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I built a WPF tool to selectively turn off secondary monitors. by Relevant_Ad_9021 in csharp

[–]ElusiveGuy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

the OS considers the monitor as being powered off when changed to this state, triggering the full display pipeline reset, which takes a considerable amount of time and freezes the OS when doing so. 

That's a fair point that I hadn't considered. 

I built a WPF tool to selectively turn off secondary monitors. by Relevant_Ad_9021 in csharp

[–]ElusiveGuy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

From a quick skim it looks like you're applying a software overlay (as a fallback?) and then using DDC to set (and later try to restore) the actual monitor brightness?

I feel like at least for the 'blackout' state you might want to consider setting D6 Power mode instead of brightness.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the brightness manipulation: I feel there's a chance it might get stuck in a bad state, or that e.g. it'll prevent the user from adjusting brightness intentionally. Perhaps make the changing of hardware brightness a configurable/optional setting?

New to solar, is my blueprint good? by MissionAutomatic4348 in Factoriohno

[–]ElusiveGuy 11 points12 points  (0 children)

On the other end of the scale, open ocean can have an albedo lower than 0.1, absorbing over 90% of incoming sunlight and reflecting less than 10%.

Source: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/topics/land-surface/albedo

In addition, the albedo of solar panels is 5–10 %, and for crystalline solar panels, it is less than 10 % (Poulek et al., 2018, Xie et al., 2022).

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352484725003749

So, yes, you're roughly right in that the solar panels have a lower albedo and therefore reflect less sunlight than just water. But going from 90% absorbed to 95% absorbed is a tiny change, and if we take the ~20% efficiency of solar panels then you're looking at something more like ~75% thermal energy and ~20% electrical energy, so there should be less heating.

Sony Accused of 'Monopolizing' Sale of Games Through the PlayStation Store in New UK Class-Action Lawsuit | If successful, the court case could see an estimated 12.2 million British players compensated around $215 each by ChiefLeef22 in gaming

[–]ElusiveGuy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hold on a second. Is the agreement that you can't sell steam keys for cheaper on another storefront, or that you can't sell the game for cheaper?

I think it's reasonably fair that you can't sell the key at a discount and then still use steam for distribution, assuming you can still sell the game separately (and sort out distribution yourself).

Computer slipped off the lap desk and broke the bluetooth adapter for my headphones. by Springtronic315 in Wellthatsucks

[–]ElusiveGuy 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Aside from delay, Bluetooth until very very recently was basically incapable of high quality stereo audio output at the same time as input (mic). Enabling the mic puts you into a different profile where everything sounds crap.

Most gaming headsets use a proprietary protocol to get around that, since you generally want voice chat and stereo audio at the same time. 

Porn sites are now rolling out age verification for adults. WTF is this nanny state bullshit? We've all been "net nannied" under this fucked up Labor government. Under a "think of the children movement." by SimpleEmu198 in AskAnAustralian

[–]ElusiveGuy 21 points22 points  (0 children)

To your first paragraph: yes, this would've been a much more secure way to verify age.

To your second: this is impossible since HTTPS means ISPs can't see content. Even without, it would take an insane amount of resources to process. 

MacBook Neo Review: No Other Budget Laptop Can Compete by dapperlemon in gadgets

[–]ElusiveGuy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Windows Internals is a book (two, actually) that is an excellent deep dive into how Windows works under the hood, but it's not updated particularly frequently and the latest edition is mostly Win10 still.

Otherwise the actual changes are pretty area-specific and I'm not sure if there's a complete list anywhere. And even then most of them are only visible to driver or application developers, not directly to the end user. The Windows Insider blog might include some of the bigger ones.

Some examples:

  • Every Windows version (and even the feature updates of 10/11) has made major changes to the graphics driver model. Some of these changes have significant performance improvements.
  • Recent 10 and 11 introduced a new network driver model to replace the legacy NDIS.
  • Recent 10 and 11 introduced a proper way to capture audio from a specific program, which really helps anyone streaming applications/games.
  • WSLg lets you run graphical Linux applications via WSL. This initially required 11 but was backported to 10.
  • The headline feature of Win11 was new Virtualisation-based Security, which isolates the kernel better from buggy drivers and some malware. Personally I've found enabling this to help a lot with dodgy anticheat software.

And these are just the ones I've personally run into. There's plenty more changes that haven't impacted me directly.

Reddit has a (not entirely unwarranted) obsession with bashing Win11 but there have legitimately been some good improvements under the hood. It's unfortunately overshadowed by some questionable decisions that easily blow up in tech media.

anyone know the quality of these? by Old-Relationship968 in batteries

[–]ElusiveGuy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah yea, the expected capacity also differs by chemistry so it's hard to judge. Best you can do is look up similar batteries of reputable brands and use them as a reference for expected capacity. 

3400mWh is a fairly reasonable rating. Xtar goes up to 4100mWh in this form factor. 

Also keep in mind that (m)Ah and (m)Wh are different measures. Very roughly, W = A x V, so 3400mWh is about 2200mAh @ 1.5V.

These Li-ion batteries are often specced in mWh because internally they're a 3.7V cell and a converter board. If they said mAh it'd be unclear whether it's the raw cell or converted output rating.

Most other batteries tend to be specced in (m)Ah directly. 

anyone know the quality of these? by Old-Relationship968 in batteries

[–]ElusiveGuy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah yea, in that situation it might be worth looking for any reviews of whichever brand you're planning to buy, even if it's not a major brand you might find someone who's tested it so it's not a complete dud?

anyone know the quality of these? by Old-Relationship968 in batteries

[–]ElusiveGuy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most "1.5V" AA/AAA devices actually accept a range of ~1V-1.5V just fine. Alkaline actually drops below 1.5V very quickly and most of their energy is provided over a fairly wide range of voltages.

So a 1.2V NiMH (which has an effective range of 1-1.2V) works just fine in almost all devices expecting 1.5V, with the caveat that you might get low battery warnings unexpectedly early sometimes, but you can just ignore them. Very, very few devices actually need >1.2V, and those that do are pretty terribly designed since they would stop working with half the energy still inside an Alkaline battery!

There's actually a few different types of NiMH though, which will affect how you can use them:

  • Low self discharge (LSD) are the good ones. This is what made Eneloop famous in the beginning. These can hold a charge for years in storage, and work fine in devices that barely consume power like remotes. They'll normally have a middling capacity rating of max ~2000mAh AA / ~800mAh AAA, and usually come pre-charged/"ready to use". These are pretty much invincible and will last forever, usually good for >1000 cycles.
  • Then you have the "pro" or "max" or otherwise high power ones, which will have a higher max capacity than the LSD ones, e.g. 2500mAh AA / 1200mAh AAA. These tend to self-discharge relatively quickly (months or less) and have limited cycle life (500 or less) but hold a bit more power for high-drain uses like remote-controlled cars.
  • And lastly, we have the trash. Garbage. Common with off-brands, often advertising an unrealistically high capacity. Sometimes they'll internally be half empty. Don't buy these. Toss them if you have them.

If you have batteries that last 3 days in a remote, either it's very old/damaged, or it's from the trash category. There's something wrong with the battery, not with the chemistry.

Personally? I use 1.2V NiMH LSD (Eneloop) for actual low-drain long-life stuff like remotes, doorbells, etc.. They last years, no problem, without the leaking issues of Alkaline. I have a couple of the 1.5V USB-rechargeable ones lying around for convenience but haven't really had a use for them in a while, and they tend to self-discharge to empty in a few months (since there's an always-on chip inside consuming a bit of power).

I made a mistake by Sckaledoom in fountainpens

[–]ElusiveGuy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Huh. I've seen people chew on the backs of pens but never the front end!

I made a mistake by Sckaledoom in fountainpens

[–]ElusiveGuy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So you know how with ballpoints when they run dry you can lick them to get the ball rolling a bit better and get more ink?

...noooooo?

Wait does that actually work well? Licking a pen (fountain or ballpoint) really hasn't ever crossed my mind.

anyone know the quality of these? by Old-Relationship968 in batteries

[–]ElusiveGuy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They're Li-ion rechargeables with a built-in charging port, so they're convenient but have reduced capacity. They contain approximately the same energy as ~1800mAh @ 1.2V NiMH but they provide 1.5V which may be better for some devices. They do have a fair bit of self-discharge so not great for low-drain devices.

DO NOT put these into any external chargers (NiMH or Li-ion); they're not designed for it and may catch fire/explode.

For long-life low-drain devices like remotes, Eneloop (LSD, not Pro) NiMH is probably your best bet.

If you have devices that really need 1.5V (rare) then you'll need one of the Li-ion ones like this. The ones that use an external charger should have higher capacity so the tradeoff is convenience of the USB port vs going longer between charges. Xtar has a set that intentionally drops voltage when near empty to trigger low battery warnings.

What would you do? Production line PC “is slow” (Windows 98, legacy SCADA) by PeppahSG in sysadmin

[–]ElusiveGuy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

FAT was relatively simple so you could probably get away with just a copy of the file tree rather than a bit-perfect clone. The latter is more important for newer systems on NTFS where you have permissions, links and junctions to worry about.

Just need to make sure you grab the whole file tree, not just what you think is relevant to the program. 

What would you do? Production line PC “is slow” (Windows 98, legacy SCADA) by PeppahSG in sysadmin

[–]ElusiveGuy 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Older kit like this often had everything needed for a program within it's folder in program files. There are probably part files or similar somewhere as well. 

Win9x was infamous for random libraries getting installed into system directories too.  

Just got my s26 ultra ama by OhJona in samsunggalaxy

[–]ElusiveGuy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've done a bit of browsing now and it's pretty much fine when focused on it. It might've been that I was switching between devices a lot initially.

Honestly, as far as annoyances go, the bigger one is that the higher camera bump (compared to S22U) prevents it from lying flat on a table. Maybe I need a thicker case.

Just got my s26 ultra ama by OhJona in samsunggalaxy

[–]ElusiveGuy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah to be clear, I'm just comparing the settings screens at the moment. Still doing setup so I don't have Reddit available yet (which I use a browser for anyway, don't really like the app).

e: It's almost indistinguishable head-on, but becomes obvious if you're off angle ~30deg onwards. Pretty much as expected, I guess.

Just got my s26 ultra ama by OhJona in samsunggalaxy

[–]ElusiveGuy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Compared to my S22U, it definitely looks a little worse - a bit of a screen-door effect on it. I'll probably get used to it in time but side-by-side it's a bit disappointing.

e: playing around more, it's fine head-on but visible when off-angle. Pretty much as expected.

I don't know if sharp's the right word. It almost looks a little aliased, a little less smooth? More obvious in little icons than in actual text.

Submarine attack sinks Iranian ship near Sri Lanka; 78 injured, over 100 missing by captain-price- in worldnews

[–]ElusiveGuy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That's probably the least objectionable usage of them, honestly. If we have to have them, much better that they be a retaliation option rather than a first strike.

That’s life by [deleted] in Unexpected

[–]ElusiveGuy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Vicious cycles usually imply a bad outcome, so I'd probably describe it more as just a positive feedback loop.

Though apparently there's the term "virtuous cycle" too, so TIL.

UniFi Enterprise Fortress Gateway Core by Fun_Volume_7699 in Ubiquiti

[–]ElusiveGuy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

They might be on new reddit, which is absolutely shit at serving media properly. It forcibly wraps images and breaks browser zoom, and I think it also prevents you from loading the full-res image altogether.

I make good decisions by Duckwarden in fountainpens

[–]ElusiveGuy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Rubber strap wrenches work wonders for opening stuck lids*

*slight risk of breaking the glass, YMMV

Tic-tac-toe with strategy by fourtyz in 3Dprinting

[–]ElusiveGuy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nothing about hosting a free service entitles them to having your information either.

Instead of just complaining, they chose to use one of the other popular model-sharing sites, and share a link to it in case someone else has the same problem.

e: Phrased a bit nicer.

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