Recent Posts

5026

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Replacement Power Options applet

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 20, 2006, 06:48 AM »

Anyone any further thoughts on this? Unfortunately Skrommel's idea doesn't seem to work for me (I get negative CPU usage and the apparent numerical value calculated int he script is always high - ignoring the sign).

5027

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 18, 2006, 05:18 AM »

True and for a lot of printers they make sense as they have their own print head (though some of them use ink of dubious quality and I had quite a few that didn't work brilliantly as the print heads got clogged).

Canon on the other had (for me  at least) means using original manufacturer cartridges as the use of others invalidates the warranty on the print head. Having said that Canon consumables are considerably cheaper anyway so it is less of a big deal.

5028

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Replacement Power Options applet

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2006, 07:33 PM »

By duplicating the icons with a '-' in front of the number it works but I am getting odd CPU usage tooltips (like -88%) when I hover over the icon. The actual CPU usage is <10%. Could this be because I have a dual core processor?

I am using an AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+ ... so pretty slow

5029

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Replacement Power Options applet

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2006, 06:31 PM »

Follow up:

I am getting an error at line 42 "Can't load icon" which appears repeatedly. See window ...



The value of %icon% looks to be negative everytime and the numerical value doesn't seem to match the actual CPU usage (according to task manager)?

I can see that the INI file allows you to set the delay time in minutes but could it also allow the setting of the frequency of checking (in ms) and also the CPU threshold (as a %).

5030

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Replacement Power Options applet

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2006, 06:12 PM »

Hey great idea - thanks. Nice to see you back 

(some pennies on the way)

5031

Finished Programs / DONE: Replacement Power Options applet

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2006, 12:02 PM »

Maybe not a snack but it would be useful.

Currently the Power Options in Control Panel work on the basis of keyboard and mouse activity.

I would like a replacement that works on a CPU threshold not being exceeded for a period (say 5%) - that way I could set Standby or Hibernate when the computer is truly idle - not just when I don't interact personally. That would allow extended processing applications (such as video recoding) to proceed without Power Options kicking in.

Anyone any ideas how to acheive this ?

5032

Living Room / Re: Very odd graphics problem - anyone any ideas ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2006, 06:00 AM »

Thanks dk70 - that is a useful bit of info - I have signed up and subscribed to the thread !

I have tried contacting nVidia support but unfortunately their support form doesn't seem to work properly for unregistered users (although it is supposed to with just an email address) and their registration system is broken. One way of avoiding providing support I suppose!

5033

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2006, 05:38 AM »

Yes I use standard Canon inks and Canon paper for photo printing - I have a mixture of matte and glossy papers and haven't noticed particular problems-  though I don't really have lots of material in constant direct sunlight.

5034

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 16, 2006, 02:30 PM »

I haven't noticed any fading when I user "Canon Photo Paper Pro" (that's from my last two printers - the previous one was an S520 which is still being used by a friend).

I have a Canon EOS 300D camera with a growing number of EF/S and EF lenses and other bits and pieces. Really good (I can't justify upgrading yet to anything better as the pictures seem good enough to me as it is) but a bit bulky for carting around when photography isn't the main purpose. I have just started using an IXUS i7 for convenience (it really is a tiny pocket camera and very good - fits in the palm of my hand).

5035

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 16, 2006, 05:35 AM »

mrainey:I bought a Samsung laser on sale for fifty bucks

One of the 2010's? Aren't they a great buy!? For text that matters I use an H-P 2420 because it's one of the few machines with the option of a straight-through paper path, but I bought a Samsung 2010 for my wife for a tenth of the cost and it's just great... nice small footprint, too.

My Canon ip5000 has a cartidge tray feed but it also also a straight through feed - it is great to have the choice. Plus it includes automatic duplex, automatic 4-up booklet printing (which is really neat), mulitple page reduction to a single sheet and CD/DVD printing and produces really great photos. Add to that PictBridge (no computer) printing from cameras, auto on/off and self-cleaning and I can't think of much that is missing.

This is my third Canon printer and they have got progressively better and better over the years. My experience with HP was one of paper jams and miss-feeds and expensive cartridges (but that was along time ago). Lexmark wasn't that long ago and my memory was of not very good quality print, wet paper lying around for ages after printing and obscenely expensive ink (plus a complete lack of drivers for anything other than Windows).

5036

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 15, 2006, 08:21 PM »

patteo: I guess it is no different from why the printer manufacturers literally sell their snazzy looking printers dirt cheap which are gas ink guzzlers

Printer manufacturers have me hooked.
I know it's cheaper to do the following than to buy replacement ink:
buy a low-end printer on special, use it until the ink runs out, then toss it and buy another.
I just can't make myself do that. It's bad for the planet and it just plain offends my sense of what is right and wrong.

-cranioscopical (December 15, 2006, 07:34 PM)

Me too -- I used to have a Lexmark printer and a set of cartridges (~$120) was considerably more than the cost of a new identical printer (including cartridges). I also had an HP printer with similar ink pricing. I really think governments should act on this kind of stupidity and charge companies that do this a levy on recycling costs of old printers unless they reduce ink costs to a reasonable level.

Personally I have moved to Canon printers which are excellent. OK their ink is still expensive but not nearly as ridiculous as Lexmark and some other manufacturers (partly because they don't see you a print head with every cartridge, plus you can replace individual colours).

I just wish I found it easier to read stuff on screen and could avoid printing a lot more!

5037

General Software Discussion / Re: Warning: FireFox renders slow like a turtle in a coma

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 15, 2006, 06:20 PM »

I haven't got too many extensions in FF 2 and I actually find it marginally faster than IE 7 (one it is on the desktop - it does take longer for the initial app loading)

If I open lots of unread messages in TABS via the UNREAD POSTS page I certainly find it considerably quicker than IE 7 - IE's tabs are incredibly slow (to the point of almost being unusable for that purpose).

I regularly open upto 20-25 tabs all at once and FF wins hands down every time (irrespective of content).

5038

Living Room / Re: Very odd graphics problem - anyone any ideas ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 15, 2006, 05:34 PM »

I haven't tried Mandriva (good suggestion) but when I boot from an Acronis CD (with TrueImage and DiskDirector) there are no problems with graphics and both use a CD based Linux distro to start up.

5039

Living Room / Re: Very odd graphics problem - anyone any ideas ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 15, 2006, 05:14 AM »

That's a relief I thought I was alone

At least I have a workaround that works but it is a bit of a nuisance with multiple reboots disabling SLI and a graphics card before setting up the boot time op and then re-eneabling the card and SLI afterwards!

5040

Living Room / Very odd graphics problem - anyone any ideas ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 15, 2006, 05:03 AM »

I have been trying to troubleshoot this with the graphics card manufacturer for a while but they seem stumped as do ASUS who made my mobo.

The situation is this -

2 x BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256Mb PCIe
ASUS A8N32-SLI mobo
AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+ CPU
Windows XP SP2 Pro (32-bit)

(some of you may notice my system specs have changed already - the other bits have been put to good use with a cheap DFI motherboard to build a friend a new system!)

Everything works fine for normal use and I run the two cards in SLI mode.

The only problem I have is that if when run a task such as CHKDSK or PrefectDisk which requires to reboot and run at boot time.

Normally utilities that run at boot time appear after the Windows logo on a blue screen and show their progress but on my system the screen goes blank and when they complete my system starts normally. The processes execute but I an't see progress or any errors that occur.

If I disable SLI and then disable the card in the second PCIe slot in Device Manager it works fine.

BFG suggested either a car was not working properly or the sencond PCIe slot wasn't operating properly. To test this I removed both cards and then insterted each card as a single card and tried them both in both PCIe slots. Bothe cards in both slots work fine and I don't get the boot-time display problem.

I have tried different GeForce driver versions with no changes.

It seems to me to be a driver issue during windows startup. (possibly the data is being output onto a second monitor and since there isn't one plugged in I can't see anything - but if I swap my monitor to the second card I don't see anything when both cards are enabled).

Anyone got any ideas at all how to troubleshoot this. ASUS and BFG tech support both seem totally stumped and both say they have no previous record of this issue. BFG have suggested RMAing the cards but since they seem to work fine I am not sure what this would achieve (apart from not having a working system for a while).

5041

UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 15, 2006, 04:54 AM »

My comment wasn't specifically related to URL Snooper - just a comment about the odd behaviour or the forceware firewall. I haven't managed to find any comments from people that have used it and stuck with it.

5042

UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 15, 2006, 04:34 AM »

The nVidia forceware firewall is 'interesting' - I have an ASUS mobo that came with it and even ASUS suggest removing the firewall as it causes more problems than solutions (that was a comment from their tech support in response to a networking issue I had).

5043

General Software Discussion / Re: customizing running services on different XP logins

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 14, 2006, 07:16 PM »

You don't need to partition to dual-boot, as long as you install copy #2 of windows in another folder (ie, c:\WinXP instead of c:\windows) - but it's recommendable to do so anyway.

-f0dder (December 14, 2006, 06:38 PM)

I really meant to say that - but MS do not recommend it and it doesn't really make much sense as it makes coherent backups more complex and can cause a lot of potential confusion. I think if you do try and do it all in one partition you are asked to choose a new folder for C:\Windows for the second install, but if I remember correctly the C:\Program Files folder is still used by default for installation of applications. If you install the same app for both booting systems it can cause real confusion with settings (esp. MS Office).

5044

Living Room / Re: The Great MP3 Player Search

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 14, 2006, 06:30 PM »

I like my Creative ZenMicro (not colour though but this model is discontinued anyway )- not sure about the newer models but mine has FM Radio - you can record the radio and also voice messages (there is a built in mic on top). Sound quality is good.

The biggest problem is that accessories don't seem to survive from generation to generation - I have a Zen Micro and had to buy a universal power adaptor as the one supplied was UK only and also a car charger. I also have a TravelDock Zen  (speakers) and various other bits and pieces. None of the extras are cheap and they won't work with the newly released MP3 players. I am thinking of buying a Zen MicroPhoto while I can still find them and put it into storage for when my Micro dies.

I think the peripheral problem is a growing one for all makes though - lots don't even supply power adaptors any more (eg. iPod Nano and new Creative players) as they expect you to charge up via the USB connector. Fine if you are near a computer but if you are travelling without one ....

Personally I think it is the old consumables for printers ripoff scam ... change the peripherals with each model so that when your player dies you have to start all over again.

5045

General Software Discussion / Re: customizing running services on different XP logins

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 14, 2006, 04:25 PM »

Partition your drive and install a copy of Windows to a new clean partition.

There is no option to dual boot. Windows setup automatically detects existing installs of windows and updates the file C:\Boot.ini to give you a choice of installation when your system boots. If you have more than one copy of Windows XP installed on your system at one time the whole process of setting up is transparent and very easy to use. You can manually alter the boot options (at least the names of the installations) afterwards by either carefully editing Boot.ini or by going to Control Panel > System  - hit the Advanced tab and then click on Startup and Recovery settings. Then hit Edit. It effectively just opens Boot.ini for you to edit (normally it is a hidden system file). Don't change paramaters just the installation name between the quotes.

Note you already have boot.ini if you are using Windows XP but if you only have one installation you will never see any obvious evidence of it.

Windows XP Setup is fairly intelligent. If you have Windows 98 or Windows 2000 installed on other partitions it will also include those in the boot process. VISTA manages the boot up process in a different way altogether.

Generally if you want to use the Windows multiboot setup you need to install operating systems in age order (ie. install Windows 98 first and Windows XP last - when VISTA is released install that last) that way each version you install understands the previously installed setup.

You can add different operating systems in any order you like but you then need to use a multi boot manager (such as BootIt). For your purposes at the moment this is unnecessary.

5046

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Microsoft fears Open Source (in their own words)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 14, 2006, 11:15 AM »

Carol - Regarding BG - I think he really is. The fact that he didn't develop the tools isn't the point. He made the PC platform accessible to PEOPLE. He put more power into people's hands than anyone else. TI. Commodore. Atari. Amiga. Maybe good system, but DOS and MS-DOS is what really made computing a home thing. What was there before that? Different flavors of UNIX? That nobody could afford?

AS-400, IRIX, HP-UX, Solaris (a long time ago) and all those others just weren't something that anyone could run.

MS still supports its small developer community a great deal. Bill started that and he should get credit for it.

On top of that, he's not one of the most generous - he is THE most generous man on earth. I don't see Larry or Steve doing anything like Bill does. He might not be eligible for sainthood, but he's darn close. Ummm... Maybe I should strike that...

-Renegade (December 14, 2006, 08:01 AM)

Sorry the BG sainthood is a bit too rich for me!

Actually following your argument you could really argue that IBM are really responsible because they made the personal PC accessible to the masses and commissioned the writing of MSDOS. I don't think they really expected MSDOS to become quite so dominant the way it has or Bill Gates wouldn't have got the job.

MSDOS is another story - BG didn't write it on his own - in fact there is a large body of opinion that there wasn't much in MSDOS that wasn't ripped off directly from CP/M and UNIX (not that BG would admit that - but if others did with Windows today what he did with CP/M you can bet your life that they would be in court).

As for generosity .... I suppose it is fairly easy to be a bit cynical about this. BG may be very generous but don't forget the story in the bible about the "widow's mite". It is really easy to give huge amounts of money when it is a tiny proportion of a huge and rapidly growing fortune. A lot of that fortune has been made by good business sense but quite a sizeable chunk has been made by sharp practice, predatory trading and pure exploitation.

I am sure there are some genuine motives but BG's giving is (at least partly) an element of the PR spin exercise to try and make MS look respectable. After all the company has been repeatedly convicted of illegal trading practices and anticompetitive behaviour on most continents and shows its democratic principles by often choosing to ignore the courts, and even national/international, rulings on such matters!

5047

General Software Discussion / Re: customizing running services on different XP logins

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 14, 2006, 10:57 AM »

How about setting up a dual boot system so that when you want to use your audio stuff in gigs you can use a really trimmed down version of Windows with just the software installed you require (ie. no internet or network connections hence no need for AV or firewall etc. to slow things down).

I did this previously and it works great - plus you are only using Windows on one computer (even though it is dual boot) and MS will activate it (but may need a phone call if you have activated your current version within the last 90 days). I had to explain but once you get past the language barrier (all calls seem to go to India these days) they seem happy enough to let you do this. After all you can only use one copy of Windows at a time by this method and it is on the same system.

5048

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Microsoft fears Open Source (in their own words)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 13, 2006, 04:16 PM »

Bill Gates is the single most important person in software history. He made development of software open to more people than anyone else. Microsoft has continued that and makes software development open to more people than any other company or product. Period. There's no debate on that topic.

Want a bet?

Name a single computer language (high level or low level) that Bill Gates or Microsoft designed that wasn't based on somebody else's hard work.

I am not saying Bill Gates is not significant - he is. But opening up software development to the masses - no.

If any company could claim that it is probably Borland who produced the first decent PC compilers (and assemblers) aimed at both the hobby and professional markets. When Turbo Basic and Turbo Pascal were originally released MS was no where in the development tools market. Even now Borland probably has the edge on the hobby market with the new free Turbo products and the Turbo Pro packages.

5049

Living Room / Re: Judgement Day

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 12, 2006, 01:49 PM »

Take her bungee jumping and a romantic dinner (afterwards!)

5050

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Windows firewalls found better than commercial ones

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 11, 2006, 05:12 AM »

Have you tried removing ZoneAlarm properly and then installed Comodo? It could be that a bad uninstall caused the problems as Firewalls often don't play nicely together.