Recent Posts

176

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Releases SyncToy 1.4

« Last post by Tekzel on November 04, 2006, 11:48 AM »

I use this at work and its great.  One of my jobs is a breakfix technician and I have 2 notebook hard drives in external bays that I have loaded down with various programs and tools using pstart as an autorun menu on it.  The boss also has one.  I put updated tools and new tools on the server and we use the synctoy to up date our drives super easily.  We use the echo method, since we only do updates on the server, never the drive.  Works like a champ.

177

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 2 hints and tips

« Last post by Tekzel on October 27, 2006, 11:32 PM »

That doesn't work for me.
I didn't have that value, so I entered it in the file.  The item now appears, and toggles true/false without any problem, but FF still checks and then disables some of my favourite plug-ins.

Among others, 2.0 rejects both the latest AI Roboform and Surfulater.
Is it mandatory to uninstall 1.5.x when using the final 2.0?

Has anyone another idea?

BTW, Carol, shouldn't that be Pancakes for England?

-cranioscopical (October 27, 2006, 04:49 PM)

Mr Tech's .... Local Install I think it is?  Anyway, it adds a lot of functionality including right clicking on an extension in the add-on window and choosing "Make Compatible".  Has worked for every single one of my extensions that it disabled.

178

General Software Discussion / Re: Launchy users please stand up

« Last post by Tekzel on October 27, 2006, 11:29 PM »

Well, like I mentioned I don't need winkey support, and I am glad FARR does not index.  FARR is so damn fast that indexing would only marginally increase speed and I like the instantaneous updating that realtime search allows.  If Mouser added indexing to FARR as an option, I personally would never turn it on.  I can't even think of a feature it needs for me, it pretty much does everything I need perfectly.

179

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Defender Final Released

« Last post by Tekzel on October 26, 2006, 07:41 PM »

You know, Windows Defender pisses me off.  And here is why.

Often when you are installing it you are doing so because you already have malware.  Sometimes it is because you cant get into windows in normal mode and can only get in safe mode.  Guess what?  You cant install the darn thing in safe mode because you cant use MSI in safe mode!  A tool like this should be installable in safe mode, thats all I am saying.

Another thing, it does not show you PROGRESS DURING UPDATING.  I really, really hate that.  I mean, with a passion.

Other than that, its a decent little program.  Can't beat it for free with the real time protection.

180

General Software Discussion / Re: Launchy users please stand up

« Last post by Tekzel on October 26, 2006, 07:37 PM »

Good god, I think Find and Run Robot is my favorite program in the history of the world.  It is a required install on both my PC at home and workstation at work.  I thought I wanted a win+key combo to run it when I first started using it, but I VERY quickly got used to using the break key.  When I found a program that let you remap Win+key combos (qliner on sourceforge) I tried mapping FARR to a win+key combo but I used it once.  Went right back to break. 

FARR for president!

181

General Software Discussion / Re: New Winzip will open rar archives

« Last post by Tekzel on October 26, 2006, 07:26 PM »

Funny.  WinZip.  Do they still think they are relevant?  Do people actually pay for that crap?

I use TugZip, love it.  Better than WinZip and free. 

182

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 2 hints and tips

« Last post by Tekzel on October 26, 2006, 07:16 PM »

Thanks - Brilliant!! The new X on every tab was driving me nuts!

-Carol Haynes (October 26, 2006, 04:34 PM)

Oh man, I hate the single close thing, I have to have an X on every tab.  Thats one of the reasons I loved my second favorite extension: Tab Mix Plus. 

The only FF extension I can't live without is Super Drag and Go, I hate not having it available.  I run about 20 extensions but only a few do I use constantly.

183

General Software Discussion / Anyone know of some good voice mail software?

« Last post by Tekzel on October 26, 2006, 12:18 PM »

I am tired of standard answering machines and their ridiculous little button interfaces.  I want some software running on my computer to handle this with a modern interface that makes dealing with my messages much easier.  Ideally, it would be network aware where I can run it on my machine and have a client version on my wifes computer so she can check messages from her PC.  Should be caller id aware, but then that is a given now.  Internet accessible would be a big plus so you can easily check messages from a remote location.  Another great feature would be the ability to send emails on incoming calls from all callers or just specific callers (caller id of course).  Oh, and a huge plus would be the ability for it to display caller id info on the screen when a call comes in, and to do this in a non-intrusive manner.  Possibly multi-monitor aware so you can designate a specific monitor to display the info to and to do it without taking focus so if you are playing a game you can see who is calling without it taking focus from the game.  This last thing is pretty unlikely though, but would be nice.

So, anyone know any good voice mail software?

184

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: McAfee for free

« Last post by Tekzel on September 29, 2006, 09:42 PM »

The only AV app I hate more than Norton is McAfee, I would only use it if paid to do so.   I would use AVG Free before I even thought about using it.  I personally prefer Panda myself.

Oh ya, and to support Java, (you know i work in a shop right)?  I get people all the time that have that piece of garbage but cant update it due to the wierd web based subscription they have.  The most un user friendly piece of trash ever foisted on the public.  It is so bad they have to give it away, Comcast has been hawking it as a "perk" that they can download it for free, but I see it more as customer abuse than anything.

185

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: One or two click screenshot emailer

« Last post by Tekzel on September 12, 2006, 08:27 PM »

We are on the same wavelength Mouser, scarrrry!! haha

186

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: One or two click screenshot emailer

« Last post by Tekzel on September 12, 2006, 08:19 PM »

Hmm, another thing just occured to me.  Would be nice if you could specify more than 1 address and a friendly name along with it, so as an example I can install it on my wife's grandmothers machine and configure it with mine and my wifes email addresses along with "Michael" and "Leah" so when she hit the hotkey it would pop up a box showing those two names, she just selects the one she wants to send it to and away it goes.  If only one is configured, it would just send it right to that address instead of showing the box.

187

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: One or two click screenshot emailer

« Last post by Tekzel on September 12, 2006, 08:12 PM »

Those are ideas, but I am hoping for something much smaller and more encapsulated in purpose.  Basically, not a screen capture program at all.  A little, very small footprint program specifically for emailing a screen cap to a specific address, wouldnt even need the ability to save the capture to the local system.  More of a support tool than a screen capture application.  Also one with super minimal configuration so you could send it to your grandmother in Nebraska and she could easilly get it going.  Why Nebraska?  No idea, just the first thing that popped into my mind.

Oh and your standalone idea sounds awesome Mouser, you make amazing stuff so I am sure you would knock it out of the park!

188

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: One or two click screenshot emailer

« Last post by Tekzel on September 12, 2006, 07:44 PM »

This may be a little bigger than a snack, but it is something I have been thinking would be cool and havent found on the internet at large.  I am always fielding support calls from friends and family members where they tell me they saw this thing, or got this vaguely described message box.  Would be super cool if I could send them a tiny program to install, that ideally has my email address preconfigured or other wise on first run it would ask for the destination email address, and then it would sit in the tray.  They could hit a hotkey to send the desktop or active screen to me, or even use the icon in the tray. Maybe it would hook the system menu and they could select "Email Screenshot" from the little box at the top left corner of the window.  Just throwing out some ideas here.  It would either include a little built in SMTP server, or use the MAPI configured client, or even ask the person what outgoing mail server to use (on first run), then when a shot is to be mailed, it would grab the screen, convert to say PNG, then zip it and email it automatically to the configured email address (me).  So in practice the person would only have to hit a hotkey and it would shoot the screen off to me, maybe a single dialog box asking permission to prevent accidental shots sent.  Also, perhaps a governer that will allow it to only send out say 2 screenshots per minute or something, to prevent someone playing an unfunny joke.  Would be nice if some of these options were configurable before sending to the recipient.

189

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

« Last post by Tekzel on June 29, 2006, 02:49 PM »

Uh did anyone happen to screenshot my 30th post?  Hey, thats a milestone for me!  Its not that I don't talk much, its mostly that I dont post much, don't really like to leave the evidence sitting around, you know.  Plus, I really don't have much to say that anyone wants to hear.

190

Living Room / Re: Coolest superhero... ever!

« Last post by Tekzel on June 29, 2006, 02:39 PM »

Yes, my feelings exactly. Properly educating people about copyright is fine but I don't think wrapping it up in a "cool" superhero package does anything for the author's credibility.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (June 26, 2006, 09:48 PM)

Come on Java, you dont think they care about their credibility do you?  Over the years they have committed some pretty heinous acts.  All they care about is the payday, all else out the door.  A good example is the way they bribed off politicians to extend copyright protection to lifetime + a billion years or until the sun goes nova, whichever comes LAST.  How many times have they had their pet politicians try to sneak wild and crazy things into law by adding it to existing bills at the last stage of approval?  They actually want (want? have successfully made? I lose track) to make copywrite volations a federal, jailable offense.  Since when should that be anything more than a civil matter?  If greed was deadly, they would all drop dead in their tracks.

Now, after all that I just wanted to be clear about one thing.  I am a capitalist, I believe in it.  But, there is such a thing as getting paid fairly for your things or work, and then there is such a thing as going way, way, WAY too far.  The RIAA and MPAA are so far beyond that point that anyone standing at the line can't see them.

And that is just my oh so humble opinion

191

Living Room / Re: Saw Superman Returns tonight...

« Last post by Tekzel on June 29, 2006, 02:05 PM »

WOW!.....did that suck!  Don't believe the hype, this movie failed on so many levels, there is nothing more to say.  Except maybe, Plastic Hollywood Crap

-vegas (June 28, 2006, 03:15 AM)

Wow!  I had exactly the opposite reaction.  I loved every second of it.  Loved the casting, the story, everything.  I am going to see it at least 2 more times in the theater and will buy the DVD the day it is released.  It was successful on every level to me

I guess that is the good thing about the world, many varied opinions.  From what I have seen though, your view is definitely in the minoirity.  Even the critics liked it (76% positive on rottentomatos.com).

192

Living Room / Re: SanDisk accused of "Shades of Sony Rootkit"

« Last post by Tekzel on June 24, 2006, 10:41 PM »

How do "portable applications" differ from "U3 smart solutions"?

-mrainey (June 23, 2006, 03:10 PM)

A portable application typically just means a program that does not have to be installed, it is self contained.  It puts all its settings in a file in its directory, usually an ini or xml file. 

A U3 application is different in that it is aware that it is being run from a removable media, usually a USB thumb drive, and can store its settings anywhere, including the registry.  It just has to observe the "shut down" U3 commands and clean up after itself, removing stuff added to the registry and from the hard drive.  U3 apps can run directly off the stick, or it can be installed to the hard drive in the temp directory and run from there.

I took a stab at modifying a little program I made to be U3 compliant, but wasn't all that successful. It was just too much of a pain in rear for me and no fun, so I abandoned it.

193

Living Room / Re: SanDisk accused of "Shades of Sony Rootkit"

« Last post by Tekzel on June 23, 2006, 02:21 PM »

The thing is: there actually isn't any autoplay in flash drives. There's no place in windows to disable it, as windows shouldn't even support it.

-jgpaiva (June 23, 2006, 01:47 PM)

Actually there is a little bit of misinformation in this thread   All removable media supports "autoplay", since it is a windows thing and not device specific.  No, "autorun" is a different thing, this is where automatically, through the file autorun.inf, a program is automatically run.  Windows only supports this on CDROM devices, thus the emulated cdrom on U3 sticks.  AutoPLAY is just windows saying "Hey, found a removable media that was just plugged in, what do you want to do?" and it presents you with the box that has items like explore and several programs you can run on the media based on what kind of data it finds on the media. 

I have a 2gb Memorex U3 stick that I have had a few weeks and really like it a lot, I have several portable apps installed on the U3 launchpad and I use them.  Not sure about Sandisk's implementation, but on my Memorex the only thing it ran by default was the Oddcast thing that tells you about it.  You can specify apps that will autorun from the launchpad by managing the apps and checking the box to autorun them, but by default all mine were disabled. 

Edit: Bleh, I even put the wrong autosomething in one place

194

School Showcase / Re: DcTiles - A Tile Matching Game by Tekzel from C# Assignment 2.1

« Last post by Tekzel on May 30, 2006, 06:10 PM »

Thanks jpaiva, it certainly has been fun   And do come join us over there, its a blast.

195

School Showcase / Re: DcTiles - A Tile Matching Game by Tekzel from C# Assignment 2.1

« Last post by Tekzel on May 30, 2006, 05:54 PM »

Test your highly touted strategy on this mouser!

196

Developer's Corner / A little game project I have been thinking about and started tonight.

« Last post by Tekzel on May 25, 2006, 01:18 AM »

I like checkers, so have wanted to do a checkers game.  For me, it would only be fun if you could play it with someone else.   A screen cap of the UI I have mocked up so far is attached.  My plan is this:

* The name is currently netCheckers, but if someone has a cooler name let me know.
* I am thinking about putting a basic in game AI for playing locally alone.
* The main thing it is for though is playing someone else over the network.
* I would like to have it auto discover other games running on the local lan and be able to connect to a specified IP over the internet.  When it launches it will look for other instances running and offer them as a destination, but the user can also select "Internet" or something to put in an IP.
* I am toying with some ideas for some "modes" to make it more interesting, like the ability to somehow earn back your pieces from the other player, etc.
* I am planning to implement some different board/piece colors that will be user configurable.

The checker positions are currently picture boxes, with the pieces planned to be .pngs with background transparencies. I would LIKE to make the pieces draggable to the new position, but may do a  click source and then click destination method since I dont know if I can do the drag and drop thing.  Maybe a grid of picture boxes arent the best way?

Most of this is currently beyond me, but will be a good learning experience.  Any input would be appreciated.  If I am able to make this thing and make it work, I would want to post it here for people to use if they want.

Notes on the screenshot:  The white arrows will designate the current player to move, only one will be showing at any given time.   I was thinking of making a small box between the players arrow and the players info that will "hold" jumped pieces, sort as a visual indicator of how many pieces you have taken. 

197

General Software Discussion / Re: a backup solution that uses winRAR

« Last post by Tekzel on May 19, 2006, 05:59 PM »

Yes, but can you restore from one windows version to another? That's what I'm worried about considering proprietary.

-f0dder (May 19, 2006, 05:55 PM)

I seem to remember not being able to restore a backup on one version from another before, but if so it was a long time ago.  I personally wouldn't use a backup like the Windows backup, its kind of lightweight and I dislike the proprietary format being potentially tied to a specific version of windows.

198

General Software Discussion / Re: a backup solution that uses winRAR

« Last post by Tekzel on May 19, 2006, 04:59 PM »

I use Abakt - http://www.xs4all.nl/~edienske/abakt/.  It doesn't do a system state backup, it is more of a data backup util.  You can set up profiles and then execute them as groups ( I have about 9 profiles, in 3 or so groups).  It has built in zip support, but it also can use 7zip if you have it installed. This is what I use.

199

Living Room / Re: Help Needed! - A Request from an old friend of Mouser

« Last post by Tekzel on May 17, 2006, 10:48 PM »

Hey nudone, how do you mean a novel take on it?

-Mo-oZ (May 17, 2006, 01:35 PM)

He means something that makes you different than all the others, something unique about yours and makes you stand out.

200

Living Room / Re: Skype users: beware

« Last post by Tekzel on May 15, 2006, 06:54 PM »

That is a pretty common clause in just about every EULA these days, and I have to wonder if it is even legal?  I thought it was legal to reverse engineer software for compatibility, at least I think it used to be, but then these days (with the DMCA and such) who knows.