Tell People a Useful Computer Hint Here (Do NOT ask questions -- except about the hints!)

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I am granting my smartmedia-capable camera (that used a serial connection) a new lease on life by buying a $4 smartmedia usb reader to transfer pictures from it. This also saves battery life and lets me copy stuff to the smartmedia card my sampler uses.

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't bother shipping your computer cross-country, because when it arrives it'll be a pile of parts.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Holding down the ctrlbutton when clicking the refresh icon (or pressing F5) refreshes your browser's cache, so if you're viewing a page that changes regularly you can press this and be sure you're looking at the most updated version.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

push down all the buttons!!!@!@

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Your computer is not your friend.

― eat fudge banana swirl (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

shut down. restart.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure what browser Markelby is using, but the same can be accomplished by pressing Shift (instead of Ctrl) in at least IE.

But anyways, in a commmand prompt, typing ipconfig (in win2k or higher) tell you *exactly* who you have open connections to. Handy if you're troubleshooting virii you may have...

― Just a Random Lurker, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

since when did ipconfig do that?

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

This is the single most important advice I can give to people who sit in front of a screen all day:

Make sure your monitor refresh rate is above 70 hertz. This will save you from serious headaches and eye-strain. I cannot believe how many people are suffering needlessly.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

You're right, I was thinking of netstat. Sorry.

Use netstat /n for all youe open connection needs.

― Just a Random Lurker, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

(i ended up with a job that had nothing to do with my training and it's been awhile since i've actually used IT knowledge to do anything, really.) sorry again.

― Just a Random Lurker, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"I use the user agent string Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html). It gives access to quite a few sites that only give full access to subscribers and Google..."

Wow!

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Thursday, 19 August 2004 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Force prebinding every once and a while.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 19 August 2004 11:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't worry about screen refresh rate if you are using a TFT Flat Panel/Laptop Display.

The only use for a powerful new computer at home these days is games and possibly digital video editing, even the most basic new computer is easily good enough for word processing, email, internet, mp3s etc. Spend your money on a good big screen, a TFT if you can afford it.

If you are getting a laptop and want to use it on the move get one with a Pentium M processor, they are still very powerful and use much less battery than other types.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 19 August 2004 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

(not applicable to mac users)

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Thursday, 19 August 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

(obv)

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 19 August 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

If you want to go to, for instance, http://www.google.com in IE, you can just type "google" in your address bar, then Ctrl-Enter, and it'll fill the rest in for you. Might be an obvious one, not sure, but I only learnt it a couple of months ago and it's saved me loads of typing. Although it's made me slightly resentful of sites that don't have a .com domain too.

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

If you take a digital picture of the things behind your laptop screen and make it your wallpaper, your computer looks sort of transparent from the right angle.

― chrisco (chrisco), Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

chrisco, that's a great idea :D :D :D

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

even funnier: mount a webcam behind your laptop screen and have the root window get painted with it

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Jim - i do believe that only works if you enable "smart wed addresses" or something like that in IE (maybe its the autocomplete?). i think it's the default setting, but it wont work otherwise.

but i use it all the time.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Annoyed by how iTunes has little gaps between tracks on DJ mix cds and the like. Make sure crossfade is turned on and set the crossfade time to the minimum. Perfect!

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Friday, 20 August 2004 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey - excellent. Shame you can't do it on an iPod.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 20 August 2004 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Say goodbye to annoying 'Are you sure you wish to delete ?' messages by using Linux instead.

― Sexual Air Supply (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 21 August 2004 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

but a lot of linux distros alias 'rm' to 'rm -i' to be safe (but you can turn this off in ~/.bashrc obv).

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 23 August 2004 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate Linux distros that do that!!!!!

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Monday, 23 August 2004 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

How to colorize ls

Make sure your terminal is "xterm-color" and ansi color is on

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Monday, 23 August 2004 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

iTunes. there's a long silence in yr mp3 because there's that all important "hidden" extra track on the end of the CD. Well...

"get info" on the track (apple I, or it's on the File menu) go to the options tab and set the end of the track so that it just plays the first bit. then select "convert selection to mp3" from the Advanced menu. You end up with a new mp3 of just the bit you selected to play!

Now set the start and end of the original track so that it plays the last bit (after the pause) and do the same.

Delete the original mp3, and change the title of the new extra track

smashing.

(i've been doing this in a separate sound editor all this time.)

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh wow - I had no idea iTunes could do that either, and had been arsing around with very slow sound editors to do this kind of thing. More often, I wanted it for splitting up mixes encoded as a single track. Thank you Alan.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 11:44 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

Mac OSX users: if you find something in yr applications folder called "2005 World Book", you can delete it (it's an encyclopedia that you never use) and get yourself 1.35gb free space.

― G00blar, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 21:54 (eighteen years ago)

nicely done

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 21:58 (eighteen years ago)

srsly why so big?

― G00blar, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:03 (eighteen years ago)

special section on dinosaurs

― remy bean, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:13 (eighteen years ago)

1.35 gigs is nothing!

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:36 (eighteen years ago)

it is on my 40gb mac laptop :( thanks for that tip! will do once i get home and charge my mac. (i been using my work laptop almost exclusively recently)

― Will M., Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:37 (eighteen years ago)

Make sure your monitor refresh rate is above 70 hertz. This will save you from serious headaches and eye-strain. I cannot believe how many people are suffering needlessly.

How do i see if i need shot?

― forksclovetofu, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:40 (eighteen years ago)

I wanna go three years back & check with Jaunty Alan that his 'convert a bit of an mp3 to mp3' idea in itunes doesn't do some re-degrading.

― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:40 (eighteen years ago)

In the broad scheme of things, sure. But I'm trying to get my computer (w/ 40gb hard drive) to run faster and so would like more than 3+gigs free. I just figured this useless piece of software (that came installed w the computer) wouldn't clear so much space for me (Office is 205mb, for instance!).

xposts exactly will!

― G00blar, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:41 (eighteen years ago)

Make sure your monitor refresh rate is above 70 hertz.

I don't understand what this does, but I just changed it!

― Jordan, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:44 (eighteen years ago)

Forks, go to your control panel, go to display, go to settings, go to advance. From there, click on monitor and it's under your refresh rate.

And everytime I'm about to throw that encyclopedia away, I find myself paging through it for about an hour.

I mean, where else am I going to find audio of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech? I would have to look for it on the internet of all places.

(Okay, so it's probably better to have the 1.35 GB...)

― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:46 (eighteen years ago)

Shit, that's in the encyclopedia!?

― G00blar, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 22:49 (eighteen years ago)

85 hrtz. my eyes r saved!
danke.

― forksclovetofu, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

If your computer keeps restarting and giving "memory error detected, memory timings have been reset to default timings" and the outer casing gives electric shocks, hammer hard on the top just above the power supply. (worked for me)

― Heave Ho, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 23:18 (eighteen years ago)

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