Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

In late 2009 someone was giving away bitcoins for free on a small finnish image board. I thought the was idea intriguing but found it unlikely to catch on and ultimately ignored them. As I'm writing this one bitcoin is "worth" 1218$.

Im-not-even-Mad-Ron-Burgandy-Anchorman.gif

Four years on since that post and now they're valued at ~$10500. I'd be lying if I denied any fear of missing out but that seems to be the main reason for the current price anyway.

Then there is the latest twist of wash trading and other shady shit on Bitfinex exchange and the market wide effect of USD Tether. Someone behind Twitter handle @Bitfinexed has been calling them out consistently since April.

All in all I'm in awe. :blink:
 
I really should see if the 0.30something Bitcoin I have stashed on this computer is something I can actually use. Got it years ago mining but I don't recall the specifics of my wallet (though I do have record of my wallet address via my email) but I don't at all remember if or what I had it setup with password wise. Nice as the money would be (and I'd ride it out a while longer just to see how it goes) there's no sense bothering or worrying about it if I can't actually get my hands back on it. :lol:
 
If you used the "normal" Bitcoin client back then, look for the wallet.dat file - that's got your wallet's private keys in it. If you find it, immediately use the current Bitcoin Core client to encrypt it with a strong password (wasn't an option back in the day), and move it to a safe storage, if you plan on holding.

Also, if you had Bitcoin back then, the same private key will work for you currently for the "main" Bitcoin blockchain, as well as Bitcoin Cash. Use the Bitcoin-ABC client with the same wallet.dat file to access that.
 
If they don't fuck up the level design and as long as they just replicate the controls of Mega Man 2, Mega Man 11 looks awesome.
 
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I'm a big Facebook user and I like their UI for the most part, but this is getting ridiculous.

I have a handful of people whose posts I want to come up first (and I've checked the box to make that happen) but I still don't see them in the main feed.

I get a ton of useless "tag your friend in this" bullshit, however. Usually the tags are by people I don't really ever deal with but that I still have on my friends list.
 
Perc;n3542289 said:
I'm a big Facebook user and I like their UI for the most part, but this is getting ridiculous.

I have a handful of people whose posts I want to come up first (and I've checked the box to make that happen) but I still don't see them in the main feed.

I get a ton of useless "tag your friend in this" bullshit, however. Usually the tags are by people I don't really ever deal with but that I still have on my friends list.

They have even started to fuck with the notifications. They aren't in order. They are prioritizing them now.
 
That's been happening for a while now. I will consistently see some popular post a friend I hardly talk to come nearly hourly even though the last post was a day ago and there's been a swath of new shit to look at.
 
Facebook was better back when you had to have a .edu email to use it.

And the "Most Recent" feed was actually that, not some random assortment of posts in an order I have to figure out but is certainly not chronological. Nowadays I'm fairly sure I have more posts on my feed from people I've never heard of, let alone know, who are friends of friends or farther removed and shared or liked something. Often I don't even see posts from direct family unless I go straight to their own page to see what they post, and that drives me bananas. Also, while I'm complaining, I want a way to turn off the local marketplace thing they've stuck on the right sidebar. I'm not buying random crap from people from facebook.

Now, back on the subject of the Bitcoin thing from a couple weeks ago, everything I had was still there. Opened up the wallet, updated (mine was still an old Beta client), waited overnight for it to resync 3+ years of blockchain, and good to go. Now it just needs to keep going up in value and I need to decide on an exchange. And probably go open up a new back account to use for said exchange.
 
For some reason, I don’t believe the stuff on the public marketplace are legit. I’ve purchased items on closed groups of local towns and hobbyist pages. It worked out, my brother got a sweet snowblower and I got some model trains to put on my shelf.

The public listings look sketchy as fuck. That could be my area though.
 
I've decided to get a UHD Blu-ray drive. Watching BDs on the XBOne is frankly a pain in the arse as I use it so infrequently it constantly wants updates and navigating with a controller has never worked properly. So a BD drive for me PC is what it'll be.

As far as the drives go, The Pioneer BDR-XD06J-UHD is an external USB 3.0 unit and since my new case has no external drive bays it's the obvious choice, however apparently just playing UHD discs on a PC is complicated now. My processor and motherboard support the requirements but the hickup is with PAVP. I think I've got around it despite having a 1080Ti installed that doesn't support PAVP, simply by setting the primary graphics card to the integrated graphics instead of the PCIE. If the cable to the TV (my primary display) is plugged in to the HDMI port on the motherboard it passes the Cyberlink test with no issues, as soon as it is switched over to the 1080Ti that takes over and all games work as normal while failing the Cyberlink test on PAVP. For now I've thrown in a manual HDMI switch to test it out but it's looking good, just need to get the drive ordered. :)
 
It used to be that I could copy an attached PDF from an incoming email, paste it into a new one, open the attachment, edit it, and just click "save" and it would save the changes to the attached file.

Ever since updating to the most recent refreshed version of Acrobat Pro DC a couple of months ago, it no longer seemed to allow that. No matter what the change is, if you click "Save", it automatically forces a "Save As..." prompt. This means I have to save it somewhere else, then re-attach it. Not a world-ending issue, but very inconvenient over a couple dozen times a day.

Does anyone know if there's a way to change this?
 
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I just ordered a Logitech M720 from Amazon.

Amazon Germany claims I'm not a prime member, but gave me free Prime shipping anyway. Amazon UK on the other hand recognizes me as being a Prime subscriber (which I am, because TGT) but wanted around £6 to ship me the exact same mouse.

Strange.
 
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/7/16862054/nvidia-4k-hdr-gaming-monitors-bfgds-g-sync-ces-2018

Nvidia is unveiling what it calls Big Format Gaming Displays (BFGDs) at CES today. The displays are 65 inches, and PC makers like Acer, Asus, and HP will be manufacturing them as 4K HDR displays. Essentially they’re giant gaming monitors with G-Sync, perfect for a high-end gaming PC.
...
The addition of G-Sync in such a big display is a surprise, alongside support for 120Hz refresh rates with a 4K resolution.

Holy shit, this is amazing. I might actually be able to upgrade my first-gen 4K panel this year (4 years 1 month old as I'm writing this). Getting extra 10 inches, G-sync (yaaass), 120hz, 4:4:4 chroma, HDR and probably just a more advanced panel anyway at this point. :D
 
NecroJoe;n3542492 said:
It used to be that I could copy an attached PDF from an incoming email, paste it into a new one, open the attachment, edit it, and just click "save" and it would save the changes to the attached file.

Ever since updating to the most recent refreshed version of Acrobat Pro DC a couple of months ago, it no longer seemed to allow that. No matter what the change is, if you click "Save", it automatically forces a "Save As..." prompt. This means I have to save it somewhere else, then re-attach it. Not a world-ending issue, but very inconvenient over a couple dozen times a day.

Does anyone know if there's a way to change this?

This has vexed me since updating to this months ago. There's that, the way that almost every tool I used is no longer 1 or 2 clicks away, but several drop-down menus away, and also their complete "WTF?" initial save screen that doesn't look like any other "Save As..." dialog box...

I've suggested that every co-worker put off the updated for as long as they can, and everyone hates the latest version.
 
Is anyone else surprised by the the nutty GPU prices? I am still trying to update to a better card and wish I would have grabbed a deal or few I seen over the end of the summer through the Black Friday sales.
 
GRtak;n3544974 said:
Is anyone else surprised by the the nutty GPU prices? I am still trying to update to a better card and wish I would have grabbed a deal or few I seen over the end of the summer through the Black Friday sales.

Cryptocurrency mining is pushing the prices for current cards. Many coins are designed to be ASIC-resistant (= not possible to mine on purpose-designed hardware), so GPUs are still the most efficient way to mine them, and the demand is huge.
 
GRtak;n3544974 said:
Is anyone else surprised by the the nutty GPU prices? I am still trying to update to a better card and wish I would have grabbed a deal or few I seen over the end of the summer through the Black Friday sales.

If you're looking for/don't mind buying an Nvidia card, both EVGA and Nvidia themselves sell cards directly from their websites, either at MSRP, or right about what they would normally sell for.

It's just buying them when they're still in stock is still an issue.
 
I do know what is driving the cost increases on these cards, but it still seems quite ludicrous that a 1080 TI can be more than a Titan XP MSRP.


At this point in time, I think I am going to wait until the next generation of cards so I can catch a break on this generation of cards.
 
GRtak;n3544974 said:
Is anyone else surprised by the the nutty GPU prices? I am still trying to update to a better card and wish I would have grabbed a deal or few I seen over the end of the summer through the Black Friday sales.

Yeah! I’ve been looking to upgrade my R9 270 that has 2GB of ram for something higher and I can’t bring myself to spend more than $350. So, to see prices at 1,000 or more is insanity to me.
 
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