• Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)

    From Khelair@VERT/TINFOIL to All on Sat Oct 18 21:16:21 2014
    Next time they leave their 'doze computer running for a bit, load up notepad and enter the following:

    Set oWMP = CreateObject("WMPlayer.OCX.7")
    Set colCDROMs = oWMP.cdromCollection
    wscript.sleep 600000
    do
    if colCDROMs.count >= 1 then
    for i = 0 to colCDROMs.count - 1
    colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject
    Next
    for i = 0 to colCDROMs.count - 1
    colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject
    Next
    End If
    wscript.sleep 120000
    loop

    Save as Whatever.vbs (Whatever can literally be whatever you like), and change the file type to 'All files' when saving. Double click the file to run it, or for a bunch of fun, add it to the StartUp folder to have it automatically run at each startup.

    It'll wait ten minutes, then open all CD/DVD trays every two minutes after, endlessly. ;) May be a real good way to have a colleague lose their mind for your amusement.

    From the heading down to the above paragraph has been reposted from iraffiruse on tumblr. My small addition at this point is that I'm not sure why there are two 'for/next' loops in there that seem to do the exact same thing; that may be a bug. I haven't worked with VBScript in a long time, and I don't have a Windows machine to test it on right now, so I can't tell for sure. Maybe it opens and then closes the tray...

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  • From Ree@VERT/FTELNET to Khelair on Wed Oct 22 04:37:09 2014
    My small addition at this point is that I'm not sure
    why there are two 'for/next' loops in there that seem to do the exact same thing; that may be a bug. I haven't worked with VBScript in a long time,
    and I don't have a Windows machine to test it on right now, so I can't tell for sure. Maybe it opens and then closes the tray...

    That's exactly right. The first call will open it, the second closes it
    again.

    Too bad nobody in our office has used a CD/DVD in years, so with our last
    round of upgrades we didn't bother buying drives, otherwise I would have tried this tomorrow morning :)

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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Khelair on Wed Oct 22 04:05:50 2014
    Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Khelair to All on Sat Oct 18 2014 14:16:21

    Save as Whatever.vbs (Whatever can literally be whatever you like), and change the file type to 'All files' when saving. Double click the file
    to run it, or for a bunch of fun, add it to the StartUp folder to have
    it automatically run at each startup.

    It'll wait ten minutes, then open all CD/DVD trays every two minutes after, endlessly. ;) May be a real good way to have a colleague lose
    their mind for your amusement.

    Heh, that would be a fun prank to play. It seems optical drives are disappearing, though. Many companies seem to issue laptops to their employees, and where I work, they aren't including optical drives with the employees' laptops anymore. Even if they did, laptop optical drives typically can't close automatically.

    In an office with a bunch of desktop PCs with optical drives though, that could be fun.

    Nigthfox

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  • From Knight@VERT/PHUNC to Nightfox on Wed Oct 22 07:49:39 2014
    Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Nightfox to Khelair on Tue Oct 21 2014 09:05 pm

    Heh, that would be a fun prank to play. It seems optical drives are disappearing, though. Many companies seem to issue laptops to their employees, and where I work, they aren't including optical drives with the employees' laptops anymore. Even if they did, laptop optical drives typically can't close automatically.

    So true! Apple hit the nail on the head with this one -- disc drives are going the way of the dodo bird. I admit this one fooled me. I thought we'd see discs last far longer than they will.

    But it's true. Discs are on their way out. I'm noticing that there are hordes of people willing to pay the same price for a video game on their PlayStation or Xbox as the disc version, just so they don't have the disc, even at the cost
    of not being able to resell it for a reduced price later, etc.

    Blu-Ray discs are cheaper than they've ever been. You can find specials on classic films and a few 2-3 year old ones for $5 pretty often (Target, even Best Buy). It's because no one is buying them.

    I never see people roaming the rows of discs at stores like Target or Best Buy anymore. They're over at the TVs, and the electronics, and the tablets, etc. But they're not hanging around the movie section. Occasionally I see people in the games section, but that's about it.

    That's my unscientific off-the-cuff analysis that agrees with you :)

    Knight

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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Knight on Wed Oct 22 15:09:27 2014
    Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Knight to Nightfox on Wed Oct 22 2014 00:49:39

    Heh, that would be a fun prank to play. It seems optical drives are
    disappearing, though. Many companies seem to issue laptops to their

    So true! Apple hit the nail on the head with this one -- disc drives are going the way of the dodo bird. I admit this one fooled me. I thought we'd see discs last far longer than they will.

    Despite the trend, I still think optical disc is a good medium for movies and even music to an extent. Optical discs (especially blu-ray) can provide better quality than online straming can, they're more reliable than online streaming (which sometimes pauses due to bandwith issues or can cut out altogether if your internet connection drops), and optical disc formats often also allow for extra content such as director commentaries, behind-the-scenes documentaries, etc., which I think can be interesting. Online streaming most often only offers the movie, with no extras.

    So I tend to disagree with Apple on the decision to remove optical drives from their computers when they did. Apple seems to make decisions like too far ahead of the curve - I think the decision to remove optical drives should have been done when optical discs are truly obsolete, and I don't think they are
    yet - at least for movies. Sometimes I find it convenient to watch a movie on my PC since I already use my PC quite a bit.

    Movies & music have been sold in online download form, but I think one problem with that is that there are several different formats they're being sold in; also, some might have copy-protection and some might not. Some might require a specific media player (i.e., iTunes) and some might be in a more standard format that can be opened in any player. I suppose if movies started to be sold on USB flash drives in a standard format, that might help the move away from optical discs.

    Nightfox

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  • From Knight@VERT/PHUNC to Nightfox on Wed Oct 22 22:48:53 2014
    Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Nightfox to Knight on Wed Oct 22 2014 08:09 am

    Despite the trend, I still think optical disc is a good medium for movies and even music to an extent. Optical discs (especially blu-ray) can
    provide better quality than online straming can, they're more reliable than online streaming (which sometimes pauses due to bandwith issues or can cut out altogether if your internet connection drops), and optical disc formats often also allow for extra content such as director commentaries, behind-the-scenes documentaries, etc., which I think can be interesting. Online streaming most often only offers the movie, with no extras.

    I completely agree here. NetFlix, even with it's new SuperHD (not much content on that yet that I can tell, and their client apps don't usually indicate that you are seeing SuperHD so it's hard to tell beyond measuring the quality by your eyes), is not as good as Blu-Ray. I use NetFlix and YouTube nearly every day on my living room and bedroom Xbox Ones (best NetFlix implementation I've used over the years has been on Xbox 360 and Xbox One), and I've come to peace with the fact that it's not always the best quality. It's only $7.99/mo after all.

    But Blu-Ray for movies is fantastic, for all the reasons you stated. More content, higher quality, etc. I tend to only buy Blu-Ray for classics that I'd watch over and over (generally I can't watch most movies more than once, but I'll watch something like Ben Hur, Sound of Music, 2001: A Space Oddyssey, The Shining, etc over and over).

    So I tend to disagree with Apple on the decision to remove optical drives from their computers when they did. Apple seems to make decisions like too far ahead of the curve - I think the decision to remove optical drives should have been done when optical discs are truly obsolete, and I don't think they are yet - at least for movies. Sometimes I find it convenient
    to watch a movie on my PC since I already use my PC quite a bit.

    Though what's funny about that is so many people say that Apple is too slow to make decisions, as they come in and "copy" other manufacturers. Like the current criticism by Android users is that Apple Pay is just copying what Android has had for years with their NFC solution.

    Apple still sells external disc drives, so they're not totally out of the game yet. But Steve Jobs did make a fervant announcement that Apple was done with discs and he saw a future that was discless. But he certainly supported removable memory media (flash drives).

    I have two MacBook Pros. My older one I ripped out the disc drive and put an SSD drive in as my primary, and moving my original HD to the bay where the disc
    drive was. I put the disc drive into an external enclosure and then plugged it into USB when I wanted to use a disc. My newer rMBP doesn't even have a disc drive of course (instead offering SD memory slot).

    What's interesting is that I never use that disc drive. Once in a while I think
    about burning some backups to disc, but then I never do it since external HDs are so cheap now. I saw a deal the other day for 5TB for $160. No way you'll get that on disc.

    Movies & music have been sold in online download form, but I think one problem with that is that there are several different formats they're being sold in; also, some might have copy-protection and some might not. Some might require a specific media player (i.e., iTunes) and some might be in a more standard format that can be opened in any player. I suppose if movies started to be sold on USB flash drives in a standard format, that might
    help the move away from optical discs.

    Yeah, I think you have to pick an ecosystem and stick with it. That's partially
    why the Apple and Android fanbases are so large and fervant. Once you've bought
    into one ecosystem, it's really difficult to switch since you've bought all this content. Digital media leads you down this road. Content on disc wouldn't.

    In fact, the other problem with digital media is that you can't resell it later. You effectively don't outright own the content. You have some perpetual lease on it for the lifetime of your media provider account. You can't transfer
    the music or movies, you can't sell it, and only until recently you couldn't share it with your family.

    That's an interesting idea -- to sell movies on USB drives. Then you'd have tangible physical ownership of it (so you could sell/transfer/etc it), but it would do away with the slow optical drives. Memory is so fast now!

    One thing I'm happy about -- I don't have spindles of discs lying around everywhere now :)

    Knight

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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Knight on Thu Oct 23 04:37:33 2014
    Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Knight to Nightfox on Wed Oct 22 2014 15:48:53

    movies and even music to an extent. Optical discs (especially
    blu-ray) can provide better quality than online straming can, they're
    more reliable than online streaming (which sometimes pauses due to
    bandwith issues or can cut out altogether if your internet connection
    drops), and optical disc formats often also allow for extra content
    such as director commentaries, behind-the-scenes documentaries, etc.,
    which I think can be interesting. Online streaming most often only
    offers the movie, with no extras.

    I completely agree here. NetFlix, even with it's new SuperHD (not much content on that yet that I can tell, and their client apps don't usually indicate that you are seeing SuperHD so it's hard to tell beyond measuring the quality by your eyes), is not as good as Blu-Ray. I use NetFlix and YouTube nearly every day on my living room and bedroom Xbox Ones (best NetFlix implementation I've used over the years has been on Xbox 360 and Xbox One), and I've come to peace with the fact that it's not always the best quality. It's only $7.99/mo after all.

    I briefly subscribed to NetFlix for a few months last year with the intent of using NetFlix as an alternative to renting hard-copy movies from RedBox. However, I found out that NetFlix doesn't get movies at the same time as movies are released on DVD/Blu-Ray; NetFlix also didn't have much other content that I was interested in watching - at least, not enough to get me to continue subscribing on a monthly basis.
    I ended up subscribing for Amazon Prime though. Amazon Prime has had a few TV shows on it that I've watched, as well as an occasional movie. One nice thing about Amazon Prime is that it also includes free 2-day shipping on many items from Amazon. I tend to shop at Amazon every now and then, so for me, I think Amazon Prime is more worth it than NetFlix.

    But Blu-Ray for movies is fantastic, for all the reasons you stated. More content, higher quality, etc. I tend to only buy Blu-Ray for classics that I'd watch over and over (generally I can't watch most movies more than once, but I'll watch something like Ben Hur, Sound of Music, 2001: A Space Oddyssey, The Shining, etc over and over).

    I'm similar in that there are many movies I probably wouldn't watch more than once, but there are some movies I'd like to have in my collection so I can watch them again. Also, besides movies, I think concert videos are good to collect on DVD/blu-ray, particularly since streaming media services don't seem to carry concerts. I have several concerts from various artists on Blu-Ray & DVD which I like to watch occasionally. There's also Animusic, which produces computer-animated music videos, and they have a few collections out on DVD/Blu-Ray which are fairly cool. So far they've released 2 DVD collections and one blu-ray with high-definition versions of their popular videos, and they're currently working on a 3rd collection (which has been delayed for over a year).

    So I tend to disagree with Apple on the decision to remove optical
    drives from their computers when they did. Apple seems to make
    decisions like that too far ahead of the curve - I think the decision to

    Though what's funny about that is so many people say that Apple is too slow to make decisions, as they come in and "copy" other manufacturers. Like the current criticism by Android users is that Apple Pay is just copying what Android has had for years with their NFC solution.

    Yeah, I think both can be said about Apple. Sometimes I question their decisions all around. I also remember when Apple updated the notification system in iOS to be more like Android's, so that a system notification would be less conspicuous so as not to interrupt what you're currently doing - using a pull-down menu, I believe, rather than pop-up notifications.

    Apple still sells external disc drives, so they're not totally out of the game yet. But Steve Jobs did make a fervant announcement that Apple was done with discs and he saw a future that was discless. But he certainly supported removable memory media (flash drives).

    At least Apple is still selling external optical drives. I suppose it makes some sense - Apple recognized what people were doing with their computers and thought it would make sense to remove the built-in optical drive to make way for something else. However I'm not sure if Apple replaced the optical drive with something else in their systems, did they? For laptops, I've seen some laptops from other manufacturers that have an option to install a 2nd hard drive in place of an optical drive (and I've even seen laptops that have 2 hard drives in addition to an optical drive - something I don't think Apple has ever offered).

    I have two MacBook Pros. My older one I ripped out the disc drive and put an SSD drive in as my primary, and moving my original HD to the bay where the disc drive was. I put the disc drive into an external enclosure and then plugged it into USB when I wanted to use a disc. My newer rMBP doesn't even have a disc drive of course (instead offering SD memory slot).

    I recently bought a new laptop and did something similar - The manufacturer (Lenovo) had an option to include a 2nd hard drive in place of an optical drive, and considering my usage, I opted to get the 2nd hard drive instead of the optical drive. I did buy an external USB blu-ray drive though, just in case I'd want to access an optical disc with the laptop.

    What's interesting is that I never use that disc drive. Once in a while I think about burning some backups to disc, but then I never do it since external HDs are so cheap now. I saw a deal the other day for 5TB for $160. No way you'll get that on disc.

    That's true. I've slowly been moving toward using external hard drives and USB flash media for backups. Somehow I still feel like an optical disc might be more reliable in the long run though.. I backed up my original BBS to a CD-R disc in 2000 and was able to read it just fine 7 years later. I'm not sure if an external hard drive would last that long - I've seen external hard drives start to fail (making clicking noises and being inaccessible) after just a couple years. Maybe an external solid-state drive would be more reliable.

    Movies & music have been sold in online download form, but I think one
    problem with that is that there are several different formats they're
    being sold in; also, some might have copy-protection and some might
    not. Some might require a specific media player (i.e., iTunes) and

    Once you've bought into one ecosystem, it's really difficult to switch since you've bought all this content. Digital media leads you down this road. Content on disc wouldn't.

    In fact, the other problem with digital media is that you can't resell it later. You effectively don't outright own the content. You have some perpetual lease on it for the lifetime of your media provider account. You can't transfer the music or movies, you can't sell it, and only until recently you couldn't share it with your family.

    For those reasons, I still like to buy music on CD - Then I can rip it to whatever format I want. Also, I like having the original CD audio, which is not in a compressed format. Many times, music that is sold as an online download is in MP3 format, which is lossy, and I don't want to have my music only in a lossy format. I have ripped all of my music CDs to FLAC (lossless) and MP3 format, and I do the same to new music CDs I buy. Then, when I want to listen to it, I have the files right there, and if I ever lose the files somehow, I still have the CDs.

    That's an interesting idea -- to sell movies on USB drives. Then you'd have tangible physical ownership of it (so you could sell/transfer/etc it), but it would do away with the slow optical drives. Memory is so fast now!

    One thing I'm happy about -- I don't have spindles of discs lying around everywhere now :)

    :) If movies ever do get sold on USB flash drives, I suppose we'd have those lying around. Either that or external hard drives to deal with as we back up our media. :)

    Nightfox

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  • From Knight@VERT/PHUNC to Nightfox on Thu Oct 23 06:12:28 2014
    Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Nightfox to Knight on Wed Oct 22 2014 09:37 pm

    I briefly subscribed to NetFlix for a few months last year with the intent of using NetFlix as an alternative to renting hard-copy movies from RedBox. However, I found out that NetFlix doesn't get movies at the same time as movies are released on DVD/Blu-Ray; NetFlix also didn't have much other content that I was interested in watching - at least, not enough to get me to continue subscribing on a monthly basis.

    Yeah, NetFlix isn't for everyone. I've been a subscriber for as long as I can remember. At least 12 years. Maybe longer? I fluctuated between the 3 and 5 disc at a time programs, and then a couple of years ago dropped down to streaming only, when I realized that I was not returning my discs and using the
    mail service.

    I find that they have a good repository of older things, and a lot of documentaries. Certainly not a lot of new post-theater content. They are shining right now in their own productions (Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, etc -- see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_programs_distributed_by_Netflix).
    That's one of the things that keeps me around.

    I ended up subscribing for Amazon Prime though. Amazon Prime has had a few TV shows on it that I've watched, as well as an occasional movie. One nice thing about Amazon Prime is that it also includes free 2-day shipping on many items from Amazon. I tend to shop at Amazon every now and then, so
    for me, I think Amazon Prime is more worth it than NetFlix.

    I'm also a heavy Amazon Prime user. I have added family and friends to my prime
    as well, so that they get the perks. I order a lot of things from Amazon because I've grown to trust their quality, customer service, and of course 2-day shipping. Surprisingly I've even used the $1 credits for turning down the
    shipping speed lately for stuff I don't urgently need.

    I do use the Amazon Instant Video, but I don't really feel like they have as much to offer as NetFlix. They do have some shows that NetFlix doesn't, but it's not that comprehensive (yet).

    I also have Hulu. I use to use Hulu a lot, and then canceled it because I thought it wasn't something I wanted or needed once I signed up for cable TV again. But I found myself wanting to watch the Criterion collection movies again, so I signed back up.

    Beteen NetFlix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, and Xfinity, I have pretty much everything I want to watch at my fingertips... minus all that cash that could be lining my wallet :P

    I'm similar in that there are many movies I probably wouldn't watch more than once, but there are some movies I'd like to have in my collection so I can watch them again. Also, besides movies, I think concert videos are
    good to collect on DVD/blu-ray, particularly since streaming media services don't seem to carry concerts. I have several concerts from various artists on Blu-Ray & DVD which I like to watch occasionally. There's also
    Animusic, which produces computer-animated music videos, and they have a
    few collections out on DVD/Blu-Ray which are fairly cool. So far they've released 2 DVD collections and one blu-ray with high-definition versions of their popular videos, and they're currently working on a 3rd collection (which has been delayed for over a year).

    Yeah, I use to collect. I did some work on MythTV years ago, and was big into home theater PCs run on Windows/Linux, with distributed nodes throughout the home. But it got a little exhausting. I don't even miss it now. I save on my electricity bill, and I have all that time back from ripping content. I remember when it took a whole day to rip a DVD. What a pain in the butt!

    There's a paid concert streaming service, that I trialed for a week. It was nice. I didn't sign up because I don't watch enough concerts to pay for such a thing.

    Animusic, right... I saw that stuff demoing at Fry's Electronics quite a few times. Pretty fun to watch.

    Yeah, I think both can be said about Apple. Sometimes I question their decisions all around. I also remember when Apple updated the notification system in iOS to be more like Android's, so that a system notification
    would be less conspicuous so as not to interrupt what you're currently
    doing - using a pull-down menu, I believe, rather than pop-up
    notifications.

    Yeah, Google and Apple take turns borrowing from each other. I think that's just how progress works. I know some fanboys on either side of the fence like to get angry about it, but I don't care. I think the steep competition is really good for us, the consumers, in the end. We will have better products with each iteration when it's like that.

    Both companies also have a bit of a shady/dark side to them, but ultimately I think they are both doing some good too.

    At least Apple is still selling external optical drives. I suppose it
    makes some sense - Apple recognized what people were doing with their computers and thought it would make sense to remove the built-in optical drive to make way for something else. However I'm not sure if Apple replaced the optical drive with something else in their systems, did they?

    No, I think they just realized that since these things are getting thinner and thinner, the disc drives were just eating up a sizable amount of space in the laptops, and since most people don't really use them that often, it made sense to yank it and spread out the components more easily, and perhaps add more battery. Thinking about this makes me wonder if there's some form of metric that system designers came up with to describe the value per inch (VPI)... i.e.
    how many inches does this component take up vs. the value it provides the end user. I know I'd much rather have extra memory, extra disk, and extra battery over a disc drive I rarely (if ever) used.

    For laptops, I've seen some laptops from other manufacturers that have an option to install a 2nd hard drive in place of an optical drive (and I've even seen laptops that have 2 hard drives in addition to an optical drive - something I don't think Apple has ever offered).

    Yeah, that's awesome. I don't think Apple ever offered that either. I think you
    are right about that.

    I recently bought a new laptop and did something similar - The manufacturer (Lenovo) had an option to include a 2nd hard drive in place of an optical drive, and considering my usage, I opted to get the 2nd hard drive instead of the optical drive. I did buy an external USB blu-ray drive though, just in case I'd want to access an optical disc with the laptop.

    Nice! Yes, two drives in a laptop is quite a thrilling thing. It makes it desktop class in a lot of ways. No longer do you have to choose what you bring with you... take it all!!!

    That's true. I've slowly been moving toward using external hard drives and USB flash media for backups. Somehow I still feel like an optical disc might be more reliable in the long run though.. I backed up my original
    BBS to a CD-R disc in 2000 and was able to read it just fine 7 years later. I'm not sure if an external hard drive would last that long - I've seen external hard drives start to fail (making clicking noises and being inaccessible) after just a couple years. Maybe an external solid-state drive would be more reliable.

    You are right. Disc media would last a hell of a lot longer for archiving than hard drives would. And SSDs actually require a tiny bit of power (there's an internal battery) to keep the state of the contents in memory active. So while their aren't moving parts, I bet it doesn't have a very long shelf life.

    For those reasons, I still like to buy music on CD - Then I can rip it to whatever format I want. Also, I like having the original CD audio, which
    is not in a compressed format. Many times, music that is sold as an online download is in MP3 format, which is lossy, and I don't want to have my
    music only in a lossy format. I have ripped all of my music CDs to FLAC (lossless) and MP3 format, and I do the same to new music CDs I buy. Then, when I want to listen to it, I have the files right there, and if I ever lose the files somehow, I still have the CDs.

    Totally true. The streamed MP3s and downloaded MP3s are always compressed, and rarely can you find lossless for sale. There was a time that I really cared about this too. I had nice home audio gear (not exactly TOP of the line, but close), and hunted for lossless audio on the net and stored it on a central server at home, etc. But, I'd be lying to myself if I could tell the difference
    between a lossless track and a 320kb MP3. As much as I love the idea of what being an audiophile is and appreciating sound for it's raw beauty, I don't have
    the ability to discern it.

    I can probably tell you what variety of grapes were used to make a random glass
    of red wine though :)

    :) If movies ever do get sold on USB flash drives, I suppose we'd have those lying around. Either that or external hard drives to deal with as we back up our media. :)

    That would be cool! Stacks of thumbdrives. I wonder if we could override the contents should we get tired of an artist and put our favorite Linux install media on them ;)

    Knight

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  • From Khelair@VERT/TINFOIL to Ree on Sat Oct 25 01:20:35 2014
    Re: Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Ree to Khelair on Tue Oct 21 2014 21:37:09

    That's exactly right. The first call will open it, the second closes it again.

    Too bad nobody in our office has used a CD/DVD in years, so with our last round of upgrades we didn't bother buying drives, otherwise I would have tri this tomorrow morning :)

    Heh. Yeah, I'm staying with a dev, and the only people I've hung out with lately are devs and devops people, so I've not been able to find anybody willing to have a 'doze machine under their names lately. :'D
    Actually, now that I think about it, I'm the only one out of any of them that's ever done any coding on a 'doze platform, and it was only because the state college I was going to didn't offer any 100 level courses on anything except for Windows environments. I did most of my Java in Linux, actually, but I had to port portions of it for it to be accepted in class. m(
    I'm looking forward to actually being able to test deploy this myself. :D

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  • From Khelair@VERT/TINFOIL to Nightfox on Sat Oct 25 01:32:46 2014
    Re: Want to Annoy a Colleague? (running Windows)
    By: Nightfox to Khelair on Tue Oct 21 2014 21:05:50

    Heh, that would be a fun prank to play. It seems optical drives are disappearing, though. Many companies seem to issue laptops to their employe and where I work, they aren't including optical drives with the employees' laptops anymore. Even if they did, laptop optical drives typically can't cl automatically.

    In an office with a bunch of desktop PCs with optical drives though, that co be fun.

    Yeah, that's very true. The USB market, now that they've been bootable for awhile, seems to be taking it over. I'm still waiting for my crystaline cube drive, though. ;) Pretty sure the prank would still be good even if it couldn't close on its own, though. :D God if only I were still @ BSC now. Heh.
    Oh god, if I would've had something like this in the days when I was putting porn on the Jr. High typing class's Novell networks it would've made a great supplement.

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