Messages

351

General Software Discussion / Re: Ogg Video?

« on: April 21, 2006, 06:47 AM »

I'm no expert, but as far as I understand it, OGG is actually a "container" format. AVI is also a container format. What this means, is that the file type may have nothing to do with that you'll need to decode it. For instance, OGM can contain Xvid video and audio ac3 audio, OR it could have h264 (or whatever it is) video and mp3 audio. (Just like AVIs can be Divx, Xvid, etc.)

Again, I may be talking out my a** here, but as far as I know, "Vorbis" is actually an audio compression format that is almost always contained in the OGG container format (hence the term "Ogg-Vorbis").

MKVs are another container format that's gaining popularity. They allow DVD style chapters, multiple audio tracks, and menus (I think). For more info on MKVs (or Matroska files) check out: matroska.org.

If you're looking for a nice Matroska (and probably OGM also) player, check out The Core Media Player at corecoded.com

BTW, T.C.M.P. is based on ffdshow, which, one way or another, has/gets all the codecs it needs.

352

Living Room / Re: Anyone actually use rewriteable media?

« on: April 21, 2006, 06:32 AM »

I never use them either. I think I would, if the burn speeds were equal, but with formatting (I admit it, I don't know how long it takes to format) and the slower speed, I don't have any interest (paying more per disc doesn't thrill me either).


I've also had a couple problems with Ritek discs. I also don't know if I should chalk it up to the disc, the writer, or the disc-image though. I've always bought the cheapest I could find, with any media. Only ran into one problem: Office Depot OfficeMax branded CD-Rs. Unfortonately I bought 150 all at the same time.

353

Living Room / Re: Typo Confounds Kryptos Sleuths

« on: April 21, 2006, 06:22 AM »

HAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!! Typo... hilarious!

354

Best Music Service / Re: tech crunch article comparing music services

« on: April 18, 2006, 12:57 AM »

RE-Downloading is one very nice thing about emusic! They used to have 128kbps tracks, reciently they upgraded their collection to Alt-Preset-Standard using LAME. I was able to re-download every track that I downloaded before, but with higher quality. I think it added up to about 5gb of music when I was done.

355

Living Room / Re: Firefox CPU usage

« on: April 18, 2006, 12:42 AM »

OK, I've been using FF 1.5.0.2 for the last 12 minutes. Process explorer's resource history shows the ram usage went up from 16mb to 30mb, the CPU usage never went much higher than 12%.

For the most part, I was browsing DC, using ~5 tabs at a time max.

356

General Software Discussion / Re: I want a Freeware Utility to ... 300+ common problems solved.

« on: April 18, 2006, 12:39 AM »

Whoa, 3 days later, and 50% more problems solved! (up to 450+)

357

Post New Requests Here / Re: DONE: LabelControl - Mouseless control

« on: April 18, 2006, 12:30 AM »

Would it be possible to use the Numlock key? When numlock is activated (most of the time) the numbers would type numbers, when it's off (less of the time) they would type the numbers of the Labels.

358

Post New Requests Here / Re: DONE: LabelControls - Mouseless control

« on: April 17, 2006, 08:08 AM »

Personally I prefer the mouse over the keyboard (I use the mouse to move the curser to the "password" field instead of hitting tab). Having said that, I think it's awesome that you made this program skrommel! A coding snack delivered without anyone knowing they were even hungry!

It might be cool to implement some standard numbers for standard buttons (if it's possible). Maybe "07" could be "OK" (because they sorta look the same, or maybe use " 0* ") and/or "11" could be "Cancel" (because the 1 key is also the "end" key) and/or "99" could be "Close" (because 9 is at the top right of the keypad, just like the close button is at the top right of the window)...

359

General Software Discussion / Re: Backing up to protect against operating system or hard drive failure

« on: April 17, 2006, 07:53 AM »

WOW!! 

After using different setups over the years I now settled on this:

C: OS and all installed programs
D: all data, downloads, installer files, ...
E: for Windows page-file only

I like to keep it as simple as possible, this setup also comes in handy since my HD always tends to be full.

-brotherS (April 17, 2006, 05:36 AM)

I think this sounds like the best of all (asside from putting apps in C). With the page file at the outer most ring of the HDD platters it theoretically gives the best performance (I think) and being the only file should keep it from gettting fragged.

The reason I don't keep installed programs in my C drive is that a lot of programs store their output/setting files in the install directory by default. A lot of the time, reinstalling the app, then overwriting that with the old data will return the program to it's previous state.

360

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: My new favorite pen

« on: April 17, 2006, 07:50 AM »

Whenever I misplace my pen all work-related activity stops. The longer it's gone, the more likely I'll never see it again.

As long as everyone's posting pictures of their pens; here's what I'm using righ' na' (except it's the Liquid Point 7)


I think more than anything it's the cap that does it for me. The clip is designed in such a way that it just slides over my shirt pocket. I don't feel like it's steadily ripping it apart.

361

Living Room / Re: TCPA ... Scary stuff

« on: April 16, 2006, 09:26 PM »

Interesting.

Apple has always been that way. I would personally like to try out the Apple OS, but I'm sure as hell not going to buy "different" hardware to do it! Apple is way worse than Microsoft when it comes to restricting access to their hardware/software.

362

General Software Discussion / Re: Backing up to protect against operating system or hard drive failure

« on: April 16, 2006, 09:18 PM »

Do you put your Prognew etc directories on your non C: drive? 

Jeff

-JeffK (April 16, 2006, 07:41 PM)

Yeah.
Pretty much everything except windows goes on my D.

I make the C drive 15GB and the rest of the HDD goes to the D drive. That give me enough room to download/copy/create large files to the desktop.

363

General Software Discussion / Re: Boot optimisation software

« on: April 16, 2006, 07:39 PM »

I use autoruns from Sysinternals its much more thorough than msconfig.

-Eóin (April 15, 2006, 06:18 AM)

Yeah, autoruns is awesome looking, it lists TONS of stuff. I think you have to be careful with this one though, as you can do stuff like stopping "explorer.exe" from starting with your comp.

...
StartupCPL aka Startup Control Panel works for Windows 2000 and XP too, I'm always recommending that for ease of use.

-brotherS (April 16, 2006, 05:24 AM)

Yup, I've used it with both also, it works great; 'specially because Windows 2000 doesn't have an MSConfig.

If your PC is too old to handle XP, install Windows 2000 - it's FAR better than Windows 98 !

-brotherS (April 16, 2006, 05:24 AM)

Yup, I completely agree. I remember going from Win98 to Win2k. It's like night and day how much better it is. It almost gave me faith in Microsoft.
BSODs pretty much disappeared when I started using 2k, I used to leave my machine running for months.

364

General Software Discussion / Re: Backing up to protect against operating system or hard drive failure

« on: April 16, 2006, 07:30 PM »

I use 3 "Program files" directories.
ProgNew - Applications that are new, I don't know if they will need to be reinstalled or not.
ProgRedo - Applications that I know I will have to reinstall.
ProgKeep - Apps that I will still work after a format.

I left out spaces because some programs take a crap if there is a space in the path.

Personally, I think 2 partitions is enough. 1 for Windows ("Formattable" as I call it) and 1 for the rest. This way I can format C and still have everything else.


About backing up system partitions: You might check out "PC Inspector: Clone Maxx" it's a free bootable drive imager. You'd have to shut down your comp and make the image manually though, which could be a pain.

365

Living Room / Re: TCPA ... Scary stuff

« on: April 16, 2006, 07:07 PM »

No, I guess I'm not sure.

I do remember before XP came out (maybe even ME too), people were saying that windows would be able to go through your music collection and delete stuff you didn't legitimately own. It of course that never happened.
I think it'll be the same with WinV, a lot of hysteria that will fizzle after a month of it being released.

366

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: A USB device manager that makes sense

« on: April 16, 2006, 06:29 PM »

I use the single left click method all the time with removable hard drives and USB drives. It works just as it should with those.

If you need to eject a memory card from a memory card reader don't use the "safely remove hardware" icon, eject the card from within windows explorer (just right click the drive and choose eject).

367

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Window go out of my way!

« on: April 16, 2006, 07:33 AM »

I have the magnifier on my computer in the living room. Computers +non-HD TVs don't mix well. I have to have the font at 20+ for it to be readible.

One sollution to the icons on your desktop may actually be built into windows. You can create a "Desktop" toolbar, then attach it to the side (or top) of the screen, then make it auto-hide. To create the toolbar
right click the taskbar
choose Toolbars -> New Toolbar...
select the Desktop
and click OK

Once the toolbar is on the taskbar, drag it onto the desktop. Now drag it to the side of your screen. Right click it and mess wit' the properties until it's to your liking (might I suggest enabling "auto hide", "always on top", and disable "show text").

368

Living Room / Re: I'm cleaning up a friends computer,what portable security freeware should i

« on: April 16, 2006, 07:18 AM »

I used to have the Serial key to my Windows 95 disc memorized i screwed my pc up so many times.

-tinyvillager (April 15, 2006, 12:02 AM)

Me too! With Win98 and later 2000.

Here's the sollution to the Windows 98 computer

format c: /s

But seriously; Windows 98 needs a good format every few months just to keep it in line anyway, no better time than now.

Or find a CD on eBay, or at a local Mom & Pop computer store, it *should* be about $10, or realistically free. Or, there's probably a FreeCycle in your area, I bet it wouldn't take long to get a Win98 CD.

369

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Come up with a novel idea for DonationCredits

« on: April 16, 2006, 07:00 AM »

Here's an unrelated idea I'll just throw out there. Maybe there could be random pointless contests every now and then. The winner would get Т as the prise.......

Oh wait, that's not an idea, that is exactly what we're doing, RIGHT HERE... nevermind... 


[edit]I now realize that my comment above may sound like I don't like this contest. That isn't what I ment by "pointless contests." I like pointlessless, randomness, etc-ness...[/edit]

370

Living Room / Re: TCPA ... Scary stuff

« on: April 16, 2006, 06:51 AM »

It'll never happen. Well, not in the next 10 years at least.

Case and point:

The largest part of all software that's used on this planet would not be usable.

Does anyone remember the "competing" digital video format when DVDs just hit the market? I may be mistaken, but I think it was called Divx (as odd as that is). The way it would have worked is you would buy a Divx player that would have a modem built in. If you wanted to buy a movie they would only cost about $5, initially at least. You would get about 3 plays for free, but every viewing after that would cost a couple dollars. The technology didn't lack in "backers" either, I don't remember many of them, but Disney was on the list. Well, long story short, it flopped. So much so, that most people probably don't even know it existed.

People are stupid, but they weren't stupid enough to buy in to paying Disney $2 every time their 6 year old watches <insert Disney title>! And we're certainly not stupid enough to buy in to this.

371

Living Room / Re: hard drive resurrection [I'm desperate!]

« on: April 13, 2006, 07:57 AM »

I'm personally not a big fan of GetDataBack. It may recover the data, but it sucks at recovering the directories. The few times I've used it, it'll find the names of a few folders, but the rest is stuck into folders with names like "10493," "10494," "10495" etc. Oh, and it's $80, which is a little expensive for me.

On the other hand, the free data recovery program "PC Inspector: File Recovery" seems to do just as good a job with the data/files, it just sorts them into correctly named directories. And, did I mention it's free?

372

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: April 13, 2006, 05:00 AM »

I'm new to Firefox after having tried it about a year ago and going back to Maxthon. I'm now using both. One thing I love about Maxthon is the ability to store "groups" of bookmarks together and open them all from one link. This is extended with the ability to open a group of pages at startup (rather than just one home page). Does anyone know if there is a way to do this in Firefox (or an extension that will enable this feature)?

Thanks,

Mike

-Darwin (March 20, 2006, 08:01 AM)

You can also middle-click...

v

or right-click -> 'Open in Tabs'

...on a folder of links and open them all in new tabs.

373

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Make a new Banner for Website

« on: April 13, 2006, 04:50 AM »

Hirudin, you made me think the catchphrase should be:

"DonationCoder.com - To Serve Software Connoiseuers"

.
.
.
.

but it's a cookbook!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you don't get this joke click here

http://members.cox.n...kaiotea/serveman.htm

-mouser (April 12, 2006, 10:46 PM)

Nice! A spoiler button that reveals a link to a website with a spoiler...

The Simpsons spoofed that episode of the Twilite Zone in their first Halloween special: "Treehouse of Horor."
Oddly enough there's a Wikipedia page dedicated to the cookbook.

374

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Window go out of my way !

« on: April 13, 2006, 04:33 AM »

If anyone's looking, the magnifier window of Fatbits works the way midiworks wants.

Fatbits is also the best freeware screen-magnifier I could find.

375

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Make a new Banner for Website

« on: April 12, 2006, 08:15 PM »

[offtopic]Am I the only one that thinks it should be "software connoiseurs" instead of "for software connoiseurs"? It's only because i think that the "for" might scare people, since DC is for all likings, you don't really need to be a software connoiseur to be part of it [/offtopic]

-jgpaiva (April 12, 2006, 03:33 PM)

I agree, I don't like the "for" either. It kind of makes it seem like DC is an organization put together to serve software connoiseurs, not an organization comprised of software connoiseurs.