Masking the Windows recovery partition drive letter

Once in a while, things go awry in Windows for no apparent reason.
What happened to me today was that the recovery partition started showing up as a drive letter in my system. Unfortunately, that drive letter cannot be removed through the GUI in "Disk management" in control panel. The only way is to go to a command line and use DISKPART. Here is how.

1. Click the start menu
2. Type DISKPART
   
3. Type Ctrl + Shift + Enter to run as administrator
   
4. Type "LIST DISK"
   
5. Select the boot drive, usually disk 0, by typing "SELECT DISK=0"
   
6. Now list the partitions on the drive, by typing "LIST PARTITION" .
   
7. Select the recovery partition from the list . On my system, this was number 4, so I typed "SELECT PARTITION=4"
   
8. List the partition details by typing "DETAIL PARTITION"
9. Note the drive letter . This was N: on my system. Type "REMOVE LETTER=N
10. You are done . Type "EXIT" to leave DISKPART

Here is the output of my actual session :

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14393.0

Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: HIGGS

DISKPART> LIST DISK

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          894 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online         3726 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 2    Online         3726 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 3    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 4    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 5    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 6    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 7    Online         5589 GB      0 B        *

DISKPART> SELECT DISK=0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> LIST PARTITION

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Reserved           128 MB    17 KB
  Partition 2    System             100 MB   129 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            893 GB   229 MB
  Partition 4    Recovery           562 MB   893 GB

DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION=4

Partition 4 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> DETAIL PARTITION

Partition 4
Type    : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden  : Yes
Required: No
Attrib  : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 959612715008

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
* Volume 7     N                NTFS   Partition    562 MB  Healthy    Hidden


DISKPART> REMOVE LETTER=N

DiskPart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> EXIT

Roland Fantom XR and UM-880 USB interfaces vs Windows 10 64-bit

Roland does not provide drivers for Windows 10 for the above devices. The Windows 8/8.1 drivers do not install properly under Windows 10 .

Some modifications can be made to the drivers to load them successfully. However, this will break the signature check in Windows 10. Thus, this signature check has to be disabled.

The following post explains how to modify the Roland drivers for Windows 10 :
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=55497

The following link explains how to disable signature check so you can install those drivers :
https://www.top-password.com/blog/how-to-disable-driver-signature-enforcement-in-windows-10-8-7/

Unfortunately, every time Microsoft posts a major update, such as the Creators update, unsigned drivers are disabled, and this entire process has to be repeated.

It would be simple for Roland to update and resign the drivers for Windows 10. Somehow, they don't care, because it won't sell them any more hardware. This is typical of hardware companies, and SAD !

Comkia (Central Computers) Mobi Vault H05 USB 3.1 SATA enclosure vs Toshiba N300 6TB SATA hard drive

This will be a short post. The above combination does not work, period. The enclosure isn't even recognized by the OS when plugged in to the machine. Apparently, this enclosure has a size limit, and 6TB is too much for it. I tried with some older model of USB 3.0 SATA enclosures by Comkia and they did not work either. So, buyer beware. My H05 is going back. I will be looking for another SATA USB 3.1 enclosure without a size limitation.

Intel Skylake and Z170 graphics : transitional technology. Skip it if you want 4K in your home theater PC

Intel released the Skylake CPUs in mid-2015, as well as the Z170 chipset to go along with it. These features 4K video capability, ie. 3840x2160 resolution at 60 Hz.

Unfortunately, 4K is only available on motherboards that feature a DisplayPort connector. The majority of Z170 motherboards don't feature a DisplayPort connector.

Furthermore, the majority of 4K TVs don't feature a DisplayPort connector either. Instead, they feature HDMI 2.0 connectors. Skylake only supports HDMI 1.4 . What this means is that you will only be able to get 4K resolution with the built-in Skylake graphics at 30 Hz on your TV, rather than 60 Hz.

What this means is that if you want to drive your HDMI 2.0 4K TV at 60 Hz, you will need a a separate, discrete video card, such as one from with an AMD or nVidia chipset.

While an adapter from Club 3D exists to convert DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0, the reports of compatibility with various DisplayPort GPUs and HDMI 2.0 TVs are mixed. And in the context of a home theater, an HDMI 2.0 receiver may be in the mix as well, which would further complicate compatibility, and thus I would not recommend it.

The bottom line is - the Skylake and Z170 GPU is fairly useless in the context of a 4K home theater PC. If you are upgrading an existing HTPC, it would be best to just switch the discrete GPU to a new model, and skip Skylake altogether. If you are building one from scratch in 2016, you may still consider Skylake CPU and a Z170 motherboard, but you will most likely want to disable the built-in GPU and buy a separate one from AMD or nVidia. If you are on a budget, going for a previous generation of motherboard and CPUs may save you enough money to save for an HDMI 2.0 discrete GPU.

Get some cash back by using your rewards credit to pay other bills.

I normally don't make commercial posts here, but hey, never say never

If you don't already have a credit card that earns rewards, feel free to skip this post.

But if you do, read on. Especially if the card has a sign-up bonus that requires a minimum amount of spending.

Here is how it works :

1. Sign up for Plastiq with my referral link at https://try.plastiq.com/481042 .  If you don't use this link, then the promotion described below won't apply. Make sure to click "continue to site", as for some reason the "send download link" doesn't actually work at the moment.
   
2. Using your rewards credit card on Plastiq, make a $20 payment towards any bill you have, except a credit card. You will incur a 2.5% fee of 50 cents.
3. A few hours after your payment is complete, you will earn $200 fee-free dollars.
4. Using your rewards credit card on Plastiq, make a $200 payment towards any bill you have, except a credit card. You will not incur a fee.
5. Make sure you pay your credit card in full every month to avoid interest - otherwise this doesn't make sense.
6. Afterwards, you will earn rewards on your credit card on a $220.50 purchase. With a typical 1% cash back credit card, this would be $2.20 . Or it could be much more, depending on the card you have. If you have a signup bonus with minimum spending to satisfy, it could be far more. For example, with a card that requires $4000 spending in 3 months to earn $500 cash back, the math is as follows :
   a) 220/4000 * 500 =$27.50 cash back earn from the signup bonus
   b) 220 *0.01 = $2.20 cash back earn from regular 1% spending
   Total cash back earned : $29.50

If you do signup, definitely do it through a referral link, preferrably mine, otherwise you won't get the $200 fee-free dollars for making the $20 payment. With the regular 2.5% fee, using Plastiq typically does not make sense. It only makes sense if the fee is much lower, or waived, as in the case of this promotion.

Note that the referrer (hopefully me) will also get $400 fee-free dollars. Once you have an account, you can refer somebody else and earn more fee-free dollars to earn more rewards on your card.


This is useful to earn rewards on your regular bills that you typically can't pay with a credit card, such as your mortgage, electric & gas company, water company, etc.

I suspect the Plastiq promotion won't last forever. I will take down this post when the referral program ends, as it surely will after Plastiq gets a sufficient number of users.

Complete French Suite 6 in E Major, BWV 817, by J.S. Bach - on harpsichord, by Julien Pierre

I recently completed my recording of every movement of this suite. This was a project that took me almost 2 years. Enjoy !

Quicken 2015 update R9 broke completely . I am not upgrading to Quicken 2016 .

Intel X99 SATA controller vs SATA port multiplier enclosure

Recently, I upgraded a computer with an old AMD Phenom II x6 CPU and a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H motherboard, along with DDR3 memory, to a brand new Intel Core i7-5820k and MSI X99A Raider motherboard .

I was able to use my SANS port multiplier enclosure successfully with the AMD SB750 SATA controller when in running in RAID mode.

This is, sadly, not possible at all with Intel, as Intel has decided not to support port multipliers at all on any of their controllers.

Other features lost in the X99 chipset "upgrade" :

- Firewire 1394 support - which I need for my audio recording. I had to purchase a separate Firewire card for this.

- PCI support . No longer will I be able to use my Symbios PCI SCSI card to read my DDS-2 and DDS-4 tapes on OS/2. There are PCIe SCSI controller options, but none that work with OS/2. Fortunately, I have other computers that still support PCI, all of them with AMD CPUs & chipsets.

- this might make some people laugh in late 2015, but the floppy interface on the motherboard is also gone. Yes, my computer really still has an internal 3.5"1.44MB floppy drive. It's just not hooked up to the motherboard anymore since there is no plug for it. Don't ask me why I need it, but I do.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are rewriting the history of DOMA

Hillary Clinton made the following comments in a Rachel Maddow interview on Friday, October 24 :

(start)
MADDOW:  On – on the issue of finding a path between the left and the right, finding what’s doable and what’s not doable, I’m a true-blue liberal, and I’m allowed to say that.  OK?
(LAUGHTER)  

But one of the things that I have been struck by – and during the Obama administration – is that a lot of the – really, the civil rights achievements of this administration have actually been undoing things that were done in the Clinton administration.

Whether it was “don’t ask, don’t tell” or the Defense of Marriage Act or the – you know, tough on crime (ph) mandatory sentences.  Former President Clinton is progressive on all those issues now…

CLINTON:  Right.

MADDOW:  …but the policies that he signed – for politically practical reasons – in the ’90s have taken – you know, the political mural – miracle of Barack Obama’s election and – and – and a decade of progressive activism to unwind those things to get back to zero.

And so I know that you and President Clinton are different people, and I know that – I don’t – you – you’re not responsible for what he did as president.  But is your approach to civil rights issues the same as his, or is it different?

CLINTON:  Well, I – I want to say a word about the – the issues you mentioned, because my – my – my take on it is slightly different.

On Defense of Marriage, I think what my husband believed – and there was certainly evidence to support it – is that there was enough political momentum to amend the Constitution of the United States of America, and that there had to be some way to stop that.

And there wasn’t any rational argument – because I was in on some of those discussions, on both “don’t ask, don’t tell” and on – on DOMA, where both the president, his advisers and occasionally I would – you know, chime in and talk about, “you can’t be serious.  You can’t be serious.”

But they were.  And so, in – in a lot of ways, DOMA was a line that was drawn that was to prevent going further.

MADDOW:  It was a defensive action?

CLINTON:  It was a defensive action.  The culture rapidly changed so that now what was totally anathema to political forces – they have ceded.  They no longer are fighting, except on a local level and a rear-guard action.  And with the U.S. Supreme Court decision, it’s settled.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is something that – you know, Bill promised during the ‘92 campaign to let gays serve openly in the military.  And it’s what he intended to do.

(end)

This is not the first time the Clintons have offered this narrative about the 1996 Federal Defense of Marriage - namely, that it was passed into law to prevent the passage of a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Bill Clinton made the same claim 2 years ago. His claimed was debunked then, as follows :

Statement from Elizabeth Birch, President of the Human Rights Campaign.

"The fact is that the true threat of a Federal Marriage Amendment did not arise until 2004."

Another statement from Elizabeth Birch

Statement from David Mixner, gay activist.
"Clinton today says he signed it to prevent a Constitutional Amendment from passing. The problem with that argument is that such an amendment wasn't really even being considered in a serious way. Not until Karl Rove got a hold of the idea after 2000 did the amendment concept have any legs at all. It just wasn't a serious political factor at all in 1996. "

Article about this claim, including a statement from Evan Wolfson, founder of "Freedom to Marry.
"In 1996, “there was no serious prospect that Congress was going to enact a discriminatory constitutional amendment for the first time ever,” said Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry. “That threat was not even significantly talked about.”"

No one should believe that Bill Clinton did the gay community any favors by favoring and signing DOMA on September 21, 1996.
The federal marriage amendment was not an imminent threat, at the time.
Clinton signed DOMA in the name of political expediency, namely to further his 1996 re-election campaign.  This calculation worked.

While it is true that political realities at the time mean that there was very little support nationwide for same-sex marriage, it took the LGBT community and the Supreme Court 19 years to completely overturn this discriminatory law - which finally happened on June 26, 2015.

Bill and Hillary Clinton should refrain from rewriting history. They have both evolved on the subject of same-sex marriage. There is no need to pretend that DOMA was a favor to the LGBT community. Doing so will not earn them any goodwill, but will rather anger all the marriage equality activists who had to work so hard to undo DOMA.

Minuet, French Suite N°6 in E major, by J.S. Bach, on harpsichord.

Things that I wish existed : video card that can pass DSD over HDMI output

This is one in the long list of items I wish existed, but don't.

The HDMI 1.3 standard - and later versions - allows transmitting DSD over HDMI connections. Many audio-video receivers on the market can receive DSD streams, including my Yamaha RX-A1000 . Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, it seems there is no computer-based solution that allows transmitting a DSD stream digitally over HDMI to such a receiver.  This might be just a software issue, rather hardware, but nevertheless, the end result is the same : this is still an impossible task for a PC in April 2015, even though HDMI 1.3a was specified in November 2006 .

Sarabande, French Suite N°6 in E major, by J.S. Bach, on harpsichord .

I just made a new recording of this piece on harpsichord. I'm trying to finish this entire suite.

Make fresh French baguette daily

I grew up in France and I can appreciate a good quality bread. There is nothing like the taste of fresh baked bread .

Years ago, after moving to a somewhat remote location on a hill, far from any decent bakery, I purchased a bread machine in order to make my own bread at home. It is a small Zojirushi model.



This machine makes bread reliably, but the quality of the bread is inferior to that found in many commercial bakeries.

Recently, I took it upon myself to try making French baguette instead. I am using the machine on the dough cycle to mix the dough. I then bake the baguette in my oven.
The dough can be kept easily for a week in the refrigerator. This allows me to get fresh French baguette at home every day.

The recipe is exceedingly simple, with only 4 ingredients.

1. 170ml water . I measure it by weight, not volume, as 170g. I use room-temperature water from my reverse-osmosis water filter.
2. 250g all-purpose flour . I have used inexpensive Conagra flour with plenty of success.
   
3. 1 tablespoon instant dry yeast. This is approximately 9 to 11g by weight. I use SAF brand.
   
4. 1 teaspoon salt. This is approximately 5 to 6g by weight. I use Morton kosher salt, which also conveniently works great as dishwasher salt in my Miele dishwasher's water softener.
    

Here are the very easy, can't fail, steps to make baguette.

1. Measure the ingredients and put them into your bread machine's bread pan . In my Zojirushi, water goes first, then flour, salt and yeast.
2. Make the dough using the machine's dough cycle. It takes 1h45 minutes in the Zojirushi.
3. Separate the dough into two balls of approximately equal weight  - they will be about 210g each.
4. Start preheating the oven to 260°C (500°F). I use the "convect bake" mode on my Thermador convection oven.
5. While the oven is preheating, shape each ball of dough into a cylinder of a length of about 28cm (11") .
6. Lay down the 2 baguettes on an oiled baking sheet or baguette pan. I use a Chicago metallic pan.
   
7. Score the baguettes using a sharp knife or scoring tool. I use a lame from Weekend Bakery to make about 4 or 5 indentations.
   
8. Once the oven has reached the desired temperature; bake the baguettes in the oven for 18 minutes. You may need to adjust the time depending on your oven, or if you are baking more than 2 baguettes at once.

That's it. The baguettes are ready to eat . You can let it cool down a few minutes, but don't let it sit too long.  It is meant to be eaten the same day.

You can obviously make this recipe without a bread machine. I have not tried kneading the dough by hand.

I have also used a Ninja Ultra blender to mix the ingredients.

The Ninja can mix the dough ingredients quickly using the food processor bowl and the dough blade. However, you will still need to let the dough sit afterwards for at least an hour before you can bake it, so you won't really save time. If you want to bake the baguette the same day, then the bread machine is more convenient, in my opinion. In addition, I haven't figured out the right amount of time to use the Ninja. When blending in "dough mode" for 6 to 7 minutes, the resulting dough was hot. I don't know how much shorter it should be run, I would still need to experiment. It might be as few as 3 minutes.

Where the Ninja comes in handy for me is to make larger quantities of dough for future use. Unless you have a much larger bread machine, you will be limited in how much dough you can prepare.

I have used the Ninja Ultra to make enough dough for 4 baguettes, by simply doubling the quantities of ingredients, and separating the dough into 4 balls. I believe the Ninja food processor bowl should be large enough to make dough for 6 baguettes, and possibly more, but I have only tried up to 4 at a time so far.

I use some Rubbermaid Premier airtight food containers to store the dough in the refrigerator. They work well to keep the dough fresh. Some have been known to freeze the dough, but I haven't tried.
When using refrigerated dough, I take it out of the refrigerator at the same time as I start preheating the oven. The baguettes always come out great. In fact, no matter how many I bake, they always get devoured right away. So I keep to baking one a day only as I'm watching my weight.

Courante, French Suite N°6 in E major, by J.S. Bach, on harpsichord

Bach's Prelude N°1 in C major, BWV 846, on harpsichord

Allemande, French Suite N°6 in E major, by J.S. Bach, on harpsichord . BWV 817

Minuet in G major, Anh 114 on harpsichord, Bach, on harpsichord

Allemande from French suite Number 6 in E Major by Johann Sebastian Bach, on Schimmel K280 piano . BWV 817

Minuet in G, Anh 114, from the notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, on Schimmel K280 piano

HIV sex education 404 : some inconvenient truths, not always found in other sex-ed classes

These are some facts that every sexually active gay man should know, and my commentary on the implications of these facts.

HIV Status Unknown for Most “Negative” Men Online . From poz.com .
You can never know if someone claiming to be HIV-negative actually tested negative. Many have actually never been tested at all. Others had tested a long time ago and are actually positive and unaware of it. And some men who are aware of their positive status don't disclose their status because of stigma.

HIV test window periods . From San Francisco AIDS foundation
All types of HIV tests have a window period, which varies from 1 to 12 weeks . 3% of HIV infections still show up negative on the most common screening test, the antibody test, after 12 weeks.

This means even if you go get tested today, a negative result doesn't prove you are actually currently negative. It means you were negative as of 1 to 12 weeks ago with 97% confidence. The test can only confirm if you are currently positive, but cannot conclusively prove if you are currently negative.

You can know that you are currently negative based on your own recent sexual history in the last 1-12 weeks. But you can never know for sure about anybody else, even with recent test results, because you don't know their sexual history, only your own.

Thus, gay men who are insisting on meeting only other "HIV-negative" men are only fooling themselves, and are insisting on something that's impossible to prove.

Fast Facts : Acute HIV infection . From UCSF
The acute phase is the early phase in HIV infection. During that period, individuals are more highly infectious due to high HIV viral load. Estimates indicate that up to half of all HIV transmissions may step from acutely infected individuals who are highly infectious and unaware of their disease status.

Unfortunately, this early acute HIV infection phase often coincides with the window period of HIV antibody screening tests. During this period, one may receive a false negative result, but in fact may have been recently infected and be highly infectious to others.

Thus, the knowledge that a potential sex partner has received an HIV negative test in the past provides little comfort that this person is not actually HIV infected and highly infectious.

Swiss experts say individuals with undetectable viral load and no STI cannot transmit HIV during sex

The use of antiretroviral therapy to reduce HIV transmission . UK government.

HIV Transmission Risk Essentially 0 if Heterosexual Partner Has Undetectable Viral Load. 3rd International Workshop on HIV & Women

No-one with an undetectable viral load, gay or heterosexual, transmits HIV in first two years of PARTNER study. From AIDSMAP .

These various studies all point to the same finding ; namely that people who are infected with HIV, are on daily HIV antiretroviral medication long-term, and maintain an undetectable HIV viral load, are unable to transmit HIV to others. This remains true even if no other safe sex precautions are taken, such as the use of condoms. Of course, other STIs, if present, can still be transmitted, if condoms are not used.

HIV nPEP, non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis. From AIDS.gov
This is a mouthful, but really important.
If you have had unprotected sex, or if you experienced a condom failure, with someone of unknown HIV status, or someone of confirmed HIV positive status and off-treatment, you can benefit from HIV post-exposure prophylaxis.
This is a 30-day course of HIV medication. It must be started within 72 hours of the exposure in order to be effective.
If this happens, don't panic, but do go to your emergency room as soon as possible to obtain the prescription. Even if you are uninsured, the county should pay for this treatment in most places.

HIV PReP . Pre-exposure prophylaxis . From the CDC .
If you have frequent unprotected sex with multiple partners, or experience a high rate of condom failure; are unable to sustain erections with condoms; or want to utilize every available tool to ensure that you don't contract HIV, then you can benefit from HIV PReP.

PrEP currently consists of taking one daily pill, Truvada, which is a combination of two popular anti-HIV medication. This has been studied and shown to prevent HIV infection, for those who take the pill on a regular basis. This is not a pill you can take on a one-off basis, or just prior to having sex, unlike a condom you can just put on. It only works if the level of the drug is sufficiently high in the blood.

Why isn't every sexually active HIV-negative person on PrEP ? The 2 primary reasons are cost and potential side effects.
Regarding cost, Truvada is a brand-name drug that costs over $1,000 a month. Those who are uninsured, or underinsured, and on high-deductible plans, may not be able to afford the drug.
Regarding side effects : short and long-term side effects of Truvada are well known in HIV positive individuals. Truvada affects kidneys, especially for long-term use. It appears that the side effects may not be as bad in HIV negative individuals. However, PrEP has not been studied long enough as of this writing to know the long-term effects of taking Truvada in HIV-negative individuals.