Topics

201

Living Room / bookmarks within an audio file

« on: March 25, 2006, 01:02 PM »

i remember chatting about this a while back and unless i'm going crazy i'm sure mouser wanted something similar (i can't find the post anymore when i search).

'amorak' will allow you to add 'bookmarks' to a track whilst you are listening to it in winamp (i can't say if it works with anything else).

so, if you want to add placemarkers to your audio books or long mp3s (i need it for things like old tangerine dream tracks so i can get straight to the decent bits) then use 'amorak'.

i would have liked it to be able to halt a track at the bit i don't want to listen to but you can't have everything.

here's the link http://www.winamp.co...details.php?id=22630

202

Living Room / substitute computer for the stressed

« on: March 25, 2006, 07:01 AM »

http://www.2flashgam...he-Computer-2260.htm

try the link if you would really, really, like to smash your computer up when it starts driving you crazy.

203

Living Room / look at the size of my recycle bin !!!

« on: March 03, 2006, 11:31 AM »

i think i came across this link on digg.com http://www.aqua-soft...owthread.php?t=17372

looks to me like the best desklet icon thingy program there is - or if it isn't now, it soon will be.

for those of you who like a pure clean desktop then you aren't going to be too impressed but i hope you can see the potential this little program offers.

AndreasV, has developed a fantastic program - and he accepts donations for all his hard work.

i've not read the complete post on the aqua-soft forum as i've been playing around with 'Avedesk' as you'll see from the screengrab below...

204

Living Room / cool kitty

« on: February 26, 2006, 01:30 PM »

not sure who should be credited for this - the original link is http://www.nutkracke...s/viewtopic.php?t=23 gameservers.

just thought you might like to see this nicely animated gif.

205

Living Room / xp dual boot raid 0 insanity cool down

« on: February 19, 2006, 06:43 AM »

you may remember i went out and spent 3 months wages on new pc around christmas time. i asked several questions at the time as i had a specific setup in mind for the new machine - dual booting, etc.

well, since that time i pretty much just installed a single xp pro on the raid 0 drives and then carried on installing programs as you normally would - nearly two months have passed since the machine was first run so now it's beginning to display little quirks that i'm beginning to get sick and tired of.

general use of the computer tends to work fine - but some programs tend to hog one of the cores on the cpu in an abnormal way (i know it's abnormal because they don't do it every time) and eventually the machine grinds to a halt until i log off and back on again. so, i decided it was time to risk the dual boot setup on the raid 0 drives - reassurance from Carol gave me good reason to believe it wasn't that difficult to do.

i think i've spent the last 12 hours (time has become meaningless to me at the moment) attempting to get a 2nd install of xp onto the computer. i've finally got it to work but i can't understand how ridiculously troublesome it was to do.

i'm writing this as a means of calming myself - i was ready to put a hammer to the computer as that appears to be the only language it wants to listen to but thankfully, as i said, it's working now.

during the process i've discovered that:

i need two identical floppies to install the nvidia raid drivers - i have to put one floppy in which then fails and the swap it with a second floppy which then install the drivers. i've checked each floppy in two computers and they are completely error free.

i have to use a very old disk with sp1 integrated into xp pro for the install to work - if i use one of a number of other cds i have made with different flavours of hotfixes and service packs integrated into them the install fails at different points. these aren't random points during the install either, oh no - they are moments specific to each cd. i've also checked these cds on another computer and they are error free and install windows perfectly fine.

one cd install will detect usb straight away but failed after that (can't remember the reason now) and another takes about 5 minutes to detect my usb keyboard and mouse after the setup procedure is finished - luckily i found this out at a low point when i was ready to slit my wrists and couldn't be bothered to reset the machine.

i shall spare you any more tiresome details.

i wouldn't complain but i just can't understand how temperamental a computer can be - talk about being moody.

i'd like Dr. Gregory House (from the tv show House, M.D.) to get himself and his team to analyse my machine - they always manage to resolve an exotic decease type situation, i'm sure they could tell me why my pc behaves like a psychopath.

anyway, oh joy, it's now working. i must remind myself that it is now working. on to the next system malfunction. i can't wait.

206

General Software Discussion / utorrent and azureus high cpu activity

« on: February 16, 2006, 05:16 PM »

this is me being lazy but i'll ask all the same...

i've just started using azureus and utorrent (they seem to be popular things to talk about at the moment around the blogs) but i'm wondering if it's normal for the cpu activity from these torrent managers to be at 50% all the time - that just seems crazy to me.

i was just trying to get some noam chomsky videos but i'm not going to bother if it means 50% cpu activity constantly as they download.

can someone please confirm if that's normal or is my machine just freaking out.

207

General Software Discussion / extremely good gif editor required

« on: February 05, 2006, 10:30 AM »

i'm just in the process of doing the shaded version of 'cody' and i've realised that photoshop and fireworks aren't that amazing for editing gif images.

i want to be able to design the image using a large colour palet so i can shade thing nicely and then export to gif and select exactly which colours i can sacrifice.

in other words, whilst in the gif export mode, i want to be able to add and delete swatches into the colour table so that i can keep good shaded gradients. photoshop sort of allows this but it appears to require way too much right clicking and selecting swatches and just plain old guessing of what to add or remove.

does anyone know of a gif editor that will provide me with better editing than what i've stated above?

208

Living Room / cool or fool - microsoft's scalable fabric

« on: February 01, 2006, 02:23 PM »

this little work in progress utility appears to be popping up in various blogs so it's about time DC mentioned it...

microsoft scalable frabric http://research.micr.../research/downloads/ (about half way down the page).

it isn't perfect but for those of you into playing around with customising your GUI then it's worth looking at - i may even leave it running as it tends to fit exactly how i work.

disable the naff audio feature and play about with it - i think it has potential if they work on it further - maybe someone could pinch the idea and beat them to it.

anyway, it works like this...

windows aren't minimised anymore, instead they shrink to thumbnails at the side of the screen. you define your 'work' area and then have a border around it where the thumbnails will rest. you can then drag or click on active windows/thumbnails around the screen to bring them back into focus or shrink out of the way. this is all animated but in a rather jerky fashion.

i can well imagine that this idea has been around for quite a few years but not on a windows operating system. it's also not going to be much fun on a small monitor.

i just like the idea of having the small thumbnail previews of all the apps i'm running - it's unlikely to be part of windows vista maybe windows 2020 will use it - we'll all have 40 inch (at least) widescreen monitors by then so it'll make more sense to use this kind of GUI.

here's a screengrab - original resolution is 1920 x 1200, so i've shrunk it down by 50%.

(it doesn't work well with child windows like photoshop uses.)

209

Living Room / topview recorder or media center pc

« on: January 25, 2006, 04:26 PM »

i'm trying to decide on whether to get a 'topfield topview' for about £250 http://www.superfi.c....cfm/Product_ID/2379 or go for a Windows Media Center pc system which will cost about £1000.

i've never seen a media center pc in the flesh (i've seen laptops with it installed but i don't think they offer a good example of what the system should be capable of) so it's difficult to know exactly how 'good' these machines are.

to me, the 'topview' box is the more practical but it's also less powerful than a top of the range media center pc. i'm wondering how smoothly a media center pc will work.

there are plenty of questions to ask about this sort of thing and i know this isn't the right place for them really - i'm just hoping someone out there is already familiar with these kind of devices and has concluded which is the right path to take. if you are out there, please let me know your opinions.

210

Living Room / sticking two routers together?

« on: January 01, 2006, 07:47 AM »

i was using a netgear adsl router up until a couple of months ago. i had to give up on it as it decided that it liked to disconnect itself from my isp every hour or so (it was working perfectly for about a year).

i'm almost ready to throw it in the bin as nothing i do to it makes it stay connected but before i do, i'm wondering...

can i connect this netgear router to my other cheapo adsl router?

the netgear one has wireless on it whereas the cheapo one doesn't - i'm hoping i can join the two via a cable (do i need to use a crossover?) and thereby get a bit of wireless action going again - even if it's just for an hour, until the netgear decides to start sulking and disconnect itself again.

i ask this as i'm hoping it's a standard thing to do (???), you know, connecting routers together (???). i'd experiment but the routers packaged away under loads of junk so i'd prefer not to fish it out if i'm on to a loser right from the start.

opinions, please...

211

General Software Discussion / folder comments in explorer?

« on: December 30, 2005, 11:57 AM »

again, pardon my ignorance.

i see there is a 'comments' column you can display whilst in details view when using windows explorer - er, like, how do i write a comment for a folder (or file)?

is it just for things like mp3 tags?

can i do something similar in Directory Opus?

(i have a feeling this has been talked about before.)

212

General Software Discussion / duh, how do i get this to work?

« on: December 21, 2005, 05:01 AM »

i should know this sort of thing by now...

in my forum profile, at the bottom of the 'notifications and email' page, there's a section that says:

"Current Board Notifications
You aren't receiving notifications on any boards right now.

To request notifications from a specific board, click the "notify" button in the index of that board."

and yet, above that i've got a load of things that are under "current topic notifications".

duh, how do i get the notifications to work?

i've got all these turned on also:

Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email.
Receive reply notification only for the first unread reply.
Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic.

it's about time i understood how to use this forum. pleeeaaaase help.

213

Living Room / nudone's new pc

« on: December 12, 2005, 08:40 AM »

i've been reading a pc hardware forum and making a few posts to get the opinions on the new pc i'll be putting together within the next week or two.

there are a few questions i'd just like to ask DC members as i believe i'll get a less biased response.

i'm going for the highest spec machine i can afford (£3000, it's only money!!!) which will be taking me into new territory (hopefully).

my main question that seems appropriate to ask is: how good is raid 0 - speed wise, i'm not worried about disk failure and losing the data as i'll be backing things up onto non raid drives.

i wouldn't ask such a daft question as to how quick raid 0 is, but what make me wonder was that a uk computer magazine mentioned that raid 0 wasn't' that big a deal compared with the speed of the latest hard drives (in a non raid 0 configuration). this sounded odd to me but it made me wonder.

i'm looking to get two Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM's and use them in the raid 0 setup. this would then be used for my operating system, games, large programs and video encoding/editing. i'll also have a couple of 250 drives for storage purposes and other video editing.

does this sound like a reasonable setup so far? i would like to dual boot into at least another operating system (maybe have 3 if can get away with it - Carol's setup sounded like a good system when separating operating systems for video, etc)

can i put more than one operating system onto a raid 0 setup? or would i have to use the 'storage' hard drives.

other than that, can i ghost the operating system on a raid 0 (i'll need to back it up for sure as i'm always ruining my operating system).

can i partition the raid 0 drives?

i'm sure these will be quite basic questions - i'm hoping Carol will be able to answer them if no one else can.

anyway, thanks for that so far.

214

Living Room / vulnerability attack test

« on: September 14, 2005, 02:44 PM »

this will probably sound like an odd request, but does anyone know if i can download a database of nasty trojans and things to attack my system.

i'd isolate my computer and make backups and images of everything before attempting to infect my pc.

the reason for all this is that i'd like to compare a few of the main security programs out there - i'd like to see which performs better. which method of realtime protection or scanning appeals to me, then i can wipe everything off and restore from the backup images.

i've read reports in pc magazines where they perform similar tests on infected machines that they keep for review purposes.

is it possible to get an 'infection' database file full of nasties or do such things not exist due to the harm they could do.

or, is this method i describe just stupid anyway? if there is a better way please share your thoughts.

215

Living Room / calling all bored cat lovers

« on: September 02, 2005, 04:35 AM »

i don't have a cat but after seeing this website i might get one. it's rad...

http://www.stuffonmycat.com/

(thought you might like this link as i know there are quite a few cat owners around here.)

216

Living Room / windows explorer mods

« on: August 15, 2005, 03:27 AM »

i still use windows explorer (shame on me) even though i have directory opus installed too.

but there are certain things i've always thought explorer ought to be able to do with a little extra help from a few tweaks.

shellcity had this link today http://www.msfn.org/....php?showtopic=52524 which appears to have quite a nice list of explorer shell extensions.

(note i said windows explorer, not internet explorer).

as an example you if you install some of these you will be able to turn view file extensions and hidden files on and off with a right click menu selection. i've been waiting for someone to make something like this since i was born!

some might also be of interest for mouser's right click menu project...

217

Unfinished Requests / IDEA: extract archive and change file extension

« on: August 07, 2005, 03:37 PM »

i'm hoping to find time to try and figure this one out myself using AutoHotKey but i would be delighted if skrommel beat me to it (hint hint).

the idea is rather personal and perhaps wouldn't be of much use to many people without a little modification to the way the script works. here's the description...

i download (from www.absolutvision.com) royalty free images that are archived into a zip file before they are sent.

the files inside the zip archive are contained inside a folder called 'gallery' and are of the jpeg2000 format with the extension .jpf

i understand that autohotkey can accept files being dropped onto an autohotkey script .ahk file - whatever is dropped is passed on as arguments.

this makes me hope that a script could be wrote that would automatically extract the contents of one of these zip archives that contain the jpeg2000 files and then change their extension to .jpc instead of .jpf

the procedure would be that you drop the archive onto the autohotkey script icon and everything would automatically continue from there. the result being a 'gallery' folder containing .jpc files.

i appreciate that this a a specialised task but i believe that it would be handy for other uses if the script could be modified slightly. maybe a template mechanism could be achieved if you had a few scripts that changed file extensions in various ways. all you would need to do to quickly change the files would be to drop them onto the relevant autohotkey script icon. i imagine this could probably be done for changing the names of files also, maybe by numbering them or whatever.

i hope all that made some kind of sense.

(sorry about this, i thought there had been an error with the posting process so i've accidently posted this message twice - maybe mouser can delete one of them.)

218

Mouser's Zone / recent document timeline

« on: June 29, 2005, 01:12 PM »

Note: this is mouser's idea - i just thought it might be worth trying to get the ball rolling on it.

i wonder if maybe it would be interesting to have an app like "Recent Document Timeline" which showed like a timeline of usage of documents so you could see when you used each document and which would help you locate documents based on how long ago it was that you last opened them.

i'm not sure about other programs but 'Adobe Album' has a timeline feature for displaying images which seems a bit strange when you first encounter it but can be quite useful when you get the hang of it.

'ACDSee' has a similar function but works in more of a calendar type of way, so it's probably a common feature of image manager programs.

expanding on mouser's original idea i think something along the 'Adobe Album' timeline approach could work well. as it works in quite a visual way it's very quick to use. i'm sure there are many enhancements that could be incorporated into such a util.

the slider bar mechanism works well in 'Adobe Album' allowing you to easily select start and end dates to constrain which files are displayed. this obviously needs improving a little to include start and end times but i think it would be a good feature to build upon.

i think mouser must have a time machine because i think it's easy to foresee that this type of feature is going to be common place in all kinds of apps in the not too distant future.

219

Living Room / vmware workstation with agnitum outpost firewall rules?

« on: June 29, 2005, 05:13 AM »

forgive me for not asking the makers of vmware workstation 5 for the solution to this problem - i just thought it might be simpler to ask the users around here that use this virtual operating system prog in conjunction with 'agnitum outpost'.

i thought i knew what i was doing when it came to setting up port access and restrictions with firewalls but it seems not.

the problem is i can get my virtual machines to access the network only if i use 'outpost' in the 'allow most' policy. i would prefer to use it with the 'rules wizard' policy as that is how i normally have things running.

i've pretty much got all the vmware files set to unrestricted access through the firewall and i thought i had the net bios settings set right. i'm obviously missing something or, quite likely, several things that need configuring.

any tips would be greatly appreciated.

220

Unfinished Requests / IDEA: movable grouped windows

« on: June 11, 2005, 08:22 AM »

i can well imagine that this has already been done as it seems quite obvious but if not then here goes...

would it be simple to make a little util that allowed you to select a few windows that you have carefully arranged on your screen and then assign them as a group.

the 'group' feature would then allow you to move all these windows simultaneously with each window remaining in it's respective 'group' position.

of course being able to minimise and restore the 'group' of windows would also be helpful.

when using dual monitor displays i think this 'group' feature would be quite handy. well, i'm sick of dragging things around from one place to another and then have to neatly lay them out again.

i'm sure there are plenty more obvious features that could be incorporated but the main thing would be to just keep the way it operated quite simple - just clicking or right clicking to assign windows to groups in some way.

as i said, this seems quite an obvious thing to desire so i wouldn't be surprised if something like this was made years ago.

if anyone knows of anything can they please let me know...

thanks

221

Best ScreenCaster / what an outstanding review.

« on: June 07, 2005, 03:44 AM »

fantastic work done on the screencasting review, mouser. i knew you would be pulling out all the stops to analyse them in detail but i'm still surprised with how much you managed to cover - do you never sleep?

excellent conclusion - i don't think i would like to try and pick just one overall winner but now that you've brought 'bb flashback express' to everyones attention i think that stands out on price alone (and if it produces results like the full version then that is brilliant).

the truth is that i'm biased in that any screencasts i'm likely to make will just be simple movies in style, so bb flashback express is more than perfect for me. i do believe that this will also be true for the vast majority of people wanting to make screencasts judging by what i've seen over the years.

my xvid results look down right dirty compared with the crisp clean screencasts you've uploaded. i don't feel too bad about it, though, as my movies only look as nasty as the ones i'm used to watching by more professional and established outfits.

anyway, before i start rambling, i can see you've put an enormous amount of effort into the review and arrived at a very just conclusion. thanks for taking the time with that one, mouser. you deserve five, yes five, gold stars for that one.

(if you want to see one of my filthy xvids, WITH AUDIO and made using only free tools, then check out my blog.)

222

Living Room / a better favorites manager?

« on: June 01, 2005, 09:30 AM »

i'm on the verge of buying  'Linkman' http://www.outertech...age=product&id=5 but would like to hear any suggestions for either something that is simply better (doesn't matter about the cost) or a freeware equivalent that is similarly powerful.

probably the most important thing i would need such an app to do is to be able to add comments so i know what the link refers to before clicking on it.

any thoughts? 

223

Unfinished Requests / IDEA: auto move dialog boxes nearer to mouse cursor

« on: May 20, 2005, 12:14 PM »

this is something i tried to tempt mouser with a while back but it wasn't really the right place or time...

concept: small confirmation dialog boxes appear several times during the course of a days computing. these are the sort of boxes that just require a simple click to confirm or deny an action.

i'd like to have these little pop-up windows open nearer to my mouse cursor location so that, in effect, they come to me and not me to them.

as an example: you drag a file to delete to the recycle bin which is at the side of you screen and then you get a 'do you want to delete this?' type of box appear in the center of your screen so you have you move the cursor to the center just to click 'yes'.

okay, i must sound petty. but when it's happens over and over again during the day it starts to become tiresome. i'm not just talking about putting files into the recycle bin - i'm annoyed with how all dialog windows appear in the center of your monitor, thereby interrupting your workflow and having to move the cursor back and forth, back and forth, just for a simple click.

wouldn't it make more sense that any dialog box opened up under where your mouse cursor was situated (or near to it without the window opening off screen) so as to reduce the amount of shuffling around like we are all expected to do with windows.

i know there are options to have the mouse cursor jump to the active button but this is equally annoying - you have to waste a few milliseconds trying to figure out where your cursor has suddenly jumped to and you still have to move the cursor back to the original position when you've clicked the box away.

i think this might be possible to sort out with 'AutoIt' but i'm not fluent enough with it to try.

i also hope that someone agrees with this idea at least in principle otherwise i'm going to feel like a right moaning git.

224

Living Room / which hierarchical note program?

« on: May 18, 2005, 04:44 AM »

i would like to 'branch' out and begin using a hierarchical note program. but i have only one idea so far of which to go for: the one that Zaine mentions on his site - TexNotes Pro.

i know mouser uses something (i can't remember if you've mentioned the name of it before, mouser) and can well imagine that a lot of other visitors to this forum use one. so i ask: what are they?

i use ADBIdea http://happyjackroad...ideaLibrary/idea.asp on my pocket pc so i can see the usefullness of these programs but i'd really like something that can link to, or open directly, pretty much any common file type you care to mention. or is that asking too much?

TexNotes looks really good - but if there is something even more versatile i'd like to know your opinions. thanks.

225

Living Room / just a bit of fun... what category are you?

« on: May 12, 2005, 01:44 PM »

i can well imagine this has been discussed elsewhere in an article or someone's blog but i've never really come across anything, so...

i'm wondering what is the most appropriate term to use when referring to someone that collects 'software' or more specifically,  'freeware'.

Zaine has used the term 'softaholic' which pretty much sums it up - is this the established term or has anyone got something else?

from the top of my head, all i can really come up with is a 'softaddict' but that is pretty much the same as Zaine's 'softaholic' and doesn't sound as good.

one term i did coin that i think pretty much hits the nail on the head is 'warez-cretin'. this describes the sort of folk that download all the warez stuff they can find yet haven't got a single idea of what the software is for - they just know that it's 'cool' to have the latest '0 days' release installed on their machine. i've known a few and they even had to admit they were 'cretins'.

anyway, back to the point - what are people that collect freeware. we know that stamp collectors are 'philatelists'. there ought to be an elitist sounding word for 'freeware collectors'.

(i need to know as i'm lacking an identity - there's no t-shirt i can buy that tells me who i am.)