Recent Posts

2226

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 05:57 AM »

This is about someone with a smattering of experience getting into it in greater depth.  Since the OP has some Visual Studio and seems to be focused on the Windows platform it may be most effective to go with one of those supported by that IDE.  As far as VC++ Gui stuff I hesitate to swim those waters as the C++ produced for the event handling of the Gui is real spaghetti.  So we seem to be left with C#.

If the learning is going to stop at a specific task or 2 then it seems problem solved.  But for a more portable outlook something that exists nearly everywhere, like some C(++) compiler variant, may not be a bad idea.  C# one learns the framework and what can be done with it.  More portable is the standard libraries that come with C++.

For self-immolation, or foot chopping, I recommend using plenty of Lamda expressions and threads. 

2227

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 04:38 PM »

I'm not following. There is no "automatically install" option. There are no GPS or touch screen options. I'm trying to boot to the disk image. I get the BSOD before it even gets that far.

-Deozaan (March 31, 2015, 04:24 PM)

I get you now.  Different can of worms.

2228

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 03:57 PM »

^^ have you tried turning off automatically install and just play until you turn off all the touch screen services stuff?  There was a post on Ten Forums helped me to get going.  It suggested turning off the services you don't use on a desktop such as touch screen and a couple of others. Maybe the GPS service?  I forget the ones other than Touch at the moment.

Edit: I'm not sure if that works.  My memory is a bit hazy exactly when I disabled the services.

2229

General Software Discussion / Re: MxNitro Browser

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 03:49 PM »

Hi,
I have "adopted" MxNitro on my LenovoG505 (slow machine) and it's the only browser where I can view Youtube contents without hiccups...  So speed is definitely a must for me, I don't care much for extensions.

-MerleOne (March 31, 2015, 03:11 PM)

I didn't think of that.  It might be worth a try watching some streaming vids.  Firefox is glacial on some sites getting the buffering when first starting the vid.

Edit: speak of the devil.  I just opened mxNitro and there's an update.

2230

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 02:45 PM »

Anyone want to chime in on Spartan?

-TaoPhoenix (March 31, 2015, 05:37 AM)

(see attachment in previous post)
Preview of Microsoft's Project Spartan available

-Arizona Hot (March 31, 2015, 02:29 PM)

One person on Ten Forums mentioned it. Nobody else knows how to get it except for running leaked builds such as 10014(that's fourteen not fortyone.)

2231

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 02:37 PM »

Innuendo: C++ is hard to get right, at least if you are about performance and correctness (and if you don't care about performance, I honestly believe there's better choices available for most purposes). Especially with all the really bad advice and examples around on the net - it might not be as cringeworthy and dangerous as the bad PHP advice, but it's still not easy to learn how to do modern, secure, and performing C++

-f0dder (March 31, 2015, 01:25 PM)

The advantage people learning now would have is that OOP is not this new foreign way of thinking about coding.  It's been around a long time.  There has to be a lot more working code to look at.  Back in the day mostly you heard about base classes like "animal"  or "shape" or "vehicle."  It took awhile to see what they were driving at.  

Edit: although I don't think it's the easiest to pick up as your first real heavy duty programming language.  I don't know how it would feel to delve into it with no C background.  But then I guess you could limit the facets you used and broaden your reach as you progressed.  Like doing "old C" using the "new C" compiler until you get your feet wet.

2232

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 07:49 AM »

A few companies are learning that "clever" ads like that could score well in the "viral culture". But a lot of times, especially in technology, ad placement algorithms scan for keywords and smash an ad onto the article. Hilarity ensues. Slashdot has experienced bunches of this because their content is fairly focused on the same twelve-ish categories of news. I tend not to see the ads because of adblocks, but usually when it happens someone posts a tinypic or something where a story is something like "Users concerned about security of the cloud in wake of Amazon cloud outage", and then the ad alg smashes "Amazon cloud services!!" onto it.

-TaoPhoenix (March 31, 2015, 06:38 AM)

I can see it.  Kind of like The Tonight Show standard bit where people supposedly send in newspaper clippings of ads with funny typos.  The thing with tracking I really find annoying is it seems as soon as I buy something online I get an email that I could have purchased the same item at 75% of the cost.  Like, now you tell me!  

Edit:  What I need is a predictive heuristic.  Like, I get an email "we know you are going to buy a 256 GB Lexar USB 3.0 for $150.  Stop!  We'll give it to you for $100 shipping included!"  

Sort of like a reverse auction.

2233

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 07:41 AM »

You could cheat and try dual booting to a .vhd for the 10 testing.

-Stoic Joker (March 31, 2015, 06:48 AM)

I don't want to take any chances doing anything I haven't done before.  This Laptop is all I have to work with for now.  I used to do a lot of multi-boot stuff on MBR systems but with UEFI and GPT my experience is obsoleted. 

One of these days I'll get a real workbench set up along with closets to pile, er, store, hardware not currently in use.

2234

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 05:50 AM »

Contextual advertising win? Or fail?
 (see attachment in previous post)

-app103 (March 30, 2015, 03:50 PM)

How many people would look up such a term?  There must also be a Latin term for the fear of hit counter remaining at zero in perpetuity.

2235

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 05:46 AM »

Lazy blurb taken from Slashdot:

"Today Microsoft released a new Technical Preview build for Windows 10. Its most notable addition is Microsoft's new browser: Project Spartan."

Anyone want to chime in on Spartan?

-TaoPhoenix (March 31, 2015, 05:37 AM)

I don't think I could give it a fair test in a VM.  Although I notice for some reason Windows x64 versions of Vista and W7 aren't all that slow in a VM on my Laptop.  But W10 I have to turn off a bunch of services to keep it from stalling.

I'll probably VM the new build today or tomorrow and take a look.

2236

General Software Discussion / Re: Notice on every shutdown? Norton WSC Integration may be culprit

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 05:42 AM »

A new machine == A new reinstalling of Windows in my book.

-Innuendo (March 30, 2015, 06:41 PM)

Money solves a lot of problems.  Those who don't have it to spare have to spend time.  That;s how it goes.

2237

General Software Discussion / Re: Solved: Why won't my laptop run Firefox?

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 31, 2015, 05:31 AM »

That is a weird one.  Nice fix. 

2238

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 30, 2015, 09:39 AM »

I think we can count on drunks to have wine with their meals, don't you?  

-MilesAhead (March 30, 2015, 06:48 AM)

Y'know... I hate to sort of call you out in public, but you've kind of misunderstood things here...

Wine *IS* a meal.

(Beer is a snack.)

-Renegade (March 30, 2015, 08:28 AM)

For the true wino the bread and babe are optional I have to admit.  

2239

General Software Discussion / Re: TopmostToggle 2.0.1.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 30, 2015, 09:21 AM »

TopmostToggle 2.0.1.0  Set title match mode for greater accuracy.

2240

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 30, 2015, 06:48 AM »

Reminds me of drunk history
https://www.youtube...._query=drunk+history

-tomos (March 29, 2015, 11:25 AM)

One should bear in mind that History is written by the victuals.

-MilesAhead (March 29, 2015, 06:43 PM)

History was written by food?? ...And I thought that the new math was bad...but this new education system has really got me baffled.

-Stoic Joker (March 30, 2015, 06:40 AM)

I think we can count on drunks to have wine with their meals, don't you? 
Besides, with puns one has autistic license.

2241

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 29, 2015, 06:43 PM »

Reminds me of drunk history
https://www.youtube...._query=drunk+history

-tomos (March 29, 2015, 11:25 AM)

One should bear in mind that History is written by the victuals.

2242

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera now supports DuckDuckGo

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 29, 2015, 06:38 PM »

I keep Opera x64 12.14 around just for those instances when I want to figure out if it is the site or FF that's not working.  It is very snappy even on my Laptop.  But lack of AddOns keeps me from using it as my goto.  The chrome based 32 bit one, well, I did a couple years of chromium snapshots.  Kind of had my fill of multi-exe browsing for awhile.  Unless Opera breaks some new ground.

2243

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 29, 2015, 06:29 PM »

I tell everyone if you learn C++ not only will you be learning a programming language, but you will also learn valuable problem-solving skills you will be able to apply to your everyday life.

-Innuendo (March 29, 2015, 12:03 PM)

When C++ came on the scene I already used C.  So picking up C++ and C# was very natural.  For me the AHK recommendation was for macro stuff.  Some of the stuff trivial in AHK such as detecting mouse clicks didn't work at all using WinAPI calls when I tried them in VC++.  Probably why AHK uses a hook by default.

But I agree it never hurts to know a C based language.  Also a smattering of one assembler flavor can give some perspective.  It helps when debugging for sure.  

2244

Living Room / Re: Don Cheadle making Miles Ahead film

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 29, 2015, 06:12 PM »

From the topic, I thought for a minute there that he was making a film about YOU. 

-app103 (March 29, 2015, 11:38 AM)

David Lynch's Lost Highway had a segment about an auto mechanic that reminded me of me in some respects.  Discounting the violence that is. 

2245

General Software Discussion / Re: Notice on every shutdown? Norton WSC Integration may be culprit

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 29, 2015, 11:23 AM »

I'm not sure if it refers to Windows Script Component, a COM thing.  Or Windows Security Console. It could be Norton looks for something on shutdown.  Perhaps preventing some malware from loading itself as a driver?  I'm just speculating.  The only thing I've done with Norton av type stuff is try to get it all off my PCs when booting up new machines.

It was really annoying though. It caused me to be asked if I wanted to shut down even though something was still running.  I think the only thing running was this integration crap.  But it always quit before I could read the message.  It didn't seem worth the effort of combing the log files.

2246

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 29, 2015, 11:10 AM »

The Anti-Climax Known as Windows 10  John C. Dvorak  PCMag.com

-Arizona Hot (March 27, 2015, 01:22 PM)

I've been waiting for years for someone to write The Anti-Climax Known as John C. Dvorak.

-Innuendo (March 29, 2015, 11:02 AM)

If you want a chuckle see if you can find his article on "The Chang Modification."  He was taken in by this guy who claimed to have beefed up a 286 chip to make it super fast.  Turns out all he did was stick something on the chip so it looked modified and kludged some benchmark programs to indicate markedly faster CPU performance.

I have to admit I get a kick out of JCD.  But I still refuse to try his keyboard.  Qwerty all the way for me!! 

2247

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 28, 2015, 11:26 AM »

I agree with AHK for the macro stuff you mentioned.. clicking the mouse etc..

For a nice drag and drop form designer and being free C# Express is tough to beat.

If you wanted to try your hand at C++ I would recommend a dialog creation tool
so that you don't get bogged down in the Gui part of VC++.  The tool creates a
resource file that you can load into Visual Studio.  The code skeleton is done
by the tool.  You just add to the switch statement to process buttons or whatever.

But I would look at some source code in the languages you are considering.
I found some things turned me off.  I just didn't think I would like dealing with
certain languages.  One example is Lisp.  Just typing all those parens I think
I'd commit suicide after a couple of hours.  But as Mouser says, see what
grabs you.

One thing I find cool is making applications using more than one exe combining
AutoIt3 and AutoHotkey.  AHK has more powerful hotkeys.  Especially when it
comes to mouse handling.  AutoIt3 can do some things more easily and has
a straightforward syntax.  One example where AutoIt3 can do things simply
is adding icons to buttons in a Gui.  To add the icon from an exe to a button
is one function call.  Also adding tooltips is very easy.  To do the tooltip in
AHK you more or less need to code the event handler yourself.  Not the end
of the world but sometimes I find it cool to code the Gui in AutoIt3 and call
an AHK exe to handle the hotkeys and send the AutoIt3 window a message.
That type of thing.

2248

General Software Discussion / Re: Create Shortcut Icons for Keyboard Shortcuts

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 28, 2015, 10:09 AM »

Here's a download page with source and setup for Compile AHK II

http://ge.tt/8zMaRUW1/v/7

2249

General Software Discussion / Notice on every shutdown? Norton WSC Integration may be culprit

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 28, 2015, 10:02 AM »

I was getting that stupid screen about some process still running and do I want to kill it, on every shutdown.

I happened to look in Task Scheduler for another reason and noticed this Norton WSC Integration task triggered to run on shutdown.  Bingo!  I deleted it and the shutdown screen is no more.

I saw some others posting that even if you uninstall Norton and use the Removal Tool, this vestige hangs on.

2250

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by MilesAhead on March 28, 2015, 06:31 AM »

The book on the history of the Amiga was very nice.

Now, I just started Becoming Steve Jobs.

-Mark0 (March 28, 2015, 06:02 AM)

Heh.  That photo makes him look like the greatest ATP Tennis Champion ever.