OT: Technology and Geek Stuff Thread

[Darl McrBride]

The metric system is great. Should be used for all engineering applications sure.

Metric is great for science applications, there are a lot of benefits to imperial for engineering applications (ie, building stuff). It's always a hoot when scientists and engineers collide.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I would if I were you, Mass.

[-Deborah-]

Mass, if your system supports 3.0 by all means use it. It will be backward compatible with 2.0, but ten times faster.

[Masspartan]

USB ports that are compliant with the USB 3.0 standard do not support recovery with a USB flash drive that is compliant with the USB 3.0 standard. On models without the USB ports that are compliant with only the USB 2.0 standard, be sure to create Recovery Media using the USB flash drive that is not compliant with the USB 3.0 standard.

- this is the paragraph that had me scratching my head. The computer I bought has (2) USB3.0 ports.

What the fuck does it say in English?

[Panoptes]

Use 2.0 compliant or older for recovery flash

Why when you have a 3.0 compliant system is a completely different story.

[-Deborah-]

Yeah, that's baffling. Sounds like you have to create the backup on a ver 2.0 flash drive instead of using a 3.0 drive. But it also sounds like if you do that, it will work via your 3.0 ports.

I'm out of my depth on this one, but that's what it *sounds* like from what you posted.

[unknown lions fan]

You need a 3.0 spec flash drive to take advantage of a 3.0 USB port's speed, but yeah, it looks like they're saying that backup isn't supported on a 3.0 flash drive, so they want you to "downgrade" the flash to 2.0 and use your 3.0 port in 2.0 mode.

I don't know why that would be the case either, but I guess that's it.

[Tony G]

I bought a new router that has usb built in for my own cloud. It's 3.0 but doesn't support a hard drive over 2 TB. I read this after I had already got a 3 TB external. Why would the size matter?

[The Ken]

USB ports that are compliant with the USB 3.0 standard do not support recovery with a USB flash drive that is compliant with the USB 3.0 standard. On models without the USB ports that are compliant with only the USB 2.0 standard, be sure to create Recovery Media using the USB flash drive that is not compliant with the USB 3.0 standard.

- this is the paragraph that had me scratching my head. The computer I bought has (2) USB3.0 ports.

What the fuck does it say in English?

USB 3.0 is faster than USB 2.0

however USB 3.0 will fall back to the USB 2.0 speeds you have on your computer.

USB 3 falls to USB 2 which falls to USB 1.1

[unknown lions fan]

I finally retired my old LG Ally last week and upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Likes: Thin, strong processor, 16GB internal with a slot for up to 64GB, nice screen resolution. The USB cord is nicely marked with a white USB logo on the top, so I don't keep trying to plug it in upside down. Front and rear cameras with 8mp on the back, and HD video. Nice.

Dislikes: Power / sleep button located across from volume buttons, so I often inadvertently change the volume when pushing it by squeezing the phone. With the "samsung" logo at the top front and the wake/home button at the bottom front, I often start with it upside down at first. They kind of look alike.

I don't like any of the media player software they preload on these things. It all reminds me of apple-interface stuff - totally dumbed down while at the same time difficult to work with to get to more advanced settings. Cleared all that junk off and installed my favorite media player: Meridian Media Player Revolute. I love its gesture controls.

Overall, a pretty solid device.

I think it's funny that none of these modern phones comes with a good old ringer as an option. Everything has to be a song or a silly sound. I find it easy to overlook those sounds when there's a lot of background noise or I'm really focused on something. So I installed a free ringtones app that gives me a nice electronic ring.

[nhwbrooklyn]

Huh... I took you for a rap song as ring tone type ULF.

[Fraquar]

USB ports that are compliant with the USB 3.0 standard do not support recovery with a USB flash drive that is compliant with the USB 3.0 standard. On models without the USB ports that are compliant with only the USB 2.0 standard, be sure to create Recovery Media using the USB flash drive that is not compliant with the USB 3.0 standard.

- this is the paragraph that had me scratching my head. The computer I bought has (2) USB3.0 ports.

What the fuck does it say in English?

Don't use a USB 3.0 stick as your recovery media, use a USB 2.0 stick.
Use USB 3.0 sticks for everything else (storage/transfer).

My guess is it needs OS drivers loaded at runtime to recognize the USB 3.0 media. Win 7 and below don't natively support USB 3.0.

[-Deborah-]

I finally retired my old LG Ally last week and upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy SIII.

After using my Windows 8 Phone for a month (the Lumia 920), those Galaxies seem like toys to me. The Lumia is just so...I don't know...smooth.

[unknown lions fan]

After using my Windows 8 Phone for a month (the Lumia 920), those Galaxies seem like toys to me. The Lumia is just so...I don't know...smooth.

I didn't even look into them. MS has owned my PC experience for decades, and I'm reluctant to let them take hold of my phone device as well, so I'm staying with Android for now.

And since it's early in the game for Windows and the phone, I'll watch and see how it develops. If it posed enough benefits to me on the integration with my laptop front, I may drop the bias in the future.

[-Deborah-]

I can understand that point of view completely. But, I do love having Office on my phone and being able to open up an Excel document that's on my PC with my phone (via SkyDrive). The Windows Phone 8 interface is beautiful and fluid, and the hardware that Nokia has is just ridiculously top notch. It's really a pleasure to use.

It is still a little green and not for everyone. I hope it takes off because the interface is just so much better (IMO) than iPhone and Android.