Recent Posts

3951

General Software Discussion / Re: How much trouble is a 64-bit OS right now?

« Last post by f0dder on February 04, 2009, 10:17 AM »

Silly question: why wouldn't you want to use a 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU? Been running both Fedora and openSUSE 64-bit for months, without a hitch.

-zridling (February 04, 2009, 09:59 AM)

If you don't have >3GB RAM and you don't have any apps that can take advantage of x64 (just having x64 version != taking advantage of x64) then there might not be much reason to go 64bit, especially if you risk driver problems or whatever.

One extra advantage x64 has is that a lot of vulnerabilities are 32-bit specific, and 64bit Windows also has the PatchGuard stuff which helps a bit more. Doesn't mean you're immune, though, especially not when still running 32bit software

3952

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: Post your NANY 2009 Mug/Shirt Pics here..

« Last post by f0dder on February 04, 2009, 05:31 AM »

Ooooh, this reminds me...

*checks email*

Yeah, email from 29. January. "dc mouser has sent you a CafePress.com Gift Certificate". Woops, better go order that mug

3953

General Software Discussion / Re: Creating a partition on an external HD for an encrypted Volume

« Last post by f0dder on February 04, 2009, 05:24 AM »

...And if you don't need FAT32, you can just do "convert x: /FS:NTFS" where X: is the drive letter of your FAT32 partition. It's nondestructive and fast.

3954

General Software Discussion / Re: How much trouble is a 64-bit OS right now?

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 02:07 PM »

I haven't had any major problems with XP64 for quite a while, and Vista64 does very nice on my laptop as well. There's been a few threads about the topic and some of the stuff still applies (shell extensions, drivers for oldstuff, a few apps/games here and there), but all in all it works flawlessly for me.

I'd say Vista64 (run through vLite) is just fine, if you can't wait for Win7. Wouldn't run the beta on a production system, even if it seems very stable - better safe than sorry.

3955

General Software Discussion / Re: Creating a partition on an external HD for an encrypted Volume

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 01:51 PM »

You can use Windows' built-in "convert" tool to non-destructively convert the partition to NTFS, if you don't need it to be FAT32.

Otherwise you'll need either
a) re-partitioning the drive to have a FAT32 and a NTFS partition (destructive)
b) use a tool (like PartitionMagic) to shrink the FAT32 partition (nondestructive, but remember backups) and create a new NTFS partition.

3956

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 01:19 PM »

A couple of points: WMP != "The evil DRM". Sure, it has some DRM and imho all DRM is evil, but getting rid of WMP doesn't get rid of the Vista kernel DRM. I don't particularly like WMP itself, but I don't particularly dislike it either - I don't really care whether that component is included in the OS or not. I think Movie Maker is silly, though, and potentially hurts smaller companies.

It's impossible getting rid of IE from Windows, as it offers a lot of components that other people use. Getting rid of IE is about as ludicrous as telling a linux distro to get rid of libXML, libCurl, openSSL et cetera - just not doable. You can remove the "iexplore.exe" frontend and default browser integration, but you just can't remove IE. Besides, without a browser, how would you download an alternate browser, considering Windows doesn't have a linux-style repository and package management?

3957

Living Room / David: a TRIP to the dentist

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 11:39 AM »

If I didn't know better, I'd say that this is what happens when your dentist replaces nitrous oxide with lysergic acid diethylamide.



Thanks to my friend for posting the link originally

Ketil says (18:30): iiiizzhhh thiiiss reeaaal liffe?

3958

General Software Discussion / Re: Creating a partition on an external HD for an encrypted Volume

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 10:44 AM »

If you don't need the external drive to be in FAT32, use the windows "convert" tool to convert it from FAT32 to NTFS. Nondestructive and fast

3959

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 03:58 AM »

Had they published "Windows Media Player Corrupts Your MP3s", you'd be accusing them of the same. The headline they currently have is the most accurate without being redundant IMO.

-Ehtyar (February 03, 2009, 03:50 AM)

No I wouldn't, because that's correct and non-sensationalist. Claiming that the operating system corrupts your MP3s has a lot of implications, like "OMFG IT'S NEW ÜBER-DRM!".

3960

General Software Discussion / Re: Creating a partition on an external HD for an encrypted Volume

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 12:52 AM »

You'll need something that supports splitting the container file in multiple less-than-4GB files (never looked into whether TrueCrypt supports this, but I don't think so - it's not something I'd work hard to support as a developer.)

Why don't you just move from FAT32 to NTFS though?

3961

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by f0dder on February 03, 2009, 12:49 AM »

News: Windows 7 may corrupt your mp3's.
Patch here: http://www.microsoft...7&DisplayLang=en

-Edvard (February 02, 2009, 08:34 PM)

That is such a lame headline... Windows Media Player in Win7 can corrupt your MP3s if you use the auto-tag update crap... it's not "Windows 7" doing this.

3962

General Software Discussion / Re: Make Firefox 3 load faster

« Last post by f0dder on February 02, 2009, 04:16 PM »

If you are obsessed with speed you may want to try seamonkey 2 alpha. It has the JS engine of the latest FF and it's actually very stable.

-urlwolf (February 02, 2009, 04:04 PM)

Can't see how that would make pages load faster nor make the browser start up faster?

(But how it helps with javascript-heavy sites - sure!)

3963

General Software Discussion / Re: Make Firefox 3 load faster

« Last post by f0dder on February 02, 2009, 04:04 PM »

dantheman: wouldn't a blog entry with screenshots be just as good? In addition to being readable at your own pace, instead of a video that's either too fast or slow moving?

Besides, those tips don't speed up loading time of FireFox, but have to do with page load time (pipelining) and perceived rendering speed (initial paint delay... which doesn't make the page load/display faster at all).

3964

General Software Discussion / Re: Hard Disk Heat

« Last post by f0dder on February 02, 2009, 03:32 PM »

Really, most laptops have VERY easy access to the harddisk, usually just one or two screws that have to be removed from the bottom. Do it without AC plugged in and with battery removed and you shouldn't be able to mess anything up

3965

General Software Discussion / Re: Make Firefox 3 load faster

« Last post by f0dder on February 02, 2009, 02:17 PM »

Why oh why make a video of something like that, instead of a blog entry?

* f0dder sighs.

EDIT: wouldn't follow that guide... blindly enabling HTTP pipelining for proxies without knowing if it's supported is bad, and disabling IPv6 DNS seems misguided. And what's with "Expose full path to plugins", hmm? Initialpaintdelay=0 could spike up your CPU usage dramatically because a page might need a lot of re-flowing as it's loaded.

3966

General Software Discussion / Re: Every Site is Unsafe According to Google

« Last post by f0dder on February 02, 2009, 02:12 PM »

Surely people around here know better...

-Ehtyar (February 01, 2009, 01:19 PM)

Most people around here probably do, but most of us aren't regular users. And heck, I keep the feature enabled just in case I accidentally click something, or in case other people borrow my computer.

3967

Coding Snacks / Re: Idea: Lightbox

« Last post by f0dder on February 01, 2009, 06:02 AM »

Haha Skrommel, I love your screenshot

3968

General Software Discussion / Re: Every Site is Unsafe According to Google

« Last post by f0dder on February 01, 2009, 05:51 AM »

I consider safebrowsing to be a useful feature, and if more people were using FF w/safebrowse enabled, we'd get less of those annoying MSN "click here to see omfg funny party pictures! (after providing your MSN login details)" spams.

3969

Living Room / Re: Drive Dock: Turn bare drives into floppies

« Last post by f0dder on January 31, 2009, 02:09 PM »

Uhh... yea? I hot swap internal drives. IDE drives are recognized by windows, but not fully by the BIOS, so you can't interact with them until a reboot. SATA drive hot swapping is fine as long as the drive isn't in use.

-wreckedcarzz (January 31, 2009, 02:05 PM)

Man, you're insane

Hotswapping requires compliant PSU, Motherboard AND harddrive... and wasn't supported at all (for consumer drives) until SATA came along.

Yeah, I know some maniacs have done it with PATA by tristating the drives, but... ugh.

3970

Living Room / Re: Drive Dock: Turn bare drives into floppies

« Last post by f0dder on January 31, 2009, 01:53 PM »

You can't do "Safely Remove Hardware" on internal drives

EDIT: Although it would be a blast getting someone that pissed you off to "Safely remove C:\"

-wreckedcarzz (January 31, 2009, 01:47 PM)

You tried hotplugging an internal drive?

3971

Living Room / Re: Meme time! Five Things People Don't Know About Me

« Last post by f0dder on January 31, 2009, 10:25 AM »

I LIKE TURTLES!

• While I primarily listen to brutal metal and evil industrial, I do have a pretty varied music taste - and even attend raves in the woods when it's summer.
• I'm also a stair-counter, to the extent that I sometimes can't focus on conversation while walking on stairs.
• I really enjoy cooking and I'm OK at it - although I'll always downplay my skills face-to-face.
• I almost never watch movies when I'm alone, I always get caught up procrastinating on the internet instead.
• I often take the path of least resistance.

3972

General Software Discussion / Re: Every Site is Unsafe According to Google

« Last post by f0dder on January 31, 2009, 10:16 AM »

mahesh2k, sadly I'm not a regular member of any irc channel but out of curiosity, how would I go about doing that?

-Paul Keith (January 31, 2009, 09:55 AM)

Easiest way is to use the the webchat, or you can get a full-blown IRC client - for instance, ChatZilla for FireFox. #donationcoder is hosted at EFNet

3973

Living Room / Re: Drive Dock: Turn bare drives into floppies

« Last post by f0dder on January 31, 2009, 07:26 AM »

Depends on how smart the USB device is, Carol... some of the power-off the drive when you do "safe remove". As for not being able to safe-remove, the only thing I've had locking it up is TSVNCache, from TortoiseSvn, and that process is 100% killlable

3974

Living Room / Re: Drive Dock: Turn bare drives into floppies

« Last post by f0dder on January 31, 2009, 07:05 AM »

i wonder if they have docks for IDE hard drives. now i have plenty of those!

-lanux128 (January 29, 2009, 12:14 AM)

I've found out the hard way that IDE hard drives (and, well, some SATA drives) aren't hot-swap friendly. Especially so when the said drive is, ya know, active. BSoDs and hard lockups aren't usually regarded as a positive thing.

But it WOULD be nice to have that ability with these so-called "HD toasters" (I'm hoping because of appearance, not heat! )

-wreckedcarzz (January 29, 2009, 12:27 AM)

"Safely remove hardware", buddy...

3975

Living Room / Re: R.I.P T-ShirtHell

« Last post by f0dder on January 31, 2009, 05:04 AM »

:-(

Kinda lame, though - by running a site like that, what do you expect?. Also, who's grabbing all the t-shirt designs before the site goes bunk?