Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

God damnit, my computer issues just won't stop. :mad:

This new eSATA enclosure I bought is being stupid, it will only work and show me the drives if it's plugged in and turned on before I turn the computer on.

The enclosure is supposedly hot-swappable, so what could it be? It doesn't seem like there were any eSATA drivers I needed to install.
 
prizrak said:
Citrix was a great idea back in the day. Nowadays not so much, easier to set up a web based service.
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That's the first thing I said. There has to be better solutions. Then they showed me their ordering system which is based on this:

as400-main-menu.jpg


Yes, it's from 1980. I wouldnt get my hopes up about going to a web based system in... ever ;)

An example of the folly. AS/400 prints physical copies. Physical copies are then altered with tippex to remove fields that cannot be removed in AS/400. Physical copy is then scanned and mailed as a 3MB (often) PDF.
 
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AiR said:
That's the first thing I said. There has to be better solutions. Then they showed me their ordering system which is based on this:

as400-main-menu.jpg


Yes, it's from 1980. I wouldnt get my hopes up about going to a web based system in... ever ;)
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My company deals with a lot of bank/insurance systems that have been running for several decades. There simply is no reason to justify changing such a running system.
 
Oh there's plenty of reasons to replace ours, for instance the ones I mentioned above, it's hugely cumbersome to use and does not warn you if you type in something in error (dates are a favourite, it uses different syntax depending on where you are so 100111 is the 10th of january 2011 OR the 11th of january 2010). It doesnt say which date format is used, you just have to know. Why does nobodoy fix this? There's no answer to that question. Probably all the developers who understood how AS 400 worked are dead.

The only problem with replacing it is that it would cost money in the initial stage.
 
I fucking hate helping family...it's a love hate relationship. I mentioned in another thread how my uncle wants to use his old Dell dimension as a netflix player for his TV, he's so fucking impatient I swear. I find out he bought a fucking $60 graphics card from Dell (Diamond ATi Radeon S9250 with 256 MB of VRAM) w/out showing me first, because I was busy and he couldn't wait a few goddamn days.

I'm not even sure it'll work with the fucking computer, it's power supply is ridiculously weak. Plus many say upgrading the graphics on a machine this old (celeron processor, 1 GB of RAM) to drive a largish HDTV is beyond pointless, and suggested getting an Apple TV.

The really ironic part: Apparently he's given in and got Comcast, so he's waiting on the "self-install kit" to arrive. Rendering this whole experiment pointless because....

He has a blu-ray player that supports Netflix streaming. :|

Can someone just get the gun now....
 
AiR said:
Probably all the developers who understood how AS 400 worked are dead.
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That's where we would come in :lol:
Many of our customers choose us because their own people are heading for retirement, and training/buying fulltime people for themselves would be too expensive.
 
Oh so you're one of those system engineers? Can I order a new system from you? I'm sure you'd get paid eventually :yes:

Requirements:
  • Runs in an interweb browser
  • Does everything I want it to
  • Looks like the dogs


rickhamilton620 said:
I fucking hate helping family...
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Yes it's lovely isn't it? :D
I help most of my extended family but I have given up on one of my uncles who was hopeless. I fixed his computer, and he ruined it again in a week. A week! I scared him off so he doesnt ask me any more.
 
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AiR said:
Oh so you're one of those system engineers? Can I order a new system from you? I'm sure you'd get paid eventually :yes:
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I myself build new systems, a large group of my colleagues deals with maintaining old ones. I'm sure there are some able to deal with your stuff too, but "eventually" getting paid won't work :no:
 
I can pay you in rep points, deal right? :thumbsup:

In more tech news, I want a DVB-T2 tuner for my computer. There are exactly one to choose from. Talk about competition. Hauppauge Nanostick T2.
 
Nah I think you found all there is now. Sweet box, but ?200 is a bit steep. Oh there's the BlackGold PCI-E dual tuner but that isn't for sale yet I think. BlackGold have a single tuner T2 that works for the UK but doesnt like our transmissions.
 
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rickhamilton620 said:
I find out he bought a fucking $60 graphics card from Dell (Diamond ATi Radeon S9250 with 256 MB of VRAM) w/out showing me first, because I was busy and he couldn't wait a few goddamn days.

I'm not even sure it'll work with the fucking computer, it's power supply is ridiculously weak.
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His power supply is the least of your worries (it's a low-power card, btw). He bought a graphics card that is seven generations old. The GPU in your cellphone is probably 10x the speed of what he bought.
 
someone mentioned as400? :O

My mom (when she was employed @ one of the biggest finnish banks in the 90s) used as400.
She didn't like it then and she doesn't like it now :D
and she hasn't even used one in 20years :O
 
narf said:
My company deals with a lot of bank/insurance systems that have been running for several decades. There simply is no reason to justify changing such a running system.
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I work for a company that makes bank payment systems. We currently have something like the above (but it is being constantly developed and upgraded, just looks old) we also have one that has a fully web based interface. I was being trained on the latter and despite knowing next to nothing about payments (I support different product) had no problem using it. I think the plan is to replace the former with the latter in some very distant future.
I fucking hate helping family...it's a love hate relationship. I mentioned in another thread how my uncle wants to use his old Dell dimension as a netflix player for his TV, he's so fucking impatient I swear. I find out he bought a fucking $60 graphics card from Dell (Diamond ATi Radeon S9250 with 256 MB of VRAM) w/out showing me first, because I was busy and he couldn't wait a few goddamn days.

I'm not even sure it'll work with the fucking computer, it's power supply is ridiculously weak. Plus many say upgrading the graphics on a machine this old (celeron processor, 1 GB of RAM) to drive a largish HDTV is beyond pointless, and suggested getting an Apple TV.

The really ironic part: Apparently he's given in and got Comcast, so he's waiting on the "self-install kit" to arrive. Rendering this whole experiment pointless because....

He has a blu-ray player that supports Netflix streaming.

Can someone just get the gun now....
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To add insult to injury BR players and various other video "appliances" tend to have better quality NFLX playback than PCs. If you go through the website you can get HD but if you are using a plug in from within 7MC or something like that you can only get 480p max.
 
Everyone at work much prefers AS400 over SAP. It was faster and simpler to do any task, unless you worked in accounting.
 
I've had 2 LCDs die in the last month or so, time for drastic measures.



That is a 19" Viewsonic E90, circa 2004 or so.
 
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