windows 10 store not a really good start...

WTF now, the win10 are a kind of beta test software, first the activation nightmare now I noticed that 20+ windows apps were stuck on an endless queue at the windows store. bit crappy I have to say, its a whole day that they were stuck trying again and again to be downloaded. What I realised later is that the software distribution database could be corrupted, there is some commands that fix the issue, at least in my case:

winkey + x --> command prompt as admin
then:

• net stop wuauserv  (wait a bit there...)
• cd %systemroot%
• ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistributionBad
• net start wuauserv
• wsreset

The SoftwareDistributionBad can be deleted later, in the case is locked/corrupted etc , there is FilExile  that deletes the most of corrupted/bad files.

update (1/8/15) : deleting the SoftwareDistribution folder did not really solved the issue, what I did not and -so far so good- works :

a manual-reinstall of the  default windoze apps solved the things!

Windoze 10 activation NIGHTMARE

Upgraded to the f* windows 10 from 8.1 so far so good, but my system started to freeze (just on the right f* time...) event log revealed that the main HDD was ready to kick the bucket,,, it seems that was some bad sector (5yo device anyway) and that happened because the new installation started to fill up on the remaining space.

So, I thought, as my system is M$ activated I could just do a clean install on the new HDD, right ? ... WRONG !!!  I lost TWO f* days as the darn thing COULD NOT BE ACTIVATED!!  I know that the f* M$ is keeping info of the installed h/ware (mainly the m/board) so its possible to replace RAM/CPU/HDD without the need to re-activate the windows10, at least that is what I read and the idiot from the M$ chat wrote me... 

Well, it seems that THERE IS NO F* WAY to make a clean install of  UPGRADED windows 10 and then to activate them!! What I only managed to do is to create a recovery USB (took a LONG time!!) via the 'create recovery disk' from the ACTIVATED windows10 then remove ALL the HDDs, install the NEW HDD and perform the installation from that specific USB. 

Quite RIDICULOUS and crappy way from the F* M$.  

WIndows 8 , and SDL bug (US keyboard self-added)

I though that my "solution" to change the registry on the US keyboard to UK , was fine, but recently I found that still some SDL based programs add the US keyboard ...
setting* the environment variable SDL_VIDEODRIVER=DIRECTX seems to work now!


*
winKEY-X >> System >> Advanced System Settings >> Environment Variables

Update (4th of May 2015)... guess that!

my idea did NOT work! why? because the FUCKING SDL sucks!

What I found is that some programs that use the SDL lib, have a bug when the SDL_VIDEODRIVER is set to DIRECTX instead of DDRAW or WINDIB and the mouse cursor can't register the correct co-ords, so clicking on buttons (while on fullscreen or maximized window) is a mess....

What I managed to do now, and so far works. is to run the registry editor (as admin) and mod the
HLM --> SYSTEM --> ControlSet001 --> Control --> Keyboard Layouts
and on the 00000409 (the US keyboard) set the Layout File from KBDUS.DLL
to whatever want to be eg. in my case I set it as KBDUK.DLL and removed the UK keyboard from the keyboard list. Now I have one that is registered like US but in fact is a UK layout.  darm.. all of this mess because of the abomination library of SDL 

Outook.com 'recent activity' is not updating....

Its since last month that the 'recent activity'  (logged IPs) on my outlook.com account stopped logging the activity. I still waiting a reply from the M$ support...

What it pissed me off , is that the tech support of M$ asked me to clean cookies etc and try to login to my account via different OS/browser, ridiculous, seems they have no fucking idea that the IP logging has nothing to do with OS/browser/device...

Also, I found a link that helped me to sent a report about this issue.

Zoho mail ... waste of time...?

I used to have my personal domain on the google apps, but google sucks a lot because:

(a) needs "google services" in every device in order to connect with eg. google docs, so devices
     like BB10 can't use anything on google except mail/cal/contacts
(b) the google docs are completely crap, you can't edit native xls/doc, they are converted to that
      google format, yes, you have to save (export) if you want to read your xls/doc outside
      google

so, I started looking for alternative emai/cal/contacts hosting....

I managed to connect my domain with  zoho, the email works fine, but there is NO way to sync contacts/calendar with the BB10, well the support @ zoho seems a bit pathetic btw, I am not sure if their mobile activesync sucks...

Update:

Zoho replied to my support request, its Blackberry's fault!

Usually we will get initial request very slowly for syncing data from Blackberry devices through Exchange ActiveSync. Please contact mobile manufacturer regarding this.

and I have to add they are right, as I managed to sync my zoho account with an android device very quick!

BB10 how to sync without the shit Blackberry Link...

Its just some days that I deleted the crap from BB, called 'Link', in fact I used it just to move (one way mirror) files from the desktop to the BB.

What I am using now is more 80s like,  but works way better than installing the crap from BB, its just sync via FTP ;-) , to be more precise I am using the lftp, its mainly for Linux, MacOSX version via macports, there is a pre-compiled version for windoze around.

On the BB10 I installed an FTP server app from the google play, I installed it via the Snap as I don't like the Amazon store that BB included by default.

The whole magic is a shell script like this (script for MacOSX) :

---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<

lftp -u USERNAME,PASSWORD -p PORT IP << EOF
set ftp:list-options -a

mirror -c -e -R ./files1 /accounts/1000/removable/sdcard/files1 --exclude *.bak
mirror -c -e -R ./Documents /accounts/1000/shared/documents --exclude
EOF

---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<

Its very simple, just pay attention to the paths and don't forget to put the correct PORT number.

the BB10 the paths are :
internal storage .............  /accounts/1000/shared/
(removable) sdcard  ......  /accounts/1000/removable/sdcard/

 
Also, you can exclude files by using the --exclude parameter, for example to avoid sync files like backup files.
 

Latest BB10 10.3.1 ... the shit continues...

Seems its the last time I am using Blackberry devices, they may be *great* for business (just mail/calendar/contacts etc)  or idiots that spend the whole day chating/fb/bbm bullshit /games, but in comparison to android the BB10 is just a shit. I recently realised that the notes app crashed and could not find a solution... well, the only option was to make an 'OS refresh' == fuck everything on the device the install again... the backup was useless could not restore for unknown reason, so I spend 5 nice hours playing with the shit blackberry.... 



well, on my previous android i could backup / re install the OS / restore in less than 1hr, I even had the ability to delete settings on applications that has issues, without loosing a fucking BIT of the other installed apps.

Blackberry was GREAT , at least until the version 7.1 of the BBOS, then the 10 looks like a mixed shit as they tried (and failed) to implement compatibility with the android apps, as the BB world is full of shit, really.

As for the 10.3.1 , hm,  has some bugs, like you can't increase the font/size of the app launcher, again the android app compatibility is more/less the same shit, screen flickers on some apps, in sort : designed by morons.

Hell, no, I am not going back to android, ata least official, I prefer something that is Cyanogenmod compatible.

Kanotix nightly build - 2015 on Chromebook

The darn thing is working like a charm....

I had the impression that Kanotix was dead/abandoned something like this, as various sources like distrowatch does not mention the 2014 - or later-  builds of it, in fact there are fresh nightly builds!

I bit the bullet killed again my latest installation of linux on my chromebook and installed the (nightly) Kanotix Spitfire 2015 KDE x64.

It was nice to see that the most of the packages are not old, eg Libreoffice is v4.4.0.3, kernel 3.18.0 (not the latest, but more recent than the 3.16xx that some debian-based distros are using), so far so good -just a couple of hours lol- the chromebook boots very quick to the KDE desktop. 

Update (18/2)

It seems that the Kanotix is under constant development..  I had some issues like freezes while the shutdown and screen artifacts on the screen. Never mind, its a nice distro, but not for everyday use!

Mouse theme on various linux desktops

Since I started to use laptops with small screens I ve found a bit probematic to track where the heck is the mouse cursor, mind most of them they have a native resulution like 1360x768 everyting less makes them useful for terminal apps only, try to use the web on 800x60, its not 90s anymore and the motherfuckers web designers put every shit on the web pages....

To say the truth the only DE in linux , so far I managed to have mouse cursor consistency is KDE!

This can be possible for other DE like xfce, but the most of the distros use the cocksucking lightdm !!
So, I usually install a different login manager like slim .. problem solved!