Recent Posts

1501

Post New Requests Here / Re: So, about wallpaper changers...

« Last post by Shades on December 25, 2013, 07:29 AM »

Upscaling (enlarging) images is very hard to do. Of course, enlarging an image with dimensions 1024x768 to 1280x1024 is not that hard, especially when the ratio remains the same. However, when upscaling to bigger

The compression level of the JPG image format is a huge factor in the upscaling capability of an image. Compression normally means: how can I get rid of as much image data as possible, without affecting the image (too much).

After compression (of any image format, really) the upscaling capability diminishes significantly. Myself, I tend to use the following rule of thumb: if you have a JPG image with 80% compression (a very common, if not the default level of compression) you can more or less safely upscale up to 20% of the original size (about 25% of the compression level value), but only if the ratio remains the same. For example: 1024x768 (original) + 20% would become 1280x1024.

After that, don't bother. Years ago, around 1998-2000, I did buy a piece of software (for about 150 of today Euros) that could significantly upscale images successfully. The floppy it came on wasted away and as far as I know this software isn't on the consumer market anymore. The guy who made it was always busy making computer demos (in Assembly) in his free time, while studying mathematics in University. He finished his study with a project where someone would make a random pile of coins from different countries and his software could tell you the exact amount of coins from a satellite image.

Recalculating the correct missing image information from any image is very hard to do and will always lead to artifacts. Nothing substitutes uncompressed image data. Still, all bets are off when the image ratio changes during upscaling, even if the image is uncompressed. Not all of the tricks that work when upscaling (compressed) movies, work as well for stationary images I'm afraid.

1502

Post New Requests Here / Re: So, about wallpaper changers...

« Last post by Shades on December 24, 2013, 10:19 PM »

Nowadays I just use the standard wallpaper that comes with Windows 7. But this used to be a favorite of mine:
http://www.johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/

Never tried this one myself, but looks promising:
http://www.caledos.com/lab/Caledos/featuresC.aspx

Although it doesn't fit the requirements from the OP, I cannot forgot about the eye-candy generated by this piece of freeware. At the time I enjoyed this very much:
http://alumni.cs.ucr.edu/~gstitt/motionpicture/
It is from 2004 and doesn't look to be actively maintained, but it still works in my Windows 7 64-bit installation and to be honest...I still like it a lot!

*- edited: added eye-candy part -*

1503

General Software Discussion / Re: System Volume Information

« Last post by Shades on December 24, 2013, 05:32 PM »

Isn't the 'System Volume Information' folder by default hidden from view?

When one sees this folder, it is most of the time because one has adjusted the appropriate setting in the 'Folder view', accessible through the Windows Control Panel.

To my (limited) knowledge, after formatting the thumb drive, the first time the thumb drive is accessed by Windows, the folder returns.

As Stoic already explained, it's a system folder and is in principal harmless. 

1504

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYplorer offers 50% competitive discount for Directory Opus users

« Last post by Shades on December 22, 2013, 02:58 PM »

You are a frustrated Directory Opus user who has been fed too much bloat for too much money for too many years? Well, switch to a better application, the one where the action is, ...

-DonL (December 22, 2013, 11:12 AM)

GP Soft came last week or so with a beta of Directory Opus v11...so there is quite some action going on there as well.   

I do believe that XYplorer is a very adequate solution for people that cannot get their head around DOpus and/or think that the DOpus asking price is too high (the word 'expensive' is not used deliberately). I tried XYplorer several times in different incarnations, but I always keep returning to DO. Call me spoiled or whatever.



 

1505

Developer's Corner / Re: Can a user force an alternate routing to a website?

« Last post by Shades on December 22, 2013, 10:15 AM »

Then the cache got updated as well. The best way to go is as 40hz suggested: changing the DNS servers your connection to the internet uses.

There are some independent ones, with OpenDNS as the most famous one.
OpenDNS:
    primary: 208.67.222.222
secundary: 207.67.220.220

Level3:
    primary: 209.244.0.3
secundary: 209.244.0.4

Google:
    primary: 8.8.8.8
secundary: 8.8.4.4

Comodo Secure DNS:
    primary: 8.26.56.26    
secundary: 8.20.247.20

OpenNIC:
    primary: 216.87.84.211
secundary: 23.90.4.6

Public-Root:
    primary: 199.5.157.131
secundary: 208.71.35.137

Dyn:
    primary: 216.146.35.35
secundary: 216.146.36.36

If you don't know how to change these, the internet is filled with instructions on how to do this for any operating system.

1506

Living Room / Re: Hidden Netflix Marathon Gems to Watch Online

« Last post by Shades on December 21, 2013, 04:56 PM »

^+1 indeed a gem of a scifi series. Good arching story lines.

Don't forget about seeing the Peace Keeper wars. I'm not sure if these two episodes of Farscape are included nowadays, but they weren't around when I saw this series the first time around, years ago.

1507

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrade to Windows 64-bit

« Last post by Shades on December 20, 2013, 10:58 PM »

If you just mean to install 2 versions of Windows on the same partition than the answer is not really, the Windows folders will be separated, but the other folders will be shared. This will give a lot of access right conflicts because of folder ownerships, I can tell you that much. Separate partitions for each OS where only one OS will be up and running applications at a time will work.

Both running at the same time...if this means that both OS's are up and running applications at your leisure, then you will have to revert to virtualization. Not something you are going to like as it will take quite a bit of steps to do so. Microsoft Hyper-V from Windows Server 2012 (which is free) is likely the most convenient candidate, if you value performance and least amount of Windows licensing problems.

For virtualization it is best to have a "beefy" PC that can handle the load of running both the 32-bit and the 64-bit OS's at the same time with ease. Although you can have impressive specs with laptops, I wouldn't even consider these type of PC's to do this kind of setup. Lots of RAM, fast hard disk(s) and an i7 processor will get you a long way. Maybe an i5 processor will do. In any case, get a processor with lots of L1, L2 and L3 cache, that is more important than the GHz's!

You could also get a spare hard disk of ample size, although I wouldn't use a hard disk of more than 2 TByte as bigger drives could be problematic to boot from (depends on the age of the motherboard and/or what the UEFI BIOS supports). You could divide the new hard disk up in at least 2 partitions and virtualize your 32-bit OS using P2V software packages onto the last partition.

Most P2V software is free, but make sure you select the correct one for either the VMWare Player or VirtualBox software. Converting it later is in most cases still possible, but will take time and success is not guaranteed.

Disconnect the hard disk with the 32-bit OS and start installing the 64-bit OS on the 1st partition. When that is all done, install VMWare Player or VirtualBox in the 64-bit OS and create a new virtual machine using the virtualized 32-bit OS files. If all that went successful you can run applications at your leisure on both OS's at the same time. If the virtualized 32-bit OS works as you expect it to, you can use the original hard disk again for other purposes, you could even add it as a shared drive between both OS's if you want.

Lots of steps, I know. The latter virtualization solution is called tier-2 and most people have not much problems grasping the concept behind it and software to make this kind of virtualizations is freely available. VMWare Player and VirtualBox won't cost you a dime, VMWare Workstation is rather expensive. VMWare vSphere and it's predecessor ESX(i) are similar to Microsoft Hyper-V and also here you have to pay high license fees and make sure you have supported hardware, adding again to the price.

The first virtualization method (with Hyper-V) is called tier-1. Not as simple to grasp for most people, although it is not that hard. Main advantage of tier-1 solutions is the level of performance, which is very close to "bare metal" speeds.

If you have setup your current Windows 32-bit OS in non-standard ways such as lots of partitions, adjusted default folder paths and what not...expect a lot of problems getting it correctly virtualized.

Just making a working backup and doing a complete re-install now sounds about right, does it?    

*edited - I should proofread more often  *

1508

Non-Windows Software / Re: LINUX: Linux Mint 16 "Petra" just released

« Last post by Shades on December 20, 2013, 07:36 PM »

I have been playing more with a virtualized version of Mint and I must say that after installing the Krusader file manager the Mint experience improved 10-fold...for me at least. The default file manager wouldn't (or couldn't) connect to my shared drives using SAMBA. With Krusader there was no problem accessing the same drives. Apparently all file managers that come standard with any OS are too crippled to be of any use

There is still something to fix, though. VLC plays all videos on my (shared) drives fluently...in black and white. The other player that comes by default with Mint plays the same videos in color but 'choppy', no matter how much video RAM I make available to VirtualBox. And yes, all updates that come with VirtualBox, that have to be installed into the guest, are installed. A puzzle that is likely caused by the fact that I run it on a virtual machine that is molded into a portable version by the software of a 3rd party.

Anyway, I am convinced that Mint would do even better on "bare metal" and will advice others to use Mint if they want to jump ship or guide them with installing it on their system(s). Mint 16 has shown me that Linux has come a far way, since I have been trying it (my first distro was the official boxed set of Suse 7.0 which sold through the better book stores).

1509

Living Room / Re: Best Storage Option for Ripped DVD Movies?

« Last post by Shades on December 19, 2013, 05:52 AM »

NAS would be advisable when you view your rips in one and the same location, like your house for example. If not, portable hard disks are the way to go.

Don't use RAID unless you have to. The gain in access speed is not that great with using standard (read cheaper) hard disks, although the RAID controller used makes a difference. You get what you pay for when buying a RAID controller (and it's better to buy two, because one will breakl sooner than you think and your data might become inaccessible if you only bought one of those controllers. My guess is that 98% of all people do not have use for RAID in their homes. 

For a NAS or enclosure you might consider SSD's instead of SATA hard disks if speed is your thing. Big files that once stored aren't moved around that much anymore by the file system, which means that there is very little writing going on which should keep the read/write wear and tear to a minimum. And access + transfer speeds will be phenomenal. Rip to a normal hard disk and copy the result to SSD would be best.

With a NAS the network between the NAS, the computer(s) and/or TV you have in your place will also be a bottleneck. Especially when there is a WiFi connection in your network somewhere.   

1510

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

« Last post by Shades on December 19, 2013, 05:21 AM »

Which is this? The best commercial ever, or the best commercial of all time?

-Deozaan (December 19, 2013, 01:24 AM)

Very funny...but wouldn't physics be in the way? How far does sound travel in the near vacuum that is space?

1511

General Software Discussion / Re: software recommendations - photo/graphics editors

« Last post by Shades on December 19, 2013, 05:14 AM »

ever tried to put a cap on your wife?

safe to say the result will probably be a negative...

-Target (December 15, 2013, 05:01 PM)

You never know what might develop.
 

-cranioscopical (December 15, 2013, 07:07 PM)

She might expose too much

1512

General Software Discussion / Re: Downloading videos from Youtube

« Last post by Shades on December 15, 2013, 01:08 PM »

My bad, apparently skimming text is a skill I need to master still.  

Simply said: most operating systems negotiate about the speed with which their network card can communicate to the next point, for most people that is the router/switch provided by their ISP. That device in turn negotiates the speed with which it can communicate with the servers from the ISP. And this goes on and on until the destination is reached. Often referred to as bandwidth.

Determination of the communication speed is a vital part to provide the best possible service with any streaming content being sent to the browser. There are many factors that have a negative effect on the communication speed and if I were Youtube there would be rules in place that would deliver the highest quality uninterrupted video stream possible to the browser, while keeping the load and bandwidth consumption on the Youtube servers as low as possible. Bandwidth cost serious money and Google is a business so the service needs to make money.

Scaling down the resolution from the original content to the resolution of the stream that is actually sent to your browser is easy and can be done fast. This is already quite fast on my old Core2Duo processor and Google has lots of way better hardware deployed just for this purpose.

Flash is used to show video's in a browser and does the same speed determination at the time of installation. Quite likely it is even more conservative in selecting the default resolution at this time. If you have problems with the Flash settings, they are easily enough adjusted in the Flash player itself. But if you feel too limited in the options there, let me tell you about an add-on for FireFox that doesn't care about these settings or the limitations that Google imposes on the video stream that is sent to the browser.

With plugin 'Youtube Center' you gain a lot of control back that Youtube and Flash have taken away from you with each new version.
Default resolution can be set permanently high, the 'Dash playback' functionality can be disabled (so the video keeps downloading till the end while it is paused) and lots more.

Also handy, the settings made with add-on can be stored in a file for backup purposes or to be applied when you install this add-on on a different FireFox instance, or Chrome, or Internet Explorer or Opera for that matter.

Once you figured out the settings that work best for your situation, you will enjoy Youtube a lot more. The add-on did that for me at least.

1513

General Software Discussion / Re: Downloading videos from Youtube

« Last post by Shades on December 15, 2013, 04:08 AM »

EagleGet is a desktop tool that acts as a downloadhelper in your browser, but it also can be used separately. It has a YouTube search and download function. It's free, so it might be a nice solution to your problem.

1514

DC Gamer Club / Re: Hurry...Fallout 1, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tacticst for free at GOG

« Last post by Shades on December 13, 2013, 07:30 PM »

The offer is still shown here in Paraguay, with 11 hours to go.

1515

DC Gamer Club / Re: Hurry...Fallout 1, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tacticst for free at GOG

« Last post by Shades on December 13, 2013, 07:24 PM »

I had a problem with my Windows mail client (thunderbird) getting mail from my Linux mail server, so I saw this message quite late. The site was really getting hammered (and nailed!), but with a bit of perseverance I got through and could lay claim on this offer.  During my lunch I wrote the original post of this thread, but that was already too late then. The original offer would last till 14 December 2013 till midday. Which led me to assume there was still time for others to enjoy this offering.

Note that there's a strong rumor that these titles will no longer be on sale on GOG after the new year due to changes in ownership of rights to the games. So get 'em while you can, and get 'em while they're free. (If you've purchased a title, the download remains in your account even after GOG no longer sells it - at least that's been true so far)

This message was shown to me as well, but without the part that is emphasized. The rest of the message apologized for the problematic service and explained that capacity would be quadrupled

But after reading the post from Tomos I'm not sure anymore with So I will be off downloading my copies...

1516

DC Gamer Club / Hurry...Fallout 1, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tacticst for free at GOG

« Last post by Shades on December 13, 2013, 04:15 PM »

There are only several hours left (10 or so), but GOG offers Fallout 1, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics for free.

Even better, when you register today with them you get 12 more (good old) games, also free!

Better act fast. Oh yeah, no affiliation on my part, just a happy customer there.

1517

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook.com

« Last post by Shades on December 13, 2013, 05:37 AM »

GAL was already present in the SBS2000 server I once ran (years ago). What I also can tell you is that GAL isn't your friend when you want to automatize sending and receiving encrypted mail, which requires a feature called: 'extended MAPI' (and CAPI, of course). To my knowledge, Outlook is the only email client that supports extended MAPI, any other client only supports MAPI.

Extended MAPI is no fun to work with...and that is mainly due to very sparse (API) documentation from Microsoft. It feels like you need to visit the blog from a friend of the brother of the hairdresser from the neighbor of one of the developers to get (partial) info. This is in stark contrast with documentation delivered by MS for other MS products.

And with each iteration of Outlook and/or Office/Outlook patch Microsoft manages to break this. Consider this a friendly warning, I sure would have appreciated one when I started.

1518

Non-Windows Software / Re: LINUX: Linux Mint 16 "Petra" just released

« Last post by Shades on December 09, 2013, 06:05 PM »

Have been trying Mint 16 Cinnamon (64-bit) in VirtualBox version 4.3.2 (portable edition) but it isn't that stable to be honest, not nearly as stable as ElementaryOS 0.2 (Luna).

In my VirtualBox setup (both VirtualBox and Mint use the default settings) Mint really starts behaving crazy when I try to play a DVD. I'm not blaming Mint all the way for this behavior as it could be the DVD itself (yeay, misusing DVD book conventions for the DRM beast).

Have not been able to successfully connect my USB hard disk to the virtual machine in VirtualBox, perhaps I should try a different file manager that supports SMB:// better. For some (strange?) reason the default manager doesn't find my Windows shares.

I did install VLC into Mint, even after downloading and installing each requested package the DVD would pass through its menu system and plays the first minutes, but only in black and white, so I didn't check if the DVD plays completely, to be honest. Closing VLC crashed the virtual machine with Mint. The virtual machine with ElementaryOS, VLC and the DVD didn't crash after closing VLC, but VLC kept playing the movie in black and white as well. Also in this VM all the requested packages were installed.

The DVD is 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'.

Browsing the internet and all that kind of stuff went well in Mint, however the default fonts the default browser used, I didn't find that nice to look at. As I have seen websites in other linux distro's (CentOS and Fedora) display text of a website more clearly than Windows PC's years ago, I know this can be better. ElementaryOS does this (only marginally) better.

My Windows host machine uses an AMD Radeon 4650 video card (old, but very reliable and it has 1GB of RAM on it). The rest of my PC is from the same "computer epoch", so that could be the reason for instability as well 

1519

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XMAS calendar giveaways...

« Last post by Shades on December 09, 2013, 05:21 PM »

Yes, to my knowledge it is a decent and reputable computer magazine. Not sure if they still do printed issues, but you could buy these even in the Netherlands (and no, the languages of these two countries are not that similar) at the time I was still buying printed magazines.

c't is the best German computer magazine out there, as most of its articles are geared towards professionals in very diverse fields of computing, electronics, (specific parts of the) law, etc. They still translate their magazine to different languages, including Dutch.

It is actually made by the people behind one of 40Hz favorite websites (heisse.de). 

1520

DC Gamer Club / Path of Exile

« Last post by Shades on December 08, 2013, 09:09 AM »

Since Diablo 1 came out, this game genre has me captured as a fan. Hours and hours I have "wasted" playing both Diablo and Diablo II. Didn't play any of Diablo III though, as the always open internet connection "feature" didn't appeal to me at all...which was also problematic in the beginning. Besides not having internet at home, the reviews from people who could play were mostly 'Meh' so I didn't feel bad about skipping that part of the franchise.

However, I recently discovered a new game in this genre, called: Path to Exile.

It's Free-To-Play (over 4.5 GByte download) and captures the spirit and fun of the first Diablo games very, very well. As I do have internet where I live now, I thought to try it out. Let's just say that many hours were "wasted" again, since I started playing.

The always connected feature in Free-To-Play games is understandable, the existence of micro-transactions too. And in this game these only buy gimmicks that only alter the look and animations of the character(s) you are playing. There is also a chat system where players can exchange loot amongst themselves, no money involved.

Although it is a Free-To-Play game with a lot of features to play with and against others, there is nothing stopping you from playing the game as a solo-player as there is a story-line and lot's of side-quests.

Great game for any price.

1521

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Network Scanner / No title as yet and in beta stage

« Last post by Shades on December 08, 2013, 07:47 AM »

Hi again. On your website (which is clear and concise  ) it might be a good idea to mention the requirements of your software as I had to download/update the .Net framework on my PC from 4 to 4.5.

1522

General Software Discussion / Re: Does anyone know of a software that can record file modification times?

« Last post by Shades on December 06, 2013, 05:30 AM »

For this kind of purposes a CVS (content versioning system) would be ideal. It requires discipline to use but it can track which file(s) changed, but also by who, and depending on the file type even what.

SVN, Git, Mercurial and CVS have freely available server software and 3rd party client software (also free and/or open source) that make working with these servers very handy. SVN server with TortoiseSVN seem to fit the bill best.

Note that my advice comes from personal experience years ago and that I didn't keep up. I don't know if similar solutions exist for Git or Mercurial, as these are the most modern CVS systems out there. SVN and CVS are old (10+ years) and established names.

Once you do have and use the required discipline in storing files, you will wonder how you could have done any work without it.

1523

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by Shades on December 04, 2013, 04:01 PM »

Have you already tried to disconnect the 3rd monitor and the adapter, and then retrace all the steps you did when you "caught" the culprit?

If the problem still remains, there is something going on with your video card and/or it's drivers (although I still would not completely rule out your power supply, especially if it an older one that only barely delivers the required Watts). Of course, if the problem disappeared you can safely assume that the adapter for the 3rd monitor is responsible for your troubles.

The process of elimination is usually the best way to troubleshoot strange problems and identify bad parts. You normally start with the bare minimum of hardware to run and add each time one piece of hardware until you add the part that gives you the problem.

1524

Living Room / Re: How long do hard drives actually live for?

« Last post by Shades on November 27, 2013, 09:48 PM »

If I really need to know if there is a platter problem with a drive, I have found a free tool that tells me the exact location of an error, which type of error and where future problems will arise. It will also point out to you which sections of the drive are faster than others as well.

The tool is called: MHDD  you have to (re-)boot your computer with the included iso, which enables (very) low level access to the drive.  The DOS-like interface will be a turn-off for people that are accustomed to a point-and-click interface, even for keyboard jockeys the interface can be daunting.

It has more tricks up it's sleeve, but I use it mainly to check for (possible) hard disk errors. While this software runs, there is still a rudimentary help system available. But beware, this software comes with a lot of power, so be ready for the responsibility it demands. If in doubt, don't use it as you can do a lot of really irreparable damage.

Depending on the size of the disk a hard disk check can take quite some time, mainly because of the missing speedup functionality of the BIOS and file system being used by the operating system on the hard disk that is being checked.

No link is provided on purpose, only a little bit of <insert preferred search engine here>-fu could get you into a lot of trouble, but that will not be on my head at least.

1525

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by Shades on November 23, 2013, 03:54 PM »

Have been using one (actually just one) to clean 8 computers here for years and most of these systems have more than 6 years of continuous service under their belt.

It is a model of brush that a house painter would use to paint hard to reach spots, and its hairs do not come from an animal. But I must say that there is no carpet in this house, just stone tiles. Carpet is very uncommon here in this parts of the world.

Pressured air has given me more problems. On two different occasions the cap of a condensator flew off, effectively killing the motherboard.