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301

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editors

« Last post by Vurbal on March 06, 2014, 12:32 AM »

I think I need to become more familiar with the subject before I venture too far into the unknown. As a rank amateur I was rather hoping there was an easier solution. Still, I have plenty of time to learn.

-Happy Expat (March 05, 2014, 11:59 PM)

Here's a post I made some time back that might be a good starting point.

The bad news is it doesn't include information about the container used by almost all point and shoot cameras which is Apple's QuickTime, easily identified by the .MOV extension. It's also missing an entry for the video compression used for all video on older still cameras and still typically used today at lower resolutions which is Motion JPEG.

On the good side you're already ahead of a lot of people who seem determined to find a simple solution even after you explain the complexity of the problem. At least you've got that going for you.

302

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editors

« Last post by Vurbal on March 05, 2014, 08:45 PM »

It's generally best to avoid VirtualDubMod now since it hasn't been updated in over a decade and there are plugins available to open pretty much everything under the sun in VirtualDub. That includes 1 or 2 formats that still give AviSynth fits. There's a list on the VirtualDub forums which also includes information about, or at least links to, some third party filters. I haven't heard of any commercial or scene detection filters but I use VirtualDub almost exclusively for previewing AviSynth scripts so I'm far from an expert.

303

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editors

« Last post by Vurbal on March 05, 2014, 01:57 PM »

Your best bet is probably to focus on finding a more general purpose editor that has such a feature (most of them do) and figuring out whether it can be tuned to do what you want.

The general feature you're looking for is typically called scene detection. Based on your description, though, your best bet would probably be finding an editor with specialized scene detection for identifying commercials. For example there's a standalone tool (only for MPEG 1 and 2 video IIRC and maybe only TS files) called ComSkip. It's also used (or was at one time) in at least one MPEG editor called VideoReDo.

If you can't find a simple solution there's always AviSynth. It's definitely the most capable tool for the job but the learning curve is steeper since it's script rather than GUI based. It does have the advantage of supporting nearly any video and/or audio format there is. If you end up going that route my advice would be to post a question over at Doom9's AviSynth user forum and you should be able to figure it out relatively quickly. When you setup an account there you have to wait 5 days before posting so plan accordingly.

Also you would probably want the 2.6.0 alpha 5 version rather than 2.5.8 stable. Despite the alpha designation it's actually considered more stable and also has a significant number of fixes and new features.

304

Living Room / Re: My pop/imap Android experience

« Last post by Vurbal on March 05, 2014, 01:20 PM »

So instead of just having three simple buttons which would be "intimidating", we have one button...but with a long press option.  Really?  Is that really that much easier.  end rant.

-superboyac (March 05, 2014, 12:44 PM)

Only if the button is green and has the words "Don't Panic" next to it.

-Stoic Joker (March 05, 2014, 01:00 PM)

Once the Vogons are on their way that's probably as useful as anything else.

305

Living Room / Re: My pop/imap Android experience

« Last post by Vurbal on March 05, 2014, 01:18 PM »

I wouldn't characterize it as a 21st century phenomenon, but I'm completely in agreement about it being taken too far. I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of making everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. Your issue finding this Gmail setting is a perfect example of what happens when you go past that point. It appears simpler but in reality the opposite is true.

The real problem is that the reason for oversimplifying isn't, done to serve the user. Instead it's used to further the interests of the interface provider which are often, arguably more often than not, at odds with the user's interests.

306

Living Room / Re: My pop/imap Android experience

« Last post by Vurbal on March 05, 2014, 12:36 PM »

ok, so the problem is idiot gmail again.

If you reply to an email in your inbox, gmail sends that message to archive.  I hate that.  leave it in the inbox, i'll archive when I'm good and ready.  Anyone have a solution for this?

-superboyac (March 05, 2014, 11:40 AM)

Interesting. My Gmail has never done that to the best of my recollection. I wonder if there's an option I toggled so long ago that I can't remember doing it.

307

Living Room / Re: My pop/imap Android experience

« Last post by Vurbal on March 05, 2014, 12:35 PM »

I don't really even care if the GMail app has all the features I want or need because Android's sync model makes it a non-starter for me. Until getting my new tablet I hadn't used Android (or any mobile OS) for a couple years but I'm sure my old phone (running 2.2.2 or 2.2.3) gave me a lot more granular control over sync operations. On my Samsung tablet (running 4.2.2) the only options are to either sync everything related to my Google account or nothing. Naturally I choose nothing.

-Vurbal (February 26, 2014, 10:37 AM)

Sounds like something Samsung has customized the OS with. The "vanilla" Android experience offers you plenty of customization about what to sync or not. Here's a small sample of a few of the choices on my Android device (found in Settings -> Accounts -> Google):
 (see attachment in previous post)
I'd only use vanilla Android or a custom ROM like CyanogenMod. All the other providers muck up the OS with awful customizations that ruin the experience.

-Deozaan (February 28, 2014, 11:21 PM)

I wondered if that wasn't the case. Unfortunately I didn't have any non-Samsung devices to check it against. The only Sync settings I can find (so maybe they've just hidden them) are for accounts rather than apps. Your screenshot is exactly what I was expecting to see.

Yet another reason I prefer to start with Vanilla Android, untainted by an OEM interface like TouchWiz.

308

General Software Discussion / Re: Repairing Windows 7 from the recovery console

« Last post by Vurbal on March 04, 2014, 03:28 PM »

Definitely agree on the Dell Windows discs. The polar opposite IME would have to be Sony. It's not necessarily that the basic Sony recovery media I've dealt with was notably worse than most OEMs in terms of being tied to their hardware. The bigger issue was all the additional work required to install all the extra software and drivers to make their proprietary hardware work. Of course that was compounded by the PITA process for getting replacement media 40hz alluded to.

In 2003 I got a Sony's multimedia computer via a home owner's insurance claim after a lightning strike killed my desktop. It was actually a lot nicer than the unit it was replacing because they had to find me something with a DVD burner, at and at least 512MB RAM, and a second 160GB hdd.

It came with something like 7 or 8 recovery CDs. There was the basic Windows restore disc, a 2 or 3 disc set of Sony applications, and either 1 or 2 more sets with third party software. The software on the extra discs was packaged for use with their proprietary restore program which ran in Windows but was designed only to initiate a full factory reset IIRC.

If you wanted to reinstall a particular component you had to find the correct disc and folder with the installer in it by trial and error. Neither the discs or the folders gave you any real indication of what software they contained and I don't believe the executables for their software had any kind of meaningful names either. Most of the contents of those discs could only be replaced if you ordered a full replacement set for something like $80 and waited at least 2 or 3 weeks for delivery.

I won't even get into the Hell I went through researching the proprietary TV Tuner and MPEG-2 capture card.

309

General Software Discussion / Re: Repairing Windows 7 from the recovery console

« Last post by Vurbal on March 03, 2014, 04:48 PM »

Just about the most annoying experience I ever had repairing a computer was when I had to fix a mess Best Buy made. A few months after this woman took it to Best Buy she got some malware and I ended up deciding to reinstall Windows. When Best Buy fixed it for her they had wiped the hard drive and used a Toshiba image to restore it. Then they told her she didn't have to worry about the Gateway restore disc because it had a recovery partition.

Of course, being a Toshiba OEM install, it refused to restore when it couldn't find a Toshiba laptop. She just wanted it fixed and didn't want to screw around with Best Buy and for some reason she had a Vista upgrade disc that wasn't installed on another computer and I had a stack of XP Pro OEM discs I got free and was selling cheap. Of course it also had a SATA hard drive so I ended up slipstreaming the driver into the XP install disc before installing.

310

General Software Discussion / Re: Repairing Windows 7 from the recovery console

« Last post by Vurbal on March 03, 2014, 01:13 PM »

It looks like the hidden partition is just Dell Recovery crap. The boot settings look fine. There's no virtual disk or anything else odd. Just the RE and system partitions.

I didn't notice the last bit of your post before. Are you talking about the Startup Repair option? If so I've already tried that and it couldn't find any problems.

From what she told me she's not even really concerned about anything but pulling her data off the computer so if I can't come up with anything else promising I may try to do a windows repair (upgrade) install after the backup finishes. Hopefully it works better in Win7 than the old repair windows option did back in the day.

311

General Software Discussion / Re: Repairing Windows 7 from the recovery console

« Last post by Vurbal on March 03, 2014, 12:24 PM »

Actually I'm not sure what I was thinking when I wrote that. It's not even getting to the login screen so obviously the task manager won't be available.    I guess I'm just so used to working on people's old XP machines with auto-login I don't think about it.

That's a good point about the possibility of a weird/broken vhd configuration. I just booted with a UBCD to back it up to my server before doing anything else and Acronis listed an odd Fat16 partition at the end of the disk. I think maybe I'll cancel the backup for now and investigate a little further first.

312

General Software Discussion / Re: XP to Windows 7 advice

« Last post by Vurbal on March 03, 2014, 11:17 AM »

Windows Live Mail is web-based, no?  I really like having all my email on my machine.  Plus I don't want to get any further tied into the Microsoftverse than I already am.  So I'll probably still check out Thunderbird.

-AndyM (March 03, 2014, 11:05 AM)

No it's actually part of an add-on pack called Windows Live Essentials which primarily provides software which was available in previous versions but no longer included on the Windows install discs. I don't remember everything that's on it but in addition to the mail client it also includes a photo organizer and Windows Movie Maker.

I don't have the mail client installed but I do use the other 2. Actually I don't really use the photo organizer so much as the improved import wizard it adds.

313

General Software Discussion / Repairing Windows 7 from the recovery console

« Last post by Vurbal on March 03, 2014, 09:11 AM »

I'm trying to fix a laptop running Windows 7 for a friend. A few months ago she apparently got a job doing customer service work from home for a cruise line. They provided her with what sounds like some type of VM software to put on her computer. Before you ask I can't find where I wrote the company down so I'm waiting to hear back on that.

From that point on she couldn't get Windows to finish loading - at least that's her interpretation. In fact Windows itself does start but the only GUI element available is the mouse pointer. There's not desktop and in fact the window manager isn't even running. Just a black screen.

There are no restore points on the drive so that's out. Booting into safe mode, even safe mode with command prompt, gives the same results as a normal boot. It boots into repair mode but I can't get sfc to run. If I use /runnow it tells me there's a repair operation pending. If I use offline mode it shows the help like I used the wrong syntax which afaict isn't the case. Here's what I am using (running the repair environment from the Win7 DVD):

Code: Text [Select]

1. sfc /offbootdir=d:\ offwindir=d:\windows

I have, of course, verified that d: is the correct drive letter for the boot drive.

Short or reinstalling Windows, what other options do I have? It's been a long time since I had to try repairing a Windows install from the recovery console and I'm hoping there's something obvious I'm forgetting.

Oh yeah, I should probably mention this is Ultimate Edition so Win7 Pro features are available on the off chance that makes a difference.

Edit: I just heard back from the laptop's owner. The software was related to training to work as a sales agent for Royal Caribbean. We're communicating via sms so this is a little slow and painful. It sounds like it was probably some third party software and not Royal Caribbean's but I'm still waiting for clarification on that.

Edit 2: It seems I was nearly right in the beginning. The software came from what appears to be a semi-scam company called Arise Virtual Solutions. They run a virtual call center for Royal Caribbean using work from home employees. The software was for training, but like I said from her description it sounded like some sort of virtual machine. Of course it's entirely possibly either she misunderstood what it did or they misrepresented it and it may be just some sort of VPN client.

In either case there's a good possibility it's some sort of virtual device driver.

314

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by Vurbal on March 02, 2014, 07:11 PM »

Now that I have a tablet I finally got off my butt and read your book yesterday. As promised I posted a review on Amazon and GoodReads but it looks like Smashwords doesn't want my opinion unless I buy it through them.

I have some constructive criticism I'd love to share. If you're interested let me know and I'll email it to you. Or I can post it here if you prefer. Not sure it would be of much interest to anyone else though.

I think the thing that impressed me more than anything else was the plotting. The deeper you got into it, the more your really seemed to stop thinking and let the story come out on its own.

315

Living Room / Re: Why my Win7 suddenly goes amnesiac?

« Last post by Vurbal on February 28, 2014, 11:11 AM »

i used to have that problem a long long time ago but back then i was using a cheapo mouse. nowadays, i alternate between Logitech MX518 and G602. however if your Logitech mouse is causing the problem, can't you just RMA it?

-lanux128 (February 28, 2014, 06:08 AM)

The warranty has expired, I bought it 3 years ago…  I just wonder if I can clean it somehow before discarding it and replacing it with another model.

-MerleOne (February 28, 2014, 10:19 AM)

You might be able to fix it but probably not by cleaning.

It largely depends on which of the moving parts is causing the problem. The most likely culprit is the return spring for the button flattening out over time. If you're careful (and don't have the manual dexterity of a small child like me) you can bend it back into shape. Of course it's just a thin strip of metal so any time you bend it there's a risk of it breaking.

That's also assuming the problem isn't elsewhere. Any moving part in between your finger and the electrical switch could technically be at fault. The spring just happens to be the most common.

316

Screenshot Captor / Re: Black Screen

« Last post by Vurbal on February 28, 2014, 10:38 AM »

A quick search on Trusteer Rapport leads me to believe it's probably the culprit. Blocking screen capture is one of its most basic functions. It's only supposed to do that when you connect to a certain type of server, obviously, but I'd be willing to bet it's at fault here.

317

General Software Discussion / Re: Are Tables Required Or Not?

« Last post by Vurbal on February 28, 2014, 09:42 AM »

MyInfo lets you expand and contract parts of the list so you do not in fact have to waste time scrolling!

-TaoPhoenix (February 28, 2014, 05:39 AM)

I was making a different point. In a table you see the child info horizontally in the same row (i.e. it's in the line of sight), while to view the same info as an outline you may need to scroll down, especially with more complex tables. Of course you can collapse outlines, but then you won't see the data in the collapsed bits, so it would be more difficult to review that information as in a table.

Actually, an option that's closer to a table-like organisation is a mind map (such as Freeplane). Then the info is still more horizontally presented than a traditional vertical outline.

-dr_andus (February 28, 2014, 06:18 AM)

One of the nice things about Freeplane or Freemind (also XMind and probably other mind mappers) is the many ways you can transform either the visual map or the underlying data for use with other software. You can export a map to a simple image, transform the underlying data to all kinds of different formats, or even read the XML directly with another program.

For example let's say you wanted to integrate a mind map with Evernote since it's the only program on the list I have even passing familiarity with. I believe you could just export to HTML and then import that directly into Evernote. If you update the map you simply export it again and Evernote should be able to stay updated automatically.

During the brief period I worked with Evernote I didn't experiment with local resources so it may not be quite that simple. And obviously the complexity would depend on your particular choice anyway.

Of course the downside of this approach is having to do all the editing outside your information managers. Since Freeplane is Java based and the maps themselves are just XML, or whatever format you export to, it's certainly possible to get around that with the right IM. However it would likely require some significant time and effort to make it work.

318

Living Room / Re: Netflix Mocks Amazon's Drone Delivery with Video!

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 05:00 PM »

Well as the update I snuck in while you were posting mentions, Netflix has been negotiating with Comcast to get their servers inside the network for months now. I don't think they're too worried about competition at the moment, but I definitely agree it will eventually turn into leverage against it down the road.

319

Living Room / Re: Netflix Mocks Amazon's Drone Delivery with Video!

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 03:26 PM »

No knee jerking required. He's full of it. Okay maybe a little knee jerking because I'm not an expert on the technology involved so someone please chime in if I'm getting this wrong.

First, this isn't actually a peering deal. They're calling it that to make it look like something other than extortion on paper.

Peering agreements are the responsibility of the network provider, not the server operator. As he points out, a third party provides Netflix for network services. If there weren't already peering deals in place to cover the traffic coming from Netflix it wouldn't be getting to Comcast customers in the first place.

There's also a big lie in there disguised as a fact where he mentions the Open Connect program. That's where Netflix puts there content servers inside the cable company's network so the traffic doesn't have to cross those external connection points. I'm not sure exactly who is responsible for what operationally but I'm guessing the cable company gets paid to maintain the servers. Their VOD techs should already have the requisite skillset or something close to it.

The thing is Comcast has refused to participate in that program specifically because it would kill their argument that Netflix traffic causes congestion on the external links. It's a nonsensical argument to begin with since Comcast's subscribers are already paying for that but it disappears entirely if they go down that road.

Here's the good side though. The reality is there's a limited and shrinking future for consumer broadband to be profitable. The big profits today are in commercial network services. As the market pushes prices down to Earth, and it's starting already, albeit slowly, the big money will continue to shift to network services and local video hosting will likely be the biggest growth market because that's the most economical solution for everyone from international telecoms all the way down.

The longer Comcast waits to accept that and start adapting, the further behind the industry they're going to be when they pull their heads out of their backsides. Right now they probably have enough loose change in their seat cushions to get the ball rolling without any problems. If they wait until they're forced to do it things won't be nearly as pretty.

320

Living Room / Re: Netflix Mocks Amazon's Drone Delivery with Video!

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 02:30 PM »

Can't wait to see the comeback where Netflix gets ridiculed for voluntarily paying off Comcast for what amounts to a network shortcut to stream Netflix to Comcast customers. (This even though Comcast denies it ever throttled Netflix - and furthermore, insists this deal doesn't get Netflix any preferential treatment from them. Yeah right! :/) )

-40hz (February 26, 2014, 08:57 AM)

I'm not sure voluntarily is entirely accurate considering Comcast had a lot more leverage. On one hand I'm sure Comcast's customers knew exactly who was to blame for the problems. OTOH there's not a damn thing they (or Netflix) can do about it. The government is firmly on Comcast's side, a handful of vocal but impotent individuals aside.

At the same time I still think it was a mistake which will result in little or no short term gain and put them on the wrong (and losing) side of the net neutrality war when the cable television industry goes down in flames in a few years. This will give them the sort of competitive advantage that sucks the ability to compete right out of a company.

Of course there's plenty of short sightedness to go around in the online video market. I think Google made an even bigger mistake when they sold off Motorola Mobility's set-top box business. For just a couple billion dollars they gave up access to half the cable customers in the US.

321

Screenshot Captor / Re: Quality of Captured Image

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 01:50 PM »

If you want to reduce the file size JPEG compression is generally a better option, quality-wise, than reducing the color depth.

-Vurbal (February 26, 2014, 11:23 AM)

That depends a lot on the contents.

-Jibz (February 26, 2014, 01:07 PM)

That's very true. PNG, being just a compressed bitmap, is much better at spatial precision and of course being lossless makes it completely (compression) artifact free.

Of course, depending on the software you compress with, JPEG can also be tuned to avoid or obscure compression artifacts. OTOH having lots of sharp edges (like text) always means either ugly artifacts or poor compression.

322

Living Room / Re: Dropbox and privacy (or lack of)

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 01:42 PM »

This caught my eye...

Dropbox erects sueball shield with new T&C and privacy legalese • The Register

There are a couple of interesting-looking additions to the policy. Here's one:

    “If you are not a Dropbox for Business user but interact with a Dropbox for Business user (by, for example, joining a shared folder or accessing stuff shared by that user), members of that organization may be able to view the name, email address and IP address that were associated with your account at the time of that interaction.”

That may give you pause before you download something from a Dropbox for Business account.

How would this actually work? I presume that one would need to have the Dropbox app running on the PC or be logged on in a browser for Dropbox to see who exactly had downloaded the given file (?)

-dr_andus (February 26, 2014, 11:46 AM)

According to their website there's a web-based admin interface. I suspect there's also some way to download some kind of activity log using desktop software or a mobile app.

323

General Software Discussion / Re: Licensing Software: Version based vs. Time-Period Based

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 01:21 PM »

Customers don't buy code. They buy features. And not just any features; working features. Charging extra to make them work amounts to unilaterally changing the terms of sale after the fact. Or to look at it another way they're charging for their own failure.

That may sound harsh but it really isn't. People fail all the time. The foundation for most successful businesses and products is almost always full of one failure after another. You can learn more from one failure than a decade of success. This is the opposite of that.

324

Living Room / Re: My pop/imap Android experience

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 11:38 AM »

I've never mixed and matched POP with IMAP for the same email account. I don't think it should make a difference...but again I've never done that.

-40hz (February 26, 2014, 11:32 AM)

It is an interesting question. It seems like a rare enough circumstance to cause unforeseen problems.

325

Screenshot Captor / Re: Quality of Captured Image

« Last post by Vurbal on February 26, 2014, 11:23 AM »

If you want to reduce the file size JPEG compression is generally a better option, quality-wise, than reducing the color depth.