Recent Posts

1426

Developer's Corner / Re: Good Article For Beginners On Version Control (w/ Pictures & Examples)

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 02, 2007, 10:31 AM »

Here's the best intro to version control I've come across:

http://www.ericsink..../source_control.html

Eric Sink is pretty much always a good read.

1427

Developer's Corner / Re: Leak-testing / Memory Profiling Question: What tools can you recommended?

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 01, 2007, 10:39 AM »

If you're using MSVC, there are some primitive, but effective (and free, if you already have Visual Studio) built-in tools in the debug run-time.  Do a search (Google or MSDN) for "CRTDBG" or look in the crtdbg.h file for pointers to how to enable the debug heap.

When enabled, it keeps track of where all allocations occur, and will dump information about any outstanding allocations when the program ends. 

1428

General Software Discussion / Re: Family/Household Personal Information Organizer/Manager

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 28, 2007, 06:28 PM »

Doesn't Vista come with .NET Framework 2.0?  If so, then it seems the installer is truly borked.

1429

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis charging customers for bug fixes

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 28, 2007, 06:25 PM »

I've used BootIt NG (BING) for years. It's a great tool. Only shortcomings: can't do imaging in Windows and no incremental backup. But it's always been perfectly reliable, and it's also (I should say it's mainly) a multi-boot manager.

-mwang (September 27, 2007, 04:45 AM)

I haven't used BootIt NG, but I've used its sibling, Image for Windows (I4W).   TeraByte has a free add-on driver that enables I4W to backup within windows; I don't know whether that would apply to BING or not.

One area that I had a better experience with Acronis over I4W is performing a bare-metal restore of an image.  I4W's boot disk seems to be a version of Linux that's supposed to do the restore.  I had major difficulties getting that environment to recognize all the devices I needed to do the restore.  I can't remember the details, but it was something like not recognizing the SATA drive I wanted to restore the image to or not recognizing the USB drive that held the image.

The Acronis boot disk also boots some version of Linux (I think), but it loads up a program that has a virtually identical interface to the Windows program, and recognized my devices just fine.

It's unfortunate that the situation with boot disks can be so iffy - I'm sure that for many systems the opposite of my experience is true.

1430

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 27, 2007, 02:10 PM »

Re XYplorer:

As noted elsewhere, though, the price is going up on Oct. 1 so check it out now - it's currently $29.95 going up to $49.95 and I am not sure that the new price will include lifetime licencing...

-Darwin (September 27, 2007, 12:29 PM)

My understanding is that the new $49.95 price is still for a lifetime license.  There will be a less expensive license that has limitations on upgrades (I'm not sure what the exact limitations will be - time based; version based; or ???).

The price increase was discussed here:  http://www.xyplorer....viewtopic.php?t=1722

But I'm not sure if anything official has been announced, except that after Oct 10 lifetime licenses will cost more than $29.50.  In any case, if you're on the fence about XY, you should think about making the plunge before Oct 10. $30 is a bargain, especially given the attention to updating the software that Don gives it.

1431

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis charging customers for bug fixes

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 26, 2007, 06:29 PM »

I agree that Acronis' upgrade policy can be less than desirable.  I try to counter that myself by staying a rev or 2 back and getting the software from discounters who sell remainders.  As long as you aren't cutting edge on the OS you can often get away with it.

1432

General Software Discussion / Re: 64-Bit Software

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 26, 2007, 06:25 PM »

In addition to drivers (which are required to be 64-bit on Win64 systems), one area where having a 64-bit version of a program is when the program integrates into Explorer.  Since Explorer is 64-bits, it can only load DLLs that are also 64-bit.

Also, if you're using an alternate file manager or registry editor, having one that's Win64 aware can be helpful in certain cases.  By default, Win64 systems will lie about certain directories and registry keys for 32-bit applications (unless the application makes specific calls to the API to indicate it doesn't want to be lied to).

For example, when 32-bit applications look in the c:\Windows\System32 directory, a Win64 OS will really have them looking at the C:\Windows\SysWow64 directory.  This is all done for backwards compatibility, but it can be confusing if you're not expecting it.

1433

Living Room / Re: Prelude to request for help for distributed pc cycles help from dc community

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 25, 2007, 08:43 PM »

Has the client been made available?  It would be a small shame if I missed it...

1434

General Software Discussion / Re: GemX - missing in action

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 24, 2007, 07:52 PM »

Just out of curiosity - what's 'DSM'?

1435

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ???

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 22, 2007, 11:01 PM »

I actually have a copy of True Image 7 with I believe an option to upgrade for 30$
so think I'll go for that ...

EDIT no,
maybe I dont have that option, I'll go sleep on it

-tomos (September 22, 2007, 06:06 PM)

If the $30 offer isn't available, you can get it from newegg for $35 - no shipping since it's a download:  http://www.newegg.co....aspx?Item=1528708SF

1436

Living Room / Re: All your info in one place

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 22, 2007, 01:30 AM »

can anyone recommend a simple ftp client that will automatically synchronise a few files for me when i shutdown the computer - and i suppose it would make sense if it also synchronises when i first log on to the machine.

-nudone (September 21, 2007, 01:16 PM)

SyncBackSE will perform a sync on shutdown/logoff and logon.  I imagine many sync utilities will do this.

1437

Living Room / Re: How much RAM do you have on your PC?

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 18, 2007, 03:22 PM »

PAE won't necessarily get you back the missing bit of your 4GB - it depends on whether or not the motherboard makes the RAM that would 'overlay' the address space reserved for devicea available in a different area of the physical address space.  My guess is that virtually none do, so you lose that 512-768MB regardless of PAE or a 64-bit OS.  If anyone knows for certain of a desktop motherboard that supports mapping the missing RAM above the 4GB address space, please post details.

For gory details on this:

The proper solution to this whole conundrum is to use a 64-bit operating system. However, even with a 64-bit OS, you'll still be at the mercy of your motherboard's chipset and BIOS; make sure your motherboard supports using 4 GB or more of memory...

-http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

If you're lucky, your PC will be able to do something clever. The usual solution is to make that last gigabyte appear further up in the memory map. So your memory map looks like this...

...

How can you know which kind of motherboard to buy in order to avoid this? Right now it's not all that easy to tell actually, short of reading the datasheets for the chipset... If the mobo can take more than 4GB of memory, then you might be OK. Although they might just take the attitude of "If you can afford to fit 32GB of memory, you can afford for 1GB to go missing"...

-http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/2005/08/05/is3gbenough

Also, note that none of this has anything to do with the /3GB switch or the amount of memory available to applications, since they deal with virtual memory not physical memory (unless the application is specifically written to take advantage of the PAE APIs in windows, which pretty much none do except for the industrial-strength databases).

1438

General Software Discussion / Re: Good programs for helping you manage what programs start with windows?

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 16, 2007, 10:01 PM »

A couple questions about PCMag utilities (Startup Cop in particular) - they used to come with source code, is that still the case?  Also, is it possible to download previous version s of the utilities (since Startup Cop 3 seems to be unstable at this point)?

1439

Living Room / Re: Need a small, closed (!) forum

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 16, 2007, 03:11 PM »

There's also Yahoo groups:  http://help.yahoo.co...ups/original/ownmod/

1440

General Software Discussion / Re: Open Virtual Machine Tools

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 16, 2007, 02:49 PM »

So, will we be able to easily upgrade/replace those parts in a normal VMWare distro?

-f0dder (September 16, 2007, 12:33 PM)

I think so.  However, the tools they've open sourced are for the Linux/Unix guest OS.  They did not open source the Windows versions of the tools.

I'm not sure how easy it will be to take the tools they opened and port them to support Windows guest VMs.  I'm sure it's possible, I just don't know how easy or if anyone wants to work on that.

The really interesting potential here is if other VM vendors (XenSource/Citrix, Parallels, and MS) pick up on this and  add support to the tools to have them work on various VM platforms.  I think there's a reasonable chance of this, except for MS.

1441

Living Room / Re: Before I head to the computer shop... (Memory slot problem)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 15, 2007, 02:41 PM »

Out of despair, I pulled out my RAM sticks (not the first time I did that with that laptop, but...), put them back in, pulled them out again, and... put them back in.
Guess what? All is fine now. I can,t imagine that it was just that!!! How can that be???? 

-Armando (September 14, 2007, 10:38 PM)

Way back in the days when Byte magazine was published on paper, columnist Jerry Pournelle used to rave about something called Stabilant-22 'contact enhancer' that was supposed to forever fix and prevent these types of problems. 

The stuff costs a fortune (like $50 for 5ml) and I've never used it (seems like snake-oil to me), but Pournelle swore by it. 

Has anyone here used it?

1442

General Software Discussion / Re: Open Virtual Machine Tools

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 13, 2007, 08:51 PM »

Just to clarify - VMware is not open sourcing their core VM technology - they're open sourcing the tools that run in the VM that allow better integration with the host machine - access to the host file system and devices:

The following components have been released as OSS:

    * Drivers for devices and filesystems access
    * Memory ballooning
    * Shared folders
    * Drag and Drop, Text and File Copy/Paste
    * Clipboard sharing
    * Disk wiping and shrinking
    * Time synchronization
    * Automatic guest screen resolution resizing
    * GuestInfo (provides statistics about guest environment)
    * Guest SDK (provides information about the VM)
    * Soft power operations
    * Multiple monitor support
    * GTK Toolbox UI

1443

General Software Discussion / Re: Stay Away From Microsoft VISTA

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 13, 2007, 05:58 PM »

Sorry mate but not Albert Einstein, it was a Southener from the US of A who said that, and it wasn't a cat...

-merula (September 13, 2007, 02:25 PM)

Can you give the name?  It's attributed (incorrectly, I'm sure) to Einstein all over the 'net, but never with a definitive source - as in time & place.  It would be nice to know where this really came from.

1444

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Direct Access - text expander and application launcher (and much more)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 13, 2007, 04:55 PM »

And if you want to save another few dollars, wait a week (until Sept 20) where I goes for sale on Bit du Jour for 40% off (http://www.bitsdujou...index.aspx?review=50).

Or if you're a bit more adventurous, it's available at Serial Dealers for 2 Euro (about $3) - but you have to open an account for a minimum of 5 Euro (so get another software package there while you're at it):  http://www.serialdea.../details.php?batch=3

1445

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Acronis True Image 9 - $8 (plus shipping)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 13, 2007, 10:14 AM »

Did any one buy from this site? Is it a physical product (software box, etc.) (I guess so since "plus shipping).. ?

-mitzevo (September 13, 2007, 10:06 AM)

I bought a copy a while back - the package you get is one of those small boxes that are about the size of a paperback book.

1446

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Acronis True Image 9 - $8 (plus shipping)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 13, 2007, 10:11 AM »

I'm currently using TI 9 and am pretty happy with it.  I've tried a few disk imaging solutions (Symantec, Paragon, Terabyte, V-Com) and they all had issues.  Every one.  Between them all TI and Ghost (does Symantec still call it that?) were the ones that seemed to work the best. 

Ghost became a non-option when they went to an activation model on licensing.  I can't even begin to understand why anyone would want to have to deal with that type of headache when for backup/restore - especially with restore.

I saw no compelling reason to move up to TI 10.  I'll probably do it when it's a rev back or two from current (so it's about $10) and/or I find I need it if I move to Vista.

1447

Found Deals and Discounts / Acronis True Image 9 - $8 (plus shipping)

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 11, 2007, 10:17 AM »

Acronis True Image 9  - $7.95 plus shipping:

http://www.nothingbu...de=36864&ai=2892

Don't know how long this will be in effect; Vista is not supported with TI 9.

1448

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: XYplorer File Manager

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 09, 2007, 06:23 PM »

Don seems to be a very enthusiastic dev and releases a new version almost every day 

-ad-min (September 09, 2007, 03:06 PM)

Indeed - and those new versions nearly alway have enhancements, not just bug fixes.  He's a madman in cranking out updates (and discussing what enhancements should be made on the forums).

1449

General Software Discussion / Re: Realtime Screencasting Software

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 08, 2007, 03:39 PM »

Do any of these programs/services allow one person (me) to serve as the host but which do NOT require the guests (everyone else) to download software or register on a website to participate? 

The purpose is so that they can view my desktop while I demo software, but avoid the hassle of having them install software or register to use it.

-jdd (September 08, 2007, 08:56 AM)

BitsDujour is going to be offering a discount on something called "Online Desktop Presenter" (http://www.bitsdujou...index.aspx?review=15 and http://www.infonautics.ch/presenter/). 

I have not tried the software, so I'm guessing at how it works.  But from its description it looks like it simply automatically takes a screenshot every second or so and  posts it to a website.  The guests just go to a webpage that periodically refreshes the image.

If that's what's happening, then you'd get the requirement that no registration or client viewer installation is required.  The drawback would be that any quick screen changes or animation would be lost or not look good.  But if you're doing a powerpoint presentation (and don't put a lot of fancy transitions in it), it might work pretty well.

The nice thing about it is that all you need is a web server (and even there, Infonautics says "Use of free web space if no own web server is available", so I think you may not even need your own web server)

You'd have to rely on other things to support the clients being able to ask questions or such  For small groups, teleconference would work well.

1450

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: XYplorer File Manager

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 05, 2007, 01:40 PM »

Just any FYI for anyone who may be considering XYPlorer but have not yet purchased:  Don is planning to change the licensing after September 2007 such that a license with lifetime upgrades will cost more than it does today; there will also be a non-upgradeable license option at lower cost.  This (way long) forum thread has details:

http://www.xyplorer....viewtopic.php?t=1722

I'm not sure if the future pricing is finally decided yet, but if you want a lifetime of upgrades on XY you may want to get the purchase in this month:

http://www.xyplorer.com