Recent Posts

1226

Living Room / Re: Google finds Vulnerability in G+ API. Sunsets G+ in response.

« Last post by Deozaan on October 08, 2018, 04:25 PM »

Interesting news.

I know that it never really caught on... did anyone else use G+?

-wraith808 (October 08, 2018, 03:18 PM)

I used it a lot when it was new, and tried to get others I knew to join me there (or forced them to if they wanted to see my posts/pictures/whatever). But I've hardly touched it for the past 2-3 years or more.

At this point the news of it shutting down can only make me respond with "it's about time."

1227

Living Room / Re: The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

« Last post by Deozaan on October 06, 2018, 10:26 PM »

Other things came up and delayed my reading of the article and the quora post. I just finished. Very interesting story.

Reading Apple's statement on the matter, I couldn't help but think "of course they would deny it if the government forced them to" and then I came to this:

Finally, in response to questions we have received from other news organizations since Businessweek published its story, we are not under any kind of gag order or other confidentiality obligations.

-https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/what-businessweek-got-wrong-about-apple/

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Living Room / Re: The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

« Last post by Deozaan on October 06, 2018, 03:06 PM »

I'm just starting to read the article (and will read the quora post after) but the doubts cast on it in this thread alone make me wonder if this will be another "Rolling Stone incident."

1229

Living Room / Re: "If you don't steal [from the commons] you are stealing from your family".

« Last post by Deozaan on October 06, 2018, 01:52 PM »

But, paraphrasing the author: what's so bad about being ostracized by free-riders after all?

-NetRunner (October 01, 2018, 04:56 AM)

Some people are really petty and will do everything in their power to ruin your life over perceived offenses.

1230

Developer's Corner / Re: Inform: Past, Present, Future - Story of a Text Adventure Game Engine

« Last post by Deozaan on October 05, 2018, 07:34 PM »

I kind of skimmed about the first half of it, and then quickly scrolled through the rest.

I didn't realize that there even existed a programming language that used such natural (human) language in it. That was probably my biggest takeaway. Just seeing some of the sentences and being impressed that Inform was able to derive meaning from them.

1231

Living Room / Re: I'm getting married, wish me luck!

« Last post by Deozaan on October 05, 2018, 07:09 PM »

Congratulations, mouser!

I'm going to guess the Smoky Mountains.

1232

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest GOG Giveaway

« Last post by Deozaan on October 04, 2018, 10:59 AM »

Shadow Warrior 2 is free as part of GOG's 10 year anniversary.

https://gog.com/

1233

Living Room / Re: 4-2: The History of Super Mario Brothers Most Infamous Level

« Last post by Deozaan on October 04, 2018, 10:47 AM »

I've never been especially interested in watching speedruns of videogames, but I found Summoning Salt's YouTube channel a couple months ago and have really enjoyed watching the videos related to games I'm familiar with.

It's very interesting to see some of the simple tricks to speed up your time, as well as the extreme lengths some people go to in order to shave off every last (fraction of a) second possible.

1234

Living Room / Re: Any maths genius?

« Last post by Deozaan on October 01, 2018, 05:09 PM »

Try asking on a website designed for people to ask questions and get them answered, such as Stack Exchange:

https://meta.stackex...soft-excel-questions

-Deozaan (September 30, 2018, 10:53 PM)

1235

General Software Discussion / Re: Trickiest EXCEL formula problem ever!

« Last post by Deozaan on September 30, 2018, 10:53 PM »

Try asking on a website designed for people to ask questions and get them answered, such as Stack Exchange:

https://meta.stackex...soft-excel-questions

1236

Living Room / Re: Backup Power for USB device -- does it exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 28, 2018, 05:13 PM »

It works! 

Thanks for the idea, mwb1100! And thanks once again to the person who donated!

1237

Living Room / Re: Backup Power for USB device -- does it exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 26, 2018, 04:08 PM »

I went to order that powered USB hub and then noticed the reviews were not favorable. So, thanks (again) to the generous donation I decided to spend a little more and get this one instead. It has the added benefit of having USB 3.0 ports.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TPMEOYM/

1238

Living Room / Re: Backup Power for USB device -- does it exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 26, 2018, 10:19 AM »

Choices, choices. . .

-Deozaan (September 25, 2018, 11:06 PM)

Someone very generously donated the money (thank you!) for the powered hub, so that made the choice easy. I'll report back with the results in a few days.

1239

Living Room / Re: Backup Power for USB device -- does it exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 25, 2018, 11:06 PM »

I found this Y-cable which looks like it would do the trick for $7.58. But that would require me to give up my power bank (yikes!) or a USB "wall wart" adapter (not too bad).

Or for $2.37 more ($9.95) I can get this powered USB hub which will keep everything self contained and could perhaps be re-purposed in the future if I am ever in need of more (powered) USB ports on a given device. (I already have a USB hub but no AC adapter for it, and buying just an adapter is almost as expensive as buying a new hub with an adapter. )

Choices, choices. . .

1240

Living Room / Re: Backup Power for USB device -- does it exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 25, 2018, 10:40 PM »

Some USB devices with the requirement of stable power have an extra powerplug mounted, I assume yours doesn't?

-Ath (September 25, 2018, 03:23 PM)

This device doesn't require stable/constant power. But for my uses I'd like it to remain constantly powered.

It's a multi-purpose device which can run various applications. If it loses power momentarily then it will reset to the "application select screen" and require physical interaction to select and launch the correct app. Even if there's only one app installed. So even though I can program the RPi to automatically start up and resume operations after a reboot, the fact that the USB device loses power means I need to be physically at the device to get everything running properly again. But ideally I'd like to have this all tucked away in a dark corner somewhere I'll never have to physically access and just manage everything about it remotely.

And this issue seems to be specific to the RPi. If I have the USB device connected to a (Windows) laptop and reboot the laptop, the USB device remains powered.

Or alternatively to my Y-cable idea, maybe someone knows a setting I can tweak in Linux so that it keeps power flowing to the USB ports during a reboot. That would also be an acceptable solution for this issue.

Would a powered hub do the trick?

    - RPi <--> powered hub <--> device

-mwb1100 (September 25, 2018, 07:24 PM)

I hadn't considered that. It just may work!

Though I'd hate to spend the money buying one only to find out it didn't do what I wanted. . . If I can find one cheap enough then I may give it a go.

The Y-cable would have also done the trick, plug the power-only lead into another USB charger/outlet or a power bank.

-4wd (September 25, 2018, 10:03 PM)

That's another good idea. Thanks! I do have a Y-cable and a USB charger/power bank I can try out. Actually the Y-cables I have are for mini-USB connections and this device uses a micro-USB connection, so I don't have a usable cable after all.

I guess I need to look into getting a new Y-cable or a powered hub.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help!

1241

Living Room / Backup Power for USB device -- does it exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 25, 2018, 03:01 PM »

I have a USB device that I need to keep powered. It is connected to a Raspberry Pi type device that itself is connected to a UPS, but it seems when the RPi reboots, it shuts off power to the USB ports momentarily, which resets the USB device.

I need something that will keep a steady supply of power to the USB device, but still allow a data connection to the RPi.

Does such a thing exist? Would an ordinary USB Y-cable (such as for external hard drives) do this? Or is there some kind of special Y-cable (or anything) that will provide power but still allow data to be sent/received to/from another device?

1242

General Software Discussion / Re: Vivaldi and Multiple User Profiles

« Last post by Deozaan on September 25, 2018, 12:45 AM »

I use Vivaldi as my daily driver. I used to use the profiles in Chrome, which I found useful. But I just gave up on the idea of multiple profiles when I switched to Vivaldi.

If I need to login to the same site I'm already logged into with different credentials, I just ctrl-shift-N to open a new private window and let my password manager do its thing to make it easy to login. Either that or I use Firefox for the alternate logins.

Obviously that's not nearly as convenient as having a separate profile, but it does the job.

1243

Developer's Corner / Re: disenchantment...

« Last post by Deozaan on September 24, 2018, 10:36 PM »

The cynic in me thinks it's all a part of the planned obsolescence of computer hardware. How else is Apple going to convince everyone to update every year? Or Verizon getting people to upgrade every 2 years? Or X getting everyone to upgrade every Y years?

1244

Living Room / Re: How to do funky text?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 21, 2018, 11:12 PM »

I think Renegade means something more like this:

T̸̝̭͎͙̭̬o̯͜ ̭͕̥i҉̟̟̫̹̙̯n̡v̥̩͎̟o̮̭k̥̫̭̖ę̺̺͙͙̭ ̵̹͖̹͍t̶̞͕̰ḩ͍͔̮e̗͔ ͈̟͖̩̼̻͚h̵̦̣i͉̜̬̟͖͎͘v̼̭̼ͅe̗͚͢-m̗̥͉ì͍n̢͎̙d̵͔̫̦̮͔̺̻ ͚̜͖r̸̻̲̹̺̱͉ͅẹ̙̥͕̦̜̺p̖͡r͏̝̤̼ͅe͇̤͕̫͍̲ͅs͕̘͍ẹ̮͎͈̠̮͘n̪̱̺̪͚̭t̶͚̩̟i̶͎̟͍̻n̗̥͈̫̫͚g̫̯ ̖͍̣̟̱c̩̕ẖ̢͈͈̹̱̺a̸̦͉̻̞̥͉o̡̘s͖̟̘̺̠.̞̼̳̤̬
͍I̞̱̤̼͍̣̹nv̠̭͉͙͎̣͡o̹̳̞king̴̙͈̻̟ͅ ͏t̤͓̳̭͘ͅhe͏̭̟͚ ͖̪͍̜f͓̰̟̞̠̤̀e͔̞͍̼ẹ̶̟̮̪l̮̺̪͠i̟͖̯̺͕n̥͖͙̲̤͔̳g̮̦͓̪̦̯ ̢͉̝̯̘̠͓ọ̡̺͔̭͖f̩̻̀ ͉̞c̼͕̻̻͞ḩ̟̺a͎̪͕̖͉ͅo͕̫s͙͈.͉̖̭̺̰͖ͅ
̫͢W̷̯̫̞̱i̤̼̰̕ṱ͎̟̝͙̣̼ḫ͢ ̶͍̳͉̣̪̯̞o̡͍̣ṳ͚ţ̻̱ ̤͚̭̼ọ͍rd̵̳͇e͇̝͕̖̮͖ͅr̸͎͎̞̳̺̟̭.͎̤͝
͏T͈h͏e͈͓ ͎͇̫̮ͅN͙̥͔̻e͖͟z̫̝͎ṕ͍͙e҉͕̜̳r͈͈̹͚͓̼d̬̙͉͓̮i̟̖̜͙ͅa̢͔n̶͙̱͎̤ ̜̟h̬̹͙͡i͖̻͙̙̤v̳͞e̵̺̗̝̠-̢̠m̵͎͙͔̘̪i͈̥̞̰͘n̮͞d̺͍̪ ͔̮̼͙̘̖o͈̩͈̹̘̣̙f͈̫͕ ̗͈͓̲̜c͕̣h̥͉̙̻͍ạ̢o͈̖̜s̶̺̰̫ͅ.͎͈̭͈̲̟͡ ̡̰̖Z҉̟̝̲͔ͅal̲̥̲go͙̠̦̞̖͈.̧̝͚͙̬̥̖͕
̝͈̜͙͖͔̖H͟e҉̮͇̙͍̦ ͚̩̙͈w͕̠͘h̼o̭̤̪͔̯ ̩̠̱Wá̞i͚͔̗t̤̙̱̤̹͡s͓͘ ͔̞̰͍̯͞B͍̜͈͉e͚̘̩͡h̷̳̫i͇͙̰̭n̮͇d͈́ T̴̙̞͕͚̺͎h̯̹̱͡e̼̯͉̬̙̲͕ ̬̮͔̞̲̕W̪a͇̙̗̬̟͔ͅl̹̰͚̬̻̻͉l̼͈͕̥̫̤̜.̜̟̙̜̦̲
̝̺̺͔̺ͅZ͎̹A͏̝̫̭̩͕L̶̬G̟O̶̱͇͓͔̩̮!͔̮̱̘͇ͅ

Doing a search for "demonic text" gave me this result:

http://eeemo.net/

1245

General Software Discussion / Re: How to REALLY stop ******* Windows Update on Win10?

« Last post by Deozaan on September 13, 2018, 10:36 AM »

Here's what I've done that has been working for me so far. Note that I'm using Windows 10 Pro so this may not be available in the "basic" version(s) of Windows 10.

In Windows Update -> Advanced Options I enable the "Pause Updates" toggle, which will "temporarily pause updates from being installed on this device for up to 35 days. When updates resume, this device will need to get the latest updates before it can be paused again."

This seems to do the trick.

Then sometime within the 35 days when I know I have the time to install updates, I un-pause, install updates, and then pause it again.

No more surprise reboots.

If you can't find some free time once a month to install updates then obviously this solution may not be ideal for you. But it's working great for me so far in the past ~2 months since I decided to attempt this on a machine that needs to have reliable, high up-time.

EDIT: Rereading this thread, I see that rgdot already mentioned this option. And that was probably about the time I started using the feature, so maybe his post was the reason and I just forgot about it.

1246

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by Deozaan on September 12, 2018, 10:09 AM »

Windows 10 October 2018 Update - The 7 best new features

-Arizona Hot (September 12, 2018, 09:37 AM)

Dark mode isn't a new feature to Windows 10 v1809. I've had it enabled for so long that I barely remember Windows 10 without it. It was added with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update two years ago.



But there are plenty of system apps that don't support it, such as Windows Explorer. So maybe the change is that now dark mode will be supported by all system apps (except Edge, I guess).

1247

DC Gamer Club / Re: GOG Connect - DRM-free access to your Steam library

« Last post by Deozaan on September 03, 2018, 10:50 AM »

6 games are available on GOG Connect as part of their Back to School sale.

https://www.gog.com/connect

1248

Developer's Corner / Re: Looking for lightweight, simple, portable/integrated database for Go

« Last post by Deozaan on August 31, 2018, 11:41 PM »

I've made some progress. Since it seems I'll be sticking with Go for this project, I've modified the topic subject to reflect that.

Also of note for anyone else who may be interested:

I've found GJSON to be just what I needed to easily parse JSON files.

And here are a couple of good tutorials explaining how to get started with BoltDB:

Intro to BoltDB: Painless Performant Persistence
Bolt -- an embedded key/value database for Go

1249

Developer's Corner / Re: Looking for lightweight, simple, portable/integrated database

« Last post by Deozaan on August 31, 2018, 08:19 PM »

@Deozaan: As with any project, you have to choose the right tools for the job. If the combo Go/SQLite isn't working as expected/desired, it most likely isn't meant to be. You might need other tools...

-Ath (August 31, 2018, 02:48 PM)

As I said, my intent as of this moment is to try out Go with Bolt DB. But I haven't had a chance to get to the DB stuff yet because I'm still trying to figure out how to parse JSON from an HTTP GET request into an easy to use data structure.

I need a Go cheat sheet or something because I'm such a noob.

1250

Developer's Corner / Re: Looking for lightweight, simple, portable/integrated database

« Last post by Deozaan on August 31, 2018, 01:50 PM »

I decided to give SQLite a try with Go, but all my Googling seems to suggest I should use https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3 to interface with SQLite, but I can't get that project to build. It requires GCC, which I can't find anywhere without it being bundled with a billion other development tools. And after installing a few different development packages (mingw, msys, windows-build)

After working on it for a couple of hours I'm ready to consider alternative ideas. I was hoping I could find something that would just be "drop in" for myself as a developer, and also "just work" invisibly behind the scenes for the end-user.

I've just discovered Bolt DB while pausing from writing this post to look further into the issues I was having with go-sqlite3, and it seems to be fairly drop in and simple. I'll give that a try and see how it works.