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Main Area and Open Discussion / Living Room / Re: Where did your DC user I.D come from?
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on: June 29, 2009, 11:39:30 PM
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OK, here's mine.
I played Bass Clarinet in my high school marching band. L2 was the designator for my position in the "drill" (all the formations on the field) my senior year.
My other ID (The one for the really important stuff wwitthoff1 stems from the old days of *cough* AOL *cough* w is for my first name william my middle name is witthoff and since AOL wanted screen names to have a number in them (go figure) 1 was my choice.
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Main Area and Open Discussion / Living Room / Re: Why I Avoid Apple Products
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on: March 06, 2009, 02:16:40 AM
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Up until 1999 I didn't own a computer, and I never really gave much thought to buying one. Then in the early part of that year, Apple did something that made me sit up and take notice and make me interested in buying one....they came out with one in purple!  Unlike other smarter people that would shop for a computer based on something that was actually important, the fact that it came in purple was the most compelling reason I would have had for owning any sort of computer at all, at that point in time. And Apple was the only one to tease me with my favorite color. But I procrastinated about it for about 8 months...just long enough for my dad to decide to give me his old P1 with his OEM Bundle From Hellâ„¢ (he downloaded everything he could find on Tucows and installed it all). It had issues...lots of them, and instead of enjoying a life of "it just works", I was forced to learn a whole lot more than I had anticipated, with all the troubleshooting that had to be done "out-of-the-box". (this isn't a bash against PC's in general, remember that it was a used computer set up by someone that overloaded it worse than any OEM does with a new PC) I could have been a stupid "happy Mac user" but because my father enticed me with something that appealed to me even more than purple (free!), I was instead forced to learn and tinker with things that most Windows users don't even know exists. That machine, by its very nature, forced me to become a power user....fast. It became a challenge, a competition between me and a machine, and I was determined to win. For the last 24 hours I have been contemplating what the last 10 years of my life would have been like if I had bought that iMac. Would I be the computer nut I am today? Would I even be coding? I was a whole different person with a completely different way of thinking, and Apple knew that. "Think Different" isn't a command, it's their target consumer. For a long time they have been very good at making pretty things that appeals to clueless people. I am not saying that all Apple users are clueless, just saying that you are pretty clueless if you consider "pretty" to be the most important or only reason to buy something, and a lot of Apple's customers do think that way. I know because I once thought that way, I almost bought a purple iMac! Then they hold on to you by using fear to keep you, convincing you that you are happy and don't want to change that by wandering off into the scary world of the unknown. The famous Mac vs PC ads serve a dual purpose: to convince Windows users that they would rather have a Mac than deal with "scary Vista", and to convince Mac owners to stick with their product and not try anything new unless its an Apple product. It's a form of brainwashing. "Stay Clueless" should be their company motto. Today, the most compelling reasons I have for choosing something else over an Apple product all comes down to choice and freedom. I like being free to choose from many options, and unless Apple decides to give me that, I'll continue to stay away from their products. I want to choose my hardware, my software, and everything else...not allow a company to tell me what to use, where I can shop, what I am allowed to buy, who I can code for, etc. And the Oscar goes to... I feel the same way, Macs (IMO) are overpriced aluminum boxes that a cheaper non-apple computer can run circles around. </vent> Still macs have their uses (and it isn't just as a doorstop) ;-)
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Main Area and Open Discussion / General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!
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on: November 01, 2008, 03:05:25 AM
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IMHO I think the beef about the ribbon (I happen to dislike it with a fervor) is that it was forced on people. (Either intentionally or unintentionally) I think MS should allow a user to decide which version of the toolbars they want to use. (Then again that would be MS giving users freedom, but that is a different subject all together ;-) )
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Other Software / Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: W's RegCode/Serial Code Manager ver. 0.01 Released!
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on: April 16, 2008, 01:08:27 AM
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Looks useful. If I may make a suggestion: Use mouser's ScreenShot Captor to take the screens of the program. It has some neat tools built in to let you blur out areas you don't want others to see and add annotations, etc., and it would make it seem a lot more professional than the current screens, which look like you used Paint to cross out the serials. I also suggest taking a couple minutes to type out more information about it here in the original post. Give people an incentive to click your link.  Because it's version 0.01 I'm curious about it's stability and also what sort of format it stores the information in. For something as important as registration codes, you would need to be able to guarantee me that I could get my data if for some reason the program stopped working or was no longer developed or something similar. The version number is more arbitrary than anything. (Sorry about that.) I didn't want to give the impression that it was done (e.g. give it a version of one) and yet was concerned about giving it such a low number. As far as stability and the format things are stored in: Its stable for me, no code breaks, etc. and all the information is stored in a Microsoft Access Database (*.mdb). I think (being that the installer was created by VB express) the the Path is x:\Program Files\WillSoft\W's RegCode-Serial Number Manager (x being the name of your system drive) so the mdb should be in there. Not entirely sure where the mdb is installed to, going to fix that and use by using NSIS to make the installer rather than vb express. In the view mode there is a print button to create a hard copy of all the codes in the database. If you have any suggestions, feel free to either post them here, or send them to me wwitthoff1@comcast.netThanks for your feedback.
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DonationCoder.com Software / Post New Requests Here / IDEA: A Desktop Hotspot to other location program
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on: January 08, 2008, 01:17:49 AM
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Hi, I need a program that defines a corner of the screen as a "drop target" for desktop items to be dragged upon and sent to another location (in my case my external hdd). I download things to my desktop so I can find them and then hate having to open up the drive in explorer and then drag the items into it.
Strange I realize but I want my Desktop to look as clean as possible.
Thanks
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