Freeing Up Diskspace On Windows 7 For Your SDD

Disk space isn't really a problem anymore with cheap one terabyte hard drives commonplace. I have upgraded my computer to use a solid-state disk they are not cheap nor are they large, but a computer now loads at half the time.

Of course I also like games to load as fast as possible, so I put them all onto the solid-state drive. I filled up the 223 gigabytes in about a week. I couldn't be bothered to uninstall them and reinstall them all to my terabyte drive F.

It can be a bit of a pain to determine what is taking up space with Windows 7 so I download a program called Tree Size Free. There is a professional version that you can pay for but it is not needed.

This will scan your computer and show you what is taking up all the space. It was mostly videos and pictures. I moved all these files to my F drive, but my F drive has quite a lot of directories and it can be a pain to find the video or picture I want. Windows 7 has this library function. With documents, pictures, music and videos all having their own libraries. I thought this was a waste of time where I first saw it, but it can save you time.

Click computer, this will bring up a window to the left see libraries click videos. Where it says video library at the top, underneath you'll see a link includes 1 location, click on 1 location. This brings up the change how your library gathers its contents window. On the right you will see add and delete buttons, click add, browse to your movie folder - can be on any drive - click include folder. Now your video folder is three clicks away. All the other libraries work in a similar manner.

So now I have enough space to install Bioshock Infinite - no I don't. I see these two files taking up huge amounts of space on my C drive hiberfil.sys. This important sounding file was 6 GB. Hiberfil.sys is used by the hibernate function to take a snapshot of all the data that is in your RAM at the time your computer goes into hibernation. It is always the same size as your RAM.

If like me you never use the hibernate function it can be removed using an overcomplicated process. Click Start open the Control Panel, if your Control Panel items are categorised click System and security then click Power options, otherwise just click Power options. This has a number of preferred plans. Next to whatever plan you use is a link change plan setting – click it. There are two drop-down boxes at the bottom are two links, click the one that says Change advanced power settings. Click the plus button next to sleep, click allow hybrid sleep, click on and select off. Click apply then ok. The hiberfil.sys file should have disappeared.

You can also go to the command line and type “powercfg.exe -h off” (without quotes). The command line window can be found by clicking Start, All programs, Accessories, Command prompt or by typing cmd into the start menu search bar.

I saw that the Windows directory was also taking up a lot of space particularly one directory called winsxs. I clicked on this directory and it looked like it was full of a lot of junk. There is a way to greatly reduce the size of this directory. Winsxs stores all the backup files from when service packs are installed.

Go to the command line and type “dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded /hidesp” . Running this greatly reduced the size of my winsxs directory.

This works fine on my computer, but in my experience Windows machines can be a bit flaky. Something that works fine on one machine can seriously screw with another - so follow this at your own risk.

Bioshock Infinite is a great game by the way.

TED - 10 Top Tech Tips

TED is one of my favorite websites it always has something cool / educational / funny / exciting or all of the above to watch. In top 10 time-saving the tech tips David Pogue shares with us some things that we all should know. I am ashamed to say there are some that even I didn't know - how do you learn if nobody tells you? That's my excuse anyway.

If you have never been to TED have a look around. There is lots of great stuff on the site with talks ranging from education, science, technology, design, economics and almost everything else. What you won't find are talks promoting pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, religious zealotry or “new age fluff”. TED is a way to share good ideas with potentially millions of people.

In Defence of the Desktop Computer

I believe the invention of the desktop computer to be one of the greatest things to happen last century. Of course it was miniaturisation that allowed for computers small enough to fit on a desk. This meant that everyone who could afford a computer could have one.

Over the years they have become an amazing multimedia platform. The sum total of humanity's knowledge is now at your fingertips. The number of things desktop computers can do is so limitless I couldn't hope to list them all here.

Now that same miniaturisation has created incredibly powerful handheld computers the mobile phone and the tablet PC. Some media commentators have been so bold as to label the desktop computer as obsolete.

Despite what some people say the desktop is not obsolete nor is it an endangered species. I do not believe it will be an endangered species for many many years. The mobile phone or the tablet will never replace the desktop computer - simply because they can't. Mobile phones are too small - creating anything larger than a text message will lead to sore thumbs. Trying to type on a tablet faces similar difficulties. Even laptops can be difficult to use over long periods of time. The best computing experience comes from sitting in front of a desktop computer. I can't imagine playing the game Bioshock Infinite on anything other than my desktop PC. The large high-resolution screen and the mouse are a must with some games. Game consoles come a close second in my opinion.

Some people plug their laptops into external screens, mouses and keyboards. You are also starting to see mobile phones and tablets that do a similar thing. I believe this will be the future with your everyday device transforming into a desktop.

I also believe the desktop computer we know and love will exist for many years. The PC is endlessly modifiable and upgradeable. It is great being able to insert extra hard disks or a new graphics card when something faster or better becomes available.

Announcing the death or obsolescence of the desktop PC flies in the face of technological history. The car did not result in the extinction of the horse. The phone did not replace the letter (although e-mail did). Video did not kill the radio or the movie cinema.

This is because they are different, if related, technologies. Mobile phones make great phones, are great to play small games on or take photos quickly and they fit in your pocket. Tablets are great for surfing the Internet or for reading while curled up on a beanbag. But if you want to do some serious computing don't go past the desktop computer.

pcDuino Mini PC + Arduino

A few guys on the hacker space forum were talking about the pcDuino, I had never heard of it so I looked it up. A pcDuino, surprise surprise, is the bastard child of a PC and an Arduino. Its a mini PC that runs Ubuntu linux or Android. It has 2 usb ports, ethernet port, HDMI and has the same pin arrangement as an Arduino making it compatible with Arduino shields. Looks very fun to play around with.

Learning ROS (Robot Operating System)

I am currently learning ROS (robot operating system) which is an open source system for autonomous robots.  It is a collection of device drivers, libraries, and programs designed to make sophisticated robotics accessible to anyone. 

ROS runs on Ubuntu Linux, so I downloaded the Ubuntu Windows installer which sets up a dual boot.  I originally downloaded Ubuntu 12.10 which, when I tried to install ROS it would not install. So I tried an old version of Ubuntu 10 it worked but was buggy as hell, so I eventually installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long term support) ROS installed and everything worked perfectly. 

It was a bit weird at first trying to learn ROS and Linux terminal commands but Linux was surprisingly straightforward. 

The ROS website has tutorials on how to install and set up your environment.  The ROS wiki has 20 beginner level tutorials which teach you how to use ROS. I had to do some of the tutorials a few times to get the hang of it, also to learn a bit about how Linux works on the command line. Adding this line "source /opt/ros/fuerte/setup.bash" to your ~/.bashrc helped me a lot i.e. "sudo gedit ~/.bashrc".

After doing a few of the beginner's tutorials I decided to try out some of the visualisation tools in ROS i.e. openni_launch with RVis. So I bought myself a Microsoft Kinect from Dick Smith.  It took a bit of fiddling but I got it working in a few hours.  The results were pretty awesome, the image below is the result, it is a combination image between the camera and the laser rangefinder on the Kinect. With this, ROS is able to build a map of the environment allowing the robot to navigate autonomously. 

I've only been playing with ROS for a week and a half  and I've made a lot of progress so far.  I'll let you all know how I go over the next few weeks.

3D Printer Filament

A few weeks ago we ran out of 3D printer filament for the Ultimaker after Nick printed a large bust of Admiral Ackbar - the print failed. (Plastic filament is what most 3D printers use to print objects.)

So we ordered some more from OZ RepRap Supplies. It's a 2.3 kg roll of blue. It took a week and a bit to arrive, but the quality is great. With the old grey filament that came with the printer, every second print was a failure. We haven't had a single failure with this stuff.

The next project is a desktop trebuchet! I'm thinking of building a competing design and we can have a war.

My Page Turner

I noticed that Nick has been a bit lazy when it comes to his blog, so I've decided to do a few posts of my own.

A few months ago I discovered Google play and I have been reading book after book in my web browser. This works just fine when I am at my computer as I just use the mouse to flick the pages. Like many people I use my computer as a media centre and I have the TV above my bed connected to the computer as a second monitor. I watch movies YouTube and ABC IView.

I can also read books on the computer as I lay in bed, but turning the pages is a real problem. My muscular dystrophy makes it difficult to use the keyboard to press the right or left arrow key. So I was asking my carer and anybody else turn the page by pressing the right arrow key.

It was actually my mother who said to my brother, "Why can't you use that Arduino stuff you fiddle around with to make a page turner for your brother?"

Nick's idea was to use two Arduinos a 433 mhz transmitter and a receiver shield. One Arduino and  the transmitter would be in a separate box powered by a 9 V battery and attached to a button. (It is not in a box yet.) Its a Freetronics Eleven.

The Freetronics Eleven with button and battery.

 The code for this bit:

#include <VirtualWire.h>

char Istr[6];

void setup()
{
pinMode(13,OUTPUT);

pinMode(3,INPUT); // Input pin for the microswitch
digitalWrite(3,HIGH); // Set input pin high

// Initialise the IO and ISR
vw_set_ptt_inverted(true); // Required for DR3100
vw_setup(4000); // Bits per sec
vw_set_tx_pin(8);

}


void loop()
{
const char *msg = "h"; // Send 'h' if the switch is open
const char *msg2 = "f"; // send 'f' if the switch is closed

// is the microswitch open or closed
if (digitalRead(3)==HIGH){

digitalWrite(13,HIGH);
// Send 'h' if the switch is open
vw_send((uint8_t *)msg, strlen(msg));
vw_wait_tx(); // Wait until the whole message is gone
}else{
digitalWrite(13,LOW);
// send 'f' if the switch is closed
vw_send((uint8_t *)msg2, strlen(msg2));
vw_wait_tx(); // Wait until the whole message is gone
}
}

The other Arduino would have a receiver shield and be attached to the computer. We got this working, but interpreting signals from the serial port was tricky. We needed to rely on another piece of software on the computer to do this. We decided an easier solution was to get an Arduino Leonardo. A Leonardo can mimic the signals from a keyboard or a mouse, you just plug it in and it works (provided it has the correct software on board).

Arduino Leonardo Attached to receiver shield.

Code for the Leonardo:

#include <VirtualWire.h>

char Istr[6];
int timer1;
int timer2;
int a;

void setup()
{

timer1 = millis();
a = 0;

pinMode(13,OUTPUT);

Keyboard.begin();
// Initialise the IO and ISR
vw_set_ptt_inverted(true); // Required for DR3100
vw_setup(4000); // Bits per sec
vw_set_rx_pin(8);

vw_rx_start(); // Start the receiver PLL running
delay(1500);

}


void loop()
{
timer1 = millis();

uint8_t userInput[VW_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN];
uint8_t buflen = VW_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN;

// mmessage gets the virtual wire message
vw_get_message(userInput, &buflen);

char test1 = userInput[0];

if ((test1=='f')&&(a == 0)){
// Flashes pin 13 LED
digitalWrite(13,HIGH);
// Press right arrow key
//Keyboard.write(37);
Keyboard.write(KEY_RIGHT_ARROW);
timer2 = millis();
a = 1;
}else{
digitalWrite(13,LOW);
}

if((timer2+700)<timer1){

a = 0;

}
}

The Leonardo is a great piece of hardware as it just plugs straight into your computer and just works. It literally took Nick only a bit of code writing to get it working. There are a huge number of things we can use this for. We could use it to make a button box that would allow disabled people that can't use a keyboard to play games that require lots of keys to be pressed. There are devices out there that do this, but they can be expensive and the software can be a bit flaky.

There is also huge scope for pranks with this device. Set it up to press the enter key and then the next time someone comes to write an e-mail...

Hopefully it won't be too long until my next post. Nick has done a lot on his robot, but failed to tell his blog about it.