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1526

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Shades on November 19, 2013, 07:56 PM »

The Man From Earth: Just a group of professors/friends that try to have of going-away party in a remote location, because one of their own is leaving. That is and stays the whole movie set. The story is where the action takes place...addressing a lot of philosophical issues and concepts in interesting ways. Very well written!

1527

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Shades on November 17, 2013, 07:18 PM »

Bounty Killer: Over the top gun slingin' in the future. The main characters are head hunters for CEO's, literally! The babe in this kind of movie is very worthy of that name...and you can see that this crowd-funded movie was fun to make both on and off the set. Don't wear your thinking cap when watching, this is just a good old fashion fun ride. 

1528

General Software Discussion / Re: How do I control font size in PDF?

« Last post by Shades on November 16, 2013, 02:39 PM »

There is a manual for script commands to maintain in my administration, which is over 300 pages big, heavily linked (mainly into itself, but there are a few external links) and reasonably formatted. Whenever I need this word document converted to PDF, I use my portable version of LibreOffice.

LibreOffice can save directly into PDF, there is no need to install a PDF printer driver at least. The resulting PDF remains formatted and all links are fully functional (as in: they show up in the bookmarks functionality of PDF's!).

None of the (free) PDF printers I tried was able to manage this. Mind you, I don't use LibreOffice to edit this document, the only thing happening is loading the word document and saving it to PDF. In my (anecdotal) experience, the PDF generator from LibreOffice stands heads and shoulders above the rest.

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General Software Discussion / Re: central addressbook software for syncing everything with everything

« Last post by Shades on November 16, 2013, 05:55 AM »

Not that long ago, there was a freebie on the BitsDuJour site called: FlowHeater

That software uses the concept of adapters that can make applications "talk" to applications/files that normally are not able to do this. This concept sounds to me like an answer. I downloaded the FlowHeater freebie, as I have played with a trial of Microsoft's BizzTalk (2006) before and liked it. Couldn't afford it though, not for my use case anyway.

The FlowHeater software is also available in a (limited) freeware version, so you could try to see if this concept could work for you or not.

1530

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Shades on November 10, 2013, 07:34 PM »

Blackfish - A documentary that does make you think about cruelty to animals and how that results in profit and corporate lies where the loss of lives is just the costs of doing business. The last slide in the movie drives that message home. Not once did I lose sympathy for the orca that did the killing.

"The facts aren't what drive this film, the emotions behind them do." - taken from a user review at IMDB which sums up the whole experience perfectly.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Looking For Realtime Graphical Folder Size Monitor w/ User-Configurable Updates

« Last post by Shades on November 10, 2013, 02:42 PM »

Generally speaking:
Real-time means that the software is continuously busy updating whatever info it generates, without (a need for) user interaction. Windows services are a good example of real-time software.

Software that uses user specified intervals is by definition not real-time.

There is software that uses a mix-and-match of these concepts (of course), but explaining that is out of the scope from the question.  

Crap, I forgot to mention the software I use to find out where all the space on my hard disks goes. SpaceSniffer gives a nice graphical overview and uses  (some) windows explorer functionality to clean up disks. I like the graphical concept it uses. It doesn't support user intervals per se, but together with the Windows Task scheduler there should be options.

Try it and see for yourself, it's a 1.5MByte download and freeware.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Silent Hunter 5 & Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

« Last post by Shades on November 07, 2013, 07:18 PM »

Never worked for me on this end of the world. That's a shame because it's an offer on a German website and there is still some kind of a German "colony" here in Paraguay, with German street names and what not. To my knowledge the sister of Friedrich Nietzsche was heavily involved with this...and Wikipedia confirms this (and I'll stop there, before involuntary invoking Godwin's law).

You would think that German website could make an exemption...

1533

General Software Discussion / Re: Instagram ads arrive RIGHT when Instagram becomes available for Windows Phone 8

« Last post by Shades on November 05, 2013, 04:48 PM »

^you are right about the stated reasons. The point I wanted to make was that supporting a new (phone) OS always carries "unwanted baggage" with it that costs, either in money, headache or both. Just trying to be the devil's advocate, but I should leave that to the professionals (you, for instance  ).

Then again, I'm a person who (proudly) says that he hasn't even once visited the "social" websites such as twitter, instagram. pinterest etc. (excluding Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook). So I wouldn't know how they make their money of their members backs, I can only assume that the shown (personalized) ads floats their boat. And I don't have any trouble imagining that MS wants a cut of that income, as they want to have store, similar to the setup of the Apple store. I cannot blame them for that as it makes perfect sense business-wise.

You get what you give, and MS does not give too much to any market outside the US. When that turns around, customers will come, because the Lumia phone is not a bad phone. But for some reason they forget to copy that from the likes of Google and Apple.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Instagram ads arrive RIGHT when Instagram becomes available for Windows Phone 8

« Last post by Shades on November 03, 2013, 05:36 PM »

Don't know if and how much one has to pay for the development software, what extra license costs are needed to meet the requirements of the development software, the version control software, buying the necessary hardware, taking programmer(s) from other in-house projects and/or hiring new programmer(s), re-arranging/more office space, extra HR administrative tasks, making a test environment, setting up test procedures, fulfilling all requirements to be in the Microsoft store.

I have no clue what these companies make, how stretched their employees already are etc., etc.

[bit of a rant]
Lots of headache for minimal return, if MS doesn't gain much market share quickly. And if you live in the U.S. you have a skewed view of the Microsoft corporation. They cater the U.S. market and hardly give a sh.t about the rest of the world. Here in Paraguay it is hard to get a Lumia and they are more expensive than equivalent Android phones. And these you can get easily over here. A lumia 720 for example costs here almost 500 USD.

Their attitude and lack of marketing in the not-US markets make damn sure that their WP8 phones will remain a small player. And they dare to ask why nobody wants their phones, fueling the whole chicken-egg situation. I would understand if WP8 apps require adds to make these apps profitable, however I don't know if MS wants a cut of this or not allowing it in the first place. Cannot be bothered to look it up, to be honest.

Believe it or not, even a Blackberry is a better deal than a WP8 phone over here in Paraguay. Something MS should be ashamed of.
[/rant]

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General Software Discussion / Re: Instagram ads arrive RIGHT when Instagram becomes available for Windows Phone 8

« Last post by Shades on November 03, 2013, 09:53 AM »

Low market share of WP8 phones, maybe with restrictions that the app makers don't like, i.e MS wants too big of a cut from the already meager amount of money they would make from supporting this type of phone.

Don't get me wrong, the WP8 phone I have played around with (Lumia 720) looked decent enough and did what it did in a rather enjoyable way. Then again, my hands-on time cannot be more than 30 minutes in total, so what do I know.

 

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N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Final Release: SubDiv

« Last post by Shades on November 03, 2013, 08:27 AM »

The version I have  (executable only, version 1.0.48) is sent to the mail address I found on the web page your profile links to. The mail address is hidden on your profile.

A "strange" way of cloud back up 

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: DupScout Pro – Duplicate Files Finder – 24-Hours Giveaway

« Last post by Shades on October 27, 2013, 10:21 AM »

Now I had more time to look into the features of DupScout and I found the switch option between oldest/newest duplicates, so that is already not a real problem anymore.

Thank you for responding so quickly, which improves the (already positive) impression one gets after running this software. 

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: DupScout Pro – Duplicate Files Finder – 24-Hours Giveaway

« Last post by Shades on October 27, 2013, 09:22 AM »

The interface and speed of this piece of software are parts that I like a lot.

My main problem with this (default settings) is that it found some doubles and that you cannot select which one you want to keep. The software locks one of the files and and you can select if you want the other file to be moved, hard-linked, deleted, etc.

1539

General Software Discussion / Re: notepad2-mod: custom code folding for txt files?

« Last post by Shades on October 27, 2013, 09:06 AM »

No, I didn't set that option, although I don't like to use tabs for indentations. But that is a discussion for another thread (which very likely ends up in the Basement after the tenth post... ).

1540

General Software Discussion / Re: notepad2-mod: custom code folding for txt files?

« Last post by Shades on October 27, 2013, 08:05 AM »

Now this is weird:

The first result from using YAML scheme went (very) wrong:



Using a shortened version of my test file went ok:
(spaces)
(tabs)

And then I reloaded the original test file and all folding went ok in there as well. Odd.

This occurred in this version of NotePad2-mod

1541

General Software Discussion / Re: notepad2-mod: custom code folding for txt files?

« Last post by Shades on October 26, 2013, 11:21 AM »

With the example file I used (a batch script with a lot of sections) I saw that when I selected the Py scheme as the syntax scheme for this file, code folding options appeared.

With its basic structure, only the YAML, Visual Basic, VB Script, Cmake Script and AutoIt3 syntax schemes showed somewhat similar code folding options, so you likely could use any one of these.

Then I manually indented (4 spaces for each indentation) the content of this file...same set of syntax schemes do code folding.
Replaced all spaced indentations with tabbed indentations and again only the same set of syntax schemes do code folding.

I think it is safe to say that the code folding functionality doesn't respond to the use of tabs or spaces. None of the code folding in the other schemes matches the code folding from the Python syntax scheme, though.

To me it means that there are 3 main solutions to your question.
1. Do the cloning solution you mentioned in your last post in this thread.
2. Adjust the rules of the code folding functionality that is there.
3. Use different software.

For this small test I used Notepad2-mod 4.2.25.870 (64-bit zip).

1542

General Software Discussion / Re: notepad2-mod: custom code folding for txt files?

« Last post by Shades on October 25, 2013, 11:06 PM »

If you are not in the habit of creating installers for software you create, I would restructure one of those to implement your idea (Inno setup, NSIS).

Personally, what I use is Notepad++ and it can do what you ask...creating a new code format for your specific text files, it can do folding and has support for plugins. So if you are still missing functionality, you could peruse through the available plugins or boldly write one yourself.

Notepad2 is a decent text editor, but doesn't allow much beyond its capabilities...unfortunately. (unless forking is an option for you). By now I have seen more than one fork of the Notepad2 source, each addressing a problem specific to its author. Makes you kinda wish the Notepad2 software supported plugins.

1543

General Software Discussion / Re: How to avoid creating/using a Microsoft Account when upgrading to Win 8.1

« Last post by Shades on October 21, 2013, 05:28 PM »

@Stoic Joker:
If that is a problem for you...did you take already a look at the new BIOS'es that nowadays ship?

There is no option to say to ACPI to leave the system off after a power failure. At least on none of the Asus boards  that passed through my hands lately I could find that option anymore. The NSA sure wants to be able to read all your stuff at their leisure (and your dime!).

1544

General Software Discussion / Re: Have you played with this type of database?

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2013, 07:39 PM »

I would first find out which company made the database software and search for a converter that may exist.

If such a converter doesn't exist, try to get the database software itself and run it in a virtual machine with the correct OS for the database server. Most database servers that run on Windows can be accessed through ODBC. Using that you should be able to retrieve data from the old beast and put it again in a database that is supported for a while, such as  Oracle and Microsoft (maybe IBM?).

All these companies have free versions of their database software, which are normally limited in storage space and some functionality. However, the limits of these databases is a multitude higher than anyone could dream of in 1995.

The open source databases PostGreSQL will also be here for a while still.

Some digging in the dusty archive resulted in this link, which describes a company Neologic that might be the maker of the database format you are sifting through.

My suggestion is long in the tooth as well, but getting data from old obscure data formats is a dread...at best! 

1545

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: I want a badge.

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2013, 06:52 PM »

@superboyac:
Aren't those badges not like a tattoo? No ink desired over here 

1546

General Software Discussion / Re: Objective upgrade Netbook with XP to Netbook with Win 7

« Last post by Shades on October 08, 2013, 07:18 AM »

I found that a small, simple, free and portable tool called 'Rufus' makes bootable USB sticks from any Windows DVD (or Linux for that matter) even when the computer that has to create the bootable USB stick does not run on Windows 7.

On another note, I noted that my old 2GByte RAM, XP based dual core PC with 1GByte/sec onboard network card communicated better/faster with my Linux server I use to backup my data to than the 8GByte, i5, Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate with 1GByte/sec onboard network card. I re-used the HD from the XP PC in the new PC and did a clean install of Win 7 (with the bootable USB stick I made on my XP PC).

All I did on the XP PC was aligning the partitions and the speed difference was really noticeable. If it is speed you are after, a netbook made for XP might benefit more from partition alignment than anything else. Considering getting a netbook made for Windows 7/8 might prove to be better bet overall as the 1GByte of RAM of the current one is not that much.

In my experience Windows 7 is quite workable with 2GByte of RAM and improves quite a bit still with 4GByte of RAM. An external DVD drive is a bet I wouldn't consider as the netbook might not be able to boot from it. Unfortunately it can be that the BIOS inside the netbook supports the option, but it could be very picky about the brand of the drive or the controller that the drive uses.

1547

General Software Discussion / Re: wont boot normally!

« Last post by Shades on October 01, 2013, 06:58 AM »

It is always a good idea to reconnect every plug inside your PC case once in a while, especially when your case was physically moved or when experiencing sudden strange problems like this.

I have here a 2TB SATA 3 hard disk , that I had to remove from my server, because it made the system unbearably slow. None of the hard disks in that system would reach SATA 1 speeds. Neither Windows or S.M.A.R.T reports errors on it and I cannot even use it stand-alone. And it did this after only 3 month's of use. The replacement I got, did the same after 1.5 months.

Do you have another HD lying around that you can spool back one or both OS's back onto it and see if that is your problem?

Since I have been living here I do not trust the whole "slim-line" of Seagate hard disks anymore, or their hard disks between 501GB and 0.99TB or HD's between 1.01TB and 2.99TB. Seagate really doesn't sell their A-grade stuff here in the South Americas.

1548

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by Shades on September 29, 2013, 06:20 PM »

^ ??!?!??!?!!??!!?

What a crappy lyrics! Come to think of it, they should share what they have been ingesting with everyone who wants to make sense of this clip...

1549

Screenshot Captor / Re: CPU use

« Last post by Shades on September 29, 2013, 11:21 AM »

Take a look with Process Monitor (it is from the same makers as Process Explorer) and filter out anything that is not related to the process you are monitoring. Very easy, take one glancing look at the filter rules that are by default there and you know how to add the rule you need.

1550

Living Room / Re: VPN Gate - Univ. of Tsukuba launches Academic Experimental [Crowd] Project.

« Last post by Shades on September 29, 2013, 11:08 AM »

A lot of that info is being sent by the browser when it asks for the data from the webserver that hosts the webpage you are visiting.

You can change that by altering the user agent info from the browser.

Besides this, for the TCP/IP protocol to function properly the location of where you have been and where your packets need to go is included. This is by design, because your packets have to be re-routed if a section of the internet network would be unavailable. This way you can trust the information that is sent to arrive at the destination, no matter what.

As your packages arrive at the destination, the destination still has the information of where you have been.

As you might have heard, the IPv4 range of IP addresses have been divided up all over the world and have practically ran out. There are only a handful of organizations that do the dividing of IP addresses and each of these organizations is responsible for a defined section of the globe. When asked, these organizations freely give out the general global location for any of the IP numbers in their care (WHOIS).

It is quite easy to deduce where you are physically located with this info, especially when one would fill a database of their own with the results of these WHOIS requests. Because all addresses are almost given out, there is little chance of an error anymore.