Messages

1

Official Announcements / Re: Winding down DonationCoder after 20 years

« on: July 05, 2026, 07:14 AM »

Can't believe that the 20 years I've been here has been the longest I've ever been a part of anything, (including the workforce), kind of became disillusioned with the internet a few years ago with the big move to Social Media, (which I'm not part of), so I drifted away.

Thanks mouser and everyone for putting up with me for this long, to quote Leonard Nimoy: Live long and prosper.

2

Community Giveaways / Re: Humble Bundle leftovers - Free applications and games

« on: March 20, 2026, 05:13 AM »

Necro alert!

Most of these games are still available if you're looking to complete your Games I'm Never Going To Play collection:
https://www.donation....msg448567#msg448567

3

Post New Requests Here / Re: the smallest fastest and easiest virtual machine for web browser only?

« on: November 22, 2025, 12:03 AM »

Given the numerous old Android devices lying around and your constraints, I'd be tempted to:
- use an Android device set up without a Google account,
- install F-Droid or Aurora for your app store,
- install a browser,
- install a VNC server, (e.g. droidVNC-NG), or similar remote access server, (there's also MS's Phone Link if you want to try it - there's a few videos on YT),
- connect from your computer.

About as separate as you can get 

4

General Software Discussion / Re: batch scripting

« on: November 21, 2025, 06:21 PM »

From ChatGPT, not tested but it looks correct:

Code: Text [Select]

1. @echo off
2. :loop
3. rem Prompt the user for input
4. set /p input="Enter search terms (space-separated): "
5.  
6. rem If input is empty, go back to the prompt
7. if "%input%"=="" goto loop
8.  
9. rem Initialize the command pipeline with the list of files
10. set "command=grep -i -r *.txt"
11.  
12. rem Split input into separate words (arguments)
13. for %%a in (%input%) do (
14.     rem Add each grep command with a pipe
15.     set "command=%command% | grep -i %%a"
16. )
17.  
18. rem Execute the command
19. echo Running the search...
20. %command%
21.  
22. rem Return to the prompt for more input
23. goto loop

The prompt:

Can you write a dos batch file that when run will:
- prompt for input,
- separate the input into arguments,
- use grep specifically on the arguments in such a way that the results from the first argument are piped to a following grep for the next argument, and continue this way for as many arguments as given on all files matching the pattern *.txt within the directory it is run,
- output the results,
- return to the prompt for input when done.

You could optimise it a little by only fetching the list of txt files once and reusing it but unless you're talking about hundreds of files I don't think it's going to make much difference.

5

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 End of Life: October 14, 2025

« on: September 26, 2025, 06:51 AM »

Another alternative to keep using Win10 and getting security patches is 0Patch

But MS are offering free security patches for another year if you sign in using your MS account and Enroll for them, (if you've received the notification under Settings->Updates), once you've enrolled you can go back to using a local account.

There's a few videos on YT about it, e.g.:

I'm not being offered enrollment probably because my update settings aren't "default".

6

Living Room / Re: Recommend a USB cable to me!

« on: August 26, 2025, 01:14 AM »

I have toocki 100W USB-C cables from AliExpress, a couple have integrated power displays but the majority just have a colour changing LED on one end that signifies when power is being drawn, plus one of their small USB-C pass-thru LED power displays that I can plug in if I want to see what's being drawn.

I've found their cables to be good quality for the price.

Got a 286W GaN charger that I use for charging laptops also through the use of PD trigger adaptors.

Amazon links below but I got them through AliExpress, (even cheaper):
toocki 100W USB-C to USB-C w/ Display
toocki USB-C Adaptor (2-pack) Power Meter
Dell PD Trigger adaptor - not the one I have, mine has integrated V/W display and it works with Dell (who use an ID chip in their chargers so that non-genuine chargers don't charge at full speed and down-clock the laptop).

7

General Software Discussion / Re: How to check drivers?

« on: August 26, 2025, 12:28 AM »

I'd check AMD for updated drivers, they have a tool you can download and run that will tell you if there are later drivers available.

8

Living Room / Re: AI Coding Assistants (Who uses them and which)

« on: April 14, 2025, 02:24 AM »

Lately I've been using LM Studio + Qwen2.5-coder-14b-instruct LLM, (running on an Intel Arc B580), accessed via VSCode with the Continue plugin which is helping me modify a Java program, (a language I know nothing about), by expanding upon highlighted errors and telling me where I've screwed up along with possible ways to fix it.

9

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« on: July 16, 2024, 12:11 AM »

No Man's Land

10

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« on: April 01, 2024, 05:47 PM »

Home for the next 38 days... the ship not the Opera House.

11

General Software Discussion / Re: How to apply complex rules on Ymail emails?

« on: March 31, 2024, 05:47 AM »

Gmailify

If you have a Yahoo, AOL, Outlook, Hotmail, or select non-Gmail accounts, use Gmailify to get many of Gmail's features with that address.

To do this, link your account to Gmail. After you link your account, you can find your messages in your Gmail inbox, plus these features:

• Spam protection
• Better mail notifications on mobile
• Automatic email sorting based on type (Social, Updates, Promotions)
• Faster search, with advanced search operators

12

General Software Discussion / Re: Any free web/cloud solution to monitor a webpage for changes?

« on: March 23, 2024, 06:28 AM »

You can also run your own: changedetection.io

Web Site Change Detection, Restock monitoring and notifications.

Detect website content changes and perform meaningful actions - trigger notifications via Discord, Email, Slack, Telegram, API calls and many more.

13

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: March 18, 2024, 01:09 AM »

14

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« on: March 16, 2024, 06:16 PM »

You like the ZimaBoard 432?

-Shades (March 16, 2024, 08:17 AM)

It's a great little unit, plenty of power for something like pfsense, at the moment I've just been playing with it seeing what its native OS is like, I'd need to redo my networking a little before incorporating it running pfsense but I don't have the time right now.

CasaOS is a container management front-end based on Debian, got a lot going for it but I found it rather flakey so just installed DietPi along with Portainer.

Have also installed ProxMox on it and run pfsense through that but it didn't really leave enough resources for the other things I was looking at running, 8GB version would have been ok though.

You might want to look at the ZimaBlade, same sort of thing but cheaper because you add your own RAM, (DDR3 SO-SIMM).
Downside is only one Gbe port but decent Intel secondhand PCIe cards are easy to get if you don't already have them lying around.

Base model with 2 core CPU is only US$64 with the 4 core at US$96 - they're pre-order ATM - looking back this probably would have been a better choice for me since I have spare RAM I could have used and therefore bumped up on the CPU.

Btw, don't know if it's still applicable but a first order on a new account got me a 30% discount, so the 432+SATA Y cable was ~US$115.

15

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« on: March 16, 2024, 06:19 AM »

It's been awhile so time for some gadgets:

Last time I was in the UK, (2022), I picked up a Samsung Gear 360 kit, (VR headset plus the camera), for the princely sum of £25 on eBay.
Wanted it for the camera^w which I've used while 4wding, works well.



Budi multifunction stick.
uSD storage and card reader, SIM storage and removal tool, USB-C to USB-C cable with USB-A, micro USB-B, and Lightning adaptors, plus a phone stand.



ZimaBoard 432, mid-range version. 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC storage, 2 SATA ports, 2 Gbe ports, PCIe x2 slot, silent.
Thinking of plugging a WiFi 7 card in and using it for pfsense or OPNsense, depending on how good wifi support is.

Shown mounted on a 3D printed 'sled' for mounting in a rack, along with two 120GB SSDs, and a 4 port Gbe card.



Just recently, Akaso Brave4 action cam for upcoming trip, (4 cruises back-to-back, Sydney->New York, 67 days), comes with a load of mounting accessories.



VEEKTOMX 22.5W 10Ah Power Bank, wanted something a little smaller and lighter than my usual Romoss 74W 20Ah Power Bank with PD and QC.



LENCENT 65W Universal Travel Charger to keep things charged.



HGFRTEE 14" 4k portable IPS display, USB-C power/video input + mini-HDMI input, stero speakers



Flextail Zero Pump inflator/deflator.

16

Developer's Corner / Re: Have Issue with PowerShell and Formatting/Displaying Data from the Event Logs

« on: January 25, 2024, 05:32 AM »

You could also try setting a value regardless of whether there's a match or not:

[Select]

Duration = if ($_ -match '(?smi).*\ssession duration was\s+([^\s]+)\s+.*') { $matches[1] } else { "Unknown Duration" }

P.S. I can't actually test it as I only have a Win10 machine, wish I could suggest something more.

17

Developer's Corner / Re: Have Issue with PowerShell and Formatting/Displaying Data from the Event Logs

« on: January 24, 2024, 12:04 AM »

Try string interpolation:

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. 303 {"303 - User Disconnected From Resource: $($Duration)"}

18

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 25, 2023, 05:47 PM »

Caveblazers is free on GOG until January 5th.

-Deozaan (December 22, 2023, 11:36 AM)

That appears to be regional, A$1.19 until Jan 5 here.

19

General Software Discussion / Re: Undelete utilities - differences?

« on: December 15, 2023, 05:19 AM »

If you want to try something free there's PhotoRec:

PhotoRec is a file carver data recovery software tool. It doesn’t recover the original filenames but it can recover delete files even from corrupted filesystem. PhotoRec recognizes and recovers numerous file formats including ZIP, Office, PDF, HTML, JPEG and various graphics file formats. The whole list of file formats recovered by PhotoRec contains more than 480 file extensions (about 300 file families). It’s possible to create custom signature to recover file format unknown to PhotoRec.

If you want a GUI there is QPhotoRec in the archive.

QPhotoRec is a file carver data recovery software tool with a graphical user interface. Like PhotoRec, it doesn’t recover the original filenames but it can recover delete files even from corrupted filesystem.

20

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« on: October 30, 2023, 06:46 PM »

Thanks for sharing these, 4wd. They're interesting.

-Deozaan (October 30, 2023, 03:51 PM)

Thanks 🙃 I found these in posts on Lemmy which I've been aimlessly roaming through the last few months.

Portrait of God - Short horror film

A religious girl prepares a presentation on a painting titled "Portrait of God". What she sees challenges her beliefs.

21

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« on: October 28, 2023, 02:51 PM »

The Statement - H. P. Lovecraft adaption

After investigating an Elder cult's meeting place, a professor wakes to find himself in an interrogation room with a grotesquely scarred hand.

22

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« on: October 24, 2023, 04:42 PM »

Backwoods - H. P. Lovecraft adaption.

1907, Massachusetts. A scholar drifts from his path and finds himself in a house he takes for deserted. Deserted, apart from a beguiling book containing dark secrets that exerts a powerful hold over those who come into contact with it.

23

General Software Discussion / Re: Macro Creation programs

« on: October 05, 2023, 11:38 PM »

UI.Vision ?

24

Circle Dock / Re: Help? Download link is down :(

« on: September 03, 2023, 10:44 PM »

No idea, think I used it for about a month approx. 13 years ago.

25

Circle Dock / Re: Help? Download link is down :(

« on: September 01, 2023, 12:09 AM »

You can also grab 1.0.2.3 from Softonic, just select it in the dropdown.