Recent Posts

526

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 17, 2016, 05:45 PM »

Most people aren't in that category.  This was no intended slight from my estimation; it was a desire to make things more secure.

-wraith808 (October 17, 2016, 12:44 PM)

I was only talking about way back when they changed the name of the folder where programs were installed to "Program Files" including the space between.  All kinds of programs after upgrading to that version of Windows produced the error "C:\Program is not a valid path" since the path got chopped at the space.  I don't have a complaint with installing into folders under the user name.  That's cool.  But MS is just too cavalier about breaking code.  As another indicator of attitude, they have a reputation for taking standard conventions and practices, then distorting them with their own non compliant tweaks, and making the rest of the world change to their conventions to be "compatible."  Just look at the headaches caused by checking that HTML that works with most any other browser in the English Language world, looks the same on IE.  Duplication of effort to orders of magnitude.

OK, now I won't bitch about MS for another 6 months.  I got my quota. 

527

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 17, 2016, 10:29 AM »

And you stated that you didn't know why they get these ideas that break programs.  I was just telling the reason.  Access to the Program Files directory can be just as injurious as access to the system directory.

-wraith808 (October 17, 2016, 08:32 AM)

But people who run single folder portable type programs that were designed to install in the program files folders and write to their own install folder are not going to uninstall and reinstall just to satisfy MS.  The will run a Take Ownership utility and have done with it.  So what good does it do except to be a pita?

There are hundreds of little XP utilities that still work fine if not broken by MS.  Since they have such good reasons for all they do I would still like the explanation why they allowed spaces in file paths if not to deliberately break code?  Yet again another Program Files gimmick to move there from Programs to break all the programs of all the coders who weren't given a heads up to wrap the path in double quotes.  They deliberately set out to make non MS affiliated coders look bad.  There's no other possible motive.

528

General Software Discussion / Windows Installer hangs "creating shortcuts"

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 17, 2016, 09:07 AM »

I see a lot of hits in google when I search about Windows Installer hanging on "creating shortcuts."  But I don't see any solution that seems to apply to my case.  Most often I get this when trying to update Calibre 64 bit.  But I see it sporadically with many softwares that use Windows Installer.

This is really annoying since it requires killing the installer with Task Manager, then before anything else will install using Windows Installer you have to go through some mumbo jumbo to back off the aborted install.

Has anyone run into a "magic bullet" to get rid of this bug?
Unfortunately Windows Update does not work on this Laptop.
So if an update fixes it I have to get it on the machine without
using the updater, or Windows Installer.

I tried tweaking.com's windows installer fixer but I did not go through all the power down mumbo jumbo since I don't see why I should have to hard button the machine off to apply a fix.

Every different google hit on "creating shortcuts" with a Windows Installer hang talks about a different application.  So the installer itself must be hosed.

529

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 17, 2016, 06:58 AM »

You only install to the Program Files.  There is a program data, where all of the data for the programs should be stored.  You can also use the expedient of installing to the user's profile.

-wraith808 (October 16, 2016, 02:18 PM)

I know.  But MS likes to change this stuff around every couple of releases it seems.  I like to set up so that my stuff works the same from XP to W8.  If on a multi-user machine it's a different story.  But for a true single user setup I see no reason not to make a folder C:\Utils like I have been doing for years and make a subfolder for each utility that needs to be in a folder.  For command line stuff I just copy to C:\Utils and have it in the path.  Also it makes it easy to copy shortcuts to other machines.  For example after a custom install my programs in C:\Utils only need to have shortcuts copied on to be back in business.

530

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 16, 2016, 07:39 AM »

mb - i don't know, what it does mean.
In Russia (and other European countries) we are use this: Millimeter of mercury

Please, add ability to change it

-asdsadgfgfgfhfgh (October 09, 2016, 02:35 AM)

I am interested in this because I used to work on a high vacuum system and we used Millimeters of Mercury as the unit of pressure.  Before putting anything onto the vacuum pump I would bring the manifold pressure down to 5 X 10 to the negative 5th mm of mercury.  I just assumed millibars were equivalent but I was wrong. As shown on the page linked below, one millibar is a tad more than 3/4 of a mm mercury(0.75218.)  The page shows how to convert between them.

http://chemistry.abo...ury-To-Millibars.htm

531

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 16, 2016, 06:35 AM »

When trying to update MediaInfo from 0.7.61 to 0.7.89 today, the update had problems and I had to reinstall the previous version I had. Has anyone here had this problem? 0.7.89 is the latest version and the installer could do both 32-bit and 64-bit installs. I was installing on my 32-bit machine. I tried to install on my 64-bit machine with the installer from SourceForge and had no problems. I downloaded the SourceForge version on my 32-bit machine and it still had problems so I aborted the install, but when I checked the version it said it was the 0.7.89 version and worked fine.

[ Invalid Attachment ]   [ Invalid Attachment ]   [ Invalid Attachment ]

-Arizona Hot (October 15, 2016, 08:39 PM)

Just for grins I would try installing somewhere other than the Program Files folders.  From Vista onward every Windows release has increased permissions needed to write files there.  I don't know why they get these ideas that break programs.  But many utilities cannot write to their own install folders unless run as administrator.  There is no good reason for it that I know of.

532

General Software Discussion / Re: mystery icon

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 14, 2016, 10:28 AM »

Now there's two of them; I'm running Win XP Home 32bit; I'll try everyones' advice and see what turns up; I ran several different spyware scans and nothing came of it yet.
edit: one just disappeared again.

-holt (October 14, 2016, 10:09 AM)

This link may be a good start how to track it down using Process Explorer:
http://ask-leo.com/h...nk_taskbar_item.html

533

General Software Discussion / Re: mystery icon

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 14, 2016, 10:23 AM »

Plus if it is coming up on every boot it may be in the TM Startup list.

-MilesAhead (October 14, 2016, 07:10 AM)

Or Autoruns if you're stuck on an earlier Windows, (pre-8.1 IIRC).

-4wd (October 14, 2016, 07:22 AM)

Good point.   

534

General Software Discussion / Re: MoveIt 1.5.1.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 14, 2016, 10:17 AM »

MoveIt 1.5.1.0  Added Double Middle Mouse Click.  The window is centered and if it is resizable, then the window width or height will be sized to 5/6ths of the work area size in that dimension, but only if the current size in that dimension is less than 5/6ths.  See revisions section in Readme.txt.

You can do interesting sizing things in a few clicks.  Say you want the window centered with height 5/6 of the work area but the width nearly the entire width of the screen.

Drag the width wide with the mouse, then double middle click.  Saves a bit of futzing around with positioning after resizing etc..

I only documented this in the Readme.txt because there are too many hotkey combos to put in the About Box.  If you have other programs that use a middle click I would keep the previous version in reserve in case this conflicts.  However if the other program uses a single middle click you may be OK.  Just try it and see.

Edit:  You can double middle click anywhere in the window.  Not just the caption bar.  So it can act as a quick way to center a window that has its caption bar off screen.


As usual the download link is in the first post of this thread.

535

General Software Discussion / Re: mystery icon

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 14, 2016, 07:10 AM »

Since you know what the others are, wouldn't it be easier to exit their programs/services and then see what was left, (in TaskManager), that you don't recognise?

-4wd (October 14, 2016, 05:25 AM)

Plus if it is coming up on every boot it may be in the TM Startup list.

536

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 13, 2016, 08:00 AM »

String theory physics book written for the layman but unfortunately largely incomprehensible to me.. Feels like I'm mostly reading about analogies that don't quite clarify things.

-mouser (October 13, 2016, 07:41 AM)

I am not up on String Theory.  But I'm sure one can get tangled up in it quite easily. 

537

Living Room / Re: Unjust Desserts

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 13, 2016, 07:50 AM »

Yay!!  I still do not know how many points I have/had but I got a bonus of 200 from MS.  This prompted me to follow the arrows to the shopping area.  Apparently my total was enough for a $5 gift card at Starbucks.  I have the bar code.  If I manage to get actual hard copy coffee with it I'll post!  heh heh heh

538

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 13, 2016, 07:15 AM »

I bought it used for $0.01

-app103 (October 12, 2016, 06:18 PM)

That is quite a bargain.  Reminds me of the old 3 stooges routine where they are hawking something: "One for a dollar.  Three for a quarter." 

539

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2016, 06:53 AM »

A Voyage to Arcturus

-rjbull (September 19, 2016, 05:47 PM)

I don't know if this is mentioned in the other thread, but the book is available as a free eBook

540

General Software Discussion / Easy 7-Z Updated Oct. 10

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 11, 2016, 07:03 AM »

Easy 7-Zip is a free Gui for 7-zip.  It adds a few doodads like icons in the 7-zip Explorer context menus, and an easy to use File manager etc..

I was waiting for it to update to the new 16.x releases of 7-zip.  According to the home page it now contains 7-zip 16.04.

If you like 7-zip just the way it is there's no need for the Gui.  But I like some of the things the author has done.  Simple enhancements that do not break anything but make 7-zip more fun to use.

Edit:  Also when installing newer versions of 7-zip in the future you can overwrite the old one and Easy 7-Zip's context menu icons etc.. will still be there.  I was using 16.03 and 16.04 with it.  But I figured I would uninstall 7-zip and install Easy 7-zip combined package just to be pedantic. 

541

General Software Discussion / Re: 7-zip updated to 16.04

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 09, 2016, 12:29 PM »

yes, it went from 4 to 9 to 15.

http://www.7-zip.org/history.txt

-Curt (October 08, 2016, 05:11 PM)

Looks like the version number is now based on the year.

-Deozaan (October 08, 2016, 06:02 PM)

Look at Windows 98 "upgrading" all the way to Windows 10.  I guess with some things like the old KLH Stereo Systems, the lower model number was higher quality.  By that definition I guess Windows 1.0 was the best of the bunch. 

542

Living Room / Re: Unjust Desserts

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 09, 2016, 12:24 PM »

A mile by any other name dost not travel just as far apparently.

-MilesAhead (October 08, 2016, 09:33 AM)

With my upgrade l received better food, so I had a slice of pie in the sky.
 

-cranioscopical (October 08, 2016, 11:37 PM)

Hmm, some people in Miami think I am rotten to the core.  But I try not to be thin skinned about it.  They are likely green with envy since I am so handsome and polished.   

543

General Software Discussion / Re: 7-zip updated to 16.04

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 08, 2016, 09:38 AM »

I just checked and I was still on v9.x. I guess it's been a while since I updated it.

-Deozaan (October 07, 2016, 03:07 PM)

It is probably not all that different.  A new version of WinRar came out where the compression algorithm was updated.  I still use the old one because you can blend in 10% error correction in the .rar file without any big suffering.  But I guess the 3rd party decompression tools have to update if they want to support the new format.

544

Living Room / Re: Unjust Desserts

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 08, 2016, 09:33 AM »

Ahhh, I see. Much easier to find free coffee with a search engine, any search engine, than to earn one with a specific search engine. 

-app103 (October 07, 2016, 03:08 PM)

The promotion they got me with in the past was the introduction of the American Express Delta Sky Miles Card.  Having nearly zero experience with airlines I naively assumed that the 5,000 Sky Miles they gave for taking the card meant you could travel 5,000 miles for free.  I am sure that was the intended inference.  But later I found out all it got you was the option to move up to First Class on one flight.  A mile by any other name dost not travel just as far apparently. 

545

General Software Discussion / Re: 7-zip updated to 16.04

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 07, 2016, 02:59 PM »

Why is this noteworthy?

-Deozaan (October 05, 2016, 11:47 AM)

The update to 16.03 was quite recent and this may have flown under the radar.  Not to invoke DefCon 5 or anything.    I know a lot of people prefer 7-zip especially on DC so I mentioned it. 

546

General Software Discussion / 7-zip updated to 16.04

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 05, 2016, 08:10 AM »

7-zip stable for Windows updated to 16.04.

547

General Software Discussion / Re: Hourglass is both a countdown timer and a pleasent surprise

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 04, 2016, 07:34 PM »

It looks very straight forward and useful.  Afa Virus Total goes, I thought it was pretty cool to send some software to the site and have a bunch of scanners scan it.  But when I was on the other side of it I see the pitfall.  At some point if you add enough scanners nearly every file with some binary code is going to trip a red flag.

I got an email from my web hosting showing a screen shot of some email they got where 3 of the Virus Total scanners raised a red flag on BrowserBunch.zip download.  Ok, what happens is, when anyone sees a red flag on even one of the scanners, they do not look at the arrow in the top right corner that gives the verdict, usually "probably harmless" as only x scanners out of 57 complained.

So what I did was post a paragraph on my page that I personally wrote all the software, none of it was infected or installed PUPs, and that I regularly downloaded every zip and checked the MD5 to make sure they were not tampered with.  After that the complaints stopped.

The web hosting outfit I should add, displayed alacrity dealing with the issue.  A few communications back and forth and when I notified them of what I related above, they were cool with it.  They just need to be able to relay the info to anyone sending them a panic note they saw a red flag.

It is way over the top paranoia.  So I am very happy you decided to run the software.  But if your system blows up please don't bash me!! heh heh he   Just kidding. 

Houston we have a problem.  Your Hello World batch file appears harmless at first, but when subjected to the 1024 scanners on paranoia plus page, we got a red flag.   

548

General Software Discussion / Re: best image backup method with multiple partitions on a disk

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 04, 2016, 05:53 PM »

What you are saying now sounds like a custom unattended install setup.  For example when I was at IBM we had a Dos boot disk with networking software and a menu program.  You booted the PC which automatically logged onto the network to access OS and other software images.  A simple console menu was shown.  You picked the one with the combination of OS, networking and other software you wanted installed and hit Enter.  Go get a coffee. 

On a smaller scale something similar may be possible with NLite or a similar tool.

549

Living Room / Re: Unjust Desserts

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 04, 2016, 11:07 AM »

Sounds like you aren't using the right keywords.

-app103 (October 04, 2016, 09:08 AM)

Oh, I see.  There is a misunderstanding because Bing is a search engine.  What I was referring to is a promotion by Microsoft to use Bing for searches.  Just for giggles I signed up and used Bing off and on.  I keep getting these promotional emails with all these pictures and mumbo jumbo.  One of the promotions had a bunch of prizes and you were supposed to pick your goal.  I figured I would select something very mundane and attainable.  Just to see what would happen.  I picked a free coffee at Starbucks.  That was several months ago.  I have been unable to ascertain from any of the subsequent communications if I am close to or light years away from this magnificent reward.

I don't link a lawyer could decipher this stuff.  It is all marketing hype-speak.  Lots of pictures and no information.  I just assume that I will never get my coffee.  I would rather pay $10 for a coffee than do all the work needed to figure out if there is any real information in any of this stuff I get from them.  I think a lot of other people do the same.  It is probably psychologically engineered to get people to set Bing as default search engine, then give up in disgust when they receive all the ads.  But I am sure a certain percentage don't bother to set the engine back to Google.  That's how they getcha'!!   

550

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Wise System Monitor [ freeware ]

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 04, 2016, 10:49 AM »

Wonder how it knows current upload/download speeds -- is it testing it very often
if so, wouldnt that use up all your bandwith then?

-tomos (October 04, 2016, 10:35 AM)

I haven't noticed any resource consumption other than about 5 MB of Ram.  I would guess that it queries WMI info every few seconds.  I have a freeware Tray Disk LED simulator from another programmer that gets the disk activity from WMI.  I sense no performance penalty and leave it enabled when I defrag.

Wise claims they did a lot of testing with the aim of leaving Performance Monitor in the tray all the time.  From using their other utilities I have a pretty good feeling about their software.

I just ran broadband speed test with Wise floating window, without, then with it running again.  I got some variation in the speed.  But I think it is just variation from run to run as there are a lot of people on the WiFi at the college here.  In fact the first run with Wise floating window running was the fastest.

I like it because even though the font in the floating window is pretty small, it is white text on black background so even with my semi-blurry vision I can read the numbers.  And the CPU activity uses a little rectangular blue graph. I think it is pretty cool.  For example if you left click on the Ram usage number it brings up a window with a pie chart of used/free physical ram and a list of processes and the ram used by each. If you left click the CPU Temp number it brings up a window with indicators for CPU, GPU and HD temps.

I think you'll like it if you give it a try.