• (disco) in reply to FrostCat

    Oh, that's an interesting idea ...I guess. I personally haven't seen any computers without disk activity LED, but if there are such things and if it would be technically feasible, then, sure - it's a cool concept.

  • (disco) in reply to obeselymorbid
    obeselymorbid:
    I personally haven't seen any computers without disk activity LED

    Someone upthread mentioned not having one. That's what made me think of it.

  • (disco) in reply to obeselymorbid
    obeselymorbid:
    All external disks and thumbdrives I've come across had an activity LED.

    I have three PNY flash drives (8GB, 16GB, 64GB) that have no lights at all.

    obeselymorbid:
    I personally haven't seen any computers without disk activity LED

    I have a laptop and a desktop sitting right next to me from two different companies, and neither has a disk usage indicator light. :<!---->(

    I have come to the conclusion that companies don't think drive activity lights are worth the money they cost anymore. Oh well.

  • (disco) in reply to LB_
    LB_:
    flash drives (8GB, 16GB, 64GB) that have no lights at all.

    Get better drives :trolleybus: All my SanDisk ones have lights, although sometimes I wonder whether it's just a pulsating "I'm on" light or a true activity light.

    Both my current and previous external drives came with an honest activity LED.

    All of my computers have one too.

    The only exception is my MacBook in the office - it has a tiny light but I couldn't ever really figure out what it's for. It sometimes blinks when it sleeps but not always. It also blinks when it boots IIRC. But AFAICT it has no disk activity indicators.

  • (disco) in reply to obeselymorbid
    obeselymorbid:
    All my SanDisk ones have lights, although sometimes I wonder whether it's just a pulsating "I'm on" light or a true activity light.

    Why not both? Mine do slow fade up and down to indicate "I'm on" and rapid flicker when there's activity.

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek

    That might be it, I'll try to pay more attention next time I transfer some files to it.

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    Why not both? Mine do slow fade up and down to indicate "I'm on" and rapid flicker when there's activity.

    Also, if the PC doesn't ever connect, the light is a solid lit.

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra

    I guess I've never had the PC fail to connect, because I've never noticed that, but I'll take your word for it unless conflicting information comes to light.

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    PC fail to connect

    It doesn't necessarily need to be a PC. It should do the same for wall charges IIRC.

    Filed under: Though why would you stick a flash drive into a wall charger?

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra

    Why would you charge a mass storage device?

    Filed under: Now my post doesn't make sense; fucking ninja edits

  • (disco) in reply to obeselymorbid
    obeselymorbid:
    Why would you charge a mass storage device?

    Maybe it's multi-function? Like a Wireless drive? I have a Wireless SD card I keep specifically for this, but if I'm not actively using it I just slot it into a dumb reader and stick it on a charger.

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra

    Imagine if the flash drive turned on its wifi radio if it got power but no data connection, and then you could connect to it as a public file server XD

    That sounds like a fun Raspberry Pi project.

    EDIT: Somehow I thought what I said was different from what @Tsaukpaetra described, but clearly it wasn't... :facepalm:

  • (disco) in reply to LB_
    LB_:
    Imagine if the flash drive turned on its wifi radio if it got power but no data connection, and then you could connect to it as a public file server XD

    That's the afore-mentioned wireless SD card (and indeed, the premise of Wireless Hard Drives period) I mentioned just above your reply. :stuck_out_tongue:

    Granted, it's pathetically slow, but it works for what it's supposed to do!

  • (disco)

    Wow! I always wondered why there is no remake of it, one that I can play on modern graphics. TIM is a great puzzle game. I wonder if TIM is trademarked and they could not use it, contraption maker is too hard to remember, and is not a fun name.

    Few years ago I found TIM original as a free game in some website, but the graphics was crappy.

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    or having to tell each game separately what the sound card's IO ports were…
    Not to mention the fun that ensued when you came across a game that couldn't cope with your soundcard's settings (this happened a lot if you used DMA>1, particularly, but I also had it happen with certain IRQ values), so then you had to go and (a) try to find settings that everything could live with, and (b) tell everything else about them.

    Of course better written games would either auto-detect or read the values from AUTOEXEC.BAT, but there were certainly plenty that didn't.

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra
    Tsaukpaetra:
    It doesn't necessarily need to be a PC.

    I thought about it overnight and your argument would make sense with powered ports on a notebook that's asleep.

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra
    Tsaukpaetra:
    Wireless SD card

    TIL. So I'm reading about this EyeFi on their site (I'm guessing you either have this or something similar) and there's a lot of talk about instantly synergizing your photos everywhere but not many technical details. AIUI it's just a Wi-Fi client. Can you explain what the subscription fee is for?

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra
    Tsaukpaetra:
    Wireless SD card

    TIL. So I'm reading about this EyeFi on their site (I'm guessing you either have this or something similar) and there's a lot of talk about instantly synergizing your photos everywhere but not many technical details. AIUI it's just a Wi-Fi client. Can you explain what the subscription fee is for?

    Why would you want to stick it in a charger? So that it's still available as sort of a small NAS?

  • (disco) in reply to obeselymorbid
    obeselymorbid:
    Tsaukpaetra:
    Wireless SD card

    TIL. So I'm reading about this EyeFi on their site (I'm guessing you either have this or something similar) and there's a lot of talk about instantly synergizing your photos everywhere but not many technical details. AIUI it's just a Wi-Fi client. Can you explain what the subscription fee is for?

    Yeah, so, in reality, it kinda sucks.

    It's a wifi client. It does one thing. Upload photos to their service (hence subscription) Which you then download.

    I think it might do local transfers too, via their app (maybe?), but that's about it.

    And it is powered by the camera itself.

    And no, it can't be enhanced to do more than that. At least not easily.

    I don't think that's what @Tsaukpaetra is talking about though

  • (disco) in reply to sloosecannon
    sloosecannon:
    I don't think that's what @Tsaukpaetra is talking about though

    Well, as far as the EyeFi device goes, yes. I have one made by Toshiba(?) called FlashAir, which is essentially a more bare-bones version that sports a really dumb http server that you GET and POST commands to in order to interact with it.

    I was also merging a few concepts, because the device I have sitting on a power plug is actually a WD Wireless hard drive acting as a portable BTsync engine between my car PC and the main house media library. I keep it plugged in because it needs to stay on in order to sync. ;)

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra

    Oh OK. That makes more sense.

    I don't like how locked down those things are - you could do a lot of cool things with tech like that (WiFi for raspberry pi via the requisite sdcard was my first idea) but you can't because they're using a dumbed down WiFi stack

  • (disco) in reply to sloosecannon
    sloosecannon:
    those things are

    Which things? With wireless SD Cards I would agree, because it's plain retarded that you can't flash your own firmware, but the WD drive is actually a pretty capable machine (if all you need is an arm computer with a disk and wifi connectivity). And the admin interface in the stock firmware even lets you enable the built-in SSH (though warning you you're voiding warranty blah blah blah), through which I bodged in a simple launch script for OptWare.

  • (disco) in reply to Tsaukpaetra
    Tsaukpaetra:
    wireless SD Cards

    These.

    The WD disk sounds super useful.

  • (disco) in reply to dse
    dse:
    Few years ago I found TIM original as a free game in some website
    Ugh, you made me look; I used to be able to play this, but I got stuck on level 4. Of the demo...
  • (disco) in reply to Scarlet_Manuka
    Scarlet_Manuka:
    Not to mention the fun that ensued when you came across a game that couldn't cope with your soundcard's settings (this happened a lot if you used DMA>1, particularly, but I also had it happen with certain IRQ values), so then you had to go and (a) try to find settings that everything could live with, and (b) tell everything else about them.

    You weren't allowed to call yourself a computer nerd if you had never had the joyous experience of manually setting IRQs.

  • (disco) in reply to Dragnslcr
    Dragnslcr:
    joyous experience

    Sarcasm meter just pegged itself…

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