Recent Posts

226

General Software Discussion / Re: 32bit Linux distro recommendations

« Last post by 4wd on December 18, 2020, 04:20 AM »

If your netbook is anything like the one I bought ~10 years ago then it was pretty much obsolete trash when it was brand new. Throw that thing in the dumpster  and buy a $50-100 Raspberry Pi which is a zillion times better and can run modern 64-bit operating systems.

-Deozaan (December 16, 2020, 11:19 AM)

Or install a Linux distro on it and sell it on ebay for $50, then buy a new RasPi ... like I did last year

But seriously for what it was back then, a sub-1kg netbook that could let me browse, email, etc, didn't cost the Earth (unlike other lightweight options), and that travelled at least 3 times around the planet (throw it in a neoprene sleeve then into the backpack) ... it was brilliant.

Especially when compared to my previous 15" laptop that weighed 2.5kg that I dragged around the planet, (through UK, Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China) ... that gets old very, very quickly.

227

General Software Discussion / Re: 32bit Linux distro recommendations

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2020, 05:47 PM »

I installed Bodhi Linux on my Acer Aspire One, (Atom N270), and it ran well, you need the Legacy release.

228

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to easily and quickly browse a sound library (and hear previews)?

« Last post by 4wd on December 15, 2020, 05:06 AM »

There's also VLC, just drop a folder on it and it'll play everything in the folder, jump back (p) and forward (n), and edit the metadata (Ctrl+i).

Just a note about Daminion, it is geared more towards completely managing your media, (all media), so not sure there is a quick preview for audio but there is certainly a lot of tagging you can do.

229

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by 4wd on December 13, 2020, 01:35 AM »

BTW, the Pi Case 40 is available on Amazon with 1* reviews because of the reversed GPIO.
Still, doesn't bother me [...]

-4wd (December 11, 2020, 11:46 PM)

I'd have to say I agree with the reviewers. Why make a big deal about redirecting the GPIO to enable access and then screw it up by making it non-standard?

-Deozaan (December 12, 2020, 09:57 PM)

I'd say that possibly a big part of it is trying to keep cost low also, (for that form factor), the right angle connector is an off-the-shelf part that takes up minimal space.

Whereas, I'm unaware of any right-angle connector that crosses over the connections, so it would necessitate an internal adapter board which would increase cost and the size of the case. They need a male header strip, a circuit board to cross over the traces, and then a female right-angle header.

They are talking about followup designs that correct the problem ... which didn't make supporters very happy.

230

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2020, 11:46 PM »

You mean like this?

-Deozaan (December 11, 2020, 11:03 PM)

Yep, except I have the ones with the fans:



Which was probably a mistake as they go noisy after a few months, temperature is fine even with them unplugged.

I got the above heatsink case to go with my Pi. I'm normally very utilitarian and don't care too much about how things look and just go for black, but I really like the colorful options this case comes in.

I was just after something that provided decent heat removal ... like a big block of Al

My only complaint about it is that it doesn't quite fully encase the board. Which, in practice, means that the microSD card is poking out a few millimeters, exposed to damage from bumps or drops.

I currently use SSDs, (via USB3 adapters), that are no longer used for anything else, speeds up the RasPi dramatically.  I'm waiting for CM to release the STL files for different backs, (SSD mount, M.2 mount, etc), so I can get a friend to print a couple up for me.

And one of these for the 3B+: Armored Pi HDD Case

Also, even though I don't power it on and off very often now that it's all set up and doing what I got it to do, I've found it indispensable to have some kind of power switch for the Pi for those times when you are setting it up and having to frequently turn it off and on again.

I have a switched USB power cable for my RasPi3B+ and was supposed to have one for the RasPi4B but the supplier sent a straight USB-C cable, (and I got the diff refunded).

The Pi Case 40 having a [normal PC-like] power switch was one of the reasons I went with it, (otherwise I was going to create one using info from the net) ... speaking of which:

Redneck power-off switch 

But I don't think I'll be using their Pi Tool, it doesn't run on DietPi, it's insanely large for what it is (Electron ... FGS!?), plus it's not re-sizeable - it's higher than a 720p resolution, (all my Pi's are headless, only SSH/VNC access).
I'll use one of the python scripts on the net to do the button push monitor/action.

BTW, the Pi Case 40 is available on Amazon with 1* reviews because of the reversed GPIO.
Still, doesn't bother me as both of mine run as Docker hosts and I want them to be portable.

231

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2020, 08:08 PM »

Just arrived, a pair of Pi Case 40's to replace the heatsink cases on my RasPi 4B's.



NOTE: For anyone who's interested in these just be aware that you won't be able to use expansion 'hats' due to the reversed GPIO pin layout, (not a problem for me).  And to be fair to Cooler Master the case was always marketed as a rugged travel case for the RasPi.

232

Coding Snacks / Re: Lightweight App that displays files in folders/subfolders & allows launching

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2020, 04:56 PM »

Re. the Snap2HTML method, a possible alternative is HFS, (HTTP File Server), which can serve up a file structure easily.

The default HTML can be modified, it's dynamic (just copy new files into the folders it's looking at and refresh), access control if needed, plus a lot of other options ... there is a search function but it isn't 'as you type'.

233

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to easily and quickly browse a sound library (and hear previews)?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2020, 04:11 AM »

The standalone version of Daminion (Digital Asset Manager), is still free, (AFAIK), with the restriction of 15000 items per catalogue, (you can have multiple catalogues).

The latest version is available for download here.

234

Living Room / Re: How do you get melted rubber out of carpeting???

« Last post by 4wd on December 07, 2020, 03:17 PM »

For anything gooey I've always had good results with anything that contains eucalyptus oil, (wool wash, etc), plus it smells nice.

-4wd (December 06, 2020, 06:12 PM)

Now that is an interesting and potentially useful suggestion - especially in contrast to the rest of these clowns - are you lost or something?

-Stoic Joker (December 07, 2020, 05:41 AM)

Oh sorry, did I forget to mention that upon walking into a room smelling of eucalypt the first words she will say are, "What have you done?"
 

235

Living Room / Re: How do you get melted rubber out of carpeting???

« Last post by 4wd on December 06, 2020, 06:12 PM »

For anything gooey I've always had good results with anything that contains eucalyptus oil, (wool wash, etc), plus it smells nice.

236

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Windscribe - Get 50GB free VPN bandwidth every month for life

« Last post by 4wd on December 04, 2020, 08:20 PM »

Windscribe Terms

Email Promotions

As a free user, by providing an email address and in exchange for additional bandwidth, you give Windscribe the permission to send you promotional offers. You can unsubscribe (remove your email) at any time, but you will be downgraded to the basic free plan.

237

General Software Discussion / Re: Etcher on Linux?

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2020, 08:45 AM »

How do I install and use Etcher on Linux for making a live Linux USB?

-Davidmiler (November 25, 2020, 08:57 AM)

I would have thought that most directions on making a live Linux USB drive have instructions for using dd, at least most of the ones I've seen have.

Otherwise there's the always useful unetbootin.

238

General Software Discussion / Re: Vasilios Freeware - really nice page of utilities, donations appreciated

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2020, 08:28 AM »

Perhaps the Internet Archive would be a better resource for a website that no longer exists:

https://web.archive....esoft/_app_index.htm

239

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by 4wd on December 01, 2020, 06:11 PM »

An icon of the 20th century comes to a sad end:



Arecibo Observatory telescope collapses in Puerto Rico months after cables snap

Addendum: Drone footage of the collapse.

https://www.abc.net....es-snapping/12949736

240

General Software Discussion / ZeroTier - a Global Area Network

« Last post by 4wd on November 30, 2020, 01:36 AM »

Something that hasn't been mentioned in the forum before, (that I can find anyway), ZeroTier.

Similar to the old Hamachi^w program, (by Alex Pankratov), ZeroTier creates a wide area encrypted VLAN.

ZeroTier is a smart programmable Ethernet switch for planet Earth. It allows all networked devices, VMs, containers, and applications to communicate as if they all reside in the same physical data center or cloud region.

This is accomplished by combining a cryptographically addressed and secure peer to peer network (termed VL1) with an Ethernet emulation layer somewhat similar to VXLAN (termed VL2). Our VL2 Ethernet virtualization layer includes advanced enterprise SDN features like fine grained access control rules for network micro-segmentation and security monitoring.

You can use ZeroTier's hosted controllers, (there's a free level which allows up to 50 nodes but only one Network Admin, which is great for home users), or host your own controller - the source code is available on GitHub.

Currently, I've connected my phone, tablet, computer, and two RasPi's to a network and they're all talking to one another without a problem.

This is especially great as I have web interfaces on the two RasPi's that I currently access via reverse proxy as well as VNC, SSH, etc.  Switching to ZeroTier means I can do away with DNS setups, reverse proxy, and just access the various interfaces, VNC, etc via an IP, (eg. 172.26.x.x, 192.168.x.x, etc), and close any misc open ports I have in the router.

Download's are available for Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and NAS's, there's also various Docker images available.

Setup up for all of them only took a minute or two.

241

General Software Discussion / Re: WoX Launcher

« Last post by 4wd on November 19, 2020, 01:18 AM »

Tuxman introduced WoX (stands for something- I saw it somewhere, but I can't find it right now) in the Listary 6 thread, and I started to look into it.

-wraith808 (November 18, 2020, 09:40 PM)

You've missed out on testing it for the last four years 

Then again, I missed out on testing it for three years 

242

Living Room / Re: Reliable notifier with web interface

« Last post by 4wd on November 15, 2020, 03:20 AM »

Always found Thunderbird with Lightning add-on worked fine.

PS: Google Calendar is not very good, for some reason I do not hear any alarms

-kalos (November 13, 2020, 07:41 AM)

1. Download this and set as your Default Alarm Sound.
2. Turn the Alarm volume up to maximum.

243

fSekrit / Re: fSekrit 1.40 quarantined by Windows 10

« Last post by 4wd on November 10, 2020, 03:01 PM »

Caution: Theory Ahead

Maybe it's just that the encrypted contents of the file now match the file pattern of Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.C!ml and rearranging the order of the information would 'fix' the problem?

244

General Software Discussion / Re: How to delete a folder that Windows can't find?

« Last post by 4wd on November 09, 2020, 03:57 PM »

For a GUI, try Helge Klein SetACL Studio. It will delete anything. Product page here, no cost (used to be commercial).

-x16wda (October 06, 2020, 05:58 AM)

Last year I had one folder it couldn't delete, couldn't do anything with it.
Can't remember what happened in the end, think I gave up and reinstalled Windows or formatted the drive.
Most obstinate file/folder I've had in 40+ years of playing with computers 🤣

245

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - Create a text doc of an artists discography.

« Last post by 4wd on November 09, 2020, 02:39 AM »

Now uses Chrome's UserAgent and can set a delay from the command line:

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. <#
2.   .\DiscoFile-MB3.ps1 -uri <Uri> [-delay <seconds>]
3.  
4.   Given the URI from https://musicbrainz.org for an artist it will retrieve the
5.   discography.
6.  
7.   Where: Uri     = MusicBrainz artist page URI
8.          seconds = [optional] number of seconds delay between Web Requests (0.1-90)
9.  
10.  
11.   eg.
12.  
13.   .\DiscoFile-MB3.ps1 -uri https://musicbrainz.org/artist/66c662b6-6e2f-4930-8610-912e24c63ed1
14.  
15.   .\DiscoFile-MB3.ps1 -uri https://musicbrainz.org/artist/66c662b6-6e2f-4930-8610-912e24c63ed1 -delay 10
16.  
17.   Will result in a file called 'AC_DC-MB - Discography.txt' in the same directory as
18.   DiscoFile-MB3.ps1
19.  
20. #>
21. param (
22.         [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$Uri,
23.         [ValidateRange(0.1,90)][decimal]$delay
24. )
25. $sleep = $false
26. if ($delay -gt 0) {
27.   $sleep = $true
28. }
29. $userAgent = [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.PSUserAgent]::Chrome
30.  
31. $web = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $Uri -UserAgent $userAgent).RawContent
32.  
33. $temp = $web -replace '[\s\S]+application\/ld\+json..([\s\S]+?)<\/script>[\s\S]*$', '$1'
34. $json = $temp | ConvertFrom-Json
35.  
36. $outFile = ($json.name + "-MB - Discography.txt").Split([IO.Path]::GetInvalidFileNameChars()) -join '_'
37. if (Test-Path $outFile) {
38.   Remove-Item $outFile -Force
39. }
40.  
41. for ($i = 0; $i -lt $json.album.Count; $i++) {
42.   if ($sleep) {
43.     Start-Sleep -seconds $delay
44.   }
45.   $temp = $json.album[$i].albumReleaseType
46.   if ($temp -match 'AlbumRelease') {
47.     $temp = $json.album[$i].albumProductionType
48.     if (($temp -match '(LiveAlbum)|(StudioAlbum)') -and !($temp -match '(CompilationAlbum)|(SoundtrackAlbum)')) {
49.       $albumUri = ($json.album[$i].'@id' + "?inc=releases&fmt=json") -replace '\.org\/', '.org/ws/2/'
50.       $album = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "$($albumUri)" -UserAgent $userAgent) | ConvertFrom-Json
51.       "$($album.releases[0].date.Substring(0,4)) - $($album.title)" | Out-File -FilePath $outFile -Append
52.     }
53.   }
54. }
55.  
56. Get-Content $outFile | Sort-Object | Set-Content $outFile

246

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - Create a text doc of an artists discography.

« Last post by 4wd on November 08, 2020, 04:16 PM »

The only way being logged in, (or not), to the site would matter is if you are also doing searches or browsing at the same time, since you're increasing the number of requests per second.

It looks like they impose a rate limit of one request per second from the same IP, (strange I never hit it), unless it's from specific software, (eg. picard), or uses a recognisable UserAgent, (ie. a browser, PowerShell probably doesn't by default - I might look at how you can add it, if it's possible).

You can try putting in a Start-Sleep -seconds 1 after the for statement, that will delay the requests to about one per second.

Adjust the number up as necessary to increase the delay between requests, especially if you are browsing the site at the same time.

Or use Opera to browse the site with its internal VPN turned on so it looks like a different IP.

EDIT: Looks like PowerShell has its own UserAgent but can use one of the more standard browser settings which may decrease the rate limiting.  I'll look at it later today if I have time, or you can have a play

https://stackoverflo...a-powershell-request

247

General Software Discussion / Re: Manage the display in the laptop

« Last post by 4wd on November 08, 2020, 03:50 PM »

248

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - Create a text doc of an artists discography.

« Last post by 4wd on November 08, 2020, 06:53 AM »

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. <#
2.   .\DiscoFile-MB3.ps1 <Uri>
3.  
4.   Given the URI from https://musicbrainz.org for an artist it will retrieve the
5.   discography.
6.  
7.   eg.
8.  
9.   .\DiscoFile-MB3.ps1 https://musicbrainz.org/artist/66c662b6-6e2f-4930-8610-912e24c63ed1
10.  
11.   Will result in a file called 'AC_DC-MB - Discography.txt' in the same directory as
12.   DiscoFile-MB3.ps1
13.  
14. #>
15.  
16. param (
17.   [string]$Uri
18. )
19.  
20. $web = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $Uri).RawContent
21.  
22. $temp = $web -replace '[\s\S]+application\/ld\+json..([\s\S]+?)<\/script>[\s\S]*$', '$1'
23.  
24. $json = $temp | ConvertFrom-Json
25.  
26. $outFile = ($json.name + "-MB - Discography.txt").Split([IO.Path]::GetInvalidFileNameChars()) -join '_'
27. if (Test-Path $outFile) {
28.   Remove-Item $outFile -Force
29. }
30.  
31. for ($i = 0; $i -lt $json.album.Count; $i++) {
32.   $temp = $json.album[$i].albumReleaseType
33.   if ($temp -match 'AlbumRelease') {
34.     $temp = $json.album[$i].albumProductionType
35.     if (($temp -match '(LiveAlbum)|(StudioAlbum)') -and !($temp -match '(CompilationAlbum)|(SoundtrackAlbum)')) {
36.       $albumUri = ($json.album[$i].'@id' + "?inc=releases&fmt=json") -replace '\.org\/', '.org/ws/2/'
37.       $album = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "$($albumUri)") | ConvertFrom-Json
38.       "$($album.releases[0].date.Substring(0,4)) - $($album.title)" | Out-File -FilePath $outFile -Append
39.     }
40.   }
41. }
42.  
43. Get-Content $outFile | Sort-Object | Set-Content $outFile

Code: Text [Select]

1. 1975 - High Voltage
2. 1975 - T.N.T.
3. 1976 - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
4. 1976 - High Voltage
5. 1977 - Let There Be Rock
6. 1978 - If You Want Blood You???ve Got It
7. 1978 - Live from the Atlantic Studios
8. 1978 - Powerage
9. 1979 - Highway to Hell
10. 1980 - Back in Black
11. 1981 - For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
12. 1983 - Flick of the Switch
13. 1985 - Fly on the Wall
14. 1988 - Blow Up Your Video
15. 1990 - The Razors Edge
16. 1992 - Live at Donington
17. 1995 - Ballbreaker
18. 1996 - No Bull: Live - Plaza De Toros, Madrid
19. 1996 - Westwood One Superstars In Concert Series
20. 2000 - Stiff Upper Lip
21. 2001 - Stiff Upper Lip: Live
22. 2007 - Plug Me In
23. 2008 - Black Ice
24. 2011 - Live at River Plate
25. 2014 - Rock or Bust
26. 2018 - Legendary FM Broadcasts - The Paradise Theatre, Boston MA 21st August 1978
27. 2018 - Live At Paradise Theatre Boston 1978
28. 2019 - Live at the Apocalypse
29. 2020 - AC/DC FM Broadcast Boston 1978
30. 2020 - Power Up

249

General Software Discussion / Re: Manage the display in the laptop

« Last post by 4wd on November 07, 2020, 05:08 PM »

It was my external mouse

-Contro (November 07, 2020, 04:37 PM)

Time to apply S.O.P. #1.

250

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - Create a text doc of an artists discography.

« Last post by 4wd on November 07, 2020, 04:57 PM »

Nice 4wd!

-Nod5 (November 07, 2020, 10:11 AM)

Thanks!

One idea is to search for artist name and use the first match as artist page URL input into the rest of your program.
The URL format is

[Select]

https://www.discogs.com/search/?type=artist&title=ac+dc

I think that given the incomplete records on Discogs, time would be better spent on either MusicBrainz, (filtering their overly complete lists down to just the studio releases, or otherwise selecting what you want), or trying to parse allmusic's HTML, (that'll be fun but it is just one big table, so maybe it won't be that hard - PowerShell can get at elements within HTML, just never really looked at it).

eg. For MusicBrainz, pipe the output into a ListView with checkboxes, select the ones you want, output to a text file - if you want to use manual selection.

This could be a little NANY 2021 app.

... it might inspire someone

-4wd (November 06, 2020, 09:41 PM)

 

Looking at AllMusic, their info is a little mixed up also, Live albums in amongst Studio albums whereas MusicBrainz splits Studio and Live.

Since MusicBrainz list the Studio albums first, we can prune everything down to just those easily enough:

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. <#
2.   .\DiscoFile-MB3.ps1 <Uri>
3.  
4.   Given the URI from https://musicbrainz.org for an artist it will retrieve the
5.   discography.
6.  
7.   eg.
8.  
9.   .\DiscoFile-MB3.ps1 https://musicbrainz.org/artist/66c662b6-6e2f-4930-8610-912e24c63ed1
10.  
11.   Will result in a file called 'AC_DC-MB - Discography.txt' in the same directory as
12.   DiscoFile.ps1
13.  
14. #>
15.  
16. param (
17.   [string]$Uri
18. )
19.  
20. $web = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $Uri).RawContent
21.  
22. $temp = $web -replace '[\s\S]+application\/ld\+json..([\s\S]+?)<\/script>[\s\S]*$', '$1'
23.  
24. $json = $temp | ConvertFrom-Json
25.  
26. $outFile = ($json.name + "-MB - Discography.txt").Split([IO.Path]::GetInvalidFileNameChars()) -join '_'
27. if (Test-Path $outFile) {
28.   Remove-Item $outFile -Force
29. }
30.  
31. $i = 0
32. do {
33.   if ($json.album[$i].albumProductionType -match 'StudioAlbum') {
34.     $found = $true
35.     $albumUri = ($json.album[$i].'@id' + "?inc=releases&fmt=json") -replace '\.org\/', '.org/ws/2/'
36.     $album = (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "$($albumUri)") | ConvertFrom-Json
37.     "$($album.releases[0].date) - $($album.title)" | Out-File -FilePath $outFile -Append
38.   } else {
39.     $found = $false
40.   }
41.   $i++
42. } while ($found)

Which makes it a little nicer:

Code: Text [Select]

1. 1975-02-17 - High Voltage
2. 1975-12-01 - T.N.T.
3. 1976-05-14 - High Voltage
4. 1976-09-20 - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
5. 1977-03-21 - Let There Be Rock
6. 1978-05-05 - Powerage
7. 1979-07-27 - Highway to Hell
8. 1980-07-25 - Back in Black
9. 1981-11-23 - For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
10. 1983-08-15 - Flick of the Switch
11. 1985-06-28 - Fly on the Wall
12. 1988-01-18 - Blow Up Your Video
13. 1990-09-21 - The Razors Edge
14. 1995-09-22 - Ballbreaker
15. 2000-02-25 - Stiff Upper Lip
16. 2008-10-17 - Black Ice
17. 2014-11-28 - Rock or Bust
18. 2020-11-13 - Power Up

I guess AllMusic could be parsed using the HTML Agility Pack ... if I could work out how to use it