Messages

476

Living Room / Re: Zap reader

« on: December 04, 2006, 04:27 AM »

Was using SpeedReader today to scan quickly through a long article, and noticed that the only punctuation mark that is recognised is a full stop / period / "."

If you do get around to updating the program at any point, could you add the ability to recognise other common punctuation...

Perhaps discriminate between long pauses and shorter pauses...

LONG = . ; : ...
SHORTER = , ( ) -

Or whatever you feel is appropriate to improve understandability.

Ampa

477

Post New Requests Here / Re: Highlight text and convert case

« on: November 19, 2006, 07:14 AM »

Also Skrommel's CAPshift will do this for you - but only if the text is in an editable area of the screen.

478

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Best Freeware...no, Best Audio File Tagger Period.

« on: September 22, 2006, 03:23 AM »

Got to give my vote to Picard from MusicBrainz... its audio fingerprinting is fantastic.

479

General Software Discussion / Re: Sweet! Direct Folders 3.0 released :)

« on: September 19, 2006, 03:16 AM »

And Code Sector are offering 50% off all their products, including Direct Folders 3, for ONE DAY ONLY... TODAY!

Ampa

480

Living Room / Re: Zap reader

« on: September 14, 2006, 08:33 AM »

Yay! You made some good changes.

One tiny bug I noticed... if the text is paused, you can't escape out of it (at present you must unpause and then escape).

Here are some further suggestions...

• Ability to specify font and font size
• Ability to specify foreground and background colour
• Ability to change settings whilst paused (eg Drop from 2 words to 1 word)
• Ability to run full screen to remove all the distraction of other windows
• Option to change pause duration at punctuation

Hope you keep up the great work as this seems like a nicer little application.

481

Living Room / Re: Zap reader

« on: September 13, 2006, 04:14 AM »

noutters - I like your script very much and hope that you will develop it a little further based upon the suggestions here and on the AHK Forum.

482

Developer's Corner / Re: Brand New Release of HGE (Haaf's Game Engine) - Fantastic Windows 2d Game Engine

« on: August 30, 2006, 07:31 AM »

Wow! I was really into HGE a year or so back, but thought that the project had all but died... very good news to see a new release, as it is a seriously impressive engine.

Ampa

483

Official Announcements / Re: AUGUST SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS - POSTED!

« on: August 29, 2006, 07:49 AM »

My pleasure. Hope everyone enjoys their prizes, and if you didn't win then try again the next time you see some goodies that you'd like.

Incidentally... We had 18 prizes to hand out in August and 84 entries, which means that if you entered you had (very) roughly a 1 in 4 chance of winning something... pretty good odds huh?

Ampa

484

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm running a pirated version of Windows and can't get caught!

« on: August 09, 2006, 11:44 PM »

Funny - but can't say I'm surprised.

485

Site/Forum Features / Re: BB Codes documentation

« on: August 09, 2006, 11:35 PM »

Now if only there were a way to limit the width of a table... <sigh>

Mouser and I were talking about this the other day (at present tables expand to the entire width of the browser window before wordwrapping) but there aren't any mods to achieve this at the moment.

Also changing cell colour and column / row spanning would be great too

486

General Software Discussion / Re: best tool for separating (cropping) figure from background?

« on: August 09, 2006, 10:38 AM »

It is really going to depend upon the background... The film industry use green screen (or historically bluescreen) to matte actors out of one environment and into another.

If your background is complex and non uniform then you will need to do the process by hand.

If your background is simple and uniform in colour then you will be able to automate to a greater or lesser degree.

There are many tools that will help you, but the reason that there are so many is because this is a nontrivial task, and different scenarios require different solutions.

Here are a few starters...

Most of matting will be done in an application like Photoshop as these are raster / pixel based techniques that rely on differences in hue / brightness to detect edges.  Occasionally there is no choice but to cutout mattes by hand, in which case a vector solution can be used (perhaps with a tool such as Xara Xtreme).

Photoshop has many tools that help automate the matte proceedure - the Magic Wand Tool is particularly quick, and works well in simple cases.

487

Site/Forum Features / Re: One of our posts is missing

« on: August 07, 2006, 10:20 AM »

Here is the link you are looking for...

https://www.donation...88.msg28858#msg28858

It is part of the thread of interesting links by Thunder7.

Oh and here is that article it points to...

http://www.boingboin...o_cancel_a_serv.html

Ampa

488

Older Newsletters / Re: Newsletter for August 2nd, 2006 - Codename ''Blogs and Bosses"

« on: August 06, 2006, 03:14 PM »

The emphasis on discounts and prizes will always be Quality rather than Quantity... that said, we are aiming for a packed lineup next month to celebrate the Fund-Raiser.

Keep your suggestions of high quality applications coming, and I will do my best to haggle for discounts

Ampa

489

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: change desktop background picture like a slide show.

« on: August 05, 2006, 07:38 PM »

There are many programs that do this already...

http://www.nimblesof...e-wallpaper-changer/
http://www.tropicalw...es.com/wallmast.html
http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/
http://www.abf-soft....lpaper-changer.shtml

Or just Google for "wallpaper changer" for many many more.

So unless you require something that these do not provide, I think that your request has been met.

^{Note: I have not tested any of the apps listed above.}

490

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: db90h's best kept secret #1: Command Prompt Explorer Bar (Free OSS)

« on: August 05, 2006, 06:12 PM »

I also use Xplorer^2 which has its own console window integrated with the file manager, allows for some very useful shortcuts... dos like commands can simply be typed directly into the address bar (with a $ prefix) and will then interact with the currently selected files / directories.

491

General Software Discussion / Re: Good programs for helping you manage what programs start with windows?

« on: August 04, 2006, 03:23 PM »

A bit off topic (perhaps) as I am not sure it is a newbie tool... but I am very fond of Xecutor.

It is free for home / non-commercial use, and allows for scheduling and reordering of apps at startup. Can scan the registry and the startup folder for new additions.

492

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Capture windows of various programs into one window with tabs

« on: August 03, 2006, 08:51 AM »

OK take this reply with a pinch of salt but...

On my desktop right now i have The Bat!, Opera, and various files in notepad... all maximised, and the taskbar gives me handy 'tabs' that I can use to switch between them.

I am also running Taskbar Shuffle which allows me to simple drag the tabs / buttons into any order that I like.

As for easily launching applications, FRR does a superlative job, and if that isn't your style there are 1001 other launchers and docks available.

Perhaps I didn't 'get' what you were suggesting, or perhaps what you are suggesting already exists... as the operating system / GUI?

493

Best E-mail Client / Re: The Bat! - annoying word wrap

« on: August 01, 2006, 01:17 PM »

I think you will find the official response here...

http://www.ritlabs.c.../idx/17/015/article/

I just happened to come accross it last night.

Ampa

494

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.

495

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

« on: July 31, 2006, 08:20 PM »

Giving this a bump as it is now the 1st of August.

496

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.

497

Living Room / Re: Check out the various uses of flash images on this site.

« on: July 27, 2006, 04:02 PM »

Had a look when u posted in the iRC channel - some fabulous effects here that I've not seen on any other site before.  Inspiring and fun.

Ampa

498

Official Announcements / Re: JULY SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS - POSTED!

« on: July 27, 2006, 09:33 AM »

Phew - glad to see the results posted.

I hope everyone enjoys their free gifts, and if you weren't a winner this time, then do consider taking up the discount offers on your favourite products before they expire!

Ampa

499

Living Room / Re: Design your own bug creatures in flash

« on: July 18, 2006, 05:32 AM »

It is a shame that they don't move 'properly' - All the legs on each side move together, creating a totally unstable gait. Real insects tend to use their 6 legs as two tripods, meaning that they are always stable. Millipedes and other many legged creatures send waves along their legs.

It is an interesting subject...

Read about Insect Locomotion.

500

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

« on: July 14, 2006, 01:19 PM »

Have now used this for 24hrs or so and had another thought...

On occasions I get called away from the PC and forget or don't have time to pause the log before I go.  Then when I return (often hours later) I find that 180 minutes has been logged against my last activity.

Would it be possible to have a mode where the utility enters pause mode / stops logging if there is no response to the 'Are you still...' prompt after a reasonable time out (eg 3 minutes)?

Perhaps this needs its own name... such as No Activity.

Or even a secondary check - has there been any mouse / keyboard activity in the last 3 minutes?

Just my thoughts

Ampa