Hello Dell,
thank you for installing the "Waves" software on my machine. I'm assuming it came with something else because there's no other way I'd have installed it.
It destroyed any and all of my USB audio capability, because that, along with the Realtek HD Audio CPU Cycle user - oh, sorry, the useless Audio detector - appears to have been fighting for control of the USB audio. And so *none* of my USB Audio cards were working any more.
If the inbuilt audio was even remotely OK, then I wouldn't be anywhere near as bothered. But it's complete pants, and therefore I got very, very annoyed.
Now removed and things are back - after yet another reinstall of the Terratec drivers - to where they should be.
- Bret
23/08/2016
Samsung A5 "easy mode"
.. in the mean time I also have a Samsung A5, 2016 version. If you're missing the camera - it only has "auto" and "panoramic", try turning easy mode off in the phone's settings. Especially if you've installed another launcher, this may well be on and you may not have noticed.
- Bret
- Bret
been a while...
so it's been a while since I last posted. But there's lots of stuff I really ought to be posting.
Starting with more robocopy stuff: Windows 10 brought with it the /j switch and space support.
So it's now /mir /mt:12 /r:0 /w:0 /j for seriously fast copying. 18g in 01:33 is acceptable :)
- Bret
Starting with more robocopy stuff: Windows 10 brought with it the /j switch and space support.
So it's now /mir /mt:12 /r:0 /w:0 /j for seriously fast copying. 18g in 01:33 is acceptable :)
- Bret
05/09/2014
Windows Phone a year on
Summary: My next phone will be a Windows phone. It works, it looks OK, and the few issues I have (like the WLAN not coming back on again after sharing Internet) are probably dev phone-related... but I'm suprisingly happy now.
pro tip for Norwegian group customers
Quick tip for you: If you're flying to the UK and have to enter passport details, then, after you've logged in with your one-time code, scroll down to the passenger names.
Enter from each passenger name the passport details. Because if you do it the other way - by clicking "enter passport details" at the top, you then get a complete list of all passengers, and ALL information needs to be complete before you can send it.
Which means maybe 20 dates of birth, passport numbers and expiry dates, full names etc.
It's taken me four hours to find this out, I hope you profit sooner!
Enter from each passenger name the passport details. Because if you do it the other way - by clicking "enter passport details" at the top, you then get a complete list of all passengers, and ALL information needs to be complete before you can send it.
Which means maybe 20 dates of birth, passport numbers and expiry dates, full names etc.
It's taken me four hours to find this out, I hope you profit sooner!
14/06/2013
Octavia test drive results...
so, a little comment or three on the Octavia.
Backstory: I used to rent lots of cars through work. I've driven lots of Octavias (they were a favourite in Sweden), including diesels, petrols, and the old auto. I've driven other DSGs, autos, manuals. My daily is an A2, petrol, manual.
The bad bits first:
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a clean start from hillhold. The only way I've found, (which defeats the object) is foot on the brake again, handbrake, then release, slip into D and go. HH always lets go with a judder. Bleh.
Why is the getaway so slow? If I drop a cog or three, I expect it to be held: no, the DSG "knows better", sees I've pushed the pedal to the floor and instead of letting the torque take over at 2k rpm @ 60km/h, it drops at least one more cog and lets the revs go to 5.5k. Okay, I pushed the pedal. Still, the thinking took half a second. Excess drama which was not required.
Winter in this would be truly awful. Lots of waiting around for ESP to do its stuff and then no absolute certainty of the gear you're in. Maybe "sport" would sort this, but still, I didn't really get the opportunity to test that. Meh.
I understand the power when it's there, but why does it take so long for the 'box to decide what gear to use and then to release the clutch? Unnecessary delay...
Water also drips into the boot when the door is wet. Why? It slides off the curved sides of the glass. Stupid.
Tacho / cruise: why no 5km/h increments as on a Passat? Why no speed limiter bongs, as on said Passat (and that was three, four years ago)?
Why does the BT Audio reset the volume after *every single track*? this must be among the most annoying things ever.
Nav? OK-ish. GRA still doesn't motor-brake - why not? - and engine braking is very difficult.
The OK bits:
- I quite like KESSY, though tis wierd and I wasn't sure if the car locked itself - and one one occasion, it hadn't. Would need to test some more.
- OK seats, pleasantly quiet, decent engine
- decent sound system, though a sub would be good as there's no sub bass or anything under 70Hz or so.
the good bits:
- wow, what a boot!
- Great space in the back.
- the rear screen in the liftback doesn't need a wiper. Woohoo!
- decent automation of wipers and lights.
Overall? I'd be interested, if the hillhold was deleted, I don't need all that power, and I want a slightly more-solid ride (my A2 rides much better over teh bumpy stuff if it's half-laden, as today).
But my wife disliked it. I couldn't drive it smoothly and she's become very accustomed to that, whether she articulates that or not.
So I think I'll be looking at 1.4 Superb Combis from Germany shortly...
the price of the Octy here - without leather, but with Xenon, Columbus, and in Elegance trim, was €32k. An old one would have been - without the Columbus - around 26, IMO.
Backstory: I used to rent lots of cars through work. I've driven lots of Octavias (they were a favourite in Sweden), including diesels, petrols, and the old auto. I've driven other DSGs, autos, manuals. My daily is an A2, petrol, manual.
The bad bits first:
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a clean start from hillhold. The only way I've found, (which defeats the object) is foot on the brake again, handbrake, then release, slip into D and go. HH always lets go with a judder. Bleh.
Why is the getaway so slow? If I drop a cog or three, I expect it to be held: no, the DSG "knows better", sees I've pushed the pedal to the floor and instead of letting the torque take over at 2k rpm @ 60km/h, it drops at least one more cog and lets the revs go to 5.5k. Okay, I pushed the pedal. Still, the thinking took half a second. Excess drama which was not required.
Winter in this would be truly awful. Lots of waiting around for ESP to do its stuff and then no absolute certainty of the gear you're in. Maybe "sport" would sort this, but still, I didn't really get the opportunity to test that. Meh.
I understand the power when it's there, but why does it take so long for the 'box to decide what gear to use and then to release the clutch? Unnecessary delay...
Water also drips into the boot when the door is wet. Why? It slides off the curved sides of the glass. Stupid.
Tacho / cruise: why no 5km/h increments as on a Passat? Why no speed limiter bongs, as on said Passat (and that was three, four years ago)?
Why does the BT Audio reset the volume after *every single track*? this must be among the most annoying things ever.
Nav? OK-ish. GRA still doesn't motor-brake - why not? - and engine braking is very difficult.
The OK bits:
- I quite like KESSY, though tis wierd and I wasn't sure if the car locked itself - and one one occasion, it hadn't. Would need to test some more.
- OK seats, pleasantly quiet, decent engine
- decent sound system, though a sub would be good as there's no sub bass or anything under 70Hz or so.
the good bits:
- wow, what a boot!
- Great space in the back.
- the rear screen in the liftback doesn't need a wiper. Woohoo!
- decent automation of wipers and lights.
Overall? I'd be interested, if the hillhold was deleted, I don't need all that power, and I want a slightly more-solid ride (my A2 rides much better over teh bumpy stuff if it's half-laden, as today).
But my wife disliked it. I couldn't drive it smoothly and she's become very accustomed to that, whether she articulates that or not.
So I think I'll be looking at 1.4 Superb Combis from Germany shortly...
the price of the Octy here - without leather, but with Xenon, Columbus, and in Elegance trim, was €32k. An old one would have been - without the Columbus - around 26, IMO.
20/03/2013
Why I despise Windows Phone 8.. and what I like about it
Dear Microsoft,
I'd really like to like my new work phone, a Nokia Lumia 820.
Thing is, though, I can't.
I like its size, the mildy oversaturated colours look good and the phone has a nice weighty feel. I really appreciate wireless charging.
Nav is fast.
The ringing is loud
I really like "Alarm 1" as a wakeup tone.
I quite like that "back" means that, and not "ARGH! ESCAPE" like it does on 'droid.
But that's all I do like.
So, let's go through the bugbears:
- I want to be able to hit a message - and I don't care where it's from - and go to the message to see the details. I think I saw this work today for the first time with an SMS, but it wasn't clear and - the annoying part - it brought up the sender's contact card. I want a question: "call this person?" and it should automatically choose the number from which the SMS was sent.
- WHY CAN'T I CHANGE TILE COLOURS?! What the hell? I want lots of different colours for different apps to make a nice homescreen experience. Limit me to three or four, I don't care. Just not one.
- Why can't I continue to swipe from the right, get the start menu, and then the details and then CONTINUE and get back to start?
- Tapping the time does nothing. Why? Whatever happened to "more details" appearing when you tap on the networks and such?
- What is this with the sound for appointments? Where is it? I can't find it. It's fucking annoying. I want to change it and can't. Why? Did I miss something? Any help from readers?
- I can't set up my Google mail. I have two-factor set up. It simply does not work. I can try to add a "different" account, but Google is noticed and that's it.. no dice. I am not turning two-factor off.
- I want / need my calendars synched and *I can't do it*. What's going on here?
- Why do I need yet another email address?
- Why can't I set multiple maps to be downloaded at once? Why is every single country listed seperately? It used to be BeNeLux, for example, and that was exceedingly practical. Now? .. <sigh>. I must go through the list and deal with every single map individually. Thanks, that was excessively time consuming because I want DE, FR, Benelux, UK, SWE, FIN, DK and a bunch of others. Each one needs to be individually started.
- What is this with the 10 reboots when the phone is new? Updates, etc... It was a true "Windows" experience and I didn't really care, but for others? ohboy.
- I think I get a day's worth of battery at the moment with light use. We'll see, I've just updated the "battery" app (again!) and now I can no longer turn the background tasks off.
- Why the fuck does a phone in 2013 not support FLAC? Oh wait, you want me to use your own formats. Thanks, but no thanks, I don't want to re-encode for the phone ... which is what I ended up doing anyway. Meh.
- Why *must* I drop the songs I want to listen to in the "correct" directory and have them listenable from there? Yes, album art is nice, but hell, I wanted to use the phone as an oversized USB stick and it's not possible. Why? What's wrong with the correct USB protocols? Or is this another "Win8 only" thing?
- Why can't I wallpaper the "rest" of my phone, but only the lockscreen?
- Why is speakerphone so quiet if the tones are so loud?
- Why did the protocol for headsets change? This is the biggest disappointment for me and probably the single biggest reason I will be avoiding Nokia formy our handsets in future. I've had an 8110, 6150, 8210, 6230, N95, N900, and my last one was an N9. My daughter currently has a 2310, her second Nokia. My wife has an E63, her fourth or so (was a 3210, then 5110, then E61i). Pretty much always, the gear I've had in the past has worked in the future. This time round? No. Why? The N9 is the pinnacle as far as I'm concerned. Open, functional, seriously customizable (yes, I did download the Qt software and change some translations - it's my phone and I like it that way) and decent battery life. It's currently on 3% after 15 days without a charge, just picking up mails via WLAN and otherwise being ignored.
To clarify a bit: I'm paid to understand how to use my company's software on pretty much any device for which we create it. That means iOS, Android, MacOSX, Linux and many flavours of Windows (I've been using it since 3.1, which is quite some time ago). I've used Nokia for a long time. I'm sad to say I will be discouraging my wife from an 820 - she was considering it - in favour of an S 3 Mini, I think.
It may well be that I will hit the same problems as above on the next phone. I need to go through the N9 and see just how much of this is also valid there. But at least some of this wasn't valid then - and that's a two-year old device. Now, if I can get a new shell for it... (I dropped it. Once. Onto concrete. Shell broken. €200 repair. Nice.)
Unhappy. I will stick with this, I have to.
- Bret
I'd really like to like my new work phone, a Nokia Lumia 820.
Thing is, though, I can't.
I like its size, the mildy oversaturated colours look good and the phone has a nice weighty feel. I really appreciate wireless charging.
Nav is fast.
The ringing is loud
I really like "Alarm 1" as a wakeup tone.
I quite like that "back" means that, and not "ARGH! ESCAPE" like it does on 'droid.
But that's all I do like.
So, let's go through the bugbears:
- I want to be able to hit a message - and I don't care where it's from - and go to the message to see the details. I think I saw this work today for the first time with an SMS, but it wasn't clear and - the annoying part - it brought up the sender's contact card. I want a question: "call this person?" and it should automatically choose the number from which the SMS was sent.
- WHY CAN'T I CHANGE TILE COLOURS?! What the hell? I want lots of different colours for different apps to make a nice homescreen experience. Limit me to three or four, I don't care. Just not one.
- Why can't I continue to swipe from the right, get the start menu, and then the details and then CONTINUE and get back to start?
- Tapping the time does nothing. Why? Whatever happened to "more details" appearing when you tap on the networks and such?
- What is this with the sound for appointments? Where is it? I can't find it. It's fucking annoying. I want to change it and can't. Why? Did I miss something? Any help from readers?
- I can't set up my Google mail. I have two-factor set up. It simply does not work. I can try to add a "different" account, but Google is noticed and that's it.. no dice. I am not turning two-factor off.
- I want / need my calendars synched and *I can't do it*. What's going on here?
- Why do I need yet another email address?
- Why can't I set multiple maps to be downloaded at once? Why is every single country listed seperately? It used to be BeNeLux, for example, and that was exceedingly practical. Now? .. <sigh>. I must go through the list and deal with every single map individually. Thanks, that was excessively time consuming because I want DE, FR, Benelux, UK, SWE, FIN, DK and a bunch of others. Each one needs to be individually started.
- What is this with the 10 reboots when the phone is new? Updates, etc... It was a true "Windows" experience and I didn't really care, but for others? ohboy.
- I think I get a day's worth of battery at the moment with light use. We'll see, I've just updated the "battery" app (again!) and now I can no longer turn the background tasks off.
- Why the fuck does a phone in 2013 not support FLAC? Oh wait, you want me to use your own formats. Thanks, but no thanks, I don't want to re-encode for the phone ... which is what I ended up doing anyway. Meh.
- Why *must* I drop the songs I want to listen to in the "correct" directory and have them listenable from there? Yes, album art is nice, but hell, I wanted to use the phone as an oversized USB stick and it's not possible. Why? What's wrong with the correct USB protocols? Or is this another "Win8 only" thing?
- Why can't I wallpaper the "rest" of my phone, but only the lockscreen?
- Why is speakerphone so quiet if the tones are so loud?
- Why did the protocol for headsets change? This is the biggest disappointment for me and probably the single biggest reason I will be avoiding Nokia for
To clarify a bit: I'm paid to understand how to use my company's software on pretty much any device for which we create it. That means iOS, Android, MacOSX, Linux and many flavours of Windows (I've been using it since 3.1, which is quite some time ago). I've used Nokia for a long time. I'm sad to say I will be discouraging my wife from an 820 - she was considering it - in favour of an S 3 Mini, I think.
It may well be that I will hit the same problems as above on the next phone. I need to go through the N9 and see just how much of this is also valid there. But at least some of this wasn't valid then - and that's a two-year old device. Now, if I can get a new shell for it... (I dropped it. Once. Onto concrete. Shell broken. €200 repair. Nice.)
Unhappy. I will stick with this, I have to.
- Bret
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