Experiences with non-techies

[AudiTTFan]

On 5/26/2022 at 7:55 AM, Bitter said:

And CCFL eats power compared to LED backlit screens. I'm actively only buying LED backlit now for 2nd hand. In fact I probably won't take CCFL free either. 

This is exactly why I retrofitted my mid-2000s Acer monitor with an LED backlight kit.

[Bitter]

3 hours ago, AudiTTFan said:

This is exactly why I retrofitted my mid-2000s Acer monitor with an LED backlight kit.

I'm a little sketchy on doing that, I've seen more than a few have badly uneven lighting when done but maybe the kits are better now. With a Dell 22" 1680x1050 monitor going for $70 shipped these days with height, tilt, rotation, HDMI, DP, and VGA I don't find a lot of value in fixing an old screen if the CCFL dies unless it's absolutely necessary. Maybe for an old laptop.

[AudiTTFan]

3 hours ago, Bitter said:

I'm a little sketchy on doing that, I've seen more than a few have badly uneven lighting when done but maybe the kits are better now. With a Dell 22" 1680x1050 monitor going for $70 shipped these days with height, tilt, rotation, HDMI, DP, and VGA I don't find a lot of value in fixing an old screen if the CCFL dies unless it's absolutely necessary. Maybe for an old laptop.

I don't think I'd have nearly as much skill when it comes to board-level soldering as I do today if I didn't install that conversion kit. I hate myself for coming up with this because of how corny it is, but the real value was the experience I got.

[Bitter]

12 hours ago, AudiTTFan said:

I don't think I'd have nearly as much skill when it comes to board-level soldering as I do today if I didn't install that conversion kit. I hate myself for coming up with this because of how corny it is, but the real value was the experience I got.

I made a Christmas tree soldering kit to practice lol but I had previously had some life experiences soldering electronics just kind of fake it till you make it.

[da na]

13 hours ago, AudiTTFan said:

I don't think I'd have nearly as much skill when it comes to board-level soldering as I do today if I didn't install that conversion kit. I hate myself for coming up with this because of how corny it is, but the real value was the experience I got.

I've tried to repair a few boards - last era of hardware I'll be able to fix with soldering is like C64/128, Atari ST, Apple II etc. Every new board I've tried to recap has either still not worked, or actually exploded. 

I'll probably need to replace a CCFL monitor soon as it's starting to flicker and get a bit dark. At that point it's probably better to pick up a 1080p LCD for $15 at the recycler and recycle the 1280x1024 CCFL. 

[AudiTTFan]

1 hour ago, Mel0nMan said:

I've tried to repair a few boards - last era of hardware I'll be able to fix with soldering is like C64/128, Atari ST, Apple II etc. Every new board I've tried to recap has either still not worked, or actually exploded. 

I'll probably need to replace a CCFL monitor soon as it's starting to flicker and get a bit dark. At that point it's probably better to pick up a 1080p LCD for $15 at the recycler and recycle the 1280x1024 CCFL. 

It's a lot easier if you heat up the whole board by holding a soldering gun over it before using your soldering station, and even more so if you're using good quality flux.  I re-capped a dead GeForce 8800 Ultra that I bought for $5 from an e-recycler, and it worked flawlessly afterwards. Ended up making $200 selling it recently.

[Bitter]

3 hours ago, James Evens said:

@Bitter No need to learn it. Electrical tape is always the answer to shitty soldering.

Super glue blended with some copper powder.

[da na]

5 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Super glue blended with some copper powder.

The water from my dorm sinks. 

It's 50% metal. 

[Bitter]

1 hour ago, Mel0nMan said:

The water from my dorm sinks. 

It's 50% metal. 

Lead is a fairly good conductor.

[da na]

2 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Lead is a fairly good conductor.

I'd wash hardware with that sink but I'd bridge every single solder joint. I'm better off getting some snow, melting it in a pan on my workstation, and using that for water (I tried that once, didn't taste half bad)

[Bitter]

11 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

I'd wash hardware with that sink but I'd bridge every single solder joint. I'm better off getting some snow, melting it in a pan on my workstation, and using that for water (I tried that once, didn't taste half bad)

Snow actually can be dirtier than rain if I remember my science classes. Something about the ice holding more particulates than rain drops do.

[da na]

Just now, Bitter said:

Snow actually can be dirtier than rain if I remember my science classes. Something about the ice holding more particulates than rain drops do.

Not too worried about it since the school I live at is in a town with a population of maybe 8 people not affiliated with the school, and only a few hundred who are, including students.

[Bitter]

8 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

Not too worried about it since the school I live at is in a town with a population of maybe 8 people not affiliated with the school, and only a few hundred who are, including students.

Sadly air pollution doesn't simply stay put where you make it. You might have coal soot in your snow from hundreds of miles away or dust from a windstorm in Africa.

[Quackers101]

1 hour ago, Bitter said:

Snow actually can be dirtier than rain if I remember my science classes. Something about the ice holding more particulates than rain drops do.

so long it's not acid rain. snow and ice can keep a lot of stuff, but would kind of assume you might see a difference in the snow if it was very polluted? unlike with some water.

but dunno, also like some airplane sprinkles with your snowcone?

1 hour ago, Bitter said:

Sadly air pollution doesn't simply stay put where you make it. You might have coal soot in your snow from hundreds of miles away or dust from a windstorm in Africa.

daily dose of minerals, so long it's not a donkey virus from the wild west.

[da na]

gud question

[soldier_ph]

For me it's when I show someone something very basic like setting the default landing page in a Browser to something else and they'll immediately think that I can "hack" x thing:

[Quackers101]

26 minutes ago, soldier_ph said:

For me it's when I show someone something very basic like setting the default landing page in a Browser to something else and they'll immediately think that I can "hack" x thing

just don't hit F12 or ALT + DEL + CTRL

[da na]

14 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

just don't hit F12 or ALT + DEL + CTRL

I was banned from playing Kahoot in 5th grade since I used the HTML editor to change my name on my screen. Teacher thought I had hacked the school website or something

[soldier_ph]

[Rauten]

One of our users was having problems opening some PDF files she was downloading from a customer's site.

Turns out that Adobe has a 255 character limit for file routes, and the place where she is keeping the file + the file name go over the limit. I inform her of this limitation.

 

Her reply?

She ordered us to fix the issue immediately, either by:

• Fixing Acrobat so that it can accept longer routes
• Modifying the browser so it automatically renames the files inside the .zip files they come packaged in, during download.

Sure, I'll go steal the skin of an Adobe software engineer right away!

Anyone want a few free Adobe licenses while I'm at it?

[da na]

1 minute ago, Rauten said:

One of our users was having problems opening some PDF files she was downloading from a customer's site.

Turns out that Adobe has a 255 character limit for file routes, and the place where she is keeping the file + the file name go over the limit. I inform her of this limitation.

 

Her reply?

She ordered us to fix the issue immediately, either by:

• Fixing Acrobat so that it can accept longer routes
• Modifying the browser so it automatically renames the files inside the .zip files they come packaged in, during download.

Sure, I'll go steal the skin of an Adobe software engineer right away!

Anyone want a few free Adobe licenses while I'm at it?

I installed this definitely legal GTA 3 on my Windows XP system. Due to the character limit, half the files it installed couldn't read, but they also couldn't be deleted. Screwed my entire Program Files folder, had to take the HDD out, plug it into a different computer and delete the files from there. 

[Sprawlie]

So this user was returning to work an got frustrated that they couldn't log in. Over and over and over again trying their password and insisting that no matter what the password didn't work

 

After calling helpdesk, and repeating that he knows his account login, and that he's doing it correctly. He looked closer at his screen and realized he was using an old, deactivated account and not the one instructed to use.

 

 

That user was me.

 

I'm now a Luser.

 

 

[soldier_ph]

Customer: I'm getting weird Error Messages with a Program that I'm frequently using and I don't know what to do. Can you help me please ?

 

Me: Sure ! Could you send me Screenshots of said Error Messages ?

 

Their Screenshot:

Unfortunately not mine, as found on reddit.

[Needfuldoer]

14 minutes ago, soldier_ph said:

Screenshot on 4x5 glossy

I don't know if that's better or worse than my users, who send in screenshots as 20 MB bitmaps embedded in PowerPoint presentations (no matter how many times I send them a one-sheet on how to use Snipping Tool)...

 

That's one thing Mac OS did right 30 years ago. Press Command+Shift+3, you hear a camera shutter sound, and a screenshot (either in MacPaint or PICT format) gets saved to the root of your boot drive. Simple.

[Kilrah]

6 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

That's one thing Mac OS did right 30 years ago. Press Command+Shift+3, you hear a camera shutter sound, and a screenshot (either in MacPaint or PICT format) gets saved to the root of your boot drive. Simple.

Press Win+PrtScr and you have a file in your images\screen captures folder, but yeah... anything is too complicated for this kind of people.