Recent Posts

1101

Living Room / Re: quick poll, please vote! (2 questions only)

« Last post by 4wd on March 10, 2017, 04:32 AM »

I voted and as per Miles' first sentence, I want to know everything 

1102

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Script type to build an email body line by line

« Last post by 4wd on March 10, 2017, 04:27 AM »

What's the point in creating the RTF file in the first place (and why RTF for a list of links, plain text is easier)?
Where do the list of links that go into the RTF come from?

Sounds like a lot of needless double handling at the moment.

You could just create a HTML file with the links and use it as the body of the email like back here.

1103

Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately

« Last post by 4wd on March 09, 2017, 09:55 PM »

Ostrov (2006) - Available on YouTube: The Island

Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future.

Stalker (1979) - Also on Youtube: Stalker

A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.

TV series that I keep meaning to mention: Paradox (Unfortunately cancelled after 5 episodes) Youtube (Rather crappy video over backdrop episodes)

During a period of high activity on the sun a physicist receives images in his lab that show an event that has yet to happen.

And another blast from the past: Invasion: Earth Youtube

In the lonely Scottish highlands, a small band of military personnel fight a desperate battle against a formidable alien intruder to prevent an invasion of the Earth.

1104

General Software Discussion / Re: Any tool that immediately shows boot time problems?

« Last post by 4wd on March 08, 2017, 06:44 PM »

Autoruns will tell you if any startup item is missing (drivers, etc) and you can disable stuff that doesn't need to run at startup, eg. Adobe fast loader, etc, so I'd probably run that first before having to read through the lengthy boot log.

Another tool that can help pinpoint startup problems, FRST (I have used this to fix some problems highlighted when MBAM 3 wouldn't work) - Usage.

Along with the usual snakeoil warnings about it being not necessary to defrag the registry these days, when I used to do it, ERUNT and NTREGOPT were the only ones I used.

1105

Living Room / Re: myactivity.google

« Last post by 4wd on March 08, 2017, 12:22 AM »

You don't run a firewall on your Android devices?

Anything that I'm sure doesn't require net access to function doesn't get it - this includes a clock.

-4wd (March 07, 2017, 10:14 PM)

NTP is a good reason for a clock to access the internet...is it not?  But I agree on the general gist.

-Shades (March 07, 2017, 11:06 PM)

It's set to get the time from the mobile providers signal, it doesn't need NTP access to set the time on the phone - it's how it's worked since before smart phones were available.

If it were the other way around you would never have the correct time if you were international roaming, (unless you're rich and can afford global roaming data charges ).

Plus the service for accessing the time servers (NTP) is separate (I can individually block it in the firewall), the clock gets the time from the system, there's no real reason for it to be accessing the Internet.

1106

Living Room / Re: myactivity.google

« Last post by 4wd on March 07, 2017, 10:14 PM »

I briefly perused my data and it showed about a million things saying something like "Set Alarms and Timers" on Android for my account.

In other words, for some reason the Clock app keeps phoning home several times per day saying I've changed things when I haven't. And who would expect their clock to make regular reports on them anyway?

-Deozaan (March 07, 2017, 08:09 PM)

You don't run a firewall on your Android devices?

Anything that I'm sure doesn't require net access to function doesn't get it - this includes a clock.

1107

Living Room / Re: myactivity.google

« Last post by 4wd on March 07, 2017, 07:24 PM »

I have multiple Google accounts, only a couple show activity (the ones attached to my phone) - the rest have activity recording turned off and show nothing.

What they collect is controlled by the account holder (supposedly) so is this just another case of people not taking responsibility for their actions?

1108

General Software Discussion / Re: alternative bullet-proof ways to print over home (or remote) puters

« Last post by 4wd on March 07, 2017, 06:32 PM »

... more simply, PDF.

-Steven Avery (March 07, 2017, 12:01 PM)

FWIW, my suggestion for a vaguely similar question, (squint hard )

It could all be done in Powershell these days, eg. File Notification,
Printing PDF

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. Start-Process –FilePath “C:\Path\to\PDF.pdf” –Verb Print -PassThru | %{sleep 10;$_} | kill

So, in theory, just an accessible shared folder on the computer with the printer attached.

1109

Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately

« Last post by 4wd on March 07, 2017, 05:23 AM »

I think the main problem is / was expectations -- it wasn't what many expected from that 'type' of film

-tomos (March 07, 2017, 04:48 AM)

Same here, Arrival was forgettable - not having read anything about it beforehand I was expecting a remake of The Arrival.

1110

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

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2017, 08:38 PM »

Andain: You Once Told Me

1111

Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2017, 08:22 PM »

Low budget Lovecraft inspired film:

1112

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2017, 06:19 PM »

The usb security key looks cool.. I'd like to look into coding apps that use these.

-mouser (March 02, 2017, 04:05 PM)

You probably should look at the more expensive versions that do OTP and are programmable, I think the U2F only keys (eg. YubiKey Fido) are really only useful for websites but I haven't had a good look at the documentation at Yubico yet.

The programmable nature of the OTP versions would have let me program them for use with PayPal for example.

Documentation

1113

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by 4wd on March 01, 2017, 06:38 PM »

Yes, I know, it's not the weekend but this thread has been a little slow and it makes a change from the squabbling going on in the Silly Humour thread 

Anyway, I'm sure it's a weekend somewhere in the multiverse.

New laptop:


Dell 11-3162: Pentium N3710 and 120GB SSD, I've upgraded it to 8GB RAM and Win10Pro ... makes a nice upgrade from my ageing Atom N270 powered netbook for approximately the same weight with the bonus of 10 hour battery life.

Also:


A PortaPow (as was mentioned in this thread) and a YubiKey Fido (I probably should have gone for the more expensive versions that include OTP function but ... one day hopefully, PayPal will be pulled screaming into the 21st century).

The PortaPow isn't really for the security side of things, I was more interested in the smart charging side of it.

New toys for my upcoming multi-month lack of net access

1114

Non-Windows Software / Re: Android: (Wired) File Transfers from PC

« Last post by 4wd on February 28, 2017, 06:03 PM »

Anyone know how enable MTP mode on Galaxy S6? Can't get the phone being recognized by Samsung Kies even with USB debugging on

-fsmanchies (February 27, 2017, 03:35 AM)

Normally, (in almost all Android devices), you pull down the Notification Panel then tap on the one that says Connected as ... when you have the USB cable plugged in.  That should take you to the option to set it for MTP, PTP, Mass Storage, or Charging.

When I have to type in a lot of stuff on my phone and get fed up with fat finger frustration I plug in my USB mouse using the adapter and click on the onscreen keys.  It is way faster since it is pretty much impossible to miss a key with the mouse pointer. 

-MilesAhead (February 28, 2017, 10:13 AM)

Get a cheap roll up USB silicon keyboard.

1115

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 26, 2017, 08:06 PM »

Better audio at this Youtube link but using still images to tell the story.

1116

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AoMei Backupper Pro lifetime 72% off

« Last post by 4wd on February 26, 2017, 07:28 PM »

Lifetime key @60% off on Bits du Jour for another 12 hours or so.
http://www.bitsdujou...in=todays-deals-home

Pro version is free but with lots of limitations e.g. needs to be installed before offer ends (do read the Fine Print tab on the offer page)

Pro with Lifetime upgrades (2 PC's) is just under US$20

-tomos (February 26, 2017, 02:03 PM)

Which also, according to the Fine Print, can't be transferred to another computer - so once installed on a computer that's it. If you buy another computer you can't uninstall it from the old and install it on the new.

So Lifetime in this case, seems to refer to the computer lifetime.

However, since they also say there's no hardware footprint involved it also possibly means that once the license is activated twice you can activate it no longer.  ie. You wouldn't be able to reinstall it if your had to reinstall your OS if you had already installed/activated it twice previously.

Supposing this to be the case, a license actually has little value over the free Pro version offer other than the ability to get updates and support, (or you could just wait until it turns up on BJD again and update then).

The Fine Print appears to be a confusing mix of what applies to the discounted Pro version and the 100% discounted Pro version.

1117

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 13, 2017, 06:40 PM »

Daily Mail:

Chinese toilet paper with Donald Trump's face printed on it has seen a spike in sales since February, the company reported.

With his anti-Beijing stance, Trump has earned the ire of a Chinese company called Qingdao Wellpaper Industrial Co., based in Shandong province, according to the New York Post.

The company sells 'Dump with Trump' rolls for 50 cents each and there are various Trump facial expressions available.

1118

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by 4wd on February 13, 2017, 06:18 PM »

Warning on Ghacks: Firefox Focus privacy scandal

-IainB (February 13, 2017, 01:21 AM)

First of all: Maybe you missed the update which says their source was full of errors.
Secondly: I've started using Brave quite a bit lately to improve privacy.

-Deozaan (February 13, 2017, 05:40 PM)

If you don't mind not being able to install extensions, a portable browser based on WebKit/Qt, built-in adblocking, built-in user data encryption, HTTPS anywhere, etc, etc you could give Dooble a try ... if nothing else it's another browser to add to the mix 

By default, nothing is kept from a session unless a passphrase has been set:

1119

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by 4wd on February 11, 2017, 07:27 PM »

I think I said already that my model is Xiaomi Redmi Pro 3 International Version.

-kalos (February 11, 2017, 06:38 AM)

Pick one and then tell us what version of MIUI it's running:



As I have previously said, identify it by its board name because as you can see, there is no Redmi 3 Pro International Version.

The EU ROMs do remove a lot of the unnecessary Chinese stuff and add some extras geared towards non-China residents plus some system optimisations BUT it requires you to unlock the bootloader and flash an alternative, ie. TWRP.
NOTE: If you've never done this before or aren't prepared to wear the consequences of doing it incorrectly then DON'T.

I don't use MIUI at all, which I said previously, it was removed within 24 hours of getting the phone ... it sucks, it's crap, I hate it.  I hope that makes it clear what I think of the MIUI OS.  I didn't have any problems using it or the phone doing weird things, I just don't like it.

Having tried a few ROMs I now use CyanogenMod 12.1, (Android 5.1.1), with a few tweaks, any problems I had have pretty much gone. Another ROM gave me some features that CyanogenMod doesn't but Xposed + modules and/or apps have replicated them.

Assuming you're really talking about the Kate version of the RN3, there is a lot of good info in the Whirlpool forums:
https://forums.whirl...eplies.cfm?t=2566258
https://forums.whirl...eplies.cfm?t=2603115
https://forums.whirl...58&p=6&#r120 - A guide on flashing alternative ROMs on the RN3SE

It's mentioned that MIUI is rather aggressive regarding memory management which can cause it to force close apps, maybe that's the case here.
http://www.technocia...-miui78-secret-tips/
https://www.reddit.c...6d93&sh=d0a0c711

FWIW, I also turned off battery optimisation on a per app basis and it actually seemed to increase my battery life - go figure.

I have little doubt that flashing something like CyanogenMod or LineageOS would probably fix most issues you're having, (bearing in mind there is still the possibility that you just happen to receive a faulty phone - happens no matter what brand you choose).

Unless you're willing to undertake the necessary steps yourself, invalidating your warranty, and wearing any consequences of doing it wrong then in your case you're better off buying locally in a store.

1120

General Software Discussion / Re: Configuring Directory Opus for Fun and Profit

« Last post by 4wd on February 08, 2017, 05:20 AM »

Me thinks the developers have far too much free time on their hands 

1121

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2017, 03:23 AM »

It has MIUI 8.0.5.0 and Android 6.

It freezes very often, Google maps voice is not heard, sometimes I don't receive the call when people are caling me.

Is there a solution to this before sending this crap back to its vendor?

-kalos (February 04, 2017, 06:05 AM)

The latest is MIUI 8.1.x.x

Of course, we can't be more specific since your reluctance to tell us your exact phone model is obviously due to it being under strict NDA.

There are also later ROMs without all the Chinese bloatware available from EU XIAOMI Weekly ROMs as mentioned way, way back here but they require some degree of knowledge to install ....

As I said, the hardware is fine, MIUI OS is crap, (my opinion but the MIUI devs do seem to put form before function), but that would entail you replacing it with CyanogenMod, AOSP, LineageOS, etc which means you'd be required to work out how.

Anyway, with your prejudice against a whole country's technology industry, any effort to assist is, shall we say, academic ... especially since you've already made up your mind.

BTW, you do know that you have a 1 in 6 chance of your Samsung being made in China, iPhone (1 in 1, if you regard Taiwan as China), Lenovo (1 in 1), Huawei (1 in 1), ASUS (1 in 4), etc, etc.

1122

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 03, 2017, 04:30 AM »

It must be deliberate.
If the title accurately reflects the mentality of those in the NT it might be spot-on. Who knows?

-IainB (February 03, 2017, 02:09 AM)

http://www.abc.net.a...l-media-stir/8004430
https://www.pedestri...038-57df199e72a3.htm

1123

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 02, 2017, 08:42 PM »

Unofficial Northern Territory tourism ad:

Quite possibly NSFW for those in a place where they don't fully read things

1124

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by 4wd on February 02, 2017, 04:24 PM »

Sorry but your recommendation to buy the Xiaomi seems not good.

-kalos (February 02, 2017, 06:16 AM)

I suggest you read the thread again, I mentioned a particular model of phone that I was interested in, I didn't recommend it one way or another - I said multiple times that you need to do the research before getting anything.
I also mentioned that the MIUI OS is crap and that you should walk into a store and buy a phone because:
a) You're using the phone for business purposes. Why the hell are you buying something that is apparently a critical use item by mail order from another country where you'll have limited immediate repair/replacement options?
b) You were unwilling to do any research on the subject.

And we still have no idea exactly what phone you've bought or the OS version it's running because of your consistent lack of providing information.

I never trusted anything chinese and this comes to justify my opinion. Chinese companies, people, technology, etc are decades back, their quality is not just low, it's absolute crap.

Then why didn't you get a Samsung S6 or S7 with optional bonus firelighter and be secure in the knowledge that you've bought quality?

1125

General Software Discussion / Re: No video after resuming from sleep - Windows 10 Anniversary Edition

« Last post by 4wd on January 31, 2017, 11:24 PM »

Wasn't this high voltage thing a thing from the past? CRT monitors/TVs needed 10.000Volts to get the system started, but I thought that such high voltages aren't required for LCD-/LED-based monitors or TVs.

-Shades (January 31, 2017, 07:24 PM)

You're correct, it's not high voltage as such, being below 1000V it's technically low voltage but still hazardous/lethal.

The main capacitor of a switchmode PSU can discharge around 350-400V, it's usually the biggest and closest to the AC input, can be anything around 220-400uF.