Topics

51

Living Room / Charlie Brooker's take on the new Jabscreen, er, i mean iphone 4.

« on: July 05, 2010, 03:47 AM »

over at the Guardian, Charlie Brooker sums up how the world is no better for the release of the new iPhone 4...

http://www.guardian....5/iphone-4-apple-new

...just as Jabscreen owners everywhere were running out of apps to compare – and, by extension, anything to talk about – the nice droids at Apple Castle gifted them a whole new branch of conversation: the launch of the Jabscreen 4, which apparently is miles better than a regular Jabscreen, although no one can really explain why. Its most impressive feature is this: simply by existing, it suddenly makes your existing Olde Worlde vanilla Jabscreen seem rubbish. How can you enjoy sliding the little icons around on your Jabscreen 3 when you know that if you had a Jabscreen 4, those very same icons would be slightly sharper? The answer is you can't.

52

General Software Discussion / is there an ultimate file extension manager (to work with windows 7, at least).

« on: June 10, 2010, 12:01 PM »

i'm slowly moving from a clunky Vista setup to a nice new Windows 7 system (dual booting between them).

i've been trying to ignore this problem ever since i've been using Vista and now everything is about to get messed up on the new Win7 setup, i'd like to try and be ready...

the (age-old) problem is trying to control which file extensions relate to which program AND the icon associated to each extension.

i guess, i must just use a horrible set of programs that just arrogantly assume they are allowed to take over my system on each reboot - otherwise, my extensions would remain how i set them.

so, is there an extension manager util that will 100% most definitely take charge - compatible with Windows 7.

the obvious requirements are:

- ability to set a custom icon for a file extension AND LOCK IT (so naughty programs can't swap their icon over).

- ability to set the program associated with the file extension AND LOCK IT (again, so naughty programs don't take control of it).

maybe it's not possible?

big criminals seem to be web browsers (or maybe just IE related). at the moment i've got stupid maxthon icons for all .url's - can i change them? no way. other web related extensions also seem to have trouble remembering who they are.


i just find it bizarre that, after all these years, there's still this nonsense with managing files/icons/extensions.

53

Living Room / install win7 32 or 64 bit on a 4 gig ram machine - opinions, please.

« on: June 02, 2010, 03:34 AM »

i'm about to put win7 on my vista machine (within the next few days). the motherboard will only support 4 gig of ram and it's an Athlon 64 x2 4800 chip.

if i could get more ram into it i'd put win7 64 on. as i can't, and as i've read that 32 bit applications can run a bit slower on a 64 setup, i'm wondering if i should just stick to a 32 bit system.

the question is really: has anyone noticed any kind of performance difference with these 32 bit applications running under a 64 bit O/S. if it's not a very obvious difference, i.e. no pauses or weird glitches then i don't consider it a problem. i appreciate a faster machine will show less slow down - because of its age, i think my machine would, probably, be less capable of hiding any performance differences.

(i doubt i've got any 16 bit stuff so that isn't an issue.)

54

Finished Programs / DONE: Space + click on file reveals "Open With" list of programs

« on: May 24, 2010, 09:16 AM »

i'd like to have immediate access to the "Open With" menu (found in the context menu) when opening a file - BUT, i don't want it to open every time i select a file as many times i'll just want the default associated program to open instead.

i'd like to be able to bring this "open with" menu up by just using the keyboard - maybe using a hotkey like "space + enter". AND, it would be useful to be also make the menu appear by using the mouse, so a combo of something like "Ctrl + Left button click" would be nice.

(the "Open With" menu is pretty basic - so, maybe it would be nice to add extra features.)

i know this has been done years ago because i used a program that did it. but, i can't remember the name of it (does anyone know it) and, i believe, i stopped using it because it didn't work perfectly. i also vaguely remember a autohotkey script doing it - possibly by a DC forum member (if so, i must have stopped using that also because it didn't work correctly).

thanks

55

Living Room / how to get to a dialog window that won't come into focus by using the keyboard?

« on: May 13, 2010, 09:19 AM »

i'm using filezilla - which brings up a dialog asking me if i want to upload edited files that it is monitoring...

the problem is that this dialog hardly ever has focus when it appears - and i can't alt+tab to bring it into focus. okay, i can use the mouse to click the buttons on it but it's annoying as it would be about a million times more convenient to keep my hands on the keyboard.

any idea how to bring a dialog window into focus that doesn't respond to alt+tab?

thanks.

(is this vista being dumb or just me.)

56

Finished Programs / SOLVED: autohotkey makes cursor slide - i want mouse movement to halt the slide

« on: May 05, 2010, 05:10 PM »

i've been using this simple script to slide my cursor around my screen(s) by hitting buttons on my house (these buttons are just assigned to keyboard hotkeys that i'll never normally use).

i find the sliding method of moving the cursor very nice - it means i hardly have to move the mouse about on the mat and, i'm not sure why, but it just seems to feel nicer than using an accelerated cursor (i haven't got used to using skwire's MAT app).

REQUEST:
so, here's the request. although i like this sliding cursor motion - it has to carry out the full autohotkey "MouseMove" function before releasing the cursor - so i can't break the movement part way by moving the cursor with my mouse.

does that make sense? in other words: i'd like the buttons on my mouse to start the cursor sliding across the screen BUT as soon as i move the mouse myself - autohotkey releases the cursor and lets me take control.

i thought i'd be able to figure this out myself but i soon realised that the "MouseMove" function isn't something i can command to stop. well, not with my basic knowledge.

i've included my script if it helps - thanks.

Code: AutoIt [Select]

1. ;SlideCursor
2. ;By nudone
3. ;date: 2010-04-26
4. ScriptVersion=0.2
5. ;function: Slides mouse cursor across whole screens. For multi-monitor systems.
6.  
7. ;CoordMode,Mouse,Screen ;this isn't used
8. ;# = winkey, ! = alt, ^ = control, + = shift
9.  
10. Menu,Tray,Icon,%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll,101
11. Menu,Tray,Tip,SlideCursor %ScriptVersion%
12.  
13. Hotkey, #k,     MoveUp
14. Hotkey, ^!+k,   MoveUp          ; * to work with programmable mouse buttons (if winkey not accepted)
15. Hotkey, ^!+j,   MoveDown
16. Hotkey, #j,     MoveDown        ; *
17. Hotkey, #+j,    MoveLeft
18. Hotkey, ^!+h,   MoveLeft        ; *
19. Hotkey, #+k,    MoveRight
20. Hotkey, ^!+l,   MoveRight       ; *
21.  
22. ;screen sizes
23. TopScreenHeight=1080
24. MiddleScreenWidth=1920
25. LeftScreenWidth=1024
26. RightScreenWidth=1024
27.  
28. ;mouse cursor movement speed
29. VerticalSpeed=5 ; 0 = fastet, 100 = slowest
30. HorizontalSpeed=10
31. return
32.  
33. ; Move the mouse upwards:
34. MoveUp:
35. MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos
36. MouseMove, xpos, ypos - (TopScreenHeight*0.95), VerticalSpeed
37. return
38.  
39. ; Move the mouse downwards:
40. MoveDown:
41. MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos
42. MouseMove, xpos, ypos + (TopScreenHeight*0.95), VerticalSpeed
43. return
44.  
45. ; Move the mouse to (far) left:
46. MoveLeft:
47. MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos
48. ;MouseMove, xpos - MiddleScreenWidth - LeftScreenWidth , ypos, HorizontalSpeed ; use for 3 screens full travel
49. MouseMove, xpos - LeftScreenWidth, ypos, HorizontalSpeed ;
50. return
51.  
52. ; Move the mouse to (far) right:
53. MoveRight:
54. MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos
55. ;MouseMove, xpos + MiddleScreenWidth + LeftScreenWidth , ypos, HorizontalSpeed ;use for 3 screens full travel
56. MouseMove, xpos + RightScreenWidth, ypos, HorizontalSpeed
57. return

57

Living Room / could two numeric keypads work at the same time

« on: May 02, 2010, 07:00 PM »

i'm using a logitech g11 keyboard at the moment - i wanted the extra programmable keys down the left hand side - but now i'm beginning to hate it as it encroaches on my mouse area.

so, i'm considering getting a keyboard without numeric keys down the right hand side - plus a separate numeric keypad i can place at the left of the keyboard (out of the way of the mouse).

it looks like i can get all of my programmable key functions back by using autohotkey - probably a lot more than what i currently have.

what i'm wondering, though, is this: could a second numeric keypad be used whilst the 1st is still connected - the 2nd using programmable keys unique to itself.

the idea is that one keypad would have numlock on and the other numlock off - can these two states exist at the same time?

i know it's a long shot (and dumb) but it would be the cheapest method, by far, for getting an extra programmable keyboard into the system.

or has anyone a better idea for adding extra keys that doesn't cost a premium price?

58

Finished Programs / DONE: ALT key down visual indicator (for when alt key is stuck)

« on: May 02, 2010, 07:09 AM »

i'm fighting my logitech mouse which likes annoying me by locking the ALT key down (i have alt + tab assigned to a mouse button and i suspect it doesn't release the alt key sometimes).

it would be helpful if i had some kind of warning, probably a tray icon, that indicated that the ALT key was held down (i could provide the icon for this, i'm thinking that a flashing red dot would be easy to identify).

i'm sure this is an autohotkey type problem so i appreciate that i could spend a few hours/days trying to figure it out - but i'm hoping one of you autohotkey masters will help out.

thanks.

59

Finished Programs / SOLVED: Toggle mouse cursor speed or acceleration with hotkey

« on: April 30, 2010, 05:53 AM »

i thought i had a pretty decent mouse (logitech mx revolution) and i'm using the modified uberOptions for it - but it doesn't appear to do on the fly (toggling) of mouse speed or acceleration.

i'd really like to be able to press a hotkey (or mouse button that i'll associate with the hotkey) to toggle the speed of the mouse - but only whilst the hotkey is pressed (or maybe press the hotkey again to return to the alternate speed).

as usual, i've had a quick scan through the autohotkey forums and i can't decide if this is something near impossible or quite trivial. i know the cursor can be made to move by autohotkey - but toggling the systems mouse speed/acceleration - well, i really don't know.

anyone up for this snack challenge.

thanks.

(mouser has persuaded me that an accelerated cursor is a good idea to travel across multi-screen setups - but i need the non accelerated/slow cursor movement for design work, i.e. two toggling cursor speeds would be help me).

60

General Software Discussion / refresh all open browsers automatically?

« on: April 29, 2010, 08:45 AM »

anyone know of a little util that will automatically refresh ALL browsers that are open?

when i say "automatically" i mean, by pressing a single key or button and then IE, FireFox, Safari, Chome, Opera, etc. refresh the page they are on (or the main tab that's selected).

this has got to be an old idea so there ought to be something out there - not that i can find anything.

61

Finished Programs / SOLVED: make mouse cursor "wrap" or "warp" to opposite screen edge (for multi screens)

« on: April 28, 2010, 03:03 AM »

i'd like to be able to wrap the mouse cursor around the edges of the screens i'm using, so:

that's 3 screens in a row.
cursor hits edge of far right screen then...
wraps arounnd (or jumps) to edge of far left screen.
(and in the opposite direction of travel.)

or, can anyone recommend a mouse util that will do this that will work with multi-monitor setups.

thanks.

62

General Software Discussion / is there a util for "minimising" programs to the side of the screen?

« on: April 23, 2010, 08:22 AM »

a tingle in my bones makes me think there must be a little program that does this already - if not then after a few replies i'll make a post in the coding snacks section...

i'd like the ability to have more than one taskbar on a single screen. perhaps a left and right edge taskbar additional to the standard taskbar. the only reason for these extra taskbars is that i'd like to (somehow) minimise programs to them.

OR,

forget the extra taskbars, i'd like to just make a window near the right edge of the screen "minimise" to the right edge of the screen - with just a thin button showing at the edge of the screen indicating the minimised state of the window. likewise the left side of the screen behaves the same way.

perhaps (and this may already be mentioned on the forum), the windows at the edges could be "dockable" to an edge - they would hide when temporarily unused and reappear when the screen edges are hit by the mouse cursor.

this hide/show kind of function has been around for years with the way favorites/history panels can hide along the inside edges of browsers (lots of other programs do it that use panels inside a larger main window).

i do think i'm reinventing the wheel with this so i expect there will be something already out there to try.

thanks.

63

General Software Discussion / auto email a list of folder contents - is there a util?

« on: April 03, 2010, 09:30 AM »

(i've got a sneaky feeling there must be a thread on the forum discussing this kind of thing already - but i can't find anything in the search.)

problem: i'm trying to keep track of a couple of computers (maybe more) that are miles apart. they have similar content on them - like video and music files but i quickly lose track of what is where; whether things are duplicated, deleted, unique, etc.

as they are media files i don't want to try and synchronise things using something like DropBox (video is way too big). so, i'd just like a list of the folder contents on each machine emailed to me in a quick and easy fashion...

e.g.
a util scans the folder each time the machine boots up and then creates a list in a txt file of the folder(s) contents. the list is then automatically emailed to me so i can check it against lists made from other machines using the same method.

or, the list is made and emailed whenever i run the util (so it doesn't have to do it each boot-up).

i'm sure there will be a util that does this - or maybe two that i can run together. maybe autohotkey is required but i'd like to know if there are any solutions currently available. or if there's a better way of what i'm trying to do - maybe DropBox can be used to save the lists in one place, therefore email is not required.

thanks.

64

Living Room / video: monkey on a goat on a rope. yes, insane.

« on: March 04, 2010, 06:06 AM »

not entirely good fun for the animals involved but it's still a crazy video clip. it's so bizarre it almost made me feel sick to watch - like watching the laws of physics fall apart or something.

(i suspect that the "wire" isn't quite what it seems - more like a few inches wide metal plate.)

65

Living Room / fujitsu - why hide away the factory reset button?

« on: December 16, 2009, 05:32 AM »

no doubt this is common knowledge with the world playing a cruel trick on me so that i never find out...

i needed to factory reset a fujitsu siemens notebook (amilo li 3710). vista is loading to a black screen with mouse cursor and that's all. i've read around the net for solutions and my conclusion is: i haven't got time to test every possible "solution". hence, factory reset is my friend.

the problem is, i've no idea how to start the process when booting up - there's no indication of what keys to press other than F2 for bios and F12 for boot order.

the weird thing is - i accidently got the factory reset menu to appear so i'm now waiting for the reset to finish its job. i really have no idea how it come on - i only pressed the F12 key again liked i'd done several times already but this time it skipped the boot order menu.

what's annoying is that i can't find any sensible info online about what keys to press. am i suffering from selective search blindness?

is anyone familiar with a fujitus amilo notebook and how factory reset is initiated while booting - maybe it involves holding down the F12 key whilst booting????????

thanks if you can help.

(i'm not convinced this factory reset is actually working - seems to be taking a very long time.)

66

General Software Discussion / which system tray network monitor - like a graph or something.

« on: December 03, 2009, 12:12 PM »

this should be really easy but i can't find anything - or remember anything - but can anyone recommend a system tray util that will display network activity? please.

i'm sure i had something years ago that did - no idea what it was now - maybe it was zone alarm.

any ideas, preferably free.

oh, it's for vista.

67

Living Room / a gmail system that works for me.

« on: November 12, 2009, 12:26 PM »

just letting people know what i've finally chosen - i use gmail by default even though i also use maxthon as my main browser, which has a problem attaching multiple files to google mail.

after trying the suggestions in this thread: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=17927.0



i've added "Affixa" (the free version) http://www.affixa.com/ to my system. this gets around the maxthon browser problem of not being able to select multiple files when uploading to an email (you have to upload each file individually regardless of the google mail "advanced" settings of allowing multi upload). Affixa lets you attach/upload several files in one go. great.

Affixa also makes gmail your systems default mail client - so clicking on any mailto: link will open a new gmail "compose" window in your browser with the correct "to" address completed. (i'm not using firefox as my main browser so i'm not interested in any related solutions there - nor with chrome.)


Affixa main window for attaching several documents at once (drag and drop didn't work but copy and paste does).


then, finally, i use "Digsby" http://www.digsby.com/ which has the best system tray email notifications i've seen. just by clicking on the system tray icon you can do several actions - all without even opening up gmail in your browser.

you can:

open, mark as read, archive, delete, report spam - just by accessing the drop down menu from the tray icon. and it lets you quickly perform these actions on several emails at once. it's so easy (and quick) it makes opening your inbox feel very tiresome.

you can, of course, click to go to directly your gmail inbox or click a link to compose a new email.

as an added bonus you can have more than one gmail account monitored too - or yahoo, or hotmail, etc. i also use digsby for all my chat clients (though it's still lacking a proper "Skype" feature).


menu accessed via try icon (circled in red) note the quick links and useful info displayed for each email.



popup message indicating you have new mail (i tend to ignore this feature and just click to view the list of new emails shown above).

i just thought i'd mention all this as i know there are a lot of people trying to make gmail their system default for emailing - without using a standalone mail client program (e.g. outlook or thunderbird). it might not be the ultimate solution having two programs doing the work of one (or three programs when you include your browser), but for the features and ease of use this setup provides i'm more than happy.


p.s.
i'm surprised Digsby can't do the work of Affixa and respond to mailto links as it does everything else (maybe that will come eventually).


(edited: to add small screengrabs).

68

Living Room / dc forum bookmarks - erm, where?

« on: November 12, 2009, 09:08 AM »

hmm, i'm sure the "bookmarks" link for viewing which threads had been bookmarked was more obvious the last time i looked...

...can someone please give me a hint as to how i see my bookmarks.

thanks.

(i'm sure it will be somewhere obvious - i just can't find it - sorry.)

69

Living Room / Carl Sagan sings (with help from Stephen Hawking)

« on: November 06, 2009, 05:12 AM »

this seemed kind of dumb, then geeky, then quite moving...

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

70

Living Room / top secret: tech support cheat sheet (xkcd)

« on: August 24, 2009, 03:20 AM »

xkcd finally lets the cat out of the bag and makes everyone an expert in the process.

(i can think of a few people i could give the chart to - but i'd have to staple it to their face so that they don't lose it.)




original source: http://xkcd.com/627/

71

Living Room / hmm, unknown exclamation icon in system tray

« on: August 03, 2009, 06:15 AM »

i've not had my pc on for about 3 days and i'm sure i didn't download anything the last time i used it...

...today i turn it on and there's an ugly looking exclamation "warning" kind of icon in the system tray and i've no idea what it is and where it has come from - hovering over it doesn't reveal any information - shutting down other stuff doesn't remove it. i can't even identify what it is using sysinternals process explorer.

if it was something nasty then why even bother to show itself?

any ideas what it might be or best way to identify what it is?

this is what it looks like - the orange triangle icon...

72

Adventures of Baby Cody / Baby Cody gets bored with nudone

« on: July 31, 2009, 06:39 AM »

Baby Cody has finally become bored with me. i'd promised we'd go searching for big Cody but the typical British summer has meant rain stopped play.

i managed to grab a few quick snaps of BC today whilst i was at the computer. you can see that BC has quite a short attention span so be warned when he visits you.

BC snooping on my web reading.


BC bored after about 3 seconds.


BC confusing a usb cable with a worm - maybe he prefers them.


BC looking for details of Cody's location - nothing found. Seems Cody isn't so easy to find.


BC perplexed by a taxidermy bird and Intel Bunnyman rider. Asks "where's Cody?". No reply.


BC trying to hatch a large egg. (Don't tell Baby Cody it was a skull - i think he'd freak-out.)


Me and Baby Cody (look at the mess - that's all BC's fault. honest).


so that was a brief visit. wish there could haven been more excitement for BC - maybe he'll visit again one day. next stop is Carol's. I'm sure he'll have an adventure when he gets there...

73

Living Room / dedication finally pays off for the genuine Apple fans with a new iPhone

« on: July 30, 2009, 10:54 AM »

at long last, just for those that really deserve something special, the ultimate Apple iPhone...

http://www.theonion....utm_source=a-section

74

Living Room / a box arrives and out pops Baby Cody

« on: July 13, 2009, 11:04 AM »

i've had a cardboard box sitting here for a few days - it arrived last week but i seemed to have forgotten about it - until today when i thought i could hear a feeble cry for help coming from inside the box. i gave the box a strong shake before opening it, well, you never know what could be inside - more feeble cries for help...

no prizes for guessing who was inside:

Baby Cody



(more images to follow - let the adventure begin.)

75

Living Room / essential office equipment: usb powered chainsaw

« on: July 08, 2009, 09:12 AM »

you know you've always wanted a chainsaw in the office or, at the very least, one that you can power from your computer or laptop...

...well, now you can!



watch this essential bit of hardware in action: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=UjFlbNIo4QU

and the homepage: http://www.usbchainsaw.com/