Recent Posts

1826

Living Room / Re: Who's up for a DonationCoder talk show?

« Last post by superboyac on July 16, 2012, 10:30 AM »

I'll update on what's happened.  First, when I made this post, I had some free time and things were going smooth.  Since then, everything's gotten super hectic.  But really, I also had some technical difficulties, maybe you guys can help me sort it out.

I can record an audio-only session successfully, I think.  I was using icecast and some kind of funky freeware server setup.  I've reinstalled windows, so I have to remember what my settings were (pita).  What I really wanted to do was have a full video conferencing things going, where I can have a couple of windows for the live video stream, but also be able to show what's going on on my monitor.  So I bought this screencamera.net software from here when it was on sale at bdj:
http://www.pcwinsoft...meranet/download.asp

This is a virtual driver that is supposed to be able to fool windows into being an actual webcam driver.  And you can put together a desktop as I described above: include the video stream, application windows, monitors, desktops...and you can lay them all out like in photoshop layers.  The problem is...the software sucks.  It's unsuable.  It's such a hack software.  Half of the functions don't work when clicked on.  It feels like an open-source program that's in the alpha stage.  I tried looking for alternatives, couldn't find any.

At work, I just started using Cisco Meetingplace, which works pretty well.  But it's a "corporate" solution, meaning it needs a corporate account and all that other needlessly expensive stuff.  I just need a virtual webcam driver that actually works well, or a video conferencing software that can also show desktops AND doesn't use the cloud.

But I can probably do a audio-only live recording using skype and icecast.

1827

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: iPad 3 and me

« Last post by superboyac on July 15, 2012, 01:18 AM »

I still say this: if any android or windows device comes out that has awesome touch-responsiveness, that's going to be the ipad, iphone-killer.  They keep coming out with devices with improved hardware and improved specs, but the touch-responsiveness is still not as good.  I'm telling you, this is THE feature.  This is the money maker, for any of these comapnies that want to listen.  A smart company would right now take however long it needs and however much money it takes and make a phone or tablet that has the same touch-responsiveness as the iphone/ipad.  Once it is done, they will be the new kings, the new apple killers, i'd put money on it.  After that, just put on a great screen and you're good to go.  everything else is way secondary.

1828

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: iPad 3 and me

« Last post by superboyac on July 15, 2012, 01:15 AM »

Very nice writeup, it was a joy to read!  Such honesty.

I got the ipad 1 a couple of years ago and my assessment was very similar, I'd say.  The ipad is really the perfect coffee shop device, for exactly the reasons you mention: it's easy to just do the little thing you're going to do for the next 15-30 minutes.  No grabbing your power cord and setting it on your lap, etc.  For me, I found 90% of the time I was using it to check email and read things.  The rest of the time I used it as a brilliantly capable gps.  I have an android tablet also, and they can both do the same things, but the android will have more bugs, and a couple of more difficulties here and there.  What separates the ipad is the screen quality and the impeccable touch responsiveness.

The biggest problem with the ipad for use real computer users is that our brains don't cooperate with the device.  Unlike most i-fans, we know way too much about computers to be comfortable on the i-devices.  As soon as you start thinking about files and folders in your mind, you will immediately sense the frustrations.  All those "why can't i..." "how do I..." questions come up and the simple answer is "you can't".  Even with it jailbroken and getting access to the hidden filesystem doesn't make things much easier.  I know also have a Sony Z ultrabook, and other than the coffee shop stuff, I know am primarily using the laptop (full pc computer) once again.  It's the power.  It doesn't seem like Apple will ever allow the power that pc users are used to.  They really are meant for a different crowd.  A far dumber crowd when it comes to computers.  And I know those people are not really all dumb, they just "want it to work".  But at this point, I'm going to risk offering a little judgement and criticize them for being a little dumber than they have to be.  I'm done arguing this point with them.  it's just not that hard to install drivers and download freeware.  You learn how to do it in 10-15 minutes, and that's it for life.  If you don't want to learn, that's cool, but realize that you are then at the mercy of the companies and waiting for them to create technology that you can use like an appliance.  With a little education, you can do a lot of really cool things with these computers.

I've been trying to find the proper analogy for the whole pc vs. apple debate, and the closest I've come is this:  it's like the vegans vs. the carnivores.  Whenever the two parties mix, who wins?  The vegan.  he has to, there's no other way.  Because the vegan is the one that has the restriction.  The carnivore has no restriction.  They are not on equal terms.  So any "compromise" is not a compromise at all, it's just the vegan winning.  Either the carnivore has to eat vegan food (which is already within his diet), or the vegan gets his own food separately from the carnivore.  What NEVER happens is the vegan saying "ok, this time I'll eat meat, and next time we eat vegan stuff."

And that's like Apple and pc.  The pc can do everything the apple can, but not vice versa.  So the argument is ridiculous, as far as who is better.  The apple is easier for people who are not going to do much more than whatever the device comes with.  The pc user is going to use it as a foundation to build a whole bunch of other things on.  The pc has NO restrictions, the apple does.  Any compromise will result in a victory for apple because it means SOME restrictions need to be in place where there weren't any before with the pc.  So it's a bit of a loaded debate, if that's the right word.  I know there must be some kind of legal term for this kind of situation (40?).

1829

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: Comic Book Archive Creator

« Last post by superboyac on July 13, 2012, 09:42 AM »

Sweet program!

1830

General Software Discussion / Re: NoteTab 7 editors released

« Last post by superboyac on July 09, 2012, 09:00 PM »

The question for me is always, why would I use one of these instead of the free and extremely capable Notepad++?  If you can answer that, the possibility of the wallet coming out is there.

-superboyac (July 09, 2012, 07:25 PM)

The answer to that question, of course, is personal preference.  It's like cars:  do you prefer a Ford or a Chevrolet, an Audi or a BMW?  That's why there is such a plethora of editors available.  It doesn't really matter what your preference might be, what matters is that you have a choice.  cyberdiva likes UltraEdit, that's her preference.  I like PSPad, TreePadX, NoteTab, depending upon what I need to do at the time.  All of these editors have their strengths, things they do better than any other editor.  So, ya pick the one (1) ya like, pay for it if need be, and go on yer merry way  .

-barney (July 09, 2012, 07:48 PM)

That's why I have like 5 that I use!  Each has its own little niche in my computing habits.  If you twisted my arm, what would I choose?  Hmm....probably editpad.

1831

General Software Discussion / Re: NoteTab 7 editors released

« Last post by superboyac on July 09, 2012, 07:25 PM »

It's not just programmers who value and are willing to pay for a capable text editor.

-cyberdiva (July 09, 2012, 06:33 PM)

This is the part which makes me wonder: what makes capable text editor?
I am not against paying for good software, I am just asking: what makes NT7 so special to buy it instead of getting some free solution or other payware (let it be UltraEdit, HippoEdit or - heck with that - even Dreamweaver).

-fenixproductions (July 09, 2012, 06:56 PM)

I had the exact same question, fenix.  Notetab was the first alternative editor I tried many years ago.  Didn't find much that was so special about it, except for their unique snippet or macro features.  But I can say the same about most of the text editors.  There are so many out there that I don't even want to know their features, I just want to know their unique features.  Like UltraEdit to me is the only one that has a built-in ftp that works smoothly.  Editpad has my favorite interface and searching abilities. hippoEdit has really cool visual stuff going on like color hover effects and nice code-folding and parantheses features.  There's that newer one (I forgot what it's called) where there's a kick-ass document preview portion on the side that I find too cool.

The question for me is always, why would I use one of these instead of the free and extremely capable Notepad++?  If you can answer that, the possibility of the wallet coming out is there.

1832

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a Firewall with a quick toggle per program, to open/close connection?

« Last post by superboyac on July 09, 2012, 10:04 AM »

Speaking of which, there's another Netlimiter-like program, NetBalancer:
http://seriousbit.com/netbalancer/

Anyone with experience to compare the two?  Maybe it can do nudone's request with fewer clicks?

1833

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a Firewall with a quick toggle per program, to open/close connection?

« Last post by superboyac on July 09, 2012, 10:00 AM »

nudone, I've been looking for this for a while also.  4wd created this program a while back:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=25468.0

Which is a button that will block/unblock ALL network access.  I know that's not what you want.  I also found some obscure shareware at one point that had a nifty blocking/unblocking interface.

But like you, my preferred program is Netlimiter.  It's not perfect, but it comes closest to allowing the user to easily control network activity.  Other firewall programs make it much more complicated and more difficult to understand.  It's an interface issue.  I wish Netlimiter would have an easy access on/off button for ALL network activity.  I also wish they'd have an on/off button that works reliably for each of those connections in it's list.  Like, you know how each row has a box where you can specify the upload/download speed limits?  Each row should also have a button (like the red/green button in 4wd's program) to block/unblock that connection.  That would be super handy.

I'm all for finding programs that gives the user fine-grain control on network activity.  I don't mean regular firewalls, I mean more specialized interfaces like Netlimiter.

1834

General Software Discussion / Re: Mozilla to "stop innovation" on Thunderbird

« Last post by superboyac on July 06, 2012, 09:17 PM »

Hmm...

We have come to the conclusion that continued innovation on Thunderbird is not the best use of our resources given our ambitious organizational goals.

And what exactly are those ambitious goals, if I may be so bold? Unless, of course, it's the ongoing commitment to deliver buggy releases of Firefox on a more accelerated basis...

Whatever happened to the "release when it's ready" philosophy that was the trademark of FOSS development?

 

-40hz (July 06, 2012, 06:33 PM)

What I feel is happening is that all these recognized tech companies are all trying to one-up each other and chasing every little idea that comes up.  We keep moving away from real innovation and putting all our energy in this kind of superficial innovation.  And why?  well, $$$ is the answer as far as I can tell.  Firefox coming out with a new integered version every week is a superficial innovation.  Version 8 and version 13 used to 1.2 and 1.5 a few years ago.  So it's all bullshit labeling etc.  Do I know how this kind of thing makes money?  Not really.  The whole system is very complex, and the people who can make it more simple or better want it that way.  My friend and I were talking about fitness clubs recently and testing the idea of starting one.  Only to realize that all the money comes from the bullshit vitamin and suplpement sales inside the gyms and the real profits are coming from the (and I can only describe it like this) a pyramid-like scheme of membership.  And if I go grab some Harvard Business Review articles about fitness clubs, it confirms that.

Is this bad?  I don't know, that's a political question.  i don't like it.  I think it depends.  It's good for certain definitions of economic growth, which i don't want to get into.  But for true innovation, which is something that almost all normal people can feel and appreciate, it's bad.  It's bad because we can't start a fitness club and make it really nice for the members, because that's bad for profits.  The only way to do it is to start like 5 fitness clubs, with a profit margin beign generated as I described above.  So the innovation is coming from the idea of "How do i sell more protein bars and get more people to sign up" rather than "how do I provide a place to work out that is fun and cooler than the other place?"

And that pisses me off.  Just about every good idea I have runs into this dilemma.  I know the joke of "selling out" has always been around.  But I want to say that before, you only had to sell out a little and still be fine.  Now, you have to sell out completely.  Firefox is selling out, and it's free!  What kind of sense does that make?!  Think about it!  That's because it's really not free and they do the same shit as everyone else.

Furthermore, and something for all of us here to think about, something I'm worried about...all these developments taking place recently is totally anti-geek friendly.  We are being left behind.  Those who found their place in life tinkering with machines and computers, opening them up, finding out how they work, getting ideas from them, combining weird machines to make a new one, finding a cool tool in the trash...this is all going away with one word: copyright.  Copyright means, "we don't want you opening our shit up, and even if you do and figure it out, you can't use it in any way shape or form from this point on." And that halts innovation.  It stops it right in its tracks.  And the owners of those copyrights obviously don't have that much motivation to innovate.  But human beings demand new and better things, so they have to fake it.  hence...the new version number scheme from firefox and chrome.  The big deal everyone makes for the new Samsung having quad-core instead of duo-core.  These are the lamest innovations there could be!  Let me break that one down if I may...quad-core in and of itself is not really new.  So the real innovation was sticking a quad core chip in a phone.  All that means is that somewhere in Samsung, somebody decided to stick a quad-core chip instead of a duo-core chip.  Really not that big of a deal.  Nor does it change the end user experience much.  "OOO it's faster"  Whatever.  It was just shitty slow before, that's all.  Now it's ok.  Given the possibilities for innovation that we know exists, this is the tiniest thing they could have done.  But cue all the media to make a huge deal out of it and get everyone hopped up about it.

You know how many people out there have the ability (knowledge, money, skills, etc.) to make a kick-ass cell phone that will blow all these away?  A lot.  Can they?  Nope.  We have to rely on firefox and samsung for innovation.

Whatever.  I'm trying to figure out a way in so that I can try to innovate, but it's proving to be very very difficult.

1835

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v2.23.01 - Nov 22, 2013

« Last post by superboyac on July 06, 2012, 01:19 PM »

Not many new features, but this updates CHS to my new setup packages that are digitally signed, with an easier portable zip download option:

-mouser (July 06, 2012, 01:16 PM)

Appreciate it.  Still use CHS for it's quickpaste popup menu, which is now the best on the block.  For a while, ARSclip and CHS were nose-for nose there, but now CHS is the king of the hill.  I don't know why I keep track of these things...

1836

Living Room / "You may lose your internet service Monday" ?

« Last post by superboyac on July 05, 2012, 09:35 AM »

http://www.cbs12.com...ories/vid_1128.shtml

Stuff like this worries me.  Is this true?

1837

General Software Discussion / Re: How to tell a Story: Live, Lite, Turbo

« Last post by superboyac on July 05, 2012, 09:30 AM »

Seems to me not that different than OneNote.

1838

General Software Discussion / Re: The Bat! and why I've given up with it

« Last post by superboyac on July 04, 2012, 04:22 PM »

I agree with you.  Just search through the forums to find my many profanity laced rants against the Bat.  I don't use Voyager, but the general symptons you describe totally make sense.  The only problem is that the Bat really is the only email client for windows that can do certain things, especially handling multiple accounts easily and being relatively flexible with a lot of different workflows.

The developers seem to have a bit of attitude, though.  I really don't think they spend all that much time developing.  Most of my bug reports or feature requests have been pretty much ignored.  I'm not even really sure what changes have been made over the last 5 years.  Ask yourself this: what did you notice that changed between version 4-6?  I can't recall one specific thing that I found useful.  Yet, major complaints against their very commonly used elements, like the MicroED editor, will just stay the same forever.  Will they ever make word wrapping better?  Will they ever fix the color/formatting bugs in their non-microed editors?  Will they ever come up with a manual for their quicktemplate variables?  Nope sorry, you just have to figure out their programming language on your own.

I use it only because it's the only option available.  I used to encrypt, I don't anymore because I'm afraid of what you went through.  I used to use their backup features, I don't anymore because it SUCKS BALLS!  Now I just use SFFS which is far more reliable.

1839

Web Link Captor / Re: request: limit searches to specified domains only

« Last post by superboyac on July 03, 2012, 05:42 PM »

I'm embarassed to say that i don't really remember how to use Web Link Captor very much any more... DC member ewemoa may know how to use it better than me at this point.

It seemed like such a good idea for a program at the time, and coded in a combo of C++ and Python I thought would make it very extensible.  Any options you can pass to google to restrict search you should be able to pass to the google-configured searches in Web Link Captor.. Let me know what you figure out..

Maybe someone will think of a program i can turn WLC into that would actually be more useful than what it was created to do..

-mouser (July 03, 2012, 05:35 PM)

I understand.
This issue was actually raised by one of my friends and I thought it was a good idea.  It would be awesome if there was a software that could limit searches to your bookmarks.  It's almost something that the bookmark managers should include.  I wonder if Linkman would be open to the possibility.  But it would probably be more useful as a standalone tool that you can load in whatever list of domains you wanted.

1840

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to ONLY search bookmarked/favorited pages?

« Last post by superboyac on July 03, 2012, 11:30 AM »

dtsearch analysis:
So dtsearch *can* technically do this, but it's not practical.  it needs to index the site on your hard drive before searching it, which takes a very long time even for simple sites, let alone something like amazon.  So it's probably not going to work very well.  Plus, you have to configure each domain (or bookmark) separately which is also a lot of work.

looks like web link captor comes the closest so far.  It would be great to load in a list (csv?) of domains/sites/bookmarks and search through those.  Also would be good to get more than 10 results (or maybe I don't know where that setting is).  One thing that would be awesome is this workflow:
--i have a ton of bookmarks in linkman
--export the linkman list and bring it into web link captor
--click the option to search the specified pages only, or any page with that domain
--specify how many results to return (or threshold?)
--bam!  customized searching!


[edit]
by the way, dtsearch is VERY cool.  It might replace archivarius for me.  definitely better than google desktop search or windows search.  I wonder if it's better than x1?

1841

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to ONLY search bookmarked/favorited pages?

« Last post by superboyac on July 03, 2012, 11:18 AM »

Sounds like a possible job for mouser's Web Link Captor

-Ath (July 02, 2012, 03:34 PM)

I think you may be right.  mouser, any chance of this making its way into the program?  I'll place a request in its forum.
I'm testing it out right now, I wasn't even aware of this one.

-superboyac (July 03, 2012, 10:24 AM)

Wow... you know, I don't think I ever understood that program before.  But this discussion has placed it in a whole new light for me.

-wraith808 (July 03, 2012, 10:38 AM)

same here.  it could be an extremely useful tool.

You know how google has become cluttered with nonsense, and finding what you really want is like finding a needle in a haystack?  A tool like this could really take away that nuisance by limiting searches to just the sites you want.  But I think its real use is going to be as a hardcore research tool for me.

1842

Web Link Captor / Re: request: limit searches to specified domains only

« Last post by superboyac on July 03, 2012, 10:31 AM »

wait!  can it already do that in the "search configuration" area?

1843

Web Link Captor / request: limit searches to specified domains only

« Last post by superboyac on July 03, 2012, 10:28 AM »

mouser, it would be a great research tool if the program could limit the search to just a specified list of domains.  Just like step #1 where search terms are entered per line, it would be nice to be able to enter somewhere else some domains per line, maybe with wildcards.  What do you think?

1844

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to ONLY search bookmarked/favorited pages?

« Last post by superboyac on July 03, 2012, 10:24 AM »

Sounds like a possible job for mouser's Web Link Captor

-Ath (July 02, 2012, 03:34 PM)

I think you may be right.  mouser, any chance of this making its way into the program?  I'll place a request in its forum.
I'm testing it out right now, I wasn't even aware of this one.

1845

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to ONLY search bookmarked/favorited pages?

« Last post by superboyac on July 02, 2012, 06:14 PM »

Or how about this: can you set your preferred desktop indexer to index a group of websites?  You don't have to download the entire website, but index it.  Come to think of it, it's sounds like I need some kind of "spider" program.

1846

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to ONLY search bookmarked/favorited pages?

« Last post by superboyac on July 02, 2012, 05:47 PM »

Can anyone recommend a software that will only search the pages that are bookmarked or favorited?  That is, not the entire web, but just a specified set of pages?

Like ClickHint, except a standalone software or works outside of a browser?

I was wondering if DTsearch can do it, but I'm not sure.

-superboyac (July 02, 2012, 03:25 PM)

You want to search the current content of the page live?  Just trying to understand what you're looking for?

-wraith808 (July 02, 2012, 05:10 PM)

Yes, exactly.  Instead of googling certain keywords, it would only search those sites that are bookmarked (or any kind of user-specified list of sites).  And it would be nice if it searched the complete domain, not just the page of the bookmark.  But that could also be done using wildcards also.  The basic idea is to limit the search of live websites to a user-specified list.

1847

General Software Discussion / Software to ONLY search bookmarked/favorited pages?

« Last post by superboyac on July 02, 2012, 03:25 PM »

Can anyone recommend a software that will only search the pages that are bookmarked or favorited?  That is, not the entire web, but just a specified set of pages?

Like ClickHint, except a standalone software or works outside of a browser?

I was wondering if DTsearch can do it, but I'm not sure.

1848

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Mini-Review

« Last post by superboyac on July 01, 2012, 01:27 PM »

thanks tomos, appreciate it.  I'm glad there's now a button for selecting the folders, finally!

1849

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Super Flexible File Synchronizer Mini-Review

« Last post by superboyac on June 30, 2012, 08:11 PM »

BTW I dont think

-tomos (June 30, 2012, 03:55 PM)

COuld you post a screenshot for us if you have one?  Or anyone else?  Thanks.
I'll probably get the upgrade.  It's one of the most useful tools I've ever had.

1850

General Software Discussion / Re: corrupt index (I think): how to fix?

« Last post by superboyac on June 27, 2012, 03:10 PM »

Then I read that updating the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers would fix my problem, and it sure seemed like it did!

-superboyac (June 25, 2012, 07:20 PM)

Yay! 

Driver updates. Don't you just love it when it's that easy?

P.S. I agree with Target. I'd do a scrub, re-partition, and reformat before I put it back in production too.

-40hz (June 26, 2012, 05:27 AM)

I will.  I have to replace several of the files anyway, some of them got a little garbled and there are artifacts when it plays now.  But I'll take it!

next project: my "portable university" experiment using XBMC.  I've been looking forward to this one for a year now.