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Recent Posts

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13151
Living Room / BoingBoing Update on Bitcoin Alternatives
« Last post by mouser on July 25, 2011, 11:27 AM »
I have to say this Bitcoin thing makes no sense to me -- but then neither does any of economic theory.

Today boingboing has a nice couple of links to an alternative proposal that uses some of the same ideas as bitcoin, and a link to a crazy true story of how a virtual currency in Brazil solved a huge country-wide financial crisis in Brazil by tricking people into thinking their currency had magically become stable.

Am I the only person who gets the feeling that the entire world economy is one big confidence game sham?


13152
General Software Discussion / Re: Google+
« Last post by mouser on July 24, 2011, 09:44 PM »
I think the dirty little secret of google+ and twitter, etc. is that a huge number (the majority?) of accounts are actually created by bots for a variety of reasons.  Of course no site wants to admit this because they love the headlines that make it look like huge numbers of people are joining.  Maybe google is just deleting some of them.
13153
General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Last post by mouser on July 24, 2011, 12:32 PM »
Version control systems have gotten a LOT better in dealing with new and moved files/folders.. i remember learning how to handle such things in the original version control system cvs and feeling an instant need to get blackout drunk.  I don't think i ever touched cvs after that day.  But it's still a big pain, and tranglos' point is valid in terms of why version control is not ideal for some backup scenarios.
13154
General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Last post by mouser on July 24, 2011, 11:37 AM »
At the risk of repeating myself: make the jump and use a full versioning system like.. You are doing yourself a favor, the mentioned systems do not drain resources from your PC (or brain for that matter) and provide a good base to work more structured at home.

I agree that coders should be familiar with versioning systems.  But I disagree that these are suitable for keeping large volumes of (source and non-source files) versioned instantly, for a couple of reasons.

Versioning software is designed to be run on command when you have some new good changes to commit.
You commit an update when you have made a bunch of changes and you are saying "here is a new state of the system".  If it goes wrong you can roll it back.

While that makes a lot of sense for software development.  But I believe there is value in a much more frequent silent backup of changed files as you are working on them.

In this scenario, one is interested in saving virtually every change to a file automatically, so that you can do an emergency rollback or comparison if it turns out you broke something at some point, combined with periodic cleaning of old backups.

I don't think version control software is well set up for this use.  Not that you couldn't use a version control system to try to simulate it, but think about what that would mean -- having version control scan a multi gigabyte drive/documentfolder for all changes, every 2 minutes and creating a new commit every 2 minutes, etc.  That's just not practical with any version control system I know of, and this kind of automatic rapid backup is key to being able to recover from unexpected problems -- you do not simply want to be able to rollback to the last manual commit you remembered to run.

So i'm not against version control systems at all (especially but not solely for muli-user systems).

I'm just saying that there is a use for a separate system that is live-monitoring for any changes to your document files, and doing an instant versioned backup of changed files, for emergency restoration/comparison features.
13155
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: WebDrive Mini-Review: Caching FTP-to-LocalDrive Mapping Tool
« Last post by mouser on July 24, 2011, 11:19 AM »
Just wanted to post an update to praise webdrive for something.

I recently spent a day writing backup scripts for donationcoder, to do things like nightly backups of database and backup of new uploaded file attachments, etc.

In addition to letting you mount an ftp/ssh/sftp account as a virtual drive on your computer, which is the functionality i also associated with the software, it turns out that webdrive also has quite a nice scheduled download system that will connect to the site, find all new and changed files, and download changed files to your local hd (it supports upload, download, and sync).  Turned out to be exactly what i needed.

I'm pretty sure that a bunch of the file backup tools (super flexible file synchronizer, etc.) can do this also.. But it's pretty impressive to see it well implemented in webdrive itself.
13156
General Software Discussion / Re: Freemake Software: Help With A Service
« Last post by mouser on July 24, 2011, 10:56 AM »
They state that it collects bug and crash data and then chooses the best time to send that data based on when their servers are least busy.  If there are no bugs or crashes, and even if the software has never been run, it still transmits something.

There may be reasons they say it needs to do this.. This may be a great service for all I know.  But something sounds fishy to me.

Regardless, I would never ever use software that did this.  My advice: uninstall and find alternative software.
13157
Developer's Corner / Re: The Yii PHP Framework
« Last post by mouser on July 22, 2011, 10:43 PM »
Given the 3, Yii, CodeIgnighter, CakePHP are all equally good for someone brand new if this galaxy?

Well i'm hot on yii these days, so that's what I would recommend.  CakePHP is a bit bigger and heavier and more featurefull if that's what you need.  CodeIgniter has a bigger community if that's what you need.

Note that none of these are suitable unless you are quite comfortable doing substantial coding in PHP.
13158
Living Room / Re: AWOL
« Last post by mouser on July 22, 2011, 08:49 PM »
Welcome back CT  :up:
13159
Living Room / Re: Yet Another Help-Me-Build-a-New-Computer Thread
« Last post by mouser on July 22, 2011, 06:41 AM »
Just want to emphasize something f0dder said with regard to memory:

Upgrading memory is extremely easy - just make sure if you get 8gb of ram that you do so by getting two 4gb sticks (rather than 4 2gb sticks which would be cheaper), so that you have room to add more later.  That's a mistake people sometimes make.
13160
Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - 2.95.01 - June 6, 2011
« Last post by mouser on July 22, 2011, 04:57 AM »
I'm about to upload a new SC update, i'll try to fix this.
13161
Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: High CPU usage when running along with Activewords
« Last post by mouser on July 21, 2011, 04:57 PM »
Actually a better solution to your problem might be to add the activewords exe to the exclusion list in CHS:

Screenshot - 7_21_2011 , 4_56_30 PM.png

(note that i dont know what the actual exe name of activewords is, so the screenshot is just an example).
13162
Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: High CPU usage when running along with Activewords
« Last post by mouser on July 21, 2011, 02:48 PM »
can you try an experiment for me, try unchecking this and see if it has any effect:
Screenshot - 7_21_2011 , 2_45_42 PM.png
13163
Developer's Corner / Re: md5 / sha1 hashes What's the point?
« Last post by mouser on July 20, 2011, 04:26 AM »
Who ever checks that hashes are identical in multiple locations though before checking the download hash matches it?

I don't, but some people do.

And really I think the main point is not to prevent the possibility that someone could get fooled into downloading a maliciously modified file.  The point is to set up a kind of early warning system so that it wouldn't go unnoticed if someone were tampering with files, and a way for people who NEED to make sure they have the official release to verify this.

You're never going to be able to prevent a malicious attacker from tricking a few people to downloading a trojaned file.  But you can make it fairly easy to rapidly detect when such attacks are attempted on trusted distribution sites, etc.
13164
Developer's Corner / Re: md5 / sha1 hashes What's the point?
« Last post by mouser on July 20, 2011, 04:22 AM »
not from people mysteriously noticing a random string of hexadecimal digits changed

All it takes is one person with an automated website-change watching program to easily and instantly spot (or be notified) when there is a change on a web page. Quite a few people run such tools (including me).
13165
Developer's Corner / Re: md5 / sha1 hashes What's the point?
« Last post by mouser on July 20, 2011, 03:44 AM »
I think they serve several purposes.

First, your point is correct, that if someone is hosting files on a web server and serving web pages from the same server, someone who could modify the files for download could also modify the displayed hash values.

However, in this case the author and others would presumably NOTICE that the web page hash values had suddenly changed.  So it would greatly increase the chance that the manipulation was noticed.

But more importantly -- it's quite common for large companies that use these kinds of hashes (Microsoft, etc.) to post the hash values for a download in multiple places on multiple servers.  And that's where the real security comes from.  Because it means that it's not practical for someone to manipulate the previously released distributed information about hash values.

Even if you are just an independent developer, you could simply post the hash values of an important file on a few forums, etc.  That would make it impractical for anyone to be able to manipulate those public hash values.  

In security lingo, this general concept of having a secondary channel of information that won't be vulnerable even if the main channel is tampered with is known as: out-of-band.
13166
Screenshot Captor / Re: Timed Auto Capture
« Last post by mouser on July 19, 2011, 06:24 PM »
Maybe it's time for that setting to get another default during installation, it's the first thing I change after a fresh install of SSC on any system.

yeah i strongly considered that, but i'm afraid that its something new users might like, to hold their hand when just starting.

what i could do however is add a way on THAT pop up dialog to say "stop showing me this dialog after capture"
13167
Screenshot Captor / Re: Feature Request: hide SC's tray icon
« Last post by mouser on July 19, 2011, 03:43 PM »
I guess i could add this.
13168
Screenshot Captor / Re: Timed Auto Capture
« Last post by mouser on July 19, 2011, 02:50 PM »
Does exist a way how to autosave screenshots without clicking on options respectively without displaying screen "what to do now with screenshot?"

there certainly does.  in fact personally i never understand why anyone uses the pop-up "what do you want to do now" dialog.

to do what you want go to "Interface Options 1" tab and select "stay minimized":
Screenshot - 7_19_2011 , 2_49_52 PM.png
13169
N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge: Dungeon AI
« Last post by mouser on July 19, 2011, 01:17 PM »
I am *extremely* interested in the more general idea of designing a real-life board/card/rpg game where a computer is used to dynamically generate content.. I've been toying with ideas for designing games that have the computer build a random adventures/scenarios that players would print out and then play.  Might be fun to talk about your plans as you proceed.
13170
Finished Programs / Re: when I downlaod files.
« Last post by mouser on July 18, 2011, 08:54 PM »
Yes, many of us use such a tool -- normally referred to as a "Dialog Extender".  The review I've linked to is pretty old, but if you search the forum for such things you'll find some good discussions.

In particulate, Filebox Extender is now free.
13171
DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Newsletter for July 18th, 2011 - "DonationCoder Plus"
« Last post by mouser on July 18, 2011, 04:29 PM »
Newsletter for July 18th, 2011
"DonationCoder Plus"




1. Newsletter Editorial

Welcome to another edition of the DonationCoder newsletter.  The title of this edition is a play on Google+ which is the hot new thing in the social networking wars.  I try to stay away from these social networking things and avoid using them, but I did create an account just to see what all the fuss was about; there are a few discussion threads about it in the newsletter.  Things must be a little slow on the forum lately because it's been over a month since the last newsletter and this edition only has 9 sections (compared to the normal 10-12).  This might be the perfect time for those of you who are working on something interesting, or who want to start a new project, to make a post on the forum and tell the rest of us about your idea.


2. User-to-User: Your Input Requested

We welcome everyone's participation on the forum, no matter what your level of computer knowledge or how long you've been a DC member. If you're still waiting to make your first post, see the links below for some good places to jump in.



3. Website Discoveries, Debates, and Discussions

What's new in cyberspace? What exciting new sites have been discovered by forum members?  What's the current hot topic and debate? Read on to find out..



4. Coding Snacks and Member Software

We've had quite a bit of activity in the Coding Snacks section since the last newsletter.  The Coding Snacks section is where people post requests for small utilities, and DC coders like Skwire can be found implementing them daily.



5. Discounts and Giveaways

This month we have two giveaways and a discount:



6. Fun, Games, Humor and Amusements on the Web

If you've read the newsletter up to this point, take a break and check out the lighter side of the forum - humor, videos, and games..



7. Software Discussion

Almost half the posts on the forum fall into the category of software discussions, questions, recommendations, etc. This is one of the most active sections of the DC forum and a great resource if you're trying to solve a software or hardware related problem.



8. Developer's Corner

The title of this section shouldn't scare you off - there is definitely something of interest for everyone here! It's more than just a section for the discussion of software development, it's also where we discuss web design, entrepreneurial ideas, and general productivity issues.  It's great to see that the section has been pretty active recently.



9. NANY 2012

At the very end of each year DonationCoder runs an event called NANY (New Apps for the New Year), where we invite the programmers who hang out on our site to release a brand new (free) application to the world.  Long time NANY organizer Perry Mowbray will be on vacation for most of NANY this year, but DC member Kyrathaba has been extremely generous in volunteering to shepherd this year's NANY through to completion. Three cheers for Kyrathaba!

In an attempt to encourage larger applications we've started banging the NANY drum a little earlier this year, and we're encouraging people to start pledging application ideas or start requesting help for beta testing or coming up with ideas.  NANY is open to coders of all backgrounds, so please help us spread the word to anyone you know who needs some encouragement to release something new.

13172
General Software Discussion / Re: Google+ Extensions thread
« Last post by mouser on July 18, 2011, 09:00 AM »
Welcome to the site Jerome -- very nice work  :up:
13173
Find And Run Robot / Re: [Feature Request] TAB key working as DOWN key
« Last post by mouser on July 18, 2011, 08:43 AM »
that's only because i'm not insane.

the down arrow does what you want -- it can be used to move down from the search edit and through the results -- i'm not sure why it would be a good idea to use tab for this.
13174
Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: [v2.00.03] Queries/suggestions: Date presets / SQL / Images
« Last post by mouser on July 18, 2011, 03:52 AM »
Glad you are liking the new version and thank you for the kind words  :up:

You are right there is not currently a way to paste a specific date using just a hotkey.  I may add an ability to set hotkeys on specific clips -- and if i do that i will make it possible to design clips with dynamic text like date+time.  Until then though i would suggest using something like AutoHotkey which is popular here on the forum and which you could use to set up custom hotkeys to do all kinds of things easily.

Your other suggestion though is also not a bad one -- which is to add some kind of generic DATE/TIME data to the formatting presets options dialog, so one could add date/time to beginning or end of a formatted text block.. I wonder if that's something that would be more generally useful to people..


Now as for the sql virtual group stuff.. this is one of those features that is barely documented at all and few people are brave enough to dive into.  So congratulations for taking the plunge.  i wish i had a nice guide to give you for the shark and jellyfish infested swampy waters..

There definitely is no way to set precedence of groups so that a clip will only appear in one and not others when their conditions match..  an important thing to realize is that virtual groups are not physical collections of clips -- they are just filters that decide on the fly which clips to show inside them that live physically in other groups.  So a clip is always shown in its "real" group, and then in any other virtual groups.  So one option is always to move it out of the Clipboard group and it will still show in the virtual group (to add confusion you can actually move clips so that their "real" group is the virtual group).

With sql you can use things like parentheses , and, or , not, etc.  so you can exclude conditions quite easily.  Maybe the easiest thing now since there is no good guide is post what you are trying to do and your sql expression that is not working and we can try to help.
13175
Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CH+S Error Message
« Last post by mouser on July 18, 2011, 03:41 AM »
Hi justw3 -- first of all let me say you are too kind.  If such anonymous errors were happening to me and i couldn't tell what program was causing them i would be more than just a little aggravated.. I'd probably be yelling at my computer screen.

From looking on the web it seems as if the error has something to do with an antivirus program blocking access to the file.  Related errors in other programs:

Can you let us know what antivirus program you are using in case it might help others? And try excluding your CHS database directory in your antivirus program; those other pages above may also hold some clues.  I may try changing the temp directory location to make it easier to exclude.  Maybe when you see that error there is a way for you to check what your antivirus has been scanning lately to confirm if in fact that is the problem.
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