Topics

51

Found Deals and Discounts / [Expired] 15% discount on Avira AntiVirus

« on: July 05, 2011, 05:37 AM »

I got an email today about Avira antivirus as an existing customer - maybe this is interesting to some of you. If you are thinking of buying it and want 15% discount, send me your email and I will be able to "recommend a friend". (If you buy it then I get 90 days extension on my license). I run it on all my pcs at the moment.

For: In my view it's one of the more resource inextensive antivirus programs, it comes out consistently in the top end of antivirus tests for the several years. Inexpensive. Does its job.
Against: It is a bit hyperactive on "generic trojan" hits, although on the false positives tests it scores midtable, I rather have an antivirus that triggers more rather than not enough. Rather not have to run any antivirus

Anyways, let me know. More info here.

52

Living Room / Reminder Bear - Single Use Bookmarks

« on: July 05, 2011, 04:52 AM »

I love this webservice.  You know you sometimes want to revisit a page in a while to see what's changed or if something has been added to a discussion? Maybe you're waiting for a beta to open or you have posted to a forum that doesn't have topic notification (or it is a regular website). Simply click the reminder bear bookmark and customize when you want to get an email reminding you off the page. It's like a disposable bookmark, and lets you get on with more important things. I find it very liberating, try it out yourself.

Reminder Bear is a service that lets you create single-use bookmarks. Save a page with the bookmarklet, and Reminder Bear will email it to you a week later.

Or you can easily customize your reminder time using the overlay panel.

from HackerNews

53

General Software Discussion / Sticking to TODO software

« on: July 05, 2011, 04:34 AM »

I was thinking about Todo programs and why I can never really stick to them - I have tried nearly everything from ActionLists for iPhone (great software) to writing my own JustToDoIt but I cannot get it to become part of my daily workflow.

In addition I noticed that it can be hard to start working on bigger projects, things that take longer than a day to complete. IMHO larger projects need to be broken down into smaller pieces. It's hard to wrap your head around a two-week project with no obvious starting point.

So why is there no TODO app that only lets you work on tasks that you can finish within the allocated workday? If you have 8 hours left on your project but only 3 hours in the day, you need to break down the 8 hour project into something you can finish. Finishing tasks is what keeps you motivated right?

54

General Software Discussion / DOS Batch Functions Tutorial

« on: June 16, 2011, 09:44 AM »

As part of the development of an app, I'm doing the build process using the batch file. I might write a bit more about this at a later date. As the batch file grew I was wondering if it could do functions, to avoid using the same code multiple times. This page is a really good resource (http://www.dostips.c.../DtTutoFunctions.php):

55

Finished Programs / DONE: HashReplace - Replace all files with identical contents

« on: June 15, 2011, 07:42 AM »

What it does:
Replace all files in a folder with identical filename AND SHA1 hash as original.file with new.file.

Use Cases
Say I have updated the contents of a php file that is used multiple times throughout my project, and now I want all other copies of that file to be updated as well.
In most cases the following code would work:

Code: Text [Select]

1. replace some_file.php c:\projects\example_project

However if the file is readme.txt or config.php for example, then you'd have overwritten many wrong copies. Using HashReplace only files with the same name and same contents will be overwritten with the new contents.

Download
Source, Executable and Test files

56

Developer's Corner / Backpager, an online web editor

« on: June 07, 2011, 07:13 AM »

Over the last day I put together Backpager. Backpager is an online Markdown editor. You can use Backpager as an WYSIWYG Markdown editor (obviously) because the syntax is converted on the fly. You can also use it when you quickly need to write some HTML. This makes it very suitable for uses like:

* web content editing
* writing technical documentation

It might not do too much yet but I'd like to hear your ideas and comments on how to improve it. It's put together with WMD-new, Jquery-ui and Minify URI Builder and a little sprinkle of css/jss/php/htaccess. Over the last few weeks I have been writing installation documentation and combining shell commands, textfile content and instructions just gets confused/messy very quick. This should make it easier. Note: If you use Internet Explorer the experience will be less than ideal.

Site: Backpager

57

General Software Discussion / 15+ useful Chrome Extensions you might not have heard of

« on: June 06, 2011, 07:30 AM »

Practicing my link-bait marketing headlines On a more serious note, over the months I have curated a nice list of very useful Google Chrome Extensions so I thought some of these might be useful for you, they can be very handy in specific situations.

58

DcUpdater / Make_versioninfo.ahk - Generate versioninfo.xml

« on: May 30, 2011, 05:10 AM »

Made a very simple script that you can use as part of the build process of your app, if it uses DcUpdater.

Purpose: Generate the DcUpdater's versioninfo.xml ready for uploading. You probably already store the product version somewhere, so just pass the product version to the app:

Call it as follows (example if your product version is 1.2.3.4):

Code: Text [Select]

1. make_versioninfo.ahk 1.2.3.4

this will generate a _versioninfo.xml with today's date:

Code: Text [Select]

1. <?xml version="1.0"?>
2. <root>
3.         <Program_Version>1.2.3.4</Program_Version>
4.         <Program_Release_Month>05</Program_Release_Month>
5.         <Program_Release_Day>30</Program_Release_Day>
6.         <Program_Release_Year>2011</Program_Release_Year>
7. </root>

Save the following text as versioninfo.xml:

Code: Text [Select]

1. <?xml version="1.0"?>
2. <root>
3.         <Program_Version>$ProgramVersion$</Program_Version>
4.         <Program_Release_Month>$ProgramReleaseMonth$</Program_Release_Month>
5.         <Program_Release_Day>$ProgramReleaseDay$</Program_Release_Day>
6.         <Program_Release_Year>$ProgramReleaseYear$</Program_Release_Year>
7. </root>

Save the following code as make_versioninfo.ahk:

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv
2. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
3. if 0 < 1
4. {
5.     MsgBox This script requires at least 1 incoming parameter(s) but it only received %0%.
6.     ExitApp
7. }
8. FileRead, vf, versioninfo.xml
9. FormatTime, ProgramReleaseMonth,, MM
10. FormatTime, ProgramReleaseDay,, dd
11. FormatTime, ProgramReleaseYear,, yyyy
12.  
13. StringReplace, vf, vf, $ProgramVersion$, %1%
14. StringReplace, vf, vf, $ProgramReleaseMonth$, %ProgramReleaseMonth%
15. StringReplace, vf, vf, $ProgramReleaseDay$, %ProgramReleaseDay%
16. StringReplace, vf, vf, $ProgramReleaseYear$, %ProgramReleaseYear%
17. FileDelete, _versioninfo.xml
18. FileAppend,%vf%,_versioninfo.xml

59

DcUpdater / Run program after update?

« on: May 26, 2011, 07:00 AM »

a) Is it possible to run a program after downloading an 'unzip' type update? The zip file would contain a program that I want to start after unzipping.
b) If instead I use the Run updatemethod, how do i pass parameters to my setup file so that I can run it silently?

60

General Software Discussion / Webshop for 1 product / Selling Software

« on: May 18, 2011, 05:39 AM »

I'm aware of various ecommerce solutions for starting a store, however what I haven't seen much of is solutions for selling a software product. ie 1 product store.

I'm no stranger in creating websites but the whole payment/ordering thing I'm sure is better taken care of by a third party solution. Can anyone point me to a good place to start?

61

General Software Discussion / Minimizing Windows XP harddrive access

« on: January 10, 2011, 06:48 AM »

Wrote up this article after spending a few days trying to get a netbook performing. Thought some of you on here might find it useful either for yourself or for a relative. Feedback is welcome.

Recently I had to prepare a Windows XP installation on a netbook with a very slow SSD so I went looking for tips on how to speed up Windows by minimizing the amount of data it writes to the harddrive. Linux OSes like Ubuntu Netbook Edition or Jolicloud are much speedier but they're not always an option.
There are many sites with tips but as always it's important to seperate the chaff from the corn as tips are usually posted without any verification if they make the system faster or just add issues. So, the following quick tips helped me make the system more bearable.

http://bardybard.pos...-xp-harddrive-access

62

General Software Discussion / Web alternative to Scrapbook extension?

« on: December 15, 2010, 03:26 AM »

I'm looking for a web app service that allows me to save complete webpages for future use (things like tutorials etc) so that they can be accessed after the original site has gone. I was originally using Scrapbook and Zotero but I do not want to deal with the hassles of a desktop software product, plus I want to access it from 2 pcs (bonus for iphone access). Any ideas?

In case you don't know any of these programs, you 'bookmark' a page and the contents of the page + all assets get saved and can be viewed again at a later date. It's also important to find keywords through all saved pages with a single search. Usually there are groups or catagories to relate multiple captures together.

63

General Software Discussion / Crashplan backup software

« on: October 26, 2010, 06:09 AM »

Didn't find a dedicated topic to this very good piece of software, Crashplan. I have used many backup programs in the past and this one is the best I have tried. It's like Mozy, however with a spare harddrive or NAS you can use the free version to backup multiple pcs to that instead. Attach a drive, specify it as the destination, and let it go. It will even email you when it was 3 or more days that a backup last took place. You can even backup your friends/relative's pc on your datastore (encrypted of course).

If you have a local backup (say at home), then reattach the drive on a different pc at a different location (say at work), having Crashplan installed on both will allow you to continue the backup with only the differences being sent over the net.

Good readup at Lifehacker

64

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / NANY 2011 Release: Bard - Organise your audio library

« on: October 25, 2010, 10:48 AM »

NANY 2011 Entry Information

Application Name	BARD
Version	0.4.0.1
Short Description	Organise your audio library
Supported OSes	Windows
Download	Latest version or see enclosed file for NANY entry
Web Page	http://getbard.com
Author	Justice

Description
Bard uses move/copy operations to quickly organise your audio files into
favourite folders. You can specifiy an 'unlimited' amount of folders
which can all be used to sort audio to with one click. Other basic file
operations such as renaming, deletion of audio is also supported.

In the extras folder you will find a small utility to create a basic
audio library structure for you.
Supported audio formats are wave/mp3/aiff.



Screenshots



Usage
Installation
Portable

Using the Application
Start the program. Use the [...] button to browse to your audio library. Simply select a file to play it back.
Then add destination folders using the [+] button. Both of these are
saved for subsequent sessions. Select audio from the left list and sort
them by pressing a folder button on the right.

You can toggle the operation button [Move] to switch between move and
copy, so that existing projects will not lose any audio. You can also
right click audio and delete to the Recycle Bin. You can sort selected
audio into the first 9 folders by pressing 1-9 on your keyboard or
numpad.

If any audio already exists in the destination folder you will be asked
to rename it. You can rename it to a folder that does not exists, which
will then be created for you. Keep the filename to overwrite the
destination.

Uninstallation
Portable

Thanks to Erratech and inaudible from NuSkoolBreaks forum and the one and only mouser for ideas and feedback.

65

Finished Programs / InstaPlay - instant sound player

« on: October 21, 2010, 08:12 AM »

so to clarify:

The entire point of InstaPlay is for you to associate your music files to it so that when you double click the music file in your normal windows explorer, you get a quick preview of the sound.

If you don't know for sure that this is what you want, then you probably don't want InstaPlay -- it's something that will be specifically useful to only a certain group of people, and could be confusing to others.

But if you want a stand alone gui for browsing and previewing sound files, which doesn't require file association changes, check out Justice's other program, Bard.

-mouser (November 11, 2010, 05:28 PM)

As a hobbyist music producer, I have a lot of samples of sounds. As I have decided to start organising these, I needed a quick way to fire off samples in wav and mp3 format through Windows Explorer.

So I created InstaPlay. This is a simple sound player. To install it simply unzip it in a directory that’s in the path, and then associate wav and mp3 files (and whatever else you want to use) with it.  It also has a few features:

Just double click or run a soundfile to hear it play.
Nice speaker icon in system tray while a sound is playing. Double click it to quit InstaPlay and stop playback.
Run  another sound file to switch playback to that instead.

This program will help you categorize more efficiently as you can move the sound that’s being played without pesky ‘file in use’ prompts.

Download
Download Info + link

bard related info

Possible future version:

66

Living Room / Researcher Claims 'Evercookie' Can't Be Removed

« on: September 23, 2010, 10:22 AM »

Evercookie takes a shotgun approach to cookie creation, in the hopes of maintaining persistence on endpoints. In addition to creating a standard HTTP cookie, Evercookie stores client specific information in other locations that are accessible by most common Web browsers including local shared objects (LSOs) created by Adobe's Flash technology. It also leverages a number of HTML extensions introduced with HTML5, the newest specification for the Web's main authoring language. HTML5 Session Storage, HTML5 Local Storage and HTML5 Global Storage are all leveraged to store cookie data. HTML5's new Canvas tag is used to read cookie data stored in the RGB values of PNG format files.

from Tweakers.net

67

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / NANY 2011 Withdrawn: Backup Verification Utility

« on: September 03, 2010, 06:12 AM »

This project has been cancelled and taken up by another Entrant (thanks Wraith  ). Please see: NANY 2011 Pledge: Backup Verification Utility

NANY 2011 Entry Information

Application Name	Backup Verification Utility
Version	0
Short Description	Utility that checks a series of files for backup specific verification rules.n
Supported OSes	Windows
Web Page	-
Download Link	-
Version History	A list of the (ongoing) version history
Author	Justice

Description
 Utility that checks a series of files for backup specific verification rules. It can inform you when files do and do not meet these criteria so you can take action. I'll try and licence it to my work place to initially check backups have completed.

Features

• Free for personal use , computers on a domain require a licence.
• Extensive documentation

Planned Features
• The following rules can be used:
   ? Verify a file exists
   ? Verify a file is above certain size
   ? Verify a file is around certain size (with custom deviation)
   ? Verify a file's checksum matches a specified value
   ? Verify a file has been modified  in the last x days, weeks
   ? Verify  these criteria for individual files or a file list in csv format
• Send report on failing criteria
   ? To DB
   ? To email
   ? To logfile
• License system based on domain name.
• Alway send report toggle (even when no failures)
• DcUpdater integrated



Screenshots
-

Usage
Installation
Portable

Using the Application
A brief description of how a user will use the Application. What tips does a user need to get going?

Uninstallation
Portable

Known Issues
-

68

Living Room / Copy and paste workflow tip

« on: August 12, 2010, 07:41 AM »

If you copy and paste a lot of information this workflow might be useful for you. It makes my work a lot easier.

You will need:

• A clipboard monitoring program, like Arsclip or Mouser's Clipboard Help+Spell
• A mouse with 2 side buttons, such as Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000

Using your mouse software, set the first side button to Copy (ctrl-c) and the second button to Paste (ctrl-v). Now set the hotkey of your clipboard monitoring program's popup to ctrl-alt-v. You already use the mouse to select text to be copied so this saves you a lot of time. As a result you can copy and paste text between windows quickly using just the mouse. You can also quickly copy multiple items in succession and use ALT + side button 2 to bring up the list of copied items with minimum effort.

An improvement to this solution would be if you could use a quick press to paste and a long press to invoke the clipboard program, and not needing the keyboard. However MS intellitype invokes ctrl-v on RELEASE and not on press, so I cannot built an autohotkey script to check how long the key is pressed down.

Hope you'll find this useful.

BTW, i'm happy to turn this into a general workflow tips - there's always many articles on individual pieces (hotkeys, programs) but not enough on a nice solution that consist of a total workflow.

69

General Software Discussion / Experiences selling digital downloads?

« on: August 04, 2010, 04:49 AM »

Hi, I'm thinking to setup a small shop selling digital downloads for change (think app store prices). I'm looking into the whole distribution question (paypal helps you setup the buy buttons but that does not make the download securely available).  Initially I was hoping to integrate it all in my existing website, but now I'm considering a secure download area - but not looking for a ecommerce shop, just an easy to use solution that takes care of the from payment onwards part of the process. Was thinking of using paypal but these solutions also charge a hefty sum which means not much money left, so this is a problem for me too.

Does anyone have any experience in such things and could give me some pointers?

Found the stuff below in case others are looking for it:
https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/solutions_dgd
DigiVendor - seems like an interesting candidate.
Prestashop - an open source solution
Brad Sucks Digital Download Store - Found a solution written by an artist looking for someting similar primarily focused on digital downloads, checking it out right now.

70

Finished Programs / ReRun - Run a program repeatedly on hotkey

« on: August 03, 2010, 05:19 AM »

When a certain hotkey is pressed, ReRun asks you for a program and runs it. From then on, everytime this hotkey is pressed, the program is run again.

This is useful if you working to improve a script/ ahk file / batch file and need to test it repeatedly, or are needing to manually compile/deploy/run commands repeatedly. Using rerun is faster than finding the active window and clicking on a program to launch it.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. ; Change line 6 to a new hotkey: see http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Hotkeys.htm#symbols
2.  
3. #NoEnv
4. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
5. §::
6. if program =
7.         FileSelectFile, program, 3, , Open a file, Programs (*.bat; *.com; *.exe)
8. if program <>  
9. {
10.         SplitPath, program ,, OutDir
11.         SetWorkingDir %OutDir%
12.         RunWait, %program%
13. }
14. return

Note: the default hotkey is §, which is handy if you have a mac uk keyboard, but annoying if you don't. So change the start of line 5.

71

Finished Programs / Frep - commandline find and replace

« on: August 02, 2010, 04:22 AM »

Needed a small utility to use in batch files to find and replace text in a file.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
2. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
3. TheFile = %1%
4. TheSearch = %2%
5. TheReplace = %3%
6. if 0 < 3
7. {
8.     MsgBox This script requires at least 3 incoming parameters but it only received %0%.
9.     ExitApp
10. }
11. FileRead, Contents, %TheFile%
12. StringReplace, Contents, Contents, %TheSearch%, %TheReplace%, A
13. FileDelete, %TheFile%
14. FileAppend, %Contents%,  %TheFile%
15. Contents =

An example:

[Select]

>type test.txt
greg is a lovely guy
>frep test.txt greg john
>type test.txt
john is a lovely guy

I'm using it for a tiny templating engine for CSS files

72

General Software Discussion / Great utility FTPSync

« on: March 09, 2010, 04:24 AM »

I'm discovered the following gem to automatically sync my coding changes to a test server over ftp. This utility uses ini files to configure source and destination then sync any changes after running it. Just add it to post-commit hook with subversion or mercurial.  Great documentation

Synchronize two FTP sites or local directories. FTPSync is useful for updating your home page or corporate web site, maintaining an off-site backup, maintaining web site mirrors, etc.

Main features
    * supports UNIX, Microsoft, IBM and Novell type FTP servers
    * only new or changed files are transferred
    * console type application that can be easily executed from various schedulers and batch files
    * FTPSync is intended for computer experts - it has no user interface, so users must know how to edit standard Windows INI files. Synchronization can be configured on the fly from batch files or other applications, making it a convenient tools when sync authomation is required.
    * Brandable version available for bundling with other products.

73

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Ratemyava - Second Life avatar rating game

« on: February 23, 2010, 03:51 AM »

And now for something completely different  You might know SecondLife, the 3d virtual world where everything you see is created by people like you and me. It has a powerful scripting language LSL (now compiled with mono), inbuilt payment system and inworld 3d building options and a virtual economy where you can convert dollars to lindens and vice versa. So, a great way to start a low risk enterprise trying to make a bit of spending money. Anyways, dressing up avatars & being social for those that can and can't in the real world is a popular thing to do inworld. There's also a big music scene.

RateMyAva is an interactive social game to play with 2 or more people. We created a RateMyAva Board that you can hang in your home/club/hangout. Vote on the pictures of residents nearby. All votes register towards weekly online charts with top prizes sponsored by creators around SecondLife! Who's popular or generous? What do other people think of your new profile picture?

It's easy to play, and requires zero setup. We already have new developments in the pipeline! See http://ratemyava.com for more info. Available in the main SHX shop.
FEATURES
* easy to play, designed for ease of use
* zero setup, just rez
* only 0.02ms script time and 10 prims
* ongoing updates adding major free features to both website and board
* central weekly and alltime leaderboards in multiple categories
* personal profile with your ranking
* search facility to find your friends
* knowledgebase and suggestion board
* weekly + on rez update checks so you know when there's new features

ABOUT RATEMYAVA.COM
It's not just another profileviewer! RateMyAva is a game that is played with people live across the grid! Because all boards are connected, everytime someone is rated their scores are sent to http://ratemyava.com, where scores are saved into highscore lists! You can see how well you and yours friends do, and how your rating improves as you change your avatar + profile. We have charts to compare against others in various aspects plus a top spot in every chart complete with weekly prizes!

74

General Software Discussion / Free Knowledgebase software

« on: January 15, 2010, 09:05 AM »

I'm soon launching a personal project and I'd like to setup a knowledge base system for common problems. I've seen the kb my host uses and I also like the one on Beatport which looks amazing. However I can't find very many online that are php and free. My host uses cPanel and they don't offer any solutions. DonationCoder uses a nice system from KnowledgebasePublisher but it's not free and I have no budget for it.

Should I just go with any blog software and use it as if it is a knowledge base? Unfortunately I don't have the time to create a theme for wordpress.

edit:
I just realised some people call this FAQ software. Found a few examples of this but nothing like my examples above.

75

General Software Discussion / Data integrity on longer term storage

« on: December 01, 2009, 06:54 AM »

Okay I have data stored on an external harddrive not because it's a backup of data I am using but for longer term storage. (i think this is called archiving?). Now I am looking to create some par2 files and a checksum so I can keep the data integrity ok. Is this a good way to prevent problems with the data or are there better ways?

(yes at some point the drive will fail - can't really do anything about that atm)