Personal computing discussed

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by SonicSilicon
Tue Jan 21, 2020 5:40 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Pet peeve - it's pronounced "herb" not "erb"
Replies: 159
Views: 28496

Re: Pet peeve - it's pronounced "herb" not "erb"

Gyromancer wrote:
Holy thread revival, batman!

D'oh!
I always fall for necrobumps. Of course, now I'm curious how threads that have had no activity in half a decade or longer get found in the first place.
by SonicSilicon
Sun Jan 19, 2020 7:09 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Pet peeve - it's pronounced "herb" not "erb"
Replies: 159
Views: 28496

Re: Pet peeve - it's pronounced "herb" not "erb"

I've learned to let light pronunciation / dialectal shifts fly over the years. I don't feel like it's worth the time to "correct" someone outside of proper names. Whether or not the "h" in herb is pronunced or not doesn't bother me. Tthe improper use of "a" or "an&...
by SonicSilicon
Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:07 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Browser privacy article + perplexing lack of knowledge
Replies: 10
Views: 1066

Re: Browser privacy article + perplexing lack of knowledge

I only skimmed the article, but found it odd that it never mentioned Chromium.
by SonicSilicon
Fri Dec 20, 2019 10:40 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Remember when.......(decade in review)
Replies: 36
Views: 4188

Re: Remember when.......(decade in review)

As much as I dislike Avatar, it did show how to do 3-D correctly for cinema. ... which led to a resurgence of 3-D movies ... which led to 3-D televisionfor home viewing ... which required higher refresh rates ... which led to high refreh rate monitors ... which paved the way for variable refresh rat...
by SonicSilicon
Tue Aug 27, 2019 10:22 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: How do you store/organize your stash of extra cables?
Replies: 18
Views: 3987

Re: How do you store/organize your stash of extra cables?

Originally we'd just chuck them in a box, but eventually got tired of the constant tangling. Evenutally someone came up with the idea of securing each cable with ... paper tubes. Yup, spent toilet paper and paper towel rolls (the latter cut down.) That even provides a place to write down a descripti...
by SonicSilicon
Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:24 am
Forum: Apple Sanctuary
Topic: Butterfly [Keyboard] in the Sky
Replies: 10
Views: 8656

Re: Butterfly [Keyboard] in the Sky

And the 701c rejoiced, reclaiming the moniker of its TrackWrite! Joking aside, calling Apple's design a butterfly keyboard caused some confusion when the switch/spring was first introduced. Not surprising though, considering the same thing happened with buckling domes getting called membrane keyboar...
by SonicSilicon
Wed Jun 26, 2019 12:24 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: VW in deep Doo-Doo
Replies: 230
Views: 40695

Re: VW in deep Doo-Doo

You can't fit the diesel nozzle in the DEF tank(but somehow people still manage...), but you sure can the other way around and it's real, real bad too. Seems stupid, but you know it happens. "Why don't they pre-mix it? It ends up in the same place anyway." Why does the word "ethanol&...
by SonicSilicon
Wed Jun 26, 2019 12:15 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: To Lease or too buy an EV
Replies: 701
Views: 79400

Re: To Lease or too buy an EV

This video seems pertinent regarding charging for apartment dwellers, showing one person's success / luck in getting a unit installed :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQqhoM3fDrQ
by SonicSilicon
Tue Apr 16, 2019 4:34 pm
Forum: Echo Vale
Topic: Can you identify this sound?
Replies: 7
Views: 5667

Re: Can you identify this sound?

The only remotely useful bit of information I came across in a cursory web search was someone stating they had a similar issue that stemmed from a faulty optical cable. Any chance you can swap a different one in for diagnosis?
by SonicSilicon
Tue Feb 19, 2019 1:00 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Song from Relic Hunter show
Replies: 4
Views: 1308

Re: Song from Relic Hunter show

I had no luck locating it, either, though I think I narrowed it down to being from "The Last Knight" (Episode 18 of Season 1)
Unfortunately, I cannot confirm it and I severely doubt you'll find the cover separately since YT is selling episodes.
by SonicSilicon
Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:38 am
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Anti-static recommendations request
Replies: 7
Views: 2091

Re: Anti-static recommendations request

When we had synthetic shag carpet, we used a heavily diluted solution of fabric softener and applied it with a spray bottle. I cannot recall the approximate dilution we used, but looking around the 'Net it seems to be 1 part fabric softener to 15 parts water (i.e. a Tablesppon of softener for every ...
by SonicSilicon
Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:49 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: Retro console gaming
Replies: 112
Views: 33211

Re: Retro console gaming

* The UI and emulation features are easy to use. Only slight downfall is that getting back to the menu requires a reset. Easy to fix with a hack mod. No need for a hack. Not only does the Wii Classic Controller Pro work with they SNES Classic, we discovered last night that the Home button is recogn...
by SonicSilicon
Tue Jul 05, 2016 7:15 pm
Forum: Graphics
Topic: Can we drop the "p"
Replies: 41
Views: 5368

Re: Can we drop the "p"

To the best of my understanding, 4k and such nomenclature was borrowed from the movie industry, specifically the DCI specification . In DCI, 2k and 4k are shorthand for 2049 and 4096, respectively. Presumably powers of two are defined to appease the JPEG 2000 compression. (Oddly, it still uses 1080 ...
by SonicSilicon
Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:38 am
Forum: Visual Haven
Topic: Should I keep my current monitor or go G-sync?
Replies: 47
Views: 15220

Re: Should I keep my current monitor or go G-sync?

So with all the new graphics cards coming out, i'm now deciding between a 120hz/144hz monitor with a 1080 to guarantee high framerates, or I keep my 970 and go for a g-sync... Is it even possible to get a 120/144hz refresh rate display without freesync/gsync? I've already looked around. There are s...
by SonicSilicon
Fri Apr 29, 2016 11:05 pm
Forum: Echo Vale
Topic: Extraction(KEEPING) human voice from noisy audio file
Replies: 17
Views: 27960

Re: Extraction(KEEPING) human voice from noisy audio file

I'm quite tired, so this probably is just a strange thought;
Create a karaoke track (i.e. stripped of vocals.) Invert that track and use it against the original to cancel out at least some noise.
Dunno; crazy enough it might help.
by SonicSilicon
Thu Apr 21, 2016 8:53 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: "Real" ink pen that writes like a gel?
Replies: 11
Views: 2695

Re: "Real" ink pen that writes like a gel?

Looking into the difference between ballpoint and gel pens, the prior uses oil and dye based ink while the latter uses pigment suspensions. Ink was originally chosen for ballpoint pens because they dried quickly and had reduced chance to smudge (compared to their predecessors, fountain pen.) I suspe...
by SonicSilicon
Sat Apr 16, 2016 11:24 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Miix 700 stylus
Replies: 1
Views: 1847

Re: Miix 700 stylus

I haven't looked specifically at the Miix, but I do know that you will have to research which styli are compatible. If a unit uses Wacom technology, you can often find at least one stylus directly made by Wacom that is compatible. Sometimes you can even find a compatible tylus from another manufactu...
by SonicSilicon
Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:09 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: ALSA, JACK, and PulseAudio on Linux Mint? I need help
Replies: 2
Views: 3148

ALSA, JACK, and PulseAudio on Linux Mint? I need help

About a week ago I started to try to clean up my audio situation on Linux Mint as I was getting stuttering in a few programs. Managed to get PulseAudio routed in to JACK Audio Connection Kit 2 via pulseaudio-module-jack and an edit in default.pa configuration. That seemed to be working substantially...
by SonicSilicon
Sat Feb 06, 2016 8:58 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: Which game should I play first?
Replies: 27
Views: 3246

Re: Which game should I play first?

What do you mean by "brought"? Was that a typo? I hope it wasn't bought, because ToME is free : http://te4.org/
by SonicSilicon
Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:00 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Does anybody have experience with Newegg Premier?
Replies: 13
Views: 5225

Re: Does anybody have experience with Newegg Premier?

I have no experience with NewEgg Premier; however I do want to bring up a point. NewEgg does let you search by seller, so you can search for listings that are only their own. I noticed this shortly after they started the "First from Asia" campaign, which, despite the name, seemed to only h...
by SonicSilicon
Wed Dec 02, 2015 5:59 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: US Brick&Mortar Store for Misc Electronic Components
Replies: 15
Views: 2959

Re: US Brick&Mortar Store for Misc Electronic Components

The MicroCenter near me (in Cambridge, MA) has a small but decent selection of components in the form of packs of assorted LEDs, resistors, capacitors and transistors, with clear labeling as to what's in the box. You can't just buy one element for $0.25... It could be a bit out of your way, but you...
by SonicSilicon
Wed Sep 23, 2015 1:53 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: School assignment about Game industry
Replies: 5
Views: 1660

Re: School assignment about Game industry

I'm not sure why you're asking about Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, et al, at a computer tech website. Or did you not mean casinos? j/k :P Just illustrating that if you aren't finding the information and sources for any research you do, it usually helps to try looking under alternate terms or phrases. A li...
by SonicSilicon
Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:58 am
Forum: Gaming
Topic: any new shooters?
Replies: 12
Views: 2300

Re: any new shooters?

I sort of stopped paying attention once Splatoon launched. (So much fun :D )
The only two shooters I can think of coming out "soon" are Blizzard's Overwatch, a TF2 clone currently in beta, and Project BlueStreak, Cliff Blezinski's latest project with BossKey.
by SonicSilicon
Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:01 am
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Need a multifunction printer
Replies: 8
Views: 2044

Re: Need a multifunction printer

I have not specifically tried one, not even demoed, but you may want to look into one of Epson's Ink Tank printers. They've made quality printers and scanners for a long time, and those of which we own and use definitely excel at color, though we do use photo grade; never tried any of their multifun...
by SonicSilicon
Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:11 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns available for preorder
Replies: 9
Views: 5892

Re: Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns available for preorder

3 years, a slew of broken promises, and countless updates that broke more than they fixed later, I can easily say I am not even the least bit interested in this.
by SonicSilicon
Sat Apr 25, 2015 9:22 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Strange tones on television broadcasts
Replies: 11
Views: 1746

Re: Strange tones on television broadcasts

Another thought; I've been noticing background noise a lot more since the requirement for normalization of audio levels between shows and commercials went into effect. Instead of scrubbing through any prerecorded audio and clamping it ahead of time, most stations just threw in a dynamic compressor. ...
by SonicSilicon
Sun Apr 19, 2015 4:09 pm
Forum: Gaming
Topic: Personal game collection database?
Replies: 9
Views: 12483

Re: Personal game collection database?

Moby Games only lets you view a page of 25 entries at a time, so that would be extremely lengthy even if automated. Searching around, I discovered that at least Steam has an API to access, including the ability to retrieve a listing of titles purchased in a user's account: https://developer.valvesof...
by SonicSilicon
Tue Apr 14, 2015 7:03 pm
Forum: Linux, Unix, and Assorted Madness
Topic: Linux Driver For Brother 3170 CDW Printer
Replies: 31
Views: 15590

Re: Linux Driver For Brother 3170 CDW Printer

ON the product's page there is a Support button on the righthand side. That brings you to the Support Center page for that product; on this page there wil be a Downloads & Drivers tab where you can click on a Downloads from Solution Center link. You'll ne brought to the Downloads page, wehre you...
by SonicSilicon
Sun Mar 01, 2015 11:11 am
Forum: Mobile Tech
Topic: If all things were equal (Smartphones)
Replies: 42
Views: 6179

Re: If all things were equal (Smartphones)

I really don't follow phones enough to say "I want X hardware with Y OS on Z carrier" or whatever. They don't actually make the phone I want anyway. I have a Droid Turbo and it's fine, I guess. I've posted before about what I want out of a mobile device on these forums, but suffice to say...
by SonicSilicon
Sat Feb 21, 2015 12:07 pm
Forum: Graphics
Topic: Far Cry 4 - question about performance with TXAA 4x.
Replies: 2
Views: 1271

Re: Far Cry 4 - question about performance with TXAA 4x.

Two things I noticed: In the notes, he states his overclock speed for the GPU, which is somewhere around 15% above stock. Within the video itself, the menu options show Vertical Sync is off. Also, "Graphic Quality" is set to "Adjusted" / "Adaptive" (roughly translated f...
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