I posted about this elsewhere in this topic, but wanted to make sure you saw it. It's a 3'rd party utility that has, so far, (knock on silicon) prevented MS from forcing their malware onto any of my Internet-facing WIN7 machines.

http://blog.ultimateoutsider.c...

There is an excellent 3'rd party utility that SO FAR, has successfully prevented MotherShip from forcing it's malice upon several Internet-facing WIN7 machines that are under my care. This utility is basically a watchdog to keep MS's fingers out of your Registry.

Here is where you can find it:

http://blog.ultimateoutsider.c...
(I hope his server won't melt! Too bad the CORAL mirroring system is no more.)

You're welcome. ;)

Because my former boss wanted to sell. He was ready to retire.

The products we made are very reliable, solid, and well-made. He always had high standards, and insisted that any 3'rd party suppliers met those standards before he would accept their products. The new owner is keeping up that tradition.

To answer another comment, the NEED for using analog was primarily for radio frequency energy issues.

This story is based on real life events. A small company I was working for was bought-out by another small, but out-of-state electronics company. The new owners were well versed in bit-banging and CPU. My former company was 99% analog. We used op amps and R/C circuits for timing/filtering. They used code on CPU's. The new owners flew me out to their facility on three different weeks, to help their staff incorporate this whole new product line into theirs.

One interesting discussion I had with them involved creating a 0.5 second power-on reset signal for a USB interface chip, to allow the rest of the unit to "settle" before bringing up the USB interface. One guy said he'd just use a little 8-pin CPU and some code. I suggested an op-amp, some resistors, and a cap. They looked at me like I had two heads.

I reminded them that because these devices were intended to be used in environments with high levels of radio frequency energy, and high sensitivity receivers, (transceivers) RFI ingress and egress were important! The op amp and R/C circuits were virtually RF immune, and generated NONE. A CPU generates some, and is sensitive to RF.

Case-in-point: They had a high-current, DC switching system (multiple DC power ports that could be controlled remotely) that was driving them completely bonkers, because of random resets or other unpredictable behavior when they switched loads on and off. When I tried to explain current loops and grounding, they again looked at me like I had two heads. One even said, "But isn't ground, just GROUND??" (Insert FACEPALM here!)

I had to briefly explain OHM'S LAW to them! Ground planes have a measurable (albeit small) resistance, and when you are passing a dozen amps or more, you start to see dozens of millivolts from the E=IR drops... sometimes, switching spikes were high enough to false-trigger CPU inputs or other circuits, because the CPU was "riding" up and down on those voltages! When I showed them one of our old ANALOG designs, with separated ground paths... and explained WHY those paths were separate... I think they finally "got it". Their next complete redesign didn't have the issues of the first.

I summed it up by saying, "It is an ANALOG WORLD, guys!" ;)

If we could replace this pathetic printer with something else, we'd be glad to. Unfortunately, it connects to a special piece of equipment that can only "talk to" a specific, limited set of USB printers. I am thinking about writing to the device manufacturer, asking them to add more printer support to the unit. I hope they respond in the affirmative!

As for the color ink drying out... we wouldn't care, as we *NEVER* use it in this printer. The irksome thing is that the printer simply stops working, altogether, when the unused/useless color ink runs out... it does NOT function as "Black Only" even when that option is set in the Printer Preferences.

BTW, the unit in question is used in a broadcast radio station, for the "Emergency Alert System", so it's not exactly something we can replace at will.

This kind of thing looks like it would be good for a law firm to put together a case, and file a Class-Action suit. I am angered by printers where we *NEVER* print in color (printing logs at work) but after so many months, the printer WILL NOT WORK until you feed it a NEW color ink cartridge (or ALL THREE)!

Yes, even with the defaults set to "Black Only", changing the black ink is not enough. The printer simply WILL NOT WORK until all 4 cartridges are replaced. The old color ones feel much heavier than the old black one, so it is quite obvious what's going on, here.

FOLLOW THE $$!!

I think a more apt comparison would be to compare this to the entire process of getting a colonoscopy, from the preparation the day before, to the actual "exam".....

I noticed that, too... and yet, that company is suing someone for using a name they haven't bothered to do anything with since 2013?

I have a page where I put up a bunch of info about my experiments and memories of my Commodore systems. In the years that page has existed, the ownership of the C= logo/name/etc changed hands FIVE TIMES! Just now, I Googled it, and got this page:

http://www.commodorecorp.com/

It hasn't been updated since 2013.

My attempt at a disclaimer is at the bottom of this page:

http://webcache.googleusercont...
(Google cached, to prevent Slashdotting my Host's server.)

Looks like that server is already a smoldering pile of silicon...

Here's the CORAL link, which as of this writing, isn't working, yet... but in my experience, it usually does start working before the full Slashdot wave subsides.

http://www.phoronix.com.nyud.n...

OK, fine. From now on, I will just say Java*

Tell that to my bank.

OK, so I got the Java* terminology mixed up... with so many variants, it's an easy mistake, so cut me some slack. Why do so many people have to be so bloody vicious? Good grief.

If Java* is left disabled, my bank's WEBsite doesn't work. Facebook doesn't work. Youtube doesn't work. Some online retail sites don't work. The streaming audio from my workplace doesn't work. (We lease a server, it's not our code.) My Web-based e-mail doesn't work... a significant number of sites that I use often, don't work.

So I will still stand by what I originally said, but with some rather brutal public corrections applied.

The PROBLEM with disabling Java, is that a significant majority of sites use it heavily... so if you disable it, you cannot even see the content on many of them. THAT is a trend that should be changed! If a user visits a site, and they have their Java turned off, the LEAST they could do is provide a basic HTML version of the site, but no... you get that accursed "Please activate Java to view this site" message.

This goes back to the early 1980's. I used to hang out until the wee hours with some folks at a local 24 hour donut shop. The owner had rigged-up a stereo inside a locked box, in the back room. It was set to a local "Elevator Music" station, and everyone (even the employees) hated it... but there was nothing anyone could do... until I came along. :)

I used an "FM Converter" (remember those? You could listen to FM thru an AM-only car radio) which I modified for direct audio output from the detector. This fed into a basic amplifier system, and into a home made FM transmitter. I would be sitting in a booth with my friends, and could not only change the station to almost anything we wanted, but also adjust the volume, bass, and treble. They were suitably impressed.

So, each time I'd come in with my device, they'd say, "Here comes OVERRIDE!" (their new nickname for me). I would then proceed to knock out the elevator music, and tune in to the local rock station. Everyone loved it.

I also made a smaller version that I could connect to a Walkman cassette player, and play my music over any other FM radio in range. All it took was a few milliwatts of power. Fun times.

Now I am a Broadcast Engineer... and I get to play with real transmitters and control systems, etc.