Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[hobbsyoyo]

I will keep that in mind. Is that a mouse or keyboard?

 

[shadowplay]

Not ignoring your suggeston here, cardgame, just hoping for a few other recommendations so I can make some comparisons.

The Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 I bought years ago is still working well (different computer). It was expensive, though. I guess it's worth the investment.

 

[Zelig]

Surface Pro is crazy expensive, and doesn't have good battery life.

It's on par with the Macbook Air in terms of both price and battery life - comparing it to a tablet with a tablet OS isn't fair. It's a MBA competitor, which loses some flexibility due to the lack of adjustable screen angle, and gains some due to the touchscreen.

I've had the same optical mouse for about 12 years.

You should probably get a new mouse.

I have never had an optical mouse fail on me ever. However, wireless mice never work satisfactorially for me. They always cut out, even without a cell phone around (with a cellphone nearby they are unusable). I sometimes even have issues with my wireless keyboard but not as bad.

I have no idea why they can't make a damn mouse and keyboard that is both wireless and doesn't suffer from random drop outs. And I'll have them within a half meter of the reciever!

I've actually never had a wireless mouse outright die, or any any real reception problems (though I've only really used current-gen MS/Logitech/Razer wireless mice) on them. I've had the button switches conk out, which happens with all my mice, but reception has never been a problem for me.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Speaking of computer mice, are there any with extra-long cables that don't cost very much? My mother's computer is set up poorly and she refuses to move it and the mouse cable keeps breaking because its so tight, then we have to get a new one.... etc...

 

[Zelig]

Just get a usb extension cable.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

OK I'll tell my mother that thank you

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Something that sort of confuses me is why people post technical details about security flaws in their software before they get to fixing it

I mean its good practice and all but wouldnt that mean the bad people would have more information on how to exploit it

This has always confused me

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I ran into a really really strange issue

I have an older program for a specific purpose I was testing it out and it errored, so trying to figure out things i rolled back the system date to around the time it was published, about 15 years back i think, and it worked. Anyways so i figured out the system date makes it glitch. It didnt affect the usage of the program from messing around in it even when i reverted the date back a little bit after launch

(The "specific purpose" was saving some old proprietary-format files on a floppy disk into something more usable)

But now is there a way to change the system time on-the-fly when I open it. Changing system dates back and forth can be annoying and also it can mess with other programs, some sites wouldn't load the security certificates.... etc. I was thinking there may be a program that injects the preset date into this program but I dont know the search terms to make this come up, i got a lot of those junky "freeware" sites that look suspicious

Anybody know what Im talking about or have any suggestions. I was thinking a batch file may work but when I tried it i had to manually revert the date back to the right time afterwards

Probably not as Im invisible here





Also, why is it "floppy disk" and "hard disk drive," but then for optical media it's "compact disc"? That confuses me. Is it trademark reasons.

 

[Zelig]

If you've saved the files, why do you need the program anymore?

I wouldn't use a program that required me to alter the my system date, if it was really something I needed to use long-term, I'd create a specific VM for it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well because theres something like 10 disks of them (all with terribly undescriptive filenames, so I cant tell which is which) and theres a lot that I can't do in one sitting
Once I get them off I'll delete the program


Actually the VM idea might work. I have an old Windows 98 CD and license key somewhere. Will it activate?

 

[CKS]

Also, why is it "floppy disk" and "hard disk drive," but then for optical media it's "compact disc"? That confuses me. Is it trademark reasons.

I've seen compact disk quite a lot, so I expect it is not a trademark reason. I think it was just to make "compact discs" look cool in print, as opposed to those old-fashioned floppy disks.

 

[Michkov]

I think it is compact disc because they where smaller than LPs which were the main audio medium when CDs came on to the market.

IIRC CDs were first designed to be even smaller but the amount of data they could hold was insufficient so they made them bigger in the end.

 

[Mise]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/compact+disk

Usage Note: When new words come into the language, they often have different forms for a period until one form wins out over the others. There are occasions when competing forms remain in use for a long time. The word disk and its descendant compound compact disk represent good examples of this phenomenon. Disk came into English in the mid-17th century and was originally spelled with a k on the model of older words such as whisk. The c-spelling arose a half century later as a learned spelling derived from the word's Latin source discus. Both disc and disk were used interchangeably into the 20th century, with people in Britain tending to use disc more often, and Americans preferring disk. The spellings also began to be sorted out by function. Late in the 19th century, for reasons that are not clear, people used disc to refer to the new method of making phonograph recordings on a flat plate (as opposed to Edison's cylindrical drum). In any case, the c-spelling became conventional for this sense, which is why we listen to disc jockeys and not disk jockeys. In the 1940s, however, when American computer scientists needed a term to refer to their flat storage devices, they chose the spelling disk, and this became conventionalized in such compounds as hard disk and floppy disk. When the new storage technology of the compact disk arose in the 1970s, both c- and k-spellings competed for an initial period. Computer specialists preferred the familiar k-spelling, while people in the music industry, who saw the shiny circular plates as another form of phonograph record, referred to them as compact discs. These tendencies soon became established practice in the different industries. This is why we buy compact disks in computer stores but get the same storage devices with different data as compact discs in music stores. Similarly, the computer industry created the optical disk, the format that the entertainment industry used to create the videodisc.

 

[Disgustipated]

What kind of security programs (or the horrible term I don't like using- Apps- sigh) should I have for my Smartphone? I admit I haven't really thought about security for my smart phone. I don't do banking or credit card transactions through my phone. I just use it to surf news websites when I'm bored and have free time (not at home).

 

[Zelig]

What kind of security programs (or the horrible term I don't like using- Apps- sigh) should I have for my Smartphone?

None.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Is there a way to validate a batch file before running it to make sure you didn't screw up when creating it? I just had an unfortunate incident because of a missing punctuation mark.

(Actually, it just failed to run, but next time could be worse, considering I'm jinxed.)

 

[Samson]

Is there a way to validate a batch file before running it to make sure you didn't screw up when creating it? I just had an unfortunate incident because of a missing punctuation mark.

(Actually, it just failed to run, but next time could be worse, considering I'm jinxed.)

Yeah, it is called debugging or testing. Of course not knowing what you are doing it is hard to say how, but probably some hints:

Always check return states of commands, and if there are errors do something reasonable and think about whether you should carry on execution.
Create a test set (probably a directory of files from your previous questions) that you know the correct results, and test on this and test the results.
Capture the output every time and check it

These are the sorts of things I do, they may or may not apply to you.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Okay. For a friend (sheesh, the things I go through for my online friends). She has a Mac OS X. Right now, it's locking up and crashing on just about every program except her text editor and email. She says even her web browser opens up for 15 seconds and then closes down.

Obviously, I'm trying to help her troubleshoot.

Does anyone have any websites to a list of troubleshooting steps for Macs? I can't exactly generalize the steps for Windows in a way that she understands.

 

[Samson]

I have just upgraded to fedora 18, and the alt-tab behaviour is really irritating me. I frequently have 2 say calc spreadsheets open, and want to switch between them. A single alt-tab no longer does this, and I need to hold alt-tab and use the mouse to select the one I want. There are other things I like about it, and would like to change just this without getting rid of Gnome 3 completely. Any hints?

 

[Zelig]

Gnome 3 follows the Alt + ` standard to switch between windows of the same application.

It's actually really nice, I wish Windows would adopt it.