The SparkTech Blog

Java SE Runtime Environment 7 Update 10 (Windows, OSx, Other)

Java SE Runtime Environment 6 Update 38 (Windows, OSx, Other)

Oracle Java SE JRE/JDK Downloads (6/7) (Windows, OSx, Other)

Oracle Java SE Embedded Downloads

Don't forget if you're on a 64 bit Operating System to install BOTH the x86 and x64 versions.

Don't forget to uninstall the older versions.

Not sure which one to install?

JRE 7u10 should do you well enough.

If you have older programs that give you issues and warnings about "Java not installed" when you have 7 installed, install 6 for maximum compatibility.

6 is generally for really old programs where developers have stopped updating their code to meet requirements of JRE 7.

Adobe released updates for nearly all their usual free, user-end products:

Adobe Reader X 10.1.4

(Select your OS, language and version 10.1.4)

Adobe Shockwave Player 11.6.5.636 (Select your OS and version) Adobe Flash Player 11.3.300.271 (Select your OS and version)

Adobe Flash Player Uninstaller 11.3.300.271 (Hosted at Majorgeeks.com)

Oracle has released updates for their Java products.

JRE (Java Runtime Environment) JDK (Java Development Kit) SE (Standard Edition) updates.

Java SE Runtime Environment 7u6 (x86 & x64) (You must accept the Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for Java SE to download this software.)

Java SE Development Kit 7u6 (x86 & x64) (You must accept the Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for Java SE to download this software.) Looking for JavaFX SDK? JavaFX SDK is now included in the Java SE JDK 7 updates for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux x86/x64.

Java SE Runtime Environment 6u34 (x86 & x64) (You must accept the Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for Java SE to download this software.)

Java SE Development Kit 6u34 (x86 & x64) (You must accept the Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for Java SE to download this software.) Standalone downloads are available for JavaFX 2.2 for Java SE 6 users (Windows only)

And a friendly reminder to anyone still using JDK 6, that there has been an update on the official Oracle blog:

Java 6 End of Public Updates extended to February 2013

the last publicly available release of Oracle JDK 6 is to be released in February, 2013...Previously available versions of JDK 6 will remain available to the public through the Java Archive for debugging and testing purposes but Oracle no longer recommends using those in production.

Lastly, Microsoft has released a number of updates today.

36 to be exact!

You can read about it on this site that has listed the updates plus information. Links provided to each update, plus a single ISO-image file for all security updates released in August-only. (Only ISO-image for updating multiple computers with different languages; For English-only updates, use Automatic Updates!!!) 

Run MS Updates, either in your control panel or in your Internet Explorer.

Sites mentioned today (don't forget to bookmark)

Adobe

MajorGeeks

Oracle Technology Network > Java

Oracle Blogs

Create a Text File with Full Results from Command Window Operations

Open your Command Window ("Open Command Window Here" on your source/target directory helps a lot if you know how) and begin to type in the program name (with or without the file extension, it virtually makes no difference) followed by the [-help][/?] functions. If there is no help function available (it happens), simply just run the program once without any options or other functions listed. This will usually give you an error followed by its own help or a list of commands that should give you an idea of what to do.

If it lists a complete Help list that fills your screen and continues onward to fill the screen, you'll notice that when it ends, you'll be at the end of the Help document but cannot go back to the beginning to read from the start.

This isn't exactly rare, but it's very annoying when you want to learn everything your program can do.

A quick Google search reveals a simplistic approach that should be compatible with most Dos/CMD applications. It should work most of the time.

To quote Brian Fantana...

To get a full text file printed out of any results for anything you've done in the CMD, you can simply add a command at the very end.

Input your program, the options and any other function you wish to do. (In this case -help)

Then add at the very end (before pressing enter to execute),

Add >"[drive:\destination\][filename].txt" Don't forget to add "quotes" if the destination contains any spaces. 

E.G.:

encoder >"A:\Bin Documents\encoder help.txt"

Also make sure that if you use "quotes", that the first quotation mark goes after the 'smaller than' sign (>); and, not before it, otherwise you'll get a huge error list and no text file printed out.

You can achieve the Pulfrich Effect by simply buying a cheap pair of sunglasses from the dollar store and popping out one of the lenses. Watch a movie with those glasses and you will perceive a 3D effect. What happens is that the darker content of the image is received last, while the brighter contents are received first. Your brain converts this into a 3D effect, since light travels faster than dark, your eyes will see the difference, or "lag" of the two fields of contrast. It's ideal if you give your pre-dominant eye the dark lense. You can always reverse the glasses to see which one gives you optimal effect. The best scenes that work best with Pulfrich Effect are slow, panoramic scenes. Anything where objects move across the screen. Scenes that move in slow motion. Where shadows play a significant role. If the camera rotates around the object of focus. Granted that the entire movie will not be in 3D, but the best scenes will definitely make their presence known to your brain.  Most websites selling Pulfrich glasses (paper, plastic or metal framed if you're fancy-shmancy) will often say that these glasses are best for viewing sports events, as most sports programs have cameras in a stationary place while it pans from side to side. Whether it's football, soccer, hockey or tennis, you will definitely see the Pulfrich Effect as intended. Other points of interest: Some directors are extremely noteable in their directing techniques, how they love to move the camera. Peter Jackson is one such. JJ Abhrams is another. You get the idea. Movies, especially older ones, where the CG is very discernible on-screen often tend to be slightly less noticeable through Pulfrich glasses. The CG edges are somewhat smoothed out as the animation occurs from frame to frame and the time-dilation of the Pulfrich Effect. Of course, movies intended to be 3D in nature are always going to deliver satisfactory results.

However, HDD Regenerator seems to show much promise in the ways of losslessly recovering data, its only drawback is that it works much more efficiently only when and if the drive in question is an internal drive.

Now the site and everything else advertising says it works on external drives, but that's just hubaballoo~

Try google "HDD Regenerator external hard drive" and you'll see a lot of the support forums keep saying "unplug your external and install it as an internal hard drive".

That can be easily done, if you have the tools and patience for it.

I'm not really going to crack open the SeaGate external for this major recovery. Last thing I want to do is make a mistake and damage the case. If it all possible, I'd rather not tamper with the drive physically. Ugly, broken shells are not easy to deal with (I presume).

So, I'm basically stuck still searching for something noteworthy in hopes to recover data. Mostly concerned about documents, music and some videos.

The rest can be counted as losses.

I'm really concerned about accuracy, as I've had nothing but false hopes with so many "acclaimed" software in the past.

Recuva, Recover My Files, R-Data, and virtually any other "undelete" software has really returned nothing to me.

I know the general rule of thumb with data recovery is to not do anything else to the drive (save, create, modify or delete any other files) in order to preserve the MFT (Master File Table). Chances of recovering data in good working order is substantially greater if nothing is changed since the deletion.

However, in all cases where I have done exactly that and immediately began to recover data, most positive results of regaining a fully-working file has always been very slim. In most cases, I've only gotten just garbage back. Useless pictures and documents.

I've never been fond of using any sort of "undelete" software as I've never had any real success.

And I'm dealing with only one level deletion (the initial deletion) and no extra security wipes.

It doesn't matter if it's Windows XP, Vista, 7, 32-bit, 64-bit, very large data files (like a DVD-9 ISO image) always tend to end up being unrecoverable.

Sure, I can always get a list of stuff I lost.

But that's it.

It's no good having a list if some of the material lost were converted videos which took about 12 hours to convert.

Given the pessimistic forecast of this endeavor leaves me to believe that making a list of lost data and doing my best to recover it. If the sources still exist.

Some of it is rare music, rare movies, discs I no longer have, or stuff that just doesn't really exist anymore.

Reformatting the entire drive is easy.

I might even do a nice 7-pass/35-pass on the whole thing to start anew.

Completely fresh.

But, first thing's first: disappointing lists of things I lost.

One thing to take into consideration, that while Revo is extremely powerful and accurate, it still may not be able to uninstall the nastiest of uninstalls.

Whether it's a driver for a printer, mobile phone, or what have you, there's still going to be something, somewhere out there that. just. doesn't. want. to. leave.

:/

I've been in those shoes before. The only thing to do is jump right in and wade through the shit and stench that mocks you...

I find for the extreme situations that cause complete system instability and functionality, I do a system restore or a complete reformat.

And, no, I don't use that System Restore. I use a separate partition that's already pre-configured (it's a store-bought laptop and not a custom build).

However, there's still the issue of the original factory state having Norton Antivirus installed. And a few other things.

But that's easy to fix. Symantecs offers a utility tool to completely remove all Norton products, files and registry. A very clean swipe.

You can find it on their official website or on mirror hosts like MajorGeeks.

Sites of interest:

Revo Uninstaller Official Site

MajorGeeks Official Site

Symantec's Norton Removal Tool Official Site

Extremely handy for those who really with to conserve as much space as possible on their OS partition.

I've just discovered this neat little utility last month and have been using it on all three of my systems (2 laptops; 1 desktop).

You can download the .ini file from the official website to update CCleaner manually on computers that don't have internet access.

Otherwise, the general installer program can update to the latest .ini file with customized options* for cleaning.

*All customized options for cleaning can be noted an asterisk.

Really great for finding install locations and other areas of interest for cleaning.

Caution: Used at your own discretion. Check the locations you really want to clean, if you know what you are doing and that the programs of interest involved are, indeed, working correctly.