Messages

37601

DesktopCoral / Re: DesktopCoral Download

« on: April 13, 2005, 02:34 AM »

i meant to mention this:
if you set opacity to 0, so that its completely invisible,
then you dont see that "barred" sign
and you can treat it like a purely reserved area of normal desktop.

i will look into making multiple areas without having to run sep copy.

i may make a application launch-like tool at some point so those ideas about drag and drop  could be useful for that.

37602

DesktopCoral / DesktopCoral Download

« on: April 13, 2005, 01:05 AM »

New util: DesktopCoral
For more info see the page on it ( https://www.donation...ktopcoral/index.html )

https://www.donation...esktopCoralSetup.exe

37603

Find And Run Robot / Re: Bug or feature?

« on: April 12, 2005, 10:33 PM »

this is a bug; i will try to fix in next version.
The way it works now is it tries to check your start menu "Startup" group.
If it finds itself there, it checks the box, if not the box is unchecked.
When you check the box it adds itself to start menu "Startup" group.

SO, if your seeing the box checked each time you start it, it means its somehow not removing itself from your start menu "Startup" group the way it should be.  for now you can just delete the shortcut manually fromt he startup group in start menu.

37604

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« on: April 12, 2005, 08:29 PM »

ozzy (and anyone else),

i've got a working proof of concept of a util that lets you "reserve" space on a site of the screen.
anyone care to test it?

37605

UrlSnooper / Re: Help with launch

« on: April 12, 2005, 04:05 PM »

there are some tricks to making url snooper work with dialup; search that http://p084.ezboard....m/fstreemeboxvcrfrm4 forum or winpcap site.
and let us know if you get it to work.

37606

General Software Discussion / Re: DirMS and Buzzsaw

« on: April 12, 2005, 10:31 AM »

buzzsaw sounds interesting..

37607

UrlSnooper / Re: Cant use URL snooper

« on: April 12, 2005, 06:38 AM »

the part about  "mms (http format)" refers to an option in streambox vcr.
normally when you paste a url in streambox vcr you tell it that the protocol is "auto" and let it guess it,
but with some you need to manually tell it.  in this case i had to manually specify "mms (http format)",
and i also had to use streambox vcr 1.30 which is better at mms files than the more recent streambox vcr 1.31.
other windows media download tools may be able to download it also.

37608

UrlSnooper / Re: Cant use URL snooper

« on: April 12, 2005, 04:58 AM »

i'm generally really bad at finding the addresses, and the forum address posted in one of the top posts in the forum is the best place to get help for such things, but i found this one using url snooper while playing the video from ifilm site in Windows Media highest quality setting. note that the only way to get this is to run url snooper while the video actually downloads and plays through your browser.  if url snooper wont sniff your network traffic on dialup you'll have to either try the tricks to get dialup to work with url snooper as discussed in the streaming media recording forum or else ask for help on that streaming media recording forum.

mms://ifilm.wmod.llnwd.net/a65/o1/portal/2656367_200.asf
mms (http format)
streambox vcr 1.30 (non turbo)
7.1mb

note that i used streambox vcr 1.30 and had to specify mms (http format) instead of auto.
if you don't know what im talking about, then check the other posts in this section and go visit the streaming media recording forum.

37609

ProcessTamer / Re: perl.exe

« on: April 11, 2005, 01:25 PM »

i'll try to look into this and report back.

37610

ProcessTamer / Re: perl.exe

« on: April 11, 2005, 06:04 AM »

its possible that the process automatically resets its priority so that it can't be changed; i dont think there's anything that can be done about it in this case.

can you change priorities of other processes?
are you logged in as an administrator account?
you're using win2k or winxp?

37611

General Software Discussion / Re: the definitive minimal amount of programs for the greatest security?

« on: April 11, 2005, 04:27 AM »

it's true, a program like Process Guard is to advanced for the average user.

maybe the best security app would be like what mob kept saying, call it: "CommonSensePro Xp"
and all it would do is watch you and if it sees you about to try to open some exe attachment in your email,
or something similarly rescue it would just pop up a giant warning message saying "OMG ARE YOU SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING?!@!#?"

a firewall, an antivirus which updates daily, and avoidance of high rish activities like opening email attachments are the 3 tools you need.

actually we havent mentioned something equally important in terms of security, which is making regular backups -
things do go wrong, whether it be security problem or hd crash, and you need to have regular backups to plan for this inevitability.
getting a virus is not so bad if you have a recent backup to go back to.

37612

Mouser's Zone / Re: Ideas i want to bounce off you guys

« on: April 11, 2005, 02:48 AM »

i have some open source projects, though only one is currently listed at donationcoder.com (mircryption); i will bring the others here too, and i may open source some of my other projects as well.

my approach about this stuff has always been that i want my software to be available to everyone - i'm just trying to encourage those who can donate to donate, and especially encourage people to push past that inertia we all have to not be bothered to take the time to donate if we don't have to; so in this spirit, my attitude has always been that if someone takes the time to contact me and say "i can't donate for this reason" that's good enough for me.  i'm really just trying to reach those people who can donate but can't be bothered to do so unless you motivate them somehow.

37613

General Software Discussion / Re: the definitive minimal amount of programs for the greatest security?

« on: April 10, 2005, 08:26 PM »

That's another thing guys, in my opinion, in order for a security program to be good, it MUST have a support forum where average users can come together and discuss problems and help each other. The software designers will be able to read user comments and problems and keep making the programs better and better. Every single piece of security software I have mentioned throughout this thread has a forum of good, dedicated people... which is a must!

i think that's a really important point.
for most programs having a support forum is a nice bonus but not super important.  for security software its *really* important because they will provide a place where people can discuss possible security risks and weaknesses, which otherwise would go unfixed.

37614

Mouser's Zone / Re: Ideas i want to bounce off you guys

« on: April 10, 2005, 05:43 PM »

clarification:

i think the main issue that i need to figure out is whether such a thing would upset people who download the software and make them say that this was not real freeware/donationware.

37615

Mouser's Zone / Ideas i want to bounce off you guys

« on: April 10, 2005, 05:06 PM »

i've been thinking about some ideas to encourage people to make donations to the site if they are mainly here for the software.
i know this is a sensitive issue but i wanted to bounce some ideas off you guys and see what you think.

the first basic requirement is that the software should always remain free to use. and the second is that members should not be inconvenienced.

one thing i've been trying with process tamer is to make the newest beta release available to members only.
there is something unsatisfying about this, because it means people cant try/use the latest beta unless they are members, and they must either wait for it to come out of beta or else donate (or email me in which case i give out the link).

maybe i should just not worry about this issue at all.. but i was thinking about some other ideas.

here is one idea i had:
use a very simple efficient license keyfile, which would operate like this:
if you a member of the site, you will be able to create a keyfile (as many as you want really), that will go in the directory of the program (in process tamer directory for example), or in some other directory.  this key file will tell the program that it will never expire, and would let you customize the about box and maybe titlebar caption for the program.  so members should experience not the slightest inconvenience other than downloading (only once) a keyfile to put into the program directory.

if you are NOT a member of the site, and just download the program,
it will install and run fine without a license keyfile, but in 30 days you will have to come back to the site to get a new freeware license keyfile.
so a freeware license keyfile will last for 30 days before it needs you to come back and get another one.
but there will be no limit to the time you can get new freeware keyfiles, and there will be no limits to the freeware version.
the only point is to make freeware users come back occasionally to the site where we can ask them to consider donating.

to me this captures the spirit of making the software free and not limited in features, or posessing nags when using the program, while still adding a bit of inconvenience and encouragement to register.

it also means i can make the latest versions normal downloads for everyone, without doing a members only download section.

after some thought about this approach i'm really starting to like it, but i want to hear your opinions.

as always, people who contact me and cannot afford to make a donation would be given member keyfiles.

opinions?
please keep in mind that in an ideal world none of this would be necesary, and i've spend most of my life not worrying about such things, but if I'm to continue spending so much time on this site, I have to figure out some way to encourage people to donate.

37616

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: 30 day trial for VMware Workstation 5

« on: April 10, 2005, 04:47 AM »

thanks for reminding me to add a link and mention about the trial! can't believe i forgot.

37617

BrowserTraySwitch / Features being considered..

« on: April 10, 2005, 01:56 AM »

I'm thinking of adding some features to BrowserTraySwitch that are found in some other tools used for web development.

For example. commands to change size of open browser to a fixed size (to test appearance with certain sized browsers), and perhaps a function to open a given web page in ALL known browsers, to compare rendering..

any other ideas?

37618

Open Source Roundups / Open Source Review #1

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:58 PM »

The DonationCoder.com OpenSource Review #1 can be found here:

https://www.donation...enSource1/index.html

share your thoughts about why you agree or disagree with our awards.. if you disagree, tell us about what program you think should have won.  note: this post is locked - please put comments in new threads.

37619

Best Website Change Monitoring Tool / Website Change Monitoring Review/Award - WebsiteWatcher

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:57 PM »

The DonationCoder.com WebsiteWatcher Review can be found here:

https://www.donation...bWatchers/index.html

share your thoughts about why you agree or disagree with our review.. if you disagree, tell us about what program you think should have won.  note: this post is locked - please put comments in new threads.

37620

Best Virtual Machine Tool / Virtual Machine Tool Review/Award - VmWare Workstation 5

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:56 PM »

The DonationCoder.com VmWare5 Review can be found here:

https://www.donation...alMachine/index.html

share your thoughts about why you agree or disagree with our review.. if you disagree, tell us about what program you think should have won.  note: this post is locked - please put comments in new threads.

37621

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / This weeks review subject changed from Backup Tool to Best Virtual Machine Tool

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:50 PM »

I think posted a while ago that the new release of vmware5 would pre-empt our planned review.  Combined with the recent reviews on other sites of backup tools I thought this would be an even better idea.

37622

General Software Discussion / Re: the definitive minimal amount of programs for the greatest security?

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:38 PM »

it would be nice to hear what users who know about security think about ProcessGuard vs. the competition, since i've heard good things about ProcessGuard..

btw
even though we have the 5 daily columnists i originally planned for, if one or even two (as an alternating pair) of people here feel like they have enough to talk about to do a weekly blog column on security issues, and think it would be fun to do so, i think it would be worthwhile adding a weekend blog.

37623

General Software Discussion / Re: the definitive minimal amount of programs for the greatest security?

« on: April 09, 2005, 08:34 PM »

i think antivirus tools are def. worth installing,
BUT
they do consume cpu scanning every file, and i think a case could definitely be made for NOT installing a resident antivirus, and only using an on-demand antivirus tool, providing you are very careful about not executing programs until you scan them.

on the whole though, i definitely feel safer having a resident antivirus and unless one is playing some top of the line game, the lost cpu cycles are a fair price to pay for some increased safety.

some antivirus programs are easier than others to install in a purely ondemand mode; when we get around to our antivirus recommendations this will be one of the criteria we look at.

37624

Backup Guide / Re: Pre-review discussion of Backup Software

« on: April 09, 2005, 08:31 PM »

thanks for that comment nudone - i really appreciate it.  it's nice when people find a use for a program.

37625

UrlSnooper / Re: Help with URL Snooper

« on: April 09, 2005, 04:18 PM »

There is a program called "Offline Explorer" that has a nice way of telling it numeric ranges like this and then it tries to download them all; it might not be able to download the stream for you but maybe it can find it for you.