Recent Posts

1751

Living Room / Re: Home server upgrade meanderings

« Last post by Shades on September 30, 2012, 09:46 AM »

Recently I had to rebuild my CVS server. It´s motherboard with AMD Athlon 3000+ processor burned up...actually the SATA controller burned up.

So I take a look at the prices from the biggest local PC shop and I was able to buy an Asus mobo with triple core AMD processor and 2GByte of RAM for less than buying an intel procesor (lower than i5 I´m not considering to be a replacement for anything) for a motherbard (1156 socket) that was given to me.

Almost 90 USD difference for these 3 parts alone. So I went for the AMD solution. Keeping the CVS server in the AMD family did make my life a lot easier too. Just swapped mainboards, reconnected all its 6 drives and it booted up just as if nothing happend at all.

So far I am pleasantly surprised about the performance of that server.

Personally I like to compare Intel and AMD with candles. Intel burns brighter, but not as long as the AMD´s do.

1752

Living Room / Re: Remote Android Control Solution?

« Last post by Shades on September 30, 2012, 08:53 AM »

If memory serves me right I saw once a guy with a Samsung Galaxy SII remote control his PC using VNC.

1753

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

« Last post by Shades on September 30, 2012, 08:49 AM »

@Renegade:
At the risk of too much information...¨Number 2¨ only happens about twice a week for me. Quite some time ago I did some not so scientifically accurate measuring test. While visiting a friend I was excused to use the master bathroom as work was being done to the normal bathroom. In that bathroom there was an old analogic weighing scale. Before and after I measured my weight on that scale and there really was a difference of 2 kilogram.

To me the 2 pounds a day sounds plausible.

1754

General Software Discussion / Re: Want to send a Batch file - but gmail & prob AV dont...

« Last post by Shades on September 25, 2012, 05:48 PM »

You could also try send as plain text but in front of each line of text you put an escape code, like # or -- or REM (for batch).

If there is a parser scanning the content of the attachment, you could likely fool it this way. In essence you just sent text which cannot be ¨executed¨ in any way.

The receiver can easily adjust the script. Most text editors are capable to removing columns in texts nowadays. Even if the receiver is only allowed to use Notepad, this shouldn´t be much of an issue either.

1755

Living Room / Re: Western Digital playing kinda loose with your privacy

« Last post by Shades on September 24, 2012, 10:20 AM »

FreeNAS would be a proper solution for either superboyac and Tranglos. There are several people here that have implemented such a server and as far as I can tell they all are (very) happy with it. It's free, based on Linux and runs nicely on practically any old PC that you have lying around.

1756

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... RAMdisk opinions

« Last post by Shades on September 24, 2012, 06:55 AM »

@ Steven Avery:
Yes, but that situation is not much different without using a RAMdisk. Actually, when the power fails and the OS was just writing to disk, I rather loose the work that has been done (RAMdisk) than potential file corruption (hard disk), which can have all kinds of "weird" effects and the (obligatory) CHKDSK takes time to complete as well.

1757

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... RAMdisk opinions

« Last post by Shades on September 23, 2012, 06:58 AM »

I believe there was a discussion/thread before this one here on DC with regards to RAM disks. As this one also describes how to defeat man´s greatest enemy, called: sobriety, I´ll guess its warranted.   

For me the following concept is interesting though. Say I equip an 32-bit OS with 8GByte of RAM. The first 4GYte is then usable for Windows. The remaining 4GByte would ideally serve as RAM disk (with no possibility of the OS stealing any capacity away from the RAM drive).

And this would be the thread I was talking about.

1758

Living Room / Re: Is my pen-drive performing okay?

« Last post by Shades on September 22, 2012, 10:02 AM »

@f0dder:
Then you should tell them that they mention octets twice (on the same line even!).   

1759

Living Room / Re: Cascading grammar trolls

« Last post by Shades on September 18, 2012, 08:37 AM »

excelent 

-phitsc (September 18, 2012, 01:30 AM)

not a chance, no one here will fall for that

PS you spelt excelent wrong

-Target (September 18, 2012, 01:41 AM)

Next time put a : after PS, wiil you?

-eleman (September 18, 2012, 01:51 AM)

you're smiley's incomplete

-Target (September 18, 2012, 02:55 AM)

Shouldn't a sentence start upper case, even in english? 

-AbteriX (September 18, 2012, 05:43 AM)

And it should have a full stop at the end! But us native speakers are (mostly) very flexible and forgiving with our own mistakes

-tomos (September 18, 2012, 07:24 AM)

But you forgot a full stop yourself. 

1760

Living Room / Re: Write until you pass out!?

« Last post by Shades on September 16, 2012, 11:43 AM »

For that matter, I don´t see how any one wood.

1761

Living Room / Re: Write until you pass out!?

« Last post by Shades on September 15, 2012, 02:46 PM »

That is not how I would put it...

1762

General Software Discussion / Re: instant linux on winxp

« Last post by Shades on September 13, 2012, 05:51 PM »

You can update the included Ubuntu to a higher version. That worked also right out of the box. Granted, it takes time, but hey, it that is the only thing...

1763

General Software Discussion / Re: instant linux on winxp

« Last post by Shades on September 13, 2012, 05:40 PM »

Link to externally hosted screenshot of Portable Ubuntu Remix and Another screenshot.

Kalos should really consider running Portable Ubuntu. The screenshots hidden behind the links above show what it looks like to have Windows XP and Ubuntu running at the same time. Exactly what he wants. It doesn't require any messing about with Virtual Machines and it runs fine on a P4 3GHz, 2 GByte of RAM and a Sata2 harddisk. Ran such a setup for about six months without any problem on either (OS) side. Sold the PC afterwards after showing this to someone.


Then again, in my own personal opinion, virtual machines are the way to go, if you don't have spare hardware lying around.

1764

Living Room / Re: Write until you pass out!?

« Last post by Shades on September 13, 2012, 04:55 PM »

@ miles:
...Dragon Ball Z?


 

1765

Developer's Corner / Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)

« Last post by Shades on September 08, 2012, 05:00 PM »

Where I lived there was a pharmacy store with help desk about 70 meters away that had a telephone number with the exact digits as mine except one digit swapped position between them (500508 and 508500 to be precise).

Guess what number I always fill in nowadays when sites ask me for my telephone number...

1766

General Software Discussion / Re: scripting tool to read emails and move matching embedded graphics & attachments

« Last post by Shades on September 07, 2012, 06:45 AM »

For archiving mail I use ´MailStore Home´as suggested by Carol here atb the forum.

Never looked back either. I´m not sure which database is used by MailStore Home, but accessing data is normally a lot easier after being stored in a database.

1767

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

« Last post by Shades on September 06, 2012, 10:40 AM »

Retro "docking" station for iPad 

1768

General Software Discussion / Re: instant linux on winxp

« Last post by Shades on September 05, 2012, 08:06 AM »

PortableUbuntu

You will still need to clear up some space on your hard disk, but that one allows you to run Ubuntu and Windows XP at the same time. If memory serves me right, it requires 2GByte of hard disk space. Unfortunately it is not maintained anymore, and the original site is not available anymore, but you can still download it from the link above.

Not sure if it comes with Ubuntu 7 or 8, but you can update it to the latest version 12 using Ubuntu's own update system. Will take a while and a lot of downloading though. this one is also usable from a pen drive/USB stick. Actually, it can really help with eradicating malware from a Windows PC as you can delete Windows files with PortableUbuntu that are normally inaccessible through Windows.

As always I end with the warning that one has to be careful with software like this, it is easy to make an error in areas of the Windows OS that only a re-installation can repair. 

1769

General Software Discussion / Re: What went wrong with Linux on the Desktop

« Last post by Shades on September 05, 2012, 07:01 AM »

Well, from my experience with both Windows and Linux on the desktop and on the server, I agree with Tuxman (but only a bit). The servers I run that give me no headache in any kind of way are the ones that run on Linux (Ubuntu server edition (without any graphical shell)). These are fast and very, very reliable. Windows Server is solid, but not nearly as reliable and require a lot more maintenance in comparison with the Linux ones.

All the PC's that were running Linux on their desktop have been phased out. Too problematic (granted, I had to use CentOS 4.0 and 5.0, you should not want to do that to your worst enemy) and for my intends and purposes not cost effective. After some security tweaks the Windows desktop PC's (XP and Win7) I have nearly as solid as Windows Server editions and are way more productive to me (Directory Opus version 9 or 10 is essential to my workflow) than Linux ever was.

The only experience I have with BSD is building a router PC from very old parts I still had laying around (286, 16Mb). It (only) took that PC 3 full days to compile/install BSD. Also very reliable for the six months of "life" the processor still had left in it.

As a one-man-show I could not find the time to continue with the BSD route though. As I already have very high reliability with Linux (and Windows is not doing too bad either) I could not  
find sufficient reason to get more/better acquainted with BSD. Too much differences for too little gain in my case.

My

 
    

1770

Living Room / Re: It's about ... oldish films

« Last post by Shades on September 02, 2012, 02:21 PM »

The legs under Diana Riggs....they prove to be (a near "lethal") weapon against my wedding vows.  

She is definitely a sight for sore eyes!

1771

General Software Discussion / Re: ftp-explicit-TSL logins for DC server; why does only filezilla work well?

« Last post by Shades on September 02, 2012, 02:00 PM »

@superboyac:
Although unlikely in your case, I still want to point out that depending on the type of certificate, a password for that particular certificate can be required. Public certificates normally do not require a password, private (or personal) certificates do.

You can recognize them by looking at their extension. If it is *.pfx or *.p12 you look at a private certificate.

-Shades (September 01, 2012, 05:09 PM)

Would the password be the same as the one I use to log into the ftp site?

-superboyac (September 01, 2012, 09:13 PM)

That could be, but again unlikely (for security reasons). When installing the certificate into your system the password for the certificate has to be filled in. After correctly doing so,  the certificate will install itself. After that (and for as long as the certificate is valid) you should not have to fill in that password again.

Most certificates are valid for a year, but that period can vary between a day and 10 years (for RSA type of certificates generated by OpenSSL at least).

However, all my contributions in this thread are very likely not the cause of your problem.

1772

General Software Discussion / Re: ftp-explicit-TSL logins for DC server; why does only filezilla work well?

« Last post by Shades on September 01, 2012, 05:09 PM »

@superboyac:
Although unlikely in your case, I still want to point out that depending on the type of certificate, a password for that particular certificate can be required. Public certificates normally do not require a password, private (or personal) certificates do.

You can recognize them by looking at their extension. If it is *.pfx or *.p12 you look at a private certificate.

1773

Living Room / Re: Non-Douchiness From the MAFIAA? Am I High?

« Last post by Shades on September 01, 2012, 04:46 PM »

[80´s hair metal mode]

Just an Iron Maiden video!!?!?!??!

[/80´s hair metal mode]

 

1774

General Software Discussion / Re: learning programming

« Last post by Shades on August 31, 2012, 07:20 PM »

Nice site, this would be a page to recommend to the little ones. It teaches the basics in clear and concise language which is also accompanied by simple (but effective) images.

Good one, kalos 

1775

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by Shades on August 30, 2012, 12:37 PM »

(Please don't ask me what I consider to be the the most dangerous books ever written. )

-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)

There's two of them, isn't there? (Perhaps three, if you consider the first book to consist of and old and a new part).

-f0dder (August 29, 2012, 11:16 AM)

Yes two. One consisting of an old part and a new part, plus its "next generation" sequel. Put them together and they've probably provided the 'rationale' and the 'justification' for more bloodshed and suffering than anything else ever written.
 

-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:20 AM)

The sequel...would that be the one from the L.D.S.? (We would be in total agreement if that is the case)