Recent Posts

1726

Living Room / Re: Matchstick - A streaming stick using Firefox OS [Kickstarter]

« Last post by 4wd on August 04, 2015, 12:38 AM »

Why not go ahead and ship without that, then? I would have been happy.

-CWuestefeld (August 03, 2015, 04:37 PM)

Same here, I didn't have any need for DRM.  Maybe part of the problem is/was that the market now has so many Android-on-a-Stick dual/quad/octo-core devices that can handle DRM through dedicated apps, at low prices, that it wasn't really viable any more.

Oh well, some money back so I can fund another project to get cancelled.

As a bonus I get more back than I paid due to the AUD dropping in value
(Although that will probably only cover the exchange rate fees.)

1727

General Software Discussion / Re: What's living in your taskbar notification area right now?

« Last post by 4wd on August 02, 2015, 07:13 PM »

Actually prefer the clean, monochrome, easily identifiable icons over multi-coloured, wtf is that blobs.

1728

General Software Discussion / Re: PSA: Woe to Thee Who Performs a Windows 10 Clean Install

« Last post by 4wd on August 02, 2015, 05:00 PM »

^Yes, that's all I had after both machine upgrades I've done, just the normal *.old folders and the folders containing the Windows 10 upgrade.

My fun started when I restored one of them back to Windows 8.1 via a system drive image ... only to find it wouldn't boot.  Windows 10 upgrade process had slipped an extra System Reserved partition in when I wasn't looking, had to use Paragon HDM to remove it then correct the BCD entries in the original.

1729

General Software Discussion / Re: Question regarding Win10 upgrade

« Last post by 4wd on August 02, 2015, 02:01 AM »

On the Canceling Reservation that @Deozaan mentioned, (because I've just done it - driver issues):

If the tray icon is still there, click on it, click the menu icon in the top left of the window, and choose View Confirmation:



On the following window, click Cancel Reservation, the next two windows will ask if you're nuts, and if you want to continue.

1730

General Software Discussion / Re: Nothing working to get FUBAR PC to boot

« Last post by 4wd on August 01, 2015, 11:28 PM »

I think it has something to do with adblock/scriptblockers.

-Deozaan (August 01, 2015, 10:33 PM)

Yep, looks like it, all downloads show up under K-Meleon.

1731

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by 4wd on August 01, 2015, 09:56 PM »

So, next machine to get upgraded was my x86 TV recorder, (ZOTAC 8200-ITX WiFi).

Painless upgrade again, just a few small (possibly) bugs to iron out today, took about an hour for it to upgrade.

Cons:

• TV recording no longer works even though the correct drivers were installed/carried over from 8.1Pro for the USB device - I suspect this can be fixed by reinstalling the capture program and Java.
• Outpost Pro Security Suite was uninstalled, which I expected.
• ClassicShell was disabled - also expected.
• Edge became the new default browser, which shouldn't have happened IMO (default was Pale Moon).
• Viewing the Desktop directly on a Dell Pro monitor and the fonts are blurry - so have to play with the Display settings.

Pros:

• Old Canon LiDE 20 scanner still works, (using old XP/Vista/7 drivers) - actually works better now since its TWAIN driver disappeared under 8.1 but now it's back under 10, so I can use any program again rather than Canon software.
• Conexant USB fax/modem still appears to work.
• All the other software installed, (HDD Sentinel, Paragon HDM, MegaSync, iDrive, VPN, etc), still appears to work.

If I can't get the TV recording to work, it'll get rolled back to 8.1 Pro.

Addendum: Turns out it was the tuner drivers: Driver is not intended for this platform.   So, rolling back to 8.1 Pro on this machine until the drivers get updated.

1732

General Software Discussion / Re: Nothing working to get FUBAR PC to boot

« Last post by 4wd on August 01, 2015, 08:53 PM »

^That website has something strange with it, I can't see the drivers in Pale Moon on my desktop but I downloaded both the chipset and graphic drivers using Chrome on my android tablet.

So, something to try.

Otherwise, my one shop stop for driver installation these days if I can't find them, is DriverPack Solution (which you can install to a flash drive to run).  I usually download the ISO (~10GB) but the online version might get you what you want, assuming you have net access on it.

1733

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple network drivemapping utility

« Last post by 4wd on July 30, 2015, 07:39 PM »

I can do this in Powershell if you want, simple GUI with a textbox for a user name and a Map button.

eg.



That's the GUI done, but no code behind it.

Give me a few days, (busy weekend).

1734

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by 4wd on July 30, 2015, 02:19 AM »

Apparently they're still checking to see if it'll work on one of my computers, (even though it's already running 8.1 which has the same requirements).
 (see attachment in previous post)
And I really doubt it's going to install on the other, (my old netbook), but I think I'll force the issue somewhat by grabbing the ISO  

Just clicked on the SysTray icon on the netbook, (that wouldn't install the previews), and it tells me that "This PC is compatible."

Time for some fun and games.

-4wd (July 29, 2015, 06:42 PM)

And please tell us!

-TaoPhoenix (July 29, 2015, 08:03 PM)

I was a little skeptical about whether it would work given the lack of success with the Preview builds on the netbook ... but MS have come through.

Upgrade from Win8.1Pro to Win10Pro via flash drive, (which has x86/x64 versions on it), took about 90-120 minutes and it resulted in a fully activated Win10Pro x86 installation.  Only thing missing seemed to be the Intel 950 graphics driver but going into Device Manager and telling it to update, retrieved it from the internet.
Apart from a couple of programs related to Windows Phone, this was a pretty stock Win8.1Pro installation before upgrading.

Told it to Defer Upgrades and Notify to Restart so I'll see what it does about that.

So, on the netbook: painless upgrade

Next will be my 24/7 TV recorder/downloader/fax computer, also x86, where they're still "validating" the upgrade.  If that goes OK, I might bite the bullet and do the wife's machine  

I think I'll write my will while I still have arms and legs.

1735

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple network drivemapping utility

« Last post by 4wd on July 29, 2015, 10:37 PM »

DriveMapper ?



So basically the same as that but the user only inputs a user name.

Password, network path, and mapped drive letters are static values.

1736

Living Room / Re: Anti-drones are ready

« Last post by 4wd on July 29, 2015, 06:55 PM »

This one is much better:

1737

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by 4wd on July 29, 2015, 06:42 PM »

Apparently they're still checking to see if it'll work on one of my computers, (even though it's already running 8.1 which has the same requirements).



And I really doubt it's going to install on the other, (my old netbook), but I think I'll force the issue somewhat by grabbing the ISO 

Just clicked on the SysTray icon on the netbook, (that wouldn't install the previews), and it tells me that "This PC is compatible."

Time for some fun and games.

1738

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2015, 09:59 PM »

I'm GMT +10 and as yet, all I've got is that the upgrade is "reserved" on the two machines I'm allowing to auto-upgrade, one of which is on 24/7.

Back to thumb-twiddling mode.

1739

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Earth through proxie?

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2015, 07:23 AM »

You need to run Tor as a transparent proxy, there's a couple of ways:
1) You run OpenWRT, Tomato, etc firmware in your router and set it for Tor connectivity;
2) Try using Tallow which will push all your TCP traffic through the Tor network, (unless told otherwise).

Some uses of Tallow include:

• "Tor-ifying" applications/programs that were never designed to use Tor. Since Tallow is transparent, the application will not be aware that traffic has been diverted via the Tor network.
• Filter Circumvention. If you just want to circumvent Internet filtering, and do not care so much about strong anonymity, then Tallow may be appropriate.
• Better-than-nothing-Tor. Even though Tallow by itself is not a strong anonymity solution, some Tor may still be better than no Tor at all.

Take note though:

But beware! Unlike the TorBrowserBundle, Tallow does not make any attempt to anonymize content sent though the Tor network. This may include cookies or other information that can identify you. For this reason Tallow is not intended to be a complete strong anonymity solution by itself.

1740

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2015, 07:06 AM »

What do you guys think about these alibaba products that have enromous specs and cheap prices?  Take this one for example:
8GB RAM
intel i3
fanless/silent
~$300 (see attachment in previous post)

-superboyac (July 27, 2015, 02:53 PM)

Why not go for an Intel NUC from Newegg?

Comparable prices and a lot closer to home if you find a problem with it.

1741

General Software Discussion / Re: Can Casper really create bootable clone of my Windows disk?

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2015, 07:02 AM »

You could also try disabling the internal HDD in BIOS, (if it allows it), then select the clone for booting.

1742

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Not-so-mini review of CrashPlan backup software

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2015, 06:59 AM »

Yes, it's still chugging along here also on my main machine - I suppose I could have taken them up on the initial HDD load, (free for Australia also, which is good), but it wasn't really critical in my case.

It's definitely good to be able to back up everything to the one account: 3 PCs, 1 server, 2 Android tablets, 1 Android phone, and 1 Windows phone.
And be able to access anything, across all of them, from any device.

1743

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2015, 06:49 AM »

If you plan to purchase Windows 10, for instance to install it on a new PC or to upgrade a non-genuine version of Windows to a genuine-one, then you may be interested in the retail pricing of the operating system.

    Windows 10 Home will be available for $119.
    Windows 10 Pro is priced at $199.
    Upgrades from Home to Pro are available for $99.

-Arizona Hot (July 27, 2015, 11:10 PM)

Hm...  I paid Microsoft merely $30 for 64-bits Windows 8 Professional. What a price increase!

-Curt (July 28, 2015, 01:54 AM)

I think you'll find that you bought an upgrade to Windows 8 from the version you were/are running, (Windows 7), the upgrade price for Windows 10 is $0 from Windows 7 or 8(.1) - that's a decrease in price.

The above prices are for retail versions, Windows 8 had a comparable pricing structure: Windows 8 $119; Windows 8 Pro $199.

1744

General Software Discussion / Re: What's living in your taskbar notification area right now?

« Last post by 4wd on July 26, 2015, 11:38 PM »

Thanks for confirming it's not just me.

101MB on my laptop (w8), 21m on my 32-bit desktop (w7), and 29k on my 64-bit desktop (w7)

-wraith808 (July 26, 2015, 09:57 PM)

Interesting, I wonder if it's just a Win8 thing?
Using the 32bit version on Win8.1 x64 here.

1745

General Software Discussion / Re: What's living in your taskbar notification area right now?

« Last post by 4wd on July 26, 2015, 09:30 PM »

While we've kind of digressed into application memory usage, can I ask what those using the Dropbox client show it's memory usage as?

I installed it today just to sync a few MP3s onto my Lumia 530, (cheap media player), and Task Manager shows it using 140+MB at idle which, quite frankly, is ridiculous considering the iDrive client uses ~26MB and is continuously indexing/uploading atm.

1746

General Software Discussion / Re: Can Casper really create bootable clone of my Windows disk?

« Last post by 4wd on July 26, 2015, 09:16 PM »

A point of clarification:

... but none of the clones are actually bootable (go into BIOS and choose the newly cloned drive as boot disk).

-kyrathaba (July 26, 2015, 04:42 PM)

Are you saying you're trying to boot your system when both the original and clone are connected?

Just wondering because over the years I've always had mixed results doing that, (ie. you essentially have two identical HDDs connected to the system), so much so that the original is now always disconnected, (pull the data cable), when I've cloned a HDD and want to boot off of it.

1747

General Software Discussion / Re: What's living in your taskbar notification area right now?

« Last post by 4wd on July 26, 2015, 01:24 AM »

but I'm gonna give Greenshot a go...

-kyrathaba (July 25, 2015, 02:30 PM)

I did give it a go... But it apparently uses 15 times the memory used by FScapture, ...

-eleman (July 25, 2015, 11:50 PM)

With Greenshot using 13.7MB out of my 12GB and at a cost of $19.95 less than FSCapture, I think I can live with it.

1748

General Software Discussion / Re: What's living in your taskbar notification area right now?

« Last post by 4wd on July 25, 2015, 11:36 PM »

... but I'm gonna give Greenshot a go...

-kyrathaba (July 25, 2015, 02:30 PM)

You can also run it without installing by extracting the installer using UniExtract and copying the contents of the {app} folder wherever you like.

1749

General Software Discussion / Re: What's living in your taskbar notification area right now?

« Last post by 4wd on July 24, 2015, 10:03 PM »

Win10 Upgrade notification
HDD Sentinel (Highest temp.)
MBAM (Web Protection disabled)
SyncBack Pro (No profiles running, hence the cross)
HDD Sentinel (HDD throughput)
Realtek HD Audio Manager
Bluetooth
CPUTemp (Temp, Load, Freq)
Safe Removal
DeskAngel
FARR
Logitech Gaming Software
GreenShot
CFoSSpeed
DOpus
Lights-Out Client
iDrive client
Everything
Windows Firewall Control
Windows moaning about Update Settings and SmartScreen
Yay! I've got internet access
... and speakers apparently.

Nothing hidden.

1750

Living Room / Re: what is this saying?

« Last post by 4wd on July 23, 2015, 10:14 PM »

I get 07976113222 without screwing around with the audio.  You could probably make it clearer loading into Audacity, decreasing high frequencies, add a little bass, and reduce playback rate.

Hi, this is Jamie calling career recruitment at (Kingco/Kenco)? Enterprises.

Giving a quick call regarding the application to ???????? (sounds like "leftway") technician vacancy.

If you wouldn't mind calling me back when free, I'm available 07976113222.  Thanks, bye bye.

It would help in future if you provide some sort of context because it sounds like she is applying for a position at your company.