Today, I saw an article where the participant copied text from one sexbot into another to see how the conversation would go.

That’s interesting, but my question is, what’s next?

I have a prediction:

They will hire a crowdsourced network of responders to write personal replies, and who will be paid $0.0x if the “client” calls a 900 number or does whatever they’re selling.  Those responders will be able to look at many chat windows and write something, and perhaps two responders will need to say something similar for one response to be selected and sent to the client.

All of the successful human-initiated responses will be analyzed, and a database will be constructed so when a client says [this], and a responder (or more than one responder) has said [that], and the client bites, now a computer will provide the human response, freeing the human responders to engage in other, new, original conversations with human clients.  Over time, human responders make tiny amounts of money, while large, very profitable databases of enticing responses are built up, to be sold or used to generate sex-talk income.

If your Nexus 7 (2013 – second generation) doesn’t show up correctly in Device Manager when you connect it  (“Unknown device”, “This hardware cannot be installed”) because the driver isn’t found, the solution is to identify your device and add one line in the correct .inf file which will allow XP (Pro SP3 32-bit in my case) to load the driver.

Not sure if it’s required, but I did enable the USB Debugging option in the Developer options.  It wasn’t necessary to change from MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) to PTP.  Incidentally, my device is an August 2013 model running 4.4.2 (KitKat) which as of this post is the latest OS.

Download and execute the Microsoft USB identification utility “usbview.exe”.  I found it on this page: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/335A90747734097886257070006415B9

My device's ID was this:
Device Descriptor:
bcdUSB:             0x0200
bDeviceClass:         0x00
bDeviceSubClass:      0x00
bDeviceProtocol:      0x00
bMaxPacketSize0:      0x40 (64)
idVendor:           0x18D1
idProduct:          0x4EE2
bcdDevice:          0x0228
iManufacturer:        0x01
iProduct:             0x02
iSerialNumber:        0x03
bNumConfigurations:   0x01

The Vendor ID is 0x18D1 (Google).
The Device ID is 0x4EE2.

Then you edit the file c:\windows\inf\wpdmtp.inf

and edit this:

[Generic.NTx86]
%GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTP

to append the line that makes this device a target of this inf.

[Generic.NTx86]
%GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTP
%GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE2&MI_00

(At first, I was not sure what the &MI=0 does, so I just left it unmodified).  At this point, the ‘Found New Hardware Wizard’ using Automatic settings will install it, and then you can copy files to and from the device’s Internal Storage.  An additional step is needed to set up for Android debugging (see below).

I’ve had to edit the .INF before (for other devices) to add new lines to use the same drivers when the PCI Device ID, Subsystem Vendor ID, Subsystem Device ID, etc. change.

Thanks to the post here for sending me in the right direction: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/andreasliebigapps/FERbuAQfTnk

Update on 12/18:

I noticed my Nexus 7 was still showing up with a yellow ! under Other in Device Manager, and I couldn’t see it when I ran “adb devices” from the command line, which is necessary to develop Android apps.  The driver installation dialog was still coming up when I plugged it in, so I investigated this further.

“&MI_” was referring to ‘Matching Device ID’ which you can see in Device Manager (Properties, Details tab).

The missing driver was for the Android Composite ADB Interface.  The driver zip has been removed from the Asus site, so I had to get it elsewhere (from the ASUS Nexus 7 Tablet ADB USB Driver 6.0 download page).

Later, I found this Google link, but didn’t try it: http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#top

The Google version (in source.catalog) is Rev. 8; the other one is Rev. 6, but they are binary exact  driver files (only the date changed), with the only exception being the .inf and .cat files (which as I understand it, specify new compatible devices).

Again, the .inf needed to first be edited to include this new device’s Device ID.  In the file android_winusb.inf, add one line to the end of the [Google.NTx86] section, which pertains to 32-bit XP, for this Nexus 7:

;Google Nexus 7
%SingleBootLoaderInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E40
%SingleAdbInterface%        = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E41
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E42
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E42&MI_01
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E44&MI_01
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE2&MI_01

I am only installing XP 32-bit drivers (x86) and not 64-bit, so I did not modify the following section at all, although the general concept is the same.

[Google.NTamd64]

Prior to doing this, my Nexus 7 was in Device Manager (Other) with a yellow !

Now it correctly appears as a Nexus 7 under Portable Devices, and also under Android Phone, as Android Composite ADB Interface. (Android Debug Bridge).  Here’s a screenshot.

I didn’t try connecting to the device in recovery mode yet.  The following article describes that it may be necessary to add yet another entry in the .inf to load the driver for the device in recovery mode:
http://blog.dantup.com/2012/10/fixing-adb-device-not-found-with-nexus-7-in-recovery-mode/

Another update (01/14/15):
I’ve recently switched to Android Studio for app development, which I’m running on Windows 7.  Again, to use the Nexus 7 (2013) as a debug target, it was necessary to modify the wpdmtp.inf file as described above, and also the device driver for the Android Composite Interface.  The Google driver that comes with Android Studio worked for me; just browse to the driver from Device Manager to clear the yellow !, as described here:

http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/oem-usb.html#InstallingDriver

Last week, my dad was visiting and I almost gave him this monitor to take to electronics recycling, but thought I should see if it was worth anything on ebay first (which is always a good idea).  Seeing that it was, I listed it.

Here it is being tested on my old but still-working 386-40 (with Micropolis ESDI drives!)

In two days, someone did ‘buy it now’… for $388!
Makes me wish I would have kept more of them.

I used these in the 90s to debug VGA graphics chips and DVD boards, and to debug video drivers when it was the only way to have two video adapters in the same computer.

12/12/13.   I worked for hours to set up a system to test this.  The post office destroyed it.  It was protected with me for 14 years here and didn’t make it 100 miles to New Jersey.  I didn’t make $350.  I lost $32 in mailing and this lovely thing is gone.
Devastated.

This should have been a museum piece.

Why is it every time I spend four hours to give some treasured piece a good home, it’s just destroyed?   Buyer and seller, get nothing.  WTF.

This should not be so difficult:

ls -ald */

barry1:/srv/www/htdocs2/xblkx # ls -ald */
drwxr-xr-x 7 blk root 4096 2010-12-01 00:29 wp-admin/
drwxr-xr-x 5 blk root 4096 2013-11-03 21:01 wp-content/
drwxr-xr-x 7 blk root 4096 2010-11-30 22:26 wp-includes/

This is mostly a note to myself about how to do that, so I don’t forget.

http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/19141/
http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/taxonomy/term/1/0?page=9
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount/USB
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/en/man8/fdisk.8.html
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man1/dd.1.html
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/2-methods-to-clone-your-linux-hard-drive/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
http://www.switchroot.com/how-to-recover-deleted-files-with-scalpel-ubuntu

I thought I had started a list of links and software I like, but I can’t find it, so I will put it here.

Links

WordPress theme selector: http://wordpress.org/themes/tag-filter/

PHPBB style selector: https://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?from=submenu

Free Software

One of my favorites is a software program called PDF Redirect, which lets you print out PDFs from any application.  It installs as a printer, and when you print to it, you get a PDF.  For free!

Atomic Clock Sync (set PC clock to time server): http://download.cnet.com/Atomic-Clock-Sync/3000-18512_4-14844.html

Speedfan (CPU voltage and temperature monitoring utility): http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Putty (SSH and telnet client): http://www.putty.org/ and WinSCP (SFTP and FTP client for Windows).

Firefox extensions and add-ons: FireFTP, FireSSH (caution: doesn’t work well with emacs), Download Helper,  SQLite Manager, Google/Yandex search link fix.

RealVNC (remote access client): http://www.realvnc.com/

VLC Media Player (player for video and audio files): http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html and FFDshow codec pack: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow/

To resize, crop, rotate, adjust image files: Faststone Photo Resizer (http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm)

For disk partitioning and data recovery, Mini Tool Partition Wizard (http://partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html) and Ubuntu Rescue Remix (http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/).

Music Tools

For ripping audio CDs to a lossless flac library, I recommend Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) and the scripting front end AutoFLAC (http://www.legroom.net/software/autoflac).  Once set up correctly to work together, you can go through a stack of CDs in a hurry.

Check your audio CDs for authenticity and discover which ones were created from MP3 files with True Audio’s Tau Analyzer.

For music file tag management for many file types, MP3Tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/) is indispensible.  I only rename my music files manually, but if you want to automate it, MP3 Tag&Rename is also useful.

For music file format conversions: Trader’s Little Helper (http://tlh.easytree.org/) is awesome.

I purchased AlbumPlayer (http://albumplayer.com/) jukebox software to play and manage my music library.  After trying out every program I can find, this is the best thing there is, and the support and license terms are excellent.  I’ve used this program almost every day for more than 5 years and it’s one of the best programs I’ve ever found.  It supports every audio and video format I tried, after installing BassAAC and BassALAC (http://www.un4seen.com/) (see also: AP forum topic).

Other computer resources

After dealing with an unbootable Windows 7 drive (a line of garbage displayed on the screen and then not booting), I discovered a Microsoft utility “bootrec“.
Executed “bootrec /fixmbr” and “bootrec /fixboot” from the command prompt, and this fixed the problem.  Startup Recovery did not detect any errors.

DOS from here with regedit:

use method #5 from http://www.petri.co.il/add_command_prompt_here_shortcut_to_windows_explorer.htm

Just received a terabyte drive from California, packed in a custom-sized box, with a foam block protecting the drive on the top, bottom, and THREE sides!! you have got to be kidding. wtf?

Needless to say, it doesn’t work. Beeps and clicks and you can’t even get into the system bios.

I am so busy, I have so much work I need to get done , lot of computer shit and that goddamn hard drive doesn’t work, fuck.  I am so screwed.  It’s a no returns ebay listing and I guarantee that hitachi will not replace an impact damaged drive because the seller didn’t pack it properly.  I feel another two-month long seller dispute brewing.  another $200 gone until then and I still don’t have the fucking drive.  I was up until almost 7am this morning again doing work and computer stuff, it’s like that almost every day, and each day the performance of the computers gets worse and worse with all these website add-ons like google instant, facebook chat and spell checkers and character counters, software updates, and ads pushed constantly.
Now my dad wants me to come visit sunday (which probably means sat. night late through sometime monday..) so i’m really feeling the time pressure.  if that’s not enough, the goddamn shower started leaking again (dripping).  I just fixed that damn thing last month and it took me almost two whole days, all day and six support calls.  I have no more parts so I had to call again today and order the parts (at least they’re free) and I *have* to fix it because if you don’t, the dripping water actually eats away the drain and it is almost impossible to fix.  The hot faucet in the kitchen sink also leaks water but only around the base of the handle when it’s on.  They sent me the parts for that too but I have no time to install them.  I don’t know what it is with me and water issues.  My house is only 13 years old and I have had nonstop problems with dripping faucets and at least seven *major* floods (with ceiling, floor, and/or furniture damage and even some of my posters and Blondie magazines).  Every time I hear water drip, I get like a cat that’s all poofed up!

—

I don’t know who is playing a part in the dumbing down of the world (or behind it) but I’m not buying any shares in that!

so so what
I am a rock star!
I got my rock moves!