Recent Posts

2451

Living Room / Re: Britain gives go-ahead to test driverless cars on roads

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 11, 2015, 02:03 PM »

It could also produce some interesting instances of road rage.  Someone cuts off the car.

-MilesAhead (February 11, 2015, 11:45 AM)

Hay, can we get a robotic arm to automatically extend a middle finger any time the ABS is tripped for longer than 700ms??

-Stoic Joker (February 11, 2015, 01:43 PM)

I was thinking more along the lines of Phasers. If I'm in a good mood I just might mess up his tinted glass with a low power volley(equivalent of set to stun.)  But otherwise a destruct power setting may be in order.  This has the benefit the auto will be totally vaporized and I won't have to change lanes to "pass" the dude.

2452

Living Room / Re: License, registration, and insurance...or your cell phone

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 11, 2015, 01:59 PM »

I think we just might be on to something!

-Stoic Joker (February 11, 2015, 01:46 PM)

Not only the badge number verified.  Since it's a smart phone a picture of the cop should automatically download if it reports the badge number is genuine for that area/jurisdiction etc..

2453

Living Room / Re: Britain gives go-ahead to test driverless cars on roads

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 11, 2015, 11:45 AM »

Probably no worse or more risky than our current practice of allowing brain-dead humans to operate a motor vehicle. At least if the US driving scene is anything to go by. 

-40hz (February 11, 2015, 09:01 AM)

It could also produce some interesting instances of road rage.  Someone cuts off the car.  The car runs the offender off the road in retaliation.  Do they in-car-sir-ate the automaton?  The vehicle has to serve 5 years or 50,000 miles.. whichever comes first.

2454

Living Room / Re: License, registration, and insurance...or your cell phone

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 11, 2015, 11:40 AM »

Now what I want to see - for real public safety - is a mobile phone app that will scan and validate the cop's fingerprint (there are a lot of phony LEO cases in the news these days) to pass/fail prove they are indeed 'Duly Authorized' to be stopping people in the first place.

-Stoic Joker (February 11, 2015, 11:35 AM)

Maybe they should have "smart badges" that squawk the cop's badge number. By the time you can check the fingerprint he's close enough to grab you.  Like, you hit a broadcast button on your phone and the cop's badge texts you the badge number which you can Google before you pull over.

2455

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 10, 2015, 11:33 AM »

One Step Beyond

-40hz (February 10, 2015, 09:03 AM)

My favorite episode of OSB was the one where John Newland had a researcher who was investigating the effects of a special mushroom found in the rain forest.  The guy gives Newland a mushroom and hits him with a strobe light and if I remember rightly, a hypnotic wheel.  You could tell Newland was really flying high.  I guess the TV networks weren't uptight about it because they didn't know what it was back then.  And the researcher likely had a PHD.  

2456

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 10, 2015, 08:49 AM »

I also did the Twilight Zone

-Renegade (February 10, 2015, 05:41 AM)

I thought both Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents packed more punch in the 1/2 hour format.  Hitchcock is the only show I can think of where I actually want to watch the original commercials when watching the show.  He often had clever comments that wouldn't make sense without them.

2457

General Software Discussion / Re: ReRun 2.5 Beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 10, 2015, 05:29 AM »

It's working—I'm broken. Sorry, wasn't using it right.  

-cranioscopical (February 09, 2015, 04:47 PM)

I was thinking of adding exclusion lists as I mentioned, with perhaps a manual override.  So you could hotkey click on a program to force it into the button list.  I thought also it might be cool to be able to edit the working directory and args fields.

The other thing that bothers me is as I have it now you launch one thing and it closes.  That's because all the stuff is picked up during the Gui creation.  It should be able to stay open like a launch bar.  But if I do that I think I may want to make it smaller.  Maybe 24 pixel buttons.  Just kicking ideas around.  But since it works pretty well I should just put this one out for now.

I have to see what I want to do for a permanent web hosting solution.
But all that's in the future.  For now I can just submit it to Softpedia.  

Thanks for trying the program out.  

2458

General Software Discussion / Re: ReRun 2.5 Beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 09, 2015, 02:58 PM »

I just tested out the x64 version on Windows 7 Professional. It does detect both 32 and 64 bit programs, and there were no blank buttons between the others. So it was a success on my machine.  

-thancock20 (February 09, 2015, 02:46 PM)

Thank you very much for posting your findings.  

2459

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 09, 2015, 02:08 PM »

Copy Urls Expert

-silat (August 16, 2014, 07:40 AM)

I just tried this one.  It's great for making a file of Urls that will work with BrowserBunch.  Much neater than the keyboard macro I wrote.  I can create the Url set file in Firefox or CometBird, then use BrowserBunch if I should want to open it in Opera or Chromium.  

2460

General Software Discussion / Re: Url Pack 1.7.0.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 09, 2015, 08:01 AM »

The funny thing is I didn't try it out for the features.  But because it was another 32 bit FF derivative.  I wanted to see if I could get a fast FF that would scroll easily with HW accel. enabled.  So far it's working fine except for sites giving the "we don't support FF 11 anymore so upgrade" msg.  

Maybe I'll try Cyberfox 32 bit.

-MilesAhead (February 09, 2015, 07:26 AM)

I haven't heard of Cyberfox.

I'll try to look into it.

-TaoPhoenix (February 09, 2015, 07:51 AM)

I've been running Cyberfox 64 bit.  It keeps up to date with the FF current version.  The only real issue so far is the scrolling hangs unless you untick "use hw accel." in Options.

On CometBird I did find a user agent AddOn that fakes out Outlook.  Only thing is I have to set it every time it opens.  It won't remember to use Firefox 35.  So either way I have to do extra clicks.  

Edit:  I got Outlook and Gmail to quit complaining using about:config
Add string
general.useragent.override

and set it to a user agent string.  I'm using
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; rv:35.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0

for FF 35.0 in Windows.  I'm assuming NT 6.3 means Windows 8
The string I got both "35.0"s were  "36.0" but I changed 'em to "35.0"

Seems to work so far.  The advantage is it remembers it on restart.

2461

General Software Discussion / Re: Browser Hijackers

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 09, 2015, 07:32 AM »

One thing you may try to get more details is to use MozBackup or some other means of backing up a Firefox, then approve the AddOn install.  That should at least give some kind of name to search on.  I'm not sure how much damage a malicious FF AddOn can do so take suggestion with a grain of salt. 

2462

General Software Discussion / Re: CometBird

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 09, 2015, 07:26 AM »

The funny thing is I didn't try it out for the features.  But because it was another 32 bit FF derivative.  I wanted to see if I could get a fast FF that would scroll easily with HW accel. enabled.  So far it's working fine except for sites giving the "we don't support FF 11 anymore so upgrade" msg. 

Maybe I'll try Cyberfox 32 bit.

2463

General Software Discussion / ReRun 2.5.7.5

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 09, 2015, 06:02 AM »

Edit:  ReRun 2.5.7.5 is available on my new host
http://milesaheadsoftware.org/

Another bug fix.    I think I got it this time. 
Ok, but I really think I got it this time.   
I hope third time is a charm.  I think what happens is on shutdown if there is an error because autoit3 did not finish saving the file, then on startup, reading the file into an array and accessing from the end down to the first entry goes below zero.  In other words, there are not 3 lines in the file for each saved entry.  Now the program does a Mod(filelines, 3) check for a 0 remainder and the For loop bottoms out at 3 instead of 1.  This should prevent the possibility of accessing the array using a negative subscript.

I don't know why I didn't notice the loop ending at 1 earlier.  Only reason I can think of is it must have been a count from 1 to array length originally and I just changed it to count down, leaving the 1 as the lowest subscript in the loop.  The bright side is now it should just delete the data file if it is corrupt instead of trying to use it. 

2464

General Software Discussion / Re: Url Pack 1.3.2.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 07, 2015, 01:39 PM »

I use Cometbird

-TaoPhoenix (April 12, 2012, 02:51 PM)

Funny.  I just ran across it today.  So far the only "bad" thing is it won't accept some of the Firefox AddOns.  But it seems to run fine.  

Edit:  It figures.  I start using it just as the developers decide to dump it.  


http://www.cometforu...scontinued-jan-2015/

2465

Coding Snacks / Re: Update of NirSoft's ZipInstaller

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 07, 2015, 01:27 PM »

Anyone interested? 

-ashecorven (February 07, 2015, 01:19 PM)

I wouldn't mind having a "one click" tool that would unzip and make the shortcuts.  Shortcuts are one of those tasks that is tedious to do as a user.  But I agree there should be editable fields so the user can override the names/locations etc..

2466

General Software Discussion / Re: Browser Hijackers

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 06, 2015, 01:40 PM »

I

I'll just have to chip away at this,

-TaoPhoenix (February 05, 2015, 02:57 PM)

btw what OS version and bitness are you running?

2467

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox won't play videos unless I keep moving the mouse! Ugh!

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 06, 2015, 01:34 PM »

Doesn't Chrome use its own, built-in version of Flash instead of the one installed in Windows?

-Vurbal (February 05, 2015, 07:53 PM)

I think the old Opera versions do also.  If you install the x64 Opera 12.17 it's a good diagnostic tool.  Also it's fast.

http://www.opera.com...er=12.17&local=y

Edit: I'm running 12.14 x64 on Windows 8.0 x64.  I don't use it often.  But it seems to work fine from what I can see.

2468

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 06, 2015, 07:44 AM »

Best StackOverflow answer.  Ever.

http://stackoverflow...-self-contained-tags

 

-Edvard (February 05, 2015, 08:34 PM)

Oh my god... that was BEAUTIFUL~! EPIC~!

-Renegade (February 05, 2015, 09:12 PM)

That thread makes me think of this sig

"Some people, when confronted with a problem, think I know, I'll use regular expressions.
Now they have two problems."

- Jamie Zawinski

2469

General Software Discussion / Re: Program to open groups of programs.

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 06, 2015, 05:55 AM »

I have a group run utility with no Gui.  It simply uses an .ini file to list the main program and subprograms.  When you end the main program it offers to close the subprograms still running.  Also you should not put it under Program Files.  Windows Vista and later get progressively worse in this regard.  It doesn't like programs writing to those protected folders.  Anything with an .ini file in the same folder as the exe you should break it out to its own folder someplace.  I use C:\Utils as the root for all my small hotkey programs.

RunGroup

See the included Readme.txt for specifics.

Edit:  If you want to position the windows etc.. you can likely do it with WinSize2


Both are free.  btw ignore the stuff about domains in the readme.  Until I get another permanent setup on the web there's no sense updating all the Readme files. 

2470

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 06, 2015, 05:42 AM »

Ah, the good old days

-4wd (February 06, 2015, 05:32 AM)

Heh.  For some reason I hated TOL when it first aired.  I guess I was put off by the control tripper intro.    Later I appreciated the camp value of the low budget scifi.  It did have some good stories though.  I think I used to get bubble gum cards of something with TOL.  Or stickers.  I can't remember.

2471

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox based browsers don't scroll worth a damn!

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 05, 2015, 04:15 PM »

do you have 'use hardware acceleration when available' checked in 'options', 'general'?
I usually have to uncheck this to clean up scrolling in FF.

-jpfx (February 05, 2015, 03:29 PM)

Yes, thanks Now unchecked, will see if helps
it's in Options>Advanced>General - in case anyone else cant find it :-)

-tomos (February 05, 2015, 03:54 PM)

Trying it now.  Thanks. 

2472

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox based browsers don't scroll worth a damn!

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 05, 2015, 02:45 PM »

Okay, I've experienced this on my laptop (win 8.1) - but didnt know if it was related to a crappy touchpad, or dodgy on-board graphics or FF itself :-)
I think it's okay on my win 7 desktop - but have had lots of troubles with flash/video there (tbh I havent been keeping track, maybe I was having problems with flash/video with win 8 too).

PaleMoon seems to be behaving of late, but it has also broken session manager lately

-tomos (February 05, 2015, 02:41 PM)

Thanks for the info. 

2473

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Macrium Reflect 6 News

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 05, 2015, 02:13 PM »

I have looked at this program several times, because I would like to have the PRO version. However, even the standard version's normal price is HIGH, I think, and the PRO version incl taxes is $74

-Curt (February 05, 2015, 11:32 AM)

I think I paid for the Standard v. 4 to get the WinPE as I had that funky HD controller.  Also I could load the Windows driver for USB 3.0.  Back then the Free version did not provide WinPE if I recall correctly.  Take a look at EaseUS ToDo free version.  It has a pretty nice program.  I used it on 32 bit Win7 with no problems.  USB 3.0 support built into the Linux recue disc.

2474

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox won't play videos unless I keep moving the mouse! Ugh!

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 05, 2015, 02:07 PM »

Does anything on this page seem similar?

https://bugzilla.moz...ow_bug.cgi?id=912521

2475

General Software Discussion / Re: I've not been happy with Macrium Reflect Free, and perhaps their paid versions..

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 05, 2015, 11:06 AM »

Hi,

If you are backing up and restoring on one puter ...

And if you do it with multiple programs on multiple backup medium and have the appropriate rescue CD and the CD drive works (maybe USB is an alternate)

It would be hard to hose the system or even to have a fail on the partition restore.  No matter what you do e.g. to the c:\.  I think you would have to hose the master boot record, MBR, which may or may not be handled by the backup or a fix-MBR program.

-Steven Avery (February 05, 2015, 10:23 AM)

What I'm saying is that it is not always trivial to get to the position of having multiple backups with multiple products.  During times of transition, such as USB 3.0 coming on or various HD controllers, the backup products introduce support for the new hardware and often the support has bugs.  You don't know you have anything to rely on until you do that first backup and restore.

Another change that gave me headaches was the changes made by Vista and later to NTFS partitions.  I used Paragon Drive Backup in XP and it worked gangbusters.  But when I moved to Vista, it claimed to now support Vista NTFS partitions.  It seemed to.  But after making a backup capsule come to find out it slightly hosed the MBR to where the system would still boot, but the partition info was not quite right.  These kinds of issues limit the ability to use the shotgun approach.  Once you have a reliable backup that restores then you can experiment with others.  During periods of stable hardware across the majority of PC makers it's much easier.