Nobody Cares about Tech Support

[Katheryne Helendale]

DOCX 4EVAH!

OpenDocument, bitchez!!!

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Bring back SGML.

 

[Fionalein]

Vi

Used it for years, still use it occasionaly.

In before the inevitable vi vs. emacs flamewar starts...

 

[Free]

Bring back SGML.

I didn't know it had gone away.

 

[Casey Pelous]

.sam

*smug*

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I didn't know it had gone away.

XML is hip now. But it's mostly used as low efficiency CSV.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Vi

Used it for years, still use it occasionaly.

In before the inevitable vi vs. emacs flamewar starts...

Vi? Vi? Vi is for ancient Unix curmudgeons who tug on their suspenders while calling bicycles "velocipedes".
Vim is what my fellow kids use while wearing their "MusicBand" shirts.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

/me rants for two and a half hours about the mechanical differences between bicycles and velocipedes and the obvious advantages of the latter...

 

[Essence Lumin]

Vi? Vi? Vi is for ancient Unix curmudgeons who tug on their suspenders while calling bicycles "velocipedes".

They must use AIX too. That's the only place I can think of where the original vi might still reside.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Vi? Vi? Vi is for ancient Unix curmudgeons who tug on their suspenders while calling bicycles "velocipedes".

Nobody is using vi.

The available source is contaminated by AT&T code. The last Bostic source was lost, which is a pity because it had some nice enhancements including multi-window mode. Bostic picked the best open source vi clone he could find, which was a program called elvis (not vim!), and updated elvis 1.8 and released it as nvi. Elvis has had sme updates since then and continues development as an independent vi clone. I lost track of what vim and xvim were doing, but what vim does to copy and paste is appalling.

Back in the '80s (or very early '90s) I ported elvis to the Amiga. It's nice code.

But vi? It's lost and gone. Use nvi.

As for AIX, only if you want to get knee deep in SMIT.

 

[Beebo Brink]

What happened this week:

Client (on Monday): I need to add some events to my web page. Can you help with that? We have an event on Thursday.

Me: Yes, of course. Send me the information and I'll get it up by Thursday.

Client: (silence)

Me: Hi, it's now Wednesday, so if you need your information posted by tomorrow, I need it now.

Client: I'm not sure about formatting. Could you review it and let me know if I have questions. (Still no attachment)

Me: Don't worry about formatting. Please just send me the information.

Client: I need this AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (attachment with a long list of content changes for every component on the page, not just events)

Me: sigh

 

[Casey Pelous]

Okay, I feel like this is one of those things I should have mastered about 30 years ago, but -- I didn't.

I'm upgrading my main computer this weekend. (If Newegg is "closed for staff party", I'm why.) New motherboard, new CPU, new graphics card, new RAM, new SSD, fresh OS.

Because I don't want you computer voyeurs to go unsatisfied:

• ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) ATX Motherboard with PCIe 4.0, Dual M.2, 12+2 with Dr. MOS Power Stage, HDMI, DP, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Aura Sync RGB Lighting
• AMD RYZEN 7 3700X 8-Core 3.6 GHz (4.4 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 65W 100-100000071BOX Desktop Processor
• XFX RX 5700 XT THICC III ULTRA 8GB BOOST UP TO 2025 MHz GDDR6 3xDP HDMI Video Card
• G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16S-16GVK
• WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5"/7mm Solid State Drive - WDS500G2B0A
• WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD10EZEX

(Some of the old parts will go into a spare case/PS/coupla old HD's I have and get sold to a friend, which will not only help cover the cost of the upgrade but get the damn extra case out of my office! YAY! The rest of the parts are staying, like the PS and the current HD's.)

In the past I've always sort of lumbered through re-installing all the programs I use, which seems to be approximately one metric bleepton of 'em. I'm thinking there must be a far better way, which probably involves maybe ... cloning the current disc? One complication may be that programs are spread out across both the OS SSD drive (some programs just frickin' insist on being on that drive ...) and the D: drive. Or will that get handled when the registry gets cloned? At what point do I install the new OS? Or am I doomed to a day of "Do you REALLY want to install this?" Yes, really. "REALLY, REALLY?" YES! "LIKE TOTALLY FOR REALS?" *throws something*

Can I clone part of a disc? (That seems unlikely to me ...) What software does one use to do this if this is, in fact, a productive path to follow?

 

[Veritable Quandry]

I use Clonezilla. If your disc has multiple partitions, you can clone individual partitions. That's the closest you can get to cloning part of a disc.

Windows will throw a fit about the new hardware if you simply clone it. Depending on your license it may not transfer at all.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I use Clonezilla. If your disc has multiple partitions, you can clone individual partitions. That's the closest you can get to cloning part of a disc.

Windows will throw a fit about the new hardware if you simply clone it. Depending on your license it may not transfer at all.

I have OEM, so I'm buying a fresh copy of Windows -- the new user will need an OS, anyway.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Can I clone part of a disc? (That seems unlikely to me ...) What software does one use to do this if this is, in fact, a productive path to follow?

I prefer to go with the reinstall everything route. Ninite really helps with that. It has a largeish list of common programs that it will install all at once. For example it has 5 columns of programs. The ones I choose out of just the first column are Firefox, Foxit reader, LibreOffice, RealVNC, and Windirstat, then 15 more things in the other columns.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I prefer to go with the reinstall everything route. Ninite really helps with that. It has a largeish list of common programs that it will install all at once. For example it has 5 columns of programs. The ones I choose out of just the first column are Firefox, Foxit reader, LibreOffice, RealVNC, and Windirstat, then 15 more things in the other columns.

Neat!

Of course, they're not going to handle my "heavy hitters", like Office, Cubase, my video editors, and a copy of PS that may or may not have fallen off a Chinese truck *cough* ... but there is a lot of stuff there I do use. Thanks!

 

[Casey Pelous]

Ooh! Here's a question .... is there a program that will make a list of everything I have installed?

 

[Free]

Ooh! Here's a question .... is there a program that will make a list of everything I have installed?

Here's a number of ways to get such a list:

5 Ways to Get a List of All Installed Programs in Windows (Full Guide)

Learn how to list all installed programs in Windows 10 and 11 using Control Panel, Settings, CMD, PowerShell, Registry, and NirSoft UninstallView.

theitbros.com

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

In the past I've always sort of lumbered through re-installing all the programs I use, which seems to be approximately one metric bleepton of 'em. I'm thinking there must be a far better way,

I am still boggled by this. Microsoft used to provide a kind of workable migration tool, then provided a link to one, then the link took you to a commercial product that doesn't work as well as their old not-so-good tool.

Why isn't this a basic function of the OS? And is there a migration tool that actually works? I don't mean cloning the drives, I mean a tool to transfer applications and their licenses and personal files?

 

[Clara D.]

I am still boggled by this. Microsoft used to provide a kind of workable migration tool, then provided a link to one, then the link took you to a commercial product that doesn't work as well as their old not-so-good tool.

Why isn't this a basic function of the OS? And is there a migration tool that actually works? I don't mean cloning the drives, I mean a tool to transfer applications and their licenses and personal files?

Files aren't consistently located -- some end up in the program's directory, some in appdata, and some stuffed into "My Documents." (which annoys me, that folder . . .which is supposed to be for . . . my documents! gets clusterfucked.) Licenses are usually buried in the registry, so with things shotgunning themselves into Windows that way, it's tricky to have a migration tool that could cope without just cloning everything.

I keep a text doc of keys and pull folders out of my backup of appdata/ProgramFiles to get settings back after a fresh install. My Documents is on D drive.

Fresh install of Windows usually takes a couple of days to get everything back to "normal" >_<