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#11

Articles, Tutorials and Tips / Re: The super ultra easy metho...

Last post by ssfc72 - August 10, 2025, 08:05:52 AM

Thanks Buster, for the detailed steps to get sub titles for a movie, using the VLV video player (if the sub titles are available for a movie)

#12

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by Jason - August 09, 2025, 05:50:05 PM

I was one of those people who had my account disabled because of unclear reasons from Instagram, which also made me lose my Facebook account. Some of my friends were formerly Facebook friends, and their accounts don't let you send friend requests to them, so there are friends I'll never get back unless they look for me. Facebook and Instagram don't have numbers or emails you use to contact them when it happens. And new subscriber requirements make it extremely difficult to create a new account. They make you do a short video to see if your picture matches a disabled account, as well as other measures. I asked ChatGPT how to bypass them so I could create a new account. Hard to bypass a video unless I got somebody else to pose for me!

I finally got back on with a new account by using an existing account that I created for a family member who ended up not using it and passed. Not the way I wanted to do it, but I was able to change the name.

At least I have friends outside social media. There are a lot of shut-ins who don't, or people with mental illness who go on Facebook with other similar conditions to get peer support. And they're just cut off, just like that, and probably by AI and a faceless corporation that won't help you if you could find a flesh-and-blood person to do it.

Btw, it's not just mods that are AI-controlled now, tech companies are using AI as the front line of support. You click on the chatbot to ask questions, and many require you to use the bot first before you can even try to reach a real person. It can be frustrating. Most of the time, the questions I have can't be answered by a bot. It's because it only searches the help files to answer your question, and I've already gone through the help files. If it was in there, I wouldn't be trying to find a real person.

#13

Articles, Tutorials and Tips / Re: The super ultra easy metho...

Last post by Jason - August 09, 2025, 05:33:53 PM

Thanks for the tutorial, Buster. Very useful.

My wife and I watch all our shows with subtitles, even though we're watching them on streaming services. It has been reported that something 40% of viewers now use subtitles. In modern movies, it's hard to understand all the dialogue, and it's because they expect you to have 5.1 sound systems with all the bells and whistles (like in movie theatres). Some movies are created in different audio formats, but the result isn't always great. Some directors, like James Cameron, have gone on record saying they refuse to downgrade the audio quality for the audio-challenged audience. If you search for why dialogue is so hard to understand in modern movies, you'll come across a few articles that explain it better than I can.

We listen using headphones so left and right is all we need and honestly, headphones sound better than any speaker system, as far as I'm concerned.

#14

Articles, Tutorials and Tips / The super ultra easy method to...

Last post by buster - August 08, 2025, 02:20:09 PM

This probably even works for foreign films but I've never tested it. It is useful because it's simple, and it saves wandering about on the web and looking. It's right there on a video player you might be using already.

You might need subtitles because of the accents, or because your ears aren't what they used to be. And let's say you were given a movie file from a neighbour and you don't question where she got it because you want to watch it. Anyway, you want an easy way to get subtitles. So here are the easy steps.

1. Install one of the most used video players in the world, VlC if you don't use it already. Make sure your movie is also in a titled file in your computer,such as 'the day the toads got angry' or whatever the movie is called.

2. Open the movie you want subtitles for with VLC. In Win 10,11 I use right click "Open with."

3. Start the movie and immediately pause it. I'm assuming you have already checked to see if in fact it has or doesn't have subtitles already.

4. In the top bar of VLC you will see at its right end "View". Click this.

5. At the bottom of the list that appears you will see "VLsub". Click this.

6. Magically a box appears. Check the language is correct. Check the title is correct. Then do a 'search by name' click.

7. Check to see that it works, and if not click the subtitles word at the top of VLC.

8. For a multi episode production I think all of it can be done from this on the screen described in step 6. Pretty sure you can use the same box for all episodes.

The .srt file will be put together with the film in the same file you keep the movie in.

If you can't get this to work, add a question to this thread.

#15

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by buster - August 07, 2025, 03:53:36 PM

Another interesting unfortunate 'invasion' of the nonliving shows up in a CBC website article. It makes sense, but I didn't realize that bots were used as moderators for social media because of the huge numbers of participants, many of whom are also bots disguised as humans.

There are a number of people apparently who have been removed from sites by non-humans because of some perceived transgression, and phoning to complain gets you nowhere because it's impossible to connect to a human.

   https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/teacher-wrongly-accused-child-exploitation-meta-account-apology-1.7599595

#16

Support / Re: Can I have one computer on...

Last post by Jason - August 07, 2025, 01:31:31 PM

There should be a fairly easy solution to this with a few mouse clicks, but I haven't found it yet.

My desktop Win10 computer that is connected to the TV is used by us to run movies or whatever that I've acquired. These movies are stored on a Win11 computer in a different room. So this old but good computer is perfect for the job it does, but cannot be upgraaded to Win 11.

It can likely still be done. It involves using Rufus to make a custom installer image for Windows 10. Usually, it won't upgrade to Windows 11 because of certain features the CPU doesn't support. Rufus is like Etcher except with settings you can choose. One of these is to ignore those checks so it upgrades anyway.

1. Can I easily prevent my TV computer from interacting with the Internet?

If you don't need it to connect to other computers, look for a the option to disable devices to disable the wireless adapter. If you need to connect to the network, Bill's option is a good one.

2. Would this make using a Win 10 computer connected only to the home network relatively safe to continue using?

It should. Using it to browse and particularly download stuff isn't the greatest idea. A worm is a type of malware that can infect other computers in a network once it gets a foothold, but if your other computers use Windows 11 or something more secure than Windows 10, like Linux, do browsing and downloading on one of them.

I know we have a number of readers who understand networking far better than I do. And using Linux in this situation, connecting to a Windows machine, has always, for me, been an extremely unpleasant task.

Honestly, you're smarter than the average Joe so you probably know how to avoid the stuff that will infect your computer, like clicking on windows that pop up saying your computer is infected and to call a certain number for assistance. Installing an anti-malware program on the computer would help, too. No way to know how long Microsoft will keep updating Windows Defender. Bitdefender Free gets high ratings and rarely nags you.

#17

General Discussion / Re: The Really Unpleasant Comp...

Last post by Jason - August 07, 2025, 01:14:35 PM

Love the word "apocaloptimist".

Thanks, I saw it on a meme and liked its definition.

#18

Marketplace / Re: Wanted Older Mid tower

Last post by ssfc72 - August 07, 2025, 08:46:45 AM

Ok Tom, talk to you later.

#19

Marketplace / Re: Wanted Older Mid tower

Last post by tommolica - August 06, 2025, 10:18:17 PM

Thanks for looking Harry.
Bill thanks for the offer, I will look and see if it is possible to fit a micro axt motherboard. even 1 floppy slot is better than none. If the mounting backplane in not aligned for the motherboard - then to the recycle. I cannot remember if that case will fit a standard size power supply. Those units were about 2002 to 2005 vintage or so. Will call you on the weekend . Thanks very much for now. Tom.

#20

Marketplace / Re: Wanted Older Mid tower

Last post by ssfc72 - August 06, 2025, 07:19:13 PM

Hi Tom. Not quite what you are looking for, but I have an old Dell Dimension 2400 desktop computer (Pentium 4).
2 cdrom/dvd drives, Specs on it says qty 2 5 1/4 bays and qty 1 3.5: external bays

I was going to be take it to the recycling drop off.

If it is of use to you, you are welcome to it. Still powers up.