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1651

Developer's Corner / AHK coding challenge site

« Last post by Target on August 26, 2008, 06:28 PM »

for those who are interested this site was posted on the AHK forum yesterday

http://playahk.com/welcome/

similar to the DC coding school, but the challenges appear to be targeting clean, efficient, or innovative coding

no idea what the challenges are like (yet), but it may be of interest to AHK users here...

1652

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by Target on August 20, 2008, 12:03 AM »

Wattle I do, you're trying to hedge?

-cranioscopical (August 19, 2008, 10:13 PM)

don't worry, he'll have to picket eventually...

1653

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy

« Last post by Target on August 19, 2008, 05:48 PM »

this from slashdot today

News: Judge Rules Man Cannot Be Forced To Decrypt HD
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 19, @06:21PM
from the cold-dead-fingers dept.
 I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes
"In Vermont, US Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier has ruled that forcing someone to divulge the password to decrypt their hard drive violates the 5th Amendment. Border guards testify that they saw child pornography on the defendant's laptop when the PC was on, but they made the mistake of turning it off and were unable to access it again because the drive was protected by PGP. Although prosecutors offered many ways to get around the 5th Amendment protections, the Judge would have none of that and quashed the grand jury subpoena requesting the defendant's PGP passphrase. A conviction is still likely because prosecutors have the testimony of the two border guards who saw the drive while it was open."
 The article stresses the potential importance of this ruling (which was issued last November but went unnoticed until now): "Especially if this ruling is appealed, US v. Boucher could become a landmark case. The question of whether a criminal defendant can be legally compelled to cough up his encryption passphrase remains an unsettled one, with law review articles for the last decade arguing the merits of either approach."

1654

AutoHotkey / Re: AHK - Wait functions don't really wait

« Last post by Target on August 16, 2008, 05:28 AM »

you're most welcome

1655

General Software Discussion / Re: What would your ideal Operating System be like?

« Last post by Target on August 14, 2008, 02:00 AM »

• transparent
• lean and mean
• stable & secure (in that you can't hack it to do something it's not supposed to, not as in firewalling etc)
• standard interface - no eye candy
• no applications (it's an operating system, dammit!!)
• single version
• simple(?) API

An operating system should be just that - a platform on which applications can be run.

If you want a firewall, add one.  If you want a text editor, add one.  If you want a browser, add one

Do not force me to carry dozens of applications that I'll never use and which have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual operating system

1656

AutoHotkey / Re: AHK - Wait functions don't really wait

« Last post by Target on August 14, 2008, 01:09 AM »

i did say it was a stupid question...

how about winwait close?

or maybe lookat SetTitleMatchMode?

does your target app have child windows (ala Excel)?  A colleague here has been trying to do something similar and is having problems cos he can't ID the relevant 'child' window (ie all windows appear the same to AHK)

1657

AutoHotkey / Re: AHK - Wait functions don't really wait

« Last post by Target on August 13, 2008, 06:29 PM »

if you're closing a window (as in the above example) try ifwinexist/ifwinnotexist

stupid question, but have you looked at the window(s) using a window spy app?

You can use the one that comes with AHK, or try Toralf's version here http://www.autohotke...orum/topic12338.html

1658

Living Room / Re: What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 13, 2008, 06:12 PM »

and given the mess left by the HP software I'd have to say that I'd really have to need to update to do this...

1659

Living Room / Re: What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 11, 2008, 09:07 PM »

You have salesmen who can read?!
Boy, you're living large there!

-cranioscopical (August 11, 2008, 08:41 PM)

well, they give that impression, though it could just be a sales trick...

I gotta say though I can't believe that retailers are so ignorant about us (their potential customers) that they

• don't train their staff in the products they're selling
• employ 'sales' people that have no idea what a 'sale' actually requires

There's nothing so infuriating (to me) as to go somewhere that has a room full of stock on display, but no literature or price tags, and salespeople that bug you endlessly but have nothing to offer/add... GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!...</end rant>

1660

Living Room / Re: What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 11, 2008, 06:08 PM »

thanks Chris

most retailers have models on display

some retailers occasionally have some samples which may or may not have come from the printers on display

I have yet to find anyone who offers the opportunity to see one in action though 

come to think of it, I've yet to find a salesperson that can do more than read the box to me   

1661

Living Room / Re: What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 11, 2008, 12:25 AM »

it's moot now as we returned the thing - getting rid of the software was something elsee again though

Using Revo, I removed everyting I could find - it took about 90 minutes and I'm not 100% convinced I got everything, but that's a job for another day

We are looking at a Canon MP610 as a replacement - seems to be somewhere in the middle of the available range quality wise, but only time will tell

BTW, Revo reported over 9000 orphan/redundant registry entries during the uninstallation process (WHAAAAT!!) - not hard to see why people get into trouble, or why our systems get untidy over time...   

1662

Living Room / Re: What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 07, 2008, 05:42 PM »

If the printer is BSODing Vista, then it's still using an older Kernel Mode driver ... there should be a newer User Mode driver available (no it won't be clearly marked that way).

-Stoic Joker (August 07, 2008, 06:55 AM)

interesting - letting the auto update function run doesn't find anything new, nor does there appear to be anything on there website

If you can clarify your usage requirements it would greatly assist in making a recommendation

I suppose in general terms our usage requirements are pretty low - we want to be able to print the occasional photo, but mostly it's a pretty standard fare (mixed text and images), hence the budget allocation.  My wife does uses the copy/scan function a lot

the exchange rate is currently pretty close (about .9 to 1), however the translation isn't necessarily that simple, eg prices for the printers quoted above were over double here what they appear to have cost in the US

 

1663

Developer's Corner / Re: The DC Coders' Breakfast Club

« Last post by Target on August 07, 2008, 01:35 AM »

An update (because I liked the idea of this thread, and because I'm rather pleased with my 'solution')

Use VBA to generate a graphical representation of a hierarchical data structure in Excel

-Target (February 14, 2008, 05:27 PM)

I finally came up with a solution to the above. 

After much research and a considerable amount of hair pulling I discovered there is a known bug in office 2003 that prevents you from doing this (and of course, office 2003 is SOE around here...)

there is a workaround (do it in word, then paste/embed the result in a worksheet), but I was starting to lose heart by this time...

then I had an epiphany about what constituted graphical - my thought was that the tree view we all see in explorer or <insert your favourite program here> would be just as effective.  From here it was a short step to an unordered HTML list, and a bit of googling turned up some javascript to make the 'tree' dynamic.

the end result was a rather negligible bit of code that produces a dynamic tree view of my hierarchies in HTML (WOOHOO!) - way simpler and far faster than my original approach

gotta love it when a solution comes from an unexpected quarter!!

 

1664

Living Room / Re: What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 06, 2008, 11:13 PM »

(I hear all about stuff that's problematic).

-cranioscopical (August 06, 2008, 10:11 PM)

that's because it's because of something you've done (obviously... )

1665

Living Room / Re: What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 06, 2008, 09:39 PM »

cool, though both those printers are somewhere between $350-$450 locally

I must say i have been leaning toward the canon's (we bought the HP based on previous experience, and likewise avoided the canons...too bad)

me, I rarely print anything, SWMBO on the other hand...

1666

Living Room / What printer?

« Last post by Target on August 06, 2008, 08:16 PM »

I'm looking to buy a new printer and wondered what others might be using, or more importantly, be prepared to recommend

I guess we're looking at an all-in-one type machine, and probably at the 'budget' end of the range (<$200AUD) which may or may not help...

some background - we purchased a HP 4280 all in one last Xmas, but it's performance has been far from stellar.

Print quality is pretty ordinary (even for text) and the software is worthless (eg attempting to use any of the supplied software results in a BSOD, attempting to use the built in card readers results in a BSOD, it routinely attempts to dial home regardless of any settings to the contrary, and it randomly reinstalls itself - there are currently 3 or 4 copies of the printer installed...)

It's installed on my wifes PC which is (currently) running Vista, which may be some of the problem, though I have no real way of knowing...

hmmm, somewhere along the way this has turned into a rant... it doesn't matter now as we're going to return it...

Anyways, over to you guys, any/all ideas/suggestions/feedback appreciated 

1667

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review - DeVeDe

« Last post by Target on July 31, 2008, 01:36 AM »

can anyone clarify this for me - I've been looking at DVD styler (based on your comments above) and it appears to be limited in the formats that it will accept for authoring, ie MPG only???

It also appears to me that it's greatest strength is in authoring 'complex' menuing structures (it almost seems as if adding video is an afterthought)
 

1668

Living Room / Re: Wordle: Create Beautiful Word Clouds

« Last post by Target on July 27, 2008, 10:37 PM »

I suspect the law of diminishing returns would come into play for 'larger' texts...

1669

Living Room / Re: Computer problem, maybe you can help

« Last post by Target on July 27, 2008, 10:34 PM »

errrm, I had a vague feeling there was a piezo buzzer on the boards (or used to be)

good point 

1670

Living Room / Re: Computer problem, maybe you can help

« Last post by Target on July 27, 2008, 09:05 PM »

Carols diagnostic list is the way to approach this, but if you're not getting any POST beeps with all your peripherals removed then you're wasting your time trying anything else...

1671

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

« Last post by Target on July 24, 2008, 06:22 PM »

another one that popped up this morning that I hadn't seen before

<a href="http://www.goldtach.com/index.htm"> GoldTach</a> claims to be a very small, very lightweight firewall.  2 versions (free + $)

a quick google doesn't bring up anything other than download locations, so nothing about it's performance or capabilities...

1672

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review - DeVeDe

« Last post by Target on July 23, 2008, 10:37 PM »

this <a href="http://www.moviecode...m/topics/4727p1.html">here</a> might be helpful

1673

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review - DeVeDe

« Last post by Target on July 23, 2008, 09:55 PM »

Strange, I can't say as I noticed that, though my source files were considerably different to yours (what file types are you adding?)

My source files were MPG2(?) and there originally over 250 of them.  I stitched them into nominal days (using copy /b at the command line) which seemed
to produce a file of the correct size, though I can't comment on the length as this process borks any header info and so there's no run time info when you view the resulting file...

To the best of my knowledge there wasn't anything missing from my test files, but I'll run another test with some different files (6 x AVI files @ 350M ea) and I'll post back when it's finished

1674

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review - DeVeDe

« Last post by Target on July 23, 2008, 12:13 AM »

i hadn't heard of it either until about a month ago, but clearly it's been around a while

 (It's a pet peeve of mine that finding answers on the net is mostly about asking the right questions.  Problem is that, in order to know the right questions, you really need to already know the answer...)

1675

Living Room / Re: Wordle: Create Beautiful Word Clouds

« Last post by Target on July 22, 2008, 10:00 PM »

the SQLNotes thread sounds like a good candidate - enough there for a whole wardrobe...