Messages

151

General Software Discussion / Re: A better wireless network finder?

« on: July 12, 2007, 07:30 AM »

Yes, but the primary function of Netstumbler is to locate and diagnose wifi networks.

a replacement for both the built-in Windows module, and the software provided by the hardware vendor

I think he was asking for a replacement for Windows built-in WZC module and similars provided by hardware vendor which come with your card (like Dlink, Belkin connection utility)

152

General Software Discussion / Re: A better wireless network finder?

« on: July 11, 2007, 02:54 PM »

Well, get Intel Proset if you have intel card. I have used it and also IBM Access Connections -- imo Windows built-in module worked best. 

153

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 04:02 PM »

Yes I have no problem with SMF and I dont doubt it's the best forum software on the planet...so far.

I guess I'm just not a fan of meritocracy/elitism, which is SMF dev about, IMO. 

154

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 03:52 PM »

I am not an expert. There is a great deal more material out there on the Net and elsewhere, so if anybody is interested they should read further.
I just didn't want some of the people new to the issues at hand here to start out with a skewed concept that all copyright is evil.

Thx tinjaw, that makes up for my lackluster business law class

155

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 03:09 PM »

Philosophy is philosophy, a good read it may be; terms are terms, that we have to abide by. 

Read: Microsoft and Open Source

I dont see any part of the above SMF and Open Source write-up that cannot be justified with "we're closing source and charging for it because only experts are coding it and there's no fork to confuse users -- a win-win situation".

156

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 02:38 PM »

i didn't say that because i realise it's impractical - but if i could wave a magic wand i would make it so.

I didnt study smf licensing terms seriously before, coz mouser's such a fan of SMF forum and I don't run any forum myself, now it seems to me that SMF is actually copyrighted, pretty closed-source forum software.

Read their licensing terms here: http://www.simplemac...rg/about/license.php

Among the terms read:

Any Distribution of this Package, whether as a Modified Package or not, requires express written consent from Simple Machines LLC.

I'm not the mind reader of SMF but the terms mainly impress "copyright + development control" on me, for some reason.

1. SMF controls distribution

2. Therefore controls development (see #1), which makes it hard for independent mod writers to write customizations that affect lots of components because SMF sets the framework. Now they are basically writing addons for existing SMF base.

3. "change the terms of this Agreement at any time" allows the company to do whatever they want - at any time. With proper tech, it could turn into a for-profit entity anytime. (as far as I know PHP encryption is already there, and it's not uncommon for developers to charge users monthly subscription fees)

Note that we don't have copyleft source code, but copyright source code. Just because SMF allows us to use their forum software for free doesn't mean we own the code and do whatever we want.

I haven't discussed this with mouser yet but it is somehow not that assuring to put so much community contribution on copyrighted software (forum software) with somewhat restrictive licensing terms.

Perhaps the more our site functions are integrated with SMF, the less options we'll have. So far it should be not v hard to convert our forum to phpbb (open source) and there are already converters for this.

As we are getting bigger (which of course we are), the merely difficult may evolving into something impractical to do, just as you said nudone.

So I'm saying it pays to study smf alternatives like phpbb3 (I'll try) and design our site components to be less reliant on SMF forum software.

Even thou SMF is v unlikely to make any drastic move in the short term, its (possible) gradual change of policy in the long term may make us suffer. Let's hope we won't get too big and complicated to migrate our system then.

157

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 12:24 PM »

As u know mouser has just removed all of his mods on official smf site in protest and I just took my search mod offline in support.

Mouser's been complaining about smf search on SMF forum for over a year, elaborating on detailed cases where smf search fails (and it still does). A few really great guys at SMF posted improved scripts for mouser and our forum -- nevertheless as I read his posts I believe his requests went mostly unheeded.

When mouser asked me to work on this mod back a week ago, he told me in excitement that many SMF forum users will be benefited from my mod if it's a success and we'll be able to contribute "big time" to SMF community.

And as soon as the mod was released, mouser posted on SMF forum to tell ppl there that our improved search mod was available for download.

It's just unacceptable for an SMF official to say, without a "thank you", but:

"If we don't see this fixed by Friday, we will be forced to escalate the issue (and we really don't want to have to do it, it is a waste of time for everyone)."

I'm not saying the SMF person was technically wrong on this, s/he pointed out my license violation and did her/his job -- technically no question about that.

It's still upsetting me that whilst all of our released mod are about open-source, share, community contribution, someone (maybe more ppl) in SMF are thinking the corporation way, the litigation way -- right off their mind!

I don't think mouser and I ever developed mods for profits (not even donations), personal fame, etc. We want our users to enjoy our product as easy as possible, to make life easier for them, since web stuff isn't really simple -- often you f*ck up things without even knowing what went wrong.

it would be a pity to deny the larger community of SMF users the chance to benefit from the good work that's just been completed here.

Exactly. SMF Community is simply great (SO FAR). Some gurus there were really helpful to me sorting out my tricky installer problems and I really appreciate it.

We don't want SMF to lapse into a corporation run by corporate-minded ppl -- from a pro-open-source community where ppl care, develop and share. That's why we protest for a change to their licensing policy.


Anyways, I'll still be improving SMF search (currently just for DC), so don't hide bugs from me!! 

158

Living Room / Re: For DC Fans: Bring DC Forum to your Desktop for searching/browsing/etc.

« on: July 10, 2007, 08:53 AM »

Thanks for all your support! Don't even assume I've forgotten about this thread! 


Updated: 9 July 2007.

Download: http://www.mrmouser....ForumCrawl070907.rar

77.3MB RAR package containing 8,778 individual html files.


Sure I'd be using it to test our new forum search.

159

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 08:29 AM »

i confess i don't really understand what this problem implies - does it mean DC is allowed to use wordy's brilliant search mod or not?

No worries nudone, nobody was trying to stop us from using our own modified script. 

Simply put it was because I included the ultimate modified script in my package so that ppl could just copy/replace to upgrade their search script, without going through the smf mod installer (a forum component).

SMF ppl claimed that the distribution of this directly replacement for their original script was "redistribution without written permission" and was again their licensing terms.

I only included the direct replacement script in the package because it was not possible for users to uninstall my package and as such it'd make it difficult for them to upgrade their search script next time. Now what could get easier than direct copy/replace?

Anyways, I've been working for 5 hrs to finally get a working uninstallable package out. SMF installer is hard to play with, sometimes it works, sometimes it just doesn't -- for no apparent reason.

160

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 02:18 AM »

The reason I took extra step to include the standalone modified search.php was:

For some unknown reason, the original package will NOT uninstall (even thou it installs without a damn problem) in SMF package manager. As such if the user continues with the uninstallation process, his search.php will be ruined.

And what make it even worse, he cannot reinstall the package right away to fix search.php -- now he has to:

1. Delete the original package
2. Download updated package
3. Restore original search.php from official smf installation
4. Install updated package

Do we hate supporters of our mod? What exactly is the point of troubling them with all these extra time-wasting steps?

If they have the already modified standalone search.php in the mod, applying/upgrading DC search to their own SMF forum couldnt be easier -- Copy + Replace, that's it!

161

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 10, 2007, 12:55 AM »

New version uploaded (see attachment of the first message)

1.0.0.2   Fixed a missing results bug when query contains ' apostrophe


We are looking forwarding to submitting this mod to SimpleMachines.org soon so that more SMFers get to use it -- your help is needed! 

162

SMF Forum Mods / Re: DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 09, 2007, 12:09 AM »

Yeah u were right mouser, just squashed a tiny bug 

1.0.0.1   Fixed a minor bug concerning phrase exclusion, e.g. heat wave -"newsletter for"

btw, you don't have to go through steps to install/upgrade the mod, just copy the search.php in the package and replace the original/older one in Sources folder

163

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 08, 2007, 04:33 AM »

To search DonationCoder.com forum directly from within your browser, check out app103's plugins:

https://www.donation...m/Software/Other/ff/

 

164

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 08, 2007, 04:27 AM »

DC SMF Search Mod is out!

https://www.donation...34.msg67388#msg67388

Improvements to existing SMF code

• Significant reduction of missing results (now very rare)
• Less noise and therefore reasonably better relevance
• Enhanced phrase search
• Intelligent handling for ‘ apostrophes and – dashes
• Supports short keywords (3 characters or less)
• Supports stopwords (clichés)
• Selectively expanding the search by finding keyword inflections

Features unique to this mod

Active board ranking heuristic (based on mouser’s suggestion)

Now u can even search phrases with ' apostrophe(s) in them, e.g. "it's worth it", "mouser's"

At last I no longer have to send my little bot to crawl DC forum twice-monthly!

I hope other SMFers will find it useful as well.

165

SMF Forum Mods / DC SMF Search Mod - an improvement search for smf forum (codename Zillarank)

« on: July 08, 2007, 02:17 AM »

Overview

DC SMF Search is a mod to the existing smf forum search function.

It has been powering forum search on DonationCoder.com since July 04 2007, so you may want to give it try on our forum.

For illustrated demo, visit: https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=9434.0


Features

1. Significant reduction of missing results (now very rare)
2. Less noise and therefore reasonably better relevance
3. Hugely improved ranking algorithm (when using FullText index)
4. Enhanced phrase search
5. Intelligent handling for '(apostrophe), .(period), and –(dash)
6. Supports short keywords (3 characters or less)
7. Supports stopwords (clichés)
8. Active board ranking heuristic (based on mouser’s suggestion)
9. Expand/foldable result summary
10. Viewing all matching posts in a topic with one click
11. Ability to sort search results live
12. Quick dropdown search box


IMPORTANT CONFIGURATION INFO

Works best with Search Settings (in admin panel):

1. Use FullText index (Search index -> FullText index)
2. Leave "Force the use of a search index" UNchecked
3. Leave "match whole words only" UNchecked
4. Maximum results to show: 0  (0: no limit)


Compatibility and Installation

Tested on SMF version 1.1.3. To install, use package manager in admin panel - Packages.


Download

http://custom.simple...ds/index.php?mod=887


Author's personal opinion

DC SMF Search does not consume noticeably more resource than standard smf search.


NOTE: SEE ALSO THIS THREAD: https://www.donation...index.php?topic=9091 --mouser

166

Site/Forum Features / Re: DonationCoder forum search plugin

« on: July 07, 2007, 03:26 AM »

The problem with googles site search is that not even most forum posts end up in google's index so there will be missing results.

167

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 06, 2007, 01:33 PM »

Update: v1.4.0 is live now

A few minor bugs have been fixed.

And much improved search performance for:

1. Phrases

2. Words that are prefixed and/or suffixed


We are looking forward to releasing this script soon. Join us in bughunting and plz do lemme know if you run into anything search-related that confuses/bothers you!

168

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 05, 2007, 03:53 PM »

Update: v1.2.2 is live now

thanks to our testers (esp. cranioscopical and Lashiec), a bug involving fulltext search engine and '-' dash handling has been fixed. 

Thanks!!

169

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 05, 2007, 01:24 PM »

Also numbers are now acceptable as keywords, try:

20% discount, smf 2.0, etc.

170

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 05, 2007, 12:50 PM »

Update: v1.2.1 is now live on DC forum

So what's new?

1. Searches entire forum by default, but is also capable of search within board/topic

Right now if you search using the editbox at top of the forum, while you are in a forum section, it will ONLY search in that forum section.

Now you no longer have to go back to forum index to search entire site, with new our DC smf search.

I think a drop-down solution might be nice, with "prefer hits from this section", "only search this section" and "just search entire board, dammit!" choices...

It's fairly easy for us to modify the current search boxes to better support searching within board/topic, if desired.


2. Active board ranking adjustment (thanks to mouser)

What if ZillaRank changed this behavior and always searched the whole board, BUT (here is the clever part), gave a higher score bonus to results from the section you are in at the time of search.

The script now raises the ranking of all matching topics within the forum you are browsing, while displaying all matching topics in the entire forum.

By applying a multiplier to existing smf relevance score, it distorts the ranking just a bit.

It only taking a boolean value change to turn off this feature.


Unlike standard smf search, DC search does not ignore words with 3 letters or less. So any keyword counts! 

171

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 05, 2007, 05:28 AM »

I think a drop-down solution might be nice, with "prefer hits from this section", "only search this section" and "just search entire board, dammit!" choices...

Yup I believe this is more practical. An update to the script will be ready soon. By default it searches the entire forum unless user specifizes board/topic.

172

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: July 04, 2007, 02:27 PM »

Good idea Joao, maybe I should give all "MOVED: " threads extra low relevance score.

I'm hoping that this first update will be able to address these 2 issues:

1. Missing results

2. Excessive noise/irrelevant info in results


The next update to forum search will (hopefully) feature a better relevance ranking system. We dont need having 10-pages of results - IMO just a dozen most relevant topics on topmost would suffice, for most people. 

173

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: My paid donation wasn't acknowledged

« on: June 29, 2007, 06:16 AM »

No worries pratanakangsadal, you are among the not-so-many people who went through troubles to make donation! Welcome to the forum!! 

I just misunderstood the phrase 'donation credits = 0'

Where did you see that? Well if that's something confusing we'll have to fix it soon. 

Thanks!!

174

Living Room / Re: Is it me, or is the internet getting S L O W E R ?

« on: June 14, 2007, 11:03 AM »

If one of the bastards comes near me I'll show them how to get a bigger penis!

ROFL

175

General Software Discussion / Re: What do you think of PCTools' Spyware Doctor?

« on: June 12, 2007, 12:26 PM »

Well I have tried quite a few free/commercial anti-spyware before (including all of the popular alternatives) - none of them trumped Spyware Doctor in terms of detection AND removal of spyware.

A few months ago I was annoyed to death by those "You have been infected by ..." false alarms popping up every few minutes, and that was when I clearly realized some crap infected my system (not just a routine check revealing problems).

I remember Ad-aware reported all clear, Mcafee + antispyware plugin failed to remove the thingy - and spyware doctor killed the bastard without trouble, on its first try.