All Things Technology Related Thread

how well does it work compared to plugging in?

my phone went from about 45% to 80% in one hour. I didn't do comparisons, but there is an excel comparison done on either xdadeveloper or phandroid sites that I found when I googled it. They ran comparison's of amp draw and charge time, and found it comparable to plugged in. I can say that it is a simple to use, and for today had no issues getting it to charge.

My only issue is I have a case that has a folding front cover and the charge won't go through 2 layers of the cover, but it definitely goes through one, and since the front flap has my credit cards, I think they might get messed up if i tried to go through both.

It came with a long (3-4') cord, and a real short cord (maybe 1') and I wondered why, but I connected it to the left side of my laptop usb's and now the pad sits right where I would normally set it, and the short cable doesn't snake all over the place.

Needless to say, first day - new toy - I like it.

Well, the weirdest thing. I go to attempt to sign into my Linux partition and everything signed on just as fine as if nothing had ever happened. Yet, just the other day, after multiple tries, I couldn't sign in. Now, it all seems to be magically working again, lol!

This starts to worry me. I knew Comcast was awful but ever since they started "testing overage fees" in Atlanta back in November (http://consumerist.com/2013/11/08/dear-atlanta-comcast-now-hates-you-too/) and reinstating data caps for the first time in about a year and a half I've found myself coming across a lot more of these:
http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/this-webpage-is-not-available.jpg

Then I saw the article where a Level 3 exec basically called out the major isp's, and was particularly drawn to a part where he was quoted as saying:
Level 3: Your Broadband Company May Be Holding Your Internet Access Hostage - TIME (http://time.com/90703/your-broadband-company-may-be-holding-your-internet-access-hostage/)
The company said that most network interconnections operate at around 36 percent capacity, which allows for an easy flow of traffic between the networks. But on the six networks it claims are problematic, it said congestion has been around 90 percent for more than a year. At this level of congestion, the connection is saturated and packets are dropped often for several hours a day.

But that argument is “unreasonable on its face,” writes another Level 3 executive, Michael Mooney, in a blog post in March, and “entirely inconsistent” with the fact those broadband providers already make a lot of money from consumers who pay them to deliver content at certain speeds. The ISPs’ refusal to help maintain the peering connections that they rely on is simply creating a global game of chicken, he writes. Who blinks first is less the point than who is suffering is mean time: everyday internet users, whose YouTube video won’t stop “buffering,” whose NBA playoff games won’t stream, and whose web pages, at a peak hours, sometimes simply won’t load.


Am I reading this right or just wearing extra tin foil on my hat? I mean I realize Level 3 has their own vested self-interest in this tragedy but the major ISP's haven't exactly done much to endear themselves to the general public.

Hey thanks Dirt! I'll try that this evening and report back. It had been while since I had even booted the desktop, so maybe something had gotten corrupted on a reboot.

So um....yeah I think I figured out the solution to your problem. I actually ended up having the same problem after recently installing Fedora 20 on my desktop. Boot into Linux only to be greeted with a black screen, terminals worked for me but regardless the GUI wasn't having it.

The cause seems to have been, at least in my case updating yum which is the Fedora equivalent of apt-get for Mint and other Ubuntu derivatives. Anyway after going through numerous forums and threads posted by people with similar problems I found that the solution was ridiculously and painfully simple.

When logged in as the root user I typed the following. Now get your pens out this is going to be a long command

startx

Thats it. F****G typing startx in a terminal fixed it for me. BASICALLY ONE F****G SIMPLE COM MAND.

So basically if I could go back in time heres what my response would have been.

Hey Skinsguy. Douch....I mean Dirtbag59 here. In regards to your problem please try the following.

1. Open a virtual terminal by pressing ctrl+alt+F1 (or F1-F6)

2. Use your basic login name in the local host field (usually either your first name in lower case or first initial last name. (For example John Smith is usually either john or jsmith). If you know your root password you can also try logging in as root then entering the root password.

3. If logged in as regular user type sudo startx if logged in as root simply type startx.

4. Press ctrl+alt+F7 and you should have your desktop back.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go warn the Navy that the Japanese are planning to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. BTW can anyone tell me todays date?

yeah, the UI isn't integrated in *nix ;) yay x-windows!

This video is the perfect recreation of recent a conversation between myself and my computer in trying to set up an FTP server in a virtual machine. In layman terms I asked the computer to do one thing and the computer decided to do something slightly/completely different.

So in this clip I'm Phil La Marr and my computer is Nicole Sullivan.
WE3vc47irys

Read this article last night while perusing Flipboard (great reading app):
New $199 Toshiba Windows tablet shows why Surface Mini isn’t needed — Tech News and Analysis (http://gigaom.com/2014/05/27/encore-2-windows-tablet-surface-mini/)

I'd be hard pressed not to recommend this for any casual computer user looking to upgrade from their XP machine to make the leap to a newer machine. The ability to hook this up to a monitor/keyboard/mouse for use at a desk, then pick it up and wander with it to surf the web all in one machine.

Power users wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole, but for the normal user who write a Word document from time to time, check email and surf the web, the 8 inch or 10 inch model would be more than ample power to do these things.

I can't wait for the day these (https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/google-jumps-into-the-car-business-with-its-own-self-driving-vehicles-031444947.html) are available to Everyman, although it's probably about 20 years off, assuming liability issues are able to be taken care of.

I can't wait for the day these (https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/google-jumps-into-the-car-business-with-its-own-self-driving-vehicles-031444947.html) are available to Everyman, although it's probably about 20 years off, assuming liability issues are able to be taken care of.

NFL players need it more then anyone.

History of NFL players' drunk-driving issues lingers as season begins | Al Jazeera America (http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2013/9/5/history-of-nfl-sdrunkdrivingissueslingersasseasonbegins.html)
http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2013/9/5/history-of-nfl-sdrunkdrivingissueslingersasseasonbegins/_jcr_content/blog/mainpar/textimage_2/image.img.png

27 NFL Players Arrested Since 2013 Super Bowl - Business Insider (http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-players-arrested-2013-super-bowl-2013-6)

NFL Arrests Database | UTSanDiego.com (http://www.utsandiego.com/nfl/arrests-database/)