Topics

76

General Software Discussion / VOIP - alternatives, PROs and CONs.

« on: March 08, 2015, 11:56 AM »

I initially started using VOIP to make cost-effective phonecalls (i.e., at rates much cheaper than toll charges) to phones in international destinations.
The ones I used were:

• (a) PC-to-Phone, and
• (b) a little-advertised NZ Telecom VOIP service - where the user can place calls from their NZ Telecom landline, to mobile and landline numbers overseas.

I still use both of these, and the other day I opened an account with Skype - the rates are similar to PC-to-Phone.

I have also been using FREE PC-to-PC audio only, and audio-video systems, including:

• SpeakFreely
• Google Chat
• Skype

I would be interested in sharing experiences of these and other VOIP systems, with DC Forum users.

77

Mini-Reviews by Members / MiniTool Partition Wizard PRO - do we need a mini review of this software?

« on: March 05, 2015, 09:22 AM »

I received this somewhat odd PM (personal message) today from @skylly: (the ID shows Posts: 0)

Dear Sir/Madam,
This is MiniTool stuff,We sent you a message through your fellow workers kindly told us this email,so I write this for a software review of MiniTool Partition Wizard.

MiniTool Partition Wizard is one of the most popular hard disk partition tools and it was one of the top 10 windows APPs on CNET. It has over 13 million downloads on CNET. You could check more information about this tool here: http://partitionwizard.com/.

Details about request:
1, you can write your own way of writing review about MiniTool partition wizard 9.0.
2, you can decide to review posted time.
3, We will provide a MiniTool  Partition Wizard Professional Edition 9.0  license code for you
4, If you have any question about review,please feel free tell me,thank you.

Sincerely,   
MiniTool

-skylly (March 05, 2015, 02:47 AM)

Not sure what to make of this. Is it likely to be some kind of spam?
I wouldn't usually review a piece of software unless I was or had been using it for my own purposes and had found it to be worthwhile writing about (hence I don't generally write negative reviews).
I don't see MiniTool Partition Wizard PRO (currently at version 9) being of use to me at present, snce I don't really need to muck about with partitions, except where it is part of something else - e.g., AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

There are perfectly adequate reviews around for earlier versions of this software, as listed at http://www.partitionwizard.com - it seems to be reasonably well-received. The reviews look at the Pros and Cons in a relatively balanced fashion. Maybe it's simply the case that getting more published reviews on an increasing number of different forums/websites is an objective for marketing purposes, I don't know.
Anyway, I'm not currently contemplating doing a review for this.

78

Screenshot Captor / SC inconsistent behaviour when capturing a "blank" window.

« on: February 26, 2015, 03:24 PM »

I thought I would mention this as a point of interest. It's not a bug (that is, I don't think it's bug).

I was playing about with T-Clock settings in the Miscellaneous tab of T-Clock Redux Properties and setting it to display a calendar window.
One of the settings was - I think - selected (ticked) by default: "Close calendar on lose focus". I left that setting selected, as it seemed like a useful option.
I then brought up the Calendar window, intending to take a screenshot of it using SC.
I then brought up SC, and noticed that the Calendar window disappeared as it lost focus (so the option was working correctly).

So, I got SC to display its Quick-Capture bar, and then brought up the Calendar window again.
When I clicked on the Quick-Capture bar's "Grab Active window" button, the Calendar window went black, there was a delay, the Calendar window disappeared, and there was a "ping" alarm sound. After Ctrl-Tabbing about, I found that SC had output the following error message in a new window in the back, behind the other windows (i.e., not On Top):

---------------------------
Error Capturing Image
---------------------------
ERROR: No content was found in the captured image.
This can happen if you have installed a security application that is blocking Screenshot Captor from functioning.
To solve this problem, you may need to add Screenshot Captor to the list of trusted/allowed programs in your security application.
For additional information see the help file or visit the DonationCoder.com forum.
If you were intentionally capturing a blank image, disable this check on the Miscelaneous Tweaks tab of options.
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

So, I brought up the Calendar window again.
Then I pressed Alt+PRTSC, and the Calendar window went black, there was a delay, the Calendar window disappeared, and there was a "camera shutter" sound. In the SC work area, SC had captured an entirely blank image of the calendar window.

These steps are all repeatable and with consistent results.

Since I could not capture the Calendar window using SC, I resorted to capturing it using the OneNote Screen Clipping tool (via a hotkey combo) - which worked just fine, though it is not as good as using SC because the OneNote tool has an on-screen rectangle which has to be manually dragged and sized by one corner only, around the window being captured, and it is difficult to get it spot-on.

79

Find And Run Robot / Problem: episodic FARR error - a non-appearing active FARR window.

« on: February 25, 2015, 10:03 AM »

Anyone have any ideas about this?
Ever since going to Win 8 (now using Win8.1-64 PRO)  I have been having an annoying episodic error with FARR, and which is not always repeatable. DcUpdater says I have the current/latest version of FARR as 2.213.01.

The symptoms are this:

• 1. The FARR process has been started and is already running.
• 2. The hotkey combo has already been set as FN+Pause.
• 3. Pressing the hotkeys, FARR sometimes does not display at all, or the display is barely perceptible as a very faint image, as though it was partially hidden by the background or semi-transparent. At these times, it is unusable - it can't be clicked on or brought to front as the active window. It can only be closed by terminating the FARR process via the Task Manager, or similar.
  As a test, I set a sound file to run when the FARR display is brought up, and that seems to consistently work OK.
• 4. Restarting FARR does not always fix this problem.

Thinking it might be some incompatibility/conflict that would disappear after a Windows Update, I have waited in vain for this FARR display error to cease. I have started avoiding using FARR because it is made unreliable/unusable and a PITA by this error.

Not sure whether this is related, but I have also been having a problem with InfoSelect 8, where, though the proggie starts up OK and works OK, the screen display does not refresh after you move the navigation keys - even after several moves/changes - that is until you move the mouse over the middle to RHS of the screen and that then seems to force a refresh to what the latest state of the screen should be after the navigation changes/moves.
I have spent hours checking, reinstalling and resetting IS8 features, thinking that there might be some kind of corrupted file or database, but all seems tickety-boo.

The screen display seems to work fine in all other situations otherwise and tests out OK and with current drivers, etc., so I think it cannot be a GPU display issue per se.

80

Living Room / Multimeters are indispensable when working with any electrical apparatus.

« on: February 25, 2015, 08:21 AM »

A search of the DC forum discussions for "multimeter" shows several references where multimeters have been suggested as a useful/necessary investigative or safety tool.
I was today reminded of how indispensable a multimeter can be when, after using my multimeter (I use an analogue multimeter) to check my freshly-soldered connections - made to fix a new rechargeable battery power supply into a portable household telephone handset - I read this post in my Basqux feed-reader:

Why You Should Have a Multimeter When Doing Any Electrical Work
Timothy Dahl 2015-02-25.

Multimeters are absolutely necessary for any type of electrical work. From installing a ceiling fan to changing a junction box, using a multimeter helps determine if wires are hot or not (and so much more).

Multimeters are designed to measure three fundamental components of electrical energy: volts, amps and ohms. The best analogy to explain these components is water flowing through a pipe. Volts are the pressure of the water (psi), amps are the number of gallons per minute (volume), and ohms are anything that limit the flow.

To measure electrical energy, a multimeter has two wire leads. Touch them to exposed wires, and they'll give you measurements. Its dial or buttons determine what type of energy you are measuring and at what range.

Without knowing these measurements, your home could be in danger of electrical fire and you could be putting yourself at risk.

Multimeters are available as analog or digital devices. The easy way to determine the difference is that the display on an analog device will be a needle on a gauge. Digital multimeters are the way to go and there are great options from Milwaukee and Klein.

For a more in-depth breakdown of how to use a digital multimeter, read the link below.

The Indispensable Digital Multimeter - Fine Homebuilding Article

__________________________________________________
Workshop is a new blog from Lifehacker all about DIY tips, techniques, and projects. Follow us on Twitter here.

The job I was doing was testing and replacing a failed standard 3 x AAA rechargeable battery pack (a new standard replacement pack would have cost NZ$42) with 3 higher performance longlife GP rechargeable AAA batteries (cost about NZ$18), which I had to connect together in series using the standard connector leads cannibalised from the old (failed) pack. The standard battery pack had a life expectancy of 2 years, whereas the new batteries were twice that, so it was a significant cost-saving. (From experience, I have found that GP rechargeable alkaline batteries tend to out-perform most other and more expensive rechargeable batteries.)

Using the multimeter, I then tested the finished result before installing the new (modified) pack that I had assembled, and before putting the handset in its charging bay to charge the pack up.

81

Living Room / Get 2GB extra storage on Google Drive $FREE - just by running a security check.

« on: February 13, 2015, 06:14 AM »

Has to be actioned by Feb. 17, 2015.
I thought I'd just elevate this post to it's own topic so that people didn't miss the brief window of opportunity.

...
(see attachment in previous post)
Google hands out free Drive space for running quick security checklist

-Arizona Hot (February 10, 2015, 06:13 PM)

Also: How to get 2GB free on Google Drive - CNET

82

Clipboard Help+Spell / Feature request: select/display Grid column data > horizontal rows in Memo pane.

« on: January 28, 2015, 08:23 PM »

This feature could be very useful to not only myself but also other CHS users.
Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Please make sure to read the notes in the 3 rows on the lower RHS of the mock-up.

83

Clipboard Help+Spell / How to edit a saved image in CHS, using Screenshot Captor?

« on: December 28, 2014, 10:10 AM »

If I've just saved an image in CHS and now want to edit it, then what is the correct/quickest way to do this using Screenshot Captor?
After editing it, I want to be able to paste the edited image from the CHS Quick Paste pop-up menu.
Sorry if this is documented somewhere in the settings or a Help file, but I've been unable to find it, if it is. I wondered if I needed to write some kind of macro in AHK to trigger SC to open the image file in CHS' database.
Thanks in advance.

84

General Software Discussion / The potential time/cost benefits of improved code efficiency.

« on: November 26, 2014, 06:32 AM »

With the increasingly higher speed processors and faster disk access times that we may be accustomed to nowadays, code efficiency (including, for example, execution efficiency and the utilisation of CPU secs. and I/O operations) is not necessarily such a pressing matter of concern for developers as it was in times past. So I was quite interested in reading the case study below about how relatively marginal efficiency improvements in a relatively large-scale computing platform could lead to significant time/cost savings.
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

How shaving 0.001s from a function saved $400/mo on Amazon EC2 | Ben Milleare

If premature optimisation is the root of all evil, then timely optimisation is clearly the sum of all things good.

Over at ExtractBot, my HTML utility API, things have been hotting up gradually over several months; to the extent that, at peak, it’s now running across 18 c1.medium instances on Amazon EC2. Each of those weigh in at 1.7Gb memory and 5 compute units (2 cores x 2.5 units).

At standard EC2 rates that would work out at around $2.52/hr (almost $2000/mo).

Amazon states that one EC2 compute unit is the “equivalent CPU capacity of a 1.0-1.2 GHz 2007 Opteron or 2007 Xeon processor”. So that’s like having 90 of them churning through HTML; and it takes a lot of it to keep them busy.

It’s not so much the number of requests that dictates CPU load with ExtractBot, but more what the assemblies look like (think of an assembly as a factory conveyor belt of robots passing HTML snippets to each other). Now, most of our beta testers are fairly low volume right now, but one of them is a little different; over ~18 hours of each day they pump around 2.2M HTML pages into the system. In their specific assembly, each page runs through a single CSS robot and the results (~10 per page) then get fed into a further 11 separate CSS robots along with a couple of Regex robots.

If we look at just the CSS robots for now, that’s around 244 million over the course of the 18 hour run. Or to put it in a way that’s easier to visualise – over 3,700 per second.

Normally, shaving 0.001s from a function would not exactly be top of my optimisation hit list, but after looking at where requests were spending most of their time it was obvious it would make considerable difference. 0.001s on 3.7k loops means we could save a whopping 3.7 seconds of CPU time in every second of real time. To put that another way, we could effectively drop about four of our c1.medium instances, a saving on standard EC2 pricing of over $400/mo.

So, what does shaving 0.001s from a single function look like?

cpudrop_500px [the graph shows a 17% step drop in CPU utilisation]

This entry was posted in Crawler.io on September 25, 2013.

85

Clipboard Help+Spell / Feature request: automatic OCR of captured images.

« on: November 24, 2014, 01:42 AM »

@mouser: Could you consider this please?
Based on this: Inside Microsoft OCR Libraries.

- I would really like to see if CHS could accommodate this:

...Perform OCR on any text in images as they are clipped ...

-IainB (August 23, 2011, 07:51 PM)

(i.e., similar to OneNote.)

- so that CHS would be able to do this with the captured images - i.e., just like with ordinary text capture clips:

...Look at this:
I have set up a child group in the CHS "tree" called "Auto-Tags". ...

-IainB (August 30, 2011, 11:02 AM)

Ideally, it might be most useful if the OCR'd text was attached somehow to the image file in the database, say to the CHS "Clip Text" part of the clip, so it would be searchable and copyable within CHS.
Or - just thinking aloud - this might (say) imply saving such images as .JPG files with the OCR'd text saved/appended as Alternative Text(?) or to (say) the Caption field in the IPTC section of that file. The idea would be to also enable things like Windows Search and image management tools (e.g., Picasa) to pick up the OCR'd text, though I am unsure whether that would even be possible with Windows Search without some kind of iFilter (e.g., as is required to index/search for text in .TIFF files).

86

Developer's Corner / Inside Microsoft OCR Libraries.

« on: November 24, 2014, 12:24 AM »

In the light of what I wrote here:

...In our OCR case, I can better explain if I make a comparison: OCR is to data gathering/extraction what push-button dialling was to the telephone. ...

-IainB (August 26, 2011, 11:38 AM)

- this could be useful to know about:
Inside Windows Platform – Inside Microsoft OCR Libraries
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

November 21, 2014 by Emilio Salvador Prieto // PC, Phone, Tablet // 2 Comments   

In this episode of Inside Windows Platform, we talked with Ivan Stojiljkovic, the Dev Lead of the OCR team at Microsoft.

OCR is acompelling developer scenario which can empower all sorts of useful mobile apps. Microsoft has been developing OCR functionality for its apps for some time now. In order to get real world data, the OCR team first published their code as part of the Bing Translator app, which gave them extensive data, allowing them to deliver near real-time translation of any camera captured text.

Now, the OCR team is giving you the ability to leverage the power of character recognition to your applications. The OCR team has published their libraries to NuGet, for you.

Video here, source below

Here are some links to the related materials:
    Microsoft OCR library NuGet page
    Microsoft OCR library sample app
    Microsoft OCR library MSDN documentation
    DevRadio show featuring the Microsoft OCR Library

Let us know if you have any feedback.

87

Living Room / Ello.co - new social network/forum (no advertising or membership data-gathering)

« on: November 23, 2014, 04:37 PM »

Not sure whether Ello.co  has been mentioned on DCF already, so I apologise in advance for any duplication.
In early October this year (2014) I requested an invite to join Ello - an interesting newfangled social network that I had read about that was starting up in Beta.
They responded to the effect that they were taking people on board in groups for the Beta, and would invite me at a later stage.
Today they sent me an invite, and so I have now registered.
I have listed below some relevant details about Ello.
However, I would first like to mention that amongst their discussions was one where I came across a very interesting link to this article: Younger Users Spend More Daily Time on Social Networks - eMarketer

I tend to take all market research with a pinch of salt, but if there is any truth in the above article, then the amount of time that people are apparently prepared to dedicate to expending their cognitive surplus (which occupies their their awareness during their waking hours) on social networks is pretty interesting.

Now, about Ello.co (from their own blurb):

• email 2014-10-05:
  

  Thank you for your interest in Ello.
  We will invite you as soon as we can. Ello is currently in beta, and we are inviting new users in small groups as we roll out new features.
  In the meantime, please share our Manifesto — and help us spread the word.
  

  
  
• email 2014-11-24:
  

  Lucian Föhr (@lucian) has invited you to join Ello. Simple, beautiful & ad-free.
  Created by seven artists and designers, Ello is the social network you have been waiting for. Simple, beautiful & ad-free.
  Click the link below to create your account and get started.
  

  
  
• Ello | wtf | # Ello ManifestoYour social network
  

  Ello Manifesto
  Your social network is owned by advertisers.
  Every post you share, every friend you make, and every link you follow is tracked, recorded, and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.
  We believe there is a better way. We believe in audacity. We believe in beauty, simplicity, and transparency. We believe that the people who make things and the people who use them should be in partnership.
  We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life.
  You are not a product.
  
  5mth
  

  
  
• Take a look at: Ello | wtf | # About Ello[What is Ello?](/wtf/post/about-ello)Updated
  

88

General Software Discussion / Pros/Cons re Microsoft EMET (Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit)?

« on: November 18, 2014, 06:40 AM »

I read at gizmo's freeware about Free Microsoft Windows Security Tool EMET Now in Version 5.1.
I was wondering what the DCF members cumulative experience was regarding using Microsft's EMET:
The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit

To start the ball rolling, I have found these comments from earlier posts in the DC Forum:

MSE has saved my bacon on a few occasions ... AND ... wait for it ... it's endorsed by EliTheComputerGuy.
___________________________________

-kyrathaba (April 13, 2013, 05:00 PM)

I use MSE and EMET constantly, with less frequent uses of SB-SD, and MBAM. Those along with twice monthly Macrium images form the basis of my PC defense.
___________________________________

-kyrathaba (April 13, 2013, 11:18 PM)

Powerful Free Microsoft Security Tool EMET has Been Updated

-techsupportalert

Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit 4.1, EMET, a toolkit for deploying and configuring security mitigation technologies.
homepage and download: http://www.microsoft...etails.aspx?id=41138
___________________________________

-Curt (November 14, 2013, 08:05 AM)

I also had this comment from a network specialist at an NZ telco, after I asked him whether he had any comments/advice on the Pros/Cons for the use of Microsoft's EMET:

We use it internally... I have not seen much of it. I'd say once you turn up the settings in the admin tool it would interfere with apps running at times, hence why it isn't baked into the operating system... at least that's what I suspect.
DEP is included in the toolset and from my experience it crashes a number of apps, including earlier versions of Microsoft Office. DEP was a technology borrowed from openbsd and *nix variants that already had this stuff in the kernel from early days.
There's a saying about security v. usability and the fine line between the two, and for different customers that line is in different places.

89

Living Room / "Knotable" - new cloud-based group discussion threading service.

« on: October 04, 2014, 11:52 AM »

I'm not even sure whether "cloud-based group discussion threading service" is a correct description or does Knotable justice, as it seems to be quite a bit more than just that, but I find it hard to describe.
It might be a sort of fork of Google's Wave, I don't know.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in using knotable to find out what it is and what it might be able to do for them, head on over to http://alpha.knotable.com/login/ and register for an account. It's in ß testing at present, and FREE, though I am unsure whether it will stay free. There is also a blog at http://blog.knotable.com
They seem keen to have people join them for beta testing, though they haven't opened the floodgates to all comers yet. I was an early applicant for an account, but it was a few weeks before they let me in.

If you PM me in DCF with your moniker, once you are registered in knotable, I shall respond and commence chatting with you in knotable.

90

Living Room / Funds for new film re Berlin Wall - Indiegogo fundraising ends Oct. 4, 2014

« on: September 23, 2014, 09:00 AM »

A new film "An Accidental Berliner" is apparently being made, with a New Zealand perspective, and I received the email below about it asking for contributions via Indiegogo.
Passing it on in case any DCF denizens might like to help.

Hi,
We have a friend named Tony Forster, who was in East Berlin in 1989 on the night the Wall fell - and was just the third person to cross through Checkpoint Charlie to the West - to be greeted by thousands of people and the world's press on that historic night!

It was an extraordinary experience and he is now making a film about it - where he explores the impact of this event on himself and on Germans, both his own friends and numerous people he met at the 20th Anniversary and since. The film is almost complete, but Tony could do with a little bit of help.

Please take a few minutes if you can, and have a look at this website: 

www.indiegogo.com/projects/an-accidental-berliner/x/8637597

- where you can watch a short video clip (about 3.5 minutes) – and see what you think.

It's a remarkable story worth telling and we, along with a number of others, have already helped a bit to get it to this stage. We are now  circulating this request on his behalf to help see it completed. . Every contribution, no matter how small, helps immensely.  If you want to, you can contribute anonymously.  And if you use the PayPal system, you can even invent a false name! - (apparently)

Our apologies if you think we may be stretching our connection with you to send a fundraising request - but these things only work if they are spread as widely as possible. So, we are just sending this off to everyone in our address book - friends, businesses, the lot - just to save time and spread it as widely as possible as quickly as possible. No targeting we assure you!! - this is a mass mail-out

But we will be even more presumptuous and suggest -  if you do know anyone who might be interested in assisting - please forward this email on to them.

Please Note: The Indiegogo crowd-funding site is in US$$ - so if you choose to help please allow that:   $10 US = about $12.50 NZ. (Sorry, they can only accept donations in US $) And note that Tony is offering various perks as well - check them out on the website.

And especially Please Note - the Fund Raising Campaign finishes strictly on October 4th !!!

Thanks for reading,

91

Living Room / A map of home - Laniakea

« on: September 13, 2014, 06:32 AM »

Mindboggling.
Published on 3 Sep 2014
Superclusters – regions of space that are densely packed with galaxies – are the biggest structures in the Universe. But scientists have struggled to define exactly where one supercluster ends and another begins. Now, a team based in Hawaii has come up with a new technique that maps the Universe according to the flow of galaxies across space. Redrawing the boundaries of the cosmic map, they redefine our home supercluster and name it Laniakea, which means ‘immeasurable heaven’ in Hawaiian.

Read the research paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13674

Laniakea: Our home supercluster

92

Living Room / How come @Stephen66515 keeps posting here about stuff that gets expunged?

« on: September 13, 2014, 03:30 AM »

How come @Stephen66515 keeps posting here about stuff that gets expunged?
It doesn't look like spam. Some of it looks quite funny/interesting - and some of the responses too.

I think we should be told.

93

General Software Discussion / Filefacts.net - Smart File Advisor - looks like a PUP.

« on: September 12, 2014, 03:36 AM »

I posted this in case any forum members had a similar experience, though I couldn't find it referred to specifically on the DC Forum.
I clicked on a file the other day and this popped up on my laptop screen:



I did a DuckGo search on "Filefacts.net  - Smart File Advisor", and it is apparently benign software, being a "FREE" offering from various download sites of mixed reputation. Looks like a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program), though neither MS Security Essentials (Defender) nor Malwarebytes objected to it.
I have no idea how this thing got installed on my system. I presume it must have slipped past me or was silently installed when I was hurriedly clicking "Next" whilst installing some program or other that I had downloaded and wanted to trial.
Anyway, I detached from the Internet and uninstalled the software using RevoUninstaller on max level scrubbing.
The last thing I want is some third-party software insinuating itself in unsolicited fashion into my system and "helpfully" intercepting system calls.
It could have been as bad as Norton/Symantec AV...    

94

Living Room / Data Archaeology - Nimbus satellite image data now digitised to Public Domain

« on: September 05, 2014, 10:02 AM »

The 1960s archived image data (film strip) from the Nimbus program has apparently now all been digitised and looks like it is being or has been placed in the public domain. It is a treasure-trove of historic meteorological data that we had been unable to easily access in any scientifically useful way until now, and it has already yielded surprising results that pose new questions about how the Earth's weather systems tick.
There are notes and a link to a very interesting  6-minute video here: 1960’s satellite imagery of polar ice discovers “enormous holes” in the sea ice

95

Living Room / Microsoft Update MS14-045 (KB 2993651) problems - Win8.1

« on: August 31, 2014, 10:18 AM »

Not sure whether this has been posted elsewhere in DC Forum - maybe under another title - but I thought it might be useful/helpful to some people who - like me - had not known that Microsoft advised that they needed to uninstall some of the prior risky updates.

I have read with concern today in BleepingComputer.com and other sites, that
Microsoft ships replacement patch KB 2993651 with two known bugs - News

My Win8.1-64 PRO system auto-updated KB 2993651 on 2014-09-28.

Prior to that I had already uninstalled the buggy updates that Microsoft advised be uninstalled as they carried a risk. These are my notes on that:

>> 2014-08-22 2142hrs: Uninstall + fix MS updates per: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2982791

MS14-045: Description of the security update for kernel-mode drivers: August 12, 2014
(See also Dave Bradley's Tech Talk)

KB2982791 - uninstalled
KB2970228 - had not been installed
KB2975719 - uninstalled
KB2975331 - had not been installed

Then deleted \system32\fntcache.dat

Restarted system.

Checked and found fntcache.dat had not been recreated.

Checked HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts\ 

Right-click the Fonts registry subkey, and then click Export to C:\Users\Iain\Documents\2014-08-22 2206hrs FONTS (fix) key export.reg
Checked the FONTS subkey for:
   ○ registry values under the Fonts registry subkey for which the data field meets the following criteria:
      § Contains a full file path (not just a file name)
      § The full file path ends in an ".otf" extension. (This indicates an OpenType font file.)
THERE WERE NO matches for that.

Restarted the laptop. (It took a while reconfiguring Windows on the shutdown and on the subsequent restart.)

Then:
>>2014-08-23 0403hrs: ran sfc /scannow and Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

96

Living Room / Problem: "Unable to connect to the Synaptics Pointing Device Driver." - FIXED

« on: August 26, 2014, 07:03 PM »

From my notes, copied here in the hope that it might save others a stack of time if/when they encounter this incredibly annoying problem with their Synaptics TouchPad, and need to find a fix for it.




Below is a summary of the different driver versions and the fix I applied.

97

Mini-Reviews by Members / Classic Shell (shell alternative for Windows 10, 8, 7) - Mini-Review

« on: August 03, 2014, 07:08 PM »

Originally posted:	2014-08-04
Last updated	2017-12-05 - developer of Classic Shell announces he is quitting, and releases the last version of the program.

Basic Info

App/Service Name	Classic Shell
Thumbs-Up Rating
App URL	http://www.classicshell.net/
App Version Reviewed	v4.1.0 and above The latest stable version of Classic Shell is 4.3.0 Classic Shell has been in active development for 6+ years and has tens of millions of downloads.
Test System Specs	Win8.1-64 PRO, Win10-64 PRO
Supported OSes	Windows 7 and above
Support Methods	Read the F.A.Q. Ask a question in the forum Report a bug or submit a feature request Learn how to make your own skin Learn how to make your own start button
Upgrade Policy	Free upgrades.
Trial Version Available?	N/A (free to trial or use)
Pricing Scheme	$FREE - $Donations Accepted

1.0 Introduction:
1.1 Shell includes the options to install three components:

• An older/more useful Start Menu GUI.
• An older/more useful Windows Explorer GUI.
• An older/more useful IE GUI.

- or some combination of these.

1.2 Historical note: There are several references in DCF discussions to "Classic Shell". One of the earliest is this one in 2011, which seems to be referring to an early form of CS, in the thread: Re: Start Menu X now in beta

I was looking around for a better start menu for Windows 7 a while ago and landed on the FREE and open source Classic Shell. For those interested you can also read the Author's explanation of code.

-LiquidGravity (September 26, 2011, 05:49 PM)

1.3 This Mini-Review follows on from discussion thread: What the Heck is Happening to Windows? Article on Windows 8 Disaster
- where I posted:

Many thanks to the people in this discussion thread who referred to Classic Shell. As a result of their comments, a couple of days ago I went ahead and installed it for a trial.
Most of the things that I dislike (and that's putting it mildly) about Win8 are related to poor ergonomics and the superfluous Metro eye-candy and and its kludgy functionality in the UI. Those aspects of the OS are backward steps - but the OS otherwise seems very good.
However, pretty much all that I disliked is swept away by Classic Shell. It seems to be very stable too - which is a mandatory requirement for an OS interface (in my book, at any rate).
Perhaps the biggest bonus of Classic Shell for me is in the restoration of the very good Win7-type Start Menu and the instant search of my indexed documents and OneNote files when anything is typed into the Search box. This had completely disappeared in Win8 and was driving me batty - and lots of other OneNote users as well, judging from the comments in many of the OneNote discussion forums.
Classic Shell - definitely a keeper.

-IainB (July 24, 2014, 11:09 PM)

Currently I have installed all three components (Start Menu GUI, Windows Explorer GUI, IE GUI), though I am usually mostly concerned with and use the Start Menu GUI.
I now have Classic Shell installed on my or any laptop I support with Win10 installed. I originally had one Vista and a couple of Win7 laptops that I supported, but I left them AS-IS and then later installed Classsic Shell on them and subsequently migrated them to Win10.

2.0 Overview:
From: http://www.classicshell.net/  <== Do have a read of this and follow its links for more info.
As at 2016-03-28:
Classic Shell™ is free software that improves your productivity, enhances the usability of Windows and empowers you to use the computer the way you like it. The main features are:

• Highly customizable start menu with multiple styles and skins
• Quick access to recent, frequently-used, or pinned programs
• Find programs, settings, files and documents
• Start button for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
• Toolbar and status bar for Windows Explorer
• Caption and status bar for Internet Explorer

2.1 Start Menu: From: http://www.classicsh...features/#start_menu  <== Do have a read of this and follow its links for more info.



The start menu has a variety of advanced features:

• Drag and drop to let you organize your applications
• Options to show Favorites, expand Control Panel, etc
• Shows recently used documents. The number of documents to display is customizable
• Translated in 35 languages, including Right-to-left support for Arabic and Hebrew
• Does not disable the original start menu in Windows. You can access it by Shift+Click on the start button
• Right-click on an item in the menu to delete, rename, sort, or perform other tasks
• The search box helps you find your programs without getting in the way of your keyboard shortcuts
• Supports jumplists for easy access to recent documents and common tasks
• Available for 32 and 64-bit operating systems
• Has support for skins, including additional 3rd party skins
• Fully customizable in both looks and functionality
• Support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility
• Converts the “All Programs” button in the Windows menu into a cascading menu (Windows 7)
• Implements a customizable Start button
• Can show, search and launch Windows Store apps (Windows 8 and up)
• And last but not least – it's FREE!

Pick from multiple built-in skins, download more from the Internet, or make your own! Check out the  Skinning Tutorial.


2.2 Windows Explorer: From: http://www.classicshell.net/  <== Do have a read of this and follow its links for more info.




3.0 Who this software is designed for:
Any PC user of Windows 7 or above who wants to restore the arguably better ergonomics and intuitive perceptual GUI of the more classic shell. This includes the options to restore:

• An older/more useful Start Menu GUI.
• An older/more useful Windows Explorer GUI.
• An older/more useful IE GUI.

- or some combination of these.

4.0 The Good:
An excellent and stable alternative GUI, with very good ergonomics.
Does what it says it does.

5.0 Needs Improvement:
Have found nothing so far.

6.0 Why I think you should use this product/service:
You could be surprised. The proverbial answer to a maiden's prayer.
You, like me, might think to yourself "Why the heck didn't I find this sooner? It's just what I always needed!"

7.0 How it compares to similar products:
Whilst there are apparently some similar/alternative tools - e.g., see http://alternativeto...ftware/classicshell/
- I have not tried them out not made any special notes about them. Judging from the specs that I have read, they seem to be either not as comprehensive, or not $FREE - e.g., I thought StartIsBack looked worth investigating, but it is not $FREE.
If anyone could comment on any alternatives in this discussion thread, that could be useful.

Here's an objective comparison of the Start Menus: http://www.classicsh...viewtopic.php?t=2399

-consumer4beta (August 03, 2014, 09:23 PM)

8.0 Conclusions:

• Very useful: An impressively solid and useful set of GUI Shell tools which seem to be undergoing continuous improvement, with an open and very active user forum.
• Reliable. Never seems to give any trouble.

98

Living Room / Google - News + Hate + Lurve

« on: July 15, 2014, 09:25 PM »

After all that ridiculous compulsory Google+ stuff, bullying and control freak behaviour from Google and to hell with your privacy concerns, would you believe it, but: (my emphasis)
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Google+ kills off “real names” policy | Ars Technica
Users can now make up whatever identity they please on the social network.
by Casey Johnston - Jul 15, 2014 10:07 pm UTC

Google has decided to reverse its long-standing policy requiring users to use their real names to make profiles on the service as of Tuesday, according to a post shared on the official account. The move comes after Google+ head Vic Gundotra suddenly departed in April, marking the beginning of a shift for the service.

"When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile," the post begins. As time went on, that rule softened to allow "established" pseudonyms and let YouTube users to bring their usernames over from the service.

Google+ has been criticized not only for preventing users from protecting their real identities, but causing confusion among them. In January, one transgender woman tried to send a text message to a colleague but sent a Hangout from her Google+ profile instead, outing her.

"We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users," the post continues. "For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be."

(For more information and some larfs, go to the article at the link and follow some of its hyperlinks.)
That last bit (emphasised) rather looks like belated damage control and BS. Having tried to coerce users to conform to their ridiculous rules, and having found that that left them (unsurprisingly) with a relatively empty Google+ theatre (empty seats), they are trying the "We're so welcoming and inclusive, see?" approach.
Yeah right.
 
But it is arguably a good sign, and the word "excited" wasn't used once.
What's that I hear you say? You thought that an apology would have been in order? Hey, who are you kidding? An apology from Google? Don't make me larf.
(I wonder if they realise they've just re-enacted Aesop's fable "The Wind and the Sun"?)

I'm not taking off my coat just yet, thanks.
______________________________
By the way, where the post says:

The move comes after Google+ head Vic Gundotra suddenly departed in April, marking the beginning of a shift for the service.

- it is referring to Vic Gundotra - Google Vice President, Engineering Social.
He headed up the Google WAVE debacle project and the Google+ project (amongst other things).
Resigned 2014-04-24 after 8 years at Google.

99

Living Room / Photographic overlay technique used re 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

« on: July 08, 2014, 02:31 AM »

Impressive and haunting then-and-now photographic overlays, being used as part of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. You couldn't really communicate this without the Internet. I've been to some of the places depicted, but never saw them in this light, though driving past the mile after mile of allied graveyards across parts of France was a pretty harrowing experience.
Take a look.
The image fader/slider gives good full-screen images:

• Blog: D-day landings 70th anniversary – live blog | World news | theguardian.com
• Interactive website: D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now – interactive | Art and design | theguardian.com
• Image fader/slider: http://interactive.g.../index.html?ww2-dday

100

General Software Discussion / How to Sell Digital Products with Google Drive and PayPal

« on: June 26, 2014, 08:45 PM »

Back in July 2012 I posted a comment about Used Software Can Be Sold, Says EU Court of Justice.

The ingenious labnol.org has just put a few missing and very interesting pieces of the jigsaw into the frame with this (you really need to read the actual post at the link):
How to Sell Digital Products with Google Drive and PayPal
(Copied in the spoiler below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Spoiler

The web has made it incredibly easy for anyone to sell digital products directly from their website, Twitter, Facebook or even through email newsletters. The world is your marketplace and you can sell PDF books, MP3 music, photos, software programs, video courses, website themes, and everything else that can be downloaded.

While there are quite a few web services that let you sell digital content online for a commission (around 5% per transaction), I want to share a do-it-yourself solution that I have been using on my services website. You can see another example here on labnol.org.

The workflow uses Google Drive for storing files, PayPal for payments and Gmail for delivering content to the buyer. There’re no limitation on the size of files or the number of products that you can sell. There’re no bandwidth restrictions. There’s no middleman fees except for the usual PayPal charges. And people can purchase your stuff through PayPal or using their debit or credit cards.
Sell Digital Downloads with PayPal and Google Drive

paypal button

First, create a “Buy Now” button in your PayPal account for the product that you wish to sell online and assign a unique Item ID to the item (see screenshot above).

PayPal will now offer you the HTML code for the purchase button that you can embed in your website. Alternatively, you can copy the direct link – see example – to share your product over email or for selling on social media websites.

PayPal Buy Button

The next thing you need to do is upload the corresponding file to your Google Drive. When someone makes a purchase, the Google script will pull this file from Drive and send it to the buyer via Gmail as an email attachment. If the file is big, say the size >20 MB, the script will automatically share the file with the buyer and sends the shared link instead of the actual file.

The final step is to run the Google Script that will monitor your Gmail mailbox for any PayPal related transactions and sends the digital files to the buyer.

This is easy. Click here to make a copy of the PayPal script in your Google Drive and include the Item IDs and file names of all products that you are selling through PayPal. Next choose Run -> PayPal and authorize the script.

PayPal Items with Google Drive

That’s it. The script will read your Gmail mailbox every 5 minutes and will process all PayPal related emails. Once the files have been delivered to the buyer, the PayPal emails will moved to the archive. You can check out the Programmer’s Library for the annotated source code.

Later, if you release an updated version of your digital files, you can use Mail Merge with Gmail to let all your previous buyers know about the new version. You can put all the PayPal emails under a new Gmail label, extract the email addresses and use this list for your merge.