Messages

1

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: NANY 2021 Entry: Free Movies (website)

« on: January 08, 2021, 10:14 PM »

Just hit the 400 movie mark!

2

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: NANY 2021 Entry: Free Movies (website)

« on: January 04, 2021, 02:23 PM »

Would it be possible to implement alphabetically sorting?

-4wd (January 01, 2021, 02:17 AM)

Is this acceptable? https://scarytaskbar...om/movies/full-list/

3

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: NANY 2021 Entry: Free Movies (website)

« on: January 02, 2021, 06:06 PM »

No problem, I was just wondering since you have movies that are original + sequel/s and it's always a lot easier to pick them out and watch in order when they're sorted alphabetically.

-4wd (January 01, 2021, 07:28 PM)

But there is also the very real possibility that the original and/or sequel(s) won't be available in 6 months.

4

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: January 01, 2021, 06:24 PM »

Have you tried quantum ice cream? You don't know how many calories it has until you eat it.

-Arizona Hot (December 20, 2020, 04:36 PM)

As opposed to the stuff you get at an ice cream parlor, where you usually never have any idea how many calories it has, ever.

5

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: NANY 2021 Entry: Free Movies (website)

« on: January 01, 2021, 03:14 PM »

Would it be possible to implement alphabetically sorting?

-4wd (January 01, 2021, 02:17 AM)

Not entirely sure if that will be possible, or desirable.

Current default sort is chronological, based on when the movie was added to the site, so most recent will be shown first.

The older a listing is, the higher the chance for dead source links, so that potential increases the deeper down the list you browse, under the current sort order.

I'd rather the freshest stuff that you can actually watch, remaining at the top, where you'll see it first, rather than dragging up the oldest and possibly least watchable stuff, based on an alphabetical sort.

FYI: Everything gets added manually, based on what I happen to find, and that requires me to do a few searches to get the source links. The entries and list of source links are not automated. There are some aspects that can be partially automated (title, year, featured image, description), but only for movies that I have personally watched. I am also relying on visitors to notify me when all source links go dead, so I can remove/replace them when needed.

Public Domain Movies is somewhat similar.

-4wd (January 01, 2021, 02:17 AM)

Not really, since they are limiting their site to only those movies they can find on Archive.org and Wikimedia, that are in the public domain. (mostly very old movies)

I get around those kinds of limitations by being the signpost that points the way to more of the sites that are hosting the movies, not just 2 sites That drastically increases the number of movies I can offer, and allows me to offer much more recently made stuff (not just really old movies), by pointing to the sites that have already paid the licensing fees to show them.

But thank you for mentioning them, since I will probably add them as a source for the movies they do carry, if/when the same movies are added to my listings.

6

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: NANY 2021 Entry: Free Movies (website)

« on: December 29, 2020, 08:35 PM »

"Tubi is the largest free movie and TV streaming service in the US. We are not available in Europe due to changes in EU laws."
 

-Contro (December 29, 2020, 05:24 AM)

If you have access to a VPN with a US or Canadian IP address, you may have different results.

7

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: December 21, 2020, 02:32 AM »

However, disabling the setting shown in the image worked out well for my situation. Likely you (app103) have tried that setting already, but it might help others.

Come to think of it, you should disable the power saving feature from your (wired) network card too. Works exactly the same as shown in the image.

-Shades (December 19, 2020, 12:42 AM)

Yup, been there, done that, and it didn't help. Since this laptop is never used on battery power, I don't really care about power saving, so I disabled that in anything where I found the option to do so. But this update removed that option for my mouse, headphones, and some other items, and now I can only do it for whatever is above that in the Bluetooth food chain. The individual peripherals no longer have a power management tab.

8

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: NANY 2021 Entry: Free Movies (website)

« on: December 20, 2020, 02:11 PM »

How long have you been working on this... it looks like a massive project!

-wraith808 (December 19, 2020, 07:20 AM)

Since early September. But adding movies was much slower back then, because I limited it to only those movies that I have actually watched. But I am good at finding free stuff, and that includes heaps that I personally have no use for, so also including movies I haven't watched (and probably won't), seemed like a better idea. As of right now, there's 347 movies listed.

Looks like a team work.

-anandcoral (December 19, 2020, 10:55 AM)

Nope, just me and my love for free stuff & movies.

9

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: December 18, 2020, 11:13 PM »

Old solutions for new problems....

I had an old Pentium I computer with a combo modem/soundcard that had issues staying connected to the internet when a system sound played (system would lock up just long enough to kick me offline), unless there was sound continuously flowing through the soundcard at all times. This meant playing music all the time, and usually keeping the speakers turned off if I didn't want to hear it, till I came across a small app capable of playing continuous low frequency tones that my cheap speakers were unable to produce. (25 Hz did the trick)

Flash forward to a couple of days ago, when a screwy Windows feature update, which I am unable to uninstall, messed up my bluetooth, so that no matter how I have the hardware settings configured, it turns Bluetooth off (to save power) when it thinks it is not in use. This is very BAD for a bluetooth mouse. I reported here about this issue in this thread, and was avoiding reinstalling that update for as long as possible, but Microsoft managed to automatically cram it down my throat when I recently rebooted my machine, despite having updates paused till some time in January.

BUT I noticed it doesn't cut off my mouse if I have sound playing through my bluetooth headphones. So, I am back to using that very old app, to generate a continuous 10 Hz tone, just so I can use my mouse.



I had to use the system volume mixer to set the volume of this app at a very low level, since my bluetooth headphones are capable of producing audible sound generated from this app, at even the lowest (10 Hz) setting.

10

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: December 11, 2020, 01:51 PM »

It doesn't have App's features,

-Arizona Hot (November 27, 2020, 07:50 AM)

What features are you referring to?

-app103 (December 07, 2020, 04:51 PM)

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The tools shown here. The app probably has others, but these are the ones I was thinking about.

-Arizona Hot (December 08, 2020, 10:54 PM)

Go in the application folder and you will find an exe file for each of them that can be used without launching the clock. You can create shortcuts to them on your desktop or wherever else you want them.

Alphasort and ToDo List are also available on my site, as stand alone apps.

11

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: December 07, 2020, 04:51 PM »

It doesn't have App's features,

-Arizona Hot (November 27, 2020, 07:50 AM)

What features are you referring to?

12

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / NANY 2021 Entry: Free Movies (website)

« on: December 04, 2020, 11:45 AM »

NANY 2021 Entry Information

Application Name	Movies - Watch online for FREE!
Short Description	Directory of movies that can be streamed online for free.
Supported OSes	any
Web Page	https://scarytaskbar.com/movies/
System Requirements	A modern browser
Author	app103

Description

This is a directory of movies that can be streamed online, for free. No movies are hosted, instead links to sites are provided, with an emphasis on sites where the movies can be streamed legally, for free. Occasionally, Youtube links are included, especially when they are of good quality and the video players can be embedded into the page, regardless of if they are officially licensed by the uploader or not. Movie providers are sites such as Pluto, Crackle, TubiTV, Plex, Archive.org, Youtube, Roku, Popcorn Flix, Peacock, IMDBtv, and a few others.

I built this mainly because I was automating the importing of things I watch to one of my social media profiles, and there was an interest from subscribers there for links where they can watch those movies online. I figured if I am going to go through the trouble to do that, I might as well go all the way and build a movie website.

Features

• List by genre or year.
• Search for a movie using title or keywords
• Editor's Choice list (these are movies I really liked)
• Alphabetical list page
• Facebook page where you can subscribe to be alerted to a new movie every day, 6PM EST.

Individual movie pages have info, including the following

• genre list
• year
• MPAA rating
• visitor star rating (1-5 stars) (please rate the movies you watch)
• Description
• Embedded video player (when possible)
• List of sites where it can currently be streamed for free

Planned Features
Adding lots more movies!

Right now, I am currently adding lots of Christmas themed movies (comedy, drama, horror, etc.), since that's the next holiday coming up.

If there are any specific features you would like to see added, I am open to suggestions.

Also, if there are any specific movies you want to see added, send me a message via the Contact page on my site, and I'll see if I can find links for it.

Screenshots
Blank spaces are where the ads and/or video players would normally be embedded.

Main page:


Individual movie page:


Usage
Installation
No installation needed. It's a website.

Using the Application
It should be fairly intuitive. If you can't figure it out, let me know, because that would be a sign that I need to make it more intuitive.


Tips

If you have any troubles viewing a movie on a destination site, such as the video will not play or the destination page will not load correctly, try turning off your ad blocker or using a different browser. Some sites, such as Peacock, only seem to want to work in the most popular browsers, and not others. Chrome is usually a safe bet.

Known Issues

- Embedded Youtube videos do not work in Opera browser on Android. (I believe this is an Opera issue)

- Sometimes links go dead. If that happens, and there are no current valid source links, I will remove all links till I find new sources. Since the site is still new, I am not removing individual movie pages when links are removed. However, I will start doing that once the search engines like the site more. So, you may come across the occasional movie that can't be streamed for free, at this time.

- Provided video links can be viewed in US/Canada. If you run into a country restriction, try using a VPN or proxy with a US/Canada IP address.

13

Living Room / Re: Where would you go to hire someone to make a logo and/or video intro for you?

« on: October 07, 2020, 09:07 AM »

You could take a shot at a freebie from PMlogos. If you don't like it, you haven't lost anything.

But I'd recommend the upgraded package for $30, if you do like the results but it just needs a little tweaking.

https://www.pmlogos....ogo-design-pm-logos/

14

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Kills Off Play Music In Favor of YouTube Music

« on: August 18, 2020, 08:21 PM »

My biggest problem with Youtube Music is that you'd think with all the data Google has on me already, they'd be able to recommend music that I might actually like. But no, they can't. Their "Endless Personalized Music" is chock full of pop & rap, and the occasional classic rock track. That's 2 genres I don't listen to, plus 1 that I only occasionally listen to, when I am in the right mood for it.

And they keep shoving country music at my husband. He hates country music. His tastes are what I call "classic rock party music." The kind of stuff that gets everybody singing along. (think George Thorogood)

15

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: August 18, 2020, 06:51 PM »

I was just shoved the 2004 update, which wrecked my Bluetooth power management, resulting in constant disconnections. Had to revert back to 1909 to make my mouse and headphones usable again. 

16

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« on: May 06, 2020, 01:49 PM »

I recently bought this piece of exercise equipment to use, while not leaving the house. It's ok for use while seated, but feels awkward when using it standing up, partly because of its short stride, and partly because of the angle of the pedals. It won't get your heart rate up there like going for a brisk walk will, but it does help to burn off some of the calories, without disturbing my downstairs neighbor. It didn't cost all that much and doesn't take up that much storage space.



https://amzn.to/3ftXhuz

17

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: April 29, 2020, 06:27 PM »

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-rjbull (April 24, 2020, 03:08 PM)

There's a bakery in my state that has taken it a step further and includes a poo cupcake with their toilet paper cakes, and they deliver!

18

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: March 31, 2020, 10:07 AM »

You thought you stocked up, but...

19

Living Room / Re: Free learning resources for you and your kids during the pandemic.

« on: March 29, 2020, 07:11 AM »

SitePoint has decided to give all Australian students/educators (with an email that ends in .edu.au) a free premium membership until Jan 2021. https://go.sitepoint...l/y/7C44EBBCDE7C854F

Disclosure: I work for SitePoint but they have not compensated me nor encouraged me in any way to make this post.

20

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« on: March 28, 2020, 12:48 PM »

Microsoft have 'mouse without borders' which does the same thing. It's a more user friendly version of synergy.
One thing to be aware of, if you are actually connected to the computer that is at the other end of the house and then you have moved control to the computer you are actually sitting at, the mouse is very very very sluggish. It took me a whole day to work that one out once!

-absoblogginlutely (March 28, 2020, 08:32 AM)

I have not experienced that with Flow. File copy/paste between machines is a bit slower than you would have if copy/pasting from one folder to another on same machine, but that is to be expected.

21

Living Room / Re: Share your tips and comforts for dealing with the stress and fear of a pandemic

« on: March 28, 2020, 05:22 AM »

With more people working from home, I thought this thread about How to Work from Home might be useful for keeping focused in these trying times.

https://boardgamegee...de?mc_cid=f06ceace8b

-wraith808 (March 26, 2020, 09:05 AM)

There's also my Instant Boss, which can help you break the time into little chunks, that may be easier to handle.

22

Living Room / Re: Share your tips and comforts for dealing with the stress and fear of a pandemic

« on: March 19, 2020, 08:04 AM »

Well, I am one of those people that not only has to work (remotely), but also have extra work to do. So, that's good.

Since I work for an e-learning service, I am going to suggest something that is obvious to me, but might not be that obvious to others. Now is a great time to study something, or get some new skills. There are a lot of online courses you can take, some of them are even free.

If you are stuck at home with a noisy person and just don't want to hear them any more, slap on some headphones and listen to music. Even if you aren't listening to any music, wear the headphones any way. It does prevent people from bothering you to a certain degree, since they don't know there's no sound flowing through them, unless you tell them. So, they won't bother you as much while you are wearing them, because they think you can't hear them.

If you just need a space to get away from the people you live with, try your basement or attic. I've been going down in my basement to walk laps (big basement). You can still go outside, as long as you stay away from people. Go prepare your garden for planting, if you have one. Hang out on a lawn chair or hammock, in your backyard or on your deck, and read a book.

If you are stuck at home with your family or kids, have a spring BBQ with them, play some board games, do some crafts together.

Start a new project, finish an older one, clean your closets, garage, attic, or basement, start work on your NANY2021 project , crochet or knit a sweater, scarf, hat, scrap afghan, or whatever, sew up all the holes in your clothing.

Remember all those thing you said you'd do when you get around to it? Well, here's your "round tuit"!

If you really have nothing to do and can set up a VM with some old unsupported version of Windows, PM me, I have a huge software testing project you can help with.

And if it helps, don't think about what is really going on out there. Turn off the TV and/or radio and stay off social media and news sites, Indulge in a bit of mental fantasy, Try to tell yourself that there's a huge blizzard going on, and just stay inside where it's warm & dry. It's really not that much different, except there won't be any snow to shovel when it's all over. Or pretend you are living on a space station.

Whatever you decide to do, try to ENJOY your unplanned vacation and stay healthy!

23

Living Room / Re: A Rogue Goose...for your Desktop....

« on: March 16, 2020, 06:49 AM »

I really miss E-Sheep from back in the 90's. Excellent but sadly 16-bit desktop "pet".

-Stoic Joker (February 04, 2020, 07:02 AM)

https://github.com/A...ianotiger/desktopPet

You're welcome! 

24

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Amazon Pay has decided to block donationcoder payments

« on: March 06, 2020, 02:33 AM »

I think it enables both. It allows you to post to various social media from a single location (write once, deploy everywhere). But it also allows you to receive and respond to messages on specific social media services.

-Deozaan (March 06, 2020, 12:09 AM)

Write once, deploy everywhere, and never have to bother logging into any of the sites where you deploy, or bother reading any responses. It's a one-way approach to social media that lots of big companies take. In fact, it's pretty much how we approach social media, too, since our Twitter and Facebook posts are all automated through a 3rd party service, using an RSS feed.

If anyone wants to get our attention and the post isn't here on this forum, or in the IRC channel, or an e-mail to mouser, there's a good chance that nobody will see or respond to it. Trying to get our attention on Facebook is not as effective, and getting our attention on Twitter is near impossible.

And this is no different than most companies, that use these platforms to broadcast content, rather than as chat platforms.

25

General Software Discussion / Re: Paint Shop Pro 7

« on: February 16, 2020, 09:09 PM »

Which part of that is the clone brush?

-Deozaan (February 12, 2020, 11:11 AM)

The top two pix, #1 & #2, were all that I could find on youtube; both had unwanted writings, but in different places.

To get the initial pictures, in Windows 10, I grabbed my screen shots by pressing [logos + shift + s] in playback mode to hide youtube progress bar. Then I saved the two images in .jpg format for maximum compatibility.

Then, what I did was to transfer clean imagery from the same area in #1 to the same area in #2 which was over-written with the writing.
The result was the lower, third image, with all unwanted writing removed.
There were a few technical details; setting a convenient brush size (about half the height of the lettering in #2); and round or square brush shape; getting close-up magnification to make sure the selected pixel in #1 and #2 were the exact same pixels (I chose the lightest pixel in the angel's eye); then backing off and reducing both images to 50% of normal size to work with, and setting hardness, density, thickness, and opacity all to 100% for one-pass results.
Then you right-click on clean copy in #1 for pick-up, and left-click on the same spot in #2 for lay-down. I 'think' that's what I did; as the vintage kid's game commercial goes; "It's all in the wrist action."

-holt (February 12, 2020, 03:39 PM)

My daughter did something similar, recently, with a couple of group photos of herself and some friends. None of the photos came out great. At least 1 person in each of them had odd expressions on their face, or was looking in the wrong direction.

What she did was choose the 2 best photos, the easiest to work with, and then work in layers, erasing the face of one person, allowing their face from another photo from the series to show through from the layer beneath. No clone brush needed.

I probably would have done the same in the above images that you used, erasing the text on one layer, allowing the 2nd image to show through from the bottom layer, then merging the 2 layers, once all the text had been removed. You can also move the bottom layer around, if necessary, to ensure they line up correctly. Since those 2 images are exactly the same, except for the text, it would probably be even easier than what my daughter had to work with.