Recent Posts

151

General Software Discussion / Re: diagnostic tool

« Last post by eleman on July 29, 2014, 06:03 AM »

hello!

I play an online game and I get extreme lag. I know for sure that there isn't a network problem or my hardware being weak or something. So I assume there is a software conflict, like some software (antivirus? backup? anything else?) access the files of the game and causes this problem.

How can I find it, instead of by trial and error, ie. disabling software and testing?

Is there a tool that will list all the processes that access particular files or a particular folder?

any other idea?

thanks! 

-kalos (July 29, 2014, 05:55 AM)

Yeah, that happens when I download too much porn while playing online games.

152

Living Room / Re: Moore's Law Dead by 2022, Expert Says

« Last post by eleman on July 29, 2014, 12:48 AM »

Considering that my 3.4GHz Pentium 4 HT from 2005 is still able to reliably perform all of the basic computing tasks- internet, email, media playing, and storing personal data, I believe technology has reached a plateau where simply increasing the performance is no longer enough to bring about another radial change in how people use this type of equipment.

Now its just a game of making it cheaper and more energy efficient, while the market is saturating because there is far less of an incentive to upgrade all the time than there used to be.

-SeraphimLabs (July 28, 2014, 03:58 PM)

Assuming you had replaced your 90 watt prescott p4 with a 45 watt core 2 sometime in 2009, and assuming you use the computer on an average of 4 hours a day, you'd have recouped the cost of the new processor by now through the electricity bill (here we pay something like .2 dollars per kW/h). You really need to replace that intel branded space heater

Right now I have 13 processes taking up more than 100 MB of RAM. This is just crazy.

-Renegade (July 27, 2014, 08:29 PM)

That would be nice...
 (see attachment in previous post)

-Deozaan (July 28, 2014, 03:52 PM)

Hahaha!

It's called 'closing tabs'. Try it sometime!

-Renegade (July 29, 2014, 12:30 AM)

And experiment with outsourcing the gmail tab to a dedicated browser such as ie. My firefox would grow and grow to 1.5 GB ram use, at which point it would be unusable. Now I use ie for gmail, and firefox for all the rest. Neither one will grow to unmanageable sizes. Gmail is one of the worst offenders in ram use.

153

Living Room / Re: Moore's Law Dead by 2022, Expert Says

« Last post by eleman on July 24, 2014, 10:57 AM »

Yeah, they said the same thing about 28 nm, and then 20 nm.

Moore's second law: Once every two years an "expert" will predict the demise of Moore's Law.

p.s.: Moore's law is long dead from average joe's perspective anyway. My six years old core 2 e7200 has comparable single thread performance to today's i3 somethings (which are curiously sold at the same price level my e7200 sold for in the day). Intel and AMD continue to add new cores but I no longer see real-world performance gains doubling once every two years. Well, at least they had a good run from mid-nineties to late-oughties anyway.

154

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes self-start problem

« Last post by eleman on July 10, 2014, 07:00 AM »

It's a common problem that occurs when you do not have enough antivirus and antimalware.
Try adding a couple more, and you should have a completely unusable computer, instead of a partially messed up one.

Sorry for the sarcasm but couldn't help.

155

General Software Discussion / Re: Forget about resume if Pale Moon crashes

« Last post by eleman on June 01, 2014, 01:07 PM »

Well, there's probably a less wise-ass way to say this, but anyway... there's a thick line between download managers and browsers.

Sorry for the prick response Condolences otherwise.

156

Living Room / Re: CPU/Motherboard/Memory Combo I am thinking to buy

« Last post by eleman on May 31, 2014, 11:35 PM »

The new bulldozer-series architecture used by AMD is not very good. You would not feel that much of an upgrade despite a 1 GHz increase. If you play games though, the new GPU integrated into the CPU is much better than your previous one. If you don't play games, no difference would be felt again.

Check this out for a comparison.

As much as I'd like to see AMD have some glory (and more competition in the cpu market), nowadays I'd go for an Intel I guess. Try to get Intel Pentium G3240, or if  the budget is really really really tight, Pentium G2030. The only thing AMD has over Intel is the better GPU, and you'd need it if you play games. If not, go for Intel.

Ram speed has some limited impact on performance, but it is very sensitive to economies of scale. So DDR3-2400 does not provide a 50% boost over DDR3-1600.

Check this out, and decide what is the sweet spot for you.

157

General Software Discussion / Re: Capslock

« Last post by eleman on May 28, 2014, 03:16 PM »

Yeah, it comes in handy when you use computer as an alarm clock and forget the sound at a low level.

The maximum sound level is 100 btw. You can change the numbers 50 with a higher one up to 100 to make it more audible if you need so.

158

General Software Discussion / Re: Capslock

« Last post by eleman on May 28, 2014, 09:54 AM »

Attached is a little program I created with some help from the thread Tomos referred to, and Nod5's response there.

The code is below if you need. The exe file in the rar would do the task if you put it in the start-up folder.

[Select]

; announces capslock and numlock state when pressed.

~Capslock::
{
SoundGet, MasterBeforeMaximize, Master  ; set volume to an audible level, in case it was too low
SoundGet, WaveBeforeMaximize, Wave  ; Don't be rude and get the original volume levels before changing them
SoundSet, 50, Master
SoundSet, 50, Wave
If GetKeyState("CapsLock", "T") = 1
 {
  ComObjCreate("SAPI.SpVoice").Speak("caps on")
  Return
 }
Else
 {
  ComObjCreate("SAPI.SpVoice").Speak("caps off")
  Return
 }
SoundSet, %MasterBeforeMaximize%, Master  ; Restore original volume levels
SoundSet, %WaveBeforeMaximize%, Wave
}
Return

~Numlock::
{
SoundGet, MasterBeforeMaximize, Master  ; set volume to an audible level, in case it was too low
SoundGet, WaveBeforeMaximize, Wave  ; Don't be rude and get the original volume levels before changing them
SoundSet, 50, Master
SoundSet, 50, Wave
If GetKeyState("NumLock", "T") = 1
 {
 ComObjCreate("SAPI.SpVoice").Speak("num on")
 Return
 }
Else
 {
  ComObjCreate("SAPI.SpVoice").Speak("num off")
  Return
 }
SoundSet, %MasterBeforeMaximize%, Master  ; Restore original volume levels
SoundSet, %WaveBeforeMaximize%, Wave
}
Return

159

Living Room / Re: Looking for a good non-Logitech keyboard

« Last post by eleman on May 01, 2014, 12:09 PM »

I use an Apple keyboard with my PC.

On the plus side:
1. Compact design. It covers a minimal desk space.
2. Slim and easy to press keys are very nice.
3. Home-end-pgup-pgdn are not at eccentric locations.
4. There are 7 extra F keys you can use to assign functions.

Cons:
1. F keys are not in groups of four. I didn't realize this would be an issue, but apparently muscle memory gets some help from the small space left between F4 and F5 to discern the key when pressing Alt-F4.
2. Price is higher than it needs to be. I figure it's Apple tax. To boot, I don't get the opportunity to show-off at a chic bar to impress ladies.
3. No scroll lock key. Ergo no scroll lock led. You probably don't need it, but I do for some reason.
4. No num-lock led.
5. No windows key and the context menu key. Instead you get useless cmd keys. (There's a marvelous utility called sharpkeys to remap keys for good though. Use it. Use it. Really.)
6. No printscreen key (see sharpkeys).
7. No insert key (sharpkeys again).
8. There is a freaking "=" key on the numpad, claiming the space where "/" should be. Do I look like an idiot? Who the hell needs an "=" key on the numpad? The idiot key replaces "/" and subsequently causes a chain reaction with "*" as well. And the "+" key is a single row key, not a two-row one. (thankfully, there's sharpkeys).

Well, to sum it up, you get quiet and slim keys, and some issues most of which you can eliminate with sharpkeys. I do recommend it.

160

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 29 - soooooo similar to Chrome

« Last post by eleman on April 30, 2014, 02:52 AM »

Fortunately, there is this add-on.

If I wanted a browser that looked like chrome, I would either use chrome, or one of the clones such as yandex (which probably does the reporting to KGB, instead of CIA). Would I use firefox? doubt it.

Anyway, the ESR (Extended support release) channel is still based on 24, so I'll be fine for half a year or so.

161

Living Room / Re: web hosts

« Last post by eleman on April 21, 2014, 11:17 AM »

I'd recommend hostso. Mostly due to price. You can't beat $8 per month for unlimited web sites.

I use them for 5 years now.

They sometimes have downtime. My uptime estimate for their services would be around 99%. Well yes, I know 99% and 99.5% are really worlds apart when you have an angry client. And 99.95% is entirely something else. But see the price.

Sometimes (once a month or once every two months maybe) the site is slower than it needs to be.

Their responses to tickets are quick (within 24 hours), and they solve the problems in the first response. I never had to have protracted exchanges with a clueless support staff in India. Every problem I had, from billing to password resets, to vulnerable php scripts, were solved immediately.

And again, you can't beat the price.

162

Living Room / Re: How is youtube tracking me?

« Last post by eleman on April 16, 2014, 08:19 AM »

IP address cannot be used to identify users. Sometimes hundreds share a single IP.

163

Living Room / Re: How is youtube tracking me?

« Last post by eleman on April 14, 2014, 01:56 PM »

The solution I found: move to outlook.com and f.ck with gmail.

-eleman (April 11, 2014, 07:21 PM)

I believe I'm entitled to employ profane words. Lots of them... Lots and lots...

Microsoft cans free custom domain support in Outlook

164

Living Room / Re: How is youtube tracking me?

« Last post by eleman on April 11, 2014, 07:21 PM »

Google and its evil policy of integrating everything to a single account makes deleting cookies a pain. I have to have gmail open at all times. If I delete the cookie for google.com, gmail logs me out.

The solution I found: move to outlook.com and f.ck with gmail.

165

Living Room / Re: How is youtube tracking me?

« Last post by eleman on April 11, 2014, 12:10 AM »

On a slightly related note;

I'm thoroughly fed up with Google's attempts to enroll me in google+ and to track anything and everything I search/watch.

Aside from the privacy issues, this reduces the quality of suggestions. I already watched 23 collegehumor videos, show me something else so I can discover new things. But no, Google thinks that I love only collegehumor videos, so only they show up in suggestions.

Blocking cookies is not a perfect solution, for you can't disable safe search when the cookies are blocked. Suffice it to say, I am no longer 8 years old. If I search for Stoya, I really want to see her naked.

Ergo... I move more and more of my searches to duckduckgo (which is unfortunately still sub-par on the results front), and next week I'll move to outlook.com as my e-mail provider. I have my own domain, so there should be no problems caused by e-mail address changes.

166

Living Room / Re: How is youtube tracking me?

« Last post by eleman on April 10, 2014, 10:56 AM »

block cookies for *youtube.com and *google.com
cookies are evil. Google is devil incarnate.

167

General Software Discussion / Re: unattended large file copies that will not prompt for msg

« Last post by eleman on March 03, 2014, 05:26 AM »

Supercopier can be configured to have defaults as you need.
So should be Teracopy, but I didn't try the second one.

168

Living Room / Re: My pop/imap Android experience

« Last post by eleman on February 25, 2014, 12:19 PM »

gmail's imap thingie is a pain in the soft tissue.

-eleman (February 25, 2014, 10:30 AM)

I access my GMail via IMAP using K9, Thunderbird installed on my desktop, and occasionally a PortableApps version of Thunderbird from a thumb drive. I've never had problems getting it to work with any of them.

-Vurbal (February 25, 2014, 12:12 PM)

In the same vein, my .ss works without significant problems, but it sometimes gives me pain. Particularly after eating lots of beans.

Imap@gmail has too much room for improvement in ease of use and configuration on various devices. Good luck making it work on your dad's windows phone, by giving him directions over the phone.

169

Living Room / Re: My pop/imap Android experience

« Last post by eleman on February 25, 2014, 10:30 AM »

gmail's imap thingie is a pain in the soft tissue. I use pop3 instead, but use the "recent" trick to make it work with multiple devices.

enter your user name as follows:
recent:[email protected]

https://support.goog...l/answer/47948?hl=en
This is handy.

170

Living Room / Re: Project Christine - Modular PC from Razer

« Last post by eleman on February 11, 2014, 02:21 AM »

uhh... PC as we know it is already a modular architecture.

This one's defining characteristic is sexiness, not modularity

171

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by eleman on January 24, 2014, 07:22 AM »

Well, I'd also raise the same argument against the dollar, or peso, or lira, or euro, whatever, if it did needlessly contribute to global warming. Sure they do (dead trees), but not at the scale applicable to bitcoin mining I reckon.

-eleman (January 24, 2014, 06:46 AM)

But they do.  Maybe not as directly... but they do.  It's *all* digital these days, truth be told.  The paper money that we hold is just a representation of digital systems in place, especially in this day and age of fractional reserve banking, quantitative easing, and creative accounting.

-wraith808 (January 24, 2014, 07:13 AM)

But they don't require otherwise useless consumption of cpu cycles, do they? They consume only what is necessary for the transactions. Sending 1000 bytes there, saving 300 bytes here. No otherwise useless effort is involved, just to make them artificially precious.

You keep harping on how gold has intrinsic value based on the shine, i.e. from your last post:

I wouldn't discount the shine as a source of value. Value is defined as the likelihood to get something else in return. I could imagine shiny rocks buying services to some caveman in a cave bordello. In other words you could use it in barter, even before the invention of money. I can't imagine that for random strings of numbers.

-eleman (January 24, 2014, 03:44 AM)

But now you've gotten yourself in a logical hole.  Just because you can't imagine cryptographic strings being worth much- apparently many others can.  And as such, by your definition, doesn't that give it 'intrinsic value'?  After all, people want it, right?

-wraith808 (January 24, 2014, 07:13 AM)

You're deliberately missing the point. I claim that gold has a value regardless of the assumption of it being a medium of exchange. Bitcoin hashes do not have that VALUE REGARDLESS OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THEM BEING A MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE. See the phrase "in and of itself".

Anyway, this is slowly evolving into a flame war, and I don't want to be a jerk (I feel I will be in my next post, if I'm not already). So I won't reply anymore.

172

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by eleman on January 24, 2014, 06:46 AM »

What would Bitcoin hashes go for, if it weren't for the implicit agreement that they are a medium of exchange?

-eleman (January 24, 2014, 03:44 AM)

the same as todays dollar - and all other money I know of. Not an argument against Bitcoin, unless you also use it as an argument against money as we know it today.

-tomos (January 24, 2014, 06:40 AM)

Well, I'd also raise the same argument against the dollar, or peso, or lira, or euro, whatever, if it did needlessly contribute to global warming. Sure they do (dead trees), but not at the scale applicable to bitcoin mining I reckon.

Does someone have solid statistics on this? i.e. you get x dollars worth of bitcoins after burning y dollars worth of electricity on a rig that cost z dollars to build.

That would really bring our discussion to some solid footing here.

173

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by eleman on January 24, 2014, 03:44 AM »

Just because someone is attracted to something doesn't define an intrinsic value.  I think intrinsic value is pretty much universally taken to be characterized in terms of the value that something has “in itself,” or “for its own sake,” or “as such,” or “in its own right.”  Gold has no value in and of itself, other than as you say as a shiny bauble.  Therefore, gold has no intrinsic value.

-wraith808 (January 24, 2014, 12:46 AM)

I wouldn't discount the shine as a source of value. Value is defined as the likelihood to get something else in return. I could imagine shiny rocks buying services to some caveman in a cave bordello. In other words you could use it in barter, even before the invention of money. I can't imagine that for random strings of numbers.

And I wouldn't discount jewelry as a functional use. People like it, so it is valuable. In your logic, aesthetical choices do not deserve value, and for instance, you would not pay extra for a fancy house paint color, given limewash is cheaper, and does the bare function of keeping the walls clean. But we do pay extra to paint our house walls green, pink, champagne etc. don't we? Because our sense of aesthetics imposes the function, hence the value. Saying electronics count as a legitimate use, but jewelry doesn't isn't very consistent.

So, gold is valuable in and of itself. Perhaps not the value it fetches today, as it is also considered as a safe investment instrument as you mention, but still some. Say it would command $4 per gram, rather than today's price of $40. But it would command "a price" nonetheless.

What would Bitcoin hashes go for, if it weren't for the implicit agreement that they are a medium of exchange?

174

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by eleman on January 23, 2014, 10:38 PM »

Gold has no intrinsic value.  The only value is what people place on it.  When people mine gold, they use power for all sorts of things, under the assurance that they will be paid for it, out of the fact that people want it.

-wraith808 (January 23, 2014, 10:18 PM)

I'd disagree with this. Cavemen (or perhaps cavewomen) were attracted to shiny things, so they were attracted to gold, even before it became a medium of exchange. In the iron age it was also used as an ingredient in copper alloys to make them more sturdy. And yes, it predates the minting of the first coin by Lydians. Today we still make jewelry, in addition to substantial use in industry. 10% of all gold mined is used in industrial purposes. If it had been cheaper, the ratio would undoubtedly increase.

So, gold always had and always will have an intrinsic value. What's the intrinsic value of bitcoin hashes? It looks more and more like the shares of the South Sea Trading Company.

175

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by eleman on January 23, 2014, 09:42 PM »

But it doesn't.

The other things we used to generate money, for instance mining gold, had an actual use other than just generating money. Actually, the original function of gold (making shiny things women like, using in alloys to make rust resistant weapons etc.) predated the use as legal tender.

This one doesn't have another function. You just burn electricity, and assure yourself that you'll be paid for it. No intrinsic purpose whatsoever.