Topics

26

General Software Discussion / Maybe Someone Can Help

« on: August 20, 2009, 10:55 PM »

We have quite a few programmers here, so I am hoping someone can help.  I use a software, "PlayOn" (see link below) to stream Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon VOD to my PS3.  It worked perfectly when I first purchased it. Now, not so much, and MediaMall support (company the creates the product) leaves much to be desired.  They do not seem to have the resources to actually troubleshoot a problem, so I am coming here.

I finally formatted my drive just under 2 days ago, and installed Windows 7 RC, fresh copy, no modifications, tweaks, or anything.  I got all available Windows Updates, and immediately installed PlayOn.  I am still experiencing issues, PlayOn still will not run correctly.  I cannot run it at startup, and it hangs, not responding after a bit, so that I need to restart the computer to shut it down.  It takes me 6 times of stop/start to get it to detect as running.

I am running the latest version of PlayOn downloaded directly from their web site, and I have the latest .NET 3.5 SP1 installed, latest flash.

The MediaMallServer process usually shuts down after a bit, maybe 5 minutes.  When I start the server I hit "Start" in Playon Settings, wait a bit, it says "Not found".  The MediaMallServer process is running in task manager, but it still says "Not Found" and is red.

In order to get it green and "Running" I need to hit Stop, then start, 6 times in a row. I will have 6 MediaMallServer.exe processes running, but Playon settings will finally say it is running and show green.  Eventually the other 5 MediaMallServer instances will close.

At that point it is discoverable, and I can use it for a bit on my PS3, but then it stops responding, and the process cannot be ended by task manager nor any means I have found.  The only way to end the process is to restart the machine.

I have installed the latest .NET 3.5 SP1 since formatting and installing Windows 7 under two days ago.  It has no effect.

I have used procmon to monitor the process, and I can send the resulting file to someone, hopefully someone familiar with .NET.  Tell me what format to save the log as. Also, the software creates it's own log, so maybe that will help.

Thanks so much for any help anyone can give.

Link: http://www.themediamall.com/playon

27

General Software Discussion / Trillian Astra Goes Gold!

« on: August 14, 2009, 05:10 PM »

View the announcement here:

http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/?p=537 

(Hope this is in the right section)

28

Post New Requests Here / Request/Idea-Winamp Titlebar Control

« on: August 05, 2009, 05:03 PM »

I would love to see a lightweight program to control Winamp that shows up in the titlebar of the active window.  Something like Foxytunes, in the titlebar of the active window.

29

Living Room / 2008 Darwin Awards

« on: December 30, 2008, 07:58 AM »

It's that time again... The Darwin Awards are finally out, the annual honor given to the persons who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way.



Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out. This year's winner was a real rocket scientist... HONESTLY! Read on...And remember that each and every one of these is a TRUE STORY!!!



And the nominees were:



Semifinalist #1 - A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both him and his sister.



Semifinalist #2 - Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.



Semifinalist #3 - A 22-year-old Reston, VA, man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot rail road trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. 'The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground,' Carmichael said. Police say t he apparent cause of death was 'Major trauma.'



Semifinalist #4 - A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend - no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate - was hospitalized.



Semifinalist #5 - Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building extinguishing all potential sources of ignition; lights, power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the ware house exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as ''bright'' by his peers.



And Now, for the winner of this year's Darwin Award - (As always, awarded posthumously)



The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. Police investigators finally pieced together the mystery. An amateur rocket scientist... had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to the car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!



The facts as best as could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20 -25 seconds. The driver, and soon to be pilot, would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, causing him to become irrelevant for the remainder of the event.



However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, b lowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock. Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable. Epilogue: It has been calculated that this moron attained a ground speed of approximately 420-mph, though much of his voyage was not actually on the ground. You just couldn't make this stuff up, could you?

30

Living Room / New Body Spray For Men

« on: December 19, 2008, 07:30 AM »

From Burger King 

http://www.firemeetsdesire.com/

Hint-keep spraying it.

31

Living Room / Sprint-Wow. Just. Wow.

« on: October 10, 2008, 03:36 PM »

We started with Sprint on August 22nd, 2008. We were told we were in a "best reception area" and service would never be a problem. I bought a Centro, my wife and daughter opted for the Rumor.

Sitting in the middle of this "best reception area", in the open, in clear view of 1 of 3 towers, we cannot call on Sprint, all 3 phones automatically roll over to roaming, which effects our minutes. If we place them on "Home Only", there is no service, or only one bar, and the calls sound like a broken drive-thru restaurant speaker. On all three phones.

Aug 28th, we made our first trouble call. They opened a ticket, I called back nightly to check it's status, no one could give me an answer except to check my phone settings, then they stated they had tried calling me "several" times, and closed the ticket.

A week later I opened ticket number 2, they told me it was my phones and suggested we change phones. They closed the ticket without a resolution.

We then traded the two Rumors across for 2 more, and I returned my Centro and upgraded to a Treo 800w. This is now Sept. 10th. I purchased and activated my new phone.

A week later I opened ticket #3. Same problems. I received a voice mail during the hours my phone was off and I asked Sprint not call during those hours while I was at work, (they did anyway), the voice mail stated that they had made calls in my area and all was well, and that roaming was ok as long as I could make calls and that roaming all the time did not effect my plan minutes. They closed the ticket. I kept a call log, and between the 3 phones we used 357 minutes, but online Sprint states we used 775 minutes.

So now, ticket #4, this one was closed because they stated they tried calling over several days and no one had answered. Several days, but the ticket was closed THE VERY NEXT DAY. I have an answering machine, if it isn't up or my home line is down it rolls over to voice mail, and if that is down (it never is) that rolls over to cell voice mail.

They re-open ticket 4. Next day I get a voice mail stating that they were logged into my phone and I am connected to a Sprint tower. The phone was without a battery in it at the time, the battery was being charged in a cradle, and it wasn't connected to anything. They close it again.

I have these voicemails.

I have 36 signatures of people in my area having the exact same problem.

Now then, to top all this off, my Treo is having charging issues, which I told the Sprint Express rep about, and he said he would get back to me. Finally, on October 8th, I can no longer even plug the charger into the port, it is stripped and the plastic is bent. Regular use, plug/unplug twice a day, no car charger. I even bought the extended battery and a ton of accessories.

I have TEP though Asurion, but this is obviously a manufacturer defect, and within 30 days of original purchase. One guess as to how this will turn out. Sprint Express can't take it, the original activation of service (not the phone) was Aug. 22, they want $100 if I even bring it to the store. Palm can't take it since it is less than 30 days from purchase. Sprint corp can't replace it, it is less than 30 days from purchase and activation.

4 hours on the phone and I FINALLY get someone who takes the time to read, and listen, and she has me send it to Asurion, and they charge it to my Sprint account, then she is going to credit the $50. OUTSTANDING!

Then, the next morning, my wife hits something in the road, has a blowout going down a hill, and is terrified, guess what? SHE CAN'T MAKE A CALL IN A SPRINT BEST RECEPTION AREA! Verizon has no coverage in that area, and that's who we roam too, I guess it's in our Preferred Roaming List. I know for a fact AT&T has great coverage there, we switched to Sprint from them, and we are now switching back.

That is probably the straw that broke the camel's back.

We went to AT&T and ordered 3 new phones, plus services, about $699 after rebates. We put in for a number port on our 3 phones. They won't port the numbers until the phones are shipped Oct 15th.

I receive my replacement Treo 800w today, send my broken one back in the mail, then go to activate the new one, they won't activate it saying a number port is in process. Still not a problem, the damn service was unusable any way, so, officially my number is unable to be ported and I cannot use Sprint services, but they still want to charge me for said services. I asked them to remove charges for the 3rd line ($19.99), Navigator ($9.99) and TEP ($7.00). They say no. They won't even activate the phone with a temporary number. The rep puts me on hold yet again, while on hold, I conference in our family lawyer, fill him in, play the voicemails, (10 minute hold this time), and we are now up to 2 hours on the phone.

When a human finally gets back on the line, it's the cancellation department. Why? I have no idea. My lawyer speaks up and that person puts us on hold without saying a word. We are now at 2 hours and 23 minutes, we finally get to a supervisor who doesn't identify himself. After 13 more minutes of wrangling, the supervisor agrees to suspend the line that cannot be used. He then tells us our next bill will be prorated to $19.99+$7.00+$7.00 ONLY, which is 3rd line + insurance + insurance. He also tells me that this will not effect my number being ported to AT&T and that will go smoothly. (*cough*yeahright*cough*) I can't wait to see how Sprint screws this one up.

Since the number suspended was the main line on the account, I no longer am paying $129 for my package, and my wife/daughter still have unlimited SMS, 1500 shared minutes, Navigator and insurance. Essentially they now have free service. I hope that this supervisor was right and we don't end up being screwed by his actions in the end. (pun intended)

In the mean time, I am stuck with a brand new, never activated Treo 800w with a ton of accessories and I have no idea what to do with it. eBay, here I come?

I spoke to a "Rachel" today who asked me my 10 digit Sprint phone number so she could "best 'endorse' my call". I gave it to her, asked her to transfer me to customer care, then ended up arguing with her for 7 minutes while she nosed around instead of transferring me. She finally said she would transfer me to customer care, put me on hold. When the phone was picked up the person who answered said she was "Karen" with customer service and asked me "How can I best 'ENDORSE' your call?" SAME PERSON. Same voice, same accent, same mistaken use of the word 'endorse'.

Vote for my call, it has ENDORSEMENTS.

Wow...just wow.

Goodbye Sprint, the single worst company I have ever dealt with in 42 years of life. Every CSR I spoke to was rude, a "rest on your laurels" ego ridden, win the argument phone troll. Only 3 people I spoke to were polite and helpful or knowledgeable. The rest were liars, not understandable, or just plain stupid? I spoke to Sprint at least 3 times a day over a 45 day period.

Anyone want a brand new Treo 800w with a ton of accessories for $275?

Two rumors $50 apiece with skins, USB cables, car chargers?

32

General Software Discussion / View Vista Styles Just Like In XP

« on: August 19, 2008, 10:53 AM »

Folks who run Vista can patch the system to run custom styles, but when they list them in the classic appearance panel they get a list of "Windows Aero" and Windows Vista Basic", a bunch of them, all same name.  This genius little hack allows you to view the actual name of the visual style just like in Windows XP.

http://digg.com/micr...w_install_same_as_XP
http://thehobbyloung...1132.msg6291#msg6291

File mirrored here: http://files.y0himba.net/misc/names.rar

33

Developer's Corner / Vista Gadget Guru Wanted-HELP!

« on: July 19, 2008, 04:53 PM »

I don't know if this is the forum section to post this in, but the description of the forum best suits what I am looking for.

I have a Vista sidebar gadget called "Proweather".  It is quite simply the best weather gadget there is, hands down.  Here is the link:

http://gallery.live....00&bt=1&pl=1

This thing is incredible.  It works perfectly for me except for one small, but completely necessary feature, the weather maps/images will not display.  I have tried everything, disabled firewall, connected to cable modem with no router, set permissions on the relevant folders, uninstalled it then reinstalled it under the "Super Administrator" account, I have even tried looking at the XML or whatever code it is, but of course it's all "Greek" to me.

I have tried other weather gadgets, none come even close.  No one seems to be making gadgets anymore, yet they are incredibly convenient, probably one of the better features of Vista.  PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!

Before this devolves into an MS hater/Vista hater discussion, don't.  If you have nothing constructive or helpful to add, don't.  I don't want this to be a discussion like so many other discussions all over the 'net where folks try to one up each other by hating MS or Linux this or blah blah Ad Naseum. 

I am asking for a little help to find the problem, or at least to get some debugging info so I can figure out why this isn't working.  Thank anyone in advance for any help that can be given.  I have the gadget here, or it can be obtained from the link above.

34

Mini-Reviews by Members / Mini-Review-John's Background Switcher

« on: June 18, 2008, 10:32 PM »

I am personally surprised that I didn't find more about this gem when I searched the DC forums!  This background switcher is probably the best I have ever used. 

It provides not only the ability to use pictures you select, or entire folders and sub-folder you select, but also allows for random Flickr and Yahoo photos/pictures!  You read correctly, you can configure John's Background Switcher to grab the top 100 or whatever user specified number of photos/pictures off Flickr and Yahoo for endless random backgrounds.  You can also specify tag/text keywords for Flickr, and search terms for Yahoo. 

There are other services that unfortunately I don't subscribe to or use, specifically Phanfare, Smugmug, and Picasa.

Now get this, new to the version released this weekend, you can also get your friend's and your own FACEBOOK photos!

Now to the best parts, the options.  You of course can set the interval for background switching, you can set the length of time that downloaded/cached photos are kept. You can tell John's Background Switcher to display quite a few ways, such as Center, Stretch to full screen, Scale to fit the screen, and Scale to full screen.  This beauty also includes some very creative and unique modes though, such as "Thumbnail Mosaic", "Four Picture Montage", and "Create A Snapshot Scrapbook".  Each of these modes is configurable using the "More options" configuration section. You can configure the size of the mosaic tiles.  Most interesting though is the configuration of the Snapshot scrapbook.  You can have photos thrown randomly on your desktop, or postcards randomly on your desktop!  You can configure the size and amount of photos, and the scattering is random each time.  This really must be seen to appreciated. There are also effects for the background behind the scattered photos such as Sepia, B/W/, and Desaturate, or you can choose a background color. John's Background Switcher also automatically sets the desktop color when centering or scaling photos, based on the content of the photo!  (If you tell it to of course) Also, there are plenty of options so the switching doesn't interfere with other programs and gaming.

You can also use the integrated photo browser to get the originals from the web!

You can configure John's Background Switcher to pick a random mode (Flickr, Yahoo, Smugmug, Phanfare, Picasa, Facebook, Photos or Folders) each time it switches!  This, and the ability to grab backgrounds/photos/pictures from the above mentioned Internet make this a welcome and handy addition to any system, and creates an ever changing randomness that alleviates a boring desktop  You can almost just sit there, staring at your desktop, amazed at what comes up next!

While I have covered a lot of the options, this program is highly configurable, so there are many more options.  Play around with them and see what you get.

I RARELY let anything start with Windows, or run in the background, but I have allowed this to do both.  Resource and CPU use are fairly low for this type of program making it easy to run with low to NO impact.

As you can probably tell, I really like this program, it is one of the best freewares I have ever downloaded.

This switcher surpasses all others in my opinion, and completely leaves comparable commercial products in the dust.  The author is very personable, and responds to every feature request and bug report through his forums.  While you are on his site, check out his photography.  If you enjoy this program as much as I am, please donate.

I have rambled enough, so now for the links!

John's Adventures:  http://www.johnsadventures.com
John's Background Switcher:  http://www.johnsadve...e/backgroundswitcher
Support Forums:  http://www.johnsadventures.com/forum/

35

DC Website Help and Extras / New Software?

« on: May 06, 2008, 09:19 PM »

Hi.  I am wondering when https://www.donation...ftware/releases.html will be updated with new or updated software?  If there is a news or blog item concerning new software and I missed it, please direct me there.  There are very few 2008 updates and even those are not very recent, so I am thinking I missed something?  Thanks in advance.

36

Post New Requests Here / IDEA:(Kinda) Combine Minimother With Transother

« on: January 13, 2006, 08:49 AM »

Crossposted:  How about combining Minimother with Transother?  Here is Minimother:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1113.0

Okay, I gotta say it:  "miniMother"  heh heh, uh heh heh, he hehehehehe....

37

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Utility To Intercept Windows' Shut Down/Sleep Requests

« on: January 13, 2006, 08:36 AM »

Origin Of The Idea:  I have these power off and sleep buttons on my keyboard, and today I accidentally hit the power button while moving a stack of CDs around, losing a lot of things I was working on, had been working on for hours.  There is no specific software that needs to be installed for these buttons to work, I guess they just use Windows' own shut down calls or something.

How about a small program that sits in the tray or even runs as a system service that will watch for these calls to shut down or sleep, or even maybe log off, hibernate and restart calls, then pops up a dialog with a user defined countdown and the options to shut down immediately, wait "X" amount so that work can be saved, cancel the shutdown/log off/restart/sleep/hibernate, or with no interaction will countdown a user defined amount of minutes or seconds and then just let the computer shutdown/log off/restart/sleep/hibernate normally.

38

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Small App To Turn Background Windows Transparent Automatically

« on: December 16, 2005, 06:50 PM »

Just a little app that sits in the tray, and automatically set unfocused windows to a user specified transparency.  I ahve tried quite a few apps and none of them auto set a specified transparency to windows in the background.