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Lincoln posted:This has probably been brought up, but does anyone defrag hard drives anymore? I converted to Mac about 6 years ago for professional reasons, so no defragging since then. And SSDs don't get defragged at all, regardless of OS. Do current versions of Windows require defragging? I usually do so at least once a month, or after a lot of OS/Steam game updates.
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Dec 16, 2015 06:48
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OSX also automatically defrags HFS drives, for the most part. Any file that's below a certain size threshold and is in fragments gets copied and consolidated as part of the opening process, for example.
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Dec 16, 2015 07:55
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Lincoln posted:This has probably been brought up, but does anyone defrag hard drives anymore? I converted to Mac about 6 years ago for professional reasons, so no defragging since then. And SSDs don't get defragged at all, regardless of OS. Do current versions of Windows require defragging?
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Dec 16, 2015 14:05
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twistedmentat posted:It was pretty cool, not to mention all the porn you wanted from the picture and video groups. Though eventually file sizes went so big that everything being split up into parts that were 1.44 mb each became silly. Man, I wish 14-17 year old me knew about Usenet. We had an ancient computer at my house when I was in high school in the late 90's. Some Gateway 2000 my dad got years and years before...386, 4 MB of RAM, a 5 1/4" floppy (and a 3.5", thankfully,) but no CD-ROM, no modem, etc... So I'd frequently stay late in the school computer lab because it was the only access to the internet I had. I didn't try to get any porn, since the lab was monitored, but I'd go to early Abandonware sites and try to get old games, but I'd run into a problem trying to get them home, since all I could use were floppies. I found some utility called "File Split" or something, that could take large single files and split them into multiple disks, and then re-merge them later, but that was hit and miss. I imagine all the old greybeards on the Usenet forums would have done it much better than I. V V V That might have worked, assuming I could get a RAR extractor that was less than 1.44 MB. I assume most of them would have been back then. V V V DrBouvenstein has a new favorite as of 17:29 on Dec 16, 2015 |
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Dec 16, 2015 14:39
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Among the other stops you are sure to make as a time traveller, be sure to tell your teenage self about ARJ and RAR.
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Dec 16, 2015 17:22
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Neat if you have 15 minutes to kill: bunch of computer scientists and engineers talking about their first computers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r4Cmwd_7vA Technically, mine was a homegrown school computer back in the Old Country  Just look at this beast: code:
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Dec 16, 2015 17:36
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Lincoln posted:This has probably been brought up, but does anyone defrag hard drives anymore? I converted to Mac about 6 years ago for professional reasons, so no defragging since then. And SSDs don't get defragged at all, regardless of OS. Do current versions of Windows require defragging? Yep, I use 3rd party software to do both a defrag and an optimize on my file system every so often. Not crazy often but once in awhile. Obviously I skip the SSD, but my 7200 game drive and my 5400 general file drives it doesn't hurt to check once in awhile. My new 6TB drive hasn't needed a single defrag yet, but that 7200RPM drive is full of games and needs it once in awhile even on modern Windows.
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Dec 16, 2015 17:51
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Zaphod42 posted:Yep, I use 3rd party software to do both a defrag and an optimize on my file system every so often. Not crazy often but once in awhile. Obviously I skip the SSD, but my 7200 game drive and my 5400 general file drives it doesn't hurt to check once in awhile. My new 6TB drive hasn't needed a single defrag yet, but that 7200RPM drive is full of games and needs it once in awhile even on modern Windows. Needs it in what sense? Is there some measurable performance difference?
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Dec 16, 2015 17:57
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Toast Museum posted:Needs it in what sense? Is there some measurable performance difference? Yeah, for awhile before I got the SSD I was running Windows and a bunch of games off that 7200 RPM drive and I could feel when it filled up, windows started taking longer and longer to boot and games took a long time to get started. Now I've got windows on the SSD so that isn't even a factor, but it still helps to keep game load times to a minimum.
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Dec 16, 2015 18:02
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Zaphod42 posted:Yeah, for awhile before I got the SSD I was running Windows and a bunch of games off that 7200 RPM drive and I could feel when it filled up, windows started taking longer and longer to boot and games took a long time to get started. Hmm I should really defrag some of my storage drives. On old tech stuff - I hit a jackpot. I like to do a lot of embedded electronics in my spare time, and my new job gives me access to a seemingly unlimited number of junked circuit boards from various appliances. Everything from passive components to LCDs, EEPROMs to more advanced Microcontrollers. Today's box of boards has maybe 30-40 ATMEGA chips alone!
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Dec 17, 2015 10:02
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twistedmentat posted:I used to participate back in the day in the babylon 5 and Simpsons usenet groups where writers from the shows would often post. You could go online and talk about the episodes right away and often the writers would pop in and talk about where stuff came from or just shoot the poo poo. It wasn't just the global groups - Tim Minear used to hang out in uk.media.tv.angel when the show was on. I got in a row with him once, and on the next season of Buffy there was a brief appearance of a tombstone with my name on it. poo poo writer, poo poo showrunner, but a funny guy.
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Dec 17, 2015 10:52
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Peter David used to at least read one of the comics groups way back when. I guess he must've also posted because how would I know this otherwise  Not really different from someone doing a Reddit thing nowadays except less creepiness.
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Dec 17, 2015 13:42
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Man; I met my wife on Usenet. Knew her on there for like seven years or something before we semi-randomly met in person and hit it off.
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Dec 17, 2015 17:42
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Is "more knobs = better than" ever going to come back as a design aesthetic?
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Dec 17, 2015 18:37
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Jedit posted:It wasn't just the global groups - Tim Minear used to hang out in uk.media.tv.angel when the show was on. I got in a row with him once, and on the next season of Buffy there was a brief appearance of a tombstone with my name on it. poo poo writer, poo poo showrunner, but a funny guy. That's cool. My only similar claim to fame is that Terry Pratchett once dissed me for having misunderstood a character's motivation.
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Dec 17, 2015 18:59
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Conversely, didn't JMS of Babylon 5 make a declaration he wouldn't post on Usenet scifi threads or read any B5 threads while the show was on the air.
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Dec 17, 2015 22:20
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JediTalentAgent posted:Conversely, didn't JMS of Babylon 5 make a declaration he wouldn't post on Usenet scifi threads or read any B5 threads while the show was on the air. Any writer's or producer's nightmare involves claims fueled by "you totally stole my plot idea/dialog/fan-fiction to use in your show". There are definitely authors that limit what sites they frequent and their level of fan interaction because of that.
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Dec 18, 2015 00:49
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Moby called me an "anal retentive gently caress" on alt.rave(?) for making fun of his pretending to play keyboards at his pretaped club gigs.
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Dec 18, 2015 03:42
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Jedit posted:Tim Minear used to hang out in uk.media.tv.angel when the show was on. I got in a row with him once, and on the next season of Buffy there was a brief appearance of a tombstone with my name on it.
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Dec 18, 2015 12:41
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flosofl posted:Any writer's or producer's nightmare involves claims fueled by "you totally stole my plot idea/dialog/fan-fiction to use in your show". There are definitely authors that limit what sites they frequent and their level of fan interaction because of that. When a celebrity (especially someone involved in the creative process) visits a venue, there's always a bunch of poo poo that ends up in a pile somewhere from people trying to "break into the industry." I've seen more than one agent specifically instruct the event's coordinator to just accept it all and then quietly dispose of it afterwards--this is specifically so the VIP never actually comes into contact with all the tapes, CDs, scripts, etc. that people drop off, for the above reason. I was in a student group that hosted Bruce Campbell ages ago when he was touring to promote his new book and goddrat did he have a pile of poo poo by the end of it. I had to make multiple trips with a push-cart out to the dumpster just to get rid of it all. Glamour shots, resumes, VHS tapes, ring-bound scripts the size and weight of textbooks, CDs, cassette tapes--it was insane. An enormous pile of people's desperate pleas to be "found" by Hollywood, and they'd never know that nobody would ever see any of it. About a year later, I guess Campbell announced some new project that sounded "suspiciously" like something on a tape someone had given us at the event, so I got a call from the university's attorneys. The guy that gave us the tape swore his idea was stolen, and I had to explain that I had personally thrown his dumb tape in the dumpster and that Campbell had never so much as glanced at the case it was in. So, I'm not surprised that people keep their distance, because I couldn't imagine dealing with lawsuit after lawsuit every time I made something, with people screaming "THAT WAS IN THE SCRIPT I GAVE YOU IN 1993!"
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Dec 18, 2015 18:09
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flosofl posted:Any writer's or producer's nightmare involves claims fueled by "you totally stole my plot idea/dialog/fan-fiction to use in your show". There are definitely authors that limit what sites they frequent and their level of fan interaction because of that. I know that the head designer for Magic The Gathering literally stops reading as soon as something that even SOUNDS like a card idea appears, not matter how transparently not-serious it might be.
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Dec 18, 2015 22:03
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David Lee, one of Frasier's show runners, used to post on alt.tv.frasier pretty often. That was cool.
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Dec 19, 2015 02:35
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peter gabriel posted:So I just got a HOMO FLUX - It's a device for electrocuting each other in the name of medicine. From a few pages back but there was one of these at my cosmetology school 17 years ago, it was used as a skin treatment for... something, I don't remember. I still remember the smell though...
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Dec 19, 2015 22:35
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cheerfullydrab posted:Is "more knobs = better than" ever going to come back as a design aesthetic? "Come back"? It's been back for a decade already!  "More knobs = better than" is the mantra for all synthesizer nerds!
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Dec 19, 2015 22:55
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Laserjet 4P posted:"Come back"? It's been back for a decade already! I didn't know a piece of technology could make me this hard. I have no idea what that does and I love it.
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Dec 19, 2015 23:46
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God created Man And Man created Machine And the Machine created Music And the Machine saw all that it had done And it said, behold.
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Dec 19, 2015 23:52
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Collateral Damage posted:God created Man This made me have nostalgia flashbacks to the Pandora station I used to listen to all the time. Whenever it was in the mood for electronica, it would play "Kathy's Song". Edit: PYF obsolete and failed technology - "And on the Seventh Day, Machine pressed Stop" chitoryu12 has a new favorite as of 00:11 on Dec 20, 2015 |
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Dec 19, 2015 23:57
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Intoluene posted:I didn't know a piece of technology could make me this hard. I have no idea what that does and I love it. Enjoy this: https://vimeo.com/97374616 http://www.idreamofwires.org/
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Dec 20, 2015 03:02
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Intoluene posted:I didn't know a piece of technology could make me this hard. I have no idea what that does and I love it. It's a machine designed to convert money into retarded bleeps and bloobs.
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Dec 20, 2015 09:56
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W424 posted:It's a machine designed to convert money into retarded bleeps and bloobs. But when it's in the hands of someone like Greg Lake or the late Richard Wright, it makes awesome bleeps and bloops.
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Dec 20, 2015 22:57
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Intoluene posted:I didn't know a piece of technology could make me this hard. I have no idea what that does and I love it. It's a 'musical instrument' that will end up in more photographs than musical pieces.
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Dec 21, 2015 06:40
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So, light pens, were they ever something in common use? You see them used fairly often in films in the early to mid 90s, probably because its more visually interesting than typing on a keyboard or clicking a mouse. Though I have never ever seen them outside of of exhibits at museums and i'd not be surprised if they were used in drafting and drawing programs. I know their modern successes are drawing tablets which are pretty common.
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Dec 21, 2015 06:50
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Light pens died off as tablets became a more comfortable solution. The big issue was they are tiring to use.
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Dec 21, 2015 07:09
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WebDog posted:Light pens died off as tablets became a more comfortable solution. The big issue was they are tiring to use. This used to commonly be referred to as The Gorilla Arm Problem, and I feel that it still applies to things like tablet games and likely the Microsoft Surface.
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Dec 21, 2015 07:25
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moller posted:This used to commonly be referred to as The Gorilla Arm Problem, and I feel that it still applies to things like tablet games and likely the Microsoft Surface. Hahah, my boss has a Surface and uses it soley to read the newspaper everyday at lunch. A bit overkill at this stage, but be amazed at his next feat of blundering into technology! He is by no ones computer literate, but managed to completely bypass the Newpapers' native app and winded up installing Bluestacks and then created a google account and download the android version of the app. EDIT: Which now once he updated Bluestacks, went from a Free piece of software to 'Freemium' with either a subscription fee or offers for some pretty dodgy apps. Humphreys has a new favorite as of 09:47 on Dec 21, 2015 |
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Dec 21, 2015 09:36
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WebDog posted:Light pens died off as tablets became a more comfortable solution. The big issue was they are tiring to use. I'd say that they died off once mice became viable. They were also hard to use accurately.
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Dec 21, 2015 10:18
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A technology that became obsolete over a hundred years ago, and a particular instance thereof that failed miserably just now: I stuck a paperclip in one of the filing cabinet locks* in the sales office and it stuck, so I yanked it a bit and managed to pull out the core to see it was a wafer lock. The obsolesence and the failure in this case have nothing to do with each other of course, since you can make a wafer lock that isn't so easily bypassable (a tab on the bottom wafer holds the core in place so you can just stick any implement thin enough down there and shift it a bit to release the thing). Anyway, this is great news because I lost the key to one of the cabinets in my own office and now I don't need to break into it. *) Because it fit perfectly 
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Dec 21, 2015 11:28
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Toast Museum posted:Needs it in what sense? Is there some measurable performance difference? I remember getting acquainted with the 3rd party defragmenters that did this in the early days of counter-strike - the days before steam existed but when CS was popular enough that the WON.NET copy protection servers were quite overwhelmed (because they only had to deal with a few half-life 1 deathmatch players before CS came around). It got to the point that the game would spend the majority of its load time authenticating with WON.NET and if your PC didn't spend the rest of the time hauling arse loading the map, then you would time out before the load was done, and probably find that the server you were trying to join was full when you tried again. Yes defragging definitely made a difference. gently caress that was a poo poo - every time I patched half-life or counter-strike it was time for another defrag I'm pissed off just remembering this poo poo.
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Dec 21, 2015 15:32
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chitoryu12 posted:Edit: PYF obsolete and failed technology - "And on the Seventh Day, Machine pressed Stop" The Machine said to her, "I am the ecstasy and the rave. He who believes in me will dance, even though he pauses; and whoever dances and believes in me will never pause. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the DJ, the Son of Beats, who was to come into our ears." And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and they twerked violently.
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Dec 21, 2015 23:35
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Saw an interesting thing today that might class as a resurgence of an old tech. Depending on your age you might remember 'coin slugs'. When I was a kid and moreso my father - the one kid who has a coin slug ruled the arcade and some vending machines with a counterfeit coin and some had ones on a string that didnt work as well. From wikipedia: quote:A slug is a counterfeit coin that is used to make illegal purchases from a coin-operated device, such as a vending machine, payphone, parking meter, transit farebox, copy machine, coin laundry, gaming machine, or arcade game.[1] By resembling various features of a genuine coin, including the weight, size, and shape, a slug is designed to trick the machine into accepting it like a real coin. Obviously now most machines can judge weight and electrical resistance of coins to tell fakes from real, but some devices do still exist that just need something of the right physical dimensions. Enter my friends Nissan 370Z. She proudly showed me this little fake coin the size of a $1AUD coin and I thought it was just a place holder for a spare CR2023 battery for the keyfob. But no! Apparently it's designed so you can take the slug out and put it into shopping trolleys/carts and luggage carts without the need to keep change on you. Now those carts DO refund you your $1 when you return it so not sure if counts as stealing. But I had a good laugh about my childhood.
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Dec 22, 2015 10:04
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