Recent Posts

2226

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommendations for home mail server

« Last post by Shades on July 15, 2010, 07:15 PM »

At the time (2000-2002) I used the version 3 version of VPop as a Windows solution. I was always impressed with the possibilities when taking the filesize into account.

Definitely not cheap, but very able.

2227

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Cannot make a visible window modal

« Last post by Shades on July 12, 2010, 06:17 PM »

This error means that you tried to open an application window which already has been opened, but not visible (hiding behind one or more other windows.

A tool like ProcessExplorer (free from SysInternals/Microsoft) is able to reveal these windows quickly. You could also try to reveal the window by dragging (all) other windows away from the location where you think the desired window would be.

The error is nothing major, so you don't have to worry about that.

2228

Living Room / Re: Sitepoint is giving away a free ebook

« Last post by Shades on July 11, 2010, 04:22 PM »

They are not too fast with updating their site, I'm afraid.

And ah well, it was fun as long as it lasted (as I am From Dutch origine)...but 'viva españa'? Never!

2229

General Software Discussion / Re: Partition Alignment increases performance

« Last post by Shades on July 10, 2010, 10:39 PM »

This tool is only interesting when after a fresh installation + servicepacks.

Tried it myself on an existing XP system (with 320GByte hard drive) and after 4 hours 4 of the 6 partitions were aligned. A result quite similar to hpierce, the previous poster.

I also tried it on a fresh installation (XP SP2), used the tool and all partitions were aligned. In my finite wisdom I installed SP3 and all appeared to go well. But after the mandatory reboot, a blue screen of death showed up and one reboot later the complete system was hosed. By that I mean the PC would loop through the POST of the BIOS, nothing more.

Reversing the order (installing XP SPII, updating to SPIII and then aligning partitions) looks to be the proper way of doing things.

It really does help, I always have Process explorer running in the tray and I noted that hard drive I/O improved. My existing XP system acts as an active Oracle XE database server and I note it there as well.

This is not a tool for the faint of heart, though.   

2230

General Software Discussion / Re: Win 8 design documents leaked, plus Icaza comments on them

« Last post by Shades on July 03, 2010, 10:33 AM »

Tried Oracle 11G R2 database software on Win7 Ultimate (64-bit). After some tricks it does run. However accessing its data from client PC's proves too difficult (random account lockouts). Note that Win2008 and Win 2003 based Oracle 11 databases were accessible just fine on the same client PC's.

Tried also to create a vpn connection on Win7 using the latest OpenVPN (client and server). Again, almost impossible to connect/retain a connection. PC's with previous versions of windows and an ubuntu PC connected just fine.

For the home-and-garden use of most people Win7 is fine, for businesses I would definitely advise against it...at least until I find out what improvements SP1 is bringing to the table.

2231

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by Shades on July 01, 2010, 11:32 PM »

It dawned to me, lets spray it.

2232

Living Room / Re: FARK creator doesn't believe in the wisdom of crowds

« Last post by Shades on July 01, 2010, 04:30 PM »

I was always told that the IQ of a crowd can be calculated as follows...you take the IQ of the dumbest person in it and divide that with the amount of people in it.

2233

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: type into an application that is not at the top

« Last post by Shades on June 28, 2010, 07:13 PM »

On my system I have 'Katmouse' running for years now. Above whichever window my mouse pointer is hovering, that is the window that I control with the mouse. It does not steal the focus from the active window.

I find it gives me a huge productivity gain when comparing lists (typing in one window while scrolling through the other.

A really nice piece of freeware.

2234

Living Room / Re: 20 years later, the movie "Total Recall" still kicks butt

« Last post by Shades on June 28, 2010, 07:04 PM »

@40Hz:
Can you tell me how 'No country for old men' ends? I went to the theater to see it and was send out because I was snoring too loud. Rented it twice but I cannot get past the halfway point, before falling asleep. With 'There Will be Blood' I fell only asleep once.

Now I do not consider myself a movie-buff or average joe public. The first section I always look for in a videostore is the alternative movie section, because I enjoy well and/or diversely written stories. But I truly do not understand why both these movies were so highly regarded.

@Innuendo:
Which 'Wicker man' do you mean?
The most recent one with Nicolas Cage is hardly worth the trouble. Then again, I am not impressed by the latest works of N.C. in the first place. The first release was way more disturbing to me.

2235

Living Room / Re: Optimal mp3 quality/filesize for voice recordings?

« Last post by Shades on June 20, 2010, 06:49 PM »

As far as I know the general human voice uses the 3KHz band as a carrier. Which is why VPI and VCI settings from adsl modems  start with 3x (to mark the 3000Hz band). If I remenber correctly that bit of info was supplied to me while in the being in training for the communications section of the Dutch army.

Trimming/cutting away the rest of frequency bands in the wav file should already reduce the size of them significantly. 

2236

Best Archive Tool / Re: Versions??

« Last post by Shades on June 20, 2010, 12:05 AM »

You can use 7-zip in scripts (a big advantage to me). While the GUI gives you access to a lot of compression settings, I find that using the command line version is more effective.

For example: I normally have to pack a set of executables and dll's (about 250Mb). Using the GUI version results in an archive file of 21Mb (ultimate compression level). But with the command line version the result is an archive file of 17Mb (ultimate compression level).

I really like 7-zip.

2237

DC Gamer Club / Re: Xenon2000 :: Xenon redux

« Last post by Shades on June 05, 2010, 03:30 AM »

You never heard of Xenon?

Then maybe also not of the Bitmap Brothers? And their other pearls of gaming history? (Gods, The Chaos Engine, Speedball, Cadaver, Magic Pockets).

Very highly regarded in the time that the Commodore Amiga was the king of the hill. A unique drawing style, but always recognizable. When you would run their games in a Amiga emulator, you would clearly see why their games can stand the test of time. Or better yet, nostalgia does not have to cover up anything.

2238

General Software Discussion / Re: What to use to back up 1:1 ?

« Last post by Shades on June 01, 2010, 07:34 PM »

My experience is that WD drives are the better ones. Or they break immediately (first days of use) and are replaced with a new unit by the vendor. Other brands happen to break outside their guarantee period.

2239

General Software Discussion / Re: Shortcut Creator

« Last post by Shades on June 01, 2010, 06:58 PM »

Maybe the tool LinkChanger could be useful as well (if it is still available that is).

2240

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PDF OCR giveaway

« Last post by Shades on June 01, 2010, 06:49 PM »

After processing a big document (258 pages) it failed to open in Wordpad and the created content was lost. In my experience it is a nice concept, but too unstable for any practical use.
 

2241

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sins of a Solar Empire - 80% off

« Last post by Shades on May 29, 2010, 10:55 AM »

Crap, now I really hate not having a credit card. I love this game!

And the expansion is also not expensive....crap, crap, crap! 

2242

WorldCup Predictor / Re: FIFA World Cup Predictor 2010 - A Contest For Best Predictions?

« Last post by Shades on May 28, 2010, 11:24 PM »

Yep, same here...'Mechanico naranga' (the Dutch team, as they are called here in the South Americas) never fulfills their promise somehow. But no matter how much disappointments I have endured over the years, there is always that glimmer of hope.

Soccer really brings out the nationalist in people, I guess   

2243

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred font?

« Last post by Shades on May 26, 2010, 07:22 PM »

Well, there is a piece of software promoted lately that enhances the rendering of fonts. Whatever font tickles you, it looks better when using this open source renderer, gdipp.

The link leads to a descriptive page with screenshots that show the differences between the results of the Windows rendering software and gdipp rendering software.

2244

Living Room / Re: What happened to my DC forum avatar?

« Last post by Shades on May 25, 2010, 11:15 PM »

As long as they are not ohmitted,,,

2245

General Software Discussion / Re: Sonar Power Manager

« Last post by Shades on May 24, 2010, 05:44 PM »

It does not sound so safe (no pun intended), especially when you replace persons quickly enough. But combined with the web cam that is in most laptops nowadays (for facial recognition) it could work.

2246

Living Room / Re: What happened to my DC forum avatar?

« Last post by Shades on May 23, 2010, 04:59 PM »

For an avatar you need to cosine.

2247

General Software Discussion / Re: What to use to back up 1:1 ?

« Last post by Shades on May 23, 2010, 01:57 AM »

You are right, Curt. After my post I started to read some more about PathSymc and saw that unicode was not supported.

Darn, by now I should know the correct order of things (proofread first, then post on the forum). Sorry about forgetting that particular requirement.

2248

General Software Discussion / Re: What to use to back up 1:1 ?

« Last post by Shades on May 22, 2010, 03:32 PM »

Personally I use a small, free and portable piece of software called: Pathsync

The link leads you to the review from this software on the freewaregenuis site.

Does exactly what I want it to do in a nice, simple and clean interface. One thing though, delta copy support is not there

2249

Living Room / Re: Pac-man at Google Search...

« Last post by Shades on May 22, 2010, 02:48 PM »

Darn, I played it in the arcade...man I feel old.

2250

General Software Discussion / Re: Pros & Cons of a headless server?

« Last post by Shades on May 10, 2010, 09:39 PM »

Webmin is a decent solution for managing headless servers. If it isn't, then you should consider to not give that person access to the admin group of the server. Try FreeNAS if the desktop PC only has to act as server. That is a small linux distro created to be used in headless computers. With small I mean basic and to the point.

There is also a server edition from Ubuntu, which is preferable if the desktop pc is designated to server duty. From personal experience I can say that 9.04 is actually very reliable. It hasn't crashed on me since I have been using it over here on 5 year old hardware and a "flaky" power grid. Unfortunately I cannot say the same from my favorite distro OpenSUSE (10.1).

Your mileage may vary ofcourse, but as a general rule: use a server OS on a server PC.