Recent Posts

551

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Trolls The Trolls In Latest IE10 Ad

« Last post by Jibz on December 01, 2012, 08:20 AM »

No idea where it's originally from, I got it from http://imgur.com/gallery/vPC21

552

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Trolls The Trolls In Latest IE10 Ad

« Last post by Jibz on December 01, 2012, 03:00 AM »

Jokes aside, it was a refreshing commercial .

Though perhaps they should have waited with it until IE10 for Windows 7 was ready .. even if I wanted to try it, that IE10 site only has a download button for IE9.

553

General Software Discussion / Re: df 1.0.9.1 free disk space command line utility

« Last post by Jibz on November 30, 2012, 11:38 AM »

This nice little tool triggered my inner geek , and I started wondering about the different ways you could compute the size of something like a file or free space in KB/MB/GB, or perhaps KiB/MiB/GiB.

If you look at different file managers and other tools, you will find they sometimes differ in what they report as file size and free space. Perhaps it is not as obvious as it may seem.

Let's assume 2 decimals for simplicity -- what should we report for 1000? 1023? 1024? One KiB is 1024 bytes, so 1000 bytes should be less than one, 1023 should be less than one, and 1024 should be exactly one. But at what point should we get 1.01 KiB?

We should get 1.01 KiB when the size is greater than or equal to 1024*1.01 = 1034.24 -- so not until 1035, because 1034 is less than 1.01 KiB.

But that means that a size of 10 or below will be reported as 0.00, because 10 is less than 1024*0.01 = 10.24 .

For free space, I think it makes sense to truncate the value like this, because having 10 bytes free is not having 0.01 KiB free. For file sizes on the other hand it seems counter intuitive to report a size of 0.00, and perhaps the value should be rounded up.

Anyway, I wonder if anybody has some input on what the "correct" way of doing this is?

I made a little test program in C which imitates your tool, so I could play around with how to do it -- I hope you don't mind if I post it here .

554

General Software Discussion / Re: Uninstalling Google Chrome can mess up your PC(if it was set as default browser)

« Last post by Jibz on November 28, 2012, 09:21 AM »

Different versions of Windows and IE have left behind a rather complex set of different ways to handle defaults. I am sure mouser has some interesting stories about it, see for instance:

https://www.donation...angesmadebyprogr.htm

It should be a simple process to uninstall a browser and restore the settings, sadly it is not.

555

General Software Discussion / Re: Seeking experiences from people backing up relatively large personal data sets

« Last post by Jibz on November 22, 2012, 02:02 AM »

I don't know much about the specifics of CrashPlan, but lets try a little back of the envelope math .

1.5 million files, an average path length of 64 (given unicode paths), a 128-bit hash, date/time, attributes, and a little room for other bookkeeping -- lets say 128 bytes per file, that's around 200 MB for the file list.

While 128 bytes per file could be on the low side, this does not really look like the cause.

2 TB of data, CrashPlan does data de-duplication at the block level, let's guess 16k blocks, that's 128 million blocks. Presumably we need to store a hash and some kind of ID for each block -- lets say 16 bytes per block, that's 2 GB of data.

If the program holds all of that in memory while doing the backup, I guess that could explain the memory usage you are seeing.

If you have all your data in one large backup set, you could try dividing it up into multiple (for instance, I have one set for my images, which is fairly large, but only runs once a day, and a couple for other stuff like my user profile and work folder, which run every 15 minutes). But since it looks like the de-duplication is done across one entire machine, this might not help that much. It could be that data sets of the size you have are rare enough that they prioritize speed over memory usage.

556

General Software Discussion / Re: Small free form db/notes software

« Last post by Jibz on November 22, 2012, 12:36 AM »

While not really a database app, something like CintaNotes might also work due to the fast search.

557

General Software Discussion / Re: trying chrome

« Last post by Jibz on November 21, 2012, 12:15 AM »

Oh well, good to hear it is not enabled by default.

Edit: Yep, looks like I jumped the gun on that one, sorry. It does not seem to be enabled by default, you have to go to fb and click a button to enable it.

558

General Software Discussion / Re: trying chrome

« Last post by Jibz on November 20, 2012, 02:31 PM »

Plus, when you upgrade to Firefox 17 you get the cool new Facebook toolbar.

559

General Software Discussion / Re: Thoughts on this sort of UI styling?

« Last post by Jibz on November 20, 2012, 08:14 AM »

I would suggest, however, that since each of the choices is mutually exclusive, radio buttons be used? Thats what they were designed for. They restrict the selection to a single choice and make it explicitly clear which selection is either the default or is currently active,

-40hz (November 20, 2012, 08:08 AM)

It sounds like you did the same thing I did at first -- assume it was four buttons giving you a choice, like you see in some of the Vista+ dialogs. But I think it is actually just a static list of things that will be tested when you click the OK button, which was why I put them together in one textbox instead.

I could be wrong of course, maybe they are buttons?

560

General Software Discussion / Re: Thoughts on this sort of UI styling?

« Last post by Jibz on November 20, 2012, 01:46 AM »

Ok, if you will forgive my very basic skills with Gimp, here is a quick edit of your dialog to see what it would feel like:



The changes I made are

• Added a hint of color to the icons to make the dialog seem less bland
• Removed the texturing on the background to make it feel more clean
• Removed some vertical space -- the original was quite tall
• Gathered the list items in one text box together with the text at the top, since they are not actual button choices

561

General Software Discussion / Re: Thoughts on this sort of UI styling?

« Last post by Jibz on November 19, 2012, 05:38 AM »

I am pretty far from being an UI specialist, but I am always happy to offer my oppinion .

I think it has a slight bit of the "mac" feel to it, but you have added just enough black to the icons to not make it too bland. I still wonder if perhaps a touch of pale coloring on the icons might work, just like the blue in the heading works?

I assume you did not make the texture on the border of the window, but for this particular one, I find the edge where the glassy shadow on the border starts (slightly below the edge of the second box of text) to be rather distracting. When I first opened the post and glanced at the screenshot, I thought it was one window at the top that cut of the top bit of another window below it.

And, nitpicking, I feel there is perhaps slightly too much space above and below the final paragraph of text at the bottom.

562

General Software Discussion / Re: Lifetime license from Audials+GAOTD: no good

« Last post by Jibz on November 12, 2012, 09:36 AM »

Maybe we need to start offering companies "lifetime payment" when we buy their software?

563

Developer's Corner / Re: Funny Comments in Your Code?

« Last post by Jibz on November 10, 2012, 04:12 AM »

I was actually digging through some of the first versions of my old executable packer the other day, and found some rather obscene comments here and there . It seemed like I had a thing with putting a comment in with a strange word in it to be able to use the search function to get back there, I guess my editor back then didn't have bookmarks or anything.

It was also interesting to see just how horrible the code actually was -- most of it was written while I was trying to learn C. It works and all, but I would hate to have to fix a bug in a mess like that .

Slightly related.

564

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies to stay with Windows 7 as long as possible

« Last post by Jibz on November 09, 2012, 12:26 AM »

Mouser will go dental when he sees that .

565

Living Room / Re: Good Luck to Our US Friends!

« Last post by Jibz on November 06, 2012, 11:30 AM »

I try hard to keep out of these discussions as well, because I think mouser is right -- so I will just say that you continue to amaze the rest of the world by having "photo finishes" between your candidates. I think it is one of those "Only in America" things  .

http://www.huffingto...-poll_n_2066972.html

566

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is Software for Hardware Always Sucky?

« Last post by Jibz on November 05, 2012, 08:18 AM »

I have always had this idea it is because the software developers who are employed by hardware companies are of a different breed. For most of their work they have to focus on not making any irrecoverable errors. If you write a desktop application and you make a bug, it might crash that one application and annoy people, but they can just uninstall it -- if you write a hardware driver and you make a bug it could irreparably damage hardware or require a somewhat complicated process to get the machine going again.

I assume this is why desktop software is fancy looking, sleek to use, and full of bugs, while driver software is usually ugly, a pain to use, but generally doesn't blow up your machine .

It has gotten a lot better though in many cases -- I think perhaps some companies are employing a bit of a mix.

567

General Software Discussion / Re: sublime text: some innovative text editor!

« Last post by Jibz on November 05, 2012, 01:13 AM »

If you have been reading the posts about Sublime Text here on DCC and wondered what the fuss is about, this video tutorial course gives a good introduction to some of the stuff ST does well:

https://tutsplus.com...w-in-sublime-text-2/

Via Sublime HQ.

568

Living Room / Re: $10 for a Facebook Post? Huh?

« Last post by Jibz on October 31, 2012, 08:03 AM »

http://dangerousmind...want_my_friends_back

http://www.stuff.co....te-posts?cid=dlvr.it

So .. pay $10 a post if you want it to reach more than 20% of the people who should be able to see it?

569

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me choose an online backup service

« Last post by Jibz on October 31, 2012, 07:14 AM »

Recent negative review of CrashPlan: http://goinside.com/...n-crashes-and-burns/

-mouser (October 31, 2012, 06:47 AM)

I am not saying there is not a lot of stuff that could be better about CrashPlan, but that is not the best review I've ever seen. Just look at the way he handles any comments that do not agree with him. Looks more like he was going for the snarky SEO headline he mentions at the beginning himself .

I mean, just as an example, if you do just a little homework you would know that most services like this only backup what is in your documents folder and a select few other places by default -- some even only allow certain file types or locations to be backed up at all.

570

General Software Discussion / Re: AdBlock Plus To Not Block All Ads

« Last post by Jibz on October 29, 2012, 03:20 PM »

Ad Muncher has worked well for me too, and the authors have been quick to fix the few issues I've had -- but it is worth mentioning that it does not filter https connections, so you will get adds on sites like facebook.

571

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Vladstudio hallowe'en offer

« Last post by Jibz on October 28, 2012, 12:19 PM »

Nice one, thanks for the heads up .

572

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me choose an online backup service

« Last post by Jibz on October 25, 2012, 11:12 AM »

Yes, when I see a first post like that, I must admit the first thing I do is a quick google for the name and some keywords from the post .

In this case, it shows accounts on about 10 different tech-oriented forums with only 1-2 posts that in essence are a short blurp about cloud services and a link to that same site (cloudreviews).

573

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me choose an online backup service

« Last post by Jibz on October 21, 2012, 09:50 AM »

I think they all work like that .. I mentioned it in the review thread last year as well.

For a tech user it seems like an obvious security problem, but you have to remember that this is aimed at family members who probably have access to each others machines anyway. What I found more troublesome is the fact that CrashPlan in effect gives you access to files outside your own account on the machine it is running on (i.e. it seems like you can restore files that were backed up from the administrator account or some other users account on the machine). I guess it is the price you pay for having a convenient service that can back up all files instead of just your own.

574

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Listary Pro for only $9.95 on Friday 19 October

« Last post by Jibz on October 18, 2012, 03:22 AM »

Sounds great .

Any chance that v4 will support selecting multiple files from the search results list?

575

General Software Discussion / Re: which is the proven fastest way to search for and find a file ?

« Last post by Jibz on October 02, 2012, 01:15 AM »

I would say it depends on if you are searching for a file by its name or contents, and (to some extent) if the filebase you are searching is largely static or changes a lot.