Recent Posts

1226

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else having random reboots with Firefox 2.0.0.11

« Last post by nosh on December 15, 2007, 10:12 AM »

I can honestly say it seems to load faster on my system, f0dder. Maybe I just like my placebos, OK? 

1227

Living Room / Re: Applications Stealing Focus...

« Last post by nosh on December 14, 2007, 04:35 AM »

I tried it, but it never seemed to work for me.

-Renegade (December 13, 2007, 10:04 PM)

Agreed. The TweakUI thing is quite moody. I don't have apps stealing focus so often, my biggest problem is already running apps _preventing_ focus for an app I just ran. Sometimes, when I start Xplorer2 it'll open minimized and blink in the taskbar. The only way out seems to be an AutoHotkey shortcut which launches it and then makes sure it gets focus.

1228

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you testing XP SP3 RC ??

« Last post by nosh on December 13, 2007, 04:06 AM »

The most realistic sounding review for SP3 I've read so far... it's done in mid-October for the first beta though.

Actually, this would be a good time to introduce a few of Vista's user interface upgrades, if only to make XP users look longingly towards the newer OS.

Alas, that's not what SP3 delivers. The new stuff isn't particularly noteworthy, and the rest has been available already through Windows Update. SP3 functions primarily as a collection of past fixes with a few security additions. SP3 is most certainly essential for anyone who hasn't applied SP2, and for those who haven't kept up with the Windows Update downloads, but if you've been on top of things, SP3 won't do much for you.

http://www.pcmag.com...,2704,2200774,00.asp

1229

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else having random reboots with Firefox 2.0.0.11

« Last post by nosh on December 12, 2007, 01:49 PM »

Why don't you guys post your extension lists? see if you can pinpoint the culprit...

1230

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else having random reboots with Firefox 2.0.0.11

« Last post by nosh on December 12, 2007, 12:54 PM »

If the problem persists try rolling back to a previous version and running that for a few days just to make sure it isn't an unrelated problem like faulty RAM.

It's been 100% stable here before and after UPXing the binaries.

1231

Living Room / Re: Overheard on the Internets

« Last post by nosh on December 10, 2007, 01:38 PM »

This may not be to everyone's taste and it's definitely NSFW but bloodninja is cyber-legend.

Just google him for more crazy stuff..

[NSFW Content Follows]

Spoiler

bloodninja: Ok baby, we got to hurry, I don't know how long I can keep it ready for you.
j_gurli3: thats ok. ok i'm a japanese schoolgirl, what r u.
bloodninja: A Rhinocerus. Well, hung like one, thats for sure.
j_gurli3: haha, ok lets go.
j_gurli3: i put my hand through ur hair, and kiss u on the neck.
bloodninja: I stomp the ground, and snort, to alert you that you are in my breeding territory.
j_gurli3: haha, ok, u know that turns me on.
j_gurli3: i start unbuttoning ur shirt.
bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't wear shirts.
j_gurli3: No, ur not really a Rhinocerus silly, it's just part of the game.
bloodninja: Rhinoceruses don't play games. They f*cking charge your ass.
j_gurli3: stop, cmon be serious.
bloodninja: It doesn't get any more serious than a Rhinocerus about to charge your ass.
bloodninja: I stomp my feet, the dust stirs around my tough skinned feet.
j_gurli3: thats it.
bloodninja: Nostrils flaring, I lower my head. My horn, like some phallic symbol of my potent virility, is the last thing you see as skulls collide and mine remains the victor. You are now a bloody red ragdoll suspended in the air on my mighty horn.
bloodninja: Goddam am I hard now.

Spoiler

bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BritneySpears14: Aight.
bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.
bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
bloodninja: Me too baby.
BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
bloodninja: I cast Lvl. 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BritneySpears14: Hey...
bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl. 8 Cock of the Infinite.
BritneySpears14: Funny I still don't see it.
bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty F*ck of the Beyondness.
BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
bloodninja: Don't f*ck with me bitch, I'm the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid.
BritneySpears14: Don't ever message me again you piece of ****.
bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik's evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it's getting hard now.
bloodninja: Baby?

Spoiler

Bloodninja: I lick your earlobe, and undo your watch.
Sarah19fca: mmmm, okay.
Bloodninja: I take yo pants off, grunting like a troll.
Sarah19fca: Yeah I like it rough.
Bloodninja: I smack you thick booty.
Sarah19fca: Oh yeah, that feels good.
Bloodninja: Smack, Smack, yeeeaahhh.
Bloodninja: I make some toast and eat it off your ass. Land O' Lakes butter all in your crack. Mmmm.
Sarah19fca: you like that?
Bloodninja: I peel some bananas.
Sarah19fca: Oh, what are you gonna do with those?
Bloodninja: get me peanuts. Peanuts from the ballpark.
Sarah19fca: Peanuts?
Bloodninja: Ken Griffey Jr. Yeaaaaahhh.
Sarah19fca: What are you talking about?
Bloodninja: I'm spent, I jump down into the alley and smoke a fatty. I throw rocks at the cats.
Sarah19fca: This is stupid.
Bloodninja: Stone Cold Steve Austin gives me some beer.
Bloodninja: Wanna Wrestle Stone Cold?
Bloodninja: Yeeaahhhh.
Sarah19fca: /ignore
Bloodninja: Its cool stone cold she was a bitch anyway.
Bloodninja: We get on harleys and ride into the sunset.

1232

General Software Discussion / Re: Realtime Disk Access monitoring?

« Last post by nosh on December 09, 2007, 10:39 PM »

As justice mentioned, Process Explorer is excellent if you want to see the total reads/writes of an app in one place (I/O Read Bytes & I/O Write Bytes columns)... ideal for identifying _what's_ chugging your disks.

If you need a more detailed breakup Filemon would be the obvious choice. Lastly, if you find Filemon's output too detailed/overwhelming (you can filter items to make things sane, of course) you may want to look at FileTracer's "Monitor File Activity" window.

1233

General Software Discussion / Re: Searching for the best read-aloud software

« Last post by nosh on December 07, 2007, 01:29 AM »

Is TextAloud the only one to provide that feature ?

-Armando (December 06, 2007, 07:46 PM)

Nope. It's more of a standard feature. Most of them support it, IIRC. Take a look at 2nd Speech Center.

 

1234

Living Room / Re: If you build a new PC, make sure you get 2 HDs: One fast and one big

« Last post by nosh on December 05, 2007, 10:37 PM »

I'm using two large 7200 rpm drives but I avoid installing to c:\program files. Programs are instead installed to D: which lies on HDD #2. Data is obviously mirrored across both drives. It's a nice compromise but I'm pretty certain a primary partition that worked @ 10000 rpm would make a substantial difference.

Edit: One of the advantages of having your programs on another drive is that stuff like defrag can be run concurrently on the system and the programs partitions, really cutting down on overall time. 

1235

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by nosh on December 05, 2007, 09:15 AM »

If I need to read the manual, then the user interface has not been optimally designed. Ideally, the interface should be completely transparent for a user familiar with the functional domain to which the software applies.

-JohnFredC (December 05, 2007, 06:27 AM)

I agree with you to the extent that there are a few apps that made hitherto straightforward tasks unnecessarily complex or change something familiar for an unjustifiably small or no boost in performance. A learning curve to square one. If you made that statement with regard to Office 2007 and the ghastly ribbon interface I'd agree with you whole-heartedly.

You don't need to read the X2 manual for ordinary tasks, however. It emulates Windows Explorer pretty well in that sense.
For the more advanced functionality you obviously have to put in the necessary effort to get the benefits. I wouldn't say Photoshop or MS Word (2003) are not optimally designed apps just coz a Notepad user needs to read up about mail merge or an MS Paint user needs to read up about layers to start using them.

The reason I mentioned the manual is ironically enough, because X2 is one of those file managers that comes across as very familiar to the Windows Explorer user. The downside to this is that most people tend not to realise the amazing functionality the lies beneath the unassuming interface... till they actually bother reading about it.

I think the amount of transparency that an app can have depends on the level of power/complexity involved.

1236

Site/Forum Features / Re: Subscribe to certain posters

« Last post by nosh on December 02, 2007, 04:33 AM »

lol @ dirty donations.

wtfwtfwtf!!!

1237

General Software Discussion / Re: Best free firewall for Windows?

« Last post by nosh on December 01, 2007, 09:05 AM »

Well, sygate was indeed the best firewall i ever used for windows. RIP. I'd recommend anyone to try and find a copy of it.

-Gothi[c] (November 07, 2006, 12:50 AM)

You can find Sygate 5.0 to 5.6.2808 here:

http://www.oldversio...program.php?n=sygate

-laughinglizard (November 30, 2007, 01:59 PM)

I was stuck on 5.5 assuming it was the latest last version released. Doh! Thanks.

1238

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Locate 3.0 - great *FAST* HD search tool!

« Last post by nosh on December 01, 2007, 07:16 AM »

maybe it was indexing through deep sub-folders..

-lanux128 (November 30, 2007, 03:48 PM)

Oh yeah, very heavy indexing in my case - pretty much everything except the mirrored backup folders. 

1239

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you testing XP SP3 RC ??

« Last post by nosh on December 01, 2007, 06:49 AM »

Darwin, glad you got a few things cleared out.

Do check the command line for both explorer.exe processes in Process Explorer just to make sure it's not something else running  as Explorer. It's highly unlikely but nice to know for sure anyway.

1240

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Locate 3.0 - great *FAST* HD search tool!

« Last post by nosh on November 30, 2007, 12:52 PM »

I've used Locate32 and really liked it but then I tried File Tracer, just out of curiosity. Locate is a more refined program - far better GUI, way more customizable. I have to say though, when it comes to sheer power and low resource consumption File Tracer is God! Locate pushed my CPU to 40% and beyond whenever it indexed the drives. File Tracer just has you create an index the first time you run it and then does an extremely efficient job of realtime monitoring. If Locate32 gives "blazing fast" results, File Tracer gives near-instantaneous ones. The realtime indexing is so fast, if I search for "document" and open document.txt from the results, it shows up the resultant document.lnk from the 'Recent' folder 3 seconds after I run document.txt.

The most amazing part is, it seems to sitting at 0% CPU at most times. Locate consistently sat at 1.5% CPU in my case even when it was not doing a thing. As an additional plus File Tracer seems to have something like a condensed version of Filemon , I can comfortably view the realtime file system activity without having to filter out several apps like in Filemon.

Don't get me wrong, I love Locate32 but when something does its core job much more faster, much more effectively (no indexing required) AND uses a fraction of the resources you gotta give it its due.   

1241

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you testing XP SP3 RC ??

« Last post by nosh on November 30, 2007, 12:27 PM »

Darwin, any chance you're running PS Tray Factory? I don't have anything concrete but I always felt it degraded my system performance. Just checked explorer.exe in Process Viewer and it's using 20,744 K (private bytes) - all my usual apps are running and I have over 20 icons in my system tray. Two explorer.exe instances is something I've never encountered noticed, BTW. Wonder if it has anything to do with a 3rd party file manager integrating itself into the system...

1242

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007 / Re: Help me find a name for my reading/writing speed-up program

« Last post by nosh on November 28, 2007, 06:04 PM »

How about a take on Need for Speed... "Read for Speed" or simply, RFS!

1243

General Software Discussion / Re: Bug-free software that does -- nothing

« Last post by nosh on November 28, 2007, 09:13 AM »

They just _had_ to pack a 1 byte thingie in a 60 kb installer, didn't they? BLOATWARE!

1244

General Software Discussion / Re: Google GDrive: Coming Soon

« Last post by nosh on November 27, 2007, 03:24 PM »

Xdrive has 5 gigs free, no hyperlinking.
Web interface works better then the xdrive icon deal.

-cmpm (November 27, 2007, 11:02 AM)

Connecting to Xdrive via their client software was a nightmare when I tried it.

It'll be really nice if GDrive kicks into action soon, what with "forever" hosting solutions like Divshare going on sale. 

1245

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you testing XP SP3 RC ??

« Last post by nosh on November 27, 2007, 03:04 PM »

I'm not going to bother jumping the gun coz I'm skeptical about any kind of significant performance boost that'd make the effort worth while. I read about a 10% boost in performance on some site but they compared it to SP2 without a single patch post-SP2 added on. A lot of what SP3 has to offer we already have on our systems. I know there's more to it than that but I doubt it'll have any significant impact. I'll be more than satisfied if it doesn't degrade existing performance levels. I'd love to be proved wrong though...

Curt, if my system were on its last legs I'd think about a fresh copy of XP SP2 first. I seriously doubt SP3 would worsen things though.

1246

General Software Discussion / Re: Hard Drive Diagnostic Software

« Last post by nosh on November 27, 2007, 06:14 AM »

MS used the same name for the utilities if I'm not mistaken. "chkdsk" can be traced back to the MS-DOS days and caused some serious problems in Win9x with utilities like Magic Folders that had a somewhat unconventional approach to the file system  (it whacked off all hidden folders in MF's case.  )

1247

Coding Snacks / Re: Dual Monitors: Declare Apps which Should Open on the Secondary Monitor

« Last post by nosh on November 27, 2007, 02:45 AM »

It can be done.

Configure an app's shortcut with Ultramon then copy the command line from the shortcut's properties.
Associate your extension to fire up the command line you copied instead of the actual player, you'll probably have to do this straight in the registry unless you have a 3rd party utility (look directly under HKCR)

1248

Coding Snacks / Re: Dual Monitors: Declare Apps which Should Open on the Secondary Monitor

« Last post by nosh on November 27, 2007, 12:42 AM »

Try Ultramon.

1249

General Software Discussion / Re: winamp 5.5 is fantastic (I thought I'd never say that)

« Last post by nosh on November 25, 2007, 07:28 PM »

It's nice eye-candy, I'll give you that. But it's slow to load and stutters when there's heavy multi-tasking going on.

1250

General Software Discussion / Re: Find and replace from text file? Or similar?

« Last post by nosh on November 25, 2007, 05:38 PM »

Take a look at ReplaceEm, I think it does exactly what you need. The list you described can be saved as a group and reused.