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Messages - JoTo [ switch to compact view ]

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26
Hi all,

thank you for your suggestions.

Talkshoe is a bit confusing and needs Quicktime...well, at least possible to manage that. But the most other participants in this video conference will be pure pc zero knowledge people.

Same for Google+...that means everyone need a registration to Google and Google+. Even if this is free, i think that is not applicable here. Thank you anyway for the hint. Never heard of Hangouts...you always can learn something from Doco. :)

I think i can go Jibz recommended way. As most of these people already use Skype and have installed it already and are familiar with. I think i will "donate" a skype premium account to myself *grin* and then i can initiate the video conference from my account. And yes Jibz, the Skype page says "at least ONE must have a premium account". And that can be me. So the others just can use what they already have without fiddling around.

Again i learned something (as a not every day Skype user) that it is possible to have conferences with Skype (audio only even with free account, for video you must have a premium account though). Nice! Thank you!

Nice and easy way found. Will make a test first, before the real conference takes place of course to see if it works good enough. But i think, Skype is so wide spreaded, there should be a bit of rumour if it wont work at all, shouldn't it? :)

If someone still has a recommendation, slap me with it please :) But at least the way to go with Skype is a very convinient way for the participants of the planned conference.

Just if someone is interested in (and to brag a bit :)))) ):
The conference is about planning our sailing trip in May that we will have on the 2-mast sailing ship "Greif". :)

Here is a picture of this ship:

greif.jpg

Greetings
JoTo

27
Greetings dear DoCo's,

i'm in need to find a video conferencing solution for a "meeting" of our countrywide maritime club. For this the following features should be included:

- Multi-participant in a shared conference room (so not a one on one solution, but like an IRC channel, but with audio and video).
- at least Windows platform should be supported (if crossplatform, why not? :) )
- Free for personal/noncommercial use

It doesnt really matter if i need to setup a server myself or if the recommendation goes to a service in the internet (even if self-served is preferred though).

I used the forum search and found SupberboyACs thread: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=23543.0 , but this doesnt fit my needs. Superboy searched for a 1:1 video connection (which e.g. Skype can do), but i need a kind of a "conference room" (everyone sees everyone in the room and everyone can speak to everyone in the room).

If that is not possible, maybe a (not prefered) fallback would be a kind of a "teacher/pupil" system, where one broadcasts video and all others can see it. But audio must be bi-directional though for asking questions and whatnot. A full conference with all video and audio to all others is still my premier goal.

I know i can use google to find (i assume) a gazillion of programs, but i cannot test and compare them all. So maybe if you can help me narrowing the pool of findings a bit to concentrate of some of the hopefully best ones would be great.

Every hint is much, much appreciated. Thanks to my "private think tank" (a.k.s. DonationCoder) again in advance for all the good hints and helping hands.

Greetings
JoTo

28
Hi techidave,

i'm an affecte person myself. I dont have macula degeneration though but suffering from Rethinopathia pigmentosa, which results in nearly the same needs for computer work (black background with bright foreground, big fonts and such).

My experience with flatscreens are, that they are worse from me because new big flatscreens come with gazillion of pixels in resolution. Even if they are big in inches this high resolution degrades the visibility again by displaying even big fonts very tiny. Also, most LED flats have a native resolution (very big) and if you change it to a lower resolution you end up with a blurry display. So for me i stay with tube screens (17" at the moment). But they are difficult to purchase nowadays and they need a lot more of space on desk of course, but if you can grab one i'd recommend such one. They are up to 21" or so in the normal consumer market.

Bigger is not always the solution though. In my case, i need to go very close to the screen with my eyes to see good enough. And when the screen is too big, i cant see the edges of the screen without moving my head left and right (because of the seeing angle which is constrained for my eyes too). Keep that in mind when deciding for a monitor size.

For the cursor. I dont see the idea behind a BLACK cursor with BLACK background. That is strange. Well the same problem occurs when you have a program that uses bright background and have a white cursor. My solution here is, using a multicolor, color-cycling cursor. That one is big and i can spot it everywhere on the screen, nevertheless which background it is on, because the bright colors (Red, blue, yellow) are moving all the time. So i can find the cursor even if i'm not sure, where on the screen it is located at the moment. If your friend is interested, i'd gladly share my curor with him. Just ring my bell.

If you want to get more of my experiences with other utils for visually impaired or blind or exchange informations about programs that are usable (color customizable) and all the other stuff concerning low vision and computer, just contact me again. Or point your friend to me, he is very welcome.

Just 2ct. of a self affected...HTH
Greetings
JoTo

29
Official Announcements / Re: January 2013 Giveaway Winners!
« on: January 22, 2013, 03:15 AM »
Unbelievable! I WON MenuX Pro!

As a person who normally is a looser all the time and when i buy a suit with 2 trousers i for sure then burn the only one jacket of it, you may imagine how surprised and happy i am now.

Wraith and the generous donaters of discounts and free licenses revived my believe in mankind. Hmmm, maybe TOO DRAMATIC! Ok, lets go back to a simple THANK YOU! :)

Greetings
JoTo

30
Hi Ath,

thanks for proofing me NOT being too dumb. :) And thanks for your effort to test.

Greetings
JoTo

31
Crap! Why, if i want to modify my post, the subject is offered as a textbox, but cannot be changed/corrected? It's read only! :( I missed a "w" at "new" in my subject :( Sorry guys but you got the idea. :)

32
Hi DoCos,

in case you missed that:

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Libjpeg-9-improves-lossless-JPEG-compression-1783311.html

Libjpeg 9 improves lossless JPEG compression

The Independent JPEG Group (IJG) at the German Institute for Applied Informatics (InfAI) has released a new version of the libjpeg library. The developers say it can compress photos in JPEG format in a lossless way and, apparently, libjpeg 9 outputs lossless JPEG files that are smaller than the equivalent PNG file of the same image

Better than PNG AND lossless, nice! But what about alpha channel/transparency? Hmmmm...!  :-\

Greetings
JoTo

33
Hi timns,

as always i <3 your games. Everyone with a whistle or bell. Never saw that gameplay before. GREAT WORK!

And best is, its visually impaired friendly. 100% accessible for me when it comes to seeing the tiles (very big what is good). Even with the white background it works for me.

I recommend to follow mousers recommendations. A "let the user do mistakes" would be great and will make the game more difficult (maybe let this be an option to satisfy novice and expert users). Some sound feedback would be nice too and will make the gameplay less "boring". Not much sound though to not disturb concentration, but a click sound for removing a tile and a kind of tadaa at completion would be really nice.

Thank you
JoTo

34
General Software Discussion / Is new Ubuntu 12.10 spyware?
« on: December 10, 2012, 02:24 AM »
Hi Docoders, :)

Richard Stallman, one of the initiators of the GPL claims that the new Ubuntu 12.10 have to be considered as spyware for the integrated search feature that injects findings from amazon even in a local search.

From an article from him at FSF

One of the major advantages of free software is that the community protects users from malicious software. Now Ubuntu GNU/Linux has become a counterexample. What should we do?
...
Ubuntu, a widely used and influential GNU/Linux distribution, has installed surveillance code. When the user searches her own local files for a string using the Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu sends that string to one of Canonical's servers. (Canonical is the company that develops Ubuntu.)
...
Ubuntu uses the information about searches to show the user ads to buy various things from Amazon. Amazon commits many wrongs (see http://stallman.org/amazon.html); by promoting Amazon, Canonical contributes to them. However, the ads are not the core of the problem. The main issue is the spying. Canonical says it does not tell Amazon who searched for what. However, it is just as bad for Canonical to collect your personal information as it would have been for Amazon to collect it.
...
Ubuntu allows users to switch the surveillance off. Clearly Canonical thinks that many Ubuntu users will leave this setting in the default state (on). And many may do so, because it doesn't occur to them to try to do anything about it. Thus, the existence of that switch does not make the surveillance feature ok.
...
If you ever recommend or redistribute GNU/Linux, please remove Ubuntu from the distros you recommend or redistribute. If its practice of installing and recommending nonfree software didn't convince you to stop, let this convince you. In your install fests, in your Software Freedom Day events, in your FLISOL events, don't install or recommend Ubuntu. Instead, tell people that Ubuntu is shunned for spying.

Do we see well known Windows practices now slop over to Linux as well? Welcome to the wonderful modern times. :(

Greetings
JoTo

35
General Software Discussion / Re: Two classes of membership here?
« on: November 14, 2012, 08:18 AM »
Errrrm....mouser our god? WTF?

I thought in all these 6,5 years i'm a member of DonationCoder that mouser is only our WORKHORSE and SERVANT!  ;D  ;D  ;D

I say this and i'm sure my account will not be deleted or the post is censored.  ;D

OOPS! Why has mouser now kick/banned me from the DonationCoder IRC-Channel. CRAP!  ;D

Greetings
JoTo (a.k.a. the forum clown *LOL*)

36
Thanks Ath,

will check that too. Your hints (also in the channel - Eclipse-Colors you remember *wink* *wink*) were always high quality.

Bye
JoTo

37
Hi Renegade,

it IS definitely of any help. :)

I know that i have to decide myself which to choose. But it will narrow the search a bit or at least make me look at the recommended first. If i find one that seems the right one, i don't think i will check another 100 more then. Then i maybe miss the best, but at least i got a good one. :)

No, specific country is not applicable. If we would do this we have to support many, many different systems. Time is money and simplicity and maintainability is time saving and so money saving, which equalize the maybe a bit worse conditions with a non-local provider anyway. :)

Thanks again for your list...will check them now.

Greetings
JoTo

38
Dear Docoders,  ;D

i have no experience in this area and i am facing a gazillion of options that i, for sure, can't check all myself in detail. So i need your help, or better recommendations, to narrow the search a bit.

THE PROBLEM:

We need to offer in our commercial x-ray app a new kind of a purchase plan. A "volume plan" for a specified amount of images exposured. That means the customer should can do an in-app purchase to purchase another 1000, 2000, ... images for which he has to pay x, y, or z $$$. :) Then he can exposure and process that amount of images and if the amount he paid for is running dry, he have to purchase another "amount package" and so on.

For this to accomplish, we need a kind of a payment service provider, that accepts all major credit card brands and also handles things that are important for business customers correctly (e.g. correct VAT following the customers country laws and a correct PDF invoice blah blah). That service should be at least available to customers in whole europe, even better if it is working worldwide (but not a prerequisite for the time i write this beg).

The purchase should be possible via an in-app purchase without needing the customer to open the browser and visit the service providers webpage (if this is possible - if not we have to accept of opening a browser, but the former is preferred). So a kind of web api for the service would be great. As we are developing the x-ray app in full ourselves, we can develop a module that can contact webpages, interpret the results sent by the services webserver and whatnot. The process just should be a stable and reliable for mostly unattended processing. If the purchase is complete and verified by the service provider, we need to get a notice from the provider in any way that we can process this in our house mostly automatically too (e.g. sending the customer a new license file, creating an invoice for the customer, blah blah).

Last thing to watch out for is of course the price (the fees) that the service provider will bill for his efforts. Okay, if he offers a better and seamless api/service then a higher fee is acceptable of course. But still, as lower as best. :)

So i kindly ask for recommendations what service providers i maybe shall check. Anyone here have experiences with billing providers on the web with his online-shop or whatnot and can share a recommendation or his experience? If i don't ask for too much, maybe one or two short lines which services, from my above mentioned points, i can expect from them, would be really a premium, superawesome, hypermega recommendation. :)

Out of the head comes to mind DigitalRiver and Paypal which i will first check now while i'm patiently waiting for the results of my most loved and useful think tank in the universe (the Doco forum :) ). But every other hint is also very much appreciated.

So let the recommendations coming! :)

Greetings, your grateful
JoTo

39
Thank you Ennovy for the notice. I'd have missed that for sure!

PowerPro, a mess to configure, but still the most useable multi purpose utility :).

Greetings
JoTo

40
Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?
« on: August 02, 2012, 02:13 AM »
Hi mousie,

well, my experience shows me that an electronic device has the following lifetime failure curve: Either its DOA (death on arrival) or it will break after the first few days/weeks of use. If that period is passed, the electronic device works reliable as long as no external desasters (shock, overvoltage) takes place. This period will last very long and mostly i exchange the whole pc before that electronic device will brake.

Normal HDDs (not SSDs) are a bit of another story, as they contain, beside the electronic, mechanical parts (spinning plates, hopping heads). That means that the electronic part of a hdd follows the lifecycle i mentioned above, while the mechanic parts suffer more and more and wear out from steady use.

So it looks in the first place a good idea to exhcange HDDs regularly before fail. But this inherits another danger to run into an electronic failure of a new HDD and you still don't have the guarantee, that the mechanic parts of the new HDD will work as expected. And this counterparts the idea of pre-emptive exchange of HDDs.

IMO from my 25 years experience in IT business (handling also technical problems - incl. hardware failures - of customers on the support line), it makes no sense to exchange in advance. Keep good backups and use a raid system (what we do with our customers) which enables you to nearly hot-plug-exchange a failed HDD within only minutes of outage of the system without any data loss. Then run the HDDs until they brake again. That saves money and resources too.

Of course, if any symptoms arise (bad blocks etc.) even if the HDD is still working fine (except that infrequent little glitches), that is a sure sign to exchange the HDD IMMEDIATELY!

Just my 2ct.

Greetings
JoTo

41
Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: OpalCalc 1.43
« on: July 12, 2012, 01:50 AM »
Hi all,

wow, a wonderful helper for daily work. Purchased it immediate after tested it for 10 minutes.

The author is very kind and responsive (also by eMail and with odd wishes like mine :) ). And his license behaviour is very free.

GREAT APP! Worth every penny. Please guys think about a donation. I want that this piece of software will go on with development for a long time.

Greetings
JoTo

42
Hi there,

+1 from me for AutoIt. You can get your hands on windows and controls of every standard GUI app. You can modify it or send messages to interact. You can simulate keypresses and mouseclicks. You can also use ever WINAPI function or 3rd party DLL functions too.

AHK can do the same too.

Why i prefer AutoIt? Because AutoIt is a "real programming language" and not a syntax mess like AHK. Sorry, AHK lovers. But maintainability of AHK scripts are a real pain with that cryptic syntax, while AutoIt looks more like a standard programming language.

Where AHK shows its strength is, when it comes to do really geeky things. I saw a few things done in AHK i was not able to reproduce very easily (without using WinAPI or whatever) in AutoIt. But still i prefer readabilty and easy syntax over geekiness.

Just my 2ct.
JoTo

43
Living Room / Re: Seeking: Customised playlist for video promo
« on: April 26, 2012, 06:14 AM »
Hi Ampa,

i have not digged deeper in this, but it seems JWPlayer 5.9+ should have this feature.

See this closed ticket on the developer bugtracker of LongTailVideos JWPlayer.

http://developer.longtailvideo.com/trac/ticket/1183

It may or may not help you in this problem, but maybe worth a look because the ticket is closed with "FIXED" status?

Greetings
JoTo

44
Hi db90h,

sorry i don't get your point.

A donation is at your free will, with no obligation at all. Neither for you, nor for the recipient of the donation. It's not a contract like in a business where you order, pay in advance and get what you ordered. So i don't see a right to have a look in the books or command what the donations have to be used for. EXCEPT if there is a special donation event (like the one we did in the past for collecting donations to give it to the AHK author and such - THAT donations are entrusted for a specific purpose and should only be used for the announced purpose of course).

Also, i see it more, that donations are for the PAST. For the hint i got from a member, for the work a member did, for an app i got from a member, for the work a member did. Notice past tense here! Of course a donation is an invest in the future too (motivation to go into a certain direction or whatnot), but there is still no way to force something by donations.

I agree of course, that if there are certain points where a good hint can help to save money (e.g. the server costs - suggesting a cheaper solution) is always welcome and should be followed if appropriate. But i think mouser would be the last person that refuses to follow a good advice, if all aspects fit our needs. But keep in mind: Price is not the whole picture. I just want to throw in speed, bandwidth, reliability, space and features, that are a few facts that matter too for a server; beside the price. A good tradeoff must be found here. And last but not least...a switch means work, and maybe a lot of work...so that should be counted in too. Mouser works voluntarily for DC and so he have to make the work in his free time. Nobody should and can't force him to do anything. He is our buddy and not our staff or servant!

Also, have you already noticed, that all donations made to DC are added to the members account as Credits (minus the money transfer fees of course)? And that the donating member can distribute that credits at his own will among other members, which, on the other side, are allowed to get the money paid out again? I don't know how often this happens and, to be honest, i'm not interested to know it either, but you have to subtract these sums from the assumed "income" of DC too.

Of course you could always decide to not donate anymore. That is the only way you can influence the way the money is spent and where the site will go. If the majority of the members agree with you, the mass will "force" mouser either to follow or fold DC. But that's again HIS decision, not ours.

Nevertheless, i'm very satisfied how DC is and what mouser do. I trust in him and i'm confident that he is a honest guy that stands behind the "donation" idea that is the tenor of DonationCoder site. And if i look back in the past, i still got more out of DC than i donated. Not all countable in money, but also in good ideas, time savings and last but not least in a whole bunch of hours of fun in good company. How would you account the fun factor in money? I can't!

And to prevent any sceptical repiles in advance:
Of course i get now $1000 from mouser out of the precious donations pot for saying and writing this post. I hope all members find this usage of the money very appropriate. :)

(And i hope too all readers have noticed that this last paragraph was pure joking and deep cynism!)

Just my 2ct. DC forever! WOOHOO!
Greetings
JoTo

45
Mousiiiiiiieeeee,

wow, awesome and informative videos. Love the new features of SC. Also the "capture all childs automagically" feature is very helpful for us when we are writing our manuals and documentations.

WOOHOO!
JoTo

46
Living Room / Re: IRLDD NYC - Martin and app103
« on: February 08, 2012, 03:04 AM »
It's every time awesome if 2 (or more) DoCo's meet in RL. I am glad you enjoyed your meeting.

I am just unsure if i wanted to have asian food, when i'd visit the USA. I may prefer more "american specialities" instead. But every child should get the balloon in the color it wishes, shouldn't it? :)

Nota Bene: I LOVE asian food. So THAT's not the point, eh! And "plenty of it", as App said, sounds very good to me. *LOL*

The great thing but also the sad side of DonationCoder is, that all my long time fellow DoCos are spread world wide and so far away to have a regular RLDD. I think "beaming" from StarTrek needs to be invented ASAP to make this possible. :)

Looking forward for more shared reports of DoCo-RLDDs. Thank you App.

WOOOHOOO!
JoTo

47
Hi Cranoscopical,

yes i thought about wearing my short cheerleader skirt and waving with my Pon-Pons while the image was taken, but i haven't had my cheerleader outfit right handy. And it would have been much more awkward too, because that photo was taken in my office by a teammate. Imagine the face impressions of our staff. EEEEK! :D

Beside this, a jump of me, with my weight, would have started an earthquake at Ehtyars, LRS, Lanux and Ewemoas home (opposite side of the globe). We would have lost 4 important and regular DoCo IRC channel members. That risk i was not willing to take. :)

Can now please someone else post another image so we can switch the discussion from my image to his/her one? :) TYIA!

Greetings
JoTo

48
Hi Ath,

Hahahahahaha, good idea! Will do that next time. :)

No, its me in real.

Greetings
JoTo

49
Hi DoCo's,

WOOOHOOO! My mousepads arrived yesterday in Germany. Thanks also to the sponsors.

Here is my proof of ownership. :)

JT_Nany2012Gift.jpg
(The proud N.A.N.Y. 2012 participant with his rare and special mousepad.
HINT: Ignore the ugly person but notice the nice pad! *LOL*)

CU at N.A.N.Y. 2013 (and until then on forum and in IRC channel) :)

Greetings
JoTo

50
Thanks to Kyrabatha for his great work. And mouser too, of course. Also thanks going to the Screencast makers and all the visitors that are reading, using and enjoying our NANY apps. Last but not least a big hooray to all the co-programdevelopers that made the NANY 2012 a success again.

Now let's looking forward to NANY 2013! :)

Greetings
JoTo

PS:
And the most important question is: WHERE IS MY MUG, and what picture would be on it? :)
<eagerly waiting> Hehehehehe!

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