What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

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On the topic of monitors, I was sort of looking around last night at inexpensive HDTVs that can also serve as PC monitors. I don't really plan on getting a brand-new TV that ultimately will be the main TV I watch stuff on. Part of me wants to go get a fairly inexpensive HDTV to serve as my PC monitor. I may even use it for playing my console games. What I kind of REALLY want to do is have that other TV to perhaps use for capturing game video. It will also be the sort of widescreen monitor for if and when I get my new PC. Since I want this to be a monitor and not exactly a second TV unit, something basic will suffice in getting HD-type visuals.

So you could say that I am thinking about how to make over my PC setup here in my room as for what I did today.
 
@JohnBM01 - I'm using a HDTV (22" 1080p Vizio) as my monitor. It works very well using an HDMI from my graphics card. If you're contemplating going that route, just make sure that the new computer has an HDMI output, or at the very least a DVI.
 
The new computer I'm hopeful in getting has support for both VGA and HDMI. So I'll be fine either way. I think I will mostly see what Windows 8 will be like with my current monitor before thinking about a new monitor down the road. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
 
I got my new PC! What have I done today? I am mostly accustoming myself to the Windows 8 interface while also just simply trying to settle in with this new PC. There's still a lot for me to explore and utilize with this new PC and in getting adjusted to Windows 8. So I am basically just re-learning a lot of things while getting used to a new interface. I have a lot of stuff from my XP computer to try to port over to my new PC so I can settle in better.
 
JohnBM01
I got my new PC! What have I done today? I am mostly accustoming myself to the Windows 8 interface while also just simply trying to settle in with this new PC. There's still a lot for me to explore and utilize with this new PC and in getting adjusted to Windows 8. So I am basically just re-learning a lot of things while getting used to a new interface. I have a lot of stuff from my XP computer to try to port over to my new PC so I can settle in better.
Click to expand...
There's a thing called Classic Shell that changes the W8 interface to W7. It's been recommended by a lot of people.
 
Microsoft is also adding back the start menu but it is bloated up with the tiles.

They still do not get it.

People do not like the start screen.

Why change something that you have used for the past 20 years that everyone is use to.
 
Grayfox
Why change something that you have used for the past 20 years that everyone is use to.
Click to expand...
Their change from menu drop downs to ribbons in the Office suite took some getting used to but I love it now. That said, I couldn't get the start button back fast enough (thank you, pokki) when I installed 8 last year.

Now about Office 2013 being all white... :crazy:
 
I hate the ribbon UI in office.

It is why I still use the office 2003.

The ribbon makes most common used things easy to do, but more trickier ones needs more clicks and hunting to find.

I hat MS paint in windows 7.

Need to find the files for it from vista.
 
It can be pretty cumbersome trying to get back to the Desktop with the Start Menu thing in Windows 8. I have no Windows 7 experience, so I can't say that I'd prefer Win7 over Win8 since I've never used Win7. I do find some of the apps to be quite useful. For instance, I've been using the Sports app to keep up with my favorite sports and sports teams. Almost as if Win8 is trying to pry me away from using Android for convenient checking of sports and other news. :lol: I have still mostly settled in with this new PC. I made sure yesterday to copy over as much of my sensitive content from my old PC to my new one. Copy, but not entirely delete. A lot of my stuff is even saved on my old 320GB expansion drive.

Most of what I am doing now is trying to settle in with my new PC while also learning Windows 8. One other thing I noticed is that Win8 seems to run better with different browsers. I stuck with Firefox for WinXP since it was the fastest on there. However, I loved the customization and ease of use Opera provided. Switching over to this new PC, I am using Firefox to type up this message and post it. Firefox and Opera both performed better on GTPlanet with this new PC than with the WinXP PC I've used.

This whole discussion on Win8's Start Menu could be in its own thread, but I do agree- why fix what isn't broken? Then again... this is Microsoft we're talking about. So it's "damned if you do, damned if you don't."
 
I'm desperate for cheap/easy cooling options on my laptop, so I was wondering, does removing the cover for laptop RAM seems like the.most stupid thing in the world, or just the second most stupid thing?
 
L8erBaby
I'm desperate for cheap/easy cooling options on my laptop, so I was wondering, does removing the cover for laptop RAM seems like the.most stupid thing in the world, or just the second most stupid thing?
Click to expand...
I think that would make it hotter...
 
TB
@L8erBaby - If you just need more air circulating, put a pencil under the laptop to prop the back up.
Click to expand...

Currently it is on a pair of empty egg trays (If that's what you call them) but the idle temp is 60 C and browsing the web gets almost up to 70 C, while games easily take it up above 85-90 C. I am getting a desktop, but that's far away and I would just like to not fry it before I get that desktop.
 
Going to make an attempt at installing Linux Mint 14 on an old desktop of mine with an AMD Athalon 64, 512mb of memory, so i can have a little testing thing for work.
 
Repaired my Zune 80GB.
I do not use it but, it is still useful to have.

And i also imported it from the US because I wanted a good MP4 player and I hate Apple and dont want to be a sheep.
 
So I tried to clean my laptop for dust today, and uhhh, I need a new screwdriver. Or the screws needs to be less screwed on.

Most screws were a breeze to get off, but 2 or 3 I just could not get off! One screwdriver would just slip off the screw itself and another one had a loose shaft to I was just spinning the shaft, and not the screw. So I need new tools. :P
 
Through most of this week, I have mostly settled in with my new PC and started to better understand Windows 8.1. The biggest pet peeve I've had was in trying to use certain programs without having the annoying notices of having to be an Administrator. I found out there are options where you can specify being the Administrator as you open such programs. This allowed me to be more comfortable using Firefox among other programs.

Since Windows 8.1 utilizes OneDrive, I started to be more accustomed to using OneDrive. I will use OneDrive as an alternative method of uploading/downloading content from my Android devices to my PC. I mainly used it to port my Bookmarks in an HTML file for use with my Android devices. I even attempted to upload some saved podcasts from my Android tablet. While it was slow doing so on my fast Internet access, the files all loaded up successfully on OneDrive. So I was pretty pleased with using this program. I just wish I had better luck using and utlizing Google Drive.

This post is more like "what have you done this week?" or "what have you done the past few days" more than "what have you done today?", but that's what I've done.
 
CarBastard
Quick question: What do you guys suggest to improvise as a mousepad?
Click to expand...
If it's a laser mouse (and they pretty much all are nowadays) then you can use pretty much anything other than a mirror, pretty much as @TB says. I use a mousepad, desktop/tabletop, bedsheet, whatever the mouse is sitting on at the time and they all work fine (I don't have any horizontal mirrors). A ball mouse is different, it needs to be on a surface that provides a bit of traction; ie, something that's not slick or slippery. A hardbound book without the jacket, a paper (not foam/plastic) plate, even a sheet of paper will work in a pinch.
 
Recently I've been playing around with making my own HID joystick with an Arduino Micro and these instructions. I honestly cannot believe how easy it was to get working, but now the challenge is to make an enclosure that can house 32 buttons, find some nice potentiometers and knobs for them, make some hat switches since they're near-impossible to find as actual components... Oh and actually write a program that makes sense.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know of any free video editing software that could take a 20-minute Shadowplay video, crop it down to the relevant bits and then save it as a full-quality 1080p file? As far as I can tell, the video is an MP4 at a fairly high bit rate; 19m54s is 1.42GB.
 
I love my R9 280x but My monitor is a 1080P widescreen monitor so it just looks weird. My parts finally came in so I can finally play games again.
 
Right now, I'm doing my research on getting a USB Bluetooth adapter for my computer. What I'm hoping to do is buy one online so that I could add Bluetooth functionality to my PC. Part of me wants to get one that has Bluetooth 3.0 functionality, but the one that's most popular has Bluetooth 4.0 functionality. I'm pretty sure the 4.0 will handle 3.0 devices like my Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 and my Hisense Sero 7 Pro tablet. Both of which, have 3.0 Bluetooth functionality.

I actually wanted to get a USB Bluetooth dongle long ago for my former PC so that I don't have to try to jack in my Android devices to exchange files. One alternative I used was to connect my Android devices to my PC through Wi-Fi. While my current PC doesn't have Bluetooth functionality, it does have a suite in which files can be transferred through Bluetooth. And so, I want to take advantage of that with my PC. I'll only be using the Bluetooth mostly for transferring files, rather than have all kinds of devices attached through Bluetooth like a lot of people do.
 
On a whim I decided to see what happened when I plugged my 1st generation 5GB iPod into my Mac (2009 Mac Pro, i.e. possibly the last ever Mac to have Firewire ports, running the latest OS and version of iTunes), and guess what? It's still recognised! I can upload music to it and everything. The battery also still works, I've had it on standby for a few days and it's still showing full, though I'd be astonished if it got ~2 hours of play time, let alone the 10 it supposedly had in 2001. I have no idea if the hard drive will work reliably, I remember my first one used to be prone to corruption, so I think I'll get one of those CompactFlash adaptors for it. It's only £12, shame the cards are quite expensive, though.

Oh and I doubt it supports AAC audio, so I'd have to convert my music back to MP3. So I probably won't bother.
 

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