Topics

76

Living Room / Strange problems with my laptop.

« on: December 26, 2016, 10:02 AM »

So, over the last month or so, I have been having what I thought was HDD troubles.  It felt like the HDD in my laptop was dying.  Constantly running at 100% Disk and jut generally being slow and unstable as you can imagine.

After some searching around my services and such I came face-to-face with the dreaded "CompatTelRunner.exe" - After a little bit of messing around I managed to get rid of it and my Disk % dropped to 0%...YAY...I thought my troubles were over...but they were just beginning!

So...after disabling that, I rebooted and b00m...back to 100%.."wtf is going on now" I thought...so back to services.msc I went, and when looking around in Task Manager as well I decided to disable Windows Search and Superfetch...once they were disabled...back to 0% I went...so a quick reboot just to check it was all OK, and good god...wtf just happened? Now my laptop wouldn't boot!  I just got stuck with the "Acer" logo and the spinny ball of doom...so I left it for a coupe of hours and it finally got back to my login screen...which when I entered my password threw up some odd error saying it couldn't find the login service...so...reboot again...2 hours later...back to login screen...managed to get back to the desktop (which then took an hour before it was usable) - At this point I did an emergency backup of some persona files (I managed to get 100kb/s transfer rate!!!...so doing a transfer of 40GB of stuff took...a while haha).  Once that was done, I disabled Windows Defender and installed MalwareBytes (Defender was always something that ran disk at 100% when it wanted to do something I didn't want it to do)...so..MalwareBytes downloaded and installed (after a bit of a fight and a long wait)...I did a scan...nothing...not a single thing...no virus, no trojan...no nothing...so.......what now?!)..

I then disabled everything on startup that Windows itself didn't need to run...and then rebooted...

This was the final time it wanted to let me reboot.

After being presented with "Loading Startup Repair" for >8 hours, my laptop finally loaded up the screen to do repairs.  I decided to just go for the final step of re-installing Windows (but keeping my personal files...I like that we can do that now...very nice feature indeed!)..so...this took an unreal amount of time - I just put the laptop on charge, put the laptop out of sight and came back to it the next day.  When I came back to it, I was presented with the usual success screens and was prompted to login...which I did.  AWESOME! It's running perfectly! - I went to Windows.old to grab some of my old software and put it back into Program Files (x86) (Specifically one of the games I wanted to play).  This went smoothly, and the game itself loaded perfectly fine and ran smooth as possible...so at this point I am thinking that all my troubles were over and that maybe it was just a problem with my Windows install...

Oh how I was wrong!!

Rebooted due to an update, and OMFG...right back to square 1....100% Disk Usage.........

Not being able to afford a new HDD on the wrong side of Christmas, my only option was to fight with the damn thing.....

I got back to the desktop after many hours of fighting with it, re-disabled all the annoying services (Superfetch and Search and such), and again disabled CompatTelRunner.exe, and then in task manager I ended an instance of svchost.exe which was eating up most of my system processes...and then...my disk dropped to 1%....so...not being trusting, I just carried on using my laptop like normal, opening tbs in chrome, browsing the web, launching/playing my game...it stayed at low usage (minus when it was obvious why it was running high like when loading a game and such...y'know...the times you kind of expect your HDD to be running at a high-ish usage)...when leaving the game the HDD dropped right back to 0% and well...has been fine for the last week.....

The issue is...I am pretty positive that when I reboot...all my troubles will start again...yet for the past 7 days it has been perfectly fine...no unusual spikes...no hiccups...no anything....but also no reboots...I refuse to reboot...I just put the laptop to sleep and make sure it never runs out of battery!

However....

With the fact that for 7 days it has been fine even under high loads I can't be sure that it really was a HDD problem...but this begs the question.....wtf is it?

Anybody experienced the same hell I'm going through? Or maybe able to identify a potential issue that's causing this?

Any help would be wonderful! xD

~Stephen

77

Living Room / British companies to face big fines if data breaches occur

« on: December 21, 2016, 12:50 PM »

Despite being inclined to have firms collect endless amounts of data on their customers, the British government does at least want them to protect it. Accepting a new EU law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), means that when introduced in 2018, British firms will be mandated to disclose any breaches that occur, and could be fined if enough protections are not in place.
Over the past few years we’ve seen a number of high profile companies hit with big data breaches as hackers steal away user information by the truckload. In some cases these companies let their users know straight away, but in others it can take weeks, months or even years before the public is made aware. To combat that in future, it is now a legal mandate that firms must disclose the information in a timely manner.

Read More: http://www.kitguru.n...data-breaches-occur/

78

Living Room / This post may, or may not serve a purpose.

« on: December 14, 2016, 03:36 PM »

Thanks for your help with your family and friends and I have to get a good time to time and effort you are interested and I am a little bit of time and consideration of my life I am not able and I am not a problem with this.  I have a lot more than happy with it are confidential information and I am a little bit more about it was a bit more than one person to whom they are not there are any issues with the new one and only then will head back in a good time.

I am going to have to be a good idea of the things that are not there yet I still don't know what the hell out and the other side is a good day I was thinking of the things I have a lot more than happy birthday to your email find more than happy with my internet connection is working fine now and then go to last week I am a very long as it is not the best regards to your account in the same as a whole bunch.



I have been a long way to get the key in a few days to see the attachment of your imagination and creativity and experience to be able have easy access to the local and foreign language is English language of my life I will be in a good time and consideration of my life and I am not sure if you have any questions or concerns please visit the lockouts page and the movie and I am not sure if you have any questions or concerns please visit my site to manually and a bag full time position and the other side is a great day and I will do my head is a good idea of the things that are not the intended recipient.

79

Living Room / Abandoned in space in 1967, a US satellite has started transmitting again

« on: November 09, 2016, 10:51 PM »

An American satellite abandoned in 1967, now assumed to simply be space junk, has started transmitting again after 46 years.

This was one of the satellites designed and built by Lincoln Laboratory at MIT between 1965 and 1976, for testing techniques for satellite communication.

They made the series of satellites easy to recognize by naming them LES1 through to LES9. LES1-LES4 suffered different launch issues. LES1 and LES2 were supposed to be delivered to the same 2800 x 15000 km orbit, but a failure of a boost stage left LES1 in a 2800 km circular orbit.

https://www.thevinta...-transmitting-again/

80

N.A.N.Y. 2017 / N.A.N.Y 2017: [Pre-Release] - DonationCoder Quick Links (Beta) - ANDROID

« on: September 07, 2016, 01:37 PM »

NANY 2017 Entry Information

Application Name	DonationCoder Quick Links
Version	0.1.0 (Open Beta)
Short Description	A simple utility to quickly navigate through sections of the DonationCoder website.
Supported OSes	Android 4.1+
Download Link	Opt-In to Open Beta + Download

Description
We all know that DC is an absolute nightmare to navigate on mobile, so I decided to create myself an app which allows me to quickly jump to any section of the DC site!

Opt-In to Open Beta + Download

NB: It can sometimes take up to 60 minutes after opting into the Beta, before the app will become available to you on the store.  If nothing is showing after 60 minutes, then please let me know ASAP.

Features
Quickly navigate through the DonationCoder.com Website on Android

Planned Features
Open to ideas!

Screenshots


Known Problematic Devices

81

Living Room / Anybody on DC own an RV/Campervan, or completed a conversion?

« on: August 19, 2016, 11:05 PM »

Hey guys,

Me and my partner are going to be purchasing a vehicle which will be converted into a small campervan (motorhome) - We have a lot of the details worked out, but I have a few things I still need answering.

The van itself is going to be run mainly off-grid, for which I plan to have a bank of 4x 135aH Leisure Batteries which will be charged using 2x 200W Solar Charging Units with Lead-Calcium Batteries (and the option to hookup to mains powered electric, if we need to - British weather doesn't allow for much sun...). 

I'd mainly like to know if any of you have experience with power solutions in a motorhome, and if so, what could you suggest for keeping the vehicle running (full time) for a long period of time (This van is where we plan to be living for around 12 months or so, and we want to keep costs to an absolute minimum after the conversion is complete).

I have done a quick 3D design of the van (in Sketchup) here: http://imgur.com/a/2pbBh (The images are not in any sort of order, sorry!).

On top of the above question about power, I'm also curious as to things such as Thermoelectric generators in order to provide more power - I have had a quick look on Google but it didn't really come up with much...is this a route worth bothering with? Is it even possible? Would I generate enough power for it to be worth it? 

I do have more questions, but I'll save them until I know there is somebody here who could answer them 

82

Living Room / Judge rules FBI can hack any time, any place, anywhere

« on: July 07, 2016, 06:04 PM »

A federal district court in Virginia has ruled that the FBI has the right to hack into computers around the world without getting a local warrant, and without any review by courts.

Does this Judge realize that he can't give the FBI the right to break the laws of other countries?     The Judge in question might want to go read a few law books...though, I highly doubt this ruling could ever stand...

Read Full Story Here: http://theregister.c..._any_place_anywhere/

83

Living Room / There Will Be A Huge Scientific Announcement Made Today - Here's How To Watch It

« on: February 11, 2016, 08:06 AM »

At 10.30 a.m. EST (3.30 p.m. GMT) today, press conferences are being held around the world to announce the latest findings regarding gravitational waves from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

First theorized by Einstein 100 years ago, gravitational waves are predicted ripples in space-time caused by massive events or objects in the universe. But no detection has ever been made, as the ripples are incredibly tiny and almost impossible to detect.

Is that all set to change, though? You'll find out later today. You can watch a webcast of the press conference being held in Washington D.C. live below from 10.30 a.m. EST.

 

Source: http://www.iflscienc...s-announcement-today

Watch Live Below (10:30am EST/3:30pm GMT)

84

DC Member Programs and Projects / Notey - An anti-procrastination/pro-productivity tool for Students

« on: February 08, 2016, 01:22 PM »

Hey guys,

I am currently working on an Anti-Procrastination/Pro-Productivity tool aimed at students.

The software bundles some (what I would consider) very useful tools for when you are doing your studies or if you are researching/note-taking.

Main Screen:


Current Features:
 • Split-Screen Work Area for Tab-less Browser and Notepad
  (Notepad comes with some basic but useful formatting features)
 • Wikipedia Search
 
 • Search for a book via ISBN/Title/Author
 
 • Generate References/In-Text Citations (Harvard Referencing) with absolute ease!
 
 • 20/20/20 Break Timer
  - This feature will warn you after 20 minutes, to look away from the screen for 20 seconds, at an object at least 20 meters away, in order to try avoid eye strain.
 • Hide Notepad
  - By right clicking on the top ToolStrip (Menu Bar) you can hide the Notepad Menu - I will add a shortcut/button for this at some point.
  • Show what time you opened 'Notey' (So you know how long you have been working for).
  - Visible at the top of the page.
  • Get total word count from the Notepad area.
  - Right click in the notepad window for this option.
  • Be warned before exiting if you have not saved your work.
  • Current time visible on main screen
  • Automatically saves Window Size, & Location
  • Useful Links/Favorites Section
   

Planned Features:
 • Productivity Timer
   -  This will time how long you have been studying for and suggest breaks for you (to avoid things like eye strain) - The times will be user defined, but will also include some pre-defined times.
 • Anti-Social Networking
   -  This will bring up a warning (but not stop you from visiting) when you try to browse to any Social Network and try to stray you away from doing so.


I will be adding more features to the planned list soon, and will be releasing a development preview once I iron out a small bug that is causing the browser's URL bar to show "about:blank" on some websites after loading...It doesn't really affect anything, but it is really annoying so I'd rather fix it before releasing!

Download (Hosted by Mega.nz): https://mega.nz/#!3R...Fvx1kTBz1HmrhWbJE88I

[Select]

Download Release Date/Time: 10th Feb 2016/08:20(am)
  - Bug Fix: issue loading to/saving to the Favs list.
  - Path Change: No longer installs to Program Files - Opts for "My Documents" instead.

Please uninstall any previous versions of Notey before installing.

After this version I am going to start adding the build number to the application (Which for some reason I have not done until now) which will help keep a better track of whether you have the latest version.

Would love to hear what you guys think and if you have any ideas for features I could add!

~Stephen

85

Living Room / In-Car Emergency Kit - Your Recommendations

« on: February 05, 2016, 04:54 AM »

I currently have a new car on order (Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer SRi 1.6 Turbo) and was wondering what In-Car Emergency stuff you guys recommend!



First off, I have chose this:

http://www.right-lig...able-floodlight.html

5-in-1 Solution

1) LED floodlight.
2) Battery jump starter (comes complete with jump start leads).
3) 150W 240V AC inverter to power laptops etc.
4) USB DC 5V 800mA output - to power mobile phones, tablets etc.
5) DC 12V car cigarette lighter output socket.
Features & Specifications:

Lumen Output: 2200 lumens.
Light Source: LED.
Run Time: High - 9 hours. Low - 21 hours.
Battery: 12V 14Ah SLA.

Seems like it will be very helpful in a lot of situations, and for the price is totally worth it!

I will also be getting:

• In-Car Inverter (12V>Normal Plug)
• Multipurpose Tools
• Privacy Curtains for all windows (These will be custom made by my mother to fit the windows and attach via suction cups)
• Double sleeping bag + double duvet (will be vacuum packed to minimize space taken)
• Toiletries
• Cheap prepaid phone (fully charged with credit for calls)
• Chocolates/Tinned Food/Energy Drinks/Tea Bags/Instant Coffee/Sugar/Coffee Whitener, etc
• Doggy Kibble (We have a dog, so...)
• Ramen Noodles
• In-Car Kettle (mainly so I can have coffee when in the middle of nowhere...we take random drives so this one is for convenience mainly)
• Mini Gas Stove

I've probably missed something, so I will update if I can remember - All of these will be going in a storage container of some sort in where the spare wheel usually would be (seeing as new cars don't come with a spare anymore...might as well make use of that space!)


We plan to sleep in the car on long trips, so a lot of this stuff will end up being used on our random camp-outs!
Anybody want to add anything, or suggest anything?

86

Living Room / Holy S***, I've been here for 6 Years!

« on: January 27, 2016, 11:37 PM »

This post serves no purpose other than to show my surprise that today is my 6th "birthday" on DC!  Time flies!

* Stephen66515 still has many more years of annoying mouser, left in him!

 

87

Living Room / Looking for a font similar to this image.

« on: January 12, 2016, 04:39 PM »

Friend of mine is looking for a font that is either this exact one, or one very similar.  Any font gurus around that know what this one is called? xD

88

Living Room / I have a new found love for taking 360 degree panoramic photos!

« on: October 04, 2015, 11:46 AM »

So...I bought me and the Mrs new phones (HTC One M8) and have pretty much started to over use one feature the phone has......360Degree Photos!!!!!

Here are a couple that I have taken so far (If you view from a smart-phone and click the globe button, you can tilt your phone and turn around and such as if you are actually there!)

http://sky.easypano....e/View.aspx?id=32675 (Great Orme in Llandudno, Wales, UK)

http://sky.easypano....ages/test-32403.html (Rhyddings Park in Oswaldtwistle, England, UK)

89

Living Room / Brightness Settings Reversing - No apparent reason.

« on: August 18, 2015, 08:42 PM »

Over the past few weeks (Before upgrading to Windows 10 and since the upgrade) my laptop has been acting rather odd.  When I close the lid (Which puts her into hibernate) or reboot the laptop, the brightness settings reverse.  It happens regardless of if I am using mains power or battery...If my brightness settings were full when I shut the lid, when I open it, I have a black screen and have to turn brightness DOWN for it to be UP...then if I reboot/shut the lid and open it, it will do it all over again.

Laptop is an Acer Aspire E 15 (E5-51-C619) - My Mrs has one of these as well, though she hasn't had this issue (still on Windows 8.1 on here, but since my problems started whilst on 8.1, I doubt that's really important).  I haven't installed anything in ages other than Win 10 (Except for one Windows Store game which I added after the problem started) and have not uninstalled anything except for Fallout: NV, which was yesterday via Steam.  Checked for Malware/Spyware/Viruses etc, nothing detected -_-

Needless to say, I am very confused.  Anybody have any sort of clues as to why this is happening?

90

Living Room / OnLive.com has shut down.......

« on: August 16, 2015, 07:31 AM »

Well....Talk about annoyed....Here I am, sat watching crap on Youtube when I see a clip from the early 1900's which gave me a craving to boot up OnLive so I can play some Mafia II (I have bought several games via OnLive) - Much to my disappointment I learned that they have shut down, and because it was a streaming service I no longer have access to the things I paid for...

This...is exactly the reason I fucking HATE not having hard copies...and also the reason I hate this "Always Online" bullshit the games industry force upon us...It will also be the last time I buy a game that doesn't come with a direct download that I can play even if a service shuts down.

After five years of uninterrupted service, the OnLive Game Service comes to an end.
Sony has acquired important parts of OnLive. Due to the sale, all OnLive services were discontinued as of April 30, 2015.

As the first-ever game streaming service of its kind, everyone who has ever played a game using OnLive has contributed to the technology and its evolution in some way. We’re immensely proud of what’s been achieved and extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for being a part of the OnLive Game Service.

Thank you from all of us at –
OL2, Inc. (aka, OnLive)

http://onlive.com/

91

General Software Discussion / Firefox users, here's a security flaw you'll need to fix

« on: August 07, 2015, 07:28 PM »

Another day, another security flaw -- this one affecting Mozilla's Web browser, Firefox. But this one is easy enough for you to fix.

On Thursday, Mozilla revealed a vulnerability in its browser that was discovered by a Firefox user. An ad on an unnamed news site in Russia was able to tap into the vulnerability to upload certain files from a user's computer to a server apparently based in the Ukraine. Exploiting Firefox's PDF Viewer and its use of the widespread JavaScript code, the hack seems to capture only "developer focused" files -- think FTP (file transfer protocol) -- at least in Windows. Your personal files and data aren't caught in the attack, but the hack is still alarming.

Source: http://www.cnet.com/...ecurity-flaw-to-fix/

92

Living Room / Let's get it on.

« on: August 07, 2015, 08:53 AM »

93

Living Room / Microsoft is open-sourcing its iOS to Windows porting tools

« on: August 07, 2015, 03:26 AM »

Back in April this year at Microsoft’s annual Build conference, the company revealed that Windows 10 would be able to run Android and iOS apps with a little bit of tweaking. Now that Windows 10 is out, Microsoft is releasing its porting tools to the public and making them open-source for anyone to use and have access to.

Previously codenamed ‘Project IslandWood’, the Windows Bridge for iOS is opening up today with all of the source code freely available on GitHub. The iOS Bridge will let developers bring iOS apps over to both Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 with mobile support heading to us in the future.

Source: http://www.kitguru.n...ndows-porting-tools/
Microsoft's Full Announcement: http://blogs.windows...s-lets-open-this-up/
GitHub: http://www.github.com/Microsoft/WinObjC/


I also heard about them doing the same for Android > Windows - This should be interesting to follow!!!

94

Living Room / Want to backup your music collection? Tough...It's illegal.

« on: August 06, 2015, 10:28 AM »

If you read further into the story, even the IPO basically say "It's illegal, but we don't care"...which, IMHO, is as stupid as it can get...if you don't care, then why the hell make it illegal in the first place?  Personally, I say f**k it..carry on doing what you were doing...if you wanna backup your music/movie collection...or anything else you legally own...then do it.

If you’ve used iTunes CD ripping feature recently, did you know you were breaking the law? If you backed up your PC to a remote cloud platform, did you know you were taking part in an illegal activity? Yes, thanks to a recent overturning of revised copyright legislation by the High Court, copying any copyright protected media, whether from a CD to a PC, one device to another, or even backing up to a remote cloud is entirely illegal.

The High Court decision came through last month, where it overturned a previous ruling by the British government made in 2014, which legalised the copying of privately owned media for private use. A number of music studios were scared by that though and assumed people would stop buying music, so it lobbied and had the decision made unlawful in June this year.

So technically almost all copying is illegal, and this has been clarified as such by the Intellectual Property Office, which TorrentFreak recently spoke to. It specifically highlighted how it is illegal to rip a CD to a PC, making iTunes illegal and its advertising potentially infringing of copyright law, since it advertises the feature.

Source: http://www.kitguru.n...tunes-illegal-in-uk/

95

Living Room / The all-seeing crow warns of infinite change within 48 hours.

« on: July 23, 2015, 07:41 PM »

The communist toilet bowl prophecizes beautiful insurrection on Tuesday.

The neon crow anticipates angelic collapse before the next full moon.

The jade monkey foretells divine stability on Tuesday.

The green monkey heralds inevitable dissonance before the next full moon.

96

Living Room / Windows 10 to reach end of life in 2025

« on: July 21, 2015, 05:24 PM »

Microsoft has revealed the end of life date for its latest operating system, Windows 10. The soon to be released OS will reach its end of life support date on the 14th of October 2025, despite previous reports suggesting that Windows 10 would be the ‘final’ version.

The new end of life date was revealed on the Windows life-cycle fact sheet, which shows that mainstream support for Windows 10 will end on the 13th of October 2020, with extended support set to end five years later. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide regular updates for the software or any technical assistance.

Source: http://www.kitguru.n...end-of-life-in-2025/

97

Living Room / Computer Programming To Be Officially Renamed “Googling Stackoverflow”

« on: July 20, 2015, 05:41 PM »

Washington DC – The IEEE have produced a report today where they strongly recommend that from now on, the discipline of Computer Programming should be officially renamed to “Googling Stackoverflow”.

“We are recommending a root-and-branch name change to this discipline”, said President of the IEEE, Thomas M. Conte.  “We are even going to change the official name of the IEEE Computer Society to the IEEE Quick Look At StackOverflow Society”.

“We are furthermore recommending that all universities across the planet should cease to award Bachelors degrees, Masters or PhDs in computer programming or software engineering and instead they should award these degrees in Googling Stackoverflow.”

“We are also considering renaming “P-values” to “Reviewer Pacifiers”.”

Source: http://www.theallium...gling-stackoverflow/

98

Living Room / Important Message Within.

« on: June 17, 2015, 12:02 PM »

Moist.




Message Ends.

99

Living Room / Desura have gone bankrupt!

« on: June 05, 2015, 05:16 PM »

From: http://www.kitguru.n...a-has-gone-bankrupt/

The online game marketplace, Desura, has filed for bankruptcy shortly after reports that developers had not been paid for their sales on the platform. The lack of payment for small indie developers has apparently been going on for months, similarly to when Crytek UK were having issues and could not pay their employees.
Desura is owned by Bad Juju Games, the acquisition was only just made in November last year. The original creator of Desura was Linden Lab.

100

DC Gamer Club / Steam Introduces Refunds.

« on: June 03, 2015, 03:42 PM »

http://games.slashdo...vance-of-summer-sale

Deathspawner writes:
Despite all of its competition, Valve's Steam service remains the most popular digital PC game store around. While Steam does do a lot of things right, it can sometimes stumble in the worst of ways. Look no further than April's Skyrim mod debacle as a good example. Well, just as Valve fixed up that issue, it's gone ahead and fixed another: it's making refunds dead simple. While refunds have been possible in the past, it's required gamers to jump through hoops to get them. Now, Valve has set certain criteria for granting a refund, no questions asked: if you've bought the game within the past two weeks and played it for two hours or less, your refund is guaranteed.
The changes are being welcomed by most, but not all: some developers of smaller games that take less time to play through are worried that this will lead to abuse, and the system may enable more risk-free review-bombing as well.