Distractions, Distractions, Distractions

[Galaxiom]

Remember Roy Sullivan. He was struck by lightning at least seven times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan

 

[kevlray]

I need to update my computer (not sure how much of a machine I need). Mostly just some light word processing, picture editing and internet browsing (some streaming video from time to time). But I might have other priorities first. Our automatic ice maker on our 20+ year old refrigerator is starting to leak.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

At least I have been able to move ahead to the part where I start reloading my games for me and my grandson. The tricky part here is that I have had them for so long that I forgot the tricks one has to play to get each one to behave. Thank goodness for the ability to look up "game xyz doesn't work on Windows 7."

I've looked for one thing that is crucial to some games but so far, no luck. I want an OpenGL but apparently they are tied to specific hardware and I have a system that must have had a special edition. So far, two attempts to get a downloaded OpenGL have failed even though I went to the web site and carefully selected the configuration. Oh, well, only two games so far are completely stymied.

Don't go looking for OpenGL, folks. I'm busy enough to not worry about it for now. I've still got a pot-load of games to load up, testing each one as I go. Even with a half-way decent backup, it is taking me quite a while to get things moving again on the games that I CAN get to work.

kevlray - understand completely. It ain't my ice-maker, it's a TV that will just have to die a little bit more before I decide it is time. But since I bought the wife a car, she probably won't object if I buy myself a TV.

 

[Minty]

Luckily I have no PC / laptop woes, however, my TV is giving me purple artefacts in the middle of the screen, and due to starting a new job next month I'm going to have to replace the old car with a more economical newer version...

(My i7 8 core PC has been consigned to the garage, as my laptop is a shed load quicker, and it has one of these fancy M.2 PCIe that is lightning fast.)

I now wonder what the 3rd thing might be...

 

[kevlray]

I have a lot of things that I just cannot afford to fix (replace) right now. Unfortunately while we were on vacation my one daughter was going to sell my other daughters bicycle (she no longer uses it), But she got mixed up and sold my wife's ($400 two years ago) bicycle for $15. My wife didn't really like the bicycle, but would have liked to get more money for it.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

And now another nail in the coffin - the new SSD just died. I am now so happy that I could just drop kick the unit somewhere - but that would not be productive. I am going to end up losing data no matter how I cut this now because my PST files from Outlook had some traffic and, because I wasn't finished reloading things, I ended up with no recent backup. If you folks don't see much of me it is because I am busy trying to recover from yet another disastrous result. I'm going to be a very unhappy camper for more than a few days. And I'm using my older beast to do things that I don't really want to do, but I have limited choices.

Frustration somehow seems like an inadequate word here.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

That nail gun keeps driving in the nails. The PC shop confirmed that the brand-new SSD died. I looked it up: SSDs fail during their warranty period at a rate of 0.3% overall, and apparently with not that much variance between brands. Further, this was supposed to be one of the reputable brands. My little old one-lung (two core) XP is doing its best but it is chugging along. My step-daughter suggested that I change from rotating disk to SSD, and I researched it. She uses SSDs at work and has never seen a failure. I used one for about 3 weeks and bang-zoom, dead unit. When I go see my doctor today, I'll ask him to check for snake-bite scars.

 

[jdraw]

Good luck Doc. I have used a few SSDs without failure. I also follow an IT hardware guy on youtube who touts these "religiously". He opts for the higher end models, but reports he has never seen failure. I have seen him using Samsung, but also ADATA and even TeamGroup. He is now moving to M.2 drives because of exceptional speeds.
I recall a technician saying he had a failure when first introduced ~6-7 years ago --the only one I had heard of.
I realize it only has to fail once when it's your machine to get that awful feeling.

 

[Gasman]

Minty,

I have to ask.

What use are you going to put it to in the garage?

Luckily I have no PC / laptop woes, however, my TV is giving me purple artefacts in the middle of the screen, and due to starting a new job next month I'm going to have to replace the old car with a more economical newer version...

(My i7 8 core PC has been consigned to the garage, as my laptop is a shed load quicker, and it has one of these fancy M.2 PCIe that is lightning fast.)

I now wonder what the 3rd thing might be...

 

[Minty]

Minty,

I have to ask.

What use are you going to put it to in the garage?

Well, I wasn't sure tbh. Maybe use it for browsing the web when trying to murder some woodworking project, and I've left my phone in the house??

As it happens I purchased a newer car, and it can play MP3's off an SD card, so I dragged it back out of the garage, powered it back up, and copied 29Gb worth of old ripped CD MP3 tracks onto a new SD card, so I have about 4500 tracks available!

Not sure what to do with it now though. I kinda like the old thing. I actually like the slight fan noise. Think I'm getting old.

 

[Gasman]

Well you could always use it to interrogate the car, when the EML light comes on?
You can also change various settings via software.?

I use a small notebook to connect to my cars. Have used it for Mondeos and Corsa. I also used it for a friends Omega, so the cars can be quite old.
My Mondeos were 2005 and my Corsa is 2002.

I would also use it to play Internet Radio if the wifi is available in the garage, or use those mains adapters.

I have a 128GB drive in an Omnifi DMP1 in my car. I too like my music.

 

[Minty]

A long time ago I had a Dension HD(40gb I think) unit in an old Audi A4.

I used to fix VW group diagnostic equipment in a previous life, so the ODB car protocol units are something I know a little bit about

We have a load of Sonos stuff in the house so tend to just move one if we are doing a lot of work somewhere outside.

 

[Gasman]

Sonos too expensive for me.

I have the Omnifi DMS1 units all over the house, with music supplied from my NAS box.
I have one in the garage connected to a ghetto blaster as the drawback with these units are that they are streamers only, but I like them.

Using Tony's Google mini with great success as well.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

my TV is giving me purple artefacts in the middle of the screen

By any chance was that an LCD TV? Or an LCD-over-LED? Because my 13-year-old Sony 3LDO (an LCD projection system) was giving me a cluster of blue stars in one section (middle and slightly left of center). I looked it up. For LCD screens, this is the aging failure mode. The pixels lock "ON" and cannot be turned off. If you have bright program in that area, you don't see much, but if it is dark, it shows up. I had not just a couple of stars but a whole constellation.

Just got a replacement for that old beast. But at age 13, and knowing that LCD has a finite lifetime, I can't complain too loudly. Linda's 13-year-old car issues were also not sufficient cause for excessive complaint. Maybe just a whimper. The computer HDD crash followed by an SSD crash? Now THAT is grounds for a complaint.

 

[Minty]

@Doc No, it's a late(ish) 51" Plasma tv, the good LCD's were silly money when I bought it, but the replacement will definitely by LCD.

I'm just trying to find one of the Samsung units with the separate single wire connection box for £0.50p and a chewed toffee...

(The wife hates the spaghetti of wires involved with the current set up)

 

[The_Doc_Man]

My wife hates the tangle, too, but doesn't understand that coiling the wires leads to induction problems in electrical connections and broken cables in fiber connections. Can't tell her there is a rule in physics for that problem. She says there is a rule in housekeeping for her point of view.

 

[kevlray]

In the wire management issues. The one thing I do not understand. I get all my wires nice and separated (no other wire management). Two years later, somehow they have tangled up with each other.

 

[Minty]

It's the mice.

They are in collusion with the spiders, who teach them to make webs out of them.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I tried that one about mice and spiders on my wife. She wasn't having any of it. Oh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Today was one of those days. My computer came back with a new SSD and with my old Seagate Barracuda loaded up, but... now I can't see my DVD R/W drive. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

I also couldn't directly import any bookmarks from that drive so I'm going back to the XP system and importing web sites via the HTML export/import. But... I tried the bulk import and it wouldn't work. So I'm opening the exported HTML and clicking the links one at a time, then saving the bookmarks. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

Then I have to go back to the shop YET AGAIN tomorrow once I have saved the bookmarks and the critical folders and ping them for TWO things. FIRST, they might have TESTED whether the CD worked... would have been nice. THEN, they said they would load up a Win7 for me, but they loaded Win10. Which I HATE BLOODY PASSIONATELY! But there is no going back at this point. And it may be the only way I can get OpenGL, since it is a new set of Win10 drivers that might actually support that feature. Though I have no clue as to why my Win7 load on the previous SSD didn't have OpenGL. Yet another mystery of life, I suppose.

To say that I am frustrated doesn't do justice to any of it.

And if anyone is sending me e-mail, I can't get that yet. Because I can't load my copy of Office, I don't have Outlook yet and I don't want to mangle the Inbox via webmail because there are data retention issues if you use both a desktop mail system and a web mail system for the same account at the same time. Left-hand/right-hand sort of thing...


Pardon me but I need to say something.

YEEEEAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!