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1176

Living Room / Re: How to know which vehicle I am driving?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2016, 10:01 PM »

Put a WiFi hotspot in each vehicle, each with a different SSID.

The PDA is only required to detect, not connect with it, then report the SSID it found.

Use the Onion Omega2 (US$5 + P&P), the C.H.I.P. (US$9 + P&P), RasPi 0 + WiFi dongle (<US$10), or there's probably others with WiFi.

Same idea as NFC but much greater range and probably cheaper.

You'd probably need to write a small program for the PDA.

This isn't a "download an app from Google Play and all my problems are solved" sort of thing.

-skwire (December 09, 2016, 04:53 PM)

Considering that no information has been given regarding what the PDA/phone/thing is, (as usual), then it is indeed highly unlikely the solution would be this easy 

1177

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2016, 04:06 PM »

http://www.banggood....phone-p-1064299.html

The World has moved on since you started your quest, a dollar less than your first link gets you 1GB more RAM and the Snapdragon 820.

EXPIRED: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/280965 - US$20 off coupon

1178

General Software Discussion / Re: Affinity (Serif) goes head to head with Photoshop & (maybe) Illustrator

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2016, 08:28 PM »

Bit more info:

We have finally got the news you have been waiting for: Affinity Photo for Windows is now on sale! Plus, as promised, we are making it available for a limited time with a 20% launch discount, so you can buy it now for only US$39.99!

Plus! Extra bonus offer

As if the discounted price wasn’t enough we are also giving away a pack of Macros designed specifically for use with Affinity Photo. Everyone ordering in the first two weeks get this fantastic pack for free – you’ll receive a download link for them in your order confirmation!



Offer ends 22nd December, so don’t miss out!

Don't forget to play the currency game, it's AU$13 cheaper for me to buy it in UKP including paying the VAT, (PayPal currency converter), (AU$63 via Serif, AU$50 via PayPal in UKP).

1179

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Hard Disk Manager Pro 50% off at BDJ

« Last post by 4wd on December 05, 2016, 12:10 AM »

Probably means a new version is about to come, usually happens just outside the 3 month free upgrade period they give 

1180

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2016, 11:20 PM »

I was north of the border recently 

1181

Found Deals and Discounts / DxO Optics Pro 9 available *FREE* until 2017/02/28

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2016, 06:41 PM »

^ That's a link.

Released in 2013:

DxO Optics Pro 9 introduces PRIME, a revolutionary noise reduction technology whose spectacular performance produces detailed and vividly-colored images even under the most extreme shooting conditions.

Based on DxO Labs' exclusive approach of prior calibration of equipment in its laboratories, DxO Optics Pro integrates many powerful tools for automatically processing RAW and JPEG images: precise optical and geometric corrections, intelligent optimization of exposure and contrast, preservation of colors and details. Its numerous presets can be adapted to photographers' personal tastes and will help them bring out the best in their photos in just a few clicks.

I'd drop in a direct download link but the serial numbers are all different anyway, (ie. you need to submit an email address - use a disposable if you like).

1182

General Software Discussion / Re: Affinity (Serif) goes head to head with Photoshop & (maybe) Illustrator

« Last post by 4wd on December 01, 2016, 06:01 PM »

US$39.99 and as of this moment it still shows as $39.99 but I'm not sure whether the freebies are still included.



^ That's the email link I received.

1183

General Software Discussion / Re: should I be using a VPN? why? what about the recent deals?

« Last post by 4wd on November 30, 2016, 06:25 PM »

Companies like Windscribe in Canada (a new company that made a splash) and VPN Unlimited seem to have specials along the usage of one year at $20 or lifetime at $40.

-Steven Avery (October 13, 2016, 02:20 AM)

I actually picked up one of the VPN Unlimited Infinity Lifetime (Lifetime = 99 years, IIRC) deals late last year for <US$40.  Was less than for a year with the provider I was using, so even if VPN Unlimited die in the next month I've saved money

Their software is easy to use, (application for most OSs, an app for Chrome based browsers, and instructions for various other devices), they allow torrents on specific servers, and allow up to 5 devices to connect at once as standard, (Chrome with the app counts as one device, separate from the whole computer).  You can cover more devices if necessary at a monthly/yearly cost, (they have specials on that occasionally).

Speeds are fine for me with no real impact, (only on ADSL2+ at 6-8Mb/1Mb), using the Optimal VPN gateway (the closest).

1184

Living Room / Re: grab urls

« Last post by 4wd on November 29, 2016, 09:13 PM »

I have a list of URLs that I want to download from a website that has a form login.

How can I do that automatically in batch?

Is there a downloader and can the downloader use the cookie from my Firefox to authenticate?

-kalos (November 29, 2016, 05:33 PM)

wget

Login with wget and keep the cookie

Parameter to download files from a list:  -i list.txt

1185

General Software Discussion / Re: should I be using a VPN? why? what about the recent deals?

« Last post by 4wd on November 26, 2016, 11:33 PM »

Anonymous Speech - The IT Law wiki.
Inherent in the panoply of protections afforded by the ((American)) First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously in diverse contexts.[2] This right arises from a long tradition of American advocates speaking anonymously through pseudonyms, such as James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, who authored the Federalist Papers but signed them only as "Publius."

The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that "an author's decision to remain anonymous . . . is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment."[3] This is because "the interest in having anonymous works enter the marketplace of ideas unquestionably outweighs any public interest in requiring disclosure as a condition of entry."[4] The Supreme Court has also held that there is "no basis for qualifying the level of First Amendment scrutiny that should be applied to . . . [the Internet] medium."[5] Accordingly, "it is clear that speech over the internet is entitled to First Amendment protection" and that "this protection extends to anonymous internet speech."[6]

-holt (November 26, 2016, 10:32 PM)

All of which only applies to American Citizens.

1186

Found Deals and Discounts / Black Friday deals 2016

« Last post by 4wd on November 24, 2016, 07:21 PM »

And so the inevitable scrambling for spare cash behind the cushions and the crush at the doors of Internet shops begins:

A VPS deal to get you started:

256MB KVM - $10/year

This one is available in Miami only. Open a ticket for a free upgrade to 512MB of RAM.

MIAKVM-256
256MB RAM
10GB Disk Space
500GB Bandwidth
1 CPU Core
1 IPv4
KVM Virtualization
Miami, FL
$10/year

https://hostodo.com/...mocode=BLACKFRIDAY03

Promo code BLACKFRIDAY03 will be applied on the second screen.

Cheap for KVM virtualisation, good for low data transfer website, VPN, proxy, etc.

Disclaimer: I have a VPS with Hostodo (~5 months, not this particular configuration), never had a problem with it - this is just an email deal they've sent out.


Also, on Cyber Monday, C.H.I.P. are going to have a one day only sale (5am-Midnight PST).

1187

General Software Discussion / Re: blanking file data while keeping folder-file structure

« Last post by 4wd on November 22, 2016, 11:57 PM »

The other RoboCopy offshoots?

-Steven Avery (November 22, 2016, 09:24 PM)

RoboCopy derivatives that I mentioned here:

BTW, if you're going to use Robocopy where there's any chance that the files will already be opened then it will fail on those files, (it won't access open files).  You can get around that by either using:
1) ShadowSpawn (which is a replacement for Hobocopy below) which will create a VSS copy before running Robocopy, or;
2) Hobocopy which was a less featured version of Robocopy that could use the VSS, (written by the author of ShadowSpawn).

Although, ShadowSpawn is really just a pre-command to RoboCopy, (or any other command), that creates a VSS copy so that open files can be accessed.

Wikipedia also mentions a couple of other GUIs for RoboCopy^w, like Easy RoboCopy which has been updated to cope with new args in the Win10 version.

Can you get 50 Gigabytes in hours rather than days with any of these tools like RichCopy/Robocopy?

File Transfer Time Calculator

eg. 50GB @ ~20Mb/s = ~6.3 hours

It all depends on whether you can saturate your connection and the fact that a lot of small file transfers will slow down the transfer due to increased overhead, (more negotiation). In which case it's probably better to Zip/7z the folder structure beforehand just using the store option instead of compression so you only have one big file to transfer at maximum throughput.

+1 for CarotDAV, although I use it as a single interface for accessing various cloud storage rather than as a WebDAV server.

1188

General Software Discussion / Re: blanking file data while keeping folder-file structure

« Last post by 4wd on November 22, 2016, 06:22 PM »

One extra feature would be if they gave you an inclusion capability on file types. e.g. Only .mbx and .toc (e.g. some folders have thousands of .jpgs form attachments that do not need their zero byte new equivalent.)  However, the 0 bytes files are easy enough to delete en masse so that can be seen as a frill.

-Steven Avery (November 22, 2016, 02:32 PM)

RoboCopy has exclude filtering capability along with wildcards for input, so you could run two RoboCopy commands, one including *.mbx and the other *.toc.

As long as you don't set the mirror or purge switches (/MIR or /PURGE) then it shouldn't delete the files created from the first run.

If you need the fastest type copy, what is recommended these days?  Which tool? What mode? 
Maybe Syncovery?  Maybe a special fast mode in Total Commander or XYplorer?  The regular modes I used on both really was too slow for my 70 Gigabytes. Many hours.

You could use RoboCopy for the copy, (RoboCopy = Robust Copy), since it's using the normal Windows API you're almost guaranteed to get a 1:1 copy of the data and it multi-threads the copy by default unless you tell it otherwise.

There's also RichCopy if you want a GUI version of RoboCopy.

1189

General Software Discussion / Re: blanking file data while keeping folder-file structure

« Last post by 4wd on November 22, 2016, 06:51 AM »

However, looking for a way to make a copy of a file structure, blanking out the data, seems like a fairly simple routine, in one method it would be 3-step.

-Steven Avery (November 22, 2016, 03:54 AM)

If you just want a copy of the file structure so you can compare and rename your local files to match, wouldn't skwire's Zero Zipper do the job?

Or RoboCopy, (should be able to handle the spaces fine since it's using the normal filesystem), and zip the resulting cloned structure.

You'd end up with a file/folder structure clone of minimal size to transfer, then you could use a dual pane filemanager, (or something like Beyond Compare, set it to only compare filenames and display only discrepencies), to simultaneously browse the clone structure and data copy, fixing names as necessary.

Not as automated as you'd like but it is reasonably simple and doesn't involve any tedious program development.

1190

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by 4wd on November 21, 2016, 01:00 AM »

Blackbird is just a command file (~1MB), you can view and edit it if you want.

1191

Living Room / Re: ['Supermoon' tomorrow] Sun/Moon-rise/set App

« Last post by 4wd on November 14, 2016, 06:55 PM »

As to which direction I can see it, I'll look for the big bright thing in the night (assuming there's no clouds) 

-4wd (November 13, 2016, 11:30 PM)

The advantage of the other one, for photographers in particular, is that they can find/choose a location with something specific in the foreground for rising/setting of the moon, maybe woods, or a lake.

-tomos (November 14, 2016, 11:57 AM)

True but since it was cloudy last night, direction became kind of irrelevant for me 

1192

General Software Discussion / Re: Affinity (Serif) goes head to head with Photoshop & (maybe) Illustrator

« Last post by 4wd on November 14, 2016, 05:37 AM »

Anyone who already signed up wanna just share the download link so we don't have to give out an email address to try it out?

-Deozaan (November 14, 2016, 05:12 AM)

Knock yourself out 

Download ~277MB

I'm finding it a little on the slow side loading images but haven't really looked too much into the whole program yet.

And Designer if you want to play with that also:

Download ~253MB

1193

Living Room / Re: ['Supermoon' tomorrow] Sun/Moon-rise/set App

« Last post by 4wd on November 13, 2016, 11:30 PM »

I found Time And Date easier to understand (being a complete astronomy noob):



Next one is on December 14 and then you have to wait a year for the following.



As to which direction I can see it, I'll look for the big bright thing in the night (assuming there's no clouds) 

1194

Post New Requests Here / Re: Script for not go to sleep pc

« Last post by 4wd on November 13, 2016, 07:17 AM »

I would like an automated script to modify this time during some tasks without assistance and come back to the standard conditions I have.

-Contro (November 13, 2016, 06:19 AM)

https://www.donation....msg311964#msg311964

WTPF.exe <program.exe>

It'll stop the computer from sleeping until the program exits.

1195

General Software Discussion / Re: Need software to resolve RFI issue

« Last post by 4wd on November 10, 2016, 06:02 PM »

I like it! It's a button-less proximity widget, so I generally have to be sitting on the bike (or very damn close) to test it. But I do believe I can come up with a stop sign or something to test with.

-Stoic Joker (November 10, 2016, 03:57 PM)

Ah, does the widget use a battery?

Otherwise it's probably RFID like most car keys these days so you may not have much luck with the bike alarm, you may have to try the garage remote instead.

You could also try shielding the transmitter instead of the receiver, may have more luck and may be a little easier ... kind of depends whether the transmit signal is being lost because of the other signal or the receiver's frontend is being overwhelmed.

EDIT: Actually, if your bike widget is RFID that could be a completely different set of frequencies, ie. RFID can be:
•LF : 125 kHz - 134,2 kHz : low frequencies,
•HF : 13.56 MHz : high frequencies,
•UHF : 860 MHz - 960 MHz : ultra high frequencies,
•SHF : 2.45 GHz : super high frequencies

And your garage remote might be 315MHz or 433MHz.

Sounds like something affecting a really wide range, your best bet might be finding a friendly radio amatuer to help.  Or possibly the local TV antenna/satellite installer, (with the right gear), might be willing to offer assistance for a beer or two.

1196

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 - Collection of Hacks, Tweaks, Improvements

« Last post by 4wd on November 09, 2016, 07:26 PM »

A slightly easier way to set Public or Private network, just run the appropriate shortcut and it'll set the current connection to Public or Private.

From here.

1197

General Software Discussion / Re: Need software to resolve RFI issue

« Last post by 4wd on November 09, 2016, 06:34 PM »

Depends on the country and the modulation used: 802.11b you can go to Ch14; 802.11g can be Ch11 or Ch13 (country dependent); 802.11n is Ch11.

eg. In Australia it's Ch13 for 802.11b/g but channels 1, 6, and 11 are the ones that are most likely to avoid overlap so it's usual to find the default being Ch6.
Which, quite frankly, is nuts if they're trying to avoid overlap since most people wouldn't know how to change the channel in the first place 

@SJ: I guess another simple thing to try that might give you a clue is directional shielding, eg. grab a sheet of steel/Al/etc, (maybe around 4' x 4'), and place it on one side of your bike centered near where the receiver for the alarm is.  Then see if you can activate the alarm from the opposite side from what would be a normal distance.

Move the sheet around the bike until you get a spot where it's intermittent and the theory goes the interference will be coming from the direction behind you, ie. in the line going from the sheet, to the bike, to you.

Haven't tried it but it's something simple, might work but depends on how bad the interference is.

EDIT: Whoops, being directionally challenged I actually meant the interference will be coming from behind you 

1198

General Software Discussion / Re: New PDF editor: FlexiPDF from SoftMaker

« Last post by 4wd on November 09, 2016, 05:33 PM »

Personally try to avoid letting PayPal/Amazon/etc do any sort of currency conversion, they're worse than my bank when it comes to that.

1199

General Software Discussion / Re: Need software to resolve RFI issue

« Last post by 4wd on November 09, 2016, 05:23 PM »

@SJ: What channel is your WiFi set at?  Default is usually channel 6.
You could try changing it to either end, 1 or 13 (I think it's 13 for USA), and see if it improves. Might be someone using a WiFi repeater link that happens to pass over your property.

If it's something that isn't specifically WiFi broadcast related then I'm not sure the apps Wraith mentioned will help, you really need a Field Strength Meter.
I don't suppose there's any HAM Radio people you know that can help?

1200

General Software Discussion / Re: Need software to resolve RFI issue

« Last post by 4wd on November 08, 2016, 09:57 PM »

What is being insinuated?

-Curt (November 08, 2016, 05:40 PM)

Curt, I'm not insinuating anything, I said "most countries".

Equipment that operates in these ISM bands should be more tolerant of interference simply because they are a "noisy" band.

Doesn't mean there isn't someone broadcasting at a power output in excess of the regulations, just that it's going to be a little hard to do anything about it if they are within specs ... and that includes complaining to the FCC.