Recent Posts

3701

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: need license key

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 29, 2008, 10:25 AM »

wisley0932: http://jshop.javvin....nguage/powerword.php

-jgpaiva (February 29, 2008, 07:14 AM)

Grief that was a really polite response ... what you should have said was ...... (unprintable/unladylike thoughts)

Can't we just start deleting these threads?

Even better why not make this section only visible to contributing members of the site - they are the only ones that get licenses unless Mouser is feeling generous and has had a conversation with someone - they are then an honorary member so they would have access too.

3702

Living Room / Re: Stephen Fry has a blog!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 28, 2008, 06:38 PM »

Hugh Laurie apparently inspired the making of the Jeeves and Wooster series as he is a Wodehouse anorak!

It really shows in the series which I love to bits.

If you want to splash out you can get the complete series on US Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.co...mplete/dp/B00006AVRK

My only slight gripe with the series (and it is very slight) is that the cast changed from series to series. There was a core of players who stuck it out but one or two characters changed actors in each series - and one actor played two different characters in two of the series (which is a bit confusing).

I really love the humour in series 3 with them based in New York - absolutely hilarious take on Anglo-American relations.

The whole of A Bit of Fry and Laurie is also available:

http://www.amazon.co...ection/dp/B000P0J0G0

it is really good but probably shows its age a bit more and I'm not sure how the British humour transfers across the pond as it is a bit topical.

The other  series the US fans might like to look out is Blackadder. This was primarily a vehicle for Rowan Atkinson but it is a fantastic ensemble series which features Fry and Laurie, along with Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rik Mayall, occasionally Ade Edmondson. The star for me is Miranda Richardson in series 2 with her fantastically bizarre portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I (Kate Blanchett eat your heart out!). Series 1 also stars the incomparable Peter Cook!

http://www.amazon.co...rs-Set/dp/B000EBCEVS

I have to say if I was stranded on a desert island and could only take 2 DVD sets Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder would enjoyably keep me on the brink of sanity for quite a long time!

3703

General Software Discussion / Re: Raxco - Amazing customer service

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 28, 2008, 06:21 PM »

I can also vouch that the few times I have asked for support from Raxco by email I have got timely and intelligent responses.

I just upgraded to PD 2008 Pro too and it is really good. I like it a lot.

3704

General Software Discussion / Re: Disable Start Menu

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 28, 2008, 01:36 PM »

I haven't played with AHK for a while but looking at the Delphi fragment above that looks like something that would be very easily acheivable with an AHK script - and you could have a hotkey to toggle START on and off when you need it. The compiled AHK script could simply be added to your Startup group.

3705

PHP / Re: PHP Desinging

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 28, 2008, 08:33 AM »

I can confirm that I have those two book too and they are very good.

You might also want to check out http://www.totallyphp.co.uk/ which isn't so good in the tutorial section but does have some example scripts including MySQL access. It also has some useful links.

http://www.php.net/ has documentation and also points to site with lots of scripts that you may find useful to download and work through.

Finally http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp has some good tutorials (and the homes site has great tutorials for many types of web scripting).

3706

General Software Discussion / Re: Should I get my new laptop with hard drive partitioned?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 27, 2008, 03:57 PM »

Actually, I do notice a difference even if the swap file is on a different partition, rather than a different drive.  I think it has something to do with fragmentation, since the partitions fragment separately.

-wraith808 (February 19, 2008, 01:14 PM)

There is a simple solution to that - make your swap file fixed size and then do a boot time defrag. The Swap file will never fragment.

Having you swap file on a separate drive improves performance. Having it on a separate partition on the same drive actually degrades performance because the drive heads have to move about more just to make Windows and programs work properly. The only reason it would be quicker as you describe is because aa swap file is allowed to grow and shrink (the windows default setting) - then it becomes massively fragmented very quickly.

3707

Living Room / Re: look at the size of my mouse mat !!!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 27, 2008, 08:35 AM »

er, it's three cody mugs being used as pen holders 

-nudone (February 27, 2008, 07:16 AM)

How come you got three when I haven't got one ...

Slinks off and sulks ...

3708

Living Room / Re: New RAM tech quadruples capacity!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 26, 2008, 12:56 PM »

It looks really inventive and a novel approach to an old problem but if the PC 'sees' them as standard DIMMs how does it map the new memory size? Surely if the mobo controller allows a maximum of 1Gb per slot (like most mobos do) how can the same hardware even know of the extra RAM if you shove in an extra 8Gb card? Even if the memory board additional controller fast swaps the RAM in and out of existence the application will still only actually see 1Gb.

Or am I missing something?

3709

General Software Discussion / Re: Are Windows Dynamic Disks Reliable?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 08:26 PM »

There is no doubt that RAID-0 gives a good performance boost in disk intensive activities (heck shoving your Windows page file onto a RAID 0 array with less than 1Gb memory gives a measurable increase in system speed if you like to have loads of apps running). I did some measurements on my old system before it went caput and reckon that I got about 60% increase in disk throughput but you are right disk speed is not the only factor and you have to choose your applications well to see a worthwhile improvement on a home system.

RAID 1 is actually slower with disk writing than a single disk (though faster on disk read). I don't really see the point though as data integrity is the only benefit with RAID 1 and that is easily acheivable in realtime with continuous backup system. For example, AutoSave intercepts every disk write and mirrors a version of the new/altered file to an alternative location - this gives the same benefits of RAID 1 but adds the benefit of realtime file versioning (you can set it to keep n updated copies of files so you can instantly receive n generations of file changes - nuch more useful than RAID mirroring). Combined with frequent incremental images and you have a system that is pretty immune to malware and quickly restored on error.

There is a place for RAID 0 and RAID 1 (and indeed RAID 0+1 and all the parity check versions of RAID) but to benefit you really need a specifically targetted application and keep your system optimised for that application. A good example is setting up a specialist Audio/Visual Studio or high end professional PhotoShop setup where you are producing and processing stupendously large files.

For day to day use RAID is more of a headache than a help, and consumer level interfaces aren't particularly reliable (and IME mobos that include RAID interfaces are the least reliable).

3710

General Software Discussion / Re: PHP IDE recommendations

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 03:08 PM »

I'm wondering why nobody has mentioned Zend Studio. It's been years last time I touched PHP code, but I used this IDE and it was almost like being in Visual Studio (minus the Visual part of course). I'm sure it has come a long way since then.

-ivanv (February 22, 2008, 04:11 PM)

Looks quite expensive to me at $299 for a year (or $617 for 3 years) with updates and then the same again every year (or 3) if you want to keep updating as things change. OK there is a perpetual license to use the software but it would be nicer to have a reasonable purchase charge and then a smaller annual service charge.

3711

General Software Discussion / Re: Are Windows Dynamic Disks Reliable?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 02:14 PM »

A lot of backup utilities don't support dynamic disks - especially if you want imaging solutions.

Personally I would avoid 'soft' dynamic disks.

I have used RAID 0, 1 in the past with no problems - but not much advantage either. I think RAID 0 is quite useful if you do a lot of intensive data processing (like recoding video or lots of audio processing) as the speed advantage is quite good - but you are better setting up a small RAID set on a couple of separate identical hard discs and using it for run time processing and offloading the data for storage. Keep the RAID array clean for speed. By the way imaging backup apps work fine for RAID 0 and 1.

FWIW I don't think RAID 1 is worth the hassle on home computers as you may as well have a standard IDE (SATA or PATA) and an external drive to do regular incremental backups. It isn't slower to rebuild a dead disk and in use it is a bit faster (particularly if you write a lot of data). If you need a constant backup you can use a versioned backup solution like AutoSave or the freebie from Iomega which mirrors every disc write to an alternative location (and you can limit the number of revisions).

3712

General Software Discussion / Re: Xobni beta - Outlook Mail indexer and organizer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 02:03 PM »

The bigger worry is the memory leak which could also cause data corruption (this has been flagged a number of times on the forum but the developer seems reluctant to admit there is a problem).

3713

Living Room / Re: USB Keyboard not available during windows boot sequence

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 02:00 PM »

Yep - I have legacy support enabled (and MS KB says USB Keyboards need it enabled)

I don't have a problem with F8/F5/Del etc. during POST is is once Windows has started to load so I can't get to Windows Advanced Boot Options or boot time utilities.

I found a lot of articles on MS KB about USB keyboard issues - most of their workarounds seem to be have a PS2 keyboard handy which surely has to be a joke! Luckily my computer supports PS2 but there are mobos around that don't have PS2 support for mouse and keyboard - what are they supposed to do.

The trouble is it isn't a standard USB keyboard - it is a Creative Prodikeys keyboard - otherwise I would simply ise a PS2 adapter.

Anyway it looks like the solution is a spare keyboard - as if there isn't enough crap on my desk as it is!

3714

Living Room / Re: USB Keyboard not available during windows boot sequence

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 12:23 PM »

I could do that but it would be nicer to get the USB keyboard doing what is required!

3715

Living Room / Re: USB Keyboard not available during windows boot sequence

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 11:28 AM »

Upgraded BIOS to last version available and it made no difference.

I think the problem is that Windows initialises its own USB drivers but there is a gap in the sequence where the keyboard is unavailable - I notice my PS2 mouse also flashes off and on at the same time - but that is pretty instantaneous.

Is there any way of forcing USB hardware initialisation earlier in the boot sequence?

3716

Living Room / Re: Anyone any idea how to make an IP appear to be in another country?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 11:26 AM »

Proxy Connection looks interesting but it makes expensive TV at $50 per month - that's twice as much as I pay for Digital Satellite!

It would be more interesting too if they had a try before you buy service because so far my experience of proxy servers is that access to streaming is pretty poor.

3717

Living Room / Re: slow boot on new hard drive problem

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 10:46 AM »

Note that all WD drives require no jumper for Master/Slave for a single drive.

You only need jumpers if you have Master and Slave drives.

Here is the IDE install guide http://www.wdc.com/e...eide/2779-001001.pdf

and the SATA guide http://www.wdc.com/e...sata/2779-001006.pdf

3718

Living Room / Anyone any idea how to make an IP appear to be in another country?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 06:56 AM »

I want to watch some US TV shows that only allow access from US IPs (and I'd guess similarly some ex-UK people might like to watch some BBC/Channel 4 stuff which only responds to UK IPs).

Anyone know of an effective way of making your IP address appear to be in a different country?

I have tried 'Hid-IP-Browser' which is a paid service to do precisely this and it uses proxy servers all over the world so that you access services via a valid IP address in that country - unfortunately the proxies they use are all pretty slow and low bandwidth and consequently you can browse pages but they are too slow for broadband streaming content - and some actively block streaming content.

Anyone any other ideas or good services that offer this kind of facility?

3719

Living Room / Re: Bluescreens and then reboots too quickly for me to read what it says

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 06:49 AM »

You can also get extra info from MSKB from the EventViewer just double click the event and then click on the support link. It will open Windows Help with any info available - but also has an automatic search on the left of MS KB.

3720

Living Room / Re: USB Keyboard not available during windows boot sequence

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 06:46 AM »

Not sure I haven't looked at the BIOS for ages, I think it was enabled. I'll check next time I reboot.

3721

Living Room / USB Keyboard not available during windows boot sequence

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2008, 06:37 AM »

I 'upgraded' my keyboard a while ago from a normal AT style keyboard to a USB type.

It all works fine with one exception: if I need to use boot time utilities I can't use my keyboard.

When my system boots from scratch the keyboard is recognised by the BIOS and works fine to select an OS etc. or use BIOS utilities. However, once Windows starts to boot (the animated progress bar stage) the keyboard lights go out again and don't come back on until the 'Loading Personal settings' notice appears. This means that I can't use the keyboard when I use CHKDSK or PerfectDisk etc. as boot time utilities. It doesn't generally matter but if I am faced with a press a key to continue prompt I can't without connecting my old AT keyboard and rebooting again!

Anyone any ideas why the USB keyboard doesn't respond during the boot sequence and any way to fix it?

3722

General Software Discussion / Re: Xobni beta - Outlook Mail indexer and organizer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 24, 2008, 03:24 PM »

I have not had problems with Outlook 2003 not exiting but with Xobni neither task (Outlook or Xobni Service) exit when I close Outlook - ever!

Add to that that if I leave the apps running in the task manager with no further action taking place memory usage increases rapidly for both tasks (I have just monitored them and in 10 minutes Outlook's memory has tripled and Xobni Service has more than doubled).

I have also experimented with deleting emails with attachments and even after do a manual synchronise the deleted emails with attachments are still in the attachment list. This must surely be a bug - but if it is a 'feature' then surely it should be optional! I don't want to find references to non-existent emails and attachments when I search!!!

I have reported these issues on the Xobni forum but until they get resolved I am going to remove Xobni from Outlook as I have found one sure way to get PST problems is being forced to exit Outlook in the TaskManager.

3723

General Software Discussion / Re: Xobni beta - Outlook Mail indexer and organizer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 24, 2008, 02:36 PM »

Initial impression of Xobni are it is quite a nice plugin. It isn't clear thought - does it auto update its database or do you have to do it manually?

Two issues I am not sure about -

• since installing it Outlook doesn't fully exit any more (it stays in the task list when I close the app)
• less importantly it doesn't do a good job at connecting basically similar email names or users with different email addresses (eg. I currently have numerous emails from Amazon some of which I will keep, receipts etc, and some of which I will delete, newsletters etc. but it doesn't connect all the Amazon email addresses together - which is apparently what it should do)

WRT to tracking deleted attachments - is that just because the Xobni index has not been updated?

3724

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express. Thoughts?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 23, 2008, 04:18 PM »

To be fair MS do not promote PHP because they want you to use .NET and ASP etc. which is what all their developments tools are built for.

3725

General Software Discussion / Re: Another System Explorer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 23, 2008, 11:24 AM »

The only logical way to do it is via whitelists and blacklists and checking the file is what it says it is by comparing a checksum with legitimate versions. Some companies have tried to do this but it is a massive undertaking (esp. as you have to include all versions of processes and DLL files) and does require the app to have access to the internet to look up the details unless you want to download a huge database. Most of the companies that have tried this seem to only provide fairly patchy support for very obvious applications and publishers. It's tempting to provide the data by user participation but that in itself is fraught with security difficulties unless every submission is carefully assessed.

I suppose if a process is digitally signed that is an indication of being legitimate but not being signed is really an indication that it is suspicious. Personally I think a statement that a process is signed by a known legitimate publisher whould be sufficient, and if it isn't just say no further info.

Any other scoring system is likely to be pretty meaningless.

I suppose it really depends on whether this to become a useful security feature.