Bits and PCs - a Computers and Tech Miscellany

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

Otherwise, I'm sure you can either make or buy a print server. For example, Newegg has a bunch of small <$100 devices that have wifi and a USB port.

I'd read the spec carefully, because some need UPnP, or don't support Windows 10, or the specs don't actually match the ad copy.

Yes, that is perfect!

[erimir]

My brother managed to rig up something like that for my parents' home office with their printer.

He has the printer connected to an old router, and that router is connected wirelessly to another router, and that router is connected by ethernet to the main modem/router.

So... you might be able to do it without buying anything if you have some old routers.

You can also do it by connecting the printer directly to a computer, and that computer being networked, and then sharing the printer on your network. But then you might need that computer to be on and logged in for you to be able to print from another computer.

[specious_reasons]

On a lark, I connected to my desktop PC via remote desktop. Then I couldn't get the computer to log in locally. Then it went to hell in a handbasket - won't boot normally, I can't reset the OS, I can boot off the recovery USB stick I made, but then it won't do anything. Shit.

[JoeP]

Oh ...


That sounds freak(out)y. I can't think why remote desktop access would cause those kinds of problems. (Your metaphor may in fact be literal: you have opened a portal to hell and your PC is now possessed.)

I'm guessing you can't get in via remote desktop any more?

Which OS are we talking about? Do you have any hard drive encryption?

[lisarea]

Oh no.

Momus: Datapanik - YouTube

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Oh ...


That sounds freak(out)y. I can't think why remote desktop access would cause those kinds of problems. (Your metaphor may in fact be literal: you have opened a portal to hell and your PC is now possessed.)

I'm guessing you can't get in via remote desktop any more?

Which OS are we talking about? Do you have any hard drive encryption?

This is a Windows PC - I think the fuck up after remote desktop is just a symptom of a more fundamental problem. My normal recovery plan would be to refresh the OS, but that failed, so I'm suspecting file system corruption.

I actually had a backup disk connected a day or two before this happened, I have 2 disks in the system, and all of the stuff I care about is on the non-OS disk. The microscope pictures are backed up to a cloud service.

Now I guess I get to see how good my backup plan is.

[lisarea]

There's pretty much no way I could figure out what the problem is if you can't, but I am morbidly curious now, and I want all the details and updates.

That's just bizarre and really really scary.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

I think the fuck up after remote desktop is just a symptom of a more fundamental problem.

I agree

Originally Posted by lisarea

but I am morbidly curious now, and I want all the details and updates.

Oh, me too

Originally Posted by lisarea

That's just bizarre and really really scary.

I agree

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by lisarea

There's pretty much no way I could figure out what the problem is if you can't, but I am morbidly curious now, and I want all the details and updates.

That's just bizarre and really really scary.

Well, I've probably tried a dozen things since it happened. I suspect once one fails, the problems compound.

Initially, when it was just a remote desktop problem, I found a way (using tscon) to log out of the remote session and get the screen back to the local control, but as soon as I locked the PC, it went right back into that state.
After that, I just rebooted it from the login screen, which gave me the option to "update and reboot" - but I think something went wrong, and it went right back into the state it was in before.

So, I booted into recovery mode (3 hard resets in a row) and tried a system restore. The restore seemed to succeed, but then I started getting boot problems. At this point, I've tried things on various orders:
- another system restore point,
- refresh windows, both with keeping and deleting my files.
- boot off a recovery disk and trying all of the above.
- some various tricks on a few different websites.
- backing out of those tricks and trying again.
- sfc /scannnow (got a weird error)
- dskchk (no errors)

Right now, I'm downloading a Windows installation media and I'm going to use it first to try to repair my OS, then if that doesn't work, reinstall.

[JoeP]

File system corruption, as you suggest, does seem very likely. A clean reinstall would be the best thing.

A hard drive health check wouldn't be a bad idea, once you've got it working.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

On a lark, I connected to my desktop PC via remote desktop. Then I couldn't get the computer to log in locally. Then it went to hell in a handbasket - won't boot normally, I can't reset the OS, I can boot off the recovery USB stick I made, but then it won't do anything. Shit.

Found your twitter.

Today's WTF computer error.
I can't help feel that it feels a little as though the computer is passing a damning indictment on the human race from the command line. @internetofshit pic.twitter.com/xkH4ebW4xo

— Keith Farquharson (@kdfarquharson) January 25, 2019

[specious_reasons]

Nah, it doesn't have enough microscope pictures. Pretty much 95% of my twitter posts are microscope pictures.

Reinstalled Windows from scratch. Slowly getting back all the shit that was on my C: drive and is now gone. All my pictures are on the data drive, so at least that is preserved.

[JoeP]

I still recommend performing an exorcism on the hard drive.

[ceptimus]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

Reinstalled Windows from scratch.

Now you can enjoy many hours of Windows updating itself so as to get back to the bloated state it was in just before it died last time.

[Pyrrho]

So yeah we have a "preview" folder on one of the websites I manage and the folder was configured for username/password access to keep out the riff-raff.

Someone sent an email about a dozen people with the wrong password and the server firewall has blocked the lot of them for using the wrong password. Had to whitelist all their IPs.

I was not the person who sent out that email tho.

[JoeP]

[Ensign Steve]

Real Artifacts

Rendering is hard, partly because the real world doesn't look as good as we think it does. We find real phenomena that resemble computer graphics artifacts amusing. Here are some real photographs that look like rendered images...

The depth of field setting removed part of my glass from the image.




When the sun is directly overhead in Hawaii, it looks like a bad video game render

[BrotherMan]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

The depth of field setting removed part of my glass from the image.

[lisarea]

Hahahahahahaha!

Seriously, how many times is this going to happen before people stop buying stupid unaccountable, closed source internet of shit devices?

Iris Support | Iris by Lowes

Answer: Infinity times.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Digital exchange loses $137 million as founder takes passwords to the grave | Ars Technica

Welp.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

THIS IS THE GIFT THAT NEVER STOPS GIVING.

Barstool Sports tried to respond to complaints of stealing content & submitting fraudulent affidavits to get rid of copyright strikes, by responding with...

material they also don’t own which was taken down through a DMCA complaint: pic.twitter.com/FMTGfaMlpz

— Keith Lee (@associatesmind) March 6, 2019

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

The term "code monkey" is weird bc most of the coders I know are cat girls or maybe foxes. Never met a programmer with a monkey fursona.

— BoringKate (@BoringNerdyKate) December 14, 2018

[Pyrrho]

Yesterday I watched a demo of an AI program that reproduced an image that a designer needed 2 hours to do.

AI did it in 3 minutes.

[lisarea]

Was it a Xerox brand AI?