Recent Posts

2226

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: xkcdDownloader

« Last post by f0dder on September 15, 2010, 10:15 AM »

Alt text is definitely important, a lot of the strips get their main comic value from it

If you go about modifying the image, you should probably put source URL (http://xkcd.com/xxxx, not the http://imgs.xkcd.com one) there as well.

2227

General Software Discussion / Re: GlassPrompt 1.1

« Last post by f0dder on September 10, 2010, 10:13 AM »

If you start GlassPrompt elevated, won't it's automatically start the cmd.exe process with admin privs as well?

2228

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by f0dder on September 07, 2010, 02:22 PM »

So then does  MY ISP speed only count from my ISP's  server to me .  The rest is just dumb luck. ?

-ljbirns (September 07, 2010, 01:52 PM)

Not exactly dumb luck, but yeah - there's no way your ISP can guarantee you'll get full bandwidth utilization to a remote server; the server might not be on a link that's fast enough, there might be traffic congestion, or you may be running through a slow route.

2229

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by f0dder on September 07, 2010, 01:39 PM »

ljbirns: the speed you get to test servers will vary depending on a lot of factors - generally, if hosted in a datacenter, a speedtest server will only be allocated "excess" bandwidth; if there's some heavy paid-for traffic going on, test-bandwidth will be down-prioritized. Also, there could be routing/peering concerns between ISPs.

2230

Living Room / Re: Does Flash or java make websites suck?

« Last post by f0dder on September 07, 2010, 10:29 AM »

Flash and Java in and by itself doesn't make a website suck, but pointless use of it does. I've seen too many flash-based sites that were slow to load, hard to navigate decently (and impossible to bookmark subpages), et cetera.

I prefer if websites stick to standard html+javascript, flash if it make sense (usually limited to games ), and Java if required (for heavy-duty stuff like online banking digital signature verification... client-side ssl certs are nice, but not always enough IMHO).

2231

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by f0dder on September 06, 2010, 04:07 PM »

So it really isn't 20mbit - I get around 900Kb/s download speeds with a 6.7mbit connection.

-Carol Haynes (September 06, 2010, 03:47 PM)

Keep the TCP/IP overhead in mind. I got 2100KB/s, or 2.150.400 bytes/sec. How fast is 20Mbps - 20.000.000bit/sec or 20.971.520bit/sec? . Going with the wiki definition, the raw data rate is at 86% of the theoretical speed. Also, an ADSL line has more overhead than just TCP - my connection is through PPPoA.

I guess it could be worth doing the download test again and see what bandwidth the modem reports, that should hopefully be the raw traffic.

If you want to test your speed try www.speedtest.net

-Carol Haynes (September 06, 2010, 03:47 PM)

Already did so, as I mentioned in the preivous post

2232

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by f0dder on September 06, 2010, 02:50 PM »

I can get around 2Mbyte/sec download and 200Kbyte/sec upload speeds - haven't checked exactly how fast it goes, but it's a bit faster than those rough figures. Depends on a bit of factors, and it's not often that a single server can offer full speed (I just did a speedtest.net to the hosting centre across the street and got 17.4/1.7, even though I don't have any other traffic going at the moment), but for a well-seeded torrent it's usually not a problem reaching 2MB/s. I just hit 2100KB/s for linuxmint-9-gnome-cd-amd64.iso at the 450meg mark (establishing multiple connections, TCP slow-start, et cetera). A bit amazing, since linux ISOs have always been so poorly seeded when I've tried that multipart HTTP leeching has been (way) faster.

2233

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by f0dder on September 06, 2010, 01:25 PM »

20/2mbit ADSL2+, which is somewhat more than adequate . I pay about $60/mo for this line, which I find to be expensive, but it's normal price here in .dk.

Line is mostly stable, but if I really maxx it out it sometimes dies, and I have to power-cycle my modem (and I have to wait a few minutes before turning back on, or it doesn't connect). Not sure exactly why it happens, but it's mostly if there's high bandwidth usage and a lot of connections - I suspect it's more a matter of unstable firmware than the raw copper not being good enough quality.

I'm tempted to move to another service provider that does VDSL and can offer me 30/2 + IP telephony for the same price as my current subscription. Wish I could get FIOS... there's craploads and more craploads right out there in the road, and a large hosting facility right across the street. But can I get my hands on it, as a regular guy living in an apartment? Nope.

2234

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Save Session for Windows (processes, open files, window positions)

« Last post by f0dder on September 05, 2010, 09:35 AM »

Putting a filename on an application's commandline doesn't necessarily open it - works for a lot of apps, but not all. Also, there's the issue of figuring out which files the application has open. You can enumerate the files a process has open, but that's going to include a lot more than what you think you're working with - also, some applications only use the files while loading/saving, and thus the files you're working with isn't detectable without knowledge of the specific program.

Window size/position restoring, yes... you can reposition windows the application opens by itself, but you can't make it open child dialogs without specific knowledge of the app. And the window will appear at default location before you reposition, so there'll be a bit of flickering

2235

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Save Session for Windows (processes, open files, window positions)

« Last post by f0dder on September 05, 2010, 08:58 AM »

Thing is, that isn't simpler

Yes, you can detect which files a process has open, and you could re-open those files and set filepointers to the right position, etc. But without a full state restore, how do you get the (restarted) application to know it has those files open? The same goes for open windows - you can reconstruct the windows GDI widgets, but there's application-side state as well...

You can either do a full application state save/load (which is hard), or you can do per-application support (like, AHK sending key/mouse input events... which is a really fragile "solution"), or you can program restore logic into each individual application (which is the route taken for VS2010 apps).

2236

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Save Session for Windows (processes, open files, window positions)

« Last post by f0dder on September 05, 2010, 08:26 AM »

Well, don't rule it out entirely - I'm just saying it's a complex undertaking, and I think it's outside the scope of most members here at DoCo to undertake such a project . But perhaps it would be somewhat feasible to handle for an application virtualizer like SandboxIE? Still, not trivial.

I think you should detail your usecase(s) a bit.

For handling a crash - how should the application be restarted? You'd need some kind of snapshot of program state before the program crash. The OS has no way to know when a program is stable, so you definitely need application-level support for that. Restart/logoff is easier to handle, since the program can just be assumed to be in a valid state.

To restart or resume an app, you either need to do a full dump/restore of application state (which, as I've said a couple of times, is complicated), or you need some application-level support. There really isn't anything inbetween. Sure, the OS could restart an application, but then what should it do? Without a full state dump, how do you make the application go to the state it was in?

2237

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Save Session for Windows (processes, open files, window positions)

« Last post by f0dder on September 05, 2010, 07:02 AM »

On Windows, it's definitely something I wouldn't feel comfortable using if it wasn't developed by Microsoft - or at least hadn't had a lot of MS cooperation while developing.

Even if a 100% reliable solution was implemented, it would be at the functional level of VM suspend/resume or hibernate... which is good enough for most stuff, but definitely isn't perfect (network connections that have timed out etc). Given the complexity level of implementing, I'm not sure it's worth it. What's the purpose, anyway? Saving a bit of RAM by terminating processes, but being able to resume them fast? For that usecase, I'd really just stuff more RAM in the system. Can't really think of usecases where I can't think of a better solution, but you might have some better ideas

2238

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Save Session for Windows (processes, open files, window positions)

« Last post by f0dder on September 05, 2010, 06:19 AM »

On linux, you've got the advantage that the kernel is opensource, and thus it's possible to add the necessary support code - you can't really do that on Windows. Sure, you can write Windows drivers, but the functionality required to do a process state save/restore requires some pretty deep system hooks which I doubt are available to 3rd-party driver developers. Also, the CryoPID "Things that do/don't work" list does show that it's not exactly perfect

And it's a lot more complicated than you might think - capturing "just" the raw process state (memory map, thread contexts, ...) isn't too bad. The problem is all the "external" resources a process contains (files, sockets, graphics resources, etc). Some of the state can't be reliably restored (like socket connections), other is hard (like DirectX structures... what happens if you resume an app after changing your graphics card? Or even something less radical like resuming an app while another graphics app is started). Files aren't simple to handle either, they might have been deleted or changed while the app was suspended, or their access rights could have changed. And what if the app was suspended while it had pending file modifications? Also, this is just the conceptual problems you have to deal with, there's also implementation "details".

2239

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Save Session for Windows (processes, open files, window positions)

« Last post by f0dder on September 05, 2010, 04:13 AM »

Until that day, I'll just keep saving and resuming virtual machines.

-tmpusr (September 05, 2010, 12:10 AM)

That's the only viable solution, really. Saving process state is hard, actually pretty much impossible if you want to cover all possible cases. And to get something even semi-working, you'd need kernel cooperation...

2240

General Software Discussion / Re: GlassPrompt 1.1

« Last post by f0dder on September 05, 2010, 04:07 AM »

If you want small C++ exes, check out http://ibsensoftware.com/download.html - Jibz recently upgraded WCRT to have VS2010 support

2241

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by f0dder on September 04, 2010, 07:19 AM »

NOTE: Original post in that thread refers to going from x86 to x64 - in that case I would expect you to have to reactivate via phone.  But reinstalling essentially the same OS you're licensed for should be easier.

-4wd (September 03, 2010, 09:04 PM)

Don't be too sure of that - for regular keys, x86 and x64 are interchangeable. My laptop runs win7-x64 with a win7-x86 key

2242

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by f0dder on September 03, 2010, 03:06 PM »

If you can find a DVD with Win7 Pro x64, then I'd say just boot from it, do a complete install to the HDD, (wiping what was there, ie. Dell's auto-install), and enter your CD key off the sticker.

-4wd (September 02, 2010, 11:47 PM)

Won't necessarily work - at least not if you haven't gotten a clean OEM DVD. I tried doing this with XP, and found out that OEM keys, at least then, were tied to OEM install discs (apart from just BIOS strings, meaning they won't work for non-vendor machines either).

2243

General Software Discussion / Re: 27 Good Reasons to Love Linux

« Last post by f0dder on September 01, 2010, 07:02 PM »

Btw, I've just spent some hours test-driving Mint 9, and the first impressions are pretty good - but there's still plenty of rough edges, and nothing has changed wrt. my above comments (except for dual-monitor support working out of the box and being easy to configure with this distro). I'm considering posting a review sometime, after I've played around more with it.

2244

General Software Discussion / Re: 27 Good Reasons to Love Linux

« Last post by f0dder on September 01, 2010, 02:53 PM »

In my opinion, there are plenty of good reasons to love Linux and it isn't necessary to lie or use false stereotypes to try to make Linux look better. Linux has many fine qualities that stand on their own.

-Deozaan (September 01, 2010, 02:52 PM)

Word

2245

General Software Discussion / Re: 27 Good Reasons to Love Linux

« Last post by f0dder on September 01, 2010, 01:38 PM »

The article doesn't claim exclusivity or perfection for Linux, just a list of reasons to give it a try.

-zridling (September 01, 2010, 10:37 AM)

And some of those "reasons" are the same old tired unsubstantiated FUD...

Guys like f0dder see that as a call to yet another flame war. Jeez, start a blog, for your rants are so tired by now.

-zridling (September 01, 2010, 10:37 AM)

It's not about flame wars, it's about calling bullshit when I see it.

2246

General Software Discussion / Re: 27 Good Reasons to Love Linux

« Last post by f0dder on August 31, 2010, 03:07 PM »

Gwen7: it's a shame to see unsubstantiated FUD being parroted over again and again. Linux users really ought to be better than that - especially if they're writing advocacy articles. There's enough good reasons why you might want to check it out without lies and silliness.

As for hand-holding etc., my "support" experiences with linux have pretty much been the same... some problem a little outside the trivial (like, getting dual monitors working... ), asking on an irc channel explaining what I've tried, and replies like rtfm, "you've got the source", or kickbans. I guess support mailing lists might be better, but the few times I've tried that I've been met with deafening silence.

2247

General Software Discussion / Re: 27 Good Reasons to Love Linux

« Last post by f0dder on August 31, 2010, 01:05 PM »

"Forget about viruses" - because the OS has small marketshare. It's not like there hasn't been enough privilege escalation and remote root holes.

"Linux: no more pirates but legality" - yeah, sure. But where's the games? And you can't really compare gimp to photoshop, or blender to the bigger suites... et cetera.

"Windows get slower day after day, not Linux!" - same old unsubstantiated FUD.

"Forget disk fragmentation" - bullshit. There's simply no filesystem that doesn't eventually suffer from fragmentation. At least on Windows, there's a bunch of different defragmenters available... for linux, the typical advice is to always keep 20% disk space free... or copying all files to another partition, wiping the fragmented partition, and copying the files back. Also, it's a lame attempt at explaining filesystem fragmentation.

"Immediate support, free and unlimited" - ah, yes. "RTFM NOOB" and "you've got the source, fix it yourself". Wonderful support ^____________^

2248

Living Room / Re: MIT's biopic of 4chan's founder, Chris Poole (moot)

« Last post by f0dder on August 31, 2010, 12:54 PM »

4chan - the cesspool where most internet mêmês hatch.

2249

Post New Requests Here / Re: All AutoHotkey (AHK) coders read: No more upx packing of compiled ahk utils

« Last post by f0dder on August 30, 2010, 03:12 PM »

I use WinRAR - it isn't free, but it supports store/fastest/fast/normal/good/best for both .rar and .zip. Haven't tested how it affects compression ratio for .zip, so it could be that in reality it only supports store and one form of deflate - *shrug*. I thought the info-zip commandline zipper supported adjusting compression ratio, but can't find a reference to it in the manual.

2250

General Software Discussion / Re: Readability - Get rid of the clutter so you can read!

« Last post by f0dder on August 30, 2010, 01:15 PM »

A big problem with readability, which the FireFox Add-on (as opposed to the bookmarklet) doesn't solve: you need JavaScript enabled