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Uptime about to be wiped...

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SilentUnicorn said:
Here is a neat little utility (freeware) https://www.grc.com/securable.htm
this will tell you if your processor supports virtualization or not.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Edit: Yup, this itsy-bitsy toshiba supports it (after I turned it on).

Edit2: of course I only have 1gb of RAM on this machine, virtual-XP needs 2. It looks promising, kind of like WINE on steroids. Not entirely sure I like the idea of running on a virtual machine. I might end up having to rewrite everything to suit the new OSs.
 
Doc, why not get an UPS? I have 3, one for each of my 'always on' computers... definitely a compy live saver during brown-outs, surges, and the like.
 
Yeah, Pete, have UPS' on 6 machines already. It ain't surges 'n brown-outs I fear. It's the Florida "rainy season" now, 4PM daily showers most times. Power goes down for more than a couple hours sometimes. We really NEED the rain but when the snap-n-thump gets violent things tend to get fried big-time around here. Last evenin' it looked like we were in for a real frog strangler. It went east of us tho. Tornadoes, 30MPH winds and hail ten miles away, we got bupkiss. Sprinkles an' a cool breeze. Weird weather. :wink:
 
Hi DOC. if you are having fried electronics , it might be time to consider installing Lightening Arrestors onna shed's power lines, also if your water table is very high like you say a Lightening rod grounded in that water table done by a Pro will do wonders for you too.-Fwiw--Keoke
 
Not MY 'lectronics, Keoke. Th' power company's gear. Ground level transformer farm a few hundred yards downwind. Seems to be a bolt magnet. Makes an AMAZING report if it gets hit, too. :shocked:
 
Yep Doc, that sure would be an attraction for it. These power co guys just can;\'t get over those high resistance 5 OHM power grounds.
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I think ifin it was me Id be sick on them thumpin days.---Keoke-- :laugh:
 
Well, A few minutes after I posted that, a tornado touched down a quarter mile from us, the grid went down for over an hour and now I have to start from scratch again. Lucky bit is: no fried stuff here. But now I have a: "7:58pm up 35 min," uptime.

We're at th' mercy of Mama Nature whether it's lightnin' or asteroids. :smirk:
 
Wot Doc.!! In Fla. and you aren't running a battery power back-up w/surge protection??? Took me a couple of fry-jobs before I made the investment, now SWMBO and I both feel a little bit more secure!
 
bugimike said:
aren't running a battery power back-up w/surge protection???
Click to expand...

That's what an UPS is buddy.
 
DrEntropy said:
Well, A few minutes after I posted that, a tornado touched down a quarter mile from us, the grid went down for over an hour and now I have to start from scratch again. Lucky bit is: no fried stuff here. But now I have a: "7:58pm up 35 min," uptime.

We're at th' mercy of Mama Nature whether it's lightnin' or asteroids. :smirk:
Click to expand...
Nah, you just need one of these:

https://www.cat2-4mw.com/
 
Surge protection all over.

What I ~don't~ have is a way to automatically generate power if it drops out for more than a few minutes.

But I'm workin' on it.

EDIT: Perfect, Yis!!! Now all I gotta do is figger out how to hide it inna back yard. :laugh:
 
I never wiped anything from the mains, but I went through a stack of modems from the phone lines! I finally found one that had some kind of lightning protection built in - and it worked (I guess).

Even had lightning wipe out half a vonage box. I use a dual-line phone using the normal landline on one side, vonage on the other. All I can figure is it got through the phone and made its way to the vonage box. It all gets unplugged in the afternoons now.
 
We've gone the FiOS route now, so unless the hovel takes a direct hit (and THAT's happened, too) the phone lines are a bit less likely to be conduit for surge.

I've had to replace NIC's by the dozen 'cause a hit surged thru an old Tampa frame house. Lawyer's offices on two floors, CAT-5. Took out every NIC on two separate LANS. 30+ network cards. Surprising thing was it didn't do more damage any further than the NIC's (and the switch was fried). No motherboards were replaced. Weird.
 
Naa DOC you don't need to hide the CAT. Get a Volvo they are much smaller and more reliable. That's what we run when we disconnect from utility co power. We disconnect automatically when ever a storm cloud appears ina sky.---Keoke

P.S. That guy with the Vonage problem probably got hit CUZ the Vonage adapter services both lines.
 
Even though I've had computers before Bill Gates came to light, I classify my self as a user and not an expert by far. I downloaded Win7 in one of my laptops to try and wasn't that impressed. Oh, it worked ok, but I wouldn't pay what they would want to change over from Vista. I live by the adage, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I hated Vista at first, but now, after tweaking it a bit, I love it!
I also have Linux Ubuntu in another laptop which I use for all my automotive files for the shop. I like it because it's so fast, almost instantaneous!
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Now, what's so great about Win7?</span></span>
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PAUL161 said:
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Now, what's so great about Win7?</span></span>
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You're right, if it ain't broke don't fix it. If everything you've got is just fine then keep it. I kind of fall into that category with XP.

Here's what people have been reporting though: running a variety of software, many (I'd almost say most) have said Win-7 is much more efficient than XP and Vista. Overall performance has been better. Some machines that would barely run certain programs now run them smoothly. I don't have anything to that extreme but I was very surprised at how smooth everything runs under Win7 compared to XP on my two laptops - not that anything was ever really "bad" but it is undoubtedly better under Win-7.

A simple example is firefox: the later versions have become a little bloated and the first-run will take awhile to load. On my 12" Toshiba in XP it would take awhile (as much as 20-30 seconds sometimes, on a bad day - subsequent runs would load in 2-3 seconds) to load firefox. In Ubuntu it was 1-2 seconds. Windows-7 is also 1-2 seconds.

For me switching to Vista was nearly as bad as the idea of switching to a MAC. I've got no reason to, and have no interest in switching to either. But now Windows-7 not only offers a nice GUI, it's pretty solidly XP compatibility and is quick and efficient. With the ability to run a virtual-XP, and the ability to run old DOS apps without much trouble, it seems that they've covered all the bases.

Personally I think there's a lot of enthusiasm about Windows-7 because the current version is free to download and use. Vista forced people to spend money on an upgrade only to find out they were part of a massive unintentional beta-test. When the OS hits the shelves and is no longer free I think you'll see a lot of people sticking with XP (or Vista).
 
What he said! :iagree:
 
One of the reasons I was fiddling with linux was an outrageously annoying problem with XP: if I have a serial device plugged into a serial->USB converter, and there's dataflow on that device during boot-up, windows automatically tries to figure out what the device is so it can configure it for you. It's a "feature", I guess.

So, with my new USB-only set-up in the new airplane if I boot up with the GPS on XP think's it's an "HID device" (fancy name for a mouse but it isn't loading it as a mouse). The screen goes nuts like the touchpad has been possessed by demons (uh, no comment), things get "clicked", and the operator goes crazy.

It's a common problem with an easy fix when it detects a mouse, but the easy fix doesn't seem to work with this "HID device". I'll get the problem "fixed" for awhile, then either it comes back or the dataflow from the GPS fails.

Seems like you should be able to tell the OS "hey stupid, stop worrying about trying to figure out what might be connected - take my word for it that it's a simple serial port and relax".

I bet Doc's laughing by now.

Since you kind of have to hardwire the drivers in fedora/ubuntu/etc I figured that wouldn't be a big problem. I'm hoping Win7 will be a little less prone to "the computer user is a moron so I have to take things into my own hands" like XP was.

There's good news though; my camera interface has successfully removed any requirement for parallel ports in my airplane setup, and except for the little "hid device" weirdness I have all my camera interfacing (triggering and data-comm), video, and GPS all going through a single USB connection! :laugh:
 
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