Messages

4326

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Crush Cryptonizer

« on: December 16, 2011, 05:05 PM »

Yep! I was thinking of that classic strip when I made my post!

However it would be funny if the computer then "lost" the password, and would only reveal it on a time delay later.

Heh - the next strip becomes "Curses! Foiled by a Time Capsule! Well, beating him with the wrench is fun, let's just do that over beer."

4327

Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Excel Page Spinoff Generator

« on: December 16, 2011, 10:20 AM »

Update:

ASAP Excel Utilities does this! So I am satisfied with this topic too.

4328

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 16, 2011, 06:43 AM »

Hi everyone.

I finally landed on a webpage that probably solves my question.

Take a look at these programs.

http://download.free...er_0.98_NTXP_ENG.zip

http://download.free...es.com/files/jmp.zip
http://download.free...m/files/TrayPlay.exe
http://download.free...les.com/files/M3.zip

They are all mp3 players that loop files ... and all are under about 100k! (Audio player seems to be 101)
They all work on my fickle home machine, and Swire's program seems to work at work, so maybe we can call this aspect satisfied for now!

Skwire thanks for putting up with me.

Edit: My favorite of those four is Audio Player. The others are funny in a "how low in size can we go" but after the novelty wears off they have nuisances.

4329

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: EasyNotes (Beta)

« on: December 16, 2011, 04:59 AM »

Yay the menu bar is there!

There seem to be some bugs in the toggles though.

It gets stuck on some of the commands, so "close menu bar" toggles BOTH on and off, "Allow Window Move" and "Show Window Frame" seem to be both the same type of feature and then they toggle each other on and off etc.

Heh oops - "Open" doesn't work for me at all!

Even "Open With" just gives me a blank app.

I found/made a test case for the "unknown character" part. Heh - but I can't open it in EasyNotes!: )

4330

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 16, 2011, 04:23 AM »

I am very sad!

I also just discovered that it doesn't seem to be playing Tracker files! I have an Impulse Tracker song (for example) that works fine in XMplay and doesn't load at all in Looper.

So maybe some weird setting in my machine is doing the volume thing, and some standard concept that Swire is pulling for Looper is hitting a corner case on my machine.

I'm becoming a pest!   I might be able to search the web and find more countercase programs, but isn't that Apples and Oranges? I just liked the idea of Looper because I just park an mp3 player on a song. But I don't want to drag Swire into a mystery hunt just for me!

4331

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 15, 2011, 08:48 PM »

So humor me o' Master Skwire. How hard is it to include a different engine?

My favorite phrase: "A problem that makes no sense has a solution that makes no sense."

4332

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 15, 2011, 06:10 PM »

How hard is it to chain a second audio engine into this program for testing?

It's really close to what I need, just this bug is a show stopper, and I've never seen it before.

4333

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Maximize Button Remover

« on: December 15, 2011, 06:03 PM »

That's pretty close!

"Minimize, OH MY GAWD LET'S SHOW THE BOSS THOSE KNOCKERS!!!"

Let's not!

Skwire Wins Again!

Edit:

Heh so both suggestion work!

Thanks gang!

I'll call this Solved for now!

4334

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Crush Cryptonizer

« on: December 15, 2011, 05:43 PM »

"Multiplex Wide Method Encryption?"

Okay I made that term up, but just suppose we have a fresh new crypto program here. To be provocative, I WILL say that "security as obscurity" MAY work just a little when it costs more for a world class crypto-genius to break a code, when abusing the courts is so much easier!

All these Crypto discussions are about "Pure In and Out Math". What about multiform crypto? What about the real text data steganographically attached to a "salt" DC code file split into 4097 parts, which parts are digitally rearranged, which is then saved as a txt file, and then THAT is encrypted through this program? I'll bet $128 no one would bust that with anything less than 3 months and $100,000 of services. Aka. Never.

4335

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: EasyNotes (Beta)

« on: December 15, 2011, 12:27 PM »

He'd have to say for sure, but it's probably non-printable non-plain-text characters that aren't in the default character table.  They show up as boxes when pasted to plain text.

-wraith808 (December 15, 2011, 12:11 PM)

Yes, I think you're right - (Another thing Notepad won't do!!)

Quick guess is that they're not text characters of any kind, but hard carriage returns or something, more like command codes. So get this, when I open up the offending file in Notepad, they're boxes, but if I open it in Wordpad (as text) and resave it (as text), they're all fixed.

It would be neat if this app meant I could skip that too... I might have to beg and plead for the menubar so I can switch!

4336

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: EasyNotes (Beta)

« on: December 15, 2011, 12:20 PM »

2. What if all the features were in a Toggleable menubar that you can turn on and off? At least for me the muscle memory works better on all apps with menubars, (which is why I hate the new trend in browsers and even gmail!) But then when it gets down to typing, you toggle the menu bar away.

I could add this, but the entire aim of this was to have all the options contained in a context menu and not a MenuStrip lol, so I don't really know if I would add this as a feature, at least...not yet anyway

I see this as a candidate to replace Notepad, because it's made by a Friend Of Cody and might get a stray new feature some day if it's easy to add! (Notepad "Just Is", take it or leave it.)

Hehe, I wouldn't say it could ever replace Notepad.exe, but I sure hope it can be useful to people

-Stephen66515 (December 15, 2011, 06:50 AM)

Eek I wasn't clear!

I did mean a Toggleable Menu Bar, because I spent 20 years learning File Edit Tools/Options etc! But then when typing and block layout the menu bar would hide : )  (It's the exact same reason I hate the Ribbon. So I bought a plugin for Office to put the menus back!!)

But yes it really could replace Notepad, because ... the point of Notepad is that it's "honest", it skips all the silliness of MS Word. But truth is, it also "doesn't really do much", so if you are on a dead heat to match Notepad's features, then add cool new ones of your own, I'd switch in a heartbeat. What you guys have as an advantage is you are "here and friendly" - so with suitable begging we can get a cool new feature to an app. Notepad Just Is, Microsoft isn't going to care about a mere User # 163524162.

4337

Finished Programs / SOLVED: Excel Page Spinoff Generator

« on: December 15, 2011, 05:48 AM »

Suppose you have a big excel worksheet. You're tracking the overview data of something. Then a subsidiary page would cover the details.

It would be useful if you could select X rows, and then the utility spins off brand new workbooks (or tabs in the existing workbook) based on that index file, *with that line of data in the workbook*!

Think about it. Let's say you have 100 CD's in your collection. Select all the rows, have a way to pick the file name, (maybe "choose columns 1 and 4 for the file name) and Zoom! You now have 100 spinoff workbooks. Then you can go later and add song names, and comments, and band members etc.

Or, at work, you have all the Potential jobs, and then you spinoff pages to track them separately. Do y'all know how many HOURS that saves over "Take blank workbook, copy and paste the file name, open it, copy the data row, close it."

I could see this mattering for text files too.

Not sure what funny name we can/should add to it, I giggle a little that it's like the page is "breeding like rabbits or bugs", or maybe "Nova" where it explodes. If it's robust, it can spinoff thousands of new workbooks.

Quick features would also be "Explode Tabs Into Workbooks", and do it in reverse, "DeNova Workbooks into Tabs."

In case someone is missing the 1-up Combo here, you can run a directory-reader (like Karen's), which then gives you a giant text file output, import the text file into Excel, do Select All, hit Nova, and then you have an Excel tracker page for every file on your system.

Not sure if that's easy enough to be a "snack", I dunno how hard making Excel utilities its - at its core this idea only has about 4 features and maybe 3 settings. (There's always room for features if someone wants to make it a Meal instead of a Snack, but no need to feed the football team either. Very simple second generation features would be like "Data-Cell order in original source --> data order in output page", to cover the case that in the original super index the data could be huge, maybe 20 columns, then you only need columns 1 4 2 13 8 in the spinoff page.)

((Random shout out to Anand plugging Paste Text Like, I Proper Cased some stuff in this post. Whee!))

4338

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Paste Text Like

« on: December 15, 2011, 05:10 AM »

Hello Anand.

Here are some suggestions.

What if the Settings "locked" your preferred style of pasting? For example, I'd always want to paste stuff Plain Text, Proper Case, Remove Double Spaces. Aka, there's "almost never" a reason I'd use Inverse case or caps, have double spaces, etc.

So then if your favorite style is "locked" then you just let your muscle memory work Control-V happily. Right now it feels clunky because I have to stare at the menu and pick two levels of choices and right now, it's faster to fix certain mistakes than use your program! (But only small ones!) But with "locked settings" then you're definitely on to something! I will soon be doing a ton of "cleanup processing" at work. Of course, pulling up the menu "overrides" the "locked setting", so for example I'd paste some text with lines because the lines need to be there, 20 times, but then once for some other purpose go the "long way" and paste it No Lines, that one time.

Another small request. Make the "make valid file name" have an option to use - dashes. I like dashes. I hate underscores : )

Cheers,

--Tao

P.S. I like CamelCasing, it lets me make hybrid words that I combine for file names, like AppsExamined NotResponded ToFile etc. Not sure how to systematize that though. Very roughly it's like "delete every second space, starting after the first ____ spaces", Which is 0 if you want the first two words joined, or else it skips a space because the first word is okay as is, (like a client last name) then the rest become the hybrid adjectives.

4339

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: EasyNotes (Beta)

« on: December 15, 2011, 04:25 AM »

I have a couple ideas.

1. "Whatever it is" that in Notepad comes through as square boxes etc (extra line feeds or whatever), usually from pasted data, always seems to go away whenever I open it in Wordpad and then save again as text. Then the second time it looks fine in Notepad. ("Whatever"  is ... expanded character/stroke interpretation?)

2. What if all the features were in a Toggleable menubar that you can turn on and off? At least for me the muscle memory works better on all apps with menubars, (which is why I hate the new trend in browsers and even gmail!) But then when it gets down to typing, you toggle the menu bar away.

3. I don't yet see Find and Replace/Replace All. I hope you add that! : )

4. Maybe a Recent Documents list.

How many actions can it Undo and Redo? I think that's a chance to beat Notepad which I think only has one or so. Doesn't need to be excessive, quick guess says 25, but 12 is okay if there's a difficulty factor.

I see this as a candidate to replace Notepad, because it's made by a Friend Of Cody and might get a stray new feature some day if it's easy to add! (Notepad "Just Is", take it or leave it.)

If that's easy enough to do, I can start putting it through some live testing and see if there's any other must-haves. (My counterweight is WordPad which I generally hate. Suddenly it feels like it crosses the line with rulers and bullets and insert objects and ... yuk. ) I do a modest amount of stuff with raw text files, so I think you're on the way to a Notepad killer.

4340

Finished Programs / DONE: Maximize Button Remover

« on: December 15, 2011, 04:18 AM »

I run almost all of my windows in some fragment of the total screen. Then I minimize them. And restore them. And close them.

So somehow it slowly is gnawing at me that when I reach to either minimize or close a window ... the third button... maximizes it!

Not least, if you're trying to discreetly minimize that spicy item... look! It's now as large as your monitor will let it!

It's probably a good idea to make the resulting gap a dead area, rather than smush the remaining two buttons together, because that would lead to more accidental closes.

4341

Living Room / Re: Don't be a free user?

« on: December 15, 2011, 03:43 AM »

Sorry, I'll still disagree with the post.

I think the elephant in the room is tied up here with Intellectual Property games. If the products and services are Open Sourced then when an initial developer gets bored, someone else can jump in.

Of course the "cloud" is the new hotness, but the brisk downside of the "cloud" is exactly these end of life situations. When there's a "product"/software involved, apparently they call them "solutions" now. But if that piece is open sourced, then someone can carry the torch.

What the rise of free services has done is to make Paid ones have to work harder to justify money. To use a newspaper model, "stories" consisting of 250 word reprinted AP releases don't cut it anymore.

(Hoping I don't botch this next part) most of the apps here don't target the "$19.95 Shareware" target. That's why "uncreative" shareware sellers exuded sleaziness, because it was like the vitamin game of selling per mineral, for all of the 40 you need. The stuff here ("most of it") is rightfully measured in pennies or a couple of dollars. The value perception is the same. They're cutely useful, like a yummy ballgame hotdog. So try them all, then the one that hits your sweet spot is the one that inspires you to make your donation.

So, I rate the initial post a C.

4342

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: NANY Excuse Manager (v0.96 as of 12/30/10)

« on: December 14, 2011, 08:27 PM »

I'll Upload an excuse.

":I can\'t program.excuse.
You cannot upload that type of file. The only allowed extensions are txt,jpg,gif,mpg,png,zip,rar,7z,ahk,fbs,mov,avi,mpg,rm,exe,mid,mp3,wav,grid,opml,wmv,tgz,gz,xml,ini,alias,wma,ogg. "

Doesn't take native excuses!

4343

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: NANY Excuse Manager (v0.96 as of 12/30/10)

« on: December 14, 2011, 08:23 PM »

I'll upload an excuse. I can't program. Leeeeeech! : )

4344

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: use key to constrain mouse movements to horizontal/vertical

« on: December 14, 2011, 05:18 PM »

Sorry for the Thread Bump, (Yell at me if that's a NoNo!) I like to sometimes bring an old program back from the dead of thread death -

Now with a wink and a smile, DragLock ... doesn't, on my (XP) system, it's far from pristine to really keep the mouse stable.

So when you are faced with a new event, do something! So I used it as a quick art tool and made a modern art piece playing around for 30 seconds. What I get is that before DragLock notices the mouse has been moved, well, it moved. Then it yanks back. The result is that in paint, you get a triangle effect, but holistically along a line! So I used it as a new shading concept.

I'm sure my betters can do something more devastating with it, like help Brain take over the world, or help Pinky organize his fridge. ("Look Brain, all the tv dinners are in a row now!")

4345

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 13, 2011, 07:15 PM »

(Hacked post)
1 by 1 does not have this problem (on my machine!)

Edit: So after looking through about 2.5 years of DC, there aren't 100 mp3players around, it's not everyone's stomp ground, so allI gotta say is both programs by you Swireman have the situation and no other program I've seen before.

4346

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 13, 2011, 07:05 PM »

Wild Update, threatening to edge off topic.

The same problem is in Trout! Did you borrow the "Bass" audio engine for Looper?

(P.S. OffTopic Trout is grabbing random desktop art for the Album Art! I have random mp3's on my desktop, don't grab random art! Is there a setting that turns that off?)

Still hunting for counter-examples - the easy one is that XMplayer doesn't have this problem.

4347

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 13, 2011, 06:40 PM »

Nah, no custom theme. It's chicken and egg but I wanna' say it's a "hidden bug" that only comes to light with the addition of the position slider, and that it has been latent since day 1. Tough to tell, I can put the initial App volume to max, then when I move the slider it gets louder still. With the volume on low, moving the slider jumps the volume very loud. Moving the volume bar either direction makes the volume go very quiet, far more than a micro nudge of a volume bar should, so some obscure effect is triggering.

I gotta say, it's tough. You're Swirely Awesome or something, but the end result is a miss for me unless we can do what I call "solve the crazy problem with a crazy answer." (I see that in my job all the time, the "problem that makes no sense has a solution that makes no sense". However if we stumbled on a solution, I'd leave it your Swirelocity to describe it, maybe. Sometimes life has no explanation, only results!!)

No other audio app has ever done that on me, so I dunno what magic combo of perfect forces is at work here, but I'll try to poke around and find you something you can hack to bits to get a fix.

Edit: how are you "playing the mp3 at all?" Doesn't that require an engine of some kind? (Tell me XP doesn't have native hidden support for mp3's!). So is it like the slider, some fluke of a Snacky efficient shortcut you are using? I have an idea - lemme go dig up Trout, if Trout behaves then it's not (wholly) my box, we'd start corralling the problem.

4348

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 13, 2011, 02:02 PM »

Okay, the browse part is fixed now! Too bad about the slider limitation, oh well. (How hard is it to get another slider?)

As for the volume, put simply, "drag the bar to the right, volume went down" (!!). This was on my home machine with Win XP, though there's a slight chance the sound card on it is starting to go, but it doesn't do that in any other program I use. 

V 1.05 on my Win7 machine at work seems okay, so I'll try later, maybe I'll get lucky with a "mystery fix".

4349

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Stickies review

« on: December 13, 2011, 09:55 AM »

Try StartMenu/All Programs/Accessories/Stickie Notes

4350

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

« on: December 13, 2011, 05:24 AM »

Thanks for working on this!

Unfortunately we might need a bug fix! There's a couple of really bad ones!

Browsing now looks for "File Type B" (What's a B???) Occasionally it looks for other equally silly things. This of course means you can't browse for any music file at all!!  (The first time - then when I reload the browse box I get what looks like files but it doesn't load. Of course I had to rename a file .B, but that then just locks it up! Heh.)

Something seems fuzzy with the volume - it seems to artificially drop the volume level - for example you can raise the volume up and the act of moving the volume bar *drops* the volume, until you click the progress bar, at which point the volume comes back!

Also, the progress bar is a bit fuzzy - it wants to move in equal fifths or something, so the longer the song, the more it jumps over. With effort you can drag it, but it would be better if the bar just moved to where your mouse is, not mechanically jumping 20% ahead.

At least it does seem to find doubleclick-passed songs now, so that feature is mostly there by now.

Sorry to be a pest!