Recent Posts

14051

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 09:15 PM »

Some people you just can't please.. that's ok, I don't think it's very productive to argue with lotus any more.

For the rest of the readers.. the fundraiser is something we do to celebrate the daily work that goes into the site every day.  The last fundraiser was 2 years go.  We always try to come up with some special stuff to do during these events but really they are just a little icing on the cake.  The fundraiser is a time for us to be proud of what we've done since the last fundraiser and ask for the people who appreciate the site to be part of it's community and help support it going forward and get some satisfaction out of it.

So let's have fun and be proud of what we do -- and always try to do better, and not get drawn into petty fighting with people who aren't helping

14052

Official Announcements / Fundraiser Day 7

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 12:49 PM »

Day 7 of the Fundraiser and we're going strong.  If you've been following the fundraiser so far you know that each day we're trying to post something new -- a new minireview, coding snacks, major software update,etc.

Today it's my turn, and I've released a major new version of my Clipboard Help+Spell application for getting the most out of your windows clipboard, along with a new 15 minute overview video on the program.  I hope you find it useful.

The video is: here.


You can download the program from the Clipboard Help+spell web page.

14053

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v2.23.01 - Nov 22, 2013

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 12:40 PM »

I have made the first overview video of CHS.. Despite my best intentions it ran to 15 minutes long.

The video is: here.



Next I will be making some more videos focusing in on how to get the most out of the program and perform specific functions.

14054

Screenshot Captor / Re: Highlighting rectangle

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 12:28 PM »

Haven't done it yet.. i'll try to make it part of my march update madness.

14055

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 09:40 AM »

I like to see when we can turn negativity into opportunities to improve and have fun -- I think it's an important part of living a good life.

Now regarding banning users.. We have to ban several users per day for trying to spam the forum -- usually by sticking advertising links in their profiles that no one ever sees -- so there is plenty of banning that happens, but never for anything other than advertisement spamming.

Now.. Every forum has different policies for how to handle people that the moderators think are just interested in disrupting things and upsetting people; my belief is that banning should be used as a very last resort and is almost never needed (the only time might be if someone is constantly posting stuff they have been asked not to over and over and won't stop).  I think these things tend to run their course and that people should be allowed to have their say, even if we disagree with them.

Sometimes it can feel like a person is making personal attacks or is just attempting to make the site look bad to new visitors -- and that's where some moderators tend to think that a ban is appropriate -- as a way of showing that we are not on the "side" of the attacker.  And sometimes i know that others on the forum wish someone would be banned because they judge that person has no aims other than to cause trouble and is harming the positive tone of the site -- and they plead with mods that someone be banned.

As good intentioned as the mods are in these cases, i maintain that banning people in cases like this, just like locking/deleting disruptive threads, often just exacerbates the problem, and so best to just let things run their course and try to make lemonade out of lemons.

Looks like this was a case of a mod just trying to protect the forum by banning lotus; as well intentioned as it was, i removed the ban when i was told about it just because i don't think it solves anything.

It's not the first time (and won't be the laste) that we've banned someone and removed the ban when cooler heads prevailed.  Or deleted/locked a post when we realize later we shouldn't have.  It's not a conspiracy just a normal consequence of having human beings making the judgment calls when it comes to moderating the site.  When we make mistakes we try to correct them

Now back to the Scarlett Johanssons and Leelee Sobieskis..  Is someone suggesting we hire them to do the website redesign? Or replace Cody as our new spokespeople?  I'll discuss the idea with the moderators and we'll discuss a severance package for Cody should he be made redundant.  Please have them call me to schedule an interview.  I will try to find some time to meet with them and discuss possible positions.

14056

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 09:20 AM »

can you try the new upload?

14057

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 08:52 AM »

i see the problem -- happens with tray clips that are in their own submenus instead of on root menu. working on it now.

14058

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 07:51 AM »

 
I remember those -- great stuff

14059

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 07, 2011, 12:18 AM »

New beta update posted that fixes tray menu shift+click submenu.

14060

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 08:53 PM »

lotus should *not* have been banned. you are now unbanned.

actually i couldn't see that you were banned.. maybe someone unbanned you already or maybe it was a ban on ip? i'm not sure.

14061

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 04:17 PM »

ah you just made me realize i only set it up for use with the QUICK PASTE popup menu (triggered by configurable hotkey in options); only crazy people use the system tray menu.  however i will add it to that too now.

to be honest i don't even remember how you use the tray icon menu to select clips to paste, since the previous window loses focus when you access it -- are people using the tray menu to select clips? should i make it behave differently than it does when you use it now?  just testing the normal tray clip menu, i see it tries to put focus back in the last active window or detect when you do and then do a paste.  maybe i should simplify and just have it copy the selected clip to the clipboard instantly, for you to handle as you see fit?

14062

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 02:30 PM »

Multiple ways to present the software repository organization : Couldn't all software titles be put in a DB and then, through different filters/queries and sort methods, we could see just what we want in a table/grid like interface ? I'm thinking of Something close to Mantis in terms of functionality, but maybe simpler and nicer (aesthetically).

I worry this kind of thing would lead us to over-complication.. Let's try to keep this as simple as we possibly can while trying for most of the functionality we think is important. I don't think we have so much software that we need to get crazy with letting people filter and sort entries, etc.  A good compromise might simply be a simple tagging system, and a way to present a page of software with that tag -- then we could create arbitrary collections using tags.

14063

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 01:22 PM »

Regarding Order, I know it's not nearly as intuitive as a drag and drop system would be -- but drag+drop is not trivial in a database system where clips may be moving around on their own.

So the way ordering works is that every clip has an "Ordering" field.  By default clips are "unordered", with a blank Ordering value equivelent to Ordering = 0.

When a pop-up menu is displayed, clips are sorted by default (see above for upgraders to change their group Ordering sql), with highest Ordering values at top.

So if you want to move a clip higher up, use a higher Ordering value for that clip; want to move it lower, use a lower Ordering value.  These are floating point values so you can use fractional values.  Use negative numbers to put clips below un-ordered clips, positive numbers to put them above.

In practice the only time you will probably ever care about this or have to pay attention to it is in your Favorites group; where you can just set the Ordering values to order the clips as you want.

14064

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 12:50 PM »

Im curious to hear how people like the stack (fifo queue) system; i expect it may take a little getting used to.  But one noteable feature of it is that it is non-destructive, and the stack start position can be set before or *after* clips have been copied.  That is, it tracks the position of the pointer in the clip history, so you can set this position any time you want, and popping off one item just advances the position without altering clips -- so you can reset the stack position any time you want.

14065

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 12:46 PM »

Another thing to play with is using the stack with the Paste Using Tabs option.

So, you would copy a series of items that need to be entered into tab-separated fields on a web page or dialog, and then bring up quick popup menu, choose Stack operations, and choose to paste entire stack using Tabs:


That image shows that the stack start marker is currently at the "1111" clip; pasting entire stack will simulate:  1111 TAB 2222 TAB 3333 TAB 4444

14066

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 12:41 PM »

So a couple of new features worth looking into:

In the quick paste popup, if you hold shift while selecting an item, you will now see a secondary menu for that clip:


That should make it easier to do commonn things with clips other than the most recent clip, which previously required bringing up the main window.

Stay tuned for some screencast videos showing how to get the most out of CHS.

14067

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 12:09 PM »

Ok so I promised to post my thoughts on the Software Repository idea.  Here goes:

First a summary of what I think are problems with how we currently do list software on DC:

• There is a complete dichotomy between "main/official" DC software and things like coding snacks, which is often artificial.  The "main/official" software listing page is here, and it has links to my software page and the Coding Snacks software page, and a few other people's pages who are prodigious releasers on DC.  Coding Snacks are the other major kind of software created by DC members and they have their own page here, which is presented in a completely different way.
• The main reason for this dichotomy is based on the mechanism to maintain these lists; the main software page i edit by hand and ftp up to the server when it changes; the coding snacks are handled by a kind of in-house blog system that i wrote a while ago.  A secondary reason is simply a matter of having some kind of organization that isn't overwhelming to users in terms of them distinguishing between bigger apps and smaller utilities that are more suited to experts.
• Both of these software listing mechanisms are a pain in the ass to manage, nearly impossible to search.
• They also are not amenable to making an automatic list of recent releases, providing an rss feed, etc.  The home page list of recent releases is again manually edited (part of the reason i only update it for "major" releases).

So what do I think we would benefit most from:

• A unified systematic way of maintaining and presenting ALL software on DC (big apps, coding snacks, etc.)
• A system that let's select moderators have control over which authors can create new entries in the software repository, and then let mods and authors create and update and maintain their own entires, with little difficulty.
• Automatic creation of "recent update" lists/rss feeds.
• Ideally it would allow authors to both upload their new releases to be served from the site, or link to external releases.
• Well integrated into the look and feel of the site.  However it's important to note that I think the site should move to a proper CMS -- so i'm not arguing for the software repository to tie into the CURRENT hand coded html / theme of the site.
• Multiple ways to present the software repository organization. Some people have stressed the desire to have software logically arranged as a hierarchy of categories (Utilities, Clipboard Tools, etc.); while i do not deny the value of this, i think it's important to realize that this approach is most useful for sites which are comprehensive software listing sites, like a freeware site that aims to include every free utility in a class.  Then it makes sense that people will go to that site to BROWSE for the best such tool.  But for us, i think MOST people will land on a page through a web search, and not because they have some interest in seeing all the clipboard utilities that DC members happen to have made.  So, while i think such an organization would be useful (and more so the more apps our members release), i do think perhaps more importantly would be a way for mods to be able to also make collections of items arranged by author, or by event (NANY?) or by some editor's choice recommendations, etc.  One of the things i see on many big software listing sites is that programs/projects get "lost" in the forest.. And i think we need to have some way of making some things easier to find, perhaps at the expense of some of the more esoteric, specialist, small utilities. Maybe.
• Something with an attractive image-centric layout for overview of programs (something like this).
• Support for screenshot galleries and videos.

Some concerns I have about a new system:

• I think one of the biggest unresolved issues on community sites like ours is the problem with redundant information.  We have a forum where the hardcore dc members hang out most of the time, and where we prefer to talk about issues.
• The forum is ideal for ongoing discussions.  But then for casual software users, they may benfit most from a simpler more restrictive comment system on a software repository page.  And bugs might be better tracked on a dedicated bug tracking page, etc.  Some pages like a FAQ may be best handled with a wiki like system.
• We tried this once, incorporating a serious bug tracking system, and using wiki system for some info.  The serious problem here is the need for users to coordinate these redundant and incompatible ways of discussing things.
• My general feeling is that redundant information is the root of all maintenance evil, and needs to be avoided at all costs.  That makes me hesitant to add any features or content to the software repository that would be duplicated independently by forum content.  I want us to be wary of this when thinking about software repository features -- it may mean not using some common features (ability for users to leave comments, track bugs, etc.) -- or it may mean adopting a convention that we not do such things on the forum.
• I worry about over-complicating this and trying to make something too powerful and complicated; this site needs more simplicity and less complexity.

14068

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 11:22 AM »

I'm curious to hear what people think of the new stack (actually FIFO queue) features and dupe handling and web url grabbing and quick paste clip submenu (shift click).

14069

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Upgraders to v1.45 -- some changes you should make

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 11:19 AM »

Or if you have NO important data in your clip database that you care about, you can simply exit CHS, delete the contents of the CHS database directory, and restart to begin with a brand new default database.

Upgraders may also need to click to customize which fields show in the grid in order to turn on the Notes field if you want to see the urls associated with clips captured from browser windows, and the Ordering field to expose the field for Ordering values.

14070

Clipboard Help+Spell / Clipboard Help+Spell v1.45 Discussion and notes for Ugraders

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 11:11 AM »

I thought we might benefit from a thread specifically for discussing the new features and changes in v1.45.

And for upgraders:

One important new feature is the ability to set custom ordering in your quick popup menus (favorites, etc.) by setting the "Ordering" fields of clips.

But if you are upgrading from a version of CHS prior to v1.45, your favorite and other groups will not have this enabled. To fix, right click on the group (Favorites for example) and edit the group, and change the "Custom Menu Sorting SQL" to: Ordering,CreationDateTime

14071

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell - Top Priority Requests for 2011

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 11:07 AM »

I have posted a new beta in the release thread here:
https://www.donation...index.php?topic=1514

Lots of new stuff.

14072

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v2.23.01 - Nov 22, 2013

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 10:56 AM »

I've just put up a new release with a LOT of new features and fixes and tweaks.
I'm making it a beta since there are some things here that could turn out to need to be rolled back.

And if you have important permanent notes in your clip data file you may want to do a "File->Backup Database Now" before upgrading.

List of changes:

v1.45.01 - Mar 7th, 2011

• [BugFix] Favorite items were not getting automatic numeric prefixes in the quick pop-up menu if shown on root of it (and are now shown above date/time formats).
• [Feature] Added sorting option for formatting tool.
• [Feature] Added remove duplicate lines to formatting tool
• [Feature] Added ability to number lines (prefix/suffix box in formatting tool)
• [MajorFeature] You can now set custom ordering for popup menus and set ordering for individual clip items. NOTE TO UPGRADERS: You need to edit your favorites and quickpaste groups and specify "Ordering,CreationDateTime" for the custom sql ordering of these groups (no quotes).  And you may need to enable the "Ordering" column in your grid view.
• [MinorFeature] Removed minimize button on main form (since Close button minimizes)
• [BugFix] The IsInRecycleBin special sql field was not enclosed in () and so virtual folders sometimes included recycle bin contents; updated sample url virtual filter to exclude reyclebin items.
• [Feature] Right-click on a group you can now delete all clips in the group (works on recursive clips and virtual folders).
• [Feature] Added options for dupe-checking new clips and either ignoring, adding, or updating date of previous clip (and position in menus).
• [Feature] New option to capture the URL source of a clip; show the Notes field in your clips to see it; right click menu for clip items includes "visit url" if appropriate.
• [MajorFeature] New stack system for queuing up chains of clips to paste in a FIFO order.
• [MajorFeature] New clip menu (hold shift while selecting a clip to show); lets you print, delete, favorite, or mark as stack start any clip in quick popup.
• [Feature] Hotkeys can use Windows modifier.
• [BugFix] Pasting was always simulating CtrlKey Up when sending Ctrl+V and Ctrl+C, which could make it hard to repeatedly invoke certain hotkey pastes in a row; hopefully this fix doesnt cause simulated modifier keydown states.
• [BugFix] One rare occasions CHS could copy the text it just pasted as a new clip.
• [Change] Selecting clips from the tray menu now no longer tries to paste them in last active window -- it just copies them to clipboard.
• [BugFix] The new clip action menu (shift+slick on clip in menu) was not working for tray icon menu.
• [BugFix] Quick paste popup could occasionally show on wrong monitor (hopefully fixed)
• [Change] First clip on clipboard is now not grabbed on program startup.
• Upgraders please see this note

Note: Some of the new things are not enabled by default, or won't be enabled by default for upgraders, such as the feature to copy web url when capturing from a browser; see notes above and this note.

Look forward to hearing some beta tester reports --they would be much appreciated.
My plan is to make some CHS videos in the next day.

14073

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Using Skype to Monitor Remote Systems

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 10:34 AM »

Cool stuff, i didn't realize how easy it was to interface code to skype.. makes one think of other program ideas..

14074

Official Announcements / Fundraiser Day 6 - Part 1 - HowTo Posted

« Last post by mouser on March 06, 2011, 10:28 AM »

Day 6 of the fundraiser.. Last night we reached our goal of $6,000 raised (!).  Thank you to everyone who donated.  That's enough to pay for a full year of our deluxe hosting for the site.  As we did two years ago during the last fundraiser, we've extended the range of the thermometer and will keep going for the remainder of March -- hoping to break $10k.  I hope you will join us if you haven't already (if you have donated during the fundraiser, why not post to this thread and say hello).

For today's fundraiser release, DC member timns (famous creator of the awesome Head in the Clouds web comic) has posted an interesting How To guide for "Using Skype to Monitor Remote Systems".

We provide a little network of servers that host several web services with various API's. Obviously, as part of this we have to offer support and are committed to fairly aggressive SLA's.  In order to help with this, I decided to implement a continual monitoring system to alert us of any systems falling over in our little farm. Being on a limited budget and an inveterate code tinkerer, I set up a little project to see if I could rustle something up. As far as I am aware, this is a novel approach to real-time systems monitoring. A sort of "poor man's Tivoli" if you like.

I tend to avoid anything that reminds me of a phone, but I have recently come to appreciate the value of skype as a tool for collaboration over long distances.

Click here to read the full HowTo now..

14075

Site/Forum Features / Re: Badge/Award Mod Rewritten

« Last post by mouser on March 05, 2011, 02:18 PM »

anyone willing to make a badge for mini-review writers?