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Messages - Daleus [ switch to compact view ]

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101
Living Room / Re: How Interesting is Your IP Address?
« on: June 25, 2008, 12:44 PM »
Daleus - who's your ISP? I'm with Telus and scored a lowly 15  :(

Check out the current leadling IP, though - an 86!

151.199.53.145 (86)

Darwin,

I *may* be cheating.  This is my IP at work, University of PEI (www.upei.ca).  We were the first assigned domain in the ca group, so we have an entire class D address tree ;) Or do I have that backwards?

regardless, I apparently have alot of Prime number thingies in my address, which ramped up the score.

My favourite so far is still mediaguycouk at -2

d00d, yer so l33t yer nega!



102
Living Room / Re: How Interesting is Your IP Address?
« on: June 25, 2008, 09:52 AM »
Your IP address has scored: 35. Of the 356796 IP's spotted so far, this is ranked: 5086.

And I'm in Canada, arguably not in a very interesting place. To others that is ;)


103
While I hate to say something that would be interpreted as being "biased against", I agree with a lot of others here that the best way to include MAC and *nix users is to *not* segregate them.

Fundamentally, any problem or solution for a computer is a problem or solution for users of all varieties of OS/hardware.  So I'd say, for discussion purposes and all of the stuff that comes *before* the coding, we should not break out into little groups that have a high potential for fracturing the community.  It's worth pointing out that I've seen little to no "camp-ism" or what others have termed fanaticism, here at DC.

Perhaps it would be worth a discussion forums for coders, once they get down to the brass tacks of coding, but even then, I see that as a method of segregation.  Like others, I'm always interested in hearing how others implement ideas on other platforms - quite often it sparks creative approaches I might have not otherwise thought of, or an exercise in Google-fu to find something new and interesting!

If you feel the need to skip less than relevant topics, we could always try a message header procedure where a simple [MAC] or [DEBIAN] or whatever style slug at the beginning of a subject line when posting, could help others winnow what they are not interested in.  But frankly, in my mind that's still a type of segregation that I think we could do without.

 Cheers!

104
I'm going to vote as well, but I warn you, I do it under semi-protest.

My protest is totally that if DC gets a mention, the site will be flooded by the type of assinine trolls that prevent me from using any of the other potentially useful forums I have ever investigated. ;)

+1

105
Living Room / Re: The 10 most annoying programs on the Internet
« on: June 03, 2008, 01:01 PM »
I hate to beat a dead horse even more, but I think Adobe Reader has long since taken the deep plunge, and is just gathering more speed with every iteration.

Twice in the past month I've come across applications designed in earlier versions of Adobe (and I mean earlier by one or two) that simply don't function in the latest versions of the Reader.  In one case, the app rendered a document with blank squares in random sections, and printed nothing but blank paper.  In the second case, the app caused Reader to crash.

The Solution? Foxit pdf reader, one of the so-called lightweight readers.  I've been using Foxit for over a years now (I have no affiliation) and it hasn't peeped croaked or farted even once.


106
General Software Discussion / Re: Nero Vision replacement
« on: June 02, 2008, 11:21 AM »
Hey everyone,

Thanks very much for the excellent suggestions. I have no access frm home or I would have replied sooner.

I have had the worst luck burning DVD with CDBurnerXP, although it does a great job of CDs.

Ironically, I saw someone else refer to the doom9 site at another forum, so that will be a stop, along with the other sites reommended.

As usual, great job folks - you're better than Google!


107
General Software Discussion / Nero Vision replacement
« on: May 30, 2008, 09:59 AM »

In the past year or so my nephew has become increasingly interested in how computers work and what you can do with them.  He has been fairly involved in the game mod community for the games he plays.  Last year he bought a DVD burner and now wants to burn some videos from the computer to disc, so he can play them on his portable DVD player. My assumption is that these are in games videos he has captured, or something similar, although I will ask specifically when I see him next.

I suggested he try out the Free Nero disc that came with the burner and he did, but got a message saying he'd have to buy Nero Vision to do whatever it was he tried to do.

I have no idea what Nero Vision is - I assume some sort of DVD authoring tool, but I encourage someone to correct me.

He doesn't have an income yet and so isn't likely to be able to buy what I consider to be a potentially over priced piece of boxware.  I told him I'd do some research on what alternatives were out there, and so here I am.

I guess my questions are:

1. WTF is Nero Vision? In order to find a replacement it would be nice to know what it actually is classed as.
2. Are there any decent OSS alternatives, or freeware, or at least decently priced packages that do the job without adding the kitchen sink? (see other messages about Nero, here at the DC Forums)
3. Ease o use will be big heretoo, as old Uncle Daleus will be the support person ;)
4. What other information do I need to gather for you folks to answer these questions properly?
5. What learning resources would you recommend the two of us read to learn more about what we're doing here?

Thanks in advance for helping me be one kids' hero ;)

108
Heya Mouser,

I don't mean to be a pratt, but I wanted to point out that "coral" is what grows in the sea and "corral" is where horses are rounded up.  So, DesktopCoral would invoke in me, especially prettily coloured aquarium decorations for my desktop, whereas, DesktopCorral would invoke in me, thoughts of an amazinkly useful computer desktop tool for keeps things in order.

Yeah, sorry, I know this is extremey anal and that you've probably heard it a thousand times.  I will now retreat to beneath the rock from which I first appeared.


109
Darn that mouser and his fast fingers.

I second tclock.


110

Has to be the sexiest Difference Engine ever!


111
Post New Requests Here / Re: Petrol prices around the world
« on: May 01, 2008, 09:28 AM »
Just last week, it popped up to 1.24/litre here on the east coast of Canada.

112
The LangaList was a major support tool for me, due to it's relevance and it's no-nonsense approach to tech in general.  Fred was an excellent writer!

I knew the end was coming when he joined the group over at Windows Secrets.  I have been patiently waiting for his articles over there to resurface - I guess I can start breathing again.


113
I have been a long time fan of Irfanview and am totally unfamiliar with Xnview, mostly because I have never had a reason to look beyond what I got with Irfanview.

I can certainly sympathize with his feelings that someone has stolen his work - it's happened to me many times, in different fields of endeavour.

I can say that calling people thugs or thiefs, or calling another product fat and bloated, is not very professional and certainly doesn't help win anyone over to your cause.

Having said that, I will continue to use Irfanview because I find that it does what I want it to, when I want it to and in the way I want it to.  But I don't think I'll be inviting the author to my next birthday party.


114
General Software Discussion / Re: Cool Free Color Picker Tools
« on: April 22, 2008, 01:55 PM »
Pixeur is my choice. Straight forward, does what it says it's going to do, rather than trying to make me bacon flavoured coffee in the morning while massaging my tired feet.

ymmv


115
Living Room / Re: Offline Computing :The End
« on: April 14, 2008, 09:52 AM »
I agree that that offline computing, in general, will be around for some time to come.  However, there are some types of software that have all but abandoned that approach.

I recently moved to a rural area where I can't get a high speed connection - the best I can do is dial up.  Because dialup is also so slow, I don't get online that often from home anymore. I have to try to do any downloads etc. while I'm here at work.  As you might guess, my virus checker has become out of date, I'm way behind on Windows Updates, and last week I lost two computers worth of work to a virus.

So I started searching for a virus checker that would allow me to manually download an update that I could then transport home and install.  So far, it's been a complete strike out!  Every package now insists on doing a live over the internet update to the exclusion of any other method!  Some even require authentication.

Welcome to the New World Order.

Now I don't imagine for a second that I have covered every virus checker out there and if someone knows of one that allows manual updating via "download and sneaker-net", I'd sure appreciate the pointer.


116
Just to add some detail to this thread:

We have not switched to Vista, so the following applies to WinXP and only applies to SATA drives as far as I can tell.

Dell has started shipping their desktops with SATA AHCI enabled.  Previously, the default was SATA ATA.  The difference seems to the be that AHCI allows more efficiency for the drive as well as hot swap ability. Interestingly, what I was able to dig up suggests that in a lot of cases AHCI will actually degrade performance, but my impression was that the margin was very small.

Why does this make a difference?  Well, where I work we use Ghost to install preconfigured images to new computers.  With AHCI I was unable to boot from the Bart PE CD from which I run Ghost.  In fact, I couldn'ty even boot from the Dell provided Windows XP installation CD. Turns out, CD drives (even SATA) don't understand AHCI - or at least not yet. If you try, you'll get a BSOD!

The work around was to change the BIOS setting for drives to the ATA mode, just before creating the image, then resetting after image creation so that the machine can boot as normal.  When it's time to install a new image, the same thing - change to ATA mode before installing and then back to AHCI just before booting the newly setup computer.

What happens if you don't reset to AHCI before rebooting?  BSOD! This will not occur on Windows Vista systems.  Vista *includes* AHCI drivers by default, whereas WinXP does *not*.

Final word -  I was unable to observe any functional differences between the computers operation when in AHCI vs. ATA mode.

YMMV

Cheers!

117
Living Room / Re: Timeline Software
« on: March 17, 2008, 06:18 AM »
Thanks for the additions kartal!

I had heard of Open Project and Open Workbench before, but they never came to mind.

Planner looks interesting in that it can be converted over to Simile which is very attractive too, but I am so totally not a programmer or *nix oriented.  I'm certain someone else will find that one interesting though.


118
What about one of the little proggies suggested in the thread about the search for a Pink Noise generator?

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=12603.0

The great thing is that the noise level would be fairly low and have the added benefit of being relaxing to anyone who *did* hear it.  Of course this doesn't solve the problem of having to do a download occasionally to keep the connection alive.


119
Living Room / Re: Timeline Software
« on: March 07, 2008, 11:36 AM »
Thanks to thomthowolf!

Calizo is doing the job.  It seems to have a couple of oddities - mouse scrolling doesn't exactly work the way I expect it to, but it's pretty much what I was looking for.

Shame though that there is really only that one product available.  Granted it's a niche to fill.

PS Thanks to everyone for not ridiculing the 50 year old RPG player ;)

120
I regularly get people calling the computer the "hard drive".

This is at a university.  Said by people with Phd's.  Higher learning ya know.

Now I just accept the fact that everyone here has lied on their resume.

Today, I did a call where the user reported that all of the programs on his Start Menu had disappeared.  He had "Personalized Menus" turned on, which hides all but the most used programs on the Start Menu. I suppose he was being truthful, but I am always freaked by this sort of thing because he never once thought to click on the arrow at the bottom of the menu, used to reveal the hidden entries.

Did I mention the Phd part?

Then there was last week where the professor couldn't do *ANY* work because her computer was all messed up by a virus. Turns out the virus was sloppy mousing that somehow ended docked the Windows taskbar on the left side of the screen.

Did I mention the Phd part?

I'd pull my hair out 'ceptin' that I'm already freakin' bald!


121
Living Room / Re: Timeline Software
« on: February 29, 2008, 01:17 PM »
All good suggestions.

I thought Gannt Project was going to be the way to go, but I have found in this program and also the GANTT2 program that they are limited in how far back in time they go.

It seems you can't have a project start date more than a few days before the current calendar date.  I an understand how this works and certainly Gantt tools are for organizing into the future, however, as you can imagine this does not help me with timelines.  So it appears that Gannt software is off the list unless I can find a program a little more flexible in this regard.

Otherwise, if anyone is interested Gannt Project is quite nice - very straight forward and relatively intuitive.  For those of you who need a portable app, then GANNT2 will fill the bill.

Regarding Timeline Maker Basic, yeah it's certainly cheaper but still more than I would pay at 50 bucks.

I had a brief look at the "Alternative Methods" link and if I can't find something specific in software, this is likely the way to go. The methodologies seem largely to do with mocking up something by hand in a spreadsheet and there are certinly dozens of pages dealing with that 'round the net.

If anyone comes up with additional suggestions, I'm all ears (but I ain't no Mickey Mouse!).

BTW, if it's any help, I want to use this to make a timeline of history to a roleplaying game in which I'm involved. Ya ya, some of you are now mocking me - fill yer boots, I'm used to it ;)

Once again, thanks to all of you who have made suggestions!




122
Living Room / Timeline Software
« on: February 28, 2008, 08:56 AM »

I'm looking for software that helps to create historical timelines.

Timeline Maker Pro -> http://www.timelinemaker.com is just the ticket, but not at the $195 pricetag.

So, I'm soliciting suggestions for alternatives.  I'd like to stay with the "single purpose"-ness of this program, in that making timelines is *all* that it does.  However, to the best of my Google-fu, there doesn't seem to a lot of offerings in that area.  So, I will also take suggestions for really good Gantt chart software etc. I have to stipulate that I am *NOT* looking for full blown project management software, so I would favour "single purpose" Gantt chart making software as well.

Additionally, I am *not* interested in web based services, unless they were something I could install on my own web server ;)  And of course, OSS is preferred.  However, I'd also consider a good inexpensive alternative to Timeline Maker Pro if nothing else suitable turns up.

You folks have such wide ranging interests that my confidence is high that where I have failed, you'll succeed!

Cheers!


123
Living Room / Re: Speaking of U3 Flash drives ...
« on: February 28, 2008, 08:31 AM »
I second the recommendation to use USB Drive LEtter Manager.

This is a very tiny service that let's you reserve or restrict drive letters for any USB device.  Quite a brilliant product in my mind, and one that I am deploying on all the computers that I use.


124
At the top of the list, adopting a son.

Also:

2. Planting my first vegetable garden.
3. Fixing both sets of doors on the barn and other misc barn repairs.
4. Settng up a paper making station and a silk-screening station in the barn.
5. Pruning the wild raspberry patch out back into someting that will produce fruit.
6. Building and using a cider press for the old untended apple trees out back until I can get *them* pruned into usefulness.
7. Hopefully, admiring the rosebushes I transplanted last fall, bloom into splendiferousness.





125
Aye, this if common where I am too.

What I was told is that the ISP is more than happy to diagnose connection problems for a computer, but because of the wide variety and configuration options for home routers, they just aren't interested in giving that level of support.

So, as you have discovered, clone the mac for the PC the ISP expects to see, and then settle down to some wide ranging readin' 'n' 'sperimentin' with your router ;)


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