How To Use Control Panel Windows 10

Took a while to locate control panel on windows 10.
Found it.
Found that “settings” thing but that seems useless for what I need to do.
For those of you who want to get your control panel back, what you can do is either of two things.  You can navigate to the system32 folder and look for control.exe right click and add to start or add to taskbar or you can right click and create shortcut and move that to the desktop

Or you can cut out the searching and create a shortcut right there on desktop without digging through your folders and files.
Like this

Right click desktop and select “Create Shortcut”

Target= C:\Windows\System32\control.exe

Start in= C:\WINDOWS\system32

After that I just open control panel and change to small icons. This way I get all of my old control panel icons back like  they have always been since windows 95.

Or you can bring your mouse over the start button. right click and in that menu you will find control panel.

Why Was Windows 10 Free?

whyiswindows10freeWhy was Windows 10 Free? Why did they give us a free Windows operating system?
Well if you are skeptical like any person who has been duped into a service for longer than they’d like, you’d compare it to a drug dealer at a school giving kids a free sample. because a return customer is always right around the corner.
Look at the free windows 10 as a migration towards reoccurring revenue. If you are just renting the operating system, and just renting the apps, and renting the storage space (cloud) you will have no option but to stay because you’d be kind of stuck.
Once you’ve made a few payments, you’re already invested in this thing that will never pay off. Kinda like reddit Karma. Or world of warcraft addiction. You paid to play, you play because you paid, your score went up you got cool additional stuff for being so invested. Now you have higher score may as well pay to keep your game going, oh look! … an expansion pack, but damn I have to upgrade my tiny little service because it isn’t compatible and people will think I’m cheap.

Meanwhile you will be hogging down bandwidth and your isp will force you to pay more for larger cap.

Now you’re really $%^&ing invested. but you’ll buy a windows phone because it lets you sync your nifty gif making apps with your phone now. Well, it is all apps and cloud based. So you have to up that bandwidth level too.
Now you are super $%^&ing invested.
Now Microsoft made their “scary announcement” today. “This is the last Window Ever” (here on forbes). Then tell you it isn’t over just going to be “different” meaning more like a pay-to-play operating system.

Software makers will get more out of their leases for rights to design items for Microsoft, but instead of paying up front, Microsoft will take it out of each payment from every windows user who uses the purchased APPS. that’s right, apps. Cloud based programs that you can’t use if your internet goes down.

Here’s something I posted up about 5 years ago on the topic telling people it would be like this soon. Yeah the responses I got were pretty hateful.

Microsoft Moving us to the Cloud

 

Sure some people could enjoy it, but not everyone. Let’s make it a choice please. Just have two brand new Microsoft operating systems at a time. The one made by Microsoft and sold to the public, and the open source one.

Autocad Alternatives Test

Decided to try a few alternatives to AutoCAD and see if I can cut my next upgrade costs.
Here’s the list of programs I found that seemed like the best options for replacing AutoCAD
I tried a few but these are the only ones that made the list.

Specs for the test computer
Windows 7 Ultimate 64
16 gigs DDR3
AMD 6300 six-Core Processor 3.5 GHz

For test reasons I used one of my Fire Alarm templates. Since it is full of my most common blocks and xrefs. This allows me to see if I can operate normally (or better) without any slowdowns to my daily tasks at work. My template is in DWT format and 1=1 scale.The template has 4 layout views that have viewports set to 1/8 scale on print.
I design in 2d only. My job is for permitting process, so no need in 3d design software. So this is a 2d drafting and design test only.

ProgeCAD

ProgeCAD

ProgeCAD

Progecad’s website
Alternative to AutoCAD at a price range of just under $500
I installed the trial version so I can see if ProgeCAD has what I need for the drafting work I do
So far ProgeCAD does everything that autoCAD.

blocks inserted fine
Commands ran as they do in autocad

LibreCAD

AutoCAD vs LibreCAD

AutoCAD vs LibreCAD

LibreCaD’s Website
Free Drafting software alternative to AutoCAD
This is a much slower program and seemed to only work (kinda worked) with DXF files.
LibreCAD opened very slow and zero of my commands worked.
No idea why anyone would work with DXF, since DXF files load so poorly it makes you feel like you are in the middle of a memory dump.
LibreCAD wouldn’t load my blocks and would not load the DWT template file.
Lines were very hard to draw between hesitations and jumps in the program.

FreeCAD

FreeCAD

FreeCAD

Would not load a DWG file right away but would see one in folder.
Would not load DXF files and a message popped up saying to run some sort of importer, the first time I tried.
Import function in menu did nothing. Was not able to click that option.
I did however get a DXF file to open. Which opened very slowly.
The scroll function by use of the mouse wheel, worked smooth and fast. not hesitation whatsoever.
Weird thing is room labels and doors did not show up in the DXF file I used, though they are all there in other AutoCAD alternatives.
Could not copy symbols from autoCAD and paste them into FreeCAD.
No sign of layout tabs.

NanoCAD
nanocadvsautocad
Another Cad alternative that is on a “buy” only service.
I am currently using the trial version for testing and I have to say this one seems to run well and quite strong,
All commands and functions work.
If I want to insert a dynamic block, it inserts and the all of the options work as I designed them to.
NanoCAD looks like it has the best price range. From what I see the price starts at less than $200 and I see no higher prices so. NanoCAD seems to be the winner here.
Works with DWG and DWT template files. Good enough for me to like.
NanoCAD website.

Sketchup
Did not open dwg,dwt or dxf files
Sketchup is not able to be tested for my needs.
Inconclusive.

Fact is, for what I need, the free versions of AutoCAD alternatives just were not worth the download nor the install.

If I had to select one and someone else was buying, I would get the Progecad. The price is just a fraction of AutoCAD and every function I normally need is right there in ProgeCAD.
but if I was buying it for myself, I would pick nanoCAD. Everything just works flawlessly and the price is currently half the price of ProgeCAD.

Windows 10 Upgrade – How it Went

(Give a like and share with a friend who needs this info please, I don’t have $100000 pr team, it’s just me here)
First I had a friend send me a link to Microsoft’s site where they explain how to install.
So no.. I never got the notification that the update/upgrade said
Here’s the link to the Windows 10 download. Be sure to read everything and make sure you have every piece of requested and required information and meet all requirements before moving on.
I have the end user license agreement available in pdf form.
I followed the instructions on that page, got my serial key ready and plugged in a dvd and a usb (belt and suspenders) and downloaded the media creation tool for my system, and just installed and hit the “next” button maybe three times. If that.

after about 35 minutes of downloading and 20 minutes of finalizing

For your Nvidia video cards, let windows update your drivers, it may take a few minutes but just let windows handle it.

Cool thing is I have been running dual monitors for a little while, so when the computer booted up, I had not one but two start menus and it is not a cloned desktop. Desktop icons right where I left them before the upgrade.
I did my run through of tests.
Run:
GIMP
AutoCAD
Photoshop
Adobe CS3

Nothing had a hang up.
Next will be a few more tests (to be added later) and then I will try and uninstall/roll back my operating system back to Windows 7.

The Cons:
windows 10 okay, nothing spectacular other than dual start menus when you have two monitors. after that…. bleh..
Taskbar looks a bit like the fake taskbars we’d put on windows 3.1
Redmond ? Whirling dervish? or Caldera skin? what was it called?
Start menu is a bit lacking. and please let’s not change the word “program” to “App” even if you are trying to force us to buy cloud space for the “apps” that we already paid for, for our 2 tb store bought personal hard drives.

Microsoft Internet Explorer seems to still be there.
and windows 10 still calls for it


Now this could just be because I am on an upgrade instead of a full install of windows 10. Uncertain as of yet. Wait for a few more updates.

Finally found Control Panel type stuff
startcontrolpanel
Just right click the start menu and you will see many of the control panel functions.

Settings for EDGE

Edge Settings

Edge Settings

Mostly the same as Firefox, top right of teh browser. You can also change the color of your browser there.

 

Why was windows 10 free?

How I Re-enabled Flash on FireFox

flashfixfirefox

In a previous post you see I explain why killing Flash is bad. So this post is to show how I enabled my Flash  on firefox (which Is a bit of a task because I have to careful and accountable for my actions, so I do not recommend you try this)
I got sick of accepting flash on every single website I went to. Flas is in website ads used by Google and other Advertisers, so the notice came up on every single website I traveled to. This is an annoyance. Well I solved taht issue, and this is how.
I opened Mozilla FireFox and typed this in the address bar
about:config
Then I pressed enter.
Then in the search box I typed
blocklist

When the list of items with “blocklist” in their title populated, I look for
extensions.blocklist.enabled
I right click that line  and change it’s status from “True” to “False” (this was a temporary fix. Read the update below)
enableflash
Then go to my list of plugins and check their status and see if all of my plug ins are up to date. Then update all plug ins.

I am currently looking for a way to change the items in the blocklist so that I can exclude Flash.

**update**
From that same blocklist (search results posted above), you will see there are 2 blocklist URLs. The longer of the two is the one that I downloaded and saved to my documents folder.
“extensions.blocklist.url; https://blocklist.addons.mozilla.org/blocklist/3/%APP_ID%/%APP_VERSION%/%PRODUCT%/%BUILD_ID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/%PING_COUNT%/%TOTAL_PING_COUNT%/%DAYS_SINCE_LAST_PING%/”

Now say “C:\Users\TRUXTER\Documents\%DAYS_SINCE_LAST_PING%.xml”

I told firefox to check there for the blocklist. Next, I edited the XML file in notepad++ and stripped out all valid Flash descriptions and left the known virus ones that aren’t really flash Or what looked like Firefox is blocking a real phishing site.

Changed blocklist status back to enabled/true.
Rebooted Firefox and and began surfing the internet and flash is working fine again.
fixflashonfirefox

 

Double checked my plugins and everything is fine again
flashpluginworks

Only issue is I have no idea if this will go back to normal when Firefox quits this stupid game and puts things back to normal.

I would upload this and let you all download the edited one but I don’t want any liability for anything you do, so I am not advising you try this at all. Just telling you what I did. It wasn’t a whole lot of work, just about 3 minutes of hitting “find next” and deleting lines out. From opening bracket to closing brackets.

Why Forced Flash Shutdown Is Bad

flashblock_firefox
Web browsers have taken upon themselves to block the flash on websites with a warning that the website is unsafe. Instead of just putting the notice over the area the flash is in, they put a notification at the top of the page.
blockedbyfirefox

Adobe tries to help with a “how to enable flash” walk through but Firefox no longer allows this
flashenablefirefox
The act of closing flash from websites, though the intention of preventing “Viruses” is a great idea, bit it is a false claim to say that flash is the most vulnerable software used on websites.
sure the websites that you get a virus from are most likely using flash. This does not in any sense say that you are getting the virus from flash. If anything you are getting the virus from a tricked up java script.
Some of the simplest viruses can be written in visual basic. And they are likely the utmost common virus injected through the web today.

and yes your HTML5 puffy site is using a VB file at some point.

If you are seeing a GIF as your saving grace from flash. Then you are sadly mistaken. You are just guzzling down unnecessary bandwidth.

This is just a simple push to bring everyone to design HTML5 websites. This stripping the flash use function of the web browsers to make the websites “Responsive” and move everyone to HTML5, is sort of like extortion.
HTML5 and responsive sites, though they look cooler on your cell phone, are less website, less informative. And simply a dumbed down puffy website. You can’t even zoom most html5 websites to see the details.

Simply put, a responsive website is a website dumbed down to work with a cell phone. This is software reducing it’s self to allow the hardware to keep up. This is how you plateau in hardware acceleration. When the software exceeds the ability of the hardware, the hardware must evolve. When the hardware and the software agree to stabilize, no one evolves. If they would have done this years ago we’d still be looking at black screens with yellow/green text. And we’d be happy with that because we couldn’t imagine it getting any better.

Besides, there are far too many websites out there that I have to keep accepting the flash to load because of this 3 ring web browser shun, and it is getting annoying. They could end up upsetting ADOBE and causing a huge court issue of this.

Simply put: it would be like Mcdonalds Taco bell and pizza hutt stopping using card board because it smells less cool. Now we all have to carry our food in wet paper bags because a few kids think it’s the bee’s knees and the next evolution.

Complacency is not evolution.

Let the users chose what they want to see.

How I fixed my Firefox to work with flash again

Fire alarm Symbols Blocks – Free

Addressable fire alarm initiating devices.

Fire Alarm Symbol Blocks

Fire Alarm Symbol Blocks

A few fire alarm cad blocks that have unique attributes and functions to simplify fire alarm design.
These are blocks that I have used in fire alarm design for a few years but recently revamped. These are the ones I backed up for just in case I don’t like my new changes. Since my new changes to the fire alarm blocks went well, I am going ahead and giving these away for free.
Please keep in mind that I also have more on my FireAlarmDWG.com website that are for sale. They have even more simplified and smoother functions.

If you are the designer for your company and you have sales members who need a better way to make bids, direct them to my Fire Alarm gimp brushes (free also) this will save you so much headache in designs.

Here are the fire alarm device symbols .

Fire alarm symbols Free

and just for fun here are some fire alarm blocks I made in Superhero fashion.

These autocad blocks can be dropped into your drawings or templates as you see fit.

The smoke detector and the pull station and the heat detector and duct detector symbols are all addressable. at the moment of insertion to drawings you will be prompted to title the device numerically that way you can get a running count from the moment you design. This allows your fire alarm system to have an exact format per plans. Not the other way around.

The horn strobe blocks have menus to select multiple options from. such as left facing or right facing. The horn strobe you see that is a typical wall mounted horn strobe, actually has a few features and the option to change to any fire alarm symbol you chose. This allows for change orders or changes per manager or ahj or customer.

Fire Alarm Symbol Brushes For Gimp

fire_alarm_symbols

As you may know I have been working on a fire alarm autocad template full of blocks and symbols to make my fire alarm design job a bit easier.
I also have been working on a fun side project. Fire Alarm Templates.

Sometimes I get floor plans in tiff or jpg format. When I do I have to lay that in as an xref and trace the walls. Well sometimes the bid is too low to do that efficiently and the company still make a profit. Sometimes there is just a need to get a quick device count for a bid. Well I came up with a way to get the symbols onto the tiff to send back to the customer.

To get these brushes for free, just download from here

Fire alarm Symbol Brushed for Gimp
And then place the brushes into this folder on your computer (with g.i.m.p. turned off)

C:\Users\(your-Name)\.gimp-2.6\brushes

Currently only works as the pencil mode brush. Scale it at size 10.

This has made take-off and bid tasks much faster and much easier. Except the fact that you have to eyeball the coverage. No tool as of just yet for measuring coverage. This will come eventually.
Use your best guess.

DISCLAIMER:

These symbol brushes are for general idea only, not for construction and not for permit use.

Reddit’s Current state of protest 7/3/2015

reddit_outrage
Currently Reddit is seeing a bit of a protest due to the letting go of a moderator in the Ask me Anything (AMA) section. Reddit let go of a moderator who’s name is Victoria.

Much of the protest is just bandwagon action from people who never even subscribed to the subreddit called ask me anything. The kids and adults who protest to whatever is being protested and many just for the laughs to add to the jokes. Which makes it look like this moderator is someone with a huge fan-base.

voat.coThere are many posts on Reddit saying they will leave Reddit for another website called VOAT.CO.  Which Voat.co seems to be currently suffering from the sudden influx of users and readers.  so the front page is a notice saying that Voat.Co is currently down.
Voat.Co is somewhat of a clone of Reddit, which actually got it’s idea and platform from people who jumped ship and left Digg.com. After Reddit copied digg, Facebook brought in the like button and never added a dislike . This is still a take from digg’s platform due to the fact that the more liked posts get moved to be seen by more people.

Nonetheless, Reddit’s front page is full of bashings while all of their subreddits have gone private and nothing is being seen by new visitors of Reddit.

In the end reddit is getting a nice flow of visitors and steady activity in protest to Reddit.

 

Hands On Galaxy S6 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S6

Samsung Galaxy S6

If the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge really does have Gorilla glass as I have been told, that did not feel like I expected.
The S6 Edge was very thin and light weight. The screen was wide yet narrow.
What I felt while holding that phone was in no way similar to the reviews I have been seeing. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, though it felt smooth to the touch and nearly seamless, it felt kind cheap. Not inexpensive but felt poorly made. Almost like a doll house wide screen tv. as if it would just crumble the first time you set anything on it. Reminded me on the Sanyo Zio but much more costly. With the curved edges and the plastic feeling screen.

No idea how you put a screen cover on that phone. Or even a case that would be effective and still allow you to use that silly edge area.
Sure that gives you more tools to add but what if the screen was flat, that stuff would still work and a case would serve an actual purpose.
The menu system didn’t feel like anything innovative has been created either. and yes I am quite used to feeling teh sides of the phone while I navigate.
The battery Specs online say 2,600mAh in the system settings, while the comparable budget phone ZTE Grand™ X Max+ has a 3200mAh battery.  the battery could be better.

Not interested in the Galaxy 6 Edge.

Review scoring:
Feel– 5/10
Look– 9/10
Navigation– 7/10
Durability– 4/10
Battery life– 8/10

Total review score = 5/10