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5026
Developer's Corner / Re: Web Debate: Give Us Simplicity So We Can Ignore You
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 22, 2010, 07:43 PM »
f0dder... I didn't say form was irrelevant, I said it was secondary.

I saw a commercial for a luxury car last night (Lexus I think), and they were with great fan fair heralding it many adornments. One of which was that it had (Gasp...!) genuine silver dust embedded in a real wood dash. ...And I thought to myself, wow... Thats... Well ... Well it's F'ing Stupid really.

Yes Apple does have some interesting UI design ideas - whats under them is frequently poo IMO - But when setting up an RDP connection on a clients iPad I was genuinely impressed with how smoothly it worked. Even when connecting on a nonstandard port.

It's the style over substance crap that makes me cringe.
5027
Living Room / Re: Why do support people never answer questions?
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 22, 2010, 07:11 PM »
My wife called me at work one day around 1:00 on a Friday. One of our dogs (the puppy she was quite attached to) had gotten out of the gate and run off into the woods by some railroad tracks near our house.

If you've been married for any length of time, you'll know your spouse well enough that when certain tones are used... :)

...So I left work to go help find the dog ... Which involved tromping through the woods for 7 hours. Occasionally the dog would surface - but being a puppy - He would just run past and away...again... Which meant my ass had to run wide open through the thicket trying to follow the little prick. Mind you I've been smoking for over 30 years...so this is no small feat.

The point being...

When I got to work that Monday, the owner (whom I report to directly) came by to inquire as to my whereabouts on Friday afternoon. -(eek!)- ...I simply told her the story above - which was a good bit longer with the rest of the details.

Her only concern, which she expressed by stopping me half way through the story...was about whether or not the dog was okay... Apparently my absence and the judgment involved in its coming to be were irrelevant as long as the puppy survived intact ... Which he did.

5028
Living Room / Re: Welcome to Hell... iHell that is...
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 21, 2010, 07:03 AM »
Um... Using the typical 10" screened netbook price of $400 as a (starting) point of reference.

The new Air is on sale now in two versions: a 13.3-inch model costs $1,299 to $1,599, depending on the amount of memory, while the 11.6-inch product starts at $999.

They priced it really aggressively,” said Shaw Wu, a technology analyst with Kaufman Bros. LP in San Francisco. He also advises buying Apple’s shares.

$1,000 for a device with an 11" screen is considered pricing something "aggressively"...Why?!? (Viciously maybe) ...What (Koolaid Soaked) turnip truck did this clown just fall off of?
5029
Living Room / Re: The Monitor is a Limiting Form Factor
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 20, 2010, 10:12 PM »
So basically you're saying, Star Trek's ultimate gaming system, the Holodeck was not portable.

 :D
5030
Living Room / Re: The Monitor is a Limiting Form Factor
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 20, 2010, 07:07 PM »
I understand the etiquette is left ear for Linux and right ear for Windows.

And through the nose for Mac?  :P

...With a paper punch ... Because, nothing says Think Different quite like self mutilation.
5031
Living Room / Re: Why do support people never answer questions?
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 20, 2010, 05:00 PM »
However, I learned even as a small child that people hate to hear "I don't know". This has been reinforced countless times in my line of work as well. (For example, if we don't know, we should be able to find out.)

A client once asked me about something I flat-out didn't have a clue on. The question was important. I told them that while there was an excellent chance that I could spin together some plausible sounding technical jargon that sounded like an answer...the truth was that I didn't have a clue. But I felt that it would be best for all parties involved if I just said that in the hops that they would appreciate my honesty.

They did, and they are still one of our best clients.

The point is that while it is true that people don't like to hear I-Don't-Know ... They hate to be jerked around even more.
5032
Living Room / Re: The Monitor is a Limiting Form Factor
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 20, 2010, 02:53 PM »
I understand the etiquette is left ear for Linux and right ear for Windows.

I'm guessing you would have needed to have a drivers license in the 70s to be old enough to get that joke...


...I did btw.
5033
Interesting idea, but a trap I'd (very much) like to avoid. You see while create your own shopping cart sounds just groovy on the surface. It also means that you gotta support it (forever...) too. There is no support to fall back on if the thing goes poof...So you just got (shotgun wedding) married this thing.

In the interest of sanity, I (and I suspect superboyac also) need a layer of abstraction between myself and the project once it's done ... So it stays done. Otherwise, for the next four forevers, every nifty idea/passing thought/feature request the brass can think of will be dropped right in my lap...because the only thing down hill of me, is the edge of a cliff... :)

So, Clean, Simple, Done. <-Key word there is done.)

Getting everyone to even decide on what it is they are going to agree/disagree on regarding what the site will look like is (and has been for several years now...) enough of a nightmare ... There is no way in hell I'm going to add gas to the fire with more options of that magnatude.
5034
Living Room / Re: Desktop Linux: The dream is dead
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 19, 2010, 06:58 AM »
I actually like Ubuntu far more than OSX. It's friendlier and works better. OSX is pretty buggy.

Granted I do avoid all things Apple like a plague, but I do occasionally encounter them in the field from time to time. OSX (Snow Leopard specifically) network printing "support" is an absolute train wreck.

CUPS (standards-based, open source printing system developed by Apple Inc. for Mac OS® X and other UNIX®-like operating systems) worked flawlessly on a dozen or so Linux distros I was playing with at the time ... However it could not manage to successfully toss a page from OSX to a printer in less than a half an hour. Apples "support" forum (kinda/sorta) admitted to the existence of the issue, but offered nothing useful beyond that.
5035
Developer's Corner / Re: Web Debate: Give Us Simplicity So We Can Ignore You
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 18, 2010, 06:44 PM »
Armando hit on another point.  Far too often, society deems more is better. 

Then they go out and buy an ultra high performance vehicle and get killed in (or on) it a week later (seen it happed too many times).

Therefore, more features at the same price automatically make a product better in many people's minds (I fight myself on this point far more than I like to admit). 

You're spot on the vilify the marketing companies here - The right tool for the job does exactly what you need, and only what you need with out a bunch of attachments & adapters that get lost or just in the way.

Really it should be based on functionality, speed, flexibility, and/or elegance (for lack of a better term), but these are rarely tested, let alone judged.

There is no better term. And they should be mandatory as tests. Form Follows Function - I don't give a damn if it's shiny, does it work?!? There is true beauty in the design of a device that does a specific job well and with little effort. Ever try to do any serious work with a Swiss Army knife? Ha! Sure its got all sorts of widgets to do everything imaginable, but none of them are all that effective independently because they're so freaking tiny and the rest are all piled up in the way.
5036
Living Room / Re: Desktop Linux: The dream is dead
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 18, 2010, 06:17 PM »
If the connection fails, it is just an unusable piece of hardware sitting there until there is a connection again.  Just like when the TV signal goes out...

Now there is a horrifying (albeit quite plausible) view of the computing future ... I'll have to go back to being a mechanic.


@sword - Okay, Puppy is fun to play with. I've still got a virtual copy of it from back when I was playing with misc. Linux distros awhile back. I like Slackware, but I haven't much luck with it.
5037
PHP / Re: <Script> tag for PHP?
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 18, 2010, 12:51 PM »
you should be able to use:

<script language="php"> ... </script>

See Example #2 on http://www.php.net/m...c-syntax.phpmode.php


The moral of the story (at the link you posted) seems to be yes you can do it, but it's a bad habbit/idea that will bite you in the ass down the road. <?PHP ...code...  ?> or <?=$Value?> are both universally safe in any environment/version or mixture of code.


Not to mention it looks too much like a Java Script tag of your skimming something large in a hurry (We've all done that at least once...).
5038
Developer's Corner / Re: Contrary ListView Control
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 17, 2010, 08:33 AM »
Hm... Okay, I'll assume by the lack of response that there's not enough information. So here's (the code I'm working with) a bit more detail:

ListView control is subclassed in WM_CREATE like so:
Code: C++ [Select]
  1. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
  2.  
  3.         prevWndFunc = (FARPROC)(LONG_PTR)GetWindowLong (g_hListBox, GWL_WNDPROC);
  4.         SetWindowLong (g_hListBox, GWL_WNDPROC, (LONG)(LRESULT)ListViewWndProc);
  5.  
  6. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

And here is the procedure:
Code: C++ [Select]
  1. #include "stdafx.h"
  2.  
  3. #define ROW_SHADE 90
  4. extern FARPROC  prevWndFunc;
  5.  //=========================================================
  6. //-> create a lighter shade (by fPercent %) of a given color
  7. COLORREF colorShade(COLORREF c, BYTE fPercent) {
  8.   return RGB((GetRValue (c) * fPercent / 100.0),
  9.                          (GetGValue (c) * fPercent / 100.0),
  10.                          (GetBValue (c) * fPercent / 100.0));
  11. }
  12.  //====================================================
  13. //-> re-draw rows with the appropriate background color
  14. void PaintAlternatingRows(HWND hWnd) {
  15.         int     iItems, iTop;
  16.         RECT    rectDestin,     //      temporary storage
  17.                         rectUpd,        //      rectangle to update
  18.                         rect;           //      row rectangle
  19.         POINT   pt;                     //  >>>--->.<---<<<
  20.         COLORREF c;                     //      temporary storage
  21.  
  22. //      get the rectangle to be updated
  23.         GetUpdateRect(hWnd, &rectUpd, FALSE);
  24. //      allow default processing first
  25.         CallWindowProc((WNDPROC)prevWndFunc, hWnd, WM_PAINT, 0, 0);
  26. // set the row horizontal dimensions
  27.         SetRect(&rect, rectUpd.left, 0, rectUpd.right, 0);
  28. //      number of displayed rows
  29.         iItems = ListView_GetCountPerPage(hWnd);
  30. //      first visible row
  31.         iTop = ListView_GetTopIndex(hWnd);
  32.  
  33.         ListView_GetItemPosition(hWnd, iTop, &pt);
  34.         for(int i=iTop ; i<=iTop+iItems ; i++) {
  35.                 char szPCount[MIN_BUFF] = {0};
  36. //              set row vertical dimensions
  37.                 rect.top = pt.y;
  38.                 ListView_GetItemPosition(hWnd, i+1, &pt);
  39.                 rect.bottom = pt.y;
  40. //              if row rectangle intersects update rectangle then it requires re-drawing
  41.                 if(IntersectRect(&rectDestin, &rectUpd, &rect)) {
  42. //                      change text background colour accordingly
  43.                         c = (i % 2) ?
  44.                                 colorShade(GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW), ROW_SHADE) :
  45.                                 GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW);
  46.                         ListView_SetTextBkColor(hWnd, c);
  47. //-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
  48.                         ListView_GetItemText(hWnd, i, 5, szPCount, sizeof(szPCount));
  49.                         if(strcmp(szPCount, "OffLine!")) { //---++++++---> String Match = 0 <-> So...
  50.                                 ListView_SetTextColor(hWnd, CLR_DEFAULT); //-> OnLine Printers Stay Black
  51.                         }else{ //------------------------------------------------->     ...and...
  52.                                 ListView_SetTextColor(hWnd, RGB(255, 0, 0)); // OffLine Printers Turn Red
  53.                         }
  54. //-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
  55. //                      invalidate the row rectangle then...
  56.                         InvalidateRect(hWnd, &rect, FALSE);
  57. //                      ...force default processing
  58.                         CallWindowProc((WNDPROC)prevWndFunc, hWnd, WM_PAINT, 0, 0);
  59.                 }
  60.         }
  61. }
  62. //      re-draw row backgrounds with the appropriate background colour
  63. void EraseAlternatingRowBkgnds(HWND hWnd, HDC hDC) {
  64.         int     iItems, iTop;
  65.         HBRUSH  brushCol1,      //      1st color
  66.                         brushCol2;      //      2nd color
  67.         RECT    rect;           //      row rectangle
  68.         POINT   pt;
  69.  
  70. //      create colored brushes
  71.         brushCol1 = CreateSolidBrush(GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW));
  72.         brushCol2 = CreateSolidBrush(colorShade(GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW), ROW_SHADE));
  73. //      get horizontal dimensions of row
  74.         GetClientRect(hWnd, &rect);
  75. //      number of displayed rows
  76.         iItems = ListView_GetCountPerPage(hWnd);
  77. //      first visible row
  78.         iTop = ListView_GetTopIndex(hWnd);
  79.         ListView_GetItemPosition(hWnd, iTop, &pt);
  80.  
  81.         for(int i=iTop; i<=iTop+iItems; i++) {
  82. //              set row vertical dimensions
  83.                 rect.top = pt.y;
  84.                 ListView_GetItemPosition(hWnd, i+1, &pt);
  85.                 rect.bottom = pt.y;
  86. //              fill row with appropriate color
  87.                 FillRect(hDC, &rect, (i % 2) ? brushCol2 : brushCol1);
  88.         }
  89.        
  90. //      cleanup
  91.         DeleteObject(brushCol1);
  92.         DeleteObject(brushCol2);
  93. }
  94.  //=======================================================================================
  95. //-----------------------------------------------------------> SubClassed Window Procedure
  96. LRESULT CALLBACK ListViewWndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT iMessage, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
  97.         switch(iMessage) {
  98.                 case WM_PAINT:
  99. //                      intercept the WM_PAINT message which is called each time an area
  100. //                      of the control's client area requires re-drawing
  101.                         PaintAlternatingRows(hWnd);
  102.                         return 0;
  103.                 case WM_ERASEBKGND:
  104. //                      intercept the WM_ERASEBKGRN message which is called each time an area
  105. //                      of the control's client area background requires re-drawing
  106.                         EraseAlternatingRowBkgnds(hWnd, (HDC) wParam);
  107.                         return 0;
  108.         }
  109.   // continue with default message processing
  110.   return CallWindowProc((WNDPROC)prevWndFunc, hWnd, iMessage, wParam, lParam);
  111. }
5039
Developer's Corner / Contrary ListView Control
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 16, 2010, 02:16 PM »
Okay, so I've had this nagging ongoing issue with ListView control behavior for a year or so. I thought I'd find a fix for it eventually...But damn-it that's taking too long :)

Here's the rub. I have a standard ListView control that has the grid lines alternate color going down to make it easier to read. Now this control works just fine right up until I add the (below code) use XP style controls line to stdafx.h.
Code: C++ [Select]
  1. // This line Allows the Application to Use the XP Themes Control Styles!
  2. #pragma comment(linker,"/manifestdependency:\"type='win32' name='Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls' version='6.0.0.0' processorArchitecture='x86' publicKeyToken='6595b64144ccf1df' language='*'\"")

Then it becomes completely EviL; when program starts all the lines are white, and the last line of the report is a complete artifact nightmare. Below pic is of two different copies of Page Countster, both with the same report open to demonstrate the issue. The top copy is with out the above code, and looks fine. The bottom copy contains the above (XP style controls) code and has an echo of the last line of the report as an artifact that appears to be a line that isn't quite scrolled into view. It also opens as plain white and screws-up the last few lines of the report leaving them as all gray.

ListView Madness.jpg

I've tried calling InvalidateRect(...) in a variety of places that caused the control to flicker so badly it was a seizure risk...But still no joy.


What am I missing?
5040
Living Room / Re: Most important aspect of Info Keeping
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 16, 2010, 08:39 AM »
Having built (from scratch) several of the data systems our company uses, I can attest to the fact that it's not as easy as it sounds. I too made some of the very mistakes Renagade ranted about above - Due not surprisingly to "time constraints" - But I am working on getting these fixed.

Craftsman it seems are a breed that died out years ago.
5041
Living Room / Re: Texting on the rise
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 16, 2010, 08:25 AM »
I can't help but think that constantly holding each-other at arms length with an electronic bushing will damage our society. If I have a need for human interaction, I'll walk up to one and interact with them. Zipping x word blurbs back and forth constantly is just absurd. It makes everyone faceless and surreal.

I have a cell phone, to make calls with - Texting is disabled - that is all. I prefer to deal with people face-to-face so I can observe and gauge their facial expressions and body language.
5042
General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 15, 2010, 06:29 AM »
Wow! That is pretty basic.  I found the "bug report" for it. Seems it was posted in 2008 and they are still working on it!!!  Sheesh!!

http://code.google.c...issues/detail?id=173



Did you read the comments there?

...this feature isn't vitally important to what Chromium is looking to accomplish.

Chrome's focus seems to be on improving the experience of using web apps, strong
security, stability, and (recently) a robust extensibility system.

Since printing sort of an "offline" feature, I'd imagine this feature isn't very high
on Google's radar, given the priorities mentioned above.
 

and...

If you really want this feature, be patient. It's going to come. If you can't wait,
use another browser. Complaining on the issue tracker is not going to get the feature
implemented any sooner so please refrain from spamming the 300+ people that have this
issue starred.

The code monkeys there seem to feel that printing from a browser is not a true primary function.

Printin'? PRINTIN'?  We don’t need no stinkin' printin' in our browser!!

Doesn’t work for me...

Jim

That wouldn't work for me either. They must think "Printing" is strictly an Hard-Copy exercise. But I "Print" mainly to PDF and a preview is mandatory to be sure I've got the content I need without the garbage banners & etc.

*Shrug* ...I'm happy with IE9...Chrome just doesn't excite me.
5043
Developer's Corner / Re: Programming Ennui, Anyone?
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 15, 2010, 06:21 AM »
I've got a project now that I've hit-the-wall on. Granted (lack of) time is the biggest factor, but I'm really not chomping-at-the-bit to attack it either. Hopfully I'll be able to refocus on it in the next month or so...as it has started taunting me lately.
5044
That last hop is across their internal network (whois on IP shows it's a single contiguous block owned by E-Commerce Hosting). This thing has borked routing table written all over it.

So, in layman's speak, is that, "the hosting company is dropping the ball, so get a new one"?

That seems a bit harsh, but depending on how many people are affected if they're unwilling to fix (or admit to) the problem it may be necessary.

The original question was ISP vs. Host because proxy worked. If the ISP was blocking then the trace would have stopped in the first few hops. If there is a very small number of addresses blocked (e.g. nobody else is complaining) then walking them by the hand to the issue (Given their absurd assertion that intermittent ICMP traffic is normal) could be next to impossible.


@4wd - That is odd, my ping times from here are much faster:

C:\Windows\system32>ping www.head-in-the-clouds.com

Pinging www.head-in-the-clouds.com [98.131.45.219] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 98.131.45.219: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=48
Reply from 98.131.45.219: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=48
Reply from 98.131.45.219: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=48
Reply from 98.131.45.219: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 98.131.45.219:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 71ms, Maximum = 71ms, Average = 71ms

C:\Windows\system32>
5045
Living Room / Re: I have a very hard announcement to make
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 13, 2010, 06:51 AM »
You set forth to learn a skill, and best I can tell, you have accomplished that. Perhaps the rest of the plan wasn't flawless...that's okay. This is not a failure, you are merely choosing to stop doing something that is no longer fun. This is a wise decision, and one I have made in the past on more occasions than I care to admit.

Your presence and opinion here are valued, and will always be welcome.
5046
It always makes me glad that they refer to themselves as 'administrators', (which has connotations more towards management), if they were technicians I'd be ashamed - plus they wouldn't last 10 minutes in a real job.

Speaking as one whose job title actually is Network Administrator, I'd just like to say that I've always found the connotations a bit troubling myself. ;)

Side note if this was a DNS issue you'd either have no target, or the wrong target. Unless it was the hosting companies internal DNS that was borking the Host Header resolution (I have seen that happen). However, given that the site loads with either the FQDN or the IP address it can't be an HH issue.

Try pinging the site (www.head-in-the-clouds.com) ... Now reguardless of if/how it answers if the IP resolve to 98.131.45.219, stop looking at DNS because its job is done. :)

That last hop is across their internal network (whois on IP shows it's a single contiguous block owned by E-Commerce Hosting). This thing has borked routing table written all over it.
5047
General Software Discussion / Re: Help needed to alter partitions
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 11, 2010, 04:39 PM »
Onboard Promise RAID before multiple processors were available? (I believe you, but...) Help me out on the time line...when was that?

I was running a Tyan Tiger S18something in 2000-ish with dual P3-600s but it didn't have RAID - That's why I got the Promise card so I could play with the misc DD configurations back then. I've still got 3 of the rigs I built around the Tyan Mboard, one of wich is still running 24/7 with Server 2k3.
5048
General Software Discussion / Re: Help needed to alter partitions
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 11, 2010, 02:46 PM »
Correct, however the only thing it is "required" for is the conversion to Dynamic Disk, which is fairly pointless on a workstation/desktop.
Unless you're going to run software raid-striping :)
You gotta want it real bad to go that route - Maybe 2% of folks could justify the trade-off. Not to mention it can't be done on the system/boot partition.
Which trade-off?
Gotta have 3 hard drives. to gain anything that way.

Back in the Win2k days when DD was new and everything was IDE 3 HDDs and an optical drive meant sombody was getting downshifted to PIO mode (ok or slightly better UDMA33). Sure there were some SCSI workstations (Zoiks!), but you did mention cost as a factor...

So if you were already gonna need another IDE controller card, you might as well get one with RAID - I did back then and still have the card in an old server.

Sure now the SATA Mboards have 4/6/8 channels for hard drives...but they also come with onboard RAID. So no real purpose for DD there either. Remember the piont the discussion started on is what is the 8MB stub left on an NTFS drive for. It's done automatically (only) by Windows setup (3rd party programs never do that) to allow for the conversion to Dynamic Disk. Typically for the purpose of setting up a software mirror of the system/boot partition(s)

Cluster size with DD is a penalty of its own as a 2kb text file will become 6kb after the conversion. For those of us with lots of small text files (a.k.a. source code snippets) that sucks. :)


@ Carol - Me too back when, I just didn't do it the Windows native Dynamic Disk route (had a Paradise card as f0dder mentioned). Now I use the RAID5 option that's built into the Asus Commando Mboard I'm running.
5049
General Software Discussion / Re: Help needed to alter partitions
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 11, 2010, 11:23 AM »
Correct, however the only thing it is "required" for is the conversion to Dynamic Disk, which is fairly pointless on a workstation/desktop.
Unless you're going to run software raid-striping :)
You gotta want it real bad to go that route - Maybe 2% of folks could justify the trade-off. Not to mention it can't be done on the system/boot partition.
5050
General Software Discussion / Re: Help needed to alter partitions
« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 11, 2010, 06:41 AM »
Dammit!  If I paid for that 40MB I'm going to make sure I use it  :D

Although, as Carol says, normally it would only be around 8MB.

Correct, however the only thing it is "required" for is the conversion to Dynamic Disk, which is fairly pointless on a workstation/desktop. I frequently use 3rd party software (like Paragon HDM) to recover said space because its wasted existence annoys me. On a side note the 40MB of space shown there is on the wrong end of the drive for a DD conversion.

I would have thought that if it was any kind of BIOS setup/Boot program then it would show up as either a known, unknown or hidden not Unallocated as it does.

That assertion holds true in my experience as well.
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