Messages

2751

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR: New feature: User Variables tab

« on: November 08, 2008, 10:29 PM »

Woohoo    Looking forward to it!

2752

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG vs TicTocTitle

« on: November 08, 2008, 10:28 PM »

FWIW, I've had AVG say that it has gotten rid of a file (sorry, I don't remember the exact message), but usually I've managed to find it in the Virus Vault (this is w/ AVG Free 7.5) [1] -- these days I just don't have the Resident Shield portion enabled all of the time.  I was pretty annoyed when it (seemingly -- my memory of this is fuzzy) moved files to the Virus Vault w/o giving me any choice in the matter.  I guess I'll try to pay more attention in the future -- I know, I'll use ScreenshotCaptor   [2]

I just tried the "Scan with AVG" menu item from a Windows Explorer context menu on locally compiled versions of:

• TicTocTitle
• TheEnd
• ReFocus
• RecentRun
• PutAside
• LabelControl
• GoneIn60s

The result was "No threats found" -- (I wonder whether it'd make any difference, but I didn't specify custom icon files).

(In AVG Free 7.5, perhaps it's possible to add specific exceptions for future processing, but I haven't managed to determine how so far...)


[1] It's really fond of picking on a 7 zip sfx file

[2] No wait, I need an app to be semi-continuously taking screenshots of my desktop -- and perhaps automatically deleting screenshots that are older than say an hour ago...like an airplane's black box or something.

2753

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Fingers in the nose guide to build javascript plugins. Does that mean its ea

« on: November 08, 2008, 09:57 PM »

Hmm...no other responses...May be it's not a good idea to keep posting further questions in this thread.

Well, I will give it another try anyway.

I'm trying to use onProcessTrigger() to handle launching of things via a plugin, but for some items it didn't create [1] -- is it correct that this is currently a futile endeavor?  The following FScript source snippet gives me the sense that that might be the case:

[Select]

PREFUNCDEF BOOL EFuncName_Allow_ProcessTrigger(const char* destbuf_path, const char* destbuf_caption, const char* destbuf_groupname, int pluginid,int thispluginid, int score, E_EntryTypeT entrytype, void* tagvoidp, BOOL *closeafterp)
{
    // does this plugin want to take over launching of this result?
    if (thispluginid!=pluginid)
    {
        // if we didnt create it, let default handler do it
        return FALSE;
    }

I don't think I have an environment to make this change myself -- any chances of takers or perhaps producing a version of FScript that will compile under Code::Blocks?


[1] I'm investigating the idea of implementing FARR-specific file associations.

2754

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR: New feature: User Variables tab

« on: November 08, 2008, 09:21 AM »

Is it supposed to be possible to make use of Virtual Folder Paths / Env Paths as part of user variable values?

I tried doing something like:

[Paths]
quicklaunch=%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

But when I try to use it in an alias [1], I don't seem to have much luck. 

On a related note, is there a way to get more details (e.g. via a log file or something) about what is occurring (or say, what an alias expanded to) as a result of attempting to launch an alias?  I'm finding that it feels like I'm groping in the dark when trying to get particular aliases to work.  Perhaps I'm missing something...


[1] Referencing the user variable's value via: %uservar.Paths.quicklaunch%

2755

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Farr's go away

« on: November 08, 2008, 02:08 AM »

Inspired by the work in this thread [1], I put together an AHK script to start or stop FARR depending on whether FARR is not or is already running [2] -- it asks for confirmation via dialog boxen to defend against accidental invocation.  Perhaps someone might find it useful at some point.

ToggleFARRMayBe function

ToggleFARRMayBe()
{
  FarrExe = FindAndRunRobot.exe
  ; XXX: change appropriately - would be nice to read in path values from elsewhere...perhaps some day
  FarrFullPath = L:\Plus\FindAndRunRobot\%FarrExe%
  Process, Exist, %FarrExe%
  if (ErrorLevel <> 0) ; yes FARR
  {
    ; Yes/No + Question (4 + 32)
    MsgBox,36,,FARR seems to be running -- leave alone?
    IfMsgBox No
      Process, Close, %FarrExe%   
  }
  else ; no FARR
  {
    ; Yes/No + Question (4 + 32)
    MsgBox,36,,FARR doesn't seem to be running -- start?
    IfMsgBox Yes
      Run, %FarrFullPath%   
  }
  Return
}

For invocation, I have something like the following:

[Select]

; toggle farr...may be
^!q::ToggleFARRMayBe()

[1] Thanks to lanux128 for pointing this thread out
[2] Actually, it lives in the AHK script I use for custom hotkeys.

2756

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: A Petition to Beg DC member Ecaradec to write Multi-FScript v2.0

« on: November 07, 2008, 09:29 PM »

What mouser said ...and thus, please count me in as a helper.

2757

General Software Discussion / Re: What's on your flash drive?

« on: November 07, 2008, 09:18 PM »

I'm not using a flash drive, but I've started a separate partition (actually a file being treated as a drive via ImDisk) for portable apps -- the idea here is that my inevitable OS-reinstall can be made much less time-consuming because in theory, I shouldn't have to muck w/ at least the partition with the portable apps (as a bonus, I can have multiple OS installations use the same portable apps).

I started with the just-mentioned Lupo Pensuite and have been carving away things from its Apps directory that I don't use and have been adding updates and new apps to its Plus directory.

The file-being-treated-as-an-image is about 2GB in size so I could move the content to a flash drive at some point -- my current usage comes in at around 1.7GB and WindirStat (portable of course!) tells me that the big users of space are:

• Chrome - about 500MB (> 400MB is in a Data folder)
• OpenOfficePortable - about 250MB
• JDK - about 160MB
• emacs - about 130MB
• GnuCash - about 100MB
• Firefox - about 70MB

As to what I've found useful [1], that would be (apart from what's mentioned above) [2]:

• 7-zip
• ASuite
• AutoHotkey
• CCleaner
• DcUpdater
• DirSyncPro
• Eraser
• FileZilla
• Find and Run Robot (and some of its plugins)
• Freemind (though I modified its startup batch file -- their FAQ gives some tips)
• GIMP
• Icons From File
• ImgBurn
• JFileSync (though I modified its startup batch file)
• Nirsoft Utilities (as in, many things from there)
• Pidgin
• ProcessTamer
• PSPad
• RecentRun
• ReNamer
• ResizeEnable
• ScreenshotCaptor
• SpeedCrunch
• Sysinternals Suite
• TapTap Hotkey Extender
• TaskSwitch XP
• The Regex Coach
• TicToc Title
• Universal Extractor
• Virtuawin
• VLC

On a side note, I'm hoping some of the up-and-coming file association managing tools will come out of development states (and get tested) and I hope to come across some good app/system to manage keeping apps up-to-date (looks like I should take a look at: FreewareUpdater).


[1] I made separate categories in ASuite for things that I'm pretty sure I'll be using (based on recent experience or gut feeling), things I'm trying, things that have problems, etc. -- what I mentioned here is from what I'm sure I'll be using.

[2] Some of these are specific portable versions and some just worked as is

2758

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 45

« on: November 07, 2008, 08:46 PM »

Number 5:

A single cyber crime group has stolen more than a half million bank, credit and debit card accounts over the past two-and-a-half years using one of the most advanced strains of computer spyware in existence, according to research to be published today. The discovery is among the largest stolen data caches ever recovered.

Am I the only one wondering when these things surface: How would you know whether your data was among that which was obtained?  Can you check some how? 

I think some (many?) people have more than one account at the same bank (e.g. savings + checkings) say, so perhaps a better thing to focus on is how many individuals' details have been compromised -- the current estimate could easily be inflated by a fair bit)...but then I guess the total numbers thrown around in the news would be smaller and it just wouldn't be as attention-grabbing...

Bonus question: so, what's the chance any given individual Internet user is directly affected?

2759

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« on: November 07, 2008, 08:37 PM »

Thanks for pointing out the release of DirSync Pro 1.0 -- will have to check it out. 

I like that it has a preview feature   However, I found that JFileSync makes it easier to choose not to sync certain individual things after previewing.  May be that kind of thing is already in DirSync Pro and I missed it or perhaps if it isn't there, it will be added eventually.

2760

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: A Petition to Beg DC member Ecaradec to write Multi-FScript v2.0

« on: November 07, 2008, 10:18 AM »

Great news that you may take a look! 

I've only recently started using mouser's FARR, your amazing FScript, czechboy's FScript plug-ins, as well as other FARR plug-ins by other authors, but I'm really looking forward to development on this front!

2761

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 45

« on: November 06, 2008, 06:18 PM »

Thanks again for this week's edition!  Good luck w/ the new job

2762

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Farr Plugin Idea Again: Generic web page retrieve with regex show

« on: November 06, 2008, 04:57 PM »

The testing via IE is done by filling in forms in a field -- so there is one field for the URL to fetch, one field for the regular expression to use for matching, and one field for the template to use to build the results. 

In the context of the FARR window (or specifying an alias), the arguments to "webgrab" (i.e. URL, regex string, and template string) are not all exactly in the same format as for the form.  In particular, the latter two must be surrounded by double quotes and consequently (I believe) be escaped appropriately (e.g. if there was a double quote in a regular expression tested in the form context, it would need to be escaped before being used as an argument to the "webgrab" alias [1]).

In general then, if you start w/ the form, come up w/ a set of arguments that works in that context, and then want to save them for later use, say as an alias, you may be faced w/ the task of "translating" them as a straight copy-and-paste will not work (at a minimum you'll need to wrap the regex string and template string in double quotes and depending on the precise content of the two arguments may be faced w/ the task of escaping certain characters).

Is this any clearer?

On a side note, I've also been wondering about potential mismatches between FARR's regular expression handling and that of JS -- I think ecaradec alluded to this in another thread at some point too -- AFAIU, they are not exactly the same.


[1] But in the current implementation, I don't think Webgrab handles double quotes in regex strings or templates

2763

Coding Snacks / Re: Global Hotkey Management

« on: November 06, 2008, 07:07 AM »

That makes two of us...but is it possible?

2764

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Closed Program Bin / Reopen accidentily closed software

« on: November 06, 2008, 05:08 AM »

Thanks for the clarification -- I think I understand better now

Perhaps if a number of offending apps use a similar approach, if that approach could be coped w/, it would mean that individual app-specific work-arounds wouldn't be necessary...OTOH, may be there are no (or very few) users who are actually experiencing these problems...

2765

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Farr Plugin Idea Again: Generic web page retrieve with regex show

« on: November 06, 2008, 02:15 AM »

A new version (1.0.0.5) should be available now (see previous message above for download location).

This version provides an alias "wgt" which launches an IE window from which one should be able to test various arguments to feed to Webgrab.  One can do testing via this window and once a satisfactory set of arguments is obtained, manually translate them [1] into an alias for later use.


[1] I'm hoping to provide some functionality eventually to "compute" an appropriate alias string so the translation doesn't have to be done manually.  For the moment, one can probably get some idea of what to do to translate based on the pre-installed alias "wgwz".

2766

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Closed Program Bin / Reopen accidentily closed software

« on: November 05, 2008, 10:45 PM »

My current guess is that apps that do focus-related auto-capturing [1] (e.g. VirtualBox, VMWare, some VNC clients [2]) are likely suspects in being trouble-makers for GoneIn60s.


[1] Is that what you mean by "visualization"?

[2] Now  I have to find some app that has a name not beginning w/ the letter V that I can suspect...hmmm...oh, I did have some trouble while using VirtuaWin [3]...darn, that begins w/ "V" too

[3] Haven't narrowed it down enough to say for sure -- will keep an eye out for this to come up w/ reproducing instructions.

2767

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: reopen recently opened explorer windows, history, MRU

« on: November 05, 2008, 04:24 PM »

Doesn't the Skrommel meister have a "gone in 60 seconds" type program with roughly this functionality?

-SleepingWolf (November 05, 2008, 03:58 PM)

Indeed -- and cleverly hidden away using invisible digital ink in one of my earlier posts in this thread the master's work is subtly alluded to

2768

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: reopen recently opened explorer windows, history, MRU

« on: November 05, 2008, 04:22 PM »

Thanks for the suggestion of MenuApp.

I'm taking a look now -- one thing that caught my attention is:

MenuApp configuration is controlled by an "ini" file called MenuApp.ini, which is created automatically when you first run the program.

The file lives in your LOCAL_APP folder in a subfolder called MenuApp.

On Windows XP this will be:

"C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\MenuApp".

This was sounding like bad news for my portable set-up.  However, further reading turned up:

menuApp can be run from removable media like a USB drive.

To get this to work you need to put the menuApp ini file in the same folder on the USB drive as the menuApp.exe. menuApp will use this rather than the ini file in the LOCAL_APP folder.

The only annoyance is that it repeatedly replaces itself in the startup folder.

-SirSmiley (November 05, 2008, 10:35 AM)

I was looking at the ini file and it looks to me like there is an 'AutoStart' setting under the [Server] section -- may be that can be used to disable this behavior.

As to applying to the issue of opening recently opened (closed?) Windows Explorer windows though, I'm not sure how I'd get that to work out:

MenuApp displays the contents of the folder in which it is run.

Although MenuApp does seem to have some way of listing Special Folders, this appears to be based on setting up a shortcut for each Special Folder beforehand:

MenuApp knows about some special folders which are displayed using a command line parameter.

The format for this is:

"C:\Program Files\MenuApp\MenuApp.exe" -X

where X is one of the following values: ...

If there were a folder on my system that continually got updated w/ shortcuts to folders (including Special Folders) I accessed recently it seems like that might be used toward the end in question, but I don't know of one.  Or may be there is some way to apply this app appropriately that I'm not seeing...

2769

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: reopen recently opened explorer windows, history, MRU

« on: November 05, 2008, 09:49 AM »

RecentX works better than some of the alternatives, but it doesn't seem to record things like "My Computer", "My Network Places", "Entire Network", etc.  I suppose one might say those aren't folders, but they do show up via Windows Explorer...

I looked into QTTabBar a bit and unfortunately I'm currently in the no-.NET-if-possible phase of my life as I'm experimenting with trying to have as few non-portable apps as possible.  If I grow out of this phase, I might consider it in the future

lanux128 mentioned GoneIn60s elsewhere and that happens to cover one of the main situations I wanted so I may just use that for a while.  Perhaps studying its source will inspire a future tool or an enhancement 

Thank you both again for your suggestions!

2770

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Closed Program Bin / Reopen accidentily closed software

« on: November 05, 2008, 09:41 AM »

In my environment, it appears that (perhaps w/ other factors involved) VirtualBox and GoneIn60s don't play well together [1].  Specifically, I'm finding that some times GoneIn60s doesn't appear to "capture" the apps that I close.


[1] I guess this is not too surprising and I'd hazard a guess that some VMWare products might behave similarly though I haven't tested this myself.

2771

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Closed Program Bin / Reopen accidentily closed software

« on: November 05, 2008, 08:54 AM »

Great idea and program!  I'm testing it out w.r.t. : IDEA: reopen recently opened explorer windows, history, MRU (thanks to lanux128's suggestion)

I found it amusing while testing that the program's own about box can be recovered -- what a nice bit of semi-self-reference

2772

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for November 4th, 2008 - Codename "Election Special"

« on: November 05, 2008, 08:20 AM »

Thank you mouser and Darwin!  I think I will come to appreciate these even more when I have long periods of not using the net

2773

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: reopen recently opened explorer windows, history, MRU

« on: November 05, 2008, 01:34 AM »

@lanux128: I think somehow my system and FolderView don't get along so well -- RecentX I hope to try when I have enough resources to invoke VirtualBox

@yksyks: Thanks!  RecentFilesView seems nice, but it doesn't seem to list everything (e.g. I used Windows Explorer to visit C:\Documents and Settings via My Computer but the former (as well as the latter) don't seem to appear).  Regarding QTTabBar, this I also hope to try via VirtualBox

2774

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: reopen recently opened explorer windows, history, MRU

« on: November 04, 2008, 11:22 PM »

Thanks for the pointers -- will take a look

2775

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: reopen recently opened explorer windows, history, MRU

« on: November 04, 2008, 11:06 PM »

Did anyone ever make progress creating (or finding) something relevant?

I thought about trying to make something with AHK but I haven't come up with what seems to me like a good way to do it -- not fond of polling windows explorer windows to gather path information and even if polling was satisfactory, I haven't thought of a way to decide what paths to count as associated w/ "closed" windows (may be tracking all paths would be satisfactory?).

Perhaps someone has some good ideas regarding this matter