blog.world3.net

Miranda IM automatic update script

28/08/2010 – 18:45

Found a useful script to auto-update Miranda IM. They really should create an update system for it. I modified the script to work on my system and with newer releases in 7zip format.

chdir /D update c:\portable\gnu\wget.exe http://code.google.com/p/miranda/downloads/list -O data.txt type data.txt|findstr /i unicode.7z 1> data1.txt del data.txt ren data1.txt data.txt c:\portable\gnu\wget.exe --force-html -c -i data.txt for /f "tokens=1-3 delims=." %%a in ('dir *unicode.7z /b') do set ver=%%a_%%b_%%c echo S|"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x *unicode.7z -o%TEMP%\%ver% del *unicode.7z del data.txt cd .. %windir%\system32\taskkill.exe /IM miranda32.exe ping localhost -n 5 > nul %windir%\system32\taskkill.exe /F /IM miranda32.exe for /f %%f in ('dir *.* /b/a:-d') do copy %TEMP%\%ver%\%%f %%f cd Plugins for /f %%f in ('dir *.* /b/a:-d') do copy %TEMP%\%ver%\Plugins\%%f %%f cd .. start miranda32.exe

By mojo | Posted in Internet, software, windows | Comments (0)

Interesting article and debate on DNA identification probabilities

20/08/2010 – 16:19

Article and Slashdot discussion. Hopefully more people are now starting to wake up to the fallibility of DNA.

Real life isn’t like CSI where they get a perfect sample and the computer flashes up a perfect match. In fact, CSI does that for fingerprints too… Shocking for a show supposedly based on science.

By mojo | Posted in law | Comments (0)

George Osborne on social mobility

17/08/2010 – 19:46

I was surprised to hear Mr. Osborne talking about social mobility today, but then I realised what he meant. He doesn’t mean making things fairer for everyone and allowing us all to improve our lot, he means he wants to support entrepreneurs and the Thatcher dream.

It’s our version of the American Dream™ – the idea that anyone can make it if they work hard. It is of course bollocks. The reality is that most people spend their lives working for others, and not because of a lack of drive or ambition but simply because that is the most reasonable thing for them to do. Not everyone is suited to going it alone or running a business. Even if you are about 60% of businesses fail within four years, and of course even if yours does not that is no guarantee that you will improve your social standing because of it. How many corner shop owners or painters struggle to reach the middle class, let alone actually becoming quite well off?

Of course there is nothing wrong with working for a salary. Lots of highly educated, hard working people do. But Osborne, like Thatcher before him, isn’t interested in them. Well, not beyond the point that they consume and thus create opportunities for businessmen and bankers. Thatcher wanted everyone to own a car, own their own home, own shares in former public utilities… Those are the least terrible aspects of it. Thatcherism considers any service that the government provides to be a lost business opportunity.

Need gas, water and electricity? Need to travel by train or by bus? Feeling ill? Fantastic, get out your credit card and I’ll introduce you to some friends of mine.

By mojo | Posted in politics | Comments (0)

Windows 7 Tweaks

16/08/2010 – 20:34

Finally got around to installing Windows 7 on my main machine. As usual there are a lot of tweaks that need to be made.

The Start Menu has some nice features but I really don’t like the way the All Programs section works now. Fortunately you can bring back the old cascaded menu and keep all the good new stuff with Classic Shell.

The Game Controllers applet in the Control Panel has gone, and I had a shortcut to it on my Start Menu anyway because I use it for development. It is possible to do in 7: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/57153-game-controllers-shortcut-create.html

I use MaxTo for window positioning so I turned off Aero Snap: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/disable-the-mouse-drag-window-arranging-feature-in-windows-7/

To replace notepad.exe with notepad++ copy NppLauncher over notepad.exe after taking ownership/permissions in these locations:

c:\Windows\notepad.exe
c:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
c:\Windows\SysWOW64\notepad.exe

Disable driver signing: Use DSEO to enable test mode and then sign the offending driver files. Unfortunately a security update makes it impossible to disable driver signing completely. Remove the test mode watermark with (surprise surprise) Remove Watermark.

Outstanding irritations:

Can’t put the Recycle Bin or My Computer on the new start, but you can make shortcuts in “All Programs.”
Clock on compact Task Bar takes up enough room for the date, even though it only shows the time. Can be “fixed” by changing the date format but the setting is system-wide.

By mojo | Posted in software, windows | Comments (0)

Animal cruelty

10/08/2010 – 18:36

Someone attacked my cat. The put some black stuff around his ear and cut the whiskers on one side of his face down to about 1cm. I reported it to the RSPCA.

I just hope it was some kids who will get bored soon. The thought that an adult would intentionally do something like that is too disturbing to contemplate for long.

By mojo | Posted in idiots, law | Comments (0)

Playstation Beatmania controller tested

01/08/2010 – 20:02

I got a Beatmania DJ turntable controller for the Playstation and it works perfectly with the Retro Adapter. It’s actually pretty simple; it emulates a digital pad. When the wheel is turned it just presses the up or down buttons on the d-pad. It doesn’t even use analogue for speed sensing etc.

By mojo | Posted in Retro Adapter, electronics, microcontrollers | Comments (0)

The MSF signal is a bit of a mess

28/07/2010 – 00:06

I am working on another clock, this time with MSF (Rugby/The time from NPL) radio time setting. I know, I need to document the last one… Anyway, I finished the decoder today.

The MSF signal is frankly a mess. Things seem to have been added and then removed over the years. There are four different length pulses and various additions. Compared to the nice clean DCF77 signal it’s horrible, but unfortunately I can’t get DCF77 to work reliably here. In fact I bought a DCF77 clock but it has never been able to receive a good enough signal to set itself.

As others have discovered the MSF signal is much cleaner at night, but filtering out the noise during the day isn’t too hard. I wrote the decoder in assembler and it basically waits for a valid bit and then locks on to that, ignoring everything until 950ms have passed from it’s start. It also filters out too short and too long pulses and does some debouncing.

By mojo | Posted in avr, electronics, microcontrollers | Comments (0)

Blister packs

03/07/2010 – 17:07

Why does medication for arthritis come in packaging that is hard for people with arthritis to open?

By mojo | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Mitsubishi Colt squealing brakes

28/06/2010 – 21:46

A few months ago the brakes on my Mitsubishi Colt started to squeal as I was coming to a stop. It was less than a year old and due for a service in another couple of months so I decided to just wait.

At first Sparshatts said on the phone they would sort it out as part of the service (which was covered by the combined service and breakdown cover policy I had with the car), but when I got there they were unwilling to commit to anything. In the end they apparently blew some air on them to clean off any dust, but after a few miles they started squealing again.

I’m not very impressed. A one year old car should not have brake problems, even if the performance of said brakes does not seem to be affected. I suppose I will have to look into solutions myself.

Otherwise the car is still excellent in most other ways. There is a nasty corner near where I work that is obscured by that pillar I mentioned in my review but I have learnt to look from a different angle there now. I adjusted the mirrors to give a better view of the blind spots which seems to have worked really well, and they are designed such that only the actual mirror moves rather than the whole body so they don’t get pushed out of place by the car wash.

By mojo | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

PayPal – no protection after 45 days!

25/06/2010 – 19:31

In the EU everything electrical comes with a two year warranty. I bought an MSF receiver module on eBay. It arrived from overseas and it took me a couple of weeks to get around to testing it when I realised it did not work.

I opened a PayPal dispute and they closed it because it had been longer than 45 days since I bought it. Some stuff takes nearly that long just to arrive from China! As usual PayPal are cocks.

I left the seller negative feedback because he refused to accept a return. I asked Santander about a charge-back but they refused too, the asshats.

By mojo | Posted in Internet, law | Comments (0)

たとえ溺れても梦はゆめでしかない

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