Topics

26

Living Room / On Change Run Task - My first Windows desktop application

« on: March 19, 2012, 11:52 AM »

If you are the 1% of people that always wanted to run a program / batch file / autohotkey script when the contents of a file/script/text document/htm/css file changes, and you haven't found a program for it, then you might benefit of the program i've put together today: On Change Run Task.

OCRT is the smallest program that would still be useful for me that I could write using Visual Studio C# 2010 Express. (as it is my first one) I hope you find it useful. Thanks to kyrathaba for making the tutorials that finally got me started )

Possible use cases:
* run your build batch file to compile and create a installation package whenever your auto hotkey script is updated. (reason why I made this)
* run a script to refresh your browser whenever your CSS changes.
* 1000 possible other obscure uses.

Future development will depend on my continued use and any interest from you. I managed to disable ClickOnce but it still requires .NET Framework 4 Client Profile, which you probably have already installed.

27

Living Room / Download appears malicious - Google Chrome

« on: March 12, 2012, 05:33 AM »

Anyone seen this before?


It's just an autohotkey compiled script (no executable packer) inside an innosetup executable. Jotti tells me there are no viruses found, so why is Google Chrome not happy?

Chrome's learn more links goes to http://support.googl...-GB&answer=99020 but it's typically unhelpful. Any ideas?
If now we have to petition the browsers as well as the virusscanners I will have to switch platforms..

28

General Software Discussion / Fork webpages?

« on: February 17, 2012, 05:23 AM »

I’m looking for something a bit unusual. Say you are following the instructions for installing a software package (rl example: http://library.linod...in/installing-webmin). Now you find out the instructions are outdated, or incomplete.

How do you keep your notes/additional instructions together with the original? Now you have two problems, your instructions and the original can be updated independently. What happens when the original is updated, or a new version of the software is released?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could fork the webpage and update it (or even submit a pull request to the maintainer)?

Is there any practical way of working this way – or will I be stuck with a notetaker / blog / bunch of outdated textfiles?

A lot of questions – maybe one of you has the answer.

29

Coding Snacks / Svn Conflicts Backup - Redo your subversion conflict resolves

« on: February 07, 2012, 09:18 AM »

After wasting my morning wrestling with subversion, in particularly this question:
Subversion reverting resolved file

If I was to make an error in a file that I have marked resolved is there a way to go back to having the file in it's original conflicted state without reverting all changes and reattempting the merge?

No, there is no automatic way to do that. If you want to be able to do that, you'll have to manually back up the .mine file ahead of time so that you can get it back if needed.

Spoiler

I'm doing a merge. After merging I commit all files without conflicts. Then I resolve single files and commit them. If I make a mistake how do I redo the resolving (even if I haven't committed the resolved file yet)?

Contrary to expectation I cannot revert the file. When reverting back to any step after the merge none of the files become conflicted again. This means I have one chance to resolve correctly or having to revert the wc to a point before the merge and reattempt the merge - which takes a long time.

It seems when doing a merge the act of merging is applied as a property on the working copy root folder, and then the wc is considered merged, whether or not there are conflicts outstanding. Is it right that none of the conflicts are marked as such in the repository?

Deleting the file and doing an svn update did not succeed as I retrieve the file as if it wasn't merged and attempting to merge again does not find any changesets.

Well now you don't have you waste your time, you can redo your conflict resolves using the enclosed script. (included is the .ahk and .exe file). It's a bit spartan but the GUI will guide you throughu the process:

* Select working copy root
* Find all .working files
* For each .working file find all other extensions with the same filename (.merge-left.rXXXX  and .merge-right.rXXXX files and the actual file)
* copy these into a SvnConflictsBackup\<date>\<directory_structure>\file on your desktop
* Show Finished(remove) and Restore button
* Finish: exit and open backup folder for deletion by user
*: choose from all .working files and restore it and related files

When you are resolving conflicts, think of this utility and use it to back them up!

30

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / BARD - My software to help organise your sample library

« on: February 02, 2012, 08:43 AM »

I'm very proud to launch my BARD software today!

BARD is a tool to organise your audio / sample library with minimal hassle. I made it in response to the posts about organising your library on the nuskoolbreaks forum. Music producers and other audio enthusiasts can use it to preview samples and instantly file them in a folder of choice. Everything in BARD has been crafted to help you get back in control over the thousands of sounds you have lying about in a variety of places.

Get BARD now and enjoy all the powerful features for less than the price of a night out. Or try out BARD Lite without limits and nags for free from http://getbard.com. Updates will be free.
   

Hey mate, glad to to help as this program is infinitely beneficial to me (and likely will be to many others) in getting my library under wraps finally.
   Doran, nuskoolbreaks.co.uk

   

Good luck man, think of all the man hours youre gonna save musicians around the planet  
   Ro Aneurythm / Erratech

GetBard.com

Any and all feedback is welcome.

31

Find And Run Robot / Feature Request - FARR Alias install commandline switch

« on: January 17, 2012, 06:52 AM »

Problem
Currently it's up to the user to install aliases, and the folder in which they should install them in different depending on the OS and the type of alias (should it be editable or not by the user). From the help file:

These .alias files are located in the AliasGroups\ subdirectory of FARR, and are further broken up into AliasGroups\Installed and AliasGroups\MyCustom.

On my Windows 7 64bit machine, the AliasGroups folder is not there but in C:\Users\<username>\Documents\DonationCoder\FindAndRunRobot\AliasGroups and the MyCustom folder did not exist.

Now when a third party supplies an alias to enable FARR to use the third party tool, the install will have to give instructions for the user for the correct operating system, plus a series of steps to know where the alias is stored after installation and where it should be manually copied to (and extracted, because there are usually icons and other related files).


Feature
I'm requesting a feature for FARR (based on discussions in the IRC chatroom) for FARR to install aliases for the user in the correct folder, using commandline switches. Third-party tools, can then simply read the registry key and call farr:

 (64bit)

Code: Text [Select]

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Find and Run Robot_is1\InstallLocation

 (32bit - needs confirmation)

Code: Text [Select]

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Find and Run Robot_is1\InstallLocation

Implementation proposal
The alias should be zipped but the extension renamed to .AliasZip, (with the extension registered to farr) so that one can install the alias by double clicking.

The Zip file should contain a folder called either MyCustom or Installed, with inside that a folder with the name of the alias (example) containing icons and the alias etc.


Example
With the feature FARR will extract the alias in a temporary folder, and then copy it to the right location, and refresh the aliases-list in FARR with the following code:

Code: Text [Select]

1. FindAndRunRobot.exe /installAlias "Path\To\Example.AliasZip"

Feedback welcome.

32

AutoHotkey / AHK_L / PHP Encryption

« on: December 20, 2011, 06:11 AM »

I'm trying to encrypt a string POSTed to a webpage and decrypt it with a PHP script.  Has anyone done this with AHK and can share the code, as the pointers on the AHK forums I have found so far create hashes that are incompatible with PHP, and therefore cannot be decrypted unless I reiplement the encryption/decryption in one of the languages.

Any algorithm will be better than nothing. I must have tried over a dozen implementations but any that use Microsoft's cryptographic libraries produce different hashes than PHP implementations.

33

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / NANY 2012 Release: NoteMe

« on: November 30, 2011, 09:23 AM »

NANY 2012 Entry Information

Application Name	NoteMe
Version	1.1.0
Short Description	Using NoteMe you can quickly send mail to yourself. NoteMe makes it possible to blog using WordPress or Posterous, to send stuff to evernote or pinboard, or label these messages (use NoteMe as a work log). Anything that can accept email can be used with NoteMe.
Supported OSes	Tested on Windows 7 32bit/64bit
Setup File	Latest version
	Donate
Description	Type a note, press Send. NoteMe will exit after sending the message. NoteMe will check for updates if it hasn't done so for a week, after sending a note. It supports DcUpdater for inapp updating (strongly recommended). The application files are removed when uninstalled. Your settings are kept in %appdata%\NoteMe, these can be manually removed if desired. NoteMe is donationware.
Basic Operation	Type a recipient (these are saved)  and a message body and click Send.
Advanced Operation	Start NoteMe with the following commandline parameters for extra functionality:    /hidden       Will use /message and either /to or the last saved receipient to send a message without interface.    /message       Prepopulate the message contents. Must be followed by the message enclosed in quotation marks.    /to       Select the receipient (has to have been previously added via the GUI). Must be followed by a valid email address.    /resetsettings       Reset the program and mail settings.    /opensettingsfolder       Open the folder containing the program and mail settings, and various logfiles, for closer inspection.    Example commandline call:          NoteMe.exe /hidden /message "hello me!" /to [email protected]
Privacy Policy	Notes are sent via the sendEmail executable and temporarily stored on your pc. Login details are stored unencrypted in the %appdata%\NoteMe\Mail.ini file.
Screenshots
Installation	InnoSetup so just start the setup program.
Uninstalling	The application files are removed when uninstalled. Your settings are kept in %appdata%\NoteMe, these can be manually removed if desired.
Known Issues	* None!

Hope you find it as useful as I will

Thanks to sendemail creator Brandon Zehm for the emailing componentsendemail, and Captio for being the inspiration for this and for making a fantastic iOS app!
50% of donations made to me for NoteMe until March 2012 will be split between these two.

[url=https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=27866.0]Original donationcoder topic

34

General Software Discussion / Looking for 'self email' sender

« on: September 05, 2011, 04:49 AM »

I'm looking for something a windows desktop app that you can popup with a hotkey. start typing. When you're done, hit Send. The note is immediately delivered to your email inbox. Specify the address in the settings. That's it. No email server configuration, no subject, no other options.

Does this exist or will I have to make it?

35

Coding Snacks / Desktop Background focus/unfocus tsr

« on: August 22, 2011, 09:23 AM »

Silly request (or is it?). I like to keep my pc distraction free but I also love interesting backgrounds. When focusing on the app I prefer not to be distracted by a detailed background so I took a nice background and blurred it a bit. You can download the original and blurry version. I'm very very happy with the result, so I was wondering if there is a tool that uses the gpu to blur the background when the desktop is not active, but fades the background into focus when there is no windows in the way. Too much for autohotkey I'm afraid so I can't do it. Apparently the effect on the windows theme is called Aero Blur.

Would make a nice NANY app or donationware tool?

36

Living Room / Firefox fixes the version number problem

« on: August 16, 2011, 07:51 AM »

Firefox is working hard to just have one version, the current one. Firefox 9 or 10 will move the version number from the about window to Help > Troubleshoot.

When a user opens the About window for Firefox, the window should say something like "Firefox checked for updates 20 minutes ago, you are running the latest release."

It is important to say when the last check happened and ideally to do the check when the dialog is launched so that time is very near and to drop the version and simply tell them they're on the latest or not.

from mozilla.dev.usability

You will probably not agree but I think this is a good change. It will help supporting Firefox because there will just be two versions that matter: the up to date version, and the old version (which is any older version).
This simplifies any solution and troubleshooting, it either works in the current version, or Firefox will update - if it's connected to the internet. Which means eventually, Firefox is always up to date and there will no old versions and therefore no issues.

Probably the biggest obstacle to getting everyone to keep autoupdate on is the bundling of crap with installers, as we discussed before.

37

Developer's Corner / Next step up from Autohotkey

« on: August 11, 2011, 05:30 AM »

I like a practical approach of autohotkey, but once I started doing more advanced things such as robust gui apps, I noticed that the community code is a bit underdocumented and fragile. Quickly it seems, one has to deal with DLLCalls, com objects and resort to code such as:

Code: Text [Select]

1. VarSetCapacity( HexClr,14,0 ), SClr := DllCall( "GetSysColor", UInt,DisplayElement )
2. A_Index & 1 ? ( _ := A_LoopField ) : ( %_% := A_LoopField )
3. DllCall( NumGet( NumGet( _ppunk+0 )+4*0 ), UInt,_ppunk, UInt,_pIWEB, UIntP,_ppwb )

.. that to me seems like coding against the limits of the language. However I like the fact that a lot of functionality comes with the language and that you are not dealing with putting dozens of lines of code in place just in order to put a notification up for example.

What do people recommend as the natural next step up from AHK without sacrificing too much of the 'high level programming' attitutde? Or is there nothing out there that is an intermediate step between this and .net for example.

38

Living Room / How to Build a 'Paywall' That Doesn't Break the Web

« on: August 04, 2011, 06:10 AM »

Thought it would be interesting to people on this forum that one of the directions publishing seems to try out is 'DonationPublishing':

Sharing will turn off the nag wall for 1 year, or until you clear your browser cache, view the article in a different browser or on a different computer. Donating some money lets you register an account - if you're logged in, the nag wall never appears. You also get some extra features on the site if you have an account.
Like the New York Times paywall, people who poke around in the source code should be able to figure out how to turn it off without interacting with it at all. For the adventurous, there are also a couple of easter eggs that defeat the paywall in amusing ways (but I'm not giving them away here).
By doing all this, we turn the paywall into a game instead of an obligation, because what we're really after is engagement, not your money.

Example story with paywall
Link: The Atlantic, via Hacker News

39

Post New Requests Here / Work Estimating Tool

« on: August 04, 2011, 04:17 AM »

I'm looking for a webservice or free utility to make time estimates for software development. My typical estimate consists of a series of tasks (each with a description, units, hours per unit) grouped (with subtotals in hours) + buffer option in percentage, resulting in a total hours + effective time (total hours spread over a schedule, for example 6 hours per day 3 days per week). Not sure if this breakdown is common.

Image explains more than a thousand words..


I do not need any billing functionality. Might make a good coding snack, or there might be something out there that's more tailed than Excel and save me time. Optional features:  it could possibly collect all the estimates I've made in the past grouped by client and if they could be signed off via email then it would be completely perfect.

40

Living Room / Kick procrastination's ass: Run a dash [2005]

« on: August 02, 2011, 05:13 AM »

One of the best articles I've ever read, you MUST read this. Fully.

My favorite tonic for procrastination—which I have mentioned in passing previously—is what I call a dash, which is simply a short burst of focused activity during which you force yourself to do nothing but work on the procrastinated item for a very short period of time—perhaps as little as just one minute. By breaking a few tiny pebbles off of your perceived monolith, you end up psyching yourself out of your stupor, as well as making much-needed progress on your overdue project. Neat, huh?

from http://www.43folders...tions-ass-run-a-dash

41

Living Room / Why My Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

« on: August 02, 2011, 04:59 AM »

Seeing the basically useless state of the phone on initial boot, I told my mother that I’d take the phone for an hour or so and give it back to her “cleaned up.” I deleted apps. I configured notifications. I set up accounts. None of it was easy, and every step of the way I ran into really bizarre problems. The elegant Google widgets that come with stock Android were stripped out of the phone. The camera app, besides looking like it had been designed in 1995, just wouldn’t rotate when I turned the phone on its side. Apps that worked on my Droid Incredible crashed as soon as I opened them on the Charge. After about an hour of poking and prodding the battery had dropped from 95% to 50%. Completely frustrated, I turned to the internet, where confused users were posting questions with titles like “Should my battery last more than 6 hours?” and “I think my phone is broken…”

from http://www.betabeat....t-and-got-an-iphone/

42

AutoHotkey / Hide Gui Buttons previously created

« on: July 29, 2011, 07:37 AM »

In a loop I create a bunch of buttons with the following code:
Code:

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. Gui, Add, Button, gButtonDestinationSelect HWNDButtonDestinationSelect%a_index%, %ButtonLabel%

Later on I want to hide/disable all these buttons using GuiControlGet, Hide but I'm not able to 'point' to these buttons, could anyone write a quick example?

43

Living Room / It's Time to Fix Subversion Merge

« on: July 28, 2011, 07:22 AM »

This month we launched a project to fix Subversion merge.  Subversion fills a need for simplicity and team synchronization.  It also has an advantage handling large files and repositories.  However, there is one thing about Subversion that definitely sucks:  Merging.

We've started work with the Apache Subversion team to fix the merge in a way that will be compatible with existing servers and clients.  Once this is released, we will be able to bring great modern workflows to Subversion, including contributor branching and merging, merge requests, code reviews, etc.  We'll future-proof your existing Subversion repository and accelerate your development.

from Assembla blog

44

Living Room / software trials

« on: July 25, 2011, 05:21 AM »

Some software is feature limited, some is time limited, some don't have a demo at all (?). For software that you ended up buying after trying it first, what type of trial did it have?

45

Developer's Corner / md5 / sha1 hashes What's the point?

« on: July 20, 2011, 03:26 AM »

I sometimes see md5/sha1 hashes available to check programs/isos against. What is the point of them?

I know they can be used to verify that the program/software was downloaded without crc errors, but any good installer checks its contents for this before installing, and I've not had any crc errors for years in downloads. Hashes supposedly can tell you if the file has been tampered with, as I read the other day where an author's downloads were manipulated and they said: Always check your hashes. However surely it's trivial to change the webpage where the hash is listed or the hash file itself? How do you know that the person that made the installer and the hash file are the same person and are in fact the correct author of the download? So in my view it's not any help in this area either.

I must be missing something, so I ask: what is a good use of these hashes?

46

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / NANY 2012 Feed and promotion widgets

« on: July 18, 2011, 09:54 AM »

I'm sure you won't want to miss any NANY 2012 updates, so I hacked together the 2012 NANY Feed:
Subscribe here: NANY 2012 Feed

You can find get widgets, JSON data, or even sign up for phone and email alerts if you use the Yahoo Pipe for this feed. Click on other options then email alerts for this.

47

Finished Programs / Host Editor 7 - Hassle free host editing for Win7-XP

« on: July 18, 2011, 09:17 AM »

15:03:50 - me: anyone knows a host editor app that works under windows 7
15:04:51 - me: fed up trying to first find the hosts file, then not being able to save because I again forgot to run notepad with admin privileges.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. ; HostEditor7 - Host Editor that runs under windows XP to windows 7.
2. ; Requires AutoHotkey v1.0.92.01+ and Windows XP or higher (untested)
3. #NoEnv
4. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
5. if not A_IsAdmin
6. {
7.    Run *RunAs "%A_ScriptFullPath%"
8.    ExitApp
9. }
10. Run, notepad.exe %A_WinDir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

48

Living Room / Own your identity

« on: July 12, 2011, 03:40 AM »

Nail. Head.

But all of these proprietary networks that want to own and hold in your content are reversing much of the web’s progress in some other areas, such as the durability and quality of online identity.

If you care about your online presence, you must own it. I do, and that’s why my email address has always been at my own domain, not the domain of any employer or webmail service.

from http://www.marco.org...11/own-your-identity

49

DcUpdater / Minor glitch

« on: July 11, 2011, 08:25 AM »

When you check for updates for a specific program "only show updates for X", it doesn't just show X, then when you uncheck and recheck the checkbox, it only shows the product X. 

Screencast:
http://screencast.com/t/5JkZctBT

50

General Software Discussion / IRC Quote Pong ASCII Cookie problem

« on: July 11, 2011, 06:04 AM »

I'm using Instabird for IRC but I'm having a bit of a problem. When logging on to certain servers I get the following message:

11:59:31 - irc.umich.edu: (notice) To complete your connection to this server, type "/QUOTE PONG :cookie", where cookie is the following ascii.

But the Ascii text is not displayed. I've learned it's PING/PONG cookie anti-spoof protection, but I don't know how that helps me. Maybe an expert IRCer can check out Instabird and help me out?  Perhaps there is an addon / workaround for it but I'm not sure what to search for.

Cheers