Messages

37126

Flash Games and 2XL Simulator / can you help with 2xl audio tape recording?

« on: May 19, 2005, 08:06 PM »

I'd love some more help digitizing tapes for 2xl from anyone who has a 2xl and some tapes, or wants to do some ebay shopping

I've posted a page with guidelines on how i converted the 2xl tapes to digital form for use in the simulator:
https://www.donation...L/cartinstructs.html

but i'd be willing to do the work of converting files to the right format and tweaking them so that they align properly.

contact me before you do any digitizing so that we can make sure people dont waste effort on the same tapes.

anyone who contibutes will of course get credit on the simulator page and will get offline cd/dvd of the simulator.

37127

DesktopCoral / Re: Transparency, a way to refresh

« on: May 19, 2005, 08:00 PM »

that's interesting..

actually desktopcoral relies on the operating system to make it look transparent, so it might be a function of the windows graphics driver that is cause thing..  but i might be able to help your scenario by telling to to repaint itself when it resizes.. ill add it to the next version.

37128

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« on: May 19, 2005, 07:35 PM »

minor update with better undo support (ctrl+z).

i think the feature set has stabilized enough now for me to update the help file and start tracking version changes.

37129

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: More of 256 Characters in a Path alert

« on: May 19, 2005, 01:47 PM »

great idea, and definitely something that can be done as a snack.

i'm sure this one can be written by someone this at next coding snacks weekend.

37130

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« on: May 19, 2005, 08:51 AM »

version 1.01.02 is now up (same url):
[link out of date]

tons of new stuff.

hopefully no more crashing

Make sure you check out the new organized options page.

suggestions wanted, i'll probably make a page for this in my downloads section this week.

If you're upgrading, you'll probably want to clear your filename prefix field on the main window, since there is now a separate field in the options dialog that servers the purpose that this field used to serve.

37131

Developer's Corner / Re: where to start learning

« on: May 19, 2005, 06:18 AM »

here's a bit of coder humour for you.

everytime i make a post somewhere saying how i have been using c++ for 20 years, i always get a quick message from jibz with something snarky like this:

[Jibz] hmm .. it continues to amaze me that you started with c++ before the first edition of The C++ programming Language was published
[Jibz] you were really up front back then

he never lets me get away with anything !

ive been programming in c and c++ for the last 20-25 years.  at what point i switched from c to c++ i can't remember, though it was probably sometime after the invention of c++.

btw i am an OOP (Object Oriented Programming) true believer - i think it's one of the greatest inventions of man, and will reshape the way your mind works for the better

37132

Developer's Corner / Re: where to start learning

« on: May 19, 2005, 06:07 AM »

c++ is one of the harder languages to learn, because it has so many oddities that come from its long history and need for backward compatibility.

i have a real love/hate relationship with c++.  it is my primary language and has been so for over 20 years.
but i am increasingly skeptical of its longevity and the current modern languages are moving in a better direction imho in terms of consistency,etc.
though i must say i haven't found a language yet that i am willing to switch over to full time.

i like a lot of the ideas of c# and i think that might be a reasonable choice for someone interesting in learning; so would java. python as well.  perl i would avoid - it's very powerful but for learning i think it teaches the wrong sloppy things.

my advice to people who are trying to learn is somewhat non-standard. i have always found that for new learners, staying motivated and staying the course can be the hardest part.

so my usual suggestion is take a take when you have some time and find yourself a bookstore, and browse.  go through books until you find one that really speaks to your style of learning.  at least for your first jump into the subject, i think finding a book that speaks to you may be the most important.  It's very hard to find book reviews for newbie programmers, because those who review programming books are experts and they won't care about what you care about.

the current favorite c++ text book (and they make java and c# as well) is by Deitel and Deitel.
http://www.deitel.com/books/cpphtp5/

these are big comprehensive good books, but im not sure they will inspire you.

c++ is a hard language to learn and a harder language to master.  it has no build-in user interface or graphics or networking libraries, and it can be hard to add such things to your code, which makes it a very frustrating learning experience in the short term, expecially for windows users.

languages like c# and java are full serious languages like c++ but are a little more gentle and have user interface libraries integrated, which can give you a much more immediate sense of satisfaction..

the so-called scripting languages like python, lua, ruby, etc are even more immediate satisfaction types of languages.

again, you really can't go wrong with any of these, browse some books and see which one has some sample programs that excite you.

no matter what you choose, if you stick with it you will learn it.

37133

Best E-mail Client / How I set up my mail folders

« on: May 19, 2005, 04:22 AM »

Thought it might be interesting if we shared our techniques for managing our mail.
Here's what I do, I use thebat but i'm guessing you could use similar approach to most email clients.

In addition to my normal accounts I have 2 addition global folders, and each of these as a child folder):

+Incoming Spam
--Confirmed Spam
+Incoming Mailing Lists
--Read Mailing Lists

Then i have all my various email accounts (about 5 different email accounts)

I use "common" filters which are shared between all acounts to detect spam and mailing lists.
These filters always mark the mail read and move in tinto either Incoming MailingLists, Incoming Spam or Confirmed Spam (if i'm 100% confident that the filter is never going to false positive spam).  All of these filters mark the mail read, since i don't need to be alerted to these emails.

Then i ocassional check those two top level incoming folders, to make read mailing lists or check that everything identified as spam is really spam, and i move to those emails to the confirmed/read sections.  Occassionally i delete the confirmed spam.  You can see my basic approach is better safe than sorry, keep everything until you are sure you'll never need it.

Then in each email account, in addition to the default Inbox,
I create folders for "Inbox - Known", "Inbox - To Be Files", and "Inbox - To Reply".

I have a filters in each account that say all mail from known users in my address book, goes to the account "Inbox - Known" folder, so that my address book acts basically as what they call a 'white list'.  I use right-click on messages from new people to add them to my address book.

A default filter sends all other mail to the "Inbox - To Be Filed" folder.

I manually drag+drop messages that I need to reply to later into the "Inbox - To Reply" folder so i don't forget to reply.

Oh, and I also use different sounds for different folders so that I can tell audibly when messages to different accounts/folders arrive.
The sounds I use are downloadable from the email review page, mainly chimes and similar things.

If anyone else has tips and tricks to share, please post.

37134

Best E-mail Client / Re: Mail Sounds

« on: May 18, 2005, 11:30 PM »

oy.. i think if those were my emails i'd be driven insane within a week.

37135

Best E-mail Client / Re: TheBat Toolbars

« on: May 18, 2005, 11:29 PM »

not trying to cheerlead for thebat but..
it's interesting that i usually HATE and i mean HATE big icons buttons.
but strangely when i tried small icons for thebat, i quickly went screaming back for my big buttons -
i'm not sure exactly why, maybe i just got used to them.. but i think maybe it was just that i only use a few buttons when working with mail, send, reply, forward, queu, etc.,  and the big icons make it less likely i'll make a mistake.

also because i have the accounts listed as a full height left sidebar, and my toolbar is to the right of it (https://www.donation...ts/Screenshot_33.png),
i really have lots of spare space on the right hand side so i don't feel like im wasting space i need.

37136

Best E-mail Client / Re: Folder Content Counts

« on: May 18, 2005, 11:18 PM »

excellent.
and this is why moving to a two week review with member preview and comment is going make our reviews better and more accurate.

i will update the review saying the pocomail supports this.

37137

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« on: May 18, 2005, 07:24 PM »

yes, ive added a ton of features already; will be uploading a new version shortly.

reorganized options.
some cool effects which can be used to highlight the active window in a screenshot (my fav new feature).
cursor capture options; better support for multimon capturing
better save and autoname options.

other things planned:
ability to specify more external tools to invoke.
save comments in png images.
auto detection of active window/exe name for use in file naming.

other ideas are welcome - keep in mind the approach ive taken is to be very minimal on image editing, with the expectation that you will do this in an external editor (which the program should make as easy as possible to invoke), and focused more on facilitating fast and easy capture of lots of images one after the other.

37138

Best E-mail Client / Re: TheBat Toolbars

« on: May 18, 2005, 06:32 PM »

by the way, the new toolbar system in thebat is new and still be worked on, so you're probably experiencing some bugs they haven't worked out yet but which will probably be fixed in upcoming releases.  they have been working on adding customization and skins and different button sizes, and they havent gotten it perfected yet.

i also hope the fix the visual annoyance of toolbars not extending fully to the right.  it's not a functional issue but it does annoy me aesthetically.. i suspect they will do so.

37139

Best E-mail Client / Re: THEBAT! - DISCOUNT ORDER LINK HERE

« on: May 18, 2005, 05:50 PM »

that's the new $1million dollar Artificial Intelligence feature they added, TMYDWYTT.

"Trust Me You Don't Want Your Toolbar There"

37140

Best E-mail Client / Re: THEBAT! - DISCOUNT ORDER LINK HERE

« on: May 18, 2005, 05:26 PM »

my toolbars dont shift around, even when i squeeze the form down to the size of a quarter and resize it..
took me a while to get my toolbars docked to places i was happy about, but now that i have, they never move, which i really appreciate.  UltraEdit for example will auto move the toolbars when the window is shrunk, which means you have to remove them back after you restore the window.

check the 2 first screenshots in the review for 2 very different layouts for toolbars and windows (mine is the one on the left, the one on the right is from rit labs site).

37141

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« on: May 18, 2005, 03:52 PM »

thanks tenseiken, that's good news.
i'll work now on some new features.

37142

Best E-mail Client / Re: The Bat , the best ?

« on: May 18, 2005, 03:21 PM »

the home version does have spell checker, they've just made it so you have to download it separately for the home version.
it's their way of trying to give the pro users some extra convenience and justify the price.
you could look at it as annoying or else a reasonable way to differentiate user types without effective functionality..

either way, i *think* that as a home user you can just download the normal full pro download and use home license key to active home features, without having to do the separate downloads.

the review has a page showing differences between the home and pro.
http://www.ritlabs.c...ucts/thebat/diff.php

"For the Home Edition spell checker dictionaries can be downloaded separately, they are included in the International Pack. In the Professional Edition the dictionaries are a part of the standard installation file."

like i said though, i think everyone can really download pro version to avoid this need to download separately.. i think.


thanks for reminding me about all the addons for outlook - i meant to mention that in the review but forgot.. i will add it.

i agree that it's not an easy decision!

37143

Best E-mail Client / DonationCoder.com members - 50% discount for TheBat!

« on: May 18, 2005, 09:16 AM »

See the members only section.

who loves ya

37144

Living Room / Re: which hierarchical note program?

« on: May 18, 2005, 06:39 AM »

i have to say they KeyNote is a little overwhelming for me..
i prefer a simpler user interface.. i always liked the minimal approach of jot+
until they tried to charge me for an update i thought should have been free for members, and slowed down the start up of the program by using Aramadillo protection.  Nice way to take care of your customers 

37145

Living Room / Re: which hierarchical note program?

« on: May 18, 2005, 06:38 AM »

there are such programs.. for images i believe
programs for photographers that help you catalog images.
maybe acdsee already does it.  what about picasa?

37146

Living Room / Re: which hierarchical note program?

« on: May 18, 2005, 05:25 AM »

first of all, let me repeat what i have said before,
a hierarchical note system is one of my most beloved apps, i wouldn't live without one.

but having said that, i'm not sure it matter all that much which one you ultimately decide on.
we will do a review of them at some point,
but basically i would look for simplicity, ease of use, ability to search.

you also have to decide if you want to be able to add pictures and stuff to your database (which i do not use, in fact i prefer just plain text).

some good ones:
  treepad
  jot+
  maple
  keynote (GOOD AND FREE! -> http://www.tranglos....om/free/keynote.html )

another thing that i have been experiment with lately,
is to use a help file making app for storing my notes...

37147

General Software Discussion / Re: TheBat! Filter for Russion/Chinese Spam

« on: May 18, 2005, 03:19 AM »

jibz' filter wasnt working on some chinese for me, but i discovered something cool,
even though its not in the drop down list,
you can create a filter to look at the encoding language of the email, and thus catch email send in a specific character enocding.

create a filter, use header-field
and then type in the dropdown box: Content-Type

(you can see the content type of a message by doing view -> RFC-822 headers)

then choose contains, and specify the text in Content-Type you want to test for (see the headers to examine specific email content language types).
the email i was looking at said
Content-Type: text/plain;charset="GB2312"

that charset entry is specifying the encoding language
so i just used GB2312

and that gives me a filter that will catch all email sent to me in simplified chinese.

37148

General Software Discussion / Re: Child board set up for discounts and deals found on the web

« on: May 18, 2005, 02:34 AM »

i have bought tons of stuff on ebay, from real people, and had great experiences.
really a wonderful place, imho.

the only thing i warn people about is the continuing increase in businesses trying to offload junk and people trying to resell junk.

i wouldnt buy something from a computer company selling stuff on ebay unless i had a damn good reason,
but buying individual items that real humans put up for sale on ebay has been nothing but a great experience for me.

37149

Best E-mail Client / Re: TheName!

« on: May 18, 2005, 01:41 AM »

speaking of microsoft,

this has to be one of my favorite flash interactive things. still makes me laugh histerically.

Windows RG -> http://www.albinobla....com/flash/winrg.php

make sure you don't exit it before you see clippy.

37150

Found Deals and Discounts / DonationCoder.com Special Members-only Discounts

« on: May 17, 2005, 11:40 PM »

This post is just to remind you that we regularly arrange special discounts for software that wins our best-in-class award, on behalf of the members of this site.

These discounts are usually listed in the reviews themselves, and on our spotlight page: https://www.donation.../Specials/index.html

We get absolutely no commission from these offers, but they are available only for donating members of DonationCoder.com, and we do hope that they will encourage you to make a donation to this site.

If you are a member of the site you can view the special offers in the Members Only section of the forum:
https://www.donation...index.php?board=18.0

If you would like to become a permanent DonationCoder.com member by making a single donation of any amount you choose, visit the donation page:
https://www.donation...om/Donate/index.html

-mouser