webdav article was also recently linked on mocosxhints

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:18 (nineteen years ago) link

Bah. No can do as they're all laptops with none always in the office...

Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I think my email provider (ghoulnet) provides a webdav server as part of the package but I've never used it.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Here's another question:

Is there part of the computer (NOT the monitor) that could cause the brightness and colour of the display to flicker, darken etc? Because I just chucked out my old monitor cos it did this all the time, and now my sparkly new TFT screen is doing it too!! What could be causing it?

Thanks!

Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link

Mark, I think your magnetic personality must be responsible.

KeefW (kmw), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Your video card could be shot.

stet (stet), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:22 (nineteen years ago) link

That seems a little extreme.

Alba (Alba), Monday, 24 October 2005 22:35 (nineteen years ago) link

how fast is it flickering?

i had trouble here when i had a desk fan too close to the monitor. anything with an electric motor (next door's washing machine, grrr) in it can cause wobbling like this. bad news if you have a pacemaker. move it (the monitor, not the pacemaker) well away from anything else that's electrical.

check the refresh rate on the monitor as well - too low and you'll notice it (although i don't think this is only an issue with crts)

koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 07:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Is it usual for a 2-disk game to use the second disk as it's starting disk? for instance once you've installed it all and then you click the icon on your desktop, would it be normal for you to need the second disk inserted first?

my mate had installed cossacks 2 and he was getting an error when he put disk 1 in, saying that he "needed to insert the game disk". when we tried the other disk 2 there was no error message at all, just nothing happened (it turns out that he doesn't have enough RAM to run it which rang alarm bells)

Ste (Fuzzy), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 07:45 (nineteen years ago) link

It's not a regular flicker - it's just at times, without warning, the display will become darker, or change rapidly for a few seconds then either stay darker or become lighter again. I'm pretty certain it's not outside interference - the nearest thing with a motor in it is the computer fan which is about a metre away.

Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 09:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Monitor cable?

Ed (dali), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 09:23 (nineteen years ago) link

the only other suggestion i have is to check for a loose video cable.. or swap it out if possible. reseat the video card? replace it?

(argh, xpost!)

koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 09:28 (nineteen years ago) link

i have a question too!

my hard drive fried recently, and the guy told me that it could have happened because i was using a program that didn't go with my operating system (i've got osx panther right now). before this happened i figured that if i tried to use anything that wasn't cool my computer would yell at me or not let me use it, but noooooo. i usually check the system requirements, but i have the feeling there's more to it.

so, is there any trick to tell if a program is cool to use or not?

ba ba ba ba, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 10:54 (nineteen years ago) link

whoever told you that was smoking crack, dodgy software will not fry the hard drive.

Ed (dali), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 10:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Well, yes and no.


dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda

Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 11:12 (nineteen years ago) link

couldn't do that without sudo.

Ed (dali), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:01 (nineteen years ago) link

can winzip open .sitx files or will my friend have to rename the archive to have .zip extension?

c7n (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:03 (nineteen years ago) link

i've run into a problem with fasthosts. i registered a domain name through ukreg, and also bought some webspace, too, through fasthosts (ukreg's hosting partner). it comes with like 200 email addresses. the problem is, it won't allow me to use their SMTP servers unless i'm a fasthosts broadband or dialup customer!!! this is, to me, outrageous. what can i do to send email from my new domain name if they won't let me use their SMTP servers? can i make some kind of arrangement with the people i pay for my home internet access?

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 19:57 (nineteen years ago) link

hey coz, why doesn't she/you just download stuffit expander?

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link

the YSI was for one of the lawyers at work and I think I'm already pushing his technical know-how by going through YSI never mind through winzip... and nevermind through downloading-then-using stuffit : /

c7n (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

another boring computer question

OK I am trying to set up my PS2 to go online

I have the PS2, the broadband, and the PS2 network adaptor which has an ethernet port and ethernet cable supplied

my current home network is wireless:

internet -> linksys modem -> apple airport

how do I fit my PS2 into that set-up so that I can still route the signal around the house AND play online on the PS2?

the usual config would be:

internet -> modem -> network adapter -> PS2

I think:

I need something so I can connect the PS2 and the airport into the modem

I'm not sure if the modem has more than one ethernet port

I think it doesn't

any ideas?

: /

c7n (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 11:48 (nineteen years ago) link

what I need is another airport, huh?

c7n (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 11:58 (nineteen years ago) link

wow! ideal

c7n (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link

I need to split a 13 character string into chunks of 2,3 and 8 characters using PHP.

eg
$Key = "abcdefghijklm";

Needs to magically become
$Key_a = "ab";
$Key_b = "cde";
$Key_c = "fghijklm";

Can I just slice characters off the front and back of the string? If so, how?

Thanks.

Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 14:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Does substr sound right?

Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 14:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Got it.

As you were.

(asking questions you can find out the answer to quite easily C/D)

Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 14:41 (nineteen years ago) link

yes xpost

jdubz (ex machina), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 14:42 (nineteen years ago) link

it keeps coming up "failed DNS test" when I follow that guys advice

I have inputed the DNS figures I got from my ISP into the PS2 config and the airport config, as he has done... but the guy above also have DNS figures inputed into the ethernet config and he didn't say where he got them...

c7n (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link

it says "test network connection" and there are 5 amber lights

the first light goes green and it says "connection to network established"

"testing DNS", second light then goes red and it says "failed DNS test"

c7n (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 18:01 (nineteen years ago) link

no-one?

c7n (Cozen), Thursday, 27 October 2005 07:24 (nineteen years ago) link

cozen, he's using 192.168.2.1 -- this is what macs use as their own "local" address, if the mac itself is acting as a router. i barely know what this means, but try inputting 192.168.2.x in those places (where x is any number between 0 and 255) ... of course i might be totally off here, too...

by the way, i totally figured out my can't-send-mail problem. i just configured my mac to use its own built-in SMTP server! i feel like a BAD ASS.

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 29 October 2005 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link

thanks tracer... I think I might have tried that but I'll try it again... I think the whole process is a total work-around anyway... some voodoo shit

c7n (Cozen), Saturday, 29 October 2005 19:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Anyone have any idea why my iBook G3 keeps spitting out one particular CD when I insert it (Bob Dylan, "Blood on the Tracks")? I put it in the tray and slide it into the computer. The computer reads it for a few seconds and then ejects the tray. It's very odd.

Every other CD works besides B. Dylan Blood on the Tracks. I tried it on my girlfriend's newer iBook and it works fine. I've shut down the computer multiple times and tried it over a few days. WTF?

Super Cub (Debito), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 03:21 (nineteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...
Was sent some word documents attached to a meeting request on Outlook, spent all morning completing the documents, saved and replied. I Accepted and the whole thing disappeared. My boss got my acceptance, but not the documents - my fault for not attaching them, but where have they gone?

They're not in my sent items, nor in my recent documents, not even in my temp folder.

Surely if I saved the Word doco it MUST be somewhere?

Rumpie, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Do you remember what you called it? Try searching your hard drive.

tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I've done a search, took forever, but it's not showing. This is mental. Surely nothing can just vanish from your p.c?

Rumpie, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Hmmm that would be odd. But not impossible. I guess that it should be hanging around somewhere. Do you remember where you saved it? Presumably you've already looked there if you do.

tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I've had to fill it all out again. It was saved into a Temp folder - I checked when I was saving the second one, there was one with the same title in the folder but when I tried to open it, it said the file was missing or corrupt.

I think my second draft is better than the first one so I'll draw a line under this!

Rumpie, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Outlook puts my received attachments in this path: Documents and Settings\< user login >\Local Settings\Temporary Internet files\OLKC3. If you did a Save rather than a Save As... it might have gone somewhere like that.

Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:25 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...
this is probably more 'stupid' than 'boring' but does anyone know if i make a data disc of mp3s on a pc can someone with a mac easily extract the files? i'm on xp, don't know which os they have, but i assume it's current.

ak, Sunday, 11 December 2005 16:04 (eighteen years ago) link


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