Recent Posts

451

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Apple Mighty Mouse - Wireless (Bluetooth) Model No.A1197 - Mini-Review

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 12:02 PM »

I used to swear by Logitech mice. As soon as I went cordless that mostly changed to swearing at them. I routinely had problems - mostly getting left clicks to register. Partly that may have been due to the significant EMI problems on one side of the house. It affected everything from FM radio and TV reception to cordless and mobile phones to wireless ethernet.

OTOH Microsoft cordless mice were rock solid in the same environment and it seems odd that the right button on my Logitech mice would work flawlessly even when the left button didn't.

452

Living Room / Re: Apple Trying to Trademark "Startup"

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 11:36 AM »

Apple still holds a trademark for "App Store," at least in the US. Of course that's largely because they settled with Amazon to avoid a verdict which was almost certainly going to invalidate it.

453

General Software Discussion / Re: Showing CPU core temperature(s) in system tray

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 11:33 AM »

Judging from the icon it looks like it's supposed to represent your motherboard. Is this a Dell computer? That appears to be a model designation for one of their motherboards.

-Vurbal (August 29, 2013, 07:06 AM)

Ditto.

The primary nodes under the computer are all discrete pieces of hardware. But I don't know why you don't have a + there to expand it. Odd.

-Renegade (August 29, 2013, 11:08 AM)

Judging from the documentation (and screenshot) on the website that would appear to indicate it didn't find one of these chips:

• ITE IT8705F, IT8712F, IT8716F, IT8718F, IT8720F, IT8721F, IT8726F, IT8728F, IT8771E, IT8772E
• Fintek F71808E, F71858, F71862, F71868AD, F71869, F71869A, F71882, F71889ED, F71889AD, F71889F
• Nuvoton NCT6771F, NCT6772F, NCT6775F, NCT6776F, NCT6779D
• Winbond W83627DHG, W83627DHG-P, W83627EHF, W83627HF, W83627THF, W83667HG, W83667HG-B, W83687THF

-Supported Mainboard Sensors

454

Living Room / Re: Vocab tune-up

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 08:27 AM »

Language doesn't get dumbed down. I realize no one has actually said that, but it seems to be the general implication.

Meanings change over time to reflect what people are actually communicating. That's not only normal, it's the entire purpose of language in the first place. Words don't have any meaning beyond what we assign to them. Likewise the purpose of a dictionary is not to dictate meaning but rather to facilitate understanding. If the dictionary doesn't reflect the ideas people are communicating it ceases to be useful or relevant.

As to simplicity, the average person knows around 10,000 words in their native tongue but only actually uses around 10% of those in regular conversation. That's not because of intelligence (not entirely anyway) but because a smaller set of words makes for more effective communication on a number of levels.

I couldn't cut my vocabulary down that far, but for most people it's actually a good thing.

455

General Software Discussion / Re: What do non-programmers need to automate?

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 07:47 AM »

I can't think of anything right off hand but I'll try to remember to ask my wife when she gets home. She's not exactly an ordinary user but she's the defacto non-IT tech guru in her office so everybody comes to her with their questions.

On a side note your game development books look like they'd be a perfect starting point for my 15 year old son.

456

General Software Discussion / Re: Showing CPU core temperature(s) in system tray

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 07:06 AM »

Judging from the icon it looks like it's supposed to represent your motherboard. Is this a Dell computer? That appears to be a model designation for one of their motherboards.

457

General Software Discussion / Re: One-drag video conversion?

« Last post by Vurbal on August 27, 2013, 12:18 PM »

I am looking to convert ALL of my AVI, 3gp, DAT mkv, etc.  videos to MPEG-4/H264 in an effort to save file space (will I be saving space??).

-stisev (August 25, 2013, 02:02 AM)

Whether or not you save space is purely a function of bitrate. If you use bitrate-based encoder settings you can guarantee the output will be smaller but there's no way to predict what the quality will be. If you encode using a quality-based setting the output quality will be very consistent (assuming consistent input quality) but the bitrate is likely to fluctuate significantly from one source to the next.

In either case the output quality will be lower than the source. The difference may be obvious, imperceptible, or anywhere in between. But as long as you're converting from one lossy format to another it's unavoidable.

458

Screenshot Captor / Re: SSC 4.5 options GUI font INCREDIBLY small

« Last post by Vurbal on August 27, 2013, 11:36 AM »

I think it might even be the case that monitor have 4 subpixels per pixel, two of which are green - exactly because of what you mention with green being the color we are most sensitive to. And yeah, I can't recall seeing green either - but I didn't want to leave that color out because I figured that would just bring new questions I have no real answers to. xD

-worstje (August 27, 2013, 10:46 AM)

The only configurations I'm familiar with for standard LCD monitors are RGB and BGR. I believe Samsung's OLED and Plasma PenTile displays use RGBG which is roughly equivalent to the chroma subsampling of YUY2. For PenTile LCD panels I'm pretty sure it's RGBW with the 4th subpixel being completely unfiltered backlight.

Compression artifacts are hell. I've done some video encoding, I've done plenty of research into codecs and all that jazz.. and I just notice everything. Practically, my biggest annoyance is with JPEGs and/or other undersized wallpapers; the blurriness ruins wallpapers for me. It either has to have a native resolution matching or trumping my screen, or I can't use it. People don't get it, saying it looks fine. Really annoying. Alas, that's a different conversation entirely though. xD

My first instinct used to be pointing the defects out. I eventually realized this is a case where ignorance is definitely bliss.

459

Screenshot Captor / Re: SSC 4.5 options GUI font INCREDIBLY small

« Last post by Vurbal on August 27, 2013, 10:05 AM »

That's exactly why I leave it turned off. IMO it does exactly the opposite of what it's supposed to. The subpixels used to extend font edges just make it look fuzzy to me.

-Vurbal (August 27, 2013, 07:51 AM)

Just to make sure: ClearType is properly configured? There's a couple different layouts for subpixels (think red-green-blue or blue-green-red), and it is badly configured it can look absolutely terrible.

Besides that, I can understand liking a Cleartype-less font; it indeed does have some charms.

-worstje (August 27, 2013, 08:49 AM)

I've played with the options quite a bit and even went to the trouble of verifying my monitor has RGB rather than BGR subpixel ordering. As with video compression it's all a question of which imperfections your brain can ignore. For me the answer is typically none of the above.

I also can't rule out some of the problem being with my particular monitor. The built-in gamma correction is horrendous. In order to get approximately correct colors I have to reduce the gamma to 0.8 in the ATI Vision Control Center. I've never owned a laptop with a high enough quality display to make a useful comparison.

Based on what I know about how human vision works I suspect if it were possible for my monitor to change the subpixel order, ensuring green were always on the very edge, it wouldn't be a big deal. Green frequencies account for the vast majority of our vision, followed very distantly by red, and even more distantly by blue. I never notice green edges on fonts with ClearType but red and blue edges just make characters look smeared to me.

But like I said, that's a me thing and I have the same problems with my other senses - particularly hearing and touch.

(And compression artifacts.. depending on the kind of compression and the degree of it, I can't stand it either. But it is very situational for me.)

Part of my problem with video artifacts probably stems from years spent studying and experimenting when I wrote a lot of tutorials on the subject. I usually avoid pointing them out to other people since I figure the less they see, the more enjoyable the experience will be.

460

Screenshot Captor / Re: SSC 4.5 options GUI font INCREDIBLY small

« Last post by Vurbal on August 27, 2013, 08:45 AM »

^I just tried without and got a fright - maybe it depends on the fonts you use and the screen dot-pitch - but I'll stick with it here

-tomos (August 27, 2013, 08:36 AM)

I should probably have mentioned my autism drastically changes my sensory experience compared to most people. Technically it's referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder. Most people prefer clear type because their brain ignores the odd colors on font edges and only the shape correction is registered. My brain doesn't do that so it bugs me to no end.

I have the same problem with any type of highly compressed digital video. Where most people ignore most compression artifacts automatically my eyes are actually drawn to them.

461

Screenshot Captor / Re: SSC 4.5 options GUI font INCREDIBLY small

« Last post by Vurbal on August 27, 2013, 07:51 AM »

That's exactly why I leave it turned off. IMO it does exactly the opposite of what it's supposed to. The subpixels used to extend font edges just make it look fuzzy to me.

462

Screenshot Captor / Re: SSC 4.5 options GUI font INCREDIBLY small

« Last post by Vurbal on August 27, 2013, 05:51 AM »

hi Cathie, I only skimmed the thread but didnt see anywhere the size of your monitor?

Looking at your 1st screen of SSC Options, font size in the SCREEN you posted is almost 2x my actual GUI font size (easily 1.75x).  If you're actual SSC Options font really is that big, I'd be fine w/ it.  How do I get
it?
I use a 1920x1080 HD - LED monitor.  Set Windows DPI @ 110 to make fonts on most screens plenty big.

-cathie28 (August 26, 2013, 04:02 PM)

The screenshots you post and Vurbal's have exactly the same font size - but the odd thing is that his looks a *lot* clearer.

I took two screenshots -
first is comparing my options window and your's in post #1
second is comparing Vurbal's in reply #2 and mine

Vurbal's screenshot is *much* clearer than our options-shots. As I say I only skimmed the thread - did I miss something or could it be something like his clear type settings.

-tomos (August 27, 2013, 03:14 AM)

I have ClearType turned off completely so yeah, that's probably it.

463

Screenshot Captor / Re: SSC 4.5 options GUI font INCREDIBLY small

« Last post by Vurbal on August 26, 2013, 10:19 PM »

After resetting Windows to 96 DPI, rechecked PicPick / GreenShot Options screens.  They're a bit smaller than before, but STILL WAY easier to read than SSC.

-cathie28 (August 26, 2013, 07:46 PM)

It sounds like you're misunderstanding the options in Windows. The DPI setting doesn't change the dot pitch (size of pixels / number of DPI). In fact if you're using a flat panel monitor nothing can change the dot pitch. It's fixed at the monitor's native (highest) resolution. It can simulate lower resolutions, but unless they're exact multiples of the horizontal and/or vertical native resolution there will be some blurring. If it's a CRT monitor you can lower the actual resolution. In either case you need to do that in the options for adjusting resolution, not DPI.

464

Living Room / Re: Nonplussed - Windows 7 random BSODS

« Last post by Vurbal on August 26, 2013, 03:41 PM »

^ IME video and USB are the most common culprits of mystery driver problems. Video because so many system (software) components interact with it in a multitude of different ways and USB typically because Windows gets confused when a single USB port is used for too many different devices - particularly when there's storage involved.

465

Screenshot Captor / Re: SSC 4.5 options GUI font incredibly small

« Last post by Vurbal on August 26, 2013, 03:25 PM »

The first time I read a criticism of this I dismissed it initially but when I looked a little closer I actually found certain parts of the Preferences window pretty hard to read as well. I'm not sure it would be a problem if not for the relatively small dot pitch of my monitor (~0.25mm or ~102DPI).

The thing is it's not so much an issue of font size (at least for me) as character and line spacing. I had to dig around on my system to figure out another program with enough options to make a decent comparison. I ended up using Komodo Edit because it has both lists of checkbox selected options and paragraphs since I see the problem in both. I've attached 2 screenshots from Komodo Edit and 1 from Screenshot Captor to demonstrate the differences.

The line spacing, in particular, makes a big difference for me.

466

Living Room / Re: Nonplussed - Windows 7 random BSODS

« Last post by Vurbal on August 26, 2013, 02:08 PM »

If it was previously fine in the user's site, and if it worked fine and passed all CPU/RAM/disk tests whilst sited in CH's house environment, but now promptly BSODs again on return to user's site, then I would suggest an analysis of the user's environment. Something may have been changed in the user environment.

In particular, I would suggest consideration be given to the possibility of "unclean" mains power supply fluctuations, nearby strong or high frequency radio transmissions, and proximity EMI (electro-magnetic induction). Also check that the mains has a PME (positive multiple earth).

-IainB (August 26, 2013, 12:45 PM)

Dirty power would definitely be my first (or next) suspicion based on the OP. That's common here in Iowa, particularly in rural areas and in older houses which are rarely grounded properly (or at all) regardless of what electrical upgrades have been performed over the years. It can also be caused by something as basic as a faulty power cord or surge protector and it could even be isolated to a single circuit within the building.

Questionable quality power supplies, or even power supplies which aren't designed to deliver significantly more wattage than the computer requires are more likely to be affected by this. Assuming the is the original OEM power supply both probably apply. A cheap ATX power supply tester might show the problem, but it's equally (or even more) likely it would only be detectable under a normal operating load.

Even with the right equipment tracking down power issues is something of a black art. Without that equipment even an expert is stuck with educated guesses combined and swapping or bypassing components.

467

Living Room / Re: Are Creative Commons Licenses Even Enforceable?

« Last post by Vurbal on August 26, 2013, 10:15 AM »

It's worth noting the issues app103 has pointed out are the inescapable result of how modern copyright has evolved as a 1-size-fits all regime. It started as soon as guidelines designed to fit printed publications were extended to cover music. With every additional content and media type it has essentially become a complex web of kludges required to handle exceptions. This would be true even without the current level of industry interference and control.

The similarity between literary works, research reports, musical compositions, theatrical scripts, movie screenplays, and computer code is purely cosmetic. Add in performances, broadcasts, and various types of permanent and transitory digital copies and that illusory link disappears. Even if you begin with the assumption that the premise of copyright is protecting creators, at the very least it would require a complete ground-up overhaul.

In reality, though, the merits of copyright, or lack thereof, are irrelevant. Its real world effectiveness has always been dependent on technological limitations which have long since ceased to exist. The question we need to be asking is simply this. What can we do to reward, enable, and empower creators? If we begin with anything more restrictive than that we only reduce our chances of finding the best answers.

468

Living Room / Re: Ballmer Stepping Down

« Last post by Vurbal on August 25, 2013, 01:07 PM »

That's why Microsoft fell off the map in smartphones and eventually had to cobble together the first Windows Phone OS in just a few months from retread software they had lying around.

-Vurbal (August 23, 2013, 09:25 PM)

Just a quibble, but I think I recall that Windows Phone wasn't "lying around" - it was an entire second attempt at a phone OS built from scratch. Cobbled together to be sure, but just a different version of the MS demise in phones - "Windows Mobile" was getting stuck and Windows Phone was desperation.

I'm no fanboy of Apple, but my iPhone *is* better than the Win Mobile 6.1 phone brick I had.

-TaoPhoenix (August 24, 2013, 01:19 AM)

Since I don't feel like going back to find my sources for this I'll understand if everyone takes this with a huge grain of salt.

Windows Phone 7 was essentially a fusion of the Kin OS and Zune interface with some PC and Xbox related features added on top. It was an entirely new attempt only in the sense that the Sidekick software they bought along with Danger had to be rewritten around Windows CE 6 due to internal MS politics.

469

Living Room / Re: Baffled: moving memory sticks from one laptop to another halves it

« Last post by Vurbal on August 25, 2013, 11:28 AM »

Has the donor 8GByte of RAM soldered on the mainboard and are the the extra RAM slots not filled with 4GByte sticks? So that the donor system came to a total of 16GByte, but that you are just transferring 8GByte of RAM from the donor to the host?

-Shades (August 24, 2013, 04:19 PM)

A quick look at the service manual for the 8540W seems to suggest there could be another memory bank under the keyboard with 2 additional slots.

Computers that use the system board with spare part number 595764-001 or 630293-001 have two
memory slots.

Computers that use the system board with spare part number 595765-001 or 630294-001 have four
memory slots. On these computers, in both the expansion memory slots (on the bottom of the
computer) and the primary memory slots (under the keyboard), slot 2 cannot be populated if slot 1 is
not populated.

470

Easy Screencast Recorder / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - Easy Screencast Recorder - v1.12.01 - Apr 22, 2015

« Last post by Vurbal on August 24, 2013, 09:14 AM »

@mouser

Something you might want to put on your to-do list is a button to generate a text file with all the video/audio/container settings. Or even better maybe just send it to the clipboard with some UBB formatting to post it here.

471

Living Room / Re: Are Creative Commons Licenses Even Enforceable?

« Last post by Vurbal on August 24, 2013, 09:11 AM »

It doesn't have to be filed with the US copyright office, though there's something about limitations in damage recovery in a lawsuit if you don't.

-TaoPhoenix (March 01, 2012, 03:12 PM)

That's it in a nutshell. Registering copyrights was originally intended as a way to create a source for other people to determine the status of a work. When the law was rewritten by the entertainment and publishing industries in 1976 it was turned into just another regulatory roadblock for competitors.

An unregistered work isn't eligible for statutory damages, although you can still sue to control its use. Since it costs money to file that means a movie studio, for example, will always be able to get damages because all their copyrights will be filed. OTOH if they infringe on some average Joe's copyright it probably won't be filed so he'll have to prove actual damages. No 'up to $150,000 per infringement' if there's no way to determine or even prove damages.

472

Easy Screencast Recorder / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - Easy Screencast Recorder - v1.12.01 - Apr 22, 2015

« Last post by Vurbal on August 23, 2013, 09:41 PM »

What I was actually looking for was still images. I tried looking at your video file anyway but my computer doesn't seem to think there's anything in it. That's okay. We can give this a try first.

What we need to do to get a sort of baseline is try out the simplest type of capture. That means going to the Video Settings and use the following settings:

Recording File Type: AVI
Compression Mode: Compress on the fly
Video Codec Engine: DV Video Encoder
Compression Type: Video Only

If for some reason you don't have that option listed switch to these settings:

Recording File Type: AVI
Compression Mode: No Compression
Compression Type: Video Only

Try your capture. Just a couple seconds should be fine (especially uncompressed - it makes big files). Let me know if you still have the problem and we'll take it from there. If you get it with DV Compression you might want to go ahead and try Uncompressed first but it will probably give you the same result.

473

Living Room / Re: Ballmer Stepping Down

« Last post by Vurbal on August 23, 2013, 09:25 PM »

Just because hype and fashion won doesn't mean he was wrong about that one  

-rgdot (August 23, 2013, 11:55 AM)

Actually it does. The people he said it doesn't appeal to are using it for exactly what he said they wouldn't. It took me less than half an hour using an iOS device to see that coming and I've never bought an Apple product in my life. Nor do I plan to.

Also he got the basics wrong. The virtual keyboard on a multitouch smartphone, even the earlier cruder ones, are a lot less clumsy than the physical keyboards on the Windows Mobile devices he was bragging about. That's without even getting into the multitude of other problems in Microsoft's earlier mobile operating systems.

-Vurbal (August 23, 2013, 01:10 PM)

I disagree and in a way you allude to it too. When I first saw the iPod I felt the shiny feel and saw the potential appeal too but ... paying that much for the shininess is a whole different issue. To me what Ballmer was saying is true in principle, that shininess can be had for less, especially when the price point is dictated by more than just cost.

-rgdot (August 23, 2013, 05:43 PM)

Except his bigger point had nothing to do with cost. He wasn't saying we can make something like that cheaper. He was saying we don't need to make something like that because it's not what business customers want. But it was what business customers wanted. That's why Microsoft fell off the map in smartphones and eventually had to cobble together the first Windows Phone OS in just a few months from retread software they had lying around.

474

Easy Screencast Recorder / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - Easy Screencast Recorder - v1.12.01 - Apr 22, 2015

« Last post by Vurbal on August 23, 2013, 04:00 PM »

Hi,

Just found this software, and I tried to download the latest portable version (zip file), but twice already the download stopped after about 850kB.

So I downloaded it from http://download.cnet...3633_4-75886022.html and it worked OK.

Now, when I do a full screen capture, the countdown window stays on top displaying "1", even after the recording starts - cannot find an option related to this?

I am running it on Windows 8.1 Preview.

Ideas...?

-boombuia (August 19, 2013, 09:43 AM)

It seems to work fine on my Windows 7. I don't have Windows 8 installed at the moment and probably wouldn't have 8.1 installed in any case.

What happens if you set Compression Type (Options -> Video Settings) to Video Only?

Assuming it does the same thing can you post screenshots of all the Video Settings and Audio Settings screens from Options? I may be able to help figure it out if I have that as a baseline.

475

General Software Discussion / Re: Chrome’s insane password security strategy

« Last post by Vurbal on August 23, 2013, 03:20 PM »

Let me then amend that to say that you have no control over what is spread around through the sync function unless you know what your sync settings are and can verify that they are what you think they should be at the moment.

Given that Google has, in my personal experience, changed settings without my being aware of it, and that they furthermore make it difficult for most users to understand those settings and to set them the way they would expect them to be if they did understand, I think my amended statement is true.

AFAIAC, that is a glaring security hole, which I simply don't have the time and energy to step around every time I go online, and don't expect anyone else to, either.

-xtabber (August 23, 2013, 02:43 PM)

That I agree with 1000%. Especially in the fact Google counts on their users not recognizing the problem, let alone understanding it. The only safe advice in that case is stay away.

What ordinary people can understand, at least when they can see it, is you don't need to blindly trust or distrust any company. As you correctly pointed out sometimes their business interests are aligned with your privacy and security interests - in Google's case arguably more often than most companies. That's at least a foundation for some degree of trust.

At the end of the day most of us are not Google's customers. We're a commodity. That's neither good nor bad (or at least it's both) as long as we recognize and acknowledge it. It's not foolproof but until we've got crystal balls to see the future imperfect is what we're stuck with.