Recent Posts

2126

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by nudone on February 26, 2007, 01:34 AM »

thanks, AdIyhc, i'll give Blink a try.

2127

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 06:19 PM »

i'm now using the free version of agnitum outpost v1.

i think it does enough for what i wanted, i.e. do i want to let this program access the internet - yes/no, click.

2128

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 02:45 PM »

The subscription is only for upgrades - when it runs out after a year, you can't install newer versions published after that date. The program itsel'f doesn't expire. So instead of making you pay for each major version upgrade, they charge for upgrades once a year.

right, i will have to look for it and install it then. thanks for that.

2129

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 02:05 PM »

right, no outpost 3.5 for me then.

so, i'm back to the windows firewall and router too. i'd still like something that just gave me a little message to say such and such program is trying to access the net.

2130

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista Start Menu Search gets more FARRified

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 02:01 PM »

when are microsoft going to put an offer in for farr?

and will mouser accept it?

2131

Living Room / Re: Blog Essay: You Want a 10,000 RPM Boot Drive

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 01:57 PM »

nudone kicks his raid 0 raptors 

2132

General Software Discussion / Re: batch create image contact sheet from videofiles?

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 01:56 PM »

that's kind of a cool program - Image Grabber II.

2133

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 01:54 PM »

i think i had outpost 3.5, it might have been a bit of an earlier version i can't remember now.

I can't really remember either if i stopped using it because my subscription ran out (does it run out, i can't remember) or there was something it did that didn't agree with my machine.

if it i stopped using it because of the cost then i must have just thought, hey, zone alarm is free i'll go back to using that. zone alarm is the one i've used over the years more than anything else - simply because i'll use freeware and then i know what i'm talking about when i recommend it to other people that i know aren't going to pay for a firewall (same applies with anti-virus).

so, i could dig out the version of outpost i have and see if it works - or doesn't do something weird with my machine.

i get the feeling there is something not quite right with my current system setup but after all the trouble i had recently trying to install a dual boot kind of machine i'm not in a hurry to wipe this present system and start again.

i'm now going to have a look for my outpost - maybe i'll just go and buy vista - i see it's got out bound firewall blocking (if you turn it on). yeah, right, like i'd waste my money on that turkey.

edit:
i shouldn't have said it was a turkey, i know i'll end up using it eventually. i should have said now i see why it is so much better than xp - out bound firewall blocking.

2134

General Software Discussion / Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by nudone on February 25, 2007, 11:13 AM »

zone alarm sometimes give up on me - usually only if the machine has been on for more than 24 hours. i can live with this but it's a little annoying.

that Comodo thing works even less on my machine.

so, i thought i'd have a go with Ashampoo's free firewall. looked okay at first but then i found that my non pop3 email accounts wouldn't connect when using MS Outlook.

funny how Ashampoo's rule is to allow full access for outlook in and out.

do i want to know the solution, can i really be bothered. absolutely not. i've just uninstalled it and Outlook is working fine again.

will i go back to Zone Alarm, will i go back to Outpost? nah, i think i'll just not bother with a firewall (again). f0dder, gave me good reason not to believe in them, yet i keep looking for one that might work.

is there nothing that will simply monitor outbound connections and let me block them if i want to - how big a task is that?

2135

General Software Discussion / Re: correction of distorted grid in image ??

« Last post by nudone on February 24, 2007, 03:50 PM »

hmm, that looks like i nightmare to correct perfectly.

if you can get away with it i think i'd try using a fresh perfect grid and then overlay the stones over the top of it - using something like photoshop that allows using layers and the usual blending and opacity features. this would look okay with the right amount of time spent on it but it wouldn't be an automatic one click process - so it's not really the solution you are looking for. it really depends on how much manual input you want to use.

2136

General Software Discussion / Re: correction of distorted grid in image ??

« Last post by nudone on February 24, 2007, 08:26 AM »

have you got an example image that we can experiment with - there might be a solution but it requires a bit of serendipity to find it.

2137

General Software Discussion / Re: SKETCHR-Draw Online,export to desktop

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 03:04 PM »

pretty good. i wonder if it will become more advanced?

2138

Official Announcements / Re: wtfcody.com - Cody now has a home not just an address.

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 03:02 PM »

thanks, tinyvillager. it seems to have taken forever to make wtfcody.com - it was one of the first things i was meant to do during the DC GTD experiment. oh well, better late than never.

2139

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 02:50 PM »

ivanv, would you mind describing a little more about Extensis Portfolio, i.e. what are the differences between it and Picassa for example. i don't fully understand what a catalogue program does but i'd like to as it might be something i need. i thought ext portfolio would be something i'd use as it supports illustrator files (not particularly well i have to say). my 'projects' contain illustrator and all the usual pixel based files - so i'd like to be able to manage them altogether (i use adobe bridge for such things at the moment).

i appreciate what i do might just not be right for Portfolio but i hope you can reveal a bit more about the program.

2140

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 12:55 PM »

i thought i'd try the demo of Extensis Portfolio after reading the comment by ivanv. i uninstalled it after about 10 minutes. i always seem to forget that i've tried portfolio several times in the past - i always remove it and then just wonder what it's meant to do that's better than a typical image file manager.

i guess i'm just not professional enough to use it's features. what i can see looks very limited.

i'd like to hear what you thoughts are if you try the demo, Darwin.

2141

Official Announcements / Re: wtfcody.com - Cody now has a home not just an address.

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 08:49 AM »

ah, now that sounds better. Cody likes hiding behind things, which you may have noticed. 

2142

Official Announcements / Re: wtfcody.com - Cody now has a home not just an address.

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 07:56 AM »

i like that idea. i'd have to figure out how to do it though.

and by some strange coincidence it might not work with something i'm trying to do with the site right now regarding transparency.

maybe a variation on the idea will work.

2143

Official Announcements / Re: wtfcody.com - Cody now has a home not just an address.

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 07:20 AM »

i think the idea must have got lost during getting the site ready. i was going to have an obvious DonationCoder.com banner but it someone didn't end up on the final site - it was there up to the very last minute.

what are the suggestions for the banner?

my original design had the DC banner at the bottom of each page - the banner resembled a hanging picture frame. This may not be the best idea.

I can make the top banner a link somehow or there can be some other obvious DC link.

Ideas?

2144

Official Announcements / Re: wtfcody.com - Cody now has a home not just an address.

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 06:51 AM »

thanks, Carol.

wtf might stand for the obvious - or it might not - it's entirely up to the reader to decide. there is a little more explanation in the FAQ section of the site.

2145

Living Room / Re: Apologese - I will be offline for a while ...

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 06:48 AM »

i wouldn't trust them again. what you do beyond that i can only refer to previous advice.

maybe you could give it away as a prize for something?

2146

Living Room / Re: cost of running a pc (in the UK)?

« Last post by nudone on February 23, 2007, 02:51 AM »

right. i plugged the meter directly into the electrical wall socket.

i then plugged the extension sockets into the meter.

the wattage reading on the meter is zero when the extension socket on/off switches are set to 'off'.

i soon as i turn something on on the extension then the wattage reading goes up. when i flick the switch off on the extension the reading goes back to zero.

having said this, there must be a miniscule amount of current being used even when the extension switches are 'off' as there are two LEDs that are lit up on the extension socket casing. These obviously go off when you flick the wall socket to off.

2147

Developer's Corner / Re: Introductory C# web-based tutorials

« Last post by nudone on February 22, 2007, 03:02 PM »

i wouldn't know what's best. i'm used to following lynda.com, vtc and total training (and others) videos - which are all very good. but the ones that www.3DBuzz.com produce have always been the most entertaining as they do a kind of question and answer running dialogue. i'm not suggesting you go that far - i'm just one of the people that doesn't mind downloading larger vids with audio inside.

maybe you should have a poll to see if anyone really wants audio. like you said, no point doing it and using bandwidth if audio isn't that expected.

(i still think audio makes all the difference  )

2148

Living Room / Re: cost of running a pc (in the UK)?

« Last post by nudone on February 22, 2007, 02:16 PM »

yep, i've got one of those mice that stays 'on' when the power is 'off'. in other words the pc isn't really 'off'. but it's a ps2 connection not a usb.

it really is a bizarre trend that 'hard off' buttons are nolonger being manufactured - are 'traditional' on/off buttons that likely to fail that they we can't have them anymore.

this new LCD monitor i use doesn't even have any buttons you can see - it's a touch sensitive panel. all very flash and i thought nothing of it. then one night i noticed a slight buzzing sound in the room - surprise, surprise - it was the monitor. it looked like it was off but (no LED lit) the humming sound coming from it means this is yet another device that never turns off unless you yank it from the wall. complety and utterly pointless.

i've suspected this 'never off' syndrome for a while so i have several multi socket thingies that have their own on/off switches for each socket. it makes it a lot easier to control what's on/off then as you don't have to physically pull the plug - just flick the switch.

2149

Developer's Corner / Re: Introductory C# web-based tutorials

« Last post by nudone on February 22, 2007, 01:24 PM »

fantastic.

i shall view them them properly when time permits - and hopefully learn a bit of C#. i thought i'd miss the voiceover but i like how you've put it all together (if it's ever possible to do a 'talky' version in future then please do as it always seems more instructive to hear the tutor).

these really do look great to me. i hope they'll be up on DC soon.

2150

Living Room / Re: cost of running a pc (in the UK)?

« Last post by nudone on February 22, 2007, 01:04 PM »

well they are old machines. can't remember exactly but the monitor must be 10 years old. maybe that explains it??? it was a high quality monitor at the time i bought it.

i've just remembered something about the older pc - i think i've got a midi keyboard plugged into it - that could possibly be drawing power. i know it did something weird regarding power but i can't remember what it is now. but that wouldn't excuse the monitor doing what it does.