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Chuck <ch@dejanews.net>: Jun 09 12:21PM -0500 On Sun, 09 Jun 2019 11:31:37 -0500, Jon Elson <elson@pico-systems.com> wrote:   > Dell latitude E6510 Just a heads up if the Dell comes with a Nvidia graphics card. Mine would blue screen when streaming audio. I discovered that it was the graphics card driver on the Dell website causing the problem. Two years after purchase, the Dell driver was still faulty. The driver on the Nvidia website worked fine.

Jon Elson <elson@pico-systems.com>: Jun 09 08:01PM -0500 Chuck wrote:   > graphics card driver on the Dell website causing the problem. Two > years after purchase, the Dell driver was still faulty. The driver on > the Nvidia website worked fine.   On a laptop, that would be a chip, not a card. But, yes, there are some incompatibilities between some graphics chips and certain operating systems. I have a desktop that has the Intel i810 chip on the motherboard, and certain Linux OS versions have real trouble with it. The easy fix was to plug in a graphics card. I think it WAS an Nvidia card that solved the problem, in this case. But, of course, you can't do that on a laptop.   Jon

bitrex <user@example.net>: Jun 10 12:23AM -0400 On 6/9/19 1:35 AM, ~misfit~ wrote:   > Thinkpad range is still well-thought-of, at least as recently as I'm > aware of anyway. Perhaps an outlier hardware-wise and their service are > just shite?   What finally go them up and moving was leaving some rude remarks on their social media stuff. I hate to be that guy but I did try most other reasonable methods of doing it politely to no avail. they seemed somewhat curious as to how it left the factory for US sale with no serial number on it.   Maybe Larry (Ling?) at the shop was having an off day or stuffing some grey-market units sitting around into the container on the sly to keep the numbers up...   It's a pretty good laptop spec-wise for the price at least it was at the time I got it: 17" display (one of the nicer displays I've seen at that price point), 16 gig RAM, i7 processor, 500GB SSD, discrete GeForce MX-something GPU.   A design flaw is that they appear to have put the GPU heat sink directly under the WASD keys so if you want to play a game that does a lot of fancy graphics it hurts your fingers.

bitrex <user@example.net>: Jun 10 12:31AM -0400 On 6/9/19 12:31 PM, Jon Elson wrote: > price is usually the same. I got that one for $90 delivered, without hard > drive.   > Jon   The last Dell laptop I had used a three-wire PSU that locked you in to buying only Dell-branded power bricks. There's a lockout chip on the brick that communicates with the motherboard and if it detects it's not Dell OEM it prevents the battery from charging at full speed and throttles the processor. down to 400MHz.   the way it does this is the BIOS flips a bit in the processor register set called BD_PROCHOT which is a flag from the motherboard temperature sensor, and fools the processor into thinking the temperature sensor on the motherboard is saying the system is overheating. It does this if it doesn't receive the proper readout from the power supply brick.   fortunately it's easy to flip it back by running a program or script on startup, with root access, and then everything works fine again lol. this is some hopefully cross-platform C code that does just that:   #include <string.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <stdint.h>   #define BUFSIZE (64)   int get_msr_value(uint64_t* reg_value) { const char* cmd = "rdmsr -u 0x1FC"; char cmd_buf[BUFSIZE];   FILE* fp;   if ((fp = popen(cmd, "r")) == NULL) { printf("Error opening pipe!\n"); return -1; }   cmd_buf[strcspn(fgets(cmd_buf, BUFSIZE, fp), "\n")] = 0; *reg_value = atoi(cmd_buf);   if (pclose(fp)) { printf("Command not found or exited with error status\n"); return -1; }   return 0; }   int main(void) { const char* cmd = "wrmsr -a 0x1FC"; char* concat_cmd; int ret; uint64_t* reg_value = &(uint64_t){0};   if ((ret = get_msr_value(reg_value))) { return ret; }   printf("Old register value: %lu\n", *reg_value);   *reg_value = *reg_value & 0xFFFFFFFE; // clear bit 0   printf("New register value: %lu\n", *reg_value);   if (asprintf(&concat_cmd, "%s %i", cmd, *reg_value) == -1) return -1;   printf("Executing: %s\n", concat_cmd);   system(concat_cmd); free(concat_cmd);   return 0; }

bitrex <user@example.net>: Jun 10 12:34AM -0400 On 6/10/19 12:31 AM, bitrex wrote:   > fortunately it's easy to flip it back by running a program or script on > startup, with root access, and then everything works fine again lol. > this is some hopefully cross-platform C code that does just that:   Or OS-agnostic, rather, asprintf call may IIRC be gcc/**ix specific though.

Fox's Mercantile <jdangus@att.net>: Jun 10 03:15AM -0500 On 6/9/19 11:20 PM, Unlisted wrote: > There is a lot of truth to this. Linux damages the hardware on a lot of > computers. It also destroys hard and flash drives. I have seen it > happen. Pen drives are usually the first to be destroyed.   Good Lord, what are you installing Linux on, eMachines? I've been doing Linux installs for the past 25 years, I've NEVER had a failure.     -- "I am a river to my people." Jeff-1.0 WA6FWi http:foxsmercantile.com

bitrex <user@example.net>: Jun 10 12:36PM -0400 On 6/10/19 4:15 AM, Fox's Mercantile wrote:   > Good Lord, what are you installing Linux on, eMachines? > I've been doing Linux installs for the past 25 years, I've NEVER had > a failure.   "Unlisted" is a pro-troll who pro-trolls on many NGs.   I have concluded with high probability that the psychological basis of it is due to a lack of maternal nurturing during early childhood resulting in habitual attention-seeking behavior.

Lucifer <LuciferMorningstar@bigpond.com>: Jun 10 05:30PM +1000 The tuning dial of my Yaesu FRG-7700 receiver will not rotate beyond about 780 Khz. Is that easy to fix?

"pfjw@aol.com" <peterwieck33@gmail.com>: Jun 10 05:32AM -0700 On Monday, June 10, 2019 at 3:30:30 AM UTC-4, Lucifer wrote: > The tuning dial of my Yaesu FRG-7700 receiver will not rotate beyond > about 780 Khz. > Is that easy to fix?   I suspect that the tuning mechanism is a geared assembly. Manual here:   http://www.radiomanual.info/schemi/YAESU_RX/FRG-7700_serv.pdf   If it is mechanical, it may be jammed on something caught in the gears, or perhaps the gears have slipped. Otherwise, you may need to replace the part.   Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

"pfjw@aol.com" <peterwieck33@gmail.com>: Jun 10 05:23AM -0700 Once upon a time, a gentleman from New York was driving across the Vermont countryside in his brand new Cadillac - whereupon it broke down, stopped dead, in the middle of nowhere - and no cell coverage (common in VT). The Gentleman walked to the nearest house, inhabited by an elderly farmer, and asked to borrow a phone.   Gentleman: My car broke down, I have no cell coverage. May I borrow your phone?   Farmer: Got no phone. Mind if I take a look?   Gentleman: This is a 2019 Cadillac - I am sure you have no idea.   Farmer: Mind if I take a look?   Gentleman: I guess that would be OK.   The farmer walked to the car, popped the hood, and looked for about 30 seconds. Ayuh! And walked to his barn, returning with a small brass hammer. Three taps later, he asked the gentleman to "Try it now".   Ran perfectly!   The gentleman, being a gentleman, asked: What do I owe you?   Farmer, after looking him up and down: $300.   Gentleman: For $300, I want an itemized bill!   Farmer: Sure. Walked to his house, and came back with the bill as follows:   Three taps with small brass hammer @ $1 each. $3. Know where: $297.   Being ripped off is in the eye of the beholder.   Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Unlisted <unlisted@nomail.com>: Jun 09 11:20PM -0500 >Installing an operating system other than Windows10 (Lenovo Preload) is >not supported."   >Yeah, that's why the PSU board fucking failed, Linux made it happen.   There is a lot of truth to this. Linux damages the hardware on a lot of computers. It also destroys hard and flash drives. I have seen it happen. Pen drives are usually the first to be destroyed.

Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net>: Jun 09 04:52PM -0400 On 6/9/19 8:04 AM, David B. wrote:   > MID <qdfddh$50s$1@gioia.aioe.org>   > http://al.howardknight.net/msgid.cgi?ID=156008164700   > There is now quite a thread!   Dunno. I just see one post.   There are two basic ways of adding side-channel data in an image: metadata and steganography.   Metadata is easily stripped out, but steganography is a much tougher nut to crack--it's embedded in low-order bits of the low-spatial-frequency components of an image. Good steganography even survives printing + scanning a paper copy.   Cheers   Phil Hobbs

"David B." <BDonTJ@REMOVE.gmail.com>: Jun 09 10:31PM +0100 On 09/06/2019 21:52, Phil Hobbs wrote:   >> http://al.howardknight.net/msgid.cgi?ID=156008164700   >> There is now quite a thread!   > Dunno.  I just see one post.   Ah! You may review the whole thread here if you don't wish to visit the Usenet group:-   https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.photo.digital/PXtrK4qmBjE   > There are two basic ways of adding side-channel data in an image: > metadata and steganography.   I've long been interested in steganography. I have a suspicion that 'bad guys' use it to pass messages to one another.   > to crack--it's embedded in low-order bits of the low-spatial-frequency > components of an image.  Good steganography even survives printing + > scanning a paper copy.   Interesting. Do you know a lot about the subject?   > Cheers   Thanks for responding, Phil. :-)   -- David B. Devon, UK

Cursitor Doom <curd@notformail.com>: Jun 09 11:39PM On Sun, 09 Jun 2019 22:31:08 +0100, David B. wrote:   > I've long been interested in steganography. I have a suspicion that 'bad > guys' use it to pass messages to one another.   There have been steg progams around for at least 25 years now. In the early days they weren't so viable because picture files back then were really tiny compared with today. So although steg's been around in conventional art for countless centuries, it's only relatively recently that it's become viable to use it in digital images. So do the bad guys use it? I doubt it. Conventional encryption most likely, but that's just a guess as I'm very out of date with this kind of thing.       -- This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other protocols, whether for profit or not, is conditional upon a charge of GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.

Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net>: Jun 09 04:54PM -0400 On 6/9/19 7:38 AM, David B. wrote:   >> Can you relate to this, Phil?   >> https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---   > Did you ever listen, Phil?   I've known that poem since I was a school child. Courage is not just one of the virtues, it's what enables us to exercise all the others.   Cheers   Phil Hobbs   -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510   http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

"David B." <BDonTJ@REMOVE.gmail.com>: Jun 09 10:37PM +0100 On 09/06/2019 21:54, Phil Hobbs wrote:   > I've known that poem since I was a school child.  Courage is not just > one of the virtues, it's what enables us to exercise all the others.   > Cheers   I am in no way surprised by your answer, Phil! :-)   Thank you.   -- David B. Devon, UK

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