Recent Posts

4226

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

« Last post by IainB on February 15, 2013, 03:43 PM »

tracert -h 100 216.81.59.173
try it.

-mrHappy (February 10, 2013, 10:27 AM)

Nifty! I got a slightly different result to @Renegade:

Spoiler

tracert -h 100 216.81.59.173

Tracing route to read.more.at.beaglenetworks.net [216.81.59.173]
over a maximum of 100 hops:

  1   399 ms   409 ms   393 ms  10.129.0.1
  2   395 ms   427 ms   414 ms  irb20.cr1.ams2.nl.ipv4.kaiaglobal.com [79.141.173.1]
  3   417 ms   408 ms   415 ms  20gigabitethernet1-3.core1.ams1.he.net [195.69.145.150]
  4   424 ms   422 ms   437 ms  10gigabitethernet2-1.core1.par2.he.net [184.105.213.102]
  5   506 ms   497 ms   498 ms  10gigabitethernet7-1.core1.ash1.he.net [184.105.213.93]
  6   514 ms   521 ms   525 ms  10gigabitethernet1-2.core1.atl1.he.net [184.105.213.110]
  7   516 ms   509 ms   504 ms  216.66.0.26
  8   561 ms   534 ms   545 ms  10.26.26.102
  9   559 ms   546 ms   563 ms  Episode.IV [206.214.251.1]
 10   538 ms   566 ms   557 ms  A.NEW.HOPE [206.214.251.6]
 11   573 ms   558 ms   544 ms  It.is.a.period.of.civil.war [206.214.251.9]
 12   557 ms   565 ms   560 ms  Rebel.spaceships [206.214.251.14]
 13   552 ms   555 ms   560 ms  striking.from.a.hidden.base [206.214.251.17]
 14   565 ms   572 ms   559 ms  have.won.their.first.victory [206.214.251.22]
 15   554 ms   547 ms   559 ms  against.the.evil.Galactic.Empire [206.214.251.25]
 16   566 ms   638 ms   694 ms  During.the.battle [206.214.251.30]
 17   574 ms   651 ms   562 ms  Rebel.spies.managed [206.214.251.33]
 18   579 ms   544 ms   539 ms  to.steal.secret.plans [206.214.251.38]
 19   705 ms   554 ms   568 ms  to.the.Empires.ultimate.weapon [206.214.251.41]
 20   558 ms   715 ms   551 ms  the.DEATH.STAR [206.214.251.46]
 21   550 ms   547 ms   555 ms  an.armored.space.station [206.214.251.49]
 22   553 ms   555 ms   543 ms  with.enough.power.to [206.214.251.54]
 23   565 ms   560 ms   550 ms  destroy.an.entire.planet [206.214.251.57]
 24   563 ms   562 ms   565 ms  Pursued.by.the.Empires [206.214.251.62]
 25   555 ms   543 ms   542 ms  sinister.agents [206.214.251.65]
 26   552 ms   562 ms   546 ms  Princess.Leia.races.home [206.214.251.70]
 27   568 ms   561 ms   559 ms  aboard.her.starship [206.214.251.73]
 28   558 ms   543 ms   553 ms  custodian.of.the.stolen.plans [206.214.251.78]
 29   551 ms     *      550 ms  that.can.save.her [206.214.251.81]
 30   557 ms   567 ms   561 ms  people.and.restore [206.214.251.86]
 31   551 ms   554 ms   594 ms  freedom.to.the.galaxy [206.214.251.89]
 32   548 ms   551 ms   551 ms  0-----I-------I-----0 [206.214.251.94]
 33   576 ms   566 ms   586 ms  0------------------0 [206.214.251.97]
 34   601 ms   560 ms   572 ms  0-----------------0 [206.214.251.102]
 35   546 ms   562 ms   567 ms  0----------------0 [206.214.251.105]
 36   574 ms   570 ms   575 ms  0---------------0 [206.214.251.110]
 37   615 ms   608 ms   601 ms  0--------------0 [206.214.251.113]
 38   778 ms   782 ms   592 ms  0-------------0 [206.214.251.118]
 39   553 ms   549 ms   560 ms  0------------0 [206.214.251.121]
 40   563 ms   582 ms   564 ms  0-----------0 [206.214.251.126]
 41   584 ms   579 ms   596 ms  0----------0 [206.214.251.129]
 42   569 ms   560 ms   744 ms  0---------0 [206.214.251.134]
 43   563 ms   566 ms   574 ms  0--------0 [206.214.251.137]
 44     *      555 ms   549 ms  0-------0 [206.214.251.142]
 45   545 ms   548 ms   552 ms  0------0 [206.214.251.145]
 46   562 ms   536 ms   551 ms  0-----0 [206.214.251.150]
 47   564 ms   560 ms   548 ms  0----0 [206.214.251.153]
 48   558 ms   553 ms   556 ms  0---0 [206.214.251.158]
 49   543 ms   556 ms   546 ms  0--0 [206.214.251.161]
 50   541 ms   542 ms   610 ms  0-0 [206.214.251.166]
 51   554 ms   570 ms   566 ms  00 [206.214.251.169]
 52   546 ms   556 ms   553 ms  I [206.214.251.174]
 53   564 ms   557 ms   556 ms  By.Ryan.Werber [206.214.251.177]
 54   559 ms   568 ms   548 ms  Never.Gonna.Give.You.Up [206.214.251.182]
 55   574 ms   573 ms   546 ms  Never.Gonna.Let.You.Down [206.214.251.185]
 56   546 ms   563 ms   607 ms  read.more.at.beaglenetworks.net [216.81.59.173]

Trace complete.

4227

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 15, 2013, 03:39 AM »

More news from the warfront via Techdirt. Apologies if this is a "political" post, but the subject seems to have been made inherently political in the US and elsewhere.
A clip from the Techdirt post is copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images (my emphasis):

CISPA Wouldn't Actually Solve The Reasons Congress Is Giving For Why We Need CISPA
by Mike Masnick

As expected, Representatives Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger have reintroduced CISPA, exactly as it was when it passed the House last year. Incredibly, we've been hearing that they've brushed off the massive privacy concerns by claiming that those were all "fixed" in the final version of the bill that got approved. This is highly disingenuous. While it is true that they made some modifications to the bill at the very end before it got approved, most privacy watchers were (and are) still very concerned. They did convince one organization to flip-flop, and they seem to think that's all they need.

But, here's the thing that no one has done yet: explain why this bill is needed. With President Obama's executive order in place, the government can more easily share threat info with companies, so really the only thing that CISPA piles on is more incentives for companies to cough up private information to the government with little in the way of oversight or restrictions on how that information can be used. And given how frequently the government likes to cry "cyberattack" when it's simply not true, it's only a matter of time before they start using claims of "cyberthreat!" to troll through private information...
(Read the rest at the link.)

4228

Living Room / Re: Adobe Reader zero-day

« Last post by IainB on February 15, 2013, 03:15 AM »

This discussion thread just reminded me to uninstall Adobe Reader.
Now done. Thanks.   

4229

Living Room / CyberGhost VPN.

« Last post by IainB on February 15, 2013, 03:08 AM »

CyberGhost VPN Special Deal (worth a look).
In reviews of VPN providers, CyberGhost comes out with a pretty good report.
They had a FREE sort of trial option that wasn't too bad at all, despite its constraints - bandwidth caps.
Now their business model seems to have been revamped along with their network, and they have the FREE option now with no cap, but I think it must be throttled. In addition, the annual tariff plan has been reduced as a limited time special offer. The tariff plans apparently give you a faster response time.

This is a clip from: Welcome to the new CyberGhost VPN

...We changed the tariff plan, so it’s easier for you to understand and decide for one of the two types of paid subscriptions: Premium and Premium Plus. Currently, our free service covers the basic needs, making a Classic subscription unnecessary.

To celebrate the kickoff of the new CyberGhost VPN, we offer you the 12 Month subscription for a limited amount of time for $39,99 instead of $69,99 and our CyberGhost Premium Plus for $69,99 instead of $109,99...

4230

DC Gamer Club / Prince of Persia - HTML5

« Last post by IainB on February 14, 2013, 11:59 PM »

A nifty bit of coding, and (IMO) a worthwhile objective.
Any offers of help/assistance to the author?
Prince of Persia - HTML5

4231

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Office 2013 Home/Business - non-transferable (1 PC p.person) - Caveat emptor.

« Last post by IainB on February 13, 2013, 07:25 PM »

Thanks. To avoid going down the rat-hole, I corrected the post to read:

Increasingly Libre/OpenOffice and others are looking better by comparison, and of course the Google Docs alternative too

4232

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Office 2013 Home/Business - non-transferable (1 PC p.person) - Caveat emptor.

« Last post by IainB on February 13, 2013, 05:53 PM »

Yes, it seems a very strange marketing strategy - increasingly restrictive and controlling for the Customer. I suspect that only someone with more money than sense would buy the MS Office 2013 Home/Business product knowing the licence constraints. The advice otherwise would seem to be to avoid it altogether - the product is effectively in a product lifecycle cul-de-sac (a dead end). Why would a user want to be trapped in such a business relationship with the behemoth Microsoft?

As for MS Office 365, well, I guess that from Microsoft's $$$ perspective maybe there is potentially "one born every minute".

Increasingly Libre/OpenOffice and others are looking better by comparison, and of course the Google Docs alternative too - though Google's unilateral and without a "by-your-leave" shutting down of many of its other offerings is likely to ensure that no prudent user could seriously commit to Google Docs without swallowing a load of potential risk - e.g., a decision to decommission the service could happen overnight, leaving you high and dry.

4233

General Software Discussion / MS Office 2013 Home/Business - non-transferable (1 PC p.person) - Caveat emptor.

« Last post by IainB on February 13, 2013, 03:56 PM »

I subscribe to Office Watch (was "WOW" or Woody's Office Watch).
They just sent out an interesting bit of information that you can find on their website:
Are you sure about non-transferable?
(Some pertinent snippets quoted below, sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Office 2013 can't be moved from the computer you first install it on - we’re quite sure.

..." How can I use the software?

We do not sell our software or your copy of it – we only license it. Under our license we grant you the right to install and run that one copy on one computer　(the licensed computer) for use by one person at a time, but only if you comply with all the terms of this agreement. Our software license is permanently assigned to the licensed computer. "

or

"Can I transfer the software to another computer or user?　

You may not transfer the software to another computer or user.　"

It’s the same wording for both Retail and OEM copies of Office 2013. OEM copies are sold, usually pre-installed, on new computers...

...Amazon is more careful about disclosing the Office 2013 terms. One of the bullet point ‘Product Features’ is:
"One time purchase for the life of your PC; non-transferrable"...

4234

Living Room / Re: Hi-Tech laptop cooling modification for laptops.

« Last post by IainB on February 13, 2013, 06:30 AM »

Ianb, wouldn't it be better to not have the moisture or "warm humid air" going into the laptop?  I have not been sold on the laptop cooling pads that have the fans in them and are powered by USB.  
But I also have to wonder about putting it into the freezer... how good can that be for it??

-techidave (February 13, 2013, 05:30 AM)

My answer to the first question would have to be "No". The empiric approach described actually works, and so far unfailingly, over the several years that I have used it.
Normally humid air is going to be sucked into the laptop anyway. The HTLCM (Hi-Tech laptop cooling modification) just makes it more humid, that's all.
If you are worried about condensation, don't be. You would be unlikely to get condensation forming inside a warm laptop, but I suspect that dropping it into a freezer could cause condensation to form somewhere - probably on the copper heatsinks especially - until it has all warmed up. Being a bit paranoid, I wouldn't advocate the freezer approach for that reason, though I could be wrong, of course.

I think @Renegade's idea of putting ice as the filling in a sandwich of cloth is worth exploring for laptops that seem to run critically hot, though in my experience, laptops that might run that hot may often be overdue for an inside clean, as described.
If your cooling air pathways are clear, then using the HTLCM could significantly drop the CPU (and maybe also disk) temperatures in a short space of time.

4235

Living Room / Hi-Tech laptop cooling modification for laptops.

« Last post by IainB on February 13, 2013, 03:34 AM »

I am a longtime laptop user, and I usually take a laptop apart at 6-monthly service intervals and clean up its airways, fan(s) and heat exchanger(s) to restore the cooling efficiency to its as-new state. The cooling efficiency can otherwise degrade quite significantly over time as the insides get clogged-up with fluff and dust. The tools I use are a screwdriver, a toothbrush, a small paintbrush and a vacuum cleaner with a narrow nozzle.

However, if the service is overdue, or if the PC has got some seriously heavy CPU load on and it's a hot day, then I set up a Hi-Tech laptop cooling modification that I invented years ago. The other day it was a case of "some seriously heavy CPU load on and it's a hot day", and I was in a non-airconditioned area.
It's moving towards midsummer where I am in NZ and after a bit of a cold start it's getting hotter, grassy areas are turning brown, and the fire danger warning signs along major roads through country areas are up to "High" (which is typical for this time of year). My laptop's Intel i7 was running a couple of CPU-intensive processes at about 13 percent each and the cooling fan was working at high speed but holding the temperatures stable. I could see the hot spots by looking at the Speedfan monitor display.

So I enabled the Hi-Tech laptop cooling modification:





I got the idea after driving with my brother in his old Jaguar Mk10 across semi-arid desert from LA to the Sequoia National Park, some years ago. Before we set off across the desert, he did something I had never seen done before: he pulled into a gas station, opened the trunk and took a large burlap canvas water bag with "Water Camel" and the picture of a camel printed in red and black on its side. Then he opened a stopper on the bag, filled it up with water from a nearby tap, closed the stopper, opened the hood and strapped the bag onto the front of the radiator, using straps attached to the bag.
Me: "What's that for?"
Bro.: "It'll keep the water temperature down. The water slowly soaks through the burlap, evaporates, and the water vapour gets blown into the radiator core. Cools it."
Me: "But won't it block the airflow?"
Bro." "A little bit, but the cooling effect will far outweigh any increased risk of heat build up from restricted airflow."
He then explained the physics of it to me and said that these bags had been used since the '20s.
My brother is a boffin and an aeronautical engineer, and never does anything without good reason - if he says so, it's likely to be right. And it was - the engine ran a degree or so cooler across the desert than it did in LA traffic. An example of the use of dead basic science.

4236

Living Room / Grab 50GB of Box Online Storage Free for Life (2013-02-12)

« Last post by IainB on February 12, 2013, 04:45 PM »

Good offer. Via Lifehacker:
Grab 50GB of Box Online Storage Free for Life

If you know of someone who needs it or could use it, then get it whilst it's available.
No strings - "Restricted to New email account sign-ups".
Lifehacker suggests dropping the dot in your email address...that should work OK.

4237

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 12, 2013, 04:22 PM »

 ARStechnica: EU data law draft uses language—word-for-word—from US, EU corporations

Well this is a surprise!     

4238

Living Room / Re: Suggestions for low vision problems while working on a computer

« Last post by IainB on February 12, 2013, 06:31 AM »

Man that nosquint is the bomb!  just trying it out on my own computer and it rocks!  

-techidave (February 12, 2013, 06:04 AM)

Yes, I think it's brilliant. I use it all the time.
I mentioned finding out about it, here: Re: ZOOM setting reminder ?

It's been mentioned a few times in the DCF.
Here's a copy of what it makes my screen look like:

4239

Living Room / Re: Rapid Information Overlay Technology (Riot) - Tracks Users from SNSes

« Last post by IainB on February 12, 2013, 04:15 AM »

Oops. Sorry. Duplicated/cross-posted by accident: Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

4240

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 12, 2013, 04:13 AM »

Sorry, duplication: I didn't realise that here was a separate post about this Raytheon software, on DCF: Rapid Information Overlay Technology (Riot) - Tracks Users from SNSes

4241

Living Room / Re: Suggestions for low vision problems while working on a computer

« Last post by IainB on February 12, 2013, 03:55 AM »

Not sure if you will have seen these - possibly useful - discussions on DCF:

• alternatives to windows magnifier
• Screen Mask
• Re: PDF-XChange Viewer ($FREE version) - Mini-Review (as at 2012-10-04)

Also, if not already done, check out these potentially useful references: (some referred to in the links above)

• NoSquint - a Firefox extension that allows adjusting the text-only and full-page zoom levels as well as color settings for websites.
• f.lux™ - Better lighting...for your computer (referred to in the above DCF links).
• http://fx-software.blogspot.com/ and http://www.fx-softwa....co.uk/assistive.htm for software for visually-impaired PC users, including Dark Screen (check for viruses if you download this).

My experience of modifying the inbuilt Windows system colours, fonts, etc. for people with macular degeneration is that such methods are constrained by being a bit complicated and are not entirely successful.
The built in "Ease of Access" mods in Windows, designed for visually-impaired users, also seem a bit limited.
If a web-based email access were used instead of the Windows Live Mail desktop program, then NoSquint could be ideal as its settings are pretty flexible and can be set for a given website.

4242

Living Room / Big Brother is watching you.

« Last post by IainB on February 11, 2013, 06:04 PM »

Saw this post at reason.com:
(Copied below with main embedded hyperlinks.)

Defense Firm Develops Software That Tracks People on Social Media
February 11, 2013

A multinational security firm has secretly developed software capable of tracking people's movements and predicting future behaviour by mining data from social networking websites.
A video obtained by the Guardian reveals how an "extreme-scale analytics" system created by Raytheon, the world's fifth largest defence contractor, can gather vast amounts of information about people from websites including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Source: The Guardian. Read full article. (link)

Curiously, the link to the video from the reason post gets a 404 (page not found), as does the same link from the source Guardian post...

4243

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Delete folders within directory but not the files within the folder

« Last post by IainB on February 11, 2013, 12:08 AM »

You don't need to delete any folders.
You can:
(a) search for the file (and or its contents) that you want, and/or
(b) get a flat-file view of all the files in a set of nested folders.

All easily done in a decent Windows Explorer alternative - e.g., putting the flat file into a "scrap pane" in xplorer² (there's a free version).

By the way, I've seen PCs and file servers with exactly the sorts of deeply nested folders per your "dramatization" - including ones sparsely populated with documents.     

4244

General Software Discussion / Which to use when? Reparse points (Junctions), Symbolic links, and Libraries.

« Last post by IainB on February 10, 2013, 05:08 AM »

Since getting xplorer² years ago, I have tended to favour using reparse points (folder Junctions) quite a lot to organise my data into more readily-accessible libraries. I don't really use symbolic links though, as I tended to follow the xplorer² author's (Zabkat's) advice. I am also learning to make better use of Windows Libraries too, since migrating to Win7-64 Home Premium.

But Zabkat seems to have been reviewing the situation and has changed his opinion somewhat about reparse points and symbolic links. There's an interesting couple of posts at the xplorer² blog:

• Folder junctions aren't fit for the long haul
• Link me out of here!

4245

Living Room / Re: Java - Critical Patch Released

« Last post by IainB on February 10, 2013, 03:21 AM »

Thanks for this alert.
I took the opportunity to expunge all the Java-related crud (there was a lot of it) that I had accumulated on my laptop, and install the latest release and runtime environment in a relatively clean fashion. I hope I don't regret doing that, but then I reckoned (rightly or wrongly) that all that old Java stuff could have been a potential risk if I had left it in situ.

4246

Living Room / Re: Adobe Flash Player - Update/Fix emergency security patch for 2013-02-08

« Last post by IainB on February 09, 2013, 09:32 PM »

Was posted all right (better twice than not at all though )

Flash Under Attack, Emergency Patch Issued

-tomos (February 09, 2013, 04:32 PM)

Ah, thanks. Sorry for the duplication. Yes, I felt sure I had seen it somewhere in DCF, but I was in a hurry and it didn't appear when I searched for "Adobe Flash Player".

4247

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Giveaway of the Day - ArcSoft Perfect365

« Last post by IainB on February 09, 2013, 07:53 PM »

Yes, nifty trick shot. I saw her right away, though I momentarily at first I thought she had been superimposed on the image of the man, until I saw his right hand.

4248

Living Room / Adobe Flash Player - Update/Fix emergency security patch for 2013-02-08

« Last post by IainB on February 09, 2013, 04:17 PM »

I did not find this as having been mentioned in the DC Forum, so thought it might be useful to give the links for those who (like me) had not known about the patch.
Refer ZDnet post of 2013-02-08:
Flash under attack, emergency patch issued: Update immediately

That post links to the step-by-step Adobe instructions to perform the install and check all settings, for different browsers:
Flash Player Help / Installation problems | Flash Player | Windows

I am becoming heartily sick and tired of Adobe and their blasted Flash utility.
Here's the Concise Oxford Dictionary definition of the word "utility" (my emphasis):

utility
· n. (pl. utilities)
1 the state of being useful, profitable, or beneficial. Ø (in game theory or economics) the value of that which is sought to be maximized in any situation involving a choice.
2 a public utility.
3 Computing a utility program.
· adj.
1 useful, especially through having several functions.
2 functional rather than attractive.
– ORIGIN ME: from OFr. utilite, from L. utilitas, from utilis ‘useful’.

The only thing it seems to be a utility for lately seems to be for annoyance and for delivering viruses/malware to your computer. I have it disabled from auto-playing in my Firefox browser.
By the way, be warned that this patch offers to install Google Chrome on your computer...
Sheesh.

4249

Developer's Corner / Re: Discourse - A discussion platform by StackExchange's Jeff Atwood

« Last post by IainB on February 08, 2013, 06:24 AM »

Talking about it will only get you so far. Why not join in for a trial "suck-it-and-see" exercise?
As it says at: http://www.discourse.org/buy/

Our immediate plan is to find three great partners willing to live on the bleeding beta edge and run forums with us, so that we can be confident we've built a discussion platform that works for a variety of different communities. We promise to do everything we can to host your forum and make it awesome for two years. In return, you promise to work with us on ironing out all the rough edges in Discourse and making sure it scales successfully – both socially and technologically – to those three very different audiences.

Once we've accomplished that, which will take anywhere from six months to a year, we want to make it super easy for anyone to start a Discourse forum, at any scale, for any reason. Let a million discussions bloom!

4250

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CHS Note field display disappears [Bug?]

« Last post by IainB on February 08, 2013, 05:16 AM »

The symptoms have started to recur episodically.
"Re-establish clipboard chain" does not seem to fix it now (is that useful information?).
Changing to a different Layout does fix it.
Stopping and restarting CHS does fix it.
A system reboot did not prevent a new recurrence.

My laptop OS is Win7-64 Home Premium.
CHS is v2.17.01 (previous version was v2.16.2.0).