Recent Posts

851

General Software Discussion / Re: Remote desktop software but only shows a small part around mouse?

« Last post by Shades on November 29, 2016, 06:16 PM »

No, I am not aware of such software. I think that this idea is hard to implement. You can move the cursor in any given direction at any given moment and expect to see the content of the visible area to be accurately displayed. For that to happen the software must accurately predict where your mouse is going to be at any given moment, else it won't be able to show you the correct content the moment you expect it.

This prediction part is extremely difficult to get right all the time and my guess is that it will require considerable resources from your system to do this. Whatever amount of resources you think you will gain this way, shall pale in comparison with the resources you will be spending on the predicting of mouse movements at any given moment.

Now if you have a Windows machine and want to connect through RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) to another Windows machine, you can reduce the amount of data being transferred drastically by reducing the amount of colors in the user session you are setting up between machines, disabling Aero on the machine you log into, disable wallpapers and audio on the machine you log into and you can also select a much lower form of connection (56K modem instead of broadband). RDP is quite efficient, but only works between Windows machines.

VNC has also a lot of options to reduce bandwidth, but by design it will practically always consume a bit more as it supports multi-user connections on every user session it creates. RDP is much more limited in this way and will consume less bandwidth because of that.

What do your manipulations entail? Can these be done without a remote connection being open at all? Perhaps it is easier to have a small webserver on the remote machine that serves a custom webpage that allows you to change the things you need. That reduces bandwidth consumption more significantly than any of the above suggestions of reduction above. Such a setup won't require much resources on your end or the remote end, while still having a real-time feel.

 

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General Software Discussion / Re: blanking file data while keeping folder-file structure

« Last post by Shades on November 24, 2016, 08:14 AM »

Speed of FTP transfers degrades quickly when transferring small sized files. In that case you better archive everything in one big lump of data and start the transfer to your e-biz server. Are you sure this server has enough storage space for this? You might get into trouble if this is a "shared" server setup in your e-biz solution.

If you have no immediate commercial plans for this e-biz thing, it might be possible to create your own personal cloud solution on it, such as OwnCloud. That way you won't get charged for (more) money and could be an interesting learning endeavor for yourself. However, if you have no time and/or inclination to get into such things, there are more ways to "skin this cat" (a link to an overview of free tools available to transfer files through your own cloud).

853

General Software Discussion / Re: blanking file data while keeping folder-file structure

« Last post by Shades on November 22, 2016, 11:03 PM »

Regarding LAN copy:
On my gigabit LAN Directory Opus reports speeds of 70 to 80MByte/sec it can sustain when copying sets of database dump files (each 4GByte in size). Because of this I don't even use any software to help and/or speed up copying anymore.  But I distinctly remember when I still was using a 100Mbit LAN, that the use of Teracopy improved LAN copying speeds significantly. However, this was years ago.

Regarding Internet copy:
I use robocopy (command-line) to transfer files from one continent to another. Actually I set up my own WebDAV server and use a script to start the transfer of files to my WebDAV server. Can't complain about the speeds. As a test I used Google drive and I was able to manually transfer a set of files in 10 minutes. Using my own WebDAV server I can transfer the same set of files fully automated in 12 minutes at night or around 15 minutes during the day.

If you use Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive etc. you have been using WebDAV. It allows you to transfer files over the HTTP protocol (port 80). Setting up a WebDAV server isn't too difficult in Linux (Apache2 webserver is what I use, but Ngix and Lighttpd web servers are also fully supported) and only slightly more complicated on IIS (Internet Information Server) in Windows Server.

If you are on a relatively simple 20Mbit/sec or higher connection (not bound by (too) much routing and/or firewall rules) between your computer at home and your current location you would be amazed how much data you can push over during one night of sleep. The higher the upload speed is of your connection at home, the better (if you transfer from home to your current location). If you can find out what the ip number of your current location is, you could even take a look at a (portable) piece of freeware called: CarotDAV. It allows you to set up a minimalistic WebDAV server on your current location and with the IP number of your current location you could try to initiate a transfer session on your home computer (TeamViewer or similar software) to your ad-hoc WebDAV server at your current location. Perhaps there is someone at your home location to start the transfer on your behalf, in case you don't have teamviewer.

For transferring stuff you don't want to park even for a moment on the common commercial cloud solutions, you can do way worse than using your own WebDAV server. WinSCP can also be used in combination with WebDAV. Also freeware, also portable and comes in both GUI-based and command-line application and is with regards to file transfers very powerful and reliable too. In power, complexity and reliability WinSCP and Robocopy are matched.

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General Software Discussion / Re: blanking file data while keeping folder-file structure

« Last post by Shades on November 21, 2016, 08:37 PM »

Some general advice:
While spaces are allowed in filenames by any of the filesystems that common operating systems employ, you should resist the urge to use them. Not all file system are as forgiving with the use of spaces and from your description I understand that you use leading spaces in filenames.

Granted, it is visually not as "attractive", but replacing spaces with '.' or '_' is a far better practice. Furthermore, there is the thing that file explorers aren't created equally. And I suspect that the amount of leading spaces will trip up almost all of them. If you think that file managers all use the exact same way to access available file systems, you are dearly mistaken. Even when they do use standardized dll to make those API calls, it isn't always certain that the latest & greatest versions of these are used. Or maybe you are using a (barely) older version of a file manager that didn't have the latest fixes for accessing the file system on your USB device.

If you are dead set on using leading spaces, I would only transfer these using only the bog standard Windows Explorer and nothing else.

Using a different file name structure could help you more than a script. For example: start the name of whatever .mbx file you receive personal mail into with '0.<insert here the amount of spaces you want><name of file>.mbx'. Business related .mbx file names could start with '1.' etc.

By doing something as simple as that, you will make transferring files with whatever file manager much more reliable and prevent the need for scripts and/or manual file name reconstruction in the future.

Adjusting your filters won't be too problematic that way either. I would even go as far as recommending 'Mail store home', which backs up your mail by storing these in a database. Not only allows you to search much more efficiently through huge piles of mail, it also allows you to transfer between file formats and different mail clients very easily.

The freeware version will likely be all you need and you an get it as a portable app too. With that in mind you only need to transfer the Mail store application to you USB device to have super-deluxe access to all of the mail you have put into it. I personally use it in this way with 18GByte of mail.

855

General Software Discussion / Re: windows xp how do I lock the desktop icon locations?

« Last post by Shades on November 16, 2016, 06:23 PM »

DesktopOk   with that tool you arrange your desktop how you like and store it under a name. Re-arrange the desktop and select the name of the profile you just created and all icons are back to their preferred locations. You can even make several profiles. Very handy and freeware.

856

Post New Requests Here / Re: Script for not go to sleep pc

« Last post by Shades on November 13, 2016, 07:28 AM »

Didn't find scripts, but:

https://sourceforge....s/Portable%20Verson/  -  this tool prevents your computer falling asleep when downloading something (portable).
http://dlaa.me/blog/post/9956802  -  this tool prevents your system from falling asleep as long as it is activated (portable). Can be started separately at your own discretion or together with the tasks you want.
https://www.donation.../Skrommel/index.html - either 'LowToSleep' or 'Noise' could help you.

Found one more:
http://www.softwareo...=Microsoft/DontSleep  -  this tool prevents your computer to fall asleep, but it can also prevent system shutdown, Standby, Hibernate, Turn Off and Restart at your discretion. Might be handy too. 

857

Developer's Corner / Re: Blog Essay: H.264 is Magic

« Last post by Shades on November 11, 2016, 06:28 PM »

Yet easily surpassed in x.265 also known as h.265 also known as HEVC. Picture quality is far better and storage space requirements/streaming requirements are much lower in comparison with h.264.

There is also coming such an improvement coming for audio, mainly the AAC audio codec. HE-AAC has already been in use since digital radio became common. But now there is HEv2-AAC and especially for voice information will benefit as it will take significantly less bandwidth to transfer that data. See here for an introduction.

858

General Software Discussion / Re: Problem login videolan forum : No route found for "GET /ucp.php"

« Last post by Shades on November 09, 2016, 06:36 PM »

5th result of a basic google search 'no route found for get' revealed this link for the phpBB forum software. It explains and solves this problem. Not something you can do anything about, as you do not administrative access to that web site (I assume).

Now that is out of the way, Ath is right with his question. No real reason to post this on the DC forum...

859

General Software Discussion / Re: Need software to resolve RFI issue

« Last post by Shades on November 09, 2016, 05:56 PM »

WiFi channel 11 is the highest channel you are allowed to select. Most devices don't even show that channel. As far as I know channel 13 is only available in Japan.

860

General Software Discussion / Re: Need software to resolve RFI issue

« Last post by Shades on November 08, 2016, 09:08 PM »

In the Netherlands the situation is very similar to what Curt said.

And you would get heavy fines for creating issues on any frequency band. And whatever device they think you used to cause this problem with is confiscated. With virtually no chance of getting that back. Doing anything with radio signals as a hobby? Better make sure your licenses and permits are in order. Getting those isn't a small feat, because a) not cheap, b) you actually need to show bonafide experts that you know your stuff and c) always be prepared for unannounced checks.

Radio cars are deployed if enough complaints come in and/or when you affect government functionality (in-)directly. Granted, because of mobile phones this isn't not nearly as much of an issue as it was in my youth, but to my knowledge the fines for messing with radio signals of any kind haven't been altered.

With that in mind, I too fail to see what is insinuated.

Also, in my youth, people would play "fox hunt". That would be a random member of the club taking on the role of the "fox" by setting up an antenna and transmitter somewhere within a 40 square kilometer area. The remainder of club members would start at midday at the clubhouse, each with a car and a meter to find the source of the signal bursts the "fox" would broadcast at random intervals. That was kinda fun at the time.

I guess those kind of meters were readily available in the US too and you could adapt one if you cannot find one for the frequency band(s) of your "choice". Should help you a lot finding the source of your troubles.

861

General Software Discussion / Re: Spellcheck in Office 2016. One copy seems to have improved but not others

« Last post by Shades on October 29, 2016, 09:50 PM »

Do the others have the same 'Proofing' options/features and dictionaries installed as the system you like so much?

This page explains more.

862

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Installer hangs "creating shortcuts"

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2016, 05:54 AM »

Is it the shortcut creation in the program folder itself...or is it the shortcut creation on the desktop?

If it is the latter, don't let the installer create shortcut(s) on the desktop. Instead, copy the shortcut(s) from the program folder to the desktop. Mainly because the desktop has been "protected" by Microsoft in a similar fashion as the Windows root partition (for most people that would be  C:\).

The first time an installer creates a shortcut there, you'll get a GUI message asking you to confirm if it is ok to do that. The installer might "squelch" this message, giving you the impression that it hangs, while it is just waiting for confirmation. Once the shortcut exists (on the desktop) you can alter it by script or GUI tool without any problem.

A fix could be simply running Process Explorer just before running the installer and 'pull' that window to the front. You could also ask the maintainer of the installer to either fix this or ask that he uses different installer creation software that can work around this behavior.

Personally, I hate shortcuts on my desktop, so I never create those to begin with.

863

General Software Discussion / Re: OneDrive Crashing in Windows 10

« Last post by Shades on October 14, 2016, 08:09 AM »

Here at DC, 4wd linked recently to a format tool which allows you to format drives with a capacity till 2TByte in FAT32. Which is the actual maximum for FAT32, but everyone is so accustomed to the 32GByte limits MS imposed  on us with Windows for so long, it has become the unofficial limit.

NTFS has many advantages over FAT32, however, if you plan to use the card in different devices, FAT32 would be smarter to use, because it is the most widely supported file system, no matter the operating system that any of your devices is using.

Just thought to mention it.

864

Living Room / Re: Be prepared against ransomware viruses..

« Last post by Shades on October 07, 2016, 08:08 AM »

I do not find any information on dealing with ransomware once it is installed. There are no posts (on donation coder or any search engines ) of ransomware being sophisticated enough to lock up keyboard at bios and backup bios level.  Without keyboard I cannot navigate bios and run any repair disks.    I removed battery for two days since there are no longer pins to short and now am getting blank screen.  Motherboard Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3.  Win 7 64.  I am behind NAT router and had stopped running spyware, AWG etc.  Only Windows Defender.  Hate to admit it but because of VERY unusual circumstances I granted remote control w/o realizing it.  Yeh.  Dumb, dumb, dumb! Any ideas?

-terribleterryc (October 06, 2016, 09:58 PM)

General advice:
- Getting a replacement EPROM chip for the BIOS on your motherboard and replace the current chip with the new one. Preferably the new chip has a patched version of BIOS in it that makes it more resilient.
- Getting a replacement motherboard, if you don't know or can't find out the extend of the compromised hard/software (in case you are handling very 'need to know' software and info on this PC).
- Getting a replacement hard disk, if you don't know or can't find out the extend of the compromised hard/software (in case you are handling very 'need to know' software and info on this PC).
- Preferably use the same make and models of the hardware you replace, to have the least of problems with your Windows license. And install Windows from uncomprimisable boot media such as a read-only DVD.

Specific advice:
The Gigabyte motherboard has a dual bios according to this image, so in principal there should be a spare already available. Older/cheaper boards with 2 BIOSes on board often came with a jumper that prevented writing to at least one of these BIOSes. I didn't see such jumpers (after a quick glance) on your motherboard.

If your computer doesn't beep after you turn it on (does it have a little piezoelectric one?) and you are quite confident your hardware isn't at fault, what you could try, is to "make" your board "squeal". With that I mean to remove all video cards connected, then turn the system on, hear it beep and turn it off again. Reconnect one video card and turn the system on. It should show video again.

By making a mis-configuration on purpose, BIOS and such are resetting themselves, especially in systems that take most of that type of configuration automagically.

It might also be prudent to blow through the video card connector of your motherboard and/or use a piece of paper (what you use to print on), fold it between two fingers and wipe a few times over the part of the video card that slides into the connector of the motherboard. Printer paper (without any ink) is mildly abrasive at best, so you don't have to worry about damaging your video card this way. It will remove whatever smudge that has been collected over time. And there is always more smudge on it than you think or expect. Repeat for every other expansion card you might have.

You also stated that you removed the battery for several days. This can mess up the motherboard configuration. How old is this battery? Less than 4 years or older? When it is older, just replace it. If it isn't, check if the voltage is sufficient for use on your motherboard. Replace when necessary.

865

General Software Discussion / Re: How can i force Windows 10 to ALWAYS go to the login screen on Boot

« Last post by Shades on October 04, 2016, 08:29 PM »

You really should not want to do this, but I'll give you another undesirable work-around: Allow the local user account to have a single character password. Even if she does forget, it shouldn't take her long to find it.

There was always a Dutch saying for indicating how useless a person is perceived (for a task) by the person stating: "Je hebt mensen en potloden, maar jij bent de gum!". Translation would be: "You have people and pencils, but you are just the eraser!"    It was a popular one with ranked soldiers/officers to show discontent when I was doing my obligatory military service. And unfortunately, during my stint of almost 38 months I have met many soldiers that would even fail being the proverbial 'eraser'.

Anyway, seems like that saying applies for your user. And essentially also for the person that would enable the work-around I suggested. 

866

General Software Discussion / Re: best image backup method with multiple partitions on a disk

« Last post by Shades on October 04, 2016, 08:08 PM »

Recovery partition? If you have your Windows installation DVD or image of it separate, you have all the required drivers for your machine and installers (or portable versions of your favorite/needed tools? (on any other partition than C:\) Then don't bother with your recovery partition...because you have everything you need to re-install your 'puter from scratch.

But that little partition in front of all other partitions, that is used by your Windows installation during booting of your system (it contains information essential for Windows to operate). If you don't have it, you have a nasty time getting Windows to start at all. While there are tools and instructions for handling that problem, it is not a given that any of these methods will work. What it will be: a huge time-sink and no 100% guarantee your system will be online.

So if you have such a small partition, do not forget to include it in your imaging procedures.

All versions of Windows (after XP) create by default such a small partition (when you install Windows from scratch on an empty or emptied hard disk). Only when you use a tool such as GParted to create the partitions beforehand (leaving no space for that little partition) you could install Windows without this little partition. In that case it is possible that during the installation procedure you will get a window asking you for permission to create this little partition. When you deny this, the installation procedure will continue and you won't have to worry about that little partition again.

What also helps is to know that you are not allowed to create more than four 'Primary' partitions (with the MBR system) on a hard disk. That little partition is actually a 'Primary' partition. But if you already divide up those 4 'Primary' partitions with a tool such as GParted, Windows Won't make this little partition either (because it isn't allowed to). That will help you getting rid of that little partition too.

You can have more than 4 partitions on any hard disk if you so desire. Occupy all 'Primary partitions, on the remainder of storage space you need to create a big 'Extended' partition in which you create 'Logical' partitions. Old school, but it works just fine and all partition software are able to work with such a setup without any problem. Most people have enough options with those 4 'Primary' partitions...but there are more possibilities for freaks like me. 

Dual boot would not be the option I would go for. Easier to create a Virtual Machine and either "link" inside the VM to your separate partitions for programs, data and TEMP. That way you can use your tools and/or data directly in the host PC and the VM if you so desire. Oracle's VirtualBox software allows you create hard coded links to the partitions on the host. I make heavily use of that functionality, because it allows me to have multiple partitions inside any of my VMs. My host runs Windows Server 2012 R2 and I often have a Windows 7 VM, a Windows XP VM and/or a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM active. And I can use practically all portable applications in any of these VMs (simultaneously!) even though there is only one instance of these portable applications available on the D:\ partition of the host. Saves me a boatload of storage space and all my tweaks/configurations I only have to do once.

At least now you have a (hopefully) clear(er) idea of my freakishness. 

867

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Upates changing to Single update

« Last post by Shades on September 26, 2016, 12:31 AM »

For the time being, there is still WSUS to fall back upon. I also read somewhere that security related updates are bundled separately (for Server editions of Windows). While I get the idea behind this change at MS, they could underestimate the side-effects of many who will disable Windows Update. Lately Windows could be labelled as fairly stable and was making inroads with web-facing servers.

Disabling Windows update isn't a good thing, but with the botching updates that come out of MS lately, it becomes less interesting to have critical servers run on Windows. If it only takes one botched update to stop your business dead in its track...

The Windows operating system isn't the cash cow it once was, but with these kind of moves I am starting to doubt that MS will be putting much effort in continuing with these at all in the not-too-distant future. There is more money to be made with software as a service, which appears to be the mantra these days at MS.

868

Living Room / Re: Yahoo! accounts hacked... two years ago!

« Last post by Shades on September 24, 2016, 12:52 PM »

Their name actually says it all...they are just a bunch of yahoos.

If y! indicates that the max length of a password is 32 characters it wouldn't be such a big deal. A password of 32 characters will take quite some time to brute-force (assuming they take precautions such as hashing and salting). But I am not surprised if they don't mention this limit. For a company that has/had so much to do with communicating, they sure don't do enough of that themselves.

y! sure has fallen...

869

Living Room / Re: Guides or tools to help with adding GMAIL to Desktop Outlook 2016 in Windows 10

« Last post by Shades on September 24, 2016, 12:03 PM »

You can make GMail automatically forward incoming mail to a different mail account (without adding the 'FWD:' in front of the subject line). Rules within Outlook can then separate their personal mail and professional mail.
Then you only need to configure the Google mail server as a second mail server entry and indicate per address in their address book that they want to use either the professional mail server or the GMail server to send mail.   

Assuming that this is possible in Outlook 2016 of course.

Caveat: I stopped using Outlook since their 2003 version came out and have been a Thunderbird user ever since. Sometimes I do need to check if my software keeps automatically encrypting/decrypting mail using the latest versions of Outlook and Exchange (MAPI/CAPI). Each time I see how the Outlook interface gets more mangled as versions go on, I become happier and happier I went for the Thunderbird client instead.

 

870

General Software Discussion / Re: how should I roll back java?

« Last post by Shades on September 24, 2016, 11:42 AM »

EIDE hard disks do not come with a SATA interface.

Your desktop may or may not have SATA connectors on it. In case you have a SATA hard disk in your laptop, but no SATA connector on your motherboard...then you can forget about using your laptop hard disk inside your desktop.

This is a real possibility, the SiS chipset is more often than not of low quality and low in features. And as you have a close to 10 year old PC, you might just be out of luck. Without the name/model of the motherboard in your PC I can't tell. Or it might be the same misery as I had here with such old motherboards (based on the Via chipset, one small step up from SiS). I couldn't install Windows XP on it's SATA ports without a floppy disk. Yes, I actually needed a working floppy, a floppy drive a cable to connect it to the motherboard, a CD/DVD player and a cable to connect it to the motherboard as well. Yes, those boards didn't have an option to boot from USB at all. Then I needed to start the installation procedure from the install CD and after a while it would ask for the floppy with a special driver on it that would make Windows recognize the SATA interface and when all went OK the installation continued.

SATA can be real "fun" on old computers. They gave the PC to you, perhaps not from the kindness of their hearts, but to prevent paying for this crap to throw it in a landfill. This is common in the Netherlands, You'll need to pay for throwing away electronics, you'll need to unload it into a special container where later on someone comes and takes those old consumer electronics apart, removes as much of the toxics as he/she can, throws the remainder into the landfill and recycles the toxics. I assume that there is something similar going on at municipalities in the UK too.

In the municipality where I lived that was actually quite expensive.

Anyway, if the same is true for your motherboard, good luck finding that special driver, a working floppy drive and a working floppy. You can't buy those new anymore, even here in Paraguay. Paraguay is a rather poor country, especially when you leave the cities. About 5 to 6 years ago I was asked to help someone out with preparing written off "clunkers" to be donated to charities for children. The amount of child mothers and single moms is very high, especially outside the cities. There are tribes of indians (Guarani) here where the boss of its elders makes any 11 or 12 year old girl a woman, because of their traditions. It's unprotected, so you can see those girls begging for money at traffic lights, baby in hand. It is also not unheard of that those girls get STDs and associated health problems from this tradition too.

Back to the topic: while I still had a lot of those laying around, it took hours before I had found a working combination of floppy drive and floppy to be able to install an operating system onto such systems. And, mind you, I had all of that hardware and the required software driver still in storage. If you don't...good luck.

10 to 11 years ago the transition to SATA started and not all motherboards were created equal around that time. Your PC is from that era and it uses a chipset that has a bad reputation. Now I'm hoping that your PC isn't plagued by all of this crap, but I am expecting it will be. Hardly worth spending any more time or money on than you already did.

You'd better start saving for a newer "clunker" that is based on a Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. These are much better equipped to handle the extra load that TOR requires and have no problem with Windows 7. And have motherboards that work much better with SATA devices and usually come with a 100/1000 MBit/sec onboard NIC. Those shouldn't be that expensive, as these are 9 to 10 years old.

For reference: I have a 8year old Core2 Duo CPU (2.6GHz) based motherboards (Asus) myself, it has 4GByte of RAM, 4 SATA2 connectors and about 1.5 years ago I put in a Samsung 840 EVO SSD hard disk in it. Even watching 1080p video that is encoded using the x265 video encoder works flawlessly. I also have a 1 year old PC with AMD APU 10 (APU stands for CPU and GPU combined and this one works at 4GHz). It has 8GByte of RAM and I can tell you that it is seriously faster than my old Core2 Duo PC.

I bought the PC case and all other parts for the Core2 Duo PC for 500 USD. Not including a mouse, keyboard and monitor, I easily spent 200 USD on a high quality mouse, keyboard and about 100 USD on a 19 inch monitor. After 5 years I did spent 50 USD on a good new power supply. Last year I bought a much better PC case and all other parts for the AMD APU 10 for 350 USD. Then I spent 150 USD on a 28 inch 1080p monitor and spent 50 USD on a decent enough mouse and keyboard. There was a power supply included with both PC cases, so there was no immediate need to buy separate ones. 750 USD for the old Core2 Duo PC in total, 550 USD for my new PC.

So if you are able to save 350 USD you can buy similar parts and have a much better PC (that won't even blink at the extra load of TOR). I think you can shave 75 to 100 USD off, if you go for a less powerful AMD APU (APU 8 or APU 6), buy a cheaper brand motherboard, less and/or slower RAM, smaller hard disk and PC case. Whatever you do, that new box will work fine with the monitor, mouse and keyboard you are using right now. There are many videos on the internet that show you how to build your own PC, step by step ('Linus tech tips' is a site with lots of videos on how to build PCs). The story above should make it clear that I can/do/want/need to build my own PC's.

As you already have a "zombie" PC (it should be dead, yet it lives) you have time to hunt for computer parts within your means. The reference above is just to indicate that you really don't need to spend that much on brand new PC hardware. People tend to charge a lot for second hand computer parts and if you keep score of what you have spent on those old computer parts to make your old clunker barely usable and what you would spend on brand new parts, the balance tips very quickly to getting brand new parts.

Keeping a modern PC up-to-date is also not that expensive. heck, a 60 USD SSD hard disk made my not-so-modern Core2 Duo PC practically a joy to use again.

871

General Software Discussion / Re: how should I roll back java?

« Last post by Shades on September 21, 2016, 11:59 AM »

Intel is by far the best brand. And a network card (NIC) is something you should buy and forget about it. Intel cards are very well supported on Windows, Linux, OSX and BSD. If you need to buy a new NIC, seriously, get one from Intel.

Here in Paraguay, the only brand you can get easily is TP-Link. Any other brand you must import yourself. While decent enough for Windows use, it does show some less than stable behavior under BSD. Which I use for my router. Which was previously used (for 8 years) as a Windows PC. I mean to say that it is never certain what the PC you have will be used for over it's total functional life span. You are far better prepared for whatever you want to do with it, using an Intel NIC. TP-Link is the only brand you can get here easily.

TOR is the main cause of your slow surfing speeds. Generally speaking, your traffic is being diverted over several TOR nodes to mask its comings and goings. There are much less nodes available to TOR than for standard traffic. The most optimum route TOR traffic can take to your traffic is therefore much(!) less optimal than with a standard connection. Not only that, the type and connection speeds of TOR nodes that are available to you will vary a lot. The creation and re-assembling of your anonymized traffic will also put an extra load on your CPU too. Privacy/anonymity comes at a price.

From previ8ous post I understand you are dead set on using TOR, so in your case I would use add-blockers/script blockers when surfing. These prevent a lot of ads/scripts to be loaded and reduce the amount of traffic that has to pass through your TOR nodes. Less traffic also means your CPU has less work to do. This will affect the functionality of most of the sites you wish to visit and you will need to spend time honing those blockers to give you the best compromise between functionality and speed of the websites you visit.

If you can, use TOR only when you absolutely need it, that is the biggest speed increase you will ever get. Buying a new NIC for a TOR speed increase won't do you any good. Getting a much bigger plan for your internet connection will help much(!) more with TOR.

For example: say that you currently have a plan that gives you 2MBit/sec download speed and 1MBit/sec upload speed. If you would subscribe to a new internet plan that gives you 10MBit/sec download speed and 5MBit/sec download speed, your TOR setup has now 5 times the amount of bandwidth for the TOR traffic. This has serious impact. Your current NIC can handle 100MBit/sec speeds for up- and download. Even with the new plan almost 90% from the capacity from your current NIC isn't used. As said previously, privacy/anonymity comes at a price.

Consider buying this new/faster NIC only if:
- you have a computer network at home and often transfer GigaByte sized files from one system to the other. In this case you must buy a switch that can handle those faster speeds as well. Else the NIC won't be able to use the extra speed anyway. And that is with the assumption that each of the computers in your network has a 1000MBit/sec NIC in it and you have used the correct (CAT5E or better) network cables (UTP).
- you want to make sure to have better network capabilities support with non-Windows operating systems.

For your current computer setup, your current NIC is more than adequate.

See the amount of hardware on Intel NIC and NICs from other brands? That extra hardware makes sure that the NIC itself doing all the work. All the others need Windows and the CPU in your computer to do the same job.

872

General Software Discussion / Re: how should I roll back java?

« Last post by Shades on September 20, 2016, 08:42 PM »

In 'Advanced System Settings' you can set the minimum and maximum of storage space you want to reserve for paging. That is usually meant by 'Virtual memory'. This Microsoft kb article explains exactly what you must do to get rid of this error message.

A general tip, in case you didn't know: When you see a window appear with an error or warning message, make sure you have that window "active" and press key combination: CTRL + C. This copies the complete content from that window into the Windows clipboard. This works with any error message window. Use that content with google/bing/duckduckgo/whatever and chances are you'll find the answer for your error in the first 5 links of the search engine results.

873

Living Room / Re: Email whitelist

« Last post by Shades on September 19, 2016, 09:48 PM »

I assume you mean that any mass mail message that you send isn't automatically flagged as spam by the receiver's mail client (or their mail server or their ISP).

The best advice? Use a mass mail service with a good reputation and "swallow" the costs. Tariffs are usually based on the amount of recipients you want to address. But by all means, use a service with a good mail reputation, else your message will end up in the recipients spam box anyway.

If you want to use your own mail-server for this, better think again. There are a lot of organizations that keep a very watchful eye towards mail traffic. And if they see a mail-server they don't know about, pushing a lot of mail messages out in a whatever period they deem short, your mail server gets flagged and you must request them to lift this flag. Until they do so, don't expect any mail from your server to arrive anywhere.

SpamHaus is a good example of such an organization, but there are many, many more of these organizations. It can take a week or two before you are off their shit list. However, if your server is again flagged as spammer in a grace period they define, getting of that list will take a lot longer. Do this often enough and your mail-server gets a permanent ban.

Now I say the whole time: 'your mail-server' but you can substitute that term with 'your domain' but that won't change the story. Getting flagged as spammer is easy, getting rid of that is time consuming.

If you are still hell bent on using your own mail server, make sure it is configured correctly. And that takes a whole lot more than just "install this (free) mailserver software and you're done." There are so many reasons for your message to be undeliverable. And some mail servers configured to be very picky about what they deliver to their users. It usually takes quite some time, money and expertise to make mass mailing an option.

Actually, more often than not, it is cheaper to send mass mail messages through a mass mail service than to do it yourself. Besides this, mass mail services come with tools that let you create your mass mail message very easily and you can be certain that the message will show up nicely on whatever device the recipient receives your mass mail message.

Making a nice looking HTML formatted message yourself that shows up correctly in webmail (browser), mail clients on PC/Mac/Linux, mail clients on Android/Apple/MS tablets or smart phones...that is a serious exercise in frustration. Not to mention time-consuming.

Honestly, if you don't do weekly mass mailings to a big amount of recipients, the headache and frustration of doing this yourself isn't worth the measly sum you have to pay to mass mail service to do this for you.

874

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Synchronize 2 usb disk

« Last post by Shades on September 18, 2016, 01:49 PM »

PathSync v0.35.
Very small (200KByte extracted, including 140KByte of source code), open source and portable sync software. For its size a very capable synchronizer. You need to indicate which drives/folders need to be synced, choose the direction of the sync and after that hit the 'Analyze' button so get a list of the differences and the action PathSync is about to execute. Click on the 'Synchronize' button to do the actual syncing (duh).

Optionally you can apply filters for files and/folders to be included/excluded and you can store these settings in a text-based configuration file for later use. You can make as many of these configuration files as you want. You can even configure a (portable) diff program to help you figure out which file does need to be synced or not, in case you have a doubt.

The speed with which it analyzes differences between folders is a very pleasant surprise. And it works on every version of the Windows operating system (including Windows 10).

875

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is Google Translate suddenly greeting me "Error 403 (Forbidden)" ?

« Last post by Shades on September 17, 2016, 02:09 PM »

Perhaps they think you have bested their translation service and act like sore losers about it...

On a more serious note: a string of text is passed to Google when you do the translation request. This string of text is like to be formatted in a certain way. Chances are that this format isn't accepted anymore by Google. Or maybe it is accepted from logged in users only. While they do have several impressive server parks...those are "hammered" 24/7. Google isn't a charity and with other Google services they have seen the impact when they applied the policy change to provide the best/full options of those services to logged in users.

It is likely that Google ((more) actively) implemented this policy now also to their translation service.

Now I don't have the translation option either in my Firefox 47.0.1 with only 10 add-ons/extensions (5 are for adblocking/security, 3 for development, one for tab handling and the last one for downloads). From your previous postings I understand your Firefox has much(!) more add-ons/extensions, so I think it is safe to assume one of those gives you the translation option in the context menu. Perhaps that one needs an update or allows you to alter the string in such a way that it is accepted again by Google.