Topics

1

Drag&Drop Robot / Feature Request: Add option to repeat playlist

« on: April 28, 2022, 05:23 PM »

Mouser, I just found a great use for this software (it solves the problem of my streaming playlist request in the other thread).  But could I ask for one option? In the playlist, it will remove the files as it processes them.  Can you add an option for it to loop through the list endlessly like a music playlist?

Thanks.

2

Coding Snacks / RTMP Playlist Manager

« on: January 24, 2022, 02:14 PM »

I am fulfilling my own request!
(See the request)

So this will be my first formal attempt to create a piece of software.  Thanks to the master skwire for teaching me!

RTMP Playlist Manager

I have been wanting a GUI for managing RTMP playlists for a while now.  Nothing exists that is simple and easy, and GUI for Windows.  Everything is a beast of an install, and a beast to configure and use.  This would be very powerful as it would allow anyone to create a broadcast stream with a push of a button.  The closest GUI-ish solution I found was a combo of OBS and VLC.  However, while it worked ok, features were lacking and I don't think I'd be able to get OBS or VLC to accept any suggestions in any kind of timely fashion.

3

Post New Requests Here / Request: random file picker for ffmpeg with GUI

« on: January 17, 2022, 11:54 AM »

It's been a while since I've made a request! (ever since my inglourious award)....

Anyhoo, here is the request.  It is intended very specifically for WINDOWS OS.  I am requesting some ffmpeg automation with GUI.  It needs to be able to run as a service, meaning restarted if accidentally stopped or errored. etc.  Here are the specs:

specify a root folder, then pick a random video file from that folder, and it must search through the subfolders also.  No consistent folder structure.  So, essentially, it needs to make a random playlist from a folder with a chaotic bunch of video files in it.  Video files can be of any format.

Once picked, then run an ffmpeg CLI command (which I have already figured out and can post).

Run as a service.  Although, I guess this is not essential since I can use other software to turn it into a service.

That's it!

ON the GUI side, well I guess the GUI isn't needed, but might help.  I was hoping for a place to select the folder.  And maybe another part just letting you know the file that is playing or that the service is Live or not.  Maybe just a top line showing the selected folder, and then a window showing the output from ffmpeg, that would be nice too.

4

Post New Requests Here / Control taskbar individually auto-hide or not per monitor

« on: May 23, 2021, 07:51 PM »

Tools for this exist in things like Display Fusion and Actual Monitor Manager.  However, I have used both of those (for years), and they are extremely bulky, bloated programs that significantly slow down your computer.  All I am asking for is a simple tool that allows you to control whether auto-hide is enable per monitor.  Windows multiple monitor taskbar features seems to handle everything else, except that.

Something very lightweight.

5

General Software Discussion / Laggy window resizing/dragging in Windows 10

« on: November 05, 2019, 04:11 PM »

Anyone have tips for this?
I just built a new computer, super duper powerful.
Windows 10, when i move windows or resize them, the windows take so long (1-2s) to catch up to the mouse.  It's crazy.  Performance is fine, none of the gpu, cpu, ram ever goes past 10%, it is an overpowered computer.

Looking online, the problem seems to be high polling rate of USB mice.  I have a logitech g502, which is a gaming mouse, and can poll at up to 5000hz.  so they say lower it to 125.  fine, that helps a little, but not entirely.  What the hell?

Have not found other solutions.  Many people are complaining specifically about Excel, which is the worst, but i get it for all windows.  Some windows are faster than others, like Electron app windows, but still laggy.  At work, where i have a cheap computer and laptop, the response is perfect!  (except for excel).  I don't understand at all.

I can post a gif or video if it helps.

6

General Software Discussion / What's the future of OneNote?

« on: October 01, 2019, 11:13 AM »

I didn't want to ruin Iainb's nice onenote thread for this, so im starting this thread...

What's the deal?  I was so annoyed to find out Onenote 2019 doesn't exist and they've replaced it with the eponymous "Onenote" that is not even a regular download, only a store download?  But even beyond that, they have completely revamped the interface.  Nothing wrong with it really, even some things are nice.  It is quite different than the previous versions.

The BIGGEST PROBLEM is that it seems to not be able to open, import, export etc the previous notebooks the same way.  I didn't experiment fully since I immediately ran to Onenote 2016 to make sure all my notes were safe.  But it seems to demand you to sign into your MS account to work, and probably all your notes need to be synced or at least available for syncing.  Very annoying.

There would be no problem if they didnt mess with the Open, Import, Export options.  but they did of course. 

So what does this mean?  If this is the end of locally stored onenote files, then it's time i once again move to another program.  Like Rightnote, which i already used pretty heavily until IAINB DEMANDED I USE ONENOTE!!!

lol

if rightnote could somehow mimic the whiteboard aspect of onenote, that would be great.

7

Living Room / Happy 2017, respect to DC friends.

« on: January 17, 2017, 10:22 PM »

beni bidi beechee.

8

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: hardware keyboard emulator for Windows tablets (full Windows, that is)

« on: February 14, 2016, 12:29 AM »

As usual, I'd be willing to pay for this.  Here is the request...

Whatever MS did in it's latest updates, they have removed some option to disable completely the automatic popup of the screen keyboard (OSK).  This is very annoying to me.  I need someone to make a button that i can toggle on/off so that the OSK NEVER pops up. 
the reason why is because I use a third party bluetooth keyboard instead of the one that MS sells with the tablet (this is the Surface Pro, not the Surface RT...meaning it is running full WIndows desktop).  Before the updates, I just disabled the OSK compeltely, and put a button on my taskbar to toggle it on or off.  So, if I needed it I would trigger it manually.  MS decided it's best that the OS automatically decides when the keyboard pops up, and somewhere along the line removed this manual control that I like.  I can still turn the OSK on/off manually, but now if I put the cursor on a text field on a website, the OSK will popup, even though I'm using a bluetooth keyboard already.  SO it's annoying, I always have to close it to type.  There is not solution for this anywhere on the web that I can find.  The closest I have come is to disable the OSK completely, but then I can't bring it up manually either.  SO I need a button that turns on/off or emulates the presence of the MS official Surface Pro keyboard so it thinks the keyboard is there so that it won't popup the OSK. 

This is just my idea of the best way to do this (the emulation, that is).  I'm assuming there's no other way to program it because if there was, someone would have done it by now.  But maybe I'm wrong on that. 

MS wants the tablet to function like a smartphone...where whenever you tap on a text field, the kyboard pops up automatically.  it would be very annoying on a smartphone for it to be manual.  But on a hybrid device like the surface pro, it's a different scenario.  Also, because it's a full Windows device, you can use all sorts of accessories as far as keyboards, mice, input devices go...so this kind of automatic stuff needs an additional level of manual control for those oddball scenarios like mine (it's not that odd, btw). 

Thanks!

9

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: gui for configuring keyboard shortcuts for J. River Media Center

« on: November 11, 2015, 03:33 PM »

OK, I had this idea thread earlier:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=40216.0

Now I've switch to J River for my music player.  As good of a product that it is, it also doesn't make modifying shortcuts easy.  With an xml file, you can change stuff.  My idea is to provide a gui for changing these commands, as well as backing up and exporting/importing the commands. 

The details of the configuration are here:
http://wiki.jriver.c...l_Keyboard_Shortcuts

I'm willing to pay/donate for this gui.

foobar actually has a good sample of a gui for this.  (They just don't have a way to save or import/export the commands).  I like the ability to set the hotkey for global vs. while in the application.  Below is a screenshot of it:


something like that, plus saving/importing/exporting customized sets would be perfect.

10

General Software Discussion / How are we all getting by with our reading organization/tracking post-RSS?

« on: August 31, 2015, 02:38 PM »

Ever since the death of RSS a couple years ago, I haven't ever recovered.  (I know it's not really dead, but I've labeled the years after 2013 as the post-RSS era).
How are you guys keeping track of what you read?  I was never a big fan of rss anyway.  I've tried website-watcher, and things like that.  I like reddit as a place to collect things to read that are interesting to others, but I don't have any way to organize my own stuff...all the blogs, podcasts, etc. that i follow.  Anyone using any interesting software or tools for it?

Don't you just want to have a list of commonly visited sites, and then keep track of which articles/links you haven't read yet.  Maybe the ability to queue it in some fashion, so you can have a list of things to read later.  I'm currently not doing anything fancy anymore, just visiting the sites in the browser basically manually.

This idea is interesting:

Hey everyone.

I wanted to share something that I have been doing and that is keeping me productive but still "in-the-know" on my favorite blogs and websites.

I use a site called IFTTT[1] .com (If This Then That, it allows you to setup a type of real life loop that checks for something, and does something if that happens.) to do most of the work for me.

With IFTTT I have setup a recipe for each site that I follow. It checks the RSS feed of that site, and if it is updated, it posts the article to my Pocket[2] reader account.

For sites that have a TON of content, and I don't necessarily read all of it, I have an IFTTT recipe setup so that if I start something in google reader, it sends it to pocket.

Every morning, I scan the headlines in Google Reader, and if something catches my attention I star it. All other websites and blogs that I follow and want to read are automatically put into Pocket.

Now, whenever I have some down time and I want to read articles that interest me. Rather than taking my 10 minute break to slog through some RSS feeds, I just go to pocket and everything is of interest and ready to be read.

Additionally, you can setup IFTTT to automatically add a video that you have marked as "Watch Later" on YouTube into Pocket. So when I want to watch videos, rather than getting distracted by kittens for 30 minutes, I go to Pocket and watch exactly what I need to.

I wanted to share this with you all, in case you hadn't heard of either Pocket[3] or IFTTT[4] . Hopefully you will find it as awesome as I have.

from:
https://www.reddit.c...ebsites_while_being/

11

Living Room / I need help coming up with a plan to fix my NTFS security permissions problems

« on: August 06, 2015, 04:51 PM »

If anyone wants to help me out with this, I'd appreciate it greatly.  Here's the background:

After a long time planning, I finally set up my custom storage server.  It's a box with several drives running a windows 2012 server.  After doing some tests and research, i settled on using the FLexraid Traid product, which is a drive pooling software raid system.  I initially tried the new windows storage spaces, but didn't like the speed and features.  Traid sold me on the fact that you can pull a drive out and the files and everything are intact without much fussing around at all.

OK, here's the problem.  I set up my first active directory domain services.  Then, unfortunately, I accidentally removed ALL the NTFS permissions from my main almost root folder.  This was bad and now I've lost access (access denied) on a lot of the folders on the storage array.  I've tried everything to reset the NTFS security and all that.  I tried all the tools out there.

Unfortunately, the developer of the software raid explicitly has said he will NOT spend a second helping people with NTFS security problems.  So I'm stuck on advice.  I've scoured the web and tried everything.

Some interesting facts:
--If I stop the storage array and just connect the drives individually, I can access all the files and folders.  I can also successfully modify the NTFS permissions with those tools mentioned.  When the array is active, however, I cannot access all the folders (access denied).  So that's why I'm confused.  The great thing about flexraid, the reason i got it, is because you can access the files in this manner.

My ideas:
--my first idea is to uninstall/reinstall active directory on the server.  or even reinstall the entire OS.  I have no idea if that will work, I guess I'm assuming if all the active directory details are reinstalled, maybe the files will think it's a new server and can start over?  i don't know.

--My other idea is to copy the contents of the drives to a temporary external drive, then copy them back over or something.  The problem with this is that I'm not sure i can delete the problem directories.  i don't want these broken directories forever on the server.

So I'll take any advice.  I don't think the files are damaged or anything.  Just the NTFS security.

12

General Software Discussion / Antivirus: Quick Thoughts 2015

« on: May 20, 2015, 04:40 PM »

This is not going to be in depth at all, but I thought it would be of interest here, since we always talk about AV programs.

I recently have decided to change my AV software.  I just started using ESET NOD32 (AV only) yesterday, and I think that's the one I prefer, let me explain.

I used to use Kaspersky, like a decade ago.  It was good, but then it started slowing down and being "unresponsive".  Like, I'd click on buttons like update, or other ones (don't remember), and nothing would happen, or it would take many seconds.  it was pretty annoying, I hate that.  So it was a performance issue, it seemed to be slowing down enough to bother me.
That's when MSE was getting a lot of publicity.  I tried it...it was free, fast, not bad.  So I kept that for a few years until last year.

I got annoyed by the lack of options in MSE, like being able to exclude files and folders with an interface that I liked.  So I started looking at the options again.  I tried Bitdefender.  It was good, very simple and pretty fast.  I used it for a while, but then the exclusion interface also started bugging me.  I just don't like it.  I also don't like how overly simple it is, almost the same complaint as MSE.
Then I tried Kaspersky again, after a few years.  Well, it has also suffered from interface annoying things.  Whereas before, all the options were in a nice simple tree, etc. now they are all over the place.  Like ribbon interfaces, you have to click around to find what you want, very annoying.  But it is loaded with features, pretty fast I guess.  But the interface was bugging me.

So I tried mouser's favorite, NOD32.  I like it!  The first thing I noticed was all the options are in a nice dialog with a tree interface.  None of this modern, weird, uber simple stuff. 

So that's it.  ESET has hit the sweet spot.  Hopefully it's not too slow or something. 

13

Living Room / USB 3.0 problems with Windows; general discussion

« on: April 22, 2015, 02:55 PM »

I got into it a little with fodder in another thread.  So I wanted to continue this discussion specifically here.

I want to talk about the problems with USB 3.0 in any Windows OS (desktop or server).  If you haven't experienced problems with USB 3.0, you are not going to help the discussion.  In other words, I'd like to figure out a solution if it exists, or at least nail what the problem is.
So, my experiences...
I've had several USB 3.0 experiences.  Some on desktops I've built myself.  I've used the more recent motherboard built-in features, I've used addon PCI cards, I've used expensive laptops that come with nice USB 3.0 features on them, including my Surface Pro.  The Windows OS's I've tried: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 R2.

My goal (I guess) is to have an external enclosure where I can swap drives in and out, use them on several different computers, and not have problems.  I've never really had a nice experience in these terms.  I've had success in isolated cases: for example, and enclosure+drive works well on my laptop, no problem.  But I don't think I've had success with using an enclosure+drive on multiple pc's without issues along the way.

Scenario 1:
I have an enclsoure+drive that has esata and USB3.  I first tried USB3 on a Windows 7 desktop.  It didn't work very well in that sometimes the device was detected, and other times it was not.  And sometimes, when it did connect, a popup would immediately ask to format the disk.  Which I didn't want to because it had data on it and was working before that incident.  Usually when this happens, the drive is already corrupted.  This has happened several times.  Usually occurs when trying the drive on different USB ports, or on different computers.  And the reason to try it on different ports and computers is because the drive was not being detected on the first try.

Scenario 2:
After experiencing Scenario 1, I lost trust in the USB3 connection.  So I decided to use the available esata port.  I really have not had problems with esata, I like it a lot.  However, some computers don't have esata, so when I take the same enclosure to a computer that lacks esata, I use the USB connector.  Problems occur, similar to above.  Where the drive gets corrupted and eventually needs to be reformatted.  When this happens, I end up using the esata port on the computer that works, and I stop trying to use it on other pcs.  I don't like that, but at least it works.

Scenario 3:
In this case, I don't have esata, only USB3.  I plug it in a USB3 port, it's detected, and I start transferring files.  If I do a significant amount of transfers, let's say 100GB...I've very often encounter the drive disconnecting in the middle of the transfers.  This usually turns out to be a power issue, but it's not always clear.  I've had it happen with extra power, too.  Some enclosures can add extra power, others cannot.

Scenario 4:
This is the new one for me.  I got an enclosure that can RAID-0 two 2.5 drives, with USB3.  I love the idea for speed and portability.  So far, it has had some minor issues, not enough to really be a problem, but enough to make me nervous.  it worked with Windows 7, but initially had a hard time being detected consistently.  One of my drives was fresh, the other had stuff on it.  after formatting and fiddling around a bit, it worked.  It worked on Windows 8.1.  It didn't work on Server 2012.  It causes it to hang.  But the bigger issue is that after plugging it into Server 2012 machine, it didn't get detected, and the drives got corrupted and had to be reformatted on the other computers.
So what's going on?  How do you get USB3 to work well and all the time?
I'm going to list many of the common solutions for USB3 problems.  In my experiences, they don't do anything most of the time.  But these are the responses that are all over the internet.
--Disable the power/suspend settings for the USB hubs.  Nice idea, rarely fixes anything.
--Similarly, adjust the power settings in Windows.  This has worked occasionally, but doesn't appear to be the problem.
--Bad controller on the enclosure.  I think this is nonsense.  I've had drives being corrupted the same exact way on several completely different enclosures.
--Replace drivers or firmware.  Also does not seem to do anything.  And figuring out the driver or firmware that needs to be replaced is also somewhat impossible.

14

General Software Discussion / How to connect external storage? (sas cables, HBA card, adapters, ??)

« on: February 23, 2015, 05:02 PM »

I'm still working through my storage issues.  I have the main box done, and I'm getting ready to add more storage in the form of additional enclosures for drives only (no MB).  I've been researching, but I'm having a little trouble figuring what I need.  So below are my thoughts so far:
My SATA ports on the server MB are maxed out, so I need new SATA ports.
Therefore, I'm going to get the popular M1015 board in "pass through"? mode, which is done by flashing it to IT mode or something like that.
Now, I have a card that can add more drives.  The connectors on the card are 2 SAS plugs.
I need to connect this card to the drives in the external enclosure.  I don't really want a cable going from inside the server box, out into the enclosure.  I'd like to have it cleaner and I think I need some kind of adapter or something to put on the PCI brackets for each box.  What is this adapter?  it would be like this:

M1015-SAS cable -->bracket SAS?-->outside cable-->bracket SAS-->SAS-to-SATA breakout for the drives.

Is that correct?  I know the cables I'd need, but I don't know what to get for those bracket parts.  And I don't know what it's called, so I don't know how to search for it.

thanks.

15

General Software Discussion / Spacemonger is updated!!!!

« on: February 12, 2015, 11:38 PM »

http://edgerunner.com/spacemonger

Spacemonger is now updated after a very long hiatus!  The economy must really be picking up or something.

I just have to say something, I personally feel Spacemonger is one of the most perfect softwares I have ever come across.  It is flawless, i really can't say that about maybe ANY other software.  The first time I saw it, i was blown away immediately.  It's simple, it's powerful, it's visually amazing, it's tremendously practical (like, I can't live without it).  It's like the Mozart of software. 

16

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: import/export foobar keyboard shortcuts

« on: February 12, 2015, 09:27 PM »

http://www.foobar2000.org/

Could someone make a tool to import and export foobar keyboard shortcuts?  This is a huge pain with fresh foobar installs.

To explain more, you can import/export the ENTIRE configuration with certain methods, but there's no way to do it with ONLY the keyboard customizations.  This is a problem because you may have configured your foobar and replacing the entire configuration will ruin that.

I don't know what is involved.  I know the shortcuts are stored in the core.cfg file, but it's not just a text file, it opens with all sorts of hex stuff.  But I believe that is the file that needs to be modified.  Or there may be another way to do it, I don't know.

I'd be willing to pay!

17

Living Room / What are the consequences of an FCC Internet "utility"?

« on: February 05, 2015, 05:16 PM »

http://www.nytimes.c...e-internet-providers

The big news today is the move to regulate the internet as a utility.  I know we have other threads for this, but my main question is what are the consequences to this?  It's hard for me to tell with all the weird political doublespeak and general news narratives.

Some of my basic questions:
Is the internet really a "natural monopoly"? (like gas, water...to me, it doesn't appear to be)
For the normal residential connection...does regulation mean faster or slower speeds per buck spent?
For the normal residential connection...does regulation mean the internet is wide open as it is today? (I don't get this one at all)
Wouldn't any kind of "change" for the internet by default indicate MORE restrictions on content?  To me, it seems logical that this is true because the internet currently is completely "liberated"...it's already 100% free, any change would have to be less free, no?

18

General Software Discussion / Storage Spaces talk

« on: January 22, 2015, 01:19 PM »

I have a lot of threads about storage and servers here.  As a windows guy, the thing that I've been most fascinated with in recent years is Storage Spaces.   The idea of tossing a hodge podge of drives into a box and creating pools is very awesome to me.  Storage Spaces, as a built in option now in the windows OSs, is something I've been keeping my eye on.  Not much is out there as far as good info regarding it.  Right now, I found a great article for it, so here it is:
http://betanews.com/...ditch-raid-for-good/

Disks are bundled into Pools, which are then divided into Spaces. Individual Spaces can then be doled out for complex storage scenarios. It's a pretty straightforward approach in the land of Storage Spaces, and actually works as advertised, I've found. (Image Source: TechNet)

You can't use a Storage Space as a boot volume... yet, of course. I am hoping that day will come, but for now, it's a mechanism for data storage sets only.

But just like RAID, you have a few options for how you can format your Storage Spaces to work. The three options you have include:

Mirror Space: This is the equivalent of a RAID-1, and my favorite Spaces flavor. Exact copies of data is mirrored across two or more drives, giving you the same redundancy that RAID-1 has offered for so long.  Needs at least 2 disks.
Parity Space: This is the equivalent of a RAID-5 array, using parity space to prevent disaster and recover data in the case of failed drives. I personally don't like this Space type as it has given me very poor write speeds in my testing (shown below). Needs at least 3 disks.
Simple Space: Just like a RAID-0, where you are striping data across multiple drives for raw speed but zero data redundancy. I would never use this production systems. This is good for temporary scratch spaces like video editing scenarios. One disk is all you need for this, but using two or more is really where this would shine.
As anyone who reads my work here knows, I'm not interested in marketing success stories. If I'm going to use Storage Spaces for my own company needs, and more importantly, for my clients, I need proof that this tech works.

19

Living Room / issues with uefi, more than 6 drives, ahci, windows 8.

« on: January 18, 2015, 05:45 PM »

i was planning on upgrading a windows 7 desktop to windows 8.  the first time i tried installing, it worked fine, but i first had to disconnect all drives other than the OS drive to be able to go through the installation.  Then, I couldn't connect my external drive because it would be the 7th drive connected.  So i remember this issue back when i was upgrading to windows 7.  it had something to do with a 6 drive limit, drives larger than 2TB, uefi booting, and ahci. 

So it appears i'm having this issue again.  Except this time, I can't seem to be able to install windows 8 in uefi mode.  I've tried all the instructions online, mainly the advice to boot from usb on a rufus created disc with fat32 and uefi options chosen.  the problem is that this disc will not boot into the installer.  it just hangs with a blinking cursor.

I have run out of options.  I think part of the problem is the alienware motherboard I'm using, which I'm not too thrilled with.  it's an obscure, off the consumer market board, and not much available in terms of online discussion or drivers or anything.  I believe it's actually an MS-7543 motherboard originally made by MSI v1.0.

Anyway, I'll probably give up and just do a new computer later.  Probably the server i've been planning to build for years.

20

General Software Discussion / convert wordpress site to an app, seamless connection.

« on: January 08, 2015, 12:28 PM »

I wanted to try this experiment...take an existing wordpress site and package it as an app.  And from there, the app and site are synced.  There is this program:
http://reactor.apppresser.com/

Seems to do it for a couple hundred bucks.  Any other recommendations?

21

Living Room / Want to be in my story? See inside.

« on: December 30, 2014, 06:18 PM »

So I'm practicing writing stories.  One of the things I'm doing is drawing my characters out and seeing if that helps me with ideas.  I've done about 5 characters so far.  I want more practice.  Since I've become very familiar with several users here, I'd like to draw some of you guys.

If you want to be included, all I need from you are a few characteristics, describe them however you please.  And they don't have to be true, they can be something exaggerated or fantastic. 

I'll give an example with my own character.  Tall, dark, failing in attempts to be positive so he's an unintentional cynic.

22

Living Room / Are you a DeadHead? Grateful Dead thoughts go here.

« on: December 23, 2014, 06:03 PM »

http://www.reddit.co...as_i_am_why_so_many/

I was reading this and thought it was an interesting enough question to post here.  I've often had this thought.  I love music (I'm obsessed a little), I'm a musician, I love classic rock...but I never fell in love with the dead.  I don't think they are bad, I do think they are good.  I've just never really gotten into them.  I always ask myself "Is it really an LSD thing?"  Is that really the only way to wrap your mind around the band?

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.  I enjoyed the reddit board, it's perfect for these kinds of discussions.  If you've actually had Dead concert experiences please describe!  I remember having a group of high school friends who were way into them in the mid 90s, and I actually regret not tagging along now.  There was no way I would have gotten away with it anyway.

23

Living Room / Animation question: exposures on "eights" or "twelves"

« on: December 15, 2014, 05:31 PM »

So I've been studying animation, and perhaps I missed something as I was going through this one book...but maybe someone here can clarify my question.  Here's the passage in question:


I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.  The only reason why I'm particularly interested is because I also have noticed that I like the Tom and Jerry timing more so than other similar cartoons. 

So...when he says people are walking on "twelve exposures" or "eights", as far as actual time units go [seconds], does that mean (for the 8 example):
cartoons are 24 fps
so 8/24 = 0.3 seconds

is he saying each step takes 0.3 seconds?  Or every two steps (one cycle) takes 0.3 seconds?  I don't quite get it.  It seems like a brisk pace either way.

24

Living Room / Decibels, loudness, amplifiers, formulas...complete confusion!

« on: December 09, 2014, 04:05 PM »

OK, I just admitted something really embarrassing in another forum, thought I'd share it here.
As a music nut, musician, engineer (electrical at that), all around nerdo geek...I don't understand decibels as it relates to loudness.  More so than that, I don't get it in relation to amplifier circuitry and the formulas used.

This all started when I began researching types of headphone amps to get for my home studio.  This is really embarrassing to admit...I've written books on electrical engineering.

All the circuitry (obviously) uses volts, amps, currents.  Fine, I am comfy with that.  But then, somehow these numbers are magically turned into decibels!  How the f?  Now, decibels is not a unit I enjoy using.  First of all, for loudness, the unit it uses is called SPL, which is a measure of sound pressure.  But decibel in itself is dimensionless; it's a ratio of one unit over another number of the same unit (i.e. they cancel out).  So a inputted values for decibels can be volts, ohms, watts, spl, mattresses, bicycles, whatevers.

On top of all that, I have to sort through all the audiophile pseudo-science, snake oil nonsense.

Am I crazy?

Here's a fun chart:

from here:
http://www.sengpiela...culator-loudness.htm

I don't know what is going on there, but it looks helpful if I did!

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General Software Discussion / Mischief 2.0: very promising drawing software ($25 !!)

« on: December 03, 2014, 09:51 AM »

https://www.madewith...ischief.com/mischief

There's this new player in the art software category.  I just installed it, it is really amazing.  It's fast, as in drawing the strokes on a tablet with a stylus is much more responsive with this program vs. photoshop, clip studio (which is what I currently use).  And it has this "infinite zoom" feature, which is essentially vector graphics for a program like photoshop.  So it combines features of Illustrator, photoshop into one program, which is what the clip studio tries to do a little also.  What makes mischief stand out is the touch-friendly interface...very simple layout (you don't have to hide/unhide the sidebars all the time, or get those artdocks), and it supports multi-touch gestures.

I really like the idea of zooming in and out and not getting any pixelation.  Also, a unique feature...the brush size doesn't get smaller/larger as you zoom out or in.  it stays the same size.  Why is that cool?  Let's say I drew a tiny tiny circle...now I can zoom way into the circle and draw yet another tiny circle inside it without changing the brush size and the thicknesses are relative to the zoom.