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Recent Posts

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2801
Living Room / Re: What May Happen in the Next 100 Years (Predictions from 1901)
« Last post by Shades on August 24, 2008, 03:56 PM »
When you had a good idea in the 70's...a lava-lamp would spring to mind. ;D
2802
Living Room / Re: What do you do during your free time?
« Last post by Shades on August 22, 2008, 09:50 PM »
Firefly...the most brilliant work of Joss Whedon (also created the TV series: Buffy the vampire slayer and it's spinoff Angel). Snappy humor and great (sometimes disturbing) story lines without (too much) political correctness...the 'Way of the (wild) west', but then in space. Absolute brilliance I tell you  ;)

2803
General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ideal backup utility
« Last post by Shades on August 22, 2008, 09:34 PM »
If you really want to take the time to study manuals...try Bacula. This is a linux based backup solution with Windows client software. No matter how strange you want to do any kind/type of backup...Bacula is able to store your info whenever, wherever on whatever.

But be ready to do some serious reading and prepare for a lot of trial and error. However, when it is running, it is truly a live saver. It is also able to do bare-metal-backups.

For backing up the registry, use ERUNT. The resulting files can be taken into a backup-set from Bacula. Both Bacula and ERUNT are free to use.
2804
Living Room / Re: What do you do during your free time?
« Last post by Shades on August 18, 2008, 09:27 AM »
Free time....it's in the box next to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Santa didn't tell you?
2805
Activation/License/Language Help / Re: need license key
« Last post by Shades on August 18, 2008, 09:05 AM »
With a name as Darwin and being in denial...my mind jumps to: follower of the "Intelligent Design" mantra  ;)

(Sorry, it seems I cannot pass up an opportunity to make bad word joke once again  ;D) 
2806
General Software Discussion / Re: How to change hundreds of shortcuts... in a hurry
« Last post by Shades on August 17, 2008, 05:06 PM »
Maybe it would be a smart idea to make a system and/or user variable in your Windows ENVironment and use that variable in the filename/path of every shortcut. When you want to move from one location to the other you only have to change the variable in the ENVironment. You could even make this user-based if you like that sort of thing  :)

However, this solution will require you to change each and every one of them by hand.

The only .lnk editor I could find has it origins in Russia:
http://linkchanger.c...emaker.qarchive.org/
Direct download link:
http://fcsoft.by.ru/...nger/LinkChanger.zip

Reading through its manual it seems this is what you are looking for.

Edit: Typo's removed
2807
General Software Discussion / Re: Does it make sense to disable the windows swap file?
« Last post by Shades on August 17, 2008, 04:32 PM »
Don't you have the option to defrag your swap file when you reboot your system? Because that is more or less the only time you are able to defrag it using Windows.
2808
Living Room / Re: DC Social Club Love-In
« Last post by Shades on August 16, 2008, 10:43 AM »
@ Fred Nerd:

Ok, I'll bite....

Your real name would be  Rimpelstilskin?  ;D
2809
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Remote Destop, Keyboard & Mouse ONLY - Without Video/Graphics?
« Last post by Shades on August 16, 2008, 01:45 AM »
My loyalties lie in the synergy camp, as you can use it on multiple OS's, while Input Director is windows only.

Tried them both (not at the same time) and Synergy was the one left standing. Granted, Input director does a nicer switch between monitors/systems but I didn't like the change of the icon when doing so. Very likely that is something you can turn of, but Synergy's multi OS thing was the deal-breaker for me.
2810
Living Room / Re: What do you do during your free time?
« Last post by Shades on August 14, 2008, 11:08 PM »
It is very likely that I am going to score points for the stereo-typical camp with this comment...but hey!

When I have free time I play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (2nd Edition...for other die-hards here?  ;)) or prepare stuff for playing. A lot of the free hours (or should I say 'wee hours') also go into playing online race games.

And the biggest problem of all this is that in this country there are more women than men...and since I am a 'gringo' here a lot of females take notice of me when I do go and/or eat out. It's always a topic of conversation between me and my friends here. ;)

I know, I know...time to grow up!  ;D
2811
General Software Discussion / Re: What would your ideal Operating System be like?
« Last post by Shades on August 14, 2008, 09:05 PM »
Aaahhhh...the Amiga days, fond memories  :)

Especially with its PFS file system (that I later bought), DirectoryOpus 5 with this filesystem, 32Mb RAM, 68030 on steroids (50MHz!!!) and a 2GByte harddisk...it was really fun playing DOOM (and others from that era) on that A1200.

EDIT:
Oops, forgot to say that I really liked the robustness from the AmigaOS...and Arexx...and text file configuration. The folder structure was also reasonably simple.

Argh, you done it...now I have to fire up Cloanto again!!!  ;)
2812
General Software Discussion / Re: Music files 101
« Last post by Shades on August 14, 2008, 05:58 PM »
On a side note:

While I'm aware that most classical music composers (Bach, Beethoven etc.) are being dead for quite some time now...longer dead than RIAA regulations, so their music is copyright free.

Now I heard something about still living descendants that can claim rights. Is this true?  
2813
Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Announcing my new website (superboyac).
« Last post by Shades on August 11, 2008, 05:34 PM »
Think I found another and way smaller website management system for you...

http://tiddlywiki.com/

It's a 300k file that includes a wiki-like environment for easy maintenance. You can also add new themes and extra functionality to it.

Much more simplicity than one file is hard to find I would guess ;D
2814
Living Room / Re: which operating system you like most....
« Last post by Shades on August 10, 2008, 12:53 PM »
My personal experience with Vista is/was creating and setting up a wireless network in the house of a girlfriend of mine so she could use her brand new Acer laptop everywhere.

The only wifi router brands they sell over here are D-link, Encore and Linksys...so I went the Linksys way. Quite frankly, following the Linksys instructions exactly to the letter to get it installed on Vista was extremely disappointing.

My impression was that getting, pulling and obfuscating the necessary electricity lines to the most efficient location for the wireless router would be the most time-consuming and labor intensive part of this job.

However it was appalling how bad the Linksys software in combination with UAC. When it was finally installed it could not find the router automatically, whatever I did. Fortunately I never leave home without my trusty 7-year old win2000 HP laptop. Both laptops have Broadcom hardware to make the Wifi connection, it took my old laptop 3 minutes (including unpacking and booting!) to surf the internet through her connection.

Trying to manually configure network settings in Vista is a B*ll-breaking experience...hiding behind way too many mouse-clicks, each guarded by UAC. Normally, you have to do a lot to get me cursing at a computer (letting me play a racing game get's me going rather quickly ;)), but UAC really brings out the worst. Don't get me going about Vista's ability to keep the connection alive!

Furthermore the graphical wizardry doesn't do it for me at all. Come on, the only useful widget being more or less force-fed into the desktop is the clock. The default other stuff is useless at best and distracting at worst.

2815
General Software Discussion / Re: puTTY alternatives that allow extended copy and paste
« Last post by Shades on August 09, 2008, 11:15 AM »
Two alternatives more:
http://www.poderosa.org/
http://www.appgate.c...x/products/mindterm/
2816
General Software Discussion / Re: puTTY alternatives that allow extended copy and paste
« Last post by Shades on August 09, 2008, 02:44 AM »
From memory: this is quite an extensive alternative for Putty...http://www.sshexplorer.com/...both free- and pay-ware.
2817
Living Room / Re: DC Social Club Love-In
« Last post by Shades on August 08, 2008, 02:09 AM »
Great concept...but because of the big diversity in social networks kinda hard to do. And why not include more business like networks like 'xing' or 'linkedin'?

Anyhow, your list of social communities didn't include:

Orkut: the major player in South America, 90% of all people with internet have an account, 90% of all members would not even know (or care) about 90% of your current list.
Hyves: the Dutch social community site (supporting both Dutch and English languages)...again the "90% rule" from above is in effect.

As the members of this forum are spread all over the world, I can imagine that App's list will grow exponentially with 'must have' communities to encompass the preference from each member. Sorry for being a bit of party pooper...:(
2818
Living Room / Re: FCC finds Comcast in violation of net neutrality rules for BitTorrent blocking
« Last post by Shades on August 07, 2008, 03:32 AM »
Well, I have worked on the other side (back in the days that dialup was king)....the ISP that employed me was not that big (200.000 customers) but each unit like modem bank, load balancer etc. costs serious money (as in brand new small class car) so you want to use them as efficiently as possible. Problem was then that there peak hours and slow hours.

Alcatel hardware was our favorite because it could do more with the same amount of lines. I'll guess they still do.

Nowadays the concept of peak and slow hours disappeared because of bittorrent, p2p etc. As a provider you want to run as long as possible with the same hardware as possible...prices of hardware on the ISP end did not fall that much and with the cut-throat margins it is hard to make enough money to add new hardware as users demand.

In our case it was not that we didn't want to expand our system...the money came in too slowly to do so.

So I can sympathize a little for not getting all the bandwidth all the time.
2819
Living Room / Re: What printer?
« Last post by Shades on August 07, 2008, 03:03 AM »
Don't rule out Samsung for a laser printer. They are great price/performance ratio.

Yes, I can use a car analogy here ;D....HP laser printers would be any kind of Mercedes car (with diesel engine). Rock-solid, but comes at a price. A Samsung printer would be a Peugot, stylishm almost the same rock-solidness, but a whole lot cheaper.

I had (and have) the pleasure to work with both brands.
2820
General Software Discussion / Re: Mojave experiment: Vista from a different viewpoint
« Last post by Shades on August 05, 2008, 06:12 PM »
Mojave -- no reason to desert XP!
-cranioscopical (August 05, 2008, 04:46 PM)

Yep...using Vista is probably just as much fun as eating sand. Or didn't I get it correctly? ;)
2821
DC Gamer Club / Re: Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]
« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 10:42 PM »
Shades: Have you tried a bitTorrent?
-Deozaan (August 03, 2008, 09:59 PM)

You have heard about the issue between the FCC and Comcast (about "traffic shaping")?

Here in Paraguay there is no such body as the FCC because the one and only telecom company (Copaco) is owned by the state. That company controls the internet backbone to this country.

From very reliable sources I heard that bittorent and any other p2p traffic is practically "shaped" out of existence. They use the fiber for VOIP lines to the outside world because that is more profitable.

There are several GSM carriers here that offer internet through their own lines but they have ridiculously low download limits (2Gbyte for 40 USD monthly). Unfortunately I don't know anyone with cable internet from the one and only cable company MultiCanal, so I can't say anything about their rules of engagement.

HTTP and FTP traffic is reasonably fast and is not capped by (my) provider Copaco.
2822
General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy
« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 09:36 PM »
Well, we've got some interesting commentary going on.

I myself have been thinking through the implications of laptop seizure this afternoon.  And I'm beginning to come to some conclusions -- they have immense potential impact on software developers.

Let's say the US govt seizes my computer.  I do not live in the US, so getting it back would probably take forever -- and considerable expense.  Anyway, let's assume the government has my computer.

So then I buy a new laptop and try to reinstall my software.  OPPS!!!  Microsoft won't be happy.  I'll have to buy yet another copy of Windows.  And Microsoft Office?  Yet another copy.  [Have you ever tried to close down one computer and transfer Microsoft software to a second machine?]  And what all the other commercial and shareware software that allows only ONE installation on ONE machine to be used by ONE person only.  Sadly, that affects a number of my critical software programs.

So getting up a second machine can be sheer madness.

CONCLUSION:  I'm thinking seriously about abandoning Windows altogether.  I've bought too many copies of it over the years anyway.  I'm thinking seriously of buying software ONLY IF it allows installation on more than one computer.  Ideally, I'll use ONLY freeware and open-source software.  Or online applications.

I'll end up with a very slim laptop indeed.  And many deserving software developers will not longer recieve any business from me.

THOSE ARE THE IMPLICATIONS.
-TomColvin (August 03, 2008, 09:17 PM)

Then Microsoft should hurry up with their SaaS (Software as a Service) project for people that have ties to Windows...and they should include dispensation for users that have their laptop seized of course.
2823
General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy
« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 09:27 PM »
@ Carol:
You're right about Canada as a replacement...or should I say: stand-in  :)

On a side note, when looking at the subtitles you will also notice that at least a part of the production company is based in Germany (that's where 'prodcompname GMBH' stands for). That country has some nice tax loopholes....eh laws for the international movie industry.

Which is also why Uwe Boll (notorious movie director from titles such as 'BloodRayne' and 'Alone in the dark') will not be without a job soon  ;D  
2824
General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy
« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 08:56 PM »
Would it not be the case that if a lot of (read: too many) people start using online solutions like Ulteo that the U.S. government starts to issue court orders for those companies to hand over your data?

Better check the fine print then...or would it be better to use these kind of services that are not based in the U.S. or any country with too much (political) ties to the US?

Privacy matters to me. The thing is that when asked politely, I will disclose (almost) anythiing about my persona, state of mind etc.etc. without a problem. However, when you resort to laws to push me into disclosing whatever whenever you please...expect me to be uncooperative at best.

There is a (medieval) Dutch saying:"Zoals de waard is, vertrouwt hij zijn gasten."
A literally translation: "A owner of a motel/bar thinks that each of his customers thinks exactly like he does." It means that the owner isn't trustworthy, he expects that every guest is not trustworthy either...or vice versa of course.
2825
General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy
« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 07:59 PM »
It starts to look like the only positive contribution from the U.S. to the world are the products from their film industry and/or music industry (depending on your taste and ability to live with DRM).

Somehow I get the feeling that most governments from the northern (and western) hemisphere are very afraid to lose control and will stop at nothing to gain more by playing their fear trump card over and over again.

Maybe I should start reading that '1984' book from Orwell...oh wait, someone is knocking on my door. Hold on one moment, I'll go and answ......;)
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