Recent Posts

2451

N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY Thoughts from Developers?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 05, 2013, 12:38 PM »

So, what kinds of things do you think about for NANY?

-Renegade (January 03, 2013, 01:50 PM)

(see attachment in previous post)

-timns (January 04, 2013, 11:56 AM)

+1 - But I did think we were doing something Mayan this year in "honor" of the Fail-pocalypse.

2452

Living Room / Re: win7 + external HDD

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 04, 2013, 06:49 AM »

Does the machine react (installing USB device) to the drive being plugged in at all? I've seen several storage devices try to grab the same drive letter as a mapped drive, which causes both to try and show up under the same letter. If that's the case the disk management console will let you force it to an accessible drive letter.

2453

N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY Thoughts from Developers?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 03, 2013, 09:26 PM »

I have this problem with my time being soaked up out of the blue for reasons that I couldn't possibly have predicted, so, I'm really reluctant to jump in ahead of time and promise something.

-Renegade (January 03, 2013, 02:26 PM)

Same here. I actually wasn't even planning to participate this year, but the office project (that I did enter) showed up and I figured if I didn't do it on vacation I'd probably never get it done.

2454

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 03, 2013, 06:59 AM »

Strange actually the Windows 8 OOBE should stop at a list of WiFi networks and allow you to select and connect to one. I've actually been annoyed by it unnecessarily stopping there on some WiFi AIO machines that were already on active hardwired connections.

Had someone previously been fiddling with the machine causing the OOBE to not run?

2455

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 03, 2013, 06:48 AM »

I'm still trying to fathom the logic in skipping directly to a Start Button-less desktop just to have to go back to the thing you bypassed to get what you wanted. Are people really that enamored with their wallpaper?

Place shortcut to preferred desktop application(s) on Start Screen, Boot, Click/Touch, Done ... Why that so hard?

I should run down to the local tire store and pitch a fit because they have no steel banded wooden rims for my pickup...just to see if anyone there has enough sense to laugh at me.

-Stoic Joker (January 02, 2013, 06:59 AM)

 Guess that depends on if it's a 1929 Ford truck....  

-Tinman57 (January 02, 2013, 08:53 PM)

Touché

2456

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 03, 2013, 06:46 AM »

Also the Metro page doesn't support folders which are great for related shortcuts, quick links to blocks of documents and all sorts of things.

-Carol Haynes (January 03, 2013, 05:29 AM)

Any descent application will have a recently used files list which works well for that. I frequently rely on it for diagnosing client issues when the client can't remember what document was open or causing issue X.

2457

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 02, 2013, 03:15 PM »

@f0dder - Thank you. Precisely as you stated my (non touch) vanilla Win8 laptop wakes directly to the desktop where I left it every single time I grab it from where it naps by the end table next to my recliner. Given I've just been charging now and then when the battery gets low it hasn't been rebooted in months. So I'd almost forgotten the "evil" metro screen existed.

@Carol - TouchPads suck, I'll definitely give you that...as I totally hate them. But people keep buying the damn things, so (to work in the field) I gotta figure out how to use them. I'm getting better...but still recidivisticly resort to using the keyboard frequently.

2458

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 02, 2013, 12:06 PM »

But vilifying something for having the audacity to replace the steam engine is perfectly fine.

2459

Living Room / Re: Samsung Attacks Apple & Google

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 02, 2013, 11:58 AM »

Good for Samsung, Apple need a good savage beating to straighten up their attitude.

2460

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 02, 2013, 11:38 AM »

Why do you need the start menu? You can simply click the lower left corner, where the start button used to be, and you can type just as you would before. I don't know many people who navigated the menus rather than typing the entry name...At least users NOT on XP.

-Josh (January 02, 2013, 09:14 AM)

+10 - I haven't browsed the menu in years either. I always use the Win keys ... So Win, type, enter, use app. What changed exactly?

It's no wonder VCR's got such a bad rap for being hard to program...they didn't have start buttons. Maybe we should put start buttons on everything just so it magically becomes easy to use. Obviously life is too hard without a singular magical button that tells you where to begin. This paradigm must be preserved religiously, at all cost. I'm going to run down the street and have a Start Button tattooed on my ass ... That way - because some other idiotic tattoo might run the risk of being less bloody obvious - people will always know just where to start kicking me to death for being stupid enough to have a Start Button tattooed on my ass.

*Sigh* ...I'm thinking about going to live in a cave for a few years, and wait for the world to change.

2461

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 02, 2013, 06:59 AM »

I'm still trying to fathom the logic in skipping directly to a Start Button-less desktop just to have to go back to the thing you bypassed to get what you wanted. Are people really that enamored with their wallpaper?

Place shortcut to preferred desktop application(s) on Start Screen, Boot, Click/Touch, Done ... Why that so hard?

I should run down to the local tire store and pitch a fit because they have no steel banded wooden rims for my pickup...just to see if anyone there has enough sense to laugh at me.

2462

N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013: Coders have until jan 1,2013 (forum time aka CST) to post releases

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 01, 2013, 01:46 PM »

This is kind of one of the reasons that I tend to just "Submit" an application rather than try to promise one... I'm always scared that something will suck up my time and stop me from releasing, and I'll end up with vapourware, and very embarassed.

-Renegade (January 01, 2013, 09:43 AM)

I feel obligated to +1 this as that is precisely what I did ths trip.

2463

General Software Discussion / Re: Good coding conventions - Discussion

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 31, 2012, 12:35 PM »

FWIW - in most network situations I avoid using both those characters.

-40hz (December 31, 2012, 11:04 AM)

+1 

2464

Living Room / Re: In search of ... hardware mavens for a [problematic] wi-fi TV installation

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 31, 2012, 08:53 AM »

How far away from the house/WiFi router is the garage, and how strong is the siginal if you take a laptop into the garage now?

Have you considered using a powerline network between the house and garage? The TV could then be ethernet, and a WAP could be added for the laptops.

2465

General Software Discussion / Re: Good coding conventions - Discussion

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 30, 2012, 10:42 PM »

In Visual Studio with C# you can add comment documentation above a method very easily by using 3 slashes:

///

-Renegade (December 30, 2012, 09:48 PM)

That depends on which version of VS you're using. For some reason three slashes will break your code in VS2005 (yes I still use it frequently). But I (am nutz and still) primarily work in pure Win32 API C++

-Stoic Joker (December 30, 2012, 09:57 PM)

Maybe it's the Win32 API C++?  Because the /// convention works for me in VS2005, and I've been using them religiously.  I didn't pay attention to the C++ code- it's mostly get in and get out without making a mess.

-wraith808 (December 30, 2012, 10:30 PM)

Now that is a good possibility, as I almost never use C#. I had one C# project that I was doing for the office but it hit the wall early last spring due to "Scope Conflicts" (e.g. Nobody could/would nail down exactly WTF'ing thing was supposed to do).

2466

General Software Discussion / Re: Good coding conventions - Discussion

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 30, 2012, 09:57 PM »

In Visual Studio with C# you can add comment documentation above a method very easily by using 3 slashes:

///

-Renegade (December 30, 2012, 09:48 PM)

That depends on which version of VS you're using. For some reason three slashes will break your code in VS2005 (yes I still use it frequently). But I (am nutz and still) primarily work in pure Win32 API C++

2467

General Software Discussion / Re: Good coding conventions - Discussion

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 30, 2012, 09:40 PM »

My coding style is an ecclectic mixture of thing I picked up along the way. This is a side effect of being self taught, as thre was no one to force me to do things their "correct" way. However one thing that has proven handy is that in addition to commenting I always put a header comment above each function stating (in short) what it is/does.

This header is outlined with some manner of (basically lamed assed) ASCII "art" so for example:

Code: C [Select]

1. //===========================================================
2. //--0000---------+++--> This Rewards Good Input With a Cookies:
3. BOOL isInputGood(int iPut) { //--0000----------------+++-->
4.     if(iPut) GiveCookie = TRUE;
5.    else GiveCookie = FALSE;

This allows me to do 2 things:

• Quickly skim through collapsed code looking at the right edge of the editor for the function I'm trying to find later.
• Know instantly at a glance how old the code/function as I periodically change the style of the header outline.

2468

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Improve precision of Drag & Drop

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 30, 2012, 01:17 PM »

Random comment to say I don't like trackballs. : )

-TaoPhoenix (December 30, 2012, 01:14 PM)

Me either, but for some people they are the ideal solution.

2469

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Improve precision of Drag & Drop

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 30, 2012, 11:24 AM »

Unfortunately I'm not intimately familiar with these features as I've never actually used them. I just happened to know about them as they periodically come up when troubleshooting client issues. Several of the ease of access features can be enabled with a hotkey. So somebody pauses while typing and inadvertently holds the right magic button down to long, the feature gets enabled, and the fun ensues.


The Trackball does sound like a good option to me too.

2470

Living Room / Re: New Windows install - How should I organize SSD, HDD, user folders?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 30, 2012, 09:28 AM »

Doesn't Windows detect when an UPS is connected, (via USB) ?

And if so, might there not be an setting you can change under Advanced Power Options to determine what action to take rather than utilise APCs limited software.

-4wd (December 29, 2012, 06:56 PM)

Sure does, that's all I've ever used. The bundled UPS software is usually to bloated and ugly to look at, so I've always just let windows handle the UPS's time to sleep/shutdown battery level events.

2471

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Improve precision of Drag & Drop

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 28, 2012, 09:16 AM »

Have you tried using either the ClickLock or Mouse Keys features that are built into Windows? The combination should handle much of what your asking for.

The shortcut to the Windows Ease of Access Center is Win + U. Mouse Keys can be accessed directly from there and ClickLock is on the Activities tabe of the Mouse Properties dialog (which is accessable from the Ease of Access Center).

IIRC XP has both of these options available as well.

2472

N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013: Release - PRNter Widget

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 28, 2012, 08:48 AM »

If I did alot of repairs on printers, I would be interested.

-techidave (December 27, 2012, 07:07 PM)

+1

But our tech staff ain't gonna like it if I use this tool on our networked printers

-Ath (December 28, 2012, 03:29 AM)

Yes, but like any tool it depends on what you do with it. Honestly I'm not really sure how common/popular (stored print job) .PRN files are. But if one had a complex-ish print job with lots of requirements that had to be configured frequently. Then doing it once and printing it to a reusable Print job file would be a handy and acceptable (e.g. no flaming admin heads) usage of the program. Granted outside of testing done on/for pWidget I've never done it before ...(*Shrug*)... But Google seems to imply that it is a popular practice.

Actually the primary purpose for pWidget was to interact with/make adjustments to locally attached (USB/Parallel port) printers. Which is why it uses the installed driver to access the device. So pWidget will work on any (laser) printer either locally attached or network accessible if there is a (PCL) driver installed for it. This was/is Page Countster's weakness as it can only access networked printers via their IP. Now parallel printers can be accessed via LPTx to send a script ... But USB (Unilaterally pSychotic Bus) leave everyone stranded with a "virtual port" that can only be directly access by virtually nothing. So this brilliant technology now requires that:

• The tech to track down someone from IT (which can take up to an hour because IT people tend to be busy, and hate printers).
• Administrative rights to create a (temporary) printer share on the workstation (highly frowned upon by IT folks on large networks).
• Someone to remember how to capture a printer port so it behaves like a LPTx hard port.
• Someone to properly unwind said configuration after the fact so errors and eyebrows don't get raised going forward.

This can be an agonizing amount of time for what should be a 2 second operation. We've actually had techs need to reschedule a second visit on many occasions just to resolve these type of issues.

2473

N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013: Release - PRNter Widget

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 27, 2012, 07:45 PM »

Not a flop just a smaller audience of potential users

-mouser (December 27, 2012, 06:56 PM)

I know - That's kinda what I meant - It's an excruciatingly specialized/narrow focus utility. 

2474

N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013: Release - PRNter Widget

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 27, 2012, 06:16 PM »

Guess this one's a flop.

2475

General Software Discussion / Re: Video rant against Windows 8

« Last post by Stoic Joker on December 21, 2012, 10:03 PM »

I just came across this in a newsletter today.  Thought it would bring a little light to the subject....or not.  lol

Consumer Reports makes case for Windows 7 PCs
Windows 7 may be the better choice as a PC operating system on new systems than the just-released Windows 8, Consumer Reports magazine said this week.

http://www.pcworld.c...r-windows-7-pcs.html

-Tinman57 (December 21, 2012, 08:29 PM)

Comments for the article were rather a rather sad lot of "experts" recommending that secure boot be turned off/removed/banned from existence. I'm sure malware authors world wide are giggling their asses off watching that bit of (mindblowingly stupid) advice spread across the land. As if it really that hard to switch the boot order for a diagnostic boot.

Anybody remember the (good old...) Win9x days when people called in constantly with "unbootable systems" because they left a blank CD in the drive? ...Bout the 3rd time you got that call from client X you switched the boot order on their machine to skip the optical drive...didn't ya? Now the diagnostic CD you put in won't boot... What's changed exactly?

Another favorite of mine is to reflexively encrypt everything. Recovery disk time ... Oh wait the drive is encrypted so it's pointless to boot externally as the data will still be unaccessible. Which means we need a boot menu why? 

A year or so ago there was panic in the industry about a new breed of virus that could actually infect the hardware. People screamed about wanting the hardware protected properly (...the new version of properly that is).

Well now they have exactly that.

And they're pissed off about it.

That's like wanting a glass of water, getting a drink, and then protesting the merciless killing of your thirst.