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3476

General Software Discussion / Re: Customizing a second (or more!) computer

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2013, 07:14 AM »

If you do want to keep copies of your app's installers you'll probably want to have the most recent versions rather than what you  originally loaded. An update monitor/autodownloader called  Ketarin can help with that. It's occasionally buggy, and also isn't able to monitor everything, but it works pretty well for many things. Better than nothing at least. Find it here.

Ketarin is a small application which automatically updates setup packages. As opposed to other tools, Ketarin is not meant to keep your system up-to-date, but rather to maintain a compilation of all important setup packages which can then be burned to disc or put on a USB stick.

I'm also partial to Secunia PSI for checking on available updates for what's installed on my PCs. Find it here.

The Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) is a free computer security solution that identifies vulnerabilities in non-Microsoft (third-party) programs which can leave your PC open to attacks. Simply put, it scans software on your system and identifies programs in need of security updates to safeguard your PC against cybercriminals. It then supplies your computer with the necessary software security updates to keep it safe. The Secunia PSI even automates the updates for your insecure programs, making it a lot easier for you to maintain a secure PC.

Even more important is to have backups of your drivers since they're usually the biggest hassle to hunt down and replace when redoing a machine. BooZet's Double Driver is a nice utility that will allow you to keep re-installable copies of all your drivers.

Any time I get a PC in for a full redo, I'll load this on the machine and grab all the drivers. Years ago I learned this the hard way after a spent a week hunting down a driver for a VIAO I reformatted. I was able to locate all the drivers save for one needed by the soundcard for its microphone input to work. (It wasn't a fun experience.) You can get Double Driver here.

One of the main reasons why you would want to collect installed drivers is if you don’t have the Driver CD that came with the computer or they are unavailable online. This comes in quite handy if you purchase a computer and want to backup the initial set of drivers. It can be quite difficulty for example to find drivers for hardware installed in a notebook if the operating system has to be setup again. Luckily Double Driver can now lend you a hand with that and save you a lot of time.

Double Driver is a very simple and useful tool which not only allows you to view all the drivers installed on your system but also allows you to backup, restore, save and print all chosen drivers.

Double Driver analyzes your system and lists the most important driver details such as version, date, provider, etc. All drivers that are found can easily be backed up the application and easily restored at a later point in one go.

  

3477

General Software Discussion / Re: Customizing a second (or more!) computer

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2013, 02:48 PM »

I suppose it would be a little too obvious to suggest keeping a list of your current favs and customizing notes someplace - like a notebook, text file, or database?   

I use Softvoile's Flashnote for this, and keep a file on each machine I use. Since it can be popped up with a hot key, it's great for impromptu jotting while still providing a standard dual-pane tree interface for whatever level of organization you feel you need to keep.
 

3478

General Software Discussion / Re: Help needed with computer problem

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2013, 10:49 AM »

^From that symptom, it sounds like your battery is mostly shot. Try replacing it if you don't have a battery tester to check it first. Most times it's a just a standard 3V lithium (like a CR2032). These batteries are inexpensive. And you can buy them anywhere - like a drugstore or a Target.
 

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General Software Discussion / Re: Help needed with computer problem

« Last post by 40hz on May 24, 2013, 10:35 PM »

I'll +1 with previous posts.

Once you have definitely ruled out a flaky power supply, video card, and the onboard battery,..

Do a hard reset to clear the POST/BIOS settings.

If that doesn't fix it, the first suspect is RAM. Download a copy of Memtest86+ and burn it to a disk. Boot off that and let it run (at least) overnight. If there's any bad RAM in there, Memtest86++ will spot it.

If your PC locks up while running Memtest86+ it's extremely likely that it's not the RAM that's your problem. (Which is bad news since RAM is easy to replace and not too expensive.)

 The second major suspect is likely a crack in the mobo - or a bad capacitor.

Unfortunately, there's no really easy way to diagnose either. You could try gently flexing the mobo while it's running to check for hidden cracks or a bad solder join somewhere on the board. But that's a very dangerous "test" to perform - and is usually only used as a last ditch verification after you plan on replacing the board anyway. I don't recommend it.

Testing a capacitor in circuit isn't doable without some equipment that would cost more than the average PC. And with surface mount and multilayer circuit boards, you probably couldn't replace a component even if you did identify a bad one.

If turns out it's a bad mobo, maybe it's time for a new board?

3480

Developer's Corner / GoogleCode announces removal of file download feature for hosted projects

« Last post by 40hz on May 24, 2013, 08:38 AM »

Just a heads up for anybody hosting a project on GoogleCode - Google is phasing out direct file downloads from the GoogleCode service.


Here's the official announcement from Google:

A Change to Google Code Download Service

Project Hosting on Google Code provides a free collaborative development environment for open source projects. Each project comes with its own member controls, Subversion/Mercurial/Git repository, issue tracker, wiki pages, and downloads service.

Downloads were implemented by Project Hosting on Google Code to enable open source projects to make their files available for public download. Unfortunately, downloads have become a source of abuse with a significant increase in incidents recently. Due to this increasing misuse of the service and a desire to keep our community safe and secure, we are deprecating downloads.

Starting today, existing projects that do not have any downloads and all new projects will not have the ability to create downloads. Existing projects with downloads will see no visible changes until January 14, 2014 and will no longer have the ability to create new downloads starting on January 15, 2014.  All existing downloads in these projects will continue to be accessible for the foreseeable future.

If your project is using downloads to host and distribute files and has a need to periodically create new downloads, we recommend you move your downloads to an alternate service like Google Drive before January 15, 2014. If you choose to move your files to Google Drive, check out our help article.

By Google Project Hosting

3481

Living Room / Patreon is a new crowd source funding platform for content creators

« Last post by 40hz on May 23, 2013, 08:36 AM »

Apparently there's a new wrinkle in the crowd funding world called Patreon. This one escapes from the Kickstarter project model and proposes ongoing financial support based on actual creative output.

TechDirt just did an article on it. And while I'll reserve an opinion as to how workable this will prove to be, it's still nice to see the experiments with alternative financing models are continuing. Link to TechDirt article here.

Cool New Platform For Supporting Artists: Patreon, From Jack Conte
from the nicely-done dept

I'm obviously a big fan of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, but I've always argued that it's just one of many models that content creators can use to succeed today. In fact, for a long time, I've felt that the biggest thing that was missing from Kickstarter was any sort of ongoing payment system. It's entirely project based, and thus it's not the best tool for ongoing revenue. For many years I've been interested in ideas for more ongoing revenue streams, and even proposed the idea of "subscribing" to a band's output nearly a decade ago. So it's good to see that some folks are exploring some of these ideas in much more detail.
.
.
 

There's a video up on YouTube which explains it all a bit more:

I'm not completely sold, either on Patreon's basic concept, or its long-term viability as a financing mechanism. But I've been wrong so many times when it comes to this sort of thing that I'm not inclined to dismiss it out of hand either.

Time will tell if this is workable. I wish them luck.

3482

Living Room / Re: Author and Book. Anybody know anything about either?

« Last post by 40hz on May 22, 2013, 06:54 AM »

^+1!

I'd definitely hit a bookstore or library and do some in depth skimming before I bought any semi-expensive tech book these days. Even the old diehards like O'Reilly and Sams have released some real klunkers in the last few years.

3483

Living Room / Re: Did you know DonationCoder has a Wikipedia article?

« Last post by 40hz on May 21, 2013, 02:39 PM »

They zapped Mouser bio page? What can you say? Supposedly Kurt Vonnegut once tried to correct some factual errors in a Wikipedia article somebody had written about him. The corrections were not accepted because, per Wikipedia's guidelines, Vonnegut cannot be considered a "reliable source" of information on Kurt Vonnegut.

Shades of the movie Back to School where Rodney Dangerfield's character hires Kurt Vonnegut (who puts in a brief cameo appearance) to write a school paper on himself. Dangefield's English Lit professor marks the paper "F" along with the comment "You obviously don't understand a the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut or his philosophy."
 

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Living Room / Re: Author and Book. Anybody know anything about either?

« Last post by 40hz on May 21, 2013, 02:25 PM »

I have a copy on my Nook. (Note: it's significantly cheaper buying it for the Kindle: $18 vs $22 from B&N.) Probably the best of what's currently available on the topic IMHO. I also like Stanek's Windows Command-Line Administrator's Pocket Consultant. Brian Knittel's book is better if you're just getting started writing scripts for Windows. He's been around for years and has always been considered a good writer when it comes to Windows topics.

3485

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on May 20, 2013, 07:10 AM »

An elegant version of Brian Eno's By This River arranged for solo bass and vodka glass by Andrea Lombardini. A superb example of what can happen when you remember an electric bass can be used for far more than slapping, popping, and speed riffs.

 

3486

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Multi-Edit Lite 2008 - Free MAY 19th

« Last post by 40hz on May 19, 2013, 10:30 AM »

Considering how the selection of a text editor is usually the start of a long-term relationship (since most people pick one and get really good at using it rather than try out each new editor as it comes out) it's important IMO to trust and respect the publisher.

When software publishers start playing games like this, I rapidly lose any interest in them or the products they offer - no matter how good or "better" they may be.

Truth is, a text editor is a text editor. It's a mature enough family of apps that virtually any "professional editor" will likely do the job just as well as another. The rest of what they do is more in the "nice to have" feature category.

With that in mind, I'd definitely steer clear of publishers that play licensing and word games with their terms and terminology. Even if it's a giveaway. Possibly even more so because it's (supposedly) a giveaway.


 

3487

Living Room / Re: What are Your Favorite YouTube Channels? Here are Mine for Board Games

« Last post by 40hz on May 18, 2013, 11:20 PM »

@Mouser - thx for the links to that in depth coverage of Arkham Horror. I'm a gaming fan much like yourself. I seldom have the time to play many games. But I too love reading about games, rule sets, and their design and development.

I'm also a diehard H.P. Lovecraft fan - so I've been looking wistfully at Chaosium/FantasyFlight's Arkham Horror (and the expansion packs) at B&N for about 10 years now, wondering of I might be able to someday justify the time and space needed (plus the commitment required since 'ArkHor" is a complex game), to get a circle of players together for it. Since the answer is "probably not," seeing it in action and listening to a discussion of its play mechanics and general strategy is the definitely next best thing.
 

3488

General Software Discussion / Gnome-Pie: a circular 'dock' type launcher for Linux

« Last post by 40hz on May 17, 2013, 09:28 AM »

Bumped into this app recently on one of my client's machines. It's written by Simon Schneegans and it's called Gnome-Pie. It's a tiered circular dock launcher that is actually quite nice. My client learned about it on the LinuxInsider website (link here) which has a review.

Here's what it looks like at the topmost level:



FWIW I'm not overly crazy about circle docks (or really any sort of dock) for the most part. But DonationCoder still preserves a sub-board for Eric Wong's GPL version of Circle Dock for Windows - so I'm guessing there is still some member interest in this sort of utility.

That said, this app looked pretty nice, was relatively easy to configure, worked smoothly (albeit on a relatively new i7 system with adequate RAM running Debian 7.0) and seemed to perform as advertised.

It also has some interesting design concepts that make it just a little different from your average dock app. Per the author:

Gnome-Pie

Gnome-Pie is a circular application launcher for Linux. It is made of several pies, each consisting of multiple slices. The user presses a key stroke which opens the desired pie. By activating one of its slices, applications may be launched, key presses may be simulated or files can be opened.

The concept of Gnome-Pie

Gnome-Pie is designed to be fun, fast and visually appealing. It implements Fitts’ law, which…

   [...] is a model of human movement primarily used in human–computer interaction and ergonomics that predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target.- Wikipedia

Many application launchers of today’s Linux desktops are made for people using their keyboard mainly. Launchers like Gnome-Do, Synapse, Kupfer, Unity’s Dash or Gnome-Shell’s Activities are designed for keyboard users. It’s necessary to type the first letters of the desired action in order to launch it.

Gnome-Pie uses a different approach: The user does not need to remember the name of an application – just the direction has to be remembered. Combined with the implementations of Fitts’ law – users don’t have to click directly on the icon of an action, but somewhere on the screen in its direction – Gnome-Pie is an alternative to text-based launchers.

The author also has a few Vimeo-hosted videos on his website showing Gnome-Pie in action.

Dunno...not really my cup of tea, but to paraphrase Abe Lincoln: If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you will like.
 

3489

General Software Discussion / Re: Office 2013 drops cleartype, fonts a disaster. Any way to fix it?

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2013, 08:30 PM »

Would people here be up for collecting signatures (the electronic equivalent) to show to MS that they should care about font rendering? I could set up a site for that, if there's interest.

-urlwolf (May 16, 2013, 08:07 PM)

Might be worth a try. But considering how receptive they've been to complaints and push-back on things like that 'ribbon' interface and Metro, - or their refusal to even consider bringing back the start button (at least until recently) - I wouldn't hold out much hope that a write-in campaign will matter all that much to the folks in Redmond. Especially on something like fonts, which they've never been to concerned about to begin with - other than to not have to license Type-1 postscript font technology from Adobe. That's the only reason Microsoft adopted TrueType to begin with.

Apple had developed TrueType - and gave it to Microsoft for free - to help establish TTF as the new de facto type technology. This all happened when Apple was battling with Adobe over Adobe's refusal to negotiate more reasonable licensing terms. Apple figured the best way to fight Adobe was to adopt a 'scorched earth' strategy and basically pull the rug out from under Adobe with their own free standard.

Microsoft, never a company to pay for something when it didn't have to, took Apple up on their offer - and the rest is history.  

3490

Living Room / Re: Microsoft keyboard sticking keys

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2013, 08:01 PM »

If the keyboard was balky from day one it's probably more because the keycaps and/or key posts are slightly bent, out of spec, or misaligned. That or the wells which they pass through are deformed or improperly manufactured. Lubrication won't fix that, and could possibly seep into things and cause additional problems down the line.

Whatever you use, just be sure it doesn't dissolve whatever they're using for the membrane or other contacts in the keyboard. The problem with that, however, is it usually won't happen right away. Some solvents and lubricants can take weeks or months before you experience a problem from them eating into or softening/hardening something enough to cause a failure.

For cleaning sticky contacts and keys, you could try a non-residue foaming contact cleaner available at Radio shack or an electronics supply store. But I'd be careful even with that.

When in doubt, compressed air  - or a 1-hour soak in distilled water, followed by a careful "blow out" with some compressed air, followed by a three or four day air dry - is still your safest and best bet. If that doesn't fix it, I'd suggest (as others have) you cut your losses and get a new keyboard if at all possible.

3491

Living Room / Re: Internet Sales Tax Passed

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2013, 12:56 AM »

Does selling from one state to another count as an export?  Because if so, my son pointed out that this tax would be unconstitutional:

Article I, Section 9, Clause 5:
No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

-Edvard (May 14, 2013, 08:56 PM)

IIRC, that article meant that the federal government did not have the authority to impose federal taxes or duties on interstate commerce. The states do, however, retain the right to tax as they will as long as it is not done with the intent to restrict or stop interstate commerce.

That's why I think it was so important to the state tax authorities that every state with a sales/use tax be assessing it on all internet purchases. If only a few states did it, there might be an argument made that it was really an attempt to impeded or obstruct interstate commerce as opposed to a simple plan to get more state tax revenue. Hence the federal regulation which is being enacted. And apparently it's being done with the consent of virtually every state government. At least AFAICT.

3492

Living Room / Re: SSD's - How They Work Plus Tips

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2013, 12:43 AM »

  No matter how you look at it, SSD's have a higher failure rate than hard drives, and until they get that problem fixed, I'll be sticking with my 7200 RPM drive......

-Tinman57 (May 14, 2013, 08:52 PM)

Yeah. There is that little problem...

Probably the main reason why I still shy away from them unless a client insists on getting one.

If they do opt for an SSD however, I'll always set up a chron job to image of the SSD over to a standard hard drive at least once every 24 hours. With 1-2TB SATA drive sizes, imaging the SSD system drive hardly puts a dent on the available disk space.

This way, when the fancy SSD ultimately shuffles off to Buffalo, all it takes is a drive swap, a boot from a USB key or CD, a few questions answered, and the SSD owner is back in business.

Better them than me. I'll wait a bit longer before I use them in any production environment I make the decisions for. To me, the extra speed is just not worth the reliability trade-offs at this stage of the game.

Maybe next year...

3493

Living Room / Re: SSD's - How They Work Plus Tips

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2013, 12:32 AM »

I ended up with dual 8 disc hot-swap controllers; mirrored set of 15,000RPM SAS drives for the host OS, and the guests all sit on an 8 disk 7200RPM Nearline SATA RAID 5 array.

-Stoic Joker (May 14, 2013, 10:31 PM)

Awesome! Muy macho...I like.

The system is stunningly fast, and I haven't seen the thread queue even get to 1 yet with 12 systems running on it.

Stunningly fast? Yeah...ya think?

Like I said: awesome.

3494

Living Room / Re: SSD's - How They Work Plus Tips

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2013, 07:36 PM »

...Yes, but these are all factors that are external to the central moving parts vs. non moving parts theme. As these are all factors that could effect either design by a users bad install, or by using a cheap MBoard.

If as mouser eludes all other possible random factors are fixed as accepted equals, and the distinction is narrowed to pro/con of moving vs. non moving designs ... In that context is makes sense.

-Stoic Joker (May 14, 2013, 05:52 PM)

Agree, but only up to a point since it's generally pointless to argue about specifications outside of the environment they're being applied to. Computers are systems, so there's no such thing really as something that exists in complete isolation as purely hardware or software. Every system incorporates both. And it's a balancing act as we all know too well.

But my professional activities deal mostly with "real world" performance issues. So I'm somewhat biased against absolute specs and biased towards practical suggestions and recommendations. And that usually means not reading too much into published specs or artificial test results.
 

3495

Living Room / Re: SSD's - How They Work Plus Tips

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2013, 04:29 PM »

A quick rule of thumb without getting too technical?

General best performance = SSD

Best current $/capacity ratio = standard HD

Pick your trade-off point. (Too soon to tell if those hybrid drives will eventually hit the sweet spot.)

3496

Living Room / Re: SSD's - How They Work Plus Tips

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2013, 03:14 PM »

f0dder can you elaborate -- that sounds like a reasonable statement to me -- though i am an admitted newbie when it comes to hardware.

-mouser (May 14, 2013, 12:47 PM)

that sounds like a reasonable statement to me

-mouser (May 14, 2013, 12:47 PM)

Me too ... But I'm not a hardware guy either. I was under the impression that (seek time being roughly fixed) latency was reduced by the higher spindle rates...which resulted in faster access times.

-Stoic Joker (May 14, 2013, 02:40 PM)

It's not so much he's wrong about 10,000 RPM being faster than 5400RPM - depending on what is meant by "faster.". But it's a mistake to simply equate raw spindle speed and cache size with disk performance, which is what he seems to be implying.

Partitioning, I/O  distribution on the disk, I/O bus width, cluster size, filesystem(s) used, and several other factors have a much more direct and measurable effect on overall performance than just the spindle speed or cache size.

Generally, the number of physical R/Ws per second and the transfer capacity in MB per second are a much more significant determinant of overall drive performance. And that is mostly achieved by the design of the controller, which is usually the single most critical part of the disk's hardware chain. And also why some slower spinning 'enterprise' drives can outperform much faster spinning 'consumer' grade desktop disks.

3497

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on May 09, 2013, 07:34 PM »

@k - thx for the heads up on  on that new bio. Looks really good!

3498

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Conflict with LibreOffice/OpenOffice

« Last post by 40hz on May 09, 2013, 03:00 PM »

I was able to resuscitate OpenOffice,

-f0dder (May 08, 2013, 02:40 PM)

Don't bother next time. Just go with Libre and allow 'Open' to be put out of its misery once and for all.

-------------------------

@mouser - I'll see if I can get that problem to replicate with my copy of LibreOffice4 when I get a chance.

3499

Living Room / Re: Adobe drops the gauntlet - going forward it's cloud - or nothing.

« Last post by 40hz on May 09, 2013, 02:20 PM »

To a certain extent, the whole "cloud" part of the announcement is a red herring. And about as substantial as a cloud - so it's an apt term in this context.

However, as CWuestefeld so neatly pointed out in an earlier post, it's a minor change in the delivery method and authorization mechanism for CS. But it's a seismic shift in the sales/pricing model. And that is what is really significant here.

What Adobe is saying is that their CS lineup is now only available as a monthly or annual rental.

Adobe can split hairs over definitions and terminology ("no, it's not a rental - it's software as a service") but what it basically comes down to is that the Creative Suite has now been put behind a paywall. And what makes this newsworthy is that Adobe is the first major vendor to do this with a de facto industry standard, non-enterprise, software title.

And if this move is accepted by Adobe's customer base, you'll see more and more software publishers follow in their footsteps.

Right now, Adobe has implemented this is a benign fashion. But down the road , who can guess what they might decide to do in the name of anti-piracy or whatever.



At the very least, Adobe now has complete control of all CS sales. And the only price available is now list price. There will be no more hunting for bargains on E-Bay or sales outside of Adobe's absolute control. And more importantly, there will be no more used software titles sold - something software publishers have been looking to stop for many years - even though the US courts have generally not been receptive to non-transferable license clauses attached to packaged products. So perhaps price control and eliminating the used software market was also part of the strategy behind this move.

Ready for a nightmare scenario? Far fetched though it may sound, consider what might happen if a patent dispute breaks out, and someone like Adobe gets a court order to partially or fully disable certain features - or possibly an entire product? This could become a whole new opportunity for patent trolls to have a field day with. And one more thing for software customers to worry about.

The more I think about the possibilities this move by Adobe opens up, the less I like what I'm thinking.

3500

Living Room / Re: Adobe drops the gauntlet - going forward it's cloud - or nothing.

« Last post by 40hz on May 09, 2013, 07:55 AM »

I've heard different experiences (described online) from people using CC over the last year. That could be bugginess in Adobe's implementation, but who cares - if it dont work, it dont work ...

-tomos (May 09, 2013, 07:18 AM)

Agree. I've heard both positive and negative stories about the experience.

I just hope Adobe took into consideration that CS is pretty much what gets used everywhere. So they'll need to be looking beyond the USA and Western Europe's infrastructures when it comes to things like connection availability, link reliability and time lags for their authorization system. Because not all Internet experiences are the same.

Making accommodations for connection quality is not an insurmountable challenge. It's actually somewhat easy to implement as long as you're aware and plan for it. And that 99 day 'no connection' window seems to have taken that into consideration.

I'm also guessing they have made some provision for providing semi-permanent authorization tokens for things like government secure locations (satellite reconnaissance, military, etc.) that won't allow outside Internet connections over their LANs for obvious reasons.

-----------------------------

(Note: Speaking of international - who knows? Maybe we'll see a Linux version of CS now that China is thumbing it's nose at Microsoft and bedding with Canonical to create their own official state OS. When it comes to market potential, 1.33 billion Chinamen can't be ignored with impunity! )