Topics

3701

Cheat Sheeter / Super Early Alpha

« on: June 15, 2005, 12:14 AM »

www.donationcoder.com/MemberDownloads/CheatSheeter.zip

this has no help, no instructions, and the info pages dont exist.. so its not usable per se.
but it does demonstrate basic functionality and is completely usable for anyone who is brave and wants to try to create some cheat sheets.

just follow the model of the ultra edit infopages, i'm available for help.

there are 2 sample css files, but these will NOT be the final css models - we need to come up with a set of divs and tags that all info pages should use.

anyway - this download is useless for anyone but real masochists that are bored.

3702

Screenshot Captor / Now Available for Public Download

« on: June 14, 2005, 03:00 PM »

Screenshot Captor has now moved from member-only download status to open public download.
https://www.donation...hotcaptor/index.html

3703

Cheat Sheeter / fyi - bare functionality working

« on: June 13, 2005, 11:42 AM »

fyi - i've just gotten basic functionality to work.. it will auto load all cheat sheet sets it finds, sit in tray, activate on hotkey or system tray click, auto detect current app, locate all cheat sheets relevant to that app, show a list of these cheat sheets and let you view any of them.  will dock to sides of screens, etc.  resources can be local web pages, audio, video, etc., or even remote web pages.

user can choose custom css style sheets to completely customize the look and feel of cheat sheets.

there's tons more work to do, but basic functionality is now working.

if there are any css experts, i could use some help forumalating some nice clean css stylesheets that would be suited to display the same information in different ways.

3704

Living Room / No Review This Week

« on: June 13, 2005, 11:35 AM »

I hope everyone will excuse there being no review this week; I've been working overtime on the newest program and review responsibilities took a back seat.

3705

Living Room / anyone recommend freeware cd/dvd burning soft?

« on: June 11, 2005, 09:45 PM »

anyone care to recommend a reasonable cd/dvd burning tool?  for just burning data.  nice gui w/ drag and drop preferred.

3706

Cheat Sheeter / Teaser Screenshots

« on: June 11, 2005, 05:48 PM »

i'll post screenshots occasionally.
note that the window isnt showing any help currently (just google page).
ive mainly been working on internal data structures, etc.

3707

Cheat Sheeter / Sample .ipi file

« on: June 10, 2005, 12:35 PM »

just to give you an idea how i am thinking..

you will download cheat sheet "sets" that can contain any number of actual cheat sheets or info pages.
here's a sample of my current thinking of what a configuration file for a SET would look like.

So note that this file just DESCRIBES the resources in the set (ie it refers to some html pages which are the cheat sheets, and one refers to an "online" resource); in this way, cheat sheets can be local, online, html, text, movies, etc.

Sorry the tabs did not display properly smf needs a formatting mode that respects tabs !!


//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// .ipi configuration file for some UltraEdit InfoPages.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Info about this file format:
//  Note that we can use a single common "Author", "Date", "Homepage" fields
//   (or we could have specified them explicitly with each entry)
//  Entries MUST start with the keyword "Title", others can be in any order.
//  Comments *start* with // (only if starting a line is it a comment).
//  Dates should be specified in illogical US format (MM/DD/YYYY)
//  URL's can be online or local (relative to cur dir) resources
//  "Hint" is optional (title will be used on mouse over if no hint specified)
//  "Keyword" is optional (should be comma separated words)
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------


//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author=         mouser
Date=         06/10/2005
Homepage=      https://www.donationcoder.com
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------


//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title=         UltraEdit HotKeys
Application=   UltraEdit
Hint=         Common HotKeys for UltraEdit
Description=   A simple list of hotkeys for UltraEdit, in html format.  Suitable for small window display.
URL=         file://uedit_hotkeys.html
Keywords=      hotkey,shortcut

Title=         UltaEdit Forum
Application=   UltraEdit
Description=   Visit the UltraEdit Online Forum
URL=         http://www.ultraedit...?name=Forums&c=1
Keywords=      forum

Title=         UltraEdit Tips
Application=   UltraEdit
Description=   A list of tips and tricks for advanced users
URL=         file://uedit_tips.html
Keywords=      tip,trick
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3708

Living Room / fun links to cool tools and stuff

« on: June 09, 2005, 12:02 AM »

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/
originally found from another cool site: http://boingboing.net/

3709

General Review Discussion / Next two-week review

« on: June 07, 2005, 07:35 AM »

anyone want to volunteer to do a guest review next?  i need to check myself into a mental health clinic to recover from that last review of screencasting tools.



remember we have a two-week process now so it gives you a bit more time.

June 13 - part one, overview and table of software in that category with short descriptions and screenshots.
June 20 - final review

id be happy to help a lot and i'm sure others here would be too, and maybe we can choose a category that won't be quite so contentious..

screencasting was another specialty tool with a high price; might be nice to do a more general tool at a reasonable price next..

how about best password manager, or form filler? or weather tool for your tray?

3710

Living Room / server being rebooted briefly this evening

« on: June 04, 2005, 09:21 PM »

from our hosting company: "the server will be rebooted on Sunday June 5th, 2005 at 0500 EDT (GMT -4)."
they are upgrading the OS.

hopefully should go smoothly; everything is backed up in case it doesnt

3711

General Software Discussion / software for memorizing info

« on: June 03, 2005, 10:44 PM »

a while ago the issue of software to help memorize info came up.
i just stumbled on this: http://www.super-mem...o/supermemo2004.html
looks a big busy, but full of features.

3712

Living Room / xtort.net - nice freeware listing site (+more)

« on: June 03, 2005, 05:02 PM »

got a nice email from the person who runs http://www.xtort.net, a nice freeware listing site that has a good rss2 feed and lots of extra stuff.

looks like a really nice site worth visiting regularly.

3713

Find And Run Robot / Feature Request Thread

« on: June 02, 2005, 09:39 PM »

Let's put feature requests here.

i'll start with the feature requests in to f&r todo list:

when set to display relative path, display parent path if the relative path is \
separate words should act as AND searches rather than phrases
search patterns on full paths and extensions?
add scripts
add heuristic points for recent access based on access date stamps
get list of recently run apps from system
checkboxes to choose columns in details mode
add general hotkey support
Folder name searching
Ability to use \ to specify dir name pattern (so graph\photo would match graphics\photoshop)..
Ability to specify an extension with a . (so photo.exe would match photoshop.exe)
Ability to drag files from the box outward from app into other program
ability to right click and get normal shell context menu
Customizable sound effect when launching?
Right click to add current item to an alias.
Speed up loading of ini files.
Add toolbar for custom icons
add ability to specify custom file browser + internet browser
Improve icon

3714

Find And Run Robot / new beta 1.05.15 (update only) available to beta testers

« on: June 02, 2005, 08:56 PM »

v1.05.15 is now available for beta testers
http://donationcoder.../FindAndRunRobot.zip

this is the new exe ONLY, and is only being made available for those who are helping me try to fix some bugs; if you don't fall into this category then you might as well wait a couple days for a real release.

here are the things im trying to fix with this version:

added info about running main executable with -tray commandline option
fixed a failure to identify some duplicate links
added browse for file+folder buttons from the config add/edit entry dialogs.
removed menus to load and save configuration files (not it always use the main FindAndRunRobot.ini file.
program tries to grab focus back whenever it loses it.
attempt to fix issue with launching SFN versions of apps (ie opera problem).

the most important things are focus grabbing and duplicate bugfix.
i tried to address the sfn issue (see scott's post about opera), but i am worried that in the process i may have re-broken the problem we had where some strange shortcut links weren't launching properly, so i'm keen to hear if i have really fixed the opera launching issue and not broken other things.

look forward to hearing a report.

3715

Best ScreenCaster / Opinions?

« on: June 02, 2005, 12:12 PM »

i need some help here guys+gals, anyone want to try installing some of the demos and give us your impressions? see the list in part1 of the review for features we think are important.  also interested in gut-level impressions.

3716

Living Room / pc magazine issue came out today, cannon photo printers win top slots - i agree

« on: June 02, 2005, 11:18 AM »

this week's pc magazine came out with article on best photo printers.
canon took took top 2 slots (i990, pixma ip8500).

i've been waiting for an excuse to rave about my older pixma ip4000, and i guess this is my chance.

although some people love the strange appearance of these printers, i don't,
but i do LOVE the way they work, and perhaps as important, the software that comes with them.

i used to have hp color inkjet before this and i never liked it (897). the canon is a joy to use.
the really surprising thing to me what the easy-photoprint software that came free with the printer.
imagine my suprise when it turned out this free printing software was easier to use and the best software i could find for printing photos, even amongst all the commercial programs i looked at.  other programs may have more options, but i LOVE this printing software.

anyone who has requested a donationcoder.com postcard (see international visitors welcome message) - it's been printed using a canon ip4000, on these great little 4x6 and 5x7 inch postcard sized glossy photo paper sheets.

anyway, i love my canon printer, fast, great quality, great software.

3717

Cheat Sheeter / New Program Idea: Cheat Sheeter

« on: June 02, 2005, 04:33 AM »

i wonder if there are any hotkey tools that display a fullscreen semi-transparent overlay of hotkey assignments when you press windows key.
might be kind of cool..
ie you're an app, you press winkey and up comes full screen overlay with big text showing each available hotkey and describing what it does.

might be kind of fun to make such a freeware hotkey tool.

3718

Living Room / user controllable mailing list

« on: June 01, 2005, 01:21 PM »

so i spent some time playing with phplist, an open source mailing list / newsletter management tool for websites.
we're thinking of using that here at dc instead of what i've currently been doing which is using the donators email list, or occassionally the mailing list automatically generated by the forum.

in one sense the forum list of emails might be the best way, since it should be a fairly complete list of both donators and people interested in the site that aren't ready to donate.  there are people registered on the forum who don't really want to receive the weekly newsletter and would prefer not to receive such mailings, but then you can indicate that in your forum profile.

so maybe just using forum email system is the right way to send out mailings..
any views?

if anyone wants to see the phplist interface, i set it up here:
https://www.donation...com/Features/phplist

(note im not asking people to sign up en masse, as we haven't even decided whether to use this yet or not).

3719

General Software Discussion / another antivirus comparison site

« on: June 01, 2005, 11:51 AM »

these people look like they know what they are talking about:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

(nod32 seems to come out on top)

3720

Living Room / From Slashdot: corporations taking unfair advantage of open source

« on: June 01, 2005, 06:02 AM »

from http://linux.slashdo...?tid=187&tid=106
An anonymous reader writes "A top European Commission official has accused major IT players such as IBM, HP and Sun of using the open source community as mere subcontractors rather than encouraging them to develop independent commercial products. Jesús Villasante, head of software technologies at the commission, said: 'The open source community today [is a] subcontractor of American multinationals. Open source communities need to take themselves seriously and realise they have contribution to themselves and society. From the moment they realise they are part of the evolution of society and try to influence it, we will be moving in the right direction.'"

3721

Flash Games and 2XL Simulator / Post your 2-xl rememberences here, or favorite 2-xl moments

« on: May 30, 2005, 11:20 PM »

i was talking to joe and he told me a funny memory of his 2-xl and his metrics tape..
i thought it would be nice to have a thread for posting such memories, and for posting our favorite things that 2-xl says.

i don't have a specific memory that stands out from my youth, but i do remember when i realized how special a sense of humour 2-xl has; i'll try to find the clip and make an excerpt.  but basically on one of the tapes, he asks a question, a really strange question about science or something. and then even if you get it right, he explains that the answer is so illogical/strange that he simply can't bring himself to give you credit for the right answer.  hahahahahaahaha that blew my mind on so many levels.. not least of which - it made me wonder, is 2-xl secretly keeping track of how many questions+answers he's giving me credit for answering correctly?

3722

Flash Games and 2XL Simulator / 2xl avatars

« on: May 30, 2005, 11:11 PM »

we need to make some 2xl avatars for members on the site who are 2xl fans.
anyone with some graphics skills up for this?
avatars should be 64x64 pixels.  i was thinking like a series of images of 2xl but tinted with different colors, so that if we had 10 members here with the 2xl avatar they would all be a little different..

3723

Flash Games and 2XL Simulator / booklets already scanned

« on: May 30, 2005, 11:04 PM »

joe has sent me scans for the "Basic Metric System" booklet and "Games and Puzzle Program #1" booklet.

thanks joe!

the metrics booklet is now up, you can view it by clicking the "booklet/info" button from the simulator when viewing the metric system tape.
or if you are just curious, here is the web page for the booklet: https://www.donation...cSystem/booklet.html

apparently joe as a child got some real use out of his 2xl because his "games and puzzle" booklet was actually filled in with solutions to the word searches and crossword puzzle, so we're cleaning that up before posting

anyone who wants to contribute booklet scans, just scan all the pages at a minium of 1024x768 resolution, and send me raw scans - i'll crop and compress and prepare a web page from them and add them.

3724

Living Room / Memorial Day in US - a moment of thought for the foot soldiers in harms way

« on: May 30, 2005, 11:06 AM »

it's memorial day in the united states today (http://en.wikipedia....rg/wiki/Memorial_Day)

this is not a political board an i do not want us to get into political arguments here; plenty of good sites for that.

regardless of politics, i hope we can all lend a moment of thought to the foot soldiers from all countries who may now as we speak be in a far off land, scared and in danger, doing only what they think is right.

3725

Living Room / First 2-part review has started

« on: May 30, 2005, 10:53 AM »

As we discussed in the ASRT member section, DonationCoder.com will now be doing two-part, two-week reviews.

I'm really excited about this idea, as it will give us a week where members can try various programs and offer their opinions, with the review being updated throughout the week, building up to a final summary and awarding of best-in-class to one particular program.

I hope you will help by evaluating the programs and offering your views on their strengths and weeknesses.  You should post comments in the forum assoicated with the review (link from the review page), and we can have a rolling debate about the merits of different programs.  This will be a big help to the person doing the review, and I think it will lead to an improved quality of the reviews.  Are we the only site doing reviews in this way?  Let's make it a success!

The first part of the review of ScreenCasting tools is now up (follow link in upper right of forum or on main page).



Note that we are going to try making part 1 of the review available to members only.  The final part 2 of the review, which is the full review, will be available to the public next week.

As always, if you are not a member and cannot/will not donate for whatever reason, just email me and let me know the situation and i will mark you as a member.  Our intention is not to punish people for not donating, but rather to create an incentive for those who can afford to and just need some encouragement.

It should automatically detect that you are a member based on your forum cookie.  Let me know if you have any troubles. 

For those curious, here is the page that non-members will see for part 1 of reviews; comments/criticism are welcome:
https://www.donation...NonMemberReview.html