All Things Technology Related Thread
 

I actually created this because I need some help.

I'm looking to get a used 3rd generation Ipad. I'm too poor to get a used/new newer generation, so 3rd it is. I was just wondering if it's worth it. My gf LOVES apple computer products but she says the Ipad is shit because it's too hard to type on and I should just look into getting a laptop.

Does anyone have an Ipad? Is it worth it? I really didn't want to get an android tablet because I already have an android phone and I didn't want a Windows tablet because we all know how you'll get hacked to hell and back if you don't have anti-virus.

Any ideas?

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My laptop has been collecting dust since the iPad first came out.

I have the mini with retina display right now, love it.

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If you do a lot of heavy duty typing you can always get a Bluetooth keyboard to go with it. But for email or posting here I find the iPad keyboard to be just fine.

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What Matty is saying ! My wife's school gave her a Ipad and she does everything on it ,we gave one to my daughter who just got her teaching degree and use's it all the time in class .

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Tablet != laptop

They're not he same thing. What do you want it for?

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[quote=FRPLG;1067591]Tablet != laptop

They're not he same thing. What do you want it for?[/quote]

Really to do things like surf the web while I'm in bed and play games. To have internet access while I'm staying in a hotel next month on vacation. No type of work or typing really, I have a desktop for that.

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Tablet then.

Try out demos and see which you like. Cant go wrong with an Ipad

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[quote=DynamiteRave;1067593]Really to do things like surf the web while I'm in bed and play games.[/quote]
Based on this, get a tablet. iPads are great. Work has given me a iPad 2 and a Nexus 7. I'm on the Nexus 7 more often than not because I like the smaller size, and it's much faster (obviously, newer techology) than the older iPad2.

If it were me, and I had an Android phone, I'd get an Android tablet. Easier to share apps using the same user info and you are used to the experience. The newer Samsung tablets look sharp, and I love the Nexus 7. But then again, you cannot go wrong with an iPad.

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[quote=DynamiteRave;1067583]I actually created this because I need some help.

I'm looking to get a used 3rd generation Ipad. I'm too poor to get a used/new newer generation, so 3rd it is. I was just wondering if it's worth it. My gf LOVES apple computer products but she says the Ipad is shit because it's too hard to type on and I should just look into getting a laptop.

Does anyone have an Ipad? Is it worth it? I really didn't want to get an android tablet because I already have an android phone and I didn't want a Windows tablet because we all know how you'll get hacked to hell and back if you don't have anti-virus.

Any ideas?[/quote]

Most certainly a 3rd gen iPad is worth getting. I love mine! I use it all the time. I can VPN into my work desktop with it, watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, even DirecTV on it. And it also helps to feed my Candy Crush addiction as well.

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Here's something random I learned today. To open the task manager in Windows directly you can press [B]Ctrl+Alt+Esc[/B]. Saves the hassle of going through the giant blue screen to get to the task manager. Can't believe I never knew that until now.

Re: All Things Technology Related Thread
 

[quote=Dirtbag59;1067687]Here's something random I learned today. To open the task manager in Windows directly you can press [B]Ctrl+Alt+Esc[/B]. Saves the hassle of going through the giant blue screen to get to the task manager. Can't believe I never knew that until now.[/quote]

As an IT guy let me say:

A) yes duh
B) giant blue screen? Did you go through the control panel menu? An easier, but not as easy as CAE, is to right click on the task bar.

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You can also right click on the task-bar and click "Start Task Manager".

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[quote=TheMalcolmConnection;1067696]You can also right click on the task-bar and click "Start Task Manager".[/quote]

Lol, I think I'm starting to think studying Red Hat Linux has encouraged me to seek out the most difficult and archaic ways of doing things. Why click on a file or go to a website when I can just type

[I]sudo apt-get -d -reinstall "blahblahPornHistorySuperBlockerblahblabhblah"[/I]
'Command not found'

4 tries later:
"Okay maybe I'm using apt-get wrong."

[I]man apt-get[/I]
'No manual entry for apt-get

"Alright maybe if I use the help command"
[I]apt-get -h[/I]
'bash apt-get: command not found

"Maybe I'm using the help command wrong"
[I]wget -h[/I]
'displays help menu for wget

"Hmm what if I log in as the root user?"
[I]su[/I]
'Enter Password:' [URL="http://youtu.be/a6iW-8xPw3k"][I]12345[/I][/URL]

[I]sudo apt-get -d -reinstall "blahblahPornHistorySuperBlockerblahblabhblah"[/I]
'Command not found'

200 tries later

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I really do enjoy Linux as a regular user but the certification I'm going for requires me to know my way around the command terminal.

Heck over the holidays I was showing off modded GTA 4 to my brother where at one point I was entering the cheat codes manually each time into the phone to show off various cars when suddenly my brother stopped me and said 'you know your phone saves the cheats after you use them right?'

FML

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Windows button + D minimizes all windows at once. :(

LOL.

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While we're talking about technology things, here's a really great app I've made part of the standard install for faculty/staff/students where I work: [url=http://www.xmarks.com/]Xmarks | Bookmark Sync and Search[/url]

Just a cloud based solution for favorites across browsers. SO nice when I've reformatted a computer and I'm like, "Aw shit. Forgot to back up favorites." Also awesome because when I'm screwing around at work and am bookmarking stuff for home.

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What browsers do you all run standard?

FF28

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

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[quote=FRPLG;1067713]What browsers do you all run standard?[/quote]

I've been using Chrome for about 4 or 5 years but over the last week I've considered switching back to Firefox. I've noticed more and more lag when switching back and forth between what I now understand Chrome considers 'inactive' tabs and its starting to drive me nuts. Antivirus turns up nothing. Incognito mode to disable my few extensions doesn't change it.

Theres a little bit of it on Firefox but not nearly as much. Heck I have a lot more extensions on Firefox and yet its starting to seem like I'm getting much better performance on Firefox. I guess I'll have to test it on my desktop to see if its just my laptop but it really is getting annoying. I suppose I could [URL="https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+speed+up+computer+troll&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=BHdDU-GGHMjF0QG_qICwBg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&biw=1746&bih=869#q=system+32+meme&tbm=isch&imgdii=_"]delete System32 to speed it up[/URL] but I think I'll hold off on that for a while.

Ironically the hardest part in using Firefox more lately is I'm so use to clicking on my Chrome shortcut that when I switch back and forth between browsing the web and other tasks I find myself clicking Chrome when I already have the pages I want open on Firefox.

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i switched to chrome cause firefox got really bloated and slow as they kept throwing more crap in there.

if you need any help with linux, let me know.

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I run chrome. I used to be a Firefox user but all of a sudden it started acting like internet explorer so I quit that bitch.

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I have all 3. IE, Firefox and Chrome. I don't use Chrome as often because every time I repair a computer based on spyware, it's a Chrome user. Firefox is my main browser and I only use IE if the other two don't give the expected results.

Just recently I've started a new thing on all my computers where my main account is just a standard user and I have an admin account for installs only. I haven't gotten any spyware in years, but it's been an epidemic where I work.

Basically we're proactively taking away all users administrative rights on their computers. Just the few dozen we've done, virus/spyware infections dropped significantly.

Not exactly revolutionary considering my places already do this, but our University runs on the "honor code" so everyone previously all had admin rights.

Re: All Things Technology Related Thread
 

[quote=TheMalcolmConnection;1067788]I have all 3. IE, Firefox and Chrome. I don't use Chrome as often because every time I repair a computer based on spyware, it's a Chrome user. Firefox is my main browser and I only use IE if the other two don't give the expected results.

Just recently I've started a new thing on all my computers where my main account is just a standard user and I have an admin account for installs only. I haven't gotten any spyware in years, but it's been an epidemic where I work.

Basically we're proactively taking away all users administrative rights on their computers. Just the few dozen we've done, virus/spyware infections dropped significantly.

Not exactly revolutionary considering my places already do this, but our University runs on the "honor code" so everyone previously all had admin rights.[/quote]

I think for the most part Windows has gotten better about spyware and malware over the years. Certainly nothing like the old days where going even slightly off the beaten path was enough to give you a laptop from the exorcist ([URL="http://youtu.be/YDNmyyrEZho"]YouTube reference video[/URL]). Save for a couple of cookies that Norton doesn't like my computer usually comes back squeaky clean.

The only major thing I've encountered over the last year is a less then flattering spyware that locks your browser and reroutes you to a website that claims to be the FBI and tells you you've basically been found guilty of piracy and you need to go to your local drug store to purchase a moneypak in order to unlock your computer and avoid further consequences. When its really just Russian hackers making a quick buck.

I encountered this when I was totally not on an adult site but rather on a lonely Sunday night when I was looking for ways to donate money to less fortunate families in third world countries. I like to think using adblock for most sites as well as [URL="http://lifehacker.com/disconnect-2-speeds-up-the-web-protects-you-from-third-472942968"]Disconnect[/URL] has protected from a lot of threats I would have encountered otherwise in part because I didn't come across the FBI scam until I used a browser where I turned adblock off. However that's probably just wishful thinking.

[IMG]http://www.webgeeks.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fbi-moneypak-virus-scam.jpg[/IMG]

[quote=That Guy;1067716]i switched to chrome cause firefox got really bloated and slow as they kept throwing more crap in there.

if you need any help with linux, let me know.[/quote]

Much appreciated. For the most part I've found it to be simple but its weird because since the base code was made while Windows was in its infancy seemingly basic things such as the structure of the File system requires a bit of relearning.

There was a time where I had a dual boot Windows/Linux Mint on my SSD and wanted to save a couple of bigger files on Steam Linux to my designated hard drives. Though the actual process of mounting the drives and creating directories was easy, the process of learning what mounting was and the Linux file structure in general initially created some frustration.

[quote=DynamiteRave;1067755]I run chrome. I used to be a Firefox user but all of a sudden it started acting like internet explorer so I quit that bitch.[/quote]

Great so with me going back to Firefox and you going back to Chrome both browsers will have the exact same number of users and no incentive to change :D

To be fair though I tested out (ie paid more attention) to Chrome on my desktop and the lag issue when switching tabs was non-existent. Granted its safe to say that my desktop is a lot more powerful then my laptop but those differences are mostly in terms of gaming capabilities. CPU wise they shouldn't be too much different in browsing capabilities (i5-3570k at 3.4ghz on my desktop vs i73610qm at 2.4ghz on my laptop both with 8 GB of ram). Not to mention the lag issue with Chrome on my laptop seems fairly new.

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[quote=TheMalcolmConnection;1067788]I have all 3. IE, Firefox and Chrome. I don't use Chrome as often because every time I repair a computer based on spyware, it's a Chrome user. Firefox is my main browser and I only use IE if the other two don't give the expected results.

Just recently I've started a new thing on all my computers where my main account is just a standard user and I have an admin account for installs only. I haven't gotten any spyware in years, but it's been an epidemic where I work.

Basically we're proactively taking away all users administrative rights on their computers. Just the few dozen we've done, virus/spyware infections dropped significantly.

Not exactly revolutionary considering my places already do this, but our University runs on the "honor code" so everyone previously all had admin rights.[/quote]

Management in a municipal IT dept up 81 from you. We convinced our director and city management to remove admin rights for all users. Has virtually eliminated spyware and virus issues. I'd recommend going to the mat on the issue. "Honor code" ain't got nothing to do with it. The internet is full of crap..even in reputable places. Whether people intend to cause issues or not doesn't matter.

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I use chrome for everything I can. Have to use IE for development purposes for some software we maintain and support but at this point I like it about as much anyways. Firefox can screw off. It use to be brilliant...then...well it has gotten terrible. Slow and bloated is no way for a browser to go through life.

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Well, just because I can express my frustration with my own idiocy here and have minimal fallout. I just spent several hours in the process of transferring a mySql database over to a different host. Everything seemed fine, but when I ran a dbconn.php to the new one, it kept failing. Over and over and over :( . There are only 4 components I checked them all. Then I walked away, came back and realized that while the password ended with a capital letter, i had a lower case letter in the dbconn snippet. How many times I looked at it, changed the host, the user, the database, in every combination i could think of!

ugh!@#$@#

Re: All Things Technology Related Thread
 

the thing is, firefox broke away from mozilla because mozilla was getting bloated. then they went and did the same thing.

as far as linux, it comes from minix, based on unix, so that file structure is from the 60s, hence the weird mount commands and such.

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[quote=That Guy;1067827]the thing is, firefox broke away from mozilla because mozilla was getting bloated. then they went and did the same thing.

as far as linux, it comes from minix, based on unix, so that file structure is from the 60s, hence the weird mount commands and such.[/quote]

Wait aren't they still the same. It's been a weird week for Firefox with the [URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/08/mozilla_anti_gay_marriage_boycott/"]OkCupid gay marriage boycott[/URL].

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[url=http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/history/]History of the Mozilla Project — Mozilla[/url]

it was a fork that took over (in popularity) by stripping out excess features (namely the integrated mail client) to load web pages as fast as possible. still under the umbrella of the mozilla corporation, i don't really know much about the corporate history *shrugs*.

they also got a lot of press about being immune to scripting/hacks... but after getting popular (and having enough user to merit specific attacks), that proved to be untrue and they've slowly bloated the thing up too. chrome has faster load times for me, and unlike firefox, doesn't sit open in memory after i close it (firefox does that so subsequent browser openings happen faster, or at least, it used to).

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I still miss Netscape.

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I miss Netscape as well. Navigator Gold with Composer, which was my first HTML editor.

I switched to Chrome (with Adblock and Flashblock on PCs) many moons ago when I got sick of Firefox having to be reloaded constantly to release the resources it sucked up, and never looked back. I keep it synced across several laptops, phone, tablets, which makes it so easy to pick up where I left off. I do touch all browers when doing web development, so I usually have each one with a fairly standard load.

I switched from using a Windows machine every day to a Macbook Air a little over a year ago. For Windows tasks, I have VMWare Fusion loaded on my Air with a Windows 7 VM when I need it. I'm still getting used to the Unix commands in Terminal, but find doing day to day items on a Mac quite appealing. I do have 2 older desktops at home with XP loaded on them (RIP), from which I will reload with some flavor of Linux eventually.

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[quote=FRPLG;1067821]Management in a municipal IT dept up 81 from you. We convinced our director and city management to remove admin rights for all users. Has virtually eliminated spyware and virus issues. I'd recommend going to the mat on the issue. "Honor code" ain't got nothing to do with it. The internet is full of crap..even in reputable places. Whether people intend to cause issues or not doesn't matter.[/quote]

Did your calls of "I need to install this", increase, decrease or stay the same? Just curious because my staff has some limitations technically (inherited them, didn't hire them!) and the less I can make them do, the better.

Dirtbag, I agree. The one REALLY scary thing we got was the Cryptolocker virus. Talk about something that TOTALLY Fs you. We have DeepFreeze on all of our public machines, a part-time person logged on, got the virus, ALL attached drives get encrypted. The bad part about this virus is that you really have no recourse besides to recover every single file/folder of the connected network drives. This took down one department an entire day while we recovered half a terabyte of data.

I started pushing this GPO (because I'm the Law School director, so I get to do what I want independent of the Undergrad side :D) that is supposed to block it. Time will tell, but good call on that. Just curious if work increases or decreases based on removing admin rights.

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BD, interesting about your Macbook. They used to burn me up because our students are probably 80% and they tell me honestly, "I bought it because it's cool." I had a huge chip on my shoulder against Apple products that has cooled down since.

Do you ever find that Apple breaks down physically sooner than PCs? I work on Apple hardware just as much as I work on PC software. The past two weeks alone I've replaced a dozen Macbook HDs, at least 3-4 motherboards and numerous iPhone requests (that I don't touch because that's a DELICATE operation).

Apple is rock solid software-wise, but damn, nobody seems to have one older than 3-4 years from what I've seen.

Ummm, I think I burned out motherboard, and probably the fatherboard and, when I tried to restart, I couldn't find the "any" key. Oh, and I accidentally spilled my soda in the machinery box thingy. ... you can fix that right?

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[quote=TheMalcolmConnection;1067943]Did your calls of "I need to install this", increase, decrease or stay the same? Just curious because my staff has some limitations technically (inherited them, didn't hire them!) and the less I can make them do, the better.[/quote]

Increased for awhile since they couldn't do it themselves. Faced with an almost universal response of "no" it didn't take them long to realize we were serious. Removing admin rights meant they couldn't just install whatever. That was the point. Too many security issues, too much to have to support, and biggest of all too much risk associated with licensing. When we told management micro$oft could fine us hundreds of thousands of dollars for being out of licensing compliance it didn't take them long to agree that having a free-for-all had to end. Within a year everyone got us to it. We figured out quickly too: if people don't think the IT department is a bunch of dicks theyre probably not doing your jobs.

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[quote=TheMalcolmConnection;1067944]BD, interesting about your Macbook. They used to burn me up because our students are probably 80% and they tell me honestly, "I bought it because it's cool." I had a huge chip on my shoulder against Apple products that has cooled down since.

Do you ever find that Apple breaks down physically sooner than PCs? I work on Apple hardware just as much as I work on PC software. The past two weeks alone I've replaced a dozen Macbook HDs, at least 3-4 motherboards and numerous iPhone requests (that I don't touch because that's a DELICATE operation).

Apple is rock solid software-wise, but damn, nobody seems to have one older than 3-4 years from what I've seen.[/quote]
My boss (CIO) has been an Apple guy for years, and Apple has slowly infiltrated our hardware inventory. Before that, it was Dell and only Dell. We have 2 Mac Minis (2010), 4 MacBook Airs (Mid 2011, Mid 2012), and 2 MacBook Pros (Retina, Late 2013) in use right now, and the only hardware issue we encountered were the 128GB flash drives that were recalled. Before I got mine, I just saw Mac as completely overpriced for what it is. Now that I've used it everyday for a while now, I dig it, but glad I'm not paying for it LOL. I've thought about getting a Mac Mini for home. Fairly affordable, small form factor, solid software, and since my wife and I have iPhones, iTunes runs so much better on Mac than Windows.

I'm using Mac at work because of mobile app development. I'm able to keep tabs on the iOS Developer in XCode while I develop for Android in Eclipse.

With our company moving more and more resources to the cloud it'll be a matter of time before we move to Chromebooks and Cloud Desktops for a majority of our users.

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mac's cost like 40% more for the same hardware (apple is a hardware company, after all), but most of it is the same, so i doubt there are any more hardware issues than pc. and once they went BSD/intel... well, it's hard to mock technically.

if you want to save money you can buy min spec'd and up the ram/hds/etc yourself if it's a big enough lot.

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[quote=BDBohnzie;1067962]With our company moving more and more resources to the cloud it'll be a matter of time before we move to Chromebooks and Cloud Desktops for a majority of our users.[/quote]

We're piloting a small VDI implementation. Just got our first batch of zero clients. They're just monitors basically. Pretty cool.

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[quote=JoeRedskin;1067948]Ummm, I think I burned out motherboard, and probably the fatherboard and, when I tried to restart, I couldn't find the "any" key. Oh, and I accidentally spilled my soda in the machinery box thingy. ... you can fix that right?[/quote]

I know this in jest, but allow me to blow your mind: I just helped a recent hire (less than 30 years old) learn how to DOUBLE CLICK.

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[quote=FRPLG;1067961]Increased for awhile since they couldn't do it themselves. Faced with an almost universal response of "no" it didn't take them long to realize we were serious. Removing admin rights meant they couldn't just install whatever. That was the point. Too many security issues, too much to have to support, and biggest of all too much risk associated with licensing. When we told management micro$oft could fine us hundreds of thousands of dollars for being out of licensing compliance it didn't take them long to agree that having a free-for-all had to end. Within a year everyone got us to it. We figured out quickly too: if people don't think the IT department is a bunch of dicks theyre probably not doing your jobs.[/quote]

Very, very interesting. It's tough to be a dick because the climate here is almost a "even though this is a W&L computer, it's MY computer." For me, the biggest benefit of users calling for installs is that we get to vet them. I imagine our calls will go down significantly once people realize how embarrassing it'll be to call and say, "SooooOoo, I was hoping to get this Hello Kitty! screensaver installed."

Since I'm in one building, I don't mind walking to someone's office to check out an app for them. What did you do for laptop users? That's my biggest concern right now since I have professors traveling all over the world and the last thing I want is for them to absolutely need an install and we can't help them.

My thought was to create a local backdoor account with like a 25 character password so they can install in case of emergencies, but the password would be prohibitive to them logging in as that account all the time. Sure, we have a couple savvy users who would change it, and I would just deal with that as I went forward.

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm in charge of this initiative for both sides of campus and we're wanting to work through all scenarios.

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[quote=FRPLG;1067970]We're piloting a small VDI implementation. Just got our first batch of zero clients. They're just monitors basically. Pretty cool.[/quote]

Are you doing Citrix? If so, we're 3 years into it right now and I can give you a ton of input on that. We're going with streaming applications this summer because honestly, people just HATE waiting for a Citrix desktop to load.