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676

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 23, 2013, 06:49 PM »

And also ask if the dust has been blown out of the machine recently?

-Stoic Joker (November 23, 2013, 08:04 AM)

Nope...  Not in a few years...

Guys, many thanks for all the advice, much appreciated. I was occupied with some other duties today, but tomorrow I'll find a brush and start with a proper spring cleaning... I'll also try the other suggestions.

Another new behaviour I forgot to mention was that starting last week (so before the IE11 upgrade) my PC would refuse to go to sleep sometimes (when I was manually putting it to sleep). Then I would start shutting down software one-by-one to identify which one was keeping it awake, but it wasn't able to pin it down. This has recurred yesterday as well. Maybe it's related.

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General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 22, 2013, 06:44 PM »

The failure of winlogon.exe could be due to registry corruption or something else entirely, you can try running SFC.EXE /SCANNOW at a command prompt to check all the system files are valid.

-4wd (November 22, 2013, 06:25 PM)

Thanks, I'll try that tomorrow morning (time to sleep over here).

In the meantime I also got one of Windows' error reporting boxes popping up, saying it needs to dial home to check for solutions to 13 problems, 12 of which was a video hardware error, and the 13th was "Shut down unexpectedly." Connection failed, so I never found out if there were solutions to any of those.

But now I'm starting to think that maybe the video hardware error has to do with my DisplayPort to VGA Video Adapter Converter, which I'm using to connect the 3rd monitor to my PC.

Occasionally the converter does fail, when the PC wakes up from sleep, in which case I unplug it and replug it, and that usually sorts it out. However, that has been recurring for some time, while this rebooting problem has only started happening more frequently the last couple of days.

Anyway, I'll sleep on it (and so will the PC, hopefully)

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General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 22, 2013, 05:46 PM »

It's also sometimes easier to spot things in the Reliability History (Start menu, then start typing reliability) than looking through Event Logs.

-4wd (November 22, 2013, 04:43 PM)

4wd, many thanks for that! I checked it and it says "Windows Logon Application stopped working" a couple of times today. When I clicked on "check for a solution," it tells me "no new solutions found."

Earlier today I also ran one of Windows troubleshooting tools, and it told me that it couldn't do something because more than one user was logged on at the same time (which surprised me, as I'm the only user and have only set up one account).

When I checked the user accounts, I saw that there was also an "ASP.NET Machine Account (Standard user, Password protected)" beside my own (admin) account. (Guest account was off.) So this made me wonder if my IE11 installation yesterday did something to this ASP.NET account. I'm not a .NET developer, so I've never used that account and wouldn't even know how to anyway...

679

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 22, 2013, 12:15 PM »

You may also want to consider whether this happens after a SLEEP ....  I have this problem sometimes which I attribute to a driver not liking the sleep.

-hpearce (November 22, 2013, 11:00 AM)

I checked Device Manager and it shows that under "Other devices" "Bluetooth Peripheral Device" is missing a driver. I don't know what device this refers to (all it says is "on Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator"). "Update driver" doesn't find anything online.

The only Blootooth device I use is a Belkin dongle, which I use for my Apple Wireless Keyboard. But under "Bluetooth Radios" it says that that Belkin Bluetooth Device and Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator (whatever that is) are working fine, up-to-date, and so is my keyboard and Bluetooth connection...

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General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 22, 2013, 11:58 AM »

Hm... That feels like hardware to me. Do a memory test first, then check the hard drive with the manufacturers diagnostic CD.

-Stoic Joker (November 22, 2013, 11:54 AM)

Sorry, I misunderstood your question. It was the second one: when I'm waking it up it has already rebooted.

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General Software Discussion / Re: How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 22, 2013, 11:38 AM »

You may also want to consider whether this happens after a SLEEP

-hpearce (November 22, 2013, 11:00 AM)

Yes, it does seem to be the case.

Lots or problems with sleep and hibernation.  So far I've never tried either.  

-MilesAhead (November 22, 2013, 11:14 AM)

Were you just joking about you personally not sleeping and hibernating  , or not using these functions on your PC?

Right now my PC is set to go to sleep after 15 min. and it's also put to sleep every night. I've been doing this for years with this PC and I haven't had any problems.

I have noticed in the past that occasionally (but relatively rarely) my PC would get restarted automatically after a major Win update. But in the last 24 hrs it has restarted 3 or 4 times, which seems to be unusual.

So for clarity:
Is the machine rebooting when you try to wake it up, or are you noticing that it has rebooted - presumable sometime in the night - after you wake it up, get to the desktop, and see that the thing that were left running aren't anymore?

-Stoic Joker (November 22, 2013, 11:24 AM)

Both has happened in the past 24 hrs. Edit: sorry, misunderstood your question. It's the second one: I come to wake it up, and it greets me with the login box...

Either way I'd start with the event logs

-Stoic Joker (November 22, 2013, 11:24 AM)

Where do I find those?

How is the power in your area?

-Stoic Joker (November 22, 2013, 11:24 AM)

Seems to be fine, nothing unusual (not a battery, from the mains).

Thanks for your advice!

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General Software Discussion / How can I find out what is restarting my PC automatically?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 22, 2013, 10:13 AM »

In recent days my Win 7, 64-bit PC has restarted itself automatically a number of times and I don't know why it is doing that and how I can prevent it from happening. Usually it happens when I wake up the computer and it is asking me to log on, having restarted itself. It does not restart the applications that were open at the time of shutting down.

The only major new installation I had done in recent days is that I have updated to IE11 (that is my latest restoration point).

Some other software I had updated or installed this week include TreeSheets and Ynote Classic, and AdBlock Plus. I use AVG 2014, Malwarebytes and WinPatrol Plus, but none of them have reported anything suspicious.

Oh, also, the first IE11 installation had failed, and it even put a shortcut on my desktop to its troubleshooting page, but the second installation seems to have worked (other than the above behaviour, if it's related).

Any suggestions how I can find out what's causing this behaviour and how I can stop it would be much appreciated.

683

Living Room / Re: LG SmartTV monitors your every move - including files on attached USB drives

« Last post by dr_andus on November 21, 2013, 05:53 PM »

LG promises update for 'spying' smart TV

Since the issue became public it has emerged that Sony's PlayStation also collects data from every Blu-ray disc that is played.

Samsung, the world's largest TV maker, is yet to respond to questions about its operations.

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Living Room / Re: LG SmartTV monitors your every move - including files on attached USB drives

« Last post by dr_andus on November 20, 2013, 07:08 PM »

The story was picked up by the BBC, and by the sound of it this is snowballing pretty quickly...

It could mean LG has broken the law.

The Information Commissioner's Office told the BBC it was looking into the issue.

"We have recently been made aware of a possible data breach which may involve LG Smart TVs," said a spokesman.

"We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken."

685

DesktopCoral / Re: Displaying editable line of text in DesktopCoral

« Last post by dr_andus on November 16, 2013, 04:48 PM »

Mouser - thanks for giving me the extra nudge to check out Samurize, it did solve my problem. It's even an improvement over the previous solution, as my line of text now will stay visible even in full-screen mode with some applications, which otherwise would cover up DesktopCoral. My only problem with Samurize is that it renders Courier New font very poorly, so I had to settle on a different font. Oh, well... Now I'm just being greedy... 

686

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: FineReader11, 50%off, BdJour, Nov15Fri

« Last post by dr_andus on November 15, 2013, 08:22 AM »

Great product!

-TucknDar (November 15, 2013, 07:40 AM)

Agreed. But it's worth shopping around. You might be able to get it for even less from other distributors from your particular country, especially if they run it with a promotion or it's an academic discount etc. I got my non-profit org licence on a promotion for a lot (edit: well, OK, about 11 GBP) less than the above price.

http://www.abbyy.com...PartnersLocator.aspx

687

Living Room / Re: The most disturbing news story I've read all year

« Last post by dr_andus on November 14, 2013, 04:12 PM »

But more seriously, isn't this just calling for a Streisand effect? As it turns out, there is always a copy of it somewhere, and this sort of behaviour will just make historians, activists etc. be more mindful with their archiving, and new tools will be developed to prevent governments to get away with this sort of thing.

I bet they already regret that they've done this...

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Living Room / Re: The most disturbing news story I've read all year

« Last post by dr_andus on November 14, 2013, 04:08 PM »

Look on the bright side. At least they are no longer polluting anybody's mind with all that nonsense 

689

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking For Realtime Graphical Folder Size Monitor w/ User-Configurable Updates

« Last post by dr_andus on November 11, 2013, 11:38 AM »

There is also ShowSize in this category. It's not free, but it's graphical, and there is a trial version.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Free FTP storage using my own FTP client??

« Last post by dr_andus on November 08, 2013, 10:13 AM »

I just tried Google Drive.  Explorer drag and drop copy, not involving the GD folder, just on the same partition, was reduced to a crawl that hung for long periods, then crawled again.  I uninstalled GD and now it's back to normal.

-MilesAhead (November 08, 2013, 09:42 AM)

I had a similar experience with Google Drive Sync when I tried it a few days ago. It crashed Dopus every time I tried to right-click on a .gsheet file, and when I went off-line, my entire system slowed to a crawl, until I quit GDS.

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DesktopCoral / Re: Displaying editable line of text in DesktopCoral

« Last post by dr_andus on November 08, 2013, 06:41 AM »

However, ideally I would also like to be able to update this text quickly, by typing directly in the DesktopCoral area. Is there a way of achieving this with some kind of a widget that would allow me to have a basic text editor window within the DesktopCoral space?

-dr_andus (November 03, 2013, 06:20 PM)

Hi Mouser - let me rephrase this as a feature request directly addressed to you, in case this is currently not possible. Here is a screenshot of how I'm using DC currently. Being able to update my text in DC would eliminate the need to take screenshots, load them into DC, tinker with them, etc. It would be a lot quicker. More description on my use and other possible uses here.

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Living Room / Re: YouTube finally forces creation of google+ A/C to comment

« Last post by dr_andus on November 07, 2013, 01:22 PM »

Is this just about commenting?

So, for people who don't care about commenting (and don't want Google+), could they maintain their dual identity?

Or is the writing on the wall?

In which case the only viable option for someone who don't want to merge it with their real name would be to delete their Youtube a/c, I presume (if that's even possible)?

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DesktopCoral / Displaying editable line of text in DesktopCoral

« Last post by dr_andus on November 03, 2013, 06:20 PM »

I would like to have a line of text (in black font) displayed at the top of my screen in a narrow band at all times, with a grey background and nothing else showing (no borders, no chrome). I was able to achieve this by taking a screenshot of the text in WriteMonkey, and then using it as a background image in DesktopCoral.

However, ideally I would also like to be able to update this text quickly, by typing directly in the DesktopCoral area. Is there a way of achieving this with some kind of a widget that would allow me to have a basic text editor window within the DesktopCoral space?

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General Software Discussion / Re: notepad2-mod: custom code folding for txt files?

« Last post by dr_andus on November 02, 2013, 04:10 PM »

Nod5 - many thanks for the detailed instructions. Works like a charm! This must be one of the simplest outliners out there...

695

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on October 29, 2013, 02:10 PM »

The question then is how comfortable people are with lying. Politicians are obviously extremely comfortable with it.

-Renegade (October 29, 2013, 04:06 AM)

One problem with this position is that it does not acknowledge that the daily work of a politician consists of negotiating conflicting demands from opposing interests, while the world is constantly changing around them. Something will always look like a lie from someone's particular position, and opponents will be more than happy to point those out to exploit them for their own particular political interests.

This doesn't mean that barefaced lies are always OK. But asking politicians to always only tell the truth and only the truth is a highly unrealistic demand that no one is actually capable of doing in their own lives either. Perpetuating such unrealistic expectations by saying that "all politicians are liars" undermines the democratic process because it breeds cynicism and simply turns people off politics and they stop voting and they get even more disenfranchised. There will never be such a thing as a politician that 100% always tells the truth as it is. That is only possible in an alternate Platonic world or maybe in Heaven.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on October 29, 2013, 01:46 PM »

Good to see that Snowden's original actions are starting to have some real effect on the political machinery. All these developments appear to justify his actions: if he hadn't revealed all this, then unconstitutional and illegal activities by shadowy government agencies would go on unchecked. It will be increasingly more difficult for the US govt to argue that he is simply a criminal.

NSA: Dianne Feinstein breaks ranks to oppose US spying on allies

Feinstein's statement comes at a crucial time for the NSA. Legislation will be introduced in Congress on Tuesday that would curtail the agency's powers, and there are the first signs that the White House may be starting to distance itself from security chiefs.

On Tuesday morning, James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican and author of the 2001 Patriot Act, will introduce a bill called the USA Freedom Act that will ban warrantless bulk phone metadata collection and prevent the NSA from querying its foreign communications databases for identifying information on Americans. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, will introduce the bill's Senate counterpart that same day.

Also on Tuesday, the two most senior intelligence leaders are due to testify before the House intelligence committee.

Feinstein's shifting position was not the only emerging challenge confronting the NSA late Monday. A new disclosure from the Electronic Frontier Foundation added to the agency's woes by suggesting that it began testing means to gather location data on cellphones inside the US before informing the secret surveillance court that oversees it.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on October 28, 2013, 07:14 PM »

It seems as though the BBC is talking about itself. To paraphrase:

The BBC has grown into a huge bureaucracy driven by its own organisational and political imperatives.
It pursues ever greater coverage, monopoly of propaganda, staff and budget.

A big difference is that the BBC actually seems to work much harder than the NSA at keeping its own secrets - e.g. obfuscating FOIA requests with massive legal defences.

-IainB (October 28, 2013, 04:57 PM)

Hm, I'm not sure what you're getting at with comparing the two. If you don't like the BBC, at least you can switch it off... I'm not sure the same can be said about the NSA... 

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on October 28, 2013, 01:52 PM »

Mark Urban of the BBC makes some interesting points that I was also wondering about:

Why has NSA failed to keep its own secrets?

...if the NSA is as powerful as its critics have claimed, why has it been so useless at protecting its secrets?

There are aspects of incompetence to it.

The latest revelations, about tapping world leaders phone calls, also leave one wondering what use the content of Ms Merkel's calls were to US policy makers?

The NSA has grown into a huge data-mining bureaucracy driven by its own organisational imperatives.

It pursues ever greater coverage, storage of data, staff and budget.

In many cases it does things because it can, rather than because somebody has asked whether the information is useful, whether it is worth the potential price if discovered, or whether the activity can actually be prevented from coming into the public domain.

Maybe one answer is that the US Constitution does actually work, so the government can't just silence journalists the way even the British govt is happy to do (see Miranda affair). And the Internet also works, being impossible to totally control and contain (which, after all, was deliberately modelled to be decentralised, as a way to deter the threat from another highly centralised power, the USSR).

The learning point here for Obama and the NSA is that just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should, as the consequences of being found out deliver more harm than benefits sometimes (such as in the Merkel case).

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General Software Discussion / Re: Collaborative online outliner recommendation?

« Last post by dr_andus on October 28, 2013, 12:58 PM »

Collaboration is also possible in Gingko app, though I don't think it highlights the changes made by others (yet). It's probably not for basic users, as it uses Markdown, and the interface is non-traditional (though in a good way). You get 3 trees (documents) for free (or unlimited, if you make them public).

I wrote a review of it recently, and here is another one from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by dr_andus on October 28, 2013, 11:14 AM »

A rather revealing and self-defining statement about one's personal standards and integrity.

-IainB (October 28, 2013, 08:33 AM)

Not really. Just a sociological observation. Not all lies are created equal. We all tell lies as we negotiate our daily existences. You don't believe me? Try for a day not to tell a lie like in the movie Liar Liar. When your missus asks you the next time "Does my bum look big in this?", just go ahead and say yes and see what happens...