Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

Interesting discussion.
I still have an old 2TB spinning disc as a backup / download drive which is starting to throw weird errors.

Given that it’s space I’m after, and not speed, is it still advisable to buy a hard disk? It’s connected to a raspberry so I’m limited to usb transfer speeds anyway, I’m looking to get as much gb/€… what’s best? What’s out there?

On the other hand, SSDs and even USB thumbdrives are super low on power and quiet, so it does makes sense to choose this kind of storage for the future anyway…. So what to do?
 
Interesting discussion.
I still have an old 2TB spinning disc as a backup / download drive which is starting to throw weird errors.

Given that it’s space I’m after, and not speed, is it still advisable to buy a hard disk? It’s connected to a raspberry so I’m limited to usb transfer speeds anyway, I’m looking to get as much gb/€… what’s best? What’s out there?

On the other hand, SSDs and even USB thumbdrives are super low on power and quiet, so it does makes sense to choose this kind of storage for the future anyway…. So what to do?

Are 2.5" HDD's, put into an external case, able to be powered over their USB connection? Yeah SSD's are quieter, but you'd still save, like, $100+ compared to a SATA SSD of the same physical size and capacity. As for thumb drives, they really don't seem to perform well with high-volume of reads and writes, compared to a "real" SSD.
 
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I'm a member of a forum that is likely going to close-up-shop in about a month. I don't know if I'm using this language right, but I believe it's based on PHP, but I don't know the version.

What's the best way for me, NOT a site admin, to archive this information that's in these decade+ worth of posts, for off-line reference?

I've googled this a bit, but most of the posts I'm seeing are from 10 years ago, and no idea if things have changed since then. Or, the comments in those search results rattle off lines of code, but I have no idea how to utilize any of that.

In a perfect world, there'd be a website where you'd paste in the URL of the forum, and then it would tell you how large of a download it would be, and then you'd save a zip file of it, that could be viewed in a browser. Does that exist?
 
Interesting discussion.
I still have an old 2TB spinning disc as a backup / download drive which is starting to throw weird errors.

Given that it’s space I’m after, and not speed, is it still advisable to buy a hard disk? It’s connected to a raspberry so I’m limited to usb transfer speeds anyway, I’m looking to get as much gb/€… what’s best? What’s out there?

On the other hand, SSDs and even USB thumbdrives are super low on power and quiet, so it does makes sense to choose this kind of storage for the future anyway…. So what to do?
HDDs are still completely relevant for mass storage, Despite the 5 SSDs in this machine I still have a 6TB WD Blue for older stuff. For the price of a discounted 1TB Samsung EVO you can get a 4TB WD My Passport that will run from USB. I have an older one that died and I didn't bother to claim on the warranty, I suspect any new ones will be fine but you still have to follow the golden rule and backup anything that you care about. Back it up twice, ideally. Or more.

One thing with these 2.5" USB drives is that the USB controller is almost always integrated onto the board, so if it dies the disk is as good as useless, unlike a 3.5" external drive where you can just take the disk out if the USB pops (as I did with this 6TB drive). As long as you back up, you'll be fine.

What's the best way for me, NOT a site admin, to archive this information that's in these decade+ worth of posts, for off-line reference?

I've googled this a bit, but most of the posts I'm seeing are from 10 years ago, and no idea if things have changed since then. Or, the comments in those search results rattle off lines of code, but I have no idea how to utilize any of that.

In a perfect world, there'd be a website where you'd paste in the URL of the forum, and then it would tell you how large of a download it would be, and then you'd save a zip file of it, that could be viewed in a browser. Does that exist?
You want a site crawling/scraping tool, I tried to use a few in the past to download Land Rover parts catalogues hosted online. It really was a case of feeding it the top URL and letting it go, following links and downloading the pages. Sadly it didn't get the images I wanted due to the way the site was built and unfortunately I don't remember what they were, but they do/did exist.

I will plug Powershell whenever I can as I like it and have a fair amount of success with scripts, I've used it for downloading from sites before and it can read and use link information but I've never actually put a script together to do this, I'm sure there are examples out there that you can plop into Powershell ISE whole and enter the URL.
 
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Made a video about the Samsung SSDs I have after receiving my new one:


1624721385661.png
 
Is it just me, or is this sexy?

1624892854013.png
 
Is it just me, or is this sexy?
If it's 100% copper and not just plated, yes! I recently saw a build with copper pipe for the water cooling, it looked really good. I wouldn't want to have to remove that SSD though after the machine had been running, goodbye fingerprints!

Copper is still better in swing press form though.
 
Unless you've also got a copper block on the C/GPU and copper fittings, isn't corrosion a serious issue? I know if I accidentally put my saucepan with a copper-plated bottom in the dishwasher with anything aluminum, the aluminum gets dark gray and chalky.
 
Unless you've also got a copper block on the C/GPU and copper fittings, isn't corrosion a serious issue? I know if I accidentally put my saucepan with a copper-plated bottom in the dishwasher with anything aluminum, the aluminum gets dark gray and chalky.


That should only be a problem if it is liquid cooled, and it is not.
 
I seem to have willingly caused my work email account to be used as a spam account.... almost. I had a weird looking message come last week from a well known customer/OEM boiler company we work with that was titled in the typical "I only use a computer for work and hate it" Purchase Order type things. I thought "hmm, it's been a long time since I heard from this company, ah maybe a salesman is in communication." It was an attachment that was an HTML file and lately I've been getting actual documents sent in very weird ways. So I thought this was another. I replied saying "This is not look like a normal attachment and it's asking me to sign my O365 account in to view it." I got a replay back which surprised me because at this point I'm 65% sure it was a spam message telling me this is the new way and it's a new system for them. Huh ok, I thought nothing of it. I sign in, I get some error about it not working. I screenshot and send back to this women's email address with the error. I never gave it a second thought as I never heard back. After that I started getting loads of "trying to reach you about your cars warranty" phone calls and voicemails so something is now very up. All in a sudden this evening I get 2 text messages from microsoft about the 2 factor authentication code. I thought "hmm, ok, so that message I thought was weird, despite getting a reply, was actually spam." It also happened to another coworker who got the message from an OEM he is in contact with who just wrote us a check for $200,000+.

Goddamnit, I fell victim. :(
 
That should only be a problem if it is liquid cooled, and it is not.
Ahhh, I meant to reply to the post after yours, talking about the copper tubing on a water cooled rig.
 
Ahhh, I meant to reply to the post after yours, talking about the copper tubing on a water cooled rig.


Ah, okay, not a problem, stuff happens.
 
Interesting, it's always been my go-to. I'll either stick with the older version or use one of the Adobe audio apps that I pay for as part of the CC package but can't be bothered to learn. :LOL:
 
I noticed quite a lot of people on this forum use the Logitech MX Master 3 wireless mouse, what are the experiences with it? I've read online that some people complain about the scroll wheel, did Logitech fix that on later series?

I basically want a mouse that would be good for graphic design, and occasional office use and video editing. Any good alternatives? What about the MX Master 2S? It's cheaper and has a simpler scroll wheel mechanism, but it doesn't have USB-C and it's less ergonomic. Any other ideas for approximately €90?
 
I'm running an MX Master (gen 1) - no idea about the funky scrollwheel tbh, mine is weird, but it works very well (some magnetic automatic unlock when scrolled fast enough). Can't for the life of me get used to the thumbwheel for wideways scrolling, but apart from that, very happy with it. Then again, I don't really do much with it: just the usual office and occasional (casual) gaming use.

... also I got it when they introduced the newer versions, so it was crazy cheap (35€). I'd probably find all sorts of issues, too, if I had paid 90€ for a damn mouse :|
 
The price is a factor that's putting me off from buying one, but then, since I'm a web designer (or a UI/UX designer, or similar) in the making, I figured a nice mouse would be worth investing into.

And then there is the horizontal scroll button, which seems like a really useful feature shall I work with Excel spreadsheets or video editing in the future. I don't really think I'll be doing too much Excel stuff, but I am interested in doing a bit of video editing.
 
- I never use the thumb wheel but i’m glad it exists because it means the main wheel doesn’t have that annoying side tilt.
- The main wheel is nice, i like the magnetic feel and the way it lets go and freewheels when you flick it. When you want the freewheeling to stop, just stop the wheel with a finger. You’ll feel the magnet grab with a click.
- It’s slightly too big (or unnecessarily big) for my average size man hands.

I got the Mac version from a discount bin. The mouse itself is the same, but the mac version doesn’t have the usb adapter in the box, I’m guessing because macs generally don’t have USB-A ports anymore and they all have bluetooth since decades anyway. Too bad that bluetooth performance with my M1 Mac Mini was a complete disaster. Choppy and imprecise mouse performance. I had to buy the unified receiver separately, that sorted things out. Other bluetooth mice work fine though…
 
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