Ahh that was the software I was looking for earlier in the year.... but I can't remember why now...
I also wrote a script in it years ago to send some (windows key)+(character) keystrokes, since my Model M's don't have an equivalent key on them. Basically it would trigger a windows key press if I held ctrl and alt and pressed an alphabetical key. I threw it in the Windows start menu 'startup' directory.
It's a generally useful tool. Still struggling to figure out exactly how to implement something that hides the mouse cursor when it's inactive for a few seconds. I've managed to make it hide on a hotkey but I'd really like to have it work like 'unclutter' in Unix/X.
One of my batteries got alarmingly hot while charging in my laptop, though; unsurprising since they sat for quite a while. It's holding its charge so far but I'm afraid to recharge it now because it was getting worryingly warm - the kind of warmth that makes me concerned about thermal runaway.
This laptop has two battery packs; one in the optical bay slot and one in the usual battery slot. the main battery is the one that was scaring me. Both are about 12 years old now, so they've now outlived all the batteries from my newer Latitude D630's. Those haven't had batteries in years now.
This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Dec 3 2020, 02:57
Ugh, moving a 20 GiB ext4 partition on my laptop has an ETA of around an hour and twenty minutes. I was hoping it'd be quicker just because of how tiny the partition is, but I guess it's an old 40GB PATA laptop drive, too, so whatever. I shouldn't get my hopes too high. Probably 5400RPM as well. Then I'll have to remember to fix GRUB's address in the MBR post-move and embiggen my WinXP partition. After this is done they're both going to have a roughly equal amount of space (win32 will still be slightly smaller).
I remembered that moving partitions is ridiculously slow, but I guess I forgot just how ridiculously slow.
QUOTE(EsotericSatire @ Dec 3 2020, 16:19)
That's not good for old batteries. Some really old laptop batteries also had weird ways to calibrate them.
I know it's not good, that's why I mentioned how long they'd sat.
They seem to be working fine now, although capacity is quite diminished on the modular bay battery (it's a LiPo pack). The one that got hot was the Li-Ion one. It just might be calibrated now because it seems to be charging alright today.
This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Dec 4 2020, 04:11
This laptop has two battery packs; one in the optical bay slot and one in the usual battery slot. the main battery is the one that was scaring me. Both are about 12 years old now, so they've now outlived all the batteries from my newer Latitude D630's.
Some Dell Latitudes used to catch on fire. Some of those models might be listed at: https: www DOT schmidtlaw DOT com/dell-laptop-fire-lawsuit
I read that as a 20 exabytes the first time and I was like 'damn that is a lot of pron'.
Heh. I wish I had the money for that kind of storage.
QUOTE(Anime Janai @ Dec 4 2020, 05:44)
Some Dell Latitudes used to catch on fire. Some of those models might be listed at: https: www DOT schmidtlaw DOT com/dell-laptop-fire-lawsuit
I was already aware of that; I have had these laptops for at least ten years now. I remember the recalls. This battery is from two years after the recall period, though, according to its manufacture date.
Currently I'm trying to build a newer version of OpenSSL for the old version of Cygwin on this thing. I'm also compiling XChat (yes, that's not hexchat; it's XChat. I have a lot of patches on it) so I can use it, too.
I also just wrote a tiny WinAPI program that can spawn console applications without making a windows console pop up. Mainly useful for Cygwin X11 software so I can have shortcuts for those programs in the start menu. I use mate-terminal as a terminal emulator, for instance, because it has tabs, and this means that a useless windows console doesn't spawn simultaneously when I launch it.
This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Dec 5 2020, 03:00
Fixed a cracked lid/hinge on one of my old laptops two or three days ago, posting now since the glue's been holding. Got the thick plastic from a Gotek floppy drive emulator's housing, since I removed said housing when I put it in my Amiga.
This is my only laptop with both a built-in parallel port and USB ports, so it's quite handy to have around.
This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Dec 7 2020, 14:46
Used to think my wireless "gaming" mouse is the heaviest thing in my hand. Just bought a Bluetooth mouse and although it's smaller than the USB mouse it replaces, it's way heavier than the wireless mouse due to requiring 2 AA batteries.
Used to think my wireless "gaming" mouse is the heaviest thing in my hand. Just bought a Bluetooth mouse and although it's smaller than the USB mouse it replaces, it's way heavier than the wireless mouse due to requiring 2 AA batteries.
If you don't like the weight, put zinc-carbon AA's in it. You'll not get as long of use out of it that way though.
I don't mind the weight; while I use a wired USB mouse usually I also have a rechargeable one (the same one Wayward Vagabond recently bought on my recommendation) and that uses AA's as well. I have some eneloops in mine and it's kind of heavy.
My mouse, despite being wired, got a slot specially to add a weight in it (and I did). I wonder what the inventors of the mouse would think of that unexpected evolution of their product?
What is the last thing you thought?, Tech Edition
Dec 2 2020, 22:55
