Messages

201

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

« on: January 11, 2012, 01:25 PM »

when trying to add cf_dib or other formats to the store-in-echo-list, the application crashes when clicking the ok-button (Error [EEchoInternalError]: TClpFormatRegistry: Clipboard format "cf_dib" (type: System) already exists in the registry)[/li][/list]

-Sascha (January 11, 2012, 09:37 AM)

Found and fixed. I'll upload a new release by the end of the week, but for now you can just replace your ethervaneecho.exe with the one attached to this message.

202

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

« on: January 11, 2012, 12:39 PM »

Ethervane Echo works great!  I really like it and have a comment and a question.

1.  As requested earlier in this forum, I too would like an "always-on-top" feature.  I like to keep the clipboard open on top of other applications while I work.  Setting the MinimizeOnDeactivate to "False" works to some degree, but requires me to lose some screen real estate.

-jash (January 11, 2012, 10:46 AM)

I'll do that as soon as I figure out exactly what is broken in Delphi XE's component library. In earlier versions it was enough to toggle a flag to make a window stay on top. But if I do that in XE, all dialog boxes show under the main window, which makes the whole application unusable. Nothing I've tried to far has worked, so right now I am simply unable to add this feature. Need to do more research. (And yes, there are some workarounds to be found on StackOverflow and elsewhere, but they don't work in Delphi XE.)

2.  Is there a way to change the settings so that clips are pasted in plain text by default when I single-click on a clip?

Single-click? Then you could not navigate the tree (at least not with the mouse). You **can** have Echo paste as plain text by default (on Enter or double-click):

Preferences -> Pasting clips -> Priority formats -> select sfPlainText

203

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

« on: January 11, 2012, 12:33 PM »

bugs
when trying to add cf_dib or other formats to the store-in-echo-list, the application crashes when clicking the ok-button (Error [EEchoInternalError]: TClpFormatRegistry: Clipboard format "cf_dib" (type: System) already exists in the registry)

-Sascha (January 11, 2012, 09:37 AM)

Confirmed. It seems that at the moment it is impossible to add a format that's defined in the system. I'll fix this ASAP.

feature requests
close to tray on pressing the X

Added to wishlist.

possibility to configure the directory for saving the database
possibility to configure the directory for saving the application-settings (ini)

Could you explain why this would be useful? It'd help me design the best way to implement this. Echo already uses a fairly involved logic to figure out where to store the database and config (are we portable? Are we running from a removable drive? Is the removable drive read-only? etc.), and I have to be careful making any changes to these parts of the code.

Also, using the portable version you can already have the config and data stored wherever you want, just by installing Echo there.

Note that it is quite impossible to specify in options where the config file should be located, because Echo has to read the config file first to load that setting :) I could only store this preference in the registry, but as a rule I'd rather not touch the registry at all (and I've obeyed this rule so far). If not the registry, I could add this setting to the "master.config" file (there's a Help topic about it), but in that case the setting would apply to all users running Echo on a computer.

Would it be sufficient if I added a command-line argument to specify the config and database directories? You could add it to the shortcut used to start Echo.

possibility to change shortcuts like F2

What would you use instead? I can easily add more than one shortcut for some functions. A complete keyboard customization would take more time. And there would be certain limitations, e.g. you cannot assign certain keys which are used when editing clips in-place or are necessary to navigate the tree, etc. It could be more trouble than it's worth.

do not autopaste items on pressing enter - only copy them to the clipboard (like ctrl+shift+c)

Disable pasting entirely, or just swap the function of (Shift+)Enter and (Shift+)Ctrl+C?

always show date and time for last saved items instead of e.g. "8 minutes ago"

Preferences -> Display -> Friendly dates -> set to False

do not block capturing when editing an item internally or externally. sometimes it is useful to capture a part of an existing clip and save it to a new clip

Yeah, this is a to-do, but I need some time to do it properly. Capturing clips from inside Echo may sometimes have undesired side-effects. E.g., when the in-place editor is active, capturing a clip will close that editor and jump to the latest clip, etc., and I don't think I can stop that from happening (AFAIK it is not possible to add an item to the list while another item in the list is being edited).

Thanks! Now I'll go look for that bug...

204

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

« on: January 10, 2012, 12:59 PM »

I think I've found a problem under 64-bit: the "Short" tab doesn't display any clips, no matter how short. As an experiment, I changed the filter to use "nrGreaterThanOrEqual" instead of "nrLessThanOrEqual", and then all clips were shown, even the very short ones!

-rashford (January 10, 2012, 08:33 AM)

This shouldn't be a 32/64 bit issue, or else there would likely be trouble with all filters. Could you post a screenshot of the Filters tab of the view?

A few things to check:

- is the length filter the only one defined for the view? If it is not, what is the setting of the AND/OR option (match all filters or match any filter)? Filters can be combined, including filters of the same type, but if there was more than one length filter, results might be weird, depending on how the filters are configured.

- is the count value set properly? (just checking ;-)

- is the Reverse option set? (It should not be)

- If you use LessThan (or GreaterThan) instead of the "OrEqual" conditions, does that fix the problem?

I've just configured a new view from scratch, and it correctly shows clips of 10 or fewer characters. Yours should look similar to this:

I would like to second Tomos' request for an option to minimize to the tray when I hit the Close box - I know I can just click outside the window or hit the Minimize button, but I just can't get out of the habit of hitting Close when I've finished looking at the clips!

Added to the wishlist  

205

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

« on: January 07, 2012, 07:19 AM »

hi  tranglos  everything works perfectly  now   the only thing i changed is i was coping and pasting from firefox 10 beta   32  bit  i switched  to firefox nightly 12  32 bit   and everything is working perfectly now on  nightly 12  could that somehow be responsible for Echo acting like it was

-hangdawg (January 06, 2012, 11:03 PM)

That's great news, thanks! I was worried there, because I don't have a 64-bit version of Windows handy to test on. But if that one function were causing problems, than Echo should not work at all, since it does much more extensive work with clipboard than just clearing it

206

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« on: January 07, 2012, 07:05 AM »

@tranglos & superboyac - thanks for those! Great picks.

-40hz (January 06, 2012, 05:14 PM)

There are many versions and covers of "Águas de Março" on YT, including a very beautiful one by Lisa Hannigan and Damien Rice, but that one is the absolute best - dropouts, scratches and all.

Great thread, everyone, thanks!

207

Developer's Corner / Re: Why would brand new software NOT work with Unicode? / Challenges

« on: January 07, 2012, 06:47 AM »

Non-english sucks, really.

-f0dder (January 05, 2012, 09:30 AM)

But you could localize applications and handle user data in languages other than English before Unicode. Theoretically, Unicode is only truly required if your app needs to support languages that don't share a ("classic") codepage at the same time. Say, if you need to display English and Russian on the same screen at the same time. Other than that, applications used to run in any language you wished without Unicode.

It's cool to be able to handle  all languages (more or less) without having to think about it twice, but some things have become much harder and much slower too.

In Delphi world, there used to be a bunch of highly optimized string manipulation libraries, written mostly in assembly. They rocked, and I based my whole glossary / translation memory application around one. Even registered my domain specifically to distribute that app, and it's still my username in most places :)
That application knows nothing about unicode, but it is FAST! In unicode world, that application is dead in the water. I could convert it in theory, but the cost of twice as much memory use and searches taking ten times what they used to.

208

Developer's Corner / Re: Why would brand new software NOT work with Unicode? / Challenges

« on: January 07, 2012, 06:28 AM »

It could be the programming environment you're working in that has very poor unicode support (Delphi, C++ Builder, various scripting languages).

-f0dder (January 05, 2012, 09:30 AM)

Oooh, I have to correct this :) Delphi has had a brilliant Unicode support since version 2009. The downside is that apps compiled in these new versions of Delphi won't run on anything below Win2k/XP.

Of course, earlier versions of Delphi are still very much in use as well. In those it's still possible to create unicode-enabled apps, but without native compiler support it can be quite painful and you have a very limited choice of third-party libraries.

209

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request: "File -> Open" command for editor

« on: January 06, 2012, 05:31 PM »

DrawTool.CROP(Document, 0, 0, 655, 342)

-vlastimil (January 06, 2012, 12:03 PM)

You have written an image editor with a built-in command line?!

Checking.... checking... OMG.

Love it! Thanks, Vlastimil, this is seriously neat. My editing needs are usually limited to cropping and an occasional color correction, but hey, this is really a sweet and precise way to slice and dice graphics.

210

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request: "File -> Open" command for editor

« on: January 06, 2012, 08:58 AM »

i use IrfanView to do the above. there is a dialog box to set the dimension in cm/inches/pixels (it can't do percentages though) and you can use right-click to drag the selection around. the screenshots might be more useful..

-lanux128 (January 06, 2012, 08:44 AM)

Thanks, that looks good too. The right-button move is neat, I didn't know about that.

211

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request: "File -> Open" command for editor

« on: January 06, 2012, 08:56 AM »

i particularly like the set selection size thing -- i'll do that right away.

-mouser (January 06, 2012, 08:28 AM)

So now I don't know what to say That would be great, but really, it's not that urgent. Thanks!

the open with SC.. i can add that easily enough, but would it be ok if sc switched to that file's folder too?  if not it might be harder.

Totally ok, yes.

212

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

« on: January 06, 2012, 08:52 AM »

yes its  clear clipboard after clicking it the icon no longer brings it up  ive got to close the program and restart it again  thanks

-hangdawg (January 06, 2012, 07:30 AM)

- What version of Windows, please? 32 or 64 bit?

- When the problem happens, can you still bring up Echo using the activation hotkey (Win+Insert by default) and work with Echo normally? This is important, since it would tell me where in Echo the problem may be occurring.

Thanks!

213

Screenshot Captor / Request: "File -> Open" command for editor

« on: January 06, 2012, 08:24 AM »

I'm looking for one, but can't find it :)

Now here's why. I needed to take an existing image and crop it to a specific pixel size. This simple task is surprisingly hard in most image editors, because:

1) In most simple editors, the selection rectangle is not persistent: you draw it with the mouse, then it disappears as soon as you click elsewhere. This means that if I need a selection rectangle that's exactly 655 x 342 pixels, I have to get it right the first time. Not easy! Good-bye, Paint .Net.

2) In more capable editors, the selection rectangle "sticks" and you can resize it with the mouse. The editor in ACDSee 10 does that, for example. But would you believe it, it does not display the dimensions of the selection, so you can't tell if the rectangle has the right size. Bye-bye!

3) Even if the selection is sticky and sizeable, often it cannot be moved around the image to cover a different part of it. You can get the rectangle to the required size, but when you drag it around, it moves together with the pixels it contains, leaving a white spot in its original location. Bye-bye, Snagit editor!

Needless to say, Screenshot Captor gets all three tasks perfectly! But I couldn't find a way to open an arbitrary image :) I copied the image to SC's screenshot folder instead, but a File -> Open would still be very useful, if possible.

Oh, and for the procedure I was doing, there's one other thing that would help that no editor does (that I know of). Let me specify the dimensions first, in pixels or percentage, in a dialog box. Click OK, and the selection rectangle is placed on the image at the exact size and can then be moved around to select the desired area of the picture. That would really help a lot, because even with the sticky selection, it's not that easy to change the width or height by 1 pixel or so.

Not urgent, not critical, just a couple of things that would help me a lot when needed.

214

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« on: January 06, 2012, 07:06 AM »

And once you need to wind down after all that...

215

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: FINAL: The Official WriteUp for the NANY 2012 Event!

« on: January 06, 2012, 06:49 AM »

This is so awesome! Thank you Kyrathaba and Mouser for amazing work! And thank you to all who did the screencasts, they look really impressive arranged in such a victorious procession

216

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Ethervane Echo

« on: January 06, 2012, 06:37 AM »

 hi  this is a great clipboard manager  ived tried  plenty of them before this  

-hangdawg (January 05, 2012, 11:21 PM)

Thanks, and welcome to DC!

but is there a setting i  need to change  because if you  right click tray icon and click clear  history  you can no longer click on icon to bring it back up   only way is to click restore  or  exit  the program  and restart it    

There is no "Clear History" command in the icon menu. There is "Clear Clipboard" - is this what's causing the problem you're describing?

What happens when you click the icon afterwards? Nothing at all?

(Remember you can always bring up Echo by pressing ehe activation hotkey, there should be no need to restart. But if I can find a problem with the tray icon, I'll fix it.)

i do the later as its nice to be able to just click the icon  and is there a option to make the close button to minimize   it   kinda  like  kee pass  does    thanks

I am not a big fan of that. I think the close icon should close and the minimize icon should minimize, if you know what I mean :) It's irritating when you try to exit the app and it only minimizes instead.

That said, I don't think it would make a difference in Echo, because Echo will automatically minimize when you switch to another application (or just click anywhere outside it, or press Escape). So instead of clicking the Close icon, it's much easier to just do nothing at all, and Echo will minimize by itself.

217

Living Room / Re: What's with the super-popular youtube videos that are just slideshows??

« on: January 04, 2012, 07:09 PM »

Get used to it if you spend much time on YouTube.  They've determined how to insert ads into/onto the videos while they are playing.  So, apart from whatever ads might be integral to the video(s), now you have Google doing their bit.

-barney (January 04, 2012, 07:04 PM)

In that case I'm glad I'm still using FF 3.6! Looks like whatever they came up with doesn't work there.

218

Developer's Corner / Re: Web designer needed to convert a Joomla template to a WordPress theme

« on: January 04, 2012, 07:02 PM »

9 times out of 10 I find 1 or more references to say the logo file and then I can replace them on a case-by-case basis or do an automated search-and-replace.

-JavaJones (January 04, 2012, 05:36 PM)

That's not quite what I meant though - I know I can be long-winded and that doesn't help clarity. It's not about finding the image. It's about making your own image, with your text and maybe a logo, that fits the style of the theme. If you take the theme I used as an example and replace the brown-and-blue "obsidian" header picture with, say, Google's logo, the effect will be rather crappy, wouldn't you agree?

So basically when you buy a commercial template like this, you may also need to buy the services of a professional graphic designer who will make a logo for you that goes well with the theme. That, or you have to name your site "Obsidian"

219

Developer's Corner / Re: Web designer needed to convert a Joomla template to a WordPress theme

« on: January 04, 2012, 06:56 PM »

If you want to do it yourself download the trial version of Artisteer from www.artisteer.com and create the template you want (it is very easy to use - just work through the tabs from left to right and pick the settings you fancy graphically).

-Carol Haynes (January 04, 2012, 03:34 AM)

Downloading Artisteer now, thank you, Carol! Will try.

If you prefer I can give you a hand to get Joomla doing what you want it to do instead

Thanks for that, too, but I'm afraid Joomla is dead to me This is not something I've just discovered BTW. I saw the problem soon after putting up the site. At the time I did ask on the Joomla forums, but to no avail. That's why the site has been sitting there unfinished for many months now. I just gave up after that (and after spending some money on the theme and a bunch of add-ons first).

220

Living Room / Re: What's with the super-popular youtube videos that are just slideshows??

« on: January 04, 2012, 06:54 PM »

As to whether there's money in this, do you see ads when you watch the videos?

-JavaJones (January 04, 2012, 05:56 PM)

I swear I did. Once. In Chrome, which I hardly ever use. The ads were actually overlaid on the video, in the lower-third, translucent text-filled rectangles. I don't know if they were clickable. I felt this influx of visceral disgust and I didn't try to click them. They did not seem related to the video, or rather, I didn't get the impression that they were placed there by the uploader. (The video was a game walkthrough by a fan, totally non-commercial.)

I know I was not hallucinating, but like I said, it was only once and only in Chrome (with AdBlock Plus). Maybe YT is/was experimenting with ads, maybe they only work in a version of Chrome, or maybe the overlays were inserted by the uploader after all, I cannot be sure. But I saw what I saw and I never want to see it again

221

Living Room / Re: What's with the super-popular youtube videos that are just slideshows??

« on: January 04, 2012, 04:54 PM »

Don't they have some new rating system, voting system?  Seem to recall something about that on an RSS feed a week or so back.  Just figured it was a[nother] popularity contest, so didn't pay much attention.  YouTube doesn't get but a sliver of my time  .

-barney (January 04, 2012, 04:50 PM)

You can click "Like" or "Dislike" under a video, but it's been around for a long time. It's just that you don't see the number of dislikes early enough to influence your decision of whether or not to start watching a clip.

222

Living Room / Re: What's with the super-popular youtube videos that are just slideshows??

« on: January 04, 2012, 04:42 PM »

47 million views for a slideshow?  Nobody likes it, nobody cares, yet there it is...

-superboyac (January 04, 2012, 02:57 PM)

I know what you mean. Of course YouTube (i.e., Google) could easily rectify that by doing one of the following:
- show the view count only to the uploader of the video
- not show the view count together with video thumbnails (show it only on the video page proper, after you've clicked through)
- show both the view count and the like/dislike counts with video thumbnails. You'd see the impressive number of views, but you'd also see that thirty five million people hated it.

But, doing any of these things would cause a drop in pageviews, so they won't do them.

223

Living Room / Re: At last, KeyNote done better :)

« on: January 04, 2012, 10:21 AM »

Import from the old or from the new one?

-tranglos (January 04, 2012, 10:17 AM)

From KeyNote-NF. Not sure if they are compatible enough.

-Tuxman (January 04, 2012, 10:19 AM)

Right, I should have understood that in the first place I'd say give it a try. I really don't know if KeyNote NF changed the file format in any way.

224

Living Room / Re: At last, KeyNote done better :)

« on: January 04, 2012, 10:17 AM »

I would surely change to something different if there was a way to import from it. I use Evernote, but side-by-side...

-Tuxman (January 04, 2012, 09:30 AM)

Import from the old or from the new one? RightNote does import KeyNote files well. You just need to create a new RN database or open an existing one, and import knt files into that.

Caveat: I've just found out RN will crash if you import a knt file which contains virtual nodes and the files for those virtual nodes are missing. The error prevents RN from saving the newly imported notes to the database. The workaround is either to delete the offending virtual nodes in KeyNote, or to open the knt file in a text editor and manually fix the paths so that they point to existing files.

225

Living Room / Re: At last, KeyNote done better :)

« on: January 04, 2012, 07:11 AM »

So, what's with KeyNote-NF?

-Tuxman (January 04, 2012, 12:52 AM)

I have no idea, I'm sorry.