Topics

501

Living Room / adding SATA to a non-SATA motherboard

« on: December 20, 2006, 11:01 AM »

I'm going to add a SATA PCI card to my 5 year old motherboard.  I just also read that SATA hard drives also use a different power connector than the 4-pin molex one.  So, could I just get an adapter for the molex and use it for the SATA?  Most of my information that I read is from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

It says that I can add an adapter, but because of the voltage issues, I won't be able to hot-swap the drives.  Did I understand that correctly?

502

General Software Discussion / customizing running services on different XP logins

« on: December 13, 2006, 10:34 AM »

On my laptop, I use it for two purposes:  as a media player for my TV and also for playing live music at gigs.  For the music gigs, I really need to make sure there are no extra things running on the computer and the resources are as free as possible.  For media, it's the opposite, where a whole slew of things are running.  If I create a different login, can I customize which services I run on each login.  If I disable a bunch of services in one profile, it doesn't affect the other login, does it?

503

Living Room / What was the name of big computer magazine (late 90's)?

« on: December 12, 2006, 09:36 AM »

I forgot the name of this magazine.  I had an issue of it once in 1997.  It was really big, I would say around an inch thick, and the paper was not the typical glossy magazine paper, but more like newspaper.  I don't even remember if it was free or not.  I found a copy when I moved into a studio in my sophomore year in college, and it was sort of what really got me into software and stuff.  There was a nice, long article in the one I had that was essentially a email client shootout.  It had a really nice section on Pegasus email, and because of it, I started using Pegasus and didn't stop until this year, when mouser and everyone here converted me to the Bat!.

Thanks!

504

Best E-mail Client / How to accurately block junk mail? (The Bat and other clients also)

« on: December 11, 2006, 09:27 AM »

I'm using the Bat, and I have several addresses.  On one of my addresses, and this is rare for me, I'm getting junk mail occasionally.  I'm using the Bayesit plugin that is supposed to handle this stuff pretty well.  But it's one of those junk mails that generates completely different email addresses for the sender (the prefix and suffix of the address is always totally random).  And the message contents are just random words put together, gibberish.  I've been marking the emails as junk and not junk in order to "train" the plugin and doing it for almost a year.  However, no matter how much I train it, it never seems to be able to catch anything.  Is there any way to catch these completely random emails?

505

General Software Discussion / What is the longest filename possible in Nero?

« on: November 28, 2006, 01:15 PM »

When burning a DVD in Nero, what is the maximum length of a filename possible?  I know there are a few options that can tweaked to get less restrictions on the filename.  Could someone describe the proper settings that will result in the longest filename possible?

i've heard that 255 characters is the longest possible for path+filename characters, but I don't remember where I got that information.

506

LaunchBar Commander / suggestion: More docking options

« on: November 20, 2006, 04:01 PM »

I've been using LBC for a few weeks now, and the thing I desire most is more docking options.  So far, the options available are:
--permanent docked bar on edges of screen (I don't like it because it takes up screen space, but I love that it is always available no matter what window is open or maximized, etc.)

--Sliding docked bar that hides when not in use (My favorite option, but the sliding behavior is inconsistent and becomes frustrating to use).  I like this option because the toolbar is always available like the permanent dock, but it also allows you to retain the screen space.  I really hope this one gets improved upon.

--Tray icon menu.  (this is nice and unobtrusive.  Unfortunately, it is tiny and doesn't have the advantage the other toolbars have, which is being able to see those nice, big large buttons all at once.)

--Floating toolbar (I'm currently using this one because it takes up no screen space and I can see those big buttons all at once.  But what I don't like is that it gets hidden under other windows, and no, I don't want it to always be on top for obvious reasons).

Additional docking options I suggest:
--For the floating toolbar, it would be cool if you could "lock" it's position, so that there is no danger of moving it with the mouse

--Another feature that would be really cool for the floating toolbar is kind of a combination of the sliding/hidden toolbar with the floating window:  when you move the mouse to a specific edge of the window, the toolbar would automatically be moved to the top of the other windows.  This way, when the toolbar is in floating mode, you don't have to minimize all the windows to uncover the toolbar.  I really like this idea, how about you?  Maybe this could be a coding snack idea that could work with any program.

507

Living Room / Does anyone here dial their telephone using their computer modem?

« on: November 20, 2006, 12:15 PM »

I know most people don't do this, but I know we're all somewhat of computer geeks here, so I was wondering if anyone else did this besides me.  Let me first explain why this is a weird thing to do:
--Modems are less and less common on computers now.
--A lot of people now use their cell phones as their primary means of communication.

So, what I do is this.  I only use my cell phone for those times people need to get hold of me right then and there, and the conversations are usually pretty quick.  For business, I have a business phone, and when I really need to talk for a while, I wait until I'm at home and use the house phone in comfort and in privacy.  Therefore, I've realized I can use the modem to dial my numbers through the computer, it's really cool.  It's much better than any memory features on a phone and saves me loads of time (I barely ever touch my keypad).

I just wanted to know if anyone else does this, and if so, we can get into a fairly detailed discussion about software and related issues.  Of course, this is also related to my obsession with addressbook software (or lack of!), but that's a sidenote right now.

PS. mouser, I know I bailed out of the addressbook review earlier this year, but I was thinking of resuming something like that.  Except it won't strictly be a review, but something a little more creative that might incorporate a light discussion about PIM's.  I'll discuss it more later.

508

Living Room / Computer cleanup/maintenance manual for newbies

« on: November 17, 2006, 05:29 PM »

Most of you here are pretty "good" with computers, and I'm sure you run into the same things that i do.  There are always family and friends around you that approach with computer problems about various issues, worded like:
--"My internet is slow"
--"My computer is crashing a lot."
--"It takes forever to boot up"
--"I need more RAM"

Anyway, 90% of the time (in my experience) most of these comments all boil down to having a computer just full of spyware, malware, lots of useless startup processes, etc.  Nothing too serious.  Usually, all it takes to fix the problem is make sure they have a good antivirus program running, run a couple of the free spyware cleaners (Spybot, Ad-Aware, CCleaner, etc.), remove unnecessary startup processes (realplayer, quicktime, aol crap, etc), and the computer is usually running fine after that.

I was thinking that it would be good for the world out there if we put together a nice-looking, easy to follow "manual" that goes through the steps of how to clean up the crap on your computer.  I'm not saying it will be comprehensive, but like I said, it should solve most of the common problems inexperienced users run into.  What do you guys say?

Or maybe something like this already exists out there, but I bet our DC community can do it better

509

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Stand-alone DC forum post editor [modify existing AHK script]

« on: November 16, 2006, 01:09 PM »

I think this is something that would be fantastic for those times that you want to write a mini-review or long post with nice formatting.  The great thing is that someone has already compiled a general bbCode AHK script for doing this, and all someone would have to do is modify it to custom fit our DC forums.  I know there are a lot of people here who are fond of AHK, so I'm hoping someone would pick it up.  Here are the links for the information I've come across so far:

The AHK BBCodeWriter v6.6 - An offline BBCode Editor:
http://www.autohotke...forum/topic6161.html

Screenshot


Install file for AHK BBCodeWriter
http://file.autohotk...BBCodeWriter_6_6.exe

Source Code
http://file.autohotk...BBCodev66_Source.zip


Here are some instructions from the author about how to customize the script for specific forums:

So you wanna customize BBCodeWriter

You'll need the source code for making any changes. You'll find the link to the
related posting in the '?' Menu under "About". Or you open

   www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6161

in your preferred browser.


You have different possibilities. If you don't like the design of the preview page
simply change it by modifying "style.css" in the "phpbb" subfolder. The only thing is,
you have to know s.th about webdesign. With "style.css" you can change all
displaying aspects like color, positioning, fonts ...

If you would like to change s.th in the html code, you have to do that in
"BBCodePreview.ahk".

Look out for the sections "Create Head of HTML page" and "Create end of HTML page".
The code is appended to a temporary html file with the help of the FileAppend command.
HTML code changes have to be made in these sections.

The hardest task is to customize AHK BBCodeWriter to your favorite board
(assuming it's not phpbb).

Start out by creating a new subfolder within your script's working directory and name it
the way you like (e.g. "wbb", "ibb", "vb", ...). Then copy the content of
the "phpbb" folder to your new subfolder (copy the content, not the whole "phpbb" folder).

Now you have to change the #Include directives in main.ahk to your new subfolder.
Look out for #Include %A_ScriptDir%\phpbb\BBCodeEditor.ahk and change "phpbb"
in the line to your newly created subfolder. There are two #Include directives
that need to be changed in this way.

Now you can begin editing "BBCodeEditor.ahk" and "BBCodePreview.ahk" to your needs.
Add new icons, buttons, support for other bbcode Tags, ...


Happy customizing :-)

There is also a program out there from Pawsoft called FASS, that is a standalone editor for bbcode, but it can't do all the features of DC forums, and I doubt it would be as easily customizable as the AHK script.  Here is the link regardless:
http://www.pawsoft.com/?p=fass/home

510

Mini-Reviews by Members / Automatic Wallpaer Changer (AWC) v3.0.1

« on: November 16, 2006, 12:55 PM »

Basic Info

App Name	Automatic Wallpaper Changer
App URL	http://awc.smurphy.co.uk/
App Version Reviewed	3.0.1
Test System Specs	Not important
Supported OSes	Only Windows, from what I could tell.
Support Methods	Forum
Upgrade Policy	Freeware (donationware)

Intro:

Automatic Wallpaper Changer (AWC) does just what its name says.  I did a nice, long search for wallpaper changers that were simle and lightweight, and finally, this was the only program I found.  There were a lot of shareware stuff that did wallpaper management along with a slew of other unnecessary functions (personally speaking, that is).  I even tried out our very own DC nugget "Temporality Screens", but that's a specific software for something a little different.  Anyway, I just thought this was a nice simple application for sticking in a bunch of pictures, and having it alternate through them for your wallpaper.


Who is this app designed for:

This is for people who have very simple wallpaper needs.  Nothing too complicated can be done with this.  It's also for people who want something extremely light on resources and very minimalist.


The Good


Lightweight, minimalist, simple, does the job.


The needs improvement section


Nothing really wrong with it.  There's the option to replace the tray icon with a custom icon, but it seems to screw up the custom icon if it's more than 8-bit or something.  Also, it only reads pictures from one directory, so it's kind of limited in that way.  And you can't select individual images to include...it's just one specific directory (but subfolders can be included).


Why I think you should use this product


I think you should use this product if you are depressed about your current desktop.


How does it compare to similar apps

This is probably really simple compared to other programs.  Someone here reviewed Wallpaper Master which is much more powerful than this and probably better overall.  I just thought I'd throw this option out there also, since it's kind of hard to find this software on the internet with a simple search.


Conclusions

Nice, simple software.  What else can I say?  It just does the job.

511

General Software Discussion / Flash and other stuff not working with firefox anymore, please help?

« on: November 11, 2006, 10:14 PM »

I recently tried messing around with some security applications, and now I've realized that flash doesn't work in my firefox browser (2.0) and also the DC forum looks all messed up.  I don't know what to do, I uninstalled the applications that I was trying out, but it didn't help.  Here are the programs I tried out the last couple of days:
--Outpost Firewall
--Spy Sweeper

I don't know what I did, but I uninstalled both of them.  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks! The screenshot shows what is happening.

512

What's the Best? / Open source vector graphics software?

« on: November 07, 2006, 05:52 PM »

What's the de facto open source vector graphics software?  Fill in the following analogy:

The Gimp : Photoshop

(blank) : Illustrator


Just thought I'd make it fun.
I came across something called Inkscape:
http://www.inkscape....php?css=css/base.css

Is that what I'm looking for or is there something better/more popular?

Thanks.

513

Best E-mail Client / That statistic counting thing when you start The Bat!

« on: November 06, 2006, 10:35 AM »

You know how whenever you start the Bat, all the mailboxes start counting all the messages in the box and display it on the right?  I was just wondering, what happens when my mailboxes get huge?  I already have 10 years worth of emails in the Bat, but what happens as the volume gets bigger?  Is it going to take longer and longer to open?  Why does it have to recount each box again every time I open the program?  I remember that Pegasus also displayed the count next to its mailboxes, but it didn't have to recount every time it opened like the Bat, and starting the program was really fast.

And I don't really want to archive emails, I like having them all there.  Actually, i don't even know how to archive in the Bat, but that's another question.

514

LaunchBar Commander / Time delay setting for rollout/in of autohiding toolbar?

« on: November 02, 2006, 04:34 PM »

Mouser, I finally got to play with this program after almost a year of putting it off (tests and other stuff).

So, I'm configuring the program just the way I like it, and I'll post more thoughts about it later, but right now, the most immediate question I have is about the time delay of the autohiding docbars.  My pet peeve with autohiding/sliding menus is that I want them to appear immediately when my mouse goes over it AND disappear immediately when my mouse leaves.  In Windows' TweakUI, there is a place where you can set this behavior delay to 0, so everything is instant.  Is there any setting for something like that for LaunchBar?  If not, will it be implemented in the future?  Some programs, like AutoCAD, sometimes include an ini setting for this.

OK, that's it for now.  Great program, I'm surprised I lasted this long without it.

515

Living Room / Best way to protect hard drive that is only used for backup?

« on: November 01, 2006, 10:30 AM »

I just had a thought...if I have multiple hard drives in my computer, and one of them is used only for weekly backups.  What is the best way to protect this drive from being modified except for the purposes of backing up?  I don't want to accidentally add or delete anything from the drive, or get confused and think this is one of the other drives and accidentally do something.  I wouldn't even mind if I couldn't even see the drive in my list, except for when I was backing up stuff.

PS This might be kind of an unrelated question, but will I run into any problems if I use the same "bay" for 2 different hard drives when backing up?  Like if I swap the drives once a month?  Will I confuse the computer as to which drive is occupying that space?  Or does it not matter at all?

516

ProcessTamer / Is Cacheman similar to Process Tamer?

« on: October 31, 2006, 11:34 AM »

Is Cacheman the same kind of program as Process Tamer?  Or are they for different things?

There is a cool, very interesting device I just found:
http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16812197002

It attaches to the back of any internal hard drive and converts it to a usb drive.  That's freakin cool.  However, a couple of the users mentioned something about getting errors, and someone else responded by saying cacheman would take care of it.  So it got me thinking about process tamer and if they're the same thing.

Also, someone else said to format drives using Quick Format for NTFS because it's better somehow.  Is this true?  Whenever I format, I do the long way, not the Quick Format.  I always thought it was a better format, but I have no reason to believe that.

517

What's the Best? / Software to check for available domain addresses

« on: October 23, 2006, 09:45 AM »

The latest offering on Bits du jour made me aware of a software category I didn't even know existed.  Apparently, there are software out there that will check to see if certain domain names are available (in case you wanted to make your own website).  Also, they will help you pick a name depending on words you wish to include.  Pretty cool!  I know one time I wanted to see what was available and I started typing things in one by one...it was kind of annoying.  Anyone ever used one of these?  The ones that I've seen so far (just by a quick google) are:

Available Domains Pro
http://www.alphacoms....com/avdomains-p.htm

Domain Name Analyzer Professional
http://www.domainpun...com/products/dnapro/

518

Clipboard Help+Spell / I can't figure some things out in this program

« on: October 14, 2006, 11:32 AM »

So, I've been using CHS for several months now, but to be honest, I'm having some trouble figuring certain things out.

--I pretty much only use CHS for the quickpaste feature, I don't use clipboard managers for anything else, really.  That being said, I like the items to remain in the quickpaste drop-down menu for a pretty long time.  But they keep disappearing.  I've unchecked all three of the "move to old after _ (hours,days)" automatic filing options.  However, the clips keep getting moved out of the quickpaste group.  If I could get them to last in there between system boots at the least, I'd be happy.

--Is there a way to disable the "default" items in the quickpaste (linebreak76,sentencecase, etc)?

Anyway, that's pretty much it.  If I could just get a handle around the quickpaste, it would be great.

Also, I don't know if it's just my computer, but the CHS icon rarely (less than 10% of the time) shows up in the system tray of my computer.  There is space there for the program, but the icon is almost always blank (see the attached pic).  This doesn't happen on my work computer.

Thanks

519

Living Room / Where to find barebone case with 5.25" bays?

« on: October 13, 2006, 03:23 AM »

I can't seem to find what I'm looking for, please offer any suggestions.

I'm looking for a completely barebones alumnium case that has two 5.25" bays in it and room for a power supply box.  I don't need anything else it it, like adapters for sata, usb or anything like that.  Basically, I just want the alumnimum box with slots in it the right size to put in any 5.25 device (hard drive, dvd, anything).  Maybe I can't figure out the proper term for this, that's why I can't find it on the web.  The only thing I run into are hard drive enclosures and other things pre-adapted for a specific use.

You know how when you buy a tower for your computer, it comes with nothing except the tower and sometimes a power supply?  Something like that, only really small and just big enough for two 5.25 devices.

Thanks!

520

General Software Discussion / Utility to search XP registry using keywords?

« on: October 07, 2006, 04:14 PM »

What's a good utility to search the registry using keywords, and gives a list of results, similar to searching for files on a disk?  The regular regedit can only find keywords one at a time, but I need something that will return a list.  Thanks.

521

General Software Discussion / foobar...honestly...WTF?! WTF?!

« on: September 24, 2006, 03:15 AM »

I know I have a lot of posts and threads to catch up on, and I should be studying right now, but I was just checking out foobar, and I like it's features...

However, trying to configure this thing the way I want is making me lose my mind.  Freakin A!  I'm no slouch with computers, but this is just insanity.  Am I really stupid, or is trying to find the answer on "How to's" for foobar an extremely illogical and frustrating experience?!  I've been on the forum, the wiki site, various plugin places, and read the FAQ's.  Almost all of them all completely uninformative.

It took me an hour to figure out where the volume slider was, and then I wanted to actually have a volume slider visible on my main UI, so apparently there's this plugin I need "foo_uie_volume", which is NOWHERE to be found.

Then, on the freakin main website, they have these nice screenshots showing how the various albums in a playlist can be colored separately.  But is there any documentation on how to do it anywhere?  NO!  I searched the forum for the obvious words like "color" "album" "playlist", etc., but nothing turned up.  What the hell are they talking about on those forums in all those threads?  I have no idea.

Anyway, I know somebody here must use foobar, so I'll probably need some coaching.

I think foobar is one of those software where, because it's aimed at powerusers, they have intentionally made the software as hard to figure out as possible.  OK, it's a poweruser program, but it's also a freakin media player, not some complex, flight-simluation software for corn's sake.

522

What's the Best? / Newsreader programs

« on: September 13, 2006, 11:13 AM »

I know this topic has been discussed in the following threads, but it should have an entry in this subforum.  Here are the existing threads:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=3355.0
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1106.0

I've used Forte Agent for years, just because it was the standard years ago.  But now I know there are some viable alternatives.  I'm specifically interested in some good opinions about Newsbin, Newsleecher, and maybe Newsman.  But please chime in about any other programs as well.

I use newsreader for reading posts and downloading binaries, so I don't fall into the one-or-the-other category.  Forte's always been pretty good at both.  The only thing that has consistently bothered me about Agent is how whenever I close the program, it goes through this process of compacting databases or some other thing with a progress bar.  Anyway, in recent versions, it takes forever to close the program sometimes, like a minute or two.  Other programs I've tried like Newsbin doesn't do that.  Maybe it's a necessary function, I don't know.

I've tried Newsbin recently.  It has a kind of ghetto interface, but I think I like it overall.  Lots of customizability and feedback.

I've heard Newsleecher is good also.  I took a short look at it, and it seems nice.  It has a search feature that people make a big deal about, but I don't know if I'm that kind of user.  I don't do usenet as if it's a peer-to-peer program, so maybe newsleecher is not for me.

I was thinking about switching from Agent to Newsbin.  Any thoughts from experienced users of either?

523

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

« on: August 03, 2006, 06:37 PM »

I've been searching for almost 2 hours, but I can't find anything.  Here is the idea, it seems simple, but I don't know if it really is.  Here is my visualization of it:

--The main window is just a list or grid of events I create, like "arrived at work", "went to lunch", "came back from lunch".

--Next to each event would be a time entry field with a button next to it.  If you click the button, it will automatically fill the time with the current time.  Or else, you can type the time in manually.

--Each day's log should be stored in some kind of database.  And there should be an option somewhere to export some date range of the database as a .csv, or tab-deliimited file, or something universal like that.

If anyone can do it, much thanks!

524

General Software Discussion / Simple Timeclock software (any recommendations?)

« on: August 03, 2006, 03:57 PM »

Can anyone recommend a light, simple, easy to use punch-in punch-out timeclock software?  Here's what I need it to do:

--be very lightweight!
--I set multiple time "categories" like morning arrival, morning break, afternoon break, leaving time.
--For each day, I just check when I leave and when I come back for the appropriate category
--I can view and print a summary of whatever timeframe I desire when I need to.

This would be very helpful, as some accountability issues are arising here at work lately, and I don't want anyone making BS up about what we're doing.  We need hard numbers.

Thanks.

PS.  perhaps someone can do a coding snack of it, if a good one doesn't exist? 

525

General Software Discussion / My rant against php...

« on: July 28, 2006, 01:13 PM »

I'm currently writing my notetakers roundup using the php template mouser provided, and I have some basic newbie questions and rants.

First of all, none of the editors out there allow any kind of wysiwig editing of php code.  How come?  Wouldn't it be nice to see the changes in some kind of "live" way as you change the code?  I remember that when I made a couple of pages in Dreamweaver, you could do that with html.  You just write code and you can split the screen and see the actual page under, or even preview it in the browser.  But with php, you have to go through all this localhost business, that I can't figure out for the life of me.

Another issue I have with editors (any basic editor like Ultraedit, Notepad++, whatever) is that, yes, they do syntax highlighting and automatic-indentation, which is nice.  However, when long lines wrap around, none of the editors will wrap the text where the indentation already is.  It would be very nice if the wrapping was also indented.  Why is this so hard?  Don't people want this?

OK, I'm done.