Recent Posts

1701

General Software Discussion / Re: Your fav' audio CD burner?

« Last post by Target on May 13, 2008, 02:04 AM »

They want to do all the usual stuff - burn discs, rip movies and music, make photo dvd's and albums etc.

-MrCrispy (May 13, 2008, 01:29 AM)

all these tasks are achievable, but it follows that they must develop some expertise just like the rest of us (otherwise they will just be getting you to do it for them )

1702

General Software Discussion / Re: Your fav' audio CD burner?

« Last post by Target on May 12, 2008, 06:04 PM »

Can it be that some (cheap) Compact Discs don't support CD-TEXT ??
- they were tagged as being "for audio", but "music" was not mentioned...

-Curt (May 12, 2008, 03:28 AM)

while not all discs are not created equal, they should all 'take' CD Text

Note also that not all players are CD Text capable

and FWIW, an old favourite of mine is BurnAtOnce - it's fairly old and development has stopped, but it works a treat (hint - check the context menus for extra functionality)

Target

1703

General Software Discussion / Re: Your fav' audio CD burner?

« Last post by Target on May 12, 2008, 12:39 AM »

short answer is that there are as many choices as there are posters - they should all do audio CD's anyway's, ie given the plethora of highly capable freeware apps that do this there doesn't appear to be any compelling reason to purchase an app to do this...

can you clarify you're metadata requirements please?  i was of the understanding that audio CD's don't carry any metadata (ala MP3, OGG, WMA, etc).  They can include CD TEXT, which is what you see on the display of your CD player. 

Likewise, file naming convention on all audio CD's that I've seen are in the format TRACK1.CDA, TRACK2.CDA, etc (this is done by the software when you write the CD) 

Target

1704

Living Room / Re: How to make a wawed-off USB Key

« Last post by Target on April 22, 2008, 08:35 PM »

Pretty cute... but... what's the point?

-Darwin (April 21, 2008, 10:42 AM)

Frayed we can't say

-cranioscopical (April 22, 2008, 08:28 PM)

OHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

1705

Living Room / Re: How to make a wawed-off USB Key

« Last post by Target on April 22, 2008, 06:09 PM »

Maybe so that someone who may be looting your house for data thinks it is worthless cable and doesn't steal it?

-Deozaan (April 22, 2008, 02:38 PM)

then again, maybe your wife thinks its just more junk you've left lying around and tosses it out 

1706

Living Room / Re: How to make a wawed-off USB Key

« Last post by Target on April 21, 2008, 05:35 PM »

Pretty cute... but... what's the point?

-Darwin (April 21, 2008, 10:42 AM)

I guess it's in the same vein as case modding...

1707

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Flyout when mouse over or on left click

« Last post by Target on April 15, 2008, 06:10 PM »

good job Ampa...

Target

1708

Living Room / Re: Idea: "DC Member Book X - Volume 1" - Request For Volunteers

« Last post by Target on April 14, 2008, 10:42 PM »

If I understand Target's idea here, it sounds like a yearbook thing that just lists us and what we have in our profiles. If that's the intent of this book, then it's a great idea. But if the idea of the book is for original contributions, then I'm not sure this idea would be very useful in this instance

-Deozaan (April 14, 2008, 10:19 PM)

i think the intent was for a yearbook type of thing, rather than just a member list

i just figured that some peoples profiles are already pretty comprehensive (verbose?), and would probably form the basis of any entries they might care to make

if nothing else, it might save individuals re-entering basic info...

Target

1709

Living Room / Re: Idea: "DC Member Book X - Volume 1" - Request For Volunteers

« Last post by Target on April 14, 2008, 09:07 PM »

I don't know anything about the available capability or functionality but it seems like this should be doable by exporting each users profile into a standard template.  Users could opt in, then fill in the blanks or update their info as they see fit

or perhaps an optin link that would take you to a standard template with your profile data pre loaded...

submitting the completed templates would forward it to the appropriate admin for proofing and collation

Target

1710

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: middle click on desktop to get quick launch or 'start menu'

« Last post by Target on April 14, 2008, 08:27 PM »

there have been a number of AHK scripts that do what you want (I'm thinking of some snazzy radial versions which I unfortunately can't find at the moment)

The attached script (by Rajat) will do what you want

target

1711

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Flyout when mouse over or on left click

« Last post by Target on April 13, 2008, 08:13 PM »

yep, but like i said, this can be done using <a href="http://www.w3schools...om/dhtml/default.asp">(D)HTML</a>, or <a href="http://wonderwebware.com/css-menu/">CSS</a>

doesn't require any real coding knowledge - if you know the tags it's just plain text

based on what the OP wrote above, I suspect it would be better to do it in frames and/or with popups (on mouse over)

Target

NOTE - I am not endorsing or recommending either of the above resources, they are included as examples only...

1712

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Flyout when mouse over or on left click

« Last post by Target on April 13, 2008, 07:30 PM »

dunno what you're usage/requirements are (at least as far as data formats go) but this sounds like something you could pretty easily do in HTML

has the advantage of being portable (any browser), and easy to edit (plain text!)

could take some setting up (you will have to enter the data) but it's likely that a template could be setup to ease the task

Target

1713

Living Room / Re: Most useless

« Last post by Target on April 10, 2008, 05:57 PM »

I acquired 3 brand new (still wrapped!!) 250M ZIP disks some years ago.  They sat in my junk box until a recent move (and a ruthless cull of the junk), even though I've never owned a zip drive (or even knew anyone who did...)

Target

1714

General Software Discussion / Re: mp3 Audio OUTPUT volume normalizer? Any such thing?

« Last post by Target on April 07, 2008, 05:59 PM »

gain will not only reduce loud tracks, but also boost quiet tracks

-Ampa (April 07, 2008, 08:07 AM)

COOL!! - I've had this in my kit for years, but never thought about using it this way   

Leads me to wonder what else I've got that I'm not really using (at least not 'fully')?? 

Target

1715

Living Room / Re: Windows Vista SP1 Now available....as toilet paper

« Last post by Target on April 01, 2008, 07:02 PM »

I hope the Japanese purchasers don't mistake the toilet paper as the operating system, and the Vista box as the... em, you know

-Lashiec (April 01, 2008, 06:58 PM)

I think MS already did this...

Target

1716

Developer's Corner / Re: 'Sorting/grouping' methodologies

« Last post by Target on April 01, 2008, 06:38 PM »

if anyones interested, and didn't know already (I clearly didn't), this is known as a 'napsack problem'

Googling this resulted in a nosebleed (trying to understand the mathematical representations  ), so I'm no closer to working out the mechanics

Target

1717

General Software Discussion / Re: mp3 Audio OUTPUT volume normalizer? Any such thing?

« Last post by Target on March 30, 2008, 07:20 PM »

and on the flipside, anyone know a tool that will do the opposite, ie batch gain changes (boosting)

I have a number of (MP3) files where the volume is too low - I've done some fiddling with a couple of apps and it seems boosting the gain by about 10db does the trick nicely

2 problems with this -

    1) it has to be done on a file by file basis (very tedious)
    2) it entails reencoding to a new file (or has done in the apps I've tried) - this is a no-no as the files are already in a lossy format and re-encoding cannot be a good thing...

any suggestions/ideas?

Target

1718

Developer's Corner / Re: 'Sorting/grouping' methodologies

« Last post by Target on March 26, 2008, 08:44 PM »

Cool! I hadn't thought of that (obviously - DOH!!)

I'll need to work through this to make sure i understand it correctly (collections/arrays are a weak point  )

many thanks

Target

1719

Developer's Corner / Re: 'Sorting/grouping' methodologies

« Last post by Target on March 26, 2008, 07:56 PM »

many thanks, but this still isn't quite what I'm looking for

using your approach, I would sort the data to group the applicable fields, then loop through and insert a blank row at 500, 1000, 1500, etc.

net result would look like

group 1 - 500 X ABC001
group 2 - 250 X ABC001 & 100 X ABC002 & 150 X ABC003
Group 3 - 500 X ABC003
Group 4 - 450 X ABC003 & 50 X ABC004

potentially this could result in any given block containing a trivial number of records that have been carried forward from a previous block, where the whole subgroup could have been contained with a block if the groups had been sorted and aligned (by the group subtotals)

if it helps, consider the CD filling model (how many files can I bestfit on a CD)

This must be do-able (the aforementioned CD tools are proof), but how??

Target

1720

Developer's Corner / Re: 'Sorting/grouping' methodologies

« Last post by Target on March 26, 2008, 06:45 PM »

thanks for your input!!

Access can link to Excel data (no need to export). Then a query can return records 1-500, 501-1000, etc. I can provide the query if you're not too fluent in SQL

-PPLandry (March 26, 2008, 06:28 PM)

likewise Excel can access and control access (no need to export)

and I can break the data into 500 row blocks without using anything else, but this isn't what I'm hoping to do

an example -

source data is 2000 records
of this there are 750 tagged ABC001, 100 tagged as ABC002, 1100 as ABC003, 50 as ABC004, etc

the idea is to subtotal the groups

ABC001 - 750
ABC002 - 100
ABC003 - 1100
ABC004 - 50

then sort them so they fit into the 500 record limit

group 1 - 500 X ABC003
group 2 - 500 X ABC003
Group 3 - 500 X ABC001
Group 4 - 100 X ABC003 & 250 ABC001 & 50 ABC004

the result would be either to tag each record with a group ID, or output as distinct blocks of data (i haven't really thought this far yet...)

Target

1721

Developer's Corner / Re: 'Sorting/grouping' methodologies

« Last post by Target on March 26, 2008, 06:10 PM »

output is used as a basis for inputing journal transactions, hence the 500 record limit

in line with this I see a best fit grouping as the desired outcome.  Also worth noting that some subgroups may require splitting, ie where there are more than 500 records for a given group

I'm anticipating the solution would be done using VBA

the idea is to simplify the process.  I had thought of using a pivot but it seems a bit of overkill just to get the subtotals.  Likewise, exporting to access, manipulating the data, and exporting it back to excel seems excessive (though this could be done from excel using VBA) - having said that, I still wouldn't know how to arrange the groups into a best fit arrangement

Hope this helps

Target

1722

Developer's Corner / 'Sorting/grouping' methodologies

« Last post by Target on March 26, 2008, 01:10 AM »

I have a request from a colleague to assist with sorting and grouping data (in Excel) into blocks of X records (in this case 500), but I have no idea how to go about this

Sorting and subtotalling the data is not a problem, however I have no idea how to go about sorting the results into the requisite blocks (I'm presuming some efficiencies here, ie some sort of best fit type arrangement)

I've googled sorting without joy - clearly this isn't an exact fit but I really have no idea what what it is i should be searching for

The only examples I know of are tools like FillCD or Burn To The Brim (for filling CD/DVDs) but I have no idea how they do what they do

any suggestions?

Target

1723

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Ever have your tray icons disappear randomly?

« Last post by Target on March 25, 2008, 06:58 PM »

had no problem understanding the instructions, I actually wondered if anyone could deciper/understand the actual key values

I suppose I'm looking for the opposite of what this 'fix' does.

FWIW, I exported the key and I got a reg file that was (from memory) > 3M.

Viewing the file in a variety of editors showed only a l o o o o o n g string of what I assume is hex (note that using a hex viewer didn't help me either - YMMV)

If someone can read this, it would be possible to create a key that sets your tray icons just so (as opposed to just clearing any/all references to show/hide status)

Target

1724

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Ever have your tray icons disappear randomly?

« Last post by Target on March 24, 2008, 10:51 PM »

and on a sidenote - can anyone decipher these registry keys?

if someone can it would make it easy to maintain the tray icons consistently, ie I find some apps (notably AHK scripts) don't behave well in the tray, and don't remember their show/hide status between sessions

it's a minor gripe, but it irritates me that I have to reset this each morning when I log in

Target

1725

Living Room / Re: "Grivitation-like" paradigm would have helped in the interim

« Last post by Target on March 20, 2008, 12:32 AM »

fascinating as this might be, it's getting a bit heated and I just can't help wondering what the issue is here

I get that trucker is looking for a different conceptual approach, but to what end?  Guarantee'd access to the forums???

I (like a lot of others) 'suffered' through the DC downtime, but ultimately it didn't really affect anything, ie the site was down, the issue was resolved, and the site came back up again (the world didn't end, and everyone is still here).

I probable that any such solution would be pretty resource hungry (cash, equipment, labour, etc) in the short term, and possibly longer.  How much I don't know, nor do I know whether or not the DC crew would or could support it, but I can't help feeling that guaranteed access to the forums (or anywhere, for that matter) to be an unreasonable expectation

Target