Ontopic Random Computer-Electronics Thread

The Smartthings plugin I use to get that stuff into my iSheep ecosystem had quit working at some point and the dev doesn't update it anymore.

Some guy made his own version and it works so much better and was a snap to install. :cool:

Instantaneous hardware polling vs the old one that had a delay.
 
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The new iOS for iPad is a little buggy. I’ve only surfed around here a little bit and already, I’ve been shown the definition of “gravy” a half dozen times.
 
The MBP is humming along, but still has periodic freakouts, mostly when using Quicken 2017 which, near as I can tell, was written entirely by drunk badgers.

Gonna have to figure out an alternative, as that software is just turrible.
 
I just saw this pop up on a broadcast mailing list I'm subscribed to, from a broadcast engineer responding to a call that a TV station didn't come back on the air after a power outage.

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Turns out this transmitter failed to boot because the LS120 (remember that shit?) drive containing the OS dropped dead. Harris didn't want to use a hard drive because hard drives crash, and at the time the transmitter was designed a LS120 drive with a disk in it was cheaper than a compactflash card, and I guess they assumed that a LS120 drive wouldn't crash. Even weirder, LS120 was obsolete in the early 00's and this transmitter is from the late 00's, built in the run-up to the ATSC switchover in 2009.

They're overnighting him a new drive/disk and hopefully they'll be back on the air tomorrow. Apparently Harris has a newer UI that uses 'solid state storage' but it involves replacing the screen, embedded computer, and the entire fucking front door of the transmitter.

Apparently all this makes sense when you realize Harris is primarily a military contractor.
 
wirecutter reviews still a cromulent source of info?

I need a new router and modem, but things have changed since my pappy's 802.11b days, so I'm not sure what's good anymore.
 
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