Computers general(help, advice, talk)

@wenni  
Ah. Greeting, my friend. I was wondering if there’s something to make a gif in crystal clear HD.

@Flutter_Lover  
Not sure about “crystal clear” since GIF is limited to 256 colors and the compression algorithm wrecks itself after medium resolutions, becomes unplayable on a wide range of devices. They can be dithered, but the whole thing ends up looking like sand.
 
Regardless, your best bet is probably Photoshop’s “save for web” function or an online video-to-gif conversion.

@wenni  
Save for web?

Is anyone else having trouble with Firefox 58?

@Flutter_Lover  
Ctrl+alt+shift+S

@Flutter_Lover  
There is a great program called Instagiffer that I’ve used to make high quality gifs like >>1390616. The quality is dependent on your source video though. Instagiffer is not for making gifs from scratch and really you’d be better off using WebM format for high quality animated images as gif format is very size inefficient. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to make WebMs yet.

@kleptomage  
So WebM’s are better than gifs due to quality?

@Flutter_Lover  
Better ratio of quality to file size, ability to pause, and you can add sound too. Surely you’ve seen WebMs around the site?

@kleptomage  
I’m very familiar with them.

I asked this on the Vent Thread, but nobody answered me, so I’ll ask over here, too, as it kinda relates to computers:
 
This coming semester, I need to pay for internet for my new place. Unfortunately, the only two options in the area are Comcast and Verizon–aka, the two companies most pushing against net neutrality, and thus the two companies most likely to block or slow the use of certain sites.
 
My question is, which provider is the least bad for me to go with?

@TheHappySpaceman
 
Though I can’t recommend which company to go with (because I’m a filthy degenerate foreigner), if you’re worried about blocked or slowed sites, get a paid VPN. I usually recommend TunnelBear.

Greeting’s fellow board members,
 
I need some advice please. I have a 750 Watt PSU which came with the PC case I bought but I think it’s using too much power for my needs and costing more money in electricity bills. I found this site that could calculate your power usage and it estimated my power usage was 445 Watts. So I was thinking of swapping my 750W PSU for a 450W or 500W one to try and save on the electricity use. But then I thought, does a 750W PSU that only needs 440 Watts actually using up 750W each time? Should I swap out my PSU, or just cut down on overall usage?

@Background Pony #8929  
I’m not entirely sure, but I think that 750 Watt PSU means that it can power your computer and any devices connected to it as long as it only drew 750 watts or less. I would suggest getting the newest cheapest GPU to begin with. Newer GPUs tend to be more energy-efficient. For example, the AMD RX 470 (released two years ago) draws about 120 watts while the R9 270X (release 4 or 5 years ago) draws 150 watts. More here.

@Background Pony #8929  
750 watts is the maximum power your power supply can provide. It draws only as much power as your system needs, so 445 watts should be all the power it is consuming. It’s good to have more watts than your system actually needs. 800 or more would be overkill but 750 for 445 is fine. I wouldn’t worry about it except that a power supply that came with a case is probably of lesser quality than an individual model. A power supply is nothing to skimp on.
 
While I’m on the subject, an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) is a smart thing to have. I bought one after a brownout fried my power supply and it’s saved me multiple times since then.

@kleptomage  

Pretty much this. I’ve got an 850W PSU in my desktop, and even when I had two GPUs in it, it wouldn’t break 570W at its peak power consumption.

@Ebalosus
 
@kleptomage
 
@AnCapGoku
 
Thanks guys, that’s what I was wondering about. I’ll leave mt old PSU in and look at getting a lower power using graphics card.

Will 5G be optional, would I still be able to use 4G?

@Background Pony #D5A5  
Yep.

sighs I hate my computer, but mostly I hate myself for making it run like shit….

@Flutter_Lover  
What happened?

@kylebiddle  
My dumbass hoarding.

@Flutter_Lover  
Let the purge begin!

Quick Question: Since the consensus of the Verizon firefighter controversy is very mixed on wether it was a NN issue or a just a colossal stupid mistake, First I will say my opinion, Not quite an NN issue because the data system was flawed by having a data limit and Verizon didn’t do this for money in my opinion, and they had these data limits in place BOTH before and after the NN repeal and one of the throttling incidents happened a few weeks before the FCC vote, I am NOT defending Verizon because what they did was undeniably unacceptable and deserve criticism and it so far looks like they listened by saying that they’ll remove data caps for Emergencies, I’m not the best at explaining things, But I tried my best to explain my feelings about this situation  
But what’s your take?  
A.NN issue  
B.A colossal stupid mistake by Verizon  
C.Typical ISP madness

@Background Pony #1423  
Verizon is greedy scum and only acting sorry because they were caught doing something which gave them very negative PR. There should never be a data cap or throttling in an “unlimited data” plan. Period.
 
The same laws and regulations that govern utility companies should govern telecom companies like Verizon. Your electricity is not throttled if you go over a certain amount per month. You pay only for what you use.

I’m on an HP laptop using windows 10 and my F keys/setting keys seem to have discarded the setting keys function and just became normal F keys. How do I make it go back to these keys working as brightness adjustment, volume controls, play and pause buttons, and such?