Topics

51

General Software Discussion / RESOLVED: Intel Core 2 Duo + WinXP SP2 problem: only single core detected / used

« on: May 07, 2007, 03:19 PM »

I have bought new hardware, but am having great problems getting WinXP to use it correctly. I hope that one of DC's hardware gurus can shed some light on the problem...

Hardware
Mobo: Abit Il 9 Pro
CPU:  Intel Core 2 Duo E6320
RAM:  Corsair 2GB
HDs:  2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200 16MB 250GB
_{All bought as an upgrade kit from Komplett.co.uk}

The Issue
WinXP SP2 doesn't detect / use the second core.

Issue verified by...

• Only one CPU graph in Task Manager > Performance (one graph per CPU is checked)
• Generally slow performance.
• CPU-z reads correct CPU info, but cores drop down is greyed out and only shows core 1.
• Device Manager > Computer = StandardPC (I believe that dual core would read ACPI of some variety)

Test eith Other OSes
Ubuntu and Vista both find and use both cores... but I can't use either as my RT.x100 video editing card, does not have drivers for either.

I found a forum post (I forget where), which suggests that a dual core must have an ACPI version of the kernel HAL, and suggests that this can be forced during install of WinXP by hitting F5. This brings up a text menu of different HALs.

When I press F5, my menu only contains two items... Standard PC with C-Step i486 (which I know doesn't work) and Other.

Other prompts me to insert a floppy with drivers... I have neither a floppy drive nor any driver to give it!

I have also tried changing the computer type via the control panel, but again get no options other than StandardPC.

My WinXP cd is a slipstream of my original (which I no longer have) and includes SP2. I suppose it is possible that I have removed something from it which is removing support for dual cores... I have no idea what!

Any ideas??

RESOLUTION HERE

52

General Software Discussion / Participate: Online survey of installed fonts

« on: April 30, 2007, 05:03 AM »

As a web designer it is frustrating to be limited to the fonts that end users have installed on their machines. Yes, there are workarounds... use flash, use text > image replacement, use text > flash replacement.

Part of the frustration comes from the fact that we don't really know what fonts the majority of users have installed. To this end there are a couple of websites that are trying to gauge an accurate picture of the fonts available.

My request is that fellow DCers spare a few minutes to visit the following sites and participate in the surveys to further our understanding...

Visibone's font survey | Codestyle's font survey

Both are very straight forward, as they are fully automated, and will take only a few minutes of your precious time.

Thank you.

53

General Software Discussion / Outsourcing web design

« on: April 28, 2007, 04:55 PM »

I have recently moved from my job in education, back to a spot of graphic / web design (sadly you can't make a living in education in the UK).

Whilst brushing up on some of the latest HTML / CSS techniques I have noticed a new type of advert appearing on the web...

A number of companies are now offering to take your site design as a flat file (psd, png, ai - they don't seem to fussed on the format), and return it to you as a working template. Not only that - it will also be xhtml and CSS compliant, cross browser compatible, and their turn around is, in some cases, less that 8 hours. AND it is 'dirt cheap'!

I have sought out, and read, a number of reviews, all of which extol the virtues of the services, showering praise on the companies for great results, excellent communication, and lightning speed.

So here are the questions...

1. Why on earth would I code my own design if I can truly outsource it so cheaply?
2. How can an independent designer, like me, compete with a machine like this?
3. Is this the way the design industry is set to go, with designers who design, and coders who code?
4. Has anyone at DC tried one of these services? How did it go?

A few example companies... psd2html | xHTMLslicer | xhtmlized

54

Found Deals and Discounts / Xara X1 for $19 (less than £10)

« on: April 27, 2007, 08:26 AM »

Xara are at it again... offering their exceptional software at knock down prices.

This time it is Xara X¹ for only $19 (less than £10) - this is the predecessor to their flagship product Xara Xtreme. Check out the feature comparison for the details of differences.

At this price I consider it a must purchase, especially as you can then upgrade to Xara Xtreme (for $39) or Xara Xtreme Pro (for $120).

Note - perhaps hold off on the upgrade for a month or two, since Xara have also announced imminent new releases with some great new features.

Ampa
_{(DonationCoder's 2nd biggest Xara fan)}

55

Mini-Reviews by Members / Quality Comparison: 8 x freeware PDF Readers / Viewers

« on: April 26, 2007, 03:13 PM »

Background: I wanted to read a small PDF file that contained a comparison of Vista fonts with WinXP fonts - so fired up Foxit Reader and was appauled that the render quality was so poor I could not see the text correctly.

So... here is a quick comparison of the render quality of all the free  PDF viewers that I could find.

Enjoy

Product	Version	Size	Install?	Load time (App/File)	RAM	Screenshot
Adobe Reader	8	65MB 1	Yes	1s 2 / < 1s	38.5MB

1 The install is actually 106MB but the Reader sub directory is only 65MB (the rest is junk, such as a copy of the install files) 2 Adobe Reader loads a speed loader (and an auto updater) at system startup which remains resident in memory.

Adobe Digital Editions

Beta

6.6MB

Yes 3

2s / < 1s 4

41.5MB

3 The Adobe website does not allow a conventional download of Digital Editions, instead it uses a Flash 'widget' to install the file on your machine, with no choice about where it goes! (Location = C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\ ) 4 Digital Editions includes a library into which all files are loaded prior to viewing. This happens even if you drag and drop, or open the file with the application. Library entries must be removed by hand or are retained.

Visagesoft eXpert PDF	1.5.990	14MB	Yes	3s / 1s	28.7MB
Foxit Reader See HERE for important update	2.0.1606	3.8MB	No	2s / > 1s 5	11.6MB

5 After the initial load, rendering takes an additional second.

CAD-KAS PDF Reader

2.4

11.7MB

Yes 6

> 4s / > 2s 7

22.4MB

6 The CAS-KAD installer can be unzipped manually and the program run without install. 7 CAS-KAD has an internal file browser. Once the file is selected

Sumatra

0.5

< 1MB

No

1s / 1s

15.8MB

8

8 For some reason Sumatra rendered the text much smaller than other viewers @ 100%. In the second screenshot I tried to normalize the results by zooming the page to the same size as the other viewers.

PDF-XChange Viewer

1.0.0016

5MB 9

Yes

2s / 1s

14.6MB

9 PDF-XChange also includes a hefty help file (5.5MB) which is included in the download, but need not be installed.

Cool PDF Reader

1.0.0.64

< 1MB 10

No

< 1s / 1s 11

19.3MB 12

10 Cool PDF can be downloaded as a single exe file, which is only 655kb - nice. 11 The initial load of the PDF file was about 1 second, but changing zoom level, or scrolling the page would max out my CPU for up to 5 seconds before the screen was redrawn. 12 Memory usage jumps up during zooming and scrolling, often as high as 30MB.

[/table]

Notes
1. Times are all very short since the test file was very small - 1 page, 285.5kB
2. Memory usage is taken from the Mem Usage column of WinXP Task Manager
3. This quality review does not take the faeture set of each app into consideration.

CONCLUSION...
Adobe Reader 8 has the nicest quality of text, it is beautifully crisp; but even with the speed increase of version 8, the program is still something of a monster.

Foxit is very well known as the freeware alternative, it is not the smallest application of those tested, but it does use the least memory; however, the quality of its output is by far the worst!

Adobe's new comer Digital Edition is still in beta, and has some annoyances (no custom install, all files added to library) but it is a fraction of the size of its big brother. Sadly the render quality does suffer; though not as poor as Foxit all the other applications tested produced more legible text.

My vote for the best of the (non Adobe) rest goes with PDF-XChange Viewer; I found the text to be dark and clear.

IF there is a good response to this post I MIGHT be persuaded to do a full review including a feature comparison.

And if you have any other PDF viewers that you would like added to the comparison... let me know

Ampa

56

Skrommel's Software / ShiftOff anchor doesn't work on 1 hour software page

« on: April 18, 2007, 09:29 AM »

I have noticed that the ShiftOff app doesn't have its own anchor to jump directly to the program on Skrommel's 1 hour software page. This should be fixed asap - especially as I've just sent loads of LifeHacker readers there!!!

57

General Software Discussion / MP3GainGUI and Windows / Office Installer bug

« on: April 13, 2007, 06:25 AM »

I use MP3Gain along with its GUI to add replaygain information to my mp3 collection. Recently a peculiar bug has emerged that I really can't fathom...

When I launch MP3GainGUI the Windows installer appears (with the title Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007) and starts trying to install a component.



This then tells me that the network component cant be found, and prompts me to search for the file 'EnterpriseWW.msi'



If I cancel the dialog it simply reappears.

If I cancel the dialog 6 or 7 times in a row MP3GainGUI opens and functions correctly.



It didn't do this last week!! What on earth is going on!!

I have googled briefly and discovered that other people have experienced similar issues, but none seem to have found a solution. Each case seems to be looking to configure / install some random piece of software  which is entirely unconnected with MP3Gain (not always Office, sometimes Adobe products or plugins).

I have reinstalled MP3Gain several times, using both the zip file and installer from the website - with no effect.

Some 'solutions' I've read are the usual guff... reinstall windows - reinstall office - use Linux! but none seems to get to the root of the problem.

So far as I can see MP3Gain is no longer updated - is there an equivalent active piece of freeware?

58

General Software Discussion / What fonts do I actually need?

« on: April 04, 2007, 02:07 PM »

Today I was looking through the list of fonts that I have installed on my system - 186 in total.

Many of those installed I didn't choose to have there... in fact there are several that I really dislike - Comic Sans anyone?

It is not that I feel these extra fonts are slowing the system down, but they are slowing me down! It is tiresome wading through several screens of bland fonts just to find to ones that I want.

So here are my questions...

1) Which fonts do I actually need to have installed?

I am sure that this will in some way be related to the software that I have installed...

• Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP fonts
• Office 97, 2000, XP, 2003 fonts
• Know of any more lists for major apps? (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver etc)

But I don't believe that all these fonts are actually used by the software; so which ones are actually required?

I know that Marlett is used for parts of the Windows GUI - so removing that would be inadvisable, but does it really need all those others?

2) Is there any way to find out which program installed a certain font?

I would imagine that the answer to this is a NO, other than searching for a list online.

3) I have a few 'vector' fonts in my windows directory (Modern, Roman, Script etc) - what are they?

And more importantly - do i need them?

4) Out of curiosity - how many fonts do you have installed on your machine?

I am not talking about your font library, only those that you have active at all times.

Ampa

59

General Software Discussion / Know of a freeware seamless texture tool? (Details inside)

« on: March 29, 2007, 04:26 PM »

Hello folks, thought I'd pick the collective mind...

I am looking for a program to turn a photo into a seamless tilable texture.

Requirements...

• Either a Photoshop plugin or stand alone
  
• Should work from a range of common image formats - JPG PNG GIF
  
• Allows for large(ish) textures - many apps seem limited to 256x256 or there abouts
  
• Freeware

I have searched this evening and did find...

Texture Maker (Demo of commercial app - free for non-commercial work) [Limited to 512x512 pixels]
Redfield Seamless Workshop (Freeware) - utterly incomprehensible interface, could produce nothing worth looking at!

Any ideas?

Thanks

Ampa

60

Mini-Reviews by Members / Mini-Review: TimeKeeper v2.20c by TSM, Kevin Pluck, Crypto-Central

« on: March 25, 2007, 11:07 AM »

Basic Info...

App Name	TimeKeeper
App URL	http://www.crypto-ce...html/timekeeper.html
App Version Reviewed	v2.20c
Test System Specs	Aging desktop: Athlon 2400+ / 1GB / WinXP SP2
Supported OSes	Windows (all versions)
Support Methods	eMail
Upgrade Policy	Lifetime licence (?)
Trial Version Available?	Trial available HERE Annoyances... The About window will displayed at start up You can't set all the options available in the Options window Limited to 8 tasks before registration Unregistered version chooses a different random interval for reminder popup 15 second enforced delay before dismissing TimeKeeper when it pops up No preview or export of reports (only printing) NOTE: All these annoyances can be removed if you apply for a generous 2 month Demo Registration (via the About box)
Pricing Scheme	Single licence = $15 Reductions available for group licenses

The Main GUI

Intro:

From the helpfile...

TimeKeeper is a personal time tracking system that is designed to reduce the amount of time that you do not charge for.

In brief - A simple time logging utility that also has basic reporting facilities.

Who is this app designed for?

Freelancers
Employees working on a number of projects
Anyone who needs to know where their working hours are going!


The Good

• Does what it sets out to do.
• Totally stable - never crashed on me.
• Easy to understand.
• Unobtrusive (yet intrusive enough to ensure that one doesn't simply ignore it!).
• Small and fast.
• Has a lot of little details that are well integrated and thought out.
• Simple reporting built in.
• Simple billing codes built in.

The needs improvement section:

I came across a few very minor annoyances...

• Several typos in the help file
• Can't enter times via the keyboard
• Can't tab between cells in the task log grid
• The default reports are ugly! (However these are 100% customisable - just edit the RTF template)

Why I think you should use this product

I have used TimeKeeper to account for my time over the last few weeks, and have found that it helped me to keep an accurate record of the time I spent working on a variety of projects.


How does it compare to similar apps?

The only other application in this class that I have tried is Skrommel's TaskLog v1.1 which is freeware, but only really suitable for very basic time logging.


Conclusions

TimeKeeper is a much more developed piece of software that has obviously evolved over a number of years to perform a simple task superbly.


Links to other reviews of this application

None found.


Bonus quick tutorial...

When TimeKeeper first loads you are prompted to enter your current task. This can be typed directly into the cell, or selected from a convenient drop down list.

The drop down is filled from a list of predefined tasks set in the options, plus all other tasks logged within the past 7 days. By default these are sorted by frequency of use, but this can be changed to a simple alphabetical list.

The times all remain editable - either by clicking the (tiny)arrows that appear when a cell is focused or (more conveniently) using the Quick Picker, accessed with a middle or ctrl click.

The window is then dismissed, and will hide in the system tray (by default) for a while (this period of inactivity is also defined in the options). I chose a period of 15 mins - so after that time the window reappears giving me two choices... either I continue with the current activity, or I register a change to a new one.

And that is it! Continue to log your tasks when reminded to do so, and then at the end of the day, week or month produce a report...

The registered version also allows export as a CSV file, which could then be imported into Excel (or other spreadsheet software) to generate invoices, plot graphs, perform statistical analysis etc.

Other Screenshots...

The website: a bit primitive. Does the job.	The About box	The Help file
Lots of options	More options	Even more options
Add details to a task. Can also log the applications used while working on the task.

61

Found Deals and Discounts / DFX Audio Enhancement software - $10 saving = 30% discount until Saturday 5th

« on: August 01, 2006, 06:15 AM »

Was just about to ask FXsound for a discount on their audio enhancement product, when I noticed that they already have a sale on.

Orders place by 5th August 2006 will receive a $10 discount (roughly 30%) - taking the price from $29.99 to $19.99

Place your orders now to make the saving.

62

Living Room / 1 Day Only (1st August) All Xara Products 50% Discount!

« on: July 28, 2006, 12:20 PM »

I am a huge fan of Xara and have been using their vector graphics app (current version Xara Xtreme) since Artworks v1 on the Acorn Archimedes.

They have now been around for 25 years, so to celebrate their birthday are offering their entire range of software at a 50% discount, for ONE DAY ONLY.

1st August 2006

is that day, so go download the demo version now; play with it for the next few days, and then register your full copy at the appropriate time.

63

Skrommel's Software / TaskLog v1.1 - Small bug and an improvement or 2...

« on: July 14, 2006, 03:55 AM »

Hey Skrommel,

Just started trying out this little util (to monitor just how much time I waste on various activities during the day), and noticed a few things...

1) The tool tip on the system tray seems to be one item behind. Eg I am currently 'Surfing' but my tool tip reads 'Still working on task PAUSED for 0 minutes?'

2) When I add new tasks in the settings I have to quit the util and rerun to see the tasks on the menu. Is this intended behaviour? It would be more helpful if news tasks appeared without the restart.

3) And on that note... when I am prompted with 'Are you still working on X' and I say No it would be very nice to allow a new sort of task to be added directly at this point (rather than going in to the settings and out again). Could there be an input box in which I could enter 'Ordering Pizza' (or any other worthy task) which would then be added to the list of choices available in the future?

Thanks as usual for the superb programs

Ampa

64

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Emulate a green monitor to reduce eye strain.

« on: July 06, 2006, 07:15 AM »

Inspired by this no-frills text editor and some recent discussions regarding eye strain, I would like a utility that will convert my entire screen into something like a green monitor display.

I envisage that the utility would do something along the lines of...

• Invert the colours on screen (ie black <-> white).
• Convert to greyscale.
• Colourize with a green hue.

Is this possible? Difficult?

65

Living Room / All my applications crash... in sequence!?!

« on: June 27, 2006, 06:35 AM »

Here's the scenario...

Running XP with all the latest service packs and patches.
Somewhere in the region of 55 processes.
Roughly 3 or 4 significant applications running (most often Dreamweaver, Flash, Xara Xtreme).

Then something happens that causes one application to max out to 100% CPU.

System grinds to a halt, so I bring up the Task Manager and kill the offending process.

At this point everything settles down until I change the focus to a new application.  Which ever window I now move to (eg The desktop [ie Explorer] or FRR [to relaunch the crashed app] or my web-browser) will also max out to 100% CPU.

And so the process continues until every single one of my processes has gone haywire, one at a time.

The only solution is to restart the machine, which leaves me none the wiser as to the cause or a better remedy!

Anyone else experienced this bizarre phenomenon?  Any clues as to what is going on?

There seems to be no one scenario that starts the avalanche, though more often than not I seem to have Flash open; and I am 99.99% sure that the system is virus, trojan, spyware free.

I shall try to capture the process list the next time it happens and post it here for disection.

Thanks, Ampa

66

General Software Discussion / Naming and tagging MP3 files from a PDF?

« on: January 04, 2006, 11:47 AM »

A client has sent me several hundred MP3 which are all untagged and have the file names in the format Track001.mp3

They also included an index of the files as a PDF file, which contains a table laid out as follows...

[Select]

Track | Sound  | Duration | Description
001   | 1      | 0:32     | Various Finger clicks
002   | 1      | 0:10     | Cat miaow
etc...

Is there any tool sophisticated enough to rename the tracks with their Track number and Description?

To complicate matters further some Tracks contain multiple sounds...

[Select]

Track | Sound  | Duration | Description
013   | 1      | 0:59     | Hiss (close-up)
013   | 2      |          | Hiss (muffled)

Thanks for help in advance,

Ampa

67

Skrommel's Software / MouseActivate at left hand screen edge.

« on: October 10, 2005, 10:42 AM »

It is probably a bad habit of mine, but I often throw the mouse pointer to the left-hand screen edge, and at present MouseActivate interprets this as a command to put the current window to the back!

How can I disable this feature as I find it a hindrance not a help?

Checked the ini file but there seems to be no option there.

Ampa.

68

Find And Run Robot / Numeric Keypad

« on: October 07, 2005, 04:05 AM »

Perhaps I have overlooked a simple option somewhere in the preferences, but recent releases of F&RR seem not to accept item selection from the numeric keypad (a function that I found most speedy when using the mouse).

If this has been removed, may I ask what the reasoning behind the decision was? And whether it can be reinstated.

Ampa

69

General Software Discussion / [Query] Vector to DWG or DXF

« on: August 18, 2005, 08:44 PM »

I use Xara X1 as my vector graphics program of choice... But it doesn't output in a format that I can import into my 3d design package (SketchUp). So I am looking for a freeware converter that will go from on of the following...

.eps
.ai
.wmf
.xar

To...

.dwg
.dxf
.3ds
.dem
.ddf

Can anyone help?

Ampa

70

Finished Programs / DONE 07/19/05 - IDEA: Capslock reverses case of selected text

« on: July 03, 2005, 09:07 PM »

eVER TYPED A LINE OF TEXT, ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT CAPS WAS ON? oH DARN - IT'S ON now!!!

OK so now I want to repair the damage so that you guys don't think I am shouting at you... what choice have I got but to retype the entire line of text?  Well how about if I could simply select the offending characters, hit my Caps Lock key and not only would it turn off CAPS so that I'd not be producing further garbage, but it would also reverse the case of the selection fixing my original problem in a single stroke.

Now I know that some software (eg Word) has a switch case funtion, but why not have this facility system wide?

No more reversed case issues in Messenger or IRC or on forums etc etc...

Just a thought.

Ampa.

PS - Yes I know that I should touch type better and avoid ever making mistakes in the first place, but the fact is that a lot of us do screw up in this manner from time to time.

PPS - I also once tried, but failed, to configure a HotKey program (I think it was HoeKey) so make a small sound when I hit Caps Lock as a warning... perhaps this too could be a feature of this tiny tool?