hmm

@MichaelFrank TPPA is very bad ... :/

@DavidPostill Meh... I don't really care.

Trying to find out where this guy is getting locked out. :<

Here comes Episode 2 of tiny problems with ridiculous solutions (episode 1)...

So I've been trying to install windows 7 on my SSD

How did I get an SSD? A miracle, a friend decided to give me his spare one.

So at first I was going with spaghetti and meatballs of symlinks just to improve performance, but then I just said "okay let's just install Windows on it"

And here comes problem 1: my PC didn't come with an install DVD and neither my OEM nor my upgrade key work to get M$ to give me the media, so I end up having to use my DreamSpark account to get a Professional ISO (before I find out of all the billion places on M$'s website where I could have found a Home Premium ISO...)

And then a little bit later comes problem 2: when I burned the DVD, apparently a little bit of cat hair was in the DVD so it ended up semi-corrupted (it just stopped when it was expanding Windows files...). So RIP physical DVD.

So then I decide to use Hiren's Boot CD to install Windows 7 for me (after all it's winPE right?). So I mount the ISO as a disk device, and everything seems to be all right.

._.

Rufus works really really well for iso -> usb install

Problem 3: The DVD is 64 bit and the PE environment is 32 bit. Nice. Solution: go through the preloaded programs in Hiren's CD and find one that says WinNTSetup. So it succeeds and it remakes my bootloader.. and removes my recovery partition as an option...

So I boot to the SSD and finish the installation. All is well... but Problem 4: when I try BOTH my OEM and upgrade keys, neither of them budge for Professional.

Long story short, I had to upgrade from Professional to Home Premium, activate my OEM key, and then upgrade from Home Premium to Professional with my upgrade key.

10/10 would install windows on SSD again

Although I was spared from doing a clean install again, by doing some h4x on the registry and on the installer

Maybe next time just get a normal ISO?

Or.. install whatever version you have then pop over to /r/microsoftsoftwareswap and buy a cheap licence for whatever you installed. :P

Probably faster than what you just went through.

@MichaelFrank It is a normal ISO.

the right ISO then.

How?

@oldmud0 Well go back to the start, and instead of getting Professional... get Home Premium! :D

How? My question stands.

Also reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2uxtr5/…

You get what you pay for. :)

@MichaelFrank So, why did you endorse it if you know it's sketchy?

Oh, you ended up here, didn't you?

microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

Yeah, and it didn't take either of my keys.

Either way, my problem is resolved and now my keys were activated.

:/

I usually just install, then call the activation line and say "My key didn't work. Can you activate for me?"

Buuut you didn't have the right ISO... So bleh.

> The most common issue is the use of a product key for a product not currently supported by the site such as an Upgrade key, an MSDN key, product keys for pre-installed media or an Enterprise edition key.

After I already got Professional installed though I found techjourney.net/…

So annoying to find the right solution to the problem..... after you've spent an hour fixing the problem "your way" ...

Oooh, that looks handy. bookmarks

Well, I think it should remain a bit of a secret, because then M$ will come and remove the images :(

But that's not really something that we can control

Also, it's been checking updates for an hour, is that perfectly normal?

I know updating takes a while... I can't remember if that was for checking or not though.

Took the A57 and all but one of the A53 cores on my phone offline using Kernel Adiutor to see whether apps still run somewhat smoothly with just one core. I'm trying to see if there's a way I can stretch the battery by taking as many cores offline as possible.

Clippy, go to hell

Just underclocking won't cut it?

Just curious. It's easier to just disable cores than to reduce clocks.

At this point many people would succumb to capitalism/consumerism and just buy a battery with higher capacity.

I have some really big power banks but I'm just looking for ways to extend battery endurance.

But no... you are a special individual.. one of the chosen people, chosen to defeat the dogs of money

I know it's entirely normal for smartphones to require charging at the end of every day, but just looking for ways to really stretch it if needed.

If I had a power bank, it would be bankrupt by now

@oldmud0 How much do you use your phone or other mobile devices?

It's just a joke, not really that much. It goes down to 50% by the end of the day.

When I'm really bored, I browse the web on it, but I don't really have any social media to look at. Forums are best viewed on the computer when I get home.

Quite evidently, too many people want 1500mAh loans for their phones.

I like how it separates the big and LITTLE cores, but high-end Snapdragons run awfully hot and the 810 is no exception.

I'm trying to keep both battery and thermals under control.

Yeah, my phone is an S4. If I use it too much or if there is unusually high I/O activity, (like when it's updating apps) then it warms up.

So the device is nearly unusable with only one core. Final Fantasy III lags severely and inputs from my MOGA Pro Power controller do not register reliably.

With two cores, there's occasional stuttering but the game is playable.

@bwDraco I'd much rather run the original game in an emulator. The mobile ports of those classics really disappointed me.

FF3 actually plays quite well even with the graphical overhaul and balancing changes that were introduced with the DS version. The game is very difficult, though. (The technical limitations of the DS and then-current technology meant only three enemies could be present on the field, leading to dramatic balancing changes. The changes were retained with the mobile version of the game. Final Fantasy IV for the DS did not suffer from these limitations due to technological advances.)

I want to turn root access into a battery life advantage.

That's why I'm disabling cores.

Why'd you expect FF3 to work with only one core?

I know Android has a battery saver mode but I prefer finer-grained control.

I guess maybe if the GPU was separate from the SoC, it would make sense..

The GPU can be controlled as well; have not experimented with that, though.

It's trivial to cap the GPU clocks in Kernel Adiutor.

What happens when you bring all of the clocks down to minimum?

GPU runs up to 600 MHz; valid frequency steps are 600/490/450/367/300/180 MHz.

Clocking down CPU cores to extremely low clock rates (<500 MHz) is not going to give very pretty results. I know from experience.

Even the monster NVIDIA Denver core in the Nexus 9 fails to deliver a reasonably smooth experience below 800 MHz.

Would it possible to intercept GL and drop MSAA?

I'd rather not intercept the shaders themselves.

I actually don't see a way to intercept the OpenGL shaders or draw calls to disable antialiasing.

Certainly possible but not familiar with any solutions that do that.

Intercepting the graphics pipeline might cause crashes or abnormal behavior, so I'd rather not do it.

@bwDraco Shutting down all the cores except one might cause crashes, chronic slowness, or abnormal behavior...

Two cores is the minimum for normal operation.

ugh hm.

Going to redo my download box. Also need to get the old box up with jerryrigged cooling to see if it works. If I'd remembered I had a USB powered laptop cooler before I swapped HDDs....

Prolly doing it this afternoon tho

@JourneymanGeek Now you have me thinking about the viability of an HDD as a cooler.

o0

They have pretty beefy motors on them :P

stick fins on the platter?

ya

or replace the platter

or something like that sandia labs cooler

?

frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2722

blinks

I don't remember having a 160gb laptop drive that works.

(popped in a random drive I thought was a 30 gig into the old pheobe)

The only 160 gb drive I think I have is the DOID

Which I thought I had taken apart ...

O_O en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro

> an underground network ... difficulties getting the project off the ground

lol

The list of criticisms though... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro_Northwest

@Bob There's your problem...

hm.

I'm reasonably certain the issues with the brix are heat related now

Not quite a standard intel recommended way of cooling a NUC class machine but...

Hello everyone. Does anyone feel like comparing the free software drivers for AMD vs Nvidia? It seems most people think the free ones for AMD e.g. Radeon, are better. Unfortunately we don't have a great range of choices here.

wierd

Someone else said the same thing

But really, Intel's linux drivers are the best ;p

@JourneymanGeek Someone else said what?

@JourneymanGeek Well, they only have onboard cards, don't they? If not, a counterexample would be appreciated.

yup

That AMD's free software drivers seemed better

@JourneymanGeek Ah. Well, that seems to be the conventional wisdom. Though of course things can change. Considering buying a new video card. The one I have is now only supported by the Nvidia legacy drivers. It's quite old.

And problematic.

well

hm

Most my my linux boxen arn't gaming cards

What do you actually need to use the video card for?

@JourneymanGeek Just for a graphics display. Watching videos, at most. I've never played a video game in my life.

I wouldn't bother with changing my current card, except that over the last year X has started crashing periodically.

ahh

hm

And it seems like to be that card's problem.

THen something as simple as a 710 would do

@JourneymanGeek 710 what?

Oh, nvidia 710, basically their current "I need some sort of video card" option

The GT210 or GT610 were recommended to me.

I'm the wrong guy to ask I guess, Massive Nvidia bias

@JourneymanGeek Pro or con?

@FaheemMitha Well, my suggestions would be relatively narrow

any reason you can't use official drivers?

@JourneymanGeek For what?

whichever video card you pick

Oh, you mean my comment about the free drivers.

@JourneymanGeek I could. I'd just really prefer to use free drivers, given an option.

I've used the Nvidia proprietary drivers for as long as I can remember, but I would really prefer to not have to.

Unfortunately we don't have a lot of good choices re video cards here.

Anyway, afk for a bit. Thanks for the feedback.

hm

urk

I want to open this log file

Quantum failures.

but it's > 2 GB

This damned system dosen't ever seem to fail when observed.

@JourneymanGeek Good ol' Heisenbug.

Well I do have air blowing across it

...that's an amazing compression ratio.

200 MB into 1 kB

0_0

happy dance

I have the old brix booting headless into a gui. Almost.

Seems stuck at the KDE loading page.

Oh well

@JourneymanGeek Didn't they fix/replace it? o.O

The entire 2139 MB file was compressed into 8715 kB

:D

@Bob yeah but I don't trust it any more

so I am using it to prototype the setup for the other box, and probably setting it up in a corner headless or something

and I'm pretty sure they're cooking themselves to death

hmm

I have a store trying their hardest to convince me to take a refund

o.O

@JourneymanGeek So, going back to earlier. You have a pro-Nvidia bias?

Meaning, you like them?

@Bob Or an amazingly repetitive log.

The cards, I mean.

@FaheemMitha practically every video card I've owned has been an nvidia

@JourneymanGeek I see. so, never considered going the AMD route then?

AMD never really seems to have a compelling product at the time I am building systems ;p

@JourneymanGeek I see. Meaning just the graphics cards, or more generally?

Well, I guess generally

Since every desktop and laptop I've owned has been intel....

Oh. I quite like the AMD processors. They're what I generally use.

@qasdfdsaq Both, really.

Intel is significantly better in terms of performance in most applications IMO

AMD is... well occationally competitively priced

Bias!

Intel is nowhere near as fast in any applications compared to AMD's GPUs!

@qasdfdsaq True, but I mean CPUs ;p

Hm. Aren't the Iris Pros reasonably competitive with APUs?

ANd I really do hope AMD do something astoundingly good with zen. Competition is good

(I really don't know.)

Ok, baseline setup for the new server's done. Now just need to configure... the world.

CPUs? NVidia's CPUs are miles behind AMD's!

See, only wanting to see the comparisons that agree with your view is the very definition of bias ;)

;p

@JourneymanGeek make configure && make world

;p

(basically set up kvm, decide if the fileserver should be a VM, if not, set up samba and qbitorrent correctly )

The newer NUC class machines are rediculously small, even compared to the old ones

source

I don't even care if it's true or not, that's a hilarious description.

And like a sports car it's sloppy and inefficient on the roads?

@JourneymanGeek Ok. That might be the case. I've never studied the matter.

@FaheemMitha basically AMD was kicking their ass hard at the tail end of the PIV era. They were competing on clockspeed, and intel realised at some point that's dumb.

Wee. Vesa mounted one of my sets of bias lights.

So on the low end, you have sub 5W low power processors, and on the high end, they still use less power for the same level of performance.

And APUs are kinda "vaguely mediocre in most things"

@JourneymanGeek PIV era?

pentium IV

Oh, right. That was a while back.

Intel was focusing on clockspeed on the desktop, when one of their overseas labs dropped the pentium M on their laps.

I think one plus I noticed is that AMD boards (at least this one) support ECC memory.

Amd hasn't really been ahead since say, the core .

You don't really need ECC tho

@JourneymanGeek I hear it's recommended. At least, lots of people seem to think so.

Especially if you are doing calculations.

But if you're building a server, it's nice to not have to pay extra for Intel's arbitrary market segmentatino

Personally I think it should be a standard.

@qasdfdsaq segmentatino?

If you're building a proper server, you'd get a xeon

"Hey here's a CPU with ECC deliberately disabled" "Here's the exact same CPU with a different name and higher cost"

@qasdfdsaq at one point people were dropping xeons into regular motherboards cause it was cheaper... ;p

"And you can only use ECC if you use one of these approved chipsets (which are identical to these other non-approved chipsets other than a firmware flag and we charge twice as much)"

@FaheemMitha that would mean you're running critical calculations with no error checking...

"However to get ECC we will take these other features away from you. If you want both features you need to buy two systems"

AMD: "We'll just leave everything enabled because we don't have the luxury of arbitrarily forcing people to buy two systems"

@JourneymanGeek It's difficult to check everything. It's nice to be able to assume some stuff.

And even if you think there are errors, how do you fix them?

@qasdfdsaq Are you channelling Intel there? :-)

Intel: "We'll give you ECC on Celerons and i3's but not i5's and i7's"

"Because we don't make Xeon i3's so we're not stealing sales from our more expensive selves."

@qasdfdsaq Yes, I was struck by the fact that Intel didn't offer ECC memory for apparently no reason. I don't think it makes a significant difference to the price of a MB.

@FaheemMitha It makes no difference to the price, the hardware is all identical with certain features selectively disabled.

They choose to do it to make you buy more systems to get the same functionality.

@qasdfdsaq Exactly.

@qasdfdsaq Creeps.

And the reason they can do it, is because ... well, nobody else is doing it better.

@qasdfdsaq So AMD isn't competitive?

I've generally had no problems with them.

At the high-end, no.

The low/mid range (which competes with Celerons and i3's) are good value

@qasdfdsaq Define high-end. I'm currently using the SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0.

Possibly another reason Intel leaves ECC enabled on i3's, they don't want to lose market share to AMD on low-end servers.

@FaheemMitha Core i7's, E5/E7 Xeons, 64-88-core servers.

Well, competition is a good thing for the consumer.

@qasdfdsaq Would my MB be low or mid-range?

Probably high-end for AMD. Overall? Dunno. Depends what you put in it.

@qasdfdsaq Ok.

I'd say they're competitive on the mid range.

But their high end is high mid range, and their low end is low mid range

@JourneymanGeek Whose?

AMD

Ok.

Intel basically has the bottom end sewn up

@JourneymanGeek Lies.

£250 laptops with graphics? AMD only.

@qasdfdsaq that's midrange. I'm thinking stuff like bay/cherry trail for the low end.

And there's nothing in the ballpark of those little toy computers I am so fond of.

That's not even a real laptop

£250 is bottom end as far as I'm concerned. Mid-range is £600-1000

that's not even real low end.

I've never seen a laptop worth buying below £600

Not worth buying = must be low-end

@qasdfdsaq I find my HP stream 11 to be fairly useful in a lot of situations

That's your problem not mine!

deletes searches and reviews for HP stream 11 from history

Your definition of low end isn't as low as mine then ;p

and I did say bottom end

via might have had a chance but via is dead as far as x86 goes

(yes, they have a new chip any moment now. Also expecting porcines floating outside my window, slung under 4 quadcopters...)

Bottom end is like Chromebooks and shit with ARM processors that don't even run Windows

Phone processors and shit, Intel have like <5% market share

We're talking x86 tho

Arn't we?

Are we?

Well then of course.

AMD dosen't have any trash cheap chips tho

Isn't low end like the Raspberry Pi or something like that?

Or maybe that is low-low end.

well

Depends whose end we're talking about

Outside the context of PCs maybe

You can run a full PC desktop OS on a RPi

Or even on my router.

If you want to talk outside the x86 context... yeah, ARM, and mediatek/rockchip/cheap-chinese shit...

@qasdfdsaq Do you like pain?

Cause running a full desktop OS on a RPi is pain

But I keep having random boot corruption on an SD card...

I get paid to deal with other people's pain

Your users are all on RPIs?

Do you work in hell?

The WP RPi page suggests it is an ARM chip.

I've never used one, though.

But they seem to be popular.

the old RPI is kinda slow

and it was the first cheap single board computer

I was thinking of using one as a multimedia center, but was advised that might not be a great choice.

Did the RPi represent some kind of technological breakthrough.

Nope?

The original RPIs were basically an outdated set top box chip that was thrown into a fairly basic circuit board and sold cheap

Ok, was just asking based on:

Its the price, not the performance.

@JourneymanGeek Ok, but they were the first to do it. Which means they figured something out. And it seems to have sold well.

So, maybe a marketing breakthrough if not a technological one.

@FaheemMitha Its kinda in the grey area between something like a ardunino and a more full featured system

@JourneymanGeek No, I do not work in hell.

See, that's exactly what you would say if you worked in hell.

And all your users were on rpis

No, all my users were not on RPis.

That must be an uncomfortable place to live in. What with all the pitchforks and sulphur.

Yup. And the rpis, 2 inch screens, and the only way to input is with a morse code key that's on fire.

@JourneymanGeek Surely they use punch cards in hell.

Depends on which circle. I'm pretty sure you punch the cards. Then drop em, and when you finally get em in order, they catch fire.

Scott Kelly plays ping-pong in space with superhydrophobic paddles

Man this is so cool

any1 know if kronos is still alive? :p

@jiggunjer I superpinged him

so, he does seem to have gone quiet

My FA 003s broke :(

Headphones?

I'll see if I can fix this, else, wait for march or april to replace it. Too much stuff breaking this month

The thing that holds the cup in place broke off from the headband

I suppose nothing some epoxy can't fix

Pity I don't have a 3d printer and mad skills ;p

Yeah, I think I can fix this <3

I'll need to pop by the store though, annoyingly the two engineers in my family would probably have no clue what to get ;p

;p

I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to do.

But the engineer dog doesn't?

;p

She looks like he knows what she's doing ;p

She's wearing protective gear! But she needs eye protection

Woof

Not much happening in the world of I.T. today then

naw

@JourneymanGeek Want me to send you a pair? :P

@Bob I think I'll manage

Need to wait till march to get it replaced tho

so, yeah. Epoxy ;p

I do have the xiaomis as a backup

o/

\o

/Ō\

\o/

Well, Intel's market segmentation is simply to enhancd profits because they have the resources to do it and are not pressed by competition to act otherwise.

When you're the only company able to meet certain specific needs, the market will bend to your will to meet those needs.

...and by segmentation, Intel is able to compel the market to pay more for a product that does not cost substantially more to make.

This extra money is reinvested into R&D which keeps Intel far ahead of its competition.

It's a positive feedback loop that keeps Intel in the lead at all times.

That's the problem with monopolies: when only one company is able to meet certain market demands, it can build on this advantage to shut out competitors in other market segments.

In the process, the monopoly is able to demand as much money as the market will bear for each individual market segment to maximize its profits, at the expense of consumers.

In essence, Intel is behaving as if it has a coercive monopoly over the x86 CPU market in at least some market segments.

The days of the DSLR are numbered...

dpreview.com/articles/9382826533/…

Only a matter of time before mirrorless system cameras completely close the gap in subject-tracking performance with top-of-the-line DSLRs.

I think the last remaining problem is battery life: given that DSLRs don't have to run power-hungry LCDs or EVFs at all times, they can last far longer than a mirrorless camera with the same battery.

I'll believe that the day that mirrorless cameras have TTL optical viewfinders.

@qasdfdsaq High-speed subject tracking in a mirrorless system camera is solved problem, and modern EVFs are just as good if not better than OVFs.

Except when they aren't.

Sure, it may not be a "pure" TTL view of the scene but you get a lot more information in an EVF, including the ability to preview exposure accurately before you press the shutter button.

Dynamic range is still way, way behind, while framerate, latency, and sensitivity are still crap on most models as well.

@qasdfdsaq Okay, what cameras have you worked with? It may be that my experience with mirrorless system cameras is too limited...

(I'm primarily a DSLR user, falling back to a compact superzoom camera or my smartphone for less critical photography.)

Strange question ;)

Whatever ones they had at Jessops before they closed, and John Lewis these days.

Personally I've only owned the Panasonic Lumix G-something. But sent that back after a couple months because meh.

@qasdfdsaq How long ago?

Micro Four Thirds is not as good as APS-C or full-frame, although high-end OM-Ds are known to have excellent performance (once you get over the extremely complex menus)

The Sony Alpha line of mirrorless system cameras is well known for their full-frame models with cutting-edge sensor technology which push the limits of image quality.