Messages

51

Found Deals and Discounts / SOCKShell 74% Off! - Great context menu tool!

« on: September 12, 2006, 12:08 PM »

Bits Du Jour has a great deal for today only at bitsdujour.com. They are offering SOCKShell, which allows advanced and customizable functionality to the context menus, for 74% off. I haven't explored all of its features or gone in-depth looking for issues, but for $3.95 instead of the normal $17.95, it's a hell of a deal!

52

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: spring cleaning

« on: July 15, 2006, 12:57 PM »

I have a Wacom tablet from my short stay at AIO for Graphic Design. They are great if you do almost any kind of work in image editing programs, and you can get some amazing drawing and painting effects in Photoshop that are basically impossible with a mouse.

i am the current owner of the official donationcoder shared wacom intuos 3 tablet (kindly given to me by mouser).

it is now time to pass it onto another DC member.

if you've ever wondered what it is like to use a wacom tablet then now is your chance - the drawing area is only about 5 x 3 inches but it's enough to give you and idea.

please understand that you will be expected to pass this item on to another DC member when you have decided it is of no further use/enjoyment - unless, of course, you absolutely love it.

let me know...

-nudone (July 05, 2006, 07:52 AM)

53

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: MS Virtual PC is now free

« on: July 15, 2006, 12:34 PM »

Dammit, this looked awesome until I found out they have no version for x64 and no release date. Vista will probably be out by then and it will sort of defeat the purpose. Or maybe they'll roll it out soon.

(VirtualPC is still on the list for this month's drawing. Hopefully nobody ranked it too much higher than some of the other goodies on the list )

54

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Come up with a novel idea for DonationCredits

« on: June 20, 2006, 06:36 PM »

A less dismal way of implementing my last suggestion would be to make a standard bid and a "priority" bid, rather than a standard bid and a late bid. That way you'd be rewarding them for writing it quicker rather than punishing them for taking too long.

-Ben

55

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SmartWheel, scroll text in inactive windows with the mouse wheel (Download Here)

« on: June 16, 2006, 07:35 PM »

I started my script without having a hotkey, however I found it somewhat annoying if my mouse would drift off of the window and I was trying to scroll.

I've been working on a lot of backend stuff and am completely rewriting most of it to use my new functions and config options. The next version will allow you to choose whether or not you want to use a hotkey. I also still hope to have the next version include support for scrolling background windows such as Firefox and any other rich text-type control.

Hopefully if you're having a problem with KatMouse this script will work for you. While I've only been able to test it on XP, it works exactly the same on every machine I've used it on.

Anyway, thanks for the information on KatMouse, and if anyone has any suggestions on how I could make this the most useful mousewheel utility possible please let me know. I will be more than happy to try to implement any usable suggestions quickly, as in within a few days.

I've also got a lot of other free utilities underway at www.benmcclure.com/software if anyone is interested (However don't bother with HotSpell yet as I am squashing some major bugs). If there is a utility not listed that you would like to see, please let me know, as I would love to try my hand at just about anything. Thanks!

-Ben

56

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Come up with a novel idea for DonationCredits

« on: June 10, 2006, 02:27 PM »

Great idea!

Maybe bidders could even have the option of a "late bid amount", like entering two bids, one by when they want it, and one for when it's late but they'll still take it.

Ben

57

ProcessTamer / Re: IndieVolume and ProcessTamer's bubble pop sound

« on: June 10, 2006, 01:43 PM »

I really like seeing which software it is taming without having to hover or click, but because of the frequency of notifications depending on what I'm doing, the sound sometimes becomes annoying.

I think I can go in to the properties window for windows' sounds and disable it, but I like it for programs that only have things to report every once in a while. Or maybe I could find out where it resides and shave off a few decibels, but it would be nice if there was an easy solution to automate it.

I wonder if I could make an ahk script to enable/disable the pop sounds on the fly. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard. Maybe I'll look into that

Ben

58

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Come up with a novel idea for DonationCredits

« on: June 10, 2006, 01:16 PM »

In response to cPilot's idea about graphics, that could be a part of the same request system I'm talking about, there could be a "Graphics" category for requesting icons, logos, skins, icon sets, etc. Just another thought...

His idea also made me think about possible private requests, eg. one person or a group of people could "close" the request they made to further bids if, for instance, they want a graphic or something for themselves. Though that does kind of defeat the spirit of public software in a way, it would cater well to graphics. Maybe it should not be an option for standard utility requests or something.

Also, possibly private requests to a specific user or list of users. Maybe you really like a particular person's development "style" or something and want them to develop a piece of software, so you start a request for that dev or group of devs and people can still bid on it, but no other developers could accept the bids.

Perhaps this is a bit too complex, but maybe the basic ideas could be used and it could be expanded as time goes on. I would be more than happy to participate in the script's development, if needed, as well. I have fairly extensive PHP/MySQL experience so if there isn't a solution already available or in place, we could build one.

Ben

One thing I would like to see added to the forum is a form of "Graphics" snacks.
There are those of us who are "artistically" impaired and would like to be able to request maybe unique Icons, skins, bitmaps, jpegs etc. to use in their applications. 
Maybe provide a way to allow private graphic designs for those who want to copyright particular designs and such.

-Cpilot (April 07, 2006, 12:05 AM)

59

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Come up with a novel idea for DonationCredits

« on: June 10, 2006, 01:04 PM »

I have an idea for donationcredits.

How about a system where a number of users can request certain types of software, and anyone who requests that software can enter a donation "bid" amount. Any other members, or even one of the submitting members, could choose to accept the current total of "bids" and make the software release within X amount of time. If it's done in time, all bids go to the developer. If not, they are either returned or left in the project for the next developer.

Users could retract their bid at any time, but I'm thinking to make it fair you cannot retract your bid within X days of the deadline, so that if a developer was relying on a certain bid price, for example to pay back something he had to purchase during development or whatever, he's not stuck with nothing at the end, unless he goes in expecting nothing, which is fine too (eg. people don't HAVE to actually bid credits, you can just request the software).

Hey, the system could even be called, *trumpets* ... Donation Coder 

What do you think? I think it would be a unique way of interaction between developer and user, and it would give that extra incentive for developers to create software that their users want.

Updated ideas:
It also would be cool to allow sorting by topic, title, number of users requesting, full bid amount, etc. Maybe filtering too, if you're trying to pay off your software or something you could filter it by the amount of the software. Just another idea to go along with the above.

Also, a developer showcase would be nice. if certain developers consistently cater to users needs and complete a number of requests, they could be displayed as a top developer. As a side feature to this, users could maybe even vote on completed software or graphics, and all of the votes for a developer's software add up to be his/her rating.

Thanks,

Ben M

60

ProcessTamer / IndieVolume and ProcessTamer's bubble pop sound

« on: June 09, 2006, 10:48 PM »

I don't know if this is just because I'm on x64, or if other applications do this as well, but for some reason even though I select ProcessTamer's executable, the volume of the blip noise doesn't change. I noticed at work that there was a Kernel entry in IndieVolume, but there isn't one here, so I'm thinking maybe it's the kernel executable that created the blip? That would suck. Any ideas? Hope this makes sense, let me know if any further information could be of use here.

I don't mean to be anal about such a thing as the volume of the blip, but I almost always listen to high quality MP3s while I'm on my computer and sometimes get annoyed when tray icons are always blipping at me.

Otherwise, would you consider adding a mute option for the blip, if that's a possibility on a per-application basis in Windows (I haven't experimented with that yet)?

As usual, I appreciate your assistance 

Ben

61

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SmartWheel, scroll text in inactive windows with the mouse wheel (Download Here)

« on: June 09, 2006, 01:54 AM »

Thanks a million!

I updated my original post with the installer. I'm sure it'll be fine here, but I've got more utilities on the way shortly, so if my server isn't up in time, perhaps you could create a page to host them, either temporarily or permanently, whichever you'd prefer. Thanks a lot either way!

Ben

62

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SmartWheel, scroll text in inactive windows with the mouse wheel!

« on: June 08, 2006, 09:41 PM »

Mouser, would you mind posting the installer, at least temporarily until I get my server up? It's under a megabyte, so it shouldn't dent your bandwidth much.

I've got bigger server problems than I realized, so it may not be up for a day or two, hopefully not longer.

Thanks,

Ben

63

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / SmartWheel, scroll text in inactive windows with the mouse wheel (Download Here)

« on: June 08, 2006, 04:03 PM »

I've just released the initial beta version of my small helper utility, SmartWheel. The utility allows you to scroll up and down text boxes of background (inactive) windows using the mouse wheel in conjunction with a hotkey (currently CTRL)

It's very simple to use, and requires absolutely no configuration, though there will be a few options coming in the next release.

To use the utility, simply run the executable (it's advisable to add it to the Startup folder to have it running all the time). To scroll any plain text box in any window (active or inactive), simply hold CTRL, put the mouse pointer over the control you want to scroll, and have at it!

More information: (currently unavailable)
http://benmcclure.com/software/index.php?catid=4&blogid=1

Download: See the attached installer, SmartWheel-Setup.exe

The utility currently only works in plain text boxes (eg. boxes without rich text, graphics, smooth scrolling, etc.). I hope to include functionality to scroll any type of field in one of the coming releases.

This is basically my first public software release, so I hope to get some feedback and suggestions from this site.

64

General Software Discussion / Re: Some great freeware from MediaChance - incl. multimon taskbar tool

« on: May 31, 2006, 09:24 AM »

The features (like the clipboard extender) and light footprint looked really cool, it's just too bad it doesn't support themes.

65

General Software Discussion / Re: Requesting input for new config automation program

« on: May 25, 2006, 10:26 AM »

Hello,

Thanks for the response. That software looks interesting, but I'm not sure that it's exactly what I'm looking for. It sounds like it's able to do some of the things I'm looking for, and maybe even all of them, but I'd like to have a solution that can work on the fly no matter how software was installed.

I just want a very basic solution for preconfiguring different computing "modes" that lets me change both software and core windows settings, starting/stopping services (including those that were installed with Windows that can be stopped), etc. That would be superior in my opinion for what I'm looking to do, and it'll save me from having to buy more software.

I'm hoping there will be others that find my app useful as well, but it'll be there just incase either way

Thanks again for the post. Virtualization software looks pretty cool, and sounds like something I need to try out.

-Ben

66

General Software Discussion / Requesting input for new config automation program

« on: May 25, 2006, 01:45 AM »

The Problem:
I'm a gamer who wants Windows to be slimmed down, streamlined, and generally clear of all extensions and extra services or clutter that may interfere with gameplay. But that's not all. I'm also a musician who wants my studio software and all related applications running, but everything else disabled or turned off to leave as many resources free for audio processing as possible. But that's not all. I'm also a power user, web designer, programmer, etc. I don't like constantly changing settings, starting and stopping services, etc. But I hate compromising.

The Concept:
I want some kind of automation of the constant system config changes that need to be made to accommodate whatever I may be working on. But I don't want to write a bunch of batch files, because my needs are constantly changing and constantly editing code is not my idea of a streamlined process. What if there was a piece of software that allowed me to set up specific "modes" for my computing experience so that I could switch between them at will easily.

My Solution:
Enter ModeSwitch XP. Or at least that's what I'm calling it for now. It's a small Windows program with a GUI interface, allowing for an unlimited number of totally customizable "modes" all accessible with a click of the mouse. Every mode can have its own independent settings for:
-Starting and stopping any number of Windows services
-Closing (or killing) any running processes (predefined lists can be selected whether or not the process is currently running)
-Starting and number of applications (or scripts, or anything else that can be executed)
-Changing any of the Windows XP Visual options (eg. animations, theme support, menu fading, etc)
-Changing windows display settings (color depth, resolution, refresh rate, etc)
-Setting a number of "advanced" options (eg. registry and other tweaks)

Essentially, all of the points above can be individually enabled or disabled for every mode (so, for instance, you can have your Gaming mode change your resolution to a specific value, while having your other modes leave the settings at whatever they were before). Any option that is enabled has a button bringing up the properties for that option. For security, since some people may not want others changing their computer settings so easily, I'm going to add password support for the entire program (eg. you can run the program but cannot modify or activate any modes without the password, if so desired). In future versions I hope to add password support on a per-mode basis as well.

I also hope to add support for setting options for common video cards (eg. nvidia and and ATI Radeons), though that may not be available initially. I don't want to add tons of unneeded features and end up with a bloated "all-in-one" pile of junk, so I'm starting off with the basics and will add more features as I find there is a desire to have.

I have come to really love this site and these forums over the past week or two, and value the opinions and ideas of everyone who is a part of it. I'd love to get some feedback before my initial release of the software so that I can try to include all the basic features you all want. What am I forgetting? What could I do better/different? Any suggestions or ideas that may relate to the program?

I've got a server with plenty of bandwidth and can host the files, but perhaps it could be included with the other software available on this site when it is ready? I'm hoping some of you will be kind enough to help me work through a few initial releases before opening it up to the general public, but that won't be for a little while anyhow. I'll post some screenshots and a feature list when I'm able as well. Thanks everyone; I look forward to getting some input on this.

-Ben

67

General Software Discussion / Re: TaskPilot for task management?

« on: May 24, 2006, 10:51 PM »

Honestly, downloading MyLife Organized and trying it out is what prompted me to purchase TaskPilot. I don't know why, but I felt like it would take too much work to actually use it to its full advantage, and I know exactly what you mean when you said you're not organized enough to try it, heh. It still does look amazing, and I might give it another go someday, but I'm pretty happy with my purchase so far.

I only wish the toolbars in TaskPilot were more customizable, but I'll get to that in my mini-review

-Ben

68

General Software Discussion / Re: TaskPilot for task management?

« on: May 24, 2006, 04:31 PM »

Despite its quirks, I keep being drawn to TaskPilot. So I broke down and spent 30 bucks.

It seems to work substantially better since their last build, at least on my machine. It still takes a long time to load, but once it's up the interface generally responds instantly, or very close to it at least.

I don't know how interested anyone would be in seeing a full review of the software, but I'd be happy to write one for DonationCoder. It might be nice as a comparison to the review of ITSD on this site.

-Ben

69

General Software Discussion / Re: TaskPilot for task management?

« on: May 24, 2006, 02:16 PM »

I'm trying to test ITSD Organizer, but for some reason the installer won't open on my machine. The 'Setup' window shows up in the taskbar but that's as far as it'll get. Anyone else experience anything like this?

70

General Software Discussion / Re: TaskPilot for task management?

« on: May 24, 2006, 02:07 PM »

Wow... one product which looks amazing is MyLife Organized. I haven't even used it yet, but plan on trying the demo today. the features and simplicity of it are very impressive. No bloat. It's kind of expensive though, especially the Professional edition. Anyone have any experiences they can share about MyLife Organized?

71

General Software Discussion / Re: TaskPilot for task management?

« on: May 19, 2006, 03:46 PM »

Yes, quite relevant. I've seen ITSD a few places online, but haven't paid it much attention. I'm going to give it a try and see what it can do. Thanks for the link!

Ben

72

General Software Discussion / Re: TaskPilot for task management?

« on: May 17, 2006, 04:06 PM »

As an addition, TaskPilot seems to use a "working" version of the database while it is open, so if it crashes before it can compact the database, you have to manually restore the temporary file or else you lose your changes.

There is an auto-backup feature which I found after my first crash (where I subsequently cleared my temp directory before realizing it). It's relatively safe set to something like 5 minutes. I don't know what else they could have done, but the thought of losing data due to clearing my temp directory is a little scary when I'm sometimes entering and changing several tasks per minute.

After reading my notes above I realized that I didn't add that information to the cons section, so just incase anybody's looking for details I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks!

Ben

73

General Software Discussion / TaskPilot for task management?

« on: May 17, 2006, 03:59 PM »

I've been using TaskPilot for 30 days now, and hence it has just expired. I like the software, but before I shell out the 30 bucks for a license, I wanted to get some second opinions.

I don't really like PIMs, because they always screw up something that requires a compromise, so I'm interested in a dedicated task managent app. Here are my thoughts on TaskPilot:

PROS: Tons and tons of features, almost all of which are available via button, menu, or context menu. It even allows you to edit any of the viewable columns in the task display list, so if you edit a lot of tasks you can just stay on one window. I like all the views available (due this week, due today, overdue, etc.), and I like the fact that you can enter as much or as little information as you want about each task. It uses filters to display tasks, so you're not confined to always working within a particular folder. Skins! The list could go on...

CONS: Slow, somewhat clunky interface. It can be customized, and the skins and color options are a nice feature, but I often find myself watching as parts of the interface load one by one. And that's after the lengthy pause at the splash screen while it loads. Also, in order to display all of the relevant information about tasks, I find that the only practical window size is maximized. Otherwise you either see too few tasks (due to all the toolbars above and the editor below) or columns that are too skinny (since there are side panels that load on both sides). Luckily you can unpin the sidebars so they only slide out when you need them.

TaskPilot Pro has about twice the features as most of the other task management apps I've tried, so I am ready to accept its shortcomings unless there are better solutions anyone has found. Most decent task management programs always seem to be incorporated in a PIM, and there is always something I don't like about basically every PIM.

Other solutions I've tried and my comments:

• Outlook (I don't like the email client very much, and that's not a compromise I'm willing to make in a piece of software based on email)
• Barca (I really like Barca, but I already use PocoMail and like it without all the bulk of PIM features)
• EssentialPIM Free/Pro (nice software, decent ui, though a bit too 'static' for my tastes. i prefer other calendar software)
• Time & Chaos (This is also nice software, it's sort of an all-at-once view which seems decent, but I just couldn't get used to it)

There are others, but I cannot think of them off-hand. I'd appreciate hearing anyone elses experiences or preferences for task management. Thanks!