Topics

1

Post New Requests Here / Idea: combination metronome and slideshow. Practice tool

« on: February 09, 2023, 08:27 PM »

This is probably easier to code (for someone else!) than to explain. I think it's probably best as a web page rather than a windows or android executable, but maybe that's just where I'm most comfortable. It would be nice if it were cross-platform.

The basic idea is to have a metronome, audio and visual, and then every nth beat, a different image shows. At minimum the user should be able to control the tempo (beats per minute), though I have ideas for making it much more complicated 

Background: I'm a trumpet player (citation: check out the intro to one of mouser's "CO-OP FOR TWO" videos) and currently a full time student (final semester, masters degree, Eastman School).
An important skill is to be able to pick off a note from anywhere—to nail it every time. One way we train this skill is through "attack practice" where every four beats I have to play a single, different quarter note. We have a sheet with expanding intervals, so I start in the middle of my range... B - Bb - C - A... and gradually widen until there's a large gap and I'm playing the lowest note I can, then the highest.

The idea of the program would be that every fourth beat (or whatever) a new pitch would show, at random, instead of the pattern I'm used to on the sheet. I'd have four clicks to perfectly play that note, then on to the next one. The simplest version would be a set of pre-made images of musical notes, which would change every fourth click at the set tempo. A more complicated version could have perhaps three independent random fields, so I get a random note, a random articulation (staccato, tenuto, accent, etc.) and a random dynamic (p, mf, f, etc.). A neat feature would encode the slides in order so that I could select the highest and lowest allowed note.

I hope that makes sense. I'm pretty tired right now but it makes sense in my head!

Maybe this weekend I'll work on a mock-up that will make it clearer. Tomorrow's too busy - I'm playing the complete orchestral film score to 1989 Batman synced to a screening of the movie in downtown Rochester.

2

General Software Discussion / Gmail complaint, fixed

« on: June 11, 2019, 12:56 PM »

I have gmail set up to poll my private email address, via POP3. It does this on its own, uncontrollable schedule, based on how often it thinks you might get mail. There is a "refresh" button in the (desktop) webmail interface, which re-polls your POP3 account. There is one quirk, though, which annoys me a lot: the "Refresh" button only appears when no message is selected (I use 2-pane mode; maybe it's different if you don't do this). Once you have a message selected a bunch of new toolbar items appear (delete, spam, move, etc.) and refresh disappears.

Here's the really annoying part. The only way to return to a no-message-selected state is with the keyboard hotkey "U" — there is no on-screen clickable button to do this. And the only way to hit that "refresh" button is with the mouse—there is no hotkey, assignable or not, to invoke that process. So the procedure involves both a right-hand keypress and a mouse action.

I was looking into it and it turns out the refresh button is only hidden with CSS - its div gets a "display:none" when a message is loaded. So here's how you fix it, recorded here both in case someone else finds it handy, and in the event I need to set this up on a new browser.

Option one: "Stylish" is a firefox addon which lets you apply CSS to a page. Create a new rule, applying to URLs starting with "https://mail.google.com", as follows:

[Select]

div.G-Ni:nth-child(5) {
    display:inline-flex !important
}

Option two: Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey is a firefox/chrome addon which lets you apply javascript to a page. Create a new userscript, as follows:

[Select]

// ==UserScript==
// @name          Gmail refresh
// @description
// @author
// @homepage
// @include       https://mail.google.com/*
// @version
// ==/UserScript==
(function() {var css = ["div.G-Ni:nth-child(5) {display:inline-flex !important}"].join("\n");

 var node = document.createElement('style');
 node.type = 'text/css';
 node.appendChild(document.createTextNode(css));
 var heads = document.getElementsByTagName('head');
  heads[0].appendChild(node);
})();

3

Non-Windows Software / Wanted: Android app to transfer new pictures from card reader

« on: August 11, 2018, 05:42 PM »

I'm trying to set up my dad with a way to back up his camera SD card to his new android tablet. I'm doing some testing on my tablet first.

The procedure is pretty straightforward (for me). I use Total Commander to navigate to the usb (OTG) card-reader device, select the desired files, copy/paste to a local directory.

This is not going to work for my dad. He's used to Picasa which magically opens when he inserts a card, offers to transfer new pictures (no duplicates), and also imports them to his library. He doesn't know (nor care) where on the PC they're stored.

So I'm looking for either

• A photo-editing program for android which incorporates import-from-USB, or
• A small utility which copies files without much fuss, selecting only new pictures/videos automatically.

As usual there are hundreds, if not thousands, of apps in the Play store which have names relating to what I want, but the dozen or so most promising all failed to achieve this.

I'm also looking into creating some sort of TotalCommander macro which may help, but a dedicated app would be better.

Thanks,
Eric

4

General Software Discussion / Giving up on "The Bat" email client. Who needs my unused key?

« on: May 08, 2018, 09:23 AM »

I won a key to "The Bat" professional in the fundraiser drawing last month. However after using the 30 days of free trial I've decided I just don't get along with it and I'm going back to Claws Mail.

I'd be happy to forward the key that I was given to another DCer (but do try the trial first to make sure it's for you!)

Eric

5

General Software Discussion / The Bat! advice needed

« on: April 15, 2018, 07:40 AM »

Hi,
Perhaps I should post this at TheBat! forums but I know we have some active users here so I thought I'd try here first. I received "The Bat!" email client in the April 2018 giveaway (100% happiness!) and I've been using the trial while I wait (and wait...) for my key to be delivered. I'm switching from years of using Claws Mail, and I had a couple questions that maybe someone can help me with.

First, I wonder if there's a way to make IMAP access be "asynchronous" ... I'll explain what I mean. In Claws Mail, when I delete a message it is marked for deletion (shown by a lighter font in the message list), when I move a message it is marked with an arrow, when I mark as spam it gets both. Then when I've marked all the actions I intend to take I hit a button "Execute" and all the moves are made. There is no need for a "Compact" option. In The Bat! (must I always type this exclamation mark?) deleted items are instantly gone, but I keep finding when I visit my webmail page from another computer, for example, that the messages are still there, just marked with strikethrough until I hit "compact". So is there a way to get things the way I'm used to, or can you suggest your workflow for IMAP mail deletion/compaction (i.e. what combination of checkboxes have you chosen in the mail options pages)?

Also, and this might be related, in Claws mail (as I have it configured) highlighting a message (i.e. by deleting the one above, or by using arrow keys on the message list) does not load it automatically - only once the Enter key is pressed or the message clicked on directly is it loaded in the preview pane. Can I do that in The Bat!?

Second, I'm finding the IE-based HTML renderer much better than the built-in one, especially in terms of layout, but there seems to be no way to see the destination of a link. The status bar shows nothing, and while the built-in HTML viewer shows link destinations in a pop-up tooltip, there is no such thing in the IE viewer. This is such a huge security flaw that I won't even consider clicking on a link... am I missing a simple checkbox somewhere to get this information, preferably in a status bar?

I'm still getting my head around the new system so there may be more things I need to ask but these are two that are bugging me for the moment. Thanks in advance!

Eric

EDIT TO ADD:

A couple more questions: First, the "show images" button for the HTML message preview pane appears inconsistently. How can I get that button to always appear?

Second, I'm having trouble getting filtering to work the way I want. As an example, I'd like messages in my "Junk" folder to be deleted after a month. I can either create a filter to do this or set a age limit in the folder settings. But when are filters triggered for existing messages? It seems they only fire when a message is downloaded, or read. And if I set an age limit, the rules can apparently be set run "on exit" which I assume means when exiting the program.... but I never exit the program. My last email client would sit in my taskbar for months until a windows 10 update finally killed it. Claws mail ran filter rules whenever I opened a folder.

6

General Software Discussion / Need some (security/virus-related) advice.

« on: December 11, 2017, 07:15 AM »

Hi everyone.
I was visiting my parents house last week and noticed an icon for "Teamviewer" on my dad's desktop. I asked him about it and he said that he had called support after his computer froze a few months ago, and they had him install it so they could fix his computer. Did he call Lenovo? I asked, and he said no, he thought it was Microsoft. What number did he call? the number that came up on the screen when it froze. He was dismissive (embarrassed?) and said not to worry about it.

But I'm still worried about it. My hunch is that his "locked up" computer was really just a full-screen website and he was taken in by somebody. I didn't ask if he gave anyone money for this...

My question for you: if I have the opportunity to check out his computer, what should I check for? This is Windows 10 and additionally he has Malwarebytes installed. What might someone have done while having complete access to his computer (via teamviewer) and how can I find it?

Nervously,
Eric

7

General Software Discussion / Recommended Windows 10 app - "Dynamic Theme"

« on: November 14, 2017, 08:39 AM »

I found this app today and thought I'd share it here.

The problem which I was trying to solve was the removal of the click-bait captions on the Windows 10 lock screen pictures. Windows downloads these (often beautiful) images for the lock screen but then covers them with these little spammy captions/links like "You'll never believe where this island is..." and baloney like that. I thought i might find a registry key or something to get rid of these, but I failed—it seems the only option was to stop using Spotlight, instead choosing my own pictures for the lock screen.

Until I found the app (I'm using the shortened word intentionally) "Dynamic Theme". It's available, free, from the Windows App Store. It has no ads or anything.

What this app does is download (from somewhere...) either the Bing or Windows Spotlight image each day, and set it as your lock screen or desktop background. So it acts as a normal picture (indeed if you check in the windows settings it is set to "Picture") This means no more silly captions; the ability to set these pictures to the desktop wallpaper is a nice bonus that I've enjoyed. The program will also archive the downloaded pictures in a folder of your choice, if you wish.

You can try it by searching in the windows store (or just typing "Dynamic Theme" in the start menu), or by going to its page on microsoft.com.

8

DC Website Help and Extras / All new posts being sent to RSS?

« on: November 15, 2016, 06:50 AM »

I've been getting, I think, all posts and replies pushed to my RSS feed reader (feedly). This is new, started about a day ago.

9

Find And Run Robot / Testing FARR alternative "Wox"

« on: August 23, 2016, 08:33 AM »

I know this has been mentioned before in this forum. I have just switched one of my PCs to Wox (http://www.getwox.com/) instead of FARR and I'm testing to see if it works as a substitute. The reason for this change now is that in a recent beta Wox has got Windows 10 "Modern" apps working, which FARR still lacks.

For those who haven't heard of it... Wox pops up a search bar with (by default) the same hotkey as FARR. It requires the search index service of Everything which powers its search results. This means there's a lot of unnecessary results if Everything has indexed your whole hard drive(s), but in my experience the ones I want (generally shortcuts to programs) are sorted to the top. I have it set to show 10 results, but there's an invisible scroll bar which actually gives you the whole list from Everything.

Also, like FARR, previously-run commands are weighted toward the top. So, for example, the first time I typed "irfan" the first result was irfanview-thumbnails and the second result was irfanview. However, after I ran irfanview the first time, the next time those two results were reversed (the one I wanted was at the top).

Like FARR, hitting enter executes the first result. There's no shortcut for subsequent results (I don't think...) like FARR's numpad hotkeys.

Many plugins (like calculator, websearch) are included, others are at their website. There's no analog to FARR's aliases.

There are themes but they are poor compared to FARR.

Wox both appears and displays results faster than FARR. Presumably the Everything index explains the latter advantage.

The Windows 10 "Modern" app support has just been put in beta and it still is glitchy (for example, Calendar brings up Mail and vice versa). That version is 1.3.271 which I found here.

I'm going to stick with it for a few days and see if anything gets in my way, but as a user of FARR that generally left everything stock, ignoring most of the aliases and functions, and as someone who already had Everything running all the time anyhow, I think Wox might take over.

Thanks
Eric

10

General Software Discussion / Looking for spam filter

« on: March 30, 2016, 05:59 PM »

I'm looking for a spam filter for my wife's email. She checks it on her android tablet most often. I have a windows PC running 24/7 so I was thinking I could run some sort of email client that accesses her email (IMAP) and moves potential spam to a folder.

Seems like most programs of this type act as proxies: i.e. they run a mailserver to which your desktop mail client connects. I don't want this, because I'm not using a desktop client to check her mail.

For my email, on this PC, I use Claws mail with BSfilter, but the BSfilter configuration only allows one spam directory (so I could use it to filter her mail, but all the spam would wind up in MY spam directory, where she couldn't access it to check for false-positives.

Then there's the issue of training. How could she train a filter not living on the same device where she's reading her mail.

Her spam is out of hand and I need to do something. Trying to avoid gmail for now but that might actually turn out to be a good solution.

Eric

11

Living Room / CAT5 splitter?

« on: December 03, 2015, 02:13 PM »

Hi, I'm hoping the collective wisdom will help me find something I'm looking for: a 1:1 CAT5 "Wye" or splitter or distributer.

I have audio distributed in my house via CAT5 (and sometimes CAT6) using AV "Baluns" at each end. These Baluns are expensive and I need two for each connection. I have a audio splitter in the basement that divides the audio to these baluns, one for each destination.

However it occurred to me today that I really only need one balun at the source, if I can find a way to divide the signal among the CAT5 cables after the balun. So what I need is a CAT5 splitter. However I'm having trouble figuring out if these exist.

To be clear, this is NOT an ethernet connection, it's something else, using 8-conductor twisted-pair wiring.

The little phone-splitter-like plastic thingys seem to mostly divide up the pins, four to each side of the wye. I don't think a switch would work, and I'm not sure about a hub. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!
Eric

12

General Software Discussion / Awesome software for kids

« on: June 02, 2015, 12:48 PM »

When I got my first home computer in 1995, it was a Packard Bell with this awesome "CD-ROM" drive. To show off the capabilities that having a CD-ROM drive added, it came with a bundle of software:
Knowledge Adventure "3D Body Adventure"
Knowledge Adventure "3D Dinosaur
Knowledge Adventure "Space Adventure"
Knowledge Adventure "Undersea Adventure"
Megarace - remember Lance Boyle?
And some other stuff, I think an Atlas and an Encyclopedia (Grolier, maybe?)

I remember how engaging those 3D, full video, CD-ROM adventures were when I was in 8th grade. Recently I shopped for software for my kids, and I found things like this (which is actually pretty good, but is 2D cartoons, predominately). I'm not finding anything that would live up to my (admittedly, 20-year-old) memories of those bundled software. Maybe some of it was the novelty of having a home computer, and having actual video and sound, but I don't see that there is any of this single-subject, rich, engaging, educational software on the market now. (There's still a market for schools, with things like Math Blaster, typing tutor, and would you believe Stickybear still exists?)

Steam certainly doesn't have much; if you look at the tag "Education" you get, for example, Kerbal Space Program and Rocksmith.

Are there small publishers that I'm overlooking?

What about those atlas and encyclopedia programs? I don't think Google Earth (as cool as it is) quite substitutes for a well-designed multimedia atlas. And likewise Wikipedia pales somewhat as a learning experience compared to Encarta. I recently dug out my CD-ROM of "The Way Things Work" — the one with all the mammoths — and had to load VirtualBox to get it to even run.

Anyone else remember these programs from what I might start calling the "golden age" of PC applications?

13

Living Room / Soliciting feedback on website

« on: May 29, 2015, 08:24 AM »

Hi,
My parents are selling ("by owner") their home in Peoria, IL, and they asked me to create a website for them. They supplied the text and the pictures; I made the single-page site.

I'd appreciate any feedback on how it looks on your browser and screen size, how it seems to be organized, or if anything seems to be missing or broken.

I'm not a "real" programmer; I made it all in notepad++ with a few jquery plugins.

http://greenleafhill.com

Thanks
Eric

14

DC Website Help and Extras / I don't get notifications. Am I just dumb?

« on: April 28, 2015, 07:58 AM »

I don't get email notifications to threads I'm "following" or which I started. I think I have all the settings right, and I feel like I used to get them sometimes.

If someone could let me know the email address they come from I could make sure it's whitelisted with my ISP... otherwise I wonder if I'm just missing something simple.

15

Screenshot Captor / attempted capture opens web page http://www.www_getwindowinfo.com/

« on: April 28, 2015, 06:51 AM »

So I just downloaded this program to do one thing - (take a screenshot of my dc forum configuration page to ask for help in why I'm not receiving any notifications.)

When I take a screenshot using the Quick Capture Bar, or by hotkey, I get a new tab in Pale Moon with address http://www.www_getwindowinfo.com/

When trying to use a "region" selection, I get a new tab with address www_getwindowinfo (Pale Moon adds the www. and .com after).

If Pale Moon isn't focused, it works OK. But in this case I'm trying to take a screenshot of a webpage.

Help?

16

Living Room / Where to watch soccer?

« on: April 27, 2015, 05:12 PM »

My son, 6, is in soccer this spring. He's in a kindergarten league, and as you can imagine these kids don't really get it. They clump around the ball until one of them accidentally kicks it out of bounds. (Same as it was when I was in kindergarten, I'm sure.) I was thinking if we could watch some soccer games he would get a better (basic) idea of strategy, field position, rules, etc. without being to "teachy."   

But how to do this? I didn't see anything on Amazon/Netflix except things like "soccer drills." I think it would be neat to follow a team through a season, maybe. Wouldn't have to be pro, but should at least be High School or College level I'd think.

I also thought about board games - battleball has some soccer-like strategy, but it's more like NFL/American football. Just looking for something fun to get him thinking "outside the clump."

Eric

17

General Software Discussion / Seeking a just-right countdown timer application for windows

« on: April 14, 2015, 01:50 PM »

Hi, my pastor just asked me if I could find a way to have a timer display on our projector screen counting down to the time when our service starts. We show a timed powerpoint show of announcements prior to the service, so this would need to display over the top of that.

There's about a million countdown timers out there for Windows but I need one feature that seems pretty uncommon, namely, to count down to a time (e.g. 10:45 AM) instead of by an amount (e.g. 10 minutes). I need this so I don't have to do math, or be precise about when I start the timer.

Here's the rest of my wishlist:
Displays on top of powerpoint (on 2nd monitor) with no border, background, etc.
Configurable font face, size, color, and opacity.
Ability to have it just disappear or exit when reaching 0:00. (I.e. no message, no blinking; I don't even want it to stay there saying "0:00."
(as mentioned) Counts down to a specific time, according to the system clock.

Some more "wants":
It would be nice if it remembered everything from week to week so I could just hit "start"
It would be nice if the number string was configurable (e.g. I don't want leading zeros on the minutes)

The best one I've found so far is:
http://www.da-share..../presentation-timer/ - it lacks the ability to count to a specified time.

Has anyone already done this search and found the perfect countdown timer?

Thanks,
Eric

18

General Software Discussion / Software find: Utility for fast user switching in windows

« on: February 06, 2015, 08:53 AM »

I was searching for a program to improve my experience switching users in Windows 8 (eight). My wife and I each have Microsoft Accounts, so a password is required for switching users in windows.
From the "Metro" interface it's relatively quick; there's a dropdown that shows the other users, which takes you straight to the password entry screen for the other user. In desktop (which we both use exclusively) it's harder. You can hit Winkey+L to lock the screen, but then you have to use the mouse to back out to the "switch users" screen (no hotkey that I've found for this except for tab-tab-tab-tab-tab-spacebar), and for some reason the transition between "lock screen" and "switch users screen" is a fairly slow one.
Other choice is to click start button (I use "Classic Shell"), select arrow next to shut down, choose "switch user," then type the password for the other user. Too much mouse, although it can be done with winkey-right-right-w.

First I found "Fast User Switch," a portable .exe that drops you immediately to the "switch user" screen. The website is http://www.myportabl.../fastuserswitch.aspx but the utility is behind a share-on-facebook wall. The direct download is http://www.myportabl...fast_user_switch.zip

But then the real find, and the reason I decided to write this post (after searching here and finding nothing) is a utility called "DUST" for "Direct User Switching Task"
http://www.waybeyonduk.com/DUST/
This utility has no user interface by default, but can use a tray icon for selecting another user. It registers a hotkey (winkey+A by default) which pops up a selection box to choose the other user, and prompts for the other user's password. It can save the password after you first type it, so on subsequent runs it immediately switches users. On a two-user system like mine, I've set up DUST to switch immediately to the other user, with no prompt, win I hit Winkey+A. It's much much faster than any other method I've found, as it skips all the slow-loading intermediate screens.

For you AHK/FARR users, there is a command line interface included. I'm using on Windows 8.1, but the website indicates it'll work on Windows Seven, Vista, and XP.

Hope this posts helps a future dc'er who's looking for something like this.

Eric

19

General Software Discussion / Question about extra-large JPG

« on: December 22, 2011, 01:41 PM »

OK, this doesn't really belong on this forum at all, but I couldn't think of a better community to ask.

I was going through wedding pictures from 2005 and found one that didn't make sense. The first image in a directory (titled 0000.JPG) is 120.9 MB. It opens fine and contains a picture from our wedding, 1536x1024. If I open and resave it in GIMP I get a 358 KB file (at 90% quality). The rest of the images in this directory are in the 6-8 MB range, and have the same dimensions.

SO, I was wondering if anyone could tell me
1. Why are all these 1.5 MP pictures so big?
2. Why is the first one even bigger?

Our photographer was an amateur and she had a failure with her CF card; we lost all our reception pictures. If I recall correctly, she sent in her memory cards and someone did some recovery on them.

Any ideas or leads? Would uploading the image help you help me?

Thanks, DCers.
Eric

20

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: rule-based browser chooser

« on: November 03, 2010, 06:09 PM »

I've been kicking around an idea for a rule-based browser chooser. The idea is, it becomes the default browser, and when it receives a link it launches the "real" browser you wish based on a set of rules which you define.

If it launched quick enough it wouldn't even have to stay resident - it could open, fire the link to the right browser, and then close.

Here's some thoughts:

should be able to define arbitrarily many commands and arguments (e.g. chrome, firefox, chrome privacy, chrome full-screen, etc.)
should work on arbitrarily many rules
should be able to prioritize rules
should be able to set itself up as the default browser even in windows 7
   corollary: should be able to unset itself too!

rules
should be able to detect (and act on) which (if any) browser is already running
should be able to identify (and act on) what program called it
should be able to identify (and act on) the url or portion thereof

I think rules should be in a text format. For some reason I'm picturing something like a procmail recipe.
They'd probably be easier to use, though, if they were creatable in a outlook-like manner.

some example rules

[Select]

//three low-priority rules for default cases
//use the already-open browser if there is one
//(if I'm working in Chrome, use it!), preferring firefox, otherwise run firefox.
If firefox is running
open url in firefox
priority 100
if chrome is running
open url in chrome
priority 105
if no browser is running
open url in firefox
priority 110

//override default case for specific urls
if url contains "gmail"
open url in chrome
priority 1
if url contains "windowsupdate"
open url in IE
priority 1
if calling program equals feedreader
open url in firefox-new-window-in-background
priority 10
if calling program equals farr
open url in opera
priority 10

   

There's a similar program "BrowserChooser" that sets itself as default, which asks what you want to do every time you click a link. http://browserchooser.codeplex.com/
All the other solutions I found on DC also seem to be based on letting you pick which browser when you click the link through various mechanisms. I bet a rule set could cover almost all cases without user interaction.
I actually use gnu/linux most of the time, and I bet this could be done with a simple bash or perl script, but I don't actually think I'd use it on linux - I use firefox for everything. I use single-purpose browsers more in Windows.
It would sure be nice if it could even intercept links clicked in a browser, but this would probably require an extension for each browser?

Does anyone else think this would be handy? Certainly not worth coding just because I want google voice to open in chrome.

Eric

21

Find And Run Robot / Useful firefox extension for FARR users

« on: October 23, 2009, 07:23 AM »

Since I started using FARR I'm used to hitting "enter" when the first option is the one I want. Problem is, I do the same thing in Firefox: In the newer versions, you can type part of the middle of a URL or part of the title of a page you've been to (or bookmarked) and it will give a drop-down list of matches. Then you hit enter (like in FARR) and you get a search for the term you typed instead of the first option in the list. I don't use search from the address bar (or as it's now called, the "AWESOME bar") so this extension is perfect.

It tries to detect if you've typed a URL and if so it moves the focus back to the bar itself rather than the first list item. A few times I've found that if I typed too fast it selected the first result rather than the URL, though.

This extension disables a few uses of the AWESOME bar that I didn't use such as quicksearches and bookmark keywords

By the way, I searched the forum and found a mention of this extension buried in a list of favorite firefox extensions, but I thought I'd bring it to the attention of FARR users like myself.

Enter Selects

There is a snippit of AHK code in one of the comments for achieving the same thing, by the way.

Eric

22

General Software Discussion / Do you use ac'tivAid? Which extensions?

« on: May 07, 2009, 10:50 AM »

I'm been playing with ac'tivAid, from (http://www.heise.de/ct/activaid/default_en.shtml), which is a set of very useful ahk scripts. I'm curious if others use this set (it's hardly been mentioned on this forum) and if so, what extensions you find useful.
I currently have enabled:

• ComfortDrag (When dragging a file, right click hides a window without letting go of left mouse button)
• ComfortResize (Right+left click+drag anywhere on a window causes resize (e.g. chordclickdrag in the top left quadrant resizes as if you had clickdragged from the top left window border)
• DriveIcons (adds an icon for any drive with media to your desktop like linux/mac. I actually have it add to a quick launch-type toolbar on my windows taskbar. This makes disabling autorun quite feasible.)
• NewFolder (use a hotkey to create a new folder in Windows Explorer. I've got this mapped to F7, same as WinSCP.)
• PastePlain (Win+V pastes without formatting)
• RemapKeys (Turns CapsLock into an extra shift key)
• Surrounder (Highlight some text and hit a quote, parenthesis, bracket, etc. and it will enclose the selection rather than replacing it.)

Eric

23

General Software Discussion / MIDI data and screensaver

« on: March 04, 2009, 10:00 PM »

Does anyone know of a way (or program) to make MIDI data stop the windows screensaver or power saving mode, switch the power "profile" or anything similar?
 
I.E., if the screensaver is running and I tap a few notes on my (piano) keyboard, the screensaver should shut off, and if I'm playing a song, the screensaver should not start.
 
The problem is that if I'm playing music on-screen with my MIDI keyboard, the screensaver may turn on, so I have to move a hand from the MIDI keyboard to the computer keyboard or mouse.

I'd like to do this without disabling the screensaver, so that after 10 minutes of MIDI (or mouse or keyboard) inactivity, the screensaver comes on as usual.

I am running MIDI-OX (http://www.midiox.com/) all the time, which routes my keyboard to an external sound module.

Thanks, and great forum. I'm a long-time lurker.
Eric