How To Stop Constant Windows Updates (Windows 10 and 11)
I'm sure that anyone using Windows 10 or 11 is tired of the constant "forced" updates.
You might have something open in a word processor, or maybe you're even testing something for work. The updates that are pushed are a problem -- because you can't be sure that your computer isn't going to be restarted when you're not looking.
For me, it reminds me of pausing a game on the Nintendo Game Console from the 1980s. Sure you can pause it, and go back to it the next day (for games that have no save feature or codes) but is the machine actually going to work the next day? Well, I'm sure anyone who has play Nintendo back in those days remembers, normally the console is frozen the next day.
Micro$oft Windows should (definitely by now) be more reliable than a 1980s Nintendo Game Console. But alas, because of constant updates -- it's really not.
However, there is a work-around, but it requires that the user have a Windows 10 or 11 Pro or Enterprise installation. If you don't have a Windows 10 or 11 Pro or Enterprise installation, you won't be able to make the necessary settings changes.
I'll have to do another post on how to enable Group Policy settings on Windows Home installations. I have seen the instructions to do it, but I've never personally implemented them because I've always run Pro versions of Windows since the XP days.
You'll have to open the Group Policy Editor, in order to do this, open a Windows run dialog by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard, then typing "gpedit." The group policy editor should show up.
I'll illustrate how to stop the automatic updates here:
Then there's this:
You might notice where I have a comment of just "y" in the Group Policy Editor. I did this so that when I make changes, I can easily find the objects I have changed. In the Group Policy Editor, you can sort by comment "yes" or "no." This makes it easy to go back to objects I have changed in the past.
With these two settings configured, your machine will auto download updates, but will not auto install them. Furthermore if the updates are installed, the machine will not auto restart, a user will have to allow it to restart.
The only reason I allow for the auto downloading of updates is because there were issues in the past when Windows would go too long without downloading updates. There sometimes could become corruption of the files that are used in the updates. So, I allowed them to be downloaded, only because there would be a running history of whatever updates should be done, stopping the Windows Installer from going wonky.
If you implement these changes, you'll still be nagged by Windows, but you will not be forced to update, and your machine will not restart on its own.
Give it a try and tell me what you think.
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Fixing Your Mouse Sensitivity in Linux
I'm sure that this isn't a particularly interesting subject, but if you've used Linux as a desktop OS you might just be interested.
I've become more and more annoyed by Micro$oft as the years have gone by.
That being said, Linux is the obvious choice. Linux has come so far in recent years that it rivals any paid-for operating system -- even for novice users. Linux is stable and runs the same software (for the most part) that you might run on a Windows or a Mac machine.
I'm writing this post on a Toshiba laptop running MX Linux, It was given to me by a relative. It originally had Windows 7 on it. I put 16 gigs of RAM in this machine for $18 after tax. The only downside was that it had a mechanical hard drive, not an SSD, but I fixed that.
I installed MX Linux 23.4 and began setting things up.
I love the OS, it's snappy and things work well. Most of the software I use is preinstalled as part of the standard package.
The only downside was the mouse sensitivity. I'm running the vanilla XFCE version, which allows for lots of configurable options, themes, and tweaks to the GUI to make things look and feel the way you would like them. However, when I plugged in my Logitech M17c wireless mouse, things got squirrelly. So I went to adjust the mouse settings and go about my business, but something was missing!
Notice there is acceleration and sensitivity.
Here's what I saw.
There is no sensitivity. These newer mice all have really high DPI so their sensitivity is insane. That's why mouse pads are now made of super smooth cloth-type material.
Without a sensitivity setting, there was no way to tamp down the overly sensitive mouse. Highlighting things was a nightmare, because 1/16th of an inch of movement was equal to 7 characters of a size 12 font!
After searching for quite some time about how to change the mouse sensitivity I found that the driver used by XFCE had changed, the current one lists different properties than the older one did. It's not that things can't be adjusted, they just have to be adjusted a different way.
More searching revealed that not many people knew how to adjust the mouse sensitivity. Normally with anything Linux related you can find where people have run into and solved the vast majority of issues you might run into. But not this time.
There are commands you can issue that will show what the mouse settings are, but first you have to find out which device it's listed as.
$ xinput -list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ TOSHIBA Web Camera - HD: TOSHIB id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ ACPI Virtual Keyboard Device id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Logitech Wireless Mouse id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
Now that you know the device ID you can issue another command to show the properties for that device ID, the Logitech mouse:
$ xinput -list-props 13 Device 'Logitech Wireless Mouse': Device Enabled (177): 1 Coordinate Transformation Matrix (179): 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (323): 0 libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (324): 0 libinput Scroll Methods Available (327): 0, 0, 1 libinput Scroll Method Enabled (328): 0, 0, 0 libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (329): 0, 0, 0 libinput Button Scrolling Button (665): 2 libinput Button Scrolling Button Default (666): 2 libinput Button Scrolling Button Lock Enabled (667): 0 libinput Button Scrolling Button Lock Enabled Default (668): 0 libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (333): 0 libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (334): 0 libinput Accel Speed (335): 0.440000 libinput Accel Speed Default (336): 0.000000 libinput Accel Profiles Available (337): 1, 1 libinput Accel Profile Enabled (338): 1, 0 libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (339): 1, 0 libinput Left Handed Enabled (340): 0 libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (341): 0 libinput Send Events Modes Available (300): 1, 0 libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (301): 0, 0 libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (302): 0, 0 Device Node (303): "/dev/input/event14" Device Product ID (304): 1133, 16468 libinput Drag Lock Buttons (342):libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled (343): 1 libinput Scrolling Pixel Distance (344): 15 libinput Scrolling Pixel Distance Default (345): 15 libinput High Resolution Wheel Scroll Enabled (346): 1
However, there is no sensitivity setting listed -- only acceleration. This is why it didn't show up under the mouse settings.
The question then becomes, "Is this the result of using a Logitech mouse, or is this a just the way that the XFCE driver works?" It appears that it's at the driver level. I tried multiple different mice, and none of them show properties for sensitivity.
Some versions of Linux use the "evdev" kernel-level driver and others use "libinput" the xorg-driver. That's where the difference is. Apparently the libinput driver is better suited for touch pads from what I've read.
Wanting to modify the OS as little as possible, I looked for some way to adjust the mouse sensitivity natively. Again this was a long and exhaustive search. Eventually I started poking around on my own.
I decided to change the Coordinate Transformation Matrix values. They appear in (3) groups of (3) numbers.
The first two groups of 3 represent the (x) and (y) coordinates, the last value of 1.000000 needs to be left unchanged, if it is changed to anything other than "1" none of the other changes will take effect. I started by changing all of values of 1.000000 to 5.000000, and nothing changed at all. So then I tried changing them to fractional values, this also resulted in no change. Lastly, I tried changing just the first two from 1 to 5 -- that made the mouse nearly useless it was so sensitive. But there was a change. Next I tried with fractional values and found that the sensitivity was reduced. After messing around with the sensitivity and acceleration I found what worked best with my wireless mouse.
Here's what the optimal settings look like.
$ xinput -list-props 13 Device 'Logitech Wireless Mouse': Device Enabled (177): 1 Coordinate Transformation Matrix (179): 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
The downside is that if I unplug the mouse, or reboot the computer the defaults return. I'm sure there is a way to make the changes persistent, but I wasn't sure what might happen if I use a different mouse at some point. So I decided to write a simple shell script and place it on the desktop so I can double click it and put the mouse settings to where I want them.
#!/bin/sh # This will set the mouse properties for a Logitech M317 wireless mouse. # The default sensitivity is too high. #Mouse Sensitivity xinput --set-prop 13 179 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.370000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 #Mouse Acceleration xinput --set-prop 13 335 0.500000 exit 0
For now this will suffice. I don't change the mouse that often, and I usually suspend this computer when I'm not using it, so I don't have to change the settings frequently enough to worry about it.
I read many articles where people were searching for a way to adjust the mouse sensitivity -- and that was the only reason that they weren't using Linux as their primary operating system. Maybe this can help someone to make the switch!
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Are Polls Really Believable?
10/21/24 18:02, by OGRE / (Jeff), Categories: News, Background, In real life, On the web, History, Politics 
Polls come out all the time. Trump is up, Kamala is down, it’s all over the place.
Usually the differences can be explained, but sometimes it’s not so easy. Recent polls for North Carolina shows that Trump is ahead, but a democrat is leading in the race for governor.
There are plenty of reasons that this could happen, but how likely are they. For example, let’s assume that the republican candidate for governor is not very well liked, it’s possible that someone could vote for a democrat governor, and a republican presidential candidate — but how realistic is that? It’s hard to say.
Most polls are, “within the margin of error.” The question then becomes, “How many democrat voters are going to vote for Trump?”
That’s why AZ was so sketchy in 2022. The republican state treasurer received more votes than either of the two gubernatorial candidates?
That’s a pretty big difference. Who shows up to the polls for the state treasurer’s race?
Did any polls predicted that outcome? None that I can find. But they might be out there.
What do you think?
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Vaccine Excipient Summary Where Art Thou
08/07/24 21:20, by OGRE / (Jeff), Categories: Welcome, News, Background, In real life, On the web, Politics, Health Care, Strange_News Unless you work in the pharma industry, you've probably never heard of the term "excipient."
Excipient is a substance formulated alongside the active ingredient of a medication.
This can include any number of things from fillers, to adjuvants in vaccines, or preservatives. Basically anything that is part of the product, outside of the active ingredient, however; it can also be something that works to enhance the active ingredient.
The reason I bring this up is because of a post from Ann Tomoko Rosen on her Substack On Second Thought. She mentioned in a recent post "Why is the CDC deleting its list of vaccine ingredients."
As far back as at leas 2007, the CDC website had a directly linkable PDF, so people could go lookup what ingredients were in various vaccines that they, or their children, might be required to take. But that link has been removed.
A search with DuckDuckGo still shows the direct link to the PDF, which is now gone.
There is a link to the list on Wikipedia for vaccine excipients, but the Wikipedia article's "factual accuracy is disputed." These notes are from 2011 and 2020. Apparently nobody has been able to update it since then? Also, the CDC (the official source) is actively removing the sources for in-line links -- right now. Someone will have to update the article and provide a link for each of the vaccines in the summary -- one-by-one -- then hope the FDA doesn't move them the next day.
Searching with Google doesn't even get you very far either. Keep in mind that we're looking for "official" sources.
There are links to other resources, but those are not "official" government sites. Neither search engine gets you to the FDA website where the data actually is.
The timeframe in which the CDC removed it's link to the Vaccine Excipient Summary is rather suspicious.
October 25, 2007 is as far back as the Internet Archive goes back for that particular CDC file link.
But something happened in July of this year. Trump called RFK Jr. and talked with him about the child vaccine schedule. The call was very quickly leaked on X/Twitter. And then it was quickly deleted.
On Tuesday, the younger Kennedy — an actor — posted then quickly deleted a video of his father speaking on the phone with former President Donald Trump.
“I am a firm believer that these sorts of conversations should be had in public. Here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids this was the day after the assassination attempt,” Kennedy III wrote in the now deleted X — formerly Twitter — post, which he claimed he removed “for mistaking sarcasm for real life.”
...
In their conversation, Trump riffs at length on his concerns about vaccines — a pet issue for Kennedy, a longtime vaccine conspiracy theorist — discusses his brush with death at a weekend rally in Pennsylvania, and seemingly offers Kennedy a position in his administration.
“Anyway, I would love for you to serve,” Trump tells Kennedy. “I think it would be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re gonna win — we’re gonna win — we’re way ahead of the guy.”
“I agree with you, man,” Trump says. “Something’s wrong with that whole system, and it’s the doctors you find.”
“Remember I said I want to do small doses. Small doses,” the former president added. “When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a, you know, 10-pound or 20-pound baby.”
This phone call took place on July 14th the day after the Trump assassination attempt. July 14th also happens to be the last day that the CDC website hosted the link to the Vaccine Excipient Summary on their website. But I'm sure it's a coincidence.
Here's a copy of the last version of the file that I could find. I'll also put a list of files at the end of this post as well.
The question then becomes, "Where can I find the data now?" Well, it's still out there, just not in the same places, and not one click away.
As Ann pointed out, the CDC now directs you to the FDA website. You have to scroll way down to just above the footnotes to find this part.
Once on the FDA website, you can locate where they list all of the FDA approved vaccines. You can then click on each one of them and find the package inserts.
I found one more place that has information that might be considered "official," it was on a web page hosted by the Institute for Vaccine Safety, part of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health It is a joint effort by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The data is still out there, but it's not going to be as easy to find. And they will likely keep it moving, making it harder to reference. That's why I dropped those files at the end of this post.
Not a very good look for the CDC with regard to "transparency."
What do you think?
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Automatic Toilet Bowl Chlorinator, Not Flush 'n Sparkle ®
07/27/24 14:45, by OGRE / (Jeff), Categories: Welcome, Background, Fun, In real life, On the web, History When it comes to toilets, nobody likes cleaning them, or at least they shouldn't.
Many years ago I saw a product in the hardware store that caught my eye. It was called Flush 'n Sparkle, made by FluidMaster. It's a device for putting chlorine directly into the toilet bowl through the tank overflow pipe, which drains directly into the bowl. Here's a diagram below.
I bought two of them probably 15 years ago, but they stayed in the house we were renting. I bought them again once we purchased the house we're living in now. I used them for a number of years, but the enclosures became degraded because of the chlorine. The refill cartridges are rather expensive at $8 - $15 for a two pack. Of course they claim that you might need to replace them every 3-months, but that's not the case in my house. With (4) of us using the bathrooms throughout the day, 3-months was not realistic, they were gone long before that.
I decided to make the cartridges refillable. So I took my pocket knife and pried on the bottom of the cartridge until I was able to get it open. Then I went around the bottom part and shaved off the lip, so I could open it easier the next time.
The cartridges come with two tablets that are a around 3/4 of an inch in diameter. I went to the hardware store, and found chlorine tablets that were 3/4" and popped them in.
I woke up, went to use the bathroom, and was almost knocked down by the smell of chlorine gas. I told my wife, "I have to get those chlorine tablets out, before we all die from chlorine gas inhalation. We'll all be dead, but we'll have the cleanest toilets in town!"
I thought that the FluidMaster cartridges had chlorine tablets in them -- only they're not chlorine tablets -- they're really brominating tablets. They're what you would use in a hot tub. They dissolve much more slowly than chlorine tablets, and give off much less odor. That's why they used them.
I was only able to buy the brominating tablets in a 1-inch size. A large container of brominating tablets was around $15 at the hardware store. That would literally last me a few years!
I used a hammer and a screwdriver to break them in half, then they would fit in the cartridge. I could pop in the brominating tablet pieces, reinstall the cartridges and be good for another few months. Problem solved. Or so I thought. After a few years, O-ring at the top of the cartridge would rot, and require replacement, but in order to make sure that it would last, I would have to use Viton O-rings. I could get those rather cheap, but then the housing started to degrade as well.
I figured no worries, I'll head up to the hardware store and buy a few new kits, and be on my way. But they don't carry them anymore. They still have the refill cartridges, but none of the kits.
Next it was off to Amazon to see what they had. They also don't have any of the kits available!
Time to make my own
No worries, I'll make my own, only I'll do it without any O-rings! Well, I did, and so far, so good. Here's my design.
First I looked at PVC pipe sizes and determined the smallest diameter I could use, which would still fit the 1-inch tablets. That was 1 1/4" Schedule 40 PVC pipe, I only needed a piece about 3-inches long, so I bought a scrap piece from the hardware store. Here's what I came up with.
I needed to make it so that water could flow from one side to the other, passing over the brominating tablets along the way. Using 1 1/4" PVC meant that adapting down to a size that would work with standard toilet tubing (around 5/16") would be an issue.
But then, I thought about how weed eaters/string trimmers have fuel lines that just pass through the tank. The tubing is slightly squeezed by the tank, forming a "good enough" seal. I figured that it might work for this as well.
I used 1/4" tubing because it seems to be the right size for most newer toilets. Normally the tubing is around 5/16" which causes a lot of water waste. They started selling adjustable fill valves for toilets, and tubing clamps, because the old valves would dump a lot of water down the drain -- instead of filling the toilet tank. using a 1/4" tube allows for plenty of water to fill the bowl, without wasting a bunch of water.
I drilled a hole slightly smaller than 1/4" in the outlet cap. I went very slow to make sure that it didn't heat up the PVC, and didn't leave a scored edge wall, to make a smooth sealing edge for my tubing. Using a deburring tool, I cleaned the edges where I drilled, but was careful only to deburr, and leave a very slight beveled edge.
I pushed the tubing through the end cap. Then cut a small plastic barbed coupling in half each half. Putting one piece in the tubing on the side under the cap. This would allow for the tubing to be secure, and not get pulled or pushed out.
Originally I wanted to make it without glued parts, but I found out quickly that it wouldn't work well. I was able to push the ends on by hand and pull a vacuum on the assembly and it would hold. However, when I put it in the tank, it would leak a little from one side where the cap was pushed on. Also, if you pushed them on too tightly, you couldn't get them off without plier. So, I decided to glue one end on, and make the other end with a screw on cap instead.
I drilled a hole in the screw-on end, like I did for the outlet cap, then pushed the tubing through the hole, then installed a barb fitting in each end. This is the inlet side, so there needs to be a place to couple it to the existing toilet tubing.
I needed something to make sure that the brominating tablets didn't go all the way to the end of the assembly, and plug the outlet hole, so I decided to use a smaller 3/4" PVC threaded endcap and cut V grooves into it so the water could get around.
Here's how it fits into the assembly. This is the outlet cap, with the tubing and barbed fitting at the end of the pipe.
Water can get around the cap, but it will stop the tablets from butting up against the outlet tube.
I glued the outlet cap onto the 1 1/4" pipe, and glued the threaded fitting to the other side, making sure not to get PVC glue on the threaded part.
Here's what you end up with.
Note: I did use Teflon tape on the threads because with the PVC threaded parts are often poorly made. Use a lot, because it needs to be sealed well enough, but also be where you can open it again by hand.
This shows the direction of water flow.
In order to suspend the assembly above the water line, I used a plastic door hook, like this. You can find these on Amazon for about $8.
I just drilled two holes in it so I could put a zip-tie around the assembly, then hand it from the side of the toilet tank. Here's what it looks like installed.
If you notice in the picture, I used a 90º elbow at the outlet side. That's before I knew that I needed to have the outlet tubing go below the water line. If you look at the first image, the FluidMaster diagram, you can see that their device is made to force the outlet tube below the waterline.
I could have made it with only one coupling to connect to the inlet, and used the vinyl tubing the entire rest of the way as shown below. Just make it around 2-feet long, and make a big loop with it. making sure that it goes below the water line.
One last bit of information. Make sure that outlet tube goes into the overflow tube and stops right at the water line. If you go too low, it will siphon. If you go too high, it will draw air in to the outlet tube back to where it meets the water line. It won't hurt anything, but it might make a noise when water rushed through it.
All of the parts I used you can find at an ACE Hardware, except for the brass barb fittings. I only have these because of a building controls retrofit I did many years ago. But you can use the plastic barb fittings they have at ACE. They have 3/16" barb fittings which will work for the 1/4" OD vinyl tubing.
Did I save any money with this? Probably not, but that wasn't really my goal. I just wanted to have my automatic toilet bowl cleaners back!
I hope you liked this project.
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