'No Stupid Questions' (NSQ) Internet & Technology Edition

[Ex Cummunicated Sasser HD]

You can buy a key for like $10 on ebay. They email it to you within 24 hours of auction end. The one I bought for my PC build still works fine three years later with no apparent ill effects. My understanding is Microsoft mass sells large companies and universities and stuff windows keys for a fraction of the price and some enterprising individuals nab a few and sell them to us plebs. I got Office that way too. Just watch out for scammers.

*Edit* I took a look at the link you quoted and they're basically the same as the ebay sellers I was referring to. I think the use of the phrase "CD Key" is throwing you off. You don't need to install Windows with a CD to use those. People just call them CD keys because they used to be printed on the jewel cases the Windows CDs came in. You buy the CD key that matches your version on Windows 10, right click on the windows/start icon and click "system". This will bring up a window that tells you how much ram and shit you have. About halfway down there's a heading called "Windows Specifications". You can put in the key you bought there.

Is it not possible to still get the free Windows 10 licence key anymore if you "pinky promise" that you need to use assistive devices on an upgrade from Windows 7? Haven't done it for a year or so, but my workaround used to be install a pirated Win 7 Pro with Daz Loader, then go to the assisted services part and upgrade to Win 10 saying you are a sped who needs it, then it upgrades you to Win 10 Pro, and ties it to your MB, meaning even if you do a flat wipe and re-install or even switch drives, it still activates right away as it is registered to the hardware... It used to work with VM's too, as long as you register them. It might be why my Microsoft Account now says I own 26 copies of Win 10 Pro.

 

[Never Scored]

Is it not possible to still get the free Windows 10 licence key anymore if you "pinky promise" that you need to use assistive devices on an upgrade from Windows 7? Haven't done it for a year or so, but my workaround used to be install a pirated Win 7 Pro with Daz Loader, then go to the assisted services part and upgrade to Win 10 saying you are a sped who needs it, then it upgrades you to Win 10 Pro, and ties it to your MB, meaning even if you do a flat wipe and re-install or even switch drives, it still activates right away as it is registered to the hardware... It used to work with VM's too, as long as you register them. It might be why my Microsoft Account now says I own 26 copies of Win 10 Pro.

I didn't know about that. Honestly I don't think Microsoft gives a shit about Windows Keys anymore. Their new business model is making money off cloud services.

 

[???]

What would it cost to get a desktop with the following specs?

* 8 core CPU, clock rate in the 3.x range. 4 real cores, 4 virtual cores is fine. Not Intel.
* 128 GB DDR3 RAM (compiling Android OS, CGI/animation, and Windows 7 virtualization) .
* GPU good enough to play Skyrim with 30+ graphical mods.
* >= 256 GB SSD for OS and games.
* ~ 1 TB HDD.
* Good monitor (not redpilled on monitors).
* Recommend me a USB controller.

---

What should I get for mobile emulation? Considering a GBA SP 101 and a flashcart, and a PSP 3000... but the GBA flashcart seems sketchy and not Linux friendly, and the PSP requires a special SD card and has a low upper size limit. Something with a real controller is mandatory because phone controllers suck.

I would like to cut my teeth on C programming, OS dev, and MIPS ASM by reverse engineering the firmware and developing a full custom PSP OS. I'm aware that it is not a good idea to try OS dev without lots of userland C experience.

Modding hardware by replacing RAM with something larger if feasible would be a cool way to learn some hardware stuff, but doesn't seem like a beginners project. Ditto for other things like overcoming the SD card max size limit; the proprietary SD card issue; and adding a new 3D printed form factor, L2/R2 buttons, and maybe a right analog stick. Hell maybe an extensible hardware add-on kit somehow.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Let's say I want to build a CGI/animation workstation and gaming rig with at least 1 TB DDR4 RAM, 4 TB total HDD, a CPU with as many cores as possible (at least 16), and a top of the line GPU.

1. How cheap can I build this right now?

2. How long would I have to wait for it to be under $15,000?

Buy tons of discarded rack servers on eBay that no sane person will ever buy and the companies selling them just want to clear space so the price is low. Any remotely modern renderer will scale across trash on a network.

 

[???]

Buy tons of discarded rack servers on eBay that no sane person will ever buy and the companies selling them just want to clear space so the price is low. Any remotely modern renderer will scale across trash on a network.

So, build a Beowulf cluster?

 

[5ever a crab]

Does anyone know a guide/resource I can look at to learn how Tor works in pleb babby language?
I followed this guide a while back, there was some Critical Threat warning when I entered in the Tor address and I couldn't access the site manually.

Spoiler

 

[He Who Points And Laughs]

https://www.torproject.org/about/history/

 

[KittyGremlin]

why me

 

[Stasi]

What should I get for mobile emulation? Considering a GBA SP 101 and a flashcart, and a PSP 3000... but the GBA flashcart seems sketchy and not Linux friendly, and the PSP requires a special SD card and has a low upper size limit. Something with a real controller is mandatory because phone controllers suck.

You mean for emulating games? Try the GPD XD. Its basically a clam-shell Android tablet with a controller and massive battery. I have the original version and it runs everything up to PS1. Most PSP games run OK, the more demanding games like God of War it struggles with. Think the plus model has better specs and handles PSP much better.

 

[Fish-Eyed Fool]

why me

have you tried turning it off and on again?

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

have you tried turning it off and on again?

Don't forget a good smack.

 

[Shield Breaker]

Does the farms still get BAT, and do I need to click on the ads to get them? New to using brave.

 

[ThinkThankThunk]

Has anyone dealt with setting up an Oculus Rift S? Nothing I've done to try getting this stupid thing working has been successful, and it seems like everyone has similar problems but no solution. The gist is that either the displayport isn't recognized, or the software needs to be restarted. It's never both at once; it's one or the other. The usual advice support seems to give is to disable camera permissions, restart in safe mode and reinstall the Oculus app, and to update drivers. Nothing has worked for either me or anyone I've found with the same problem, and it seems as though search results for the issues are supressed to some degree. I'm curious as to how anyone here has gotten it to work themselves.

UPDATE: I figured out the problem. The Rift is really picky with it's USB connection, so I had to update my BIOS to support it. Unfortunately, I think my giga-brained ass nuked my BIOS while updating my EC firmware. I am paddling ever more up shit creek; if I don't make any further updates to this post assume that I blew my computer up and died in the explosion.

Disregard all of that. I'm back to square one. Reset the BIOS to update properly and it didn't do shit. I'm fresh out of ideas. Again, if anyone has experience with the Rift S please let me know how you got it running.

Does the farms still get BAT, and do I need to click on the ads to get them? New to using brave.

BAT you recieve from ads can still be sent to the site and you don't need to click on them; you recieve generated BAT as soon as the ad appears. This applies to both the mobile and desktop versions. The only thing that can't be sent to the site is the free BAT provided by Brave as part of their promotions, although that can still be sent to madattheinternet.com.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

What kind of device may butt into my bluetooth headphones connection?
Context: I use bt headphones on my oldphone, and occasionally, when I'm in my room (so neighbours are behind a single wall), sound starts to disappear periodically (as if something was making beep-beep-beep, but in, uh, silence) - and yesterday, when I stepped to close to the wall, it force-closed the bluetooth connection completely!
It's definitely not my own tech's fault, as this effect ceases if I move into other rooms. There is nothing else tethered to those headphones, either.
That buggery is also strong enough to persist even if I literally hold the phone near my head T_T

 

[energ1a]

Is 8kun safe or is it unsecure? I've heard people say when it was launched the new hosting they are using was swiss cheese security wise (supposedly using blockchain) but i'm not sure how it is these days, can anyone shed some light?

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

What kind of device may butt into my bluetooth headphones connection?
Context: I use bt headphones on my oldphone, and occasionally, when I'm in my room (so neighbours are behind a single wall), sound starts to disappear periodically (as if something was making beep-beep-beep, but in, uh, silence) - and yesterday, when I stepped to close to the wall, it force-closed the bluetooth connection completely!
It's definitely not my own tech's fault, as this effect ceases if I move into other rooms. There is nothing else tethered to those headphones, either.
That buggery is also strong enough to persist even if I literally hold the phone near my head T_T

They likely have something that outputs at the same frequency. If it's only occassional it might be a cheap/old and badly shielded microwave or something. Beep-beep-beep could actually be zap-zap-zap.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

How often should I do maintenance on my rig? I've never had a PC of my own before but from what I hear they require at least some care every now and then.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

How often should I do maintenance on my rig? I've never had a PC of my own before but from what I hear they require at least some care every now and then.

Clean the vents and dust filters from time to time when you don't have anything better to do, maybe take a look inside to see if any internal fans or heat sinks are getting clogged up. Thermal paste should ideally be replaced after 3-4 years, it dries up. In a normal environment none of that is really necessary, it won't break your computer, but it might slow it down some if it can't get rid of the heat effectively.

Laptops are more important to clean, when they are a couple of years old it's not uncommon for the fans to start to go crazy even under light load and it might be because it's full of crap.

 

[theshep]

I'm moving from Mac back onto a PC and I'm planning on my own build. It's been over 10 years since I've built anything and I'm stuck on cooling for the processor.

Planning on going with Ryzen 5 3600. I'm aware that it comes with a stock cooler, but I dunno if I should upgrade it to something else. I know there are benefits in using an all in one liquid cooler, but I'm worried about the risk of pump failure and the whole idea of anything liquid inside makes me feel very nervous.

Is anyone here using any liquid cooling? What has your experience been like? Any horror stories?

 

[Vecr]

I'm moving from Mac back onto a PC and I'm planning on my own build. It's been over 10 years since I've built anything and I'm stuck on cooling for the processor.

Planning on going with Ryzen 5 3600. I'm aware that it comes with a stock cooler, but I dunno if I should upgrade it to something else. I know there are benefits in using an all in one liquid cooler, but I'm worried about the risk of pump failure and the whole idea of anything liquid inside makes me feel very nervous.

Is anyone here using any liquid cooling? What has your experience been like? Any horror stories?

I'd suggest using the stock cooler, I have experience with that chip and it works fine.

You can get a basic overclock out of it, but for something more I'd recommend a larger air cooler.

A basic overclock is fine for most uses though.