Firefox-like browsers and excessive writes re:SSDs

Posted on 2016-10-07, 12:51

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

Just heard about this. Firefox and browsers based off of Firefox save session state to a recovery file every 15 seconds. Someone figured that this is leading to many gigabytes of writes per day, which is not very kind to SSDs. Simple fix: go into about:config, find browser.sessionstore.interval, and …

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Re: Suggestion: Enable forum theme change

Posted on 2016-10-07, 11:03

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

The only thing about the theme that I'm not crazy about is the cursor becomes nearly invisible when in a text window. So if I'm editing what I've written, it's very challenging to mouse over to a word because the cursor turns into something the shape of a capital I that is nearly the same color as …

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Re: Need help with Adaptec 1542B SCSI Controller

Posted on 2016-10-06, 23:23

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by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's an old 500 MB drive with 50 pin connector. It's noisy, but not really hot to be honest. I don't have anything high end. Getting a 9 GB drive soon. It's 80 pin though, so I will be using an adapter. Plus another SCSI mystery device that I will reviewing at some point :) Oooh! Oooh! A SCSI …

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Re: Build your XP Time Machines Now

Posted on 2016-10-06, 23:20

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

I considered doing a Win2K build last year for fun, but decided against it. The biggest reason why I didn't bother is that it's much easier to apply the updates to an XP system. Microsoft Update still works just fine for WinXP. Doing updates for Win2K after the final rollup becomes a headache that …

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Re: Need help with Adaptec 1542B SCSI Controller

Posted on 2016-10-06, 20:23

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did you try hitting CTRL-A repeatedly throughout the POST process? Maybe the message is going by too fast to see it.

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Re: List of XP games

Posted on 2016-10-06, 13:38

by

by clueless1

in Windows

in Windows

FEAR and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

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Re: 7-zip benchmarks for over 60 CPUs

Posted on 2016-10-06, 10:58

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Added Athlon64 X2 4200+, it was running v9.20 x64 version on XP64. Does the disk performance matter for this benchmark? This system is running from an SSD, not sure if that should be noted. Seems like it ranks higher than I would expect so I'm wondering if that's why. First time I've edited one of …

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Re: DOS screenshot and animated GIF database

Posted on 2016-10-05, 13:39

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by clueless1

in DOS

in DOS

Excellent work! How is each game rating determined? Is that taken from Moby Games, or are they your own ratings?

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Re: Plugging a surge protector into a UPS

Posted on 2016-10-05, 13:20

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

I wanted to know too. So a quick google i see a apc faq: http://www.apc.com/us/en/faqs/FA158852/ Will read myself after looking up more retro pi crap. Yeah, I've seen that APC faq. I just don't know how accurate it is (depending on whether engineering or marketing was more involved). I just edited …

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Re: Plugging a surge protector into a UPS

Posted on 2016-10-05, 02:32

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

The question is more about whether it is safe. After all, if I'm trying to add outlets to my UPS and all I have is a surge protector lying around, I'm not thinking about pointless, I'm thinking about adding outlets. I have read that having a surge protector plugged into a UPS can lead to unsafe …

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Re: Build your XP Time Machines Now

Posted on 2016-10-05, 02:14

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

PhilsComputerLab wrote: GOG is the way to go. A shame they don't have many games, but I haven't bought anything from Steam in a long time because I know that one day we will be out of luck. I agree, but there are still a few Steam games that run in DOSBox and those are safe from the eventual …

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Is it SAFE to plug a surge protector strip into a UPS

Posted on 2016-10-05, 01:18

by

by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've come across some situations where I have more low power devices than there are outlets on a UPS. Such as network gear: modem, router and multiple switches (all low power devices that don't exceed the rating of the UPS). I've read that it is safer to use a plain power strip than a surge …

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Re: 486/66 build -- ct1330a or ct1600

Posted on 2016-10-05, 00:56

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It seems there are some games out there that support dual OPL2 specifically. Ultima Underworld being one I know of for sure. If you select "Sound Blaster Pro" in UU1 with an OPL3 soundcard, it won't sound right. Some instruments will be too quiet while others too loud. I ended up switching to …

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Re: Phil's YouTube and Website updates (philscomputerlab)

Posted on 2016-10-04, 23:21

by

by clueless1

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Most excellent!

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Re: High End 486 vs Pentium

Posted on 2016-10-04, 19:13

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A Pentium 233MMX with L1 cache disabled is very close to a 486DX2 66Mhz. Anyway a Pentium with the cache disabled should cover huge ground for DOS games. At least on the cache benchmark database it performs closer to a DX-33. The VIA Cyrix III Ezra-T with L1 disabled is closest, at DX-50 speeds, …

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Re: 486/66 build -- ct1330a or ct1600

Posted on 2016-10-04, 19:00

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It seems there are some games out there that support dual OPL2 specifically. Ultima Underworld being one I know of for sure. If you select "Sound Blaster Pro" in UU1 with an OPL3 soundcard, it won't sound right. Some instruments will be too quiet while others too loud. I ended up switching to …

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Re: High End 486 vs Pentium

Posted on 2016-10-04, 16:13

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks everyone for your responses. Basically, what I am saying if I have a 486SX/33 system on the left and a Pentium 133 on the right and they are already setup and ready to go, then is there any reason to have a high end 486 as well, aside from the fact that I want it and it's cool. I can't …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-10-04, 14:35

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi Phil, Take note of the MIDI emulation on the Santa Cruz. I know it's entirely subjective, but I find that for most DOS games it sounds better then even the 8MB SBLive! set. Better than DreamBlaster S1 as well. I've never experimented with the MIDI header on it, that might be something to check …

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Re: High End 486 vs Pentium

Posted on 2016-10-04, 13:20

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a similar point of view. I've settled on a DX2-66 and Pentium 200, which covers all of my retro games well. The 486 can run at 286 and slow 386 speeds if needed (by de-turboing and disabling caches), and the Pentium can handle the SVGA DOS games well. Plus all the speeds in between that …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-10-04, 13:11

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by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

2x 1Mb MDRAM Chips for Tseng ET6000 :) Hercules Dynamite now with 4Megs for my Pentium Class Machine :) I was a big Hercules fan in the mid 1990s. I remember buying most of their model line up just to benchmark them and keep the fastest one in my system. I remember having the Dynamite Pro (ET4000), …

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