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676

Living Room / Re: How can I blank out my laptop camera?

« Last post by Shades on December 10, 2017, 04:56 PM »

Not every country operates under the same rules, regulations or even considerations. Now I can imagine that a video interview is done to see how the person to be interviewed presents him- or herself to the outer world. But also to have a look at the demeanor of that person when in conversation and being questioned. Without knowing the function of this interview it is kinda hard to say whether a video interview is necessary or even desirable.

Some of the advice from "melanie" isn't bad. Investing in your outside appearance can certainly be a good thing for a function where such a thing is appreciated. Mainly because when you have done so, it will bring more confidence to the table. In my (limited) experience with person-to-person interviews it really is a good thing if you can present a workable solution, which you are confident in completing, to a question on how you would solve a problem the interviewer throws at you. When you can do so, you don't need to be the best looking person, but you must be presentable and show effort if you are in contact with customers.

"Big headlights", even for someone like me in a family where females have a (natural) cup size that starts with G, I don't get why it remains very hard not to look. Problems with practicality, health (back pains) and paying huge sums for proper support, that is what I remember from childhood. While not based on first hand experience, my head knows that such "headlights" are no blessing at all. So the suggestion to get "plastic" versions of those...yeah, that doesn't resonate at all with me.

** Edit ** added last paragraph.

677

Screenshot Captor / Re: Access Violation at address 00480893

« Last post by Shades on December 08, 2017, 05:03 PM »

Very often that error is related to software not being able (or allowed) to write to its default/configured folder. In case of ScreenshotCaptor, is the user account you use allowed to write in the Screenshot folder or the folder where you configure the output of ScreenshotCaptor to be stored?

That is the first thing I would check.

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Living Room / Re: War Dogs – This brought tears to my eyes.

« Last post by Shades on December 03, 2017, 08:01 AM »

Is it also not the case that dogs are being trained using an uncommonly spoken language for the areas where they are stationed and most likely to be deployed? That way the dog won't misinterpret any verbal instruction given to it by it's handler or in earshot of the dog. Coherent thinking is often needed when you are not speaking your native language and not everyone is capable of that in a (panic) situation when a dog is behaving badly (or alpha, as illustrated by Iainb).

At the office, there are always 3 dogs roaming the terrain, usually 1 male and 2 females. Dogs consider me as a friend as I start petting them and I have a somewhat similar experience as Iainb, as a kid helping out with my uncle, who owned and operated a dog kennel and had loads of other animals too. Unfortunately, I have seen then, how badly dogs can be treated by other people and that the police had to call my uncle to help them out getting rid of the dog in an unsafe situation. It always impressed me that all animals, vicious or not, considered my uncle to be the alpha at first glance. Also, that kennel also had the facilities to terminate and dispose animals (to government standards), which were legally declared to be unsafe for society and that part of the business my uncle taught me too.

Back to the office: a year or 2 ago, the male was well liked (my absolute friend absolutely) but also getting older. So a new young male was introduced. For some reason, that young male and I do not hit it off. Of course the battle for dominance ended up badly for the older male, the young male started to rip open his throat. We we're still able to separate them and the old dog lived on for 3 months more, succumbing to that injury.

The young male was only showing enthusiasm to see me/being petted by me when the two females were around me begging/playing for my attention. But separately the male did not show any enthusiasm. It showed the same behavior with the owners family and at some point in time they got rid of him. I offered to put him up in my rented property, to see if things would improve. It would be alone for most of the day and  in the evenings I would play with him. The dog appeared to be happy the first 2 days of this arrangement, but everything was back to same ol', same ol' after that period. Even showed off the dog to a dog trainer who mainly works with Rottweilers. There the dog lasted only one day, that guy brought him to the vet for a lethal injection.

Some dogs really cannot be helped or trusted, no matter how much love and effort you put into them. Maybe adoption could have been an option, only if the service period from both the dog and their handler would end at the same time and the handler had enough space/time/love for that dog. How sad it may be, the harsh reality is that these dogs earned "to be put out to pasture", but that they are really not equipped for that. The pack is everything and the pack requires an alpha. And a dog with a scrambled brain/psyche, becomes a wild dog and people like my uncle have to step in to properly dispose of them. Not the nicest way to spent the last weeks in your life as a dog.

Then it is seems more humane to me terminating their service in a more loving environment. And in case there is off-spring, love them by giving that litter all the opportunity they can handle. 

 

679

General Software Discussion / Re: Chrome on Windows Phone

« Last post by Shades on December 01, 2017, 09:41 AM »

Found two links intended for developers that enable the use of AppCache (HTML5) on Windows 10 mobile. Maybe these can help getting that to work Win 10 mobile and Edge/IE version for those devices,
https://docs.microso...ty/application-cache
https://blogs.msdn.m...cache-and-indexeddb/
 
According to this link AppCache is deprecated from HTML5 standards:
https://developer.mo...he_application_cache  (it also states what you should be using for similar functionality, not that that is of any help with getting your thing done on Windows phones)

680

General Software Discussion / Re: Chrome on Windows Phone

« Last post by Shades on November 30, 2017, 05:34 PM »

Never found a different browser for Windows Phone...but surfing on a mobile was never a high priority for me. Then again, I used a Lumia 520 at the time with Windows Phone 8.x.

I don't think there are many people on the forum that still have a Windows Phone or Windows 10 mobile device, so let me add my perhaps unwelcome findings:
- Maxxthon
- UC Browser
- Surfy
- Nokia Xpress
- shiye-browser

- Sleipnir not sure if this will work on MS phones, but at least it is webkit based.

Here is another link with a top 10 browser list for MS phone devices. This list shows Opera as an alternative. That might be your best bet for a Chrome-ish browser.

681

Non-Windows Software / Re: Android: (Wired) File Transfers from PC

« Last post by Shades on November 27, 2017, 08:08 AM »

Weird, I have used this method on my phone, which is a Huawei P8 with Android 6 (EMIU 4.0.3) and barely anything else installed, and this method works perfectly for me...I use my phone in the same way as I use an USB drive, when it is connected by WiFi or USB cable.

Works almost as easy and fast as on my previous Nokia Lumia phone (which was from an era when Microsoft still put the Nokia name on their Lumia devices).

682

Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately

« Last post by Shades on November 24, 2017, 07:53 PM »

Brawl in Cell Block 99. That was not a movie I would expect Vince Vaughn to star in. But I found it worked well with him as lead. Not your run-of-the-mill action flick, that is for sure.

683

Developer's Corner / Re: Tomato Custom Router Firmware question

« Last post by Shades on November 21, 2017, 06:17 PM »

These links may help you in your quest (or should I say, avoid pitfalls and mousetraps):
https://arstechnica....router-from-scratch/
http://www.linuxjour...al.com/article/10687
https://arstechnica....ild-your-own-router/

Those links should give you already an idea what to expect when you start to build your own router.

684

Developer's Corner / Re: Tomato Custom Router Firmware question

« Last post by Shades on November 20, 2017, 10:09 PM »

Know the hardware you are using for your router, really, really well...before undertaking such a thing. With the provided instructions it won't be too big of a deal to do the compiling. But that is only half the battle. Getting the compiled result to properly talk to the hardware in your router...that is where most fail.

So be sure you know the hardware really well.

Perhaps it is smarter to have a look at a working setup of the Tomato router setup and how it is linked to that particular hardware. That can give you a lot of insight, before embarking on your custom build.

Then there is the question, why custom? From (bad) memory, Tomato is not that actively developed anymore. OpenWRT is. After cleaning up a "junkyard" of computer gear I found several old and broken TP-Link WiFi routers (TL-WR741ND). Yet I managed to get one to work again and there was a specific ROM from OpenWRT for that particular device. I tried and it worked beautifully.

However, that might give you the idea that creating such a ROM is easy. But the amount of warnings you get on that website about how easy it is to brick your device... Really, know the hardware in your router very, very well.

The router, is it just for yourself or are other people also depending on the internet connection you plan to use this custom router with? when it is the latter case, you will get a lot of crap from those people the second they think something is wrong with the connection.

On the OpenWRT site I also read the sage advise: If you think you can build something better and cheaper than the devices they build their ROMs for, you are mistaken. First, those devices contain hardware that is proven to work well (enough) together with a decent (enough) degree of reliability and for a price that you will have a very hard time trying to match.

Your custom selection of hardware must prove itself still and might be cheaper if you take a look at the component price alone. Personally, I can't be arsed to go out and try to "beat" a 15 US dollar device that is very easy to replace. and after I found out which model of device I had, the version of the factory ROM and the that it was build for the Brazilian market (yes, that can make a difference), I found the correct OpenWRT ROM, uploaded it to the device, went through the reset procedure as described on the website and now I have a fully functional Linux-based little router.

If you plan to use PC hardware to build your router, I strongly recommend to use OPNSense or pfSense instead. Much more powerful, runs of FreeBSD and you can extend its core functionalities with lots of extras that is readily available or you can create what you need yourself. Believe me, you lust for tinkering will be more than satisfied with either, especially when you like to create intricate network setups.

Don't underestimate the effect custom hardware with insufficient resources can have on your network. OPNSense and pfSense require only very little hardware resources, if you don't deviate that much from their default setup. Still, if you plan to use such a router with a lot of people, you better add more RAM and CPU quickly. A custom router that works fine for your one-person network, is very likely to fail when lots of people start using it. Another thing that people love to overlook.

Idiosynchro-nasties come into play when you build your own custom router, both in software but also with hardware and not all of them are properly documented.

Now, if you still like to play with hardware that is trusted to work and pretty good documented, you might better go for MikroTik hardware. Allows you build your own device (in a similar fashion as building with Lego blocks) and you are allowed to define a lot of your own stuff regarding networking in your equipment with their software. Best of customization with dependable hardware, which can scale up/down to your (professional) needs.

Companies here in Paraguay do use a lot of Mikrotik networking hardware. And for consumer networking gear, TP-Link is very popular (because it is dependable enough, while cheap). You don't know how many miles I had to make between computer shops throughout the whole of Asuncion (capital of Paraguay) and it suburbs, just to find 1(!) store that still had a new, but older model of an 8 port 1GBit/sec LinkSys switch.

685

General Software Discussion / Re: New faster Firefox browser released

« Last post by Shades on November 18, 2017, 06:20 PM »

I tried the portable version (the zipped version) from Basilisk in combination with the portable version of Firefox on my system. Both worked fine and independently from each other, because each uses a different user profile folder.

The installed versions of these browsers were more than likely trying to control the same user profile folder.

The installed versions of these browsers have the advantage that these can create a separate user profile folder for each Windows user account on your computer. The portable versions can only use the user profile folder inside their own folder, regardless of the Windows user account you start these versions up in.

According to this Mozilla page you can use the parameter: -P <fill in a profile name>   to start FireFox (or Basilisk) with a different user profile. That way you can still use both browsers without them getting into a fight over who is allowed to access the standard user profile folder (for the current Windows account you have logged into).

686

General Software Discussion / Re: Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

« Last post by Shades on November 15, 2017, 10:38 AM »

More challenging than a dice tray, but still less than the cabinet:  a dice tower    Well, as a bonus, a dice tower can be used for both show and play.

687

General Software Discussion / Re: New faster Firefox browser released

« Last post by Shades on November 15, 2017, 06:47 AM »

https://arewewebextensionsyet.com/
https://mozilla.github.io/extension-finder/

With the links above you have an overview from the state of the most popular FF add-ons and a place where you might find an alternative for use in FF 57.

688

Finished Programs / Re: FINISHED: Reopen file after Wifi reconnects

« Last post by Shades on November 14, 2017, 10:49 PM »

It is a possibility that your WiFi connection is closed down when either the device itself or your /operating system decides it has been idle for a set amount of time and power saving features kick in. In your case, that would be the first thing I would check in both your operating system and WiFi device. Afterwards, a very simple and continuously running script that simply "pings" the computer with the source Excel file every 30 seconds or a bit less, could prevent such power saving features to activate in the first place. Those things will hardly have any impact on the worklow you have build for yourself.

But if I'm hones, it isn't a good system to begin with. Excel can be used as an interface for database entry.  And you use the same database and Excel on your system as a dashboard. This is a better and more reliable way of communicating changes. A setup like this still looks and feels like the workflow you created.

Now, if your system only acts as a dashboard (read-only), then why even work with Excel in the first place? Data stored in a database can be easily shown in a HTML page (fancy or basic, that is completely up to you and your know-how). Much less prone to any kind of connection issues.

I must tell that I am of the opinion that, in all the time the Microsoft Office software exists, way too much brainpower has been wasted on making it the solution for the problem. Prevent its use altogether wherever and whenever you can, that is what I mean. Fully aware that this is not a popular opinion, but once you get over your perceived "need" to use Office for anything, you will find that there are much better and reliable ways of communicating data. Often completely free for home and commercial use too. And you have much less worry that whatever workflow you have build, will be broken by an Office update and/or new version from MS Office.

 

689

Living Room / Re: Large yet compact storage

« Last post by Shades on November 13, 2017, 01:38 AM »

If you can open the case of the computer, it's inner parts are upgradable. But if you cannot put back the inner parts in the original case anymore, then it might not be such an good idea to upgrade. And this is a choice only the owner of the device should make. Besides the above, getting the upgraded parts to work correctly with the original hardware could be an Herculan effort. Desktops usually contain parts that are easily interchangeable. Laptops are much more problematic in that regard.

From a very brief search on Google I understand that Lenovo Yoga models are difficult to repair. Still, upgrading a hard disk should in theory not give you much problems, unless it is soldered or glued to the mainboard. In those cases all bets are off. It could still be relatively easy if you have the expertise and equipment at hand, but there is a much higher chance you end up with a pretty expensive doorstop.

Repairability/upgradability from any model of computer I intend to purchase is the first thing I look for. Especially nowadays, where more and more manufacturers apply "planned obsolescence" into all of their products.

690

Living Room / Re: Large yet compact storage

« Last post by Shades on November 12, 2017, 01:20 PM »

Internal or external? Assuming you are talking about a laptop.

691

General Software Discussion / Re: What Android Apps Do You Use?

« Last post by Shades on November 08, 2017, 09:30 PM »

So, you want to one-up me by being an Impro Vysor?

692

General Software Discussion / Re: What Android Apps Do You Use?

« Last post by Shades on November 07, 2017, 10:45 PM »

Luckily we all can count on the Add Vysor

693

General Software Discussion / Re: What Android Apps Do You Use?

« Last post by Shades on November 07, 2017, 10:05 AM »

And after a successful career that Super Vysor will be granted the title: Night Vysor...

694

General Software Discussion / Re: Personal keylogger

« Last post by Shades on November 06, 2017, 11:05 PM »

If recreation of past tests is your goal in this request...why not use a macro recorder.

Not sure if it would work for your purpose, I don't think it was designed to record a whole (working) day...but you might try any macro recorder similar to: PushThatFreakin'Button. That macro recorder covers all text, but also mouse movements and clicks.

If recording a whole (working) day in one go doesn't work, you can try if it works for an hour and store the results in a folder with the current date as its name.

Storing files in a "dated" folder should be relatively easy to automatize...with a tool like: PushTheFreakin'Button.   

695

Living Room / Re: Is this laptop a good option?

« Last post by Shades on October 29, 2017, 05:16 PM »

Review sites:
https://www.notebook...Review.169542.0.html
http://www.gizchina....oyo-vbook-v3-review/
http://www.androidti...oyo-vbook-v3-review/
http://www.xiaomitod...-fingerprint-review/
https://tech.co/voyo...-come-review-2016-09

From what I understand when glancing through these sites is that the build quality as a whole is ok, but that some of the parts used are not that great to begin with. Trackpad appears to be limited in functionality en sensitivity, the same is also true for the stylus pen. Sound is not that good and you will have to put up with big bezels. It also looks like Voyo re-uses the case design, hence the big bezels that remain between their V1 to their V3 product.

But in the end, had I enough money for purchasing it, I would definitely want one.

696

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock Broken In Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

« Last post by Shades on October 20, 2017, 08:09 AM »

With a piece of freeware, called: Dependency Walker, you can quickly find out what goes wrong with the loading of a certain dll. Like: 'Is the dll in the expected location?'  or  'Do you use the correct version of the dll?' 

For a non-programmer, the interface might be confusing to look at, but once you get used to it, it can be rather helpful.

697

Living Room / Re: Metal to metal, big boys style!

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2017, 11:21 PM »

All right...the bots in your show are human controlled in a similar way as in the movie Real Steel...in this video actual people are inside these 16 feet robots, weighing several tons, to pilot and fire/use their weaponry.

Still, human controlled is fun too. Admittedly, I never heard of such a show until now.

And I do like to think I'm a fan as I have been watching the BBC version of Robot Wars since it appeared. There was also a US version of that show, but that never "engaged" me as much. In the latest season of the BBC series, there was one bot (Apollo) who managed to defeat all its opponents...and all of the house robots (except for 'Sir-Kill-A-Lot', who weighs 750 kilos and bots in the competition are restricted to about 150 kilos).

698

Living Room / Metal to metal, big boys style!

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2017, 07:51 PM »

First ever fight between mega robots...

699

General Software Discussion / Re: Adobe Acrobat - is there an alternative?

« Last post by Shades on October 13, 2017, 10:12 AM »

With my earlier suggested workflow in mind (make the document you want to distribute as PDF first in your favorite piece of software and, when finished, convert it to PDF), I recently discovered the tool: PanDoc.

This is pretty powerful software and has to be used with the commandline. It is able to convert almost anything, the link shows you a quite impressive graph with all the file formats you could be converting between.

Used it myself to convert a few extensive manuals in .DOCX format to convert them to a mediawiki page and that worked like a charm. Screenshot images inside these documents were not added directly, just links that allow you add them yourself quickly enough. An almost 400 page, mostly text, manual took about half an hour in total. Including adding some images and verification of errors in format/structure.

For "funsies" I also converted that manual to PDF, after adding a more comprehensive Latex engine (MikTex) to PanDoc, which had a very satisfying result too. And it was a bit faster than what I usually do when creating a PDF from a manual written in .DOC/.DOCX format (loading up that manual in LibreOffice and use its default PDF converter to create the PDF).

With those experiences, I will gladly recommend this software to anyone who needs any type of document converted to anything.

PanDoc is open source and available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Also available as portable app. The MikText engine is also available as a portable app. Which is how I used them.

Now some do not like to work with the command line, so here is a link to a separate GUI for the PanDoc software.

700

Non-Windows Software / Re: Backup my data

« Last post by Shades on October 10, 2017, 12:03 AM »

Is it still possible to remove the hard disk from the MacBook?

If so, put that disk in an USB 3.0 hard disk cradle (or lightning/thunderbolt/however these hardware ports are called on Mac nowadays) and transfer the files to the new system/hard disk. That eliminates one copy step from the external disk scenario (old computer -> external disk -> new computer).

Better yet, if the new Mac system has the capacity to support 2 or more hard disks at the same time, take the hard disk from the old system and install it for the time being in the new system. Now the internal hard disk controller of the new system can pump the data from the old hard disk to the new hard disk. That is the fastest way to transfer a boatload of data to a new system. When finished, you can put the old hard disk back into the old system and all will be well again. On both systems.

Are you transferring between two Mac computers or do you also change from one OS to another?

If so, there are drivers for the new OS that enable read-only access to the file system that Mac uses. Those drivers enable you to access the content safely. You still need to take the old HD out of the Mac and put it into a hard disk cradle or directly into the new computer.

But what to do when it isn't possible to remove the hard disk from the old system? Then the external hard disk scenario is the simplest and likely the fastest one. transferring boatloads of files through WiFi is always slower and more prone to errors than through a wired connection between computers.

For example: in my own setup I have 2 Windows computers, each has a 1GBit/sec network card and both are connected to a 16 port switch, each port capable of the same 1GBit/sec speeds. A very standard or common setup. Transferring files from one system to another goes with a speed of about 70 to 80 MByte/sec continuously. On average. That should give you a way to calculate how long the transfer could take with a wired connection between systems, given the specified amount of data.

You can expect similar speeds or even a bit faster when both hard disks are connected directly into the same computer. Expect half those speeds when using a cradle.  Connecting both systems using WiFi and you will be happy when transfer speeds reach cradle speeds, depending on connection quality.

Remember: WiFi is made for comfort, not speed. No matter what salespeople say, WiFi is made for comfort, not speed. Enterprise level WiFi equipment might get you to (somewhat) higher speeds, but that kind of equipment comes at cost and will always be capped by the max capacity of the WiFi hardware inside the old and new system.

An external hard disk is really much simpler in setting up and still remain reasonably fast at very acceptable cost.

External hard disks that use 2.5inch spinning disks do not require a separate power supply, but sacrifice speed as a result. There are also external hard disks that do require an extra power supply and these usually contain a 3.5inch hard disk inside, which are noticeably faster. You are still capped by the maximum capacity of the hardware port you are using to connect the external hard disk to the computers.