Code Society

If you have an AMD/ATi graphics card, you might have noticed that the GPU Scaling options portion of the control panel seems to be grayed out (aka. disabled), if you can even find it hidden deep in the monitor attributes page. It seems that as of a few releases ago (though I’m not sure when, possibly 9.3), the option is only changeable when your screen resolution is not at your LCD’s native (max) resolution. Yes, that’s a statement from an official AMD forum moderator. I don’t know what happens on CRTs, but this seems kind of idiotic.

The primary reason for changing this setting is to run games at appropriate aspect ratios, stretched, or 1:1 as preferred by the user. However, you can’t access the control panel while in the game. When you switch back to the desktop to use it, the resolution should also be back to native. So what do you do?

The solution is to change to a lower desktop resolution temporarily to enable the feature and set the desired setting before changing back. Of course, this will displace any windows and desktop icons not within the confines of the lower resolution.

Is this a game-breaking (no pun intended) design mishap? No… but it is an inconvenience that doesn’t make much sense. As of this writing, the latest Catalyst version is 9.7. Here’s hoping they decide to revert this design change in the near future.

UPDATE 8/17/2009: What do you know, they just released version 9.8.

I haven’t subscribed to cable television in… well, ever. I don’t watch much TV. When I do, it’s usually for a specific show or online on sites like Hulu. If you don’t need all the hundreds of various channels that cable TV provides, you can get digital HDTV absolutely free over the air (OTA). Earlier this year, the US government mandated that all OTA broadcasts must switch to digital from analog. This means that all OTA TV now has great picture quality and clarity.

To take advantage of this, I set up a pseudo TV with my computer monitor, a home-made antenna, and a free converter box. This guide will show you the steps you need to take to create your own free, completely legal, digital TV solution. Let’s get started!

(continue reading…)

Backing up data is something everyone knows should be done, but often don’t due to laziness. That is, until disaster strikes and important data is lost. Those who have experienced such a scenario quickly learn to make regular backups to prevent a re-occurrence in the future.

Even if you know you should, backing up data can be time consuming and inefficient. Many data backup programs compress archives, which both takes a long time (and much processing power) to create and also makes the data harder to retrieve at a later time should you just need a missing file or two.

This guide shows you a method to easily backup your important files using jFileSync, free software that synchronizes files between different locations. I also recommend an external hard drive. Should you happen to already have a hard drive or other place with which to perform the backup, skip down to step 2. Let’s get started!

(continue reading…)

Buying an LCD monitor these days is both easier and harder than ever before with much lower prices and wider selection. One thing that remains a mystery is how dead pixels are widely accepted as the norm by most manufacturer and retailer warranties. Some companies only accept exchanges or returns if the monitor has as many as 8 dead pixels, or some combination of dead and stuck pixels in certain formations. Apparently there is not enough consumer demand for perfect LCD monitors, allowing companies to get away with this for so long.

If you do demand a perfect LCD monitor with no dead pixels, there is hope. There are certain retailers that offer liberal return policies on monitors (and other items), allowing you to exchange if pixel problems should arise. Let’s take a look at some of them below.

(continue reading…)

WP Super Cache and WordPress.com Stats are two very useful WordPress plugins. WP Super Cache provides static and dynamic cache functionality to reduce the load on your blog’s server, allowing larger amounts of traffic to visit without slowing the site down. WordPress.com Stats tracks visitors and gives valuable information on how users utilize your blog. If you plan to use both of them together, you should be careful though.

The Problem

The problem arises due to WordPress.com Stats’ behavior of not recording statistics for logged-in users. This is usually desirable, since these users are most likely yourself and other blog authors. This means that when logged in, a visit to your blog does not invoke the necessary JavaScript code to update statistics.

What happens when you have WP Super Cache enabled? If you visit a page that is not cached, a cache will be generated. If you are logged in at that time, the cached page will not have the stat updating code. This page will then be served to future users, whether they are logged in or not, resulting in lost statistics. This is a problem for all statistics tracking that relies on checking if users are guests or not.

The Solution

The solution is to check the option in WP Super Cache called “Don’t cache pages for logged in users.” This will cause cached pages to always be for guests only, and thus contain the stat updating code. Be sure to clear the existing cache after enabling this option to make sure the wrongly cached pages are gone.

Of course, this is not ideal if the blog has a large user community. In such a case, a different stats package should be used anyway. Google Analytics, for example, should work just fine on cached pages as long as the JavaScript is always present.

Firefox 3.5 introduced a change in the way closing the last tab of a browser window is handled. Instead of turning into a blank tab, the window closes as well, much like it does in Google Chrome.

To return to the previous behavior of turning the last closed tab into a blank tab, follow these steps:

1. Type about:config into the address bar.
2. Accept the warning if it appears by clicking “I’ll be careful, I promise!”
3. Find the setting for browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab. You can do this quickly by beginning to type any part of the term into the filter bar.
4. Double-click on the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab preference to change it from true to false.
5. Enjoy not closing the window when you close the last tab! (If it doesn’t work immediately, try restarting Firefox.)

When building a computer, one often has to compromise on one of the three conflicting factors of power, noise, and price. Powerful machines are usually noisy due to the high heat output, and therefore required cooling. Advanced cooling solutions with low noise can be had, albeit at high price points. A cheaper computer tends to lack power and/or silence. These 3 tradeoffs are inherent in any computer build and is more of a problem today than ever as newer components produce more heat along with the increased power they bring.

I recently had the need to build a new computer from scratch as my main desktop PC. Finding the noise of most computers unbearable to use in a quite environment, I went through a thorough research process to select the most efficient components to balance the needs for power and silence at an affordable price point. As part of the efficiency, I also wanted to minimize the amount of physical space the computer would take up.

This guide shows you the computer parts I picked, along with alternatives I considered, with explanations on every component. Hopefully this will help you make your own choices for a silent computer to suit your needs.

(continue reading…)