The Computer Thread

Why? A chromebook on guest mode is no more or less insecure than any laptop connected to the internet. With an anonymous google docs account, it's arguably more secure. It's a pain letting Google collect our metadata, but that's just a matter of not using their services.

Tim Sweeney with a bad take on Epic vs Apple:

The original Tech Crunch article Sweeney was replying to.

Edited by tclittle on Nov 18th 2020 at 3:56:36 AM

Isn't Chrome OS getting sunsetted in favour of an Android fork soon anyway?

That's news to me,source?

It's one of those things that keeps rumour mill grinding every so often I guess.

De Marquis - Google won't change it's ways and again, you don't own ChromeOS, they do.

If you want secure, you own it and you can use it offline, go with Linux.

As a Windows user, I've had to deal with so many issues when House Redmond makes changes behind my back. Heed my Jacob Marley Warning - go Linux if you want to tinker.

*rattles chains made of Windows CD's and ELUA printouts*

So I think I finally figured out what was making me blue screen every time I played Left 4 Dead 2. I had the MSI Dragon Center software, which came with my motherboard. I never had any problems with it until the October Windows update where it all started. I uninstalled the software and hadn't had any problems since. I googled a bit and it seems a lot of other people had similar issues.

I've got a really weird question. It seems my speakers and/or PC are picking up HAM Radio signals and I have no idea where it's coming from or how to stop it. Anyone have any ideas?

... put some tinfoil around the speakers and cables?

Now I'm picturing a pair of speakers each wearing their own tin foil hat.

You could try changing the length and orientation of the the speaker wires.

I'm posting this here because I'm not sure where it best fits.

From Ars Technica: The Supreme Court will finally rule on controversial US hacking law

Oral arguments were taken yesterday in a case related to the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), in which SCOTUS is considering how broadly to interpret the law.

The specific case is a police officer charged with "hacking" for accepting a bribe to use his credentials to look up information in a police database in violation of his official duties. The officer did not actually break the security on the system, but he used his privileged access to perform an unethical act.

CFAA has been used to prosecute many other "unauthorized access" cases in both criminal and civil court, such as against ticket scalpers writing "scraping" code targeting Ticketmaster's website, or a third party re-hosting Craigslist ads. It could even, in principle, be cited if an employee used their work computer to send a personal email.

The defense is arguing that this wide reading of the law to cover any access to a system that violates its terms of use is so broad that it could be used against almost anyone, crushing civil liberties. The government is presenting a novel argument that CFAA applies only to individuals exploiting specific, authorized access rather than generally, which is completely at odds with the past usage of the statute.

The government's position is novel because it has literally never been argued before, and it is also not supported by a strict reading of the law, according to onlookers.

Edited by Fighteer on Dec 1st 2020 at 12:41:01 PM

If neither side wants to interpret the law as it was originally written, that makes it sound like a poorly written law.

Poorly written, poorly interpreted, potato/potato.

Hey guys. Having a computer issue that I'm not entirely sure how to fix. I have an Acer Nitro 5 laptop and the screen won't display anything. The computer still works and will display on a tv screen if I plug it in with an HTMI cable. I took it too a tech guy and he says he'll need to get a motherboard to replace it. Is that true? Or is it possible screen is just loose from a wire or something? Anyone know a quick fix or what part I could buy, like a screen or a wire inside. If it works well enough I'm not sure why I'd need to replace motherboard just cause screen isn't working. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

That sounds like the ribbon cable between the motherboard and the screen has broken or the connection has been damaged in some way, since obviously the display adapter is fine. However, that might be only user replaceable in the most technical sense. Or the screen's stopped working.

Though I honestly have no clue how they get to "replace the motherboard" as the solution when that's obviously the functional part.

Hmm...that is odd. Maybe I could look on ebay for a ribbon cable? How do I find? Or is it just "Ribbon Cable for Acer Nitro 5" typed on a google search will give me results?

Ah, it's not a ribbon cable, and they are available. Depending on the exact model you might be able to find a disassembly video.

Though honestly, couldn't you go back to the tech guy and ask why he thinks it's the motherboard if the HDMI out works properly? Or find someone more honest?

Does anyone know of a calculator website that updates and calculates in real-time, without having to click a button to see the result? Both Google and Ecosia used to have that as a feature just by typing the calculation in the browser, the result would automatically show in the drop-down menu for suggested searches. It seems to not be a feature anymore, and now to use the web browser as a calculator, I have to actually hit enter and wait for it to load for each individual calculation, which is much more time-consuming and annoying.

I tried this just now on Firefox and it still works. I assume it would work on others with a google search engine.

I'm on Firefox and it doesn't work for me. It seems to be finicky, I remember it working fine a while ago, but then it stopped, and I think it started working again but now it's stopped again and hasn't worked in a few months now.

Bloomberg: VR startups are accusing Facebook of doing the Facebook thing of blocking, breaking, and killing any possible competition to Oculous.

I posted a few months ago about my laptop not working without the adapter being plugged in all the time. Unfortunately I couldn't get the cover off, so I decided to take it to a computer repair shop. Turned out the battery was swollen so that had to be replaced along with the SSD drive.

How bad is it that a used laptop was sold with a swollen battery? I bought this from a nonprofit that recycles and sells computer parts, among other things. They listed the laptop as having "90% battery health" but they showed the battery power management window as 90% charged and didn't say anything about power issues. I didn't realize at the time that it was incorrect.

A used laptop is more likely to have a battery with those sorts of problems, if it developed after you got it then it's not their fault. If it's before, they really should have checked because fire hazard.

I don't think it actually reflects in power characteristics, so you kind of have to check.

Can somebody can recommend me a good image edition program, free or otherwise, for translating comics? I want to translate some stuff, mostly for practice, and most of the instructions, programs or methods are either difficult, worthless to use.