Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Chimpy]

Adobe Acrobat has to go.  Suggestions on a replacement?  I just need a viewer.

Foxit is definitely the best general purpose reader I have used. Much faster than Acrobat.

Has some problems with some pdf files with weird watermarks but 99% of the time it works great.

[Sky]

Preview.







 

[apocrypha]

PDF Xchange works very well on Win7 64bit.

[Yegolev]

Thanks.  It's less of a hardware power issue and more of a "acrobatxwtfbbq" issue.  I don't give too much of a shit as long as I can view the files I want to view, but when it hangs my browser or starts popping errors, it's time for a change.

[fuser]

If you use google chrome.. assign the default open to the browser and it will render it well.

[Yegolev]

If you use google chrome..

NoScript

[fuser]

If you use google chrome..

NoScript

Depends on what you use it for, if its to kill flash/plug-ins that's simple via

Wrench -> Options -> Under the bonnet -> Content Settings 
Look for Plug-ins and choose "Block All"

Any website will then have a greyed out box like noscript you can interact with the element and a site exception button in the address/search bar.

You can kill all JavaScript in the same spot also but it doesn't filter out XSS like noscript, seems to be a blanket site exception.

[Yegolev]

I use it to be ridiculously paranoid.

[Morat20]

So, I got a forwarded email from...let's call it "Family" wherein they (correctly) summed up the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, noted that they had verified the contents fron Snopes, and correctly linked it to "Why the people at Facebook are idiots" and stated that, at a bare minimum, you shouldn't be sending anything confidential over HTTP.

My question is this: Should I explain what a 'certificate' is and how to check on their default browser that the one they have is legitimate? (Not that it's hard, and hopefully their settings would kick it to the main screen with a 'This certificate can't be verified') or should I just go ahead and consider this a 'win'?

[Strazos]

That's pretty good for a newb, so I'd run with it.

[Salamok]

So, I got a forwarded email from...let's call it "Family" wherein they (correctly) summed up the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, noted that they had verified the contents fron Snopes, and correctly linked it to "Why the people at Facebook are idiots" and stated that, at a bare minimum, you shouldn't be sending anything confidential over HTTP.

My question is this: Should I explain what a 'certificate' is and how to check on their default browser that the one they have is legitimate? (Not that it's hard, and hopefully their settings would kick it to the main screen with a 'This certificate can't be verified') or should I just go ahead and consider this a 'win'?

Consider it a win, nearly all modern browsers rain down hellfire and brimstone if god himself didn't descend from the heavens and install the cert.  I mean really with each browser generation it gets harder and harder to friggen add my own self signed cert that I issued to my private server a permanent exception.  No really thanks chrome I didn't want to use the relatively painless to acquire and install self issued never expiring free cert for my own purposes anyhow.

[Morat20]

My work can't even get their certificates done properly. I'm serious -- I work for fucking NASA, and they -- for someone unknown reason -- have not bothered to get their own certificates certified by a TRA that comes with the browser, meaning we all have to install as TRA NASA's own.

I'm pretty sure that the US government has some trusted root authority certificates that come setup in the default browser packs, insofar as it's "the fucking US government" but apparently getting their shit signed by that is just too hard.

The fact that hand-installing all this crap gives users bad ideas about whether installing certificates or clicking "continue" on "this certificate cannot be authenticated, do you wish to continue?" is just ignored.

[Salamok]

Microsoft has a program for government agencies to get their cert servers added to the root authority list, unfortunately that doesn't help you ditch ie. 

I think it is completely retarded that there is not a single root authority for cost effective (ie nonprofit) certs to cover .gov and .us domains for federal, state and local government.

[Yegolev]

This morning my wife bumps her computer with her knee and it powers down.  After a few minutes of ranting from me (this fucking computer...), I determine that if I unplug and replug the power, I get a subsecond poweron: LEDs flash and the CPU fan starts to spin.  It immediately powers down, though, and subsequent presses of the power button do nothing.  The above occurs when I detach/retach the mobo power link as well.  I see two LEDs on the mobo are lit (no Picard jokes please).  I'm hoping for a loose wire so I reseat the power/reset/etc cluster but no change.  I'm not sure where to go from here.

[Ironwood]

New board.

[Viin]

Loose memory sticks?

Worst case, there was a loose wire and when she bumped it it hit something and shorted. Probably the mobo in that case.

But, try resetting cmos and pulling out cards one at a time to see if you can at least get it to boot. Other option is your power supply is shot and short itself with the sudden off.

[Lantyssa]

Failing power supply?  Do you have a spare?

[Trippy]

This morning my wife bumps her computer with her knee and it powers down.  After a few minutes of ranting from me (this fucking computer...), I determine that if I unplug and replug the power, I get a subsecond poweron: LEDs flash and the CPU fan starts to spin.  It immediately powers down, though, and subsequent presses of the power button do nothing.  The above occurs when I detach/retach the mobo power link as well.  I see two LEDs on the mobo are lit (no Picard jokes please).  I'm hoping for a loose wire so I reseat the power/reset/etc cluster but no change.  I'm not sure where to go from here.

Which LEDs are lit? Does your MB have a POST code display or is your MB speaker hooked up? Did you check to make sure the heat sink is still attached properly?

[Yegolev]

I don't have a spare power supply of sufficient modernity... except the one in my own rig which I need to rebuild anyway, so I might try that.  Did not check the HS but I think that must be a low-chance item.

There's no post code display, there is a red power mode control button and a reset button.  They light up but neither one do anything.

I unplugged things one by one, and when I unplugged the video card from the power, I got a beep despite not having a speaker wired up.

I would expect a loose memory stick would still allow the fans to spin up, but I can pull those as well.  Since it's mobile, meaning it lives in a small desk with casters, there could be something shaken loose or otherwise fried due to that.  Maybe I'll pull out the battery to reset; do you need to short the battery pins on a PC mobo or can I just wait ten seconds?

The fun bit is that the cheapest matching mobo (ASUS P6T Deluxe) I find on newegg is $205, which seems odd considering the relative age of this machine.

[Chimpy]

The fun bit is that the cheapest matching mobo (ASUS P6T Deluxe) I find on newegg is $205, which seems odd considering the relative age of this machine.

End of Life parts = more spendy due to supply and demand.

The "older is cheaper" method works when you are in the "oh shit no one wants to buy the 5million of these we have in stock, cut prices!" mode and not the "there are 20 of these left on earth" mode.

[Yegolev]

You are probably right, I will try something other than ASUS, blasphemous though it might be.

[Strazos]

So I would like to install W7 SP1, but it needs a few gigs on the C:\. Is there a way to reallocate unused space from another partition to the C:\ ? I seem to be able to add/remove space from my storage partition at will, but not my system partition.

[Trippy]

So I would like to install W7 SP1, but it needs a few gigs on the C:\. Is there a way to reallocate unused space from another partition to the C:\ ? I seem to be able to add/remove space from my storage partition at will, but not my system partition.

There is a way but it's a bit tricky. Essentially you need to have an unallocated block of free space next to your system partition and then you can extend the system partition to include that unallocated space.

So let's say you have a 500 GB drive with something like

C: 50 GB (full)
D: 450 GB (100 GB free)
no unallocated space

The first step would be to shrink the D: partition by some amount of free space left, we'll do 50 GB

C: 50 GB
D: 400 GB
Unalloc: 50 GB

Next we need to move that unallocated space next to the C: partition

C: 50 GB
Unalloc: 50 GB
D: 400 GB

Now we can extend the C: partition

C: 100 GB
D: 400 GB

The hard part is moving that unallocated block. The standard Windows 7 disk management tools can't do that I don't believe so you'll need to find a third party tool that can do that.

Another option would be to backup your secondary partition, image your system partition, repartition your entire drive with a larger system partition and restore the image to that.

[Engels]

I've used Parted Magic (http://partedmagic.com) to do my partition resizing. You need to burn the ISO to a CD and boot from it. It will enter a linux-based environment with a parition editing tool on the desktop. 

Other than what Trippy said, the failures I've had with it surround the ability to shuffle the data around. If the data is too 'tight' and there's not enough wiggle room to do a temporary write, it may fail.

Read this:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/resize/resizing.htm

with special attention to this passage on NTFS file system (what windows uses for the most part)

DON'T DO any other operations on this (resized) partition before the reboot,
otherwise you will get errors. After the boot-up Windows logo,
the system will show a special screen, and a message
asking about drive consistency : Checking file system on c :

[Strazos]

Hmm, that all sounds...painful.

Another question - when SP1 says it needs x free space to install the SP, is it asking for that space in order to unpack and do it's thing, or is it asking for permanent space? I'm thinking it's the latter.

And to think, I thought 34gb was enough...

[Ingmar]

The best first step might be to run something like SpaceMonger on the disk to see if there's any big obvious crap you can get rid of or move.

[Yegolev]

At this point, I'd purchase a new drive of correct size and reinstall on that.

[Strazos]

The drive itself has PLENTY of room...I just underestimated how much I needed for my OS partition.

[Trippy]

How much are you short? You could try and free up some space like Ingmar suggested. One big file you might be able to move is your swap file. By default it's created on your system partition but you can move it to another partition. That could free up quite a bit of space (e.g. mine is fixed at 8 GB).

[Strazos]

Currently have 2.28GB free on the drive. I could free up a bit more by deleting some things, but I'll have to look into both your suggestions.

Separately, really annoyed that some games (looking at YOU, recent BioWare titles) make their save files on my c:\ for no good reason, and I see no way to change that.

Fakeedit: And moving the pagefile from C to D didn't actually seem to change the space available on the drives.

Fakeedit 2: So SpaceMonger is actually a really neat little tool! I just wish I knew what the colors and symbols meant.

[Lantyssa]

Did you reboot after changing the pagefile?

[Strazos]

...no. 

Also, I noticed the large amount of space reserved for Hibernate mode, which I've always had disabled. I should look into removing that.

[Yegolev]

The drive itself has PLENTY of room...I just underestimated how much I needed for my OS partition.

Sure but my suggestion would eliminate a lot of work+time spent.  You probably have quite a bit more free time than I do, and there's nothing wrong with dicking around with partitions.  Can be fun.

If you have hibernate disabled, I would think the file would not even be there.

The trick to the Win pagefile is that shrinking it requires a restart.  You can make new ones all day long.

[Strazos]

So after changing my pagefile (I shut down every night, so this is the first time I've looked after booting since the change) and disabled hibernate from the command line, I seem to magically have ~9GB free. 

Anyone know offhand what exactly SP1 adds? Any known issues?

[Engels]

SP1 is largely a collection of prior security updates. Do not expect any performance changes. If you have been keeping your machine up to date, it shouldn't be a very substantial download or install time. It is nowhere near the 2 hour ordeal of Vista SPs.