Recent Posts

4201

General Software Discussion / Re: Time to Wipe this Machine! Clean install? Or XP Repair?

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 25, 2008, 06:06 PM »

Jim,

I'm really sorry that you're having such a miserable time with your system. It's such a disappointment to splash out on something that ought to be great and then find it just doesn't live up to your expectations. Let's hope that a wipe and clean reinstall sorts out at least some of your troubles.

Given the history, and the fact that you're still in the warranty period, surely the onus is on the builder to make this right -- and not just by over-the-phone tech talks.

You say that "they don't want me to ship it to them" but have you insisted that the vendor take back and fix the system? Has the vendor actually refused to do this? If so, would it be worth a brief discussion with your lawyer to find out what can and cannot be achieved/expected by standing on your legal rights? What the vendor wants seems a little less important to me than what you want and have a right to expect.

Anyway, good luck,

4202

Living Room / Re: Home Backup Protection

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 24, 2008, 05:32 PM »

I hope everyone realizes it's a parody & not a real ad!!

-J-Mac (January 24, 2008, 12:31 PM)

Oh no!  And I just bought this nice pair of Purdeys...

4203

General Software Discussion / Re: Money saving budgeting options

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 24, 2008, 10:58 AM »

Also good ideas on how to save money are appreciated

-justice (January 24, 2008, 03:32 AM)

Whenever I've taken a look at my spending patterns with an eye to saving I've come to the conclusion that there are few, if any, 'magic' areas where cuts will work wonders. Either I can't or I just don't want to cut big-budget items to a significant degree.

Further, having been desperately poor and now, fortunately, not so poor I can tell you that the latter is better. Cutting only discretionary spending seems too much like removing the reward for hard work. On me, at least, that acts as a disincentive.

In my experience it's the mind set that matters more than the strategy, and it seems that you're on the right road by wanting to save some more.

Perhaps the best plan is to aim for a small percentage cut across the board. To give yourself an incentive, try the old-fashioned step of putting the 'savings' somewhere in physical form. For example, you mention heating -- turn the heat down by 1 degree, estimate what that'll save over one month and drop that physical amount into a jar. Next time you are about to stop for coffee, give that one occasion a miss and drop the physical amount into a jar. About to buy the daily newspaper? Miss a day and drop the physical...

Try to cut everything by a small amount. It's surprising how many of the "essentials" can be cut without any really negative impact if only the cuts are small.

Try that for all aspects of your life for a month and see if the result seems worthwhile. If so, open a separate account somewhere as johnfdeluca suggests, keep going, and watch your account grow. Results not worthwhile? Double your cuts and try again.

Good luck with your effort, let us know when you have your next million!

4204

Living Room / Re: New Captcha System for DonationCoder.com

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 18, 2008, 12:19 PM »

Try this one 

4205

Skrommel's Software / Re: More false virus warnings in compiled ahk utilities #*(%&*(#*(&#(%

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 15, 2008, 11:18 PM »

Using the latest version of AHK I still get the occasional alarm from AVG about
stuff of my own that I've compiled for personal use. One day's scan flags nothing,
then there's an AVG update and something gets flagged, then there's another
AVG update and the same thing (retrieved from quarantine) passes fine. 

It's annoying and has the effect of lowering the level of trust one places in anti-virus
software in general. That in itself is a dangerous trend.

4206

Living Room / Re: Nice little write-up of DonationCoder in usa today "tech_space" blog

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 15, 2008, 04:51 PM »

Nice one, well deserved!

4207

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 15, 2008, 04:34 PM »

Found this link in google's help center...you may have to contact them

"How do I stop Google.com from redirecting to another Google domain?"
http://www.google.co...answer.py?answer=873

-jazper (January 14, 2008, 03:11 PM)

And that was the answer, thank you.  Google replied that a recent reconfiguration at their end probably caused this. 

Google replied surprisingly quickly.  It might take a while for them to implement a fix but it's nice to have had a response.

4208

General Software Discussion / Re: Deleting Files From the ..\Local Settings\Temp\ Folder

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 14, 2008, 05:49 PM »

Craniscopical: try going to %temp% in windows explorer. That's your temp folder

-jgpaiva (January 14, 2008, 04:43 PM)

Yes, thanks... see  « Reply #3 on: Sun 13 January 2008, 15:07:06 » above 

4209

General Software Discussion / Re: Deleting Files From the ..\Local Settings\Temp\ Folder

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 14, 2008, 04:39 PM »

I know that the Windows\Temp file can usually be cleared without a problem.  I'm talking about the one in Local Settings under my username.  It's a lot bigger and picks up a lot more traffic.

-J-Mac (January 13, 2008, 10:16 PM)

So much for my powers of comprehension 

For me, C:\Documents and Settings\me\Local Settings\Temp\ contains nothing at all.  Have you been emptying mine by mistake?

4210

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 14, 2008, 03:47 PM »

NO-ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!

-Edvard (January 14, 2008, 03:21 PM)

I see you've been coding in Python again!

4211

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 14, 2008, 03:42 PM »

Found this link in google's help center...you may have to contact them

"How do I stop Google.com from redirecting to another Google domain?"
http://www.google.co...answer.py?answer=873

-jazper (January 14, 2008, 03:11 PM)

Thanks!

4212

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 14, 2008, 02:42 PM »

The plan for world dominance is going as expected. With the inadvertent help of those dumbasses fine guys at Google, the Spanish Empire will rise again!!

-Lashiec (January 14, 2008, 11:56 AM)

¡Hola!
Viva España

cranioscopical, maybe you're using a proxy and you forgot to set things back to normal? (I hope you're not being proxyed by the action of a trojan, our methods are not that rude )

-Lashiec (January 14, 2008, 11:56 AM)

The same thing happens with both Firefox and IE, other search engines don't do this.
If I enter google.com into the address bar, or if I enter anything into the search box, off I go to google.es
If I enter an explicit google address into the address bar then I go to, e.g. google.ca

I've killed off any and all google cookies then 'reset' to english.
Nothing I've run here so far has found a trojan at work (although my grumbling has left me hoarse).

4213

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 14, 2008, 07:48 AM »

Thanks to you all for the helpful replies.
I'm poking around trying to sort out what's happening and all of your suggestions are useful.

Appreciated...

4214

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 13, 2008, 08:54 PM »

Do you have a google account, chris? Maybe the "country" option unter "my account" / "Edit personal information" is wrong.

-jgpaiva (January 13, 2008, 08:50 PM)

Nope, I don't have a Google account.

4215

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 13, 2008, 08:51 PM »

Does this work?

http://www.google.com/ncr

P.

-parpfish (January 13, 2008, 08:46 PM)

Gets me here, but with English labels.   

4216

General Software Discussion / Re: Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 13, 2008, 08:39 PM »

Are you in spain?

I suppose not, but if you were, that'd be normal.

To get back to the english version, go to "preferences" ("Preferencias"), on the main page, then select "english" in the " Idioma de la interfaz" pulldown menu and press "guardar preferencias" at the top-right.

-jgpaiva (January 13, 2008, 08:16 PM)

Thanks for the quick reply, and I can do all that, including setting inglés and saving.
However, the next call to Google takes me back to http://www.google.es/
So, what your suggestion does is to let me see an English interface on http://www.google.es/

If I close and reopen, say Firefox, I'm back to Spanish so, saved or not, something doesn't stick.

This makes no real difference to me as I'm as inept in Spanish as I am in English but I'm puzzled about why/how this happened.
 
I'll force it to Google.ca, that works.

4217

General Software Discussion / Inadvertent Googling in Spanish

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 13, 2008, 08:02 PM »

Hi everyone.

I just noticed  that my Google searches take me to Google España.
Also, if I explicitly enter http://www.google.com/ that's converted to http://www.google.es/.

The same thing happens with both Firefox and IE, other search engines don't do this.

Anyone know why this happens?

TIA

4218

General Software Discussion / Re: Deleting Files From the ..\Local Settings\Temp\ Folder

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 13, 2008, 04:07 PM »

On XP Pro Sp2 I close down most applications and clean out %temp% regularly, say once a week, without ill effects (AFAIK).

If you're as forgetful as I, it's a good idea to check first, with something like Why Reboot before cleaning up, in case you tread on something that's pending.

If this is folly I'm sure I'll be instructed by whatever follows here 

4219

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 13, 2008, 02:27 PM »

That would have been like us changing our posting style to gri's because he insisted upon it.

-Josh (January 13, 2008, 08:09 AM)

Reason why if to be "me, me, gri" grivitagniks knick-knaks not?

 

4220

Living Room / Re: Better run like Hell!!! I AM BACK!!!!

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 11, 2008, 10:41 AM »

Good luck with the recovery to full health!

I'm not sure about the going-back-to-work part, though 

4221

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 11, 2008, 10:30 AM »

In my view no tagging/filtering system would be appropriate for DC unless there is a significant majority demand for one.
A more apt response could be avoidance of the site by those who are unhappy.

4222

Living Room / Re: What should I do with my audio CDs?

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 11, 2008, 10:17 AM »

I'd keep them.

Personally, I prefer a physical medium.
That's particularly true when I want to peruse notes, perhaps while listening.
I found it difficult enough abandoning the larger-format sleeve notes that came with vinyl LPs .

Alternatively, you could try a variant of this.

 

4223

Living Room / Re: Anyone Else Have an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Problem in the Winter?

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 09, 2008, 11:22 AM »

No!     Though there have been harrowing times, no lightning.   

-J-Mac (January 09, 2008, 12:24 AM)

There's  your problem, then... head outside during the next big thunder storm! 

4224

Living Room / Re: This coming year, I am SOO looking forward to __________ .

« Last post by cranioscopical on January 01, 2008, 02:06 AM »

This guy

Spoiler

4225

Living Room / Re: This coming year, I am SOO looking forward to __________ .

« Last post by cranioscopical on December 31, 2007, 11:00 PM »

Sorry, I'm trying real hard to stifle a rant

-CWuestefeld (December 31, 2007, 03:58 PM)

But surely... paying taxes is a privilege