Recent Posts

901

General Software Discussion / Re: Script or tool to create HTML Signature for Outlook email

« Last post by Shades on August 19, 2016, 10:06 PM »

https://github.com/jesperronn/VCardCreator
https://github.com/jeroendesloovere/vcard
https://smartdev.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/how-to-generate-a-vcard-file/
http://www.slxdeveloper.com/page.aspx?action=viewarticle&articleid=79

I would assume that one (or all) of the above links will inspire you.

902

General Software Discussion / Re: Was Firefox 47.0.1 the end of the line for you as well?

« Last post by Shades on August 18, 2016, 12:03 PM »

Unsigned...is it not possible to sign extensions yourself? According to Mozilla, you can. This link explains which versions of Firefox allow for unsigned extensions, and behind this link you will find step by step instructions (not specifically for Windows, but the steps are clear).

Just make sure you create a sufficiently strong certificate (RSA 2048/SHA256 minimum), else it is likely Firefox will complain about the weak certificate. The EasyRSA scripts allow you quite some freedom when generating self-signed certificates. At least, I use it myself whenever I have a need for self-signed certificates.

903

General Software Discussion / Re: Interesting compression ratio difference between file compression tools.

« Last post by Shades on August 16, 2016, 08:29 PM »

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, here goes:
I manage a total of 28 Oracle DB's and 5 MS-SQL DB's which I regularly make dump files from. Most are around 100GByte in size, but some are close to 1TByte. So you hopefully can understand that the rate of compression really matters. Not only for storage, but also for transfer speed 7-zip is much better than zip for my use case.

The dump files I create are a maximum of 4GByte in size and 7-zip often reduces those files to 200MByte. Zip doesn't even come close. Rar is quite a lot better zip, but it can't match the brute force of 7-zip either. Besides, I have all this scripted, so it is really turning it on at night and being greeted by archived (and backed up) dump files including MD5 hashtags for verification in the morning.

Target is right about PDFs. The same can be said for .xlsx, .docx etc., which are in essence already zipped when you save those types of documents. But text-based log files of several Gigabytes in size, 7-zip often reduces those to only several Megabytes. And its hardly slower than zip when doing so.

Ah well, to each their own. 

904

General Software Discussion / Re: Interesting compression ratio difference between file compression tools.

« Last post by Shades on August 15, 2016, 04:21 PM »

When archiving big dump files from the Oracle databases I maintain, 7-zip is the best compressor. But not with the default settings. The compression level in 7-zip format can also be adjusted. While this can be time consuming, I need to pull those archives through a slow(er) internet connection. The extra time I lose on archiving and unpacking pales in comparison with the time I need to spend on transferring these files.

Two things:
1. 7-zip comes with a Gui application, but also with a version for scripts. When using both applications with the most extreme 7-zip (LZMA) compression setting, it would make sense to expect similar sized archives. Not true, the script version compresses significantly better. After compressing 1.6GByte of executables, dll's, images, HTML and other text-based scripts I end up with an archive that is around 280MByte in size when created with 7-zip GUI version. With the 7-zip script version the resulting archive varies between 180 to 190MByte.
2. Especially with big(ger) data files, you will notice an improvement in compression speed and resulting archive size when you set 7-zip to ultra and change the dictionary size to 32MByte and the word size to 256. Those settings are not the default, but make quite a big difference in my case. Playing with these settings can have both positive and negative effects and compression time and archive size. But it does pay off to play a bit with these settings.

All in all, 7-zip compresses way better than zip does for me. And as I don't have a need for Windows to index my archives, I gain a lot more storage space this way. However, in case you need to have archive content indexed by Windows, as xtabber states, there could be something interesting here at this link. There you can download a piece of software that can replace the Microsoft Zip functionality with the raw power and options of 7-zip, directly from within the Windows Explorer. No, not an extra context menu item, really replace MS zip with 7-zip. That way you have the best of both worlds.

905

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Vopt 9 defragger free

« Last post by Shades on August 12, 2016, 10:23 AM »

On the subject of measuring differences between defraggers:
First start with a bit of a (simplified) background. On Windows it is quite safe to say that the NTFS file system is used the most. Commonly in Linux that would be a heir of the EXT2 file system (EXT3 / EXT4). The base of both file systems exists already for a long, long time. By design the NTFS file system places files on a hard disk in close groups. The design behind EXT2/3/4 file systems leave a lot more "distance" between files on a hard disk.

Imagine a fresh installation of Windows and Linux, each on its own PC, which are the same in every other hardware aspect. Both run fine as long as there are not much files added or removed. And NTFS will have a minor speed advantage over EXT2/3/4 in this particular scenario.

However, after installing programs and the ongoing processing of data/temporary files you will see that all files are getting fragmented much quicker and more severely with the NTFS file system than with the EXT2/3/4 file systems. Leaving "expansion room" between files has beneficial effects on a computer that is actively doing the task(s) it is setup to do. And it gives the user the impression that there is no fragmentation on EXT2/3/4 file systems (which is not true at all). In this scenario the speed advantage goes to EXT2/3/4.

When the hard disk from each PC has less than 10% of free space left, both NTFS and EXT2/3/4 will have matching performance that is quit bad.

So far the simplified background.

The defragger that comes as default with Windows doesn't have too much settings (regarding placement of files) for you to adjust. So if you want to have the advantages of "expansion room" between files, you cannot really rely on the Windows defragger, as it will do its best to give you the best performance it can with a relatively close knitted group of files. And after it finishes the counter is set to 0% (ideally). And the user is under the impression that files are not fragmented.

Other defragmentation software is bound to use the API calls as the Windows defragger does, but most will give you more options regarding the placement of files on the hard disk and which other optimizations should be applied.

Honestly, since Windows 7 the Windows defragger does an adequate job. But for some not enough, hence there still are quite some 3rd party defraggers out. Some would even argue that using a "better" defragger is just an opinion.

Personally, I don't think that is true. Then again, my opinions regarding file placement and optimizations (in a nutshell: Windows itself, programs, (user) data files and temporary files, each stored in their separate partition) are more extreme. In that separation scenario a lot of file fragmentation is completely eliminated, no matter which defragmentation software and/or optimization schemes you plan to use.

I even dare to say that with a strict separation scheme, you'll extend the operational lifetime of your hard disk extensively as you keep the need for defragmentation to an absolute minimum. After all Windows by default does a weekly defragmentation to give the user the impression that Windows hardly fragments files.

Added bonuses of the strict separation scheme are: you'll have an easier time keeping your (user) data safe from almost any operating system mishap and it makes backups much easier too.

Of course, with SSD hard disks most of the above has become a moot point, accessing fragmented or defragmented files on a SSD hard disk hardly makes any difference in time and are much faster than on a standard spinning hard disk anyway.  Still, the added bonuses from strictly separating files are still valid.

906

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Vopt 9 defragger free

« Last post by Shades on August 11, 2016, 03:42 PM »

My bad, I saw this the other day on a different website and considered it was a nice afterthought from the creator. Just thought that I should mention it here. Guess I should have visited the vopt site first before posting. 

907

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Vopt 9 defragger free

« Last post by Shades on August 11, 2016, 02:43 PM »

The creator died and he made clear in his last will and testament that this software should become freeware after he died.

908

General Software Discussion / Re: Text comparison tool with most robust similarity/moved block detection

« Last post by Shades on August 09, 2016, 11:35 AM »

'ExamDiff Pro' and 'Beyond Compare' are commercial Differs that do, for my intends and purposes, a very good job on Windows.

909

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Workbench Design SW :: $10 bounty for 1st accepted answer

« Last post by Shades on August 07, 2016, 04:00 PM »

While the name of the software suites indicate to be more generic design software for furniture, these should also allow you to design your (multi-purpose) workbench from scratch. The last link even has an option to create cut lists, which might prove to be very cost effective, even if the price is not exactly in your range.

http://wooddesigner.org/
http://cabinetdesigner.net/
www.mobi3d.ro
www.pro100.co.nz
http://www.rockler.com/sketchlist-3d-version-4-shop-windows-version

Anyway, have fun designing your workbench 

910

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by Shades on August 05, 2016, 07:52 PM »

That makes it then a triple boot setup 

911

General Software Discussion / Re: A way to add indexing for mapped network drives to Windows 10 Home

« Last post by Shades on August 05, 2016, 12:40 AM »

Oops, wasn't even aware that Everything comes with HTTP server functionality. Ah well, live and learn. 

912

General Software Discussion / Re: A way to add indexing for mapped network drives to Windows 10 Home

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2016, 08:44 PM »

Try to get a personal/corporate search engine to index all the documents and offer those results in a webpage accessible to the user. If the user then clicks on the link to the file, the document should automatically open in the defined application on the system they currently work on.

That looks like the easiest way to go about it.

Problem is the search engine. IBM (in cooperation with Yahoo) made one available for free some years back. If you install it on the system that stores these documents your users need access to, you also have the accessible webpage as well. Not sure if there was a file and/or size limit anymore...it has been a couple of years since.    Only thing is that I used it myself and worked well.

There might be some newer ones for you to use. But if there aren't, try to look for: OmniFind and see if you can download it (and try at home or something to see if it is of any use for you).

If memory serves me right, there used to be an older SharePoint server that Microsoft made available for free. That could be another way to tackle your problem.

For what it is worth, I never liked the Windows Indexing feature. Too slow, too cumbersome and not too workable with files stored on the network. At the time I jumped for joy when I could lay my paws on the OmniFind search engine.

Collecting those files in one location makes it (much) easier to backup or even apply versioning if you would be so inclined.   

913

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

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2016, 08:01 PM »

There is a (free) tool called: JavaRA  which is supposed to be able to cleanup Java installations on a Windows PC.

914

Living Room / Re: Email Naming Convention for Personal Website

« Last post by Shades on July 23, 2016, 01:48 PM »

[email protected] - that is the most formal/professional, even though your domain has the name it has. Which is a good reason to not use your first/last name (or any combination thereof) in a domain name (that you plan to expose to the interwebz) in the first place.

Using your initials...while that might sound good to you, after all, you know and your direct family & friends know these. If you plan to use that account for professional communication, expect errors because your professional contact might know your name, but not your initials. Besides that, most people only have 2 or 3 initials, so those short names are easily guessable for spammers.

How many mail accounts are provided by your ISP (the hoster of your domain)? Even the cheaper ones in the Netherlands give you unlimited mail addresses. With my very reliable host (25 euro/year including taxes and domain renewal) I get a main domain name (.nl), 5 sub-domains, 75GB/month traffic, 5 MySQL databases and unlimited mail addresses on the main and sub domains. All their servers are Linux based and you are able to manage everything for your domain through a CPanel interface.

All I want to say is that it doesn't take that much effort for your ISP to provide you with lots of mail addresses at virtually no (storage/maintenance) cost to them. Especially for a personal domain where traffic will be low (it might seem impressive to you, for your hoster it will be just a drip in a bucket). 25 euro/year translates to about 3 USD/month. That shouldn't break the bank. Even in Croatia you should be able to get similar service for a similar fee.

Of course, you can register your domain and take care of hosting your website (including mail server) yourself. Something you should only consider if you have the know-how and/or need for that level of control. It is definitely not cheaper and maintaining your own mailserver is a time-sink that gives you a headache to boot. Because it is very easy to mess up, as most people don't get the concepts behind DNS and MX records (at least not the first time). However, when done right, you can have as many mail addresses as your hardware/budget allows...

915

Living Room / Re: Super Annoying Freezing Mouse (and Keyboard) - can ANYONE help, PLEASE!?

« Last post by Shades on July 23, 2016, 09:51 AM »

Instead of corrupt, I would say deluded. My too Pence on the matter... 

916

Living Room / Re: Anyone attending GenCon (board game convention) Aug 4-7 in Indiana?

« Last post by Shades on July 22, 2016, 11:26 PM »

It has been years I visited such a type of event. But, unfortunately, not able to attend now or in the near future. No amount of mugs will cure that (for me) 

917

UrlSnooper / Re: Embedded flash videos

« Last post by Shades on July 22, 2016, 10:39 AM »

https://www.runtime.org/shadow-copy.htm

Works with any of the Windows versions that supports Shadow Copy functionality (Windows 7 and later).

918

UrlSnooper / Re: Embedded flash videos

« Last post by Shades on July 22, 2016, 12:21 AM »

Got the impression you asked this before.

Anyway, videos are stored (very briefly) in a Temp folder (this could be the Windows temp folder, your user's temp folder or a temp folder (hardcoded) by the player that is used on the web site. Most of the time these files have undescriptive names and file name extension.

You'll need to find out where the video file is written on your system. Make sure the video is completely loaded, but before the video has finished playing you should unlock these temporary files and copy/rename them appropriately in a folder of your choosing. Granted, this isn't the easiest way to get videos, but you'll be surprised how much videos you can get this way.

As you report, you want to get flash videos. Now I'm not the only one who thought of this way to "catch" videos. For this reason flash videos are cut into pieces that get downloaded just before the video player in your browser is about to show that part of the video. This makes "catching" videos harder and as an added bonus, it saves bandwidth on both the transmitting/receiving sides (at the cost of viewing experience for the end user who has no or limited access to high-speed internet at any given moment in time).

For Firefox there is a plug-in

Spoiler

YouTube Control Center

with which you are able to change this behavior of the video-player back to the old-fashioned 'all at once'-method of transmitting/receiving video. Not only Youtube videos, but from other sites as well. Armed with that plug-in and unlock software (or shadow copy software) you should be able to "catch" videos again.

With most videos it just isn't worth the effort or time you'll be spending. But the method does work, so if you are dead set on getting this video, it is a way of going about things.

919

General Software Discussion / Re: Searching for a old freeware "Documalis Free Reporter"

« Last post by Shades on July 19, 2016, 11:17 PM »

Well, I did download the file, but it is zipped and not even 1 MByte in size. So if you say it was 20MByte or so, that doesn't bode well (didn't extract the archive though). And as previous poster already commented, the term 'demo' in the archive name doesn't inspire confidence either.

920

Living Room / Re: Super Annoying Freezing Mouse (and Keyboard) - can ANYONE help, PLEASE!?

« Last post by Shades on July 19, 2016, 07:44 PM »

I have had several cabled Logitech mouses which, after 5-6 years use, did exactly the same. In all of my cases it was the mouse itself that was causing the problem. One of them I could extend the life with a year or so, by changing the complete cable between mouse and PC. Still, the chips in the mouse need to do their work fast and continuously for giving the user a "smooth" movement on the computer screen.

It is my suspicion that Logitech doesn't use chips that are able to do both that long. Nowadays I just go and buy a new (Logitech) mouse after 5 years, no matter if it still works or not.

921

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Shades on July 18, 2016, 09:59 PM »

At least it didn't leave him puzzled... 

922

General Software Discussion / Re: I need help creating a new Directory structure including files from a text file.

« Last post by Shades on July 18, 2016, 12:28 AM »

Besides a missing attachment, this request does sounds like homework to me...anyway, the following links show you examples and ideas about the use of strings/arrays in Windows batch scripts:
Create Lists or arrays in Windows batch (SuperUser website (StackOverflow))
How to use array in Windows batch programming
Using arrays in batch files (Rob van der Woude website, a good resource for batch script creation)
Creating array into batch (example script)
Arrays, structures and linked lists in batch files (dostips website, another good resource for batch script creation)
Arrays, linked lists and other data structures in cmd.exe (another StackOverflow page explaining do's and don'ts)

These links should get you going

923

Living Room / Re: Logitech Unifying software permanently alters mouse firmware? How to revert it?

« Last post by Shades on July 15, 2016, 11:50 AM »

From the description of your problem I get the impression that the unifying software disables the other dongle devices. It isn't that Windows doesn't recognizes these dongles, but that these aren't allowed to communicate anymore.

That would be easier to implement in the unifying software. Easier than changing firmware I would assume.

Best way to test this is to use the appropriate mouse/dongle combo on a computer where that unifying software hasn't been installed on. Chances are that it will work just like you expect it to. Which then lies the blame at the unifying software, not the hardware.

It would be the first thing I would try. Personally, I love every piece of Logitech hardware I (have) own(ed). But Logitech software? I would look for alternatives if possible...and if there wasn't, I would go without and use the device in its most basic feature set. The headache induced by their software cancels out all the enjoyment I get from using their hardware. 

924

General Software Discussion / Re: find duplicate songs by scanning folders with mp3 files

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2016, 11:06 PM »

Tools to find similar songs with:
http://www.similarityapp.com/
http://www.musly.org/

Tool to play songs with:
http://www.foobar2000.org/

Instructions:
http://www.similarit...index.php?topic=61.0


These links should keep you happy for a while... 

925

Living Room / Re: problem with pdf

« Last post by Shades on July 14, 2016, 06:51 PM »

Although you see one extension, know that there are several versions of the PDF format. Not all of them are as backwards compatible as you would expect. Perhaps the website only accepts PDF format 1.6 and 1.7 and you have created pdf files with the PDF 1.5 format or lower.

Your PDF viewer/reader can handle these files, but I am not sure about the website. Like Tomos says: more info is needed for a proper answer, else your guess is as good as mine.