Recent Posts

2151

Living Room / Re: How do I test router vs. Internet connection?

« Last post by Shades on November 05, 2010, 05:10 PM »

This problem calls for the elimination game.

Normally you connect your laptop straight to the ADSL or cable modem in your house and work like that for a while. Most modern laptops come with LAN (RJ45) connectors, so this should not be to hard to do.

If the connection remains bad, it is your connection and else it is your router. Find this out first so you can get a clearer idea from where to go next.

2152

General Software Discussion / Re: Printable weekly calendar app?

« Last post by Shades on November 04, 2010, 04:29 PM »

Try the calendar function of the lightning plugin for Thunderbird 3 email client.

2153

Developer's Corner / Re: Diff before commit

« Last post by Shades on November 04, 2010, 08:56 AM »

For me 'Diff before commit' is THE golden rule, with the 'Commit often' rule a very close second.

It is definitely not a waste of time, because you will lose a lot more time when reviewing bigger pieces from other developers and how their changes will affect yours.

You can use 'lazy methods' for coding...never for committing!

2154

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by Shades on November 03, 2010, 07:45 PM »

The

Not to mention that frozen sausages are hell to sharpen!

-cranioscopical (November 03, 2010, 06:59 PM)

not half so difficult as their unfrozen brethren (don't ask me how I know that...)

-Target (November 03, 2010, 07:23 PM)

then you should have turned them anti-clockwise (and don't worry, I will not tell how I know this either...)

2155

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Toggle mouse acceleration with a simple program

« Last post by Shades on November 03, 2010, 05:00 PM »

Hey, if they can go go from the moon called Europa to this planet for 7.5o euro, then why is the Europe Space Agency not the reeking in the profits from inter-planetary trade and/or resources?

 

2156

Living Room / Re: Post Your Funny Videos Here [NSFW]

« Last post by Shades on October 31, 2010, 01:59 AM »

It seems cassetteboy was pimping the people from the den...

2157

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYplorer Lifetime License 51% discount on BitsDuJour

« Last post by Shades on October 31, 2010, 01:38 AM »

First of all, let me say that I did a test drive with this software once and if it wasn't for DOpus, this one would have won the title of my best file-manager.

XYPlorer is a well known name in file-manager land...but let's be honest, it isn't much of a name. I understand the need for change. FleXYfile is more descriptive and still has the XY reference, but that doesn't mean that it is a good name.

Unfortunately I cannot come up with a better name that includes the XY reference...at least not at this time of night (it's about 04:00 at the time of writing)

2158

Living Room / Re: Ideas for christmas geek presents

« Last post by Shades on October 31, 2010, 01:14 AM »

I have been trying to think what the moderately geeky person would like for christmas:

There is the inevitable USB Mug Warmer:
 (see attachment in previous post)

-Carol Haynes (October 30, 2010, 12:06 PM)

I'd love something like that, but I don't think they make one big enough for my tea mug. 
 (see attachment in previous post)
my tea mug next to a large NANY mug for size comparison

-app103 (October 30, 2010, 08:43 PM)

It's a mug, it's a barrel....it's a murrel!

Maybe you have German ancestry...

2159

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me come up with a Windows XP-->Windows 7 transition strategy.

« Last post by Shades on October 30, 2010, 01:08 PM »

Are you the only user on the system or do you share it with people?

Only in case that you are the only one using the PC, you could jump to use portable versions of the software you like. That way it is a plain and simple copy of one OS to another to do the trick. Yes it is that simple. Most if not all your preferences are copied as well so you already gain a lot of time by not installing and configuring your software tools.

2160

Living Room / Re: win 7 laptop can't connect to xp desktop via wifi

« Last post by Shades on October 28, 2010, 10:29 PM »

If the problem still persists change the following in the Windows 7 PC:
In the advanced settings you can change the encryption. By default the Windows 7 PC uses the new and shiny 128-bits format to encrypt traffic. Windows XP networks use 40-bits/56-bits encryption.

This means that both computers can talk to each other but there is not much communication going on...unless you change the setting in the Windows 7 PC. I did that here in my network and the method really works.

And while you are at it...please kill the Homegroup services. Not only does networking revert back to the XP way of doing things, it actually becomes noticeably faster (between 10-15%).

Homegroup networking functionality only plays nice when you have a Windows 7 only network. And if you are slightly knowledgeable regarding Windows networking, do yourself a favor and disable it. NOW!

It is a miserable mess that Microsoft created...

2161

Screenshot Captor / Re: reduced image clarity on MS word

« Last post by Shades on October 26, 2010, 05:26 PM »

This is a Word related "problem".

Take a screenshot with screenshcot captor.
Add the desired effect and store it (on disk or in the clipboard).
import the screenshot in a new Word document.
Store the document using 'save as', select the format 'Full web page (html)'.
Go to the storage location and check the folder that has the same name as your document.
Inside this folder you will find 2 images, one that is shown in Word and the other is the original.

Now guess which one is the blurry image.


I don't know why Word does this or how to disable it, but I tell you that Word is the culprit and not ScreenshotCaptor.

2162

Living Room / Re: Just when you thought all the good ideas were taken!

« Last post by Shades on October 24, 2010, 07:17 PM »

But the above post is based on this one:


Actually, it might fit in the toilets from some contributors in another DC thread....

2163

Living Room / Re: Welcome to Hell... iHell that is...

« Last post by Shades on October 24, 2010, 07:07 PM »

@Fodder:
Every time I see 'Server' in the name of any Microsoft product, I get a headache. Not only do the installation method and installer change per version, their dependencies and the correct order in which these have to be installed (BizzTalk, Exchange 2k7 on Win2008), make me clench the aspirins again...after all the banging head against the wall.

Side note:
One can buy the 1000 milligram pill in sets of ten here at supermarkets for about 1 euro (no placebos), while in Holland you need a doctors prescription to get any aspirin above 500 milligram at licensed drug stores and it costs significantly more.

2164

Living Room / Re: Just when you thought all the good ideas were taken!

« Last post by Shades on October 24, 2010, 05:47 PM »

How about these ones?

2165

Living Room / Re: Just when you thought all the good ideas were taken!

« Last post by Shades on October 24, 2010, 04:21 PM »

Now I believe that the IEEE organization is proposing to use connectors based on the RJ-45 plug (the LAN plug, if you will) for practically all things related to PC. So that is already a step in the direction you desire.

@Renegade:
Regarding the 'Best before' and 'Manufactured on' date...it depends on the product. Things that have a long shelf life have the 'Best before' date labeled onto them, while the items with a short shelf life have the 'Manufactured on' date.

At least that is how it was explained to me when I was spending my childhood in the Netherlands. Maybe it is different in your neck of the woods, but I don't think so...because all our food is controlled by only a few food companies (Unilever, Nestle, Philip Morris etc.) and they don't change things.

2166

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Shades on October 20, 2010, 05:26 PM »

I assume that a claw-suite is not something that cranioscopical would like...

2167

Living Room / Re: Hidden Taxes... ever considered these?

« Last post by Shades on October 19, 2010, 04:18 PM »

In the Netherlands (when I was doing my bit in the service) the post that went to our men and women overseas was free, the national (but commercial) postal service took care of that, even if that had to go through other countries postal services. That was a nice gesture from them.

But for all other post that had to go to non-military places a special machine had to be used to "stamp" the post. And those were very costly, not because of the machinery, but for the money they were allowed to stamp. I believe it was for the machine in the relatively small army base (on average 3000 people) where I was posted, about 60.000 euro's annually.

2168

Living Room / Re: Google testing cars that drive themselves...

« Last post by Shades on October 19, 2010, 02:20 PM »

I believe it was Ryan Air (or other 'price-fighter') who wants to get rid of the co-pilot, because the auto-landing systems on passenger airplanes are so reliable and quite sophisticated.

Granted, a car requires a lot more sophistication because of the nature of traffic it is used in. But I would not mind having one of those auto-piloted cars...especially in the congested traffic hours!

2169

General Software Discussion / Re: What do you use to warn you of disk limits being reached?

« Last post by Shades on October 18, 2010, 05:15 PM »

Prism HUD.

Portable freeware with a lot of monitoring functions.

When any action from the PC it is running happens, it triggers the software and at that moment a (transparent) item shows up in a designated area of your screen(s) which tells you how much of the associated resources are consumed.

It is very effective and not too intrusive.

2170

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: Mouser App - Webcam Diary

« Last post by Shades on October 11, 2010, 05:38 PM »

...the voice of Majel Barret-Roddenberry, together with the communicator to enter diary entries...

2171

Living Room / Re: How much soda (pop) do you drink?

« Last post by Shades on October 11, 2010, 09:40 AM »

@Renegade:

Look here for the rich people version of the terere/mate cup (guampa) and straw (bombilla) (scroll to the bottom).

The specialist:


The common ones:

2172

Living Room / Re: How much soda (pop) do you drink?

« Last post by Shades on October 10, 2010, 12:08 PM »

Since I am dating my girlfriend I just drink water and eat healthier smaller portions, dropping 20 kilos after 8 months.

Everybody in the South Americas is acquainted with Tereré (cold) or Maté (hot). Both are a mix of (medicinal) herbs for taste and water (cold in summer, hot in winter).

The herbs go into a special cup, which is in turn filled up with water. A special kind of metal/silver straw with filter is then used to drink the water. Very healthy. Maybe NYC should lobby to get this stuff to the United States.

2173

General Software Discussion / Re: Quickest way to copy files from a surface-damaged HDD

« Last post by Shades on October 09, 2010, 11:34 PM »

While recovering data from my damaged HD (with Exchange server on it) to a new one I used the most recent unstoppable copier at the time (some 6 months ago).

It has a setting with which you can set the retry/repair level. Put it down to the lowest one and files with errors are practically skipped when encountered. At least it was working like that for me.

2174

General Software Discussion / Re: customize save-as dialog boxes

« Last post by Shades on October 08, 2010, 08:54 PM »

If you are feeling up to it you can edit the registry, see this link.

The above link will lead you to a MSDN page where the section 'Places' (slightly below the middle) will be very interesting regarding the specification of preferred folders, their order and amount. Practically all what you asked for in your post.

Mind you, not all dialog boxes are created equal, so mileage can/will vary. 

-Shades (October 08, 2010, 05:56 PM)

oooh, didnt know that.


In one of the many related threads here, someone (Darwin?) said that the only app that can change the folders on the left-hand-side is Object Dock (plus) - but dont buy it on that recommendation.

I always wanted that ability but didnt consider it worth 20$ so might have a look at Shades's recommendation

I use Filebox Extender (on XP) and am happy with it.
But I dont think it can "specify default folders for specific extensions"

-tomos (October 08, 2010, 05:58 PM)

You can, I use the method myself and it works well. However realize that these links will be 'hard-coded', so use with care if you still want 'places' that are configured by the application in question.

2175

Developer's Corner / Re: The Inversion of the Open Source - Big Corporation Divide?

« Last post by Shades on October 08, 2010, 08:02 PM »

Same here from South America, no "love" from lulu (a common short for girls named Luana over here).