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5051

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.

-Stoic Joker (October 11, 2010, 06:41 AM)

Unless you're going to run software raid-striping

-f0dder (October 11, 2010, 09:07 AM)

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.

-Stoic Joker (October 11, 2010, 11:23 AM)

Which trade-off?

-f0dder (October 11, 2010, 11:27 AM)

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.

5052

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.

-Stoic Joker (October 11, 2010, 06:41 AM)

Unless you're going to run software raid-striping

-f0dder (October 11, 2010, 09:07 AM)

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.

5053

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 

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

-4wd (October 11, 2010, 06:11 AM)

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.

-4wd (October 11, 2010, 06:11 AM)

That assertion holds true in my experience as well.

5054

Living Room / Re: How much soda (pop) do you drink?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 10, 2010, 01:02 PM »

Since I am dating my girlfriend I just drink water and eat healthier smaller portions, dropping 20 kilos after 8 months.

-Shades (October 10, 2010, 12:08 PM)

As apposed to the 3 Big Mac's, 2 large fries, and a small diet Coke form of "dieting". It has always astonished me to no end how the bloody obvious manages to escape so many people.
  Good job man!

5055

General Software Discussion / Re: Please recommend a good "shopping cart" website widget

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 10, 2010, 12:45 PM »

Now here's a boat we're both in. One of my projects at the office is to revamp our company website which also involves getting and setting up a shopping cart. The project was going fairly well right up until it completely hit the wall with regard to the (Comersus) shopping cart I'd been planning to use.

(In a nut shell) Use of a CC gateway exists as a sudo insurance policy against taking the hit for fraudulent charges. In today's world it just has to be done because there is no safe way to deal with customer CC info by yourself. Best option to start with (oddly enough) is your bank. The fees aren't always the lowest, but the money is deposited directly into your account instead of having to wait for third party X to do yet another transfer (usually involving yet another transaction fee) in their own sweet time. Also your bank will (may) have a group of carts that they recommend which gives you a place to start looking.

Most carts are template driven (slap on your sites header and footer and you're golden), so just pick one you like and play with it for a bit to make sure it does what you need it to do. The tricky part is how well does it handle transaction for the types of stuff that you sell. This is the key question I ran into just moments before the project went completely to shit.

The cart should have the option to tie into UPS/FedEx/etc. to calculate shipping charges on the fly. These are generally based on package size and weight. Weight is/was easy and worked perfectly the first time. Size on the other hand (with the Comersus cart) completely killed the project because it wasn't handled in a fashion that allowed for the fact that a single shipment could actually be broken up into multiple boxes. Hence the length (width, height) of all items was getting totaled into one massive box that (quickly exceeded 9') would never fit into the shippers truck...Instead of allowing for the fact that putting them in separate smaller boxes (actual max length 22") would easily allow the entire order to fit in a compact car.

Make sure the cart is written in a language you like to deal with ... Because if it ain't you'll start hating yourself in short order which is the mistake I made going with Comersus which is written in .asp. I originally thought it would be fun to learn ASP on the fly - Which (in retrospect) was one of the stupidest ideas I've ever had. I'm currently looking for something in a full service shopping cart written in PHP ... But haven't had time to start testing anything specific.

5056

Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 10, 2010, 11:47 AM »

I keep forgetting this thread, but I just found the wife's cell phone backup which has some pictures in it. So...

Here's Riggs (on the left) and Max:


And Here's Molly (She's a rescue) by our pool:


Molly was only supposed to be visiting for a weekend, but she curled up in my lap that Saturday morning ... and never left. To be honest, I caved in less than 20 minutes.

5057

Living Room / Re: How much soda (pop) do you drink?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 10, 2010, 11:35 AM »

Pure cane sugar vs. HFC isn't really the issue, going through a case of the stuff (regardless of what it's sweetened with) a day is the issue. Anything in moderation is fine. I usually have a Coke with lunch and I may or may not have 1 or 2 in the evening. Usually I just drink water as it's generally what the body is actually after...and it's free.

If NYC wants to ban something, they should ban those (the-new-cocaine) energy drinks. Slamming those things by the dozen can't be good for you ... Unless your objective is to burn-out by the age of 35.

5058

General Software Discussion / Re: draw gears

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

Damn, that is cool. I just grabbed a copy & sent a link to my brother.

5059

Living Room / Re: if proxy connection works - who is blocking me: my ISP or the server?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 09, 2010, 12:54 PM »

I'll forget by (an hour from now...) next week. But the site loads for me now. Here's how it got there:

C:\Users\Stoic Joker>tracert www.head-in-the-clouds.com

Tracing route to www.head-in-the-clouds.com [98.131.45.219]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    44 ms    44 ms    44 ms  fl-71-2-51-1.sta.embarqhsd.net [71.2.51.1]
  3    45 ms    44 ms    44 ms  205.245.63.13
  4    44 ms    45 ms    44 ms  host53.embarqservices.net [205.245.9.53]
  5    69 ms    69 ms    68 ms  te-7-2.car2.Orlando1.Level3.net [4.79.118.177]
  6    68 ms    69 ms    68 ms  ae-2-9.bar2.Orlando1.Level3.net [4.69.133.70]
  7    69 ms    69 ms    68 ms  ae-0-11.bar1.Orlando1.Level3.net [4.69.137.145]
  8    74 ms    71 ms    71 ms  ae-8-8.ebr1.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.137.150]
  9    76 ms    71 ms    72 ms  ae-72-70.ebr2.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.138.19]
 10    90 ms    90 ms   147 ms  ae-1-7.bar2.Cincinnati1.Level3.net [4.69.136.217]
 11    90 ms    90 ms    89 ms  ae-0-11.bar1.Cincinnati1.Level3.net [4.69.136.209]
 12    92 ms    93 ms    93 ms  BLUEMILE-IN.bar1.Cincinnati1.Level3.net [4.59.40.2]
 13    92 ms    92 ms    92 ms  76.10.192.226
 14    93 ms    92 ms    93 ms  76.10.207.14.customer.bluemilenetworks.com [76.10.207.14]
 15    92 ms    93 ms    92 ms  oh-mls1-609.te-9-2.opentransfer.com [98.130.213.18]
 16    93 ms    93 ms    95 ms  rev.opentransfer.com.219.45.131.98.in-addr.arpa [98.131.45.219]

Trace complete.

5060

Living Room / Re: if proxy connection works - who is blocking me: my ISP or the server?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 09, 2010, 12:13 PM »

and oh boy, were they hopeless when I did a 'live chat support' session.

I pasted a failed tracert to them, and the guy goes "those 3 stars at the end of the tracert mean you've reached your destination" 

-timns (October 09, 2010, 11:24 AM)

  ...Okay, that's horrifying. Where do they find these people, Burger King?

The three "stars" followed by "Request timed out." mean (that hops) target is down, or not responding...however ICMP could be blocked. (In which case) You can have a perfectly functional target that blocks ICMP traffic that causes a trace to *** RTO all the way till it gives up at (default) hop 30. But that doesn't mean anything unless you know if the target will respond to a ping and/or is configured to do so.

5061

Living Room / Re: Why do support people never answer questions?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 08, 2010, 04:23 PM »

When interviewing people I ask a group of yes or no questions that are increasingly complex and or obscure (just outside their stated skill-set). After a yes/no answer comes ok, Why? The answer I'm looking for is a simple straightforward "I don't know". While guessing is fine in a pinch, stating something guessed authoritatively as a bluff can cause major problems when you're on-site digging through someones server.

5062

Living Room / Re: if proxy connection works - who is blocking me: my ISP or the server?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 08, 2010, 07:49 AM »

I find that ISP DNS services are VERY often poor.

-Renegade (October 08, 2010, 06:41 AM)

That's why I gave in and run my own DNS server now.  Haven't had a DNS problem since running it - apart from forgetting that the machine it's hosted on was turned off once or twice.

-4wd (October 08, 2010, 06:48 AM)

Same here

@nudone
From the tracert you posted, it almost seems like your IP is blocked at the remote end.  Since you're getting resolved IP addresses right up until the last hop that kind of implies the DNS servers are working.

-4wd (October 08, 2010, 06:48 AM)

Correct, a tracert "fails" at the last place a packet succeeded (that's how you know what's broken) - This is not a DNS issue - It's an address block(s) X got blocked by router config boo-boo Y issue most likely ... Some type of IDS hiccup I'd wager.

5063

Living Room / Re: Two broadband connections at the same time?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 06, 2010, 06:01 PM »

Cisco Small Business RV042 Dual WAN VPN Router

Features:
Stateful Packet Inspection Firewall for maximum security
2 WAN ports for load balanced connectivity to the Internet
IP filtering allows for restricted access to the Internet and other network resources
Full IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN) Capability using DES and 3DES Encryption Algorithms
Support for MD5 and SHA Authentications Algorithms
Create up to 30 simultaneous IPSec VPN Tunnels
Management via Web, Telnet, SNMP, and Setup Wizards make setup easy for Administrators
4-Port 10/100 Switch supports Auto-MDI/MDIX and up to 200Mbps of throughput per port

5064

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

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 05, 2010, 07:05 AM »

Perhaps to assist end users that hold the tablet at an angle to contend with the parallax created?

(Screen thickness + angle of view create a perceived shift in the true point of contact)

5065

Living Room / Re: OMFG! Beauty of the Web...

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 04, 2010, 06:37 AM »

  ...Do you have any idea how much time I wasted trying to find a (fps) media stream on that page? lol

However (back on topic) Over all it was much faster than past experiences with the same type of (um...) transition.

5066

Living Room / Re: [email protected]

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 03, 2010, 12:25 PM »

MS site working for me also.

5067

Screenshot Captor / Re: Program in RDP-Session

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 03, 2010, 12:19 PM »

Ah! So you're looking to automate the taking of screenshots in a disconnected session...Which may or may not have a screensaver running that could/will queer the whole deal.

5068

Screenshot Captor / Re: Program in RDP-Session

« Last post by Stoic Joker on October 02, 2010, 10:58 AM »

Any chance you can clarify "Blank Screen"? Is it just blank white, blank desktop colored, or captured app window with a blank client area?

I haven't gotten around to trying out SSC but I work with RDP extensively and that bit of (blank) detail has been bugging me.

5069

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by Stoic Joker on September 29, 2010, 09:39 AM »

Side note on Sunbelt/VIPRE ... You do know it got sold to GFi a month or so back, right?

http://www.gfi.com/p...-of-sunbelt-software

5070

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Mark browser text to print, not other way around

« Last post by Stoic Joker on September 29, 2010, 07:01 AM »

I could be missing something here, but that's already built into IE.

Highlight what you want printed.

Right click and select print preview.

In the dialog that opens select Print "as selected on screen" from the drop-down menu (top center)

Hit print, done.

5071

General Software Discussion / Re: forward email?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on September 26, 2010, 10:13 PM »

I don't know about the filtering aspect, but the type of software you are looking for is called a POP Connector (might help narrow down the search).

5072

Living Room / Re: Would someone mind recommending a good laser printer?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on September 26, 2010, 02:00 PM »

Many people are quite happy with Brothers. However, they are a disposable printers.

this is an important point, and i view many tech purchases through this lens.

i ask myself -- given the price point of the kind of item i am buying, is this something where i need to really worry about how much money and hassle it would cost to get it repaired? if so, i buy one kind of product -- perhaps something on the expensive high end because of its reliability.  or is this the kind of thing that if it breaks after a month/year (or if i don't like it, or something better comes along, or technology improves), it's not a huge deal to throw it out and buy something new.

-mouser (September 26, 2010, 10:36 AM)

Quite true, but rationally, when was the last time something really revolutionary was added to a printer?!? Out side of the speed increase - which you may or may not actually need - not much has really changed. They have gotten cheaper in both cost and quality, and that's about it.

Years ago I had an inkjet that I printed to once every 6 months or so. My printing cost was insanely close to $30 a page at that point because the damn cartridge would dry out by the time I decided to print something. But I'm not really a normal user ... come to think of it I'm not really normal period. *shrug*

I now have (in my home office) an easily 10+ year old LaserJet 2100 that (I got used) I've been using with the original used cartridge for the last 5 years. While laser toner cartridges do have a shelf life (seals dry out in roughly a year - according to the warranty...) This one has done fine for me so far. It will be interesting to see how well the wife's (Christmas present) inkjet holds up by comparison.

a standard laser or inkjet printer, at this price point, is essentially (for many of us at least), a "disposable" item.  better to buy a reasonable low cost one and not worry too much about it (not spend 100 hours researching to find the "best" one, or planning for if it's going to hold up for 10 years and how to repair it).  if it lasts a few years and breaks, you don't get it repaired, you trash it and buy a new one.

True again, but expected usage is a huge factor. If you really need a high volume/speed device then serviceability becomes critical. Example: A local mortgage company had a fleet of hundreds of HP LaserJet 4200/4250s. They poured paper through these things at a rate approaching 50,000 pages per month per printer. Fortunately for them they had chosen wisely because the printers they had will happily take tons of abuse, and are extremely easy to service & maintain (something I've personally  done several times when scheduling required).

Here's another example: 2 years ago eBay was flooded with brand new Color LaserJet 2600s. They were all brand new, still in the box, but didn't have any toner, and were selling for between $50 & $100 dollars. Why? Because the printer brand new was $100 less that a set of replacement cartridge. But it was a "cheap" printer...Sold under the same marketing model as the Pezz Dispencers... Actually they were a complete POS using a host based driver that strangely hasn't been updated for Win7 or server 2008. Hint: My 10 year old LaserJet 2100 works perfectly on Server 2008, Win7, Slackware Linux, and any other damn thing I connected it to. HP just wanted/needed to bury that little (failed) experiment...

5073

Living Room / Re: Would someone mind recommending a good laser printer?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on September 26, 2010, 10:19 AM »

Do color graphics come out ok with a laser? I don't know.

-cmpm (September 26, 2010, 08:56 AM)

Graphics? Yes (but I'll come back to this). But if you want photo quality prints, no. Paper used is also critical for a "photo quality" print.

(Color) LaserJet graphics quility is fine (perfect even) 90% of the time. Unless you ask someone that is in a production print shop...Then fine details like exacting color control can (and do) become a problem. If you want truly slick professional quality output...You will not beat a printing press with a laser printer.

I don't do much printing, but when I do it's usually text or a receipt.
So a mono laser would be fine for me.

The convenience of an inkjet color printer for graphics like a Canon, for quality,
and a mono laser is a good combo for my needs.

You, me, and a large segment of the populace are quite happy with this configuration.

Doing a lot of color graphics is worth the trouble to go to a store and use their printing setup, like a lot of drug stores or Walmart have in the photo department. Just to save ink at home.

That depends on timing and volume. I know of an engineering firm that used to do that with drawings because there was a Staples right down the street. Problem ended up being that of timing - They frequently had to close the office to go get the prints done. And if the stor was busy, or the machine was down... They finally purchased a plotter which they are much happier with now.

And having a scanner on either a laser or inkjet is cool, or even a separate scanner is nice.

The price of multi-function devices have come down alot, the thing to keep in mind is that mono multi-function machines do scan in color. The "low cost" color MFP however generally have a horible TCO to to tiny toner cartridges. Okay if you have a low print volume, but wise to keep in mind.

The school I work for uses Brothers similar to what superboyac posted.
And the toner has more pages per cartridge then the Samsung I posted.
Per cartridge is cheaper too. A plus for sure.
I don't know the model we have at work but we have 100's of them.
One for each classroom, and a few super duty monster printers that can do everything.

Many people are quite happy with Brothers. However, they are a disposable printers. Servicing them is a total PITA. I'll use the fuser (a.k.a fixing unit) as an example. The fuser (in all makes and models of laser printers) is listed as a "Consumable Item" that must be periodically replaced. In most business class HPs the fuser is a simple tool-less user replace-able part. In most Brothers, it requires disassembling the entire machine to get to the thing. Which is a ton of labor in top of the part cost which runs in the $200 - $300 range. 70% of the people that bring a Brother laser in for service scrap the printer when they see the repair cost estimate.

WiFi is a nice addition.
Just rambling on here....
As I consider spending money...

Sorry if I sound harsh here, but WiFi on a printer is really more of a gimmick. People are lead to believe that they need to spend the extra $100+ to get a WiFi printer if the want/need to print wirelessly ... And this simply is not true. All you actually need is a wireless network with a printer on it. The printer can be shared, connected via ethernet, or attached to a (cheap) wired "printer server" device.

I have seen some situations where a truly wireless connection was actually required for access to a printer...But we're talking about 1 or 2 out of 1,000.

5074

Living Room / Re: Would someone mind recommending a good laser printer?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on September 26, 2010, 08:14 AM »

I need specific model recommendations here.  More importantly, if you've purchased a laser printer recently (as in, it's still on the market and not too old) and you've been happy with, PLEASE let me know.  Mouser is the only one who has recommend a specific printer so far, and it's discontinued.

-superboyac (September 25, 2010, 10:40 PM)

Specific model recommendations are (quite frankly) impossible without knowing two pieces of information.
What is the expected print volume?
What (text/graphics/photos) will you be printing?

This is part of what our company does, and every customer has to answer these two questions first, before a recommendation can be made... If it to be even the slightest bit acurate.

Customer: I'm looking for a car that is popular.
Salesman: Okay, how about a Toyota Prius?
Customer: But I need something that is fast...

...See what I mean?

Brother is primarily a sewing machine company. But if you only want/need fax quality prints, it's probably fine.

Both Mouser & I recommended a discontinued model. Mine was the LaserJet 5000 which was based on your 11x17 requirement because that is the only viable option this side of $1,000. They are quite easy to find on eBay, and will easily last well past a million pages. They are work horses with descent speed, and built to last (which doesn't really happen anymore). Duplexer attachment can be purchased seperately.

5075

Living Room / Re: Would someone mind recommending a good laser printer?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on September 25, 2010, 03:29 PM »

Low end models are made by Canon
Midrange models are made by Lexmark
High-end models are made by Xerox

-Stoic Joker (September 25, 2010, 08:22 AM)

I know it isn't relevant to this thread but ... don't know about lasers but this is definitely the wrong order for inkjets.

-Carol Haynes (September 25, 2010, 12:37 PM)

This isn't an order of preference...It's where the Dell re-branded laser printers are sourced from.

Note: I had typed a much longer (took a bloody hour) detailed post but IE9 decided to shoot it down the sink and I'm just too aggravated right now to retype the whole thing.