Recent Posts

851

Timns Apps / Re: timns Friendly Password Generator

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2011, 09:43 PM »

Key words -  I believe this is a somewhat unique feature (no doubt someone will tell me I'm wrong here). If you specify a word in this field, the generator will create a unique password according to all the rules, same as usual. But - the password will be reproducible any time you run this program, if you use the same key word and same settings.

-timns (March 09, 2011, 09:23 PM)

That's an interesting feature.

In addition, even if by some weird coincidence you happen to use the same key word as a another person, you will still get completely different passwords to each other.

-timns (March 09, 2011, 09:23 PM)

I'm curious about this bit - what's the additional piece of data that factors into the password generation?  Would the generated password be different if I ran the program on a different machine or if it was logged on as a different user?  If I don't understand what would make the generated password the same/different, I might not be able to recover the password for that Swiss bank account that has the $2 million that I might one day donate to DC...

852

Living Room / Re: Do it yourself dropbox

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2011, 09:25 AM »

I think that Unison uses rsync to perform the transfer, so entire files aren't transferred, only the different bits (as detected by rsync).

853

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 08, 2011, 05:30 PM »

promoting the American breakfast?

-oblivion (March 08, 2011, 04:12 AM)

Waffles are American?

854

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 06, 2011, 03:07 PM »

This page a has a pretty good description of the differences between Workstation and Player: http://vmfaq.com/entry/5/

For Most purposes - especially personal use -there's probably not much need for Workstation over Player.  But if you're a developer or tester the snapshot management (which handles complex scenarios much easier than copying folders) or the debugging features are something that paying for workstation is easily worth.

Actually, I haven't used the debugging features yet, so I'm not sure if they're worth paying for.  But they sound pretty nifty.

855

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 05, 2011, 09:16 PM »

Update: These are direct links (to Microsoft servers) that should not be subject to Windows Genuine Advantage or other platform checks:

  - Windows XP Mode for Win 7

Also, my understanding is that you'll probably also need to download (or otherwise have installed in the Win7 machine) the "Windows Virtual PC" package:

  - Windows Virtual PC (Win 7) - x64
  - Windows Virtual PC (Win 7) - x86

You'll also want to make sure they have Win7 SP1 installed if the machine doesn't have hardware virtualization support - I'm pretty sure that Windows Virtual PC requires hardware virtualization support prior to Win7 SP1.

  - Windows 7 SP1 - x64
  - Windows 7 SP1 - x86
  - Windows 7 SP1 - x86 and x64 in a very large ISO


Edit: add keyword WinXP because I had a hard time searching for this post!

856

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 05, 2011, 08:33 PM »

No idea if it'll work, but this thread on Microsoft's support forum has a Microsoft employee suggest calling "Microsoft Supplemental Parts team" to ask for a CD:

In the United States and Canada, you can reach the Microsoft Supplemental Parts team at the contact numbers that are listed here:

    * United States: (800) 360-7561, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.
    * Canada: (800) 933-4750, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.
    * TTY customers: Contact Microsoft at (800) 718-1599, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.

I am not sure, but I believe the Microsoft Supplemental Parts team may be able to supply you with XP Mode on a CD.  If they can, it will most likely cost the price of shipping and handling.

-http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/genuinewindows7/thread/255f544d-a6c2-4e3e-891b-f610b3c05336/

I hope you're in the US/Canada since only 800 numbers are given...

857

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 03, 2011, 06:06 PM »

I can see one of the the errors straight away.

-timns (March 03, 2011, 05:59 PM)

That right there is a clue to the other error.

858

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 03, 2011, 04:17 PM »

We'll never get people to stop ticking boxes, mashing buttons, and clicking through hyperlinks with that attitude.

-Stoic Joker (March 03, 2011, 03:55 PM)

Is mousing around still OK?

859

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows7 user administration question

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 03, 2011, 04:14 PM »

timms, that resolves per folder or file but that does not solve my problem. My problem is that the ownership shows up as "administrators" in all my drives regardless of what they are. SO it looks like it is by default.

-kartal (March 03, 2011, 01:48 PM)

Here's Microsoft's rationale for this behavior (on XP anyway - basically, they figure that if you're an admin doing stuff on the machine, another user who's an admin probably would need to muck with the files):

  - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/101768

On XP this was controlled by a local group policy setting that was removed in Vista (so it's not in Win7 either):

  - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947721

Vista changed this for reasons (and ways) that I don't fully comprehend:

Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 do not support this setting any longer. When enabled, User Account Control (UAC) will ensure the user account is being used as owner for all objects created locally. For remote access, the administrators group will be used there is no restricted token for network sessions.

-http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947721

It sounds like it's saying that if UAC is enabled you'll get the behavior you want (do you have UAC disabled?).  If that's the case, it doesn't say how you'd get the behavior you want while UAC is disabled.

There's a Server Fault question about this stuff (http://serverfault.c...iving-ownership-to-t), and the answer that discusses the situation on Vista and later behavior seems to explain things a little better, or at least differently. But I'll confess to still being  somewhat confused. Since my head is starting to hurt, I'll leave it to you to understand better...

860

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 03, 2011, 01:22 PM »

I do hope you mean "all right" old bean  

-timns (March 03, 2011, 11:31 AM)

Yeah, sorta.  "alright" might not be all right, yet.  But I think it's a lot further along being an accepted word than "alot" (see http://www.word-dete...tive.com/back-q.html).  And you can't seriously make me think that such stand-up Brits as "The Who" might not know how to spell (don't bother with the remake of that movie; it was no where - er, nowhere - near as good, even if they might have done better with the spelling).


My point is that sometimes word are combined (for various reasons) - it has happened for several words in that post, and will probably happen to some of the others.

Then again, words can fall out of favor or common use like "score" as meaning 20. And certayne wordes which might bring about yre and be considered garbidge today were once amonge truely correct spellings.

If I could trade 'word status', I'd gladly endure "alot" if I could get rid of "blog".  I don't like that word for some reason, even though there clearly needs to be a word for those things.  I just don't like "blog" - blecch.

861

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 03, 2011, 11:13 AM »

Can I just make a comment about the word "alot?"

It's not a word at all 

-timns (March 02, 2011, 09:18 PM)

Something changes language overtime. Sometime hence, "alot" shall be altogether alright if it's not already.

I'd allot around 4 score years.

862

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 02, 2011, 06:11 PM »

I'm curious about one thing in the original post - what's the problem with "mass nouns"?

-mwb1100 (March 02, 2011, 05:28 PM)

It's a matter of proper jargon and using the correct term. It would be like calling a hard drive a "stiff drive".

-Renegade (March 02, 2011, 05:42 PM)

Not to say this necessarily means it's correct, but I recall "mass noun" being used back when I was in school, many many years ago.  And a quick search on Google nets the term being used in linguistics research papers (where correct terminology would be important, I'd think).  Could this be a situation where there might be more than on one correct name for a thing?  Like "hard drive"/"hard disk" or dirigible/airship.

dirigible?  What the hell made that word pop into my head?

863

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 02, 2011, 05:28 PM »

I'm curious about one thing in the original post - what's the problem with "mass nouns"?

864

Living Room / Re: In Western societies, how can a man have a hyphenated name? (and why!)

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 02, 2011, 02:38 PM »

And how could you do this until you go through the legal process of changing your name?

-zridling (March 01, 2011, 11:04 PM)

In the United States anyway, the common law situation is that you can use whatever name you want for business purposes as long as it's not for fraudulent purposes.  Wikipedia has a lot of detail on this, and I believe that it's largely accurate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_change

In many (most?) jurisdictions, the same applies to your legal name - there's not necessarily a need for some court order to change your name, you just start using it (again - as long as you're not trying to engage in fraud by doing so).  However, I'm sure that there would be an awful lot of hassles in dealing with banks, government agencies, and employers if you actually try to put any of this into practice today - as far as getting legal documents, accounts, etc.

But as far as what goes on a player's jersey - there's nothing in the law about that - whatever's OK with the team and the league can go on the jersey.

And don't forget that names don't have to follow standard pronunciation rules either, as from this Monty Python sketch:

Interviewer: Good evening. I have with me in the studio tonight one of Britain's leading skin specialists - Raymond Luxury Yacht.

Raymond: That's not my name.

Interviewer: I'm sorry - Raymond Luxury Yach-t.

Raymond: No, no, no - it's spelt Raymond Luxury Yach-t, but it's pronounced 'Throat-warbler Mangrove'.

865

General Software Discussion / Re: DVCS ?

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 02, 2011, 11:10 AM »

Committing changes is a voluntary action and, knowing myself, I'll obviously forget to commit important changes from time to time.  Or am I missing something ?

-Armando (March 02, 2011, 10:06 AM)

One thing that git was able to do (but I'm not sure if Mercurial supports this or not) is collapsing a set of changes at the 'tip' of a branch into a single change.  Git also lets you drop changes that are at the tip (though it's pretty easy to get them back if you do it by accident, since the change isn't really gone, it's just not at the tip anymore).  What these features enable is that you can commit your local changes at will, without too much regard for whether or not they're 'correct'. Until you push the changes, they aren't seen by anyone else, and when you have something you want to push publicly, you can squash (that's the term git uses) the several changes into a single, coherent change, and push that to the public repository.

866

Living Room / Re: Truly Stupid Email from Companies! Show Us Yours...

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 01, 2011, 11:59 PM »

Today I got this email, supposedly from the "Intel AppUp Center":

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

I had never heard of the AppUp Center, and all of the URLs in the email were either from the www.ifcba.com or intel.ymc0.net domains.  I don't know about you, but this thing smelled like some sort of phishing attempt (or an attempt to get you to download something containing malware, if that's different than phishing).

Anyway, it turns out that the AppUp Center is a half-ass attempt by Intel to have a netbook/MeeGo marketplace or something.  I guess they contracted out their spam campaign to ifcba.com.  I don't know who ymc0.net is; my curiosity about this has dwindled to nothing...

I guess it was successful at letting me know there is an Intel AppUp Center.  Not that I'll ever get anything from it.

867

Living Room / Re: Help with Win7 Multi-Monitor problem

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 28, 2011, 05:14 PM »

Well I honestly can't recall if it did this when I was running XP on the rig or not - but since the BIOS stuff happens before the OS boots, I'd assume that at least the BIOS screen was being mirrored before.  I honestly didn't think that the mirroring at boot was unusual.  I'll have to see what happens on my work computer tomorrow.

I'm not aware of any video-card specific BIOS setup.  Only the setting in the computer's BIOS setup that lets you enable/disable the on-board video (which is disabled).

868

Living Room / Help with Win7 Multi-Monitor problem

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 28, 2011, 04:42 PM »

I installed Win7 w/SP1 (a clean install - not an upgrade) on a system that had been running WinXP for many years in a multi-mon configuration.  things are working more or less fine with Win7 except for one irritating issue - whenever I reboot, whether it's a restart or after a full power-down, the secondary display doesn't get detected - I have to go into ATI's Catalyst tool and manually "detect displays" after which the secondary monitor works fine.  I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions about how I might fix this?

A few more details:

  - I have to use the Catalyst display detect button - the one in the Win7 Display control panel doesn't work (!?)
  - the video board is a low-end ATI Radeon HD 3650 PCIe - I don't recall the manufacturer
  - I updated the ATI drivers to the set available for download from AMD yesterday (Catalyst version 11.2)
  - the video card has 2 outputs, both are DVI connectors.  One has a DVI-HD15 adapter and is connected to a Dell E196FP monitor (Analog HD15 VGA), the other is connected with a DVI-D cable to a Sony SDM-HX93 Monitor.  The Dell monitor detects as and is used as primary, the Sony monitor is the one with the detection problems.
  - swapping the monitor connectors on the video card doesn't help
  - both monitors display the BIOS startup screen and the Win7 boot up animation. This suggests to me that hardware isn't an issue - there must be some driver tweak I can set.  The Sony goes dark when the Win7 logon screen is displayed.

869

Living Room / Re: We are doomed: IBM's Watson debuts on Jeopardy today (14 Feb 2011)

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2011, 12:23 AM »

I'd find it funnier if I could make out what the console stuff said. I feel like I am missing the punchline.

-worstje (February 24, 2011, 10:32 PM)

Imagine what happens when Watson evaluates whether the answer is good or not...

870

General Software Discussion / Re: 20 New User Misconceptions about Linux

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 24, 2011, 04:19 PM »

They state that is based on freedom but fail to indicate that the freedom of the consumer is at the cost of freedom for the developer

-rxantos (February 24, 2011, 02:52 PM)

Actually, I think the FSF is pretty clear that the GPL only imposes obligations/restrictions if you modify or distribute the software.  Really, I think the only reason that the GPL is at all complex and needs a FAQ is that without the complexity to cover all the legal 'loopholes' there would be rampant disregard for the intent of the GPL (and maybe there already is - but it would certainly be worse).  The intent of the GPL is clear: you were given certain benefits with this code, if you're going to use it in your own software then you need to pass those benefits on.

A GPL license lets you use the software however you like, wherever you like (whether it's useful there or not is another issue), and to be able to modify it if you want.  The only time restrictions come into play is when you redistribute the software, and in that situation, the GPL is intended to ensure that those same benefits you had also get passed on. Remember, the GPL was created to benefit end-users not developers/distributors. Any benefits developers/distributors see are purely a side-effect of end-user benefits.

As for using "even one line of this code in your own code" from GPL'd software , if it's only one line of code (or only a few lines of code), it's likely to be only a tiny bit more difficult to write the code yourself using whatever ideas you might need from the original code than it is to merely copy the code.  Also, even the FSF acknowledges that there's a "fair use" right to the code that's not subject to the license (though fair use isn't particularly well-defined): http://www.gnu.org/l...-faq.html#GPLFairUse

I'm no GPL fanatic (I do use GPL software, but mostly non-GPL software), but if you want or need to use a significant amount of code from someone else's work, you should do so under his terms.  It's nice when someone releases code under a BSD-like license, but the important thing is it's their choice.

Except for public domain or the WTFPL there aren't many software license terms that have no restrictions.

871

General Software Discussion / Re: 20 New User Misconceptions about Linux

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 24, 2011, 01:47 PM »

You can't un-GPL something later on, or otherwise try to get it back by adding proprietary elements to it. Because those will also fall immediately under GPL if you do.

-40hz (February 24, 2011, 01:19 PM)

This is only half correct.  Once you GPL something and distribute it, you can't remove the GPL rights that you've essentially already passed on to someone else for what they have.

However, GPL doen't remove  *your* ownership of the code (or whatever) - you can rerelease the code under whatever other terms you like (even simultaneously).  As the owner - *you* are not obligated to the GPL terms for subsequent releases (modified or not).

Several companies release products under GPL and simultaneously under a non-GPL license for paying customers who don't want to be under the terms of the GPL.  For example:

  - Nokia releases Qt under an LGPL license, or you can pay for the software under different terms that won't subject you to LGPL terms
  - Quantum Leaps licenses their embedded RTOS products under the GPL as well as a commercial license

From the FSF's GPL FAQ:

Is the developer of a GPL-covered program bound by the GPL? Could the developer's actions ever be a violation of the GPL?

    Strictly speaking, the GPL is a license from the developer for others to use, distribute and change the program. The developer itself is not bound by it, so no matter what the developer does, this is not a “violation” of the GPL.

    However, if the developer does something that would violate the GPL if done by someone else, the developer will surely lose moral standing in the community.

-http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DeveloperViolate

872

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 23, 2011, 07:07 PM »

Weren't the SDK-included compilers initially handicapped? Or was it just that only the x64 compilers were offered, initially?

-f0dder (February 23, 2011, 06:28 PM)

Here's my recollection (which might be faulty) of various things regarding free compilers from Microsoft:

Prior to VC 2003 Toolkit, there was no x86 compiler available gratis from Microsoft.

Starting with the Windows SDK for Vista (they might have still called it the "Platform SDK" then), MS provided compilers for all supported platforms (x86, x64 and ia64).  Before that, SDKs came with compilers for  supported 64-bit platforms (ia64 and x64 when supported).  I don't remember anything about how you'd get compilers for MIPS or Alpha from when those were supported (way too long ago...).  The compilers provided with the SDK were always optimizing compilers.  The SDK included MFC for 64-bit compilers (I don't know if they still do) since for a period of time, there was no other way to get a MS compiler for 64-bit platforms. I think that other than that, MFC has never been in a free compiler package.

At some point the DDK (now called the WDK; maybe they've updated the name again) started coming with compilers before the SDK did, but the WDK didn't become free until after the SDK started providing compilers (though it was only $10 or so for quite some time before becoming free).

As far as I know, the only time that MS provided a compiler toolchain package that didn't include an optimizing compiler was VS .NET 2002 Standard (update: VS 2003 Standard was also a non-optimizing compiler).  I believe that all other compiler packages (free or not) provided the optimizing compiler.

I don't think there's a legitimate way to get VC 2003 Toolkit anymore.  I'm pretty sure there's no MS download anymore (hidden or not), and if I recall correctly, while it was free the license didn't include rights to pass the download on to someone else.  It's not very hard to find in the search engines, though.

873

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 23, 2011, 05:54 PM »

I agree that it would be nice to have a small VC++ compiler package like vc2003toolkit.  But MS likes to keep everyone moving along to the latest.  I'm sure there are several reasons; not having to support old tool packages being one they'll mention.  I'm sure that encouraging developers to move to tools that don't support older systems is another that probably doesn't get mentioned in a FAQ.

There was a VC++ Express 2005 that preceded the Express 2008 edition - it's still legitimately downloadable from Microsoft, but they no longer provide a link on a webpage - you have to know it or search it out on someone's blog:

  - VC++ 2005: http://go.microsoft....fwlink/?linkid=57034  (from http://apdubey.blogs...io-2005-express.html)

The installer for VC++ Express 2005 lets you clear a checkbox to avoid installing the IDE.  The stated intent was that this would be a supported way to install the  VC++ compiler toolchain for build systems.  I think that was one of the rationales for vc2003toolkit, too.  I imagine they dropped that option from Express 2008 because the full compiler tool chain is in the SDK, and that should be used for build machines if you want an IDE-less install.

I'm still pissed off at them pulling the 2003 toolkit, since it's the last (gratis available - iirc there were no express versions before 2008?) compiler that supports building for 9x targets.

-f0dder (February 23, 2011, 05:22 PM)

I don't recall if VC2005 supports 9x targets (I'd guess not) - did MS release any gratis compiler that supported 9x target before 2003 toolkit?

update:  according to Wikipedia, VC2005 will target 9x: http://en.wikipedia..../wiki/Visual_C%2B%2B

874

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 23, 2011, 04:18 PM »

(shame on MS for taking that offline, and double shame on them for not offering "toolkit" versions of later compilers!)

-f0dder (February 23, 2011, 02:52 PM)

I agree with this.

But, you can install VC++ Express and just ignore the IDE to get similar functionality (VC++ 2005 even had an option to install only the command line tools without the IDE).  However, VC++ Express doesn't include 64-bit compilers (see later) and VC++2005 is only available from a link that isn't on a Microsoft page.  You can still get VC++ Express 2008 via a published Microsoft webpage, but if I had to put money on it, I'd guess that at some point they'll drop it (so download the ISO now if you think you might want it in the future).

Also, the Windows SDK now includes the compilers (it's had 64-bit compilers since MS started supporting ia64, and now has the 32-bit x86 compiler - I think that started with the Vista SDK).

875

Living Room / Re: Power Ranger Punches Kid for Accusing Him of Stealing Gloves

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 23, 2011, 12:16 PM »

I can't hear the youtube audio right now, so this post might be redundant (but still might be useful for others who can't or don't want to wade through a vid)...

I don't know if this is accurate, but it seems to fit and seems a pretty likely explanation of the phrase:

Jesus Didn't Tap is a Christian brand of mixed martial arts (MMA) clothing. "Tap" in MMA language means to give up or quit. When a fighter is in a hold by an opponent, they can tap on the other fighters leg as a sign to let go, signifying their giving up. The referee then stops the fight, and the the winning fighter lets go.

The designer of the brand coins the phrase Jesus Didn't Tap, meaning that Jesus didn't give up. The designers hope to spread their message throughout the fighting community.

-http://www.mahalo.com/jesus-didnt-tap/