What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

[TenEightyOne]

It's an intriguing problem as it's so unintuitive at first that switching would make a change. 👍

I think that's true only as long as there's a base assumption that all things are equally random. As soon as the non-random parts are clear it's hard to imagine how so many well-educated people continued to disagree with Marilyn for so many years

 

[tarnheld]

I think that's true only as long as there's a base assumption that all things are equally random. As soon as the non-random parts are clear it's hard to imagine how so many well-educated people continued to disagree with Marilyn for so many years

My gut feeling when first hearing the problem was that choosing randomly twice is more unlikely to win than choosing only once. But checking the favorable cases against all possible cases should convince you easily, that so many people made a fool out of themselves is quite funny and a nice demonstration of human stubbornness.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

The radiators and pump of the Antec 1250 were kinda loud and my Thermaltake V3 case wasn't doing too well either. Sooo... I bought a Fractal Design R4 Blackout and put my PC in there.

Oh my god its 1000x better than that piece of garbage case I was using before. Wow.

 

[klapper]

so then - have fun!

 

[Sp3edst3r]

Made a simple batch file in order to install Steam onto my School laptop, since whenever I clicked on the setup it asked for Admin Privelages. Just made a batch with this:

set __COMPAT_LAYER=RunAsInvoker
start steamsetup

Popped it into the same folder as the setup file and it went straight through the install with no issues :')
If only it was a decent laptop that it could run decent games without cooking itself...

 

[BobK]

I picked up a 1TB external USB3 drive a few days ago and have since been installing various linux variants on it. So far I can boot into Linux Mint/Cinnamon, Ubuntu/TDE, and Ubuntu/Unity. Tried to install elementary OS "freya" but it crashed attempting to install the bootloader.

I'm liking Cinnamon and acquring quite a dislike for Unity. KDE is still my favorite though.

These are all ubuntu or forks from ubuntu, so to try something different I should next try Arch Linux and LFS.

 

[Rallywagon]

You got the good Mint installer right Bob?

 

[BobK]

You got the good Mint installer right Bob?

Definitely. Actually I'd downloaded the image a couple months ago, long before the site hack. And I always verify the checksums.

 

[JohnBM01]

In trying to re-learn Blender, I've actually learned and applied things even I wasn't good at previously. I've tried to create my first true 3D model from start to finish using Blender; and while I did successfully create two character models with Blender recently, I am not *officially* announcing anything on it because I want to apply rigging/animating to the models. Nothing announced until I make something fairly complete.

Besides trying to make models, I am also using Blender to learn how to rig a car. I saw an old video on how to apply bones to rig a tire and a wheel. The way the process was explained made me want to try to think about trying to set up a rig for any car models I may create. Actually, I've seen two different videos with two different complexities of animating a car. The simple wheel video I've seen had a setup of four bones- two of them rotated the wheel, and the two others were for left and right turns. The more advanced setup featured a bone setup that allowed for active suspensions while driving. It's advanced stuff, but I am slowly believing I can animate a car the way I want it.

I surely will keep you posted if I come up with something interesting.

 

[chzsln485]

Buying 4x 4GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix 1600MHz DDR3 RAM from Amazon to replace my odd stock config of 6GB via 2x 2GB and 2x 1GB with 16GB. As I understand it, the fact the new sticks are slightly faster than the 1333MHz maximum my PC requires shouldn't be an issue, as the CPU and motherboard can just throttle them at the required 1333MHz fairly easily. It's also the maximum amount of RAM I can really hope for with the default Intel P67 motherboard (although I remember reading somewhere that someone got 32GB running on the stock board...?)

 

[tarnheld]

After hearing @eran0004's random python music (really inspiring), i wanted to do something similar. But i haven't got samples and i wanted to do pure python so i came up with synthesizing sounds -- functional style: Look Ma, got no class! Python has generators, so you can build infinite streams of data to iterate over without using infinite memory. I used that to build a crude approximation to a vibraphone sound out of a single sine wave, with added vibrato and tremolo. So without much further ado, here is the script in progress, all you need is to install pyaudio, a library to access the soundcard with python, easily done with pip:

python -m pip install pyaudio

Spoiler: random vibraphone with python

import random
import array
import math
import itertools
import pyaudio
import time

def const(c):
    return lambda t: c
def sine(f,a,fm=const(0)):
    return lambda t: a(t) * math.sin(t * f * 2.0 * math.pi + fm(t))
def lfo(b,f,a):
    return lambda t: b + (a * math.sin(t * f * 2.0 * math.pi)/2.0)
def sumgen(gens):
    while 1:
        sum = 0
        dels = []
        for i,g in enumerate(gens):
            try:
                sum += next(g)
            except StopIteration:
                dels.append(gens[i])
        for x in dels:
           gens.remove(x)
        if dels:
            print (len(dels),len(gens))
        if not gens:
            return
        yield sum
def adsrgen(gen,rate,g,a,d,sl,s,r):
    for i,v in enumerate(gen):
        t = float(i)/rate
        if t < a:
            yield t/a * g * v
        elif t < a + d:
            yield (1.0 - (t - a)/d * (1.0 - sl)) * g * v
        elif t < a + d + s:
            yield sl * g * v
        elif t < a + d + s + r:
            yield sl * (1.0 - (t - a - d - s)/r) * g * v
        else:
            raise StopIteration
def clamp(x,bits):
    if x >  2**bits/2-1: return  int( 2**bits/2-1)
    if x < -2**bits/2:   return  int(-2**bits/2)
    return x
def sample(sig,rate):
    i = 0
    while 1:
        yield sig(float(i)/rate)
        i += 1
def digitize(smp,bits):
    sc = 2**bits/2
    while 1:
        yield clamp(int(next(smp) * sc), bits)
def pcm(sig,rate,bits):
    return digitize(sample(sig,rate),bits)
def taken(g,n):
    i = 0
    while i < n:
        yield next(g)
        i += 1
sb=16
sr=44100
sn=44100

tempered=[pow(2,float(i)/12) for i in range(0,12)]

major=[tempered[i] for i in [0,2,4,5,7,9,11]]
minor=[tempered[i] for i in [0,2,3,5,7,8,10]]
minor=[f/2 for f in minor]+minor+[f*2 for f in minor]
arange=(0.2,0.05)

bpm=160

bps=bpm/60.0
spb=1.0/bps

def vibra(f,a,vf,va,tf,ta,maxdur):
    return adsrgen(sample(sine(f,lfo(a,tf,a*ta),lfo(0,vf,va)),sr),sr,1,0.001,0.005,0.1,0,maxdur)

gens=[taken(sample(const(0),sr),sr)]
smps=digitize(sumgen(gens),sb)

def snd_output(incoming, frames, time_info, status):
    data = array.array('h',taken(smps,frames))
    return (data.tostring(), pyaudio.paContinue)

p = pyaudio.PyAudio()

ps = p.open(format=pyaudio.paInt16,
            channels=1,
            rate=sr,
            output=True,
            stream_callback=snd_output)


random.seed(1)

i=1
while ps.is_active():
    print(i,len(gens),ps.get_cpu_load())
    time.sleep(spb)
    ntones=random.randrange(3)
    if (len(gens) + ntones > 4):
        continue
    tones=random.sample(minor,ntones)
    for f in tones:
        a = random.uniform(*arange)
        gens.append(vibra(440*f,a/f,3.3,0.9,3.2,1,5))
    i += 1

ps.stop_stream()
ps.close()
p.terminate()

It's a little messy, but you python hackers will get the gist. There are plenty of things to play around, will try to add more synthesizing madness.

 

[nowcontrol]

Earlier this week I indulged myself with a NZXT HUE+ highly customizable led lighting kit for my pc. This is a short clip of it in action straight from my living room....



And a few pics of my two fav fixed colours....7f1ae5 & 76b900

Also this week I have won the Rookie Rumble 28 OC competition at http://hwbot.org/ and as such should soon be a proud 1st prize winning owner of a nice kit of G.SKILL TRIDENT Z DDR4 16GB (F4-3000C14-16GTZ)

 

[BobK]

Getting ready to bolt together another pile of parts...

Parts list is here, except I'm using a 2TB WD Green I have lying around instead of the 1TB WD Blue, and very likely will be using the onboard video instead of the video board. 16GB RAM now, but that could be getting increased to 32 some time in the more or less near future.

 

[Rallywagon]

Getting ready to bolt together another pile of parts...

View attachment 524085

View attachment 524087

Parts list is here, except I'm using a 2TB WD Green I have lying around instead of the 1TB WD Blue, and very likely will be using the onboard video instead of the video board. 16GB RAM now, but that could be getting increased to 32 some time in the more or less near future.

No SSD and running on board graphics, whatcha cooking up with this rig?

Speaking of... No pics ATM, but I did get the heatsink, 500w PSU, fans and some RAM for my media server. I got a code for Server 2012 Datacenter (Dreamspark FTW!) and after a bit of struggle getting my nForce 780i to play nice with my flash drive, finally got it up and running. I'll be adding in a bit more RAM and a new RAID card. The system is old, and the sata ports are a whopping 300MBps! A friend has a spare SAS card he is willing to lend me though, so I should be alright on the SATA front. I plan on loading it up with lots of 2T drives.
Still on the list, besides more drives and RAM, are a wireless keyboard/mouse, some RGB case lighting and perhaps a controller of some sort. The case itself is actually going to be one of the cabinet/shelves in an entertainment unit. My wife and I are headed to IKEA in a couple of weeks. We have a good idea of what we're going for. I'm hoping to pick up one with a nice frosted glass door that will look nice with the case lights.

 

[BobK]

No SSD and running on board graphics, whatcha cooking up with this rig?

It's going to be a linux box, running Ubuntu 14.04 LTE with the Trinity Desktop Environment. It's actually intended to replace a ten-year-old Pentium 4 system. Seems to me that SSD's really only shine when booting and since this machine will essentially be running 24/7 I don't see much of a benefit. Similarly for the video -- this is hardly a gaming rig; watching games on mlb.mlb.com and the occasional youtube video and maybe a movie streamed from Amazon is about the limit of what I'll be doing. So I don't need any heavy duty video hardware pumping more heat into the room in the summer. Come next winter I may reconsider

 

[Rallywagon]

It's going to be a linux box, running Ubuntu 14.04 LTE with the Trinity Desktop Environment. It's actually intended to replace a ten-year-old Pentium 4 system. Seems to me that SSD's really only shine when booting and since this machine will essentially be running 24/7 I don't see much of a benefit. Similarly for the video -- this is hardly a gaming rig; watching games on mlb.mlb.com and the occasional youtube video and maybe a movie streamed from Amazon is about the limit of what I'll be doing. So I don't need any heavy duty video hardware pumping more heat into the room in the summer. Come next winter I may reconsider

I hear a Titian and a 9k series AMD CPU does wonders for the heat bill!

 

[sesselpupser]

I had a moment of weakness last night and came out the other side £111 poorer, but now someone, somewhere, is packing a Samsung 850 Evo 512GB and a pair of SATA cables (because the other 512GB is only a few months away, of course) into an Amazon box on my behalf.

I've just realised I was going to get a 212 Evo. Oops.

 

[JohnBM01]

Overnight, I downloaded Google SketchUp 8 (not the newer Trimble SketchUp or any SketchUp 2013 or later, mind you). Today, I started playing around with SketchUp. The simplicity of making shapes and such is just incredible. I actually feel like I can make some very decent models even for someone used to Blender. I even saw a video of someone taking a simple blueprint of a car and modeling the car's basic shape and form so easily that it eventually got me wanting to try it myself. The video even claimed you could model a car in SketchUp from start to finish in less than two hours. Blender is so much more advanced on the modeling front, but SketchUp seems much easier to make models with.

So I'll try to learn SketchUp and then get some courage and confidence to make models.

 

[Rallywagon]

Overnight, I downloaded Google SketchUp 8 (not the newer Trimble SketchUp or any SketchUp 2013 or later, mind you). Today, I started playing around with SketchUp. The simplicity of making shapes and such is just incredible. I actually feel like I can make some very decent models even for someone used to Blender. I even saw a video of someone taking a simple blueprint of a car and modeling the car's basic shape and form so easily that it eventually got me wanting to try it myself. The video even claimed you could model a car in SketchUp from start to finish in less than two hours. Blender is so much more advanced on the modeling front, but SketchUp seems much easier to make models with.

So I'll try to learn SketchUp and then get some courage and confidence to make models.

Does SketchUp save in a format that Blender can open? Maybe you can build the foundation in one and refine/detail the model in the other.

 

[JohnBM01]

The only real format that SketchUp saves in that can be imported into Blender is the DAE COLLADA format. The only thing I really had to change was to add transparency to actual translucent painted items in SketchUp.

 

[Lain]

After hours of beating my head against the wall, I've finally solved my problem.

That problem being the fact that my wireless router is in the back bedroom and my PS4 is in the front bedroom. Factor in crappy router with PS4's crappy wifi, along with crappy PSN and basically my PS4 was effectively offline despite being technically connected to the router.

A bit frustrating when you're trying to download dozens of games to your new PS4 because the old one crapped out.

So the solution? Use my laptop as a sort of repeater. My laptop is able to very reliably connect to the router with its built-in wi-fi, so just create an ad-hoc network for my PS4 to connect to, right?

Sort of. Apparently since Windows 8, you can't just go create an ad-hoc network in the control panel. You've gotta get down and dirty with the command prompt.

My idea was to try and use a spare usb wi-fi dongle I had, so that one of the wi-fi adapters can be connected to the router and the other would be for creating the ad-hoc network. And that's eventually what I got. T'was a pain in the neck though, and I'm a little delirious from lack of sleep so I'm not even entirely sure how I ultimately got it to work finally.

But it is working, and that's all that matters.

 

[BobK]

This would have worked even better.

 

[Lain]

Pfft, cables are more obsolete than physical media.

 

[BobK]

Pfft, cables are more obsolete than physical media.

...unless you want spe-e-e-e-d.

 

[Rallywagon]

With LiFi around the corner and the fact most US broadband is around 20-50mbps, I'd think secuirty at this point is the only concern speed wise.

 

[kikie]

Installed Avast (yesterday actually).

 

[Ibonibo]

Earlier this week I indulged myself with a NZXT HUE+ highly customizable led lighting kit for my pc. This is a short clip of it in action straight from my living room....



And a few pics of my two fav fixed colours....7f1ae5 & 76b900
View attachment 522517 View attachment 522518

Also this week I have won the Rookie Rumble 28 OC competition at http://hwbot.org/ and as such should soon be a proud 1st prize winning owner of a nice kit of G.SKILL TRIDENT Z DDR4 16GB (F4-3000C14-16GTZ)

I tried to find a hue+. everywhere I looked it was out of stock....

So my new PC is there:

My gosh it's huge. First thaught.... , I like it, but it really is freaking huge. Next to it is my old rig. In the already huge Antec 902 case....

Brought it home from work. First thing was add the 970gtx. Because I ordered it over the same supplier as the company, they do a good job at putting those things together for 70bucks and then stress test it for 2 days.

This one 2 days 15h 25min 36sec Peak temp never got over 33°C (OCCT 4.4.1 was the software)

While I can't enjoy the process of building it myself I choose the components, they stresstest and so I am sure I don't have to RMI parts back. And I have on top of the parts warranty a warranty for the whole built. So... not bad

And during their lifespan they get torn apart multiple times.

I will start tomorrow with proper cable management. It's okay, but to visible. Add an LED strip (RBG).

I did some benchmarks, and while it's fast....

I am still surprise what the old i7 still does.

I will make a thread later in the comin days with more pics and the benchmark,

But cinebench cpu : the i7 920 OC had an average of 450 (3runs) and the Skylake (stock, still ) 880 avr.
But obviously, the temps are worlds apart.
more later...


What is a good free cpu benchmark??

Now to a clean Win7 install

 

[Watchman]

 

 

[sesselpupser]

In addition to the SSD, I've got a Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler on its way to me. Well, to my parents' house, since I'm going there on the weekend. My PC won't know what hit it.

 

[BobK]

16GB RAM now, but that could be getting increased to 32 some time in the more or less near future.

...and that "near future" is now. Well, soon; it's in the mail. I'd installed VirtualBox and set up a couple VMs. I was so impressed with how well it performed that I figured I might as well increase the VM capacity now.

One of my planned uses when I built the machine was running VMs, so I'm quite pleased so far, although I'm finding some rough edges with Trinity.