Ask MetaFilter posts by neckro23

Yes, it's going to be an MP3 jukebox.

neckro23 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:12:02 -0800

Halp! I have here an Allen-Bradley industrial computer from ca. 1999. How do I get the confounded touchscreen to work? A friend of mine who works in a shop recently brought back an old Allen-Bradley touchscreen unit that's used to control industrial equipment. It's basically just a rack-mounted PC with an integrated LCD and touchscreen. The BIOS and specs indicate it was manufactured in 1999 or so. I can install WinXP on this just fine and it works splendidly (or at least as splendidly as an eight-year-old computer will), but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the touchscreen to work.

The touchscreen is (seemingly) controlled by a long ISA card with some blinkenlights on it, that a cable (eight pins) from the LCD panel plugs into. There are no identifying marks that I can see on this card.

Extensive Googling was little help until I found the manual for this model (6180) [pdf] on the Rockwell Automation website. Unfortunately, the manual is very unhelpful about the touchscreen -- it basically just says to install the drivers from the provided disk, which of course I do not have. It also tells me to reference the "Touchscreen System User's Guide", which does not appear to be available on the Rockwell Automation site. The manufacturer of the touchscreen interface is not mentioned (relevant page is #159). Also, the series number for this unit is 6180-Exxxxxxx, and the chart showing IRQ settings only goes up to series D. At any rate, the touchscreen appears to be connected to an IRQ -- is there an easy way to check this? (I haven't fiddled with IRQs since the Bad Old Days.)

I also found the manual for the 6181 series [pdf], which I figured would be similar, but which appears to be a totally different unit. This one says I need to install a driver from ELO Touchsystems, or one from Touchko. I tried both (under XP) and neither driver worked at all.

Does anyone have experience with these systems? I just need a working driver, really. I'll downgrade to a previous version of Windows if necessary. Hell, I'll even run Linux. I think when we first powered on this unit, it was running NT4 (ugh). Sadly, I didn't do a more detailed analysis before nuking the partition, since I thought it would be easy to get this thing working. I guess not. Please hope me?

Why can't I just copy/paste?

neckro23 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:07:35 -0800

Does Adobe Bridge CS3 allow one to copy Camera RAW settings from one image to another? If so, how? I mainly use Photoshop to process RAW files from my Nikon D50 (on a strictly hobbyist basis). My usual workflow with CS2 would be to load a series of images in Adobe Bridge, make the necessary adjustments to one image in a series, and then copy the settings over to the rest of the images and work from there. It's not the most efficient way, I know, but it works for me.

I've been giving the CS3 beta a whirl to see if it's really an improvement. So far, it seems to be (I really, really like the B&W color mix adjustment), but for one glaring problem: I cannot seem to copy camera RAW settings in Bridge at all!

In CS2 I would simply right-click the image thumbnail in Bridge, select "Copy Camera RAW settings", and then similarly highlight the target images, right-click, and paste. I would then get a handy dialog asking me which settings I want to copy over. Yet despite the simplicity (and usefulness!) of this function, it does not seem to exist in CS3 at all!

Please hope me. If this is actually impossible in Bridge CS3, I may have to go back to CS2. I am not particularly interested in using Lightroom (too slow!). Did Adobe simply remove this feature so they could sell me fancier software?

Should I beware of Nair?

neckro23 — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 22:29:29 -0800

I'm considering removing all my body hair. What should I know? For rather whimsical reasons, I'm considering removing all my body's hair (except for, probably, my eyebrows, which would just look weird) in about 4 weeks.

I'm actually only interested in remaining hair-free for a weekend, after which I'd let it grow back (or not depending on how much I like it). The issue is, I've never done anything like this before. I'm not a particularly hairy individual, but there is a fair amount of the stuff. My thoughts so far:

1. Head, face: I think I can handle these with no problem.
2. Arms, legs, chest, armpits: Use an electric trimmer and then Nair? Thankfully, I barely have any hair on my back.
3. Private bits: I really have no idea. I could just trim here if there isn't an easy solution. I imagine Nair probably isn't a good idea.

My only prior experience with Nair is when I once removed my armpit hair. Rather unpleasant smell, but I didn't have any sort of sensitive reaction that I can remember. I don't recall itching too much afterwards either.

Naturally, I'm apprehensive about possible itching. I want to enjoy my weekend, not be scratching all over. Should I a trial run a week ahead of time to see if I'm going to itch like a mother? How long does the itching usually last?

Dentist in the Twin Cities?

neckro23 — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:56:36 -0800

DentistFilter continues: Recommendations for a good dentist in the Twin Cities? I'm currently in need of rather extensive dental work, especially replacement for a mostly-missing incisor (but also several cavities and a root canal or two, I'd imagine). Since it's my incisor, of course, I'd like to find a dentist who will take proper care of it and won't be too condescending about the state of my teeth. (Is reasonably-priced too much to ask for too?)