The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Yes there was subfolders. It was my previous public folder I backed up before reinstalling Windows. It wiped out the entire search index. Event viewer is showing three errors about it. I ran Troubleshooter and it found nothing. So no idea what corrupted the index. All I know according to Event Viewer is it happened at the time I was moving those files.

I may have to set indexing options like I have on my Vista Machine if it corrupts again. Only index the start menu. Vista search sucks so I use XYPlorer. I have it on this laptop too so if necessary I may have to do that because I have 360GB of Data.

IMO you should only index your data, not operating system artefacts like start menus and task bars, Windows is big and ugly enough to look after itself

BR

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

IMO you should only index your data, not operating system artefacts like start menus and task bars, Windows is big and ugly enough to look after itself

BR

In Vista if don't index the start menu you can't use the start menu search box to find things from the start menu. I don't know about newer versions of Windows.

Sent from my XT1528

[BetterRed]

Never knew that about Vista, don't think it was true with XP where they had that stupid dog searcher. After discovering the relatively straightforward Column Handler API had been replaced with an incompatible and over elaborate Column Properties API I gave it a miss, at the time I was dependant on the functionality of existing API.

Maybe that's your problem - stop indexing everything but your personal data, i.e. Documents, Videos, Music, Pictures, and similar folders you created, but not Appdata or any of the folder junctions Windows sprinkles into your user directory.

BR

[theducks]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Never knew that about Vista, don't think it was true with XP where they had that stupid dog searcher. After discovering the relatively straightforward Column Handler API had been replaced with an incompatible and over elaborate Column Properties API I gave it a miss, at the time I was dependant on the functionality of existing API.

Maybe that's your problem - stop indexing everything but your personal data, i.e. Documents, Videos, Music, Pictures, and similar folders you created, but not Appdata or any of the folder junctions Windows sprinkles into your user directory.

BR

That 'dog' was the first thing I shot in XP. Might be, because I came from a MSDOS world
I don't ever remember searching for start menu items. I would just head for Program files

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I use Google Maps for navigation daily on my phone. It is in a cradle on my dashboard and it works splendid. Accurate maps and accurate traffic information, all in real time. It is so much better than TomTom or any build in navigation which always have old maps.
Add voice control to this as well, I never have to touch my phone. The mobile data usage is not that high either, as you can use offline maps if you want that gets updated every month via wifi.

I don't know why you don't call it a true GPS though. My phone has a GPS built-in and it shows where I am on Maps accurately.

What's more, when you get out of the car and proceed the next 20 km on your bikes and hike the next 10 on your boots you can follow the same map on the same devices (best to take a fully charged backup phone or two).

BR

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Never knew that about Vista, don't think it was true with XP where they had that stupid dog searcher. After discovering the relatively straightforward Column Handler API had been replaced with an incompatible and over elaborate Column Properties API I gave it a miss, at the time I was dependant on the functionality of existing API.

Maybe that's your problem - stop indexing everything but your personal data, i.e. Documents, Videos, Music, Pictures, and similar folders you created, but not Appdata or any of the folder junctions Windows sprinkles into your user directory.

BR

I already removed all the useless folders before it corrupted. I think it was a file on my desktop that was too long of a filename that was the cause. I remember that in XP or Vista I can't remember which that it could corrupt the index. I need a program that will find these files so I can rename them.

Sent from my XT1528

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

What's more, when you get out of the car and proceed the next 20 km on your bikes and hike the next 10 on your boots you can follow the same map on the same devices (best to take a fully charged backup phone or two).

BR

Or an Anker 20K mAh power bank

[BetterRed]

If you're renaming files that means they're your files, which to me says you ought to know where you last left them. If you want a find files by name try Everything.

Not sure what you mean by 'useless folders'. If you removed the junction folders from your home directory then that could be the source of your problems. They are flagged with the Hidden and System attributes to prevent that sort of thing happening. The things I'm talking about are the folders in the following image that have the T-junction overlay glyph:



BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Or an Anker 20K mAh power bank

Too heavy, and it won't help if a phone is dropped down a mineshaft

I had a particular Mum, Dad, and three kid family in mind, they have an Audi A6 Quattro and a Toyota Land Cruiser. As soon as Mum or Dad get into get into the driver's seat of either car they slip their phone into the cradle - even if they are only going to the supermarket. He was telling me yesterday of their recent trip to Carnarvon National Park, where they biked and hiked for several days, they stayed at a sheep station on the way back - R&R for Mum and Dad, education for kids.

BR

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Or an Anker 20K mAh power bank

That, or just charge it while driving with the 12V in the car.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

If you're renaming files that means they're your files, which to me says you ought to know where you last left them. If you want a find files by name try Everything.

Not sure what you mean by 'useless folders'. If you removed the junction folders from your home directory then that could be the source of your problems. They are flagged with the Hidden and System attributes to prevent that sort of thing happening. The things I'm talking about are the folders in the following image that have the T-junction overlay glyph:

Attachment 161873

BR

You're on Windows 7 aren't you? I'm on Windows 10. It doesn't have that many folders. I mean folders like in my screen shot attached. Saved Games, Intel, Searches, Favorites, Links, contacts. They are useless to me. I don't use them. Windows 10 by default doesn't index the appdata folder. It only indexes the personal data by default and email. I removed the email. I don't use it.

I download a ton of stuff from the internet and Sim creators like to name their files in sentences. Sometimes I catch it sometimes I don't. I need to remember how to find files that exceed limitations because in some parts of the world operating systems don't suffer from filename character limits it seems.

[Blossom]

I've narrowed down my problem with Cortana. It happens when I pin Windows Explorer to the taskbar. It crashes Cortana Backgroundtaskhost due to StartTileData.dll. I don't know why but I've submitted reports. So after a week I've finally got the problem solved. I feel accomplished. lol

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Katsunami]

Sometimes, computers give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

I've been a chess player since I was 7 years old; played competitively for 10 years, and basically quit when I went to university at 19, at an ELO rating of 1850. That's a strong club player level. (Amazing I attained it, because I didn't study a single minute.)

One thing every chess player in the 80's and early 90's wanted was a H&G Mephisto modular chess computer.

Like this one

They were extremely expensive at around fl. 2500. (That would be €1135, which is a lot of money for a chess computer even today, let alone in 1985-1995.)

Now, the software running inside these computers can run on PC's. What? Yes...

Someone has written an emulator for the CPU's that the Mephisto's used (Motorola 68K series), and this emulator is Winboard compatible. Winboard is a protocol that allows chess interfaces and chess engines to communicate. However, the standard nowadays is the UCI protocol... and an adapter Winboard-To-UCI does exist.

So now we have a series of dedicated embedded chess programs, written in 1983-1995, running in a Winboard emulator, with a UCI adaptor stacked on top, so it can be used in a graphical UCI-compatible interface (basically, most interfaces today).

The only gotcha is that you can't see search depth or principal main line, just because the programs at that time didn't output them. (Many chess computers didn't even have displays.)

But still... now I can use my old Fritz 11 interface to run automated engine matches between these old programs AND put them into a big pool of newer chess engines. Remember: those old chess computers were slow (like, 2 to 40 MHz), so the programs will be stronger when running this emulator, just because they can see farther ahead in the same timeframe. I wonder where they fall, compared to PC engines as old as Fritz 5.32 (1997), or weaker current-day engines.

Is this useful? No. But it is a blast to see something from the 80's and 90's revived in such a way, and to have programs like the legendary Roma (Richard Lang) and MM5 (Ed Schröder) play matches against one another, on a PC, 30 years after they were originally written.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Blossom

You're on Windows 7 aren't you? I'm on Windows 10. It doesn't have that many folders. I mean folders like in my screen shot attached. Saved Games, Intel, Searches, Favorites, Links, contacts. They are useless to me. I don't use them. Windows 10 by default doesn't index the appdata folder. It only indexes the personal data by default and email. I removed the email. I don't use it.

I download a ton of stuff from the internet and Sim creators like to name their files in sentences. Sometimes I catch it sometimes I don't. I need to remember how to find files that exceed limitations because in some parts of the world operating systems don't suffer from filename character limits it seems.

My screen shot was taken on my primary machine which runs Windows 10, version 1703. What you see is the xplorer² file manager where I show hidden and system folders and files. I hide them in File Explorer, which I use for casual file management tasks when I'm more likely to make 'fat-finger' blunders.

I don't use the folders you mention either, but I don't delete them because I never know when something might need them. I keep an eye on the contents counts, if one of them should ever be non-zero I'd investigate why.

The reason you don't see Documents, Pictures etc, is because I relocated them via the Properties->Location tab to a separate physical drive when I first installed Windows 7 in 2009.

Until recently I was downloading up 60-70 files a day, but not via the browser, instead via Free Download Manager, it has the ability to save downloads into different folders based on file extension and source (I trained it to use sub-folders within the normal Downloads folder). If Firefox crashes, it can carry on regardless. I hooks into the major browsers for the purpose of initiating a download.

BR

[Katsunami]

Small update on the chess engine stuff

The Emulator/Adapter setup seems to be a mixed blessing.

Most of the engines aren't any fun to watch playing matches because they don't output what they're thinking. The exceptions is the MM5 by Ed Schröder. It outputs the evaluation, search depth, and a two move current variation. Cool

The fact that these engines don't output their thoughts is inconvenient in another way as well: the emulator isn't perfect. Sometimes an engine crashes (MM4 and Rebel 5), and then the GUI just sits there, waiting for a move, until the time is up. Rebel 5 even crashes the entire emulator when you unload the engine.

Roma32 (which doesn't output anything apart from its moves) seems to be the strongest engine in quick testing, closely followed by MM5.

I'm curious to see how engines like the MM5 and Roma32 fare against the Turing engine. That one implements Turing's Paper Machine. (Strange. Chessbase has an article about it in 2017, but the engine, created in 2004, can only be found through the way back machine. I have had it archived for at least a decade though )

Turing, on a current day computer, can run up to 8 moves deep, just as MM5 can (and probably, Roma32). The difference is that Turning's chess knowledige is obviously very, very limited, as it was written before even the first computer was invented I wonder what its results will be against MM5, and how MM5 (1990) will perform against something like Fritz 5.32 (1997).