Recent Posts

4726

Developer's Corner / Re: DC needs a fun game project that multiple people can contribute to

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 04:00 PM »

For graphics and design, I am highly skilled at making people's eyes bleed. 

-Renegade (January 21, 2011, 03:51 PM)

...Icepick art?

4727

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: ForumPad Basic [Release]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 02:38 PM »

Next release should hopefully include the ability to resize the window.  Just trying to stop the text area either only going to the bottom half in maximised mode, or the other error where it goes full screen, but hides the top, behind the buttons lol.

-Stephen66515 (January 21, 2011, 02:10 PM)

Ah! yes, that is maddening. Not sure if it'll help, but here is the code I've used in the past for sizing ListView controls (it works the same for Edit controls too):

Code: C++ [Select]

1. // From Main Window Procedure:
2.  
3.         case WM_SIZE:
4.                 WndSizeProc(hWnd, msg, wParam, lParam);
5.                 break;
6.  
7. // Bunch of other unrealated stuff cut out
8.  
9.  
10. //========================= Adjust the geometry of the status bar and the MDI client objects.
11. void WndSizeProc(HWND hwnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
12.         int  iStatusHeight, iListHeight;
13.         RECT rcParent, rcStatus;
14.         HWND hStatus;
15.  
16.         // Size status bar and get height
17.   hStatus = GetDlgItem(hwnd, IDC_MAIN_STATUS);
18.   SendMessage(hStatus, WM_SIZE, 0, 0);
19.   GetWindowRect(hStatus, &rcStatus);
20.   iStatusHeight = rcStatus.bottom - rcStatus.top;
21.  
22.         // Calculate remaining height and size edit
23.   GetClientRect(hwnd, &rcParent);
24.   iListHeight = rcParent.bottom - iStatusHeight;
25.   SetWindowPos(hListBox,NULL,0,0,rcParent.right-rcParent.left,iListHeight-rcParent.top, SWP_SHOWWINDOW);
26.   UpdateWindow(hListBox);
27. }

Or a really Quick-N-Dirty version:

Code: C++ [Select]

1. case WM_SIZE:
2.                 GetClientRect(hWnd, &rc);
3.                 SetWindowPos(GetWindow(hWnd, GW_CHILD), NULL, 0, 0,
4.                                 rc.right-rc.left, rc.bottom-rc.top, SWP_SHOWWINDOW);
5.           break; //-------------------------------------------+++--> END of Case WM_SIZE
6. //==================================================================================

4728

Living Room / Re: USB Madness With Cooked-Off Ports

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 02:09 PM »

Nirsoft to the rescue http://www.nirsoft.n...sb_devices_view.html or not?

-Bamse (January 21, 2011, 01:41 PM)

Well it certainly sounds (and looks) like it should do the job, but I don't have time to delve into the currently active (or should I say inactive) test case.

^Tried that with the keypad. (I'm a big Nirsoft and SysInternals fan BTW.) It didn't help for that problem.  

-40hz (January 21, 2011, 01:48 PM)

Can you thumbnail sketch what was tried and failed, there may have been a secondary issue with the keypad. The test case I currently have going involves an HP Mono LaserJet. Print jobs go from the app, to the spool, and then vanish into cyberhell without so much as even a whimpered error message. Printer works just dandy on another computer... (yada, yada, yada...).

4729

Living Room / Re: USB Madness With Cooked-Off Ports

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 01:50 PM »

Targus's tech support suggested I reinstall Windows if port #4 goes south on me. A gentleman who was not (but should have been) named "Peggy" said (in very bad English): It is very easy to do. I have reinstalled Windows dozens of times on my personal PC.

-40hz (January 21, 2011, 01:35 PM)

Well, now that's the best laugh I've had all week!

However the moral of the story seems to imply I'm basically screwed.

4730

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: ForumPad Basic [Release]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 01:36 PM »

Just grabbed a copy of v1.10 to play with and nothing on the file menu is working now (no response, reaction, or error) ... The buttons all work fine.

4731

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 01:16 PM »

It's the reason, not the wait!

My opinion...

Jim

-J-Mac (January 21, 2011, 11:53 AM)

Standing on the principal of the thing ... I'm ok with that. (...was just trying to have a bit of fun earlier)

4732

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Snap DB

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 01:12 PM »

I appended two columns, renamed each and drug them to the left between two existing columns.  When I exported to a csv and brought them up in Excel, the appended columns were still on the right side.  Not where I moved them to.

-bob99 (January 21, 2011, 11:46 AM)

I can confirm this behavior (using a plain text editor), the data is being saved based in the (column created or) row index order, not the order in which it is displayed. IIRC this is also typical ListView control behavior.

I'm thinking there is a function call/API to reindex the rows in a ListView control, but I can't think of it at the moment.

4733

Living Room / Re: USB Madness With Cooked-Off Ports

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 11:04 AM »

At first I thought you were talking about taking this other thread to the next stage: "USB Daisy-Chaining gone haywire"

But in all seriousness - I'd probably just reboot (as aggravating as that is).

-mwb1100 (January 21, 2011, 10:05 AM)

This is way past a reboot-will-fix-it issue. This is more of a the inner workings of the OS need to be beaten with a hammer kind of issue.

@Stoic Joker:
IIRC there is a setting (registry?) that enables the Windows device manager to show hidden devices. That includes All and every USB device ever connected. Uninstalling the troublesome device will help with this problem.

-Shades (January 21, 2011, 10:20 AM)

Yeah, I know what you're after there, a batch file will do it (used it many times for CD burner issues in the Win2k days):
@echo off
Echo Find Phantom Devices
set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
start devmgmt.msc
exit

But that's not what we're after here either. It is not a full device (present or otherwise) that is causing the problem. It's more of a fragment of a device, that is being clung to by the USB subsystem itself. I have literally seen and participated in this scenario many times:

Device X, plugged into Port X, and had been working there forever, just stops.
Nothing you do with or too Device X will bring it back to life (uninstall/reinstall/reboot/whatever), nothing...it is dead to Port X.

Now, the fun part.

Plug any other device into Port X, and it instantly springs to life and works perfectly.

Plug Device X into any other port ... and it instantly springs to life and works perfectly.

Plug Device X back into Port X ... and we're right back to it being deader than hell. Port X is/has been Cooked-Off.

If by chance you have the time, or are just that mad, flattening the machine and reinstalling the OS ... Will result in Device X once again happily working in Port X. Which does (/did in the past) at least confirm that is/was not a hardware problem ... but it is a bit over-the-top.

Hence my quest for something that will effectively flatten the dynamically created USB configuration info only and therefore allow the to X's to once again play nice together.

4734

Living Room / USB Madness With Cooked-Off Ports

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 09:54 AM »

Okay, so USB is this "brilliant" technology that allows folks to turn their computers into a veritable pin cushion of devices plugged into huge spiderwebs of daisy-chained madness. Right up until something decides not to work ... which is quite common in my experience...

Eventually (and inevitably), you end up with one device that decides (for whatever reason) to Cook-Off its port. No by that I mean it effects a state where upon it will no-longer properly (and sometimes period) identify said device ever again, because the system is holding to some piece of corrupt data that is refuses to let go of so the damn thing can once again be identified properly. The port will stay eternally borked refusing to detect the device regardless of anything (I've come across so far...) tried.

However, if a spare USB port is available, the device can be (confirmed as working) plugged into it and will spring to life like a startled puppy. And that's just dandy if you have a spare USB port, which it almost never the case, as it's usually only after there are a dozen or so devices connected via USB before this little party starts.

Now I'm not specifying any of the hardware involved intentionally, as the details are irrelevant. I've seen this delightfully little phenomenon occur across all machines, from all manufacturers, and triggered by all manner of peripheral devices. The only point of commonality is USB ... Which I've come to call the Ubiquitously Stupid Buss for this exact behavior/reason.

My question being, does anyone know of a (light/fast/portable) utility that can view the existing (maze of virtual pathing) configuration, and either allow manual editing, diagnose and repair, or just purge (preferably purge...) the information that a given USB port is clinging onto?

4735

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 08:47 AM »

So a 45 seconds delay at every startup is more reasonable than a 30 seconds delay once at install time?

-scancode (January 21, 2011, 08:27 AM)

It does sound awfully bad when you put it that way doesn't it ... Unless of course you're being forced to watch a 30 sec tampon commercial ... Then it's a perfectly reasonable time to breakout the flamethrower.

4736

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Snap DB

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 08:36 AM »

Is there any chance of adding an option to the import function to allow the (header row) first line of the file to be used as the column names? Similar to the radio button dialog the Excel sort function uses to keep the column names on top of a spread sheet.

-Stoic Joker (January 21, 2011, 07:17 AM)

This would interfere with the ability to drop multiple files onto the list so I was thinking of adding an entry to the context menu that would read somthing like "Convert record data to header names."  Follow me?
[/quote]

Ouch! Yes, can't be breaking things.

The "Convert record data to header names." sounds great (and much smoother), but it might be better to add it to the Edit menu where it can be found & used, and leave the context menu free for the other stuff that people are more apt to do frequently (Keep the menu less busy so they don't have to hunt for stuff).

4737

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Snap DB

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 07:17 AM »

One other confusing behavior, was the programs reaction to drag-n-droping a .csv file in the client window. While it appeared to (be trying to) process the file, the result was a blank ListView. Could a .csv/.tsv file drop be made to trigger an import?

-Stoic Joker (January 12, 2011, 06:34 AM)

Fixed and added in the above build.    Lots of improvements to the CSV/TSV/TXT import routines.  Please let me know if the functionality is what you had in mind.

-skwire (January 12, 2011, 12:50 PM)

(Sorry it took me awhile to make it back here) Yes, perfect ... The dynamic column creation is also quite nice. Thank you.

Is there any chance of adding an option to the import function to allow the (header row) first line of the file to be used as the column names? Similar to the radio button dialog the Excel sort function uses to keep the column names on top of a spread sheet.

4738

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft's dropped feature is Linux's gain

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 21, 2011, 06:53 AM »

Just out of curiosity, which feature from MS desktop was dropped that was picked by linux recently ?

-mahesh2k (January 21, 2011, 05:22 AM)

It wasn't dropped from the desktop, it was dropped from WHS (Windows Home Server) - It being the Drive Extender functionality that allowed dis-contiguous space to be dynamically pooled and used.

4739

Living Room / Re: Miss America Hates Wikileaks, Might Be An Idiot =D

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 07:56 PM »

My dad overheard a woman from the southern US on a trip to the Caribbean as she looked at some souvenir calendars, "Oh... Is it January here too?" Yep... Stereo-typical and trite cliche.

-Renegade (January 20, 2011, 06:33 PM)

Just for the record, I'm from the southern US, and I've been here for well over 40 years. So while that comment did surprise me ... it didn't shock me...

However you do make a good point about the down-side of putting people under a microscope.

I'm quite sure there are many governments with major abuse.

-cmpm (January 20, 2011, 07:19 PM)

I thought "government" and "abuse" were synonyms~!

-Renegade (January 20, 2011, 07:36 PM)

*Shrug* ...They are in my book.

4740

Living Room / Re: Fake GSM base station tricks target iPhones

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 06:19 PM »

There were people at a hacking conference stupid enough to be carrying an iPhone?!? I thought they banned those things a long time ago because of their pathetic security...

-Stoic Joker (January 20, 2011, 03:55 PM)

I wonder if the attack was really targeting something iPhone-specific. iPhones use an Infineon GSM chipset - I'd guess it (or a closely-related attack) would be effective against many Infineon-based phones.  Then again, I'm assuming that Infineon isn't exclusive to iPhone.

-mwb1100 (January 20, 2011, 05:20 PM)

Ya know, I found that detail rather troubling also. But the article was very specific in singling out the iPhone.

Sure, I'm wearing my schadenfreude hat, but (to be honest) this very well could be an iceberg tip.

4741

Living Room / Re: If somebody offers you swapping your PC for a mac cold turkey: would you do it?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 04:54 PM »

No. What for?

-Ath (January 20, 2011, 03:17 PM)

I'm with Ath. Maybe a couple of years back I would have considered it, but I have a rock-solid, secure and pretty nice PC setup by now. Ok it took some effort, and it's very specific to my needs, but I think there's too much stuff I would miss moving to Mac.

-timns (January 20, 2011, 04:12 PM)

Like your sanity, free will, and any semblance of self respect... 

4742

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: ForumPad Basic [Release]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 04:47 PM »

Window Resizing is still causing a few problems

-Stephen66515 (January 20, 2011, 04:14 PM)

What sort of problems?

Does anybody want any specific features adding?

-Stephen66515 (January 20, 2011, 04:04 PM)

OK, you asked for it.  This is never good to offer to someone like me...

Here's a cool option:  have a side panel that shows examples of usage for each of the bbs codes.  There's a link to a long wiki-something page (someone posted it yesterday) that lists all the codes with explanations and an example of it's use.  If you could take all of that, and have a side panel that shows it, that would be pretty neat.  How do you go about selecting the function to see in the panel?  I don't know...maybe hovering over one of the buttons, or having a dropdown list of functions...I'm not sure.  What do others think?

-superboyac (January 20, 2011, 04:42 PM)

To keep it clean, you could have the text pop-up in a alt/balloon ToolTip Text window (could not think of that a minute ago) on button hover. Or do the (old school) statusbar text on hover.

4743

Living Room / Re: Fake GSM base station tricks target iPhones

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 03:55 PM »

(see attachment in previous post)

While his Black Hat DC Conference demonstration was not flawless, a University of Luxembourg student on Wednesday did show that it's possible to trick iPhone users into joining a fake GSM network.

Ralf-Philipp Weinmann showed how to cobble together a laptop using open-source software OpenBTS and other low-cost gear to create a fake GSM transmitter base station to locate iPhones in order to send their owners a message. A number of iPhone users in the room expressed surprise that they had gotten a message asking them to join the network.

Weinmann, who is researching vulnerabilities in cellular networks, said that with the right equipment, the range for the rogue GSM station he built can be 35 kilometers.

More at source...

-Josh (January 20, 2011, 03:39 PM)

There were people at a hacking conference stupid enough to be carrying an iPhone?!? I thought they banned those things a long time ago because of their pathetic security...

4744

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: ForumPad Basic [Release]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 11:57 AM »

nice!
Hasn't someone else here done a similar program also?  Great to have several options.

-superboyac (January 20, 2011, 11:16 AM)

BBCeditor
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=17623.0

-daddydave (January 20, 2011, 11:28 AM)

That's the one!  Good ol, fenix.  I think we need a shootout!

-superboyac (January 20, 2011, 11:30 AM)

Even half done I like this one better, as the UI has a more MessageBoard like feel to it. That "feel" makes it more intuitive to use. It's really quite clever.

4745

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: ForumPad Basic [Release]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 11:52 AM »

Cool, this could be quite handy.

But a there are two things I find troubling:
If I highlight some text and hit a format button, the tags go to the end of the line instead of around the highlighted text.
I can't resize the App Window.

I do like the icon.

4746

Developer's Corner / Re: Rock physics math-thing [PHP]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 07:28 AM »

Oh yeah, that...

Crap  I shoulda remembered  that one.

Thank you,

4747

Developer's Corner / Re: C# GDI+ Problem with byte[] and Bitmap - Memory Issues

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 07:22 AM »

Mind you common sense is telling me to shutup ... But I just gotta ask...

In lines 37 - 43, why is hwi.CompareExactImageData being evaluated (basically) twice?

I'm reading it as:
if(condition = false) do bla
else if(same condition is not false) do bla

Wouldn't that tend to spike the work load?

Also being that there is no trailing else, then if condition is neither true or false (which granted should be impossible) Just ignore it. < I'm guessing that part was cut out for clarity)

4748

Developer's Corner / Re: Rock physics math-thing [PHP]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 20, 2011, 06:49 AM »

Okay, thanks

It's been (quit) a while since I've done anything with formulas, and can't for the life of me recall what ^ does/means/is telling it to do.

4749

Developer's Corner / Re: Rock physics math-thing [PHP]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 19, 2011, 06:17 PM »

I could be missing something... But I see nothing that would cause the rocks travel to apex and return. So line 4's while loop is (er...) infinite...because its always counting up away from its 0 cut off point.

4750

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 Breaks Week Numbering

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 19, 2011, 05:36 AM »

@f0dder:
Being not too proud to admit I could be wrong in my assumptions or logic, I will agree with you. Let's also stop pulling the thread off-topic.

-Shades (January 18, 2011, 10:49 PM)

Aw shit, I was rather enjoying that discussion too...

@Stoic Joker:
Indeed, it is/was my frustration speaking. Sorry about that.

-Shades (January 18, 2011, 10:49 PM)

[/quote]

*Shrug* That's cool ... hell it was my frustration that started the thread ... but I'm done now (i think). So carry on with f0dder I was actually following that bit with great interest.