Recent Posts

16726

Living Room / Re: Deceitful Software Awards

« Last post by mouser on April 03, 2010, 11:41 AM »

phil linked to a related thread that is not identical; this is more an opinion piece follow up.  shame on josh for not paying attention. 

16727

Living Room / Re: Should I swtich from w7 32 bit to w7 64 bit?

« Last post by mouser on April 03, 2010, 08:13 AM »

if you do want to upgrade from 4gb then you have no choice but to upgrade to x64.  You simply cannot access more then 4gb on 32bit windows.

16728

Living Room / Re: Should I swtich from w7 32 bit to w7 64 bit?

« Last post by mouser on April 03, 2010, 08:06 AM »

Here's what i would say:

All software should transfer over fine, including all DC software.  Migrating program settings rather than reconfiguring can be a pain and troublesome.

As has been said, the only real reason i would even consider moving is if my 32bit OS could only see a small amount of memory, and i needed a large amount. 

It's my judgment that this would only really happen if you have a bad motherboard that can only see 2gb of ram (which happened to me once), and you use some very serious academic/graphics/video applications that eat up memory like mad (like photoshop for serious stuff, etc.).

Assuming you don't use such programs extensively, just get yourself 4gb of ram and stick with 32bit, that's what i would say.

16729

Living Room / Deceitful Software Awards

« Last post by mouser on April 03, 2010, 06:42 AM »

Dottech.org has a long essay up about the business of fake software review sites which give out fake "awards" to software for no reason at all, and the practice of software developers putting them on their pages.

I think one thing to add to this discussion is the harm these fake awards do to the *real* software review sites that actually take the time and effort to really review software.  That's why whenever i see one of those software review sites that actually takes the time to evaluate software, take their own screenshots, etc. I think it's worth praising.

Just how persuasive an awards-splattered web page can be was examined back in 2007 by developer Andy Brice. Having authored a distinctive new application, Brice used a submission service to upload it to various Internet software review sites, and then sat back to see what, if any, honors it might harvest. He didn’t have to wait long.

http://dottech.org/headline/15367

16730

Screenshot Captor / Re: blank pages

« Last post by mouser on April 02, 2010, 08:09 AM »

very strange.. but if it's repeatable i should be able to fix it.. can you email me at [email protected] so that maybe i can send you test versions and ask any more questions if i have to?

16731

Screenshot Captor / Re: blank pages

« Last post by mouser on April 02, 2010, 06:34 AM »

and it persists even if you exit and restart screenshot captor?

and just to clarify -- are you saying that every time you do "grab fixed size region" or "grab selected region" , the result is a black capture of the proper size.  and that every time you do a full screen grab it's fine?

16732

Screenshot Captor / Re: blank pages

« Last post by mouser on April 02, 2010, 05:50 AM »

Can you disable the Post Capture PopUp dialog (right click tray and choose a different "After Capture Show.." option), and let's see if the problem is with the Post Capture PopUp dialog itself, or with capturing.

Also, what OS are you using?

16733

Screenshot Captor / Re: Problem with autoscroll capture

« Last post by mouser on April 02, 2010, 05:03 AM »

i have been remiss in not updating the scrolling capture function.. i keep meaning to and keep getting distracted from it.

i will say however, that for WEB BROWSER page capturing, there are some good browser addins (for IE and FF) that will almost always do a more pleasing job of capturing full sized web pages than an independent screenshotting program.

regardless, i do promise to improve the scrolling capture of SC.

16734

Screenshot Captor / Re: blank pages

« Last post by mouser on April 02, 2010, 05:01 AM »

do you use ZoneAlarm security software?

16735

Living Room / Re: Flash Tower Defense Game of the Week: Azgard TD

« Last post by mouser on April 02, 2010, 01:07 AM »

you can apparently buy it for pocketpc: http://pocketmoregames.com/azgard.htm

16736

Living Room / Re: Flash Tower Defense Game of the Week: Azgard TD

« Last post by mouser on April 02, 2010, 01:05 AM »

I'd like to see someone beat this, on easy mode:


WARNING: this game is misleadingly deep and addictive; if you like TD games and value your time.. be careful about starting to play it, you may not be able to stop.

16737

Living Room / Re: Experiment: Weight Loss Software - See Within...

« Last post by mouser on April 01, 2010, 09:55 PM »

i respect the quest for experimentation and knowledge but this sounds like a good way to make people mad at you.  i certainly wouldn't want DC to be associated with such a thing  

16738

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: sort each file into separate folder

« Last post by mouser on April 01, 2010, 04:11 PM »

i'm sure we'll come up with some different requests for you singingboyo

16739

Living Room / Re: How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords

« Last post by mouser on April 01, 2010, 11:04 AM »

paypal has a wonderful and cheap hardware security key that generates one-time use pins that can be required for login.  i wish my bank and credit card account was so secure.

16740

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor -2.78.01 - Dec 24th, 2009

« Last post by mouser on April 01, 2010, 10:07 AM »

does this happen even if you start it manually after windows starts?

another thing you could do is:
1) try renaming the ScreenshotCaptor.ini file in your docs and settings Screenshot Captor directory, maybe it got corrupted?

16741

Living Room / Re: Flash Tower Defense Game of the Week: Azgard TD

« Last post by mouser on April 01, 2010, 09:07 AM »

this is a tougher and better TD than it might appear at first -- don't miss the fact that you can both upgrade and uplevel towers.

16742

Living Room / First iPad Reviews Are In

« Last post by mouser on April 01, 2010, 07:52 AM »

The Gizmodo website sums up the early iPad reviews and they are quite positive..

The iPad is not a laptop. It's not nearly as good for creating stuff. On the other hand, it's infinitely more convenient for consuming it - books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience - and a deeply satisfying one.

http://gizmodo.com/5...-ipad-reviews-are-in

16743

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: sort each file into separate folder

« Last post by mouser on March 31, 2010, 07:08 PM »

Not to discourage SingingBoyo, but i think a recent project by Skwire may be able to do this already:
https://www.donation....msg198450#msg198450

16744

Developer's Corner / Re: Release the source without the program being open source

« Last post by mouser on March 31, 2010, 05:33 AM »

I have both open source and closed source software, and I've thought about this issue myself and quite a bit.

The idea of releasing the source for programs, but putting some more restrictions on it's subsequent distribution than is found in the most common open source licenses is quite appealing and I think there is some reason to consider it.

I guess it depends on what your aim is.

If you have a good reason to want to keep control over the "official" version of the software, you can offer the source but restrict distribution and forking - that's something i've thought about and continue to think about.

On the other hand, if you're goal is to share the code and help as many people as you can, and you don't fear that someone is going to exploit your sharing by adding a few features and then selling it as their own, or that someone else is going to fork off a new version and split the community that might develop around your software, then you might as well just open the source and let people run with it.

16745

Living Room / Re: Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?

« Last post by mouser on March 31, 2010, 04:54 AM »

wondering if it's worth considering which machine you'd prefer to own if/after you become bored with your experiment

nick, that's definitely a question i am asking myself, as well as the question that JJ points out -- do i want to have fun tinkering with hardware or do i want to get right to the software.  not sure the answer to either just yet.

but basically from what i am hearing, there is no really strong reason to prefer one over the other in terms of power use and longevity, though laptops may have an advantage in terms of convenience and power use, and mico pcs in terms of longevity and maintenance costs.

16746

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: BootIt Next Generation (BING) on Bits Du Jour - Sat - 03/27/2010

« Last post by mouser on March 31, 2010, 03:43 AM »

excellent, thanks for sharing Steven 

16747

Living Room / Re: Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?

« Last post by mouser on March 30, 2010, 08:17 PM »

thanks JJ -- very useful 

16748

Living Room / Re: Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?

« Last post by mouser on March 30, 2010, 05:16 PM »

none of you have actually addressed my 2 explicit concerns:
1) power usage? (is one much higher than the other?)
2) longevity of device? (is one more likely to outlast the other if they are on 24/7?)

the portability and built in screen on a laptop is a plus, but not a showstopper.

since the device does not have to be placed in a really tiny space, i dont need a really tiny beagleboard type thing; in terms of size, a mini-itx would be fine, as would a laptop.

16749

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Audio Comparer - duplicate MP3 finder for Windows

« Last post by mouser on March 30, 2010, 01:59 PM »

Welcome maxic !
I happen to know that a few people on the DC forums have been wanting something like this; discussed on these threads:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=15664.0
https://www.donation....msg169636#msg169636

seems like something that is difficult to do, so i look forward to hear what people think. 

16750

Living Room / Re: Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?

« Last post by mouser on March 30, 2010, 01:50 PM »

ok so f0dder is one vote for a tiny pc instead of a laptop, e.g.: http://www.mini-itx.com/