Recent Posts

10626

General Software Discussion / Re: Some HomeSite Replacement Help?

« Last post by Renegade on July 29, 2007, 05:38 PM »

...It hasn't been updated in 4 years or so, but it is still has the feature set I need.

-rssapphire (July 29, 2007, 04:53 PM)

I was talking with Nick Bradbury (the original author) about Homesite at SIC a couple weeks ago, and he said that Adobe is basically trying to kill it, but still offering it. He also mentioned that the support forums for it still have people asking for updates for it — which felt good to have people still liking and using the software even though the project isn't his anymore.

So, don't expect it to ever get updated. I can't see Adobe changing their minds on it. From their Homesite product page:

"Macromedia HomeSite+ is included with Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. Macromedia HomeSite+ is an application based on Macromedia HomeSite 5.5 but with additional functionality for application development. Learn more about Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.."

i.e. They want you to buy Dreamweaver...

10627

General Software Discussion / Re: Web 2.0 Poll

« Last post by Renegade on July 27, 2007, 10:22 PM »

+1 for the rants!

I think that in a few years we'll see more useful things, but the network bandwidth issue will remain for a very long time, making certain kinds of operations simply too intensive. e.g. Audio & video editing. They're simply extremely intense, especially with the higher resolutions today. HD DVD & Blu-ray will make things even tougher. That's a VERY long way off - beyond the forseeable future.

Even a lot of the text editing that I do is too intense for Web 2.0. I've got 100 file open and want to do a regular expression search & replace... CPU intense and bandwidth intense if my files are large. That's a pretty normal operation for a lot of what I end up doing on a daily basis.

Web based operating systems? HAHAHAHAHAHA~! Sorry - I don't smoke crack!

10628

General Software Discussion / Re: Favorite ZIP/RAR application?

« Last post by Renegade on July 27, 2007, 10:15 PM »

Same here, steeladept.
I've been using AlZip for about a week, and i'm finding it to be better than both 7zip and winrar. (although i have to admit that i first changed because i didn't like the "buy me" message of winrar)

Also, i'm eager to see how will that ALZip Speed Extractor work, it does look like a grand idea.

Renegade: may i make a suggestion regarding that? There's a basic problem with it. As i never know how the inside of the archive is before i open it, i'd never use the "extract here on double click" function, which is the most interesting feature.
BUT, if there was some safety about it, like "if there's more than one file on the base dir, extract to here/ArchiveName", oh man that'd be perfect

-jgpaiva (July 27, 2007, 04:20 PM)

That's already in there — the options are always paired like this:

1) FOLDER
2) FOLDER / ARCHIVE FILE NAME

So you can set the extraction to something like:

Desktop
Desktop/Filename

To extract to the desktop or to a named folder on the desktop. Of course you can also set your own custom folder as well. So the folder pairs would then be:

Some User Folder
Some User Folder/Filename

When you have ALZip configured to extract files immediately, if a folder already exists, then ALZip simply creates a new one like "filename(1)" or "filename(2)"... That's so that you don't get prompted with an overwrite message. The whole thing is supposed to be able speed after all!

It really is very fast. And it works inside of other applications other than Windows Explorer as well. e.g. When I download a ZIP file inside of Opera, when I double-click on the file in the Opera Transfer window, I still get the context menu displayed.

If you like to work fast... This is really something that you should check out next week when I release it. I'll make sure to post back here in the "Announce Your Software" forum.

And it's great to hear that some people here are using ALZip! Your support is greatly appreciated! Thank-you!

10629

General Software Discussion / Re: KMPlayer and GOMPlayer

« Last post by Renegade on July 27, 2007, 10:05 PM »

And what's this? Codecs included? Tell me about those

-Lashiec (July 27, 2007, 03:14 PM)

24 video codecs, none for audio formats - not even mp3.

-Curt (July 27, 2007, 03:45 PM)

Actually, ALShow plays OGG, MP3, and WMA as well. There are a few undocumented formats.

ALShow also will play FLV files - just get the codec from the ALShow Codec Center and you're good to go.

There are quite a few people that use ALShow as their MP3 player. For some reason they prefer ALShow to ALSong for music playback. Why? Not sure. ALSong is a much better music player as it's specifically made for that. (My favorite part of ALSong is the playlist - it's done RIGHT.)

For the Codecs Included thing — There are a lot of codecs included in the player directly, and when ALShow doesn't have the right codec, it can pop up a window to tell you what you need and help you download and install the codec. It really beats searching for codecs as it only takes about 1 minute to get the right codec installed and play the video then.

It's a very slick little player and the CPU usage is very low. Well, that pretty much goes for all ALTools - there's a lot of programming effort that goes into keeping resource usage as low as possible because we try to support older systems as much as possible. ALTools still support Windows 98 even! (I'm not very keen on supporting Windows 98, but we still do...)

10630

General Software Discussion / Re: 50 Windows Explorer Alternatives: not compared but with a screenshot

« Last post by Renegade on July 27, 2007, 11:36 AM »

Hey! They forgot FileBoss!

Very powerful piece of software.

10631

General Software Discussion / Web 2.0 Poll

« Last post by Renegade on July 27, 2007, 11:31 AM »

I'm vehemently in the "Web 2.0 is BS" camp. But I'm curious at to what others here think (and more importantly... DO).

I post in forums and do some work in a browser like posting into the Bug Tracker, etc. But other than that, I really NEED the power of a client program. For me, the whole Web 2.0 thing is total BS. I think fast and work fast. A browser just can't keep up enough for me to take it seriously.

But I'd like to hear how others feel on the topic and how they work. I'm not your average user, so what works for me isn't going to be what works for everyone else.

10632

General Software Discussion / Re: KMPlayer and GOMPlayer

« Last post by Renegade on July 27, 2007, 11:15 AM »

짜증나~! 

Hey! What about that other very cool Korean media player, ALShow? 

You guys are absolutely killing me! I've been pushing for some really cool things in ALShow, got them, and it's just about ready for release... I don't want to spill the beans quite yet, but the v1.64 version is really going to blow GOM Player away. (I'm not a big fan of the chaebol — Little trivia for you: GOM is from Samsung...)

I would soooo love to be able to post a dev. build here because the new stuff is just so good... Give me a little time and I'll come back with some goodies for the DC community! 

Actually, come to think of it, I should get them to push the version to v2... The new toys are far more than just a tiny addition.

10633

General Software Discussion / Re: Favorite ZIP/RAR application?

« Last post by Renegade on July 27, 2007, 11:00 AM »

Well, my favorite archiver can be found here. But you probably saw that coming!

And on the topic there, I won a little victory today and finally got some good attention for the command line functionality for ALZip. A couple more little tweaks and it will truly be server ready. I'm pretty anal about things, so I don't just say that lightly.

Just in case anyone wants a sneak preview of what's in store for the ALZip v7.0 release next week, I've got a little video of some of the new functionality  - the ALZip Speed Extractor. It's quite unusual, but very useful and extremely fast.

10634

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: The Dot Net Preacher Show

« Last post by Renegade on July 22, 2007, 02:23 AM »

i don't understand the topic but i love the production of the show. i hope it becomes very popular.

-nudone (July 22, 2007, 02:15 AM)

Thank-you!

At the moment I've got tonnes of bandwidth and can easily accommodate it. I'm kind of hoping that I can bust my bandwidth limit!

I've put a fair amount of investment into hardware and the like (spent another $600 two weeks ago) in order to keep the production quality relatively high. I don't have a studio, and the voice could be better, but it's a start.

If you're interested in programming at all, the first show (Shown vs. Load & Properties) has a sample application and you can figure things out pretty easily as I comment the code extensively. You can get Visual Studio Express here for free.

Cheers!

10635

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: The Dot Net Preacher Show

« Last post by Renegade on July 21, 2007, 10:24 AM »

No offense but I was asking:

-Wordzilla (July 21, 2007, 09:45 AM)

Absolutely none taken!

Did you code it from scratch or modified a 3rd party script? If latter, typically the developers would appreciate a short "powered by" string at the bottom. I wasn't sure what system you use to run the site so...

-Wordzilla (July 21, 2007, 09:45 AM)

I'll be making how the site is run clear in future podcasts. DNN doesn't need a "Powered By" link from me. They're doing very well.

I regularly plug DNN and encourage people to try it out all the time. The value from those endorsements far exceeds a little link on a web site.

I suppose I could go on about licensing issues here, but if you're familiar with the MS way of thinking about Open Source, then you already know that things like the BSD license (DNN is BSD) are very welcome in the MS community.

The GPL forces people to contribute. (Viral licensing and all...)

The MS way, or BSD way, or -Insert something here- way is more about community and a sense of honesty. How we go about that may differ though. For example, there are many large sites running DNN that don't have links to them, but allow DNN to list them as DNN users. That's a huge endorsement and fits in very easily with different business models. Forcing links can deter many people from using a particular solution.

Enough about that though.

Google "code it from scratch" if you do not think the phrase is grammatically sound or is *Martian* English. 

-Wordzilla (July 21, 2007, 09:45 AM)

Heck - I was just joking around! What I meant was that with .NET I get a lot of very productive tools, and that there's no need for me to actually do a lot of coding when I can reuse things.

Programming is becoming less and less about good code, and more and more about good reuse of good code. That's not just .NET though. However, .NET puts those kinds of tools in your hands very easily.

Anyway great show, keep up a good work! 

-Wordzilla (July 21, 2007, 09:45 AM)

Thanks! I hope that people find some value in it. I'll be trying to keep them relatively short and keep the quality high.

Oh - And I've just finished the forums and the first post, but not put them online yet. I'll get that done once I proofread and get another beer! 

BTW - The post did take longer than configuring the forums!

Cheers!

10636

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: The Dot Net Preacher Show

« Last post by Renegade on July 21, 2007, 09:30 AM »

Hey nice site there, did u code it from scratch? 

-Wordzilla (July 21, 2007, 08:32 AM)

"Code from scratch"? Huh? Can you speak English please? 

Heck no! .NET is all about being productive, and the only thing I coded was a tiny bit of HTML - think less than 100 lines. 

Creating a generic type of web site should never take more than a couple hours. The installation took me less than 5 minutes. The hard part was finding the skin to buy.

The site runs DotNetNuke with NetSyndicate for the podcast. I'm about to add some forums shortly. The whole thing there will take less than 30 minutes. Probably less than 15. Writing the first post and rules (or lack thereof) will take longer.

I'll be putting up different intro music that you can get for free as well. Yes - I'm a bit sick of the RIAA stuff like everyone else, and really want to promote musicians who offer free music. Don't take that as I'm all for free stuff - they'll get a bit of free advertising and the next time they're in town, you may just want to take in a concert or visit the bar where they are playing. It's only a different business model. Musicians need to eat as well. 

I've got some really good interviews recorded as well from some top notch people. Those will be available later on. I still need to do a lot of editing and the like.

Anyways, I hope people enjoy the show~!

Cheers!

10637

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / The Dot Net Preacher Show

« Last post by Renegade on July 21, 2007, 08:28 AM »

A new podcast on .NET     :

The Dot Net Preacher is about preaching the good word of .NET to the uneducated heathen masses and bringing them into the light of .NET to save their souls from the mortal dangers of PHP, J2EE, Ruby, Python and other false idols.

Let the religious wars begin! 

Ok, well, it's a bit different than exactly that... But about .NET all the same.

The Dot Net Preacher Show

RSS Feed (iTunes)

10638

General Software Discussion / Re: 2007 Shareware Industry Award Winners

« Last post by Renegade on July 20, 2007, 06:53 PM »

Doc (Michael Callahan) went over the 'shareware' thing last year - basically, he sees anything that you can try first as 'shareware' - even if it's free. Essentially, you get to 'buy' it for $0.00... So free stuff counts.

This year Guitar & Drum Trainer lost out to VMware - It's good software and I use it fairly often. I posted some comments in a blog posting about this year's SIC here. The other software in the category was Help & Manual - more good software that I also use. I know the author of it as well - Alexsander Halser. He was there at SIC this year again and we hung out a fair bit. He's not fond of beer, but get a few glasses of wine in him and...

ALSee and ALSong were nominated this year, but didn't win.

I was a bit suprised by a few of the winners, but others were no brainers - e.g. When Firefox won, I don't think anyone was suprised in the least.

10639

General Software Discussion / Re: Any FastStone fans out there?

« Last post by Renegade on July 06, 2007, 11:49 AM »

For the original question, I'm a bit more of an ALSee fan.

But don't think that I'm not just a tad bias.

10640

General Software Discussion / Re: Advantages and disadvantages of NNTP Newsreaders

« Last post by Renegade on July 01, 2007, 06:32 PM »

+1 for XNews

I find it does what it's supposed to do and is easy to use.

10641

General Software Discussion / Re: Poll: Vulnerability Test (spy attack: SUCCESS!)

« Last post by Renegade on June 17, 2007, 11:45 AM »

I don't know anything about malware, is it possible it worked because it was executed by a local user?

-Hirudin (June 17, 2007, 05:35 AM)

Executing anything as a local user is dangerous. Once you've got permissions there, anything is game.

This is just more scareware to freak people out and get them to buy.

Getting local user permissions is not easy.

And the EXE file was malicious. Unpacking it caused execution. That's just not nice. Ok - well, maybe not really malicious, but they're being very devious with the whole thing.

Heck - These guys just need to make a living like everyone else... Whatever... The EXE didn't to any harm... (Was sneaky, but no harm...)

10642

General Software Discussion / Re: File Names : what should be avoided

« Last post by Renegade on June 10, 2007, 06:44 PM »

I'm generally very conservative with file naming, but I do have some folders that will only exist on my own disk like, "日本 시장조사 - blah blah - 2007-06-11" which make sense to humans.

Doesn't it strike anyone as completely insane that here the tail is really wagging the dog? I mean that we're serving the computer and not the other way around?

10643

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the switch-02: Which Linux distro to choose?

« Last post by Renegade on June 10, 2007, 12:28 PM »

(1) DistroWatch Top Ten

-zridling (June 08, 2007, 07:16 AM)

From that page regarding Ubuntu:

Other special features of Ubuntu include an installable live CD, creative artwork and desktop themes, migration assistant for Windows users, support for the latest technologies, such as 3D desktop effects, easy installation of proprietary device drivers for ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards and wireless networking, and on-demand support for non-free or patent-encumbered media codecs.

So, is that paid for, or is it just stealing?

I'm curious. Not bringing judgement here.

10644

General Software Discussion / Re: Things I can do in Linux that I can't do on Windows

« Last post by Renegade on May 31, 2007, 10:29 AM »

Catch up time!

I know I know, this is PC and Linux, but I found this funny anyway.

http://www.thebestpa...et/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

-Hirudin (May 30, 2007, 01:36 AM)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!

That was hilarious!

I couldn't help but read more from that guy. This just about made me piss my pants laughing!

Then there was the "rootkit" debacle, where Sony secretly installed hidden bullshit on your computer. One of Sony BMG's presidents handled the situation with the delicacy of a gang rape with this quote: "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" Good point, shit-head!

You can't compare PS to Gimp.

-TonyB (May 30, 2007, 03:58 AM)

Yes you can. The GIMP sucks compared to Photoshop.

Folks who use Gimp and use it well probably have no need for Photoshop, and vice-versa.

-Edvard (May 30, 2007, 11:17 AM)

I would question their productivity though. Back to the free thing... What's your time worth?

Photoshop is just faster to get things done. (I use Paint.Net on 1 machine as well and still, PS is the way to go if you've got the cash.)

I think I'd always keep a Windows machine around, if for no other reason than to piss off the Apple folks.

-zridling (May 30, 2007, 02:02 PM)

HAHAHAHAHAHA~!

I'm damn near pissing myself laughing again!

Spoiler

10645

General Software Discussion / Re: CBS buys last.fm for $280 m

« Last post by Renegade on May 31, 2007, 09:59 AM »

The low cost of hardware and software has really facilitated a lot of the new dot com boom. Before you needed to buy Sun servers with Solaris and other hefty priced gadgetry.

Now you can get a reliable Windows box for $400 a month or a massive Linux storage box for the same.

There are much easier to use free database servers now as well so you're not forking out $40,000 to store data.

It's a vastly different world now than it was between 1997 and 2000.

Hmmm... Now what am I going to do to hop on the band wagon?

10646

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 2.0.0.4 released

« Last post by Renegade on May 30, 2007, 05:07 PM »

12 security fixes? Hmmm, this is starting to sound like IE. Is it just me? I bet if opera got the same amount of exposure as either of these two, we would see the same thing. This just proves that no application is "more secure" than any other.

-Josh (May 30, 2007, 04:15 PM)

A-f'n-men!

Same goes for the Windows vs. Mac/OSX thing.

The whole "more secure" thing is really getting old. Especially when we know better.

10647

Developer's Corner / Re: Free .net 3.0 e-learning course from Microsoft

« Last post by Renegade on May 29, 2007, 04:55 PM »

Cool. Thanks for posting that. I've been wanting to get into WPF.

10648

General Software Discussion / Freeware Data Modeler

« Last post by Renegade on May 25, 2007, 01:19 AM »

Toad Data Modeler

Found a nifty free data modeler for ERDs.



Anyways - for anyone that needs something for ERDs...

10649

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is The Bat! e-mail app better than Mozilla Thunderbird (or other e-mail app)

« Last post by Renegade on May 24, 2007, 11:43 AM »

I use The Bat! to check 9 different email accounts, and it does it well.  One of the accounts is my gmail account, and it handled over 13,000 emails without a hitch.  I can sort and filter quickly.  I tried to have Thunderbird download from my gmail account about a month ago.  Once it was all downloaded, it would take me forever to access any of the mail or do any manipulation through filters, etc.

Carl

-cthorpe (May 24, 2007, 09:49 AM)

This is again one of the things that I keep finding with commercial vs. FOSS. If I want something that works, at some point I've got to pay for it.

You're far from the first that has found that Thunderbirds just doesn't work as well as a good commercial client.

At the end of the day for me, I need things to work. I can't be farting around.

On the lighter side...

What's the difference between free sex and sex that you pay for?


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Free sex is more expensive!

10650

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is The Bat! e-mail app better than Mozilla Thunderbird (or other e-mail

« Last post by Renegade on May 24, 2007, 12:11 AM »

I've posted a bit about this over that the JoelOnSoftware forums... Search for "Thunderbird" there for a few discussions on it.

Thunderbird is pretty good, but still suffers from some problems with corrupt email headers and large email databases. The problems are critical and haven't been solved in the last 3 releases (that I've tried). I've since been forced to abandon Thunderbird simply because I really need access to my email, and when you can't view it... That doesn't help. Other than that, I really like Thunderbird.

My stored email is pretty big, so that may not affect you. (About 1.7 GB or so.)

I tried The Bat and liked it enough to try and buy it, but their payment processor made that problematic and I was never able to purchase.

I may try again sometime when I have some time to migrate. For the moment, I just don't have time to fuss around with it and am using Outlook Express again - it's just plain solid. Not a lot of frills, but it works well.

Perhaps one of the main things that I find with commercial products like The Bat is that they're making money from it and when problems occur, commercial developers (in my experience) are quicker to fix problems. FOSS developers don't have that financial motivation, which is a pretty big one. When you're bread and butter come from your software, you tend to be a bit more motivated to get things fixed.