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2351

General Review Discussion / Re: Opinions on remote PC control software

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 16, 2009, 04:44 AM »

Search the forum for CrossLoop and for Logmein. Here's a link to one of the threads on this topic: Easy remote access to my home pc?

-PhilB66 (July 15, 2009, 07:57 PM)

Don't really want to use Crossloop as it required an email address to download the client software and then tries to encourage the setting up of an account before getting to an access code. Not sure whether they are having problems with their servers but all I got when I tried it was 'waiting for connection' and lots of pointers to other users who might be able to help me. Not what I want.

LogMeIn is a fine product but not for offering customer support because even the free version required that you set up an account and install an application. A client would then have to give me their account details to allow me to see their computer. There is a LogMeIn for providing client support but it is far to expensive for my needs. I perhaps want to remotely support up to 5 or 6 people a month and the LogMeIn remote support offering costs thousands of dollars.

2352

General Review Discussion / Re: Opinions on remote PC control software

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 07:48 PM »

Anyone know of any free software to control a client machine? It has to be simple for the client (i.e. click a link on a webpage to download a small app and run it) and have good remote control features.

I have been using Mikogo (and like it) but I find it a bit slow and heavy on bandwidth and I have also found in a number of cases the mouse clicks don't match the visible positioning (which is frustrating when you miss clicking something by 2 icons!).

Any other free alternatives that are simple to use and secure?

2353

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP & sata drive

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 06:33 PM »

Found out my current mb doens not support AHCI mode so I'm going to have to get a new one for that anyway.
But as long as slipstreaming is doable and not much harder than slipstreaming sp3 I'll figure it out.

-mrHappy (July 15, 2009, 02:35 PM)

Simplest way is to use nLite on an original WinXP CD contents. I used this method, didn't remove anything from the original disk just added the SATA drivers and built a new ISO to burn. Took probably under 15 minutes to do the lot.

2354

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 03:44 PM »

And I still don't understand what is going on with Amazon having stuff on sale and then reverting to Signing up to be notified and back again. ATM, Home Version is back at signing up - will be interesting to see if it reappears for pre-order.

-Dormouse (July 15, 2009, 02:19 PM)

I think Amazon.co.uk had a quota for the number of bundles they could sell at intro price. Presumably they have been updating that quanitiy all day after contacting MS because of demand. Either that or people have been ordering and then cancelling freeing up some of the stock.

2355

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 01:49 PM »

If you order from Amazon they only charge your credit card when the item is posted to you so you can cancel orders at any time until it enters the packing phase. You also have the right to cancel an order after you receive the goods for 7 days (or is it 10) under the EU Distance Selling Regulations so even if you forget and they charge your card you can still claim back the money (less delivery charges).

2356

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 11:43 AM »

Apparently Amazon UK have pre-sold more copies of Windows 7 during the first 8 hours than they did with Windows Vista during the whole pre-sale period.

Not sure how many people have 'booked' copies though. I have booked 2 copies of Pro but I may change my mind before October if I get an early download of the RTM copy via MS MAPS programme.

2357

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP & sata drive

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 11:33 AM »

I think it depends on the drives too. I have installed XP on my system using SATA II drives without any issue and there doesn't seem to be a BIOS compatibility setting to select.

My laptop was a different matter though - I had to slipstream drivers for AHCI compliant SATA drives to even get the manufacturer's own XP installation disk to install otherwise it just said 'No hard disk present'.

2358

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 10:30 AM »

I can't see the total disappearance of hard media happening any time soon - people like Sony have too much money invested in flogging off boxes in the form of BluRay players, PlayStations etc. to want to kill off that market.

As for stopping the copying of hard media Sony et. all actually provide the hardware to make copying child's play - and they are happy to get the revenue from that stream too.

Currently they are winning with BluRay because bandwidth restrictions mean sharing of full size BluRay discs is not possible for most people, they fill up hard disk space too quickly to be practical and blank BluRAy discs cost more than buying the film - I'm sure that's how ony would like it to remain and is probably one of the prime motivators from the move from DVD to BR. Doubtless when hard discs of 100Tb or more start appearing with bandwidths of 50-60Mb as the norm and blank BR disks cost a few cents Sony and Co. will move onto the next superdupa format which will hold 5Tb per disc .... and so the war will continue.

2359

Coding Snacks / Re: [Complete] Consolidate files in the parent folder

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 06:31 AM »

Neat idea which should avoid naming conflicts

2360

Living Room / Re: A Problem for A Real Expert - the Haunted Router(s)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 15, 2009, 04:31 AM »

Oops sorry - misread and gave the Netgear settings above instead of Linksys. The other thing is that the defailt route settings for Linksys are at 192.168.1.1

It's been a while since I used a Linksys router but I seem to rember tomos is correct - no user name and password is admin. If admin doesn't work try password instead.

2361

Living Room / Re: A Problem for A Real Expert - the Haunted Router(s)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 14, 2009, 07:25 PM »

I had a linksys router that started displaying similar symptoms and I am sure it was the power supply dying. (It hadn't been abused by lightening or power surges - at least no more than the rest of my network which runs through APC UPSes). Not had any similar problems since I moved to a Netgear router and switch.

Worth trying an alternative power supply anyway (good point 4wd) just make sure it has the same power rating, tip and polarity!!

2362

Living Room / Another thread from the BBC - keystrokes can be captured over powerlines!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 14, 2009, 04:22 PM »

Snooping through the power socket
Hand on keyboard, Eyewire

Power sockets can be used to eavesdrop on what people type on a computer.

Security researchers found that poor shielding on some keyboard cables means useful data can be leaked about each character typed.

By analysing the information leaking onto power circuits, the researchers could see what a target was typing.

The attack has been demonstrated to work at a distance of up to 15m, but refinement may mean it could work over much longer distances.

Read more ...

2363

Living Room / Re: A Problem for A Real Expert - the Haunted Router(s)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 14, 2009, 03:30 PM »

Have you tried hard resetting the router back to factory settings and then setting up again?

Switch on and then press and hold the reset button for at least 30 seconds. Connect the router by a cable to your computer and then try IPCONFIG /ALL from a command prompt. If IPCONFIG says the router is at 192.168.0.1 you are probably back to square one, go to http://192.168.0.1 and login to the router control panel (admin / password) and resetup all your settings.

Once you have it all working again you can go into the router (at what ever IP address you specified) and backup your router settings to your hard disk then if it happens again in the future you can reset the router and simply restore the settings from the router control panel.

If none of this works don't pass go, don't collect $200, nip down to the local computer store and buy a new router.

While you are at it buy a very expensive surge protector to protect all of your equipment (including your phones lines). Don't buy a cheap one they aren't worth the money. Next time it looks like a storm switch everything off and unplug it from mains and telephone circuits!

Good luck.

2364

UrlSnooper / Re: Download vids from crackle.com impossible?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 14, 2009, 07:12 AM »

AIUI the video is not contained in the SWF file it just acts as a mechanism to access the video in FLV format. The methods previously used to capture streams in WMV etc. don't work in these circumstances.

There are some tools that can capture the FLV video files (such as DownloadHelper addon in Firefox) but they tend to be tailored to a specific set of websites (crackle is not detected by DownloadHelper) and if you do manage to get the video file you need to use something like FLV plaver to view them on your computer.

Transcoding FLV files into other formats is possible but I have never seen a method that gives acceptable results for burning to a DVD.

2365

UrlSnooper / Re: Download vids from crackle.com impossible?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 14, 2009, 05:01 AM »

If he has downloaded URLSnooper and can't get it to work it is logical that he came here to aska question (however cryptic) since Mouser wrote the app and this is the only forum likely to offer support.

It seems reasonable that if he is trying to download a specific video or from a specific website that he gives the URL so people can see what he is trying to acheive. It he just wrote "I can't get URLsnooper to work" the first question people would ask is for the URL of the video he is trying to grab.

I have to say it is quite common to get requests about URLsnooper because it promises to help with downloading videos but since the app was originally conceived many websites have gone over to encapsulating video in Flash precisely to stop apps like URLsnooper from giving people download access to the video. Many users think URLsnooper will be the magic bullet but the fact is that it does not work on Flash based websites (or at least didn't - I haven't used it in a while now because it doesn't work with Flash video).

2366

UrlSnooper / Re: Download vids from crackle.com impossible?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 13, 2009, 05:27 PM »

What's wrong with the link - it is just a video blog from Penn of "Penn & Teller" - maybe someone wants to use URLsnooper to grab the video - though it looks to me as though it is encapsulated in Flash so URLsnooper is unlikely to help.

2367

Living Room / Re: a box arrives and out pops Baby Cody

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 13, 2009, 11:56 AM »

i've had a cardboard box sitting here for a few days - it arrived last week but i seemed to have forgotten about it - until today when i thought i could hear a feeble cry for help coming from inside the box. i gave the box a strong shake before opening it, well, you never know what could be inside - more feeble cries for help...

-nudone (July 13, 2009, 11:04 AM)

How cruel you are! After reporting you to the RSPCC I will email you my address so he knows where he is heading on the next leg of his journey

Have you got any plans for Cody outings?

2368

General Software Discussion / Re: Problems with HTML & Javascript.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 10, 2009, 07:24 AM »

See http://www.w3schools...jsref_ondblclick.asp

I would guess stick the code you want in a function definition and then call it in the div tag

to open a webpage from the double click use window.open() see http://www.w3schools...DOM/met_win_open.asp

2369

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2009, 03:21 PM »

Simpler solution is to install a virtual OS (there are loads of host options these days some free) and only test stuff in the virtual OS keeping your main OS clean of all the crap that accumulates.

2370

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2009, 05:21 PM »

I suspect all they really bought is the name. I can't see how they could begin to adapt TPB's business model into a legitimate commercial enterprise.

2371

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2009, 03:50 PM »

Im trying to understand how they can go legal.. Like, yeah maybe 2$ (Idk the actual price, but I'm just guessing) for an album is fine.  But if Adobe Photoshop (and other software) torrents exist, how can it be worth the companies time?  Why would Adobe want the small small cut of what TPB gets preferred to the large cut (pure profit) they get from their sale?

-Loki15 (July 02, 2009, 02:16 PM)

The other question to be answered is how are they going to vet all of the torrents (assuming they are going to keep it a torrent site)? Currently the website doesn't actually have any copies of the files available for download - are they really going to vet every single file that gets posted? If so are they going to be legally liable for any malware that is propogated via a commercial site - surely if they are a commercial entitiy they will have a duty of care to their customers?

2372

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2009, 05:37 PM »

And for the record, I find it very odd that many people is this thread seem to support TPB, whereas in other threads DC members always urge each other to support shareware developers by paying up. What's different?

-johnk (July 01, 2009, 05:16 PM)

The difference is that shareware developers believe in the 'try before you buy' principle whereas Hollywood and the music industry believe in 'make money and stuff the consumer'.

The whole business of paying artists for their work is totally bogus - the music industry has ceased to employ musicians or anyone with talent precisely because that can get talentless bimbos and himbos to perform like trained monkeys, pay them peanuts until the end of their shelf life (usually 2 weeks) and then screw massive amounts of money out idiots who are prepared to buy the crap.

Many reputable and talented musicians don't see fans as the big problem - they see the music industry as the big mproblem and is one of the reasons that many older bands are out on the road playing to packed out venues - that way they earn some money and give fans real pleasure.

Finally I used TPB to watch TV programs that I can't watch in the UK because they often don't get shown here but go straight to DVD. The net effect of that is that I have bought many DVDs that I otherwise wouldn't have purchased because I would have no way to 'try before you buy'. Similarly with some musicians I have discovered and having found I liked them went out and bought their CDs (preferably direct from them so they get some of the profit).

TPB isn't all bad and I know my experience of using is as a 'try before you buy' service isn't at all uncommon - so much so that many musicians actively encourage the distribution of their music as a marketing tool to generate gate and sales income.

2373

Living Room / Re: Baby Cody Plushie is born

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2009, 05:28 PM »

OK this is all very well but do we have an ETA for his trip to the UK?

2374

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2009, 07:47 AM »

Hopefully Mininova, ISOHunt etc. will write scripts to grab the tracker details before it dies and carry on the fight.

2375

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 29, 2009, 01:29 PM »

Whoa, apparently they "ran out" of discounted pre-sales in Japan!

http://www.engadget....s-sell-out-in-japan/

-Hirudin (June 29, 2009, 05:13 AM)

Do you get the impression it might be a marketting scam - only 3 copies available and they can say they sold out in less than 5 minutes ...