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4651

Living Room / Re: Why does the Mayan calendar end on....?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 05:12 PM »

Okay, how's this:

When the "Dark Planet arrives (which it will)... It will not actually strike us, as it is only at that time coming to its closest proximity (which is still a good distance).

The importance of this timely event, is that then, and only then at the the very height of its closest proximity can the Mayan space ships return (hay somebody had to go there...), land, and present us with the newly updated Mayan calendar (space babes - swimsuit edition).

4652

Living Room / Re: Why does the Mayan calendar end on....?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 04:50 PM »

IIRC the Mayan calendar in question is spot on for current events like seasons and (winter/sumer) solstices ... So their "math" does have established street cred...

-Stoic Joker (January 31, 2011, 12:54 PM)

Yes, it still is useful for that, but that obviates the point; we're going to need a new one starting with December 22, 2012.
Left to our modern culture, it'll probably be a swimsuit edition... >_<

-Edvard (January 31, 2011, 01:51 PM)

Out Standing! - I'll take 5 - Where do I sign!


@CT - Regarding the Will the Government lie to us question. I submit this question is fundamentally flawed...As it assumes that at some point the government was telling the "truth" ... i-Mushroom  

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Living Room / Re: Why does the Mayan calendar end on....?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 12:54 PM »

IIRC the Mayan calendar in question is spot on for current events like seasons and (winter/sumer) solstices ... So their "math" does have established street cred...

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Living Room / Re: Why does the Mayan calendar end on....?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 12:04 PM »

I get what you were saying about an event of world-ending proportions would have garnered at least an honorable mention.

-CodeTRUCKER (January 31, 2011, 11:53 AM)

Which it very well may have, but as is the habit of the western bias you mentioned earlier...Any information deemed "inconvenient" is quickly "lost"/disposed of...

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 11:50 AM »

I tried it at home on a Windows 7 pc with no wifi adapters, and it gave some kind of GUID error dialog.

-superboyac (January 31, 2011, 09:30 AM)

Really? Weird, I just ran it here (Win7 desktop/no WiFi) and it just quietly exited. Might that have been an earlier build? I gotta remember to put build numbers in these things (bad habbit...).

If you let me know which GUID error (there's several...) it threw, I'll see if I can figure out how it got there. I still gotta work out a dead adapter check too.

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Living Room / Re: Why does the Mayan calendar end on....?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 11:37 AM »

Having a morbid fascination with all things apocalyptic, I cannot resist any chance to quip one liners regarding the Mayans contribution to the topic. - The anniversary->cake bit I just can't let go...the timing is perfect and it is (to me at least) hysterically funny.

Throughout history every crackpot with a following has at some point taken a stab at the when will the world end ...So far none of them have been right. But the law of averages dictates that eventually one of them will at least be close... (hehe)

@CT - Man I gotta tell you, I love your take on this. The Dark Planet thing is positively brilliant! But I gotta go with bullet 1's symmetry vote. Maybe just because I'm tired of worrying about the world ending (got enough of that crap when I ws growing up).

4657

Living Room / Re: "Betelgeuse" Email Doins'

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 07:15 AM »

• If "B" does go supernova on 12/12/2012, we still won't know about it for 520 years.

-CodeTRUCKER (January 31, 2011, 07:04 AM)

Actually the Mayan date is 12/21/2012, and I'm still a bit irked by nobody narrowing it down to a time yet. The wife & I will be having our 21st wedding anniversary that day ... And I really need to know if we're going to be wasting a perfectly good cake.

I have no problems going with a morning coffee cake if it's to be an afternoon extinction.

4658

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: GetSerious0.1 - (don't expect much)

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

A movable window (on a rubber-band) that snaps back into the corner strikes me as a bit counter intuitive.

-Stoic Joker (January 25, 2011, 07:37 PM)

Fixed. now you can move it. it will jump back to screen when you put it offscreen, and when close by to one of the walls, will jump to it (magnetize).

-kobi7 (January 30, 2011, 10:51 AM)

Cool, I like best of both solutions.

I like the progress bars for an at-a-glance overview, but they are a bit too active (draws the eye badly). Perhaps they could update from their current position, instead of zero each time to cut down on the blinking effect.

-Stoic Joker (January 25, 2011, 07:37 PM)

Does it flicker for you with the latest version?

-kobi7 (January 30, 2011, 10:51 AM)

Perhaps I explained that badly. Flickering implies that the program is rendering badly/malfunctioning...Which it is not. It runs fine.

It is the as designed behavior of repetedly going from zero to X that keeps the UI in a constant state of motion. Which is what tends to draw the eye.

4659

General Software Discussion / Re: Web images to get expiration date -- no, no, no!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 06:39 AM »

What's that old saying; If you can remember the 60's you weren't really there...

  ...While I missed the 60's, I have only the vaguest recollection of the 70's (which I assume to mean I enjoyed them).

4660

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 31, 2011, 06:29 AM »

The AutoIt stuff seemed to be based on this C/C++ code into the Native WiFi API

-4wd (January 30, 2011, 10:20 PM)

Hm... I'll have to explore that this evening as it just may be a better angle of attack than the one I'm currently using.

4661

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 10:05 PM »

TO:  Stoic Joker

I'm the guy who did this...

http://www.greggdeselms.com/tclock.html

-DesElms (January 30, 2011, 05:35 PM)

Yes, I do remember you. I sent you an Email about a year ago shortly after I'd gotten the T-Clock project back on the rails.

...and you and I have had brief (and pleasant) email chat about it in the past... though I'm having trouble remembering how it ended.  I think we both just got busy and never completed it... but, again, I can't remember.

-DesElms (January 30, 2011, 05:35 PM)

That does sound about right, as work keeps me pinned down about 90-104% of the time.  

You've mentioned/complained in this thread, and back in our email chat, that your hosting is unreliable.  And it's true that I, for one, can't get at your site half the time, for whatever reason.

-DesElms (January 30, 2011, 05:35 PM)

Back then I was having issues with a DDNS service which I shortly thereafter decided to quit using. I still am self hosting on a residential connection which has been known to go down about once every 6 months. But this is a necessary evil, as it is part of a lab I have here at home for testing purposes. This is also why my site points to here as the download location so it can be reliably linked to/found.

Interestingly, today, I tried to get at it and it failed; but succeeded when I used a proxy.  That's a new one.  Any light you can shed on that would be helpful.  It was only from deft Googling that I stumbled onto this thread today.

-DesElms (January 30, 2011, 05:35 PM)

Now that is incredibly odd...Which error did you get, DNS or page request failure? I frequently check the page hit counters haven't noticed (uptime stats, server logs, page access, etc.) an outage in quite some time. With the exception of Windows update reboots, but that only takes a minute or two (last one was almost a month ago). If it is a DNS issue, then it may be my registrar (which handles DNS) that is dropping the ball.

I suppose it is possible my ISP (which has changed hands/names more times than I can count) is having TOS issues. But I think that would be a bit more (Total Black-out) permanent... I also frequently check for any blacklisting issues as a side effect of running a mail server.

It would be interesting to see if my IP was ping-able when the site was not (DNS vs. routing/server issue). Also would help if anyone else could comment regarding their level of success accessing my site. Maybe I could get a better handle on what is happening.

The reason I'm posting is to ask if you need more reliable hosting; and to make my official offer (and I think I offered it in our previous email chat, too) to let you have some hosting for free.  I mean, your gift of T-Clock to the world is really nice, and so the least I can do is offer you a free hosting account on one of my servers...

...which are located in the big Peak10 data center in Jacksonville...

I'm not sure I ever explained it all to you in past emails as I just have, here, so maybe that's why you didn't take me up on it.  Then again, maybe I hadn't gotten to the point in our emails that I had even offered it yet... I just can't remember.

-DesElms (January 30, 2011, 05:35 PM)

I do recall you mentioning something to that effect (at length), but I think I just pondered it a bit too long and forgot.

But I'm tired of people writing to me, in their emails thanking me for hosting an alternative place from which to download T-Clock, that they just couldn't make your site work.  So, I'm offering, now, to help you with that, if you're interested.

-DesElms (January 30, 2011, 05:35 PM)

Currently T-Clock is still in an active development stage so I'd like to keep things running through here so people can see (the history of...) what's happening. If you've read through much of the thread I'm sure you can see I've got a hell of a to-do list.

The latest builds of T-Clock that I release here are perfectly safe for public consumption, and are considerable more stable than the previously released v1.01. After Vista x64 SP1 (and up through Win7) v1.01 started crashing the shell when certain property tabs were viewed.

According to my server logs, I've already been hosting tons of T-Clock downloads on the unofficial page linked-to at the beginning of this posting; so I'm sure it wouldn't be that much more bandwidth to just let you have a full-blown hosting account.

-DesElms (January 30, 2011, 05:35 PM)

I truly do appreciate the offer, and may take you up on it at some time in the future. But I really need to ascertain exactly what issue (if any) I'd be resolving by making a change before I do (i.e. If my registrar's DNS is borked changing the target won't help). In the mean time feel free to send folks here so they can download the latest available version and yell at me in person...

Thank you,
Stoic Joker

4662

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 08:36 PM »

T-Clock is awesome!  Thanks Stoic!  I may...er...have a list of very particular feature requests soon!  I used to use betaclock, but it's not being developed anymore and there were a few minor issues I had with it.

-superboyac (January 30, 2011, 05:46 PM)

Thank you, ...But we have to finish your other project, before I can get back on this one

Currently T-Clock (development) is scattered across 3 different projects as I try to get various things (requested features etc.) figured out.

4663

General Software Discussion / Re: [HELP] broke a (HP) Printer by pulling USB Plug -when it was trying to print (?)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 03:18 PM »

Did you bring a laptop to see if it would respond to/detect the printer? (HP did make a few self-bricking printers)

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Living Room / Re: I'm Confused

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 03:13 PM »

Can we safely automatically drive cars if we're blind drunk?

-Renegade (January 30, 2011, 01:56 PM)

Yes, but only if the dog says it's ok.

4665

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 03:10 PM »

Works here on my netbook but lists every interface, even ones no longer plugged in.

-4wd (January 30, 2011, 12:24 PM)

I'd been wondering if that would be an issue, but wasn't sure how common the disabled adapters problem would be.

In AutoIt someone created a UDF for WiFi functions, to get available adapters there's a function that calls wlanapi.dll to enumerate the interfaces.

Could that method be used for just the currently active WiFi adapter list?

-4wd (January 30, 2011, 12:24 PM)

Given my (I'm beginning to suspect insane) habit of working in straight Win32 API C++, no. But I might be able to do something like that to eliminate the disabled adapters.


Below is the current build with working save to .ini, or registry options. The default action is to save nothing anywhere in the interest of portability.

4666

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 11:44 AM »

Thanks!

I was thinking, if "we" bolt this thing down with a SysTray icon and Registry stored info. It could be (configurably) HotKeyed ... That's about the fastest access route I can think of ... Sound good to anybody?

4667

General Software Discussion / Re: [HELP] broke a (HP) Printer by pulling USB Plug -when it was trying to print (?)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 11:40 AM »

Okay, so you only had the driver installed, and not the other CrapWare (good man).

There is a Basic Print & Scan driver v22.50.231 showing on the DL page ... Give that one a shot.

Don't plug in the USB until (Simon Says...) prompted by the installer.

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 11:13 AM »

Okay, got it working (finally). There are currently no (.ini/reg) save functions as of yet. So it is on a perennial first run basis at the moment. But a general feel of the app can be had so I thought I'd toss it up for comment.

When the dialog opens, caret focus is on the adapter list, so just arrow down to the adapter wanted and hit enter.

Let me know if I'm on the right track here SB.

4669

General Software Discussion / Re: [HELP] broke a (HP) Printer by pulling USB Plug -when it was trying to print (?)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 30, 2011, 10:52 AM »

I did a quick check, HP calls it a Scrubber (most of the time).

If you go to the HP Drivers & Software page for the OfficeJet 8500 it will be listed under utilities as a "Removal Tool".

Hopefully these links will work from where you're at:

HP Officejet Pro Software and Driver Removal Utility
http://h10025.www1.h...3752462&sw_lang=

HP Officejet Basic Driver Removal Utility - IT Professional Use Only (Corporate Scrubber)
http://h10025.www1.h...3752462&sw_lang=

4670

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 29, 2011, 09:46 AM »

Is it possible to setup Active Directory on a single server?

-Renegade (January 28, 2011, 10:53 PM)

Possible? sure. Wise? Not really... But if you look at the budget of most SMBs, you're damn lucky to get the first server in there (Part of why I'm such a fan of RAID5). Availability, redundancy, ($$$) How much more?!? It's too hard to sell (or really justify) for most small shops.

Hell the only reason our company has the balanced 3 server configuration we're using is they didn't have to shell out 90+ an hour to have it designed, setup, and configured. I did most of it (remotely) on my own time! Basically just because I like doing that kind of stuff ... And I felt being able to showcase the right way of setting up a network would help to dramatize what we can and will do for our clients..

4671

General Software Discussion / Re: [HELP] broke a (HP) Printer by pulling USB Plug -when it was trying to print (?)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 29, 2011, 09:24 AM »

Good point about the cleanup utility. I keep forgetting about that option because I don't deal with the home users/inkjets much. It's mainly business/network/lasers I get involved in. But the tip does apply to the smaller SOHO lasers as well.

Also, when installing the driver resist the urge to zip through the (next, next, next) install. Because the option to install only the driver and not the rest of the HP CrapWare is frequently hidden or easy to miss.

Anything that (is not just the basic driver) qualifies as Hand Holding software, and is garbage that should be avoided like a plague.

4672

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 10:39 PM »

*Shrug* Don't know that I ever met one I couldn't talk off a ledge... How screwed-up is which part?

-Stoic Joker (January 28, 2011, 08:56 AM)

It's a multi-proc machine and has tons of power. I should have installed VMware then installed Windows and Linux. It's the last time I'll make that mistake. Basically, to fix the problem I'd have to wipe it then reinstall everything. That's time consuming, especially as it's already working and I've have to move everything off to another server.

-Renegade (January 28, 2011, 07:42 PM)

Ah... I've had projects like that. In a year from now you'll end up hating yourself if you just let it go undone. Best to bite the bullet and get it over-with before the 7 eyed monster grows a second head.

I had to do that with our company's main server a few years back because the whole shebang was on a single partition. Single domain controller, with Exchange, the inventory & accounting software, and all the user's files (etc...), (it was not my design) that had to be online 24/7.

Needless to say I had to preserve all of the various configurations, AD, and the company mail. It was a total bitch (I worked 48 hours straight that weekend), but I had it back up and running Monday morning.

And I had it setup right (finally), so all the silly assed problem that had been plaguing me, vanished!

4673

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 10:22 PM »

^ What are you having a problem with?

-wraith808 (January 28, 2011, 07:43 PM)

In a nut shell: CB_SETITEMDATA & CB_GETITEMDATA Which are supposedly injected into/stored in the ComboBox control's Item list entries as a retrievable value (/structure pointer). However, I keep either getting garbage characters or empty values.

I'm trying to avoid resorting to tossing the GUIDs over within a global array ... But I'm starting to weaken...

4674

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 07:23 PM »

I like the new version. I'm running it non-stop with the 8-wheels-max setting - it is hilarious.

-worstje (January 28, 2011, 07:09 PM)

Oh yeah, that's insane! 

4675

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 06:43 PM »

Just in case anyone is wondering, I've spent the last few days getting my ass kicked by the ComboBox control for the NIC picking GUI. Getting the NIC list from the registry was a breeze ... How to get it displayed to the user however is proving trickier than I'd anticipated.

Poo...

Maybe the strange antics of the little cubic motorcycle creatures will calm me as I continue this quest.