Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Well, I have a big clunker I can move around the house and use for everything without thinking about it, and a small sleek one that doesn’t take all the space on my backpack.

Of course the small sleek one gets babied and I don’t use it whenever the other one is an option.

It's like having two children. One you actually care about, and the other one you keep locked up in the basement to do the chores.

Except you can just go and get a new one when the basement kid finally collapses!

@ThanosReXXX He keeps all his knitting designs on it, so you probably wouldn't help him out of principle

Basement labor is the best labor. It's like putting the broom in the pantry, but by itself!

Don't be silly, those are safe in Dropbox.

On the subject of computers, I use the task bar vertically, on the right side of the screen. My brother always finds that weird.

Anyone else does it? Or is it unusual?

Don't chuck 'em in the waste bin, they'll start smelling after a couple of days.

@Morpheel Your brother is right.

It's so much more space efficient though

.....If you mean 'space efficient' because you're from outer space, sure.
Next you'll tell us purple glue sticks still don't taste like grape.

Don't eat glue.

@Morpheel I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to agree with @Octane. It's weird indeed.
And FYI: it is actually NOT more space efficient, seeing as the toolbar is only slightly shorter in vertical mode, but the bar itself is wider, so arguably, it actually takes up MORE space when placed vertically.

As for the two laptop conundrum: so, the one you don't use that often, is probably the newest one?
If so, Is it safe to assume that it has USB 3 ports, or is it older than that?

Anyway, regardless, you should look online for a universal hard drive cloning device (often times also referred to as HDD docking station), such as the ones found on this page:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hdd+docking+station+universal&...

Doesn't have to be an expensive one, just one which you know is compatible. In your laptop's system menu, you can find info on what kind of hdd is installed. I'm assuming it's SATA, but it can also be older.

All laptop hdd's are 2.5inch, so that's one thing that we already do know. You can remove it, by opening up the bottom of your laptop, or sometimes, there's a cover on the side or back, that offers access to the drive.

Once you get it out, all you have to do is buy an exact same size and model hdd, put both of them in the cloning device, and then connect that to a PC or your other laptop, and install the program that comes with the cloning device. It'll make a 1:1 copy of your old drive, which should not take that long, depending on the size of the drive, and the speed of the computer that the cloning device is connected to, but on USB 3.0, it shouldn't take more than an hour at the very most, for a mid size to large capacity drive.

After that is finished, all you'll have to do is install the newly cloned drive into your laptop, and it should be fine once again.

I also own one of these docking stations, and I have cloned both internal and external drives with it, so far as I'm concerned, it's pretty handy to own one of these gizmos.

Tip: if you do decide that it's worth the trouble, and you're going to buy one of these devices, then make sure it's one that's also compatible with normal desktop PC drives, aka 3.5 inch ones. You may never know if you'll one day decide to get a big boy PC...

I just find it gives the windows a more natural aspect ratio, and keeps everything looking nice and compact.

Just a thin bar with grouped icons that aren't too big, nor too small, on the side of the screen where I can forget about it until I need to use it. Combine that with the fact that the tablet has a touch screen, so it's much more natural for me to reach the icons on the side of the screen when I'm not using the touchpad.

Sometimes I even set it to hide automatically, oh la la.

The tablet laptop has one usb c port, and while I could expand that with the right adapters, I don't think I would want to use the tablet for that.

@Morpheel Why not? It's a perfectly safe process, so nothing could go wrong. You could of course also ask someone in your family or one of your friends, if they'd be okay with you cloning the drive on their PC.

Seeing as it's an external process that'll do nothing to the PC it's running on, and all you'd need the PC for is to control the device, I'd personally have no problems letting someone use my PC for it. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near your vicinity, so you'd have to come up with another option...

P.S.

I don't know what I should consider more natural, aspect ratio wise. A laptop is wide screen by default, so that should also be the screen ratio. And I positively HATE moving/disappearing toolbars. It makes my trigger finger itch...
My toolbar is horizontal, and locked in place, as it should. I want to be able to see what windows I've opened in one glance. You can't always do that, if you've got too many programs/folders open at any one time, so I'd rather have that all instantly visible down at the bottom.

And if you ask me, most people focus on the central area of the screen, most of the time, so having the bar at the bottom, is actually less intrusive than having one on the side, because that'll always be more or less in the corner of your eye, disappearing or not. But whatever, if it floats your boat, then by all means...

This guy knows what he's talking about.

Wider windows mostly just means empty horizonal space in most websites and apps anyway... I like giving my screen a little bit more vertical space.

It's not like a huge task bar btw, I group windows, and show only the icons.

@Morpheel I remember people used to do the side-taskbar a lot with Windows 95 for some reason. I don't think I saw anyone do it since 1997.... I always presumed it was Mac lovers. OS6 had some weirdness.

I think mac people put it on top of the screen.

Maybe?

They probably do. Reminds them of the Apple II-e they never had or used, but saw in an ironic art house film once.

Jeez, I haven't been on NL for almost all of today and people are still heated in the Nintendo switch thread over dlc. Then we have new threads being created for Rick astley. What the heck is going on in the world 😅

It's better not knowing at this point. We'll say it's a combination of an upcoming full moon, the denial of the departing Regginator, and E3 jitters. Oh, and people..... Mostly people.