Tech Advice for all, and for all subjects

[maladroit]

If you're running Windows, Microsoft Security Essentials is good (not best), free, and not annoying. It works with Thunderbird to scan attachments.

No antivirus will protect you from being security-stupid. Keep an ear to the ground for security vulnerabilities (like Java recently). Don't open unknown files of any type, or click on emails from "your bank" that don't mention your actual name. I have had exactly one virus on my computers in 15 years, and that was because of an unfixed vulnerability in Windows when someone else put their virus-infested machine on my network.

[ygmir]

yeah I use chrome.........I love firefox, but for some reason, it won't let me do anything on FB. don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I like the email client like OE, I make folders and keep stuff, especially for business stuff.
will thunderbird work if I'm using chrome?
Yeah Illy, I was told "live" is the next step in OE.
I use and like "Bitdefender" for antivirus/spam and such.
but it seems to not work with my old OE.

dang

[Rice]

thunderbird will work independent of any other program.

I have not used it for a few years, but when I did -- it was a pretty good email client. (I use Outlook 2007 right now)

[ygmir]

I'll look into it........I'm so awkward with computers.

[Rice]

some people are comfortable with tools and build amazing things out of wood.
others love engines, and all that is mechanics

We cannot be experts in everything!!

[Box Burner]

OK. I have a place where I can set up a computer but it has to have a wireless connection. I am running Linux. Anyone know of a wireless adapter that works with linux?


Oh yeah, almost forgot. The hard drive I am putting in currently has ubuntu linux on it. In the near future I will be installing linux mint. Probably won't make much difference as Linux mint is a fork off of ubuntu.

Thanks

[knowmad]

OK. I have a place where I can set up a computer but it has to have a wireless connection. I am running Linux. Anyone know of a wireless adapter that works with linux?


Oh yeah, almost forgot. The hard drive I am putting in currently has ubuntu linux on it. In the near future I will be installing linux mint. Probably won't make much difference as Linux mint is a fork off of ubuntu.

Thanks

BB my experience with the Linux world and Unbuntu Specificly is that most Wireless adapters work well with them. the issue one runs into is configuring the Wireless drivers for whatever linux distro one is using (ie. Unbuntu, slackwear, Debian ect). Unbuntu is nice because it has a lot of wireless card driver settings ready to go and work like windows Plug and play. otherwise you might be dealing with somthing called "ndiswrapping" . google "ndiswrapper + unbuntu + ]your wireless adapter]" and unless your wireless adapter is really obscure some one will have posted a walk through on how to configure it.
this is also going to take some work with the command line. looks confusing at first but is pretty easy.

[EspressoDude]

A couple weeks ago we went to the Boeing Museum in Seattle . neat stuff. We paid a bunch more $$ and tried one of the enclosed flight simulators and it was a lot of fun. Scary part a couple days later working on God of Hellfire - 2 barrel propane shooter on a trailer, with a race car seat and wheelchair motors, controller/joystick. Sit, spin, elevate and shoot fire. Most of the work is structural improvements. Nothing broke last year, but there were some things that could be better,

Anyway, sitting in the chair testing the new elevate limit indicator lights and thought....WHAT IF...I had or some VR goggles, or even a small pc screen, running flight simulator game. And God of HellFire was the pilot seat ! Shoot real FIRE!

so, the tech part of this is how to copy the wheelchair joystick to a pc input (joystick) for the flight simulator.

rubberband 2 joysticks together?

tap and isolate the wheelchair joystick command to the motor drive board?

tap the output voltage to the motors?

suggestions please

phpBB [video]

[BBadger]

I've got two of those Jazzys but they're in cold storage at the moment so I can't inspect the joystick system. You might consider removing the wheelchair joystick(s) and replacing them with PC or arcade joysticks. The PC joysticks especially have a nice "flight simulator" feel to them and you could use the buttons for other purposes. Plus, then you have direct access to all the signals, which you can output to the chair or other mechanics.

If you're hell bent on using the chair's joysticks, you'll need to open them up and see how they're hooked up. If they have some position sensors like used in this arcade joystick you can tap off the output from them to an ADC in a microcontroller or computer. You also might be able to connect it to a computer joystick by wiring up the sensors to a PC-joystick's inputs; that'd be convenient for direct input to a game. If they're digital or something like that there might be other means, but you'll have to open them up and inspect them (take some pictures too).

[illy dilly]

yeah I use chrome.........I love firefox, but for some reason, it won't let me do anything on FB. don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I like the email client like OE, I make folders and keep stuff, especially for business stuff.
will thunderbird work if I'm using chrome?
Yeah Illy, I was told "live" is the next step in OE.
I use and like "Bitdefender" for antivirus/spam and such.
but it seems to not work with my old OE.

dang

For what its worth, you can make folders and such with yahoo mail and Gmail.
I really like either of those because I have all my email- anywhere.

[Rice]

yeah I use chrome.........I love firefox, but for some reason, it won't let me do anything on FB. don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I like the email client like OE, I make folders and keep stuff, especially for business stuff.
will thunderbird work if I'm using chrome?
Yeah Illy, I was told "live" is the next step in OE.
I use and like "Bitdefender" for antivirus/spam and such.
but it seems to not work with my old OE.

dang

For what its worth, you can make folders and such with yahoo mail and Gmail.
I really like either of those because I have all my email- anywhere.

I use Gmail myself, but the email is saved and only saved on their server. when (not if) there is a glitch I could lose everything.

Using an email client on your own computer means that all of your email gets saved onto your computer .. (the email client can be set to leave a copy of the email on the hosting system as well). A free email client is Thunderbird.

I have all of my Gmail email saved on my computer hard drive, just because - I have Outlook 2007 - so that is what I am using.

I like the option of using any web browser to send/receive email, but I have trust issues - thus the backups...

[illy dilly]

yeah I use chrome.........I love firefox, but for some reason, it won't let me do anything on FB. don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I like the email client like OE, I make folders and keep stuff, especially for business stuff.
will thunderbird work if I'm using chrome?
Yeah Illy, I was told "live" is the next step in OE.
I use and like "Bitdefender" for antivirus/spam and such.
but it seems to not work with my old OE.

dang

For what its worth, you can make folders and such with yahoo mail and Gmail.
I really like either of those because I have all my email- anywhere.

I use Gmail myself, but the email is saved and only saved on their server. when (not if) there is a glitch I could lose everything.

Using an email client on your own computer means that all of your email gets saved onto your computer .. (the email client can be set to leave a copy of the email on the hosting system as well). A free email client is Thunderbird.

I have all of my Gmail email saved on my computer hard drive, just because - I have Outlook 2007 - so that is what I am using.

I like the option of using any web browser to send/receive email, but I have trust issues - thus the backups...

True Dat!!!
95% of my personal email isn't that important. And the other 5% that is I just save any attachments or print the email to .pdf and save it.
I can see the advantages of using a locally hosted email client for home-office or personal business sort of things.

[ygmir]

yeah, I have a lot of email stuff I need to save.
Thunderbird seems to be working good, here on my new laptop, but I'm having issues loading and configuring on my old desktop, running "XP". I'm thinking it's the OS.

[elrohir]

There's always the old Microsoft standby:

Reinstall Windows

FYI,how about vista?

[MyDearFriend]

There's always the old Microsoft standby:

Reinstall Windows

FYI,how about vista?

Hey there Elrohir, welcome to ePlaya!

[gyre]

I have the model of the access point I need to set up.

Cisco Aironet AIR-AP1242AG-A-K9

Thanks for any help.

[gyre]

There are $25 and $35 computers from UK.
Do these have potential for lighting controllers, anything else useful?

http://www.raspberrypi.org/about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi


Rice, you out there?

[gyre]

I was out of town for some time and then sick again when I came back.
I'm back where the router is, and I could still use help getting the Cisco set up.
I would appreciate any help.

[Ugly Dougly]

So last year, the GirlFriend announced that she got a CHEAP MERCEDES BENZ. My response? Oh, no, there's no such thing.

Recently its alarm went off and she couldn't turn it off. She had to have it towed to the shop, with its alarm still blaring. I know, I wasn't there for it.
The dealer said that she needs to replace the onboard computer for several thousand dollars. Definitely ridiculous.

It's a 2000 S-class.

[jkisha]

Can't you just cut the wires to the alarm?

Or better yet, get a new car. Nobody drives a 13 year old Mercedes anyway.

[gyre]

Merc forums.
Someone here had a middle east grey market merc.
When the ignition failed they wanted unobtainium money for a replacement.
It was replaced with an american unit.
Happens all the time.

I hear a lot about alarms.
The immobilizer is the real issue.
Some are quirky.

[Ugly Dougly]

Most women will be overcharged at the mechanics if they don't bring a man or even simulated man with them.
And yeah, I know, she needs a Lexus. Can't tell her nothing.

[BoyScoutGirl]

...
Anyway, sitting in the chair testing the new elevate limit indicator lights and thought....WHAT IF...I had or some VR goggles, or even a small pc screen, running flight simulator game. And God of HellFire was the pilot seat ! Shoot real FIRE!....

I'm quite a few months late to the party, but... EspressoDude: good VR goggles have been in development for some time and the work is paying off. These guys have the interest of some of the video game industry's biggest players: http://www.oculusvr.com/ I know people who have used rifts (prototypes were deployed to the fundraiser backers about a month ago). They claim that it's extremely immersive without being laggy or triggeering any sort of nausea.

Of course, I'm not sure I'd want to see a virtual world if in the real world I was controlling fire! Last year, Super Street Fire had a somewhat similar premise: your body movements control a video game character, and also fire. The designers didn't even bother showing the players their characters - it was far more interesting to watch the fire approaching your opponent on a correctly deployed move. It was fairly obvious that whoever's frantic pawing at the air created more, bigger fire was the winner.

[gyre]

Yahoo is forcing everyone off of Classic, the only functional mode they have, so that they can force access to everyone's email, just as gmail already does.

Can anyone suggest the best method for storing my existing emails and a new email to use?

[BBadger]

Back when I left Hotmail, I used some sort of offline explorer webcrawler to grab my messages. In the end I rarely needed access to those old files, but it was nice for posterity.

The best solution is to host your own mail server. You'd need a static IP and domain name, but I consider it a small price to pay to have complete control over my email.

Still... I keep a gmail account for chat and for other uses.

[gyre]

How involved would that be to do?
Any software recommendations for pulling my info out?

I've written to startmail. but they aren't up yet.
I know of some very secure options that are way out of my price range right now, and honestly more private than I need for most things anyway.