Recent Posts

1151

Post New Requests Here / Re: Can DimSaver become DimScreen?

« Last post by nudone on April 16, 2010, 08:50 AM »

Is it possible to modify DimScreen so that it works on multi-monitor setups?

I'd find it extremely useful if i could dim my peripheral screens whilst i am not working on them, i.e. not typining or clicking. The idea would be that they "undim" when they receive mouse/keyboard input. so, a bit like a screensaver but only for my side monitors.

(hope you see this here skwire. i may make a fresh post for a snack request if not.)

1152

Living Room / Re: UK amateur photographers: if you're good, don't use Boots!

« Last post by nudone on April 16, 2010, 07:08 AM »

erm, i don't know about it being encrypted - probably so. whatever system many of the onliners in China use is what will work i guess. i assume that must be encryped.

1153

Living Room / Re: UK amateur photographers: if you're good, don't use Boots!

« Last post by nudone on April 16, 2010, 06:17 AM »

Looks like we'll all be needing the help of proxies eventually. Maybe I'll have to move to Iceland as they seem to be the only place setting a trend for having online freedom.

1154

Living Room / Re: UK amateur photographers: if you're good, don't use Boots!

« Last post by nudone on April 16, 2010, 02:24 AM »

I think that it is a good thing that courts are used. I think that this approach is ok. In the french version, if I remember correctly, there was a governmental agency that was able to close your internet connection. No court involved, not ok.

-bgd77 (April 16, 2010, 02:03 AM)

oh dear. so the UK isn't the most internet retarded place after all.

1155

Living Room / Re: Dan the Man: Videogame Parody

« Last post by nudone on April 15, 2010, 05:01 PM »

love the violence. everyone getting punched in the face. made me chuckle quite a few times. lots of nice touches really. the repetitive annoying sound effects for the woman and pet were good too.

1156

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 15, 2010, 04:02 PM »

I've just had a quick play with LBC (again). I think i still want something like a magic desktop instead really. i'll keep looking...

1157

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 15, 2010, 03:22 PM »

i know you've been a desktop icon free zone for years and i understand your reasoning for it. i'm starting to rethink how i do things.

desktop icons have always been useful to me because i tended to have floating windows with plenty of visible desktop space surrounding them - so dragging things to and from the desktop made sense. it was quick and always there.

but now i'm using windows fully maximised (or i should say: lots of windows fully maximised) i do admit i find it annoying getting to the desktop for stuff.

i'm not completely sold on the way you do things as i want a quick and dirty place i can throw everything i'm working with - which the desktop is good for. i'm currently trying a method of using directory opus with filters so that it shows me the desktop but with content excluded. i can quickly select a different filter to change what's on view.

it doesn't seem a perfect method so i'm still considering using really, really, really organised folders. i guess the desktop is for people that hate navigating through folders - i know i do.

oh, i've just remembered something (which i think will be mentioned way back on the forum somewhere). i use the desktop with all the junk thrown on it because it's like a visual way of working with stuff. rather than organising files by folders and sub folders, you organise things by their position on the desktop.

i do use Farr and Everything and i'm tempted to try launchbar commander again - but my quick launch bar sort of covers that (erm, i think). i'm also using QTTabBar to provide drop down lists on the folders on the desktop - some of these contain nothing but shortcuts to categorised programs.

ideally, i want the desktop full of icons (all the desktops) plus a quick way of getting to everything that's on the desktop without having to look at it - but visually arranged so i don't have to use my brain when i'm trying to find a particular file.

1158

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 15, 2010, 02:47 PM »

okay. i'll keep that in mind. i'm just trying a desklamp (behind the main monitor). if that gets annoying i've a few other small lamp combinations to try before going for the overhead room light.

1159

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 15, 2010, 02:18 PM »

well, to say how cheap monitors can be bought for nowadays i'm surprised there aren't more multi-monitor setups. it's got to become common within the next few years - no?

as a four monitor man yourself (and my inspiration, of course) i'm wondering how you use them at night - like, in the dark.

there's enough light comming from these monitors i don't need to turn a desk lamp on - but, i'm wondering if i'd be better off putting a light on in case i strain my eyes somehow. at the moment, i'm a bit blinded by the glare from the peripheral screens.

so, you've been doing this a lot longer - what have you found best suits all this light directed in your face?

1160

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 15, 2010, 01:54 PM »

"Dual Display Mouse Manager" conflicts with my mouse button shortcut for jumping the cursor to the next monitor - otherwise it's a nice idea and program for trapping your mouse to a screen.

a fourth monitor arrived today. i'm wondering if i've gone too far; in some ways it feels like 6 monitors because of the 2 widescreens feeling a bit like 2 monitors each. if anyone is going to get neck ache now, it's going to be me. it's also a bit weird sitting in front of them - it's like i'm at some kind of art installation.

1161

General Software Discussion / Re: DuckDuckGo - new search engine

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 03:28 PM »

seems quite decent - worth a bit of testing. i like the context search options.

1162

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 03:24 PM »

good points, Chris. i had completely overlooked how useful it is to use a monitor as a reading reference screen.

and joiwind, that looks like a very handy mouse util (i'll try it tomorrow). i was noticing today how annoying it is to grab the scroll bars at the edges of the screens.

1163

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 12:41 PM »

I just wish i'd done this multi-monitor stuff years ago (probably when mouser first mentioned it) but then i didn't believe they'd improve my workflow that much - how much they do is questionable i suppose. it definitely feels nicer to work without having to Alt+tab and search through lists of windows - i wouldn't be surprised if avoiding Alt+tab releaves a bit of eyestrain too.

it seems odd that to me that there are complaints about moving your neck - i've really not noticed that to be a problem. if anything i'd say i'm more mobile in my seat and that's making things a little more comfortable when sat in front of a desk all day. it's early days though so maybe i'll encounter problems.

i'm so amazed at how much more pleasant it is to work with lots of windows (that are instantly viewable) on their own screens, i've gone and ordered another 24" monitor today (just the cheapest one i could find). i was tempted to order two but i really haven't a big enough table.

(admittedly, if i'm not doing any web or graphic work then i'll only have one monitor turned on.)

1164

Living Room / Re: UK amateur photographers: if you're good, don't use Boots!

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 07:45 AM »

Is Brussels to blame? I don't think so - not unless in a few years we see that the UK was just a template for the rest of Europe.

1165

Living Room / Re: UK amateur photographers: if you're good, don't use Boots!

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 06:20 AM »

Definitely not funny when seriously looked at what is happening. It's a bit surreal at times as it just strikes me that UK government (well, about 25% of it that isn't Brussels controlled) is planning this country's future on a book published in 1948. I read Orwell's book at school - it seemed like an obvious warning to us at the time - i wonder if they still give it the students of today or if they'd care what it said anyway.

1166

Living Room / Re: UK amateur photographers: if you're good, don't use Boots!

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 04:06 AM »

Well, I leave in a country from the "New Europe" but I never heard of the things that happen in UK to be happening over here...

-bgd77 (April 14, 2010, 03:54 AM)

i sincerely hope it remains that way. i have no idea why this country is determined to head down the path of making Orwell's 1984 a reality - maybe it's as a tribute to the man, or we can just become a giant living theme park for the novel.

1167

Living Room / Re: UK amateur photographers: if you're good, don't use Boots!

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 02:10 AM »

i think we are the testing ground for the New World order - or maybe just the New Europe. Or maybe we are just a nice little island that's easy to control by big business.

1168

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 14, 2010, 01:58 AM »

so far (unless i've missed some important configuration options) it looks like you don't have a choice to set individual virtual desktops to specific screens. the utils i've tried consider the entire collection of real desktop space, i.e. all your monitors, as one single desktop.

so, when using a virtual desktop manager, you get a virtual duplicate of whatever your real physical desktop setup is. "desktop 1" has my 3 monitors on it and "desktop 2" has the same 3 monitor screen layout.

this was part of the problem when trying the virtual desktop manager programs. because they appear to assume you've only got a single monitor they don't know what to do with a taskbar on a second monitor - so the extra taskbars vanish which makes your virtual desktops on the secondary monitors hard to use.

VirtuaWin doesn't have this problem at all - it totally respects UltraMon's extra taskbars so you get taskbars on all screens on all virtual (and real) desktops.

1169

Living Room / Re: Weekly TechNews Appology for 10/04/2010

« Last post by nudone on April 13, 2010, 04:08 PM »

cool. glad to hear you got a new job. you've been doing great with the news updates - you deserve a break. well, maybe just once in a while. 

1170

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 13, 2010, 01:38 PM »

Would you run particular destops on particular monitors?

-AndyM (April 13, 2010, 01:15 PM)

can you explain a little more, i'm not sure what you mean - it's confusing having all these virtual and physical desktops to refer to.

1171

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 13, 2010, 12:30 PM »

i mentioned above that i was tempted to use a virtual desktop even though i've a physical multi-screen setup.

i've been trying a few of the typical virtual desktop managers (Dexpot, etc) and so far the free util "VirtuaWin" http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ appears to work perfectly fine alongside UltraMon. the problem with the other virtual desktop mangers was that they lost the extra taskbars provided by UltraMon.

VirtuaWin also has a range of modules to extend it which i've yet to try.

if i notice anything interesting about the VirtuaWin/UltraMon combination i'll make a post about it. i'm expecting it to take a while to work out a best way to use all of these extra functions and desktop space...

1172

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 12, 2010, 01:51 AM »

i use Ultramon too. i've also got a couple of buttons (10 button mouse) set to make the cursor jump to the next monitor along . i never thought about moving the taskbar though - might have to try that. i'm also still tempted to set up a virtual desktop to try and collect a few windows together.


i've not noticed any neck problems so far - if it happens i'll report back.

1173

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by nudone on April 11, 2010, 01:51 PM »

all are in native resolution, so:

17" portrait is: 1024 x 1280.
17" landscape is: 1280 x 1024
24" is 1920 x 1200.

i've gone for these sizes, partly by choice and partly by convenience. i got the 17" portrait as it was almost the same height as my main 24" and also was wide enough to view the standard(ish) web browser width of 1024 pixels. for a while i thought this was more than enough for my needs (two monitors).

then i realised i had room for an extra graphics card (just a cheap pci-e one at £30) that i could connect a spare monitor to. this 3rd monitor has allowed me to set up a screen for running wider windows on - like FireBug.

i wasn't expecting this 3 monitor layout to make much of a difference as i was so used to flicking with Alt+tab, but i think the difference is obvious within a few hours of working with them. i used to view it as a bit of an extravagance to have a multi-monitor setup but i now believe that if you are making a living from using a computer then several monitors are (probably) an essential part of your toolkit.

p.s.
i do use the 24" like a two monitor setup too. so that's a bit like having 4 screens in total. i can easily have 10 windows open at a time so you can see how annoying it is Alt+tabbing between them all.

1174

Living Room / Re: building reputation: great o'reilly book and blog

« Last post by nudone on April 11, 2010, 01:13 PM »

i think online is a lot like offline. you meet, you chat. at first you don't take every word said by a new "friend" as gospel. after a few more encounters you build a picture of this person. at some point you realise that all the outlandish stuff they said is bullshit - or they are just one of those people that live a crazy life (i know someone that can't help but have an adventure every week to the point that his life sounds like total fantasy).

i don't think there's any way of speeding up the process - online or off. you might embrace a forum that is full of bullshitting idiots that just rank up the reputation of each other - because they are all lying buffoons (or teenagers). in which case you'd be mislead into thinking these people are experts - maybe a couple will be.

it used to wind-me-up seeing all the drivel throughout the design blogs. regurgitated "expert" opinion and commentary is the norm. it's everywhere online - with so few real experts. what's the solution? i just stopped reading those blogs and feeds.

it's the same in the real world - there aren't many experts. you'll have to suss them out as you find them - if you do find them.

1175

Living Room / Re: "The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows about you"

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

i'm with Josh. i'm more worried about my own government (UK) than google. also, i'm sure i read something recently that said it isn't such a great problem for your computer to be profiled as an entirely unique machine, unique to you and your life online - something that would easily betray you if you really were going to be investigated - it didn't sound like there was much of a way to avoid this other than to stop going online. i know i ought to remember the details, and i'm sure it's not news to many on this forum. it just made me realise there were other ways of tracking internet users regardless of the walls we might try and hide behind. (maybe what i read was just a scare story.)