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  1. Mercutio

    I want to buy a new car

    Hey this is a thread I've never posted in. A hilarious thing happened to me today. My car's key recognition system failed. Meaning that, even though I have the correct ignition key and there was nothing else mechanically or electronically wrong, my key would no longer start the car. This...
  2. Mercutio

    Transparant aluminum

    Transparent Aluminum was invented by Dr. Nichols of Plexicorp of San Francisco in 1986, with assistance from a mysterious "Professor Scott" from Edinburgh.
  3. Mercutio

    Smartwatches

    Waze has a social or peer to peer aspect where data is shared with other Waze users. Areas that have a lot of Waze users (like Chicago's western suburbs or probably the Bay area) get ridiculously good traffic data in essentially real time. I don't think Google Maps has that component. If...
  4. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    I don't like the Gmail app. It makes incorrect assumptions about how I want my mail presented. I replace it with K9, which also runs on my Amazon tablet. I don't like Hangounts. Hangouts behaves poorly since I don't have a G+-enabled account. I replace it with IM+ Pro, which can also sign in to...
  5. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    All of Sprint's, all of Samsung's, most of Google's.
  6. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Look, if a half million dollar car does not have EZ Clean upholstery, somebody didn't spring for the full option package.
  7. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Samsung supplies a tool for unlocking their phones. The tool is called Odin. You run Odin, then you flash an alternative boot loader on to your phone, boot while doing gymnastics on the power and volume buttons and run SuperSU or something to get your root access. It takes about two minutes if...
  8. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Both Android, so yes. Although that can be complicated and misleading, since carriers and OEMs frequently replace stock apps for versions of their own. So for example you might find that the Contacts or Calendar apps you're used to are nothing like the ones you had on your last device. Because...
  9. Mercutio

    Smartwatches

    Here's some instructions for adding tidal information to Google Calendar. Traffic is trickier but I believe Waze integrates real time data pretty well.
  10. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I worked into the wee small hours last night and did maintenance call earlier today. Holidays are good for that kind of thing.
  11. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Microsoft has its own app store service for Windows Mobile, yes.
  12. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Happy Freedommas everybody! I'm mostly celebrating by having bronchitis, but tonight I'm gonna Ron Swanson myself a $92-at-retail 29 oz. Porterhouse and some green beans with every kind of pork I could find thrown in for flavoring because Freedom.
  13. Mercutio

    Headphones

    The Bluebuds Sport X headphones I bought a couple years ago pretty much never come off from around my neck if I'm awake. I have noticed that Bluetooth earbuds are no longer super-exotic (I bought five pairs of cheapies for $12 off Ebay a couple weeks ago), but the Bluebuds do still sound a lot...
  14. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Windows phones definitely aren't awful. They're just not Android. The biggest problem is that they don't have enough developers building apps for them because their market share is tiny. This means that well known internet services might not have official apps on that platform, or perhaps that...
  15. Mercutio

    Windows 10

    My Hamachi VPN software doesn't work in Windows 10 either. In fact, Hamachi is the only application I use regularly that isn't yet supported on 10. I usually just RDP in to a client that does have it when I need to do something.
  16. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Verizon has the most towers. It also has LTE service in more places, but in places where it hasn't upgraded its towers, it also has the worst voice quality. Verizon also charges more than any other service. Verizon's coverage advantage is especially huge in those states west of the Mississippi...
  17. Mercutio

    Something Random

    The just plain not-Pro Surface 3 is perfectly respectable all on its own. I haven't really done anything with my Surface Pro where I've really thought "Hey, I sure am glad this thing has an i5" but I've done lots of things where I've thought "I sure am glad this thing runs real Windows software...
  18. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Battery life on my G4 is wildly inconsistent. An hour streaming a podcast over LTE to bluetooth headphones inside a metal building? Use 1% my battery during the whole time. Ten minutes of short Instant Messaging while on a strong 802.11 signal? 10 percent of the battery.
  19. Mercutio

    Windows 10

    The VPN connections, like firewall profile settings, seem to migrate in every new version of Windows. I think they're visible if you double click the regular network connection icon in the taskbar but you're right that it's lame to not have the icon you're used to seeing.
  20. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Intel CPU nomenclature is kind of god-awful. Modern Atoms aren't necessarily terrible and Atom cores are being stuck in things that are branded Xeon. It's definitely a slug by desktop standards, but that it's not like anyone should be trying to do desktop computing on something in the form...
  21. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Removable battery and support for microSD up to 200GB (for some reason, there's a 200GB card now). The G4 is on every major US carrier. I have no idea about regional and pay as you go carriers like Virgin or Cricket or US Cellular.
  22. Mercutio

    Lenovo G50 G70, any good?

    All Thinkpads are Lenovos but not all Lenovos are Thinkpads. As a general guideline, I would avoid any product line that doesn't at least offer a 1080p option for the screen. If someone put a gun to my head and made me buy a consumer notebook, I'd go out of my way to get an Asus if anything...
  23. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    I can't make it happen, but I tend to work from odd combinations of browser, platform and addon installation. My thinking is that there's a server-side script that interacts with certain combinations of identified user agents and referrers. When I look at the DuroFlexworld Page, I can't really...
  24. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    Ask a spouse who thinks a partner is cheating or somebody in the middle of a break-up that question.
  25. Mercutio

    HP Pavilion DV6-2157US Laptop Issues

    Is it still sluggish? The drive itself is what I'd expect it to be.
  26. Mercutio

    RouterBoard (MikroTik) or Ubiquiti EdgeRouter - any good?

    I've also had a hell of a time getting UAP devices to factory reset from the physical button, which is something that doesn't seem like it should actually be a problem.
  27. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    Actually, once I dug into the APK, it's about 35MB of .ogg files plus a tiny little binary for previewing and setting them as the system alarm/ringtone/notification. When I just copied the .ogg files and stuck them in /storage/sdcard0/media/audio/notifications on another device they show up like...
  28. Mercutio

    4K TVs

    Because companies that make TVs learned a new trick and they want to show it off and who cares about viewing angles anyway?
  29. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    I suspect the running script is reacting to the link referrer or something and it might be embedded in an ad or CDN embedded image that's being filtered when I look. I can't really say 'cause I can't see the behavior but their web person needs to look at it.
  30. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    If nothing else, smartphones can be repurposed as media players or used for experimentation. We probably all know a kid who wants to play stupid mobile games and listen to their music even if they can't be trusted with a $50/month cellphone bill. I really wouldn't know much about messing with...
  31. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    On a known-clean Windows install, clicking the link from Google does not exhibit that behavior but there does seem to be a mysterious issue with sites being redirected specifically to Shoppingfordress.com. Apparently people are getting server-side redirects to that one specific other site, so...
  32. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    What's the actual site? Are you seeing the behavior on any other page?
  33. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    You might want to nuke your Chrome install and all the seven zillion places it puts components of its configuration, just to be safe. Reload from Ninite or something. Do the improper behaviors occur in Firefox or IE?
  34. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    Google's Malware tracker is looking at script code and downloaded executables. I strongly suspect in this case the malware is already on your PC.
  35. Mercutio

    RouterBoard (MikroTik) or Ubiquiti EdgeRouter - any good?

    The non-Pro UAP devices and the Nanostations I've gotten to use don't have 802.3af compliant PoE adapters. The Netgear Smartswitches I use in most of my installations should power PoE devices just fine but it seems that less expensive Ubiquiti devices don't support that option and run on some...
  36. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    I haven't seen anyone talking about it but Sense8 is a Netflix series by J. Michael "Babylon 5" Stracinzski and the Wachowskis (formerly brothers but now not so much) that seems to live up to its pedigree. It's an original property, not part of any long-standing continuity. If it draws...
  37. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    A thing that I really, really like is the RCP Ringtones pack. It's $6.50 and it includes a huge selection of inoffensive but distinctive beeps, whistles and chimes.
  38. Mercutio

    RouterBoard (MikroTik) or Ubiquiti EdgeRouter - any good?

    I've been finding reasons to mess with Nanostations and UAP-LR devices. They're good, trouble free hardware, though everything uses weirdo non-compliant PoE. I haven't found the UAP-LR's range claims to match up with anything resembling reality so far, but next time I'm at that client site I'm...
  39. Mercutio

    Intel Haswell-E (X-99 chipset) processors reviews.

    My first thought was a dual board rackmount setup but not with X99 and only two DIMM slots. I could at least make a use case out of that as someone who pays $60/month for 2U of space in a datacenter. I just bought an Asrock C612 board for a server build. I've been unimpressed with Supermicro...
  40. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    Neopets forum gets filthy when mods get laid off; forum needs its mouth washed out with soap. Neopets. The thing that eight year olds really like before they discover Pokemons.
  41. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    When you click a link on Google, you're actually redirected through a Google URL to the destination site, rather than being sent directly to the URL you've clicked, e.g...
  42. Mercutio

    Web Weirdness

    Malware-like behavior detected.
  43. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    I'm just going to add that Android 5 makes using an SD card as fucking annoying as humanly possible.
  44. Mercutio

    Android phones: Tips, tricks?

    An amusing discovery for me. I bought a an LG G4 and I've discovered that while my left hand has no difficulty reaching the width of the phone, my right thumb is a bit too short to comfortably tap anything on the left edge. The auto brightness level on the G4 is rather more conservative than...
  45. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I know it's not really a huge milestone for any of the other regulars, but today was an amazing and surprising day for justice in the USA. I was in a meat packing plant in a farm town in Central Indiana when I got the news. Which sounds like an extended gay joke all its own but actually at...
  46. Mercutio

    AMD Radeon R9 Fury X Video Card Review

    It's probably awesome if you want to do OpenCL. I'm not terribly impressed either but stock sealed water cooling and power draw that's in line with Maxwell (yes I know it's because of the memory tech they're using) are both at least interesting.
  47. Mercutio

    Intel Haswell-E (X-99 chipset) processors reviews.

    The guy at Noctua got back to me. I sent them a proof of purchase and I guess they're going to mail me the brackets I need. I love Noctua fans to death but I think I'm about 50-50 on getting complete kits when I buy their HSFs.
  48. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    Buck, have you looked at Ark? The other person I know who really got in to Rust is currently raving about Ark.
  49. Mercutio

    Any of you guys still building your own?

    Tannin's philosophy in the past has been to make decent mid-spec all-around PCs. There's a compelling argument that centers around getting affordable quad- and hexacore systems with capable integrated graphics, especially for home users who might actually like the modest boost for gaming and...
  50. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    I suspect that if you moved to something with whatever the replacement for nVidia's Maxwell is, you'd probably be set for graphics for another four or five year. You just to have better hardware than whatever they're shoveling into consoles. Unless you want to play the new Batman game, apparently.
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