Can I get a "welcome back"?

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Hello all,

It's been 8 years since I've visited this message board. By chance, last night I stumbled accross one of my old threads during a Google Search. Well, I thought I'd try my account and amazingly it worked. Here, I am, I am back.

Did you miss me? Haha, I've missed you. I remember when this board used that awful vBulletin forum software. Glad to see it's all changed for the better.
I'm a lot more responsible and (hopefully) more mature than I was 8 years ago. I look back at some of my old threads, and cringe...

Almost time for me to jump aboard the ship, but I'll need to update some of my details in the meantime.

See you around the forums.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[muckshifter]

"welcome back"

where you been? what you been doing? are you older and wiser?

 

[V_R]

Welcome back stranger! Its been a while alright!

 

[nivrip]

Welcome back, Capt'n.

 

[Ian]

Hey! Long time no see . Great to have you back.

Yeah we've had a welcome upgrade since the last time you were here - no more aging vBulletin! We've moved over to XenForo now and it's so much easier to use .

Been up to much in the last 6 years?

 

[Becky]

Great to have you back!

Hope life has been treating you well

 

[Taffycat]

Hey there Captain Jack, it's good to see you, welcome back to PC Review! Brush the barnacles out of your beard, and pull up a seat, we've kept it warm for you!

 

[TriplexDread]

Brush the barnacles out of your beard, and pull up a seat, we've kept it warm for you!

Yeah Dammit my backside is numb!!! 6-8 years? Really that long?!!

 

[Taffycat]

Yeah Dammit my backside is numb!!!

But yours was the butt which was best suited to the task @TriplexDread

 

[TriplexDread]

Pffft I seem to be the "Butt" of everyone's jokes recently

 

[EvanDavis]

Welcome back

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Thanks for the warm welcome lads (and lasses!). I know, it has been longer than it feels!

Glad to see some familiar names who are still here. I'm so suprised you all remember me.
I sure am older... but wiser? Let's face it, I don't think Jack Sparrow has ever been wise (and probably never will be!).

Ian, good to see that you're still captaining the ship. Hope things haven't been too hectic while I was out at sea.

Check out Taffycat and TriplexDread already hi-jacking this with terrible jokes!
Not much has changed about myself. You could say I'm living in the past. I'm not all about that "Netflix and chill" nonsense, I'd rather go to a good nightclub or bar! Even worse, my PC has only been fully upgraded once in the last 6 years, so that says a lot.

Life has had its ups & downs. I'm now over the legal age to go drinking, and can also drive now. Currently, I'm studying Computer Science final year degree at university. There have been some issues with this, but hopefully I'll get those grades I want! You'll find me down the local nightclub or pub when I'm not scrubbing the deck.

With regards to computing, I must admit I have been slacking. Well, that's what I do isn't it?
My PC specs are probably ancient by your standards. She doesn't even have an SSD. But The Black Pearl still sails well, and plays the games I need her to. I don't play very many games as of recent, although every week, one of my maties visit, and we play some Saints Row: The Third co-op over our LAN.

I really need to get back on the ship properly!

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[bootneck02]

Aha Jack Sparrow welcome back aboard nice to see you, splice the mainbrace

 

[Becky]

Sounds like you've been busy @Captain Jack Sparrow! I hope your last year at uni goes well

@Silverhazesurfer came back recently after a while away and has been telling us about some of the project's he's been working on - one of them being Johnny Depp's yacht - Vajoliroja (say the name out loud ):

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/looks-like-i-got-a-little-lost.4070858/#post-14255953

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Sounds like you've been busy @Captain Jack Sparrow! I hope your last year at uni goes well

@Silverhazesurfer came back recently after a while away and has been telling us about some of the project's he's been working on - one of them being Johnny Depp's yacht - Vajoliroja (say the name out loud ):

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/looks-like-i-got-a-little-lost.4070858/#post-14255953

Ha ha, my alter-ego has way too much money... more money than sense. I guess if you've got it, you're gotta put it to "good" use!

Most of the projects I've been working are very small and were mainly limited to my uni work. Right now, I am working on a subwoofer to fit in the trunk of my Volkswagen Polo, and I'm constructing it from scratch. This should keep me busy for another couple of weeks. The satisfaction of doing that and hearing it at the end will make it so worth it.

But of course, I can only do that during the day. Planing and sanding MDF gets pretty boring very quickly, so I imported some in-ground outdoor speakers from America to listen to music outside while I work. Time will tell whether they're able to cope with the UK climate! I used an old car stereo and computer PSU to power them because I can do Bluetooth audio streaming from anywhere on the patio. My BlackBerry Z10 works perfectly in this scenario.

I'm also working on getting The Black Pearl onto an SSD (at least for the OS), as it's the last PC in the household (except for our server) which has not been upgraded to an SSD. This will involve a clean Windows 7 install - not fun!! The OS HDD in The Black Pearl is over 8 years old , the same one I had when I first joined here.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[Becky]

You've got some interesting projects on the go In my last year at uni I didn't know whether I was coming or going most of the time, it was really stressful and I was glad to see that back of it! Glad you're finding time for fun stuff

@floppybootstomp is working on an audio project at the moment - he's building a three-way active crossover. You can check out his build topic here: https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/my-latest-audio-project.4070913/

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

You've got some interesting projects on the go In my last year at uni I didn't know whether I was coming or going most of the time, it was really stressful and I was glad to see that back of it! Glad you're finding time for fun stuff

@floppybootstomp is working on an audio project at the moment - he's building a three-way active crossover. You can check out his build topic here: https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/my-latest-audio-project.4070913/

Ahh crossovers... I hate those things! They're a nightmare to find one which suits your speaker drive units perfectly.

I guess that's why flopps is designing one from scratch. If it's active, wow, I'd never think of this. I could probably easily construct a passive one, but designing an active one is impressive. I suppose it's also more flexible than a passive one, you can customize the crossover values easily with a potentiometer. It'll be interesting to see how this comes along. I'll check it out when I get a moment.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[Abarbarian]

This will involve a clean Windows 7 install - not fun!!

I did a clean W7 install a couple of months ago and used these tools which made the process a lot easier.

2. WSUS Offline Update

Formally called c’t Update, WSUS Offline Update is another tool that can update a number of Windows operating systems to the latest patches, and also keep nearly all versions of Microsoft Office up to date too. Although like Autopatcher in a lot of ways, there’s also some differences. WSUS Offline Update can update any Windows revision and doesn’t rely on it having the latest Service Pack installed. This can be a great help as lots of computers still don’t have XP Service Pack 3 or Vista Service Pack 2 installed which makes Autopatcher unusable until they’re updated. It can also download and install updates for several different languages so you’re not restricted to just English.
Read More: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/offline-windows-update/

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/offline-windows-update/

GWX Control Panel This is a free tool that can remove and disable the 'Get Windows 10' notification area icon on Windows 7 and Windows 8. Recent versions can also disable 'Upgrade to Windows 10' behavior in the Windows Update control panel and do much more. See the user guide at the Ultimate Outsider blog. You can still download GWX Control Panel as a standalone executable if you don't like installers. Please see the "GWX Control Panel Release Notes and Version History" post at the blog for MD5 and SHA-1 checksums of all official releases.

http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

Apparently it is really easy to do a Windows install. so simple a child could manage it. Linux os's on the other hand are a real pain in the butt to install, require a brain the size of a planet and take days to install fully.

 

[bootneck02]

If I can down install Linux Mint in about 7 or 8 mins any one can.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

I did a clean W7 install a couple of months ago and used these tools which made the process a lot easier.

Apparently it is really easy to do a Windows install. so simple a child could manage it. Linux os's on the other hand are a real pain in the butt to install, require a brain the size of a planet and take days to install fully.

Installing and upgrading Windows 7 is not strictly my main concern. We already use a WSUS server to manage the deployment of Windows updates. To prevent the computers from automatically downloading and upgrading to Windows 10, we permanently disable the Windows 10 update using domain group policy. This is a much better way than using the GWX Control Panel, because the Windows 10 notification update is not even downloaded in the first place.

So yeah, reinstalling Windows 7 and updating it will be easy. Configuring, and reinstalling programs and games will not be. I'm definitely not looking forward to reinstalling all the programs and games. There were a lot, and the 500GB HDD they're all installed on is nearly full.

Some programs require specific configuration tasks to function, such as Adobe's Licensing, which is an absolute joke. They probably won't let me reinstall CS6 without trying to sell me Creative Cloud, which I don't want!

If I can down install Linux Mint in about 7 or 8 mins any one can.

I'm going to have to agree with @bootneck02 on this one. Installing Linux isn't difficult.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.