Messages

76

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« on: May 12, 2011, 02:58 AM »

Hi Jimbo88,

At the top of the page, right under the header you can find a magnifying glass icon with a textbox, a combobox (drop down) and a search button. In the text box you enter your search words and with the combobox you can decide the range of your search (e.g. whole forum, only this board, blah blah). Then press the search button to start your search.

If you need more experienced features you find a right under that a line saying "Forum Home My Profile Thread Marks Member Map Chat! Downloads Search Unread Posts". If you click on Search you get a comprehensive search form where you can define all aspects of your search.

HTH
JoTo

77

Living Room / Re: Congratz to the US Military Forces!

« on: May 02, 2011, 05:14 AM »

I'll cheer if the military can handle the upcoming increasing terrorism action. Killing the guy is not the end, but the beginning of a new war IMHO. So +1 from me for fooders comment.

And the circumstances are still unclear. If he died in a fight while he shoots at the GIs, okay! But if they executed him without trial, its murder...nevertheless what he did (or we think he had done). But i don't understand the thinking of people anyway that operate Guantanamo and claim it's in the name of justice.

Nevertheless, IF he was guilty and IF he is really dead now and IF he died in a fair combat and IF we don't face another thousands of thousands dead bodies in near future died in increased revenge driven terrorism action THEN i'll join the choir of cheers for the good job done.

Sorry that i mixed some bitter tears in the delirium of joy of most of you but thats how i think *shrug*

JoTo

PS:
This was my one and only comment on this topic and i think i will not follow this thread further, as i don't think DC is the right place for politic discussion.

78

Developer's Corner / Re: A very good (and free) captcha class in PHP (Recommendation)

« on: April 15, 2011, 08:54 AM »

Hi Vlastimil,

i agree with you that captchas are annoyances. Don't tell that to me as a visually impaired person. *sigh*

But there are situations where you need them. This is my one and only captcha page for now. But it's a license request page and i don't want to get customers loose under a pile of spam. And with your code system you can't even ban a bot cover valuable mails under a mess of spams.

Furthermore i offer a direct license request way directly from the application too. You don't have to visit that page. It's just for the one's that reject to use the "normal" convinient way. And if you want to say i must agree: THAT people that don't use the recommended way i hate, yes, yes and yes!

So if we agree that captchas are bad at all, and that there ARE situations where you need one, my finding is still one of the better ones.

And as we talk about Javascript. What if you have customers with JS disabled? Doesn't that mean you hate them when you make your pages unusable without JS? E.g. in my browser JS is disabled and scripts are blocked all the time unless i allow a page to execute scripts. How annoying if i have to enable scripts all the time.

And there is no need for an excusation anywhere. Thank you for your thoughts and as you see, we aren't far away from each other, are we?

Greetings
JoTo

79

Developer's Corner / A very good (and free) captcha class in PHP (Recommendation)

« on: April 15, 2011, 02:56 AM »

Hi DCs,

i was in need to protect a submission page of one of my projects with a captcha. So i searched for a good, easy to use, mighty, customizable and free class. I kissed a lot of frogs until i found my prince. I told Mouser in the IRC channel that i now found a very good one (IMHO). I'd better resisted to tell him, because now he urged me to write this post to annoy you all  and share my experience with it.

OK, as Mouser is root, his wish is my command And as the forum search don't showed up a mention of my finding yet, i'm now sitting here and typing. *sigh*

Well i lastly landed and went with SecurImage (http://www.phpcaptcha.org/)

SecurImage sample from my page:


Note:
This captcha is a very easy to solve one. But the "security level" is freely adjustable with every aspect of imagesize, font-facetype, count of distortion lines, amount of text distortion (twisting), text-angle, background color, text-color (even multicolor text is possible), background-image, and, and, and. Also the given audio files for playback are automatically distorted randomly every time they are played back by the class itself, so no need to fiddle around with any audio editor to get them distorted manually and end up with statically distorted audios only.

What is Securimage?

Securimage is an open-source free PHP CAPTCHA script for generating complex images and CAPTCHA codes to protect forms from spam and abuse. It can be easily added into existing forms on your website to provide protection from spam bots. It can run on most any webserver as long as you have PHP installed, and GD support within PHP. Securimage does everything from generating the CAPTCHA images to validating the typed code. Audible codes can be streamed to the browser with Flash for the vision impaired.

Features

    * Show an image in just 3 lines of code
    * Validate submitted entries in less than 6 lines of code
    * Customizable code length
    * Customizable character sets, Unicode support
    * TTF font support
    * Use custom GD fonts when TTF is not available
    * Easily add background images
    * Multi colored, distorted, and transparent text options
    * Customizable Flash button to stream MP3 audio of CAPTCHA code
    * Ability to use a word list

I must say, the package worked right out of the box nicely. Configuration took me only 10 minutes. The longest time i spent on designing my form, which you are totally free to design. No restrictions from the captcha class here.

As this was my very first fiddling with graphics in PHP i was at first a bit concerned about the GD library support requirement. I was not sure if this will work on my webspace (is it installed or not). But calm down...after a quick research i noticed that GD library is implemented in PHP for a long time by default. So if your webhoster haven't explicitly disabled GD library in his PHP installation, this class will work without any prerequisite add-on or installation of any 3rd party stuff except the files that come with the SecurImage package.

I was also capable to add full multilanguage support. Even with multilanguage audio for the visual impaired ones (DE and EN at the moment).

Well i must admit, that i ran into a problem with my german audiofiles. They won't play more than one character of the code, while the english ones, that ship with SecurImage worked well and read all characters of the code in a row. Therefore i contacted the author and got a reply within some hours with a very competent and helpful hint.

For the files (maybe helpful for others that run into this problem as well): The important thing is, that the mp3 audiofiles must not have any ID3 tag in it. The author gave me the right direction and also a (new to me) nice mp3-Tag commandline utility to get rid of the tags in my files. And...tadaaa...after that it worked in multilanguage audio without any further change in the configuration or my code.

Finally i just recommend this class highly to all who search a free, easy to use, customizable captcha class with a kind and responsive author for their PHP projects.

HTH anyone
Greetings
JoTo

PS:
As this class is open source and totally free, i think i don't have to claim that i'm not affiliated with the SecurImage project in any way. I get nothing from the author for this recommendation. I haven't found a "Donate" button on the project page yet, even if i'd gladly sent the author some bucks for his effort. I am just a very satisfied user of the class and glad that such a good piece of software is free available. That's all!

80

Official Announcements / Re: 2011 Fundraiser Giveaway Extravaganza - WINNERS POSTED

« on: April 04, 2011, 03:57 AM »

Hi Edvard,

thanks for clarifying. That explains why i haven't got it. I'm not a gamer and never played "Portal".

I'm familiar with "42" though!

Greetings
JoTo

81

Official Announcements / Re: 2011 Fundraiser Giveaway Extravaganza - WINNERS POSTED

« on: April 04, 2011, 02:11 AM »

@Cranioscopical:
Thank you...you are awesome

But are you nuts? I'm on diet right now...Anyone wants to win the cake? Mouser will organize a big cake giveaway drawing...Join NOW!  

@Josh:
A lie? Why is that? Sometimes you are a pure source of usefullnes (e.g. when you recommend myBase which i immediately purchased when i tried it after your suggestion on the forum) and sometimes you are a pure riddle for me.

@Chisaku:
WONDERFUL drawing! You are an artist. Together with Nudone our DC Art-Studio!

@Mouser:
I think we need to dump that Nany-Mug stuff for prizes. I'd prefer a Cody metallic figurine for Nany 2011 in the style of Chisakus (Cody on a pedestal). I'd pay for one if i can get one of this (if not for Nany) with engraved "For my best friend JoTo" on the pedestal.

I want something Cody-esque for myself. A plushie or a figurine. One of this. Main point, something in 3D what i can put on my desk, get in hand and feel it. And i want it NOW! *JoTo shows mouser his madest and forcible face" Move your a... errrr....i mean: May you so kind to organize something? Thank you!

Greetings
JoTo

82

Official Announcements / Re: 2011 Fundraiser Giveaway Extravaganza - WINNERS POSTED

« on: April 03, 2011, 10:20 AM »

Hooray!

I won in DC drawing. And this exactly on the day of my birthday. What a double present.

So add 50% to my prize happiness of already 100%

Thanks mouser and all sponsors.

Greetings
JoTo

83

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« on: April 01, 2011, 03:34 AM »

WOW!      

What a result! I am proud to be a small gear in this great community.

It was amazing this month to wait till next day to see what comes next. And i got lot of nice readings, hints and some programs from it.

Thank you to all contributors to make this possible and i hope i have the opportunity to be a contributor in 2 years at the next fundraiser.

And thank you to all donators as well to make it possible that my most loved website in the net is now capable to exist for another 2 years or so.

And last but not least THANKS TO MOUSER! Our cheese of cheesys, our beef in the burger, our man who mouser us all the time in the IRC channel, and of course our always squeaking gear that make all this here possible (of course with the help of us - but he is mainly the engine that drive us to the events like N.A.N.Y, fundraiser, mass suicide   ...errr cancel the last please   ).  

Now i just hope (Attention: Pure egoism follows) that i am one of the winners of the giveaway drawing.   Anyone can imagine how difficult it is to write this message with crossed fingers?  

Fundraiser celebration is over now...but don't let celebration stop here. Let's celebrate now the results, the winners of the upcoming drawing and our community in it's all for the next 2 years. Then we end this celebration season and just begin a new one with a new fundraiser.

THANK YOU AGAIN TO ALL OF THIS GREAT PLACE!

Greetings
JoTo

84

Developer's Corner / Re: [PHP] str_replace - is this even possible?

« on: March 28, 2011, 11:51 PM »

Hi Veign,

glad that you proofed it. I just thought i am too dumb again to use the str_replace function correctly and gave out a bad advise.

Happy replacing all
JoTo

85

Developer's Corner / Re: [PHP] str_replace - is this even possible?

« on: March 28, 2011, 12:05 PM »

Hi Veign,

i was thinking about the array functionality of str_replace as well before i posted my solution of course. Problem is, that the replacements contain characters that will be replaced again (are in the search array).

E.g. if an "E" gets replaced with "012" and a "1" with "345" you end up with "03452" when using this approach. I've tested it first before i came back to my posted solution. As the characters in his string are random, you cant find an order of the search array that prevents this "reentrance".

Seems str_replace is not made for that you replace sth. with sth. that is in the search array. So this approach is not more effective but just won't work at all. Therefore this workaround.

For the other point i must agree with Veign. No black magic or voodoo here. Either the tags are in your source text already or your code adds them.

Greetings
JoTo

86

Developer's Corner / Re: [PHP] str_replace - is this even possible?

« on: March 28, 2011, 07:14 AM »

Hi RedPillow again,

YW!

Yes, array_flip exchanges keys with values and vice versa in an array.

You can use the same slightly changed lines to reverse the cryption.

Just split the crypted string with str_split again and use the length parameter with value 3 to get chunks of 3 chars in each array element.
Then use the same foreach construct to search for keys (formerly the values) in cryptkey and replace it by the values (formerly the keys) and you should be there.

Good luck
JoTo

87

Developer's Corner / Re: [PHP] str_replace - is this even possible?

« on: March 28, 2011, 06:10 AM »

Hi RedPillow,

i think your problem is, that str_replace finds already replaced characters in your string and replace it again and again and again.

This version of your slightly adapted script works for me. Maybe give it a try.

Code: PHP [Select]

1. <?php
2. //This is the key-table for crypter.
3. $cryptkey = array('0' => 286, '1' => 949, '2' => 695, '3' => 348, '4' => 438, '5' => 977,
4.                   '6' => 320, '7' => 418, '8' => 970, '9' => 482, '[' => 466, ']' => 770,
5.                   '.' => 569, ' ' => 242, '-' => 166, 'A' => 583, 'B' => 575, 'C' => 247,
6.                   'D' => 564, 'E' => 192, 'F' => 513, 'G' => 653, 'H' => 605, 'I' => 450,
7.                   'J' => 404, 'K' => 831, 'L' => 315, 'M' => 953, 'N' => 439, 'O' => 266,
8.                   'P' => 231, 'Q' => 633, 'R' => 881, 'S' => 113, 'T' => 935, 'U' => 559,
9.                   'V' => 318, 'W' => 927, 'X' => 906, 'Y' => 463, 'Z' => 184, 'a' => 263,
10.                   'b' => 453, 'c' => 208, 'd' => 591, 'e' => 511, 'f' => 343, 'g' => 969,
11.                   'h' => 415, 'i' => 420, 'j' => 175, 'k' => 410, 'l' => 295, 'm' => 265,
12.                   'n' => 877, 'o' => 200, 'p' => 837, 'q' => 913, 'r' => 515, 's' => 262,
13.                   't' => 524, 'u' => 874, 'v' => 525, 'w' => 700, 'x' => 670, 'y' => 918,
14.                   'z' => 290, '<' => 331, '>' => 533, "'" => 425, ',' => 101, ':' => 495,
15.                   '$' => 114, '\\' => 268, '/' => 721, '=' => 454);
16. //Don't mind about some flaws in table ... solving them later.
17.  
18. // Just some dummy values to keep PHP happy :)
19. $curdate = "03/28/2011";
20. $color = "#ffffff";
21. $rotation = "RoundItGoes";
22. $ip = "192.168.0.1";
23. $msg = "Hello world!";
24.  
25. //This is the string we're going to crypt.
26. $notcrypted1 = "[$curdate] - Rotation was <font color = '$color'><b>$rotation</b></font> degrees, done by <b>$ip</b>, who says: ''<b>$msg</b>''\r\n";
27.  
28. //Splitting the string here.
29. $split1 = str_split($notcrypted1);
30.  
31. // Replace the characters in the string with their crypted equivalents
32. foreach($split1 as $key => $value)
33. {
34.     if(array_key_exists($value, $cryptkey))
35.         $split1[$key] = $cryptkey[$value];
36.     else
37.     {
38.         // An error occurred, the character is not present in the cryptkey table
39.         // do sth. like outputting an error or inserting a special number or the original
40.         // character or whatever
41.         print "OOPS! An error occurred. Do something, QUICK! :)";
42.     }
43. }
44.  
45. // Joining again to get back a single string
46. $crypted1 = implode("", $split1);
47.  
48. // Output the crypted result
49. print "\nCrypted result is: <".$crypted1.">\n";
50. ?>

I get this result string from it:
Crypted result is: <466286348721695970721695286949949770242166242881200524263524420200877242700263262242331343200877524242208200295200515242454242425#343343343343343343425533331453533881200874877591450524653200511262331721453533331721343200877524533242591511969515511511262101242591200877511242453918242331453533949482695569949320970569286569949331721453533101242700415200242262263918262495242425425331453533605511295295200242700200515295591!331721453533425425
>

What looks correct for me, in the way you described your goal, when i check some samples manually.

Hope this helps!

Greetings
JoTo

88

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« on: March 19, 2011, 12:14 PM »

Hey mouseman,

i just want to give you a thumbs up. You know, while i'm a nearly daily IRC member of the DC channel i'm not a everyday forum reader. But i read your event updates EVERYDAY.

So to answer your question. YES, at least i - and i'm sure hundred others, read your daily update posts.

And thanks also to all of those fundraiser participants that write that apps, reviews, stories, hints, political speeches ... HUH???? errrrr...cancel that last one please. Good work, please go on.

Greetings
JoTo

PS:
Maybe this was a test, but i noticed that the post for 14th is missing! GOTCHA and proofed that i read them.

89

Living Room / Re: Micro Reviews of Board Games From a Non-Competetive Perspective

« on: February 28, 2011, 08:07 AM »

Hi,

for those of you BoardGameGeeks i have a suggestion.

I am a long time member of http://www.brettspielwelt.de (BoardGamesWorld).

BSW is a site where you can play online and FREE many original boardgames. From Settlers of Catan, over Pandemic to Dogz and whatnot. All the games are licensed with the original publishers and so they look relatively genuine (original graphics, gameplay and rules). The publishers count the BSW as a kind of advertisement for their games. And it worked for me. When i joined the BSW i played Pandemic the first time. I loved it so much that i purchased the game as a board game -> DANG! Money for the publisher via BSW.

In BSW there is a Metagame that is organized in a kind of "World" with towns and Guilds and Ranks/Levels. So you can go from town to town where games in "houses of the town" are offered to play. Lounges and shouts makes it easy to find opponents. Also there are a lot of people around all the day and 24/7. At the time i write this post 1200+ players were online.

Regular tournaments and events completes the scenario. The Metagame is a nice addon, but not the main thing. If you register you can get a citizen of a town and play for this town in tournaments and earn money for the town (that is needed to purchase food, pay tax and whatnot). Or you just enter, wade to the game you want, play some matches and walk away again. It's at your will.

Oh and did i mentioned its completely FREE. You even don't need to register. You can play as Guest. But then you miss a lot of fun of rankings and levels. But even if you register, i never got a single email from them, except the register/welcome one.

Don't be afraid that this is a german page and the homepage is all german. There are a lot of foreign (non german) members there and english spoken is BSW-wide from a lot of persons there. There are even founded towns in the BSW-Metagame with english speaking or regional persons (e.g. London for British people or Istanbul for Turkish).

E.g. there is a special forum board for english only at: BSW English Forum

So maybe we meet you some times in the world of BSW. My nickname (What do you think? Surprise, Surprise!) is of course not JoTo. Was already taken. I am Lukullus there.

Hope this suggestion is valuable for someone.

Greetings
JoTo

90

Official Announcements / Re: March 2011 DonationCoder.com Fundraiser Celebration -- Pledges?

« on: February 23, 2011, 03:27 AM »

Hi Stephen,

How about if we had the fundraiser items (Reviews, Coding Snacks etc) all posted into a special area, that only those who have pledged (and submitted one pledge to mouser, or a Fundraiser admin for sumittion into the area) and those who have donated in the month of March; can access.

This area will be something like the area that is currently only available for anybody with the "Supporting Member" title, and will act as sort of a "Pre-Release Room".  Once the fundraiser has finished, one whole month will pass before the posts go public (May 1st).

Sorry, i think your idea is contra productive.

I understand the fundraiser idea in that way to convince people to visit our pages regularly as they are curious what we got new this day and the next day and the next ...

Following your idea is to burn the whole firework rockets in one bunch at the same time instead of enjoying the spectacle over a longer time.

People just think, ok, they release it at 1st, May, then i'll come back then and read them all at once.

I think to have people on our pages every day for whole march and see all the other new posts too (not only the fundraiser related) and the donation thermometer and seeing your new tattoo that you'll get every day ( SCNR - hehehe) is the most important thing. So visiting DC site can become a kind of "tradition" for them and may last over the end of march too.

Just my 2ct.
Greetings
JoTo

91

Site/Forum Features / Re: Revisiting the idea of simplifying the DC big app license key stuff

« on: February 23, 2011, 02:59 AM »

Hi,

+1 from me for mousers idea with the "bound to version license key".
+1 from me too for jgpaivas idea for a "New update available" screen.

Reasons:
- Our software is and will stay free with this. Everyone can get the app and the license key without donating and signing up. Removing all that discussions here and there if DC is a freeware site.

- Its at users choice if he will stay and is glad with the old version or if he update and jump throughout the easy to go hoop to download another version bound key (forcing him to visit our page at least once again).

- The update screen should show improvements points though, so that the user can decide if he wants to go for the new version or still satisfied with the old one. And an update notification screen is IMO not considered a nag screen by most users. Maybe the "check for update" should be an option that can be disabled in the app preferences. That will cancel our interest in having the user back on our site though, but if the user is satisfied with his version and don't want a new key he will not visit our pages anyway and from then on the update screen will be considered a "nag screen" by that user.

For me that worked nicely when there was an offer for a free license key of "USB Safely remove". That was not upgradable though. But i was impressed by the generousity of that company and learned that they are nice and customer care related and responsive (they even did a special version soleyly for me when i ran into some coloring problems where i can't see some parts of the screen - WOW!). At the end the successor "Zentimo" from them offered me such a big additional value and i had the strong feeling to support that nice company. So i decided to fold my free key and purchase a paid one for Zentimo.

That make me think this may work for donations as well. If they see there are regularly updates and they benefit from them, they learn to know us more and more better, they think about a donation with more positive thinking over the time and lastly donate and visit our site regularly.

Maybe the free key download page can be combined with the "daily blog" page somehow, so the may get attracted by a new post or article when they go for their new key and maybe switch over to that post and read or in best case want to write a reply what results in a signup.

So i think with this concept we can reach all our goals like:
- Give useres the opportunity to use our programs really free and stop all the rumour all over the net about "Is DC software really freeware".

- Give users the freedom to use our apps forever in the version they got if they don't need updates and are satisfied with the features (and bugs *cough* *cough*)

- Give us the chance that users visit the page regularly

- Convince users that visiting our pages that we are kind, nice, helpful and the best site in the net

- Make them maybe donate and/or at least think about to do so.

- Simplify the licensing process

And i think the 3rd choice "if you are not able to donate, write us an email" is totally unnecessary for this reasons:

- Our (mousers?) apps are already great and very useable. A freeware author or non-profit organization can perfectly live with the actual version of e.g. Screenshot capture. There is no need to always have the newest versions or features for them. So they can get the app for free, use it free forever and have no need for a next key. If they really want the new feature they have to go for the new key. So what? A small way to go for a really wanted and free gift that costs nothing more than 2 minutues of time and some mouse clicks, isn't it? I think we can demand that from them in reward for giving them the software for completely no obligations.

- I can't fight the feeling this can be considered "begging" by the email writers. For me i'd feel uncomfortable to write an email "I am soooo poor, please gift me the full time key". And there is no need for it anyway, as i can use my actual version unlimited and when i want the new, i can get the new key for free again and without begging.

- It complicates things again (a third bulleted point in the licensing explanation).

- We don't get any additional value from those that writes an email except additional work for mouser. He had to read, decide and reply to the mails. And we are giving away a full time key for nothing than work. And i think mousers time is better spent in improving FARR & Co. and torture the IRC channel members with teasing them into discussions and then mousering them (for non regular IRC channel members: "to mouser someone" is a new created verb by the DC IRC community that means to just stop responding in a running discussion without any seeable reason, letting the talking partner stand outside in the rain without an umbrella alone ).

Last unresolved problem is the "how to donate" topic though. But i think that is not in our hands completely. There are other participants that must give us the opportunity to use an easy to use, for everyone payment system.

Just my 2ct.

Greetings
JoTo

92

General Software Discussion / Re: Dropquest

« on: January 17, 2011, 04:33 AM »

Yeah, it worked. Thanks for bring it to my attention and of course to the original poster of the walkthrough. Without it i would have been lost.

Greetings
JoTo

93

Developer's Corner / Re: Mimic a shell environment (or terminal env) for a 3rd party program

« on: January 01, 2011, 03:15 AM »

Hi fodder,

thank you also for your reply.

1. Sorry the 3rd party app is a kind of "driver" for an x-ray generator. So i think its not publicity available for all. I am able to send you that program if you offer to look at it. But i first have to talk to my teammate that have that problem actually if this makes sense in any way, as i'm not sure if the 3rd party app is working without a connected x-ray generator anyway.

2. The capturing is done with the wxWidgets framerwork and the execute function of the wxProcess class. I have not yet feeled the need to dig under the hood, as i have no idea anyway what to look for.

3. Aha, the information about libc behaviour and the different stream types is new to me. I'll forward that information to my teammate and see if we can "turn the knob" a bit here.

Thank you and happy new year
JoTo

94

Developer's Corner / Re: Mimic a shell environment (or terminal env) for a 3rd party program

« on: December 30, 2010, 01:25 AM »

Hi Ath,

thanks for your suggestion. But sadly there is no commandline options for that app.

It uses a kind of menu structure. Meaning you start it without any commandline options, then a text menu is displayed where you can select with numbers what do you want to do.

That is why i need to communicate with that process. I have to wait till the menu is there and then send the number i want to make the other app do what i want.

And if its like you suggest, that windows is the "bad guy" who buffers, i have no idea how to change that behaviour as well. Any hint here what i can check to be sure, who's the one i need to kick in *ss? And how i can do this?

Happy new year
JoTo

95

Developer's Corner / Mimic a shell environment (or terminal env) for a 3rd party program

« on: December 29, 2010, 08:50 AM »

Hi DCs,

need your help with a problem i can't solve myself.

I need to "remote control" a 3rd party application from my wxWidgets app. The 3rd party app is a console app, while my wxApp is a windows GUI one.

I wrote a class to start a process and capture stdin, stdout and stderr, so i can receive output from the other app and write (input) to it. My class worked fine with many other 3rd party apps.

With that app it works too, but this app seems using output buffering. So when i wait for the welcome message of the other app, i don't receive it. But i need to send some commands to it after the welcome message showed up.

When i just wait a period of time and then send some input while holding fingers crossed (hoping that the other app is already ready to receive), then suddenly i receive a whole bunch of information from the other app. So capturing works fine, but i need more "realtime" control.

So that is not a good solution too.

If i start that app in a normal dos-shell environment, the welcome message is output immediately (what i want to happen when started from within my app as well).

Seems that app recognize if it is started in terminal mode or with captured streams.

I have no access to the sourcecode of the 3rd party app. So i'm not able to inject some "flush" commands in the code.

Anyone has an idea how i can mimic an "interactive terminal mode" to this other app? Or someone knows a wrapper app where i can throw in my commandline and that will mimic it the right way and pass-through the in/output to and from my app to the other app?

Any hint very appreciated. Thank you in advance very much!

Greetings
JoTo

96

Developer's Corner / Re: What is wrong with this php-snippet?

« on: December 08, 2010, 05:12 AM »

HiHo,

glad you solved it and you were welcome!

Greetings
JoTo

97

Developer's Corner / Re: What is wrong with this php-snippet?

« on: December 08, 2010, 03:04 AM »

Hi again,

A LISTBOX, aha. I am not sure right out of the head how the single strings in a submitted listbox content are divided. Is it \n, \r, \r\n, < br />?

I think the problem is, that you need another split character in your explode (first parameter where i used the space character in my example - " ").

See first, whats exactly in your $_POST["vehicle"] variable contained (e.g. write the original $_POST variable to a file and use a hex viewer) and use the correct split character in explode.

Otherwise, what element do you use exactly in your html page? If you want, you can use a < select> element, which should deliver back a proper array with the selected items, ready to use with foreach without any exploding before.

For a sample look here:
http://www.onlinetools.org/tricks/using_multiple_select.php

HTH
JoTo

98

Developer's Corner / Re: What is wrong with this php-snippet?

« on: December 08, 2010, 02:38 AM »

Hi there,

i think the problem is, that foreach needs an array. While $_POST is indeed an array, $_POST["vehicle"] is NOT. It's normally a scalar, unless its a group of controls (e.g. checkboxes).

Either you use $_POST["vehicle"] without any loop (e.g. in that variable is contained "vehicleA vehicleB vehicleC" you'll get what you want without a loop but without the line breaks), or you do an explode before the loop like this (assuming the vehicles in that variable are divided by a space):

$arrTmp = explode(" ", $_POST["vehicle"]);
foreach($arrTmp as $value)
{
  // do what you want now with $value
}

You can test if $_POST["vehicle"] is an array or not with the function is_array(). If it's the result from e.g. checkboxes, it should work as you did. Then i'm out of ideas, sorry.

HTH
JoTo

99

General Software Discussion / Re: What to use to secure delete a HDD?

« on: June 04, 2010, 04:10 AM »

@40Hz:
As i said, i dont have to hide military secrets, just want to prohibit a simple undelete. So i follow your advise and use the single DBAN pass.

Thank you too.

Greetings JoTo

100

General Software Discussion / Re: What to use to secure delete a HDD?

« on: June 03, 2010, 07:00 AM »

Thanks merle, i'll look at that one too!

Greetings
JoTo