Stupid/Small Questions Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Stupid/Small Questions Megathread

!Klams: Dec 25, 2005; Squid Squad

My wife has a work laptop, that she uses when she's working from home, open, next to her monitor. She takes it into the office 2 or 3 times a week, so has to disconnect it often.

She also has a gaming laptop, that's also in use quite a lot. At the moment she has a KVM to switch between the two.

The issue is, that there's not really a lot of space on her desk, and the kvm wires are kind of all over the place. When she switches between the two laptops, she wants to use the screen, so currently she's putting one on top of the other, which isn't ideal. When she wants to unplug one, she has to be careful not to let the usb cables slide down the back of the desk, but sticking the usb cable in place isn't really very easy, because of the aforementioned shuffling that happens all the time, so there needs to be flex.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of a good solution for this? In my head I'm imagining like some kind of double lectern, or like a docking station or something, or, maybe a wireless KVM switch where you have dongles instead of wires? Does that exist?

# ? Aug 29, 2023 12:40

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# ? May 31, 2024 06:02

Chubby Henparty: Aug 13, 2007

I don't really understand your setup as you described it but if nothing else, will her work's security setup just let her bung the laptop in a corner and then remote desktop in from the gaming one?

# ? Aug 29, 2023 13:13

Fruits of the sea: Dec 1, 2010

Remote desktop is a good idea.

At least for managing cables, purchasing a desk that has built-in cable management would help. Some even come with trays where you could place the KVM.

# ? Aug 29, 2023 13:31

hooah: Feb 6, 2006; WTF?

This may or may not be viable for your wife's setup, but I stuck my KVM to the underside of my desk with adhesive, so it and all the cords are out of the way.

# ? Aug 29, 2023 13:59

Grassy Knowles: Apr 4, 2003; "The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

hooah posted:

This may or may not be viable for your wife's setup, but I stuck my KVM to the underside of my desk with adhesive, so it and all the cords are out of the way.

This but velcro strips

# ? Aug 29, 2023 14:05

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

!Klams posted:

When she switches between the two laptops, she wants to use the screen

When you say "the screen", do you mean a standalone monitor connected to the KVM or the laptop screen? If she's using the laptops' own screens then she's going to need to shuffle the laptops around every time she wants to switch them regardless of what else she does, because she'll want the screen she's using to be in front of her.

!Klams posted:

When she wants to unplug one, she has to be careful not to let the usb cables slide down the back of the desk, but sticking the usb cable in place isn't really very easy, because of the aforementioned shuffling that happens all the time, so there needs to be flex.

Can you put a clip on the side of the desk like this?

!Klams posted:

I was just wondering if anyone knew of a good solution for this? In my head I'm imagining like some kind of double lectern, or like a docking station or something, or, maybe a wireless KVM switch where you have dongles instead of wires? Does that exist?

I'm not entirely sure what equipment you've got or how it's set up (or what kind of desk you're talking about), but if you had a stand-alone monitor you could put the laptops on the floor leaning against the desk, since you wouldn't need physical access to them as long as they were plugged into the KVM. The cables from the KVM to the mouse, keyboard and monitor would be left alone and could be as out of the way as it's possible for them to be, and the connection to the laptop would also be off to the side.

# ? Aug 29, 2023 14:32

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

You can at least prevent the cables from slipping behind the desk

# ? Aug 29, 2023 14:34

Yngwie Mangosteen: Aug 23, 2007

Qubee posted:

I've got central air conditioning. Each room has a ceiling vent to let the cold air blow out. My living room has two vents. Of all these vents, only one of the living room vents has mold growing along the ceiling where the cold air is blown out. None of the other vents have this issue. I have also noticed (for a while now) a slightly damp, mildewy smell when I come home. Relative humidity of the apartment is 45-50% most days. Any thoughts on why this one particular vent has mold growing along it's outlet (it blows out in four directions) and the rest are fine? I never have mildewy smell in any of my other rooms, just the living room.

It's possible that somehow via the labyrinthine mechanisms of the system, that one collects more moisture, it's also possible that vent just got infected when it wasn't blowing and it's tenacious enough to hold on. It's also possible that there's a mold infestation in a rip or something deeper along that path but not on the other paths.

Either way you're looking at a fairly expensive mold remediation because they usually clean the whole system no matter what gets moldy. Ask me how I know.

# ? Aug 29, 2023 15:07

Xenoborg: Mar 10, 2007

As an alternate to KVM, for the last few years I have used a multi device keyboard, mouse, and monitors. Logitech K850 mouse/keyboard and regular monitors with one computer hooked up with DVI and the other with HDMI. They keybaord and mouse have a side button to toggle their source and the monitors have their normal source buttons. My work laptop has a dock that all of the other cords are plugged into and I just doc it when I come home. This has the dubious benefit of allowing you to easily mix and match your monitors and inputs between both computers, which while fun isn't great for distractions during boring meetings, for example me posting on the forums now.

# ? Aug 29, 2023 15:22

!Klams: Dec 25, 2005; Squid Squad

Tiggum posted:

When you say "the screen", do you mean a standalone monitor connected to the KVM or the laptop screen? If she's using the laptops' own screens then she's going to need to shuffle the laptops around every time she wants to switch them regardless of what else she does, because she'll want the screen she's using to be in front of her.

Can you put a clip on the side of the desk like this?

I'm not entirely sure what equipment you've got or how it's set up (or what kind of desk you're talking about), but if you had a stand-alone monitor you could put the laptops on the floor leaning against the desk, since you wouldn't need physical access to them as long as they were plugged into the KVM. The cables from the KVM to the mouse, keyboard and monitor would be left alone and could be as out of the way as it's possible for them to be, and the connection to the laptop would also be off to the side.

Yeah, sorry it's kind of hard to describe the setup, what I mean is, she has a monitor, that she always wants to use, then she also always wants to use the laptop screen of whichever laptop she's using, which means they need to open, so she can't really just have one under the other.

That thing with the clips is a great idea, and yeah I'll definitely do some of that. I can't quite use that setup since the desk has a back to it (so I couldn't clip on) but yeah, that's solid, thanks!

hooah posted:

This may or may not be viable for your wife's setup, but I stuck my KVM to the underside of my desk with adhesive, so it and all the cords are out of the way.

This is actually a really solid idea! I'll have a look into whether I can do this in a sensible way. KVMs always annoy me, because they're always like, a front and a back, and what I want is side to side. ANYWAY.

ideally there would be some double shelf thing, like, a plinth with a laptop on top, that has room for usb connectors in from the sides, and then below it like a little shelf for a closed laptop, also with room on the sides for cables?

# ? Aug 29, 2023 16:19

hooah: Feb 6, 2006; WTF?

!Klams posted:

ideally there would be some double shelf thing, like, a plinth with a laptop on top, that has room for usb connectors in from the sides, and then below it like a little shelf for a closed laptop, also with room on the sides for cables?

You mean something like this?

# ? Aug 29, 2023 17:04

!Klams: Dec 25, 2005; Squid Squad

hooah posted:

You mean something like this?

...

...Yes!

For some reason all the ones I found were weird arms!

# ? Aug 29, 2023 17:06

Qubee: May 31, 2013

Any Italian speakers able to translate this:

"Ed il costo su per giu � quello"

I think it may be a saying or phrase that Google translate isn't capturing correctly. Context of the sentence is, the Airbnb host told me a taxi to and from the airport is 30 euros. If a taxi isn't available, the host will be waiting for me at the airport. They then say "the cost up to down is that". Does that mean they also charge 30 euros?

# ? Aug 29, 2023 18:35

Xenoborg: Mar 10, 2007

There are suspended residential power lines running behind my house. Today there were several worker from my power utility walking around doing what I can only describe as fishing in the trees. They had some small black object on the end of a rope that they were spinning around and launching up into the trees around the power lines. It didn't seem to be cutting anything and they didn't seem to be recording anything. Any idea what this is?

# ? Aug 29, 2023 20:29

Ham Equity: Apr 16, 2013; The first thing we do, let's kill all the cars.; Grimey Drawer

!Klams posted:

My wife has a work laptop, that she uses when she's working from home, open, next to her monitor. She takes it into the office 2 or 3 times a week, so has to disconnect it often.

She also has a gaming laptop, that's also in use quite a lot. At the moment she has a KVM to switch between the two.

The issue is, that there's not really a lot of space on her desk, and the kvm wires are kind of all over the place. When she switches between the two laptops, she wants to use the screen, so currently she's putting one on top of the other, which isn't ideal. When she wants to unplug one, she has to be careful not to let the usb cables slide down the back of the desk, but sticking the usb cable in place isn't really very easy, because of the aforementioned shuffling that happens all the time, so there needs to be flex.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of a good solution for this? In my head I'm imagining like some kind of double lectern, or like a docking station or something, or, maybe a wireless KVM switch where you have dongles instead of wires? Does that exist?

Alternatively to the other suggestions, buy her another monitor and a port replicator instead of a KVM, stop using the laptop monitors, and just use the port replicator to switch back and forth.

# ? Aug 29, 2023 22:59

Hyperlynx: Sep 13, 2015

My (Samsung) phone's doing that thing where it won't unlock with a thumbprint and have to use my password, that it does every few days.

I swear I didn't change my password, and I swear I'm entering it right, but it's not accepting what I'm entering

gdfi, I'm going to have to factory reset, aren't I? I don't have Find My Mobile or Smart Lock enabled. I can't even restart the phone because I have to unlock it to be able to restart it!

# ? Aug 30, 2023 13:28

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

You can still try to let it run out of battery to force a reboot I guess if you have the time.

# ? Aug 30, 2023 14:05

RPATDO_LAMD: Mar 22, 2013; 🐘🪠🍆

There's usually a way to bypass the software and force a hard restart by holding some button combo for like 15 seconds.

# ? Aug 30, 2023 17:03

YggiDee: Sep 12, 2007; WASP CREW

Is there a downloadable program to convert YouTube videos to MP3s?

# ? Aug 30, 2023 17:29

RPATDO_LAMD: Mar 22, 2013; 🐘🪠🍆

yt-dlp with the --extract-audio switch

# ? Aug 30, 2023 17:39

CzarChasm: Mar 14, 2009; I don't like it when you're watching me eat.

I am a slow and reluctant convert from physical media to streaming. One of the things I enjoy on my DVDs are the bonus features and commentary tracks. I don't see them as options on streaming platforms*, does this make them just another relic of the past? I imagine that either the director and actors don't want to put in the time, or the services themselves don't want to take the bandwidth to offer separate audio tracks and other featurettes. Is this something that is just being phased out?

*Maybe you'll get a blooper reel or making of here and there, which are good, but I want more.

# ? Aug 30, 2023 18:29

Earwicker: Jan 6, 2003

CzarChasm posted:

I don't see them as options on streaming platforms*, does this make them just another relic of the past?

a lot of that stuff seems to end up on youtube, with varying degrees of officialness, instead of on the streaming platforms themselves

# ? Aug 30, 2023 18:48

Inceltown: Aug 6, 2019

CzarChasm posted:

I am a slow and reluctant convert from physical media to streaming. One of the things I enjoy on my DVDs are the bonus features and commentary tracks. I don't see them as options on streaming platforms*, does this make them just another relic of the past? I imagine that either the director and actors don't want to put in the time, or the services themselves don't want to take the bandwidth to offer separate audio tracks and other featurettes. Is this something that is just being phased out?

*Maybe you'll get a blooper reel or making of here and there, which are good, but I want more.

Look out for companion podcasts. That is a pretty frequent way you get your bonus material these days.

# ? Aug 30, 2023 19:11

Blue Labrador: Feb 17, 2011

I got a new job, but I haven't been able to officially start because HR's computer system has been down for 3 days. I've never encountered this before, but I don't have much experience working for big companies. Is this like, a relatively normal occurrence?

# ? Aug 30, 2023 20:59

Grassy Knowles: Apr 4, 2003; "The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

Blue Labrador posted:

I got a new job, but I haven't been able to officially start because HR's computer system has been down for 3 days. I've never encountered this before, but I don't have much experience working for big companies. Is this like, a relatively normal occurrence?

Yes incredibly normal I�ve run onboardings for a large company and the real outliers can take weeks to get set up. HR systems are absolutely garbage and usually involve kludging tech from multiple vendors together.

# ? Aug 30, 2023 21:12

Blue Labrador: Feb 17, 2011

Grassy Knowles posted:

Yes incredibly normal I�ve run onboardings for a large company and the real outliers can take weeks to get set up. HR systems are absolutely garbage and usually involve kludging tech from multiple vendors together.

Okay, that's good to know. I don't handle employment stress well so this was much needed, thank you!

# ? Aug 30, 2023 21:26

wash bucket: Feb 21, 2006

Blue Labrador posted:

I got a new job, but I haven't been able to officially start because HR's computer system has been down for 3 days. I've never encountered this before, but I don't have much experience working for big companies. Is this like, a relatively normal occurrence?

Oh yeah. Next step will be you start working but for some reason they can't get your paycheck to deposit correctly. We are ever at the mercy of the "systems".

# ? Aug 30, 2023 22:50

Hyperlynx: Sep 13, 2015

Flipperwaldt posted:

You can still try to let it run out of battery to force a reboot I guess if you have the time.

That's what I was going to do, and this morning it was still on. Huh, better battery than I expected!

RPATDO_LAMD posted:

There's usually a way to bypass the software and force a hard restart by holding some button combo for like 15 seconds.

💡

Thank you! Yes, there is, and rebooting also fixed the problem! Thank gently caress. I wasn't looking forward to schlepping out to a Samsung store and/or redoing my phone from scratch.

E: also, nice to know I'm not going nuts and hadn't forgotten my password. And that my phone didn't somehow get compromised and the password changed.

# ? Aug 31, 2023 00:23

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

Grassy Knowles posted:

Yes incredibly normal I�ve run onboardings for a large company and the real outliers can take weeks to get set up. HR systems are absolutely garbage and usually involve kludging tech from multiple vendors together.

It took us onboarding a new VP of HR who couldn't log in to her laptop for a week for serious attention to be paid to all the integration issues we had.

# ? Aug 31, 2023 00:30

artsy fartsy: May 10, 2014; You'll be ahead instead of behind. Hello!

Is Sbarro any good? There's one opening up near me (along with a Subway, goddammit.)

I'm out in the boonies and tentatively excited to have an alternative to the grody-rear end McDonald's, but where does Sbarro rank compared to like a Hut or a Lil Caesars?

# ? Aug 31, 2023 22:16

hooah: Feb 6, 2006; WTF?

We got an email from Nintendo about our daughter violating their community policy. They said some content she posted was deleted because it was hateful or bullying. Is there any way to ask Nintendo what she posted? Nothing in the email indicated any such route, and she's playing dumb.

# ? Aug 31, 2023 22:16

Grassy Knowles: Apr 4, 2003; "The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

artsy fartsy posted:

Is Sbarro any good? There's one opening up near me (along with a Subway, goddammit.)

I'm out in the boonies and tentatively excited to have an alternative to the grody-rear end McDonald's, but where does Sbarro rank compared to like a Hut or a Lil Caesars?

Sbarro is the definitive mall pizza and it�s bad/overpriced, to the point it�s a joke that steve carrell finds a sbarro for a �classic new york slice� in the office

# ? Aug 31, 2023 22:23

Fork of Unknown Origins: Oct 21, 2005; Gotta Herd On?

artsy fartsy posted:

Is Sbarro any good? There's one opening up near me (along with a Subway, goddammit.)

I'm out in the boonies and tentatively excited to have an alternative to the grody-rear end McDonald's, but where does Sbarro rank compared to like a Hut or a Lil Caesars?

Pizza is kinda bad, Stromboli is pretty good (if for no other reason than nobody else around here has it.)

Like the pizza isn�t Dominos bad but it�s expensive for what it is.

# ? Aug 31, 2023 22:56

abelwingnut: Dec 23, 2002

artsy fartsy posted:

Is Sbarro any good? There's one opening up near me (along with a Subway, goddammit.)

I'm out in the boonies and tentatively excited to have an alternative to the grody-rear end McDonald's, but where does Sbarro rank compared to like a Hut or a Lil Caesars?

haven't laughed this hard in a while. thanks.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 00:17

Earwicker: Jan 6, 2003

Fork of Unknown Origins posted:

Like the pizza isn�t Dominos bad but it�s expensive for what it is.

imo its worse. dominos at least makes a fresh pizza when you order one. sbarros serves extremely greasy slices that have been sitting around all day. its gas station pizza.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 00:48

Earwicker: Jan 6, 2003

abelwingnut posted:

haven't laughed this hard in a while. thanks.

when i was a kid, sbarros did not exist where i grew up, in the bay area. i'd never heard of them. the first time i ever saw one was when i went on a trip with my high school band to nyc. there happened to be one across from our hotel. i had no idea what it was and just assumed it was a "local nyc pizza joint". i was horrified and confused when i tried it i was like... wow the pizza in this city is extremely overrated.

(my ignorance was corrected a couple days later thankfully)

# ? Sep 1, 2023 00:55