Recent Posts

1326

Living Room / Re: Suck An Egg RIAA

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 11, 2008, 03:14 PM »

It's a step, but it will be nice when artists who aren't already superstars like Radiohead or NIN can make a decent amount by offering direct to listeners.  I know it'll happen, but I'm not sure how long it'll take or exactly how it will look/work.

1327

General Software Discussion / Re: XPPro SP3

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 10, 2008, 04:57 PM »

mwb1100 - here you go, sp3 download on the microsoft site, googled win xp sp3 and the first link took me here

-kip (March 10, 2008, 04:31 PM)

I think you misunderstand - I wasn't looking for SP3.  What I was saying is that Microsoft should have a way to easily identify a particular build number for an installed version of SP3  - v.3311 in this instance - (or whatever, for that matter) as being a Beta, Release Candidate, or official release, even though it may not make sense to to have a Release Candidate identify themselves as such since an RC should be able to turn into an official release with zero changes.

By the way - that link is for a white paper about SP3, it's not the SP3 download itself, which as far as I can tell is still at RC2 stage.

1328

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm sick of everything requiring a restart!

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2008, 11:00 PM »

Who else is sick of every little update/install/uninstall requiring a restart?

-superboyac (March 09, 2008, 10:29 PM)

Me too - I usually ignore the reboot request and things usually seem to work fine. Sometimes I'll get wonky behavior, then I go ahead and reboot if I really want to use what I just installed.

What I really hate is those programs that say you need to reboot but don't give you the option to reboot later.  Sometimes it's not even clear that the installer is going to go ahead and shut everything down and reboot whether you like it or not.

And don't get me started on the occasional automatic reboot that Microsoft's Windows Update will sometimes do in the middle of the night.  Even when you thought that auto updates were off.  Grrr.... 

1329

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AnVir Task Manager 5.0.4 at GOTD

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2008, 09:06 PM »

- allthough I am not too sure I will take any advantage of the offer. Do you know this feeling: The program is clearly very capable, but somehow something is not right - maybe it is the GUI layout?? Hmm... somehow I just don't fancy AnVir Task Manager. Or maybe it has to do with the company offering you a free program if you post their press material on a popular site! 

-Curt (March 09, 2008, 06:16 PM)

Well, I did register it, but I tend to agree that the interface does not really grab me at first.  I think it's hard to have something be able to present so much information and have it still look clean and simple.  I think that SysInternals does a good job in this area, and I think that for most people there's no reason to pay for more than what you get with Process Explorer.  Heck, I think that even if I missed out on the BitsDuJour deal I would not give it a second thought, but at the same time I'm not regretting the purchase.  Not exactly a rave review, but there you have it.

The AnVir product seems to be getting good comment feedback on the GOTD site, which is notorious for "what's the point?" comments.  It seems that AnVir has made some significant improvements since the product was last offered on GOTD.  AnVir mentions that registered users get "free subscription to updates of the software", but that seems rather ambiguous as to how long updates are valid.

1330

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AnVir Task Manager 5.0.4 at GOTD

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2008, 03:10 PM »

I'd assume it's OK to link to the DC 50% discount for AnVir Task Manager Pro, as you must be logged in as a member to actually get to it - I think it's OK to post a link to the discount, but not OK to post the actual discount/coupon code elsewhere (if this is not true, a moderator can please remove this whole post):

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=12488.0

With 50% off, Task Manger Pro becomes slightly less cost than the non-Pro version with 25% off. 

There are a few things in the AnVir product that might justify it over something like the free SysInternals Process Explorer, depending on how 'hands-on' you are with a task manager:

• a description & 'risk rating' of processes - you can set the ratings yourself (it would be nice to know where the default ratings come from)
• dumping network traffic of processes to a file
• save process priorities - kind of a simple Process Tamer (Pro only)
• some basic auto-start management

It also has an "Optimize Memory" setting that is supposed to "Periodically free memory of processes that use more than 50 MB".  I haven't tried this because it sounds quite dangerous - but if I find it works safely, it could well be useful.

1331

Living Room / Re: the award for most clueless pc user ever - my candidate.

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 07, 2008, 06:38 PM »

I regularly get people calling the computer the "hard drive".

-Daleus (March 07, 2008, 11:25 AM)

Yes...  in my household, the computer is now called the hard drive, the monitor is called the computer, and I will never forgive Microsoft calling their web browser "Internet Explorer" when there was already something called "Explorer" in their OS.

Oh, and whenever I get a "tech support call" (that's someone yelling down the stairs for help), my first step is to ask if they've restarted the machine.  Works 90% of the time.

1332

General Software Discussion / Re: XPPro SP3

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 07, 2008, 02:34 PM »

My properties sheet says, as does yours, that SP3, v.3311, was installed. Not being psychic I have no way of knowing that when decoded that means SP3, RC2. It seems to me to be a simple matter to report that SP3, RC2, build 3311, was installed when that in fact is what was done. Problem solved.

-Cuffy (March 07, 2008, 01:35 PM)

For Betas, I would agree, and for betas Microsoft sometimes (unfortunately, not always) does make the fact that installed software is a beta readily obvious.  But for Release Candidates, the idea is that if no drop-dead problems are found the RC magically transforms into the 'Golden' release with no changes.  I have no idea how often this ideal situation occurs in reality, but that's the way it's supposed to work (in theory).

This certainly is no longer the case for actual Windows releases (RCs are really Betas with another name - http://technet.micro...gazine/cc194403.aspx).  The term Microsoft uses for what used to be true Release Candidates in full OS releases is "Escrow Build".

But it should be made easy to take a build number and determine what that build number corresponds to.  None of the first page hits on Google for "service pack 3 v.3311" are on Microsoft sites and a similar search in the search box on microsoft.com results in only forum postings - nothing official.  So it's difficult to know just by looking at the version info that what's installed is a release candidate (that may or may not become the release at some point).

1333

Official Announcements / Re: The site is now back online (March 6th, 2008)

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 07, 2008, 12:30 AM »

Hey! Welcome back!

Sorry you guys had to go through all that pain due to some scumbag.

Now, get some rest!

1334

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: SecureZip by PK Zip Free License

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 28, 2008, 05:20 PM »

Thanks for the pointer! 

1335

Living Room / Re: Speaking of U3 Flash drives ...

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 26, 2008, 04:32 PM »

Plug in the USB drive then open the Disk Management utility (Control Panel\Administrative ToolsComputer Management\Storage\Disk Management).  The disks used by the USB device should be in bottom right window.  For each of the disks Right Click on it and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths...".

There have been times where the option to change the drive letter has been grayed out for me (I don't know why), but the bigger problem is that if you plug the device into a different USB port, Windows usually sees it as a new device and selects the drive letters however it sees fit, which makes the above settings pretty useless to me (but maybe still OK for you depending on how you use it).

Another option that I have not tried but sounds promising is Uwe Sieber's USB Drive Letter Manager which is free for private and educational use: (http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html)

If you try it out, let us know how it works.

1336

Living Room / Re: fixing hard drive errors with WD Diags

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2008, 06:01 PM »

Chances are that the diagnostic simply 'mapped' the bad sector to a spare sector that has been set aside for that purpose.

If you're not confident in the stability of the drive you could try running an alternate diagnostic that does a surface scan or maybe just replace the drive (it's getting long in the tooth anyway) - you can get a drive that's considerably larger than 30GB for as little as $50.

It all depends on whether you want to spend time or money to get your confidence in the drive back (or just take wddiag's word for it).

1337

Living Room / Re: USB Keyboard not available during windows boot sequence

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2008, 12:58 PM »

Not sure I haven't looked at the BIOS for ages, I think it was enabled. I'll check next time I reboot.

-Carol Haynes (February 25, 2008, 06:46 AM)

Try disabling it and see what happens (have a PS/2 keyboard handy in case the USB version doesn't work in the BIOS settings with legacy support disabled).  Your BIOS screen options might still work (though you'd probably have trouble working in MS-DOS  ).

Another thing to check is if you motherboard chipset drivers are correct/up to date (assuming you're using an on-board USB port).

1338

General Software Discussion / Re: Are Windows Dynamic Disks Reliable?

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2008, 12:45 PM »

Just for learning purposes I was using a windows dynamic disk software RAID 1 configuration (mirrored disks).  At some point I decided I didn't need that configuration anymore and I wanted to repurpose one of the disks.  I didn't need the data on the volume anymore, so I simply pulled one of the disks (not a hot-unplug - a shutdown/unplug operation).  I figured that this should look like a massive failure of one of the disks in the mirror.  So just to see how well I'd be able to get the data off I tried doing that with the remaining disk.

I did not spend a whole lot of time on it (it was just an experiment), but I was unable to do it easily.  In fairness, I did not try rebuilding the mirror with another disk, which is probably the supported way of fixing a failed mirror set.  In conclusion I'm not sure what my experience really says about dynamic disks, since I wasn't doing a serious experiment/following proper procedures, but it didn't leave me feeling confident I'd be able to handle a failure without loss - at least not without considerably more study or training.

The other thing I'd wonder about is how well other tools (especially image backups) work with dynamic discs; they didn't back in 2000.  I'd hope they would now, but I'm certainly not sure they do (or do well).

I'd say if you want to try using it, run through a test of a failure and see what's involved in making things right.  Otherwise you're likely to be completely hosed when you have an actual failure, so what would the point have been?  A virtual machine setup should make the tests pretty easy to run though to get the experience, but I'd still do at least one run though with non-virtual hardware - I'm not sure why other than paranoia.

edit:  correct RAID 0 -> RAID 1.  To clarify - I was using a mirrored disk set.

1339

ProcessTamer / Re: Process Tamer crashes Vista

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2008, 12:53 AM »

Is there any way to cause the system to CAPTURE this info (logs, etc)?

-koehlerb (February 25, 2008, 12:20 AM)

The BSOD should leave a dump file, usually in the C:\Windows\Minidump directory (this is controlled in the same dialog as f0dder mentioned).  I'm not sure if there's a good way to get information from the minidump except by using the Kernel Debugger, though.  I could take a look, but I'm not sure if I'd really be able to figure out anything other than what driver was the immediate cause of the crash (this is usually, but not always, the driver that has the bug).  That driver should be mentioned in the blue screen, too.

1340

General Software Discussion / Re: Download Cheap software on http://softwarebackups.org, a Scam ?

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 23, 2008, 02:57 PM »

Actually, taking a close look on the site, I get the impression that they don't ship any disks to you. They give you download links. I am also getting the impression this is common cracked warez they are selling.

-app103 (February 23, 2008, 02:34 PM)

That's what they are doing - selling cracked software, a single key to multiple customers or key created with a keygen.  This place is selling through at least 2 storefronts.  A while back someone at my work bought Nero from one of these sites (truly not knowing that it wasn't legit).  Not too long after, the key no longer worked with Nero updates because it had been blacklisted.

the way these sites operate is that they send you for example photoshop cs3 cd/dvd but without the serial numbers or registration codes, as they are sold as backup copies. So in essence you are paying $60+ for a backup copy of software you supposedly already own. and that is the only way these copies are legal.

-PaladinMJ (February 22, 2008, 06:53 PM)

There was an outfit called iBackups.net (unrelated to iBackup.com) that claimed it's business was replacing lost media for people who had legitimately purchased the software previously.  However, they did provide customers with a (often non-functional) serial or key because the business was actually selling illegal copies.  The 'replacement' bit was just their way of trying to game the legal system. Last I heard the guy who ran iBackups.net got a severe prison sentence.

The outfit discussed by the OP is probably in some jurisdiction that simply doesn't care about software rights - they've been around for a while.  I find it humorous that they offer a money back guarantee - I wonder if they ever actually follow through on it.

1341

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits Du Jour and GAOTD one-day deals

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 21, 2008, 02:52 PM »

I forgot about PromptPal - I tried it awhile back and decided not to buy, but I honestly can't remember what the deal killer was.  I may have to try it again.

1342

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits Du Jour and GAOTD one-day deals

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 21, 2008, 01:33 PM »

I'm going to grab it when I get home tonight.

-tinjaw (February 21, 2008, 10:25 AM)

Me too. I've been trying to like the open-source Console2 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/), which has a similar idea, but it's been a little too buggy.  I'm also considering trying the new (and rather pricey) TakeCommand 9 from JP Software (http://www.jpsoft.com/) which has a similar capability of 'en-tabbing' console windows.

Is anyone successfully using any of these console wranglers?

1343

General Software Discussion / Re: Unix utilities for Windows - book/manual

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 19, 2008, 10:53 AM »

The best UNIX book for me (a very occasional user of UNIX commands) that I've come across is "UNIX for the Impatient, Second Edition" by Abrahams & Larson (http://www.amazon.co...01823764/ref=ed_oe_p).  I see that there are several different versions - including a "UNIX of the Hyper-Impatient" - I don't know how they compare, but I will note that you can get a used version of the 2nd edition for basically shipping cost ($4).

It's not so much a tutorial as a readable ref manual.  If you usually know what command you want to use and just want to know how to use it, this book works very well.

1344

Living Room / Re: Internet Faxing

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 18, 2008, 10:27 PM »

I just found out that if you're a Vonage customer they have a no-extra-charge FAX sending service:  https://v-fax.vonage.com/

I guess it charges the FAX minutes to your phone plans minutes, if the destination number isn't part of your unlimited plan area.  Anyway, this seems to be a natural part of 'digital telephony', so I'd guess that other VoIP plans might do the same.

1345

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: CD Catalog Expert on Bits du Jour today for $17.97

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 16, 2008, 03:30 PM »

I think it might take all day to make a decision, and then the discount is over!  That's how they get ya.  Darn deal of the day websites!

-jiffener (February 16, 2008, 10:24 AM)

BitsDuJour has a link that shows you what's coming up in the next week or so - this is definitely essential to being able to try out what's going to be on sale.

http://www.bitsdujour.com/previews/

1346

Living Room / Re: Internet Explorer doesn't report it is running on Windows ???

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 13, 2008, 08:43 PM »

Here's a web page about User Agent fields (mostly with pointers to other docs) by Eric Lawrence who develops the free HTTP sniffer, Fiddler:

http://www.fiddlerto...l.com/useragent.aspx

There's a reg script on the page to set your IE User Agent to say you're running IE 6 on WinXP (there's also an undo reg script).

1347

Living Room / Re: KVM switch w/DVI?

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 12, 2008, 10:53 AM »

I don't know how useful this is since you're in Europe, but newegg.com has DVI KVMs starting at $75.  How well they work I have no idea.

Another thing you might consider since you don't care too much about the inputs being switched - only the display - is getting a monitor that has multiple inputs.  One of our machines has a Sony LCD that has multiple inputs and lets you switch between them using the monitor's OSD menu.  It's common for a monitor to have both DVI and Analog VGA inputs, so if you can live with one of your machines using an analog input that might be a good option.  Maybe use Remote Desktop or VNC to get a digital display for it for normal use (as long as you're not doing something like games or video on it), and only use the analog display for boot time stuff and other times that remote access won't work or is not appropriate.

These HP models have 2 DVI inputs:  LP1965 (19 inch display), LP2065 (20 inch display) so they might be worth looking into if they're big enough.

1348

Developer's Corner / Re: Waiting for program completion in Visual Basic 2008

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 11, 2008, 01:15 AM »

If I understand your question right, then all you have to do is call the WaitForExit() method on the Process object returned by Process.Start( "myprocess.exe").  Something like:

Code: vb.net [Select]

1. Dim proc as Process
2.  
3. proc = Process.Start( "myprocess.exe")
4. proc.WaitForExit()
5.  
6. proc = Process.Start( "myprocess2.exe")
7. proc.WaitForExit()
8.  
9. ' and so on...

1349

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Software DOD - new discounted software deal web

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 06, 2008, 05:25 PM »

No surprise that it's editing errors - but there are more than one:

SureThing CD Labeler	25% of $24.95 = $5.00?
RecordForAll	10% of $39.95 = $5.00?
FeedForAll	10% of $39.99 = $5.00?
Nuance Paperport 11	15% of 199.00 = $40.00?

Now, I'm sure these are all just simple typos (and for the most part, if there's an error it's that the %off is too low), but it seems something that should be more often correct.

Anyway, since I'm picking on typos, I pre-apologize for those I've made in this post (since by universal law any post complaining about typos will have them as well).

1350

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Software DOD - new discounted software deal web

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 06, 2008, 04:02 PM »

I haven't purchased from them, but I assume they're legit because my first pointer to them was from the same mailing tamasd got from NagarSoft - a vendor was selling hist stuff (Direct Access) on the site.

But you're right, some of their arithmetic is off - they need a new calculator!  Maybe they can get one of those newfangled computer-things to do the cipherin' for them.

I'd take care to double check the charges on the order page so you don't get surprised.