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4676

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 06:27 PM »

I've been watching for a while now and it appears to me as though the number in parentheses is twice the previous generation's highest score.

-Deozaan (January 28, 2011, 04:05 PM)

I'm with you on the "goal" theory. It seems that the expectations for the current generation are based on the achievements (/aspirations) of the previous generation.

It's also interesting to watch how the mutations follow a pattern as they try to "learn" their surroundings.

A backward flip over (early gens) results in either wheels on top or a forward weight bias.

Forward flips result in more centered weight distribution.

High centering gets a shorter wheel base.

etc, etc.

4677

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 28, 2011, 05:44 PM »

Printers are by far the buggiest most crappy appliances known to man, save perhaps those old-fashioned modems. Some are dumb machines that rely completely on the computer to do its every twitch, others only want the computer to tell them what the page looks like, and inbetween those things all printers have totally insane and messed up software packages that are supposed to make things 'easier' but rarely ever do.

-worstje (January 28, 2011, 05:14 PM)

You've worked with these before I see... 

4678

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 28, 2011, 05:43 PM »

This is one of those situation where I'm not 100% sure what happened but I think it was this (note: the OS messages are translated so may be off a bit):

I think I pulled the printer's usb plug (from the computer) while the printer was receiving info from the computer about a print job

-tomos (January 28, 2011, 05:06 PM)

USB is by design Hot Swap-able, so the chances of you breaking anything that way are zero.

Printer: HP OfficeJet Pro 8500
OS: Windows 7 (64 bit)

Next time I tried to print, it didnt work (absolutely no response from printer)

• I tried different USB ports,
• tried restarting printer and pc (a couple of times)

I tried the OS trouble shooter and it said that there was something in the printer queue - nothing was showing there - but I suspect a print job got half sent to the printer and screwed things up, but it doesnt show in the printer queue.

-tomos (January 28, 2011, 05:06 PM)

That would be my first guess also. Here's what you do next:

Stop the (Print) spooler service - This may release the file by itself, but just to be sure...

Go to: C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS (Yes even on a x64 machine)

Any files left in that folder are your stuck print jobs. Delete everything in the "PRINTERS" folder. (I'm not yelling, MS capitalized the folder name).

Restart the Spooler service.

Under printers, there was an option in this printers context menu - something like "delete the printer queue". I chose this, and it said it was going to delete the printer - which was not the next logical step from just deleting the queued documents - but I thought WTF and did it - I thought when I connected the printer again the OS would simply install it again, but this didnt work. Absolutely no response from the OS when the printer was reconnected.

-tomos (January 28, 2011, 05:06 PM)

It's actually impossible to delete a printer if it has a job stuck in its queue.

I tried the HP software which sent me into a weird loop of attach printer -> install manually (I think, it was quite vague) -> back to beginning.
So that was no help.

-tomos (January 28, 2011, 05:06 PM)

Congratulations! You completed the "wizard" correctly ... And achieved the expected result.

This is not my computer/printer - I'm going to go back there (possibly on Sunday) with a different laptop and see if the printer gets installed on that one (in which case I would presume the problem with the OS - but I suspect it's with the printer.)

-tomos (January 28, 2011, 05:06 PM)

I'm thinking driver/OS ... But I'll come back to that in a minute.

But I thought I'd ask here if anyone had any tips - the printer is brand new so under guarantee (although I'd be embarrassed either way: to admit, or to not admit, what happenend)

-tomos (January 28, 2011, 05:06 PM)

Okay, write this down (seriously): Never, ever, ever, (ever...) tell one of HP's "Tech Support" drones, the "truth". They quite frankly aren't bright enough to process information on that level. Make up an at least half way plausible story that makes it as close to totally bricked as possible. Then there will be absolutely no reason to try to "Trouble Shoot" the device on the phone.

Side Track: The sales manager once bet me that we were not about to waste 2+ hours by calling HP's tech support. - He lost - We wasted 3.

Did try a google search but no success (but possibly using the wrong terms)
One of those days...

-tomos (January 28, 2011, 05:06 PM)

Okay seriously:

Make sure the USB cable is disconnected.

Go to Programs & Features, and uninstall the print driver from there. Also uninstall any other HP crapware that may be installed on the machine.

Reboot the machine.

Go to HP's website and download the latest driver for the machine.
Note: It's not that I actually think they might have fixed anything. We just want to have a known clean driver with a newer version than the one installed so Windows doesn't reflexively grab the old and possibly corrupt one again. (Think dog after a bone).

When the installer says plug-it-in do so, but not a moment before.

Hopefully it'll find it.

4679

Living Room / Re: The 419ers have outdone themselves...

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 01:45 PM »

Why, she comes from the place where math is not a universal language obviously...

4680

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 01:43 PM »

^^^ I'll 2nd That! ^^^

Mutating Motorcycle Mayhem? ...I have got to play with this when I get home - There goes Friday night...

 

4681

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 08:56 AM »

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

4682

Living Room / Re: Sony v. Hotz: Sony Sends a Dangerous Message to Researchers -- and Its Customers

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 07:04 AM »

Strange for the judge to have such a change of heart... I wish I knew that story.

-Deozaan (January 28, 2011, 04:16 AM)

Chances are it involves a cash payment and/or photographs...

4683

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 06:58 AM »

cmsms is good for adding any number of "content" blocks wherever you want on the page. these can be blocks of text, blocks of html, blocks of php, blocks of smarty code, even blocks of other blocks (they probably don't refer to them as blocks). blocks can be static, blocks can be editable.

-nudone (January 28, 2011, 03:46 AM)

While it's only on the "my list of things to experiment with" list, at this stage. I'd also recommend CMS made simple based on what I've seen so far...it is indeed simple (to use). Straight forward WYSIWYG style content creation, with all the fancy stuff tucked away (but readily accessible) so as not to intimidate the user. And it's free as I understand.

I think I'll look into seeing if I can run WAMP along with WIMP though.

-Renegade (January 28, 2011, 04:42 AM)

Hm... (How should I put this) ...I'd rather be burned alive than have to contend with patch levels on two entirely different routes to the same end in a production environment. Apache & IIS together, I suspect would leave one wanting to tear off their own head. Or it could be just me ... But I've never had any trouble doing anything I wanted to with IIS (which I've been at for a decade).

I am however a hugh fan of MySQL (with PHPMyAdmin) which works brilliantly with/on IIS.

4684

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Database .NET 3.8.3969 - A MultiDatabase Manager

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 28, 2011, 06:25 AM »

Now this could be a new favorite toy.

4685

Site/Forum Features / Re: New tweaks to forum - Jan 27, 2011 (apc caching, server load info)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 27, 2011, 07:39 PM »

I also tried to put back the selective quoting feature on the forum where you can select some text and then hit the quote button to quote only that text; still seems a bit flakey but hopefully that's just old js in the cache which will work itself out.

-mouser (January 27, 2011, 07:30 PM)

Most cool! ...I've been missing that feature. Also, I can confirm the old js in cache theory. First 3 time I tried to do it here, it failed. So.. I leaned on Ctrl+F5 (for a 3 count), and then it started working just fine.

4686

Living Room / Re: The Coolest Macintosh I've Ever Seen!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 27, 2011, 05:58 AM »

...Never was much of an Indian fan, but if you go up 1 year I've got a soft spot for Knuckelheads.

4687

Living Room / Re: The Coolest Macintosh I've Ever Seen!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 26, 2011, 01:36 PM »

Here's one for division 3:

4688

Developer's Corner / Re: Safe programs for File Recovery

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 26, 2011, 11:13 AM »

The one i always hear recommended is: http://www.runtime.org/

-mouser (January 26, 2011, 10:44 AM)

That's my favorite!

4689

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 26, 2011, 07:00 AM »

Well Stoic, if you are planning on making a full fledged program out of this, here are my ideas.  I don't know how feasible any of this is programmatically, they're just end user ideas.

Is there a way for you to have a dialog on just the first startup or somewhere in the option settings where the window detects all the adapters currently installed in Windows? Then the user clicks on the adapter desired, and the program runs from there without anymore dialog on startup.  Now, if the user wants to change adapters, he can do so from the menu or something.

-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 09:33 PM)

Yes, I just replace the (GUID missing) error message with the Pick your NIC dialog. Whichever NIC the user picks then gets saved to the .ini/registry (depends), and is automatically used to display the WiFi networks available for it.

command line, ini is ok, but it would be better if it could programmed in the interface.  So if you need options for autostart, suppressing the startup dialog, exit/minimize on close, system tray, etc., it would be better to have those all as checkboxes or something in a options dialog.  But if that's too much work, text file or command line works also.

Also keep in mind having profiles to be used as a portable application?  Yeah?  Then you can run it on other computers and store the settings when you are done.  That would be really cool.

-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 09:33 PM)

Command line option is already there so (no sense in pulling it out) it can be used as a fall-back suppress everything and just run option. I'm still on the fence as to what to do for settings storage and a UI. If I go systemtray then the registry makes more sense. If I go straight portable then the .ini (with save optional) makes more sense. Command line only, with multiple shortcuts, would be a Quick-N-Dirty "profiles" solution (albeit rather cluttered)...But if the user has to stop at a "Pick Network A, B, or C" dialog then we're back to multi clicking things.

Ironically the "simplest" thing might just be to do all-the-above and let the user decide how they want to fire-it-up.

Well SJ, looks like you're going to earn your Superboy badge

-4wd (January 25, 2011, 10:09 PM)

Hahahaha...damn right he is.     Welcome to the club...   

-skwire (January 26, 2011, 12:00 AM)

I'm a little sketchy on this part, should I be flattered, frightened, or both...

4690

General Software Discussion / Re: How to remove 6741afb79c635b436c393169e8c1a754 folder from my Ext HDD !

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2011, 07:43 PM »

...And for those with the Home version of the OS, that aren't entirely comfortable at the command line. You can access the NTFS permissions GUI/Tab in safe mode.

4691

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2011, 07:37 PM »

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

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.

The show/hide systray icon idea would definitely help in the user friendly department.

4692

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2011, 07:07 PM »

@worstje - I do appreciate the input, but I found another way around the issue using existing code. If you drill into IShellFolder just a tad deeper, it will tell you what the window/display name of the requested GUID is. So even if some clown decided to name their adapter "Barney's Desert WiFi Emporium" I can still test for a window by that name on-the-fly. So the non-cooperative message loop has been replaced with:

Code: C++ [Select]

1. if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) {
2.             STRRET pStrRet;
3.     ZeroMemory(&pStrRet, sizeof(STRRET));
4.     hr = pShellFolder->GetDisplayNameOf(pidl, NULL, &pStrRet);
5.     if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) {
6.         hr = StrRetToBuf(&pStrRet, pidl, szTarget, GEN_BUFF);
7.         if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) {
8.             bGood = TRUE;
9.         }
10.     }
11.  
12.     Sleep(2000);
13.     while(bGood && FindWindow(NULL, szTarget/*L"Wireless Network Connection"*/)) {
14.                  // Nothing to Do Really, Just Hang-Out and Watch the Window.
15.     }
16. }

...Ya never know where this project could end up going.

-Stoic Joker (January 25, 2011, 03:39 PM)

Hey!  If you do actually do this, I can offer a lot of suggestions (as usual), and I think it would be VERY handy for people with laptops.  I don't care what anyone says, wifi is a hairy beast once you get involved with all the settings for security and all.  And all the interfaces suck for them.  But I kind of understand why now if Windows doesn't even have a way to access that one window.

-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 03:54 PM)

It's not so much that Windows can't access that window, it's that the window needs an adapter target specified for it to be opened with. That little detail has been bugging the shit out of me for next to forever ... Which is why I jumped at taking a crack at this after wraith808 dropped an entry point into our laps.

I started a thread asking for this a while back:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=23791.0
See if you get any ideas from there, and I'll be more than happy to offer suggestions, solutions, etc.  I'm only limited with programming, that i can't do.

-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 03:54 PM)

Yes, I remember that one. For now I just want to turn this into a viable loader widget (so I can get back to the other 9 projects that are hanging over my head). To that end I'm going to add a NIC picking dialog as the (first run) default action if the GUID is not specified in the command line (instead of the error message). Then the the selected GUID can be stored in either the registry, or an .ini file (I'm leaning toward the .ini option). So if you got a preference there let me know.

4693

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2011, 03:39 PM »

It's the spirit of the thing that counts, it doesn't have to be practicle...as long as it's fun.

I've gotten this far with it (and want to try worstje's idea), so I'll just keep playing with it until I (win) can figure out what to do with it. Let me know if you to do anything with it and I'll work that in too.

Wifi connections are always a hassle and I keep looking for a helpful utility, but there are none.

-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 11:37 AM)

...Ya never know where this project could end up going.

4694

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

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

Stoic, i tried your file, but it didn't work.  it gives the error "No GUID Given".

-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 09:23 AM)

Right, you have to give it the machine specific GUID for your wireless NIC.

I have it setup to pass the GUID to the program via the command line
i.e. WiFi.exe 261AAE34-9C9D-40EB-A25C-CFEDF328E3CF

That is why skwire didn't want to get into this because he didn't want to deal with supporting the machine specific hard-coded GUID. Which (is why I cheated) I don't blame him for, as it's a pita. I figured I could get away with feeding the machine specific part to the prog via the command line.

At this point, I'm just waiting for SB to see if there is any type of GUI (tray icon etc.) he wants this wrapped in. Then I could just chain the loop to that and be done with it.

-Stoic Joker (January 25, 2011, 05:43 AM)

It doesn't need a GUI at all.  It should just be a shortcut icon that you can double click and it will open the window.  It's basically a launcher for the window.  That way, I can take the file and put it in my launcher or start menu or whatever.  It's just a file.[/quote]

True(ish) ... The GUID can (has to) be added to the launch string, but it still has to be dredged out of the registry at some point. I can add a (first run) UI that lets the user pick their NIC from a drop down list and then saves it to an .ini (or in the registry [your choice]). Or we can stick with the (current) command line only option, but I think the UI would be nicer.

It's up to you, let me know.

4695

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2011, 07:02 AM »

I hope to ask you guys to be an author here. is there a procedure to follow?

-kobi7 (January 24, 2011, 11:41 AM)

Not that I'm aware of - other than what you've done already - Not much on formality here...

Compiled with Visual Studio 2008 by K1, doesn't contain any networking or file system code... *Shrug* ...Looks safe enough.

-Stoic Joker (January 23, 2011, 09:00 AM)

Hey that's great, I'd be interested to know what tool do you use to know this?

-kobi7 (January 24, 2011, 11:41 AM)

As silly as it may sound, Notepad. I spend alot of time working in the field so seldom have handy access to all the fancy stuff. You really can learn alot about a program (if you're used to looking for it)  by tossing into a plain text editor.

stay on top bug?: I only tested on windowsXP -- doesn't it stay on top on your machine?

-kobi7 (January 24, 2011, 11:41 AM)

Correct on Win7 x64 it went behind my compiler (also MSVS2k8).

off button: I can of course make it a little prettier and add a context menu with exit - would that be good?
I wanted it to be minimal, so I even removed the titlebar.

-kobi7 (January 24, 2011, 11:41 AM)

Understood, less is more ... until it isn't enough. People just tend to feel better about (turning on) a thing, if there is a readily apparent safe and obvious way of turning it back off...

4696

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2011, 06:44 AM »

Cool, thanks ... I'll take a stab at it (and a few other ideas I came up with) tonight when I get home.

I just noticed from SB's screen shot (in the other thread) that hard-coding the window name ain't gonna work (not that I really had my hopes up...) as it'll close on him in 2 seconds because it can't find a "Wireless Network Connection" window, as his ends in " 2".

4697

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2011, 05:43 AM »

Stoic Joker, does whatever you use to call the window open it asynchronously on its own thread, inside of your process? E.g. does your message loop actually matter and do stuff, or could you have used a Sleep(10000) and still have stuff basically function till the loop runs out and kills the app after 10s? In that case I might have a solution as I already bumped into such a problem once in the past.

-worstje (January 24, 2011, 11:09 PM)

I tried replacing the whole shebang with Sleep(2000) last night assuming that it just needed some "Hang-Time" to finish getting the Network Connections window open. The window opened for 2 seconds, and then closed.

...So I'm guessing it's somehow important. However it's apparently not important enough to talk to afterwards... as any message I've tried checking for (like WM_QUIT) never comes.

At this point, I'm just waiting for SB to see if there is any type of GUI (tray icon etc.) he wants this wrapped in. Then I could just chain the loop to that and be done with it.

But I do appreciate (and am open for) the suggestion.

4698

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 24, 2011, 10:40 PM »

Okay, it's almost midnight, so I resorted to duct tape:
Wait 2 sec for window to open.
Call FindWindow(...) in a loop to prop the door open with a stick.

It works, but I'll have to find something better later when I have time.

Usage:
Get the GUID for your WiFi card from the registry.
GUID is in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards\

Under that are numbered Keys containing the entry ServiceName; its value is the GUID needed.
Grab only the alpha-numeric string (No curly brackets {}).

command line or Shortcut target is (example with my GUID):

WiFi.exe 261AAE34-9C9D-40EB-A25C-CFEDF328E3CF

Download removed - current version is later in thread.

Let me know how it works.

4699

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 24, 2011, 10:00 PM »

This had the appearance of a 5 minute job ... I did mention I was retarded right.

Okay, seriously, Currently I have it setup to pass the GUID to the program via the command line
i.e. WiFi.exe 261AAE34-9C9D-40EB-A25C-CFEDF328E3CF

That part works just dandy. But... I can't get the damn thing to close because of the psudo message loop that has no apparent exit plan.

The program doesn't work without it.

So I'm trying to find some way of reliably torpedoing the damn message loop so I can put a bow on this thing.

4700

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 24, 2011, 06:59 PM »

Okay, scratch that last part, apparently I'm F'ing retarded ... I missed the use GUID for your NIC part.

GUID is in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\NetworkCards\

Under that is numbered Keys containing the entry ServiceName; its value is the GUID needed.

Let me see what I can do...