It was a cronjob running under a different user. Obvious in hindsight, but I must have initially disregarded it because the time specified in cron didn’t exactly match when I saw it on the graph. I blame low time resolution graphing libraries.
The whole process completes in a couple seconds, so top only had like 2 or 3 refreshes to catch it.
Still raises a different question though - why would the system CPU usage in top show the spike, but the process never showed up at the top of the process list?
Can anyone point me to a good laptop around the 400-800 range? I use it for cons and occasional work on the go and the current one I have is seeing the last legs.
Seeing the discussion in the computer building thread about multiple monitors and 4K monitors with enough real estate for arranging windows for productivity raises a question I have had since getting my first 4K monitor a few months ago. I have my windows arranged how I want them, I love how I can have a browser and discord and other windows visible and sized appropriately. But then I start playing a game and when I exit the game my windows are all moved around, sometimes resized. For some games this is correlated with running the game at a resolution that is not native to the monitor (my graphics card can’t run all of my games at 4K resolution effectively), but for other games even if I am running at native resolution it will mess up my desktop window placement.
Am I overlooking something or how do you all deal with this annoyance?
I mean, you already seem to know that if you had a better GPU and ran the games at 4K the resolution wouldn’t change and the windows wouldn’t get moved.
That being said, I wonder if using virtual desktops would solve the problem. If you put steam on a separate desktop, ran games full screen from there. Then you never have desktop 1 in focus when the resolution is non-4k. It might work, might not, just an idea.
I have been using virtual desktops with this intention and it does not solve the problem. When I run games at the native 4K resolution of the monitor it can still cause the windows to be re-arranged on the other desktop.
Win+m, play game, Shift+Win+M looks to be a workaround to avoid having to fix the windows again. Annoying that it is necessary but better than constantly resizing and repositioning windows.
So I am currently creating a spreadsheet that will hold the information to the URLs for the videos created in The Unofficial Convention Archives. What I would like to do is have some sort of program take that information, create a blog post about it (complete with Tags and all) and post it to the website so I can just “import” this all at once. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could do this?
Google “python google sheets”. (Or whatever spreadsheet you’re using.) Without even looking, I know a library for this exists.
Google “python wordpress”. I am less confident this exists, but I would guess someone has written something.
Write a python script that looks something like this:
import the_spreadsheet_library
import the_wordpress_library
for row in open_spreadsheet('my_spreadsheet.xlsx'):
# might be good to track whether a talk is already posted
if not row['posted']:
wordpress.post_post(row['title'], row['date'], row['tags'].split('.'), ...etc)
row['posted'] = True
row.save()
If you are using google sheets - I don’t know about that API specifically, but I have written applications using the gmail and youtube APIs before, and they are a disaster. I would expect the same from google sheets. It would probably be easier to just export a CSV, and then you can use python’s builtin csv library.
If there is another software solution I can use to have the same keyboard and mouse control multiple computers without buying a KVM box please let me know thanks.
It has been years since I have used it, but I really liked Synergy back in the day. I used it to go between Mac and Linux and it worked well. You just setup a hot zone (left side, upper right corner, etc…) and when you mouse gets to that zone then it moves control over to the other machine.
That one only works if all computers run windows, though. Almost all the time I see someone with multiple computers it’s because they are mixing it up. Macbook and gaming PC combos are common.
EDIT: I just tried the Mouse without Borders. It is indeed only for use between Windows PCs. However, it worked amazingly well out of the box. What’s really cool is that it doesn’t care what mouse or keyboard you use. Both computers have mice and keyboards, and both work on both computers. It’s just that you only have one mouse cursor, so wherever it is is the computer you control.
The biggest problem I’ve had so far is the mouse sensitivity doesn’t adjust properly when you go to the other PC.
We’ll, I think it may be the end of the line for my ancient Mac book pro Blurry screen with pinwheel on startup. Put in my old spinning disk drive instead of my ssd and it still has the same problem. On down the rabbit hole I go…
The new ones look amazing, they actually added ports! But really expensive. However, I get keep using my 2009 mac for a little longer I got it working again after going down the whole list of startup commands - reset PRAM did the trick.
I had a problem just now. All my windows settings, like display settings, etc. were forcibly scrolling down to the bottom. Like, I open display settings, and it just scrolls all the way down instantly. I have to fight against it with my scroll wheel, but can’t get it to scroll up. It’s like someone else has a mouse plugged into the PC and is scrolling down constantly. But only in Windows settings windows, not in any other app.
Rebooting didn’t fix it. Reconnecting the mouse or keyboard didn’t fix it. Safe mode fixed it. That led me to believe it was software related.
Thankfully I found the answer. It was because I had a USB gamepad plugged in. Right trigger must have been depressed by something on my desk just enough. Right trigger makes it scroll all the way to the bottom. Left trigger up. D-pad works too. It was only windows settings, because that’s the only app that responds to USB HID input. Who knew??? Who expects gamepad input to be recognized by any app other than a game or something like Steam big picture?
Unplugged gamepad. Problem has not returned.
My advice. Unplug gamepads from the PC if they’re not being used.
Blurry screen with pinwheel on startup. Put in my old spinning disk drive instead of my ssd and it still has the same problem. On down the rabbit hole I go…
I got it working again after going down the whole list of startup commands - reset PRAM did the trick.