The Computer Thread

That [curved 34" monitor] costs more than my 40" 4K TV.

That costs more than my computer, plus my 32" HDTV and X Box 360.

(page topper context added)

edited 16th Jul '15 8:26:30 PM by Nohbody

Random crashes? I updated my drivers via windows update, added the Combined Community Codec Pack....

... AND BROKE MY COMPUTER....what in the name of Cthulu's balls is "COM surrogate has stopped working"!?!?!?!?

Took me seven system restores and disabling AVG TO FIX IT AND STOP THE CRASHING!!!!11!ELEVENTY!

Steve Balmer you can *&@@&# and **&^^$ yourself!

~* weeps into her keyboard *~

edited 16th Jul '15 11:14:04 PM by TairaMai

Well, have I got a weird issue...

When I booted up the computer and started using Google today, it was displaying the fonts in Korean. Why, I have no idea, but I assumed that maybe either me or my mom had accidentally a pressed a wrong key (most likely my mom) which resulted in the wrong language setting being chosen. So naturally, I switch it back to English.

Yet, for some reason, Google now keeps starting up on www.google.kr, NOT www.google.com. The language is (moslty) ok, but that means I'm now getting Korean adverts and all that whenever I'm on Youtube or using the search engine. Manually switching back to google.com works, but it doesn't affect any new tabs or pages I open.

I've never seen this issue before, and the help section states that either I accidentally changed the language settings or am near a Korean proxy server (which can't be - the U.S., followed by Japan is actually closer, server-wise) so what gives?

Are you using Google's DNS? Is your ISP routing you to Korea, since you're in Guam? When I was stationed in Korea I had to work to keep Google from automatically assuming I wanted it in Korean.

That might be a possibility, regarding the ISP suddenly suffering a mix-up on my home desktop's connection. It's tricky to tell though, because the laptop I'm using at the moment is using wi-fi tethering to connect to the internet, albeit from the same internet provider.

But if it is a DNS issue, why haven't I encountered it before? This is the first time I've ever noticed this issue.

EDIT: On second thought... there might be an explanation for the odd behavior. Earlier this week an undersea cable line connecting to Guam was damaged, forcing one of the ISP providers to seek an alternate source of internet until the situation is resolved. Thing is, said ISP provider isn't the one I'm using, which is why I didn't think of them being a potential cause.

edited 17th Jul '15 9:12:17 PM by SgtRicko

They still might be loaning there service out.

Most of those cables tend to be shared.

I've installed a game, but something happened during the restart process and I'm now stuck in the Automatic Repair loop (thanks, Windows 8.1).

The error is 0xc0000225, iirc. I've found out about it after doing a debugging. Boot modes don't work, since it'll return to the loop.

Does anyone have a solution here? Otherwise, I'll have to take the laptop to the store.

edited 23rd Jul '15 11:35:51 AM by Quag15

That error code is saying that windows cant find its system files.

If that helps with any thing.

I finally went and tallied up everything for my dream PC.

PSU and GTX 970 are already purchased, that was close to $400. PCP said the whole build would be around $800, lowered it to 770-80 over the last couple of days. I told myself "$800, $850 tops."

Now, to be fair, that's projected, with rebates included and tax/shipping not.

I ran it through all of the various shopping carts from Outlet PC, Superbiiz, Newegg, and Amazon.

With shipping and taxes, at leastone $10 rebate, and me mixing and matching sellers to try and buy smart...

...it comes to about $914.71.

I will have put over $900 into this computer, which isn't very upgradeable so I've been told. 3-6 years of gaming and Microsoft Office bliss, after that, no one knows.

Fortunately, I haven't purchased any of the parts yet, so I can look for cheaper parts. That said, Fallout comes out in November... 15 weeks, more than enough time.

To save up for it.

edited 23rd Jul '15 4:14:46 PM by Soble

What else is going into the build? I'd be extremely wary of having a PC that can't really be upgraded much; that's what happened to me with my last PC (it was a pre built in a retail store), so I decided to build a new one where I could get some parts in the future if I need to, especially for a motherboard and a CPU.

A PC that can't be upgraded can be DONATED to:

• The local university/college (for learning), to a school (for learning and use).

• Sold on Craigslist/ Ebay/ what have you

• Donated to the local non-profit. Goddess knows the local NGO needs all the help it can get.

• Given to a family member.

• Donate to the Salvation Army/Goodwill/etc.

• Sell to your local PC club.

edited 23rd Jul '15 10:38:39 PM by TairaMai

I use mine as end tables and footrests.

Or you can give it to someone you hate.

Ha! It is your problem now!

edited 23rd Jul '15 10:47:09 PM by AngelusNox

Just For Fun:

random commit message generator

Script to fake a Github streak

(x5)

To be fair, I'm not getting an SSD, I'm not overclocking, I already have a few monitors I can try out, and I'm using the stock cooler. The intention of this first PC wasn't "I will not be playing Crysis 4 on ULTRA MAX settings 10-20 years from now, I will most likely be building castles in Minecraft v-whatever."

I don't know how upgradeable it is, just that the PCI slots on the motherboard... or was it that the size of the motherboard, something to do with micro'ATX made it not very upgradeable.

The video card and the CPU are what's really draining - GTX 970 NVIDIA, i5-4460. I probably don't need that sort of horsepower for Fallout 4.

edited 24th Jul '15 10:43:10 AM by Soble

Moore's Law is now 50 years old, but will it continue?

I wasn't talking about overclocking or the like. You need wiggle room for when you do upgrade down the line so that you don't have to go through having to upgrade another part to use a new part you ordered.

When I got my GTX 960, my games were still not doing great. It turned out that I needed to upgrade my CPU as well. The stock motherboard my stock PC had had a hilariously out of date CPU socket that nobody uses anymore (from 2011 or earlier, AM 2 was it?), so I needed to upgrade my motherboard. I decided to get a bundle that gave a new CPU, motherboard, and more RAM. I put everything together, only to find out that the connector the power button used was different and was not compatible with my motherboard. Now I needed a new PC case that had the right power connectors (the ones that makes the power button work. No work, PC no turn on). Luckily, a friend of mine had a case she was not using anymore and sent me hers. However, I wasn't out of the woods because now I had to get a new OS since changing my CPU made my old OS not work properly and since my old PC was a stock build, no recovery or install discs.

In short, you always want to make sure you can have a build where if you need to upgrade one part, that is the only part you want to upgrade.

What CPU did you have?

I think it was an AMD Petheon II.....something. it was a quad core at 3GHz. This was early 2011 so the CPU was probably from 2010. It definitely was holding my gaming back for sure.

Any idea why a laptop computer would suddenly suffer a complete refusal to respond to keyboard and mouse input, have its monitor black out completely, and whatever video that was already playing continue to play for the last few seconds remaining in the "buffer" while all that was happening before it too stops?

edited 26th Jul '15 8:01:08 AM by MarqFJA

I'm not sure if this fits in the computer thread, but all my phone contacts seem to have disappeared. v_v

I've tried switching my phone on and off, changing the display settings on my contact's list and deleting the last app I installed, but it doesn't seem to have done anything.

The only thing that shows up in my list is my own number, which has been renamed to a long string of M's and n's (with a 0 near the end).

Samsung Galaxy Ace 4
Model Number: SM-G357FZ
Android 4.4.4

EDIT: Something else I've noticed; there seem to be odds strings of characters on my "notes" app (there isn't really anything else I can write text in). Could it be some sort of problem with the phone's memory (my contacts were saved to the phone itself)?

edited 28th Jul '15 6:44:09 AM by Bisected8

The Brazilian government seeks ways to tax the internet

In other words, what is already shitty and expensive is going to become even more expensive.

Just NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It is not like we're getting milked dry due to our government fuck ups already.

The original article is in Portuguese.

edited 29th Jul '15 12:55:49 PM by AngelusNox

Google’s Internet balloons will soon connect all of Sri Lanka with Wi-Fi: "Google has teamed up with the Sri Lankan government to deliver broadband Internet to every region of the island nation, making it the first country in the world to have universal Internet coverage. The initiative is part of Google’s Project Loon, which aims to provide cheap or free Wi-Fi to people in remote rural areas around the world via a fleet of huge helium-filled balloons floating way up in the stratosphere.

Right now, of the 22 million mobile phones being used in Sri Lanka, 2.8 million of them are connected to the Internet, so if the initiative goes ahead, it could change a whole lot of lives. 'Hopefully in a few months every person and every device on the island will be covered by 3G,' Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Harsha de Silva, said on Facebook."

Obama pledges US will build ‘exascale’ supercomputers within 10 years: "The White House has announced the establishment of its National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) this week, which is designed to keep the US at the forefront of high-performance computing well into the coming decades. The key to keeping up will be the development of giant exascale supercomputers, which the US government says it will build within the next 10 years to perform incredibly fast and complex operations."

Does anyone have particular suggestions for how to create a family tree chart outside of MS-Word, then put it inside a Word document? I thought of making it manually, but realized that unless I want my chart to look really haphazard in favor of cutting down on the time spent, I'll have to put in a lot of time and effort to make the connecting lines look orderly, including distinguishing particular relationships such as adoptees and exogamous spouses from the blood-related members.

Consider this and this as an example of the kind of family tree that I'm trying to make.

edited 31st Jul '15 2:49:25 PM by MarqFJA

Microsoft Powerpoint. You can draw your slides with lines to connect the names. You might want a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

Print the slide and manually insert it, try to add the slide to your word .DOC file or screenshot it, edit and then paste it in as a .JPG or .GIF file.

edited 1st Aug '15 12:20:51 AM by TairaMai