[X] My Assistant

My computer is making an annoying sound, remind me of the DOS era when it was reading from a floppy disk.
But I have neither a floppy drive, nor cd/dvd/whatever drive, so it's stupid.
Maybe it would have been better if my fans were noisier, maybe they would have covered that disturbing noise (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

My computer is making an annoying sound, remind me of the DOS era when it was reading from a floppy disk.
But I have neither a floppy drive, nor cd/dvd/whatever drive, so it's stupid.
Maybe it would have been better if my fans were noisier, maybe they would have covered that disturbing noise (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

You might have a sleeve bearing fan going bad, actually.
My PSU had one and it'd make this noise. Replaced it with a ball bearing one.

Sleeve bearing fans don't really work too well in horizontal mounting configurations, but that didn't stop the company that made my PSU because sleeve fans are cheap and quiet when they work. Now with my ball bearing fan I just run a cable out to my motherboard and have it constantly run at maximum speed. Mine's a 120mm, btw.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 4 2021, 19:30

I had a noisy fan if it started up. I'd hit it and then it would run quietly. I stopped hitting it after I started worrying hitting the fan transmitted a physical shock to the hard drives and could make the heads touch the platter. So I replaced the fan.

-=-=-=-

On another matter, a circuit breaker in the house stopped working. The circuit breaker is open, and the switch handle on it is completely loose. Debating about replacing it myself or hiring an electrician to replace the breaker. I can then buy the breakers from amazon or the local hardware store for a higher price. While looking on youtube for "how to do it videos on circuit breaker replacement", I found some disturbing videos about chinese-made circuit breakers sold on amazon.

The chinese-made circuit breakers look like they're all made in the same factory, but are sold under many different brand names at Amazon. These circuit breakers all have the same body design and model number "DZ47-63". If you search Amazon for "DZ47-63" you can find re-branded versions of the same looking breaker shown in this youtube video. All amazon versions of this breaker come with high "user reviews".

I'd hit it and then it would run quietly.

That's a sleeve bearing fan, probably mounted horizontally.
Exactly the same symptoms the one in my PSU had.

What do people use to check or verify that FLAC lossless audio files are actually created from the source datafiles instead of being upscaled? At some torrent sites such as AB, people had uploaded fake lossless files that were upscaled from 320K audio files. Do you use this tool?
[losslessaudiochecker.com] https://losslessaudiochecker.com/

The above tool was used to check a recent FLAC torrent at NYAA and had the following results:
[imghost.org] https://imghost.org/image/screenshot-24.b6VT

Almost afraid to check the other FLAC at NYAA or the FLACs already downloaded. Is ignorance bliss?

The 580 is a card I bought new when I built the PC, and also my biggest error- shoulda bought my current card.
eBay seller claims Vega 64 is open box unused from an RMA exchange, and that seems to line up but Iunno..

What failure mode do GFX cards generaly have? Just get glitchy, make the sytem crash, or fail POST on a reboot?


Unrelated: might buy a presto hot dogger. Doesnt't look like anybody has made similar cookers since the 80s tho.

What failure mode do GFX cards generaly have? Just get glitchy, make the sytem crash, or fail POST on a reboot?

I think the last video card I had that actually died was an AGP FX 5 series card, idr which. Before it completely died it was showing checkerboard and other artifacts, having driver crashes and pulling the whole system down with BSODs, starting from once in a while to a daily occurrence until it finally just stopped displaying video. Idr if the system stopped posting or not, pretty sure I finally pulled it before checking.

Unrelated: might buy a presto hot dogger. Doesnt't look like anybody has made similar cookers since the 80s tho.

I'm content with only enjoying the hot dogger vicariously through Big Clive personally.

What do people use to check or verify that FLAC lossless audio files are actually created from the source datafiles instead of being upscaled?

anything that gives you a nice spectrogram would do(Spek comes to mind), it'd show how your audio was clipped/compressed clearly, [interviewfor.red] more info on how things should look
(IMG:[www.walterdevos.be] https://www.walterdevos.be/wp-content/uploads/mp37.jpg)

Almost afraid to check the other FLAC at NYAA or the FLACs already downloaded. Is ignorance bliss?

definitely, personally I just pretend and listen to internet radio ogg streams half the time.

What failure mode do GFX cards generaly have? Just get glitchy, make the sytem crash, or fail POST on a reboot?

graphical glitches, screen freezes, no image at all, in the case of nvidia on linux: crashes all the time unless on proprietary driver which handles faulty hardware ever so slightly better

in other personal thoughts, I once again remembered this openwrt notice

and my own router specs


got me thinking about picking up something better after all these years(current router was pretty much the first cheap gigabit model that was out here). to my surprise the very nice ones I always looked up to like a linksys wrt1900 can be had for 40~60 bux second hand these days. very tempted but not sure if anything new and shiny(though with openwrt support) would be a better purchase at this time, I dont need a lot and anything will be an upgrade at this point

I don't think what I was told here is right, but I have no way to properly convey what kind of sound I'm talking about, so there's nothing to be done about that.

Unrelated: I just rebooted my computer because there were a few suspicious behaviors from my computer, and I finally ran into something more serious: refresh rate stuck at 85Hz when it should go up to, and be set at, 144Hz.
Fixed it, and didn't break everything so far (despite some major mistake I did during my last continuous run)

got me thinking about picking up something better after all these years(current router was pretty much the first cheap gigabit model that was out here). to my surprise the very nice ones I always looked up to like a linksys wrt1900 can be had for 40~60 bux second hand these days. very tempted but not sure if anything new and shiny(though with openwrt support) would be a better purchase at this time, I dont need a lot and anything will be an upgrade at this point

I have a WRT1900AC(s); it's pretty nice (and a huge improvement from my previous router, which was a 16MB RAM/4MB flash WRT54G). If you can get one for ~$60 I definitely recommend. if you get the 1900AC (non-S), it will have an internal fan so just be aware of that. The non-S also has its WLAN radios on mini-PCIe slots, so you could theoretically upgrade them if you so desire; if I were to pay for one I'd probably get a non-S model.

Realisticly, I prefer my dawgs boiled anyways. It's just conceptually neat. I think one of the old electronics books I have even has plans for a similar cooker. The micr9wave becoming common killed it, me thinks.

a few suspicious behaviors from my computer

Haven't had my computer misbehave suspiciously since I switched years ago

I hate it when manufacturers use the D-shaped potentiometer shafts and then make custom caps with non-standard orientations for the indicators. My old pair of desktop speakers needed a new cap so I had to drill a wider hole (so a wider replacement one could fit; I can't find one as narrow as OE and ended up pulling a cap off a Mackie mixer board I am not currently using) and then the indicator is in exactly the opposite spot of where it should be so I have to re-learn it.

If I replace the potentiometer to sidestep the problem, I'm going to have to find a 50Kohm pot with a D-shaped post and a nonstandard starting orientation (180° away from normal).

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 6 2021, 07:32

Hmm, on that torrent, my U/D ratio is already at 2 despite not having gotten 25% of it yet. I hope the others will repay that eventually, for the system to work.

Another tech thought: I wonder if I should let my mouse fall on the ground, as the "wheel click" once again is opening 2 tabs at the same time (after that having gotten fixed in the past by itself).

steam trolling Origin by giving out free keys with EA play.




I think the infinite key exploit has been patched but pretty funny.

steam trolling Origin by giving out free keys with EA play.

I think the infinite key exploit has been patched but pretty funny.

Not watching the video, but if you have a textual explanation i'm interested; that does seem funny.

Another tech thought: I wonder if I should let my mouse fall on the ground, as the "wheel click" once again is opening 2 tabs at the same time (after that having gotten fixed in the past by itself).

Take the mouse apart and replace the button. The buttons are usually pretty common types; the most annoying part is desoldering them.

I've replaced buttons in loads of faulty mouses over the years; usually I just pull switches from other cheap ones. If you want nice switches, Omron has (in the past at least) made some nice ones. I've also seen a few mouses that used the D2F Omron switches for left/right click but made the middle button one of those simple box tact switches. Those things are available pretty much everywhere, but Panasonic makes a neat alternative (EVQP0E07K).

If it's a logitech mouse, those are apparently renowned for double-clicking nowadays.

Omron D2F series:
[www.digikey.com] https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highligh...unsealed-switch
Specifically you probably want:
[www.digikey.com] The basic switch (with 75Gf actuation, gold contacts) - D2F-01F
or:
[www.digikey.com] The same switch but with the fat solder tabs - D2F-01F-D3
If you need the full-force version, remove the second 'F' from the part numbers above and you have your "higher force" part numbers.
The D2F-01F-T might also work (and may be what your mouse currently uses), but if you have a -T switch currently then the one without a suffix (D2F-01F) should also fit fine.
From [omronfs.omron.com] the datasheet:

My impression is that most mouses use the lightweight switch type; also you'll probably want one of the ones I highlighted in green.
Depending on what your mouse already has, you want the ones with either no suffix or the -T suffix (for the smaller pin type) or the -D3 suffix (for the fat blade type pins).

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 6 2021, 22:52

I have a WRT1900AC(s); it's pretty nice (and a huge improvement from my previous router, which was a 16MB RAM/4MB flash WRT54G). If you can get one for ~$60 I definitely recommend. if you get the 1900AC (non-S), it will have an internal fan so just be aware of that. The non-S also has its WLAN radios on mini-PCIe slots, so you could theoretically upgrade them if you so desire; if I were to pay for one I'd probably get a non-S model.

ah nice, was already a bit confused about the ACS model looking exactly the same as the AC v2 specs wise(besides the cpu clock). I'll start throwing around some bids in that case.

Another tech thought: I wonder if I should let my mouse fall on the ground, as the "wheel click" once again is opening 2 tabs at the same time (after that having gotten fixed in the past by itself).

as a bit of an addendum to the suggestion to replace the omron switch, people have also told me about the quality of the kailh(manufacturer of cheap keyboard switches and other oddities) replacements for those microswitches. which can be found on the usual china sites searching "kailh mice switch" or "kailh micro switch"
(IMG:[ae01.alicdn.com] https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/H289c021169c842d6b78e2d21740a8d26F.jpg)

ah nice, was already a bit confused about the ACS model looking exactly the same as the AC v2 specs wise(besides the cpu clock). I'll start throwing around some bids in that case.

Yeah, I have an ACS but honestly I'd love an AC (got the ACS as a gift when I asked for an AC).
Oh, btw, the v2 does NOT have the slots or fan. Only v1 has slots and fan. I forgot there was a v2. v2 is almost exactly the same as the ACS. I think one of the differences is that the radio gain is user-changeable on the ACv2 but not ACS (although it could also be that that's the difference between ACS v1 and ACS v2). If you'd asked me in October I'd have remembered for sure.

as a bit of an addendum to the suggestion to replace the omron switch, people have also told me about the quality of the kailh(manufacturer of cheap keyboard switches and other oddities) replacements for those microswitches. which can be found on the usual china sites searching "kailh mice switch" or "kailh micro switch"

I was given a keyboard with kailh MX blue clone switches that has several keys that don't click at all. I also can't take the switches apart without first removing them from the baseplate and desoldering (which is a problem with pretty much all Cherry and Cherry clone switches). That's why I didn't even consider mentioning them (although the click of blues is pretty much aesthetic; blues and browns are essentially still just linear switches with a secondary feedback mechanism when compared with Alps switches or buckling springs).

Also they're apparently more worried about appearance of their switches and boutique sales, which is sort of a red flag for me when it comes to hardware I want to depend on. Kind of like meme keyboard switches (mostly yet more MX clones, like "zealios" which have gold plated springs for some reason despite the springs not actually being involved in the electrical contact). In the short term they probably feel nice, but I worry they are probably targeted at people with more money than sense, like Zealios (cannot confirm that though).
Also that pic you posted doesn't say anything about how many G's of force they can withstand (mechanical shock is apparently what killed his old mouse button).

I'm not trying to discredit you or anything; just stating that I have reservations about stuff I haven't actually tried, especially given that I have Omron switches that are over 20 years old that still work fine.

I guess this might just be FUD, though; if I could find them cheap enough from somewhere I could trust I'd probably go for it (but AliExpress stuff I buy is almost always defective so I have trust issues with them).

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 7 2021, 01:00

Yeah, I have an ACS but honestly I'd love an AC (got the ACS as a gift when I asked for an AC).
Oh, btw, the v2 does NOT have the slots or fan. Only v1 has slots and fan. I forgot there was a v2. v2 is almost exactly the same as the ACS. I think one of the differences is that the radio gain is user-changeable on the ACv2 but not ACS (although it could also be that that's the difference between ACS v1 and ACS v2). If you'd asked me in October I'd have remembered for sure.

ah that explains people listing 'AC v2' and the box saying ACS, basically the same thing

Also that pic you posted doesn't say anything about how many G's of force they can withstand (mechanical shock is apparently what killed his old mouse button).

I'm not trying to discredit you or anything; just stating that I have reservations about stuff I haven't actually tried, especially given that I have Omron switches that are over 20 years old that still work fine.

I guess this might just be FUD, though; if I could find them cheap enough from somewhere I could trust I'd probably go for it (but AliExpress stuff I buy is almost always defective so I have trust issues with them).

never really had an issue with parts from aliexpress(300+ orders in) so I'm slightly biased towards that not mattering. and I'm mostly going off what people told me which is probably not the best practice I do admit, but none of my microswitches died yet, and someone told me it was 'feeling a million times better than before' so I was going to try out the kailh switches because of that if any of mine ever died. the pic is just some utter nonsense from a china listing, for what its worth I asked the guy that told me about those switches and they said it was still going strong but I imagine theres little data on long term still.


the tech I really need as far as technology goes is a 2fa type thing that verifies blood alcohol content and disallows me to post anything intoxicated

never really had an issue with parts from aliexpress(300+ orders in) so I'm slightly biased towards that not mattering.

My only aliexpress orders were a DOA laptop battery and two PS1 disc drives (one worked erratically, I dropped the other one six inches and it snapped in half before I could try to install it). So I might be unlucky.

I'm mostly going off what people told me which is probably not the best practice I do admit, but none of my microswitches died yet, and someone told me it was 'feeling a million times better than before' so I was going to try out the kailh switches because of that if any of mine ever died. the pic is just some utter nonsense from a china listing, for what its worth I asked the guy that told me about those switches and they said it was still going strong but I imagine theres little data on long term still.
the tech I really need as far as technology goes is a 2fa type thing that verifies blood alcohol content and disallows me to post anything intoxicated

Haha.
And I mostly just get suspicious of things like switches that look "pretty" when they're not really meant to be seen. To me that's just kind of a red flag, sort of like plastic engine covers.

I don't like adding new servers to my bouncer (ZNC). It's always a little complicated feeling. But once it's done it's really nice. Just added Rizon to it and I'm idling in the #e-hentai channel now. Maybe will be indefinitely from now on.

Since the old scanlation group I was in is pretty much dead I was able to just change my handle to this one and not feel like I'm abandoning anyone.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 7 2021, 10:50