Messages

26

What's the Best? / Master Category List for the "What's the Best" section... please help finalize!

« on: February 26, 2006, 07:36 PM »

OK, I think this is going to be a great and very useful section, if managed properly.  However, this area could very quickly become cluttered and difficult to navigate, unless it is organized.  What I would like to do is have this area arranged into several "top-level" category folders, and then within those folders, we can have threads for each specific class of program.  Mouser of course would have to arrange this, as it doesn't appear that I can create this structure myself, but I think the first thing that needs to be done is to get a complete and well-rounded list of groups and categories.  I tweaked the list from my original post a bit and have come up with the following "tree".  This tree can also serve as a launch-pad of sorts to take you directly to the related thread discussing that category (I have already linked the 2 categories that jgpaiva started)

Please- if you have a moment, could you post any additions or recommend any moves/splits/other changes?  It would be most appreciated! Once this list is more or less finalized, I along with jgpaiva will begin creating the starter threads for each category and then you guys can start posting your "best of" recommendations!    Thanks!

System
 |
 +-- Best System Cleanup/Junk File Removing Utility
 +-- Best Compression Utility
 +-- Best CD/DVD recoding tool
 +-- Best File Manager/Explorer Replacement
 +-- Best Startup Mangement Utility (e.g. msconfig, Autoruns)
 +-- Best File/Directory Comparison Utility
 +-- Best Bulk File Renaming utility

Desktop Tools
 |
 +-- Best Dialog Box Extender
 +-- Best Clipboard extender
 +-- Best Wallpaper Manager/changer
 +-- Best Virtual Desktop/Window Manager
 +-- Best "window snapping" utility
 +-- Best "Magnifying glass" utility
 +-- Best Tray Clock Replacement program
 +-- Best Tray Icon Management Utility

Security/Anti-Malware
 |
 +-- Best Anti-Virus
 +-- Best Anti-Spyware
 +-- Best Software Firewall
 +-- Best Pop-up/Ad Blocker

Internet/Networking
 |
 +-- Best IM/jabber/chat client
 +-- Best Browser Plugin/Firefox Extension
 +-- Best RSS reader
 +-- Best FTP client
 +-- Best IRC client
 +-- Best Email Client
 +-- Best BitTorrent client
 +-- Best TCP/IP Toolbox Utility (ping/trace/portscan/dns lookup/etc)
 +-- Best Ethernet Packet Capture/Analysis Utility
 +-- Best Website Change-Monitoring App

Programming/Database
 |
 +-- Best General Text Editor/Notepad replacement
 +-- Best HTML/CSS editor
 +-- Best PHP editor
 +-- Best SQL DB management tool

Audio/Video
 |
 +-- Best Audio (MP3/WMA/AAC) player
 +-- Best Video Player
 +-- Best Audio Editor/Recording tool
 +-- Best MP3/Ogg/etc encoding software
 +-- Best MP3 management tool
 +-- Best DVD transcoding/rebuilding tool

Hard Drive
 |
 +-- Best Disk Partitoning Tool
 +-- Best Backup Software
 +-- Best Disk Imaging/Cloning Utility
 +-- Best Disk Space Analysis Utility
 +-- Best Data Recovery Utility
 +-- Best Defrag Utility

Graphics
 |
 +-- Best Image Editor
 +-- Best Font Viewer/Utility
 +-- Best Icon Editor
 +-- Best Photo Management Software
 +-- Best Screenshot Utility
 
Timers/Alarms/Reminders/Calendars/PIMs
 |
 +-- Best Phonebook/Addressbook program
 +-- Best Calendar program
 +-- Best "Sticky Notes" app
 +-- Best Clock/Stopwatch/Timer/Alarm utility
 +-- Best Task Scheduler/Cron-type Utility

Office
 |
 +-- Best word processor (there is a review at http://www.donationcoder....eviews/Archive/WordProcs/)
 +-- Best spreadsheet

27

What's the Best? / Re: AddressBook Utility

« on: February 26, 2006, 06:54 PM »

well I've used PhoneDeck for several years and find that it does what I need.  I suppose that the built in addressbook in Outlook would be a better replacement but I've been too lazy to export/clean up/import that data so PhoneDeck has remained on my HD.

28

What's the Best? / Re: Section's Opening post

« on: February 26, 2006, 06:51 PM »

sorry guys, I was away for a few days... just catching up on emails/posts etc.   Yes I would be happy to help out of course!

29

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: IdleMute - Tray utility to mute speaker when you are away from the PC!

« on: February 26, 2006, 06:46 PM »

yes that is the drawback to using A_TimeIdle.  For me it is OK, because I don't have any other scripts or apps that move my mouse.  But for now I guess its just a bug in AHK.

30

General Software Discussion / Re: how to play mp3 files faster?

« on: February 13, 2006, 10:18 PM »

hmm this is interesting to me... I also could really use something like this (wish winamp supported it natively) and am using winamp pro 5.13.  I did not try pacemaker after Brother reported it not working but will do some further searching.  Are there other players that support this feature built in?

31

General Software Discussion / Re: wanted: nice and small screensaver

« on: February 13, 2006, 09:55 PM »

babis, forgive me but if all you want is to turn off the monitor, windows (2000 and xp anyway...... and even 98 I believe) should be able to do this for you via the "power options" control panel......... eliminates the overhead of another screensaver.

another alternative is the venerable EnergySaver from Entech.  It runs any screensaver of your choice in a "wrapper" which will use DPMS to power off your screen after a specified period.  But this is really only needed if Windows' built in power controls are not working for you for some reason.  Not free however.

32

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Across-the-room Stability Monitor

« on: February 13, 2006, 04:44 AM »

this external DLL call is to determine the monitor depth (32 bit, 8 bit etc).  If the system cannot display the 32bit icons embedded in the .exe, then it falls back on some 8bit ones.  I was just experimenting with this type of thing, and got that tip from the AHK forums.  There doesn't seem to be a way to determine monitor depth directly using AHK.

you can test this by setting your monitor to 8 bit and re-launching the app... you will see a different tray icon (at least you should!)

33

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Across-the-room Stability Monitor

« on: February 13, 2006, 04:33 AM »

ok yes, here is the source as you requested:
keep in mind this will not really run correctly as an .ahk script without some modification, due to some custom things I am doing with PIDs and icons... but it could be easily tweaked to work again as a raw ahk script...
 

[Select]

;SysBeacon
; blinks at intervals to inform user that system is alive!
; v1.01 ©2006 LuckMan212, portions inspired by jgpaiva and skrommel of DonationCoder.com

#SingleInstance,Force
#NoTrayIcon
AutoTrim,Off
OnExit,SaveAndQuit

hdc:=DllCall("GetDC")
bpp:=DllCall("GetDeviceCaps", "Int", hdc, "Int", 12)
if bpp<32
{
  t_icon=7
  m_icon=Icon3
}
else
{
  t_icon=6
  m_icon=Icon1
}
appname=SysBeacon
inifile=%appname%.ini
myname=%A_ScriptName%
Process,Exist
mypid=%ErrorLevel%
if mypid=
  MsgBox,Error getting PID!

IfNotExist,%inifile%
{
  firstrun=true
  FileAppend,,%inifile%
  If ErrorLevel
    MsgBox, Error creating ini file!
}
IniRead,x,%inifile%,Settings,x,0
IniRead,y,%inifile%,Settings,y,0
IniRead,w,%inifile%,Settings,w,127
IniRead,h,%inifile%,Settings,h,127
IniRead,blinkinterval,%inifile%,Settings,blinkinterval,500
IniRead,color1,%inifile%,Settings,color1,000000
IniRead,color2,%inifile%,Settings,color2,00FF00
IniRead,aot,%inifile%,Settings,alwaysontop,1
;sanity checks
if x=
  x=0
if y=
  y=0
if w=
  w=127
if h=
  h=127
if blinkinterval=
  blinkinterval=500
if color1=
  color1=000000
if color2=
  color2=00FF00
if aot=
  aot=1

Gosub,TRAYMENU
Gosub,UPDATE_AOT
EnvSub,w,8
EnvSub,h,26
Gui,+Resize +ToolWindow
Gui,Color,%color1%
Gui,Show,x%x% y%y% w%w% h%h%,%appname%
Gosub SAVE_INI
SetTimer,CHANGE,%blinkinterval%
Return

CHANGE:
If color=%color2%
  color=%color1%
Else
  color=%color2%
Gui,Color,%color%
Return

TRAYMENU:
Menu,Tray,NoStandard
Menu,Tray,DeleteAll
Menu,Tray,Add,&About...,ABOUT
Menu,Tray,Add,Always On Top,TOGGLE_ONTOP
Menu,Tray,Add,
Menu,Tray,Add,&Quit,SaveAndQuit
Menu,Tray,Tip,%appname%
Menu,Tray,Icon,%A_ScriptFullPath%,%t_icon%
Menu,Tray,Icon
if firstrun=true
{
  TrayTip,Welcome to %appname%!,Right click on this menu for basic options.`nAdvanced users can access more settings by`ndirectly editing the .ini file.  Good luck testing!,5,1
}
Return

ABOUT:
Gui,2:Destroy
Gui,2:-SysMenu
Gui,2:Add,Picture,x+295 ym+3 GSND_WIDGET %m_icon%,%myname%
Gui,2:Font,s10 Bold,Tahoma
Gui,2:Add,Text,xm ym+3,%appname% v1.01
Gui,2:Font,s8 Norm,Tahoma
Gui,2:Add,Text,xm y+1,Blinks to let you know your machine hasn't frozen!
Gui,2:Add,Text,xm y+1,Some settings can be adjusted by editing the .ini file.
Gui,2:Add,Text,xm y+15,Thanks to jgpaiva and skrommel for their code samples.
Gui,2:Add,Text,xm y+1,Visit
Gui,2:Font,s8 CBlue Norm,Tahoma
Gui,2:Add,Text,x+3 GWWW1,donationcoder.com
Gui,2:Font,s8 CBlack Norm,Tahoma
Gui,2:Add,Text,x+3,- the best software community on the web!
Gui,2:Add,Text,xm y+15,coded by
Gui,2:Font,Bold,Tahoma
Gui,2:Add,Text,x+3,LuckMan212
Gui,2:Font,s8 CBlue Norm,Tahoma
Gui,2:Add,Text,xm y+1 GWWW2,xtremesystems.org
Gui,2:Font,s8 Norm,Tahoma
Gui,2:Add,Button,GABOUTOK Default xm+125 yp+17 w75,&OK
Gui,2:Show,,About
Return

WWW1:
Run,https://www.donationcoder.com,,UseErrorLevel
Return

WWW2:
Run,http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/member.php?u=6536,,UseErrorLevel
Return

SND_WIDGET:
SoundPlay,%SystemRoot%\Media\Windows XP Pop-up Blocked.wav
Return

ABOUTOK:
Gui,2:Destroy
Return

TOGGLE_ONTOP:
aot := !aot
Gosub UPDATE_AOT
Return

UPDATE_AOT:
If aot=1
{
  Menu,Tray,Check,Always On Top
  Gui,+AlwaysOnTop
}
Else
{
  Menu,Tray,UnCheck,Always On Top
  Gui,-AlwaysOnTop
}
Return

SAVE_INI:
WinGetPos,x,y,w,h,%appname% ahk_pid %mypid%
IfNotExist,%inifile%
{
  FileAppend,,%inifile%
  If ErrorLevel
    MsgBox, Error creating ini file!
}
IniWrite,%x%,%inifile%,Settings,x
IniWrite,%y%,%inifile%,Settings,y
IniWrite,%w%,%inifile%,Settings,w
IniWrite,%h%,%inifile%,Settings,h
IniWrite,%blinkinterval%,%inifile%,Settings,blinkinterval
IniWrite,%color1%,%inifile%,Settings,color1
IniWrite,%color2%,%inifile%,Settings,color2
IniWrite,%aot%,%inifile%,Settings,alwaysontop
If ErrorLevel
    MsgBox, Error saving settings to ini file!
Return

GuiClose:
ExitApp

SaveAndQuit:
Gosub SAVE_INI
ExitApp

34

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Across-the-room Stability Monitor

« on: February 13, 2006, 04:18 AM »

well i've been hacking away at AutoHotKey for a few hours, and have come up with a nice version (almost complete rewrite) of this little app!  Its called SysBeacon now, and I've added a number of things (all described in the included README).  I credited jgpaiva and skrommel in the About Box for their help in getting me started.  Its been a great learning experience and even though this is a simple app I have learned a lot and plan to release some more apps in the coming weeks.


screenshot:


Why not download it and let me know what you think!

35

General Software Discussion / Re: wanted: nice and small screensaver

« on: February 12, 2006, 12:47 PM »

glad to hear that Brother... you should at least give electricsheep a try... after a few minutes staring at it, I think it will make a believer out of you! 

36

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Tray utility to mute speaker when you are away from the computer!

« on: February 11, 2006, 06:37 PM »

skrommel, v1.9 works perfectly on my system!    glad to hear that too because I was scratching my head as to why it wasn't working for you.  As for the new options, thats cool -- I think that will be useful! 

One small note, if the user had an old .ini file (as i did) when they launch the new version, the settings dialog shows "ERROR" for the 2 new parameters.  You might just want to set those values to null if they dont exist, and add the entries to the INI file as blanks, (I think you are doing this with the other options)

other that that, looks like another fine release from 1 Hour Software!! 

37

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Tray utility to mute speaker when you are away from the computer!

« on: February 11, 2006, 05:54 PM »

so has anyone else tried the version? does it work? skrommel has told me via email that it is still having issues on his system, however I believe he is using the .ahk file rather than the compiled binary and maybe that's why he's having a different result.  Would like to hear from anyone else whether 1.8a works for them when 'waking up' the computer via keyboard/mouse/or both.

38

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Tray utility to mute speaker when you are away from the computer!

« on: February 11, 2006, 01:23 PM »

really? you sure?  beacuse it works for me.  1.8a works fine, both they keyboard or the mouse can be used to "wake" the computer from muted state.  I am going to post a link to my compiled version here for others to try, they can post their results as well.  This was compiled with the latest AHK (1.0.42.00).

As for the code changes, you will laugh at how simple the change was.  I simply used the alternate method of IdleTime check, in the AHK docs they have the 2 methods:
%A_TimeIdle% and %A_TimeIdlePhysical%

I changed the references on line 39 and 53 to %A_TimeIdle%.  I also updated the version string in the about box

from the docs:
"Same as above but ignores artificial keystrokes and/or mouse clicks whenever the corresponding hook (keyboard or mouse) is installed. If neither hook is installed, this variable is equivalent to A_TimeIdle. If only one hook is present, only that one type of artificial input will be ignored. A_TimeIdlePhysical may be more useful than A_TimeIdle for determining whether the user is truly present."

I know that if the keyboard/mouse hooks are not installed, then according to the docs, %A_TimeIdle% and %A_TimeIdlePhysical% are supposed to be equal... so I think it may still be some kind of bug in AHK, where during execution somehow the keyboard hook is being installed (perhaps the compiler deemed it was necessary for some reason) and then the mouse hook is not installed or "real" mouse movement is being interpreted as artificial.

Anyway this is working for me, here are some links for downloads:
source code
icon set (just the hacked AutoHotkeySC.bin file)
IdleMute 1.8a compiled binary

39

General Software Discussion / Re: Qslice... app to show cpu usage by process in a visual format, including threads

« on: February 11, 2006, 06:09 AM »

sorry to drift off topic, but I just noticed the Valentine's day Cody bird!  cute!!

40

General Software Discussion / Re: Qslice... app to show cpu usage by process in a visual format, including threads

« on: February 11, 2006, 06:01 AM »

Ohhh dont tease me mouser!!! 

41

General Software Discussion / Re: Categorized "Best Of" Software Lists, suggestion for a new section

« on: February 11, 2006, 06:00 AM »

hmm sounds good.  didnt know there was a wiki!

42

General Software Discussion / Re: Qslice... app to show cpu usage by process in a visual format, including threads

« on: February 11, 2006, 05:51 AM »

I am not defying FBSL, in fact I know very little about it.  I glanced briefly at the "home page" of it which is just a forum and did not have the time to dig very deeply into it.  From what little I know, it seems to have a fairly small following and thus I doubt if anyone here, aside from Gerome himself of course, would be able to code this app using FBSL.  It also seems to be a high-level language similar to VBscript, which leads me to believe it might be slower than compiled C code as well.  I would be more than happy to be proven wrong of course!

43

General Software Discussion / Re: Categorized "Best Of" Software Lists, suggestion for a new section

« on: February 11, 2006, 05:43 AM »

well I agree that posting polls for all those apps and categories simultaneously would not work too well.  But, starting threads and letting people just come in and post new things and have it all mixed in without some sort of official list somewhere at the top or in a sticky somewhere seems like an awful lot of work for someone who is coming in out of the blue to try and read through everything and figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff. (sorry for the run on sentence.. its late)

maybe a forum section with a bunch of sticky threads at the top for each category and then let everyone post new suggestions/reviews below that, and when a proper suggestion is made, it can be added by whoever is moderating that particular sticky, be it mouser or whoever.  Polls could be taken from time to time to help sort or rank the list of apps in each section.

Perhaps there should be some sort of "petition" or something whereby a program has to get a certain number of votes from verified forum members (at least 50 posts, for example) in order to make it to the official sticky thread list.  This would prevent mindless spamming and people trying to get their apps listed by voting from fake/multiple accounts.

These "golden" apps could be collectively granted the "DonationCoder Seal of Excellence" or some such designation to symbolize that they meet certain levels of quality in design.  Perhaps separate sections for freeware and shareware, with the shareware authors required to offer some sort of discount to DC members as a thankyou for the additional attention having their apps featured might bring.

just some thoughts.
 

44

General Software Discussion / Re: Qslice... app to show cpu usage by process in a visual format, including threads

« on: February 11, 2006, 05:25 AM »

this one probably calls for some down and dirty C# or .NET programming.  These super high level languages like FSBL, AHK, etc are just too far removed from the type of information needed to efficiently create such a tool.  This is of course in my highly un-informed opinion, as I am not a true programmer myself.

45

General Software Discussion / Re: Qslice... app to show cpu usage by process in a visual format, including threads

« on: February 11, 2006, 03:16 AM »

yes I agree, well in my post, #5 specifically addresses that need.. the customizable refresh interval.  If you set it for like 30 seconds, or 5 minutes even, you would achieve what you are talking about I think.  And yes I like the idea of adding RAM usage to the feature set as well.  Is anyone up to this challenge?

46

General Software Discussion / Categorized "Best Of" Software Lists, suggestion for a new section

« on: February 11, 2006, 02:50 AM »

Hey mouser,
not sure if this already exists on here.  If it does, forgive me and please direct me to it.  If not heres the idea:

how about a section that has software categories, with maybe the top 3 programs (users can vote) in each category.  Short descriptions of each app with maybe a screenshot or 2 and a link to the developer's site if there is one.  The criteria for selecting the "best" apps IMHO should focus on elegance, speed, stability, and features without bloat.  And perhaps price.

Suggestions for the categories, with some examples:
please suggest any categories that I might have missed or if I should further divide or combine the ones I have here...

Best Text Editor
TextPad
EmEditor
PSPad

Best Image Editor
Photoshop
Paint.NET
PhotoFiltre Studio

Best Audio (MP3/WMA/AAC) player
WinAMP
Quintessential Player
fooBar2000

Best Video Player
VLC
Media Player Classic
Nero ShowTime

Best Disk Partitoning Tool
Acronis Disk Director

Best Clock/Stopwatch/Timer/Alarm utility
AlfaClock
WorldClock

Best Font Viewer/Utility
FontViewer
FontExpert 2005

Best HTML/CSS editor
WeBuilder 2005

Best PHP editor
PHPedit

Best Audio Editor/Recording tool
Audacity
Adobe Audition

Best MP3 management tool
MediaMonkey
mp3tag

Best SQL DB management tool
SQLyog
MySQL Manager

Best Compression Util
WinRAR
WinZIP
7-zip

Best CD/DVD recoding tool
ImgBurn
Nero
Alcohol 120%

Best DVD transcoding/rebuilding tool
DVD Shrink
CloneDVD
ShrinkTo5

Best Icon Editor
Axialis IconWorkshop
IconCool

Best IM/jabber/chat client
Skype
BitWise
Miranda

Best RSS reader
FeedDemon
GreatNews

Best FTP client
CuteFTP Pro
SmartFTP
FileZilla

Best Anti-Virus
NOD32
Kaspersky
McAfee

Best Anti-Spyware
Spybot S&D
ewido
Microsoft AntiSpyware

Best Image Management Software
Picasa
ACDsee

Best Screenshot Util
Screenshot Captor
SnagIt
HyperSnap DX

Best Network Utility (ping/trace/portscan/dns lookup/etc)
PingPlotter
WS_Ping ProPack
SuperScan 4

Best Ethernet Packet Capture/Analysis Util
ethereal
CommView
SmartSniff

Best File Manager
xplorer2
XYPlorer 4.0
A43

Best Backup Software
Retrospect

Best Task Scheduler/Cron-type util
nnCron

Best Disk Imaging/Cloning util
Norton Ghost
Acronis True Image

Best Defrag Util
Diskeeper
Raxco Perfectdisk

Best File/Directory Comparison Util
WinMerge
Beyond Compare

Best Website Change Monitoring App
Website-Watcher
Check 'n' Get
Eldos TimeleyWeb

Best Disk Space Analysis Util
FolderSizes
Space
PCMag Diskpie

Best Data Recovery Util
Ontrack EasyRecovery
Handy Recovery 2.0
R-Studio

47

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST MiniCap VERSION INFO THREAD - v1.03.01 - January 24, 2006

« on: February 11, 2006, 02:08 AM »

hey mouser just wanted to thank you again for this excellent tool.  I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and it has been solid.  CPU usage is not bad at all and even though  I have a cron job that runs minicap every 10 minutes and saves a 1280x1024 PNG file, I do not notice any slowdown at all, and cpu usage spike is only to around 15-20% for <1 second.  I attribute this to your excellent programming skills (as well as my overclocked Opteron dual core cpu ) but either way the solution works exactly as I had hoped and has instantly become one of my "can't live without" utilities.  I will be making another donation to you shortly..... as soon as I put some additional funds together.  But I wanted to express my gratitude again.
 

48

General Software Discussion / Qslice... app to show cpu usage by process in a visual format, including threads

« on: February 11, 2006, 02:01 AM »

An interesting app is Qslice.  This is a program that visually graphs each process' cpu usage.  One of the cool things about it is you can double click on any process, and another window opens up showing the individual threads inside that process with the cpu usage of those threads shown in a similar visual format.  ProcessExplorer (SysInternals) can do this but not in a visual way-- only textually).  Sadly, Qslice has never been fully developed and has a lot of shortcomings.  Columns cant be resized, colors, fonts etc cant be changed.  And there is no scrollbar so if you have over a couple dozen processes running, chances are you wont be able to get to them.  Also, the cpu usage is shown in a vertically stacked format, with each process getting its own 0-100% bar, which is actually somewhat inefficient. 

A similar program called BVSlice was also made, but had some problems and still was locked to the vertical interface which becomes tedious with many processes running.  And the website seems to be gone, developer has abandoned this project long ago. 

A long time ago I remember working on an SGI workstation running IRIX 6.x and it had this really cool app (forget what it was called) that displayed cpu usage in a horizontal bar similar to this:

The bar was resizable both horizontally and vertically, and would automatically scale to whatever size you stretched it to.  So in the above sample image, the outer rectangle represents 100% of the cpu, and each different colored bar is an individual process.  The bars are stacked up against each other to make up the total cpu usage at the current moment in time.  So in that sample above, cpu usage is about 40% total, with explorer.exe using about 11%, javaw.exe about 8%, firefox maybe 16% and csrss.exe 5%.

It would be really great if something like this existed for windows... does anyone know of one?  If not, perhaps one of the developers on here would consider making this as a Coding Snack or a Donationware.


Some more ideas:
1) ability to customize the color set used
2) change whether process names are shown below the bar or not
3) change fonts/sizes of process names
4) omit any app <n% (similar to how mouser has done it in ProcessTamer)
5) customizable refresh interval (500ms, 1s, 5s etc)

comments?

49

General Software Discussion / Good pixel/bitmap editor?

« on: February 11, 2006, 01:33 AM »

hi guys, I have searched high and low recently for a decent, lightweight bitmap editor.  Something like mspaint but with slightly more features.  Here's what I am looking for:

1) ability to open/save GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, and ICO
2) ability to use custom color palettes
3) decent zoom support (able to zoom into image for fine detail editing) -- preferably using mouse wheel or kbd shortcut
4) axis-constraints (i.e. hold shift to lock to X or Y axis while moving or drawing)
5) basic image editing features: resize, crop, stretch, adjust hue/saturation, replace color, etc
6) 24-bit/32-bit color support
7) pleasant interface
8 ) reasonably lightweight and fast

that's about it. 
before everyone says "you just described Photoshop" please I already own Photoshop and it fails in several areas:

1) takes forever to launch-- sometimes I just need a simple tool for a simple job
2) tools are not really optimized for per-pixel bitmap editing, too much emphasis on anti-aliasing, smoothing, etc.  I often find that it takes too much effort to adjust all the tools between pixel pushing and photo editing.
3) does not read or write .ICO files
4) slow and bloated
5) expensive

I have not found anything that even comes close (well, mspaint is the closest I guess!) 
anyone got any tips?

50

ProcessTamer / Re: Dual-core CPU support

« on: February 11, 2006, 01:06 AM »

affinity selection rules are coming in pt3, not too far away

-mouser (December 29, 2005, 12:21 AM)

woot!  glad to hear this, I was about to ask the same question as I have recently treated myself to an AMD dual core Opteron ... and now I find myself scrambling to find every possible SMP app available!