Recent Posts

5151

General Software Discussion / Re: How to find MAC address of 'invisible' hardware?

« Last post by 4wd on June 12, 2009, 07:58 PM »

Ah, 4wd was faster.

-Shades (June 12, 2009, 07:50 PM)

Only because where I live I'm quite a few hours ahead of you

Doesn't work with f0dder usually because he lives in a different plane of existence where there is no time.

5152

Living Room / Re: IE to be removed from Windows 7 in EU

« Last post by 4wd on June 12, 2009, 07:51 PM »

I'd like to see them sell a version to the rest of the world that doesn't include IE, WMP or OE (Mail) - that would save me having to do it using nlite/vlite.

I'd order in one from the EU except the prices there and the postage is so ridiculously marked-up it's not worth it.

5153

General Software Discussion / Re: How to find MAC address of 'invisible' hardware?

« Last post by 4wd on June 12, 2009, 07:37 PM »

If you have a DHCP server on your network, (router, etc), change your hardware to automatically get an IP and then use SoftPerfect's NetScan to scan the network and set it to show the MAC associated with IP's.

If you don't have a DHCP server in the network, start unplugging one thing at a time until the conflict disappears, (or perform a binary chop search^w which would be faster - unplug half of the remaining hardware at a time until it goes).  Of course, the easiest place to do this is at the router/hub where they all come together.   In fact this would be faster than doing the auto-IP thing.

You haven't mentioned exactly how big this network is, whether it's got a router (in which case you can usually go into it's config pages and see what IP is associated with which MAC), etc, etc.

5154

General Software Discussion / Re: Acer 4520G webcam not found, need driver?

« Last post by 4wd on June 10, 2009, 08:06 AM »

If you go into Device Manager you should see it listed under Imaging Devices, (for XP anyway).

If it's not there and there is no Unknown Device listed in Device Manager then it could be that when the monitor was fixed, they forgot to plug the cable from the webcam back into the motherboard or back into the webcam.

In which case, if it's no longer under warranty you can undo the case and plug/check the connector back into the motherboard or webcam as needs be.

If it's still under warranty, take it back to whoever did the repair and ask them to check it because the repair should be under at least a 30 day warranty.

If it's listed in the Device Manager and not shown as Disabled then download the appropriate driver again, (there were two types of webcam used, get the right driver), and reinstall it to see if that makes a difference.

5155

Living Room / Re: An unusual "Recent Items" context menu option

« Last post by 4wd on June 09, 2009, 07:33 PM »

Alright, I've been racking my brain for a week or so trying to figure out what- or more specifically WHY- I have this context menu item in my "Recent Items" list.

-wreckedcarzz (June 09, 2009, 05:08 PM)

Why rack your brain?

First hit in a search engine: "Shop for Music" in context menu

And the last comment on that page points you to NirSoft ShExView to remove it.

Another link with more info: Microsoft music store to open next year

As a guess, I would say you have an option enabled in WMP that your dad does not.

And why is it here if it looks like it was designed for XP (wouldn't it be more logical to detect the OS and switch to a Vista-themed site instead)?

Because it was designed for XP and there is some controversy over it's inclusion, (as with WMP, IE, etc, etc).

BTW, I've never seen it because I've never had WMP, in any form, installed.

5156

Living Room / Re: What's your favorite drink?

« Last post by 4wd on June 09, 2009, 03:23 AM »

Glayva, Beenleigh Rum Liqueur, or basically anything alcoholic that isn't:
a) beer
b) wine
c) Bacardi
d) Southern Comfort
e) Methanol

5157

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7, disk imaging, vmware

« Last post by 4wd on June 09, 2009, 03:15 AM »

For those interested in further exploration of Virtualisation  this sounds pretty interesting. The link takes you to the Wikipedia entry while this takes you to the QEMU page.

-Clive (June 09, 2009, 01:49 AM)

Your first link has one too many 'http://' in it, try QEMU^w.

I use QEMU for quick PE build and live Linux tests but still find a full VM a lot better for PC setup.

5158

General Software Discussion / Re: FreewareMission.com: 94 Great Freeware Programs For A Freeware Only PC

« Last post by 4wd on June 08, 2009, 07:56 PM »

While it is interesting to look at what programs are listed on these 'xx Great/Best Freeware' sites for things that I might find new, I don't think I can take any of them seriously as soon as they mention 'Best Codec Pack'.

I have more trouble over the years with PCs because someone thought, "Oh, I need this codec pack to play this file.", which then installs a lot of other rubbish that's not required and screws up whatever codec's are already installed.

5159

Living Room / Re: Battery Backup - Get One

« Last post by 4wd on June 08, 2009, 01:05 AM »

Almost all 'cheap-o' surge suppressors I've seen, (or have), use MOVs because they're cheaper than circuit-breakers. A typical cheap surge suppressor circuit is, (taken straight off one I just pulled apart):

-4wd (June 07, 2009, 10:20 PM)

That circuit is incorrect.  View MOV datasheets.  Leakage currents are well below 1 ma.  An LED requires at least 10 ma.  Furthermore, 1 milliamp through an MOV is a test current for its threshold voltage - a voltage well above what should be on AC mains.

-westom (June 07, 2009, 10:44 PM)

Aaargh!  You're right, next time I'll grab some glasses - corrected circuit:

Circuit breaker does nothing for surge protection for so many reasons.  CB is a device required for every power strip – with or without protector circuits. Installed only for human safety.

ummm, yes - as I stated.

Your assumption is that the MOV can fail catastrophically.  As repeatedly noted, that is not an acceptable failure mode.

No offence but while it may not be an acceptable failure mode, it is a fact of life.  Everything is subject to catastrophic failure no matter how well engineered or designed it is.  The fact that something hasn't failed catastrophically is simply due to not having the right circumstances in place for it to occur.

EDIT: And as a side note, it shows you how cheap they make these things because that really isn't a good way to power an LED from 240V - the resistor dissipates for more power than is necessary all because they don't want the added expense of a mains-rated capacitor.

5160

Living Room / Re: Battery Backup - Get One

« Last post by 4wd on June 07, 2009, 10:20 PM »

@bob99 - We're on the same page man, just different paragraphs... You're talking about a proper surge device that actually has power conditioning circuitry. I'm talking about one of those Cheap-O power strips (that most end users seem to end up with) that only has a breaker in it.

-Stoic Joker (June 07, 2009, 10:04 AM)

Almost all 'cheap-o' surge suppressors I've seen, (or have), use MOVs because they're cheaper than circuit-breakers.

A typical cheap surge suppressor circuit is, (taken straight off one I just pulled apart):



If a sufficiently large surge gives the MOV a hard time, it will, generally, go short-circuit thereby turning on the LED and thus giving a failure indication.

If your strip has a circuit-breaker then I'd take a pretty fair guess that the circuit-breaker is there for output current overload protection.  A thermal circuit-breaker is just too slow for surge suppression use.

If you open it up I'm sure you'll find a MOV is across the line to do the actual suppression.

In Australia, I believe it was regulated that all power-boards, (power-strips), have a circuit-breaker to guard against output current overload.  Previously they didn't and there were some reports of fires starting by people plugging too many things into power-boards, IIRC.  I'd be surprised if America didn't have a similar regulation.

Enough is enough, Judging by your joined on date & first post you joined this board for the sole purpose of launching a rather highhanded & condescending attack on me. For the “crime” of sharing the events of my day with fellow members. Your imperialistic attempts at making me look stupid have only succeeded in impressing me with your arrogance.

Feel free to enjoy your “win”, as I will not be returning to this thread.

-Stoic Joker (June 07, 2009, 07:53 PM)

Your reply to westom came in while I was typing away at this and I was then in two minds as to whether to continue or not.  As it is, maybe someone will find my post relevant - so here it is.

EDIT: Stupid me, I got my circuit round the wrong way 

5161

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by 4wd on June 07, 2009, 07:52 PM »

Females, typically, who talk in a manner which results in the majority of their vocabulary being "Like, whatever, yeah". I HATE THAT! It just makes you sound stupider when you have to keep saying LIKE!!!!!

-Josh (June 07, 2009, 06:17 PM)

Don't forget anyone who really thinks it's normal to say, "you know", at least 3 times in the one sentence, (or actually anywhere in the sentence if it's not required, you know).

People who keep trying to ram their side of things down your throat - state your case and then STFU so I can go back to ignoring you please  

@tranglos: A lot of your list could be summed up with the word "fanatic".

Post #444: A mighty fine calibre

5162

General Software Discussion / Re: Can somebady help me with an ISO burning question?

« Last post by 4wd on June 05, 2009, 07:34 PM »

I had a client ask me if there was a relatively easy way to use (or convert) a bootable CD ISO so that it could be burned as a bootable DVD. (Long story why - don't ask... )

I don't know of any easy, non-techy way to convert it other than do it manually.

Basically, what they're looking for is a utility or simple how-to they can follow. Unpacking the original ISO, isolating the files, and then manually recompiling the collection to boot from DVD media would be completely beyond them.

Any suggestions?

-40hz (June 05, 2009, 03:45 PM)

Silly question, but what's stopping you from just making an image of the CD, (eg. using ImgBurn), and then writing the image to DVD ?

Works for me, it's how I test new PE builds - create CD ISO and write to DVD-RW since I have a hard time finding blank CD-RW in my study  

AFAIK, any bootable image will work on either a CD or DVD, providing:
a) it fits,
b) the drive can read it.

If it were just a data CD, it would be an simple job to open the ISO in something like IZArc, extract the files, and then either burn the collection to DVD, or recompile it as DVD ISO. But this is a bootable CD they're talking about.

Or do you mean you want to add files also, (which you avoided mentioning in the above line), which will account for the need to write to DVD ?

In that case +1 for UltraISO.

5163

Living Room / Re: Where did your DC user I.D come from?

« Last post by 4wd on June 03, 2009, 08:12 PM »

Well mine's rather boring - I like four-wheel driving and bashing around in the bush

I've used it as an ISP account login for about 15-20 years.

The only times I haven't been able to use it was because it either:

a) started with a number - I can't even use it on my NAS because POSIX is so anal about it.
b) it's too short - honestly, does it really matter Mr. Gmail?
c) both (a) and (b) - sheesh!

The avatar is just a video of the kind of stupid things we get up to while camping - although they are rather impressive and we have had more than one shout of "Encore!" at various camping sites

I should change it but at this point it would feel like having plastic surgery to hide my identity 

-Darwin (June 03, 2009, 08:37 AM)

Perhaps a chimp morphing into Amud ?

Or vice versa, since that seems to be the current direction of human intelligence¹ ?

1 - Disclaimer: I'm not implying in anyway that chimps are dumb, in fact I've never seen any animal be so creative with poop as chimps.

5164

Living Room / Re: DVD/Extracted DVD File(s) Heat Issue (?) Ack!

« Last post by 4wd on June 03, 2009, 08:23 AM »

So I dug around my program files (I don't have all my program files listed in my Start Menu), and found SpeedFan 4.34. It reports the hard drive as around 145 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

-siouxdax (June 02, 2009, 11:41 PM)

79F = ~26C which is a pleasant day here, (Melbourne, Australia), I've never seen my HDDs running, (at the most), more than approx. 10C above the ambient temperature - and usually only 5C above.

Yours are indicating running at almost double the ambient temperature, which indicates some serious cooling problems, (or possibly HDD mechanical problems but one thing at a time).

One thing you can try is take the side panel off of the PC and sit a normal 12" room fan to blow into it and see if that helps.  If it does, you probably need to sort out better cooling for your case, video card, drives and CPU.

I see you mention a Pentium D 2.66GHz and then 3GHz: Does this mean it's overclocked and have you tried returning it to it's normal clocking?

When was the last time the PC was thoroughly cleaned of dust, (heatsinks, fans, PSU, everything) ?

And before someone jumps on me - I do not recommend cleaning it yourself, (especially the PSU), if you're not technically oriented and competent - the PSU can kill you even when turned off and disconnected from the mains.

Oh, if you do feel inclined to clean your PC internals, please don't hold the vacuum near a fan just to see how fast it will spin - it could mean a early death for something.

5165

General Software Discussion / Re: Is it time to start a new AntiVirus/Internet Security Suite review thread?

« Last post by 4wd on June 02, 2009, 11:30 PM »

And I just realized that I got a better deal than I thought...that lifetime license is good for 3 PCs.

-Innuendo (June 02, 2009, 04:28 PM)

I also took them up on their offer, (which they extended to the end of January, IIRC).  I thought it was an absolute bargain at the time...and still do

5166

General Software Discussion / Re: Photo Scanner Software

« Last post by 4wd on May 30, 2009, 08:34 PM »

If you're bored and want to flex your handyman skills a bit here's an article that was in the local electronics mag, (Silicon Chip), a few months ago:

5167

Living Room / Re: "Check mail every ??? minutes"

« Last post by 4wd on May 27, 2009, 10:55 PM »

Your poll is only single choice so:

2 * email @ 5  min
1 * email @ 10 min
1 * email @ 15 min
1 * email @ 20 min
1 * email @ 30 min
1 * email @ 45 min
3 * email on IMAP

5168

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by 4wd on May 26, 2009, 01:30 AM »

I don't know about the name InfoQube....SQuirreLNotes sounded better 

5169

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by 4wd on May 25, 2009, 07:44 PM »

The fact that about a quarter of the Internet population spells "lose" with two o's when referring to misplacing something.

I just might loose my mind!

-mrainey (May 24, 2009, 07:46 PM)

Only a quarter?  I think your estimation is a bit loose - more like 90%......and yes, it annoys the crap out of me too!

Josh, Darwin, 40Hz and nudone were talking about big words a few posts up which reminded me of a card I have here that I never got around to sending to someone.

What Darwin, 40Hz and nudone would say:

What Josh would say:

5170

General Software Discussion / Re: Photo Scanner Software

« Last post by 4wd on May 25, 2009, 06:59 PM »

This thing crops up reasonably regularly on the local deal sites: 35mm Film/Slide scanner



There's also the original version without LCD and a card slot that's a bit cheaper at around AU$100.

And ebay has a few, (well actually a bit more than a few).

5171

General Software Discussion / Re: A Vista printer utility that saves ink like InkSaver?

« Last post by 4wd on May 25, 2009, 06:51 PM »

Did you try the 4x UltraSaver I also mentioned?

Or was that not suitable?

5172

General Software Discussion / Re: Photo Scanner Software

« Last post by 4wd on May 25, 2009, 01:32 AM »

Assuming the photos are all the same 6x4, (etc), size:

Wouldn't the most efficient way be to scan three at a time and then slice'n'dice with a macro in a paint program?

Or, actually, since it's basically for archival why not just leave as composite scans of three pictures?

EDIT: eg. Use the GIMP with this script.  Basically the same as dspelley mentions above but a fair bit cheaper

5173

General Software Discussion / Re: copy paste between 2 computers on separate networks?

« Last post by 4wd on May 23, 2009, 07:39 PM »

That Network Clipboard does actually work! What I needed was a cue to let me know I got all the hotkeys pressed and it actually got the copy or paste signal.  I wrote a quick and dirty ahk script to play wav files on copy and paste and just pass the hotkey on to Network Clipboard.

-MilesAhead (May 23, 2009, 04:34 PM)

Actually, for the Copy side wouldn't it be better to have the script watch the shared folder and then play a sound when a new file, (clip), is detected?

Currently, while it may detect the keypress there's no guarantee that Network Clipboard actually received the keypress before playing the sound.

This wouldn't be required for Paste because I'd think that would be self-evident

It would be nicer if they gave a choice of hotkeys.

-MilesAhead (May 23, 2009, 01:06 PM)

It's rather old, maybe they would consider releasing the source code, (assuming it hasn't been lost), under GPL or to one of our erstwhile coders here?

5174

General Software Discussion / Re: RAMdisk on XP 32bit - brainstorming!

« Last post by 4wd on May 22, 2009, 06:16 AM »

Seems a bit slow in coming for Vista given the length of time Vista has been the primary OS for Windows boxes (at least according to MS). It is also very strange that they say it is 64 bit compat but then say it isn't ???

-Carol Haynes (May 22, 2009, 05:42 AM)

Maybe they knew of Microsoft's plans for Vista, (), and decided it wasn't worth the effort until Win7 

5175

General Software Discussion / Re: copy paste between 2 computers on separate networks?

« Last post by 4wd on May 22, 2009, 01:27 AM »

Such a negative person.

-4wd (May 21, 2009, 08:38 PM)

If you can show me where my negativity was I will send you 1 million dollars(cash). I was just stating a functional and pragmatic issue. Was that harsh for you?

-kartal (May 21, 2009, 11:09 PM)

Honestly, maybe I should have made it plainer by doing this:  

Lighten up and stop taking everything so seriously