On 30/09/2023 15:12, Mark Olson wrote:
>
> Huh. When I go on holiday, I make sure my one and only Windows PC is
> switched on so I can access it with Chrome Remote Desktop from my
> Chromebook, if there's a site I need to visit that only works with
> a browser under Windows or is geofenced to the USA. Even if it's
> asleep or 'off' (power supply is always providing +5V standby to the
> ethernet interface) I can usually prod it to life with etherwake from
> one of my Raspberry Pi machines that are always on and running VNC
> Server... This has come in handy a few times,

NERD!

--
Eddie eddie@deguello.org

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 18:04:29 +0200 (CEST), "Worst Case"@dizum.com
wrote:

>On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 11:30:33 +0100, Pipl <pluscher@live.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> And long after it boots, it just randomly freezes for 10-15 seconds
>> rattling the HDD because of "System", according to Task Manager when
>> it did it just now.
>
>Well, that's it! It's "short on memory (RAM)." This sounds
>suspiciously as though something is buzzing around touching a LOT of
>files and swamping your swap space. The obvious remedy is to provide
>more swap space (a LOT) for it to buzz around in. RAM is cheap,
>innit?

I think part of my problem is that I look upon PC maintenance in much
the same way that I look upon cleaning out a blocked toilet: a shitty
job that could end in unpleasant inconvenience[1] if you get it wrong.
And I still would like to know why OS and other software
infrastructure designers consider their maintenance code to be higher
priority than my applications.

I tend to think in terms of how things like games consoles Just Work,
though given the different operating environments, I guess that's a
little unrealistic.

>Then there's the matter of O/S updates. FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm not a
>Windows luser. I'm a Linux luser. I download operating-system and
>utility updates automatically for sure, but I don't apply them
>automatically. Applying updates automagically behind the scenes can
>of course cause the scenery to freeze. That this comes as a surprise
>to most Windows users has always mystified me. DON'T DO THAT!

Oh, for CLI, utilities and inherent file protection, I love Linux.

I was a reasonably competent user, never a Linux guru who wafted
around the office in the lotus position while supported on a host of
ethereal penguins, mind.

However, I hated the fact that the OpenOffice tools were so close to
Windows ones but didn't quite make it, especially in terms of screwing
up formatting a page. Maybe they've improved in the five or so years
since I last tried. Plus some applications, particularly games or
hardware drivers for domestic electronic gadgets are rarely written to
run under Linux.

I don't use Linux much these days, though I have been tasked with
getting up to speed with Raspberry Pis at work recently.

[1] see what I did there?

--

-Pip

Pipl wrote:

<SNIP>
>
> I tend to think in terms of how things like games consoles Just Work,
> though given the different operating environments, I guess that's a
> little unrealistic.
>

These days even the bloody toaster requires re-booting periodically :-(

--

Geoff
NTV650

On 01/10/2023 13:26, GeoffC wrote:
> Pipl wrote:
>
> <SNIP>
>>
>> I tend to think in terms of how things like games consoles Just Work,
>> though given the different operating environments, I guess that's a
>> little unrealistic.
>>
>
>
> These days even the bloody toaster requires re-booting periodically :-(

My toasting-fork doesn't, but while I was in hospital a pair of magpies
decided to fill the chimney with twigs to support their nest, and it's a
tall chimney.

Must have taken them weeks, finding the right sized twigs, taking them
up there, dropping them, again and again - I've filled six fertiliser
sacks with sticks and I only cleared the bottom four feet...

Anyone know a very small child who'd like to climb up the flue and clear it?

Lots of wages: at least a penny an hour!

--
Mr. Grimes

Eddie <eddie@deguello.org> wrote:
> On 30/09/2023 15:12, Mark Olson wrote:
>>
>> Huh. When I go on holiday, I make sure my one and only Windows PC is
>> switched on so I can access it with Chrome Remote Desktop from my
>> Chromebook, if there's a site I need to visit that only works with
>> a browser under Windows or is geofenced to the USA. Even if it's
>> asleep or 'off' (power supply is always providing +5V standby to the
>> ethernet interface) I can usually prod it to life with etherwake from
>> one of my Raspberry Pi machines that are always on and running VNC
>> Server... This has come in handy a few times,
>
> NERD!

Guilty as charged.

--
FJR1300A, GL1000, KLR650A6F, EX250J9A, DR200SE, Vespa Ciao

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 11:14:28 +0000, GeoffC wrote:

> Bruce Horrocks wrote:
>
> <SNIP>
>
>
>
>> The sysinternals tools are your friends here:
>>
>> <https://live.sysinternals.com/>
>>
>> Start with <https://live.sysinternals.com/readme.txt> and
>> <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/>
>
> Thanks, that looks interesting, I shall have a detailed look later.

Running Procmon for the first time will blow your mind how much is
actually going on.

On Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:54:47 -0700 (PDT), ogden <eldaifo@gmail.com>
wrote:

>> >How often are you booting? I do it like once a month, so 30 seconds isn't much to lose.

>> I usually shut it down completely each day.
Really? Wow

>I could probably be less
>> meticulous about this, but i't partly a dislike of wasting power
>> unnecessarily.

>Just hit suspend. Or hibernate if you want it drawing zero juice. But shutting down? It's 2023.

Wot Ogden sed
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

I don't know, but I been told
You never slow down, you never grow old

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 15:28:28 +0100, Pete Fisher
<peter@ps-fisher.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>Having heard one or two stories about unattended electrical items,
>however, I tend to run round switching everything off except the freezer
>if away for a while. Also the gas and the water.

Blimey. That's like my parents, turning everything off before
bedtime!
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

I don't know, but I been told
You never slow down, you never grow old

On 04/10/2023 14:07, Champ wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 15:28:28 +0100, Pete Fisher
> <peter@ps-fisher.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Having heard one or two stories about unattended electrical items,
>> however, I tend to run round switching everything off except the freezer
>> if away for a while. Also the gas and the water.
>
> Blimey. That's like my parents, turning everything off before
> bedtime!

Mine also used to unplug the TV aerial [1] if there is a thunderstorm.

I did once have a TV go phut during an electrical storm, but I don't bother.

We came home from one winter visit to 'the chateau' to find the pipes
and water tank in the loft frozen at home. On thawing out it became
apparent that a pipe joint had been forced apart and the contents of the
tank started to pour through the landing ceiling.

The chap that bought the house last year phoned me up during the big
freeze at Xmas to ask me where the stop tap was (I had left a note about
it with all the keys). He wasn't so lucky, as the thaw happened when the
house was empty.

One advantage of a combi boiler in the new gaff is no tanks in the loft
to worry about - still turn the water off if away for more than a night
or two.

As to gas, my next door neighbour years ago asked me to change a VCR
tape [2] for them while they were away. Went in and there was a strong
smell of gas - turned out to be a pinhole leak in a pipe in the kitchen.

[1] How quaint.
[2] You are old enough to remember those.

--
Moto Morini 2C/375
Gilera 175 Sport, Husqvarna 401 Svartpilen
Honda CB250RS (Not Waynetta!)
"Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault in the reality"

On 04/10/2023 14:07, Champ wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 15:28:28 +0100, Pete Fisher
> <peter@ps-fisher.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Having heard one or two stories about unattended electrical items,
>> however, I tend to run round switching everything off except the freezer
>> if away for a while. Also the gas and the water.
>
> Blimey. That's like my parents, turning everything off before
> bedtime!
>
Saves a fortune in the long run, not that you'd notice it.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

On 29/09/2023 18:43, Pipl wrote:
> A rant I've probably had before, but, especially when my PC has just
> started up, it seems to be doing loads of shit even though it's
> actually doing nothing, from my POV.
>
[snip]
>
> What the actual FUCK can it be doing that's so important that it
> cannot carry out the simplest user task?
>
>

It may be the BIOS. A motherboard I have decided it wanted to scan all
the hardware types in UEFI and then Legacy before even handing over to
the bootstrap loader. If you can get all the parts to be UEFI compliant
you may gain some speed.

On 30/09/2023 11:31, Pipl wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 10:37:11 +0800, Boots
> <news@millhouse-communications.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On 30/09/2023 03:08 Pipl penned these words:
>>
>>>
>>> Even so, speaking as someone who's spent a considerable chunk of his
>>> life working on embedded stuff, WTAF is it *doing*?
>>>
>>
>> When I investigated slow to boot it was mapping the network drives that seemed
>> to be hanging everything else. I postponed that for 30 seconds and bingo.
>> Probably interrupting other processes which were then interrupting the mapping
>> as now if I check the network drives map in a couple of seconds once the PC is up.
>
> Thanks for the suggestion, but AFAIK it has no network drives.
>

If you have Quick Access running in the file explorer and the location
(local or remote) it saved is unavailable then you get a delay loading
the whole front-end while it tries to find it.

On Thu, 5 Oct 2023 18:37:05 +0100, Tim <nobody@home.co.uk> wrote:

>On 30/09/2023 11:31, Pipl wrote:
>> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 10:37:11 +0800, Boots
>> <news@millhouse-communications.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> On 30/09/2023 03:08 Pipl penned these words:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Even so, speaking as someone who's spent a considerable chunk of his
>>>> life working on embedded stuff, WTAF is it *doing*?
>>>>
>>>
>>> When I investigated slow to boot it was mapping the network drives that seemed
>>> to be hanging everything else. I postponed that for 30 seconds and bingo.
>>> Probably interrupting other processes which were then interrupting the mapping
>>> as now if I check the network drives map in a couple of seconds once the PC is up.
>>
>> Thanks for the suggestion, but AFAIK it has no network drives.
>>
>
>If you have Quick Access running in the file explorer and the location
>(local or remote) it saved is unavailable then you get a delay loading
>the whole front-end while it tries to find it.

This is a fairly recent thing. Mouse and keyboard have been getting a
bit iffy too. I think it's just the usual code bloat/feature-loading
shit that is exceeding the PC's abilities. It was a games PC once. I
might try reinstalling Windows.

To be honest, if it weren't for applications that are Windows-only
then I would go for Linux. Sort of wondering whether I can run them in
a VM, but I suspect games will take a serious performance hit, if they
even run at all.

--

-Pip

In article <u6vthipqk7g7kq2cg1trlftfkv1ghrmqme@4ax.com>, Pipl says...
>
> On Thu, 5 Oct 2023 18:37:05 +0100, Tim <nobody@home.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >On 30/09/2023 11:31, Pipl wrote:
> >> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 10:37:11 +0800, Boots
> >> <news@millhouse-communications.co.uk> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 30/09/2023 03:08 Pipl penned these words:
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Even so, speaking as someone who's spent a considerable chunk of his
> >>>> life working on embedded stuff, WTAF is it *doing*?
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> When I investigated slow to boot it was mapping the network drives that seemed
> >>> to be hanging everything else. I postponed that for 30 seconds and bingo.
> >>> Probably interrupting other processes which were then interrupting the mapping
> >>> as now if I check the network drives map in a couple of seconds once the PC is up.
> >>
> >> Thanks for the suggestion, but AFAIK it has no network drives.
> >>
> >
> >If you have Quick Access running in the file explorer and the location
> >(local or remote) it saved is unavailable then you get a delay loading
> >the whole front-end while it tries to find it.
>
> This is a fairly recent thing. Mouse and keyboard have been getting a
> bit iffy too. I think it's just the usual code bloat/feature-loading
> shit that is exceeding the PC's abilities. It was a games PC once. I
> might try reinstalling Windows.
>
> To be honest, if it weren't for applications that are Windows-only
> then I would go for Linux. Sort of wondering whether I can run them in
> a VM, but I suspect games will take a serious performance hit, if they
> even run at all.

Aren't most games available on Linux now?

On Thu, 5 Oct 2023 19:57:01 +0100, petrolcan <petrolcan@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Aren't most games available on Linux now?

Don't think Elite is. Not sure about things like IL2. Admittedly I
haven't played either in a very long time, but they're still installed
and one day I'll have some sessions.

Also, I get the impression that there's a lot of faffing to get these
things to work. Having spent a couple of hours today trying (and
failing) to get matplotlib working on Python on a Raspberry Pi, I
don't expect other stuff to be any easier and I really don't have the
patience to piss around with reluctant computers outside work.

--

-Pip

On 05/10/2023 19:24, Pipl wrote:
> On Thu, 5 Oct 2023 18:37:05 +0100, Tim <nobody@home.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On 30/09/2023 11:31, Pipl wrote:
>>> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 10:37:11 +0800, Boots
>>> <news@millhouse-communications.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 30/09/2023 03:08 Pipl penned these words:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Even so, speaking as someone who's spent a considerable chunk of his
>>>>> life working on embedded stuff, WTAF is it *doing*?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> When I investigated slow to boot it was mapping the network drives that seemed
>>>> to be hanging everything else. I postponed that for 30 seconds and bingo.
>>>> Probably interrupting other processes which were then interrupting the mapping
>>>> as now if I check the network drives map in a couple of seconds once the PC is up.
>>>
>>> Thanks for the suggestion, but AFAIK it has no network drives.
>>>
>>
>> If you have Quick Access running in the file explorer and the location
>> (local or remote) it saved is unavailable then you get a delay loading
>> the whole front-end while it tries to find it.
>
> This is a fairly recent thing. Mouse and keyboard have been getting a
> bit iffy too. I think it's just the usual code bloat/feature-loading
> shit that is exceeding the PC's abilities. It was a games PC once. I
> might try reinstalling Windows.
>
> To be honest, if it weren't for applications that are Windows-only
> then I would go for Linux. Sort of wondering whether I can run them in
> a VM, but I suspect games will take a serious performance hit, if they
> even run at all.
>
Dual boot?

When I started using Linux I had Win 98 and FT in separate partitions,
and it was possible to go from one to t'other.

After Win 2000 all sorts of rubbish was offered as 'upgrades' and I
dropped M$ altogether.

I shan't be going back.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

On 06/10/2023 05:50 RustyHinge penned these words:
> On 05/10/2023 19:24, Pipl wrote:
>>
>> To be honest, if it weren't for applications that are Windows-only
>> then I would go for Linux. Sort of wondering whether I can run them in
>> a VM, but I suspect games will take a serious performance hit, if they
>> even run at all.
>>
> Dual boot?

VM in my case dual boot is a right fag and sooner rather than later a Windows
update will screw up the boot loader. I keep the laptop we travel with on
Windows because madam told me in no uncertain terms to leave it be. I use a VM
on my desktop for those things that really require MS, in my case Excel.

--
Ian

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of
the last priest"

Boots <news@millhouse-communications.co.uk> wrote:
> On 06/10/2023 05:50 RustyHinge penned these words:
>> On 05/10/2023 19:24, Pipl wrote:
>>>
>>> To be honest, if it weren't for applications that are Windows-only
>>> then I would go for Linux. Sort of wondering whether I can run them in
>>> a VM, but I suspect games will take a serious performance hit, if they
>>> even run at all.
>>>
>> Dual boot?
>
>
> VM in my case dual boot is a right fag and sooner rather than later a Windows
> update will screw up the boot loader. I keep the laptop we travel with on
> Windows because madam told me in no uncertain terms to leave it be. I use a VM
> on my desktop for those things that really require MS, in my case Excel.

I had Ubuntu and Windows 10 happily coexisting on my Samsung
Ultrabook until a Windows update refused to complete because of
the partition layout I had chosen for the dual boot configuration.
While I was attempting to work around this (something I was successful
in doing on my one remaining Windows desktop system after much trial
and tribulation) I managed to bork things to the point neither OS
would boot.

I ended up wiping everything and going to Linux only. I don't miss
having Windows, mostly I use a Chromebook with a Linux environment
anyway. When Windows 10 goes out of support, my desktop won't support
Windows 11 (Core i5 with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD) so I suppose it will
be switched over to Linux-only as well.

--
FJR1300A, GL1000, KLR650A6F, EX250J9A, DR200SE, Vespa Ciao

On Friday, 6 October 2023 at 11:18:10 UTC+1, Boots wrote:
> On 06/10/2023 05:50 RustyHinge penned these words:
> > On 05/10/2023 19:24, Pipl wrote:
> >>
> >> To be honest, if it weren't for applications that are Windows-only
> >> then I would go for Linux. Sort of wondering whether I can run them in
> >> a VM, but I suspect games will take a serious performance hit, if they
> >> even run at all.
> >>
> > Dual boot?
> VM in my case dual boot is a right fag and sooner rather than later a Windows
> update will screw up the boot loader. I keep the laptop we travel with on
> Windows because madam told me in no uncertain terms to leave it be. I use a VM
> on my desktop for those things that really require MS, in my case Excel.

I've been running Mac for a long time; 15 years or so? I had kept running a VM to
be able to use a couple of windows apps; Microsoft Money being the key one.

Sadly when Mac went to the M1 chip the VM stopped 'virtualing' (I guess it relied
on intel support under the hood) so I couldn't use my VM any longer; the intel
machine I was using was going out of support and I thought the writing was
on the wall for intel with Mac so I bought an M1.

Fortunately I managed to move my finance stuff to another platform and export the
important accounts, so I've still got my records going back to 1990 for my current
account... but all those credit cards I had in the 90s, 2000s and so on... the data's
frozen in a 30GB VM Image held on a synology box... probably never to be ran
again... Frustrating, but utterly pointless hanging onto the past which I'm too
good at.

El Sat, 30 Sep 2023 18:04:29 +0200, Worst Case escribió:

> SHUT OFF ALL THE AUTOMATIC VIRUS SCANNING!

Do you know how quickly an infection can spread and do irreparable
damage? Best catch the beastie sooner rather than later.

No, I'm not an anti-virus man.

Yes, I was an anti-virus man.

I now do almost all my connected stuff on linux and just use a W10 box
for stuff that needs it.

The W10 box runs MS defender. But I am fairly careful.

I don't advise people to not take statins either.

--
Paul.

https://paulc.es

Stephen Packer <stephen.packer@gmail.com> wrote:

> Fortunately I managed to move my finance stuff to another platform and export the
> important accounts, so I've still got my records going back to 1990 for my current
> account... but all those credit cards I had in the 90s, 2000s and so on... the data's
> frozen in a 30GB VM Image held on a synology box... probably never to be ran
> again... Frustrating, but utterly pointless hanging onto the past which I'm too
> good at.

Are you me?

I'm borderline obsessive-compulsive about hanging on to receipts and
old financial records. My SO put her foot down a few years ago and
insisted I start shredding 30+ year old cancelled checks, etc. I've
gotten better, but I still like to hang onto receipts.

[people with a full life can stop reading here]

This habit came in handy recently, as a 7 month old charge from
December 2022 showed up on my July 2023 American Express statement,
for $6 450, from the Marriott Courtyard hotel in Reykjanesbær,
near the KEF airport. It turned out that our 8 450 ISK meal ($64.50)
had turned into a charge for 845 000 ISK ($6 450) ... What's a factor
of 100 between friends?

Eventually it got sorted out since I had the original receipt
squirreled away, although due to my holographic filing system it was
not immediately found. The hotel had to refund the 845 000 ISK that
they had been paid back to my account, however, in the 7 months since
the original charge, the USD dropped against ISK by a small amount,
but due to the size of mis-charge, this still resulted in me being
about $150 out of pocket. That required another dispute with Amex,
who to their credit, recognized the problem was not of my making and
made that difference go away.

I'm still amazed that Amex was OK with a vendor submitting a 7 month
old charge for such an atypical amount for a hotel _restaurant_
without batting an eye.

Needless to say I will most likely continue to save a paper receipt
from every time I use a credit card or tap by phone, for the
foreseeable future. Sad, because all this electronic malarkey is
supposed to make paper obsolete.

--
FJR1300A, GL1000, KLR650A6F, EX250J9A, DR200SE, Vespa Ciao

On 6 Oct 2023 15:16:07 GMT, Paul Carmichael <wibbleypants@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't advise people to not take statins either.

I take statins. Doesn't everyone?

--
Worst Case

In article <ufp4va$1is8g$1@dont-email.me>, Mark Olson says...

> I ended up wiping everything and going to Linux only. I don't miss
> having Windows, mostly I use a Chromebook with a Linux environment
> anyway. When Windows 10 goes out of support, my desktop won't support
> Windows 11 (Core i5 with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD) so I suppose it will
> be switched over to Linux-only as well.

Just use https://rufus.ie/en/ to bypass the TPM requirement

On Friday, 6 October 2023 at 17:10:13 UTC+1, Mark Olson wrote:
> Stephen Packer <stephen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Fortunately I managed to move my finance stuff to another platform and export the
> > important accounts, so I've still got my records going back to 1990 for my current
> > account... but all those credit cards I had in the 90s, 2000s and so on... the data's
> > frozen in a 30GB VM Image held on a synology box... probably never to be ran
> > again... Frustrating, but utterly pointless hanging onto the past which I'm too
> > good at.
> Are you me?

Not to the best of my knowledge.
> I'm borderline obsessive-compulsive about hanging on to receipts and
> old financial records. My SO put her foot down a few years ago and
> insisted I start shredding 30+ year old cancelled checks, etc. I've
> gotten better, but I still like to hang onto receipts.

Compulsive about keeping records. Compulsive about keeping all the bank
and credit card statements (until the bank stopped sending them). Keep
'important' receipts but that's it. I think I've got every bank statement that was
ever mailed to me. I think there are about 30 lever arch files. Also kept all
of my 'engineering notebooks' from my days as an engineer, so if ever I want to
see what impact changing the handover boundary on a cell from 900-1800MHz
made, or how effective LAPd concentration was then there's probably good data
there that might have been of some interest... 30 years ago...

I really should get rid of it.

Makes good insulation in my loft; or a fire hazard, take your pick.

> [people with a full life can stop reading here]
<snip>

Not sure how that would have worked without a paper receipt.

Hmm...

On Friday, 6 October 2023 at 17:55:13 UTC+1, "Worst...@dizum.com wrote:
> On 6 Oct 2023 15:16:07 GMT, Paul Carmichael <wibble...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I don't advise people to not take statins either.
> I take statins. Doesn't everyone?

Not yet...