A thread for boring computer questions.

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windows doesn't seem able to use any old font as a system font either. are there any ways to force other fonts into windows?
Used to be you could open up the control panel and just copy fonts into the Fonts folder; then they'd be available to almost any program you'd want to use. Not sure about the system though.

however, my monitor displays poorly with cleartype on.
I haven't seen a monitor yet where it actually improved things. All it's ever done for me is hurt my eyes squinting at the results.

Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 13:47 (twenty years ago) link

revive!
i have a boring computer question.
but i know nothing about computers so i need laymans terms/stupid proof hints.

my mum and dad have an imac, a g3 one (its about 3 yrs old), aqnd they want to back up all their docs etc, tyo install mac os 9. so they buy a cd writer, an iomega external one, one of those big purple things, and try and burn all their stuff onto cd. the software it comes with is called hotburn and is shit. it generally seems to be going ok, and in theory the disc has been burned, but then doesnt play in the internal cd drive. apparently those internal cd drives are pretty tempramental. so maybe it just doesnt like it. but i want to burn music onto cd. first i try to burn a copy of a cd ive already got, thru hotburn. again, the internal cd doesnt rtecognise the disc as having anything on it. but neither does any other hifi or anyhting we have. which it should, rihght? i mean, it should be able to be played as a cd. i def. burned it as a 'music cd'. so i found toast somewhere and tried tha. but that refused to recvognise the existence of the iomega writer.

even itunes doesnt seem to like the iomega thing. sure, its ugly, but whats with all the hate?

so, can anyone think why the cds we are burning are not being recoginsed by anything. there is stuff on them, because the cd writer recognises them and can play them, whther theyre data oir music, but not anything else.

whats the solution?

ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:09 (twenty years ago) link

1) I wouldn't have bought an iomega cd writer.
2) Which version of Toast is it?
3) What ilk of interface connects the cd-r to the mac.
4) You don't need to back up before installing OS 9 although it is advisable upgrading won't touch any of your documents.

If your mac has firewire, take the iomega drive back to the shop and I'll lend you my yamaha drive.

Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:15 (twenty years ago) link

1) it was cheap, external and worked with macs
2) er...an old one.
3) ???? you mean the software? usb? 1943? the battle of gettysburg?
4) yes i klnow. but my dad is VERY WORRIED ABOUT HIS 34k WORTH OF ORAL HISTORY DOCUMENTS. HE DOES NOT FEEL SECURE. remeber i am just a conduit for my parents anxieties. i just want tobe able to cane the tunes....

ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:23 (twenty years ago) link

2) I'll try and find out what the last version to work with 8.6 is
3) usb or firewire
4) If its only 34k you can email it somewhere for safe keeping

Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:28 (twenty years ago) link

question using font size 2, works in IE but what about Netscape/Opera/ Others - does the info get displayed the same?

DJ Martian (djmartian), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:40 (twenty years ago) link

Matian, yess, it won't be identical, but the effect will be the same.

I thin, ambrose your problem lies with the fact that the version of toast you have does not support the iomega drive and that later versions of toast need OS 9. You kind of have a circular problem, you might not be able to get this drive working at all.

Find out how much stuff is irreplaceable, stuffit into a .sit file and mail it or upload it somewhere.

Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:50 (twenty years ago) link

Problems? With a Mac? Surely that's impossible!!

Mark C (Mark C), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:59 (twenty years ago) link

How much does it cost to replace an ibook keyboard, Ed?

Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:56 (twenty years ago) link

see here for UK
and here for US.

will tell you how to swap it over

Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 12:26 (twenty years ago) link

"however, my monitor displays poorly with cleartype on.
I haven't seen a monitor yet where it actually improved things. All it's ever done for me is hurt my eyes squinting at the results."

Cleartype is designed for TFT displays, using subpixel anti aliasing.

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=2030990365&r=2610982565#2610982565

Try the cleartype adjuster in this thread.

Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 13:17 (twenty years ago) link

Cleartype is designed for TFT displays, using subpixel anti aliasing.
Definitely that's what it's designed for, but I still haven't seen a TFT display where it hasn't just made the text so blurry that it hurt my eyes, with normal use.

Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 13:48 (twenty years ago) link

If I want to use my integrated eMac monitor as a screen for some input other than my Mac, is that possible? I'd especially like to be able to plug in my PS2 [which has scart or 3 wire DIN (is that the right name) plugs] or maybe even an old PC, though I can see that might be harder. What about a VCR? I guess some kind of USB adaptor box could do it. I might add a TV tuner at some point, if that makes any difference.

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 15 May 2003 16:35 (twenty years ago) link

You'd need a usb or firewire video in box. some have TV tuner's built in. I'll google one up for you.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 15 May 2003 16:53 (twenty years ago) link

options

one
two
three

if they don't work go to http://www.cwonline.co.uk/ and search for tv tuner

Ed (dali), Thursday, 15 May 2003 17:02 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks Ed.

What if I wanted to save money by just getting a video in without the tuner? And would the PC thing be possible in any way?

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 15 May 2003 17:08 (twenty years ago) link

OK, here's my question: I know it's possible to use a Mac with an Airport card as a base station. I know that you can get PC cards to hook them up to an Aiport network. But: Is it possible to use a PC with an Airport-compatible card as a base station?

Chris P (Chris P), Thursday, 15 May 2003 17:25 (twenty years ago) link

Ach - another problem. Reviews of the MyTv stuff say that it's pretty sketchy in full screen mode cause of the bottleneck cause by the USB bandwidth. Surely a Firewire version is what I need (esp for PS2) but they don't seem to exist.

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 15 May 2003 17:30 (twenty years ago) link

firewire things are a bit more pro oriented but I think formac do a thing.

Chris, in theory yes, and I think its a doddle with XP.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 15 May 2003 17:44 (twenty years ago) link

But: Is it possible to use a PC with an Airport-compatible card as a base station?

Depends entirely upon the software controllers on the Windows side of things. It's all 802.11b, so there's no technical reason why you couldn't. I imagine a Windows-user here will have more to say.

Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:34 (twenty years ago) link

The PCs in question use Win98.

Chris P (Chris P), Thursday, 15 May 2003 23:19 (twenty years ago) link

One for any UK readers: what's a good online shop for ordering PC hardware components? I've used Scan in the past and been happy enough but I've just found out that their score on ResellerRatings is terrible, and since I'll be buying almost a complete set of computer innards it'd be nice to think that I could return them with no hassle if I needed to.

(I've used a couple of other places too but now they're either a lot more expensive than Scan or don't stock the brands/models I was hoping for. Maybe I have to choose between good returns policy, competitive pricing and wide stock with good availability. But in the meantime, I'd be very grateful for any recommendations. Thanks!)

Frazer, Wednesday, 21 May 2003 11:04 (twenty years ago) link

how the hell do i reformat my hd without a win98 disc?

Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 22 May 2003 20:44 (twenty years ago) link

"One for any UK readers: what's a good online shop for ordering PC hardware components?"

http://www.dabs.com

Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 22 May 2003 20:47 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.ebuyer.com/ can be good too.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 22 May 2003 21:04 (twenty years ago) link

to reformat your disk, use the FORMAT command. You'll be left with a completely blank disk, though.

caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 23 May 2003 11:19 (twenty years ago) link

How do you multi-window browse using this here new shiny iBook? I.e., this is my first mac and it doesn't seem to have an equivalent of the PC's alt-Tab skipping between applications/internet windows action - or am I BLIND?

Also, does PySoulSeek work?

Also, it says I need to right click and save on Gabba.net butbutbut Mac mice only have ONE BUTTON (WTF?!) how do I download the shizzing new Dizzy Rascal track from Gabba?

Cozen (Cozen), Friday, 23 May 2003 16:09 (twenty years ago) link

Which OS are you running, Cozen? Do a Google search on Mac keyboard shortcuts or something.

pYSoulSeek is apparently a bit tricky and Graham reported than it had stopped working for him entirely.

To right click on a Mac, sometimes holding it down longer works (always a bit confused by this) but if that fails then Ctrl+click will do it.

N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:04 (twenty years ago) link

Mac OS X, N. Thanks, I'll try that and report back if I fail.

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:07 (twenty years ago) link

How do you Mac people download the shizzingest tunes of the moment, then?

Ctrl+click works but I don't know how to download tracks from Gabba. It just ended up downloading some weird .asp file.

Ed, wake up.

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:11 (twenty years ago) link

pysoulseek works fine, there was a time when it was broken but now it works.

First install the dev tools cd that came with your mac, get any updates from http://www.apple.com/developer

You need to get apple X11, and the X11 SDK availible from http://www.apple.com/macisx/x11

then you need to get fink from http://fink.sourceforge.net and install as instructed.

then you need to install the pysoulseek package in fink from the unstable tree

Launch the fink commander app and choose preferences fron the Fink Commander menu, check use unstable. Then from the commands menu choose selfupdate-cvs. Then choose update-all from the commands menu. Then select the pysoulseek package from the packages list and choose the Install command. Say yes to installing any other packages it may require, this may take a while.

Then open up the X11 application choose terminal from the application menu type in pysoulseek and press return, if that doesn't work type

cd /sw/src/pysl.......... the dots indicate the name of the pyslsk directory you can just type in pysls after the src and press tab, it will complete the name

in that folder type

python2.3 ./pyslsk

and press return

Ed (dali), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:24 (twenty years ago) link

Cozen - there have been lots of threads about Mac filesharing programs on ILM and ILE. See here.

Unfortunately, since the death of Audiogalaxy, there has been no Mac client that's great for obscurer stuff. Nothing as good as SoulSeek, anyway. It's the worst thing about Macs.

N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:26 (twenty years ago) link

on gabba with safari just ctrl click and download link to disk. It works just fine.

Ed (dali), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:29 (twenty years ago) link

read above post, soulseek works on mac just fine, it's just a little trial to install it

Ed (dali), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:30 (twenty years ago) link

Trial = brane breaking tribulation. Will try. Might die.

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:32 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks Ed, but there is no way in hell I am inflicting that on my Mac when I have no fucking idea what I'm doing. I will do something wrong and kill us all.

N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:33 (twenty years ago) link

This is going to take a lot of getting used to - if this thing wasn't so darned pretty.

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:35 (twenty years ago) link

What file sharing device do you use, N.?

Right, I figured out how to download off Gabba but now I've lost the the "this is downloading; this is how much is downloaded thus far" box. Grr.

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:38 (twenty years ago) link

Limewire is ok but very system hungry.

Unfortunately using pysoulseek means you have to leave the pretty and set of to the ugly dark side of OS X's unix core

Ed (dali), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:39 (twenty years ago) link

I use Acquistion, LimeWire, iSwipe and occasionally Neo. I'm sure they're all much better if you have broadband. Acquistion I probably use most cause it has the cleanest interface. You have to leave it running a while for it to build up a larger network.

iSwipe is about to introduce OpenFT support for non-registered users. Does anyone know about OpenFT - would it be really great if everyone used it? It seems to be in very early stages of development and thus generally requires the kind of tomfoolery Ed details above to get it up and running.

N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 24 May 2003 13:43 (twenty years ago) link

Can someone explain this: when I play 69 Love Songs disc three, iTunes 4 says that it contains 23 songs and 551 MB. So that’s approximately 46 songs per GB. Now on a 10 GB iPod that is only 460 songs – but when I hear talk it’s normally in the region of 2500 songs. Am I still being spoddy, here?

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 17:22 (twenty years ago) link

MP3s are much smaller than AIFF and WAV files, remember!

slutsky (slutsky), Saturday, 24 May 2003 17:26 (twenty years ago) link

Oh, k, so if I want to copy this CD to my MAC hard drive will it automatically save as an MP3 (and then I pass it onto my iPod?)?

I feel like such an idiot. Thank you to everyone who's helped.

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 17:29 (twenty years ago) link

This I don't know as I'm not an iTunes person. But maybe check your Prefs and see if there's a default file-type option for ripping.

slutsky (slutsky), Saturday, 24 May 2003 17:31 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks, slutsky. iTunes people - is there anyway of getting the display at the bottom of iTunes to calculate and show me the MP3 weight/value/size of the disc I'm playing.

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 17:33 (twenty years ago) link

If you're encoding at 128 (which is a little less than I like to--generally I go for 192)--I believe the rule of thumb is a meg a minute.

slutsky (slutsky), Saturday, 24 May 2003 17:37 (twenty years ago) link

Did anyone answer Cozen's question about the Mac equivalent of Cntrl+Tab? The answer obv is Command+Tab. Also, I'm a fan of Acquistion for file sharing. It's the first shareware app I've paid for!

Sean (Sean), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:52 (twenty years ago) link

Command + Tab isn't the same because it switches between different programs but not different windows of the same program!

Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:53 (twenty years ago) link

someone mentioned alittle programme that can do this on another thread but I can't think where.

Ed (dali), Saturday, 24 May 2003 19:56 (twenty years ago) link

Cozen, you are correct. I misread your question.

Sean (Sean), Saturday, 24 May 2003 20:18 (twenty years ago) link


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