Recent Posts

251

Living Room / Re: What, if anything, has IMPROVED for you as a result of the pandemic?

« Last post by Shades on October 20, 2020, 12:52 AM »

My boss told all of us to work from home whenever possible. His whole life he has been struggling with asthma. Even had to stay home for a whole school year because of having so much trouble he could barely be around other people and whatever remnants of pets the other children took from home into class. That was not a happy time for him and doesn't want to gamble his own health to have "first class" citizens around him the whole day. He created a office next to his home, so he can spend his time between work and family or dive in his swimming pool, whenever he feels like doing these things.

So...a strange notion to have. Then again, whatever floats your boat.


Back to the subject of the OP:
Freedom of working in slightly more than underwear has actually been a blessing. Spring started here below the equator and it is already very hot here. Between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius at night. Too lazy to translate that into Fahrenheit right now. Summer will be like hell here this year. Shedding clothes helps to cope with that heat.

A lack of commute also provides a bit of time to learn about things outside of work, yet work-related. Found those 2 extra hours a day a nice period to spend on that, if I'm honest.

252

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

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2020, 12:25 AM »

Google is my friend:
Open a CMD interface (as administrator), then type:
powercfg -energy -trace
After waiting a minute you should now see an overview of processes that make use of the Windows energy saving functionality. That should give you insight into the problematic software.

You can also open the Windows Event Viewer and filter out all logging except for 'Event Source: Kernel-Power' and 'event ID: 62'. Another way to find out what might cause your problem.

If you feel this type of Windows interface is not your thing, let someone who knows take a look at the events that took place on your laptop.

253

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

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2020, 12:09 AM »

Likely a piece of software is preventing the screen from your laptop to turn off.

Which software? You could find out by using very short times to turn your screen off and use a process of elimination to find the software causing your problem. Software to watch videos (like Windows media player, PotPlayer, VideoLan etc.) prevent Windows from turning off the screen.

Do you, for example, have software running in the background that moves the mouse. Even though you might not see a mouse cursor on your screen, that does not mean your mouse is not moving by software running in the background. Moving the mouse 1 pixel (at regular short intervals) is already enough to not turn off your screen.

There are more ways to prevent a screen from turning off. If finding the problematic software is too much of a hassle for you, you could consider using a tool to turn off your screen manually. Such software can help you out with the process of elimination, so it is likely a good idea to go out and find/download/install such software. There are quite some freeware tools that can turn off your screen by the touch of a button you configure.

There is also a possibility that there is a hardware device in your laptop that has conflicting power saving settings configured. For that you must open the Windows Device Manager, right-click on devices you see to open its properties. A new screen opens where some (but not all) devices have a tab 'Power Management' (or whatever it is called in Windows using the Spanish language). You could disable this functionality for each available device and see if that fixes your problem. Or at least disable the function 'allow this device to wake up Windows' or whatever it is called in a Spanish Windows.

Personally, I don't know of any software that can pinpoint exactly which (background) process is preventing Windows to turn off the screen, so the process of elimination is the only way out of this dilemma. In my mind at least.

Also, something that can also not be ruled out, is there someone with (remote) access to your laptop? If that is true, there is the possibility that this or these persons have accessed your laptop in your absence. I assume you are the only one with access to your laptop and that you don't allow (remote) access to your laptop by anyone. Assuming too much leads to all kinds of problems, so I tend to not do that too much and ask for as much info beforehand.

Something not possible with all of your previous questions on this forum.

254

Living Room / Re: Slightly warm computer killing my internet speeds...I have no idea why.

« Last post by Shades on October 06, 2020, 04:18 PM »

Remove dust from every computing device. Laptops are famous for collecting lots of dust that is not visible on the outside.
Pets and carpet? You have dust issues in your computer equipment. And don't forget shed human skin.
Use a laptop in bed? You have serious dust issues in your computer equipment. Really, the worst place to use a laptop is in bed.

In my place of employment there is a tile floor, desktops and no pets. Yet, every 6 months I take out servers and desktops and remove dust. And I'm still amazed by the amount of dust being sucked up by these computers. You clean your computers less frequently? You have dust issues in your computer equipment.

Have a non-tech partner that (compulsively) cleans? You have dust issues in your computer equipment.

Any mix of scenarios described here apply to you/your environment? You have serious dust issues in your computer equipment.

Once you eliminate your dust issues, you can look further. Especially older electronics used to be sensitive for changes in environment. I have worked in a company with an electronics lab containing an old 286 computer. If there was a storm front within 10 kilometers of that computer, it would fail. Most reliable weather computer I have ever seen...

Nowadays electronics do not have that many issues with changes in barometric pressure changes, humidity levels and/or temperatures. But it is still possible you have an electronically "worn" unit. When the room temperature goes beyond a certain level, do you turn on AC? There is a chance that this unit drops the power in your house just below a certain threshold that makes your computer environment behave as it does.

There are lots of weird scenarios to think of. But always go for dust elimination first. Electronics attract dust and lots of it. Even if you think you have a very clean environment, do that dust check. 

255

General Software Discussion / Re: Not CPU, not GPU, but …DPU?

« Last post by Shades on October 05, 2020, 08:36 PM »

ARM processors can be as complicated or as simple as you want them to make. x86/x64 Processors are complicated, period. You can see ARM architecture as a specialist, while the x86/x64 architecture is more of a generalist.

For both there is a big playing field. However, in data-centers with lots of customers that pay for computing time/resources, it is handy to have the right amount of servers active at any given moment. Energy and cooling costs are quite high. So if a server in a rack can easily be turned on/off/standby with the varying demands, that helps a lot. Doing this with x86/x64 is harder than with ARM. Practically all brands/models of smartphones come with ARM, not x86/x64, because of this.

The ARM-based DPU mentioned in the video are now so fast and powerful, that these can host a hypervisor (a requirement for virtual machines) on itself, making it even easier to activate/de-activate servers as needed at any given moment. Apparently there are already DPUs with 200Gbit/sec network transfer speeds (200 times faster than the average home network). That makes it viable as network storage. Couple that with nVME drives and you will hardly notice a difference between local and network storage anymore.

Network storage boxes can be simpler (not necessarily cheaper) and very fast with an ARM chip that is designed for that particular purpose. A generalist CPU that could match the ARM chip would be expensive to purchase and run.

Linux is already available for the ARM architecture and even Microsoft is busy with preparing Windows to run on ARM (WinRT was their most recent (failed) attempt) and Apple will finish the transition to the ARM architecture (all their hardware and software) within 2 years. That is their plan anyway. Generalist chips are nice for desktops that have many different use-cases. But with everything moving to "the Cloud", specialist hardware in data-centers (and much simpler hardware with the customer) is far more efficient. If only for the reduction in energy-consumption alone.



Note:
As I understood it, all currently available renewable energy sources on this planet do not produce enough energy (over a 24-hour period) to keep the internet and all it's data-centers on this planet running (over a 24-hour period). Not that renewable energy sources produce a little amount of energy, the internet as a whole and it's data-centers consume much more energy than you expect. Streaming video is very costly factor. Not directly in the electricity bill of a consumer, but the hardware needed to keep up with customers 1080p/4k/8k video demands 24 hours a day needs lots of energy.

Whatever can be gained in energy efficiency counts for a lot. And yes, producing a movie DVD (including case, booklet, print, transport to different continent etc.) is cheaper energy wise, than having it online available 24-hours a day. How wrong or illogical it may sound, the convenience granted by the current internet infrastructure is far more problematic than most people realize. 

256

General Software Discussion / Re: Not CPU, not GPU, but …DPU?

« Last post by Shades on October 05, 2020, 11:13 AM »

These DPUs will be the nail in the coffin of x86/x64 processors in server land. Especially in data-centers, which have scaling capacity.

Very brief summary for those that did not see the video:
A DPU acts like a small computer, heavily optimized for processing speed and networking, put onto a PCI-E card. Conceptually, they are not that different than these devices.

But because of extensive hardware optimizations, these DPU's are vastly more powerful than the example I linked to.

Thanks for the video. 

257

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: Incipitor

« Last post by Shades on October 03, 2020, 06:13 PM »

One of the uses I find for it is that I like to install lots of programs that don't have installers.  I use Incipitor to add them to my Start Menu.

-BGM (October 03, 2020, 04:00 PM)

Sounds like another portable application enthusiast... 

Your idea sounds interesting enough to me.

258

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Shades on September 29, 2020, 11:07 PM »

Good seeing you and some of the Vieille Garde regulars again. It’s been far too long. I definitely missed the civility and high level of discourse that characterizes DC’s forum. This place is like an oasis of civilization compared to some of the online circles I’ve (more of necessity than choice) been moving in lately. It’s refreshing.

-40hz (September 29, 2020, 11:49 AM)

Should these current posts from 40hz not be transferred to the thread for hearing from members that haven't been active when DC celebrated being online for 10 years? While 40hz may not have been "away" for that long, it does feel that way sometimes. 

259

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: HardDrive-BUS-O-Meter

« Last post by Shades on September 28, 2020, 09:46 AM »

Then you better take a look at this:
https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf

It collects and generates metrics. In and of itself it doesn't do that much, but you can add already available plugins to collect the metric you need, or write your own.

Having seen reports you can generate with it, it is very interesting. Not sure it does tray notification though.

Then there is also the built-into Windows itself Resource Monitor. You can select the resource you wish to monitor, and there is a tray notifier.
DiskMon from SysInternals might prove useful too. Just as Process Monitor, also from SysInternals. This tool shows you resource usage of processes (duh), including CPU, RAM, disk I/O, network I/O, handles etc. Process Monitor can activate a tray notifier as well

All of the tools mentioned here are freeware.

260

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)

« Last post by Shades on September 23, 2020, 07:56 AM »

Don't know which weather service provides your other temperature read-out, but the one in sWeather uses Yahoo! (and its affiliated weather service).

With such different read-outs, it is safe to assume these are different. Which implies that they process weather data differently. Then there is difference in available data. Yahoo! is likely using weather satellites that keep track of weather in the US and rely on data from other weather agencies that cover different regions on the globe.

Is the discrepancy between read-out too large for comfort? Yes it is. But explainable, once you don't want to know about temperature read-outs in the US. AccuWeather is what my phone uses here in South-America, where I live. I found that to be a much more reliable source than Yahoo!, but AccuWeather charges quite some money to provide data through their API. Yahoo! doesn't. As sWeather is provided to you at no cost, you can't expect the author to pay for API access to one (or more, for averaging read-outs) weather service.

As far as I know, sWeather had to change to Yahoo!, because other weather services were charging too much or put limitations on API callls, which would make sWeather unreliable for everyone. Now it can be unreliable for people outside of the US, because of Yahoo!'s sub-par quality of weather data outside the US. And as the US is the main "market" for sWeather, I can understand and appreciate the choice for Yahoo! as weather data provider.

Besides all this, there is also the matter of weather satellites. Most of these were shot into orbit 15 to 20 years ago. Of those, many are starting to wear out, but there are not enough new satellites being made to replace whatever capacity is already there. Weather data quality is becoming more of an issue each new day. Weather data algorithms have gotten better since then, so that makes up a bit for loss of measuring devices. 

Lots of words to explain that what the weather data you get from Yahoo! is nothing more than "best effort" when asking for temperature read-outs outside the US.

261

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple version of a folder lock utility that would require a password for access

« Last post by Shades on September 20, 2020, 01:29 AM »

At work I have a dedicated Linux box for NextCloud. But relatively often need a new Linux based VM's there. And those are pretty quick to setup from scratch.

Even on my old Windows computer at home, it is still pretty fast to setup a Linux VM. Booting and shutting down VMs goes faster than bare metal. Even when those are stored on a spinning rust drive. I have to add that I always create the virtual drive for the VM in full at the beginning, instead of dynamically allocate storage space when the virtual drive needs it. That results in large continuous blocks of data, something the NTFS filesystem from the host computer handles better, making the VM run smoother/nippier. Also, I am comfortable running Linux without a GUI. No overhead from a GUI makes a Linux VM pretty fast to install and afterwards booting the VM takes about 10 to 15 seconds. Within the Ubuntu Server edition installation procedure, you will be asked the purpose for the Linux VM you are about to create. Choose 'LAMPP' (it installs the Apache webserver, PHP and MySQL. And those are the requirements for NextCloud. 

The NextCloud installation works just fine without a GUI and when done, you'll have a web-interface for managing NextCloud. If the VM is needed for longer periods, then I check the DHCP server on the router to see the current network lease of the new VM and add it to the appropriate list of computers (computers are allocated different amounts of bandwidth, depending on the list it is added to). By now, a VM doesn't even have to negotiate network settings anymore during boot, no matter on which LAN computer it resides. Shaves off 0.5 to 1 second of (re)booting and as a bonus its IP address remains the same throughout the whole LAN.

At this point the VM only needs to start, NextCloud will be available through a browser and/or smartphone app (if you installed that on your phone). The people behind NextCloud even made client software for Windows and Mac. But I prefer the simplicity of a small, portable tool (Windows-only) called: CarotDAV. But drag-'n'-drop files on the web-interface works just as well.

You will need to do extra things if you wish the Linux VM to become part of a Windows AD environment, as SuperboyAC is doing. But you can skip that if you just run a standard Windows Work group in your network, then you can use any computer/tablet/phone in your LAN to continue configuring NextCloud using the web-interface. While the included functionality of NextCloud will already be pleasant surprise, you will lose a lot more time configuring and expanding it to your liking than on creating the VM, downloading and installation of Linux and installing NextCloud itself.

Now, I made my instance publicly available, so I can use it for work stuff. But that is not a necessity for home use. A nice to have? Sure, but you'll need a static IP address on your home address or at your host (if your NextCloud instance runs at a cloud provider).

Iirc, you can set the phone app to transfer/sync data from phone to NextCloud only when connected with WiFi, which is what most people do when they bring their phone/tablet into their home. Data synchronization should not be a problem in whatever kind of setup your NextCloud instance runs.


Follow the installation instructions of NextCloud on their website and you are   

262

Post New Requests Here / Re: Command-Line Shooter

« Last post by Shades on September 16, 2020, 11:26 AM »

Then you must hope that everything you wish to execute this way is correctly formatted. If not, it messes up the ability of shooter.exe to finish completing the set of (single line) command.

If there are 300+ single line batch commands to execute...there has to be some logic behind them. Because if not, it will become a mess. Maybe not today, but in the near future it will.

If there are 300+ single line batch commands to execute...when is the optimum time to execute these? If based on certain conditions, it won't be easy. In fact, you'll need a separate interpreter for the conditions as well. Not only shooter.exe, but also ammobox.exe. And by that time you are creating software akin to AHK or AutoIt. While KodeZwerg might like to create AHKodeZwerg or something similar, nkormanik is too hung up on using batch scripts for anything.

If there are 300+ single line batch commands to execute...nkormanik should store these as snippets instead and create simple batch scripts that CALL the appropriate snippet at the optimum time. Or start to learn about PowerShell, which is much better equipped to handle his request than the command.com interpreter.
 

263

Coding Snacks / Re: Internet wifi utility

« Last post by Shades on September 16, 2020, 11:03 AM »

The network tray icon is not really a good indicator anymore. Microsoft insists on only checking against their own servers to confirm your (wired) internet connection is OK or not. The amount of times I have seen that icon go from one state to the other, for example, while watching Youtube videos (without a glitch)...makes it unreliable.

Of course, there is some logic behind that connection state verification. And you might find the logic compelling. For me, the usefulness of that icon has diminished significantly. It used to be that the icon would flash whenever internet traffic was flowing. But that was removed in Vista/Windows 7. And with Windows 10 it indicates your network settings are incorrect when it cannot connect to Microsoft servers.

In Contro's case, the error message complains about a certificate mismatch. You are visiting a website that uses an incorrect certificate. There is a difference between the (domain) name of the web-site and the (domain) name configured in the certificate that this website uses. An error that is not related to being connected to the internet. The required certificates for such a check are available locally.

This is an error that appears to be generated by a form that Contro is using (to fill in some data, I assume). And such an error on a public WiFi hotspot is a very bad thing. Public WiFi should not used whenever you wish to transmit any important data, such as credit card numbers, your personal registration numbers that your government has coupled to your name, identification numbers of your official documents etc. Public WiFi cannot be trusted in any circumstance. The error you see in the screenshots is your computer warning you about doing something really dumb and potentially very costly (both financially and time-consuming).

Stop doing what you are doing when you see that error, especially on a public WiFi hotspot. If you are not on a public hotspot, you should also stop what you are doing and inform the site owner about this error. Only continue when they tell you it is fixed.

Using certificates is a good way to protect data being transferred over insecure lines, such as the internet. But only when those are properly applied.

   

264

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple version of a folder lock utility that would require a password for access

« Last post by Shades on September 14, 2020, 05:40 PM »

Incl. downloading the Linux distro, the NextCloud software, creating the VM and installing NextCloud...that should take about an hour on a Linux computer. Finding out what it does, how to implement the features it has by default, what additions you want and configuring, that took me longer.

Think I spent an hour on getting my spare computer ready for Nextcloud. Usually that process is smoother in a VM than bare metal.
A Windows domain should be able to add a Linux computer into its ranks.

265

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple version of a folder lock utility that would require a password for access

« Last post by Shades on September 14, 2020, 08:38 AM »

WebDAV is functionality, built into the HTTP protocol, to create a web-drive. This web drive is in essence the same as GoogleDrive or OneDrive or DropBox etc. etc.
All web-server support this. Have used it myself in the most basic form with the Apache web-server software and that worked well. Added a subdomain to my DNS server behind my static IP and could make a folder structure on the webserver, giving different users access to 1 of those folders each. Password protect it etc.

Does not require you to fiddle with opening up ports on a firewall. The amount of available resources on the web-server you kit out with WebDAV will make the experience. Now if you have a web-server running (either locally in your own network and/or on your registered domain on the internet, I would suggest to install NextCloud. This is a really nice and extensive way to add loads and loads of extra functionality to your server running WebDAV. It is open source and free to install/use. It has even clients for Android and iOS, so you can store/retrieve photos and files from and to your phone(s)/tablet(s), just like GoogleDrive, OneDrive, etc.

Extras being added to your WebDAV server are: (video)chat, OnlyOffice (akin Office 365 online), calendars, internet radio, extensive user access control, file and/or folder sharing, drive quotas and so much more. And you provide all of that on a server you control and/or host yourself. All of the Cloud's goodness, but on your own server.

Whether you see it as an advantage or not is up to you, but you must use a Linux-based web-server, if you plan to deploy NextCloud as the back-end on your WebDAV server. For myself and many here at this forum, that won't be any issue at all. It runs just fine in a Virtual Machine or old computer you still had lying around in a corner. Any Linux distribution will do. Personally, I use Ubuntu Server LTS v20.04 on an old computer based on the Core Duo (dual core) Intel processor with a whopping 2 GByte of RAM. Which is great for a family of 4 (active) persons or less. If you have something with a bit more resources available, it won't be a problem to support 8 persons with NextCloud.

266

General Software Discussion / Re: Blue Light filter programs

« Last post by Shades on September 13, 2020, 05:30 PM »

https://www.dcmember.../download/dimscreen/

-panzer (September 13, 2020, 12:46 AM)

Dim Screen?  I use a Smart TV as computer monitor, would that not turn into just a TV?   

267

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

« Last post by Shades on September 06, 2020, 05:08 PM »

What you appear to wish for is a 'scraper' or 'site-scraper'.

While there are enough legitimate use-cases for such software, this kind of software is also used for nefarious purposes (hence no links in my post).

268

Coding Snacks / Re: ControlZ x times

« Last post by Shades on September 06, 2020, 03:17 PM »

The versioning built into Microsoft Office....it isn't that useful. Not after you have experienced what real versioning functionality (backed by a decent versioning software like Git, Mercurial, SVN or even the venerable CVS and RCS) can do. Especially with text-based file formats (like .txt, .adoc, .md, .php, .c, .bat etc.) this works amazingly, once you get your head around the workflows such systems demand. However, for binary blob file formats (like .docx, .xlsx, .pdf, .png, .jpg etc.) such software is barely usable.

Still, Ath is completely right in stating that such functionality is major overkill for simple Undo's (Control + Z).

Yet the text

Do and undone with flexibility is better because we don't know how many keystrokes control+z are necessary until reach the target...

indicates to me that Contro might actually be in the market for a full versioning system. Git is free to download for Windows, Linux and Mac. And there are many free and/or open source Git clients available. Fork, GitExtensions, TortoiseGit etc. allow you to work much easier with the Git versioning system. You could even implement a web-interface for Git. One the more (in)famous ones is GitLab (Linux only!). Gitea is simpler to setup and maintain. It is also much more resource-friendly when compared with the GitLab software.

All of the above does require a good read of the installation instructions and Git clients come with their own manuals as things can get complicated quickly. A good grasp of concepts is essential before embarking on this route. Yet, if you mainly work with binary blob file formats, setting up a versioning system will be almost for nought anyway. But, as Contro mentioned in his post, he was working with PsPad, which is an editor for text-based file formats, so going for a Git setup might prove useful.

Git clients usually have a differential viewer built into them. So it is pretty easy to see the which file is needed to step back to. And if you are not satisfied with those differential viewers, you can get better ones for free as well. WinMerge would be one of the options. Git clients are familiar with this one and send the content you wish to review directly to that software without human interaction. Software like WinMerge also have more/better features for editing and marking differences between files. 

269

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I connect an XP rig with a Win10 machine?

« Last post by Shades on September 05, 2020, 04:04 PM »

1. - Hardcode IP addresses on both computers.
2. - SMB support. This you adjusted already.
3. - Disable any type of encryption between them. Windows XP only supports a very low number encryption as maximum. Lower than Windows 10 will go with its encryption. So, better disable this for as long as you need to transfer stuff and then drop the XP machine all together or use it for Linux. From memory, XP supports 56-bit encryption max, while Windows 10 won't go below 128-bit encryption.



Hardcode IP addresses:
Win10                    XP
192.168.1.10         192.168.1.11  (IP address)
255.255.255.0       255.255.255.0 (Netmask)
192.168.1.10         192.168.1.11 (Gateway. Optional, because machines are not being used to access the internet)
192.168.1.10         192.168.1.11 (Primary DNS. Optional, because machines are not being used to access the internet)
192.168.1.1           192.168.1.1   (Secondary DNS. Optional, because machines are not being used to access the internet)

Disabling encryption:
http://woshub.com/tr...cryption-in-smb-3-0/

270

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« Last post by Shades on August 20, 2020, 07:16 PM »

To be honest, Panzer saves me time looking for software that peeks my interest. Whether Panzer uses this software is of much lesser concern to me.

On the other hand, I do see the point of mentioning only software that is actually used by the person recommending it. That would be where the 'useful'' in the title of the thread comes into play.

As it stands though, I do appreciate Panzer's efforts.

Regarding Twingate:
Sounds to me they dress up the creation of TCP tunnels (and their reverse tunnels). And those are even easier to setup with AnyDesk. Twingate seems to act as the mitigation party between creating a connection between computers in different networks. Twingate has a nice story, Anydesk barely explains about their tunneling capabilities. If you need such things, you are already aware about the concept and/or tools. AnyDesk doesn't spin a story about it and seems to be trustworthy enough. Twingate I don't know.

Also, I have been using the TCP tunneling features from AnyDesk for 3 months now and I'm pleasantly surprised. AnyDesk comes as both freeware/commercially licensed and I have been using their free version. At times it isn't as stable as one would like, but when you pay for the software, I believe you are using their properly monitored servers instead of their free, first come, first serve servers.

You'll need to install Anydesk on your own system and the one you wish to control. Each system will get a specific Anydesk address, but you can create a more meaningful alias on either computer if you so desire. once that is done, you create a (password protected) connection between the computers. Anydesk will enable you to actually log into the remote computer using RDP if the remote computer is a Windows machine. For TCP tunneling that is not necessary. Only the connection between the computers has to be up.

In the main menu there is a menu option with a lightning logo. There you'll find the tunneling feature. Simply fill in the name/service (including port number) you wish to access in the 'Tunnel' section, then use the name "localhost" and the same unique port number in the 'Reverse tunnel' section. Hit the save button and you are done. You can create as much tunnels as you like, but every tunnel must use an unique port number. I have been using these tunnels to access web services I run in the remote location with my local browser, mail with my local client and database management (PostgreSQL and Oracle) was not problem at all.

The above may sound like a lot of steps, but if you did it once, you'll see how simple it is. AnyDesk is available for all major operating systems, including Android and iOS.

Perhaps I paint a too simple picture regarding Twingate and their setup, but as alternative AnyDesk has worked out great so far already, even on their free plan, so personally I'm not that inclined to look much further. In case you deem the AnyDesk solution to lack in security, you can use a tool like Apache Guacamole to limit access to remote (Windows/Linux/Mac) machines by simply using a HTML5 compliant browser. Guacamole can use its own user access functionality, but can also be coupled with the LDAP/RADIUS/2FA solution you have running in the remote network. Apache Guacamole is free and open source (but Linux only). However, You can create a Linux VM yourself and install it there or even get a test VM (.ova) from Bitnami.

Adding Guacamole does complicate things and isn't necessary for connections between computers in home networks. Company networks are a different story.

271

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« Last post by Shades on August 09, 2020, 09:54 PM »

ugrep - new ultra fast grep with interactive query UI: search file systems, source code, text, binary files, archives, compressed files, documents, fuzzy search, and more:
https://github.com/Genivia/ugrep

-panzer (August 09, 2020, 05:03 PM)

For those that want a very fast grep tool with a GUI (Windows): BareGrep (it can also be used with the command-line)

Encountered that software years ago, and while it shows its age, there is nothing wrong with it's speed. Even with files and/or content that hasn't been indexed, it is very fast. Comes in both freeware and commercially licensed forms.

272

Developer's Corner / Re: Tabletop Simulator -- Anyone played with it?

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2020, 02:22 AM »

Another tabletop "simulator":
https://www.roll20.net/

More geared towards people playing tabletop games like D&D, PathFinder and similar play systems. But it allows you to add/create your own game system, if you have such inclinations. Without looking too deep into the feature-set of 'TableTop Simulator'. Got the impression that Roll20 can be "manipulated" to create the board of the game you wish to play, then set up video sessions between users and you are playing almost in real life.

Probably copyright will give issues, but the system behind it could work for having much more interaction between players.

273

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Shades on July 31, 2020, 11:45 PM »

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Huge BootHole flaw in GRUB2 bootloader leaves millions of Windows and Linux systems at risk from hackers

-Arizona Hot (July 31, 2020, 10:16 PM)

To my understanding, the people behind the discovery of this flaw found out during testing/auditing the Grub bootloader. And then found out the same flaw exist when using Windows as well. Yet all reporting "blames" the Grub bootloader, while the main issue here is that protecting files during the boot procedure is a good idea, but that it is poorly executed. And that too much trust is placed in Microsoft as a certificate signer. Security conscious people warned against this from the beginning days when every computer manufacturer implemented this security feature in their hardware.

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General Software Discussion / Re: desktop backup and restore

« Last post by Shades on July 26, 2020, 02:18 AM »

With Windows XP and earlier, there was a function built into Windows that automatically "cleaned up" your desktop by removing icons that were not opened after a certain amount of time. Perhaps you have (unconsciously) enabled this functionality on your Windows installation? in other words, how sure are you that this function is disabled?  How to enable/disable this functionality.

That would explain the removal of icons on your desktop periodically. Don't think a tool like 'DesktopOK' will restore these icons once those are removed.

My experiences with DesktopOK have been good, when I was using it on a Windows Server 2008 computer. Did so for years. Windows 7 and Server 2008 share the same kernel, making these versions of Windows practically similar.

When someone logged into that machine using RDP, the order/arrangement of icons was always a mess. Especially when someone used a tool like 'Terminals' or 'mRemoteNG' (to manage their RDP/SSH/Telnet connections), as those always used a slightly different resolution than the common ones for wide screen monitors. Still, one right-click on the tray icon of DesktopOK and selecting the desired profile all icons were back in their intended location. A bit of wiggling and 2 mouse clicks, that was what it it took, so no complaints there.

Hence I fail to grasp why your experience with DesktopOK is so significantly different.

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General Software Discussion / Re: How to automate Windows with a fast & easy (minimal programming) solution?

« Last post by Shades on July 23, 2020, 04:47 PM »

You can say RtvReco is old indeed. It is from 2002, so 18 years. Its website hasn't been updated since 2003 either. Wouldn't try this anymore on Windows 10.