Messages

9301

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: InfiniCompress aka Matryoshka Archive

« on: October 09, 2006, 12:54 PM »

Most compressions utilities are good enough that archiving an archive of an archive doesn't save much on hard drive space.

If you just want to see what happens, open up a few archive utilities and do it. Much easier than writing a program.

9302

General Software Discussion / Re: Playing FLV files

« on: October 09, 2006, 12:22 PM »

I had to download a FLV player, and it works fine.  BUT:

Can someone explain why it takes a dedicated FLV player to play downloaded Flash files?

Why can't they simply be played using a browser?

What's the difference between a downloaded FLV file and one that resides on a website, in other words, why does Flash open up when you go to the website, but if you paste the downloaded file in the URL window, it just does nothing?

Is there a way to invoke Flash without using the browser?

Thanks!

-kisakarina (October 03, 2006, 01:40 PM)

Generally speaking, what you see in your browser is embedded into the website via html. That's why you can see it on a web page but not if you download it and try to run it on your computer. Flash does have a Stand-Alone player, but I'm not sure how to get it. It comes with Flash when you install it. However, if I'm not mistaken, you can construct your own dummy html page that embeds the file so you can watch it in your browser offline.

9303

Living Room / Re: Deleting Folders that don't want to be deleted

« on: October 08, 2006, 08:27 PM »

This might be worth trying:

1. Open a command prompt
2. "cd" to the folder which contains the folder you can't delete.
3. Type "dir /x", and look in the resulting dir listing for the offending folder. You should hopefully see the "short" version of the folder name to the left of the normal name.
4. Type "rd <name>" where <name> is the short name of the folder.

HTH.

-NeilS (October 08, 2006, 01:44 PM)

This worked. I thought I tried command prompt before, but I guess I forgot the command to delete the folder. I think I was using "delete" instead of "rd"

I'll run scandisk anyway.

Thanks everyone!

9304

Living Room / Re: Show us your (physical) desktop

« on: October 08, 2006, 02:18 PM »

the monitor of my dreams:

http://216.127.51.88...s/features/index.htm

If I remember correctly, it's about $18,000 

-app103 (September 25, 2006, 10:11 PM)

Wholly Carp! But would anybody seriously use that? It's 16.5 FEET wide. You'd need to have a roller chair with a wireless keyboard and mouse to take with you.

9305

Living Room / Re: Everyone's Photo Portfolio, Purlease!

« on: October 08, 2006, 12:52 PM »

That passion flower one reminded me of a Red Pikmin at first glance.

EDIT: I just noticed that you can see a reflection of their eyes a little bit underneath their eyes. It's like little ghost eyes. Spooky!

9306

Living Room / Deleting Folders that don't want to be deleted

« on: October 08, 2006, 12:42 PM »

I have a folder in a temp directory I use for programs (not a windows temp) and I can't delete it. I was able to delete everything out of it, and I've closed any programs that might be using it. I've even signed into Safe Mode and I still can't delete it.

I keep getting this error message:

Error Deleting File or Folder

Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk.

It isn't read only or hidden, and like I said it's not a system file. It was just a temp directory for making a disc image. One of the weird things about it is that the folder is named after the disc image (without extension) but there are 22 spaces at the end, so it's like
"imagename                      "

I get a similar error message if I try to rename it, too. Any ideas on how I can remove it?

9307

Developer's Corner / Re: Flash Game Development Contest

« on: October 07, 2006, 10:10 PM »

Someone make Grow Up! and donate all the winnings to me! 

Although Rock Fight sounds like a fine idea!

9308

Living Room / Re: Artwork wanted!

« on: October 07, 2006, 09:29 PM »

I'd like to incorporate the words into a nifty image. I'll PM you the details.

9309

Living Room / Re: Artwork wanted!

« on: October 07, 2006, 01:33 PM »

A logo with some words and some art.

9310

Living Room / Re: WiFi woes and a big WOW from Netgear's new product lines !!! WOW WOW WOW !!!!

« on: October 06, 2006, 07:23 PM »

I'm just praying it lives up to the hype .... you know the way these things work (hopefully) ...

-Carol Haynes (October 06, 2006, 07:15 PM)

Considering that the n Standard is still in Draft form and hasn't been finalized, I don't expect it to be full power of what the finalized N standard will be. However, I do fully expect it to be much faster than a/b/g standards.

But speaking of faster WiFi. I bought a router and PCI adapter (D-Link, which I will never purchase again!) that should let me connect at about 105mbps, but I don't know how to get them above the standard 54mpbs. Anyone got any tips on that?

9311

Living Room / Re: WiFi woes and a big WOW from Netgear's new product lines !!! WOW WOW WOW !!!!

« on: October 06, 2006, 06:48 PM »

802.11n standard. *drools* 

9312

Developer's Corner / Re: Let's Make us some Games!

« on: October 06, 2006, 05:22 AM »

Not sure about the setting...maybe the inside of a pc case with people popping up from behind things?
(inspired by nudone's avatar)

-app103 (October 06, 2006, 05:09 AM)

How about a cash register! It pops open and you see cody & friends and site regs. Almost like those quickshoot games with the NES Light Gun.

9313

Living Room / Re: Artwork wanted!

« on: October 06, 2006, 05:19 AM »

I'm not actually familiar with flash, but do use Macromedia FreeHand.
Its native file format saves very small, (FH.9 or 10 etc.).
I wonder could that be imported into Flash?

-tomos (October 06, 2006, 05:07 AM)

Flash can definitely import FreeHand and EPS filetypes.

Filesize isn't a big issue for me. I just got a new hard drive and now have a total of 1TB of storage space.

9314

Living Room / Re: Artwork wanted!

« on: October 06, 2006, 04:58 AM »

what file-format would do - I mean for the vector image ?

-tomos (October 06, 2006, 04:54 AM)

I didn't think about that. If it can be imported into Flash that would be great. If not. . . I guess Photoshop/illustrator would work. Macromedia is all Adobe now.

9315

General Software Discussion / Re: What's wrong with XP's built-in firewall?

« on: October 06, 2006, 04:55 AM »

He had a way of destroying computers just by using them for five minutes, and not actually do anything wrong. I could watch him and he wouldn't be doing anything I wouldn't do and all sorts of error messages would pop up or it would crash.

-Deozaan (October 05, 2006, 02:00 AM)

That's known as Negative Electrostatic Charisma (NEC). It's when you are cursed by the computer gods and freaky things happen that shouldn't...with no reasonable explanation.

My dad says it comes from doing something that offends the computer gods and in retaliation they put this curse upon you for the rest of your life, and to all your offspring (it becomes genetic).

-app103 (October 06, 2006, 04:27 AM)

This is the Shawn from the podcast #2, whose first computer memory was looking up porn on the internet, so. . . Maybe that angered the computer gods. 

9316

Living Room / Re: Artwork wanted!

« on: October 06, 2006, 04:52 AM »

Hey, I happen to have my CD right here for v7. The copyright on it says 1999-2000. I made some animations with it using vectors in January of 2000, so it should do it. Still, I'm not sure how able it was with vectors back then in the day.

I guess vector isn't a requirement. I just want it to be high quality, possibly for print, but also able to put on a website or something.

9317

Living Room / Re: Artwork wanted!

« on: October 06, 2006, 04:36 AM »

I used PSP from version 4 to version X skipping only version 9. I know version 8 handles vectors but I can't remember if 7 does.

If you remembered what year v8 came out I could tell you, because I was making some animations with vector layers in PSP back in the day. . .

9318

Living Room / Re: Kids Art Bot - A wonderful project if you have kids

« on: October 06, 2006, 04:06 AM »

I used to do something like that when I was a kid...but mine was much more low tech...

a piece of cardboard with holes for 4 markers...sort of looked like a little table...and for the motor I set it on the washing machine during the spin cycle. The vibrations made the thing move. 

-app103 (October 06, 2006, 03:42 AM)

Oh I get it! You take the caps off the markers and it draws! I'm a quick one! 

9319

Macromedia Flash / Suggestions for modifying the assignments

« on: October 06, 2006, 03:59 AM »

I know I'm the only one who has done any Flash assignments thus far, but it might be a good idea to take a look at the common mistakes or things left out that you would ask people to fix and adjust the assignment so that it includes those as part of the assigment or part of the bonus. Or. . .

Another idea I mentioned already in my solution to Assignment 2 is that when there are things that meet the assignment criteria but aren't "pretty," making those "ugly" things into "pretty" things could be part of the next assignment. Shine up what you've got and add some more functionality.

For instance, when my ship in Assignment 1 had rough edge movement (it kind of bounced off of walls a little) and you had me fix that. It still moved around the bottom part of the screen as the assignment criteria asked, but it was ugly.

Also, in Assignment 2 it suggests to use the spacebar as part of the controls. I discovered that Flash (windows, probably) doesn't like three-key combinations that include two arrow keys and the spacebar, so that should be changed to something else. (I used shift, IT wOrkS GReaT! )

And I'd like to volunteer to be a forum moderator in the Flash category.  !

9320

General Software Discussion / Re: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 - A Suicide Bomb for Adobe?

« on: October 06, 2006, 03:37 AM »

Haha I can just hear his voice from the Podcasts when I read the blog entry. Perfect!

9321

Living Room / Re: Gateway - Control a Robot in Today's Very Cool Flash Game of the Day

« on: October 05, 2006, 08:25 PM »

I won I won!

Clever puzzles! Especially the last one!

9322

Living Room / Artwork wanted!

« on: October 05, 2006, 08:03 PM »

I've noticed that at least a few of our members here have some good artistic skills. I'd like someone to take a concept of mine and turn it into reality. I do have part of a specific image in my mind, but I'm open to suggestions and other ideas.

I know that different people are artistically different, and may have completely different ideas that are equally excellent, so I'd like to have at least a few people who are or think they might be interested to let me know and I'll get into the nitty gritty details later.

It would be nice if it was in Vector format so it would scale cleanly. I'm not sure on the ultimate size of the image, but something that would look good on a website.

9323

Living Room / Re: Xara X1 Massive discount (expires 28th September)

« on: October 05, 2006, 08:01 PM »

LOL - but no cigar
Actually it is a real, honest to goodness, Uncle Sam sum ...
Someone must be able to guess where the logic applies ...

-Carol Haynes (October 05, 2006, 03:36 PM)

It's how most things are marketed. Even though British Pounds are worth about 1.53 US Dollars, things are marketed in the US and UK as the same number (but not equivalent price). A video game in the US sells for $50 here and 50 pounds in the UK. Or something like that.

I've heard that Australia gets it the worst, though.

9324

Living Room / Re: Gateway - Control a Robot in Today's Very Cool Flash Game of the Day

« on: October 05, 2006, 02:48 PM »

Hehe, thats a good one. I like the 'peeper' 

-Mizraim (October 05, 2006, 08:24 AM)

Yeah, that was a clever puzzle. 

9325

Site/Forum Features / Re: Viewing posts from a particular date.

« on: October 05, 2006, 02:09 AM »

i know what u mean, deozaan.
but u can also try the 'notify' and/or 'bookmark' option.

-lanux128 (October 04, 2006, 09:34 PM)

Yes, I have resorted to those quite frequently now.

I use the "Show Unread Posts" option OK but when I search for say "Xara" which I know has appeared in posts yesterday, I don't get anything more recent than July, eg.

Jeff

-JeffK (October 04, 2006, 10:02 PM)

I think my Show Unread Posts works normally most of the time. But there have been times when I haven't been to this site for a few weeks but there would only be one or two pages of Unread Posts. Compare that to when I actually browse the forums, almost every single messages has the New icon next to it. And everyonce in a while it will just start with a clean slate. I'll have had two or three pages of unread posts I'm catching up on and then poof, suddenly I have no unread posts even though I know I should have had two or three (or more) pages of unread posts. I can understand it not including every post since back when the forums started, but it shouldn't be clearing out posts from within the past month or week or day.