As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

[tech] It's Tech Spring Cleaning Week now. Clean your....tech....stuff.

13567100

Posts

  • jgeisjgeis Registered User regular
    Uriel wrote: »
    It occurs to me I have that old motherboard and phenom 2 x64 plus psu laying in the other room. Depending on what's salvageable from her computer I might be able to just put that stuff in her case (it is a nice case I had gotten years ago. Full tower all aluminum) and get it all running again. Though I have a feeling she needs a new hard drive mostly since her husband has her run some automatic scan program from iolo to keep that old disc (more than 5 years old at this point) working and I think it was really just stressing the drive more. At least hard drives are cheap. Might need to get some ddr2 as well.

    If you end up needing to put together a whole new system, I would go for an AMD APU system (A10 or A8). They're pretty much built for HTPC use, since they have a relatively powerful integrated GPU and a quad-core CPU at a solid clock speed.

  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    My pebble (finally) arrived the other day.

    I like it.

    I know it sounds strange but I really like having a stopwatch on my arm again.

    Does anyone have any app suggestions?

  • KwoaruKwoaru Confident Smirk Flawless Golden PecsRegistered User regular
    the one that shows you the curiosity rover's stream

    so you can always be sure that mars is rocky and barren

    2x39jD4.jpg
  • pimentopimento she/they/pim Registered User regular
    This trip has finally convinced me that I will get my G-Shock's band replaced rather than just waiting until there's a techwatch I want.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Blake T wrote: »
    My pebble (finally) arrived the other day.

    I like it.

    I know it sounds strange but I really like having a stopwatch on my arm again.

    Does anyone have any app suggestions?

    @AJR

  • minirhyderminirhyder BerlinRegistered User regular
    The new pebble, or the first gen? I've only suggestions for the latter

  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    The new one.

  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    I too would like pebble time app recommendations.

    (Switch Friend Code) SW-4910-9735-6014(PSN) timspork (Steam) timspork (XBox) Timspork


  • CyvrosCyvros Registered User regular
    Blake T wrote: »
    My pebble (finally) arrived the other day.

    I like it.

    I know it sounds strange but I really like having a stopwatch on my arm again.

    Does anyone have any app suggestions?

    https://apps.getpebble.com/en_US/application/5425b1b2f8ab4100cb0000e1

  • CyvrosCyvros Registered User regular
    On a more serious note, Wareable has a decent list of Pebble apps here.

    And when you're here for PAX, there are a couple of Melbourne public transport apps for the Pebble available as well (including a tram tracker one).

  • ButtersButters A glass of some milks Registered User regular
    Lollipop update for Droid Turbo finally.

    PSN: idontworkhere582 | CFN: idontworkhere | Steam: lordbutters | Amazon Wishlist
  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Has everyone with Lollipop already played the Flappy Droid hidden in it?

    darleysam on
    forumsig.png
  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    darleysam wrote: »
    Has everyone with Lollipop already played the Flappy Droid hidden in it?

    ???

  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    Microsoft is laying off almost 8000 people in their phone hardware department. RIP the Lumia

  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    Campy wrote: »
    darleysam wrote: »
    Has everyone with Lollipop already played the Flappy Droid hidden in it?

    ???

    Go to your phone's 'Settings' and find the 'About device' option (on mine it's under 'More'). In that, look for 'Android version', and then tap on that a bunch. Should give you a circle, tap on that a couple of times until it changes, then hold your finger on it and there you go!

    Google stick an easter-egg in the same place with each new OS.

    forumsig.png
  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    darleysam wrote: »
    Campy wrote: »
    darleysam wrote: »
    Has everyone with Lollipop already played the Flappy Droid hidden in it?

    ???

    Go to your phone's 'Settings' and find the 'About device' option (on mine it's under 'More'). In that, look for 'Android version', and then tap on that a bunch. Should give you a circle, tap on that a couple of times until it changes, then hold your finger on it and there you go!

    Google stick an easter-egg in the same place with each new OS.

    Ooooh, I knew about that, but what I hadn't done was hold my finger down on the lollipop that appears. Cool!

  • jgeisjgeis Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Jasconius wrote: »
    Microsoft is laying off almost 8000 people in their phone hardware department. RIP the Lumia

    They're laying off 18,000 workers in total, which just so happens to be about 18% of their workforce. Edit: It looks like these ~8,000 are additional layoffs above and beyond the 18,000.

    Sounds like they're about to undertake a massive reorganization and make major changes to their business model. I hope that this doesn't signal the complete end of Windows Phone, I was really looking forward to that platform growing after the launch of Windows 10.

    jgeis on
  • pimentopimento she/they/pim Registered User regular
    I'd hate to see Windows Phone and Lumia end, I rather like mine.

  • PeenPeen Registered User regular
    I thought phone stuff, especially for enterprise, was a big part of the Windows 10 push and a big part of the reason that 10 was going out free. Am I crazy?

  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    they don't have current gen hardware to push it out on though

    the current Lumia is old as dirt by phone standards

    if I had to guess, there was a big Lumia launch planned for Windows 10, and the phone department whiffed on the launch date. So they get the boot.

  • pimentopimento she/they/pim Registered User regular
    They had announced some new hardware to be coming with phone 10 already, seemed pretty well on track. They've also already stated that phone 10 will launch 'some time after' win10. Seems vague enough to keep on keeping on until it's done.

  • PeenPeen Registered User regular
    My phone won't run the new Star Wars app, this is ridiculous.

  • jgeisjgeis Registered User regular
    I finally started working on putting together a "retro" Pentium II box to natively play all the games I enjoyed as a kid. I'm using a PC I acquired from my old grade school as a base, turns out we actually had some decently specced computers from that era. 350Mhz Deschutes PII, 64MB of SDR RAM, an ATi Rage 3D Pro with 8MB SGRAM, some type of Creative sound card, and an Ethernet card.

    I've already ordered some more SDR RAM, now I'm exploring graphics card options. The Rage 3D Pro isn't exactly a bad card, but it sounds like there are much better options out there.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    3DFX Voodoo3 16mb go go go

  • ButtersButters A glass of some milks Registered User regular
    I remember when I bought the STB Riva TNT2 in 1999-2000 which at the time was faster than dual Voodoo 2 cards

    Those were the days

    PSN: idontworkhere582 | CFN: idontworkhere | Steam: lordbutters | Amazon Wishlist
  • CormacCormac Registered User regular
    I used a Voodoo 5 5500 for a while around 2000. I hadn't really researched current video cards at the time and soon after I bought it I realized the cards from Nvidia and Radeon cards far outclassed it. That said, I have fond memories of playing Red Faction while using it.

    Steam: Gridlynk | PSN: Gridlynk | FFXIV: Jarvellis Mika
  • GrobianGrobian What's on sale? Pliers!Registered User regular
    My wife wants another storage for our photos. We currently have them on the respective devices (mostly our phones, some on a camera) and on our PCs (she has everything, I also backup my own photos separately) and in the cloud. She originally wanted to just buy a big USB stick, but I feel that 1) that's gonna be full fast with how big photos are getting nowadays, even if we only save the photos of our son and 2) a hard drive is more reliable.

    Am I right on point 2 here?

    I don't think we need a NAS, because it's just backup, so I would just buy a reasonably sized external drive. Maybe the one recommended by The Wirecutter. 2.5" should be fine, because I'd rather put it in a drawer somewhere and take it out every two weeks for backup and I don't really care about speed.

  • PirusuPirusu Pierce Registered User regular
    How many photos are you talking? I know photos are getting big, but USB sticks are like...$30 for 128gb.

    Unless you also want to back up videos, in which case totally get a super big external drive.

  • TankHammerTankHammer Atlanta Ghostbuster Atlanta, GARegistered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Yeah, external storage is beyond cheap. I'd go with aa portable 2tb hdd.

    TankHammer on
  • GrobianGrobian What's on sale? Pliers!Registered User regular
    Pirusu wrote: »
    How many photos are you talking? I know photos are getting big, but USB sticks are like...$30 for 128gb.

    Unless you also want to back up videos, in which case totally get a super big external drive.

    Now that you mention it, there are videos, of course. But I'm more concerned with reliability, since this is for a backup. Just from my anecdotal experience flash drives fail more often. Like, the one you linked has 4 stars on Amazon which is pretty good, but there are 13% 1 star reviews and most of them complain about it randomly dying.

    But that's also why I'm asking, I don't know if this is true in general. Hard drives obviously also fail, but at least if it's just the controller you can usually get the drive itself out.

  • PirusuPirusu Pierce Registered User regular
    Grobian wrote: »
    Pirusu wrote: »
    How many photos are you talking? I know photos are getting big, but USB sticks are like...$30 for 128gb.

    Unless you also want to back up videos, in which case totally get a super big external drive.

    Now that you mention it, there are videos, of course. But I'm more concerned with reliability, since this is for a backup. Just from my anecdotal experience flash drives fail more often. Like, the one you linked has 4 stars on Amazon which is pretty good, but there are 13% 1 star reviews and most of them complain about it randomly dying.

    But that's also why I'm asking, I don't know if this is true in general. Hard drives obviously also fail, but at least if it's just the controller you can usually get the drive itself out.

    And hard drives have moving, mechanical parts which are more likely to fail. ;) I think it's a wash at the end of it all - no single backup method is perfect, which is why you always have multiple backups in multiple locations (which is what it seems like you're doing!). For your purposes, lots of storage at dirt cheap prices (~$100 for 2TB) sounds like it's preferable.

  • pimentopimento she/they/pim Registered User regular
    If it's a backup, your data exists in two separate devices. If your data is precious, have a backup, backup often and check your backups. You can get external drives that have two disks in them that will mirror the data onto both disks which are a great idea for precious data, but you should still have that data on another device. It sounds like overkill until the first time you lose something irreplaceable.

  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    I use torrent sync which mirrors a directory between designated computers. It works well for me.

    So as long as someone regularly gets them off the phone, it can then sync between the two computers.

    In terms of true back up security my setup is not prefect as they are both on site. If you want to be thorough with this, you could set it up at your parents also, or just invest in cloud storage.

  • SporkAndrewSporkAndrew Registered User, ClubPA regular
    $10 / month for 1tb of Google drive space through Google photos has served me well so far. You get a little agent that you can configure to monitor a directory and basically as soon as I import photos from my camera into Picasa they'll automatically get backed up to the cloud and be accessible from anywhere.

    Since upgrading my camera I've been burning through storage space with multiple 1080p/25fps videos, so I need the 1tb, but the 100gb is incredibly reasonable value, too.

    The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    My first video card was a Voodoo 3 3000

    Starsiege Tribes at 160FPS

    the good old days

    now I can pay $300 for a GPU and I'm still going to get shit on by particle effects and post processing

  • ButtersButters A glass of some milks Registered User regular
    First CPU I bought was a 300 MHz Pentium Celeron A

    PSN: idontworkhere582 | CFN: idontworkhere | Steam: lordbutters | Amazon Wishlist
  • jgeisjgeis Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Jasconius wrote: »
    My first video card was a Voodoo 3 3000

    Starsiege Tribes at 160FPS

    the good old days

    now I can pay $300 for a GPU and I'm still going to get shit on by particle effects and post processing

    The original PII computer that my parents bought is long gone, and I'm trying hard to remember how we upgraded that PC. I was like 9 at the time so my memory is hazy. I know that it was a pre-built Gateway 2000 to start, with the original Kalmath 233Mhz Pentium II and 32MB of RAM. I do know that my dad bought some additional RAM for it, I think just another 32MB stick.

    He added a 3D accelerator card at some point because a guy he worked with started giving him ripped copies of stuff like Unreal and Quake II. I know it was a 3dfx product because I can remember the box art, but I cannot for the life of me remember if it was an original Voodoo or a Voodoo 2.

    I played Homeworld on that PC and it was wholly playable, but it wasn't a really smooth experience.

    jgeis on
  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    Jasconius wrote: »
    My first video card was a Voodoo 3 3000

    Starsiege Tribes at 160FPS

    the good old days

    now I can pay $300 for a GPU and I'm still going to get shit on by particle effects and post processing

    Back on a buttery smooth CRT I bet.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Jasconius wrote: »
    My first video card was a Voodoo 3 3000

    Starsiege Tribes at 160FPS

    the good old days

    now I can pay $300 for a GPU and I'm still going to get shit on by particle effects and post processing

    Well yeah of course, duh.

    Spend $700 on a GTX980Ti, plebe.

  • TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    The first PC I had was a Packard bell legend, and I don't remember what was in it.

    The first PC I had after that had a 1 ghz Pentium something or other and a Geforce 2.

This discussion has been closed.