Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books!

Giles ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'


Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?  

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


Gris - May 07, 2006 3:58:38 am PDT #8030 of 10003
Hey. New board.

Can you tell us what flavors of file would and wouldn't convert?

A brief glance at the webforums tells me I might have some ideas - the application Videora uses to actually do the conversion is a program called ffmpeg that i'm familiar with. For example, I know ffmpeg can't handle recent WMV files.

ETA: [link] <-- the FAQ for Videora. Suggests installing a scripting program called AVISynth to make certain types of files work. Tells you how to use it on the next question. Try that?

ETA2: If you can't make this guy work, there seem to be a couple of pay solutions out there that you can download trials of. M2Convert seems like a promising one. It's $30.


Amy - May 07, 2006 10:11:34 am PDT #8031 of 10003
Because books.

Help!

I have an old IBM ThinkPad that was my dad's. I only ever use it plugged in because the battery's bad, and I just used it yesterday. Shut it down properly, unplugged it, put it away. Just plugged it and turned it on and I'm getting a black screen with the message:

ERROR 0271: Check date and time settings Press F1 to Setup

When I do that, though, I don't where to go from there. And I have no idea why is this happening. Any hints?


NoiseDesign - May 07, 2006 10:17:03 am PDT #8032 of 10003
Our wings are not tired

Sounds like the battery on the motherboard is mostly dead. What model of ThinkPad is it? Basically all motherboards have a small battery on them that keeps thinks like clock and BIOS settings in tact.


Amy - May 07, 2006 10:23:33 am PDT #8033 of 10003
Because books.

Well, Stephen (wisely, I guess) decided I should do what it asked, so we input the date and time again and now it's on. Weird.

It's pretty old, as computers go, I guess. It's a T23. I have noticed in the past that when I tried to let it run on battery it would lose time.


NoiseDesign - May 07, 2006 10:41:00 am PDT #8034 of 10003
Our wings are not tired

Found the part that you need to replace the CMOS battery on that laptop, but it doesn't look like a non-technical swap. There are two leads you'd need to desolder from the motherboard and solder the two new leads into place.


Amy - May 07, 2006 10:45:49 am PDT #8035 of 10003
Because books.

There are two leads you'd need to desolder from the motherboard and solder the two new leads into place.

::runs screaming::

Thanks for looking, though. I can't complain, since the thing was free, but we're planning to buy a new one when we can afford it. In the meantime, I'm going to keep saving everything to my flash drive when I'm done writing for the day, just to be safe.


Jesse - May 07, 2006 11:29:44 am PDT #8036 of 10003
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

If an organization were looking to build a database that people in different programs could access from different sites, would they be likely to use MS SQL Server? It's to track who's in what programs, attendance, progress, etc.


DCJensen - May 07, 2006 1:44:01 pm PDT #8037 of 10003
All is well that ends in pizza.

Amyliz, Here is the [link] to the IBM page that tells you how to navigate the t23 bios. You could set the date and time and see if it sticks, at least once.

Worth at least one try, if there is any life left in the batteries, it'll stay for a while.


tommyrot - May 07, 2006 3:33:53 pm PDT #8038 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

If an organization were looking to build a database that people in different programs could access from different sites, would they be likely to use MS SQL Server? It's to track who's in what programs, attendance, progress, etc.

Maybe.

Well, how would people access the database? Would someone write dynamic web pages serve as the front end? Some other frontend?

Anyway, MS SQL Server is good, but expensive when compared to such open source databases as MySQL and PostgreSQL. But MS SQL Server is probably easier to maintain.

Your choice of frontend may influence your choice of backend. For example, if you develope an .asp application, you'd probably want MS SQL Server as a backend.


Jesse - May 07, 2006 3:52:44 pm PDT #8039 of 10003
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Would someone write dynamic web pages serve as the front end?

I believe this. I don't know what .asp is, or really anything else about this kind of thing, but I'm hoping to be able to say something semi-intelligent without talking to the programmer, because she scares me. They are willing to spend money, and I would think maintenance would be a concern.

The MS SQL Server webpage has some cost comparisions to other things -- Oracle and something else I forget. They're saying their product is the cheapest, obviously. Basically I just want to make sure it's a reasonable thing to use for costing out the whole project.