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801

General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 19, 2011, 09:53 PM »

I wish.  I have a little goody I bought recently - couple of months ago? - that'll let me power up and read an otherwise disconnected HD.  Same response.  I'm willing to believe it could have been a bad USB controller on the Fantom, but less willing to accept two (2) (or more) failing at the same time.  Yeah, I know coincidence exists - but that doesn't mean I have to believe in it  .

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 19, 2011, 07:09 PM »

Sorry cranioscopical I left you out of that last one.

Yeah, I did talk to a tech - who bumped me up to another, presumably {higher|more qualified|more patient}, tech.  They both agreed that w/o their having physical access to the drive, I should probably go with the SMART indicators. 

Hell, the drive is 2-3 years old, has been under power that whole time, and there have been some rather significant power issues.  (Even a UPS can't block EMF from a lightning strike  .  And that was next door, not here  .)

Anyhoo, this saga has come to a conclusion.  I considered a candle-lit wake, but in the end I just dumped it unceremoniously in the bad parts - destroy box, opened another beer, and started shopping for a replacement online  .

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 19, 2011, 06:54 PM »

Oops!

Sorry, I was unclear again  . 

This was - emphasis on the was - not an OS drive, just a USB external storage drive.  All the diagnostics I have said it had bad sectors, and the bad sector count was growing.  Considering the power problems I've had recently, I'm inclined to believe the drive really was [going] bad.  MTBF is really only an empirical average, and all indications were that this drive wasn't paying attention to averages  .

Haven't tried the Boot & Nuke thing yet, but like you, I'm kinda partial to gparted.  However, when I tried that to see if I could recover the drive - in case I was getting faulty SMART data - it couldn't do anything to ameliorate the situation.

So I dismantled the drive housing - I'm a string-saver when it comes to mounting screws and such  - and will dispose of it, prolly, at Best Buy, as that's the only place locally that handles that kind of thing.

Anyway, the ordeal is past ... I just have to decide whether to get another Fantom  .

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 19, 2011, 02:44 PM »

Don't ya just hate when life interferes with what you really want to do ?

After a hiatus to restock the larder/fridge, I got back onto this. 

Tried several live CDs - Trinity was the first, btw - but nothing could move those files  .  I finally gave it up as a bad job, tried to reformat the drive.  It would not format  !  I no longer have anything that will do a low-level format:  don't know that such would do any good, anyway, with today's HDs.  So I'm just gonna chalk it up to a bad - really bad - drive and eat my losses.  It is now in a suitable repository for disposal  .

I tried Trinity - I've had middlin' success with it in the past.  Then I tried a Win live CD, on the theory that Windows would better understand what was going on, but the drive wouldn't be directly mounted to the OS - flakey, I know, but at this stage I was grasping any straw available.  Then I tried several Linux distros that would run from CD w/o being installed.

Every one of those efforts gave me the same response, albeit couched differently depending upon the CD format I was using.

So I just decided to bite that particular bullet and, eventually, replace the drive.

Thanks, everyone, for your kind help and suggestions  .

805

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by barney on October 17, 2011, 08:26 PM »

And, of course, anyone can read this amalgam of literature - if they can afford the hardware, that is  .  Libraries?  Maybe.  But you might have to bring your own reader  .  Or, perhaps, rent one?  I, for one, hope this remains a niche effort.  I don't think it will, but I can hope  .

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 17, 2011, 08:59 AM »

[Still bleary-eyed <Yawn />, but semi-awake again <yawn />.]

Yeah, that path too long beastie has bitten me more than once  .  However, that particular nasty comes not into play in this instance, at least not by visible character count  .  I've seen reference recently to software - SourceForge, I thimk - that addresses that issue, examines source(s) and target(s) for just that issue.  TLPD maybe?  Or am I extrapolating that from TL;DR?  Memory fails.

Hm-m-m ... cannot access the files even to play w/VLC, but hadn't considered changing sort order ... don't think it'll do anything beneficial, but any straw ...

Nope, still get, "You require permission ..." for anything in the _vid directory  .  And still get, "This is no longer located ...," for the _win directory  .  Still cannot tell if this is a true Win permissions problem, or a problem with the drive, although I suspect the latter.  Guess I'm gonna hafta try GetDataBack or one of its kin  .

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 17, 2011, 03:08 AM »

Oh, no, I should have been more clear.

These are both external drives, USB connections.  Both Fantom Green Drives, a 1 TB (the recipient) and a 2 TB (the recalcitrant donor) .

I'll take a look at GetDataBack ... might be worth having for other occasions, as well  . 

[Bleary-eyed, staggers off to bed <yawn />.]

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 17, 2011, 02:15 AM »

@AbteriX
The files are mostly .flv, dates anywhere from a few years to a few weeks in the past.  I've already been through the standard Win7 procedures to establish ownership.  Sometimes it appears to complete, sometimes I get an alert.  However, I still cannot access the files.  I've gone through every Win7 routine, insofar as I am aware, to take ownership, as well as a few routines that aren't exactly in the Win7 manual.  I can be reasonably certain it's not infection, although that's never a certainty.  I've done this in regular and safe mode - I've also logged what I did, just in case it worked, just took me a few minutes to find the log  .  So now I'm looking for other, probably non-standard, approaches to the problem.

@Target, skwire
Yea, the live CD thing is an option.  But I don't want to do anything that might change the balance right now.  I've had occasion to do this in the past and, while I was able to recover whatever it was at the time, I've also affected the disk architecture a time or three (3).  If I do that, then I lose the opportunity to find out what's going on.  Oh, I'm not gonna push it too long, but I'd really like to solve this internally, as it were  .  A problem that is avoided, or just disappears, is not resolved, it's just hidden away to pop up another day  .

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 17, 2011, 01:27 AM »

@cranioscopical
Yep, I have it installed [Take Ownership from context menu], but it didn't do any good this time.  It has worked before. just not this time  .
[Edit:  same problem [apparently] on another box.  I simply cannot access the files to do anything.]

@Target
Yeah, that's a last resort kinda thing, but it won't help me find out what caused the problem in the first place.  I've gotten semaphore messages several times on this drive, but always cured with chkdsk - at least, so far.  It's not that I cannot move the files at all - I think   - with one of several recover CDs.  But I really wanna learn, if not what happened, at least how to recover from it within the current OS  .  Dumb, stupid, persistent - that's me  .  Sometimes it even works  .

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General Software Discussion / Re: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 16, 2011, 11:19 PM »

Command line doesn't work  .  Basically, nothing is able to read the files, although I can see 'em in Explorer or MultiCommander .

None of the software I have, e.g., RoboCopy, TeraCopy [shudder],WinMerge , and the like, can do anything.  Whenever I attempt to assume ownership - again  - I'm refused.  Sometimes the message I get is that I have to get permission from -
.
.
.
.
.
wait for it 
.
.
.
.
.
 - me  !


I think I've tried safe mode, but I'll try again, just in case I missed something there.

The basic problem seems to be that nothing I have can read the files, but only in those two (2) directories.  They have not been previously transferred, so that software is seeing ghost images.

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General Software Discussion / Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated

« Last post by barney on October 16, 2011, 10:27 PM »

Folk,

Due to certain external power problems - suffice it to say that I cannot use language here to adequately describe the situation  - I'm in the throes [up] of moving data  .  I have a couple of Fantom Green Drive USB drives, one (1) TB and two (2) TB.  The two (2) TB disk, according to Hard Disk Sentinel has over 200 bad sectors - 271 at last count, but the count is climbing  .  So I'm attempting to move data from the two (2) TB drive to the one (1) TB drive, which has a clean bill of health.  (Yes, there is enough room  .)  I'm down to two (2) directories, one of which has a number of .flv files I'd like to be able to keep.

I cannot move them.  Regardless what I try, I'm continually told that I don't have permissions to do so.  I cannot even copy 'em  .  I've tried the standard methods - Win7 Ultimate, 64-bit - as well as a few I found on DC, but I simply cannot gain authority to move those files.  Searches on the problem have yielded nothing of benefit.

So I'm turning to my ultimate resolution source, the members of Donation Coder.  Halp!.

812

Post New Requests Here / Re: Copy Paste: System Config Scanner

« Last post by barney on October 16, 2011, 12:14 AM »

OK, an electrician, or perhaps a carpenter simply walks through your front door into your house and decides what adjustments you need or should have?  Whether you want them or not?  Without your permission?  That's what is being proposed.

Thank you, no!  Any such site will be one that I avoid, as long as I'm aware of it.  Web sites pick up enough data, rather casually, as it is.  Now you want additional intrusion?  The marketing value of this would be tremendous, of course, but Ive never met a marketer that seemed to have a soul, much less ethics or morals.

This proposal, while it has beneficial uses, would be corrupted before the script was even tested ... the real world would create a travesty of any beneficial intent.

813

Developer's Corner / Re: SEO fun: Does the multi-domain tactic work?

« Last post by barney on October 15, 2011, 03:02 PM »

Some links that might be of benefit.

http://lsikeywords.com/ has a fairly decent description of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing keywords).  If your site has a long presence upon the Web, this can make a difference.

http://www.brickmark...ng-tail-keywords.htm
https://secure.wikim...iki/Keyword_research
are links to long-tail keywords.  Those sites will describe it better than moi.  A Google search on long tail keywords will yield a plethora of such links, worthwhile on the assumption that many different - but [sometimes] similar - explanations help to round out the definition of a concept  .  Tends to work that way for me, anyway  .

You're gonna see a lotta stuff - and a bunch of junk - about content & duplicate content.  You can pretty much ignore the bulk of the duplicate content warnings.  The content stuff is a bit more important.  One of the better ways to accomplish the content mission is to set up a related blog, appropriately linked.  It's reasonably certain that you can find someone in the corporate structure who will be more than happy to keep the blog active  .

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Developer's Corner / Re: SEO fun: Does the multi-domain tactic work?

« Last post by barney on October 13, 2011, 10:00 PM »

Just an aside, but I never had much luck with it.  Prolly 'cause I was trying a quickie w/o really checking instructions  .  I have it installed on local server, and I'm not certain that's truly effective  .

I've had reports that it's worthwhile, but that was several years agone - 2008, methinks - and I just lost time to test it - other matters claimed my interests and attention  .

815

Developer's Corner / Re: SEO fun: Does the multi-domain tactic work?

« Last post by barney on October 13, 2011, 07:20 PM »

Okay... So you're saying the best bet is to skip the SEO game entirely?? Or is there a better/simpler/safer/cheaper way to DIY that comes with something that vaguely resembles a bloody manual?

I'm not adverse to doing myself, I'd just like to know how many of my current assumptions regarding the topic are total crap ... Before I light a match...

-Stoic Joker (October 13, 2011, 05:32 PM)

Well-l-l-l ... I wouldn't say skip it entirely.  The idea of buying relevant domains, then 301 to your current domain is quite valid.  I'd personally rather find a valid domain more relevant to your purpose, then 301 the current site to that one, make it the active site.  However, I don't have any valid data on that scenario anent what it might do to current rankings.  I've seen supposition that such a procedure is viable, but have no hard (?) evidence to that end.

Setting up Web sites for the sole function of adding one-way links to boost your current domain is definitely black-hat, and will come back to bite ya in da butt.  However getting links - even reciprocal links - from sites that have some relevancy to your site is a definite plus.  One-way links are better, but reciprocal works.

Look, I have collected, over the years, a number of docs - some executables, most PDFs - on SEO.  Most of 'em are aimed at one (1) to three (3) page sales sites, but the principles involved, once you filter out the sell now crap, are fairly straightforward.  Some drudgery involved - keyword maximizing, long-tail keywords, and the like - but the information in them is basically sound, if you disregard the rank now emphasis.  If you like, message me - I'll upload them to a Web page and give you the address.  Caveat:  I can only put up the ones that I have the rights for, and I'm not gonna upload the black-hat stuff.  (I know business ethics is an oxymoron, but business morals shouldn't be .)  There'll be a lot of junk there, and a lot not relevant to your aims, but you should be able to scan the info, find what seems relevant, then concentrate on that.  Don't know that it'll be that much help, but you might get some ideas, maybe even some inspiration  .

Lemme know (My old English teacher would kill me for that  .)

Edit:  On the other hand, you might have a look here.

816

Developer's Corner / Re: SEO fun: Does the multi-domain tactic work?

« Last post by barney on October 13, 2011, 04:49 PM »

The prices the SEO types kick around is what I find staggering; $750 a month? ...WTF am I buying...a Yacht?!?

-Stoic Joker (October 13, 2011, 01:58 PM)

Hey, if they're willing to offer a written guarantee, preferably with penalties, they might be worth it.  But the bottom line on most SEO orgs is a temporary surge, one which soon falters.  

Right now, barring specialty search sites, Google is the 800 lb. gorilla.  And that gorilla has a whole gang of monkeys working on how to prevent artificial inflation of a site's position.  And those monkeys are pretty damned good.  The penalties for getting caught in such inflation can get severe  .  

I keep using the JC Penney example because it was recent and it was high profile amongst some knowledgeable folk - Wall Street, for instance  ? - but there are a plethora of such examples.  The thing is, you seldom hear about them, they just don't show up in searches any more  .  That makes it difficult to garner proof that such activities can be harmful to the point of fatality  .

Edit:  [If you missed the Penney thing, they were caught buying other sites, then using them to link to the primary site.  They were #1 on SERPs.  After getting caught, the went (I think) to #76 - dropped from page one (1) to page eight ( 8 ), where no one but a researcher would ever find 'em  .]

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Developer's Corner / Re: SEO fun: Does the multi-domain tactic work?

« Last post by barney on October 13, 2011, 10:08 AM »

FWIW,

A friend of mine with a commercial site bought all the names - .org, .net, .list, etc. - and put in permanent 301 redirects to his primary .com domain.  That addressed the domain issue, and he did see an increase in traffic.  Then he bought several other domains - mostly typo names - put up pages and linked to his primary, one-way links.  He lost ranking  when he did that.  (He didn't get the JC Penney lesson  .)  He dropped those linkages and got most of his ranking back, but dropped to 2nd page in the SERPs.

SEO of a legitimate nature - content, good keywords, and the like - is fine.  But trying to game the system, artificially inflate position, can get awfully dicey.  Don't mean to imply that is your intent, but it's worth thinkin' 'bout how an honest effort might be misconstrued.  Prolly half the IM lists I'm on try to sell something that they swear will get you on 1st page - but none of 'em have much to say 'bout how long you'll stay there  . - and a lot of the SEO sellers/resellers do much the same.  My biggest giggle is to get a proposal from some SEO outfit that isn't even on the first three (3) pages of the SERPs  .  Kinda puts their offer(s) in perspective, donchano  .

YMMV, but the JC Penney example might be something to mention for management consideration.

818

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Idea Suggestion: Change Monitor

« Last post by barney on October 09, 2011, 10:30 PM »

It'll be of interest to see whether you want mealtime tracking, or, say, a twenty-four  hour summary, i.e., a regular scan to determine - and log - current location, or an activity summary scan.  That latter one could get pretty intense, methinks  .

819

General Software Discussion / Re: It's about ... code snippet software ...

« Last post by barney on October 06, 2011, 11:38 PM »

Never mind, just saw that skwire had already posted it.

Oh, the link didn't show for some reason - http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2011/07/manage-code-snippets.html

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General Software Discussion / It's about ... code snippet software ...

« Last post by barney on October 06, 2011, 11:02 PM »

Just ran across this ... don't even remember how I found it ... seem to recall a few threads here on the subject, so I thought it might be of interest.  (I'm kinda partial to gbCodeLibn, but still haven't made a hard decide  .)

821

Living Room / Re: In search of ... a bluetooth ear piece finder

« Last post by barney on October 04, 2011, 12:50 AM »

He, he ... I suspect there are two (2) major factors:  generation and location  .  Well-l-l  culture might be a 3rd one, but methinks it's pretty low on the influence scale.

Bear in mind, as well, that typical usually is a reference the the speaker's experiences, not necessarily the universal it's purported to be  .

822

General Software Discussion / Re: Pricing Software - Some Considerations and Techniques

« Last post by barney on September 30, 2011, 10:04 PM »

[/url])[/i]
A good starting point (either for discussion or experimentation) is a recent article on Smashing Magazine's website.

-40hz (September 30, 2011, 04:13 PM)

Hm-m-m ... well, the argument there holds true to the marketing principles taught in most of academia.  But, then, I've never agreed with certain precepts of those teachings.  Prolly why I didn't get a marketing degree  .

Perceived value is discussed from the vendor's standpoint, but it is seldom approached from the standpoint of the buyer(s).  There are [at least] two (2) variants on that concept.  The marketing concept is reasonably well presented in the article.

But there is another perceived value, that of the customer, that is often quite different and often overlooked or ignored.  If the customer is buying for pride, bragging rights, or something similar, then the proffered methodology is, I suppose acceptable.  If the customer is attempting to purchase functionality, the methodology fails.

Look, if I buy software, I buy it for a specific purpose, whether it be MS Office or a simple copy app.  If the software performs - not according to marketing hype, but according to my needs - then it might have been worth the monies paid for it.  But probably not.  Most software I see marketed tries to make up for all effort expended upon it - in one (1) sale.  OK, maybe ten or a hundred sales  .  But almost all the software I see is grossly overpriced for its functionality.

I should prolly keep my mouth shut  , since all my development was in-house, and I never had to make a living at it.  I've just got some really strong feelings about how software is marketed and priced.  That's one of the reasons I'm here at DC - I'll donate according to my needs and abilities at the time, but most software pricing just galls me.

OK, I'll shut up now  .

823

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... someone using CAD software

« Last post by barney on September 28, 2011, 10:33 PM »

OK, MB likes QCAD ... pulled down the trial, she worked with it.  Not a super result, but she likes it better than anything else we've tried.  I'm still not certain how to get the dimensions to display, but that'll come in time, hopefully.

Anyway, she likes it, talking about buying the Pro version.  I'm a bit dubious, but it's not my call.  If she's comfortable with it, that's more important than most anything else.

Oh, yeah, she said to say, "Thanks!" to all of you.  She's kinda new to forae, and is a bit amazed at what can happen when helpful folk get together to solve a problem for someone they don't know, will prolly never meet.  From her, "Kisses all around."

824

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... someone using CAD software

« Last post by barney on September 28, 2011, 08:59 PM »

Well-l-l ...

Yeah, but that means I'll prolly have to compile it  .  That is not a thing at which I excel  .

On the other hand, maybe it won't work for Win  , so my failings in that arena may not be exposed  .

825

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... someone using CAD software

« Last post by barney on September 28, 2011, 04:18 PM »

Currently, my desktop has icons for:

• CADemia
• Google Sketchup (v8)
• HeeksCAD
• A9CAD
• Archer
• RtWizard
• TdhCadwin
• DoubleCAD XT

and a few others.

I also installed Intellicad 98 on the virtual XP element for Win7.

DoubleCad has possibilities, as does Intellicad, or even Inkscape.  The rest just won't cut it.  They're capable systems, I'm certain, but my Master (Mistress?) Builder has no desire to learn PERL, or Ruby, or ...

She just wants to draw things, have the system dimension 'em, then print 'em.

Several of the CAD products we examined had no drawing capability at all  - 'twas all language based.  Some of the others had drawing/drafting capability, but the learning curve was steep beyond her measure of patience  .  We haven't looked yet at Autodesk Homestyler, so that one's up in the air.

Funny, when I was playing around with Generic CAD a decade or so ago, I could draw what I wanted, dimension it, and be done with it.  Or,  could follow the text window and start writing my drawings.  But I had the option to do either - or both, mixed - and the learning curve was fairly shallow.  In the decade that has passed, all the offerings have gotten significantly more sophisticated, to the point that you need an engineering/architectural degree just to deal with the terminology.

Actually, she's looking at DoubleCAD, Intellicad (I'll give it to her if she likes it, as it won't run on Win7 and is abominably slow on the XP VHD.), and Inkscape. 

QCAD sounds pretty good - pre-built assemblies are excess baggage for what she wants, unless she builds 'em herself.  We'll have to look into that one, as well.