Recent Posts

4951

General Software Discussion / Re: pin a document to start menu

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 22, 2010, 09:37 AM »

Some of the steps do appear to be extras, but the gist is correct. Pin local file to start menu, then edit the target (and start in) info of the pinned shortcut.

Just noticed, in 7 the shortcuts appear to be stored here:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu

...Not sure if/how that helps, but I thought I'd share it.

4952

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 22, 2010, 07:51 AM »

Craft House Services, in which I service and repair all makes and models of sewing machines.

-HorseDuck (November 19, 2010, 11:40 PM)

My dad had a sewing machine repair business for several years before he retired (I worked with him for awhile).

The motors are insanely expensive and frequently hard to find ... but they are also quite easy to repair/rebuild. Smooth the commentator and replace the brushes. If it was made well to start with it'll run for another forever.

4953

General Software Discussion / Re: Email Server Frustration -- Looking for Advice

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 22, 2010, 06:49 AM »

How many users/mail boxes do you plan on supporting with this?

I maintain 3 production Exchange servers all of which use GFi MailEssentials. Per user licensing makes the licensing costs (not exactly cheap, but...) reasonable, and I can't argue with the results. multiple infinitely configurable filters give you extreemly granular control so that filters with higher success rates can be allowed to auto delete. While other filters which tend to be more iffy can be set to only tag or move to junkmail/alternate box for manual sorting (which is seldom needed).

I keep one box called Little Bunny Foo-foo that catches the iffy stuff, and users are told that if something they should have gotten hasn't arived...tell me and I'll "check" with "Bunny" to see if it's been "eaten". This happens approx 3 times a month, and is more often than not the senders fault for botching the address.

GFi also has excellent logging and a real-time dashboard so you can watch all of the mail (sender, reciepient, subject, timestamp, disposition, etc.) as it flows through the server.

I also host the mail for my own domain (MS POP/SMTP) on a virtualized (MS VPC Server) copy of Server 2k3. Other than power issues taking me offline at home from time to time both options have been quite reliable in the years I've been running them (6 for the exchange servers and 10 for the domain/home lab).

Now, granted the Exchange config scales much better but for maintaining small 5-10 mailbox servers the MS POP/SMTP option has proven stone ax (also speaks to its feature set) reliable.

4954

Living Room / Re: Getting an HTC Desire HD -- Android Phone

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 19, 2010, 02:08 PM »

Pardon the tangent, but what if any GPS offering is there on the WP7 and how well does it work?

4955

Living Room / Re: Still holding out, won't join Facebook

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 19, 2010, 06:04 AM »

If I wanted to be social I wouldn't be sitting in front of this %$^#&*@! computer!

-4wd (November 18, 2010, 06:19 PM)

+1 FaceBook = No 

4956

Living Room / Re: Ideas for a website...I need help.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 18, 2010, 03:55 PM »

The domain name would be perfect for raising awareness about extreme poverty. The issue is likely closer to home for me though than for a lot of people here.

However, in order to really be useful, that sort of a site needs a huge amount of work and resources. A better use would be the zombie, vampire and lycan idea. Put them in a nice light about how they really just need humans to feed. You could put ads on a site like that to direct people to actual charities though. That could work nicely.

-Renegade (November 18, 2010, 01:55 PM)

An icanhascheezburger clone with pictures of people in eating positions 

-rgdot (November 18, 2010, 02:44 PM)

Hahahahaha~!

My wife is constantly taking pictures of food. All the time. Her friends do the same thing! I'm sure she'd be a good contributor~!

-Renegade (November 18, 2010, 02:57 PM)

Why not combine the two ideas and have sophisticated looking zombies eating people in fine dinning/gourmet settings.

4957

Living Room / Re: Allow me to introduce "Dieselbuff" and "HorseDuck"

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 17, 2010, 06:56 PM »

Greetings, and welcome to DC!

4958

Living Room / Re: Why Apple's Distortion Field Works

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2010, 04:45 PM »

Okay, just checkin'

I'm active on WP now so let me know where to go (and how to get there) - I've never used WP before.

I'm assuming we are to wait for you to do the lead story/rant/intro and then hop in, yes? ...I'm toying with resurecting an old iPhone Jack rant I did once elsewhere.

...I told the sales manager I was debating on letting him get an iPad just so I could get some material for the blog (hehe).

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Living Room / Re: Why Apple's Distortion Field Works

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2010, 02:35 PM »

Quick Stupid Question: Shouldn't the tag line be Don't Drink the Kewl Aid ?

4960

Living Room / Re: Is "Quick Format" safe?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2010, 11:18 AM »

Would have been really cool if Microsoft included a zero-fill switch ( /z ) for their format command.

-40hz (November 16, 2010, 08:35 AM)

They used to have the ( /U ) unconditional format option in the 9x days. But in retrospect I'm not entirely sure what it did (data destruction wise).

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Living Room / Re: Why Apple's Distortion Field Works

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2010, 06:57 AM »

But since we're on the topic, I came across this today and had a good laugh: What it's like to own an Apple product.

-Deozaan (November 15, 2010, 06:57 PM)

Would be good to have a best of Apple bashing section/archive for classics like this (and the iWheel etc.). Perhaps we could also do quickie "reviews" of them critiquing (applauding...) their technical merit.

4962

Living Room / Re: Is "Quick Format" safe?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2010, 06:41 AM »

That's what I thought when I used a WinXP install disk to do a full format on a client machine that was to be wiped. When it finished, I rebooted it expecting to see the typical OS not found message, but it booted back into XP.

Now I'll gladly admit it could have been a fluke, because a statistical sampling of one doesn't prove shit to anyone. But it was an awful spooky fluke...that I've never repeated.

For recovery stuff I've always used Runtimes Get Data Back - That's the best I can remember for details.

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Living Room / Re: Is "Quick Format" safe?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 05:37 PM »

As for data security, a normal non-quick format (which just means zero-filling all sectors - there's really no such thing as a "low-level format" anymore, after a drive leaves the factory) is just fine.

-f0dder (November 15, 2010, 02:42 PM)

You sure about that one? For the average end user sure okay, but a business? I've recovered data from a (fully) formatted drive, Even got a good bit (20%) of info off a drive that had been (factory restore) reimaged. Gutmann did mentioned (recommend actually) DBAN in his epilogue.

4964

Living Room / Re: The Story of Stuff - Cosmetics, Bottled Water...

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 02:58 PM »

Hmmm...

I was just thinking. If it really costs so much less, then why aren't there "mining" companies that are mining garbage dumps? It MUST be more profitable to pull out metal from there rather than from tonnes of ore.

I don't mean that to be cynical or doubtful. I really wonder why.

-Renegade (November 15, 2010, 01:35 PM)

I have indeed pondered that one myself many times. Paper, glass and metal can't be that hard to sort out.

Ferrous metals are obvious (magnet)
Paper will float (for the most part), and glass won't
Now separate the glass from the non-ferrous metals.

4965

Living Room / Re: Is "Quick Format" safe?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 02:47 PM »

On a new drive I don't see a problem with doing a QF. Reinstalling on an old drive, while I prefer a full format, the default format used by Windows Vista/7 during install appears to be a Quick Format ... Because it usually done in seconds.

4966

Living Room / Re: Why Apple's Distortion Field Works

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 02:40 PM »

Oops! I thought the planning meeting had moved to some place I didn't know about.

Not sure what I can do as my rants aren't any near as detailed or comical as yours, but I'm willing to help if/as I can.

I was wondering if maybe the domain name should be something a tad subtler like KewlAid.net (it's available)

4967

Living Room / Re: How to understand all the Intel chip types?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 01:44 PM »

How many people in the general computer buying public are going to know to do that?

-rssapphire (November 15, 2010, 01:04 PM)

On an average to good day assuming they all brought their "educated" friends along I'd say about 4.

But seriously...

I spec'ed the business machine I'm using here at work about 3 or so years ago (for the XP->Vista transition) and it's a 3.0. For the same reason as you - I skimped on the video because it wasn't necessary. Next lowest item is the (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+) CPU at 4.7. Only time it ever lags is if I run 2 VPCs at the same time...But running 3 OSs on 2GB of RAM is a lot to ask of the poor thing.

4968

Living Room / Re: The Story of Stuff - Cosmetics, Bottled Water...

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 11:57 AM »

None of this means it's not worth doing the right thing, doing your part, trying to make a difference!

-JavaJones (November 15, 2010, 02:55 AM)

Therein lying the rub (for me anyway). Why does recycling have to be such a yuppie social fashion nightmare requiring people futz with 5+ different "trash" containers? If "they" really want people to do it (automate it) don't make them do it.

I wish I could remember where I saw it (History/Discovery/TLC/*Shrug*), but there was a show about a company that took plain old trash (Just like folks been throwing out since the beginning of time) and ran it through a sorting facility that separated metal from glass, paper, rubber, etc. automatically. Now that to me sounds like a simple, economical and complete solution - Sending 5 different trucks to pickup one pile of trash is just dumb.

4969

Living Room / Re: How to understand all the Intel chip types?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 11:32 AM »

Anyway wasn't the Windows Performance Index supposed to help with all this BS? Why don't we see those scores advertised with new PCs at this point?

-JavaJones (November 15, 2010, 03:30 AM)

I'd love to know that one myself. But if you look at the WPI of most budget (or business) Win7 machines (frequently 3 or less) it's probably too hard to sell/explain why machine X doesn't really totally suck because the slow part (which sets the score...) isn't really relevant/detrimental to the required application/intended usage.

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Living Room / Re: 101 Great Computer Programming Quotes

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2010, 07:08 AM »

Thanks Renegade

5.“If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.”
(Robert X. Cringely)

This is definitely my favorite.

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Living Room / Re: Too Stupid to Own a Computer

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 14, 2010, 11:21 AM »

"(They) were bringing over $400 million," Bedi said, "and for this, they were very concerned because taxes had not been paid on this money for 60 years."

Okay so he didn't go to the cops because of the tax evasion issue - Not quite the most innocent of "victims" is he?

-Stoic Joker (November 14, 2010, 09:28 AM)

Still doesn't (quite) explain why he agreed to pay these jokers $160,000 a month...
Actually, now that I've had a cup of coffee and am thinking more clearly, this smacks of blackmail.

-Darwin (November 14, 2010, 09:54 AM)

It does a bit yes, but...

If you're going to keep some liquor in your locker
You'd be wise to keep a lock upon your stock
Or some joker who is quicker
Will rob you of your liquor
Tho you snicker you'll be sicker for the shock. 

So now we have a multi national fortune 500 company that apparently doesn't have an IT staff that can figure out if an "infected" email bounced through their network?

Exactly why didn't his lawyers advise him to pay his taxes (like 60 years ago)? Why aren't they in jail?

I just can't feel sorry for this guy. 6 million out of 400 million *Shrug* as a tip that's not ever 5% - I'm thinking the IT company got shafted.

4972

General Software Discussion / Vector Clock Designer

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 14, 2010, 10:47 AM »

While going through some T-Clock support/bugg report/feature request emails I ran across one from a fellow who wanted me to checkout this program. Now I have not used, or even downloaded this program as of yet. But just reading through the features list it sounds cool as hell. You can basically WYSIWYG design your own clock picking the (Aw hell I'll just paste it):

Vector Clock Designer - is first software of its kind, providing full high-fidelity vector graphics editor dedicated to creation and design of fully functional desktop clocks.

Have a look around - all clocks, You can find on this site, were created in Vector Clock Designer. You can even download clocks source files, open it in Designer and redesign them.

Vector Clock Designer - is sophisticated and robust software for functional clock designs. Allows detailed creation of all internal aspects of a clock - background, hands and time related stuff (eg. dates, alarms, countdowns, animations, etc), glass and clock interface controls. It organizes individual clock components into the hierarchical tree with special editors for each tree item type.

Vector Graphics Engine used in Clock Designer provides in software high-quality anti-aliased 2D graphics with subpixel accuracy (high-precision). That means, no hardware acceleration is required and clocks created in Designer runs virtually on any Windows PC (starting from WinXP & up).

In Easy Mode - You can create Your clock by dragging and dropping clock components such as clock backgrounds, faces, hands, glasses, etc., from pre-loaded clock components library.

In Expert Mode - You can design in very detail every little aspect of the clock. Mostly, it is a drawing sequence for the clock engine such as lines, rectangles, circles, SVG paths, images, fills, strokes, colors, gradients, shadows and all common aspects of typical Vector Graphics. Plus special objects which makes the clock work (eg. alarm & countdown objects, face elements for hours & minutes, etc).

When You're done with Your functional clock design, just push the "Install Clock to Desktop" icon and Your clock will appear on desktop - and will fully work as an alarm desktop clock. You can leave Designer and keep running Your very own functional clock design on Your desktop.

Best of all - Vector Clock Designer software is FREE.

-site

So if anybody is looking for a really customizable desktop clock, this looks like a hit!

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General Software Discussion / Re: pin a document to start menu

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 14, 2010, 10:08 AM »

Is it possible for some program or coding snack to override the network polices and pin a file to the start menu from my docs?

-techidave (November 13, 2010, 08:28 AM)

Good News & Bad News:
Microsoft does not allow direct programmatic access to Start Panel (and Taskbar) pinning to prevent installers from abusing the feature.

You can indirectly access the pin-to-start panel option, but the script is dependent on which verbs are applicable to the file. So if file X is on a location that does not permit verb Y ... the script will fail.

TechNet Link: Pin Items via Script

Note: This article is Win7 specific, but others state this has held true (applies to) since the WinXP feature premier.

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Living Room / Re: Too Stupid to Own a Computer

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 14, 2010, 09:28 AM »

"(They) were bringing over $400 million," Bedi said, "and for this, they were very concerned because taxes had not been paid on this money for 60 years."

Okay so he didn't go to the cops because of the tax evasion issue - Not quite the most innocent of "victims" is he?

4975

Living Room / Re: Too Stupid to Own a Computer

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 13, 2010, 07:58 AM »

Seems more like he was a terrified guy that was doing whatever he thought he had to do to protect his life.

-app103 (November 12, 2010, 11:31 PM)

Quite true, but if you ask anyone over the age of 5 who they would call if their life was in danger I doubt Tech Support is going to be at the top of the list of most common (sense...) answers...911 on the other hand...