How to fix Undear Engine 4 Api-ms-win-downlevel-kernel32-l2-1-0.dll not found

 UnreadEditor does not start because Api-ms-win-downlevel-kernel32-l2-1-0.dll not found?

Solution is simple:

• Open Explorer. 
• Go to c:\Windows\System32\CompatTel\
• Locate the DLL and copy it to c:\Windows\System32\

How to see who wakes up the harddrive (HDD) from sleep?

Usually I have my D: drive sleeping because it is too loud.
But sometimes, without obvious reason somebody wakes it up.

To see who does that, you need to  install the Sysinternals Process Monitor (Microsoft website).
At startup you need to cancel the filter dialog that will be presented.

In the program, under the Filter main menu, tick Enable Advanced Output and Drop Filtered Events.
Then in the same menu, create (Ctrl+L) a filter rule like this:
          "Path contains D:\", then click the "Include" option.

Now keep the program running until you see who accesses the D: drive.

PaintShop Pro won't save images as JPG (Fixed)

Today I was not able to save anymore images in PainShop Pro as jpg (png will work). PainShop Pro will simply freeze if I try to do this.

The issue: a clipboard monitor called PureText was conflicting with PainShop Pro. Closing the program solved the issue.  

I have no clue why the programmers of PainShop Pro chose to hook to the clipboard while saving the output as JPG but obviously is not only pointless but also poorly implemented.

Case solved.

How I fixed blurry/fuzzy camera image on Samsung Galaxy s6?

How I fixed blurry/fuzzy image on Samsung Galaxy s6?

The solution was amazingly simple: shake the phone very aggressively!. Looks like the camera actuator mechanism sometimes gets stuck in a certain position. This will fix it.

Can you tell if the machine on which you are running is a virtual machine installed secretly by some malware/hacker?

Somebody asked me: can you tell if the machine on which you are running is a virtual machine installed secretly by some malware/hacker?




I thought about that question and the answer is SURE. Without any doubt.
A virtual machine will consume some resources by itself (quite a lot). If you observe these missing resources you can figure out that something is wrong.





Method 1 - Graphics

You don't even need to start a program to accurately measure the missing resources.
You can tell if the machine in which you are running is a virtual machine or not, simply by running a game.
Most virtual machines have problems with accelerated graphics. Simply put, you cannot play resource-intensive 3D games in a virtual machine.



Method 2 - RAM

Now to tell exactly if you are running in a virtual machine, you don't need advanced hacker tools. Simply press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to start TaskManager. Under "Physical Memory (MB)" and watch the 'Total' field. In my case is shows 32GB which is indeed the amount I have physically installed. This number can be also seen in the Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System (Win+Break key).


Method 2 - CPU

Another method is to run a tool like (Hardware ID Extractor) that gives you the theoretic speed of the CPU and the real (measured) speed of the CPU. If real speed of the CPU is smaller than the theoretic speed, then something is fishy.

Also the CPU ID might give info about this. I will investigate it.



Remember: also collaborate the data shown by software with writes on your actual CPU/RAM.

KSDev released this year CrossVCL - a framework that allows you to build multi-platform applications.

What is the difference between Firemonkey and CrossVCL?
If you want to make your current app multi platform, you need to port it to Firemonkey. With CrossVCL you don't need anything!!!
Embarcadero should fear them!
And learn a lesson form them!
They really upgraded Delphi/C++ programming to a brand new level!

Cool features and functions in Delphi

 

List of IDE features that are cool (when they work)

• Search backwards - Ctrl+F to do a search in your code. F3 to go to the next position Shift+F3 to go to previous position.
• Move/Relocate/Rename project's files directly from Project Manager
• Navigate to recently modified code - Ctrl+Shift+F7 and Ctrl+Shift+F8

• Search for usage - Right click a variable and invoke 'search for usage'. A panel will list all places in current project where that variable is used. In my cases this will make the IDE to freeze. 
• UML diagrams (Live Diagrams) - simply doesn't work 
• IDE insight (F6) - It could be useful but seems to list a lot of random items.
• CodeSite - a logging system - I couldn't really find it useful
• AQTime - Performance profiler + memory allocation debugger - I couldn't really find it useful

List of functions/units/classes that are cool (when they work)

• SysUtils.GetHomePath - Returns c:\users\username\appdata\roaming.
• IOUtils - Lots of new cool functions. Totally broken.
• SplitString - Example of usage at the end of this document. Unfortunately, the function is VERY slow!
• FindCmdLineSwitch - Example: System.SysUtils.FindCmdLineSwitch('-f', sFileName)
• TThread.ProcessorCount;   { Specifies the number of CPU cores in the system }
• TBinaryReader / TBinaryWriter - Nice but only half ass - Interesting but I recommend this library which is much faster: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5639531
• System.Diagnostics.TStopWatch - Can be used to precisely time your code.
• $WeakLinkRTTI - Put these two directives in your DPR file (at the very top) to reduce exe size with 4%: {$WEAKLINKRTTI ON} {$RTTI EXPLICIT METHODS([]) PROPERTIES([]) FIELDS([])}
• TStringBuilder - It was supposed to help you build strings. But it is horrible! Simply don't use it. It is painful slow.
• PtInCircle & PtInRect - Tells you if a point is located in a circle. Could be handy one day.
• TTimeSpan (System unit) is a data structure used for holding information about a period of time. The smallest unit of time is a tick which is 100 nanoseconds. The largest unit of time is a day.

CONST

• SLineBreak - global constant that changes its value depending on target platform (Win/Linux/Mac)
• Win32MajorVersion & Win32MinorVersion - To get current Windows version

List of VCL controls that are cool (when they work)

• TJumpList - To list a custom file in a JumpList your program must be registered (in Windows registry) to be able to open that type of file. Another problem is that when the user clicks a 'recent file' in the JumpList, the message is not sent to your app directly. You need to intercept that message.

_________________________________

function CountWords(CONST s: string): Integer; { Might be faster than the one above }
VAR
   sArray: TStringDynArray;
begin
  sArray:= System.StrUtils.SplitString(s,  '.,? =<>*!-:;()/\'+cr+lf);
  Result:= Length(sArray);
end;

Fix Firefox v57 (Firefox Quantum) high memory utilization (for computers with 4GB RAM or less)

When Firefox Quantum was launched everybody praised it as the next best thing (browser).
But if you look closelly you will only see modest speed improvements into the browser. HOWEVER, you will see massive slowdowns in Windows. At least I did in mine. Why because instead of taking 600-900MB for regular browsing the new Firefox takes not 2GB!

This is because a thing called "multi-process Firefox" was activated by default. The multi-process was suposed to make Firefox more stable. However, it also makes the browser much much larger.

So, how do you make Firefox behave? You disable multi-process:
1. Type "about:config" in Firefox Address bar (where you enter the address of a website).
2. Do a search for "browser.tabs.remote.autostart"
3. Disable it.

_________________

More gory details about this here:
https://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/
TLDR

False antivirus reports on installers created with WinRAR

I recently observed that Setup files created with WinRar have a high false positive detection rate from antiviruses.
Here are the conclusions of some test I made, in order to reduce the false positive rate:

RAR version    SFX module     Detection ratio
WinRar 3.11      32bit             1/66
WinRar 4.2       32bit?            3/66
WinRar 5.50      32bit             6/67
WinRar 5.50      64bit             1/67

Notes:
The detection ratio is not affected by the 32/64 bit version of WinRAR program at all.
However, it is strongly affected by the SFX module used.

The test file created with WinRar was named Setup.exe and it contained a single URL file in it.
In one test, the Setup file was packed with UPX. This reduced the detection ratio from:
 8 false positives to only 4
 6 false positives to 6 (no reduction), in other case

A program built in Delphi raises more false positives if the 'Compiler optimizations' is on.

Thunderbird cannot connect to gmail after changing password [FIXED]

0) ALLOW LESS SECURE APPS: Login to gmail using your browser, switch to your google account (top-right round button), go to Sign-in & Security>Connected apps & sites, scroll down until reach Allow less secure apps:OFF and turn it ON (if it's already on, leave as it is);

1) DELETE OLD GMAIL PASSWORD: Launch Thunderbird, select Preferences>Security>Passwords>Saved Passwords, select the gmail account from the list and click Remove; 2) CHANGE GMAIL ACCOUNT SETTINGS: Launch Thunderbird, go to Tools>Account Settings>Server Settings of the gmail account you need to bring back to work, switch Authentication Method from Oauth2 to Normal Password and click OK (when requested by Thunderbird, digit the new gmail password);

3) Scroll down to the end of your account list on the left side of the window until you reach Outgoing Server (SMTP) and select it; 4) Select your gmail address from the list, click Edit, switch the Authentication Method to Normal Password as well and click OK

How to fix invalid Google Drive quota!

I recently have seen that 25% of my GDrive quota was occupied by something. But my GDrive has in it only 0.7GB. So, who gets the rest of the space.
It turns out that there are files in my Google Drive that are not assigned to a folder. Therefore they are "hidden" from view.

To see these files just click this link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=is:unorganized%20owner:me
Review what you want to keep/delete (probably you will delete them all) and get rid of them. Don't forget to empty your trash also.

No my quota shows only 6% occupied.

Yet another EurekaLog bug. How many until now?

I stepped last week in a multiple-bug situation with EurekaLog for Delphi. I again wasted MORE than a day with this buggy "exception tracer tool".

My DRP file is like this:

PROGRAM MyProgram;
uses
  {$ifdef win32}fastmm4,{$endif}
  EurekaLog_units_come_here

This worked fine until I compiled the program to 64 bits.
On 64 bit, EurekaLog refused to work. After lots of emails exchanged with their (slow) customer support I got NOTHING.
In the end I have found the problem: a bug (oh yes, another one) in EurekaLog. Eureka v7.4 could not properly parse the DRP file when it contains conditional directives like {$ifdef}.
So, because EurekaLog parse my dpr file was like this

 
PROGRAM MyProgram;
uses
  {$ifdef win32}fastmm4,
  EurekaLog_units_come_here
  {$endif}

Solution? None. The support guy from EurekaLog (Alex) invided me to pay for a new license on order to get a small update (same version, so update, no upgrade) to v7.5 which allegedly works. I won't do that. I should receive the UPDATE to the non-bugged version for free AT LEAST for the reason that I have invested time to help them locate the bug.

________________

Maybe they should write a bug tracker tool for their one bug tracker tool :)

Delphi programs have too many false positive detections

Most of my Delphi programs are flagged as virus by some antivirus programs. Some of these antivirus programs are really cheap/under-the-table products (such as Baidu and Comodo) other are big (TOP) name like Kaspersky.

In theory you should report a false positive to the antivirus producers so they can fix their bug but if the list is too long and you are lazy here is what you can do to decrease the number of false positive reports:

• Don't turn on "compiler optimizations" when you release your app. It seems that more false alarms are triggered when this is turned on in the project.
• If you MUST turn one the "compiler optimizations" you can pack your exe with UPX. This should shut up most antiviruses as they don't know to look inside the UPX
• If you use WinRar, downgrade to v3.11 as this version does not give false positives (only one out of 64).

How to configure EurekaLog to send bugs via email

Email sender settings in EurekaLog v7
 

	SMTP Server [1]	Simple MAPI	MAPI	Shell (MailTo)	SMTP client [3]
Can attach the ELP file	Yes	Yes [2]	Yes [2]	No	Yes
See sender's email	No [4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Email client software*	Not required	Required	Required	Required	Not required
Chance of success	Highest chance among all methods	High if email client installed	WinMail & Outlook only!!	High if email client installed	I get a 'revocation function' error but for others is working
Can tell if email was successfully sent?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

1 - Many antivirus products will flag your EXE as virus

2 - if "Append bug report text in the message text" is UNCHECKED

3 - Typically, you should use either SMTP server or SMTP client, but not both methods simultaneously.
Bugged in EurekaLog v7.4.8.0 RC 1 - Error code = -2146885613 - The revocation function was unable to check revocation because the revocation server was offline. Maybe because: “Currently EurekaLog supports AUTH LOGIN and AUTH PLAIN authentication methods”?

4 - could be enabled via SetUserEMail function)

* If required: Email client must be installed and properly reconfigured. User must to click on "Send" in their e-mail clients. Automatic send without user actions is not possible. 

_____________ 

Please note that EurekaLog v7 is also plagued with several serious bugs! I contacted the producer but he didn't bother to reply until now.

 

Another bug in EurekaLog 7

I wanted to send an email ("Send via SMTP client") from EurekaLog v7.4.8.0 RC 1 but I was getting this error:

FAILED: Error code = -2146885613
The revocation function was unable to check revocation because the revocation server was offline
 
EurekaLog 7.4.8.0 RC 1
Testing send with TELMailSMTPClientSender
Options:
_BugAppVersion="21.0.17707.5020"
_BugID="73D40000"
_BugIDSource="bds.exe

 
My email is hosted by BlueHost but knowing how buggy EurekaLog is and considering the fact that all my accounts work flawlessly in Thunderbird I think the bug is not related to the BlueHost server.

I had to give up using "SMTP client" and user "SMTP server" instead.



 

Total Commander - the ultimate file manager for Windows (and recently for Android too)

Total Commander (aka Windows Commander) is the ultimate file manager for Windows (and recently for Android too).

Who can use it?

The regular Windows user that used all his life Windows Explorer will find Total Commander interface AT LEAST awkward. The interface concept and user experience is totally different in Total Commander. This doesn’t mean that Total Commander is bad or poorly design or difficult to learn. It is just different than Windows Explorer.

The regular user will require a day or two to accommodate with the concept ( experienced users will have no problem to gasp the new concept) but the efficiency improvement totally worth it. I am a Total Commander use since 1998 and I never ever (literally) used Windows Explorer again.

The concept

Total Commander solves an old design flaw of Windows Explorer. So old that regular computer user won’t even observe it anymore.

Many operations that you perform on files involve copying or moving files from one place (folder) to another. This is where Windows Explorer design fails: you work on two folders, the folder from where you copy the file (source) and the folder where you copy the file (destination), but Windows Explorer has one single panel. The Microsoft solution is to browse and open both folders and carefully drag and drop the files from source to destination. I say carefully because it is easy to ‘un-carefully’ drop the files in the wrong folder. Obviously there are also other methods but they are even more time consuming than this one. And when you close the Explorer all that work invested into locating your folders is gone. You have to start all over.

For a person that performs 1-2 file operations per day it is not a big deal, but for an intermediate user or a POWER user this is time consuming and error prone.

And, here is the time and place where you install Total Commander. Total Commander brings the concept of two parallel panels: it always shows on screen the source folder AND the destination folder. Now all you have to do is to drag and drop the files from one pane to the other (advanced users can user F5 and F6 keys for copy/paste).

Total Commander will remember the last used folders and ALSO the recent folders you navigated through. So, if you worked on a folder few hours ago and you want to return to that folder, you don’t have to browse the entire folder structure to locate it again. Using the History (Alt+DownArrow) you are back there with just one click.

The magic never stops

Total Commander has literary hundreds of features that are not present in Windows Explorer: FTP, compression support, fully customizable toolbar (that totally replaces the Start menu), CRC control, Mime encoding, advanced multi rename tool, advanced search tool, support for plugins (there are also thousands of plugins for Total Commander), thumbnail view, quick view, color coded file types, etc, etc, etc.

One of the useful functions we will investigate now is the File Queue. With this function you can Queue a long list of file operations for later execution and….

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Total Commander, except my affection for it :)

The best and most reliable 3GB hard drive

I need a 3GB internal harddrive. Looking through statistic data from BackBlaze, it seems that Seagate is the worst solution because of it HUGE failure rate. Yes the prices are good for this drive but you don't want a cheap drive that will fail after 2 years. Right?
The next brand with high failure rate is Western Digital.
Both Seagate and WesternDigital drive have price in the 100 euros range.
Toshiba has a much better failure rate.
But the winner is HGST. It has a significant higher price (126 euro) but totally worth it.

Top Windows, HTML 5, WYSIWYG HTML editors

Do you need a free web editor that supports HML5? I needed one and I really had to waste some time to review some. Here are the conclusions (and the conclusions only). NOTE: See the 2017 update at the end of the post!

BlueGriffon  
2015
Price:  Free or 70 euros: http://www.bluegriffon.org/#whatsinside
Comment: Seems robust and mature

Maqetta     
Discontinued may 2013, but still online
Price: free
Kit size: 86MB
Conclusion: Difficult to Install. Needs Java 6!

LibreOffice 
2015
Price: free

OpenOffice.org     2014
It only has a web page editor (not web site builder)

Dreamweaver  2015
Conclusion: Nice but way too expensive!

Microsoft Expression 2012
(discontinued)

openElement  2014
Free
Kits size: 47MB
  
oXygenXML Editor 2015
Conclusion: not tested yet  

TOWeb  2013
Conclusion: not tested yet  

WebStorm IDE 2013
Conclusion: not tested yet 

Based on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_HTML_editors
______________

UPDATE 2017

Stormy Website Builder is the ultimate tool for building a web site (CMS). It has a beautiful WYSIWYG html editor. You can have a site up an running in only 4 minutes.
Stormy Website Builder wants to be a lightweight alternative for Joomla CMS.

Delphi is still in Top 20... barely

Delphi is still in Top 20... but barely. It is the last one. It may fall any time.
Too sad....

Embarcadero finally decided to fix SOME bugs in Delphi

In the new road map, Embarcadero finally decided to fix SOME bugs in Delphi.

It seems good news but hold your horses:
1. They not always keep their promise related to the road map.
2. There are not so many bugs
3. They won't do all the fixes at once, but until 2018
4. Until 2018 another 500 new bugs (AT LEAST) will be introduced
5. We have to pay (not 59 bucks but HARD money) to get that non-buggy version of Delphi.

And in the end, what the fuck are we so happy that Embarcadero is fixing some bugs? Is not a present, a gift from heavens! Those bugs SHOULD NOT BE THERE anyway!

So, thank you Embarcadero for finally thinking to fix some bugs and FUCK YOU.

PS: In the next road map maybe you will introduce an item likes "free updates".

http://community.embarcadero.com/article/news/16418-product-roadmap-august-2016

Computer Virus that infects real-world DNA?

A computer code that is supposed to be able to infect DNA was found. The corresponding article posted ~2.5 years, and some c++ codes. Citation: The computer code, written in C++, hosts the DNA sequence of M.mycoides JCVI-syn1.0. At runtime it acts as follows: 1) Preparing the DNA sequence of M.mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 in the memory, (with slightly modified watermarks). 2) Encoding own file-content in base32. The base32 code is then encoded in JCVI's DNA-encoded alphabet. 3) This representation of its digital form is then copied to a watermark of the bacteria's genome in memory. With this, a fully functional bacterial DNA sequence including the digital code is generated. 4) Next it searches for FASTA-files on the computer, which are text-based representations of DNA sequences, commonly used by many DNA sequence libraries. 5) For each FASTA-file, it replaces the original DNA with the bacterial DNA containing the digital form of the computer code. The code has a classical self-replication mechanism as well, to eventually end up on a computer in a microbiology-laboratory with the ability of creating DNA out of digital genomes (such as laboratories by the JCVI). So could there really be a computer virus that infects DNA? Virus code is here: http://pastebin.com/NiQc55rr

Answer:

It is NOT impossible for a computer virus to infect real DNA because 'artificial' life was already created from synthetic DNA by Craig Institute. Proof. That synthetic DNA coming from files that were generated in a computer. So, if the virus happens to be in the right computer, at the right time... But the chance is small.
However, in the next 10 years, that virus might be a real problem as every year it is more and more easy to create 'artificial' life.


IMPORTANT UPDATE!

I have found this comment in the C++ code:

// Encode own file into Craig Venter's DNA encoding language

It looks like this virus was designed expressly for Craig Venter! So the chances for this virus to work (affect real-world DNA) are even more realistic!!


Validity of the code

Less experienced people doubt the validity of the code. However, no proof was brought to demonstrate that the code might fail (and why). Though, I haven't spend hours to read the code line by line and thoroughly analyze it, I did pick a look at it and it seem sound and valid. The fact that the author of the code targets a very specific organization (that "happens" to generate DNA from computer files) tells us that he knows what he is doing.


Purpose

As somebody already brought to our attention, there is no purpose in creating this virus. But this is totally irrelevant to the original question. Even if the DNA virus will destroy the host cell and even if it won't be able to replicate in real world (and it won't) it is irrelevant. If in the right computer, the computer virus will pass from the virtual world to the real world, and this is OP's question (I think).


Conclusion

The question asked was: "can a computer virus could infect DNA"?. The question is ambiguous. If it refers to the DNA of some living cell the answer is no. HOWEVER, if the question refers to a human-created cell, the answer is YES. Craing Venter creates DNA from computer ('fasta') files. If one of those files happens to be modified or 'infected' by the computer virus then the computer virus will have effect in real world (the DNA synthesized by Venter will contain the code injected by the computer virus).

Is (Embarcadero) Delphi's code optimized for speed? No? Here is how to optimize string speed

The short answer is a big NO!

No the long answer:
Today I needed a function that will wrap a string (a contiguous block of characters with no spaces) after 80 characters. Not only that I have found SysUtils.WrapText unsuitable (it can only wrap text IF the text contains spaces) but it is also terrible slow.

So I build my own function:

function WrapString(CONST s: string; RowLength: integer): string;
VAR i, Row: Integer;
Begin
 Row:= 0;
 Result:= '';
 for i:= 1 TO Length(s) DO
  begin
   inc(Row);
   Result:= Result+ s[i];
   if Row >= RowLength then
    begin
     Result:= Result+ CRLF; 
     Row:= 0;
    end;
  end;
End;

Works nice but is is also slow. If you look into the code the problem is Result:= Result+ CRLF . It involves too many memory allocations.

Solution. The solution is to pre-allocate space for the result.
For this I created a new class TCStringBuilder:


TYPE
 TCStringBuilder = class(TObject)
  private
   s: string;
   CurBuffLen, BuffPos: Integer;
  public
   BuffSize: Integer;
   constructor Create(aBuffSize: Integer= 10*Kb);
   procedure AddChar(Ch: Char);
   procedure AddEnter;

   function  AsText: string;
   procedure Clear;
 end;


IMPLEMENTATION

constructor TCStringBuilder.Create(aBuffSize: Integer= 10*Kb);
begin
 BuffSize:= aBuffSize;
 Clear;
end;


procedure TCStringBuilder.Clear;
begin
 BuffPos:= 1;
 CurBuffLen:= 0;
 s:= '';
end;


function TCStringBuilder.AsText: string;
begin
 SetLength(s, BuffPos-1);                    { Cut down the prealocated buffer that we haven't used }
 Result:= s;
end;


procedure TCStringBuilder.AddChar(Ch: Char);
begin
 if BuffPos > CurBuffLen then
  begin
   SetLength(s, CurBuffLen+ BuffSize);
   CurBuffLen:= Length(s)
  end;

 s[BuffPos]:= Ch;
 Inc(BuffPos);
end;


procedure TCStringBuilder.AddEnter;
begin
 if BuffPos+1 > CurBuffLen then    { +1 because we enter two characters into the string instead of 1 }
  begin
   SetLength(s, CurBuffLen+ BuffSize);
   CurBuffLen:= Length(s)
  end;

 s[BuffPos  ]:= CR;
 s[BuffPos+1]:= LF;
 Inc(BuffPos, 2);
end;


Speed test:

• 500x loop
• test file: TesterForm.pas 2.7K
• wrap after 20 chars

Speed test results:

•   484ms  SysUtils.WrapText - unbuffered
•   5788ms WrapString        - unbuffered (Result:= Result+ s[i])
•   31ms   WrapString        - buffered (using cStrBuilder)

I used a buffer of 10K. but the ideal buffer size would be the size of the input text plus 3%.

Please let me know if you can further improve this. Enjoy.

____

Further reading:
https://www.delphitools.info/2013/10/30/efficient-string-building-in-delphi/2/

Animated desktop wallpaper

BioniX Wallpaper Animator v3 is ready for download. That is great about this new version is that it is (should be) able to paint the animation UNDER desktop icons.

However, since we cannot test it on all Windows operating systems we need some help. If you can run it on any of the following systems please let us know the results.


Download link:
www.bionixwallpaper.com/downloads/Animated Desktop Wallpaper

Win 98	Win 2K	Win Me	Win XP	Win Vista	Win 7 Aero	Win 7 Aero disabled	Win 8	Win 10
?	?	?	?	?	OI	? (should work)	?	UI

Legend:
   UI = under icons
   OI = over icons
    ?  = unknown (not tested)

______________________________________

Plans for the next version:

• Support for AVI files
• Lower memory footprint

Three software programs that [used to] plague our computers: Acrobat, Java, Flash

There used to be three programs that really made our computer miserable. They were slow, bloated, intrusive and a  lot of security holes opened with them when you installed.



Java - Probably Java is the nastiest of all

Until few years ago you could not browse some web sites because some derailed 'web developers' decided to put some 'cool' animations and menus on their web site that required Java, forcing YOU to install Java, this way.
Now, Java is a really intrusive mammoth that starts at computer start up, installs background services, make your browser literary crawl eating A LOT of memory and keep wasting your Internet bandwidth by checking and downloading updates. And boy, Java needs updates because every 3-4 days a MAJOR security hole was discovered! And every security hole in Java is a security hole in YOUR computer.

ACTUALLY, Java is so dangerous for your computer that "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is advising people to temporarily disable the Java software on their computers to avoid potential attacks" floridatoday.com
It is so bad that Firefox won't even let you activate it.

I uninstalled Java maaaaany years ago from my computer and I vehemently refuse to install it. Not a single time! And many others like me have forced the web designer community not to use Java on their web site. Now probably less than 1 in 5000 web sites still have Java. So, you miss it a bit.



Acrobat Reader - Big deal for nothing

Adobe Acrobat Reader is basically a notepad. Its task should be to open a PDF file and show it on screen. It does this in such a bombastic way that 3 minutes later after Acrobat, but it is still crunching data, you forgot why you wanted to open that PDF anyway.

Same bubonic 'features' as Java: eats up lots or memory and disk space, invades you with background services, system tray icons and installs itself to run at computer start up.
Security wholes? Plenty.

Alternatives: Foxit PDF (once a decent and fast PDF viewer, now starting to step on exactly the same sick path as Acrobat Reader), Sumatra PDF. More about these Acrobat Reader alternatives.

And something else: Next time somebody sends you a PDF send him an email back and say "I politely request to send me the document as DOC or RTF. They are as good as PDF" then optionally sign: "Fuck you and best regards retard".



Adobe Flash Player

The Flash Player literary built and shaped the web as we know it. And this is not the web should be.
Firefox will also deactivate the Flash plugin when a MAJOR security whole is discovered. And boy, coming from Adobe, there are lots of those!

Flash is so wrong in every possible way: difficult to program, terribly slow (and I mean it), bulky and unsafe. But Adobe really pushed money into it so they managed to shovel it down to our throats. 

Alternatives: HTML5 - After all those years, the web community is finally coming to its senses trying to replace Flash with HTML 5, a major update of (too) old HTML. This change should have been done 25 years ago (which on Internet time-scale means 2 eons ago).

Most web sites already abandoned Flash and switched to HTML 5. So, it is not the time to turn off the Flash plugin in your browser and finally take a fresh breath of Flash-free Internet.

Also see "Flash is dying a death by 1,000 cuts, and that's a good thing" by TheGuardia.

List of microcontrollers that can be programmed in Pascal (and Pascal-like) language

By micro-controller

Arduino

Lazarus?

DK-Basic (8bit arduino)
Pascal Compiler for AVR

Cortex-M3 and M4 ARM LPC - 39euro on Amazon
Oberon     Astrobe  (Windows)   


8051  
Turbo51 (Windows)


PascalLite - unspecified price
MicroPascal


Pic 10 to Pic 18 
Pic Micro Pascal


ATMEGA
MicroPascal Pro


XMEGA/XTINY from Atmel
MicroPascal Pro


Raspberry Pi projects (ARM v6/ARM11)
Lazarus


____________________________________________

By language

Pascal-scm for Atml
Amtel AVR(Arduino)


MicroPascal
Free



mikroPascal Pro 
$250
Supported micro-controllers:

Name	Pin Count	Program Memory (KB)	CPU Speed (Mhz)	RAM (KB)

AT90PWM161	20	16	16	1
ATMEGA3250A	100	32	20	2
ATMEGA325PA	64	32	20	2
ATMEGA6450P	100	64	20	4
ATMEGA6490P	100	64	20	4
ATTINY441	14	4	16	0.25
ATTINY841	14	4	16	0.25
ATXMEGA16E5	32	16	32	2
ATXMEGA32D3	64	32	32	4
ATXMEGA8E5	32	8	32	1
ATMEGA168PB	32	16	20	1
ATMEGA3250PA	100	32	20	2
ATMEGA3290A	100	32	20	2
ATMEGA645P	64	64	16	4
ATTINY1634	20	16	12	1
ATTINY828	32	8	20	0.5
ATTINY84A	14	8	20	0.5
ATXMEGA32C3	64	32	32	4
ATXMEGA32E5	32	32	32	4
AT90CAN128	64	128	16	4
AT90CAN32	64	32	16	2
AT90CAN64	64	64	16	4
AT90PWM1	24/32	8	16	0.5
AT90PWM2	24	8	16	0.5
AT90PWM2B	24	8	16	0.5
AT90PWM216	24	16	16	1
AT90PWM216	24	16	16	1
AT90PWM3	32	8	16	0.5
AT90PWM3B	32	8	16	0.5
AT90PWM316	32	16	16	1
AT90PWM81	20/32	8	16	0.25
AT90S2313	20	2	20	0.12
AT90S2323	20	2	20	0.12
AT90S2343	20	2	20	0.12
AT90S4414	40	8	16	0.5
AT90S4433	28	4	8	0.12
AT90S4434	40/44	8	16	0.5
AT90S8515	40	8	8	0.5
AT90S8535	40/44	8	16	0.5
AT90USB1286	64	128	16	8
AT90USB1287	64	128	16	8
AT90USB162	32	16	16	0.5
AT90USB646	64	64	16	4
AT90USB647	64	64	16	4
AT90USB82	32	8	16	0.5
ATmega103	64	128	6	4
ATmega128	64	128	16	4
ATmega1280	100	128	16	8
ATmega1281	64	128	16	8
ATmega1284	40/44	128	20	16
ATmega1284P	40/44	128	20	16
ATmega128A	64	128	16	4
ATmega16	40/44	16	16	1
ATmega161	40	16	8	1
ATmega162	40/44	16	16	1
ATmega163	40/44	16	8	1
ATmega164	40/44/49	16	20	1
ATmega164A	40/44/49	16	20	1
ATmega164P	40/44/49	16	20	1
ATmega164PA	40/44/49	16	20	1
ATmega165	64	16	16	1
ATmega165A	64	16	16	1
ATmega165P	64	16	16	1
ATmega165PA	64	16	16	1
ATmega168	28/32	16	20	1
ATmega168A	28/32	16	20	1
ATmega168P	28/32	16	20	1
ATmega168PA	28/32	16	20	1
ATmega169	64	16	16	1
ATmega169A	64	16	16	1
ATmega169P	64	16	16	1
ATmega169PA	64	16	16	1
ATmega16A	40/44	16	16	1
ATmega16HVA	28/36	16	4	0.5
ATmega16HVB	44	16	8	1
ATmega16M1	32	16	16	1
ATmega16U2	32	16	16	0.5
ATmega16U4	44	16	16	2.1
ATmega16U4	44	16	16	2.1
ATmega2560	100	256	16	8
ATmega2561	64	256	16	8
ATmega323	40/44	32	8	2
ATmega324	40/44/49	32	20	2
ATmega324A	40/44/49	32	20	2
ATmega324P	40/44/49	32	20	2
ATmega324PA	40/44/49	32	20	2
ATmega325	64	32	16	2
ATmega3250	100	32	16	2
ATmega3250P	100	32	20	2
ATmega325A	64	32	20	2
ATmega325P	64	32	20	2
ATmega328	28/32	32	20	2
ATmega328P	28/32	32	20	2
ATmega329	64	32	16	2
ATmega3290	100	32	16	2
ATmega3290P	100	32	20	2
ATmega329A	64	32	20	2
ATmega329P	64	32	20	2
ATmega329PA	64	32	20	2
ATmega32A	40/44	32	16	2
ATmega32C1	32	32	16	2
ATmega32HVB	44	32	8	2
ATmega32M1	32	32	16	2
ATmega32U2	32	32	16	1
ATmega32U4	44	32	16	3.3
ATmega32U6	44	32	16	3.3
ATmega406	48	40	1	2
ATmega48	28/32	4	20	0.5
ATmega48A	28/32	4	20	0.5
ATmega48P	28/32	4	20	0.5
ATmega48PA	28/32	4	20	0.5
ATmega64	64	64	16	4
ATmega640	100	64	16	8
ATmega644	40/44	64	20	4
ATmega644A	40/44	64	20	4
ATmega644P	40/44	64	20	4
ATmega644PA	40/44	64	20	4
ATmega645	64	64	16	4
ATmega6450	100	64	16	4
ATmega6450A	100	64	20	4
ATmega645A	64	64	16	4
ATmega649	64	64	16	4
ATmega6490	100	64	16	4
ATmega6490A	100	64	20	4
ATmega649A	64	64	16	4
ATmega649P	64	64	16	4
ATmega64A	64	64	16	4
ATmega64C1	32	64	16	2
ATmega64M1	32	64	16	4
ATmega8	28/32	8	16	1
ATmega8515	40/44	8	16	0.5
ATmega8535	40/44	8	16	0.5
ATmega88	28/32	8	20	1
ATmega88A	28/32	8	20	1
ATmega88P	28/32	8	20	1
ATmega88PA	28/32	8	20	1
ATmega8A	28/32	8	16	1
ATmega8HVA	28/36	8	4	0.5
ATmega8U2	32	8	16	0.5
ATtiny13	8/10/20	1	20	0.064
ATtiny13A	8/10/20	1	20	0.064
ATtiny167	20/32	16	16	0.5
ATtiny22	14/20	8	20	0.5
ATtiny2313	20	2	20	0.128
ATtiny2313A	20	2	20	0.128
ATtiny24	14/20	2	20	0.128
ATtiny24A	14/20	2	20	0.128
ATtiny25	20	2	20	0.128
ATtiny26	20/32	2	16	0.128
ATtiny261	20/32	2	20	0.128
ATtiny261A	20/32	2	20	0.128
ATtiny4313	20	4	20	0.128
ATtiny43U	20	4	8	0.256
ATtiny44	14/20	4	20	0.256
ATtiny44A	14/20	4	20	0.256
ATtiny45	20	4	20	0.256
ATtiny461	20/32	4	20	0.256
ATtiny461A	20/32	4	20	0.256
ATtiny48	32	4	12	0.064
ATtiny84	14/20	8	20	0.5
ATtiny85	20	8	20	0.5
ATtiny861	20/32	8	20	0.5
ATtiny861A	20/32	8	20	0.5
ATtiny87	20/32	8	16	0.5
ATtiny88	32	8	12	0.5
ATxmega128A1	100	128	32	8
ATxmega128A3	64	128	32	8
ATxmega128D3	64	128	32	8
ATxmega16A4	44/49	16	32	2
ATxmega16D4	44/49	16	32	2
ATxmega192A3	64	192	32	16
ATxmega192D3	64	192	32	16
ATxmega256A3	64	256	32	16
ATxmega256A3B	64	256	32	16
ATxmega256D3	64	256	32	16
ATxmega32A4	44/49	32	32	4
ATxmega32D4	44/49	32	32	4
ATxmega64A1	100	64	32	4
ATxmega64A3	64	64	32	4
ATxmega64D3	64	64	32	4
ATxmega128A3U	64	128	32	8
ATxmega16A4U	44	16	32	3.3
ATxmega192A3U	64	192	32	16
ATxmega256A3BU	64	256	32	16
ATxmega256A3U	64	256	32	16
ATxmega32A4U	44	32	32	4
ATxmega64A3U	64	64	32	4

How to definitively turn off the Foxit updater

The updater in Foxit is really annoying. And even if you turn it off via the GUI the updater application will still run in background. This will delay the main Foxit window start up.

So, here is the trick: the the updater to think that it already checked for updates:
Open the registry (RegEdit) to:

\\\Registry\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader 7.0\plugins\Updater\LastDay

Edit the LastDay key and put a higher number. In my case, instead of 0518357,1447384350 I put 0618357,1457384350.

If you are lazy, here is the REG file script (copy/paste the text below in a text file and change its extension to .REG then run the file):

 _________________________
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader 7.0\plugins\Updater]
"LastDay"="0618357,1457384350"
 _________________________

Now Foxit will start almost instantaneously.






Firefox, suck it!

Adding Windows 10 to Windows' 7 boot menu

So, I installed Windows 10. I didn't liked it (at all) so I installed after that Windows 7 (on a different partition).
Now after 6 months I would like to see if Window 10 has improoved a bit, but Windows 7 won't show it in its boot menu. So, I cannot boot into Win 10 anymore.

Solution: bcdedit
Run the command prompt as administrator. Type bcdedit and it will show all installed operating systems (that it can recognize).

In my case (Win 7 primary, Win 10 'lost' partition) the output is this:


C:\>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=K:
description             Windows 10
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {24334bf1-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
nx                      OptIn

As you can see the current OS is Windows 7 on C: partition.





First of all, make a backup copy of your boot entries, in case you fuck up something:

C:\>bcdedit /export c:\bdc_entry_backup
The operation completed successfully.




Then type the following command. It will add Win 10 (identified as 'bootmgr') at the list of available bootable OS's:


C:\>bcdedit /displayorder {current} {bootmgr} 

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=K:
description             Windows 10
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
displayorder            {current}
                        {bootmgr}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {24334bf1-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
nx                      OptIn


Done.
_________

More details about bcdedit here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff541231%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#editing_the_boot_menu_in_windows_vista_and_later