Messages

51

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« on: January 27, 2011, 12:23 AM »

New version uploaded. See my first post.

I modified the script a bit. Now there's an ini file for the settings, the requested time mode and some more error checking. I've spent some time testing it, but if you find a bug please tell me.

52

Living Room / Re: ARTICLE: How not to change a licensing model

« on: January 26, 2011, 02:49 AM »

Of course, as time passed by, new measures were required and so, recently, the company announced yet another change to its licensing program: the switch from lifetime licenses to yearly subscriptions.

I think the writer is wrong about Slylsoft.

Existing customers will keep their lifetime updates. That's why they offered a 20% discount recently... "buy it now, to get your lifetime update license, because if you buy it later, you'll have the new one-year-update license!". If I'm right , there's nothing to complain about Slysoft.

What really sucks is - once again - USB Safely Remove. The lifetime update is still there, but all the work and new features go in a new product, which has to be licensed again. That's like if Rarlab would release "WinRAR Pro" (yearly license) and the normal "WinRAR" (lifetime license) would get stability updates only.

53

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« on: January 26, 2011, 02:41 AM »

Thanks for the icon.

> wouldn't want the music to start playing during sleeping hours

Ops. Forgot... I'll play with the script later and add this function.

54

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« on: January 24, 2011, 02:05 PM »

I've updated my first post with the new file.


> could you change that to AHK's own SoundPlay command please?

Easy. Done.

Now as AHK is playing the song, there's of course no toaster or song information. AHK's progress function could be used to generate some song information on the desktop, but that's really too much work for me.

So, as a "better than nothing" feature: If you're hovering the mouse cursor over the trayicon it'll display a infotip, telling you what the script is currently doing (waiting, song file name, couldn't play because of a blacklisted process).


> I'd prefer *not* to receive bubble notifications about in how many minutes the next file will be playe

Done. See the script for another parameter.

> And by the way, the "x seconds" warnings before a file is

Totally works here (Win7x64). I see it everytime. So sorry, if I can't see what's wrong, I can't fix it.

> nice if one could specify a list of programs that

Done. See the script.

> Thanks for your work so far!

You're welcome.

55

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« on: January 23, 2011, 05:24 PM »

I don't know what you're doing with it, but it sounds fun.

Here's a little AHK script doing most of the things you want. Perhaps you'll find it useful until someone provides a better solution or enhances this basic script. It works fine on my system. The sound file is just started and sent to the registered sound player. On my system it's Winamp. It communicates via the Tray.


> So if I'd set "min" to 10 minutes and "max" to 30 minutes

Done

> an option to set the volume

Sorry, no.

> ability to have it play more than one file

Done. Edit the file "randomplayer_songlist.txt" and add with full path song files. Sample entries provided.

>  (in ABC order or randomly)

Randomly. The script kinda remembers the tracks played in a file called "played.txt" and won't repeat until all files in songlist.txt have been played.

> an optional toaster

Sorry, no. Install http://www.cdartdisplay.com/ for toasters.

> or tray area bubble notification that announces that it will play the/a mp3 in x seconds

Done.

> (the amount of seconds being customizable)

Done. Load the script in notepad. There're some parameters to configure.

> low CPU usage is much appreciated!

Guess it's done... but this isn't really my doing. AHK power... ;-)


EDIT: Download moved to my last post in this thread

56

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 Breaks Week Numbering

« on: January 18, 2011, 05:25 AM »

The question at this point, is if I add an option to adjust wr975's iFirstWeekOfYear registry entry ... Will that create a potential problem for other applications running on the user's machine?? (e.g. Sure it's easy as hell to do, but should it be done?)
*Shrug* ...7 is broken?

-Stoic Joker (January 17, 2011, 05:19 PM)

Probably not, because if an (European) user wants the ISO week number, then it should be set to "2" anyway. (I've googled a bit)

iFirstWeekOfYear = "Specifies which week of the year is considered first.
0 - Week containing January 1 is the first week of the year.
1 - First full week following January 1 is the first week of the year.
2 - First week containing at least four days is the first week of the year."

On Win XP this registry setting seems to be ignored. So... is XP broken ? 

57

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 Breaks Week Numbering

« on: January 17, 2011, 02:16 AM »

Has anyone else heard of, or ran across this bizarre behavior?

-Stoic Joker (January 16, 2011, 04:37 PM)

I had this problem a year ago with AHK. See this thread:

http://www.autohotke...iewtopic.php?t=55056

There's a registry setting to change this behavior, but I guess it would be best if your tool isn't relying on Windows, but calculates the week numbers on its own following this iso standard.

58

General Software Discussion / Re: USB Safely Remove 4.4 final released * CHANGE OF LICENSE POLICY *

« on: December 27, 2010, 05:09 AM »

Well, they're liars. Before purchasing the lifetime license two years ago, I asked them if it truly means "for life" and if I won't have to pay an update price for a major new version or a "pro" version. Of course no. Never. Life means for life.

Updates have been very slow with USB Safely Remove. And now there's "Zentimo", which is kinda the pro version of "USB Safely Remove". The developer say it like this: USBSR won't be getting new features, it'll be kept simple. For those who want new features, buy Zentimo.

If they can't afford lifetime licenses anymore, then do it like Slysoft, or Admuncher... new licenses are limited, but the existing ones stay the same.

59

General Software Discussion / Re: Fastest Audio Converter

« on: December 06, 2010, 02:36 AM »

I'm using XRecode II to transcode files. I usually transcode audiobooks (192 kps CBR is insane) to -v8.

LAME isn't supporting multi-core, so the program is just encoding several files at once. For each core one file. This speeds up encoding a lot, especially if I use the server (8 x CPU) at work. ;-) It also keeps all ID3Tags, so it's a winner for me.

The last freeware version of XRecode (1) can be found here: http://www.xup.in/dl...e_I_final_2.6.0.zip/
Starting with XRecode 2 the program got shareware/nagware.

Don't confuse it with XMedia Recode. This one is good for video encoding and transcoding, but IMHO not so for audio. Guess the author of XMedia Recode never understood what the preset system (-v0 to v9) is all about.

60

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Saving and restoring window(s) size and position

« on: September 28, 2010, 02:34 AM »

Hi all,
I'm wondering if someone can code a program that can save and restore size and positions and window currently open.

-martin88 (September 26, 2010, 10:18 AM)

This isn't exactly what you're searching for, but if you like your programs in the same window size/position, you can try "Sizer". I found it some months ago and after some hour using it I decided it's one of those programs I can't live without anymore. Love it.

http://www.brianapps.net/sizer/

For your gaming issues I recommend a seperate user account, at least that's what I do. (Fast user switching, also see http://www.technixup...ndows-in-mouse-click)

61

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 + NAS drive := major suckage

« on: August 25, 2010, 02:33 AM »

Researched a bit... many NAS system suffer from this problem, like Fantec MR-35DRN or ZyXEL NSA-220. Apparently it's not only the NIC, but also the chipset/CPU. Can't be compared with a desktop PC.

The Synology Disk Station DS209+ costs almost four times as much as the DNS 323, comes with a 800 Mhz CPU but still ... 40 MB/sec only.

Guess, on second thought, the DNS 323 is a good piece of hardware. (At least for users like me, who don't know Linux, so they could do a cheap and fast fileserver with some some old PC.)  

62

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 + NAS drive := major suckage

« on: August 24, 2010, 04:22 AM »

The NAS drive is D-link DNS-323.

-tranglos (August 22, 2010, 05:57 PM)

Hi,

the DNS-323 can't do NTFS. It's formatting the drive with EXT2.

I've the same NAS and no troubles with Win7x64. I even tried copying filenames with such ANSI symbols.

Perhaps this solves your problem?

If you are using firmware 1.04, by default the DNS-323 will support Unicode which is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world’s writing formats. However, if you were using an earlier version of firmware (1.03 or earlier) and have just upgraded to 1.04, Unicode will not be supported until you have reformatted the hard drives in your DNS-323. If you wish to store non-English character files but do not want to reformat your hard drives, you will need to change the Language setting of the device to ensure compatibility with those files.

How to change the language setting in DNS 323 (if you don't want to reformat)

I've had this drive for 3 years now and it seems to be reliable enough, but the transfer is darn slow, only about 10 MB per second

True, true... They sell it as "Gigabit" NAS but under best conditions it can't do more than 24 MB/sec (see facts sheet. It's written somewhere with tiny letters.). I'm getting around 20 MB/sec transfer speed. Of course, a *real* Gigabit NAS would be much, much, much more expensive, so it's kinda OK... but I don't like marketing lies.

If your network card supports it, activate Jumbo Frames (in your NAS and the network card settings). This will improve transfer speed greatly. (At least on my system.)

63

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 + NAS drive := major suckage

« on: August 22, 2010, 05:41 PM »

Why could this be happening? I've googled, but couldn't find anything relevant.

-tranglos (August 22, 2010, 11:01 AM)

I don't think Win 7 is the problem, you NAS device probably is.

It would be good to know the name of your NAS device.

Also, did you check for a firmware update?

64

General Software Discussion / Re: Which archive software are we using in 2010 (and why)?

« on: August 13, 2010, 09:04 AM »

I believe you are right about the dump that I receive in RAR format is not packed using the most extreme settings RAR has to offer.
But still, I expect 7-zip to be at least 30% to 50% more efficient than anything winRAR can bring to the table. Regarding my dumpfiles that is.

-Shades (August 12, 2010, 05:52 PM)

At the cost of time.

I tried packing 2 GB of Access databases. 7z (Ultra) was about 26% smaller, but needed 20 minutes, while RAR (best) needed 6 minutes.

26% more effective, but 3x slower.

I'm not sure if "smallest archive size" is the only way to find the "best archiving utility". I think RAR's compression time/size ratio is quite OK. I also like its ability to detected CRC errors in (split) archives, report missing archives, repair defective files using recovery records, keep broken files, extract from split archives even without the full set,... and so on.


Just guessing, but perhaps your 200 GB file is packed with "super fast" because it would need longer to compress / decompress a strong compressed file (7z "ultra" or RAR "best"), than downloading the extra 11 GB (because of weak compression).

65

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me to understand .mp3 naming issue on a DVD player reading from a USB stick

« on: June 15, 2010, 02:47 AM »

Thanks for the input but can you tell me how not sorting the FAT index results in the odd sequencing referred to in my post immediately before this one?

-cranioscopical (June 14, 2010, 12:37 PM)

I've the same issue on my MP3 player. Sometimes, not always, new files are not played in order. This tool helped.

Just try it, or at least just use it to read the contents of your USB stick. If it's not sorted, you found the problem.

66

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me to understand .mp3 naming issue on a DVD player reading from a USB stick

« on: June 14, 2010, 05:16 AM »

Can anybody tell me why, and if so, how to avoid this?

-cranioscopical (June 10, 2010, 03:30 PM)

Reason: Your player is not sorting the FAT filename index.

Fix: There're several programs sorting the FAT index. The one I'm using is DriveSort. It writes directly in the file-system, replacing this index, so it's very fast.

http://www.anerty.ne...e/file/DriveSort.php

This program enables you to reorganise the content of the directory tables on a FAT drive, in order to help portable multimedia players to play their music tracks in the right order.
It works directly on the opened disk filesystem, so use it at your own risks. It's a good idea to make a backup of sensitive data before working on a disk.

Although it was made for the I-Bead player, it should work well with other portable multimedia players having a FAT12, FAT16, or FAT32 formatted disk, such as the Lynx, Muro, your mobile phone flash card, ...

Works well on my MP3 stick.

Hint: if the program crashes trying to access your USB stick, let Windows search and repair drive errors. It happened to me once, and there were some minor file-system issues (lost clusters).

67

Living Room / Re: Need to Convert .wav to .aac

« on: June 13, 2010, 12:38 PM »

I like the idea with the silent ring tone... clever! 

FWIW, here're my three most-used ring tones:
http://www.xup.in/dl...ndard.ring.tone.mp3/
http://www.xup.in/dl...ard.ring.tone.2.mp3/
http://www.xup.in/dl....miss.important.mp3/

68

Living Room / Re: Need to Convert .wav to .aac

« on: June 13, 2010, 05:59 AM »

I know I had a program that did this, but I can't find it. I'm trying to make a ring tone for my cell and aparently the phone (Nokia 6350) wants .aac files only.

-Stoic Joker (June 12, 2010, 07:47 PM)

Xrecode can do this.

http://www.xrecode.com/

Last freeware version: http://www.xup.in/dl...e_I_final_2.6.0.zip/

69

General Software Discussion / Ongoing frustration research must be enabled

« on: June 10, 2010, 09:06 AM »

My PC (Win7x64 3 GB) needs 13 seconds to wake up from hibernate, so there's really no need to improve the boot-time, but after reading so much praise, I thought I gave it a try. And I'm not impressed. 

Solution seems to me like a super dumbed-down "WinPatrol" with amazing GUI. It looks great, even the installer looks amazing, but there's nothing you can actually configure.

Users can right-click the tray icon and select "My PC just frustrated me". Soluto told me "Ongoing frustration research must be enabled in order to report frustrations". Must be the weirdest message box I've seen in a long time.

Once I enabled this function and clicked again "My PC just frustrated me" I got an animated postcard, telling me "Frustration Data will be sent to the PCGenome, thanks."

Seriously, wtf? This is the Teletubbies version of Winpatrol. 

Don't worry about resources Soluto takes on runtime. It moves into stand by mode if you do not touch the software.

That's normal behavior for all programs, but still the PC is forced to load three processes (Soluto 5M, SolutoServices 35M, SolutoConsole 26M.) 


WinPatrol doesn't tell me how long an application needs to start (useless information anyway), but it can delay startup-entries and protects from new installed services and startup entries as well.


Anyway, Soluto isn't for the computer geek. It's for the average user, who likes the design, being able to report frustrations (best feature ever  ) and enjoy the "Just click, I'll do everything for you" approach. Kinda like Apple products.

70

Finished Programs / Re: toddlertrap win 7

« on: June 07, 2010, 04:51 PM »

Hmm... the script version (ahk) is OK. The compiled is broken. I guess Skrommel will fix this soon. In the meantime use the compiled version attached to this post.

FWIW, I'm very fond of "KidKeyLock". With all other "toodler traps/keyboard cleaners" my son somehow managed to type a key or something, but never with KidKeyLock.

71

General Software Discussion / Re: What to use to secure delete a HDD?

« on: June 01, 2010, 01:09 PM »

+4 for DBAN

FWIW, a plain normal format (fill with blanks) is enough.

The myth that to delete data really securely from a hard disk you have to overwrite it many times, using different patterns, has persisted for decades, despite the fact that even firms specialising in data recovery, openly admit that if a hard disk is overwritten with zeros just once, all of its data is irretrievably lost

Source: http://www.h-online....ll-do-it-739699.html

72

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: PowerWorship song lyrics review

« on: May 27, 2010, 02:50 AM »

Just FWIW, we're using SongBeamer. It's not listed at ebibleteacher.com.
I don't think it's better than SongShowPlus, but offers many similar features and is much cheaper. It can display songs, pictures, videos, DVDs, powerpoint (also 2007) using Powerpoint viewer, any XPS document and scripture verses (search, select verses and it generates the slides.)

73

Living Room / Re: Flash Tower Defense Game of the Week: Penguin Attack TD 2

« on: April 12, 2010, 04:38 AM »

Geez, what a time waster...   

It's best to play such games on their "home" server, armorgames.com. The game size is a little bit larger there.

Exploit a bug in game design: Buy tower. Sell tower. Repeat. You get experience for buying towers as well, so you level-up in no time to get the flak cannon + start with more money.

Game hints:
a.) Build mazes with the simple turret (don't upgrade) to slow down enemies. 
b.) Use flak cannon (upgrade!) or later missile launcher (upgrade!!) only.
c.) Replace some turrets with the green turret (upgrade!) after the first few waves to slow down enemies. It helps a lot when dealing with tanks or bosses.
d.) Levels with two entrances... use the turrets to direct the penguins to the other entrance.

Too bad the game has some bugs... bosses do not appear (often), airplanes fly off screen and cost lives (lvl 4 und 6), invisible turrets (sometimes). But it's still fun.

74

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (alpha - download)

« on: March 30, 2010, 01:02 PM »

Well, much as I hate to regard silence as acceptance ... I gotta go with it.

-Stoic Joker (March 23, 2010, 06:07 PM)

Sorry for not responding about the week feature request. Totally missed that post as you said, it'll take some time. Thank you for implementing this feature. I think it's perfect the way it is (ISO Sunday, ISO Monday, Simple). 

75

General Software Discussion / Re: How long is 'temporary'?

« on: March 28, 2010, 05:11 AM »

Erasing temp is safe. Never had problems with it. C(rap)Cleaner offers the function to erase temp files older than 48 hours only (at system startup). This ensures your temp folder never fills up with old files.

Installers are usuall in WinDir\Installer. (My installer folder is 2,50 GB in size). Some stupid programs put them in UserData or ProgramData, but I've never seen them in temp. Anyway, deleting the Installer folder is possible, but not recommended at all.

The program MsiZap can remove orphaned Installer entries. I don't know if it's working under WinVista/Win7.