Messages

76

General Software Discussion / Re: Poll: Did you install Windows or was it pre-installed?

« on: June 29, 2008, 04:45 AM »

I deleted my partitions, made new ones, formatted and reinstalled an NLited XP. So, its definitely a clean install then.

77

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Does anyone know a solution to prevent the opening of useless links????

« on: June 28, 2008, 11:11 AM »

you know this is a simple but good idea..

are there plugins that use some crowd or expert wisdom to basically put scores next to links based on the judged quality of the links (judged by experts, heuristics, or crowd voting, etc.)

Now that's a nice idea for a FireFox plugin.

-mouser (June 28, 2008, 11:00 AM)

There's a FF plugin called SeoQuake that can sort results by more than just pagerank. Increases page load time though.

78

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Does anyone know a solution to prevent the opening of useless links????

« on: June 28, 2008, 11:08 AM »

Without loading the page, you wouldn't know what it was about, hence you wouldn't know if it was useless or not. One solution is to read the page description in the search results. Another is to start searching in a higher quality resouce such as a web directory instead of a search engine for better results. Snap provides a way to preview each link before clicking it, but some users also find it annoying.

79

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« on: June 28, 2008, 09:24 AM »

In the meantime I'm using IE7pro, which is approaching Opera's feature set and I'm coming closer to a conclusion that all those unique Opera's features are not worth the effort put in its maintenance and always updating and reinstalling.

-yksyks (June 28, 2008, 05:42 AM)

I too have had problems with Opera, recently with Flash which suddenly stopped working. Luckily I still had Opera 9.27 Portable installed. I upgraded that to Opera 9.50 portable and have had no problems since. I think that its best to stick to portable versions of Opera as they tend to give lesser problems. If something goes wrong, you can always delete the folder and not suffer registry corruption or having to manually clear out the Application Data folder.

I recommend getting this version as it still stores details of the surfed session to the same folder, so you can restore closed windows upon restart, just like a installed version.

80

Find And Run Robot / Re: A tip about creating your own "C:\ProgramFiles" directory vs "C:\Program Files"

« on: June 27, 2008, 06:40 AM »

Quite a good suggestion, but for those who have already been using the C:\Program Files Directory, I suggest not adding it to the FARR scanned directories. Instead, place a shortcut to the program executables in the start menu and FARR will index those. I still keep my start menu organized in case i need to look through my list of programs.

81

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP and programs do not save settings on exit

« on: June 26, 2008, 05:51 PM »

In regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and change NoSaveSettings to 00 00 00 00, then reboot.

It worked for me when explorer was not remembering its settings, though I didn't experience any similar problems with Opera or other programs.

-Cynic (June 26, 2008, 11:19 AM)

NoSaveSettings was already set to 0 . I am thinking of another solution, to create a script or batch file that I can run at startup that will perform these operations for me everytime. I'm not too good with writing batch files, does anyone recommend a good site that has tutorials?

82

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP and programs do not save settings on exit

« on: June 26, 2008, 07:40 AM »

I have XP Smoker installed, but not for its tweaking ability. I use it for adding file cache boost to startup, installing IE-Spy Ads and its maintanence feature, which deletes unused application patchs and fixes invalid dlls. Although, I've never had any invalid dlls at all.

I have also activated large system cache and disabled paging of kernel (I have 2 GB RAM).

But, I don't know how any of those settings would cause a problem to saving my explorer settings.

83

General Software Discussion / Windows XP and programs do not save settings on exit

« on: June 25, 2008, 07:29 AM »

I've got a PC problem for a while, don't know the cause but these are the symtoms.

1. In Windows Explorer, I set my default view to details, but it always reverts back to Large Icons upon reboot. The problem started after I installed Autopatcher and particularly TweakXP UI.

2) Some of my programs don't save their settings. I am using Opera and have set my default search engine, but each time I close and reopen Opera, the search engine I select is no longer listed as the default.

Now, I have installed XP Smoker, but I do not use the setting that auto-closes services and programs after a few seconds of inactivity. I believe its called low-level hook timeout, program timeout and service timeout. Hence, my programs have all the time they need to save their settings before exiting.

84

Living Room / Re: DC Forum Members -- Tell Us About Your Website

« on: June 22, 2008, 08:39 AM »

icekin

That's my main site/ blog which I haven't updated in over 2 years. Now that I am out of uni, maybe that will get some work again, but looks unlikely as I have a job on my hands shortly. I've meanwhile written about nearly 30 articles in 2 years waiting to be published, but need refinement and formatting. That is the only site that I personally run.

In addition, I've done about 15 or so sites for various clients, but none of those sites are still being actively run by me. They were used purely as projects. One of my ideas at the moment is to go back into the web design business, but partner with someone else.

85

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3 Released

« on: June 19, 2008, 08:52 PM »

Thank you for the details, though i wouldn't consider that a fair test at all. A fresh windows installation, and clean copies of opera/firefox would be needed for a 'fair' test i should think.

Ehtyar.

-Ehtyar (June 19, 2008, 07:05 PM)

I should point out that your average end user is not going to be installing opera or FF on top of a fresh install of XP either. Even worse, it could be one of those default Windows XP installs that comes with the machine, pre-filled with auto-starting programs and other crapware. The ideal goal for developers should be to make a piece of software that can run efficiently on the minimum system requirements advertised, under the practical system environment that an end user is going to have. For an example, look at uTorrent or xplorer2. Both programs have always started and responded, even when my system has 30 other applications open.

My own test and its results are not meant to be used as benchmarks (and neither will they be), but they are certainly fair since all three browsers (Opera, FF and K-Meleon) were run on the same machine and started with clear caches. All 3 browsers were given the same set of resouces to work with. Yet, if some of them can perform in some areas and others can't, I think its an issue with the program, not my testing method.

86

General Software Discussion / Test Evidence

« on: June 19, 2008, 06:21 PM »

While i appreciate any independent testing on this website, it seems more and more people are posting their "results" with absolutely no details/supporting evidence whatsoever. For example, what sites were the browsers tested on? was the cache empty? were the browsers using pipelining? what addons/widgets were installed? was any 3rd party software present that may have interfered? etc etc.

Ehtyar.

-Ehtyar (June 19, 2008, 04:45 PM)

Apologies for the lack of detailed information on that post. I did what I'd consider to be a fair test. Both FF and Opera were installed, non-portable versions. FF had the following extensions :

Adblock Plus, Better Gmail 2, BugMenot, Customize Google, Firebug, Gmail S/MIME, IE Tab, MR Tech Toolkit, SeoQuake, Stumbleupon, Stylish, Sxipper, Tab Mix Plus (the version posted earlier in this thread), TinyMenu, Web Developer, YSlow

Plugins : IETab, Java, Mozilla Default, Quicktime, Shockwave, Shockwave for Director, Silverlight, Windows Presentation Presentation

Third Party Software that monitors my connection: Admuncher, Spyware Blaster, IE Spy Ads, Comodo Firewall Pro

Opera had about 35 javascript files in the user.js directory, but of course, many of them (about 20) are site specific, so they only come into play when I visit that site. Many of those 20 sites were not part of my test. Although, I am not sure if Opera loads all the js at once, or only when I visit the site.

Sites I tried out (mostly with poor html):

http://football365.com
http://myspace.com (plus a few random user pages)
And a few other from Vincent Flander's site

Test Machine (Windows) :

Acer Travelmate 4070
Intel Centrino 1733 Mhz
2GB 667 Mhz DDR2
60GB 5400 RPM Parallel ATA
Windows XP SP3 (Nlited, many services turned off)

Test Machine (Linux):

1.8Ghz AMD Athlon
512 MB RAM
Xubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)
7200 RPM 250GB Parallel ATA

I realize that I am not presenting as much details as some would like, but frankly I can't recall all the details of my test. But I would like to say (again with no evidence to back this statement) that I am only making my comments based on my own user experience. I do not declare allegiance to either the Mozilla or Opera camp and in fact, I've used both extensively, along with K-Meleon. Hence, when I state that as a user, I've experienced a problem or enjoyed a feature, its because I actually have and I hope that the developers can fix it or implement it elsewhere. I am not trying to make any product appear better than another through my comments.

87

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3 Released

« on: June 19, 2008, 11:59 AM »

After an entire day of performance tweaking, I can finally report my results on FF3.

On the bright side, the Mozilla team has certainly made progress with FF3. Memory usage is not exactly lower, but rather more efficient. In other words, unused memory is quickly returned back to the OS, while FF2 would still 'hold it' for longer, causing the leak. However, the actual usage of memory per page opened is still high, but not prohibitively so. To be fair, with the exception of probably Dillo and Lynx, all decent graphical web browsers do utilize a considerable amount of physical memory. The other main advantage of FF is obviously the plethora of plugins, themes and add-ons available, something any other browser, including IE lacks.

On the "need to be improved" section, I will comment with comparison to Opera, which I consider to be closest competitior to FF. With speed tweaks, the loading time is nearly the same on both browsers. However, Opera wins because its more responsive as a software program. For this test, I tried opening a variety of sites, including Java script heavy ones and those that have poorly written HTML. FF can still be made to 'hang' when trying to render a page. By 'hang', I mean that it stops responding to mouse clicks and I can't even CTRL + TAB to switch to another tab. This is a problem that Opera, and even K-Meleon do not suffer from. Even when unable to render a page, the software program should ideally remain responsive to external commands. This one problem results in FF having an overall sluggish feel on windows. Surprisingly, I do not suffer this problem with FF on Linux, but I did not have any extensions installed on that machine, so perhaps its not the best comparison.

Hence, at the end, my conclusion for now remains the same as it was with FF2 and Opera 9.2 : FF is a slow moving ocean liner packed with hundreds of features and an onboard swimming pool while Opera is a speedy boat with minimum features that can possibly satisfy mainstream users, but not more. Now, if Opera went open source or made it easier to write third party plugins, they can steal more of FF's thunder. But, that seems unlikely at present since Opera is a profit oriented company while Mozilla is a non-profit entity.

And IE is probably the Titanic...

88

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3 Released

« on: June 17, 2008, 09:35 AM »

That's odd. I used the filehippo link and got version 3. Anyhow, from what I've read, there's no changes between RC3 and the final release for Windows machines. The only changes were for Mac OS.

89

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3 Released

« on: June 17, 2008, 09:33 AM »

I never used Firefox 3 before, never took part in the beta or even the RC. So, based on first impression, memory usage has actually been improved and its even below Opera 9.5 on my machine. However, Opera's speed completely beats this. I've tried clearing the cache and everything and tried loading a few different websites at a time. Opera wins by a clear margin. But, I recall that firefox becomes a little quicker with fasterfox and a few about:config tweaks. I'll try the comparisons again tomorrow with the tweaks.

90

General Software Discussion / Firefox 3 Released

« on: June 17, 2008, 09:13 AM »

The Mozilla page does still links to the RC, but I can get it off Filehippo.

91

Living Room / Re: Father's Day Memory of Fathers and Computers.. Your stories?

« on: June 16, 2008, 04:27 PM »

My first was a 286, around 1991. I remember playing "Digger" and "Double Dragon" for hours. Those computers had to first be booted through one 5.25" floppy and then a second floppy had to be inserted to load up whatever program you wanted. Back then, a computer was only for entertainment, I didn't even know how to use word processors yet, let alone programming. It was only around 1994 when I started learning through computers, mainly from MS Encarta. Discovered the internet the same year, surfing on a US robotics phone modem at ~ 9600 bps. Discovered Yahoo quickly since I think they had the best search engine at the time, along with a directory of games that could be played online.

92

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New C# FARR Plugin: FARRGoogleCalendar

« on: June 14, 2008, 11:50 PM »

Thank you, it works now with the extra dll file that you attached later.

93

Living Room / Re: Friday the 13'th...!

« on: June 14, 2008, 09:22 AM »

My Friday went great, capped off by a good presentation for my final year design project. Too bad other days aren't this good all the time.

94

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New C# FARR Plugin: FARRGoogleCalendar

« on: June 14, 2008, 07:38 AM »

I tried installing it and restarting FARR. FARR crashed with the following error window.

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

95

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: New C# FARR Plugin: FARRGoogleCalendar

« on: June 14, 2008, 04:55 AM »

For some reason, this does not work for me. I tried installing the plugin through DcUpdate and also tried the manual method, but the plugin simply does not even get detected by FARR. I even tried reloading all the plugins from within FARR.

In the meanwhile, I've come up with an alternative using FARR's new htmlview feature and Mobile Google Calendar (optimized for small screens) :

[Select]

Regular Expression Pattern: viewcal
Results: viewcal | htmlviewurl http://www.google.com/calendar/m

At the bottom of the results, there is a field to enter in new dates.

96

Find And Run Robot / Re: List of commandline tools that works well with Farr

« on: June 14, 2008, 03:46 AM »

but here is one i love for CCleaner :
^cc$

[Select]

CCleaner | "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner.exe" /AUTO

-nitrix-ud (May 30, 2008, 09:01 AM)

I've modified this to make a similar one for SweepRAM.
^sw$

[Select]

SweepRAM | "C:\Program Files\SweepRAM\SweepRAM.exe" /s

97

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista’s ReadyBoost benefits on your Windows XP machine with eBoostr

« on: June 14, 2008, 12:46 AM »

I recently came across a tool called SweepRAM, which is free that aims to do something different : - It tries to allocate as much memory as it can to running applications and then then releases it.

It goes through all running processes and ask for them to be put out of RAM (into VM). When that happens, of course they’ll get right back there, but only as little as they actually need to as that time; meaning, after that they will only use as much RAM as they actually need to for the time being.

I've placed a shortcut to it in my start menu and the results are okay, but there is an annoying window that pops up saying that the task is done each time I run the program. There's apparently a way to run it with a /s parameter that suppresses this, but I'm not sure how.

98

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« on: June 13, 2008, 11:11 AM »

What about keepass do you consider more secure? I am unsure what you mean when you say "Password management is being done by a separate program". Isnt roboform a separate program? I mean, both encrypt your data and are password protected.

-Josh (June 13, 2008, 04:57 AM)

Yes, Roboform is a separate program, but I belivee you need to install it as a plugin for Firefox or IE in order for it to work in conjunction with it. Keepass doesn't need to install any plugins to your browser. The Ctrl + Alt + A will work on any program that has a graphical interface with the same page title. Unfortunately, the Auto Entry feature through Ctrl + Alt + A does not always work perfectly unless you set it up by typing in the Window Name format in the Notes section :

[Select]

Auto-Type: {USERNAME}{TAB}{PASSWORD}{TAB}{SPACE}{TAB}{ENTER}
Auto-Type-Window: *

99

General Software Discussion / Re: monitor and notify of webpage updates

« on: June 13, 2008, 05:03 AM »

You can use Newzie, which is free and still actively updated. Its not as good as Website Watcher, but will do the job well.

100

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« on: June 13, 2008, 04:32 AM »

I didnt mention firefox. The wand pales in comparison to roboform. Several users here can atest to that fact.

-Josh (June 12, 2008, 11:37 AM)

Hi, I've used Roboform a long time ago, I don't remember why I stopped using it. Anyway, I've been using Keepass, which has an auto-type feature (Alt+Ctrl+A by default) which can be set up to key in data into webpages. Have you ever tried using Keepass? I consider Keepass more secure because the password management is being done by a separate program.