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Started by ZLoth, April 14, 2024, 09:04:38 PM

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mgk920

I use a couple of cheap AC powered amplified computer desk speakers thrown on the back seat floor to play an old-school iPod in the car.  Works and sounds great - and I can listen to something else, like a game, on the car's radio at the same time.

Mike


Rothman

Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 12:37:00 PMI use a couple of cheap AC powered amplified computer desk speakers thrown on the back seat floor to play an old-school iPod in the car.  Works and sounds great - and I can listen to something else, like a game, on the car's radio at the same time.

Mike

That sounds noisy.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

mgk920

Quote from: Rothman on July 08, 2024, 06:27:58 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 12:37:00 PMI use a couple of cheap AC powered amplified computer desk speakers thrown on the back seat floor to play an old-school iPod in the car.  Works and sounds great - and I can listen to something else, like a game, on the car's radio at the same time.

Mike

That sounds noisy.
Zip-tie the wires and cords together, works great, the speakers are shaped like triangular prisms.

Mike

Scott5114

Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 09:23:03 PM
Quote from: Rothman on July 08, 2024, 06:27:58 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 12:37:00 PMI use a couple of cheap AC powered amplified computer desk speakers thrown on the back seat floor to play an old-school iPod in the car.  Works and sounds great - and I can listen to something else, like a game, on the car's radio at the same time.

Mike

That sounds noisy.
Zip-tie the wires and cords together, works great, the speakers are shaped like triangular prisms.

Mike

That doesn't do anything about the iPod and the radio going at the same time. My brain would overheat trying and failing to pick one to focus on. Even worse if the radio is playing music, because then you have two different songs going at once that probably aren't even in the same key so they'd be making all sorts of discordant noise.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

formulanone

#54
Quote from: ZLoth on July 08, 2024, 11:14:32 AM
Quote from: formulanone on July 08, 2024, 10:49:04 AMMy daughter has a car without an MP3 player nor AUX port, just a CD player and radio. She asked me to copy a few CDs from my collection, so the originals aren't lost. I dug around in some boxes, and found about two dozen unused CD-ROMs. She also had an old CD player in her room that was unused since she was about 4-5, but it still works.

I honestly forgot if it was called "ripping" or "burning" a CD, and I had to quickly look up how to do it on Windows Media Player; I hadn't made a copy (legal or otherwise) in almost 20 years, since acquiring an MP3 player in late-2004.

"Ripping" is the term of pulling the audio from a CD to a MP3 file. Also, there were programs that would duplicate a CD to a burnable CD.

Without knowing the make and model, there are FM transmitters available that can rebroadcast the Bluetooth to a unused FM frequency, but the power is limited and is subject to interference. There are aftermarket solutions as well to add Bluetooth capability.

She has one of those for the car; but I think many in her generation are doing what many others have done before: a sense of nostalgia for things they didn't have or was just a decade before their times. To a small extent, they want CDs, film cameras, and 80s-90s fashion. The first two aren't going to overtake commonplace music and image/video distribution, it's cool they want to be part of something that would otherwise be entirely forgotten.

It's driven by the same way every teen-to-twentysomething is hawked curiosities, fashions, or arts/culture from 30 years ago, probably from the last 50-60 years or so. It just so happens we have a lot of that kind of stuff around the house.

mgk920

Quote from: Scott5114 on July 08, 2024, 10:10:51 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 09:23:03 PM
Quote from: Rothman on July 08, 2024, 06:27:58 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 12:37:00 PMI use a couple of cheap AC powered amplified computer desk speakers thrown on the back seat floor to play an old-school iPod in the car.  Works and sounds great - and I can listen to something else, like a game, on the car's radio at the same time.

Mike

That sounds noisy.
Zip-tie the wires and cords together, works great, the speakers are shaped like triangular prisms.

Mike

That doesn't do anything about the iPod and the radio going at the same time. My brain would overheat trying and failing to pick one to focus on. Even worse if the radio is playing music, because then you have two different songs going at once that probably aren't even in the same key so they'd be making all sorts of discordant noise.

My mind doesn't work like that and adjusting the volume between the two is like a 'second nature' to me.

Mike

Rothman

Quote from: mgk920 on July 09, 2024, 11:02:57 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on July 08, 2024, 10:10:51 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 09:23:03 PM
Quote from: Rothman on July 08, 2024, 06:27:58 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on July 08, 2024, 12:37:00 PMI use a couple of cheap AC powered amplified computer desk speakers thrown on the back seat floor to play an old-school iPod in the car.  Works and sounds great - and I can listen to something else, like a game, on the car's radio at the same time.

Mike

That sounds noisy.
Zip-tie the wires and cords together, works great, the speakers are shaped like triangular prisms.

Mike

That doesn't do anything about the iPod and the radio going at the same time. My brain would overheat trying and failing to pick one to focus on. Even worse if the radio is playing music, because then you have two different songs going at once that probably aren't even in the same key so they'd be making all sorts of discordant noise.

My mind doesn't work like that and adjusting the volume between the two is like a 'second nature' to me.

Mike

Wut.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

ZLoth

From Ars Technica:

Intel is offering extended warranties for crashing 13th- and 14th-gen desktop CPUs
Intel's microcode fix won't help CPUs that are already damaged.

QuoteIntel will be releasing a microcode update to prevent further damage to crashing 13th- and 14th-generation desktop processors sometime this month if it can stick to its previously announced schedule. This fix should be available via BIOS updates from PC and motherboard makers and from Microsoft as a Windows update. But it will take time for those updates to roll out to users, and Intel has said that processors that are already exhibiting crashes have been permanently damaged and won't be fixed by the microcode update.

In an effort to provide peace of mind to buyers and cover anyone whose CPU is subtly damaged but not showing explicit signs of instability, Intel is extending the warranty on all affected 13th- and 14th-generation CPUs by an additional two years, Tom's Hardware reports. This raises the warranty on a new boxed Intel CPU from three years to five. For processors that came installed in pre-built PCs, Intel says users should reach out to their PC's manufacturer for support instead.
FULL ARTICLE HERE

:banghead:
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

From Ars Technica:

Sci-fi writer and WordStar lover re-releases the cult DOS app for free
"Compared to it, Microsoft Word is pure madness"—Anne Rice.
QuoteWordStar's most recent claim to fame might be that it's the word processing application on which George R.R. Martin is still not finishing A Song of Ice and Fire.

But many writers loved and still love WordStar, a word processor notably good for actual writing. As computers moved on from DOS to Windows, and word programs grew to encompass features that strayed far from organizing words on a page, WordStar hung back, whether in DOS emulation or in the hearts of its die-hard fans.
FULL ARTICLE HERE
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

pderocco

Quote from: ZLoth on August 08, 2024, 10:43:03 AMFrom Ars Technica:

Sci-fi writer and WordStar lover re-releases the cult DOS app for free
"Compared to it, Microsoft Word is pure madness"—Anne Rice.
QuoteWordStar's most recent claim to fame might be that it's the word processing application on which George R.R. Martin is still not finishing A Song of Ice and Fire.

But many writers loved and still love WordStar, a word processor notably good for actual writing. As computers moved on from DOS to Windows, and word programs grew to encompass features that strayed far from organizing words on a page, WordStar hung back, whether in DOS emulation or in the hearts of its die-hard fans.
FULL ARTICLE HERE
I haven't used WordStar for over 40 years, but I've configured its main control character key assignments into other text editors and word processors ever since.

ZLoth

Yesterday was... interesting. Here goes...
  • I had a power outage at my home where I discovered that the backup battery on my garage door opener as well as batteries for my two Uninterruptible Power Supply.
  • I had it with my Dynamic DNS service that was offered through my router. The name was in the format example.asuscomm.com (substitute example for the name I was using), but was constantly dropping off the network with a two-minute TTL. I then discovered that there was a TrueNAS app called "[ddns-updater](https://github.com/qdm12/ddns-updater)" which will also the job. Cloudflare, as it turns out, has a free service for Dynamic DNS, and I'm able to use a full qualified domain name (FQDN) instead of sub-domaining off someone else. It was just a matter of finding the proper update token.
  • Then I went through the headache of setting up [Nginx Proxy Manager](https://nginxproxymanager.com/) so that I can have a reserve proxy and SSL connections. However, I have to install it as root, otherwise it gets stuck at deploying. Only took about five tries.
  • Oh hey, it turns out that Nginx can support subdomains so that https://app1.example.com points to http://192.168.1.2:10235 and https://app2.example.com points to http://192.168.1.2:3189 and have each https subdomain have it's own Let's Encrypt certificate.
  • Of course, that means I have to update all of the configs of those two apps to point to those two domain names.
  • OK, while I'm at it, I'll also go through the trouble is setting up some self-signed internal certificates for my server and install them on my computer.
Whee....
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

From Bleeping Computer:

Google warns uBlock Origin and other extensions may be disabled soon
QuoteGoogle's Chrome Web Store is now warning that the uBlock Origin ad blocker and other extensions may soon be blocked as part of the company's deprecation of the Manifest V2 extension specification.

"This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions," reads the Chrome Web Store page for uBlock Origin.

The warning includes a link to a Google support bulletin that states the browser extension may be disabled to protect users' privacy and security.
FULL ARTICLE HERE

I know this was coming. Oh well, I just deployed AdGuard Home as an app on my server to serve as the DNS server to block the URLs instead. It was much simpler than I expected once I made the necessary DHCP modifications.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

Rothman

Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

LilianaUwU

Quote from: ZLoth on October 14, 2024, 08:50:21 PM
Quotethe browser extension may be disabled to protect users' privacy and security.
YEAH, RIGHT!
"Volcano with no fire... Not volcano... Just mountain."
—Mr. Thwomp

My pronouns are she/her. Also, I'm an admin on the AARoads Wiki.

Scott5114

uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

vdeane

Quote from: Scott5114 on October 15, 2024, 10:22:49 AM
Quote from: Rothman on October 14, 2024, 09:09:58 PMGah.  I really like uBlock.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Unfortunately Firefox has missing features compared to Chrome and its derivatives.  No reading list, for instance (Pocket fills a very different niche).  And customizing the start page is a pain in the rear (and reverted after I tried).  And middle clicking the links on the start page jumps to the new tab instead of opening it in the background (what if I want to open more than one?).  And it manages to use more resources than Chrome when streaming video, resulting in my computer locking up when I tried.

My experiment with switching to Firefox over this issue didn't even last a day before I gave up and went back to Vivaldi (which does have a built-in adblocker, but it's not nearly as good as UBO; even UBOL is probably better).
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

Scott5114

Quote from: vdeane on October 15, 2024, 12:57:43 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 15, 2024, 10:22:49 AM
Quote from: Rothman on October 14, 2024, 09:09:58 PMGah.  I really like uBlock.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Unfortunately Firefox has missing features compared to Chrome and its derivatives.  No reading list, for instance (Pocket fills a very different niche).  And customizing the start page is a pain in the rear (and reverted after I tried).  And middle clicking the links on the start page jumps to the new tab instead of opening it in the background (what if I want to open more than one?).  And it manages to use more resources than Chrome when streaming video, resulting in my computer locking up when I tried.

My experiment with switching to Firefox over this issue didn't even last a day before I gave up and went back to Vivaldi (which does have a built-in adblocker, but it's not nearly as good as UBO; even UBOL is probably better).

I would guess "no adblock allowed" is a much bigger deal-breaker to most people than any of these very minor issues. (Other than the streaming video one which I haven't ever had a problem with, even when I was using my 10-year-old computer. Perhaps your graphics drivers are fucked?)

If the start page is really that much of an issue, you can always just put together an HTML page of whatever it is you want on it, saved to your home directory, and set that as the page that opens whenever you open a new tab. (My start page is basically blank since whenever I am opening a new tab it's because I already have a place in mind I want to go in it, so any sort of bell or whistle on the start page only appears for a few seconds anyway.)
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

LilianaUwU

I'm telling you, the day YouTube permanently breaks adblocking extensions for Firefox is the day I stop watching YouTube.
"Volcano with no fire... Not volcano... Just mountain."
—Mr. Thwomp

My pronouns are she/her. Also, I'm an admin on the AARoads Wiki.

vdeane

Quote from: LilianaUwU on October 15, 2024, 10:30:42 PMI'm telling you, the day YouTube permanently breaks adblocking extensions for Firefox is the day I stop watching YouTube.
I'm not sure they've even managed to keep Manifest v3 compliant extensions from blocking YouTube ads, at least not permanently, though I haven't tried them since Vivaldi's built-in adblocking was (mostly) fixed on YouTube.

Quote from: Scott5114 on October 15, 2024, 09:37:11 PM
Quote from: vdeane on October 15, 2024, 12:57:43 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 15, 2024, 10:22:49 AM
Quote from: Rothman on October 14, 2024, 09:09:58 PMGah.  I really like uBlock.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Unfortunately Firefox has missing features compared to Chrome and its derivatives.  No reading list, for instance (Pocket fills a very different niche).  And customizing the start page is a pain in the rear (and reverted after I tried).  And middle clicking the links on the start page jumps to the new tab instead of opening it in the background (what if I want to open more than one?).  And it manages to use more resources than Chrome when streaming video, resulting in my computer locking up when I tried.

My experiment with switching to Firefox over this issue didn't even last a day before I gave up and went back to Vivaldi (which does have a built-in adblocker, but it's not nearly as good as UBO; even UBOL is probably better).

I would guess "no adblock allowed" is a much bigger deal-breaker to most people than any of these very minor issues. (Other than the streaming video one which I haven't ever had a problem with, even when I was using my 10-year-old computer. Perhaps your graphics drivers are fucked?)

If the start page is really that much of an issue, you can always just put together an HTML page of whatever it is you want on it, saved to your home directory, and set that as the page that opens whenever you open a new tab. (My start page is basically blank since whenever I am opening a new tab it's because I already have a place in mind I want to go in it, so any sort of bell or whistle on the start page only appears for a few seconds anyway.)
The proprietary Nvidia drivers should be fine, but not really sure how to make sure.  All I know is that it didn't run well and my laptop would be even worse (though this test was done under Linux Mint 21, Linux Mint 22 is noticeably heavier and my laptop is always bogged down now; who knew when I got either that simple web browsing would one day require 8-16 GB of RAM?).

The start screen is because I always follow the same path on routine browsing, across ~4 tabs:
-Gmail (always open)
-YouTube Subscriptions (refresh at evening, then check my union email once that's done or I watch all new videos I'm interested in, whichever is last)
-Albany/Rochester Weather (Weather Underground)->morning Facebook check
-Inoreader->Google News->AA Roads->Travel Mapping Forum->evening Facebook check

All other browsing (except things like online banking) is done via incognito tabs, an old habit from when I was curating Chrome's "most visited" list on the new tab page that I haven't managed to break even though it's obsolete.

The reading list, meanwhile, is indispensable when reading fanfiction or online serials.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

Scott5114

Quote from: vdeane on October 16, 2024, 01:01:11 PMThe start screen is because I always follow the same path on routine browsing, across ~4 tabs:

I handle this by using Firefox's "pinned tabs" feature to keep my routinely-checked tabs always open and at the front of the tab list. I also use an extension that kicks tabs out of memory if they haven't been used for 5 minutes. (This means that any time I visit one of my pinned tabs, it refreshes.) So my first six tabs, for example, are my four email accounts, the forum, and my AARoads Wiki watchlist.

I have no concept of a "reading list" feature, so I can't speak to how I'd solve that particular problem. For things like webcomics which only get updated periodically, I just...uh, pin the tabs for those and try to remember to check them every so often.

Doing everything in incognito tabs is wild. Couldn't be me—I've had to go on a deep dive into browser history to find a page I forgot the URL to too many times.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

vdeane

Quote from: Scott5114 on October 17, 2024, 12:16:12 AMI also use an extension that kicks tabs out of memory if they haven't been used for 5 minutes. (This means that any time I visit one of my pinned tabs, it refreshes.) So my first six tabs, for example, are my four email accounts, the forum, and my AARoads Wiki watchlist.
Interesting how different people browser differently.  I had to install an extension to disable Chromium's built-in tab discard/refresh feature because I was tired of page content changing/resetting (thereby preventing me from continuing from wherever I was before I switched away) whenever I'd return to a tab.  Although the fact that this feature was annoying the crap out of me should have probably been my first clue that web browsing takes a lot more RAM than it used to.  Instead I thought the browser was just being way too aggressive with discarding RAM.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

ZLoth

Sigh... the war against annoying ads continues. I love how they are including the obligatory "guilt trip" message "Continue without supporting", but one site which I was visiting from my mobile browser, when you click on "Continue without supporting", just freezes your browser window preventing you from scrolling. That left me with a choice... either disable the AdGuard home for about a minute to read the article, or take the option of "Never recommend articles from the site". I chose the "Never recommend articles".
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

Scott5114

Quote from: vdeane on October 17, 2024, 09:29:04 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 17, 2024, 12:16:12 AMI also use an extension that kicks tabs out of memory if they haven't been used for 5 minutes. (This means that any time I visit one of my pinned tabs, it refreshes.) So my first six tabs, for example, are my four email accounts, the forum, and my AARoads Wiki watchlist.
Interesting how different people browser differently.  I had to install an extension to disable Chromium's built-in tab discard/refresh feature because I was tired of page content changing/resetting (thereby preventing me from continuing from wherever I was before I switched away) whenever I'd return to a tab.  Although the fact that this feature was annoying the crap out of me should have probably been my first clue that web browsing takes a lot more RAM than it used to.  Instead I thought the browser was just being way too aggressive with discarding RAM.

This particular extension won't discard a tab if anything has been entered into a form on the page, which would be my main concern. Any other site where a refresh would cause problems, I can add into a "never discard tabs from this site" list.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

ZLoth

From The Register:

That hardware will be more reliable if you stop stabbing it all day
Knives and lasers don't mix ... until they do

FULL ARTICLE HERE
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

1995hoo

Does anyone know why the iCloud control panel would not allow one to log in on a Windows 10 PC? This morning, for whatever reason, the iCloud control panel opened when I booted my PC. It hasn't done that in ages, at least a year or two. I noted that the new iOS password manager can apparently now sync to a PC using iCloud, so I clicked to enabled that and it told me to sign in. No big deal, I entered my password and then the six-digit code it sent to my phone....and then it became a problem because it dumped me right back to the password screen. Same thing happened multiple times. I checked the password and it's correct. Anyone know what might be causing this? I don't want to sign out of iCloud on my PC because it says it will remove the iCloud photo stream from the device if I do that.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.



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