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I just heard a very sharp "pop" -- I'm thinking a capacitor blew, but nothing seems to be failing.
Not much powered up -- two PCS and a laptop all working normally. My best guess is the power strip.
Any other ideas?
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Anurism? Hope not! 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Hadn't considered that. It could be all in my head. 
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F.A.S.T[^]:
Facial drooping
Arm weakness
Speech difficulties
Time to call emergency services!
Symptoms of a stroke. Mrs. Wife has had two  .
Software Zen: delete this;
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might be a bit of dust (or less likely but happens: an insect) that moved over the main power connections. (5/12v wouldn't be enough at the current avail.)
Installing Signature...
Do not switch off your computer.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: Any other ideas?
Did you ever bother to check if a capacitor in your brain "popped". I always look there first, when this happens to me. 
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Interesting. I had completely forgotten this had happened to me months ago. Loud pop, no idea where it came from...and still today, between then and now, I don't have any hardware that died.
Now you've just made me even more curious...
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Sniper?
Fuse?
Loose plug?
Any noticeable smell? When caps blow the "analogue smell" is usually pretty distinctive.
If a cap has gone in your PC, back the sucker up before you turn it off: stressed electronics fail most often when turned on and the blown cap may do serious damage when you cold start it next.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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No noticable smell, but my sniffer has been offline most of the week.
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Be very careful here. All electronic devices are powered by smoke. If the smoke escapes, the device dies.
Arguing with a woman is like reading the Software License Agreement. In the end, you ignore everything and click "I agree".
Anonymous
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Yeah, that's why I looked and sniffed for any sign of it.
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Fart?
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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Nah, my wife wasn't up yet. 
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It's a lazy Saturday and I have nothing better to do than check CP occasionally and figure out what personal/work project I want to tinker with. For now, I've chosen a custom sql backup/archive utility that I intend to put on a new server which got me wondering...
Why on earth would I spend time creating my own version of a utility when there are probably thousands or free ones readily available?...I mean, after all, this is probably just for private or company use.
There are many reasons why I choose to do this but it mostly comes down to customization and control. I'm sure if I sampled enough downloads from the interwebs, I might find something I could live with, but let's face it...some of those free download sites have gotten sketchy! 
Other examples of home-rolled utility apps I use just about every day:
0: password keeper
1: mp3 catalog for synching across devices
2: ftp (lot's of these out there but they mostly suck)
3: sql upsize/downsize/copy/ftp
4: sql restore (can start from a right-click on a .bak file, very convenient)
So, the question is...are you mostly satisfied with using someone else's tools/utilities in your day to day activities, or have you had occasion to 'build your own'?
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I built my own backup/restore utilities, for both SQL databases and files. I never liked the ones I found online, paid or free, and it really didn’t take long to write my own. And I can customise them as I want. (For instance, when backing up my own work / dev folders, I’m not interested in copying sample video files only there to work with and check functionality.)
And, yeah, my own password store – that’s part of a larger personal “organiser” program I wrote and use extensively to keep track of all sorts of things… a kind of CRM with extras.
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built an outlook attachment detacher (and archiver/smarter backup) - semi work item.
And I know what you mean about sketchy...
there were about half a dozen "free" apps out there,
they all worked, but would all process about 10 - 20 messages then ask for money to do any more.
And the paid ones were not cheap (and looked sketchy too).
(Actually in there defence I believe many got fooled into paying big money for the way overpriced Redemption Outlook library - which from my trial added nothing of use and actually misses some items.)
thought the lounge had gone soapbox with stories about North Korea and facebook re-posts (the 'amusing' youtube piano video), good to see a few real posts happen.
Installing Signature...
Do not switch off your computer.
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Quote: built an outlook attachment detacher
Yes, me too - well, just a macro, but my one adds some text to the foot of the email with the name(s) of the removed attachment(s), unlike Outlook's built-in "remove attachment" feature.
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No one else can create exactly what you want. 
1: Not really. What I wrote would update a small (1GB) MP3 player with a random set of files from a database. I don't use it anymore.
5: Code Management System. (As yet unfinished.)
At work I've written utilities for working with TFS and SMO to automate our deployments.
SMO to generate scripts.
Check in to TFS.
TFS to fetch and execute against a target database.
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I resort to building my own applications when there is an area I want to know more about.
(1)I built my own webcam security system that does exactly what I need it to do - it runs off a pc and uses usb or ip webcams.
It's movement sensitive and has more options and configuration possibilities than you can shake a stick at.
I wrote it as nothing on the market did everything I needed.
(2)A simple application that finds multiple copies of the same image files.
(3)A voice activated co-pilot for when I was into flight sims. I was fed up of having to remember key combinations, so I created a system that would react to my voice commands and basically be my co-pilot.
(4)A steganography application so that sensitive information can be encrypted and hidden in plain sight or so that artists can create watermarks in their images for copyright purposes.
Currently very slowly working on a traffic(as in things that go "broom, broom, beep, beep") simulation application - largely to help teach myself graphics and to test some ideas I have about traffic flow.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I'm mostly satisfied, but I have often written my own utility apps for exactly the reasons you said, customization and control. For example, I wanted a file backup utility and found one that almost did what i wanted, but not quite, so I wrote my own. It's one of the nice parts of being a developer.
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Last year I wrote a file search utility for Windows that lists file properties for found files and exports the list to Excel.
In general I write utilities for 2 reasons:
1) Existing tools do not do what I want/need.
2) For fun. I like programming. 
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We have a batch file that we use to do our daily backups that is run by Windows task scheduler. I'm sure you could add some more lines to do the archive part. Not much to the command:
sqlcmd -S .\ -E -Q "USE master EXEC master..sp_BackupDatabases @backupLocation='E:\SQLBackups\', @backupType='F'"
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Yep, this is currently how it's being done, and it works fine...but I really wanted some advanced features like:
0: hot/warm/cold (off premise) backup locations
1: zipped (with optional password) archives
2: automatic housekeeping of archive folders (based on a limit for each folder or 0 for unlimited)
3: multiple databases
4: multiple configurations/jobs
5: command-line switch to select a job and auto-run
6: advanced logging
I also wanted something that I could potentially offer to clients who don't have a dedicated dba. It's all working now...just tried it out on the server...worked the first time!
It's a good start for the week!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Nice job
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