Topics

101

Living Room / cody spotted on You Tube

« on: June 11, 2008, 01:42 AM »

spotted in this vid http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=h8yHguvYYyQ

(I think he was there giving tech support)

102

Living Room / freeware game list

« on: May 21, 2008, 05:55 PM »

game threads have been making a semi regular appearance of late so this list of lists may be of interest

from freeware genius http://www.freewareg...ind-a-freeware-game/

103

General Software Discussion / LoudTalk - anyone tried this?

« on: May 19, 2008, 06:14 PM »

ran across this at shell xtn city this am - http://loudtalk.com

it appears to be an IP based push to talk system (kind of like an intercom), albeit with some messaging functionality thrown in

104

Developer's Corner / 'Sorting/grouping' methodologies

« on: March 26, 2008, 01:10 AM »

I have a request from a colleague to assist with sorting and grouping data (in Excel) into blocks of X records (in this case 500), but I have no idea how to go about this

Sorting and subtotalling the data is not a problem, however I have no idea how to go about sorting the results into the requisite blocks (I'm presuming some efficiencies here, ie some sort of best fit type arrangement)

I've googled sorting without joy - clearly this isn't an exact fit but I really have no idea what what it is i should be searching for

The only examples I know of are tools like FillCD or Burn To The Brim (for filling CD/DVDs) but I have no idea how they do what they do

any suggestions?

Target

105

General Software Discussion / windows security - what's really necessary?

« on: January 28, 2008, 08:56 PM »

there is an ongoing thread at https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=6059.0 about the best free windows firewall

that thread got me thinking about what it is that is really necessary to make the virtual world a safe place to visit.

a lot of people have espoused various firewalls, while others have been given a big thumbs down - some even eschew any sort of software firewalling

on top of a firewall most use a range of AV and antimalware utilities. 

Some users install and maintain a sometimes bewildering array of these tools and swear by the results

I'm no expert, but I can't help but wonder whether this in an effective strategy - OK, let's assume it's 'effective', but at what cost?.  does the extra overhead justify the results

I guess the question I'm actually asking here is what is it we really need, ie

• firewalls - which features or functionality should we consider mandatory, which are nice to have, and which ones are useless fluff/bloat.
• AV - as above
• Anti-Malware - I've separated this as I consider things like ad-aware etc perform a different function to 'normal' AV applications

and just how can we, as end users, determine the effectiveness of any or all of these tools, individually or in concert, in meeting our particular needs?

Target

106

Post New Requests Here / DONE: 'Used fonts' tool

« on: January 21, 2008, 05:08 PM »

Having just migrated several family members to 'new' PCs I thought Skrommels Used Fonts script was a great idea (my wife just can't understand why loading every font in the known universe isn't necessarily a good thing...)

Unfortunately it is rather limited in that it only does word files, and then only one at a time...

What would make this a truly useful tool would be if it could scan your system for a range of 'common' file types and return a list of used fonts

Anyone here got any ideas?? (I've been through the script and the system scan part shouldn't present to much of a problem, but I don't understand the API calls that are the meat of the thing.)

see also my (unanswered) post under Skrommels Software...
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=11730.0

TIA

Target

107

Skrommel's Software / Used Fonts - enhancement?

« on: January 07, 2008, 06:39 PM »

found this yesterday and the timing was perfect...

in the process of transerring my wife to a new PC and the issue of fonts is always a sore point (she just can't understand why installing every font in the known universe might be a bad thing...)

2 questions -

can it be extended to cover other (common?) file common types (my wife uses Publisher, so PUB support would be good), and

why not extend it to search for all eligible files (rather than just a single file)

the search part seems like it would be pretty straight forward (I've been playing with it myself), however I don't understand the dll calls so I can't work out if the functionality could include any other file types (some experiments with the original file would indicate not, at least in it's current incarnation)

if this could be done, this would be an instant keeper in my (and I suspect many others) toolkit - run it once to see which fonts <i>need</i> to be installed

TIA

Target

108

Living Room / possible alternative to AutoPatcher

« on: January 02, 2008, 05:02 PM »

Dunno how good this is likely to be, but ran across it this morning

   

 
So what is Project Dakota????

Project Dakota is a easy way to update Windows XP.

It is a CD that contains all the updates found on the Windows Update Website, with small standalone programs that run the updates in the order specified by Microsoft according to the order set my Microsoft.
It also includes common programs found on most computers such as Adobe reader, Spybot S&D and Quicktime (and lost more :-)

http://www.theatticn...twork.net/dakota.php

download is an ISO image, unfortunately no details on what it contains (though according the above it contains Lost and Lost...)

Target

109

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: fixing tray icons

« on: October 15, 2007, 11:14 PM »

I have a requirement for something that can 'fix' which items are displayed in the system tray, kind of like those apps that save your desktop icon positions etc and force them into the same layout/configuration.

problem I have is that I like to hide all bar the icons I use (currently 2 AHK scripts, browser, and total commander), and I have to reset these every day.  The native (XP) functionality works, but the settings don't stick (see my thread here... https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=10398.0)

Ideally it would be something in AHK that could be integrated into the tray menu script I use (I'm sure this is possible, I just don't know how to go about doing it...)

TIA

Target

110

Living Room / tray icons, help!!

« on: October 15, 2007, 08:23 PM »

XP is intent on confounding me here...

I really like the tray icon function that lets me hide unused icons in the tray, however I can't get the settings to stick!!

I have 3 or 4 apps that I want to show (only!!) but I daily have to reset these.  Works fine for the day, but next day when I log in again I have to redo it...

I've googled but not come up with anything that even sounds close

anyone got any ideas????