Strav's blog

Given the vast number of accounts I have on various systems, I've needed a password manager for many years.  I've used PHPchain for quite a while and overall, it's been decent, however, it doesn't lend itself well to mobile devices and if my website is down for any reason, I'm out of luck.  I've used KeePass at work for a while, but there wasn't a web based version I was comfortable with.  I did recently find some documentation on how to set up KeePass clients Windows/Linux (KeePassXC), Android (KeePass2Android), and iPhone (Strongbox), using cloud storage to host the password database file.  This allows me to use the cross platform clients to access the password file locate on the cloud storage site and have a nice interface across all devices.  Below are various links I used to set this up.

Pairing this with DriveHQ as the storage location for the KeePass Database is the current recommendation.

KeePass Downloads
KeePassXC
KeePass Review
KeePass2Android Review
A Guide to Setting up KeePass Password Manager
How to Use KeePass In Your Browser, Across Your Computers, and On Your Phone
Extension to allow Chrome and Firefox (4.0+) to auto form-fill passwords from KeePass
Sync KeePass to Android with Keepass2Android

The ABSOLUTE WORST part of Windows 10 is that the non-enterprise versions will automatically reboot to apply updates.  I've lost countless hours of work and research due to this 'feature'.  While I can understand the reason for it, I felt that the Windows 7 alternative of downloading updates but letting *ME* choose when to apply them was reasonable.  Having my OS reboot in the middle of the night when I haven't necessarily saved my browser tabs, documents, programs, code in progress, notes, work in terminal windows on other systems, etc. has got to be the absolute stupidest 'feature' ever shoved into an OS.  The best way I've found to get around this is to use a program that continually changes the "active hours" time slot so windows always thinks that the computer is active.

Windows 10 Reboot Blocker

BSplayer is my media player of choice.  I generally do not like to have file history turned on but even when turned off, BSplayer still remembers the last file played.  It doesn't show a list of history items but starting the player and hitting the 'play' button does start playing the last viewed file.  The reason for this is BSplayer creates a playlist file which is different from the history file.  Unfortunately, BSplayer doesn't have any option not to create this file.  In order to prevent this file from being created and truly disabling history, navigate to the "c:\users\#username#\AppData\Roaming\BSplayer PRO" folder, delete the existing bsplist.bsl file and create a new, 0 byte bsplist.bsl file, setting the permissions to read only.  This will prevent bsplayer from creating/modifying the file as you play media in the future.

Remembering last played file

Preview of pdf files from an explorer type program has been on my wishlist for many many years.  While I've been a licensed user of XYplorer for a while, I just found an article on how to set up exactly that.

XYplorer does not preview PDFs. What can I do about that?
PDF-XChange Viewer

I've been after a spot welder for a while now so I can use it to affordably rebuild battery packs - in particular for my DeWalt 18v tools. I had intended on building a Microwave Oven Transformer spot welder but I stumbled upon this quite affordable one from Malectrics which suits my needs.

ARDUINO SPOT WELDER QUICK START GUIDE V3
DIY ARDUINO SPOT WELDER SUPPORT