Random Tech Questions

[allegro]

Considering buying an Amazon Fire TV Stick. Anybody own one? I ditched cable a few years back and use Netflix and a couple of streaming sites now. Am wondering if this adds anything worthwhile.

We own an Amazon Fire TV which is the bigger hard drive version of the stick, and compared to Apple TV we like it a lot (except I can't do Airplay from my iPad but whatever). It's easy to use, especially the ability to TALK into the remote (hold down the voice button and tell it the movie or show you're looking for). Although the newer Fire TV comes with Alexa, that would be kinda cool. If you have Prime, the free documentary access is awesome, including access to tons of PBS docs like The Roosevelts.

[Dr Channard]

Why doesn’t the damn Video Game Music thread work?

Edit: Never mind, the page finally loaded, but none of the video links seem to work.

[the duder]

So, a friend asked me to transfer some files from his MacBook to his external hard drive to free up some space. So I move them, and look at his hard drive to see what I cleared up, which turned out to be about 10 gigs of space. His hard drive says that it's got almost 80 gigs of "Other". I've gone through most folders and dude has nothing that in seeing in his folders/drivers/applications that could be responsible. Thoughts?

[Rubeninphoenix]

Does anyone here have Google's Project Fi mobile service? If so, what are your thoughts on it (pros/cons, etc)?

[aggroculture]

anyone know how to remove emoticons being visible in subject lines in gmail?
So annoying

[ManBurning]

Can someone with experience with the Tinder app explain it to me? I don't think mine works.

I have a specific question related to the app actually. I'll use an example to better portray my question because I have searched high and low on the internet for the answer and it is never discussed.

Let's say person #1 swipes right on a profile they are interested in and then they move onto the next profile. No match.
And then person #2 comes across the profile, and they swipe right as well, triggering a match.

Will Person #1 ever be notified that there was a match with the person they originally swiped on, or will person #2 be the only one to get the notification that there is a match?

I ask because, I have used this thing for a bloody week and I have not gotten any notifications of matches. 1 of those people MUST have swiped right to match with me. I find it impossible to believe otherwise. Not that I'm just blindly swiping on everyone. But I generally know the kind of girls I have a chance with (alternative / metal /goth / nerd / weirdo types) I must have swiped right on at least a couple hundred profiles.

Well, there was 1 match... but I think it was a bot. The profile was pretty bare bones and they never responded when I sent a chat message. But even then so... 1 match in 7 days of using it? That doesn't seem like very high odds of actually meeting someone.

I've become so fed up with this stupid app, I just started swiping right on everything tonight just to see what'll happen. Still nothing.

[skip niklas]

Anybody had any success getting Periscope to work on a PC? I've tried a couple different Android emulators with no luck, and the Quicktime Pro workaround doesn't seem to work for me. Help! Streaming concerts is too awesome to be contained to phones and tablets.

[elevenism]

What must we do to boost our wifi? We get a better signal from 3 or four of our NEIGHBOR'S wifi than our own.

A little information: i think our house is like 4000 square feets or so, with our Roku boxes at opposite corners and the router centrally located.

Secondly, we still have the same (shitty, i assume) router that the Internet company brought us like at least 5 years ago.

Will a hot new router solve all of our problems?
Do wifi boosters work, and if so, which ones?

Thanks in advance. If you follow my posts here at all, you will know that the 3 members of this family are, for all practical purposes, disabled. TV, movies, and audiobooks, purveyed by roku boxes are VERY important to our lives.
Also, my wife and i are cord cutters. There IS cable in the house, but we haven't watched it in like 4 years.

[eversonpoe]

What must we do to boost our wifi? We get a better signal from 3 or four of our NEIGHBOR'S wifi than our own.

A little information: i think our house is like 4000 square feets or so, with our Roku boxes at opposite corners and the router centrally located.

Secondly, we still have the same (shitty, i assume) router that the Internet company brought us like at least 5 years ago.

Will a hot new router solve all of our problems?
Do wifi boosters work, and if so, which ones?

Thanks in advance. If you follow my posts here at all, you will know that the 3 members of this family are, for all practical purposes, disabled. TV, movies, and audiobooks, purveyed by roku boxes are VERY important to our lives.
Also, my wife and i are cord cutters. There IS cable in the house, but we haven't watched it in like 4 years.

i've been putting in the TP-Link Archer C7 router a lot, and i really like it. that will help, for sure. and it's not that expensive.
however, your house is too big for just one router to handle. i'm assuming you have no network wiring through the house? you could try getting an Eero system, instead. i put in one and it was amazing.

[elevenism]

i've been putting in the TP-Link Archer C7 router a lot, and i really like it. that will help, for sure. and it's not that expensive.
however, your house is too big for just one router to handle. i'm assuming you have no network wiring through the house? you could try getting an Eero system, instead. i put in one and it was amazing.

no, no network wiring.
i will definitely order the TP-Link Archer C7. As for the Eero system, i don't know if we can buy that right now, as there are lots of other big purchases neccesary in the near future-things like carpet, auto body repair, etc. We have about $10,000 worth of stuff that we like HAVE to buy.

Is therer any other like wifi booster for $150 or so that would help? Actually, do the fuckers even really work?

[eversonpoe]

no, no network wiring.
i will definitely order the TP-Link Archer C7. As for the Eero system, i don't know if we can buy that right now, as there are lots of other big purchases neccesary in the near future-things like carpet, auto body repair, etc. We have about $10,000 worth of stuff that we like HAVE to buy.

Is therer any other like wifi booster for $150 or so that would help? Actually, do the fuckers even really work?

apple airport expresses are decent. the problem is, when you use something as a repeater, it's boosting the RANGE but not the speed.
for example - sitting in the same room with your main router, let's say you get about 60MB/s. walk to the halfway point between the router and the edge of your house, and you get probably 20-30MB/s (maybe more). walk all the way to the edge and you get nothing, because you're out of range. install an airport express to "extend your wireless network" (act as a repeater) at the halfway point, and you'll get 10-15MB/s all the way at the edge. that's still more than enough to stream in HD. like i said, it increases the range, so at the point, it'll probably still work outside.

[elevenism]

@eversonpoe i will owe you one for this. i have one more question. i am obviously WAY out of the loop on these things.

My question is w/r/t the router upgrade. I believe that my box is a combination router/modem. This Archer C7, he is just a router, no?
Do i need to get the Archer AND a new modem, or can i wire the Archer into my extant box?

[eversonpoe]

@eversonpoe i will owe you one for this. i have one more question. i am obviously WAY out of the loop on these things.

My question is w/r/t the router upgrade. I believe that my box is a combination router/modem. This Archer C7, he is just a router, no?
Do i need to get the Archer AND a new modem, or can i wire the Archer into my extant box?

do you get phone service from you ISP as well? if so, then you need to keep your current modem/router combo (and you should go into its settings and disable its wireless). if not, then you can buy your own modem (i'm assuming you have cable internet and would thusly recommend the Arris SB-6141) and return the one you're leasing (and paying a monthly fee for) to the ISP. but either way, you can use the new router.

[allegro]

do you get phone service from you ISP as well? if so, then you need to keep your current modem/router combo (and you should go into its settings and disable its wireless). if not, then you can buy your own modem (i'm assuming you have cable internet and would thusly recommend the Arris SB-6141) and return the one you're leasing (and paying a monthly fee for) to the ISP. but either way, you can use the new router.

We have Xfinity cable and phone and we have a modem and a router from them, then we added an Apple Airport Extreme -- both are in one end of the 1400 square foot basement -- and we have an additional Airport Express in the 1400 square foot upstairs and my office is upstairs and I'm wireless in the other end of the house from where the Airport Extreme is downstairs and I get CRAZY FAST speeds but we also pay Xfinity for crazy fast speeds so I think it also has a lot to do with how much you're getting out of your cable provider in the first place, yes? And then how much it is split (wired) throughout the house, too?

[eversonpoe]

We have Xfinity cable and phone and we have a modem and a router from them, then we added an Apple Airport Extreme -- both are in one end of the 1400 square foot basement -- and we have an additional Airport Express in the 1400 square foot upstairs and my office is upstairs and I'm wireless in the other end of the house from where the Airport Extreme is downstairs and I get CRAZY FAST speeds but we also pay Xfinity for crazy fast speeds so I think it also has a lot to do with how much you're getting out of your cable provider in the first place, yes? And then how much it is split (wired) throughout the house, too?

yes to all of that, except it being split. as long as you have proper switches/routers that can handle the bandwidth, that doesn't really matter. it's more about how much is being USED at any given time. if you try to stream netflix on four different devices at once AND browse the internet while downloading a torrent or something, everything's gonna slow down a little.

also your express upstairs is probably hard-wired back to the main network rather than acting as a wireless repeater, which makes a HUGE difference.

[allegro]

yes to all of that, except it being split. as long as you have proper switches/routers that can handle the bandwidth, that doesn't really matter. it's more about how much is being USED at any given time. if you try to stream netflix on four different devices at once AND browse the internet while downloading a torrent or something, everything's gonna slow down a little.

also your express upstairs is probably hard-wired back to the main network rather than acting as a wireless repeater, which makes a HUGE difference.

Well, we have seven TVs which are all coaxed with boxes and we had to add powered boosters to the the splitters (our system is too old for X1), and everything -- including our internet -- is shared via one incoming cable from the pole into the house. Our Express is just freestanding on top of our entertainment cabinet, wireless, it's just plugged into our stereo so we can stream music from our Macs and iPads etc. Once we remodel our basement we are gonna rip out the basement ceiling and then we can have Comcast come over and hardwire the whole house for X1. I really want X1, super cool. Although, I wish we could get rid of these stupid boxes and just go with a stick and the cloud and wireless.

[telee.kom]

Anyone have experience with wireless display adapters or wireless monitors? I want to connect my laptop to a monitor without cables. Mostly just for watching movies and stuff like that.

[eversonpoe]

Anyone have experience with wireless display adapters or wireless monitors? I want to connect my laptop to a monitor without cables. Mostly just for watching movies and stuff like that.

i've been putting in wireless HDMI transmitter/receiver units lately. i think i've put in a total of 3 or 4. they work best in open areas, but sometimes work fine through minimal structures. i've been using the Nyrius brand, but i'm not sure what you'll have available where you are.

[Aladdinsanity]

Can anyone suggest to me good/better alternatives to Adobe Audition? I subscribed to their bullshit monthly subscription plan 'cos it started at $16 for some holiday deal last year and now it's gone to $21 a month and I can no longer afford it.

[theimage13]

Anyone use a (legit) streaming TV service? Tried out Sling and it's fucking terrible. Within 30 seconds of viewing it goes wildly out of sync. Tried it across multiple devices and even on different networks; always the same result. I've heard so many other people say the same thing but I thought, stupidly, that I'd give them a shot anyway.

[Louie_Cypher]

fire stick is acually a decent soulution.
-louie

[eversonpoe]

Anyone use a (legit) streaming TV service? Tried out Sling and it's fucking terrible. Within 30 seconds of viewing it goes wildly out of sync. Tried it across multiple devices and even on different networks; always the same result. I've heard so many other people say the same thing but I thought, stupidly, that I'd give them a shot anyway.

fire stick is acually a decent soulution.
-louie

the fire stick does some great things, but a lot of the apps require you to log in with a tv provider in order to watch their content. i.e. the food network app, which is what my wife and i use most often, makes me log in with my parents' directv account in order to watch most of what's on there. they always have some free stuff, but not a lot. if my parents didn't still have satellite, we wouldn't have much we'd be able to watch.

also, the food network app (and all the other apps made by the parent company that owns them, cooking channel, hgtv, diy, etc.) has so many bugs. it's really designed poorly, and there's no "recently watched" category, so when it constantly kicks me out to the home screen, i have to go back into the app and navigate all the way to the episode i was watching (oh, and the episodes within each show are rarely in any kind of order).

but then the shout factory app is amazing. no log-in needed, tons of mst3k and a bunch of old-timey shows, plus other awesome content. never had an issue with it quitting or freezing.

so it's hit or miss. but when it's on sale for $25-$30, the fire stick is definitely a worthwhile investment. don't bother with the voice remote, though, you can just use the free app on your phone to do the same stuff.

[theimage13]

fire stick is acually a decent soulution.
-louie

Sorry, I'll clarify - I'm looking for services (not hardware) that provide streaming live TV - not hardware or apps for on-demand content. I'm moving to a place with literally no live TV options (antennas won't work, landlord doesn't want a dish installed, and no cable company).

[eversonpoe]

Sorry, I'll clarify - I'm looking for services (not hardware) that provide streaming live TV - not hardware or apps for on-demand content. I'm moving to a place with literally no live TV options (antennas won't work, landlord doesn't want a dish installed, and no cable company).

if there's no cable company and no dish, how do you have internet? o.O

[jmtd]

I've borrowed a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface to use for recording stuff. It has two separate inputs (combined 1/4"-XLR jacks). I want to record a bunch of stereo sources mostly, and both inputs appear to be mono. so I managed to get a 1/8" to dual-1/4 adaptor so I could record both at once. This in theory, works, although I have two problems. One: I'm getting some kind of regular periodic noise on the output. I don't know if this could be a cable problem or not. Two, it means I have to carefully balance the levels for both inputs by hand using the pots on the Scarlett. This doesn't seem ideal. Am I basically just using the wrong tool for the job?

[wizfan]

I've borrowed a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface to use for recording stuff. It has two separate inputs (combined 1/4"-XLR jacks). I want to record a bunch of stereo sources mostly, and both inputs appear to be mono. so I managed to get a 1/8" to dual-1/4 adaptor so I could record both at once. This in theory, works, although I have two problems. One: I'm getting some kind of regular periodic noise on the output. I don't know if this could be a cable problem or not. Two, it means I have to carefully balance the levels for both inputs by hand using the pots on the Scarlett. This doesn't seem ideal. Am I basically just using the wrong tool for the job?

I wouldn't trust that adaptor (unless it's gold-plated, which reduces the noise). Are you trying to record from a device with a 1/8" (3.5mm) jack output?

[jmtd]

I wouldn't trust that adaptor (unless it's gold-plated, which reduces the noise). Are you trying to record from a device with a 1/8" (3.5mm) jack output?

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: I have a short-term, fixed project of wanting to import some minidiscs from players which only have 1/8 headphone outs; after that it's digitizing vinyl, my Amp has 1/4.

[wizfan]

I have a short-term, fixed project of wanting to import some minidiscs from players which only have 1/8 headphone outs

Do you have a device (sound card, etc.) with a line-in input? If so, get a 1/8 male-male cable, plug one end on the line-in and the other on the minidisc's headphone out and record it with your computer. Now, why can't you digitize vinyl with Focusrite, since it has two combined 1/4"-XLR jacks? Does your amp have a single 1/4 output?

[jmtd]

Do you have a device (sound card, etc.) with a line-in input? If so, get a 1/8 male-male cable, plug one end on the line-in and the other on the minidisc's headphone out and record it with your computer. Now, why can't you digitize vinyl with Focusrite, since it has two combined 1/4"-XLR jacks? Does your amp have a single 1/4 output?

I have a sound card in my PC which is a bit of an ornament these days but I could use that for the purpose I guess.

With the focusrite, my amp has a single 1/4 stereo headphone output on the front and an RCA pair on the back labelled "Rec Out". But that leaves me with the manual-balancing issue for the inputs to the focusrite (each channel having a separate gain knob and no way to sync them)

Thanks for your replies!

[elevenism]

Oh shit y'all, i need help.

My computer is suddenly going to Yahoo as the search engine no matter what i do.
I ran the google cleanup tool.
When i go to set the default search engine, it just shows a blank page. I fear this is by design. I think i picked up some malware.

Does anyone know how to fix this? Please? For good old Elevenoe? :/

Edit: it's a malware called Search Engage. I am trying to get rid of it :?