Recent Posts

1701

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by rjbull on May 05, 2010, 02:28 PM »

Curt, you still have 3,456 to look forward to 

1702

General Software Discussion / Re: Hard drive Cleaning, which one you use?

« Last post by rjbull on May 05, 2010, 02:25 PM »

I use Total Uninstall, but it sounds to me more like ha14 is asking for a tool that verifies that whatever uninstall system one has used has worked properly and temp directories etc. are clean.  And that's a question I hadn't thought of...  More like a directory tracker, system to compare before and after directory listings.

1703

Living Room / Re: Geek gadgets - Calculators...

« Last post by rjbull on May 05, 2010, 02:12 PM »

But does that old VB IDE work on Vista Home Premium?

-app103 (May 04, 2010, 05:59 PM)

If you mean, do old versions of the compiler etc. work on Vista Home Premium, I don't know, I don't have access to them.  Perhaps you could port the source code to Pascal or whatever it is you use yourself?

And how about Win7? And what kind of future could it have if Microsoft isn't supporting that IDE any more?

Don't know.  What sort of future would the world have if Microsoft didn't support it any more?

1704

Living Room / Re: Geek gadgets - Calculators...

« Last post by rjbull on May 04, 2010, 03:05 PM »

 

If his calculator is interestingly different, it's a pity that it doesn't appear on his current Web site.

-rjbull (May 02, 2010, 09:33 AM)

It's about 10 years old and written in VB. That might have something to do with it.

-app103 (May 02, 2010, 03:47 PM)

He may be worrying unnecessarily.  TapeCalc is VB, dated 1993/1994, and works on Vista Home Premium.  Here's the file list:

CMDIALOG.VBX   18688  1993.4.28
GRID.VBX       45136  1994.11.1
KEYSTAT.VBX    25648  1993.4.28
OPTIONS.TXT     8903  1994.10.20
TAPECALC.DOC    2341  1995.1.6
TAPECALC.EXE   37536  1994.11.1
TAPECALC.FRX    1540  1994.11.1
TAPECALC.HLP   41025  1994.11.1
TAPECALC.ICO     766  1994.10.10
THREED.VBX     64544  1993.4.28
VBRUN300.DLL  398416  1993.5.11

1705

Living Room / Re: Geek gadgets - Calculators...

« Last post by rjbull on May 03, 2010, 02:27 PM »

have you found anything that does a justifiable job of recreating a Time Value of Money (TVM) calculator?

-steeladept (May 03, 2010, 09:15 AM)

I don't even know what that is...  it sounds like the kind of thing only turbo accountants can understand!   

Moffsoft Calculator 2 ($19.95) has, amongst much else:
[...]
   Financial functions - Calculate loan payments, amortization schedules, depreciation, bonds, cash flows, and interest rate conversions. (see example)
[...]
   Product Pricing - Calculate cost of goods sold, profit margin, markup, retail sales price, and gross profit. (see example)

1706

Living Room / Re: Do you collect anything?

« Last post by rjbull on May 02, 2010, 02:53 PM »

I submit. You're too powerful an exponent of the rationale for me.

-cranioscopical (May 02, 2010, 02:40 PM)

Does that mean Darwin and you have reached a zero-sum situation? 

1707

Living Room / Re: Geek gadgets - Calculators...

« Last post by rjbull on May 02, 2010, 09:33 AM »

This calculator app I mentioned is a little special. Not sure if you noticed the different modes in the screenshot, but one of them is "fraction". That was the original reason for downloading it. (it also expands into a scientific calculator)

-app103 (May 01, 2010, 03:57 PM)

No, I just noticed that it didn't seem to have a tape, so I suggested ones that do.

found a web developer by the same name (Thomas Muck)

If his calculator is interestingly different, it's a pity that it doesn't appear on his current Web site.

1708

Living Room / Re: Geek gadgets - Calculators...

« Last post by rjbull on May 01, 2010, 01:48 PM »

It might also explain why I hate the Windows calculator and its lack of history tape, and opt for this impossible to find ancient piece of software, instead:
 (see attachment in previous post)

-app103 (May 01, 2010, 04:32 AM)

app, I use another probably impossible to find ancient piece of software, PC Magazine's TapeCalc from the days before they started charging for their utilities.  I have an archive of it, which I can make available if wanted.

Oh, and there's the better-known Moffsoft FreeCalc as well, for another that has tape.

1709

Living Room / Re: Donationcoder: How did you find it + What has your experience been like so far.

« Last post by rjbull on April 26, 2010, 04:24 PM »

Hi. My name is Michael and I am a software addict.

-Darwin (March 16, 2010, 11:08 PM)

Welcome, Michael. We are all software addicts here.

-sazzen (April 26, 2010, 04:05 PM)

But Darwin is primus inter pares...   

1710

General Software Discussion / Re: Question - Does anyone know of such a program? - Data organizer

« Last post by rjbull on April 26, 2010, 03:34 PM »

There is c-organizer pro [...]
Moreover, you can synchronize your C-Organizer Appointments, Tasks, Contacts and Notes with your Pocket PC or Palm devices!

-ha14 (April 15, 2010, 04:11 AM)

I like my Palm T3 a lot and use it all the time.  But I don't see what future it has, because Palm abandoned their users.  They didn't make a desktop that allows the T3 to synch with Vista (or Win7, presumably).  The Palm TX desktop doesn't synch with Win98SE (that's on my old laptop and does synch with T3), so even if I had a TX, I have no way of transferring to it from the T3, and besides, I hear the TX screen doesn't last long.  So, Palm synch looks an illusory benefit.  Shame, because I would really like handheld compatibility.

1711

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by rjbull on April 26, 2010, 03:24 PM »

there was a big thread about it months/years ago I never even noticed.

-MilesAhead (April 26, 2010, 02:46 PM)

DC has over 20,000 topics and over 200,000 each of total posts and members.  I don't think anybody can keep up with all of it in detail any more, and it can scarcely help being a broad church.  I fairly often click on Show latest topics to see what's new, besides skimming the newsletter.  And I hope nobody stridently wants things that would need to be implemented by hard-pressed time-poor volunteers.  For one, mouser is supposed to be working on his *P*h*.D*.

1712

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice on keyboard shortcuts.

« Last post by rjbull on April 25, 2010, 10:39 AM »

rjbull I just caught your reply as I was writing this.

That is, Control-Shift-Alt-N pops up TED Notepad.

Even if that worked as I said in my original post I am limited to only using 2 keys at once.

-pilgrim-online (April 25, 2010, 10:21 AM)

Yes, well, it's all too easy to lose track of the OP  

Here's another thought: I have to say, I have not tried it myself, but it might be a way round your only-two-keys limitation, presuming some other netbook problem doesn't rear an ugly head.  Are you aware of TapTap Hotkey Extender?

TapTap Hotkey Extender is a tiny super-efficient tray-based utility (under <100k) for keyboard fanatics.

It monitors for certain unusual hotkey combinations not supported by most programs (like doubletap right shift key). When such hotkey combinations are detected, TapTap will simulate a normal hotkey that the user has configured.

In this way, you can configure any of your programs to respond to these extended hotkey events as if they supported it natively.

    Example:
    You might have a program which normally triggers on Alt+Ctrl+F5, but you want to configure it to trigger with a double tap of the right control key. You can use TapTap to detect Right Control Doubletap events, and send a Ctrl+Alt+F5 when it does. In this way, you can control your programs the way you want to, and they never know the difference.

TapTap Hotkey Extender is written in lean and mean C++ and highly optimized for insignificant cpu/memory access. It makes no changes to any system files and is completely safe. Comes with an installer but you can unpack the download manually and run it without installing.

Donation-ware from DC founder mouser!  

I appreciate your continued interest though and I am amazed at how many reads this thread has had. At least you and a couple of others have picked up things of interest.

Thank you - but as you may have already realised, DC is the place for software fanatics.  As in,  "My name is {INSERT DC MONIKER HERE} and I am a software addict."   

1713

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice on keyboard shortcuts.

« Last post by rjbull on April 25, 2010, 10:04 AM »

I should mention that I tried editing the default setting in HoeKey for Notepad from Win + N to Ctrl + N, that never worked.
It has to be something specific to this make and model of computer or the OEM software.
I even tried the default XP method by right clicking on a Start Menu shortcut opening properties and setting a Hotkey that way, that never worked either.

-pilgrim-online (April 25, 2010, 09:03 AM)

I'm not sure how good and how universal Windows shortcuts are.  I tried using Windows Properties to set Shift-Control-P for activating PopSel in Vista, and that didn't work, which is a large part of the reason I'm running HoeKey.  I don't think that particular key is reserved for anything else.

For quick editing, this works for me:

[Select]

_^@N=Run|"c:\NoInst\TED Notepad\TedNPad.exe"

That is, Control-Shift-Alt-N pops up TED Notepad.  This is the exact path to the target file on my computer, and includes double quotes as the path contains spaces.

You said you tried Control-N.  That's commonly-used in Windows applications key, e.g. for starting a new file.  Maybe you had a hotkey conflict.

1714

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice on keyboard shortcuts.

« Last post by rjbull on April 24, 2010, 03:48 PM »

rjbull The link is as follows: http://www.stud.usv.ro/~alexbu/target.php?target=keyboard

-pilgrim-online (April 23, 2010, 05:52 AM)

Thanks!   

HoeKey: In the default settings it shows Win + N for Notepad, so I tried adding Win + W for Wordpad but it never worked.

Works here (Vista Home Premium, user account, UAC On).  Relevant detail in configuration file is:

[Select]

; Win-W runs WordPad  (lines beginning with semi-colon are comments)
~W=Run|"c:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe"

The thing to note is probably that you have to preface the program with "Run|"

1715

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Auto copy information from clipboard to MS Word

« Last post by rjbull on April 24, 2010, 03:31 PM »

i want to copy text, images and formatted text!

-laburj (April 24, 2010, 02:58 PM)

The links tomos quoted are for plain-text programs.  If that was all you wanted, I'd also have pointed out that even the free version of the NoteTab editor allows you to assign a file as a collector for clips.  But, if you must have images and formatted text, I expect you will have to pay for shareware like ClipMate or possibly the payware version of ClipCache, which I haven't tried.  The latter does have a feature to merge clips in various ways.

1716

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Breevy - Text replacer / expander and program / website launcher.

« Last post by rjbull on April 22, 2010, 04:07 PM »

Another small issue with Typing Assistant as a text expander is the lack of flexibility. E.g., you can't organize text replacement pairs into groups, making them harder to manage.

-mwang (April 22, 2010, 06:33 AM)

I'm talking of things I don't understand (again); as I only use English, I didn't even know about IME before...     But what do you mean about grouping?  You can sort Typing Assistant's lists by Shorthand or by Full Text, but you meant something more than that?

1717

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice on keyboard shortcuts.

« Last post by rjbull on April 22, 2010, 03:59 PM »

Keyboard Tweaker is incredibly easy to use as all the settings are made through a single GUI window and when you click apply they are added to a .ini file so there is no writing needed directly to the configuration file.

-pilgrim-online (April 22, 2010, 07:35 AM)

HoeKey gives you a popup window that lists the hotkeys, but you have to edit its INI file with a text editor to change or add anything (as you do with AHK).  Not difficult, but more effort and more possibilities for errors.

Do you have a link for Keyboard Tweaker, please?

Another one that some people like (not tried by me) is Clavier.  This does appear to have a GUI means of adding keys.  However, I'm not sure if it's quite as powerful as HoeKey in other ways.  E.g., HoeKey can kill the current process, and has features to hide and unhide windows on a stack.  I don't see those on a very quick glance at the Clavier doc.  The latest version does come in Unicode as well as non-Unicode and 64 as well as 32-bit versions.

1718

General Software Discussion / Re: HyperSnap now installs toolbar, without asking?

« Last post by rjbull on April 22, 2010, 03:42 PM »

I ran the installer (sandboxed)

-PhilB66 (April 21, 2010, 10:30 PM)

Good idea.  I didn't think of that.  I wasn't going to try again by the regular route, because I'd have just had to do the uninstalling again as well.  <sigh>  time to install SandBoxIE, I suppose...

For a portable version... use 7-zip to extract...

And a workaround for extra kudos!  Go to the top of the class, PhilB66!     You do have to know which files are unwanted, though.

1719

General Software Discussion / Re: Here we go again with false positive antivirus actions bricking computers

« Last post by rjbull on April 21, 2010, 03:48 PM »

They get away with it because "security" and "health and safety" are all-purpose justifications for anything.

1720

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Breevy - Text replacer / expander and program / website launcher.

« Last post by rjbull on April 21, 2010, 03:45 PM »

I had an e-mail from the author saying that Typing Assistant works with IME and has been doing so for ages.  I'll ask him to comment in person.

1721

General Software Discussion / Re: HyperSnap now installs toolbar, without asking?

« Last post by rjbull on April 21, 2010, 03:28 PM »

But Curt's screenshots are set for installation to a hard disk.  I checked the Portable box, and I don't remember seeing the second of the two screenshots.  Even then, the target installation directory was set at c:\Program Files and I had to navigate to the USB drive.

I'm not going through that again, but what I think is, installation-as-portable correctly doesn't offer to install the toolbar because it knows that you don't want that on a portable installation.  Then it goes ahead and does it anyway.  But, author Greg Kochaniak has said he'll look into it.

1722

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice on keyboard shortcuts.

« Last post by rjbull on April 21, 2010, 03:17 PM »

Another good, small, free one is HoeKey.  It supports multimedia keys in WinXP, but you aren't forced to use them.

HotKeyz was rated highly on Zaine Ridling's best software list, when it existed.

1723

General Software Discussion / Re: HyperSnap now installs toolbar, without asking?

« Last post by rjbull on April 20, 2010, 04:54 PM »

Playing message leapfrog   

1724

General Software Discussion / Re: HyperSnap now installs toolbar, without asking?

« Last post by rjbull on April 20, 2010, 04:53 PM »

sajman99, looks like you were posting while I was modifying my OP, because the author replied so fast; looks like an error on his part.  But - as is obvious - I thoroughly agree about fighting nuisance toolbars.

1725

General Software Discussion / HyperSnap now installs toolbar, without asking?

« Last post by rjbull on April 20, 2010, 04:24 PM »

Copy of an e-mail I just sent to Hyperionics:

I have a single-user license for HyperSnap, so I installed it on my USB stick.  I just upgraded to the most recent version 6.80.01, installing on top of the last one on my USB stick.

1) Installation process thinks you want to install to hard disk, even though the box for portable USB is checked. That is, the Browse for the target  installation directory seems to point to the c:\Program Files etc. and one has to take extra steps to navigate to the USB stick.

2) Installation put a Hyperionics toolbar in IE. I didn't see it ask for this - granted, I may have missed it - but I certainly didn't see it, I absolutely do not want it (I check on new versions using WebSite-Watcher) and it's taken me time and effort to remove it. I'm still not sure I have it completely removed.

Please, don't do this.  I got so angry I've deleted HyperSnap altogether.

I should add, it installed the toolbar for both Firefox and IE.  The Firefox add-on was easy enough to uninstall, though I then had to re-start Firefox to complete it.  The IE toolbar was much harder to get rid of, as mentioned above.  The toolbar seems mostly about checking the latest versions of Hyperionics products.  I'm not prepared to waste screen space on that and resent having to waste time on removing it.  This misbehaviour seems new, I don't remember it from earlier versions.

It also means that the "portable" installation isn't truly portable, because it interferes with whatever host machine you install from, setting Registry keys.  I should haved used Total Uninstall; I didn't expect to have to do that with "portable" software.

And instant (as in, sent e-mail, posted here, went to bathroom, checked here, checked e-mail) response from author Greg Kochaniak;

Hello Robert,
Sorry about this trouble. I tried to not offer and not install the toolbar
when the portable setup is selected, but maybe I made an error in my
programming. The setup asks if you want it for a regular installation. I'll
look into it and fix it if necessary.
The toolbar is removed completely after you uninstall it from Windows
Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs (on Windows XP) or "Programs and
Features" on Vista and Windows 7.

Greg

Can't reply fairer than that (and note that I did say I might have missed the option).