Messages

826

Living Room / Re: Use video RAM as a swap disk?

« on: October 12, 2007, 08:50 AM »

Agreed, if you're investing in a high-end 1GB video card, you're probably the kind of person who spends most of their computer time playing games.  I was envisioning those times when most of the RAM is idle -- like when running Windowed non-DirectX apps.

And today's 1GB monster card is tomorrow's toy.  I remember when 1MB was a big deal.  "Who'd EVAR use that much video RAM?!"

Hardware accellerated desktop, aye.  Vista's already doing some of that I believe.  So maybe 2D windows' days are numbered.

Oh well, it still tickles my geek sense when folks do stuff like this.  It reminds me of those days when memory was so precious we'd steal it from the graphics system and pray the user wasn't running in a graphics mode that would notice.

827

Living Room / Re: Spacetec spaceorb

« on: October 12, 2007, 07:19 AM »

Device Manager / Remove Device

...then...

Control Panel / Add New Hardware

...and let it redetect.

828

General Software Discussion / Re: What does software 'maintenance' inlcude?

« on: October 11, 2007, 11:37 PM »

In our agreements we differentiate between "updates" and "upgrades".  An update is a patch or replacement .exe that fixes a problem, adds functionality, etc.  Updates are free and encouraged for maintenance customers.

An upgrade is a whole new level of wonderfulness, the "deluxe" version with entirely different capabilities.  It's an optional route they can choose to spend money on.

It pays to define your terms up front in the agreement.  You'd be surprised what some folks think "software defect" means...

829

General Software Discussion / Re: Have any web-based applications replaced desktop apps for you?

« on: October 11, 2007, 11:31 PM »

Good arguments, very good.

Where do you draw the line regarding security and privacy?  If every document you've ever edited is stored in somebody else's server, what guarantee have you that they will (a) respect your privacy, (b) enact security sufficient to keep your stuff out of the hands of thieves, and (c) still be around in 5 years when you need it again?

Most IT departments I've seen don't even do backups right.

I was discussing the exact issue with an IT manager today, and he mentioned he'd read through the Google EULA for their online docs app... he says there's lots of stuff in there about Google's "right to use" your documents for anything they want.

Granted they probably WON'T do anything evil, but they're not saying they will not.  How'd you like to log into their "free" service and suddenly learn you'll be charged $5 to download a copy of your resume? 

Or that your family photos are now being used in a Kodak ad campaign?

All legal, according to the EULA, according to him.

830

Living Room / Use video RAM as a swap disk?

« on: October 11, 2007, 10:27 PM »

Found this link via BoingBoing:
http://gentoo-wiki.c...n_video_card_as_swap

Briefly, it describes how to set up RAM in an old video card so that Linux can use it as a fast(?) RAMdisk.  Very interesting idea, for a number of reasons I thought of:

- video ram, espcially in newer cards, can be substantial: 512MB or 1GB;

- video ram is usually optimized to be very fast, with direct CPU access and wide data paths;

- depending on hardware, you may be able to leverage insanely fast hardware memory move/copy functions, transformations, etc.  (Though I think applying hardware texture shading to a block of data would be, erm, counterproductive...)

The article leaves it as an exercise for the user to actually implement the thing, does not delve into performance much, and warns that video memory is not ECC protected and thus may not be as stable as "real" RAM.  To this I say "pish posh", but then I like to juggle flaming chainsaws in a pool of gasoline.

What are your thoughts on this?  How would you like a Windows driver that allocated half your video RAM as a swap disk?  I mean do you really need all that stuff when you're not playing BioShock?

Could one use DirectX to get at the RAM?

How feasible/desireable is this for real world applications once you get past the "holy shiat that's cool" factor?

831

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Total Text Container (PIM)

« on: October 11, 2007, 09:55 PM »

Just out of curiosity, mtirnanic, what off-the-shelf components did you use, if any?

832

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Direct Access - text expander and application launcher (and much more)

« on: October 11, 2007, 09:50 PM »

sri: Thanks, and maybe I will.  But I'm trying to come up with a compelling reason to even give it a try since I like FARR so much.

I'm not into text-expansion -- tried that with other apps (PhraseExpress was one) and never got into it.  So if I don't need that feature, what does it do for me that will cause me whip out my credit card in a spasm of hysterical consumerism?

833

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Direct Access - text expander and application launcher (and much more)

« on: October 11, 2007, 09:33 PM »

So correct me if I am wrong, but the primary difference between DA and FARR is that:

-  DA hooks into your keyboard and constantly monitors for keystrokes, triggering when it sees something that matches one of your commands, whereas

- FARR has to be invoked first (hotkey or clicky) THEN you can type your launch codes.

Is that it, pretty much?  I'm trying to visualize how my workstation experience would change using DA instead of FARR and I'm having trouble.

Thanks!

834

Living Room / Re: Spacetec spaceorb

« on: October 11, 2007, 08:56 PM »

Why sourceforge?

I googled for "spaceorb windows drivers" and found hits offering the original Windows drivers from SpaceTec.

If it's not being recognized by Windows PnP then it may be a legitimate hardware issue... com port deactivated in the bios or it's dead, Jim.

835

Developer's Corner / Re: Strange customer...

« on: October 11, 2007, 08:45 PM »

Oh!  Then send him a link to buy the thing online when you have the site ready.

Price: $5000

836

Living Room / Re: The worst thing about Macs

« on: October 11, 2007, 08:42 PM »

"Grandpa, what did people fight about when you were growing up?"

"Which computer was best.  Some people liked PCs and others, the Mac.  They argued about it all the time."

"What's a computer?"

"Tell you later, pumpkin.  Now, plug yourself in for dinner and afterwards I'll download you a story..."

837

Best Text Editor / Re: EditPad Pro and Inaccuracies in Reviewing Generally

« on: October 11, 2007, 08:38 PM »

Reward people who correctly identify factual errors  with donationcredits?  Make it a kind of collaborative bounty hunter system.  Award additional credits for an especially amusing take-down -- the "extra style" bonus.  Conversely, deny the bonus if the correction is needlessly mean.

Perhaps it's time to start a review wiki?  Then everyone can edit anything they think needs it, with complete accountability.

838

General Software Discussion / Re: Have any web-based applications replaced desktop apps for you?

« on: October 11, 2007, 08:31 PM »

Total online everything can happen ONLY when internet connections are near 100% reliable, like electricity or wired telephones.  Not being able to edit a document or look up a bit or personal data because "the internet's down" is just silly.

I'm curious as to why companies think people want this anyway.  Sure, some things make a lot of sense (maps, yellow pages) but running a word processor inside a browser?  For anything but short documents it seems absurd.  Even cheap workstations have ridiculous amounts of hoursepower not utilized by the server 2000 miles away. 

We've spent the last 30 years running away from timeshare computing.  This is progress?

839

Official Announcements / Re: Draw Cody competition - win incredible prizes!

« on: October 11, 2007, 07:55 AM »

Deozaan: Too cute!  She captured the likeness of Cody perfectly.

Scancode: Yes, that is indeed a gold coin in Cody's beak.  She drew it then erased it -- dunno why.  Before she drew him she asked lots of questions, like why is he carrying money?  I told her he's a friendly bird that delivers coins to clever programmers.  She liked that.

Actually, I'm impressed the scanner picked that up.  It's not visible in the paper drawing.

840

Developer's Corner / Re: Strange customer...

« on: October 11, 2007, 07:48 AM »

Or, he's reviewing his options.  Give him a few more days then politely inquire.  Asking to verify that he received your last communication is safe enough in this age of spam filters and whatnot.

841

Official Announcements / Re: Draw Cody competition - win incredible prizes!

« on: October 10, 2007, 07:54 PM »

Submitted for your appreciation, our first junior entry.  Drawn by 7-year-old Audrey Maximus.

842

Videogame Development / Re: First Post

« on: October 10, 2007, 07:13 PM »

"I came here for an argument."

843

ProcessTamer / Re: Process Tamer Update Coming -- Express your feature requests here!

« on: October 10, 2007, 03:02 PM »

I think I see.  It's not EXPLICITLY aware of multiple cores, but is downgrading processes that exceed a total threshold, regardless of how many cores the process uses. 

It's the same behavior as TaskMonifier -- the author said he never tested it on a dual core CPU and was surprised to hear it worked well in that environment.

But if we could auto-set affinity for specific tasks, that would be cool too.  I want that. :-)

844

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Total Text Container (PIM)

« on: October 10, 2007, 02:57 PM »

You wrote this, mtirnanic?  Whoa.  Impressive indeed.

845

ProcessTamer / Re: Process Tamer Update Coming -- Express your feature requests here!

« on: October 10, 2007, 02:32 PM »

It doesn't support multi-core processors?  Really?  It *seems* to be taming processes that exceed 50% (use of an entire core on a dual system, more or less).

If not, then I want that.  :-)

846

Developer's Corner / Re: Error messages everyone can understand

« on: October 10, 2007, 01:00 PM »

Bwahahaha!

Reminds me: We once got in trouble during a development project when one of our error screens displayed a picture of El Chupacabra with some spanish text, translated as "You have been p0wd by the Goat Sucker!  Bow down before the Goat Sucker.  Contact technical support for assistance."

It was an internal joke, but made it into the final build the customer received.  Oops.  They were not amused.

BTW, love your animated kitty avatar!

847

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone actually use windows system restore if so,does it work.

« on: October 10, 2007, 10:29 AM »

now does that mean a system restore from 2 weeks ago remove all the changes you've made to a system since -
i.e. any programmes installed in those 2 weeks get "uninstalled" ?

-tomos (October 10, 2007, 10:22 AM)

Yes, that's exactly what it does.  I have used System Restore many times to roll back my primary workstation to a stable configuration and it has worked perfectly every time.  However, I have made it a point to disable System Restore on all drives except C: (where Windows is installed).

It even has an "Undo" feature to roll forward to the point from which you last restored, should things get worse instead of better.

848

General Software Discussion / Re: Two mozilla thunderbird developers call it quits - leave Mozilla Corp

« on: October 10, 2007, 07:48 AM »

Hmmmm.  Random thoughts:

1. Uh oh.  He's talking about "synergy".  My experience has been that people who throw that word around are trying to get oxen to mate with polar bears.

2. In the same message user feedback is requested to help improve the product.  Again, my experience has been that when Management says these kinds of things they're trying to buy time because they don't know what to do yet.  User feedback?  I bet they have megabytes of it sitting around in BugZilla feature requests.

3. I foresee two "versions" of Thunderbird in the middle future, forked from the current TB code.  One will be the officially sanctioned edition (bugs and all), the other will be radically improved, with even more high-power bugs.  Both will do essentially the same thing.

4. Eventually, one version will evolve into an all-seeing, all-knowing clone of GroupWise and become completely unusable.

5. Ralf's head will explode from cynicism-gland overload.

849

ProcessTamer / Re: Process Tamer Update Coming -- Express your feature requests here!

« on: October 10, 2007, 07:33 AM »

No no, I WANT that feature.  The ability to turn on a science-fictiony computer throbbing/chittering noise synced with CPU activity for a specific task.

850

General Software Discussion / Re: kmplayer, whoa!!!

« on: October 10, 2007, 07:15 AM »

I installed K-Lite Standard and got QT support.  I'm certain of it because the reason I downloaded was to fix broken QT streaming.