UCyborg

Must have been 9 years since I was in the cinema last time. Seems too much bother these days, I resort to torrents at the odd time I feel like watching a movie. The list from recent years is short, I watched The Matrix Resurrections (2021) in 2022, Storm of the Century (1999) in 2020, The Matrix trilogy (1999, 2003), Idiocracy (2006) and A Quiet Place (2018) in 2019. There are 2 quizzes and 1 satire on local TV channels that I do watch on the more regular basis though.

I'm not a coder either. I was more enthusiastic about it when I was younger and free from having to work for a living. Hacked up some stuff together, some published, some not. I find the whole thing rather boring these days, takes forever to get anywhere. I don't have forever anymore and I'd rather not be glued to the screen 16 hours a day. Feature requests? Yeah, I'm sick of those at work. Number of bizarre ones among them. I'm not in a position to implement them or decide whether they get implemented, I'm just a messenger. I'm feeling more disconnected from IT as I get older, wondering a lot of time what's the point of it all. A browser is a browser, a text editor is a text editor, a toaster is a toaster. People seem to be making an elephant out of everything. Why bother? An EMP blast can send everything to kingdom come in an instant.

2 ways come to mind: Hold Alt and type 32 on numeric keypad. On-Screen Keyboard, which comes with Windows. There are also tricks involving remapping one of the existing keys to Space, but I haven't dug into specifics of those.

As a new owner of Raspberry Pi 5, I shall demand an arm64 version with utmost stubbornness! Oh, who am I kidding, I know nothing will happen unless I try to do it myself...

I don't know, I have it on December 2023 cumulative update level, with ExplorerPatcher activating the old Win10 taskbar. Mentally exhausted...

Guess it reflects the state of modern crazy society.

I don't really have to use it either, must have been curious, so I put it on the smaller partition I have for testing Windows versions I don't daily-drive. Been' using it for a while, with the usual tweaks, switching back seemed to be too much bother. I hide Windows versions from each other, just in case, the Flintstones way, manually changing partition type with Linux's fdisk. The few programs I use work as usual. Not being able to drop files on taskbar programs' buttons is annoying though.

Asked around a little and got things cleared up regarding connections to the PCB. Those wires employed on the picture up there, they totally slipped by me, the method is described here. Another good solderless method would be press-fit headers. Just putting male headers in the hole wouldn't make a good contact. I didn't know we have a bunch of plain pin headers available at my workplace, the coworker from production said it was not a problem for him to solder them on my router, so I got that done in no time. Then I got a Raspberry Pi 5 and related accessories, set it up, got a look around the Raspberry Pi OS a bit, tried a bit of web browsing, put on Visual Studio Code, first time trying the latter and finally, I believe I have, at least in theory, a working version of tjtag-pi, my version is not published anywhere ATM, but generally it can access the router's CPU and flash memory over JTAG port, adapted to work on the new Pi, with the help of WiringPi library. I added one new function in the latter, which should flip the states of certain GPIO pins at once, or at least should happen a bit faster than the sequential way offered by the library, I basically just wrote a function that takes bit mask of pins to be set/clear, to closely emulate the GPIO pins maniupulation code of tjtag-pi. Whether this is necessary or not, I have no way of testing or otherwise knowing whether sequential flipping is really incorrect or just slightly less optimal, it's not a long intensive operation. But I've read about "bit banging", which is how communication is done through JTAG, that generally when it comes to bit banging, timings matter. Just in general, but in the case of these routers...the program has an option to wait between changes/reading of pin states, though judging by the comments, it was just a workaround for flimsy physical connection to JTAG port. As it turned out... ...I realized after trying another good working power supply, which compared to the other two, has a LED and it was blinking as well when powering the router while it should remain lit, that means only one thing, short circuit. So guess in best case scenario, only capacitors are faulty and in the worst case scenario, something else is fried. Ehhh... Oh well, I've got a working Raspberry Pi 5, so that's something.

Look here to see what's available beyond the land of official vendor's offerings. Be sure to carefully study the installation procedure for whatever OS you'll pick and backup everything on the phone before you get to it as data wiping will be unavoidable.

Drivers are complicated, especially graphics drivers, I'm happy if I can mod an program easier that doesn't run in the kernel. Multi-monitor setup is useful, thumbs up in any case if you can get it working. I'm just used to working in modern environment, while having old enough hardware that has full driver support for XP and since I still mess with XP occasionally, I merely wanted to point out there are some things about XP nobody talks about. Though it's also true there are crazy things you can do in XP that you can't do in newer versions anymore, eg. locking primary surface with DirectDraw to render something directly on the desktop. And the audio stack and related capabilities exposed through DirectSound, which still has HAL layer in XP. Creative's sound cards 3D mixing and audio effects (EAX) are exposed through it, though I've never owned a more complicated sound card, just simpler onboard stuff, still, one of those had some limited capabilities, enough to make Interstate '76 freeze entirely when you clicked something menu, which made DirectSound 3D Buffer, if hardware buffer could be created, it caused an issue, though I haven't investigated why software buffer worked and hardware one caused freezing. Though there are number of other issues with that game, but that's one of the the first things I noticed all those years ago, coming from Windows 95 to XP. That was a different time. I seem to recall @Tripredacus mentioning something else nice about the audio stack, something about outputting sound simultaneously, don't recall the details. Maybe he remembers.

Lot of buggy code in some old games, seems to be the major reason for not working or not working well, I used to write patches for some of them. I still think XP sucks in graphics department, even with a working graphics driver. Dual monitor? Yikes, can't have a Direct3D render smoothly on non-primary display. Even with just one screen, s***'s just often laggy and overdrawing each other when multiple windows are involved. Bleh.

Ugh, I see it's possible they could've taken out another component. https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubleshooting-hardware-devices-and-electronics-theory/troubleshooting-designing-networks/35202-linksys-wrt54gl-v1-1-bad-capxon-caps You'd think the modding guides for this router would warn about it: "Before you do anything, might as well replace those". By plugging onto a serial port with USB to RS-232 TTL converter, it could be seen if the console says anything, maybe erase NVRAM as well while plugging onto JTAG port would allow to re-install the bootloader. Apparently you can do the latter with Raspberry Pi, the older method is crafting special JTAG cable to plug onto computer's parallel port. My computer has that port, but this method doesn't seem worth the bother while Raspberry Pi looks interesting for other uses. Regarding pin headers, I was looking at these: https://www.digikey.si/en/products/detail/samtec-inc/pht-112-01-l-d/19020741 https://www.digikey.si/en/products/detail/samtec-inc/pht-110-01-l-d/10218549 One for JTAG (marked JP1), one for serial ports (marked JP2, I know only first row would be strictly needed, but what the heck), if headers are really needed to make good connection with jump wires and if I'm even looking at the right ones?? I realize replacing caps would make sense if the device still works in the first place, where soldering is unavoidable. The whole thing is mostly about satiating my curiousity at this point.

I've read the linked thread and some others as well, but these simple measures with reset button and power cycling don't change anything. There is an anecdotal evidence that suggests the possibility that rewriting software and data on the router could help, assuming the hardware survived and it's just choking on bad bits. Apparently some people were employing the shunned upon practice of shortening specific pins on the flash chip, which presumably nukes the core operating system and may allow it to be re-uploaded via TFTP (may also need valid settings in NVRAM), but I will avoid shortening and if I'm going to try anything, I want to do it more professionally. It would also indicated whether hardware is still OK if done properly. I have an idea, but being more of a software guy, I have to ask what is probably a banal thing for people tinkering with electronics, but here goes. It's about unused holes on the PCB, where you can solder pin headers, the holes' diameter is 1 millimeter, they're apart about 2,5 millimeters, center to center, presumably this might actually be 2,54 millimeters, at least that's supposed to be the standard, but don't have any more accurate tool to measure exactly. The question is, does the male end of the jumper wire such as this one fit properly in the hole? There is another more detailed picture of presumably the same kind of wire, maybe just different manufacturer. Or would there be an issue, maybe loose and wouldn't conduct properly? I only found two vague hints on the internet it could work, one is below: Source: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/249140/how-can-i-make-connection-on-pcb-circuit-board-holes-without-solder-for-proto The picture below: Another way? This appears to employ press-fit mechanism. I found a pin-header recently that looks like this where you push it in the hole, doesn't require soldering, but not available on Slovenian market. I'd have to find it again as I didn't note the link, I think it's available from DigiKey, unsure about buying from DigiKey as a Slovene, first post about it I found on the other reputable (Slovenian) forum suggests there shouldn't be an issue though. Right now, I'm most curious about whether plugging that wire in the hole directly is a valid step in making a properly working connection from the board's hole that doesn't have any header attached/soldered to it. I'm not going to need a permanent connection to a router's board (in case discussions around the subject mostly imply the need for permanent connection).

100% this IMO. I don't think switch to Chromium 109 is saying much, it seems more like a convenient stopgap to me. For all we know, they might already have a newer one in their development branch. I've read some time ago they had (still have?) the kind of relaxed "work on what you want kind of culture" there. Maybe there's just nobody at the company that likes toying with old OSes? Or there are policies in place that say they can't seriously officially release legacy client (as how would that look?). I don't know, just my thoughts.

Indeed, it's just that that router was the simplest device at hand for the job. Then I also have the smartphone (USB tethering) and the laptop (bridging wired and wireless interface). Router and laptop can both make the PC equal party on the network (could port forward to it if needed) while the smartphone acts as another NAT point. So technically both overkill for enabling simple network access for the PC, phone maybe less, but there isn't any option to stop it from charging to 100% (laptop has it) and I don't like to keep it plugged in at 100% for extended periods of time for battery's health sake. The 9+ years old battery is still holding up. And laptop...well it's a full-blown laptop. Router was the slowest option, supporting only 802.11g, but it's not much of an issue for my usual usage not involving big downloads most of the time. I do have an old TP-LINK wireless card in the basement, it's been years since I've used it, again only 802.11g. I remember that it worked on Windows 7 x64. Thank you for suggestions, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to use at this point. Well right now, I've plugged in the laptop, it could use a bit of exercise since I don't use it often otherwise. BTW, I opened the router. With the definitely good power supply, EasySetup button LED, Power, 1, 2, 3, 4 and Internet LEDs are blinking. No life on either WAN or LAN ports. Nothing looks visually off to me, apart from one LED (Power) which could be turned more straight.

Some of us are impractical and clumsy beyond help. I figured I can borrow another device's power supply as it's compatible (cable modem in my case), output voltage and polarity are the same, only modem's supply is able to deliver 1,5A more than the router's. Using that supply for the router seems to result in all lights blinking forever. I wonder if it's possible that some data got scrambled and would continue to work with a surely working power supply if data corruption was fixed. If bootloader still works, there are chances recovery would be on the easier side. But in any case, this device is hopelessly outdated at this point and any investment seems to come close or exceeding the bother of buying a new cheap router or better for my use case just a wireless USB network adapter. So from economical stand point, specific electronics work might make more sense for someone who is really into electronics.

No idea, tell them to use PDFObject.js instead? One odd thing about this library, judging by the code, it supports detecting PDF support via ActiveX plugin (who uses Internet Explorer for web browsing in 2024?), but not via NPAPI plugin, so it doesn't work for browsers supporting NPAPI whose users may have a decent (maybe even paid-for) PDF support in a browser through a NPAPI plugin, eg. PDF-XChange Editor and probably some other capable programs, which are still better than anything that ever was and dare I say ever will be written in JavaScript for rendering PDFs. Though it wouldn't take much to fix it. But it works nicely for typical Chromium and Firefox, using built-in functionality of the browser. And maybe there are perks to using pdf.js that I'm not aware of? It makes code look nice (syntax highlighting) and shows you have a basic literacy when it comes to using forum software. I've always felt roytam1's endless commit logs should be wrapped in a spoiler tag. Forum is primarily discussion focused, for the rest you can go to GitHub or do git clone and git log or whatever.

It's not their own, it's the same thing Mozilla Firefox ships with, maybe different version, it's called pdf.js, indeed written in JavaScript.

There's already a thread about it in dedicated section for web browsers. https://msfn.org/board/topic/185045-supermium/

Maybe something like: manifest.json { "manifest_version": 2, "name": "Polyfillz", "version": "1", "description": "Monkey patch old Chrome to add new JavaScript functionalities.", "content_scripts": [ { "matches": [ "<all_urls>" ], "js": [ "content.js" ], "run_at": "document_start", "all_frames": true } ], "web_accessible_resources": [ "polyfills.js" ] } content.js 'use strict'; const script = document.createElement('script'); script.setAttribute('src', chrome.runtime.getURL('polyfills.js')); (document.head || document.documentElement).appendChild(script); script.remove(); polyfills.js 'use strict'; if (!Array.prototype.at) { Array.prototype.at = function(index) { if (index >= 0) { return this[index]; } else { return this[this.length + index]; } }; }

As suspected, reset button doesn't budge, Capacitors, more and more often I read about them. Guess I've been pretty lucky with them so far, the only problem is that I'm useless at soldering.

So, the world has come to an end. Part of my world at least...I returned home today and there were no lights on the router. There was a power outage earlier in my area, I'm assuming it coming back was a shock that wasn't taken well. Unsure what to do now, what to try first. The thing is, it's behaving in a way that I didn't find about online. You plug it in, then "Power", "Internet" and "4" (it indicates the number of LAN port) lights light up and stay on for several seconds, then it's all dark again. The usual sequence starts with "Power" light blinking and most often when something is wrong, it just blinks forever. I wonder if it could be that the power supply is broken. My workplace happens to have this model, maybe I could bring the router with me and try it with that power supply. The other idea is hard reset, but due to weird behavior, I'm sceptical about either different power supply or hard reset helping, have a feeling something's cooked in there.

This probably refers to Array.prototype.at().

What about compatibility of these varieties with old low-RAM laptops? GitHub easily wastes gigabytes in modern Chromium. ... And this is a 100% pure Googl-ism , as the Browser compatibility table there indicates that feature as present in Google Chrome 1.0 (!), released 2008-12-11, but only implemented in Mozilla Firefox starting with v66.0, released more than 11 years (!) later ... http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_access.html

Some interesting insights regarding memory leaks and CPU usages spikes. It's a recurring topic and it appears it will stay that way unless something changes radically, either the web at large or the web browser.