Softwares & Hardwares

[partner555 170]

For discussing anything related to the electronics we use in our lives, though video games-related stuff should go in the Videogame thread.

 

I'll start:

Tonight, I was thinking of letting my iPad and my iPhone upgrade to the iOS 9.2.1.

But before I do, I want to make sure, did anyone else have problems when upgrading? What changed post-upgrade?

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Does anyone have any clue as to why a copy of Firefox wouldn't load the correct fonts on a WordPress page? My blog looks awfully silly on my laptop's copy of Firefox, but not on my music machine's copy. It also doesn't show any problems under Opera or Chrome. Is there some about:config setting I should tweak to get it to show properly?

IMHO, Firefox 45 is a piece of [REDACTED]. Please help if you can.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Update: I had to create a brand-new profile under Firefox in order to fix the problem. Granted, I'd been running the same copy of Firefox since I first installed it on my laptop in 2009. Almost seven years worth of configuration/plugin cruft apparently took its toll. At least I didn't lose my bookmarks.

New question: is there anyone here who can tell the difference between an Ogg Vorbis file encoded at 100% VBR quality versus one encoded at 70% VBR quality? My hearing loss is mainly in the higher frequencies, where one would expect artifacts to be most noticeable. That, and I don't trust my hearing aids enough to make a valid comparison. Input would be appreciated. Thank you!

[LivewareProblem 3]

On 4/4/2016 at 11:32 PM, ProfessorTomoe said:

Update: I had to create a brand-new profile under Firefox in order to fix the problem. Granted, I'd been running the same copy of Firefox since I first installed it on my laptop in 2009. Almost seven years worth of configuration/plugin cruft apparently took its toll. At least I didn't lose my bookmarks.

New question: is there anyone here who can tell the difference between an Ogg Vorbis file encoded at 100% VBR quality versus one encoded at 70% VBR quality? My hearing loss is mainly in the higher frequencies, where one would expect artifacts to be most noticeable. That, and I don't trust my hearing aids enough to make a valid comparison. Input would be appreciated. Thank you!

I have pretty sensitive hearing and I can't reliably tell the difference.

I've read the research on lossy audio compression, and I tend to be very skeptical of people who make the claim that they can distinguish. The algorithms they use have gotten very sophisticated, and a lot of what goes on in audiophile groups is just pure woo. When it comes to audio quality, most encoding standards are unlikely to be your bottleneck, especially for plain old stereo sound. You'd need more overhead for 5.1, but this is the part that's often forgotten, you also need the hardware to take advantage of that.

If you're like most people, listening to something off generic computer speakers or the earbuds from their iPhones, the bottleneck isn't what vorbis setting you used, or whether you opted for the AAC instead of the old mp3s, it's gonna be your hardware.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

1 hour ago, LivewareProblem said:

If you're like most people, listening to something off generic computer speakers or the earbuds from their iPhones, the bottleneck isn't what vorbis setting you used, or whether you opted for the AAC instead of the old mp3s, it's gonna be your hardware.

My particular hardware is a little higher-end than this. I have a pair of Adam A3X studio monitors and an Adam Sub7 subwoofer. They won't get in the way.

Granted, the particular target audience would probably have the hardware you describe. However, I am glad to report that the VBR quality is no longer an issue. I can't explain why—it's solved, that's all.

[Scotty 1,061]

I dunno if this is the same as what you're talking about, but over the years I have gone from using an SB16 soundcard, to SBLive! card, to SB Audigy2, and now just a realtek integrate sound processor on the motheboard as well as gone from using speakers, speakers with a subwoofer and now just headphones. And for a lot of cases, audio files, either videogame music, midi tracks or music discs did have a noticeable difference between the various types, I'd listen to a music track that I'd heard numerous times on one system, then hear it on another and be like "I never heard this high-hat sound before." or "It sounds like there's more bass than I remember." For the most part though I've figured that it's either just the new system having an equalizer feature that adjusts the bass and treble so I can hear everything clearer or the track itself was encoded in a way that the new hardware doesn't emulate properly. Best example is Sim City 2000 for DOS, I played the crap out of it when if first came out, I remember just sitting back and listening to the jazzy music. Not to long ago EA was giving away SC2k for free with DOSBOX to be able to run it, I was like "Yeah I can listen to that music again!" but instead what I got was not a smooth sax or clarinet but fingernails on a chalkboard.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

I'm now in the market for a new laptop. I've got a $1,000 budget. This is approximately what I'm looking for:

• Full keyboard with a number pad on the right (not a "shift for numbers" kind—this is an absolute necessity).
• Core i5 or AMD equivalent minimum, Core i7 if possible.
• Between 8GB and 32GB of RAM, 16 GB as the sweet spot, DDR4 if possible.
• A hard drive that can be upgraded to the SSD of my choosing.
• Windows 10 Professional (Win10 Home as a last choice).
• Screen size 15.6" or larger (I'm willing to save bucks on graphics specs, but not on laptop size).

Anyone here who has done any shopping lately and wouldn't mind sharing their results? 'Twould be most appreciated. Thanks!
 

[Scotty 1,061]

Did some Newegg searching:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834319545

This one has the i7, 16gb ram, the full keyboard, and a 17.3" screen for $900. It does only have Win10 Home and I'm not sure if the HDD can be swapped to an SSD though.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232754

This one has a slightly faster CPU, but the 15.6" screen puts it at the small end though it is apparently 4K resolution if that makes any difference.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315291

This one has Win10 Pro and apparently Win7 Pro as well? Oh I guess it originally had Win7 Pro and was upgraded to 10 so you could downgrade back to 7 if you wanted. Aside from that and the fact that it's an i7 CPU, the rest is at the low end of your wishlist. I am iffy about the intel graphics though and the fact that is uses a portion of the 8gb ram (the other two laptops have a separate 2gb dedicated to video), but if you're not planing on playing any big games on it then you'll probably be fine.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Much obliged! I'll consider them when the time to buy comes. Thank you!

[ijuin 572]

Why would the preinstalled operating system matter if you plan to swap the hard drive? The OS is tied to the drive that it's installed on, since you aren't provided with a disk or license for installing it from scratch unless you bought a separate license...

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

1 hour ago, ijuin said:

Why would the preinstalled operating system matter if you plan to swap the hard drive? The OS is tied to the drive that it's installed on, since you aren't provided with a disk or license for installing it from scratch unless you bought a separate license...

It's not tied to the hard drive, but to the machine. It stores info about your motherboard at the least. I know this from swapping the motherboard in a machine while keeping the hard drive unchanged—Win7Pro 64-bit complained and had to be reauthorized.

Now, if I simply clone the hard drive onto another faster/larger one, Windows will be none the wiser. I've done it twice before, using Clonezilla to go from a 250GB HD to a 500GB HD (and then to a 500GB SSD) on my current laptop, and Win7Home 64-bit never complained. I'm betting that Windows 10 would respond the same way.

I'd also like to have a clean Win10 install (crapware notwithstanding) vs. a copy of Win7Pro 64-bit upgraded to Win10—I just don't trust the upgrade process. Note that I *am* going to give the upgrade process a try on a less-than-current computer that recently had its SSD boot drive die. I'll reinstall Win7 Pro on it and then upgrade it to Win10. If that goes smoothly, then I might consider dropping Win10 pre-installed as a must-have.

[ijuin 572]

And here I always thought that an installation was locked to the hard drive's serial number. Every time that I have ever had to replace a hard drive, my old disk had been rejected, and Microsoft has forced me to buy a new copy.

[Don Edwards 548]

It's supposedly tied to several things simultaneously - if I remember right it's the hard drive, the motherboard, the processor, and maybe the video adapter. The intent being that the software can tell the difference between "same computer, replacing a component" and "whole different computer".

Details of what can be replaced under an existing license, and what hoops must be jumped through, may vary from one licensee to another. The retail license is probably broader in what is allowed than some OEM licenses.

[Scotty 1,061]

Video cards usually aren't part of it, I've been able to replace my video card without Windows complaining that it doesn't recognize the system. Although I had a game where the DRM that kicked in twice, the first time was when I added more RAM and I had to email developer with the new hardware key (when I bought the game the DRM was such that you installed it, get a hardware key, register the game on the publisher's website with that to get the actual key to unlock the game). The second time was when the CD-ROM failed and I had to replace it, I didn't bother trying to get a new key because if it was going to do that for every time I changed something then it wasn't worth keeping the game.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

On 4/23/2016 at 6:56 PM, ProfessorTomoe said:

I'm now in the market for a new laptop.

After a TON of searching, configurating, calling, increasing my budget, and pleading for help (thank you!), I've settled on a Gigabyte P55WV5-SL1 from XOTIC PC. They're the only ones I could find with a good reputation who customize Gigabyte laptops. A close cousin to this Gigabyte got decent reviews, so I'm going with it and future-proofing the living hell out of it. Here's the major part of the config:

15.6" FHD (16:9) Anti-Glare Matte-Type Screen (1920x1080)
6th Generation Intel® Skylake™ i7-6700HQ (2.6GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache) Processor
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 970M (3.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 (Maxwell) w/ Optimus™ Technology
16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory
512GB Samsung 950 Pro M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (Read 2500MB/s - Write 1500MB/s 110K IOPS)
8x Super Multi DVDRW/CDRW Combo Drive (with a caddy that you can swap to change the drive to another SATA drive)
Microsoft Windows 10 Home - 64-Bit
Clean Windows Installation (Install drivers only - no bloatwares [sic])
Windows 10 DVD manufacturer factory backup recovery

Total cost is estimated at $1,665.49. It's basically a second desktop, and with the way I've got it configured, it should be a long time before any part of it becomes obsolete to the point of requiring replacement. (I am, however, going to pull the 500GB Mushkin SSD out of my current system and put it in the new one ASAP.) Call it overkill, but it won't be overkill a few years from now, IMHO.

I haven't hit the "Order" button yet. Any thoughts or suggestions before I do?

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Download a couple of good antivirus and antispyware type programs and install them before you ever connect the laptop to the internet.  But that's probably just paranoia talking.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

5 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Download a couple of good antivirus and antispyware type programs and install them before you ever connect the laptop to the internet.  But that's probably just paranoia talking.

In this case, paranoia speaks the truth. I have a 5-user license for G. DATA Antivirus and will be purchasing another license of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. That pair has kept my network clean for years.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Well, the Big Red Button has been pushed. I've ordered the laptop. I'm a bit miffed by the fact that the quoted price included a 3% discount for cash purchases, and that full payment via credit (or debit) card doesn't qualify. Since I live nowhere near their offices in Nebraska and am unwilling to pay a bank transfer fee and wait 21 days until everything clears, I went ahead and forked out the extra $52 to get the damned thing rolling already.

Hell, they've already charged the card and had it approved by my bank (I called to warn them so that they wouldn't put a fraud alert on the transaction and learned about the clearance then), so this is faster than cash would be. They're probably covering up a Visa vendor surcharge or something like that.

At least they're a Google Trusted shop. That much is good, despite the vaporous discount.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Since I'm about to take the cliff-dive into Windows 10, I would really appreciate it if you (as a group) would lead me to some Windows 10 tweaking programs, in the same vein as what I've been used to using in Windows 7. I've done some searching and have already found a couple of essentials:

O&O ShutUp10 (privacy tool from O&O Software)
Start10 and Fences (tweakers from Stardock Corporation) (BTW, Fences works great on Win7,8,and 8.1 also)

Are there any others that I need to look at?
 

[Matoyak 51]

8 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Since I'm about to take the cliff-dive into Windows 10, I would really appreciate it if you (as a group) would lead me to some Windows 10 tweaking programs, in the same vein as what I've been used to using in Windows 7. I've done some searching and have already found a couple of essentials:

O&O ShutUp10 (privacy tool from O&O Software)

Start10 and Fences (tweakers from Stardock Corporation) (BTW, Fences works great on Win7,8,and 8.1 also)

Are there any others that I need to look at?

None that I myself am aware of. Granted, I personally found Windows 10 to be mostly fine on that front when compared to Win8.

Though that O&O Shut Up 10 looks neat. I'm going to look into that.

[Tom Sewell 268]

Google Chrome

I'm getting a problem with Chrome I've never had before, on this forum. I will be typing along and suddenly I get a full-size window--or more than full-size window. Some of the Facebook games I play have an option that uses the entire screen without the framing that has the tabs, the address window, etc, but all of them have either a button to press or a keyboard shortcut or both to get out of this mode. But I haven't found one for this problem, even a general way to get out of full-size windows on the Chrome help site.

Probably it has to do with the gaming keyboard and mouse I bought yesterday, both Corsair products (and both way more money than I should have spent but the feel is great and they light up and Fry's Electronics had demonstration units...curse you, Fry's, I cannot resist you though well I know your evil ways! I also changed over to the Avast antivirus, two years for forty bucks. I really thought about spending the extra ten for the extra  year first--but that was before I touched the Corsair display!

[The Old Hack 2,448]

The Moderator: Tom, would you mind reposting this in a new thread? This is sort of getting close to necroposting territory, and I think we may as well leave this thread decently buried.