Recent Posts

4601

Living Room / Re: All Hail...!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 10, 2011, 01:58 PM »

Stoic Joker: now that's a damn nifty title! I love the word 'ineffable' - it's right up there with 'exhume' in my list of nifty++ english words.

-f0dder (February 10, 2011, 11:56 AM)

I have no problem with ineffable, as I have frequently left people searching for words in an attempt to describe my antics. Having a rather dry whit, I can even deal with the concept of being a capricious stoic... I'm at an age where many of my memories are (at least becoming) archane...and I like the wilderness. But, Bitch-Queen?!? That's a hell of a thing to hang on a guy....

4602

Living Room / Re: All Hail...!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 10, 2011, 11:17 AM »

Damn, I knew I shoulda kept the one I got last night...

The ineffable Stoic Joker the Categorical: Capricious Bitch-Queen of the Archane Wilderness

...Thanks a lot April.

 

4603

Living Room / Re: No, robot: Japan's elderly fail to welcome their robot overlords

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 09, 2011, 05:45 PM »

And how about letting the elderly stay at home longer? There are plenty that wouldn't need to go to hospitals so soon, if there was some way that would allow them to stay where they are. My grandmother would have loved to have a robot to be there when I wasn't, to pick up all the things she dropped on the floor and couldn't safely bend down to reach herself. (her dog was never too good at playing fetch)

-app103 (February 09, 2011, 05:29 PM)

That is more the direction I was going (or meant to). It just seems that we have become a disposable society to such an extent, that we now are looking for ways to (justify) disposing of (inconveniently lingering family members) each other.

4604

Developer's Corner / Re: DNS Propogation Checkers to Check DNS Propogation Status

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 09, 2011, 05:08 PM »

Better to invest in a spell checker than a "propogation" checker.

-xtabber (February 09, 2011, 04:39 PM)

Quite to the contrary, I think there is a great market for propoogation checkers. They are after the only way to conclusively know when when someone is coming close to being completely full of shit.

...Why if you only had one you'd know I've been topped off for a while...

4605

Living Room / Re: No, robot: Japan's elderly fail to welcome their robot overlords

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 09, 2011, 04:52 PM »

That's a rather disturbingly stupid idea. Robots perform functions, they can't "care"...They can't even feel. Trying to warehouse the elderly in that fashion is simply appalling.

4606

Living Room / Re: NoteSlate - mono color tablet, nice price

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 09, 2011, 12:06 PM »

I'd be very suspicious of a site that can't even keep their price label stuck down properly 

-timns (February 08, 2011, 01:50 PM)

By gum!

-cranioscopical (February 08, 2011, 06:17 PM)

That one made me wince, audibly...

--------------------------------------------

On topic: (A Plain Electronic Notepad, Hm...)

This part from the page sounded interesting:

NoteSlate Firmware (NSF)
- NSF will be opensourced
- NS Firmware 0.7 (basic drawing)
- NS Firmware 1.0 (+ notes, mp3)
- NS Firmware 1.5 (+ *.PDF text viewer (just bitmap mode)
- NS Firmware 2.0 (+ OCR handwritten recognition)
 
- "Share" client (on models with Wi-Fi), Share client UI and description will be revealed soon

I'm interested...This could have potential!

4607

General Software Discussion / Re: Wanna try something weird? A little Outlook 2007 fun.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 09, 2011, 11:52 AM »

Tried it with Outlook 2010 - Not sure what you're calling the header field but... - on the ribbon it did nothing; on new mail to/from/cc/bcc/subject fields it made the font bigger and/or smaller.

the same thing works on the main message body, and tracked with the zoom the current setting ... So I'm guesing it just Zooming the text in the other fields also.

4608

Developer's Corner / Re: DNS Propogation Checkers to Check DNS Propogation Status

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 09, 2011, 06:48 AM »

Interesting, I typically use nslookup in interactive mode to query various servers to see how things are progressing. But this could be handy for those days where I'm feeling a bit lazy...or am just too pressed for time to schlog through the whole manual routine.

4609

General Software Discussion / Re: Should MS open up Windows Update to 3rd parties?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 08, 2011, 03:14 PM »

It works out great...and takes up no space at all!

-Stoic Joker (February 08, 2011, 11:26 AM)

You are right of course - I just object to wasting my bandwidth on downloading DVD images when I have better things to do. Its fine when you super fast internet access but when it takes half a day per file ...

-Carol Haynes (February 08, 2011, 11:37 AM)

+1! 

It's not quite that slow for me. But I still batch them a few at a time for overnight when I don't need something 'immediately.'

-40hz (February 08, 2011, 12:43 PM)

Me too. We have a T1 here at the office, which really ain't that fast by todays standards - But we need the guaranteed upstream for misc.. If I really gotta get something quick, I'll RDP into my home office and setup the transfer from there (and go grab it at lunch or on the way to where ever).

4610

General Software Discussion / Re: Should MS open up Windows Update to 3rd parties?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 08, 2011, 11:26 AM »

I've still got several stacks of CDs from the MSDN subscription stacked around my office that I haven't had time to deal with...and we went digital delivery 2 years ago...

I can still get anything I need is short order, and locally store (.iso) copies of things I use often. It works out great...and takes up no space at all!

4611

General Software Discussion / Re: Should MS open up Windows Update to 3rd parties?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 07, 2011, 06:13 PM »

+1 

4612

Living Room / Re: Death Threats in an Odd Turnabout

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 07, 2011, 01:22 PM »

Gotta love lawyers...

-Renegade (February 07, 2011, 07:31 AM)

Oh and indeed we do ... I like mine best boiled in oil...

 

4613

Living Room / Re: which is more important, system ram or video ram?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 07, 2011, 06:55 AM »

So the question is do I adjust the video ram to 64 meg or 32 meg (only other options)? I would to help it out as much as possible.  they only use it to do email, internet, photos of the grandkids.  Nothing intensive.

-techidave (February 07, 2011, 05:23 AM)

I understand your thinking on dropping the shared video memory size, but... I'd be inclined to wonder then why 512 isn't enough. The extra 64/96MB "gained" isn't really going to help them if they have some bloated crapwear (like AOL) gobbling up resources (which got answered while I was typing).

The resource balancing act could end up costing them more in the long run than just letting them get a new machine with current hardware that is up to the task of handling the current bloatwear.

4614

Living Room / Re: Death Threats in an Odd Turnabout

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 07, 2011, 06:31 AM »

They're out to ruin people's lives, and got their own lives ruined... fair enough, even if I don't approve of death threats.

-f0dder (February 07, 2011, 01:53 AM)

+1 Compared to the type of threats these people typically make... death is a kindness.

4615

Living Room / Re: What would Cody's music sound like?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2011, 03:36 PM »

Reminds me of an circa 1990's american sit-com introduction (not unlike Seinfeld or similar)...or could even be used in porn tbh lmao...

-Stephen66515 (February 05, 2011, 12:59 PM)

I don't know about a sit-com, but either a cop show, or a porno would be a good fit.

It's definitely cool ... Only thing I play is the radio.

4616

Developer's Corner / Re: PHP

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2011, 03:29 PM »

PHP is a server side scripting language. if you only want to change a value (as apposed to submitting the entire form) you'd need to store the value in a hidden input field and then update it with a client side scripting language (typically Java Script).

4617

General Software Discussion / Re: WHS 2011 ("Vail") Release Candidate now available for download.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2011, 10:58 AM »

I may need to scare-up some hardware to test that on - curious lad that I am...

4618

General Software Discussion / Re: New (Feb 1 2011) "Starter" Editions of Delphi and C++ Builder

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2011, 09:03 AM »

What I would like to see though is for them to make it completely free (or super cheap, say $29) for people not making software to sell.

-mouser (February 05, 2011, 08:28 AM)

My first compiler/IDE was Borland's C++ v4.52 which I purchased at Staples for $10. Sometime after that a friend gave me a copy of BC Builder (the first one I think), and I pirated a copy of BC Builder 3 but it really didn't give me what I was after...results wise - smallest .exe I could create and run portably was like 500+k. ...Which is why I jumped ship in favor of MSVC++.

Anyhow, point being, price is definitely a factor...especially if one is not entirely committed (which I wasn't back then).

4619

General Software Discussion / Re: How to create a shortcut for the "wireless network connection" in Windows XP?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 05, 2011, 08:51 AM »

If you throw some more code out there I can take a look. I've got some experience hunting nasty bugs involving Windows, memory structures and the likes: Cautomaton exposed me to tons of weirdness from MS and other application 'vendors' when I wrote it.

-worstje (February 04, 2011, 08:06 PM)

Thanks, actually I'd already posted the code in its entirety earlier when I (had only tested it on x64) thought it was working. It's back aways in this thread  here the part that is throwing blanks at me is on line 46 of that code. I was then (incorrectly) assuming that the buffer passed to the function 3 posts up had content, which it didn't, which explains why incrementing the pointer to it went ...Badly.

Which makes my current nemesis the empty/corrupt/borked buffer on line 46.

4620

General Software Discussion / Re: How to create a shortcut for the "wireless network connection" in Windows XP?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 04, 2011, 07:53 PM »

...Nevermind, I hadn't backed up far enough. Apparently it's the MIB_IFROW structure that is tossing out garbage... Who'da Thunk...

pMibIfRow->wszName is both extremely critical (e.g. the point of the function)...and complete trash (buffer content wise).

Shit... 

4621

General Software Discussion / Re: How to create a shortcut for the "wireless network connection" in Windows XP?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 04, 2011, 06:25 PM »

So for a (lack of) progress report...

At this point I have it working, or at least it appears to be...With one minor exception. It crashes on XP x86. Runs fine on Win7 x64 and Server 2k3 x64, but crashes on (the target platform) XP x86... *Sigh*

I've narrowed it down to a specific function and line of code, but I've not a clue why/what's wrong with it:

Code: C++ [Select]

1. //================================================================================================
2. //-------------+++--> Strip \DEVICE\TCPIP_ Off of wszName to Get the Adapter's GUID For Comparison:
3. void StripOutGUID(WCHAR *szGUID, WCHAR *wszName) { //---------------------------------------+++-->
4.         WCHAR *p; // Walk the string to find the GUID opening '{' character. Sure There
5.                  // Are Easier Ways to do This ... But This Way I Avoid Language Issues.
6.  
7.   p = wszName;
8.   while(*p != L'{') *p++;
9.  
10. //  wsprintf(szGUID, L"%s", p);                 // ALL of These Work, but Crash on XP...?!?
11. //  StringCbPrintf(szGUID, GEN_BUFF, L"%s", p); // ALL of These Work, but Crash on XP...?!?
12.   StringCbCopy(szGUID, GEN_BUFF, p);            // ALL of These Work, but Crash on XP...?!?
13. }

Suggestions appreciated.

4622

Developer's Corner / Re: Need Advice on MySQL Server Tuning

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 03, 2011, 02:59 PM »

Besides what was already mentioned...

* If EXPLAIN shows it's using filesort, you might want to increase your sort buffer sizes.
* If you have some queries that repeat alot, enable query cacheing... it will turn those queries into lightning

-Gothi[c] (February 03, 2011, 02:41 PM)

Now that is the type of answer I was looking for.

Query caching probably won't net much as there are only about 20 (sporatic use) users... But the sort buffer strikes me as the sort of thing that could have an impact on a large report query. Are there any rules of thumb (keep in multiples of X kind of stuff) for buffer sizes?

4623

General Software Discussion / Re: How to create a shortcut for the "wireless network connection" in Windows XP?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 03, 2011, 02:11 PM »

The Wireless Connection Manager has always been in XP (from day one) ... It is only the WiFi API that gives programmers an easier way to futz with it that is new.

Windows 2000 ... Now that was a 3rd party nightmare PITA when it came time to Wirelessly connect.

4624

Developer's Corner / Re: Need Advice on MySQL Server Tuning

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 03, 2011, 02:05 PM »

Here's the thing... I run one of the problem child queries that I selected for testing purposes while watching Task Manager to see what impact it has on the server's resource usage. While the query is running the server is just chuffing along showing absolutely no sign of a strain.

-Stoic Joker (February 03, 2011, 06:48 AM)

Does "Task Manager" imply MySQL is running on a Windows server?

-f0dder (February 03, 2011, 09:42 AM)

Yes.

If that's the case, how old is the MySQL version?

-f0dder (February 03, 2011, 09:42 AM)

v5.1

Iirc, there was recently something about a new version of MySQL that fixed some Windows performance issues - I was shocked to read the announcement, since it revealed that the Win version had essentially used a "BigLock" and only in 2010 been fixed to use more fine-grained locking. In other words, for years and years and years, whoever were responsible for the Windows port should really have been shot, or at least have had a great big flogging.

Don't have a link to the article (wouldn't be surprised if it was on osdev, or perhaps slashdot), but here's a graph showing the consequences of the 5.5 release.

-f0dder (February 03, 2011, 09:42 AM)

Holy Shit!

The charts shown are only for the transactional InnoDB (These are basic MyISAM stuff), but either way its got to be an option worth exploring. Maybe I'll give that a shot this weekend.

4625

General Software Discussion / Re: How to create a shortcut for the "wireless network connection" in Windows XP?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 03, 2011, 01:57 PM »

It's the distinction we're both tripping over from opposite ends. You're looking at it correctly as it is available after SP2. And I'm looking at it (a bit darkly) because it's available to XP only after SP2. I hate mid-year changes (side effect of being a mechanic).

So if somebody does a fresh install, the program isn't going to run until after they get SP2 installed - Which is why I (in a split hairs fashion) said it isn't available in XP. It's not that it didn't run, as I never tested it...It's just that as soon as I saw the conditional SP2 requirement I (started thinking NT4) decided not to open that can of worms.


<Short Answer> ...You ain't nutz, I am.