Recent Posts

5751

General Software Discussion / Re: Boot Disk Failure: after replacing hard drive

« Last post by tomos on August 28, 2012, 02:51 PM »

I've had problems with Windows 7 using the largest drive to store all the boot info, even if the OS was on a smaller drive. So if you swap out the non-OS drive that has the boot info on it, you will not be able to boot to your OS.

I'm not sure if this is the problem you are experiencing or not.

-Deozaan (August 28, 2012, 01:59 PM)

I had something similar during Win7 install (I cant remember why, but it did choose a different drive for the mini-partition. I resinstalled with the second drive temporarily disconnected.)
So check if the 100MB boot partition is on the same drive as the OS.

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Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by tomos on August 28, 2012, 08:49 AM »

There we go. That's pretty close to what I need.

-TaoPhoenix (August 28, 2012, 07:59 AM)

that's what I thought

I'll fiddle with it. Thanks!

-TaoPhoenix (August 28, 2012, 07:59 AM)

have fun ;-)
I see you can also make shortcuts for various actions



I also use that FF tweak where you can stop the tabs actually loading - i.e. if you open a window with 50 tabs, only the active tab will load. Damned if I can remember how that is done though...
If you're interested and dont know about it, I can search here, I usually post about stuff here so as I have some chance of finding it again lol.

(I also use session manager for keeping track of closed tabs.)

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Living Room / Re: Animal Friends thread

« Last post by tomos on August 28, 2012, 03:45 AM »

The Schoolboy, 8, who has struck up a remarkable friendship with a colony of alpine animals:
http://www.dailymail...a.html#ixzz24oXIG8Pc
(see attachment in previous post)

-mouser (August 28, 2012, 12:03 AM)

there's some great photos going with that
here's another:

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Living Room / Re: Animal Friends thread

« Last post by tomos on August 28, 2012, 03:35 AM »

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-Stephen66515 (August 27, 2012, 04:24 PM)

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Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by tomos on August 28, 2012, 03:15 AM »

I'm not sure where exactly it is under the traditional menu (it's under tools). Here's mine:




and here the settings I use:
the window autosaves on closing with these settings.





[edit] best go through the options/preferences as well to see what's possible. I have Firefox set up to ask on opening which session to load. [/edit]

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Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by tomos on August 28, 2012, 03:02 AM »

Cumulated clouds.
 (see attachment in previous post)

« Last Edit: 27-08-2012, 02:22:01 by Arizona Hot; Reason:
Edited to remove the less scenic part(this IS rural Arizona) »

-Arizona Hot (August 26, 2012, 07:09 PM)

I didnt see what you removed, but those hills are pretty impressive

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Living Room / Re: How much soda (pop) do you drink?

« Last post by tomos on August 28, 2012, 03:00 AM »

"Could antibiotics be causing the obesity epidemic?"
http://www.smartplan...ic/13552?tag=nl.e660

-tomos (August 27, 2012, 03:46 PM)

Sounds like someone doesn't know what antibiotics are.

An antibiotic is a substance like Penicillin (which is widely used in agriculture as point of fact, I still have a vial of it in the refrigerator) that is able to neutralize bacteria. They are used in humans too for certain types of infections, although the original Penicillin is no longer used in humans due to widespread sensitivity to it and antibiotic resistance effects.

-SeraphimLabs (August 27, 2012, 04:09 PM)

It's clear what antibiotics are - the article is talking about side-effects of taking them long term and early in life. I presume that if animals are regularly given antibiotics -and you eat that meat every day- that you will be getting a regular low dose. So, it seems reasonable to worry about side-effects (and while obesity is obviously a problem, I think there are a lot of other possible problems - as you also point out with growth hormones).

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Living Room / Re: How much soda (pop) do you drink?

« Last post by tomos on August 27, 2012, 03:46 PM »

On the obesity front, I believe antibiotics and growth hormones are still almost universally used in animal farming in the States(?)
AFAIK antibiotics are restricted in the EU, and growth hormones are completely banned.

This article below speculates on antibiotics being a major cause of obesity.
Commenters suggest growth hormones, and of course the logical eat too much and dont exercise excuse...

"Could antibiotics be causing the obesity epidemic?"
http://www.smartplan...ic/13552?tag=nl.e660

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Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by tomos on August 27, 2012, 03:21 PM »

Hmm, good start guys, when I am not quite so giddy I will try your ideas and see what I get.

I was hoping to go to the extra step and have (whatever is in my browser) and do some kind of Save-As, name it, and create a new icon I can name. Does that clarify anything?

-TaoPhoenix (August 27, 2012, 10:54 AM)

With Session manager, you save [the current window] as [whatever you want]. You can designate in preferences where sessions get saved. The rest you get the pleasure of doing yourself ;-)
Can you set icons universally for a particular filetype (? -maybe depends on your file manager?).

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Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by tomos on August 27, 2012, 10:37 AM »

I use "Session Manager" (FF addon) a lot - comix, research for printer, last daily set of tabs, etc. etc. I havent used it like this before but it works:

open a session manager file using FF. Set FF as the default opener and add to desktop (or create a shortcut).

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Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by tomos on August 27, 2012, 08:26 AM »

Just finished:  Dark Fire, by C.J. Sansom, the second in his "Shardlake" series, that starts with Dissolution.  These are outstanding historical thrillers, set at the time of Henry VIII.

-rjbull (August 26, 2012, 02:58 PM)

must check that out.

A while back I read Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross. It's a really good novel -not a thriller as such, but lots of suspense in there- based on the story that there was a female pope in the early middle ages. Wikipedia doesnt have much faith in the story but that's besides the point really ;-)
http://en.wikipedia....nalysis_and_critique

That was one of the first historical novels I've read. I moved on to The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (1989) about the building of a cathedral in 12thC England. It is a good read, very gripping - but the writing at times gets in the way of the story. There was a bit of a low in the middle where I almost gave up - but at 1,150 pages in my copy, he did well to keep me reading to the end.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Alternatives to RecentX

« Last post by tomos on August 26, 2012, 08:02 AM »

Hopefully there's a switch for starting FARR with the MRU-plugin pre-loaded, but it is also possible to define which one of the MRU-lists that are to be displayed automatically upon launching?

-DerekHal (August 26, 2012, 07:33 AM)

phitsc (the plugin author) is an active dc member, so it possibly would be best to ask in that plugin thread to get his attention.

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Living Room / [proper] Camera meets [not proper] Smartphone

« Last post by tomos on August 26, 2012, 07:53 AM »

You're probably well confused by that title. I would have liked to be able to write "[improper] smartphone", but that would have given the wrong impression ;-)

Cameras in smartphones have improved over the years. There was one last year that had something like a 42MP sensor, so as it could offer zoom that wasnt just enlarge those pixels (zoom x3 -at a lower resolution- sorry, I cant remember which make/model.)

But the camera is limited by the smartphone design.
Nikon are making, I think, the first attempt to cross a half decent pocket camera and, well, a Google OS - Android 2.3 (they chose 2.3 to spare the battery and CPU).
So there's no phone really... But it is a step in that direction.

The Nikon Coolpix S800c is "a 16-megapixel, 10x zoom, WiFi-enabled pocket digital camera".





It's due to be launched in September. RRP US$350.

Imaging Resource's "hands on preview" here:
http://www.imaging-r...00c/nikon-s800cA.HTM

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Living Room / Re: Apple v Samsung Verdict is in

« Last post by tomos on August 26, 2012, 06:45 AM »

I will patent the CIRCLE WITH ROUNDED CORNERS~!

-Renegade (August 25, 2012, 09:51 AM)

Where's your point?
[...]

-cranioscopical (August 25, 2012, 02:46 PM)

My point? ...

-Renegade (August 26, 2012, 01:57 AM)

did he mean the corner on the circle  (but that was rounded, so now I'm confussed...)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Alternatives to RecentX

« Last post by tomos on August 26, 2012, 06:39 AM »

I dont use RecentX nor this plugin, so not sure - but worth a try I'd say:

How about FARR with
FARR plugin: FARR Most Recently Used 1.0.0



(Commercial use allowed for individuals.)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Help me understand Virtual Machine [VMWare]

« Last post by tomos on August 24, 2012, 09:58 AM »

Just to note VMWare Player 5 has just been released
http://www.vmware.co...0-release-notes.html

(I havent installed it yet, wont get to it today anyway.)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Help me understand Virtual Machine [VMWare]

« Last post by tomos on August 24, 2012, 09:44 AM »

Thanks for the help/direction 40

I had just rooted out their forums myself ... there's an incredible range of forums there http://communities.vmware.com/community/

5768

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me understand Virtual Machine [VMWare]

« Last post by tomos on August 24, 2012, 06:19 AM »

Anyone know about printers?
Can a printer be added? (I tried yesterday unsuccessfully -not looking for solutions here- just wondering if it *should* be possible).

If a printer is enabled in the virtual OS, is it then disabled in the main machine?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Help me understand Virtual Machine [VMWare]

« Last post by tomos on August 24, 2012, 06:11 AM »

I'm wondering, can I restore my backup to a different location and use it as a new virtual OS, or would it confuse VMWare because it's exactly the same as the other? I see I can open a virtual machine "which will then be added to your library"

-tomos (August 22, 2012, 04:56 AM)

If you make a copy of the VM files and open them, VMWare should ask you something to the effect of "is this a copy, or did you move the VM files?". It also does this after a reinstall (at least a full Windows reinstall, haven't reinstalled vmware on it's own).

-f0dder (August 22, 2012, 04:58 AM)

thanks f0dder (I missed that the other day).

BTW I ended up having to restore a backup (i.e. replace the current VM from a backup copy). It worked fine.

5770

Living Room / Weather revisited

« Last post by tomos on August 24, 2012, 05:45 AM »

I've been struggling with Yahoo weather latey, it has a major problem with my local weather -and no place to report the problem- and no info about their weather sources.

Otherwise, I use www.wunderground.com which is great:

• Let's me know the weather station used
• Allows me to change the weather station used
• Remembers that I changed the temperature to celsius (what a §#%&$ relief)

but, occasionally, (like any station) it gets it wrong.

Coverage (for my uses - mainly central/western Europe) has gotten a lot better in the last couple of years.

So, just wondering are there other good sites out there that you can recommend?

5771

General Software Discussion / Re: Simplifying Your Computer

« Last post by tomos on August 23, 2012, 04:45 PM »

I have original Windows discs sitting right here but for the purpose format/reinstall is there legal *up to date* Windows image available somewhere or is there some mystery method I am clueless about? (there have been 100s of MB updates since SP3 alone)

-rgdot (August 23, 2012, 03:51 PM)

do you mean original as in SP0 so-to-speak?
If so, according to the nlite forums, you can slipstream it with SP3 (using nlite) and it should work. But I cannot guarantee that. I dont have links but did research it during the week. I actually tried it but it didnt work in a VM install - but I think that may have been to do with me adding the key in nlite and VMWare trying to also use a quick install system. Or maybe it just doesnt work...

There was an XP-up-to-SP3 download at one stage from MS -
I actually still have it I think, but it didnt work for my keys cause they are for OEM version.

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Living Room / Re: Hyperrealism in Action

« Last post by tomos on August 23, 2012, 04:22 PM »

I would love to see a real-close close-up to get even an idea of how he does that...

5773

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by tomos on August 23, 2012, 11:02 AM »

I really have no idea where to post this - either here in this thread, in the joke thread, or in the Basement... But, it's a music video, so...

Anyways, it's a spin on an old Bee Gees tune (Stayin' Alive) and very political. I found it very entertaining, but some might not, so, it's in a spoiler.

-Renegade (August 23, 2012, 10:40 AM)

Funny I heard that on mainstream radio here - they dont pay much attention to lyrics when they're in English.
I wanted to look it up -
I hadn't even noticed the political content - just a big fan of disco BeeGee's
On a purely musical note, the Pink Floyd bit clashes badly imo.

5774

Living Room / Re: The Googler Who Looked At The Worst Of The Internet

« Last post by tomos on August 23, 2012, 06:13 AM »

Gives the impression that google know that these people will be screwed up after three quarters of a year doing this; and that google dont want to employ them because of that.

Disposable people/contracters/etc. ...

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General Software Discussion / Re: [sorted] 32bit app with 16bit installer - installing on Win7 64bit

« Last post by tomos on August 23, 2012, 04:46 AM »

Interesting - I was under the impression that some 64-bit version of Windows (definitely not XP, but perhaps Vista or 7?) had introduced built-in knowledge of at least some of the most popular installers, so that situation could be handled without running the 16-bit stub?

Obviously not every obscure little installer can be supported this way, but InstallShield was quite commonplace. (Also, I've always found it whacked-out that IS used 16bit installer stubs for 32bit apps...)

-f0dder (August 22, 2012, 11:53 AM)

dont know - there did seem to be lots of people out there with the same problem.
But I think a lot of people wouldnt know in advance if the app itself is 16 or 32bt -
I just presumed the app itself was 32bit, and was luckily correct