Recent Posts

1601

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« Last post by Shades on July 29, 2013, 08:26 PM »

Yes he is....it even says so in the final credits 

1602

Living Room / Re: How to capture/download a televised US Senate hearing?

« Last post by Shades on July 28, 2013, 11:42 AM »

For a very hands-on approach: Wink

With that tool it is possible to capture anything happening on the screen. Mark a certain area of the screen, set it to capture 30 frames a second and watch the video. This will require a lot of storage space and the result is an swf file.

Download the MP3 and use ffmpeg (or similar software) to mix the swf file with the mp3 into a file-format of your choosing.

Granted, this method is complicated (and hardly worth the effort), but it is really WYSIYG...

Another method is to find out if the player that this website uses buffers on your PC and if so, copy the buffer to a different location with software such as Unlocker. Convert the video later to your discretion. The trick here is to find the buffered data on your system.

1603

General Software Discussion / Re: Free smtp server recommendation?

« Last post by Shades on July 28, 2013, 09:46 AM »

Spamming, eh? 

Depending the ISP you use, port 25 might not even be available to you and if the port is available, there might be limitations in the amount of mails you are allowed to send per minute.

Besides that, there are external organizations that can (and will!) put your domain on a block-list, allowing no mail of any kind to pass (depending on the location of your mail server, different organizations take care of this).

You get a warning message with an URL that you can use to lift this ban, but if the same happens in the grace period...

This happened twice to me (yes I have my own domain with a dedicated Linux mail server, completely under my control), because of a virus that was sending messages all over the place. 

So if you have the time to do the research, get a dedicated Linux mail-server. Very capable and free. If you don't want all the headaches that come with previous solution, see what kind of mail services you can get from your current ISP and let them do the work regarding maintenance, up-time etc.

1604

Living Room / Re: U.S. Agency Trashes Computers For Malware That Wasn't There...

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2013, 08:50 PM »

Or give a lot of Huggies?

1605

Living Room / Re: Prim Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome (techcrunch.com)

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2013, 08:49 PM »

It costs me 30.000 PGS (about 6.5 USD) each time I visit the laundry place. But for that money it is getting washed, ironed and folded. For me the hassle of not having a machine to maintain that consumes water, electricity, detergent, fabric softener, lose time doing the ironing (which is another machine to maintain, consumes quite a lot of electricity and who hasn't been hurt by the ff folding ironing board) and folding.

If there is a significant other running around the house, one quickly forgets recurring costs and the time-sink that is laundry. If you want to do it yourself, fine. If you need to do laundry in very frequent intervals, fine. But if your laundry needs are small/infrequent...why bother doing it yourself.

I calculated that if I would by a (new) machine from a decent brand and take into account the recurring costs alone, it would take me 3.5 years to break even. Besides that, I rather use the time I'm not doing laundry,ironing and folding more productively (like posting on DC  )

1606

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2013, 02:20 PM »

Yep, Server 2008 is not that great. Its decent enough, but the feature set from 2012 makes one want to play with the OS in more ways than I expected.

Having said that, Windows 8 appears to have all the irritations of 2012, without the fun stuff from 2012. I'm still not convinced about that OS (or the direction MS takes with their consumer OS's lately).

The day GPSoft brings out Directory Opus (9 or 10) for Linux, I'll make the jump. 

1607

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

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2013, 12:04 PM »

The hunger games - Waste of time (why it got the high IMDB score is beyond me).
The Colony - Predictable storyline (same as Hunger games) but the actors put in better performance.
Emperor - This was an enjoyable war movie, one that you can safely see "with the missus".
Grabbers - Good Irish horror movie that is more funny than horror and I think that the missus wouldn't mind watching this one together either.

1608

Living Room / Re: did you ever throw your back out?

« Last post by Shades on July 26, 2013, 11:37 PM »

For general treatments and first aid the US healthcare system cannot match (if you take the costs into account).

Specialist treatment costs a fortune on both sides of the ocean, but it appears to me that (only) after the money is transferred, US doctors want to do their job and show that they can do what they do in better, more successful ways.

One thing is the same on both sides, don't expect the best attention if you need insurance to pay for the medical bill.

That was one thing from the army doctors...they do know about back pain, where to look for adequate solutions and do that fast. I was in literally in the last group of people that still had to serve in the Dutch military for 12 months and when I left there were only two more drafters left in all of the southern regiments combined.

 

1609

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by Shades on July 26, 2013, 11:18 PM »

The F35 JSF?!?!

The term alone is already becoming more and more "dirty". That plane is a lot like Google actually...that plane is already so long in beta that alternative fighter planes are already taken out of commission because they themselves already become too old.

I think that plane was intended to replace the F16 in the Dutch air-force for more than 10 years now, each plane costing almost twice as much as initially specified by the manufacturer. Only last week the first one is delivered to see if it up to the task.

If you would ask me (and I know that no-one did) that plane is either too advanced for its own good or aeronautical engineers are not as good as they once were.

Day late, dollar short anyone?

1610

Living Room / Re: The H - one of the best sites for tech and FOSS info says "bye-bye"

« Last post by Shades on July 25, 2013, 09:42 PM »

c't was always a very good magazine, lots of in-depth stuff about very differnt subjects in computing. Too bad I cannot get it here in Paraguay...well, I should add: for a reasonable amount of money. And as I don't have a credit card, my options are even more limited: read more expensive. 

Damn, I do miss that magazine. 

1611

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by Shades on July 25, 2013, 09:31 PM »

I have been trying out Windows Server 2012 for several days now. The changes in workflow and the limitations these changes impose...they are definitely irritating to say the least.

However, there are some changes that do make sense (to me and how I like to do things). Until now, this Server edition of Windows tips the scale into a positive experience. Not by much, but still positive.

The testing I have been doing in a VM (VirtualBox) and it is very responsive. Then again, as I use portable versions of applications within a folder structure that makes sense to me, the OS becomes less and less relevant.

Most if not all of my apps worked straight out of the box and Windows is hardly "nanny-ing" in the folder structure I have setup. This might be reason why my scale has been tipped to the positive side...and I'm surprised, because I really(!!) like my XP machine...

[side-note]
Microsoft touts that they want Windows administrators to use the Windows Server 2012 Core version where possible, managing the Server through PowerShell. This strikes me as an odd thing...because this would implicate that running through a shell is the better way of doing things in server-land, which is what Linux is already doing (very) well for years.

With this strategy...there is (again) a reason less to run a Windows Server. It is for me as I already have been running very reliably the same set of Ubuntu Servers since 2008 (before that CentOS, and that misery I don't wish to worst enemy).
[/side-note]

1612

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)

« Last post by Shades on July 23, 2013, 06:13 PM »

I have noticed that you can get in a lot of trouble with running services on Windows 2012. Till now I found out that only the local Administrator account that doesn't give problems.

Even when using a local user name that is a member of the 'Administrators' group, I was not able to run a certain service I need. Making adjustments in the local security policies didn't do the trick either.

The error I experience happens at the moment I install the service. Managing the service afterwards is not the problem with any of the test accounts I made on that system, just the installing of a service is problematic.

As Windows 2012 and Windows 8 are from the same "family", this might be of interest to you.

1613

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

« Last post by Shades on July 21, 2013, 07:12 AM »

Guess not...but then I didn't see or haven't heard of the Ip man movies you mention. The kung-fu genre is not really my style of movie, I just liked the tag-line that came with 'The Grandmaster'.

1614

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

« Last post by Shades on July 20, 2013, 12:35 AM »

Snitch - Quite entertaining action drama movie.
Europa Report - SciFi - this is actually a captivating story, for an indie movie it is good.
Imaginaerum - Another story that captivated me...it doesn't deserve the rather low score it gets on IMDB. It has excellent music, all played by the band NightWish (gothic rock band, but don't let that stop you, the voice of female singer is very, very beautiful, cultivated by years of lessons/training at a northern european conservatorium). Also, the movie starts out as a movie for younger children, but it really isn't.
The Grandmaster - good movie about kung fu (after all, Bruce Lee had to learn his art before becoming a master, this is about his teacher)

1615

Living Room / Re: The Government Uses License Plate Scanners to Track Your Every Move

« Last post by Shades on July 17, 2013, 09:06 PM »

In the Netherlands there was (or still is) a club called: the Tuf-tuf club. They were always (creatively) destroying traffic camera's wherever they could find them and making (funny) pictures of the act.

There is still a Youtube video about this club... (Jeremy Clarkson from the show 'Top Gear' does the interview).

1616

Living Room / Re: Why the Surface hasn't sold well. (idiots)

« Last post by Shades on July 17, 2013, 08:43 PM »

I read today that prices from the Surface computers are slashed. The official retail channel in the Netherlands drops the price for the 32GByte one to more or less 350 EUR. But here in Paraguay that same model still costs 760 USD.

In both cases the computers are still too expensive and I have literally seen no-one with a Surface...and frequently I visit the places where the upper middle-class and rich people go for fun and do their shopping.

1617

Living Room / Re: digitising slides

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2013, 10:43 PM »

I have seen the results of a scanner that could only scan slides...A guy I knew, who had a pron-site for "special" tastes, bought one for about 2000 euro's, because he could get his hands on a boatload of vintage material (this happened around 2000). After a slide was processed, which took it sweet time I might add, the result was a 2500x1600 picture as crisp as would have been taken yesterday.

The scanner itself was not much wider that the slide itself, not longer than 5 slides laid after each other and its height was about 10 slides stapled on top of each other. The software that came with the scanner did the real "magic", though. You do get what you pay for in scanner land.

1618

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8's Task Manager -- Slow as Hell.

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2013, 02:19 PM »

The first thing I do on a new installation of any Windows version is replacing the task manager with a tool called 'Process Explorer' from SysInternals.

Their software is so good that Microsoft bought them up and they made the programmer one of the lead Windows architects. It is free to use and portable. I know for a fact that I am not the only member here who does this. This software is so essential, I don't get why it wasn't used as replacement.

There is an open source alternative (also portable)...with a somewhat ill chosen name: Process Hacker. This one is also very good.

1619

General Software Discussion / Re: Open or launch hyperlinks from a pdf file

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2013, 10:40 AM »

In the Foxit reader (version 2.3) I use I have to click on each link with the mouse. I couldn't find any hot-key or setting for this, but my version of Foxit is old and newer version may have hot-keys configured for this.

1620

General Software Discussion / Re: The problem with text compare tools - similar, in database compare tools

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2013, 10:22 AM »

Comparing databases is done (in most cases), because a DBA suspects a change in structure, which can be very problematic for software especially written for that particular database structure. Although one should not program like this, I think it can result in faster applications when one already knows exactly where to look/write.

For Oracle databases there are tools that can also do content comparison, some are basic and free, but in most cases expect to pay dearly (especially with Oracle products). With MySQL it is most of the time not that difficult to make a complete extract (structure and content) into a .sql file and which can be easily checked with a text comparison tool for differences.
I use XAMPP which comes with MySQL, a webserver and the PHPMyAdmin scripts. With that it is easy to create a complete dump of any MySQL database.

I have no personal experience with other databases (only some minor PostgreSQL), such as Microsoft and IBM database products, but I suspect that tools for these databases are more similar in functionality and price with the tools for Oracle products than for MySQL.

A long(er) shot would be to use the 'Oracle SQL Developer' software for both types of comparisons. This software you get for free when installing the latest Oracle client and/or database software (you can also fish this software out of the installation archive and run it as a portable application. All the necessary Java software is included, you do not need to install Java, you just have to configure it once). It is not included in Oracle XE versions, last time I checked.

If memory serves me right, this software is designed for Oracle databases (duh!), it is also able to handle Microsoft Access and as MySQL is now part of the Oracle family it should be able to work with these databases too.

Granted, the above solution doesn't sound simple and easy, but at least it is free. If you are interested , you could PM me with an FTP/dropbox location where I can dump an archive from the Oracle SQL Developer software I use on my system.

1621

General Software Discussion / Re: The problem with text compare tools - similar, in database compare tools

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2013, 09:35 AM »

Apparently ExamDiff Pro can handle moved blocks since May 2009 (version 4.5 and up), see here.

I don't know which version (of ExamDiff) you were using/trying, but I cannot stand by when one of my favorites get shot down 

1622

Living Room / Re: Help me choose my next smartphone

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2013, 08:55 AM »

Bill Gates was a tech and when he was leading the company, there were real advances in their software (granted, it was either bullied from x, bought from x or made in-house), now an accountant is ruling the company and see that there are no real advances anymore. More wind-bagging and less substance unfortunately require hype...

1623

Living Room / Re: $250,000 Prize for Human-Powered Helicopter

« Last post by Shades on July 13, 2013, 08:25 PM »

Why are tuition fees as high as they are?

If you would ask me (and I know you didn't, but I will tell you anyway  ), it would be that there are too many lawyers and finance students that have the impression that they deserve more money than people that actually do help the human race move out of the status quo (and hopefully in a direction most of us would call: forward).

In my admittedly limited view of the world, it is the engineers (mechanical, electrical, computational and biological/chemical) that are actually able to do the moving, while the others actively preserve the status quo, with all the problems that this brings and a lot of people are currently experiencing. Of course, there is no denying that there are exceptions on both sides, but still....

My 92 Guaranies (worth about 2 USD cents)

1624

General Software Discussion / Re: Open or launch hyperlinks from a pdf file

« Last post by Shades on July 13, 2013, 05:07 PM »

Most PDF readers can open hyperlinks by using the browser that you have set on your computer as default. Personally I use both FoxIt Reader and Adobe which do this, so I think it is safe to assume that the PDF reader of your choice will do the same.

No extra software required  (or I miss the point of the request).

1625

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by Shades on July 13, 2013, 03:16 PM »

Here are the ground rules for anything political or otherwise related to government:

http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm


Although on the end, it appears to repeat itself...it is still an enlightening (and quire extensive) read.