Recent Posts

1176

Living Room / Re: What is appropriate content for DonationCoder?

« Last post by nosh on January 03, 2008, 06:14 PM »

I think the DC forum is about as disciplined as a place like it can get.
I am personally not in favor of introducing any additional censorship, especially in a place where people are by and large, responsible. That kind of moral-policing would just be stifling and would make me for one, resentful.

I understand that people can have very different perceptions about the same things so I do respect your opinion.

1177

Seedling's Software / Re: New App! WTF!? Music Info

« Last post by nosh on January 03, 2008, 03:08 AM »

Just checked again - it's a display issue.

"Limit Chart to Top 17"


"Limit Chart to Top 18"


There are several unlabeled bars even in the chart I posted previously.

1178

General Software Discussion / Re: foobar2000 0.9.5

« Last post by nosh on January 02, 2008, 03:28 PM »

Winamp is a massive resource hog compared to Foobar. Try doing some medium to heavy multi-tasking with Winamp playing - if your system can handle it and you don't get any stutter, stick with Winamp. 

I use KMPlayer only for video so I really can't compare the two, Foobar is a dedicated audio player though so it has a lot more going for it in that department. I used to love Winamp but after switching to Foobar I can only feel contempt for all that code bloat under an attractive shell, I wish I'd made the switch a lot earlier.

1179

Seedling's Software / Re: New App! WTF!? Music Info

« Last post by nosh on January 02, 2008, 01:06 PM »

Hmm... hadn't noticed.

I started a scan & stopped it once - played with the three categories and restarted it. The 1278 untagged files are probably the untagged ones from the first partial attempt.

1180

General Software Discussion / Re: ghacks post: "Why I decided to uninstall my Antivirus software"

« Last post by nosh on January 02, 2008, 11:14 AM »

NOD32 monitors my net activity+email. The local file scanning I don't bother with coz nobody else uses this machine. I have to be alert when friends come over with pendrives. etc. I dropped active monitoring coz extracting/copying executables got painfully slow, especially if they were packed.

Edit: I just read Martin's post, I think he's leaving himself wide open if he runs files sent by friends without scanning.

 

1181

Seedling's Software / Re: New App! WTF!? Music Info

« Last post by nosh on January 02, 2008, 10:53 AM »

Oh-kay! Who wants to tag my files? 

The scan was as fast as any "professional" app and I love the right-click-copy-chart feature.
Nice work, seedling.   

1182

General Software Discussion / Re: post your 5 most used applications in 2007 here!

« Last post by nosh on December 31, 2007, 07:42 PM »

Firefox
Feeddemon
AutoHotKey
Incredimail
WinOrganizer

1183

Developer's Corner / Re: Best way to start learning C++?

« Last post by nosh on December 29, 2007, 02:59 PM »

I learnt C reading Herb Schildt's "Turbo C/C++ - The complete reference" and loved every minute of it. I know he gets slammed badly in a lot of programming circles and I really don't know how much sense it makes to fire up a 16 bit compiler to learn programming today... so yeah, I'm absolutely no help.
But Schildt was a really good read, fun to go through - can't say that for most other programming books I've [attempted to] read.

1184

General Software Discussion / Re: Two Programs I am Seeking

« Last post by nosh on December 29, 2007, 02:46 PM »

I used to run a standalone text replacement utility called Perfect Keyboard long back but Autohotkey took over. It makes sense for me to run one (lightweight) app for several things and autohotkey does so much more.

For a timer + stopwatch, I'm running PC Chrono. It has voice synthesis which can be quite useful at times.

1185

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by nosh on December 29, 2007, 02:22 PM »

How nice for you! I just tried that and it opened D:\Nero 

1186

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by nosh on December 29, 2007, 02:13 PM »

What about "my network places" then?

-f0dder (December 29, 2007, 01:48 PM)

Works fine here. Or are you talking about Vista?

1187

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by nosh on December 29, 2007, 01:53 PM »

I've never given the "launch folders in a separate process" much thought, it's always been disabled. Had I known about the less crash0-damage bit I'd have enabled it in a heartbeat. Better late than never.

Read this recently at Shellcity...   

XTRA WINDOWS STABILITY.......... Xtra Windows Stability was designed to enhance Windows stability and to minimize loss of your work on Windows crash. This is done by forcing Windows to run its subsystems as separate processes. These subsystems are: Desktop, Explorer (Folders) and Internet Explorer. Using these enhancements can slightly increase memory usage while running several folders or Internet Explorer Windows. If you run only few of them, there should be no difference.....(free).....GO THERE!

I assume it's doing more than just enabling this tweak but haven't had a burning urge or anything to try it out.

1188

Living Room / Re: 2007: My 'Best of' list

« Last post by nosh on December 26, 2007, 03:37 PM »

tomos: Not bad at all! 

I've always liked German cinema, BTW. Not watched too much of it but I remember ones like Alice in the Cities, Zuckerbaby, Martha, Lola Rennt...

zaine: Thanks for your input. It's 3 AM here and I'm off to watch some trash (Saw 4) for a change.

1189

Living Room / Re: 2007: My 'Best of' list

« Last post by nosh on December 26, 2007, 02:11 PM »

Thanks. Where's yours? 

1190

Living Room / Re: 2007: My 'Best of' list

« Last post by nosh on December 26, 2007, 10:44 AM »

Great! I was referring to the Japanese lang. version with English subs, BTW. There is a version dubbed in English but I don't know how well the impact of the original voice actors would carry through there. I've modified my original post to reflect this.

1191

Living Room / 2007: My 'Best of' list

« Last post by nosh on December 26, 2007, 10:27 AM »

Best movie seen:
Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka)

I watch a LOT of movies and would hardly rate any over an 8. I give 'Grave' a full 10 without any hesitation. It's a work of dedication and genius and is undoubtedly THE most powerful movie I've seen. I'm generally considered a cold b*****d by most people who know me but I feel no shame in admitting I had tears streaming down my face the first time I saw it. It still haunts me and I still choke up whenever I go back to watch a scene or two. Highly recommended if you don't mind seeing something beautiful but not necessarily upbeat.
(I'm referring to the 1988 animated version, Japanese audio with English subs )


Best book read:
I'm not much of a reader, and I certainly wasn't in 2007. My pick for this year is Frederick Forsyth's The Afghan. Not the greatest book I've read by far but a page-turned nonetheless. It's about a guy infiltrating the Al-Qaida. I guess contemporary themes are always interesting. I'd rate it a 6.5/10


Best thing on TV:
The Sopranos - Final season.


Best website discovered:
Like the best movie category, this one's a no-brainer. DonationCoder!! 
A big thanks to mouser & the rest of the DC gang - regulars, semi-regulars, software authors,
spammers (some of whom also belong to category 1 'regulars' - i keed! i keed!  ) & anyone who posts here.


Best software discovered:
X2 wins. Hace MMM & Foobar2000 follows close behind.


Best hardware/gizmo bought:
Going from a 15" CRT to two 21" LCD monitors was truly an eye-opener (it's the season of giving, all cheap puns shall be pardoned!)


Please feel free to add your own categories if you like.

I have just three more things to say before I end...

Spoiler

Grave of the Fireflies - WATCH!!!

Spoiler

Grave of the Fireflies - WATCH!!!

Spoiler

Grave of the Fireflies - WATCH!!!!!!!!!

1192

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommendations Destroying Storage Media??

« Last post by nosh on December 26, 2007, 02:57 AM »

Can eraser handle full partition/disk wipes? Iirc I gave it a quick spin a while ago, but as far as I could tell it could only wipe files...

-f0dder (December 25, 2007, 08:28 AM)

It comes bundled with Darik's Boot and Nuke

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely
wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely
delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an
appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

More like an OMFG-the-cops-are-coming!!!! utility 

1193

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by nosh on December 26, 2007, 01:38 AM »

I've been running these on my system for years, right before I backup the system.

1. TuneUp Registry Cleaner
2. PC Tools Registry Mechanic
3. TuneUp RegistryDefrag

The only problem I had was Registry Mechanic deleting my HijackThis 'ignored apps' list - I asked Registry Mechanic to ignore that specific key and haven't had a problem since. I doubt if I'd have run these if I didn't have previous system backups to rely on though.

1194

General Software Discussion / Re: Two questions regarding DVD drive utilities

« Last post by nosh on December 25, 2007, 01:18 PM »

Yep, a tiny always on top LED is what I had in mind.

Thanks Jim.

1195

General Software Discussion / Re: Two questions regarding DVD drive utilities

« Last post by nosh on December 25, 2007, 11:11 AM »

NirCmd works great. Thanks guys.

1196

General Software Discussion / Re: Current IE8 build renders the ACID2 Test correctly!

« Last post by nosh on December 25, 2007, 09:59 AM »

I assume you're talking about creating your custom X2 key (eg: Open_X2) under 'Folder' & 'Directory' and then making that key the default action, like it says in the manual. I was talking about modifying the 'Open' key itself to point to X2 instead of Explorer. I don't have the setting on right now coz I restored a previous Windows image so can't confirm WRT ut & ff. 

1197

General Software Discussion / Re: Current IE8 build renders the ACID2 Test correctly!

« Last post by nosh on December 25, 2007, 09:29 AM »

I don't think anyone pointed their finger at IE, more like the people behind IE - esp. when the tools that are hard-coded to use  it instead of the default browser are made by the same corporation.

f0dder, I managed to make a few apps that always loaded explorer.exe load X2 by modifying the association for the folder shell context 'Open' key.

1198

General Software Discussion / Two questions regarding DVD drive utilities

« Last post by nosh on December 25, 2007, 02:52 AM »

Merry X'mas Everyone! 

Two quick questions reg. DVD drives:

1. Is there any command or utility to close (pull in the tray of) a DVD drive?

2. Is there a utility that'll let me see a DVD LED, like there are for HDDs?
 
Nosh.

1199

General Software Discussion / Re: Current IE8 build renders the ACID2 Test correctly!

« Last post by nosh on December 24, 2007, 12:58 PM »

Clicking the "x new msgs" button within MSN Messenger, for one. I also do Windows updates manually and I had to use IE for it to work, IIRC. I've been using IE for that ever since so I don't know how compatible the windowsupdates site is with other browsers now.

1200

General Software Discussion / Re: Current IE8 build renders the ACID2 Test correctly!

« Last post by nosh on December 24, 2007, 02:20 AM »

The only reason I have IE (6) still on my system is coz of MS's underhanded approach (some links simply refusing to load my default browser).