Recent Posts

1101

Living Room / Re: Some laser printers are as danagerous as cigarette smoking...

« Last post by Nod5 on August 03, 2007, 11:17 AM »

This was unpleasant news indeed!

They were saying it was very bad to sleep in the same room as a laser printer -

-tomos (August 02, 2007, 02:41 AM)

I've been doing that for years...   

..which made me wonder are they even dodgy if you dont use them much 

-tomos (August 02, 2007, 02:41 AM)

Good question. I suspect the particles are released when the printer is used. But how long they then stay in the air in the room is another question.

Another thing I'm curious about: does the type and brand of toner makes a noticeable difference here (for the same printer)? Cheap, alternative toners from 3rd party no-name manufacturers are pretty common. When it comes to ink catridges I usually go with the 3rd party brand for my personal usage. It's usually about half the cost and I have a hard time finding any real differences in printing quality. I've had pretty much the same approach when it comes to laser toner but but this new particle risk scenario may change my mind about that...

1102

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on August 02, 2007, 01:48 PM »

mouser, just an addition: I later realized that that brief black background I wrote about also appears every time the window gets auto-shrunk (or de-shrunk) given these settings:
- checked: options > auto-shrink window to fit results
- set to some degree: options > window transparency

1103

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Show number of characters as I type in email

« Last post by Nod5 on August 01, 2007, 04:59 PM »

IconBoy: since you talked about OutlookExpress I assume that's what you'd like to se a character count for in this thread also. I tried making a small AHK script that grabs the text from the new message window but I didn't get the preferred method to work (that is, this did not work: ControlGetText, some_output_variable_name, Internet Explorer_Server1, ahk_class ATH_Note ). I think it has to do with the type of control that the new message window is. Without finding a way to work on that control directly I can only think of quite messy ways to count the characters through AHK. For example: send ctrl+A (select all) and ctrl+C (copy) to the text, count the number of copied characters and tell you the result. Like this, assuming that the email input box in the new message window has focus:

[Select]

F7::
xvar2=
TrayTip
sendinput ^a
sleep 100
sendinput ^c
StringLen, xvar2, clipboard
TrayTip,, string length = %xvar2%,2
sendinput {end}
return

Drawbacks with that: 1. requires manual input (pressing F7 above, or some other hotkey) since letting the script autorun repeatedly would prevent the user from adding text due to the select all step (ctrl+a), 2. the text selection is noticeable and so visually disturbing and 3. the current input prompt position is lost due to the select all step.

Still, that kind of character counting on hotkey press might be enough in some situations perhaps?

1104

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on August 01, 2007, 04:05 PM »

I've noticed a small GUI-related thing...

If I set FARR v2.00.135 to
- checked: options > auto-shrink window to fit results
- unchecked: options > alpha fade into view
- set to some degree: options > window transparency
(... perhaps some other setting - i've played around with many of them)
I then get a very brief but clearly noticeable black colored FARR results window when launching FARR. It's as if the whole results part of the window first gets painted black in a flash and then quickly re-painted like it should be. I hope that description makes sense - I can't think of a better way to put it.

Changing any of the three settings above removes the brief "black flash"

1105

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on July 24, 2007, 07:57 AM »

nitrix-ud: No, I don't know how to grab the status bar text in FARR. The autohotkey command StatusBarGetText doesn't work in this case either.

1106

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on July 23, 2007, 02:58 PM »

Nitrix-ud & others, using CTRL+PAGEUP/DOWN as hotkey in FARR for adding/removing +sall can be "testdriven" with the Autohotkey script below:

[Select]

^PgDn::
IfWinActive, %A_space%Find and Run Robot v2 ahk_class TMainForm
{
ControlGetText, xvar, TEdit1, %A_space%Find and Run Robot v2 ahk_class TMainForm
ControlSetText, TEdit1, %xvar% +sall, %A_space%Find and Run Robot v2 ahk_class TMainForm
}
return

^PgUp::
IfWinActive, %A_space%Find and Run Robot v2 ahk_class TMainForm
{
ControlGetText, xvar, TEdit1,  %A_space%Find and Run Robot v2 ahk_class TMainForm
StringReplace, xvar, xvar, %A_Space%+sall,,1
ControlSetText, TEdit1, %xvar%, %A_space%Find and Run Robot v2 ahk_class TMainForm
}
Return

1107

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on July 23, 2007, 10:22 AM »

So if I open FARR and then just close it again, I'd want my clipboard contents prior to starting FARR to be intact.

this was one of the reasons i totally redid the hotkey system.  now it works exactly as you say -- you can configure a specific hotkey (ctrl+break by default) to copy selected text to clipboard when launching farr.  other hotkeys (break or whatever), wont do this.

-mouser (July 22, 2007, 02:23 PM)

Ok, just so that I understand things, is this how FARR v2 will work:

- One variable, $c, will always have the clipboard contents.
- If FARR is started with a special hotkey (CTRL+BREAK by default) then the clipboard (and so $c) will be filled with whatever was selected in the last active window.
- No matter if such a special hotkey is used or not, FARR will always put last active window name, exe name, pid (process id) and whatever was selected in that window in other variables.

Some other thoughts:

Is support for selecting multiple results items (similar to selecting multiple files in Explorer) planned?

When selecting a result, and dragging it outside FARR a "copy-here-plus-mouse-pointer" is displayed. In Explorer, pressing right click while dragging cancels the copy action (and a regular pointer without the plus reappears). Not so in FARR. ESC cancels the drag action in FARR just like in Explorer though.

Regarding "+sall": two natural hotkeys for adding/removing that phrase from the textbox could be CTRL+PAGEDOWN/PAGEUP (if there's no other planned use for them that is)

1108

Find And Run Robot / Re: Alias sharing

« Last post by Nod5 on July 23, 2007, 10:19 AM »

Metacritic.com, general keyword search:
1000>>>metacritic>->metacritic - $$1 | http://www.metacriti...termType=all&ts=$$1&ty=0>+>metacri(?:|t|ti|tic) (.*)

1109

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on July 20, 2007, 08:34 PM »

thanks!
edit:

The second part, "selected" is the variable for the selected text.

This is *supposed* to work already when you type $c but it doesnt seem to be working.. fixing now.

-mouser (July 20, 2007, 08:15 PM)

When starting FARR with CTRL+BREAK then "addnote $c" works for me. I want FARR to always keep track of the previously selected text, but I'm not sure if I want it to always put that text on the clipboard. I want it on the clipboard only when I trigger some command in FARR and FARR needs to put stuff on the clipboard to carry out that command. So if I open FARR and then just close it again, I'd want my clipboard contents prior to starting FARR to be intact.

1110

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on July 20, 2007, 08:07 PM »

farr actually does track the program that was active before it was triggered, and i will be adding variables for accessing window name, exe name, pid (process id), so that you could do the things you are talking about with pkill example.

-mouser (July 20, 2007, 07:44 PM)

My notepad example was unclear. What I meant is perhaps clearer here:
User selects the text "football is a really great sport - I just love it" in some window. Starts FARR, types "addnote selected" and thus adds the whole selected text to the notefile. The first part, "addnote", is an already existing alias. The second part, "selected" is the variable for the selected text. End result: the notefile associated with addnote gets appended with "football is a really great sport - I just love it"

Another question (probably an old newbie question but I didnt find an answer on a quick search): sometimes a search gets 10-30 matches. If I have set FARR max entries to display to 10, can I still jump to results 10-20, 20-30 ... somehow? For example, can I redo the same search but this time around (temporarily, for this search only) ignore the previous 10 matches?

1111

Find And Run Robot / Re: A long shot: anyone up for creating a fake satire hype video for FARR v2?

« Last post by Nod5 on July 20, 2007, 07:44 PM »

mouser, yes I meant it only as a friendly poke towards Dash of course. Dramatic classical music is widespread in the whole genre of demo videos so it would be more of a general parody really.

I have no video making experience and will be vacationing in the coming weeks and so can't contribute much. But I hope someone makes this happen -- it could create positive buzz for FARR.

app103: FARR vs. that MS dog is a good idea! I can really picture it.

As for FARR vs the start menu: how about a custom created start menu with A LOT of messy folders and subfolders covering the whole screen basically. When navigating, let the folders have regular names in the beginning but more and more weird the deeper the narrator navigates...

example: program > games > some games > more games > simon sorcerer II > simon sorcerer I > Pong > Q how many more folders > A many more > and more > ahhhgr!!! enough already

And at that stage in the folder tree the narrator gives up on the start menu and pulls up FARR, types a few characters, find and launches the game. That last sequence is then repeated, now in slowmotion with a millisecond counter running and to the sound of racing cars. The text "world record" flashes at the end.

1112

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.135 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - July 17, 2007

« Last post by Nod5 on July 20, 2007, 07:33 PM »

the ctrl+break hotkey is very useful!  In general, making FARR aware of what application had focus before FARR, what text was selected in it and so on is great.

One idea: FARR could create some special aliases/variables each time it is called up (regardless of the hotkey pressed). One for the application that had focus before FARR, one for the the selected text in that application (if any) or the selected file(s) (in the case of an Explorer like application).

example: User uses notepad.exe with the text "football is a really great sport - I just love it" selected. Starts FARR, types "addnote selected" and thus adds the whole selected text to the notefile.

example2: user uses Firefox. Starts FARR, types "pkill active" and thus kills Firefox.

With such variables, the user can stick to one single hotkey and still tie the functionality in FARR to the context FARR was started in.

1113

Find And Run Robot / Re: A long shot: anyone up for creating a fake satire hype video for FARR v2?

« Last post by Nod5 on July 20, 2007, 08:15 AM »

What a good idea! 
A parody on that flashy Dash video would be to also start by launching some VERY bombastic and loud classic music -- think the climax of Strauss "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" as used in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. But then quickly intersect the angry voice of a ficticious mother/father figure that tells the narrator to turn the volume down. The narrator then launches some FARR command to lower the volume.

And some more extravagant PR-lingo: "Other launchers are the start menu 2.0. FARR is other launchers 2.0. In fact, FARR is 2.0 2.0!"

1114

Find And Run Robot / Re: Custom Font Settings for FARR

« Last post by Nod5 on July 20, 2007, 07:53 AM »

Mouser, the large font for the input box is very useful! 

I'd prefer separating the option for large/small icons and the option to have multiple columns on one row vs. multiple rows for each result. For example, I'd prefer small icons and two rows with text fields for each result (filename+path).

The filename is the only text field for results that is displayed in bold. To further increase the contrast between filename and the other text fields it would be good to have an option to change color for the other text fields (path, score and so on), for example to some shade of grey. Also, maybe two display modes could be set for the other text fields: in the default mode the other texts fields are invisible or light grey, in the second mode (activated when holding CTRL or CTRL+SHIFT or something like that) they become visible in black or dark grey.

1115

Find And Run Robot / Re: An idea for FARR "with this file do.." type actions

« Last post by Nod5 on July 20, 2007, 07:26 AM »

| is hard to enter on some keyboard layouts (AltGr + < on mine) so I agree with jgpaiva that TAB would be better. The current TAB functionality (display path) could then be demoted to CTRL+TAB perhaps? Another key that is consistently easy to press across keyboard layouts: the UP key. And it seems to have no current use in FARR when the input field has focus.

Another issue is what to do if user types | and there is more than 1 result showing.  FARR needs to know the single file you are going to use..

Maybe when you type | far should pop up and ask you which item you wish to select to work with, OR allow like |2 to mean choose second item, or |5 for fifth, etc.  so if only one result then as soon as you type | it will switch to "with ... do.." mode, but if more than one it will wait for you to type a digit after the | before switching.

-mouser (July 06, 2007, 08:00 PM)

Sounds great but let plain | (or plain TAB) automatically work on the first result and let || (TAB TAB) trigger FARR to somehow ask the user about what result(s) to work on.

edit: Also, navigating down to a result (say number 2) in the list and then pressing | (or TAB) could be made equivalent to typing |2 (or TAB 2)

1116

General Software Discussion / Re: Which MP3 player/management software do you use?

« Last post by Nod5 on July 18, 2007, 04:00 PM »

I hope it's ok with masu that I jump in on this thread. I'd also like to find an "easy to use mp3 management software".

I've tried some organizers (Winamp for a long time) but they've had too many windows and special features. The root problem is that many of them seem to aspire to be an all-in-one player/organizer/tagger/ripper/browser package.

I currently use Xmplay for playing and for the current playlist and I plan to stick with that. But the built in library in Xmplay is very limited so I've given up on using that.

As library/manager/organizer for files, folders and playlist files I just use Windows Explorer and reasonably well-ordered collection of artist-album folders which I sort alphabethically. I've set the view mode for the root folder to "thumbnails" and have a "folder.jpg" image in many of the folders which makes browsing pretty easy.

Now, I'd love to find some lightweight music organizer that enhances what I currently get from Explorer but without trying to replace Xmplay.

Here's a more detailed list of wanted (+) and not wanted (-) features:
+ as fast as Explorer, or faster
+ something similar to the combo thumbnails view mode and folder.jpg files in Explorer, only more slimmed. For example, Explorer forces a lot of unneccesary horizontal and vertical space between folders.
+ Minimalistic GUI. Top toolbars like a classic explorer window: one small row with an adress box, some menu items, some buttons (back, forward, up ...), search box. And then one big folder view area below that -- not multiple rows and columns of subwindows like in winamp. Ideally, the "normal" width of the whole application should only be 20 to 25% of the total screen width (I'm thinking 2, 3 or 4 album thumbnails per row).
+ tabbed interface for different folders. 5 or so tabs would be enough. Also, an option to display some tabs with some folders in some order each time the program is started (maybe through a /tabs.ini command line switch or something similar)
+ live search toolbar (not sidebar a la Explorer)
+ live filter toolbar (ideally a combined search/filter toolbar. For example, CTRL+"sometext" can trigger filtering, "sometext" trigger searching)
+ some advanced search tools like wildcards, searching one tab/all tabs, filter in/out, tab based searching/filtering, incremental searching/filtering (that is, limiting later searches to previous search results)
+ customizable hotkey & mouse-combo actions (either built in or possible to add through autohotkey). For example, middle-mouse click on a folder thumbnail could trigger playing the folders music files in Xmplay, ctrl+middle click could play it in Winamp.

- history/statistics tools
- player
- tagging tools
- browser
- audio editor
- ripper
- lyrics tool

I've so far ruled out melomania, godfather, musikCube, MediaMonkeys, Winamp and music IP after browsing their sites and in some cases testdriving. But maybe I've judged prematurely here so feel free to show me wrong.

1117

Post New Requests Here / Re: Display Properties/Settings shortcut function

« Last post by Nod5 on July 18, 2007, 03:19 PM »

And if you have an ATI card, the Control Center and third party tools like the free ATI tray tools, http://www.guru3d.co...le/atitraytools/189/ , lets you create profiles and hotkeys to launch those profiles. It's then possible to make an autohotkey script that when run switches back and forth between two such profiles (by sending the hotkeys).

1118

General Software Discussion / Re: Detecting RootKits

« Last post by Nod5 on July 10, 2007, 07:03 AM »

Curt,
Security tools like these always tend to be a bit hard to grasp I would say. I've only tried RootkitRevealer and it was a while ago. But as far as I remember, one quick way to sort out the results was to google on each match (and if needed restrict the search to sysinternals forum). I remember that that showed all my results to be false positives.

For example, your match containing "ControlSet001\Services\sptd\Cfg" is Daemon Tools:
http://www.google.co...ervices%5Csptd%5CCfg

1119

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: OnScreen Display for Mute Status

« Last post by Nod5 on July 08, 2007, 03:47 PM »

app103,
Ok I missed that earlier but I see now that's what you wrote. 

lanux128,
a suggestion: the scripts flickers briefly due to the repeated "gui, destroy" & "gui, show". Add these lines (in red) to only destroy+rebuild the mute OSD text only if its not already present.

------------------
If CheckMute = On
If osd_is_on != 1
  {
  osd_is_on = 1
  Gui, Destroy ;
  Gui, Color, EEAA99
  Gui +AlwaysOnTop +ToolWindow -Caption +Lastfound
  WinSet, TransColor, EEAA99 105  ;105 - level of translucency (range: 0-255)
  Gui, Font, s30 Bold cYellow, Tahoma
  Gui, Add, Text,x3 y3 w175 h45 Center c000000 BackgroundTrans, Mute %CheckMute%
  Gui, Add,Text,x0 y0 w175 h45 Center cFFD300 BackgroundTrans, Mute %CheckMute%
  Gui,Show, NoActivate x70 y600 w175 h45 ; some crude positioning co-ordinates
  IfExist, %A_WinDir%\System32\sndvol32.exe
    Menu, tray, Icon, %A_WinDir%\System32\sndvol32.exe, 4 ; Mute icon
  Sleep 3000
  }
If CheckMute = Off
  {
  osd_is_on =
------------------
(is there some way to combine code block format with text coloring in forum posts?)

1120

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the Switch-05: Ten Great Ideas of GNU/Linux

« Last post by Nod5 on July 08, 2007, 08:10 AM »

anything like dopus for linux?
ahk?
onenote?

-urlwolf (June 23, 2007, 02:39 PM)

As for OneNote alternatives, I recently found this list of Ubuntu software tips http://www.littleubuntu.com/blog/?p=3 . It includes BasKet Note Pad, http://basket.kde.org/ . After testdriving it for a few minutes my impression is that it's a kind of OneNote light. It has free form notes, tagging, filtering, special objects like to-do-lists. I'm not sure if it allows wiki style internal links from one Basket page to another. These screenshots shows many of these and other features:
http://basket.kde.org/screenshots.php

1121

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: OnScreen Display for Mute Status

« Last post by Nod5 on July 08, 2007, 07:08 AM »

app103 & lanux128,
You can set some tray icons to always be shown (never autohidden). Right click Start > Taskbar tab > customize.. . Alternatively, Right click Start > Taskbar tab > untick Hide inactive icons for a more general solution.
But I agree with you that this neat script makes it much easier to see when mute is on.

1122

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: copy MP3-tags on keypress to clipboard

« Last post by Nod5 on July 06, 2007, 06:13 AM »

hi there megomaster,
here is an autohotkey script that together with the freeware command-line tool Tag might do what you want done (if I understand you correctly that is).

To set it up you need to:

1. get and install http://www.autohotkey.com/download/ (free)
2. copy the script source below into a textfile and save it as "batch copy to artist_album folder structure.ahk"
3. compile that file into "batch copy to artist_album folder structure.exe" (to compile, right click it and choose "compile script" -- this requires that autohotkey is installed)
4. get and unzip Tag http://synthetic-soul.co.uk/tag/ (free)

To run it you need to:

1. put "tag.exe" and "batch copy to artist_album folder structure.exe" in the same folder
2. drag and drop any mp3 onto "batch copy to artist_album folder structure.exe"

What it does:

The script looks up the album and artist ID3 tags and (if both are found) copies the file according to this format:

scriptfolder\artist\album\file.mp3

You can drop multiple files and folders with files onto the script and it will check and copy them one by one.
(I haven't tested it very much so you are advised to testdrive it a bit before dropping a thousand files onto it at once or something like that)

[Select]

;batch copy to artistname\albumname\file.mp3 folder structure
xtemp = %A_Temp%\%A_now%.txt
Loop, %0%      ; For each dropped file
{
xx := %A_Index%
xvar =
xartist1 =
xalbum1 =
runwait  %comspec% /c "tag "%xx%" --simple --tofilen "%xtemp%"",%A_ScriptDir%,min ;get ID3 tags with Tag.exe
FileRead, xvar, %xtemp%
RegExMatch(xvar, "Artist=(.*)",xartist)
RegExMatch(xvar, "Album=(.*)",xalbum)

; remove characters that are illegal in windows folder/file names:  \ / : * ? " < > |
xartist1 := RegExReplace(xartist1,"(?:\\|/|:|\*|\?|""|<|>|\|)","")
xalbum1 := RegExReplace(xalbum1,"(?:\\|/|:|\*|\?|""|<|>|\|)","")

if xartist1
 if xalbum1
  {
  FileCreateDir, %A_ScriptDir%\%xartist1%\%xalbum1%
  ifExist, %A_ScriptDir%\%xartist1%\%xalbum1%
    FileCopy, %xx%, %A_ScriptDir%\%xartist1%\%xalbum1%
  else
  {
  sleep, 500
  ifExist, %A_ScriptDir%\%xartist1%\%xalbum1%
   FileCopy, %xx%, %A_ScriptDir%\%xartist1%\%xalbum1%
  }
 }
FileDelete, %xtemp%
}
exitapp

If you have use for the script feel free to donate some small amount to support this great site: https://www.donation...om/Donate/index.html

1123

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: OnScreen Display for Mute Status

« Last post by Nod5 on July 05, 2007, 01:50 PM »

Great script lanux128.

This can also be done without a script. Go to Sound and Audio Devices Properties > Volume > Device Volume: Place volume icon in the taskbar. The tray icon automatically changes when mute is on/off. For this to work the tray icon must be visible all the time so the script is more sophisticated.

1124

General Software Discussion / Re: Delete protected index.dat files in Win XP with IE6 without reboot

« Last post by Nod5 on July 05, 2007, 04:53 AM »

Cleanup is free, I thought the others were also.
Could be mistaken.

-cmpm (July 01, 2007, 01:33 PM)

No my mistake, will try out Cleanup now. Thanks for the help.

Curt,
Thanks for the feedback. Returnil sounds a bit like Sandboxie.

1125

General Software Discussion / Re: free, small, fast uninstaller replacement

« Last post by Nod5 on July 05, 2007, 04:41 AM »

Great finds. 

I agree a "date of install" column would be good to have.

Does any of these tools allow "keyboard sorting". That is, start typing and it jumps to the matching entry. So typing "ner" might jump you to Nero.
edit: yes, Safarp does that. It has live search too! 

Another free, quick uninstaller is built into the anti-spyware tool HiJackThis (in the section "Misc Tools"). But I can't find a way to start that section directly without going through the menus, so that's a drawback (still faster than waiting for windows default installer though  )