Posts by Reverend Jim

Run appwiz.cpl and look at all the installed items. You may have several pieces of bloatware such as browser extensions that you don't need.

Check for apps that start automnatically when WIndows starts. Sysinternals autoruns is excellent for identifying and disabling.

How much RAM do you have? Excessive swapping due to too little RAM can seriously slow performance. Also, if you have an SSD, too little RAM and excessive swapping will prematurely age your drive.

Run Malwarebytes antimalware to check for other crap.

Seems like an extension of Sturgeon's Law which states "90% of everything is crap".

How does Daniweb fare in search engines like Duckduckgo and Bing?

Are you trying to execute the query before opening the connection? I'm just guessing because you didn't post any code. Strictly speaking you didn't post a question either.

and some chickens :)

Ah. A hobby with many layers ;-)

We've had at least one dog and one cat for more than 40 years, sometimes two of each. There is something very calming about having a cat curled up on your chest while reading (me, not the cat) or a dog (our favourite - Irish Setters) walking by your side, tail wagging (the dog, not me). Sadly, we no longer have the energy for a dog so now we have but a single cat.

So basically my Palo Alto technique :)

A lot easier and more pleasant in mid-winter in Palo Alto than here in Winnipeg.

Yes. People continue to ask about VB6. They shouldn't. And you likely won't see anyone answering questions about, for example, COBOL or QuickBASIC, except in a historical context. The only VB6 question that should be asked is "why are you still using it?"

Hello, and welcome to Daniweb.

Odd that something so basic and obvious needs to be named. Of course, "Pomodoro Technique" is a lot shorter than "go hide in the server room so my boss won't keep interrupting me so I can get some work done" technique. At least that's what I used to call it.

Hello, and welcome to Daniweb.

Also, in non-computing over the years I have heard comments like "if only I hadn't stopped for coffee I would have missed that accident, or several other variations. The thing is you never know what would have happened if you had made different decisions. Certainly making a different decision may have resulted in things being better. Or they might have been worse, or exactly the same. There's no need to beat yourself up wondering what if.

Right click on taskbar and select taskbar settings. If you want the icon to show then turn copilot preview on. Or you can use the hotkey WINDOWS+C. Copilot should appear docked to the right of the screen..

My wife and I consume vast quantities of e-books. Mostly mysteries. But I used to be big into sci-fi. As a teen I loved the (at that time) biggies like Asimov, Heinlein (who has lost his shine the more I learn about him), Blish, Clarke, Herbert, Niven, Ellison, etc. A book I reread every few years is The Flying Sorcerers. It is both a parody/comedy and an homage to the classic sci-fi authors.

There were two series (what were called super-science) by E E "Doc" Smith. They were the Lensman and Skylark series. The concepts were amazing although the dialog was corny. I would rather see them adapted to TV with better dialog than what's been done to Foundation.

It's hard for me to imagine that all of the pleasure I've gotten out of Daniweb, the challenges, the insights, the friendships since I joined in 2010, are all dependent on the largesse of just one very talented person. I, for one, appreciate all you have done, particularly considering your current health issues. If you feel unappreciated then perhaps this post will make you feel a little less so.

clipgrab

I called Best Buy Friday morning to ask about the status of my laptop. I was told the average wait time was one minute. Fifteen minutes later I was told there were eight calls ahead of me and would I like to leave my number for a callback. I did so and after two more hours of waiting I called the local Best Buy direct. I was told my laptop would be ready within the hour. I was told that as per my instructions (reset to factory must work) they were doing a final test.

At two o'clock I went down. I was shown a laptop with Windows running. I told the guy that I had to see him reset to factory in front of me. He did so by going through Windows Settings. I had already explained to him (I dealt with the same guy through the whole process) that I have to be able to do a basic reset in the event that Windows won't boot. I had to go to another machine to look up the instructions and show him. He had wanted to do F2-power up which gets you into the UEFI/BIOS.

So finally he did F12-power up which presented the reset-to-factory option. Once it cycled through and got to the Windows config I gave him the thumbs up. Before I left he said "I didn't realize what you meant by factory reset".

Sigh.

So back home to finish the Windows setup and do the (seemingly) …

pigeonhole --> stereotype

Yet another example of taking a simple concept (black hat vs white hat from old cowboy flicks) and diluting it until nobody can make sense of it anymore. Just like the myriad different coloured wrist bands and ribbons. What's next? Purple hat? Green Hat?

I always disable it as well. That's yet another thing I have to remember to undo when I get it back.

I too, have used Linux live bootable CD's to get files off a broken Windows.

I'm assuming the drive wasn't bitlockered?

I consider them all bloatware

Something I may try on this laptop (old ASUS K53E) once I get my other one back is a fresh install from USB but selecting "World" as my region. I read somewhere a while back that if you select any specific region, bloatware for that region gets installed, but if you pick World then no bloatware. You just have to remember to set the correct region after setup.

Create a new recovery partition for the current Windows

This I cannot do as I do not have the tools, the knowledge, or the desire to create a pre-install boot environment. We had IT people at the office who specialized in that but it's not something I care to waste my time learning to do since I would likely never use that knowledge again. And at this point I'm probably losing skills faster than I acquire new ones ;-)

Allocating enough space for the partitions can help prevent running into problems.

I've seen advice like this before but typically there is no advice on how to determine how much space is enough. Fortunately, I have determined over the years how big my C partition should be to allow for extra apps. And there is always EaseUS if partitions need to be resized.

Booting from a USB or external DVD, will let you use the Command prompt.

I actually tried this as well, running diskpart.exe. It couldn't see the SSD …

termites --> clint

As in "I have a pet termite named Clint. Clint eats wood".

At some point you are stuck with a clean install

I'm using my father-in-law's old laptop in the interim. When I inherited it I took out the old drive and put in a spare SSD. I didn't bother restoring the diagnostic or recovery partitions. It's quite peppy now. It's also an ASUS, but purchased before they started making crap. At some point, though, I'm going to have to open it up and clean all the cookie crumbs out of the keyboard. Not gonna happen until I get a working machine back from Best Buy. I already have a Dell picked out if it comes back still broken.

Got a call from Best Buy at 6:30 pm the same day. He informed me that the Windows system that the tech installed was not the OEM version for my machine. I asked why this should matter since I requested a reset to factory from the recovery partition. He said they couldn't do that because the recovery partition had been corrupted. So that's two things they didn't test before returning it. It also verifies that they didn't even try reset-to-factory or they would have noticed a problem.

Also, by not using the correct OEM version my laptop was likely missing custom ASUS utilities. I wonder if the diagnostic partition is also fubar.

Sounds like a very bad recovery image

Possibly. But why didn't this show up when they did the reset prior to returning the laptop?

Imagine that you just bought a car (should be pretty easy for you). You and your wife take a drive in the countryside and at some point you drive over a nail and get a flat tire. No problem because you have a spare. But when you take out the spare you find that it is damaged and cannot be driven on. That's the situation I am in, except there is no way to examine the partition to see if it works. The only way is to try it out by wiping the exiting system.

So either they didn't do that in the lab (a test I explicitly requested), or something else failed between the lab and my local Best Buy. So either the lab tech was sloppy or the laptop is shit.

I got a call from Best Buy this morning to tell me my laptop was back. When I got to the counter I told the tech that I would not accept it until they showed me that it could be reset to factory. I'll leave out a few of the details that don't matter to the tale.

He powered up the laptop and showed me Windows 11. The touchpad was working. He went into settings and selected the reset option. After the usual restoring delay it finally reboot and displayed the screen that allowed me to pick a default keyboard, then the screen that gives me two options:

Troubleshoot this PC
Shut down

Neither of which is supposed to be shown on a reset to factory. He selected Troubleshoot, then something else (quickly) on the next screen and eventually Windows came back up with "Jim" as the user. I explained that this was not a factory reset, as a factory reset would not know my name. He said that he had put my name in when he did the reset before I got there.

I explained that this is not a factory reset. A factory reset would boot from the recovery partition and wipe/restore everything. When he tried the actual factory reset (shift/power) it failed to boot into the recovery partition.

It is being sent back to Toronto with the promise that if it fails to reset (in front of me) when it returns then they will refund my money.

I suppose I am looking at it in terms of practicality. I suppose there might be several reasons to optimize:

1. It saves resources on the hosting platform
2. It improves the user experience
3. It provides personl satisfaction

Point #1 would save you money if the savings were significant.

Point #2 would apply if the improvement was noticible but I doubt anyone could seriously comment, "I think this page rendered 50ms faster than it used to", especially considering all the other things that affect timing, for example, the current loading on my ISP servers, anything else running on my computer or home network, etc.

As for point #3, personal satisfaction is a big deal, but I could not have used that at my office to justify the time spent on improving a process by that little (which is why I used to sneak those changes in under the radar).

I can see how saving 50ms in a process that took 80ms to 250ms is a big deal. I just wonder if it is a big deal that is perceptually visible to the user.

I have to admit that 95% of my work from 1995 to 2008 was back end stuff where I didn't have to worry about stuff like that. Digital plumbing and monitoring. The other 5% was single user apps. Not counting the 20% which was pointless meetings. So if you don't mind explaining, I'm curious as to why 50ms would even be noticible. I'm not asking just to be picky.

Fair enough.

Was it worth all that for 50ms?

I could understand that for a small company but it looks like this place (US based) also has a Canadian presence. And judging by their range of products they aren't a small company.

In any case, after pricing out what we wanted ($800+) and failing to get an alternate payment option we decided to invest in a couple of sheets of masonite and get some wood and rip our own slats. I wouldn't have bothered had the purchasing been easier but I figure I can do it myself with my table saw and some elbow grease and time for under $100.

I went to a site that sells wood veneer slat paneling. They make a nice range of products and seem reputable. However, on completing my order I found that my payment options were limited to

• shoppay
• paypal
• gpay

I have never seen a legitimate site that would not let me pay by credit card. There was a chat option and when I clicked on that it opened a chat window where I typed a question, and was immediately told to continue the chat on whatsapp. To do that I woud have to install a QR code reader on my phone, scan the given QR code, then install an app on my phone. Then link my phone to my laptop.

Or I could continue with the whatsapp web app. When I chose that I was immediately led down the rabbit hole again where I would have to install apps on my phone. Then link my phone to my laptop.

The only phone number provided was not a toll free number.

As a first time buyer I was offered a 10% discount on my first order. They emailed me the discount code. Entering the code on the purchase page did apply the discount. The email had an option of "if you have questions just reply to this email". When I did that I got "invalid recipient" and the email was never sent.

I've bought plenty of stuff from Amazon, and even from etsy. I never had this problem. This is …

Welcome to Daniweb.

Likewise...

Whenever I reinstall Windows, other than the times I've reset to factory, when it gets to the "where do you want to install to" I always get the installer to delete, then recreate the partition.

When I got it back they had replaced both the motherboard and the power supply and I checked in the store to verify there were no power issues. I suspect you are correct about them not reconnecting the touchpad as that was not working in Linux either. As for GPT vs NTFS, I have never formatted to anything but NTFS, and when I originally got the laptop everything was formatted NTFS so if they changed that then bad on them. I will make sure to check that at Best Buy before I take it home when they get it back. I think I will boot from my imaging USB and do a complete drive image before I try anything else.

RE BIOS, it's been years since I had any reason to go into the BIOS. I'm assuming, since it is a very new model, that it uses UEFI. I have five laptops (I never throw anything out that still works) and only the oldest, Dell Latitude, uses legacy as far as I know.

When I first got it in December 2022 I ran through the initial setup. All I had to do to connect to wifi was select my connection and enter my password. I can't see why that would change. Hwever, the replacement was done by Best Buy, not by ASUS so who knows what checklist they use.

Gone are the days

That's pretty much the case for everything. I remember when TV sucked all through summer vacation and I couldn't wait for the end of September for the new seasons to start. Of course it was bittersweet because September also meant back to school.

I'll mention a few more things that may have been mentioned before but I don't feel like rereading the entire thread to make sure.

The interrupted first kiss. You all know this one. They play out the mutual attraction between two leads with the "will they - won't they" tease. When they are finally in a position for that first kiss they take so long approaching each others lips and just before they finally connect they are interrupted.

The "it's complicated" explanation. It really isn't.

The "I'm finally going to tell her my big secret" scenario where just before the big reveal something happens to thwart it. How many times did Clark Kent decide to spill his guts to Lana Lang, and didn't?

The misinterpreted situation where one person just happens to come into a scene at exactly the right moment to draw exactly the wrong conclusion.

Any scenario where the aftermath can be summarized as "hijinks ensue".

Fer sher. You pretty much have to watch the previous season again before you start the next one. I'm still waiting for season 2 of The Old Man (Jeff Bridges, John Lithgow). At my age sometimes I lose the thread if two weeks goes by between episodes. Sometimes I'll wait until the end of a season before I watch any of it. I especially hate it when a good show gets canned before the story is told. Case in point - Flash Forward was a really good show that never got a second season. I ended up reading the book it was based on, but it was so different from the series that it didn't answer any questions.

Then there are series like Revolution which were just stupid from the get go.

Doesn't the link I posted open?

My mistake. I just scrolled back to the last couple of posts, not far enough to see the link.

Dani - if you like Resident Alien I suggest you watch the movie, Tucker and Dale vs Evil.

We watched Resident Alien. Liked season 1 but it kind of petered out after that. I have not heard of 3%. What is it about and who is in it? I can't find it on IMDB.

We just finished Apples Never Fall, and 3 Body Problem is in the queue.

Got my laptop back from Best Buy this afternoon. I checked the power cord connection at the store and it was fine. I wish I'd checked it further because I started having problems as soon as I got it home and powered up. First of all, they replaced the motherboard so when I got it back it had been wiped and reset. First thing I noticed was that the touchpad no longer worked. I tried my wireless mouse but when I tried to install the driver I could not connect to the internet. Also, the Bluetooth would not pair to my hearing aids.

First attempt to fix was to reinstall the Macrium Reflect image I took prior to shipping it out. It couldn't find a place to install the image.

Next attempt was to try resetting to factory. I've done this before and while it is a pain to have to reinstall and configure all my apps I figured I'd start from a known (to me) state. Trying to reset to factory failed and I could no longer boot into Windows.

No problem (he thought naively) as I can just boot into my Windows 11 USB install media. This worked to the point where I was asked "where do you want to install it" as it did not recognize my SSD. Diskpart did not recognize the SSD either. Incidentally, the touchpad did not work in the Windows PE environment either.

Next attempt was to boot into kbuntu from USB …

Further...

Python gets converted to byte code which is then cached in a sub-folder. As long as the source code and packages have not changed there is no need to reconvert so subsequent runs should start faster. Also, I strongly recommend that you look into wxpython as a much better alternative to tkinter. Wxpython is a wrapper for wxwidgets which is a library of controls that are OS specific. No matter what platform you are running on, controls rendered in wxpython/wxwidgets will always render as native controls for the platform.

There is also a python package called pyinstaller which you can use to wrap a python application as an executable (.exe). I find ths useful when I want to assign custom actions for my logitech mouse. I can assign actions, for example, to hmviewer.exe (home movie viewer) rather than python.exe, which I would have to do wthout running it through pyinstaller.

I have developed a number of GUI applications in python. I found that the wxpython package was far better than tkinter. wxpython is based on wxwidgets which is essentially windows controls. Because wxwidgets are compiled for each major system, controls rendered by wxpython look like the native controls for whatever system is hosting.

I have an apps folder on D: where I keep all my portable/homegrown software. Let's say I want to create a virtual enviromnent in D:\apps\MyVirtual. To do this I open a command shell and do

D:\>cd apps
D:\apps>python -m venv MyVirtual

If I install any packages in this session, they will be installed in the virtual python.
This tkes a few seconds. Once done the D:\apps\MyVirtual folder contains a pile of python files (executables, packages, etc. You activate the virtual environment by typing

MyVirtual\scripts\activate.bat

and deactivate by either closing the command shell, or running

MyVirtual\scripts\deactivate.bat

They really just play with environment variables so that all required python stuff comes from MyVirtual. Any packages you install in this session will install into the virtual environment.

What happens if you open a python shell and just type "import cv2"? As I said in your other thread, the problem might be with python 3.12. It imports ok under 3.10.

I tried installing python 3.12 and had the same problem. I typically wait a bit before installing the latest and greatest because I have found it can take a while before packages are upgraded to be compatible (usually wxpython). I was able to install the individual packages under python 3.10. I know that the "next to latest and greatest" is 3.11x but I am currently using an old laptop while my regular one is in the shop.

I noticed a failing on the part of the comprehensive guide that you posted the link for. When a project requires the installation of packages, the pip command for that package should ALWAYS be included. For example, the command to install the opencv package was not given and is

pip install opencv-python

The only pip command that was given was for Pytessaract. Seems sloppy to me.

So my suggestion is to punt the 3.12 python and install the 3.11x.

USB-C ports can wear out, and become loose after 6 months of use

Seem like bad design to me. As for the price, the ASUS models I bought were both the best price that met my specs.

Took my laptop in to Best Buy ths morning and they said it would have to be shipped back to ASUS for repair (again). The good news is that it's still under warranty and I have a spare laptop. The bad news it that it's also an ASUS, but at least it's an older one from before they started making (in my opinion) crap.

The previous unit was a Vivobook 15 X513EA-BH59-CB. The current one is a Vivoboox ASUS K350 2ZA BB51 CB. I'm assuming that the problem with the first unit was not a missing driver because both ASUS and Best Buy (Geek Squad) could not get it working.

Hello, and welcome to Daniweb.

In the summer of 2022 I bought an ASUS laptop from BestBuy. It came with an internal SSD and an empty internal bay for a 2.5" drive. I didn't install a second drive until October and when I booted up it would not recognize the added drive. When I took it back to BestBuy the tech said that the problem was that the port that the drive connected to was corroded (very odd for a new machine). Because it was under warranty I had the laptop sent back to ASUS for repair. I also sent the added drive and cable with a description of the problem.

The laptop was shipped back within four days with a note stating "the customer's problem has been resolved. I am skeptical by nature so I got the BestBuy tech to boot the laptop in the store. We were both surprised to see that the drive was not recognized. To further test, the tech swapped my drive with a new SSD. This drive as well was not recognized and after a bit of haggling they agreed to take the laptop back and refund my money. My reasoning was that the laptop had a problem that ASUS was unable to fix.

ASUS did not make a similar unit at the time (I was unwilling to try another of the same) so I waited until December 26 and found another ASUS that had what I wanted. Unfortunately it did not take long for problems to start.

One …