Recent Posts

2526

General Software Discussion / Re: managing file permissions under windows (madness?)

« Last post by Shades on April 25, 2009, 12:21 PM »

a - archive
r - read only
h - hidden

These will be the ones you see mostly anyway (when using Windows).

When you have physical access to a Windows PC, you can boot from a CD, USB stick or floppy disk with the following tool:
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
It comes with instructions on how to use it, which is quite easy and should not take too much time...15 minutes in total or so ( including downloading, reading the instructions, burning the iso to a CD, booting from the CD, changing the password and rebooting normally).

2527

General Software Discussion / Re: Help for solving a XP home lan mystery

« Last post by Shades on April 25, 2009, 11:20 AM »

Windows is kinda slow with refreshing the list of available LAN computers. Does your new system receive an IP number from a DHCP server somewhere in your LAN (likely your router will be setup to handle this function)?

If so, try the IP number (like this: \\192.168.0.xxx in explorer) on one of your 'tuned' PC's and see if you can get access to the new PC and/or get an overview of available shares.  That way you know if the basics are working right.

Updating of the list goes a lot faster when you also enable a WINS server somewhere in your network. Current routers do not require the use of WINS since it is old, but if you do use one, networking does seem to work smoother using XP and below. How Vista and Win7 handle networking is unknown to me, I only know that the software for networking has been adjusted and that in those cases the use of the wizards is preferred.

2528

Living Room / Re: Oracle Buys Sun - Your Thoughts?

« Last post by Shades on April 23, 2009, 12:24 AM »

On SlashDot there was a comment that the (longtime) boss from Oracle has a hate/love relationship with M$. Now he has a hardware platform, an OS and one of the major software development languages in-house. Their core product runs already fine on all those items, so they can now offer complete solutions for mid-size or bigger companies. Same as an M$ based solution, likely cheaper. For some this sounds like a very good deal.

MySQL will be the victim of the take-over. With the free version of the Oracle database (which is kinda nice to work with) there will be no room left for a MySQL. The community edition will not survive, the commercial version likely will, as it is slightly better than the community edition and perhaps the free Oracle database.

As I have some experience with (the enterprise edition of) Oracle 9i it is very clear that those two products never going to interfere in each other market.

MySQL community edition will have its fork, as people still will like a "light" database, but I don't think all those ownership changes lately have done any good to the name and/or fame of MySQL. Postgres is also not that heavy on resources...and is a lot more capable, using the same SQL implementation like the big database players. MySQL is in principal a nice lightweight database with a good read throughput. It's main problem is showing up quickly when writing a lot of data simultaneous into it. The FreeRadius software (authentication server) is a perfect example of showing the limits of MySQL.

But like I said, all those ownership changes made people look for alternatives.

2529

Living Room / Re: for the past 50 years, American students were taught bullshit

« Last post by Shades on April 20, 2009, 05:50 PM »

Without grammar it would be a lot harder for cranioscopical (or anyone else for that matter) to make word based jokes.

2530

Living Room / Re: OS Re-install Tips?

« Last post by Shades on April 19, 2009, 04:58 AM »

Unattended is providing answers for the questions the installation wizard asks you. It is very convenient to put in an installation CD and do something else while the new system is getting installed and (basically) configured.

You could add the drivers of your hardware to the driver repository on the installation CD. I have never done that myself, but I  know it is possible.

2531

Living Room / Re: Recommend to me the BEST USB stick to get

« Last post by Shades on April 19, 2009, 04:48 AM »

Have a 8Gbyte Kingston Datatraveler...very happy with that one. Still works after a trip through the washing machine and a physical "beating" from a playing kid who managed to move my PC case with connected stick some 10 cm further than physical room allowed.

But even as it is bent like an old soldier, it still works without hiccups.

2532

General Software Discussion / Re: Xenon Portable File Manager - Portable Associations!

« Last post by Shades on April 18, 2009, 06:22 PM »

Conflicting concepts, perhaps? 

2533

Living Room / Re: OS Re-install Tips?

« Last post by Shades on April 18, 2009, 06:20 PM »

You could nLite your current XP install CD for an unattended install, including all Microsoft patches/updates/servicepacks.

That alone makes re-installing a system a lot less intrusive to whatever you planned to do in meatspace. However, since you are creating a new install CD...why not make it a new install DVD, including all tools you require/desire in a separate folder structure. That way you can install very quickly.

For the truly lazy, there is software to help with that as well.

2534

General Software Discussion / Re: Sysinternals PageDefrag: Good, Bad?

« Last post by Shades on April 11, 2009, 03:55 PM »

Maybe because Diskeeper is not such a good defragger, which is especially true for the one included in Windows. But there are quite a lot of freeware and commercialware that do a good till excellent job.

See this thread for a discussion about this kind of software, reading through its post you will see the names of some good defraggers (both free and commercial).

There are several good reasons to defrag.

• You should notice that your system feels faster, more responsive. If not, then you are using wrong configuration settings or a bad piece of software.
• A defragmented hard drive will make less noise when reading/writing, reducing wear and tear in normal day-to-day use.
• When you accidentally delete something on a defragmented drive, data retrieval software has a (far) better chance of actually getting your data back.

2535

Living Room / Re: Start Menu Misbehaving (Or: Another Stupid Question From Daniel)

« Last post by Shades on April 09, 2009, 04:56 PM »

My teacher always told us that there are no stupid questions...only a lot of inquisitive idiots 

2536

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Shades on April 07, 2009, 11:26 PM »

See your point, however there is a but...

It appears to me that single platter drives are more common nowadays. Manufacturers are able to put quite some density on a single platter and  when you have a (reasonable) recent SATA drive with a storage capacity below 500GByte it seems to me that they come in a single platter variant. At least the last Maxtors I received here had a very thin case.

What is more, is 500GB also not the max. possible capacity with current (financially viable) technology? I believe that the 1 TByte disks and bigger have again several platters.

2537

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Shades on April 05, 2009, 07:56 PM »

@f0dder:
The placement of files you can regulate in some sense. However, you also can use the layout.ini as is generated by Windows itself, so starting programs and booting goes fast.

I agree that 400%/500% speed gain is over the top, especially in the way you just posted  
However, their help file shows a calculation that makes some sense.
From the example:
A typical EIDE hard drive from 160GByte has the following specs:
   - Read Seek Time:        8,9msec
   - Latency:                   4,2msec
   - Full stroke seek:       21,0msec  (from center till the rim of the platter)
   - Track-to-track seek:   2,0msec
   - Transfer rate (max): 750Mbit/sec

The average Access Time for this hard drive is 8,9 + 4,2 = 13,1msec
The minimum Access Time for this hard drive is 2,0 + 4,2 = 6,2msec
The maximum Access Time for this hard drive is 8,9 + 4,2 = 25,2msec

Between the slowest and the fastest access time there is some 400% performance difference.
They also go by the following rule: 80% of the time you use only 20% of the files.

Those 20% of files are stored on the outer edge of the platter as the data transfer rate there is more like the promised 750MBit/sec, while the other 80% of files are stored near the center where the data transfer is more like 400MBit/sec.

Maybe I am just plain silly (or naive) but the idea of data and software I use most, stored in the most speedy area of the hard drive, does sound plausible to me.

For me the DiskTrix software led to a system that feels as 'snappy' as a fresh Windows installation for the best price as well, free.  

For all intends and purposes I should send the help file, it expands a lot more about the reasoning behind their software and all of the possible options. Then again, I don't want to be regarded as a spammer  

2538

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Shades on April 05, 2009, 06:04 PM »

First of all I'm sorry for venting, but...

[rant]
I used to pay for DisKeeper (until version 8 or so), my main frustration with that one was that I have to have 15% of harddisk space free before defragmentation could took place.

Given the harddisk sizes of today that is a sizable chunk of space (for example: 30GByte on a 200 GByte disk/partition!!!!). The stupidity of that rule baffles me to no end. I have been around PC's long enough to know why that rule was put into place, but today that rule is insane.

With today's 1Tbyte drives i am not allowed to use 150GByte, because my defragger won't allow for it?!?
Denying me a 'snappy' system just because I use the total capacity of my hard disk?!??!
Do you have (an) contiguous file(s) of 150GByte in size on your disk? The biggest single file I have seen was 35Gbyte (Oracle database file).

Because the file size of the biggest (fragmented) file on a harddisk and equivalent free space on a harddisk should be the only reason why defrag software isn't able to start. And even that should actually not be a reason to start defragmenting the files that do fit in the available free space.

In that sense most defragmenting software has a lot of growing up to do.

Not the software from DiskTrix though. The harddisk in my system is an IDE WD Caviar with a capacity of 160GByte capacity (unformatted, 149GByte formatted). Directory Opus reports that this disk has 2,3Gbyte of free space or 1.5% free.
DiskTrix starts without any problem.

If Perfect Disk would commence to defragment my disk all the power to it, but my guess is that it either will not commence or will be painfully slow because of all the (literally) grinding work. DiskTrix commences without problems and it will take quite some time because of the amount of files, but it goes on without complaining.

Furthermore, how often is defragmenting required? DisKeeper was setup to run every night when I was asleep and still the results were not that great. Defragging every night puts (quite) some wear and tear on the disk. Nowadays I have scheduled the defrag software to run once a month.

[/rant]

It is just the stupid archaic rules required by this kind of software and the lack of results that drives me insane  ...and which make me a (very) happy Disktrix user. 

2539

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!

« Last post by Shades on April 05, 2009, 04:32 PM »

That would be the difference between bit and byte (by definition: 1 byte consists of 8 bits).

Most people interpret xxxMB/sec as xxxMbyte/sec. While in case of the USB cable packages the 480MB/sec means 480Mbit/sec.

So: 480Mbit/sec is a theoretical 60MByte/sec (not taking any kind of system overhead, cable quality or signal interference into account).  

2540

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Shades on April 05, 2009, 03:18 PM »

@ Carol:
If you want I can send the installation file to you, which includes the help file. The help file mentions that the software uses the Microsoft API's that are in common use for this kind of thing. Besides those API's they use their OptiSeek technology that is able to place files where you want them.

2541

General Software Discussion / Re: freeware that checks for XML non-compliance

« Last post by Shades on April 04, 2009, 10:51 PM »

Would this link help?  Or this one? 

2542

General Software Discussion / Re: Top 3 programs you use

« Last post by Shades on April 04, 2009, 10:46 PM »

Because as of late it is not such a good media player anymore? (I mean the Windows version, which is the only one on which I have experience.)

Still using 0.8.6 of VLC instead of any 0.9.x version...if KMplayer fails.

2543

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Shades on April 04, 2009, 10:16 PM »

For defragging my hard disk I use (on a monthly basis) the 'Ultimate Defrag' software from a company called: Disktrix.

Guess some year ago they did a promotional campaign on the net to promote their new version by putting the previous version in the public domain. Previously I used Diskeeper but I was not satisfied with the results from that one, so I tried. And I am happy I did!

First, it doesn't require that stupid rule of 15% free space, it moves most recent data to the outer (faster) tracks, older data to the center tracks and puts folders next to the MFT (Master File Table). Because of all that, my PC felt as 'snappy' as a new installation again. Something DisKeeper was never able to manage. Until now everyone who has seen that software in action and worked with the result is grateful for leading them to a very good defragger.  It even comes with a manual that explains every option in clear, understandable English (PDF).

   

Unfortunately, the company does not link to that free version of their software anymore   
A search with Google for download links resulted in this overview.

No affiliation, just a happy user (who should be starting his monthly defrag soon  ).

EDIT: added a comment.

2544

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a way to have user-level control on sorting Outlook 2007 GAL?

« Last post by Shades on April 03, 2009, 08:38 PM »

You could try this site: http://www.msexchange.org/

With this site you have access to a lot of manuals/howto's/articles for whatever Exchange related. Since the GAL is managed by Exchange (which seems logic to me), maybe you get lucky there.

It is a nice site for anyone who has to administer and/or work with Exchange.

2545

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Shades on April 02, 2009, 09:39 PM »

Come on PhilB66:

PSV were practically neighbours (when I was living in Holland). Do they still say: 'Eindhovuh de gekste!!!' ?

Brabo to the core! 

2546

Living Room / Re: Need some help to capture a streaming video please.

« Last post by Shades on April 02, 2009, 09:16 PM »

Which FLV player did you use?

I used a piece of software from Nirsoft to get files from the cache. While that worked I got the files but were not able to do anything with most of them.
Until I used a specific FLV player which showed them without any hick-up.

Can't remember the name of the player, but if you want I can take a look....when I get home.

2547

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a way to have user-level control on sorting Outlook 2007 GAL?

« Last post by Shades on April 01, 2009, 07:49 PM »

Full functionality from Exchange is only accessible through Outlook. So, never expect to have TheBat on your work PC.

It is my personal experience (with 'unsupervised' encryption/decryption from messages inside Outlook) that one should prevent using the GAL at all.

EDIT:
Unsupervised added, meaning third party software that has to use Exchange.

2548

General Software Discussion / Re: Using noscript to force https ssl links in firefox

« Last post by Shades on March 31, 2009, 11:50 PM »

@mouser:
During my "hunting" on the net some three years back, a promising free SSL CA was found. They were really upset by the money grabbing paws of every CA company. But their concept of free cert's for most purposes looked really interesting.

After reading the posts in this thread my memory woke up and went looking for them again. They are still alive and kicking (in Israel of all places). At the time they were busy getting themselves recognized and being included in the default list of CA's from browsers. Don't know how far they got with that nowadays, but maybe they are interesting enough for DonationCoder?

2549

General Software Discussion / Re: When was your last BSOD? I'm betting it was a long time ago

« Last post by Shades on March 31, 2009, 11:11 PM »

On my own system? At least 5 years ago, around the time I really started to use my nlite'd installation cd.

No fluff...no BSOD's   

2550

Living Room / Re: Should we have a yearly Best Avatar award on DC?

« Last post by Shades on March 29, 2009, 04:18 PM »

My mother absolutely loved the singing from that kid...and I'm still traumatized by it, mainly because his songs were played a lot in the house where I spent my very early childhood. Didn't he become a 'schläger' singer (Heino) after his throat grew a beard?

Anywayz, thanks for a nasty flashback