Messages

201

Living Room / Re: What modern music (today) is considered to be both pop AND intellectual?

« on: June 05, 2014, 11:37 AM »

One of the big problems I have with the "Alternative" scene especially beginning around the '90's is that the word itself was in reverse, a negative. Supposedly people wanted "Alternatives to crap" ... but what if the alternative to "overpolished stadium rock crap" is ... "semi-melodic uncrafted crap"?

-TaoPhoenix (June 05, 2014, 09:24 AM)

My feeling is there are two ways to break a "rule" in music: through a conscious decision - or - out of sheer ignorance.

The first way has a much better chance of securing a good outcome even if serendipity is never completely absent from musical invention.

Crap, on the other hand, remains crap no matter what you do with it.
 (see attachment in previous post)

-40hz (June 05, 2014, 09:49 AM)

It's typically overlooked that when "breaking the rules" out of sheer ignorance pays off there's often some behind the scenes work involved by people who apply a touch of informed wizardry.

OTOH I explain the difference between a good and great musician this way. A good musician plays the notes you expected to hear - or one of the readily anticipated options. A great musician plays notes that wouldn't have occurred to you but somehow they're still the right notes.

The thing is, in any art the "rules" are really just there for people who are plotting their way through the process rather than feeling their way along. Not by coincidence, actual artists happen to follow some subset of the rules most of the time. That's why we turned them into rules - sort of a crutch for the creativity impaired.

Art is fundamentally more like a different language - a different sense entirely even. Or maybe I'd say creativity is another language which most people don't speak very well and the less you speak the language, the more you need a roadmap.

202

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYplorer lifetime license PRO 50% off

« on: June 03, 2014, 07:33 AM »

Awesome! It was getting to be about time for me to upgrade to the paid version anyway. The lifetime license for just a little more will be a sweet bonus.

203

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« on: May 29, 2014, 06:20 AM »

I never would have noticed it. When I was playing a P-Bass it was a backwards strung righty. And let me tell you it's a bitch to play that way! It's also a pain to re-learn how to play when you can suddenly position your left hand correctly instead of dodging the pots.

Actually even the way he holds his bass makes me think of a lefty playing a regular bass. See how he arches his wrist over the edge of the body? That's just where the knobs would be on a right handed bass. I tried playing that way but, due to my short fingers, I couldn't stop turning the volume up and down by accident.

204

Living Room / Re: National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC)

« on: May 06, 2014, 10:42 PM »

Burn it down.

We have thousands of years of history that illustrate that governments always end badly. Always. Why continue with a system that we KNOW is inherently flawed and that does not work? It's insane to do so.

You are not allowed to kidnap, murder, or steal, unless you are "government"? Just how does that make sense? A special privileged class that is above the law?

Mass murder is bad, unless you're "government" and call mass murder "war"? Can anyone tell me just how mass murder is good?

The US started as the smallest, most limited form of government, but has mushroomed into an 8,000 tonne demonic gorilla.

It is not ending well...

Burn it down.

-Renegade (May 06, 2014, 04:16 PM)

Not too terribly long ago I would have said that sounds awfully extreme... except I read history the same way you do, at least on this. What I think of as social evolution tells me seismic shifts in communications technology are the catalyst for tearing down the previous experiment in government and implementing something with a few hundred more years of experience hard coded in.

With the ever accelerating rate of technological innovation, it only stands to reason the cycle of rise, fall, and reinvention should accelerate similarly. The US rose faster, peaked brighter, and is falling harder and faster than any other most powerful country in the world, historically speaking. There was, however, a little more equilibrium, as there is almost every time around.

I'm at least half serious when I say the US Constitutions suffers from having been written backward. I actually mean that on a couple levels, the first being that the anti-Federalist viewpoint should be the base for the document, and the Federalist bits tacked on rather than the other way around. Also, it seems, and certainly reads, like the tools were defined independently of the job.

If you were to rewrite it the other way around, especially with a couple centuries plus of the experiment to see what controls were missing, you still have all the building blocks for the next evolution of the liberty (rather than privilege) based society.

I really should do that some day - rewrite the US Constitution starting with a list of Inherent Liberties (a super Bill of Rights), guidelines for the jurisdictional relationship between the federal and state governments, followed by definitions of the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches focused on building a minimal adversarial relationship in their design.

...in the new world order...

-Vurbal (May 06, 2014, 03:16 PM)

I do wonder what you are getting at there. I'll skip comments as they're more appropriate for the basement.

-Renegade (May 06, 2014, 04:16 PM)

 

Mostly joking that I'm at least close to taking a turn into Burn it Down! territory. Burning it down implies, to me, a contested battle against the current system and likely no system at all during some transition period. I want to pick a good part of the former United States to settle down in should national boundaries be redrawn as a result. Also, it seemed pretty funny in my head. As I've often noted, my head can be a scary place. 

One thing that made our Constitution resiliant enough to survive the latter half of the previous century was that by the 1960s it had allowed for enough growth that Thomas Jefferson's little bit of revolution from time to time happened without armed insurrection, although certainly not without bloodshed. It turns out we can manage an awful lot of revolution without burning everything to the ground. We could probably make the changes needed here too.

The question is whether it's worth the wait and damage along way. It probably isn't. Better to hit rock bottom as quickly as possible so we can start back up. Maybe it doesn't fail this time. Maybe we rebuild and it's next time or the time after. It will come eventually and, unless it's one of the rare exceptions, it will be better than what we've got now.

205

Living Room / Re: National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC)

« on: May 06, 2014, 03:16 PM »

At the risk of threadjacking, the question I keep coming back to personally is whether our problem systems can be torn down, as in saving the system, or whether it's too late and we're stuck with burning it all down. At one point I was almost convinced the US represented too much geography and population to manage effectively via representative democracy.

Increasingly I've come to the opinion serious term limits across all elected and appointed positions, effectively implemented, is the ultimate future of democratic government. It's one of those lessons you sort of have to learn the hard way. It will happen in waves, as these sorts of changes always do, and it may still be a century or more in the future for all I know.

Let's say we implement my overly ambitious term limits throughout the government. We've perhaps changed the flow of appointees to the bloated politicorporate machinery, but what's going to cut out the rot? How many decades do we have/are we willing to wait for that? I think a lot of things will become clearer, much quicker suddenly, perhaps more than once.

My oldest daughter is already voting age, my second youngest will be there in a month and a half, and 3 1/2 years from now all my kids will be voting. They belong to a generation which has had a peek behind the curtain and been confronted with the country's political and corporate machinery in a raw and personally meaningful way. What some of us argued in vain for decades is now common knowledge. Is it too little too late? Is it just the normal course correction of democracy?

What do you think? Can we tear out the rot in the US or should we burn it down and start over?

Also, in the case of a bloody revolution leading to the balkanization of the former United States, which part of my former country do you recommend landing in when the dust settles? Iowa would still be a vital transportation hub in the new world order, but I'm not sure I want to live in a country without a coastline.   

206

Living Room / Re: National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC)

« on: May 05, 2014, 01:13 PM »

^Good thing she doesn't teach in my state! Making a joke like that probably would have gotten her in trouble if not fired or at least ordered to get a psych evaluation to be sure she isn't a therat to "The Children."
 

-40hz (May 03, 2014, 05:21 PM)

I have to admit we're fortunate to live in a school district where there's a minimal amount of rigid ignorance, beyond government mandated knee jerking anyway.

We even have our own Supreme Court decision to remind everyone just what rigid ignorance looks like - and how the SCOTUS feels about it.

-Vurbal (May 04, 2014, 09:37 AM)

Decision Date: February 24, 1969

The problem is that there are too many neo-libs and neo-cons that seem to think that "all that Constitution nonsense is outdated". After all, "it's a living document" and "needs to reflect the reality of the times we live in." Pfft. Horse s**t.

I don't think that the courts would rule the same today.

Honestly, the way schools are now scares me. I've seen parts of some curricula, and they're terrifying. I was at an event hosted at an elementary school, and what was posted on the walls was just surreal. They might as well have just posted pictures of Stalin and Mao.

-Renegade (May 04, 2014, 09:24 PM)

I actually do think the SCOTUS would rule the same today. When it comes to the basics of First Amendment protection, meaning there are no special rights for politicorporate elite at stake, the Supreme Court has been remarkably consistent for nearly the last hundred years. The eventual outcome of a challenge isn't the problem IMO. The problem is the likelihood a legitimate challenge would get buried in a mountain of stupid for months or years before making it there. That's assuming they took the first such case to come along, which may or may not be the case.

Simple free speech cases, particularly those with the potential to set benchmarks for decades of briefs, precedents, and even future SCOTUS decisions, are the modern day court's bread and butter to some extent. At least since the time Oliver Wendell Holmes was pushed by history and his colleagues from from the dark side and became a defender of speech, the justices have been overwhelmingly (and apparently personally) committed to the principal of extremely narrow and tailored speech regulation and even less prior restraint. It's politically cheap and, I suspect, beyond the view, from that height, to truly grasp the effects of.

In terms of school district bureaucrats, things are more complex. We have some personal advantages there since my wife is Administrative Assistant to the district's Transportation Manager. She has also become one of the district's 2 "go to" people for the payroll system they just rolled out, working for/with the Comptroller and Superintendent and being personally responsible for supporting all the school Office Managers. When the top administrators have you on their short list of people who, "just get things done," it's amazing the difference it makes in your access to bullshit free answers.

207

Living Room / Re: National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC)

« on: May 04, 2014, 09:37 AM »

^Good thing she doesn't teach in my state! Making a joke like that probably would have gotten her in trouble if not fired or at least ordered to get a psych evaluation to be sure she isn't a therat to "The Children."
 

-40hz (May 03, 2014, 05:21 PM)

I have to admit we're fortunate to live in a school district where there's a minimal amount of rigid ignorance, beyond government mandated knee jerking anyway.

We even have our own Supreme Court decision to remind everyone just what rigid ignorance looks like - and how the SCOTUS feels about it.

208

Living Room / Re: National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC)

« on: May 03, 2014, 04:52 PM »

"We just issue the things, we don't track them."

-TaoPhoenix (April 30, 2014, 01:28 AM)

^ That guy. I want to steal his stapler. (This is starting to remind me of that one fellow in "The Office".)

-Renegade (May 01, 2014, 07:49 AM)

My son has a teacher with a red Swingline. When he pointed it out to her she said, "if they take my stapler I'll burn the place down!"

209

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me overbuild my home network

« on: April 26, 2014, 06:40 PM »

First of all I should add some context to the setup detailed in the first post. It's not final by any means. It's a middle step in my (yes, very messy and inefficient) design process. Some of the components (like the server NICs and switch) are from different steps in the process so they may not make sense together.

I've just reached a point where I need more information about some of the technology from people with personal knowledge. When I left IT I was dealing with G3 Proliant DL servers and just a 1GB fiber backbone. Virtualization hadn't really gotten down to our level. Obviously SANs weren't a thing for us either. I have a lot of catching up to do still. I haven't even started on reading the documentation for the SAN (probably FreeNAS or NAS4Free) or virtualization software.

Normally at this point I would probably still have at least a week of full time research left before going back to the beginning and building the design from scratch. Like I said, it's a chaotic process. Thankfully DC is the rare place I feel confident I'll find someone to point me in the right direction and save days. The more critical anyone wants to be, the more useful it is for me.

To ensure smooth network traffic and good throughput I'll be putting either 2 or 4 port Intel server NICs in all the machines, including the SAN.

-Vurbal (April 24, 2014, 03:30 PM)

That's not going to give you what you're after. Teaming 4 NICs won't give you a 4Gb pipe for single transfers. It will give 4 1Gb pipes to 4 different transfers. If you want maximum speed across the backbone, go either fiber or Cat6a 10Gb copper.

Now I have to figure out the SAN hardware. Ideally I'd be using 2.5 inch SAS drives but they're just too expensive. Instead I'll be going with 3.5 inch SAS, Seagate Constellation ES specifically. They're designed for storage arrays and have a 5 year warranty. I'll be using either 1TB or 2TB drives in a RAID 6 configuration and a hardware controller with at least 512MB of BBWC. It will be either 6 or 7 drives which is more than Seagate recommends (they say up to 5) but I don't see that being a problem.

-Vurbal (April 24, 2014, 03:30 PM)

RAID6? ...That's even overkill by my standards. The 2.5 drives are cheaper to run, so go with 2.5" 7,200 Nearline SAS drives to save cost and still get the 6GB transfer speeds.

-Stoic Joker (April 25, 2014, 06:40 AM)

The Constellation drives are nearline SAS - well actually I think that's all the 2.5 inch models and everything 2TB and up for 3.5 inches. Admittedly I did minimal research and signigicantly less comparison shopping.

I think it's time to back up a little bit and make myself a logical map of the servers/services and clients I'm going to have. It occurs to me that, considering my limited experience with VMs, I may be completely off about the hardware requirements. Eliminating a server could drastically improve my storage budget, making 2.5 inch drives perhaps a viable option. And the more I think about it, the more I think I'd be crazy not to go with RAID 10. If I happen to end up with a server equipped with a good RAID card, is there any argument for using it instead of software RAID 10?

I think I know enough now that I should make a logical diagram of the servers/services and clients that will be on the network. Then I can try to sort out how to best host them as virtual machines and, potentially, what I don't want to virtualize. I'm still kind of stuck in the world where you were concerned that certain services run from different physical servers.

I suspect for my network the only serious consideration should be avoiding physical resource bottlenecks. Until I can estimate resource demands only wild overestimates are safe. I intend to overshoot my needs, but by a foot or 2, not a mile. I have a feeling when I see all the pieces together I'll at least be able to formulate the problem better.

I hope that's an enclosed cabinet...because rack systems do tend to be very loud ... And hot. Make plans for keeping the thing cool.

It's enclosed and actually not terrible looking for an office. It even has a smoked glass window in the door. I wouldn't have considered an open rack, even with just a few servers. The company that hired me to be their first network admin had the brilliant idea that I could work from a table in the server room. It only had one cabinet, nowhere near half full, but the back door was off, the room was (literally) an old supply room with no serious cooling. It was loud, but damn was it hot!

Soundproofing shouldn't be too hard. For the noise level I'll be dealing with, acoustic foam inside the cabinet should be good enough. Otherwise I have it set up with walls or surfaces on 3 sides which could all get the same treatment.

For the moment, cooling is a series of escalating measures I may have to use. My office has nearly 9 foot ceilings and there's a ceiling fan positioned at a good height and distance to circulate exhaust heat from the top of the cabinet. There's a vent a couple feet in front of it, and all the ac/heat vents in the house have individual dampers. In a worst case scenario the window in front of it would get a window AC unit. Of course that introduces the noise problem again. 

On one hand it would have been nice to get a 21u cabinet instead, but my only actual option was a 12u cabinet on wheels and it looked like cooling would be a problem. It certainly wouldn't be helped significantly by the ceiling fan.

210

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me overbuild my home network

« on: April 24, 2014, 11:34 PM »

On the plus side, a 42U rack will have a seating capacity of at least 1 even with the hardware installed, if you start at the top! 

-x16wda (April 24, 2014, 06:41 PM)

I'll have to put the chair at the bottom. I wouldn't want my long hair getting sucked into the exhaust fan at the top.

It still looks like you will be spending a fair amount, can't you just spring for a couple extra drives and do RAID 10?  That cuts the parity crap and extra writes out of the equation and ought to result in better performance.

I'm definitely going to be doing some significant spending, a little more than I would have under my original plan. I'll just be getting a lot more for the money, and honestly most of it will probably outlast whatever I would have put together before.

At the end of the day, though, 2 more drives wouldn't significantly change the factors that led me to choose RAID 6. A lot of it boils down to the fact I've gone a long time without increasing my storage significantly. I already have projects in the works that will push my needs well past what I have now. I foresee needing to add at least another 2TB within the next year cheaply enough that I can also get a lot more backup capacity in place.

The price of things like a good RAID controller or high end NICs doesn't really bother me since I look at them as just an upfront cost that will pay dividends for a long time. Even if one of these servers dies, they will likely reduce the replacement cost. At this point the worst case scenario would be deciding SAS-2 hardware isn't worth the price right now and falling back on SAS-1. It seems likely I won't be pushing the boundaries of SAS-1 with anything I've got planned.

Assuming I go that route, I could go with a lower end Proliant than the dl360 and one of HP's P800 RAID controllers. Add in a MSA60 drive shelf and the price would still probably be less than the controller itself would run me for SAS-2. That's after the expense of buying new cache batteries for the P800. That may not be necessary but I'd do it on general principle anyway.

211

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me overbuild my home network

« on: April 24, 2014, 10:49 PM »

Sometimes you can get lucky finding stuff on eBay. A couple years ago my network switch died and I needed a new one. Found a nearly new D-Link DGS-1224T Rev C 24-port managed switch on eBay for the outrageous price of $70 delivered.

-Innuendo (April 24, 2014, 08:35 PM)

Yeah, I'm planning to spend at least a week or 2 looking daily in case something pops up. The more I think about it and the more I look on eBay, though, the less concerned I am. Modular units like some of the old 8 card HP models should be easy enough to come by. They're still perfectly good but big enterprise operations don't have any use for them today because they fall short on both ports and internal bandwidth.

OTOH I'm not in any danger of even approaching either of those problems. Since it's going to be hidden away in a cabinet anyway it won't even be an eyesore having a mostly empty chassis around. I'd still jump at a deal on something newer and better suited to my needs but in the long run it shouldn't be a big deal either way.

212

General Software Discussion / Help me overbuild my home network

« on: April 24, 2014, 03:30 PM »

I'm gearing up for a major home network upgrade, actually more like building a completely new network from the ground up, and I need to tap into some of DC's IT wisdom to make the leap from concept to design. Originally my plan was simply to build a networked DVR and media server using MythTV (LinHES technically) to exorcise my house of Hulu Plus. Naturally I couldn't just build a server and put in some set-top boxes. Being... well me... I couldn't stick with something so straight forward and simple and now I've managed to escalate my plans into something truly batshit crazy.

Last week, when I was at a used office furniture store buying a desk, I lucked into a deal on a server cabinet so now I'm pretty well committed. Based on my wife's reaction when I put the 7 foot behemoth in my office (did I mention it's a full 42u cabinet?), she's all in favor of having me committed too. Hopefully if I pull this off I'll get to keep sleeping in the same room with her for many years to come.

So here's the new plan. Instead of nice new hardware I've decided to take advantage of the huge volume of outdated HP enterprise (well low end enterprise) servers available for next to nothing. Specifically I'm focusing on Generation 5 Proliant dl360 units which I should cost inside of $250 each including rack rails and shipping. I'm planning 3 servers - 1 for a border/network appliance, 1 for management (OpenLDAP mostly) and VM testing and one for media and possibly a couple other services once I'm comfortable with the performance.

The servers are going to be running ProxMox VE for virtualization and some combination of KVM and OpenVZ for the VMs. Since they will all be sharing drive space, which I'll also be using to expand my desktop, most of my spending is going to be on storage and network infrastructure. I'm going to want something more than a simple NAS so I've decided to setup a SAN instead. To ensure smooth network traffic and good throughput I'll be putting either 2 or 4 port Intel server NICs in all the machines, including the SAN.

Now I have to figure out the SAN hardware. Ideally I'd be using 2.5 inch SAS drives but they're just too expensive. Instead I'll be going with 3.5 inch SAS, Seagate Constellation ES specifically. They're designed for storage arrays and have a 5 year warranty. I'll be using either 1TB or 2TB drives in a RAID 6 configuration and a hardware controller with at least 512MB of BBWC. It will be either 6 or 7 drives which is more than Seagate recommends (they say up to 5) but I don't see that being a problem.

What's missing now is figuring out a controller to use and a server platform to put it in. Older hardware is a problem in this case because I don't want to settle for SAS-1 speed when I have the faster drives. There's already going to be a performance hit from the redundant parity for RAID 6. Ideally I want to set it up to provide some private cloud services for things like photo viewing and a file locker. Basically I want it to mesh well with my wife's iPhone similar to how public cloud services work. That should take care of her annoyance at the whole project.

That just leaves the issue of traffic management. I'd like to find a good used managed switch. Unfortunately managed managed switches are one of the last real scams left in the low end enterprise market. I mostly blame Cisco for that. Fortunately it seems like I can pick up an older ProCurve Chassis and the requisite cards for around $200. I also need to do some work on the wireless coverage around the house, and especially out in the garage, but I'll hold off on that until everything else is good and stable.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Questions?

Feel free to just point and laugh. I would.

213

Living Room / Re: Once again, magically expensive items are only different in your mind

« on: April 23, 2014, 07:01 PM »

As far as the Yamaha speakers, they might be what was used in many studios but you can have the most current, most accurate studio monitors in your home audio system but you still aren't hearing what was recorded as it was heard in the studio because it has been processed to make it blend with everything else. If it wasn't processed like that it wouldn't be as pleasing to your ears. You can hear this in church/community/school performances that are recorded using just one or two mics which makes it difficult to give the different instruments/vocals individual space for playback.

-Joe Hone (April 23, 2014, 05:23 PM)

It's rare, probably near impossible, for great recordings to be just the reflection of a great performance. Studio recordings are a collaboration between the artists, producer, and engineer. Take Cream's first 2 albums for example. On Fresh Cream it's obvious you're listening to one of the great bands of all time. Add in Felix Pappalardi and Tom Dowd as collaborators and Disreali Gears becomes one of the all time great recordings.

214

General Software Discussion / Re: Scary Driveby Attack / Mysterious failure / Other

« on: April 18, 2014, 06:54 AM »

points 50/50. Admins however know that that notion - generally speaking - is complete bullshit. Things that can, will, and do influence the coins inclination one way of the other are the users own aptitude score, the age of the machine, my mood, the day of the week, and of course - most importantly - the time of day... As one must always, and in all things account for and defer to the will of Murphy's Law lest they risk incurring the wrath of the fates.

-Stoic Joker (April 17, 2014, 11:51 AM)

You forgot the phase of the moon. 

215

LaunchBar Commander / LBC appearance tweaks

« on: April 17, 2014, 09:29 PM »

As requested by Mouser, here's what I'd like to be able to do to adjust the appearance of certain things in LBC. If anyone else has any suggestions they would like considered for the next version, now is the time to explain - preferably with some sort of visual aid.

1. I'd like to be able to adjust the position of nodes. In the example below I'd like to align the tops of all the icons but since the first one has no text and the others do this doesn't work.

2. Adjustable padding for the top of a launchbar.

3. Manually set the width of nodes. I'd like to set all 3 of these menu nodes to the same width and I'd like it to be arbitrary. By that I mean I want to select the width rather than relying on the size of the icon or text.



Additionally I'd like to be able to set the size of a separator without losing the line. Currently if you set a manual width, the separator image is no longer shown. Also I'd like to be able to make that size less than 10 pixels (or whatever the current minimum is when you specify width) and specify whether the separator image should be on the left, center, or right.

216

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« on: April 10, 2014, 08:04 PM »

I couldn't work standing up now because of my bad knee. By bad I mean serious enough the doctor would have recommended replacement before my last surgery except I was only 26. I expect to finally have my first knee replacement either this year or next. If that alleviates my back problems I would seriously consider a standing desk.

217

General Software Discussion / Re: Internet Explorer Front End

« on: April 10, 2014, 07:57 PM »

+1! Words of wisdom.

-40hz (April 10, 2014, 01:53 PM)

And I only had to learn the hard way once. In my defense, I was teaching myself group policy while setting up my first Server 2003 AD domain on a tight deadline and as a 1 man IT shop. And this was in a test environment I setup to learn on. Thank God for O'Reilly books.

Also, my friend the Exchange Server guru.

218

General Software Discussion / Re: Internet Explorer Front End

« on: April 10, 2014, 01:25 PM »

@MilesAhead:  I tried to install the Maxthon 2 browser (went fine), but when I tried to run it I was blocked with an error message saying I was blocked because the program (Maxthon) was violating the Group Policy Editor. ASs I'm running Home Premium, I don't have access to the GPE. Any ideas?

-BearPup7 (April 10, 2014, 10:58 AM)

It's possible, although perhaps legally questionable, to add the Group Policy Editor in home versions of Win7, and apparently Win8 / Win8.1.

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-enable-group-policy-editor-gpedit-msc-in-windows-7-home-premium-home-basic-and-starter-editions/

I've tested the procedure myself on Win7 and can verify it works. Having said that, I would also recommend not doing anything via Group Policy except as a last resort. And whatever you do, make sure to keep good notes on any changes you make. Group Policy is really just a frontend for a wide variety of Windows settings, many in the registry. Reversing policy settings typically isn't as simple as returning to the defaults.

Many of the defaults really equate to "change nothing." In many cases they are a sort of 3 way switch and the choices will be No Change, On, and Off. In those cases you can at least look at what you've set (either On or Off) and select the opposite to reverse it. I can't really provide any more specific advice since I'm not sure what policy is responsible here.

219

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Logitech Revolution MX Mouse - Spring Cleaning

« on: April 08, 2014, 08:53 PM »

I just miss having a good ergonomic Logitech mouse. For me the first test for a mouse is whether I can just drop my hand on it and everything is in the right place. Logitech's ergonomic designs are the only ones that ever seem to pass that test.

-Vurbal (April 08, 2014, 10:29 AM)

In that case you should be very happy with this rodent. One of the best Logitech ever made IMO. And they've had a lot of good models over the years. 

-40hz (April 08, 2014, 11:13 AM)

I got that impression from looking at it.

220

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Logitech Revolution MX Mouse - Spring Cleaning

« on: April 08, 2014, 10:29 AM »

Yeah I'm not worried about the battery. There are plenty of places to find good ones at a reasonable price.

I just miss having a good ergonomic Logitech mouse. For me the first test for a mouse is whether I can just drop my hand on it and everything is in the right place. Logitech's ergonomic designs are the only ones that ever seem to pass that test.

221

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Logitech Revolution MX Mouse - Spring Cleaning

« on: April 08, 2014, 08:32 AM »

Thanks! I'll pm you with my address.

222

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Logitech Revolution MX Mouse - Spring Cleaning

« on: April 07, 2014, 09:37 PM »

If it isn't already spoken for I'd love it!

I'm down to an old wired 2 button scroll mouse at the moment so I'm already looking for an upgrade.

223

Living Room / Re: Dead Hot Chicks Boost Weather Ratings?

« on: April 07, 2014, 01:15 PM »

Back in the day, when I used to travel a lot for work, The Weather Channel was an incredibly useful and fairly unique resource. Today it's a solution in search of a problem. Detailed weather data has been comoditized to the point there's really nothing to justify paying for (or watching) a pay TV channel dedicated to it. Even if I wanted to get that information from TV, one of the local stations has a dedicated local weather channel as one of their secondary streams.

The Weather Channel's solution has been to become like every other news or information channel and transform their product into infotainment. It's not working very well and I don't see it going anywhere but down from here.

224

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Shortcut for Windows Fax and Scan

« on: April 04, 2014, 03:45 PM »

well now thats plain weird.
let me ask, does that file actually exist (WFS)?

i wonder if this is one of those cases where windows is doing some trickery with virtual directory shadowing type stuff, pretending the file is one place when it's not..  or if it's some kind of permission system..

-mouser (April 03, 2014, 11:04 PM)

Looks like it's exactly the opposite of that. LBC can't even see wfc.exe because it doesn't redirect to a 32-bit program like most of the programs in System32.

I'll have to remember that trick. Thanks Ath!

225

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Can LBC be transformed into a task bar

« on: April 04, 2014, 01:50 PM »

I've came to a happy balance for myself.
I have a doc at top and one to the right(hidden). I have the taskbar hidden(i can access it when I need it)

I'll try to find a good systray program and I should be set.

-Dochappy (April 03, 2014, 07:17 PM)

I use the ShowTray docklet from Total Taskbar Controller. It's not perfect. It will only show you the hidden tray items and the popup doesn't necessarily appear above the dock node. It's the best solution I've found so far though.