Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Sky]

Get a Mac? (Spotlight can index PDFs for searching)

I'm interested in this as well. We're using Spotlight to search pdfs of our local paper and I want a good way to do it in windows. We're still mostly on XP, though.

As an aside, pdfs of newspapers from the printer are wicked to play around with. Great photos, selectable and searchable text. An amazing leap from microfilm 

[Murgos]

How the hell did PDF's become so widely used for archival purposes without being able to easily search the contents of several documents?

[Ironwood]

Um ?

[Yegolev]

And Yeg is just special, I've been using ATI cards since the 4870 hit, and had no driver issues like his.

I am.  The ATI cards on my wife's machine, which I built myself and used the same Win7 media for install, work perfectly.  Catalyst installs and everything.  No time or interest in digging that deep, though.  I'll just root for Nvidia to make better cards one day rather than fuck around with my .NET installation.

[Sky]

How the hell did PDF's become so widely used for archival purposes without being able to easily search the contents of several documents?

(Spotlight can index PDFs for searching)

We're using Spotlight to search pdfs

Sounds like a windows issue, not a pdf issue 

[Trippy]

Get a Mac? (Spotlight can index PDFs for searching)

I'm interested in this as well. We're using Spotlight to search pdfs of our local paper and I want a good way to do it in windows. We're still mostly on XP, though.

Windows Search is available for XP. However I'm not sure if iFilters work on the XP versiom (docs imply that feature is >= Vista).

[Sheepherder]

You can search the internal contents of files in anything XP+, it just seems to exclude PDF's.  The OS doesn't seem to consider it a text file, which is Adobe's problem.

[Trippy]

That's what IFilters are for in Windows Search. Vendors with their own formats can have Windows Search index the content if they provide the IFilters.

[Polysorbate80]

Anyone have suggestions for a good wireless mouse and/or keyboard with a range of ~20'? 

Doesn't have to be gaming quality, just a solid connection.  This is to drive the htpc in my basement via kvm extender from my living room.

[Sky]

I've had two logitech keyb/m with RF tech that have sucked balls. Lots of signal drop, I've taken to just putting the receiver on my coffee table. Might not be bad for non-gaming, as it's mostly a problem with click & drag type commands (in gaming, right clicking to move the camera or something).

[Salamok]

I've had two logitech keyb/m with RF tech that have sucked balls. Lots of signal drop, I've taken to just putting the receiver on my coffee table. Might not be bad for non-gaming, as it's mostly a problem with click & drag type commands (in gaming, right clicking to move the camera or something).

I have never used a wireless keyboard that I was happy with but the Logitech Performance MX mouse I bought a few weeks ago is probably the best mouse I have ever used and it works from 20 feet easily.

[Engels]

I've owned at least 3 Logitech Comfort Cordless keyboards and they've never had any issues, other than getting scuzzy and having to replace them because of that. Its the only keyboard I really love. As far as Mice are concerned, I have no real opinion.

[Sky]

I dunno, I've had problems with two different models on two different computers in two different living situations. Maybe it's interference or something. Even now, while I'm set up in the den while construction drags on in the living room, I still get interference, not sure what could be causing it.

The one I'm using now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126007

[Engels]

Blech. Looks like my fave has been discontinued. I'm gonna get real angsty when I have to find a replacement sometime in the future.

[Megrim]

I didn't want to derail WUA's BG thread, so i figured i'd ask in here: has anyone had success running Baldur's Gate tcp/ip multiplayer games on Vista? If so, then how? My mates and i are trying to set up a game, but we'll be damned if we can get it to connect.

[Lantyssa]

At a guess there are ports you'll need to open up in the firewall.  No idea what they are or time to search right now.

[Megrim]

Nah, it's not the ports. We tried for a day straight and figured it wasn't worth the trouble. We did manage to get BG2 working over hamachi. Six man failtrain here we come.

[SurfD]

New question for you gurus:

In Windows XP, when you are connected to the net, you had the option of displaying a connection icon in the system tray, with blinkin lights that would indicate that there was network traffic going on when your connection was doing something.

I would like to know if there is any similar function available for Win 7.  Currently, the only thing i have been able to find is the "network" icon, which only indicates if my connection is connected / disconnected.  No option appears to be available to indicate if there is actual network traffic going on.

[Sheepherder]

No?

Link

[Murgos]

I wouldn't trust the blinking light in the tray to tell me if the connection was working properly or not anyway.

netstat like sheepherder said above, or even ping or tracert would be more accurate.  Or sysmon will tell you statistics like packets sent/lost and etc...

[Sheepherder]

Or wireshark.

[Yegolev]

Well, now, that looks fancy.

[Chimpy]

Running a wireshark packet capture full time just to know you have "network activity" seems a bit  to me.

[Sheepherder]

Wanting blinking lights so that you know when arbitrary amounts of data is being sent/received seems pointless.

Does it say connected?  If so, it's sending data.

[SurfD]

I dont know, I just liked the blinking light because it told me my connection was doing something.   No blinking lights, connection is connected but idle.  Suddenly the lights start blinking; could make me curious enough to check and find out hey, my torrent program started itself up in the background and is downloading shit, or hey my antivirus is updating itself.

With the current blank, no blinking lights icon, i could be working away typeing out a doccument or something, and my computer could be busy downloading gigs of shit in the background and i would have no way of knowing my connection is even transmiting data.

I dont really need to know EVERYTHING that my connection is doing, but knowing more then just "hey, your connection is connected" would be nice.

[Trippy]

I use something called NetMeter 1.1.3.

[Viin]

How about a desktop widget?

http://gallery.live.com/results.aspx?bt=1&pl=1&ds=2&la=en&tier=0&st=1&p=1&q=network&c=0

[Salamok]

Is there a qick and permanent way to enable/disable the touchpad on a dell studio laptop?  Currently I uninstall it using the device manager but I would rather something more along the lines of a disable/enable toggle, plus if I forget to turn on my wireless mouse it reinstalls the touchpad on startup.

I pretty much want it off all the time except for when I am in a car or on a plane.  If all else fails I may go low tech and cover the thing up with something.

[Viin]

Do you have the Dell laptop tools installed? They sometimes have a touchpad "app" that runs next to your clock on the taskbar, with the option to disable it with a right-click menu.

[Salamok]

Do you have the Dell laptop tools installed? They sometimes have a touchpad "app" that runs next to your clock on the taskbar, with the option to disable it with a right-click menu.

Yeah I suppose therein lies the problem behind my problem.  The dell touchpad app had a serious conflict with virtualbox guest additions so I removed it.

[Viin]

Guess you have to figure out which one you want more. 

Did you try updated touchpad drivers?
http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers

[Sheepherder]

Device console + Batch file.

[Salamok]

Device console + Batch file.

Thank i'll give that a try.

[MuffinMan]

There is a folder in my recycle bin that is pissing me the fuck off. It's named "Dd26" right now. When I try and empty the bin, delete it or restore it I get an "Access is denied" box. The program Unlocker can delete it but it instantly comes back as "Dd27" and so on.

[Sheepherder]

Sounds like a virus.