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1126

General Software Discussion / is there a util for "minimising" programs to the side of the screen?

« Last post by nudone on April 23, 2010, 08:22 AM »

a tingle in my bones makes me think there must be a little program that does this already - if not then after a few replies i'll make a post in the coding snacks section...

i'd like the ability to have more than one taskbar on a single screen. perhaps a left and right edge taskbar additional to the standard taskbar. the only reason for these extra taskbars is that i'd like to (somehow) minimise programs to them.

OR,

forget the extra taskbars, i'd like to just make a window near the right edge of the screen "minimise" to the right edge of the screen - with just a thin button showing at the edge of the screen indicating the minimised state of the window. likewise the left side of the screen behaves the same way.

perhaps (and this may already be mentioned on the forum), the windows at the edges could be "dockable" to an edge - they would hide when temporarily unused and reappear when the screen edges are hit by the mouse cursor.

this hide/show kind of function has been around for years with the way favorites/history panels can hide along the inside edges of browsers (lots of other programs do it that use panels inside a larger main window).

i do think i'm reinventing the wheel with this so i expect there will be something already out there to try.

thanks.

1127

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by nudone on April 23, 2010, 08:10 AM »

Good points - DC members software really ought to be easy to find - in one place - or a link to their homepage if nothing else.

1128

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 22, 2010, 09:52 PM »

heheh. you've found me out - i just wanted to pretend that's the job i was doing all along. now i just need to mark out my runways on the carpet.

1129

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Proto, another approach to file managing

« Last post by nudone on April 22, 2010, 01:20 PM »

  yeah, i see your point about Everything displaying too much info some times (or a lot of the time). that's one reason why i was hoping Proto would be something similar but with extra control. i'm glad you gave it a try though.

1130

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox

« Last post by nudone on April 22, 2010, 01:11 PM »

Keeping a constantly-updated copy of my Roboform data everywhere I use it

-CWuestefeld (April 22, 2010, 11:38 AM)

(you may already know but) There's an online version of RoboForm that will keep your RoboForm data in sync for you - by using GoodSync.

the advantage of using their online sync methond is that you can also use the "bookmarklet" from any browser - or just log into your online RoboForm account and access everything there (or just use your RoboFom client in the usual way - including the portable version).

1131

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 22, 2010, 12:37 PM »

after spending a few days working with the 4 screens side-by-side i soon got tired of the layout - it's just way too wide. i was even thinking i've done the wrong thing by getting the new monitor.

but - problem solved. place the screens into an inverted T shape and everything feels instantly right. (the new problem may be that i get neck ache from having to look up so much - in which case i shall try lowering the screens as far as they will go.)

1132

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Proto, another approach to file managing

« Last post by nudone on April 22, 2010, 11:55 AM »

Everything might not be instant on the nano-second timescale but as it locates files and folders in less than 1 second that seems pretty instant. give the program a try, you might be pleasantly surprised, miechu. instant is also the right word to use as it never needs to index your drives as it rides off the back of the NTFS file table (i think) - so you never have to wait for Everything to scan and create it's own database for newly created files/folders.

i do think Proto is powerful (and a brilliant idea as i said). i just have a set of tools that already suit my needs. i guess i'm not really a keyboard poweruser.

1133

General Software Discussion / Re: DuckDuckGo - new search engine

« Last post by nudone on April 22, 2010, 02:29 AM »

Since this post hit, I've been using duckduckgo as my primary search, on a trial basis--and I'm sold on it. I try every search engine that comes along, but this is the first one that's really drawn me away for more than a few hours. I absolutely love it.  I still use google for deeper, more intense(ive) searches but for general queries, it's faster and far more to the point than google. Plus, keyboard support is excellent, !bang makes it easy to get out and the zero click / disambiguation features are brilliant.

It is exactly the opposite of that over-hyped, entirely useless cuil crap that claimed to be a google killer a year or two back.

-allen (April 21, 2010, 07:42 PM)

very interesting. (and good to see a post from allen.)

1134

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox

« Last post by nudone on April 21, 2010, 09:21 AM »

i've had a quick look but can't remember where i read the original complaints - these links are just what i found whilst googling about. they are mac related, though i do remember someone (elsewhere) complaining about quicken and/or outlook files.

http://www.versiontr...info/macosx/10826163

http://www.macupdate...75/sugarsync-manager

i suppose the truth, if i'm honest, is that i'm pretty happy with DropBox otherwise i'd have ignored the complaints about SugarSync - after all, any data corruption must be an extremely minor problem with very few users involved. i think my poor memory has just exaggerated what i thought the problem was, i.e. more complaints.

or, maybe i just thought what's the point of using a service even if there's a remote possibility of things becoming corrupt - who knows how important that little bit of data may be when it's damaged. as i said, if i wasn't using DropBox (or it didn't exist) then i'd probably just go for SugarSync without a second thought.

edit:
reading through one of those links above i see that it mentions DropBox can corrupt data anyway. which means my previous comment about data corruption may as well be ignored - sounds like SugarSync is as good as DropBox.

1135

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Proto, another approach to file managing

« Last post by nudone on April 21, 2010, 02:16 AM »

thanks for commenting, miechu.

i got the impression that Proto was meant to be the ultimate util for people that use the keyboard a lot - which, to me, would mean that Proto would be as good as (if not better) than the excellent "Everything" from www.voidtools.com. the Everything search util does provide instant access to any file on your system - which makes it one of the most powerful keyboard utils available (if not the most powerful).

as Proto looked to be aimed at making file functions as quick and easy as possible i just thought it would automatically do what "Everything" could do. i do appreciate what you mean about working with directory structures though - i see how that would be a benefit for disciplined users and their systems.

i think Proto is a brilliant idea. at the moment though it just seems like i can get the same done without having to remember or think about directories and file locations - perhaps it is simply that i'm not doing the more complicated functions that Proto aims at.

1136

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox

« Last post by nudone on April 21, 2010, 01:46 AM »

i've been using DropBox for a while (with some of the poweruser tips you'll find online) and considered using SugarSync to fill in some of the gaps. i decided not to after reading quite a few people complaining about SugarSync corrupting data. i suppose this must be rare but it was enough to make me decide against even giving it a test run.

1137

Living Room / Re: Bit.ly is Harmful to Your Reputation

« Last post by nudone on April 19, 2010, 07:17 AM »

Why can't bit.ly have a list of shortening services and simply stop bit.ly from reshortening them?

Failing that why not warn someone during the process that they cannot posted shortened links and refuse to accept them - at least then the correct link will be posted?

-Carol Haynes (April 19, 2010, 05:39 AM)

sounds like a very reasonable thing to expect.

could we set up a service that did that - the others might follow afterwards...

1138

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by nudone on April 19, 2010, 07:12 AM »

agreed, editing threads isn't a good idea. not the original threads anyway - but i appreciate how editing the copied threads in the Q&A section could well get out of hand too - opinions would differ about how relevant a reply was.

so, i'll just say let's go with the copying method - simply duplicating threads into another section of the site.

1139

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by nudone on April 18, 2010, 11:43 AM »

could the first few steps of presenting the same information in different ways be done using a tag system?

e.g. a forum thread that has been around for a month or two and is primarily a set of answers to the original post is tagged as "q&a" by one of the mods - who would also be able to tag specific replies as "nonessential" to the question and answer discussion. (perhaps even a colour system could be used to indicate non important replies - like a reply having a grey background). all this gets automatically duplicated in the Q&A section of the site.

or is this too obvious? or is it too much work anyway?

i suppose this is assuming there wouldn't be a Q&A area where people could post new questions - only read old ones from the forum.

1140

Post New Requests Here / Re: App or website to keep track of which machines are in use in a machine room

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 04:08 PM »

reading this link also gives the impression that you might be able to set up a form that works the spreadsheet - thereby preventing users from "overtyping" data already entered.

http://www.google.co...41ed6b5918&hl=en

1141

Post New Requests Here / Re: App or website to keep track of which machines are in use in a machine room

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 04:04 PM »

i've had a quick look around at what is appearing on google's help for their documents - this link might give you something to try until they implement a real cell lock feature:

http://www.google.co...285a1e1284&hl=en

1142

Living Room / Re: Workaround to print directly from an iPad

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 11:52 AM »

looking at some of the apps for the iPhone i wouldn't be surprised if someone made such a thing for the iPad.

1143

Post New Requests Here / Re: App or website to keep track of which machines are in use in a machine room

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 11:49 AM »

hmm, well i know google spreadsheets certainly don't have all the options of something like ms excel.

perhaps there's a way of making it do you want need with just the basic functionality. not sure how though.

1144

Post New Requests Here / Re: App or website to keep track of which machines are in use in a machine room

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 11:28 AM »

oh right. interesting. do their spreadsheets actually support dropdown menus and menu locking?

if you are sure they are there then i (or someone else on the forum) might be able to figure them out.

1145

Post New Requests Here / Re: App or website to keep track of which machines are in use in a machine room

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 11:16 AM »

google documents has spreadsheets that can be shared - perhaps several users can edit/update a single shared spreadsheet being accessed by diffferent machines?

perhaps that would be too good a feature for google to provide?

1146

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 11:10 AM »

(i also like the definitions 40hz has devised.)

I wasn't sure how i felt at first about the o.p. but after reading through the comments i'm just left wondering why would we want to change DC - or even add to it. we run the risk of spreading things too thin and losing the whole community - i don't live anywhere else online except DC - i can't bare the thought of it collapsing under the weight (and attitudes) of people seeking questions that couldn't care one jot about who is providing the answers.

if you think it will work - try it - alongside the current forum. but just try to imagine coming here and finding the activity on the forum almost dead in a year or two from now - it sounds like that could well happen, with a domino like effect of members leaving.

of course, i appreciate that it's not forced to happen. perhaps people just wanting answers in the Q & A section would filter through to the forum - but how many? it sounds like an extremely small minority would bother.

maybe DC has the ability to embrace and expand to become lots of things - it just seems to be that special areas on the net can be delicate and quickly wither when their core lifeforce decides the place isn't that special anymore.

1147

Living Room / Re: Workaround to print directly from an iPad

« Last post by nudone on April 17, 2010, 10:49 AM »

There must be an app for it in the Appstore.

1148

Living Room / Re: Workaround to print directly from an iPad

« Last post by nudone on April 16, 2010, 01:03 PM »

love it. so, it isn't a useless tool after all.

1149

Living Room / Re: now we have nettops... but portable monitors?

« Last post by nudone on April 16, 2010, 11:04 AM »

they aren't really flexible enough at the moment but you can see the potential. i'm sure when they get going we'll see screens that can be folded a lot tighter than a wall poster - i hope so anyway. if they don't make them flexible enough to fit in a wallet or pocket i won't be impressed.

1150

Living Room / Re: Dan the Man: Videogame Parody

« Last post by nudone on April 16, 2010, 09:19 AM »

yeah, me too. heheh.