Personal computing discussed

Search found 163 matches

by bryanl
Sun May 13, 2012 10:48 am
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Is it possible to send a fax from All in One Printer with (F
Replies: 18
Views: 4418

Re: Is it possible to send a fax from All in One Printer wit

the legal distinctions are very important - but a legacy issue more than anything else, I think. I used to fill in fax forms with an image editor, including pasting a signature, in order to meet legal requirements when sent a fax form to fill out. Fax via VOIP is a technical problem with frequency r...
by bryanl
Sun May 13, 2012 10:35 am
Forum: General Software
Topic: What's up with unification?
Replies: 8
Views: 2621

Re: What's up with unification?

First there is the issue of branding - making the product look the same everywhere means better communication about identity with the market. Second there is the issue of efficiency - by putting the focus on differences that really matter and not on those that don't, development and support can be s...
by bryanl
Mon May 07, 2012 11:34 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Ubuntu 12.04LTS released
Replies: 126
Views: 35069

Re: Ubuntu 12.04LTS released

interesting that there is so much Luddite hate for the part of the system that is probably the least used... 12.04 has presented problems here. The second monitor for my i3 laptop is not configurable like it is in 11.10 (known bug). On an old P4 laptop, 12.04 loses the touchpad and won't boot off th...
by bryanl
Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:30 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: 12V inverter - pure sine wave or modified?
Replies: 4
Views: 3864

Re: 12V inverter - pure sine wave or modified?

AMD Damo wrote:
How do I tell if my PSU has active PFC?


they'll brag about it in marketing hype if what I see is any indication
by bryanl
Mon Apr 09, 2012 12:25 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: 12V inverter - pure sine wave or modified?
Replies: 4
Views: 3864

Re: 12V inverter - pure sine wave or modified?

All inverters are modified, or rather constructed, sine wave to some degree or another. Consider the typical UPS for computer equipment. It uses an modified sine wave inverter. So called 'pure sine wave' inverters have become less expensive in recent years and that label usually indicates a better q...
by bryanl
Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:19 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Quality kitchen utensils?
Replies: 28
Views: 14141

Re: Quality kitchen utensils?

re: " I don’t get it; brand name expensive stuff all the way to generics, all of it is crap. " -- I think your biggest problem is self identified. (this sort of thing raises troll flags, too) You can still get cast iron cookware and the only difference from 50 years ago is that the iron qu...
by bryanl
Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:08 pm
Forum: General Software
Topic: What is the state of the art software in disk imaging?
Replies: 5
Views: 2603

Re: What is the state of the art software in disk imaging?

You've got multiple requirements. One is backup of systems, another is backup of partitions, and a third is partitioning and storage setup. The last two are the territory of clonezilla or gparted - both available in small bootable systems for system backup, something like rsync or similar doing snap...
by bryanl
Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:36 am
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Ambient lighting LEDs. Which colour?
Replies: 33
Views: 8871

Re: Ambient lighting LEDs. Which colour?

The goal is to reduce contrast, provide safety in terms of illumination of the room, and establish conditions to improve readability and discrimination of objects on the screen. http://www.creativepro.com/article/the-darkroom-makes-a-comeback is an interesting rundown on the standards and issues. ht...
by bryanl
Sat Feb 18, 2012 12:01 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Question of Charging Rates
Replies: 26
Views: 2621

Re: Question of Charging Rates

The moral of the story is that your services hold a lot more value than you know and the primary challenge will be to find a clientele that understands the value of what it wants and is willing to pay First thing to do is to go look at the rate charts for some big box repair places. Often they'll h...
by bryanl
Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:37 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Whats up with the Spam bots?
Replies: 178
Views: 47036

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

It should be possible to be anonymous on the internet (eliminating anonymity is what enables regimes to track down and punish their critics, for example), perhaps we might consider John Hancock and the other signers of the US Declaration of Independence in regards to appropriate ways to address gri...
by bryanl
Sun Feb 12, 2012 12:05 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Battery/ Charger ProbleM
Replies: 8
Views: 1527

Re: Battery/ Charger ProbleM

if the power brick itself gets hot (more than normally warm), that means that it is running full tilt. That means that it is either trying to charge a dead or faulty battery (most likely) or has an internal short of some sort or, maybe, a short in the cable. Try running the laptop without the batter...
by bryanl
Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:24 am
Forum: Graphics
Topic: Random Horizontal Lines
Replies: 47
Views: 22316

Re: Random Horizontal Lines

a horizontal flashing line at the top of the screen is usually an overscan issue I've got a Samsung 24" monitor as a second on a laptop via HDMI->DVI that gets weird artifacts occasionally. Horizontal lines and sometimes, depending upon background, strings of yellow dots. I've found if I hit th...
by bryanl
Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:02 am
Forum: General Software
Topic: Web site design/hosting etc
Replies: 17
Views: 3668

Re: Web site design/hosting etc

Dreamhost is good. Their one click install for Wordpress is one way you can set up a website such as you describe with minimal effort and Dreamhost will keep the Wordpress software updated. 1&1 offers a website construction tool that is typical of the 'website for dummies' thing that is intended...
by bryanl
Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:41 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: PCBSD(FreeBSD for dummies) vs. Linux
Replies: 21
Views: 8555

Re: PCBSD(FreeBSD for dummies) vs. Linux

It seems financial decisions by Novell, RedHat, and now, Ubuntu, seem to be driving Linux development, instead of true freedom. Now I do know that FreeBSD or PCBSD isn't as, shall we say, open-source and free to change as Linux, but at least they are more honest. This sort of ideological distractio...
by bryanl
Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:57 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Whats up with the Spam bots?
Replies: 178
Views: 47036

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

re: "Hits aren't really the goal. The real goal is Search Engine Optimization." -- Lawyer blog Volokh Conspiracy had a note on this recently. He contacted the lawyers whose spam was showing up to tell them the spam wasn't really conveying the professional image they might want. In most cas...
by bryanl
Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:41 am
Forum: Storage
Topic: Re-certified Hard Drives
Replies: 10
Views: 6829

Re: Re-certified Hard Drives

"failed once already" doesn't mean much unless you think correlation is causation. The warranty cost differences provide one means to evaluate the risks. What you don't know is why the drive needed to be 're-certified' but there are some things to do appear to be the case. One of these is ...
by bryanl
Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:58 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Is Ubuntu 11.10 worse than 10.04 LTS, or should I switch?
Replies: 46
Views: 13209

Re: Is Ubuntu 11.10 worse than 10.04 LTS, or should I switch

re: " For servers yes, but once you want a development PC with OpenOffice, FireFox, IM, IDE, Debugger, multiple terminals, multiple Nautilus windows, gedit, calendar. You soon understand that effective GUI is very important. " -- The thing is, once you are running an app, then the desktop ...
by bryanl
Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:15 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Is Ubuntu 11.10 worse than 10.04 LTS, or should I switch?
Replies: 46
Views: 13209

Re: Is Ubuntu 11.10 worse than 10.04 LTS, or should I switch

Hoo boy, where to even start on your misconceptions? :o perhaps, if you got into it, you'd find they weren't "misconceptions" e.g. " I can't see rpm vs. deb package format being something that should be a make-or-break issue for most desktop users. " -- when you talk about a dis...
by bryanl
Thu Jan 12, 2012 11:50 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Is Ubuntu 11.10 worse than 10.04 LTS, or should I switch?
Replies: 46
Views: 13209

Re: Is Ubuntu 11.10 worse than 10.04 LTS, or should I switch

I see these 'application crashes in distribution so'n'so' and 'interface sucks' and whatnot in looking for a distribution and I wonder. A distribution is just a packaging of available code with an infrastructure. The issues and judgments that so often come up in these forums like here seem off base....
by bryanl
Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:08 pm
Forum: System Builders Anonymous
Topic: Advice on building cheap cheap linux storage server
Replies: 16
Views: 5721

Re: Advice on building cheap cheap linux storage server

If expense is an issue, there is the ongoing cost that needs to be considered. You can get down to something like 15 watts for a 2 drive NAS. At fifteen cents per kWh and an 18 hour per day duty cycle, electric costs come to about $1.2/mo or almost $15/year. Running that up to a 75 watt system runni...
by bryanl
Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:10 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Mythbusters Big Oops
Replies: 29
Views: 2802

Re: Mythbusters Big Oops

re: " What if the cannonball that punched holes cleanly through both sides of the house had taken the young child's head along with it? " 'what if' games can often mislead and misdirect rational discussion. (see, for example, nuclear radiation and climate change for 2 topics on this in cur...
by bryanl
Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:56 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Bleeding PSU Capacitors for Recapp....
Replies: 12
Views: 2345

Re: Bleeding PSU Capacitors for Recapp....

re: " Ya I know of the screw driver trick, I was under the impression that you can damage other components in the circuit by doing this..... yes/no? " it's possible that the spark could induce currents in sensitive components that could cause problems ... so it's always better to drain the...
by bryanl
Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:11 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: RIP Linux
Replies: 10
Views: 5009

Re: RIP Linux

re: " when I want to open a freaking terminal I don't want to have to SEARCH for the goddamn thing first " you don't. but you do need to keep up with changes. There are a number of postings around with the keyboard shortcuts (e.g. CTRL-ALT-T for the terminal window) around. I have found it...
by bryanl
Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:03 pm
Forum: General Software
Topic: Word Perfect 15
Replies: 18
Views: 3616

Re: Word Perfect 15

re: "Consider your audience here." -- I did. I anticipated a bit better technical awareness and attitude that was creative and could imagine my comment in some realm other than ignorant. The reason that WordPerfect is still around is mostly lawyers. The legal profession put quite a bit int...
by bryanl
Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:04 pm
Forum: General Software
Topic: Word Perfect 15
Replies: 18
Views: 3616

Re: Word Perfect 15

re: " No, the push behind XML-based document formats was just to have standardized, documented, royalty-free file formats for office productivity software. " looks like I needed a 'tongue in cheek' icon in the message. didn't think anyone would take something so far out as a literal bald t...
by bryanl
Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:54 am
Forum: General Software
Topic: Word Perfect 15
Replies: 18
Views: 3616

Re: Word Perfect 15

I thought they had 'reveal codes' done in modern page layout software. Wasn't this the big push behind DOCX or whatever?

It's called XML. You just unpack the document file and edit the XML codes ...

But, real wordsmiths use TEX and manually modify the Postscript files as needed ...
by bryanl
Thu Nov 10, 2011 12:27 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Question about proper grounding
Replies: 32
Views: 9000

Re: Question about proper grounding

re: " Dig deep into any current US-standard breaker panel and you'll find a bus bar that ties the ground terminal block to the neutral terminal block. " You shouldn't have to dig deep but ground and neutral should only be bonded at the service entrance where the meter is, not the distribut...
by bryanl
Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:42 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Ubuntu now has malware
Replies: 28
Views: 7850

Re: Ubuntu now has malware

Where this gets interesting to me is that we are in the age of community being promoted as a desired state. Used to be, back in the dimdarks, members of a small community knew just about everything about their neighbors. You can't hide much when living in close proximity with thin walls ... And the ...
by bryanl
Mon May 16, 2011 11:30 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Bought a house - best way to learn basic handyman stuff?
Replies: 29
Views: 3993

Re: Bought a house - best way to learn basic handyman stuff?

The message that Holmes stresses is that of finding the right people for the job and not taking shortcuts. He also emphasizes that the code book is a minimum and uses that as a reference for his efforts which often go beyond code. As always, though, multiple resources will always help gaining a prop...
by bryanl
Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:57 am
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Ubuntu 10.10 + USB Drive
Replies: 10
Views: 3077

Re: Ubuntu 10.10 + USB Drive

re: "bryanl : Sorry, it doesn't appear there." -- no need to be sorry. The disk utility will show you the stack all the way down. That makes it a decent, easily used, diagnostic to determine what the system sees. That can help localize problems. If the system does see a storage device, you...
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