Recent Posts

2051

General Software Discussion / Re: FireFox = total crap? And Jobs was oh so right about Flash, anyway. NoScript?

« Last post by 4wd on February 16, 2015, 03:57 PM »

You're speaking of security considerations applying to browsing.

-peter.s (February 16, 2015, 02:14 PM)

Or possibly because memory management is better under Windows 7/8.1.

Flash is not required for a lot of Youtube, set FF to use HTML5: http://www.youtube.com/html5

2052

Living Room / Re: Cell Phone Questions

« Last post by 4wd on February 16, 2015, 03:02 PM »

Not being able to take or hold a charge, I'd say it's probably about a 95% chance of being the battery.  Nokia BL-5C and compatible are still plentiful and cheap ($5 or less) if you want to try a new one.

Only question is whether it can handle the frequency of the chosen network - I've forgotten its specs.

Plus it should happily work off a car charger as an emergency phone even with a flat battery.

2053

General Software Discussion / Re: bandwidth manager

« Last post by 4wd on February 15, 2015, 08:22 PM »

@kalos: You also need to be competent enough to run Wireshark and obtain the DSL connection user/password from the Sky Hub if you are going to replace it.

You need the Administration user/password so you can access the settings and see if it has any form of QoS.

I've just found that the Sky Hub SR102 doesn't do bridge mode, (ie. modem only), so you need to find a modem/router, (either separate or combined), that will work with the Sky network.

From the Skyuser forums:

Mer is applicable to the Modem only not the router, so if you have a seperate modem don't worry about it, however the problem with Sky is the authentication credentials are sent in dhcp option 61 so you need a router that allows you to pass options to it's DHCP client, most SoHo routers aren't flexible enough to allow this.

I suggest you have a good look through the Skyuser forums to find out exactly what you can do.

If it were me, I'd find another ISP - any that lock you into using their crappy equipment don't deserve their customers.

2054

Living Room / Re: Cell Phone Questions

« Last post by 4wd on February 15, 2015, 08:01 PM »

For pre-paid the cheapest is $15 for 365 days.

-4wd (February 14, 2015, 10:36 PM)

I couldn't believe that I didn't know about that plan (since one of my 'hobbies' is trying to get the cheapest phone service possible), but then I saw it was for Australia - what a let down. 

-mwb1100 (February 15, 2015, 12:09 PM)

I sent you a phone from Australia, remember

BTW,what happened to it?  Send it to crabby3 if it still works.

2055

Living Room / Re: Hackers can use RFID readers to steal payment card numbers

« Last post by 4wd on February 15, 2015, 04:55 AM »

Create a blank text file, type "anything" in it, save it as anything.html, then open it and check the DOM again. You'll see that the DOM is there, even though you only typed "anything". Now, do a view source and you'll see "anything", but no head or body or html tags.

-Renegade (February 15, 2015, 04:22 AM)

Isn't that just the browsers reinterpreting the source due to the extension?

For example, if you then change the extension to .txt you'll find that the DOM wraps it in <PRE> ... </PRE> tags as well as HTML/BODY.

2056

Living Room / Re: Hackers can use RFID readers to steal payment card numbers

« Last post by 4wd on February 15, 2015, 03:35 AM »

IE11 (Developer Tools):



It ain't very exciting, certainly nothing to soil your pants over.

Pale Moon (Web Developer->Inspector):


Comodo Dragon (Tools->Developer Tools):


BTW, what does a minimal HTML page have to do with RFID?

And, like Deo said, this has been a known "feature" of RFID for the last decade.

From the RFID Journal in 2004 <- Google's reporting the date as Aug 1, 2004:

UHF tags-the kind used on pallets and cases of goods in the supply chain-have a read range of 20 to 30 feet under ideal conditions. If the tags are attached to products with water or metal, the read range can be significantly less. If the size of the UHF antenna is reduced, that will also dramatically reduce the read range. Increasing the power output could increase the range, but most governments restrict the output of readers so that they don't interfere with other RF devices, such as cordless phones.

The HF tags you've mentioned in your OP should have a greater range due to longer wavelength.

2057

Living Room / Re: Cell Phone Questions

« Last post by 4wd on February 14, 2015, 10:36 PM »

3. there are plans targeted at people who rarely use their phones (like me), but the cheapest i found is something around $100 a year. tmobile has a pay-per-day-your-phone-is-on plan for $3/day, but they still force you to pay a minimum and it ends up being about $100 a year.

-mouser (February 14, 2015, 06:22 PM)

YOIKS!  I pay $1/month on a post paid phone, (month to month) - no included calls/SMS/data but since the rates are only 0.10/min call, 0.10 SMS, & 0.0275/MB it isn't going to break the bank (especially since it's an emergency phone for the wife and is turned off 364 days of the year).

My main mobile phone is $5/month, nothing included but then it's used mainly for incoming calls.

For pre-paid the cheapest is $15 for 365 days.

You guys are really getting screwed over there.

BTW, wouldn't the phone/plan for crabby3 depend on what mobile operators cover the area or are they pretty uniform these days in the USA?

Just wondering if, (for emergency use), this would be suitable:

H2O Pay-as-you-go

$10 gets you 3 months of access with a calling rate of 0.05/min - so $40 covers you for the year.  GSM network only but it's the most pervasive and when are they switching it off in the USA, (Telstra is switching off 2G in about a year here)?

2058

Living Room / Re: RAM contact spray?

« Last post by 4wd on February 14, 2015, 10:17 PM »

^Now that's a new one ... I usually just use one of those large rubber pencil erasers.

-Stoic Joker (February 14, 2015, 08:26 AM)

Back when we were having an argument ... discussion of alternative methods of contact cleaning 

2059

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by 4wd on February 12, 2015, 07:44 PM »

(see attachment in previous post)
HERE maps for Android updated, leaves Beta - SlashGear

-Arizona Hot (February 12, 2015, 04:46 PM)

Ha ha - funny people, HERE has just gone from being useful to useless.

Can't install it on my tablet from the Play store because the tablet doesn't have a "data carrier" even though HERE Beta is installed on it and works fine.

What's the %#&@%& point of being able to use it offline when you can't even install it when you're online or is it that they want to be able to track you even though you might be using it 'offline'.

Have to try sideloading it I guess.

EDIT: They've released an update that fixes tablet download problems.

2060

General Software Discussion / Re: bandwidth manager

« Last post by 4wd on February 12, 2015, 07:27 PM »

it doesn't do what I want

-kalos (February 12, 2015, 04:36 PM)

As skwire said, you need to do it in the router, whether this is a real router or a computer acting as a router.  Until then, pretty much your only option is to run network limiting software on each device, (or every device except the one that needs the most).

So, put the Sky Hub into bridge mode and buy a real router.

2061

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by 4wd on February 11, 2015, 11:49 PM »

Probably the reincarnation of Locus Design Group, (whose Cynosure V2 USB cable was a measly US$3500.00 and was only 3 foot long).

2062

Living Room / Re: Britain gives go-ahead to test driverless cars on roads

« Last post by 4wd on February 11, 2015, 11:33 PM »

Unless the driverless car can tailgate the car in front by no more than 10 meters at speeds of 0-160km/h+, (less if it's a driverless white van), and not use indicators then they'll never be useful to the UK public.

 

2063

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 11, 2015, 10:59 PM »

I always liked The Evil Touch^w presented by Anthony Quayle - too bad it only had one season 

Episode 1 "The Lake":

2064

General Software Discussion / Re: bandwidth manager

« Last post by 4wd on February 11, 2015, 10:48 PM »

There's different versions of the Sky Hub, the admin password isn't provided to the end user but can be retrieved using WireShark (<- Google search).

When I was in England last year there was an unused one sitting in its box in our house so I took it out and had a play with it, (technically ours since it's our house - finders keepers and all that ).

Alternative firmware is non-existent from what I could find on the net at the time and by all reports, the version I had was pretty dismal performance-wise anyway, (SR101).

You be much better off retrieving the user/password as above and then buying a decent modem/router to replace it which would also give you the facilities you want, an example, (Note, I'm not recommending D-Link that is just an example).

2065

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 08, 2015, 07:05 PM »

I'm not getting warm fuzzies...but in the absence of anything concrete, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. For now.

-40hz (February 08, 2015, 11:30 AM)

Since atm I don't actually have anything I could plug it into, (apart from my 1680x1050 monitor, which is rather pointless), I can wait awhile since the time at which I'll get a TV that can use it will be about the time my Sony Trinitron dies ... damn stupid reliable piece of technology

I was thinking more for traveling when I could use it at hotels, relatives, etc.

But some people aren't happy: How do I get a refund?
Not to mention some of the comments on Kickstarter.

Naturally, this kind of makes me believe it's the start of a downward spiral - less happy people, less funds, slower implementation, less happy people, less funds, ...

I really wish they'd push out what was specified a couple of months ago ... then think about better hardware.

Still, I've wasted money on other more expensive techno-gadgets that I thought were a good idea at the time and have since consigned to the dung heap, so it's not going to break the bank ... it's just a little irritating.  I really hope they can pull it off and win back at least some of the good will they've lost.

2066

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« Last post by 4wd on February 08, 2015, 06:54 AM »

A garden in Punta Arenas^w

2067

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 07, 2015, 08:39 PM »

Just musing:

Rhetorical question: Do they really have a problem?

With the drop in prices of components, (eg. RasPi 2 still same price as RasPi 1), maybe they decided they could get better specs for a little more outlay.

With the presumed take up of their Flint technology by Philips/TCL it might be that other TV manufacturers will incorporate the technology, (since it's OS, why not?).
If that happens, apart from old AV equipment (some of which could probably implement it through a firmware update), the need for a standalone device starts to diminish except for those use cases of having something mobile "just in case", (eg. hotels, etc).

The problem with the delay as I see it is: What if in 6 months they find they can do more with a newer reduced price octa-core SOC, RAM, etc?

Will it turn into another Duke Nukem Forever?

Mind you, if they can put things like h.265 into silicon and ship it in 6 months I'll be happy to wait a little longer ... I guess.

2068

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2015, 11:18 PM »

Matchstick has been delayed while they look at upgrading hardware/software, now possible August 2015 shipping date

I was hoping to get to play with it soon ... oh well. 

The longer version

Hello Matchstick Fans!

We’ll cut to the chase; Matchstick is not going to ship in February.

It’s been a very busy couple of months and we’ve had to make some hard decisions about how to move forward. We’ve decided to release the product when it is ready, and anticipate that to be in August 2015. Let us explain more.

Matchstick is, at its core, a group effort to bring a solid, open, and affordable alternative to the world of video streaming. Manufacturing is hard, but the totality of what makes a product experience complete includes so much more. That collaborative effort includes the hardware, the software, the content providers, and of course, the independent developers that will build on the Matchstick platform.

Hardware: We want to update the hardware. We’ve been looking at a number of exciting applications and potential experiences for Matchstick and we’ve determined we need to give it as much power as possible. So we’ve been looking to increase the CPU power from a dual core to a quad core chip. We’ve also been looking into common issues with Wi-Fi performance. Because of the location of most HMDI ports on HDTVs, many similar products have Wi-Fi connectivity issues. We’ve spent some considerable time reviewing ways to improve the antenna to ensure a consistent connection that some of the applications will require. We’ll keep you posted of course on the newest stats and specifics! Finally, we are eating the cost to improve the hardware, and passing along the benefits of improved hardware to our backers. It’s a cost we are willingly paying for the promise of a better product.

Software: With a new processor, we have some new opportunities. Matchstick, with Firefox OS inside, is being updated to support DRM (Digital Rights Management) capability. As you know, many premium content providers such as Netflix require DRM support. Matchstick has undertaken the mission to develop DRM as an independent project with the open source community. In fact, we’d love for you to get involved! If you’re a developer specializing in EME, MSE, and CDM technologies, we’d love to hear from you. We plan to use the Microsoft PlayReady technology and are excited to bring premium content to Matchstick. We’ll keep you updated as we work to contribute newly developed source codes for DRM back to the open community. It’s our goal to make sure open source technology doesn’t mean 2nd tier content and experiences!

Content Providers: We are continually in talks with all the content you will want to experience on your Matchstick. DRM is a barrier and has become our primary focus, and as we work to nail that down we continue to explore new opportunities to upgrade the entire Matchstick experience. We have been looking at some very exciting possibilities! We can’t wait to show you in the coming months.

Independent developers: We’ve seen some incredible possible use cases for Matchstick and want to make sure the developer community’s creativity is not hindered by hardware or software limitations. We feel strongly about supporting developers with something much more than a hacked Chromecast type device. The updates to Matchstick will ensure that.

2069

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox won't play videos unless I keep moving the mouse! Ugh!

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2015, 08:06 PM »

Just as a matter of interest, does the same happen with HTML5 content?

https://www.youtube.com/html5

This is IceDragon, (Comodo's version of Firefox):



Click the button to have Youtube try and serve videos in HTML5 rather than Flash.

I'd also uninstall the Flash Player while testing, (just to make sure).

2070

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

« Last post by 4wd on February 06, 2015, 05:32 AM »

Not a movie but a TV series:

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits."

Working my way through the original 1963 series:



Ah, the good old days

2071

Living Room / Re: wierd mouse click problem

« Last post by 4wd on February 05, 2015, 04:58 AM »

I also have had problems with Logitech mice, MX518 was great for 3 years or so then the scroll wheel died.  Logitech BT mouse now doesn't want to connect to anything and the LMB has become very flakey, (also about 3 years old).

Been using a Coolermaster Storm Sentinel Advance mouse and a Microsoft BT mouse the last two years or so with no problems, (apart from the matt non-slip paint on the Sentinel starting to peel).

Logitech keyboards are better than their mice, (G15 still works well).

2072

General Software Discussion / Re: how do I disable FF Synch or whatever it is?

« Last post by 4wd on February 04, 2015, 09:33 PM »

Tnx. Any particular add-ons you would recommend?  

-bit (February 04, 2015, 08:56 PM)

I have the following installed in Pale Moon x64 (non-portable):

- Advanced URL Builder 1.6.29
   Append selected text to the URL of your favourite site.
- Bluhell Firewall 2.5.0
   Lightweight Ad-Blocker and Tracking/Privacy Protector.
- Download Statusbar 0.9.10
   View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar
- DownloadHelper 4.9.24
   Download videos and images from many sites
- DownThemAll! 2.0.18
   The mass downloader for Firefox.
- Extension List Dumper 1.15.2
   Dumps a list of the installed extensions.
- Form History Control 1.4.0.2
   Manage Form History (view, edit, delete, clean-up, export/import)
- Ghostery 5.4.1
- Google search link fix 1.4.9
   Prevents Google, Yahoo and Yandex search pages from modifying search result links when you click them. This is useful when copying links but it also helps privacy by preventing the search engines from recording your clicks.
- Greasemonkey 1.15
   A User Script Manager for Firefox
- Lightbeam 1.0.10.2
   Lightbeam is a Firefox add-on that allows you to see the third parties that are collecting information about your browsing activity, with and without your consent. Using interactive visualizations, Lightbeam shows you the relationships between these third parties and the sites you visit.
- Master Password+ 1.21.3
   Various enhancements for built-in "Master Password" feature
- Open RegEdit Key 0.2.0
   Open selected registry in the registry editor from context menu.
- RefControl 0.8.17
   Control what gets sent as the HTTP Referer on a per-site basis.
- RequestPolicy 1.0.beta8.2
   Control which cross-site requests are allowed. Improve the privacy of your browsing. Secure yourself from Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) and other attacks.
- Self-Destructing Cookies 0.4.6
   Fix the web. Gets rid of a site's cookies and LocalStorage as soon as you close its tabs. Protects against trackers and zombie-cookies. Trustworthy services can be whitelisted.
- Speed Dial [FVD] - New Tab Page, Sync... 6.7.2
   FVD Speed Dial - Speed dial button, Online Synchronization, New Tab Start Page, Organize bookmarks, Custom backgrounds, custom dials, organized groups, most visited dials.
- Stylish 2.0.1
   Restyle the web with Stylish, a user styles manager.
- Suspend Tab 0.2.2014050201
   Suspends background old tabs automatically to save memory usage.
- Tab Mix Plus 0.4.1.6
   Tab browsing with an added boost.
- TinEye Reverse Image Search 1.1
   Adds TinEye search context menu item for images.
- TrashMail.com 2.7.1
   Create disposable email addresses.
- Vacuum Places Improved 1.2
   Defragment your places.sqlite database to speed-up Firefox

I could probably get rid of a couple since they seemed like a good idea at the time but I never use them.

2073

General Software Discussion / Re: how do I disable FF Synch or whatever it is?

« Last post by 4wd on February 04, 2015, 08:15 PM »

I suggest Mozilla rename their FF 'portable' version 'Firefox Unportable' (which also makes it all but 'unsupportable').

-bit (February 04, 2015, 04:25 PM)

AFAIK, Mozilla itself doesn't make a portable version of Firefox, that's done by others who package it up in a wrapper, (PortableApps), or who recompile/install it to be so, (Pale Moon, IceDragon).

All being said, if you want a portable version of Firefox I probably would have used Pale Moon or IceDragon since they don't use a wrapper to write things to the system and then clean up afterwards.

2074

Living Room / Re: server 2008r2 x64 VPN to Windows 8.1 Home Premium x64 for remote access

« Last post by 4wd on February 03, 2015, 09:08 PM »

Good grief! What exactly does this business you work for do, if you can say?

-40hz (February 03, 2015, 04:41 PM)

Specialists in finding the cheapest way to avoid investing money with no thought as to long term effects or benefits 

2075

General Software Discussion / Re: program to create a printout from a directory of PDF files

« Last post by 4wd on February 03, 2015, 06:41 AM »

If I'm understanding this correctly, you want every PDF in a folder tree concatenated with a header page between each folder of PDFs stating the folder the following group of PDFs appear in.

If that's the case then here's something from the "I thought DOS was dead department":

StrangePDFThing.cmd

Code: Text [Select]

1. @if (@CodeSection == @Batch) @then
2.     rem StrangePDFThing.cmd
3.     @echo off
4.     color 1a
5.     setlocal EnableExtensions
6.     setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
7.    
8.     echo Select SOURCE folder
9.     for /F "delims=" %%S in ('CScript //nologo //E:JScript "%~F0"') do (
10.         set srce=%%S
11.     )
12.     if "%srce%"=="" goto :End
13.     echo Selected folder: "%srce%"
14.    
15.     set spath=%srce%
16.     set wdir=%cd%
17.     echo.%srce% > %TEMP%\header.txt
18.     %wdir%\txttopdf.exe -pfn101 -pfs20 -pot %TEMP%\header.txt %TEMP%\header.pdf
19.     pushd %srce%
20.     echo.Processing: "%srce%"
21.     %wdir%\pdftk.exe %TEMP%\header.pdf *.pdf cat output %TEMP%\out.pdf
22.     popd
23.     del %TEMP%\header.pdf
24.     ren %TEMP%\out.pdf temp.pdf
25.    
26.     dir /b /s /ad "%spath%" | sort >%TEMP%\sPDFt.txt
27.     for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (%TEMP%\sPDFt.txt) do call :DoSomething "%%~a"
28.  
29.     goto :End
30.  
31.     :DoSomething
32.     echo.Processing: "%~1"
33.     pushd "%~1"
34.     if not exist "*.pdf" goto :SkipIt
35.     echo.%~1 > %TEMP%\header.txt
36.     %wdir%\txttopdf.exe -pfn101 -pfs20 -pot %TEMP%\header.txt %TEMP%\header.pdf
37.     %wdir%\pdftk.exe %TEMP%\temp.pdf %TEMP%\header.pdf *.pdf cat output %TEMP%\out.pdf
38.     popd
39.     del %TEMP%\header.pdf
40.     del %TEMP%\temp.pdf
41.     ren %TEMP%\out.pdf temp.pdf
42.     :SkipIt
43.     goto :EOF
44.     endlocal
45.  
46.     :End
47.     del %TEMP%\sPDFt.txt
48.     del %TEMP%\header.txt
49.     ren %TEMP%\temp.pdf Combined.pdf
50.     move %TEMP%\Combined.pdf %wdir%
51.     exit
52.    
53.     End of Batch section
54. @end
55.  
56.  
57. // JScript section
58.  
59. // Creates a dialog box that enables the user to select a folder and display it.
60. var title = "Select a folder", rootFolder = 0x11;
61. var shl = new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application");
62. var folder = shl.BrowseForFolder(0, title, 0, rootFolder);
63. WScript.Stdout.WriteLine(folder ? folder.self.path : "");

Requirements:
TxtToPDF - from Adult PDF  (to generate the header sheets)
PDFtk - from PDF Labs  (to concatenate all the PDFs)

These are both free and they don't need to be installed to use, just run each installer through UniExtract and grab the files from the {app} folder.  Put them in the same folder as the command file so that you have the following:

help.html
libiconv2.dll
main.jpg
pdftk.exe
PdftkXp.exe
setting.jpg
sPDFt.cmd
TxtToPDF.exe

To run, just double-click the sPDFt.cmd file.

It creates a file called Combined.pdf in the same folder as the command file.  It worked here, limited testing done.

NOTE: It will completely die if any of the PDFs are protected, (ie. the protected PDF is unable to be appended which will screw up the whole procedure).

Source code included for you to self-modify