computers – Moe Lane

Just spent an hour troubleshooting my kid’s new tablet.

We picked up the XPPen Artist12 Pro because both kids are getting deeper and deeper into computer-generated art, and the XPPen looked the best for his needs. It showed up today, and we spent an entertaining hour trying to figure out why it wasn’t getting any signal until I finally realized that the problem was I didn’t have enough going-out HDMI ports. I should be able to free up a port by using a DVI-D 24+1 to VGA conversion cable for the monitor, but that’s going to have to wait until Friday. The important thing is, we know what the issue is, and how to fix it.

…Fatherhood. Fatherhood never changes; only the stuff you have to fiddle with until it works does. I even have the equivalent of a can of old screws to rummage through to find the right one.

#commissionearned

So that was fun.

My local computer guy is fortunately still alive, and in business – the latter at least can be a bit of a craps shoot, these days – and was able to diagnosis the problem. Basically, my non-SSD drive decided to commit suicide. Thankfully, all of my creative work, including my books and ongoing writing projects, is on the SSD, because I was apparently smart several years ago and put them on the drive less likely to embrace the void*. Running around to resolve all of this ate up the day. Continue reading So *that* was fun.

This is the most expensive HDMI adapter I’ve ever bought.

Mostly because it has a new monitor attached to it. I shake my fist at whoever it is that keeps changing the layout of cable connectors! I shake it, I say! I had to go to three places* before I could manage to do a workaround, and while admittedly I now have a 24 inch curved Samsung monitor, that’s not the point! The point is that civilization embraced standardized for a reason! Don’t mess that up, computer industry!

For the hivemind: the Wifi password’s working for SOME of the phones.

[UPDATE]: I swear to God, it’s just sympathetic blipping magic. Everything works now, now that I’ve unplugged the router and powered it up again.

Mine, and the Kindle; but it’s not working for my kids’ phones. Every time I try to log them into the network I get an authentication error. It’s absolutely the right password; I’ve triple checked, and what I tell you three times is true. The router identifies my phone as being connected, and says that their two phones are not connected, if that helps.

Thoughts? The router did lose connection yesterday, so in an hour I’m going to unplug it then plug it back in to see if that restarts anything. …Which is more or less the equivalent of a magical cantrip, but we all realized that we were going down that particular road a long time ago.

Apple stymies right-to-repair bills in CA, Ontario.

I didn’t know too much about this, because after my flirtation with the iPad back in the day I went back to using PCs and whanot. But apparently Apple is playing the lobbyist game in California and Ontario, where bills that would permit third-party repairs of brand name electronics were up. And the reason Apple gave? Hold on, you’ll love it:

According to Motherboard, Apple, along with lobbyists from tech trade organization CompTIA, reportedly told legislators that owners trying to fix their own iPhones could hurt themselves in the process if they damaged the lithium-ion battery.

Well, the computer’s kind of getting backed up.

I got all my music and all of my writings onto the external hard drive, and now I’m trying to get the entire thing backed up as well. I don’t know if that’s going to work, but I just spent an hour trying to get the two computers to recognize each other on a direct LAN network (one would recognize both; the other would only recognize itself). I have enough for a quick and dirty transfer, in other words. That may have to do.

External Hard Drive shows up today.

Computer came yesterday, but I decided to wait until I had the weekend to make the blessed thing work right. Guess I’ll use the external drive to port over all the extra files to the new computer, then hope that the damn thing works properly eventually. Fun!

So if I pop in here from time to time to swear at the universe, that’s why.

Bleg for computer file transfer guidance.

Basically, my new computer came in and I want to transfer essential files over from the old to the new one without yanking the hard drive. I kind of don’t want to open the casing of the old tower unless I absolutely have to: bad things can happen when I do that, man. Am I gonna have to go out and get an external hard drive, or can I finesse this somehow with the right cables?

Computer video card blew up. [UPDATE: Nah, fam, I’m just an idiot.]

[UPDATE: Turned out it was something that could be fixed — and by ‘something that could be fixed’ I mean ‘a video cable that Moe-ron Lane plugged into the wrong external slot.’ Wish I had found out about it BEFORE I ordered the new computer, though. In unrelated news: hey! I have a Patreon!]

We were shocked to discover that I’ve had this computer since 2015 or so, mind you. It’s older than we remembered. A good bit older.

Anyway, I can still work from this Chromebook, at least. Which is good, because I have deadlines today. Thank goodness I put the story this month in Google Docs.

See, this is why I didn’t get a Jesusphone.

Not because of this, so much: “The South China Morning Post reports a Shanghai mom is locked out of her iPhone for the next 47 years after her 2-year-old son repeatedly entered the wrong passcode.” No, it’s much more because of this: “A technician at an Apple Store in Shanghai told Lu she had two options: do a factory reset on her iPhone and lose all her files or wait the 47 years until she can use it again.” Real computers give you more options.

…What? You don’t have a ‘mobile phone.’ You have a Tech Level 8/9 Complexity 2 Tiny computer that people sometimes use to make voice calls. Where GURPS made its mistake was assuming that people would insist on holographic projection user interfaces; turns out we’re all a lot more willing to just squint and peer close than everybody anticipated.