Messages

4026

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

« on: March 23, 2005, 01:46 PM »

i guess you're right. i just get into habits of doing things in certain ways for no reason (or at least not a good reason).

i use xplorer² which has the ability to show hidden things without taking any notice of what windows explorer is set to do so i should just use that really.

directory opus looks like the best file browser i've seen - not cheap though. i suppose if i was going to use one file browser all the time then it would be that one and the price would be worth it.

i suppose it's more of an esthetic thing for me. a lot of the time i just want a window/folder to show the files within it without all extra buttons and panes surrounding them.

i'm beginning to weird myself out just thinking why it matters so much to me.

4027

General Review Discussion / Re: What categories should we review next?

« on: March 23, 2005, 01:28 PM »

tried antivir - now gone back to avg. and like a fool i can't even remember what the reason was now - it was only a couple of days ago.

ah yes, just remembered - i noticed that whilst antivir was running there was extra network activity going on. i assumed it was downloading in the background even though i'm sure i hadn't selected it to do so.

it was definately antivir that was doing it as i kept turning it off and on to check the difference. it's not a big thing but i just found it annoying.

4028

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

« on: March 22, 2005, 12:19 PM »

just an idea for another quick time saving type program - if it would be worth coding.

it takes five clicks to change the view in windows explorer to show or hide 'hidden files and folders' and i'm sure i can't be the only person who changes it back from one view to the other quite regularly.

wouldn't it be nice to have a button alongside the other buttons in windows explorer that did the same show or hide function.

i know i could use another type of file manager that probably has this kind of capability but i know i would still end up using the default windows explorer as well.

i use a little program that adds a 'create new folder' button on the explorer window so i know this sort of thing is possible (also allows a quick tap of the F12 key to create a new folder).

(i'll be running through a list of these sort of little enhancement utils in my column, as i think they enhance the windows user interface - can't quite understand why they weren't included by microsoft in the first place.)

4029

Drag&Drop Robot / Re: any drag&drop users?

« on: March 22, 2005, 09:55 AM »

just tried to post a long message and it timed out and i've lost it all - i'll try and be quicker this time.

can you make drag&drop incorporate a kind of shortcut option. like the droplet feature in photoshop.

as an example:

i've regularly got a list of files that need there extension changing to another type. i use a renaming program to do this but it would be better if i had an icon, say on my desktop, that i could just drop the files or folder onto that would then invoke drag&drop and carry out the required action.

this way a user could set up several 'shortcut' icons, placed about their system that they could just drag and drop files or folders onto and specific batch file operations would be carried out depending on what 'shortcut' it was.

i hope that makes sense.

i might be trying to reinvent the wheel but i've not seen any program that does it and drag&drop is half way there to doing it.

4030

General Review Discussion / Re: What categories should we review next?

« on: March 22, 2005, 05:22 AM »

can't think of a standalone favorites manager off the top of my head but you might find these useful...

am-deadlink http://www.aignes.com/ great for checking deadlinks in your favorites list (also can download the webpage address icons for you if they are broken).

favourites to html http://www.jonessoft.co.uk/ will create an html page for you with all your favorites set out with a nicely formatted folder structure.

ie favorites extractor http://belkasoft.com/?fe similar to the above but outputs to different file formats.

these are all free too. 

quick edit - just looked at Belkasoft - they have a program called 'LinksManager' which looks like it would do what you are after. i've not tried it though.

4031

Living Room / Re: An idea for "Columnist Corner" - read in please

« on: March 21, 2005, 12:23 PM »

next tuesday will be fine with me.

4032

Living Room / Re: An idea for "Columnist Corner" - read in please

« on: March 21, 2005, 08:27 AM »

  oh, that is sooooo cool. thanks for that mouser. i hope i can provide an interesting read.

i see that i'm scheduled for tuesday - will that be tomorrow or next week.

4033

Best File/Folder Compare Tool / Re: What did you think of the review?

« on: March 21, 2005, 08:22 AM »

maybe macromedia are just hoping that you'll use flash to do the final stages of the captivate project. i think i'm right in saying that you can import captivate files into flash so i would assume that the audio could be compressed again in there.

i've not done it so i could be talking complete rubbish.

4034

Living Room / Re: An idea for "Columnist Corner" - read in please

« on: March 21, 2005, 08:18 AM »

sounds great. i have no excuse to not be able to write at least once a week so no problem there.

i best start jotting some ideas down ready for when you give the go ahead.

4035

Living Room / Re: An idea for "Columnist Corner" - read in please

« on: March 21, 2005, 06:21 AM »

i think i would be up for it mouser - depending on what you think will be the final criteria necessary.

i've downloaded and tried hundreds (maybe thousands i suppose) of programs found and shellcity and nonags. my first port of call each day is shellcity to see what people have developed, where i'll then download and try the software that sounds most interesting - so, i've got an opinion on most types of utils.

i'm perhaps not completely unbiased as i'll tend to favour the free software. i like to think i've experienced enough to know what's wrong with the windows GUI and programs that run on it, so can probably provide constructive critism in the 'usability' area.

if the structure of the blog wasn't set in concrete then i hope i could fit the bill. perhaps i'm just letting my ego get carried away. 

4036

General Review Discussion / Re: What categories should we review next?

« on: March 21, 2005, 02:42 AM »

by the sounds of it, nod32 is going to give me plenty to play with - trying to configure it correctly. normally this i would enjoy but as i've never had to do this with avg (now trying antivir: seems fine so far) it seems like a backward step.

can't remember if i tried f-prot. i'll have to look into it.

4037

Best File/Folder Compare Tool / Re: What did you think of the review?

« on: March 21, 2005, 02:36 AM »

ah that is interesting...

i was thinking of getting captivate to do some 'tutorials' centered around photoshop but was also toying with the idea of just capturing the movies as xvid.

i'm surprised that there is no option to reduce the audio size - is there the option to import mp3 or similar compressed format?

i suppose that captivate version 2 will contain audio compression facilities - always seems there are a few obvious functions left out of major released software and then they are mysteriously included with the next update. 

4038

Best File/Folder Compare Tool / Re: What did you think of the review?

« on: March 20, 2005, 04:45 PM »

great review - the flash animation is an inspired idea (did you use macromedia captivate?).

i've used 'compare and merge' which i always thought had a nice look to it but as i only do the occasional comparison tasks i'm probably not best to pass judgement on it.

'beyond compare' looks like it has some great power user type features though. like you pointed out in the review, it's the sort of program that you will find a use for and then wonder how you ever got by without it.

anyway, the review was just the right length i would say. just enough to tempt me to give it a try - which is the main thing isn't it. 

4039

General Review Discussion / Re: What categories should we review next?

« on: March 20, 2005, 02:59 PM »

well if you say antiver is good then i'm going to have to give it a try. if it looks better than avg then that will probably be enough to sway me. i like the idea of it having a commandline option - i'm assuming that this means it will work in dos, say, from a boot CD with dos on it. has anyone had experience of the commandline version?

i'm surprised to hear that nod32 has some issues - i suppose i've always believed the hype that it was the pinnacle of antivirus software. if it's not perfect then i'm not interested 

4040

General Review Discussion / Re: What categories should we review next?

« on: March 20, 2005, 11:43 AM »

i'm sure this is on the cards but i'll ask anyway...

will there be a virus scanner review and more importantly is nod32 going to feature?

i'm currently using the free version of avg but every serious review i read seems to favour nod32. there doesn't appear to be a free edition of nod though. just wondering how they compared - if anyone has any experience of using both these programs or maybe has tried a wide variety of virus checkers.

i've no complaints about avg - the latest version is a decent improvement over No. 6.

4041

Best Firewall / Re: Discount available for DonationCoder.com member

« on: March 20, 2005, 05:47 AM »

excellent. sounds like the most sensible thing to do.

4042

Best Firewall / Re: Discount available for DonationCoder.com member

« on: March 20, 2005, 03:48 AM »

i've tried searching through the forum but i can't find any details on how to purchase the software with the 50% discounts applied.

i see here though that details are to follow.

is this correct or have i missed some vital info somewhere.

4043

Living Room / Re: Long post about the new 50% Discounts (!)

« on: March 20, 2005, 03:34 AM »

   i am absolutely stunned - a 50% discount would be insane not to take advantage of, especially when it's for top quality software like this.

fantastic work mouser 

donationcoder.com certainly deserves more attention for all this.

4044

Living Room / Re: Avatars available

« on: March 19, 2005, 03:08 PM »

yeah, more avatars. well, proabably best to just upload your own. if you need a quick howto i'll attempt to go through the steps.

4045

Find And Run Robot / Re: Thanks, with questions...

« on: March 19, 2005, 11:47 AM »

there's something definately not right - the functions you're having problems with work fine on my machine (as i'm sure they do on the majority of users). i've not got sp2 installed - can't see this being the problem though.

have you got other 'shortcut' or quick key programs running in the background - i've had conflicts with these sort of programs before - not with 'find and run robot' though.

i'm no expert on any of this but i'm sure mouser will be able to help much more than this.

just thought i would let you know that it's not operating correctly on your system. what you've described sounds like a right pain.

4046

Mouser's Zone / Re: Would online browsable help files for the apps be useful?

« on: March 19, 2005, 08:42 AM »

if you think it's going to encourage a new user to try the software out then it sounds like a good idea.

it can't do any harm.

4047

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

« on: March 19, 2005, 08:39 AM »

  that's great. really appreciate that.

i did search for a while trying to find something but couldn't really find anything that fitted the job.

these look just right though.

i shall now go and try them out.

4048

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: Don't forget - a new review every saturday

« on: March 19, 2005, 05:03 AM »

can't wait, sounds good.

4049

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

« on: March 19, 2005, 05:02 AM »

here's another idea...

i've just been trying to find a suitable desktop ruler type util - the sort of thing used by skinners and graphic designers to measure the pixel distance of things.

there are plenty to choose from it seems, but i can't find one with a built in 'zoom' feature so that you can get an enlarged preview of where the cursor is. i'm almost going blind staring at my screen trying to work out exactly what pixel my cursor is located on when i'm measuring something out.

it's seems and obvious thing to incorporate so i wouldn't be surprised if i've just not found the right app that already does it.

if anyone knows of something that does exactly what i'm asking can they let me know please.

4050

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

« on: March 18, 2005, 03:59 AM »

just reread you last post mouser.

having the dialog box auto list in details view is great i have to agree.

if you do have a go at one of these dialog box thingies could you provide that kind of feature, maybe allow the user to specify which dialog boxes open up in which kind of view - details for some, thumbnails for others, maybe even in what way the details should be arranged: by name or by filesize or whatever. but all this would be remembered and specific to certain dialog boxes depending on the parent program that they opened from.