Topics

201

General Software Discussion / beeping, cheeping, chirping :-(

« on: January 07, 2006, 02:53 PM »

Hi!

Sometimes all sounds played in Windows (2000) are totally f*cked up for no apparent reason, it's more some kind of chirping or beeping instead of the regular Windows samples. Same happens when I try to play something in Winamp or other programs then

I used to reboot my PC when this happened, but recently I found out that closing most of the running apps and giving the PC a few minutes to 'recover' is enough. Weird, huh?

Any ideas what could cause this? Any fixes?

202

Mini-Reviews by Members / a billion sites to send big files - and then some...

« on: January 03, 2006, 12:35 PM »

You probably all know www.yousendit.com - right?

Today I found http://www.jdempsey....file-storagesending/ - offering a biiiig list of such sites. Wow!

This isn't really a review, but I think it kinda fits in here

203

General Software Discussion / The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users

« on: January 03, 2006, 12:32 PM »

http://slackermanage...the_several_hab.html

I stumbled of the Firefox extension for del.icio.us more than once, but haven't installed it myself yet. I think I should! Any del.icio.us users on DC?

204

General Software Discussion / wanted: nice and small screensaver

« on: January 03, 2006, 01:01 AM »

Hi,

thanks to Carol I'm now using http://www.stardusts...ds/tools/sscontrol3/ .

Description:
Stardust Screen Saver Control™ 2003 is a free taskbar accessory that lets you launch and configure all your screen savers.

Features:
4Launch default screen saver with a single click.
4Select from a list of installed screen savers.
4Launch/configure/disable any screen saver.
4Quickly enable/disable current screen saver.
4Set Windows to randomly pick a screen saver.
4Easy install/uninstall.

Now I need nice and small (I don't want big screensavers that take long to start up) screensaver(s). Do you know a source for nice ones? Artistic, minimalistic, whatever.

Thanks

205

Finished Programs / DONE: make script only work if not started from USB stick

« on: December 23, 2005, 04:49 PM »

Thanks to skrommel, I'm using a script that checks for the existence of a file:

[Select]

IfNotExist,D:\data\program files\Autohotkey\daily\0815_%A_YYYY%-%A_MM%-%A_DD%.txt

If this file doesn't exist, it creates it and starts a process on my PC that I only want to run once a day. My problem: the script is also working when not only the file does not exist, but also when the path itself (D:\data\program files\Autohotkey\daily\) does not exist. So the process is also started when I run AutoHotkey from my USB stick on another PC.

What would be the best way to prevent this?

206

Finished Programs / DONE: sync single files HD <-> USB stick

« on: December 23, 2005, 04:33 PM »

Hi,

I'd like a simple script that would check x minutes if volume "USB" exists at H: and if so, would copy a file from the HD to a folder on the USB stick. This would be perfect to automatically copy the current version of AutoHotkey.ini to the USB stick.

If you, skrommel, or others have some ideas, I would be delighted

207

Living Room / Happy Xmas Holidays!

« on: December 23, 2005, 06:08 AM »

Whether you meet with family, friends or furry pets, have fun! 

I became more involved in this community then I could have imagined when I originally signed up, it's great to have someone like mouser running all this, since he is willing to abandon the good to get to the better.

Thanks to mouser and all you other nice folks in the forum, wiki and IRC channel!

208

Mini-Reviews by Members / pandora.com - Internet radio for EVERY taste! FREE!

« on: December 22, 2005, 04:32 AM »

Thanks to ydrAh in https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1849.0 I discovered http://www.pandora.com/

WOW!!! This really IS Internet radio for EVERY taste!

Based on "The Music Genome Project" (read http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml for more details) you will choose one artist you like and will be presented with similar artists.

There were several services that gave you a list of similar artists before, but pandora.com is way better: it automatically creates your own personal radio station(s)! Check the screenshots:



On the first screenshot, (1) brings you to the "Favorite Songs" page I'll discuss further down. (2) allows you to 'move' the player out of the browser (works in IE and Firefox) - scroll images to the very right if you use a low resolution:

On the next screenshot, you see the player now in an external window:
(1) Your stations - you can just click "Create a New Station" to do so
(2) Showing "thumbs up" - meaning that I rated the tune (explanation further below)
(3) Showing album covers (if available)
(4) Here you can set the volume, pause the playing stream (try that with a regular station!) and skip to the next title
(5) The "Guide Us" button will be explained further below

The "Guide Us" button will show you the following, where you are able to influence the tunes that will be played by rating them (thumb up or down), you also can get info about "why is this song playing" and add more kinds of music to that station:

When you not click the "Guide Us" button but instead left-click one of the displayed album covers, you'll get to see the following menu, where you - among other things - also can rate the tune:

One more screenshot - this one shows you the "Favorite Songs" page I mentioned at the first screenshot:
(1) Clicking on an artist name here will bring you to the famous http://www.allmusic.com site, which has LOTS of info about virtually every artist
(2) Link to the album @ Amazon
(3) Link to buy the song @ iTunes

Convinced? Visit http://www.pandora.com/ yourself! Remember, it's free!

Not convinced? Please reply, tell me why not.

Disclaimer: No, I'm neither related to pandora nor do I benefit when you sign up there. I just like great sotware and services! By the way, did you read https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1167.0 yet?

209

Screenshot Captor / @artists: clipart missing

« on: December 21, 2005, 06:12 AM »

Hi Stefan and others that might have contributed clipart objects to Screenshot Captor

I really miss a simple "A" to "Z" set, maybe with a black/white and a blue/black layout. Doesn't need to be round objects, little squares would be perfectly fine!

Also, could all existing number sets please get the "0"? Some have it, but not all.

@mouser: did you think about splitting the DC download into a "DC" and a "DC clipart" package?

210

General Software Discussion / great apps to put on your USB stick

« on: December 21, 2005, 04:48 AM »

Lets start this, but please add only apps you do USE yourself, so you can answer questions.
Also, please add the size the app needs on the USB stick!

So far, I use these on my USB stick:

name: Portable Firefox
size: ~18 MB
URL: http://fileforum.bet...Firefox/1100800989/1

name: Miranda IM (ICQ, AIM, IRC etc.!)
size: ~1 to ~5 MB (depending on how much features and networks you want/need)
URL: http://fileforum.bet...m/detail/957048618/1

name: win32pad (Editor)
size: ~100 KB
URL: http://fileforum.bet...m/detail/944076528/1

name:
size: ~
URL:

211

Older Newsletters / Newsletter for December 20, 2005 - Codename 'brotherS gets it going'

« on: December 20, 2005, 09:17 AM »

Newsletter for December 20, 2005

01) New moderators joined the forum!

That's right, Carol Haynes and me (brotherS) are new moderators to help mouser in the forum! mouser was so kind to let me write this newsletter, I hope you like my style


02) Major updates for Flipbook Printer and URL Snooper

Check out the latest beta release of Flipbook Printer which has some major new features designed to make printing and binding easier, especially when printing multiple books. You can also now use custom images and cover and back pages:
https://www.donation...?topic=1540.0?ref=nl

URL Snooper now has a quick way to type in URLs directly into the main form:
https://www.donation...?topic=1772.0?ref=nl


03) New app - "Dr.Windows"

Have some fun during the holidays by playing a harmless prank on your relatives with this cute tool that pops up official looking windows dialogs:
https://www.donation...ws/index.html?ref=nl

And take a look at the sample dialogs created by members on the forum:
https://www.donation...?topic=1760.0?ref=nl


04) New Coding Snacks / new apps by skrommel

Skrommel is at it again with some wonderful new tools coded in response to requests in the coding snacks section of our forum. For more info about WinStep, TransOther, SingleApp, UrlHistory, DelEmpty, etc., visit: https://www.donation...el/index.html?ref=nl

If you want to learn more about how skrommel makes these tools, read about the great AutoHotkey and its scripting abilities here: https://www.donation...?topic=1167.0?ref=nl


05) O User, Where Art Thou?

In November, 4471 new users signed up. Wow! Hard to believe, huh? So all the great programs on the site are getting at least SOME attention. I just think it's sad that I only saw about 30 fresh faces at most being active in the forum, so there are 4441 left that need to take some action. Yes, I'm talking about YOU!.

On a side note, the "Male to Female Ratio" in the forum now is 16.6:1. So, if you have any friends that use their PC more than once a day, forward this newsletter to them, especially female friends.

A good way (but of course no must) to get started is to choose a nice avatar image in your forum profile:
https://www.donation...file;sa=forumProfile
Or you might like to post a little bit about who you are and where you're from on these threads:
https://www.donation...p?topic=124.0?ref=nl
https://www.donation...p?topic=797.0?ref=nl


06) Hot forum threads

• Startup Delayer - most read mini-review in months. While I really like Startup Delayer, I was a bit surprised to find this thread was the most read mini-review in months! Maybe there is a need? https://www.donation...?topic=1399.0?ref=nl
• Samorost2 - the latest version of an amazingly beautiful flash-based puzzle. Wow! https://www.donation...hp?topic=1806?ref=nl
• The Godfather - a powerful mp3 tag editor. See for yourself how it looks, discuss its options etc. https://www.donation...hp?topic=1492?ref=nl

07) New changes to license key policy

In response to user suggestions, we have modified the license key policy as follows:

• programs will no longer stop working after the license period. They will only show startup reminder nags when a freeware license "expires."
• non-donators can generate a 6-month license key twice. After that period (1 year), they can visit the page and generate permanent non-expiring license keys that will never require them to generate another key or see another nage.
• there is also now an option for people who do not wish to sign up at the forum to download license keys

For more details and discussion on the changes:
https://www.donation...?topic=1784.0?ref=nl


08) December Software Drawing and Discounts!

Again, there's great software waiting for you - and if you win, you can't beat the price (0.00)! Also, there are lots of discounts waiting for you, available this month: Direct Folders, Filebox Extender, XFilesDialog (also XDesk and SysTrayX), File-Ex, Quick Folders, Copernic Tracker, Double Killer Pro, Surfulater, and more:
https://www.donation...?topic=1727.0?ref=nl


09) Our member web-hosting project is going great - join us!

The upgrade to a new faster server has been a huge success, and we're teaming up with members to pay for it. If you're interested in some super cheap, lightweight web-hosting for your web pages, visit the forum and read about the project, and contact us for a test account and help learning how to make your first web pages:
https://www.donation...?topic=1261.0?ref=nl


10) Vote in this month's poll
In an effort to get more feedback from users, we're going to try to introduce a new poll to accompany each newsletter. Make your voices heard by voting in the most recent poll:
https://www.donation...?topic=1852.0?ref=nl


Regards
brotherS (your guest newsletter author)

If you have a good idea about how to improve the newsletter or just want to share some feelings about it or the site itself send an email to [email protected] or just reply.

More links:

• Donate: https://www.donation...te/index.html?ref=nl
• Forums: https://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/
• Wiki: https://www.donation.../index.php/Main_Page
• BugTracker: https://www.donation...acking/main_page.php

212

Older Newsletters / newsletter poll

« on: December 19, 2005, 06:57 AM »

Please take part, thanks

213

General Software Discussion / How fast is Microsoft? (Re: Has any one held off on upgrading to Firefox 1.5?)

« on: December 19, 2005, 05:28 AM »

Yes, Microsoft isn't sitting idly by and letting this happen. You can bet they are going to look closely at what has made Firefox popular (other than it being open-source), and emulate those things in IE 7. In fact, IE 7 beta already has tabbed browsing and a download manager (I think).

-db90h (December 18, 2005, 08:45 PM)

"already"?
I've been using tabbed browsing since about 2 years now, it's unbelievable how SLOW Microsoft is.

214

Living Room / Worst. analogies. ever.

« on: December 13, 2005, 11:54 AM »

Thanks to f0dder for quotes like these:

"Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze." 

http://paul.merton.o...guage/analogies.html

215

Mini-Reviews by Members / Free Download Manager + FlashGot 0.5.9.99

« on: December 13, 2005, 08:50 AM »

http://fileforum.bet...Manager/1090197761/1

Publisher's Description:
Free Download Manager (FDM) is a full-featured freeware downloading program. It allows you to download files and whole web sites from any remote server via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP.

This is a really nice alternative for GetRight etc.! It also has a drop-box you can place on the desktop - which hides when you run another program in full-screen mode (guess who suggested that feature ). It has a great rating on that FileForum page above, and while it's not perfect it's great for its price (0,00)!

In combination with the FlashGot 0.5.9.99 it's even better! If you haven't already, get this great Firefox extension from http://www.flashgot.net/


Let me give you an example

Let's say you grab some wallpapers from various sites every now and then (or pdf files, or videos, or spreadsheets, or ...). That page could look like this:

                                         

When it's one of those sites that directly link to images (and not linking to stupid html pages which load one image then) you would just mark the images you would like to download with the mouse:

                                         

Then you would right-click to get the context menu, where you would choose FlashGot Selection. When you don't mark images first it will look like this:

                                         

The great thing about FlashGot 0.5.9.99 now is that it allows you to set the file types which it should hand over to the download manager (for example Free Download Manager). So when you like ALL the images on one page you could just choose FlashGot All or, even better - you open several sites in several tabs, point each tab to where the page links to the images you want and then just choose FlashGot Tabs (you need to enable FlashGot Tabs in the FlashGot Options first).

Now you will automatically download all the images/files from all tabs in that Firefox window that fit the FlashGot filter you did set. GREAT and IMHO a must-have, even if you only do mass-downloading once a month.

216

Living Room / The Year in Ideas - New York Times - great!

« on: December 11, 2005, 05:21 PM »

Just click http://www.nytimes.c.../magazine/index.html

Found on http://science.slash...sid=05/12/11/1930241 - thanks to MouserBot

217

Living Room / Add a Spreadsheet to your Web Site

« on: December 11, 2005, 10:39 AM »

This might come in very handy for some of you - never saw such service before!

"If you ever need to share numeric data with friends, then visit Num Sum, which will allow you to create a spreadsheet that can be linked to from your site and viewed from any web browser. It's simple, free and can be setup in minutes."

Found on http://whereisben.blogs.com/whereisben/

218

Living Room / Can you grow cress in a keyboard?

« on: December 11, 2005, 09:08 AM »

Yes, you can!

http://www.nada.kth..../krasse/english.html

219

Living Room / Hacker can turn your home computer into a BOMB!

« on: December 09, 2005, 11:35 AM »

A classic piece of investigative journalism that I just remembered when a kinda related topic came up in the IRC channel

220

Living Room / Sushi USB Drives

« on: December 08, 2005, 07:56 AM »

"Never again will you have to choose between having sushi or having a USB memory drive--thanks to the USB sushi drive. These USB drives are hand-made-in-Tokyo sushi replicas. The convincing USB sushi drive comes in several flavors."




         

221

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: mute PC on incoming mobile phone calls (or at least notify on calls/SMS)

« on: December 08, 2005, 02:46 AM »

This is possible for cars, why not for PCs? Or is it? How? Where?

This post (topic: "Tray utility to mute speaker when you are away from the computer!") on https://www.donation...index.php?topic=1580 brought up the thought:

my request for playing the beeps was more for times when I am not playing music, but rather just doing normal activities and want to lower the volume for example if a phone call comes in etc.

-LuckMan212 (December 07, 2005, 04:15 PM)

Is there a cheap USB solution for this? Or at least a solution that will notify you about incoming calls or SMS?

222

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: explorer.exe auto-restarter

« on: December 07, 2005, 03:37 PM »

Hi,

I'd like to add code to my AHK script to always restart explorer.exe maybe 20 seconds after it died or after I had to kill it. Windows should restart it automatically, but often does not 

What do you think? And what would be the best way to do this?

223

Living Room / Why naming things right really IS so important!

« on: December 05, 2005, 08:02 AM »

 

224

FlipSuite and Flipbook Printer / I saw Flipbook Printer being mentioned...

« on: December 03, 2005, 03:17 AM »

...on http://marhar.blogsp...mouser-software.html

225

Mini-Reviews by Members / DoubleKiller Pro - FAST and great to find duplicate files!

« on: December 02, 2005, 10:46 AM »

After searching for years for a really good duplicate files finder I stumbled over DoubleKiller. I were missing a few features (which I sent to the coder and which are realized now, thanks!) but it was very promising!

Now I use the Pro version which is blazing fast and for a limited time only you can get it with a nice discount!
Read https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1452.0 and
https://www.donation...Discounts/index.html for details!

You can change the window size of cause, I used a not-that-big size for the screenshots:


DoubleKiller Pro when you start it up:

The Comparison Options - note that each of the 4 options there has its own advanced settings
to be more specific when needed:

The Scan Options - here you can limit your search to certain file names and/or sizes, very helpful:

The Common Options:

About: (mouser really digs this )