Recent Posts

1951

General Software Discussion / Re: From the makers of CCleaner... Recuva Beta 1

« Last post by Lashiec on August 09, 2007, 09:17 AM »

Yep, thanks for the heads up. I'll modify the topic title accordingly.

1952

Living Room / Re: new PC options:-

« Last post by Lashiec on August 09, 2007, 08:50 AM »

Well, late as always. You could have go either with ATI or nVidia, I had used the two brands, and no problems at all. The cooling factor is depending on the manufacturer of the card as well. Anyway, good thing you opted for a passive one, as the smaller cards tend to have smaller fans, and smaller fans -> bigger noise

EDIT: I almost forgot. Don't forget about loading that thing with fans (I remember you said you were going to do it, but just as a reminder ). Passive cards can get VERY hot, although Asus had some really good passive models, that got lower temps than actively cooled ones.

1953

Living Room / Re: KenR's health and situation

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 06:27 PM »

The best for you Ken, and I hope the surgery goes well and you can go to your normal life as fast as possible.

1954

Developer's Corner / Re: Is Beautiful Code A Succubus

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 06:21 PM »

Well, the first thing you must do to write beautiful code is to make it readable. That is, take advantage of tabs and indenting, separate code sections like loops from other more mundane, like definitions or repetitive single-line orders... I've been messing with lots of code that essentially looked like a text brick, including that wrote by teachers. And then, starting with that you extrapolate, breaking everything into independent chunks of code, that are easy to understand by themselves, using properly named variables, constants, functions and all the usual suspects... Maybe you don't get beautiful code (I think the concepts clash a bit) but at least you'll get something attractive and easy to read and understand for other people, including yourself.

1955

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use any Desktop Theme Software on Windows?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 05:53 PM »

Probably because it's exactly the same as patching UXTHEME.DLL, and no one want to pay for something you can do for free. Of course, people didn't pay for StyleXP as well

1956

General Software Discussion / Re: Is the Windows start menu dead?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 05:42 PM »

Apple used a Start Menu as well last time I checked. Look, the important thing for a Start Menu is to have it organized. After all, it's nothing more than the graphical representation of a myriad of folders and links. Of course, it's difficult to maintain a balance between excessive categorization and minimal organization. Although FARR virtually eliminates these and other gripes.

1957

Find And Run Robot / Re: 8start review

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 12:27 PM »

One thing that really bugs me about FARR is its inability to catch the limelight (thanks Rush) despite being more capable than other launchers. OK, this is not a problem of FARR or his programmer or the user community in general, but it really pisses me off seeing software like Launchy and hype-machines like Enso getting all the attention on major sites. And even when FARR make its appearance in a post (not in the comments, but in the main post) it's quickly forgotten by the author and get replaced by the 'template' that is Launchy, as if the guy has to talk about FARR because he get forced to do it. And the thing is getting worse as time passes, as it seems everyone and their dog is developing a launcher, last one I heard about, Executor, featured on the Software page of Neowin.

1958

Living Room / Re: Mintcamp: a new blog of interviews with developers and web designers

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 11:48 AM »

mouser, don't try to turn the attention directed towards you! Although I'd like to see Wordzilla there

1959

General Software Discussion / Re: XP or Vista user — take the poll!

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 11:32 AM »

64-bit it's still shaky at best. Better to stay with 32-bit for now. Of course, I don't know what you should do with that extra gig, Zaine

1960

Living Room / Re: Build a $250 PC That Doesn’t Suck

« Last post by Lashiec on August 07, 2007, 11:17 AM »

Looks pretty good to me, and it lasts quite some years with those components. Perhaps you could save some dollars buying cheaper RAM. Good purchase, anyway!

1961

Living Room / Re: Anyone any idea how to fix file assocations?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 06, 2007, 07:30 PM »

Simply don't let Real Player, iTunes or QuickTime (known offenders) steal anything when you first configure them. It's an easy task, as IIRC both three have those options in the applet that appears after you install them. It's also a matter of comparing the different extensions used by one or another (this takes a bit of time) so after the first time you don't have to worry about associations anymore. Apple software will complain, that's for sure, but you can't make nothing with it, as that's how it's designed.

1962

Living Room / Re: Anyone any idea how to fix file assocations?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 06, 2007, 06:35 PM »

Maybe iTunes have this kind of monitoring applet for when another app steal extensions?

1963

Developer's Corner / Re: C++ Development: win32 or .NET?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 06, 2007, 06:15 PM »

There's also the WTL or Qt as well. The second one is multiplatform, OSS and widely regarded. I suppose .NET will have its space with time, but it has to compete with Java as with all those other "new" languages appearing as lately, and, of course, all the "Web 2.0" craze, which allows you to code a driver using HTML and JavaScript or something... . Also, .NET will only be as good as the people developing for it, and so far I've only see VB6-like software, at least in what comes to user software. And you'll need a helluva lot of memory as well, in theory.

1964

Living Room / Re: How to choose a credit card?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 06, 2007, 05:54 PM »

There are cards that doesn't cost you a cent until you're 25, at least mine is one of those. So better ask for options at the bank.

1965

Living Room / Re: Do you listen to the radio?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 06, 2007, 05:44 PM »

I wonder if the American Kiss FM would be the same as the Spanish one... Anyway, yes I use to listen it a lot. We are lucky to have a really good public radio, with various stations, that provides everything you need, from news to debates, from classical music to the latest trends in pop (pop as popular music, not Britney Spears and other bullshit).

1966

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your music player of choice?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 06, 2007, 09:43 AM »

foobar2000, for complete albums and all task related to file manipulations (except tags). Love its unlimited power, but I understand that for others this could be a negative point.

XMPlay, for single files and VGM. So smaller and yet so powerful.

Mp3tag combined with Exact Audio Copy, for all ripping + tagging tasks.

(How many threads like this do we have here?)

1967

Living Room / Re: Thoughtful Article: Blogging Ethics: When And What Should Bloggers Disclose?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 05, 2007, 08:03 PM »

Yeah, you're right, I think I went a bit too far there

1968

Living Room / Re: Thoughtful Article: Blogging Ethics: When And What Should Bloggers Disclose?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 05, 2007, 07:07 PM »

When reviewing things, this should be provided. For example, Zaine Ridling is quite passionate about XYplorer or Opera, but we know he is simply a happy buyer, and he's not affiliated with the companies providing them. Another example are the people working at Ars Technica, which reviews devices that they use, and they're quite honest about them (except those reviewing Apple products, the iPhone review is a perfect example of this). Or Coding Horror. An example of how it should not be done it's WinSupersite, as nobody can believe this guy is talking honestly, or sometimes, Scobleizer (although I must admit that I've been out of touch with his blog for some months now). That's what these bloggers were talking about.

A political blog is not an adequate example as it's practically impossible to find someone really independent. In your case (USA) you have, for example, the Daily Kos and Michelle Malkin's blog (not quite sure about this one, so feel free to correct me) and we all know they are not exactly independent, but terribly biased towards one or another party, so biased it almost makes me wanna puke. Besides, we know that republicans and democrats are the same dog with different necklace...

*mouser bans Lashiec for talking about politics in the forum*

1969

Living Room / Re: new PC options:-

« Last post by Lashiec on August 05, 2007, 06:15 PM »

Ah, no, I was talking about the OCZ one, which ran at 800 Mhz versus the Kingston Value RAM, who runs at 667 Mhz. OK, it's not cheaper, but the OCZ it's only 2 € more.

wreckedcarrz, could be because of the PSU, that wasn't performing as expected. To tell you the truth, it's the first I hear this "Mad Dog Multimedia" brand. I heard about Ultra X before, though, a bit too modding for me.

1970

Living Room / Re: new PC options:-

« Last post by Lashiec on August 05, 2007, 06:00 PM »

Heh, that's exactly the RAM I'm using (the Kingston one). No problems so far. But I found quite strange you get that OCZ for so little money. It's true that memory prices are low, low, but to see an enthusiast oriented module cheaper than a Value RAM... well... it's o_O. You could as well with the OCZ, but to save 2 € and then find it doesn't work with the motherboard... You don't have other shops to look in, then?

wreckedcarzz, it wasn't cutting it? Was the computer turning off when you launched something demanding?

1971

Living Room / Re: Thoughtful Article: Blogging Ethics: When And What Should Bloggers Disclose?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 05, 2007, 05:47 PM »

Hmmm, the guy of Read/Write Web looked a bit obstinate to disclose the blog affiliations with other companies, and its criticism of this transparency looked fishy. Oh well. In the other hand, Walt Mossberg was really sincere and it was very thoughtful of him to go up to those extents of acknowledging all the possible associations with other companies. Of course, considering the bastard the guy who now owns "The Wall Street Journal" it will be a bit impossible for now on to avoid any kind of relationship (direct or indirect) with another companies.

I personally consider ESSENTIAL to disclose all these kind of intercourses between a blogger and companies of any kind. We know how easy is to find affiliations between mass media and political organizations and parties or big companies, so it's easier to find one of these affiliations with bloggers involved. I mean, it's quite easy to corrupt a single person, and most bloggers (particularly those so called prominent) don't look very trustful to me.

1972

Living Room / Re: new PC options:-

« Last post by Lashiec on August 05, 2007, 01:36 PM »

Also, have some care with those kind of 'enthusiast' oriented modules. This particular one needs 1.9 V for operation, and some motherboards only supply 1.8 V and you can't make them supply more. I don't know if this is the case, but I would ask around just to be sure. Also, to save a few bucks, do what steeladept suggests, search for those Value RAM kits, if you are not going to overclock, it's not worth the extra cost. I'll also throw my support for Kingston brand in this regard.

1973

General Software Discussion / Re: Can I uninstall .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 ??

« Last post by Lashiec on August 04, 2007, 09:27 AM »

Yeah, I'm a troll! What I wanted to say is that Microsoft doesn't have to worry about backwards compatibility, while Sun does have. Prior the release of Java 6, Sun "called" all developers to test their apps under the new JRE, to ensure they had the less regression bugs as possible. Microsoft simply deploys the .NET Framework, and say: "there you have it, use whatever you fancy". For example, .NET 2 applications use .NET 2 even having .NET 3 installed.

Those extras are those things pertaining to Vista features, like the printing system. As you know, Microsoft developed a new printing subsystem, that uses XML-based files for the spooler. The guys said: "hey, considering that this is, essentially, a readable file, what if we do a new format based on it?" And thus came XPS. Microsoft did something similar with the printing subsystem prior Vista, and those spool files were the basis for the dreadful WMF pictures. Well, .NET includes XPS reader and printer to produce your own XPS files and challenge Adobe and PDF . They introduce that without asking, but then they are always saying they can't make DirectX10 for XP because of architectural changes, and bla, bla, bla...

BTW, a good troll would say: ".NET sucks because it's Microsoft's. Sun's Java is GPL. Java FTW!!"

1974

General Software Discussion / Re: Can I uninstall .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 ??

« Last post by Lashiec on August 03, 2007, 08:27 PM »

I'm not sure what you mean there.

I was talking that, usually, in Java with a single JRE you can size them all (the apps, not the Pokemon ). I heard some comments about a nasty compatibility issue (that point updates, which are mostly security-related, caused) with a piece of software (not sure which), but the guy only said that it was causing problems. It was on the Ars OpenForum, where, as you may know, everyone is either a wizard coder or a mega-sized troll.

Of course, it could be possible, but with different versions of Java, as the APIs and the objects structure usually change with major updates. But at least Sun does extensive testing to ensure everything is right (so far, in my own experience, everything went right). Microsoft, in the other hand, simply develop .NET versions. Do you think that kind of fast development, constantly adding features and unneeded extras, would be possible if they had to ensure the maximum compatibility possible? No way, and the way they're going, we might end doing what Carol fears, only to ensure two or three apps could work in our machines (so far, I only have ATI's Catalyst Control Center and in the future, possibly Paint.NET). And considering that to ensure we have true Vista native applications we have to use .NET... well... I feel like o_O.

And what's that he can't upgrade? And those compression problems?

1975

Living Room / Re: new PC options:-

« Last post by Lashiec on August 03, 2007, 02:33 PM »

OK, late as always. Damn busy morning. Anyway, 380 W is MORE than enough these days. We're talking about a Seasonic PSU folks, not your 20 € generic PSU. The only thing better than that is a FSP. For tomos' PC, that PSU gave enough power, and he would even had some more for an additional videocard, and some HDDs. Anyway, I'm glad you didn't go for the 500 W model, as you would be burning money.

mouser, the worst thing could happen with an underpowered PSU is that the PC wouldn't start at all, at least with these kind of quality PSUs, with stable voltages and high efficiency. Of course, if you're talking about those unbranded PSUs, well, the computer could burn, the HDDs would fail...

Carol, considering the advances of computing, whenever tomos want to update his setup in the future (a serious update, and a not too far future), he would be better buying another different PSU, not only for power and increased efficiency, and thus a lower bill (the ATX specifications are being updated constantly as lately, so do the minimum efficiency for those PSUs to achieve the certification) but also because the cabling is set to change in the near future. Where you found 4-pin auxiliary +12V connectors, the trend is going to those EPS +12V 8-pin connectors, which used to be standards on server motherboards, and those 6-pin PCIe connectors are being replaced in the high-end spectre with 8-pin ones as well. Not to mention PCIe 2.0 and quadcore that are almost there.