Recent Posts

1851

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 13, 2013, 11:40 AM »

Gotta stop dwelling in the past I do.

-40hz (November 13, 2013, 09:58 AM)

Na... It's fun! Besides I think you're just screwing with me to make sure I'm awake... ...Which I wasn't...which I guess is why we just had a conversation about basically mythical 5300rpm drives. Instead of the 5400 rpm variety which are actually manufactured. (Tehehe - Oops!)

1852

General Software Discussion / Re: The Open Source debate

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 13, 2013, 11:28 AM »

Quietly reminding certain IT managers that they are there to do what best serves the company and meets the needs of the users is what it's all about.

He "won't allow" something? Lets get real, Napolean...IT works for the organization. Not the other way around. Software decisions are a management not an IT call.
 

-40hz (November 13, 2013, 11:00 AM)

Now Now, we both know that no properly seasoned BOFH is going to automatically accept any decision impacting their systems without a bit of probing to gauge how vested who is in the proceedings.

We just went live with new BI software last week, but while I didn't mind the change...because the old system really did suck. But I fought tooth and nail to keep the systems bolted to the floor at eye level instead of in the cloud where the IT fashion tragic lemming are flocking (to their deaths I hope) by the "thousands" (according to the vendors inflated sales graph).

1853

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 13, 2013, 07:01 AM »

They usually have more robust motors and spin at the slower 5300 speeds to keep heat and vibration down

-40hz (November 12, 2013, 06:37 PM)

  Where are you finding 5300rpm SATA drives? My WD3200YS RE drives are 7200rpm, and I generally always went for the lower speed drives because I assumed (as you mention) that they'd last longer. Even the Nearlines I used for the storage array of the new server are 7200rpm.

---------------------------------------//----------------------------------------

Also chiming in from the anecdotal department...I've got a couple of consumer level drives in my lab that have been spinning 24/7/365 for close to 10 years. I think they may be zombies...because they should be dead by now...but they just keep going ... Should I shoot them in their little read heads?

1854

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to use the desktop mic/speakers to talk on Android phone?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 11, 2013, 06:36 PM »

If the phone is connected to the computer and installs as a modem, why not give the windows phone dialer a shot. Assuming it's still in there somewhere...(I haven't gone looking for it since Win2k)...that's what it used to be for.

1855

Developer's Corner / Re: ATL/WTL Ribbon Can't get CheckBox state

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 11, 2013, 07:01 AM »

Hm... So I guess I'll have to answer this one myself.

After some stumbling in the dark with the debugger, it occurred to me - it was bloody obvious with a break point in place actually - that the function was executing before the state I was checking for had been set/changed. So the quandary I guess is/was a side effect of my not working with classes much. *Shrug*

I got out of it by declaring and toggling a module level global, but I'd always understood that as being bad form unless absolutely necessary... Which apparently for this, it is.

1856

Living Room / Re: Issues in Windows 8.0 and 8.1 migration

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 10, 2013, 10:32 AM »

Regarding 8.1, Darwin's post scared me off (and that accursed "Please upgrade! Drop on by the Windows Store now!" blue bar across my desktop has popped up several times so far).

-x16wda (November 10, 2013, 07:54 AM)

Tomos posted a link to this in another thread:

To disable the message run regedit, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\UpgradeNotification


and change the value UpgradeAvailable from 1 to 0 or remove the Update KB2885699.

1857

Developer's Corner / ATL/WTL Ribbon Can't get CheckBox state

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 09, 2013, 07:38 PM »

Greetings
   I'm trying to get a project off the ground but seem to have run into a wall out of the gate. Using MSVS2008 I created an ATL/WTL project using the Application Wizard add-on that someone here suggested I try experimenting with. In the App Wizard I added a Ribbon control (because I'm an idiot...), to which I add a group, and in that group I added a CheckBox. So far...so good.

   So the fun started when I created a function for the above mentioned Ribbon Control's CheckBox. The function is supposed to test for the state of the CheckBox...and respond accordingly. Simple enough...so I thought. Except no matter what I try I cannot get the control to divulge its own state.

   I have spent the entire day on this, and would dare say I have tried everything except the right answer! I have confirmed that the correct ID for the control in question is indeed being passed to the function ... I just can't seem to do a damn thing with it. The program either crashes, or just ignores me.

   So if anyone familiar with ATL/WTL Ribbon Controls might happen to have a clue what I'm missing they'd be willing to share it would be greatly appreciated. Program is currently being compiled for Unicode...assuming that makes a difference.

Thank you,

Stoic Joker

1858

General Software Discussion / Re: Does anyone know how I may remove Trojan Dropper:MSIL/Livate.A ?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 09, 2013, 07:45 AM »

There's also ComboFix which can squash quite a few things ...

-4wd (November 07, 2013, 04:52 PM)

Including your OS if you don't know what you're doing, or get a little too careless when attempting to fix things CF reports but doesn't handle automatically.

-40hz (November 07, 2013, 08:39 PM)

Hence the reference to "if you're going to re-install you might as well"    

-4wd (November 08, 2013, 10:41 PM)

Yes, but here's the "fun" part. Many (read most/all) of the off the shelf machines, that don't come with install media and use a recovery partition. Also use a highly proprietary boot sector that provides the press hotkey 'X' to get to brand X's recovery partition. This means that anything that does any cleaning of said boot sector has a highly probability chance of frying said functionality right off the disk. ...Yes...I see this happen a lot.

So like 40hz, I too have seen combofix torch a machine (from a consumers perspective) in the process of cleaning it many times. Scratch building the boot sector isn't the slightest bit fun on these new OS's because it has gotten a hell of a lot more complicated from the good old SYS C: days.

I had to do a production server transplant not to long ago from one MB with an SSD to a second MB with RAID1. It got done...but it took quite a bit longer than the initial estimate.

1859

General Software Discussion / Re: new Site for my Software

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 09, 2013, 07:27 AM »

One thing I noted that you make it hard to contact you. Obviously we all hate spammers, but from my experience, I found that no matter how hard I try, it is the legitimate user, who just want to simply say thank you, go away, but the spammers get what they want.
Anyway it is your choice.

-anandcoral (November 09, 2013, 02:28 AM)

Oh Wow! I didn't even notice that on first pass (I actually thought the page wasn't done yet). That is pretty user hostile in the jumping through hoops department. I just use the embedded send mail control (CDO IIRC) so the address is never displayed on our companies websites and it seems to be doing fine. We get spam sure...but it isn't routed through that Email address.

For my own site, I don't bother hiding the Email address at all as it's already displayed in various programs I've written (so it's out there already). The result of that is the signal to noise ratio of my inbox is typically in the 80-90% (spam) range ... But this serves a purpose as I like to see what type of Email shenanigans are going on out in the wild to better prepare for their aftermath on client machines at work.

Note: I am not recommending the second practice as it is indeed risky as hell ... But the first one (for company sites) has worked out quite well.

1860

LaunchBar Commander / Re: recycle bin

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 09, 2013, 07:08 AM »

Not sure how LBC works, but ... This is the shell empty recycle bin code I used in T-Clock if it'll help any.
SHEmptyRecycleBin(0, NULL, SHERB_NOCONFIRMATION);

1861

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 08, 2013, 09:36 PM »

An NSA Whiz Designs 4 Fonts to Foil Google's All-Seeing Eye

-Arizona Hot (November 08, 2013, 03:36 PM)

You'd trust something designed by the NSA to foil Google ...

How about something designed by neither of them that foils both of them ?

-4wd (November 08, 2013, 08:39 PM)

Oh hell yes...I'll take 2

1862

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 08, 2013, 05:28 PM »

Ok... is this silly humor?  Or just sad?

Woman Wears Hamburger as Sandal After Sex in Waffle House Parking Lot

-wraith808 (November 08, 2013, 03:32 PM)

What Lady Gaga got caught slumming?

1863

General Software Discussion / Re: new Site for my Software

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 08, 2013, 11:38 AM »

Glad to see you're doing well Miles.

Too bad we don't have any sideways thumbs just for SB

-wraith808 (November 08, 2013, 07:49 AM)

Here's one.

1864

General Software Discussion / Re: I hate the word "anathema"

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 08, 2013, 11:31 AM »

People, people, people!!!

Superboy is right!

Anathema is anathema!

-Renegade (November 08, 2013, 09:07 AM)

Yes, I see...

To superboyac the word anathema is an abomination, an outrage, an abhorrence, a disgrace, an evil, a bane, a bugbear, a bête noire. It is something that he vehemently dislikes.

It is... Aw hell I really don't have to explain where this is going do I?!?

1865

Living Room / Re: Remember Buckyballs? They Are Now Gone

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 08, 2013, 11:24 AM »

Absolutely love the site. Now that is how you give the establishment the finger!

Prices look pretty good too ... And I've always wanted to have my balls chromed.

1866

General Software Discussion / Re: I hate the word "anathema"

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 07, 2013, 05:50 PM »

Then just delete anathema.exe - This is the software section...  

1867

General Software Discussion / Re: Does anyone know how I may remove Trojan Dropper:MSIL/Livate.A ?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 07, 2013, 11:57 AM »

Thats a nasty one.

Google "Kapersky Rescue Disk". Download and burn it to a CD (or USB key)? Then boot and allow it to grab the most recent updates? Then disinfect from that.

Haven't run into anything this hasn't been able to squash.

AVG and Avira also have similar bootable scanners if it doesn't.

Luck!

-40hz (November 07, 2013, 09:16 AM)

I will probably give this a shot before going "Nuclear" with the Windows  Reinstall.

-patteo (November 07, 2013, 09:35 AM)

I'd recommend doing the Kaspersky Rescue Disk route as well. But run ATF cleaner before the KRD scan (it ain't real fast - but it's worth the wait) to shave a few hours off the scan time.

1868

Living Room / Re: Silk Road Seized - Dread Pirate Roberts Arrested

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 07, 2013, 11:49 AM »

^Caution does seem prudent about now.

1869

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 07, 2013, 11:28 AM »

Okay, so after you install KB2885699:

•The notification is displayed according to a schedule and is not displayed immediately after you install this update. After you install this update, the notification is typically displayed the first time that you unlock or log on to the computer after 8:00 P.M. local time on Mondays.

Really..? That is just (freaking stupid) enough time to forget about it and get involved in something that you'd rather not be interrupted during.

So you worked on a presentation all night Monday, and when getting ready to present it to the client Tuesday morning...

(Yeper, that's how it happened. Client was out of state running down the highway on a Tuesday morning and booted their laptop (yes they had a driver) for some last minute checks before going in to give a presentation ... And boom went the Dammer)


@tomos - Thanks for the link!

1870

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 07, 2013, 07:13 AM »

*Sigh* Well in the bright side since the 3.6GB download only took about an hour while driving down the highway with their Verizon wireless card...apparently the delivery system is working well. <facepalm>

...But option to say 'now is kind of a bad time' sure would be nice.

Thanks guys.

1871

General Software Discussion / Re: delete rows with duplicate cells

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 07, 2013, 06:49 AM »

If it's just a total crap data set you're a bit stuck

-TaoPhoenix (November 06, 2013, 07:34 PM)

It was. I had to go through and normalize the data to clean up 20 years of previous sins, because we were/are migrating to a new BI suite that is much less tolerant of user input shenanigans. I streamlined as much as I could but there is not much point in spending the time to automate something that will only be done once, as any logic bugg will be missed until it's (in production) to late.

However, as a rule, I too hate anything manual as it flies in the face of the whole point of a computer ... Which is to eliminate mundane and repetitive tasks.

1872

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 06, 2013, 06:53 PM »

While they maintain they did "nothing..."

MS put up a banner across my wife's screen urging her to upgrade

-cranioscopical (November 06, 2013, 06:45 PM)

There was something to that effect mumbled in passing.

Still, it's a hell of a bind to put someone in since they were traveling by car when the whole thing kicked off.

1873

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 06, 2013, 06:12 PM »

Wasn't sure where to put this and didn't want to start another thread, so... 

Had a client (who was out of town) call today in low grade ballistic mode after apparently their Windows 8 laptop just decided to up and start upgrading itself. Luckily I had stashed a copy of the installer for their cellular broadband card - which the 8.1 upgrade broke - on the laptop so I could get them back online over the phone.

Has anyone else heard of that bizarre behavior?

1874

Living Room / Re: Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 06, 2013, 03:11 PM »

So you're going with the people are generally meaner than they are smart angle ... ... I'm ok with that

But I was really just trying to clarify the issue at its face value, not endorse it.

1875

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 06, 2013, 12:35 PM »

So, one valid question would seem to be: Is he intending continuing that history, or doing something about correcting it?

-IainB (November 06, 2013, 07:22 AM)

Yes ... Great pains are being taken to hide the facts better.

-Stoic Joker (November 06, 2013, 11:55 AM)

I'd say that the strings are showing more than anything else.  The President of the United States is a position of great power at the behest of great powers it seems to me.

-wraith808 (November 06, 2013, 12:00 PM)

Me too.