Recent Posts

4301

Living Room / Re: The great toilet paper debate

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 27, 2011, 07:26 PM »

So I gotta pick between Jay Leno and Ann Landers?!?

Yeish!

Hm... Jay Leno has a Jet bike...Over it is... 

4302

Developer's Corner / Re: Announcing with UDP in C# - Punching above my weight

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 27, 2011, 12:14 PM »

I don't know where I got these originally (it's not my code), which is unfortunate because I've screwed with them a bit. But this is a UDP client server pair written in C++ that does work that might give you some ideas on how to proceed.

UDP Ping Pong.zip (12.65 kB - downloaded 483 times.)

4303

Developer's Corner / Re: Announcing with UDP in C# - Punching above my weight

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 27, 2011, 11:59 AM »

If you send a packet, and then wait for a response, in the same thread ... Chances are the code will sit there forever waiting for said response.

With TCP you can call select(...) in a loop to see if the socket has become writable/readable and then do X. But if you jump straight to receive, it won't return until its buffer is full ... So if nothing is coming in ... Well...Eternity passes...

UDP is connectionless, so I'm not entirely sure what to use for it. In C/C++ there is recvfrom(...) what if any C# equivalent there is I don't know.

I do know you need to be sure there is something out there listening and waiting to respond, or you'll drive yourself nutz trying to debugg the protocol. I usually keep a packet sniffer running filtered down to just the test packets I'm working with. So I can try to keep track of who dropped what, why, and where.

4304

Living Room / Re: So I got an HTC Arrive

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 27, 2011, 06:56 AM »

And it came with headphones ... Which I have no idea wtf to do with

-Stoic Joker (April 26, 2011, 06:11 PM)

You're supposed to treat it like a luxurious/expensive MP3 player, that happens to double-take as a phone

-Ath (April 27, 2011, 01:51 AM)

So... I throw it on the corner of my desk next to the Zune I never use either? That hardly seems effective.

I've previously never had a "Smart Phone", just getting to the board

-Stoic Joker (April 26, 2011, 06:11 PM)

What made you decide to go for a Windows Phone 7 device?

-Ath (April 27, 2011, 01:51 AM)

Hm...
BlackBerry strikes me as being a bit behind the times, and is kind of dull.
iPhones ... Are gay.
Androids, I thought about, but they just didn't make it past my idiot simple test (It's a phone for christ sake, don't make me have to think about how to make a call/answer the damn thing) when I played with a few in the store.
The office was insistent that I have mobile access to Email (it's their dime) So... I went for the OS I had the best chance of coding for. I also like the straightforward UI that I can strip down to just & only what I want on it.

My wife (who also got in on the plan) got a Samsung Elite, which I got to fiddle with last night. She kept getting lost on the 7 different side scrolling "Desktops" ... Which I also found rather annoying ... Me like Windows Phone.

4305

General Software Discussion / Re: Uninstalling Google Chrome can mess up your PC

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 26, 2011, 06:22 PM »

I've uninstalled Chrome before, and haven't had any problems.  So I don't think it's as cut and dried as this...

-wraith808 (April 26, 2011, 06:03 PM)

I gotta go with wraith on this one, as I too have pulled it out of several machines and never had an issue.

Perhaps it doesn't happen for portable versions of Chrome...

-ewemoa (April 26, 2011, 04:20 PM)

I should certainly hope not if it's a portable version. I tried a portable Chrome once, and I've played with SRWare Iron portable several times and never had a problem.



There's gotta be a catch somewhere (in the rye perhaps). - I did save the guy's .reg file on my thumbdrive just in case it catches me... 

4306

Living Room / Re: So I got an HTC Arrive

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 26, 2011, 06:11 PM »

Well, considering I've previously never had a "Smart Phone", just getting to the board, logging in, and posting was a feat in itself. However in addition to that, I also got connected to my secure WiFi, setup Outlook to connect to our Exchange server, sent a test Email, checked my voice mail, and made a phone call. All without even looking at the 8 times longer than my attention span instruction manual.

So in the self explanatory/easy to use department ... I'll have to give it an A+.

The UI is incredibly fluid, so navigating it is quite nice. And it came with headphones ... Which I have no idea wtf to do with (hehe).

I'll plug it into my comp later and see how that goes - I gotta figure out how to side load it now.

4307

Living Room / So I got an HTC Arrive

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 26, 2011, 04:40 PM »

bloody hell it's hard to type on one of these things

4308

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: [Python][Windows] Debug/Gather printer information

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 26, 2011, 03:03 PM »

Yea at the moment this project only works for local printers (as you understand, networkprinters on remote sites also counts as local)
I'm actually heading for usage tracking and report errors on the fly.

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 02:26 AM)

Cool. Now for the errors, are you looking for communication errors (getting the job there), machine errors (printer out of something /jammed), or both?

-Stoic Joker (April 26, 2011, 07:38 AM)

Originally my plan was to just follow the communication errors from the PC (client) to the printer, once there the printer is a whole nother story, but when you mention it i could probably get that up on my todo list, getting the printer errors as well.

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 09:17 AM)

For the most part, the printer errors aren't worth the trouble. There is no consistent (RFC/Industry Standard) location for the error data, and if the printer actually does throw a truly Critical Error ... It'll be lucky if it can record it in its own logs before locking up. Anything else can be pulled out of (an SNMP query for) the Display text in real time (supplies out/paper jam - [User stuff]) which is in a standard location.

Now if you can track which ring of hell the print job just fell through on the communication side... That would be Uber Handy.

These days (with direct IP printing so common/cheap) print servers seem to only get used for user usage tracking scenario. However most of the (driver/spool interrogation level) ones I've tested have great difficulty tracking duplexed pages, multiple copies, and the larger paper sizes (like 11x17) that can make a big difference when calculating someones actual usage.

Then there are the printers that locally store the by user usage tracking info... Which is great if you want to pole for it constantly to avoid missing something (not recommended) because they dump the logs when restarted.

Only thing I found that will guarantee-ably accurately catch everything sent to a printer is Capella Megatrack. Which is an accessory firmware add-on that sits on the printer and reports back to a SQL db. At the time I had investigated the options available, including a scratch write ... but decided the best thing for the company was to recommend the client go with Capella (which ain't cheap). The deployment has been running just fine for the last (almost) 5 years.

Please understand, I'm not trying to talk you out of the project. I really and truly hope you succeed ... I'm just sharing the fact that I couldn't quite pull it off.

-Stoic Joker (April 26, 2011, 07:38 AM)

I understand, no worries i find it better to know what I'm getting myself into but i myself always live by the motto "you can do anything, don't let nobody tell you otherwise, nothing is impossible" and i firmly believe that there's no problem that can't be solved, the only question is who will come up with the answer

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 09:17 AM)

Agreed. But I have seen features turn into administrative nightmares because of differences between where a given piece of information is stored between different makes and models. Interrogating the driver/spool probably is the safest bet, but permissions issues come into play then also.

I'm looking in to the direct IP (TCP) printing as we speak, mainly this idiotic function:
"Output is transmitted directly to the printer without staging or respooling, saving system resources and enhancing print routing performance."
Sure it's a performance saver perhaps, but for a sys admin not in charge of the "pre-spool" server (Streamserve) it's really hard to debug anything cause the document that you print is just that, a TCP connection and nothing else, there's no spooled documents and no indication of what's getting printed. Love that the feature excists but there has to be more info in this area

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 09:17 AM)

I may be missing what you're after here. but to me Direct IP is way simpler to deal with. The spooler client side is just a cache that frees up the application quicker so the print job can crawl up the wire. Print servers really just allow for another place for the job to get stuck ... Especially when the spooler becomes badly fragmented because it was left in the default location on a high traffic print server.

I just love it when a client's IT department swears everything is clear...Only to watch the printer vomit paper for a half an hour just seconds after coming back on-line.

Yours is more of a scanner then a job-information tool o guess even if yours had a few information features such as printer toner levels etc. Have you developed yours entirely from scratch cause it looks like you were surprised that "web access" was in your feature list?
What's it written in? C# or .NET?

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 02:26 AM)

Yes, Page Countster's primary function is to find and list all of the printers on a network and collect page count and tracking information for billing purposes. I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding the "surprised that "web access" was in your feature list" part. But if you can link me to the statement I'll have a better chance of answering.

-Stoic Joker (April 26, 2011, 07:38 AM)

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=plLrAZrvq3I
1min 41sec into the video:
"i did wanna show you one thing tho that surprised me quite a bit, which was that i didn't even realize that my printer could be accessed and configured through the web" (think it's you in the video? or is that mauser?).

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 09:17 AM)

Ah! lol Yes, that was mouser in the video ... I do 99% of the printer configuration through the Embedded Web Server, and only physically touch the printer if forced to.

At any rate, yes it was a from scratch project, that occupied a great deal of my time for about 3 years. It is written in pure Win32 API C++ (no .NET/MFC/run-time requirement nonsense) using MSVS2005.

-Stoic Joker (April 26, 2011, 07:38 AM)

Cool, haven't been here long enough perhaps but i haven't seen many projects that doesn't involve PHP or "simple" programming, not yet at least, except yours.
Gotta hand it to you for making such a in-depth project with packet forging/managing etc

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 09:17 AM)

Thank you. Most of the simple stuff are just by request programs done by members to help people with simple requests. But there are many extremely talented programmers here, most of which are far better at it than I. My nitch is Network Deployment & Server Administration, programming for me is a hobby. Or rather it was supposed to be a hobby, until the boss found out what I could do. I designed and scratch wrote many of our company's internal database systems. Page Countster was/is also a company project.

4309

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: [Python][Windows] Debug/Gather printer information

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 26, 2011, 07:38 AM »

Yea at the moment this project only works for local printers (as you understand, networkprinters on remote sites also counts as local)
I'm actually heading for usage tracking and report errors on the fly.

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 02:26 AM)

Cool. Now for the errors, are you looking for communication errors (getting the job there), machine errors (printer out of something /jammed), or both?

These days (with direct IP printing so common/cheap) print servers seem to only get used for user usage tracking scenario. However most of the (driver/spool interrogation level) ones I've tested have great difficulty tracking duplexed pages, multiple copies, and the larger paper sizes (like 11x17) that can make a big difference when calculating someones actual usage.

Then there are the printers that locally store the by user usage tracking info... Which is great if you want to pole for it constantly to avoid missing something (not recommended) because they dump the logs when restarted.

Only thing I found that will guarantee-ably accurately catch everything sent to a printer is Capella Megatrack. Which is an accessory firmware add-on that sits on the printer and reports back to a SQL db. At the time I had investigated the options available, including a scratch write ... but decided the best thing for the company was to recommend the client go with Capella (which ain't cheap). The deployment has been running just fine for the last (almost) 5 years.

Please understand, I'm not trying to talk you out of the project. I really and truly hope you succeed ... I'm just sharing the fact that I couldn't quite pull it off.

This is mostly developed due to the lack of information given by windows when customers call in and say that their printouts never show up in the printer, this way i can track where, why and when

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 02:26 AM)

Yeah, that can get "fun" at times. The GUI say the job is gone/there, but the wire activity doesn't quite actually agree, and the printer isn't responding at all. I hate when that happens.

Atm I've bumped into some problems regarding the network printers, seems like they don't spool documents as they should when they come from a second "printer" server running a software called "Streamserve" :/

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 02:26 AM)

I'm not familiar with that one, but I have seen some Novell print servers that would convert the print job on-the-fly from RAW/9100 (what you'd expect) to LPR/LPD 515 ... Which strangely was the root cause for many rather interesting failures. Like a 500 page job that kept reprinting the first 150 pages in a loop until the machine ran out of paper.

Yours is more of a scanner then a job-information tool o guess even if yours had a few information features such as printer toner levels etc. Have you developed yours entirely from scratch cause it looks like you were surprised that "web access" was in your feature list?

What's it written in? C# or .NET?

-DoXiD (April 26, 2011, 02:26 AM)

Yes, Page Countster's primary function is to find and list all of the printers on a network and collect page count and tracking information for billing purposes. I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding the "surprised that "web access" was in your feature list" part. But if you can link me to the statement I'll have a better chance of answering.

At any rate, yes it was a from scratch project, that occupied a great deal of my time for about 3 years. It is written in pure Win32 API C++ (no .NET/MFC/run-time requirement nonsense) using MSVS2005.

4310

Living Room / Re: Techno-Addicts

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 26, 2011, 06:25 AM »

Confused about this cricket rule:
'Bat out of hell'

Is that a zone in the playing field or what? 

-Shades (April 25, 2011, 11:13 PM)

I thought it was a 30+ year old meatloaf entree.

-app103 (April 25, 2011, 11:19 PM)

That would have been my guess ... Crickets just chirp in the evening in my world.

4311

ProcessTamer / Re: 为什么不更新了

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2011, 06:48 PM »

Hell, I wish I could get more spam that said: "Hay man, nice job, keep up the good work!".

But oh no, I just get the spam that says I need:
A Quality Replica Rolex, a Russian Bride, and a larger longer lasting weenie.

 

4312

Living Room / Tech UN-Support

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2011, 01:23 PM »

Once again a chapter of the You Gotta be Friggin Kidding Me files unfolds...

I just got off the phone with a client I have know for several years. It is a nice little old lady that while not technically adept, is other wise quite sharp. She wanted me to replace the NIC in her computer (or sell her a new computer) because the group of "Tech Support" people at her ISP which will remain nameless felt it had gone bad due to the fact that the DSL routers Activity Light would not stop flashing...

Hm... A "dead" NIC with Line activity ... Must be Zombie traffic perhaps?

There other bit of completely misinterpreted info was an error message that popped up every time IE (or another web request) was opened. The error? ...No Dial Tone Detected...

Now I realize that a large trained IT staff can be a bit expensive. But they really should make sure the people they hire can at least read well enough to follow the damn flow chart. For the rest...McDonald's is now hiring!

4313

Living Room / Re: Easiest laptop (brand) to take apart ?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2011, 11:31 AM »

Mac laptops are less reliable than PCs
Research reveales 17% of Apple laptop fail within three years

-Armando (April 25, 2011, 11:17 AM)

Those are both the same link  

4314

Living Room / Re: Techno-Addicts

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 25, 2011, 06:41 AM »

assumption made that western values and culture are somehow innately superior to those from the East

-tsaint (April 24, 2011, 09:30 PM)

Funny really, as I tend to assume the exact opposite ... But I tend to be a nonconformist also.

I haven't read the article, but I'd have to assume it should end up with anything to excess is bad.

4315

Living Room / Re: Apple - not quite grasping the concept of privacy.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 24, 2011, 09:57 AM »

That "article" sounds more like a sympathizer's attempt at making a point.

Or to put it simply: If a forensics lab, thinks it's great idea ... You should be afraid, very (very) afraid.

Dig?

4316

Living Room / Re: Please kill me now - just bought an iPad off of eBay

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 24, 2011, 09:39 AM »

Is this how you feel after having the iPad placed in front of you?

-Deozaan (April 23, 2011, 03:16 PM)

Well, they say animals can sense evil...

-Renegade (April 23, 2011, 11:35 PM)

Indeed they can - and quite accurately too. I react much the same way when approached with iWare.

4317

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 24, 2011, 09:34 AM »

The .dll should be in the same folder as the clock. The pair of them can be run from anywhere you like. The only catch is to use the 32-bit version on 32-bit machines, and the 64-bit version on 64-bit machines.

Runs on anything from Windows 2000 -to- Windows 7.

4318

Living Room / Re: Happy Birthday Renegade!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 10:19 PM »

Ah! So that's why he's missing ... Happy Birthday Man!

4319

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 10:16 PM »

One of my printers is a Canon all-in-one and I really like it.
I stuck to Canon ink for a few years and then decided to try cheap stuff.
Everything went well and I congratulated myself for being astute… until cheap-ink change #4 clogged the print head.

-cranioscopical (April 22, 2011, 06:27 PM)

The thing to remember about print heads, is that they are classified as consumables. So if you ran that printer "For a few years", on the same print head - You're quite lucky - It's demise had nothing to do with the cheap inks, and everything to do with the fact that print heads eventually do fail ... Some even (time out) do it according to a schedule.

4320

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 07:48 PM »

Is it possible to adjust the text-based week days? I'd like to keep my Windows settings as my own region, but have the week days displayed in english. But even if I change everything to english, I'd like the week days to only display as two letters instead of three. Or even better, only one letter if the first letter is unique.
Perhaps allow custom names for all week days?

-ajp_anton (April 22, 2011, 07:28 PM)

Actually AMMA already caught me on the broken alternate feature (top of page 12). Which is the part I'm hung up on at the moment...That and time - I haven't really had time to work on it these days.

Also, you didn't reply to my earlier bug report. I can try to make a video of it since I may not have explained it very good.

-ajp_anton (April 22, 2011, 07:28 PM)

Sorry, actually you explanation was fine, but time got away from me. Which is kind of an ironic excuse for a clock project...But true none the less.

Current todo list order is:
Language Bugg - Which is kicking my ass
Add computername & uptime format specifiers - Should be quick and simple
Your sizing bugg - Which has great potential to get "sticky" if it is where I think it is.

Unfortunately I can't currently give a time-line because I've gotten steamrolled by the office.

4321

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Zombie Cats

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 07:30 PM »

Okay, for the mechanically inclined...This was fun.
http://www.fastgames.com/wheelit.html

4322

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Zombie Cats

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 06:41 PM »

515 clicks to the end, not sure if that's good or bad.

4323

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 06:06 PM »

A guy I knew who wrote Windows printer drivers told me if I wanted photo quality on the cheap, to get Epson Stylus.

-MilesAhead (April 22, 2011, 05:49 PM)

True, our (recently retired) production manager loves his, and has had it for several years. The Out-Of-Box drivers sucked (print quality wise), but he downloaded an updated one from Epson...and the prints then looked just as good as a photo.

4324

Living Room / Re: Hoppy Easter~!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 05:57 PM »

But according to their bible, there was nothing happy about the events of the weekend.

-zridling (April 22, 2011, 04:20 PM)

(Translation: Glad it wasn't me) Everybody else had a great weekend, the weather was nice...

4325

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 05:26 PM »

i must say the color lasers are starting to look nice these days.  not for photos but for other stuff.

-mouser (April 22, 2011, 03:31 PM)

HP LaserJet Pro CP1025nw Color Printer $179.99

OEM Cartridges are $55.99 and good for 1,000 pages, which works out to about 6 cents for a color page (assuming 5% coverage). Full blead/Edge-2-Edge photo prints will be closer to 20% coverage but it's still cheaper than ink for the rough draft stuff...(Paper type makes a big difference)...Actually the quality is getting better these days.

I doubt we can beat the online price for that model, but I'll check with the sales manager if you like.