Got a tech question or want to discuss tech? Bi-Weekly /r/Technology Tech Support / General Discussion Thread

Submitted by veritanuda t3_110d4gw in technology

##Greetings Good People of /r/Technology,

Welcome to the /r/Technology Tech Support / General Discussion Thread.

All questions must be submitted as top comments (direct replies to this post).

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Click here to review past iterations of these support discussions.

cheers, /r/technology moderators.

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Minecraftien76 t1_j8d3hmd wrote

hey I want to use my android phone as a second screen for my windows 11 computer but without the latency that comes with stuff that works with internet as I've got a really bad one, so ideally the solution would be by USB cable or LAN but I have no idea how to do that, any software I looked up used internet which lagged terribly or used lan but didn't work on android

thanks in advance

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Old-Ask8111 t1_j8fnbm2 wrote

Hi, I’m writing an article about an ongoing conflict in East Africa. I was sent a video. I‘m trying to find the original source for the video. I tried taking screenshots, searching it on Google Images, and using Yandex, but to no avail. Any suggestions?

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DevouringZombie t1_j8we259 wrote

I am interested in buying around 30 laptops for my school. I'm concerned about the use of chatbots and general plagarism. I'd like them to be offline and replicate the old school "blue books" as much as possible. Anyone have any recommendations?

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veritanuda OP t1_j8xh69y wrote

Have you looked at Endless OS?

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DevouringZombie t1_j8ymdbs wrote

I’m not familiar with it, but it looks like it still allows wifi access, does it just not have browsers?

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veritanuda OP t1_j8yp27g wrote

No, it has many offline tools, including a copy of Wikipedia, but it can still use the internet if you allow it.

Read the list here.

It is a good way to lock down machines and not have them randomly installing programs you don't want installed.

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ComputerShiba t1_j9m0uxx wrote

how are you getting around using chatGPT on mobile, then just copying it over?

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DevouringZombie t1_j9m1jlt wrote

It would be in person use in the class. Phones are already “banned” in person. With a combination of Covid skill losses and massive cheating, I don’t think I want any work completed outside of the classroom.

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No-Jello-1536 t1_j8wtw2y wrote

I'm sure this is a dumb question but would 2 fire tvs from different manufacturers have the exact same layout, settings, and controls including parental controls?

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ItsAJackal21 t1_j8xibdd wrote

What sources do you like to use to find smaller up and coming software companies? I know they pop up all the time, but for example if you are looking for smaller ERP solutions instead of just the massive ones. Where would you look?

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SharkBiteBoi t1_j8y6mx9 wrote

I have always had bad luck with Apple earbuds. I bought the original apple AirPods when they first released and they worked well for a few months.. until they just stopped. I had this same experience with the second pair I got from the warranty accept this time they only worked for a few weeks. I also had a problem with comfort; whenever I would wear them my ears would feel uncomfortable or almost like bruised..

I know the newer versions of AirPods are more developed now and I am considering buying some, which caused me to wonder, could someone who owns a new pair of airpods such as the 2nd generation tell me if they are worth it and if the concerns I mentioned were ever fixed?

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Owen2373 t1_j8yeiav wrote

TL;DR:

Read the bolded text. 🙂

Hello,

I'm using a Surface Book 2 Laptop and I need some additional ports for my keyboard, mouse, and ethernet adaptor so I'm going to be getting a USB-hub which has decent bandwidth and four USB ports. I have two open standard USB ports as well as a USB type-c port that is connected to a HDMI adaptor which connects to my monitor. My question is, should I connect my ethernet adaptor to my USB-hub? I'm aware that USB-hubs can have performance impacts and I want to have really good internet connection so when I join video meetings I don't have lag spikes which I get with wireless connections, and just for everything else internet related. As I mentioned, I have two 'standard' USB ports open so I could have both my USB-hub and my ethernet adaptor connected, although, that would mean I have to connect and disconnect three cords (USB-C to HDMI, USB-Hub, Ethernet Adaptor) as opposed to just two (USB-C to HDMI, USB-Hub) which might seem incredibly lazy of me but I use my laptop as a desktop and a portable laptop frequently so I just seems so much more convenient to have this option. Please let me know of how much of a performance impact this will have, I will gladly take performance over convenience.

Thanks Redditors!

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Owen2373 t1_j8yfv8y wrote

I forgot to add some important information so I'll add it in this comment. The USB-Hub I'm looking at buying is a relatively cheap one I found on amazon which claims to have "fast" connects but I'm not too versed in what is considered good or not, you can look at it here. My internet connection with my ethernet adaptor is 876.3 Mbps download and 539.6 Mbps upload, you also look at the ethernet adaptor I'm using here.

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RassegnaTaStampa t1_j90envc wrote

Guys, I need help because I can't really find any resources. Does any of you know an equivalent to Microsoft Swiftkey app for PC? I would love to have the same function of memorized notes in the keyboard as per the mobile version. Thing is, you can have some similar function in Word o Outlook, but they don't apply to the entire system. I hope I explained myself 😅 thanks

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Kelpie00 t1_j93fu70 wrote

im coming here because I'm desperate and I don't know where else to look for help.

I can't stitch videos that have the "stitch" feature on. Meaning that if a content creator on TikTok allows others to stitch their videos, whenever I try I get this error message: "Couldn't download. Try again later". I've been having the same error message for more than two weeks. I've updated the app, deleted it and re-install it several times, and even rebooted my cellphone, but nothing!

I've Googled everywhere, asked around, even reported the problem directly with TikTok, and nothing!

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NeumaticEarth t1_j93n7rn wrote

I’m curious to find out your thoughts on current social media platforms. I’m in the millennial group and I’ve been a Facebook user since 2015. I was one of those people that spent hours scrolling through posts on my news feed and now I use it only to keep up with a select few friends/family/coworkers. I’ve deleted my Snapchat because I didn’t really find it useful and got too caught up watching videos all day. I do still have a Instagram and use it to follow companies and famous people, but I’ve been thinking of switching exclusively to Instagram and pulling the plug on Facebook. Are you on all platforms? How do you use each one?

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AutisticFloridaMan t1_j96xuee wrote

I've got a MacBook Pro (the new one), is there any way that I could keep uploading my files after I put it into sleep mode? I have some bigger (4gb) files that I'm trying to upload and it's taking a while.

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nibor t1_j9850ul wrote

Is there a good sub for general Technology discussion?

I'm specifically interested in the growth in ML but pretty much any web, web 3.0 or digital focused subjects are fine if it needs to be be more specific.

With ML I'm looking at the reaction to chat GPT and the consensus seems to be will be a game changer to severely impact Google but like search I expect ad-tech will severaly impact usefulness the way the SEO cold war with the most prominent example being each online recipe requiring a life story for ranking juice.. Or it will just be a paid service limiting adoption and potentially breakign the free web as we know it.

I have thoughts, I want to get others take on the situation so recommendations welcome.

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veritanuda OP t1_j98haah wrote

Try /r/MachineLearning and /r/ArtificialInteligence

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Dodecahedrus t1_j9a0dhd wrote

Is Tiktok really full of spyware? Are there reliable sources on this?

I could easily see this being a fake news ploy by Meta to get rid of some competition. Especially now that they start to sell Premium subscriptions.

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veritanuda OP t1_j9a4r3c wrote

It is much of a muchnesses.

TikTok compared to Facebook/Whatsapp/Instgram.

It is a case of choose your poison. Do you want China to profile you, or do you want the American Alphabet agencies to? Who can control your life more?

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dmank007 t1_j9bwqd0 wrote

How does the programming/creation of an interactable augmented reality animation differ from an interactable animation in a video game?

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SnipinReaper t1_j9ds60m wrote

Can someone help me find a Thunderbolt 3 splitter or hub? I have multiple Thunderbolt items including audio I/O's that I need need plugged into one pc but all I can find is ones with like 1 or 2 ports?

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ghost2077 t1_j9l7gop wrote

Hello, so I work for a resort and we are thinking of installing a printer on or near the front desk that guest can easily use to print. We are thing of using a printer in which it has an email you can send what you want to print to or a cloud based service. I am not sure where to start looking or what type of printer to look for. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated, thank you all.

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veritanuda OP t1_j9nzyzm wrote

Depending on how much freedom you have to make your own choices, you could just pick any printer and Raspberry Pi/Alt SBC as a host, then configure is for people to send jobs either by Bluetooth, Wifi or email.

Alternatively, if you are less concerned about giving up your data to the cloud, you can use something like Printnode and a Kiosk to do much of the same things.

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gaurav_gilalkar t1_j9nn80r wrote

Hello guys,

I've been using Accubattery for a while now and I've seen that it either doesn't count charging wattage correctly or the phone doesn't charge at the advertised wattage.

Please refer to the below images attached (the first one is from OnePlus 7T and the other two are from Pixel6A)

[OnePlus 7T charging status](https://i.imgur.com/FXKpx7D.jpg)

[Pixel6A slow charging at 2-5W ](https://i.imgur.com/Wwavdgw.png)

[Pixel6A charging at 12-15W](https://i.imgur.com/8NubikM.png)

The OnePlus 7T is advertised to support 30W dash charging through its official charger and the Pixel6A is advertised as up to 18W charging through supported chargers.

Both phones are official Indian models. I've used the supported Dash charger for OnePlus 7T and a 3rd party supported charger for the Pixel6A i.e. the [Napoleon 65W](https://www.stuffcool.com/collections/wall-chargers/products/stuffcool-napoleon-pd65w-dual-usb-gan-wall-charger-for-macbook-ultrabook-iphones-ipads-tablets-gaming-consoles). It used to have 2 USB type c ports when I purchased it a few months ago.

Any thoughts on this matter would greatly help.

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MisterBigDude t1_j9q3j7x wrote

How can I prepare laptops to be recycled, especially if I don't have the passwords to use them?

My family has several old laptops that we want to dispose of through the state's official electronics recycling program. But we can no longer log in to those laptops, and I'm concerned that they may contain sensitive info (passwords, finances, etc.) that a savvy person could access.

Is it safe to recycle them as is? Should I try to take out the hard drives? (If so, would I smash them with a hammer or run a powerful magnet over them or something like that before disposing of them?) Thanks.

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veritanuda OP t1_j9r5lz5 wrote

Time to DBAN them

Edit: Just realised does not do SSD's so check this thread instead if you have SSDs

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MisterBigDude t1_j9r7dqp wrote

Thanks, but wouldn’t I need to be able to log into the laptops to use that method? Or are you implying that I would remove each drive and connect it to another computer to run that software?

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veritanuda OP t1_j9r8c5b wrote

No.. you can boot the ISO off a USB and it should erase it. Assuming it is not SSD if it is then you need a live recovery/rescue image you can use to wipe the disks with secure erase.

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MisterBigDude t1_j9ra4bu wrote

> you can boot the ISO off a USB

I am not familiar with ISO, will need to figure out what you are suggesting. (Sorry, I have decades of PC experience but not that type of technical expertise.)

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veritanuda OP t1_j9uhuiq wrote

ISO is short for ISO 9660 which is the CD image spec. It just means burning a CD image to a USB device to boot off.

Essentially, you can boot PCs off removable media, and typically that is some sort of USB device with an alternative OS on it. You might have in your time booted off a physical CD as a recovery option. Because physical media has ceases to become popular, USB sticks have replaced them, but the mechanism is the same,

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Competitive-Suit4122 t1_j9sj7na wrote

I am looking for an alarm clock that can be linked to other alarm clocks at other homes. The purpose being is it also serves as a message machine. I will use my present situation as an example.

My wife is taking some months to be with her family and we are going to miss each other deeply. Unfortunately, our schedules and timezones are going to make it hard to be there for each other at our most critical times of the day (over the phone). Ideally this alarm clock will facilitate our love for one other by allowing us to set an alarm that has an opening for a recording that designated alarm clocks can see and send recordings to. We will mainly be recording messages at night to play at the designated time the next morning telling each other we love one other and to have a good day, the way we usually wake up.

Thank you anyone can help.

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KuraikoDesu t1_j9te9m8 wrote

Heyo, I have sort of a dumb issue. My PC is currently connected to the internet via power LAN because my WiFi signal fluctuates a lot and will sometimes break off for a couple seconds (which is a problem for streaming). However, I get way better speeds on the WiFi. Is there any way to set it up so my PC is primarily on WiFi but switches to the power LAN when it disconnects?

I'm using Windows 10 btw.

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Rkpaxam t1_j9vmikl wrote

I have a dead hp x360, I want to turn the screen onto an external touch screen.... is this possible ?

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[deleted] t1_j8mc7gi wrote

Hey, I wanted some more information on ChatGPT , and if it is going to eat-up content marketing jobs or not?

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veritanuda OP t1_j8mwt8z wrote

Did you see the AMA that is still up from last week?

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