Glenn9999

See snipped out section of a screen shot. This happens on all the wall objects if you are a certain distance away. The game never did it otherwise, so it has to be related either to the D9 renderer I have or the settings I'm using. Any suggestions?

As stated, I can't test on Vista or 7 because I don't have access to it to develop on. But it looks like the logging feature would be a good one to include it in the next version (0.10) Sure, if I can answer anything, feel free to ask. But I may not know the answers either. I duplicated the AVs, and removed them here. This should hopefully be fixed in the next revision.

Here is a newer version of the BatchPatcher Downloader. Much of what was done was to try to address the things that have been brought up recently in this thread. Hopefully they have been solved, if not, they can be worked on until they are solved. Change log is below. Changes from 0.08 BETA ------------------------------------ 1. MSXML 6 was used, which is likely not on all systems. Compilation changed to use MSXML3 matching what is distributed with Windows Update Agent. 2. Check for pre-requisites and warn if not present. These pre-requisites have been identified and will be included in documentation. 3. File extension identification made a little more non-specific and thorough (Fixed? Can't test on Vista or 7 for the issue described in the MSFN forum post) 4. Driver items are shown if applicable device is connected. Code fixed so driver entries are effectively removed. 5. "Get URL List" changed to "Get Update List" to be more generically accurate and less confusing (the other label is technically accurate for the purposes of this program but can be confusing). 6. Check and report/handle all possible errors outside of the app's direct control which require reporting. 7. More thorough and hopefully better documentation as contained in the accompanying CHM file, which includes "minimum requirements". 8. A couple of under-the-hood change that relates to WinHTTP and downloading files. 9. Application is now identified in Windows Update, and will be listed in the WindowsUpdate.Log clearly. Hope there isn't any problems, but if there are please let me know here. Also any constructive suggestions are welcome as well.

It's coming. I got most of the basic tests I could get done on the pre-requisite detections that were mentioned in recent posts of this thread, but took a little while in testing (setting up XP VMs of various service packs, mainly, as well as identifying requirements). I've been working tonight in trying to identify and fix a few bugs. Then I want to work on the documentation and see if I can make it nicer before release. As for testing, for those that are interested (0.09 should indicate problems if these are not done), things used are: 1) The main requirement for BatchPatcher Downloader is Windows Update Agent (WUA). I found this is not installed on any service pack level of XP (unmodified, nothing installed), and probably is the case on Vista and Seven as well. Since the app uses Windows Update to find the patch information and the URLs to download them from, the app is pretty much useless without WUA. 2) The app uses MSXML to read an XML file to get the download link for WUA for a specific OS. 0.08 used MSXML 6.0 to do this, but as was indicated, 0.09 was changed to use MSXML 3.0, which is installed along with WUA. 3) The app uses WinHTTP which is included in WUA. 4) The XML file mentioned above is contained within a CAB file that is downloaded. The API for that exists on most systems since Windows 98 or thereabouts, so if there is a problem there it's with your OS. 5) Windows Update Agent installs a service called "Automatic Updates" or "wuauserv". Most disable this usually because they do not use Windows Update, or wish to not use Automatic Updates. One thing I did learn in chasing down pre-requisites & errors is that it is for the entire Windows Update functionality and not just "Automatic Updates". Kinda misnamed. So to put it in short terms: 1) A reasonably up-to-date Windows Update Agent needs to be installed. 2) "wuauserv" needs to be enabled and started. While I can do that with code (and disable it), it would likely be perceived as a security risk so I just warned about it. 3) BatchPatcher Downloader only uses the "scan" functionality of Windows Update and doesn't "download" or "install" any updates through Windows Update. Windows Installer and BITS are good for full functionality of everything (especially Windows Installer, I know updates complain about that not being installed when you try to run them). But a good general rule is that if you can't hit Windows Update and scan for updates, then this app won't work either. This is because the pre-requisites for both are identical. Hope that helps until the new version comes along (with some better documentation on this hopefully).

Usually everything is a learning process and I've learned many things out of this already and will learn more as time goes on. Like was said, it's BETA software I'm just throwing out to share since it seems useful (and to give these observations on bugs and feature oversights that I don't see in my own testing, especially since I don't have unlimited resources and time), so no guarantee that all things are working in all cases. As for the talk about MSXML 6.0, I researched and found that MSXML 3.0 is installed with Windows Update Agent, so I changed my current build (which will be 0.09 BETA when put here) to use that instead. That should eliminate one requirement. But rest assured I want this to work and work well by the time I call it done (i.e. STOP calling it beta) and I do take fixing these things seriously. So thanks to all of you for reporting these issues so they can be addressed! As for pre-requirements, the software uses Windows Update (as clearly stated), so it's a logical assumption that all the pre-requisites for Windows Update (Windows Update Agent, BITS, and Windows Installer) are required for this program as well. Naturally, checks for those things will have to be instated and data will be added to the documentation indicating that. Documentation on using the program will come eventually as well. These preinitialization service availability requirements are tomasz86's issue as well. I duplicated the error in disabling the "Automatic Updates" service, but I'm sure there are other service names in other Windows OSes. On the other issue, the app is supposed to filter out specific files which are user-executable offline updating files (EXE & MSU). Windows Update offers a number of other file types (CAB, PSF), which should not be shown as part of normal functionality. Right now this means it should pick up EXE and MSU but checking the updates in question indicates there is an error, which will be fixed. Thanks again for your input and it will help in making this program much better!

Exactly as I described it. When you have a list of updates on the program, it should give you an option under the File menu to "Save List". I'm asking what those updates you listed display as in that text file.

What shows up for these when you save the list to text file (File/Save List)?

The app uses MSXML 6.0 for a couple of functions. Do you have that installed?

When you run it, click the "Get URL List" button. It should pop up what updates are missing. Click the "Installed" box if you want it to show you what has been installed when you click "Get URL List". FYI, As for Windows Vista or 7, I haven't been able to test it there, so I don't know what kind of results you would get there. Feel free to try it though.

One of my projects has been to do exactly this. Still working on it, so don't be surprised if you find a few little problems. But the main functionality has been working pretty well for me the last couple Patch Tuesdays. Please feel free to try it out:

As the topic indicates: Has anyone played with them and can share opinions? I know Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Sony have them. Any more? I know they all have their own proprietary DRM formats, but is that all they do? Do they do other stuff (PDF, HTML, plain text) well? I'm especially asking that, because the premium for me even considering it is that. Anyone know about availability of modern things outside of novels and stuff on these devices (that aren't usually free online already) like technical references? I'm looking in this direction more than something else because reading electronic texts is really the only interest I have in even thinking of this. Most of the text I find on these devices really doesn't answer my questions, so I was wondering what people here knew.

I revised the downloader. I got one or two feature ideas left and then will just try to bug fix and finish it up. Changes from 0.07 beta ---------------------------- 1) Bookmark editor menu added. 2) Cleaned up a number of things. 3) A specific icon was generated for the executable as well as a name change.

More of a legacy of the 16-bit part of Windows 3.1 which carried over to 9x/me. A decision was made long ago that there wasn't much need for that many resources. And there couldn't be given the amount of memory available on the machines at the time, and the ability of programs to address it (memory managers exist as ways to help deal with that). You really haven't been very far around the block. Either that or any 9x systems you've dealt with have been rebooted repeatedly by the end-users (the cure for this). Or the users knew well enough to reboot when those symptoms come along and never said a word to you (my average for 98 and ME both was about 2 hours before a graphics glitch, program crash, or BSOD). It's a VERY common issue relating to the GDI resources. If not this message, corruption in the windows and how they are drawn. In fact, if Microsoft and the other companies didn't lobby the governments to eliminate product liability for their software (e.g. defective product), they would have gotten hit with a ton of lawsuits and would have lost them all. The numerous problems related to just GDI resource problems were/are THAT bad. That was one of the leaps of quality that XP represented over the 9X series. You didn't have to have OCD mannerisms regarding saving your work to make sure a random crash or graphics defect didn't take it all out. I was so glad to be rid of the last 9X machine I had to deal with in my sphere (an XP install onto this same machine that 9X was running on), simply because the complaining about it "never working right" ceased. A lot of this is programming/technical (again). When you put a graphics object on screen (there's lots of them on forms), you have a GDI resource associated with that graphics object. Now there were two or three problems that most software would encounter in 9X. One is you would put too many graphic resources onto the computer. 64K was generally sufficient for the 3.1 series and the lack of multi-tasking people did, but when you got into the 9X and ME series, people tended to do more. Then the software developers would do more (graphics programs, things like Print Master, even personally had problems with things like Word & WordPerfect) Of course, you have very few games on 3.1 and even 9X simply because GDI couldn't take that many resources. As we all know, this fact about games changed with DirectX and the redesign of how graphics were handled. Then you would have heap leaks (as with any dynamic allocation of resources) and heap fragmentation. XP did a better job at cleaning up after the applications that didn't release their resources (and fragmentation), but it's not as much of an issue anymore with the GDI implementation there. But fact is, there were some programs written well in regard to releasing resources and many that were not. Then fragmentation is something that couldn't be helped anyway on the application side. But both relates to the increased complexity of many applications that came along during the 95 era (along with tying the IE browser to 9X-ME, but that's another topic entirely. As another vote, I've found Tihiy's GDI heap software to be a great help and found using it coupled with stripping IE has made my 9X/ME installs (both VM and real) run in a much more stable fashion and actually rendered it usable for longer than an hour. In the 3.1 era, yes. In the late 98-ME era, no. Depends on the mix of applications (both quality and resource usage), multi-tasking, and recognition of the problem. Most that probably don't recognize it involve the scenario described above. But given all of what was known when 95-Me was new, they were well known to be very crash-prone and unusable for long periods by the majority of the population. So rebooting them and expecting crashes was part of the game and expected for using a 9X/Me OS.

0.07 beta. -------------- Changed code to use WinHTTP instead of WinInet. Should be a little more versatile by what I've gathered.

Bad or non-existent DSL filters on telephones adversely affects the Internet service from the DSL connection.

I ended up unplugging all the filters and found that the service worked a bit better and a lot more reliably. But tried plugging things back in and didn't get an effect. But later on, the problems resurfaced. Any ideas on how to test a DSL Filter and determine whether it is bad or not in short order?

I don't really do consistent tests and measure them, but I do repeat and observe results. The last test I did before I posted this, I tried to download a 5391KB file with my app and it timed out at 4481KB. Right now, Firefox is having trouble with the same link, but other times, it downloads in 10 seconds. Are there any configuration issues or problems with the network drivers/internet drivers that could have been brought to light by this ISP switch (they insisted on a different DSL modem, which probably is a different DSL service)? I had no issues downloading anything at all off the old modem.

Is there any way I can determine whether an internet connection I'm on is getting selectively throttled for certain sites? I've been trying to track down a problem in my downloader code which has showed up since the ISP I'm on has changed certain things. I've had it working well on some sites but on some sites it downloads very slowly (much below advertised speed) and on one or two sites it just downloads very slowly, stalls, and sometimes drops connection. My code is capable of downloading files, though, which makes me wonder where this problem is coming from. I really can't tell whether there is a problem with my downloader code from this or the ISP, especially since Firefox and IE seem to download files from these same sites very quickly. Is my downloader getting segregated against because I don't look like common browser traffic, is there something wrong, or is the ISP and/or the web sites pulling some crap? Thoughts?

This requires an API call, which would have to be locked into the click events of the program that is presenting your options. See for details.

I ended up writing something that displays aspect ratios and that helped in sorting the files. I'm assuming that full screen is 1.3333333333333 while widescreen is 1.6 - this fits the stuff I've seen anyhow. So for what people have run into regarding what is acceptable? In other words, how far away from those values do you want to get before the picture looks bad when displayed on the desktop? I'm thinking 1.6012 is okay for widescreen but 1.5 probably isn't for either?

I got to get quite a haul of pictures a few days ago and now I'm faced with a question of preparing some files to be desktop wallpapers. Now what I'm thinking is to try to get them to look the best on most monitors out there. What generally does one want to do in that light? Always match to the monitors dimensions, or is some stretching acceptable to fit the monitor? (most of what I find isn't exactly on target and has some black space of some kind when not stretched) Are all widescreen monitors 16:9/16:10? Are all full screen monitors 4:3? Is there software suited to cropping, resizing & sorting such images for these purposes? Or is just the regular image software the only option?

Here's what I've been using for this recently. http://www.piriform.com/recuva Keep in mind, nothing will get recovered if any part of the file has been genuinely trashed/overwritten. Always save/recover to a separate drive and not the one you are trying to get the files from.

I've been using anyvideo converter for the last 2 or 3 random video jobs I've encountered and it has seemed to work well. http://filehippo.com/download_any_video_converter/

The DLL files I'm sure have overhead. But what I'm saying is the LIB is *literally* the same code of the DLL. You DO NOT need the DLL if you link the program with the equivalent lib. If you don't believe me, then explain what this does and why, especially since the same claim is made there. http://www.tucows.com/preview/218911

Yeah, you could say that. I really find it all strange. You'd think they'd have the smartest/most knowledgeable people in this area and would have the best ideas already tried instead of putting it out to a public that is arguably even less knowledgeable than they are. Besides, we don't even know if it's just a bunch of random letters that this person started writing on notes just to mess with people. As far as we know, this person might be having a big laugh now with people thinking that it is actually anything. Hard to know for sure.