Stupid Computer Tricks

[p_quarles]

This thread is dedicated to devising ingeniously useless "uses" for your comupter. The only catch is that you have to provide a screenshot (partly as proof, partly as insurance that your trick is actually useless, and doesn't, you know, erase the root filesystem).

Mine: Ubuntu 7.10 running VirtualBox OSE, running Windows XP-SP2, running a Cygwin Bash shell. (I was going to try to login to a Pine e-mail account, but alas, SSH isn't included by default, and I don't have that much free time on my hands).

[-grubby]

USB MISSLE LAUNCHER!!! (http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/86b8/)

[p_quarles]

Well, those are certainly ingenious, but I wouldn't call them useless. ;)

[-grubby]

or maybe..........use your monitor to...um........................make a picture frame!

[p_quarles]

Screenshot? ;)

[nikoPSK]

sudo chown -R yourname directory name

useful for me. And I want this shirt:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/5d6a/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/8f52/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/78ae/

:lolflag:

[Herman]

Okay, how about turning my computer into an alarm clock that also boils the kettle every morning?
Here is a link to my photo album with pictures of how I do that, http://picasaweb.google.com/herman543/HowMyComputerMakesCoffee

Regards, Herman :)

EDIT: @ nikoPSK, LOL! I like them all, but the warranty one is my favourite! :)
I also have replaced a 100 watt power supply with a 550 watt power supply, http://herman543.googlepages.com/bookpcgetsbigpowersupply2

[p_quarles]

Okay, how about turning my computer into an alarm clock that also boils the kettle every morning?
Here is a link to my photo album with pictures of how I do that, http://picasaweb.google.com/herman543/HowMyComputerMakesCoffee

Regards, Herman :)

I'm sorry, that's more of a "brilliant/mad scientist computer trick." Please try again. This thread is for stupid tricks :D

Seriously, though, that's an awesome setup you have there. I bow down before you in awe.

[nikoPSK]

I'm sorry, that's more of a "brilliant/mad scientist computer trick." Please try again. This thread is for stupid tricks :D

Seriously, though, that's an awesome setup you have there. I bow down before you in awe.

Me too, I believe that is awesome:p. I'd love to have you do that for me:lolflag:

[Herman]

I'd love to have you do that for menikoPSK (or anyone who wants to), if you look carefully, there are links included from the afore-linked site that take you to a web page to explain what commands you need to set that up in Ubuntu. :)

I'm sorry, that's more of a "brilliant/mad scientist computer trick." Please try again. This thread is for stupid tricks :grin: Oops! :lolflag:

Seriously, though, that's an awesome setup you have there. I bow down before you in awe. Thanks! :):lolflag:
Maybe some day I'll be able to get my hands on one of nathangrubb's missile launchers to go with it! That would be a useful improvement, the mind boggles! :)

[nikoPSK]

sorry didn't notice. That awes and amazes me. (this seems like a duh question but does the pc have to be on?)

[Herman]

Really that isn't a silly question at all, because many PCs can be set in the CMOS (BIOS) to turn on at a certain time.
I have one of other computers set to do that, but the one I use for an alarm clock stays on all night.
You made a good point! I should take a look through the CMOS (BIOS) of that one to see if I can set that one to start up if it isn't already running. It might save me from being late for work some day if I forget to leave that computer on! :)
Thanks, nikoPSK :)

Regards, Herman :)

[LaRoza]

Well, I have the USB Rocket Launcher.

I don't use my computer for anything else that is cool, except maybe that I have gotten a multiboot system up and running with 14 operating systems on one hard drive. One was XP, a BSD and the rest Linux distros. Coolest grub I ever saw! No screenshots, computer is gone now (with only three OS's on it.)

[nikoPSK]

Really that isn't a silly question at all, because many PCs can be set in the CMOS (BIOS) to turn on at a certain time.
I have one of other computers set to do that, but the one I use for an alarm clock stays on all night.
You made a good point! I should take a look through the CMOS (BIOS) of that one to see if I can set that one to start up if it isn't already running. It might save me from being late for work some day if I forget to leave that computer on! :)
Thanks, nikoPSK :)

Regards, Herman :)

I fool around in bios and cmos a bit. I would love to enable the auto-turn on thing. I would have the pc on all day but I don't want to waste power.

[Herman]

You could have your computer shut itself down automatically at a set time with crontab and start up automatically from your BIOS.
I can help you with the crontab part, but I'm not sure what BIOS you have. Not all BIOSes would probably have that function, but quite a few might.

I found a nice thread called 'Awaken Ubuntu from Sleep/Hibernate, run Cron job (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=313884&highlight=power+saving)'.
How about I meet you there in the second page, post #14?
I have already posted a reply for you there. :)

Regards, Herman :)

[init1]

I once booted RIP Linux and then booted it again in QEMU. I don't have a screen shot anymore, but I might try it again.

[23meg]

I used to turn on my home computer by dialing my home line number from a phone booth.

[nikoPSK]

wow, how'd you det that up?

Again, falls under the evil genius I'm too smart category;).

[23meg]

It had a "wake on modem ring" feature that could be enabled in the BIOS. Whenever the phone line connected to the modem plug got a signal, the computer would start, or wake from suspend. I just enabled that feature.

[Rhubarb]

How about a coffee break script?
This will tell you what time it is and eject the CD-ROM tray so you can put your coffee mug on it.
After 10 minutes it will inform you that coffee break is over, and closes the tray.

You can put this script as an icon somewhere, or you could even make it a cron job, so you can have your coffee break at the same time every day.

#!/bin/bash
espeak "It is"
date +%I:%M%p | espeak
espeak ", time for your coffee break now"
eject #Eject the CD-ROM tray
sleep 600 #Number of seconds for your coffee break
zenity --info --title="Coffee time" --text="Press ok when your coffee break has finished so I can close the tray for you."
eject -t #Close the CD-ROM tray

edit[1]: Used zenity to make up a nice dialogue box for closing the tray, so it won't spill coffee if you're away from the PC.
edit[2]: Used "sleep" rather than "Sleep" (bash is case sensitive).

[nikoPSK]

Wow, that's hilarious and cool.

[Herman]

Oops- double posted, my bad, sorry, post deleted. See post below.

[Herman]

:lol: I agree with nikoPSK, that is good, rhubarb, I learned some commands from that too! I will be able to have some fun with that espeak command now. Excellent, thanks very much!
Regards, Herman :cool:

[kevdog]

Anyone know how to eject the cdrom using cygwin?

[Whiffle]

Back when I was "borrowing" wireless from the neighbors, I had my desktop hooked up to my old compaq laptop (the only thing with a wireless card), via a serial cable. Oh yeah. That took some time to setup but dang it worked well! If only I had made screenshots.

[kevindubrow]

I remember wanting to do that with my desktop and Sony Clie UX-50 one day...but I was much younger and didn't know the wonders of Linux (I still wouldn't know how to do it anyway!).

[runemaste644]

Quake 3 on 24 monitors

I wonder how much this cost???

[-grubby]

Quake 3 on 24 monitors
<snip>
I wonder how much this cost???

would you mind reducing that to a thumbnail please?

[AnRa]

Okay, how about turning my computer into an alarm clock that also boils the kettle every morning?
Here is a link to my photo album with pictures of how I do that, http://picasaweb.google.com/herman543/HowMyComputerMakesCoffee

Regards, Herman :)

EDIT: @ nikoPSK, LOL! I like them all, but the warranty one is my favourite! :)
I also have replaced a 100 watt power supply with a 550 watt power supply, http://herman543.googlepages.com/bookpcgetsbigpowersupply2


Awesome! :)

[mysticrider92]

Quake 3 on 24 monitors

I wonder how much this cost???

Wow, look at the top left of the screen. 15 FPS. I wonder if they are clustering that somehow to get enough graphics power (and outputs).

It would be awesome to try a setup with that much monitor space, but that definitely is not cheap...