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Messages - jovejupiter [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: [1] 2next
1
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Pre-copy file verification utility
« on: February 06, 2008, 07:17 AM »
Try Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier.

http://www.roadkil.net/unstopcp.html

It allows you to copy all of the specified files from one location to another without stopping if it encounters unreadable files.

I've found it to be very useful.

2
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - Update on RRunner
« on: February 06, 2008, 06:48 AM »
Sorry about being slow to reply - Its been a hectic few weeks.

The usefulness is in the unpredictability of the timing. In the real world there might be pop up messages or other alerts and events occuring at random times which the user needs to repond to. I can get the computer to simulate the events, but I at the moment I can't randomise the order or timing of the events unless I laboriously set up timer events for each one with manually chosen timings.

The suggested programme would make life a lot easier.

3
Post New Requests Here / Re: [IDEA] Autoset audio volume on boot
« on: February 06, 2008, 06:43 AM »
Try Quickmix

http://www.ptpart.co.uk/quickmix/

This lets you save a standard set of volume control settings and reload them when you boot the computer.

You can also save different volume control setups for different situations and load them as required.

4
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - A different type of computer timer
« on: February 06, 2008, 06:36 AM »
I've now been using Auto power-on and shutdown for a while and it looks good. My computer now switches itself on and off at various times during the day. It surprised my wife the first time she saw it do this, leading to a frantic call to me at work to tell me that my computer had started doing strange things all by itself.

I don't know of a way to get the computer to turn on automatically when it gets power.

I tried using the Windows Task Scheduler in the past but it insisted on getting me to log on each time - I need the computer to get up and running on autopilot.

Thanks for all of the advice. Another success for Donation Coder


5
Thanks for the suggestions.

I wasn't aware that you could set a software timer to automatically wake a computer from hibernation at a preset time. I thought that in hibernation the computer was completely powered off so that nothing was running (apart from the clock which is battery powered). Looks like I was wrong.

Of the two suggestions DShutdown is free but limited to one scheduled event, although that could be the same on different days.

Auto Power On and Shutdown looks far more versatile in that you can schedule a range of different events, which can either be one-off events or regular events. I've downloaded the trial version and so far it looks like it will do what I want. I'll probably buy a copy.

I generally prefer to start from a clean boot as Windows seems to have a habit af gradually "unravelling" as it runs and if I hibernated every time the system might develop problems over a period of weeks. However, If I schedule a reboot, followed a few minutes later by hibernation, this would reset the system to a clean state each time.

One thing I'm curious about......
I've seen figures suggesting that when a computer is in hibernation it uses about 1% of the power it would use if it were running normally. The CPU fan is off so presumably the CPU isn't powered. I assume that most of the rest of the motherboard is unpowered in hibernation, so how does the computer keep track of when to switch back on? What is using the 1% power?

6
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - Update on RRunner
« on: January 16, 2008, 06:42 AM »
Yes, That's correct.
Each program in the folder will lead to a set of events which the user needs to repond to. They need to be selected from the available programs at random and the timing needs to be random - That way the user can't predict what's going to happen or when.

7
Post New Requests Here / IDEA - A different type of computer timer
« on: January 14, 2008, 07:37 AM »
I have an idea for a hardware/software unit which I can't find on the market anywhere. Although donation coder is a software development forum I thought that someone might like to pick it up.

I often leave my computer running on "autopilot", performing various downloads, recording audio or video items off-air via a TV tuner card for timeshifting and so on.

I prefer not to leave my computer on all the time as this wastes energy, so I get it to switch itself on from cold using the BIOS timer and switch itself off again using a software shutdown utility.

Unfortunately the BIOS timer is limited to either a single event on a specified day or the same time every day.

I'd like to be able to get the computer to switch itself on from cold at different times on different days, or even at different times during the same day.

So the idea is to build a small timer module to fit into a spare 3.5 or 5.25 inch drivebay. (ideally a 3.5 inch version as this could be fitted into either)
It would be wired into the motherboard in place of the normal on-off switch. (most motherboards seem to connect to the power switch with a simple 2-pin connector)
The unit would include a normal on-off switch for non-timer use.
The unit should be programmable to switch the computer on (i.e. electronically press the on switch) at a number of preset dates and times. (a two week 8 event timer would be the bare minimum but as memory is cheap these days a 256 event 1 year timer or better would be ideal).
There would be no need for the unit to switch the computer off. There are loads of freeware timer and shut down software products available which could do that. (if the unit were to switch off the computer by electronically hitting the power switch it would cause all sorts of potential data corruption problems)
If the user makes a mistake and programs the unit to switch the PC on when it is already on, then it should not have any effect at the programmed time (pressing the on switch on a PC which is already running would probably switch the machine of, make it hibernate, reboot or similar)
A very desirable enhancement would be to link the unit to the computer, probably via USB, and to provide a windows program to set the timer. If this also included a simple shutdown program the whole thing would be self-contained. (date, on time, off time, specific days, every day, weekdays only etc)

So, any takers?


8
Post New Requests Here / IDEA - Update on RRunner
« on: January 14, 2008, 07:27 AM »
Hi,

I while ago I needed a program to run another program at a random time within a set time period.

The application was a type of training exercise where I wanted a program to run a set of events at a random time.

PhilKC responded and produced a very useful utility named RRunner which works very well.

I now need a slightly more sophisticated version:

When the program starts, or is running and reaches a preset start time, it should wait a random length of time (up to some preset limit), select a random program from a specified folder and run it. It should then wait another random length of time (up to some preset limit), select another program at random from a specified folder and run it.
This should continue until either a preset end time occurs or the program is closed.

The idea being that each of the programs in the specified folder will result in a different set of events occuring. These will appear at random throughout the specified period.

Added desirable functions would be the ability to run the program from either a Windows interface or from the command line (with switches for the start time, end time, folder and time limit for delays) and also the ability to have more than one version of the programme running at the same time to have different time periods, delays and folders.

Thanks in advance

- Tony

9
Hi,

Thanks for the information.

I downloaded PasteBoard and it's exactly what I was looking for.

Cheers

Tony

10
Hi,

I'm looking for a simple clipboard programme for capturing multiple items of plain text such as web site URLs and so on to a single text file.

There are lots of programmes available which extend the standard windows clipboard but all of the examples I've seen save each item to a separate clipboard.

Each time I copy a piece of text to this clipboard it should be added to the end of the list without deleting the existing contents.

Once I've added all of the items I need, I want to be able to paste the whole list to a text editor for sorting.

It doesn't necessarily have to use Ctrl-c 0r Ctrl-x to add items to the clipboard. In fact it might be better if it used other keys so that the standard cut and past functions will still work as normal

Any suggestions for existing software or a custom bit of coding would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Tony

11
I've been looking for a simple way to seek out and delete empty folders within a folder tree but there doesn't appear to be any suitable software on the web.

The user would give the program the identity of a folder and the program would present a list of all empty sub-folders in the tree leading from the given folder. The user could then select folders to delete.

Does anybody know of a suitable program out there or feel like coding one?

12
Thanks,

I'll try it out over the next few days with a macro that saves a file as part of the process. That way I can use the timestamps to see what times it runs the program.

Cheers

Tony

13
Hi Skrommel,

The original script renames all of the files in the same way (none are missed out) but the sequence of the parts in the new file names is incorrect.

Changing the input parameters results in the rename working correctly for some files but some are left unchanged.

Cheers

Tony

14
Hi PhilKC,

Your suggestion for start up settings would be fine - I'll look forward to seeing version 1.1

Cheers

Tony

15
Hi again Skrommel,

I converted the original script to an exe without any modifications and dragged the 15 files to the desktop icon.

All 15 file names were changed, with the format:

series-date-001-episode.txt    to    test-series-date-001-episode.txt

The input part of the script reads:

separator   =-<space>            ;Char(s) separating the parts of the input filename, use <space> for space
oneseparator=1                   ;0=No 1=Yes  Treat the separator as one unit?
outpattern  =<4><2>test<2>-<1>   ;Pattern of the output filename
inpattern   =<1>- <2>- <3>- <4>  ;Pattern of the input filename, not in use, just to explain!

If I'm reading the code correctly I would expect this to do nothing to the files in this case as the separator is - and not -<space>

If it accepted the spacer it should end up with file names of the form:

episode-datetestdate-series.

Regards

Tony



16
Hi PhilKC,

I've installed the program and tried it briefly with a short time period. It seems to work very well so far. I'll try it over the next few days and let you know how things go.

I have a few questions and observations:

I can run more than one copy of the timer simultaneously, to run different programs or the same program more than once, but are there likely to be any problems or conflicts if I do this?

I've set up my computer to switch itself on using the BIOS timer and switch itself off using a shutdown utility. Inbetween it runs various calculation, download and housekeeping tasks under timer control. I'd like to get RRunner to load from the startup group minimised to the system tray, ready to run it's program at some random time. However, RRunner doesn't seem to save the details of the time period and application.
Could the program be made to read a configuration file containg the time period and application path-name (ideally plain text) by using a switch after the program name. That way I could get RRunner to load and run completely automatically or get two instances of RRunner to run different programs at random times automatically.
Also if I set the program to run minimised it minimises to the task bar as well as the system tray. Could the program be set up to (optionally) run already minimised to the system tray?

Does leaving the programme running use up many system resources?

Cheers

Tony

17
Thanks Mouser,
Microsoft don't exactly make it easy to find.

18
Thanks PhilKC,
I'll look forward to seeing the result
Cheers
-Tony

19
Hi Skrommel,

I created 15 text files, all identical except for their names which ran from series-date-001-episode.txt to series-date-015-episode.txt

As a test I wanted to reverse the order of the parts, so I set the relevant part of the input ahk file to

separator   =-            ;Char(s) separating the parts of the input filename, use <space> for space
oneseparator=1                   ;0=No 1=Yes  Treat the separator as one unit?
outpattern  =<4>-<3>-<2>-<1>   ;Pattern of the output filename
inpattern   =<1>-<2>-<3>-<4>  ;Pattern of the input filename, not in use, just to explain!

If I understand the code correctly, that should take files of the form A-B-C-D.* and convert them to D-C-B-A.*

As I'm not completely familiar with AutoHotkey yet, I converted the script to an exe file using Ahk2Exe.exe and placed it on my desktop.

Then I dragged the 15 files to the desktop icon.

Files number 004 to 115 were converted correctly but files number 001 to 003 were unchanged.

I then dragged the 3 remaining files to the desktop icon and file 003 was converted.

Dragging files 001 and 002 to the icon converted file 002

Finally dragging file 001 to the icon converted it.

Is there something I've misunderstood about how to set up the input parameters or is there a problem with the code?

Cheers

Tony

20
Hi again,

The program is converting multiple files but seems to miss a few files and leaves them unchanged.

Cheers

Tony

21
Hi again Skrommel,

I converted your pattern renamer script to an exe on my desktop and it seems to work fine for drag and drop.

Cheers

Tony

22
Hi again Skrommel,

I downloaded AutoHotkey which looks extremely useful - The only problem is that your script only rearranges the name of the first file in the folder and doesn't repeat the operation for the other files.

The documentation on the website looks pretty extensive - Does anybody have the whole set of documentation as a single pdf (or similar) rather than as a set of web pages?

Cheers

Tony

23
Thanks Mouser,

I'll have a look at AutoHotkey

Cheers

Tony

24
Hi Skrommel,

Thanks for the script.
This is probably going to seem an odd question for a forum like this, but how do I run it?
I've been using computers since the late 70s but somehow I've never had time to get into coding. (apart from HTML and assorted in-programme macros)

As an aside, can anybody recommend a good introduction to scripting, which takes you from the real basics up to a reasonably competent level? Things like this make me think that I really should put some time aside to learn more about the subject.

Cheers

Tony

25
Hi

I'm looking for a simple way to rearrange blocks of text within filenames as a batch process.

The reason is that I enjoy listening to old US radio adventure and scifi series from the 1940s and 50s, such as Suspense, Escape and DimensionX. A lot of shows are in circulation but the file naming style varies - for example showname-date-episodenumber-episodetitle.mp3 or showname-episodenumber-date-episodetitle and so on. I'd like to be able to get a consistent set of names to help identify duplicates etc.

The program would need to take a filename of the form AxBxCxDxE.*, where A,B,C,D and E are blocks of text of at least one character, and x represents a spacer character which could be any valid character for XP filenames. It would then rearrange the name to, for example BxExDxCxA.*, or whatever sequence was required, and repeat the process for all of the files in a specified folder.

I imagine the interface would be a window with three boxes - one box to specify the folder containing the files to me renamed (ideally with the usual browse button), one box to specify the spacer character and one box to list the required sequence of text block in the new file names.

An alternative would be a command line program where the command would look something like:
c:\path\program c:\folder x 53214
where the files are located in c:\folder, the spacer character is x and the rename process would be AxBxCxDxE.* changed to ExCxBxAxD.*

Ideally the program should handle filenames with up to 9 blocks of text

I've searched the net for a suitable program but only found one which claimed to be able to do it. Unfortunately it had vast numbers of options (total overkill for this application), had a confusing interface and was very poorly documented. As a result I never managed to get it to work properly

A simple solution would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Tony

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