Recent Posts

1401

General Software Discussion / Re: youtube black blocking square

« Last post by 4wd on April 14, 2016, 03:20 AM »

You wouldn't like to share a bit more info, eg.
Whether you have tried it using Firefox in Safe Mode, (hold down SHIFT while starting Firefox)?
What country you're in?
What version of Firefox?
Whether you're set to use HTML5 or Flash on Youtube?
etc
etc

1402

General Software Discussion / Re: desktop shortcut to do a Simple task

« Last post by 4wd on April 14, 2016, 01:53 AM »

Guess what was removed from the latest build of Windows 10!
Yup!  No Mo sendkeys.dll or any alternative apparentmly.  This is reported as of Feb his year best i can tell.

-questorfla (April 13, 2016, 09:59 PM)

Did you try it?

My Win10 systems don't have sendkeys.dll but the example given on StackOverflow still works fine.

1403

Shareware Discounts for Members / Re: Searching for "SAPIEN free PrimalForms Community Edition"

« Last post by 4wd on April 13, 2016, 05:46 PM »

Add me to the list, I've been trying to find it also 

Currently I use Visual Studio Express to generate XAML but would like something geared towards Powershell.

1404

General Software Discussion / Re: desktop shortcut to do a Simple task

« Last post by 4wd on April 13, 2016, 05:37 PM »

http://stackoverflow...s-using-a-batch-file

Uses VBScript in a batch file to send keys - change keys and add a shortcut to the command file.

You can also do it with Powershell:
http://stackoverflow...ke-inside-powershell

It just calls the Windows Scripting Host to do the same thing.

1405

Living Room / Re: Twist Tie alternative?

« Last post by 4wd on April 13, 2016, 05:25 PM »

@Milesahead: Just had a package RTS from Miami, despite using the same address for the recipient that has been used to successfully receive items from Amazon.

I've been told that Miami is one of the worst USPS departments in the country - and this was by the USPS people that were helping a friend try and get the package delivered.

So attempt number 2 

1406

Living Room / Re: Twist Tie alternative?

« Last post by 4wd on April 12, 2016, 08:33 PM »

For grins I looked at the zip ties available at walmart.com.  I figure for USB cables and old buds I save for emergency use they should be ok if I leave a bit of a gap when I put them on.  I got lucky and found a bag of 50 for $2.99 with free shipping:

http://www.walmart.c...ion-SAPT143/37838919

Small items like that they usually throw in an envelope and send via regular mail.  I should not have a problem with anyone refusing to take delivery etc..

-MilesAhead (April 07, 2016, 01:50 PM)

I would have gone with the reusable version for what you want:

http://www.walmart.c...ner-3x115mm/47560479

1407

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: MFCRecorder - Continued

« Last post by 4wd on April 09, 2016, 02:10 AM »

... i've found that some of the captured videos are corrupted in a way that they can't be played.

-jdemarco (April 08, 2016, 11:17 PM)

Could be the stream suffered corruption as it was being recorded, you can try converting the Transport Stream container to MP4 using the following command:

Code: Text [Select]

1. ffmpeg.exe -i somefile.ts -y -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -coder 0 -g 10 -keyint_min 1 -profile:v main -level 3.0 -c:a aac -strict -2 somefile.mp4

If the incoming stream suffered errors as it was being recorded the output will probably be severely out of sync in places.

1408

General Software Discussion / Re: Start Menu 10 Pro "skip start screen"

« Last post by 4wd on April 08, 2016, 08:42 PM »

I tried Classic Shell awhile back.  It was flakier than Start Menu X or 10

-MilesAhead (March 29, 2016, 07:28 AM)

Hmm, it works for me FWIW. I have it on one machine of mine (4.2.5).

-cranioscopical (April 08, 2016, 04:34 PM)

It's worked perfectly for me since I had Windows 8.1, (now 10), installed across 3 desktops and a netbook.

1409

General Software Discussion / Re: How to encrypt external hard drives using USB in Windows 7 Pro and Home?

« Last post by 4wd on April 04, 2016, 08:56 PM »

Bitlocker was/is only available on Pro or higher versions of Windows 7 or later.

-4wd (April 03, 2016, 08:00 PM)

Unfortunately - since Bitlocker To Go would be great for this - Bitlocker isn't available in Win7 pro, as it's only available in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions.

-Stoic Joker (April 04, 2016, 06:48 AM)

Ah OK, must of only appeared in Pro versions since Windows 8.

1410

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to allow Local testing of a website code while monitoring activity

« Last post by 4wd on April 04, 2016, 08:47 PM »

USBWebServer

1411

General Software Discussion / Re: How to encrypt external hard drives using USB in Windows 7 Pro and Home?

« Last post by 4wd on April 03, 2016, 08:00 PM »

Bitlocker was/is only available on Pro or higher versions of Windows 7 or later.

VeraCrypt - an updated version of the no longer developed TrueCrypt

These hard drives have family photos on them (no state secrets or anything illegal), and my main motivation is to protect my privacy, should I ever be burgled. So the encryption doesn't necessarily have to be industrial strength, just something for reasonable personal security.

...

P.S. I'm also a bit worried about encrypting my drives and then losing the encryption keys or messing things up some other ways. It would be just as much of a disaster if I permanently lost access to our family photos by making the drives inaccessible. So what I'm saying is I need an idiot-proof solution. 

-dr_andus (April 03, 2016, 03:58 PM)

Given the projected usage a better solution would be to use unencrypted drives, ("drives" because you should have at least one backup), and store them somewhere safe, ie. a safe or some other innocuous place, (you'd be surprised how many good hiding spots are in plain sight).

1412

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Diskovery

« Last post by 4wd on March 31, 2016, 10:51 PM »

Never mind, I thought I'd reinstall the drivers for the motherboard and guess what ... now it also says USB 3.0 

-4wd (March 31, 2016, 06:59 AM)

Ah, wait. No, no, no. Damn. Such an excellent chance to fix up the app not to display "USB 1.1", because that made no sense. And now that nice little chance is no more... /whelp

-apankrat (March 31, 2016, 07:41 AM)

Did I forget to mention I created a Restore point before reinstalling the drivers 




Restored the system and sent the debug report with a USB 3.0 device plugged into each bus.

I think I see what happened, there is a driver version mismatch between the eXtensible Host Controller and the USB hub associated with it, ie. the Host controller is 1.16.32.1, whereas the associated Generic Hub is 1.16.28.1.  After upgrading the driver for the Generic Hub it becomes ASMedia Root Hub ... it's an idea anyway.

BTW, "Diskovery has stopped working" if it has no internet connectivity to send the report.

Faulting application name: diskovery-0.9.0.7.exe, version: 0.9.0.7, time stamp: 0x56fd08aa
Faulting module name: diskovery-0.9.0.7.exe, version: 0.9.0.7, time stamp: 0x56fd08aa
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000011e7
Faulting process ID: 0x1238
Faulting application start time: 0x01d18bc96a1f1115
Faulting application path: D:\Downloads\diskovery-0.9.0.7.exe
Faulting module path: D:\Downloads\diskovery-0.9.0.7.exe
Report ID: b0828fe3-95e2-4b0a-bfab-e043714c388a
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

1413

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Diskovery

« Last post by 4wd on March 31, 2016, 06:59 AM »

It's identifying a PNY flash drive as USB 3.0 but saying it's in mode USB 1.1 - (currently writing to it at >18MB/s).

Addendum: This looks like it might be controller related - two different USB 3.0 Host controllers on my computer:
Onboard ASMedia controller using latest ASMedia driver shows USB 1.1.
PCIe Renesas controller using Microsoft Windows 10 drivers shows as USB 3.0.

-4wd (March 30, 2016, 08:59 PM)

Hmm... can I have a log, please? There's an option for that in the app's menu. Just put a little note in the remarks that it's from 4wd.
I'd like to see if it's something that can be parsed out of IOCTL_USB_GET_xxx responses.

-apankrat (March 31, 2016, 02:13 AM)

Never mind, I thought I'd reinstall the drivers for the motherboard and guess what ... now it also says USB 3.0 

1414

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Diskovery

« Last post by 4wd on March 30, 2016, 08:59 PM »

It's identifying a PNY flash drive as USB 3.0 but saying it's in mode USB 1.1 - (currently writing to it at >18MB/s).

Addendum: This looks like it might be controller related - two different USB 3.0 Host controllers on my computer:
Onboard ASMedia controller using latest ASMedia driver shows USB 1.1.
PCIe Renesas controller using Microsoft Windows 10 drivers shows as USB 3.0.

Note: Driver reinstall fixed it.

1415

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: MFCRecorder - Continued

« Last post by 4wd on March 28, 2016, 07:43 AM »

@Asudem Hey, your app doesn't seem to work... I right click -> record on a stream and nothing ever happens.

-hiofm (March 28, 2016, 12:25 AM)

Do you have ffmpeg.exe and ffplay.exe in the same directory as MFCRecorder?

It uses ffmpeg.exe to download the stream and ffplay.exe to display it, (when you double-click on a model).

ffmpeg - follow the download links and get the 32bit Static build, (ease of compatibility).

1416

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

« Last post by 4wd on March 26, 2016, 05:00 AM »

Champagne Pool^w



(Sagelight One Shot HDR: Photo Vivid)

1417

Living Room / Re: PC WILL NOT BOOT TO WIN 7 PRO WITH USB PLUGGED IN

« Last post by 4wd on March 21, 2016, 07:23 PM »

Sorry, my mistake  - you need the Device instance path from the device properties, not Hardware ID, (got my terms mixed up).



This value will change if you unplug it from one USB port and plug it in another, so as long as it stays in the same USB port you won't need to change the command once it's working.

ie. Here you can see the Device instance path has changed when I plugged it into another port:



You only need the one command to disable/enable, eg.

C:\>devcon disable "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_00\6&5372223&1&0000"
USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_00\6&5372223&1&0000                : Disabled
1 device(s) disabled.

C:\>

1418

Living Room / Re: PC WILL NOT BOOT TO WIN 7 PRO WITH USB PLUGGED IN

« Last post by 4wd on March 21, 2016, 01:08 AM »

1. install DEVCON on PC (BTW the file devcon.7z in example thread would not run / open / extract - do you a place i can get just it?). I take it that LGPE script calls devcon and I do not need to put devcon somewhere so it runs each boot up.

-taglaser62 (March 20, 2016, 07:53 PM)

File downloads, extracts, and runs fine here - attached as plain ZIP.

Devcon needs to be in the path or you need to put full path to it in command.

2. find HW ID(s) for violating USB device (if more than one is listed then do i disable and enable all of them? see file i attached showing multiple)

Top one is the Hardware Instance you want.  See here.

3. in LGPE / local computer policy / user config / windows settings / scripts (logon/logoff) i would put in scripts you listed with HW ID(s) i looked up.

so i would then NOT use windows scheduler?

You can use Task Scheduler instead.

does the LGPE run before the programs in startup folder? (the ones that use the USB device in question). i hope so.

This should answer your question: Logon Phase - Windows 7 Tutorial

on another note i am having trouble getting LGPE to run on my home PC. getting "MMC could not create the snap-in".
not listed as an available snap-in in MMC

Pro or Home?  It doesn't exist under Home.

1419

Living Room / Re: PC WILL NOT BOOT TO WIN 7 PRO WITH USB PLUGGED IN

« Last post by 4wd on March 20, 2016, 05:03 PM »

You could use Devcon with a Logoff/Logon script under Group Policy Editor:



Logoff: devcon disable "@ ....."

Logon: devcon enable "@ ....."

You need the Hardware Instance ID Device Instance Path, (eg. see this example), obtained from Device Manager.

This assumes, of course, that it's not really the BIOS that is the problem - I have the same thing with one computer if a flash drive is plugged in at boot.

1420

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

« Last post by 4wd on March 18, 2016, 02:33 AM »

Wonnangatta Station^w



The station and surrounding area are the site of the still-unsolved Wonnangatta murders^w which occurred in late 1917 and 1918.

1421

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

« Last post by 4wd on March 18, 2016, 01:26 AM »

NOS Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke Kit



Partial site quote:

Here is presented for your perusal one Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit, P/N 530433, along with the very rare Churchill Tool 18G548BS adapter tube and metering valve. These kits were supplied surreptitiously to Lucas factory technicians as a trouble-shooting and repair aid for the rectification of chronic electrical problems on a plethora of British cars. The smoke is metered, through the fuse box, into the circuit which has released it's original smoke until the leak is located and repaired. The affected circuit is then rectified and the replacement smoke re-introduced. An advantage over the cheap repro smoke kits currently available is the exceptionally rare Churchill metering valve and fuse box adapter. It enables the intrepid and highly skilled British Car Technician to meter the precise amount of genuine Lucas smoke required by the circuit.

Unlike the cheap, far-eastern replacement DIYsmoke offered by the "usual suppliers", this kit includes a filter to ensure that all the smoke is of consistent size, It has been our experience in our shop that the reproduction Taiwanese smoke is often "lumpy", which will cause excessive resistance in our finely-engineered British harnesses and components. This is often the cause of failure in the repro electrical parts currently available, causing much consternation and misplaced cursing of the big three suppliers.

1422

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Webcam/Mic on/off switch

« Last post by 4wd on March 17, 2016, 01:23 PM »

Use devcon to disable/enable the device - you need the Device instance path from Device Properties.

eg.
Disable Microsoft Lifecam HD-3000:

Code: Text [Select]

1. devcon disable "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_02\6&17F0D2C8&0&0002"

Enable Microsoft Lifecam HD-3000:

Code: Text [Select]

1. devcon enable "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_02\6&17F0D2C8&0&0002"

Check status:

Code: Text [Select]

1. devcon status "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_02\6&17F0D2C8&0&0002"

Put it all together as a simple command file:

Code: Text [Select]

1. @echo off
2. devcon status "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_02\6&17F0D2C8&0&0002" | find /i "disabled" >NUL
3. if errorlevel 1 goto running
4. devcon enable "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_02\6&17F0D2C8&0&0002"
5. goto alldone
6. :running
7. devcon disable "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_02\6&17F0D2C8&0&0002"
8. :alldone
9. devcon status "@USB\VID_045E&PID_0779&MI_02\6&17F0D2C8&0&0002"

Now any time you run the command file the status of the webcam will toggle between enabled and disabled.

DevCon is attached here for ease of download, normally you'd need to download and install a MS development kit but it is available elsewhere on the net.

NOTE: You may need to Run as Admin if you have UAC enabled.

1423

Post New Requests Here / Re: Transform list of url links to copies of the actual web pages

« Last post by 4wd on March 17, 2016, 08:05 AM »

In Powershell:

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. $urls = Get-Content K:\sites.txt
2.  
3. for($i=0; $i -lt $urls.Count; $i++) {
4.   $client = new-object System.Net.WebClient
5.   $client.DownloadFile( $urls[$i], "k:\Site_" + $i + ".html")
6. }

Change paths to suit, (ie. the K:\).

NOTE: Media content, (images, etc), if fetched from other sites will not be downloaded, you'll just have the URI link - it'll still work when viewed in a browser, the content will be fetched from the external site as needed, just like when viewing the original page.  Actually, all that's downloaded is the page source since that's all a HTML file is - plain text.

1424

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

« Last post by 4wd on March 14, 2016, 11:00 PM »

You can get to within 100 meters with a 4wd, (seasonal road closures notwithstanding), otherwise there's a 1200 meter walking track from a Day Visitor area on Circuit Road, (also seasonal closures).  ie. Lot's of road closures after Queens Birthday weekend because that's when snow season starts and they don't want the tracks cut up unnecessarily.

Here's a DEPI PDF info sheet.

Moroka Hut (you can park on the Moroka Rd, then it's a 350m walk):

1425

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

« Last post by 4wd on March 14, 2016, 03:04 AM »

Went 4wding on the weekend, for those that have watched The Man From Snowy River, this is the hut used in the film:

Craig's Hut



Sagelight (Highlight and Details)

Craig's Hut isn't an original High Country Hut, it was built for the film - you can find images for others on Google.  A lot have been destroyed by bushfire, some have been rebuilt.