[X] My Assistant

How is that bizarre?

Because he doesn't know better

Been trying to order power bank online but order got rejected and canceled. In order to ship to my location, the courier will have to use air freight. Can power banks and AA batteries "explode" or catch fire mid-flight spontaneously?

*FOLLOWUP*
This is a followup comment to the prior comments I made to your original message above. If you wish to re-read those comments, you'll have to go back to your original comment and scroll down.

Now, you can use the 12 volt battery jumper packs as a source of power because many brands have the USB and even usb-C connectors for such a purpose. Unlike pure power banks which have just enough battery in them to give you close to 5 volts, the battery jumper packs will use DC-to-DC pulses to provide you with 5 volts from the 12 volt source. The pulses are averaged out to be 5 volts but can be noisy for devices that don't filter their DC input.

Costco sells that Type S Li-ion Battery Jumper pack which has USB connectors on it so that you can also use it as a power bank for your phone or other devices. In a February 2021 "WHIMSICALLY SAVAGE" review, someone opened up the case to show what kind of battery is inside. The label on the polymer battery says 29.6 Wh , so I don't know if that is referring to watt hours or not. Let's assume so because anything less really can't start the car nicely if you remember how small that harbor freight jumper pack was which continually failed Project Farm's testing.

This review video does show the inside circuit boards close up, so in that respect, I like the video. But this guy is SAVAGE with how he treats the gear. It would be difficult to return to Costco if it was DOA which you will notice in his deboxing method.

How is that bizarre?

Because consumers typically expect the high-priced lithium ion batteries to last longer than the lower-priced NiMH cells. Now, you and I know that a NiMH cell with actual higher capacity than the chinese Li-ion cell will last longer. So my comment was teasing to those who expect newer tech to automatically be better.

Because consumers typically expect the high-priced lithium ion batteries to last longer than the lower-priced NiMH cells. Now, you and I know that a NiMH cell with actual higher capacity than the chinese Li-ion cell will last longer. So my comment was teasing to those who expect newer tech to automatically be better.

Ah. Had you put quotation marks, I would've known your intention.

My GPU heat was dancing around 60°C for a while, the exact point that start the fans, despite being in idle.
Tried several things without understanding this phenomenon.
Then a bit earlier, tried to look around windows graphical parameters, and seeing that it was describing non-rounded refresh rates (something like 143.xxx for my 144Hz), I got the idea to decrease refresh rate, seemed to give some cooling, then I decided to put back normal refresh rate, and cooling continued, and now it's cooler (about 52°C), stable (instead of going up and down), and the fans are silent.
But windows parameters are still those weird ones, so I guess it was unrelated (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

edit: adding a pic to show how weird (and definitely wrong) it was


This post has been edited by uareader: Feb 10 2021, 21:58

The li-ion ones would likely be better for LED lights and other loads that are quite voltage sensitive.

Delay relative to video: -7ms for Opus, compared to -22 or 22ms for AAC. Impressive.

Not watching the video, but if you have a textual explanation i'm interested; that does seem funny.Take the mouse apart and replace the button. The buttons are usually pretty common types; the most annoying part is desoldering them.

Steam and EA finally came to an agreement, Origin and Steam do not talk to each other, but if you have game on steam you can also activate it on Origin. EA's plan of course was to shift more people over to their Origin platform. They even have a EA Play subscription where you get a bunch of Origin games on steam.

The catch is that people found that they could buy the EA origin subscription, activate on Origin, then cancel the subscription and rinse and repeat.

You can only get a game once on origin... but the keys aren't account bound, you can give them to other people or sell the keys.

So people apparently were generating thousands of keys and selling them for a few dollars each.

Just played & beat Portal for the first time.

Ending was sort of wrecked because of some retarded library that mismanaged linux audio sample rates (tried to soft-resample "still alive," which is internally a 48KHz mp3, down to 44.1KHz and then play the resulting bitstream on a sound card that was configured to play at 48KHz… so it ran fast. Telling my sound card to run at 44.1KHz fixed the problem, but I almost always want 48KHz…)

Apart from that, a fine game. Still feels ironic that that'd be the problem, after the game was over.

I did like that the credits used an amber screen. Green screens are so overused when representing old terminals, and amber ones look much nicer and warmer. My RS232 terminal uses amber (was sold with a green tube and I swapped it for an amber one).

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 12 2021, 11:52

Just played & beat Portal for the first time.

Ending was sort of wrecked because of some retarded library that mismanaged linux audio sample rates (tried to soft-resample "still alive," which is internally a 48KHz mp3, down to 44.1KHz and then play the resulting bitstream on a sound card that was configured to play at 48KHz… so it ran fast. Telling my sound card to run at 44.1KHz fixed the problem, but I almost always want 48KHz…)

Apart from that, a fine game. Still feels ironic that that'd be the problem, after the game was over.

I did like that the credits used an amber screen. Green screens are so overused when representing old terminals, and amber ones look much nicer and warmer. My RS232 terminal uses amber (was sold with a green tube and I swapped it for an amber one).

I was thinking of replaying Portal 1 and 2. I really enjoyed those games.


I am so happy that I have a DAC that automatically adjusted to the audio, though haven't had that specific issue in ages. I think even my Asus Xonar Essence Stx was okay once you got the updated third party drivers.

Dang, looked up the prices and they are expensive to buy now.

I was thinking of replaying Portal 1 and 2. I really enjoyed those games.
I am so happy that I have a DAC that automatically adjusted to the audio, though haven't had that specific issue in ages. I think even my Asus Xonar Essence Stx was okay once you got the updated third party drivers.

Dang, looked up the prices and they are expensive to buy now.

I could probably get one at sweetwater or something, which isn't that far from me physically. But I am doing fine for now. I have four different sound cards to choose from and none of them are utter trash (I still like my Audigy despite its occasional problems and not being quite as high-end as a modern external DAC thing; apart from Portal and Audacity everything plays well with it and I can force the resampling to be done in software at the mixing stage to avoid the terrible built-in resampler of the emu10k2 chip. For Audacity I can just use the Windows version in Wine, even though I have no idea why the native version has issues still).

My Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS crackles incessantly when I use it for Valve games (might just be a buffer size/period size issue); just because I couldn't be bothered to fix that I ended up just using my motherboard's integrated audio instead. Actually, the SB Audigy2 did NOT have the "too fast" issue, though.

On integrated audio I "solved" it by adding

CODE

defaults.pcm.dmix.rate 44100

to /etc/asound.conf, since I use dmix and no pulseaudio. But I'd really rather know how to make Source engine just use 48KHz to begin with, since it'd be better to not resample. I extracted the files from the game to confirm (and yes they are 48KHz).

Apparently Source uses the Miles sound engine, but I have no idea how I can persuade it to do what I want.

Despite most of the story (including Portal 2's) being spoiled for me the game was still immensely enjoyable otherwise. The offbeat dark humor reminded me slightly of that scene in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series with the ship that was awaiting takeoff with its passengers in suspended animation while awaiting a delivery of lemon-scented paper napkins even though society had collapsed around it.

NARRATOR: What we find is this: that Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox have broken into an ancient building concerning which, they have reached the following conclusion:
ZAPHOD: It’s a derelict spaceport…
NARRATOR: And within which they have discovered a large number of
FORD: …amazing old ships…
NARRATOR: Whose condition has been described by Ford Prefect in these terms:
FORD: …just rust and wreckage…
NARRATOR: And by Zaphod Beeblebrox like this:
ZAPHOD: …just like huge, broken eggshells…
NARRATOR: We find that one ship has caught their eye for this reason:
FORD: It’s covered with muck and dust, but it looks like it’s still in one piece.,,
ZAPHOD: Yeah, a- and it’s still connected to its supply lines.
NARRATOR: And we find that this provokes them into closer investigation. This is what they find:
FORD: Feels like it’s on power. Just a very slight vibration.
ZAPHOD: But it must’ve been here for centuries. Hey man, pass me those four bits of tubing.
FORD: What, these?
ZAPHOD: Yeah. I’m gonna make me a stethoscope and take a listen to this baby. There. And there. Like that.
FORD: Ya hear anything?
ZAPHOD: Hey! Yeah! Yeah I can hear… something…
FORD: What is it?
ZAPHOD:(shaky voice) Ohhhhho, Ford! I don’t believe what I just heard!
FORD:Here, let me listen!
ZAPHOD: Okay. But you better keep your head screwed on kid! You can hear?
FORD: Yeah… It’s a voice!
ZAPHOD: But can you hear what it’s saying man?! Can you get your mind behind what it’s saying?!
FORD: Shh-shh. I’m trying.
P.A. VOICE: Trans-Stellar Space Lines would like to apologise to passengers for the continuing delay for the departure of this flight.
FORD: Hey, weird.
P.A. VOICE: We are currently awaiting the loading of our compliment of small, lemon-soaked paper napkins for your comfort, refreshment, and hygiene during the flight, which will be of two hours duration. Meanwhile we thank you for your patience. The cabin crew will shortly be serving coffee and biscuits… again.
FORD: Zaphod! How long has this ship been standing here?
ZAPHOD: Man, there’s a departure board right behind us and I’ve been looking at the flight schedules. Man this ship is late, man this ship is very, very late! Man this ship is over nine-hundred years late.
FORD: Zaphod, we’ve got to get in there.
ZAPHOD: But man, can you cope with what we might find?
FORD: I dunno know. We’ve got to get in there.
ZAPHOD: We gotta get in there. What we find, we find.
---
FORD: Passengers!
ZAPHOD: Yeah.
FORD: But alive!
ZAPHOD: Sleeping.
FORD: For all these years?
ZAPHOD: Suspended animation.
FORD: And the voice we heard?
ZAPHOD: Android stewardess! Look, here she comes now.
STEWARDESS: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for bearing with us during this slight delay. We will be taking off as soon as we possibly can. If you would like to wake up now, I will serve you coffee and biscuits. Wake up now.
[A bell sounds]
ZAPHOD: Run man!!
PASSENGERS: (screaming) I demand…I refuse… What kind of ship… When… Slight delay... Where is it... What do you mean…!
[More shouting and alarmed protesting]
[Running footsteps]
ZAPHOD: [Panting] Uh. Hey, what gives man? What gives, what gives, what gives? What gives?
FORD: I mean they woke up! They-they all woke up! I was- I- I’ve never- I wa -
AUTOPILOT: Passengers are not allowed on the flight deck. Please return to your seats and wait for the ship to take off. Coffee and biscuits are being served. This is your Autopilot speaking. Please return to your seats.
ZAPHOD: Go back in there?
FORD: We’re not passengers.
AUTOPILOT: Please return to your seats.
ZAPHOD: No, we’re not passengers.
AUTOPILOT: Please return to your seats.
ZAPHOD: We’re not… Hello? Can you hear me?
FORD: What’s happening on this hell ship?
AUTOPILOT: There has been a delay. The passengers are kept in temporary suspended animation for their comfort and convenience. Coffee and biscuits are served every ten years, after which passengers are returned to suspended animation for their comfort and convenience. Departure will take place when flight stores are complete. We apologise for the delay.
FORD: Delay? Have you seen the world outside this ship? It’s a wasteland. A desert. Civilisation’s been and gone. It’s over. There are no lemon-soaked paper napkins on the way from anywhere.
AUTOPILOT: The statistical likelihood is that other civilisations will arise. There will one day be lemon-soaked paper napkins. ‘Till then, there will be a short delay. Please return to your seats.
FORD: We are not passengers.
AUTOPILOT: Please return to your seats! Return to your seats!
FORD: C’mon, let’s…
AUTOPILOT: Return to your seats!
FORD: ...get out of here! This way!
AUTOPILOT: Return to your seats!
ZAPHOD: No this way.
FORD: Why?
ZAPHOD: First Class! Come on!
AUTOPILOT: Return to your seats!
[More running]
AUTOPILOT: Return to your seats! Return to your seats! Return to your seats! Return, Return, Return to your seats! Return to your seats! RETURN, RETURN TO YOUR SEATS! RETURN TO YOUR SEATS!

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 12 2021, 19:12

Finally found the receipt. My wireless mouse & keyboard were bought back in 2012. I've been using the same thing for almost 10 years.

Finally found the receipt. My wireless mouse & keyboard were bought back in 2012. I've been using the same thing for almost 10 years.

That's about how I am. My keyboard's older but I did not own it until around 10 years ago.
My laptop turns 11 this year.

I had the same keyboard and mouse for about a decade but spilled tea on it and it died so I bought a new one a month or so ago.

I had the same keyboard and mouse for about a decade but spilled tea on it and it died so I bought a new one a month or so ago.

I've yet to actually perma-kill a keyboard with liquids. though it's really, really annoying when a Model M gets wet because the membranes are held against the steel backplate using plastic rivets.

Coco Yam was back online overnight, but when I woke up the failure light was lit on the raid card and the system fans were spooled up. I did a hard shudown on it, but didn't have time to look further into what's wrong. Blah.
Best theory I have without having checked it is no hardware failure or overheat, just a software failure- windows 10 forced an update and reboot, and I caught it during the reboot.

The cabling turned out way neater this time than it was before. Split the CPU fan's pins between two conectors, so it gets juice from the AIO pump header insead. Chassis fans have likewise to draw from a fan connector instead of a bulky and temperamental molex. Custom made the front panel sata power cable, and the molex + 2x fan power cable for the serial card and chassis fans. Took the time to shake things out into tidier bundles and see which way the cables wanted to lay. It could be better, but I reached diminishing returns.
My dumb PSU bracket made from a corsair 200R corpse works fine, but is kind of ugly and I'd like to make something better.
I think I like the SSDs up front better than in front of the power supply- less hard to get the caddy out, though the cables are trickier to plug it.

Pictures inbound when I have wifi I can do NSFW on.

Ahh the pleasure of defragmenting a disk with a GUI and the little squares moving around and coloring themselves as the fragmentation percentage decrease.
How long will we still be able to enjoy this?

Ahh the pleasure of defragmenting a disk with a GUI and the little squares moving around and coloring themselves as the fragmentation percentage decrease.
How long will we still be able to enjoy this?

Until you finally stop using an operating system/filesystem with massive fragmentation problems or switch to SSD's which have far less fragmentation penalty.

Thought: If a program requires windows 10, then I don't require that program.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 16 2021, 03:45

Wondering why one of my new VMs decided to slow to a crawl while the others are still snappy only to realize the host shoved it into swap overnight. It's always the simple things you overlook, isn't it?

Until you finally stop using an operating system/filesystem with massive fragmentation problems or switch to SSD's which have far less fragmentation penalty.

Thought: If a program requires windows 10, then I don't require that program.

Was just thinking, I haven't had to defrag anything since I switched everything of any importance to Linux. SSDs coming around have just compounded it. Modern filesystems are real neato.

Wondering why one of my new VMs decided to slow to a crawl while the others are still snappy only to realize the host shoved it into swap overnight. It's always the simple things you overlook, isn't it?

Makes me wonder, how would one make a certain program avoid moving to swap without globally disabling swap?
I'm sure there's a way; I've just never bothered to look it up.
I've had issues with audacity trying to use scratch space on my HDD and slowing to a crawl, too; I fixed it by creating a ramdisk and making its "scratch space" be on it.