Recent Posts

5401

Living Room / Re: High Capacity Portable MP3 Player

« Last post by 4wd on October 28, 2008, 07:35 PM »

I made my own years ago with the help of this MP3 Module - before the days when every dog and his owner had an iPud and/or flash drive sized players.

Portable - Yep, AFAIAC since it's used for camping, LAN parties, whatever.
Battery Life - Haven't flattened the car battery or the mains yet.
Song Capacity - Heaps or just choose another drive/disc.
Output - As powerful as whatever amp you plug it into.
Remote Control - You betcha, can program it to accept almost anything.

Currently equipped with a 80GB 3.5" HDD with >9900 MP3s but I'm looking to downsize to a 40GB 2.5" HDD since I'm only using about 50% of the 80GB.

Otherwise, have a browse through ChinaVision's selection of HDD enclosures - most play media files.

5402

Living Room / Re: Chinese -> English translations

« Last post by 4wd on October 25, 2008, 05:26 PM »

Every Heart Will Be Attacked

Love it. 

-mouser (October 24, 2008, 04:22 AM)

Reminds me of the Monty Python sketch about the architect showing his apartment/slaughter house complex.

5403

General Software Discussion / Re: Spam filtering

« Last post by 4wd on October 24, 2008, 05:32 PM »

Gmail just rocks!

-Deozaan (October 24, 2008, 02:53 PM)

I'll add another vote for GMail, I have six accounts with them all used for different purposes.

Besides leaving them on GMail I also use Thunderbird to download and keep a local copy for when I want to refer to something but don't have net access.

5404

Living Room / Re: 007 James Bond

« Last post by 4wd on October 24, 2008, 05:02 PM »

Are America and Asia also changing back from summer-time (even though you call it something different) to normal-time, this week-end?? 

-Curt (October 24, 2008, 04:27 PM)

Here in Eastern Australia, (including SA but excluding QLD - which makes it really SE Australia I guess - so it should be ASEDST instead of AEDST - I think I'll patent it before they use it  ), the powers that be decided that we'd now switch to DST, (Daylight Saving Time), the first Sunday of October now instead of the last.   And last year they decided it would now end on the first Sunday of April.

This is brilliant, just after Western Australia decided to trial it from 2006-2009 in line with the original starting/ending dates, (last Sun Oct -> last Sun March), to help business stay in synch with the rest of the country, the idiots in the rest of the country go and change it............typically stupid state governments.

You can see the various changes DST has gone through in Australia here.

I hate Summer - there is never any need for more than 12 hours of light in the day 

5405

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by 4wd on October 21, 2008, 06:31 AM »

Those doohickies sure look cool, but what are they for? 

-Deozaan (October 21, 2008, 03:21 AM)

They give you extra grip on the car's gear shift.

5406

Living Room / Re: Screenshot Captor download version

« Last post by 4wd on October 21, 2008, 06:28 AM »

Hi to all, I have just downloaded and installed Screenshot Captor. On the web page it says the latest release is V2.42.01 as of August, where you click download. The version that is downloaded however is V2.32.02. No big deal, but which is right, and if there is a V2.42.01, is there a place to update? Thanks in advance.

-twl845 (October 20, 2008, 04:44 PM)

Aren't they actually saying that what's advertised on the site is 2.42.01, (last stable), but when they downloaded and installed it, it reported version 2.32.02 ?

5407

General Software Discussion / Re: fastest method/language to create my own software

« Last post by 4wd on October 17, 2008, 09:53 PM »

ROFL @ 4wd.

-Ehtyar (October 17, 2008, 05:52 AM)

I just had to do it

No offense to the original poster but it really is a rather vague question to ask.

The equivalent of: "What's the best software for writing CD/DVDs?".

Only a hundred times worse.

There are so many factors that come into the equation that without supplying a lot more information the only valid answer is:  The language that you feel comfortable with and that allows you to do what you want with the minimum of effort.

The software development equivalent of K.I.S.S.^w

No need to learn the complexity of C#/JAVA/Assembler/etc if you only want to create small apps of use only to yourself for doing something really esoteric when using AutoIt/BASIC/etc will get it done in far less time.

However, if it's knowledge that you want to put to use throughout the rest of your life, then yes, learning a Object Oriented, platform independent language is going to be more useful in the long run.

5408

Living Room / Re: Digital Music Purchases - Downloads or Ripped CD's?

« Last post by 4wd on October 17, 2008, 12:29 AM »

I'm not talking about sharing music; just purchasing online. I have done both, though usually I only purchase downloadable MP3's if I don’t want all tracks on a given album. But for entire albums I usually just purchase the CD and then rip them to my HDD.

-J-Mac (October 17, 2008, 12:16 AM)

If there's an album I really, really want, (which basically means nothing made in the last 10 years or so), then I'll go to a pawn shop and buy it, then rip it.

I don't pay full price for an album......ever.

Used is fine by me.

5409

General Software Discussion / Re: Third Party Check Disk replacement?

« Last post by 4wd on October 15, 2008, 07:01 PM »

1) friends don't let friends use SpinRite. Just thought I'd have to add it since it was mentioned.

-f0dder (October 15, 2008, 06:20 PM)

I'll second this.  From the play around I've had with SpinRite it's a seriously large waste of time IMHO, (and money).

3) the drive *is* damaged. If you can get it replaced under warranty, do so. If you want to get the bad block reallocated, it needs to be written to. A full format of the disk should handle this - even restoring a full disk image should reallocate the sector. But this doesn't fix the problem, you'll likely see more bad sectors later on, and remapped sectors afaik slow things down (because, again afaik, the drive has to seek to it's spare sector pool when serving a request for a reallocated sector - and we all know seeking slows things down).

This would be the first option to try.

But if you want to get down and dirty then you could try the free Russian tool Victoria, which can do all kinds of wonderful things, (including trashing any data on the drive if you don't know what you're doing - Consider yourself warned).  eg. Remap sectors, read S.M.A.R.T., temperature reading, defect scanning, AAM adjustment, etc, etc.

Here is the translated documentation.

And a link to the page with the download, (download doesn't work through Google Translate - just click on the filename up the top Victoria 4.46b currently), for the (English) Windows version.

There's also a DOS version, which is in Russian, and a self-booting version which I saw on there but can't seem to find again    Found it, Russian only, second last link on this page.

No matter, you can always use the Windows version from a BartPE.

EDIT: Oh yeah, it does more than HDDs:

...for testing HDD, FDD, CD / DVD, USB / Flash / SCSI drives under Windows through the API and ports...

5410

Living Room / Re: Should Microsoft become an OEM (PC manufacturer)?

« Last post by 4wd on October 14, 2008, 07:15 PM »

I guess I'm saying - so long as they don't become an apple, but some much friendlier fruit.

-Grorgy

Kumquat? Mango? Kiwi?

-Edvard (October 13, 2008, 04:43 PM)

Hmmm hadn't really got that far, perhaps a mango, sort of squishy and soft   

-Grorgy (October 13, 2008, 09:14 PM)

Nah, they'd become Macadamias - something good surrounded by a really thick, tough shell 

Disclaimer: I'm not saying Microsoft is good, far from it, but macadamias are........mmmmmmm!

5411

Living Room / Re: Recommend a keyboard

« Last post by 4wd on October 14, 2008, 06:19 AM »

The Logitech G11 and G15 seem to have become cult favorites. I assume from this that I'd be clear of the crashing problems I've been having. And they seem well-supported. They're also quite pricey.

-CWuestefeld (October 13, 2008, 03:05 PM)

G15 v2 here, only has 6 'G' keys but has the LCD which the G11 doesn't, (which I use to monitor various daemons and system info).

Best keyboard I've ever had - the on-the-fly macro programming of the G keys is an absolute winner.
eg.
Hit MR (Macro Record)
Hit a G key
Do whatever you want on the keyboard
Hit MR again
Macro is now assigned to that G key and is now there until you wipe it or you can go into the Profiler and save it as a permanent macro.

You can assign Macros, Keystrokes, Functions, Shortcuts and Text Blocks but with V2.00 of the software they also added the ability to create LUA scripts using the built in editor so you can simulate mouse clicks and more.

Yes, it cost a fair bit, (AU$89 here), still cheaper than some Microsoft keyboards though.

If you get a chance to try one, do it.

Personally I prefer the slimmer v2 over the wider v1 plus I don't have a need for 18 programmable keys.

5412

General Software Discussion / Re: Easy remote access to my home pc?

« Last post by 4wd on October 12, 2008, 03:36 AM »

3) Use the PrtQuery command as mentioned on the page in city_zen's post above.

-4wd (October 11, 2008, 10:37 PM)

I didn't understand from that website how to access the Port Query. Does that come with Windows or do I have to download it separately?

-Deozaan (October 11, 2008, 11:36 PM)

Download from here.

But I did follow the link to http://www.canyouseeme.org/ and tested out a few ports. It seems that the only one that was open was port 80. I'm beginning to suspect these problems have more to do with the ISP or the school setting up filters, since I'm using University-provided internet.

4) Here's an interesting thread from 2005 about someone trying to get the DI-624 to do RDP.  Take note of the last post on the page.

-4wd (October 11, 2008, 10:37 PM)

I followed the advice on the last post on that page and forwarded port 80 to 3389 and it didn't connect. But it also didn't refuse the connection either. Well, eventually it times out, but that's after 5 minutes or so. Of course, typing in the WAN IP with port 80 in my browser asks for a user name and password for some system that is NOT in my network. Again, this is what makes me think this is school filtering stuff.

I forgot to mention, by default your router usually grabs port 80 so you can access its interface.  This is why I changed my router port far away from port 80, in case I wanted to run a web server and also to make it a little bit harder to remote access it - they have to find it's port first, (even if remote config was allowed, which it isn't).

If you can, change your router's web interface port to something else, (eg. 5000), and then set the Virtual Server for your RDP host so that the incoming Public port is 80 and the Private port is 3389 and then try accessing using both your WAN IP and DynDNS address.

I've regretted buying D-Link almost from the day I got it. I bought this router along with a D-Link Wireless PCI card for my computer in 2005, thinking that two products from the same company should be compatible with eachother. Well, somehow the router was causing the PCI card to blue screen my system. I could connect to other wireless routers without a problem, but my D-Link NIC connected to my D-Link Router made my PC bluescreen.

I use one of these and the only problem I have with it is that it runs a bit warm underneath which makes it spontaneously reboot when it gets too hot, usually only in warm/hot weather every few days or so and is easily fixed by sitting it on something so that there is a ~25mm air gap underneath.

Not only that, but the router kept resetting about every 10 minutes on the dot which made it impossible to download large files! Thankfully a firmware update and changing some settings fixed that problem. Although, it still resets every 20 minutes when I've got uTorrent open. :-(

The Zyxel also did this until they fixed it with a firmware update.  It was related to the size of the NAT Session Table, originally 1024 IIRC.  BitTorrent tended to max this out pretty quick, under an hour.  A later firmware increased this a little bit to approx. 5000 NAT sessions before the table becomes full.  That pretty much solved the problem.

The problem can be reduced by:
a) Reduce the number of connections in BT
b) Decrease the NAT time out period, ie. those connections are free'd up quicker.
c) Don't use BT
d) OR buy a new modem with are larger NAT table

If you check this link, (search for DI-624, second occurrence), you'll see that the DI-624 is not capable of more than about 200 connections.  So setting uTorrent to use 200 or less connections should enable it to last more than 20 mins.

I think all in all, I'm going to have to blame this one on the school or the ISP blocking the ports.

If you can work out what ports they allow, (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, NNTP, etc), then you can set up tunneling to bypass the port blocking.

5413

General Software Discussion / Re: Easy remote access to my home pc?

« Last post by 4wd on October 11, 2008, 10:37 PM »

All I have is Windows XP Firewall and a D-Link DI-624 Router. You already saw the configuration for my router. Remote Desktop Connection has an exception in the XP Firewall.

-Deozaan (October 11, 2008, 06:06 PM)

Apart from what city_zen just mentioned above, some other things:

According to the manual for the DI-624, it has a Firewall and IP filtering.  Are either of these enabled?

If it is, then temporarily disable it and see what happens.  Note, some routers actually require a restart before they pick up new settings.

Some other things to try:

1) Temporarily put the LAN IP for your RDP host into the DI-624's DMZ.  This will bypass any rules in the router and expose the PC to the internet - make sure your software firewall is turned on.  If it works then, the problem is definitely the router blocking something.

2) Try using the WAN IP and not the DynDNS service - when it all works go back to DynDNS.

3) Use the PrtQuery command as mentioned on the page in city_zen's post above.

4) Here's an interesting thread from 2005 about someone trying to get the DI-624 to do RDP.  Take note of the last post on the page.

5) Buy a decent router    really, from what I've read of it so far, I hope you got it free 

Latest firmware for D-Link stuff can usually be found here: D-Link Support - it's in German but there's a Google translate button on the left.  For specifically the DI-624.

5414

General Software Discussion / Re: Easy remote access to my home pc?

« Last post by 4wd on October 10, 2008, 05:17 PM »

My guess is that you haven't configured your router to forward outside connections on port 3389 to your PC's internal IP. That'd be step 3 of 4wd's list:

-city_zen (October 10, 2008, 10:36 AM)

I've done that, too.

-Deozaan (October 10, 2008, 03:33 PM)

We need a bit more info about your network setup:

What modem/router/hubs/etc, how is it all setup?

If you're running a firewall on the server/host PC, is it configured correctly ?
(I know you said it works from LAN but your rules may be allowing blanket LAN access while still restricting net access.)

Your modem/router, does it have a firewall, (as well as NAT)?
Is it turned on?
Have you created a rule to allow RDP to pass through the firewall?
(My Zyxel has a SPI firewall, so I need to create a rule to allow RDP before it even gets to NAT routing.)

Any firewalls you are running should have a log, (blocked/allowed/attacks/etc), set the firewalls up to report everything then try accessing via RDP.

If you don't get an ACCESS log entry in your software firewall, it will most likely be failing to get through your modem/router.  If you have an ACCESS log entry for the modem/router but none for the software firewall then it's failed at NAT.

Another tip, quite a few modem/routers allow IP loopback, (some you can set from the WWW interface, some from telnet, eg. Zyxel), by turning it on it allows you to use the WAN IP to access LAN servers/hosts from within the LAN.

eg. You already know RDP works from another LAN PC by connecting to 192.168.x.x.

By turning IP loopback on, you'd also be able to use your WAN IP, eg. 86.67.234.33.   The modem/router seeing this is your WAN IP will just loop it straight back into your LAN without sending upstream to your ISP.  It's a good way to test your server/host programs, I leave it enabled all the time.

This will allow you to test your modem/router firewall/NAT without being dependent on any outside routers/dns/etc.

5415

General Software Discussion / Re: fastest method/language to create my own software

« Last post by 4wd on October 09, 2008, 05:23 PM »

which is the fastest method/language to create my own software?

-kalos (October 09, 2008, 09:43 AM)

I believe this could best be summed up with:

(YLtL * FL)/(LC * UoP) = 

Where:
YLtL = Years Left to Live  [in years]
FL    = Frustration Level  [in number of keyboards smashed/year]
LC    = Language Complexity  [in the number of minutes you spend studying one line of code and still not see the bug]
UoP  = Urgency of Project  [in months, where UoP = n - (n^2)]

The object of the equation is to reach unity, (a oneness), with the computer.  To become the Zen of programming.

As soon as the right side equals  you have achieved all that you seek.

This is possible......just ask mouser 

5416

General Software Discussion / Re: I am looking for system wide proxy changer-configurator

« Last post by 4wd on October 09, 2008, 03:22 AM »

I have proxy server on my laptop. Sometimes I need to use wired connection so my proxy server adress changes on other machines. I was wondering if there is an application that lets me toggle between proxy servers on the fly so that I do not need change proxy settings in every application.

-kartal (September 16, 2008, 08:05 PM)

NetProfiles - Cost nothing, requires .NET

Otherwise, for the always useful, download nothing approach there's the always boring netsh command, included free with every copy of Windows XP.
Here's a way to use it to switch network settings.

please do not suggest things like "google is your friend". Google is not my friend...

Maybe so, but without it, it would be a sh!t load harder to find things......and that's including the manual so you can RTFM.

Google results - Oh look, within the first five results: FreeIP Switcher, NetSetMan FREE (which as said above doesn't do proxies) but gives you NetSetManPro  

Further down you get Network Switcher and buried in the results somewhere I saw how to use netsh.

5417

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 09, 2008, 01:54 AM »

Pretty much only Joint Operations these days, it may be rather old compared to the likes of COD4, GRAW2, etc but it's a lot more fun IMHO.

Otherwise, Solder Of Fortune 1 + 2, Quake, Quake II, etc - all the good old mindlessly violent FPS games

-4wd (October 08, 2008, 12:13 AM)

I can not see the Internet Security impacting on these games to much. We play WOW and the Kingsoft online Games here and We have on problem.

-Davidtheo (October 08, 2008, 08:00 PM)

I think you might find that your connection to the internet is a little bit faster than mine, (256/64 ADSL) 

5418

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 09, 2008, 01:47 AM »

4wd Can you please send me the dll's and if you can find the exe calling then that would also be great please send to [email protected] Please rar them and put the password 123654.

-Davidtheo (October 08, 2008, 07:43 PM)

On it's way, rename the extension to rar and you're good to go.

The executable that installed them was self-deleting and I can't pinpoint where it came from, (probably a recent LAN party).

It installs itself into an autorun area of registry and from there attaches itself to any programs you run, (eg. explorer.exe).

5419

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 08, 2008, 04:50 AM »

If the executable and/or file is in use, it cannot be replaced until it has been unloaded from memory. Until then it is in a read only state.

-wreckedcarzz (October 08, 2008, 01:58 AM)

I never mentioned anything about an already running process being replaced, you've read too much into my question:

But what happens when your "clean" game exe goes to load an infected dll, (or exe), half way through your game?

That's any dll or exe, it need not have been installed by the game.  Games/programs are allowed to call OS executables aren't they?

After all, that's how they run in the first place by relying on the underlying OS.

The infection doesn't need to target that particular game you're playing, it only needs to reside in a file that is called by another program, it doesn't even have to be called by your game.

But by white-listing the game executable, however, you might possibly have white-listed any process started by it.

PS. Sorry David for hijacking your announcement 

5420

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 08, 2008, 01:56 AM »

I was talking about automatic detection - I can install and not touch anything and have no issues and the software knows not to do anything until the game executable is no longer running.

-wreckedcarzz (October 08, 2008, 01:50 AM)

But what happens when your "clean" game exe goes to load an infected dll, (or exe), half way through your game?

5421

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 08, 2008, 01:48 AM »

That's my personal concern: When I am coding or gaming, I need that to take importance over EVERYTHING else. I don't need to run into a good game of COD4/GRAW2/GRID only to have my FPS drop from 40 to 5 because my security software wants to scan the items the game is loading, or because I am running out of system resources (Crysis has this issue).

-wreckedcarzz (October 08, 2008, 12:19 AM)

All AntiVirus/Spyware programs do this unless you've turned that functionality off, (at least if they're half-way decent they do).

The question is how much of an impact it has.  PCTools doesn't have much of an impact, then again while I don't mind the firewall, the AV part of it isn't really up to the standards of Avast, etc.

BTW, Kaspersky was one of the AVs that didn't detect the trojan I had and they're supposed to be very good.

5422

Living Room / Re: How to enter code???? :)

« Last post by 4wd on October 08, 2008, 12:50 AM »

If you don't have your entire lower arm supported on your desk, then that's not exactly good ergonomics either.

-f0dder (October 07, 2008, 07:38 PM)

I've always wondered why people think it's a good idea to have a keyboard 75mm from the edge of the desk and use it with their wrists sawing along the edge....the only way it could be more uncomfortable is to have a razor blade set into the edge.

Yet, this seems to be the standard position for almost everyone I've seen who uses one.

BTW, I'll take my G15 over an ergonomic keyboard anyday.

I'm trying to register at a forum, but there's this message. How do I make the letters go in a curve?

-tsaint (October 07, 2008, 06:22 PM)

Use a screen like this:


That way you have the option of straightening them out or entering them curved.

5423

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 08, 2008, 12:13 AM »

I've downloaded and installed it and at the moment it seems to run quite well with minimal system impact, (TaskManager shows 0 CPU across all its processes), chews about 70MB of RAM with kwatch.exe grabbing most of that, (54MB).

Now to see if it impacts my online gaming 

-4wd (October 07, 2008, 04:54 AM)

Kwatch uses alot of Ram mainly because it is checking all processes that are accessing files and checking what they are doing, In this way it can catch and stop unknown malware.

-Davidtheo (October 07, 2008, 08:55 PM)

Unfortunately, it missed picking up a couple of dll's as Trojan.Vundo but then again so did 14 of the 22 virus checkers on VirusTotal.  I'm just lucky I don't have an installed browser it could pollute, (Portable Firefox only, IE has been expunged from the system).  I'm pretty sure it was there before I installed KIS9, so my previous AV didn't pick it up either.

However, the Anti-Spyware did highlight that an unknown dll was one of the Startup Items - so that pointed me in the right direction to remove a few dlls and ini files via an external LiveXP HDD.

What online games do you play?

Pretty much only Joint Operations these days, it may be rather old compared to the likes of COD4, GRAW2, etc but it's a lot more fun IMHO.

Otherwise, Solder Of Fortune 1 + 2, Quake, Quake II, etc - all the good old mindlessly violent FPS games

EDIT: Two things that do annoy me though is there's no way to resize the Firewall application window or to sort the programs in the Application Rules list.

5424

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 07, 2008, 04:54 AM »

Possibly dumb questions but then I've never used an integrated security suite, I prefer discrete components.

-4wd (October 07, 2008, 02:14 AM)

The only dumb question is the one not asked

-Davidtheo (October 07, 2008, 02:32 AM)

Thanks for the info and wisdom   

I've downloaded and installed it and at the moment it seems to run quite well with minimal system impact, (TaskManager shows 0 CPU across all its processes), chews about 70MB of RAM with kwatch.exe grabbing most of that, (54MB).

Now to see if it impacts my online gaming 

5425

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: kingsoft Internet Security 6 months free

« Last post by 4wd on October 07, 2008, 02:14 AM »

One license per computer, the license costs 29.95USD for one year and the payment system is paypal. 

-Davidtheo (October 06, 2008, 09:52 PM)

Possibly dumb questions but then I've never used an integrated security suite, I prefer discrete components.

Can I ask exactly what degree of control you have over what components get installed?

Also, say I purchase a license and I then decide not to renew after a year, this should only affect the Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware recognition updates, (and any program updates naturally).

Would I be able to uninstall those components and still use the firewall?