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2101
General Software Discussion / Re: Songbird
« Last post by Lashiec on June 28, 2007, 11:34 AM »
It was when I tried it, that was on version 0.2. Have in mind that I also used my old Win98 SE computer, which was under the minimum requirements. I'll test it again on the new one when I have some time, but I feel there would not be many differences.

Essentially, it's trying to compete against iTunes and now Windows Media Player (I was playing with it yesterday, and it left me very impressed). That's tough, and the software it's still at a very early phase. Once it blooms it could be very late for it to make some noise.

Anyway, I don't really like these kind of integrated media players, they end becoming very big, and you only want something to play music, not an entire new SO running inside another. If someone could come up with some new system akin to the iTMS and approved by the W3C (and thus with great possibilities of being integrated in major browsers) that you could integrate easily with your player of choice, it would be really great. The other way around you're trying to reinvent the wheel once and once again, and this solution could be faster to develop, implement and maintain. Of course, you'll need a single sign-on system (utopian right now), dialogue between record houses and software companies (unlikely) and no DRM (EMI started it, let's see if the others follow).

Bah, dreaming is cheap. Going back to your problem, have you looked at the Squeezebox?. I think it's a quite neat solution for home. If you want to connect to your home network without being at home, that's an entirely different story. I can only think in a portable player in that case.
2102
General Software Discussion / Re: Software to AVOID!
« Last post by Lashiec on June 28, 2007, 08:55 AM »
Good grief, Zaine! I'm a fan of white lists over black lists, so that's why I keep a list of the software I tried and liked, perhaps to do a "The Great Software List" on steroids spinoff, but I constantly rule out bad software of my mind. I try to remember something but...

OK, I remembered something. First, CodeSector, Nighted could give you some reasons why :)

Second, talking about slick UIs, most companies doing these all-in-one optimizing suites should be avoided, including PC Tools (you could avoid Spyware Doctor if you wish as well) and Iolo (though I haven't tested System Mechanic since version 5). Most behave exactly the same, and they keep cleaning the wrong sections over and over again.
2103
That's sweet, nudone
2104
Find And Run Robot / Re: Custom Font Settings for FARR
« Last post by Lashiec on June 27, 2007, 01:36 PM »
Nifty! As jgpaiva says, a new icon for "Help" and the other ones too :P
2105
Living Room / Re: Visual history of Apple, 1976-2007
« Last post by Lashiec on June 27, 2007, 08:59 AM »
What it's clear is that before 1997, Apple didn't care too much about aesthetics. And they had Steve Jobs for some time. NeXT probably inspired something onto Jobs when he came back to Apple. That, and giving a job to Jonathan Ive.
2106
General Software Discussion / Re: Songbird
« Last post by Lashiec on June 27, 2007, 08:43 AM »
No, no, Songbird didn't start under the Mozilla umbrella, it was always developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable. I suppose the Mozilla Foundation gave some funding to this tiny group sometime in their history, just like they did recently with Democracy Player, but so far the only relationship they have is the usage of XULRunner and Bugzilla on Songbird's part, which inevitably leads to some collaboration between the two parts.

For your own interest, some information about the group, and some other about their investors. Essentially they are funded by THE venture capital, as Sequoia Capital also invested in Google and YouTube, among others. It's amazing how the companies mix relationships as the Mozilla Foundation is primarily living on Google's money.

As Carol says, it's free and open source. The only problem is that it's a crappy app, but that's another story ;)
2107
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: mklink gui (symbolic links)
« Last post by Lashiec on June 27, 2007, 08:28 AM »
Of course not! ;D

But the tool mentioned in the article is interesting. Thanks for the link!
2108
Frankly, the only idea that nothing like xplorer² or the other file managers exists under Linux gives me the creeps. But the idea of installing and uninstalling apps without worrying about leaving debris always amazed me.

I think that besides the idiosyncrasy in some Linux software and the lack of alternatives in certain type of software, the only thing I would find disturbing is that a piece of software is not in the repository, you have to compile it yourself for your own distribution, because there's nothing like one size fits all like in Windows (with caveats, though). On the other hand, that's pretty much impossible.

I wonder, if Linux rose to great presence in desktop computers overnight (say a 15% market share), would it be possible to maintain such huge repositories in most distributions?
2109
General Software Discussion / Re: Songbird
« Last post by Lashiec on June 26, 2007, 02:08 PM »
Well, Firefox is also open source, but you can consider the Mozilla Foundation an startup of some sorts. Songbird is more or less the same, the source code is available, but since the beginning it was developed by this group, which, obviously, received money from someone. Not sure who, but projects like this don't get developed for free. People have to eat :)

Carol: I tried it some time ago.

EDIT: D'oh! App? What App? There's no App in this thread! :-[
2110
Living Room / Re: "Decrapify" your PC
« Last post by Lashiec on June 26, 2007, 01:15 PM »
Good software. For all the people buying Dell and similar it's an excellent tool.

Glad I buy computers in parts!
2111
Living Room / Re: Humorous, perhaps informative, article on forum trolls
« Last post by Lashiec on June 26, 2007, 01:10 PM »
Darn, I wish I didn't click that link. My eyes! They hurt!

He began every sentence with an uppercase letter and ended it with a period...and used perfect grammar and spelling...in a chatroom! (this is an odd thing to do)

Hey, that's me! :)
2112
What happens? Well, the relation between Program B and C gets messed up due to Total Uninstall action. That's a side effect of using the program, and it's mentioned in its help file. But don't worry, most of the times this is something related to a program stealing the file extensions of another one, and this is easily fixed in the "Preferences" panel of most programs.

Not to bash Access, but I thought it was a bit massive to take care of this issue. Totally agree in the quick environment.

Well, it seems that the rest of the members use the computer as a dumping ground ;D
2113
Vista Start Menu have some good ideas... but nothing you can't achieve with FARR.

I think that doing things the old way its preferrable. The online database could be a good solution, but then there's the problem that mitzevo suggests, which incidentally is the problem most music databases face (except for All Music Guide).

As for myself, the menu is well organized, with submenus like "Development", "Multimedia" and so on. Even without that organization, unless you have a lot of programs under the "Start" button, the issue is not that big considering the resolution of nowadays monitors.

FARR and AutoHotkey killed the Start (lame joke).
2114
There are programs like Total Uninstall that do exactly what you're achieving with FirstDefense and *gasp* Access. I'm using that, and it's the first thing I install after the SO. jv16 PowerTools Software and Registry Manager are also there to help.
2115
Carol is speaking the truth, and if you want to go Dual Channel is even more important.
2116
I personally combine xplorer², FARR and a bit of "Run" dialog. But I'm proud of my Start Menu organization, so I could live with it.
2117
4 persons with more than 350 programs????

To the crazy guys there (yes, App and Curt), do you really need that amount of software?

I myself have around 115 programs or something. I've got a text list with the all programs I have installed, and in installation order, for when I have to reinstall something. And that's including software without installation routines.

EDIT: Number of programs corrected
2118
So, is that paid for, or is it just stealing?

I'm curious. Not bringing judgement here.

Depending on the country you live. The MP3 algorithm is not patented in every country, so you can use it without worrying about the Fraunhoffer/Thomson/Alcatel/Lucent lawyers coming after you. What are the countries? I don't know, but so far no one sued individuals, so...
2119
So this was the extramegasuper secret DonationCoder game... or you have another one under wraps.

I could especially use the help of those with artistic abilities, musical/sound effect abilities, and website design.

Artistic abilities? Nah. Musical/sound effects abilities? Nah (unless you're talking about constructive criticism). Website design? Nah, but I know how to use Composer. Donations? Probably... I could be a tester if you need one, though.
2120
Living Room / Re: Is it me, or is the internet getting S L O W E R ?
« Last post by Lashiec on June 15, 2007, 06:05 AM »
Darwin: don't worry, more than 8cm is overkill anyway :eusa_dance:

"Houston, we have a problem"

I'll be calling my friends in the RIAA and similar mafia organizations to ask them to take down every torrent site ;)

Ars Technica reported yesterday that antispam group were under DDoS attacks, today the FBI says that the botnets control 1 million computers... The truth is that I'm using a T1 connection, and half an hour ago I had problems loading mouser's avatar in the post about the FARR plugin contest. Go figure.
2121
 :wallbash:

Exams! Finish already! I have to code for the mug!

EDIT: I'm wondering... do you keep a list of the people that entered the contest? I'm asking that because it could happen that two persons would end coding a plugin for the same task.
2122
Darwin - I think my city has the European record in temperature. Forget about southern Spain, I live in the north and we have been "enjoying" a temperature like 40 ºC or something... in summer, though. That's what I said "hotter places"... Belgium is like the North Pole to me ;D

But who knows? We're in the middle of June and it's been raining like in winter :huh:

Zaine - OK, here it goes. I hope I remember everything!

Fedora, Freespire, Gentoo, Knoppix, Mandriva, MEPIS, OpenSuSE, Pardus Linux, PCLinuxOS, Slackware, Trisquel (and derivatives), Ubuntu (and derivatives), Yellow Dog Linux and Xandros

I think I miss one or two, but as you see I'm considering quite a few options, although most of them come from the same pack of roots. I didn't list Debian, also, because I think that all its forks are quite nice by themselves. Probably I'll test all of them under a virtual machine (Virtual Box?), I don't feel like repartitioning and reinstalling so many distros.

By the way, thanks for the PolishLinux page. Very informative and well designed.

EDIT: Clarification for enjoying
2123
As I’ve said multiple times, Microsoft has every right in the universe to have its own formats

Microsoft does not have absolutely ANY rights to have their own formats, unless they document them properly and with all the needed information for implementation available to third parties free of charge. In computers, de facto standards tend to be bigger than ISO standards, and Microsoft likes to make de facto standards (look at all the "old" Office formats). ISO standards are only important to governments and maybe big companies. For the regular user it's of no interest. After all, what are the ISO approved measures and date formats, and what is USA using (that's a true lock :))?

The issue is that individual users are not getting locked, most of them don't care about format interoperability or software migration. The only ones trapped in this vicious circle are companies, because they have to keep all their information accessible and, of course, users like us who chose the open solution.

This last part is important. My friends don't feel locked in by using Office, but I feel trapped when using OpenOffice. It's a very depressing state. I can access every file in multiple applications, but almost no one can access my files in his/her computer. This is always pissing me off, and I keep a copy of Office 2000 around just if I need it for some work for the university. Fortunately, you can always create a PDF of your work, but if you have to do a presentation, you're out of luck.

Microsoft is playing a very dangerous game here. Not only they're preventing companies from going to better? pastures, but is also keeping everyone from free interchange of information. Considering that computers are essentially based in this principle this day, they're getting out of fashion and directing themselves towards darker times with this attitude. And just for avoiding a theoretical loss of market share.

You suggest a solution: choose OpenOffice. You really know that this is not going to happen. I recommended everyone to try it, and after a week as much, they went back to Office. You can't blame them. Whatever people says, Office is still clearly (I'll get flamed...) superior to the OSS offering, and 2007 only makes this more evident (it's a very tasty piece of code).

I propose another solution: Microsoft employees, if you're hearing me, STOP THE CRAP. Yeah, you hear me right. You lost many hours of work just to create a dysfunctional format that is no much better than the previous one. Turn the back on your employers. Implement ODF as a default in the next Service Pack. Make the free readers capable of viewing ODF as well. Microsoft is going to win ultimately, because you have the best solution right now. Locking people this way like it's the Middle Ages is wrong. You make software that works and that's IMHO the thing that is keeping everyone with Microsoft. Look at all the Vista bashing, and all the "OMG! I'm going to Linux!" "Holy crap, I'm buying a Mac!". Right now the only one trying to make the switch is Zaine (BTW, I'll be witnessing the experience with attention).

Also, a plea to Sun Microsystems and the OpenOffice community: for the love of God, fix the application to load like Office does: fast and lean. Please. Oh, and in the meantime, it'll be a good solution 'til Microsoft delivers the Service Pack (because you're going to do that ;)) to make a multi platform reader for ODF. Promote it like hell. And ODF will win in the end.

In these days, when more and more devices are working with each other, open and well designed formats are mandatory for a better experience. Instead of ruling like software dictators, do your best to make use of good, interoperable and already designed (if there are any) formats, and focus yourself instead of good software design. People will stay with you and you'll get a clean conscience by allowing everyone to quickly adapt to different software without hassle, and ensuring that anyone can access the information with independence of the application they're using. Don't pay attention to analysts, greedy executives and lawyers. They're only in the for the money. OK, everyone is in for the money, but you get the picture.

Uhm, the last paragraph looks as it was written by the fella who began this thread... Well, long rant as always. At least I expect it to be of some interest :)
2124
If you see my list of Linux distributions, you'll faint instantly. I have like 15 or something that I want to try.

During the summer, I'll be celebrating the first Linux Distribution Contest (LDC) to see what's the perfect Linux distribution for my needs and interests. If you were traveling to hotter countries than Belgium we could celebrate it in the meeting ;D

</shameless plug>
2125
General Software Discussion / Re: how to reduce pagefile usage?
« Last post by Lashiec on June 05, 2007, 06:19 AM »
Like f0dder like to mention, any unused memory is wasted memory.

If you're still in Spain, in shops like PC Box they're selling 1 GB DDR2 667 modules for a bit more than 30 €. Of course, if your mainboard doesn't accept it, you're out of luck :)

i have only 1gb of ram, after i turn the pagefile off i find the computer more responsive.

If he's hitting the limit, I bet that if he does this, he'll be seeing a lot of BSODs
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