Recent Posts

4701

Living Room / Re: My portable HTPC project

« Last post by 4wd on September 13, 2010, 12:19 AM »

yes, it is the simple answer.  But i'd like it to be a box I can open up and mess with.  I might want to put more connectors and stuff.  basically, I want a regular pc tower, just in the smallest form factor possible.

-superboyac (September 12, 2010, 09:51 PM)

How about:





AMD Athlon II 235e (45W)
Silverstone SUGO SG05 case
Coolermaster Gemini II heatsink - Legacy product, may be hard too find.
ZOTAC GF8200-C-E

Carry it around in one of these: Silverstone SUGO Pack.

This is my headless Usenet/BitTorrent downloader and PVR.  The front 120mm fan isn't used, the only fan running is the PSU 80mm but the loudest thing is the resonant hum from the HDD and only because I don't have any padding between the PC and "sounding board", (aka, my desk).  System temp is around the 27C mark almost all the time.  The only time a keyboard/mouse or monitor is plugged into it is for BIOS updates, system install or anything I can't do over RDP.

Storage is: WD 3.5" 750GB Caviar Green for downloads and a WD 2.5" 160GB Scorpio for TV captures, ODD is an Optiarc AD-7590S.
The WiFi module isn't installed because it's connected to Gb LAN.
I've only used that particular ZOTAC board because I had a spare AMD AM2+ processor and RAM otherwise I would have chosen the ZOTAC GF9300-K-E or ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E for the PCIe x16 slot and then used it as a LAN gamer also.

If that case is too small, then I'd recommend the Silverstone SUGO SG04-FH, then you can also choose from Micro-ATX motherboards.

4702

Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by 4wd on September 12, 2010, 11:30 PM »

Speaking with a server in the USA, I found out that the hotel simply took the gratuities that were tacked onto the bill. Servers never saw it, or much of it anyways.

-Renegade (September 12, 2010, 07:37 PM)

If you want to see an example of where this is prevalent, go on a cruise.

They add a Service Charge of US$9-11 per day per person, that's irrespective of whether there is more than one person in a cabin, (reduced workload on the cabin stewards, laundry, etc you would think).  This is open to negotiation at the end of the cruise but realistically, how many people would actually bother?

At the end of a cruise you get a performance rating questionnaire of the various areas/staff of the ship....on the last cruise we found out how this actually worked.

The very first question, (besides name/cabin naturally), is how you rated the cruise overall, from Not Very Good through to Excellent.  If you didn't tick Excellent then that resulted in your calculated, pre-paid Service Charge being kept by the company and subsequently deducted from the amount distributed among the various service staff.
They were never told why, all they know is for some reason they get less money in their pay packet.

You could bag the company all you like in the following questions but unless you answered the first with Excellent no one got anything.  This includes cabin stewards, chefs, waiters, laundry people and all the people you never get to see.

4703

Living Room / Re: Does Flash or java make websites suck?

« Last post by 4wd on September 12, 2010, 01:12 AM »

e.g. The local Dominoes Pizza site is all Flash... And unusable.

-Renegade (September 11, 2010, 11:47 PM)

That's OK because the pizzas could be classed as inedible

4704

Living Room / Re: How do you add a post in a Google Groups thread???

« Last post by 4wd on September 12, 2010, 01:05 AM »

As Jim says, try the Reply to author link - it all depends how the Group Owner has it set up.  You've got nothing to lose.

I spent 30 minutes trying to get my test group to look the same as your OP but couldn't; either both Reply links were there or they weren't.  It might be some combination that I didn't stumble across.

4705

Living Room / Re: How do you add a post in a Google Groups thread???

« Last post by 4wd on September 11, 2010, 03:32 PM »

4wd, this isn't Usenet - it's a Google Group. I have used Usenet for many years (and still do using Agent Forte) and I do realize that Google purchased DejaNews and/or all its archives, but Google Groups doesn’t follow Usenet conventions. I can also understand why people would like it to do so - I do! But in the meantime if Superboy wants to post to the MLO group he has to do it in Google Groups. I don’t believe there is anyway to reply to the group via Usenet. Although he can reply to it via email if he has elected to receive posts via email.

-J-Mac (September 11, 2010, 12:48 PM)

I know it's not a Usenet group - I never said it was.

Not sure why you are replying for him there with Usenet examples.

The example I gave just happened to be a Usenet group because it illustrated Googles own criteria for replying to a group, any group, as specified in the link I gave in my last post - both a Reply and Reply to author link should be available.

OK, here's a non-Usenet example - just for a test I created a Google Group using their default settings:



Note the Reply and Reply to author link.  As I said in my first reply, it depends on what settings the Group Owner has set.

PS. I was logged in via another account as a normal user not the 'manager' when I took that screengrab.

4706

Living Room / Re: How do you add a post in a Google Groups thread???

« Last post by 4wd on September 11, 2010, 08:01 AM »

It's very simple - that "Reply to Author" link is how you reply. What makes you think that it sends a private message instead of a reply? Did you try it?!?!

-J-Mac (September 11, 2010, 02:23 AM)

Because that's how it should work in a normal newsgroup, (not using Google Groups).  When you 'Reply to author' it doesn't get posted to the newsgroup.

Works for me every time. It has nothing to do with the owner not wishing anything! Where did that come from?

Replying to groups

What happens when someone hits "Reply" to a post?

When someone clicks the "Reply" link on your group's web page, the reply will always be sent to the group. To reply to the author from the web page, click the "More options" link near the top of the message, then click on the "Reply to author" link.

I can only think that if by 'Replying to author' all your posts end up in the group thread then that is the way that the person who set up the group, (not Usenet group), wants it to work.
If it's also happening when you do it through Googles interpretation of Usenet then that is wrong and it makes me even happier that I use client programs for all my Usenet stuff.

Google Groups is not a great discussion board format by any means, but one thing it is? Pretty simple to use!

The problem is they have obfuscated it by combining what are essentially message boards with Usenet.

4707

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by 4wd on September 09, 2010, 11:20 PM »

USD35 Tablet for Students



If they could get these to store for US$50 I'm sure they'd sell by the millions.

Hell, I'd buy two or three even though I'd prefer a real notebook.

4708

Living Room / Re: The Weather...

« Last post by 4wd on September 09, 2010, 08:14 PM »

You'll need to have a really good arm to bean me from Dandenong as I'm in Toorak.

-Renegade (September 09, 2010, 06:44 PM)

Since I've got a height advantage I better dust off the trebuchet^w then I guess.  


PS. That's Mount Dandenong to you     

4709

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by 4wd on September 08, 2010, 06:52 PM »

It doesn't matter whose launcher you would use for portable apss, Liberkey or PortableApps, they will install stuff by default you may not want.

-techidave (September 08, 2010, 05:47 AM)

Except CodySafe.

Just choose not to install the optional free tools/applications - all you'll end up with is the launcher/application manager, a drive eject command and a DiskDoctor command, (to check flash drive filesystem health and detect whether the AutoRun.inf has been turned into a virus) - 3.54MB in all.

Actually, if you choose to install the optional free tools/applications then it only adds another 600kB and it's just language files, folder icons and a few sound effects.

So go ahead, be daring and leave the optional tools in

4710

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Verbatim 8x dvd+r dl a buck ea

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2010, 11:32 PM »

I found this guide while navigating to the proper area of the forum to ask the question: PS3 H.264 Conversion Guide.

-Deozaan (September 02, 2010, 02:57 PM)

You might like to give HandBrake a try with the following two presets for AAC stereo or 6 channel - I made the presets using info from the forum from users who reported what worked.

Copy the user_presets.xml to %appdata%\HandBrake - when you run HandBrake it will have two presets called PS3 AAC 6Chan and PS3 Stereo.

NOTE: Choose the preset before loading a video file and make sure that Create Chapter Markers under the Chapters tab is unticked.



I was actually quite amazed at the speed at which the H.264 encoding went, on my Phenom II 945: 349MB MP4ASP+MP3 stereo AVI -> 227MB MP4AVC+AAC Stereo MP4 in ~10 minutes.

4711

Living Room / Re: The Weather...

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2010, 02:42 AM »

yeah, and with my bleeding edge dialup access I felt really bad for those poor unfortunates

-Target (September 07, 2010, 01:44 AM)

Cheer up!

This time next century you'll have cutting-edge internet access from last century 

4712

Living Room / Re: The Weather...

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2010, 12:41 AM »

I moved to Melbourne last November. But I really do miss Korea... Especially restaurants and shopping there!

-Renegade (September 06, 2010, 02:02 AM)

I have a vague recollection of you saying something about that, but you're profile still says Seoul...

-Target (September 06, 2010, 05:57 PM)

Tch, tch ,tch - haven't you been listening to all the moaning about the internet access, (or lack of). 

BTW, you need to update your map location Renegade, then I'd know if I can hit you with a rock from up on the hill.

4713

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2010, 12:06 AM »

I have Codyssey CodySafe Free installed on one of my flash drives and I have to say it has one of the easiest interfaces to add apps too that I have ever used.

NOTE: There is two websites - Codyssey has the free version, while CodySafe deals with the paid versions.

Main interface




BTW mouser I really think you've missed an opportunity there - CodySafe


PS: Something seems to be wrong with either me or the forum as I cannot add more than one image without the connection taking forever, ie. >10 minutes, after which I just give up.

4714

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by 4wd on September 06, 2010, 10:34 PM »

512kbps/128kbps - I'm stuck with ADSL1 because Australia's infrastructure is sorely lacking, (Telstra ADSL2+ equipment is installed in the local exchange but any ISP who uses it charges an arm, leg, first born, yearly wages * 10 and your soul).  And because almost all ADSL1 equipment is Telstras it means that almost all ISPs charge a comparative fortune for it compared to if they have their own ADSL2+ equipment installed.

But it is full speed all the time - no slowdowns/disconnections, (apart from occasional ISP upstream problems - eg. backbone down, etc), and true unlimited data quota unlike almost all other ISPs which throttle bandwidth.

So satisfaction is high going by Renegades requirements but "value for money" isn't compared to what it would cost in, say, the USA.

4715

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by 4wd on September 06, 2010, 02:23 AM »

I use Gixen because they have both a paid and free service, (which is what I use).

Gixen features:

    No download required!
    Gixen automatically places your bids on eBay at the last moment.
    Entirely automatic - your computer doesn't have to be on.
    Group bidding: first successful snipe cancels all the others.
    Unlimited number of snipes.
    Free browser plugins for IE, Firefox and Chrome.
    Gixen is provided to you completely free, no catch.
    Gixen is completely secure.
    Gixen is 99.5% reliable.

Gixen Mirror Features:

All the Gixen main service features, plus:

    Gixen Mirror is a multi-server, fault-tolerant sniping service, unmatched by any other sniping service or sniping software. Your snipes are sent twice, from two different hosting locations.
    No ads in the logged-in area.
    Contingency group bidding - first failed bid cancels all the others in a group.
    Wider choice of snipe time choices (3,6,8,10,12 and 15 seconds).
    Auction end times refreshed hourly, as opposed to daily.
    Gixen Desktop Manager - schedule and monitor your snipes from your Windows desktop.
    Other small perks provided to Mirror users only, such as CSV export / import and Gixen API.
    100% reliable (*). No other sniping service provides this.
    Cost of Gixen Mirror is a bargain at $6 a year.

According to the *listing* it comes with a COA for XP Professional.  Again, with those warehouse specials, in a lot of cases they don't have the original license... so they also get a stack of XP COAs to include...  that might not be the case with this one, but...  (given, it does say that it still has it's COA sticker attached, but I wouldn't assume...)

-wraith808 (September 05, 2010, 03:59 PM)

It's quite obvious you're going to have to buy it to put this speculation at an end.....I'd offer to do it but my wife would kill me

4716

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by 4wd on September 04, 2010, 10:40 PM »

Don't be too sure of that - for regular keys, x86 and x64 are interchangeable. My laptop runs win7-x64 with a win7-x86 key

-f0dder (September 04, 2010, 07:19 AM)

Even more reason to just try it.

4717

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by 4wd on September 04, 2010, 01:51 PM »

But does a normal XP license (which seems to be what is included) work for tablet edition?  From other tablet sites I've frequented, I seem to remember that it doesn't... and if you install standard XP, you don't get tablet functionality.

-wraith808 (September 04, 2010, 09:52 AM)

According to the User Manual it came standard with XP Tablet PC Edition - so that is what the COA sticker should be for.

4718

Living Room / Re: How do you add a post in a Google Groups thread???

« Last post by 4wd on September 04, 2010, 01:31 PM »

For a normal Usenet group you'll see a 'Reply' button down the bottom of the post - if it's not there the group owner hasn't enabled it.




In your case it seems he hasn't since he's the owner/developer he probably wishes to ensure that he gets to see responses which he might not if people were allowed to post followups willy-nilly.  Also, he's probably moderating the group to prevent it being flooded with spam.

PS. Don't get excited by the contents of my screengrab, it was the first post in the group.

PPS. I really wish Google hadn't taken over DejaNews and made a complete dogs breakfast of the Usenet archive.

4719

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by 4wd on September 04, 2010, 01:48 AM »

My bad - I noticed XP had 'Tablet PC' support and didn't realise that there was other tablet apps that were installed.

I did find this however and XP Tablet PC Edition isn't that hard to find on the net since you still get a license for it.

4720

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by 4wd on September 03, 2010, 09:39 PM »

I wouldn't do that one... no OS/Restore CD means a lot of trouble to even get started...

-wraith808 (September 03, 2010, 02:38 PM)

But it does come with a XP license so a normal XP install CD is OK and the drivers are downloadable.

So not having a recovery CD is no great hardship.

4721

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by 4wd on September 03, 2010, 09:04 PM »

If you can find a DVD with Win7 Pro x64, then I'd say just boot from it, do a complete install to the HDD, (wiping what was there, ie. Dell's auto-install), and enter your CD key off the sticker.

-4wd (September 02, 2010, 11:47 PM)

Won't necessarily work - at least not if you haven't gotten a clean OEM DVD. I tried doing this with XP, and found out that OEM keys, at least then, were tied to OEM install discs (apart from just BIOS strings, meaning they won't work for non-vendor machines either).

-f0dder (September 03, 2010, 03:06 PM)

That's why I put 'assuming Win7' in my original post  I read somewhere, (but can't remember - hey, it was more than 60 minutes ago!), that Microsoft no longer used the oembios stuff they used in XP for Win7.

Also, since barney has a complete set of recovery CDs for the Dell - nothing is lost except a little time.  IMHO, the benefit of having a really 'clean' system outweighs the effort of trying to strip it all out of a pre-installed system and the little time lost.

A little bit more reading around turns up: Can I use OEM Windows 7 HP product key to install 64-bit OS off of retail disc?
NOTE: Original post in that thread refers to going from x86 to x64 - in that case I would expect you to have to reactivate via phone.  But reinstalling essentially the same OS you're licensed for should be easier.

So, technically possible providing you edit the ei.cfg which links in my first post refer too and is also described in the second post in the thread.

Addendum: Here's the \sources\ei.cfg from my W7HP x64 Family Pack DVD:

[EditionID]
HomePremium
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

Changing the Retail to OEM should turn it into an OEM version which on first activation locks it to my current hardware - as per OEM licensing.

EDIT: My grammar is suffering - too many American TV shows methinks

4722

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by 4wd on September 02, 2010, 11:47 PM »

If you can find a DVD with Win7 Pro x64, then I'd say just boot from it, do a complete install to the HDD, (wiping what was there, ie. Dell's auto-install), and enter your CD key off the sticker.

That should work perfectly.

@MilesAhead: While that link about vlite was interesting, a better place for information on using vlite on Win7 is at MSFN.
I also found the link in the last comment more interesting RT7Lite - now if only their download links worked.

There's also 7Customizer at MSFN.

4723

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by 4wd on September 02, 2010, 09:07 PM »

Got it!

Cheaply forth with spares, must you go?

 

4724

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by 4wd on September 02, 2010, 09:02 PM »

When you say initiating, does that mean:
(a) the OS, (with crapware), has already been installed and it just finalises installation on first boot, or
(b) the OS has already been installed but it asks for discs to install the crapware on its initial boot, or
(c) that the HDD is blank and you want to prevent it being loaded from the recovery disc.

From what I've read online, (assuming Win7 here), there is no difference between install discs of HP, Pro or Ultimate, (barring the esoteric versions and obvious x86/x64 differences), whether OEM or not - the CD key is what determines which version will be installed and whether it's OEM or not.  The main difference between OEM and retail is in the licensing agreement.

In theory you could download, (or borrow), a full install DVD of the version that's already on the laptop, (or a specific x86/x64 Win7 DVD of any version: HP, Pro or Ultimate and modify it), install and then enter your OEM key - this should be done before the current version goes online and activates itself.  The key will then be tied to the hardware, which in the case of an OEM license means specifically that motherboard - if it fries you need to buy a new OS also.

This will give you a bog standard Win7 install with no crapware other than what MS install by default.

EDIT: Forgot, you'll also need to download drivers for the specific hardware of your machine afterwards, (eg. thumbprint reader, etc), so you should check Dell's website to see if they are available for download first.

4725

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by 4wd on September 02, 2010, 07:57 AM »

<Yoda> Cheaply forth you must go with spares!

-Stoic Joker (September 02, 2010, 07:15 AM)

I would have thought:

Cheaply forth you go, spares you have!