Messages

76

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use

« on: June 20, 2009, 12:06 PM »

BB FlashBack Express - screen recording
  free, but you have to register within 30 days.
SIW - system information
  free for non-commercial use, $$$ for biz use
 
Although not free for biz use, I thought I'd mention it anyway: SIW is best of breed from my experience "everything you ever wanted to know...". Its "Secrets" tab has saved my butt on several occasions when I needed to retrieve a forgotten (but hidden) email server account:password combination.

77

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your prefered source of registry tweaks?

« on: June 13, 2009, 03:05 PM »

For me, Windows Annoyances started it all.
The original book (for Win95 and NT4.0), which was spawned from this website was great. In addition to demystifying the registry explaining (among other tasty tidbits) how file associations really work under the hood, it also hooked me up with some excellent utilities including UltraEdit32 (which ruled as my favorite text editor for more than a decade - now its EditPad Pro). The Office '97, Win98 and XP versions of the book are/were also good, particularly: Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks. In addition to registry tweaks, these books reveal many other small but useful tips and tricks - e.g. One example: command line options for starting Explorer opened to a specific root folder ("%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, I:\HOME"). For the authoritative book (closest thing to a Windows Users Manual), however, I also always purchase the "Resource Kit" for each version of Windows (You know, the one that is about 4 inches thick).

I have not downgraded to Vista, so have not looked at that version of the Annoyances book.

78

General Software Discussion / Re: MP3 Info Extension?

« on: June 11, 2009, 09:02 AM »

Windows Explorer already has it built in. Just go to details view, right click one of the column headers and turn on the "bitrate" option. When you select the "More..." option, you can see that Explorer can display 38 diferent file parameters (not just Name, Type, Size and Date which are default). e.g. In addition to bitrate, you can display track number, year, artist, album title, genre, duration etc.

This is true for 32-bit XP Pro SP2 - not sure if this applies to Vista-64...

79

General Software Discussion / Re: how can I convert swf files to avi?

« on: June 10, 2009, 09:16 AM »

I use TMPGenc 4.0 XPress. At $100, its not cheap, but it is a very high quality encoder that converts anything into anything else (including flash, divx, wmv, mpg1, mov, mpg2 and Dolby Digital AC3 audio used in DVDs). In addition to its high price, it is also quite intrusive/obtrusive/obnoxious in that it phones home (via internet connection) to verify the validity of the license almost every time you fire it up. However, as I said, it is an excellent and easy to use encoder and it produces very high quality output.

80

General Software Discussion / Re: Source Code / Code Snippet Manager

« on: June 08, 2009, 09:24 PM »

After using the "Clip Collection" feature built into EditPad Pro, I'm coming to realize the benefits of using text snippets. The author of EditPad considers this feature so handy that he has written another whole app entirely dedicated to snippets called: "Ace Text". It is designed to work seamlessly with all Windows apps. I've already purchased four apps from JGSoft (and love them all), but haven't tried this one yet. May be worth a look...

81

General Software Discussion / New book: "Regular Expressions Cookbook" by Jan Goyvaerts

« on: June 05, 2009, 12:14 PM »

Speaking of Regular Expressions... Jan Goyvaerts, Regex-Guru and creator of RegexBuddy, EditPad Pro and PowerGrep, and keeper of http://www.regular-expressions.info/ website, has published a brand new book: Regular Expressions Cookbook through the good folks at O'Reilly. It is now freshly hot off the press (released just a couple days ago - my pre-ordered Amazon copy is currently on a UPS truck somewhere in the Midwest on its way to my house.)

If you want to buy it, you can do Jan a favor by ordering through Amazon using special links as he describes in a post on his private forum:

Regular Expression Cookbook is now available for pre-order.  If you click on the Amazon links in my blog post at http://www.regexguru...lable-for-pre-order/ Amazon will pay me an affiliate commission, which will pretty much double the slice I get from what you pay for the book.

-Jan Goyvaerts

Although I've already read Jeffrey Friedl's masterpiece: "Mastering Regular Expressions - 3rd Edition", which is the definitive guide (the SlashDot review gave is a score of 11 out of 10), I have become a regex junkie and devour everything I can find on the subject. I'm hoping that Jan's new book will be as good as everything else he has created. His company is very well named indeed: Just Great Software.

82

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite computer game from when you were young?

« on: June 03, 2009, 05:29 PM »

... just curious, does this mod update the graphics of the original game, à la some kind of high-res pack?

-lanux128 (June 03, 2009, 06:09 AM)

No, but there is a (beta?) high res pack available (from the same guys that developed TNM) for Deus Ex that some folks are running with TNM (see this thread). I haven't tried it because the original graphics seem just fine to me (I'm pretty easy to please graphics-wise).

83

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite computer game from when you were young?

« on: May 18, 2009, 10:24 AM »

My first game was in 1975 as a freshman in college: "Moon Lander" (numerics only) which ran on my friends HP-25 programmable calculator. In 1981-82 I spent a lot of time playing "Dungeon" (text only) on the PDP-11 at my first engineering job (it was then that I discovered that I had an addictive personality - and then swore off video games). I had a relapse in 1985 with "Star Glider" on an Atari 520ST and again in the early 90's with "Sim City" and "Wolfenstein 3D" on the PC. I then stayed "clean" for quite a while.

But in 2000, I got a new system and the video card came with several free games. One of these was "Deus Ex". It took a year before I finally got around to installing it, but once I did, I was floored. What a cool game! Spent a couple months inside that world. Currently I'm playing the recently release DX mod: "The Nameless Mod" (its almost as deep and wide as the original). Another cool (underrated) game is "SimCopter" - my favorite second only to DeusEx.

Cool thread!

84

General Software Discussion / Re: How to monitor changes being made on computer? (portable related)

« on: May 18, 2009, 08:58 AM »

RegMon (Registry Monitor) for monitoring changes made to the registry and
FileMon (File Monitor) for monitoring changes made to the file system.

These are just two of the free utilities available from SysInternals (from the wicked smart mind of Mark Russinovich). Other excellent SysInternals utilities include:

ProcExp (Process Explorer) for monitoring/controlling running processes.
AutoRuns for monitoring/controlling startup tasks.
PageDfrg (System File Defragmenter) for defragmenting system files which are normally untouchable: pagefile and registry files.

The versions I run (2006) are older - (from before SysInternals was bought out by Microsoft). I haven't tried the latest versions but they are probably A-Ok too. Highly recommended.

85

General Software Discussion / Export to HTML then print via browser

« on: May 07, 2009, 10:43 AM »

MP3Tag is my favorite (freeware) tool for working with MP3 tags. It doesn't "print" per-se, but rather exports tag data to a text file according to a programmed script/template that you can create (or download). Typically, I'll export the data to an HTML file where it can be viewed and/or printed (or sorted via javascript). Here is a link to a (somewhat old) forum thread that lists some user created export scripts. Click on the "Preview" for each export script to see examples of the various ways that the tag data can be displayed. In fact, there is an entire subforum dedicated to MP3Tag's export function.

As you can see, this method is quite powerful for displaying/printing precisely what you want.

86

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« on: April 18, 2009, 10:36 AM »

PowerGrep - For those of us who depend upon the power of regular expressions to "express" ourselves, nothing else (that I am aware of) even comes close. Yes, its expensive - and worth every penny.

That said, what the hell is "Desktop Search Software" anyway? Did you lose something?

87

General Software Discussion / Re: Really impressed: BB Flashback, Blueberry software upgrade policy

« on: April 17, 2009, 03:25 PM »

... (Oh, I feel wike Elmeh Fuud when I twy to say your username out loud!!    )

-J-Mac (April 11, 2009, 10:57 PM)

You hit the nail white on da head! My CB handle from the 80's was ridgerunner and that is the username I always try to get when signing up for this or that internet site, but it is frequently taken. Thus I came up with the Elmer Fudd version with its "off-the-beaten-path" spelling. As you can see from my avatar, I fly hang gliders for fun and fweqwentwy wun widges! - check out my "widgewunner channel" on YouTube for some cheesy videos! :^)

88

General Software Discussion / Re: Good Screen Recorder Video Editing Software?

« on: April 17, 2009, 03:07 PM »

widgewunner: have you tried it? based on your post here, some of us tried but it doesn't seems to be free..

-lanux128 (April 16, 2009, 08:26 PM)

Yes, I tried it and yes it is free! (Not sure why you had problems. Although some of their web pages still have some remnants that erroneously state that it is only free during the trial period.) You do have to register it to remove a watermark that is inserted in the exported output. I've been using it and am quite impressed with the features and quality. I had been playing around with CamStudio but it had problems with audio sync on my box. Flashback Express captures quite nicely with no audio problems and I like the fact that it exports right to a streamable flash format complete with playback controls. I'm already trying to justify coughing up the dough for one of the more deluxe versions. (Although at more than $100, I would have to go take a serious look at some of BB's competition...)

89

General Software Discussion / Zeus has old regex engine?

« on: April 17, 2009, 02:49 PM »

I just looked at the Zeus webpage and must admit I am impressed. However, after reading some of the forum, it appears that Zeus has been (and may still be) using an older regular expression engine. Is this still true?

90

Mini-Reviews by Members / ZTree

« on: April 16, 2009, 06:48 PM »

Yes, Total Commander is a very good file manager. But I'm hopelessly addicted to ZTreeWin and simply could not live without it. :^)

91

General Software Discussion / Re: Good Screen Recorder Video Editing Software?

« on: April 16, 2009, 05:37 PM »

BB Flashback Express is now free!

92

General Software Discussion / EditPad Pro +1

« on: April 11, 2009, 11:46 PM »

  "Get 10 people in a room and you'll have a dozen different opinions on the best text editor!"
 
That said, here's my 2 cents... EditpadPro +1

Pros: (first answering rjbull's requirements...)

• Auto backups. Yup 5 different schemes.
• Bookmarks - either 10 per file or 10 per project. Sorry, no "Next bookmark" hotkey.
• Handle large number of simultaneously opened file tabs using project tabs (10 project tabs * 10 files per project = 100 all visible!) The tabs stack 2 levels deep with projects on top and files below. (This is one of the main benefits of using projects according to the documentation.)
• Flexible tools integration with configurable stdin/stdout/stderr I/O. (is this what you mean by Filters?)
• Non-volatile marked text supported == persistent selections configuration option.
• Select the word to the right of the cursor - ctrl+shift+rightarrow.

More Pros:

• Small footprint and unobtrusive install/uninstall process.
• Portable - can be installed on memory stick with all config in INI file.
• Generous license to the user allows installation on multiple computers.
• Unmatched regex support (no pun intended) - even has variable length lookbehind!
• Use search pattern to highlight all lines having matches and optionally hide (fold) all lines having no match.
• Syntax highlighting schemes completely user programmable using regexs (with a separate application designed to build them.)
• File navigation schemes completely user programmable using regexs (with a separate application designed to build them.)
• Excellent matching brace support where matching brace is auto-highlighted. You can jump back and forth with Ctrl+].
• Many configuration settings are set per-filetype. e.g. You can set a different tab size for C files (4) than for ASM files (8).
• Wordwrapped text is indented to match current line.
• Text "snippets" - hard to describe but easy to get dependent upon.
• Support - Jan Goyvaerts, the one-man-show developer (and keeper of the regular-expressions.info website), responds in a matter of hours to any bugs that pop up. (He's a perfectionist and all his software feels pretty solid to me.)

Cons:

• No scripting language support.
• Weak column (block) editing (compared to UltraEdit that is).
• Built-in FTP client does not handle SFTP or FTPS.
• Ctrl+tab cycles linearly through the files - not back to the MRU file.

Can you tell that I really like this editor? FWIW, my editor history... Hollerith punch card machine (FORTRAN!), PDP-11/RT-11/VT100 - KED (more FORTRAN and PDP-11/6502 Assembler), PC/DOS/Win3.x - TurboC/Borland IDE (C and MASM), XTree-Gold built-in (Wordstar-like editor), Win32 - UltraEdit32, and now... EditPadPro/ZTreeWin for general editing and file management, Komodo IDE for PHP/Javascript debugging, Visual C++ 6.0 for C debugging, TopStyle Pro for CSS, and UltraEdit for column mode operations and scripting.

  Hi everybody, I'm new here.
  Jeff Roberson :^)

p.s. Komodo Edit/IDE is quite powerful and does work well, but it is what you might call... bloated? - (i.e. it installs more than 7000+ files in 400+ folders totaling more than 150MB!)

p.s.2. And one more thing (and this is what led me to this forum in the first place), if you need some good screencasting software (at a price you can't ignore), Blueberry Software's BB Flashback Express is now free!

93

General Software Discussion / BB Flashback Express version is now free

« on: April 11, 2009, 08:35 PM »

Hi everybody,

  First post. I recently discovered this place after searching for screencasting software. Was impressed with your thorough software reviews and the overall positive tone of the posts and content here. I registered and am posting here to let everyone know that the BB Flashback Express version is now free. Figured some of you might want to know.

  Also, I'm curious if there are any currrent discounts for the more deluxe BB Flashback versions? I haven't donated anything yet, but might be inticed into it... :^)