Recent Posts

551

Site/Forum Features / Re: DonationCoder Temporary Emergency Backup Forum URL -- make note of it

« Last post by steeladept on July 13, 2009, 01:10 PM »

Ah, now I follow.  This only would be if the forum was affected, not (necessarily) the entire site.  Got it...

552

Living Room / Re: Is online access a right or a privilege?

« Last post by steeladept on July 13, 2009, 11:06 AM »

EDIT: After thinking about I suppose it should actually be the Education Authority, (or whoever runs them, state, federal, etc), running the school that should be ensuring they aren't disadvantaged by providing, for example, a subsidised satellite internet connection if it's so essential to schooling.

Isn't that part of what Cyber Charter Schools are all about?  IIRC, they provide the computer, connection, and all necessary peripherals for any subscribed student(s).  (NOTE:  This is in reference to United States school systems only - other countries vary obviously!)

553

Site/Forum Features / Re: DonationCoder Temporary Emergency Backup Forum URL -- make note of it

« Last post by steeladept on July 13, 2009, 10:44 AM »

Might I suggest a test then sometime so that people can verify they can access it before it is needed?  Also, isn't there some way to put up a default message to tell people instead of the default 404 error message?  Or is that a local system thing?  Maybe I am wrong here, not sure on that side of things, but if so it seems it might be helpful and that way you don't have to rely on the end user to remember it/where they put it.  Not that I ever loose things like this....

554

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by steeladept on July 13, 2009, 10:17 AM »

Ha, boy was I mixing models.  I was talking about the Lenovo S10 above, not NC10.  That is Samsung.  Not too confusing, eh? 

555

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP & sata drive

« Last post by steeladept on July 13, 2009, 09:06 AM »

If I remember correctly, XP does NOT include any SATA drivers.  However, the Mobo manufacturers include them in the support drivers provides as long as you have on board SATA.  If not, and you are instead using an add-in card, the support drivers should be located on the disk provided (or downloaded as the case may be).  Either way, the drivers should be available by the hardware provider.

556

Living Room / Re: What does this laptop key do?

« Last post by steeladept on July 13, 2009, 08:30 AM »

It came straight from dell's website, and I have all the drivers still installed. I did change the power settings though, but I wouldn't think that would change it. Are those Fn keys mapped in the registry somewhere? I know that the media keys on my desktop keyboard are mapped in the registry.

-nite_monkey (July 05, 2009, 08:31 PM)

Actually, it depends on what you changed.  It may well have something to do with it.  This is only a trigger key to impliment some power setting changes as defined in the power settings configuration.  If you turned those settings off, it will trigger nothing and hence appear to do nothing.  To see it, you likely want to setup the power settings to Portable/Laptop, with the monitor, hard drives, and most of all system standby set to some time - 10 minutes maybe.  If this does what the buttons on my keyboard used to do, it will shortcut those times and put it in a lower power setting in less than the 10 minutes it shows.

Of course you can always remap it yourself to whatever you want.   Me, I would just have it open the properties so I could change them manually, or use it as a hotkey for another power manager to change to a different saved scheme all together.

557

General Software Discussion / Re: Generic.dx Trojan

« Last post by steeladept on July 13, 2009, 08:00 AM »

Don't worry, there are a few vid-gamers here - check out Wreckedcarzz in particular.  He is into it big-time, or at least was.  I, unfortunately, don't have that kind of time anymore....

558

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 evaluation

« Last post by steeladept on July 09, 2009, 11:46 AM »

What little testing I have done & seen, it works okay with 1GB, though I wouldn't want to go any lower.  That was with most of the eye candy turned off, but all functions available.

559

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by steeladept on July 06, 2009, 05:53 PM »

...Likewise for me, virtual OS stuff seems more pain than it's worth....

-MilesAhead (July 06, 2009, 04:20 PM)

Seems to me you haven't looked deeply into it.  Once it is setup, it is by far the easiest way to go.  Setup isn't even all that difficult.  Personally, I suggest either VirtualBox (freeware from Sun/Oracle, at least for now) or VMWare Workstation (expensive, but comprehensive).  VMWare in particular makes development easy by fully supporting branching and snapshotting.  In other words, you set up the software, install a "gold image" and then take a snapshot.  From there, you can branch new versions of that image and it only saves the differences (conserving space), while still providing a fully functional PC appearance.  Go with a different program?  Just spin up another branch.  Want to delete everything?  Just delete the root image and wala, the rest is gone too.  VirtualBox supports some of this, and is working toward full support for branching of snapshots, but isn't quite there from the last version I have used.  That said, if you have the space, there are other ways around it.  Either way, it is very simple, though there is a little bit of a learning curve before it becomes easy.  If you had the time, I figure 4 good hours learning and working with it (after installation) should familiarize you with most of these types of functions and how to work around any limitations.  That, to me, is really simple for this powerful of software.  Maybe it is just me though...

560

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by steeladept on July 02, 2009, 08:40 PM »

I got my wife a NC10 Lenovo S10 for Valentines Day.   She loves it!  It is her primary computer for everything from gaming, to email/internet to business applications.  There is nothing she would do on a "full sized" system that she can not do on that thing.  There are only two minor drawbacks to it in her eyes (for me they are a little more than minor, but not show stoppers):

1)  The keys are of the European standard (where the Control and the Function keys are reversed on the left side).  As a computer tech, that slows down my typing much more than anything else which is a surprise, because the shift keys are minute (but I almost always get them right anyway, go figure).

2)  The screen resolution is non-standard.  This means in some programs where the resolution is predefined, you end up not being able to see the entire screen at once.  Sort of like the issue with wide-screens in the early days of their distribution.  Like the wide-screens, I expect this to get resolved as they proliferate and more programs offer the option or patch accordingly.

I was looking to get her the AAO since I saw one from a fellow soldier during our deployment for the presidential inaugeration.  It was great, but the screen is quite small.  She wanted the larger screen and almost full size keyboard since she would use it as her primary machine.  That really seems to be the deciding factor between the AAO and Lenovo machines for those who shortlist these two machines.  Now that AAO comes in a 10 inch screen, I am wondering if that won't crush the small advantage Lenovo had.

561

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use - discussion

« Last post by steeladept on June 29, 2009, 12:06 PM »

A few more since server software was brought up -

Virtualization
   PC Virtualization -
      VirtualBox (Open Source Edition, the other one is only for personal and evaluation use! - http://www.virtualbox.org/ )
      Virtual PC (Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/ )

   Server Virtualization
      VMWare Server (VMWare - http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ )
      VMWare ESXi (VMWare - http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/
      Virtual Server (Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/ )
      Xen (Open Source project - http://www.xen.org/ )
      XenServer (Citrix - http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1686939 )
      Hyper-V Server 2008 (Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/default.aspx?pf=true )

Note all the above are free hypervisors with the noted restrictions.  The differentiation between PC and Server may serve as a misnomer, as all of the above support both server and desktop OS's and will run on either host.  The biggest difference is two-fold.  First and foremost the "PC" solutions run on top of an OS instead of installing "bare metal" or before the OS.  This has several implications such as fewer concurrent machines, but it also means (in many cases) a smaller file and broader driver support.  Some of the "Server" versions also run this way, but by and large, they are bare metal" software that requires to you install it before the Server OS you would want on it.  Another distinction is that Servers are, by definition, purpose built; therefore many do not have requirements for a broad range of software (such as graphic related software).  Due to this purpose driven design, many of the "Server" products do not support or take advantage of good display cards.

My personal recommendations based on what I have worked with is VirtualBox for general purpose and testing use and for running Server specific software, Citrix XenServer.  It is a tough call, because VMWare is the king in the field with Microsoft an close second up and comer.  However, both have very limited management capabilities - a point where XenServer excels (in the freeware space).  As an added bonus, XenServer and Hyper-V can both be managed from the Citrix management console (and I believe Microsoft's console as well, but I am not certain).  ESXi has VERY limited management.  That said, if it is just a single server or two that are being managed (physical servers I am talking about here, not virtual ones), the ESXi is a VERY STRONG CONTENDER.  The biggest advantages to the ESXi option are 1) Guaranteed compatibility with other Hypervisors (they may require conversion, but everyone supports converting from
VMWare's proprietary format*) and 2) there is a large "Virtual Appliance" showcase where you can download re-designed systems both for free and for cost.  Some of these can be very useful such as pre-configured Gateway Servers, IDS/IPS servers, etc.

* Formats are becoming less important and OVF has become a standard format for transportability of Virtual Machines.  This is a new standard, however, and not all companies comply with it fully as of this writing.

As for other areas, I suggest the PDF field include two from Sourceforge:

   PDF Split and Merge ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfsam/ )
   PDFCreator ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ )
   
Both are GPL licensed.

Hope that helps add another new dimention to the list  

562

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use

« Last post by steeladept on June 19, 2009, 10:42 AM »

Doh!  Totally forgot about Process Tamer.  It is so good I forget about it until I am missing it!  

That said, PT and SC are the two I use religiously. I try to use and like FARR, I really do, but I just don't ever seem to *need* it, so I don't use it enough to show it off for my users.

For personal use, I also use GridMove a lot lately.  Didn't really find a use for it until recently in my own workflow though.  Now...Let's just say it has saved me A LOT of aggravation.  Can't really say for business use that I would put it out there though - at least not yet.  I am only finding very specialized uses for it and those limit my knowledge of it beyond some rather basic uses.  Not that that would stop me from recommending it...

563

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use

« Last post by steeladept on June 19, 2009, 07:20 AM »

Great thread idea.  I know there are MANY out there in the freeware/Open Source world, but a couple that I use that can be very usable to end users are (in no particular order):

• ScreenshotCaptor from right here at DC (though the end user must register here and download the key themselves - hope to bring in more DC'ers that way - before I will install it for them). It is nice because it can be set up to use without installation, but I don't tell the users that or they might try it without us tracking where it is - not that it is THAT BAD, but the company really feels the need to know ALL software on the PC's.
• BGInfo - a great little utility from Systernals.
• CD Burner XP - already mentioned, so I won't continue.
• BIRT - An Open source BI software package not unlike Cognos Impromptu or Crystal Reports (though admittedly not quite as easy as Crystal Reports is)
• IE New Window Maximizer - Just like it says, automatically maximizes IE windows.
• PuTTY - Already mentioned, so I won't continue.
• JKDefrag - It is licensed under GNU public license and is also portable.
• TaskbarShuffle - Rearrange your taskbar buttons!
• FolderSize - Figure out how big your folders are in explorer. From Source Forge.
• SpaceMonger v1.4 - Similar to a visual version of FolderSize (well at the root level anyway).  Version 1.4 is still available from the archive area of the web site.  Version 2.x is commercial, and is $20-$25 (US currency) per seat.  While it is definitely worth supporting, that seems a little steep for what amounts to a visual disk sizer type niche product.  That said, I have yet to try version 2  .  Awaiting response from vendor to verify it is free for business use
• Other obvious ones - software like Acrobat reader, flash, etc...  Okay, these probably shouldn't be here because they are so obvious, but since I was going through a quick inventory of business friendly freeware....

Whew, that was a lot more than I expected.  Hope that helps...

564

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's Fork The Thread! Linux Notetaking Thread!

« Last post by steeladept on June 18, 2009, 01:57 PM »

it has 100% accurate handwriting recognition and can easily be used by multiple users

-housetier (June 18, 2009, 01:39 PM)

Strange, my version of pen&paper only has about 85% accurate handwriting recognitiion, and while I've tried it with multiple users, there seems to be some problems with their recognition engines

-TucknDar (June 18, 2009, 01:51 PM)

LOL

565

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's Fork The Thread! Linux Notetaking Thread!

« Last post by steeladept on June 18, 2009, 01:56 PM »

WOW, TreePad looks really, really cool!  Once I setup my computer room and have more time to test (ha.  Fat chance with a two year-old and three year-old, but I can dream ), I think I will install this and check it out.  It might be perfect for my upcoming doctoral studies.

566

Coding Snacks / Re: *SIMPLE* WebCam software

« Last post by steeladept on June 07, 2009, 09:26 PM »

Huh.  I use VLC but never knew about that option.  Thanks for the info.  If there is ever a problem with vidcap I will give that a shot, but so far VidCap worked great.  Even saved me right after I was told about it.  I downloaded it, set it up, and then the boss and his boss started through my area with a group of outside vendors.  I saw them in the video and cleaned up my area in time and desktop in time to look really good for everyone.  Not that it would have been a major problem otherwise, but it always helps when you can put away the munchies on the desk (and other non-work related stuff, well not directly work related anyway).

567

Coding Snacks / Re: *SIMPLE* WebCam software - SOLVED!

« Last post by steeladept on June 05, 2009, 06:25 AM »

ACK!  That was EXACTLY what I was looking for!  Thanks.  Credits your way.....

568

Coding Snacks / Re: *SIMPLE* WebCam software

« Last post by steeladept on June 05, 2009, 06:20 AM »

Nope, not yet.  Check it out now.  In the mean time, I forgot to meantion, I did find one program that is not "exactly" what I was looking for, but seems to be workable.  That is WebcamMax.  If it continues to be workable, I may just have a mini-review coming out soon

569

Coding Snacks / *SIMPLE* WebCam software

« Last post by steeladept on June 05, 2009, 05:52 AM »

Okay, I know my friends here at DC can help, either with a code snack or a direction toward other good software.  What I am looking for is a simple live webcam window to use.  I envision that it would take the input from a USB 2.0 webcam and put it into a resizeable window.  Nothing fancy needed, no recording or editing or anything, just a viewer.  To make it easier to understand why I am looking for this, I have a monitor that uses GridMove to section off my desktop.  In one corner, I just want to be able to see what else is currently going on in the room (I am in a cubical in the back corner, and people sneak up and suprise me alot!).

I have tried several pieces of software including the ArcSoft software that came with it, Debut, and WebCamXP to name a few, but none of them have a simple, resizeable window that views activity in real time.  Either they are embedded in a larger window for editing or they are not resizable.  I guess the makers can't imagine you would want to see a window in anything less than 640x480.  That might be okay if you have a 22" monitor and can have the resolution up high enough that the 640x480 is only a tiny fraction of your screen real estate, but I have an old 17" CRT, and even at the highest resolution supported (1280x1024), it takes up nearly half the screen!

Can someone direct me to a piece of software that can accomplish this?

570

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite computer game from when you were young?

« Last post by steeladept on June 04, 2009, 01:59 PM »

What is funny is how many people actually bought it. Every time I buy out someone's full collection of old atari games, this one is almost always in it. (I buy old atari collections at yard sales)

-app103 (January 19, 2007, 10:31 AM)

I might still have some around for you if you are interested, App, but it too has that game. 

571

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 evaluation

« Last post by steeladept on June 04, 2009, 10:34 AM »

Just for curiosity I loaded Windows 7 evaluation on a machine a few days ago. Since I don't have Vista on any of my machines it has been an interesting learning curve.
So far I don't see compelling reasons to switch from XP. I don't watch TV or movies from any of my PCs.
Anyone else have experience with this? Are there lots and lots of under the hood reasons it is better?

-DocSavage (May 29, 2009, 07:27 AM)

The biggest reason I see for switching is so you don't fall into the trap of waiting for something significantly better, then complaining the software doesn't work with XP.  It is over 10 years old now, and people have been writing for Vista/Win7 for over 3 years now.  With XP compatibility and virtualization available, I don't see much reason NOT to move besides cost or hardware that likely needs refreashed anyway (cost again really).  That said, other than forward compatibility and some relatively minor enhancements; no, I don't see any other compelling reasons to switch.

572

General Software Discussion / Re: Buying/installing/experiencing Adobe - PIA

« Last post by steeladept on June 02, 2009, 02:09 PM »

Just remember that Adobe makes their products first and foremost for the Apple community.  This goes far to explain both the interface and the lack of caring for how/where/what/how many programs install.  To make it even easier, they hide it all behind their installer/download manager.  This is all to make it easier for you, especially if you lost your way and moved to the PC from a MAC. (Little tongue in cheek, but not far off). 

Seriously though, they do make these for the Apple community and then make the money off PC users who wish the same or similar tools.  It has always given me a funny feeling trying to navigate/use Adobe products for just this reason.  Not saying one way or the other as to easy to use; just very different.

573

Living Room / Re: ZipCar.com - super cool car sharing service in the US for occasional drivers

« Last post by steeladept on May 29, 2009, 02:38 PM »

We have ZipCar in Pittsburgh, but I don't use it - I live too far away.  It is odd, here at least, because Pittsburgh City limits are so small you can walk it in under an hour in any direction from one side to the other.  AFAIK, ZipCar is only within the city limits, so it becomes somewhat bewildering to me how it can function profitably in this city.

As for the reward, what if filling it up automatically gave you 1 hour drive time?  Of course there would need to be a way to determine it actually NEEDED a fill first, otherwise people would try to keep it under an hour and fill it up to use it essentially for free.

574

General Software Discussion / Re: INfix: easy, capable, but expensive WordPad-like PDF editor

« Last post by steeladept on May 28, 2009, 12:05 PM »

@steeladept: There's a feature comparison matrix for the different versions of PDF Converter here: http://www.nuance.co...ibility-features.asp. I don't have any experience with the other versions, so don't know if I would miss any of the Pro features if I were using the regular version.

-Darwin (May 28, 2009, 10:42 AM)

Sorry, I will try to be more specific.    I was talking about the difference between Standard and Pro versions of INfix.  Their website is very general about it and it's comparison matrix does not specify between the two and their competitors.

575

Living Room / Re: Help me build the ultimate metal playlist

« Last post by steeladept on May 28, 2009, 11:56 AM »

I am not a big fan of the genre, but one metal-head friend of mine just loves Twisted Sister.  Since I don't see it on the list, maybe they aren't around anymore, but something you might want to look into none-the-less.