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351

General Software Discussion / Re: mapping_data_source::init error: file not found

« Last post by f0dder on April 03, 2015, 01:22 PM »

Se completo la comprobación de 38%
comprobation up to 38%
---
Protección de recursos de Windows no pudo realizar la operación solicitada.
Windows protected resources can't do the operation...

-Contro (April 03, 2015, 11:34 AM)

That doesn't sound too good.

I would try rebooting Windows in "safe mode with command prompt", and run the "sfc /scannow" again there. If that also fails, your install is in pretty bad condition. It could be corrupt Windows system files for whatever reason, it could be malware, it could be "security" software of the stupid kind.

P.D. I think I must explain how i use this bat:
Ditto is a great clip manager, even in network. But sometimes in my system (3 pc's) fails the connection. And one way to solve this is close and open ditto again....

-Contro (April 03, 2015, 12:10 PM)

Is there a reason you use the /f argument? Can't taskkill do a clean shutdown of ditto?

If you generally use the practice of /f'ing processes (whether with taskkill or by force-qutting from task manager), it's no wonder your system is acting wonky - that way of shutting down processes should only be done as a last resort.

352

General Software Discussion / Re: mapping_data_source::init error: file not found

« Last post by f0dder on April 03, 2015, 10:38 AM »

Right, so that happens before you even kill Ditto... seems fishy. Google results for mapping_data_source::init are obscure, with some Java hits (goosechase) and some russian stuff that talks about agnitum firewall - but also has good advice.

Something related to cmd.exe might be messed up on your machine - try running "sfc /scannow" from a cmd.exe started with administrative privileges. This starts Windows' System File Checker integrity check, which can sometimes repair problems.

353

General Software Discussion / Re: mapping_data_source::init error: file not found

« Last post by f0dder on April 03, 2015, 09:44 AM »

First of all, try running the batch file from a cmd.exe shell, or insert a "pause" statement at the end - that way, the console window won't disappear when the batch file is done executing.

Second, "taskkill /f"? Really? I wouldn't be surprised if Ditto (whatever that is) complains when you start it again, since that command is basically giving the program a headshot. Your headshot has probably caused corruption in some data file it uses.

354

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by f0dder on April 03, 2015, 09:37 AM »

Posting from within Spartan

Posting this from the new Project Spartan browser in Windows 10 b10049 ... It's definitely fast. Really, really fast.

-Stoic Joker (April 02, 2015, 02:10 PM)

Does it use multiple executables?

-MilesAhead (April 02, 2015, 02:49 PM)

Yes, I'm showing 4 listed in TM just to get here - New tab == new .exe instance.

-Stoic Joker (April 03, 2015, 06:49 AM)

Does it do that for every tab? One of the things previous versions of IE was smart about, was doing tab/process grouping - so, unlike insane-o chrome, you don't end up with a zillion processes not executables. The separation of "UI" and "Worker" processes seems like a sound thing to do, but each site in its own processes is... ugh (sure, there's some security implications, but mostly it smells like a "uh, threading and async is hard" thing to me).

355

Non-Windows Software / Re: List of 40 inexpensive single-board Linux friendly computers

« Last post by f0dder on April 02, 2015, 03:47 AM »

Perhaps your work-around for getting an ext4 root fs is less trouble than trying to achieve the same end with something like VirtualBox (possibly with its extension pack).

-ewemoa (April 02, 2015, 03:29 AM)

Well, VirtualBox probably supports raw device access (vmware certainly does), but that would still have required a Linux install - might as well see how current-gen Ubuntu runs on my old laptop (runs pretty decently, but still can't resume from standby... *sigh*)

356

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by f0dder on April 01, 2015, 01:07 PM »

Maybe the Q here is whether you need to bother with a programming language at all - e.g., if (say) you could do most of it with an Access database and/or with Excel spreadsheets?   
I've seen that happen before...

-IainB (April 01, 2015, 11:16 AM)

So have I - hence why I've got nervous twitches right now

357

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by f0dder on April 01, 2015, 05:42 AM »

To me the intersection is where a business manager says "I want X because I think X adds value. Tech, you pick which language best produces X without too many time sinks that drag the project into a moldy swamp." The business manager should always be "first" to look for value ... then *very quickly* go consult with tech to make sure to avoid pointy-head blunders.

-TaoPhoenix (April 01, 2015, 04:58 AM)

Amen.

You also do want a bizman with decent tech background, so you don't end up with a primadonna developer who decides that The Project must be built with a New And Exciting stack built on top of Ruby on Rails, which turns out to be unsupported after a half a year, when the primadonna developer has left for greener startup pastures... but this is drifting somewhat from the concerns about choosing a proper language, presumably, for your own personal interests

358

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by f0dder on April 01, 2015, 05:39 AM »

Miles, you are absolutely right. Not is OOP old hat, but it is the preferred, 'modern' way of doing things now. Maybe I'm the odd one out, but when people say C++ is difficult to learn and master, I have to say I found it to be quite easy, but I've got a 'big picture' way of thinking. I can look at a whole and easily break it down into modular components.

-Innuendo (March 31, 2015, 08:15 PM)

I think you're missing my point - you're basically talking about software architcture/design, whereas I'm talking about C++ specifically as a language. Anybody who claims C++ is easy to master is either a demigod, or... *cough* would be surprised at the amount of bugs if he ran a commercial static analyzer on his codebase

There's an extreme amount of Undefined Behavior in C++ - it's one of the reasons the compilers can do all those clever tricks and produce blazing fast code, but it also means there's plenty of subtle ways to blow off your feet... which probably will not show up in your compiler warnings, and will only cause problems in some constellation of compiler (and version), other parts of your code, and the phase of the moon. If you want performance, there's also a bunch of not always so obvious things you have to keep in mind.

It's not without good reason the industry has largely moved to Java and C# for the mainstream stuff - it's a mix of choosing the most appropriate language for the domain, and sticking with a language where you wont have team members blowing each others legs off . As much as I like C++ (especially with the '11 and '14 versions), I wouldn't recommend it unless it specifically makes sense for the domain in question.

Which brings us back to the original post: the first thing iMark mentions is automation. I'd be hard pressed to find something more suitable for that than AutoIt when the platform is Windows - it less red tape and ritual chicken sacrifices for that domain

Later he mentions "I am also not interested in learning a terminal language as I will most likely never actually have a practical use for it myself." and "I want to learn one of the two listed above and be able to get into making a few games and applications.". I'd definitely say C# for that... it's much easier & more enjoyable to do GUIs in, there's less language pitfalls, and if you want to play around with game writing... couple it with Unity you have a very capable platform with decent performance, where you can focus on the fun parts instead of getting all the plumbing done.

.5€

359

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by f0dder on March 31, 2015, 01:25 PM »

Innuendo: C++ is hard to get right, at least if you are about performance and correctness (and if you don't care about performance, I honestly believe there's better choices available for most purposes). Especially with all the really bad advice and examples around on the net - it might not be as cringeworthy and dangerous as the bad PHP advice, but it's still not easy to learn how to do modern, secure, and performing C++

360

Non-Windows Software / Re: List of 40 inexpensive single-board Linux friendly computers

« Last post by f0dder on March 31, 2015, 01:07 PM »

Thanks for the recommendation, ewemoa - arch seems like a pretty good fit for the raspi2. Installation was slightly annoying, though, since there's no images available. I pondered whether I should accept running the root filesystem as vfat (since that's what I could create from my work macbook) - but ended up transferring a Ubuntu ISO to an usb pendrive, boot my old laptop from that, and get an ext4 root fs.

4wd: that would probably work, but it would be clumsy, and I've found USB to generally be somewhat fidgety when it comes to network stuff :/ - would be cool if one could exchange a block of USB ports for a NIC.

361

Non-Windows Software / Re: Any Android coders here? Looking for a mobile DC forum reader!

« Last post by f0dder on March 31, 2015, 01:01 PM »

I'm usually not a big fan of (read: vehemently against) all those darn special-purpose apps, but I'll have to admit that the forums aren't too fun to interact with on a phone... even on a 7" tablet, it's painful.

Perhaps the pain could be alleviated with some mobile stylesheets, instead of a fullblown app?

362

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by f0dder on March 29, 2015, 12:19 PM »

I have to admit I get a kick out of JCD.  But I still refuse to try his keyboard.  Qwerty all the way for me!! 

-MilesAhead (March 29, 2015, 11:10 AM)

O_o

363

Living Room / Re: New Bill Would Repeal Patriot Act

« Last post by f0dder on March 29, 2015, 05:15 AM »

American Politics...I R Bored!

-Stephen66515 (March 27, 2015, 05:00 PM)

Patriot Act affects all of us, because of its sheer crazyness.

364

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by f0dder on March 29, 2015, 05:08 AM »

C++ is my favorite language, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody who doesn't need it. While modern C++ is nice, the language does have a lot of pitfalls, and there's a lot of bad advice and bad code on the internet.

For your purpose of automating stuff, AutoHotkey or AutoIt would probably be the best choices on Windows - they were made for the purpose of automation, and has support for movey-clickey stuff out of the box.

For general-purpose stuff, C# is very, very nice. It's "fast enough", the language has a lot of nice extra that Java misses, there's really no better IDE than Visual Studio, and it's easier to do GUIs in C# than Java (because of available tools and frameworks).

365

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: I have put a "share with facebook" type thing on the pages (temporarily?)..

« Last post by f0dder on March 29, 2015, 04:14 AM »

Looks like Ghostery took care of them, so they do not bother me .

-Jibz (March 29, 2015, 03:48 AM)

Ghostery took care of them for me too, but anything that is blocked by Ghostery is a thing i do not want on DoCo.

366

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: I have put a "share with facebook" type thing on the pages (temporarily?)..

« Last post by f0dder on March 29, 2015, 04:12 AM »

If you really want to keep social-media-sharing buttons, please make it 100% DoCo-hosted. The traditional "use script from external source" is a big, big, BIG no-go, as their main purpose is not to make sharing easy, but being tracking beacons.

Also, this site is not inhabited by morons who don't know how to copy/paste an URL, so I don't really see what value they add.

367

Living Room / Re: 10th Anniversary - long time member check-in thread

« Last post by f0dder on March 27, 2015, 11:49 AM »

hahaha did I already send that out?  my memory has never been my best quality.

-mouser (March 27, 2015, 11:46 AM)

Nor mine, but I'd never forget about my two DC mugs

I don't think the "over nine thousand!" mug got made, though, and a "lost sheep" one would be cute ^_^

368

Non-Windows Software / Re: List of 40 inexpensive single-board Linux friendly computers

« Last post by f0dder on March 27, 2015, 11:46 AM »

One nice thing about the C1 over the RPi/2 is the gigabit ethernet. I was planning to use my C1 as a Plex media server or other Owncloud/NAS type device, and I thought having a fast connection to the network would be really useful for that.

-Deozaan (March 22, 2015, 09:33 PM)

Can you hook storage to it in a way that's fast enough that gigabit matters?

Personally I'd like two see two NICs (100mbit would be fine), that would make for a very nice and capable router/firewall

369

Non-Windows Software / Re: List of 40 inexpensive single-board Linux friendly computers

« Last post by f0dder on March 27, 2015, 11:38 AM »

If I had a RPi2 (he he), I might consider the following:
 http://archlinuxarm....adcom/raspberry-pi-2

-ewemoa (March 22, 2015, 06:06 PM)

Oh, Arch is still around, and there's a native arm7 version? That might actually be the perfect distro for the (relatively) limited hardware, especially if it hasn't bloated up since back when I used it.

370

Living Room / Re: 10th Anniversary - long time member check-in thread

« Last post by f0dder on March 27, 2015, 11:35 AM »

f0dder you have already earned the never-yet-created, occasionally mentioned, 5000 post mug.
if we could find someone to design that mug..

-mouser (March 27, 2015, 11:26 AM)

I sortakinda think nudey made a design like that?

Not sure why I get that idea, though...

371

Living Room / Re: 10th Anniversary - long time member check-in thread

« Last post by f0dder on March 27, 2015, 11:07 AM »

ps.
I hope none of you current regulars get any funny ideas from this thread and make plans to disappear for a few years just to get the lost sheep treatment ! 
Don't even think about it!!!!!

-mouser (March 24, 2015, 02:52 PM)

Better keep us reined in with a "lost sheep" mug, then!

372

Non-Windows Software / Re: List of 40 inexpensive single-board Linux friendly computers

« Last post by f0dder on March 22, 2015, 01:49 PM »

Speaking of the RPi2, I ended up buying one last months, because a bunch of my co-workers made a group purchase.

Not sure what to stick on it yet, though - as far as I can tell, Raspian is still built for arm6, and Ubuntu Core is in a veeeery pre-prerelease state (snappy seems like a nice idea, but there's only a handful of packages for it - the system doesn't even have a compiler or vim yet).

So, are there any decent arm7 RasPi2-friendly Linux distros out there?

373

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by f0dder on March 22, 2015, 11:18 AM »

Windows 10 makes disabling UEFI Secure Boot optional:

-Deozaan (March 21, 2015, 03:26 PM)

Meh, that sucks

374

Living Room / Re: Anyone getting a Pebble Time?

« Last post by f0dder on March 19, 2015, 04:12 PM »

So, they're kinda cute, but...

The cheapest available on kickstarter now is $179, and the retail price for one is going to be $199? I know it's pretty fancy and all, but that's a lot of cash for a watch - you can get a OnePlus smartphone, which is by no means tardy, for $299.

375

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by f0dder on March 19, 2015, 03:11 PM »

Aside from all the Apps vs Desktop and plain Jane UI vs Glass, it seems each release of Windows sticks more stuff between the OS and the user.  It's to the point where just reading windows and moving them on the desktop requires utilities to Run As Administrator.  A bit silly really. 

-MilesAhead (January 04, 2015, 03:32 PM)

Tightening up security is a good thing. Most stuff that breaks on newer Windows versions are usually violating basic rules that have been around since the days of NT4.

Not being able to read another process' windows without admin privs might be a bit of a chore, but it does up the bar for malware. Considering Windows is the OS for the 99%, this is A Good Thing(TM). And going through UAC (or, better, for us power users, providing credentials for the admin user since our main Windows user isn't an administrator) isn't really worse than using sudo on *u*x.