Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Azazel]

Anyone have recommendations for a reasonably good mid-range tablet? I was looking at the Samsung Galaxy TAB3 10.1" 16GB, except it turns out it lacks even a micro-USB port.

I plan to use it primarily for browsing PDFs for tabletop games (rulebooks, etc and some are pretty damned big), eBooks, surfing the internets and such. I'd like at least a 10" screen but no need to be larger - like I said - it's very much going to be a rulebook proxy to keep wear and tear off expensive hardcovers and the like, so I don't want a small one.

Also, no iPads please.

[apocrypha]

Ah, I would've recommended the Nexus 7 without hesitation but that won't do if you're set on a 10" screen.

The Nexus 10 is a bit long in the tooth now and suffers from the problem that I feel all 10"+ tablets have which is they're too expensive. All of them! That size screen requires more processing power & RAM (unless it's really low resolution), more powerful batteries and generally raises the cost of tablets out of what I consider sensible for their capabilities.

If I had to make recommendations then I'd still put the Nexus 10 first. The Sony Experia Z is worth a look but it's even more expensive, although it's nice to use and feels like a quality bit of kit. The Lenovo Yoga pad is one I've heard good things about (although people complain it's lacking in oomph a bit) but I've not used it myself.

[Azazel]

Hm. Someone from work is recommending this one pretty heavily:

http://www.harveynorman.com.au/microsoft-surface-pro-128gb-tablet.html?CAWELAID=1925826175&gclid=CPyf_qiP-LwCFRMIvAodZU4AVA&gclsrc=aw.ds

It's a bit more than I wanted to spend - but are there any major advantages/disadvantages with going with a Win8 tablet vs Android? Or this one specifically vs the Nexus 10?

[apocrypha]

Well, it's a Windows machine, and if you're familiar with Android at all you know what a different beast Windows is.

But, $600. Still, it's a lot better than the launch price of those which I seem to recall was about double that. They've halved in price because nobody bought them. Most of the reviews I read of the Surfaces were dominated by outrage at the exorbitant cost, but I've not read anything about them since the huge price drops. Do some review hunting, see what you think.

But, heh, $600.

[Azazel]

Yeah, well, it's AU$600 though - and we always get ripped off on this shit. The Nexus 10 is $400 comparatively, so 32gb vs 89gb (after Win8 takes it's space off the 128 - not sure how much Android takes up) - but the theory is I can use it for Office etc (I can get a cheap copy from work) and as more of a portable computer/netbook than as just a tablet to use for wargame rulebooks. So I'm wondering if it's worth half again over the Nexus 10. Comparatively.

[apocrypha]

Hmm, well given that the Nexus is so expensive for you it does make the Surface look like a decent option then for sure.

The Nexus is a content consumption device, you couldn't do any serious work on it. The Surface might actually be usable for Office, especially with one of those keyboard cover things, if they're not hideously overpriced.

[Chimpy]

If you want/need to work in MS Office then a Surface Pro is what you will probably want to look at. The Surface Pro 2 included a lot of improvements over the original (and has had a stealth speed bump since release) and is pretty much a midrange laptop/desktop replacement capable machine with the correct peripherals.

[Azazel]

Got a Surface Pro 1 - they're half the price of the SP2 right now. Also got the keyboard and a Bluetooth mouse. So far I've been using it more like a netbook than a tablet, but I have put my gaming PDFs onto it, so I can use it for the initial purpose whenever I like now.

[Stormwaltz]

This may not be quick. It may also have been answered previously, but I don't have the time to plumb the thread. Sorry.

My OS hard drive is failing, for the second time in five years. But it's not dead yet, just suffers lock ups now and again. I have a new drive, and while I can just reinstall everything from scratch, it seems to me there must be some way to copy all the data from the old OS drive to a new, then ditch the old and set the BIOS to boot off the new copy. It would save me days of install time and hundreds of Gigs of download.

Any place I could go for instructions on this?

[Yegolev]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-programs-system-settings-files#1TC=windows-7

? ? ? ?

Why are question marks making a cry-face?

[Lantyssa]

Because it's hard to see the little question marks above the dude's face.  That's why I made my own for when I want to use : huh :.



I know it's painful, but with a new drive I really prefer doing a fresh install.  It usually runs better in the long run.

[Stormwaltz]

I'll give that a look, thanks.

It's going to end up being a "kind of" fresh install. Once I get my current Vista-64 install moved to a new and roomier HD, I'm going to run my upgrade to Win7. I think that gets me back to a near-fresh state, without having to reinstall all my utilities and games.

And if that's an incorrect assumption... well, then there'd be no reason to not nuke from orbit and start anew.

[Yegolev]

I think more than 65% of my accumulated utilities are no longer "installed".  It's not really as bad as it sounds.

[Chimpy]

Unless you can't possibly avoid it, never ever do an in place upgrade on Windows. If you want to keep profile stuff, use Windows Easy Transfer (included in Vista and up) to copy your files to a location then after setting up the new machine from scratch import said profiles.

[Stormwaltz]

Windows Easy Transfer doesn't seem to be a solution for my particular problem - I don't have an entire new machine I'm looking to transfer files and settings to, I'm replacing the OS hard drive on a single system.

[Ironwood]

Sorry, are we missing the point ?  Do you want to reinstall or just copy the partition from the old drive to a new drive ?  Because the second option is really, really, really easy and there's a shitton of freeware that'll do it.

[Chimpy]

Windows Easy Transfer doesn't seem to be a solution for my particular problem - I don't have an entire new machine I'm looking to transfer files and settings to, I'm replacing the OS hard drive on a single system.

Easy Transfer allows you to save to a disk or network location as an option. If you install a fresh windows 7 (hint, if you are "upgrading" from Vista you should do a clean install) even on the same physical hardware it will still be a different system in the eyes of Easy Transfer.

[Soln]

Can someone recommend a tool or method on PC for capturing the audio from YouTube?  I was hoping there was an easy solution than recording stteams with Audacity or the like.  I'd like to do this AFK or not have manually manage starting / stopping recording.   Thanks.

[Miasma]

I think this still works.  It just converts the whole thing to mp3, you can't start/stop/edit, I'm not sure what you mean by that.

[Trippy]

Can someone recommend a tool or method on PC for capturing the audio from YouTube?  I was hoping there was an easy solution than recording stteams with Audacity or the like.  I'd like to do this AFK or not have manually manage starting / stopping recording.   Thanks.

Download the video and then use a tool like mp4box or ffmpeg to extract the audio track.

[Xuri]

Btw, any videos you watch on YouTube will be stored in your browser's cache as long as you have the browser tab open. Look through the cache folders for files in the several-megabyte-large category, copy the most likely file (by timestamp), rename from .tmp extension (or whatever browser stores it in) to .flv (Flash Video) extension. Play in your favourite media player (VLC!).

[Trippy]

Most higher resolution YouTube videos are in mp4 (H.264) format now. Also there are like a bazillion browser extensions that make downloading YouTube videos trivial, though Google did make a change recently to how they stream 1080p videos that makes capturing those more difficult.

[Fabricated]

Windows Easy Transfer doesn't seem to be a solution for my particular problem - I don't have an entire new machine I'm looking to transfer files and settings to, I'm replacing the OS hard drive on a single system.

Try Clonezilla.

http://clonezilla.org/

Burn a CD, boot it, copy a disk image to an external drive. Replace the failing HDD, boot the CD, load the image onto the new HDD. Dunno if windows will complain/freak out license-wise or if the replacement drive is a different model/size however.

[Miasma]

I'm getting too angry at all the free email services screwing up what should be a simple interface, doing creepier and creepier things with my data, constantly trying to make me sign in to their shitty messanger services and so on.  I only now realized they are appending First and Last name to my sender's email address.  I didn't create sendYourShittySpamHere@yahoo.com so that I could give away my real name...  Neither yahoo nor outlook has a way to turn that off.

At any rate, can anyone recommend a nice, simple email service that I pay a yearly charge for so that they don't read all my emails and try to advertise to me or sell my info.  Something that won't suddenly go bankrupt leaving the email account unreachable.  Maybe I should just put in the effort of creating my own domain.

[Lantyssa]

My domain host costs like $70 a year and gives unlimited mailboxes on top of the hosting.  It's totally worth it for me.  Though it's not why I got the hosting, I probably use it more for e-mail than anything else.

So yeah, if you're thinking about creating a domain, there's a solid benefit right there.

[ezrast]

My domain host costs like $70 a year and gives unlimited mailboxes on top of the hosting.  It's totally worth it for me.  Though it's not why I got the hosting, I probably use it more for e-mail than anything else.

Ha, same here. I got in trouble with them a couple months ago for inadvertantly letting an unprotected Drupal instance run completely unmanaged for five years, whereupon spambots nearly murdered the shared server. I was all, "drop whatever databases you want but please don't turn off my email."

[Yegolev]

I believe I use the same hosting as Lant, although I still use gmail as my primary.  Besides the unlimited email addresses, you can basically do whatever you want with your domain: HTML, SQL, whatever; I love these guys.  I stopped updating my site quite a while ago, though I still have my Amazon Associates link on it for easy kickback action.

[Stormwaltz]

The PC died last night. I never got a chance to install the new HD, because my wife didn't get a chance to mail me my Vista install disks. But the way it broke leads me to believe the HD was never the problem at all.

I turn the box on, and never even get a BIOS post message. Am I correct to conclude this means the motherboard is dead?

If so, is it possible to move a CPU from an old MB to a new one? I don't think I've ever seen/heard of it being done.

[Numtini]

I turn the box on, and never even get a BIOS post message. Am I correct to conclude this means the motherboard is dead?

Motherboard, CPU, GPU, or memory. Something hardware. Some systems will beep or blink to tell you which one. Definitely not the hard drive though.

If so, is it possible to move a CPU from an old MB to a new one? I don't think I've ever seen/heard of it being done.

Absolutely. Take off the cooler carefully. The goop will stick it to the CPU and it might take some joggling to get it loose. Then the CPU just comes out by moving hte lever. You need to get the heat transfer goop off the CPU and apply a fresh coat when you remount the cooler on the new board. I'd probably clean it while it's on the dead board so you don't damage the pins or spill alcohol on the new mobo.

[Trippy]

The PC died last night. I never got a chance to install the new HD, because my wife didn't get a chance to mail me my Vista install disks. But the way it broke leads me to believe the HD was never the problem at all.

I turn the box on, and never even get a BIOS post message. Am I correct to conclude this means the motherboard is dead?

If so, is it possible to move a CPU from an old MB to a new one? I don't think I've ever seen/heard of it being done.

Could be power supply. Yes you can move the CPU but depending on the age of the CPU you may have difficulty finding a motherboard for it. These days Intel literally changes CPU sockets every chip design.

[Stormwaltz]

Yeaaaah. Newegg lists precisely one model that fits an Intel Core 2 Quad and DDR2, from a no-name manufacturer. But I don't really have the money to buy a new CPU as well.

I don't think it's the power supply - my problems up to this point have involved BSODs and hard system lockups. I've lost PSUs before, and the effects were different.

EDIT: Moving the rest of this to "building a new PC," since that's what I;m looking at in one way or another.

[Chimpy]

Yeaaaah. Newegg lists precisely one model that fits an Intel Core 2 Quad and DDR2, from a no-name manufacturer. But I don't really have the money to buy a new CPU as well.

I don't think it's the power supply - my problems up to this point have involved BSODs and hard system lockups. I've lost PSUs before, and the effects were different.

Bad PSU can cause just about any kind of failure condition you can imagine. If a machine won't post it is usually the first thing I would try and replace/test.

[Venkman]

Need a new router.

• Have always liked the Linksys admin environment. But given what I've seen Cisco been doing, I couldn't be convinced to go to another manufacturer.
• I definitely don't want one that requires some jank software installation. Fine if the device comes with a disk as long as I can ignore the disk. I seriously would consider the E900 if for no other reason than it's the only one that doesn't have the Cisco Connect Software included.
  
• Want 4 ethernet ports, not sure if I really want to pay the premium for 1000Base-T. I don't do a lot of things between computers and devices, it's usually devices to internet. Have three wired devices and 8-12 wireless ones on any given day. Only 2-3 are ever watching video at any given time. One will be gaming, the rest are like Facebook and email.
• Hadn't given much thought to USB Storage Port before I started seeing that option. Would be nice to hang a NAS on this.
• Don't absolutely need a media server. We're mostly iTunes based. Just because.
• Finally, range is important but I can strategically place this one. We have a wide property. So either I can get this router to cover it good enough, or I consider  ones with proven extender devices that work well?

Given the above, seems like a relatively short list. The first three or Cisco, the fourth is the asus one I stumbled on:

Linksys EA3500 App-Enabled N750 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router with Gigabit and USB- $100 avg ($70 on deal)- Basically the same tech as my current router, fine as a like-to-like replacement.
Linksys E2500 (N600) Advanced Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router- $100 avg ($70 on deal). Not 1000Base-T, but also no Cisco Cloud Connect, which reads like the exact kind of thing I'll need some convincing is worth it.
Linksys EA6500 Smart Wi-Fi Dual-Band AC Router with Gigabit and 2x USB- $200 avg ($165 on deal). Has everything, but including that Cloud thing, and I'm suspicious of anything called "SimpleTapTechnology" because that sounds like "Simple[and proprietary download this software crap]Technology".
ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router- $200 avg ($168 on deal) Good price, Gigabit WAN which is nice but I'll never get that from Cox. Not sure if those antennae are just something they threw in for looks or if they really do anything.

[Soln]

And regarding routers, who is on top of what is actually secure these days?  File security (WPA2 is no good anymore?) on top of those other requirements.

[Chimpy]

Need a new router.

• Have always liked the Linksys admin environment. But given what I've seen Cisco been doing, I couldn't be convinced to go to another manufacturer.
• I definitely don't want one that requires some jank software installation. Fine if the device comes with a disk as long as I can ignore the disk. I seriously would consider the E900 if for no other reason than it's the only one that doesn't have the Cisco Connect Software included.
  
• Want 4 ethernet ports, not sure if I really want to pay the premium for 1000Base-T. I don't do a lot of things between computers and devices, it's usually devices to internet. Have three wired devices and 8-12 wireless ones on any given day. Only 2-3 are ever watching video at any given time. One will be gaming, the rest are like Facebook and email.
• Hadn't given much thought to USB Storage Port before I started seeing that option. Would be nice to hang a NAS on this.
• Don't absolutely need a media server. We're mostly iTunes based. Just because.
• Finally, range is important but I can strategically place this one. We have a wide property. So either I can get this router to cover it good enough, or I consider  ones with proven extender devices that work well?

Given the above, seems like a relatively short list. The first three or Cisco, the fourth is the asus one I stumbled on:

Linksys EA3500 App-Enabled N750 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router with Gigabit and USB- $100 avg ($70 on deal)- Basically the same tech as my current router, fine as a like-to-like replacement.
Linksys E2500 (N600) Advanced Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router- $100 avg ($70 on deal). Not 1000Base-T, but also no Cisco Cloud Connect, which reads like the exact kind of thing I'll need some convincing is worth it.
Linksys EA6500 Smart Wi-Fi Dual-Band AC Router with Gigabit and 2x USB- $200 avg ($165 on deal). Has everything, but including that Cloud thing, and I'm suspicious of anything called "SimpleTapTechnology" because that sounds like "Simple[and proprietary download this software crap]Technology".
ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router- $200 avg ($168 on deal) Good price, Gigabit WAN which is nice but I'll never get that from Cox. Not sure if those antennae are just something they threw in for looks or if they really do anything.

Cisco no longer owns Linksys, they sold it to Belkin. Belkin has historically made some of the shittiest, worst security home routers in existence.

I have heard generally positive reviews for the Apple Airport base stations/time capsules but they are a bit spendy.

My advice is to not try to throw too many eggs into the basket of your wireless router. If you want a NAS buy a NAS device. NAS manufacturers tend to update their software more frequently than router firmware so if a security hole is found it is more likely to be closed. There are several file security vulnerabilities targeting home routers (one of the most recent was on an ASUS and was pretty egregious) out there right now. Buy a router that has the connection speed you want in the price range you are looking for.