Messages

751

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: TaskDaddy (Now with teaser helpfile and screenshots!)

« on: June 02, 2010, 03:55 PM »

Updated original post with helpfile and abbreviated user guide including screenshots (which didn't seem to bump the topic to recent posts, hence this post).

752

Living Room / Re: Which scripting tool do you normally use, AutoHotKey or AutoIt3?

« on: June 02, 2010, 05:01 AM »

erm, what are the differences?

-nudone (June 02, 2010, 02:57 AM)

This is discussed some in this topic and in this one.

753

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

« on: June 02, 2010, 04:44 AM »

Hm, 64bit Vista allowed unsigned kernel mode drivers? Not unless running in driver signing test mode

-f0dder (June 02, 2010, 04:28 AM)

All I know is that I saw some Vista 64-bit wireless drivers for my old wireless card and that they didn't work in Windows 7 for the above reason.

EDIT: Could the signing be specific to the OS, so that to Vista they were signed, and to Windows 7 they weren't?

754

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

« on: June 02, 2010, 04:26 AM »

I went from Vista 32 bit with 1GB RAM to Windows 7 64 bit to 8GB RAM, and I went with the 64 bit version solely because of the opportunity to have enough RAM not to have to worry about RAM anymore.

Between the 32bit and 64bit apps on my system, I don't notice any speed difference, and certainly not "pauses or weird glitches."

I started to say there is not much of an advantage to going to 64-bit on a 4GB system, but on a 4GB system, I think 64 bit would see the full 4GB vs 32 bit only seeing 3GB, so it might actually be worthwhile.

By the way, DO check all of your drivers, including the chipset drivers for your motherboard and Google what others say about running Windows 7 64 bit on your motherboard (or off the shelf system if that's what you have.) Vista 64 bit DID allow 64 bit unsigned kernel mode drivers, Windows 7 64 bit DOES NOT. In fact, Google every piece of hardware you have because I'm not seeing a trial version of Windows 7 64-bit except for one that runs in a VM, and that won't help as far as testing drivers.

755

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: TaskDaddy (until I can think of a better name)

« on: June 01, 2010, 10:08 PM »

EDIT: The help file has been moved to my original pledge post and I am working on filling out the whole NANY template, also to be in the original post.

I have a teaser draft help file, hopefully this explains what I am trying to do. You'll notice the screenshots still refer to LaserTask instead of the new name TaskDaddy.

Everything in the helpfile has been implemented but poorly tested, especially since the big command line argument rewrite. Plus I am thinking how to really test it good, and create thousands of tasks, containing random printable and unprintable characters, in an attempt to break both TaskDaddy and Outlook itself*, otherwise read out of Outlook what it put in.

(Non-coder types can skip this part: In the back of my mind, I know I am going to have to delve into the object interface to fix the Outlook.au3 bug which forced me to turn off error checking. Dreading that part a little bit, or postponing it rather until I have some clarity in my mind. It may be something as simple as a method being called that doesn't exist in the Outlook object.)

Anyway, enjoy the help file! I hope someone takes a glance at it. Any feedback on my help file style is welcome, too. I think this is the first help file I ever made.

* On a non-production system, of course.

756

Living Room / Which scripting tool do you normally use, AutoHotKey or AutoIt3?

« on: June 01, 2010, 04:20 PM »

Mainly I am trying to get a feel for how many closet AutoIt3 scripters are lurking out there (hence I didn't ask about WSH, Perl, or any number of other scripting languages). From appearances this looks like an All-Autohotkey shop, but appearances can be deceiving.  I know I've seen one or two of you in the AutoIt3 forums.  Make yourself known! Are there coding snacks that will never be written because the person who has an interest in writing it is more comfortable with AutoIt3? (And it is respectfully requested if possible that this is not turned into a debate as to which is better, that seems to have been covered in previous threads)

757

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR crashes after installing AltTab plugin

« on: May 30, 2010, 05:07 PM »

^I spoke too soon. Now every time FARR starts I get this and FARR won't open:

I was originally going to post the troubleshooting log, but it looks like .log is not one of the allowed file types here ironically.

How do I disable the plugin for the time being?

Hey! It's my 100th Post! Aww, I didn't get to post in the 100th Post thread.

758

Circle Dock / Re: CircleDock Hotkeys with 2 non-toggle keys

« on: May 29, 2010, 07:16 AM »

I have investigated this and found there to be an intermittent problem caused by some sloppy coding by my predecessor. I have fixed it for the next release.


Mark

-Markham (May 28, 2010, 01:13 AM)

Excellent.

759

Developer's Corner / Re: Recommend a general purpose IDE

« on: May 29, 2010, 04:42 AM »

I also don't consider myself a coder, but a lifelong coder wannabe. I don't really have a clue what the answer would be, but I noticed a few things.

up until now i've used whatever editor/IDE came with the package i was using. but now that it looks like i'm going to be doing more of this than i want to i'm in the market for a more general purpose tool.

-Gwen7 (May 27, 2010, 09:37 AM)

First of all, by "in the market" do you mean you or your company is willing to pay money? (can't help you there, I haven't even looked at payware)

what i'd like is something that can handle c++, php, python, and probably java with equal aplomb.

So you have ruled out getting the best IDE for each individual language -- so noted. And you have ruled out having the most common language-specific application frameworks, libraries, templates, function calltips, and external tools already set up for you so you can get coding right away -- so noted.

I think C++ in particular benefits from the IDE developer's awareness of needs specific to that language. I wonder if you would consider shooting for one IDE for C++ and one for everything else.

folding is important to me because i often work on a small screen laptop

Fortunately, thanks to the Scintilla component, there's no shortage of code folding freeware editors these days.

. and multiplatform would be a major plus since i work on BSD and Windows workstations. having the same tool on both environments would simplify my life greatly.

Notepad++, which was mentioned twice (and I use it myself), is Windows only, although I've seen screenshots of it running under WINE. Consider SciTE, the editor by the author of the Scintilla component; it is multiplatform, one downside (to me) is that to configure the tiniest thing, you have to dig into the properties files and search the help to find out what each setting means. However SciTE is the only freeware editor I know that supports function calltips, and the only reason I know this is that SciTE4AutoIT3 set this up for me in the realm of AutoIT3 scripting.



It's even able to suggest variables I created whenever I type "$" (AutoIt variables start with a dollar sign.) So my only suggestion is to give SciTE a spin and see if it is to your liking.

760

General Software Discussion / Re: HowTo repair/replace tcpip.sys ?

« on: May 27, 2010, 07:15 AM »

7-Zip

Donations are not necessary now. Thanks.

Copyright (C) 2009 Igor Pavlov.

-Register

 

-Curt (May 27, 2010, 04:50 AM)

IZArc is freeware, too. I used 7Zip for a while, but there was something about the way 7Zip File Manager specifies destination paths that rankled me. However, if you use 7ZFM/7Zip, I highly recommend the 7-Zip Theme Manager -- and I'm reading that it is compatible with the 64-bit version now.

761

General Software Discussion / Re: HowTo repair/replace tcpip.sys ?

« on: May 27, 2010, 04:24 AM »

Got way off topic but ... why the heck does anyone want to use Winzip any more? Why not just download 7zip for free and have a much better product?

-Carol Haynes (May 27, 2010, 04:04 AM)

Exactly, that's why I use IZArc these days.

762

What's the Best? / What's the best: Wiki Host?

« on: May 26, 2010, 05:13 PM »

What's the most flexible wiki-specific hosting site, for people not wanting to host it themselves? (e.g.., PBWiki etc.)

Some characteristics to think about (I'm sure I've forgotten some):

- Is it ad supported or can you put your own ads?
- Wiki software used (MediaWiki or Proprietary)
- Cost if any
- Ease of editing (do non-technical people feel comfortable with it?)
- Spam prevention features
- Moderation features
- Types of content supported

763

General Software Discussion / Re: Word 2007: Are Table Styles safe to use now?

« on: May 26, 2010, 03:40 PM »

Very interesting. Well obviously they've put more thought into it than I have. I guess they would still say the same today, most of the Office MVPs are pretty good at staying up-to-date.

764

General Software Discussion / Re: FeedSquares - Alternative to Feedly/Google Reader (Chrome Extension)

« on: May 26, 2010, 02:52 PM »

No, I didn't try it, I'm just judging from the screen shot. I may give it a try just for the heck of it. Besides, Google Chrome also has the print selected bug fixed, so I'll give Chrome another shot while I'm at it

I am however a huge fan of Feedly, and it looks like a newspaper without me having to click on anything, plus I like the way it suggests articles from my RSS feeds when I am on other pages.

765

General Software Discussion / Re: Word 2007: Are Table Styles safe to use now?

« on: May 26, 2010, 01:30 PM »

And I'm intrigued to know how you'd use autotext to simulate a table style too

-katykaty (May 26, 2010, 01:23 PM)

Me too. As far as I know, autotext just inserts the same elements that you could insert anyway. Perhaps you mean text boxes?

And what is meant by tables (EDIT: I mean table styles) being unstable? Does they crash Word? Can you link to a specific article?

EDIT 2: Or are they just saying not to use tables for page layout, as a design preference?

766

General Software Discussion / Re: A Trojan in "Captain.exe" ?!

« on: May 26, 2010, 12:27 PM »

At least we can all figure out what antivirus software to avoid.

767

General Software Discussion / Re: HowTo repair/replace tcpip.sys ?

« on: May 26, 2010, 12:18 PM »

"Your key is valid for all versions of the product."

-Curt (May 26, 2010, 12:10 PM)

Great! I think I have a couple of programs that with generous licenses like that, now that I think of it. Winzip being one of them (I registered 5.0 or 6.0 I think). Now I just use IZArc, though. And Total Recorder, I forgot what version, although I don't have much need to record audio from my computer anymore, so I don't install that either. That's not to say the new versions still offer the forever license, something like that can change with any version.

768

Living Room / Re: It's Official: Apple Is Now Worth More Than Microsoft*

« on: May 26, 2010, 12:09 PM »

Usually these people start in their 40s

-zridling (May 26, 2010, 11:44 AM)

So the iPhone is the new red convertible?

769

Developer's Corner / Vista/Windows 7 install locations. Discuss.

« on: May 26, 2010, 10:48 AM »

OK, people these days like their applications to be portable, and store their configuration in the same folder as the exe.

But Windows Vista and 7 really don't like it if you have to save your configuration file back into any subfolder of Program Files, so normally you as a developer would just put in in %APPDATA%\program name, right?

All right, so when you are writing the installer (not every user wants to bother with zips), it seems you have a couple of choices:

1. Ask the user if (s)he wants a portable install or a regular install. If it is a portable install, store the settings in the same folder as the program. Otherwise, store the settings in the registry and %APPDATA%\program name

2. Just make the default install location C:\Tools\program name and store the settings in the same folder always. Keep things simple. Make it easy to copy to USB stick later if needed.

Either way, of course, the user can change the default install folder. I'm probably the only one with a folder called C:\Tools so an attentive user may want to change it to C:\Utilities or something. Or back to C:\Program Files which breaks my plan.

I've been leaning toward #2 for a while. Microsoft doesn't try to stop anyone from saving to C:\Tools so that bit of security by obscurity is bypassed. When I as a user install a program, if it's a zip file, C:\Tools is where it goes. If it's some random program and I suspect that the program uses an INI file instead of the registry, C:\Tools is where it goes.

This is learned behavior. Before Vista, I was conditioned to put everything in Program Files, even if the app came to me as a zip file. In Vista, if I tried this, the first time I needed to save settings back to an INI file inside a subfolder of C:\Program Files, it didn't even give a UAC prompt, it simply did one of these two things:

a. It would simply fail.

b. It would appear to work, but it was actually saving to file to a redirected location within my user profile. So I and seemingly the programs themselves had trouble finding the program settings because we had to look in both the real Program Files folder and the virtual Program Files folder within my user profile.

So what I used to do in Vista was
1. Make a note of the folder name the installer created
2. Uninstall the program
3. Make sure the program folder was still there and set the permissions so that I had permissions to write to it
4. Reinstall the program

This seems to be less of an issue with Windows 7, which is around the time I decided to install more programs in C:\Tools. If I put a file in one of the forbidden locations, I usually get a UAC prompt and it lets me continue. I haven't thought much about folder redirection since moving on to Windows 7, so either it has become more transparent, or it's because this is around the time I started installing things to the Tools folder more frequently. I'm curious now, I'll see if I can find the redirected folders on my main box (which runs Windows 7) when I get a chance. It's strange that I don't remember ever even seeing them in Windows 7.

(And yes, I know UAC and folder redirection can be turned off, but I never felt good about doing that.)

This is my most rambling post ever; basically I want to know what you folks think about install locations, should the installer ask the user if he wants it to be portable, or just install it somewhere like C:\Tools where it won't matter. Or is there a third (or fourth, or fifth) way?

770

General Software Discussion / Re: FeedSquares - Alternative to Feedly/Google Reader (Chrome Extension)

« on: May 26, 2010, 09:02 AM »

Doesn't exactly look information dense compared to Feedly, does it? Maybe that's a good thing for some people.
It looks a little like Speed Dial, or like you could set this up in Speed Dial (at least the Firefox version, last I checked, the Chrome version was limited.)

771

General Software Discussion / Re: church song software

« on: May 26, 2010, 08:54 AM »

Hmm. Text file to Powerpoint program + Powerpoint to DVD program + Portable DVD Player = Ebook Reader
(although I probably wouldn't really do that, I'm just throwing it out there).

Bring on the mini review.

772

General Software Discussion / Re: HowTo repair/replace tcpip.sys ?

« on: May 26, 2010, 08:45 AM »

Unfortunately, most "lifetime" licenses are only for the lifetime of the offer. 

It's guaranteed for Life! Yours, ours, or this promotion - whichever comes first. 

-40hz (May 26, 2010, 07:45 AM)

At least Acme parachutes are guaranteed for the life of the user.

773

Developer's Corner / Re: Double quoted command line arguments

« on: May 25, 2010, 05:24 PM »

Here is a little background.

I kicked off TaskDaddy as a GUI app.

Then I thought, it would be nice to take the task specification on the command line as well, and using the same syntax that the GUI uses.

Then I started adding command line parameters and my custom command line parsing started to break down when I started thinking of command line option switches I wanted to add.

So I started using a third party set of functions to simplify the command line parsing. I decided to require the main argument to be in quotes so that that it would pick it up as a single argument.

So overnight the syntax changed from

taskdaddy @@Errand Go to the market

to

taskdaddy "@@Errand Go to the market"

.

But there is one problem.

What if I have this?

taskdaddy @@Someday Make another "King Kong" sequel 

I'm back to multiple parameters again because I can't have double quotes within double quotes.

So one way to tackle it, is that if a parameter has a space in it, go ahead and add double quotes to the outside of it. Additionally, concatenate all the non-option parameters into one (with spaces added, of course).

There is a flaw in this, though (can you spot it?), but that was my thinking.

774

Developer's Corner / Re: Double quoted command line arguments

« on: May 25, 2010, 05:11 PM »

Of course the whole question would be obviated if the moron, er, I mean, decision-maker, didn't allow spaces in file paths in the first place. A lot of OS work perfectly fine without them.  I guess it's too easy if you don't have to test every string for an embedded space.

-MilesAhead (May 25, 2010, 04:55 PM)

What OS doesn't allow spaces in the file paths?

Besides, not all command line arguments are file paths so that wouldn't solve the problem.

I'd have to say

taskdaddy @@ErrandGotothemarket

and then it would show up that way in Outlook, too.

775

Living Room / Re: Categories of life?

« on: May 25, 2010, 04:10 PM »

Hmmm...I like it because it rhymes also.  But I thought it would lose some of it's humor.  Ok, I'm changing it.  I'm a sucker for systematics.

-superboyac (May 25, 2010, 03:11 PM)

The parallelism hints that the three categories are of equal value.