Messages

76

General Software Discussion / Re: Perl scripting using Vista's speach recognition! Awesome!

« on: July 11, 2007, 01:12 PM »

Haha. I can't even get it to control WMP much less foobar2000. But how did you get it working for WMP though? For now I've settled for my memorization of the keys. With space being set to play/pause. I can pretty much access it without taking my eyes off the road lol.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Perl scripting using Vista's speach recognition! Awesome!

« on: July 11, 2007, 12:52 PM »

There is something I wanted to do with speech recognition though. Controlling media players. I use my laptop in my car for navigation sometimes. But it'd be nice if I could say.. "Play Music" or "Play Muse" and it would play whatever music I have in a playlist..

Haven't figured that out yet though. Next idea for a donation coder project? haha..

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General Software Discussion / Re: "XPLinux" Running Windows XP and Kubuntu on one joint desktop

« on: July 11, 2007, 12:23 PM »

Ooh.. nice. I may try this sometmie! Though I do like Compiz Fusion alot and I doubt it would work this way. Although it's alot of special effects, there are some things that do help me with usability for some odd reason. Well that and Dr. Watson seems to like to torment me randomly on Windows XP. >.<

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Find And Run Robot / Noticing some odd behavior (or aftermark?) after launching a program...

« on: June 22, 2007, 10:13 PM »

I've been noticing on the latest alpha on Windows Vista when I launch a program it temporary turns the FARR box into a big white box (where it is) with the FARR symbol. I'll try to take a screenshot or a quick video when I can.

Edit: Nevermind can't seem to capture it via video recording. Though I notice that when it happens on my laptop it tends to be when windows is reacting slowly. 

80

Living Room / Re: Why is Hotmail so bad at spam?

« on: June 18, 2007, 09:25 AM »

I've had an opposite experience lol. Yahoo use to be horrible with spam (I cranked it up to max though) and I get almost no junk mail now. Hotmail on the other hand I have to rely on TB's junk filters I setup.

81

General Software Discussion / Re: More about e-mail web based and other

« on: June 18, 2007, 08:49 AM »

...It would be nice, too, if they'd let me access my account from a POP3 client without having to pay $19.95 a year for the privilege.

-Darwin (June 14, 2007, 01:37 PM)

Waaa!!!?!

Well, there goes any chance I had at getting my sister to use Thunerbird... $20 for a lifetime... MAYBE, but a year? That's just greedy!

-Hirudin (June 16, 2007, 02:29 PM)

The good thing about Thunderbird is that there's extensions that page scrape the emails. Webmail + Yahoo will allow you to download yahoo emails to Thunderbird.

82

Official Announcements / Re: DC-IRLDD #2: DonationCoder Real Life Dinner+Drinks, Sat 7/14, Champaign Illinois

« on: June 18, 2007, 08:40 AM »

Haha.. I'll have to wait till I'm going to Illinois for grad school in Cognitive Psyc..MD's a bit to far away for me to drive from.

83

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the Switch-04: The "User Guide" as life raft, more n00b problems

« on: June 15, 2007, 11:10 AM »

I have to say.. Google is a great help to me when trying to use Linux. I've found sites that help with the command line, and like Windows errors, putting in common problems in Linux or terminal responses can help you find a solution. I first tried Linux (as an actual jump into it.. not messing around with just a Live CD) thru Wubi by installing it to my laptop. Then I made a real Ubuntu install on my desktop. Though I had my fair share of difficulties (though that was setting up Beryl), I'm happy to say that it is easier for me in Linux then in Windows. For example, we have an HP Photosmart 2600 printer in our house. And for everyone's XP computer it's like a plague trying to use HP's drivers. I havent' found a way to connect the printer manually thru Windows (none of our computers are on a workgroup) but in Linux it took me less then a minute to install it. Linux recognized it and everything.

Same with my ethernet ports, logitech webcam, etc.. the only issue I have now is getting some extra keys on my keyboard to work and getting the mic on my headset to work.

84

Living Room / Re: The top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills

« on: June 07, 2007, 11:14 AM »

I think the only thing I even know well is coldfusion..and that's because I had to work with it, last summer when I was working as an intern in the Society for Neuroscience's IT department.

85

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR v2 - Vista Compatibility Testers+Discussion

« on: June 06, 2007, 09:36 AM »

Dunno if this is just my laptop..but I notice that when I first trigger the hotkey to summon FARR (ctrl+space) the first time after start up (all programs that start up are loaded by then including FARR) it takes a while to summon the FARR window. But after that it's pretty much instant summon.

Just an odd quirk I noticied.

86

Living Room / Re: What do you do with your old PCs?

« on: June 03, 2007, 03:15 PM »

Usually I keep my computers so long that they're no longer worth selling (part wise usually too). So I usually donate them to my other family members. Or I find some other use for it (thank god for Linux ^_^).

87

Living Room / Re: Latest Apple Mac vs PC Commercial: PCs suck because of all the software choices

« on: June 03, 2007, 03:08 PM »

I don't appreciate or enjoy half the software that comes pre-installed on a laptop when you buy it (oh and desktops though I build mine now). Most of them are just ones you eventually have to pay for and often have freeware or donationware that works even better then the pre-installed ones. So I spend the first 30 minutes uninstalling the junk. However, I do love finding and trying new software out that I find on the web and read about.

PCDecrapifier is your friend!

-Darwin (May 30, 2007, 03:14 PM)

Thanks, I'll remember that next time I deal with a PC with tons of trial software preloaded onto it. 

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Living Room / Re: Latest Apple Mac vs PC Commercial: PCs suck because of all the software choices

« on: May 30, 2007, 02:21 PM »

The latest mac vs. pc commercial touches on something that i really think distinguishes the mac culture from windows/pc culture, and may touch a nerve with some of us real software lovers.

[ Invalid Attachment ]

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=1EbCyibkNB0

Basically the pc is "bloated from all the trial software he has installed", while the mac "comes with all the software you need".

Am i the only one who gets a real and satisfying enjoyment out of trying new software?  for some of us, it's this vast world of independent small software development and all the experimentation we can do trying new software that makes the pc/windows platform so fun.

-mouser (April 19, 2007, 01:04 AM)

I don't appreciate or enjoy half the software that comes pre-installed on a laptop when you buy it (oh and desktops though I build mine now). Most of them are just ones you eventually have to pay for and often have freeware or donationware that works even better then the pre-installed ones. So I spend the first 30 minutes uninstalling the junk. However, I do love finding and trying new software out that I find on the web and read about.

89

Living Room / Re: POLL: How many students are active here (instead of writing up?!)

« on: May 29, 2007, 02:33 PM »

I prefer spelling my name with a k even though it's a c in real life. But yeah, I want to pursue
it for the knowledge and not the money. Though one of my professors who sit on the graduate student admissions for counseling psychology at Maryland notes that it's sad how future psychologists are trained. Most of the time, the people who need the most help aren't the kind that can afford paying whatever amount per hour most psychologists charge. And often the psychologists charge alot because it cost them alot to go to those graduate schools. A vicious cycle of money sadly 

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Living Room / Re: Sony's special screw will make your everyday screws blush in shame!

« on: May 29, 2007, 01:50 PM »

I think Nintendo has a special Y screw on some of their products too..

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Living Room / Re: POLL: How many students are active here (instead of writing up?!)

« on: May 29, 2007, 11:00 AM »

Currently an junior at Maryland in Psychology. I plan on going into graduate school in either cognitive psychology or counseling psychology and pursing a masters+PhD program.

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Living Room / Re: Why don't you pay for software?

« on: May 29, 2007, 10:54 AM »

If you are serious does this philosophy apply to all intellectual pursuits?

-Carol Haynes (May 26, 2007, 06:57 PM)

yes

If it does then how does any business model work when nobody can earn a living at anything?

Noone should 'earn a living'. Living is our birth right, it doesn't need to be earned. The way the world works now, the system is completely defunctional and wrong. I'm not saying anyone has come up with a better one yet (someone may or may not have), but that doesn't make it less wrong. Now we just have legalized slavery. If you don't work in whatever field that brings in money, you can't survive.

Example: A designer designs a car, another designer designs a production line to produce it, engineers design the machine to run the production line and the processing plant to produce the raw materials, a mining engineer designs a method for extracting ore to supply the production process. All of these people are producing intellectual ideas just a programmers do - should none of these people get paid for their work - or is it all done for love and they work in MacDonalds to support their 'hobby'?

The designer of the car's production should optionally donate to the designer if he can, the miners should donate to the mining engineer if they can for making their job easyer, etc,... "if they can" being the keyphrase.

Would you suggest that a factory worker should work for love of it?

Ideally, yes. He shouldn't be forced to do so otherwise. For money or no money.

But this is completely off topic, I just wanted to throw in my  because the crowd was weighing in only one direction, and there are plenty of other viewpoints out there, mine is just one of them. And it's probably not perfect, I'm no where near claiming to have all the answers, but I do have a sense of right and wrong. And people not being able to get goods because they don't have the money is wrong, and people having to work to be able to live is wrong. Money is probably just wrong all together, since it's only led to greed, wars, suffering, and destruction.

-Gothi[c] (May 26, 2007, 08:25 PM)

I agree with you, in fact that's my belief as well. But as we know from experiments in political systems (such as communism) no human will work soley for the benefit of all or just for the sake of doing what they want to do. Money always has to be involved somehow. I've always viewed mankind as a selfish greedy species only looking for their own individual survival. Which is why I chuckle whenever I hear news that we're stepping closer each day to destroying ourselves. Weapons, terrorists, etc..and our ever quickening pace in technological development. But alas, till that day of complete destruction we all live in the social constructs that we've built that is capitalism and money.

Anyway, that's just my viewpoint, and I'm a bit of a pestimistic when it comes to humanity. I actually don't mind donating money to freeware, and donationware authors. Though it irritates me to "donate" money to corporations and businesses. Probably because for the first group, money isn't expected. While for the second group, money is expected. And if it's one thing I do despise, it is money's control over everyone including myself as long as I live in this world.

93

Find And Run Robot / Re: Alias sharing

« on: May 26, 2007, 11:25 PM »

Odd, I added everything needed for the stt alias to work and it checked out. But when I try using it, it sees the autohotkey script but typing in stt opera and stt firefox doesn't do anything.

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FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Use locate32 with Farr

« on: May 25, 2007, 05:46 PM »

Thanks! I just recently found locate32 and finding out I can integrate it with FARR is a great finding!

95

Post New Requests Here / Re: Alarm When Power Cord Falls Out of Notebook

« on: May 25, 2007, 02:40 PM »

It's probably do your settings regarding battery life. I have three options to choose from, little power usage, balanced, and high performance. Which..they really don't change much but the screen brightness. So I leave my laptop on balanced. What happens when the power cable is plugged in, is the laptop detects that it's getting power so it switches it to high performance (hence my screen at full brightness).

Oh and I have a Centrino. To add any possible information.

96

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: File Extension Seeker

« on: May 25, 2007, 02:06 PM »

Nice! I'm always looking up strange file extensions on my computer like .THM. Though if it was possible, do you think you could add a method to find how to open it? Maybe add a google search string with it.

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Living Room / Re: Why don't you pay for software?

« on: May 25, 2007, 01:52 PM »

Depends on if I have any money to spare, and if I really love the software provided.

98

Word Processor Roundup / Re: 3rd Party Tools like Bibliography Addins

« on: February 28, 2007, 11:04 PM »

This is the first I've heard (well not first I've heard of built in) of bibliography addins for Word Processors. I'm just use to getting the citations from the library (they offer you a email version or a endcite/procite version..granted you have to correct it so it's in APA style for it to be any use to me).

Anyway, I should take a look at it. Granted, I still prefer copying and pasting the citation (then fixing it to APA style) rather then inputting the info by hand.

99

General Review Discussion / Re: Desktop streamming review ?

« on: February 28, 2007, 10:53 PM »

Synchronoeyes is used at the University of Maryland too in their teaching theathre rooms. Rooms that are basically full of computers. It was designed before laptops became mainstream, the idea was that every room eventually would have built in computers for students.

Anyway, I have a CyberPsychology course with the professor I work with. And from the teacher's view you can also see what all your students are doing (lol). Pretty easy to disable though.. I was kinda dissapointed with it. 

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General Review Discussion / Re: Free PDF tools review?

« on: February 28, 2007, 10:49 PM »

If you use OpenOffice I believe it comes built in with something to convert/save to the PDF format.