Recent Posts

15676

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by mouser on September 01, 2010, 11:56 AM »

very sorry to hear that.. the pop sound does indeed sound like you've got a serious hardware problem.

it could just be a burned out capacitor that you can spot and could be easily replaced by a hardware hacker, but i'm not sure it's worth the money to try to get professionally repaired (definitely one of the risks of ebaying).

assuming it's not still covered by warranty, you might be best off just writing this off as a learning experience and sending it to someone with some hardware hacking skills, or selling it as broken on ebay, but i'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

you could also write the original seller and see if they wouldn't be willing to give back all/some of your money since obviously this isn't fair to you.

15677

Living Room / Re: Some initial reflections on using an ebook reader

« Last post by mouser on September 01, 2010, 11:39 AM »

some very useful comments on this blog entry: http://text-patterns...ways-of-jesting.html

I have often been frustrated by my inability when using the Kindle to get a sense of just how long the riffs are. It helps to know whether this is going to be a relatively brief one or whether it will go on for pages: having that knowledge enables the reader to adjust the quality of his or her attention accordingly. Again and again while Kindling my way through IJ I have been forced into awareness of how much my reading practices rely on this spatial awareness: not just knowing how far I am into a book (since the Kindle always shows you where you are in percentage form), but knowing when the next chapter or section break is coming. It turns out that that kind of knowledge has always been very helpful to me, especially when I am reading a difficult or otherwise challenging book — but I never knew how helpful until now.

15678

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Updated: GooglePlus - View Google search results in FARR as you type

« Last post by mouser on September 01, 2010, 10:28 AM »

we need a new release of googleplus, this is happening to everyone.  it's just a minor fix though that others have made on their own.  skajfes says "Anyway quick fix is to go to FARRDIR\Plugins\GooglePlus\fscript.js and comment out/delete lines 94 and 95. "  which seems to work. but a new official release would be ideal!

15679

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Screenshot Captor excellent program - but . . .

« Last post by mouser on September 01, 2010, 10:25 AM »

welcome to the site fu2, i appreciate your comments; i know i can get very frustrated when i am on websites and i am never as composed and nice as you when expressing my frustrations.

you don't have to donate, and you can still use the program, full features, without any nags.

just go to the license key page and grab a license key: https://www.donation...r.com/Keys/index.php
that license key will work for 6 months, after which you come get another, and then it's yours for life.

alternatively if you do decide you want to donate at some time in the future, you could just mail a letter with a stamp containing a dollar bill or a nice drawn picture, or whatever.  or even just email me explaining why you wish you could donate but can't.  those are all ways people can get a lifetime license key without donating.

we are a friendly site -- as annoying/confusing as the license key process can be -- it's in place not to punish people who can't/won't donate, it's there to make people consider donating, because in our current pocket of spacetime, people don't otherwise even give it a second thought.

feel free to email me ([email protected]) if you still have trouble getting a license key.

15680

DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.27.01 Beta - Aug 31, 2010

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 11:51 PM »

thanks guys!

15681

Screenshot Captor / Re: Highlighting rectangle

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 04:23 PM »

Actually yes it does help because it gives me a tip on how to best implement the effect 

15682

Screenshot Captor / Re: Highlighting rectangle

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 04:03 PM »

yes i need to do this.. it's been asked for in the past. i will try.

15683

Find And Run Robot / Re: Adding a URL to Search History Results?

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 03:36 PM »

ok that's super useful; i think what we've learned is that the default ComboBoxLaunchMode=0 works.
and that the non-standard comboboxlaunchmode=1 which you must have set at some point in your older version, is failing to launch files.. why it used to work and now doesn't im not sure, but i can look into that.

for you, the answer seems clear, which is to go to general options tab and switch to the default first comboboxlaunchmode, and then you can install and use the new version of farr.

15684

Find And Run Robot / Re: Adding a URL to Search History Results?

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 02:11 PM »

mailing them to me could be useful.
assuming you haven't changed the configdir.ini file, the settings file is "FindAndRunRobot.ini" and will be in the same directory as the program exe.

so to test the theory that its the settings file, exit farr, then in your new directory where it is working, rename FindAndRunRobot.ini to FindAndRunRobot_good.ini
and copy in the one from the non-working directory, and restart farr in the new directory.

if it doesnt work, then its the ini settings file.
if it does still work, then it's your security program.


ps. the values we care about in the ini file are probably: ComboBoxLaunchMode, CheckBoxUseDocLaunchHelper, CheckBoxAlwaysLaunchViaShortcuts.
so if it is the ini file that causes the problem, compare the values for those variables.

15685

Find And Run Robot / Re: Adding a URL to Search History Results?

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 01:50 PM »

that still doesn't tell us what is making it fail to launch documents when in the other directory.

two possibilities:

• 1. you have a non-standard "Launch Method" set in your general options in your original directory, and it works in old farr and not in new. and you aren't seeing it in the new test because you are using a brand new config file. i still think this is unlikely but would be important to know if it is the case.
• 2. you have some kind of security program which is silently blocking the new farr from opening these documents, probably because it is seeing the farr executable has changed.  this is an absolutely abysmal security program if it is doing this without warning you.  identify it and permanently replace it with a better security program and let us all know so we can avoid it.

15686

Find And Run Robot / Re: Adding a URL to Search History Results?

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 01:24 PM »

ok that's a big help -- so either i broke something that i had no idea how, OR you have some security software that has blacklisted the new version but not the old.  if you can try to rule out the latter possibility i will start looking into the former.  ms office documents open fine for me with the new version.

could you try maybe unzipping the new version download into a different directory and run it from there and see if results are the same, that might yield a clue.

what OS do you have?

15687

DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.27.01 Beta - Aug 31, 2010

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 12:40 PM »

would appreciate some feedback from people who had problems with the previous version crashing.

15688

Find And Run Robot / Re: Adding a URL to Search History Results?

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 12:37 PM »

i don't think i changed anything that should effect this.. it's really important for me to understand if the previous version you had installed did open these files -- if so let me know.  it could be something i did or it could be some security program you have installed or something else.. did you install the new version over old or did you start out a new installation with a new configuration?

15689

Living Room / Re: Micro Reviews of Board Games From a Non-Competetive Perspective

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 11:29 AM »

I remember loking at the Illimunati cards and being intrigued a long time ago but it never quite grabbed me.

Thanks for the Alhambra recommendation -- i will definitely get one of the Alahambra variants based on your recommendation, i just have to figure out which one (there is normal Alahambra, a dice version, a card version, and a big box version with the original and some expansions).

15690

DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.27.01 Beta - Aug 31, 2010

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 09:58 AM »

I've uploaded a beta to get some feedback before releasing:

Version 1.27.01 - Sep 7, 2010

• Rebuilt with libcurl 7.21.1 -- hopefully this fixes rare crashes of the updater.
• Improved statusbar messages.
• Added new information when the updates being shown are just from a specific program, with checkbox to show all known updateable applications.
• Improved dupe detection -- should eliminate the occasional display of duplicate items in updater.
• Improved handling of case when updater is launched and an instance is already running.
• Fixed mouseover hints from options.
• Added "explore here" item to right-click menu for entries.

15691

Find And Run Robot / Re: Letter with accent in the internal browser

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2010, 09:18 AM »

if your alias calls the internal browser with $$1 try using $$u1 instead.

15692

DcUpdater / Re: Issues with 1.26.01

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 11:53 PM »

should be fixed in new version that will be uploaded later this week.

15693

DcUpdater / Re: Request option to always check all known programs.

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 11:52 PM »

Added but not yet uploaded.
If you call dcupdater check from FARR, it will still only show farr updates, but you will see a new big checkbox telling you so, and let you uncheck to show all updates.

15694

DcUpdater / Re: DCUpdater redundancy

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 11:51 PM »

new version should now fix this; not uploaded yet. jd if you can reproduce this bug i'd love to send you a beta to test.

15695

DcUpdater / Re: Crash on XP Pro SP3

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 11:51 PM »

jaden is helping me test the new build.. new version to be uploaded this week 

15696

FlipSuite and Flipbook Printer / Re: Command Line Printing

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 10:21 PM »

Welcome to the site rdstokan; i don't think many people have tried the -print commandline so there may be a bug, but can you confirm something for me -- if you just load the project file manually, and hit the print button, does it print more than one page?  if so then it definitely sounds like a bug and i will try to fix.

15697

Living Room / Re: Micro Reviews of Board Games - Pandemic

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 10:48 AM »

My first micro-review and recommendation is for: Pandemic.



You can find good reviews of Pandemic all over the web -- it's almost universally acknowledged as an absolutely brilliant (purely) cooperative game.


Key features:

• Minimalist, bold, simple but tough choices.
• Great sense of impending danger, while keeping you feeling like you have some control over your fate.
• Great asymmetric play through use of roles, and great teamwork and discussion between players.
• One of the rare games that almost every type of gamer of any age enjoys (for young kids you might try Forbidden Island which has same flavor but is a bit simpler).
• Great replayability; nice expansion (On The Brink).
• Beautiful pieces and very fast play.
• No player ever feels like they aren't contributing, or that they are hindered; everyone playing always has full freedom to do what they want from start to finish.
• Probably the best board game I own -- and hands down the easiest recommendation I can make to someone curious about getting into modern casual board gaming.

Weaknesses:

• Might not be fun if you mix experienced players with people who have never played before; one pushy person may try to direct everyone on what they should do.
• Perhaps "too" cooperative -- there is almost no information hidden among players so essentially every turn can be like a "group" turn with all players agreeing on what action to take with "their" piece.  Other co-op games don't have as much coordination among players which can be fun.
• May not satisfy those players who crave a real adventure/quest -- it's more on the abstract side.

Game Design Interests:

• The sense of impending and escalating threat and doom and chaos just barely under control, while preserving the feeling that the players *can* control it if they just make the right choices, is absolutely spot on, and I've never seen this done better.  Worth studying.
• The mechanic that let's every player have full freedom of movement and action from start to finish is rare in a cooperative game, where typically players get hurt or restricted, or grow stronger, etc.  In pandemic, bad things never happen to the players -- only to the shared board.  The result is that everyone playing always feels like an equal partner and participant.  The effect is quite profound in terms of making it an enjoyable game for everyone.
• This game is a case study on the value of giving players very simple but agonizing and consequential actions.
• Very elegant balancing of randomness with statistical predictability that remains just enough out of grasp to make the brain enjoy trying to anticipate what's coming next.

Final Rating:

• Rating: 10 out of 10 -- a masterpiece; everyone should own this.

15698

Living Room / Micro Reviews of Board Games From a Non-Competetive Perspective

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 09:30 AM »

Hi all,

In the last couple of years I've become increasingly interested in board games, and exploring what makes different games fun.  I thought that I might start posting some thoughts as I try out different games -- to help others who have similar tastes find games they might enjoy.

The most important thing I've learned so far is that in the world of board games, there are widely varying tastes -- and a game that is perfect for one person may be near unbearable for another.

First some preliminaries that are very important, to help you figure out if my recommendations will help you:

• First, I'm not a hardcore gamer, and I really dislike intense competition and strategic battles that don't involve some luck.  I've never liked chess and i don't like to keep score when playing tennis.  I am much more interested in the social experience of playing a game and having fun and laughing and being surprised.  Perhaps it tells you something about the anthropology of games that someone like me who is quite anti-social is interested in games for the social experience of it.
• Second, I need a strong theme to enjoy a game.  Theme refers to the flavor and story that is laid on top of the abstract mechanics of a game.  Some people like abstract games and the theme is not important to them -- only the choices and mechanics matter.  For me, I need to feel like there is some kind of story or adventure taking place; the feel and the look of the pieces make a difference to me.
• Third, I have a very low tolerance for tracking tons of tiny little details and counters, and hate the delays in looking up charts to figure out complicated interactions.  Some people love this stuff, but for me, the simpler the mechanics and the less bits and pieces i have to fiddle with, the better.
• Fourth, it's important to me that the game can be learned and enjoyed on the first or second playing.  From a practical standpoint this is important if you are playing with new people regularly, but this is the one aspect of my hunt for the best board game that I'm not very comfortable with; if games are anything like music, I would hate to think of the great games I am missing out on because their appreciation only starts to develop slowly and deeply over time -- and how many shallow games i may enjoy at first and then quickly grow tired of, like pop music. But ideally, i'm interested in a game that is great fun for novices, but becomes a deeper experience over time
• Fifth, I tend to look for games that can support more than 2 players, and I'm a big fan of cooperative and semi-cooperative games.  I have found that asymmetrical games, where players have different abilities, is a great way to ensure that competition in the game is not stressful.
• Lastly, I'm always looking to find board games that involve novel mechanics, so I can think about what makes the game work and why, from a game design perspective.

Ok so if you match the following profile then these micro-reviews are for you:

• Casual gamer that is more interested in a fun/funny social experience than in an abstract battle of wits like chess.
• Theme and story, look and feel are of high importance.
• Want games that new people can learn and enjoy quickly.
• Want fast moving games that don't require excessive table lookups and fiddling with too many counters.
• Like asymmetric, cooperative gameplay.
• Are interested in game design issues.

NOTE: I am not going to write full reviews or guides for these games here -- you can find great reviews all over the web, and i've linked to many good review sites and blogs in a previous thread, and i will always link to the game page on the BoardGameGeek where you can find more user and external review links.

Instead I will focus on giving you my quick bullet point impressions of the game from the perspective i've outlined above -- the aim will simply be to help you decide if this is a game you might enjoy.

15699

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Famous Software : We review your software for free

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2010, 07:39 AM »

Thanks so much for taking the time to write these adi! 
It will be so nice to have you around when we do our next NANY event at the start of 2011!

-jesse

15700

Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor Auto Tool Configurations

« Last post by mouser on August 28, 2010, 10:13 PM »

done, will be in next upload.