Recent Posts

3901

Living Room / Re: Lets Spice Things Up!

« Last post by 4wd on March 06, 2012, 07:23 PM »

3902

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PDFZilla free for 20 days - Ends 14 March 2012

« Last post by 4wd on March 06, 2012, 07:12 PM »

The zilla name come s from the excellent FTP Filezilla program.

-Steven Avery (March 06, 2012, 05:45 PM)

I thought it originated with Godzilla - the biggest, most monstrous of them all.

Anything else is just a pale copy.

3903

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 06, 2012, 02:56 AM »

Hmmm - Primary vs Logical  

Time for research!  

-CleverCat (March 06, 2012, 01:40 AM)

The short version:
Primary partitions may contain a bootable operating system, you may have a maximum of four (4) primary partitions on one HDD.
Extended partitions aren't bootable and can contain as many Logical partitions as you like, (well you could run out of assigned volumes under Windows if you go berserk).  Each HDD can contain one (1) Extended partition.

In my screengrab below, HDDs marked D:, R:, E: & G: each contain one Extended partition, (it occupies the full HDD), which each have one Logical partition.
Drive U: has one Extended Partition which contains two (2) Logical partitions, one being U: the other being the one with the RAW filesystem, it's encrypted with TrueCrypt and as such is unrecognisable by Windows until mounted.
Drive C: contains two Primary partitions, the 100MB System Reserved that W7 creates and C: which contains the OS.

The drive with System Reserved and C: is the only drive with Primary partitions, hence it's the only one that shows up in BIOS as being bootable.

I do however, have external drives that have a Primary partition because they are bootable.  They boot into an environment that contains various recovery programs, etc.

3904

Living Room / Re: HTPC - Revisited - Input requested

« Last post by 4wd on March 05, 2012, 06:46 PM »

I'll put forward a setup, maybe it can get you started tweaking it or discussion.  I'll point out now that I've used AMD APUs mainly because there is nothing that can compete with them for video decoding on a price/performance scale but I'm sure you can use an i5-2500 or higher to get the same performance.

For a Mini-ITX build:
$109 - LIAN LI PC-Q08B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case - Doesn't have the, (IMHO), ugly 5.25" bays on the side like their other small cases but does have an annoying blue LED in the fan - which I'm quite sure could be introduced to Mr Cutter or replaced entirely.  USB 3.0 ports, six 3.5" HDD bays, one 2.5" bay, takes a standard PSU,
$139 - ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard - WiFi 802.11b/g/n, HDMI, 7.1 audio, USB3, QWERTY remote, BlueTooth, up to 32GB of DDR3 - this covers most of the list of requirements.
$139 - AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550D - The locked A3850 is $10 cheaper but why bother?
$39 - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - You can get cheaper RAM but Kingston is well known and reliable.
$69 - PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 400W Modular 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply - Again, you can get a cheaper PSU, (and 400W is overkill for this build), but PPC make good quality PSUs.
$57 - ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - Supposedly one of, if not, the quietest BluRay combo drives around.

So that's $552 of your hard-earned money spent.

You could save money by using the following:
$99 - Fractal Design Arc Mini Black High Performance PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 - I have to say that I particular like Fractal Designs cases.
$64 - ASRock A75M-HVS FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX - After Gigabyte, ASRock would be my personal second choice even though they are a division of ASUS they seem to make boards that are more reliable than their parent company, at least in my experience.

Total now: $467

But you need to add a WiFi dongle/card - $15-$30 depending on brand.

I haven't mentioned TV Tuner cards because you didn't mention single/dual tuner, just DVB-T or Hybrid or DVB-T/Ananlog/Cable.  Also the US standard is different from here so I can't recommend anything specific but Hauppauge and AverMedia are usually reliable, (although even they have put out some dogs).

But I will say you don't need it to be a PCI(e) card, USB 2.0 is fine for Dual channel HD DVB-t reception.  I use a TinyTwin together with DNTV Scheduler Pro which is a commercial fork of TV Scheduler Pro, (now open source).  I'm not sure whether TVSP will work in an ATSC situation, (you may need to make your own stations xml file up), but I can say that DNTV SP will happily capture two HD DVB-T broadcasts over USB 2.0 without a problem, (more programs if they happen to be on the same stream - I've had five programs from two streams recording simultaneously).
CPU load is approximately 15% while capturing, (Athlon II 235e @800Mhz), and I've used it on my Atom 270 netbook without any frame drops - the reason is, it's actually two programs: a java frontend running the web server/EPG etc, and a dedicated executable to do the capture.

PM me and I'll send you the IP so you can wander around in it, (change anything and I will kill you)  

Anyway, something to think about/discuss/ignore.

Addendum: Here's a program that's almost identical that will work in the USA: DV Scheduler

For a Micro-ATX build:
$99 - LIAN LI PC-A04B Black Aluminum MicroATX Mini Tower
 or
$109 - Fractal Design Define Mini Black Micro ATX Silent PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0

$84 - ASUS F1A75-M LE FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX

CPU, PSU, RAM & Combo drive as above plus you need a WiFI dongle/card.


Or maybe you'd like to go a little retro

3905

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by 4wd on March 05, 2012, 05:39 PM »

Daminion took a LONG time to import my pictures folder (about 34 GB in just over 8 hours) but it's been smooth since.

-Darwin (March 05, 2012, 01:31 PM)

That seems excessive, here it took about an hour to do 115GB, (555 directories, 43515 photos).

• No configuration at all.

-fenixproductions (March 05, 2012, 05:24 PM)

It's beta software, it says the Preferences are coming.

• For my 200MB cliparts folder it created 90MB hidden directory full of thumbnails.

The catalogue is 58.6MB but the ~Thumb directory is 2.29GB.

Some way to minimise the program while it's cataloguing would be nice.

3906

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 05, 2012, 05:34 PM »

I always used to use the old ptedit.exe to mark a partition inactive but Acronis Disk Director and Paragon HDM can do it from the context menu - so I got lazy

Still, Clevercats external isn't marked as Active so the BIOS is just picking up it's a Primary partition.

3907

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 05, 2012, 04:40 AM »

Not active - oh well doesn't seem to be a problem so will take off boot list?

-CleverCat (March 05, 2012, 01:49 AM)

Interesting, then again, I try never to have any more than one Primary partition on the system, (hence all the drives being Logical above), so I don't normally see any other bootable drive option in the BIOS.

3908

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 05, 2012, 12:33 AM »

Not sure why my Seagate External is bootable? 

-CleverCat (March 05, 2012, 12:18 AM)

It's most likely because it has a Primary partition that is marked as Active.

You can open Windows Disk Manager and check it.

3909

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 05, 2012, 12:07 AM »

Almost forgot 

3910

General Software Discussion / Re: ReImage: online Windows repair!

« Last post by 4wd on March 04, 2012, 07:58 PM »

Oh, it's too late for NASA. You may want to get a roll of tin foil while you're out to line your new hard hat.

-Innuendo (March 04, 2012, 09:04 AM)

If I get an aluminium one maybe I'll save money!

 

3911

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 04, 2012, 03:41 AM »

Here's pics from Bios:- Everything works but.......... Maxtor doesn't appear as a bootable device (pic 2) and can't change? (pic 3)

-CleverCat (March 04, 2012, 02:21 AM)

Because you haven't set it as the bootable HDD in the first picture, you've set the Seagate as the bootable drive therefore that's the device you get in the third picture.

In the first picture, (Advanced Setup->Hard Disk Drives), you can reorder the drives by highlighting the Maxtor, (down arrow), and then pressing + on the number pad - this should move it up a place and make it the default boot HDD.

This will cause the third screen to display the Maxtor instead of the Seagate as a boot choice.

The instructions are on the bottom of the BIOS screen

3912

General Software Discussion / Re: ReImage: online Windows repair!

« Last post by 4wd on March 04, 2012, 03:33 AM »

... that damn Paragon program from a USB stick via command prompts, my old Vista would suddenly work again. Utopia?

-Curt (March 03, 2012, 09:55 AM)

I'd like to know why you and Innuendo both feel that Paragons program is to blame when, by your own admission:
a) your system has been unstable for 19+ months;
b) you blindly clicked remove in Revo Uninstaller, (a program which I've managed to trash a system with by not paying attention);
c) you seem to try almost every program available, (no offence meant but it really does look that way).

I guess NASA are going to feel pretty crap soon....maybe I should go out and buy a hardhat....

3913

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 03, 2012, 05:39 AM »

Drive letters messed up in Disk Management....

-CleverCat (March 03, 2012, 04:53 AM)

What do you mean by "messed up" ?

Whichever installation of Win7 you boot off will become drive C.

In your BIOS you need to set which drive to boot off normally.

BIOS->Advanced Setup->Hard Disk Drives and then move the drive you want it to boot from to the top of the list.

Is there any chance of a picture of the POST screen, (the one where it says 'Press Del to enter SETUP') ?
Also the Advanced Setup menu in BIOS would be nice, (I think you have a later version than what's shown in the manual).

You can set the BIOS to normally boot off the Seagate and then run EasyBCD and add an entry for the Win7 installation on the Maxtor:



As easy as:
1) Select Add New Entry
2) Select the drive letter for the Maxtor
3) Add Entry

EDIT: Dammit!  You replied before I could add the picture.

3914

General Software Discussion / Re: Linus Torvalds on OpenSUSE

« Last post by 4wd on March 03, 2012, 12:06 AM »

Better, why should a user be able to change the system time on a computer; that's for the admin (owner) to do.

-zridling (March 02, 2012, 06:01 PM)

He's doesn't mention the system time at all, just the timezone - responses following his initial post muddle up the difference.

3915

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Daemon Tools - Spring Sale

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2012, 06:16 PM »

My original 5 year license, (from donating before it went commercial), runs out this year.

-4wd (March 02, 2012, 06:08 PM)

I thought that licenses from pre-commercial donations were supposed to be grandfathered in as lifetime?

-mwb1100 (March 02, 2012, 06:12 PM)

Not that I know of, maybe I should go check the forum a bit.

Shows you how much I know

Dear Community,

customers who got gifted DT Pro and therefore donated for DT, please send a message with the message that you have an old license and an Upgrade to a Lifetime License should be processed.

Regards
DT Team

Note 1: BTW please be patient as Financial department work days are Monday to Friday.

Note 2: This announcement cannot be applied to ALL customers with old licenses! It is about those customers who had purchased DTPro before it was released (pre-DTPro action).

3916

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Daemon Tools - Spring Sale

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2012, 06:08 PM »

Thanks!  My original 5 year license, (from donating before it went commercial), runs out this year.

It's even cheaper if you already have a license: €15.00 for Daemon Tools Pro Advanced

3917

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Agnitum Outpost Firewall - Lifetime License - $29.97 - Coming Soon

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2012, 04:51 AM »

Here's the development thread at Wilders for some info: another Windows Firewall Control

Also, there's one thing to watch out for: How are the notifications created and why they are sometimes so slow or missing ?

IMPORTANT

How are the notifications created and why they are sometimes so slow or missing ?

"Learning Mode" uses the Security Event log. It checks at every 0.3 seconds the last entry from this log. If the event recorded has the ID the number 5157, it means it found a blocked connection, and continues to analyze the message. It reads the content of the message recorded in the log file, it analyzes the message and extract the info needed to show in notification. If the direction is "Outbound" and the message is not older than three seconds, it displays the notification to the user.

All the things above are made 3 times a second. When you start your web browser and it attempts to make a connection, Windows Firewall writes a new entry in the security event log, with info about your web browser connection. Here takes place WFC to show you the notification. Usually, the last entry is generated by the last program you use to connect to the internet.

Things should be easy, but sometimes svchost.exe receives 30-40 inbound connections attempts in one second, also with the number ID 5157, but with direction "Inbound". These connections are also appended to the security event log, so if you start your web browser and then you receive 20 attempts of inbound connections to svchost.exe, the last entry would be for svchost.exe instead of your browser. WFC reads for 3 times in a second the last entry, but the last entry is from svchost.exe inbound connection.

The result is that you are not notified about your browser. In this case you must press on the refresh button to make the web browser to attempt a new connection, so it can be catched by WFC properly.

When svchost.exe stays quiet, the notifications are showed very prompt. When it starts with a blast of inbound connections it affects the performance of Learning Mode. Unfortunately there is no way to make the system not to log the inbound blocked connections, and this polutes the security event log with thousands garbage entries. And all these are readed by WFC in dozens of steps, for every entry.

Sometimes you need to make multiple connection attempts before it will pick up a program but I don't see that as a problem, at least they're not getting through.

Also one other thing to note, if you create a rule and tick the box saying you don't any more notifications for that program and then later delete that rule, you won't receive any future notifications for that program until you delete it from the Hidden Notifications list.



PS. Does this mean I get out of doing a mini-review?

3918

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2012, 03:39 AM »

Umm - not sure exactly what u mean  by 'last connector on IDE' but have printed out to refer to....

-CleverCat (March 02, 2012, 02:50 AM)

As SJ said further up the thread, there's 3 connectors on a normal 80 wire IDE cable.

BLUE - Motherboard end (might be green but the following two are standard)
GRAY - Slave device (connector in the middle)
BLACK - Master device (the other end of the cable)

Currently, the Maxtor is plugged into the gray connector.  Because it has been strapped as the Master it should be plugged into the black connector, (ie. the connector at the end of the cable).

It's picture time:



Unplug connector 1, (the gray one), then plug connector 2, (the black one), into the Maxtor.

3919

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Agnitum Outpost Firewall - Lifetime License - $29.97 - Coming Soon

« Last post by 4wd on March 02, 2012, 03:32 AM »

-when you add all these rules to Windows Firewall Control, doesn't they slow things down so much that Outpost would be (almost) just as quick?

-Curt (March 02, 2012, 01:31 AM)

It's as quick as the normal Windows Firewall - you've added no extra bulky programs that every connection is filtered through.

WFC sits in the background watching the Windows Eventlog, when it sees a program attempting to connect to the network it opens a requester and you can add a rule to Windows Firewall to allow/block.

3920

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Agnitum Outpost Firewall - Lifetime License - $29.97 - Coming Soon

« Last post by 4wd on March 01, 2012, 07:09 PM »

Currently, I'm using Windows Firewall Control, (NOTE, no 7 in title).

One day I'll get around to putting up a mini-review thingy of it, (I haven't forgotten IainB, I'm just lazy).

But one distinction between it and W7FC is that, unlike W7FC it actually controls the Windows Firewall.
W7FC is a completely separate entity from Windows Firewall - if you exit it, all your rules disappear.

WFC adds rules directly to the Windows Firewall, you exit it and all your rules are still active.  You can uninstall it and choose to leave any rules or return to default Windows Firewall rules.

In theory, I could set up all the rules on my PC and then just add them to another without having to install WFC.

There's also TinyWall and Windows Firewall Notifier which also control the internal Windows Firewall.

This is beside the fact I also have a lifetime Outpost Security Suite license, (picked up same time as Innuendo - absolute bargain of my lifetime ) - I just wanted to play with something else for a while.

3921

General Software Discussion / Re: Linus Torvalds on OpenSUSE

« Last post by 4wd on March 01, 2012, 05:17 PM »

I think he's got a valid point about just being able to actually use a laptop like it was intended - as a portable work tool.

Do you think it's better for your employees to perpetually ring up your IT guys just so they can use the WiFi or business facilities in whatever hotel or airport they happen to be in?

How are the IT guys going to allow access to a WiFi network anyway if they have no remote connection?

What will happen is the IT guys will give one of the sales guys the password so he can add a printer while he's sitting in the business centre in the Hyatt Regency, that sales guy will tell his fellow sales people.
Pretty soon one of them will try to add a game or some malware will pop up asking for permission to do something and the sales people not being as knowledgeable as the IT guys will give it permission.

And thus, the scenario the IT guys try to avoid.

Requiring a password to perform just those three things has crippled the original function of the device.  Especially when the only way to overcome them is to send an IT guy out to your globe-trotting employee to add a printer or give the roving employee the admin password.

NOTE: I don't use any Linux distro, so be warned, I could be talking out of my fundamental.

3922

General Software Discussion / Re: I Need DC Input

« Last post by 4wd on March 01, 2012, 04:44 PM »

Question: Do we unplug Maxtor from Power Supply and MOBO?

-CleverCat (March 01, 2012, 01:08 AM)

Either is OK.

If it was me I'd unplug the IDE cable from the back of the Maxtor during the install and then afterwards plug in the last connector on the IDE cable, (the black one), not the gray one.

This will match the cabling up with the way the  Maxtor is jumpered, ie. Master device at the end of the cable.

But the power connector is the easiest to get to if you're not bothered.

3923

Living Room / Re: Anyone else noticed this?

« Last post by 4wd on February 29, 2012, 08:13 PM »

I generally browse around 75%

-Stephen66515 (February 29, 2012, 05:48 PM)

Obviously the answer is to get a screen that's 33% larger.

3924

Living Room / Re: Anyone else noticed this?

« Last post by 4wd on February 29, 2012, 05:42 PM »

Is it coincidence that it's every eighth heading?

Or am I seeing a conspiracy....

I always thought it was just a function of the browsers window size, since it's not doing it on my netbook.

3925

Living Room / Re: Rasberry Pi launches Wednesday Feb 29 - and is an instant sell-out as predicted

« Last post by 4wd on February 29, 2012, 04:00 PM »

I'm thinking that instead of DC mugs as giveaways, there's a new alternative:

Cody Pi