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3576

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 4wd on August 03, 2012, 03:50 AM »

Other manufacturers that I'd checked had mostly 1~1.5 MH MTBF (IIRC). I'd also read in several places about people having SSDs die suddenly within a year. Considering there are only 8,760 hours in a year, it really has to make you question things a bit. 1 year is about 0.5% of the rated life.

-Renegade (August 03, 2012, 12:21 AM)

No, it makes perfect sense.

MTBF = Mean Time Between Failures

That means you need to start with at least one failure to have a time "between" failures - so you can be sure you have a useful SSD life of 1000000 hours before you need to get worried again.

 

3577

Living Room / Re: Google Fiber

« Last post by 4wd on August 01, 2012, 05:28 PM »

Still,

$3/month averaged over 7 years  (Google Fiber)
$6/month over 1 year   (VPN with multiple exit gateways)

For $9/month I'd think you'd still be well ahead compared to a normal ISP, have some security against Google, (or at least no worse off than you already are), plus be better insulated against the MAFIAA and any Federal acronyms.

Sign me up!

3578

Living Room / Re: esata vs. USB...fight!

« Last post by 4wd on July 31, 2012, 03:22 AM »

I've had multiple motherboards with eSATA, I've had external eSATA enclosures - some that worked with th eSATA ports and some that didn't.

It was a crap-shoot whether the enclosure I bought would deign to work with the eSATA port on the motherboard.

USB3, for me, has proven to be both fast and reliable - the only time I now use the eSATA port is to plug a bare drive into it, (eSATA->SATA cable), that always works because it's not relying on some interface chip in the enclosure.

3579

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 boot time woes ... anyone any ideas?

« Last post by 4wd on July 30, 2012, 07:50 AM »

AFAIK, the Primary System partition is the one that contains the Windows directory of the system you are currently running on.

If you choose to boot off of the HDD based Windows, that becomes the Primary System, if you choose to boot off of the SSD based Windows, then that becomes the Primary System.

Makes perfect sense to me, after all, if you specified that the hibernate file for the SSD is on the HDD, what stops it getting overwritten if/when the HDD based Windows goes into Hibernation?

What does Disk Management show for the characteristics of the SSD when you've booted off of it?

As stated here, the bootloader doesn't have the capacity to deal with all the various drive configurations, (RAID, etc), it contains a minimalistic filesystem driver, the driver for anything more complex is contained within the hibernate file - so what do you do?

You make sure that the bootloader can load the hibernate file and to do this you put it where it's guaranteed to be able to be read - on the drive containing the current OS.

3580

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 boot time woes ... anyone any ideas?

« Last post by 4wd on July 30, 2012, 05:33 AM »

Now all I have to figure out is how to move hiberfil.sys from C: to the boot drive. MS suggest this is the default arrangement so I can't quite see why I have a hiberfil.sys on drive C: ??? Maybe I will diable hibernation and remove that file and then reenable and see if it does what it is meant to do!

-Carol Haynes (July 29, 2012, 02:19 PM)

This answer states that the hibernate file has to live on the Primary System partition.

3581

General Software Discussion / Re: Ripping My DVD Collection

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2012, 08:27 PM »

I was going to start a thread last week about this issue.

-superboyac (July 28, 2012, 04:20 PM)

Short memory?

You did start a topic  

FWIW, a decent GPU will compensate for an underpowered CPU, example: AMD E350 CPU with integrated GPU and, of course, the Raspberry Pi.  In the case of Windows, this comes down to whether or not the playback software utilises the GPU either via DXVA or directly via AMD/nVidia drivers.

A sufficiently beefy CPU will compensate for a underpowered GPU, in this case the playback software isn't so important since the CPU will take up the slack.  But then why use a CPU when GPUs that can do the job are so cheap, (<AU$50), allowing the CPU to do something more useful, (or just run quieter/cooler).

Then you have a case where the GPU/CPU are balanced, (power-wise), to perform the task, something like the system at Newegg you mentioned.

RAM is not so important, it's just the amount required to run the OS efficiently - take the Raspberry Pi as an example again, 256MB is all it has and 1080p playback works fine.  For Windows, the today's base standard of 4GB would be more than enough.

EDIT: 40 jumped in ahead of me - there's videos on YouTube of the RPi playing 1080p, eg. RPi playing Big Buck Bunny

3582

General Software Discussion / Re: Ripping My DVD Collection

« Last post by 4wd on July 28, 2012, 03:05 AM »

Just out of curiosity, does anybody have a recommendation for what a very good (or hopefully best quality) procedure would be for ripping a commercial movie DVD for storage on a home media server to be played on a hi-def TV? I'm less concerned about file size than I am about picture and audio quality.

-40hz (July 27, 2012, 09:19 PM)

Just out of curiosity, exactly how much less concerned about file size are you ?

Optimal video/audio quality will be retained by not doing any trans-coding at all, this means up to 8.5GB for dual layer DVD or 4.7GB for single layer.  ie. Ripping your DVDs to either a standard DVD folder layout or to a single MPEG program/transport stream file for the main movie.

DLNA media servers will trans-code to suit the DLNA client specifications.

The next best format, (IMO), would be MPEG4-AVC (High Profile/Film) + passthru audio, (ie. whatever audio format is on the DVD - DTS, AC3, etc), in an MKV container.

For ripping to a folder, the only program I've used for the last 5 years or so has been RipIt4Me, from there I either drop it onto VidCoder for MPEG4-AVC MKV or use VideoReDo TV Suite to create a MPEG-TS/PS.

3583

General Software Discussion / Re: Ripping My DVD Collection

« Last post by 4wd on July 27, 2012, 08:57 PM »

Depending on the final format, I use either:

VidCoder which a more user-friendly version of HandBrake, (using Normal profile but changed for MKV container), or
StaxRip if I want to end up with an AVI.

Outputs from both look fine on my WDTV Live.

3584

Living Room / Re: In search of ... cookie viewer w/create date

« Last post by 4wd on July 27, 2012, 08:03 PM »

As you've mentioned, Cookie Spy appears to be the only complete cross-browser program, why not send them a suggestion for the creation date?

You didn't mention LSO^ws either.

3585

Living Room / Re: Google Fiber

« Last post by 4wd on July 27, 2012, 07:38 PM »

I can't help but wonder with the Google Network/Storage Box exactly how long it would be before the contents of any computer connected to it start appearing in Google searches....

Google Search: "The Dark Knight Rises" mkv movie

Results: None found but Fred Jones at 43 Piratez Drive, Berkeley, California has 1 copy on the Windows 8 PC connected to port 3 of his Network Box.
Options: Fetch file or Report to MPAA?

3586

Post New Requests Here / Re: Create a file list from multiple folders

« Last post by 4wd on July 24, 2012, 11:48 PM »

I was actually writing something to do this but found I didn't need to:

SMF by Kafu

It has excessive search filter capabilities and a SQLite driven result reporting tool, with which you can sub-filter the results according to your needs.

It's fast and it does indeed have excessive filtering - a universe ahead of anything I could have written



1. Select your directories
2. Specify any filename filtering and check the Attributes, Date Created/Modified.
3. Click Pre-filter files.
4. Uncheck System, Hidden, Directory, etc.
5. Click Search.



6. Click Show report and again on the next window.



You can sort by clicking on the column.

3587

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Are any of the files missing???

« Last post by 4wd on July 23, 2012, 07:25 AM »

UPDATE (v0.5) here:

• Using a much faster sort routine.

@nkormanik:  Using the file tree you sent me, it was taking a ridiculously long time to sort the list, (I gave up waiting), so it may have failed because of something in the old sort routine.

New version goes through ~368000 files in about 10 seconds on my computer.

3588

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Batch adjust shortcut targets

« Last post by 4wd on July 23, 2012, 04:10 AM »

Thanks - I might have to slow it down a bit, it found 768780 shortcuts in 13.5 seconds - hardly enough time to make a cuppa.

Slightly better than the 62 seconds that v0.3 took.

UPDATE (v0.5) here:

• Scanning for shortcuts is a bit faster, (relies on DOS dir command).
• Saves position of main window and test output window, (will be saved when the respective window is closed).
• Saves state of checkboxes.
• Can interrupt shortcut processing, (not scanning though) - log file will open by default when interrupted.
• Added a statusbar so it looks like it doing something.

3589

Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Insert text string to front / end of each line in a text file

« Last post by 4wd on July 23, 2012, 12:05 AM »

I will try and keep all my uploads uniquely named enough so that they keep the "small" and "large" label- my quick tests now is keeping them.

-flowowery (July 22, 2012, 11:50 PM)

It's not necessary to have them labelled "small"/"large", as long as there's a way to differentiate between the two is all that's required.

eg. All the images are in one folder and all the thumbnails are in another but the thumbnails have the same name as the full size images.

HTTP.://IMG.1.LARGE.jpg
HTTP.://thumbnail/IMG.1.LARGE.jpg
HTTP.://IMG.2.LARGE.jpg
HTTP.://thumbnail/IMG.2.LARGE.jpg

Code: Text [Select]

1. Search: ^(.+//IMG.+)$
2. Replace: <a href="\1" target="_blank">

followed by:

Code: Text [Select]

1. Search: ^(.+thumbnail.+)$
2. Replace: <img src="\1"/></a>

Addendum: Here's an online multi-line RegEx text editor.

And if you set it up like so:



Then click the RegExReplace button, (*), it will do what you want all in one hit



NOTE: They use $ instead of \ for specifying backreferences, eg. $1 i.l.o. \1

3590

Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Insert text string to front / end of each line in a text file

« Last post by 4wd on July 22, 2012, 08:58 PM »

One thing I am wondering, I wanted to complicate it a bit more, I want to do something different for each second line! Can either of these ways skip lines or do something different on each line, please tell me if either can? 

eg I have 2 links for each picture- 1st is large, second is small version. And I want this to happen.


HTTP.://IMG.1.LARGE.jpg
HTTP.://IMG.1.SMALL.jpg
HTTP.://IMG.2.LARGE.jpg
HTTP.://IMG.2.SMALL.jpg

<a href="HTTP.://IMG.1.LARGE.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="HTTP.://IMG.1.SMALL.jpg"/></a>
<a href="HTTP.://IMG.2.LARGE.jpg" target="_blank">
<img src="HTTP.://IMG.2.SMALL.jpg"/></a>

Then I can just join each second line with the line before it. I found a vbs script to that.
 

-flowowery (July 22, 2012, 11:48 AM)

Assuming that the thumbnail doesn't have the same name as the full size, (which logically it won't), just run two RegEx search/replace operations:

Code: Text [Select]

1. Search: ^(.+LARGE\.jpg)$
2. Replace: <a href="\1" target="_blank">

followed by:

Code: Text [Select]

1. Search: ^(.+SMALL\.jpg)$
2. Replace: <img src="\1"/></a>

NOTE: I'm only doing this in Notepad2-Mod, which only allows single line RegEx - other editors may allow multi-line RegEx in which case it could probably all be done in one RegEx operation, including the joining of the lines.

If the thumbnails were all the same size then conceivably you wouldn't need the ...SMALL... lines in the file at all, you just specify the height/width attributes of the img tag.

eg.

Code: Text [Select]

1. Search: ^(.+LARGE\.jpg)$
2. Replace: <a href="\1" target="_blank"><img src="\1" height="42" width="42"/></a>

BAD: It means all the large images get loaded at once.
GOOD: Faster display when you click on a thumbnail since the images are already loaded.

BTW, you need to put URL stuff into a CODE box sometimes, the forum software sees and thinks it's a link and replaces it with [/URL].

3591

Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Insert text string to front / end of each line in a text file

« Last post by 4wd on July 22, 2012, 08:01 AM »

I would think that any decent text editor that allowed RegEx search/replace could handle that.

eg. Notepad2-Mod



^(.+)$ - Search for and put everything between the start, (^), and end, ($), of a line into a group.
<img src="\1"> - Replace with <img src=", followed by the original contents of the line \1, followed by ">.

Seemed to work fine here.

3592

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Batch adjust shortcut targets

« Last post by 4wd on July 22, 2012, 02:46 AM »

Looks like you'll have to email them to me, no attachments in PMs.

And for future reference, to send a PM:

3593

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Batch adjust shortcut targets

« Last post by 4wd on July 22, 2012, 02:28 AM »

Thinking more about BSM, best to simply leave well enough alone.

-nkormanik (July 22, 2012, 01:54 AM)

Does that mean you don't want the radically faster version?

Still can't interrupt the fetching of shortcuts but time to fetch is >60% less than previous version, (just changed to using DOS dir command).

Now saves test output window size/position and resizes columns to fit contents, saves state of checkboxes, added a statusbar so at least it looks like it's doing something.

Haven't done the Go->Stop during processing yet - next day or so should see it finished.

Still like a copy of your image/shortcut tree so I can see if I can find where TCBOO is going belly up - the limit on string length is 2,147,483,647 characters, (which is a lot), so it would be interesting to see what's actually failing.

3594

General Software Discussion / Re: Configuring Directory Opus for Fun and Profit

« Last post by 4wd on July 22, 2012, 02:04 AM »

Updated my original post but repeated here.

Forgot to take spaces in names into account, this fixes that.

Code: Text [Select]

1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2. <usercommand backcol="none" hide_from_menu="no" textcol="none">
3.         <label>ZeroArc</label>
4.         <tip>Produce a file tree archive</tip>
5.         <user_label>ZeroArc</user_label>
6.         <icon1>#default:newzipfile</icon1>
7.         <function type="normal">
8.                 <instruction>@runmode hide</instruction>
9.                 <instruction>@nofilenamequoting</instruction>
10.                 <instruction>@sync:robocopy &quot;{filepath|noterm}&quot; &quot;{destpath$}{file}&quot; /CREATE /E /np /nfl /ndl /njh /njs</instruction>
11.                 <instruction>COPY MOVE ARCHIVE=.7z,KEEPFOLDER &quot;{destpath$}{file}&quot; AS &quot;{file}&quot;</instruction>
12.         </function>
13. </usercommand>

3595

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Batch adjust shortcut targets

« Last post by 4wd on July 22, 2012, 12:18 AM »

4wd's Batch Shortcut Modifier, BSM, just finished adjusting nearly 700,000 shortcuts in a large directory tree -- all without hitch.

Thanks so much, 4wd, for some really helpful software!

-nkormanik (July 20, 2012, 02:14 AM)

Good to know at least one of my programs works

- Progress indicator while Testing -- I wasn't sure anything was happening, so stopped BSM via Task Manager.

Unfortunately, when it's sitting there looking like it's not doing anything, it's actually recursing through the folders looking for shortcuts, _all_ shortcuts, not just the first 20 for the test output.

Because the collecting of shortcuts is performed by an external function written by somoeone else, I'd need to rewrite parts of it to enable some form of indicator/interrupt, something I don't normally like doing because the functions were written by people with far more knowledge in AutoIt than me.

The time between the completion of shortcut collection and displaying the test output is less than a second - that bit is outside the above function and that's when the progressbar kicks in, 0->20 in less than a second.  I could change the Go->Stop->Go in that period but the change is almost instant - you don't have time to press Stop.

-- Remember preferred size/layout of Test window (BSM.ini file entry?)

That I can do, requires using another external function but seems easy enough.

-- Remember state of check boxes, such as Recurse on (BSM.ini file entry?)

-- Change Go ---> Stop, once process is underway.

-- Change notice when hovering over Go to "Starts Shortcut Modification"

They're easy.

As I suggested in the TCBOO thread, could you use skwire's ZeroZipper to zip up the tree with all the shortcuts and the tree with all the images, then just attach the archives in a PM - they should only be a few MB in size, then I'll have something to test against.

3596

Unfinished Requests / Re: UNFINISHED: Upload files listed in text file

« Last post by 4wd on July 20, 2012, 08:46 PM »

wput

Code: Text [Select]

1. wput ftp://host.com -i files.txt

3597

Living Room / Re: Strange Windows Explorer problem - anyone know how to fix this?

« Last post by 4wd on July 20, 2012, 04:54 AM »

I know you said it's different file types but what happens if you run the relevant program and load the file from within it?

Also, have you checked the properties of the files to make sure the access permissions are OK?

3598

Post New Requests Here / Re: Back up set of folders to flash drive

« Last post by 4wd on July 19, 2012, 05:10 AM »

SyncBack settings apparently overlooked hidden files in the mirror process.

-nkormanik (July 19, 2012, 03:22 AM)

Check the Filters - there are default files/folders that SyncBack doesn't copy because it's ephemeral data, thumbs.db is one of them.

3599

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Batch adjust shortcut targets

« Last post by 4wd on July 19, 2012, 04:54 AM »

[General]
Folder=e:\1\QQQ\shortcuts 1_x_178\50502
PathSearch=(.+)\\50501(.*)
PathReplace=\1\\50502\2
NameSearch=_50501(.+)
NameReplace=_50502\1

(.+)\\50501(.*) - Group, (1), everything up to \50501 and group, (2), everything after, (even if there's nothing).
\1\\50502\2 - Replace with group 1 followed by \50502 followed by group 2.

_50501(.+) - Group, (1), everything after _50501.
_50502\1 - Replace with _50502 followed by group 1.

Spent an hour wondering why it wouldn't work until I realised that putting \150502 meant insert everything from group 150502...which doesn't exist.  Hence the need to include \\ to search/replace the \ before 50501.

3600

Post New Requests Here / Re: Back up set of folders to flash drive

« Last post by 4wd on July 19, 2012, 03:08 AM »

Compares as soon as it has two folders entered.

Or you can use the Context menu.

By the way, I tried to find the one-file discrepancy between directory trees using TCBOO.  No luck.  After an hour or so TCBOO quit, with warning about something exceeded, and stack overflow issues.

-nkormanik (July 19, 2012, 12:34 AM)

Must be a string size limit, there's not much I can do about that as long as you want the full path in the output unless I go back to using arrays and that will be painfully slow with one million entries to sort through.

Did you check the SyncBack log ?