Recent Posts

226

Living Room / Re: How much Soda/Energy-Drinks you drink / week?

« Last post by Lashiec on October 01, 2009, 10:26 AM »

Back when I was studying in another city, I used to drink like 3 to 5 Pepsi cans everyday. Now I usually drink a glass of Radical Fruit (a lemon or orange juice soft drink by PepsiCo, similar to Fanta, but with a significantly higher percentage of real juice in its formulation) in the afternoon. A Coke or a Pepsi once in a while when I feel like it.

I rarely drink any energy drink. I like Aquarius and Gatorade, and I used to drink them when I was a kid, but not now. I took a sip of Red Bull ONCE, the rest of the can went down the kitchen sink. Never touched it since then, and don't plan to. That goes for similar energy drinks.

227

General Software Discussion / Re: Installers: "This may take several minutes."

« Last post by Lashiec on October 01, 2009, 10:15 AM »

(* InstallShield? are they still in action? I mostly see InnoSetup-based installers these days.)

-tranglos (September 30, 2009, 06:33 PM)

Unfortunately, yes, they are. The "This may take several minutes" message was invented for them. Software packed with their latest installation routines (mostly games and hefty apps) take a LOT to install anything. And much of that time is simply preparing God knows what, leaving the system mostly unusable during that time. I don't know what the heck they're doing to the system, but oh how I hate them.

228

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows vs. Mac: I'm starting to change.

« Last post by Lashiec on October 01, 2009, 09:40 AM »

Hey, hey, your computer was built to handle minor photo editing, so don't complain about slowness when you're trying to edit huge pictures :P

Graphics are slow to handle by nature. Whether is a Mac or a PC. Now, if you tell me you are using a pre-CS4 version of Photoshop, and the guy you talked with is using CS4, there you have your explanation as CS4 uses GPU acceleration while CS3 and earlier have to rely on the CPU. And the difference GPU acceleration can make is HUGE, you just have to check picture browsing with XnView or IrfanView vs. doing it with FastPictureViewer.

In the case both computers are using the same version, I would pinpoint problems with your installation as the culprit more than differences in how both OS operate. Which would mean I somehow agree with you on the problems with Windows :D

A PC is such a pain in the ass to use and get it running smoothly.  Very few people have the ability, patience, and willpower to do it.  We're not the norm here.

-superboyac (October 01, 2009, 02:13 AM)

Is it? How so? Installing Windows and the software I use doesn't seem that painful to me. Configuring it is another story, but that's a chore here, there and everywhere.

Someone like me who knows so much about using Windows is very, very rare in my workplace and industry.  The problem is that if you're not like me or us here, you WILL run into issues with the PC.  Constantly.

And that's because people don't listen and do whatever they want in the computer, and then shit happens. And when it happens they blame Windows, instead of putting the blame on themselves. I know it's a tired cliché, but it's the truth. OS X gets a free ride because of so little malware targeting it and significantly more obscure tweaking options, but like f0dder says it's a just a matter of time for OS X to reach critical mass (in the USA, though), and problems to pop up everywhere.

Oh, and frankly, I run into many more issues in my PC due to my own actions than because of Windows' own operations. Mostly it's because of my old habits of micromanaging the system, something that was necessary with limited computing resources and a more crash-prone OS, but useless with XP. I'm not even talking about Windows 7, which will hopefully kill these old habits.

My dad is afraid to do anything remotely adventurous on his laptop because he doesn't want to annoy me by calling me for computer help.

How you define "adventurous" in this context?

Mac users are not like that.  They are quite content in a very non-PC user kind of way.

So there's a PC way and a Mac way to be content, and you tell me they're completely different? And can you be content if you use a Mac laptop and a desktop PC, like a friend of mine does? Sorry if all of this bothers you in any way, but I'm kinda interested in your assertion, and I'd like you to explain it.

So that's it.  I think the Mac wave is coming.  Vista sucked.  The young people switched to Macs.  These people will eventually influence the workplace.  Slowly, the workplace will start using Macs.  Windows may start dying slowly.

Damn, I missed the train. I skipped Vista, and didn't switch to the Mac (I'm still young, right?). To be fair, the newest MacBooks are damn good pieces of hardware, but I can't get myself to blow more than 1000 € in a laptop when those sexy ultraportables are starting to fill the shops.

Being COOL is not high on my list of priorities.   :)

-mrainey (October 01, 2009, 07:13 AM)

Well, well, it would be the first in my list of priorities if having a Mac helped with summer heat. /hides

229

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by Lashiec on September 30, 2009, 09:43 AM »

If you use a WDM 1.1-capable video card you are going to see even more of the graphics load put upon the GPU which means you are going to have a faster Windows experience for one thing.

-Innuendo (September 29, 2009, 12:14 PM)

Part of what reduces memory footprint a fair amount compared to Vista is WDDM 1.1 drivers. If you only get WDDM 1.0 for your hardware (which might be the case with some slightly older), Win7 will work just like Vista, which means very little GUI acceleration, and all bitmap surfaces present both on GPU and in system RAM.

-f0dder (September 29, 2009, 03:39 PM)

There, now I can upgrade the GPU with a clean conscience. "Are you wasting 200 € to play games?" "No, I swear Windows requires it!"

Windows Explorer has been optimized and streamlined. Managing your files is easier as the more common file management functions are close at hand. My Documents has been put on steroids with the Library feature. Configure multiple directories for each category and all those files in multiple directories appear in one Explorer window.

-Innuendo (September 29, 2009, 12:14 PM)

I hope software starts to support Libraries, since Windows 7 changed quite a bit the "My Documents" paradigm for what I saw in the Win7 beta. All the folders contained under it are now located in what is the new "Documents and Settings" folder, and I didn't see any way to move them elsewhere, just like you could with "My Documents". Since my data is located in a secondary drive, Libraries would help a lot here.

BTW, one question. I noticed that unlike older versions, file managers have their access to "Program Files" and similar folders restricted, and the only way to see them is either running the file manager with higher privileges, or to grant permanent access using Windows Explorer. What is this restriction all about? Is it just a new way to do the old "Don't show hidden folders"? Is there some security risk by granting permanent access to them? Note that back then both xplorer² and XYplorer (the two apps I used) didn't officially support Win7.

230

General Software Discussion / Re: Google liberates your data, making it easier to leave the cloud

« Last post by Lashiec on September 15, 2009, 09:59 AM »

At last! Let's see if the rest of the big and the small guys do the same

231

General Software Discussion / Re: Google getting into micropayments

« Last post by Lashiec on September 15, 2009, 09:07 AM »

B. Why pay to read content! It's as lame as the idea I once heard about the Government wanting to charge for sending emails!

-jammo (September 14, 2009, 11:06 PM)

Huh? As if paying to read something was a brand-new idea, even on the Internet.

According to the blog post linked above, and to another article I read yesterday in the newspaper, this is just another cog in Big Content grand plans for getting away from the "free for all" model that rules the Internet nowadays. The general idea is to charge users a fee that allows access to premium features and/or content, although certain jerk company wants to impose a fee for pretty much everything you want to do in their webpages (yup, News Corporation). Which, as long as the premium perks are worth the price, is a fine idea.

As I see it, Google's idea is one of the faulty cogs. As app says, if the scheme gets adopted, you'll end up paying to read anything in any given site, which is downright stupid, so the idea is doomed from the start. Users won't buy that, and they'll end up looking for information elsewhere.

That said, it could be that Google intended its new micropayment system to be used as an alternative to subscriptions, which would make a lot of sense. Keep daily news free (after all, most of the times a headline and a summary is more than enough), but make opinion pieces, interviews or articles available either by purchasing a monthly or yearly subscription, or by charging a small fee for casual readers to access it during a given period of time.

232

General Software Discussion / Re: Will Win7 last as long as XP?

« Last post by Lashiec on September 12, 2009, 05:37 PM »

a) Hope so. I plan to install it during Christmas, so it's either the last days of 2009 or the first ones of 2010.

b) That's something only Microsoft knows. While it's evident they won't release Windows 8 in two or three years as a solution to the problem that Windows 7 doesn't seem to be, whether they decide to carry on with the idea of shorter development cycles or not it's up to them.

c) Getting a full version through MSDNAA. And if some day I decide to get a portable computer, I'll have to decide if I get it with Windows 7 or opt to install some Linux distro (because, you know, Macs are a bit pricey :P)

233

DC Gamer Club / Re: Braid - Awesome independent run 'n' jump game

« Last post by Lashiec on September 10, 2009, 02:00 PM »

Steam has decided to start the weekend early by nearly giving away a copy of Braid. Not getting it for this price is a sin, guys

234

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 10

« Last post by Lashiec on September 03, 2009, 07:07 AM »

I still can't get over the fact that Opera now feels like Seamonkey 3.5 (not really in direct reference to Seamonkey since I don't use it but to Firefox) when the whole default keyboard settings and look of Opera just went downhill. My biggest complaint though remains how there is no quick old keyboard set-up considering how this is one of the things exclusive to Opera that no other browser has.

-Paul Keith (September 02, 2009, 09:55 AM)

There's a profile that reverts keyboard shortcuts to the setup used in Opera 9.2. Dunno if that helps. There's also another option to reactivate single key shortcuts ('1' and '2' FTW).

I haven't really been paying attention to all the addressbar/smartbar innovations. Could you explain what's wrong with opera's current way of doing it? I wasn't aware there was any major issues with Opera's address bar. (Although I know of Opera implementing it to be more like history cache meets address bar. I just didn't think there was any big feature within it's implementation that warranted a version number.)

As jgpaiva says above, it basically doesn't work. Or more precisely, at least in my case, it works when it feels like it. There are several things wrong with the implementation, which I explained a while ago. As I pointed in my original post in this thread, except for HDD trashing (so far, it's a long way to fill the entire history database as I have it configured), every other problem with the address bar remains (the rest of the problems mentioned in the last part are fixed).

235

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: XYplorer File Manager

« Last post by Lashiec on September 02, 2009, 08:22 AM »

I can't get xyplorer to run on linux under wine.. Does anyone know any details about how to do it?

-jgpaiva (September 02, 2009, 04:27 AM)

Maybe...

Home Edition sounds very tempting indeed. Now, if XYplorer did have a 64-bit build

236

General Software Discussion / Re: WYSIWYG bb code editor?

« Last post by Lashiec on September 02, 2009, 08:17 AM »

How about BBCeditor, by our fellow member fenixproductions?

237

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 10

« Last post by Lashiec on September 02, 2009, 07:28 AM »

How much of an improvement do you find it has over version 9?

-Paul Keith (September 01, 2009, 02:32 PM)

Not that much. As I explained in my original post, despite the version change, it feels more like the usual incremental update. Indeed many people early in development felt the new version deserved a .x change instead of the x. it received. And I agree with them as I feel 9.5 was a much more new feature-packed release.

On the other hand, Presto received a major overhaul, and I think they stated somewhere it was the reason behind the 9 -> 10 jump. And it's not that rare to see browsers experiencing these jumps in version number without requiring it. Chrome has been doing it since it was released (it's at version 4 right now, just after a year, and still lacks a ton of things), Firefox did it with versions 1.5 and 2 which, IMO, were disappointing.

The emphasis on turbo for example (plus the many videos of Opera 10 in youtube) seems more like a marketing ploy for new users to actually try and see for themselves that Opera is just as fast as Chrome and Firefox. (without setting Turbo on or maybe with it.)

-Paul Keith (September 02, 2009, 02:31 AM)

I haven't tried Turbo (don't need to), but I seriously doubt it can make Opera go any faster, unless you're using a weak connection, which is its intended use (not that Firefox and Chrome are that fast, synthetic benchmarks are one thing, real usage is another, and in any case you're shaving milliseconds, not even seconds anymore). Turbo has its uses, and with the huge success of netbooks in the market, it definitely can help with public Wi-Fi and phone tethering.

Then the actual improvement of tab thumbnails seems more like it was another way to make Opera look cooler to the mainstream. (Let's face it, Opera already solved the tab problems with right click + scroll wheel + thumb tooltips.)

-Paul Keith (September 02, 2009, 02:31 AM)

Yup, I deactivated them. I feel Opera has more than enough ways to manage tabs, but in any case, tab thumbnails don't get in the way unless you activate them, and thumbnails were already provided in other parts of the UI, so it couldn't be much of an effort to get in the tab bar (UI work aside).

The rest seems like they were stability improvements and to satisfy the core users.

-Paul Keith (September 02, 2009, 02:31 AM)

Yeah. To be fair, the framework to implement many of the features that people are asking about (and, incidentally, are included in other browsers), is pretty much there. Why are not they including them? Beats me.

I know this is kind of a repeat of my earlier post but I'm actually shocked of the reviews and comments coming out for Opera 10 considering the improvements.

-Paul Keith (September 02, 2009, 02:31 AM)

Personally, if they redesigned the addressbar to work as it does in the rest of the browsers, with the added bonus of webpage content indexing, it would be enough to label Opera as a true 10 version. The feature is so broken that it really irks me every time I use it.

238

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 35-09

« Last post by Lashiec on September 01, 2009, 02:08 PM »

Pirate Bay saga is entertaining . . as of course the NOOb boyfriend

-tomos (August 30, 2009, 12:41 PM)

Indeed, it's a circus. I wonder how it will end.

Mininova... :'(

239

General Software Discussion / Opera 10

« Last post by Lashiec on September 01, 2009, 01:50 PM »

As announced, Opera Software has released today the final version of Opera 10. Despite the major change in the version number, the list of brand new features is actually not that large, and after looking through the changelog, one might say the Opera team focused its efforts on improving existing features, adding a couple of nice touches here and there, and polishing everything else, something to which some of the new features contribute. After the bittersweet release that, in my opinion, Opera 9.5 came to be, it's nice to see the browser going back to its usual high standards.

Or maybe they just borrowed a page out of Chrome's playbook, who knows...

As expected, Opera Unite didn't make it to this release, and will debut in a future Opera 10.1, along with form autocomplete and extension support ;-). So far, the browser feels great, and while is still early to see if the annoying issue I encountered in 9.5 is fixed (HDD trashing, the rest of the problems remain), the only thing worth griping about is minor cosmetic issues with the skin here and there which, otherwise, is fantastic. Hat off to Mr. Hicks.

Also, a new icon! nontroppo must be happy

240

General Software Discussion / Re: Spotify

« Last post by Lashiec on August 28, 2009, 08:03 AM »

Actually, nope, it didn't fail It was your post that lead me to start this thread. What surprised me was that there was no thread about this kind of services .

-jgpaiva (August 26, 2009, 04:58 PM)

Oh, I see . Spotify is pretty limited in scope right now, just a few European countries, so no wonder we're not discussing it. Even the supposed tech-centric U.S. sites who notice every ground breaking service that pops here and there took quite some time in noticing its existence.

241

Developer's Corner / Re: Coding Practices Question: Curly brackets on a new line for else statement?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 28, 2009, 07:12 AM »

Unless you're collaborating in a project which has a defined standard, or working in a company with is own coding style guidebook (the only one I can remember now is Google), it's a matter of personal preference, thus there is no objective "best" way to do it. In the case you ask, the correct way to do it would the one João proposes, to maintain consistency, although I have seen many people mixing various of the styles shown here in the same block of code, something like this:

Code: C++ [Select]

1. function myFunction()
2. {
3.     // multiple lines of code
4.     if (statement)
5.         {
6.             // multiple lines of code
7.         }
8.         else
9.             // single line of code
10. }

or like this:

Code: C++ [Select]

1. function myFunction()
2. {
3.     if (statement)
4.         // single line of code
5.     else {
6.             // multiple lines of code
7.          }
8. }

The examples above were extracted from real code, and both functions were contiguous to each other and written by the same person (not me, though :P)

242

DC Gamer Club / Re: Droplitz promotion at Steam - 80% off until August 28, 2009

« Last post by Lashiec on August 26, 2009, 03:22 PM »

Being addictive and easy to learn but hard to master are the key points in all good puzzle games IMO, so I bought it this afternoon. I have played it a couple of times and it's kinda fun, perfect for that quick puzzle fix . Thanks for your opinions on the game!

243

General Software Discussion / Re: Spotify

« Last post by Lashiec on August 26, 2009, 03:14 PM »

Unfortunately, I can't find much information about it here on DC (which I find odd, doesn't anyone use it?).

-jgpaiva (August 26, 2009, 11:38 AM)

Forum search fail. I mean, the search function, not your ability using it.

Also unfortunate is the fact that I apparently can't use it, as it says the free plan is not available in Portugal (where I live).

Move up here, it's not that far, you know

Does anyone know a solution for this?

I suppose using a proxy would help here.

244

Living Room / Re: top secret: tech support cheat sheet (xkcd)

« Last post by Lashiec on August 25, 2009, 08:00 PM »

This is definitely being sent to my mother! But I'm afraid I'll need to teach her how to follow a flowchart.

-Deozaan (August 24, 2009, 03:31 AM)

Give her that: http://xkcd.com/518/

-fenixproductions (August 24, 2009, 08:14 AM)

Heh, brilliant. New activity for Saturday nights: FreeBSD install parties

And the new flowchart is so spot-on, I'm actually ashamed

245

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 30-09

« Last post by Lashiec on August 25, 2009, 07:38 PM »

I wouldn't care too much about power comsumption issues. Really. Might help with the cost of the European "tax" applied to anything tech-related

I might be surprised if the SSDs heat up due to its own operation. As f0dder says, the CPU and the GPU are your primary concern. As long as they don't toast your hands, everything will be alright.

246

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by Lashiec on August 23, 2009, 11:00 AM »

No I already use FARR.  What I mean is the Launchy Firefox extension.  You right click in the browser and it opens another browser or another app with the selection.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with image viewers like Irfanview or XnView. It lists them as enabled, but when you right click on a link to an image you get everything else but an image viewer.  It's been that way for awhile now so I don't think the author is interested in fixing it.

-MilesAhead (August 21, 2009, 04:08 PM)

Weird, XnView is always shown for pictures here.

247

DC Gamer Club / Re: Droplitz promotion at Steam - 80% off until August 28, 2009

« Last post by Lashiec on August 23, 2009, 10:45 AM »

So, how is the game? I'm tempted to buy this with such a low price, but there are no demos at Steam, and the reviews aren't that helpful.

248

General Software Discussion / Re: How to search specific pages from website?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 19, 2009, 11:37 AM »

Laschiec,

I think you just shared another tip that should make you a place on the Opera fans alltimers' list! 

That little closing bracket at the end of your script is essential.
Since there was no opening one, at first I thought it was left over so i didn't bother putting it in.
It didn't work. So then i added just that last bracket as you reported and it works! 

Many thanks!

Just curious... if i want to search multiple words that are united, should i place them between these brackets " " ?

-dantheman (August 17, 2009, 03:06 PM)

Glad it worked . Yup, if you want to find, for example, the string 'that are united', you have to enclose the string in quotes. Otherwise, it will return all pages where it finds either 'that', 'are' or 'united'.

249

General Software Discussion / Re: How to search specific pages from website?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 17, 2009, 12:30 PM »

I've been using from quite some time a "search provider" in Opera that lets me do a site-wide search. Since it uses JavaScript, I just tested one thing, and it looks like it could satisfy your request.

Within Opera, go to "Options" -> "Search" and click "Add". Choose any descriptive name you want, and (optionally) a keyword, and paste this in "Address" (third box, if my translation doesn't match the official one):

Code: Javascript [Select]

1. javascript:void(location.href='http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site:'+window.location.href+'&sourceid=opera')

To use it, once you are in the page you want to search a word in, go to the URL bar and type: "<keyword you chose> <word you wish to search for>" (without quotes and <> signs, of course), and press Enter. Test it and tell me how it goes

250

General Software Discussion / Re: How to search specific pages from website?

« Last post by Lashiec on August 17, 2009, 12:06 PM »

Hmm, you mean searching for a word in a specific section inside a website like, say, searching just within this forum instead of the whole DonationCoder site, or doing a site-wide Google search?