|
ColoradoCleric posted:One modern invention I love is HDMI out on desktops and laptops being a modern thing, finally I can have the HTPC I always wanted without having to use lovely S video or god forbid the yellow cable. One of my android phones had a microHDMI output, which was awesome.
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 05:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 17:10 |
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:What was worse in the oughts: working in IT or being known by friends and family as the guy who was "good with computers"? I was that second one and it fuckin' sucked. I still get this but it has expanded to include phones and other devices. I'm good when it comes to Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android phones, but I keep getting asked to do stuff with iPhones which I am not familiar with and actively dislike. I've had a fairly tense relationship with Apple since Mac OS 8.5, and it appears that iOS is a concentration of all the things about them I disliked the most.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 05:22
|
|
|
CaptainSarcastic posted:I still get this but it has expanded to include phones and other devices. I'm good when it comes to Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android phones, but I keep getting asked to do stuff with iPhones which I am not familiar with and actively dislike. I've had a fairly tense relationship with Apple since Mac OS 8.5, and it appears that iOS is a concentration of all the things about them I disliked the most. Hah. The trick that I've found is to say "hey, I used to be good at that, but technology has moved on since then and I haven't kept up. Ask (younger cousin I don't like very much), maybe he/she can do something for you." It's a lie, I could still do a google search for them, but... gently caress it, ya know? Let one of the younger generation get brownie points with the elders.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 05:27
|
|
|
HDMI seems to be the "thank gently caress, what took them so long/what's taking them so long" that USB was back in the day. I still have two driver CDs and two coiled up little serial cables for:
I did fire up that Zip drive around 15 years ago, and it still worked. Don't have it in me to do it again and hear the click, click click. doctorfrog has a new favorite as of 06:29 on Aug 25, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 06:27
|
|
|
After watching Computer Chronicles, tell me that this demonstration isn't faked. It's speech synthesis but it's better than I remember for the time, even the intonation changes with the same phrase. Either the speech is pre-recorded or there's a dude with a radio and microphone controlling the device. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXB9v3z22MI&t=1114s
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 07:14
|
|
|
Tarkus posted:After watching Computer Chronicles, tell me that this demonstration isn't faked. It's speech synthesis but it's better than I remember for the time, even the intonation changes with the same phrase. Either the speech is pre-recorded or there's a dude with a radio and microphone controlling the device. I watched it, and I'd guess it was pre-recorded. That has long been the standard for a lot of voice-activated automated stuff as far as I know. I remember the voice recognition being terrible for the Windows XP registration phone service, to the point I got used to just always using the dialpad rather than repeat myself endlessly. Anyone else have the joy of having to activate Windows XP installs on a regular basis? On the other end of speech recognition, of all places Amtrak has had amazingly good voice recognition in my experience. It's almost eerie how easy it to use their computerized phone system, for me at least.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 07:26
|
|
|
doctorfrog posted:HDMI seems to be the "thank gently caress, what took them so long/what's taking them so long" that USB was back in the day. Counterpoint: HDCP. Of course, that's not too hard to defeat with the right splitter, but it's rather annoying finding the right one. But yeah, having a universal digital video+audio connection in a nice little plug is/was a godsend. Interesting too how the line between TVs and PC monitors has blurred so much [my current desktop PC monitor is a TV for instance]
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 08:08
|
|
|
Activating windows XP by phone is a rite of passage. If you've never had to tell a Bosnian dude named Chuck that yes, this is the only system XP is installed on, you never really worked in IT.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 08:14
|
|
|
WebDog posted:Wish I took a photo of that CD-Rom drive with a little "Y2K Compliant" sticker on it. There's a great book called Flat Earth News which details just how the Y2K pandemic went from one innocuous line which theorised a potential issue to a full blown panic that cost billions as everyone fell over themselves trying to rectify this. Brock likely made a nice bit of cash during that time as everything digital was considered a risk. People were expecting to find their cars wouldn't start in the morning.  doctorfrog posted:I still have two driver CDs and two coiled up little serial cables for:
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 08:18
|
|
|
Gonz posted:Today I learned that there once existed an Xbox 360 HD port of Goldeneye 007 that was set to be released for purchase on the Xbox Live Arcade. Well good news! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4XtdEnWx4
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 08:52
|
|
|
The Kins posted:My dad worked in IT for a Fairly Large Multinational at the time, and I'm pretty sure he had to basically spend New Year's Eve at work just to make sure things didn't explode. The way I remember it, he and his team spent a short amount of time making sure everything was updated, and the rest of the night playing PS1 Gran Turismo on the absurdly large projector in the cafeteria. While he's not a goon (AFAIK), Ashens did a full series of videos about the gameboy and all the crap you could buy for it - and he found a small animation of his long-dead rabbit on his GB camera. ( https://youtu.be/1z2_af1vfJM )
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 09:05
|
|
|
Humphreys posted:Well good news! Yeah, but that's just multiplayer.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 09:28
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:What was worse in the oughts: working in IT or being known by friends and family as the guy who was "good with computers"? I was that second one and it fuckin' sucked. I'm still kind of both of those, and I think the main difference between the two has never been how weird the problems are or whether or not the solutions can be googled, but rather the fact that one of them you get paid for and can go home when it's done, and the other one you do while everyone else in your family or group of friends is having a good time and instead you're in their office fixing their broken computer  CaptainSarcastic posted:I still get this but it has expanded to include phones and other devices. I'm good when it comes to Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android phones, but I keep getting asked to do stuff with iPhones which I am not familiar with and actively dislike. I've had a fairly tense relationship with Apple since Mac OS 8.5, and it appears that iOS is a concentration of all the things about them I disliked the most. Just about everyone I know who considers me their tech support thinks I hate Apple, so I don't get asked about their products  CaptainSarcastic posted:Anyone else have the joy of having to activate Windows XP installs on a regular basis? Arms_Akimbo posted:Activating windows XP by phone is a rite of passage. If you've never had to tell a Bosnian dude named Chuck that yes, this is the only system XP is installed on, you never really worked in IT. What, why would you be doing activations regularly, and actually having to speak to a person about it? I assume because you're actually changing the hardware a lot or in fact using the key multiple times? The only time I ever spoke to a person was when I actually wanted to to find out if the suspicious license key I bought was a volume licensing one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 09:56
|
|
|
Staying up on a school night, using the home telephone (with its Very Loud button beeps) to enter that longass code, only to have to whisper to an Afghani that yes, this is just a reinstall, and then get the return code on broken English, while trying to not wake your parents.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 10:09
|
|
|
Buttcoin purse posted:What, why would you be doing activations regularly, and actually having to speak to a person about it? I assume because you're actually changing the hardware a lot or in fact using the key multiple times? The only time I ever spoke to a person was when I actually wanted to to find out if the suspicious license key I bought was a volume licensing one. Working as a computer janitor and having to reimage machines because stupid people keep somehow getting viruses. Also the time Macafee anti virus decided that a bunch of Windows XP system files were actually a virus and broke about 25 of the machines in the company I was working for at the time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 10:09
|
|
|
Cojawfee posted:I don't know the specifics because I was never dumb enough to download a TV show episode and then burn it to a disc to watch on a DVD player. I'm guessing they had divx compatible players and they would burn the file to a disc and put it on the player. When the scene moved on to better codecs, the people couldn't just burn the file to a disc and play it on their DVD player anymore. They got really upset and started posting on the forums of the free torrent sites. Yeah, the issue is that they weren't transcoding; if they had been it would not have mattered. I like that their argument that mp4 sucks is based off of "I'd rather the file take 4x as long to download if it saves me some time burning".
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 15:01
|
|
|
Arms_Akimbo posted:Activating windows XP by phone is a rite of passage. If you've never had to tell a Bosnian dude named Chuck that yes, this is the only system XP is installed on, you never really worked in IT. When I worked in a computer store, we had to do this all the time. It would always be some Indian guy pretending to live in the US. It got pretty obvious when my friend had a conversation where the guy on the phone said it was raining pretty badly. My friend asked him if it was monsoon season and the guy said "Oh no, I live in LA." Uh, sorry bro, LA doesn't get really bad rain. Gay Weed Dad posted:Yeah, the issue is that they weren't transcoding; if they had been it would not have mattered. I like that their argument that mp4 sucks is based off of "I'd rather the file take 4x as long to download if it saves me some time burning". These are the type of people who learned to do it a certain way a long time ago but have no skills to figure out how to do it another way. Just like old people who who take screenshots of their computer and then paste them into word documents to send to people.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 15:19
|
|
|
One of the dubious benefits of living in a country with a weird primary language is that the call centers will be mostly staffed with native speakers, though lately some of those native speakers have been living in Spain. The last Lenovo tech that fixed my laptop was an Indian guy with an impenetrably thick accent, though. Some things are apparently universal. When I last called in to reactivate a windows license, it was automated - and varied between a very calm reading of the instructions and a guy absolutely barking the digits in the unlock code.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 17:52
|
|
|
I had to go through the automated systems a couple times. I'm not sure it can fail. MS should just drop the pretense and make windows free for end users and keep charging OEMs and corporate users. Yeah OEMs could sell windows-free versions and the user could just install windows, but most Windows users aren't going to go through the hassle to save $40.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 17:57
|
|
|
Tarkus posted:After watching Computer Chronicles, tell me that this demonstration isn't faked. It's speech synthesis but it's better than I remember for the time, even the intonation changes with the same phrase. Either the speech is pre-recorded or there's a dude with a radio and microphone controlling the device. It's 100% fake. Even the Mac couldn't reproduce pre-recorded voice at that quality since sampling rates were low, let alone string variable based voice clips together so smoothly. Basic verbal commands were possible, but all the speech is bogus. At the 1983 NCC I saw a demo of MS Flight Simulator being controlled via voice, so that was a little earlier than this video. Dick Trauma has a new favorite as of 18:03 on Aug 25, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 18:01
|
|
|
I think it's hilarious because he said that phone systems, which sound like garbage, were reproducing voice at 64000 bps but that voice was somehow 10000 bps and sounded just like some guy with a microphone in the back.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 19:40
|
|
|
you can sum up that whole presentation with a line directly from it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXB9v3z22MI&t=1196s
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2016 19:45
|
|
|
ColoradoCleric posted:One modern invention I love is HDMI out on desktops and laptops being a modern thing, finally I can have the HTPC I always wanted without having to use lovely S video or god forbid the yellow cable. or the three video cables trying to explain that you can not use normal RCA cables for that was a pain
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 01:27
|
|
|
Heh heh, he doesn't know how to use the three video cables 
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 01:32
|
|
|
mrwuss posted:or the three video cables You could though couldn't you?
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 01:44
|
|
|
Germstore posted:You could though couldn't you? You could for component video. You just needed more of them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 01:51
|
|
|
Germstore posted:You could though couldn't you? if you wanted to play charades with the tv, yes!
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 02:08
|
|
|
mrwuss posted:if you wanted to play charades with the tv, yes! I don't know what that means. They're both 75 ohm wires and have the same physical connections. You need two sets and they need to be not poo poo rca cables but other than those caveats it should work in theory and I know I've used it in practice.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 02:19
|
|
|
Germstore posted:I don't know what that means. rca cables came in a set of three you needed five to hook up video and audio via rca cables
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 02:30
|
|
|
Gonz posted:Yeah, but that's just multiplayer. its also kinda mediocre not bad but like it really isnt more than a gmod gamemode with too many maps. they didnt do any quality control and it doesnt have the floaty aiming
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 02:31
|
|
|
mrwuss posted:rca cables came in a set of three Germstore posted:...You need two sets...
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 02:32
|
|
|
I am guessing you never had to explain this to people who didn't understand that component and composite were not the same thing even if the cables were the same.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 02:40
|
|
|
Oh, okay. Yeah, when I set poo poo up for people I just did what I had to do and no one questioned it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 02:42
|
|
|
Germstore posted:I had to go through the automated systems a couple times. I'm not sure it can fail. MS should just drop the pretense and make windows free for end users and keep charging OEMs and corporate users. Yeah OEMs could sell windows-free versions and the user could just install windows, but most Windows users aren't going to go through the hassle to save $40. Windows as a Service is definitely coming, and it will benefit the end user by a lot.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 03:31
|
|
|
Buttcoin purse posted:What, why would you be doing activations regularly, and actually having to speak to a person about it? I assume because you're actually changing the hardware a lot or in fact using the key multiple times? The only time I ever spoke to a person was when I actually wanted to to find out if the suspicious license key I bought was a volume licensing one. I was working at a place that refurbished computers, so doing dozens of activations a day. I also did computer service at the place, and one of the frequent things customers would need is fresh installs after they virused their machines to a non-functional state. I think I actually had the 800 number for activation memorized at the time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 05:06
|
|
|
mrwuss posted:or the three video cables Computer monitor: 1024 x 768 TV: like 480 x 320 Me: why is everything so big and awful?  computer parts posted:Windows as a Service is definitely coming, and it will benefit the end user by a lot. It's not perfect by any means, but one awesome upshot of Macs are absolutely free OS updates. Plus if there's a screw up you can just re-download the whole OS and start again from scratch with no questions asked. Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 11:40 on Aug 26, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 11:36
|
|
|
Seems like with UEFI and Windows keys/activation embedded in the firmware on PCs nowadays, that shouldn't be a problem to implement on PCs if the OEMs and Microsoft wanted to. You can download a Windows ISO for free any time you like, there is no reason it shouldn't be downloadable from a little UEFI client with a network card driver.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 12:45
|
|
|
If they made Windows free for users but cost money for Corporations/OEMs, I could see them sell computers with a tiny linux client installed that downloads and then installs Windows for you to save 20 dollars or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 15:03
|
|
|
Cojawfee posted:If they made Windows free for users but cost money for Corporations/OEMs, I could see them sell computers with a tiny linux client installed that downloads and then installs Windows for you to save 20 dollars or whatever. Anything that installed it automatically would probably not be kosher. It would have to be manual, and most users are not going to mess with installing an OS to save a few bucks.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 15:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 17:10 |
|
|
drunk asian neighbor posted:One of my android phones had a microHDMI output, which was awesome. i had one, it really wasn't particularly useful for anything especially because of the sad state of android 2.1. i mean the hdmi output worked fine but whats the use of that if none of the video players are compatible with your hardware and you cant get controllers hooked up right because android 2.1 with a lovely closed source bluetooth stack i sent that phone to someone in yospos and set the boot image to goatse so all in all it did good nowadays most phones actually support it via a usb>hdmi adapter but its one of those things you probably never used it or even thought of a use for
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 15:11
|
|