Comments on: Hack-A-Day Extra

By: SoundwaveHi

SoundwaveHi — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:02:59 +0000

Your cable is probably a crimp on connector which will stop most high frequency channels from coming in clearly or even at all…buy new cables if this is the problem.

By: jaded

jaded — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:25:05 +0000

Alexander

only problem with neon bulb is it stops conducting once the potential is discharged down to about 45-60V, and won’t drain the entire charge from your body.

however, that should drop the voltage down to a “survivable” level for your average cmos devices, should you accidentally touch one.

By: jrog

jrog — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:31:48 +0000

I’m no real linux expert, but thinking of dumping MCE in favor of Myth. I have the PVR-500, but also an HD card, the Dvico 5 gold. I see posts saying that both of these are compatible, but the only install guide I can find is the one from Jarod Wilson, and it seems to be very out of date. Can anyone recommend an OS (fedora 3,4, gentoo, knoppix) and possibly post directions to install instructions? My MCE box is practically brand new, but has ZERO support for QAM tuning on my HD card, and the latest Video4Linux drivers seem to support it, but I can’t find any helpful hints.

Thanks

By: jared harley

jared harley — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 15:17:21 +0000

“mrklaw
I know that Ctrl+Alt+down arrow flips it on mine.”

That sounds like an Intel Extreme Graphics chip… nVidia can do it too, methinks

By: Alexander Foken

Alexander Foken — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 00:32:50 +0000

Antistatic tip: get rid of those synthetic clothes and shoes. Wear clothes made of cotton or wool, and shoes made of leather. Avoid the poly-something junk. (5% to 10% mixed into cotton or wool is still ok, but not really good.) As a nice side effect, you sweat less and avoid several skin diseases.

And to discharge painlessly, ground yourself via a neon bulb. Hold one contact between your fingers, and touch a blank, grounded piece of metal (central heating, water tap) with the other contact. You may also permanently ground one contact of a neon bulb, and connect the other contact to a piece of blank wire or tin foil on your desk. Touch it after sitting down, but before touching the computer. The neon bulb discharges your body slower and with much less current than a direct ground contact, so you will usually not feel anything. The neon bulb will flash, when it becomes dark, you are discharged. A simple resistor (100k Ohm to 10M Ohm, 1/4 W) also does the trick, but without the optical indicator. Remember that you will recharge again when you walk around.

Hope that helps,
Alexander

By: tiuk

tiuk — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 09:47:14 +0000

The “Air Duster Gun” reminds me of how I used to use cans of DustOff to propel needles and bits of paperclip across the room.

By: Joshua Holbrook

Joshua Holbrook — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 07:32:26 +0000

We did the duct tape thing to my friend’s old Dell desktop. (Ugh, Dell cases are nastay. This was an older one though, so it wasn’t at their worst.) It was black duct tape though. I’ll try uploading an image of it at some point maybe.

By: sine~language

sine~language — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 05:53:51 +0000

“the end is neigh!”

….. :rolleyes:

By: eric

eric — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 05:21:45 +0000

set the tuner to cable instead of air. although i am not familiar with that card or myth tv. thats why tvs are “181″ channel capable. 120 cable, plus 61 over the air

By: jap

jap — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 03:43:38 +0000

oh my god you had to reset your ipod!!!! the end is neigh!

:rolleyes:

By: Orwell84

Orwell84 — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 03:23:04 +0000

mrklaw
I know that Ctrl+Alt+down arrow flips it on mine.

By: john gilman

john gilman — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 03:08:11 +0000

#9- If you can feel a shock it’s several thousand times more potent than it needs to be to fry hardware.

By: billytheimpaler

billytheimpaler — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:29:03 +0000

Mrklaw, some drivers will let you do that. My one laptop will allow it, the other won’t. Check for 3rd party drivers for your laptop graphics if you’re interested.

By: seth

seth — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:07:36 +0000

“Team Hack-A-Day continues to dominate; we completed 6 million pints this week.”

thats a lof of beer!

By: mrklaw

mrklaw — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:01:55 +0000

wow, lots of great links! I almost didn’t click on “continue reading” because I wasn’t interested in the first few lines of the post, but there was so much good stuff included that I would have missed.

How did that guy that used the upside down laptop flip his screen? Is there some kind of software that does that in Windows? The pics didn’t have a lot of detail.