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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009: The Challenge Graphic

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 22, 2008, 05:13 AM »

I thought that was just a ploy?

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009: The Challenge Graphic

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 22, 2008, 05:01 AM »

Nice: I think that answers most of the questions (nudone if very patient!)

And I really like how everyone is headed to the NANY Challenge and that the NANY 2009 is the new star rising!!

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: keydb

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 22, 2008, 04:56 AM »

Had a wee play with this so that I could get a screen shot

The Always on Top setting had me tricked for a while: your window starts up with the menu item ticked but the setting is off. I think this is only true for the initial start, as it's right on restarts.

The menu item "Open last datafile" is not available when the programme if first launched, which seems a shame.

Some of the buttons are displayed on the windows as links (which isn't really normal for a windows form: but maybe it'll become the new fad $:-\$ )

Overall, it's a nice little application with a nice look.

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Living Room / Re: Last second home-made gift ideas: HELP!!!

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 21, 2008, 09:07 PM »

Good list, I'll probably draw a (complex but bad) family portrait or something
-wreckedcarzz (December 21, 2008, 07:37 PM)

A cartoon can be a funny and enduring item

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Living Room / Re: Last second home-made gift ideas: HELP!!!

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 21, 2008, 07:03 PM »

For our family Kris Kringle, which is limited to less than $5, I make general suggestions like:

A Poem
A drawing/painting
A personal recipe book
A special photo
Grow a plant (you're probably a bit late for that now )
Write a short story (it may need to be very short now )
Cook a special cake
Perform a song

In the past I've done things like a personal journal (they certainly wont be blogging if they're not techie), this year a grew a persimmon from seed and have put some recipes together.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009: The Challenge Graphic

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 21, 2008, 06:53 PM »

I think what has to be remembered is that this is a graphic that hasn't be done specifically for a mug (is that right?).

Does the image wrap around so that the left and right edge join under the handle? Right-handed people will see "NANY 2009", Left-handed people will see "DonationCoder.com" as they are drinking

For mugs, the best placement for a message you want the drinker to see is on the left and/or right side (if the handle is the back). Maybe we need left/right handled mugs? $:-\$

mouser has asked the critical question: is the text the important bit? If it's not, maybe even rotating it through 90 degrees would help centre it on the side of the mug?

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009: The Challenge Graphic

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 20, 2008, 12:03 AM »

Just wanted to say how absolutely brilliant it is

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / NANY 2009: The Challenge Graphic

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 20, 2008, 12:00 AM »

The graphic that will be put on all the Mugs (and other Rewards) has just been released!

Thanks to nudone we have a fantastic and unique image for this year's Challenge.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Teaser: HexCards

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 06:05 PM »

The idea is that there are an odd number of "slots" to play your card, so one player is automatically disadvantaged. The attempt at balancing out this disadvantage is to count the unplayed card, but then that gives an advantage to whoever gets the freebie. So the attempt at balancing out that disadvantage is to let the other player get first choice on where to play their card. But to be honest, I'm not sure if that truly balances the game out or if it does indeed make things fairly even.
-Deozaan (December 19, 2008, 05:21 PM)

Yes, I couldn't quite figure out if it was an advantage or a disadvantage to go first or second. It's very similar to naughts and crosses in that sense, and is probably more based on what tiles you get and how you play them then whether you go first or second.

But I think that all things being equal that there is an inherent advantage to going second: you have one tile that you keep and you have the first option of taking an opposing tile.

But I think that's what makes this so addictive (just like naughts and crosses) you can keep playing over and over.

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LaunchBar Commander / Re: LaunchBar Commander tried to access eagames. com??

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 06:52 AM »

Nope: just checked Comodo and LBC ain't there.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 06:31 AM »

Telephone Issues are linking back to my site with the right keyword, that's nice.
-ghacks (December 19, 2008, 06:06 AM)

You're right: I missed first time through, the orange was faint and I didn't roll over the link; and the links do link back to your site's tags!

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 05:36 AM »

Did a quick WHOIS search and AFAICT they are not related. Looks like these two sites are ripping content off of gHacks.
-PhilB66 (December 19, 2008, 05:32 AM)

And they are all claiming copyright

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 05:08 AM »

JCST was mentioned by Martin of gHacks.
-PhilB66 (December 19, 2008, 04:47 AM)

Are they related to Technology Blog? $:-\$

or Telephone Issues?

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Teaser: HexCards

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 18, 2008, 06:35 AM »

justice, I just assumed that the player going second gets a slight advantage (they know they'll have one tile left at the end).

Is that right? Is that why it's a draw: same number of tiles of each colour, both on the board and off?

It's a bit like Naughts and Crosses in that sense.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / NANY 2009 PROGRESS REPORT - The Volunteer Voice - December 18

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 18, 2008, 06:20 AM »

The NANY Challenge is DonationCoder's annual Software Challenge where coders of all experience levels are challenged to pledge a New Application for the New Year and release it on January 1, 2009.

It's getting down to the business end of the 2009 Challenge with our coders busily polishing their entries and making things ready for the approaching release deadline on January 1st 2009. There has been a lot activity on the NANY 2009 Forum with 26 of our 37 Pledgers posting either Teasers or Releases already! It's a great place to get a sneak preview of the upcoming applications, offer functionality suggestions and even help by beta testing the pre-releases.

The Pledge Deadline has already been extended once, but we're still getting enquiries from coders wanting to Pledge their commitment to this year's Challenge. It's not easy turning people away from one of life's harmless and fun challenges: so we generally don't. If you've been wanting to join the fun but can not come up with an idea, why not check out the Communal Idea Thread, where members have offered some ideas they'd like to see entered. DonationCoder also has an active Programming School that has a wealth of ideas and opportunities that could be developed into a NANY Challenge entry. For more information about the DonationCoder Programming School see these Instructions.

Teaser / Entry Focus
JustCloseSomeTasks
JustCloseSomeTasks is an utility to let you easily close inactive tasks (windows). It saves taskbar and desktop space by allowing you to close the stuff you've not used for a while. Tasks are automatically marked for closing when they've not been used for a certain time period (expiry time). The program will learn your behaviour and adjust this expiry time.JustCloseSomeTasks knows which programs that has not used and helps manage the taskbar by closing these on mass. The application is portable.

LifeSaver
LifeSaver, on the surface, is Yet Another Diary/Journal Application, but with the very important feature of storing the data in an open format. A fundamental problem with nearly all Diary software is that the data is locked into a proprietary datastore and format. This is absolutely antithetical to the purpose of a diary: long-term tracking of thoughts. At some point in the future, our current applications and the format in which they store the data will be obsolete; it's imperative that something like this be easily extractable, in a way that can be imported into future systems. LifeSaver features: Entries formatted in rich text (HTML to facilitate export),Password-protected datastore, Multiple entries allowed per day, Browse next/previous entry, Export to XML. Tagging, Full Text Search and attached images are planned features.

Puppy Toes Dog Records
Puppy Toes Dog Records is a database application that allows dog breeders to keep breeding and medical records along with other important information on their dogs. The application keeps basic dog information, parents information, additional information, breeding records, medical records and extra notes. The interface is customisable.

HexCards
HexCards is an addictive card game in which two players strategically place hexagonal cards on a playing field to capture the other's cards. Each of the six sides of each card is assigned a numeric value ranging from 1 to 10. When you place a card on the playing field, you can capture cards in adjacent tiles if the value for that specific side is larger than the value on the adjacent card's side. Watch the video tutorial for a demonstration with instructions for more information.

MiniBrowseIE
MiniBrowseIE is a small and light web browser with advanced capabilities: The current version does not require installation and can be run from virtually any media (its under 500k in size!). MiniBrowseIE is a basic internet browser utilizing the Internet Explorer rendering engine. Features: History, LinkView, Favorites, Website security notification, RSS, Printing (w/ previews), Privacy options, General options, Keyboard shortcuts. Parental controls, Password saving, Better tab control (close button directly on tab, etc), Switch back over to the Gecko engine (eventually) are planned features.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 18, 2008, 06:08 AM »

re per application learning: Sounds good on paper Id need to track application closures outside JCST too to get enough data for this. And management options per application.
-justice (December 18, 2008, 05:52 AM)

As part of your timer procedure could you poll all the open windows each time and see which ones have been closed outside of JCST?

At the moment I'm just calculating by "total tasks closed"/"total inactive seconds" but as you experience for edge cases although simpler it's not as accurate as a scoring system like FARR. Should have called it Find and Close Robot
-justice (December 18, 2008, 05:52 AM)

That has a nice ring to it!

Have you thought about notification? I'm wondering about a setting where the user can set the number of Inactive Tasks before the window pops up?

Also wondered about immediate mode where a smaller window pops up when each task goes over the expiry. Many applications are using this method of updating the user now, and it's handy (proactive programmes are very usable).

With Always On Top: should the interface be updated regularly? I also wondered about a smaller window for Always on Top, and maybe Transparent if I was going to leave it open.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 18, 2008, 05:23 AM »

Hey justice: I was wondering about minimised windows. Do you think it's possible to score them higher so they are tagged for closing sooner? My logic is that if I've minimised a window then I'm not using it, so may I'd be happier to get rid of it sooner.

I'm not totally sure that that logic is correct: but it sounded right.

I also wondered about learning per Application. I think you're using the average wait? But... not all applications were created equal: I may like to wait longer for some than others before closing (actually, I'm sure that's true, but I don't have the data to prove it

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Living Room / Re: Childhood Memory

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 17, 2008, 02:36 AM »

How on earth does "Oh" become 6? :-s
-f0dder (December 17, 2008, 01:56 AM)

These days by pushing the #6 pad three times: 1 press=M; 2 presses=N; 3 presses=O

We only made the change to 112 relatively few years ago, and I doubt that anybody used turntable phones at that point. Might have been some "international standardization" thingy, dunno. But imho 3x0 is a bit easier to remember than "1+1=2"
-f0dder (December 17, 2008, 01:56 AM)

I have a dim memory that 911 is used as it is less likely to be a random dial $:-\$

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Living Room / Re: Childhood Memory

« Last post by Perry Mowbray on December 16, 2008, 08:11 PM »

I believe all numbers in Denmark are 8 digits long, except for 112 (our variant of 911... back in the old days, it was 000, I wonder why they changed it to 112). For cellphone text messages, there's some 4-digit numbers for special services, though.
-f0dder (December 16, 2008, 06:13 PM)

We still use 000 in Australia: the argument against that code was in the "old" days that it was quicker to dial 1's (the 1's being closer to the end point on the dial).

Now with most (if not all) phones being touch, it's probably not an issue.

Though, another issue is that most Australians say, "Triple Oh", which confuses Zeros for Ohs. Recently with World Youth Day it was pointed out that we should say "Triple Zero" as someone who does not know may end up entering "666 666 666"

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