Recent Posts

3901

Living Room / Re: Win 7, XP mode, & other first install queries

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 19, 2011, 11:49 AM »

XPMode is standard XP 32-Bit OS running in VirtualPC

-Carol Haynes (July 19, 2011, 08:58 AM)

With USB support.

I'm not sure on the graphics, but I'm thinking XPMode also gives better access to the real native graphics hardware.

3902

Living Room / Re: Win 7, XP mode, & other first install queries

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 06:47 PM »

  You really don't like the 100MB boot partition? Given the new breed of scareware rootkits and their tendency to infect the MBR ... I'm thinking the system is best left in control of that one.

Otherwise the Windows install partitioning is super easy to use. Hit advanced, set C: as X, and worry about the rest later when you start moving in.


[Just thought to check]
On my office machine I went with a 40GB C:, and it's rather cramped these days(mentioned before). Here at home I went with 85GB and that's been much better. So ideal is probably somewhere between that and Carol's 100GB. Anything smaller = bad.

3903

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 06:29 PM »

This is kind of old, and I wasn't sure where I first found it so I had to go back through all the pages in this thread to check. Every once in awhile something will remind me of this and it will end up stuck in my head.

-app103 (July 11, 2011, 04:14 PM)

Ya know, part of me feels obligated to like something called the Indian Nipple Song ... But that's really weird. Catchy tune. But weird.

(I think I liked it...  ), (hehe)

3904

Living Room / Re: Win 7, XP mode, & other first install queries

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 04:00 PM »

I love the VirtualPC thing and will probably never go back to dual booting. I've got networkable virtual copies of everything back to DOS v6.22.

C: partition, I thought 40GB would be enough but it's bitten me a few times, if you got the space and are going to be using large apps go at least 60 or 80GB.

Recovery partions are only useful if you don't have the install media (IMO). If you really want to image, use a 3rd party app to image it to a completely different external drive that can be moved to a safe location.

3905

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Update disaster - recovery help, please!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 03:39 PM »

Usually if you just wait a few days or a week before installing new updates, the Interwebs will tell you if there are any major problems with it. Personally I think it's ok to wait a few days/week on updates, despite them fixing security vulnerabilities. And it can save you from trouble like this.

-JavaJones (July 18, 2011, 03:24 PM)

Generally speaking, yes, I do this also. Primarily as a safety measure for the managed client networks. As pushing a bad patch to hundreds of machines at multiple disparate locations is a level of sucks that I very much wish to avoid experiencing .

Just don't lag more than a week, especially if the patch is critical or for a hot topic exploit. 3 days is a good safety buffer I think.

3906

Living Room / Re: anonplus: new, uncensored social network coming soon?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 02:35 PM »

Interesting idea. But the real censorship that's coming down the pike is of the "voluntary" and "cooperative" variety. And it will be the ISPs rather than the social networks that will be doing it after being "encouraged" to take on more "responsibility" by several governments.

-40hz (July 18, 2011, 12:05 PM)

There is no such thing as a pick-proof lock. The "system" can squeeze out much of the public, true. but there will always be exploitable back channels available to those willing to take the time to know.

Many people assume there's nothing that can be done to effectively stop hackers. And while that may be semi-true with the Internet the way it's currently implemented, there's nothing to say this particular version of the Internet will be the one we all end up using ten years from now. Either way, it's a sure bet tomorrow's Internet will be nowhere near as open (by design and law) as our current one is.

-40hz (July 18, 2011, 12:05 PM)

Hacker is a way of looking at things, of perceiving "problems" or obstacles simply as a challenge (and not a barrier). It is not something that can be "fixed"...or stopped. The carrot of "stopping" evil people, dangled before the masses will be the platform used to push much of this (completely bogus IMO) legislation down the public's collective throat. But it will be to no avail.

The biggest danger users face on the internet today (wrt their computer's "health") is marketing companies, not hackers. So if "the grip" gets "tightened" it will simply be shoving there slimy (demographic pulse checking) fingers farther up the public collective ass of the consumer.

3907

Living Room / Re: anonplus: new, uncensored social network coming soon?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 11:54 AM »

4chan...ugh...see, that's the problem with anarchy.

-superboyac (July 18, 2011, 11:49 AM)

Hay, (bright side to the unfiltered version) at least there is no need to wonder what they really meant.

If it was just a bit more articulate, it might catch on.

3908

Living Room / Re: Want to see impressive numbers?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 11:37 AM »

That's enough to make you want to take up drinking.

Fortunately I already do...

3909

Living Room / Re: anonplus: new, uncensored social network coming soon?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 11:30 AM »

So... 4chan is going mainstream? Or are they going for a middle ground of some kind?

*Shrug* I came from the buck-the-system generation, so I'm ok with it either way.

Should be fun to watch. Seeing them piss-off Orlando certainly has been.

3910

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Update disaster - recovery help, please!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 11:14 AM »

Set the updates to let me decide if/when to install updates. Then you can run the updates manually and select (or de-select) what you want installed.

Then install the new batch of updates one at a time, til you find the bad one. When you find the bad one, pull it back out, and select hide this update in the WU list settings.

3911

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 18, 2011, 06:56 AM »

Hm... So if we put that with Phitsc's slide 3 (from above) that says chewing gum uses more energy than standing. We can conclude that it is safer to sit down, as long as you're chewing gum.

Or for an even tougher sell...How much energy does smoking require?

3912

Living Room / Re: Am I alone in not using or wanting to use the "Cloud" ...

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 17, 2011, 02:38 PM »

I hate cloud computing, and every other vapid bit of sheeple herding marketing hype the corporate masters keep trying to enslave people with.

Cloud = "reoccurring revenue stream" ... Which is guaranteed buy the fear of lost data. The only guarantee you get however is completely vapor.

3913

Living Room / Re: [HELP!!] Win XP reboots sometimes *after* startup [Any Ideas?]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 15, 2011, 04:01 PM »

Electronics behave very strange when they do not get the juice they need, leading into all kinds of strange and unrelated errors.

-Shades (July 15, 2011, 12:42 PM)

We on same page. 

3914

General Software Discussion / Re: Will facebook ever be the same?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 15, 2011, 03:59 PM »

What Zuckerberg did with his G+ account is interesting. The headline implies he *removed* his account, but no, in this context "closes" means he closed it to public access. He's opting for privacy, basically, which of course is also possible on FB. Not surprising really, but an interesting move given he's testing the service and has a potential opportunity to be a voice for FB on there.

-JavaJones (July 15, 2011, 03:51 PM)

Maybe he's testing for leaks...

3915

Living Room / Re: [HELP!!] Win XP reboots sometimes *after* startup [Any Ideas?]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 15, 2011, 11:59 AM »

Sorry guys, curiosity's got me...

There were two apps that gave info about my CPU. The second said I had a virus in memory I think. I was photographing everything and guess what, the SD card no longer works (two weeks old, what's going on here ). [/li]
[/list]

So I tried a anti-virus boot disk from c't magazine here - it's ubuntu based. Downloads latest av info from 4 different AV's.
Tested the partition that kept getting checked on reboot - clean
Tested C: crashed twice

-tomos (July 15, 2011, 07:03 AM)

Can you try rerunning that with the drives disconnected and see what happens? Basically strip the mahine down to the bare essentials CPU, Mboard, Memory, power, and video. No modem, sound, or other cards, and no FDD/HDDs to draw power. Just to see if it'll make it far enough into the CPU test to (get a better error message, if any...and) hazzard a guess at a conclusion.

3916

Living Room / Re: [HELP!!] Win XP reboots sometimes *after* startup [Any Ideas?]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 14, 2011, 06:17 PM »

^ yeah, memtest did three full passes without errors...

Or just for fun disable all the onboard USB stuff and see what happens...it is the last thing it was loading before it go poof.

-Stoic Joker (July 14, 2011, 03:54 PM)

 
how do I  disable USB? Physically - unplug cables?

-tomos (July 14, 2011, 05:00 PM)

I was thinking more along the lines of a BIOS option to disable them, or at least cut them back to a lower speed and making sure nothing is plugged into them.

That or just try a different flavor of Linux, as some are touchier than others ... and Partition Magic is owned by Symantec these days...

3917

Living Room / Re: [HELP!!] Win XP reboots sometimes *after* startup [Any Ideas?]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 14, 2011, 03:54 PM »

Bank 5? With a 2GB memory kit (generally 2x1GB). I don't think the bank references are memory, on chip cache maybe... *Shrug* ...Not sure. But Memtest86+ already passed the memory.

Still could be the PSU; brownout on boot load spike.

Or just for fun disable all the onboard USB stuff and see what happens...it is the last thing it was loading before it go poof.

3918

Living Room / Re: Matrix-style tech becoming a reality?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 14, 2011, 01:57 PM »

Possible Product Name: Universal Plug-in Ultra ThinkZ.

or U-PUTZ for short... 

3919

Living Room / Re: Matrix-style tech becoming a reality?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 14, 2011, 12:02 PM »

Nope. I'll just be needing a chip for investment banking. That way I can make a retirement quickly, and then remove the horror and nonsense from my head.

Then I can focus on learning the things that I care about the old fashioned way ... so the process can be savored, and enjoyed.

3920

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / NANY 2012 Release: Got Space?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 14, 2011, 11:55 AM »

NANY 2012 Entry Information

Application Name	Got Space?
Version	1.0.0.35
Short Description	Utility to View Drive Space Available
Supported OSes	Windows2000 - Windows7
Web Page	Yer on it.
Download Link	GotSpace (build 35 - Final Release).zip (77.19 kB - downloaded 3042 times.)
System Requirements	A Computer Windows2000 or Higher A HDD or two
Version History	v1.0.0.0 - Runs without crashing anything. v1.0.0.1 - Killed the SUBSTitute FAT Bugg. v1.0.0.5 - Faster / Added Setable Settings. v1.0.0.? - I forget...But it was important. v1.0.0.8 - Add hotkeys for refresh & settings. v1.0.0.10 - Added save size/location options. v1.0.0.12 - Added last update timestamp. v1.0.0.14 - Finished registry code. v1.0.0.23 - Eject/remove Drives. v1.0.0.24 - Dynamic Height Adjustment. v1.0.0.25 - Hide Drives by Letter. v1.0.0.26 - Drive Space Color Coding. v1.0.0.35 - Final Release Build.
Source Code	GotSpace.jpg (47.79 kB. 427x318 - viewed 2383 times.)

Description
Got Space? is a small simple portable utility that will list the available drives and the space available on them. It's actually a clone of another program I've been using for years which has never been updated and lacks some of the features that I'll be adding to Got Space? Because I need them.

Features
Automatic Autoscaling between KB, MB, & GB - Because 0.2GB isn't really helpful if you need a place to stick a 235MB file quickly.
Quota Detection - Because when quotas are enabled you need to know how much space is available to you, not the system.
Auto Refresh (Optional/off by default) - Adjustable between 3 - 300 seconds
Detects SUBST command drives and displays them, but does not add them to the drive space totals.

Drive Types Displayed is user adjustable.
Drive Types Totaled is user adjustable.
User Configured Settings can be stored in one of 3 places:
      Memory - Allows you to test a configuration for the current session only.
      GotSpace.ini
      Registry  - Will override (but not overwrite) .ini settings.

Hotkeys available:
   F5 manual refresh
   F8 Show Settings dialog

Window size,position, and column widths can all be saved independently of each-other. So if you like a certain window size and column width layout, but don't want to commit to a specific window position (frequent portable app issue) ... Just deselect the options you don't want to save.

Added a StatusBar with a timestamp for the last time GotSpace? was updated. ...No, I can't seem to code anything without putting a god damn clock in it. *Sigh*

Program window can (/does by default) automatically resize itself to display all detected drives without scrolling.

Drives can now be independently hidden by drive letter(s).

Color coding - Drives with less that 10% free space turn red, & drives with 100% free space turn green.

High (green) and low (red) points are now adjustable.

Planned Features
Open for Suggestions.

Screenshots
Main Program Window:


Settings Dialog:


Extended Drive Info:


About GotSpace:
[ Invalid Attachment ]

Usage
Installation
Unzip, run.

Using the Application
Initial startup is run it & read it. Use settings to show/hide drives by type, and add/remove drive types from the tracked drive space totals.

Uninstallation
Just delete it.

Known Issues
None.

3921

Living Room / Re: [HELP!!] Win XP reboots sometimes *after* startup [Any Ideas?]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 14, 2011, 11:43 AM »

If memtest86+ got that far without the screen turning red...chances are the memory is fine.

Run this next: Samsung HDD Tool

If the manufacturer's diag give the drives a green light, it's probably the power supply.

3922

Living Room / Re: Dumb backup method - lost several years of notes

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 14, 2011, 07:03 AM »

This massive error has only happened because the Surfalator database was on a RAID 0 drive, which died when the machine it was inside died.

-nudone (July 14, 2011, 06:28 AM)

Ouch! Been there, Dead board kills RAID 0 contents. It went poof in the middle of a defrag. Sorry to hear that man.

And I thought I had the database mirrored to another drive - so, yep, I thought I could format the drives in the RAID 0 setup, which I did. Now I've discovered there isn't any mirrored backup.

-nudone (July 14, 2011, 06:28 AM)

FWIW, data recovery from proprietary RAID arrays is iffy at best ... So the format wasn't really that damning. RunTime Software's GetDataBack has a RAID Reconstructor that does well to rebuild an image of the old array. But the end results weren't stellar as most of the data was unusable. I probably only recovered 60% after months of scouring the different alignment options. And still to this day (years later) have a folder of recovery fragments I dig through from time to time because I can't bring myself to just cut-my-losses and delete it.

3923

General Software Discussion / Re: Will facebook ever be the same?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 13, 2011, 10:22 PM »

*Face Palm*

To clarify... I don't know the proper "circle etiquette" (having just got there), so I don't want to just start adding names I recognize blindly and end up looking like some weirdo stalker.

Remember, this really is my first venture into a "Social Network".

3924

General Software Discussion / Re: Will facebook ever be the same?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 13, 2011, 07:01 PM »

There does seem to be a good degree of granularity as to what is (public/private/inner "circle") shown. There are multiple default circles, and a create your own option with optional exposure.

Might as well jump in ... I need at least one friend so I don't look totally pathetic. 

3925

General Software Discussion / Re: Will facebook ever be the same?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on July 13, 2011, 05:24 PM »

Okay, I'm in:
https://plus.google....03121931736662107198

...Now what'd-I-do?