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Recent Posts

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20826
Living Room / Re: Going Into Frugality Mode -- What are your Tricks and Tips
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 08:30 PM »
I also have a spreadsheet I use to track not only what I am spending now, but what I used to spend before I got cheap.  I then add up the "savings" as a way to keep myself motivated.

very cool idea!

that gives me another idea.. what about a kind of game where family's can challenge each other to see how little they can spend (or how much they can save), and make a kind of game of it.. maybe someone could make a website or program to help keep track of scores or whatever.
20827
Circle Dock / Re: The Best Free Software of 2009 by PCMag.com (App Launchers)
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 06:50 PM »
Huge congratulations to Eric and Circle Dock :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up:
20828
UrlSnooper / Re: Need help - URL snooper cannot find my url
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 04:11 PM »
looks like a Macromedia Flash stream which url snooper can't do much with unfortunately :(
20829
ProcessTamer / Re: avengine.exe
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 02:33 PM »
this is a question for the Process Tamer section; i'll move it there in a bit.
try changing the priority of other programs -- if the rest change successfully and only avengine.exe doesnt -- then you have a process that is forcing its own priority and nothing can prevent that.
20830
Find And Run Robot / Re: [Bug Report] Can't search word phase contains "#"
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 10:44 AM »
i will fix this -- it's from when farr by default used to launch items as soon as you typed a digit key.
for now type \# instead of #
20831
ProcessTamer / Re: How to silently uninstall processtamer
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 10:16 AM »
artsky -- cpu eater is a test utility included with process tamer whose sole purpose is to do nothing for many cycles in order to simulate a process that is out of control using the cpu.  there is certainly no virus in the process tamer installation.

note:  when you read something like "probably" in a virus report -- you should know that "probably" should be translated into "i have no damn idea if anything is wrong with this file" but i'll flag it anyway so maybe i get lucky or win some points in the next antivirus review showdown.  i have used nod32 for years and it's never flagged the file for me.. however i turn off the stupid heuristic guessing game feature in virus programs because they lead to these false alarms.
20832
Older Newsletters / Newsletter for January 28th, 2009 - Codename "New Years Revolutions"
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 10:11 AM »
Newsletter for January 28th, 2009
Codename "New Years Revolutions"


"If you read nothing else on our site, read our blog"
(new rss feed with images)



1. Newsletter Editorial

Greetings and welcome to another edition of the newsletter.. This is the first real newsletter of the new year for us, and I hope it finds you well and in good spirits.  If you are living on planet earth however, you might not be too thrilled with the fact that the entire civilized world is threatening to get sucked into a black hole of financial ruin.  And on that cheerful note let's begin our review of the last few weeks on the website..

Since the last newsletter you'll notice that a ton of new programs have been made public from the NANY 2009 event.  We also just now put up our famous (ok not really) "Best of the Web" yearly roundup.  You'll also find scattered in the newsletter posts about several other year-end reviews from some of our favorite websites.

What else is new? DC received a wonderful award since the last newsletter: "Most Useful Forum of 2008" from Cybernet news, which is a great honor.   And I got a real life visit from DC member and server admin Gothic and his wife Della and their dog, and we spent the visit playing board games; fellow DC members hadez, housetier, and urlwolf also met in at a very cool nerdy computer nightclub and it made me wonder why there aren't such things where I live.  Pictures of both gatherings can be found below.




2. Your Last NANY 2009 Update

I hope you aren't all getting sick of hearing about the NANY (New Apps for the New Year) event by now -- our celebration of programming where we encourage programmers of all skill levels to write a new free programs to be released on December 31st of each year.  It's great to see the programs being mentioned all over the place on the internet and getting some attention.  Most importantly, I want to thank Perry Mowbray who really organized everything about this year's event, and is more responsible than anyone for making it a success.  He also arranged some pretty amazing surprise prizes for a few of the participants, in addition to the tons of mugs we've been sending out to everyone who took part.  Hopefully we can cajole people into posting some pictures of themselves with the DC mugs they get.




3. Best of the Web 2008

One of the many traditions at DC is our "Best of the Web" series, where at the end of each year we go back through 12 months of blog entries and try to pick out a selection of some of the best items and organize them for posterity and historical preservation.  If you're not a daily reader of our forum or blog, or if you've been in a coma for the last 12 months, I hope you'll check out our new "Best of the Web 2008" and maybe you'll discover something that makes you happy.  It's probably not entirely fair to say it represents the "best" of 2008 -- but think of it more as a brief tour of some of the stuff we thought was interesting throughout the year.




4. Your Participation Requested

No matter what your level of computer knowledge, or how long you've been a DC member, we love to have you participate on the forum.  See the links below for some good places to jump in and make your first post.

In today's newsletter I'm happy to report that the DC Member Map is back; it's so fun being able to see where on the globe different people on the forum come from.  Over 600 people have placed their pins on the map so far and I hope you will too if you haven't yet.  We had to take the map offline for a while since it was killing the server memory, but I finally got around to modifying the code to reduce the server load and it's back online now.  So if you haven't placed your pin on the map yet, please do (and if you are paranoid about big brother finding you just place it where you wished you could go on vacation).




5. General Software Discussion

It's probably fair to say that the majority of the discussions on DonationCoder.com are about computer software.  Below are some noteworthy threads about general software issues posted to DC since the last newsletter:




6. Specific Software Discussion

And some more noteworthy threads about specific programs, posted to DC since the last newsletter:




7. DC Updates and Member Coding

In each newsletter we highlight some of the quality software coded by DC members that is available on Donationcoder and link to new mini reviews and rants posted on the forum.  If you like this kind of thing make sure you check out our Coding Snacks section, where people post requests for small utilities and various coders (usually Skrommel!) notice the requests and whip up an implementation in a day or so.. Post a clear description of what you're looking for and one of Donationcoder's resident coding gurus might just take up the challenge.




8. Fun and Games

If you've read the newsletter up to this point, take a break and check out some of the lighter fare from the forum - humour, videos, and games..




9. News You Can Use

DC Member Ehtyar has taken to producing wonderfully weekly summaries of important tech/computer/security news articles that he comes across on the web.  A big hit on the forum.  How is he able to keep up this pace and when will he collapse from exhaustion? We are all waiting to find out.  And since having a newsletter section all to himself would inflate his ego I'm also adding some more general news items from the forum here.




10. The Weird Wide Web

Here are some recent items from around the web that Donationcoder forum participants thought were noteworthy. As always, your input is encouraged, so if you come across something interesting while you're surfing the web, feel free to post a link to it on the forum.




11. Developer's Corner

If you're not a developer, don't be put off by the title of this section. There is likely something of interest to you on the Developer's Corner. It's more than just a forum for the discussion of software development, it's also where we discuss web design, entrepreneurial struggles, and general productivity issues.  And it's great to see that the section has been pretty active over the last few months -- keep it up people!

20833
Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR reverting to default options when started with Windows!
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 09:28 AM »
ah well that is a very interesting mystery solved!
the best solution for you is probably to delay starting farr until the true launch container is mounted.. maybe there is a utility to do this or you could request one on the coding snacks section :)
20834
Screenshot Captor / Re: Cannot do Shift+PrtSc capture on secondary monitor
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 09:14 AM »
there are 2 methods of selecting regions -- you can choose the other method from Red Box options, which will solve your issue, OR you can move your cursor to the 2nd monitor before initiating the capture.  i will try to fix this in the future.
20835
N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Rewards and Prizes
« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2009, 08:59 AM »
that's a great idea mahesh
20836
DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Member Map not working? Or is it just me?
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 10:55 PM »
Did I already say the member map is back working again? It is :)
20837
Living Room / Re: Codex Transportica -- My Favorite Entry
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 04:12 PM »
so do i understand it that something like the entry above, you draw an image but without any storyline behind it -- it just emerges from your brain as an image.  and then tim makes up a story around the image?  that is so neat and interesting.  how either of you come up with your part i'll never know, but combined they are very compelling.  still hard to believe you don't collaborate on the ideas before the drawing.  Must be fun for both of you to be able to surprise the other one.
20838
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Longer list of recently opened documents
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 03:18 PM »
There is an awesome Most Recently Used plugin for FARR  8)
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=13899.0
20839
Living Room / Re: Codex Transportica -- My Favorite Entry
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 02:48 PM »
Im really curious to read how you to work together, the details of it, on both sites.  Please fill us in!!
20840
Developer's Corner / Re: Fun/Funny Videos Teaching how to Program an Ancient PDP-11
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 12:14 PM »
brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
it's just wonderfully sick to see all the steps required to load and run a hello world program in assembly.
20841
Developer's Corner / Fun/Funny Videos Teaching how to Program an Ancient PDP-11
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 12:05 PM »
Very fun cool stuff..

from http://www.boingboin...-to-program-a-p.html:
DePauw University presents a series of videos on how to program the PDP-11. They present all of the steps: toggling a loader, reading and punching paper tape and running an assembler. A must-see for retrocomputing neophytes! Just one Jon-Lovitz-warning: ACTING!

20842
Living Room / Codex Transportica -- My Favorite Entry
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 11:23 AM »
Most DC members are aware that Nick Pearson, the brilliant artist who created the mascot for this site (Cody), teamed up with Tim Smith (who writes the text) to work on a couple of other sites.  Head in the Clouds is their whimsical and light-hearted cartoon about two funny birds and and Codex Transportica is their darker more moody vision of devices from an alternate reality.

Anyway, what i wanted to mention today is that Tim has written my favorite entry so far in the Codex Transportica this week, and I loved it so much i just had to share it and urge you to stop by the Codex Transportica site if you have't yet:

http://www.codextran...r-and-baby-behemoth/

Screenshot - 1_27_2009 , 11_16_10 AM_thumb.png

"And so it was that once again Britannia was able to look beyond its own borders to help those less fortunate than itself. The Ministry of Amelioration soon became established as a leading light in this field, bringing ruined countries back from the brink with its combination of strict but fair intervention, firm but just government, and local inhabitants’ terror of mutant giant babies..."
20843
Coding Snacks / 2008: A Year of Coding Snacks at DonationCoder.com
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 11:01 AM »
One of the best things about this forum is watching the activity on the Coding Snacks section as people post small ideas and requests and programmers stop by and implement them.

But it's also hard to keep track of everything created and present it in a way that others can locate.  The best solution would probably be for coders to create a little web page for each tool they make (DC is happy to provide web space just ask).

We do however try to keep a page listing all of the finished coding snacks and links to the discussion and download threads, and you can view that here:



note: i'm sure we've missed adding a utility or two to this list -- so if you know of one on the forum that isn't on that page, please let me know!
20844
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: set folder modifed date/time to most recently modified file it contains
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 10:36 AM »
this would be useful.
20845
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: SharePod Mini-Review
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 10:34 AM »
Interesting.. and nice job with the mini review  :up:
20846
Living Room / Re: Culture of Computer Scientists
« Last post by mouser on January 27, 2009, 12:57 AM »
I think Paul captured some of the revolutionary excitement that one can feel when one starts getting good at programming.

Let me try to sum up what I think is at the core of my love of programming and I think is one of the things that is very very hard to find in any other field, and makes programming almost uniquely incredible.  And it's also perhaps what is most overlooked when viewing programming as an art form..

The most magical thing about programming, in my view, is the ability to create something that surprises you.

In any art form, I think a key part of the enjoyment that an artist gets from working, is creating something, pulling something out of oneself that surprises the artist.  Sometimes you hear writers talk about getting in the zone of writing fiction and they are writing dialogue because they can't wait to hear what the character will say.

In programming, you are always sort of walking the line between knowing what the program will do at each step, but still being surprised at how the entire thing works as a complete system -- and seeing how this creation can be used to do larger things.

I think that's part of why so many computer programmer's get their start writing games as a hobby -- think of how wonderful it is to be able to create something -- to write a program -- to know every single rule -- but then still not know how to evade the monster or conquer the last level in the dungeon, or land your ship on the planet surface, because of all the emergent interactions of all the different pieces.

It is a lot like playing god -- being able to create whatever you can think of -- but still have it be autonomous enough to surprise and delight you.
20847
Screenshot Captor / Re: Process annoyance
« Last post by mouser on January 26, 2009, 10:45 PM »
if there are a lot of images in the screenshot directory it can delay things -- maybe try moving some of your screenshots into subfolders every once in a while..  i've been meaning to improve the thumbnail speed for a while now and it's still something i plan to do.

Regarding your clipboard text naming.. its not a bad idea for a feature.
Once thing you can do which might be good enough for you is that you can paste the clipboard text in the name field of the screenshot and hit enter, and that will rename the image file.  That's pretty fast.

If you really needed to do a lot of captures where you always used clipboard text.. an easier thing for me to do might be to add such a function to MiniCap.
20848
Screenshot Captor / Re: "Object Editing Mode" bug
« Last post by mouser on January 26, 2009, 10:41 PM »
very strange about the flyout.. i'll look into it.. do you have multiple monitors maybe?

I have a query about the .object files it creates. I am not sure how to delete these from the gui.
  • when you delete a screenshot it will delete the .object file for you.
  • you can also go to last tab of preferences dialog and tell it to remove all orphaned .object files immediately if you happen to have deleted some screenshots outside of screenshot captor.
20849
Find And Run Robot / Re: Windows cannot find "Blah-blah". Make sure you typed the name correctly and ...
« Last post by mouser on January 26, 2009, 10:38 PM »
That is really strange.. does it only happen with that one shortcut, Live Messenger?
If you start the shortcut manually from your start menu, does it work?  The screenshot lists the program directory in the "Out of Business" folder, so it makes me think maybe the shortcut itself is nonfunctional.
20850
Living Room / Re: Do programmers not listen enough? (A question regarding marketing)
« Last post by mouser on January 26, 2009, 09:05 PM »
I think it's a great point.. and there is probably a lot of truth in it.

And in fact I am a believer that at a certain point giving someone too many choices results in overload and is counter productive.

On the other hand, I think one could make a strong case that "Apple Logic" results in the marketing approach that basically relies on irrational brand worship to convince a large group of consumers that a certain product is a perfect match for them.

In other words, if you are a car manufacturer and you have 100 types of cars, you can take an approach of trying to help the customer find the car that's right for them.  If you sell only one car, your marketing strategy basically has to be: This is the perfect car for everyone, stats and features be damned.  And I think apple engages in a lot of that type of marketing, and it has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Just as an example of something really clever that i've seen apple doing is in selling a computer, they will run an entire commercial showing how someone can burn a cd of their music and give it to their friends, etc.  Now it doesnt matter that you can get a nice cd burning program for any computer -- the point is not to tout any unique or special features of the computer being sold, the point is to convince the consumer that if burning cds is something you want to do, you should get an apple pc.  I just find it weird.. Personally i'd rather read about unique features and specs and they can keep their logo and round one button mouse.

[again im not knocking everything that apple does at all -- they do a LOT of things right.  it's just that while i think their marketing department is very successful -- it's not something i would look up to or admire]
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