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Messages - brotherS [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 82next
1
General Software Discussion / Why note-taking apps don't make us smarter
« on: September 03, 2023, 01:06 PM »
https://www.theverge...on-roam-mem-obsidian

Today let’s step outside the news cycle and turn our attention toward a topic I’m deeply invested in but only rarely write about: productivity platforms. For decades now, software tools have promised to make working life easier. But on one critical dimension — their ability to improve our thinking — they don’t seem to be making much progress at all.

I liked the article and thought I'd share it with everyone here. :) Food for thought...

2
WiFi Wakey Wakey?  :D

Hey tomos!  :)

3
Ah... Are there different kinds of tooltips?

Tooltips are tooltips, but tray tooltips seem to have a limit to the amount of lines and text they can display.  I'll play around with it.
Cool. The biggest tray tooltip I ever saw had 6 or 7 lines IIRC. :)


Oh, and I just noticed that WiFiBrute wasn't running anymore, but I didn't see a crash notification while I was at the PC.

Hmmm...odd.

Somebody needs come up with a better name for this, too.   :P
A few suggestions:

WiFi SSID Enforcer*
WiFi Enforcer
SSID Enforcer
SSID Pusher*
SSID Ruler*
SSID Execute
WiFi Make It So  8)

*zero Google results  ;)

4
And may I suggest this mouse-over info:
SSID: xyz
Connection enforced: -

which will change to
SSID: xyz
Connection enforced: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss

once it enforced a connection?

Sure.  I'll have to condense it a bit, since there is a limited amount of text allowed in that particular tooltip.

Ah... Are there different kinds of tooltips?

Maybe something like

SSID: xyz
Connection enforced:
yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss

works?

Oh, and I just noticed that WiFiBrute wasn't running anymore, but I didn't see a crash notification while I was at the PC.

5
  • Download the attached file and extract it into its own folder somewhere.
  • Run the WiFiBrute.exe file.  On startup, you should see a new icon in your tray with a yellow circle.  It should then pop up an input box to enter your preferred SSID.  This is case-sensitive and must be exact.
  • After that, it will check to see which network it's on.  If it's the preferred one, the tray icon turns green, and it then checks every ten seconds to ensure it's on the preferred network (if it's available, of course).
  • If the preferred network is not available, the tray icon turns read, and it tries to connect to the preferred network every ten seconds.  Once it's successful, the tray icon turns green again, and you are notified with a standard Windows 10 popup that you're back on the preferred network.

You can exit the application by right-clicking the tray icon and choosing Exit.  It's a very basic prototype right now, with minimal configurable options, so I'm curious to see if it does, indeed, work for you.  Let me know how you get on with it.
It works! Awesome!

I'm guessing you'll change it so that the wanted SSID doesn't have to be entered every time the .exe is run?

And may I suggest this mouse-over info:
SSID: xyz
Connection enforced: -

which will change to
SSID: xyz
Connection enforced: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss

once it enforced a connection?

6
Something much simpler to try may be the following:
Set your WiFi connection to your fastest WiFi to 'connect automatically',  and the connection to your slower WiFi to 'not connect automatically'. Windows will now not so easily switch between WiFi setups any more. Whenever the fast one is available Windows will switch automagically, yet won't switch back to your slow connection.
Yeah, I've tried that for a while, but that results in Windows being offline whenever the fast WiFi is not available, and I don't want having to manually interfere anymore. :)

7
Based on my tests yesterday, I saw the same behaviour.  That said, you can still connect to a non-visible network, via netsh, so long as you know the name.  Here's my logic flow for a prototype:

1. Program starts up knowing the preferred/fast network name.
2. Program checks what network it's currently on.
    2a. If not the preferred network, set tray icon to red/slow, and attempt to connect to it every n number of seconds/minutes.
    2b. If on the preferred network, set tray icon to green/fast, and check every n number of seconds/minutes to ensure we're still on the preferred network.  If not, go back to 2.

It's a bit of brute method, but it's not resource intensive and should get the job done.
Interesting! :) Yeah, that sounds like the perfect logic. I might have some time early afternoon tomorrow (US Central Time), how long should prototype testing take?

8
Yes and yes.

  • Is this scenario something you can simulate or force to happen?  That is, do you have control of whether the fast network stays or goes away?
  • Are you free for some prototype testing tomorrow?  I'm on Central Time in the U.S.
I have control over the network but currently have very little time (I really appreciate your offer!), and there might be a deeper issue... see below.


Maybe try this?  I've used this a lot on a laptop where I constantly had to change network settings.
https://www.netsetman.com/en/freeware

  • Free
  • Tray Icon
  • Switch between network adapters
  • Switch between networks
  • Wifi Management is even a new feature

Features List
https://www.netsetman.com/en/freeware
Thank you, never heard of it. I've set it up and saw something weird in NetSetMan's AutoSwitch tab: while the fast SSID was available again - I could connect to it on my phone - NetSetMan didn't see it (while checking every 10 seconds), and thus failed to connect. After a few minutes, I checked the WiFi connections in Windows, and only then did the fast SSID show up there, and in NetSetMan.

Is there a way to make Windows check for available networks more frequently? I didn't see a related Windows option and Google didn't offer anything useful.

9
The "whenever you check the tray icon and see that you're on the slower network" thing is what I want to prevent.  8)  The perfect solution would be an app that would automatically reconnect to the fast connection when possible, just letting me know that it happened, but without me having to do anything.

When it switches to the slow network, does the fast network go missing from the list of choices you see when you click the Windows network tray icon?  Also, I assume the slow and fast networks have different SSID names?
Yes and yes.

10
Hey, brotherS, been a while.  =]

There are a bunch of ways to do this, depending on how pretty you want it.  The default Windows tray icon shows the currently connected wireless network.  You can easily create a batch file that runs the following command to quickly connect to your fast SSID.

netsh wlan connect <FAST_SSID_NAME_HERE>

Create a shortcut to that batch file in a convenient place and run it whenever you check the tray icon and see that you're on the slower network.

If you want something more like an actual application, sure, I can do that, but I want to see if the quick'n'dirty suggestion above suffices.

Hey skwire, been a while indeed! :)

The "whenever you check the tray icon and see that you're on the slower network" thing is what I want to prevent.  8)  The perfect solution would be an app that would automatically reconnect to the fast connection when possible, just letting me know that it happened, but without me having to do anything.

A less perfect - but still very helpful - solution would just show a tray icon (maybe green for fast and red for slow connection), so I could see with a quick glance which connection is active.

11
Hi,

I have two WiFi networks, a slow one (2.4 GHz) and a fast one (5 GHz). I've already set Windows to prefer the fast one, but it still (too often) gets stuck on the slow one (and then reconnects to the fast one as soon as I open the WiFi settings by clicking the WiFi tray icon). And I can't just not connect to the slow one since the fast one isn't always available.

Is there software to handle this simple task (always connect to the fast one if available) better? Or to at least visually show me (with a tray icon) which network is connected (if any)?

12
app103: cool idea (https://www.donation....msg448168#msg448168)! :)


I've seen some addons for chrome and firefox before that allows you an extensive macro system that you can use on web pages.  I never had a real use for these systems, but if you wanted to automate web-page processing, that seems like a good start.

iMacro is one of these.  I think it's the one I played around with, except it was for firefox - but that was all pre web-extension era.
Interesting stuff, but iMacros looks WAY too complex for most users. :)

13
Thanks to all of you! I've read everything you wrote, followed the links, was inspired to another Google session, and finally found Distill.io Web Monitor, in my case for Chrome.

It comes with a learning curve, but I managed to figure it out... and I love it! :-* Because it's a browser extension, passwords aren't an issue. And since I use less than 25 'monitors', I don't have to pay for it. :)


Shades, you might want to take a look at Notifications for YouTube (Chrome extension).

14
Website Watcher: https://www.aignes.com/
That won't work since half of the sites are password-protected.

15
AH - you need an RSS reader, no?
I use QuiteRSS and have for years.  It's how I keep track of what happens on DC.  It's how I get all my tech news and any word of software giveaways.

QuiteRSS runs on my desktop like an extra browser.  I've tried over a dozen RSS readers and this is the one I've used the longest and am still using. 

https://quiterss.org
Sorry, should have been more specific: not all of those sites have RSS feeds, and two of those sites I have to check for site notifications.

I wish I just could sign up for email notifications everywhere! :)

16
Hello!

I have several sites that I check/ visit at least once a day. As of now, I leave two of them open in tabs, but that increases RAM/ CPU usage. Other sites I visit when I think of them. There must be a better way, using software or not... but what is it? (In the past, I've tried using a browser bookmarks folder, but I stopped using that for reasons I can't recall now.)

Any ideas?  :)

17
If there are any AutoHotkey users out there, this snippet will remap the two little side buttons on some mouses.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]
  1. XButton1:: Send {Volume_Down}
  2. return
  3. XButton2:: Send {Volume_Up}
  4. return
Nooooo, those are great for browsing and to navigate in Windows Explorer and other programs.  :Thmbsup:

18
Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately
« on: April 19, 2021, 01:23 PM »
A bystander who intervenes to help a woman being harassed by a group of men becomes the target of a vengeful drug lord arms manufacturer.

Highly recommended if you like lots of violence ...

A little change to the plot line and you have: Shoot 'Em Up.
:D Right! That one was fun too, had totally forgotten about it... here's the Shoot ' Em Up 2007 Red Band Trailer: https://www.youtube..../watch?v=zV-nIlZ3XeE in case anyone wants to watch it. :)

19
Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately
« on: April 18, 2021, 12:14 PM »
Nobody (2021)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7888964/

A bystander who intervenes to help a woman being harassed by a group of men becomes the target of a vengeful drug lord.

Highly recommended if you like lots of violence (and want to find out where the kitty cat bracelet ends up). :D

In addition to Bob Odenkirk, the cast includes Connie Nielsen, RZA, Aleksei Serebryakov, and Christopher Lloyd.


20
Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately
« on: March 20, 2021, 03:12 PM »
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12361974/

I rated it 8/10. The whole "OMG, this alien bad boy has already conquered/destroyed 1000000000000 worlds, now we must defend our planet!!!!1111" theme didn't fully resonate with me. There were a few goofs, the car/flirt scene was so obviously flawed IMHO that I really can't understand how they shot that scene in this (totally illogical) way. Still, those 4 long hours had some really good scenes!

And I agree with 'everyone' that this Snyder Cut is better than the original

Justice League (2017)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/

which I had rated 7/10.

21

well, its back again this morning, but I'll be watching with interest to see what happens...
What's weird about that is that I wasn't able to find ANY info about The Marvellous Suspender being temporarily blocked or removed from the Chrome Web Store...

And while I was looking for that info, I found out that The Great Suspender has returned here: https://chrome.googl...joafgfjoefkpeg?hl=en

I'll stay with The Marvellous Suspender for now though, it works as it should.

22
the saga continues...

Chrome disabled the marvellous suspender this morning... <sigh>
I wanted to shout some curse words in Chrome's general direction, but then I found that my Chrome hasn't disabled it and the extension page (https://chrome.googl...imajpfpamcfhoaifemoa) is still up. Was it just a glitch in the Matrix? Can you check if it's working again for you?

23
I just saw that there is no thread about this little tool that I don't want to live without anymore! :D :-*

I love to be able to change screen (f.lux) brightness with the mouse wheel thanks to AutoHotkey, and Volume2 allows me to easily change the system volume with the mouse wheel (in user-defined areas along the screen's edge).

Volume2 has TONS of options, you can choose from many different tray icon options, there's a customizable OSD, Volume2 can reduce the volume to zero when you lock Windows, etc. etc.

Screenshot (slightly older version):
Volume2_3.png

https://irzyxa.blogs...com/p/downloads.html
https://github.com/irzyxa/Volume2

24
Interesting... I hadn't noticed anything strange here, but I'm happy to have The Marvellous Suspender as a clean alternative now. :)

It sucks that extensions can be sold to shady folks without the user noticing, but so far I haven't read any perfect ideas to prevent that from happening.

25
Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately
« on: February 12, 2021, 10:40 AM »
The Eight Hundred (2020)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7294150/

:o :o

From the acclaimed filmmaker behind Mr. Six comes a riveting war epic. In 1937, eight hundred Chinese soldiers fight under siege from a warehouse in the middle of the Shanghai battlefield, completely surrounded by the Japanese army.
It's like... Band of Brothers meets Dunkirk... in China! Okay, okay... it's not quite as good, but really good if you can overlook that it was clearly (mostly) made for a Chinese audience.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eight_Hundred:

Guan Hu had been preparing for the film for 10 years. The Eight Hundred is the first Chinese and Asian film shot entirely on IMAX cameras. The production team had built a real scene of 68 buildings with an area of 133,333-square-metre (1,435,180 sq ft) in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu province.
That's impressive, and I bet https://en.wikipedia...i/Chinese_numerology had something to do with that square meter number.  8)


This sums it up:

Maggie Lee of Variety describes the film as "monumental, if sometimes unwieldy" and comparing The Eight Hundred to Dunkirk, "the saga does share similar sentiments of survival, grit and triumph in defeat" to Dunkirk (2017) and "it too plunges audiences into both the intimacy and magnitude of brutal war spectacle while immersing them in a stunningly mounted period canvas."

Cath Clarke of The Guardian praised the film, characterizing it as an “Ear-rattling, breathtaking battle for [the] Chinese Alamo” and stating that “Guan goes hammer and tongs with the special effects, delivering stupendously, joint-rattlingly-loud battle scenes and combat sequences edited to the lightning pace of a superhero movie.” and “with so much intense focus lavished on the action, there’s none to spare for the characters’ emotional lives, and it’s hard to care much about who lives or dies.”

Michael Ordoña of the Los Angeles Times criticized the film’s character development, stating, “Unfortunately, “Eight Hundred” skips over the whole character-development part, along with the logic of many choices and scenes. “ and “Yet somehow, we don’t get to know any of these folks. The sort-of protagonists are a collection of deserters and draft-dodgers forced to aid with the defense.”

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