Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

joedevola posted:

My laptop is a few years old because I'm a poor so I recently reformatted back to Windows 7 and it was like having a brand new machine. 10 was unbearably sluggish and since I went back I realized there isn't a single thing that 10 does that I missed.

There's that little speed graph when you're transferring files I suppose, that was nice.

I suppose if you're a gamer they're not really giving you a choice, but it seems like everything since Windows 7 has either been a horrible gently caress up or simply treading water.

This reminds me why I ran Windows NT for so long.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2016 11:01

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:31

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Samizdata posted:

Win10 Pro x64. It seems to be tied to the tray display of my email program, but half the time Windows doesn't correct after I clear the alert. So, yeah. And I am not the only person that sees it. I learned the CTRL-SHIFT-right click thing from an article about said problem.

I have a program with a tray notification behavior where it doesn't go away until I click it. Auto-hide stops until I do. I would hunt for the program with the aggressive tray notification behavior.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2016 23:50

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Grumbletron 4000 posted:

I was the tech support guy for my family once. It was hell. Now I just tell people to buy either an iPad, a cheapo Android tablet or a midrange laptop depending on what they ask me. Anyone that needs more already knows what they want for the most part.

Try being the family mechanic, it's worse because the fix always involves physical labor. Oh and can you look at so-and-so's car they just had an accident and their AC doesn't work. Hey bud thanks for looking at my car I have a friend who has this noise when their car starts

# ¿ Jul 4, 2016 13:19

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

JnnyThndrs posted:

Some are chip-n-sig, some are chip-n-pin.

Dunno why they don't just all go chip-n-pin, I can punch my PIN in faster than I can fumble with that dumbass little plastic pen and scrawl a completely unintelligible blob on the screen.

sometimes the screen doesn't recognize finger touch and you have to pin with the pen :laugh:

# ¿ Jul 11, 2016 13:41

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Aren't faxes accepted as valid copies of originals in legal situations, unlike emails? I thought that was why people still kept them around. It's not so difficult to maintain a fax. My scanner / printer combination comes with one. I think the issue isn't so much the fax machine it's the phone line.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 04:08

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Shillary posted:

Yes, in pretty much all jurisdictions a faxed signature is as good as an original.

/

what if the faxes were temporarily housed on a private email server

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 04:44

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Humphreys posted:

Yeah thats my current issue. Getting everything to work 'just right' .

Anyway I got it sorted with an active DP to DVI and a few DVI to VGA adaptors (had problems with the various DVI cables/adaptors that didn't play nice).

Displayport is so superior, holy poo poo.

move to DisplayPort, everyone.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 17:38

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Jasper Tin Neck posted:

My friend, who designs AV-systems for a living, is still angry that DVI was the last standard to feature screw-fastened connectors. The clip on a DP connector simply isn't strong enough to prevent you from accidentally unseating the connector if you bump or tug it.

your friend should design AV systems that don't place cables where you walk :shrug:

no seriously the grappling hook design are the only thing worse than their size. They're better than serial ports of yore but worse than VGA

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 23:44

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Lincoln posted:

They don't look slightly different, they look very different. More so than the difference between, say, color and black & white. And you don't get used to it in 15 minutes. God, I saw Inside Out at home, and it was either interpolated or shown at its natural high frame rate (I didn't see it in the theater, so I don't know), and it drove me nuts the entire time. I like HFR for football games or video I shoot at Disney World or whatever -- it's great for real life, terrible for narrative cinema.

Oh, and Platystemon's "tubes sound better" analogy is ridiculous. Audiophiles are idiots who are consistently proven wrong by blind tests. The difference between 24 FPS and 48 or 60 or 120 is legitimate and obvious.

There's no "magic human brain biologically-perfect frame rate," but 24 looks better than 48.

I agree with this. A bit of blur between frames makes the motion look better. 48 and especially 60 make the scenes look like obvious movie sets. I end up feeling like I'm sitting on the camera boom. It turns out I don't want a perfect reproduction of what the camera sees at high shutter speeds.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2016 14:56

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

I feel my eyes hunting for the picture during pans too.

I would take a guess why the blur happens but I need to find out what shutter angle is before I can feel like I know what I'm talking about again. lol

# ¿ Aug 20, 2016 17:42

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Tubesock Holocaust posted:

Sony had some pretty terrible ideas when it came to portable PCs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGIGUBYJLn8

that dude's voice holy poo poo. he sounds like a screechy old woman from a Monty Python sketch

# ¿ Aug 27, 2016 07:03

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

JayKay posted:

I know we have PDA chat every few pages, but posting that Ashens video made me find his video about the Casio Cassiopeia. Which reminded me of the E-125 I used to own 15-20 years ago when I was heavily into PPC's and Palm Pilots.

This is one of its press images. Look how convenient it is! You don't even need to use the tray on the airplane to use it!!!

The woman has the uncool thing. Use this, don't be a woman!

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 15:50

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

0toShifty posted:

A friend has a 1994 Jetta that had a previous life as an audio competition car. It had wacky 90s high end stereo equipment, crossovers, eq, many amps, and the best part? Yes, it had a Minidisc changer in the trunk.

Speaking of 1994, here's something obsolete and failed. You have a calendar, agenda, world clock, phonebook, calculator, unit conversion, memo, fortune telling, matchmaker AND you could send text messages to other SECRET SENDER 6000s by infrared! You could also use that sensor as a universal remote for your TV and VCR. This one was certainly a toy directed at girls, but you can just see some dumb future technology archaeologist saying FORERUNNER OF SMARTPHONE! Casio ruled back then.

Reminded me of the remote control watch which isn't failed and is in fact the coolest poo poo ever. Friend in middle school had one and any roll-away TV in the classroom would get checked for power. There are different infrared signal types according to brand or something, so once he found the right setting for the TV or VCR the shenanigans would happen. Teachers getting mad at technology is never not funny

# ¿ Mar 20, 2017 05:59

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Grumbletron 4000 posted:

I was an insufferable little poo poo in middle school and this thing was a goddamned weapon of terror in my filthy little hands. I had this one...

It was fairly easy to program it quickly and once you memorized the 2 digit codes for all the popular brands you could gently caress poo poo up. I had many teachers on the edge of breakdown from messing around during what should have been an easy day for them. TV goes off. That's weird. He goes and turns it back on. Video pauses, then rewinds just as he gets back to his desk after unpairing it. A few minutes to by... Mute. And on and on and on. God drat was I a poo poo kid. I never got caught either. I can't imagine how much troubleshooting the AV people had to do after the teacher insisted that the video rig was haunted by a malevolent spirit.

Even better than loving around at school was going to the mall. Food court TVs? Static at top volume. Program that hosed for Sony and go over to Sears and watch two dozen TVs flip on at off all at once. So much mayhem for such a little gadget. I don't know if my mom ever figured out why I wanted that thing for my birthday so badly.

sometimes it took a while and we assumed he gave up. Then when the volume shot up or something it caught us by surprise and became funnier to realize he'd been working on it all along instead of paying attention :laffo:

# ¿ Mar 20, 2017 06:42

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Grumbletron 4000 posted:

A few of my delinquent friends were in on it but they never gave me up. We were all just glancing at each other, stifling laughter as the teacher went totally apeshit trying to keep up with whatever I was telling the TV and VCR to do. The rest of the class was just befuddled and annoyed that they couldn't complete the worksheet on the video about what happens when frogs gently caress or whatever.

I think I'd like to have one again for nostalgia purposes. You think your retro Casio calculator watch is cool? BAM! Now your TV is off. Get the gently caress out of here.

Hell yeah I have a feeling I'm about to buy one.

In high school, the same guy had a Beavis and Butthead sound effects toy that resembled a keyless entry fob. During large student gatherings he'd use it. Any sort of innuendo words resulted in very faint but distinct "yeah huh huhuh huh cornholio huh huhuh teepeeformybunghole!" from somewhere in the crowd.

There was a sex ed day in the theater and it was loving amazinggg when it was time for the woman to demonstrate a condom with a cucumber. Holy poo poo.

I tried to find a picture or a source but nada. Because that too would still be fun

# ¿ Mar 20, 2017 07:06

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Is there a book still in print that would teach me how to use irc again? I forgot after 1996.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2017 03:34

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Coax LAN Blood and Hexen, [while I was supposed to be in summer school] '97

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 06:35

Anagram of GINGER: Oct 3, 2014; by Smythe

Lazlo Nibble posted:

Tapping the hook switch quickly is electrically identical to dialing on a rotary phone, so if it doesn't work but rotary dialing does, it's because the hook switch on that specific phone is too slow for it to work.

lol how do you know this

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 21:33