Topics

351

General Software Discussion / Back on the Chrome dev.

« on: August 28, 2010, 07:50 PM »

I'm running Chrome dev. again. 7.0.503.0 LastPass is working again.  Also it's not shy about honking.  Running nothing but Speed-dial it's using 8 processes.  Also there's some acceleration tweaks you can do on the command line.  The one I like most is --enable-fastback which seems to side-step that annoying feature of fetching the page you were just at instead of pulling from the cache.

My favicons work.  So far it seems to just kick ass with no side-effects.  But this is the first day.

Here's a link to the dev. channel:

 http://www.google.co...tml?extra=devchannel

352

Found Deals and Discounts / Verbatim 8x dvd+r dl a buck ea

« on: August 26, 2010, 06:57 PM »

http://www.newegg.co...17-130-040-_-Product

$30 for a 30 pack of 8x dvd+r dl

353

General Software Discussion / HalfShell 2.4.0.1

« on: August 13, 2010, 08:45 PM »

Available on this page:
http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html


HalfShell 2.0.0.0 I've updated HalfShell so that you may use it with 3rd party file managers that accept command line params for folders to open on startup.  Seems Windows64 is erratic when it comes to the "32 bitness" of Explorer in the SysWow64 directory.  You can see some info about the issue here:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=21521.0

To work around that, you may specify a file manager to use instead.
FreeCommander is an example of the type of app I'm talking about,
but any similar program that will let you specify folders to open on
the command line should work.

Basically the strategy is, if you don't set any 3rd party file manager, if
you have a SysWow64 directory with an explorer.exe in it, it will use that.
Otherwise it will just use the default Explorer.exe.

If you specify a 3rd party file manager, it will use that.  You can check
and uncheck the option in the Tray Menu to toggle the behavior.

Now there is only one hotkey.  Shift-Enter.

If you are using the file manager or "alternative shell" option, only
the first 2 folders pulled from the clipboard will be sent to the program.
If not, as many folders as you highlight should be opened in their
own Explorer windows.

If you use a file manager nearly all the time this utility is of little use.
But I use Explorer most of the time. I invoke a file manager usually to
use a bunch of programs I have set up in the toolbar on files in a
particular folder.  For me it's worth it to have a way to invoke it with
a particular folder or 2.

edit: just to clarify, no matter if the SysWow64 explorer.exe is 64 bit or 32 bit,
hitting the hotkey should still open the folders.  The only issue with the "32 bitness"
is that if the explorer is 32 bit, your 32 bit Shell Extensions may work.  This is the
reason you may wish to use a 32 bit file manager as the "alternative shell."

354

General Software Discussion / TicClick 2.4.0.0

« on: August 01, 2010, 06:29 PM »

TicClick 1.0 Shift Left Mouse Click on the active window to move it to one of nine Tic Tac Toe positions similar to: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=23584.0

This version is Mouse-Only.

You can download here:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

In the future I may add a command to avoid having to edit the .ini file when changing the mouse hotkey.  For now you can edit the .ini file while the program is not running to change the hotkey. Modifier keys are
^ for Control
+ for Shift
# for WinKey

As I refine the program I'll have this info near what you need to edit to change it.  Still 1.0 after all.

355

General Software Discussion / TicTac 1.7.0.0

« on: July 30, 2010, 03:22 PM »

TicTac 1.0

No, it doesn't play the game. It just positions the active window to a section that would correspond to a tic tac toe position.  The positions visually correspond to the NumPad number keys.  3 is Bottom Right, 8 is Center Top etc..

Download: http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

Usage:  Leave running in Tray.  To position the active window, press the Windows Key and a numberpad key 1-9.  Win NumPad5 would center the window.  Win NumPad1 would position it on the bottom left.

Only single monitor setups are supported.  However on each hotkey press it does get the desktop work area from the OS.  It should not cover the Taskbar or get thrown off by a change of screen res.

The active window is not resized or changed. It's only moved such that the entire window should show(if it fits in the work area that is) either flush to an edge of the work area, or centered, depending on the numberpad key used with the Win key.

356

General Software Discussion / WindowMenuPlus freeware

« on: July 27, 2010, 09:42 PM »

I saw this mentioned on one of the tech sites.. probably Addictive Tips.. and decided to try it out.

http://www.moo0.com/...tware/WindowMenuPlus

WindowMenuPlus sticks some extra menu items in the window system menu. It doesn't show in Chrome and I'm assuming not in other apps that use Ribbon and don't have the system menu in the upper left corner, but if the window has a Taskbar icon then you should be able to get the menu there.

The "maximize to" command is pretty useful as it positions and sizes the window flush to a location on the desktop, such as right-top etc.. and can also maximize just horizontally or just vertically.

There's a "move to" that's not as useful since it only has Left Top Center Right Bottom and no left-top without risizing the window. I suggested they add that feature.

The other one I like is "find this program." It works similarly to my Home Folder utility. It opens the folder where the exe file lives. Only thing is there seems to be a small bug as it opens 2 folders to the same location.

But the main thing is, so far I don't feel any destabalization of my system.  Most gizmos that add menus and commands seem to make the shell fragile.  I'm only just trying it out but it seems solid to this point.  There are some other interesting toys on the site.  Might be a place to get a few utilities especially if you don't use all in one type window positioning utilities on your desktop.

357

General Software Discussion / Free Windows Text Editor that transposes last 2 characters typed on Control-t ??

« on: July 23, 2010, 12:25 PM »

Subject line says it.  I'm looking for a Free Windows Text Editor that transposes last 2 characters typed on Control-t ??  XEmacs is the only one I seem to remember that does it on Windows.  But I don't want to suffer through the rest of the learning curve.

Failing that maybe one where you can add a hotkey and custom command easily?
That's the most common typo for me and I can't believe it's not a standard feature like deleting a line.

edit: I know the editor in Visual Studio 2008 does it, but I don't want to wait 3 minutes for it to open.  Looking for something like EditPad Lite or NotePad++ but with Control-t transpose function.

358

General Software Discussion / GlassPrompt 1.1

« on: July 19, 2010, 04:50 PM »

GlassPrompt 1.0 This should be the first and last version as it's pretty simple.

The effect is the same as my PromptHere utility, which is to open a command prompt with a "blur behind" effect. The difference is this just opens to the current directory.  To have it open to a directory other than where the program is located, make a shortcut and use the "Start in" field.

The reason I wrote this is because I started playing around with FreeBASIC compiler. I noticed the compiled executables were tiny. Even with an icon and file version resources in the .exe it comes in at only 23 KB. It's just a toy.

To get the blur effect the system must be either Vista or Windows Seven with Glass enabled. On XP you'll just get an ordinary command prompt but with "GlassPrompt" in the caption.

You can download here:

http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

edit: I fixed a bug which caused orphaned hidden command prompts.  The current download on my site has the fixed version.  To be certain, right click GlassPrompt.exe and look in Properties, Details. The fixed version will show file version 1.0.0.1.

Or you can just look in task manager. If 2 cmd.exe instances are added in TM every time you run it, instead of one, it's the broken version.

359

Living Room / Flicks that struck you as odd or different in a good way?

« on: July 14, 2010, 07:18 PM »

The most amusing flick I've seen in awhile is District 9

Marrying the boss's daughter does have its perils.

360

General Software Discussion / Latest BD Rebuilder Beta now allows avs filter entry

« on: July 08, 2010, 01:40 PM »

http://www.videohelp...m/tools/BD_Rebuilder

Now we can burn in subtitles instead of messing around with external .srt files and OCR.

I haven't tried it yet.  Next job with full subs I'll run it through.

361

General Software Discussion / VLC 1.1.0 stable release works with .divx XSubs!!

« on: June 30, 2010, 01:10 AM »

Since VLC 1.1.0 works with PGS subtitles I tried a .divx where I added XSubs from .srt using AviAddXSubs.  It displayed 'em!!!  What a relief!! No more messing with DivxPlayer.

Looks like VLC is coming together again!!  It's been my favorite player for a long time but was having trouble with .mkv video and various subtitle formats.  Looks like they are getting the bugs out!!

http://www.videohelp...ols/VLC_media_player

362

Found Deals and Discounts / SIIG usb 3.0 Superspeed $24.99 Egg promo ends 6/28

« on: June 26, 2010, 06:21 PM »

I edited the post where I mentioned this card but I guess because of that it didn't pop up as new.  Since the promo only lasts a couple of days I thought I'd post this heads up.  NewEgg USB 3.0 card for $24.99 US shipping included.  More details in this thread:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=22848.0

363

General Software Discussion / VLC 1.1.0 stable release actually works with PGS subs in .m2ts files!!

« on: June 22, 2010, 01:50 AM »

Looks like they finally got the bugs out.  I installed the stable VLC media player 1.1.0 and noted in the change log the claim it supports PGS subs.  I tried it with one .m2ts file.  Showed the subs. I could advance the slider without it crashing.  Looks like they finally have it.

http://www.videohelp...ols/VLC_media_player

Now if I could just get them to fix my WD set top box!

364

General Software Discussion / SrtFix 1.1

« on: June 16, 2010, 01:59 AM »

I don't know how common this is, but I ran into an .srt subtitle file that would not load in any player or even subtitle program.  Somehow all the commas ',' in the time lines milliseconds were replaced with periods '.'.

I'm not big with regular expression search and replace. It was just faster to write an AutoIt3 program in case this should pop up again.

It simply reads the .srt file listed on the command line, substitutes ',' for '.' found on even lines, and writes it back out to filename.srt.fixed.  The original is not altered.

Usage: SrtFix filename.srt

You can download it here:

http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

365

General Software Discussion / BD Rebuilder 0.40.08 Beta

« on: June 08, 2010, 03:51 PM »

If you have a set top box or compatible disc player and would like to compress your BluRay backups, BD Rebuilder Beta may be the way to go:

http://forum.doom9.o...wthread.php?t=143716

From what I've tried so far, it seems faster and less crash prone than Handbrake.  The main fly in the ointment at this point, as usual, is subtitles.  If your set top box doesn't support PGS subs and you cannot get a good conversion to .srt subs, there's no way at the moment to "burn in" idx/sub subtitles as you can with programs like Quick AVI Creator.  But it's on the to do list.

This program has the fastest x264 encoding I've seen with multi Mb bitrates.

At first I tried to output an .mkv file, but since my set top box actually likes .m2ts files better anyway, and the custom output size seemed easier to adjust, I started using Movie Only mode with the disc structure output instead.  Once complete I just rename the .m2ts file that's in the streams folder to the name of the movie and copy to my USB drive.

I'm getting good looking output in less than the play time of the film on my quad core.
It's definitely more convenient than using HC Enc 2 pass to convert .mkv to .m2v to procude a DVD.  That has the advantage it's playable on a standard DVD player and SD TV. Still may be worth doing in some cases.  But to fit more files on your USB drive looks like BD Rebuilder kicks ass!

I don't know what will be charged if it ever comes out of beta.  Or maybe it will be left as a voluntary donation thing.  But I see no registration mechanism on it currently.

366

Found Deals and Discounts / TeraCopy Pro for $9.00 (only for another 9 hours or so though)

« on: June 08, 2010, 01:30 PM »

TeraCopy Pro for $9.00 for the next few hours:

http://www.bitsdujou...m/software/teracopy/


Whether TC Pro is helpful to you may vary with your flavor of Windows.  I used the free version on my Vista PC that had Home Premium pre service pack and had the "slow explorer copy" problem where the dialog would hang with "calculating..." for way too long.  On Vista64 SP1 or W7 32 bit though I don't really feel the need for a copy utility for everyday use.

Still for < $10 it may be worth grabbing a license.


edit: I actually pushed the button to go to the buy page and there it says $9.00 even.  That's why I changed the subject line and content.  For some reason BDJ says $9.50. Go figure.

367

Post New Requests Here / Start Menu Stack

« on: May 29, 2010, 02:01 PM »

What I'd like to see is a Start Menu Stack that remembers that last dozen folders/groups you opened in Start Menu.  No typing.  Click something, the entries are shown.  You click one, and the Start Menu is open with that group selected but not entered.  That way if the one you want isn't there, click on something close and the navigation is almost done.

Recent or frequent programs is not helpful if you want to run different programs from the same group.  You run one, then you have to navigate all the way back down to run the 2nd.  If it's a program that's used all the time, a different method to rapidly launch is already employed. I only use Start Menu for stuff I hardly ever use.  Renavigation to the same area over and over is a pita.

Stuff like Vista Strart Menu or '7' is it's called now, don't seem to have this stack feature.
Seems like to should have been built in like 12 years ago.. but there you go.

368

Found Deals and Discounts / SIIG USB 3.0 Card $29.99

« on: May 24, 2010, 05:07 PM »

$29.99 ea limit 5 per customer

http://www.newegg.co...15-150-161-_-Product

369

General Software Discussion / Quick AVI Creator

« on: May 17, 2010, 07:00 PM »

I just started messing around with this little freeware, Quick AVI Creator.

http://www.videohelp...ls/Quick_AVI_Creator

I haven't really explored the x264 side of it yet.  But for downsizing HD content to play on a stand-alone divx DVD player using xvid, it seems ideal.


After experimenting with the settings file, xvid.presets, I found I could add a One Pass Mode just by adding a section in brackets like an .ini file.  I copied the 2nd line from the 2 pass mode and just took out the stuff about stats and passes.  I've only tried one .wmv file but it processed it in both 2 pass and 1 pass mode without choking.

Even with resizing down to 720x480 it processed the video in One Pass Mode faster than real time on my quad core.  Looks like a nice little program.  It uses AvsP and generates an AviSynth script with the basic stuff for you to modify.

370

General Software Discussion / Favorite Bookmarklets

« on: May 12, 2010, 08:23 PM »

I have 2 favorite bookmarklets.

The first is Double Back
It backs up 2 pages unless there's insufficient history, then it backs up 1 if possible:

javascript:N=history.length;if(N==2){history.go(-1)}else{history.go(-2)}

I wrote Double Back to fill in the gap between right clicking the back button to
get a list of pages, and hitting the back button twice.  Either way you're in the
position of hitting the back button 2 or more times to go back only 2 pages.
For some reason every backup button in the world overlooks the "backup
2 pages case." If there aren't 2 pages in the history then it tries to back up
one page so you don't feel like you clicked it for nothing!


The second is Mod which attempts to display the last modification date
of the current page:

javascript:alert(document.lastModified)

some sites won't allow this function, producing a blank dialog.
Sometimes the results are obviously flawed(January 1, 1970)

but it works on some sites and works in Google Chrome 5 Beta
(unlike SRWare Iron which showed blank on every page I tried.)

Can come in handy when reading a review that doesn't have a date
on the page, or some such similar scenario.   Better 'n nuthin'

371

General Software Discussion / sike 1.0 - send file(s) to recycle bin via command line

« on: May 11, 2010, 05:27 PM »

sike is a command line .exe that sends files/folders to the recycle bin.

Download:  http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

Just copy sike.exe to a folder in your path.
sike creates no files, registry or .ini settings.

sike with no params brings up a usage dialog.

Usage: sike [-f] filename1 filename2 ... [may use wildcards]

If -f is not the first param, a confirmation dialog will display,
otherwise sike will loop through the rest of the params sending
files/folders to the recycle bin.

It should work on any Windows flavor that the latest AutoIt3 works on.

It is free for you to use at your own risk.

(There may be a bunch of these around already but I didn't find one that
worked on Vista64 out of the box.  So I knocked this off in AutoIt3.)

372

General Software Discussion / X marks the spot

« on: May 09, 2010, 01:56 PM »

Many times I just want to open one Explorer window to something simple
like "t:\temp" or whatnot.  I found I was opening ReOpen to get the input
line, then typing "t:\temp" to go there.  Which is ok via hotkey.. but I
came up with this little macro so that I could click an icon on my taskbar
and have it come up to C:\ with the cursor in the edit line.  That way
I can just type where I want to go.

I compiled it to x.exe and added an X icon for myself but you can make
whatever customizations you like on your own system.  The numbers work
well on my 4x3 monitor using 1280x1024 resolution but you may want to
experiment to zero things in on your monitor.

The AutoIt3 script just launches "C:\" to get an explorer window.
It moves and sizes the window, then clicks the mouse in the Edit control.
Just start typing to go someplace other than C:.

If you change the window size or use a radically different screen res. then
you'll probably need to experiment with the MouseClick numbers to get the
mouse cursor into the edit control.

[Select]

;run to open an Explorer Window at C:
;with caret in the edit control. To
;switch to another folder, just type
;it in.
;
;adjust the numbers to suit your monitor
;and screen res. Also you may need to
;adjust Sleep to the speed of your
;PC.
;
;MilesAhead
;
AutoItSetOption("MouseCoordMode",0)
ShellExecute("C:\")
Sleep(250)
WinMove("C:\","",200,140,900,700)
MouseClick("left",300,40)

373

General Software Discussion / SRWare Iron 5.0.380 beta browser

« on: May 07, 2010, 03:10 PM »

I was using the 5 alpha and just noticed they have 5.0.380 beta for download.
I've been using it a few hours.  Page loads are faster and smoother than the alpha.

I just installed it right over the alpha.  Didn't seem to hurt anything.

http://www.srware.ne....php?f=18&t=1482

You can use XMarks to sync your bookmarks without using a google account.
So far the major piece missing is syncing/exporting passwords.  You could try
something like LastPass but I prefer something similar to SyncPlaces that lets
me use my own ftp site.

374

General Software Discussion / PromptHere v. 2.9.1.0

« on: April 21, 2010, 02:51 PM »

PromptHere v. 1.0

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

PromptHere is a variation on the old Command Prompt Here.
Instead of using a Registry hack, it uses a Tray Hotkey.

It does not create any Registry entries, .ini files or any files for that matter.

"Install" just consists of unzipping  the exe and readme to an empty folder.
You may want to create a shortcut for your StartUp or taskbar.

Usage:  Leave running in Tray.  Press Alt Middle Mouse Button to open a command prompt
for folder(s) selected in Explorer.

I don't like to let go of the mouse just to hit a hotkey so even though HomeFolder does a similar
task this variation allows me to hang onto the mouse.  Also it's somewhat different in that it can
open more than one prompt.  If you have c:\bookmarks and c:\temp selected when you
Alt Middle Mouse Click then a prompt will open for each with the directory set to that folder.

If you only wish to open one command prompt for the folder you are in, use HomeFolder instead.
It reads the current folder from the title/caption info.

Both are available on the page linked above.

375

Found Deals and Discounts / Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 64 MB cache

« on: April 16, 2010, 10:43 AM »

I see this deal where I purchased my drive is still going on:

http://www.excaliber...lack-wd6402aaex.html

It ships in the US via FedEx Ground by default for around $10(depending in your location.)

I've been using this in my Sharkoon USB 3.0 docking station for a couple of weeks now.
I've very happy with it.

Here's Crystal Disk Mark I just ran with the drive in the dock: