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Recent Posts

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3526
Living Room / Re: Most BitTorrent users being monitored by copyright agencies, study finds
« Last post by 4wd on September 06, 2012, 05:07 AM »
Go to ScanEye and click Check IP - see what it says you've torrented, (copyrighted stuff via public trackers only, AFAICT).

It picked up the one *cough* Linux ISO *cough* that I downloaded 3 months ago - imagine my horror when it turned out to be a movie 

Of course, if you use private trackers, encryption, etc then you'll understandably get not much.  If you use a VPN provider that dynamically allocates your gateway IP then you might get a list of files that others or yourself have torrented via that IP.
3527
Living Room / Re: 2G Quad Band in a 3G/4G World
« Last post by 4wd on September 02, 2012, 11:50 PM »
Another map here: GSM Bands information by country
3528
General Software Discussion / Re: Checking Bad sector in HDD and ExtHDD
« Last post by 4wd on August 30, 2012, 09:26 PM »
You got that right, I slammed my fist down on my desk a few months ago - a month later a 1.5TB suffered head detachment.
-4wd (June 26, 2012, 07:16 AM)

And this is why it's not a good idea to get extremely annoyed while the drives are spinning:

IMG_5038.JPG

All three platters were the same on both sides.
3529
General Software Discussion / Re: data recovery tool, [i]on a network drive[/i]
« Last post by 4wd on August 30, 2012, 09:13 PM »
Remove the drive from the network and attach it directly, (via SATA or USB), to a computer to do the recovery, (preferably a computer with the software already installed) - this is probably the best course as it removes the possibility of the drive being written to by something else on the network.

You didn't say what type of network drive, eg. your basic single purpose NAS, PC running an OS doing NAS functions, etc.

For a PC based NAS, there are programs that allow recovery from network drives, commercial only I think, eg. R-Studio and NAS Data Recovery.

Personally, (for the free alternative), I'd attach the drive to a computer and try Recuva, if that didn't work on a initial scan I'd try TestDisk/PhotoRec.
3530
Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?
« Last post by 4wd on August 28, 2012, 01:51 AM »
Currently reading:

77-shadow-street.jpg

Update: If you want to read a Koontz novel for the first time - I recommend you don't start with this one.  After reading this and then going back to read the reviews on Amazon I'd have to agree with almost every person who gave it 3 stars or less.  This is one of the most tedious books I've ever waded through and I ended up just skip-reading whole pages at a time, (possibly about 30% of the book as a whole).  His Frankenstein series is far, far better than this.
3531
General Software Discussion / Re: Portable Firewall
« Last post by 4wd on August 26, 2012, 05:45 AM »
Windows7FirewallControl has a free portable version.
3532
Living Room / Re: Apple v Samsung Verdict is in
« Last post by 4wd on August 26, 2012, 01:02 AM »
Pessimism: a world where we spend all our lives looking over our shoulders in case we may have infringed some obscure, never used, BS patent owned by some troll company.
-superboyac (August 25, 2012, 11:25 PM)

Fixed it.
3533
General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... maritime chart software
« Last post by 4wd on August 25, 2012, 01:44 AM »
OpenCPN ?

cover.png

Features
  • BSBv3 raster and S57 ENC chart support.
  • CM93 vector chart support, with per cell offset corrections.
  • IHO S52 compliant display of S57 vector charts.
  • "BSB4" and "nv-chart" support through plugins.
  • Single-chart and Quilted display modes.
  • North-up, Course-up and Chart-up display modes.
  • Moving-map display mode.
  • Route navigation with ship tracking functions.
  • Waypoint navigation.
  • Dashboard for configurable on-screen display of ship's NMEA data.
  • NMEA 0183 GPS interface at selectable baud rate.
  • OpenGL support for enhanced performance on modern hardware.
  • gpsd library support.
  • Autopilot output support.
  • AIS input with full target tracking and collision alerting.
  • AIS support for SART, DSC and GPSGate Buddies.
  • Anchor watch/alarm functions.
  • GRIB file input and display for weather forecasting.
  • GPX Waypoint, Track and Route input and output file support.
  • Route planning with tidal support.
  • GPX Layers for annotation of charts.
  • Tide and Current prediction and display by location.
  • A growing number of plugins. Google Earth, World Magnetic Variation, Voyage Data Recorder, AIS -radar and a LogBook.
  • Multi-language support.

FYI section:
Search: windows marine chart plotter
Gave: Free Open Chart Plotter -> OpenCPN
3534
General Software Discussion / Re: Steps to Flash the HP ENVY 14 laptop's Matshita DVD RAM - to make it Region-free
« Last post by 4wd on August 24, 2012, 05:42 PM »
Another DOH! moment:  This is a laptop DVD writer, I don't think I've ever seen or heard of one that can read/write a DVD faster than 8x.

I strongly suspect that the initial speed reported was for CDs and that with the firmware flash the drive now reports its true DVD read/write speeds.

An easy way to find out would be to put a known good quality blank in, (eg. TYG03), and see what speeds ImgBurn reported as possible for it, (bit late now in this case).

eg. Pioneer DVR-217
2012-08-25_17-56-57.jpg

Specs on this site seem to indicate this is the case, so you've actually lost nothing.
3535
General Software Discussion / Re: Steps to Flash the HP ENVY 14 laptop's Matshita DVD RAM - to make it Region-free
« Last post by 4wd on August 24, 2012, 12:48 PM »
Are they still putting the Regional Coding enhancement (RCE) on some disks?
-40hz (August 24, 2012, 06:28 AM)

I think so, doesn't really affect me because I don't playback DVDs on my PC but I do tangentially notice it when ripping....errr...creating a backup, that it's been removed.

Let's be honest, do you really expect the MAFIAA to accept that one of their restrictive practices was a complete failure and just dump it overnight?
 ;D

Right, knew that part. Back when, I spent a lot of time SlipStreaming Service Packs and burning OS disks so 6x is a bit fast for (that type of) a solid burn. :)
-Stoic Joker (August 24, 2012, 06:52 AM)

errr yeah, sorry... :-[

My concern was not so much that it had capped the write speed (however shouldn't vs. can't is a factor), but that it had capped the read speed also.

The only time the read cap is going to hit is when you rip the discs, IIRC, if you play back a DVD from the drive it's only read at 1x.

Of course, it'll also come into effect for data discs but we're mainly talking about DVD video if we're talking RPC.

Also, most DVD drives cap the read speed of video DVDs at about 8x anyway, (some can go to 16x), so that you normally have to flash with a RipLockw patch firmware if you want to rip a DVD any faster.
3536
Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by 4wd on August 24, 2012, 06:56 AM »
A male patient is lying in bed in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. A young, student nurse appears to give him a partial sponge bath.
Nurse', he mumbles, from behind the mask. 'Are my testicles black?'

Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, 'I don't know, Sir. I'm only here to wash your upper body and feet.'

He struggles to ask again, 'Nurse, please check. Are my testicles black?'

Concerned that he may elevate his blood pressure and heart rate from worry about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and pulls back the covers. She raises his gown, holds his manhood in one hand and his testicles in the other.

Then, she takes a close look and says, There's nothing wrong with them, Sir!'

The man pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her and says very slowly, 'Thank you very much. That was wonderful, but, listen very, very closely......


Spoiler
A r e - m y - t e s t - r e s u l t s - b a c k?


3537
Living Room / Re: Hyperrealism in Action
« Last post by 4wd on August 23, 2012, 11:46 PM »
Yeah, one of my many shortcomings, my bad, should have put the reference  :-[
3538
Living Room / Re: Hyperrealism in Action
« Last post by 4wd on August 23, 2012, 10:49 PM »
Just quoting from the article, i.e.

Silva’s medium of choice is standard Bic ballpoint pens on paper and this particular portrait uses eight different colors, taking some 30 hours to complete.
-wraith808 (August 23, 2012, 09:42 PM)

From the FAQ relating to this specific picture:

Q:How many colors do you have and what pens are these?
A: I have 8 colored Bic ballpoint pens, for this I used 6 of them plus black. They are just common everyday ballpoint pens.

Not trying to pick you apart or anything but you have to admit it's even more remarkable when he's using less colours :D
3539
General Software Discussion / Re: Steps to Flash the HP ENVY 14 laptop's Matshita DVD RAM - to make it Region-free
« Last post by 4wd on August 23, 2012, 07:49 PM »
Wouldn't the drop in read/write speed be cause for concern?
-Stoic Joker (August 23, 2012, 11:12 AM)

A lower write speed will generally mean a better quality write, I don't write at anything above 6x - not unless I don't want a disc to be read on the majority of playback devices.

Q: Aren't all drives manufactured after 2000 or 2001 RPC2? I thought I read that somewhere. :huh: Or did that just apply to drives sold in the USA?
-40hz (August 23, 2012, 06:39 PM)

Yes, all drives are should be RPC2, (part of the DVD Alliance/Forum, **AA, MPEG-LA entanglement), but you can still flash them back to RPC1 to get around region encoding, (well, TBH, I haven't seen a recent factory drive that wasn't RPC2, eg. LiteOn, Samsung, Pioneer, Optiarc, Benq or LG, but I guess that doesn't mean they don't exist).

From memory the basic difference between them was the way the region was requested/reported.

For RPC1:
DVD: "Hi, I'm region 4."
Drive: "OK, I can play you."

For RPC2:
DVD: "Hi, what region are you?"
Drive: "I'm region 0, (ie. free)."
Drive: "Hello? Are you still there?"

Flashing the drive to RPC1 allowed you to make it region free.  RPC2 put the onus on the DVD software/encoding to check whether the drive was of the correct region which, at the time, was harder to bypass.  If the drive reports itself as RPC1 then it falls back to the old way of doing things which allowed for region free.

These days you can rip a DVD removing the region encoding in the process which kind of makes the whole region thing moot unless, of course, you are an honest, law-abiding person....in which case you're screwed.

For drive info, if you use ImgBurn you can go to the Tools->Drive menu to check capabilities/region/etc.
3540
Living Room / Re: Hyperrealism in Action
« Last post by 4wd on August 23, 2012, 07:33 PM »
... and only 8 colors!
-wraith808 (August 23, 2012, 11:40 AM)

He only used 6 plus black for this ;)
3541
Living Room / Re: Shake Your Head & Look At This Pic
« Last post by 4wd on August 20, 2012, 06:25 PM »
Looks at picture, shakes head.....


I think some people have too much free time.
3542
Living Room / Re: Shake Your Head & Look At This Pic
« Last post by 4wd on August 20, 2012, 12:40 AM »
When I scan the barcode I get this:

NSFD
beijing-roast-duck.gif

3543
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: CD jewel case insert file list
« Last post by 4wd on August 19, 2012, 01:07 AM »
Couldn't you use Word, (or equivalent), along with a template ?

That's what I've done for the last 10 years or so.
3544
Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by 4wd on August 18, 2012, 06:12 AM »
Tangentially related to the topic meme: If you're not working, nothing is NSFW!
-TaoPhoenix (August 18, 2012, 03:15 AM)

Look at me I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day
3545
Living Room / Re: CodyOS
« Last post by 4wd on August 16, 2012, 09:09 PM »
I think it would look better if the progressbar was a stack of gold coins or a money thermometer.
3546
Living Room / Re: Wikileaks - Julian Assange Granted Asylum by Ecuador
« Last post by 4wd on August 16, 2012, 07:10 PM »
Considering the happiness with which the UK hand over its own citizens to the USA, I don't know why he should be so concerned about Sweden ;)
3547
Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?
« Last post by 4wd on August 16, 2012, 08:07 AM »
Forgot to mention OHM requires .NET 2+ so that might cut down on it's usefulness as a portable monitor.
3548
Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?
« Last post by 4wd on August 15, 2012, 08:28 PM »
Using RegShot, OpenHardwareMonitor doesn't appear to store anything in registry and HWiNFO, (portable version), stores some sensor parameters in the registry but will work whether they are there or not, (just rescans the next time it's run).

OpenHardwareMonitor:
2012-08-16_11-30-03.jpg

HWiNFO:
2012-08-16_11-28-15.jpg

HWiNFO you can choose what sensors to display, OHM you can't but you can collapse the ones you're not interested in.
3549
Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?
« Last post by 4wd on August 15, 2012, 09:04 AM »
Good luck finding that - and really, the screen on any phone is too small for that.
-f0dder (August 14, 2012, 01:18 PM)

I've found this issue to be very dependent on the person doing the reading. I've read full ebooks off my Nokia S60's tiiiiny, crappy display. :)
-nosh (August 15, 2012, 02:32 AM)

+1 here, I've read a hundred or so epub/txt ebooks on my two 320x240 2.4" androids - don't notice it once I get into the book, just turn the pages faster.

But for anything that won't reformat to the screen size, forget it.
3550
Living Room / Re: In search of ... audio mavens
« Last post by 4wd on August 13, 2012, 09:26 PM »
Problem seems to be by design (can the behavior be disabled?).
-Stoic Joker (August 13, 2012, 11:41 AM)

Earphone sockets used to normally incorporate a physical switch that disconnects output to the speakers, (either directly or indirectly), when the plug is inserted - only way to bypass that is solder across the switch contacts, (easiest method).

These days they probably detect the presence of earphones by the impedance - there may be a way to override output switching via the service menu but, naturally, you have to know whether it can be done, how to get into the service menu and where the option is hidden, (may be nothing more than a hex value).

Note that you can do an awful lot of damage, (ie. brick your TV), while you're in a Service Menu - not something to be done lightly.
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