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5601
Living Room / Re: Google Ends Privacy
« Last post by IainB on February 07, 2012, 02:21 AM »
Working on the basis that, if something said/done does not make sense, then ask the question "Under what circumstances would it make sense?", this could be a useful answer:
Why people have Google Search completely wrong

So this post makes good sense: Google is removing search results?
5602
Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by IainB on February 07, 2012, 02:15 AM »
@Renegade: That's awful bad "satire". Is it a recruitment promo?
Made me want to become a TSA officer right away!     :)
5603
Living Room / Re: Chilling Effects - BTjunkie Closes
« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2012, 10:12 PM »
Yes, strictly speaking, MegaUL "has been made an example of", to teach the rest of us a lesson of fear of the authorities.
That's the way to do it! - Punch, in Punch and Judy.
5604
New Calibre Release: 0.8.38 [03 Feb, 2012] available:
See all new features of v0.8 here.
Changelog - Release: 0.8.38 [03 Feb, 2012]:
Spoiler
New Features
Implement the ability to automatically add books to calibre from a specified folder.
Closes tickets: 920249

calibre can now watch a folder on your computer and instantly add any files you put there to the calibre library as new books. You can tell calibre which folder to watch via Preferences->Adding Books->Automatic Adding.

Conversion: When automatically inserting page breaks, do not put a page break before a h1 or h2 tag if it is immediately preceded by another h1 or h2 tag.

Driver for EZReader T730 and Pint-of-View PlayTab Pro

Closes tickets: 923283, 922969

5605
General Software Discussion / Re: Universal Marker
« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2012, 05:31 PM »
I supposed must be the position of the file in the pc (if you change the folder). I suppose is possible with an auxiliary database to control all marks.
That's probably true.
Suggestions:
  • You can highlight and make notes in PDFs with. the standard (free) Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  • You could organise your ebooks with Calibre - E-book management (FREE).
  • You could collectively organise your document references, notes, highlighting and management with Qiqqa - Reference Management (FREE). (Seems to be taking on an increasing range of document types.)
5606
Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor Fails to capture X-Plane screenshots
« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2012, 04:16 PM »
Both my brother and I are fans of Screenshot Captor, and have successfully used it with Windows XP Pro and the X-Plane flight sim.
We have switched to new computers and are using Windows 7, SP1 64bit. Since switching computers, we have not been able to capture screen shots with the X-Plane program.
What we both get are blank black pics. Screenshot Captor works ok with other software.

This may be a directX issue.. Capture from accelerated direct3d windows does not work as normal screenshot capturing..  Are you sure there isnt a screen grab function within x-plane?

...X-Plane has a full screen capture mode. It does not have Grab a Selected Region mode.

You can always grab/save a full screen using the game's built-in features, then open the image using ScreenShot Capture and do any editing/markup.

Hopefully we will find another application that doesn't have this limitation.

The issue would appear to be that the introduction of a new OS (Win7-64) - and its accompanying technology - has apparently defeated some functionality of SSC that used to work OK in the earlier/previous OS (XP).

If that is the case, then it would seem to be incorrect to call this defeated functionality a "limitation" of SSC - especially if it is in fact a directX issue (which is a proprietary Microsoft technology).

Are you unable to employ the workaround suggested by @Ath?
You can always grab/save a full screen using the game's built-in features, then open the image using ScreenShot Capture and do any editing/markup.
Sheesh.         :(
5607
Living Room / Re: Chilling Effects - BTjunkie Closes
« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2012, 02:50 PM »
This latest collapse of an ISP could be just another illustration (there have been 2 or 3 so far, I think) as to what a display of institutionalised and legalised thuggery can actually achieve.

The Megaupload was arguably a salutary lesson for all, since it demonstrated what the real powers could make happen to you if they become impatient and decide to avoid following an expensive, time-consuming and due legal process. Just concoct some trumped-up charges and release the dogs.
One thing it seems to have proven is that force/intimidation ("shock and awe") is still the most effective deterrent when employed by State/MAFIAA thugs.

I must admit that I would never have expected to see a repeat of the sort of calculating, deliberate, absolutely over-the-top - i.e., excessive and unnecessarily violent - actions by the New Zealand police that were evident in the
1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand

That it was apparently done in this case at the behest of a foreign Fascist State beggars belief.
There is a documentary on NZTV tonight that apparently examines whether there was unnecessary force employed, but given that it is State-funded TV, I think the outcome could be predictable - "Nothing to see here Move on." Keep the proles happy.
We shall see.
5608
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2012, 03:49 AM »
I have been using HDS PRO v3.70, and on the Disk Performance tab it said that "Disk performance monitoring for this drive is disabled", and the tab was otherwise blank.
However, there is a fix that enables disk performance monitoring.
I only found out about it after getting HDS PRO to update itself today - from v3.70 to v4.0.
When HDS PRO restarted after the update, the Disk Performance tab it said that "Disk performance monitoring for this drive is disabled" but also gave a link for further information: http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#perf

The contents of that link are copied in the spoiler below:
Spoiler
Source: http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#perf

No Performance information displayed. What is wrong?
The performance information is based on the Performance Counter objects of Windows (2000/XP/2003/Vista) systems. Hard Disk Sentinel reads these counters and displays performance information based on them. Hard Disk Sentinel has no control on these counters, how they work because they are controlled by Windows itself.

The operating system assigns performance counters to hard disks while booting. So if the disk is an external one and connected later (after Windows completed the booting sequence), the performance monitoring may not be possible.

If the performance information is missing for ALL disks, then disk performance monitoring is globally disabled. Please click Start -> Run -> CMD.EXE (to open a console window) and type diskperf -y (ENTER). You may need to restart the computer to let Windows create the performance counter objects on startup.

If the above command does not help, please try the following:

    Click Start -> Run -> Regedit

    navigate to the following subkey:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Perfdisk\Performance

    If there is a value called Disable Performance Counters listed there, and it has a numerical value of one (1), just change it to zero (0), and reboot.

The full procedure is available at: http://technet.micro...ibrary/aa998009.aspx

Fix performance counters under Win7 (thanks to Neolisk): Click Start, type cmd right click cmd.exe, and select Run as administrator.
At the prompt, type lodctr /r and press ENTER. This will repair the pointers (those are stored in the registry).
If it says (Disabled) next to a provider, you can enable it with lodctr /e:(provider name). Use for (provider name) the string between the [ ] at the beginning of the entry (more information at this page).

If the above does not work, you can manually try to verify if the operating system detects the performance values. To do this, please start the performance monitoring tool from Microsoft:
Click Start -> Run and type "Perfmon".
On the bottom right side of the window (under the graphs) you can see a list of currently displayed performance counters. Please click on them and press "DEL" button to remove all.
Then above this space (on the empty graph) please right click and select "Add Counters"
Under "Performance Objects" please select "PhysicalDisk"
Under "Select counters from list" please select "% Disk Time" (or "Disk Bytes/Sec" - these two counters are displayed in Hard Disk Sentinel).
Under "Select instances from list" please select instances for your drives (eg. "0 C:") or select all.
Click on "Add" and then "Close".

Now you should see how the values are changing for the selected hard disks. Please copy or move some files to see how the graphs are changing, reflecting the actual disk usage or the transfer rate. You can compare the values displayed here and in Hard Disk Sentinel. These should be nearly the same (some differences is possible because of the different sampling times).

Here are more details about re-building performance counter objects of Windows. In case of a trouble (no performance information displayed), please check the following pages:

How to manually rebuild Performance Counter Library values
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300956&Product=winsvr2003

PerfMon Problems (Win7)
    http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/thread/e90f231d-0014-457d-8b1f-5f342971597a


I followed the instructions there (more or less):
On my installation, the performance information was missing for only the main disk, but I ensured that disk performance monitoring was globally enabled anyway:
  • Click Start -> Run -> CMD.EXE (to open a console window) and type diskperf -y (ENTER).
  • Restarted the computer to let Windows create the performance counter objects on startup.
However, on the HDS PRO Disk Performance tab it still said that "Disk performance monitoring for this drive is disabled".
So I:
  • Click Start -> Run -> Regedit
  • navigated to the subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Perfdisk\Performance
  • selected the value called Disable Performance Counters listed there; it had a numerical value of one (1), so I changed it to zero (0), and rebooted.

It worked a charm.
After the reboot, HDS PRO showed real-time Disk performance monitoring on my laptop's main drive.

EDIT 2012-02-16:
I spoke too soon. It worked a charm, but it didn't "stick", and the HDS panel for that drive reverted to the message:
"Disk performance monitoring for this drive is disabled"
So I followed the instructions in the spoiler above where it says:
"If the above does not work, you can manually..."
- and that worked a charm too, but again it did not "stick".
I am currently at a loss as to how to make it stick.

EDIT 2012-06-02:
I have been having two episodic issues with HDS PRO:
  • 1. It doesn't always start up with Windows like it should, and I have not yet figured out why.
  • 2. The Registry settings to enable real-time disk performance settings do not "stick", so I have now automated the workaround changes to the registry in a .reg file, contents as follows:
Spoiler
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[BLANK]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Perfdisk\Performance]
"Disable Performance Counters"="0"
[BLANK]

The [BLANK] lines must be just that - blank lines.

The steps are:
  • shut down HDS PRO (if it is running).
  • in Windows Explorer, double-click on the .reg file (I call mine Enable disk perf counters.reg).
  • restart HDS PRO.

That's all. The real-time disk performance monitoring should now be working in HDS PRO.
You don't need to reboot or anything.
Please note, this is in Win7-64 Home Premium. The appropriate .reg commands and even rebooting may well be different for other versions of Windows.
5609
Screenshot Captor / Re: Scrolling window in Firefox
« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2012, 05:08 PM »
@Ath: Thanks for the tips. I had been having difficulty with SSC in FF as well, and had not figured out the conditions to make SSC work there. So you saved me some trouble.

Net results for capture of an Amazon page in FF:
  • Sometimes got a blue dividing line (gap) between images. Workaround: restart the screen capture and try again (seems to give a different result).
  • LHS margin sometimes auto-guessed too close to leftmost text. Workaround: restart the screen capture and try again (seems to give a different result).
  • Otherwise can get almost perfect, with a bit of tweaking.

Conclusions:
  • Using Ath's pointers (above) seems to help.
  • It proved worthwhile to watch mouser's SSC Screencasts first.
  • SSC can give near-perfect results.
  • General rule: If not almost perfect, then restart the screen capture and try again for that page - because the results of the last time's capture are not always consistently repeatable.
5610
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2012, 04:51 PM »
I've never tried it, but, if you used the full template, I think it's incomplete.  It may give the software name, but it doesn't seem to give a brief explanation of what the software does.  The name on is own isn't always a clear enough indication of function.
If you go to the Mini-Reviews by Members section, and click on New Topic, it opens up a draft post/message box already filled with the template (complete with table), for you to enter the review details. You just need to fill in the details where indicated.

The result of all that will probably be similar to the (my) opening post in this review thread. The template saves trouble (work) and provides useful reminders as to what details you could include in the review - so it's really quite handy. The BBS code is all the special commands in the template - and that is what I find a bit slow and tedious, working amongst all that. I would prefer a WYSIWYG template, that's all. Faster/simpler.
5611
General Software Discussion / Re: Adding text to an image
« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2012, 03:29 AM »
Wot, not something like this? (change colours to suite taste)
Click on button to see example:
Spoiler
Soccer (football) pitch (IB01).jpg

5612
Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 11:49 PM »
Malpractice action against Mexican plastic surgeon:
Spoiler
Plastic surgery on breasts gone wrong.jpg

5614
Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 11:19 PM »
Amusing irony at the BP petrol pumps. Following the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, this sign was spotted by a BP customer in a petrol service station in Ohio (USA).
The sign reads:
WARNING! Do Not Leave Pumps Unattended You Are Responsible For Spills.
Spoiler
BP - responsibility for spills (original).jpg

5615
Brilliant. Thanks mouser.
All makes sense. Now off to use SSC a bit more...    :)
5616
General Software Discussion / Re: Adding text to an image
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 09:16 PM »
Umm, I think this could probably be done quite easily - and nicely - via ScreenShot Captor, using text objects. They are quite flexible to use. You wouldn't need to provide a combination of rows. Just type the text in, to either opaque or transparent objects - (say) 1 object for each column - then align the column objects and their text and scale the text to fit using the font size. I'm a relatively novice user of SSC, so I suspect there could probably be even better ways of doing it in SSC if you were an experienced user.
5617
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 08:46 PM »
Just bought the standard version. Thanks for the review Iain!
Thankyou. You're most welcome. I'm pleased if it's been of use/help. I have got a lot of education/benefit from reading the various informative software reviews/discussions in this forum, so I am just returning the favour.
Though initially too impatient to use the Mini-Review template (it's a bit tedious to use with all the BBS code), I became more accepting of it after my first tooth-grinding attempt at using it.
As a template though, it seems quite comprehensive.

I'm not sure, but I think I might have first read about HDS in a DCF member's signature somewhere. I have been unable to find out which one now though. Anyway, I thought that if someone felt that HDS was worth putting in their signature, then it might be worth looking at the product. It was!    :Thmbsup:
5618
Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 08:41 AM »
Satirical comment on the Komen + PP funding backpeddling/fiasco.
Komen + PP funding.jpg
5619
Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 08:04 AM »
Neck Exercise To Reduce The Pain While On Your Computer.
Amusing - and seems to be correct and potentially useful/beneficial.
Spoiler
Neck Exercise - clip 2012-02-04.jpg

5620
Living Room / Re: According To FBI, Internet Privacy Now Considered Suspicious
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 07:24 AM »
That list is redolent of Hitler's Brownshirts, or Mao's Little Red Book. The children were even encouraged to turn in or report on their own parents.
5621
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2012, 06:56 AM »
There is no log, the first time I ran HDS is after you wrote about it :)
OIC, sorry, I did not realise that.
A pity. I would have liked to read a real case HDS log for a drive, starting with the initial performance deterioration event(s) and ending with something like your disk's 9% health status. Nothing like learning from a case study when contemplating risk avoidance.
I have contacted hdsentinel.com and asked them for this.
5622
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 03, 2012, 04:46 AM »
No, sorry, I meant the Hard Disk Sentinel log for that drive. That will be displayed for that drive on the Log tab - the fifth one in from the left in your screenshot.
5623
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 03, 2012, 02:13 AM »
I think I win :)
That's interesting. Could you post the log of that disk? I'd like to see how it progressed from when the deterioration set in up to that 9% point.
5624
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 02, 2012, 08:39 PM »
(Cross-posted for relevant information.)
...i don't use any realtime drive monitoring tools.. i should.
Thanks for answering my Q.
I asked because I do use such a tool, but (being paranoid), though it gets a very good write-up and has a great spec., I don't know whether it will work for sure in warning me in advance of an imminent disk failure. I therefore wanted to learn vicariously from any relevant experience you might have had. It's HDS PRO (Hard Disk Sentinel PRO) - i.e., not the freeware version - and it notified me in October 2011 that on the disk in my 11-month old laptop:
- it had logged
2011-10-11 17:26:15     #196 Reallocation Event Count 0 -> 21
2011-10-11 17:26:15     #5 Reallocated Sectors Count 0 -> 21

- that:
     Performance = 100%
     Health = 69% (downgraded from 100% due to the above logged events)
(This is still the current status of the disk at time of writing this post.)

And it gave me the recommendation:
There are 21 bad sectors on the disk surface. The contents of these sectors were moved to the spare area.
Based on the number of remapping operations, the health of the disk was decreased in different steps.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.

It is recommended to continuously monitor the hard disk status.
So, "belts-and-braces", I then ran a full system CHKDSK on the disk, and then tried to enable HDS PRO real time performance monitoring.
However, though HDS PRO can continuously monitor a disk if you tell it to, the disk has to be able to support that feature, and in my case HDS PRO said:
Real time performance monitoring is not supported on this disk.
- so I have to periodically trigger HDS PRO to recheck the disk, just in case. (So far, so good.)
Not having it automated doesn't alleviate my paranoia though!

Lesson learned:
Try to ensure that any disks bought in the future do support RT performance monitoring
- i.e., for increased peace-of-mind.
5625
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review
« Last post by IainB on February 02, 2012, 08:39 PM »
(Cross-posted for relevant information.)
It looks like HDS is starting to prove its worth.
On 2011-10-11 HDS started ringing alarm bells as it gave early warning and reported that:
There are 21 bad sectors on the disk surface. The contents of these sectors were moved to the spare area.
Based on the number of remapping operations, the health of the disk was decreased in different steps.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.

It is recommended to continuously monitor the hard disk status.
(see attachment in previous post)
This isn't actually very serious as things stand.
Disk performance was rated still as 100%, but disk health was reduced from 100% to 69%.
The Log showed two problem events:
  • 2011-10-11  17:26:15 #196 Reallocation Event Count 0 -> 21
  • 2011-10-11  17:26:15     #5 Reallocated Sectors Count 0 -> 21

Real time performance monitoring is not supported on this disk, so it will not be possible to continuously monitor the hard disk status. Therefore I shall need to periodically manually trigger a check.

As soon as I got the alerts, I read the log and then, with some urgency:
  • I kicked off a disk image backup  (a standard Windows 7 64-bit feature).
  • I kicked off a recovery disk written to CD-ROM (a standard Windows 7 64-bit feature).
  • I ran the standard Widows defrag analysis. It showed 3% fragmentation of files, so no action required.
  • I initiated CHKDSK with the /F option ("Fix errors") from the command prompt, rebooted the PC, and watched whilst CHKDSK did its thing before Windows started up. CHKDSK reported that it had fixed several minor errors - so nothing major.

I am now running a fresh incremental backup of all main data directories. This was something I used to do on a daily basis, but I have been a bit slack these last few weeks. It'll be back to paranoia for a while now.

I'm not sure whether to wait and see if the disk health deteriorates further before I request a new hard drive under warranty from HP. I have only had this HP ENVY 14 laptop for about 10 months.
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